Trinity Waters, Wildmarsh, 09 November (11 pegs)

Only eleven fishing today as Wildmarsh can be a bit "challenging" and a few had opted to fish elsewhere.

Personally I don't mind a tough venue, for me it's all about the competition and whether that's measured in pounds or hundreds of pounds makes no odds to me. 

Today every ounce was going to be important and the object was to make every bite count and hope for a bonus fish or two.

Things didn't start off too well though as we were due to have pegs 6~11 and 21~30 but on arrival, despite the notice at the entrance, there were encampments set up in pegs 7 and 8 and (as seems to be the way of the carp angler) their lines were spread out covering most of that end of the lake .... they like to get value for money from their   peg fees!

Anyway, it wasn't the end of the world as the roadside bank was free and there were signs of fish down there so rather than turf the carp anglers out of their camouflaged temporary accommodation we settled on 9 pegs along here and 4 on the end of the spit (26,28,29 & 30) which are usually good for a few fish.

A quick call to Misha and this was ok'd although under the circumstances I think she would have agreed to anything as she was nursing an hangover from the previous night due to celebrating her hen night ....

But anyway, on to the match, and after pulling out 62 on the road bank and dumping Derek off on the golden peg (26) I set up a 0.3g rig for silvers (hopefully big skimmers) which would  do for 2 spots at 14m (using Lee Williams and the Gimp as markers) and another at 11m plus a rig for roach on the edge of the lillys at 5m where there was a depth of about 3 feet.

And after a slightly delayed start of about 3 minutes I fed the long lines with combinations of groundbait, stunned red maggots and micros and fed the short line with caster.

Unfortunately though all this careful plan of attack was wasted as it took a good hour or more to get a bite of any description and despite rotating all three long lines with various baits this came from a 2oz roach on the inside caster line.

The long lines seemed to be completely devoid of fish and not just for me but all three anglers to my left were in the same boat.

The Gimp had gotten off to a much better start and was catching silvers at a reasonable rate on maggot over groundbait at 7/8m.

Lee next door was eventually doing similar, after a fruitless few chucks on the tip, but wasn't keeping up with Mr Bradford.

Next to me on 61, Adam Caswell was getting odd skimmers by fishing 3 maggots over huge amounts of groundbait (??) 

and the rumour mill was indicating that Brian Shanks was catching well on the end peg (58).

Elsewhere, Darren North was catching silvers on peg 30 but 2 hours in and  everyone else were struggling for bites.

In fact (misfiring) Rocket Ron Hardiman, on my left, had not had the merest tremble on anything and was moaning his way to a possible bl**k which is worrying for an angler of Ron's calibre!

Derek had also had nothing on the golden peg but he did manage a couple of roach later after scrounging some mags off Lee Williams.

Ron was not so fortunate and packed up after five hours with one bite (a tiny skimmer) to show for his efforts.

I did eventually manage a handful of skimmers plus a "bonus" skimmer of about a pound from the 14m line but Adam had well and truly done me from the next peg which cost me a pound.

As it turned out Brian Shanks came out clear winner with a total of 31-9 having caught the only two carp to make an appearance.

They didn't matter though as he also also topped the silvers with the help of some good crucians and a proper skimmer of a couple of pounds.
Brian caught on caster over micros.

The Gimp was second with 15-10 of mainly small skimmers caught on maggot over groundbait, boosted by a bonus tench and crucian so he was happy as he has struggled to catch anything of consequence here in previous matches.

Third and fourth places were separated by an ounce!

Darren edged it with a last gasp big skimmer taking his total to 11-12 ahead of Lee Williams' 11-11 click here

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (58) ......... 31-9 (24-2 Silvers)
2. John Bradford (29) ........ 15-10
3. Darren North (30) ......... 11-12
4. Lee Williams (28) .......... 11-11
5. Adam Caswell (61) ........ 5-8
6. Ryan Radford (59) ........ 4-12
7. Mark Radford (65) ........ 4-10
8. Steve Burgess (62) ....... 3-0
9. Alan Healey (64) .......... 2-9
10. and 2 dnw's

Landsend, Match Lake, 02 November (14 pegs)

A little late setting off this morning so breakfast at Shipham was reluctantly bypassed in favour of a sausage and bacon baguette from the Esso garage in Churchill which was still hot by the time I got to the fishery and was actually quite nice and also meant I was early for once.
Mad Mike Duckett was up and about and "on form" as usual and was offering advice based on the results from the Saturday open.
The advice mainly revolved around feeding loads of pellet as the carp were still very active and feeding in earnest.

14 fishing today so plenty of space for all.  I had decided on Saturday night that I would be happy with either peg 13 (sheltered from any wind and rain) or peg 19.
Alan Healey took charge of the draw and gave me the second last ping-pong ball which gave me ....

Uncanny!

Alan had the last ball which was 18 and the golden peg, but that had been won by Ryan Radford last week so was nothing to get too excited about.
Peg 13 went the way of John Bradford although he wasn't exactly over the moon about it, and six hours (and 14 returned carp) later he was even less over the moon about it!

For company this week, by some unfortunate quirk of fate, I had another dose of the two Ronnies aka Steve O Toole on 21 and Lee Waller on  22.
With Alan on 18 only having a couple of pints of maggots for bait plus a dozen soft hookers donated by me I was confident of not getting "chip-shopped"
(maybe a little too confident)

I set up a shallow rig for the far bank, and it was shallow as the levels were still down a foot or so from normal.
A rig for on the deck at 5m for meat and a rig for the bottom of the shelf across.
I won't go into massive detail as I completely cocked it up by fishing far too confidently which resulted in a nightmare of foul-hookers across and only managed to save myself from total embarrassment with a handful of good skimmers and a couple of rouge carp from the 5m line caught on corn / soft pellet plus one good fish from the margin on meat (hooked in the pelvic fin) for a massive total of 31-8 and a proper chip shop battering!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Chris Gay had gotten off to a good start in peg 16 albeit a little unconventionally as he was catching on the tip using a "shotgun" feeder.
Darren North, next door on 15, was also getting a few using a more respectable pole approach.
And Psv's very own Clint Elliot impersonator, Brian Shanks on peg 5 was also catching across after ditching the catapult attack and switching to feeding 4mm's via a toss pot which eliminated the foul-hooking problem.
Chris Szakacs on the other hand on peg 6 had adopted a similar approach to myself and was also enjoying a lengthy catch and release program ...
He wasn't taking it too well!

Winner on the day then was Chris Gay who ended up catching mostly in the margins with worm over groundbait and dead maggots, or something like that, for a total of 129-6.
I did get a picture of Chris with his winning catch but it didn't come out too well.
I think the autofocus on my phone got a bit confused between Chris and the carp he was holding which is understandable!

Clint Shanks was second with 105-15

And his apprentice, Darren North was 3rd with a double-checked weight of 87-5.
Fourth place went to Lionel Legge who had an eventful day when he got "platformed" by a big fish which resulted in his topkit being reduced to a collection of chopsticks but he managed to get it in somehow and ended up with a respectable 79-3 from peg 3.

The Silvers pool went to Alan Healey with 22-14 followed by the Gimp who managed 17-7 of fry inbetween tackling the vermin (all 14 of them).

Full Result:

1. Chris Gay (peg 16) .... 129-6
2. Clint Shanks (5) ........ 105-15
3. Darren North (15) ...... 91-9
4. Lionel Legge (3) ......... 84-0
5. Ron Hardiman (7) ...... 83-15
6. Alan Healey* (18) ...... 56-4
7. Steve O Toole (21) ..... 50-12
8. Lee Williams (1) ........ 48-7
9. Lee Waller (22) ......... 39-0
10. Steve Burgess (19) .... 31-8
11. Steve Wynne (11) ...... 25-9
12. John Bradford (13) ..... 17-7
13. and 2 dnw's

 *golden peg


Silvers:

1. Alan Healey ..... 22-14
2. John Bradford ... 17-7
3. Lee Waller ........ 12-4
4. Steve Burgess ... 10-8
5. Steve O Toole .... 8-2
6. Ron Hardiman ... 7-15
7. etc ....

November Meeting Venue Change

Just a reminder that tomorrow's meeting is at The Midland Spinner (not The Horseshoe) and is your last chance to book into the Christmas Match so don't forget to bring your £15 pools if you haven't paid already.

And as a special treat, this year the club will be paying for the prizes and peg fees so your £15 will cover everything ... aren't we nice!

Matches to book into this month are:

09 November,  Wildmarsh 

16 November,  Sedges, Tile

23 November,   Shiplate, Main Lake

(no match on the 30th)

When I booked these matches up last year I was expecting it to be a bit colder than it has been and and the carp to have gone a bit quiet, so these venues were booked with Silvers in mind.

As Stevie Wynne once famously said ... "It's not all about catching f***ing carp"!  - wise words.

So why not show a bit of willing and scale your rigs down, put the power tops away and pit your wits against some silvers for a change ... go on Rodney, you know it makes sense!