acorn fishery, paddock lake

another good attendance with 23 fishing, so with it being a 40 peg lake everyone had an empty peg on one side, so after a brekkie at the fishery which isnt to bad but it would never be enough for dean malin and it was only just enough for me, on to the draw and i let new dad and balding man in denial craig(trigger)edmunds draw for me and he handed me peg 12 which is a corner peg and the next angler to my right was on peg 10 and that was the cockney immagrant and self confessed carster marster ,martin mcmahon, and somerset angling,s roach demon steve kedge on 13. the venue has been fishing really well with carp being caught on pellet up the far shelf and down the edge on various baits and lots of skimmers down the middle on maggot over groundbait or soft pellet over micro,s, but i decided on a carp only attack so i set up a 4x10 rig for just down the far shelf and a dibber rig for up the shelf both on .14 with a 18 b960 for banded pellet and a 4x12 for caster down the edge with a 16 6313 on .12 but that was a non starter apart from one roach so the less said about that the better, starting on a banded 6 over loose fed 4,s i soon had a 2 pounder in the net but then it went a bit strange with only a couple of skimmers so that rig was thrown up the bank and the shallow was shipped out , and by now i could see odd mud clouds coming up and the occasional swirl, i had a few straight away but the rig wasnt right as the water was so shallow (8 inches)as the levels are down a foot so i got off the box and made up a 4x8 bristle float rig so it was easier to tell when the pellet was just on or just off the bottom, but as far as i could see around the lake i was well behind both gary mewdell on 5 and tom thick on 38 both catching well as was john dursely on 7 but he seemed to be loseing as many as he was landing, by the halfway mark steve kedge was on the silvers attack with the only serious threat to himwas craig edmunds on 18 who was catching skimmers on soft pellet between 11 and 13 mtrs , the 4th and 5th hours were my best spell but the carp were on the small side so by the end i thought i would have about 70lb but it was going to be out of gary mewdell and tom thick as to who would come out on top, as it turned out it was tom thick on 38 who had 104.9 for first ,all the fish falling to soft pellet fished across and then down the edge towards the end
2nd gary mewdell 102.4 peg 5
3rd john dursely 74lb peg 7
4th tony rixon 71.1 peg 12
5th mike chapman 68.8 peg 6
6th mike west 65.11 peg 1
silvers
craig edmunds 45.9 peg 18 on soft pellet nearly all skimmers to 3lb
steve kedge 27lb
all told it was a realy good match with everyone catching a few with only 1 weight under 30lb so there was no complaints today and considering we didnt have a cloud in the sky and it must have been at least 22c the fish fed well

chilton trinity wildmarsh lake sunday open

on the proper lake at chilton today and with 21 booked in misha let us use half the lake today and as there are 67 pegs on the lake most would get at least am empty swim on one side, dave evans drew for me today and handed me peg 61 which is about halfway along the road bank, which last year was ok for some skimmers and there was always a chance of some carp towards the end of the match, for company i had one of bathamptons finest in the shape of shaun townsend on 62 and martin rich on 59, the plan today was to fish caster over g bait at 13 mtrs and feed a micro pellet line at 16 mtrs , so i set up a .5g rig with an 18 6313 on .10 for the g bait line and a 4x14 with a 16 6313 on .12 for over the micro,s, at the start i cupped in 3 balls of g bait on the 13 mtr line and a moderate ammount on micro,s with a few 4,s in at 16 mtrs, first drop in at 13 mtrs and i go and foulhook a carp which came adfrift when in got back to my topkit, so back out and i began catching roach which were in the 2 to 5oz bracket so well worth catching, 20 mins in and i lost a good skimmer and i thought that would upset the swim but the roach were still there and i soon had a couple of 8oz skimmers followed by a 2lb fish, by now i could see odd bubbles coming up over the g bait so i switched to double caster and that produced a run of good skimmers, i was able to see most of the pegs from where i was and there seemed to be a few carp and good skimmers coming out , mainly to the paste anglers and dean malin on peg 11 had an early carp on a pink boilie on the lead but that was his lot on the tip and he was now on the pole , my micro line at 16 mtrs was hard with only a couple of better skimmers and 3 crucians ,but one of the bream off that line was my best fish of the day at about 3lb and it was fairly hooked right in the wing, soft pellet was the best bait on this line, the last 2 hours were spent switching between the inside on just my topset fishing caster using my .5g rig just shallowed up where i had some nice roach and my first eel of the year and the 16 mtr line where i managed a few more small skimmers, i only went on the inside as shaun and nigel bartlett were having some nice roach but my rig wasnt really right for what i was trying to do , but i couldnt be assed to make another rig this late in the match, by the end it looked as though dean malin on 11 was going to win as he had 10 carp , one on a boilie and 9 on the pole and hard pellet plus three good skimmers, i thuoght i had 25lb of silvers which should be there or there abouts for some silver coin, and thats how it ended with dean weighing in 47.6 for first on the day off peg 11
2nd was paul elmes on 67 with 34.13
3rd steve seager 29.13 peg 9
4th tony rixon 29.7 peg 62 which was top silvers weight on the day
5th dave evans 25.2 peg 25
6th craig edmunds 24.15 peg 10
it fished quite well really with 4 weights over 20lb and another 4 double figure nets of silvers alone

landsend weds open, match and speci

18 fishing today so we were spread out over the two lakes, so no real bad pegs to draw today, the peg i fancied was 31 and owner mike duckett nearly drew it for me as i ended up with 32 as my pitch for the day, and for company on 31 i had tom thick who i didnt expect to make to many mistakes, even though he was telling me that he was only fishing for silvers on soft pellet ,you cant help but hook a few carp on this peg no matter how you fish.
i decided on an all out hard pellet attack so three rigs were put together, a 4x14 for the deeper water about 2 mtrs off the tree,s, a shallow rig just in case they came up and a 4x10 rig for on top of the shelf along the end bank, all rigs had a b960 size 16 on .16 line.
at the start i cupped in some 6,s at 16 mtrs in front of the tree,s and some on the ledge up the edge, i went straight out with a 8mm in the band and i did expect a bite fairly quickly but all i had were a couple of funny indications from what i think were silvers having a bit of a pop at the pellet, after 30 mins i had had 1 f1 and a fouled skimmer and it was going to be a difficult day, even tom on 31 couldnt get a bite on his soft pellet at 13 mtrs so he gave up on that line and went up onto the island shelf in about 2 feet of water and the response for him was instant with good chub taking a likeing to his expander, at times he never had time to drop his micro,s out of his toss pot before his elastic was coming out, back to my peg and by now i was firing a few 6,s over both lines but i still couldnt get a response apart from a fouled carp which made it into the tree,s , i could see fish moving on the end bank so i thought that would be my banker for some action, i continued in the deep water for another 30 mins for another f1 a tench and a skimmer but then roach started to take the 8mm pellet which wasnt a good sign, so i went up the edge on the shallow rig as i could see a couple of fish moving in the gress, two quick carp and that was my lot shallow up the edge, by now the sun was out and these landsend fish can be a bit spooky as they have seen it all before and with the sun behind us on this bank the pole was casting a shadow over the catching area which i think unsettles them, so i went out into the deep water but shallow to see if the sun had encoureged some fish to come up but 20 mins of rig slapping only produced 1 f1, so i tried back on the deck but the roach were still there being a nusience, but an even bigger pest was at the next peg in the shape of tom thick who was still putting quality silvers into his net with the chub having a real liking for his soft pellet along with some good skimmers, with only 2 hours to go i only had three carp and my silvers so i refed right into the branches of the tree,s as my only option was to try some suicide fishing changed to a 4x12 rig as it was a bit shallower and cupped in bait instead of using a catty, the response was more positive as began to get liners and catch the odd carp and i never lost any in the branches so perhaps i should have done it earlier, the lasat 2 hours for tom had got harder but i still reckoned he had over 50lb of silvers plus 4 carp, i ended up with 9 carp and about 10lb of silvers but with the carp being on the small side i wasnt expecting to do any good today especcialy when we heard tha tour new polish mate ziggy on 15 had 40 carp and andy france on 25(he moaned them on)had had a good day on the fi.s plus some carp aswell, with the weather i really thought it would fish a lot better but bites for most were hard to get, in the end ziggy full and proper name zozislaw slowinski won with 155lb on peg 15 fishing pellet shallow at 13 mtrs
2nd andy france 114.3 peg 25
3rd tom thick 91.14 peg 31
4th alan oram 67.13 peg 28
5th tony rixon 64.9 peg 32
6th tim clark 44.13 peg 38
silvers went to tom thick with 58lb of chub and skimmers
sunday we are going to chilton trinity again but this time widmarsh is the lake which more a traditional(some say proper)lake so it will be interesting but carp will still win it but there are plenty of skimmers and roach to target on the worm or caster and groundbait, if anyone is interested ring me at the shop to book in on 01179517250

chilton trinity woodland lake

21 booked in today so we turned it into a pole only as it stops any arguing cos the end banks were in and there would have been discord with people chucking across others no one seemed to mind. martin lenaghan drew for me and i ended up on 24 again ,thats twice on the trot in less than 5 days , i hoped it would be better than wednesday as i really struggled, i decided to put some g bait in today for skimmers so i made up a .8g gig with a 16 6313 on .10 . a 4x16 for 16 mtrs on the deck for banded pellet, a shallow rig for 16 mtrs and a 4x12 for corn down the edge each side at 6 mtrs, at the start i cupped some 6mm pellets at 16 mtrs , 6 balls of g bait at 11 mtrs with some soaked micro,s and cupped some corn and 4mm down each margin.
i lost a fish about 20 mins in and fouled a carp which came off about 10 mins later and that was my lot for the first hour by now the wind had begun to pick up blowing in and across at our bank, so presentation was impossible to get right , but the anglers opposite with the wind off thgere backs were starting to catch shallow on the pellet, with martin lenaghan on 10 and brian shanks on 15 leading the way, so i tried to follow suit and went out on the shallow rig and managed to snare a couple of carp quickly bvut the wind was blowing the rig back under the pole and the wind was strong enough to prevent you feeding with any consistency, 2 hours in and after a fruitless look down the edge i went back out and struggled on the shallow rig ,i did get 2 more carp but we were 4 hours in and it was looking as though it was going to be another blow out day , the g bait line only gave me 1 small skimmer so that was a waste then, the last 90 mins i spent down the edge on corn , and luckily a few fish decided to feed as i had 7 more carp and lost one so i ended up with 11 carp which i thought may just be enough for third as martin lenaghan and brian shanks were favourite for 1st and 2nd.
it turned out brian shanks was 1st with 97lb which was 16 carp ,mainly at 14 mtrs shallow on pellet with a few from his left hand margin on peg 15
2nd was martin lenaghan on 10 with 75.14
3rd tony rixon 56lb peg 24
4th tom mangnal 36.4 peg 29
5th mike west 32.11 peg 7
6th ron hardiman 31.8 peg 14
silvers went to shane caswell on 26 with 14lb of mainly skimmers plus one tench on chopped worm at 11 mtrs

chilton trinity woodland lake weds open

a good turnout today with 16 booked in but there was three polish anglers wanting to fish, as they had been there the day before and one of them had caught 40 kilo on the shallow wag they fancied a go, so after shaking them down for disposable barbecues i let them pay there pools money so now we had 19 fishing , and to be honest they seemed like really nice people and they were certainly keen. it was good to see leyton palmer back out again after his winter hibernation so i let him draw for me and i ended up on 24 with adrian jeffery on 23 and one of our european mateys on 26.
after catching on hard pellet at the weekend at landsend i had decided on that approach for today , feeding 4,s and fishing a banded 6 at 14 mtrs on the deck and shallow so i set up a 4x16 and a 4x12 for that , both with a 18 b960 on .14, i set up aswell a 4x16 for meat at 6 mtrs with a 16 middy 8313 on .14 , and i could use it on the 13 mtr line aswell as its the same depth , and a 4x12 for meat and corn down the edge, at the start i cupped some feed on all lines and went out to 14 mtrs with a banded pellet on , it was a slow start with my polish mate on 26 catching a small carp on the wag straight away ,and steve preece getting one on his favoured catmeat on 17. also tom mangnal began to catch on the method on peg 11, sorry i should have said 27/28 , he nearly knocked leyton,s pot off the end of his pole(sour grapes lol), after the first hour my match was all but over as i had 2 carp a couple of skimmers and to many pellets missing from the bait box and there,s is no chance of taking them out from 9 foot of water is there, i did manage a tench from the margin on corn and a few more skimmers on corn at 14 mtrs over the pellet line, but i think i proper skrewed my peg by getting catty happy, a more tentative pole approach may have paid off, also i should have taken a rod and fished the pellet wag as tom was now catching on that and it was even in his own peg (still sour grapes), by the end it was clear tom had won easily as he was even catching shallow on the pole by the end, i did try shallow myself but all i had was roach
tom weighed in 100.10 for an easy win peg 11
2nd dean malin 58.9 peg 2
3rd leyton palmer 37.8 peg 29
4th steve preece 37.2 peg 17
5th tony rixon 20.2 peg 24
6th john thompson 20lb peg 14
silvers
leyton palmer 14.10 mainly skimmers on soft pellet
and tom was fishing in his own peg JUST HA HA HA

landsend individual winter league last round

i was going into this last match in the series in the lead so a good draw on lake 3 was needed, i let pete nurse draw for me and he handed me peg 61 which isnt one i would have picked, but in previous round it has thrown up some fish but not normally enough to do much damage section wise, and to make matters worse tom thick who was the only one who could beat me was on peg 33 on the speci lake which is nearly the most consistent peg on there, i fancied my peg when i got there as i had forgotten how much room i had , but you cant go to far down the edges as there are tree,s at 3 mtrs each side so i set up a 4x10 rig with a trusted xedion size 16 on .16 for the margins, a 4x12 for banded pellet tight to the island in 2 1/2 foot of water, and a soft pellet rig (4x12) for 13 mtrs, i didnt bother with a shallow rig as i wasnt sure the carp would come up !!!!.
at the start i cupped in some micro,s in front at 13 mtrs and at 10 and 2 angles, threw a big handfull of casters into each margin with a few grains of corn and started firing 4mm hard pellets to the island, first drop at 13 mtrs and the float kept going and a 1lb fi was in the net, the next 45 mins were a pain as the small roach moved in, but by now i could see some movement against the island, so its off the box and a shalllow rig was put together and it didnt take long to get the first carp into the net, so that was the end of the soft pellet line , i had odd carp off this line for the next couple of hours then disaster the sun broke through and the bites stopped, i did catch one good fish down the edge but lost 2 and snapped a no 4 in the process, the lake seemed to be fishing well as paul haines on 58 was catching well off the island and down his edge but the sun seemed to put paid to his sport aswell, by the end i had 15 carp but paul had 13 so it was going to come down to who had the biggest average size, paul weighed first and put 77.01 on the board which i thought would be enough to beat me , and it was as mine went 72.11 , but second on the lake was ok ,it just depended on how tom had done, unfortunately his peg had a bit of an of day as he only managed 77.11 for 7th on the lake !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so my 10 pt total was enough for first and a 300 quid pick up
2nd craig edmunds 14 pts (334.3)£200
3rd tom thick 14 pts (282.5) no overall money as he was top silvers over the series and its one prize one person
4th dale howsen 17 pts £100
kev molten 19pts (258.6)£60
nick duckett 19 pts (177.8)FA
steve seager 19 pts (160.01)FA
SILVERS
tom thick 8.5 pts £200
alan oram 9pts £100
RESULTS ON THE DAY
graig edmunds 105lb peg 32 on hard pellet up the edge
mark poppleton 95.13 peg 34
nick duckett 93.14 peg 15
mike west 93.3 peg 31
paul elmes 90.8 peg 29
bela bakos 87.8 peg 27
SILVERS
nigel bartlett 41.10 peg 35 mainly chub ,perch and skimmers on caster
ther speci lake was definatly the place to be, the complex fished really well with me coming 11th on the day with 72lb, taking names for next year on the same dates so book early to avoid dissapointment

weds landsend match and speci lake

another good turnout, we had 22 which must show the weather is on the up, but not today as we had rain to start to be followed by an increasing westerly gale, after sunday i fancied a bit of a peg with some shelter cos i,m still suffering from the man flu (no sympathy please), i let mike duckett draw for me about halfway through the draw and lucky for me he found the ticket with 2 staples in it(thats a joke by the way mr anon) so i ended up on peg 11 in some flat water, i had fabio opposite on 13 so at least i had some one to talk to,lots of options today so i set up a 4x14 for caster at 7 section, a 4x12 for corn to my left to the empty pallet which was a waste of shot and line as i never had a bite there, a .3g for soft pellet over micro,s to my left at 16 mtrs down the middle and at the front of the island, and a 4x14 for banded 6mm over 4,s at 16 mtrs against the end bank. after feeding all lines i began on the caster line at 7 sections and i was suprised not to get a bite straight away, it took all of 15 mins to miss the first one but after that i started to get regular bites on single and double caster over kindered caster, only feeding a few after each fish, and the fish were all quality with good ide, skimmers and perch, 2 hours in and i thought i had about 20lb in the net so i fed a reasonable ammount of caster through a big cup and explored the other lines, by now i had stopped trying to talk to fabio asd he had turned into a right miserable bugger sat there moaning and cursing as he had lost some good silvers, he was even thinking about packing up and going, even the lady in the cafe reckoned he had his miserable head on ,
any way a look on the soft pellet line at 16 mtrs to my left gave me one bite which was a rather skinny golden ghostie of about 2lb, the front of the island gave me no bites so that was the end of the soft pellet action, over to the end bank on banded 6mm, that was a bit better as i had 2 quick bites and 2 near 4lb carp were duly netted but again there were no more bites to be had there, i did try the pellet lines a few more times before the end but there were no more indications on iether, so concentrated on the caster line up to the end and had some nice fish.
walking down to do the weigh in the only person on our lake who had caught some fish was tom mangnal on 19 who was admitting to 10 carp on corn fished at about 11 mtrs, the speci lake had been tough with tom thick being top weight on there with 42lb
so the first spot went to tom mangnal with 68.4 peg 19
2nd was me with 49.15 which included the top silvers on the day with a very enjoyable 40.10 peg 11
3rd tom thick 42.15 peg 33
4th howard wedd 42.6 peg 3 , 8 carp on the lead and meat
5th jnt dale howsen peg 31 and martin lenaghan peg 7 both with 31.3

viaduct teams of 5 round 5 and last

all i wanted to do was try and avoid pulling draw 16 out of the hat , so what do i go and do. yep draw 16 sticks to my hand meaning i end up on the dreaded peg 21 in the corner of spring, with no chance of any skimmers but there can be an outside chance of a carp down to the empty peg 22 pallet but no one has had one there this year and i,m not sure whether one was caught there last year either. going into this match i was top indivual on 72 pts with ray hayward 3 pts behind but he was on peg 2 on spring so i think i would need a carp or have ray to blank to stand any chance of staying on top, i have to say i never even saw ray smile when he saw where i was drawn(not). i,m not going to say to much about my match as it went pretty much as i expected with no bites down to the pallet on mag, caster or corn. i did get a bonus 2lb perch at 4 mtrs on caster about 10 mins in, the rest of my fish in the shape of small roach at 13 mtrs on caster or mag over g bait , but i was aching by the end as firstly it was raining with a gusty wind blowing in and slightly right to left, then the rain stopped and the wind increased to gale force, spinning me round on my box several times, and to make matters worse i was opposite ray and it took him 3 hours to get a bite from a carp then he had another about an hour later so that was the overall taken care of , i just hoped my dismal weight would keep me ahead of the chasing pack, my 4.14 gave me 8pts but with andy power, bob gullick and des shipp having done well it was going to be a tight finish
individuals on the day
dave roper 135.12 peg 97 0n the bomb and maggot
des shipp 134.9 peg 113
jason radford 93.1 peg 86
bob gullick 80.3 peg 127
paul homewood 78.2 peg 115
silvers
vince brown 23.12 peg 18
john moody 20.5 peg 43
dean malin 20.2
teams on the day
thatchers youth ft mark harper 70
somerset angling 69
dynamite baits/awa shima/viaduct select all 67
garbolino bmvmg 64
moaning maggots 62
maver veals red 58
jinx 51
v all stars/team viaduct both 50
landsend 49
sonubait thatchers 45
avon angling 42
veals blue 31
silver fox 29
somerset majik 28
toss pots 26
amigos 23
final table
thatchers youth ft mark harper 335(good score)
somerset angling 308
moaning maggots 304
viaduct select297
garbolino bmvmg 264
maver veals red 262
avon angling 256
dynamite 251
amigos 250
toss pots 242
awa shima 228
silver fox 224
maver blue 222
viaduct 217
sonubait thachers 216
allstars 214
jinx 213
somerset majik 191
landsend 182
overall individuals
ray hayward 85
tony rixon 80
des shipp 79
andy power 78 209.01lb
bob gullick 78 188.6lb