Landsend fishery, philtone works match

I managed to get in on this one as they made it a 6 on 6 team match, with only 12 on the lake we all had a bit of room, I was hoping for a draw on the far bank 13to24 so the wind would be off our back, I wasn't disappointed as 18 came to my hand .for company I had Anton page on 19 and Clint Montoya on 16 and with Paul elves on 15 Alan oram on 21 and trig Edmunds on 22 it was never going to be quiet, peg 18 is on the end of the far island so there is a gap to fish into so I set up a hard pellet rig for there and the same rig would do to fish to an overhanging Bush just to my left on the island, I put open a meat rig but never had a bite on it on the rare occasions I tried it, the last rig was a caster rig for 5 mtrs.
On the all in I fed all lines and began on the caster line, but it didn't start to well as all I had in the first hour was a few roach and one perch, Anton had 4 carp in the same time and both Paul and Clint off to my left had about the same, so I went over to the Bush and in the next couple of hours I had 6 carp but Clint and Paul had pulled even further ahead, Anton in the mean time had dried up and was struggling to get a bite. Now my bush swim completely died so I went into the gap on pellet, where I wanted to fish quickly proved to be impossible as part of the island had fallen in and it appeared there was some branches or sticks gone in with it making to snaggy to fish so I had to fish more into the middle of the gap, but I did get a couple more carp and some silvers in the shape of f1,s and skimmers, a look back on the caster line gave me a near 2lb perch and another 2  decent skimmers, with no chance of an overall pickup I began to think I may get the silver's and by the end with no one admitting to more than about 10lb I thought that was looking good , as far as the overall on the day it was going to be a three horse race between Martin reyat on 13 , Paul elmes on 15 and trig on 22, but as Paul had been singing like a canary on crack for the most of the match I reckoned he would have it . But it turned out to be a lot closer , with as expected with 91lb. Martin was second with 90lb and trig had 88lb the back up weights we r e ok as well considering the really bad weather with the wind and torrential rain, I had 18 1/2 pounds of silver's but Neil Mercer on pegs 2 and 3 had 19lb, as it was his works match he was allowed to move from peg 2 as he deemed it to windy !!!!!, faggot at least I had my silver's out of one peg lol.

Harescombe fishery

This was an open match organised by Steve Sewell, and with 17 fishing not to bad and about right on this lake as it means everyone gets an empty peg on one side at least. I travelled up with Ron hardiman and we arrived in plenty of time to enjoy one of Andy's breakfast which isn't to bad.
I got into the draw about halfway through, really wanting to draw one of the corners, 29 or 15 preferably, but it wasn't to be , out comes peg 10 which can be a good area as its in the Carpark and plenty of bait goes in on these pegs. At least I could park close enough to the peg not to worry about getting the trolley out.

I was tempted to reverse over my peg so as I could use the tailgate as cover as it was passing down and it didn't look to be stopping any time soon. I was still expecting the hard pellet to be the way to go again, so I set a 4x14 rig for 5mtrs and a rig for over to the island and the same rig would do for down the edge.
For company I had Alan Healy on 9 and t welsby on 12.
I started on the close pellet line , fully expecting to catch straight away , but it took 10 mins to get my first fish, a decent f1, and by the end of the first hour I was on 3 , and it wasn't going to plan at all, in fact the whole match didn't pan out as I expected , bites were at a real premium, Chris szakacs over on 22 caught smallish f1,s most of the match and I could see Sean Clayton up on 29 whose peg got better towards the end of the match, and looked to have won easily by the end, and he did with 35.4 of caster caught f1,s and small carp.
2nd was Chris szakacs on 22 with 26.8
3rd Keith Meredith on peg 24 with 26.4
4rd Lee Waller on 16 with 24.5
5th rod Wooten on 3 with 23.5
6th adie(creepy)crawley on 18 with 23lb
Low weights by this fisheries normal standards, but it was fair, I did manage a few more f1,s from various parts of my peg, but only ended up with 17.1 for nothing today, it was exactly the same as my travelling partner for the day..
Andy is running a silver's match on field lake on New year's eve, so if anyone fancies it ring Andy on 07896959071 and book in

Xmas eve land send open

After the normal tidy brekkie in lillypool cafe it was of down to the wind and rain at the fishery, but that was meant to stop by 10, which it did luckily, 16 fishing so we put 12 on the match lake and 4 on the good pegs at the top end of the speci.
I didn't mind where I drew nearly last and ended up on 19 for the second time in a week, didn't really mind as thought I did think I did it a bit wrong last time , so try and put that right today.
For company I had Andy Gard on 17 and Ricky the scaffolder on 20, so no option of any margin fishing as back towards 18 there is a big bush right next to 19 pallet, which you can't get past.
Only three rigs to begin with. One for across in the island gap for pellet as this turned out to be the best catching area, one for pellet down the shelf and a meat rig for 13 mars off to the left at 11 o'clock angle. At the start I cupped in some meat at 13 and began firing some 4,s across to the island for up and down the shelf. I gave the meat line a good hour to begin with, but all I had was a rectal fin hooked 8lb common which did give me a proper run around. So I went across at the bottom of the island shelf fully expecting to get at least liners, but nothing happened, now this was a worry, so I tried up the shelf and had a couple of carp and f1,s, going nowhere fast with this one then. And I would really like to say things improved but it never . The only person doing well was Paul Elmer on 11 who was getting a few on pellet across to the island and some on meat in the deep water, trigger opposite was catching f1,s on soft pellet against the island . I did set up a rig for caster against the island and I did have an f1 and a few perch but not to much else. So most of the rest of the match was spent in the island gap, I did manage a few more carp plus a couple of f1,s and skimmers, I thought I was well off the pace to pick up a bit of coin, I did lose a good fish in the last 5mins which I thought may cost me . And I was straight as I ended with 5 carp for 27lb and my silver went 11lb for 38lb
1st was Paul Elmer on 11 with 70.8
2nd Alan oram on 7 with 45.8
3rd Kevin molten on 24 with 43.8
4th Adrian Clark on 15 with 39.4
5th Russ peck with 38.14 on peg 22
6th was me with 38lb, so that lost l a st fish did cost me!!!!
Silver went to trig on 5 with his mainly f1 and late skimmers for 22.8.
Just wrote this waiting for me turkey dinner which smells as though it may be ready soon 😁😁😁😁 so I hope you are having a really good Xmas.

Landsend fishery , loyalty match

A bit of extra cash in the pot today as 13 of us had been paying a pound every visit to the fishery during the year , till we get to 15 quid then it was capped , so on top of the daily pools Mike was going to pay out top three and top two in silvers out of the extra.
Into the draw tin and outcomes 19, not to bad then , although it hast had a win off it recently it is a peg with more than a little form lol.
Company wise I had the gimp on 18 and trigger on 21. Only three rugs today , two pellet rigs, one for just up the far island shelf and one for on top of the said shelf, and a meat rig for. 9 mtrs.
At the start I cupped in some meat at 9 mtrs and began firing some 4mm pellets across towards the island and into the gap of the islands. It was just about now that Adrian Jeffrey returned after going home to get his holdall he had inadvertently left on his drive, it must be posh where he lives , no one nicked it.
Trig next to me had a fish before Adrian got to his peg, using his beloved meat at 13 mtrs, I started on the pellet across, but it was a bit slow, by the end of the first hour I had 2 f1,s and a roach , where's trig was on about 4 carp , and Ken rayner was also doing well on peg 7 fishing the far side on pellet, and Paul elmes on 16 also had a couple on meat at 6 mtrs, but for the rest it was hard going.
I was really. Struggling to catch carp, I did foul a couple , but I wasn't even getting liners to any degree, as can be a problem on this peg, so I don't think there were lots of carp in residence , I kept an odd f1 going into the net and as they count as silvers here !!!!, I thought I may sneak the silver prize. I did get a few carp in the last couple of hours fishing on top of the island shelf but it was always to little to late as trig and Ken caught odd carp all through , and by the end they were both admitting to 80lb ish , so it was going to be tight for top spot . As it turned out Ken just did enough putting 88.9 in the scales.
One fish behind in second was Craig Edmunds with 84lb
3rd Paul elmes on 16 with 67.15
4th was me with 62lb including the top silvers weight of 16.9,
5 th Mike duckett and kev molten both with 22.2
Back down there again this Thursday for a costcutter  9am draw , ring or St me on 07974807941 to book in or ring or text Mike at the fishery on 07977545882 to book.

Thursday affordable , harescombe

15 turned up today which is ok , not to sure as to where the fish would want to be at the mo as the weather is stupidly warm for the time of year, a peg at the windy end would be the obvious choice, but I wasn't to upset to dip into the bag and come out with 29, I think I only drew it as stuart graham wasn't here today to rest it .
It's a flyer as its a little lake all to yourself due to the landslip out in front , also the water source runs in just to the right of the peg so the fresh water hits the swim first, that can only be good then. For company I had Dave cook on 30 then Chris telling round on peg three, the other side of the landslip was Mike Nichols on 24. Rigs today were a .3g rig to fish maggot at 3 and 5 mtr lines  just to my right on the edge of the flow and a pellet rig for towards the island at 13 mtrs and along the left hand bank, there were quite a few carp showing at about 18 mtrs towards the landslip , but unless I set up a wag or lead they were going to stay safe today, also there is a big pipe sticking out of the water at 14 mtrs making rod and line fishing past it frought with problems .
At the start I cupped in some maggots and a few 4 mm pellets on the two short lines and began firing some 4,s to the island and left had swims.
Starting on maggot and it soon became clear that it was going to be impossible to determine as to where they going as the bit of flow coming in via the stream was sending rigs and maggots all over the swim, so ten minutes in and after a couple of small roach I was putting a banded hook on the rig and feeding 4,s only, at least the robins and wrens enjoyed the maggots, I soon started catching small proper carp and occasional f1,s, but it was a case of catching two or three from one spot then switching to another line and resting the others, the only other person who seemed to getting a few was Chris telling who had some fish on dobbed bread to begin with then on pellet later in the match,
I just had fish from all lines , I even had a few trotting in the  flow from the stream , by the end I reckoned on 50lb , with Chris being my closest threat , but I new I had beaten him, and as I was at the top of the lake looking down at all the others , not to much had been caught, I was last to weigh and was happy to see the scales read 60.3 for the win
2nd was Chris telling on peg 3 with 37.5
3rd Martin hook on 7 with 33.8
 4th Roy Liddell on 13 with25.9
5th Alan oram on 9 with 24.9
6th Mike Nichols on 24 with 21.15
I used the drennan acolyte carp pole again and at 13 mtrs it was a nice pole to fish with , even when I did a stint at 14 mtrs it was well manageable, I've only had fish up to 5lb on it so far but I felt very confident , and I can't wait to get some proper lumps on it , but I can't see it letting me down.
Next Thursday on Xmas eve I am running one at landsend fishery , as normal it will be a 9am draw , and it will be a 16 quid costcutter, so ring or text me on 07974807941 to book in.

Viaduct silvers league , final match

Travelled down with Chris fox today and after the normal nice brekkie at lillypool cafe, it was off to the fishery, there were a few no shows today , which as far as the payout goes didn't matter as the pools for the last match are paid as part of the entry fee, it's just a bit annoying having empty pegs as people get points they might not have ordinarily had ,
I was early into the draw as is my want , and out comes 126 on the far bank of Campbell, definitely no complaints from me on that one , proper flyer for silvers. I needed a section win to stand any chance of winning the league, and I still had to rely on Sam Powell and Dan squire having a bit of a blow out, Dan drew 99 so he was on a good peg, and Sam was on 66, which to be fair hasn't been to bad for a few fish in the series so far but he was up against some better pegs,
Getting to my peg I had Mark leahay on 127, Andy power on 128 ,Alan or am on 129 and ziggy slowinski on 132, peg 130 wasn't drawn, the other side of me on 125 and in the other section was Nick chedzoy, so good company .
Chatting to Gary oshea after the draw he told me he won the silvers the day before off my peg with 21 lb of skimmers on corn on the wag, he said it was to windy to do anything else, so with that in mind I set a wag on the new shimano beastmaster 11 ft wag rod with a 3aaa float and a 18 middy 6313 on .12 . Two pole rigs today, nearly identical except one was 4x12 and the other 4x14. Both with my favourite middy size 18 6313 hooks on .10. At the start I cupped in three balls of caster laced groundbait on the 11 mtr line and the same at 14 mtrs, leaving that to settle I picked up the wag rod slipped a piece of corn on and slung it out, almost straight away mark nailed a 3lb tench on his short pole line, on a worm head I think, so up against it early on, I missed a couple of tentative bites before connecting with stench of my own , but it looked half the size of marks. After 30 mins and only a couple me iffy indications I was reaching for the pole , straight out into the 11 mtr line with a caster on and the float settled and went straight under, a good start with a 3 lb bream safely netted, followed by several smaller samples, thus ensued a nice match with small skimmers being obliging, lots of 6 oz fish, I did get a couple more better ones during the match and another tench, I also had a nice 2lb goldfish on the wag when I tried it again at. The halfway stage , very welcome as proper goldfish. Count as silvers. Bite were very iffy as there was no wind , just for a change , so although the rigs were set up for double bulks but lifters were virtually none existent, so I found it best to fish as close to dead depth as poss with the float dotted down and most bites going under , Mark started to catch a few better skimmers towards the end and I felt I needed a couple more bonuses, which luckily I had in the shape of a better tench and one of my 3 better skimmers 2 mins from the end, Andy power had really struggled as had Alan pram the other side of the spit, ziggy on 132 was admitting to a nice day wag and caster fishing , and he was first to weigh and plonked 19.12 on the scales, Alan had 9 plus, Andy had 14 something and Mark had 18, then I put 27.2 on the scales for a section win and first overall on the day,
2nd went to Bob gullick on 119 with 24.2
3rd Fred Roberts on 62 (I think)with 22.2
4th Roland Lucas on 110 with 20.12
5th Craig Edmunds on 96 with 20.8
6th ziggurat slowinski on 132 with 19.12
A nice close frame really, makes it interesting , no one running away with it.
Final placing
1st Sam Powell with 6 points dropping a 3 pointer, well done to him as he won his section off not to good a peg really
2nd was me also on 6 points but dropping a 4
3rd Dan squire on 7 points
4th Dom Sullivan on 9 points dropping a 3
5th Bob gullick on 9 points but dropping a 4
And 6th and last in the money was steve kedge also on 9 points but dropping a 5
As normal this was a well run league as most matches at this venue tend to be , so well done to steve for doing another good job.

Thursday costcutter, avalon

Only 9 turned up today, probably the crappy weather forecast kept a few indoors. We spread the pegs out on the left hand bank as the wind was meant to swing round to a more westerly direction so it would be off our backs , not blowing strongly up the lake from the carpark as it was when we were getting ready to draw, kev molten drew for me and handed me 9, means nothing really as its a venue where it's nearly impossible to predict the winning peg, perhaps that's one of the reasons people don't like it as there are less excuses if they do bad, also it's not normally a big weight venue with someone running away with it.
Rigs today were two silver ones , a 1g bodied and a .75 g pencil to fish at 4 and 9 mtrs, no chance of fishing any longer as the wind wasn't showing any signs of changing direction, even 9 mtrs was going to be tough, I also set up a wag rod to fish at the end of the island in front , in case the wind eased or changed direction, I was trying out a new shimano beastmaster 9/11 wag rod , and it does feel quite nice , but catching a fish on it would be the best test, but unless the conditions changed it wasn't going to happen today.
At the start I cupped in 3 balls of groundbait with some casters in at 9 mtrs and one ball at 4 mm, and just about managed to get some 6mm hard pellets to the island , straight out to 9 mtrs with maggot on, 5 mins later and a small perch was swung in, a change to caster and 5 minutes later and I had a 2lb skimmer, at the same time terry Bruton on peg 7 was netting a carp caught from his margin, signs looked good but a definite false dawn as terry never had another bite all day, the longer line was really hard to get presentation on due to the wind which was so strong I had to let the pole blow round on several occasions, it was that fierce, but at least the promised rain didn't seem to be arriving.
I tried the close line but apart from a perch and two small skimmers that was biteless, for most of the match I had to battle the wind at 9 mtrs for an odd bite, the small roach which can be a real nuisance at this venue when fishing maggot were absent today, very strange after another good skimmer on caster I spent the rest of the match on double maggot at 9 mtrs apart from a 15 minute spell when the wind finally decided to do as it was forecast and blow from behind, I did have two bites on the wag and landed two small carp, and it has to be said the rod felt nice with a good cushioning action when the hooked fish are under your feet, and at £110 quid for a 9/11 foot rod it seems like good value for money.
I had odd skimmers during the match ending up with 10 good ones and the two carp for an estimate of 25lb, which sounded as though it would be enough for today, and luckily it was as the skimmers went 23.8 and my two carp were 5.8 for 29lb total.
2nd rich Coles on 5 with 18.10
3rd Mike west on 23 with 16.6
4th kev molten on 17 with 11.7
5th Chris Rolf on peg 1 with 9.11
6th john Bradford on 13 with 9lb
Not an easy day certainly not helped with the strong winds, oh well off to viaduct on Sunday for the final round of the silvers league then back up to harescombe next Thursday , hopefully the wind and rain may have stopped by then , I'm getting sick of chasing a float through my pegs being pushed by
A gale , o for a wind against trip swim.

Landsend individual league , round 1

didnt have my usual brekkie at lillypool today, as I've been off for a few days with problems at either end and cramps in the middle I decided scrambled eggs on toast would be the best option, just in case.
Travelled down with Jason Redford so at least I saved him a bit of money .
Thirty fishing the league this year, a few down on previous years and I can't understand why really as it's an interesting venue which produces bites in every peg, you just got to read quickly enough as to whether you go for the overall market or silvers on each lake , there are prizes on the day and overall , so plenty to go for. With only 10 on each lake there would be plenty of room, to much some days when the fish aren't interested as the fish seem to back off into the unoccupied pegs and I'm sure they return and have a proper munch up on the bait you have tried to tempt them with during the match.
Anyway into the draw tin and I hoped for a shortish walk as I was still a bit iffy after dodgy tum, no such luck, peg 51 comes out , towards the far end of lake three, not to upset as there was a section each side of the lake so I was in with 41 to 55, anglers to contend with were Nick ewers on 41, Adrian Jeffrey on 42, dale houses on 46 myself on 51 and Nick duckett on 55, so as you can see plenty of room.
With the weather being so warm I decided on a meat and pellet attack, so I set up a meat rig from r 9 mtrs, a down the edge pellet rig that would double up to fish shallow across the island where part of it has collapsed in, another pellet rig for tight to the island on the deck and a caster rig for some silvers close.
At the all in I began in the 9mtr meat line whilst feeding pellets to the island either side of the small bush which covered the collapsed bank section and some each side to the empty pegs, and some casters on the short line, I stayed on the meat line to long really, I fouled one in the tail early on , which came off sending my rig into the tree above my head, so another rig on and I soon had carp in net on meat , then I missed some iffy bites before I had a small skimmer, so 1 hour 20 I chucked the meat rig up the bank and tried the caster line , there were some obliging roach about but with odd carp being caught on 41 and 46 I decided to go for them, so I shipped out the island deep rig and fished to the right of the bush, I had a couple of smallish carp and skimmers on 6 mm pellet but it wasn't going to well, so a switch to the left of the bush in front of the landslip was much better and a good run of small carp, which was ok but it didn't last to long. A look down my right hand margin didn't produce so I swung round to the left and was rewarded with my biggest fish of the day in the shape of an 8lb common, looking down the lake at the hallway stage I thought i was winning the section, Adrian on 42 was still to catch a carp and Nick on 41 after an early burst had now dried, my deep island swim never kicked I and the last two hours were a bit difficult , I had a few fish off the landslip and two more in my right hand margin, but unfortunately Adrian started to catch some fish shallow on the end of his island , so by the end I thought he had just pipped me for the section, I lost a good fish 3 minutes from the end , it was lip hooked and just came off obviously badly hooked, I thought it may cost me , and it did as Adrian won the section with 50.15 to my 50.5, I new I should have caught a few more roach as Adrian had 9lb of silvers to my 2lb, bugger. The lakes didn't fish as well as most expected with the temps going up to 15c, I think it was probably one of he warmest days I had fished in December, stupidly mild !!!!!.
1st was Paul elmes on peg 7 with 94.12
2nd steve seager on 33 with 66.11
3rd Andy hembrow on 66 with 66.12
4th Craig Edmunds on 34 with 62.4
5th Jason Radford on 68 with 56.3
6th Gary oshea on 5 with 54.6
Top silvers went to Alan or am on peg 25 with 24.9 of roach perch and skimmers .
Thursday's match is at Avalon again 9 am draw , ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in or ring me in veals on Monday or Wednesday on 01179260790.