(Picture of the match length at the All-in)

VDE Super cup 2nd Round Boddington Reservoir
Home team Beaufort AC, versus Chestnuts and Smithy’s Angling centre.

For the next round of the Van Den Eynde we found ourselves drawn away from home yet again and this time at Boddington reservoir, which gave us possibly our biggest challenge for a number of reasons, firstly the type of fishing required is something we simply don’t do enough of as a team, secondly the match just happened to fall during our own spring league, which meant practicing to a large extent was going to have to be mid-week, and due to work commitments this obviously brings its own unavoidable problems, and thirdly with it being Daventry we couldn’t exactly nip around the corner for a few hours practice after work, so could we as a team get a plan and the right team selection sorted in time to get over this difficult hurdle.

I must add that practising was not as easy as we would like but with people like Bobby Ellis getting a few early visits in on his own gave the team an early indication as to what we needed, then with a number of other practice visits by myself, Scott Smith, Mike (Ginge) Jones, Kev Smith, Terry James, Paul Fennemore, Steve Bowen, Dave Schofield and Dave Rudge we soon got a plan sorted.

Selection of the team was not easy, team captain and proprietor of Smithy’s Angling Centre, Scott Smith told me that although he had 4 or 5 names down as starters, the last few places could have been decided by a toss of a coin as it was that close, but the team for the day was therefore a very strong team indeed being Kev Smith, Paul Fennemore, Bob Ellis, Ginge, Scott Smith, Steve Bowen, Dave Schofield and Terry James, with myself, Kevin Saxelby and Matt Chapman being the three bank runners on the day.

Just a quick word about the importance of runners, firstly in three peg sections the guys know how they are doing as they can see their two rivals, but in all team fishing anglers always want to know how the team are doing, is anyone running away with it and if a different plan needs to be tried, but what surprised me was that the other two teams didn’t have runners, therefore our guys had the advantage of knowing every hour how the team was doing and therefore they could relax and remain totally focussed on their own job.

The Draw…. The match was pegged between pegs 1 and 45, although the actual pegs being used were going to be Pegs 1 to 21 then a huge gap and the last three peg section was pegs 39 to 41. The Chestnuts team had peg one therefore the left hand peg in each section, the home team Beaufort AC got peg two therefore the middle peg and we got peg three therefore the right hand peg, what amazed me was that if the pegs would have been in a straight line Chestnuts and Smithy’s would have had one end peg each (1 & 41), however by splitting the last section meant that Chesnut had end pegs 1 and 39, and Smithy’s had 21 and 41 as end pegs and this certainly made Dave Schofields peg 21 the last peg in the main area stronger.

I must point out that sections were awarded as 1pt to the winner, 2pts for second and 3pts for third, but if you don’t catch a fish then a further penalty point is awarded making a DNW 4pts and that would prove to be crucial on the day.

The all-in was called at 11.30 and warm wind, sunshine and occasional cloud meant at least we could run the bank in decent conditions, of which the first hour was very slow except for the favoured pegs 1 to 3, Mick Thompson (peg 1), Paul Parsonage (Peg 2) and Kev Smith (Peg 3) were all into early fish, but it wasn’t until the second hour that the others started to catch when Lee Wallace on peg 8 for Beaufort had a Carp, this was then followed by Alan Hill for Beaufort on peg 5, quickly followed by Steve Davis of Chestnuts on peg 4 and Paul Fennemore for Smithy’s off peg 6, then a few anglers caught and lost what could have been important fish, on peg 14 Mark from Beaufort lost his first two and N Dougherty for Chestnuts on peg 7 also lost a fish.

The third hour and who was winning was a hard one to call, but what was clear was that Chestnut were slightly behind and the bank runners called it very early on that the match was going to be between Beaufort and Smithy’s.

Moving into the third hour it was literally neck and neck and not much change and I had it dead level then there was a huge change within a 15 min spell as fish caught in two sections changed the swing of the match. Ginge for Smithy’s on peg 12 had three Carp on the bounce and Terry James for Smithy’s on peg 41 had a Big Carp and with the Beaufort guys in both those sections still to get off the mark meant our guys had moved from 4pts to 1pt each so advantage was no with Smithy’s.

(Kevin Smith playing one of his many Carp)

Kev Smith on peg 3 was now admitting to 18 Carp (anyone that’s knows Kev would take that with a pinch of salt) against about 14 Carp for Paul on Peg 2. Paul Fennemore on peg 6 had put 4 in his net and although being beaten by Alan Hill from Beaufort next door Paul was still beating Steve Davis on Peg 4, Bobby Ellis had 2 Carp and although being beaten next door off peg 8 by Lee Wallace Bobby was still beating N Dougherty on peg 7, Ginge was walking his section with 6 Carp against two blanks, Scott Smith on peg 15 had now hit his first Carp which had moved him from 4pts to 2pts at the time and although being beaten off the next peg he was beating peg 13, Dave Scohfield on end peg 21 due to the split section was walking his section with 3 Carp against two blanks and Terry James was still winning his 3 peg section on the right hand bank with 1 Carp versus two blanks.

At the time I was calling the points as Smithy’s on 14pts versus Beaufort on 18pts therefore we were winning by an estimated 4pt margin going into the last hour, the match which could easily swing the other way if those blanking had a Carp and therefore focus was strongly on those anglers yet to record a fish, Steve Bowen on peg 18 and Beaufort had Andy on peg 20, Mark Summers peg 11 and Dave Parsonage peg 40 all without a fish, and none of them had done anything wrong other than they hadn’t see their tip fly around.
I must say our hearts were all in our mouths when with under an hour to go Steve Bowen for Smithy’s on peg 18 had a wrap around, myself and Kev Saxelby couldn’t look at him, I knew what Steve would be thinking to himself, ‘don’t come off, don’t come off’ and after what seemed like an eternity Steve slipped his net under a carp, “get in there” (well done mate) I then went to slap him on his back and say well done (I won’t put in print what he said but I think he was close to going to the toilet….) and that Carp had just moved Steve from 4pts to 2pts, therefore we had recorded weighs now for everyone and Smithy’s were well in the driving seat.

(The Legend Paul Fennemore putting the net under a 10lb lump to secure his section second)

With half hour to go a couple of Carp for Steve Walters for Chestnuts on Peg 13 pegged Scott back to third in his section, then Adam for Chestnuts on peg 39 had a Carp, but Terry James did say it looked smaller than his but that would remain to be seen.

During the match when we were focussing on those sections that were still very tight, the three guys on Pegs 1 to 3 were catching steady although Mick Thompson on peg 1 had slowed up having switched to the straight lead and was fishing a lot shorter than the guys on pegs 2 and 3.

Kev Smith was now admitting to about 20 Carp, which was strange bearing in mind he admitted to 18 an hour ago and I saw him have another 4… but he did say he had moved well ahead of Paul from Beaufort on peg 2 so he was easily going to win the match.

(Bobby Ellis nets a late Carp that secured his section second but agonisingly left him just one Carp short for a section win)

The section still in the balance was the 2nd section, where peg 4 was neck and neck on fish with Paul Fennemore on peg 6, and I said to Paul “mate you are not going to beat peg 5 next to you, but just beat the guy on peg 4 and get the team 2pts instead of 3pts” I then remember walking away from his peg to check on Booby on peg 9 and I looked back only to see his tip wrap around and within minutes a 10lb lump was soon in the bag and even better than that Paul added another Carp in the next 5 mins and yet again Paul had done his job well for the team.

In the dying minutes the odd Carp here and there increased weight for those anglers but didn’t do anything to the overall points tally, but just to prove the importance of not blanking, as Andy for Beaufort on peg 20 caught a skimmer about 1oz yet that small fish moved him from 4pts to 2pts, if only his other two team mates on pegs 11 and 40 could have done the same, as this was proving to be their Achilles heel.

(Stevie Bowen moments before his long awaited Carp that came in the last hour, and helped swing the tie Smithys way in the closing stages) 

As a team of bank runners we estimated that we were winning either 14pts to 18pts or at best 13pts to 17pts with the Chestnuts on about 23 or 24pts.

The all-out was called at half four, not to sure what was the most exciting, the weigh-in in at our match, or the last few minutes of the Man United and the Man City games, which as everyone will know by now was most likely the best ending to a Premiership title for many years, mind you i was happy as Villa were already safe.

(Kev Smith with one of his 5 weighs, and yes as i can clearly see they were only small Carp….. !!!!! well done mate a great performance)

However the great news is that we had done it….Pheewww.
The points going as follows:-

Smithy’s 13pts
Beaufort 17pts
Chesnut AC 23pts

Total team weight:
430lb Smithy’s
402lb Beaufort
131lb Chestnuts

Overall top 5 individuals (the top 4 were in the main pay-out list)

1st Kev Smith (Smithy’s peg 3) 239lb 8oz
2nd Paul Parsonage (Beaufort peg 2) 164lb 4oz
3rd Alan Hill (Beaufort peg 5) 146lb 8oz
4th Mick Thompson (Chestnuts peg 1) 60lb
5th Mike (Ginge) Jones (Smithy’s peg 12) 56lb

Sections for money

Section A Lee Wallace -Chestnuts … 51lb
Section B Ginge – Smithy’s … 56lb
Section C Dave Schofield – Smithy’s… 29lb

A big thanks to Beaufort for arranging the match at a challenging venue, although it was a bit of a Peggy venue the place was certainly a leveller and tested all three teams to the limit.

As for us, we can now get our practicing heads on at Packington Somers for the Semi-final in a few weeks’ time on Saturday 2nd June, which is a venue much closer to home, although again one that comes with different challenges, so fingers crossed that we can make it through to the final for a second year to defend our title.

Regards
Gary Booth
(Smithy’s Angling Centre)

Ter Aar,  zondag 29 april

De eerste wedstrijd van de Hengelsport Kuijpers A-divisie van HSV Team van jaar 2012 zit erop. Het amstel drecht kanaal was het strijdtoneel. Schitterend parcours maar het slechte en winderige voorrjaarsweer deden de harten van de visser niet sneller kloppen. De vangsten waren veel beter dan wat eigenlijk werd verwacht na de vele trainingsuren van de teams.

Gemiddeld is er per visser 3700 gram gevangen!

De 10 teams van dit jaar niet alleen om de fel begeerde titel, maar zullen ze ook voor lijfsbehoud moeten vechten. De laatste teams na vier wedstrijden zullen ten slotte degraderen. Spanning is verzekerd tot de laatste minuut van de 4e wedstrijd. Maar ook in deze wedstrijd werden er in de laatste seconden nog diverse platte uit het water getild.

Hoewel er soms met de match toch een mooie platte gevangen werd bestond de vangst voornamelijk uit grote zware platte die met de stok op 11.5 m gevangen werden. Als je naar de sectoren kijk valt het direct op dat de kop en staart plek geen echt voordeel gaven. Zowel Gert-Jan de Ruijter, als Jack Nouwen hadden er een zware dobber aan!

Hoewel het natuurlijk een team wedstrijd is verdiend het toch een vermelding. Het hoogste gewicht werd gevangen door de Richard Feller van team Colmic Kuypers

Niet echt verrasten maar zeer zeker verdient is uiteindelijk Team Shimano MvdE Vespe met slechts 13 punten en ruim 36 kg winnaar geworden. Wel verassend was de 2e plek voor DB hengelsport.

De promovendi deden het zeer moeilijk  Claudemans Sensas 92 en Discus Hengelsport Liessel, werden resp. laatste en een na laatste.

Tot slot een woord van dank voor de perfecte organisatie aan de Teams Tornado Guppy en Evezet.

De volgende wedstrijd is voor de Hengelsport Kuijpers A-divisie is op 3 juni, Lage vaart.

Team

It was warm yes, but we had light rain, followed by a down pour, followed by sun, then more rain and all through the match there was a constant wind blowing up to the cafe which got so strong towards the end that the water resembled the north sea, and i’m not joking.

However that is fishing and 40 anglers from across BT, Post Office and the MOD attended the contest which was pegged on both banks of match lake only, with an aim to making it through to the final 6 to represent the Midlands.

Before i continue i can’t not mention the 6 anglers that made it through to last years final and won the event at Tunnel barn farm, the team of 6 were as follows:- Tom Farrell, Chris Newbrook, Ian Boyd, Pete Lemon, Paul Evans and Brian Laws, well done lads a great performance and we will have to do our very best to hopefully retain the trophy this year.

Back to this years quailifer and having fished here fairly regularly i was up to speed with what was going well, the problem being was that the water was so low, plus lots of rain and some mornings had still had the odd frost so the fishing was hard and what works on one day may not be the tactic the next day or the next week.

My hand found permanent peg 60 on the burbank which to be fair i was pleased with as i was two thirds down the lake towards the cafe and with the wind i felt the fish would be more this end anyway, secondly i had my spare peg to my right which was downstream so that felt right, and i had a gap in the anglers opposite so to be honest i fancied the draw.

With some excellent anglers in attendance the winner could come from anywhere on this water it’s just a matter of finding what is right on the day, and during the first hour, i saw anglers catching on long pole, short pole, the waggler and the tip, some were feeding contantly, others potting, and some just used toss pots.

I chose to start on the tip long, then dropped it shorter, i fished 6 metres and even tried the edge but i found out early that what ever i was catching on I had to change to keep bites coming, my bait table had pellet, meat, corn, maggots and worm, i even had a few caster but I gave them to the ducks.

I started well and kept small F1′s coming for the first 2 hours by changing tactics and bait, i then found a few propper Carp but these then switched off and a change bait found bites again, it was a match where i really had to think about what i was doing to keep fish going in the net, with an hour to go i had about 60lb in the net and i tried a line 6 metres out but to my right where i hadn’t fed a thing, first put in and a 10lb Common found my net followed by another 7lb lump and it kept going under, if i had another 30 mins at the end of the match i would have had in excess of another 50lb on top of my final weight as it was proper solid.

What was amazing was that it didn’t look like many were catching regularly on the other bank from what i could see, everyone just got thier heads down and in the end nearly everyone on both banks returned weights of 40lb plus, and this was on a day when rain and strong winds prevailed and this didn’t make fishing and presentation that easy.

The final 6 man team was selected from those individual section winners, five of which came in the top ten and four of them ended up as the top four, so it seems that a very strong team indeed will be representing the Midlands region this year.

FINAL RESULTS (TOP TEN OVERALL)

All that is left for me to say is a huge thank you to Mark McGinley for running another well organised match and well done to all those that attended this years match, not to mention Larford for allowing us to use the venue and helping with the weigh-in, my only downside on the day is that as in most fishing matches those that have not won anything tend to dissapear and i think it would be nice for everyone (as it’s normally the same faces each year) if they stayed behind to witness the final results, especially when the senior representative from the CSSC has attended the match.

I look forward to meeting up with everyone soon at the hotel on the evening before the final, i’m sure we will all be in touch to discuss current tactics, bait, rigs etc, and in the meantime enjoy the next few months fishing and I’ll see you all in September.

Regards

Gary Booth

(Smithys Angling Centre)

Towpath view

• E1
• 21lb 3oz
• Won section
• 3rd overall
• 90 people fished

After several disappointing matches on the Gloucester canal, I decided not to fish the Sensas Challenge and work on the Saturday and fish at Marlborough on the Sunday. Which I was looking forward to, as even if you draw a poorer area than your almost 100% guaranteed of plenty of bites.

Today’s match saw 91 people fishing, and Nigel Franks spread us out, so we had plenty of room and of course end pegs were by far favoured to drew. My drawing arm has been very poor at the moment and I haven’t had the best of season’s this year. So I got Gary Barclay to draw my peg, and believe me I was over the moon when he draw me E1, which was end peg at Station. This is a good area for skimmers, roach and sometimes odd big billies (perch).

Bait List
126 lobs (picked 76 Saturday night)
½ kilo of Russian joker
25 grams of bloodworm
2 pints of white squatt
¼ pinkie
¼ red maggot
½ caster
1 kilo of Sensas Noire

Gear
Sensas 21, 0.2 x4 and 0.3 0.112 – 0.064 22, 24, 26 IM1
Colmic Lux 4×16 0.112-0.075 22 IM1
Jon walker 0.4 and 0.3- 0.136 – 0.112 14 N600 and 18 N600

Match
I started at 5 meters after cupping in my other lines, and it was solid with stamp roach and small skimmers (2oz-4oz). I was amazed, and within the 20 minutes I had 2lb, only 11 fish. I went of the lob worm and was amazed that it never moved, so either perch/skimmers haven’t arrived yet or the roach have eaten all the worms! So after an hour, in reflection I must of had 5lb. Went on the lob worm lines again and still nothing, so cut up 20 lobs and dumped it in, and went straight on it, and caught a bream 2lb and a perch about a 1lb. This was looking good, and topped up the lob worm line regularly and caught small skimmers, but the 5 meter was good, and I felt that maybe I could be wasting time looking for big fish. So a little undecided, so tried to do both.

At the end, I was unsure what I had, so guessed that 3 perch and skimmer would go 6lb and 6lb of bits. Err very wrong and admitting to several anglers, including Will Raison that I had double figures and I would like to think got 12lb, I weighed 21lb 3oz, which I was amazed! Also I little embarrsed about, Alan Brown, Mick Denton and Kevin Rolwes did take the pi$$ out of me. However, there was 39lb from Beeches end peg (Lee Edwards, very impressive) and Gary O’Shea had 22lb end peg at churches, so I had to settle for third. The venue fished very well in places, and Nigel worked out that the average weight was 5lb per angler of 91 pegs. Now that’s impressive!

Oh, thanks Gary once again for drawing me a flyer!



Last year the team from Smithy’s Angling Centre (see above) won the coverted trophy and on the way we were drawn at home on the 1st two rounds before the Semi-final at Larford and finally winning the event at Tunnel barn farm, where the 6 man team on the day of Scott Smith, Mike (Ginge) Jones, Jon Newton, Chris Newton, Kev Smith and Terry James pulled off a remarkable victory winning by a 13 point margin which in team fishing is unheard of.

This year we were expecting the team to get an away draw and the fact that the team were crowned champions in 2011 meant that any other team would love to be able to turn us over, therefore when we were drawn away to Alvechurch ‘B’ and although our immediate reactions was that the draw had been fairly kind to us, as it is a venue we all know well and it is on our door step so regular practising was never going to a be problem, there was also a chance that the match could become tricky especially after the recent cold weather.

On the various matches that our squad members attended this was going to prove to be a harder match than we first anticipated, firstly their team have home advantage and certainly know the place better than us, secondly the recent cold snap had turned the fish well off feeding as its a very shallow venue, and thirdly the tactics seemed to be out and out pellet and very little feeding indeed, and this is not our preferred way of fishing as we tend to attack venues therefore it was turning into a banana skin match, a number of their guys who we know very well, said that they wanted it to remain cold and hard as it favoured them better than us.

The squad put in many practice sessions and apart from Jason Neath & Jon Newton winning one of the Alvechurch Opens each we hadn’t really got the place worked out, but after a few minor changes we sorted out a plan for each peg, the usual lighter elastics, lower diameter lines and micro pellets were employed plus depending on where you drew the Waggler, a method or an edge rig may be needed.

The team for the day was Scott Smith, Mike (Ginge) Jones, Jon Newton, Jason Neath, Paul Fenemore, Terry James, Dave Scolhfield and Myself, and with just two teams fishing this match the draw pitched each angler against just one other, but without doubt the best draw was to have the second half of the pegging as the stronger pegs were in that envelope, and you guessed it we drew the other, so we now had the worst draw to contend with, although for a few days before the match the weather had warmed up a bit and perhaps this would get a few more fish feeding and moving around, or so we hoped.

I found Peg 9 in the draw bag and with me pitched against Peg 11 and the fact that Craig Evans (Alvechurch B) had drew it 3 times in a week coming 2nd off it the day before i was never really going to beat him to be fair, that said i had a few fish showing on the waggler line and skimmers blowing at around 14.5m so i was confident of putting a decent weight together, as if it came down to a draw on sections then weight would be the decider.

I decided to feed a Waggler line and try that from mid-match onwards to nick a few Carp off the anglers either side of me once they had settled over the loose fed pellets, i also decided to set up a deck rig on a 4×12 pencil float, 0.12 Vespe main line to a 0.12 Vespe hook length and then duplicated the same rig but slightly upped the mainline to 0.14 Vespe, on both i used a Tubertini 808 in a size 20 and my elastics for the deck rigs was No6 Vespe on a puller kit as i felt i would land all the skimmers i caught and still have a chance of getting the odd Carp in and these pole lines would be fished long at 16m so that i was fishing out further than the guy to my right as he only went out 14.5m, i also set up a shallow rig to 0.13 Vespe mainline straight through and used a No8 Vespe elastic on a puller kit.

I decided to start on the deck, feed for shallow later on and also feed the Waggler line for the last half of the match and eventually alternate between long pole and waggler to keep my bites coming and fish going in the net, as i didn’t want to sit for Carp trying to compete with Peg 11 and find i was missing out on a good net of silvers so i kept two options ticking over.

The first hour was slow for me where i caught Roach, a few small skimmers and a 1lb F1 where as Peg 11 had 3 Carp all around 3lb a piece, come the second hour i had two small F1′s and a 2lb Tench plus a few more skimmers and by now Peg 11 had pulled further away with another 3 decent Carp although he pulled out of two on the trot and this seemed to throw him out of his stride.

Those that know Alvechurch fisheries Peg 11 is one of the pegs where you can reach the island at 16m whereas Peg 9 it is 25m so its a Waggler or Method peg, that said i didn’t feel the method was right, i tried it twice but after each chuck any fish seemed to back off and as it was an island peg i felt i would lose fish to the anglers either side of me, so in my attempt to draw a few fish off Peg 11 i started to up my feed from 4m pellets to a few 6m pellets a metre off the island and i done this during the 2rd hour whilst continuing to put a few silvers in my net from my long pole line, i did try shallow mid-match at 16m and had two small Carp and a few Roach but there weren’t having it properly and i felt that i was more likely to catch better on the deck.

The match however was slow all around the pool, and i got the feeling early in the match that a good net of silvers could make the difference, but i still needed a Carp or two, so come the 3rd hour i picked up the Wag and first chuck fed a few pellets and just caught my rod as it flew off my rest, thanks to a 3lb Carp and a good start, i managed 3 more all of about 2lb a piece then they had gone, so back on the pole line where i had 2 Carp of about 2lb a piece followed by 4 skimmers of a pound each and a few Roach so the rest had done my pole line no harm, I then went back on the Wag and took another Carp then back to Pole and stayed like this for the remainder of the match taking one or two silvers then a look on the Wag for a bonus Carp.

As for Craig on peg 11 he had a better last hour than his previous hour where he found a Carp of about 3lb most put-ins so i knew i hadn’t done enough but felt i’d got the best from my peg and done well on the day, from where i was sitting i could see Jon Newton opposite and Scott Smith both catching regularly and i was confident they could return section wins, i also saw Paul Fenemore slippng silvers into his net and i knew that if he was on silvers then his angler on peg 18 wasn’t catching Carp otherwise Paul would have been sitting it out for one also and if it was a race for silvers then i fancied Paul, I also saw Terry James land a few Carp so i was sure he had done the business on peg 35 so that felt like we had done enough on the day, but i couldn’t see the low numbers to my right.

Come the all out i could also sense from their reaction that we had done enough but you never know in matches so time to tackle away and walk the scales.

Looking at our catches proved we had gone about our plan very well, Mike (Ginge) Jones on Peg 1 weighed 11lb had beaten Peg 3 who had just a few pound, Dave Scholfield on Peg 5 had 17lb but had lost to Peg 7 who weighed 28lb, i was next on Peg 9 and weighed 31lb but lost to Peg 11 who weighed 48lb, and from then on we won every section as follows, Paul Fenemore on Peg 13 had a brilliant 26lb which was a great performance off that Peg as it never normally throws up a weight, he beat Peg 18 who had less than 5lb but to be fair to Ron that is the one place nobody wanted to draw, Jason Neath on Peg 24 had 30lb beating Peg 26 who had around 10lb, Jon Newton on Peg 28 had mostly silvers for 36lb beating Peg 30 who had around 15lb, Scott Smith on Peg 32 had 40lb and again most of these were Carp under 2lb and Silvers so he had been very busy, and he beat Peg 34 who only managed the odd for less than 5lb, and Terry James on Peg 35 had a good weight of 25lb where most the day you have to fish very long and he beat Peg 36 who had around 15lb, so in total we won 6 sections to their 2 sections for a resounding victory (14pts to 10pts in favour of Smithys).

The top 4 for the pay out on the day was as follows:-

Craig Evans (Alvechurch) 48lb

Scott Smith (Smithys) 40lb

Jon Newton (Smithys) 36lb

Gary Booth (Smithys) 31lb

So a great team victory after all and one that we are very pleased to get out of the way as it turned out to be a hard place to work out before the match.

I would just like to say a huge thanks to all the guys from Alvechurch fisheries, who for many years have made us all feel very welcome at the venue, and to anyone who fancys a nice day out you must visit the venue, which has had a huge amount of investment in terms of the pegs, the log cabin, the stocking, and with a kids pool, two match pools, a specimen pool and another one or two additional pools planned for this year there is something for everyone, and in years to come the venue will get better and better, and the owner (Mark Olds) certainly is going about this project in the right way.

Our fingers are now crossed for the next round draw, I will keep my weekly Blog going on various matches and each round so keep following these regular write ups, and please add your own comments.

Gary Booth

(Smithys Angling Centre).

Manor Farm is venue that I have been going to for the last couple of years and do enjoy fishing.  However, I have had some frustrating matches to say the least, with just missing out on frame places and section wins because of a lost fish or missing one too many bites.  I have done a lot of bloodworm fishing for roach, squatt fishing and hemp fishing for roach on the river Thames which invloves at times delicate fishing with very quick bites, like pellet fishing yeah?  Well, I can’t transfer this across and I believe it’s a “different kettle of fish” completely.  Carp can be very clever, far clever than me, as they get very educated once they have been caught a few times. I find myself asking these questions…

• I’m unsure if to feed one line, gets exhausted more start another fresh line, then move onto another.
• Rotating between two lines, feed one and then fish other and rotate, this gives the fish time to settle (have been doing this and feel this isn’t 100% correct)
• How much to feed?  To each bite or fish?
• Do you feed ten, fifteen, twenty, etc 4mm pellets?
• Is micro’s better for these new stocky fish?
• “Pinging pellets on top” (fish coming to noise, but can bring them up-in-the-water and you can over do it i.e. feed too much)

I normally have one of pellet lines is far more productive compared to the others, my last match I caught 10 fish off one line compared to 1 off the others!  This is area that I do need to improve in order for me to be more successful in matches.

These new F1′s are stunning fish.

But your next fish could be 6lb or even more!

Therefore pulla bungs are so important, as when that float goes under it can be anything from 4oz F1 to 8lb angry ghost carp.

Heavy floats are must in windy conditions and longer line, as your float can’t be getting jerked around or go through like a train.

Windmill Lake

I’ve been lucky enough to drew two good pegs and have had two great days fishing.

Wednesday 4th Arpil I had 168lb 8oz

Saturday 24th March I had 176lb 9oz.

see Manor’s link for match results

http://www.manorfarmleisure.co.uk/latest-news/

• Section win
• 6lb 13oz
• 6th overall

Introduction

The idea primarily was to have six rounds on the canals, it was three rounds on the K and A and the other three on the Oxford canal. You could drop your worst result, so your best five to count. Also any angler was welcome to fish it as an one off open, as some anglers couldn’t fish all six matches as it is a big commitment to fish all six rounds, but I’m lucky to be able to fish all six.

On the Kennet and Avon canal, which I believe is one of the best canal’s in the country and Avington can be truely awesome. There are great perch bags to be had and some skimmers. I’ve had 18lb in one winter league a few years ago, and there was only 2nd place. There was 20lb perch bag, mine 18lb and 17lb, and the canal is full of roach at Avington and a good days sport is almost guaranteed despite the weather. However, as Avington has been so good in the past, it has become more popular with anglers and therefore there are more matches on it. Therefore thse big perch do become harder to catch. Big perch (billies) don’t like been caught to much and do shut up shop.

The Match

I drew a good area, and stood a good chance of catching perch. However, I had to be careful because I could easily waste time fishing for big perch that don’t wana feed. So I did fish bread to start with, which went well as I had 1lb 8oz in the first twenty mintues, which was 12 roach, so I kept on this for another twenty mintues and contiued to catch roach, but a smaller stamp so refed it with a golf ball size of bread and moved onto my chopworm line. Which resulted in a couple of tiny perch and ruff! That’s not a good sign and I’m concerned that these tiny fish have eaten my thirty lobs! So decided to put another ten in and would go in on it in 10 mintues, so returned to my bread line which was steady and looking down to the canal, people were stuggling a little (I was the last peg in my section) and up the canal Martin Phipps was catching roach really well. I returnedto my worm line and resultled in a ruff. Hmmmm, this didn’t look good. So decided to go on the joker line in groundbait which was solid, but the fish were tiny (50 to the pound). So got back on the bread and contuied to catch and have quick looks on the worm line(s) which I did feed a lot of worms on the 3 lines, 50 lobs down the track and 1/2 kilo of dens on the far bank swims.

In reflection, I should of fish bread and squatt all day for roach and therefore I would of caught 8lb – 9lb, which would of framed. So disappointed in myself, but pleased that I won my section.

Robert Head winning his section, showing his class again.

Round 2- Oxford Canal

• 1lb 6oz
• Section 2nd
• 5th overall

Round 2 – Kidlington, Oxford Canal

On an unknown stretch of the Oxford canal made it an equal playing field to us all. However, on arrival it looked like it was going to be very tough, as it was very clear and had been cold all week. Speaking to Carl Elland, he seemed to be keen for a few fish, but looking up and down the canal I saw no fish topping. On arrival to my peg, I was next to Tony Hobbs and Martin Kirk (who was on the end peg) after speaking to Martin, he advised me that he fish it a few weeks ago and had 8lb which was pretty much all perch. He said that it would be hard but fair, so with that in mind I was going to start up some very light rigs and fish for skimmers to start with on the bread, then fish lob worms for perch and joker for whatever swims!

Sure enough to was a very tough match, with fruitless 15 minutes on the bread it was time to move on the lob worm, Tony also hadn’t caught and Martin was catching tiny gudgeon. No bites on the lob worm, I decided to try the raw joker line and the float stayed completely still, oh dear. Things were looking bleak, but it also looked bleak for the other three anglers in the section. Been realistic I was looking for 2^nd in my section.

After an hour I had finally caught a perch about 1oz, and looking up the canal nobody was catching apart from Martin, so reefed my chop lines and went straight on the lob worm and to my disbelief the float didn’t look right, so slight lift to entice the bite and then lifted into it, about three foot of pink bi core come out! This was a good fish, so shipped back and the perch the surfaced and therefore I lowered the pole a little a few seconds later it came off. I couldn’t believe it! I could of cried. Went back in, no bites and therefore reefed it again and returned to that line ten minutes and to my relief another bite and a pound perch was in the net a few seconds later and I could of swang it in as it was well and turely hooked in the side of the mouth. Why couldn’t the other be like that?

I worked hard and kept rotating lines in the hope to catch something or anything, which resulted in some tiny gudgeon, but these fish were to little too late. So tried to catch on the chop which didn’t happen and missed a bite, which proved to be costly again. I was luckily enough to catch a 1lb perch on lob worm, but was unlucky and lost a 2lb perch which cost me an important section win.

Martin done well, his section winning catch and second overall

Round 3 – Avington

• 3lb (thanks to 11oz roach)
• A4
• Joint section win

I was disppointed to drew in the car park, as this normally is a tough by Avington standards. However, i am leading the league and only got to put four other anglers in my section. Phil Drew had drawn A1 which is a potentailly a section winning area or even a frame place, as it’s an end peg with a little bush on the far bank. However the canal was very clear and there could be good chance these bonus fish may not feed (which they didn’t in our pound)

I had plenty of bites, but the fish were very small, and I felt that the section was slipping away from me and I tried forcing the peg trying to catfch some bonus fish or better stamp of fish, which just didn’t happen apart from my lucky 110z roach on the bread early, which I was hoping for a whopping bream……………..

This was frustrating match, as I tried really hard to try and catch fish of a good stamp, which didn’t happen.  Robert Head (bubbles) was catching odd bonus perch on the chop and John Williams two pegs down had also caught a bonus perch.  So there was perch in the area feeding, but I couldn’t catch any of them, despite trying really had.  Maybe my positive feeding approach wasn’t correct?

I even tried loose feeding squatt over one of the joker line in order to try and catch a better stamp of roach.  This was a bad idea, as I found myself not catching anything on that line, so left it alone for twenty minutes and lucky enough it did recover, but as the other lines I could only catch was two small roach of each line before resting it and moving on.  I found getting more frustrated as I felt that the section was slipping away from me, as Phil Drew was on the end peg fishing for perch and the guy next to him was catching roach were did appear to be a larger stamp.

Come to the weigh in and I was surprised that weights, as they were low for Avington’s standard.  I was lucky to tie for a section win with 3lb.

Round 4

Was cancelled due to bad weather as the canal was froze solid and the risk of snow on the match day.

Round 5 – Churches

There was no shock to find the canal very clear, but clear of ice in most places. With no joker or bloodoworm coming into the country second week in the row, I felt lucky to have some from Micky Ellyatt, which he had look after for the last week (thanks Micky). This match was going to be tough, even with are bloodworm and joker, this was surely going to help with catching some perch if nothing else. The main problem with Marlborough waters that they are full of roach, and these roach do shoal up tight in clear water. Robert Head was concerned that we wouldn’t catch roach today and therefore we all would be in for a hard day (he was right).

The peg that I drew had a lot of potential for roach, as the mighty Kim Milson had 22lb of roach off this peg many years ago and even I had won a club event of this same peg when I was a boy, even more years ago fishing next to Dave Hartford (who was my hero back then)!

I wish in reflection that I had fished 6 chop worm line and rotate between them, and topped a couple worms to each fish.  Almost line carp fishing, but for 1oz fish.  I found that I could only catch one fish per line and then had move and come back onto this twenty minutes later.  The problem is this is very negative and I never thought that 2lb 4oz would never win the match.  Fair play to Robert Head, for winning the match and I was lucky to win the section by default, thanks mate.

Round 6 – Avington

Overall

1. Myself 23 points
2. Micky Ellaytt 21 points
3. RobertHead 20 points

Thanks to Mick Denton for running the league

First thing which is a must when you visit Cob house, you simply can’t visit without trying one of thier breakfasts and what a great way to start the day by eating decent food in pleasant surroundings like the Mayfly cafe.

Right then down business ‘the fishing’….the wind although slightly warmer than of recent weeks i’m sure was going to cause problems with presentation as it was blowing a right gale up to the top end of the lake, having spoke to one of the regulars and Scott who works onsite, they both said that little and often was required, no potting only use kinder pots and fish for bites was the order of the day, i therefore decided to look on a short line line and long line with a look on the tip now and then, depending where i drew.

I drew well (which according to Scott Smith was nothing new),with my hand finding peg 18 top left hand side of the pool with the wind blowing up there, Scott drew peg 3 an area he knows well as he drew there in a summer match and won it with 130lb+ but this wasn’t the area today so my best mate had at least got his bad draw out of the way and i hope he draws better on Sunday.

Arriving at my peg i was last angler and felt that with the deeper water in front of me in the bowl i would perhaps have plenty of water to go at and i’m sure I’d find some feeding fish in the thermo layer whereas the other end of the lake only had 4ft of depth and this i felt would be too cold.

I decided to fish a heavy 35grm method to the end of the island and also have a chuck left into the deeper water as it starts to shelve up towards the end of the pool, this i felt would keep the disturbance well away from my pole lines.

On the pole i planned to feed corn on the 6m line just over a small shelf where i found a flatish area, and on this line i would fish a 0.14 – 0.14 vespe rig line with a size 16 Turbertini 808, and on my 13m line i would fish an 0.14 – 0.12 vespe rig line with my shot bulked 2/3rds down with two droppers, finishing off with a size 18 Turbertini 808 and both pole lines were finished off with white hydro on pulla kits.

I only fed the 13m line at the off with a kinder pot full of micro’s and a few 4m pellets, and started to chuck around with the method.

After 30 mins of no liners and just one one wrap around that took my hooklength which was 0.18 (don’t know what happened there ?) i never had another twitch, i re-feed my 13m line and then had a few more chucks and all i had was a small 8oz skimmer, and with the local guy to my right already having caught three Roach and a 3lb Carp plus a couple of others further to my right having one Carp each i decided it was time to have a look on the pole.

The first 30 mins on the pole i never had a bite, and then with it approaching 1hr 30mins gone and only a few Roach to show i decided to shallow up by a foot, spread out my bulk and see if i could pick up the tow which was going in the oppposite direction to the wind as i felt if there was any feeding fish they would be sitting off the bottom away from the silt stirring up and perhaps this area maybe just a degree or two warmer.

First drop in and my rig was now visibly moving in the opposite direction, i now felt confident that my rig was moving with my feed, the micro’s i was previously feeding were now replaced by 4m pellet feed and then 2nd run down and i was into a Carp of about 2lb, quickly followed by a run of Roach then another Carp this time around 5lb.

From what i could see around the lake the best so far was the guy to my right with four Carp of which one was a proper lump, and further down the lake on peg 8 Alan Ainsworth had caught four Carp so i wasn’t too far behind.

I then went an hour with no Carp but had a Roach nearly every put-in and i just felt that if i could get 10lb of silvers in my net then that was worth two Carp plus by putting fish in your net it always puts pressure on the other anglers around you and will pull in other Carp.

Moving into the last hour and i reckon i had around 20lb and i was told before the match that 30lb would be a good weight today, just as i was thinking i need another Carp i lifted into a bite and felt a solid lump of which a 7lb Carp found its way into my net, this was then followed by three more Carp over the next 30mins but only around the 3lb mark, i also had a few roach in between these so i felt i had now got around 35lb with 30mins left.

The guy to my right had stopped catching and his match had got slower through the day with mine getting stronger, the others to the right had also stopped and the only real danger I could see was Chris Newton on the far side around peg 30, he had caught one fish going into the last hour when the Carp turned up in numbers on his short corn line, Chris who is a good mate, a team colleague and one hell of an angler, he was lifting out proper lumps and I saw at least three of his fish that would have gone close to 30lb on thier own so it was going to be close.

I felt i needed one more to make certain of the match, and with the weigh-in team standing at the bottom of the lake and with minutes on the clock i was willing my float to bury, of which it did and out shot my white hydro and i managed to slip the net under another 3lb Carp, only to see Chris Newton land a lump which looked another 6lb – 8lb fish.

As the weigh-in team approached the next peg i was told Alan Ainsworth was top weight with 38lb, the guy to my right weighed 37lb so this was going to be very close.

When i got my fish out i was surprised by the amount of roach i had caught, these proved to be vital as i put 42lb 2oz on the scales therefore without those 10lb of silvers i would have been 3rd at best so it just goes to show never ignore silvers, especially in winter.

As i was packing away i was watching the weigh-in with most guys putting around 20lb on the scales, apart from my mate Chris Newton, fair play to him he put 43lb 3oz on the digital scales and took first place with 40lb of that coming in the last hour, what a great end to his match and that also proves a point that you should never chuck the towell in early, especially in winter as they can turn up and within an hour you can put a weight together.

Looking back on the match i don’t think i could have done anything else, the fish just simply weren’t there on the chukka and if they were going to feed i was just waiting too long and slipping further behind, my short 6m line i felt was just too shallow at 3ft and too cold for them to come and feed over, and my 13m line which was the most productive just simply didn’t produce the size of Carp needed on the day compared to those that Chris found, but on another day one more Carp or a few more roach and i would have won the match instead of finishing second.

Overall i was more than happy as my aim was to work out a plan for sundays match, so i drove home in confident mood for the next round of the Smithys Angling Centre Winter League, lets just hope i find some of those bigger lumps so i can obtain good section points, as there are a few anglers of which i’m one, all sitting on 5 points after the first two rounds so it’s all very close.

Gary Booth
(Smithys Angling Centre).