Westerleigh Lakes Open Match

Had a message in the week from Mike Nicholls asking if I wanted to fish a match at Westerleigh. As the river was wrecked and I hadn’t fished Westerleigh for a couple of years I thought why not. With me fishing the ATWL at the end of February I need to get my head and my gear around carp as I’ll be fishing a lake, did quite a few top sets with Preston Hybrid elastic, I like the green 11, and did some rigs and hook lengths

Had a nice time out Saturday that culminated with a lovely meal at the Beirut Mezze in Bristol. The picture is the sharing starter. 

Woke up before the alarm Sunday morning and headed to the new Wetherspoons at Emerson’s Green where I met Martin Rayet. He had a large breakfast and for the first time ever I had a small, I was still feeling full from yesterday 🙈.

Got to the lakes and paid my pools to Mark Taylor, the match was being run as two separate matches, so each lake would pay out top 2 and top silvers. I hoped to draw Shipps lake (some call it the canal lake) as this has been producing better than the main lake. I got my wish by drawing peg 1, but the carp have been up the other end I was told. Rang Glenn Bailey who I knew had drawn this peg a few weeks ago and he told me what he did and that he had to wait 3 hours to get a carp. Hopefully I wouldn’t wait so long!

Lots of options on this peg with an island and some open water that was about 5 1/2 feet deep.

Also a bush on my right side margin, you’ve only got a little bit of it to fish to from this peg but a definite fish holding spot. On peg 2 was the latest addition to the pensioners list Tony Rixon. I’d won the coin toss as to who of us would be on the scales, so I thought at least I had beat him at something lol.

I made up three rigs; a dobbing rig for by the island (thanks to Bela Bakos for giving me a couple of slices of bread) with 0.13 powerline to 16 GPM. My deep rig was a 4x14 F1 maggot again with 0.13 to 16. My last rig for the bush was a 4x12 but I used 0.11 to 16 SFLB, I went a bit lighter here as I was expecting a few F1s. Bait choice was maggots.

We started at 10:15 and I began by feeding maggots on top set plus 2, top set plus 4 and the bush. I then went dobbing bread by the island. I dobbed bread all along the island and all I got was roach bites. I felt there were no carp here so tried my deep water swims. I could get the odd bite but this was also from roach.  After an hour I had a handful of roach as did Tony, further up the lake Bela, Vince Shipp and Mike Nicholls had netted some carp / F1. I plugged away just catching the odd small roach, Tony managed a couple of F1s and then I finally got an F1 from the bush. 

After three hours I had 2lb of roach and the F1, and was really thinking I should set up a light roach rig and go for the silvers prize. Then I foul hooked and lost a carp on my top set plus 4 line. Ten minutes later I had another carp on and landed this one as it was hooked in the mouth about 5lb. Next drop a 4lb carp hooked in the dorsal and next drop a 7lb carp in the mouth. That little run was great but that line died and I had to rest it. My top set plus 2 line was useless and I couldn’t get a fish here. But then the margin bush got me an F1 and small carp.

Last hour and I was still thinking I was miles behind those at the other end of the lake. Tony had a few F1’s but he was missing a few bites and lost a few foulers. I had dropped the top set plus 2 and rotated the margin and top set plus 4, feeding maggots by toss pot and increasing what I fed if the roach were in the peg. I had another F1 and carp from the margin, and another couple of carp and a decent F1 from my long line. Match over and I thought I might have 40lb if lucky. 

Whilst packing up Bela said he only had 20 odd pound as did others, except for Mike Etheridge on 8 who had caught well and I would probably be second. I was weighed first and my roach went 2lb 5oz, my carp and F1s 39lb 14oz, so 42lb 3oz. My carp net picture courtesy Tony.

Tony weighed 21lb 12oz and wasn’t impressed by his next peg battering, picture courtesy Tony 😂.

Bela was correct and I did end up second on the lake quite comfortably, with Mike running out an easy winner on peg 8 with 64lb 8oz all caught on dobbing bread. Silvers was won by Mike Nicholls who …. See his blog.

The main lake was harder, Mark Taylor also caught on bread but near the bottom. Martin Rayet got a dozen F1 for second and Andy Gard won the silvers with just 1lb 7oz.

Well I was very happy to get amongst the fish today and it was good to get some elastic pulled out. After the match carp were eating the slices of bread that were thrown in the lakes proving that they were there all the time.

South West Disabled and over 50’s - Acorn Fishery

Happy New Year.

The last couple of weeks have been frustrating on the fishing front. First a match on the Crane was cancelled due to flooding, and then Saturday morning Dean Harvey messaged me to say he had cancelled a match at Newbridge due to flooding. All plans messed up, but I really wanted to get on the bank, I saw Eddie Wynne had posted on Facebook that his club were looking for guests on their match at Acorn. I got a place in the match and then did a bit of last minute gear sorting and changing!

Sunday morning was very dark, dull and damp a complete change from Saturday. I grabbed a breakfast roll at the H&H cafe and was soon at fishery. Great to see some old faces like Bob Feltham and Alan Jones, still braving the elements to have a fish. Acorn is great for these guys with no walks and safe pegs, they also get to draw first to avoid the island pegs. The pegs to draw at the moment are 5, 7, 9 with 10 and 12 also holding a few carp. I got peg 23 which didn’t give me good vibes, and venue expert Gary Bowden said he’d fish for silvers on my peg, and he would on his peg 4.

Rig wise I set up a 4x10 with 18 to 0.10 for fishing across to the boards with pinkies. A 4x14 rig with same hook etc for fishing in the deep water.  I started the match tapping pinkies in by the boards whist feeding gbait and pinkies in a couple of spots in the deep water. In the first 30 minutes I lost 2 foul hooked carp, I was hoping to get among the ide across as these are fairly reliable feeders. Unfortunately I had no signs across from ide or anything else all match!

It was 2 hours into the match when I finally caught a roach from my deep line at 10m. On bridge peg 21 Mark Britton had 1 ide, but on my left on 25 Mark Bromsgrove had a couple of carp, a tench and skimmer. I finally found a skimmer which perked me up a bit. Sadly my peg never showed any signs of fish being there, or willing to feed. I managed 2 more skimmers and another roach for a DNW. Can’t really say much more about it lol. Mark Britton also DNW after a couple of skimmers joined his lonely ide.  Mark Bromsgrove had a decent day getting 14lb silvers and 17lb of carp.

The framers were…

Result of the Southwest over 50's and Disabled match fished on the Paddock at Acorn Fishery today.

1. Mike Wilson                   69-09 p5

2. Mark Walsh                    51-14 p9

3. Eddie Wynne                  46-09 p7

4. Alan Smith                      42-15 p12

5. Mark Broomsgrove       31-10 p25

6.  Gary Bowden                27-09 p4

Silver's 

1. Gary Bowden                 18-10 p4

2. Eddie Wynne & Mark Broomsgrove    

14-00      pegs 7&25

Well done Mike on the win, and GB on the silvers win with ide. 

Not sure what is up next, let’s see what the weather does!

Jerry Pocock Christmas Match Newbridge

I sincerely hope that you had a great Christmas. Sadly my step dad passed away on Christmas Eve, he was at home on the farm where he wanted to be. A difficult time for the family but we are sure he suffered no pain.

I was booked on this match and decided to go, the river was going to be clearer with a bit of pace but I thought it would be tough after the cold easterly wind. We met in the Midland Spinner for breakfast and the draw. I think there were 21 people fishing and I danced drawing the first 7 pegs and the last 6, but I managed to pull peg 12 and that was middle of the straight peg 36, not going to be good I reckoned.

I got to my peg and with the vicious easterly wind blowing downstream and the conditions I could not see setting a float up was worth it. A one rod job for me, using a Supera 12 foot feeder rod with a 2oz tip. A 45g open end feeder would just hold 2/3 over with 14 to 0.15. I didn’t set up a block ended feeder as I reckoned I would catch any around on gbait feeder and that would give me the chance of a bream.

After 15 minutes of the match I had a nice bite and was pleased to net a 12oz chublet, not blanking was a major achievement for me today.  Ten minutes later a similar bite and this resulted in a 6oz chublet. An hour later and no more bites and as it was so cold I went for a quick walk and the peg upstream of me Warren Bates was blanking. Downstream Jan Mazyk was also blanking. During the match a number of people were walking the bank and mid match just a few anglers had 1 bream and there was an odd chublet. As the match progressed I never had another bite so it was a bit of a bind, but I gave it my best.

My wanting to be in the first 7 pegs was a bit off, as 1 angler had 2 bream and another one chublet, I expected a few chub to come out. But the other end the match bream did show and the top 3 came from here.

1st Derek Coles 25lb (Norfolk Reeds)

2nd Kev Boltz 15lb 15oz

3rd Nick Coles 12lb 13oz

My section was won by Jerry Pocock with 3 chublets for 2lb 15oz. My two went 1lb 2oz, which was 9th in the match beating two other catchers and 10 blanks. Not a single roach was caught.

Actually I did have some luck in the end, I picked up a bottle of whisky for my prize and three prizes on the raffle 😊 

Must say thank you to Jerry and Dean Harvey for running the match.

Potentially I may be fishing next Sunday but with another cold week forecast it’s probably going to be another draw bag job.

Wishing you a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

There’s was no fishing for me this weekend after a busy week working away in North Yorkshire. Don’t mind going to work when you see a beautiful sky like this in the morning.

I’m hoping to fish a match at Newbridge the day after Boxing Day it might be a tough affair. However, my

Plans are all a little fluid at the moment as my step Dad (I call him Dad as he brought me up from 2 years old) has terminal cancer and not long left sadly.

Here’s hoping you have a Merry Christmas. 🎅 

Ridgeway Xmas Match - Bristol Avon Crane

I can’t believe that the last time I went fishing was on the Poppy match. A number of other things have been more important to me, and then last week the commercial house Xmas match was cancelled. I was gutted it was cancelled as I do like the challenge of a flooded river.

This match with Ridgeway was a small friendly affair where the entry money went towards prizes entirely and no pools money. I was pleased to be back out, but my bait was a bit pongy as it was what I had bought last week! Still I was expecting, rather hoping, that it would be a chub match on the feeder so smelly bait is not a problem.

I got drawn on the peg below the high wall, so not such a long walk and my new 4 wheel Preston shuttle got me there in no time.

It’s an easy peg to get in to but it’s not been great in the winter leagues. It was bombing through fast and boily till halfway. After this the river was smoother and a little slower. I did think it was chub or bust.

I had 2 pints of casters, 1/2 pint dead red maggots, dendra’s, lobworms and a few live maggots. It meant I was going win an open ended feeder approach, normally I’d of gone on a maggot feeder, but as I said I was using last weeks bait which was for a flooded river. It seemed I needed a very heavy weight to hold 3/4 across the river of 60g.  A size 12 N60 to 0.17 powerline completed the set up. 

We started at 10am and I had a few 2 minute casts to get a bit of bait in, no bites on a bunch of maggots so tried double dendra and at 10:20 I had my first drop back bite and landed a 12oz chublet. It was 25 minutes later that I had my next bite this time on half a lobworm, a very similar size chublet. After this I started to get a bit of a problem with a snag, I didn’t get a bite for an hour but I reeled in once with no bait left. Then at about 11:30 whilst on the phone to Glenn Bailey I had a bite that banged the tip but no drop back. I thought that was odd but when I picked up the rod I was snagged up, the feeder was stuck. Eventually I got it free and saw the hook was opened out, I reckon the chub hooked itself but as the feeder was stuck it buggered the hook. 

Not long after I lost a hook in the snag, and I realised I needed to fish a different spot. I don’t like doing this but had no choice, so I came shorter to just past middle. This was better though still an odd snag but not bad ones. It took me till about 1pm to get my next bite, a brilliant drop back with tip straight and slack line…. But no fish on the hook 🙈. The lobworm was ripped to pieces and I was gutted to not have hooked the fish. Worse was to follow when another bite was missed. I changed the feeder to a lighter 50g size and it would just about hold on this shorter line. But I missed another big drop back WTF was going on I thought. I then had another chublet in the net which was welcome. After this fish and the previous quick flurry of bites I had no signs again. 

At 2:15 another bite came and this was on and I had to give line initially, it was a powerful fish but it didn’t find any snags and I got it in the net, definitely over 4lb. Next cast another bite and a 8oz chublet. Sadly that was to be the last action of the match.

As it didn’t take me long to pack away I wandered upstream to meet the scales. Craig Pinker was top weight with 11lb made up of 3 nice chub and a 1lb of bits, he was on the last but one peg in the little ashtip which is one of the best chub pegs at the crane this year. However, his weight was only going to be good enough for 2nd as Ali Gibbs had a catch of a lifetime on the Avon. He was on the last peg in the first field which in normal conditions is left out. Today it had a nice slack and some perch decided to reside in it. Ali had 3 perch and a small chub on a maggot feeder, then he added 4 more perch on a lobworm on a float. 7 perch and a chub doesn’t sound amazing I know, but they weighed 18lb 12oz and the biggest perch was 3lb exactly! What an awesome catch, well done Ali.

My 5 fish weighed 7lb 8oz and so the big chub had to be 4 1/2lb we thought. My weight was enough to get me third and I picked up a nice set of 4 bottles of wine. Many thanks to Steve Dumbleton for running this match and getting a great array of prizes. 

I was glad to get back in the warm as I had the wind in my face all day and I did start feeling a bit chilly as the sun went behind the clouds late on. Not sure what is happening on the fishing front next weekend we will see.