Sunday 15^th June – A Fruitless Final Fling On The Fishponds, Bristol Lido

Last Sunday, I fished a club match on the Bristol Lido, but before that, I fished another Costcutter 500 match at Windmill Fisheries. Well, with the temperature rising, I reckoned a few more carp would be up for it today, but as always, the results would very much depend on where you are drawn. So, with a dozen fishing the match today, I got into the draw bag early because just lately I have been holding back and that tactic hasn’t worked. Well, I pulled out peg 18, which is okay and can produce a few good silvers, which might come in handy should the carp not play ball. I reckoned the only thing that might work against us today would be the weather. Heavy rain showers and lightning were forecast, but as it happened, it was the wind that did for us, making presentation very difficult.

So, I got to my peg and there were about 20 ducks and geese out in front of me just sitting on the water. Even when I started chucking out a lead to gauge distance, they stayed there completely unfazed. It wasn’t until my bomb actually hit one of them that they decided to move on. So, the plan was a bomb off the edge of the island and a 9-metre line out in front with worm. Also, I set up 2 different margin lines. To my left, I had a small crystal dibber setup for fishing meat and corn and to my right, I had a modified Chianti for margin paste fishing in 18 inches of water. The plan was to feed micros on both margin lines and then go over them at the halfway stage to take a look. As the weather forecast was for heavy rain later, I reckoned these 2 swims would be favoured as I would be fishing from under my brolly.

So, on the all-in, I cupped out a small pot of chopped worm mixed with Sonubait Worm Fishmeal groundbait. I also dropped in some micros to the margin swims. Then I chucked out the bomb with a double maggle hookbait. For the first hour, I tried a variety of baits on the bomb, including meat, corn, pellet and maggle, but I didn’t get a sniff on anything. Not even a liner… then the rain started coming down. Over the next couple of hours, it got heavier, making it difficult at times to see the float tip. I persevered on the 9-metre worm line and finally, after 2 hours, I began to get a few indications. Then it was off we go…. A nice 7-pounder for starters. I kept the feed going in at every put-in with a large cad pot. I’m sure the groundbait was working well in attracting fish into the peg, as the float was hardly ever still for long.

I lost the next carp but hooked and landed one almost immediately afterward. Then I had another about 15 minutes later. The wind began to pick up and this made presentation really difficult, so I tried both margins for a while. All the time, I was still feeding the worm line, hoping a few big skimbos might have a go. Well, I didn’t get any bites or indications on either margin with any bait and that’s very unusual. I expected at least a carp on meat but nothing. So, with the wind still whipping up the waves, I carried on fishing the worm line with a number 4 shot holding the bait still on the bottom and an extra 6 inches of line laid on too. This did the trick as I landed another 4 carp and then 4 big skimbos, but with an hour to go the peg died and I didn’t get another bite. That’s unusual too, as the last hour is usually the most productive.

The heavy rain must have had some kind of effect on the fish as they just shut up shop and fooked off. Well, I had no idea how it fished on the opposite bank, but I was pretty sure it was going to be close on my bank. I reckoned my 4 skimbos weighed over 8lbs, so I had a good chance of picking up a silvers prize, or maybe a section win. John Williams on peg 22 was on the scales for our bank and as the angler on peg 20 was disabled, I volunteered to help with the weighing. We started on peg 12 and weighed back. Well, we had a string of weights in the 40’s with mine topping the lot at 45-2-0 so I had a least won a section. And my 4 skimbos went 9-9-0 so there was maybe a chance of picking up a silvers prize instead, which is what I ended up with.

A second in the silvers and third overall was a valiant effort but way off the mark as far as qualifying was concerned. So I still have it all to do FFS!

Alcove Club Match – Fishponds Lido

I was two minds whether to fish this match as I don’t like the Lido very much. It’s okay for a pleasure session if fishing for tench, skimbos or roach, but it’s rubbish for match fishing… always has been. Anyway, after much deliberation, I decided to have a go and see if I could maybe find a few tench. Unsurprisingly, only 7 anglers turned up for this one, so I’m not the only one who didn’t really fancy it. On that note, Jason, the match secretary, suggested we have a rover. I plucked out number 2 and would have liked to have fished peg 5 (Smithies Swim), but ‘Brucie Baby’ Taylor got in before me, so I opted for peg 4. Both pegs share a very large lily bed and if you want tench, then that’s where you need to be. There is one problem though… BIG carp!

Of course I would be happy to catch a carp or two and I’m sure just one would be enough to win the match but… some of these muckers go to well over 25lbs and getting them out of a dense bed of lilies is nigh impossible, even with my beefed up, train stopping margin pole. I set up a waggler rod for fishing pellet shallow, well away from the lilies. I also set up a whip for catching a few small silvers right from the off on maggles. And then I set up my margin pole to fish out in front at about one metre away from the lilies, in 6 feet of water with meat, corn and worm. I noticed a few perch chasing fry in my left-hand margin, so I set up a rig to target them too, in case all else failed.

Well, as expected, the day turned out to be very frustrating. I had a few small roach on the whip to kick-start the session. I had nothing on the pellet waggler and only a few perch from my left-hand margin on worm. I was counting on my main line, out in front, for a few tench but not a sign of them. However, the carp were active and corn over micros was getting some attention. The first one I hooked was gone in seconds, leaving me with a broken 0.17 (7lb BS) hook length. I then stepped up to a 0.22 (9lb BS) hook length and a size 12 hook baited with double corn. When I hooked the next carp, it actually swam away from the lilies at first and I could see it was well over 20lbs. Then it changed direction and bolted into the safety of the pads.

All I could do was hold on and watch as my 26 elastic stretched and stretched before the hook length gave out and everything came flying back at me at a gazillion miles an hour! FFS! Then, with about 30 minutes left on the clock, I hooked into another beast and suffered the same fate. I didn’t have any hook lengths above 0.22, so I was on a hiding to nothing here all day long and that’s how I finished up. I think I had 1-4-0 of silvers for nowhere. The other anglers didn’t fare much better, with only 3-14-0 enough for a win. Well, that’s made my mind up once and for all… no more matches for me at the Lido… ever! (Not sure what happened to the weigh sheet, but if it appears, I’ll add it here.)

There was some unexpected mayhem during the day as one of the flats directly behind me caught fire. Following a small explosion, black smoke began billowing out of one of the windows and the fire and rescue boys had to show up to put the fire out. I watched the drama unfold for a few minutes and I must admit I was taken aback by how quickly the fire took hold. The ceiling of the flat was well alight and flames were lapping around the window frame. Luckily nobody was hurt. I checked my fire alarm as soon as I got home.

Well, next Sunday I’ll be on the river… at last! Can’t wait…keep you posted!

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