landsend weds

i spoke to mike west on tuesday and he said the ice was only about 1 1/2 inches thick and easy to break so we decided to go to landsend aa it would be easy as the ice we have been breaking lately has been 3 to 4 inches and hard work, all i can say is that if you are lookling for a cheap building job give somerset carpenters a ring and speak to mike and hope he prices the job as he must underprice every job he looks at cos he certainly dont know what 1 1/2 inches is.
martin mcmahon drew for me and handed me 15 which is ok but i would have prefered a corner peg, but i wasnt moaning as i had a bush in the water to my right which can hold a few carp at this time of year as well as silvers.
it took me an hour to clear 6 mtrs to my right by the bush and 5 mtrs in front, we were due to start at 10 but put it back 15 mins as no one was ready, and i wasnt ready by then , i didnt start till 10.30 but only had to make 1 rig up and that was a 4x12 with a 20 6313 on .10. one rig for both areas as it was only 4 inches difference between the two lines.
i cupped some maggots and casters on both lines and started straight out at 5 mtrs,
after 4 mins the float went sideways and under but all i hit was fresh air(liner), so after an hour spent here it was down by the tree and first put in on single caster produced a 4oz perch but with the water being so clear the fish seem to spook very easily as you cant get 2 bites on the trot, you seem to have to feed it leave it and go somewhere else in the swim for 10 mins then go back over it if you were lucky you would get a bite quickly but most of the time it was a case of waiting and lifting and dropping the bait all over the swim till you got a bite, certainly not manic, but at least we are out there doing it. by the end i had 8 perch and 1 roach for what i thought was going to go about 4 1/2 lb so first or second in the silvers was looking good as rod wootten on 7 had been catching small perch all day up his margin, and with the soutwests very own self proclaimed silver ace(mat tomes)on peg 5 struggling(anothyer flyer he,s ballsed up)a pick up was on the cards, always welcome on days like this.
the match was won by martin mcmahon on 21 with 3 carp for 18.13, he was blanking till about 2 hours from the end when he saw a carp top in some clear towards the island, so he got the breaker back out and cleared a channel to the island and had 3 carp in the last 90 mins
2nd went to alan oram who has been having a good run at this ice fishing with 6.12 on peg 24
jt 3rd paul elmes on 19 and me on 15 with 5.7
5th rod wootten with 5.6 peg 7
6th mike west 2.12 peg 13
top silvers went my way with rod 1oz behind for 2nd in silvers

still chilly chilton

i had 17 booked in today but with rich coles not showing as he is to old and his side kick paul locke out with man flu there were only 15 of us huddled in the car park by woodlands lake, and by the time 6 of those decided that they werent up to some serious ice breaking we were left with 9, so on with the draw and we only used the far bank as the ice was only 3 1/2 inches thick, luckily andy hembrow had taken the 5 ton digger round the day before and broke all the pegs to about 3 mtrs so fairplay to him, also brian shanks knocked us up some more ice breakers that weigh 10lb but they still took 2 or 3 chucks to make a hole but once through they sawed well, but it still took 40 mins to clear to 6 mtrs. i was drawn on peg 11 which is a good draw, that good that even mat(lightweight)tomes managed to win off it last time we were here, he weighed 24lb but i think it will need less today,
by the time we started most people had managed to clear to 6 mtrs which should be enough as this is a deep venue with most people having 7 to 8 foot at 6 mtrs. the rig today was the same as last time ,a 1 grm affair with a 20 6313 on .10 .
at the start i cupped in 6 mags and 20 soaked micro,s, it took me 10 mins to get my first bite and that was a small roach, a ferw minutes later and i had a 5oz skimmer and for the next 90 mins i had a few more small roach and to be honest i was doing ok as by this time the only other person with fish was andy hembrow on 14, and that was only a small roach. on the 2 hour mark i had a bit of a scare as mike west on 9 hooked a carp down his margin luckily after a short tussle it came off, but i didnt laugh(like fxxx), and that was really the end of my match as i only had 3 more small roach during the last half, so i had to wait it out and watch everone else get some small roach towards the end with alan oram on 15 seemingly doing the best towards the end catching over a ball of g bait he fed towards the end. my plan of feeding a couple of maggots and micro,s after each fish worked to a fashion but with such limited space to fish in you dont get many options when things stop happening. mike west gave me another scare 5 mins from the end when he hooked another fish down the edge which turned out to be a good roach of well over a pound so he still might beat me with one fish as i thought i only had about 1lb 6oz but in the end i just scraped it with a hard won 1lb 12oz
2nd went to alan oram with his late burst which went 1lb 8oz
3rd mike(1 roach)west 1lb 5oz
4th phil(fabsy)harding 13oz
5th mark(bunt)broomsgrove 8oz
6th mike chapman 6oz
a couple of thanks, one to andy hembrow for breaking some pegs even though he nearly ended up in the lake when peg 30 collapsed and he nearly went in with the digger (clean pants please). misha for the coffee,s and warm sausage rolls and mike west for doing an absolutely brilliant job of cleaning my peg of ice, cheers mate.
so there ended a really difficult day, but there is a thaw now for a few days at least so hopefully the lakes will lose there hard hats

oh no

with no chance of getting to landsend fishery due to the fact all the roads are like ice rinks, we had a change and went to viaduct instead, the roads getting into the fishery were ok but the fishery carpark was a tad dodgy, luckily paul had broken out the swims on tuesday so the worst ice would only be about an inch tops , so not to bad to re open . if i had a choice i would favour an early peg 111 or 112 or the swims iether side of the spit, but no i pull 123 which can be a good peg as its a corner peg ,so you never know. i eventuelly got to the swim and i have also disvovered that the preston shuttle is no good in snow as well as mud and rough ground, they seem ok as long as you are pushing them on tarmac, anyway i got to the swim set up one rig which was a 4x16 affair with a 20 6313 on .10, at the start i cupped in one ball of g bait at 11mtrs which was as far as you could clear and fed a few casters at 6mtrs, i,m not going to bore you with the details but i gave it my best for 4 hours and 40 mins but i never had a bite, with no quality fish showing all the weights came from the early pegs with alan oram on 129 winning with 5.4 of small roach over g bait at 12 mtrs
2nd colin dyer on 128 with 5.3
jt third jason radford on 112 and john bradford on 115 both with 2.01
5th phil harding 1.7 peg 111
not really a day to remember,. but theres always next week, also not a good first day out with my new pole, i think it must be broke.
and i forget to say that days like that remind me of winter days on the river lol

chilly chilton

a quick call to sue on tuesday to see how thick the top coat was, she told me it was about an inch thick tops , so it was game on for weds. as expected it wasnt going to be busy as there was only 11 booked and with leyton(sicknote)palmer not showing(i hope he aint ill. we decided to stop at hilltop cafe for a liver brekkie. i know now why i dont go there any more, the breakfast was dear and crap and the staff hadnt cheered up so it will be a while again till i visit it . a quick walk round with the breakers(of which we lost a couple)broke out 10 swims to 4 or 5 mtrs with the far bank ice only being half an inch i would have liked a draw on that side, but no i let plip plop draw for me and he handed me 31 which is just over the bridge and to the left. i had alan(stalker)oram on my left and bridgwater,s very own 2012 powerlifting hope none other than the mighty steve kedge on my right. at the start i cupped in 1 ball of dark g bait on the right hand side of my ice channel and a few casters and maggots on the left. i had a 1grm rig with an 18 6313 on .10. i put on a single red and went over the g bait but never had a bite , and to be honest i only had a few small roach over it all day, so i think the g bait was like the kiss of death today, i pulled the rig over the caster line and on the 30 minute mark i had my first bite which resulted in a 3lb common being safely netted, by now the gimp and the shrimp had both had a carp each plus some small silvers. it was turning into a lake of 2 halves as i had pete sivell opposite me and all we could catch were small roach and rudd with the occasional small skimmer , while the anglers to my right and pete,s left were getting some better silvers and odd carp with both the gimp and the shrimp ending up with 4 carp each but the shrimp was always going to win as he was getting some skimmers and a bonus 3lb bream, mat tomes did spend a lot of time on the phone today so i can only assume he was on a pole fishing helpline and that the expert on the other end was telling him what to do and it must have been good advice as he managed a comfortable win on a hard day with 24.13 which also included the top silvers weight on the day of 9.10 all taken on maggot over micro,s on peg 11
2nd went the way of john (the gimp)bradford on 14 with 17.3
3rd steve kedge 12.14 peg 29
4th tony rixon 10.8 peg 31
5th nick(plip plop)davidson 6.3 peg 17
6th pete sivell 5.14 peg 9

landend xmas match

with all the lakes having ice on them it was going to be another grueller, there were 36 booked in so we had 12 on the first three lakes. for an easy day i would have liked to have been on match or speci as there had been a couple of matches on these lakes in the last coupl.e of weeks so the ice had been broken several times, but no i was nearly last to draw as i was doing the super pool and most of my time had been taken up trying to get a tenner out of gary(stud muffin)cross,es which is no mean feat as he reckons he needs all his money to pay for his school uniform, so what do i get, peg 51 on lake 3(johns water). not a bad peg as its got a small bush in the water on the isl;and which can hold a few fish ,also it produces some fish down the edge in warmer times, on friday fabio, tim clark and pete sivell had gone there and tried to crack some pegs out but had only managed to go about a metre as the ice was 5 inches thick but as we had had a bit of a thaw i was glad to find it was now only 3 inches thick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so 90 minutes later ,one blister and 10 mtrs of clear water in front of me ,i had 5 minutes to make up one rig which was a 4x12 with an 18 6313 on .10. on the whistle i cupped in some casters with a couple of mags mixed in then plumbed up , it took me 2 hours and 5 minutes to get my first bite which was a small roach and that fell off, 10 mins later and i managed to put half an ounce of wriggling fury in the net in the shape of a roachlet(i,m glad i didnt chuck them all in the ditch last summer)by now as expected the anglers on the early pegs had been getting odd fish probably helped by the fact that the ice was only one inch thick and they have got a bit more depth also russ peck had manged to break 4 inches to get up his left margin and was being rewarded with small roach reasonable perch and a couple of carp so fairpl;ay to him but at one stage there were 5 people breaking his ice, he must have had somthing on them.
opposite was adrian clark who was foulhooking roach and crucians like it was going out of fashion, he also lost a carp aswell as landing 3 small ones, it must have been solid(sorry adrian it had to be said)i also had a pound with paul elmes at the next peg and it may have been close if he hadnt snared a 3lb bream an hour from the end
the match was won by gary cross on 24 with 30.05 6 carp caught up the edge on maggot
after winning the super pool he can probably afford a box of jelly baby,s to go with the school uniform
2nd was nick duckett on peg 1 with 18.15
3rd russ peck 17.11 peg 55 which included the top silvers with 10.01 of small roach with a few quality perch
4th dean(i bet you cant chuck the breaker on the island)malin 13.7 peg 31(and yes he did)
5th kev molten 12.12 peg42
6th roger crago 12.2 peg 57
well done mike for a well run match once again which is made all the more enjoyable as the people dont take it to seriously and have a good laugh, also the food asfter is also tops so big thanks to di and dawn
shame the weather is playing such as big part in the fishing as its getting everyone down and the fish certainly dont like it.
hopefully off to chilton trinity weds ice permitting, but even i am having a day off next sunday

landend weds

with daytime air temps of between -3c to plus 1c and a water temp of .5c (temps taken by chris fox)which is probably the coldest water i have fished in to my knowledge, it was never going to be easy. the pegs that had been broken out at the weekend had re frozen to over an inch ,and the pegs or parts that hadnt been broken were now nearly 3 inches thick, even dean who was throwing a 30lb breaker about was struggling (the gimp tried to throw but he had trouble just picking it up)and jason radford is probably the worst breaker thrower i have ever seen, he was obviouisly missing his mum to do it for him. i wont slag him off to much as he drew peg 5 for me which is a nice peg , only 13 mtrs to the island, sham,e was i couldnt break the ice past 6mtrs as this is as far as it had been broken in the 2 previous matches, beyond that it was to thick for the normal 8 pounder and i certainly wasnt going to attempt the 30lb big boy. i did manage to break 2 mtrs to my left, even that was 3 inches thick so i had to hurl it over my head just to chip away at it.
one rig again today, a 4x14 with an 18 6313 on .10. at the start i cupped in a few casters at 6 mtrs each side of the gap at 6mtrs and began feeding a couple of maggots to my left every few minutes, i had my first bite after 10 mins and that was a 3oz hybrid on the left hand side of the gap, then a few minutes later i lost a small roach, i went to the right ang had a 6oz perch, then nothing for the next hour, so i switched from feeding caster to maggots on the 6 mtr line and went down the edge on single maggot and i had a bite straight away which resulted in another perch, so i spent the rest of the match between the 6 mtr line and the left hand margin, the margin would produce a small perch or two then i would go out to 6 mtrs where i would sometimes get a bite and sometimes not the inside line was the most productive but due to the clarity of the water you really struggled to string more than a couple of bites together but what i could hear of the bankside chat ,it was fishing as hard as expected so i stuck to the perch ending up wit about 18 but mainly on the small side, but it was enough as they went 5.12 for first
2nd was mat(tyrone)(shrimp head)(harry hill)tomes with 3.12 peg 7
3rd alan oram 2.13 peg 20
4th john bradford 1.10 peg 1
5th chris fox 12 oz peg 3
the rest dnw
mike has got his xmas match this sunday ,and it is going ahead as there is a slight thaw forcast, but if you do go pl;ease make sure you take an ice breaking implement just in case, dont go moaning about ice when you have been warned, also only book in if you are definately going as mike has to go out and buy food and prizes and its a pain in the ass when people let you down, but with a brief mild spell forecast it should be ok

landsend sunday

a couple of no shows today which is beginning to annoy me now as they dont even have the decency to txt or phone to let you know they aint coming, even though they ask you to take a bit of bait.
back to the draw and i ended up with 21 on the match lake, a good draw for carp when the water hasnt got a hard layer on top ,which was still an inch thick, 30 mins with the breaker and i managed to clear a channel to 12 mtrs, that would have to be good enough as i couldnt be bothered(more like not capable)to go any further. i had a quick walk up the bank to see if anyone needed the breaker but only clint wojtyla (who looks as though he has come from the same gene pool as wagbo)needed help so i spent 10 mins with him then wandered back to my peg, only to find cat ice forming over the cleared part, and it kept forming all day so i had to keep clearing it with the cupping kit during the day. due to the cat ice i decided to use a 4x16 rig which is a bit heavier than normal but i thought it would help getting through the ice, and it had the usual 18 6313 on .10. just a case of one rig does all today, at the start i cupped in a few casters at the left and right of my channel, going in with single caster on the left i had a bite first drop and felt a bit of resistance halfway up so it was probably a liner, then i had a bite on 30 mins which ended up with me shaking a small roach of on the way back and that was the last bite i had on caster even the lifting and dropping that had been working before was not working , so i settled on double maggot and just sit and wait(like legering), so i did manage 2 carp ,1 roach and a perch by the end, i did pull out of another carp as well as 2 more perch and what felt like a chub and that was my lot . i am beginning to question my sanity with this winter fishing i dont mind the cold but i am getting a bit narked off with this ice fishing especially with the ice forming around your float as you fish, i hope the weather breaks a bit before next week as mike has got his xmas match on next sunday hopefully, he is going to make a decision on wednesday as to whether its going to be on or not.
todays match was won by paul elmes on peg 25 with 24lb which was 2 carp and 5 1/2 lb of silvers which was top silvers on the day as well and it was a golden peg worth an extra 100 quid to go with his 60 quid for the day
2nd went to ray cooper on 28 with one carp for 15lb
3rd dean malin 9.8 peg 1
4th tony rixon 8.13 peg 21
5th john bradford 4.4 peg 7
6th mike chapman 3.8 peg 13
i,m off boat fishing out of poole on weds with dean and the park furnishers lads hopefully for some cod but i,m not holding my breath we will have to wait and see

not a bloody gain

we were met with an inch of ice at landsend today but with only 8 of us proper (not river softies)anglers in attendance a quick bash round with the breakers started the swims off so it shouldnt be to hard once we had drawn. i had the last ticket left today and ended up with 13 which is another corner peg so at least it would be easy to clean. then i got into the back off the van to retrieve a snow boot and as i turned i tweaked my back, this is the first proper bad back i have ever had , and i dont want it no more , it is even taking my breath away putting my boots on, hopefully a night in a warm house will help.
back to the swim and luckily john (the gimp)bradford had kindly broken most of the peg out and dean finished it off, all i had to do was push the ice bergs out of the way, the swim was really a mirror image of 24 which i drew last time so i set up the same 4x14 rig with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish the bottom of the shelf to my left at 11 and 13 mtrs with caster feed and single caster on the hook. i wont bore you with to many details as the match went the same way as the last one, with me getting a few at 11 mtrs then the bulk at 13 mtrs, i ended up with 16 perch in the net but i had a bad day losing them as i lost as many as i had, also i lost 3 carp but i am sure they were all fouled as the hook pulled on each one.
it was an uncomfortable day as i had the wind in my face, and with a wind chill of minus 8 everything kept freezing up, but due to the wind i had no cat ice forming and with my new battery operated boot warmers and furry hat iether end was as warm as toast, all i got to do now is keep the middle bit warm then the jobs a good un.
the match was won by phil(fabio)harding with 11.1 on peg 16 which was 2 carp and 5 perch down his margin by the tree in the water
2nd t rixon 10.6 peg 13
3rd dean malin 7.5 peg 5
4th john bradford 4.12
the other 4 never weighed although they did catch a few
roll on sunday when we will do it all again MINT

here we go again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

off to landsend today for a silvers match which would probably been ok if the top
10mm hadnt gone hard overnight, so it was out with the breakers for the first time this winter and i,ve got a feeling it is not going to be the last time as the forecast is rubbish with various forecasters predicting icey weather for anything between 2 weeks and 3 months(mint). with adrian clark not fishing today there was a spare corner peg going begging which was good as martin lenaghan pulled me peg 24, which is good as it means you can get along the end bank and clear the ice properly whicxh i duly did to about 14 mtrs, i didnt intend to go as far as 14 mtrs as there is an overhanging tree there which holds carp so the intention was to fish 11 and 13 mtrs with caster over caster. so i set up a 4x14 rig with an 18 6313 on .10.
at the start i cupped in about 10 casters on each line then started at 11, and no one was as suprised as me when the float buried after 5 mins but all i connected with was a big bit of fresh air, i had 5 bites in the first 45 mins but didnt connect with any thing, then i had a 8oz perch(yay)its amazing how a fish manages to warm you up. i had 5 more perch and lost a carp before that line died, so 2 hours in i was moving out to 13 mtrs and thats where i stayed for the rest of the match, ending up with 15 perch 1 carp duly returned lost 4 more carp and 2 perch fell off, partly due to the elastic being unable to come out as it was frozen in the pole, don sutherland opposite me on peg 1 hooked 11 carp landed 4 and had 5 perch.
i thought i had enough to be top on the match lake but out of the 4 on the carpark bank of speci 3 had blanked and dean malin on 40 had 6 chub to 2lb and as it turned out he did enough to win with his 6 fish going 8lb 14
2nd was me with 8.11
3rd john bradford 5.11 peg 19
4th chris fox 5.2 peg 11
5th martin lenaghan 4.2 peg 3
6th martin pettiffer 1.12 peg 15
that was hard but then again i think most lakes were hard today, even viaduct was only won with with 6lb odd on the carps silver match on cambell and cary.
and the psv boys on spring drew a total blank, its down to the sudden drop[ in temps, it must be a right shock to the fish aswell as us.
it was hard on the river today as the "PROPER" anglers voted for a shorter match as it was cold, oh dear never mind what a shame, isnt it why they call it a winter, doh league

more antics at acorn

with the colour dropping out of the water due to the cold weather i thought it may be hard today, but i wasnt to dissapointed with the draw as i ended up on peg 3 which is permanent peg 4 and as most who know the lake will recognise as possibly the best peg as its wide but with nick plip plop davidson opposite at 11 o,clock angle it would cut down my chances of catching straight in front so i set up a 4x12 on .12 with a 16 6313 to fish at 12 and one in 4 ft of water and a 4x12 with the same hook and line for down the edge to my right in 3 ft of water at 4.5 and 6 mtrs. all i had for bait today was 1 pint of red and white maggots aas there are no rubbish fish to worry about, for company i had the hartcliffe escapee who now lives at the posh end of stockwood, known as the cootes on the next peg, (mat genghis tomes)who was brimming with confidence and explained to me that he was going to beat me into oblivian, so it probably aint worth mentioning the 2 carp and 1 perch he managed to snare in 5 1/2 hours .i,ve just had a txt at 8.40 pm from mat to inform me that he only had 1 carp, no margin even though there was an empty peg between me and him and no far bank as plip plop was opposite, hmm he sounds bitter.
at the start i cupped about 10 mags on each line i intended to fish and went straight out at 11mtrs in front, first drop in and i had a perch , then i never had another indication for 40 mins then i missed what must have been a liner, a look at the 1 o,clock line produced 1 carp then no bites, i kept feeding about 10 mags on each line every 15 to 20 mins but after 2 hours i still hadnt had another fish, i did get occasional tiny movements on the float but i think it was just fish mooching about and not feeding cos the water was very clear, time for the margin, first drop in at 4.5 mtrs and i bumped one next drop and i got one then nothing so i fed again and went back out at 11mtrs nothing at 12 but i did get one at 1 o.clock, going back down the edge i had 2 more so i fed again and went out in front, not that i was expecting to catch there as i thought the fish would prefer the cover of the margins due to the clarity of the water, by nicking an odd fish from the margins then resting it i kept getting an odd fish right to the end and ending up with 15 carp and 1 perch, by the sound of things the person to beat would be martin lenaghan on peg 9 who was admitting to about 20 carp, the scales would tell, i couldnt lay my hands on any pound shillings and pence scales today so we had to go metric which i must admit to likeing as its easier to add up which is a real bonus when jason radford is helping as he thinks there is only 14 oz,s in a pound, luckily for me my fish were of a better stamp than martins as my net went 23kg 5oo grm for first on the day and my first win on the venue
2nd martin lenaghan 17 400 peg 9(14)
3rd dean malin 15 400 peg 5(7)
4th pete sivell 13 900 peg 10(15)
5th andy france 9 800 peg 12(17)
6th nick davidson 9 4oo peg 1(1)
no silvers today as they seem to have done a dissapearing act. there arent to many venues where the owners deliver a cup of tea to your peg foc are there, most welcome on a cold day.
anyone interested there is a silvers mastch at landsend this sunday, book in with me at the shop on 01179517250 or with mike at the fishery on 07977545882 draw at 9 fish 10 till 3.30

teams of 4 rnd 6 the end yay viaduct

well thats over and done with , and by and large it ran quite smoothly with no real gripes or problems. i cant see any reason as to why it shouldnt be a goer next year ,so teams interested please get in touch asap.
back to today and the team draw saw me wandering up to peg 81 on cary, which is next to the spit, go back 3 or 4 years and it was a peg you would run to, but now it has turned into a kiss of death peg and only 6lb had come off it the day befor, and to make matters worse i had to sit and look at mike nicholls and des shipp on 85 asnd 86, 2 of the best cold water carp pegs on the lake(i may get more bitter and twisted yet). so i set up a 4x12 rig with .10 and an 18 for the spit margin and a 4x16 same line and hook to fish over g bait straight out, and a wag to fish beyond the end of the spit with corn.
at the start i cupped in 6 balls of g bait at 16 mtrs, some casters down the edge at 16 mtrs and tried to fire some corn to the end of the spit, but as usual it goes all over the place. i began on the wag but never had a bite on corn i gave that nearly an hour before switching to the pole over g bait, i had 2 reasonable skimmers on caster but that was it with caster hookbait, i put maggot on but that just probuced small(20 to the pound roach)most of which i chucked up the bank behind me(lol i hate shit fish). i went down the edge and had a good perch straight away, so i refed with a few casters and went back out on the wag after changing to a lighter hook and line but that only brought me a ruffe(urgh) and some more small roach so spent the rest of the match fishing down the edge, i ended up with 4 good perch 3 skimmers and a spattering of bits(ok so i never threw them up the bank)for 11lb and 7 points. the match was won by des shipp on 86 with 70.4 of carp caught mainly on treble maggot 12 to 18 inches off the deck
2nd niel mercer 62.1 peg 8 on spring(he even manages to get other people to draw fliers for him
3rd john howells 59.10peg 18 spring
4th ryan shipp 42.8 peg 15 spring
5th dean(i,ve only got 4 5 pounders) 40.7 peg 78 cary
6th mike nicholls 28.10 peg 85
silvers wernt to paul elmes on 24 spring with 21.8 of skimmers
teams on the day .i,m doing it reverse order as its the only chance tims tarts will ever be on top.
11th and with record low points 9.5 TIMS TARTS
10th charlies angels 16
9th thyers 17
8th avon angling(not so) select 20
7th g b electrical 21
7th keyford 21
5th avon angling 24
4th dynamite baits 30
3rd mats maulers 30.5 (they could have been a contender if mat had stayed away more)
2nd philtone printers 37
1st westerliegh 38
END OF LEAGUE RESULT
1st westerliegh 61.5 £540
2nd philtone printers 51 £440
3rd dynamite baits 46.5 £340
4th gb electrical 40
5th keyford 37.5
6th avon angling 34.5
7th mats maulers 32.5
8th thyers 32
9th charlies angels 22.5
10th tims tarts 20.5
11th avon angling(they must change there name)select 16.5
well done westerliegh and a big thanks to dean for the help in running the league and to all those taking part as its been an enjoyable and relaxed series with no whingers and moaners MINT that is of course until you aint at your peg to weigh your fish innit dean

wedneaday landsend open

17 booked in today so the match was split between the match and speci lake, i let the gimp draw for me as he always seems to draw a carp peg, if i had to choose i would have picked 31, 32 or 33 at the left hand end of the speci lake ,but no he gave peg 17 on the far side of the match lake, not a bad swim and at least the wind and rain was coming from behind, trouble with this time of yaer the lake tends to go a bit clear possibly due to the ammount of leaves falling into the lake and rotting and the 3 frosts we have had wouldnt have helped either. as it was so clear i decided on an out and out caster day, so i set up a 4x12 rig with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish 3 and 8 mtrs, another 4x12 also with an 18 6313 on .12 fo 14 mtrs and a 4x10 rig with a 16 on .12 for against the island just in case.
at the start i cupped in casters at 8, 14 and against the island and began feeding at 3 mtrs in the style of mike nicholls , which usually entails picking up 8 casters to throw in , having second thoughts, putting 5 back in the box and throwing 3 in.
stating at 8 mtrs i started catching small roach straight away, i must admit that i thought i may have made a mistake as martin lenaghan had 2 carp in the first 30 mins on corn. i came in to the 3 mtr line and had some more roach and some good perch, i even came in to 2 mtrs and had a 2lb perch plus some smaller ones but i think the water is to clear for them to stay there, i did get a few roach at 14 mtrs and up against the island , but the most productive place was the 8 mtr line, by kindering a few casters in every couple of fish i had bites there for most of the match, mainly roach but a fair smattering of decent perch showed plus i had 1 chub and a good ide, i thought i had about 16lb which i wasnt to upset about as the match lake had fished very hard with kev molten doing the best with 7 carp on peg 24, and martin next door only ending up with 4 carp so i had a good day as i had bites all day
the match was won by chris davis on 31 with 48.4 on corn against the island
2nd was adrian(in a corner again)clarke with 35.14 PEG 32
3rd kev molten 30.02
4th alvin jones 29 lb p[eg 33
5th martin lenaghan 26.5 peg 19
6th tim ford 25.12 all silvers peg 35 mainly chub on caster against the island (i,ll be glad when he goes back to work)
and 2nd in the silvers was me with 23lb

landsend leader board

1st adrian clarke 2pts 139.01 lb
2nd nick duckett 3pts 90.14
3rd mark poppleton 3pts 86.6
4th tony rixon 4pts 85lb
5th steve seager 4pts 74.07
6th nick collier 4pts 70.05
7th ron crandon 5pts 51.12
8th martin pettifer 5pts 48.09
SILVERS
1st bob gullick 2pts 29.12
2nd tony page 3pts 30.13
3rd nick collier 3pts 28.07
4th craig edmunds 4pts 32.07
5th martin pettifer 4pts 22.06
6th clint wojtyla 5pts 19.12
7th nick merry 5pts 15.13
8th james withers 5pts 11.12
9th dave hodgson 5pts 10.12

landsend individual lge rnd 2

i was on john,s water today(lake 3)so i let andy france draw for me and he handed me 45(bugger). we normally only have 13 on each lake but with 40 fishing i needed to put an extra peg in a section so i thought it would cause less grief if it was in my section, any way 45 aint in on a 13 peg section and 46 had been doing well when with it out ,so it would be interesting to see how it would be today. i had jamie(monkey boy)brown fof company on 46 and venue ace dave(beany)westcott on 42, so that gave me a big magin to my right and after a quick chat with rod wootten he thought i would be in for a few out of the margin, so i set up a 4x8 rig for banded 6mm for that line. a 4x12 pellet rig for the island at 13 mtrs and 16 to my right and a 4x14 caster rig for 10 mtrs.
at the start i cupped some casters at 10 mtrs and began firing 4mm,s to the island in both spots and down the edge at 10 mtrs to the empty swim, it took 10 mins to get a bite on caster and that turned out to be a small roach,. by this time jamie(kong boy)had managed to snare a trailing carp rig in a 4pounder so he was in the lead for the quid but that was the end of his action for the day apart from a few small roach and a lost fouler(and he sloped off with my quid). an hour in and there was some movement down the edge, but as i had had a couple carp on the caster line it was another 30 mins before i went down there, i had a bite straight away but i was attached to a root so i spooked the fish that was there, so i refed and went back on the caster line, i had 1 more carp on that but there were signs down the edge again so i went down there again but couldnt get a bite, so i switched to feeding caster down the edge. i had a look on the pellet lines but only had 1 bite on that which resulted in a 8oz carp, i fed some more casters against the island and went back down the edge on double caster and had one staight away, i fired a few more casters in and had another 10 mins later, i then shallowed my caster rig up and pushed it to the far bank over the casters i had cupped in earlier and had a carp, so i fed again and went back to the margin and had another carp so i fed that again and went back to the island and hooked a 10lb plus fish which i played on the roach gear for about 10 mins in which time i had touched it a coupl;e of times with the net but it came off, and you know when it happens that it will probably cost you, i had 1 more down the edge and that was my lot for the day ending up with 8 carp and a few bits. as this series is decided on section points you need to be first or second in section, but mike west on 41 had a good run late on using meat to the aerater, and wagbo,s non identical twin clint wojtyla on 55 had some fish and thats how the section finished with mike having 44lb ,clint had 34 and i had 32 and as i will miss the last match as i,m on holiday that lost fishj may cost me dear.
first on the day was landsend very own corner specialist adrian clark on 70(john,s)with 73.13 on corn and pellet to the end bank margin
2nd was martin lenaghan(reserve)with 67.10 on peg33
3rd niel(never seen a bad peg)mercer on 68 with 50.01
4th pete sivell(reserve)46.12 peg 21
5th mike west 44lb peg 41
6th alan(stalker)oram 38.11 peg 1
silver went to craig(the maggot rustler) edmunds 20.01 on peg 7 using jamie browns maggot over caster
a full list of the overalls will be on the wall at landsend on weds for all to see

acorn antics

only 13 of us today so we were on the small lake, which is a long narrow lake with a bowl at each end. i let dean draw for me so i ended up on peg 3 which today was the third peg from the far end , a good draw with a lot of form, for company i had martin (arkwright)alexander on 4 and phil(fabio)harding on 2.
i set up a 4x12 rig on .12 with a 16 6313 to fish 11 mtrs which was the deepest part of the peg at about a metre, same rig but on .14 to fish the far bank reeds and a 4x10 rig to use at half depth against the reeds and with an absence of small nuisance fish i would be using maggot on all lines. on the all in i cupped some maggots with a few micros at 11 and against the far side, then dropped the rig in with double maggot at 11 mtrs, it was a slower start than i expected with only 5 smallish carp in the first hour, that was more than the people each side, but martin lenaghan on peg 1 was catching regularly anywhere he cared to put his rig. after 90 mins i pushed out to 13 mtrs and got another couple of carp but it was turning into a proper grind, by now fabio was casting a feeder to the far bank and begun to catch a few but matin on 1 was still catching well, so that looked like first place taken care of, i did begin to catch a few towards the far bank reeds in the last couple of hours on the half depth rig but fabio had started catching well on the pole by now on maggot at 14 mtrs so that was another 2 quid going his way ,thats 3 on the trot now and i,ve banned him from the shop.
as expected martin lenaghan won on peg 1 with 89.3 catching on maggot at 13 and 16 mtrs
2nd was tim ford on 11 with 80.6
3rd phil harding 55 lb peg 2
4th tony rixon 44.12 peg 3
5th pete sivell 40 10 peg 8 inc top silvers with 1.9
6th john (the gimp)bradford 33.12 peg 12

teams of 4,s bullocks farm

the team draw today saw me heading to north pool and peg 12, this peg is only 5 mtrs wide but it does throw up some good weights, usually fishing down the left and right margins so i set up a 4x10 rig on .14 with an 18 hook, a 4x12 to fish soft pellet over g bait down the middle at 10 mtrs left and right and a 4x10 with an 18 on .14 to fish the far side in various places with maggot. at the start ,after feeding all areas i started on soft pellet but never had a bite , a switch to maggot on the hook produced one bite but it felt like it was hooked in the tail but i will never know as my elastic snapped(oops)and that was my only bite down the middle, i pushed the rig up under the trees and had a bite which resulted in another tail hooked fish ,but this time everything held and a 2lb carp was in the net, i had several looks down each margin but never had a bite which was very unusual as that is normally the banker for this peg. the only place i could get any bites or indications was as tight as i could get to the far bank across to my left with double maggot just off bottom. talking to phil(the owner)he told me he was having a gardener at the fishery one day a weekl to tidy the place up ,all i can assume is that he sacked the gardener after one week as it seems in desperate need of a prune, anyway i ended up with 8 carp, all of which were on the small side , so i thought i had about 18 lb, they actually went 21.12 which managed to secure me my 6 peg section by quadruple default(lol 60 quid).
the match was won by venue ace pete sivell on peg 4 north pool with 40.15 he had 9 carp in front of pallet 5 on maggot
2nd phil(fabio)harding 37.6 peg 2 north pool
3rd dean (mild mannered)malin 35lb peg 30 match lake
4th mike nicholls 32.13 peg 6 north pool
5th matt tainton 30.9 peg 16 north pool
6th dave roper 26.14 peg 14 rushcombe
silvers went to rich coles on 22 rushcombe with 19.3 of goldfish. and very pretty it was to
2nd mike nicholls on peg 6 north pool with 18.11 of crucians on soft pellet
TEAMS ON THE DAY
dynamite baits 35
westerliegh 30
charlies angels 28
gb electrical 28
philtone printers 25
keyford 25
a a not so 23
thyers 21
tims tarts 20
mats maulers 18
avon angling 13
OVERALL
WESTERLIEGH 50.5
PHILTONE PRINTERS 41
DYNAMITE BAITS 38.5
GB ELECTRICAOL 34.5
TEAM KEYFORD 32
THYERS 29
AVON ANGLING 27.5
MATS MAULERS 24.5
CHARLIES ANGELS 20.5
TIMS TARTS 19.5
AA NOT SO 12.5

leafy landsend

after the strong winds of the last couple of days ,it was no suprise to see the surface of the match lake covered in leaves, i let the gimp draw for me today as he always seems to draw himself a carp peg to waste, today was no different as he handed me 11, which on its day can be good for both carp and silvers.
i set up a 4x12 rig on .10 with an 18 6313 to fish caster at 3 and 11 mtrs, a 4x14 on .14 for banded pellet at 14 mtrs at the bottom of the of the island shelf, a 4x12 on .12 to fish soft pellet at 14 mtrs over 3mm at 10 o,clockand a 4x12 rig for the empty pallet to my left(never had a bite there after severasl attempts)
beginning at 3 mtrs after feeding all areas i caught small roach and perch from the off, then 20 mins in it went quiet on that line ,then first carp on which i played carefully but it came off, but the small fish had returned, i even managed to catch on my topset for a while , but a fouled carp on that upset that, so a quick look out at 11 mtrs on caster produced much of the same, but i did get some better perch with one going 2lb, i refed the caster lines and went to the 14 mtr line with banded pellet over 4mm but no bites, i oput a piece of corn on and missed a bite, next drop and i connected with a carp shame it was hooked next to its bum but they all count and after 5 mins in which time the carp visited every part of the swim before i netted it, back out over the same line and 10 mins later i hooked another but this one was in the mouth and netted quickly, then the wind shifted direction slightly and with the ripple set against a backdrop of semi naked tree,s i couldnt see the float so that was the end for that line. on to the 10 o,clock where during the next hour i had 4 good skimmers and 2 more carp, with 2 hours to go i was thinking i was behind both adrian clark and fabio who were on 7 and 5 and had begun to catch carp against the island, and as it turned out i should probably spent the 2 hours fishing caster as i think i may have beaten them both but i spent an hour of the last 2 trying to get more carp, i should have stayed on the 11mtr line as i had some 4 to 10 oz perch and a couple of chub and some more small roach(as always hindsight is a wonderful thing, shame i aint got it).
the match was won by kev molten on 22 with 68.8 on corn at 13 mtrs
2nd adrian clark 45.13 peg 7
3rd phil(fabio)harding 45.4 pegh 5
4th tony rixon 41.2 peg 11
5th nick duckett 32.8 peg 15
6th jason radford 31.4 peg 19
silvers were won by me with 23.10 just ouncing out the gimp who had 23.3
off to bullocks on sunday for the 5nd round of the teams of 4,s

bullocks farm

this was a bit of a practice match for next sundays teams of 4,s and with 22 of us on the match lake the pegging would be the same as next week, after a brerakfast at the venue, which has to be said was very good and with the draw being at 8.30 next week week the cafe will be open from about 7.30.
into the draw bag went paul elmes and pulled out 2 tickets so i took one and ended up on 12 whilst paul managed to keep hold of 17, which is the best peg on the whole venue, but then again he needs to draw well cos it makes up for his lack of talent.
for company i had team fry,s very own slipper wearing legend known as steve (the beast)preece, and if his catmeat approach worked i would be in for some serious mickey taking,and i had martin rich the other side.
the worrying thing today was the clarity of the water, all the colur seems to have gone, so i opted for light lines and rigs , so it was a couple of 4x10 rigs ,one to use straight out at 13 mtrs and one to fish by the island to my left on .10 with an 18 6313 , and a 4x10 to fish the margins each side again with a 18 6313 but on ,12.
at the start i cupped in some dusty g bait at 13 and by the island and fed some casters each side in the margins.
starting at 13 mtrs with soft pellet i had a small hybrid straight away then a crucian then nothing, on with a maggot and a small roach took it but that was it . over to the island and i had a 2lb fantail then nothing again, so it was a case of catching a fish , feed again and look some where else(by the island)but it was crap, the only people i could see getting any sport was paul elmes on 17(no suprise there then)and gary bebford on 8 was also catching a few, i did have 2 bites down the right hand margin and had 2 small carp but that was the only bites i had down the margins. no one seemed to upset when the all out was called as most had struggled, the beast nextdoor had taken 4 carp on catmeat so it was looking dodgy, the scales would tell.
as expected even paul elmes couldnt cock peg 17 up and won with 35.1 on mainly soft pellet fished at 11 mtrs, he also had top silvers weight with 19.9
2nd gary bedford 24.2 peg 8
3rd glen calvert 22.7 peg 30
4th dave roper 21.14 peg 25
5th rod (i aint got 10lb lol)wooten 19.2 peg 31
6th john grey and me with 12.12 john was on 2
john grey was first in the silvers by default with 12.2 giving me second in the silvers with 8.4
i hope the water colours up a bit by next week or we will be in for another tough day

viaduct silvers match

well i nearly drew for myself today, steve jackson pulled out 2 tickets so i took one off him , steve ended up on 112 and me in 111, steve long really should learn how to shuffle them up , but i wasnt to dissapointed as 110,111 and 112 are good silvers pegs as the weather cools and with will bohne on 110 it was going to be interesting as both steve and will are good at silvering. i set up 2 rigs, both on .10 with a size 18 6313 , one was a 4x14 for caster at 6 mtrs and the other a .5 to fish caster over g bait at 13 mtrs. at the start i cupped in some casters at 6 mtrs and 3 balls of caster laced g bait at 13 mtrs. starting at 6 mtrs it didnt take long for the small roach to arrive , but in the first 90 mins i did have a few skimmers up to 1 1/2 before that line went hard , a switch to the 13 mtr line saw several more skimmers to 2lb, a look back on the short line and i had a tench and skimmers, oh yes and a carp aswell, the turning point of the match for me was when i started potting grounbait onto the short line and that really switched the inside line on for some quality in the shape of some more tench and skimmers and a couple of perch, so it was a case of switching between the 2 lines , with the fish coming straight back over the g bait almost as soon as it was cupped in, steve jackson on my right on 112 had really struggled as the chopped worm approach didnt seem to be working as he was really struggling and only ending up with about 8lb, he did put some cereal in about halfway through but i think he had missed the boat by then, whereas will on 110 had fished fairly similarly to me with caster short , g bait long but he had the advantage of a good margin to his left which yielded some nice perch for him up to about 2 1/2 lb. we had a real peg to peg battle and by the end will was convinced i had beaten him while i thought he had done me.
will was first to weigh on our lake and put 41.1 on the scales, i must admit i thought that would be enough especially as my elastic snapped a couple of minutes from the end while i was playing a tench , but i just had enough as my net went 43.9 for first on the day with will bohne second with his 41.1 ,you really must try harder will as thats the second silvers match on the trot i have i have cut you to pieces off the next peg(lol)
3rd mash on peg 128 with 39.13
4th kev newman 27.9 peg 118
5th martin lenaghan 24.8 peg 99
6th john green and steve kedge with 21.7
and i nearly forgot to say i caught all my fish on single caster.

teams of 4,s rnd 4 landsend

with another bright day forcast i thought it may fish quite hard but yet again i neednt have worried as all 4 lakes fished really well.
the team draw found me pushing my kit up to johns water which is lake 3 and round the right hand bank to 58, a good peg which i have never drawn so i was looking forward to it, to be honest with only 11 anglers on each lake there werent any bad pegs in today. the main area where you tend to catch in this peg is at 14 mtrs at 1 o,clock, so i set up a 4x12 rig on .14 which i was going to fish at 1 and 2.
a 4x12 with an 18 on .10 for 6 mtrs and caster, and 2 4x12 rigs one for the island and one for my right hand margin in front of 57 by some brambles.
on the whistle i cupped in caster at 6 mtrs and to the island and cupped in corn and micro,s at 1 and 2 and in the margins , also fed some casters to my left at 3 mtrs by some more brambles.
starting on the caster at 6 mtrs i was soon catching roach, crucians and a coupl;e of skimmers aswell as 1 carp and i lost another, all of a sudden and there was 90 mins gone and i had about 10lb of silvers and a carp in the net, i had a look to my left and had a 3lb carp, but that was the only one the only other fish i had there were a few small chub, off to the island and all i had there was a chub ,a ide and a small skimmer and got plagued by small fish. a look at 1 and a lost fouler, then i went to the 2 o,clock line and had a couple of carp on corn, i went to my right hand margin and had 3 carp in three put ins, then i think i made a mistake as i came off that line and i think it may have paid me to stay on it and plunder it a bit more as i was getting bites quickly and it never seemed to be as good , i had to keep feeding and rotating round all the areas of my swim to keep getting odd bites, i ended up with 13 carp and 15 lb of silvers for a total of 77.14 and 3rd on my lake, the match was won by by bristols finest auto electrician with 136.6 on peg 42 with all his fish taking banded pellet at 14 mtrs towards the island.
2nd was rod wootten with 94.14 on peg 7 again on hard pellet
3rd dave roper on 31 with 89.10
4th ryan shipp 80.10 peg 68
5th t rixon 77.14 peg 58
6th and let that be a lesson to you des shipp 77.10 peg 25(lol so i had to beat him off a different lake)
silvers
tom thick 49.4 on peg 40 of mainly f1,s on soft pellet at 13 mtrs
2nd in silvers des shipp 30.2
teams on the day
westerliegh 37
matts maulers 29
avon angling 26
philtone 25
thyers 25
g b electrical 24
keyford 23
aa select 21
tims tarts 21
dynamite 20
charlies angels 13
overall lge
weaterliegh 40 1/2
philtone 34 1/2
dynamite 27 1/2
avon angling 26 1/2
gb electrical 26
keyford 25 1/2
thyers 25
matts maulers 22 1/2
tims tarts 16 1/2
charlies angels 12
aa (still not)select 7 1/2
the lakes fished really well as there was an average weight of just over 44lb per man.even bob gullicks carp avoidance tactics couldnt knock the averages to much , even his prowess as a self proclaimed silver ace couldnt help, but someone had to come last didnt they, and his 12lb of blips looked pretty though. it makes a change to write about someone other than the shrimp who managed nearly 35lb off peg 72 lake 4(sydneys)he was only 10lb off the average, its good to see him improving.

weds landsend

i let fabio draw for me today in the vain hope that he woyuld draw me 31 , as he has a knack of drawing it all the time, but it wasnt to be, i ended up with 40 , right lake ,wrong end. it is a corner peg so i had a good margin to fish to, plus a bush to my left which can hold some good perch, chub and odd carp, so i set up a 4x14 with an 18 6313 to .10 for the bush , a 4x14 with a 16 6313 on .12 to fish at the bottom of the margin shelf and a 4x12 with a 16 on .12 for the top of the shelf.
at the start i cupped in some soaked micro,s and 4,s at the bottom of the shelf, and to the left in open water, some caster and corn on top of the shelf and began feeding some casters at 3 mtrs by the bush.
starting at the bottom of the shelf at 16 mtrs with corn on the hook i hokked a carp first drop, shame it was in the tail, after a 5 min tussle a 6 pounder was safely reversed into the net, back out with corn and 10 mins later i was in again , but this one did me in the steel cage that holds the hay bales, after that it went quiet so i re fed and went to the open water, that was crap aswell with only 1 f1 to show for my efforts, so i refed that line and got the bush rig out, i had 6 quick perch up to about 1 1/2 lb before tat went quiet, back out to 16 at the bottom of the shelf and another f1 on soft pellet, but it seemed impossible to string any bites together,i stopped feeding pellets and started putting casters on all lines and that seemed to improve things with more perch and f1,s , but no more carp, so it was a heads down and try and pick up some silver coin, but i could only get one fish then have to go some where else and get another, hard work but enjoyable, the fish switched on a bit towards the end as i had some more chud ,perch and 2 carp on the top of the shelf in the last hour, with all the fish coming on single caster, there were a lot of fish taken on caster on both lakes today so the teams of 4,s at the weekend may be a caster match, saying that though nick duckett won today on 31(the peg i wanted)with 59.14 with all his fish taking 6mm hard pellet at 16 mtrs
2nd jamie brown 55.3 on peg 28 on caster
3rd kevin molten 52.9 peg 35 worm and caster
4th mike nicholls 45.4 peg 5 soft pellet i think
5th tony rixon 42lb
6th craig edmunds 37.10 peg 16 caster
silvers went to kev molten with 35 lb but as he framed, first in the silvers went to john(the gimp)bradford with 26.4 on peg 13, he had 8 tench plus bits for 26.4, and i picked up second in the silvers with 25.11

landsend individual league round 1

with the first proper frost of the year ,it may have been hard today, but it turned out ok.
we had 39 booked in and paid, or so i thought , that was until pete nurse turned up and i never had him down(i,m going to have to think about that one), as i was one short it didnt matter to much today, i may have to put 14 on one lake, i will check with the other anglers in that section before i make a desision(thats spelt wrong i know) but it will up the payout on that lake.
back to the draw and lofty radford drew for me and gave me peg 3 on the match lake , which gave most people a laugh as it aint to good at the mo, with it being so cold i expected the fish to feed best on the other side of the lake as it had the sun on it and would warm up more, whereas my peg would be in the shade all day.
i decided to go with an all caster attack as i thought it would be important to get bites all day, so i set up a .5 grm to fish down to my right by a bush with a 16 6313 on .12 , and it would do for 3 mtrs straight in front as it was the same depth.
a .3 rig with an 18 6313 to .10 for 11 mtrs, and a 4x12 rig to fish corn and soft pellet at 10 and 2 at 14 mtrs with a 16 hook on .12. all quite light gear but i just wanted to make sure i got bites and with only 6 and 8 elastics i fancied my chances of landing most things i hooked.
at the start i cupped in some caster at 11 mtrs , some micros at 10 and 2 and began loosefeeding at 3 mtrs and down the margin, starting at 11 mtrs i was soon getting small roach ,then i had a couple of perch to about a pound, these fish really switch on at this venue as the water starts to clear and cool, with 3lb fish quite common and odd fish to 4lb taken every year, by kindering a few casters in after each fish it was possible to get fairly regular bites , but the perch were on the small side.
if i could keep them going i thought i might stand a good chance of winning the lake silvers, but i new that i would have my work cut out as mat(genghis khan)tomes was on 18 and he has been on fire lately for the silvers winning it 10 times on the trot (but i did think it would be to much for him as there were more than 5 fishing).
after an hour i had a quick look over the micros with corn on the hook, but i only managedv one bite and that resulted in a 5 pounder in the tail which ran me ragged on light gear but it ended up in the net. back to 11 mtrs and some more perch and a nice ide of about 2lb , i had a look at 3 mtrs and lost a good carp first drop then no more bites there, a look down the margin produced 2 perch, then nothing, so back out to 11 mtrs , then i started hooking carp , and landing them even on the .10 .
about 2 hours from the end i decided to make up a rig to fish to the reeds on the island, so while i was doing that i dropped the 3 mtr rig in and started to put the other rig together, i just about managed to put the line through the float and the float went and a was attached to a 7 pounder, no more bites there so it was across with the island rig on double caster, i had cupped some bait over there before i made the rig up so i wasnt to suprised when the float went and i had a 3lb carp, next drop a perch then a good f1 and that was my lot over there, i did get 2 carp down the edge and a couple more at 11 mtrs , so i ended up with8 carp plus silvers,
my silvers went 15.6 and the carp went37.6 for 3rd on the lake ,but a section win to start the league, i would of had a better silvers weight but i missed the net with a pound plus perch as it kicked and spiked me as i was putting it in the net and i dropped it the wrong side if the net ring
top 3 on the speci
1st n duckett 65.11 peg 33
2nd nick merry 60.14 peg28
3rd dave hodgson 37.1
silvers dean malin 28.12 peg 35
top 3 match lake
1st adrian clarke 65.4 peg 21
2nd paul elmes 60.12 peg 24
3rd tony rixon 52.12 peg 3
silvers
andy france 15.15(that perch did cost me)
top 3 john,s water
1st james withers 76.6 peg 42
2nd mark poppleton 60.6 peg 50
3rd nick collier 51.4 peg 68
silvers
tony page 19.6 peg62
oh and i nearly forgot to say that mat tomes one trick pony has been taken to the knackers yard and shot , as he was last but one on peg 18 with 7lb of silvers. back to the drawing board me thinks matty

viaduct silver fish final

firstly i must apologise as i didnt hang around to get the final result as i had to get home, i will get the result in the week and put it on then.
back to the draw and 99 stuck to my hand, not the draw i wanted as everyone thought cambell would be the place to be, oh well never mind, and i was in good company section wise with adam palmer on my right and will bohne on my left, and with tom chopsy thick and martin preston in the section it was never going to be easy.
i set up a 4x14 rig for 5 mtrs with an 18 6313 on .10.
and a 4x14 for 13 and 16 mtrs with an 18 to .10 and a 4x16 with a 16 on inm case it went well.
at the start i cupped in some casters with a few chopped worms at 5 mtrs, 2 balls of g bait at 13 mtrs and 1 ball at 16, not a repeat of the 9 balls i put on weds.
starting at 5 mtrs it was rteally slow with only a 6oz perch and a small roach to show for my efforts, adam to my right started on the feeder and had 3 skimmers in this time, with most people getting odd fish to my right and those to my left only getting blips. adam switched to the pole at 14 mtrs with caster over w&c and began getting skimmers with odd fish up to 3lb. i went out to 13 mtrs and had a ferw skimmers on maggot or caster but it was very slow, and i was several pounds behind adam, so i switched to the 16 mtr line and caught steadily for about 2 hours, nothing big , just skimmers from a few ounces to about a pound and a quarter , iether on single caster or dead maggot , then about 45 mins from the end the swim died , i thought i had caught adam up as i had been catching more fish than him but they were of a smaller stamp and in that last 45 he had a 3 pounder and a pound plus perch , and i pulled out of a 3 pounder 5 mins from the end anmd that cost me picking up , as ended with a few ounces under 25 pounds , adam had 26 lb there was a 26.7 two people with 28 plus and steve kedge won with 29 off peg 130, so it was a good close match with cambell not really the place to draw as the winner could have come from either lake.

viaduct silvers only

i drew next to gary etheridge today with me on 96 and gary on 97, and he was explaining that i might benefit from some punctuation lessons, he,s probably right as i have had a few people tell me they get a bit breathless by the time they have finished reading,so, i, will,give, it,a,go, NOT, JUST TAKE A BIGGER BREATH.
i really wanted to draw on cambell, but as there were only 8 pegs being used on cambell as there was a small match on the far bank, the other 16 anglers were on cary so thats where i was as i,ve said i had gary on 97 and tom magernal on 94, all flying carp pegs but also reasonable skimmer pegs, as long as the carp dont get in the way.
just 2 rigs to start both 4x16 with middy 6313 size 16 to .12, one to fish at 5 mtrs with caster and bird food and one to fish at 13 mtrs over g bait with some worm and caster in it.
at the start i probably all but ruined my peg by potting in 9 balls at 13 mtrs(i still think its warm)and half a pot of worm and caster at 5 mtrs, luckily gary next door was pinning his faith on a mainly pellet approach for the skimmers, hopefully that would keep most of the carp in his peg(and it did).
i did get my first bite after 5 mins on the 5 mtr line but bumped what felt like a decent fish, next bite was a roach , then a 3lb bream which must have jumped 5 or 6 times, making a proper mess of the peg, needless to say it went a bit quiet for a while, so i cupped in a bit more worm and caster, onother coupl;e of small skimmers soon followed, but the bites were very shy, a change to caster bought some roach and small skimmers, a switch to the g bait line at 13 mtrs produced anither 3lb bream but bites were very hard to come by.
abouit halfway through i got off my box and made up a lighter rig with an 18 6313 on .10 to see if it made aq difference, and to be honest it seemed to, also switching to maggot on the hook was a lot better, but gary etheridge size roach were being a nuisance, if i dropped the rig in a small roach would nail it, probably attracted by the noise of the rig hitting the water, but by lowering it in quietly 8 times out 10 the bait got to the bottom un molested, by the end of the match i had kept an odd skimmer going in to the net, along with 2 tench and some reasonable roach, at the end i had a look in the net and thought i had about 20lb, tom on 94 was admitting to 25lb but i told him he had over 30 anmd he just gave me that big cheesey smile and laughed, will bohne on 78 had also caught early, but his peg had dried in the second half of the match.
kieth masheeder won with 41.5 on peg 115 cambell mainly skimmers on worm over g bait at 14 mtrs
2nd paul homewood with 35.3 peg 111
3rd tom magernal 34.11 peg 94
4th will bohne 29.7 peg 78
5th paul blake 28.14 peg 110
6th t rixon 22.14 and a default section thanks to tom
and did io mention gary etheridge packed up befor the end as he wasnt prepared to loser anymore rigs and hooks to carp, i did hook 4 carp myself ,losing 3 and landing 1 of about 15lb, the carp[ seemed to be veery active as most people lost or landed several. back down there again on saturday for the silver fish final, i certainly wont be putting 9 balls in this time , and i will be using less bird food and i still want to draw on cambell, and off to landsend sunday for the first round of the individual league

avalon sunday open

i let dean draw for me today, and he gave me 39, which aint to bad. the good thing about this venue is that you never know where the winner is going to come from. its not like draweing 19 at landsend is it shrimpy, oh i forgot you never won yesterday did you lol .
back to my swim , i set up a paste rig anb a hard pellet rig to fish at 14 mtrs, a corn rig to fish down the edge(never had a bite on that), and a shallow and a deep wag rig for pellet, at the start i cupped some 4,s at 14 mtrs fired some 6,s towards the island and put some 4, s and corn down the margin. beginning on pellet at 14 mtrs the first hour was crap, with only a lost fouler and a skimmer to show for my efforts, a switch to corn on the hook produced 2 carp an 2 skimmers in the next 45 minutes, nick plip plop davidson from keynsham had taken a coupl;e of early fish on the lead on 38 , while clayton hudson on 37 had begun to get bites on the pellet wag, so i followed suite , and was soon getting indications, but the nasty side wind blowing right to left was making it hard as the float was getting pushed through to fast, so if i never had a bite within a few seconds of the float landing it was a waste to leave it any longer so it was wind in feed and cast again, the only person i could see catching was jamie dyte on 42 who was catching on paste at 14 mtrs. i did try the solvite rig but to no avail, it wasnt that i wasnt getting bites it was gettiong annoyed with the fact that i was missing bites, i really must get it sorted before next summer. the deep wag was never going to work as it was blowing through worse than the shallow wag so that was consigned to the bushes , so most of the remainder of the match was spent on the shallow wag, ending the match with 14 carp plus a few bits and bobs i thought i had about 80 lb.
jamie dyte on 42 won with 127.9 mainly on paste but he did get a few on meat
2nd was me with 92.10
3rd went to clayton hudson with 72.2 on peg 37
4th alan oram 65.13 peg 19
5th tony page 65.6 peg 24
6th dean malin 65.4 and he also won the silvers with 11.5 of skimmers on corn on peg 27

landsend weds

17 fishing today so mike let us use the match lake and the far bank of the speci , again i fancied the speci but it wasnt to be as dave blakemore drew for me and handed me peg 17, not a bad peg as it has a good depth across by the island(about 18 inches), and an overhanging bush to my right which i caught under last time i drew it, so i set up a 4x10 rig on .16 and an 18 xedion hook for corn down the right, a 4x8 rig to fish banded pellet to the island which was to be a 6 over loose fed 4,s, and a 4x12 rig with a middy 6313 on .12 to use soft pellet over softened 3,s at 5mtrs.
at the start i cupped in some 3,s at 5 mtrs and some 4,s by the island in 2 spots, and some corn and 4,s down the margin. i started at 5 mtrs but but it was very slow, in the first 90 mins all i had was 2 carp ,1 skimmer,1 perch and 1 roach, but there was no activity in the way of bubbles so i decided to go to the island , which i had been feeding(badly)with a catty, after spending the summer firing 6,s about i was having a bit of trouble getting 4,s to where i needed them, by now jamie dyte had begun catching on 19 using meat, which seems to be the in bait at the mo. apart from jamie i didnt nkow who was catching as you cant see anyone else due to the tree,s, and as i couldnt hear to much splashing i thought it might be fishing hard, chris fox had come down to watch as he couldnt fish(no change there i hear you say)due to him having a small op on his hand , and he wasnt allowed to get it wet, but he walked around on the halfway mark and came back saying that it was hard with the speci lake not producing with steve seagar being best with 4 carp on 32, and with mike nicholls being scared to get his extensions out to fish to the bushes on 31 (possibly the best carp peg in the northern hemisphere)it seemed there was all to fish for.i did try in the margins but all i could muster was 4 good skimmers and no carp from there.
so i kept moving my rig with a banded pellet along the far bank picking off the odd fish and managed to end up with 14 carp plis my few skimmers for about 90lb, jamie had 18 carp, dean had 16 and pete sivell had about 8or 9 good fish on paste on peg 21
as it turned out jamie dyte had 94.9 on peg 19 taking most of his fish from the far bank plus an odd one down thi middle ,all taken on meat.
2nd tony rixon 90.1(good guess)
3rd dean malin 79.7 peg 1
4th pete sivell 59 lb peg 21
5th leyton palmer 49.2 peg 29
6th mike(short pole)nicholls 49.1
silvers went the way of the gimp, john bradford with 23.12 off peg 24 ,using caster fished at a variety of lengths.
there,s a match at avalon on sunday 10 am draw book in at the shop on 01179517250

teams of 4,s avalon round 3

with a strong wind and heavy rain it looked as though we were in for testing time today, cos as we know it can be a tough nut to crack, there a certainly plenty of fish in ther but they can be hard to pin down, but we neednt have worried as it fished very well.
the team draw saw me heading towards peg 23 on the match lake , which is the end peg on the left hand bank, it must be said it is a good draw, for company i had dean on 22 so the pressure was on.
i set up a 1grm rig to fish maggot/corn and soft pellet over micro,s at 14mtrs and a corn rig to go into the left hand margin at 13 and 14 mtrs, at the start i cupped in some micro,s at 14mtrs at 10 and 2 o,clock and put some corn and 4,s into the margin.
it started slow with just a few small skimmers on maggot and corn over the micro,s and even deans feeder approach was slow to get going. after the first hour it was into the margins with corn, and i had a couple of carp on this but it was a bit slow, there seemes to be some fish ther but it didnt seem right, so i decided to change to a pellet approach in the same spots, so i put some 6,s in changed the hook and went back in with a banded 8, that seemed better as i didnt seem to be getting any bites off silvers as i was with corn on the hook, i took another couple at 13 mtrs and at 14 mtrs, i kept seeing a bit of reed movement at 16 mtrs so with 2 hours to go i set up a 4x14 rig to fish tight to the reeds, by cupping in some 6,s in and just fishing for one fish at a time i finished up with 14 carp which i thought would go about 65lb, dean had 10 carp but also about 8 pasties and some skimmers foe about the same weight buty i thought his small fish would give him the edge, and that was how it turned out with dean having73.5 and me a couple of ounces short of 71.
1st on the day was vic bush who had 25 carp on the feeder from peg 5 on the speci(heath)lake for 128.5
2nd (at last)ron hardiman with 104lb on peg 11 speci lake
3rd steve mayo 85.14 on peg 30 main lake
4th craig(trig)ebmunds 81.11 peg 9 main lake
5th james brown 76.9 peg 12 speci
6th dean malin 73.5
silvers went to mike nicholls on the silvers hot peg which is 19 on the main lake, this peg has now won the silvers 3 matches on the trot, very strange. mike had 17.2
2nd went to vince shipp 15.12 on peg 13 main lake
teams on the day
philtone printers 39
avon angling 33
westerliegh 28
dynamite 26
keyford 26
tims tarts 25
thyers 24
charlies angels 24
gb electrical 18
mats maulers 13
avon angling select 8
overall
westerliegh 29.5
philtone printers 27
dynamite 26.5
keyford 21.5
gb electrical 20
avon angling 17.5
thyers 15.5
tims tarts12.5
mats maulers 12.5
charlies angels 10.5
avon angling(not so )select 4 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

viaduct winners final

this match has a winners pot of £1000 and all the people fishing were those that had won an open match of over 10 pegs, so it was a who,s who of viaduct regulars making it hard to win. i decided to wait till the end to draw for a ghange, and i ended up on 98 cary, not the draw i really wanted as me and most others fancied a draw on cambell, it was going to be a hard section to win as i had paul greenwood, paul garrett, ray hayward and dick bull to beat so it wasnt going to be easy, at the start i cupped in some 8,s at 16 mtrs and fired some out on the wag line at 30 mtrs. i began on the pole with an 8mm hair rigged pellet on a 4x12 rig on .18 with a 16 b960. everyone around me started on the lead, i hope i hadnt made a mistake.it was a slow start for me and the anglers to my left, and in the first 90 mins i had 3 carp and 2 skimmers which was on a par with most in my section. dan squires on 97 which was in the next section was catching steadily on paste on the lead, by the halfway mark he had 9 or 10 in the net, then he snapped his net handle so i lent him my special unlucky net handle and he only had 2 more for the rest of the match, the second half of the match for me was spent on the wag on the deck with 8mm pellet and i managed another 11 carp giving me 14 but the section was going to be close as ray hayward was admitting to 12 or 13 on 102, luckily for me paul greemwood next to me on 99 fished a nice tidy match probably too nice and tidy cos he does look good catching fxxx all, as the scales came round it soon became apparent that the lakes had fished quite hard as the ginger prince aka andy power had won on 86 with 165.3 with about a 50 50 split on the pole and straight lead so he was a grand better off.
2nd went to marc illingworth on 128 with 136.2
3rd t gilbert 120.15 peg 118
4th tony rixon 115.12 peg 98
5th roy worth 112.5 peg 114
6th tim(64 turns)pallant 109.9
no silvers today

avalon weds

i dont understand why people dont want to go to this venue as its probably one of the fairest commercials in the area as its impossible to predict where the winner is likely to come from , perhaps its the thought of having to think about it to much, and the people who moan the most are the ones who never go there , any way thats the moaning out the way .
after a redraw cos i miss counted i ended up on 13 which is at the end of the second island, for company i had dean malin on my right who was going to fish the feeder to the island , but i cant do thast so i set up a margin rig for corn , a banded pellet rig(4x16) and a paste(yes paste)rig to fish at 14 mtrs , and a wag rig to fish at depth to the island with banded pellet.
at the start i cupped in some corn and 4mm down the margin , some 4,s at 14 mtrs and began firing 6,s to the island, starting on a banded 6 at 14 mtrs the first 30 mins nearly went to plan i had 2 skimmers and hooked 3 carp , one was fouled and came off , one fought like a bream and came off at the net and the other went under the platform and broke me, i did mamage another couple of carp in the next 30 mins , but by now i think dean had 6 carp on the feeder so i was falling behind, a quick look on the p[aste over the same line resulted in about 6 unmissable bites in about as many put ins but i missed them all, a quick look back on the pellet resulted in 2 more carp and a couple of lost foulers, so i refed the pole line and picked up the wag rod, and i soon started getting bites and catching the odd carp and i slowly started to claw back deans early lead apart from a look down the edge which resulted in a 2lb skimmer and a couple of late fish on paste , i stuck with the wag for most of the match and to be honest i was probably beating dean with 20 mins to go , then he went and caught 6 in as many put ins with a 9lb fish last chuck which is what he ended up beating me by , as he was first on the day with 131.14 on peg 11
2nd tony rixon 122.14 peg 13
3rd jamie dyte 104.9 peg 1
4th phil harding 96.3 p[eg 5
5th tim(i,ve lost 30 again)clark 94.13 peg 20
6th nick(plip plop)davidson 78.14 peg 9
silvers went to kev(bagger)davies with 26lb on peg 19 mainly skimmers on corn over micro,s

avalon practice

only 20 booked in today, obviously the teams of 4 anglers feel they now the venue well enough. its a shame really as it fished well and was a very fair match with fish feeding all round and no real hot areas.
i ended up on 37 which is on the right hand side of the gap on the second island i had venue co owner vic bush for company on 38. my peg has a bit of form as a good silvers peg as well as being a good carp peg so i was spoilt for choice as what to do.
i ended up putting 6 balls of g bait at 13 mtrs with some caster in it and some soaked micros and 3,s at 16 mtrs, and i fired some 8,s to the island for the shallow wag, but it never really happened as it took me 30 mins to get a bite over the 13 mtr line and that was a 8oz skimmer folowed by a few small roach all on maggot, so i cupped in some more micros at 16 and picked up the wag rod , although there were fish showing against the island it was a struggle to keep the float tight enough as the wind kept blowing it off and back towards me , i did manage 2 carp on the wag and lost a couple during the match ,in hindsight i should have set up a depth wag or a feeder but as we know hindsight is a wonderful thing, i did manage 2 more carp on the pole plus a few more skimmers on soft pellet over micros plus some small carp of under a pound and these count as silvers as they are to small to put in with there bigger brothers, in the end my 4 carp and silvers went 30.9 for absolutely no good what so ever, so i,m back there again on wednesday to try and sort a few things out,as will chris fox who was on 32 and lost about the same number of carp, ok it was only about 20 lol.
first on the day went to pete wild on 20 with 105.7 all taken on a method feeder with a snowman rig.
2nd was dean malin with 78.12 on peg 7 .now that dynamite have been taken over by rapala bean used a new bait today , it was a 4 inch hair rigged mangum but he had to change the trebles for a single size 14 tubertini 175
3rd c hudson on peg 1 with 75.11
4th paul elmes 73.8 peg 12
5th ben hagg 62.2 peg 13
6th martin lenaghan 61 peg 24 (he keeps doing well off bad pegs)
silvers were won by steve seager on 19 with 16.12 of skimmers with punched marshmallows over jelly tots doin the biz
the truth is out there
but seriously pete wild caught on a method feeder with a 12 inch hooklength and hair rigged pellet(may as well use an ordinary feeder pete)
and dean fished a cage feeder with maggot on the hook, silvers winner steve caught on soft pellet

from bad to worse

landsend today and on my way to pick up dean i passed a mobile speed camera doing closer to 40 than 30 in a 30 limit, my only hope is that as it was on the other side of the road he may not have been able to get a clear view of me as there was some oncoming traffic between me and it , hopefully obscurring the laser(i can always hope). after a good brekkie in lillypool cafe, which now seems back on track with the previous owners back in it was off to the venue.
we had 15 booked in so mike let us use the match and half the speci, then the day got worse as i let andy france draw for me and he handed me 3 on the match lake, probably the worse peg in the bag, with the water levels down 15 inches you only get about 6 inches of water to fish in up on the far shelf, the fish will come up and feed on the shelf but as soon as you put the pole over there heads they bugger off, then when you fire some more bait in and take the pole away they come back within minutes, even if you come away and down the shelf , you dont get a bite, where do they go?
i started at 5mtrs feeding softened 4,s hoping for skimmers and the odd carp whilst feeding in front on the island and another spot at 16 mtrs to the right, and as expected fish were soon tailing on the island in both spots, i also started feeding 4,s with some corn down to my left as it was the same depth as the 5 mtr line ,the same 4x12 rig would do both,
starting at 5 mtrs it took me 10 mins to miss my first bite , then i lost a fouler then i had a carp followed by a good skimmer and by the end of the first hour i had added another carp but no more skimmers , i put a piece of corn on by pulling the band into the corn , dropped it in and missed about 3 bites, so i took banded hair hooklength off and put an 18 xedion on and buried the hook in the corn, i missed a couple more bites on that aswell even coming off the bottom didnt help as i had no bites atall. off to the island in front of me and i had 1 fish there, and thats all i had in the first 4 hours, 3 carp and 1 skimmer , i did manage 9 more in the last 2 hours by switching around on the far bank but you had to tuck the rig into the far bank and try and hide your pole amongst the reeds, i think due to the lack of depth on the far bank there werent possibly enouigh fish to create competition cos although you could see fish on the far bank .it only looked like 2 or 3 fish at a time coming in.
the match was won by our very own mr bean, dave westcott on 25 speci lake with 122.10 taken between the left hand margin and out to the island on pellet
2nd jason radford 89.7 peg 31
3rd martin lenaghan 79.15 peg 19
4th jamie dyte 75.9 peg 13
5th tony rixon 52.2 peg 3
6th nick davidson 51.10
silvers went to chris fox on 29 speci lake(see his blog)
2nd and just behind was leyton(sicknote)palmer with 17.1 on peg 7
dont forget i,m running a practice match on sunday at avalon , book in at the shop on 01179517250

teams of 4,s rnd 2 cider farm

after 3 matches on the bounce and not getting off yarlington i hoped for a draw on another lake , and luckily the team draw put me on 20 dabinet which is just off the gap on the far side, for company i had mike nicholls on 20 which was handy as he has the silvers bug ,so i hoped it would leave the carp for me.
i set up pellet rigs to fish to the island ,one on the deck at 11 mtrs , a shallow one and a corn rig for the margins.
at the start i cupped in some 6,s at 11 mtrs and some to the island at 14 mtrs and began throwing corn and 4mm into the margin, and as expected mike started at 5mtrs and stayed there all match, i dont think he will ever wear out the big sections on his pole.
the first 30 mins werent to bad as i had a couple of carp and some nuisance skimmers, and mike had pretty much the same, then i missed a few bites so it was out with the shallow rig and i had 5 more carp in the next 30 mins and that was the end of the shallow stuff , i couldnt get another bite on it , very strange.
back on the deck and i was getting the odd fish ,so i was quite happy.
2 hours in and i decided to have a go on the island, i hooked one straight away but it went right and went into a bramble and managed to to tie itself with my rig and elastic to the thorns , so that was the end of that, and after the expected mickey taking from mike i decided to leave the island to the fish ,
into the margin and 2 carp and a good skimmwer before that went quiet, so back out to 11 mtrs and i cupped some 6,s at 14 mtrs to the right by some reeds by the island, so the last couple of hours were spent between the 3 areas, that was until a fish stole my 11 mtr rig with the help of a weed bed, so i was going to fish just the 2 lines now then, by the end i had taken 30 carp but they average about 2 1/2 lb so 70lb ish looked good.
the match was won by des shipp on 41 yarlington with 103.15 on pellet fished shallow and 10 carp in the last hour on caster shallow
2nd was the ever consistent rod wootten with 98.1 on peg 1 dabinett
3rd dean malin 89.4 peg 7 dabinett
4th paul elmes 77.13 peg 16 dabinett
5th tony rixon 70.14 peg 20 dabinett
6th mark broomsgrove 69 lb peg 6 dabinett
silvers were won by steve seager with 21.6 on peg 15 on shepherds lake, he beat mike by 6 oz, serves him right as he laughed when i lost rigs
teams on the day
dynamite 34
westerliegh 33
mats maulers 33
g b electrical 31
team keyford 27 1/2
philtone printers 25
thyers 21
avon angling 17
tims tarts 14
charlies angels 13 1/2
avon angling select13
overall
westerliegh 20 1/2
dynamite 19
gb electrical 17
philtone printers 16
team keyford 14
thyers 11
mats maulers 10 1/2
avon angling 7 1/2
charlies angels 7
tims tarts 6 1/2
avon angling select 3
open at avalon next sunday , ring me at the shop to book in and the next round is in a fortnight at avalon.

county champs regional final

all i can say is that the idea we had about tying our hooks on upside down worked as niether me or dean will have to go to barston and packington somers to fish the final, (result). just kidding i did try ,honest.
i drew peg 51 which as i really fancied as i had won off it last weekend, so i set up the same rigs, a shallow rig , a rig for the island, a margin rig and a depth rig to fish 14 mtrs down to the reed bed to my left.
i,m not going to bore you with the details of how my match went as it was pants, it was a struggle to get any consistency to the bites ,it was one of those days when you seemed to get one fish at a time from any one swim, the only place i could get ant activity was by the reeds to my left at 13 to 14 mtrs, i had 2 shallow , 2 on the bare bank opposite and 8 down to my right, for a total of 12 fish which went just over 27lb and absolutely no chance of getting in the top 5.
the match was won by des shipp with 90.14 on peg 32 catching shallow in the reeds
2nd rod wootten 68.14 peg 56
3rd mark leader 65.15 peg 36
4th calum dicks 61.9 peg 4
5th kev molton 37.1 peg 14
6th chris davies 36.12 peg 46

another day on the cider. weds open

we were on yarlington again today, and with gale force winds forcast a draw with the wind off my back would be nice, but no i go and pull 56, which is looking thru a gap between 2 islands so the wind was funnelling straight at me , it was a good job it was a warm wind but i think thats going to change by the weekend with the wind going to be more of a north westerly but less of it.
good to see warren bates here for a bit of a practice, i had a quick chat with him in the carpark and as he had drawn 19 which is a proper flier at the mo i thought he might have a chance of getting a few, that was until he asked me if caster might be worth a go, it seems you can take the boy away from the river but you cant take the river away from the boy, at least the rudd would be grateful, at the end he said he did get a couple of fish on double caster, good for him ,i suppose someone had to buck the trend on that peg sooner or later lol.
back to my peg and i set up a 4x14 rig to fish the margins either side, a 4x16 rig to fish corn at the bottom of the far shelfeach side of the gap and a 4x10 rig to fish to the island.
at the start i cupped in some corn and 4mm,s at 10 mtrs in front and to the right by the reeds at 13 mtrs, the same each side in the margins , and some 6,s to the island.
starting on the 10 mtr line i had a carp first put in then a couple of decent skimmers and a couple more carp, but then i began missing unmissable bites, then i started catching rudd(mint),i put that down to the fact that warren had stopped feeding casters. a switch to the 13mtr line to the right produced the same, so my thoughtys of it being a corn day went out of the window, so i put in a pot of 6,s on the 10 and 13 mtr lines and got the island rig out, to be honest there were plenty of fish up on the shelf but the wind was making it nearly impiossible to present, and i like to kinder my feed in on this venue as it stops the fish dissapearing into the island foliage, but i had to take the pot off the end as it was adding to the wind resistance, so after each fish i potted in about 20 pellets after each fish which seemed to work, also by now i had begun firing some pellets to the reeds on the 13 mtr line, for a bit of a rest i came back to the deep line at 10 mtrs and took 2 carp fairly quickly. i did look down the margins but that only produced rudd and roach but the wind was blowing the rig along so i knocked that on the head, i got the island rig out , took a shot off and went shallow to the 13 mtr line , firing 6,s in and using the same on the hook i soon started to get bites and catch so that was it for me up until the end, i ended up with 30 ish carp , i should have had more but i needed to pull quite hard to get the fish away from the reeds so i pulled the hook on a few , and several were faster than me and made it to the reeds but thats the nature of the venue(at least it will give des something else to moan about at the weekend ha ha).
mark arrived with the scales and the first person to weigh was derek cullip on peg 4 and he had 87.7 with worm over micro,s doing the damage at 5 mtrs, i thought i might run him close as my net would go about 80lb but as i was last to weigh i had to wait.
as it turned out berek had enough for first as my net went 84.14 ,enough for second
3rd dave cockayne 66.4 peg 25
4th pete sivell 65.10 peg 41
5th leyton palmer 58.6 peg 51
6th mike owens 56.2 peg 11

deciderdly hard

cider farm today for a bit of a practice as we have got the regional final for the a t county champs on saturday and round 2 of the teams of 4,s on sunday, 25 booked in today so we were just on yarlington which is a snake lake with plenty of reeds surrounding it giving the fish plenty of places to hide. ideally you want a peg with bare bank opposite you so i wasnt upset when i drew 51 which has about 2 mtrs of bare bank before the reeds start and its only 11 mtrs wide and 18 inches deep against the island, just the job, so iset up a 4x10 rig with a 16 b960 to fish against the island, a 4x14 rig with an 18 xedion hook to fish maggot down the edge,(which i tried several times but the rudd did my head in so wont mention it again).
a .40 rig to fish 11 mtrs down the edge towards the empty peg, and the same rig would do over towards the reeds at 10 o,clock. and a shallow rig just in case.
on the whistle i cupped some 8,s down the edge cupped some 6,s towards the island, and began firing some towards the reeds. starting down the edge it took 10 mins to get a bite and that resulted in a 6lb common which was a known fish as it seems to get caught each week, its reckognised as its got a chunk out of it tail and it is a bit tatty, by the end of 90 mins i had taken 8 carp down the left but none on the deck over by the reeds , i tried shallow but never had a bite on that so i went to the island and took a couple of fish then that went quiet ,i had been feeding to the island with a catty but it didnt seem right as i could see odd fish slurping on the island but i was just getting liners from there tails, so i switched potting a few 6,s abouit 12 inches off the island and fished a banded 6 on the hook whiched seemed to work a bit better, i had kept feeding to the reeds and down the edge but i couldnt raise a bite down the edge and it wasnt until about 90 mins from the end that i began to get indications by the reeds and that was liners so it was out with the shallow rig which produce a couple of carp but the fish didnt seem to want to settle and feed any where , possibly due to the bright sunshine, but by switching between the island and shallow by the reeds i managed to end up with 28 carp, due to the ammount of reeds around the lake i couldnt see another angler so i never had a clue as to what had been caught. i packed up and had a quick walk and the best i heard of was 24 carp when mark arrived with the scales my fish went 68.9 which was just enough to beat nick harvey into 2nd spot with 64lb off peg 19
3rd dave cockayne 62.3 peg 36
4th lewis jones 59lb peg 13
5th rod wootten 58.3peg 22
6th mark broomsgrove 51.10 pegh 25
a lot of the fish were caught shallow today so providing we dont get a frost or a cold wind the same

weds trade match at todber manor

i did actually write a long one but it all went wrong right at the end when i accidently hit the alt button and deleted the poxy lot, so all i,m going to say now is that i had 50lb and came no where, all i will say is dont always pay to fish as the locals advise, generally speaking i tend to fish as i see it on the day, chatting to dean the day befor i said i thought it would be a good idea to feed and fish 8mm pellets as there are lots of 12oz f1,s , but what do i do i go and fish meat as i was told, swim was going nowhere until about 2 hours from the end when i switched to the pellet and i began to get carp fishing in a small gap in the dougal grass, ok so not all were hooked in the mouth but thats something you seem to have to put up with when you fish in 12 inches of water, i,m beginning to think that these venues that people tell you to fish a cetain way with a certain bait are responding to these methods and baits only do so because everyone is fishing that way, after all fish of all species feed the same way in similar venues all over the country so when you visit a different fishery if its similar to another venue you fish, adopt the same methods and baits you normally use(providing they are allowed)and fish to your own strengths not other peoples.
off to cider farm now for my next 4 matches, 2 practices , the county champs final(whose format needs a bit of a rethink possibly as the goal post seem to be moved to suit)and the next teams of 4 match so there should be plenty of bites and some lost kit, its all good for trade lol

good bye gary

the venue was blackford church at 3.30 to say cheerio to gary wall, there was a good turn out with about 110 in attendance, so there was standing room only . gary,s mum and family were pleasantly suprised as they were only expecting between 30 and 50 to turn up, but it went to show how popular this quiet man was with all the local anglers, and some not as local with anglers from north bristol and some from dorset in attendance, as i said he was a quiet man of few words , that was until something went wrong on the bank then the fun started,
he will be missed as he was a part of the somerset match scene, and landsend most of all and i know the duckett,s will miss him tremendously.
i can hear him know in the blackford cemetry moaning and saying who the fxxx put this sxxx peg in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOODBYE GARY RIP

teams of 4 rnd 1

managed to get 11 teams for this little lge , so we had 4 sections of 11, 2 on woodland ,and 2 on wildmarsh. the lake to draw was probably going to be woodland as its a smaller lake with a higher density of carp ,so most of the weights were going to be from there,
my team draw put me on 24 on wildmarsh ,on the right hand side of the spit, a nice looking peg with an overhanging tree to my right , which should be worth a couple of carp, i set up 2 4x16 rigs , one with a 18 6313 to .10 and on the other a 16 6313 to .12, and a 4x12 on .16 with a 16 xedion hook on the end for the margin.
at the start i cupped in 6 balls of g bait at 13 mtrs , a big pot of casters at 16 mtrs and 2 o,clock and half a pot of softened micro,s at 16 and 10 o,clock, and fed a big handful of casters down the right hand margin,
starting on the groundbait line at 13 mtrs i was getting bites off small roach straight away, but they were to small to be worth doing with. but i stuck with it as i wanted to let the other lines settle, just as well really as on the hour mark i hooked a carp on the light rig, but everything held and a 6 pounder was in the net, which is a proper bonus on this lake, then it was back to the small roach but that had gone a bit iffy now probably due to the carp whizzing round the peg ,so i cupped in another ball then went out onto the eel line , but that was a complete waste of time and i only had 1 roach on that the whole match even though i tried it on several occassions, the micro pellet line wasnt much better as that only produced 2 12oz skimmers and 2 roach, my get out of jail card came down the edge in the shape of 3 more carp and a tench so by the end i thought i had mid 20,s which was usually worth good points on the lake, as it turned out my fish went 28 lb and i won my 6 peg section worth 60 quid.
1st on the day went to leon hubbarb on 26 woodland with 82.11 of shallow caught carp
2nd chris davis 73.9 on bridge peg 41 wildmarsh
3rd pete sivell 67.6 peg 14 woodland
4th steve mayo 65.3 29 woodland
5th tim clark 65.1 18 woodland
6th alan oram 62.12 21 woodland
silvers went to gary etheridge on wildmarsh 61 with 19.15 of skimmers on soft pellet and small roach and rudd shallow on maggot
teams on the day
1st westerliegh 39 pts
2nd philtone printers 34 pts
3rd g b electrical 29 pts
4th dynamite baits 27 pts
4th joint team keyford 27 pts
6th charlies angals and thyers both 21 pts
8th tims tarts and avon angling 19 pts
10th avon angling select 16 pts
11th matts maulers 12 pts

gary wall

found out today gary,s funeral will be held at blackford church on monday 6th of september at 3.30 pm ,with drinks and food after at the sexey,s arms . i,ve been told all are welcome, so hope to see you there.
no flowers please but all donations to go to the local surgery

teams of 4 info

round 1 to be fished at chilton trinity this sunday 5/9/2010
teams competing
dynamite baits
avon angling
avon angling select !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
philtone
charlies angels
timmy,s tarts
thyers
westerliegh
g b electrical
team keyford
matty,s maulers
draw 9am in the bottom carpark at wildmarsh
pools £100 compulsory team pools
£20 per match from each team pool goes towards the overall giving the top 3 teams payouts of
1st £540
2nd £440
3rd £340
payouts on the day are
1st £110
2nd £90
3rd £70
sivers
1st £85
2nd £65
sections
8 sections ,4 sections of 5 worth 50 quid and 4 sections of 6 worth 60 quid all paid by befault, but you can win both overall and silvers.
i think thats right now

landsend monday rip Gary Wall (friend)

sad day today . gary wall lost his fight with cancer on sunday night and died peacefully at home. i dont ever think i have witnessed a man with so much mental and physical strength over the last few months, gary was still fishing up until 10 days ago and i dont now how he managed it , he never complained and he never asked for help with his kit till about 3 weeks ago , and even then he would try and do it himself often refuseing help, he will be sorely missed, especially his temper tantrums and swearing on the bank when things went wrong, but putting that asides he was a quiet man who was as honest as the day is long and and was always there if any one needed a hand. as i,ve said he will be sorely missed.
just the results today as it dont seem right to write to much
1st t rixon 121 lb peg 11 pellet over to the island
2nd rod wootten 108.10 peg 16
3rd bela bakos 104.9 pg36
4th c edmunds 84 lb peg 38
5th s seager peg 34
6th ryan summerhayes 72.12 peg 5
silvers c edmunds 22 lb skimmers

float only last round

going into the last round i was leading by 1 point from freddy roberts and with tim clark and tim ford in with a chance of winning it could be close. dean malin drew for me today and handed me 59 which is the first usable peg up right hand side of lodge lake, its a good section peg so i wasnty to dissapointed, for company i had john(the gimp)bradford on 60 and glen bailey on 57 and on 53 which is normally the lake winning peg was mat dark and with trig edmonds on 62 and tim clark on 55 the stage was set.
i set up a pellet and a paste rig to fish at 14 mtrs but i didnt use them as the wind had picked up to a gale blowing into and left to right making it impossible to present(i can hear mike nicholls you should fish closer then).
i set up a 4x10 rig on .20 with a 14 xedion hook to fish meat down the left hand margin. and last of all a wag rig to fish at depth at about 20 mtrs with banded pellet.
at the start i cupped in 6 and 8,s at 14 mtrs , fired some 8,s to 20 mtrs and started throwing some meat into the margin, starting on the wag i had a 8lb carp 2nd chuck , then the day got more and more torrid , with foulers which all came off, hooks pulling out and wags ending up in the trees behind me , i caught the aerater cable about 5 times losing 2 floats, missing bites and generally having a bad day , oh yes and did i mention the foulers, i tried shallow , half depth , feeding more, then feeding less nothing seemed to work, i went down the edge with abouit 90 mins to go and had 6 reasonable fish on meat so i finished the match with 14 carp ,2 skimmers and a roach for what i thought would go about 90lb, time would tell.
mat dark on 53 was first to weigh and had 107lb which i thought would be enough to win the section, 2nd in section for me would be enough to seal the series, but in the end i neednt have worried as my net went 113lb meaning i couldnt be caught,
again the venue fished really well with chris davis on 127(cambell~)winning on the day with 197lb catching at 5mtrs on meat and 16 mtrs hallow on pellet
2nd was andy lloyd next door on 126 with 194.3 catching at 14 mtrs at depth on pellet
3rd alan oram 183.7 peg 114
4th fred roberts 162.10 peg 94
5th jamie parkhouse 154.13 peg 134
6th anto page 150.8 peg 135
silvers gary etheridge 35.4
league overall
tony rixon 35 points(£45o)
fred roberts 33 pts(350)
tim ford 32 pts (250)
tim clark 31 pts (150)
andy lloyd 30 pts (75)387.2 lb
brian shanks 30 pts (50) 255.7 lb
thats it till next year then.big thanks to steve evans for the help in doing the rtesults(actually he does it all).
next stop the teams of 4 starting next week with rnd 1 being down at chilton trinity