Blakey's Fishing Blog

Weather:
Temp 14- 16 C
Wind Easterly 20mph
Baro: 1022mb falling


15 Anglers met for the 6th & final 2006 St Lukes Hospice Charity Matches organised by Ed Pearce. We had the long walk down to Horseshoe Lake from the car park. We had the middle arm of the lake and sufficient to have every other peg. The draw was made with the usual banter. Boozy was sporting a new bandana which he picked on his recent Holiday to Fuertventura. Looked the business - would this lead to fish?

I picked peg 56 and set up on the pole (I was given advice not to fish to island but in the middle on the pole), I still set up the feeder as well as back up. At the all in drop a bit of marine Groundbait in the spot in the middle and with number 6 elastics and size 18 to 2lb line went for the Silvers first - A few small roach graced the bank but was bumping more than catching and seriously thought about going onto the waggler - the had a minute bite - as lifted found I had something more substantial than a roach - this was a Carp and pulled the elastic half way down to the next peg - it was only a fish of about 1 /12 lb , but gave me great difficulty in landing. Walking back and with the pole pointing 45 degrees behind me - finally managed it. I decided that as I was bumping the small roach on the soft elastic - just as well do it on the stiffer 16 elastic. So went for it and perversely didn’t bump any roach off !!!!! But no big visitors - By this time the wind had really picked up and I went for the feeder. Launched out to the left island and Bingo - a 2lb carp immediately. I kept going with small carp on Treble Maggot (2 red, 1 Yellow) on size 16 and 3lb Hook link. Kept getting carp at regular intervals until 1230 then it went dead until 2.30pm then I had a big one but got my jacket bottom wrap toggle caught in the reel an bang - snapped the hook link. One more small carp and 6 or so Baby perch and Rudd on the feeder later it was All Out.

I had juts over 20lb - Olly Wagg won it with a tab over 44lb and as the points were mentally being applied it looked like a Tie for the Overall Competition between Olly and Paul Pratley and being both equal on wins with two each. Then came the realisation that Paul had finished 6th Today and gained an extra 2 points. So Olly begrudgingly congratulated Paul on the overall Win and the Prize on a new Pole.

Then it was pack up time and that long hard walk up the hill to the Car park – it get harder every year.

Update 17th October:

Today I received my Copy of November's Southern Angler and on checking 'The Guide' for Tylers Common it reads:-

"Horseshoe lake is becoming more popular with those willing to brave the uphill walk back to the car park. Normally a Pole domain, one match was recently won by lobbing a small method feeder over the islands with 80lb. Corn seems to be the best bait. Picking a swim is easy - like the fish just follow the wind."

Well there you have it if only I received this on Saturday - may have gone to the feeder straight from the off and the fish did move off to the other end following the wind when it picked up.

Labels: St Lukes Charity Match

Weather:
Temp 19 > 23°C
SW (7 mph)
Relative Humidity (%): 57,
Pressure (mB): 1011, Falling


A Pleasant day for it. The draw led to a couple of '20' scores - 10 Angler / 10 Peg. The leaders pulled what the consensus would be the best pegs. That is Olly on End peg 9 and Paul Pratley on the Hot Lily peg 11. I was on Peg 12 opposite Boozy & Barrett on 3 & 4 respectively. Both Boozy, Ed Pearce and I shared a lily pad just reachable for me at 11m with my new Ron Thompson Pole. Whilst setting up myself and Boozy exchanged pleasantries and decided that we would chat today as the omens were not good and discuss what I would write on the Blog about today.

Set up on the pole as I had a Jacuzzi beside the lily pad on my side with two kits light / heavy. At the whistle lightly baited up on the pole cup and went in on the bottom (18 inches) with Skintz on the light kit lots of liners but no positive takes. moved away on both sides - still nothing - Boozy was getting Skimmers on the other side on Corn - Tries that - nope - so went to paste - Nope then onto single red maggot - a ha few skimmers, then got busted up by a small carp in the lily pad. Went onto the heavy rig - not a bite - went back to the light rig - a couple of Skimmers - small Rudd. Decided a lot of work for small stuff. At 1130am Cam into just in front of me using the top two - - That is where I stayed for the rest of the day. A fish a chuck (2oz Average skimmers, Hybrids) on single/double red maggot. Tried a covering of pellet / ground bait to attract the Carp but none to came to 'play'. To his credit Boozy stuck with his attack on the lilies and was reward in mid afternoon when the carp came calling. A battle of wills ensued with each take between lily Carp and Boozy of which Boozy won the Majority. Either side of Booz Ed and Steve Barrett were quietly pulling in Fish - Ed was getting better Quality Skimmers than mine and Steve was getting the Odd Carp. Paul Pratley on the other hand whilst not getting a fish a chuck was regularly pulling Quality carp from that hot peg by the lilies. I think he lost as many as he caught.

The catch of the day goes to Big John Pearce. a battle with a 13lb 8oz Mirror that took him all around his end of the lake for what must have been 1hr 30 mins - This is the longest fight of the year taking over from Boozy's 1hr 10 mins in July. However it seemed to gain weight as Big John returned to his peg after weighing it in response to questions on how much did it go - By the time he got back to his peg it was 15lb 8ozs !!!!

Don't know what that did for Olly's swim as BJ was diagonal opposite him, but Peg 9 perhaps was not as hot as he hoped.

I was last to weigh in and was pleasantly surprised with my weight of 24lb 4oz - I estimate around 190 skimmers/hybrids. The most I have ever caught in any match.

Boozy finished 3rd behind Paul Pratley and Big John with Ed and Steve Barrett finishing 4th & 5th respectively

I will update with weights and league positions later in the week (don't have them to hand)

Labels: St Lukes Charity Match

Lee Chapel Fishing: Ed Pearce’s St Lukes Hospice Charity Series Arran’s Lakes Big Lake (Bridge Bank) 23rd July 2006

Labels: St Lukes Charity Match

Weather
Sunny
Temp 20 to 28 Deg C
Baro: 1015mB falling
Wind Sw Light > 5mph

Picture left: Ed Conducting the mid match weigh-In






16 Anglers Raised £100 for St Lukes Hospice by taking part in what can only described as a Red Letter Day.

Olly Wagg won by 6 ozs from the Steve ‘The Bridesmaid' Barrett not remarkable but when they both weighed in 236lb+ each then you start to see the picture of the day.
At least 7 of us obtained new personal best match weights and 7 had over the ton.
The total weight for the match was 1715lb 6 1/2 oz an average of 107lb 3oz.

For Steve Barrett this is the 6th match in a row that had finished 2nd, hence the new nick name of the Bridesmaid.

For my part I managed a new PB of a mere 65ln 14oz. Philip (my son) also had a new PB of 43lb 3oz.

Both Olly and the Bridesmaid were fishing with the ‘secret' paste on the pole- Olly fishing under the tree on the left and side of Peg 22 and Steve fishing out 9 metres in front of peg 28. Olly also used small pineapple boilies on the pole rig as well.

Ed Pearce had three small carp but put together a 62lb 8oz bag of Silvers (mainly nice Rudd).

I used mainly 8mm Skintz on the feeder out 20 yards – As on the top fishing was banned for this match could not get through the Rudd in the top layers, so went on the method to draw the carp to the bottom, just got them going then we had a weigh-in at 1130 am for fish in the nets under 5lb – Given the weather and normal club rules anything in the 4-5lb+ bracket had to be weighed and returned. I had 41lb at this stage and was on target for my 1st ton, however after the hour break bites for me were hard to come by, then when I did get one on they were 'big' and I lost 6 in a row – I estimate around 60lb of fish and did not land one for a whole hour, in contrast Olly and Steve were matching each fish by fish other both ‘weighing in’ 17 fish each in the afternoon session.

That man Boozy on the other hand had a totally different experience – the sound of breaking carbon resounded around the lake – Two broken sections and the slow catch rate – Boozy called it a day with an hour to go.

My own loss rate was high being equal in number with landed fish – if I stepped up the gear the bites disappeared – as soon as I went back down to Size 14 / 5lb line I got bites but landing was another thing – I was bullying to keep them out of Arthur’s and Ed Swims. Must learn to let them go where they want to or get the balance of rig/playing right.

All in all what a day – everyone except Boozy had a good one.

Entire Farm Match Result

Pos Angler lb/oz
1 Olly Wagg 236 /11 pb
2 Steve Barrett 236 /5 pb
3 John Pearce 163/ 5 pb
4 Alan Gammon 147/ 14 pb
5 Kev Keeling 142/ 1
6 John Buck 113/ 7
7 Mick Wagg 104/ 8 pb
8 Rob Blackburn 89/ 3
9 Ed Pearce 79/ 11
10 Kev Naylor 72
11 Paul Blake 65/ 14 pb
12 Lyn Naylor 64/
13 Gary Somerfeild 58/ 8.5
14 Arthur Morkunas 57/ 5
15 Philip Blake 43/ 3 pb
16 Steve Boozy 41/ 7
Total Weight 1715 lb 6 1/2 Oz
Average per Angler 107lb 3 oz

St Luke's Hospice Charity League after Entire Farm
Pos
1 Steve Barrett 26
2 Olly Wagg 23
3 Paul Pratley 22
4= Rob Blackburn 20
4= Cory 20
6 Ed Pearce 18
7 John Pearce 15
8 Jim Cook 13
9 Roger Naylor 12
10 Alan Gammon 10
11= Mick Wagg 9
11= Steve Boozy 9
11= George Webster 9
14 Kev Keeling 6
15 John Buck 5
16 Paul Blake 4
17 Philip Blake 3
17= Postman Tim 3
19= Gary Somerfeild 1
19= Kev Naylor 1
19= Lyn Naylor 1
19= Arthur Morkunas 1
19= Tony Pennycock 1
19= Richard 1
19= Rodney 1
19= Ron Price 1

NEXT ST LUKES CHARITY MATCH 17th September
Venue Stambridge Fishery

Contact Ed for a Place - Lets hope for another Red Letter Day

Labels: St Lukes Charity Match