Weds open landsend fishery

Only 10 today which was a bit of a suprise as it fished its head off at the weekend,
I had the last ticket in the draw and ended up on peg 5 , which has been a good peg to me over the years so I wasn't disappointed , the biggest downfall With the peg today was that I was opposite Tom thick who was on 19, and with a pound side bet on it I was up against it as 19 has been the better peg recently( that's what I was telling Tom anyway), plenty of rigs to set up today, a couple of meat rigs, one for 5 mtrs and one for down the edge, a stalking rig and a pellet rig for over on the island and another rig to fish hard pellet at 11 mtrs . At the start there were a few fish down by empty peg 4 so it was straight in with the slapper  and I soon had a 6 lb fish in the net, but the fish disappeared from that area, but there were a few small packs of fish about and I managed to mug a few more in the next hour but that was it , by now both Tom thick n 19 and andy hembrow on 18 were catching over to the island but apart from those two most people were finding it hard, I went on to the 11 mtr line with banded 6 mm over loosed fed 4,s , first fish was a skimmer , the next bite was from a carp, I played it down to my top set and all seemed good , that was until the elastic snapped and I lost the lot, but it has been in since last summer so only me to blame for that one, over on the island it wasnt to good either with only one small carp and a few f1,s, so down the margins on the meat and 4 quick carp from the left and one from the right , then that went quiet, so onto 5 mtrs and one there aswell, but that was all there , by the halfway mark I was not to far adrift of Tom and andy , and with some fish off the island it was all getting a bit tight, but the fish seem to have other things on there minds as it was hard to line them up anywhere, back onto the 5 mtr meat line and I was catching a few , then elastic number 2 decides to snap while playing a fish, the elastic dropped into the water and I managed to wrap the elastic around the top set , I was now handlineing an angry 8 lb fish . Then the line broke and the float bristle went right into my finger, but I never cried, it certainly hurt more pulling it out than it did going in at 100 mph, I also got my other piece of elastic back from ziggy on peg one when he caught the rig, and landed the fish , I did ask for the fish aswell, but I think he may
Have said no, but swapping round the various lines I kept odd fish coming, ending up with 22 carp
And double figures of silvers, with some of the fish being doubles I thought I would have120 plus,
So I was pleased when my nets went156.4 for first
2nd was Tom thick on 19 with 107.6
3rd joe McMahon on 21 with 82.8
4 th andy hembrow on 18 with 73.15
5 th ziggy slowisnki on peg 1 with 70.8
6th stuart Stevens on 15 with  58.15
Silvers went to Aaron britnell on 11 with 24 .8 of skimmers on meat

Bank holiday Monday open , landsend fishery

28 turned up today so mike let us spread out over the three lakes so plenty of room for all,  I let beamy draw for me which was a mistake as he gave me  35 which has been very hard for months, the only good thing was that he drew 40 for himself  which has been on a par with my peg, serves him right .
I set up a couple of pellet rigs for over , one to fish shallow and the other to fish on the deck by the island , a meat rig for 14 mtrs on and angle towards peg 36 which was empty and a meat rig for the margins which only gave me one bite which was a three pound bream , so no more about that then , I started the match fishing small pieces of meat over soaked micros on the  14 mtr line and feeding 6,s to the island in a couple of spots, by now Tom mangnall on 31 was catching carp as was mat tomes on 31 but I wasn't to suprised about that as he had practised on the same peg on Saturday morning,
I,m not going to bore with the details but the fish went mad , it's not often these wary landsend give themselves up to readily, but today they had a bit of a munch, I ended up with 17 carp and 24 lb of silvers for 107 lb and tenth on the day,
1st on the day went to rob Wooten  on 28 with 223.1 which is his best weight to date so well done, rod caught early on hard pellet over to the island , but he caught really well in the last couple of hours fishing banded pellet down to empty peg 27 pallet
2nd and it was that man again , Craig Edmunds on 17 with 189.13
3rd Tom mangnall on 31 with 182.2
4th chris Davis on 55 with 171.7
5 th andy hembrow on 42 with 170.14, he would have had more but didn't take enough nets down the bank and threw back 8 lb of silvers to use the net for carp
6 th mat tomes on 33 with 170.4
Top silver weight went to nick Collins on peg 3 with  40.7 of crucians, f1,s skimmers and roach on caster
So it fished well which hopefully bodes well for next Sunday when it's round 2 of the float only league ,for anyone who needs to practice there is a match there weds so give me a ring at the shop to book in

Acorn pole only series, final round

This match was back to a random draw so into the draw tin and out comes peg 1 on paddock which is over the bridge and on the right hand end of the island, I had some good anglers in my section including league leader Pete Bartlett who had drawn end peg 9 so he was going to be the man to beat.
As for rigs , I set up a margin rig for meat to fish each side, a 5 mtr meat rig for straight out and a couple of pellet rigs for right over, one to fish. Shallow against the bank and the other to fish on the. Deck on Top of the shelf, at the start I cupped in some meat at 5mtrs and the margins and some pellets across, starting across I expected a bite airily quickly but it was a while before I had an indication, I started feeding a few 6, s with a catty and the noise seemed to help as some fish started showing, I was feeding two areas on the far side and there were odd fish showing on both , but there's far side fish can be cagey at times and with the sun behind me the pole was casting a shadow right where I wanted to fish, so that wasnt helping, the 5 mtr line was useless as I never had a bite on it, the left hand margin didn't give me a fish and the right hand side yielded 5 carp and 1 tench, the only rig I could catch on was the rig to fish on the deck across , and the. Swims were getting stronger towards the end , I didn't want the match to end. But it did and I thought I may have about 80lb but was pleasantly suprised when my catch went 99.15 , but that was only good enough for. Second in the section as, as expected Pete Bartlett won the section on peg 9 with 112.3 but that was only good enough for second as brian slipper on 33 had 112.15 , and with Lewis jones on 23 with 108lb it was a tight affair , silvers on the day went to Paul faieres on 3 on the top lake with 35 lb ish of skimmers,
The league title went to Pete Bartlett with a perfect score of 40 points so well done to him
 Second went to Tom thick with 37 points and third place went to someone at the other end of the age spectrum in the shape of mike nicholls also on 37 points but missing out on weight.
It was a good well. Run league so well done chris fox and Paul faieres for doing it , I think the fishing has suffered due to the crappy spring weather we have had hopefully we will get the weather we want   Next year, who knows , the met office certainly don't !!!!!!!!

Weds open, viaduct fishery

23 fishing today so Campbell and part of Cary were to be used, first into the draw tin and out. Comes peg 127, not to disappointing as it can be ok, even though only 20lb came off it on Sunday , for company I had Alex Murray on 128 and my travelling partner Jason Radford on 126.
Three pole rigs today, a deep and shallow pellet rig and a meat rig for 5 mtrs and a deep pellet wag rig, I wasn't confident of catching anything shallow as there was a really strong cold wind blowing , luckily off our backs on our side of the lake. I didn't intend to fish the pole to long today so I only put up 13 mtrs (I think as we are getting older we seem to be morphing into mike nicholls) at the start I cupped in a few 8mm pellets at 13 mtrs ,fired some out onto the wag line and began plopping a few pieces of meat at 5 mtrs, by now the pole line had a bit of fizzing so it was straight out with the deep pellet rig, I bumped a fish first drop then lost a fouler just after, I was getting a few liners so I tried the shallow rig but apart from a skimmer there was nothing do there either, so back on the deck but apart from an occasional skimmer and liner there was nothing doing, I did bump a couple of skimmers due the 14 elastic being a bit harsh so I swapped top sets to a lighter 12 elastic which helped, no one was really catching to much , apart from the Bristol daffodil in the shape of tony witcombe on 118 who was flying for the first couple of hours on the old slimy paste rig , for the second match in a row we have been witness to a diving and swimming exhibition on this lake, after Paul elmes on Sunday swimming after his top 4 we now had Paul cofoy ( I think that's how it's spelt) having to chase his rod which got pulled in on peg 119.
Back to my peg and nothing was happening, the match started at 11.30 and I never landed a carp till 1.40!!!! Alex was by now catching on the lead as was Jason the other side of me, with it looking as though even Jason was going to beat me , I got my phone and and began googleing golf shops.
Out onto the wag line and I did get three quick carp so I began to feel better but I was well behind several anglers on the lake, the last couple of hours were just spent rotating around my three lines picking up occasional skimmers and carp but not catching much on any method , Alex was catching
On the deep wag by now but at least it looked as though I was catching Jason up (phew) .
I ended up with 10 carp and some skimmers for a total of 86lb, luckily my silvers went 27.10 which
Sneaked me second in the silverfish pool so. A bit of. Money recouped.
1st on the day went to Roy (the lead ) worth on peg 90 with 244.7. Thirty carp and he was trying to tell
People he had 12 of them on the wag !!!!!!!!
2nd Roland Lucas on 110 with 177.3
3rd Alex Murray on 128 with 172 .15
4th nick collier on 125 with 152.7
5th tony witcombe on 118 with 150.2 , tony would have done better, but having put his third carp net
In he then forgot to put any carp in it meaning he had 88lb in one net so he was only given 70lb for
That net , lucky he. Never went over 90lb in the net as he would have lost the entire net.
6th mat tomes on 132 with 139.6
Silvers went to fishery boss Paul greenwood on 88 with 47.3 of skimmers
Still got a few spaces left for Monday at landsend so ring me at the shop on 01179517250 to book in

Float only league, round 1 , viaduct

40 fishing so we had 20 on Campbell and Cary lakes, Neil (Phil) mercer drew for me and handed me peg 81 which is the first peg past the spit on Cary with the monk down to my left, the swim has been producing well lately with 2 matches recently being won on meat down to the monk, so a rig was set up for that , but I,m not going to mention to much about that as I only had one bite down there , even though I tried it several times , and the bite came from a perch which is never a good sign .
The other rigs were to fish at 14 mtrs, an up in the water and on the deck for banded 8mm and a paste rig for the same line , and another pellets rig again for 8 mm down along the spit, and I also set up a wag to fish at depth at the end of the spit but it was a none starter method again as I only fouled one fish on it , joe McMahon on 80 the other side of the spit caught on the shallow wag , but no one else on Cary could make it work as well so fair play to him .
At the start I began with the depth rig at 14 mtrs  and lost a fouler straight away, then I had a swirl so I went out on the shallow rig and caught a 10 lb fish quickly followed by another about 10 mins later, I kept trying the deep rig but all I could get were liners and the odd skimmer , so must of the first half was spent slapping a rig about in the feed , but it wasnt really happening , I did get one on the paste and in the last couple of hours I managed a few from the spit , but fouler s were a real problem , I ended up with 13 carp and some skimmers for 125.12 for the all important section win, so a good start to the series, first on the day went to the in form craig(trigger) Edmunds with 164.2 off peg 132, you couldn't expect anything else really giving a peg like that to an angler who is bang in form lately, he did do well as he went out to some sort of dodgy club on Saturday night ,and he had some girl whipping his ass, and it did look a mess. And very sore.oh yes and he caught on pellet down the edge early on then meat close towards the end
2nd , multi venue record holder Tom mangnall on 116 with 156lb
3rd dave (old git) roper on 95 with 148.1
4th Paul elmes on 125 with141.9, he had his top 4 pulled off towards the end and it unded up I chris fox,s peg opposite on 118 , so after he came running round at the end taking his clothes off as he was
Coming , then did a spectacular dive off. Chris,s footplate, some say it was worthy of Tom Daley I
Think it was more Arthur Daley myself
5th joe macmahon on 80 with 135.5
6th Roland (this peg is crap I may go straight home) Lucas on 130 with 125.13
Silvers went to Tom mangnall with 31.2
Next round isin 2 weeks at landsend, and if anyone is interested I am running one at landsend on bank holiday Monday ring me at the shop to book in

Weds landsend open

Only 11 of us fishing today so plenty of room, I was offered some friendly advice on how to peg it ,as   The experts reckoned the windy end of the lake would be hard and nearly unfishable, but after giving them the chance to run things which meant sorting the draw and pegs , taking the money  and doing the weigh in ,it was left to me again(what a suprise no doubt this will get a comment) the draw saw. Me heading to peg 7 which is a peg I really like as the fish tend to show up on the far bank with the peg getting stronger towards the end, hopefully today would be the same.
I set up several rigs , a couple for meat to fish at 5mtrs and down each side margin, a pellet rig for over to the far side which I hoped would be the most productive line .
At the start after feeding all lines I decided to. Start on the 5 mtr meat line whilst feeding the far side with 6mm hard pellets, I stayed on the meat for the first hour , not because I was catching , but because there were no signs of fish on the at bank ,a bit worrying really as you can normally see tails and swirls in this peg after a few pouches of pellets, after the first hour with Only a good skimmer and a nice IDE to show for my efforts, over to far side wasnt much better as I had one small carp in the next 30 mins, with mat tomes on 23 catching and Tom thick on 21 also getting a few, the writing was on the wall, and trig up n 15 was doing ok on meat down his margins, although I did get some nice skimmers and a couple more nice. IDE my peg never really got going , I did get 5 more carp fishing down the island towards peg 6 and one on the meat at 5 mtrs, but no chance of a pick up today, the honours went to mat tomes in first place on peg 23 (windy end) with 124.8 catching on pellet over towards the island then at 5 mtrs towards the end
2nd Craig Edmunds on 15 with 121.1 , and he went skinny dipping after to retrieve a top set which blew in
3rd Tom thick on 21(windy end) 120.1. Tom would have won but he had a hole in his net and a carp fell out of it as he pulled his net out, of coarse no one laughed
4th dan white peg 1 (windy end) 112.15
5th Aaron britnell 67lb peg 19
6th tony Rixon 49.11
Silvers
John Bradford on peg 3 with 31.14 some skimmers on soft pellet and small perch and roach on caster, oh and John was at the windy end aswell lol

Acorn pole only round 5

It was my turn to be in B section today which has been the section for the best weights so far, all I had to do was try and avoid pegs 1 & 3 as 4/40/6/7/8/9 had all Ben good for some fish so far , so I had a change of draw method today, as I generally like to get in early but today I hung back and I ended up with 40 which is the bridge peg and I think it has won the section each time, so hopefully this could be my first pick up so far in this series . For company I had mark(bunt) broomsgrove on 6 who was going to fish for silvers, and the carp must have known this as his side of the bridge was solid with carp moving and slurping off the top, my side , nothing, on my right was glen bailey who looks as though he may have turned the corner as far as fish catching goes and was confident after catching 90lb last week ,we,ll see.
Opposite on the island on 1/3&4 was dave wride Tim ford and John Osborne all fishing with there backs to me which some may say is there best side.
Back to my peg and and it's a peg where you fish shallow to the bridge but occasionally they will come away into open water, so I set up a rig for that and also a 4x10 rig for over on the far bank both for hard pellet with 18 b960 hook on .16.
I also set up two rigs to fish meat , one at 5 mtrs and one on a topkit down by the bridge, at the start I cupped in some pellets to the far side some meat on the two relevant lines and started firing 4,s to the bridge and just off, starting by the bridge I expected a bite first drop, but nothing happened, the water was a bit clearer than last match, but these cooler temps must be making a difference. It and John caught virtually straight away, but the people to my left and right weren't catching either, it took me 20 mins for my first fish, thereafter I started to get bites but it was hard, it was a case of firing in some pellets then slapping the rig hard a few times then dropping the rig straight down on top of the area, but even then bites were intermittent , after 3 1/2 hours I had 30 carp but a lot of them were on the small side, but with bites virtually none existent now by the bridge I checked out the meat lines, the topkit by the bridge only gave up 2 f1,s, and the 5 mtr line yielded 5,
By now glen was back on his beloved paste fishing, I still can't get my head round fishing with a float
At 45 degrees, he even fished with it laid flat on the surface at one stage, what happens there then does it shoot across the surface to signal a bite then , he was also foul hooping a few aswell, a lot of
His fish were coming out out wearing a Korda stab vest.
 The last 2 hours were ok with another twenty carp gracing my net giving me a total of 55 carp plus
The two f1,s for what I hoped would go 100 lb but with a lot of smaller fish I wasn't sure, I was
Happy when the nets went 111.14 for a section win and first on the day, but only just with Tom thick
Round on 31 admitting to 46 carp it was close he eventually weighed 108 lb and I think andy France on 34 had 80 plus for third , full results are on mike nicholls blog(silverfox angling will find it),
Off to landsend on weds and the float only series starts next Sunday with the first round down at
Viaduct fishery, so big weights will be expected especially as this cooler weather has probably
Stopped the carp having any thoughts about spawning

Weds open , viaduct fishery

With only 15 booked in and the marines on Campbell , we only could get on Cary, so it was big fish today with the average size being about 10lb, but fish over 20 aren't uncommon, into the draw tin and out comes peg 90, it's a corner peg and as the wind was blowing into it before the draw I fancied it for a few, then when I got to the peg the wind had changed direction leaving the water flat , which isn't to good, and to make it even worse I had to sit and look at Howard webb over on 94 all day.
4 rigs today , a couple of meat rigs , one for 5 mtrs and one for down the edge, then a 2 pellet rigs , one for 16 mtrs straight out and one for 16 mtrs to the end bank, at the start I cupped in some 8mm hard pellets in the relevant parts of the peg and began throwing meat at 5 mtrs and down the edge, it was a slow start for me and after 3 1/2 hours I only had 4 carp , a couple from in front and 2 from the end bank all on hard pellet, the meat lines had given me 2 skimmers and nothing else, all this time time Howard had been catching steadily on the conker on the tip cast to the end bank, and Roland Lucas over on 97 had some on the wag at the start but was now catching on the lead with pellet, the last couple of hours were a bit better with the meat line giving me a few fish and some from the end bank meant I finished the match with 11 carp plus a few silvers , but it was going to be no good today, my nets went 90.4 which was tenth on the day ,
First went to Roland Lucas on 97 with 163.6
2nd Tom thick on 74 with 155.4
3rd nick collier on 81 with 133.3 , the bit of cash he won may help towards buying a new top set which was stolen by a carp during the match
4 th Howard webb 131.2 peg 94
5 th r brewer 128 .7 peg 86
6th Scott russell on 85 with 113.2 and he won the silvers with 30.1

Chiton trinity, woodland lake

22 booked to fish today's open so we made it a pole only as some corners would be in , so there was no chance of anyone casting across other people.
I fancied a draw up towards the right hand end of the lake as the wind has been blowing that way for several days now , Jason Radford pulled out 2 tickets wedged together so I took the one stuck out ,it was 31, not the end of the lake I wanted, for. Company I had mike nicholls on 32 and vic bush on 29  (empty peg in between us).  4 rigs today , two for meat , one for 5 mtrs and one for down the right hand margin both with a xedion size 16 hook on .16 line , and 2 pellet rigs for 14 mtr, one shallow and one deep both with b960 hooks on .16 line.
On the all in  I cupped some 6mmhard pellets at 14 mtrs and some meat at 5 mtrs and down the edge, starting on the deep rig it only took a few minutes after a couple of liners to have me reaching for the shallow rig, but it didn't bring the immediate response I was hoping for, I did get a couple of nice roach but it took mr 30 mins to get my first carp, no one seemed to be catching much, only joe McMahon on 13 was getting fish , also Tom mangnall on 9 had a couple , both of them catching on shallow pellet, mike nicholls was on Thr caster close in catching roach and motherless minnows so he was happy, back in my swim and it wasnt really getting any easier, I had begun to catch a few carp shallow but it was difficult , it was hard together a pattern going , you had to feed a couple of times then slap your rig into the feed area as hard as you can, and every now and then the float would go, everyone seemed to be missing a few bites but it seemed to be from roach, I had a couple of looks in the margin and on the 5 mtr meat line and had 5 carp between the 2 lines so nothing special there, by now mike nicholls was catching carp on paste over his caster line and vic was catching on meat down his edge and at 5 mtrs , the last third of the match went well with most people catching , even glen bailey opposite on peg 8 was catching, which was a big suprise to himself and us as the best weight of fish he has weighed in the last 6 moths was 20lb of dace on the river I wouldn't say the run in to the end was frantic but it was interesting as I kept odd fish going into the net on the shallow rig, I think I ended up with 24 carp up to about 9lb for over 100lb and with no one else owning up to over a
Ton things looked promising, I was the first to weigh and my fish went 134.2 which was enough for
First on the day
2nd kev molten on 17 with 98.9
3rd crag Edmunds on 22. With 97.10
4th glen bailey on 8 with 95.4
5th joe McMahon on 13 with 93.6
6th vic bush on 29 with 92.13
7 mike nicholls on 32 with 90.10
8 th Shaun Townsend on 28 with90.4
8th Tom mangnall on 9 with 88.6
Brilliant weights and a nice close match
Silvers went the way of the gimp (John Bradford) on peg 2 with 17.2 of odds and sods on caster

Weds open landsend fishery

Back up to 14 today , a nice number for the match lake, and with a god weather forecast at last we were hoping for a good day, the legend that is roger andoniou drew for me and handed me peg 21, nice , thanks rog, but with the inform trig Edmunds on 11 and mat tomes on 18 who has been catching well lately , fabio was in between me and mat on 19 and Tom thick on 24 is always hard to beat. I was hoping to see a few cruisers as it was nice and sunny but I couldn't see to many and the ones I could see didn't look right for catching, but I set up the stalking rig with an 18 b960 on .16.
A down the edge rig for meat but never had a bite on that and a deep pellet rig which I never used , a pellet rig for up on the far shelf and a meat rig for 5 mtrs,
At the start after feeding all lines it was out on the stalker ,but the fish weren't really interested, I think I had 3 fish on it in the first hour, no one as far as I could see was catching much , apart from trig up on 11 who was getting some on the stalker, I went over to the far bank and a few more , some shallow and some on the deck on top of the shelf, but these landsend fish soon wise up to a pole being waved about over there heads and do a disappearing act till the pole is taken away then they come straight back , after a slow start for everyone the fishing was getting better and better towards the end with most on our bank catching short on meat on the deck, at the end I thought I may have about 150lb but the general concensious (bet that was spelt wrong) was that trig had more and as he was admitting to 140 ish he probably did have more, also Tom thick on 24 wasn't to far adrift , in the end it was Craig Edmunds who won with 167.7 on peg 11, he seems unstoppable at the moment,
2nd was me with 147.2 peg 21
3rd Tom thick 134.8 peg 24
4th Alan oram 112.2 peg 15
5 th mat tomes 112.1 peg 18 ( that's close )
6 th Philip Harding  103.9 peg 19
Silvers
John(the gimp) Bradford with 23.13 on peg 6