wet and windy landsend

well with 23 booked in we were spreading over the match and speci lake so plenty of room for all, only one cried off due to the weather but i dont really blame him cos we had to be a bit mad to be out in it, driving to the fishery there were several trees down in the fields and lots of branches on the roads, it was a bit wild ,
i let tom mangnal draw for and i ended up on peg 7 on the match lake, its a swim i like and have done well off it in the past, i thought i would get a bit of protection from the wind as it was a north easterly so i might be off my left shoulder, but it seemed to be hitting the island and channeling up our side of the lake, luckily its only 13 mtrs wide here so the far bank option was still there but it would be hard, so i set up the 4x8 rig with a 18 b960 on .16 for over there and a .5g rig for caster and soft pellet down the middle for caster and 4 mtrs for soft pellet, the closest angler to me was shaun townsend on 5 and i was going to have to watch paul elmes over on 19 who for some strange reason had flat water to the island , it really was a strange wind .
at the start i cupped in some casters at 8mtrs ,some soaked micro,s at 4mtrs and began firing 6,s to the island, starting on the caster i hooked 3 carp in the first 3 drops landing 2 and losing one, then it went quiet so i cupped some more casters in and had some perch and a good skimmer, then nothing again so more casters go in and i get another carp and a f1 then nothing again ,so more casters go in and apart from another skimmer that line all but dried up(which was more than the weather was doing).
the soft pellet line never gave me a single bite which was unusual, shaun on 5 was catching silvers well on caster at 10 mtrs and paul elmes on 19 was slaying the carp on pellet over to the island, i couldnt see anyone else doing very well so i went over to the island for most of the remainder of the match fishing a banded 8mm over loose fed 6,s, it was hard to control the rig but by the end i had managed 10 more carp and lost a few foulers due to the rig blowing into the fish, i reckoned on 70 odd pound which was never going to beat paul on 19 but i may just sneak into the frame, it all depended on how the speci lake fished, i dont want to sound to bitter and twisted (LOL) but by the end of the match paul was putting his rigs into places in his swim that he hadnt even fed and the float was burying, putting that asides he did really well ending up with 168.12 taken on a mixture of pellet and meat to the island and meat at 6mtrs
2nd alan oram 114.10 peg 34
3rd lee trivett 86.5 peg 29
4th tony rixon 84.9 peg 7
5th phil(fabio)harding 81lb peg 36
6th shaun townsend 55.6 peg 5 (i really must get him and steve kedge a direct debit set up for the quid side bets)
silvers
nick collins 46.4 on peg 40 a nice mixed bag of f1,s perch, roach and skimmers

acorn fishery, paddock lake

i,m getting pee,d off with the weather men now cos they keep getting the forecast right,
gales and rain all day and they were right, mint ,
we found a new place for brekkie today, annies cafe in yatton its above the shops in the small precinct, and i,ve got to say its the best breakfast i,ve had in a long time.
back to the fishery and we still had 16 turn up in spite of the weather but with no pleasure anglers about(no suprise there then)we were allowed to use the whole lake so we all had an empty peg each side, i let ryan summerhayes draw for and he handed me peg 24 which had a bit of form but not lately as the high 30,s and the island being the place to draw, not to much to set up today , i put up a 4x12 rig for just down the far shelf but never used it , a 4x8 rig for banded pellet on top of the far shelf in 12 inches of water, and due to the wind a .75g rig with an 18 6313 on .10 for caster at 3 mtrs and soft pellet at 8mtrs as its the same depth, at the start i potted some soaked micro,s at 8 mtrs ,began firing 4,s to the far bank and started loosefeeding caster at 3 mtrs,
beginning ar 3 mtrs i had a carp first drop lost one the second put in and caught one third put in then it went quiet except for some skimmers and a couple of decent perch,
by now tom thick on 33 was catching well as was fabio on 5 , so i kept the casters giong in at 3mtrs and went over on banded 8,s and was soon into smallish carp, the rest of the match was spent between the far bank and the 3 mtr line catching odd carp and skimmers close and casrp across when the wind permitted, at the end i was admitting to 70lb but felt i had a bit more, the main threats were coming from tom on 33, ryan summerhayes on 40 and john dursley on 38 had been catching well on meat , but i neednt have worried as my 70lb turned into 97.13 for first
2nd went to tom thick with 90.13 on peg 33
3rd ryan summerhayes 80.4 peg 40
4th john dursley 75.13 peg 38
5th phil harding 69.14 peg 5
6th mike west 63.2 peg 12
silvers went to steve kedge on 18 with 44.12 of skimmers,tench, and roach on caster

avon angling open, chilton trinity

we had 27 fishing today so we were on widmarsh which is the biggest of their day ticket lakes with 67 pegs on it , i didnt peg the carpy pegs around the back of the island which hopefully make for a fairer match.
i let dean malin draw for me and i ended up on 30 which is out on a point with a lot of open water to fish to , and a nice looking margin under a bush to my left which never seems to produce but it looks to nice to ignore, so i set up a 4x12 on .16 with a xedion 16 hook for double corn over caster and corn, a .75g for caster over g bait at 11mtrs , a .5g rig for soft pellet over micro,s at 14 mtrs at 11 and 2 o,clock angles and a caster rig for 3 mtrs straight in front, i cupped in 6 balls of gbait at 11mtrs, some micro,s at 14 mtrs on both lines, and threw some casters down the margin and onto the roach lines. starting at 11 mtrs i was soon getting bites from small roach, and it took me 45 mins to get a skimmer of about 12oz, but there seemed to be some skimmers over the g bait as there were some tell tale bubbles coming up, as there was over the pellet lines, i did get a few more skimmers over the g bait line and one off each of the 14 mtr lines on soft pellet, but after 2 hours the promised strong wind had sprung up making any presentation on longer pole lines a no no , not only was it impossible to hold the pole but the wind and trip was going the same way, so all i could now catch were small roach, being on the end of a spit i would normally of had the option of fishing off to the left with the wind off my back, but there were two carp anglers on the island effectively cutting off that line for me, so all could do now was fish for roach at 3mtrs which did give me some roach but that was hard going as it was still 7 ft deep there and the fish were moving up and down in the water, as for the margin, i did manage 2 carp and 1 tench from there .
on the all out i thought i had about 13lb of silvers and the two small carp would go about 10lb. i couldnt see to much around the lake, steve tucker on 58 seemed to have the most silvers and dean malin had managed to strum out 5 carp on the banjo feeder, the only threat to dean winning two on the trot at this venue was adrian jeffery on 25 who had 6 carp on the method. as it turned out adrian jeffery,s extra fish made the difference as he was first with 32.14 fishing the method at about 30mtrs with maggot on the hook peg 25
2nd dean malin 27.8 peg 44
3rd tony rixon 26.9 peg 30
4th steve kedge 26.6 peg 9
5th steve tucker 24.7 peg 58
6th glen calvert 23.01 peg 6
silvers
steve tucker 16.10 peg 58
paul faires 16.5 peg 20
tony rixon 15lb peg 30
not a big weight affair but still a good fair match, which most seemed to enjoy, although the wind stopped a lot of people catching, but full marks to john and misha as they are always at the weigh in and will always listen to any suggestions as to how to improve things, but any improvements take time and money so it aint going to happen overnight

landsend weds open, match lake only

started with 16 booked in and ended up with 13 , shouldnt moan really as the weather was supposed to be crap with heavy rain forcast all day, and we werent dissapointed, at least the wind wasnt to bad so the brollie could be used so i stayed mainly dry ,but brollies are a pain as they always seem to be in the way when playing and trying to net fish, but the dryness makes up for it,
i let john(the gimp)draw for me today as he always seems to draw himself carp flyers so what does he give me, peg bloody 3 not really a renowned carp peg so i decided to fish for silvers with half an eye on the far bank for carp, and what peg does john draw for himself only peg 21 which has been the biggest carp flier for weeks now, so no doubt that would change today.
rigs today were a .3grm for caster at 10 mtrs, a 4x12 for soft pellet over micro,s at 4 mtrs and down by the bush to my left as its the same depth and the usual 4x8 rig for hard pellet over. the soft pellet and caster rig were on .12 withy a middy 6313 size 18 and the pellet rig was on .16 with an 18 an 18 b960.
at the start i cupped in some casters at 10 mtrs , some 4mm hard pellet across by the island and began loose feeding some softened micro,s at 4 mtrs and down to the left.
starting on the caster line i was soon catching small perch on single caster, a switch to double caster was better as the perch got better and i had a couple of f1,s and a small carp, i was kindering a few casters over the float but that seemed to result in missed bites so i started putting in a decent ammount with a big pot and fishing it out before i fed again, i had a few good skimmers on caster and i also had some on soft pellet at 4mtrs and by the bush but the 10 mtr caster line was the most productive, due to the bushes it was impssible for me gauge how others were doing as i couldnt see through the tree,s. it also doesnt help when i went totally blind about halfway through but it didnt last for to long as soon as i realised my brolly decided to shut of it own accord,
the only person i could see catching was ryan summerhayes on peg 1 who was catching carp shallow to the island and up his left hand margin, i thought he had battered me but after he told me he had been severly palletised by quite a few, but he,s still young and he will learn lol, i lost a good one under the platform, they are good at it on this venue as the platforms are on stilts, the far bank was not to good today but i did manage 3 carp from there but i didnt spend to much time over there, by the end i had 6 carp and a decent net of silvers, the match was won by craig(trigger)edmunds on peg 15 with 78lb mainly due to 11 carp on meat down the edge late on in the match
2nd clayton hudson 70.8 peg 18
3rd tony rixon 67.10 peg 3 which included 40lb of silvers which was the best silver weight on the day
4th ryan summerhayes 63.13 peg 1
5th steve kedge 47.2 peg 22
6th adrian clark 29.4 peg 13
it fished hard today as some of the colour seems to have gone out of the water probably due to the cold wet and windy weather, hard to believe people were wearing shorts this time last year. next wednesday we are at acorn fishery on paddock lake so if anyone wants to book in ring me at the shop on 0117 9517250

viaduct float only match

21 fishing today so we had the use of the match lake and 64 to 73 on lodge, as i thought lodge would take all the money i decided to pay out one overall then 3 sections of 50 quid and 3 silvers, one in each section, so everyone had something to fish for, and it seemed to work out ok. i let tom mangnal draw for me and i ended up on 70 lodge lake , which is halfway up on the left hand bank, and the gusty wind was slightly off our backs and left to right, with 66 and 73 in both end pegs on the bank with lots of cover, and with paul elmes on 66 and bela bakos on 73 it was always going to be hard , for company i had northern exile martin lenaghan on 71 and mosella,s very own towie star barry(reemed)fitchew on 69. i didnt set up loads today , a margin rig to fish caster each side but it was never used, a 4x12 impact 6 for banded 6 hard pellet over loosefed 4,s at 14 mtrs straight out and a wag rig to fish 8mm pellet out towards the middle, at the start i cupped in some 4,s on the pole line and fired some 8,s out in the middle, by the time i had finished feeding bela was already playing a carp he had hooked fishing down towards the tree in his margin, i missed a bite first drop then had to wait about 10 mins till i hooked my first skimmer of about 2lb, both barry and martin each side of me had begun on the wag and were both missing bites, so as neither of them had landed anything i stuck on the pole, catching skimmers on hard pellet, i tried an 8mm on the hook and the bites got better so i stuck with the bigger pellets in the band whilst still feeding 4,s with a catapult, by the halfway mark i thought i had about 30lb of skimmers and 4 smallish carp, bela had 5 carp and barry had 3, martin was doing his usual of losing more than his fair share , so as far as i could tell i was probably winning the lake by the halway mark, the only person i couldnt see was paul elmes on 66, but i could see some ripples coming from his peg so i new he had had a few, the 4th and 5th hour were spent on the wag where i had another 9 carp, but the last hour i couldnt catch on the wag so i kept swapping between the pole and wag but it wasnt until the last 20 mins that i had another few skimmers on the pole, so by the end i new it was going to be close between me and bela as he had 15 carp to my 13 but my silvers may just sway it, but it wasnt to be as bela weighed 129lb for first on peg 73
2nd was me with 126.13 which included the top silver weight of 38.9 peg 70
3rd paul elmes 88.2 peg 66
4th martin lenaghan 64.13 peg 71
5th steve skelton 60.12 peg 64
6th barry fitchew 59.3 peg 69
so as it turned out all the weights came from lodge as i half expected so the decsision to pay section rather than straight overall,s was probably the best option as the match lake fished hard with the top weight being 37.10 by tom mangnal on 43.
next sunday i am running a match at cilton trinity on wildmarsh lake so ring me at the shop to book in 01179517250

acorn fishery, paddock lake, weds open

24 fishing today which is a good number for a wednesday, it probably helps being only 30 mins from bristol and with the ever increasing fuel costs i think it is going to be a venue on a lot of peoples radar,s this year, also it helps that its got parking behind nearly every peg so the walks are between 5 and 20 mtrs, not even i use my trolley, those days of walking 5 or 6 fields up the river with my kit on my back are a distant memory, and with the weight of my kit now i dont think i could manage it any way, i think i would need an iron lung when i reached my peg,
another plus with this venue is that it is wide open so it is possible to keep an eye on whats being caught by the other anglers so its possible to change what you are doing to iether keep in touch or change to silvers to try and get some coin, and there do seem to be plenty of silvers to be had as nets of up to 50lb of mainly skimmers have been taking the silvers money,
as bristols andy bryant wasnt here to draw for me i let bristols other challenger to slimmer of the year, leyton palmer draw for me, and he gave me 33 which is a bridge peg, i drew it last year and came second off it with lots of small fish (carp)fishing double caster to the far side, but recently the carp have been more than happy to munch on hard pellet, so that was the main attack today, so i set up the usual suspects, a 4x8 for over on top of the shelf, for 6,s over 4,s. a 4x14 for by the bridge but i intended to fish hard 8,s over 8,s by the bridge to try and get some quality as the fish under these bridges can be proper squeekers, a 4x12 for about 2mtrs off the far bank and down in front of empty pallet 32, and a caster rig (.4grm)for top 4 in front, the 4x12 down the shelf rig didnt produce a thing so that wont be mentioned again, for company i had bristol karaoke and bread specialist on 34 which is the other side of the bridge and 2 pegs to my left was up and coming younster joe mcmahon being annoyed by his mentor from his car window(his dad martin), at the start i fed all areas with a cup and started by the bridge with an 8mm in the band, i started getting indications staight away ,missing some unmissable bites, , 20 mins in and i was behind already with joe having 2 or 3 carp and bob the bread having a couple also andy france and tom thick on 2 and 4 were catching well, after 30 mins i got off the box and made up a shallow rig as the float was beginning to move about a soon as i fed but apart from 2 missed bites that was a none starter, so with an hour gone i was blanking and well behind a lot of people, so i went over up on the shelf with a banded 6 and lo and behold i was straight into carp and thats were i stayed for most of the match, by feeding 3 areas along the far bank and switching between them i kept pace with the anglers who were catching the best, i did try the caster line a couple of times which gave me 3 small tench plus some skimmers and roach but most of the time was spent across, and i think i ended up with about 35 smallish carp for what i hoped would be 75lb ish
1st on the day was the consistent tom thick who had 99.7 off peg 4 mostly on pellet up on the far shelf
2nd andy france 96.13 peg 2
3rd robert gullick 93.13 peg 15
4th tony rixon 86lb peg 33
5th gary mewdell 78.9 peg 36
6th ed wynne 71.12 peg 5
silvers went to martin pettifer on peg 12 with 38.13 of mainly skimmers on soft pellet and caster

sunday landsend open

we ended up with 30 fishing today so we used speci, match and half of number 3 lake, i let andy bryant draw for me and i ended up on peg 11 which i wasnt to upset with as it was out of the strong westerly wind, and the last time i drew it i had 45lb of silvers on caster , so with that in mind i thought i would try the same thing. as its one of the deepest swims on the lake i set up a 4x14 rig with a 18 middy 6313 on .12 for 10 mtrs a soft pellet rig with a 16 of the same pattern hook to fish out in front of the island at 14 mtrs and to my left at 14 mtrs at the bottom of the far shelf, and a 4x8 rig for hard pellet on top of the far shelf, although it was sheltered i wasnt to sure as to whether the fish would be at our end as the wing had turned round as was blowing to the bottom of the lake, i had ed wynne for company opposite on 13 and the next angler to my left was tom thick on 7, and that was the only 2 anglers i could see, the banter was as good as always with tom thick on top form giving trigger some awful stick on 16, and as trig was allegedly found by paul elmes sharing a bed with another man when trig didnt answer his door but made the mistake of leaving his door unlocked , so he is now known as spooner edmunds,now i have chucked up my roast lamb at the thought of it i will continue with my match, nah, bollcks i cant be assed to write to much about my match as all i did i did badly, losing a few decent fish, silvers and carp and that cost me the section, and i probably totally overfed it as the caster line ended up with little roach being a problem, the soft pellet lines yielded 1 small roach and the far bank gave me 2 carp and a couple of chub , i think i made a mistake by not setting up a pellet rig to fish the end bank at 16 mtrs as my section was won by mike west with 46lb and my 24lb of silvers and 4 carp went 41lb so the lost fish were costly as far as section money went , there were some good weights today with ken rayner winning with 162.13 of peg 21 catching on caster and later meat(read his blog) 2nd was ryan summerhayes with 130.12 on peg 31. 3rd leyton palmer 120lb peg 36. 4th tony page 113.5 peg 41. 5th adrian jeffery 92.8 peg 29 6th paul elmes 86.2 peg 18. silvers. tom mangnal 44.2 peg 28, mainly skimmers

viaduct wednesday open

with 23 fishing steve put 16 on cambell and 7 on cary, obviously a draw on cambell is preferred so i was first into the draw tin , and what comes out ,96, good draw but with the cold north easterly blowing into me and slightly across it was always going to make float fishing hard, but to be fair the wind wasnt as strong as expected so the wag rods were assembled, one was a middy loaded clear float of 4grm with a 16 b960 on .18, the other wag rod had a big 10 inch bodied drake for stability if the wind got up, i did set up 2 pole rigs, one for 8mm pellet at 13 mtrs and another for corn over caster and corn down to the empty pallet of 95, i wont be mentioning either pole rig again as the margin job produced a 2lb skimmer and the 13 mtr line was slung up the bank after 20 mins at the start as lewis greenwood on 98 had caught a carp on the wag and pellet fished at depth and ray hayward over on 88 had caught as well, so out on the middy float and i soon had a good carp in the net so that was the rst of my match sorted , i stayed on the wag for the rest of the match, feeding 8mm when the wind allowed and 11mm when the wind got too strong, and fishing both sizes in the band, i ended up with 15 carp and 1 skimmer for well over 100lb as the carp average 8 to 12lb on this lake with fish over 20lb not uncommon, by the end it was clear that ray hayward over on 88 had won our lake and as it turned out the match aswell with 199.9 fishing the wag with 11mm pellet on the deck at 16 to 20 mtrs
2nd kev newman 167.3 peg 115
3rd kev molten 154.4 peg 128, and he had over 80lb in his 2 nets so he cost himself 2nd for not putting another net in
4th jim baines 143.11
5th tony rixon 142.15
6th alan oram 142..8
silvers went to martin preston on 123 with a very creditable 83.6 of mainly skimmers on popped up bread, oh no that was in the winter , this time he caught on banded 6mm fihed close in
and there were another 4 weights over 100lb which was suprising as it was so cold, it just goes to show that this is probably one of if not the best big weight venue in the south or perhaps the whole country as some days ther can be up to 20 weights over 100lb with several going over 200lb roll on summer !!!!!!!!!!!!

landsend sunday open match and speci lake

this was the reserve date for the individual league so as it wasnt used there was an open run instead. not to bad a turnout with 26 fishing, fabio drew for me and i ended up on peg 5 , i havnt been on this peg for a long time so i was looking forward to the day, yet again i was next to shaun townsend , thats the third time in three matches where we have fished , i had peg 4 empty and shaun had 7 free so it would be interesting, there was a small sweeep on the lake the day before and that was won on 15 bt mike west on corn then paste towards the end, also there were 2 weights over 60lb of silvers so it would be interesting as to whether the silvers would feed the same today , i had my doubts as there had been a frost and it was very bright, i set up a 4x14 with an 18 6313 for soft pellet at 4 and 11 mtrs, and a 4x16 caster rig for down the edge, but i only tried it once and didnt catch so i wont be mentioning that again, and i set up a 4x10 rig to fish hard pellet to the island, so that was on .16 with a 16 b960 hook for banded pellet, luckily for me i had nick collins opposite on 19 and he was going to mainly targetting silvers so hopefully the carp would come round the island to me, at the start i cupped in some soaked micro,s at 11 mtrs threw some to 4 mtrs and cupped in some 6,s by the island, the first two hours were spent on the 2 soft pellet lines where i had some nice skimmers and f1,s plus 3 carp, but after the two hours the lure nof the island got the best of me and i was soon shipping out with a banded 8 on, i had been feeding with a catty all the time , and i was a bit suprised not to get a bite straight away, in fact it took about 15 mins to hook my first carp, but after that i caught fairly steadily up to the end ending up with over 20 carp, but with many of them being on the small side (2 to 3lb) i was admitting to 80lb by the end, fabio on 22 thought he may just have 100lb and trigger on 26 was admitting to over 100lb so i was looking at 3 rd best, in the end craig edmunds won with 134.14 of speci lake 26, catching carp on hard pellet fished to the corner of the island his catch also included 28lb of silvers
2nd was me with 112lb(so i lied a bit)on peg 3
3rd phil harding 102lb
4th leyton palmer 78.15 peg 40
5th adrian jeffery 74.13 peg 15
6th dave roper 72.01 peg 33
silvers
nick collins 42.4 on peg 19 , fishing mainly short with caster and bits of worm
oooh i seem to have missed somebody out of the results, where,s tom thick, oh i remember , he drew 24 and didnt catch much, well that makes a change