viaduct match lake

it wasnt hard to fill this match as there are only 14 pegs on the lake and it tends to be quite fair ,but a draw on the right hand side of the lake was favourite as the bulk of the skimmers seem to prefer that side at the mo and they are the target species with the carp and f1,s being the bonuses , but that will change as the carp grow, back to the draw and i let dean draw for me and i ended up on 51 which is the right side of the lake and i had dean for company on 52 and joe thompson on 50 , both of which were going to concentrate on the feeder which was good news for me as i was going to fish the pole at 13 and 16 mtrs with caster over caster and micro pellet mix, so i set up two 4x10 rigs with 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10 .
at the start i cupped in half a large pot of casters with a few micro,s at 16 mtrs and just a small pot of the same at 13 , beginning on single maggot at 13 mtrs i never had a bite fot 30 mins while shane caswell on 47 ahd caught a few skimmers and dean next door had some fish on the feeder, so after 35 mins i put a caster on went back out to 13 and the float went straight under, but i missed it(liner)the caster was still in place so i lowered the rig back in and it went under and a 12oz skimmer was safely netted , 3 more followed quickly before the swim died so i cupped a few more casters and pellets and started to get more indications followed by a few more skimmers then it slowed again, so i refed and went out to 16mtrs and had some more skimmers and by feeding each line and knicking a couple from each line i had bites right through the match , i did set up an at depth wag to fish 8mm pellet to the island but that only produced one 2lb carp, i did miss a couple of bites on the wag and bumped a fish but it was to hard as the willow tree,s were shedding there clingy horrible white fluffy bits making it impossible to sink your line so the float was getting dragged back towards you producing zero presentation, so the rest of the match was spent on the pole between the 2 lines , and by the endi reckoned on about 35lb which was good as far i could see , dean next door had taken a run of late fish down the edge but i didnt think it would be enough, and so it proved as my silvers went 38.6 and my 4 small carp weighed 5.4 for a total of 43.10 for first
2nd went to martin mcmahon on 45 with 35.13 of mainly small carp on the feeder
joint 3rd went to dean malin on 52 and tom mangnall on 40 both with 29.3
5th eddy wynne 26.10 peg 48
6th chris fox 25.11 peg 46

weds viaduct

25 booked in so we were on cambell and a bit of cary, a draw on cambell would be nice as cary was still being a bit hit and miss. into the bucket and out comes 130, right lake but not the best of pegs of late , and i was informed that the angler on it the day before never had a carp bite all day and never weighed at all, i did txt mr hudson and ask him how he fished it so i could do the opposite lol(sorry ian)but he never got back to me in time so i made up my own mind.
normally this peg is in the sun all day but with leighton palmer opposite casting a shadow over the lake it may be a bit chilly, i cant see him retaining his slimmers world slimmer of the year title next year, perhaps me and him should get together for a slim off challenge for a quid.
anyway back to 130, 4 rigs , a mear rig for the margins(never had a bite), a meat rig for 6 mtrs(1x6oz skimmer), and 2 pellet rigs for 14mtrs , one shallow on .18 with a 16 b960 and a 4x12 for using at full depth but with most the shot under the float with only 3x no10,s down the line to try and catch on the drop, the 14 mtr line was going to be attacked with 6mm fed through a catty and with 8mm on the hook.
for company i had jim baines on 132 who sloped off well before the end and on 129 the irrepressable mr charles barnes who was setting his stall out (eventually)for a meat attack at 9mtrs for silvers, so i did end up with a lot of water to draw from,
at the start i did cup one lot of 6,s at 14 mtrs and fed some meat on the 2 closer lines but as i have already said it never realy happened on those lines, but to be fair i didnt give them a proper go as there appeared to be enough fish at 14 mtrs to keep me enterained. i did manage a carp first drop in after about 5 mins but by now one of the new breed(lol)in the shape of the avon angling night watchman phil(fabio) harding on 115 had taken 2 and continued to catch and lose fish right through to the end as did lee wherrett on 110 although he lost far less than fabsy so that was first and second taken care of but in which order we would have to wait till the end.
as far as my match went i ended up with just over 20 carp and a few silvers, all but one being taken on the deep rig, there were some fish up in the water but the near gale blowing into and across it made shallow fishing to difficult with the rig getting blown along to fast for my liking, i did get one and lost a fouler but it wasnt right so most of the match was spent on the deep rig for a total weight at the end of 142.7
first on the day went to lee wherrett on 110 with 200.4 mostly taken on meat at 16mtrs out in front and down the left hand margin
2nd phil harding 174.1 peg 115 (he is suffering a bit of bridesmaid syndrome of late)
3rd andy lloyd 153.5 peg 88
4th tony rixon 142.7 peg 130
5th dean malin 140 peg 77
6th dan squire 125.8 peg 128
silvers went to kevin murch on 78 with 50.4 of meat caught skimmers at 6 mmtrs

chilton trinity widmarsh

with 2 rounds of the float only and a teams of 4,s on this lake i thought it would be a good idea to run a couple of opens on here , it must havce been a good call as i ended up with 34 booked in. this a lake which you need to approach carefully as it is more like a traditional venue where you need to target the skimmers ,roach and tench but saying that it is nearly always won with a carp weight but the carp tend to inhabit only a handful of pegs and these are well known, today i tried to leave the carp fliers out , but as normally happens the peg closest tend to get a few.
i let fishery manager misha herring draw for me and i ended up on 22 which is on the spit to the left of the shallow bar which runs across the lake from the far side, with this in mind i set up a wag to fish hard pellet at depth on the slope butn it was a none starter as the wind was so strong it was impossible to keep still, and as this was a float only event the lead rods were left at home.
so it was three pole rigs , a .75g for 9 mtrs with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish caster and mag over g bait , a 1.5g for 13mtrs(impossible to fish any further as the wind was to strong) with a 16 6313 on .12 to fish various baits over micro,s and a 4x14 rig for 3 mtrs each side on caster.
at the start i cupped in 2 balls of g bait at 9 mtrs some micro,s at 13 mtrs , began feeding caster each side and fired some 6mm pellets on the wag line just in case (but it never). the match started quite well with plent of small roach falling to caster over the g bait plus a couple of skimmers before it went quiet so i cupped in another ball of g bait and that kick started the peg again with more roach and another skimmer , i had only bought a bit of g bait with me and i think i paid the price as bela bakos at the next peg had put several balls more than me in at the start and had a good run of skimmers up to 3lb whereas i only had the odd one or it may have been that i was on the edge of the shoal as tom mangnall the other side of me only had one skimmer out in front but did manage a 4 pounder down the edge, thye 13 mtr line was a struggle as the wind was making presentation all but impossible , but i did get one small carp and 2 more skimmers , my end weight was 18lb for no good on the day.
first on the day went to dave roper on island peg 2 whose carp went 46.15 all taken on meat down his left hand margin
2nd was paul elmes with 45.15 on peg 9
3rd glen bailey on 13 with 43.9
4th steve preece 30.11 peg 44
5th bela bakos 26.1 peg 21
6th dean malin 25.8 peg 65
silvers went to steve kedge with his usual net of white bait which went exactly 20lb off island peg 3

landsend weds

we had abit of a change today as we were only allowed to use our topset plus number 4 section which was handy as the wind was meant to be quite strong today and blowing from the west is straight down the fishery making island fishing hard .we thought it would be good to try a short pole match as it seemed to be a winner at the sedges where they do a topset only league and its very popular , and you generally need
70lb to win with good backup weights.
roger andoniou drew for me so i ended up on peg 3, not the best under normal match conditions but today who knows.
i set up two 4x14 rigs ,one with an 18 6313 and the othewr with a 16 of the same pattern both on .12 and both to use at 4 sections and the left hand margin by a bush as it was the same depth and a 4x12 with an 18 hook for the left hand margin as it was about 1ft shallower.
starting in front i began by feeding softened 3mm with a 4mm soft pellet on the hook whilst feeding casters into each margin.
i began catching roach straight away so that was ok then about 10 mins in a decent common came by eating blossom off the surface so in dropped my pellet on its nose and it took it straight away, well that was a quick 7 pounder in the net, the first half of the match went ok as i had a couple more carp on the soft pellet plus a couple of good skimmers and crucians and f1,s then the bite dried up plus the wind was making it difficult to get decent presentation, so i started feeding some casters with the pellets and went into the margins with caster , but it was very slow , i must admit to expecting more from the left hand side as i have caught well there in the past ,but for some reason the fish didnt seem to be there, i did get 2 chub a small carp and some small perch but it wasnt good in the right hand side i managed a couple of perch and a small tench then nothing, so it was back out in front with double maggot and as there was some fizzing going on now i fully expected some action , and i did but mainly from fish that i needed to try and get to reverse into the landing net , i did land a couple of foulers (no suprise there then)and a couple in the mouth to end with 9 carp and about 20lb of silvers, due to the bankside foliage i couldnt see what was going on , except for the gimp on peg 5 who i could see was putting a steady stream of silvers into his net, even though he was moaning that he couldnt get a bite , and i could hear some splashing from the far side but i didnt know whether it was dean malin or dan white, as it turned out it was dan white who had been catching on meat and ended up winning with84.12 on peg 21
i was 2nd with60.6
3rd went to the inform tim ford with 55.3 on peg 7
4th tom thick on peg 16 with 54lb
5th mike nicholls on 15 with 49lb
6th alan oram with 48.12 on peg 12
silvers went the way of the gimp with 27.14 but only just with alan having 27.8 and tim netting 27.2
all ai all it was a very fair match with 7 weights over 20lb of silvers alone so we will try it again in a fortnight so book early to avoid dissapointment lol
perhaps some of the other fisheries in the area might give it a go, it may be a bit of an eye opener and its certainly easier on the arms

avalon open

a good turnout today with 34 booked in but with tom thick unable to get a lift we had to make do with 33, so we used the whole lake, with the weather forcast giving a dry day and westerly winds of up to 12mph it all looked good , then the wind started blowing at about 25 mph making a draw on the left hand bank looking good as the wind would be off your back, with fabio,s drawing arm being on song i let him draw for me, oh well it had to come to an end sooner or later as he drew 21 for me which is on the left hand bank(wind of my back again)facing the middle of the top island, i had tom mangnall to my right on 20 which is a good peg as there is a small gap in the island which always holds some fish , and alan oram on the left who would cut off any fish coming from that end of the island, so i couldnt see me getting much of a return from this swim.
i set up a meat rig for the right hand margin as it has a bit of form down by the reeds, a .5 rig to use at 13 mtrs with soft pellet or mags over micro,s and a 4x14 for banded pellet at 16 mtrs plus the mandatory pelletwag for this venue.
at the start i cupped in some micro,s at 13 ,some 6,s at 16, fired some 6,s to the island and began plopping some meat down to the reeds.
begginning at 13 mtrs with soft pellet i never had a bite , a switch to mags on the hook produces a couple of small rudd on the drop but i never had a bite on the deck there, so after 20 mins it was out to 16 mtrs but with no bubbles coming up i wasnt confident, and with tom on 20 already having a couple of small carp in the net my pound was looking dodgy. on the hour mark i finally had a proper bite which ended up with a 6 pounder gracing the net then i had 3 good skimmers in the next 30 mins, and that was my lot on the pole plus i never had a bite down down the edge , but as the reeds werent knocking i didnt pay it to much attention. the rest of the match was spent on the wag but ecven that was hard as there didnt appear to be enough fish there to make them compete , you could see the odd fish slurping off the island most of the match but they are hard to tempt when they are doing this, plus the fishery could do with a bit of a trim as there are lots of branches and reeds on the islands making it difficult to get tight. i managed 8or9 smallish carp on the wag but it was hard as the wind although being off my back it tended to swirl a bit as it hit the island and came back but it was no where near as difficult as must have been for those opposite, my 3 skimmers went 6lb and with my 9ish carp i had a total of 38.14 for nothing today, i did lose 4 fish on the wag which any one would have given me the section but adrian jeffery won the section with 40.2 which is good to see as its nice to see anglers of his advanced age still being able to do a bit.
any way back to the full result tim ford on 26 won with 61.14 taking 90% of his catch in the last couple of hours on the pole using banded 8,s feeding 6,s and catching at full depth (i think)and it was good to see a thatchers angler fishing properly and not chucking the method
2nd went to phil (fabio)harding with 59.9 on 26 which is a good result off that peg as its not the best
3rd tom mangnall on 2o with 53.8 who i think would have probably won if he hadnt spent most of the day telling his girlfriend he loved her(sickening to listen to)or throwing all his kit up and i mean up the trees on the island
4th dave roper on 7 with 53.7
5th nick collins peg 3 51lb
6th adrian jeffery peg 29 with 40.2
silvers went to john(the gimp)bradford on peg 48 with 23.4 of skimmers tench and chub on worm at 13mtrs
off to landsend on weds for a topset plus one match which should be interesting and on sunday its off to chilton trinity on wildmarsh for a float only match so if ant one is interested in either ring me at the shop on 01179517250 to book in

viaduct weds match on the match lake

as there was a daiwa trade match on cambell and cary it was decided to run a small match on the match lake ,and with only 14 pegs on the lake it didnt take much filling.
i must admit to liking this this lake as its a venue that takes a bit of thinking about as its not a carp crunching fish race lake with you needing to catch a variety of different species to win, with good skimmers being the target fish at the moment, but there is a good head of small carp up to 4lb aswell as tench and f1,s with some goldfish thrown in for good measure. as fabio was fishing today i let him draw for me again and he handed me peg 50 which i wasnt to upset with as no one really knows as to where the fish are going to come from cos they seem to move round a bit on this lake, and the few matches we had on the lake last year saw the winners coming from all over.
i set up a margin rig just in case but never had a bite on that but i didnt expect to as i wasnt in a corner and all the pegs were in, so thats the last time i will mention that.
my main line of attack would be at 13 mtrs and 16 with a 4x10 impact 6 float (available again yay) with a 16 6313 on .12 . i only set up the 1 pole rig as there was only 5 inches difference between the 2 lines , and a wag rod to fish hard 6mm on the deck towards the island.
at the start i cupped in some softened micro,s at 13 mtrs and half a big pot of casters at 16 and squirted a few 6,s towards the island , starting with 4mm jelly pellet at 13 mtrs i never had a bite in the first 10 mins which was a bit unusual as last year you could expect a bite first drop, so after 10mins it was on with double maggot and i hooked a 6oz skimmer on the drop ,which i tried to swing and it fell off, so back out and a 1lb skimmer was safely netted, i kept the odd skimmer coming for the first couple of hours on the 13 mtr line then it died , i found the best way to feed today was to fish for each fish as you needed to kinder some bait in and i found miro,s mixed with some casters then fish straight on top of it, you would get e fish almost straight away , but hardly ever 2 , very strange so it was a case of reeding after each fish , sometimes you would get another instantly or you would have a 5 to 10 min wait for another bite and the fish seemed to prefer single caster over maggot on the hook, at about the halfway mark i had a look on the wag and in tha next 45 mins i had 3 carp to 4lb and an f,1 but the white rubbish off the willow trees was making life difficult as you couldnt sink your line so i put that down and went out to the 16 mtr line and by feeding with the pot and fishing single caster i kept a few good skimmers going into the net right up to the end of the match. as far i could see around the lake i had done ok , the only people i couldnt see were tom thick on 45 and dean next to me on 49 who had had a lot of fish on the feeder and some more carp and f1,s down the edge ,but i neednt have worried as my silvers went 38.4 and the carp went 16.2 for a total of 54.6 for first in the match and also the top silver weight
dean malin was second with 45.12 on 49 with most of his fish falling to the open end feeder fished to the island with banded pellet
3rd was tom thick on 45 with 39.2
4th martin lenaghan 27.13 peg 52
5th paul homewood 22.15 peg 44
6th jamie parkhouse 21.1 peg 40

float only lge round 1 viaduct

49 booked in to fish this league which makes the pegging easy with 3x7 peg sections on cambell and cary and one section on lodge, i let fabio drawe for me today as he has a knack of drawing fliers for other people, and today was no excveption as he handed me peg 112 on cambell, which is a proper good peg , and making it better was the fact that the strong wind was mainly off my back ,which is a change as all i semm to do lately as fight the wind with my pole ,and thats a contest you just cant win.
i set up 4 rigs , couple of pellet rigs for shallow and on the deck at 14 mtrs with 16 b960,s 0n .18 , and 2 meat rigs , one for 5mtrs and 1 for the margin both with xedion size 14,s on .18, and as an after thought i went to the van and got a full depth wag rod out just in case all else failed.
at the start i fed some meat each side in the margins and some at 5 mtrs aand cupped some 6mm hard pellet at 14 mtrs, i intended to start at 14mtrs to let the meat lines settle , but mike nicholls on 130 had a carp first drop so i went out to 5mtrs with the meat and had a carp first drop aswell, followed by three more in the next 40 mins but the bites were few and far between so i went out to the 14 mtr line with banded 8mm and started firing 6,s over the top, i was on a 4x14 rig with a bulk about 1/3 up from the hook with no dropper as i cant see what benefit a no 10 shot has when the bait is heavier than the shot , and i began catching quite steadily with a lot of the fish taking the pellet on the last bit of the fall ,so i slid most of the shot up under the float with just 2 no10,s and 1 x 8 down the line and that seemed better with a lot of the fish taking on the drop, i did try shallow several times but couldnt raise a bite on it , i think the heavy rain during the night may have stopped them coming up, so instead of feeding all the time it was better to feed a coup[le of pouches ,catch a couple and feed again, the foulers werent really as problematic as normal iether, i kept trying the 5mtr meat line and took a few more fish there and i had 1 from my left hand margin but small roach kept nibbling the meat so i didnt give it to many goes.by the end i had about 30ish carp and a tench and a skimmer for a total weight of 192.10 for first on the day but i nearly cocked it up as i had 86lb in one net and there is a limit of 70lb per net and if you go over 90lb the net is cancelled(oops)that was close, and with the fish getting bigger its going to get increasingly hard to call, as i only had 13 fish for that 86lb
2nd was clayton hudson on 116 with 121.7
3rd kev molten 118.4 peg 111
4th mat tomes 117.2 peg 121
5th bob gullick 110.13 peg 113
6th ron hardiman 97.4 peg 118
silvers went to john bradfords apprentice tom thick on peg 94 with 33.13
i think there would have been a lot more fish caught if the wind hadnt been as strong as the anglers on the opposite bank were struggling to hold more than 6mtrs of pole(aint life a bitch)

de ja vu at weds landsend

only a dozen today so we were all on tha match lake , i was made to draw my own peg today and went and drew peg 7 again , and mike (edge dweller)west had the last ticket and ended up on 5 again. i decided on a slightly different approach today , i was going to fish the meat(vogue bait)down the middle for the silvers (skimmers and f1,s)so i set up a 4x12 rig on .12 with a 16 6313 , a big meat rig for under peg 8(never had a bite on that ), a hard pellet rig to fish long past pallet 8 by some reads and the usual 4x8 rig for over under the small bush. at the start i did all the normal things of feeding the empty pallet , the pellet swim past that , some 6mm meat down the middle and fired some pellets to the bush ,and some towards peg 6 and the gap in the island as i,m beginning to think peg 6 needs to be in so peg 7 can draw some fish off the swim, starting on the meat it was a lot slower than i expected actually bites were non existent, and my first bite after 20 mins resulted in an ide of just over a pound, 15 mins later and my 2nd bite ended up with a 3lb carp , and that was the end of the bites on meat , i should have known better as i have tried the meat several times at this venue and never managed to make it work. i went down the edge for a quick look just in case something had settled over it early doors, but no joy here either, the trouble with 7 is is that you have a grandstand view of peg 19 and martin lenaghan had taken 4 fish in his first 4 put in fishing shallow and was catching fairly regularly, and as far as i could see no one else was getting much so the winner was already sorted so all the rest of were looking for a placing, i wasnt to worried as the day had begun well as me and dean had the usual abbies brekkie then went into the bookies for a quick go on the roulette machine, so we put a tenner in and put it all on numbers 0 and 32 woohoo 32 come in and we walk out with 102 quid, thats the day paid for then.
back to the fishing and by the halfway mark and all i had was 3 carp and a skimmer and an ide , a look down the edge on the pellet line produced 2 fish ,one was a skimmer and the other a 7lb carp but that was the total of my bites down the edge , i never had a bite by the pallet on meat either . by now mike west was well and truly anchored to his margins and waiting for some action, which he did get by the end with a few reasonable fish stumbling over his garlic meat.
the last 2 hours of the match were my best period with some fish turning up on the long line towards 6 but with it being only about 10 inches deep and the fish being a bit cute it was a case of feeding and trying to catch one before the pole spooks them but i managed 13 fish over ther giving me a 16 carp total and 2 silvers and with no one apart from martin really catching well it was going to be tight for the minor placings.
as expected martin lenaghan won easily with 112 1
2nd the new breed mat tomes had 70.6 on peg 15
3rd t rixon 65.6 peg 7
4th andy france 57.14 peg 21
5th kev molten 55.3 peg 1
6th dean malin 53.4 peg 11
in the abcence of tom thick john bradford got his silvers crown back with 30lb off peg 3

another bank holiday match. landsend

only 14 booked in for todays match but mike still let us spread out a bit as there didnt seem to be as many pleasure anglers about today so we pegged the match lake and half of the speci. jason radford drew 31 which was the peg anton page smashed the match record on recently with 342lb so i didnt think the record was under any threat today. or any other day come to think of it , i think it will be a record that will never be broken, but as the saying goes never say never.
i made the mistake of letting andy france draw for me again , even though after thhe last time he did i said i wouldnt let him do it again, so i was off to peg 7 then, its a peg that i have done ok off in the past as there is a shallow ledge under a small bush on the far bank and providing you keep feeding it the last half of the match can be very productive, so i set up a 4x8 rig on .18 with a 16 b960 for that , a 4x12 on .16 with an 18 b960 to fish hard 6,s over 4,s at 5mtrs and a meat rig on .20 for under the empty each side.
at the start i cupped in a few 4.s at 5mtrs some meat under the the pegs each side and began firing 6,s to the far bank bush, beginning at 5 mtrs it soon became apparent that the wind was going to play a big part in the days proceedings as it was strong now, blowing left to right and forecast to get stronger(mint), so the far bank was going to be a struggle, i had abite straight away well i think it was aloiner to be honest as a skimmer went cartwheeling away from the swim. 15 mins in and a proper bite resulted in a 3lb carp but that was the only fish i had on that line, by now there were some tails on the far bank but i have learnt from past experience that it pays to leave them to get confident before you try and catch them, especially on this venue cos the fish tend to be a bit cute as they have been in here a few years now and have seen it all, so the more confident you can get them in the shallows the better it is . as the 5 mtr line seemed to be a bit of a non starter i cupped some 4,s at an angle to my right at 14mtrs(with the wind). a quick early look on the meat lines produced nothing so i went across but the early activity had stopped , i did manage 1 carp but the wind was making all but impossible to get the rig tight to the bush, in fact i spent more time in the bush rather than under or near it, when i,ve done well off this peg in the past i have ussually had an angler on peg 6 which is on the gap in the islands and i think that helps peg 7 as with someone feeding the gap means that you can draw some fish off them as you can see fish working there way towards you , but not today. i was confident of catching but late as the fish need to find the bait, and thats basically what happened as the fish turned up in the last hour , but the wind had so strong it was all but impossible to get presentation and 2 part grown duckling turned up to really annoy me , the thing with ducks is that they annoy the angler more the fish as i could still see tail patterns in between the 2 tiny terrors, then it happened , the rig got blown up the bush(again)and with the pellet on view one of my little feathered mates nailed it luckily pulling my rig out of the bush, it didnt take more than a few seconds to net the duckling as an 8oz feather duster is no competition for .18 and 16 elastic and when you put the ducky back (honest i did) they tend to bugger off. before that i did manage 2 small carp and some reasonable skimmers on the 14 mtr line and a chub,a skimmer and a tench on the meat lines and a lost carp which did some knitting with my rig under the pallet, i ended up with 10 small carp and some silvers which was going to be no good today.
1st on the day was rod(i cant stand the speci lake)wootten on peg 25 with 120.6 caught on pellet fished long up his left hand margin
2nd tim clarke who had a bite every put in(his words not mine) on paste but done well to avoid them and only put 61.6 on the scales off peg 1
3rd was simon hebditch,s whipping boy nigel bartlett on peg 11 with 60.12 which also included the top silvers weight on the day with 32lb
4th mike (if i sit with a piece of meat on down the edge long enough i will get a bite)west with 55.12 peg 5
5th tony(i must phone the new breed matt tomes to see where i am going wrong)rixon
with 51.10 peg 7
6th andy(the leg end)bryant on 19 with 48lb
fabio won the silvers by default with 27.4 off peg 15 , fairplay to fabsy he has done ok with silvers of late so perhaps he has found his niche as the smaller weights of silvers are much easier to attain for him rather than the big weights needed to win overall (well that should be enough to wind him up LOL)

sedges brick lake

20 today so the lake was full as there are only 2o pegs on there. i let dean draw for me which is usually a mistake, i fancied a peg about halfway up either bank but i ended up on 19 , 2 out nof the corner , at least the wind was off my backl so i was in for a more comfortable day than the anglers opposite who had in there faces,
there were quite a few fish showing down the middle of the lake so i set yup a pellet wag , a shallow rig , a margin rig and 2 deep rigs ,one for meat and one for hard pellet. the meat rigs were on .16 with a xedion 14 hook whilst the pellet rigs were also on .16 but with a 16 b960 hook.
at the start after feeding all my pole lines it was out on the wag, which may have been a mistake as chris davis on 18 had a quick carp shallow but bt the end of the first hour i had 3 and chris had 2 but as far as i could see his 2 would weigh more than my three put together, then after that first hour niether chris or me could get a bite shallow, so i went out to 14 mtrs with hard pellet on the deck and had a good skimmer on 6mm banded, but it was really hard to get a bite , even john bradford fishing caster couldnt get a bite , most people seemed to be getting odd carp and skimmers with meat or in tom thick,s case his usual soft pellet over micro,s approach was producing plenty of skimmers for him. the carp didnt seem to want to feed today as they havent spawned properly yet , they started to go a couple of weeks ago but then the temps dropped and the majority stopped .
as i said no one was setting it on fire , although scott puddy on 9 was now getting an odd carp on the lead on pellet and towards the end chris davis next door was tempting odd good fish down his rigth hand margin towards the gimp, who was only fishing for silvers , i did manage 3 more carp on meat ,one at 5 mtrs and two at 14, but chris next door had some good fish in the margin, so as far as i could see scott was the only threat to him, but it turned out chris had done enough as his net went 72.10
2nd was scott puddy with 67.2
3rd tom thick with 54.15 which included top silver weight of 45.14
4th steve seager 54.3
5th tony rixon 42.2
6th ron hardiman and steve hutchinson both with 35.14

float only league 2011

the league kicks off next sunday with the first round at viaduct. i,ve got 48 booked in and can still squeeze onother few in if i have to , with 2 rounds each at viaduct, chilton trinity and landsend its looking to be an interesting league , entry is 60 quid which is your peg fee,s paid up front and your pools for the last match paid, so if you fancy it ring me at the shop on 01179 517250 or on mobile 07974807941