Search This Blog

Saturday 16 July 2016

Sedges, Brick Lake, 10 July (20 pegs)

I was a bit worse for wear when the alarm went off this morning following a late night sampling the delights of Staple Hill but I just about made it to Hilltops cafe for breakfast.
It was quite busy in there probably as there was a delay while they cooked up a special for Bela although it has to be said he is now a picture of physical perfection and the envy of many.
A full house today with 20 fishing which was good to see, payouts were for the top 3, 1 silvers and 2 sections plus a Pairs match just to spice things up a bit.
Will had split the sections across the lake as opposed to a section on each bank which was a good move giving those down the sheltered end a chance of picking up, he has been trained well!
There was a bit of conflicting information during the pre-draw discussions over the results of Lee Wiliams's Saturday match on the lake. (see here)
Apparently some were saying there were had been  seven weights over 100lbs but  I had heard peg 10  had walked it with 150-odd but the next best weight was half that and quite a few had struggled.
I suspect they were getting mixed up with a match on Tile or another match that had involved some decent anglers!
Anyway, the Gimp drew peg 10 so it was unlikely to be producing a three-figure weight today.
Somehow I managed to avoid drawing a corner and ended up in the middle of nowhere on 15.
My pairs partner Matt Williams drew peg 2 which was going to be tough as the wind was pushing up the opposite end towards 11 which was occupied by Degsy Williams.
I made sure though before the draw I had £1's with Alan Healey, Steve Sewell and Pete Uzzell just to cover my losses and make sure I went home with something.
Alan drew next door to me on 14 so I could keep a close eye on that pound.
On my left side was the "Silvers Slayer" Lee Waller who was not very well hidden behind the reeds ... a few more months of growing would be required before he would be completely obscured.
Today I had a cunning plan, well it wasn't much of a plan as it was the same thing I always do at Sedges and involved a 6g pellet wag, a brand new catapult (I've lost 2 at recent Viaduct matches) and lots of 8mm pellets but I also had a back-up plan which involved lots of corn and a tin of hemp to fish on the deck at 13m and down the edge.
The left hand edge was a no-go as I couldn't get the rig anywhere close to the edge due to collapsed reeds under the surface so I set up 2 rigs at top kit plus 2 down the right margin.
One tight against the vegetation at 3 foot deep and the other a meter off where it was a foot or so deeper.
At the start I gave all the pole lines a generous helping of corn and hemp then went out on the wag after firing out a healthy dose of pellets towards the rope.
Most were doing the same, including Chris Gay on 7 who had a carp on within minutes.
And it didn't take long for my first one either which I suspected was fouled but it turned out to be a fairly hooked common of 14lbs ... not a bad start by any means.
The match started slowly for most and in the first hour I had a smaller carp plus another double that put me well into the running.
Both Alan and Lee had started off on the pole and neither were getting any bites, it seemed the only carp being caught were coming on the wag or shallow on the pole.
I had a quick look round my pole lines and never had a touch on the deep rig while the edge rig was being pestered by small fish.
Back out on the wag and it was still hard work and was made harder as the wind had increased and was pushing back towards our bank.
By halfway bites were still hard to come by and those that I was getting I was missing due to slack forming in the line, a few were walking the bank and the news was that some hadn't caught anything but Degsy Williams was, predictably, doing well on 11 and so too was Luke Pester on 8.
There was a lot of fizzing going on out on my wag line so reluctantly I set up a lead rod and chucked that out.
It did produce one fish and another when I struck at an "iffy" bite that came off almost straight away.
I was getting loads of liners so I swapped back to the wag but with a 10g pike float on instead.
That was an improvement and I managed a couple more fish on this before the end.
My pole lines never produced anything.
Alan did eventually catch a carp but it was the smallest carp in the lake at about 2lbs (he got a bit of stick today bless him)

As expected the match was won by Degsy Williams with 95-12 followed by Luke with 83-4
and Ryan Radford was 3rd with 57-7
My seven fish total went 56-5 which got me the section and (more importantly) all 3 pound coins.
The silvers was won by the gimp with 13-7 and the pairs was won by Ryan and the gimp who had mugged a 14½lb fish on his silvers gear just to enter into the spirit of things.

Full Result:
1. Degsy Williams (11) 95-12
2. Luke Pester (8) 83-4
3. Ryan Radford (19) 57-7
4. Steve Burgess (15) 56-5
5. Chris Gay (7) 53-15
6. Steve Sewell (13) 41-3
7. Rich Jones (12) 39-1
8. John Bradford (10) 27-13
9. Adam Caswell (3) 25-14
10. Lee Tourettes Waller (16) 21-13
11. Mark Radford (6) 19-11
12. Rocket Ron Hardiman (20) 18-0
13. Steve o'Toole (17) 16-3
14. Matt Williams (2) 15-5
15. Will Dearlove (18) 11-9
16. Pete Uzzell (5) 11-3
17. Keith Ray (4) 10-11
18. Ross Sewell (9) 9-15
19. Alan chip shop Healey (14) 9-10 
20. Keith Bilder (1) 6-11

Silvers:1. John Bradford (10) 13-7
2. Luke Pester (8) 12-14
Pairs:Ryan Radford / John Bradford

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Viaduct, Campbell, 03 July (17 pegs)

Seems like ages since I last did a blog post or fished a psv match for that matter so I was very much looking forward to this one.
Will had booked us in for an 11-5 match with a 9:30 draw which everyone I spoke to seemed more than happy with, and it meant I had time to enjoy my breakfast at Canards (served by a very pleasant young lady) and had plenty of time to set up all required kit with time to spare which makes a change.
In fact the drive down was that leisurely I got overtaken by some Coffin-Dodgers in a Honda Jazz but I am on 9 points at the moment which is my excuse!
For my sins I drew 119 which I was happy with as there were a lot of fish showing all around the peg as there were next door in Ryan Radford's peg.
Ryan has been doing really well lately so I had a feeling it wasn't going to be an easy ride today. 
I set up a shallow rig for 14m where there were a fair few fish swirling around, a pellet rig for on the deck, an identical rig without a band for meat and a rig to fish as far into the corner as was sensible as it's a bit of a tackle graveyard tight into the corner so I opted for 13m, about 2m off the bank and probably 3m out from the corner.
I also untangled two float rods, 1 shallow and 1 on the deck to fish between the overhanging trees in front of 120 but other than one bite on the deep rod that I missed they were a waste of time.
For some reason I've never done much good with the pellet wag on Campbell, no idea why.
The lead rod stayed in the bag as it was quite calm so there would be no problems for float presentation,
Only trouble with this peg is that you can't see much of what's going on around you which isn't good when you've got 3 pound coins at stake but fortunately Adam was across the other side on 125 so I would have a good idea of who was "emptying it"!
As it turned out most of the "emptying" would be coming from next door but anyways ...

At the all-in I went straight out on the shallow rig and hooked a fish straight away which unfortunately snapped the hooklength .... bugger!
After that slight hiccup a few fish followed, not all of them coming in the right way round but never mind.
After the first hour I was doing ok and ahead of Ryan who had started on the lead without success before switching to a shallow pole rig.
During the second hour he quickly caught me up as I was struggling to keep the bites coming.
I had a go on the deep pellet rig as there was a lot of fizzing but that only produced one fish amongst the liners.
The meat rig got me bites but I never connected with anything?
While I was fishing on the deck there would be fish moving shallow but when I went back on the shallow rig they backed off ... Frustrating!
With a couple of hours to go Ryan's shallow line had also slowed but he was well ahead of me and he was now catching down his left margin.
Rumour has it that Chris Szakacs and Mark Radford on the next 2 pegs down were doing well too.
I had a first look down towards the corner with meat and hooked a fish straight away which trashed the rig.
The rest of the match went well once I got the hang of how much pressure I could put on my pole to haul the fish away from the snags. 
The old Aspire might be a bit on the heavy side but it can take a lot of stick.
The same couldn't be said though for Stevie Wynne's pole.
He was fishing the Capenters Arms match on Cary and his top 3 exploded while playing one of Cary's bigger inhabitants so he decided to put 4 sections across his knee in a fit of rage (as you do)!
By the end I estimated I had near the 100lb mark with Ryan on 150 
The far bank was weighed first and the top weight came from guest Scott Russell on 132 with 106-4 followed by Alan Healey with 105-9, he chucked a 2lb skimmer back to save getting another net which cost him the section but nobody took the piss (honest)!
Matt Williams weighed in 20-7 of silvers from 123 which looked unlikely to be beaten.
My nets went 103-2 and Ryan had 144-5 so my guessing wasn't far off.
Chris Szakacs was painfully close with 142-2 and third place went to Ade Crawley who suprised everybody nearly as much as he suprised himself with 114-12 from peg 112



















The unlikely lads ....


Full Result:

1. Ryan Radford (118) 144-5
2. Chris Szakacs (116) 142-2
3. Ade Crawley (112) 114-12
4. Mark Radford (115) 111-3
5. Scott Russell (132) 106-4
6. Alan Healey (130) 105-9
7. Steve Burgess (119) 103-2
8. Lee Williams (110) 100-12
9. Adam Caswell (125) 88-10
10. Steve Sewell (128) 88-2
11. Pete Uzzell (114) 86-6
12. Will Dearlove (111) 65-6
13. Ross Sewell (126) 63-11
14. Matt Powell (129) 55-0
15. Paul Preston (124) 46-0
16. Matt Williams (123) 45-8
17. Lee Waller (127) 39-14

Silvers:

1. Matt Williams (123) 20-7
2. Lee Waller (127) 15-8
3. Chris Szakacs (116) 13-13