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