stafford moor xmas match

due to the congested match programme leading up to xmas andy seery for the last few years has changed his seasonal match to post christmas so there was 40 booked in, but still there were a couple of no shows, its been a few years since i,ve fished here mainly due to the rising fuel costs (200 mile round trip)and there are the same size matches to fish locally, which is a shame as its a brilliant venue totally stuffed with fish of all species, perhaps andy could pick it up and move it to a field near exeter!!
i will probably try and fit in a couple of trips this year but my match calendar is already pretty congested for 2012, i travelled down with phil(fabio)harding and kev molten so the costs were spread.
the draw had already begun when we arrived and it was good to see a lot of the old faces still there , steve forshaw was there but his travelling partner mal king was absent due to ill health , get well soon matey .
into the draw bag and i was hoping for a blue disk which is a draw on woody,s , preferably between 3 and 12 which would mean the 25mph wind would be off my back, but no out pops a green disk with peg 1 on it which is about as far as you can get from the pegs i wanted to be on.
its a corner peg(square ass again mr gullick)with a long empty bank to my left which goes round to peg 36 and craig(trig)edmunds was sat on that, and for company on peg 3 i had brian shanks who is a regular visitor from bristol.
i set up 2 pole rigs , one for maggot at 3 mtrs if the carp didnt show, a .75 affair with an 18 6313 on .12 and a 4x14 rig with a8313 size 18 for corn at 14 mtrs towards the end bank at the bottom of the shelf, and last thing was a lead rod with a 14 b960 for hair rigged pellet , and no wag rod which i regretted by the end.
at the start i cupped in some 4,s mixed with corn at 14 mtrs and fed some maggot and micro,s at 3 mtrs .
beginning on the lead at about 45 mtrs and feedinf some 8,s as close as i could in the strong right to left wind i began getting some liners and in the first hour 4 smallish carp dragged the tip round to catch me!!!!!!!!!!!! and with brian only having 1 skimmer by now and no one really catching i thought i was doing ok, but apart from 4 people opposite and brian next door you cant see anyone else, the next hour produces 3 more carp on the tip and brian had caught a couple on the wag at depth on pellet and although the anglers opposite had taken a few on the lead and wag it was apparent the lake was fishing hard, halfway through and i had a look on the pole at 14 mtrs with a piece of corn on and first drop i had my biggest fish of the day in the shape of a 10lb mirror, next put in and i had a 2lb tench then the dreaded skimmers moved in, so i refed with a good cup of corn and pellet and chucked the tip back out which resulted in a few more small fish , but it was getting harder with no indications and trig who was opposite had been struggling was now getting bites on the tip , perhaps they moved ,who knows, back on the pole and i had another carp but the skimmers and roach were making it difficult so i decided to change it to a pellet line so i refed with 4, and 8,s ang changed the hook for a 16 b960 for banded 8mm, i threw the lead out but apart from a lost fish it seemes as though the fish had gone off the lead line , i think they moved back along the bank but it would have meant casting into someone elses swim to follow them, with an hour left i decided to get back on the pole and i soon had another carp on pellet, trouble was brian was now catching on the wag and he had even had 3 on the shallow wag and with them being bigger average sizes than mine i was beginning to slip behind, then a proper disaster, i lifted into a bite and the 14 mtr but snapped in half , luckily i managed to catch it as there a fouled carp on the end but all i landed was a scale, so i put a bit more bait in at 13mtrs but apart from skimmers it seemed a waste of time, out on the lead again but no bites ,back on the pole for the last 10 mins and i did manage another small carp and a skimmer. i think i ended up with 13 or 14 carp and a few silvers but with brain having less but much bigger fish i was hoping he would frame giving me the section by befault, it looked as though martin lenaghan was going to win on peg 32 on woody,s as with 90 mins to go he was admitting to 6olb and was still getting bites fishing the straight lead and pellet out to the island, and sure enough he did win with 86.2 giving himm £100 and a long weekend break in one of andy,s lixury lodges
2nd went to brian shanks on 3 tanners with 76.2 on the wag
3rd was me with 68.8 (perhaps the wag would have given me a couple of fish)
4th gary cross 67.10 on woody,s 10
5th adrian clark 53.2 woodys 6
6th p maton 47.10 27 tanners
silvers went to the weston super mare crimper to the stars john page with 32.4 on pine peg 24 with a mixture of skimmers tench and crucians.
the weights were a bit lower than expected mainly due to the wind making float fishing all but impossible for most which was a shame as the float had been out fishing the tip

avalon silvers match weds 21st

i was suprised how popular this turned out to be as 16 booked in , with this venue it is nearly impossible to predict where its going to be won from especially in a silvers match. basically we used every other peg so we were on pegs 1 to 32, i didnt fancy any of the the three pegs on the right as the wind would be into you ,so i was pleased when fabio drew peg 9 for me and its a peg with some good silvers form, but then again all the swims seem able to throw up silvers, for company i had john(the gimp)bradford on 7 and ex bank manager and now bristols finest rock guitar pensioner and karaoke star jim baines on 9, after sundays match i decided on a mainly groundbait attack and fish dead maggotes over it , so i set up the .5grm rig with an 18 middy 6313 hook and a 4x14 rig for the margins to fish caster with the same hook but on .12 but i only had 1 bite on that which came from a small roach so that was a waste of time and wont be mentioned again, at the start i cupped in 3 balls of g bait at 13 nand 16 mtrs and some softened micro,s at 16 mtrs at 11 o,clock angle whilst the g bait was towards 1 o,clock.
starting at 13 mtrs over g bait with double maggot it took about 15 mins to get a bite which came from a small skimmer which i dropped off trying to swing, a few small roach followed in the next 45 mins but that line seemed to be going nowhere fast so i swiched to the 16 mtr line and had 3 good skimmers in 3 put ins before that line died so i refed both lines with another ball of g bait with a few dead mags and casters and had a look over the micro line but never had a bite so it was back over the g bait , jim was really struggleing only getting the odd bite , but he was only fishing at 13 mtrs and for some reason the fish dont seem to like coming to close so 16 mtrs seems to produce more fish, the gimp had started well but again only fishing at 13 mtrs gave him an early burst but his swim died after a couple of hours , it wasnt hectic sport but by switching between the 13 and 16 mtr line i had small roach and od goob skimmers up until the end and i thought i had about 16lb but it wasnt going to be enough as alan oram on peg 17 weighed in 24.01 of silvers mainly skimmers and one tench on maggot over micro,s(why couldnt i get a bite on that)he also had 35.2 of carp but they didnt count as it was silvers only
2nd was me with 18.4 on peg 9
3rd was nigel bartlell on 13 with 13.6
4th chris davis 10.11 on peg 30
5th stu foale 9.7 peg 26
6th ken rayner 9.3 peg 12
the token carp payout went to mike west with 13.5 on peg 20

avalon xmas match

with 37 fishing today it was going to be a friendly affair, and everyone had an island or a corner to fish to and with that many pegs in the fish wouldnt have to many places to hide(hopefully), as i was holding the draw tin i let the bridgwater male model(vince brown)draw for me, so he handed me 28 which is halfway up the last island on the right hand side and kept 19 for himself. for company i had the chipping sodbury bit basher (chris derrick)on 29 and andy(the jacket)gurd on 27. now chris was always going to target the silvers as there was 65 quid and a hamper up for grabs whereas andy was going to be maily lead slinging as he is having trouble with his neck and is having problems holding a long pole , these pegs although throwing up accasional weights of carp(moreso in the summer)have more form for skimmers so i thought silvers would give me my best chance of a pick up, i only set up one pole rig which was a .5 grm rig with a 18 middy 6313 on .10 to use at 13 mtrs with maggot over groundait and the same rig would do for 2 lines at 16 mtrs at 11 and 1 o,clock angles, i also set up a wag rig to fish at depth with hard pellet but after several tries during the match it was a non starter as the facing wind blew it off the island quite quickly so i wont mention it again as i never even looked as though i was going to get a bite on it.
at the start i cupped in 2 balls of g bait with some casters at 13 mtrs and some soaked micro,s on the 2 lines at 16 mtrs, starting on double maggot at 13 mtrs i was soon getting bites off small roach as was chris next door and fabio on 30, it wasnt long before andy on 27 got caught by a carp on his lead rod and then les the chub williams lasooed one in the tail. i persvered with the 13 mtr line catching small roach then about 2 hours in i had a 3lb bream which kept me ahead of the silver anglers i could see, i kept trying the 16 mtr lines with maggot and soft pellet over the micro,s but all i had was a few small roach on maggot with no bites on the pellet at all i kept getting odd roach at 13 mtrs and no response at 16 mtrs so with about 1 hour to go i made 2 balls of g bait out of my remaining mix and put a ball into each line at 16 mtrs the 1 o,clock line onle gave me a couple of small roach but the 11 line gave me 3 skimmers for about 2 1/4 lb so by the end i new i had over 6lb but i was surprised to put 9lb of silvers on the scales to win the silvers so i went home with 65 quid and a second hamper in as many weeks.
first on the day went to vince brown with 48.4 of lead caught carp off peg 19 , he also took home £65 plus a 22 inch hd tv
2nd andy gurd on 27 with 15.8
3rd darren north 14.1 on peg 10
4th shane caswell 13.4 peg 24
5th chris fox 11.11 peg 48
6th john bradford 11.8 peg 9
silvers me 9lb
after the match we were treated to home made vegetable soup with crusty bread followed up with heathers home made mince pies, thanks to her and vic for a nice match it was just a shame the fish decided to shut up shop for the day probably down to the frost and several inches of fresh cold water being dumped in there

landsend weds

only enough to use the match lake today but that wasnt a bad thing as the forcast was for very strong winds and heavy showers possibly wintry, they got the showers right as we had hail,rain and snow but luckily the tree,s around the lake gave us a lot of protection from the wind so we even managed to get brollies up so we stayed dry aswell. into the draw bag and out comes peg 10, not a peg thats usually in so no real form to go by , but steve seager did manage to to lassoo 45lb off it at the weekend but he did have to fish to the end bank on peg 12 but peg 12 was in today and the gimp was happily setting up for his 7 mtr silvers attack so the carp that live at 14 mtrs in this peg were going to be safe today, even though he did manage to lose 4 during the match.
i only set up two rigs today , a 4x12 impact 6 with an 18 middy 6313(hens teeth)on .12 for caster across at the bottom of the shelf and a micro pellet down the middle at 13 mtrs and a 4x12 rig on .14 with a middy 8313 on the end for corn down to the empty pallet(9),i cupped in some casters straight out at 11mtrs and to the right at 13 mtrs , some soaked micro,s to the left at 13 mtrs down the middle and some micro,s and corn to the empty pallet, starting on caster at 11 mtrs i was soon catching small roach and perch on single caster the first hour was ok even if the fish were on the small side, at the end of the first hour i did foul a carp which luckily was hooked in the side in the skin(mirror carp).that was safely netted and then it was back to the small fish, a look to my right on caster only produced two perch even though i tried it several times, by now the gimp had given up trying to catch carp from his end bank margin and had come down the shelf and was begginning to catch a few quality silvers, also kev molten had the odd carp off 13 but they were small fish,as far as i could see no one was setting it alight, although i could see mat tomes on peg 1 netting odd fish but i wasnt to sure as to what they were as he was to far away to tell and i couldnt hear to much splashing from the far side either .so what to do, will i go for silvers or try and get in the main money, as the latter was worth more, that was the choice then a llok over the micro line to my left down the middle with corn gave me a couple of funny wobbles so a switch to double maggot as i thought it was roach nibbling ended up with me attached to a 6 pound carp and it was fairly hooked in the mouth, i went down the edge with corn but never had a bite so i put in a good helping of corn and went back to the caster line where the small fish were still biting, going into the last 90 mins i needed more carp as kev on 13 had 7 in the net ,even though they were on the small side i went down to the empty pallet again for a last try as i hadnt had a bite yet down there even though i had tried a couple of times , and bugger me if the float didnt go under and a nice 8lb common graced the landing net, back over on the caster line and i did get another carp plus some silvers so by the end i had 4 carp for possibly 20lb and 10lb of silvers, i wasnt to sure as to what mat the shrimp tomes had , but he was first to weigh and his net went 24.3, my 4 carp went 24lb and my silvers went exactly 10lb for a total of 34lb for first on the day
2nd went to kev molten on 13 with 30.9
3rd alan oram 29.1 on peg 21
4th mat(new breed)tomes 24.3 peg 1
5th phil(fabio)harding 23.6 peg 17
6th martin(blakey)lenaghan 16lb peg 5
silvers went the way of john(the gimp)bradford 11.5 peg 12 on maggot over caster at 7 mtrs

landsend xmas match

38 booked in for this popular match , there is no money up for grabs as the entry goes to prizes and post match food , i did run a £5 optional pool to pay out top 2 in overall and silvers, 34 went in it so there was £50 and £35 to fish for in both.
i drew for myself and pulled 19 on the match lake(nice)a ggod peg with lots of form but just lately it hasnt been throwing any weights but i cant say i was unhappy, for company i had dave(beany)westcott on 18 and fishery owner mike duckett on 21, the plan today was to fish caster for anything that swims so with that in mind i set up two 4x12 rigs , one for down the right hand margin towards the empty peg , one for 13 mtrs straight out at the the bottom of the island shelf and the same rig would do for 14 mtrs at 11 and 2 o,clock for soft pellet over micro,s and a 4x10 for against the island all rigs were on .12 with a 18 6313 hook on the end, at the aqll inm i cupped some casters straight in front at 13 mtrs and some soaked micro,s on the 14 mtr angles and fired some casters down the margin but its one of those lines where i didnt get a bite so i wont mention the margin again .
starting on caster on the hook i soon had a couple of small roach before a fouled carp graced the net then i lost a couple before i got one in the mouth, by now the out of practice mr duckett was some how managing to feed a steady stream of silvers into his net which had the effect of shutting thomas thick up on 22 who couldnt catch and mike was rubbing it in , i put on a soft pellet and went over the 2 o,clock swim and was rewarded with a 1 1/2lb skimmer ,next drop i hooked a good fish 8-10lb which i played for a while then it came off as it was approaching netting range in refed and went to 11 o,clock but never had a bite back to the caster line but i began suffering from liners and foulers so i went out with my far bank rig set just over half depth but even though i was fouling well off bottom i never had a bite on the slow falling rig so i went to double dead maggot on all 3 lines and at the end of the first half i had 9 carp in the net then it went pear shaped with no bites or liners , and to make matters worse kev molten on 7 had begun to catch on cornand even worse was that beany next door had started to catch on caster towards the island the last half only gave me 3 carp and only a few silvers so by the end it was going to be close on our lake , as expected the match was won by scott puddy on 33 with 15 carp for 89.9 on soft pellet and corn
2nd was me with 51.12 peg 19

3rd kev molten 49.8 peg 7
4th nick duckett 45.11 peg15
5th steve seager 44.9 peg 11
6th dave westcott 36.15 peg 18
silvers went to john grey on peg 3 with 16.4 on caster and maggot at 11 to 13 mtrs

avalon weds

13 fished today so we used the left hand bank which was good as there were strong westerly winds forcast so we had it off our backs, i let fabio draw for me and he handed me peg 7 which is the last peg on the first island a swim which can produce silvers aswell as carp, i was sat in a tom sandwich today with tom thick on my right still smelling of scopex which he pumps his expanders with and tom mangnol on my left who was setting about assembling his array of feeder rods.i set up one pole rig today ,a4x14 impact 6 with a 16 6313 on .12 to fish soft pellet over micro,s , and a wag rod for pellet at depth towards the end of the island but the wind was blowing the float off the island and after a couple of tries during the match it wasnt right so i wont mention that again, a lead rod would have been ok but i left that to mr mangnol, a quick look on tom thicks peg revealed just one rig ,a 4x12 float which some think may be a bit light for 7 foot of water on a windy day but tom makes it work for him .
at the start i cupped in some soaked micro,s at 14 mts at 11 and 1 o,clock, 30 mins and niether tom thick or me had had a bite, so i took the 16 off and put an 18 on instead, by now tom mangnol had a 10 pounder and a couple of skimmers on the lead and corn at the island, both tom thick and me both had our first bite after about 45 mins tom had a good skimmer whilst mine was about 4oz(the writing was on the wall)and thats how the rest of my match was spent . on the pole with iether soft pellet or double maggot , i did go to 16 mtrs and i did catch a couple of carp there but the bulk of my fish came from the 14 mtr line, both tom thick and me ended up with 6 carp plus skimmers except tom thought he had over 20lb of silvers whereas i thought mine would go about 10lb, and as for mr mangnol i can see now why he sets up so many lead rods, its because he seems to use tree magnets instead of leads lol.
as i said the writing was on the wall early on and as expected ton thick came first with 60.3 which also included the top silvers weight of 22.6
2nd was me with 46.9 10.7 of silvers and 36.2 of carp
3rd alan oram managed to moan 6 carp and some skimmers on at peg 23 which went 33.2
4th mike west 27.2 peg 22
5th sean kitteridge 23.4 peg 3
6th mr feeder himself tom mangnol with boring days sport which went 18.10
any one interested there are still a few spaces left for the avalon xmas match on the 18th december book in with me on 01179517250

landsend individual winter league round 2

managed to keep a full house today of 33 which is always good and with only 11 on each of the first three lakes we all get plenty of room,
i let the oldest person on my lake draw for so adrian feffery handed me peg 66 which can produce but with the lake being one section and with pegs 41 ,42 68 and 58 in the mix it could be difficult but after a word with rod wootten who fancied it (but then again he always fancies everyones peg but his own)also mat tomes told me that he had come second off it back in september so it must be good(i may have to invest in a pair of flip flops cos matty seems to have think i,ve lost my mojo lol).
only three rigs today a 4x14 rig for caster down the middle on .10 with the 6313 hook on the end, a .25 on .12 with an 18 6313 for soft pellet at 13 mtrs on an angle towards 67 and a 4x10 for pellet over and the same rig was ok for caster down the edge.
at the all in i cupped some caster at 6mtrs, some micro,s to my left at 13 mtrs and a mix of micro,s and 4,s over to the island, the caster line was giving bites but apart from one foulhooked f1 all it produced was small roach, aswell as the 6mtr line i was feeding some casters in front of the reeds to my right but that only seemed to have the same small roach in it. halfway through and i was going nowhere fast then i had a small carp of about 3lb on the caster rig at 6 mtrs and although i hadnt had a bite over to the island on pellet i thought that would be my best chance of some decent fish as it still isnt to cold and the lake was still well coloured and i had been feeding some 4,s with a catty since the start, i only had 1 bite on the soft pellet line which i think was a liner as there was a bit of a boil when i lifted the pole. i stuck mainly with the far line and the caster line down to my left and about 90 mins to go i began to get a few indication over by the island on pellet and with nick duckett opposite on 45 having 3 carp in the net mainly from his margin and dale housen on 68 having three carp and some silvers i needed carp to get up in the section, the whole lake was fishing hard with pegs 41 nigel bartlett and mike west on 42 not having a carp either, in the last 90 mins i hooked 3 carp by the island on pellet ,i also hooked a good fish(10-12lb)on caster down the edge but it was fouled under the chin and after playing for a few mins it came off at the net so i finished with 4 carp and a few silvers but i new that lost fish was going to cost me and it did as nick duckett won the lake with 33.2 and i was second with 26.14 but it wasnt hooked right any way but its still annoying when you have seen it several times and nearly netted it , just to show how hard it was the lakes silvers were won by nigel bartlett on 41 with a lowly 6.6
as expected the best weights came off speci lake with kev molten leading the charge with 112.13 off form peg 33 catching carp on pellet out by the aerater
2nd was craig(clamper)edmunds with 99.1 on peg 31
3rd bob(DCI)gullick 93lb peg 34
4th tim ford 71.3 peg 29
5th mat tomes 53.6 peg 13
6th alan oram 44.2 peg 5
top silvers on the day went to martin pettifer on 25 with 21.3
next round is in janaury lets hope the ice stays away and i get a draw between 29 and 35
landsend xmas match next week

landsend speci lake

i think the weather may have kept a few away today as only 10 showed so we went onto the speci lake as it had a tinge of colour still, whereas the match lake has gone very clear, a draw at the left hand end pegs 29 to 36 would be nice as most of the fish seem to be happy at that end at the moment, so where do i draw , peg 25 which is an end peg at the other end, going back a couple of years it used to be a peg you would run to but for some reason the fish seem to have vacated the area in favour of the other end(thats the end to my excuses then lol)for company i had to look at mike duckett opposite on peg 40, back to tackleing up and with the chance of f1,s on soft pellet i put up a 4x12 rig with an 18 6313 for them , a caster rig for each side at 5mtrs for perch and maybe chub, and 2 pellet rigs ,one for 16mtrs towards the corner of the island(4x14 16 b960) and a 4x12 for 16 mtrs along the left hand margin as there is 3 foot of water, at ther start i began on soft pellet at 13 mtrs but i became apparent very quickly that small roach were going to be a problem as i was getting plenty of small trembles bur very few proper bites and when i did the result was a 4 inch roach after about 45 mins of that it was out to the 16 mtr line towards the island with a hard 6 over loose fed 4,s but that only gave me 1 fi and small roach again were nibbleing the pellet, i had been dropping a few casters in front of me at 3 mtrs so i came back over that line with a caster on the soft pellet rig and i did begin catching small roach with the odd fish to 6oz, but with nigel bartlett on 35 and tom thick on 36 the chances of me picking up any silvers money was about the same as my chances of main money either as fabio on 33 was losing and catching some , there must be a lot of fish in that peg at the mo as he was catching shallow out to the aerater as i had a couple of weeks before still strange for the time of year though , this time last year we were waking up to minus 10 and snow so i,m not complaining, even though i was well under dressed as i was shivering by the end of the mastch.
with most of the anglers at the other end catching odd better carp things were as grim as i expected and judging by the banter between tom and nigel the silver were odliging them both on there pegs .
i did have a ggod hour on pellet down the edge when i had 5 smallish carp(to 4lb) but the action was short lived as these fish are residents that live along the margin but there arent enough there to keep them coming and thats how i ended up with the 5 carp and some silvers for 29lb for no good, still there,s always sunday when i am on lake 3 for round 2 of the landsend individual league , there is a space in this section if anyone is interested and with each lake being paid out seperately you arent competeing with the pthe lakes
1st on the day went to phil(fabio)harding with 93.13 on peg 33, mostly shallow on 6mm pellet over loosefed 4,s
2nd nigel bartlett 65.5 peg 35 inluding top silvers of 43.8 of mainly chub on caster over to the island
3rd tom thick 57.1 peg 36 and he was second in the silvers with 45.4 of mainly skimmers on his scopex soft pellet approach
4th mike west 46.7 peg 31
5th nick duckett 46.1 prg 29
6th tony rixon 29.12 peg 25
the landsend xmas match is on sunday 11th anyone wishing to book in ring mike on 07797545882 or ring me at the shop 01179517250