Dillington Open Pairs

So on Sunday Glen and myself teamed up to fish an Open Pairs match at the beautiful Dillington Pond under control by Ilminster Angling. Its a really nice and peaceful place to fish and it is full of Roach, Rudd, Tench, Bream, Skimmers, Chub and Perch.

24 pegs on the pond all of which can throw up a good weight of fish. Feeder tactics are popular here but Pole fishing shallow and on the deck can also produce. Depths vary throughout and can be anywhere from 5' to top 4 deep. I highly recommend that, if you live near Ilminster you look in to fishing here!

So after a hearty breakfast and cuppa tea we did the draw. I picked out B section and Glen drew my home for the day, Peg 1. Regulars informed me that this could be a hit or miss peg as the resident Chub the live by the tree don't always show up.

Glen was on peg 13 and to be honest it looked a nice peg. 2 edge lines of reeds and plenty of water out in front. We both set up at least 3 pole rigs and Glen set up the method feeder to target some Bream.

Peg 1, My Home For The Day

 I had good company for the day on Peg 2 and Peg 4. Jamie Rich, Against Men And Fish, was on Peg 2 and Scott Russell, TackleUk, was on Peg 4 and both came over for quick natter before the all in.

Jamie is also a blogger and blogs about matches, tackle reviews, interviews and his own opinions on the sport. A very good read, I recommend having a read. I will leave a link to Jamie's page at the bottom :)

Jamie Just Had To Take A Picture 

I set up 2 rigs to my left, 1 on the deck and 1 shallow. To my left I set up another two rigs to fish to the tree, one for on the deck and one at half depth as I planned to feed caster regularly.

I had mixed up 2 kilo's of Super Crumb Black for today and fed this to my left at 12m every 20-30 minutes in hope of some quality showing up. I was to feed Caster over the the top in hope to pick up fish shallow as well.

At the all in I fed some ground bait to my left and begun feeding to the tree by hand. I had no fish in the first half hour and then I started landing a few Roach. I picked up the loose feed and eventually started catching a few decent Roach and Rudd shallow but things soon died off. 

Scott mention that it may die off and bites will be missed and he wasn't wrong. I missed 15-20 bites in a row and then everything seemed to have stopped. Glen text me with an hour and a half left and said he was lucky to have 2lb. I replied possitively and said to keep his head down as the last hour could change and I wasn't wrong.

The whistle sounded to end the match and Glen had text me saying he had 3 Chub to 3lbs but lost a big Bream around the 5lb mark. Glen weighed in with 10lb 6oz's which was a great weight for his first visit and on the day what with 18 people on the pond.

I admitted to Glen and Jamie to having between 5 and 6lbs and I guessed correctly. I weighed in with 5lbs 6oz's. Jamie had 7lb 14oz and Scott had 8lb 4oz.

My 5lb 6oz Net

Jamie With His 7lb 14oz Bag From Peg 2

TackleUk's Scott Russell 8lb 4oz From Peg 4

Stuart Alford And His 8lb 2oz Bag

Frank's Individual Winning Weight Of 12lb 5oz

A great match and lovely weather for it too. It was very well organised and it was a credit to the people of Ilminster Angling. 

So next up for myself is my first match at Sherborne Lake this coming Sunday. Looking forward to it :)

Hope you enjoy the blog and like the new layout.

Tight Lines!

If you would like to view Jamie's Blog then please click the link below. His blogs are very good :)

Jamie's Blog's, Against Men And Fish

A return To The Sedge's!

On the 30th of August I fished Dillington Pond in a match to experience what it has on offer. I hear a lot about the venue in the tackle shop where I work and I have been meaning to try it. Arriving at the draw, cup of tea in hand, I was asked to draw the golden peg and was allowed to draw first being new on the scene. Like most of my draws this year I drew the "best peg on the lake". 

The change of scenery was good as I got to fish along side a few people I don't normally fish with like Ash (TackleUk), Jamie Rich (Against Men And Fish), Stu Alford (Ilminster), Robin Cox (Ilminster) and a few other customers that come in to the tackle shop.

Peg 19 For Me At Dillington

After a damp days fishing I manged 7lb 8oz of mainly Roach between 4 & 6 oz's. Not much in terms of quality but a nice change to catching Carp. Stu Alford won the match with 20lbs 10oz of Bream and Skimmers.

Stuart's Match Winning Bag

So yesterday, September 5th, I found myself up at silly o'clock to get to The Sedge's Fishery for a league match. Now the last time I was here I finally managed my first 100lb+ net of fish and a new match PB. That was on Brick Lake but we were on Tile for this round.

It was cloudy with a slight breeze and I was a little unsure on how to approach it. I drew Permanent Peg 38 and I was happy with that as I had 2 nice edge line's, Island chuck (as did everyone), and the warm wind blowing in to my bank from the right. I felt the water and it was very warm so I based my approach on that.

Peg 38 On Tile Lake

I set up an edge right for my right hand side to fish 8mm meat, I set up a shallow rig for the long pole, pellet waggler and method feeder.

The edge rig compromised of 0.16 Power Micron main line to 0.14 hook length of the same material. Hook was a Carp Bagger in a 14 size with a Drennan (Unfortunately ran out of edge floats from my sponsor who now are no longer producing them so I have changed to Drennan) Carp 3 float in .3gr.

Shallow rig was made of the same mainline and hook length but to a 18 Carp Bander hook banded via the knot less knot using a Series 2 Matrix float in .3gr,

My pellet waggler set up was 6lb reel line on a Ultron 3000 reel fitted to a 11' Carpmaster Float rod. I used the new Matrix Pre-Loaded Pellet Wagglers  and attached this via the new Matrix Pellet Waggler Attachments. Again the hook was a banded Carp Bander in a size 16.

My Tackle, Minus Rod & Reel, For Pellet Waggler Fishing

I also set up my 9' Carpmaster feeder rod with a 23g Small Evolution Method Feeder. 

At the all in I fired in 6 pouches of 8mm pellets to kick of my swim. Each pouch contained on 4 pellets and then I began casting in the pellet waggler. I was experiencing some problems in casting in that the wind was blowing the waggler to the left of my feed so I swapped to the 8gr. This made the difference as I was getting to my baited area.

After a slow first hour the bites started coming. I soon had 40lb in the net in the next 45 minutes so I upped the feed and this really got the fish going! It was fish after fish around the 5lb mark and I had 90lb on my clicker after 3 and a half hours so I was soon off the box and after another keep net.

I was still feeding my edge line in between catching carp. Then things started to go down hill. 2 catapult elastics busted on me and my topped up 8mm feed pellets were floating. I had no time to change elastics or go to the hut to buy pellet as I had the league leader in my section and I didn't want to leave my peg to long without feed going in. Thank fully I had my hook baits in another tub and hand enough to see me through.

2 hours left and I cupped in half a pot of meat every 20 minutes on my edge line and left it until the last hour. I topped up with fish on the pellet waggler until the last hour and then picked up the top kit.

I went down the edge and if the float didn't go under after 2 minutes I was leaving it. The float flew under seconds after settling and I was in to something big. When I eventually netted it after folding it in I ran to the scales to weigh it (No fish over 15lbs in keep nets, fishery rules). It came in at 13lb 8oz!

I went back down the edge but not a touch. I kept the pellet waggler line topped up so I could return to feeding fish. Sure enough the pellet waggler hit the water and the rod was nearly pulled out of my hand. Another big lump! I went on to land 4 more big Carp. 

With 10 minutes to go, I cast out again and hooked an angry fish. It went off like a rocket and it unfortunately came off. I reeled in, gutted that I had lost it, and luckily I had a pellet left on so I re cast and as soon as the waggler hit the water the rods bent around and another fish on. Line is pouring off the spool and seconds later my alarm for the all out went off. I had 15 minutes to land this fish. Luckily I managed to land it after 4 longs sprints to the Island! I could only just get it in the landing net and my 2 witnesses said that it was definitely over 15lb!!

I didn't realise but people on Brick Lake behind had stood behind and watched me throughout the match and afterwards came up to me and shook my hand. "that was some shift young man, let me shake your hand" one chap on holiday said and guessed I have over 150lb! My clicker said around 140lb but there was only one way to find out.

The scales arrived and top weight so far was Trev in the other section with 120lb. Ian, league leader, had between 60lb and 65lb of which I knew I had beaten with just 5 of my 6 huge carp! After a helping hand getting my 2 carp nets out and 4lbs of silvers I had weighed in with 155lb 6oz's!! A new personal best match weight and another section win.

I was very happy with that result. Now I the Trade Match on Wednesday to look forward too and then the next League match next Sunday at Summerhayes.

I was also asked about what tackle I use so I will leave a list below of the main pieces ie rods, reels, pole etc below.

Tight Line's All!

Main Tackle

Matrix All Weather Suit (Bib & Brace and Jacket)

Matrix Ethos Large Rod Holdall

Matrix Superbox Seatbox

Matrix 3m Carp Keepnets

Matrix 11' Carpmaster Float Rod

Matrix Nemesis 16m Pole

Matrix Aquos 4000 Front Drag Reel