Landsend league , final round

Last. Match in this well run series, my turn on lake 3, and with winds forecast to be gusting to nearly 60mph from the west , it was never going to be comfortable, but with all that wind creating extra water movement, it quite often switches the fish on providing you can fish that is !!!!.
Into the draw tin after organiser ken who had pulled one of the 4 pegs I had hoped to avoid (46) as I needed a section win to guarantee winning the series, out comes 68 definitely not one to avoid, it turned out to be a tough looking section with trig Edmunds on 58, Adrian Clark on 61 , Paul faires on 66 and rod wootten on 70.
Getting to the peg and with the wind really going for it ,I only got my 6 mtr stinger basher out of the bag, I set up 3 rigs ,a 4x14 for meat at 5 mtrs, 4x12 for meat in the left hand margin and a pellet rig for 6 mtrs to my left down the shelf but that rig was never used.
I began on meat at 5 mtrs and had a 12lb fish first drop, and never really looked back catching steadily on this line for most of the match, I did get two fish from the margin but the 5 mtr line was the best , by the end I wasn't to sure as to how many fish I had but I new I was over the 80lb net limits  in my 2 carp nets which was confirmed when the scales arrived, I was playing a fish on the all out which I new would be a waste of time putting in the net, luckily Paul was stood next to me and lent me his spare silver net to put it in,
I had two nets at 80lb and one net with one carp and three silvers for 12.12 for 172.12 total for the needed section win, nice.
As expected the lakes fished really well with Shaun Townsend winning off peg 22 on the match lake with 209.12 fishing meat at 11 mtrs to begin with but ending up at 5 mtrs as the wind really got up
2nd was me with 172.12
3rdbob gullick on the only peg with no wind, 13 on match lake with140.10
4th kev molten on 28 with 134.3
5th mark poppleton on 19 with 125.15
6th Paul faires on 66 with 121.11
And there was another 3 weights over 100lb and plenty of good weights after that.
Silvers went to Nigel Bartlett peg 20 with 39.7 of mainly skimmers on soft pellet
Final league tables
Tony Rixon 29pts 601.6lb
Nick chedzoy 27pts 379.15lb
Steve Seager 26pts 259.4lb
Ken Rayner 25pts 339lb
Silvers
Chris fox 28pts 68.15
Gary o,Shea 27pts 42.13
Anyone interested there is an open here on Sunday (Easter) to book in ring mike at the fishery on 07977545882 or me at veals on 01179260790, or my mobile 07974807941

Over 55,s and disabled, huntstrete bridge pool

A good turnout again for these popular Thursday matches run by mike jones , 32 in attendance !!! And only a tenner pools, payout is a bit different with the top 4 in both overall and silvers all picking up 25 pounds, into the draw bag and out comes 19, it's a peg with a lot of silvers form with it
winning three of the silvers league matches so far in the series, after a nice little pleasure session on Tuesday catching a skimmer a chuck n banded 6 mm pellet ,I was going to pin most of faith on that today. (Wrong) I set two rigs for 11 mtrs , that was as far as I was going today as the wind was very strong, both 4x18 one for banded pellet and the other for soft pellet or maggot , one for the left into a small bay and another for my right hand margin for corn.
At the start I cupped in some micros and 4,s at 11 mtr in two spots , left and right , some corn and micros in the bay to my left and into the right hand margin, I started n the hard pellet rig , but after 15 mins and not a nudge , I switched to the soft pellet rig, again not a bite in front at 11 mtrs, a switch to the left at 11 mtrs bought a brief flurry of small skimmers, 6 to be precise and that was the end of any action out in front , not the way I had envisaged my day to go, a quick look in the left hand bay produced a sensible skimmer on corn then nothing else , down. The. Right was nothing either ,
The only person I could see getting odd fish was rich Coles on 16(again), who was catching skimmers on soft pellet, John smith on 17 was also finding it hard as was bill ferris on 18, he was getting some plippy roach but it wasn't hectic, I was behind an island so I couldn't really see the rest of the lake so had no idea as to who was catching, I had an inkling ray(radio Leicester ) may have caught as we could hear him shouting. I had a couple more skimmers to my left in the shallower water, but then I couldn't raise a bite there. It wasn't till the last 90 mins that I began to get some action down the right hand margin, and I ended with a bit of a flourish ending up with 3 carp 2 tench and 3 pound plus skimmers all falling to double corn(the meat was still in the fridge ). I new rich Coles had beaten me as he had 4 carp late in his left hand margin to go with his early skimmers , but after that I never had a clue, as it turned out rich Coles won with 47.04 on peg 16,
2nd bob Tilley on 11 with 40lb
3rd ray bazeley on27 with 39.6. 4 carp on the method
4 me with 38.14
5th mike jones with 29.5 of silvers off peg 24
6th terry bruton on 10 with25.8

Avalon teams of three

Guesting today for vic bush,s Mosella team as Pete wild couldn't make it , but according to vic and Tom mangnall they hadn't noticed him being there for the previous 5 rounds(ha ha ).
I did the team draw and found myself on 18 , a good silvers peg witht he option of an end of an island to my left if I wanted, but I decided against it and opted for a pole only day, so three rig assembled, a .7 pencil for maggot over groundbait at 13 mtrs for the skimmers, a.6 slim float for hard pellet at 16 mtrs and a .3 slim to fish down to the empty pallet to my left again with hard pellet.
At the start I cupped in a ball of groundbait at 6 mtrs , just to start on , 3 balls at 13 mtrs and some hard 4mm pellet at 16 mtrs and down to the empty pallet, starting at 6 mtrs on single maggot I had three bites in the first 30 mins  which resulted in one small roach , a small hybrid and a lost small skimmer , so it was out to 13 mtrs where I had a couple of better skimmers on double maggot, by now Jamie (sedges) Cooke on 20 was catching well on hair rigged pellet. Fished in conjunction with a small feeder cast into the small gap in the island in front of him. It's normally a good peg but this was the first time it has really produced for a while , the fished seemed to want to be in the shallower water today, and there is a nice shelf to drop a feeder or lead onto in this swim.
Back in my. Swim and I decided to just keep plugging away on the pole for skimmers , it wasn't really busy as it turned out to be a bit of a waiting game for bites, but when you did get one it was a positive one , I was fishing with a double bulk with a couple of number 10,s just off the deck, so nearly all the bites were nice lifters, most of the fish came from. The 13 mtr groundbait line on boulders maggot, the 16 mtr hard pellet line produced a few fish but again maggot over the pellets were the best ,I did lose a carp and two good skimmers on hard banded pellet which I was sure was going to cost me at the end, but by swapping between the two lines and feeding both regularly I had odd bites all through, I did manage one small carp down the edge on pellet and my last fish was a 5 lb carp hooked fair and square in the eye, so I reckoned I had 35lb ish at the end, as it turned out I wasn't to far out as my skimmers went 28lb and my two carp went 6.5, so I was second in my section , but I did win the silvers, so day paid for .
1st on the day was Jamie next to me with 78.9
2nd Eric fouracres on 44 with 51.7
3rd Pete tanner on 23 with 39lb
4th kieth clapp on 37 with 37.6
5th steve fouracres on 13 with 36.14
6th was me with 34.5. Those lost fish cost me 3rd
I will be running a Thursday cost cutter here on 16 April, anyone fancy it ring on my mobile on 07974807941 or at veals on weds/Friday or Saturday to book in

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Veals silvers league , penultimate round

Back on bridge pool at huntstrete again for this league which is drawing to a close with one round left after this one, it has been well attended with between 26&28 turning up for every round, the credit for that must go to mike jones for running a good affair .
Into the draw bag and out comes 26, it was a peg I didn't really want , not because it's a bad one as it isn't , it's just being left handed it makes shipping in and out awkward as it's on a point with 27 and it meant me and mike keys who was next to me would have to go up and under each other , but it all worked out ok even if the pegs did end up looking like a car crash in a scaffold yard, mainly due to me as I really am an untidy angler with kit strewn everywhere, but we sorted it , I went high and mike being shorter (lol) went low.
Only two rigs again today , a .6g rig for caster short at 5 mtrs and also as it was the same depth within 4 inches it was going to be ok for both lines, but the longer line was for soft pellet over micros with a bit of groundbait, the other rig was .5g for 14 mtrs to my left up the island slope with caster , as it was really productive on the last round , ok so it was another peg but I thought it may go the same way,
I will say now that it wasn't !!!, I tried it several times but it only produced plippy roach , so no more about that then.
At the start I cupped in a ball of  groundbait and caster at 5 mtrs , some micros and g bait in a couple of  spots at 14 mtrs and the wasted casters on the island slope. Starting at 5 mtrs with a single caster I had a 2lb skimmer first drop, nice start. 15 mins later I had one of just under a pound, but that was it for now on the short line, so it was out to 14 mtrs, after a few more small skimmers I had another 2lb fish , I could see odd people catching , mike nicholls on 21 had a good start as did dave wride on 19, but apart from odd big fish no one was setting the world alight, I had another interesting match catching odd skimmers from the three lines I had fed with micros and or groundbait, I had one tench about halfway through at 14 mtrs on soft pellet, John smith who was in my section also started catching bream halfway through so with dave wride still catching, I was always going to be up against it to be better than third in the section, by the end I thought I had about 15 lb which was way out as I ended up with 24.05 and third in the section behind dave and John.
1st on the day was dave wride with 43.10 off peg 19. All skimmers on soft pellet
2nd dave bacon on peg 1 with 26.6
3rd dave Gillard on 32 with 26lb
4th John smith on 18 with 25.12
5th me with 24.5
6th ray bazeley peg 14 18.2

Landsend league, round 5

Bit of a whinge first, we were several anglers short today, some ken new about and some he never, why enter a league and not see it out, some people had genuine reasons and some decided to fish another league, would these same anglers have pulled out if they had been doing well , I think not, trouble is no shows affect payouts , on the day and overall , I could carry on but it just ain't worth it, having been running leagues for probably 20 years I can fully sympathize with ken as it causes all sorts of problems, I did say I wasn't going to say anymore but I can't help myself, no doubt I will get a few comments !!!!!
Match lake for me today and into the draw bucket and out comes peg 1, nice corner with normally fish living along the end bank and on the island, plus the right hand margin can be good, so I set up a deep pellet rig to fish down the slope along the end bank and off the island, a shallow pellet rig for against the island and along the end bank on top of the shelves, and a meat rig for he right hand margin.
Before I even started the day became torrid very quickly, I tried to step over my top kits to get a mini extension and stepped on two top kits snapping the ends and flicking them into the lake, I got them back with my weed scythe , the plumbing up my nearly new 16 mtr section snapped, that's the third one I have broken on my garbolino pole , and none of the, had seen any serious use, I think I may be on the phone to France on Monday. I won't say to much about the fishing today, not that it was bad , as it wasn't our lake fished really well, I caught up against the end bank and on top of the island shelf, feeding 4,s and using a banded 6 , plus I had a few on meat in the last 30 mins down the edge, ending up with 88.2 for second in the section, top weight on the day went to Adrian Clark on 13 with 114.9
2nd Craig Edmunds on 15 with 110.1
3rd ken Rayner on 20/21/22&23 with 109.9. Fancy catching a weight like that and picking up nowt, trigger ounces him out for the section money
4th mike duckett on 37/36/35/34&33 with 100.01
5th me 88.2
6thshaun Townsend 67.12 on peg 7

Silvers
Nigel Bartlett on 11 with 30.6 of caster fish

Veals silvers league, huntstrete bridge pool

Anyone interested I have a couple of spaces for the float Only league , dates and venues are
31st May viaduct
14th June landsend fishery
5th July landsend fishery
19th July ivy house
2nd August  sedges
30th August viaduct
If interested ring me at veals on 01179260790 or message me on here or ring my mobile 07974807941, 56quid entry which is the peg fees paid up front and pools paid for the last match
Back to today and not the draw bag and out comes peg 6 AGAIN, same peg as last match, I wasn't complaining as I came third off it so hopefully today would be the same or better, for company I had John barker on 5 who was fishing one handed as he has just had an op on the tendons in his fishing hand , and the other side on 7 was dave wrides aged apprentice , Mike Owens. The knockout draw was a bit harsh as I drew dave wride who is my pairs partner for this series , and he was on 21 with no one on 20/22 or 23 so plenty of room for him , which can be an advantage on any fishery.
Last match here I did have a lot of quality roach and a tench fishing over to the island just down the slope a bit in 4 foot of water, so a .4g rig was assembled for that , and a .6g rig for in the deep water. At 5 and 13 mtrs for caster at 5 mtrs and soft pellet at 13. Both rigs had size 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10. At the start I cupped in some groundbait and caster at 5 mtrs , some groundbait with micros at 13 mtrs slightly to my left and some caster and dry groundbait at 13 mtrs on the island slope, starting at 5 mtrs with caster was no good , 25 mins of that and not the mearest hint of a bite, I put double maggot on and shipped out to 13 mtrs , 2 small roach later and I tried a soft pellet but the wind was really strong blowing in and across me , making any presentation all but impossible, mike Owens was getting some small skims on pellet , but he was able to fish directly into the wind so at least his float was staying relatively still. Also John to my right had caught one of the bigger bream, so I was behind again , the same as last week. So I made the decision to go with the caster line on the island slope, again I started getting some nice roach and odd good perch, about two hours in, I hooked a tench which after a few seconds broke my hook length halfway down the line , so I think it must have gone through a snag, bugger, I kept plugging away on the caster line catching roach or 12oz and a couple of 1lb perch, two hours from the end I hooked a tench , no mistake with this one and it was safely netted, so I was back in the mix as far as the section goes, mikes skimmers had buggered off now leaving him biteless, John had now had three bream so I was still well behind him, or so I thought , 30 mis from the end the wind eased a bit so I went out on the soft pellet line , I had three tiny skimmers then hooked another tench , a bit bigger than the last one , and I must admit I thought it was a rogue carp as it went miles up to my right, then it stopped shook it's head and came back, nice, so with that safely netted I reckoned on being at least second in the section, with John now adding a couple of decent skimmers to his three bream I reckoned I was still second, all out was called so I had to wait for the scales. Top weight in the section was Harry muire with 12 lb when I got my net out I new I had that but was suprised when the scales settled on24.13, which was enought o win the match on the day , just beating dave wride who had 24.6 he didn't expect to be knocked out with that sort fofweight
3rd was Paul barnfield on 14 wth 22.6
4th mike nicholls on 31 wth 21.7
5th John smith on 16 with 20.2
6th John barker on 5 with19.8

Viaduct winter league final round

A quick mention for Paul greenwood who has decided to leave the fishery , he has done a good job the time he has spent there, it's hard work and perhaps his age has finally caught up with him, we wish him all the best in streets maccy d,s drive through .
My turn on match lake today and I was happy to finish the series on this lake as it has been improving  and with a nice mild day forecast I thought it would be ok, into the draw tin and out comes number 19 which gives us pegs, 132/102/71/52 and 15, I was on 52 which used to be a fovourite peg back in the day, but it's been a bit difficult in recent years, for company I had don Sutherland on 51 and dan squire round the corner on 40, meat has been the bait on here recently so I had some cut up into 6mm bits, I made a rig to use at 13 mtrs in front and at 14 mtrs to my left using dan as a marker, a margin rig was made as I had loads of room to my left ,and I set up a wag to fish to the corner of the island , At the start I cupped in some meat on the two lines then tried a bit of bread sodding down the margin, first thing I had was a big branch then I bumped something which I thought was probably a branch of slightly smaller size, I then missed a couple of bites before having a small roach, I tried it for a bit longer but apart from a couple of uncertain dips which I put down to roach it was a none starter , so I fed some corn and caster done there, I did try it a couple of times during the match but never a touch, so no more of that then, I had a try on the wag but with the wind blowing left to right and trying to keep the wag near the island not going to plan , that was binned fairly quickly , although I did get and f1 on it and a couple of plippy roach, don had caught a couple of small carp on the tip and dan was already on the pole fishing meat and catching a few. I switched to the pole and meat and soon had a bite which resulted in a 5lb carp, my next two bites came from carp so I reckoned I had put 3 fish in the net for at least 12 lb, a good start. Then it was f1,s taking the bait , and I had a nice 2 hours catching some nice f1,s, kindering some meat on both lines and alternating between the left hand line and in front. After about an hour the left hand swim dried, so I was now concentrating on the straight in front line, dan on 40 was now catching well, as was ray Hayward on 50, also Jason Radford on47 was doing well, after an hour in front that line also went a bit pear shaped, I went front putting fish into the regularly , to not putting anything in the net , in fact I was getting no bites at all, dan was still catching as was ray , and to make matters worse don was now catching f1,s well but he was fishing more to his right towards ray, by the end I new I had been beaten by the people around me and I didn't really understand why the swim just stopped, perhaps they just weren't there in numbers or more likely it was something I did as we just don't get the practice catching f1,s as there aren't to many waters around here with a big enough head of them to do it.
Or lakes fished really well with dan being top with 85lb ray was second with 75 then the weights went 69/65/46 with lots of thirties and twenties, my net went 40lb giving me 13 points out of 19. I didn't wait for the results so I am not to sure as to who won and what with, possibly Chris Davis on 125 would have won as I think he had 20 odd carp, Chris fox,s blog , maesknoll matchfishing or dom Sullivan's caught short blog will show the results.

Veals silvers league,huntstrete bridge pool

After a bit of a disaster last round I needed a good draw today, into the draw bag and out comes peg 6, it's up on the right hand bank and it's the first peg on the top island, a flyer carp peg I was told, no good today though as it's silvers only, for company I had Ireland's quietist angler Harry muire on 7 and charlie(I am legend ) Barnes behind the island in the narrows on 5, and boy was he moaning, I was still going for the groundbait approach today but I intended to be a bit more careful this week, two rigs today , a .4g for 5 mtrs and a .6g for 13 mtrs at the bottom of the island shelf, both rigs had my favourite size 18 middy 6313 on ,10 line, my rig mainline was .16 sensas feeling , again it's a line that is consistent and fairly close to it's stated diameters.
At the start I cupped in one ball with casters in at 5 mtrs and two balls at 13 mtrs just with micros in.
Starting at 5 mtrs with single caster it took me 25 mins to land a fish and that was a 1lb skimmer, and that was my last bite on this line, Charlie to my right had landed a couple of skimmers in this time and a near 4 lb fish, so if the whistle had been blown at 11 I think he would have won, to make matters worse worse Harry was quietly (not ) landing some skimmers and opposite mIke Owens on 28 was catching which wasn't good for me as I had him in the k/o. And the ever consistent dave wride on 10 was also catching skimmers. I persevered with the short line for the first hour before venturing out to 13 mtrs, when I did all I could muster in the next 45 mins was a couple of tiny roach, so I refed the long lines but put a biggish handfull of caster in the ball I put in each swim, I tried the short line but that was no good, so back out to 13 mtrs on caster and although it wasn't brilliant at least I was getting more roach now, Charlie had stopped catching and was back into moaning mode, Harry was still getting odd skimmers , but not as well as mr wride. I did get a couple more 1lb skimmers and a nice perch at 13 mtrs and with 2 hours to go I had a nice 4lb bonus tench, which got me back in touch with the section pace setters, apart from dave wride that was as he was catching really consistently,
Out of desperation a bit with just under two hours to go I plumbed up at 13 mtrs towards the island to my left and found about 5 foot of water , so I butchered my .4g rig to use there and cupped in some casters and loose groundbait, I tried the deeper water for a few minutes then went to the shallow and started catching nice roach, then I had another 4 lb tench which was a proper bonus, then went back to getting roach again with some nice fish up to 12oz,
At the end I thought I had about. 14 lb and with Harry looking at his fish and reckoning on 12 lb I was hopefull of second in section behind dave wride who looked to have won the match , making it two on the trot in this series,
And he did win with a nice net of skimmers on soft pellet over micros and groundbait on peg 10, his 38.2 was well clear of second placed Alan jones who managed to make it to the end of the match this week and weigh in 20.1
Third was me with 19.14
4th John smith next to the winner on 11 with 16.6
5th mike key on 18 with 14.2
6th mike Owens on 28 with 13.12

Viaduct winter league round 4

Just a quick get well soon to mike nicholls who was taken into hospital with newmoanial the other night , he will soon be out no doubt.
Back to today and into the draw tin and out comes draw sequence 13 which gave us Clint on 125, Clayton on 94 me on 62 , Ron on 46 and Tim on 15. ,some good and bad in that lot, mine was definitely a bad one , and with the wind blowing in and across and some heavy rain forecast for later it was never going to be pleasant. For company I had don Sutherland on 61 and Adrian jeffery on the monk peg 64. So the pound bet was. Struck with don, but I never asked ade as his peg was to good !!!
I set up a wag to fish corn mid lake, a caster rig for over groundbait at 13 mtrs which was as far as I dared to go with the forecast , a meat rig for 2 o,clock angle at 13 mtrs  and a meat rig to go to empty pallet 63, at the start I fed all lines then started on the wag and corn, I had two bites in the first 30 mins endeping up with 2 hybrids for about a pound in the net, the wag was never going to work as the wind was pushing it through to much even with lots f line on the deck so I binned that after 40 mins, out on the caster and small skimmers were pretty obliging but they were small 2 to 4oz mainly, I tried the meat line but only had a perch there , I did try it several times during the match but no good, the 13 mtr caster line was the best, I did manage a couple of better skimmers of about a pound but the rest were mainly small, I had been feeding meat down the edge all match and I did give it a couple of goes but only had one roach, until I grace it one last go for the last 15 mins and lo and behold the float buried and a ax pounder was safely in the net with five mins to go, and then the end was called. My silvers went just over 9lb and the carp just over 6 for 15 1/2 lb for 11 points in the section, our lake was won by steve long on 73 with 107lb followed by dan squires on 66 with 70 odd pounds, the match was won by andy power with a couple more pounds than steve. Off to huntstrete this Thursday for the veals silvers league then back down to viaduct next Sunday for the last winter league, my turn on match lake , let's hope for a decent draw as I havnt really had a good peg in this series so far,