Philtone 7 a side

Landsend fishery was playing host again to this annual event organised by Phil and Neil Mercer from philtone printers, it is a bit of a mixture of employees and friends, and towards bit of spice its turned into a team match with 7 a side, des shipp was in charge of one team and me the other, over breakfast at the fishery which was as good as usual we drew for teams, then for pegs so we alternated around the lake , I ended up on peg 42, not a bad peg and probably about the deepest on the lake at nearly 5 foot deep, for company I had des on peg 41 and Craig "trigger"Edmunds on 45, looked like being a tough day with some more neckache for me, or even worse whiplash, lol.
Three rigs would be enough today , a couple of rigs for straight out at 14 mtrs , one for banded pellet and another for maggot, and another for fishing maggot down the track to my left towards trig, didn't take to long to sort out, but the start was put back 10 mins as there was a bit of ice breaking needed.

To begin I cupped in some hard 4,s out on the 14 mtr line and some micros and maggots down the track to my left, I was still feeding when des had his first bite, but it was a liner as he never connected , I started on double maggot o it at 14 mtrs and had a good start with a 4lb carp first drop, and an f1 next put in, des also had a carp but trig was very quiet, I had a couple more f1,s on maggot but apart from odd liners  nothing much was happening, Neil Mercer over on 66 had a couple as did willow to his right on 65, a switch to the banded 6mm pellet produced a few more fish in the shape of 2 more carp and some more f1,s.

I did get my biggest fish to my left on maggot at about 7/8lb and I lost a couple of foulers from there aswell, by the end I thought I would have about 30lb, 4 carp plus 9 f1,s, but looking up the lake Martin rayet on 55 had a good last hour fishing meat at 16 mtrs along the end bank, also Neil Mercer ended up with 7 carp , so that would beat me aswell.
First was Martin rayet with 61.4
2nd Neil Mercer on 66 with 42.6
3rd me with 31.6
4th trig 23.7
5th Alan oram on 62 with 23.5
6th Clint wojtyla on 70 with 22.9
Silver's top weight was me with 11.8 of f1,s.

A quick look at the points revealed that team tone triumphed over team des by 4 points allowing us some bragging rights till next year, big thanks to Phil and Neil Mercer for organising the match, much appreciated,
Anyone interested I am running a match here on Sunday 8th Jan, not sure which lakes yet, will decide when I get some numbers, so ring, txt or msg me on fb or contact Mike at the fishery on 07977545882 to book in, it will be a 9am draw.
Finally in hope you all have a good new year from Judith and me, all photos kindly taken by Judith today , she appears to be improving .

Viaduct 2 day silver pairs

Booked in to fish this 2 dayer with Craig Edmunds, so with him drawing for us I was guaranteed a flyer, wasn't I ,?
Into the draw tin on day one and he pulls out 12 on spring for himself, not the best, then he lets 110 on Campbell leap into his hand for me, cheers pal, with it being a very shallow peg, incessant to confident to be honest, I had Phil cardwell next peg on 111, it was the first outing for my Xmas prezzie from Judith in the shape of the new MAP Z30 seat box , and first impressions are that it a nice sturdy piece of kit, so if anyone is looking for a box upgrade , this range of new boxes is well worth a look, all models in stock at veals fishing tackle in Bristol.

With it being so shallow and clear I wasnt to sure it would be ok, so at the start I cupped in balls of groundbait on lines at 11 and 14 mtrs, some neat caster at 16 , and some caster with a few chopped prawns down by the stump to my left and some at 14 mtrs off to the left, for perch and tench hopefully, to cut a long story short the prawn lines were a non starter as I had 2 carp for about 24lb on the 14 mtr line, and not a bite down by the stump.

The long pole lines were just giving me tiny roach, with not a skimmer in sight , but Phil to my right was getting some decent skimmers, so just love an hour from the end I cupped in 3 balls of groundbait at 16 mtrs to my right about halfway between me and Phil, I had my first skimmer of about 10 oz 40 minutes from the end shortly followed but another, then 5 mins from the end I had a 2 1/2 lb fish to drag me off last in the section to 4th, Phil won the section with 16 lb, I put his success down to him being a good angler and having 12 more inches of water than me, plus his platform does go out further into the lake, a disaster for me but luckily trig managed second in section, so two section wins on day two would be needed to get us in the money, first on the day went to that man des shipp with 22.8 of mainly skimmers on the pole on peg 3 on spring.
2nd Dan squire on 37 with 20.12
3rd Phil cardwell on 111 with 16.2
4th mat Parsons on 123 with 14.12
DAY 2
Trig drew again for us today, handed me 60 on lodge which I wasn't to upset with . And lo and behold 110 for himself, serves him right LOL, for company today I had John fuidge on 59 and birthday boy Martin McMahon on 62, who had his son, Joe, opposite on 68, so at least they could share there swims with no arguing, well nearly none !!!!.

It was another fairly rubbish day for me again today , with not even plippy roach to annoy me , and I had to watch the angler at the next peg feed a fairly steady stream of skimmers into his keep net, no not Martin to my right , but John to my left, whilst I sat there virtually biteless, I did get the odd skimmer but it was like there was a brick wall between me and John as nothing seemed.to be getting through, in fact it only appeared to be John catching anything on our lake.

Martin Preston over on 69 had a few fish on the wag and caster, but he wast in out section, as expected John won our section with 23.12 and I was second in the section with 5.1, that's winter fishing for you.
On the day it was that man des again who won on the day with 33.10 off peg 128 fishing single caster on the waggler, catching quality fish in the shape of skimmers, perch tench and hybrids, there's no stopping him.
2nd was his nephew , Ryan on peg 119 who fished the same way for 27.12
3rd John fuidge with 23.12
4th Mark Harper on peg 17 with 21.7.
Pairs
Des shipp/mark Harper with 4pts (max) 82.10
Ziggy slowinski/John fuidge 7pts 47.15
Martin(mullah) preston/ Phil cardwell 9pts 40.4
Ryan shipp/rucky mills 10pts 48.15
Off to the docks tomorrow to try some drop shorting for perch then it's off to Landsend fishery on Friday for the annual philtone team match

Todber manor pairs series final match

Before I go on about the days fishing , bit of a shout out for Nick merry and his mate who are doing a charity car journey for this country to mali for a couple charities close to there hearts , one is for a heart condition and  the other is for premature babies , both good causes, he is looking for donations so here is the link to to do it
www.justifying.com/fundraising/nick-merry1
They leave boxing day and be in Mali by the 16 January, his travelling partner is John buttress, its called the Dakar challenge and they have to do it in a 300.00 quid banger, the two charities are anaphylaxis campaign and pickle pickles,  both good causes so please take the time and donate a few quid.
Back to today and it was my.turn on ash lake which has been the most consistent lake in the series, a draw in the middle of the lake would be good as that's where the weights have been coming from, into the draw and out comes peg 75, the far end peg, its been a hard peg for the series so far, but you never know.

The view looking down the lake towards the good pegs, which were occupied by Fred Roberts and nick"cant count"ewers, not content with being on the flyer Fred also walked around the far side to retrieve his waggler from the far side, or he may have been trying to walk a few more fish down to his peg. !!!!!!!!.

I set up rigs to fish banded pellet on the pole on a couple of spots at 14 mtrs and also 14 mtrs to my right about a mtr off the end bank, and a waggler was assembled as it been a good method on this lake recently, fished towards the far bank in about 2 feet of water, at the start I cupped in some pellets on all lines then picked up the wag rod,
And so began a very enjoyable match, catching smallish carp regularly on banded 8mm hard pellet, I spent probably 4 of the 5 hours on the wag, and the other half was spent on the pole nicking a few fish from the long pole lines , again on banded 8mm hard pellet, I new I was keeping in touch with the good pegs , and it looked a although I may be ahead, Steve nadin innate end peg the other end was also catching so it may be close at the end , but tot wasn't to close as I had enough with 128.8 for first .
Jnt second with 96.4 was Fred Roberts and Steve nadin
4th Nick ewers with 91.8
5th Nick merry with 49.8
6th ash Tompkins with 40.10.
The series was won by Mark poppleton and Nick merry, son well done to them, and thanks to mark for running the series, hopefully he will get up to 20 pairs next year.
A nice sunset to finish the day off .

No more matches this week so I hope you all have a good Xmas and all get what you want.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

All I've really got to say about today was that the breakfast in the bridge in yatton was very nice, myself, Leon Hubbard, Adriano mercato and even Dave wride was having one so it must be very good value for money.
Off for the draw and out comes 31 for me , not the best but Mr wride did win the silver's off it last week with 3 skimmers for 4lb, for company I had "our Mark" Thomas on peg 34 next to the bridge and Paul faiers the other side on 27, shame he got set up and plumbed up before he was advised with 15 mins to go he was actually set up on 28, so he had to move, I hope I'm not as bad as him when I'm his age.

But he soon had it sorted with the only angler older than him fishing today, organiser Mike Chapman.
I havnt got to much to say about how the day went as I never had a fish from in front of me or to my left either up or down the shelf, I put some groundbait down the middle to my right and did have a couple of skimmers, a goldfish, an f1 and a couple of roach, no bites to my right up or down the far shelf, about an hour from the end I had a few bites down by the empty pallet to my right and managed 4 carp and lost a couple of foulers, I also lost two foulhooked carp down the middle, it was definitely a case of to little to late as Mike Chapman on peg 24 had a good half of the match catching some carp on dobbed bread then on single maggot, also it turns out Ray bazeley was making full use of his new sponsorship deal with mother's pride and catching on dobbed white stuff on bridge peg 6, so Mike won with 50+ pounds to his travelling partners 40+ which was second, and Paul "can't  count" faiers won the silver's with 10+. Weigh sheet below.

Viaduct silver's league, final round

After a nice breakfast at lillypool cafe with Judith and Jason Radford it was off to viaduct, with absolutely no chance of getting into the overall league standings it was a day to try and win the match, I let Judith draw for me again and she did nth disappoint as she pulled me 126 on Campbell, a nice area and definitely a potential winning or framing peg, for company on 125 was Leon Hubbard and Dave burns on 127. It didn't take long to tackle up, a couple of rigs to fish maggot or caster over groundbait at 11 and 14 mtrs, and a rig to fish with prawns, I did a bit of a throw away line off to the left at 16 mtrs.

To begin with I put in 3 balls on each of the two long lines. And a few chopped prawns on the 16 mtr line, I started at 5 mtrs with caster on one of the long pole rigs , and after 20 minutes of that and with only a few small roach to show I was soon at 11 mtrs, but the small roach were there aswell, but still not many at all, normally they are a nuisance , but not today, I couldn't catch a skimmer or tench to save my life, and to be fair apart from Tim Clark opposite on 115 who had a few early skimmers on the pole, and Adrian Jeffery on 111 who was fishing prawns on the lead, it was quiet all round by the look of things, it took me till about halfway through to get my first skimmer, and it was decent at about 2lb.

I had another soon after ,then lost one , that seemed to unsettle the swim for a while before I had another of about 1lb, and apart from a few small skimmers that was the end of my bream action for the day, apart from losing a late one, bigger. As for the prawn line , well I did manage two perch and lost two aswell, so to be honest I have had a bad day at the office as those two lost skimmers and perch probably cost me framing today, but that's fishing, sometimes they don't all stick, I ended up with 11.4 which was good enough for second in the section, so a bit of coin back then, the section was won by Mark Saunders on peg 124 with 14lb, he had a worse day than me on lost skimmers, strange day, no wind or trip probably didn't help matters, the match months day was won by the old campaigner Mike Nicholls on peg 70 with 30.3 of waggler caught roach and skimmers on caster.
2nd was gabe skarba on peg 78 with 22lb
3rd paddy on 62 with 17.5
4th Bob gullick on 128 with 16.3
5th kev Newman  on 100 with 16lb
6th Sam Powell on 88 with 15lb
League overall
1st mat tomes on 8 points dropping a 3
Well done mat, did well off not always the best draw
2nd stu white also on 8 points but dropping a 4
3rd Sam (Tom) Powell also on 8 points but dropping a 5.

So that was a tight finish in a hard league with a good standard of angler, as always a well run league so well done to Steve and mat for doing a good job, and to Colin dyer for always being on hand to help with the weigh in , as for me , well there's always next year, this league has been good to me in previous years with me winning it then being second for the two years after that, so I will be back LOL.
I nearly forgot, here's one of my prawn caught perch, its the first one I've had on this bait, but in still reckon they are better in a cocktail starter or in a sarnie with a nice dressing.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Only a desperate dozen out today for hopefully a bit of a fish fix, so after a decent breakfast in the bridge pub in yatton with Chris Fox , and our pools paid, it was into the draw bag, a peg towards the entrance was hoped for ,but no I go and draw 22 next to the bridge at the far end, it was obviously expected to be hard as I had 9 empty pegs to my left , the next angler there was Dave wride, soon had myself sorted, but I still seem to end up with a bit of a bomb site looking peg lol.

Several areas to target today, by the bridge, 11 , 13 and 16 mtrs at the bottom of the far shelf off to my left, and by the empty pallet to my left, on top of the shelf and at the bottom of the near side shelf, the bait today would be the plain maggot, at the start I fed a few maggots on all lines with a few soaked micros aswell, I began against the bridge, but it took a while to get a bite.

It was a small carp, I went straight back in but never had a sign, so I fed a few more maggots there and tried the 11 mtr line, had another small carp there, but it was the same pattern, went back in but no bites, so refed a bit and went back to the bridge and had an f1, but again no more, the day was spent swapping between all lines but only managing one fish at a time, the near side down to my left never produced a bite , all bites came from the bottom of the far side shelf, but it was only very odd bites, by the end I had 7 small carp and 3 f1,s for about 30lb , which looked to be ok except for Dave blakemore on peg 15 who had 8 better size fish, which ever one expected to be enough on the day, and it was as he weighed 43lb exactly for a well earned win.

I was second with 30.13
The Peter pan of Bristol match fishing, Leon Hubbard on peg 6 had 24.5
3rd Mike Owens on 13 with 17.2
4th Ray bazeley on peg 9 with 15.10
5th Mike Chapman on 2 with 15lb
6th John (Turkey)Thompson on 5 with 2 foulhooked carp for 12.6

Landsend winter league, rnd 1

33 booked in for this series, which is ok, 11 on a lake then. After a di special in the cafe it was draw time, Ken rayner was doing the honours again this year and it can be a bit of a thankless task, so fair play to him, he still has his brief case of dreams though.

I let Judith draw for me again today as she did ok last time , so into the bucket and out comes 55, its the end peg on lake 3, not the best as the other end of the lake is normally best, and any of the pegs on the far side up to about halfway up the lake, but normally ok for a few, but rarely a match or section winning peg.
As expected ice breakers were called for, especially on our lake as every peg had a lid on it, but it wasn't to thick, so 10 minutes of lead ball slinging soon had it broken up , and then another 5 minutes clearing the ice out, it was going to be tough but I do enjoy ice fishing and thus is about the best fishery about for bites in these conditions.
Two rigs today, both .2g as6  floats with size 20 middy 8313 hooks one on .12 and the other with .14.
Three lines today, 11 and 14 mtrs out slightly to the right on the edge of the ice, and the other line was over to the left at 14 mtrs towards the end bank, all lines to fish maggot with a few micros.
At the start I fed all lines with smidge of bait and began on the 11 mtr line

, I was surprised to get a bite first put in, but it wasn't unexpected, I missed it, so back out with a single maggot and I soon had a few small roach and perch, then 30 mins in I had a 3lb carp, dead handy,

Then it was back to the small fish, then that dried up aswell, so I went out to the 14 mtr line , small fish again then another carp came my way, this was better than I expected to be honest. After that carp on the long line bites all but stopped apart from a 1lb skimmer, the last couple of hours were spent mainly against the end bank where I hooked 5 more carp but lost two of them in an old weed bed to my left at about 8 mtrs which cost me a place in the section, Tom mangnal on peg 41 won the section with 43.2, and Adrian Clark on 51 also had 5 carp ,but of a larger stamp which went 24.14, but it was a good day as I've spent it with Judith who was in charge of photos again, the only problem She had was that we were about as far from the loo as you could get, about halfway through the call for the wee room got to much, but she thought it was to far to walk to , so it was off into the bushes for her, when I had enforced toilet stop a couple of weeks ago on the way to todber and managed to sting a bum cheek I had no sympathy from anyone including her , so you can imagine how much sympathy she got from me when the same thing got her LOL.
1st on the day was Gary o,Shea on 62 with 81.2, catching mainly on maggot long down to his left.
2nd Tom mangnal on 41 with 43.2
3rd Russ peck on 27 with 41.10
4th Joe McMahon on 70 with 41.4
5th Lewis Jones on 33 with 34.11
6th kev molten on 66 and Pete Ashton on peg  with 29.7
Top silver's went to Paul elmes on 68 with 15.4.
Off to acorn on Tuesday then the last round of the silver's league at viaduct

Avalon silver's league, last match

As I worked Tuesday this week I was given Saturday off instead, so I decided to fish this last match as a stand in to help out , so in was fishing for Nigel Sanders today, he had little, well, no chance of framing in the series, his only chance of a pickup was by ending up above Pete neate, winning there 20 quid side bet, and with Nigel having a near 6lb lead and with today looking to be hard as its been very cold this week, he should be safe !!.
I travelled down with Chris Fox again today , so I was treated to one of carolines lovely brekkies,
Got it the fishery and it was good to see 20 fishing, so not to bad for a Saturday, into the draw early and out comes peg 5, a good summer carp peg but a bit iffy for silver's, and with the wind blowing left to right and in at me presentation was always going to be tricky, as the tow would be going in the same direction, for company I was next to Ken rayner who needed a good day to improve on his 4 place standing going into this match.

 Today was going to be a really simple approach, one rig only, a .8g drennan as6, its a slim float but I've always found it ok in difficult conditions, the business end had an 18 middy 6313 on .10 sensas feeling line.
At the start I fed two lines at 13 mtrs with a couple of balls on each and a line straight out at 9mtrs, it was as hard as I expected with odd small fish, roach and skimmers , but I did get two better skimmers about halfway through, and I lost one at the net aswell, looking around as at as I could see, I was doing as well or better than most, so I just kept plugging away on the three lines, but no more skimmers came my way, apart from a few 2oz samples, I was first to weigh in and was happy with my 10.4, which ended up third on the day, rich Coles on 34 won with just shy of 16lb and Pete neate on 19 had 13 lb, it fished as hard as expected, but everyone had some bites and fish so it was ok.

Off to Landsend fishery tomorrow for the first of the winter league matches, although there can be some bad pegs this time of year, it still ranks as one of my favourite venues, let's hope I'm still saying that tomorrow night , LOL.

Viaduct silver's league, penultimate round

Only me and Judith travelling down today as Pete notton is still a sick note, after a nice brekkie in shipham it was off to the fishery.
Early as normal into the draw, but due to my drawing arm seemingly fallen off I decided to let Judith draw for me, luckily Mike Nicholls had already drawn 132 so that was one peg of doom gone then, I wasn't to upset when Judith pulled 102 out of the tin, its on Cary and there has been a bit of an explosion of small skimmers  on this lake and this seems to have been a good area for them with the chance of the odd big one thrown in,
3 rigs today , a couple of 4x12 rigs , one bulked and the other spread shot , and a .4g double bulked .
At the start I cupped in balls of groundbait at 11 and 14 mtrs with virtually no feed in it , then began at 5mtrs with the spread shot rig trying to catch some roach, it was a bit slow, so after 20 mins it was out to 11 mtrs, and I was soon catching small skimmers with the best bait being single maggot, most of the match was spent at 11 mtrs withy he odd look out to 14 mtrs, it was a busy day shipping in and out so at least it kept me warm.

The banter was ok aswell as I had mat tomes and Steve Jackson behind me on lodge , either side I had Mark leahay to my left and dick bull to my right, and with the rest of my section consisting of Fabio on 105, trev senior on 99 and the ever consistent Gary o,Shea on 98, so quite a hard section to be fair. I did my give my official photographer to much stick as I was in a bit of a precarious position

As in said I have spent most of the day at 11 mtrs with an odd sorte out to 14 , plenty of bites all day but no quality, my biggest fish may have just scraped 12oz, Nick bull managed a few better skimmers including  3lb bream which he had to reverse into the net, but I don't mind as I've had my fair share of those over the years. I did have one torrid bit about 5 mins from the end when my top 4 fell off shipping back with a small skimmer on from 14 mtrs, I managed to get it back to about 4 mtrs from the bank before it sank, so not to worry Steve normally gets sections back out, so it was off the box , a new no4 section put on and back out with the spare 4x12 rig, I managed another 4 oz skimmer as the all out was called, and that fish was crucial , duck bull won the section with 14.14, I was second in the section with 13.4 beating Gary o,Shea by 1oz, ha ha .

First on the day went to Sam (Tom) Powell on 59 with 19.4, that's his second match win of the series so well done to him.
2nd Glen Calvert on 115 with 16.12
3rd des shipp on 68 with 15.13
4th stu white on 86 with 15.3
5th dick bull on 100 with 14.14
6th paddy on 77 with 14.13
A good tight match really so a few bonus fish for anyone in the top 10 could have made all the difference, now looking forward to next Sunday and the first round of the Landsend fishery winter league , ably run by Ken rayner, for those fishing di will be cooking her normal tasty breakfast at the fishery, it should be good as the recent heavy rains have filled the lakes up, there may still be a space or two left, so contact Ken rayner to check.
I did manage to get my top 4 out at the end with a clever little gadget called a frangler, its a mosella invention where you get a little blade designed to cut line and rigs from overhanging branches and reeds, also you get a hook both of which screw into your cupping kit, so I screwed the hook in and managed to retrieve it on the first attempt, definitely a must have small item.

A short lrf session

Been down to Cornwall this week with Judith, and she expressed an interest in trying some lrf, which basically is fishing with really light rods with imitations , namely soft plastics mounted on a jig head, trying to target all sorts of small to moderate size fish, in and around rocks, entities and piers, usually with the emphasis on variety as far as competition goes. Unfortunately the weather was against us from the off with cold easterlies making virtually all the rock and pier venues unfishable, we finally found a bit of shelter in the outer harbour wall at mevagissey, but fishing back into the harbour was still the only option. We bought a pasty (well it is Cornwall) to share, and wandered up to the steps towards the end, I sorted Judith,s rod out while she was munching her half, after she had picked a pukey green rubber worm to go on the jig head, by the time she had finished her half of pasty, her rod was ready to go, I handed it to her and started to have a munch, I was on my second bite and looked up to see her rod hooped over and an angry fish dragging a bit of braid off the reel, she soon had an angry wrasse on the surface of about 1 1/4, it certainly put a bit of a bend in the light hto rod, to say she was pleased was an understatement, and I hadn't even got my rod together yet !!!!!.

I dropped it back , and was quite hopeful of getting a few, but it wasn't to be, we stuck for over an hour but we never had another touch, gutted, I walked back off the pier a broken man!!!

Todber manor pairs series, rnd 3

Three in th a van today as Chris Fox joined me and Ken rayner as his van has an intermittent fault, so after loading up it was off to cannards well for breakfast, and in the absence of the miserable old git who used to do the food and seemed to enjoy upsetting his staff the food was nice and the ambience 100 per cent better, we got to the fishery with about 10 mins to spare so just right.
I was in c section today and as long as I drew above 53 I didn't mind , as 52 and 53 are down in the end of a bay and last match the pegs were last and last but one in the section, and with the chilly breeze blowing down there I thought it may be hard again, so into the draw tin and out comes peg 53, not what I wanted , but you never can tell, as the little buggers do have fins and sometimes move about, for company I was next to venue expert Nick merry who was also moaning a bit, but not to much as he had three empty pegs to his left, so at least he had a lot to draw from, my peg was nearly against the end bank so I was going to rely on a few (hopefully) sneaking past Nick.
I set up 2 rigs, one for banded pellet at 13 mtrs to my right slightly , just at the bottom of the end bank shelf, and another for 6 mtrs in front for maggot over micros and the same rig would do for corn again at 13 mtrs out to the left, and of course I had to put together the obligatory method feeder.

After feeding the pole lines I fished the method feeder for 35 mins but with only a 4oz ghostie to show for my efforts I was soon reaching for the pole, I started on the short line with maggot, and lost a good fish straight away, but it felt fouled, then it was plippy roach, but they were going to do me no good so I all but binned that line, the remainder of the match was spent mainly on the pellet line at 13 mtrs, with an odd look over the corn line, but banded 6mm over 4,s seemed the best, the corn line fish were a bit smaller, with the small tench being a bit of a nuisance, I even had a gudgeon on corn !!!!!. Both Nick and myself caught well for most of the match, no quality just plenty of small carp, with nothing over 1lb, my swim began to fade about 45 mins from the end whereas Nick had a good spell burning that time. So I thought he had beaten me, and he did as he weighed 48lb to my 41, neither of us expected to do any good as the anglers over on the road bank which is in the same section, were catching bigger fish, but surprisingly we were second and third in the section with just Fred Roberts beating us with 60 odd pounds so well done to him, as seems normal the top weight came off ash lake with n white catching 90.12 from peg 67. Alan oram got second spot from hillview 45 with 76.8, weigh sheets below, there plenty of fish caught all round the lakes showing what a good venue this is.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Back to Kingston Seymour again for this match popular Tuesday fixture, after a breakfast at the bridge inn at Hatton it was off to the venue, a little disappointing with a low turnout of only 12, must be the onset of winter,
Nearly last into the ping pong bag and out comes ball 5, a nice peg which I won off last time I drew it about a month ago, but we have had some cold weather since then, so it would be harder today, even though the last couple of days had been unseasonably warm, there were plenty of fish making so we were hoping for a decent day, at least no one was moaning, oh I forgot about des shipp on 38 who hadn't seen a fish move, I did try explain that they would be most probably be feeding on the bottom, but he wasn't convinced.
Not to many rigs today, a pellet rig for across on the island shelf, a maggot rig for left and right margins and another rig to fish a couple of spots in the deep water at 6 and 11 mtrs.

I fed all lines at the start with the necessary baits, but began across on banded 6mm pellet, I had a quick fish , and I expected a few more as there were some fish moving around on the shelf, I was getting a few liners so it kept my interest going, I had the odd fish and with no one really catching I stuck with it, but it got harder instead of easier , the rest of the match was spent chasing round the peg for odd bites, a few down each side .one on the 11 mtr maggot line and some late just down the far shelf on the trusty maggot (triple), I thought I would have nearly 65lb , Mike Owens on 1 had about the same as me , but des behind us on 38 was admitting to 55 lb but even without being able to keep an eye on him I reckoned he had closer to 80lb, and as the weights below show I wasn't to fat out with my estimations.

Dave wride won the sildver's with a net of fairground prizes , all various shades of orange, well done ed wynne for catching 5lb of proper silver fish.

Des with part of his 55lb lol.

Viaduct silver's league rnd 4

Proper short blog this one , best part of the day was breakfast. Not the best part of the day was a drawing peg 132 on Campbell, nice corner peg for carp but a silver's no hoper peg at the mo, my bay went a bit like this, first 30 mins at 6 mtrs and 1 roach to show for it, out to 14 mtrs for a brief flurry of small roach, a look down to my right under the branches of a willow produced only a couple of small roach and some carp, back out to 14 mtrs and a few more small roach and a couple more carp, the wag gave a couple of roach (plippy) , I did get 2 better skimmers in 2 chucks on the wag for about 1 1/2 lb but that was my day done , I weighed 4lb for last but one in section, which is about Parr for the course from the peg really, at least I won a quid off ziggy slowinski on the next peg, as far as the carp went I landed 6 and lost 7, its amazing how hard you can pull on ,10 line and a middy 6313 hook, I didn't wait for the results as I had had enough by the end, off to acorn on Tuesday and todber manor next Sunday, hopefully a bit more action than I had today with the right species lol.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Well the best part of today was finding a decent breakfast close to the fishery, the bridge inn just outside yatton opens at 8am for food and at 5.75 was more the adequate. Myself and Glen Calvert were the only 2 in there, probably a couple more next week though.
Again I was early into the draw and was happy to pull out peg 7, but with only 11 of us fishing if the fish didn't want to play ball there were to many places for them to hide, and that was how the match seemed to pan out, I had a carp of about 7lb first put at 9 mtrs in front, then I had a real crucian at 14 mtrs to my right, and that was it till about 2 hours from the end, I had another carp at 9 mtrs but to get any bites at all I had to fish 17 mtrs to the bridge in front of peg 6 where I had 4 more carp, but I was miles off the pace.as Mark Jones on peg 1 was catching well, mainly going across the lake and fishing by pallet 35 with maggot on the hook, 2nd was Ray bazeley on form peg 13 with 50 odd pounds on dobbed bread and third was rays taxi driver with 35lb on peg 37, my 25lb was only good enough for 6th, oh well onwards and upwards hopefully at the weekend, weigh sheet below, also if anyone is looking for a match on Sunday there is an open on trinity on woodland lake, so phone the fishery to book in.
Well I would have put the weigh sheet up but I'm having problems lol, I will try again later

Now Wednesday morning and the picture sorted 😂

Todber manor pairs rnd 2

Partnering Ken rayner for this series, the intention was to leave my house at 6.45 so we could have a leisurely breakfast at cannards well, but Ken couldn't get his sorry ass out of bed and was 15 mins late, but we still had enough time , my official photographer in the shape of wifey , Judith also came along for the ride, fair play to her as it was going to be a cold one with a biting northerly wind forecast. I fancied a peg with my back to the wind and wasn't disappointed when I pulled out peg 45,
3 rigs today  . A pellet rig for on the deck at 13 mtrs in 3 spots , 9, 11 and 1 o'clock angles and a meat rig for 5 mtrs to the left just down the shelf in just over 3 foot of water, and a maggot rig for the long lines and a it would do the 5 mtr line in front as it is all the same depth.
At the start I fed all lines , but began on maggot at 5 mtrs over micros, after I had , a couple of small silver's soon had me dropping that rig in favour, yes favour of a go on the method, especially as Nick ewers on 48 was catching on it from the start, but 30 mins on that with only a couple of liners to show it was back out on the pole , but at 13 mtrs with banded 6mm over hard 4,s, I was getting odd bites but it was proving difficult, Nick merry to my left on 43 was putting his local knowledge to good use and catching well on the pole, but he did look cold as the wind was blowing into his peg, every now and then the sun would come through the clouds making it feel quite nice.

I was getting enough bites to do well but I was missing some quality, I really needed some bigger carp but it just never happened, the two nicks, merry and ewers had some good fish and Steve nadin on 49 also had some big fish down his edge towards the end , but I had to make do with stockies and gold fish.

No matter what in did I couldn't get any of the big fish I needed so by the end I was looking at 4th in section at best, and that's how I ended with my 32lb coming 4th in section, with Nick ewers winning the section with Nick merry second and Steve nadin third, the top three framers came off ash lake, but considering this was our first really cold snap it was ok. Weigh sheets below.

Viaduct silver's league could be interesting next Sunday if we keep with the cold snap, hopefully the wind will change direction by then !!!!!!

Viaduct silver's league rnd 3

Drove down with Pete noton and Judith today for this one, after the breakfast stop at lillypool which was very nice it was off to the fishery to join the 55 others waiting for the draw, at least Helen was on duty with the kettle, always a nice cuppa.

She does seem a bit camera shy, so Mike Nicholls and me got her with a pincer movement.
Back to the draw and I am really beginning to think I have killed a load of robins somewhere as I took a ticket off Clint wojtyla who pulled out 2 tickets , opened it to see another peg you don't really want, 55 on lodge  a peg right in front of the Carpark, I need a section win to stand any chance of getting in the overalls, but fish have fins so you never can tell.
Made up only two rigs today , a double bulk rig and a more conventional shotted rig, I plumbed up at 11 mtrs and 14 , it was the same depth and a line 6 mtrs to my left which was also the same depth, I drew next to Tim Clark last year, and he was on this peg, and he had some good skimmers off the short line to the left so I would give it a go, at the start I cupped in 2 balls at 11 mtrs and two balls on 2 lines at 14 mtrs, 11 and 1 o'clock.
I began on the 6 mtr line and to be fair I had a dream start for this peg as I had 3 good skimmers for probably 8lb in the first 15 mins, but after that I had a few roach from that line but the quality disappeared, but it was a good decision and a good start, happy days, next stop the 11 mtr line, a couple of skimmers (6oz) then small roach.

Most of the rest of the match was spent on the 2 long lines, swapping between them, I had a few more skimmers and lots of small roach, plenty of bites really so no complaints, the double bulk rig didn't work today so most of the match was spent on the conventional shotting pattern, although I initially put some chopped worm in the groundbait, it didn't seem to help, so subsequent balls just had caster in and single caster seemed the best bait for me today, by the end I thought I had done enough to win my section, and I had as I ended with 22.10, 15.8 was second in the section, so those three early big skimmers were vital. Luckily gabe skarba wasn't in my section as he had put some good bream into his net during the match, and ran out an easy match winner with 42.10, from peg 68, fishing worm over his secret groundbait mix (lol), well done matey.
2nd was Chris Davis on 102 with 27.9
3rd (somehow) Tim Clark on 77 with 25.14
4th Phil (Fabio) Harding on 100 with 23.5
5th was me with 22.10
6th Glen Calvert on 69 with 22.8

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Travelled with Chris Fox again today so we were treated to o me of carolines finest breakfasts, and very nice to.
Off to the fishery and a bit disappointed to find only 14 fishing,
Ray and Mike got the draw underway on time and I was fairly early into the bag and out comes ping pong ball 5, nice, Mike Chapman won off it on Sunday with over 150lb , he caught on maggot about a mtr off the far bank using maggot, so hopefully some fish would still be in residence, I soon had my kit over the bridge and on the peg.

There was only one other angler on the island with me and that was Dave Stephenson on peg 2, he's been on the island that often in recent weeks that he is considering changing his name to Tom hanks (castaway), behind me was Chris who was deciding whether to caster for the silver's pot.

A few rigs today, two pellet rigs for across, one on top of the shelf and one just down, a maggot rig for in the deep water at 5 mtrs and another for maggot down the left hand margin towards the corner of the island, only 3 mtrs away, and then ensued an enjoyable match, catching fish on all methods , I began on the down the shelf rig on banded pellet and soon had a couple of fish in the net, and as I was feeding with a catty , the overshoot of pellets soon had a few fish mooching around on top of the shelf, so I went onto the rig for that with banded 6mm pellet, and I had a good run, before they started to shy away, mainly due to the clear water, no ducks this week to colour the water up, I tried maggot rig at 5 mtrs and had some fish there, and a few down the edge, also on maggot, the only other people I could really see were Mike Chapman on 9 who was catching quite well, also Mike Owens on 11 was getting a few, but I managed to stay ahead of those , and by the end in thought I had 150lb, and with Mike admitting to 130 I thought I had done enough.

And I had as I was very close with my estimation as I had 152.1
Mike was second on 9 with 125
Mike Owens should have been third but he went over the 70lb net limit so only weighed 21lb instead of 92 , we've all been there
So third was Dave Stephenson on peg 2 with 77.11
4th Dave wride on 24 with 57.4
5th Andy gard on 27 with 55lb
6th Lee Waller  on 31 with 54.13
Silver's
Ed wynne on 21 with 8.4.
Off to viaduct this Sunday for round 3 of the silver's league, after two carp rounds the league is over for me, there's always next year lol.