Viaduct silvers league. Penultimate round

travelled with Chris fox today, so after the normal lillypool brekkie it was off to the fishery, the wind was meant to be horrendous with gusts possibly to 60 mph, so bearing this in mind a draw on the left hand banks would be best so the wind would be mostly off the left shoulder, early into the draw tin again , and out comes 53 on lodge , definitely not the draw I had hoped for as I needed a section with or second at worst to keep me in contention for Some overall monies, and this peg has been no good in the league so far ,  with Nick Collins on the first match doing the best with 19lb , but still not a section win on that day, it has a lot more form as a carp peg as its a nice big reed fringed bay with a big willow tree overhanging between me and nick ewers who was on 73. To my right was bristols finest auto electrician , Tim Clark on 55, which had won our section in the last two rounds.
4 rigs today, 3 of which were 4x12 floats , one for my left hand margin, another for under the tree, both of those were for some hoped for perch and hybrids, another for the 5 mtr caster line just in front . And a .4 pencil to try and tempt an odd skimmer at 14 mtrs to my right on a angle.
To begin the match I cupped in three balls onto the 14 mtr line fishing with the wind , which to be fair  was ok for me as I had some shelter from a bank and some trees, so wind strength was not to much of an issue for me , unlike many others , it was making any long pole fishing all but impossible for most.
After feeding the caster lines I began at 5 mtrs in front, it took twenty mins to get my first fish which was a Rudd (I don't like small Rudd), it was certainly slow , but looking round it seemed the same for everyone , with no one setting it on fire, after an hour I had added some more small roach and a few small hybrids, but if it carried on like this it would be the final nail in my series coffin, I had a look on the groundbait line at 14 mtrs but all I could get were some small roach, I did top it up and try a couple more times but it seemed the skimmers didn't want to be on that line.
The margin and tree swim both produced one small roach each, so it was back onto the 5 mtr line catching small roach with an odd one going 6oz, I spread the shot on the rig and found that was better , with the fish nailing it on the drop, by the halfway mark I thought I had about 4 lb, which was still probably winning the section by then, only Andy power on 60 was catching small fish in my section, I couldn't see Tim, but I heard him telling someone he was really finding it hard, out of interest I tried my left hand margin rig over he 5 mtr line, as I was catching on the drop, and that was the turning point for me , the swim seemed to come to life, it appeared the fish wanted it 12 inches off the deck, I had some good roach up to 12oz, more surprisingly I had a couple of 3lb bream way off the deck and some chunky hybrids, I also had a nice near 2lb hybrid from under the tree, aswell as some chunky roach, but I also lost a couple of carp there , and I always felt the carp weren't to far away and I missed some sail away bites there but the caster was untouched, liners most likely from the carp, I did see quite a few swirling and boiling along the end bank.
Luckily my off the deck rig on the 5 mtr line kept giving me odd fish nearly to the no of the match , so by the end I thought I had about 15 lb , the only threat was from Tim who had a late burst of  skimmers towards the end , plus a big perch and a hybrid , but it was just to little to late for him as my net went 19.6 to his 15.15, so I got the much needed section win,
1st on the day went to Chris boulten on 126 on Campbell with 21.3
2nd Dom Sullivan on 112 with 19.9
3rd me on 53 with 19.6
4th ziggy slowinski on 124 with 18.8
5th Chris fox on 130 with 18.4
6th Gordon canning on 125 with 17.5
A really close match to be fair, and I think if the wind had been a bit kinder the weights would have been much better, as for my swim , I probably wouldn't won the section , it was purely down I think to being able to get some sensible presentation as I had some shelter, ha ha ain't life a bitch.

Thursday costcutter , Avalon.

Only twelve of us today, just enough  to make it interesting. I was on the the phone to 3 network trying to sort out ne f my contracts with them that someone had hacked into and caused me no ends of problems that have been going on for 6 weeks, the match started at 10.15 and I eventually got off the phone at 11, so that was three hours of my life I ain't getting back as the calls began at 8, and I had made 19 calls to them by then, eventually talking to someone in Scotland who hopefully sorted it in about ten minutes, unlike the the Mumbai call centre which is a total waste of time as they ok
Moly give answers from prompt cards I'm sure,
Whilst I was on the phone I stood behind vic bush on peg 11 who had 3 carp and a skimmer by the time I had finished n the phone, the carp obviously hooked themselves as is normal on the lead , but I did need to coach him a bit as to when to strike on the skimmer, but I would have thought that his line dropping back slack would have told him something was going on !!!!!!!!.
With only a bit of time to get started I only set up one ,75 pencil float to fish for silvers, so after feeding two balls of ground bait at 11 mtrs and 3 at 14 I began on the shorter line and was soon catching small roach, with a couple of small hybrids, but no skimmers, so out to 14 mtrs and the same result, small roach only, so I refed quite heavily to try and force the issue, then I used he same rig to fish on my top set with caster , and I did start catching some better 4 oz roach , but as expected it didn't last, I dropped a small ball of g bait in there and later I did get an 8oz skimmer there but that was the only one , back out to the two longer lines, neither were to good with the shorter one being a total waste , and the longer one only still giving up small roach, with only 2 hours to go I went back to my can and got a reel then set up a wag to fish off the corner of the island with banded pellet and I was soon wishing I had fed and fished it from the start as I started getting indications immediately , and I soon had a couple of 6lb carp in the net, I ave the line a bit of a rest and dropped in over the longer silvers line , the float was only in there for a few minutes before the float lifted and stayed up, so the big strike was met with a fair bit of 5 elastic coming out of the pole and a 2 lb plus skimmer was safely netted, followed shortly by another a few minutes later, but that was my loy off that line apart from the small plippy roach, so most of the remainder of the match was spent on the wag, as I said I should have done it from the start as I finished the match with seven carp, only three sensible ones but the peg was definitely worth a few more if I had done it from the start, but I never so I didn't , end of lol.
I put the results sheet somewhere safe so that was the end of that then, but I will do my best to remember the top six.
1st vic bush peg 11 41lb
2nd Tom mangall peg 20 33lb
3rd me with 32lb
4th terry Bruton peg 3 29lb
5th Adrian Jeffrey on 21 with 28lb
Silvers
Tom mangall 19lb
John(the gimp) Bradford 16lb
3rd was veils oldest employee Mike Jones with 9lb

Sunday landsend open

only 14 fishing today so it was the match lake only, going into the second day of a cold snap I wasn't to sure as to how it would fish, last time here the fish seemed to want to be in there normal winter quarters, so a draw on the far side in the high numbers were preferred, I waited till near the end to draw , and just for a change pulled out peg 3 again !!!!!, I can't seem to get away from the peg, it's a nice summer peg and I quite enjoy fishing it if ice breaking is called for as there are usually some perch around. But today I thought would be difficult, rig wise I set a 4x12 for 14 mtrs on an angle to my left for hard pellet and the same rig would be ok to fish n front of peg 2 as it's the same depth as out in the lake, another 4x12 rig for the same depth to my right for maggot or expander over micros, and a caster rig for 4 mtrs in front and down to my left as again it's the same depth. On the whistle I fed to my left at 14 mtrs with hard 4,s aswell as cupping a few in by pallet 2. I would have like to feed it with a catty down by the pallet but the bush has grown a bit to much and it's nigh on impossible to get any down there with a catty, micros off to my right, again at 14 mtrs, but began on the caster at 4 mtrs, I did fire a few 4,s to the far side just in case but the water seemed a bit clear and cold to encourage any carp up on the shelf.
First drop and I had a 6 oz perch followed by a few of a similar size, but already the favoured far side swims were producing carp, with Paul elmes on 18, Adrian Jeffrey on 19 and ken(Kendra) Rayners on 21 catching early on , and hey seemed to be getting plenty of liners so the main body of fish looked to be wintering up. As with the last time on this lake the near side was extremely hard with only odd carp and very few silvers being caught , the carp pegs kept putting a few into the nets with Adrian on 19 sounding to be doing the best. My long pellet lines each way at 14 mtrs never produced a bite. And the down to the pallet line to my left gave me one bite which I skillfully abated to impale my hook into the tail of a 5 lb common which led me a proper dance before I managed to reverse it into the net, but it did make a mess f my inside line, during the match I did hook 6 carp , three I landed two of which were lip hooked and the other three escaped, one with a rig. About 90 mins from the end I shall owed up my maggot rig and swung it into the far side on double maggot , I was rewarded with a 1lb stripy , so I quickly changed that rig into a proper caster rig for over there and began firing a few casters to the spot, silvers wise on the lake was wide open with no one catching much, the skimmers were scarce as were the perch so it was a case I of nicking odd fish from my three silvers line, even the ever reliable john"the perch slayer" Bradford on 5 was getting no luck, but he did get a nice ide and a skimmer later in the match, he seemed to be doing the best with him and me being pretty close with the silvers, then about 30 mins from the end I managed to snare a 2lb unseasonal tench from my left hand margin to put me in th edriving seat as far as the silvers went.
Beany aka Dave Westcott was first to weigh on peg 1 and put one carp and a few silvers on the scales for 9.4. I was next and my three carp went 15lb and the silvers went 9.12, the only threat as far as I could tell for the silvers payout was john on 5 and luckily my tench seemed to have edged it as his silvers went 7.8, so at least we got some money back .
1st on the day was Adrian Jeffrey on 19 with 80.14 of maggot tempted carp just at the bottom of the island shelf
2nd was Ken Rayner on 21 with 69.7
3rd Paul elmes on 18 who started well but his swim died quite quickly but he ended with 46.6
4th was me with 24.12
5th Andy hembrow on 13 with 19.1
6th Martin lenaghan on 15 with 17.10
Thursday we are off to Avalon again so if anyone fancies it ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in for the 9 am draw.
This Friday veals are having a bit of a Black Friday clearance with selected items in the coarse, sea , game and gun sides being reduced, so it may well be worth paying us a visit , could be an early Xmas pressie some where for someone

Thursday affordable at harescombe fishery

travelled up with Chris fox today, we were nearly late as a motorcyclist decided to fall off at jct 13 a bit of a tailback but we managed just get by and got the fishery well in time for brekkie, sadly only 9 of us turned up, so at least we would have plenty of room. Into the draw bag and out comes 8, as of yet I haven't drawn the same peg twice, and I ain't had a bad days fishing yet, Chris drew 14 which was the end peg on our bank, so I reversed up to his peg and dropped him off, then Dave to mine , where I unloaded the gear and set about tackleing up, all was gong well until Andy the fishery manager arrived to tell me I was getting ready on peg 9, doh, senior moment, and that was the first time I have ever done that, plus it was raining which it wasn't meant to do in Gloucester , they got that right then as it pissed down all day !!!!!!.
So kit moved onto the right peg and still enough the to get ready, I have indulged myself with a new drennan acolyte carp pole so I gave it a run out today, and I got to say it's a nice piece of kit , bearing in mind it's a carp pole so it's not going to be ultra stiff and light but it is manageable up to 14 mtrs easily , so looking for a quality all round pole definitely give this one the once over.
Back to the fishing , and I thought maggots would be worth a go today and with the weather still very mild I thought the fish would still be against the island on the shelf, so I set up a maggot rig for that and a pellet rig for further along the island and the same rig would do for down the edge, big mistake was not setting up a rig for 4 mtrs in front at this stage.
At the start I cupped in some maggots against the island and fed some pellets in the two areas, margin and island.
Starting across on maggot resulted in a couple of small roach the a barbel, followed by a three pound carp then another barbel, followed by more and more and more small roach, then an f1 then back to the roach fry and gudgeon, an hour in and going nowhere on the maggot so I binned that and switched to the island pellet line , but that proved difficult with only odd f1,s and even fewer carp. Down the edge wasn't much better, and I could see Adrian Jeffrey opposite catching steadily as was Martin hook to my right and Chris fox beyond him, all,of a sudden there was only two hours left , looking along Martin to my left was still catching short so I set up a 4x14 rig to fish at 4 mtrs, luckily I did start feeding the line not long after the start just in case , so I started catching some decent f1,s and in the last two hours I probably put 3/4 of my final weight in the net but it was never going to be enough especially as Chris on 14 was still catching and Mike Nichols over on 20 also had a good last couple of hours, just fishing with his topkit down each side margin, but in th end I was a lot closer than I realised , another hour and I may have had him, Mike won on the day with 63.2
2nd was Chris fox with 60.6
3rd me with 52.10
4th Martin hook with 46
5th stuart graham on 29 again with 44.14
6th Adrian Jeffrey with 42.4
Off for an open at landsend on Sunday , still got some space so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in of contact me in veals on 01179260790

Viaduct silvers league round 4

after brekkie at lillypool it was off to the fishery for the 9am draw, into the tin fairly early and out comes112 , it was ok for the first couple of matches then n match three mash drew it and got carped out and dnw,d, and getting to the peg I thought today may go the same way as there were carp moving all around my peg, for company I had fromes very own Olympic cyclist and down hill skiing champion steve denmead on 111 and Mrs brown impersonator Bob gullick on 114, the wind was still quite strong blowing in and across, but not unmanagble, so I set up rigs to fish caster at 3 mtrs, a .4g pencil, and town .4g rigs to fish caster and maggot over groundbait at 9 and 13 mtrs , all rigs had my favourite silvers hook on ends,  middy 6313 size 18,s to .10 line.
At the start I cupped in two balls at 9 and three at 13 mtrs, then started on the short caster line, small roach soon became a problem , no quality at all, with lots of the roach so small they were dropping off before I could grab them, after 20 mins I had had enough of that and went out onto the 9 mtr line, that wasn't to good either with the small fish being a pain there aswell, Bob g on 114 was catching small skimmers and Nick chedzoy on 115 had a tench and some skimmers too, I lost a flying skimmer of about a pound quite early on the 9 mtr , then shortly after that I had a 2 lb er, but that line seemed to be full of plippy roach , so most of my match was spent out at 13 mtrs where there seemed to be more in the way of skimmers, Bob kept catching skimmers of all sizes for most of the match, Nick on 115 caught steadily to and steve on 111 was getting odd quality fish, I did get a good 4th hour catching a few better skimmers which used me ahead of steve but I was never in much danger of catching the two to my right , then steve had a late skimmer making it very tight between us, in the end steve had 20.10 to my level 20lb , which put me 4th inthe section, not the result I wanted or needed, oh well that will hopefully be my dropper then.
1st on the day went to Chris Davis on 55 with 29.10 , catching on worm over worm
2nd Dom Sullivan catching the same way as the winner with 28.10 on peg 73
3rd Bob gullick on 114 with 27.4
4th Nick chedzoy on 115 with 26.9
5th Dan squire on 68 with 25.3
6th g Powell on 124 with 23.2
All in all it fished quite fairly , with my 20 lb putting me 11th on the day,
Next Sunday I am running a match at landsend , so to book in ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in .

Avalon Thursday costcutter

16 fishing today so another reasonable turnout. I let ziggy slowinski draw for as we were having a quid on silvers and he gave me 20 , which as venue regulars know it is a good carp peg as there is a small gap in the island in front of you which the carp seem atracted to, it can be a good wag peg as long as conditions allow , and with no sign of the forecasted edge of storm Abigail hitting us , the wag was assembled, also a long line pellet rig for 14 mtrs and a silvers rig for 8&13 mtrs to fish slightly to my right . For company I had Dave Poole to my right on 19 and the old warrior which is rich Coles to my left on 21.
On. The all in I cupped in two balls at 8 mtrs and three at 13, also I cupped some pellets at 14 mtrs slightly to my left so it was well away from the hoped for silvers line. Starting on the wag and I managed about 6 casts before the gale. Sprang up from nowhere, rendering the wag useless as it was blowing across and in at me, a quick mental note to self, always ensure I carry a lead rod, although I don't enjoy being caught by carp I would probably have let them have there fun today.
As for the 13 mtrs line , that was three balls of groundbait wasted then, the wind was that strong.
I did pop a ball at 3 mtrs and begin feeding a few pellets along my left had reed line as it was within 4  inches the same depth As out in front, rich to my left had three carpin. As many chucks. My match turned into a proper grind really , which was a shame as before the wind started there were skimmers rolling in the area , even once the waves started odd ones could still be seen topping. .not long into the. Match I had to replace the .7g pencil float which normally works well, but they don't lend themselves to really rough conditions, especially with a hard trip going with the wind, so I swapped it for a wire stemmed bodied pattern , which was better, but the wind/trip going the same way even that wasn't enough, a 2g may have been even better but I don't carry floats of that size normally as the venues I fish don't require them, I did mange three better skimmers and a couple of smaller ones from the three and eight mtr lines plus a handful of bits for possibly ten pounds , and I had one. Small. Carp from the margin and lost another which tied me to the stick ups .
The match looked to comfortably won by Martin heard over on peg 30, who by his own admission was helped by the wind as it was slightly off his back meaning his was was blowing in against the island, and he ended up with 23 float caught carp on banded pellet fished about 18 inches deep, as for the silvers there were three of us admitting to ten pounds, but knowing how much we all lie only the scales would tell the truth .
Overall Martin ran out an easy winner with 107.2. A good weight on a difficult day
2nd went to Adrian Jeffrey on peg 9 with 73.5
3rd rich Coles on 21 with 40.10
4th was terry Bruton on 7 with 40.1, and a happy birthday to him as it was his 79th.
5th kev molten on 39 with 39.8
6th Mike west on 32 with 31.12
Silvers
Rich Coles 11.13
Vice bush 11.12
Me 11lb
Off to viaduct Sunday for round 4 of the silvers league, the following Sunday I am running an open at landsend fishery, that's the 22nd  , so phone or txt me 07974807941 to book in or ring me at veals on 01179260790 to book in , or better still come into the shop to book in and check out the new hands on shimano stands which look good.

Tuesday costcutter, acorn fishery

Only 13 here again today, possibly the forecasted strong winds and rain played a part there. Into the draw bag and out pops 12 ping pong ball, I haven't been here for about 18 months but it still looked the same , 12 is a good peg with a nice long margin down to the right , and with these mild temps I fully expected to catch down there, I intended to fish caster today as I had accumulated several pints and it would be a waste not to use them. So I set a margin rig for left and right in about 2 foot of water , a rig for 5 Mars in the deep water and another for down the margin shelf in about 3 foot of water. On the all in I started feeding caster on all lines and began at 5 mtrs fully expecting to catch straight away , to say it was a surprise to have to wait 1 3/4 hours for my first fish was an understatement , then it was 1oz perch, mint, but shortly after that I had two carp from the same line in as many put ins, looking around no one seemed to be getting much, Ray bazeley  on 6 seemed to be doing the best , but he was so far from the next angler I was beginning to think he was in another county, Andy gard was his neighbour and he was on 11, better blame it on the pegger lol.
I had tried my margins by now and across on the island but couldn't raise a bite anywhere, then with 2 hours to go a few fish turned up on the island, and it should have been enough, towards the end I lunged at a fish with the net and broke it off, I thought straight away it would cost me , I did have one bite down the edge for one carp which s unusual for this swim as its normally a margin banker, I ended up with ten carp which I thought may go 40lb, and I wasn't to far off as they went 39.14, Ray in his pleasure peg had 15 bridge carp on his favourite bait BREAD for 41.14 , well done Ray,
3rd was in form venue regular on peg 22 with 38lb
4th Andy gard on 11 with 35.12
5th ed wynne on 15 with 33.8
6th d Stephenson on 34 with 31.8
Silvers went to ed wynne with 4lb of goldfish

Sunday open field lake , harescombe fishery

Only managed to get 13 booked in for this one  , but Andy reckoned on only putting 15 on the lake max , so 13 would mean some extra room, after pegging the lake and having a brekkie it was draw time , as none of us had fished the lake before I didn't have a clue as to what was a good draw, so I waited till the last peg and ended up with peg 10 which today was the first peg around the right hand side. For company I had mat tomes on the end of the dam ,and bela "berty" bakos to my right ,
Getting to the swim I was quite happy as there were some carp topping and I had a nice margin to my left, rig wise I set up a caster rig for close as the lake has a big head of quality roach, but the water had coloured up from when I looked at it on Thursday , so I wasn't to sure the roach would feed properly, so I also set up a meat rig for 6 Mtrs on the deck in 8 foot of water, then two pellet rigs , a shallow slapper as there were enough fish showing to possibly make it a goer, and a margin rig to fish down my left in about 3 foot of water, at the start and with the wind forecast to get strong I decided to go shallow to begin with but feed my other lines , 3 Mtrs caster line. 6 Mtr meat and my margin pellet swim. I only fished 13 Mtrs and wasn't expecting to much, and was surprised when I had a bite first drop, but I missed it , in fact. Missed two more before I connected , I was already. Two fish behind bela after twenty mins, I have seen his random feeding and slapping technique work well before , and today he was feeding at 14 and fishing at 11, but it seemed to be working at the mo, lol.
No one else apart from myself and bela seemed to be getting much action, so we stuck to the shallow fishing and it was nip and tuck for a while till I had three on the trot to ease ahead of my neighbour, and that was how the match panned out with me getting a few extra over bela, especially with 5 late fish from down th edge on pellet, the meat lines only gave me one fouler and the roach didn't want to play ball, so I ended the match with 22 carp for 114lb exactly ,
2 nd went to bela with 84.3
3 rd Mike Nichols had 53lb
4th Ryan Jordan with 41.13
5th rod Wooten 29lb
6th mat tomes 28.14
Silvers
Stuart graham with 12.2 of roach
Thursday I,m off to Avalon again , so to book in ring or text me on 07974807941 to book in, then it's off to viaduct for round 4 of the silvers league on sunday

Harescombe , Thursday costcutter

Not to bad a turnout really considering the weather forcast, 13 hardy souls in attendance, for comfort I fancied peg 2 as I would have some shelter from the wind and rain, well blow me down if I don't go and draw it !!!!!.
I planned on a meat close line and two pellet lines, one across against the island and another down the edge to my right, nice and simple, the pellet rigs had b960 size 18 hooks on and the meat rig had an 18 middy 8313 hook on.
At the start I fed the pellet lines and started on the 5 Mtr meat line with 6 mm meat on the hook, after 45 mins and with. Only two small carp for my troubles I was soon reaching for the far side pellet rig, and apart form a couple of fish from the margins the rest of the match was spent working a banded pellet along the far bank, feeding 4,s with a catty and fishing a banded 6 on the hook, as the match progressed it became fairly apparent the fish wanted to be in the wind , feeding more confidently in the ripple, although I was comfortable with little or no wind to trouble me the fish were hard to nail down, with not many times when it as possible to get mare than 2 fish from one spot before a move was needed, by the end I thought I had 40lb ish and actually weighed in 45 for 4th on the so it was ok, the match was won by Adrian Jeffrey on peg15 with 74lb , Mike Nichols continued his love affair with the venue and came second with 69lb, from about peg 21 I think and Martin hook was third on peg 7 with 50lb, don't know the rest of. The weights as the weigh sheet had disappeared by the time. Got back to the carpark, no doubt Mike Nichols with have it on his blog.
Sunday I am back there again but I am running a match on field lake which is the second one up, I do have two spaces still so if any one fancies it txt me on 07974807941 to book in.

Over 50,s slivers match , sedges bridgwater

as I wasn't working today and having plenty of casters and groundbait left from Sunday , I felt it would be rude not to fish again today, so it was off to the sedges, and once I got there and discovered we would be fishing the canal, there was a good chance I would have most of the groundbait and caster left after the event as the canal can be hard ,and as the water had gone a bit clearer it looked odds on that today wasn't going to be any different. There was 14 of us fishing today and the talk at the draw was that you really needs to be on 62/63/64/41/42/43 which is at the deeper end of the lake, I nearly got it right and pulled out ball 60 , means nothing to me as I have never fished this lake before, the last silvers match on here was won with 5lb, so no one was expecting to much today.
For company I had hls,s finest in the shape of Bolton George on 59, who was not going to moan about his peg as there was nothing in it to moan about as he drew it last time and caught very little.
The other side n 61 was Bridgwater Pete, further along on 63 was bridgwaters oldest import rich Coles , who was the favourite to take the honours,
Only two rigs today, both PCs pencils, a .4g for in the deep water and a .25 for down the edge and across and slightly up the island shelf,
At the start I cupped I a ball at 5 Mtrs , and two balls at 11 Mtrs at 11 and one o'clock angles ,and a soft one on the island shelf, and started feeding caster down the edge. I started at 5 Mtrs , and did have a bite first drop but missed it , then nothing , so ten minutes in I put a caster on instead of the starter maggot, and a nice 1lb crucial was my reward, a good start on a hard day, but apart from one small roach that was the only fish I had from that line, also several tries down the edge during the match fail to give me even a bite, most of my action came from the 2 11 Mtr lines and later the island slope area, I had odd skimmers , and I mean odd as it was impossible to string more than one fish at a time from each line. By the end I thought I may have 6lb but George reckoned I had more, and he was right as I actually weighed 8.5 which was enough to win today with rich Coles coming a close second with 8.1
3rd john barker on 41 with 6.6
4th Bob on 64 with 5.8
5th Mike on 62 with 5.6
6th George on 59 with 4.9
It was a difficult day but weirdly I really enjoyed the struggle, off to harescombe next Sunday and I still got a couple of spaces left

Viaduct silvers league round 3

i really needed a good draw in this match as I am sat on two section wins, aloe with Dan squire, I said I fancied 96 or 97 but with 49 fishing it wasn't to good on the odds to get one , I followed Adrian Jeffrey into the draw tin, he pulled out 2 tickets , I took the one stuck out and blow me down if it wasn't 97 , lol. Only real problem was that I had San squire on 96 for company who is always a tough one to beat. , be it silvers or carp.
Three rigs today all .25 g PC pencils , one to fish my topkit to hand , and two for over the groundbait, one double bulked , the other more of a spread shot affair, all rigs had size 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10 sensas feeling line, groundbait as always was sensas lake mixed 50/50 with veals gimps ,
At the start I cupped in 2 balls at 11 Mtrs and 3 at 14 , all with a few casters in. Then I started on the topkit to hand rig, to catch the usual few small roach, but after 20 mins without a bite that rig was consigned to the rig scrap heap for today, out to 11 Mtrs and after a couple of small roach I started to get a few hand size skimmers, as was Dan , the fish didn't seem to want to come in to close today as no one was catching short on our lake, even the 11 Mtrs line started to die , it was out to 14 Mtrs for the duration of the match, it was a good contest between myself and Dan , with each of us getting little bursts of small skimmers, it really looked as though the fish were moving between us as Dan would catch a few and I wouldn't then it would switch round with me catching and Dan struggling, we expected a few better skimmers as the match went on, but it wasn't really until the last couple of hours when a few began to show, and it was nip and tuck between us all through , but by the end I thought San had pipped me as he had on more bigger skimmer than me , I weighed first and put 22.12 on the scales, Dan did look a bit concerned but the extra skimmer did the business as he weighed 24.13 to win the section, but second in section will do for me.
On the whole it fished a lot harder than people expected as it's been so mild ,
1st S Powell won on peg 111 with 34.3 of skimmers
2nd don Sutherland on 114 with 26.6
3rd Martin Preston on 62 with 25.12
4th Dan squire peg 96 with 24.13
5th steve denmead on 24.10
6th Dave roper on 55 with 24.1
It was a close match with me coming in in 8th with 22.12 , and there were plenty more double figure weights,
Next Sunday I am running one at harescombe on field lake which is a bit of an unknown  one as I haven't fished and nor has anyone else I now of under match conditions ,all I know is that there are plenty of carp along with some nice roach and skimmers,
I have a few spaces still so ringer txt me on 07974807941 to book in, it will be a 9am draw and breakfast is available in the on site cafe