even blind squirrels pick up at landsend

good turn out today 21 fishing so all the golden pegs were in but i never got one . martin lenaghan handed me 33 which is behind the hut on the speci lake, and with 34 not in i had lots of options. 1 4x12 rig for hard pellet on the deck , 1 4x10 for in the left hand edge, 1 4x10 for over on the island and a dibber for shallow. 11.45 start and i began by cupping in 4mm in the deep water at 15 mtr and some at 14 mtr in the margin , and fired some 6,s over to the island.
first put in and a 5 lb carp was in the net followed by another on the next drop , then a couple of foulers which came off, then a nice f 1 thingy, then at 12.15 , mikes wave maker began, and for the next 2 hours all i had was 2 carp and 3 chub. i thought i might catch trotting down the side of the island but apart from the 2 chub and 1 lost fouler that was hard aswell especially as i had to use 17 mtrs to do it, so a quick look in the margin , first put in and a snag! next put in and i hooked a carp which went down thru a snag taking my rig with it so i gave that up as a bad job.
back on the deck rig and wait for the water wheel to stop, i did get a couple of liners but no fish.
aerater went off at 2.15 so it was time to go to the island 17 mtrs again , christ its hard work, but there were some fish showing . i began to get bites straight away and had a couple of quick fish before they dissapeared, as it was only 12 inches deep they spook quite quickly so you keep feeding but fish back on the deep line till there confidence returns and you start to see movement, by swapping between the two lines i kept odd fish coming ,and ended up with about 20 carp which i thought would go about 100 lb. apart from gary wall next to me who was admitting to about 85 lb the only ather angler to have much was martin lenaghan who managed to draw peg 19 for himself so that was 2 fliers he had drawn in 1 day and he trys to tell us he cant draw and he had 27 carp and they went 125. 3 for first place, all caught shallow at 13 mtrs on pellet. i was second with 109.1
3rd gary wall 89.13 peg 35 on paste
4th a oram 73.8 peg 18 meat at 4 mtrs
5th tim clarke peg 7, 71.4
6th phil(fabio)harding peg 13 ,50.12
sivers tom thick on peg 1 20.7 on worm and caster
2nd john bradford 17,3 peg 15
good to see charlie has got some help to get to his peg now in the shape of a battery trolley, and it has to be said that it is very good cos i took it for a test drive around the carpark. and i nearly lost it by the corner of the hut. s0 all you oldies out there who are finding it a bit of a struggle now it could be a life saver so eddie wynne it might just be for you the battery will do 5 miles so it would be ok for those long long walks to infinity and beyond or even the corn field.

shop bitz part 5

cant believe the cheek of some people. a certain psv rent boy aka darren north was in the shop commenting on what a good freebie it was on the AT last week. it was an avanti method feeder and mould(rec retail 7.99 lol winkers preston is only 4.98 for mould and feeder), and then he asks me how to use it, ooh wonder what i told him, cant say here cos my mum reads this!!!!!!!!
i, m still having a few problems with the coffin dodgers. firstly mr nicholls, he repaired a pole section of mine as an experiment in carbon repairs with a view to doing repairs properly but after doing it he quickly realised that it wasnt financially viable, any way when doing repairs the sections have to be held straight , now i aint quite sure how he did it cos the repair was nice and straight but he just had to apologise for the ammount of vaseline that was still all over the section hmmm i wonder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
another oldy namely adrian jeffery proudly announced that he was off to a tom jones concert shortly , and he even admitted to buying the tickets, and they try and tell us that the male menopause is just a myth ,if they need proof just get a doctor to spend an afternoon in the shop and all will be confirmed.
congrats to my wife judith who has been on a asda diet for 2 weeks now , she is doing really well cos she has only put 1 pound on, perhaps tesco will be next .
cant go without mentioning fabio , after not doing to well on the river at the weekend it could be that he was to weak after having a barry white night with fi fi on saturday , now as he isnt seeing her tonite he has taken 2 porno dvd,s someone dropped in today so he can have a barry white night on his own (know what i mean). so it will be over with quick time and so he shouldnt be so tired tomorrow at landsend, time will tell.
i hope pete wild is on the mend as he came in last friday complaining of a cracked ring(nasty)

bullocks with charlie

with 20 people booked in for the match lake , it all looked good for a nice match, trouble was charlie hasnt worked out how to work his answering machine so there is now 24 booked in and the extra 4 were to be put on north pool on the good pegs at the bottom of the arm. when the draw got under way i pulled peg 8 which has a bit of form as a down the edge peg towards no7 which isnt in. as i mentioned last time , phil has employed a gardner to tidy the place up a bit , if i was phil i would sack the lazy idle git cos i couldnt even lift a top set up in my peg , so i had to do some pruning myself. 3 rigs today 1 4x12 silvers at 8 mtrs . 4x8 hard pellet rig against the island under a tree and a 4x10 rig for down the edge.
at the start i cupped in some grounbait and caster on the 8 mtr line , some 4mm against the island and a mix of caster, maggot, pellet and corn down the edge either side. nothing like giving them a choice.
starting on caster i had to wait about 15 mins for my first bite , and a lipless fantail ended up in the net, i was getting indications but no real positive bites , although i did get a couple more rantails and , hybrids a change to small pieces of corn and the bites improved with more fantails ending up in the net, after about 2 hours i went down the margin to peg 7 and had a 2lb carp on corn straight away, (that was the end of the silvers then , more fool me). apart from a few liners no more bites were forthcoming, so i cupped in some pellet and maggot and had a look to the island.
lowering the pellet in as tight as i could and the float kept going and another 2lb carp was in the net, quicklly followed by 2 smaller ones . tme to go down the edge again this time to the left and after snagging first put in i decided to leave this side and concentrate on the right hand side, although it was nearly 12 inches shallower the bottom was clear.
this time i went in with treble maggot on , which the fish seemed to prefer, and by alternating between the island and the margin odd fish kept gracing the net , problem was the fish were on the small side it must be a nursery peg, by the end i had 12 small carp which i estimated would go about 30lb with the silvers. they actually went 30lb 15 oz for no where in the match,
the match was won by gary bedford with 75.10 on north pool peg 12 using soft pellet down the edge and across,(poxy split venues cos a pensioner cant work his answering machine lol)
2nd the old sly fox himself mike nicholls 58.8 peg17 match lake mostly taken on a rapala magnum draggeb across there backs.
3 rd adrian jeffrey 50.4 19 match lake on maggot down the edge mainly in the last hour
4th tom tick 49.7 25 match lake again maggot down the edge
5 th jason radford 40.6 22 match lake
6th paul faires 36.2 6 north pool
silvers was a father and son doudle act with ray and glyn wickham both having 12.5 on pegs 24 and 26 respectivaley
jason radford had to go in after the match to find his half ex which slid in before the start and with the water over 3 foot deep he had to use a pole section as a snorkel but he did find it, nick collins looks like a giant stood next to jason
pictures of jason will be available on mikes blog
any one looking for a match next sunday i am running one at bullocks again

shop bitz part 4

i,m starting to worry about the older anglers coming into the shop. it hit home today when ed wynne was chatting to gus manton about the size of the hemp and commented on the quality of it and i must say it is huge but it wont split, any way after guy left the shop ed walked over to an open sack grabbed a handful and said what lovely hemp it was , shame really as it was a sack of 4mm coarse pellets, i think ed ought to consider suing the opticians in his local pound shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
trig(aka craig edmunds)came in today on his way back from his latest laser treatment he has now started with some liquid the clinic gave him , he has to use a syringe to put about 2 ml on twice a day so he thought he would do the first dose in the shop , problem was it had a particularly stubborn child resistant lid on it which he failed to remove so i had to do it so after squirting it on his head he sat down to let it take effect trouble i think it was made of acetone and cow piss judging by the smell. then dean came in and decided that it was time for the second treatment, and it wasnt a pretty site that of dean giving trig a head masage cos trig looked to be really enjoying it . he must have a soft spot for dean after the ball licking incident.
nice to see fabs and fi fi had a good time on the isle of wight last weekend shame it was cut short when they were caught dancing naked around a rams head in a sechluded piece of woodland and they got themselves evicted on the first night lol

close at avalon

strange how you manage to draw the same pegs on the same venues innit, i ended up on peg 12 yet again, good wag peg and not to bad on the pole iether, but i would like to draw a different peg occasionally. three pole rigs , one 4x14 for hair rigged pellet on the deck , 4x12 up in the water, paste rig and of course the pellet wag for over. starting at 14 mtr i cupped in half a pot of 4mm and started to fire 8mm to the island, i would have liked to have fed 6,s to the island but its about 35 mtrs and with no wind to help they wouldnt quite get there. 10 minutes in and my first bite resulted in a 7 lb common finding its way into the keepnet, by the end of the first hour i had only added 1 more to the tally, but i had lost a couple of foulers. oh well out with the paste, but that was no good all i could get was a few funny dips which i put down to skimmers . after 2 hours it was time to chuck the wag , and i had 1 first chuck, although there were a few fish showing on the island they were a bit cagey and not really willing to stray to far from the island, so the tighter you could get the more chance of a bite , but you tend to lose some as you got to pull like hell to stop them going thru the gap , all the time i was feeding 4,s on the pole line ,but the fish seemed to be backing away from the feed, as every time you fed the minimal fizzing stopped, so it seemed better to feed 3 pouches and leave it , and when some bubbles appeared go in with the pellet rig and wait for a bite . normally lifting and dropping in the bubbles brings a response but today it seemed better just to sit and wait for a bite. by alternating between the wag and pole i ended up with 14 carp and 1 skimmer, both gary wall and martin lenaghan also had 14 carp so it was going to be tight. as it turned out gary had 79.12 on peg 21 with one fish going 18lb
2nd me with78.1
3rd martin lenaghan 77.9(my 1.2 skimmer was crucial)peg 9 pellet wag
4th tony wittcomb 61.6 peg5 wag(wot no paste)
5th chris fox 60.1 peg 16
6th colin dyer 35.2
so 1 fish seperating the top 3 thats much better than someone running away with it.
cant go without mentioning the silvers master chris derrick, having decided that he had the silvers sussed he announced he was going to catch carp today so we could do away with the silver pool, 6hours later and 2 carp in the net i think he was beginning to regret it , even after spending 4 hours at dodgy,s house on tues evening for some coaching from the new paste master (dave downton)and several phone calls during the day it just never happened . dodgy couldnt understand what went wrong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

teams of 4 2010

with the collapse of the league this year for varios reasons , here are my ideas on payouts and venues. 6 venues, trinity, cider, viaduct,bullocks, landsend and avalon , all over by xmas.
entry would be £144 which is the peg fee, up front for all the venues, then £100 compulsory team pools on the day out of which £20 taken from that which is £5 per angler per match giving o/all team paouts at the end of 600/440/340/240 and 80 for 5th.
individuals on the day 150/130/100/80/60 for overall to 5 not top carp weight !
silvers on the day 85/65/45
and 40 quid every 5 pegs all payouts by default one prize one angler.
the anglers i have spoken to have all seemed more than interested in it going this way and already 6 of the teams which pulled out this year have said they will definately be up for it again next year on those terms.
you will have noticed the absence of stafford from the venues its not that i have a problem with the place it just turns into an expensive weekend costing the best part of 200 quid if you are to do it properly with bait , bits booze and digs and not forgetting fuel. if it was 50 miles closer it wouldnt be a problem cos andy and debbie have one of the best run and fish filled fisheries in the country, and andy appreciates that it is a long way to go in the present financial climate. cos the 200 quid for that weekend is probably 50% or more of the weekly take home pay of a lot of the people taking part, i did hear yesterday that andy is going to run a 2 day pole only on the league dates this year, so anyone interested give andy a ring on 01805804360, and to be fair i wouldnt be suprised if he didnt get a few for it. he might have to change his tape recording at the draw though from the usual of cast the lead 40 mtrs to the bar and fire 8,s or 10,s at it with a 10mm or conker on a hair lol
so anyone interestd give me a ring at the shop or comment on here

oops back out of the comfort zone

with the teams of 4 cancelled , the only left to do was run an open at avalon which was to be the first match in the series. the next match was scheduled for bullocks on the 11 oct so we will have another open so anyone wishing to partake give me a ring at the shop, 01179517250,back to avalon.peg 25, so near yet so far to peg 24.
i would love to report that i had kept the winning streak from wednesday but no, i had 3 fish in the first hour that went 33lb , 2 on pellet on the deck and 1 on paste all at 14 mtr,s and apart from a few foulers during the next 5 hours it was pooh. i even contemplated river fishing again , but after beating myself with my half ex around the head several times , i quickly realised that it was never going to happen. i have had this happen here before when you get a few early fish then nothing, i think i will put it down to a case of bad angling or it could be not enough fish in the peg , it wasnt until the last 30 mins that i got a few bubbles back and i fouled 2 fish in the last 10 minutes, never mind there is always wednesday. first on the day was the dodge miester aka dave downton with 115.2 on peg 7 on solvite at 13 mtrs
2nd was gary wall 109.10 peg 28 on green solvite at 16 mtr
3rd clayton hudson 85.9 peg12 wag and pellet
4th ron hardiman 61 peg 24
5th vic(leadchucker)bush 57.1 peg 5
6th martin lenaghan 55.5 peg 33
silvers chris derrick 17.12 all shallow at 13mtr on caster, he seems to have the silvers here sorted right out
the only person not to weigh was pete wild who took 5 and 3/4 hours to land his first fish, he is off t0 whiteacres shortly to fish the parkdean , i bet there are a lot of people going that hope he is in there section, but he was pegged next to me and i think we were in a bit fishless area , as the wind has been northerly for 2 weeks now the fish seem to have shifted down the lake slightly,
talking to liegh he was telling me that they are getting 3 big bubblers put in which will only help, also they intend to chalk it next year which seems to kickstart lakes into fishing well, and as most fishery owners will tell you it can be a long and difficult journey sometimes until fisheries begin to realise there true potential, with a lot of trial and error needed until it comes good, but without the support of anglers it can be hard . luckily leigh and vic have the support of quite a few anglers be it match, pleasure and speci boys who enjoy the fishing and surroundings, as far as matches go it good to go to a venue where different pegs win.

back in the comfort zone

after my last 2 matches with an average hourly rate of about a pound and a half i was looking forward to a good day and when martin alexander drew me out peg 32 i was more than happy. i kept it simple 3 rigs 1 4x12 hard pellet on the deck , 4x12 dibber shallow and 4x10 bristle float for up the edge, all rigs on .20 with 0.18 hooklenths with a size 16 b960 with a hair rigged band on. first put in and i had a 2 pounder on the deep rig trouble was it was hooked in the tail. the plan was to feed with a catapult with 4mm,s and cup pellets in the edge, as the 2 lines i was fishing were only about one and a half mtrs apart. after the first put in carp i had a 2lb cruciany type thing, which was foulhooked fair and square in the top lip. then the aerater came on and it went proper tits up with loads of fish in the peg but i couldnt get one in the mouth , and i lost some under the tree,s in snags . this was turning into a tim clark day(fish lost far outweigh numbers landed). by the time the wave machine went off after 3 hours i had 7 small carp and a few crucians in the net. dont ask me why but i started to get fish in the mouth , i can only put it down to the water not moving now , i did keep trying the up in the water rig but couldnt get a bite on it, but i was getting movement on the float indicating that the fish were up but not right up.so withthe bulk of the shot at half depth and 1 no 11 8 inches from the hook most of my bites came as i let the bait fall through the last 2 foot of water so it was a case of 2 pouches of pellet then keep working the bait till i hooked or caught one, feeding this way seems to keep the fish fairly close to the bottom, feeding little and more often seems to increase the foulers. i had a few fish from the margin, but sport was better in the deep water(winters coming) previous visits to landsend and i had been catching more fish on 6mm but today 8,s seemed to be better , even for the crucian crosses, by the end i thought i thought i might have 100 lb so i was happy to weigh in 119.13 which included 17.8 of silvers
2nd was nick duckett 81.8 peg 28 on paste
3rd martin lenaghan 72.8 peg 18 on corn
4th mike duckett 57.12 peg14
5th gary wall 51.15 peg 5
6th mat tomes(aka toombs)34.12 peg31
silvers john (the gump)bradford 23 lb peg 3 on caster
a quick mention for phil our tenant , he seems to have taken the fabio thing to a new level he has taken to wearing his undercrackers outside his trousers and has had a t shirt with super fabio on it he reckons he is going to team up with spidy man from heart fm to fight crime in our fair city , i just wish his pants were clean !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chard resevoir revisited

trying to work out how long it has been since dean and me last fished on the rese , and as far as we can remember it is probably 8 or 9 years since our last visit, and it showed!!!!!!!!!!!
it was good to see a lot of the old stagers were still about and the matches were still being run by the legend that is les braunton. there were to be 7 pegs on the dam wall and 16 around the side in the tree,s (fliers). where did i draw, end peg on the dam and as far as it was possible to be from the tree,s. a quick chat with les who told me there was a 42 lb of roach off the peg earlier in the series, but he didnt tell me that the wind was blowing onto the dam and there was more colour in the water. today the wind was north east and the water was as flat as a witches tit for 60 mtrs, so i decided that bream and skimmers might not go(wrong) so i decided on a roach and pole attack with some chopped worm and caster, the locals told me not to put worm in as the eels like it, i didnt see that as a problem as they average 12 oz to a pound. but plumbing up i thought i could be in trouble as it was only 2 1/2 ft at 7 mtr and only 6 ft at 14. on les,s shout i put 1 ball of g/bait at 7 mtr and 4 balls at 14 mtr. starting at 7 mtr and loose feeding caster , i new i was in trouble when i only had 2 roach in the first 30 mins whilst others down the bank with slightly more water were getting bites and roach steadily and just to upset me even more, steve chant on the next peg had had a bream and 2 skimmers(i didnt think they would feed). out to 14 mtr and to be fair i could get a bite every put in with small roach but i was going nowhere . and with steve nextdoor getting odd bream and skimmers after 2 1/2 hours i decided to set up the feeder, now i had the rod with me but the reel was back in the van so i ha dto go and get it , on the way back i also had to scrounge a feeder off steve cos i never had one with me.
quickly setting it up i put 5 quick feeder fulls out on the same line as steve then tied on a size 14 hook for triple maggot which is what steve was catching on , and guess what i couldnt get a bite , i tried maggot ,caster, worm and corn and varios cocktails. i had 1 eel, 1 roach and 2 skimmers, the odd thing was is that for the last hour my peg was a mass of fizz where my feeder was landing but i couldnt get a sign of a bite, and to make matters worse steve kept getting odd fish right to the end and he had no fizz. the match was won up in the tree,s on peg43 by dave steward with 52.8 on white choccy boilie , his travelling partner chris whitfield was second fishing the same way with a boilie on the feeder with 52.3 they both had 11 bream
mike hosgood was third on peg 36 with 47.8
steve chant 39.13(next to me)
and back up weights of 38, 37 , 36 an so on till you came to me , who was probably last with about 6 lb. i would like to think that i did something wrong but i dont think i did , i,m just shit and that was the first bream/ skimmer fishing i have done with a feeder since the last time i was at chard so i will be going back to have another go in the not to distant future, and to be fair the chard boys werent to harsh on me(much). ithink thats 2 matches on the trot now i have been lastish i cant even liken my self to glen bailey any more cos even he has started to catch again. it was good to see bela in the cafe bright and early this morning , he reckoned he had to get out before claire woke up just in case she found some decorating that needed doing lol.
and even dean had 36 lb and he was beaten and out cast by mike hosgood off the next peg. at least i was only beaten on 1 side !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

news on the one

good news fabio has let the budgie out . it only took the poor little thing an hour and a quarter to pluck up the courage to come out of the cage , and then she could only fly down onto the floor, where fabsy had to unhook it cos her claws got stuck in the carpet. fabio is promising to let her out every day now so she can build her strenth up . so the campaign worked lol

trade match at avalon

every year a couple of the reps from the southwest organise a match for tackle dealers agents and anyone else associated with the trade. so today i took along the avon angling night watchman aka fabio(well i got to make sure i win at least one pound). breakfast was booked in the kings arms pub in catcott and it wasnt to bad a meal by pub standards, but i was still glad me and fabs stopped for a bacon buttie on the a38 in the lay bye that tim clark normally frequents. it was good to see people from as far afield as wales, devon , hants and oxford oh and of course bristol,
the draw was kind to me again for the second match running when i pulled peg 11, without a doubt one of the best and most consistent wag pegs on the venue, i had "but"from tredegar on 10 and nick from street on 12 with fabio on 13.
on the whistle i potted a quarter of a pot of 6,s at 14mtr and fired afew 8,s to the island, i got a bit of fizzing on the pole line , but apart feom 2 lost foulers it was a non starter, so after an hour it was onto the wag, but with no fish swirling or climbing the island it looked as if that was going to be bad as well. and i was right it took me an hour and 15 to get a bite , and an 8 pounder was in the net, i would like to say it was a bite a chuck to the end but no i couldnt get another bite, it was that bad i even went for a walk and sat behind chris derrick from fish and field who was getting a bite every put in fishing caster 2 foot deep, getting roach, rudd and skimmers with a bite every put in and he went on to win the silvers with 23.4 it was food for thought with the teams of 4 there sunday week.
the match was won by the joint fishery owner and top lead chucker vic bush with 76.10 on peg 30 fishing a pellet feeder with hair rigged pellet.
second was barry fitchew(black boris) with 56,7 on peg 6 on the conker. is it just me or does barry look like ian parsons long lost brother cos they got the same tan. i did ask them if iether of there dads had a push bike , barry said he wasnt sure but i cant print what ian said!!!!!!!
third was dave baker with 47.6 off the speci lake
and second in the silvers was the master snot basher himself , daniel ratcliffes body double, steve kedge with 21.10
and me oh yes it was the worst day i have ever had at the lake with just the one carp which went 7,14 to fabio,s which went 7.6 lol
and i nearly forgot to mention that as fabsy was sorting his kit out befor the start in the carpark , he was bent over with the usual mans cleavage showing, i just couldnt resist it and emptied the watery contents of my keepnet bag straight into it much to the amusment of ian parson and mat challenger(scotts new owner), and by the time i stopped laughing my pants were nearly as wet as his

shop bitz part 3

for those of you interested the whitehall one is a little green budgie, which fabio is scared of , he tried to tell me that he dont want it pooping on his carpet. i think it might be psycologiccaly damaged as he has had to watch fabio and fi fi playing strip spoof as its a gamee fi fi has just learnt. unfortunatley her grasp on the game is far more superior than that of fabio,s cos she bust his ass twice , poor bird having to be exposed to the buddha belly lol.
onto the teams of 4 that used to be sponsored by veals and the trade now the sponsorship has gone it appears to have lost its appeal slightly which is a pity , my own thouhgts on it are the payouts are a bit wrong as you could be second on the day and not get a penny also the team payout on the day i can only see a few teams benefitting from these payouts also the large section payouts might be better adjusted to pay out more or differently on the day with more overall payouts. i can understand what dave is saying when he says its a team match match so the emphasis is on doing well in your section ,but there a lot of anglers see it only as a decent size match so more payments down the line might go down well. and the staff more weekend in the present financial climate is going to be hard for some people to justify, so any money that can be won on the day would be greatly appreciated , so by dropping the daily team payout and reducing the ammounts on the sections more would be paid out. my self and many others dont want to see the league fail ,especially as we have got our digs sorted at stafford, but if anyone thinks the same as me perhaps now would be a good time to give dave a ring and discuss things , he is a good listener and will appreciate any input . i now how hard it is to organise thing and keep everyone happy so all constructive comments and help dave would only to glad of also any one wishing to enter a team should give dave a ring at veals monday to friday. its a good league encompassing good and varied venues from stafford moor to bullocks , avalon, landsend and viaduct, so give dodgy a call cos i know its a thankless dirty job but someone has to do it.

bullocks open

i havnt been to bullocks since april so it was quite a surprise to see how much all the greenery had grown . it really could do with a serious bit of pruning. talking to phil the owner he was telling me that he is getting a landscape gardener to work at clearing it up doing it one day a week !!!!!!!!!!!!!
no surprise with the draw, i ende up on 24 which is without doubt one of the best pegs on there, and with dean malin drawing 17 which is the other best peg on the venue.
aquick chat with ray cooper who informed me that he had fished the peg the day before and had caught about 80 lb in 3 hours at 6 mtr and on his top set down to his right, ithought the latter might be a non starter as i had stu foale behind me on peg 1 but time would tell, so i set up a 4x12 rig for the right hand margin a 4x10 rig for tight in down the left , a 4x12 for about 9 mtr and a 4x10 rig for by the island to fish hair rigged 6 and 8 hard pellet.
on the whistle i cupped some caster down to the left , some softened 3mm at 9mtr and 1/4 cup of 4,s on the island. starting at 9 mtr on soft pellet it didnt take long to put a fantail in the net, shortly followed by another but i was missing a few bites, opposite on 17 dean had opted for the usual groundbait approach and was getting more bites than me which left me wishing that i hadnt put pellet in on this line, it did help when i started fishing corn over the pellet , the bites were a lot more possitive, and talking to dean after he found the same. unfortunately i over cooked it on this line, i just cant keep my hand out of the bait tub sometimes even when i know its wrong. i some times wish i could be more like mike nicholls on days like this cos he is good at light feeding(bollocks to that he is just tight). so now i had done that line in a quick look down the edge was in order , down to the right not a twitch and it was the same story down to the left.
all the time i had been firing 4,s over to the island and there were a few bubbles so it was no surprise when a small carp(2lb)took the bait , and to be honest apart from a couple of quick looks down the margins left and right , no bites to the right(no surprise)and 2 badly beaten up rigs to my left, those fish are to quick and its to snaggy where the live, i spent the rest of the match out
by the island fishing 6 and 8 mm hard pellet and feeding 4,s with a catapult. its a shame you fish the islands properly as there is so much foliage hanging over the water, so you end up about 2 foot of and you just know that the fish are creeping round the island . the sooner phil gets the gardener in the better.
on the whistle the only pesron that i thought might beat me that i could see was dean who was admitting to 10lb of silvers and 45 lb of carp, i was admitting to 60 lb total so i was even more convinced that he had done it.
following the scales round the best weight by the time we got to dean was paul faires on peg 6 with38 lb
deans silvers went 17.2 and his carp went46.3 totalling 63.5 giving him the silvers and first on the day
i was 2 nd with 61.13(one fish off the one that bust me between my nets would have done it)
3 rd tom thick 53.14peg 27
4th nick collins 39.2 peg 26
5th paul faires 38 peg 6
6th dave evans 34 peg19
a couple of larry let downs today trigger got drunk and didnt show, i am glad now that i put a handfull of maggots in his football kit bag and mark leader who just didnt show. we were only one short on the day cos martin lenaghan was in the cafe looking for somewhere to go so he took triggers place , it would be nice if people would phone and let you know if they cant make it.
it wouldnt be right if i didnt mention fabio , since being given a budgie 3 weeks ago , he hasnt let it out for a fly so i am starting a campaign to FREE THE WHITEHALL ONE. she needs her excercise fi fi will have to put up with the flapping.

bitz from the shop part 2

a quick plea to fi fi from fabio sorry not a plea but he is to scared to ask why cant he keep his tackle in your cupboard out the back cos he dont seem to be up to carrying his kit up the stairs to the flat his age must be catching up.lol. wait till the gimp see,s it all out the back he will go mad ha ha i love it, nothing to do with the shop but judith was talking to our slightly potty (blonde) daughter the other day and the channel tunnel came up in conversation , lauren said she wouldnt mind going through it judith asked her why and she explained it would be good to see all the fish cos she thought ti was a glass tunnel, i dont know where she came from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it turns out that tim ford has won the caption competition in the pole fishing mag, seems he has won a years supply of sensas mullet 3000 should go down a bomb this weekend at newbridge. he hasnt told me yet what the caption says yet it better not be to bad as i can remember a lot more about ireland than he probably can.
anyway off to bullocks this weekend for the charlie barnes and tom thick match i cant wait to give tom a good moaning just like he does to everyone else

wet and windy landsend

18 fished today so mr duckett let us use match lake and half of speci. gary wall drew me peg 22 which i wasnt upset with, although its a bit of a snag pit on the end of island as the old netting from the hay bales floats around and grabs your hook as it passes!!!!!!!!!!!!
for company on 24 i had possibly the finest paste angler from bristol, tony wittcomb, so the quid bet was struck. i kept it simple today as it was to wet and windy to set to much up, one rig 4x12 with a 18 hook to .16 line to fish 13 mtr on the deck with a hair rigged 6mm and 1 rig 4x8 for over on the far shelf (wish i hadnt bothered cos it probably cost me come the end).
at the start i cupped in half a pot of 4mm split between 2 and 10 o,clock and started firing a few 6,s across. first put in at 2 o,clock the float hardly had time to settle before it dissapeared and number 1 was on its way to the net. also it wasnt long after that ,that tony on 24 was into his first fish. and thats how it went for the first 3 hour with me and tony virtually fish for fish, during the 4 th hour tony seemed to change tactics , he must have thought i said there was squirrel pool cos he spent the biggest part of the next hour doing his best to snag a few of the tree rats as he was getting quite adept at getting his rig up where they live.
i didnt mind though as it probably gave me a 10 fish lead over him. although i was still getting bites at 13 mtr i had a brain surge and went to the far side to see if i could catch any quicker, but after 1 roach and 3 foulhookers and a wasted 30 minutes so it was back to the 13 mtr line . but it wasnt the same (i should have ignored the far bank slurping)the last hour saw no carp for me and tony on 24 had 10 in that last hour so cancelling out my earlier lead. on the all out it was to close to call between us, it didnt look as though either of us were going to win as anton was admitting to 150 lb on the speci on peg 28. although tony and me had the same number of carp, his were of a slightly bigger stamp but i thought my silvers might just edge it, time would tell.
doing the weigh in it became apparent that it had fished well with nick collier and rod wooten both recording over 100 lb . i put 147 lb on the scales and tony was not to confident he thought he had about 125 lb but getting his nets out , it looked as if it was going to be close , and it was. with him beating me by 1 fish. the match was won by tony page with 166. 4 which included fish up to 17 lb peg 28. unable to catch on the paste as they had at the weekend, all his fish were caught 6 inches deep against the island on 6mm hard pellet(paste will soon be gone mr nicholls)
t wittcomb 151.3 peg 24
t rixon 147 peg 22
rod wootten 139 peg 15
nick collier 126.2 peg 5
m lenaghan 85.3 peg29
silvers nick collier 24.4 peg 5 on caster
so the quid went to mr wittcomb . i think that if i had ignored the far bank i would have probably beaten tony w , even though i had 21 lb of silvers for some reason the carp i had were of a slightly smaller size cos we had about the same number(shit i sound bitter and twisted lol)