Todber manor park lake

After a mediocre breakfast at canard well pub in Shepton it was off to gillingham for a match organised by mark popodopulis(poppleton), I think 24 were fishing so we all had an empty peg on one side, everyone wants to draw peg 38 on this lake as its a bit of an end peg with the corner of the island and a long margin and it does win more than its fare share, into the draw tin which was an empty choccy tin , it was marks so there was very little chance of there being any sweets left n it, and out comes 35 which is an ok peg, for company I had one of somerset s nicest blokes on 34 in the shape of Fred Roberts and on the other side on 37 I had fabio (Nuff said lol), the biggest shock today was that we had to do a bit of. Ice breaking as it had a lid on it , except for 37 and 38, but it wasnt to thick and the pole and cup were more than up to the job, only two rigs , both 4x12. One for over close to. The overhanging grass. And one for 11. Mtrs which would also do for down the margin at the bottom of the shelf, both had middy 8313 size 20 hooks on .12 line,
At the start I cupped in some micros on all lines and started on maggot at 11 mtrs, a small roach first drop so no blank, shame fabio had a 6lb carp at the same time, so I went to soft pellet and got a slightly bigger roach, Fred had started on the far side and after a couple of roach he began catching odd carp, so that was it for me on with the far side rig with maggot on the hook and I was soon playing my first carp, and apart from one bite and one carp down the edge the rest of the match was spent on the far side in a couple of spots fishing double maggot over micros and I had a nice day with    Carp between 1 and 6 lb , looking around fabio seemed to be doing the best and by the end I thought he had done enough to win even though he was only admitting to 50 or 60lb but I reckoned he had at least 80, the only person who may push him was steve nadin over on un fancied peg 3, and it did end up close with fabio just getting it with 98.7 on 37
2nd steve nadin on 3 with 94.2
3rd me with 81.5 peg 35
4th nick merry on 11 with 80.10, and that was with an hour away from the lake as he had to go andy repair a boiler
5th mike nicholls on 10 with 74.15
6th Fred Roberts on 34 with 69.10
A good match considering it was a bit Siberian to begin with, so I will try and get back a bit more often when my calendar allows

Sunday open , landsend fishery

24 fishing today so we had 12 on each lake , so everyone had at least an empty peg on one side. The pegs to avoid are 25 to 29 on the speci lake ,as there seems to be a lack of fish through this bit , all the fish seem to want to be at the top end of the lake on pegs 31/32/33 and 34, and today turned out to be no different , if I wanted to pick my swim for today it would have to be 11 on the match lake, I hung back till nearly the end today, by which time all the favoured swims had one and I ended up on 29, doh, just where I wanted (not), Anton page drew it a couple of weeks ago in the last league match and never made 3lb so I wasn't to happy , at least I had good company each side , with martin McMahon on my left on 28, and the newly slimmed down Clint wojtyla on flyer 31 , also at that end of the lake was kieth fielder on 32, shaun(no suprise I,m on a flyer again) Townsend on 32 and the legend that is Craig (trigger) Edmunds on 34, so picking up any coin could be hard , even the decent silvers see to be in the same pegs as the carp, with the increased colour in the water I decided to try a hard pellet rig over on the shelf , also a caster rig for 5 mtrs ,a rig for carp downt o empty peg 30 with caster and a soft pellet line for 14 mtrs to my right .
The day was had to tell the truth, the hard pellet line never happened so that was changed to a caster line but only produced small roach, the edge rig gave me one bite from a good perch which fell of on the way in, that's perch for you, I did have some nice roach up to 6 oz from the 5 mtr line, and the soft pellet line produced 3 reasonable skimmers up to 2lb and several hand size ones, so I need the match with double figures if silvers but no carp, I did foul one but it bent my hook out and escaped, the four usual pegs produced the goods on the lake with trig leading the way with 64.4 which included the top silvers weight on the day of 23.10 of mainly quality perch, he also had 7 carp aswell to give him a. Total weight of 64.4,
1st on the day went to Aaron britnell on peg 11 with 95.11, having 18 carp on caster fished over to the reed bed towards peg 10
2nd Tom thick on peg 21 with 76.4
3rd trig with 64.4
4th kieth fielder on 32 with 59.3
5th Clint wojtyla on 31 with 53.11 1/2
6th shaun(did I mention he is always on a flyer) Townsend on peg 33 with 41.10, oh did I mention he was on 33, I must drop I,m beginning to sound bitter lol,
Highlight of the day was watching Clint do battle with a foulhookers carp during a nasty squall when his brolly went all pear shaped leaving him peeping out from under what looked like a blue pitta bread , I laughed so much my stomach hurt and I had tears rolling down my face, anyone who knows Clint will understand what I mean as he is funny at the best of times but when he gets flustered it is proper comical, so even though the fishing was hard ,it was a day full of laughs,

Landsend Wednesday match

I think the weather may have kept a few away today as only 9 of us showed up, and one of those went home after realising it was to windy to put the brolly up, but to be fair it may have been breezy (understatement) but the heavy rain stayed away till I got back into Bristol.
Martin lenaghan pulled out two tickets stuck together by the staples so I took one and opened it to see 16 on it, nice at least the gale was coming from behind, the closest company I had was Martin lenaghan on 18 and dave blakemore on 13 so it was shouting only if you needed to talk, the inform peg at the mo has been peg 11 and with Aaron britnell drawing on , he would probably be the man to beat, the peg has been that good even mike duckett won the Saturday open on this weekend just gone.
4 rigs today , a caster rig for over on the far shelf(4x12). The same size rig to fish soft pellet r maggot over soaked micros at 10 and 2 angle at 13 mtrs , a 4x14 pencil float for caster at 4 mtrs and a 4x12 affair for caster in the left hand margin just past a sunken bush, after feeding all lines I started at 4 mtrs on caster, and to be honest this line was probably my most productive , I did get one carp on each of my pellet lines, and the far bank caster line only gave me a few perch but one was 1 1/2 lb so that was handy, the left had margin yielded 5 carp and the 4 mtr line gave me 7 more plus some good silver in the shape of two tench, one good skimmer, one IDE an f1 and several good perch , I thought I had about 85lb , I wasn't to ar out as my carp went 76.4 and my silvers went 19.6 for a total of 95.10 for first on the day and first in the silvers
2nd was arron britnell on 11 with 68.6
3rd chris fox on 21 with 41,6
4th Alan oram on 7 with 36.8
5th John (turkey) Thompson on 24 (again) with 31lb
6th John Bradford on 3 with 25.8
This Sunday we are back here again for an open, so any interested parties can either book in with me at the shop on 01179517250. Or with mike at the fishery on 07977545882

Silvers league, viaduct fishery, final round

After the normal excellent brekkie at shipham it was off to the fishery with chris fox , I couldn't be caught in this series as I had 5 section wins under my belt, but it's not in my nature not to try so I would definitely be trying to make it 6 out of 6 section wins , into the daw tin and out comes 78 which is aerator peg on Cary , still a good section peg so no complaints, for company I had Gordon cannings on 77 and Tim pallant on79. I have based my series on catching skimmers over groundbait , and today wasnt going to any different especially with the mild spell we are enjoying, I only set up one rig , a .4g pencil float with the normal middy 6313 hook on .10 line, at the start I cupped in 3 balls at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14  but began at 5 mtrs on caster over caster , luckily one rig did all as it was the ame depth on all lines, I had a couple of small roach on the short line then a 12 oz skimmer but after that all it gave me were odd small roach when I tried it , mot of the match was spent over the 11 and 14 mtr line , but it wasnt easy I had a few skimmers but only one good one over 2 lb but plenty of small roach at 11mtrs but none at 14 mtrs which I found a bit strange, Tim on my left had odd skimmers aswell so by the end it was close as to who was going win the section , in the end I just edged over Tim with 12.7 to his 12.2 , so 6 out of 6  section wins , it sounds good but I did daw some really good pegs along the way, 101/98/119/94/126 and 78 so not a bad peg there really .
1st on the day was garbolino ,s finest in the shape of steve tucker on 110 with 21.10
2nd bob gullick on 98 with 20.13
3rd Paul greenwood on 130 with 17.4
4th mash on 119 with 17lb
5th andy power on 56 with 16.12
6th ian didcote on 97 with 16.10
As always on this venue it was another well run series and I am sure it will be just as popular next year, shame a few stay aways affected the payout , I don't know why some people bother to book in and don't come to the whole series and don't have the decency to let the organisers know,
Any way that's enough moaning , the journey home was a bit torrid, firstly I had a crash in Shepton when a polish gentleman pulled out in front of me and a gracefully slid into him, not to much damage though, well not to mine, then the big hill just past chelwwod was closed with a crash, so it was off down country lanes and past the hunters rest pub ,where I had to do a bit of reversing and ended up with my back near side wheel in a ditch , now that way was blocked aswell lol, but some friendly motorists pushed me out , so I was only an hour late getting home, not tobad really,

Weds open , chilton trinity , woodland lake

14 booked in for today which is ok for a Wednesday, especially as its over 40 miles to the venue, fishery boss misha herring let us spread the pegs all round the lake today so it was roughly every other peg, that was till I got to 29/31/31 where I put 3 together , senior moment for me again,!!!!! But it was the gimp in the middle so no real damage done there as he was only going to fish close on caster or roach. I wade for the last ticket in the draw , when there was two left it was between Aaron and me as to who had the last one , so I let misha draw mine and she handed me 23 which was the end peg on the causeway bank, Aaron ended up next door on 25 , up on the end bank on19 was mat tomes, who hasn't been out to much lately so it was good to see him. I like this lake in the winter as its a case of feeding a few lines with some soaked micros with spattering of 4,s , today it was 11 mtrs and 14 straight out and at 2 o,clock angle and then fishing various baits over the top , but maggots tend to be as good as anything, I also set up a margin rig to fish corn , but several attempts on this failed to produce a single knock so no more about that then. The far line rig was a .75 rig with a 20 middy 8313 on .12 line . I started on 11 mtrs but after an hour I only had a few small roach and a small skimmer, so after an hour it was out to 14 mtrs and that was where I spent the rest of the match,   I ended the Macht with 10 carp and double figures of silvers, mainly skimmers, all falling to double maggot, as ar as I could tell I seemed to have done ok , the only threat was kev molten over on 15 who I was probably beating up until 20 mins from the end when he had two quick carp down the edge, which pushed him into the lead, and that's what happened as I thought I had about 60lb but kev weighed in before me and put 71.7 on the scales , my mix of carp and skimmers went 62.10 which was enough for second
3rd was Martin lenaghan on peg 31 with 34.1
4th chris fox on 8 with 33.8
5th mat tomes on 19 with 28.3
6th Tim pallant on 12 with 22.7 of skimmers caught on a mix of worm and maggot over groundbait

Landsend winter league round 2

My turn to be on lake 3 today and I needed a good draw to get a section win to put me back into contention, so a corner would be nice , but no I pull 42 which is living on its reputation a bit as it hasn't been to good in the last couple of years, possibly due to the fact the overhanging small bush which was on the island or it may be the action of the aerator which the fish don't like , who nows, today may be different but I wasn't to confident , for company I had ken Rayner on 41 and Paul elmes on 45, I, not going to waste to much time talking about my day as the peg lived up to my expectations , I never really caught much on anything, I had some roach to begin with on caster at 6 mtrs and to honest I should have stuck with the caster fishing all day as only just under 11lb won the silvers money on this lake and I,ve ended up with 8lb without doing it anywhere like right , mainly due to the fact everyone started to get odd carp early on and as I had Anton page in the knockout and him being on 29 on the speci I felt I needed carp to beat him, so I switched to soft pellet over micros on the end of the island whilst firing some hard 4,s towards the front of the island , after a couple of roach and Rudd on soft pellet I switched to corn on the hook which bought 2 small carp, so I went to the island on hard pellet and that gave me two more small carp on that then nothing on that either, and it all went from bad to worse really with only odd bites on corn, I ended up with 8 small which went about 15lb and with my silvers I had 23 lb for 4th in section, so that's the end of my series really after two rounds, to make matters worse ken had over 40lb to my right but at least I beat Paul on my left as he had less than 8lb, the lake was won by Tom thick with 58lb off peg 46 mainly with the help of three double figure carp towards the end of the match, overall the match was won by mark poppleton on peg 33 on the speci lake so well done to him, it's good to see he has rediscovered his mojo, as he has made a real hash of some screamers of late so it was nice to see he didn't manage to get this peg wrong (lol), I know he had over 70lb but I,m not to sure by how much, for the full result have a look on ken rayners blog (fishingken) as he did well today it should be up pretty sharpish,
Off the chilton trinity on woodland lake on weds so again if anyone fancy,s it give me a ring at the shop on 01179517250 to book in,
I also put up last week that I was running a short pole 4 match series at chilton next. Year well that sold out nearly as fast as the month python gig

Weds landsend

14 fishing today which is a nice number on the match lake, everyone gets a corner or at least has an empty peg on one side, I waited till last but one to draw and ended up with 18 stuck to my mit,
For. Company I had fabio on 16 and Jamie (the paste) dyte on 19. A lot of the colour had dropped out of the water due the low temps , meaning you could see the bottom a metre out from the bank, so no margin or island shelf rigs today, a rig for 6 mtrs to fish caster , a couple of 4x12 rigs , one for in front of a small bush slightly to my left on the island an one for just into the gap between the island in  front at 16 mtrs, at the start I cupped in a few micros by the bush, and some casters at 6 and 16 mtrs.
I started on a soft pellet out by the bush and missed a bite after a couple of minutes, by now fabio was playing a carp and he had started on maggot on the hook, so a switch to maggot and I was soon playing a carp, shame it was hooked in the side paddle, and I had another 2 in the next 30 minutes, they were both hooked in the same place, but with all safely netted I wasn't complaining, I did get a couple of decent skimmers off the bush and a sensible perch, but no more carp, a quick couple of looks over the 6 mtr caster line didn't even give me a missed bite so that line was binned, and I re plumbed up at 14 mtrs at about a 1 o,clock angle and cupped some casters in there aswell, most of the rest of the match was spent switching between the two long pole lines, where I managed to snare 10 more carp plus another skimmer and a couple of f1,s so I reckoned on having 70lb ish, the only other person to have caught was Martin lenaghan on peg 11 who caught well in the last couple of hours fishing back towards peg 10 which was empty as was peg 9 as far as carp go as the gimp was sat on there, and listening to John during the match there seemed to be plenty of carp in his peg as he could see them on the surface, I have mislaid the result sheet so I will do my best from memory
1st tony Rixon 82lb peg 18
2nd Martin lenaghan 61lb peg 11
3rd Adrian jeffery 35lb which included top silver weight of 15lb on peg 13
4th John (turkey) Thompson 21lb on peg 24
5th philip(fabio) Harding on peg 16 with 20lb
And I can't remember who was 6th
If anyone is interested I am running a 4 match short pole series next year at chilton trinity on woodland lake the dates are 20 th April. 20 July. 10 August and the 14 sept, 20 pounds deposit will secure a place on a first come first. Serve basis, no names put down till the deposit is paid, so don't ask as refusal may offend

Silvers league viaduct fishery, round 5

This was the penultimate round and with 4 section wins , a fifth would probably sow the league up, so if I won my section and bob gullick and mark Brennan never I don't think I can be caught,
Into the draw tin and out comes 126 which I wasn't to upset about as I think it has been first or second in every round so far , it's a good peg as the rest of my section goes to my right towards the shallower end of the lake, and so far it has been the kiss of death in that area, for company I was next to steve Seager on 127 and Nigel Bartlett on 125 who wasn't in my section.
I wasnt going to fish any differently to any other match so far in this series as its been good so far , but it has to be said I have been drawing really well in this series, so what would happen if I drew crap , who knows.
I set up the two normal rigs, a 4x12 and  a .4g , which I could use on all three lines with slight depth adjustments, both had my favourite middy 6313 size 18 hooks tied to .10 line, so after mixing my groundbait by hand (I'm not a driller demon) I was ready for the off, at the start I cupped in 2 balls at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14 mtrs and fed some casters at 5 mtrs, starting at 5 mtrs on caster I gave it 20 mins but without a bite was soon out to 11 mtrs ,and I soon began catching small roach on caster, I thought maggots might have bought a quicker response, but it never, caster seemed to be the best option on the day. This lake has been fishing very hard for this series , and this section was won with just over 11lb off my peg in the last round, so the bulk of the match was spent between the two longer lines , I did manage one 2lb skimmer off the 11 and 14 mtr line , but most of the match was spent extracting the hook from the jaws of plippy roach, the longer long line did give some hand size skimmers but it was never over active, even the world famous des shipp opposite on 115 was finding more difficult than he likes judging by the moaning, and it's not like des to moan is it, lol.
By the end of the match I had senior moment when I looked in my net as I thought I had about 8 1/2 lb so with joe McMahon leading the section with 8.15 I thought it would be tight , so I must admit to feeling a bit sheepish when my net went 12.5, for the section win I needed (sorry joe), and with both mark and bob who both came second in there sections I think I may have it in the bag, I felt a bit sorry for bob (not ha ha ) as he drew 74 again which is a tough peg, so to come second in his section off it at this time of year , he did well.
1st on the day went to Gary o,Shea on peg 94 with 23.2
2nd lee wherrett on59 with 20.2
3rd anton page on 118 with 15.8. He may have done better if he didn't have to report in to his minder every time he caught a fish
4th mark Brennan on 118 with 14.9
5th rich aherne on 111 with 13.2
6th Craig Edmunds on 102 with 13 lb
Off to landsend fishery on weds so ring me at the shop if you fancy it

Silvers match, viaduct fishery, spring lake

A bit disappointing on the turnout today with only 13 of us , and if it hadn't been for ten of us from Bristol it would have been proper sad, I was a bit suprised as spring lake tends to be the best silvers lake at the venue,
Into the daw tin and out pops peg 10 which is the monk peg on the Cary bank, not to disappointing as I had plenty of room as the next peg was Aaron britnell on 6 and Tim pallant on 12, hot peg 19 was drawn by the fishery professional, Paul greenwood , so he Should be the man to beat, I wasn't going to do anything different to what I have been doing so far this year so it was mainly a groundbait attack at 11 and 14 mtrs and a caster line short, I wasn't to sure as it would be ok today as the water was like gin, and with no wind to ripple the surface it may be difficult,
After feeding 2 balls of caster laced groundbait at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14 I began on the 4 mtr line feeding a few casters and fishing one on a 4x12 rig , after 20 mins on that and no bites , it wasnt looking to good , especially as fabio on 3 and Paul on 19 catching some moderate skimmers and roach, so I went out to the 11 mtr line and had a small roach first put in, a switch to caster on the hook and the fish size improved with 4 oz roach really playing ball, I had been feeding the 4 mtr line with 4/5 casters at a time and dropped the rig back over it , and it went straight under ,the next two hours was enjoyable as I caught small roach fairly consistently, I also had 5 good perch up to a pound  but the swim died with about 2 hours to go so the rest of the match was spent on the two long pole lines, I stared catching roach with odd ones up to 12oz but in the last 90 mins I had 8 reasonable skimmers so by the end I thought I would have 30lb ish, but with fabio still catching but losing a few right up to the end it was to close to call, the decider was the 2 1/2 lb bream that I was playing on the all out , I beat fabio with that late bream as I weighed 32.15 for first on the day .
2nd spot went to fabio on peg 3 with 30.10
3rd Nigel Bartlett on peg 2 with 25.3
4th Paul greenwood on 19 with 23lb
5th Adrian Clark on 16 with 21.5
6th nick collier on 24 with 18.14

Shiplate main lake

With only 12 fishing there was plenty of room on this 15 peg lake as the pegs are miles apart, it has been re pegged with A numbers inbetween so thee are now 20 pegs available making it ideal for club bookings ,
Back to today and after a few frosts it was always going to be hard, I ended up on peg 11 which was the first peg over the bridge on the far side, I had Paul elmes on12 for company and trigger miles away on 9 was the next peg in. 11 can be a good peg for carp down the edge to a sunken bush, so I made a rig up for it and fed it with caster and corn but never had a bite there, also a wag towards the island can be ok , so I made that up aswell , but that was a waste of time too, it was a little to shallow on the wag and with the cold weather the water had lost some colour, so that only left me the long pole lines , one rig does all with this so I set up a 4x12 pencil with the usual 6313 on ,10 line, I fed an 11 mtr line with groundbait , a 14 mtr line with micros  to begin with, starting on single maggot at 11 mtrs I expected bites straight away, but after an hour and not a bite on any line I was beginning worry, Paul on 12 was catching thee to the pound skimmers and trig had two carp on the lead by the end of the first hour, into the second hour and I stared to catch small roach, and that was how it continued with me catching small roach and Paul catching skimmers , the writing was on the wall really, I didn't start to catch any skimmers till the last hour , and I pulled out of one of the lakes big bream 30 mins from the end , the lake seemed to be fishing really bad with kev molten on peg1 looking to have won with 4 carp,. And he did with his 4 fish going 27.10
2nd with his all small skimmer net was Paul elmes on 12 with 18.4
3rd Craig Edmunds with his two self hooked carp and a suicidal chublet on peg 9 had 14.8
4 th Dom Sullivan on 13 with 13lb
5th alan oram on 14 with 12.14
6th me with 10.13 , that bream cost me , but I did manage second in silvers by default so all wasnt lost lol

Weds open landsend fishery

Only 11 fishing today and I can't blame people for not coming as the forecast was crap with high winds and heavy showers with hail in the morning ,with the showers stopping later in the day but the wind staying strong . I let Mohamed Harding draw for me which is normally a mistake and today was no different as he handed me peg 3 and kept 17 for himself, selfish I call it lol.
For company I had mark Bartlett on one and Aaron britnell on 5 , so I was in a ginger sandwich.
Mark seems to be enjoying his match fishing for smaller species , rather than the carping match side of things , and he is good at both types ,so it was always going to be hard to beat him (making my excuses already), peg three has had a bit of form recently for silvers and carp, so I was a bit torn as what to fish to in the end I decided on a fairly heavy feed approach with caster, so I set up a .4g rig to fish at 4 and 10 mtrs as this was as far as I could go due to the strong right to left wind, the same rig would also do for down in the left hand margin as it was the same depth as the other 2 lines, I also made up a rig to fish down to empty pallet 2 with corn and caster,
At the start I began at 4 mtrs after feeding my other lines, it was a bit slow but I had a few perch up to 6oz but the sport on this line didn't last to long , probably due to the clarity of the water, most of the remainder of the match was stent on the 10 mtr line where I had lots of small perch and roach, I did get one carp over that line and a good skimmer towards the end, I also had two carp from two bites on corn down by peg 2, as far as the match went Ron hardiman on 7 looked to have done enough even though he lost several carp, and the silvers would probably go to mark on peg 1 as up until about ten mins to go I reckoned I was ahead in the small perch and roach stakes largely due to 3lb skimmer I had , then bugger me if mark don't go and land one he hooked right in the top of the dorsal fin, it's normally me that gets that sort of luck, also Aaron on 5 was going to beat me aswell, making it a double ginger whammy each side hmmmm.
1st went to Ron hardiman on 7 with 57lb
2nd fabio on peg 17 with 51lb, he should have done better but he lost 12 carp fishing hard pellets tight to the island
3rd Aaron britnell on 5 with 39lb
4th me with 28lb
5th Martin lenaghan on 19 with 27lb
6th john(turkey) Thompson on 11 with 25lb
Silvers
Mark Bartlett on 1 with 15lb
Me on 3 with 14 lb
Off to shiplate main lake on Sunday, still got a couple of spaces so ring me at the shop to book in

Silvers league , viaduct fishery

This is round four and another section win would be nice. After being picked up by chris fox and after another excellent brekkie at shipham it was off to the is here,
After winning the silvers match on weds I fancied drawing the same peg or somewhere close to, and after talking to several people and expressing my wish to be on 94 again I got called a few nasty names when I went into the draw tin and pulled it out, I think the devil now owns my whole soul.
For company I had Paul faires on 95 and steve tucker opposite on 90, getting to my peg it was similar  conditions to weds with no wind but it was cloudy which may help with the lack of ripple.
Only two rigs to put up today, both 4x12 pencils , one for the right hand margin as I had a couple of nice hybrids there on weds, but I did give it several goes during the match but never had so much as a twitch there, the other rig was going to do all three lines, as it was the same depth at 5, 11 and 14 mtrs  at the start I cupped in one small ball at 5 mtrs ,3 at 11 and 4 at 14 mtrs all with just a few casters in, starting at 5 mtrs loose feeding some casters there I want expecting to much as I gave it 30 mins on weds but never had a proper bite there, so I was quite happy as after 30 mins today a had a Ruffe a roach , a 12oz perch and lost a carp but it wasnt hectic, Paul to my left had a few smallish skimmers on a feeder fished at 20 mtrs and mash on 96 and dave roper on 97 had taken a couple of good skimmers eah on the long pole, so after 30 mins it was out to 11 mtrs , I had a couple of nice skimmers there but that line wasnt to good either, so I was forced out to 14 mtrs a bit earlier than I would have liked, but had a coupe of small skimmers and a bonus tench, I also potted in a few balls at this stage off to my right at 14 mtrs, for somewhere else to go, it was hard and I never rally caught till the middle two hours of the match , when I had the bulk of my fish , I only had a couple of proper skimmers, that is fish over 2 1/2 lb the rest where fish between 4oz and a pound , the skimmers stemmed to desert me for the last couple of hours, I think they moved out and across as steve tucker over on 90 had a real struggle for the fist half of the match , but was towards the end sneaking a few decent skimmers in, the end couldn't come soon enough , to was a 4 pm finish and most people couldn't see there floats by about 3.30, including me , Paul on my left was really finding it hard as the glasses chris fox had donated to him about ten years ago don't seem to work for him now,
At the end I thought I had between 25 and 30 pounds and was confident it would be enough to give me the section, making it 4 out of 4, to keep me in top spot, my catch of 26.11 was enough for first on the day
2nd went to Gary o Shea on 119 with 19.7
3rd Adrian jeffery on 124 with 18.4
4th steve tucker on 90 with 18.3
5th steve Jackson on 100 with 15.13
6th mark Brennan on 55 with 15.11
Off to landsend on Wednesday and shiplate next Sunday on the main lake, there are plenty of spaces for weds and a few left for next Sunday , so ring me at the shop on 01179517250 to book in for either

Silvers match, Cary lake , viaduct fishery

A disappointing turnout today with only ten booked in, I thought a few more would have showed as its a good practice for the silvers league on Sunday, perhaps it's just the cost as the cost cutter tomorrow will no doubt have 20 or so in attendance.
So into the draw tin and out comes 94 which is in the corner , I thought about having a bit of a moan, as you dothen thought better of it as it has been a consistent peg so far in the series, not necessarily a match winner but always good for a reasonable weight, for company I had nick collier on 96 and I had sit and look at Wales,s answer to anorexia in the ample shape of Firenzee,s andy Neale on 88,
Although we had the first proper frost of the year I wasn't going to do to much(if anything) differently today so I mixed up a kilo of sensas lake/gimps gold groundbait, then put three rigs up, a 4x12 and a .4g for using at 11 and 14 mtrs in front and a 4x12 for the margins as some big perch and good hybrids can show along here.
At the start I cupped in a small ball,of lightly caster laced groundbait at 5 mtrs, 3 balls at 11 mtrs and 4 balls at 14, I also cupped in a good pot of casters off to my left at 14 mtrs as a bit of a wasted line , but again the skimmers can be more inclined to settle over a bed of casters as opposed to crumb, but I never had so much as a dip on the float over that so no more on that line,
I started on the 5 mtr line and stayed with it for The first 30 mins but never had so much a wobble on the float so that was a waste of a ball of crumb and some casters, andy opposite was getting small fish as was nick next door but they were small .
I went out to 11 mtrs on caster and was soon getting small roach then a couple of decent skimmers, but that line soon dried so it was out to the 14 mtr line where I had a couple more skimmers and roach before that dried aswell so I refed the two lines and had a quick look down the edge where I lost a good fish and had a roach then nothing , most of the rest of the match was spent out at 14 mtrs where towards the end the skimmers fed a bit bit better and I had several reasonable ones in the last hour, I kept trying the 11 mtr line but apart from a few small roach and a bonus tench there was little doing there, I also kept trying the margins and I did get 2 good hybrids from there, by the end I thought I had 20 lb but Anton page over on 85 had a few fish aswell so it seemed to be between the two of us, in the end my late burst of fish was just a bit to much for Anton as I came out on top with 22.2
2nd Anton page on peg 85 with 20.01
3rd andy Neale on 88 with 16.14
4th was the fishery professional Paul greenwood on 77 with 14.8
5th nick collier on 96 with 14.6
6th dick bull on 78 with 13.8

Landsend individual W/L round one

Ken Rayner has taken over the running of this popular league ,so an easy day for me, just have to pay my money queue up with everyone else and draw, there were 36 booked in so 12 on the first three lakes , split into two 6 peg sections for points,
Only 35 turned up as a certain ginger city fan who shall remain anonymous(ok it was Aaron britnell) wasn't where he should have been when I went to pick him up, which does annoy me and its not fair on the league organiser as it affects the payouts and points, and he would have been on peg 7, and during the day as there was no one on it most of the fish seemed to end up there jumping and splashing around,
As for myself I ended up on 24 which is in the corner of the match lake , a peg that has been terrible lately as the fish seem happier up towards the other end of the lake , from 19 back to 13 , but fish have fins and they do move about, for company I had Tom thick on 22 and I had to look at ken Rayner over on 1.
Several rigs were assembled , a rig to fish caster at 7 mtrs up the right hand margin and towards empty pallet 23, but apart from a few small perch to the right and not a bite to my left it was a wasted rig, so no more about that. Wasted bait then. A rig for caster at 4 mtrs and the same rig would do for soft pellet at 14 mtrs towards the island, a meat rig for 14 mtrs on the end of the tree and a hard pellet rig for 14 mtrs towards a stump up the right hand bank,
At the start I fed all lines with the relevant baits and began on the 4 mtr caster line , to say it was slow was an understatement as it took me 20 mins to get a fish and that was a 6oz perch, and by the end of the first hour I had only added a few small roach and a carp of about three pounds and an f1. Our end of the lake seemed to be fishing to form as Tom and ken were having it hard aswell, up on 19 and beyond there were some fish being caught so it was looking like the fish were still at that end,
I went out onto the soft pellet over soaked micro line , and found I couldn't see my float , due to the horrible reflection from the trees and bushes on the far bank, so I don't think I had a bite there but I would never have seen it if I had.
I decided to give the meat line a go and first drop I had a nice roach of about 6oz which fell off as I swung it, oh well.
Out again and I had a bit of a purple patch and had 5 carp in 5 put ins which put me back into contention as far as I could see, but apart from one more towards the end that was it for the meat lines, I did manage 5 more on pellet against the end bank but felt I was always a couple of fish behind to do any good in my section, especially as my fish were a bit on the small side, as you seem to catch small resident fish on these pegs. As it turned out apart from the residents I caught our end fished hard with ken opposite only managing 5 pounds and Tom next door having ten,
The lake was won by Paul elmes on 19 ( that peg again ) with 67lb meaning Adrian Clark on 15 had 55lb and I had 54.2, a bit more time spent catching small roach and perch. Would have done it,
I don't have the full result as there was a bit of roast beef with my name on it waiting for me , but ken should have all the weigh sheets on his blog, top weight as far as I know was Tom mangnall up on 55 with 80odd pound , catching on banded pellet , dave (beany) Westcott on 31 had just over 70lb as did Craig Edmunds but I,m not sure which had the most, it was a hard day for most probably due to all the rain we have had , lowering the water temps,
Off to viaduct weds for a silvers match and back down there on Sunday for the 4th round of the silver fish league.

Weds, plantation main lake

17 booked in for this one , so quite popular for a Wednesday , after another tasty brekkie cooked at the venue by karen it was daw time, I nearly had the last ticket but Ron hardiman handed me one which when opened, revealed number 4 which I was happy with as andy hembrow won off  this one at the weekend with over 100lb so I expected a few bites, he had aught mainly at 14 mtrs on banded 6mm over loose fed 4,s, so an easy day then, one 4x12 rig for that line with  an 18 b960 on .16 line, and another rig to fish in my left hand margin against some boards with caster and corn, the ri wa again a 4x12 rig with an 18 middy 8313 hook on .16 line again.
For company I had the weekends winner andy hembrow on 3 and rod (two pegs ) wootten
On peg 7 3/4. At the start I fed wo pellet lines at 14 mtrs , lining up with each end of the island out in front  and threw a few casters down the edge, the start was a bit torrid as in the first 30 mins I hooked 4 , landed 1 and lost three, of which 2 were definitely fouled, by now Anton page was beginning to catch over on peg 38 fishing a pellet feeder occasionally close to the island, and sometimes on it, (that should get a response ). And by the end of the fist hour he was well ahead , but Tim Clark round on peg 8 was snaring some carp but as is normal with Tim he was losing plenty, plus it probably didn't help as he had to share his peg with rod !!!!!!!.
I did manage to put a few fish together but as the wind picked up presentation went out of the window and I had to switch to a .5g float to keep some stability in the rig , but with the wind now blowing really hard foulers were becoming more frequent as the rig was being blown along , rod was losing more than me , and Tim well tims Tim, and if he didn't lose more than he caught it wouldn't be a normal day for him.
About halfway through nick collier over on 31 began to gt some good carp down his left hand margin on caster so he was coming into contention , going into the last hour and I felt I was to far behind to do any good, so I put a big pot of casters down the edge , I had taken some nice perch during the match down there but they had dried up, I wish I had put the big pot of casters in earlier as I had 5 good carp down there in the last hour, on the all out it was to hard to call as rod ,Anton , nicky  and myself all seemed to have about the same , in the end it was nick collier over on 31 who won with 92.10 of mainly caster caught carp fishing into his left hand margin, taking fish into low doubles
2nd Anton page on 38 with 85.2
3rd tony Rixon 81.9 peg 4
4th rod wootten on peg 7&8 with 71.7
5th Tim Clark on 8(his shared peg) 67.9
6th chris fox on 26 with 40.1
Silvers
Steve kedge on 27 with 17.8 , a few skimmers and a lot of white bait

Viaduct silvers league, round three

Made a nice change today, I was picked up by chris fox in his new van , so no driving for me. After another good breakfast in shipham it was off to viaduct, this a very well supported league with angles from as far away as Dorset and Wales attending , and with 53 fishing it's a good affair.
I like to be early into the draw as all the good as well as the bad draws are there, with a strong westerly with heavy showers expected I fancied a peg with the wind at my back, with peg 77 or 78 my preferred numbers, so I was suprised when I opened my ticket and saw 119 looking back at me, a flying carp peg but so far in this series no good for silvers at all . And to make matters worse the wind was in and across me, for company I had bristols finest roofer , bela bakos on 118 and glen Calvert on 121 and opposite on the better silvers pegs in my section was Nigel Bartlett, John green and Paul elmes on 123/124 and 125 respectively , historically all better silvers pegs , but every day is different.
Three rigs today, a couple of .4g both the same in case of snarl ups and a .75 if the wind got to strong.
As normal my main attack revolved around groundbait and caster, so on the whistle I cupped in a small ball at 4 mtrs and three balls on two lines at 11 mtrs, 11 and 1 o,clock angles, and began feeding a few casters down to my right , I only had to shallow my rig up by ten inches to use it down the edge.
I started on the 4 mtr line loose feeding a few casters over that line , and I soon began getting small roach with two 4 oz skimmers for good measure , the anglers opposite started better with some better skimmers and a odd tench but it didn't seem to be fishing to well, 90 mins I had a tench and I was still
Catching small 1 to 2 oz roach so I didn't feel I was to far off the pace as far the section was going, I kept going out to the groundbait lines but all I could get we're odd tiny roach and none of the skimmers I was really hoping for, I did keep an odd ball going in on the long lines but most of my fishing was done on the short line , by the end I had managed 5 tench three good skimmers one of which came from the long line and lots of small roach, and I thought I had done enough to win the section as the anglers opposite on the better pegs had really struggled after a promising start, I reckoned on my catch going 20lb so I was more than happy to weigh 21.15 which topped the section giving me 3 sections wins from three matches, and with the one and only bob gullick on the same score it's still all to play for and with still three matches to go anything can happen, winter silvers fishing can be cruel.
1st on the day went to joe McMahon on peg 110 with twenty tench plus a few perch and bits for 40.11. Mainly taken on caster down to his left towards an old tree stump
2nd Phil cardwell on 77 with 33.10
3rd andy Neal on 127 with 23.14
4th gary(should have been on the river ) o,Shea with 22.9
5 th tony Rixon 21.15
6th mash 21.6
A bit harder today probably down to the cooling effects of the recent days , and the water getting clearer
Any way off  to plantations main lake on Wednesday so ring me at the shop to book in on 01179517250

Weds match

Next Wednesday I am running a match on the main lake at plantations , anyone interested ring me at the shop on01179517250, 9 draw any method

Wes landsend open

13 fishing today so virtually every other peg, after the way it fished on Sunday we were all expecting a good day, I didn't mind where I drew as there were plenty of fish feeding all around the lake at the weekend, I waited till last but one in the draw and ended up with peg 1, it's a corner peg with the end of the island well within reach so plenty of options, it's a nice peg to ship your pole back aswell as the bank is reasonably flat behind you, so the two new Mosella rollers were set up (and they seem very good) allowing 16 mtrs to be shipped back in one go.
 I was placing my faith in a pellet and mat approach as it worked so well at the weekend, so two shallow rigs , one for up the left hand margin and another on top of the island shelf, a deep pellet rig for the bottom of the margin slope and a meat rig for on the end of the tree just to my right.
Opposite was the gimp who was going to be perch bashing and next to me was Martin McMahon, on 3.
At the start I began along the end bank down the shelf, I had a bite after about 5 mins and landed a 3lb carp on a banded 6mm over loose fed 4,s, I thought that was going to be the start of a good day , but it turned out to be a bit of a false dawn, as by the end of  90 mins I had only added another one carp, and with no liners it looked as though the normally reliable shoal of smallish dark carp which are known to inhabit the end bank were going to have an off day , but by the sound of things no one was early having it off, even silvers didn't want to play ball. I had a bad match really ending up with 9 carp one skimmer and an f1, I had two along the end bank, three on meat towards the the end of the tree to my right and four towards the island for a total of 40.8 and no good .  A few people began to catch a few fish towards the end , even Martin McMahon started to catch carp on his caster line whilst trying to catch silvers and he had some proper lumps aswell ending up with 6 fish for 46lb.
1st on the day went to Adrian Clark on 19 with 54.14 catching on banded pellet over micros tight to the island
2nd Martin McMahon with his accidental carp and 6 lb of intentional silvers for  52.7
3rd kieth fielder on 15 with 48.10
4th Ron hardiman on 20 with 47.4
5th me with 40.8
6th Jamie dyte on 17 with 33.12
Silvers
Nige Bartlett on 13 with 18.10 which included a couple of tench, skimmers and decent perch with some small roach all caught on caster

Sunday open ,landsend fishery

This was meant to be a MFS match booked by ken Rayner but he struggled to fill it with members so he turned it into a normal open, 22 booked in but ken miscounted and put 23 tickets in the draw , 21 wasn't drawn and with trig on19 there looked to be only one winner today, I drew for myself today and ended up on 17, I saw rod wootten in shipham cafe and he drew it on Saturday and came second off it with 70 odd pound, with most of his fish falling to pellet against the island, we were due some strong winds today but with it blowing off the field it wasnt going to be a problem,  four rigs today,a meat one for 5 mtrs, a margin for meat over groundbait and a couple of pellet rigs for over by the island, one up on the shelf and the other at the bottom of the island shelf.
After feeding the pellet and meat lines and putting three pots of g bait down the margins it was out on pellet on the deeper rig, virtually first drop I had a tench , then a carp, trig by now was already ahead fishing pellet on the deck down the shelf, and looking around most people were catching from the off,
I was getting a few liners when I fed so I got off my box and made a shallow rig but it never produced a single bite which suprised me a bit as I was getting plenty of liners and a few foulers, so an hour in and it was out with the on top of the shelf pellet rig, but leaves were a bit of a problem as there is a bush in the water just to the right against the island and with the increasing wind the leaves were blowing against the island and wedging against the bush so it wasnt long before it was impossible to get right into the island, and to make matters worse trig was now catching over to the island and getting no leaf problems as he was the other side of the islands gap and the leaves were blowing through the gap and into fabios peg on the other side. If I could lower my pellet in a gap between the leaves I would get a bite or indication so the fish were feeding , just no presentation . How is it when you hook a leaf and all the shaking wont dislodge it from the hook but when you unship to take it off its always come off, not to annoying then !!!!!!!.
I did try fishing 17 mtrs which just took me past the bush but that's to much like hard work even though I was catching odd fish, the margin meat line only gave me two carp and the 5 mtr line produced three, by far the best place was against the island , I think I ended up with about twenty carp and one tench for hopefully 90 lb, apart from trig who won on the day with 167.10 catching the bulk of his fish on pellet then topped up with 12 good fish in the last couple of hours on his meat line at 6 mtrs
2nd was Alan oram on 34 with 135.6
3rd was me with 112.5
4 th Tom mangnall on 13 with 101.11
5th mike duckett on 3 with 98.4
6th fabio on7 with 94.3, he would have had over 100lb bit he went 11lb over in us net WXXKER
Silvers
Mike west on 39 with 36.8 of perch chub and f1,s to 5 lb on worm and caster
Off down there on weds again so ring me at the shop to book in

Weds open , acorn fishery , paddock lake

Ended up with 16 fishing today so it just goes to show its a popular venue , even after its event problems, which now seem to have sorted itself out, Adrian Clark drew for me and handed me 36, not a peg I would have run to given the choice, I set up three rigs , a 4x12 to fish corn and dead maggot down the the empty pallet to my left,  a 4x10 for banded pellet on top of the far shelf and the same rig would be ok for 3 mtrs down the margin and a 4x12 for pellet just down the far shelf in about 3 feet of water. At the start I cupped in some corn dawn to the empty pallet, fired some 4,s to the far side and threw some down the edge, by the time I had done all that mike nicholls was playing his first fish on peg 9. Starting on the deeper rig just off the far side I lost a fish straight away but it was fouled, I gave it another twenty minutes there but only had a couple more liners so I picked up the shallow rig and started feeding up on the shelf, when I plumbed up it was about 15 inches deep but there seemed to be a lot of debris on the bottom so it was hard to sort out , I should have gone round onto the island and cleared it before the start but it looked clear but you can't see what's on the deck, I did manage a few fish to 5 lb off the far side, then I noticed a boil down the edge over the pellet line, so I went in and had thee quick fish before it dried, so off on the corn down by the empty pallet, and a couple of fish there, the next couple of hours were ok with odd fish coming from the three lines , then the swim just seemed to die and it was a real struggle  to get a bite anywhere, then onwards the end a few fish turned up on the margin pellet line and I had some more in last hour but I thought I was always going to be a few fish short to get in the money, and that's how it ended up . Mike nicholls won on peg 9 with 100.5 on mainly caster down the edge mainly on caster I think, see his blog.
2nd mat tomes on 22. With 97.8
3rd Harry muir on 24 with 92.1
4th me with 85.5
5th Adrian Clark on 33 with 69.12
6th dave blakemore on peg 1 with 61.10
Silvers
Ziggy on 28 with 20lb of skimmers on worm bits
Off to landsend on Sunday on match and speci, there are a few spaces left so ring me at the shop to book in

Two days at viaduct

Saturday and Sunday at viaduct , silvers final on Saturday and round two of the silvers league on Sunday. Nearly 50 fished on Saturday with all the silver winners from the year eligible to fish, into the draw tin and out pops 128 which is next to the spit on cambell, not been to good for silver of late but they have fins and can move, for company I had dan squires on 127 and Len Hubbard on 129 which is the other side of the spit, which has been the kiss of death recently and today was going to be no different for him, I,m not going to say to much about today's match as I had my ass well and truly tuned by dan , who ended up with 54lb of mainly tench caught short on caster over a mix of loose fed maggots caster with a bit of chopped worm, the match and the winners £750 was won by Luke sorokin on97 with 54.8
2nd dan squires on 127 with 53lb
3rd bob gullick on123 with 35.10
4th Paul greenwood on 125 with 33.6
5th steve kedge on 88 with 32.15
6th Gary etheridge on 98 with 30.4
Myself I ended up with 28.1 which was mainly skimmers over groundbait at 8 and 11 metres, but. I did manage two tench on the short 4 mtr line
Sunday silvers league round 2
53 fishing today and a better draw today as I pulled out 98 which is next to the winning peg from yesterday , for company I had mat tomes on 97 and Mohamed Preston on 99, again I fed groundbait on two lines ,11 and 14 mtrs with a few casters in, I also fed one ball at 4 mtrs, in the first 45 mins I did get two skimmers on the 4 mtr line but apart from a few small roach that was all I managed from there, I spent most of the match swapping between the two long lines with the 14 mtr line being the most productive, catching some nice skimmers on single caster, I ended up with an estimated 40lb, but with several people having caught well it was going to be tight, but when the scales reached me nick Collins was winning with 39.10 off peg 111 on cambell having had 15 tench plus a few skimmers, I put my fish on the scales and they went 40.2 just enough for first on the day, shame it was aday late,
Nick was second with his 39.10
3rd steve mayo on 70 with 37.6
4 th mark Brennan on 129 with 36.2
5 th steve kedge on 128 with 36.1
6th bob gullick on78 with 35.2

Weds silver only viaduct fishery

14 fishing today which is a bit disappointing as there is the silvers all winners final on Saturday and the second round of the silvers league Sunday, so I thought there may be few more to practice.
With there already a match on cambell so we found ourselves spread around around Cary, into the draw tin and out comes 102, a flyer generally for carp and silvers so I wasn't to upset, Alex Murray was on this peg in the last silvers league match and got carped out , losing over twenty, so I was hoping they had gone somewhere else today, hopefully into 105 as number three in the all time Swindon best dressed list was sat in the shape of Gary etheridge, so if he did hook any carp he would cause them minimum stress as they demolished his .005 line and reshaped 26 hooks.
On 100 was shep and opposite I had ziggy on 77 and mat tomes on 78 (again).
I only set up 2 rigs today, a .4g to fish quite positively at 11 and 14 mtrs and a .25 to fish lighter over the long lines and the same rig would do to start at 3 mtrs and to shallow up to fish down the edge for hopefully some good hybrids which can inhabit the margins along here, both rigs had a 18 middy 6313 hook on .10 line. Today's approach was still going to fish maggot or caster over groundbait over the two long lines, so on the whistle I cupped in 6 balls at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14, then began at three mtrs loose feeding some caster aswell as sprinkling some down the edge, to say it was slow would be and understatement as after 30 mins all I had to show for my efforts were 1 roach, 1 small perch and 2 Ruffe, not a good start, so I shipped out the light rig to 11 mtrs but I struggled to get my bait to the bottom as small roach were intercepting it on the way down, so in and back out with the heavier rig, it was better but my peg seemed to be full of 1 to 3oz roach, which would be ok as long as you can catch them on your topkit. I tried putting the bulk right down at the top of the hook length (4") but still fought roach, after 2 hours a had managed two skimmers but felt I was way behind as Gary was netting plenty of fish, but its hard to tell. With him as he tends to net everything , also mat over on 78 was putting a few fish together, but as far as I could see no one was running away with it. So I just got my head down and kept catching roach , but luckily I did get a few better skimmers in between the roach so by the end when mat called over to see what I thought I had , I told him I had 20lb ish,
But I had a quick look and new I had closer to 30lb, I thought Gary had over 30lb but he reckoned on closer to 25, I was last but one to weigh and by the time the scales got to me steve kedge was winning. With 31.10, and lifting my fish out I new it would be close, and it was as my fish went 31.6,
With at least 10lb of that being those small roach. Gary had 30.6 which was the same weight as mat over on 78.
So first on the day was steve kedge on 97 with 31.10
2nd me with 31.6 peg 102
Jnt 3rd mat tomes on 78 and Gary etheridge on 105 both with 30.6
5th mash on 99 with 29.7
6thchris fox on 85 with 26.7
So a good tight match with one or two fish making all the difference, it was noticeable today as to how much colour had dropped out of the water, so they may had made the skimmers a bit more twitchy, I did get a bit of carp trouble as the first three fish I hooked over the 11 mtr line were of the big beasty variety, but I never Hooked another till one minute from the end , so roll on the weekend and with the temps rising towards the end of the week we may have a good couple of days, next weds I am going to try and book the main lake lake at plantations so ring me at the shop on 01179517250 to confirm

Sunday open plantation horse shoe lake

20 booked in for today which is about the limit on this lake due to its shape, after a breakfast at the fishery , which I must say was very good for a fiver. I had the lat ticket in the draw and ended up on peg 6 which today was about halfway up on the left, I had no island to fish to but there is a shallow bar in front with about 10 inches of water on top of it, so I set up a rig to fish at 11 mtrs in front at the bottom of the shelf, another to fish in a channel to my left before another bar and a margin rig, I had stu barnett to my right and darren(goose fat) vowels to my left, opposite was mike nicholls and Martin lenaghan, at the start I cupped in some maggot and micro at 11 mtrs, some corn and micro in the gap between the bars and some maggot and micro in the left hand margin, starting at 11 mtrs I missed a couple of bites, and mike by now was playing his first carp , and he was playing his second before I hooked my first on double maggot, and by the end of the first hour I had 3 and I think mike had 4, the anglers either side were struggling as was Martin lenaghan.
I switched to gap between the bars and had a couple more carp there on corn, maggot wasnt doing so well now as the micro roach had switched on, I had a look in the margin but only managed to scare one judging by the boil as the culprit exited the area, mike had also slowed down and was on 7 fish, Martin hadn't got the mark as yet and stu to my right was targeting the eel population, the ain had started by now and the weather men got it right as it was pouring down and it was due to keep falling for hours, and it did, but I was mainly dry under my brolly, the middle couple of hours were really hard and all I could muster were two skimmers on the corn line, with two hours to go I saw a carp up on the bar in front of me so I cupped in some dead mags and micros, I went down the edge on treble maggot and I had a carp, then I noticed a mud plume out on the bar so I shallowed the margin rig to about 12 inches and went out on the bar, I hooked a fish quickly but it dropped down over the bar and came off, so I changed the hook to a 16 middy 8313 on .18 so I could give the fish a bit of stick, and by feeding after each fish on the bar and down the edge the last two hours were enjoyable , I ended up with about twenty carp with a couple of near doubles in the net I reckoned on 70lb plus , and when the scales arrived they ended up going. 80.2 for first on the day
2nd was mark Walsh on peg 20 with 55.3
3rd Paul elmes on 1 with 51.12
4thcraig Edmunds on 16 with 50.12
5th fabio on 9 with 40.1
6th mike nicholls on19 with 35.3
Silvers went to clive federry on 14 with

Weds open shiplate farm. Hawthorn lake

Not enough again today to call it a match, so it was more of a friendly knock up, it's always difficult to peg a match when there isn't enough on the lake, there ends up being to many big gaps and the fish tend to back off into the spare pegs. I had the last peg in the bucket and ended up with peg 7, right in the middle of the lake.
I set up 3 rigs , one for corn down the middle, a rig for caster just off the far bank to fish caster , the same rig would do for shallow down the edge which works well on this lake as the margins are over 3 foot deep, and a rig to fish on the deck in the margins, and a corn rig for 6 mtrsall hooks were size 18 middy 8313 hooks to .14 line. For company each side I had the gimp to my right and fabio to my left. I had decided to fish caster as I had 3 pints left from the weekend , normally I would have used maggot here as there are no real nuisance small fish to annoy me , but we had all but sold out of maggots in the shop so old
casters it had to be then, at the start I cupped in some soaked 4mm pellets with a few pieces of corn at 6 mtrs, cupped some casters just off the far side and began throwing some into the margins each side. The 6 mtr corn line wasnt to good and I only had 3 carp and a roach to show for my efforts after 45 mins , so I switched to far side and caster on the hook, feeding with a catty, I had a few carp and small chub but agains I was going nowhere fast really, so I changed to putting a healthy pot of caster in this seemed to be better and I would catch 2 or 3 carp before I had to re feed, the margins gave up a few aswell , especially shallow against the reeds, in fact I never went in there until I saw the reeds knocking, the last half of the match was the best and I ended up with just over 30 carp for 90lb or so, when the scales turned up I actually weighed 110.6 lb for first on the day
2nd was fabio with 76.14
3rd Aaron britnell 68.13
4th dave blakemore 57.7
5th Ron hardiman, 51.8
6th the gimp, John Bradford 50.2 who also won the silvers with 9.5

Viaduct silvers league, round 1

No blog last week as I was away in west Wales with judith and the dogs, and it made for a nice week, plenty of walking through woods and along beaches, a nice place to go and we have already booked again for next year.
Off to shiplate on the canals on Wednesday so if anyone fancies it give me a ring at the shop to book in, 01179517250.
55 are fishing this league so is a good match, the pegs were spread over cambell, Cary and lodge, split into mainly sections of 7 . Into the draw tin and out comes peg 101, which is on the diagonal bank of Cary, which is a good area for skimmers and bream, it was going to be a tough section as I was sandwiched between Alex Murray  on 102 and ian didcote on 100 it was hard to tell as to who spends the most time on the sunbed.
We were met with flat calm conditions and bright warm sunshine, not to good for silvers but the carp would probably like it, I set up a .4g rig to fish at 11 and 14 mtrs with caster or maggot ove rig bait , a .25 g rig to fish to hand with my topkit for roach early on and a 4x12 rig to fish caster down the edge as its sometimes ok for big hybrids and skimmers(but not today as it turned out). On the whistle I cupped in 5 balls at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14, then began on the caster using the lighter rig fishing to hand, I stuck with this for the first 45 mins but never really went any where with it, I had a few 2 to 3 oz roach an eel a Ruffe. And a tiny perch , no good really, both Alex and ian were out on the longer lines  by now and had a couple of decent skimmers, so I followed suite using the .4 rig, I had a couple of skimmers but due mainly to the conditions the fish weren't happy to settle properly, Alex was having a torrid losing plenty of carp, wherever he fed it fizzed up and it was another hook length gone, ian was still catching odd skimmers , and by switching between the 11 and 14 mtr lines and occasionally putting a ball in I kept putting odd decent skimmers in the net , I was getting a few carp on but Alex
Seemed to be keeping them in his peg , that was until he stopped feeding his long lines about 90 mins
From the end then the water pigs seemed to shift along to me , and become a real nuisance, so during
The last hour I only managed two more skimmers but lost about ten carp and landing two, at the end
Ian thought I had beaten him by about 10lb but I new it was going to be close , and it was as I weighed 36.9 to his 34.3. So I started off with a section win, but it was close,
1st on the day went to mat tomes on peg 78 with 41.5
2nd bob gullick on 86 with 40.3
3rd Paul faires on 69 with 37.2
4th tony Rixon with 36.9
5th Andy Neale on 97 with 35.7
6th ian didcote on 100 with 34.3

Viaduct , silvers only

With ring lake being used for this one the turnout was up on the normal Wednesday opens, 19 were fishing so steve spread us around spring with 37 and 38 on middle in the draw aswell, I travelled down with Ron hardiman and said the only pegs we needed to avoid really would be 6 and 20 , Ron got into the daw tin before me and pulled 20, then I went in and drew 6 , not what was needed today, but at least we were forecast a nice dry day, and it was interesting to see there are still some swallows   Flying around so we get an Indian summer yet. Getting to my peg which was an end peg on this bank today with the next peg to my left being peg 9 which was occupied by ziggy, in peg 7 and into the corner the surface was littered with carp which were idly swimming about taking odd floating pieces of food items, not what you need in a silvers match, on my right was Tim pallant on 5.
I mixed up some groundbait, the normal mix of gimps gold and sensas lake , and made three rigs, one for banded pellet and one for mag and caster to use over g bait at 11 and 14 mtrs, and another to fish caster to hand over caster which can be good for roach in the early part of the match, on the whistle I cupped in 6 balls on the 11 mtr line and 4 out at 14, began feeding on the short caster line and fired about a pint of pellets into the corner to try and encourage the carp to stay down there, starting on the short caster line I was suprised not to get a small roach first put in, in fact it took 5 mins to get a bite and that was it on the short line probably due to the plumes of mud coming up which wasnt from roach that's for sure, so that line was binned. It on my right was catching perch and roach on worm in his right hand margin, not big fish but plenty of them, the rest of the match was spent on the two long pole lines picking up odd decent skimmers and small roach which came on the drop, I had put some caster and 4 mm hard pellets in the feed so I did get some fish on hard 6mm and some on caster and maggot, but there was no pattern it was odd fish coming out of the blue, my section was from me round to peg 12 where mash was sat and when steve wandered round about halfway through I thought it was going to be the tightest section in the match. He also joked that we were going to get an inch of rain. And about two hours to go we did , it poured down and never stopped,
By the end it was obvious that no one in our section was going to frame so it was section or nothing
When the scales arrived ziggy was winning the section with 21lb, just a pound ahead of the venues
Silver expert Paul greenwood, I new it was going to be close , and was glad to plonk 23.11 on the scales, so the days costs were covered at least.
1st on the day on peg 18 was Scott russell with a nice net of skimmers for 46.1
2nd was mark poppleton on peg 38 in middle lake with 42.12
3rd dave romain on  peg 1 with 29.14
4th Tim pallant with 29.12 on peg 5
5th steve kedge on19 with 29.9
6th gabe skarba with 27.10 on peg 37
Anyone looking for a match on Wednesday there is one being run at landsend on match and speci, ring me at the shop to book in

Chilton trinity, woodland lake

2nd visit here in two weeks, but I,m not complaining as its a venue where you tend to get a days fishing from most pegs and its not a Peggy lake so it's nigh on impossible to predict where the winner will come from. With 25 booked in , which is a big number for this lake due there being corners and end banks which needed to be used , it was to be a pole only again this week so no arguments as to where you could cast or fish.
Again I let misha draw for me and she handed me peg 28 which is on the carpark sided of the lake and smack in the middle , normally a reasonable area but with ever peg in that could change, also the absence of any wind so no ripple that may effect the weights, for company I had 5 pots bailey(glen) on my left and Martin Alexander on my right who is good company but but due to the act he has lost his hearing aid(again) you need to shout at him to have any sort of conversation.
I set up 4 rigs today , a meat rig at 5 mtrs, a couple of pellet rigs for 14 mtrs and a margin pellet rig for each side .
At the start I began feeding 8mm hard pellets each side in the margin and firing the same size out to 14 mtrs, it was a slow start for me as it took me about 15 mins to et connected to my first fish which was fouled and came off, glen already had one in the net and was getting plenty of indications on his paste attack but they were really iffy for him, 45 mins in and now a few fish behind glen and having a few liners I went out on the shallow rig, and I had a reasonable little spell putting 8 fish into the net, just edging me in front of glen after a couple of hours, the only person I could see catching regularly was Paul elmes on peg 3 who was getting fish n the deck on hard 8mm pellet aswell as the odd fish shallow. The fish didn't stay for to long on the shallow line probably due to the flat conditions I think.
Going into the last couple of hours I was getting a bit of movement in my right hand margin, so the last part of the match was spent between the 14 mtr deep rig and the margins, and I ended up with 16 carp for 70 to 80lb, glen had 13 so at least I didn't get busted by a paste basher, I hoped.
Paul on 3 , Shaun Townsend and trig had also had a better second half so it was hard to say who had won, as it turned out Paul elmes had managed to hang on to his early lead and won with 106.12
2nd and on the next peg(2) Shaun Townsend had 90.1
3rd Craig Edmunds on 15 with 88.12
4th tony Rixon on28 with 81.8
5th Gordon cannings on 7 with 74lb
6th glen bailey on 29 with 63.9
Silvers
Ken Rayner with 13.13 of skimmers on dead maggot over soaked 4,s on peg 9
Ken had to go for a swim after as he dropped the bottom 4 sections of his pole in, and FairPlay to him he got them out which is no mean feat in 7 foot of water.
Also we had a little gem from misha during the weigh in when someone asked her how much the lake was down , to which she replied , about 18 inches in some places and two foot in others

Southwest trade match, todber manor

This is an annual match organised by mark harper mainly, but helped(or hindered by dave drake and Norman hugget), myself and the Avon angling night watchman travelled down and it only took about an hour and ten minutes to get to the dolphin pub in gillingham for breakfast and the draw, I must say the breakfast was really good, tasty and hot with plenty for all.
Into the draw and out comes 34 on park lake, I always seem to draw this back straight when I go here,  the end peg 38 is normally the peg to beat, but I was quite happy with my peg as I had a small bay to fish into amongst the overhanging foliage on the fat bank, this is a fishery that needs a proper trim to tidy it up, it is a heavily stocked water with lots of f1,s and carp up to 6lb and its possible to get bites all over your peg, but with 200lb needed to win you need to make up your mind early on as to which line you are going to target and make it work as it soon becomes a fish race, mark harper was to my right on 32 and with whitepost lakes in he expected the winner to come from there, but with a lot of cold rain during the night the water seemed to have lost a bit of  colour so who knows .
I set up a couple of pellet rigs for the far side, one for on top of the shelf and one on the slope, a pellet rig for the margins and the obligatory meat line for 5 mtrs.
At the start I fed all lines with the relevant baits and went over on the slope rig , lowered the rig in and it kept going , that was a 4lb carp first drop, a good start.
I kept catching odd fish so I stuck with it for the first couple of hours but as the time went on foulers became more of a problem, so with tails waiving up on the shelf the rest of the match was spent after them apart from a couple of short sorties on the meat line which produced half a dozen fish but it wasnt quick enough, I also had one fish down the edge but that was even slower, so far bank it was then. By now mark harper who had a slow start was catching well with f1,s and carp falling to his corn attack at 5 mtrs, he had intended to fish the method for a while at the start but he threw in into a snag and lost the lot before the start and I don't think he had another , Preston must be out of stock.
Although there were plenty of fish against the at bank they proving hard to catch as there was lots od debris under the surface making it hard to keep fitting and dropping, and also when the bait got to the bottom I think it was below the rubbish. By the end I had 40 plus carp but with lots on the small side 2lb ish I thought I may just scrape 100lb, mark was convinced I had 135 at least but I didn't , I new it
was going to be close between us and when he plonked 107.13 on the scales I thought he would just

edge it, I was next to weigh and my nets went 103.10, one good fish really, our lake seemed to Have
Fished hard so we expected white post to produce the weights , but it turned out to be just as hard
There
Ian didcote on 5 park came out on top with 146.6, with all his fish falling to bait tech polony
2nd Marc jones 133.1. On 27 whitepost
3rd mark harper, 107.13, 32 park
4th tony Rixon , 103.10 34 park
5 th steve kedge 101.14 , 23 whitepost
6th John candy 99.12, whitepost
Well it took one hour 10 to get there, but missed my turning in bruton and it took us two hours 15 to get home , we even went past viaduct lol, talk about senior moments.

Chilton trinity, woodland lake

With 22 fishing I made this a pole only only match, as this venue has corners and end banks which had to be used, so it stops any arguments, it was a shame really that we had the windiest wettest day of recent months forecast and it was went to be mainly a westerly so it would be blowing straight up the lake making for difficult pole fishing , luckily the wind seemed to be more southerly so at least it was off the backs for many and in the face for others. Misha drew for me and I ended up with 24 with  bela bakos on 23 and fabio on 26 with an empty peg between us , so the margins should be good for a few.
I set up a shallow rig just in case , couple of depth rigs , one for 13 mtrs, I didn't fancy going longer in case the wind changed direction, one for meat at 5 mts and a pellet rig for the margins, I decided to fish pellet down the edge as small roach can de a problem in the shallow waters in the side , also I only used 8,s as feed and hook baits, so at he start I began firing 8,s out to 13 mtrs, throwing meat onto the 5 mtr line and pellets down the edge .
It didn't take long to get a bie which resulted in a small carp of about 2 lb safely netted, soon followed by another of the same size hen a good one of nearly 10lb so a good start, there seemed to be a few fish being caught with Martin McMahon over on 9 catching well, shallow which was interesting as the anglers on that bank had the wind blowing straight in at them , back in my peg it started to go a bit wrong after that with foulhookers , I was landing a couple but losing most, but I was getting some in the mouth aswell, so I kept feeding odd fish into the net, I tried upping the feed, cutting it back and even not feeding at all , but that just resulted in no bites at all, the fish I was fouling were on the bottom as I was connecting instantly on the strike , it seems to happen a lot now.i tried the shallow rig  and had one fish and that was hooked in the fin. So I just decided to put up with it. As far as I could see I was doing ok, bela was struggling and fabio was hooking skimmers but most of them seemed to be jumping off, also trig over on 17 was finding it hard, mike nicholls wandered up with about 2 hours to go and was admitting to 12 carp also Shaun Townsend on 27 was catching well on meat on the 5 mtr line, I did get a few on meat and I had 3 down the edge on pellet so by the end I new I had over 100lb but not being able to see the rest of the lake I couldn't say who was looking good to win.
I started the weigh in on mike nicholls on peg 30 and when he plopped 123.12 onto the scales I told him I thought that would be enough on the day, he had started the match by, oh sod that read his blog to see how he did it
I ended up just behind him in second spot with 120lb exactly
3rd Shaun Townsend  on 26 with 117.7
4th Martin McMahon on 9 with 90.9 and he only snapped his pole twice
5th Anton page on peg 6 with 86.1
6th Tom mangnall on 7 with 79.5
Silvers
Scott puddy on 28 with 17.4 of skimmers on pellet

Weds viaduct open

With the Royal Navy fishing on cambell the open today was on match and lodge if needed , with 14 fishing steve put 9 on match and 5 on lodge , even though it was a pole only match a draw on lodge was needed to frame overall or win the silvers, into the draw tin and out pops peg 44. A good wag peg !!!!!!!!!. For company I had the gimp on 43 and mark tanner on 45.
I normally do ok on this lake fishing caster and micro combination, so I set up a caster rig to fish at 13 mtrs 10 and 2 o,clock, the same rig would do at 16 mtrs at 10 angle, and I set up a hard pellet rig to fish banded 6 over loose fed 4,s at 16 mtrs 2 angle.
At the start I cupped in some micros and caster in the 13 mtr lines , a big pot of caster on the 16 mtr 10 angle and began firing a few 4, s towards the 16 mtr 2 angle  line, starting at 13 mtrs small roach were the first to arrive as is normal but they wanted to stay, there were some carp and f1,s present but the small roach were being a bit of a problem, I spent the first couple of hours trying to get a bait to the bottom and when I did I quite often got an f1 , but I wasn't catching well enough as glen the spod bailey on 40 was catching on paste over his pellet mountain and they were good fish aswell for this lake .
I switched to the pellet line fishing on the deck which is only 2 foot all the way across in this peg, and began catching a few with no roach problems, it was mainly f1,s and with them going over 2lb they were worth catching, after an hour of this I had odd swirls so it was off the box and assembling a shallow rig and I never looked back catching f1,s but not to many carp, glen was till catching on 40 and with the news filtering through that lodge was producing there looked to be only the section up for rays and with glen in my section it was going to be hard as I. Needed to catch between 2 and 4 fish to stay in touch with him, the fish kept coming shallow up until about 30 mins from the end when they seemed to disappear but a switch to the deck rig kept a few fish coming , by the all all out it was a bit to close to call between glen and me, glen was fist weigh and put 103lb on the scales ,and I wasn't to sure I had that , I thought I had 80 ish, I had to wait for the scales, but when they eventually got to me Vincent brown was top on our lake with 128.4 but he wasnt in my section , my nets went
108.9 just beating glen, it was those few late fish on the deck, plus glen hooked his keepnet with 5 mins to go trashing his rig (excuses excuses), I bet mark tanners ears were well and truly chewed off on the way home,
As expected the top weights came off lodge with Paul Blake on 66 ending up with 184.6 of meat caught carp
2nd mark wynne on 64 with 158.13
3rd mat parsons on 58 with 146.8
4th Vincent brown on 49 with 128.4
5th me 108.9
6 th glen bailey 103.13 on peg 40
Silvers
Dave romain on 60 with 41.2 of skimmers

Avon angling open, sedges , brick lake

20 fishing today so every peg was, this venue doesn't suffer because of it, in fact it seemed to help some venues and this is one of them, it's a square lake which is normally about 8 foot deep but as with most venues we need rain desperatley and the level was down about 18 inches but it still was 6 foot plus deep, I fancied peg 10 or 11, I waited till nearly the end to draw , in fact there was only two tickets left in the draw , there was only myself and glen  ( the spod ) bailey left to draw , he took a ticket and ended up on 10 and mine was peg 7, a good. Silvers peg with a chance of carp aswell, the chances of winning were also reduced as Craig Edmunds was on 11 and providing he tried this week it looked to be either him or glen would be the man to beat.
I set up three rigs today,  a pellet rig to fish banded 8,s over loose fed 6,s. a meat rig for 5 mtrs and a rig for corn or caster over caster in the margin, for company I had Martin McMahon on 6 and bela bakos on 8.
At the start I began at 14 mtrs on the pellet rig aswell as throwing some meat at 5 mtrs and some caster down the edge, it was a bit of a slow start , bela was catching early on on paste and Martin was also catching on the method, although I was a few fish behind the anglers either side I soon began getting odd good bream on the pellet and occasional carp put in an appearance, I had a nice enjoyable match not really bagging but steadily putting skimmers and carp in the nets, bela slowed up after his good start but he did suffer quite a few skimmers. Dropping off mainly due to them flying about after they were hooked ,Martin stopped catching after he lost his lucky pellet. All the time glen on 10 and trig over on 11 had Been steadily  catching carp, glen on paste over his pellet mountain and trig over his normal 3 pieces of meat, two completely different feeding techniques but both effective .
By the end it was a two horse race between trig and glen but I fancied trig to edge it. As for myself I thought I had 40 lb of skimmers with a lot on pellet but several on the meat line at 5 mtrs,
First on the day went to Craig Edmund son 11 with 123.7 of meat caught carp at 14 mtrs in front and some up his right hand end bank
2nd and opposite him on 10 glen bailey had 116.14
3rd was me with 94lb which included. The top silver weight on the day with 44.12 of all skimmers
4 th Tom mangnall with 75.2 on peg 15
5 th Philip Harding on 16 with 69.11
6 th joe McMahon on 17 with 67.15
Off to viaduct on Wednesday for a match on the match lake with an overspill onto lodge if needed

Weds landsend open

With 16 of us booked in today mike let us use the match lake and the far bank of the speci, with that much room I wasn't to bothered where I drew , in fact I let fabio draw for me and he gave me 29 on the speci. For company I had Martin lenaghan on 31 and Alan oram on 27. ,
I set up a couple of pellet rigs to fish just off the island and one to poke in tight against the mud under the overhanging plants, a meat rig for each side margin, a slapping rig and a pellet rig for on the deck at 5 mtrs, at the start I began firing 6,s to the far bank, and fed some meat and pellet in the various parts of my swim, the margin meat line was a waste during the match as all I could do was let roach turn the cubes into little marbles,
Starting with the depth rig just off the island I was soon attached to and angry fouler, then after losing it and missing a couple of liners I went out with the shallow rig and soon had a nice double figure common in the net , swiftly followed  by the 5lb f1 which resides in the lake, but I can't bring myself to call it a silver so I stuck it in the carp net, but that was the end of the shallow fishing proper, with the overhanging foliage making it all but impossible to do it properly, if I could have weighed in nettles I would be winning, so it was onto the island depth rig about a metre off , fishing banded 8mm over 6,s fed by catty. There were plenty of fish mooching about so most of the rest of the match was spent lifting and dropping as close to the foliage as possible, I ended the match with 23 carp and a few silvers for what I estimated to be about 130lb,.
I would have had a bit more but I called all out and left my rig in and about 2 secs after I shouted I was attached to a big fish which turned out to be the 18 lb common which I have caught three times before, gutted as I watched it swim away out of the landing net, why couldn't it have taken the pellet 3 seconds earlier, I said to mike duckett who was stood watching that it would probably cost me today, I didn't know how the match lake had fished as it had been unusually quiet on there even with Tom thick in attendance, as it turned out gabe skarba on15 had won with 152.11 of mainly meat caught carp(I think)
2nd was me with 134.15( that fish would have done it then)
3rd mark leader on peg 7 with 118.11
4th Martin lenaghan with 117lb on  peg 31
5th Tom thick on peg 3 with 115.12 and he had the top silver weight of 17.10
6th Alan oram on 27 with 90.12

Float only league, final round

This was the last of the series and we were at viaduct on Campbell and Cary, with 20 on each, I let Tom thick draw for me and he gave me 95 and I drew for him and gifted him 112, definitely got the short straw there then, but saying that I wasn't to upset as I needed a section win to get in the overalls and at least on Cary lake there is always a chance to catch up with some of the bigger fish that inhabit this lake, whereas on Campbell it can be a bit of a fish race making it hard to catch up once you are a few fish behind, for company I was next to fabio again on 94 which is the corner peg , which I fancied as the wind has been blowing in there for a few days, and on 96 was the welsh / Australian hybrid in the shape of  stuart(skippy) barnett, so at least I had someone cheerful to talk to on one side ( I will leave that one to you to work out). I set up a wag rod and a paste rig but never used either, and a depth pellet rig , I didn't set up a shallow rig as I have never had to much success on this lake fishing shallow.
On the whistle I shipped out the pellet rig to 14 mtrs fired in some 8,s and waited, it didn't take to long to foulhook one which came off as did the next 4 aswell, in the meantime dan white was slapping a shallow rig about and by the end of the first hour he had 7 carp in the net, I had managed to put 2 in the net but liners were a problem, so at the end of the first hour I was off the box and assembling a shallow rig, I was soon into the first carp on it and to be honest apart from a couple of attempts to catch on the deck which just resulted in liners and a couple foulers I stuck with the shallow rig for most of the match putting odd fish to about 15ib in the net, fabio had banked on the wag to the end bank and was catching some and on the other side skippy was catching and losing on several methods including paste, and pellet shallow and deep , the lake was fishing well with lots of people catching , Paul elmes over on 79 had lost count of the number of scales. He had put in his net , luckily for him Craig Edmunds at the next peg was keeping count and by the end he had 50 on his clicker, Paul couldn't deny it as he had lost count.
By the end I had 19 carp and 4 skimmers in the nets and with them weighing 164.8 it was the section win I needed to keep me in the overall money, Craig Edmunds had all but won the league before today , with the only person to possibly upset. His win was Shaun Townsend who was on 111, but he needed to win his section with over 300lb and for trig to dip out, FairPlay he won his section and the match with 228.14, so not enough to oust trig
2nd Tom thick on 112 with 196.5
3rd mash on 105 with 180.6
4th mike west on 125 with 172lb
5 th tony Rixon 164.8 peg 95
6th Scott puddy on 116 with 161.3
Silvers
 Gary etheridge with 44.11 on peg 86, catching skimmers of various sizes on soft pellet over softened 4,s
Overall league
Craig. Edmunds 25 pts 576.8lb. £325
Shaun Townsend 25 pts 525.7lb £250
Paul elmes 24 pts 548.7 lb. £175
Tony Rixon 24 pts 478.5lb. £100
Tom mangnall 23 pts. 686.4 lb. £50
Another good league finished now till next year and it was a good tight finish, mainly due to the small 5 peg section, roll on next year
Having another go on wildmarsh at chilton trinity next Sunday so give me a ring at the shop if you fancy it 01179517250

Viaduct open, Campbell lake

This was a pole only with a 13 mtr limit, ok for most but those with daiwa pole had a bit of a moan as there's are only 12.7 with the tips taken out of the match kits, 0.3 can make all the difference lol.
With 17 originally booked in it looked like a nice match on this solid lake, but with a couple of our older anglers crying off with bad backs we ended up with 15, plenty of room so a good day in prospect.
Into the draw tin and out comes 116 , a good peg ,but then again every peg on this lake is a flyer on its day, for company I  had Philip blakemore-fox (fabio))on 115 and new Wednesday sliver Ron hardiman on 118, 117 wasn't in as its cut back in a bay so the empty peg would be beneficial, four rigs today, 3 for pellet, one in my right hand margin, a depth one for 13 mtrs and a shallow slapper, also the obligatory 5 mtr meat line rig.
I only had 8mm to feed and fish with, so nice and positive, at the start I shipped out the shallow rig fed a few pellets over it slapped it around a couple of times then went to throw some down the edge but didn't have time as the elastic was going across the lake, nice start an 8lb fish in the net , yet again this was a bit of a false dawn as I only managed one more small carp on the shallow rig , but I stuck with it for the first 45 mins, although you could see the occasional boil in the feed , I don't think they were to happy to feed shallow, possibly due to the bright sun and no wind, there seemed to be plenty being caught down the lake to my left with Tom thick on 114, mash on 112 and dave romain over on 130 all catching well, the anglers opposite me seemed to be struggling a bit.
I went out on the deep rig and although liners were a bit of pain I was now getting odd fish , fishing a light rig with only 2 number 10,s down the line lots of the bite were on the drop, fabio was having bit of a torrid but he was trying to fish meat at 13 mtrs but small fish became a bit of a problem very quickly , so he came onto the 5 mtr line a lot earlier than he really wanted but he started catching putting some good fish in the net, I stuck with the long line catching a few and I felt as though I was keeping in touch with the anglers off to my left, I kept trying the short meat line but it never really got going for me and I think I only had 4 or 5 fish on it, I started to have a go down the edge with about 90 mins to go and it was solid, I couldn't get in there quick enough, the fish were a bit small but there seemed to be plenty there, with some tench thrown in for good measure, I did lose several to snags and hook pulls, but I think that was mostly due to the pressure I had to put on the fish to get them out of the edge weakening the hook hold, but it was a good day with plenty of banter with fabio and mr thick, I ended up with 37 carp and about 8 tench for what I hoped would go 175lb ish, the word on the bank after was that mash on 112 had won and he did with 223.15 mainly caught on banded pellet out at 13 mtrs then down to his right hand margin towards the end of the match
2nd was tom( I will jump in if I have over 200lb)thick 209.15, coward bottled it
3rd local dairy farmer dave romain on 130 with 189.11
4th me with 189.1 peg 116
5th Martin lenaghan on 111 with 186.8
6th Philip Harding on 115 with 159.13
Silvers
M skyme ( I can't read the weigh sheet so I,m sorry if that's wrong) with 45.5 off peg 125, mainly tench with a few skimmers on worm and caster

Gary wall memorial match, landsend fishery

29 fishing so we used the speci lake , number 3 and half the match lake, 1 to 11, I let Anton draw for me and he pulled 32 for me which is the far bank corner swim, another flyer , I will say it before mr anon does, for company I had dave blakemore on 31 and Martin pettiffer over on 33, steve Seager was on 34 and had his moaning head on as he felt he had been hard done by as he was the only person on the lake without a spare peg but he did have the end of the island to fish to, but I,m sure he didn't mean it (ha ha).
Several rigs today, a shallow rig (6 inches) for slurpers against the bank , a couple of on the deck pellet rigs, one for as tight as I could get to the bank which was 3 foot deep and one for at the bottom of the shelf  in 4 foot of water, I set up the meat rig to fish at 13 and 5 mtrs.
At the start I cupped in some meat on the two lines and began firing pellets along the far bank trying not to get too many on the bank as it was going to be hard to catch the slurpers as there is a fair bit of foliage overhanging, starting at 13 mtrs on meat it was very slow but I stuck it for 45 mins but all I had to show for my efforts was two roach and a skimmer, looking down the bank I could see Scott puddy on 26 hooking plenty on his paste rig, what I didn't realise was at he was losing lots of them, opposite Martin was having a few shallow , but steve hadn't managed to moan anything on yet.
After 45 mins I went in on the pellet line at the bottom of the shelf and began getting indications ( well bites really) and started to catch , but the fish were on the small side with fish as small as 2 lb,
I spent the rest of the match up the edge apart from a couple of short looks on the 5 mtr meat line but all I had there was a 1lb chub,
There were plenty of fish up the edge but fouling was a problem, due to the sun now shining on the water trying to catch shallow was proving difficult as as soon as you tried to catch shallow the shadow of the pole spooked them, the best option was to fish a rig with just a couple of no 10 shot down the line with lots of the bites coming on the drop, I did try fishing at various depths but with only odd liners , the lightly shotted depth rig seemed to be the best, the fish remainder small as I ended up with 25 carp plus some silvers in the shape of chub and f1,s. I thought I had 110lbish but thought Scott had at least that but I hadn't realised he had put plenty back, even steve Seager had started catching down his margin and on his meat line, he even had a very large common which he said was 20lb and it may have been when he hooked it but due to the length of time he played it must have run off 2lb, I did tell him it was 18lb as its a known fish which comes out quite often and it's normally between 16 and 18lb and when we weighed it it was 17.14. Still a nice fish as its very long and in really good condition.
1st on the day went to Craig Edmunds ( who has a flying year ) with 211.2 off un fancied peg 9, catching on meat fished over to the island then on his 5 mtr line later in the match, I think we may have to slash the tyres on his car to stop him catching
2nd Anton page ( he,s had a lean time) with 134.6 off peg 42
3rd Tom thick on peg 5 with 129.14
4th. Tony Rixon, peg 32 with 114.8
5th scott(there goes another one) puddy with 101.7on peg 26
6th Clint wojtyla on peg 70 with 99.7
Silvers
Nigel Bartlett on peg 50 with 25.7 of mainly small roach

Windmill virgins

First time at this venue for most of us hence the title, there were a few regulars fishing so it was going to be difficult for us newby,s. after a breakfast in a cafe in st George / Hanham border which will remain nameless as it was shit it was off to the fishery, it's quite a new lake and terry is looking to improve it all the time and I,m sure he will get it right.
Into the draw and I have the last ticket which was 24, I was told it was a good peg and more importantly I could reach the island at 15mtrs, so a pellet rig was put together to fishin about 10 inches of water just off the island , a pellet rig to use at 5 and 10 mtrs in about 9 foot of water and a rig for dead maggot down the edge( nothing on that apart from a couple of Rudd bites). At the start I fed both pellet lines in the deep water and began firing 6,s to the island, it took  15 minutes to get my first bite at 5 mtrs and that came from a 5 oz skimmer. I stuck with it for another 30 mins but never had another bite on pellet there , I did switch to maggot on that line and had a pound plus skimmer and a tiny carp but that was my lot there , and I never had another bite on either line in the deep water. The rest of the match was spent wrestling with the wind over by the island, it was impossible to hold the pole still at times and the fish that were on the island really wanted a still bait and the only way to achieve that on the pole was to fish over depth by quite a bit but that increased the liners . On my left kevin Jeffries did it right by getting a couple of early fish on the method then fishing paste at 11 mtrs then later 10 mtrs(mainly due to him snapping the but of his pole on the strike) but whichever  way you wantd to look at it he was busting mine and Shaun townsends ass who was e other side of him, the person who seemed to be doing the best was Gordon cannings on 8 who was fishing a tight match using soft pellet and meat at about 10 mtrs, and that's how it turned out with Gordon winning easily with 77.15 which included the top silver weight of 8.10
2nd was kev Jeffries on 26 with 47.3
3rd Pete wild on2 with 46.6
4 th was me with 39.11
5th Shaun Townsend on 28 with 37.2
6th rod wootten with 16.10
I don't think the weights really reflected what the lake is capable of , mainly due to the wind blowing down the lake, a northerly and it was cold until the sun came out about mid afternoon, so I will be back as we need a decent fishery in Bristol and I think with the support it needs it stands a good chance of becoming that, some may disagree but I think the signs are there.

Landsend weds open

Firstly a couple of matches this weekend with some spaces, Sunday we are off to windmill fishery near westerliegh, it's a first visit and its only fair to go and have a look, I've heard some mixed reports  but lately it seems to be on the up, so terry may be be on the way to sorting it out, then on Monday we are off to landsend for the annual Gary wall memorial match, so if you fancy either ring me at the sho to book in on 01179517250.
With only 8 booked in this was not really a match more a small sweep but it was good company and the sun was shining so it was ok. Into the draw tin and out comes peg 5, with so few here the only person I could see was Ron hardiman on peg 7, although I could hear Tom thick on peg 24 and fabio puffing and groaning over on 19,
I set up a meat rig for 5 mtrs, a shallow stalker pellet rig, a rig for pellet over on the island shelf and rig for dead maggot down the right hand side, after feeding all lines and waiting for the waves from turkey thompsons initial feed onslaught up peg 11 to subside I noticed a big ghostie swimming towards me , these big white thins are notoriously hard to tempt here so I wasn't to confident as I swung the stalker rig towards it, and bugger me if it didn't take it, and I soon had a 9lb white one in the net ,I switched to the 5 mr meat line and stayed with it for the first hour and I had 2 more carp plus a tench and a couple of f1,s and a good skimmer, after an hour it was over to the island where there were plenty of fish showing with the occasional tail waiving at me I spent a few hours over there but it was hard to get a fish to take the pellet in the mouth, it was much easier to hook them in the tail , side and fins , but you don't land to many of those, I had a look. Down the edge on dead maggot but all I had to show was two perch, I think it was to deep at about 3 foot, I started throwing a few maggots down there instead of cupping and had a look on the meat line, I had a few decent fish on that ,  then I saw a few fish sucking maggots off the reeds in the margin, not having a shallow maggot rig , I put 4 dead maggot in the band on the stalker rig and dropped it in, I took 4 good fish quickly here before the fish drifted away and none returned, but one there was only about 45 mins left
Which I spent on the far side getting a few more carp, ending up with about 25 carp plus a few silvers, I hadn't heard to many fish being caught , fabio had had a few and Tom thick had a good end to the match, but I had enough as my catch went 143.2 for first
2 nd was Tom thick on 24 with 115.6
3 rd fabio on 19 with 92.13 which included the top silver weight of 24.10
4th Ron hardiman on peg 7 with 62.9
5th dave blakemore on peg 1 with 38.12
6th John Thompson on peg 11 with 31.14