Sedges, Brick Lake, 29 May 2016

We started the day with 20 booked in so a full house however my trusty assistant failed to pass on the update that 2 of our regulars were off sunning themselves, so we ended up with 18. Most people commenting we should leave out the early pegs as those who took a walked around said the fish were doing their business in the reeds.

Most people still wanted the fancied high numbers and with the fishery owner taking pegs 2 and 19 out, the rumours sounded true.

Keith Ray and Lee Waller were the lucky anglers running to their end pegs 10 and 11, myself and Rich Jones drew peg 1 and 20.

Simple tactics today with the sun out, the fish would be up in the water, so a pellet wag, slapper rig and a rig for 3ft deep about a metre from the end bank just pass the reeds to fish double corn.

Starting on the wag I never had a touch  despite fishing moving in the fed area, Rich opposite had a few on the slapper rig, I followed suit but again I could not get a take despite the fish moving around, after 2 hours and no bites it was time to try the corn rig which I had been feeding heavily with corn and groundbait hoping to stop a few fish before they ventured into the reeds.  This change worked well, bites were forthcoming by lifting a dropping the corn I would temp the odd large carp onto the hook and by fishing far enough away from the inside shelf, those fish looking for something other than food didn’t cause too many problem. Regularly feeding large pots of bait kept the fish interested, switching to pellet only brought the float moving all ways but under so the heavy rig and bait was the key with a little bit of movement. (Those interested in the rig, elastics, feeding patterns and my flower shorts will just have to catch me on the bank)

I ended the day with 17 carp in the net, 2 weighted in plus a few that I opted for the catch and release policy on for a total of 184lb, which I was hoping would be enough for 2^nd as Rich Jones on peg 20 was catching on a regular basis.

As it finished it appeared the lake had fished hard due to the spawning fish with most anglers struggling, Lee Waller on 11 throw in the towel early to watch Mr Jones, whilst Keith on 10 lost more than he caught.  Most anglers had around 25 – 35lb with only myself and Rich Jones weighing over 50lb, thankfully my 19 fish were enough to topple Rich's 23 for 1^st place on the day.

Top silvers went to my neighbour Mike Wilson who stuck with it and managed to find a few of the lakes skimmers for a total of 10lb with Chris Gay 2^nd.

We were also running a pairs event today with a member of each pair on each side of the lake, the result would be the team with the lowest points score, thankfully with a match win that was 1 point and my partner Chris Gay managing 3^rd in his section for a total of 4pts, which was enough to take the win from  2^nd place Rich Jones and Keith Ray who managed 6pts

Results:

1^st Will Dearlove Peg 1 = 184lb

2^nd Rich Jones Peg 20 = 146lb

3^rd Mat Taynton Peg 13 = 48lb

Silvers Winner Mike Wilson Peg 3 = 10lb

Full results can be found on our facebook page, this month’s meeting will be on the 7^th June, usual place and time.

Thanks

Will.

Leech pool 8/05/16

Couple of firsts today, first time the club had visited Leech pool and the first time that newly appointed assistant match secretary Adam Caswell was in charge of proceedings....what could possibly go wrong!!

Leech pool is basically a farm pond near melksham backing onto the owners farm house and out buildings, it is also stuffed solid with lots of carp of all sizes but mainly in the 12oz to 2lb range with the odd lump amongst them, you are usually guaranteed plenty of bites and it can turn into abit of a fish race. With that in mind it was abit strange why we could only muster eight anglers turning it into abit of a knock up although with the lake only taking twelve it did give the guys abit of room.

To be fair to Adam he did run everything fine even letting venue expert Chris Gay take care of the pegging and sorted monies and payouts with no fuss, we will see how he gets on with bigger venues with over twenty fishing but hes got off to a good start so all credit to him. Draw wise i dont think anyone was to fussed where they ended up but with the wind blowing strongly into the carpark bank that end did seem very favourable.

Into the drawbag and out popped peg 8 for me which was the bottom corner in alittle bay and end peg next to the farm house.

I had mixed reservations about the peg, having fished the lake before i knew it could throw up a weight but today it was a mill pond with the wind howling up the top end of the lake and what was more alarming was the clarity of the water being able to see the bottom up to four metres out! Pegs one to four had a strong wind blowing into them and were occupied by Alan Healy, Mark Radford, Ryan Radford and Chris Gay repectively and i fully expected these guys to be the ones to beat.

Simple plan of attack today start shallow at 11metres on hard 6mm pellet and just see what happens, after 45mins and only one 6oz carp in the net i was beginning to think id got it badly wrong again. Then the wind strength increased and adding a couple of sections and fishing on the edge of the ripple i started to string a few together although they were the smaller stamp fish 

Elsewhere people were having varying levels of success, Rich Britton next door on peg seven started really well catching three or four on as many put ins but it was short lived as his swim just died a death and never recovered till the last hour, over on six Matt Challenger was catching in fits and starts on the paste and down on four Chris Gay seemed to be getting a few long down to the corner on corn. Alot of the action seemed to be taking place on pegs one and two next to the farm house with Alan and Mark going fish for fish for most of the match, unfortunatly for Alan his peg died in the last hour letting Mark forge ahead.

Over half way through and i decided on a change of tactics to try and increase my catch rate dumping in a big pot of 6mms on my thirteen metre line and fishing on the deck with a banded 8mm on the hook, this had an immediate effect as instead of the 6-12oz fish i was catching shallow i was now catching 2-4lbers it was never fast and furious but nice and steady even managing to snare a lovely ghostie of 7-8lbs and come the end no one was sure who'd won.

lucky for me the bigger stamp fish seem to make a difference enabling me to take first place on the day with 91lb 10oz

second place with his mainly shallow caught fish was Mark Radford with 82lb

followed closely by Alan Healy with 62lb 12oz 

just behind was Matt Challenger with 61lb 14oz, i didnt get a pic of matt as he tipped back before i got the chance but did get one of fifth place and venue expert Chris Gay with his 52lb 4oz

FULL RESULT

1. CHRIS SZAKACS        91LB 10OZ     PEG 8
2. MARK RADFORD       82LB                        2
3. ALAN HEALY              62LB 12OZ             1
4. MATT CHALLENGER 61LB 14OZ             6
5. CHRIS GAY                   52LB 4OZ              4
6. RYAN RADFORD         51LB 12OZ            2
7. RICH BRITTON            32LB 4OZ              7
8. ADAM CASWELL        24LB                      5

Next week the club are back at Harescombe fishery which should be a similar contest lots of bites and a close contest.

Viaduct, Campbell, 01 May (19 pegs)

I have no idea what the results were from the Psv / Frys inter club match at Shiplate last week as I was pissed somewhere in Berlin but the Radfords cleaned up with Ryan winning overall from 15 on Hawthorns and Mark winning Westpool also from 15.

And apparently Frys got their backsides properly kicked so I'm told!

Nineteen of us fishing today, one no-show but it was his birthday and he was probably up to no good on Saturday night so not wholly unexpected.

I won't mention names as that would be unfair ....

Anyway, the Saturday match had been won with 200lbs up in 123 and every peg from 128 down had weighed over 100lbs.

The wind was still blowing up that way so that was the desired area (but it was a Psv match)!

I hung back towards the end of the draw queue, Lee Williams was hanging back also (waiting for 130 to go) and orgsniser Will had the last one which was 132.

Lee got 125 and I got 128 which was the same peg I had last time and I did ok off it then so I was happy.

I think Lee was happy too even if he was hoping for a days silvers fishing.

Talking of silvers, the "Silvers Slayer" (Lee Waller) was not so happy having drawn 123 which is traditionally a "run to" silvers peg but maybe not today.

Payouts today were top 3 overall, 2 silvers and 3 sections. The silvers was mostly likely to be a battle between John Bradford next door on 127, 1-rig Belcham on 112, Mike Wilson on 114 and the 2 Lee's on 123 & 125

Plenty of time to set up today as we had a 10-30 start, much to the disgust of "1-rig" and it was quite ironic really as I had actually done some prep on Saturday night putting new line on reels, setting rods up properly and changing catty elastics so even I was ready in plenty of time.

Adam Caswell  even had time to go for a bath (bless him) ....

I set up the obligatory tip rod, a full depth waggler and 2 pole rigs, one for meat straight out at 14m and a similar rig for off the end of the spit which didn't produce for me last time but it should have and would hopefully be my banker today.

Bait was nothing fancy, 8mn pellet and/or meat for the lead and waggler, meat with wetted 4mm's for the pole lines.

Starting off I dumped hefty pots of pellet / meat on the pole lines and started on the waggler. The presentation wasn't great with the wind blowing right to left and towards me but it mattered little as I wasn't getting any indications anyway.
Unlike Steve Sewell over on 116 who was catching on the tip from the off, as were Ross Sewell and Matt Williams either side of the aerator on 111 & 130 respectively.

After about an hour of thrashing the waggler around and feeding the ducks I finally had a proper bite and landed a carp of about 5lbs. And this was followed by another four that all seemed to be hooked properly but all came off.

I tried altering the depth and stepping up the feed but it wasn't really happening.

Feeding more pellet created a bit more interest but not much in the way of proper bites.

I had a few chucks with a pellet waggler but that was a waste of time as well.

The only consolation was that everyone else down our end were in the same boat  and most of the action was taking place on the opposite side. 

Steve and Ross Sewell were still reeling them in on a regular basis as was Alan Healey on 119 and even the now dried out Adam was catching on 118.

2 hours in and with only 3 or 4 carp to show for it I gave up and chucked the lead out ..... and it went round more or less straight away (bugger)!

But it turned into a similar scenario with lost fish and a few foul-hookers detaching themselves.

With 2 hours to go I reckoned I had about 8 or 9 fish for 50lbs which was way behind Alan and the Sewells (£2 down the drain then) so the rods were abandoned in favour of the pole off the end of the spit.

First put in resulted in a near ten pound fish which was a bit of a trauma to get in with trying to thread the pole through a suitable hole in the otter fence while trying to control mr angry on the other end.

The rest of the match went much better as a few fish had moved in and they were quite a bit bigger than the fish I'd been catching earlier.

I did have one hiccup losing a proper lump when the B911 snapped in half

(that was a first) 

Unfortunately I think I might have overdone it on the feed as the last half hour was a bit frustrating missing loads of bites and having to ship back constantly to put another piece of meat on.

Probably should have fished hard pellet over there but never mind.

I ended up with 92lbs which was the 2nd best weight on our bank after Matt Williams who weighed in 99-2 although Degsy Williams ran me close with 91-9 from 124.

As expected Steve Sewell was well ahead of everyone else with 139-1 all reeled in on the lead with meat.

Alan was second with 106-14  and Ross was third with 104-6 (mostly caught by bouncing a lead off the aerator)

Silvers went to John Bradford with 33-9 of good skimmers and a stray tench caught on worm over caster at 9m

1-rig Belcham (below) was 2nd with 19-3

(well it is Star Wars day)!

Full Result:

1. Steve Sewell (116) .... 139-1

2. Alan Healey (119) ..... 106-14

3. Ross Sewell (111) ..... 104-6

4. Matt Williams (130) .... 99-2

5. Ron Hardiman (114) ... 94-14

6. Steve Burgess (128) .. 92-0

7. Degsy Williams (124) .. 91-9

8. Adam Caswell (118) ... 87-2

9. Mark Radford (136) .... 68-11

10. Will Dearlove (132) ... 68-8

11. Keith Ray (129) ....... 62-15

12. Mike Wilson (113) .... 58-1

13. Brian Shanks (126) ... 51-11

14. Lee Williams (125) .... 48-10

15. John Bradford (127) ... 33-9

16. Simon Belcham (112) .. 19-3

and 2 dnw's including the "Silvers Slayer" (again)

Silvers:

1. John Bradford .... 33-9

2. Simon Belcham .... 19-3

3. Brian Shanks ....... 16-9

4. Lee Williams ....... 10-8

5. Ross Sewell ..... 8-0

    Ron Hardiman ... 8-0

    Mike Wilson ...... 8-0

(the scales were stuck)