viaduct 5,s round 4

with me drawing us rubbish pegs it was decided that ron hardiman would do the team draw for us today, which he duly did and i ended up on 26 on spring, not a draw you would want on past form in this series, there is a bush to the left at 14 mtrs which does throw up the odd carp but it had only produced one so far in this series, and with vince brown on peg 1 fishing back to the same bush i didnt think either of us would get one as it was a bit of an overkill by the bush, but i set up a 4x14 rig on .16 with a xedion 18 on to fish maggot and caster over caster feed by the branches.
i also set up a 4x16 rig to fish for silvers at 16 mtrs at 11 and 1 over groundbait with an 18 6313 on .10.
on the whistle i cupped in 2 balls of my dedicated skimmer g bait(christ that makes me sound like mike nicholls lol)at 11 and 1 and cupped some casters down to the bush, shipping out to 16 mtrs at 1 o,clock first drop produced a 12oz skimmer, nice start, and that set the trend for the rest of the match really as i caught steadily right through the match on the 16 mtr line with skimmers from 3oz to 3lb on single caster or maggot with a 4 inch hooklength with 2 x no10,s just off bottom i had a lot of positive lifters which are nearly impossible to miss, as the wind and tow increased i did move the shot a bit further away .
i did get a 1 1/2lb perch at 5 mtrs on caster but down the edge was the expected waste of time with only a 5oz rudd and the other side of the bush only produced a small roach for vince, by the end i reckoned i had over 30lb of skimmers and with josh garrett on 19 having the most carp on the lake with 3, i had probably done enough to win the lake, fred roberts on 24 had about 25lb of skimmers. the scales turned up with fred to weigh first and he put 26.13 on the scales then there was 15lb on 25 . i must admit i was pleasently suprised when i lifted my net out as it felt like it was over 40lb, in fact it went 43lb which gave me a lake win and first in the silvers, and to say i moaned about the peg was a bit of an understatement, but it just goes to show , every peg has its day, it was a good job the skimmers decided to move away from there usual haunt which is on 16 to 19 and the carp shut up shop as well.
the match was won by steve seagar with 105.8 on peg 99 with popped up bread onm the lead
2nd tom mangnell 96.7 peg123
3rd paul greenwood 87.10 peg110
4th tony creech 77.2 peg 115
5th steve jackson 65.2 peg 113
6th james knight 60.6 peg 128
silvers
1st tony rixon 43lb peg 26
2nd fred roberts 26.13 peg 24
3rd mark broomsgrove 24.5 peg 9
4th vince brown 19.4 peg 1
tems on the day overall

viaduct 71 garb bmvmg 214
garb bmvmg 64 silverfox 213
somerset angling 212
silver fox 58 mv red 209
somerset majik 57 viaduct 209
mv red 52 westerliegh 181
thyers 49 jinx 176
mv blue 49 allstars 172
somerset angling 47 avon angling 171
avon angling 46 mv blue 170
keyford 41 keyford 157
westerliegh 40 somerset majik 146
langport 39 thyers 138
allstars 36 amigos 121
select 35 langport 109
jinx 34 megabait 102
amigos 29 select 101
megabaits 21

landsend weds

19 turned up today so yet again mike let us spread over match and speci so we all had plenty of room. i let the wednesday newby(stuart stevens)draw for me, and he handed me peg 1, its a peg which gives you plenty of options, but i think it often pays to just concentrate on a couple of areas, so with that in mind i set up a 4x14 rig to use towards the island with an 18 6313 to .10, and the same rig would do to use at 14 mtrs towards the far bank at 2 o,clock and under the tree at 3mtrs to my right, and a 4x10 rig on .12 with a 16 6313 to use up the edge in 2 ft of water with caster.
at the start i cupped in some soaked micros at 14mtrs towards the island and 2 o,clock, some casters up the edge at 13 and 16 mtrs and began feeding some under the bush to my right.
first put in by the island with a 4mm soft pellet and i had a good f1 of about 1 1/2 lb next drop and i hooked a carp which came off when i had it down to the topset,i had a few more f1,s in rthe next hour then it went quiet, so i refed and went to the 2 angle and had some good skimmers and another f1 and 1 carp. at the halfway mark both the island and 2 angle dried so i refed both lines and went under the tree with single caster, and found myself attached to an 8lb carp, it took me about 5 mins to land it on the light gear,but its not a race at this time of year, and apart from a couple of small perch that was the end of the margin action, all this time martin lenaghan on peg 7 was hooking carp fishing long up to his right as there was 3 empty pegs that way and the fish seemed to be happily sat there away from any commotion, and he was catching on corn and 6mm soft pellet over micros.
i now went up the edge on double caster and began getting some reasonable perch, i also lost a few cos i think my elastic (double 8)was a bit harsh, i prefer softer elastic for perch but with a good chance of carp on this line that would have been a recipe for disaster. i did get 2 more skimmers and another carp on the 2 angle but the small roach had turned up and begun to nibble the pellet so most of the last 2 hours were spent down the left picking off odd perch and carp, it seemed to be fishing ok as far as silvers go but the carp were having a bit of an off day with only martin on 7 hooking them but he lost more than he landed but he,d done enogh as he weighed 91.10 for a comfortable win, fairplay to martin as he has been doing ok of late meaning he must be right up there in the top 5 with shrimphead(mat tomes)
2nd went to the the thatchers transexual tom thick with 64.4 on peg 31 with 3 good carp down the edge in the last 20 helping him out
3rd was me with a silvers and carp total of 57.2
4th ed wynne 39.4 peg 19
5th phil harding 30.3 peg 35
6th martin pettifer 28.11 peg 15
silvers
tony page 33 lb on peg 40 with some early perch up the edge and then some good skimmers and f1,s at 17 mtrs towards the island on soft pellet

landsend open sunday

we had the use of speci and johns water(lake3)today so i wasnt to sure where i wanted to draw so i let ray bazeley draw for me and gave me 38 on the speci , not a peg i would have chosen but hey ho you just make the best of what youve got and get on with it. i set up a 4x14 rig with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish caster straight out at 13 mtrs, and soft pellet at 14 mtrs at 2 and 10 o,clock, it was the same dpth on all 3 lines so it was acase of 1 rig does all. i set up a 4x10 rig on .14 with an 18 xedion for corn and caster up the shelf against the island, but i wont mention that rig again as it only produced 2 roach during the day.
at the start i cupped some soaked micro,s at 2 and 10 and a healthy pot of casters at 13 hoping for some perch. starting at 10 o,clock i had to wait 20 mins for my first fish which was a 10oz skimmer on a 4mm soft pellet, which was followed by 3 more up to 2lb and a carp in the next hour, i did keep trying the 2 o,clock angle but for some reason i never had a bite there, the caster line at 13 mtrs was a bite a chuck from roach between 1oz and 6oz but i did get one of a pound but that was a one off, i hooked one perch of about a pound but the line was wrapped around its fins as i was trying to net it and as the line pinged off it fell off, that was the only perch i hooked, obviously when nick c was on it a couple of weeks ago he must have spooked them by losing loads lol(was that ok matty).
my most popular area was definately the 10 o,clock line where i ended up with 6 good skimmers up to 2 1/2lb and 7 carp to 12lb ,4 on soft pellet and 3 on corn for what i thought would go about 55lb(wrong). my silver net went 17lb and the carp went about 52 giving me a total of 69.12 which was good enough for 2nd on the day, results as follows.
1st bob gullick 73.8 peg 61 johns water , carp on corn at the bottom of the far shelf
2nd t rixon 69.12 peg 38
3rd eddie wynne 64.2 peg 31
4th les williams 55.8 peg 45
5th steve seagar 47.10 peg 33
6th mike west 44.3 peg 68
silvers
stu foale on 41 with 18.10
every peg has its day even 38 especially as they have fins so fish can turn up anywhere making bad good and good bad, mind you if i had blown you would have heard me moaning with the best

paul garrett

i first met paul sometime between 15 and 20 years ago at viaduct back in the robby winram days ,and i feel lucky to have been able to call him a friend ever since, he was always cheerful and never more so than when his son josh was giving us all a caning on the bank. all i do know is that it was a massive shock to me when i had a call to let me know that paul had passed away in his sleep, at 52 it is a cruel blow to his family, and i know he will be sorely missed by all his mates from the angling world, my thoughts are with his family at this sad time. rip mate

chilton trinity weds

17 of us today, and we were met with a strong south easterly blowing in and across towards the far bank, a draw in the flat water at the top end would be nice, but i wasnt to upset when misha drew peg 11 for me, even though it meant i had to contend with the cold wind. 2 rigs today, a 1grm rig to try and fish at 14 and 5mtrs and a .4 rig to use in the margins to my left towards empty pallet 12 , empty due to the fact its in need of repair and not safe to use, the margin rig had an 18 xedion hook to .14 ,while the 1grm had the usual 18 6313 to .10, both rigs on xedion rig line.
for some reason the peg to draw of late has been 24 as it has won the last 3 matches we have had on here and with andy france on it who is more than capable of catching a few he should have been the man to watch but he really bucked the trend on this peg and was gone before the end.
at the start i cupped in some caster at 5 mtrs and in the margin and some soaked 3,s and 4,s at 14mtrs, starting at 5mtrs i never had a bite so it was out to 14 after 15 mins and i had 2 small carp for about 3lb but then no more bites, so i refed and had a better one about 10 mins later, after 2 hours i had only had one more carp and a few small roach, also the wind had picked up so i put a 2 grm rig on, which behaved a lot better in the 8 ft of water, it was just getting to hard to hold the pole still.into the margins and i must say i was suprised a bit when the float buried straight away and i had to have a bit of tug of war to get it out into open water, i l;anded that one and had 3 more in the next 3 drops, these are nice pegs for margin fishing as its a good 3ft deep tight in and as i was only fishing at about 4 mtrs it was easy fishing. i refed and went back out to 14 mtrs and had another carp, but it was to windy to get good presentation, i did try in the right hasnd margin but never had a bite that side, i did get a carp and a good skimmer at 5mtrs towards the end but most of the sport came out of the margin with the fish coming even closer towards the end as i took 3 carp on my topset next to my platform in the last 15 mins.
i think i ended up with 15 carp to about 6lb, and i thought that i had enough as i hadnt seen to many people catching.
the scales went 67.2 for first place, with all the fish falling to double maggot, always a good bait when small roach arent being a problem
2nd went to jason radford with 34.14 on peg 18 which was only 6 fish taken on corn
3rd tom thick 24.10 ped 2
4th andy curry 24.6 peg 16
5th adrian clark 23.14
6th andy hembrow 23.13 peg 7
silvers went to steve kedge on peg 27 with 19.14 which was 3 tench plus some roach and skimmers on chopped worm and caster at 4 and 13 mtrs
2nd in silver was chris fox with 6.8 on peg 31
there is a match at landsend sunday on speci and number 3 (johns)ring the shop to book in, but dont go to shipham for brekkie on sunday as they have been shut down by the bank

viaduct 5,s rnd 3

firstly i must apologise for being a day late, i couldnt get to the pc on sunday night as judith was doing the ironing and the laptop was all but buried under clothes.
it was my turn on match lake section and the draw sequence put me on peg 48 which doesnt give me an island chuck, there are only 2 pegs on this lake without island options and josh garrett on 39 had the other one, getting to my peg the i was met with a left to right and into me near gale force wind, mint no feeder chuck and only a nominal wag chuck so the pole was going to be my best option.
one of the best parts of the day was watching fabio on peg 40(island chuck)looking for his number 5 section that i had snuck out of his pole the day before, it took him a good 5 mins of trying before he realised the 4 didnt fit on the 6, then it was another 5 mins of searching and banging about until i txt him and asked as to whether he had lost something and he did ;ook mighty relieved when i gave it back, he is mint on a wind up as he gets all stressy, so come on everyone feel free to have a go.
2 rigs today, a .5grm with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish at 11mtr and if the wind allowed 14 mtrs, and a 4x10 rig with the same hook but on .12 to go to the left hand margin at 14 mtrs by some dead reeds. at the start i cupped in 1 ball of g bait at 11 mtrs and 2 balls at 14, oh and i did set up a wag rod to fish over the g bait lines if i needed a rest from the battering by the wind on the pole, i also cupped in some casters down the margin.
it took me 30 mins to get a bite but it was worth it as it was a 2lb tench, but i new i was going to be up against it as the aglers over to my left had begun to get bites on the wag as they could feed to the island as the gale was of there backs, and they were getting odd smasll carp and skimmers ,as were the anglers over to my right as they were throwing the feeder to the island and getting the same, i did mansge another slightly smaller tench and a skimmer in the first 90 mins, but presentation was at an all time low due to the wind, but i must say my garbolino g maxx 1000 coped really well with the short 4,s probably helping, a look down the margin produced a good perch and a small/tiny common carp, no matter what i tried i couldnt raise a bite on anything or any where, what made matters worse was that i could see fabio through the trees netting fish so the 2 quid side bet was gone this time, 30 mins from the end the wind dropped and i had 2 bites at 14 mtrs one was a 12oz goldfish and the other was a 1 1/2 mirror, and that was my lot for what i thought would be about 9lb, i was 1oz out as i had 9lb 1oz. dan squires won the lake on peg 52 with 40lb on the wag with fabio coming second on the lake with 29lb.
the match was won by martin preston on 85 with 90 plus pounds which included a 24lb common all taken on the lead with popped up marshmallows, what is it coming to, that is one bait that would be no goob for me as it wouldnt even get to the bank, i did catch on jelly baby heads once, i was eating the bodies and putting the heads on the hook until but they got the better of me and i ended up nailing the heads aswell mmmmmmm.
and spare a thought for josh on 39 who never had a bite but had to watch dan and fabio each side coming first and second on the lake, josh is no mug as he has probably won more matches on this venue than dan and fabio put together but it just goes to show how important an island chuch is on this lake at the mo, but that does change as the weather and water warms up, i dont mean any disrespect to dan with this comment ,but fadio well thats another story.
as for the league and results on day see mikes blog.

weds landsend

another reasonable turnout today saw us spread out over match and speci, anton page drew for me and gave me 40 which is a corner peg on speci, not a peg that has shown any real form for months, but i wasnt to upset as it has to switch on sooner or later. for company i had nick collier moaning on 38 and phil with the weak bladder harding opposite on 25, if he went once he must have gone for a dribble 12 times, very strange ,perhaps its a nervous thing.
i set up 4 rigs today, a 4x8 rig for down to my left under the bush on .16 with a 16 xedion hook for the carp which sometimes hide under the bush.a 4x14 with a 18 6313 on .10 for perch in front of the bush, a 4x14 for soft pellet out in front and a 4x12 for on top of the margin shelf for double caster for carp and perch. at the start i cupped in some soaked micros at 16 mtrs some casters on top of the shelf at 15mtrs and thew some casters down the edge and out in front of the bush.
it took 15 mins to get my first bite on soft pellet and that was a roach(mint), and for the first hour all i could get was small roach, apart from 1 rogue 6oz skimmer,i went on to my banker perch line in front of the bush and had 1 bite and 1 roach, so i got the under bush margin rig out put 4 mags on the hook and lowered it in, after a couple of mins the float buried and a 5 pounder was soon in the net, and yes it was fouled under the chin, and even though i fed and tried it several times i never had another bite down there or in fact out in front of the bush, by now at about the halfway mark phil oipposite had 1 carp about 9lb and was getting plagued with small roach, and nic on 38 had gone for a walk as he was threatening to do damage to his pole as he was approaching double figures of lost big perch but it all makes for good entertainment.
the top of the magin shelf in 3ft of water was the most productive with 3 more carp and a few good perch and an f1 all on caster, the last hour which can be the most productive was ruined cos those nasty little roach turned up and nailed every bait i put in the water, my net went 29.8 for nothing today but thats life.
first on the day went to charlie barnes rent boy thomas thick with 71.4 which included the top silvers weight on the day with 44lb of f1,s and skimmers taken at 11mtrs on peg 3 on soft pellet, and it was a golden peg aswell which earnt him an extra 100 quid
2nd alan oram on 16 with 9 late carp fot 44.15
3rd adrian jeffrey with 43.8 on peg 33, its good to see the doctors have got his medication right as thats 2 pick ups in 2 outings, cmon the complan kid.
4th martin lenaghan 41.9 peg 19(christ this bloke can draw)
5th kev molton 33.5 peg 11
6th anton page on 13 with 29.14
its a shame mat the shrimp tomes wasnt here as its always good to fish against the best and as he has been explaining to his new workmates that he is in the top 5 best anglers in the area it would be a good test for the rest of us if he was here, i think you should go and see your gp matty to get that bullet hole in your foot seen to lol.

landsend lge rnd 4

back to a random draw today as its the 4th of 6 matches, so mat(shrimphead )tomes drew for me and handed me 34 which is a reasonable peg on the speci lake at the end of the island and one out of the corner, i drew for mat as he was helping with the draw and i gave him 28 which is on the far side of the speci ,halfway along the island, and not so good this time of year(he he he). at least i had avoided the long walk to lake 3(johns water) where the gale we were forcast would be at its worse. back to my p[eg and to be honest it can be a good silvers as well as carp peg , so i set up a 4x14 with a 16 6313 on .12 for soft pellet ovewr micros at 13 mtrs another rig of the same size and line but with an 18 for caster at 14 mtrs at the bottom of the island shelf and a 4x12 for on top of the island shelf with a 16 on .14 .
on the whistle i cupped in some soaked micros at 13 mtrs ,some casters at 14 at the bottom of the shelf and a mix of caster, pellet and dead mags on top of the shelf in 3 spots allong the far side. my match started well with a chub, a skimmer and 2 carp in the first hour which was more than anyboby else as far as i could see. anton page was doing ok on 32 fishing for silversgetting small roach with the odd good perch. just over an hour in i went up the far shelf with a piece of corn on, which resulted in a 1 1/2 lb chub but that was it over there with no more bites so i fed a bit more and dropped down the shelf into the deep water at the base of the shelf, and i started getting bites straight away from small roach good perch and a couple of chub and by rotating round the swims i kept bites going all day with some good perch from the far side with several going over 2lb, i had 2 more carp from the 13 mtr line one on corn and one on maggot ,both in the mouth aswell and another on double caster on top[ op the shelf by the island, when the scales arrived my 5 carp went 34lb and the silvers went 24lb for a lake win and more importantly a section win as i will be missing the next round as i,m off on holiday but i,m back for the last round when i will be on lake 3.
the overall match today was won by nick duckett on 19 match lake with 69.13 using pellet at 14.5 mtrs
2nd was me with 58lb which included the top silvers weight with 24lb
3rd paul elmes on peg 24 with 54.11
4th adrian jeffrey 51.15 peg 70
5th mark poppleton with 41.6 peg 41
6th james withers 40.05 peg 68
i will put up the top 10 overall and the top 6 in silvers tommorrow cos i cant be assed and top gear will be on soon and there is a piece of apple crumble with my name on it in the kitchen and thats much more important mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

chilton weds

with dean not going today as he has been playing silly buggers with the younger fitter blokes at park furnishers and he has put his back and neck out and is unable to hold a rod let alone play a fish and jason(lofty)radford not fishing iether as he has met some dodgy bird on facebook so he is in love with a cyber bint, so i had phil(fabio)harding for company.
there was 15 booked in so misha let us use the whole lake, so we had plenty of room .
fabio drew for me and handed me peg 30, on recent form not a good area and fabsy drew peg 2 for himself(selfish), well at least i had a short walk as its the first peg across the bridge from the carpark. 2 rigs today ,a 1grm for 13 aND 16 mtrs and a .4grm for the margins in 4 ft of water. the long pole line had an 18 to .10 while the margin rig also had an 18 on but to .12. at the start i cupped in some micros and maggots at 13 and 16 mtrs and some casters and mags in the margins, starting at 13 i was soon getting bites from small roach and nothing else , and by now with only 30 mins gone fabio was already getting carp down the edge, tom thick on 6 had 1 carp as did 5 anglers at the other end, out at 16 mtrs after an hour and it was pretty much the same with only small roach to show for my efforts, the only person getting a few silvers was charlie barnes on 11 who was by now targetting the plippy roach, after 2 hours i had a 8lb carp at 16 mtrs on double maggot but that was the only carp i hooked on the long pole, i did hook 1 to my right in the margin but all i landed was a scale, i hooked 3 to my left landing one 2 pounder ,losing a fouler and one did me in a snag ,i did keep catching small roach and in hindsight(again) i would have been better targetting the small roach as no one was running away with the silvers.
with 2 hours to go phil had 20 small carp on maggot down his margins, andy curry on 24 had 11 better ones and andy france on 13 had 6 or 7, so what do i do, carry on trying to catch carp bit all i could get was roach.
in the end it was andy(ruby)murry who won through with 14 carp for 92.2 with all his fish falling to maggot or expander over micros at 14 and 16 mtrs on pegh 24
2nd with his 20 smaller carp was phil harding with 50.12
3ed andy france 42.6 peg 13
4th tom thick 28.6 peg 6
5th john bradford 25.14 peg 6
6th nigel bartlett 25.9 peg 16
silvers went to charlie barnes with 7lb on peg 1and i scraped 2nd in silvers with 5.12