Thursday costcutter, harescombe fishery

Bit of a shock today, there ended up with 23 fishing, which didn't leave to many spaces, so an end draw on one side or the other would be an advantage, so into the draw bag and out comes peg 16, end peg at the far end of the lake next to the bridge and outlet, not disappointed in the slightest, baits today were easy, a meat rig for down the edge. But only had a foulhooked gudgeon on that despite several attempts with it , so no more on that, another hook wasted.

This end of the lake was flat calm as the wind was northerly, I thought this may effect sport,
Maggot at 3 mtrs and hard pellet along the end bank to my left was my plan.
At the start I began on the close maggot line, but 30 mins in and only 2 gudgeon in the net I was reaching for the pellet rig, beginning at 13 mtrs along the bank, it wasn't much better than the maggot line, I did get one small carp but with no liners or bites things didn't look to good, I could here some splashing from further up the lake also if I cared to look , the more ripple on the water the more bites people seemed to be getting, opposite me on 15 was another Gloucester old boy in the shape of Tony price, but he was faring worse than me , before the start we reckoned on being in for a good day, WRONG.
I did get a couple of small carp from the 3mtr line , but our end seemed to be devoid of the normally obliging f1,s, which tend to be main weight builders here, the only place I could catch was at 14mtrs close to the bridge in 15 inches of water, and every fish was a proper small carp no f1,s.
The picture below shows my nice little margin swim

Although I caught steadily it was never going to be enough today, the other end was where the fish seemed to want to be , top weight came from 24 which was the end peg and was caught by Steve Brown and weighed 78lb he caught mainly on his top 4 with maggot
2nd was degsy "Dr gay"williams next to the winner on 22 and weighed 53.6
3rd Lee" smiler" Waller on peg 2 with 50.14
4th Terry girdelstone on 3 with 41.2
So first and second next to each other the third on the end peg on the other side of the lake and fourth next to him, all at the windiest end of the lake, so even if the wind is chilly the fish seemed to want to follow it
5th Stuart Graham on 19 with 37.4
6th John wood on 21 with 35.2
My fish went 34.10, whole weigh sheet below

I have got field lake looked for the 10 April so if any one fancies it ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in or try ringing me in veals on 01179260790 , only 16 pegs available so book early to avoid disappointment

Acorn Tuesday costcutter

Not a bad turnout with 14 in attendance, and as far as peg preference I didn't mind as the bridge fliers had become difficult, into the draw and out comes ping pong 2 on the island, second weight came off it yesterday to the tune of 80+ pounds , hopefully there would still be a few hanging around.

Wasn't expecting to much rain today but with odd heavy showers expected I put the Brolly up to keep my kit dry, bait today was hard 4 and 6mm pellet and maggots, I set up rigs for pellet across and a maggot rig for over the same line, a maggot rig for down the middle, and a maggot rig to fish to the empty pallets each side.
I started on maggot down the middle but 30 minutes later and not a bite I was reaching for the far side pellet rig, straight in with banded 6mm  and a couple of quick carp were soon netted, then I lost a fouler and then nothing, in fact the next couple of hours  were very quiet, I did have a couple more fish but the swim appeared to be devoid , in fact the only people catching were Brian slipper on 6 and Derek "degsy"williams on 9, everyone else was finding it hard.
Most people found it hard till about 2 hours from the end when people started to get a few, I had some from each side margin and some across on pellet , but the last hour was bad for me as I never had a fish during that period, very strange when I could see other people still catching, top 6 listed below , well done to Dr gay on winning from peg 9 with 72.12 , possibly the most weather affected swim on the lake today.

Landsend league rnd 5

Before I get onto the fishing , I went to my old mates Steve Robinson's 60th birthday party on Saturday night, we travelled everywhere 30 years ago to matches in the southwest, and we always had a proper laugh, so the picture below is a Selfy of me and Steve, I now a lot of you will remember him as he was as daft as a brush.

As you can see we ain't changed a bit.
Back to today and its my turn on the match lake, after a nice breakfast at the fishery it was into the draw tin and out comes 22, a nice peg with plenty of options an island in front and the end of the island reachable with 16 mtrs,

 empty swims each side so pallets to fish to, for company I had the world's tallest man , Jason Radford on 24 , and the silver's legend, John "the gimp" Bradford on 20, pictured below looking for his flask of complan.

I pushed the boat out today and assembled 4 rigs, a couple for meat, one that would do for 6 and 13 mtrs, a couple for banded pellet, one against the island and another for in the slightly deeper water off the end of the island , and a meat rig for the empty pallets, it was  an interesting match really, I had 3 decent carp in the first hour on meat at 13 mtrs and lost a fouler, and that was the end of the action off that line, I did try further across atn14 mtrs but that was barren, the far side swims produced the bulk of my fish on banded pellet , with the tight to the island rig being the best, the 6 mtr line produced one bite.and that was from a 2lb skimmer, likewise the margins only produced one bite and that was from a 6lb carp, I ended up with 14 carp and a few silver's, I thought Adrian Clark over on peg 1 had beaten me. But although he had 5 more carp than me he did have a few smaller ones , so it could be tight, he was first to weigh and plonked 66lb on the scales, I wasn't overly confident of having that, moving round the lake with the scales, it was good to see league organiser Ken rayner win the silver's from peg 7 with 41.10 of skimmers, fi,s perch and roach.

Top weight on the lake went to Andy hembrow on peg 16 (again)
With 90.15 he's on lake 3 next week, I don't know how his trolley is going to handle the walk down there as it will be going into uncharted territory. My fish went 74.7 for a section win and second on the lake
Top overall weight on the day went to Paul elmes on 29 with 105.6
2nd Andy hembrow on 16 with 90.15
3rd was Tom cruise body double Pete nurse on 34 with 90.9
4th Nick chedzoy on 51 with 84.9
5th Glen Calvert on 32 with 82.3
6th Craig Edmunds on 66 with 79.13
Well that was a nice tight frame really.
Fishing this week, probably acorn on Tuesday, harescombe on Thursday and back to Landsend on Sunday for the final match in this league.

Windmill silver league rnd 7

This is the penultimate round for this league, and I needed a section win to stay in with a chance, I was on the same points John barker who is in my section, and Steve Dawson, luckily I was on top on weight.
Into the draw and out comes peg 26, I drew this earlier in the series and weighed 14lb so I was confident of a few , same rigs as last time on the peg, a 1g as5  and a .4g for the inside, at the start I cupped in 3 good size balls of groundbait at 9 mtrs 1o,clock angle with caster, 2 at 10 o'clock with soaked micros and another at 5 mtrs in front again with caster in, and started loosefeeding some casters to my right in about 4 foot of water, to be honest that inside caster line was a waste of time today as it only produced a few small roach.
without wasting to much time the 2 9mtr lines were the most productive with three better skimmers , a small tench and plenty of small plippy roach and bottletop skimmers, so I ended the match with 11.5 for first on the day much more importantly a section win, so with John and Steve both coming second in there sections it means I am going into th a last round with a one point lead,
Complete weigh sheet below

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention we had a no show today , and it was in my section, and the empty peg was to my left, it may of helped but I'm not convinced it makes to much difference on this type of match, but others may say otherwise.

Sunday open Landsend fishery

Sorry but I have to start with some sad news, I've heard this evening that Don Sutherland sadly passed away this morning, he was a really nice bloke and popular angler ,who I seem to have known years. my thoughts are with his family,
This will be a short blog as I don't really feel like writing it,
I drew peg 50 on lake three, happy with that as it has a nice margin with a Bush in the water that normally holds some good fish, but not today it seemed.

Decided on a meat and hard pellet attack, which I don't think was wrong as all the weights came to meat , but I couldn't get a bite on it in any area of the swim, and to add insult to injury I had Dave Westcott, aka beany next door on 51 who proceeded to give me a right spanking fishing paste 14 mtrs to his left down the track, picture below netting another carp,

I ended up with 14.3 , 10lb of which was a few f1,s, crucians , three skimmers and one perch and a shabby carp of 4.3 for a 14.3 total.

First on the day went to kev molten on peg 41 with 58.1, catching odd fish on meat from the start.

2nd Adrian Jeffery on 62 with 55.14
3rd jnt, Craig Edmunds on 61 and Clayton Hudson on 68 both with 50.14
5th Dave Westcott on 51 with 49.2
6th Andy hembrow on 55 with 46.9
Silver's went to Paul faiers on 42 with 19.4

Windmill silver league rnd 6

After the nice breakfast at Dave hodgson,s wife's and daughters cafe in brislington it was off down the ring road to the fishery,
My turn in c section today which is pegs 19 to 23, the peg to avoid historically in this series is peg 19 so what do I go and draw, yep 19 and with the person I need to beat John barker on peg 23 which is definitely the fishy I end of the section, for company I had Mike laird (again) next to me on 20, but with 19 being an end peg and Mike Nicholls having 15lb of skimmers off 17 at the weekend I thought it may be ok for a few.
I set up a .5g rig and had a plum around , it turned out to be the same depth wherever I went , so one rig was going to do all on the longer lines, I also set up a .4g rig to fish caster at 3 mtrs with caster. At the start I cupped in 4 balls of groundbait at 9 mtrs to my right, some soaked micros to my left, one ball at 5 mtrs in front, and began throwing some casters on the 3 mtr line slightly to my right,
Beginning on the 5 mtr line I had three roach in the first three drops and with the second one being 6oz I thought I may be in for a good day, but it wasn't to be as this line all but died and apart from an odd whitebait during the match that line was a complete waste of time . As the match went on it became obvious the lake had switched off, certainly at our end it did. I can't say I wasn't getting any bites as I was was , but the fish were tiny, I had actually bought so me pinkies with me today, that's the first time in probably 15 years , and after adding a transparent roach to the net, I slung them on the bank, and I will never bring them again. The two longer lines left and right kept giving me small roach and skimmers but no quality, towards the end of the match I began trying the short caster line , and I did have some better roach, then about 45 mins from the end in had a pound plus skimmer off the short line , just what I needed, then on a brief sortie on the longer line I had a 12oz fish, but then it was small fish again so I spent the last 25 mins on the short line , adding a few.more roach, but then the carp moved in , hooking 3 in the last 15 mins, as far as I could see I had done ok in the section, the only one I wasn't sure about was Mr barker on 23, but he was admitting to 7lb , I didn't think I had that and when he weighed 8.9 I thought he had won the section, I was closer than I thought with 7.15, and I pulled out of a few small fish, but so did he so it's swings and roundabouts really. It was a hard day for most and John was actually top weight on the day.
2nd went to ed wynne on peg 28 with 8.2
3rd was me with 7.15
4th Dave wride on 27 with 7.13
5th Steve Dawson on 2 with 6.14
6th Mike Jones on 25 with 5.1

Tuesday costcutter, acorn fishery

Travelled with Chris Fox today which had the added bonus of him doing me a nice tasty breakfast.

And it was nice, shame cafe Fox doesn't open on Sundays for 7am.
Off to the fishery to find 16 fishing, spring must be on the way, even the swallow aka kev Jefferies was here, it must be warm then,
The draw got underway, I pulled out peg 30, its not a peg that's used to often , its also about as narrow as it gets here, only 9mtrs wide.
Rigs today were a 4x12 for 7 mtrs in the deepest part of the swim, but I fished two lines here at 11 and 1 o,clock angles, also a .2 as5 for against the far bank grass, also on similar angles, and a .3 as5 for just off the far bank in about 2 1/2 foot of water , also that rig would do for the empty pallets each side, as I was fishing just maggot on all lines, I had a 20 middy 8313 hook on .12 .

At the start I cupped in a few maggots on all lines but began on the 7 mtr lines, 20 minutes later and only one bite and I was picking up the just off the far side rig, I was soon playing a carp, obviously fouled and it came off, not to long before I had one in the mouth, that was safely netted then, but the day never really improved to much, it was hard to get 2 consecutive in one spot, it was necessary to keep rotating round the swims, I did lose a few foulers against the far bank, but the fish seemed uninterested in feeding, they seemed to just be swimming through, even the normally banker bridge pegs were struggling with the usual cooperative f1,s being noticeable by there absence, kev Jefferies on 27 had a burst of carp in the first couple of hours, but it didn't last, also Dave wride on 25 had a few towards the end, but I new a few had caught some down the other end of the lake , so I expected the winner to come from there, I did manage a few carp during the match and a nice perch of about 2lb aswell, and I had some small carp from under pallet 29, and I mean under, it had to be in the shadow to get a bite.
1st on the day was in form Dave Stephenson on peg 38 with 48.13, on bread I think
2nd Mike Owens on 18 with 39.7
3rd d chidzoy on 5 with 36.6
4th kev Jefferies on 27 with 35.6
5th Dave wride on 25 with 31.4
6th me with 28.9
Landsend on Sunday, book early.to avoid disappointment.

Viaduct Sunday open

After a passable breakfast in cannards it was off to the fishery, travelled down with mat tomes today and we certainly covered some topics on the way, some funny some sad , but entertaining.
Must say the landlord and chef in cannards leave a bit to be desired, the way they speak to there waitress,s is disgusting , he had one in tears this morning and its not the first time he has done it, just a big fat bully really and I,m not sure I will be giving him any more of my money.
Got to the fishery to find 14 fishing so Steve put 8 on the match lake and 6 on lodge, into the draw tin and out comes 49, a corner peg on the far side of the match lake, my closest angler was James guy on 51 and the other side was someone whose name I didn't get on 47.
Rigs today were a caster rig for 5mtrs, a .2 as5 for meat at 14 mtrs and the same float for down the edge at 14 mtrs, both meat rigs had an 18 middy 8313 hooks on .14, I also set up a wag to fish corn or meat to the island, at the start I cupped in some meat straight out at 14 mtrs.

And I cupped some down my very attractive margin.

I fired some meat as far as I could towards the island then started on the short caster line , I was soon catching small roach , and 25 mins in they showed signs of disappearing, so I picked up the wag rod, I really expected to catch on the corn ,but no bites on that , a switch to meat gave me two quick bites ,but I missed them, so with an hour gone and next to nothing in the net, I was reaching for the meat rig, straight out at 14 mtrs , fully expecting the float to bury with 6mm meat on the hook, but not a twitch, Steve seager on 52 was getting roach and a few better skimmers on his short caster line , and James guy had caught a couple of carp on the lead fished tight(ish) to the island, an hour and 45 in and I was going down my margin, not expecting to much, so was pleasantly surprised when the float buried and a nice fat f1 was duly netted, and the rest of the match went well with regular bites down the edge from f1,s and odd carp, the long pole line in front started producing towards the end of the match, but again it was mainly f1,s, James guy had gone for a bit of practice to ensure a medal in the doggy paddle at the Olympics, I think he may have left to soon as Steve seager was catching really well as the match progressed also on meat , mainly straight out on meat but he did get a few down his edge aswell, but he seemed to catching more proper carp, he had fish up to 12lb , which is a proper bonus fish in this lake.
It transpired that lodge lake had been really tough, and with Steve reckoning on nearly 100lb I thought he may win on the day as I thought I had 80ish, I must apologise for not having all the weights as I forgot to get a picture of the weigh sheet. Doh.
Steve wasn't to far out with his estimate as he had 98lb for first today, pic below with some of his fish,

I managed 2 nd with 93lb, I can only say it was one of the best days fishing I have had for months, I think third went to Gary o,Shea on 68 with 37lb  but he did have the top silver weight on the day with 33lb.
Next Saturday is the Paul Garrett memorial match being fished on Campbell Cary and lodge lakes, to book in ring the fishery to book in on 01458274022 to book in.
Next Sunday I am running an open on Landsend fishery on lake three with the option of an overflow onto the speci if I need it,
Ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in or ring me in veals on 01179260790 to book in .

Harescombe Thursday costcutter

Havnt been here for a while so was looking forward to it as its a place you normally get plenty of action, even with the recent weeks arctic temperatures weights up to nearly 70 lb have been needed to win, but with 18 in attendance that may make a difference today, after Andy's normal nice breakfast in the fishery cafe it was draw time, I went in about halfway through and pulled out 22, which is on the far bank, for company I had Andy Powell on 21 and Martin hook on 24, the picture below of the normal long walk at this fishery.

Main attack bait wise was going to be maggot ,fished at 4 and 8 mtrs as this seems to be the way to go at the moment on this lake, and a rig for down the edge in 3 feet of water, I decided against the far side rig as I felt it may be to cold , big mistake today,
At the start I fed all three lines and began on the 8mtr line, Andy started across and had a few better carp , as did Ryan summerhayes opposite on peg 10, I had a few f1,s on double maggot, but it was difficult, I think the numbers of anglers on the lake was having a bearing on the days sport, although most anglers seemed to be catching odd fish , no one was setting it alight, . Only Ryan was catching regular with most of his fish coming to dobbed bread fished across to the far bank, seen below netting another.

At the end Ryan seemed to have it sown up , but it was quite tight really, Ryan did win with  49.7 and ten pound behind was Jason Powell on peg 2 with 39 lb
3rd Andy Powell on 21 had 36.14
4th Mike Nicholls on 13 with 33.8
5th me with 32.5
6th lee"smiler" Waller on peg 4 with 30.7
It's a shame we can't get a lake like this in or around Bristol, as these f1 lakes certainly produce the goods even during the coldest weather, get anywhere near Birmingham or above and the lakes are full of these obliging fish making for consistent action.
Picture below of fishery boss Andy price returning some of Ryan's fish after the weigh in.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Had dozen fishing today , so it's improving. Eddy Gwynne chose the pegs today and most were ok , the only one really to avoid would be 15 as this back straight seems to be lacking in fish lately. Into the ping pong bag ,and yes there it was ,15 great. A bridge peg or one on the island would have been favourable but it wasn't to be.
For company on 12 was George sumpion and the other way and a long way away was organiser Mike "tollbooth" Chapman on bridge peg 21.
Main bait today was maggots, I did have some casters but couldn't see me using them, rigs today were a 4x14  for 9 5mtrs on 11 and 1 angle, a 4x12  for about  a mtr off the far bank in three spots, the last rig was for down to the empty pallet on 14, fishing maggots on all lines meant all rigs had an 18 middy 6313 on .12 line.
Picture of my peg before the wind and rain started blowing in and across from my left

At the start I cupped a sprinkling of maggots on all lines, then began on double maggot on the 9 mtr lines, but after 45 mins all I had to show for my efforts was one scale, and that was the only indication I had on those lines, so onto the further line , only to lose another fouler, I had a carp soon after that on a second line off to my right , and until the 4th hour that was the end of any action , meanwhile the normal bridge swims were producing, with 34 and 22 seeming to be leading the charge.
My  4th hour was my best catching 7 carp up to 8lb and an f1 from the shallower line across and also one down the edge, as it turned out it was a tight affair after first place with Dave Stephenson winning easily off peg 34 with  75.6
2nd Mike Owens on 22 with 47.2
3rd Glen Bailey on 2 with 43.2
4th me with 40.5
5th Ray bazeley  on 33 with 40lb
6th Mike Chapman on 21 with 39.8
The fish seem to be waking up a bit but we need some warmer weather, this weekend's forecast is for some slightly milder temps but it probably won't last.
Off to harescombe on Thursday then back to viaduct on Sunday for a match on the match lake , providing I get some calls to book in , hopefully Steve has got a few names.

Viaduct winter league rnd 5

I am going to apologise for the shortness of this blog, all will become apparent 😠.
Stopped off with Ron hardiman at canard well for a brekkie, must say it was hot and good, better than the last time we went there.
Got to the fishery with time to spare, but draw time soon arrived, I did the draw again as my team mates didn't want the responsibility, out comes sequence 9, Clayton on 119, Christ he has has some shit pegs, me on 86, ran to it, Tim Clark on 57, sulked to it. Ron on 26 . Happy with it, and our silver angler, Clint wojtyla on peg 10, he was more than happy.
I've had an enjoyable series, mainly due to the banter from our colonial friends from across the water, the pic below shows mikey Williams trying to explain some tactics to some of his fellow countrymen, obviously des jotted a few notes down for him.

Back to my swim and here goes my day . One rod , various baits for hairigging, 85 has been the peg but 86 can be its equal, match started at 10.30, tip stayed motionless.

Between 12.30 and 1 the tip went round three times and I really thought I was get a few but that was the end of my action , all baits , my swim , Dom Sullivan's peg on 96, a longer Chuck to Steve tuckers peg on 97 who was getting odd fish, even towards  85 was no better, I couldn't get a pull round, so by the end I had three carp and a lone skimmer for 26.8 and 9 points , and to make matters worse I lost a tenner to Tim Clark for the series, that's never happened before, but he seemed to enjoy it

Oh well that's that done for another year then, the worse series I have ever had, you now you have done crap when Martin Preston starts taking the piss lol, next Sunday I am running a match at viaduct on the match lake with a chance of an overflow onto lodge , so of anyone wants in ring Steve at the fishery or ring or txt me (txt favourite) on 07974807941 to book in.

Windmill silver series rnd5, windmill fishery

After a tasty breakfast in Dave hodgson,s daughter and wife's place on the Bridlington trading estate , it was time to do battle with the Bristol ring road to get to westerliegh and the fishery, no frost today but we had rain hail and snow on Wednesday, so the water was probably colder than last week after a frost.
It was back to a random draw today to establish to establish your rotation around the sections and partners for the rest of the series.
Into the draw and out comes peg 7, happy with that as I was on 6 last time and had 11lb and had a nice day, for company on 6 I had Pete Turner on 6, and so far he is winning the series on 4 section wins so the man to beat.

Not sure if John is having a crafty kip or not, he has probably missed his morning map, and matron can't find him now to wake him up.

My peg all ready to go, trying to keep my kit out of the mud, I looked round and found a couple of old staggers looking down on me , I think they were on the lookout for the westerliegh whist drive.

Mike"silver Fox" Nicholls on the left and Pete greenslade who was a flowerpot angling club star from back in the 70,s and 80,s.
Rigs today were a .5g drennan as5 and a.4g same pattern, the bigger one was a bit of a double bulk rig whereas the lighter one had a bit of a spread shot pattern to hopefully catch on the drop.
At the start I cupped in some groundbait at 5/11 and 13 mtrs and cupped in some soaked micros off to the left at 13 mtrs.
Not to much to say about the days sport really, suffice to say it was hard very hard, first put in a 3oz skimmer, next a 4lb carp, then up till 1pm I had small fish off all lines but there was no pattern to it, you would catch a couple then have to go somewhere else, I had my biggest counting fish on a single maggot over the micros, in the shape of a 12oz skimmer, but as far as I could tell my section was hard for all of us, 1till 2.15 I couldn't buy a bite anywhere apart from a couple of none counting carp, then towards the end the plippy whiteboard roach turned back up on all lines, plenty of bites but non weight , still at least something was going into the net, by the Ned I thought I may scrape 4lb  so was pleasantly surprised to weigh 5.3, .just enough for a section win over Mike laird on peg 5 who had a couple of better skimmers for 4.15.
First on the day went to Dave Wilmot on end peg 32 who had a tench and a crucian plus some small skimmers, before topping up on the whip shallow for the small roach for a 9.8 total

He is another blast from the past , the weigh sheet is below

Off to viaduct on Sunday, then I have booked in at harescombe for the Thursday costcutter