viaduct teams of 5 round 2

my turn on cary section today and if there was one peg i fancied it was 102 , but into the draw and out comes draw number 8, which put brian shanks on 118 , me on 85 , ron hardiman on 56 , clayton hudson on 40 and tim clark on 12 , not the best team draw and i arguably drew the best peg for myself again according to tim and ron. it was going to be a rare day for me as all i took the peg was a lead rod rod and a light wag rod (no pole)as the silvers werent playing ball and most were falling to caster over loose fed caster on the wag but with this peg being a bit of a carp peg silvers were only really to be for an emergency in case i was blanking to get a point, this lake is my least favourite during the winter as due to the shape it means lots of us would be chucking our leads to the same area of the lake which can cause some friction at times but today most of us kept to our own areas with only a couple of moans, the wag rod was assembled with an 18 6313 hook on .12 and the lead rod had a 5/8 lead on and a hook on .20 for popped up maggot to begin with, i scrounged 2 soft artificial floating maggots from lewis greenwoon on 87 one of which was threaded on the line above the hook then i put 4 dead maggots on the 16 xedion hook and launched it about 50 mtrs and i got liners straight away as did most people judging by the comments going round but apart from dave(the lead)white on 102(i wanted that one)who had 2 fish in the first 15 mins fishing meat on the lead(i think)well short of the aerater and even in his own peg.90 mins in and only liners and no proper bites on a vatiety of baits i had a quick look on the caster line but after a 10oz skimmer and a small roach so that was chucked up the bank(blank saved), back out on the lead and still liners so after 30 mins of that , i wandered up to 87 and borrowed a stronger wag rod off fabio and went back and put it together with a 4grm middy fat boy float with a xedion 16 on .16 for corn and maggot but after a few chucks it became apparent that it was to light to get the desired distance, so i changed it to a 10inch drake bodied waggler , which was much better cos at least i could launch it 40 to 50 mtrs and i think i hoked a fish second chuck but it came off halfway in which was annoying as it felt lip hooked but i will never know, i stayed on the big wag till the end of the match and ended up with 6 carp all taken on 4 mags on the hook, i lost another 4 foulers and missed a few bites which may have been small fish , but more likely liners , shallowing up never worked as the float was moving through a bit with the gentle left to right breeze so i left it slightly over depth to slow it down, my 6 carp went 59lb and three silvers(i had a ruffe)went 12oz for 59.12 but poacher white on 102 ended up with 9 fish for 90.12(well done)
the match was won by dave cockayne on 115 with 126.14 using meat on the wag and lead
2nd dan squires 111.3 on peg 8
3rd john danby 110 on peg 64
4th dave white 90.11 peg 102
5th nick(it must have been solid)chedzoy 87.5 peg 113
6th alan oram 78.5 peg 119
silvers went to des shipp on 61 with 26.11 of skimmers on caster at 16 mtrs
teams on the day
viaduct select 74
thatchers veterans 62
silver fox 61
viaduct allstars 61
thatchers pi 60
avon angling
somerset majik
moaning maggots and somerset angling all with 58 pts
overall
viaduct select 128
toss pots and somerset angling both 124
avon angling 109
thatchers veterans
moaning maggots and thatchers pi all 107

landsend weds open

another good turnout with 17 fishing so we used the speci lake and the match lake pegs 13 to 24 so we all had a bit of room, obviously a draw at the top of speci would be nice on pegs 31 to 34 but what do i do. go and let fabio draw for me and i end up on peg 29, its a good warmer weather peg but not so good this time of year, with mike nicholls on 31 there was always an outside chance a few may mooch along from the end of the island as mike was never going to go past 13 mtrs so a few may sneak by.
i began with 3 rigs, one for the margins which i never had a bite on so thats the end of that, a 4x10 on .14 with a 8313 hook for corn and caster tight to the island in just over 2 foot of water and a 4x12 with the same hook and line for the bottom of the island shelf at 14 mtrs. i fed the island and the margins with corn and caster at the start and some micro,s and corn at 14 mtrs and 16 mtrs to my right still at the bottom of the shelf, the first hour went as well as i expected with 2 good carp for about 17lb, one at 14 and one to my right at 16mtrs and that was my lot as i started to get a few roach and miss some bites off the same species, so i tried corn up on the island shelf to no avail and each margin but the peg seemed devoid of carp, with 2 hours to go and no real action i decided to make a roach rig for 5mtrs just to stop the boredom, by now mike on 31 had a couple of good carp plus some good silvers and tom thick was getting silvers and odd carp on the scopex pellets and i could see fabio opposite on 36 catching silvers and losing carp as was bela bakos on 33 who was losing carp and with 1 hour to go was still carpless , but he did get 3 in the last hour fishing caster shallow against the end bank, back to my roach fishing and i was beginning to enjoy it as i was getting some nice fish between 2 and 6oz but then i got a reality check as i rammed a disgorger into my eye and chucked the roach rig behind me, i had a quick look on the corn lines but only roach there so i fed some casters up the shelf and fished there till the end where i had 2 chub and 3 good perch and lost another reasonable carp at the net and at the end i thought i may have about 26lb , but i weighed 28.01 for no good today, so thats the last time fabio draws for me
first on the day went to craig(trigger)edmunds with 60.7 on peg 17, with all his fish falling to soft pellet over micro,s at 14 mtrs
2nd mike nicholls 51lb on peg 31 again on soft pellet over micro,s at 13 mtrs
3rd tom thick 49.01 peg 25 on soft pellet
4th stu foale 48.5 peg 32 soft pellet
5th john thompson 36.4 peg 24
6th phil(fabio)harding 34.09 peg 36
silvers went to nigel bartlett on 22 with 26.11 on soft pellet at 14 mtrs then on maggot at 3 mtrs later on

landsend individual winter league round 4

it was back to an open draw today and i got the draw bag specialist in the shape of clint wojtyla to draw for me and he didnt dissapoint as he handed me 32 which is a corner(again)on the speci lake and then drew 61 on johns water(lake 3)for himself, which aint the best draw but he did get 40 quid at the end for having the top silver weight on that lake.
the wind was going to play a big part today as it was a very strong westerly which blows back towards the carpark with only the far end of each lake having some shelter. i cant remember a match on this venue where so many tip rods were being assembled, even i set one up to fish corn out towards the aerater, i set up 3 pole rigs, one for caster at 7 mtrs against the end bank on a bit of flat bottom that anton page told me about with an 18 middy 6313 hook on .12. a .5g rig with the same hook but on .10, and a 4x16 fir with a 18 middy 8313 on .14 ror corn at the bottom of the shelf at 12 mtrs which was as far as i could go with the wind and even then i had to let it go from time to time, for company i had none other than fishery owner and local legend , mike duckett, on peg 31 who was moaning about his draw as it is a proper form peg but you need to fish out near the island but its 16 plus mtrs and the wind put paid to that, opposite i had dale housen on 33 and tim ford on 34 and i couldnt see anyone else. at the start i fed some casters at 6 mtrs and at 7 mtrs in the margin and some soaked micro,s at 12 mtrs at the bottom of the shelf up the right hand side. starting on caster at 6 mtrsd i hooked a goob perch first drop but as they seem to do it dropped off for no apparent reason, the rest of the first hour was hard and i only had 2 more perch of just over a pound and some roach but i was going nowhere fast as dale opposite was catching f1,s and carp on the pellet feeder, and tim also had a 8lb carp , but mike next door was still biteless, as dale was doing ok on the tip i decided to give it a go, 3 chucks later and only one liner i slung it up the bank never to be used again, so up the edge with corn over the micro,s and i soon had a 9lb fish in the net but it wasnt easy as you seemed to have to feed ,leave it alone for a while then go back over it and you could expect a bite so while the pellet line was settleing i went into the 7 mtr margin line which during the match produced 2 perch and 1 5lb carp but the wind was making it virtually impossible to get any presentation on any line, about 2 hours from then end i cupped in some micro,s at 12 mtrs in front as the wind was showing signs of weakening slightly and by switching between the right hand swim and out in front i had odd fish right to the end , the last couple of hours mike on 31 put his lead rod down and got the pole out to 13 mtrs and began catching better carp than i was but luckily dale opposite had stopped catching so i managed to catch him up , but with mike catching quality i was beginning to think he had beaten me by the end so the banter was exceptional, and with anton page watching and adding to the comments it made it an enjoyable day, at the end it was to close to call i thought both mike and me had caught dale up but it was going to be close between us two , but i managed to push the pole out to 14 mtrs for the last 15 mins and got a 5 pounder which anton thought would just give me the edge and he was nearly right , my 10 carp went 53.10 and mikes went exactly the same 53.10 but he only had 6 fish , my silvers went 6.5 which gave me a 59.15 total for first on the day
2nd was mike duckett with 53.10 on peg 31
3rd brian shanks 50lb peg 21
4th kev molten 49lb peg 68
5th dale housen 46.14 peg 33
5th bob gullick 45.12 peg 24
silvers went to phil(fabio)harding with 21.10 on peg 38 , mainly skimmers and f1,s on soft pellet at 11 mtrs
next round is on the 19 feb

avalon oops no it isnt chilton instead

we were supposed to be having a pole only today at avalon which i booked with one half of the partnership before he jetted off to cuba for his hols, the only thing he said was that i should ring the other half of the partnership at the start of the week to advise him of numbers etc which i duly did on monday morning , only to be told he new nothing about it and that he wasnt to happy about us having a match without one of the owners in attendance and with one away and the other working there was no chance of that happening, also there top bailiff only works this time of year on a tuesday and thurseday so there would be no one there to sort the money out , obviously i cant be trusted to pay ,also a new one on me was the fact he was worried about bio-contanimation from wet nets as people might not dry there nets before putting them in the lake, obviously any pleasure anglers there dont need to adhere to the same rules as the match anglers as there nets would never be a bio-contanimation risk would they.plus i,m not to sure that net problems and disease,s are relevant in lower water temps, no doubt someone will let me know.
i had 19 booked in to fish today so obviously they dont need the money, but a quick phone call to the herring family and the match was re scheduled for trinity waters on woodland lake, and we were made to feel very welcome as always even had a small
birthday cup cake delivered to my peg complete with candle, mint,we lost a couple of anglers due to the venue change but we still had 17 and the lake only costs 80 quid representing good value for money.
tom thick drew for me and handed me peg 29 which is just across the bridge and 1 peg to the right historiccally not the best area as the pegs opposite and the corners are always favoured but i had an empty peg each side so you never know , as it was suppesed to get a bit breezy i made up a 1grm rig with an 18 6313 hook on .10 to fish maggot over micro,s, normally a good bet in the winter, at the start i cupped in some micro,s at 13 and 16 mtrs and fed some casters at 6 mtrs, all lines were the same depth so one rig does all, i fished the dead maggot for the first hour and had a couple of small roach and one carp fairly hooked in the tail, bites were very hard to come by although trig edmunds up on 22 had had a 9lb fish first put in and a couple more after the first hour so he was the early leader, adrian clark on 31 had caught one carp ,lost one and missed some bites on corn so i went down to him and scabbed a tin of the yellew stuff and put a piece on and it wasnt long before i hooked a carp at 13 mtrs , so that was my match sorted , i fed some micro,s an the 2 long lines and just swapped between the 2 , i ended the match with 8 carp, 5 at 13mtrs and 3 and a tench at 16 mtrs , i also had some small roach at 5 to 6 mtrs on caster,
my total weight was 44.5 for first on the day just edging out craig edmunds whose 7 carp went 42.9 off peg 22
3rd phil harding 31.4 peg 2
4th martin lenaghan 28.12 peg 6
5th john thompson 21.1 peg 9
6th ed wynne 20.13 peg 10
silvers went to nigel bartlett with 14lb off peg 27 using soft pellet over micro,s

viaduct teams of 5 round 1

19 teams fishing this series so with 95 anglers on the bank there was going to be some dodgy draws in the hat, but not for me i ended up on 110 which is a corner peg on cambell, its a peg with a lot of form as a lead peg this time of year with the end bank being the usual catching area so i tookj the lead rod to the swim but never put it together, as the wind was off my back i set the wag up unstead to fish on the deck , towards the end bank and straight out in front with corn on the hook , also put together were two pole rigs, one to fish caster over g bait at 16 mtrs at 1 o,clock angle and the same rig to fish caster at 11 o,clock, also a rig for caster down the edge by some brambles as some good perch do show here.
i fed all lines at the start and started on the wag over to the end bank, 2nd chuck i missed a bite then the problems with mink started with the little furry buggers swimming out from the bank under water doing a circuit of my float and going back under the bank, so i dont think i was going to get a bite there, so 45 mins in and i put about 12 inches on the depth and cast out in front at about 20 mtrs, by now martin preston on 131 had a couple of carp on his favoured popped up bread and i promised i wouldnt say anything about him fishing in my peg but it seems like standard practice at viaduct (like i,ve never done it myself)as the shape of the lakes sometimes means its unnavoidable, i now had a good 3 hours when i put 18 carp in the net then the last hour the fish seemed to move up the lake a bit as both myself and martin never had a fish in the last hour, i dont think it was a case of good angling it was just that the fish were sat between me and martin as dave white on 132 didnt get a bite until he chucked into martins peg and jamie parkhouse on 111 definately had more indications if he chucked back towards me , so they must have been really shoaled up.
i new it could be tight between me and martin to win the lake as although i had 18 carp martin had 13 but they were of a much bigger size with several of his fish going over 10lb but i only had 1 of that size but my net went 106.8 to martins 13 fish net of 93.1.
first on the day went to ray hayward with 115.8 on peg 25 spring i think he had 9 carp up to 20lb on waggler fished meat
2nd ben bentley 110.13 on peg 3 spring
3rd tony rixon 106.15 peg 110
4th john howell 93.6 peg 97
5th martin preston 93.1 peg 131
6th russ peck 74lb
silvers went to brian shanks on 37 with 16.14
teams
toss pots 72
somerset angling 65
amigo,s 61
8th avon angling 51
and the stongest team on the day was tom mangnals handpicked team of superstars, teamsilverfox 33 lol(honest tom i tried not to do it but my fingers ran away with me)
anyone interested i am running a pole only at avalon on weds, why a pole only , well its my birthday so i will do as i like

landsend league so far

points to date . these points are totals so far with the points in the brackets being the dropper which changes it all but only really counts by the last match
t rixon 7pts 99.6lb (3)
tom thick 8pts 203.14 (5)
craig edmunds 9pts 208.14 (4)
alan oram 10 pts (7)
mark poppleton 12pts (9)
bob gullick 14pts 157.01 (8)
mat tomes 14pts 92.11 (8)
silvers
nigel bartlett 4pts 41.8 (2)
martin pettifer 8pts 43.10 (4)
alan oram 9.5 pts 37.01 (6.5)
tony rixon 9.5pts 36.11 (6.5)
mat tomes 11 pts 42.03 (8)
paul elmes 11pts 37.8 (5)
any queries ring me at the shop

viaduct wednesday open

with 24 booked in there were to be 7 on match lake and the rest on spring, i fancied a draw on match but ended up with 8 on spring , an out and out carp peg as its another corner (dont you just love it dci gullick) with a died back lily bed off to the rigfht in the corner at 14 to 16 mtrs, the peg has no form for silvers so it was a day for carp only, i set up a 4x10 rig for the margins left and right on top of the shelf in 2 foot of water , a 4x12 rig for the bottom of the shelf in the right hand margin up to the weed bed and a 4x12 for out in front to again with carp in mind , so all rigs were on .16 with a xedion size 18 hook on the end.
at the start i fed all lines but began out in front at 14 mtrs at 10 and 12 o,clock and fished the 2 areas for an hour but i never had as much as a twitch and even though i gave the top of the shelf swim several goes i never had a bite there so that was 2 wasted rigs ,
to cut a long story short i had 9 bites on corn down to my right at the bottom of the shelf at varying lengths of pole between 10 and 16 mtrs , ending up with 3 carp, 3 goldfish!!!! and 2 good perch(on corn aswell) for about 40lb
first on the day went to phil(fabio)harding on peg 43 match lake with 42.10 of mainly f1,s with a few small carp and 1 good tench all taken on double and treble maggot on the waggler towards the island
2nd was me with 42.5 peg 8
3rd chris fox 31.3 on peg 47 using his now favourite method of bread on the lead
4th nick collier 30.10 peg 19
5th nigel bartlett 25.2 peg 45
6th steve hutter and adrian jeffery both with 21.7 on pegs 52 and 24 respectivley
silvers went to anton page with 15.6 on peg 42

landsend individual winter league round 3

my turn to be on the speci lake today and i was hoping for a draw on pegs between 31 and 34 so i was quite happy to have 34 drawn for me, a peg with form for carp and silvers as there is a bush opposite which normally holds chub, perch and carp, for company i had the very genial ken rayner on 33 and dave "beany" westcott on 35.
i set up 4 rigs , a 4x12 with an 18 6313 on .10 for caster at the bottom on the shelf towards the bush, a 4x14 impact 6 float for soft pellet at 14 mtrs towards the end of the island , a 4x10 for caster up the shelf on .12 with the 18 6313 hook and a corn rig for on top of the shelf which never produced a bite as far as corn goes.
after feeding all lines i began on the caster rig towards the tree, but it became apparent very quickly that the lake was going to fish very hard as i couldnt get a bite, it took me 15 mins to get my first bite which was a near 2lb perch and by the end of the first hour i had only had 1 more bite which resulted in another perch of about the same size, ken by now had one carp on 33 and beany on 35 was still waiting for his first bite. after 2 1/2 hours i still only had the 2 perch , anton page turned up for a walk round so i went up the shelf on the caster and had 1 small perch and lost another and that was the end of my bites there aswell, i think ken by now had 3 carp, scott puddy over on 31 was catching and losing odd fish , even the gimp on 32 had 3 carp .
with 2 hours to go thing werent looking to good even beany had managed to snare 3 small chub but that was the end to his sport.
the soft pellet line never produced a bite so i went for 2 new lines one at 14.5 mtrs towards the end of the island in about 2 foot of water and a swim by a small bush on the corner of the island , an area which can be very expensive on end tackle as there is a nasty snag there in the shape of netting from the old hay bale, but i had to try something, so i cupped in a few casters on each line , starting on the 14 mtr line i had a chub after about 10 mins so i fed a few casters there and after about 15 mins i had a carp of about 10lb so things were looking up but i was still behind ken , the gimp and scott but at least it was a start, i had another chub off that line so i put some more casters in and got the corner of the island rig out, lowered it in with boudle caster on and within a minute it had gone under and a carp of about 9lb was duley netted, i really needed another carp tok get myself back into conmtention for a money position on the lake as going into the last 45 mins ken had his 4th carp and scott puddy was landing more now, next carp i hooked was was one of the lakes double figure grassies which i played for a while and nearly netted but the hook pulled , i had one more bite at the end of the island which i think was a perck but it fell off on the way back , back to the shallow water and another chub was bagged then a couple of missed bites then 5 mins before the end i hooked a proper lump which took me till 14 mins after the all out to net but i wasnt to dissapointed as it was a 15lb plus common which i thought would propell me to second in the section, the gimp was playing one at the end and he landed his after the whistle but his 4 carp were smaller than my 3 so i thought i had him beaten, also ken on 33 was looking a bit defalted as he had just been moved from 2nd on the lake to 4th and out of the money, he did look miserable. as it turned out scott puddy won the lake with 62.11 off 31 i was second with my 3 carp going 37.8 and my 3 perch and 2 chub went 9.5 for 46.13.
most of the weights came from the match lake with mark poppleton on peg 7 scoring the top weight on the day with 94.14 , about 20 carp on corn
2nd tom thick 82.12 peg 11
3rd scott puddy 62.11 peg 31
4th bob gullick 49.10 peg 13
5th craig edmunds 48lb
6th andy hembrow 47lb
silvers went to paul elmes on 15 with 19.10
i will post the top 10 today or tommorrow and the next match is on the 22nd and its a random draw again

avalon weds

not many anglers seem to be venturing out at the moment, probably due to the shitty weather, so with a strong westerly wind forcast we decided to use the left hand bank as this would give us a wind off our backs, shame no one told the wind as it turned into a strong south westerly blowing off our right shoulder and up the lake making pole fishing difficult.
after the stormy weather of the last week the lake had that milky grey which the fish dont seem to like, fabio drew for me and handed me peg 20 which was the end peg today, for company i had martin lenaghan on 19, my peg does have a small gap in the island which in warmer weather is good as the fish are always swimming through so as there is 3 to 4 foot of water in the gap i set up a wag for banded pellet but i couldnt get it to stay any where near the far bank as the wind blew it straight out(should have set the lead rod up but once a year for that is enough).
i set up one rig a 4x14 impact 6 with an 18 middy 6313 on .10 on the end to fish dead maggot/caster and soft pellet, at the start i cupped in 3 balls of g bait at 13mtrs and 4 at 16 mtrs with a few casters dead mags and micro,s in it and some soaked micro,s at 16 mtrs at 11 and 1 o,clock, starting at 13 mtrs with maggot on the hook it took 30 mins to get a bite and that resulted with a small skimmer, by now martin had caught a carp on the wag and hard pellet on the deck letting his float blow in against the end of the island but bites were slow on that so i think he decided to bolster his weight with a few squirrels as he threw his wag into the top of the overhanging tree then moaning as he lost the only waggler he had with him, who goes to a wag venue with only one wag!!!! . only an habitual lead slinger as far as i can see, i would like to say i took skimmers for the rest of the match but it wasnt to be,the 16 mtr lines were all but devoid of fish with me only getting 3 small skimmers off that line , i think presentation was the issue on those lines as the trip was going with the wind blowwing the rig across the bait to fast whereas at 13 mtrs the trip was going back against the wind so 95% of my weight came from this line . judging by the talking on the bank it was fishing very hard with only vince(slinger)brown having any success on peg 7 catching a few small carp on the tip on soft pellet or banded pellet , by the end he had 9 carp for an easy win with 37.11
2nd was martin lenaghan with 4 carp and 2 squirrels for 16.6 peg 19
3rd ed wynne 8.11 of silvers on peg 9
4th me 8.4 peg 20
5th tim clark 7.5 peg 5
6th leon hubbard 7lb peg 16
this has always been a venue where rain and strong winds affect catches as the bottom seems to kick up a grey suspension which the fish definately dont like, small roach are usually a problem here but today there were even unwilling to feed, so any small fish caught were skimmers

shiplate farm west and hawthorn pools

24 fishing today so we had 12 on each lake which was ok as west pool had been extended by 5 pegs so peg that was is now peg 6, i let ron hardiman draw for me and he handed me the flier, peg 6 west pool ,nice,with only pegsd 2 and 4 in on the new part it meant i had an empty peg to my right then kev molten on 4 , andy france was on peg 2 on the new part which i didnt fancy at all and on peg 7 was simon belcham who was suffering from a bad back which meant he was unable to fish the long pole (it just gets better). steve the fishery owner had been along the far bank of this pool and cleared all the willows away , that is all except the bush in the water opposite me and it seemed to be holding some fish judging by the ammount of movement in the branches, not to mention the occasional tail showing and boils against the far bank, it was only going to be a micro and dead maggot approach today so i set up a .3 grm rig on .12 with a 18 6313 for 11mtrs and a 4x8 rig for over by the bush in about 15 inches of water. at the start i cupped in some micro,s and maggots at 11 mtrs and 14 mtrs each side of the bush, it was a very slow start at 11 mtrs and it took me 30 mins to get my first fish on this line in the shape of a 4lb carp and by the end of the first hour i,d had 4 carp and 1 small skimmer , but kev molten had caught and lost a few on 4 fishing over and back towards me so it was off to the bush then!!!
it must have taken me all of 30 seconds to get a bite which resulted in a small carp . so the rest of the match was spent switching between each side of the bush with double maggot on a middt 8313 size 14 on .14 , apart from my peg which was solid the rest of the lake seemed to be fishing hard with only odd carp showing and very few silvers , steve the owner wandered round and said hawthorn was being difficult aswell. i had a good day ending with over 20 carp for about 70lb ish , i wasnt to far out with my estimate as my net went 81.8 for first on ther day
2nd was chris fox on hawthorn 2 with 50.11
3rd steve wynne 38lb peg 6 hawthorn
4th phil harding 36.4 peg 14 hawthorn
5th martin mcmahon 32.4 peg 5 hawthorn
6th martin lenaghan 30.5 peg 11 hawthorn
silvers went to alan oram on 13 west pool with 10 .13 comprising of one big bream plus some smaller samples , again taken on dead maggot over micro
talking to steve after the match i hope i have convinced him to remove the bush as its holding to many fish so taking it out will hopefully spread the fish out along the lake