Shiplate farm main lake

20 booked in but due to trigger caning it on Saturday nite he was in no fit state to come so only 19 pegs needed. Just for a change I had the last one in the hat , which was a good move as I ended up on 15 which is the end peg on the far bank, and I had the wind off my back. For company I had fabio on 14b and I had to sit and look at Clint wojtyla opposite on peg 1. Not to many rigs to set up today , in fact only two would do, a .5g for 6 and 13mtrs for maggot over ground bait  for skimmers and hopefully a few of the lakes better bream, and a 3x14 for corn over micro to my left in the hope of a few carp,  the skimmer rig had a 18 middy 6313 on .10 and the carp rig had a 9313 on .14 , at the start I cupped in two balls with a few casters at 7 mtrs and 3 at 13 mtrs and some corn and micro to my left at 13 mtrs.
Starting with single maggot at 7mtrs my first bite came from a small roach ,and my second bite was from an angry carp which didn't take to kindly to being hooked somewhere other than in the mouth, hence a slightly straitened hook and no fish, so a new hook then next drop and a slightly better roach then a 3lb bream followed by some small skimmers, by now mat tomes on 14a had caught a carp on the feeder but that was his only carp he had ,  so it wasn't long till he was back on the pole. Of the anglers I could see on the far bank no one was catching much and with the wind blowing into them I wasn't to surprised , our bank was fishing better mainly down to the presentation, about halfway through mat had 3 good bream in a burst and I had another 3lb fish again at 6mtrs but it was a bit slow so I went out to 13 and had some more small skimmers, I had a few looks on the corn line but only had 2 skimmers there , with not a sign of a carp, in fact there were hardly any carp showing  on the lake at all. With 2 hours to go I had to go for a toilet break,and with mat tomes was top on my way round to the loo with about 20 lb, getting back to my peg I went in at 6 mtrs with a single maggot and the float settled and went straight under and I had a 5 lb bream so. I was one good fish behind mat but I never got one all. Could get we're small skimmers on the 6 and 13 mtr line , mat never managed another quality fish but Clint ended up with  2 carp and 2 good bream plus some bits for mid 20,s
1st on the day was Clint wojtyla on peg1 with 25.10
2nd mat tomes. 23.12 peg 14a
3rd tony rixon 18.12 peg 15 which was top silver weight on the day
4th mike Nichols, 15.7 peg 14
5th chris fox 12.4 peg 13
6 th nick collier 10.2 peg 12
Wednesday I have a match a chiton trinity , woodland lake 9 draw , if interested ring me on 07974807941

Stafford moor Xmas match

Not too many booked in today ,only 22, so we were spread over tanners and woodpecker with the bulk on tanners, I fancied a draw on woody,s between 3 and 16 as there would be a lot of protection from the really strong westerly wind that was blowing, so into the draw bag and out comes 34 on tanners, lovely I had the gale blowing in and slightly across and unless I only wanted to fish the pole at 4 mtrs max it was going to be a none starter ,so I left it in the van. I didn't realise andy was doing a silver prize so I had no silver bait with me anyway. So all I took to the peg was a wag and a lead rod, it doesn't take to long to set up either so with a pellet attack my only choice I had a 16 to .16 on the wag and a 14 to .18 on the lead rod, I would like to make this an interesting read but all I can say is that I had one bite on the  wag and a bite on the tip in the first two hours which put two carp in the net , then I had to wait till the last 5 mins for my next bite which I netted on the whistle to give me 3 carp ans a 4 oz skimmer I fouled in the dorsal fin winding in for what I thought would be about 18lb, the only angler with 4 carp on the lake was les Williams on peg 3 so the lake was going to be tight, the lake had fished really bad and woody,s hadn't faired much better as it was Steve hay man from Taunton had won on peg 16 woodpecker catching a few down the edge, I haven't got the weights yet as andy didn't bring them up the pub where we were having a very nice chile, second was mal king on 3 woody,s , third les Williams on 3 tanners, fourth was me with 22.9 on peg 34tanners , fifth Paul Burkett on 34 woody,s and Kevin molten was sixth on 32 woody,s.
The wind was the main factor I think contributed to the poor returns as it was impossible to get ant presentation apart from on the tip but the fish have responded better to the wag approach recently, but who really knows, when andy let's me have the full result I will put them on here, it should be tomorrow nite

landsend loyalty match sunday

only 19 fishing this match even though a few more had paid there 15 x £1 ,s over the year and some had nearly paid enough but chose not to top up to fish,
into the draw and i fancied any peg on the match lake as the speci has been hard of late except the corners and the island ends ,i let dale howsen draw for me and i ended up on 29 which is nearly smack in the middle of the island , not good, i had ed wynne on 27 which was about as good as my peg and the bridgwater stud muffin ,mike west on 31 which is the corner of the island and with the likes of tom mangnall, kev molten, craig"trig" edmunds on the favoured corner pegs , it was looking as though a pickup was going to be hard to come by, various baits fished over micro,s have been working well at this fishery so i set up a 4x14 rig with an 18 8313 on .12 for 14 mtrs at the bottom of the far shelf and to my right at 16 mtrs, a margin rig to the empty pallets each side but they produces a bite even on caster so the less said about that the better, and a 4x12 rig for caster against the island with a 18 9313 on .14 .
after feeding all lines i began on double maggot over the micro lines but the bait wasnt reaching the bottom with small roach intercepting them on the way down, a switch to 4 and 6 mm expander gave me the same nuisance fish, so out with the corn and after a long wait, another roach, i was now beginning to think there were no carp in this peg, especially as the 3 afformentioned anglers in the corners and mike west on the end of the island already had at least 1 carp in the net.
i went to the far bank with double caster and had a couple of roach so a switch to corn which normally gives you a carp didnt even appeal to the roach, i was now convinced that there were no carp in the swim , by now tom was doing it "gamangnall" style catching shallow on banded 6mm hard pellet over loosefed 4,s out by the aerater and with kev molten on 32 catchind odd carp and mike west trying to the strike the heads off anything which entered his peg with a small ammount of success so i decided to just fish caster at 6 mtrs and by the island and the rest of the match was quite enjoyable with bites from small roach nearly every put in , i did get 2x 2lb perch off the island and a 2lb plus hybrid at 6mtrs , one carp did turn up on caster against the island but it was just a passing tourist as it was hooked no where near the mouth judging by the size of the scale that came back, at the end i had a quick look in the net and thought i had about 14lb so i was pleasently suprised for the scales to go round to 18lb and a lake silvers win which was worth 50 quid so i was happy, the lake and match was won by tom mangnall on 33 with 94.2 , mainly taken shallow at 16 mtrs by the aerater.
2nd making it a tom tom first and second was tom thick on peg 13 with 65.12
3rd adrian jefferey 50.11 on peg 21
4th kev molten 48.3 peg 32
5th and first out of the money was craig edmunds 5oz behind with 47.14, i got to say that kev only had one silver fish and that was a 5oz roach how MINT is that trig
6th alan oram on 17 with 44.3
silvers went to fish and fields finest in the shape of martin pettiffer on peg 11 with 19.10
and finally even though i hates christmas i hope you all have a nice one and a healthy and enjoyable new year

landsend wednesday open

14 fishing so we were all on match lake, i let mark poppleton draw for me today and i was more than happy with peg 21, its a good peg all year and it has shown plenty of form recently, for company i had fabio on 19 and jim jenner on 22.
only 3 rigs today, a 4x12 for over against the island for caster so it had an 18 6313 on .12 line, a 4x14 for maggot over micro,s at 13mtrs in front and at 14.5 mtrs to my left towards peg 29 again with an 18 hook on .12, and the last rig was a 4x14 for caster at 7 mtrs with an 18 hook on .10.
after feeding micros on the 13 and 14 mtr lines and caster at 7 mtrs and against the island, i started on single caster at 7 mtrs i had to wait 10 mins for my first bite which was from a 4lb carp so a good start, fabio had also caught on the same line and jim had one at 13 mtrs, i stuck with this line till the end of the first hour but never had a bite in this time, so i put a decent pot of caster in and went across to 13 mtrs with a single maggot where i had a skimmer and a carp then i lost a couple, so i went up on the shelf against the island and had 2 carp on double caster, but apart from a lost fouler later in the match that was my lot against the island, my main catching area was the 14 mtr line towards peg 20 with most fish falling to single red maggot with some of the carp taking it on the drop, fabio hadnt set a rig towards 20 but he soon did when i started catching and for a while it looked as though he was going to overtake me but i had a better last hour than himto keep me in front, as far as i could see i seemed to have done enough but it turned out mike west on 11 had also caught quite well so the scales would have to call it , in the end my 15 carp and few silvers went 77.10 beating mike into second with 77.4
3rd philip(fabio)harding 46.10 peg 19
4th mark poppleton 44.11 peg 24
5th martin alexander 44.5 peg 13
6th aaron britnell 40.2 peg 16
7th adrian jeffery 38.13 peg 15
the silvers didnt really want to feed today with adrian jeffery needing only 9.3 to take first in that, mainly with the help of 2 unseasonal tench.
the best thing about today was that no one picked up using prawns although fabio did get a carp and a perch on one.

chilton trinty, open match woodland lake

21 booked in which is a nice number on this lake but with one no show due to being an oversleeper we went down to 20, which is still ok.
jason radford pulled out 2 tickets stuck together so i took the one stuck out and ended up on peg 9 which is just about in the middle of the far bank, i would have liked to have had an empty peg on at least one side to give me more chance of catching down the edge, but it wasnt to be as i had alan oram on my left on 10 and martin rich on my right on 8 , so with the water being a bit clear i didnt expect to catch down the edge, and thats what happened as i missed a bite but it looked like a liner any way so i wont mention the margins again, my othe r rig as i only set up one as it was the same depth wherever i fished, so i decided on 3 areas , one at 5mtrs where i would feed only caster, then 13 and 16 mtrs out in front where i was going to feed a mixture of 2 3 and 4mm softened pellets, my rig was a 4x18 float with a 18 middy 6313 hook on.12 on the end, starting at 13 mtrs i had to wait 15 mins for my first bite which resulted in an 8lb mirror gracing the net, followed by a 7lb fish about 30 mins later with a few small roach in between, so far it was all close as several people were on 2 carp , with rod"this is the worst peg on the venue" wootten, on 31 beginning to catch on hard banded 6mm pellet, martin mcmahon on 32 who was slinging a method feeder into cliff jenkins peg opposite but had still managed to snare one, and bridgwaters lady ga ga tribute act in the shape of mike west on 29 beginning to make the most of an empty peg each side starting to catch on that most popular of winter baits, PASTE,
the wind had now picked picked up and was blowing straight into our bank and with the sun being out and the ripple it was making presentation difficult with the rig coming back under the pole tip plus the nasty light was making the float hard to see, i tried putting a float on with a fatter bristle on but it didnt seem right so i reverted back to my original rig and increased the eyestrain, by halfway through i was still on 2 carp plus a few silvers, but martin mcmahon had begun to catch on the pole down the edge into empty peg 33 (take note chris fox as you always seem to draw here),it was like sat watching the three stooges with mike rod and martin all catching odd fish right up to the end, i did get 5 more carp in the last half but it was never going to be quite enough to compete with the pegs opposite and thqat was how it ended with martin mcmahon winning with66.10 of peg 32 with all but one of his fish falling to maggot over micros in 3 foot of water down the edge
2nd was rod wootten on 31 with 50.14 on hard 6mm over 4,s at 14mtrs and at the bottom of the shelf to his right
3rd mike west on 29 with 48.15 on paste
4th tony rixon 45lb peg9 on dead reds over softened pellets
5th kev molten 43.12 peg 2 on maggot over micros
6th dave evans 42.12 peg 15 on corn down the edge
silvers were won by venue regular andy hembrow off peg13 with 8.8 of small skimmers

landsend weds open and beaten by a prawn star

only 9 hardy souls today as a couple cried off, i.m not really suprised as it was the first ice breaking session of the season, luckily it wasnt to thick at about 10mm. tom thick handed me a peg out of the draw and i ended up on ken rayners favourite peg number 17, i would have preferred a corner as these tend to have shoals of resident small carp and some good silvers in ensuring some definate bites even in the coldest weather, but 17 would have to do, it took me about 30 mins to clear a nice big channel to 13 mtrs which is far enough in these conditions, the anglers closest to me were alan oram on 19 and trigger double aaron britnell on 13, with so few anglers on the lake it seems the fish have to many places to hide , but you always get some bites even on the coldest days. it was an easy set up with only one 4x14 rig with a 18 middy 6313 on .10, it would do for each side of the channel at 11mtrs for maggot and caster and at 13 mtrs against the back of the channel for maggot over a few micro,s, there isnt to much to talk about really as bites were really few and far between, i think mainly due to it not being cold enough for long enough for the fish to aclimatise and settle in the cold water plus the empty pegs dont help with fish that dont want to feed just keeping out of the way, i di hook 3 carp over the micro line landing 2 for 13.13 plus 1 perch, 2 good skimmers and a handful of small roach giving me a total of 20.11 for 2nd on the day, i really do enjoy this type of fishing at landsend as there are always bites to be had with quality fish making up the weights genarally.
1st on the day was phil(fabio)harding coming first on peg 1 with 7 small carp and a good perch for 21.2 with a few falling to his favoured bait at the moment , aldi,s finest prawn.
i think he is hankering after some sponsorship from captain birds eye.
2nd tony rixon 20.11 peg 17
3rd alan oram 16.14 peg 19
4th john(turkey)thompson 11.1 peg 24
5th kev molten 6.10 peg 7
6th aaron britnell 6lb peg 13
silvers
tony rixon 6.14
kev molten 6.10

landsend league round 2

my turn to be on match lake today so with andy power in attendance standing in a sub for bob gullick i let him draw for me, and he gave me peg 3 which is halfway up the first island on the right hand bank, i had an empty peg each side then adrian jeffery on 5 and stuart barnett on 1but you cant really see either of them as the trees hide them , all you see are the poles sticking out, back to 3 and its really one of the mre consistent pegs on the lake, not often a winning peg but always a possible framing peg. with a strong right to left wind blowing and for the speed to increase i decided to keep it like craig edmunds today, that is simple. so 2 rigs a 4x14 with an 18 6313 on .12 for soft pellet at 13 mtrs to my left in the middle and caster down the edge to my right at 3 and 11 mtrs ,both areas were the same depth, and a 4x14 with a 18 6313 for caster at 11 mtrs in front.
after feeding all lines i started on single cester out in front on the 11mtrs line and was soon catching small roach, i did expect some good perch as there are plenty in here over 3lb and with the water being clear i thought they may show but it wasnt to be as all i could get were odd perch up to 8oz, i did manage a 2lb ide on mny topset by the nets but that was all i could muster there, the left hand margin was ok as i hooked 8 carp there losing 2 due to being fouled, 1 fell off near the net and the other stole my rig when the line parted be the connecter, bad knot down to user error methinks. 2 of the carp were good ones about 8lb a piece and 2 smaller ones plus my double figures of silver were going to go over 30lb , but as far as the lake money my best chance of picking up was going to be with the silvers , amd thats how it turned out as my silvers went 13.5 for top silver weight on the lake , my 4 carp went 24.4 for a total of 37.9, the 4 lost carp cost me winning the lake, the 2 foulers dont really count but the 2 lippers would have put me second on the lake , mike nicholls on 21 won the lake with54.13 and steve seager was second with 45.15 and adrian jefferey had 44.3, so it was close with 1 or 2 fish making all the difference.
overall 1st on the day was nick merry on peg 40 with 63.11 ,catching his fish on caster up towards the straw cage on caster
2nd alan oram 61.5 peg 32
3rd mike nicholls 54.13 peg 21
4th clint wojtyla 52.11 peg 31
5th steve seager 45.15 peg 19
6th adrian jefferey 44.3 peg 5
silvers
nick merry 18.2
tony rixon 13.5
aaron britnell 10.10 peg 11

shiplate farm, main lake

17 fished today so a good turnout again for a wednesday , matin lenaghan pulled 2 tickets and gave me the choice, just for a change i took the wrong one and ended up on 13 , while martin had peg1 stuck to his mit, a peg i really fancied today as its got a really long margin to a wooden jetty and an island out in front and with no wind on the peg and the sun warming the shallow water it looked even better, any way thats enough moaning about the draw i was beginning to sound like bob gullick.
13 isnt a bad draw as there is a big bush in the water to my right and you have open water in front, trouble was i had to sit and look at des shipp opposite which is normally a bit off putting as the flash of fish coming out is somewhat off putting , perhaps today was going to be different.
i only put together 2 rigs , a .75g to fish straight out at 9 and 13 mtrs as it was the same depth (6ft) with an 18 6313 on .10 and a .5g rig for down by the bush in 4 1/2 ft with an 18 9313 on .14.
at the start i cupped in 2 balls of g bait at 9 mtrs and 4 at 13 mtrs and potted some caster and corn down by the bush, after several attempts during the match by the bush i never had a bite ,so no more of a mention about that.
starting at 9 mtrs i had a small roach straight away then my next bite 10 mins later had me attached to a fish i would have sworn was one of the big slabs that inhabit this lake, and they go to double figures , but it turned out to be a 6 1/2 lb carp , i was a bit dissapointed really, then i had a run of small skimmers and roach on dead reds or single caster but they were on the small side, des had started on a small open ender and was getting a small skimmer everychuck and after a quiet start martin on 1 was now getting carp on corn over micro,s down towards the jetty in about 2 ft of water, even 15 big white geese having a clean up in his swim wasnt putting them off, as the match went on my swim never really got going with only small fish finding there way into the net, steve kedge was getting silvers including a big bream and des was still catching on the feeder, going into the last hour several people were catching carp, with nick collier on 15, dean malin on 8 , rod wootten on 3 and of course martin on 1 and with des now switching to the pole as the wind on that side had eased a bit and getting roach and skimmers every drop it looked like the silvers was slippng away, i needed some big bream and luckily i had 2 for about 12lb in the last hour but the way des was catching i really needed another one but it wasnt to be, i ended up with 17 10 of silvers and the 6 1/2 lb carp for 24.2 but i thought des would have about 20lb of silvers but he was admitting to 13lb, he,s a bigger liar than me as he had 20.2 to win the silvers.
1st on the day was martin lenaghan on peg 1 with 89.6 with all his carp falling to corn over micros fished 16 mtrs down by the jetty
2nd nick collier 51.14 on peg 15
3rd dean malin on peg8 with 38.9
4th rod wootten on peg 3 with 34.15
5th tony rixon , 24.2
6th steve kedge 21.6 peg 14
anyone interested i have a match at chilton trinity woodland lake on the 16 december , ring me at the shop to book in on 01179517250

viaduct silvers league ,final round

i didnt need to scrape the ice off the van this morning so that was a good start, fabio arrived on time and we went and picked anton page up then off to lillypool cafe for the normal excellant breakfast, there were a few in there as fry,s club were at shiplate and there was an open on landsend , but even when they are busy the food is always piping hot and well cooked, off across the somerset levels and most of the fields are still under water with the north drain still over its banks.
got to the fishery and got at the front of the draw queue as i seem to be drawing well in this series and drawing early means all the good(and bad)pegs are in there to draw, a draw on lodge was always going to be favoured as you get plenty of bites be it from roach or skimmers with the latter being the target fish, into the tin and out comes 62 which is the third peg up on the right hand side of lodge and as far as the section goes it was a fair peg with at least a top 3 in section being on the cards, but i needed a section win to get me near the top overall or a second to keep me in the money. i must say i was a bit dissapointed to see tim pallant on 59 and steve kedge on 69 and both in my section, i needed to beat them both and win the section and that would put me on the same points as them so it would be down to a weight countback.
i set up 2 4x14 rigs and a 4x12 all with a 18 6313 on .10 with my main attack being dead maggot or caster over g bait, at the start i cupped in 1 ball at 6 mtrs and 2 balls at 16 mtrs at 10 and 12 o,clock angles ,i also put about 50 casters at 16 mtrs at 2 o,clock for perch just in case they made an appearance, but they are a bit thin on the ground in this lake, starting at 6mtrs with caster was a bit of a none event and after 40 mins i had only had 1 bite which resulted in 1 x 8oz hybrid , which at the time was looking good in the section as kedgy was catching plips on the wag and tim was not doing to well, but he was soon into a decent skimmer, i went out over the caster line and was suprised to find myself attached to a 2lb skimmer first put in but suprise turned to dismay as it dropped off at about 4mtrs, not the sort of fish you need to lose on a hard day.
after that the small roach turned up but at least i was putting something in the net, tim was by now up to 3 skimmers so he was leading the section with kedgy second , but about 2 hours in i had a sudden burst of skimmers on the 10 o,clock line putting 5 in the net in no time at all with the biggest going about 2lb , i hoped it was the start of great things but it wasnt to be as i had one more of about 12oz towards the end ,it was clear tim had won the section and i was hoping for second as i had beaten steve between me and tim, glen calvert was the dark horse on 64 as he had sneaked out 3 goob skimmers by the monk in the last hour and he was admitting to 10lb which was about the same as me, as expected tim pallant won the section and the match with 21.5 , i was second in the section with 11.14 and glen had 11lb so it was close
tim took his winning catch on pinkie fished over groundbait at 13 and 14 mtrs
2nd was steve mayo lookalike des shipp on 96 with 17.3
3rd nick ewers 16.9 peg 94
4th jon grey 15.14 peg 124
5th anton page 12.7 peg 116
6th tony rixon 11.14 peg 62
league
tim pallant 7pts 142.6 £300
steve kedge 7 pts 131.12 £200
steve mayo 7pts 127.17 £150
tony rixon 8 ptrs 142.1 £120
anton page 8pts 117.15 £80
fastest loser
bob gullick 8 pts 117.14(1oz lol) picking up nowt but he was full of excuses, cut off by 121, shallower than the pegs around it blah blah blah ha ha ha ha
it was a well run enjoyable series and i,m sure there will be the same if not more fishing it next year so make sure you get you names in nice and early