ass whupped on the match lake

with the loss of a couple of anglers due to the world cup and them wanting to watch our overpaid useless wankers (judith,s words) but we still had enough to make it viable. dean drew for me and handed me 45 then drew 44 for himself, getting to the lake we were greeted with the site of all that white willow rubbish all over the water and with no wind at the start it might prove troublesome. at the start i cupped in some soaked 3,s at 13 mtrs and 16 mtrs straight out and 13 mtrs at 10 o,clock and down the left at the bottom of the shelf also at 13 mtrs.
starting straight out at 13 i missed a bite before dean had finished feeding his lines but that was it for about 10 mins, but by now dean had taken a couple of good skimmers(the writing was on the wall from an early stage me thinks). i was really struggling to get a bite whereas dean was catching steadily , i dont think it was the rigs as we use similar floats and hooks ,if anything my rigs were probably on lighter line, .12 with a 16 6313 , all we could put it down to was the feed, i kept on with the soaked 3,s whereas dean was feeding 4mm expanders with some 1mm in a bit of groundbait, so while dean was putting a steady stream of f1,s and skimmers in the net ,i sat there mainly biteless, i did manage 4 slightly better carp(real ones)down the left but that was it so the end couldnt come quick enough for me, then i had to do the scales as steve and paul were tied up with matches elsewhere on the fishery. so as i expected dean malin won with 50.14 with all his fish falling to soft pellet at 13 mtrs
2nd was mark summerhayes with 34.3 on peg 48 again catching at 13 mtrs on a variety of baits, meat , pellet and small pieces of paste
3rd kev molten 30.2 peg 40
4th ryan summerhayes(son of mark) 28.10 peg 43
5th john bradford 25.14 peg 49 and top silvers with 21.8 taken down the edge on caster
6th jason radford with 23.8
and i was 9th with i pitiful 16.8 luckily martin lenaghan went home so at least i won a quid trouble is i now owe it to andy bryant who had 18.14, shame fabio never went as that would have put me into profit on the quids.
in all fairness it fished quite well as the fish seem well spread out , so any small clubs out there looking for a good small venue , give the viaduct a ring and have a go, i,ve got it booked again for next week so anyone fancy a go at a bit of interesting fishing on what seems like a fair venue give me a ring at the shop, remember book early to avoid disapointment. that dont mean you tim (the nanny)clark you got an excuse

viaduct weds

didnt know wether it was a good idea going to somerton today as it was the first day the parking was open for the music festival , but the traffic was going the other way going so we went through with no problems. 22 were booked in but roger andoniou couldnt get there due to the traffic on the m5.
i drew for myself today and got 102 which is a reasonable peg with a lot of form as a lead chuck, but i cant bring myself to do it so i left that to the "experts".
i set up a 9 inch drake peacock wag to fish at depth with a 14 b960 on .18 for pellet, a 2x12 j2 on .18 with a 16 b960 for on the deck at 14.5 mtrs , a dibber rig for shallow and a 4x10 j2 for meat down the edge but i got roached out on that so i wont mention that again.
on the all in i cupped about a third of a pot of 6,s on the pole line and began firing 8,s on the wag line at about 25 mtrs. it took 15 minutes to get a bite on the pole which resulted in a 8 pounder and that was it on the pole really for the next hour, i did try shallow a couple of times but apart from a skimmer and a lost fouler that was it , so with about an hour and a half gone it was out on the wag and a couple of fish were soon added but that went hard so it was back to the pole and another carp and 2 good skimmers so by switching between the wag and the pole i ended up with 13 carp up to about 16 lb and just into doubles of skimmers , but the chances of a pick up were looking dodgy as dick bull on 90 had a load as did andy powers on 97, mash on 73 and steve jackson on 76 had caught 18 carp out 77,78,79 and 100 also dean malin on 68 had mugged 16 on peg 68.
in the end mash came out top on 73 with 194.9 on pellet some shallow on the wag and pole and some down the edge
2nd andy power 166.3 mainly on the wag at half depth
3rd dick bull 154.7 peg 90
4th steve jackson 142.8 peg 76
5th dean malin 130.9 peg 68
6th tony rixon 130.6 peg 102 and dean beat me for the section but i aint bitter(much)
silvers were won by john green on 100 with 36.14 of skimmers at 3mtrs on soft pellet over groundbait
2nd was mat tomes(i better mention him or he will sulk) 30.4 again on soft pellet on peg 86

rnd 3 float only landsend

with 56 fishing the lge, all 4 lakes were in today with 14 on each lake, so most would get an empty peg on one side, i let mike west draw for me and i ended up on 93 on sydneys(lake 4).
for company i had none other than the mighty fabio on corner peg flyer 94, and with tim ford and fred roberts opposite on 71 and 72 there was always going to be a bit of mickey taking with fabio being on the end of most of it.
several rigs today, a 4x14 on .12 with a 16 6313 for 5mtrs and soft pellet, a 4x12 for the bottom of the far shelf with a 16 b960 on .16. a 4x8 bristle float for against the island and a 4x10 dibber for half depth against the island both rigs on .16 with a 18 b960 for banded hair rigged pellet. at the start i loose fed some soaked 4,s at 5mtrs and started feeding 6,s with a catty towards the island and to the left hand end of the island, straight in on maggot at 5 mtrs and after a couple of small roach it was on with a soft pellet and a run of 3oz skimmers and a couple of small carp, i think i had about 6 carp in the first 90 mins but it wasnt really happening so it was out with a banded 8 in 2 foot of water at the bottom of the island shelf, but apart from a couple of dips nothing happened , with some pellets overshooting and ending up against the island there were fish now showing against the mud on the island, so out with the 10 inch deep rig against the island and i had several quick fish in front and around the side of the island befor it went daft with the fish coming up in the water even in only 10 inches of water so the half depth rig was called into play and i began catching well but with the fish on the small side a framing weight was never going to happen so the section win was my only chance to pick up some coin so by rotating around my island swims i kept the odd fish coming right to the end. the only person in my section who had caught a few was rod wootten on 88. the scales started on tim fords peg, who had 32lb and he was top weight till the scales got rod who had 35 lb but thankfully my catch went 50 lb for top weight on the lake and a usefull section win to keep me in touch with the leaders. the match was won by craig(trigger)edmunds with 100.12 on peg 36 on the speci lake he had 3 early carp at 7 mtrs on soft pellet then he had the rest over against the far bank on banded pellet, and considering the state he was in due to alchohol abuse from the night befor he done well
2nd was his boss and self made millionaire niel(drawbag)mercer with 94lb on peg 38 catching the same way as his mentor trig
3rd josh garrett with79.7 on 26
4th leon habbard 66.4 on 33
5th tim(the full time nanny)clark with65.1 on 41
6th tom magnol 64.14 peg 6
silvers went to vince brown with31.2 on peg 8 taken on soft pellet
i will put the leaders up next week to show how it looks at the halfway stage
also i,m running a match on the match lake at viaduct next sunday so book early to avoid dissapointment lol

weds landsend

after sunday,s struggle on lake 3 (johns water) i was looking forward to getting back onto match and speci, but fairplay to mike he has been up on 3 and strimmed the spiky weed back to the island so at least the anglersw on it on sunday will be able to fish tight to the island so you wont have to sit and watch carp slurping under the grass with no chance of getting near them.
back to the draw and after fabio giving me a crap peg on sunday , dean drew for me and handed me 13, the aerater peg up in the corner, with the water wheel not meant to go off till 2.15 i would have to put up with it for about an hour as the match was a pm affair with a 7.15 finish. i dont mind as i have had some good weights from it by trotting a pellet in the flow and around the end of the island, so i set up a 4x12 impact 10 dibber on a long line (1 mtr)on .18 xedion rig line with the usual size 16 b960 for banded hair rigged pellet,(as i,ve said befor when you find something which suites you dont change and these hooks hardly ever let me down). a 4x8 non descript bristle float for 17 mtrs against the island for when the wave maker stopped and with the water 12 inches down this line was going to prove a bit difficult to sort as it was only 8 inches deep. and a 4x10 impact 1 for 7 and 10 mtrs up the left hand margin and the same rig would do the right hand margin all rigs using the same hooks and line, and with a box of 6mm pellets to feed and a few 8,s for the hook nothing could be simpler. at the start i fed a pouch into the flow and fed some with a catty into the left and right margin, it started quite well and in the first hour i had 10 chub,2 good ide and 1 carp i did expect more carp but due to there being some herbage overhanging so it meant i couldnt get the rig to run round the island tight enough in, then when the aerater went off the bites stopped so it was time to look up the edge , after a couple of quick small carp(2 pounders) it went quiet there, i was getting indications at 7 and 10 mtrs but i decided to leave the line for a while and have a look at the island, but with level being so low it was foul hook city i couldnt mouth hook them on the deck i couldnt catch one shallow, i did manage a couple but they were a taken on the drop which in 8 inches of water is a bit weird, i think they are happy to take a falling bait but not interested once it touches bottom, these landsend fish are pretty clued up.
thing is with 13 is that you cant see what is going on on the rest of the fishery as there are lots of tree,s in the way, the only peopl i could see were vic bush opposite on 11 and gary wall on 15 both of which were struggling, gary had taken a couple of early carp over on the island but by the halfway mark was fishing for silvers down to his right by a bush and vic was suffering foulers over on the island in the shallows and moaning a lot, in the end he fished paste up towards 12 and had a few tench and carp but nothing to shout about but it has been a hard peg of late and he did manage more than most have recently.
back to my peg and the 7 mtr line was ok now with the fish having settled probably due to the fact they had been fed and left to settle, i only went to 10 mtrs a couple of times and did get a few fish but it wasnt as productive as the 7 mtr line, i think by feeding the 10 and 7 but only fishing the 7 in the main meant they had somewhere to back off to and also i dont think i was getting to many in the main catching area which equates to less foulers at the end i thoght i thought i would have 80 poundish , but with dean on 19 admitting to 130 lb and
tony (the past master)witcomb saying 80 lb 2nd and 3rd was looking tight and with the speci lake sounding hard there didnt seem to be a threat from there.
as it turned out dean had 151.6 on 19 with most of his fish being taken at 5 mtrs on hard 8mm over 6,s, he did try catching on the island but suffered to many foulers.
i was 2nd with 104.13
3rd was tony witcomb just a burger behind with 104.9 on 21 on paste slime by the island
4th ray cooper on 25 speci with76 dead
5th jason radford 71.2 peg 32
6th gary wall 5.8 peg 15
silvers went to mike west on 3 with 31.4 mainly skimmers at 11 mtrs on soft pellet and corn

landsend loser

this wont take long to report. with 18 booked in we were going to use johns water and one bank of sydneys giving us all plenty of space, but with vince brown crying off on the morning due alchoholic excess and steve o,toole not even bothering to let me know, we were down to 16. i was still going to use one bank of sydney,s but due to mike west moaning that it was impossible to compete on sydneys and sulking like a spoilt brat in the cabin ,it was decided to put us all on john,s just to keep him happy. any way time for the draw and fabio drew 54 for me and 42 for himself(he aint drawing for me ever again). my peg was the last peg on the last island on the left hand bank, a peg with very little form and i cant remember when or if it has ever won a match, plus it was the calm end of the lake, and with the fish following the wind recently the far end of the lake would be the place to be. to say this side of the lake needs a serious trim is an understatement, that horrible spiky grass has completely taken over the island making it impossible to get close to the island, also with the level being down by about a foot or more i wasnt overly confident.
i,m not going to bore you with rigs and the like cos none of them worked all i had was one crucian and that was foulhooked under the chin, i did lose 3 carp but they were all foulhooked and 2 more crucians dropped off on the way back i juist couldnt get a bite , even the people using caster struggled with only small roach and rudd being caught, there were odd carp in the peg but they were up under the spikey grass having the occasional slurp and showing no signs of coming out. as expected the fish were at the windy end with rod wootten winning off peg 70 with 70.12 second was jason radford opposite on 41 with67.3 with both catching on pellet out in front then down the edge towards the end
3rd dean malin on 57 with 28.9
4th phil(how did i cock this up)harding 27.00
5th gary wall 22.00 peg 52
6th steve kedge 20.2 peg 50
silvers went to nick collins wth 14.14 on peg 46 all small roach and rudd on caster at 4 mtrs

weds avalon

after sunday,s match which was hard but fair i was expecting it to be a bit harder to get people to turn up for todays bash as people expect the chance to catch 100 lb or more , but avalon aint like that as you need to fish for each fish with every one being hard won , but thats the attraction for those that enjoy it and luckily i do, plus all the other venues we fish like viaduct,landsend, bullocks, acorn and so on ,they all have there good and bad points but they are all enjoyable to fish as they all require different approaches.
back to avalon and roger andoniou drew for me and handed me 32 which was on the third island up on the right hand bank, mint, park behind my peg to drop my gear off then move the van back to the carpark.
with the island only 20 mtrs away it was a short chuck on the pelletwag so a 2 ssg j range styro wag with a 16 b960 on .18 , the pole was put together to fish 16 mtrs and 19 mtrs (god thats hard), i saved the rig from sunday which was a 4x14 j3 and a 4x12 impact 10 for shallow just in case both with the same hooks as the wag rig .
for company i had chris fox on the right and steve kedge on the left, chris was the one to watch as he would fish for the carp and steve would probably target the silver vermin so my quid with him was already mine.
at the start i cupped in some 6,s at 16 mtrs and began firing 6,s towards the island trying hard not to feed into the reeds. it took a while to get a bit of fizz started and 30 mins to get my first bite which resulted in a 4 pounder gracing the net, by cupping some 6,s in after every fish i kept putting odd fish in the net , it wasnt manic but with no one seeming to be setting it alight it seemed to turning into a bit of a plod, i did try an odd sortie to 19 mtrs and i did manage a couple of fish but it was hard work as 19 mtrs excerts a tremendious ammount of leverage at the anglers end, it was agood job is wasnt windy . 2 hours from the end and i decided to pick up the wag rod as the reeds were now twitching like mad as i had managged to put some pellets into the reeds so the fish were going to stay put . so providing i got the wag to slide down a reed stem i could expect a bite, trouble is with this style of fishing you tend to hook stems and pull even more over the water making it even harder to get in tight but i did manage it a few times a few times to get 6 more carp in the net.
chris at the next peg had a right torrid losing 16 3 the the carp losing fish on any method he cared to try, he must have been watching tim clark on his right as i think he lost the same number due to the fish swimming through a gap in the island but we have come to excpect this with tim.
kedgey on my left did as i excpected and was admitting to 30 lb of silvers and as he had only used his topset it shows that the venue does have some silvers mileage to it.
as it was my 16 carp and a handful of skimmers went 87.12 which was enough on the day
2nd went to gary wall on 48 with 73.8 on paste down the edge
3rd roger(old git)andoniou 57.10 on peg 38
4th phil(fabsy)harding51.10 on peg 44
5th tim clarke 44.4 peg 28
6th martin lenaghan 42.2 peg 26
silvers went to steve kedge with 29.6 on peg 37 all roach caught up in the water on caster just using his topset
you may be wondering as to the whereabouts of a certain mr malin, well he decided not to fish the match but go on the speci lake to catch some skimmers he also took the fish finder to see if he could see where the fish were when they fizz. after the match i went up to see him and see what he had caught, and he pulled out his net which had about 60 lb of skimmers in it, not bad for a lake with no silvers in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and the fizz all he could tell was that all the fish seemed to 2 foot off the bottom all the time but if you put a bait at the same depth you wouldnt get a bite, we can only assume that that the fish go down take a mouthful the come up and eat it then go down and take another mouthful, which makes a lot of sense as the double bulk and lift method works so well for the skimmers

float only rnd 2 avalon

the day started well with the usual good breakfast in abby,s in bishopsworth, then yhe 35 minute drive to avalon, on the way the conversation with dean gets round as to how fast he can run, he sat there telling me and jason that he did a speed test up at bristol zoo last year and he clocked 38 mph now must of us know that even a top sprinter cant do much more than 20 mph. so we stopped on the moors by the north drain dean got out , fag in mouth and say,s i will hang on the hand grip inside the van through the open window while i accelerate to 20 mph , it started off ok up to about 10 mph but by the time i hit 20 he was taking 30 foot strides and there was look of panic on his face that nearly made me wet myself, when he gt back in the van he did inall fairness admit that he wasnt quite as fast as he used to be, i cant remember the last time i laughed that much, i wished we had video,d it.
back to the draw, dean drew for me and i ended up on 38 which is a good draw as its on the left hand side of the gap on the second island, for company i had leon hubbard on my right who is undoubtedly one of the south wests finest all rounders (and he beat me).
and matt dark on my left who aint as good as leon but he is a damn fine carpet fitter (and i beat him) . the peg has a lot of form as a waggler peg so a 3ssg pellet wag was put together with a 16 b960 for pellet to the island, a impact 10 dibber for shallow but that didnt happen and a 4x14 j3 for on the deck with the usual 16 hook to .18.
at the start i cupped in somme 6,s at 16 mtrs and began firing 8,s to the island, i had a bit of a fizz after a couple of minutes and a 6 pounder in the net after 10, i stuck with the pole for the first 2 hours and had 3 carp and 4 decent skimmers all on 8mm hard pellet. by then the wind had picked up to a near gale making presentation on anything nigh on impossible, i did manage 1 more carp on the wag and lost one but due to the wind coming staight at us on our side of the lake the float wouldnt stay on the island it was blowing staight back as soon as it hit the water , the wind was so strong that even 8mm pellets wouldnt get there sometimes. so at the end it was 4 carp and 4 skimmers, not a good day.
the match was won on the speci by chris fox with 12 carp for 62.4 on peg 19 on the pellet wag
2nd kev molten on 24 with61.1 on pellet down the edge
3rd andy lloyd 59.5 peg 13
4th fred roberts peg 20 with 56.8 and he lost 20 carp and floats as they kept swimming through the gap in the island
5th clint wojtyla 55.8 peg 10 on the speci lake
6th tom magnol on 18 speci lake with 50.13, he should have won as he has had 2 10 pomders jump out of his net and he lost a possible 20 pounderat the net and just when he thought his day couldnt get any worse , as he was putting his pole away he stood on it breaking all the sections between the no4 and the 13 mtr piece and i was having a bad day.
i ended up with 28 lb and leon beat me with a foul hooked 10 pounder(i had to tell them leon) giving him 35 lb, but you still got to land them.
i,m running a match at landsend 3 and 4 lake next sunday anyone wanting to fish ring me at the shop on 01179517250 to book in it will be a 10 am draw so book early to avoid dissapointment
silvers were won today by mike west on peg 7 again with 18.9 of skimmers on corn over pellet at 10 mtrs

wednesday landsend

back to landsend for the fortnightly knock up, and after a nice brekkie in abby,s dean , me and lofty radford were soon at the fishery.
dean drew for me and i ended up with peg 5, which is a nice peg as its only 13 mtrs to the island and 14.5 takes you to the corner of the island , and with little or no wind at least it was going to be a easy day not wrestling with a nasty side wind .
3 rigs soon made , a 4x12 impact 10 to .18 with the usual b960 for shallow/ stalking, a 4x10 impact 1 for up the far shelf and on the corner of the island with the same hook and line, and a 4x14 impact 6 on .14 with a 16 6313 for meat at 5 mtrs as the peg has a lot of form for silvers with decent skimmers and crucians.
on the whistle i threw some meat on the short line but didnt feed to the island yet as there were a few cruisers on the top, so it was straight out with the stalker rig and a 7 pounder was on its way to the net and with most people around me still potting bait in ,it was good start, with it being a narrow fishery and the fish being a bit wised up this method dont last long here so i only managed another one befor they dissapeared off the surface, i did catch one more later in the match doing it but that was it on that rig.
next on the meat line where i thought i would get some silvers but after 30 mins on that and only one bite which resulted in another 7 pounder that was that for that line, by know i had begun feeding three spots on the island 10 o,clock 12 and about 1.30 which is the point of the island. i began fishing between 10 and 12 picking off odd fish but losing a few foulers but as the match progressed the foulers got fewer as they began to feed properly, i kept feeding all three spots but refained from going to the point as i felt it gave the fish some where to back off to , as we had a 12 draw i left the point till 2 hours from the end which i think was agood move as it was solid, probably to many as the foulers started again but after losing a few the peg seemed to settle again as a few had been scared off leaving a bit more room in the peg(lol).
then i had a proper senior moment , with the match due to finish at 7.15 i dont understand why i called the all out at 6.15 luckily most people called me a rude name and carried on , i suppose the older i get the more of these blips are going to happen, i will have to speak to mike nicholls so he can explain to me as to what i can expect.
for company i had avon fire brigades finest each side of me today, on my right was rob lynn ,who to be fair hasnt fished for 2 years due to bad back problems , unfortunately i think he took advice from the man on my left tony the past(e)master witcomb aka daffodil who turned up with his bucket of paste slime and was gone befor the end.
i didnt know how the speci lake was going and as far as i could tell it was only martin lenaghan on 19 who was getting a few. by the time i called the second all out i think i had caught about 30 ish carp and with a decent average size i thought i had about 150 lb, i was abit out as they went 181.6 for first(dean was gutted as he has never drawn peg 5)
2nd went to adrian bishop on 27 with 108.1 all caught shallow against the island
3rd martin lenaghan 107.12 peg 19
4th phil(fabio)harding 82.10 on peg 32
5th jason(lofty)radford 75.7 peg 25
6th adrian jeffrey 59.10 peg 1silvers went to clayton(shiny tackle)hudson with 16.2 on peg 15 on worm and caster to the island.
off to avalon sunday for the second round of the float only lge, i may have a couple of spare places if anyone fancies a 50 plus pegger, ring me at the shop on 01179 517250 if interested