Harescombe Thursday costcutter

Got to the fishery in plenty of time to enjoy one of Andy's nearly adequate breakfasts,
Only 12 booked in so plenty of room with ever other peg dyeing used, I wouldn't mind a draw on the far bank but it wasn't to be as I pulled out peg 12 which is just out of the Carpark, to be honest ever peg is a Carpark peg as you will tell from my picture.

For company on my left was venue regular and ex Gloucester canal ace , Terry girdelstone on peg 10, on my right was the ample figure of Shane Turner on 14 .
My main bait, well only bait today was hard 4,s to feed and some 6,s to band , no maggots ,casters, corn meat , so it was pellet or bust.
Two rigs for the far bank, a small bulk rig and a lightly shotted rig for months drop, or shallow up if the fish came off the bottom, another rig was put up to fish on the deck at 4 mtrs, my two far side rigs would also do for down the edge to my right fishing with the wind which was strong and gusty and coming from different angles, but mainly left to right , after feeding the far side I began at 4 mtrs but apart from a couple of foulers it was a wasted 35 minutes, I was already behind Martin hooke on 20 and jock liddel on 18, who had both started well on maggot on there took its, catching f1,s, so I went across to the far side and started to get some indications, and I put a few fish in the net, I also began feeding a few pellets.down the edge , there appeared to be plenty of fish on the far side but the strong wind was making presentation hard, the rig was blowing through and I was foulhooking a few, but I persevered with it, probably to long, although I had some fish over there I was going nowhere fast really ,with Martin and jock still catching opposite they looked to have the first two places sown up, with 2 hours to go I started fishing down the edge to my right and began catching f1,s straight away, and I caught right till the end , probably putting 50lb in the net in that two hour period, I ended up with 73.10 which was enough to overhaul jock but I was still well behind Martin hook who was top on the day with 93.15 , all caught on maggot fishing just his topkit with maggot,
Jock was third with 69.8
The rest of the weights are below on the sheet.

Off to Landsend on Sunday, in still have a couple of spaces so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book, I probably have e a couple spare places for my short pole series which is 4 matches all fished on woodland lake at Chilton trinity, so ring or txt me on the number above for more details if you are interested.

Acorn Tuesday costcutter

15 today , a few less than last time I came here, possibly due to the weather forecast giving fresh cold northerly winds with the chance of hail showers, and they didn't disappoint, it was effing freezing.
So into the draw bag and out comes ping pong 34, a nice bridge peg, that ed wynne had won off at the weekend, he caught on caster though, all I had was hard pellets and a pint of maggots, for company I had venue regular Dave Stephenson the other side of the bridge to my right on 33.

Another long walk from the back of the van then,
Lots of options with this peg, as obviously the bridge is a big draw, but with the wind blowing left to right the trip would be coming away from the bridge, not ideal as the fish love to live under it, but I set up a pellet rig to fish as tight as I could to the bridge about 3/4 of the way across, another pellet rig to fish just off the far bank and along to the bridge, a pellet rig for down the middle , tried once and never picked up again.
A maggot rig for under the bridge close in.

At the start I fed all lines and began on the deep pellet rig against the bridge, I soon had a carp in the net, followed by several more in the first hour , before the bites stopped. I had a look tight in under the bridge and had my only bite of the day there which was a 4lb carp, I went across to the far side and had a couple , but it seemed to be difficult for most, Dave wride on peg 5 seemed to be the only catching ,
I spent the rest of the match swapping between the deep bridge rig and the far bank rig, picking up odd fish from both, I did change the hook on the deep pellet rig for a maggot hook, and I did get a couple of extra fish on the maggot that I may not have had on the pellet, I dropped a bit of a bollock really as I never went over tight to the bridge till towards the end of the match, and I caught quite well when I did, I'm not sure I would have caught enough to trouble Mr wride or gabe skarba on 37 who was having a flying last couple of hours , fishing soft pellet in his right hand margin. Dave Stephenson had also bestselling a few in so I thought by the end I would have about 60lb , with Dave next door having possibly the same . Gabe and Dave wride had the first 2 places sown up with gabe taking it with 87lb
2nd Dave wride on peg 5 with 78.12
3rd was me with 59.4
4th Alan oram on peg 6 with 55.12
5th Dave Stephenson on 33 with 52.8
6th ed wynne on 21 with 46.12
Gabe below with part of his catch

Off to Landsend on Sunday for an open on match and three, txt or ring me on 07974807941 to book in, be quick not many spaces. Left

Viaduct spring league rnd 1

Travelled with Chris Fox today, so Chris,s wife Caroline cooked us a top breakfast, very nice to.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time , and as last year 54 were fishing , so an exelant turn out for a match ,let alone a series.
Into the tin of dreams and out comes peg 116 on Campbell, flyer then, for company I had Mark poppleton on 115

 and Trevor senior on 118, the wind was a bit harsh today coming in and across from the right making presentation on the pole hard, but I left the lead rod in the bag, also the wag rod stayed wrapped up as it would have just blown back at me , so it was pole only then for me then, I set a shallow and deep pellet rig for 14 mtrs, also the deep rig would do for under the tree to my right, also a meat rig for 5 mtrs, and a rig for my right hand margin with pellet again, we started at 11 and by 11.40 I had 6 carp in the net, so a good start , as 6 an hour generally gives you 200lb ish, the I lost a fouler, and had to wait 45 mins for my next fish, so definitely not going to plan again, Mark on my left was finding it hard and only managed to put a couple of foulers in his net, ash on peg 114 was off to a flying start, but try on my right was also finding it hard. As the match went on it never started for me till the last 2 hours , when I began getting a few on the long pole , I also had a couple and some bream on the short meat line , but the wind was making presentation very hard, and I fouled a couple , towards the end of the penultimate hour my margin came to life and couldn't get in there quick enough, with 30 mins to go I had to borrow a net off Mark and had 11 carp in that time , ending the match with 38 carp and a few skimmers for 200lb or just over, and it was over as my net's went 225.9 for first on the day.
2nd , and not to far behind was Nick ewers on 86 with 195.12
3rd Danny baker with 182.3 on peg 97
4th Bob Giles on 112 with 182.2
5th Nick chedzoy on 131 with 179.13
6th Martin Preston on 135 with 161.3
To say it fished well would be an understatement as there were 21 weights over 100lb, incredible fishing really, roll on a fortnight , and the same peg please .

Viaduct Thursday costcutter

Travelled with Ron hardiman today and after a good breakfast in the junction cafe just outside shepton mallet it was off to the fishery, there were a few of the regulars not here today but 33 were still booked in, so we were spread evenly between Campbell and Cary, so that was 16.5 on each.
I followed John Darby into the tin of dreams draw , and as he pulled out 2 stuck together  I had the one stuck out, so 99 ended up being my home for the day, its about halfway up the diagonal bank of Cary with lodge behind me , for company I had John the gimp Bradford on 97, and on 100 was the bideford sloth Tom downing, who had his minder in tow in the shape of his girlfriend who is a black belt in Tia kwon doe, I think that's spelt wrong , but she don't scare me.
Several rigs today, a shallow pellet, a deep pellet, a short meat rig and a deep wag for pellet on the deck.

At the start I cupped in some pellets at 14 mtrs, fired some 8,s out to the wag line, and threw some meat onto the short pole line, starting on the long pole line it took a while to get a bite, which was a 2lb skimmer, then I lost a carp, looking around it seemed very slow for everyone, I had a swirl on the pole line so tried the shallow rig but to no avail, Tom was still on the deck but noticed a swirl on his pole line, so after a couple of quick slaps with a pellet on his shallow rig he was attached to a carp, he landed that one then went out and caught another quickly, so I went back out again on the shallow rig and had one , the I lost the next two, one broke me and the other the hook pulled, me and tome were 4all just past the hour mark, but bites stopped on the pole lines, so it was out on the wag, but with the wind coming in and across from the right , presentation wasn't to good, I was getting odd liners, but Tom was out now getting bites and odd fish on the pellet wag, but with my total lack of preparation I had no line on a reel to do it, and my cattys were in dire need of some tlc as about every 4th pull the elastic was pulling off the pouches, that a job for tomorrow then, I soon had 5 different cattys strewn about my peg in various states of disrepair, but with a bit of jiggery pokery I had one to use, I add get 4 on the deep wag , including a nice ghostie common of about 9lb.

Going into the 30 minsI think Tom was on 11 carp and I was on 8, so still a bit adrift, I had tried the meat line earlier, but never had a touch, so I went in on it again, first drop I thought I missed a bite, 2 drop and I had a skimmer, then a carp then a skimmer and another skimmer , then two carp in two drops, so I was on the same numbers as Tom , but he had had a couple of biggies , which I thought may have given him the edge over me ,but the angler on 102 had 16 carp so he should have beaten us , but he had a net drop in before the weigh in and he loose Fed his mobile are the end aswell for good measure, his fishery were a bit smaller so his 13 went 105.2, next to weigh was Tom whose fish went 130.14, I thought it was going to be close but I reckoned I needed one more, and that's how it went as my fish went 125.8, close . But was enjoyable as the banter was good with Tom's girl friend even joining in, it fished a bit harder than of late , but the water was quite clear by viaduct standards , hopefully it will have a tinge more by Sunday when the spring league starts, and with 55 fishing again it should be good.
1st today was j mills on 114 with 166.13 caught mainly shallow
2nd Paul Blake on 110 with 161.8
3rd Tom downing on 100 with 130.14
4th Jim butcher on 112 with 126.4
5th me on 99 with 125.8
6th Ron hardiman on 130 with 122.2
Silver's
John Gray on 105 with 34.3 of mainly.skimmers on pellet

Landsend open, match and 3 lake , John walters

Must report on another sad loss before I start about the fishing, unfortunately Bob white passed away last week after a short battle with cancer, another thourally nice bloke , a good float angler I first met back in the 80,s  fishing on the Avon on the saint Anne's boardmills stretch, he was the man to beat in the club, a good stick float angler, and he often came into Avon angling for a good matter, he was always good company, its another top bloke who will be sorely missed, his funeral is being held at westerliegh crematorium on the 29th of April at 2.45, his family have said all his friends and old workmates from Bendix, as was.
Back to the fishing , 19 of us today so plenty of room spread over 2 lakes, into the draw tub and out comes 62 on lake 3, a nice peg with good margins and an island to fish to.

With the sun out there were several cruisers about, so the stalker was assembled first, followed by a couple of pellet rigs, one to fish under the tree to the left .

And the other on the deck against the island.
Next a couple of meat rigs, one for the left just past the small Bush in picture above and the other for 4 mtrs against the tree to right.

At the start I began on the stalker, it didn't take to long to get my first carp, I must admit I take great pleasure in spotting a fish and catching it, I don't just sit there spinning a rig around the end of the pole, I target individual fish, so I ended up with 20 carp today, 2 on the deck down by the tree to my left on pellet, one on meat under the tree to my right and 17 shallow , 2 of which were caught lifting and dropping by the island and the other 15 were fish I spotted and targeted, very interesting really when you see a fish turn and take the pellet, I ended up weighing 113.4 which was top on my lake but overall top weight went to Alex Murray on peg 17 with 177.4, again caught mainly shallow .
3rd went to Steve seager with 96lb off peg 41.
4th kev molten on 21 with 86.8
5th Joe McMahon on 51 with 83.11
6th Stuart Barnett on 5 with 80.8
Silver's went to Nigel Bartlett on peg 7 with, 29.12 of allotted, silver's on lake three went to Ken rayner with 16.3 off peg 68, he would have had over 20lb if we hadn't spotted a 4lb common in his net that he tried to claim was an f1, it must have been an f2 as it grew small barbules in the net after he caught it lol.
Don't forget its the shimano open day in veals next Saturday, should be a good day, with three of shimano,s finest in the shop to discuss products and give out some tips.

Harescombe Thursday costcutter

This is getting very popular as 20 turned up to fish this today, so after downing one of Andy's adequate breakfasts it was time to delve into the bank bag for the draw, stand out draw was 17 as it was on its own, I was halfway there as I pulled out disc 8, for company I had venue expert Stuart Graham on peg 7 and Cotswold anglings finest in the shape of Ralph hillier on 9, I left the maggots in the shop for today, pinning my Faith instead on corn on the short line and banded pellet across, so I assembled a 4x12 for short, topset and two. And a couple of pellet rigs for across, one for on the deck and a shallow one just in case they came up.
At the start I began on the short line with corn, but 20 mins in and nothing to show for my efforts, I picked up the pellet rig for across, I was already a few fish behind Ralph who was fishing soft pellet across , kindering in a few freebies over the top, as I don't tend to do careful feeding in stuck with the catty, the result was that I was foulhooking a few , well to be honest quite a few LOL.
Ralph in the meantime was keeping it tight and nice and steadily popping fish into his net, but he was always behind Lee Waller over on 24 , Ken rayner on 19 and Martin hook on 17, all of which were catching well, Stuart to my left had adopted his normal maggot approach and was catching lots of 6/8 oz skimmers and odd f1,s on his took it. My swim went hard definitely covered again, I just can't help myself 😣😣😣😣.
About an hour from the end we had a massive thunderstorm , torrential rain and hail, all the long poles disappeared and everyone was going short, as the picture below shows.

Pic supplied by Stuart .
At least it stopped for the weigh in, first on the day was Martin hook on 17 with 95.4, catching mostly on corn fished short,
Complete weigh sheet below.

Off to Landsend on Sunday , on match and no3 lake , so to book in ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in or ring or txt Ken rayner on 07768325552 to book , 9.30 draw breakfast available on site from 8am ish.
Also on the 23 rd of April veals are having a shimano open day with Rob Wootton, Nick speed and David fuidge in attendance to give advice and help with shimano products, also no doubt a few fishing tips aswell, so come on down and meet them.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

18 fishing today,must be the threat of some nice weather dragging them out . Into the draw bag and out comes ping pong 31, I would have fancied peg 6 but des shipp was early into the draw and plucked that one out, looks like we would be fishing for second then, got to the peg and soon had myself sorted, a rig for 4 mtrs in front in the deep water , a pellet rig for down towards peg 32 , a maggot rig for down by 30 and a banded pellet rig for across to the far side, with the sun out there were a few fish on the surface, so I thought it may be ok.

All my rigs were on some Shimon line I have been using for a while, and I must say it seems to have good knot strength and be very durable

At the start I fed all lines, pellet to my left and across, maggot to my right  and maggot at 4mtrs, I started on the deep rig at 4mtrs but after 20 minutes and not a bite I binned that, I kept a bit of bait going in there but never had a touch there , so we won't be talking about that line again, by now odd people seemed to have had a fish or two , mainly across, so I followed suite, I had a carp quite quickly then lost a couple of foulers, but by lifting and dropping the rig against the reeds I had several more, but I got a bit carried away and overcooked it with bait, I did feed an area to my right along the far side but never had a fish from there, in fact the middle 2 hours of the match were very difficult, no one was catching ,except for des who I could just see in the distance, which is the best place for him LOL.
A couple of hours from the end I had a visit from gabe skarba who confirmed the only person really catching was des, while he was sat there I did manage to moan a couple of fish on , on corn down to pallet 30, one tench and  one carp, he reckoned he had bought me some luck, but I think the fish had begun to feel sorry for me , but he did take a picture before he left, which shows my best side, my back .

After he left I started fishing down to my left by pallet 32 and I had a bit of a purple patch, and half expecting a good finish I put another net in , kiss of death really as I only had 3 more carp in the last hour, I thought I had 60lb ish which apart from des was close to several others. In fact I had 60.10 which was good enough for 3rd behaving des with 120lb and venue expert Dave Stephenson on peg 5 with 62lb, top 6 below.

As normal des fish is on after catching shallow on maggot over caster out by the bridge .

Anyone interested we still have a few spaces for Sunday at Landsend, so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in

Landsend open, lake 3

Only 13 of us today, so spread around lake 3 we had plenty of room. After one of di,s good breakfasts it was draw time, I let Stuart Barnett pull mine out, and that will be the last time as he handed me peg 50, I drew it a while ago and really struggled.for one carp and a few silver's, that today Dave "beany" Westcott gave me a severe battering off peg 51 fishing paste, today I had Ken rayner on that peg, my nearest angler to my right was Steve seager on 46, so plenty of room to my right, Steve wanted a quid bet and was obviously fairly confident, looking at the picture below.

Misty pictures, dirty lens sorry, at least it seems to have improved his looks.
After my last attempt on this swim, I decided to fish meat tight across to the island and down to my right by a small Bush in the water.

And banded pellet off the front of the island , wind permitting, which was not looking to promising , with 40mph gusts forecast,

At the start I cupped some meat across to the island and some down to the right to the Bush, fired some pellets to the island, then picked up the island meat rig, I had two indications in the first two drops , but missed them both, plippy roach or liners methinks, 15 minutes later I had a crucian, and that was the last of the action on that line. Over on the pellet line and that started better with a 4lb carp first drop , then 6oz roach, normal false dawn with that then, as nothing more for the rest of the match over there either, by now the wind was making far side fishing all but impossible, Ken rayner was trying hard as there is a part of the island which has collapsed into the lake and the carp seem to like to sit on top of it, problem was for Ken was that its 16mtrs and the wind was to strong , blowing his rig through, so he was losing plenty of foulers, which I was enjoying as his tourettes was going into overdrive, a look down the right on meat produced a nice 1 1/2 lb perch, which looked a bit worse for wear, probably due to it just having spawned, I could see other people catching, but couldn't buy a bite anywhere in my swim, Martin lenaghan over on 61 had begun to catch well in his margins, and further down to my right, Steve seager, Adrian Jeffery and Joe McMahon all seemed to be catching .
Just about halfway through and with no bites. I decided to see if I could snare a few silver's as no one seemed to getting any, so I pumped.some expander and soaked some micros which I fed at 8mtrs, out with an expander and I had a few skimmers and a couple more crucians. I tried again down the edge and the float buried and a near 10lb common was in the net, shame it fought like the devil and trollied my silver's line as I could hardly buy a bite after that, so most of the match was spent down the edge where I had 3 more carp, I was going to do no good again today then or so I thought . 1 st on the day was Martin Jonathan on 61 with 106.6
2nd Joe McMahon on 41 with 84.12
3rd stu Barnett on 70 with 59.14
4th Steve seager on 46 with 55.9
5th ken"first out of the money " rayner with 49.12
6th Martin Alexander on 62 with 40.13
And surprise surprise I won the silver's with a hard won 8.9
Next Sunday myself and Ken rayner are running one on match and number 3 next Sunday 9.30 draw so ring Ken on 07768325552 or ring or txt me on 07974807941

Windmill silver league, final round

Final match round of this well run little series , Ray bazeley did a good job organising and running the league so well done to him, it was a thankless job at times.
I needed to either win my section or come second at worst to win the series, so into the draw and out comes peg 2, doesn't really mean a lot on this venue as there hasn't been any standout flyers in any of the rounds making it quite fair, you just seem to need to be able to get bites all through the match, wading through the plippy roach and hopefully get a couple of bonuses in the shape of better skimmers or odd tench and crucians, for company I had late arrival Pete Turner on 3 and windmills resident whitebait thrasher bill Ferris on 1, John baker who was a league threat was on peg 4 but he wasn't happy as its been a tough area, he did have peg 5 empty but that doesn't always help as the fish got somewhere to back off.
I got away with 2 rigs today, a .8g drennan as5 float which after plumbing up would do for 3 mtrs in front and 2 lines on different angles at 9 mtrs. The other rig was a .3g same pattern float for caster down by a reed bed to my left with caster for roach.

At the start I cupped in 2 balls of groundbait with caster at three mtr ,3 at 9 mtrs to my right again with caster in, and 2 balls to my left with some micros, I began peppering a few casters to the reeds to my left.
I began at three mtrs and I had a bite on maggot first drop, enough elastic came from the end of the pole to make me think it was one of the venues small carp, but it was a 12oz hybrid which popped up, a good start on a low weight affair, after that I had a steady run of 2oz skimmers, with the obligatory plippy roach.

Don't you just love em, looking around no one in my section was catching much so I was doing ok, in fact the lake seemed to be on a bigger shut down than normal, after an hour and several more small skimmers in the net and another one of about a pound , it started to get really hard so I refed and went out to 9 mtrs , but that was just as hard, but by rotating around the the swims I kept odd fish going into the net. I ended with 4 better skimmers a small crucian and plenty of bits, I new I had won the section but its also nice to be top weight on the day with 10.13.

Mike Nicholls was second with 7.01 off peg 28 and Steve Dawson with 6.9 off peg 21, and that was also how the league ended , with me first , Mike second and Steve third behind Mike on weight, as I said it was a good league and I hope its run again next year.
This week it was meant to be a match on field lake at harescombe, but due to a double booking I got cancelled, so I am running a small match on Landsend no3 lake , I do have a couple of spaces.so ring or txt me asap to get in 07974807941

Landsend league, final round

Just a quick reminder for people fishing the viaduct spring league, Steve would like your money in by the end of next week, or at least conformation that you are fishing, there are 20 on the waiting list so don't leave it to late to get in touch.
Back to Landsend, and I needed to do well, a section win with a good weight was needed to stand any chance of framing in the overall money,
I was on lake three today , a good fair lake with lots of pegs where its possible to do well off.
Into the draw tin and out comes 58 which is an end peg on the far bank, rod wootten had top weight on the lake yesterday with 78lb off the peg fishing 14 mtrs to the right on banded pellet.
I got to the peg and set about getting ready, a rig for meat down the edge to the left by a tree in the water.

 And a nice long margin to my right , up towards some brambles where rod caught yesterday.

 And just to finish it off I had an end of an island to use aswell, not to many options then, I also seemed have tidied my act, my peg nearly looked good.

On the all in I began against the island on pellet and soon had a couple of carp in the net, then it went quiet, I was feeding with a catty so fish soon began slurping on the island , although I had a few during the match they were certainly cagey, I caught on most methods today, deep and shallow against the island, some down to my right by the brambles, towards the end the meat down the edge began to work , and this area gave me my biggest fish, a 10lb common, I managed to mug some aswell, but the meat down the middle was a non starter today, by the end I new I had over 100lb but by how much I wasn't sure but it looked as though i had enough for the section, I just needed a coupe of people above me to have a bit of a torrid. My fish actually went 141lb , enough for the section but not for the lake , that went to mark"the groaner" poppleton on 46 with 160lb.
Individuals on the day
Craig Edmunds on 25 with 185.10 on shallow pellet fished along the end bank
2nd Mark poppleton on 46 with 164.14
3rd me on 58 with 141.10
4th Paul elmes on 18 with 114.11
5th Adrian Jeffery on 20 with 111.6
6th Nick sewers on 13 with 109.7
Silver's Gary o,Shea on 31 with 43.8
League
Paul elmes 25pts
Craig Edmunds 24pts
Tony rixon 22 pts 430.12
Andy hembrow 22pts 396.7
Nick chedzoy 22pts 216.10
Silver's
Ken rayner 25 pts 96.4
Mat tomes 25 pts 70.7
A good league and well run by Ken rayner , so well done to him.
There is an open at the fishery in a fortnight so book in with me or Ken rayner  for that one