No-body could feel more stupid than me

Went for a nice yesterday (27th) rather windy but opted for Orfe peg 36 . It was a good idea virtually a fish a chuck mainly stockies half pound to pound with 5 fish around 2-2.5pounds. About 30 fish in total weighing around 30-35pounds . Then came the good bit im sure you'll laugh as many times as super angler has told me not to leave the top three with the bait in the water. guess who managed to do just that. with the result as i was cupping in, my top three went sailing acroos the lake. this idiot went chasing round orfe lake following his top three sailing merrily around the pool. luckily a fellow fisherman who had been ledgering had managed to hook the line and my top three and even the fish were saved. i don't need you two to tell me and i'm sure some wonderful remarks will be made to me. but no-body could feel more stupid than me at the time.

Panama Canal - Lakeview May 23 2010

29 degrees and hot as hell. Fished from 4pm-8pm with picnic in the middle. Ended with 46lb on the scales using the new net. Fished peg 21 on Canal. There had been a match on it earlier. Fished at a gentle pace, so bloody hot. Caught at a steady speed, but some larger fish came in the margins at about 4 metres fishing on top 5. Corn and strawberry pellet did the damage. Peaceful. Luce in support with photography and weight confirmation.



Catcher in action on Canal - are the summer days here at last?



One comes into the net.



The new weighting in net christened with 46lb of carp and skimmers, plus one small tench. Another solid performance.

The final strawberry

Just a quick report friday evening session 4-8.30.Baking hot Springlea rammed not!!!! only 5 fishing the entire complex Opted for Orfe peg 23 steady fishing with good fish up to 4lb. In moved some zoo creatures 1 took black hydro half way round the pool before dumping off. another did simialr and my hook link broke. and the final straw one took me into the rushes and took my entire rig(could not get him out). anyway ended up with about 20-25 pounds good for one of my shortest sessions.

He's catching up!

Going to fish orfe. Too windy opted for horseshoe. good decision although fishing slow broke pb twice. fishing from 8.30 - 5.20. at 8 meters not alot happening drip feeding maggots witth double red maggot bait. a dozen shimmers 6-8 ounces. all day. moved into the margin at about 9.30. 30 minutes later two pound mirror carp. folow by 7 pound common. couple of hours later a nice 5 and a half pound mirror and at the end of the day an 8.1 pound common. roll on black hydro and mine and derek's secret bait.

Rich no more coaching he's catching bigger fish than us! Total defeat day is looming!

Artic Oasis

Two Amigos reunited on a bright but cold morning for the first time since the Nottm Festival. 4 degrees overnight, although a bright & cloudless morning raised the spirits....texts were exchanged, and both anglers were again reunited with a common goal, a dream, a desire, a fever that only eases but never disappears....

Lakeview meet up at 7.23am & without any of the usual shenanigans around peg selection it was Oasis 12&13....easy....weird...arrive ...pick peg ....fish it....how odd...?? Why cant it always be like this.

" its cold here" - 20 minutes after sitting down & the sun coming out it was apparent that the pegs could have been used as a medievil fridge.



Rigs went out and for Nicholson a bizarre thing happened....the float went under...Lakeview? Bite?.....Elastic streaming from the pole confirming a mad carp had mugged itself...!!!

Nicholls followed suit and for a brief hour....it was like we were Anglers ....feed / bite / fish.....Nicholls then hooked a wheely bin and all was well with the world again....reality

Both anglers alternated between Corn and Pellet....Nicholls mainly pellet....Nicholson mainly Corn....



Nicholls taking bits here and there with the odd carp....nicholsons swimming dying for almost two hours with no fish taken....it was neck and neck...

At the all out it was too close to call....both anglers taking two quick fish in the last 30 minutes...




Nicholls pipped it at 13lb to Nico's 12lb.....

Banter / Weather / Pegs were good....close match....Nicholls hangs on....

Spring Lea Zoo has been restocked

Spring Lea Saturday 2nd May 2010 - Orfe Peg 38


Typical planned session. Cold, damp, slightly windy and threatening rain. Spent all evening with thoughts of Horseshoe, 2 pints of reds and aiming for skimmers. 7am and the sign said closed for match. Pondered. Made coffee and sausage cobs. Pondered. It was damp after a night of seriously heavy rain. It was cold, it was breezy. It was warm last week, it was cold today. It was warm yesterday, it was cold today. Pondering equalled it will be hard. PC arrived 7.40am, twenty minutes early as usual - keen as mustard. I finished my cob and coffee. White van took kit away.

It will be hard today.

Looked at Orfe. Bleak. Cold. No one on it. Hardly anyone on it yesterday. Um!

It will be hard today!

We looked at one side and then the next. We walked from one peg to the next. It didn't look fishy. So we decided to face into the wind, but with the bonus of a grassy bank behind us. A quarter of a way down Orfe.

After much messing around it was after 9am I finally started.

Almost the first put in and PC was into a decent carp. More followed and a bream! It looked like PC's first victory was on the cards, it was serious catch up time. I had about 7lb and PC at least 12lb.

Rig was wrong, tangle after tangle. Bloke opposite catching zoo creatures in the margin on maggot. So what did I do. Barrrrrrrrr sheep. Went in the margin for an hour after catching stockies at 10 metres. Bits, bits and nothing. Back at 10 metres. Stockies, gudgeon and odd better carp.

Bloke opposite had another zoo creature. Barrrrrrrrrrrr sheep into the margins, bits , bits, wasted of time.



10 metres. Stockies. PC snagged a few more carp, better stamp. Tangle - rig making me swear. Couldn't see it and two inches between pole end and float. But on we go.

Then came the mother of all tangles and the rig was RIP. Thank God!

New rig and off we go. Fish a put in on small soft pellets. Stockies, small carp and the odd zoo creature taking me on blue hydro halfway around the lake. On final put in at a 2lb carp. They just kept on coming.

PC thought he was close. Weight in showed PC with a respectable 25lb. However out they came, bottom ring full and a 50lb was weighted in. Could have been more without tangles, patience with zoo creatures and sheep antics. Fished 9am-5pm with breaks and chopping and changing. Roll on the summer!

Sherwood Lake Friday Night - Testing the Superteam

Arriving at a cheeky 3pm I decided to fish Sherwood lake as a. There were Chavs on Cavendish ( no disrespect John) and never fancy Maundale.
Sherwood is very quiet on a Friday night across all lakes and worthy of quick sessions...needs a cafe!

Sensibly i pulled up to a peg that was handy rather than desired...it wasnt a bad decision all told, plus it meant I could view jodphurs on horseback from the local 'Fionas'....happy days.

Up went the new Shakespeare Superteam ( superb by the way) with 1oz tip and small 20g Drennan Cage Feeder ' in the loop' with 18 drennan feeder hook and hair. Corn / Pellet were the choice of baits.

Bearing in mind my recent ability to smash poles and catch nothing i took the risk of casting to the airator at about 20m. Fished from approx 3.20 until around 7pm and in total fished 'steady' around 15 skimmers all about 1/2-1lb with the exception of the first one at around 3lb...5-10 ide...8oz or so and a small stockie...

Casting as tight as i dare to the airator...bites were steady....lost another carp but wasnt a biggie...

Bloke in peg next to me pushing 70 on pole 'bagging' .....Crucian / Carp / Skimmers / Tench....looked like hemp and caster or pellet...

Love the Rod....Friday is Good....Love Jodphurs

Lakeview.....the 8 hour stare....Festival my arse

Nothing more to say...I tried pellet, I tried maggot, corn, meat, monkey toenail.....in the words of my mate Hugo...." De float he no move"...captured so eloquently there.

Lakeview - Harbour

Fished Harbour on the small arm that branches off. Straight across, cupping in only a bit of bait, taking it very easy.

Fished with corn and later on strawberry pellet as it was so hot. Arms burning forced to put hoodie on even though I was sweating. Weather sure to go cold if I place lotion into my holdall.

Still and very hot, steady throughout but took it really easy, didn't fish it hard as helping Luce.

Highlight was a huge battle with a 5.7 lb carp which took me all over the place on white hydro. But white hydro was king and it came to the net.



Ended with around 15-20 fish. The man below didn't fish but is from Ireland and its meant to be good there!

Still mad for it and need to seek help!

April Sunburn? - Lakeview - Harbour - opposite the gap

Arrived at Lakeview around 8.30am after a slow start, usual lack of sleep - tired and grumpy. Confident of a peg on a good lake after all the changes. Key lakes were matched up and so headed to Harbour, only later to find that Serpent was free.

Fished opposite end of Harbour. Opposite the gap where the leg of Harbour branches off - on the map below exactly where the H of Harbour is.



Fished three swims in all - straight in front, at 2/3 O'clock and in the margins to my left under a tree. Caught in first two swims from the off, fishing on the bottom with corn having cupped in small pellets. Didn't go near the margin until later.

It was hot, dam hot, in t shirt from 8.30am arrival and ended up with burnt arms, it was like August can't remember the last time I fished in weather like this and only a month ago it was breaking ice weather. Caught steadily for first two hours, but then the sun was high, hot and it was still slowed right down. Picked up the odd fish in margins and swim straight across. Still not convinced of needing more than one swim.

Caught between 20-25 carp so about 30-40lb of fish. Good session but sleep needed. Fished 9am-1pm. Bring on the next session.

Spring at Spring Lea

Two sessions at Spring Lea in typical winter weather. Cold and windy both days. Day one on Orfe. Fished pole and feeder with maggot on pole and corn on feeder plenty of bits, skimmers, two good bream and three carp. Ok session just need some weather. Highlight was PCs 6.5lb carp nice fish.

Second day fished Horseshoe. Usual skimmers, bits and three carp. Both days steady and better days to be had with a bit of consistent weather. Really windy to the extent had to fish on top four on Horseshoe later on.



Horseshoe Catch



Orfe Catch






6.5lb carp for PC

Lessons Learnt - Lakeview Serpent Peg 6

The previous nights prep centred around praying the BBC weather would change and thinking of popping to Tescos to buy rubber gloves to avoid 'blue hand' syndrome the next day.

Lazy start resulted in arriving after 10am. Thoughts that all the match lakes would be taken were soon removed at the owners Dad and his Grandson who said I could fish either Serpent (match booked had moved to Marina) or Lagoon but no nets. Decided half the fun of Lakeview was the nets in option so off to Serpent I did go.

Weather cold, on went the quilted suit, hooded top and woolly hat - I was prepared.

Peg 6 - up went the brollie and tied to a tree. Wind rising.

Bait - half a bag of 3mm pellets, dusted with green groundbait and about 1/4 of a tin of corn at most.

Fished the other side. Second put in, skimmer half pound and then a carp 2lb and then another carp the same. That is basically how it continued. It rained a bit, it was only ever about 4 degrees. But the fish came one after the other. All on corn, all the other side. Cupped in every two fish half a small cup of bait. No corn went it at all except the hook bait.



First fish of the day before the camera went.


Owners father explained that all lakes have had new fish either moved around or stocked. Weights for matches would support this.

Fished 11.15am until 5.45pm - so just over 6 hours. Matches here are usually 6 hours. Ended with 70lb plus, but no pictures apart from the skimmer as batteries went. Festival had done em. Oh well there is a ton waiting to be had in summer if this is March. Shooting fish in a barrel, but you still need to aim.

Lesson learnt

1. Lakeview has been restocked
2. Corn works
3. Stick at it and keep it simple - no distractions only a coffee at the cafe meant focus. Stick with one bait that works.

Roll on summer. Best weight for Nicholls.

Nottingham Festival Day 3 - 29th March Lakeview Harbour

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY COME BACK ANOTHER DAY!


After low weights the previous day, a forecast of pouring rain and cold temperatures , plus all lakes being hit hard the previous day at Lakeview by matches and pleasure anglers - we - the fishermen of MTC - having thought long and hard about it, watched weather forecast, surfed the internet, prayed, bored the chief in the pub and talked rubbish on the tram - decided on, wait for it - yes - Lakeview!

Harbour for shelter, its unknown fish stocks, our reluctance to fish it previously. It looked dead, fishless, biteless and many would argue pointless! I might as well, right! we must be mad etc etc



Thats how its done.


Nico had a carp almost first put in on pellet. Pressure was on. Was this the bag up day?

Nicholls needed to come in the top 2 to be crowned champ.

PC started as ever confident - put in eventually after a Red Indian style dance with brollie to the fish Gods. What followed was? Nothing, rig too short, down the middle nothing, other side nothing, maggot nothing, pellet nothing, more brollie dancing nothing and corn nothing. In one word nothing.

Nicholls carp second put in on corn, then a tench and then caught a fish every 40 minutes or so for a bag of 19lb. Slow, blue hands cold, wet, windy, White Acres revisited.

Nico tried hard, really hard - if he was a striker he had a 100% record of chances to goals. One bite, first put in and one carp! It must have drove him mad - why wasn't he catching? End peg might have been the reason, boxed into a corner, nowhere to turn, up against the ropes and doing down.

Do we ever learn?



PCs net for Day Three - you will have to look closely




Nico one bite and resulting fish.



Weighting in another solid performance - PC 'Are those what we are after - if I'd only known!'



20lb and the winning weight by a long way.




Nico not sour. Champ for now Nicholls.



Nicholls 8 points 42lb
Nico 6 points 15lb
Papa Chav 4 points 7lb

Nottingham Festival Day 2 - 28th March Lakeview Serpent

Nico and Papa Chav focus on the task

It was the morning before curry and beers, but it was as if we had already had them. After a reasonable day at Sherwood where the standard was set and with Nico 3 points in the bag, but a fourth section down, it was all to play for. The weather was cold, 2 degrees in the van as we approached the Vale of Belvoir. It didn't look good and as it turned out it wasn't. Serpent lake selected, pegs 11, 12 and 13 unlucky for some!

Pole to the far side, maggot and pellet. We must get a few. Nicholls and Nico confident - carp nets in. And then! Nothing!

Early carp for Nicholls, odd skimmers and roach across the team. Nicholls had a few more small carp.



Nico and PC weight in

Blokes opposite were bagging on - corn. So why not fish corn? We continued on pellet and maggot. A few bits here and there. Nicholls changed to corn for the last two hours and surprisingly a few small carp and a barbel followed, together with a few lost fish and it was obvious that corn over pellets was the game - but as ever too little too late.



Nico's 2.5lb of hard earned silvers.




The brave face says it all!



Papa Chav's first victory over Nico - 3.5lb of bits and the odd carp.






Only thing that PC had to land - if only it was alive!



That is a little more like it!



Barbel bonus put it beyond doubt. Barbel however in shock after PC approaches



Winning net 12lb - but poor for Lakeview

Nottingham Festival Day 1 - 27th March Sherwood Lake

The Nottm Festival had been much anticipated and for some proved to be a decent weekends angling....for others not so.

Arriving at Sherwood lake with a hangover and 5 hours sleep isnt always condusive to a good days sport. However, the rain had stopped earlier in the week, the blue sky had visibly lifted everyones spirits although the temperature remained the lower end of the spectrum.

All anglers adopting pole as their main line of attack on Sherwood Lake roadside pegs. Nicholls Snr christening a classic pole the Technium. Still looks the business and puts pole twice its costs to shame.

In all three went and within a couple of hours it was close between Jnr and Nico but no carp showing as the water temp was still low.




Maggots came out and skimmers / ide and roach making up the most of the catches. As time drifted by never to return, increasingly one large fish might do it.

Nicholls to his credit stuck to cause and snagged a small mirror but Nicholson was swinging silvers in with increasing regularity - close again at Sherwood. To my right Nicholls Snr was perhaps once again wondering why hed drove 100 miles to watch a pole float....it wasnt moving much. Lakeview would be his cup final....

A gust of wind from the gods took the Exage of the pole rest and suddenly i was going to be £55 lighter and needing options for the next two days....in true cub scout tradition Nicholls provided a couple of tops for Lakeview ( god bless the electrical tape) but today at sherwood was going to be waggler....up it went and the catch rate actually increased!!! Pole pah....



At the close of play all anglers had a few in the net and the banter was again top drawer. With enough maggots to swarm a small country it was onwards and upwards to lakeview....Nicholsons bogey venue and so it was to prove again....

MTC Nottingham Festival

Monkey Tennis Cup March 27th-29th 2010

Saturday 27th - Sherwood
Sunday 28th - Lakeview
Sunday 28th - Lincolnshire Poacher
Monday 29th - Portland

Rules - each day based on weight
3 points for 1st
2 points for 2nd
1 point for 3rd

Bill Oddie and Spring watch - Sherwood Cavendish 21st March 2010

6.32am A bloody text message after only 4 hours sleep awakes me. 'Just moved K car. Madness. 1 degree.'. Well the writing was on the wall from that point. Dragged myself out of bed and poked my eyes open. Flasks filled, enough tackled to land moby dick placed in tiny car, de-iced windscreen! and off I went.


Which of the seven dwarfs are you?


20 Minutes later - 'Where are you?' - ' I'm outside Next!' - 'where?' - 'by Comet etc' - 'oh ok, I'm going down the lane, I bet there's a match on'. If he touched lead it would have turned to gold this morning. Mystic Nico got it right. Match on every lake. The shaking head as I rolled up was all I needed to know.



Cavendish was the only option, sun was out, it was warm, yes warm. Next to the tree lucky peg 13 for Nico. Fish slapped a hello on the surface of the water as we set up, but the other side at a safe uncatchable distance. Set up, jumpers for goal post and mole hill mud for ground bait. Just enough to fill a few pot holes, over feed the fish and throw 1kg in the hedge at the end. Pellet on hook at 10 metres, skimmer, skimmer, skimmer, skimmer looks like I'm gonna be a winner!

Nico nothing, Nico nothing, Nico nothing.


Spot the Finch competition


Then as if by magic Nico was visited by a small talking Finch, God of Sherwood, he cheeped and churped, he was fed a maggot and left. Nico for his good deed got a rudd and then another. The Finch God of Sherwood returned, another maggot, Dr Bloody Dolitte made a friend and caught another fish. Wedding and stag doo banter prevailed. Peasant popped in - imagine if he had fed that - a carp might have prevailed - peasant God of the Carp at Sherwood! Bored.


Nico looking positively towards a session on Cavendish - someone hold him back!

Rudd, very odd skimmer and roach then followed for both. Nico had a few in quick succession by the tree. Both ending up with 10-15 fish each. Scratching all the way, red maggot best bait with a few on pellet. Over night frost killed it. Got colder as the day went on. Slow but good to be out. Weather reasonable just limited fish. 30lb in week from peg 13? How is it done?



Festival next weekend, feed that Sherwood God the Finch for good weather and a few fish. Things can only get better. Roll on Saturday. Early night, limit the expectations, maggot, pellet, no mole hill mud and silvers will be mine.