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