weds open landsend

17 fishing today so mike let us use the match lake and the carpark bank of the speci lake, tom thick drew for me and handed me 15 whilst keeping 19 for himself, he is so selfish, dale howsen was on 15 at the weekend and was last on the lake with 13lb so i wasnt to confident,i set up a far bank caster rig ,a corn rig for each side in the margins, a meat rig for down the middle and a soft pellet rig for 14 mtrs at 2 and 10 o,clock angle, for company i had martin lenaghan on 17 and fabio on 13 , i started on the meat after feeding all lines and stayed on that for 45mins with only a couple of wobbles on the float but no proper bites , so that was ditched and it was out on a 4mm expander over soaked micro,s , fishing at 14 mtrs to my right i lost 3 good skimmers in the next 30 mins, so i switched to the left at the same distance only to lose a decent carp of about 8lb after playing it for several minutes, before i new it we were 2 hours in and i was still blanking, martin had taken a couple of skimmers and carp as had fabio, i thought fabio was using bread but it turns out he was fishing PRAWN up the end bang and was getting odd carp and perch so i was well behind, i had no bites down the edge on corn over caster ,also the fasr bank only produced a couple of small roach, at least i was off the mark, i tried a piece of corn over the micro,s and was rewarded with a near 2lb tench but that was my only fish landed over the micro,s on each side, fabio was still getting bites on the prawn so i wandered up and scabbed a few , but i was quite relieved not to get a bite on them, then with 90 mins to go my peg kicked into life with chub and good perch on the far bank and carp down my right hand margin on treble caster, i was torn between the 2 lines . i ended up hooking 7 carp in the margin landing 6 with one palletising me, and some nice silvers over, my carp went 26lb and silvers 16lb for a total of 42.6 for 5th on the day and 3rd in the silvers no money but an enjoyable day in the end , luckily beating captain birds eye to my left and martin(blakey)lenaghan to my right , and i got my quid back off des shipp, as he had 27.8 , admittidly it was all silvers but a quids a quid
1st on the day was tom thick on 19 with 75.8 , 13 carp plus a few silvers on his favoured soft pellet over micro,s
2nd dean malin 48.8 peg 22
3rd tom mangnal 47.5 peg 11
4th chris davis 43.12 peg 1
5th tony rixon 42.6 peg 15
6th martin lenaghan 39.4 peg 17
silvers
des shipp 27.8 peg 40
steve kedge 21.8 peg 34

landsend individual league round one

35 have booked in for this popular league and all turned up and paid there monies so that was a good start to the day .alan oram pulled 2 tickets out and gave me the choisce ,so i ended on peg 35 which has a lot of form over the years for silvers and carp, there had been a knock up on this lake the day before and the silvers had been won off 36 with 34lb of perch, i,m not to sure that these fish appreciate two days of batterings so i wasnt holding my breath about them feeding again, there can be a lot of chub on these pegs but they have been noticable by there absence recently, i had kieth builder on 36 and nigel bartlett on 34 who was going for silvers only and with beany on 33 which was the winning peg from the day before it was going to be interesting, i set up rigs to fish soft pellet at 13 mtrs , a caster rig for 14 mtrs left and right at the bottom of the far side shelf and a small rig for meat and corn against the island, as usual i fed all areas at the start and went in with a 4mm soft pellet at 13 mtrs and was soon attached to a 7lb carp which was safely netted, a good start but after a further 90 mins and with only 1 small roach added i was switching to the 14 mtr caster lines but two small roach in the next 20 mins had me reaching for the far side meat rig , by now my confidence was dissapearing, as nigel to my left and kieth to my right was just netting a carp from his first bite, even beany who was on the banker peg had nothing up to now, the fish seemed to have moved as the far side of the lake at the other end was producing as trigger on 26 was getting bite and trying to lie about the weight he had but adrian jeffery next to him on 25 was counting the clicks on his counter so we all new what he had,
first drop on the far bank and i had a bite on meat and got back to my topset really easily and the fish felt lip hooked but it fell off as i took the topset off, bugger, not what you need on a hard day, and that was my lot on meat and corn on the far bank, i had to wait till the last hour for any more action when i had started using caster on the far bank and i had 3 good perch and another carp , i had swithed to caster about halfway through but it wasnt till the last hour that any fish arrived, as i half expected the perch didnt really appreciate the battering jamie parkhouse gave them the day before , like wise dave beany westcott on 33 was suffering after tom mangnal clattered the carp there the day before, so it was a hard day with my 2 carp plus silvers going 21.12 which was only enough for me to beat 3 others and they were the 2 to my left and kieth to my right, so i think the fish just had a bit of an away day, trig won the lake with 75.4 on 26 fishing soft pellet at 14 mtrs.
1st on the day was mark poppleton on peg 11 on the match lake with 104.10, using 4mm soft pellet over micros at 14 mtrs towards the aerater to net carp steadily throughout
2nd mike duckett 82.11 on peg 22, fishing banded 8mm pellet
3rd tom thick 60.8 peg 17
4th tom mangnal 60.6 peg 3
5th bob gullick 60.1 peg 68
6th mike west 54.1 peg 20
silvers
was a tie with mark brennan on 31 and tom thick on 17 both with 17.8

weds open at shiplate farm

14 were booked in but martin alexander decided not to bother even though he had made it to the fishery, which was an achievment in itself as most of the roads leading to the fishery were like rivers, i bet there isnt going to be a hose pipe ban next year, but then again with our local water companies being owned by france (i think) or spain (possibly)who can tell where our water is going to end up, it must be bad as owner steve was busy at his house trying to stop the water entering, it was about 1 cm from going over the step, he has never seen it so bad,
with no pleasure anglers about (cant understand that)steve let us use hawthorn and west pool so with every other peg being used there was plenty of room, i ended up on peg 13 west pool, which is the aerater peg so i was happy as its been a good swim lately, for company i had jason radford on 15 and des shipp on 11, so obviously having an excess of pound coins in my pocket i soon struck the nugget side bet with england and preston innovations finest and began assembleing my kit, as it was still falling out of the sky i only set up 2 rigs a 4x12 witha 18 6313 for the far bank and a 4x14 with the same hook for down the middle and at the bottom of the slope close in, one rig does both as its the same depth, i did contemplate going to clear some of that stupid spiky grass away so i could get tighter in but i thought the fish would be happier in slightly deeper water , wrong. easy bait options at this fishery at the moment with maggot being the easiest option, so at the start i cupped in some micros and maggot by the aerater and to the far bank and began feeding a few maggots and casters at the bottom of the nearside slope, starting down the middle i was soon behind as des had a carp straight away off the far bank, a fluke i thought but no he goes and does it again, so i went across and had a couple of small fish then a small carp but it never really happened for me and i was soon falling further behind with des and jason both catching carp on the far bank with maggot on the hook, also further up the lake andy curry was catching on meat as was ziggy and with the silver ace in the shape of steve kedge a blank day on the money stake was looking very probable and thats how it finished with me 24lb and a severe battering all round , but i did manage to cut des,s ass on the silvers front with 9.4 to des,s 9lb but with him only fishing for them for the last 45 mins i had a narrow escape there aswell lol
1st on the day went to the frys slayer , andy (ruby)curry on peg 7 west pool with 78.8 of meat caught carp down the middle
2nd des shipp 67.8 peg 11 west pool
3rd ziggy slowinski 64.12 peg 3 west pool
4th jason radford 59.2 peg 15 west pool
5th steve kedge 35.4 peg 9 west pool
6th dean malin 25.14 peg 3 hawthorn
7th me 24lb
silvers steve kedge 25.4
landsend individual winter league starts on sunday , i still have 2 spaces so if anyone is interested ring me at the shop on 01179517250 for dates and details

viaduct silvers lge rnd 5

early into the draw tin and out pops peg 60 which is on lodge lake , second peg up on the right, the pegs on this bank are on a public footpath and its the access point for the low numbers on spring lake and the match lake, serves me right reaslly as i took the piss out of the anglers fishing on the k and a canal about bank walkers and bikes on the tow path, ok so we never had any bikes but the foot traffic was was quite heavy at times, for company i had mike nicholls on 59 , thats the 3rd time so far in this league so a hat trick of ass whooping would be nice. i set up a wag but didnt see any serious use so no more of that then, the pole rigs were a 4x14 with a 18 6313 on .10 for 5 mtrs and 16 mtrs out to the right as it was the same depth and a 4x16 with the same hook and line for straight out at 13 and 16 mtrs, at the start i cupped in 1 ball of g bait at 5 mtrs , 2 at 13 mtrs and 2 at 16 mtrs out to the right at about 2 o,clock angle, starting at 5 mtrs on single caster i started getting 1oz roach straight away ,as was mike who was fishing to hand so he was catching quicker than me , i did try feeding short but it was to close and i would get 1 or 2 fish then they seemed to back off, so i really stuck to the 5 mtr line as i was getting bites every chuck, but they seemed to be slightly smaller than mikes, and halfway through moke was winning the section with about 5lb but his catch rate was dropping , i,d had a couple of looks on the long lines but they only gave me the same size roach as the 5mtr line , i did get a 1lb skimmer there but going into the last 90 mins the roach were slowing up so most of the remainder of the match was spent out on the 2 16mtr lines, i lost a big eel during this time when it snagged me on the way in, it was the last fish i expected to hook today after the frost and the clarity of the water, i was gutted as i was still behind mike at this stage, but waiting at 16 mtrs with single caster on did produce 2 more reasonable skimmers which put me in the driving seat as far as the section was going as there were only small roach being caught in our section, opposite on the form pegs which are 68/69/70 and 71 there were some good skimmers and roach coming out, but they werent in my section so i wasnt worried, i weighed 10lb 110z which gave me the section win i needed to keep me in the hunt for the overalls, mike was second in the section with 7.15.
1st on the day went to 15 year old joe mcmahon on 121 with 24.13 of mainly skimmers over groundbait so well done to him
2nd tom thick 19,6 peg 94
3rd nick collins 17.4 peg 68
4th john gray 13.2 peg 112
5th mat tomes 13lb peg 71
6th steve mayo 12.12 peg 90

avon angling open , chilton trinity, woodland lake

21 booked in for today so not to much spare room , unless you were on an end bank or near it , its always a good start to the day with the ever smiling misha in the hut making cups of tea and coffee for all , this continues to be one of the best maintaned fisheries about with misha and her dad john constantly working to improve things,
i let misha draw for me and she handed me peg 15, nice peg with a long margin to my left as peg 16 wasnt in as its a sort of corner peg and we would be pole fencing if both pegs were used, i had fabio on 17 and trigger on 14 so with good andlers around me it was going to be an interesting day, even though we had a frost i still expected it to fish ok as its 8 ft deep and i didnt think the cold would have penetrated to any extent(wrong), i set up a margin rig for my right to fish meat , it was a 4x14 impact 6 with a xedion 18 on .14, also set up were 2 rigs for out in front at 13 and 16 mtrs , one was a j range , forgot the number bit it was a 4x18 with a wire stem with a 18 9313 on .14 the other was a 4x16 j21 with a 18 6313 on .12, at the start i cupped in some meat at 13 mtrs and some soaked micros at 16 mtrs, i also put some meat at 8 mtrs down the margin,
by the time i had finished feeding fabio was playing an 8lb fish he had snared on the shallow rig , which was something i thought would be a non starter, and he had another before i had a bite, . i had begun on meat at 13 mtrs and it took me over an hour to put a smallish carp in the net and a small skimmer, trig by now had also had a carp on meat shallow but that was all they had up in the water, i went out to 16 mtrs with double maggot over the micros but never had a bite which is very strange on this venue as small roach tend to be a real problem , but not today.
with no bites occurring i had plenty of time to look around but no one was catching , silvers or carp, except for nigel bartlett opposite who was blip bashing and tom mangnal down on peg 2 all on his own who was getting odd carp, but with the sun out it was a lovely warm day , and with the banter flying around it was an enjoyable day,
a look down the edge gave me a bite on meat but the carp came off so i refed ,had a quick look on the long pole lines but with no bites it was back down the edge , no mistakes with the next bite and a 4lb carp was safely netted shortly followed by a 1 1/4 lb tench an d that was thew end of my bites in that spot so i refed at 14 mtrs up the edge towards the empty pallet with corn and went back out in front but apart from a few skimmers nothing was happening, trig had taken a few more carp but was struggling as was fabio, he peaked to early.
it had turned into a proper grueller with bites and hooked fish at a premium, i did manage 2 carp on corn up the edge at 14 mtrs but going into the last 15 mins i was still behind fabio and trig, out of desperation i went out on the light rig with double maggot at 16 mtrs over the micro and couldnt believe it when the float buried and i had a 7lb fish, that was the only bite i had on maggot all day , and it helped me to beat both fabio and trig, both of which seemed a bit gutted, in fact it helped me into 3rd spot and last in the overall money.
1st was tom mangnal 66.1 peg 2 , he had 10 carp and 8lb of silvers all his fish falling to maggot and caster
2nd mike(what idiot pegged it like this)nicholls with 44.4
3rd tony rixon 32.6 peg 15
4th craig(trigger) edmunds 29.3 peg 14
5th phil(fabio) harding 28.5 peg 17
6th bela bakos , 27.9 peg 25
silver
the top blippy basher who is nigel bartlett 9.9 , mainly whitebait on single caster or maggot on his topset

avon angling weds open shiplate farm

20 fishing today so steve and carol let us have the use of west pool and hawthorns so most had an empty peg on one side at least, even tom mangnal was here due to the fact he was asked by a couple of the regulars at summerhayes to stop going there LMARO,
i let mrs brown impersonater (bob gullick) draw for me and he gave me peg 4 on hawthorns, not a peg thats been doing to well lately but you never know, i had ziggy slowinski on my left who is taking great pleasure in having a bottle of beer side bet with fabio and to be honest if he wins many more fabsy could be the main stockist of the bridgwater polish offy. on my right was jason bird who was glad the gimp couldnt make it at least his pole was still in one piece.
bait choice was easy today as the maggot has been doing the business so 3 rigs to make up two 4x14,s one for down the middle ,one for the margins left and right as its 4 ft deep there and a 4x12 for about 1 mtr off the far bank in about 2 1/2 foot of water all had size 18 6313 hooks on .12 line.
after cupping some soaked micro,s and maggot at 9 mtrs in the deep water and some at 11mtrs up on the shelf and some on the angle to my right in the same depth of water and fed some caster each side in the margins, i started on a single maggot on the 9 mtr line but it was very slow and it took me about 10 mins to get a bite which i of course missed, but a small skimmer was soon in the net followed by a small perch then a couple of ruffe, not a good sign. i had a carp after about 45 mins, but that was the only carp action i had in the deep water, over on the shelf gave me one small chub, so i pushed the rig up to the right and i had another carp first drop, so i refed and went back in front but again no bites so back up to the right and another carp was on the end but no more bites ,so back to the deep water and a few more skimmers and a few roach graced the net but as far as silvers were going it was a none starter as trig up on 8 had taken a big bream so i was never going to catch enough smalls to compete with that and then he had another so that was todays silvers taken care of. a look to my right hand margin produced another carp then i bumped one so i went back across to the far side,and by moving between the far side and my right hand margin i kept a few fish going , ending up with 16 carp and a few silvers for 45.5 for no brown envelope today
the west pool was the place to draw with dean malin making a welcome return to fishing ang winning with 87.8 off peg 2 fishing maggot over maqggot along his far bank
2nd was his team mate pete sivell on peg 12 west pool with 84 , catching carp the same way
3rd adrian jeffery 67.6 on west pool 11
4th tom mangnal 63.14 on west pool 13
5th rod wootten 63.10 peg 8 west pool
6th craig edmunds 59lb on 8 hawthorn pool which also gave him the top silvers weight of 16.1

viaduct silvers league , round 4

i needed a good draw to keep me in contention, but out of the draw tin comes peg 66 which has been a draw of death with it recording 2 lasts and a last but one so far in the league, trouble is this is a flier carp peg where you catch down to the tree,s to the left and being the narrow part of the lake the skimmers rarely stray to this swim, i still didnt see any reason to change my attack so i was still going to base my attack around g bait , caster and dead maggots, so i set up two j range 21 floats ,one was a 4x14 and the other a 4x16 both with an 18 middy 6313 hook on .10, a quich plumb around revealed about 4 1/2 foot of water all over the swim so i could use the rigs any where i wanted to, at the start i cupped in 1 ball at 13 mtrs and 2 balls at 16 mtrs straight out and 2 at 2 o,clock towards 67 which is left out, i also put a ball on the edge of the tree,s but that was wasted as nothing came over it,
i then started on the edge of the bush to my right a i had a small hybrid straight away then no more bites , so it was out to 13 mtrs and i was getting a small roach bite every chuck but they were on the small side, after a bit of this i felt i could catch them a lot closer so i dropped a ball of g bait at 5 mtrs and then i had a good run of 1 to 2oz roach for about an hour before that line died, then both joe mcmahon on 64 and lee wherret both had a good skimmer so i went back out to 13 mtrs and had a few roach before i had a skimmer of just over a pound , then only small roach again so i refed that line with another ball and went out to 16 mtrs in front and after a few small roach i had 3 x 1 1/2 skims in 3 drops which got me back into the section hunt as both lee and joe had had some quality fish but i felt i wasnt to far behind , then i bumped one which you dont want to do on a hard day on a difficult peg and suprise suprise the swim went quiet apart from the small roach, over to the 2 o,clock line but that was quiet then i bumped another when the maggot folded over the point of the hook so that was 2 lost , back to 13 mtrs and i had another one so i was still in the running section wise but lee and joe both had some more fish including some 3lb fish so i was now behind with lee definately winning our section going into the last hour i had 2 more in 2 put ins at 2 o,clock then tragedy i struck to earl on a lifter and bumped another , by the end i new lee had beaten me but i thought i just had the measure of young joe but it wasnt to be as i had 15lb, joe 17 and lee 20 so a third in section for me, i now need 2 section wins to stand any chance of getting in the overalls at league end, those 3 lost fish cost me second but they felt the same size as the 7 i had so first place would have probably been safe,
1st on the day went to steve mayo on 69 with 45.6 of skimmers over g bait
2nd dave roper 24.14 on 96
3rd paul elmes on 71 with 22.13
4th tom thick 21.15 on 130
5th lee werret 20.14 peg 62
6th phil cardwell 18.13 peg 72