Trinity, Woodlands / Rood Ashton

You may have noticed it's gone a bit quiet around here for a couple of weeks, but no, I haven't been on holiday or anything but after three dismal performances in a row I have slipped into one of those depressive states where you wonder why you bother getting out of bed on a Sunday morning.

In fact the way things have been going recently I reckon I'd struggle to catch crabs in a brothel but never mind, there's always the next match ....

So first up then was Trinity (Woodlands) back on the first Sunday in June and it was a nice warm day with a bit of breeze which under normal circumstances would have promised good weights for the 18 of us fishing.

But on arrival the carp in Ash Pool (both of them) were going at it like rabbits and chatting to fishery manager Misha who (judging by the size of her bump) has been as well,  the carp in the much deeper Woodlands lake had not started spawning properly and were likely to be more interested in following each other around than eating.

I drew peg 19 which is on the top bank and it was in the shade so while everyone else were stripping off and slapping on factor 30 I was shivering in my shorts and t-shirt. 

The peg looked good though with a big reed bed on the right and an overhanging tree on the left. I set up rigs for banded pellet shallow and deep at 11m and a rig for corn in the margins which I was expecting to be my banker.

Unfortunately none of the above really came good and my best run came when I switched to fishing shallow at 5m feeding by hand and even that didn't come to much.

I ended up with a handful of smallish carp and accidental silvers for 36-9

The match was won by Ivy House refugee Brian Shanks with 85-4 from peg 27 and his sidekick Rocket Ron Hardiman was 2nd with 75-1 from peg 7

It was an entertaining match all the same especially listening to Steve o' Toole catching eels and Mark Radford moaning constantly about the lack of fish in his peg but the highlight for me was Alan Healey who came with a grand plan of feeding off the hordes of tiny silvers armed with 6 pints of dead maggots.

He weighed in 1 carp and 300 micro fish that totalled 18-6 ... That worked well then!

Full Result:

1. Brian shanks (27) ..... 85-4
2. Ron Hardiman (7) ...... 75-1
3. Darren North (10) ..... 56-14
4. Matt Taynton (32) ...... 52-11
5. Matt Challenger (13) ... 44-1
6. Rich Jones (20) .......... 41-8
7. Steve Burgess(19) ..... 36-9
8. Lee Waller (4) ........... 30-2
9. Ryan Radford (14) ..... 28-13
10. Julian Nurse (30) ....... 27-5
11. Lionel Legge (11) ....... 27-1
12. Adam Caswell (17) ..... 24-8
13. Mark Radford (24) ...... 22-10
14. Alan Healey (29) / Steve o'Toole (23) ... 18-6
15. Steve Wynne (2) ........ 17-6
16. John Bradford (8) ....... 9-0
17. Derek Lucas (26) ....... dnw

Silvers:

1. Steve (snake-charmer) O'Toole  ... 11-3
2. Mark (the moaner) Radford ... 10-13
3. Alan (whitebait) Healey ... 10-2

The following Sunday we were at Rood Ashton which has long been an annual pilgrimage for Psv.

The only chance of a breakfast here has previously been Wetherspoons in Trowbridge (or TrowVegas as John Atkins calls it) but they don't open until 8 which means a late start.

But the good news was that fishery owner Alan's daughter has now started doing bacon baguettes which can be pre-ordered and delivered to the lake.

I had one and I was glad I did, next time round I will be ordering 5 to be delivered at hourly intervals (order one and you'll see where I'm coming from)!

Rood Ashton is a funny place, it's only a foot or so deep on the whole but is stuffed full of carp, roach and small skimmers.

We don't bother with a silvers pool here although I've no idea why as there are loads of them in there including plenty of quality roach.

Generally peg 1 nearest the car park and the end peg round the back in "the jungle" tend to be the best areas but anywhere can produce.

 I drew the first peg around the first corner which sticks out on a small spit.

I've done well at Rood Ashton before fishing paste in the margins but this time round (and God knows why after what happened to Alan last week) I opted to feed 3 pints of dead maggots down the left edge with a bit of corn and fish over it with corn or bunches of maggots to pick out the carp.

The same combination went next to an overhanging branch on the left at 11m and the same rig would do for the right margin at topkit range to be fished with meat over meat and 4mm's.

I set up a shallow rig to fish banded pellet (on the deck) at 13/14m and finally, as I had a bit of time to spare, a pellet wag.
There were a lot of fish cruising round in front of me so I started off on the pellet rig but all that produced were small roach that managed to choke on an 8mm pellet and swirls and bow waves from spooked carp.
Upping the feed brought in plenty of fish but connecting with any of them (in the mouth) was another matter.
Out by the tree branch with corn gave more roach and some carp but almost every fish I hooked I pulled out of.
In fact the whole match turned into a nightmare for me and when I finally worked out I'd been fishing with a blunt hook (caused by getting the plummet stuck in a snag before the start) I was too fed up to care about it.
The pellet wag was a waste of space (I hooked and lost one fish on it), the margins never came to life and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes or so that i finally managed to get some proper bites at 14m on the pellet rig.
My eventual total of 19-2 was only good enough for 13th place and with only 13 fishing it won't be a match I'll be remembering for too long.
And to add insult to injury, when I came round with the fishing bus to pick my kit up my margins were full of waving tails like something from a show at Seaworld ... why does this always happen!

For the second week running the match was won by Brian Shanks with an impressive 142lbs 3oz 

Second place went to Pete Uzzell from peg 1 with 82-4 

and the third spot went to Mr method feeder, Chris Gay with 76-0 from the "jungle" which conveniently brings me on to the highlight of the day which was when Chris got pulled into the lake by a particularly spirited fish along with his seatbox and everything attached to it including his phone.
Lee Waller commented that it was worth the £20 just to witness Chris's Tom Daly impersonation!

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks ....... 142-3
2. Pete Uzzell .......... 82-4
3. Chris Gay ............ 76-0
4. Mark Radford ....... 57-7
5. Ron Hardiman ...... 52-13
6. Alan Healey .......... 50-12
7. Lee Waller ............ 49-13
8. Steve Sewell ......... 37-12
9. Matt Williams ........ 35-0
10. Ryan Radford ........ 34-10
11. Steve O'Toole ........ 34-5
12. Adam Caswell ........ 25-6
13. Steve Burgess ........ 19-2