Vilamoura - 25.09.12

Enjoying a nice relaxing holiday with the family managed a nice few hours reef fishing with the Father-in-law on a Cat leaving from Vilamoura marina. Only 30 Euros which I thought was pretty good. Anyway a few mackerel and bream but nothing of size, it was nice to enjoy a few hours away from the kids and soak up the sun.

The Warwickshire Avon - 15.09.12

I had planned to do some long trotting today but exploring a new area of the Avon I stumbled upon a great looking swim, The swim was snaggy, some would say unfishable, but it screamed Perch, it was a quiet haven, slack of water and full of cover, I had to try it.

An underarm cast with a big lobworm the chubber float hadn't settled for a second before it bobbed, dipped and sailed under. Probably the quickest bite I've had. I decent bend in the rod I could see in the shallow clear water it was a decent Perch.

2lb 5oz and not far off my PB, the next two and a half hours I had bite after bite, fish after fish until I ran out of worms. The majority were over 8oz, that makes a change doesn't it. A few around the l lb mark and another two over two pound. I lost the biggest too, it found an underwater snag and it managed to bump the hook.

All the fish were in fantastic condition and the shoal must have been huge. Late Autumn and Winter I'll be targeting the Perch and Chub, River fish are more more thing, I prefer the roving approach, the peace and quiet and the unpredictability.

A day I'll remember.

MG vs SAIC UK Angling Challenge Trophy - 14.09.12

MG's chosen venue was again Willow Marsh Fishery and Sandpipers pool, I'm not a fan of these commercial venues, a hole in a field with hardly any feature to fish to, last time I was at this venue I failed miserably, but it's a team match and as long at you don't blank you score points. The last two matches have been won by us, the Shanghai anglers. We were 2 men down, so it was 10 MG vs 8 Shanghai, yes, ok I'm getting the excuses in already :)

The pool has a decent stamp of carp that come on the feed early evening when the patrol the margins. There doesn't appear to be a decent stock of silver fish so targeting the carp is the only was to approach it. I had one rod set-up with a method feeder which I kept tight against the island and a pellet waggler rod set-up to fish the margin. Hook bait was either meat, sweetcorn or worm. I drip fed the margin and tried it from time to time.

It was a tough match, the odd carp being picked up in the open water in the first few hours and handfuls of small silvers. I hooked a decent carp on the method feeder and lobworm but I had a hook pull when it got near the net. The MG angler to the left of me was using proper carp tactics, carp rod, PVA bags and a large lead on a lead clip, that was clearly the way to approach it. 

The margin is not much more than a foot and a half so when the carp are patrolling the margin it's easy to spot them, the water boils and bubbles. I managed a 6.5lb common last knockings but judging by the weights recorded it wasn't fishing well at all. 

No one bettered 20lb of fish which for a commercial venue and 18 anglers was poor, biggest carp was 14lb I think, even Dave Roberts the infamous Ken Dodd mirror captor didn't do any good and Dave does well in all our matches. MG anglers faired better on the day with more overall points and section wins so the trophy is passed to them. So still 2-1 to Shanghai and the next venue will be chosen by us.

Back to the river the weekend, going to try some trotting.