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