Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Back to acorn for my third day on the trot fishing, travelled with Ron hardiman as he was off and fancies it, just a couple of egg and bacon sarnies on the way today, enough after the last two days proper fry ups. 22 fishing today , the numbers were swelled by gabe skarba back from his hols, the Welsh boys were back and it was good to meet a few of the Shaw road disaster  squad who have been coming to Somerset for years and doing the circuit of some of Somerset finest fisheries, they certainly seem to have enjoyed themselves.
Time for the draw and I got in early again and found myself on peg  2 on the island, nice peg and with no one on peg 3 at least we had a bit of room. Two pellet rigs for over , one about a mtr off and the other up on the island shelf, the other rig was for maggot down my left hand margin.
On the all in I cupped some maggot down the edge, I didn't bring any groundbait today cos I'm buggered if a can get it to work, so it was a maggot attack today.
Starting on the just off rig I had 3 fish in the first 30 mins, but the liners got the better of me and I was reaching for the shallow rig, that was just as bad , with foulers doing my head in, but I stuck with it trying to wade through the fouled one's , and it did get better with enough lip hooked fish to make me stick at it, but it was a bit torrid at times, I kept feeding the margins with maggots but it didn't really come good till the last hour when I couldn't get the rig in quick enough, I reckon I had nearly 50lb in the last hour, shame the didn't turn up earlier, still I thought I had at least 120lb , so I wasn't upset when I put 132lb on the scales, but it was only good enough for third on the day as gabe skarba back from his Slovakian holibob  more than did the business with 237.7, caught on soft pellet over groundbait down his right hand margin.
2nd a long way behind was Paul faiers on peg 9 with 142.11 mainly on the pole but he did get some digger bonus fish on the method
3rd me with 132lb
4th Steve Shaw on 38 with 123.7
5th s Holmes peg 11 with 97.14
6th Mark Walsh on peg 16 with 93.12
I've had a nice few days fishing catching nearly 450lb of fish in 3 days, so no complaints . Looking forward to the sedges on Sunday, still sold out at the mo, so if your name wasn't on the list on yesterday's blog , your not in yet I've even got a couple on the waiting list still.

Gary wall memorial match

The normal bank holiday memorial match today for the popular Gary wall, who lost his battle with cancer a few years ago, only 17 fishing today , trouble is every commercial in the area seems to have a match on this day ever year, splitting up the anglers, but at least we would get plenty of room, after di,s normal spot on breakfast it was draw time, trig Edmunds was early in the draw, and pulled out 2 tickets stuck together, so I took one and opened it up to see peg 1, quite happy as Mark poppleton won off it Saturday with 160lb on paste, they would have to like pellets or meat today then.

Main lines of attack today were pellet over to the island in about 10 inches of water, a bit shallow really as the lake is about 18 inches down, also up along the left hand margin is normally good , and a couple meat rigs, one for on the end of the tree to my right and another tight in under a Bush to my right.
On the all in I fed all pellet lines but started on the meat rig by the tree, it wasn't crazy as I had 2 mug fish in the first 30 mins , and I wasn't getting any liners so I came off this and went across on the pellet, I had a burst of fish there, but being so shallow they soon spooked away from the shallow water, I went across to the long left hand margin , but that didn't go to plan as I only had 1 fish from there the whole match, even though i tried it several times, the lake seemed to fishing ok judging by the bankside banter, with Ken rayner on 15 seeming to be doing the best, but there was 5 pegs up on lake 3 , and with no one walking about it may be a sign it was producing, there were plenty of fish on the island lapping up the pellet, but these Landsend fish are some of the cagiest fish you will come across especially when targeting them in really shallow water, it was a case of moving around the island picking off odd fish , I did manage to mug a few and had another one on the meat line, the last hour was torrid to say the least , losing several fish at the net which were lip hooked, I only managed two fish in the last hour , so not good, infighting may cost me and it did, I thought I had about 120lb and as I was the first to weigh it turned out I wasn't to far out as I had 118lb exactly,
1st on the day was Ken rayner on peg 25 with 160lb, I left the weights at the fishery so it's all a bit approx lol.
2nd Alan oram on peg 46 with 149lb
3rd Mike west on 41 with 119lb
4th Joe McMahon on 19 with 118.2
5th me with 118lb and only top 4 paid out
6th Adrian Jeffery on 13 with 112lb
Oh yes and Craig Edmunds was 7th with 111lb,
At least I got my quid back from yesterday

Silver's went to rod Wootton on peg 42 with 13lb and beany sneaked 2nd off peg 7 with 9lb,
Another day fishing tomorrow, off to acorn, three days on the bounce, I can't wait to get back into the shop on Wednesday for a rest lol.
Next week its the sedges on brick lake , names for the match are
Jason Radford, myself, rod wootten, Chris Fox, trig, beevor, Joe McMahon, Glen Bailey, Martin rayet, Martin McMahon, Gordon canning, Adrian Jeffery, Steve seager, Leon Hubbard, Clint wojtyla, John Bradford, Dave hodgson, Tom mangnal, Mike west, and kev molten, Alan oram is first reserve, so if any of the above can't make it let me know asap so I can let Alan know.

Float only final round

After the top breakfast at cafe Fox, and very nice again to, cooked by Caroline, Chris and me were soon on our way to viaduct fishery for the last round, I had 4 dominate non shows so I decided to leave a peg out of each section on Cary, mainly as it hasn't been fishing as well as Campbell, all the payouts stayed the same as the pools had already been paid at the first match for the last round, I do this mainly to ensure I have money in the pot to to call on in case of a no show, then the offender has to pay his pools again to fish the last round.
Back to the draw and I let top draw bag merchant Neil Mercer draw for me and he handed me peg 129, on the Carpark side of the spit on Campbell, happy with that, only problem was I had trig (on fire) Edmunds on 128, the only good thing was I couldn't see him due to the trees and bushes in between us. I did get a pic of trig before the start getting ready to win another match., but my tablet is playing up and I can't access my pictures to put up.
This end of the lake was hard the day before but fish have fins and do move and luckily they seemed to have today, I had and interesting match catching on most pole rigs today I had some shallow and on the deck at 13 mtrs on pellet, some on meat at 6 mtrs then against the spit in the last hour on pellet, I thought I would have about 185lb , but Steve Tucker on 132 in my section was going to over 200lb, so I was looking at 2nd in section which was no good to give me any chance of getting in the overall league placing, trig thought he may just squeak the 200lb barrier, and he did winning the match with 230.6, meaning he has won his section in each round, also winning 4 of the matches along the way, fairplay top angler doing the business.
2nd went to Steve Tucker with 223.9
3rd was me with 196.12
4th Nick Brown on 110 with 191.4, his best match weight to date so well done Nick
5th Fred Roberts on 121 with 188.15
6th Dan white on 118 with 183.14
Silver's
Paul faiers on 111 with 34.2
Glen Calvert on 124 with 32.3
Overall league
Craig Edmunds 25 points (max) weight 1040lb £285
Steve Tucker 23 pts 585.1.  £235
Tom mangnal 23pts 520.8 £160
Neil Mercer 22pts 599.1.  £110
Chris Davis 22pts 531.6.   £70
Dave white 22pts 431.12. £50
It was a good league this year with some good anglers and enjoyable company, dates are done for next year , I will send them to everyone who fished this year to give them the first option to fish again.
Big thanks to Steve Evans for working the results out , he makes sure ever thing runs nice and smooth, well done mate, roll on next year.
Off to Landsend tomorrow for the Gary wall memorial match, can't wait.

Managed to get my pics back this morning , so here's me increasing trig winnings by an extra quid, like he really needed it, I will just have to make do with having more hair then .

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

20 fishing today so a good turnout but still plenty of room, Glen Bailey had a walk round before the start and said the top end of the lake around peg 27 seemed to have the most fish showing,
So into the draw bag early and out comes peg 27 , ha ha.
I wasn't convinced that it was going to be a winner today as it only occasionally produces the goods.
Rigs today were simple, only 3. A stalker/mugger as it was flat calm and hot so a mug fish or two may be on the cards.
A rig for over on the island which was only 11 mtrs away so nice and comfy, and a maggot rig for down the edge over groundbait.
At the start I cupped in some groundbait each side and fed some 6,s with the catty across on the island, starting over on the island shelf , it didn't take long to start catching, and getting towards the end of the first hour I was thinking 200lb plus may be on the cards, but towards the middle of the second hour  things slowed up massively, I wasn't to worried as the margins have been coming good towards the end of the match, but not today for me . Odd fish visited the inside lines but didn't seem to want to stop and feed, just swimming through munching as they went but not stopping.
Apart from a couple of muggers and two late fish down the margins fishing 13 mtrs to a bay in the reeds all my fish came from the far side in about 10 inches of water, its a style I like fishing but with it being flat with bright sunshine, the fish were a bit spooky and it certainly got more difficult fairly quickly, by the end I reckoned on having 120lb ish and wasn't to far out as I had just over 128, good weight at my end of the lake but was beaten by several at the other end .
1st went to Sean Wilson on peg 1 with 156.11
2nd Glenn Bailey on 9 with 156
3rd Bob Smith on 12 with 144.14
4th Scott Thomas on 5 with 130.7
5th me with 128.6
6th Martin Thomas on 38 with 103
Silver's
Barry ditches on 22 with 4.15
Next up is the last of the float only league's at viaduct on Sunday.
Then on Monday I am running the Gary wall memorial match at Landsend fishery , to book in ring me on 07974807941 to book or ring Mike on 07977545882

Short pole series, final match

Last round at Chilton trinity on woodland lake, it was a bit of tight affair , with Tom mangnal leading going into this match on 18 points , with myself, Emma Drysdale and Joe McMahon all on 16 points , so a good result by any of the top 4 was going to be needed to ensure a final pay out.
I let misha draw for me again, and she didn't let me down as she me peg 6, which is the first one on the far bank, so yes it was another corner, and with peg 7 not drawn due  a couple of non shows, both down to legitimate reasons , so no moan from me.
My next angler to my left was Chris Fox on 8, I was also in the k/o final with Tom mangnal and Joe McMahon, Joe was opposite on 32 and Tom was up on 24, so on could keep an eye on them.
Rigs today were a couple for the right hand margin, one on top of the shelf and one about a mtr off, then two more rigs for out in front, one shallow  and another for on the deck, all to fish with banded 8mm pellet over 8,s as feed.

I would like to say at the start it all went to plan, but it never as Joe opposite had a couple of fish on paste before I managed to hook one , it may have been in the tail but they all count.

I was soon reaching for the shallow rig and to be fair I spent most of the rest of the match on this, I did manage one fish down the edge  and two fish on the deck out in front, but it was a bit of a slog really, I ended up with 13 fish for hopefully about 80lb, but it was going to be enough to win the section, so that would be good, hopefully the others in contention would dip out, Joe opposite had struggled as had Tom and Emma up at the other end of the lake , Mike west looked to have done the best, and would probably win on the day, Clayton Hudson on peg 10 would push him closest as far as I could see, 

Mike west on peg 27 did win with 104.6, catching well down his edge on pellet then paste towards the end of the match.

2nd Clayton Hudson on 10 with 89.6

3rd me with 80.11

The k/o was won by me , so that was 60quid in the pocket to begin with.

I also won the series due to Tom mangnal dipping right out, I ended with 22 pts with Tom coming second with 20 points

3rd was Joe McMahon on 19 pts with a weight of 298.8

4th Emma Drysdale also on 19 pts but with a lesser weight of 245.4.

Dates for next year are 15/5

23/7

20/8

3/9

Again all 4 matches at Chilton trinity, woodland lake.

Big thanks to Steve Evans for doing the results , a massive help as always.

Silver's, over 50,s , sedges fishery

Another costcutter today as I got to work tomorrow, so sedges was my only option, still it was a good turnout with 24 fishing, good to see Charlie Barnes turn up with John barker for a watch, hopefully he will soon be back on the bank fishing,

Jamie decided to to put 8 on brick lake and 16 on tile, I wanted to draw on brick as the skimmers are much bigger, and the love the worm, I got into the draw about halfway through and pulled out 17 which was on brick, plus it's in the right area for the bream, but with very little wind and bright sunlight I wasn't sure they would cooperate, I was next to hls clubs finest in the shape of Bolton George who has got an o level in moaning, he can even make des shipp seem like a novice.

Main attack today was worm and caster in groundbait at 9 and 13 mtrs, so on the whistle several balls were put on each line, and I began on the shorter line with maggot on the hook, but after a couple of iffy small fish bites I was reaching for the worm bag, and from there on it turned into a nice comfy match, catching odd good skimmers off each line on big bits of dendra, worm seemed to work better till the last couple of hours when a switch to double caster seemed better, the match was never fast and furious , but I didn't expect it as the weather was right against silver fish catching, but I ended up with 44lb for a comfy win, weight sheet below.

Still got a couple of spaces for Chilton trinity woodlands lake on Sunday for the last in the short pole series , so any one fancy it ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in.

Float only rnd 5 shiplate farm

Well it was back to this nice fishery for this round, Steve and Carol let us use all lakes so i put 10 on both west pool and Hawthorn, 16 on the main lake and a section of 5 on the squircle.
I let Nick chedzoy draw for me and he handed me 7 on west pool, this lake is a long canal shape lake , which is 16 mtrs at its widest, which happened to be my peg.

For company I had Ashton vales finest in the shape of Steve seager on 6 and Chris Davis on 9  so plenty of laughs with Chris and the normal good mannered banter with Steve.

Rigs today were a pellet rig for across tight, another one for just down the slope across, a meat rig for 5 mtrs but it was never used as I kept an eye on other people trying it , but it only gave a few fish across the whole fishery, so I never picked it up.
And a maggot rig for over groundbait down the edge.
At the start I fed all lines but began across on banded 8 over 6,s, it all began a bit hard for me as I couldn't get a bite let alone catch anything , whereas Mr seager was catching from the off, and needles to say was letting me know all about it, 2 hours in and I was well behind, I had managed to mug a few passing fish , but I was always trying to catch Steve up but was failing miserably, and Steve was definitely having a bit of a gloat, I did remind him it was a marathon and not a Sprint,
During the 4th hour I decided to switch to maggot on the hook just to try something different, why I didn't try it earlier is obeying me , a bit of bad angling methinks, as it was like putting the light on ,I began mugging a few as the slower falling bait was more to there liking, also I was getting more proper bites against the far bank, I was slowly winding Steve in as I had a few bigger fish.
It was about this time I had a visit for Nick chedzoy who was up on 9a , now Nick is a good river angler but he was having a bit of difficulty with some fish identification, he wasn't sure if the small fish he was getting were small chubby or grass carp, perhaps he needs to put a fish id book on his Xmas list.
I had a good spell which bought me back into contention for the section, by the end it was tough to call, Steve had more fish than me but I had some better ones, and it was those bigger ones that proved the difference as I had 105lb to Steve's 92, but he took it well.

Note the tight lipped grimace.
As for the overalls today, there was only going to be one winner today, as the Craig Edmunds steamroller keeps going and today was his day again, as he beat the lake record with 222.14 off peg 14, catching on paste at 13 mtrs
2nd was Beal bakos on peg 6 Hawthorn with 208.12, which is also a lake record
3rd Jason Radford on peg 15 main lake 142.12
4th Glen Bailey on peg 14b main lake with 132lb, beaten both sides on his favourite method lol
5th John fuidge on peg 2 main lake  with 129.5
6th Tom mangnal on 13 Hawthorn with 108.14
Silver's
Paul faiers on 12 main lake with 22.12 of mainly whitebait
2nd went to John Bradford on peg 4 main lake with 16.8
All in all it fished really well, with Mike Nicholls also breaking th watch record on the squircle with 71.12.
Next Sunday its the last match of the short pole series at Chilton trinity, I will have a couple of spaces so contact me on 07974807941 to book in

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Had a new chef at cafe Fox today ,in the shape of Chris Fox, it wasn't to bad but Caroline is better.
After the brekkie it was off to the fishery with plenty of spare time, 27 fishing today so that was good then.
I was second into the ping pong bag and pulled out 36, its thrown up a couple of decent weights in the last couple of matches , so I hoped I could continue the trend today, for company I had Mike laird on 37 and Bob gullick on 34, he must think there is a bridge on ever peg at this venue as he is always sat next to one .

It's quite a narrow peg with it just being over 11 mtrs to the far bank, it also has a couple of nice looking margins , plus a reed bed by the empty pallet to my left.

Rigs today were a pellet rig over to the far side against the island, a shallow rig for against the aerater, as a few fish are known to shelter beneath it, a pellet rig for down to the left towards the reed bed and pallet, and a rig for maggot down the edge each side over groundbait.
Match started and I began on the shallow rig against the aerater after feeding the other lines, I missed a couple of quick bites and that was my lot on that rig , so no more about that then, also another rig not to mention was the rig down by the pallet and reeds as I never had a bite on that either.
Over to the far side but the fish seemed to be very cagey today, possibly due to the colder nite or it may have been the bright sunshine and flat calm not helping, either way the fish were very spooky, plus the banks have had a good haircut and scrape meaning no cover on the far side, my swim never really got going , the margins were just as difficult as I only managed 4 fish from the right hand side and none from the left, although odd fish could be seen in the margins they proved hard to tempt, I had more off the far bank but never enough to be a threat to anyone today, Bob on 34 had caught well as had Chris Fox the other side of the bridge on 33, at the end I reckoned on 60lb and wasn't to far out with 65.10, Bob was admitting to 70lb but I thought he had closer to 100lb, and he did as his net's went 104lb, now the fun began as the fishery now has a 70lb net limit, and if you go over the 70 Mark you get nothing , poor old Bob only went and put 70.4 pounds in one net, meaning he only weighed 34 lb, lol the quid side bet was mine, I'm still laughing now, look at the sheepish grin on him in the photo.

He would have been second aswell, I'm still laughing 😂😂😂
1st went to the consistent Steve Shaw on peg 15 with 107.10
2nd Jake Alden on 27 with 103.14
3rd Chris Fox on 33 with 93.6
4th Chris Ray on 5 with 93.1
5th Glen Bailey on 4 with 84.2
6th norm sterry on 18 with 70.3

Short pole series, round 3

Had the company of Judith with me today as she fancied a nice quiet day in the fresh air, to relax a bit, so after picking Jason up it was off to Weston and the copper kettle cafe, and very nice it was to,
Still got to the lake with plenty of time to organise things, we had a few reserves in today, including the whole shipp clan, des , his brother Ryan and his dad Vince, lol.
I let misha draw for me again. And she didn't disappoint again as she handed me peg 22, end peg on the Carpark bank towards the top end , and as the wind was blowing quite hard into the corner to my right , for company I had stu Barnett on 23 and kev molten round the corner to my right on 19.
I set up 2 rigs for 6 mtrs both to fish pellet , one shallow and one on the deck, and a margin rig for the margin to my right , also for banded pellet, the margin did look good I must say.

At the start I began on the shallow rig feeding meat and fishing a banded 8mm over the top, I fished this for nearly an hour with only one carp to show for my.efforts, and that was to be the only fish I had shallow, I went on the depth rig and had a couple of carp and a couple of skimmers, but it was proving a difficult day with the carp not wanting to play ball to any great degree, des over on peg 10 seemed.to be doing the best, snarling a few on shallow meat, I never really got to many fish queuing up , it was just a case of swapping between the margin and the deep line , picking off odd fish from both lines, I only ended with 13 carp and 2 skimmers for hopefully 75lb at least.

It turned out I had just done enough as I came first with 93.13, beating des shipp into second with 80.6 off peg 10
3rd Tom mangnal on 30 with 71.1
4th Emma Drysdale on 33 with 66.12
5th Dave Evans with 50.15
6th stu Barnett 49.1
Silver's
Martin McMahon on 18 with 12.3
The league is tight with Tom mangnal out in front on 18 points then there are three of us on 16 ,
Joe McMahon
me
Emma Drysdale,
So the last match is going to be interesting.
Float only league at shiplate next Sunday, looking forward.to that as its fishing very well of late, plus it's another chance of a good breakfast at the copper kettle cafe in Weston as the fishery is only 10 minutes from the cafe, nice.