acorn lakes practice match

22 booked in today but due to some doctors notes being sent to the draw we ended up with 19 , still a good number for a wednesday, we were using paddock lake which has 40 swims on it ,so plenty of room.i let roger andoniou draw for me even though he tends to give me a crap peg , but today he handed me peg 33 which is a bridge swim and anyone who knows this venue will know that the bridges really guarantee a days sport, i had dave roper the other side of the bridge on 34 and to my right was anton page who was miles away on 28, i had decided to fish with some live baits for a change in the shape of worm and caster down the middle by the bridge and up to my right ,still in the middle, feed and fish caster over by the grass on the far bank and pellet and corn up to the empty swim to my right, the worm rig was a 4x14 affair with a 14 6313 on .12, over was a 4x10 with a 16 6313 on .14 whilst the pallet rig was 4x12 on .16 with a xedion hook. at the start i cupped in some w&c on the worm lines some caster in 2 spots across and some pellet and corn to the pallet, i think tom thick on 3 had caught 2 fish on peg 3 before i had finished feeding on his soft pellet approach fished tight across.
i went in with the worm and was getting bites straight away from small skimmers , f1,s and a couple of small carp, i stuck with this for a couple of hours not really going anywhere as tom on 3 and rich coles were catching steadily, so i ditched this line and went over on double caster and began catching small carp , these bridge swims do seem to hold the smaller fish, i was trying to feed with a catty but the strong right to left wind was making feeding hard so i started potting them in but it wasnt as good as the catapult as the fish seemed to be responding better to catty feeding, the pallet swim to my right was hard to fish as the strong wind was blowing the rig back under the pole tip and dack towards me , i did get 4 fish from there including my biggest fish(4lb)and i lost another better fish there, i think it would have been better to fish paste there as the heavier bait would have stayed in position(best take some sunday). the rest of the match was spent on the far bank as the small carp were being very obliging, i think i ended up with about 40 small carp between 8oz and 1 1/2 lb which was ok around me but probably not enough to worry tom or richard, and thats how it ended with tom thick on peg 3 weighing 84.6
2nd went to rich coles on 6 with 70.10
3rd was me with 59.12 peg 33
4th kev molten 57.12 peg 6
5th steve kedge 44.12 peg 15
6th john bradford 40.7 peg 40 and he was top silver weight with 7.7
sunday should be ok as no one should blank especially as charlie barnes isnt going now lol
most people weighed in but fabio harding,s run of form had to end and today he dnw,d and has his ass tuned by the oldest angler on the bank off the next peg in the shape of joe thompson, with joe giving him a lesson in patience and presentation
breakfast is available on sunday morning at the fishery and its about a fiver for the large one. another plus to the lakes is that you can park right behind your swim with 20mtrs being a long walk

cheddar claypit open

cheddar ac run one open each year and this is the first time i have been able to get in on the act, we got there about 30 mins before the draw and andy france walked us around and pointed out the fliers, but to be fair they all looked like fliers to me with lots of features and good margins in each swim , it must be said that this lake is probably the best kept and good looking venue i have ever fished on, the members certainly seem to put a lot of effort into the upkeep.
into the drawbag and out comes peg 9 , a proper flier according to everyone and it did look nice with a dig reed bed 11mtrs to my left but i was advised not to go near it as the fish dive straight through as its growing out of 5 foot of water, the word was that i would catch down my right hand margin and out in front in open water at 13 mtrs so i set up 2 4x14 rigs both with 16 hooks on for banded 8,s over 6,s. the good thing with this lake is that it is 6 foot all over except for the big weed bed where it was only 5 foot, at the start i cupped in 6,s at 13 mtrs in front ,down the edge and fired some 6,s towards the weed bed , first drop in at 13 and the float kept going and i had a fouler which i landed and as it was about 10lb it was very handy, next put in and another fouler was on the end but this one came adrift under the pole top, then i had a couple of skimmers before it went quiet, so i started feeding with a catty but that never really worked and looking around the lake as far as i could see no one was getting much, 90 mins in and dean wandered back to the van and got the method feeder rod out and proceeded to start catching on a BOILIE,(whats it coming to), my best way of catching was to iether feed with a pot or put several pouches in , drip feeding seemed to be a no no with the fish not wanting to respond to it so it was a case of dump feeding and catching what you could over it before feeding again, i had no bites from the right hand margin, i managed a hit and hold one from the reeds but it was only about 3lb but i did have several good skimmers on the 13 mtr line so i thought i had about 55lb at the end , i thought rod wooten next door had beaten me next door but it turned out that his fish were smaller than mine even though he had more carp than me ,as i think he had 9 to my 6 but the silvers may make the differnce, and thats how it ended up with me coming first on the day with 62.11 made up of about 19lb of skimmers and 6 carp making up the remainder
2nd went to dean malin on 19 with 59.9 which included the top silver weight on the day of 24.4
3rd rod wootten 56.1 peg 7, he would have won if he hadnt lost a big fouled double that he played for 30 mins before it came off at the net
4th russ peck 55.3 peg 10
5th mike west 47.3 peg 2
6th andy france 46.4 peg 21

johns water at landsend weds

as lake 3 fished very well at the weekend i thought it would be a good idea to fish it for the weds open, and with only 10 booked in on tues evening we would have plenty of space but 15 showed up on the morning which was good but it just meant less room and some pegs going in that i would have preferred to leave out,
matt tomes drew 2 tickets out ,handing me one which was peg 50(urgh)and kept 70 for himself, ray cooper had my peg at the weekend and really struggled and the peg is usually pretty crap unless the pegs all around it are left out, i did have the older ginger ninja on 51 for company who is happy catching plippy roach so i would have the carp to myself, i set up 5 rigs(that will impress bobby gullick), corn and pellet rigs for the right hand margin, deep and shallow pellet rigs for over to the island and a soft pellet rig for down the middle, at the start i fed all the relevent lines and started down the middle on soft pellet over softened micro,s. almost straight awat fabio harding on 41 was into carp as was dave beany westcott on 54 , my float sat motionless for 30 mins then i had a 1 1/2 lb skimmer then a crucian so perhaps it was going to be ok WRONG it was a real struggle , during the first half of the match i managed 2 carp one on soft pellet and a fouler from the far side and a few more silvers and all i had in the last 3 was one fish on pellet down the edge. the lake was fishing very hard with even the fliers now not catching. tim clark on 46 was catching odd carp on the soft pellet and martin lenaghan on 42 was operating his usual catch and release policy, by the end he had 7 carp but had lost 15 ,tim ended up with 10 which was top on our side and with dean malin on 58 with the same it was going to be out of those 2 for top spot,dean took it with 52.6 on soft pellet over softened 4,s
2nd went to tim clark with 46.13 peg 46
3rd craig edmunds 36.7 peg 55
4th mat tomes 35.10 peg 70
5th martin lenaghan 33.12 peg 42
6th ed wynne 33.7 peg 68
silvers went to the ginger plipmaster andy gard with 10.8 on maggot on 51
apart from tims weight all the framing weights came from noted pegs so perhaps all the previous days rain upset the lake and its residents, who knows.
next wednesday i am running one at acorn as a practice for the teams of 4,s , its a 9.30 draw so ring me at the shop to book in 01179517250
oh and i weghed in 24lb costing me a fortune in pound side bets

teams of 4 rnd 2 landsend

landsend today , spread over all 4 lakes so the fishing should be good but with a strong nw wind forcast that may make it difficult . andy bryant was our captain today so when he drew and i ended up on peg 68 on lake 3 i wasnt to upset, last time i was on it ,it was on a short pole match and i had a few at 5 mtrs so i set uo a 4x14 rig for that line with a 16 6313 on .12 for soft pellet over micro,s with a few softened 4,s mixed in, a 4x10 rig on .16 for meat down the margins each side as that can be productive in the last couple of hours, a 4x10 rig for hard pellet over towards the island and a 4x14 for the deep water off the front of the island both these rigs had a 16 b960 on .16 for banded 8,s over hard 6,s.
for company i had steve seager opposite on 42 next to ryan shipp on 41 and paul elmes next door on 70, the rest of the lake i couldnt see as there are lots of bushes on this lake now.
i fed all my lines at the start and went in on the 5mtr line with a soft pellet on , i had a quick look at my neighbours to see what they were doing looked back and my float was gone and i was into a carp first drop but it broke me so off with the .12 and on with the .14. i would like to report that i caught well on the 5mtr line and to be fair in the first 4 hours i stuck with this line as it was almost impossible to hold the pole over to the island and with lots of snags under the water by the island the wind was blowing the rig along and snagging, i did manage one on the rig by the island but the snags done my head in so i took the rig off i had done to fish the deep water off the front of the island as it was a none starter due to the wind and the aerater coming on and made an up in the water rig for tight in agasinst the island again on .16 with a 960 for banded 8,s,
alao my banker meat down the edge approach never produced a bite . most of the last 90 mins were spent on the shallow rig against the far bank and it was my best period as i think i landed 9 carp in that spell with fish up to 9lb , by the end i thought i had about 75lb but i thought both paul on 70 and ryan over on 41 had both beaten me, the scales would tell
craig(trig)ebmunds won with 155.13 on peg 19 ,catching on caster down the edge and pellet over
2nd ryan shipp 101.9 peg 41
3rd tony rixon 80.10 peg 68
4th tom thick 77.12 peg 36 which included top silver weight of 45.4 mainly skimmers on soft pellet
5th phil(fabio)harding 74.1 peg 51
6th paul elmes 71.6
teams on the day
avon angling select 31 pts
dynamite baits 29.5 pts
mats maulers 27.5
bristol motor shop 27
sensas thyers 25
westerliegh 24
avon angling 23
charlies angels 22
tims tarts 22
harriers 19
somerset angling 14 (how did that happen)
league to date
mats maulers 19
dynamite baits 14.5
bms 14
westerliegh 14
aa select 14
charlies angels 13.5
avon angling 12
thyers 11.5
somerset angling 11
tims tarts 5
harriers 3,5
next match in 2 weeks at acorn lakes

shiplate farm speci lake

steve decided to let us try a test match on the speci lake , basically just to see what was happening in the lake , i.ve fished a couple of these sort of matches over the years and they can go iether way , with lots of sport with good weights or hard affairs with small pockets of fish and only low weights. it did make people curious as i managed to fill it easily with a waiting list ,after being guided to my vip (lol)parking spot by carol the parking attendent we were soon ready to draw. i let the oldest angler there in the shape of roger andoniou (forgot about jim thomas)draw for me and i ended up between phil(fabio)harding on 7 and the on site proffessional jim thomas on 5, so for those of you out there who cant work it out i was on 6, jim told me that this was to be the first match he has fished in 5 years , as he went missing when he maved into a caravan on the banks of the huntspill river and began making clothes pegs with the lovely brenda who is busy writing a recipe book for hedgehogs, i dont think anyone has told them they are endangered.
i fancied 1 to 3 or 15 on the far bank , as the early pegs had easy access to an island whereas 15 was the end peg but 6 would have to do. the lake was suppesed to be full of small skimmers with odd bream to 11lb plus some oddballs in the shape of sturgeon and grass carp, and the carp go to 30lb, i set up a .5grm rig with a 16 6313 on .12 for the shimmers and bream plus using 5 elastic with a pulla bung even a carp could be landed with a bit of luck, a margin rig with a 14 xedion hook on .16 for corn(meat is banned on this lake) and a wag rig to fish 8mm on the deck, but the wind started so that was never used except for one experimental cast halfway through.
at the start i cupped in some softened 3mm at 13 and 16 mtrs and fed some corn down the edge, straight out with a soft pellet at 13 mtrs and 5 mins in my first bite and i was attached to a good carp, after about 30 secs it all went slack as the rig came off, i thought the elastic had snapped but it was new stuff what happenned was that the knot in the end of the laccy had come undone allowing the dacron connector to pull straight off, that was a first , but some of these latex,s are hard to tie as they come pre lubed and knots try and undo themselves, i will have to blame that one on the tackle dealer who did it(umm).the rest of the match was fairly uneventfull with only small skimmers taking the bait and apart from the carp on soft pellet that was the only bite i had on pellet all the rest came on maggot, jim next door was catching on the wag with mag over g bait so i wandered back to the van and got some crumb, stopping to talk to tom thick on peg 3 he seemed to be catching small skimmers on soft pellet, he certainly seems to have the soft pellet fishing sorted.
the grounbait didnt seem to make any difference i had to keep swithcing between the 13 and 16 mtr lines as i couldnt get more than a couple of bites off each line before i had to move, by the end i had been beaten each side as jim ended up with 60 plus skimmers and fabio had 3 carp to my left , one on a method and 2 down the edge on corn. the match was won by tom thick on 3 with 28.15 which included 23.2 of silvers
2nd went to mike west on 15 with 25.11
3rd martin lenaghan 22.8 which had an 8.4 sturgeon in
4th phil harding 16.6 peg 7
5th jim thomas 15.7 (1st in silvers by default)
6th martin alexander 15.1 peg 13 in his catch was a 11lb grassie
my skimmers went 6.15 for nothing today oh i nearly forgot tim clark fished and his one method caught bream only went 5.12 so the 3 quid was mine, by i had to pay that out in side bets to more capable anglers , thanks tim.

chilton trinity woodland lake

20 of us fishing today so we had a bit of room , only a few of us didnt have an empty peg on one side at least and with trigger drawing for me i thought he might draw one for me ,but no i end up with 26 but lickily i had chris(blippy basher)fox on 27 and paul elmes who may be a threat if the paste goes, this venue like others in the area has been responding to the meat approach and with it being a deep lake (7 foot) even with the level down by at least a foot it has been working fished at about 6 mtrs, so i set up a 1grm rig on .16 with a 16 xedion hook, a 4x12 on the same hook and line for each side margin about 1 mtr out from the bank in 2 foot of water , a shallow rig as there were odd fish moving and a 1.5 grm rig for 13 to 14 mtrs , bigger rigs than normal but with the tail end of a hurricane meant to hit us the extra stability may be needed
starting on thge meat at 6 mtrs it was very slow with only 1 small skimmer to show after 30 mins ,so i went out to 14 mtrs and that wasnt much better , it was that hard all i had after 4 hours was a 2lb carp and 3 small skimmers , although i had been feeding the meat lines all match i decided to give it some so i put in half a big pot at 6mtrs and a whole big pot each side in the margins, out on the 6 mtr line and i sat there biteless for 10 mins gazing around the lake odd peopll were catching a few with rod (van winkle)wootten catching in his margin each side of him and with the gimp on his right fishing caster for eels and shane caswell to his left who i,m starting to think he buys bait only for show and never actually puts any on the hook.
craig(trig)edmunds was catching on 7 , rich coles was also catching on 19 and tim ford on 17 was hooking plenty but after several outings to the river i dont think he is up to much more than roach bashing(lol)but he did keep the thatchers tradition up by fishing the method for a spell, but ti think he got bust on that.
any way 1hour 50 to go and i had 3 carp in 3 put ins but that was all i had there apart from 3 better skimmers then the rest of the time was spent in the margins where i had another 7 carp up to 9lb ish, it was hard to call this as it was several anglers had between 8 and 12 carp so it would come down to odd bigger fish making the difference, in the end craig edmunds won with 72.8 on peg 7 fishing meat in the margins each side
2nd was me (back from the dead)66lb
3rd chris davis 59.7 peg 32
4th dean malin 57.5 peg 29
5th rich coles 57.3 peg 19
6th rod wootten 54.3 peg 14
silvers went to chris fox on 27 with 11.15
it was a good tight match with one or two fish or a bigger one making all the difference, not an easy match mainly i think down to the conditions with the strong wind putting a strong undertow on the lake but no moans from anyone which is always a good sign, plus you always get a warm welcome from the owners , plus the now boast one of the cleanest new toilets i have seen on a commercial

rat holes at witherington farm

every year the tackle dealers from the southwest and the reps from various companies get together for a match and general chat about the trade, well that didnt take long, i had the longest chat with mark from KAC about the benefits of cctv as it can make very interesting viewing of low lifes who think its there god given rights to shoplift, and its quite often people you wouldnt think it of.
well into the draw bowl and out comes 66 on the inner triangle and i was told by various locals that this was not a good draw as you cant clear the far bank as its an island with no access, whereas the outer triangle can come onto our bank and clear there far side as did lee woodhouse and mike (buzzer)bernstien behind me, both are fairly local and they both told me i was one 2 pegs off a flier and with a local sat there it was going to be tough.
at my peg i set up a margin rig on .14 for each side for corn to my right and various baits over dead maggots to my left, a meat rig for 5mtrs in front and 2 pellet rigs for over ,one for up against the far side foliage and one down the shelf.
at the start i fed mags and corn each side some 6mm meat at 5mtrs and decided to feed with a cup to the far side to try and keep the fish out of the foliage , looking at the local to my left and he was getting out a loaf of bread and proceeded to ship half a slice to the far side(well it was a big piece)and had a carp first put, well no noe told me about bread being the bait, i went across with some 4mm in a pot and a 6mm on the hook, i also fired a few onto the down the shelf line. the first hour was a bit slow with only a big f1 and a golden coloured carp of about 2lb and the bites had now stopped so i came back down the shelf and started firing some 4,s to the far side to see if i could get some activity, i began getting bites off skimmers on hard 6mm with them averaging about 8oz they were worth catching, i came back over the meat line and had skimmers there aswell, by now there were carp moving about under the grasses and branches on the island just where they think you cant reach them, by now my neighbour was well ahead but with the carp being on the small side it wouldnt take much to catch up, with this being only a 5 hour affair it tends to go really fast , so before you realise you only have 2 hours left and not a lot in the net ,i had tried my margins but only had a small perch over the maggot line, with fish showing on the far bank i only had one option and that was to cut the line above the float to 3 inches and poke the rig right in there, i was suprised as to how far back i could push the pole from using 13 mtrs to get to the edge of the foliage i could push the pole to 14mtrs before the tip hit the far bank, so i had to push it right in under water the pull it back a bit until i could see the float and it worked as i was getting bites, thing was though it was a no no to strike as all you did was hit obstructions above the pole tip, all you could do was throw the pole back in an effort to set the hook, thing is a lot of the bites were liners resulting in foulers as you were dragging the rig acdoss there backs but i was catching enough to claw it back against my neighbour, the last 90 mins were my best and i did manage a six pounder down the edge just before the end and i thought it was close between me and the angler on 68 for the section in the end my net net went 42.8 to win the section by 9lb.
vic bush was top on the day with 48.7 on peg 74 using worm and having a double figure fish certainly helped in a tight match
tom thick on 78 was second with 45.6 on corn
3rd nick collins 43.12
4th d baker 43.2
5th t rixon 42.8
6th j farrant 41lb
silvers went to steve mayo with 20.12 of caster caught fish on peg 62

teams of 4 round 1 chilton trinrty

still ended up with 11 teams so all payouts stayed the same as last year, pegging out was maed easy as there are no corner pegs to worry about it was a straight line peg out , landsend will be different as the corners tend to be a bit fliery so the team draw will be staggered so one team wont end up in all the corners.
back to the draw and i was hoping for a draw in a section as it had the carp pegs in round the back of the island and up the left hand bank by the reeds, but no with jason radford drawing for the avon angling team it wasnt to be and i ended up on 67 in d section on the road bank(wheres fabio when i need him). although i moaned a bit i wasnt to upset as these road bank pegs have been producing some carp and skimmers , mainly on the paste in the last half of the match(all facts based on recent results lol)i think moke nicholls drew this peg in the last float only and he had 33lb on paste mainly late.
so with this in mind i set up a wag to fish corn at depth at 30mtrs, a .5 rig for caster over g bait at 13mtrs with an 18 to .10 and a 4x14 rig with a 16 6313 on .12 for soft pellet over micro,s at 16 mtrs.
at the start i cupped in 7 balls at 13 mtrs with lots of casters in them and a big pot of soaked micro,s with some corn at 16 mtrs and fed some corn on the wag line.
starting over the g bait i started getting small roach straight away, and they were small, so i tried corn over the same line , and the roach were slightly bigger but the bites were less forthcoming, i stuck on this line for the first 2 hours but by now there had been a couple of carp caught in my section so i binned that line but i did put i big full pot of caster on that line for eels just in case desperation kicked in, i had been topping up with smaller amounts of micro,s at 16 mtrs and there was now some fizzing going on , so i shipped out with a piece of corn ,but ti was all a bit frustrating as you new there was fish in the swim but you couldnt get a bite . i did manage 2 good skimmers in the next couple of hours, but with the wind now picking up a fair old trip had begun so i deepend up by a few inches and with 2 hours to go i started cupping some hard 4,s in with the micro,s and i dont know if was the time of day or the change to the feeding you never know but last 2 hours were my best with 2 more good skimmers and 3 carp for 27.7 for a section win and 4th on the day.
tom thick won off peg 12 with 48.10 ,carp on soft pellet
2nd paul elmes with 42.13 of paste caught carp
3rd rich coles 41.7 peg 7
4th t rixon 27.7 peg 67
5th kev perry 25.14 peg 61
6th mike nicholls 25lb peg 3 on the island
silvers went the way of steve kedge with 18.6 on peg 47 of mainly small fish on caster fished short
team wise there was a 3 way tie for first place with somerset angling, charlies angels and mats maulers all getting 32 points
next westerliegh on 31
avon angling 29
bristol motor shop 25
dynamite baits and thyers both on 22
a a select 15
tims tarts and harriers both with 12
next round at landsend in 2 weeks

weds viaduct

dean didnt go today so i was with jason only, i got to jasons house only to find a small boy crying his eyes out in jasons street, i asked him what was wrong and he told me that some low life had stolen the trousers off his action man toy, sad eh, then jason comes out of his house and lo and behold he,s got a brand new pair of combats on , all i can say is his mum must be a whizz with a sowing machine, as she managed to get them taken up before i got there.
back to viaduct and 19 of us were on cambell only , so into the nescaffe draw tin out comes 123, a corner peg but a bit of a feast or famine peg, i had already decided to have a day on the paste as tim clark had given me a right shoeing at the weekend and there were a lot of fish taken on paste, so with this in mind i set up 2 paste rigs ,one with a 14 on for the skimmers and tench and one with a 10 for carp, and also a pellet rig for long down the edge into the corner and also a shallow rig as there were some cruisers about, i didnt set up a wag (or lead)rod as there was an angler on 121 which really means there is nowhere to chuck without effecting him. i had the kingswood rag and bone man on 124 in the shape of joe thompson who seems to break something every time he goes out and today was no different as halfway through he got off his box and did the worst display of the sabre dance i have ever seen and snapped a number 5, and on 125 was craig(trig)edmunds who seemed quite happy to play his fish out under his pallet , and for some reason when he had one go through his pallet and out the other side he was of the opinion that he could drop the topset one side and catch it the other side, you can quite understand why les(the chub)williams calls him a stupid boy, so there goes another 60 quid bobbing across the top before going under never to be seen again,
you may be wondering by now why it is i havent said anything about my days sport, its cos i never really had any, the paste never went with no one getting any more than one or 2 , idi manage a few early fish shallow and apart from a couple of foulers that was all i had , it was a bit of a 2 halves match with no noe getting much for the first few hours then the wind began to blow down to the carpark bank and from trig down most people started to catch a few , but the 5 of us at the top end really struggled with the angler on the end bank not even getting a single carp and no silvers to talk about.i only weighed 57.3 for nothing today
1st went to tom thick on 132 with 142.12 which included top in the silvers with 27.8 all taken on banded 6,s over hard 4,s
2nd j mills on 126 with 112lb
3rd kev molten 108.9 peg 114
4th mash 106.7 peg 129
5th trig 105.6 125
6th fabio 100.5 131
low weights by the lakes normal standards but all fisheries have off days.
and i made jason give the trouser back