Thursday costcutter , sedges brick lake

A bit of a practice this one for the float only league on Sunday, it was quite popular with 19 fishing.
Not feeling to well , this morning so here are the results
1st glen bailey on peg 11 with 122.6 , all caught on paste against the end bank
2nd steve Jackson on 6 with 93 lb , mostly reversed into the net on the deep wag and pellet
3rd Tom mangnall on peg 1 with 83.4 on pellet along his end bank margin
4th Gary flinders on peg 15 with 62.9 , all on the wag , a couple shallow and the rest deep
5th dave bacon on 18 with 58.1 again mainly on the wag
6th me on peg 7 with 53.2 all on the pole and pellet at 14 mtrs
Silvers went to Alan oram on peg19 with 21.4 of skimmers with a couple of big eels on worm at 8 mtrs.
Normally on this lake it's possible to catch well at 5 mtrs on primarily meat at this time of year but as far as I could see no one managed it today , I fed it all match but never had so much as a glimmer on that line , the long pole pellet line had plenty of fizz going on but foulers  were a bit of a problem, I think paste may have been the way to go as the match progressed as both ray bass and Leon Hubbard to my left began catching towards the end, but it will probably change on Sunday and all the fish will be caught short,
Next Thursday we are back at Avalon for the costcutter, but ALL buoyant baits including bread are banned from now on in the matches I run.

Sunday open , ivy house lakes

Back to try and beat my demons after last weeks debacle, 3lb 8oz for 39th out of 40, it was never going to be as bad again. I went up with Chris fox this week, and after one of Karens finest large brekkie  sat the fishery it was draw time, into the tin and out comes a ball with peg 10 on it , it's along the right hand side next to the new causeway onto the island ,opposite I had Clayton Hudson on peg 11 which Chris Davis won last weeks match on with 317lb, hopefully some carp would still be in the area, I had a quick word with andy as I fancied fishing for the skimmers today , and he told me he wasn't to sure as to how good the peg would be as no one had seriously attacked the bream here ,but I had gone armed with worm , caster and groundbait , so I assembled a .6g rig to fish at 11 mtrs with worm over groundbait and caster with some chopped worm in. I set up a pellet rig to fish near the mud on the causeway, two rigs for 14 mtrs at 11 and 2 o'clock angles, I left some extra line on the shallow water pellet rig so as I could use it down the left hand margin, where I was going to feed and fish 8mm hard pellet.
At the start I cupped in 3 big balls of g bait loaded with worm and caster and fed my pellet lines with cupped pellet on the two 14 mtr lines and by catty along the mud on the causeway, and plopped a few 8,s down to my left by hand, I went out over the groundbait with half a worm on and was soon netting a good skimmer/bream, and what followed was a really enjoyable day , catching big skimmers on worm or double caster , occasionally topping up with a good size ball of groundbait, the carp lines never kicked in at all except for the margin line where I hooked two in the last hour, getting broken by the first when it went through some underwater snag at my feet , but I landed the second one , a welcome 12 lb fish , but after that it seemed the dreaded peckers were knocking the pellet about, Clayton opposite struggled till near the end when a few carp moved into his end bank swim but it was always going to be to little to late, the other side of the spit was occupied by Clint wojtyla who had been picking the odd carp off from his side of the causeway, I reckoned he had done enough to win , but my estimate of 60lb of skimmers was abit off as my nets actually went 81.2 of skimmers and the lone carp was12.12 for a 93.14 total and first in both overall and silvers and being able to win both on these matches kg made for a double bubble pickup
2nd was Clint on peg 37 with 89lb
3rd dick on 15 with 81.7
4th Shaun Townsend on 14 with 77.9
5th Chris fox on 1 with 66.2
6th nick gale on12 with 63.14,
The lakes certainly seem to have more than there fair share of quality skimmers plus plenty of carp so it seems to be a case of take your pick and fish for whatever takes you fancy, and it's a venue where it's impossible to predict where the winner is going to come from, always a bonus, plus the brekkies is really good and the after match cakes and coffee is always gratefully received.
Next match this Thursday is a float only affair down at the sedges on brick lake , it's already 50 percent booked so don't leave it to long to book in if you want to fish so if you wan to book in ring me or txt me on 07974807941 or ring me in veals on 01179260790 to book in

Avalon Thursday costcutter

Nothing to much to report about again on this one again , only 12 of us turned up today so we were only on the one bank, pegs 1 to 23, heather bush drew for me and handed me peg 3 , the same peg as last time I was on this bank, for company I had mike west on peg 1 and terry Orr on 5. With this not being the best carp peg on offer today you would have thought I would have learned by now and I would probably have better been targeting the bream and skimmers , but no out comes the carp rigs, pellet wag as that was the most productive last time I was here, deep and shallow pole for for pellet at 14 mtrs and a paste rig, to cut a long story shortish, I couldn't get any where to work properly and when I did get a carp it was a squeaker, I only had a bream on the paste and only a handful on the wag, I ended up with 12 small carp for 32lb and a few bream for 13lb for a total of 45lb and the only money I had was the three quid side bet with Tim Clark.
1st on the day went to rob dowden on peg 20 with 161.11 on popped up bread
2nd Adrian jeffery on 16 with 99.13
3rd terry Orr on 5 with 67.4
4th Gary flinders on 13 with 66.6
5th steve Seager on 22 with 48.13
6th ray white on 11 with 45.13
Silvers
John fuidge with 35.10 of skimmers at 6 mtrs on a variety of baits on peg 7
Back to this popped up bread business, my jury is out on this one at the mo as I don't see how you can possibly see if the bait is on the surface or just under it, also missed bites result in bread floating around in the peg encouraging fish onto the surface, also there is a bit of an issue with some makes of pellets being a bit buoyant, as I witnessed in this match, when you get fish slurping off the top in only one peg you got to wonder , but the angler in question did stop feeding them when I pointed it out to him, my next match at Avalon may well be a float only or I,m toying with the idea of having a short pole match as there did seem to be plenty of fish on the inside line .
Next Thursday I,m running a float only match at the sedges on brick lake , it's a bit of a practice for the following Sundays float only league on brick and tile, so ring or txt me on 07974807941 or ring me in veals on 01179260790 to book in

Float only , rnd 4 , ivy house lakes

Well first of all I got to say , good or BAD, you got to right about about , even if it ain't going to be much . The day started well with one of Karens finest breakfasts, then I let Tim ford draw for and he didn't disappoint , giving me peg 2 just outside the cafe , a nice short awl fan peg with plenty of options , a nice margin and good long pole line, so after Tuesday,s costcutter when I caught well enough on pellet long , shallow and deep and some fish on paste over groundbait down the edge, so today's attack was based around the same methods, nothing could go wrong , could it !!!!. As expected it started fairly slowly with only odd carp and skimmers putting in an appearance, dick bull on the end bank on 20 had a couple of early carp, as did Chris Davis on 11 , but apart from those two most were struggling, I had my first fish at 11.30, (30 mins in), a 2lb skimmer fairly hooked in the Gil plate , and from there on , possibly my worst ever days fishing ensued, I had to wait till 4.30 to land another fish and that was a slightly smaller skimmer, I did lose 5 fouled carp along the way, but I couldn't buy a bite , no fizzing or any signs , I did hook a carp with 30 seconds to go and it seemed fairly hooked as it was coming in nicely but dropped off halfway in , no one laughed MUCH, by this stage all I could do was chuckle, at least I saw some fish as I did the weigh in with andy Lloyd.
I admitted to having 3 1/2 lb and I was spot on with my estimate, perhaps I should have switched to catching silvers as there seems to at least 20lb available in many of the swims on this lake. But I was after a section win to keep the momentum going in this league , well that never went to plan did it lol. Overall today it was a close match apart from the winner in the shape of Chris Davis on peg 11 who caught from start to finish ending with 317.11, catching on pellet against the mud on the new causeway bank.
2nd bela bakos n 39 with 81.14
3rd dick bull on 20 with 67,11
4th steve tucker on the canal peg 10 with 61.4 which included the top silvers weight with 45.12 of skimmers, nice to see as the canal had been fishing hard of late .
5th Craig Edmunds on 4 with 55.14, and winning the section means he is now on top of the league, just can't keep him down at the moment
6th andy Lloyd on 5 with 53.13
2 nd in the silvers went to 63 year old lean Hubbard on 17 with 40.1 of skimmers,
With two matches left in the series I obviously can't afford another blow out, but fishing a a funny game so lots can happen in two matches.
Next Sunday I,m off to ivy again to try and change things round a bit, but would I do much different , I don't think so, perhaps I should have fed a skimmer line , but I will never know, also I should have fed my way in carefully but I was a bit to positive , but that's just me , never have been a careful feeder in the summer,

Tuesday costcutter , ivy house lakes

A bit of a practice for the weekends float only league plus I could sort the pegging for the weekend , especially as andy had turned the main lake into two lakes with 20 on the first one I front of the cafe and 24 on the far one,
Before I say how it went there are some rules need clarifying, bait limits are 8pints of pellets max, plus you can have 8 pints of maggots and caster combined or solely, 2 kilos of groundbait, no limits on worms, 8 tins of corn,, but NO meat of any description, net limits are 70lb , between 70 and 80 you get 70, over 80 and you get nothing.no fishing further than halfway across the lake and you are only allowed to go to the next empty pallet and not beyond, those with an end bank will see a wooden marker post which denotes the limits of the peg. No float rigs to be fished shallower than 12 inches , wag or pole ,also after the match please don't throw any spare bait into the lake please put it the bins provided.
The cafe will be open from 7.30 being run by the more than capable karen, ably assisted by her trusty manservant Manuel Lloyd.
Time for the draw and I was early into the tin and out comes peg 6 which is old peg 14 from years ago, a nice draw and with an empty peg each side as did most people on this lake, for company I had Vince shipp on 8 and the ample figure of Pete neate on 4.
I intended to keep it simple today so it was a pellet rig for hard pellet at 14 mtrs and a shallow rig for the same line, a paste rig for the margin to my left about a mtr off a bush in 2 foot of water , in by the bush it was less than a foot deep. So I decided not to fish there as it would be contravening fishery rules, and a pellet rig to fish up to empty peg 7 , but apart from a 2lb skimmer that was no good whatsoever even though I tried it on several occasions, I started on the deep pellet rig and soon had 2 decent skimmers in the net, then I lost a carp which came adrift as I got to my topkit, fouled possibly but it didn't feel like it. After cupping the initial feed in I started feeding with a catty as there have been fish caught in matches recently shallow, but for now I was getting odd bites on the deck, but no liners so I stuck with the deep rig for about half of the match before going shallow as I had a couple of carp on the drop, so I tried the shallow rig , it wasn't easy but I did manage 4 fish to go with the few I already had on the deck, at the halfway mark I began feeding groundbait to my left but never had any signs till about 90 mins to go, when I saw a faint tail patten so it was in with the paste rig, I lost my first two , definitely fouled but I managed 5 fish on that rig with the biggest being about 15lb the last one being landed after the whistle , and I must admit to being unsure as to whether to put it in my bigger fish net, I forgot that rule , fish under 5lb in a separate net, but most of my fish looked over 5lb , I should have put it in the smaller fish net as it wouldn't be in there for long , I thought I had 90lb ish but leek Payne on 18 looked to have it in the bag , and he did with 137.2 catching on 8mm banded pellet over 6,s mainly to the empty pallet to his right, it is old peg 46 on the causeway bank,
I had more than I thought with 113.3, and as I thought I should have put that last fish in he other net as I had 77lb in the net , that was close , another 3 lb and I would have lost the lot
3rd was Manuel Lloyd with 98.8 off peg 42 which was about old peg 35
4th Chris fox with 71;11 peg 21 , old peg 6
5th baggy with 66.2
6th oggie with 59.14
Silvers
Craig Edmunds with 47.15 of skimmers on chopped worm and caster fed with a bit of groundbait off peg 31,
2nd in silvers was baggy on peg 16 with 44.2 of paste caught skimmers

Short pole series round 3

Back to chilton trinity again today to see the ever expanding misha herring who s extend ting her first child in November (I think).
A full house again today with 28 fishing, I am now in with no chance of framing in the league so I was hoping for a good draw and try and recoup some money in the daily pools, so I let misha draw for me again , as I did last match and I ended up in 18 which isn't favourable , it's on the top bank and the deepest part of the lake, even the margins are deep with no flat spots, so what peg does she draw me ,19 , that's the last time she draws of me, it's been one of the worst pegs in the series, plus it's obviously next to 18 so it has the same problems with the depths out and in, for company I had the gimp on 20 and Jason Radford on 18, with pb Rayner on 14, Martin (treent) lenaghan on 15 , mike west on 17 so that was some fish that were going to be fed in that area then, and danger man grain Edmunds on form peg 22, so that should be the section gone then, and to make matters worse I could see the whole lake and see who was catching.
Rigs today were a margin one for each side as it was different depths , a shallow stalker just incase but I wasn't to confident in that as I had white water in front making spotting cruisers impossible to spot, and a deep rig for 6 mtrs.
At the start I cupped in some 6,s on the long line and cupped in some 8,s into each margin it fish as tight as could into the reeds.
Starting on the deep line I soon had a 2lb skimmer on 8mm banded pellet shortly followes a slightly smaller one, and that was my lot for the first 90 mins, then I had a big f1 from the margin,but I was going nowhere and or wasn't looking as though it was going to improve anytime soon.
Trig had mugged a couple by now and both ken and Martin had a couple aswell, but the 4 of us on this top bank were really struggling , even the gimp had only had a couple of roach by this time fishing caster!!!.
Out if desperation I cupped in a really big pot of caster on the long line and started feeding heavier in the margins, I now had fizzing on the long line and some liners and I lost a couple of foulers then had a good on in the mouth also I had a few from the margins and another on the long line, so going into the last hour I was probably winning the section, then Craig began to catch on meat in his magin, also ken was beginning to get some action over his marginal groundbait line.
Trig soon overtook me but at was a bit nip and tuck with ken, I did hook a fish with 5 mins to go in the long line , and it was in the mouth, I played it carefully as I new it would be crucial, but as it went down the inside line where I new there were some snags , the hook length parted, bugger.
And it was crucial as trig ended up second in the match meaning ken won the section with 44lb to my 41lb .
1st on the day went to mike nicholls on 31 with 15 carp for 110.2. All on his topkit and paste rig from his left hand margin, FairPlay to him he is also winning the league with three section wins , it really seems to be water which suites his styles admirably .
2nd Craig Edmunds 59.8 on peg 22
3rd glen bailey on peg 4 with 52.15
4th Paul elmes on 3 with 52.13
5th Gordon canning on 7 with 52.4
6th rod wootten on 2 with 46.10
Silvers
Vic bush standing in for Clint wojtyla on peg 30 with 23.9 of skimmers on worm and caster with a bit of groundbait

Thursday Avalon costcutter

Better turn out today with 18 fishing , so vic let us use the left hand bank and a bit of the right hand bank at the carpark end , with not to much wind forecast I didn't mind where I drew , so I let rob dowden pull my peg, 46 , not a peg of choice for sure, it's the first island peg on the right hand bank, only a couple of things to set up today as I had intended to give the paste a go as it's been working well on this venue lately , and of course the pellet wag as that's the banker method on here, so here we go with a short blog, for some reason known only to the fish the carp didn't want to be at this end of the lake , I did manage 4 carp on the paste during the match and one on the wag , feeding out towards the island with 8mm pellet the fish have shown themselves and it was possible to get plenty of bites, but not today, no swirls and next to no slurping on the island, Martin heard over on peg 1 has been catching loads of fish lately here and at stafford moor on the wag but he couldn't get a bite, I think it took him over three hours to land his first carp, I kept switching between the wag and pole but  to no avail, I had fizzing on the pole line but wasn't getting any sensible bites, 30 mins from the end I set up a pellet rig to fish over the pole line and had a carp a good skimmer and lost another carp so in hindsight I think if I had fished my normal match I may have done better , but I was determined to give the sludge a proper go, wish I hadn't now!!!!!!.
1st went to rob dowden on 22 with 129.15 on his favoured popped up bread fished tight to the island
2nd Adrian jeffery on 13 fished the pellet feeder with 98lb
3rd fabio Harding  on 7 with 66.8 , primarily on the tip
4th Gary flinders on 23 with 64.15
5th mike west on 40 with 63.13
6th Leon Hubbard on 19 with 59.13
Silvers went to steve kedge on 11 with 21.8 of whitebait
Oh yes and my 6 carp went 44lb and two silvers were 1lb 15oz for a 45.15 total

Float only league round 3

Back to landsend for this one again , and a full house again of 40 anglers, I had to get a reserve at 8.15 this morning due to a sicknote , so FairPlay to niel mercer for fishing at such short notice, I had a few reserves in today but luckily the stay aways sorted there own cover out ,
I let kev molten draw for me as he knows how to do flyers , he drew 33 for himself , how does he do it !!!!! And then pulled my peg which opened up showed 38 , close to the peg of death, 39 but a different kettle of fish altogether, getting to the swim the sun was out and so were some sunbathing carp, about 20 to be precise, so the stalking rig was put together, also a pellet rig for against the island , a meat rig for 6 mtrs and a margin meat rig, the car bank looked as though it was going to hard to fish as the plants had really grown making it all but impossible to get tight in , I could just manage it providing I had no more than 6 inches of line between the float and pole tip, but as there was no wind it wasn't an issue, but still a bit touch and go at 15 mtrs.
At the start I fed all lines including firing 6,s towards the island and then picked up the stalker, 30 mins in and two carp in the net the fish disappeared off the surface never to return, I tried the depth rig over by the island but only fouled a couple, also the two meat lines , down the edge and at 5 mtrs were none starters , the only place I could get bites was by swinging the stalker rig under the branches on the island , I caught steadily till the end and I even managed to catch on a shortened down  rig meaning I could lift and drop to a fashion under the branches , by the end I had 31 carp and a few silvers and was admitting to 180lb, but with kev molten on 33 having caught well and dan white on 13 was rumoured to have emptied it nothing was definite till the scales did there business, my estimate of 180lb was close for me as I actually weighed 186.4 which was enough for first on the day , but kev wasn't to far behind coming second with 175.11 and dan was third with 163.12
4th was the consistent Craig Edmunds on peg 3 with 117.14
5 th steve Seager  with 111.5
6 th mike walker with 102.12
Silvers
Andy hembrow on 34 with 27.13 of mainly skimmers on meat
Off to Avalon on Thursday this week so if anyone fancies it ring or text me on 07974807941 to book in

Thursday costcutter viaduct fishery

Still popular as there were 40 booked in today so we were split between Cary and cambell, to win a draw on cambell was probably needed as Cary is still in the doldrums with the carp not to keen to feed properly and the big bream are all but gone ,or seemingly.
Into the draw tin , out comes 80 on Cary , which is next to the spit on the carpark side, as far as Cary goes it's a peg I really like as you have the option of open water and a long margin along the spit. So I set up the deep wag to fish at the end of the spit , a pellet rig for against the spit and a meat rig for 6 mtrs in the deeper part of the swim (20 inches). Last time I was on the peg earlier in the year I had over 200lb mainly on the wag fished on the deck with an 11 mm pellet feeding 8,s , so that was going to be my main line of attack for today, on that day the margin and the meat lines were pretty much unproductive but I would still feed them in the vain hope that today would be different , at the start I fed the two pole lines but began on the wag, to say it didn't go to plan wasa bit of an understatement , after the first 80 mins I was blanking, I had been briefly attached to a couple of foulers, then it had a bit of a burst and landed two carp in the next 15 mins, but with little of no fizzing it went quiet again,
The spit margin swim was no use whatsoever with just one hybrid off it even though I did try it several times, so most of the match was spent on the wag, I did get a bit of fizz on the meat line about an hour from the end, and hooked two in quick succession losing the first as it was fouled and broke me but landed the second,  it was hard together bites as the carp as I said earlier don't want to feed properly, so it was a case of waiting for a bite, so by the end I had managed 9 carp on the wag and the one pole caught on, oh and I had the hybrid and a skimmer aswell, for a total weight of 102lb , for third on the lake being beaten by the angler on 74 with 111lb and 106lb on77, so no chance of a slim brown envelope today as the payout was first overall and first in silvers on each lake then the next three, but cambell as a expected took all those minor berths,
First on the day went to Roy"the bomb" worth on 111 with a good weight of 305lb
2nd was mark wynne on 118 with 180lb
Then I think it was 150 .
I did have the result sheet but I put it somewhere safe and now I can't find it, mike nicholls will no doubt have a pic of it on his blog,
This Sunday it's round three of the float only league at landsend this week, and next Thursday mike jones and myself will definitely be running one at Avalon so ring or text me to book in on 07974807941