Ivy house Tuesday costcutter

Travelled with Chris "birthday boy" Fox today, and what should have been a fairly straightforward 50 minute journey, turned into a 135 minute journey from hell, the people in charge of Bristol roads need to be sacked , they honestly don't have a clue.
W@#?=@s.
Due to eating my brekkie I had the last ball in the bucket, peg 44 was my home for the day, its a peg I have always fancied, its the first one on the left on the far side of the causeway on willow lake. It's a good margin peg on its day, but with fewer but bigger fish than in the match lake it can prove a bit tough.
Oh and did I mention its another corner peg .

Just over to my left was the Wiltshire legend Gary etheridge on the match lake, he has obviously been given a grant as he has invested some money in a set of the new Preston pole rollers from there soon to be released retro range, and I must say they look really good and stable.

I set up rigs to fish left at 14 mtrs along the causeway, same rig would do  to my right , a pellet rig for 14 mtrs and two corn rigs , one for 13 mtrs and the other for 5mtrs,  to cut a long story short it turned into as tough a day as I expected, roach were to prove a big problem on corn, the 5 mtr line was the best as I had a few skimmers , one carp and some roach from there, as for the carp I had three from the 14 mtr line out in front on pellet and 3 more from along the causeway bank also on pellet, but even on these two lines roach were trying to eat the 8mm pellet, all very annoying, so at the end I had 7 carp and a few silver's for what I thought would be 75lb and I wasnt to far out as I had 76.2, which was enough for second on the day, but no pickup as Andy operates a continental pay out, which is a first in each section of which there was three today , and a first in section for silver's, the match was won by oggy on peg 41 with 90.14 , catching on banded 8mm over maggot in his margin.
Silver's winner today was Gary etheridge on 15 match lake with 51lb of skimmers, well done to the man who once auditioned for top gun as Tom cruise,s stunt double, only missing out as he was deemed to tall.

Weight sheet below, as is normal with this fishery, no one really runs away with it, and its certainly not a fish race, its a working venue, it makes you think a bit, enjoyable in a warped sort of way, but the breakfast is very good and the fresh cream and jam scones after were very welcome.

Fishing Saturday and Sunday this week, both days at viaduct, the all winners final Saturday and the first of the silver's league on Sunday, two totally different days, looking forward to a good 2 days fishing.

Chilton trinity, woodlands lake

After a bit of a well worth detour for breakfast at the copper kettle cafe in w s mare with Chris Fox and Jason Radford it was off to the fishery, only 14 of us fishing today as there was quite a bit on at various venues today .
Still at least it meant plenty of room, with all but one having an empty peg each side, misha drew for me again today and it must be said this girl has got a golden arm as she handed me 22, certainly a swim I would have picked as a first choice, its the end peg on the near bank going into a corner, I've drawn that many corners lately, I think I may change my name to Jack, lol.
Company wise I had kev molten on 24 and "our Dave" Dave Evans on peg 18.
Four rigs today, a shallow and deep rig for 13 mtrs in front, another for 13 mtrs to my right down the near side slope and another for the margins each side.
All rigs were to fish pellets, 8mm banded mover 6,s on the long lines , and banded 8mm over 8,s in the margins.
This is going to turn into a short blog now as I want to watch the darts, so I'm going to say I had a nice steady match catching odd fish on all rigs and lines , I even had a big eel which I foulhooking in the tail, which was going to prove crucial at the end, I had some nice looking fish today including a nice mirror which had a purple sheen to it and a massive tail for its size (6lb).

The picture doesn't do the colour justice really, by the end I thought i had 115lb , but Tom mangnal on peg 2 had caught well as had Dave on 18, so the scales would tell, Tom had 122.8 , and the only other person to break the ton by the time the scales got to me was Dave Evans with 101.13,
My carp went 121.4 but luckily my eel went a level 3lb to give me 124.4  and the win (I love eels), Tom took it well being snigged into second place , and Dave was third
4th Chris Fox on 6 with 79.15
5th Gordon canning on 15 with 77lb, and he won the silver's with 16.4
6th Mike west on 26 with 75.2

Acorn Tuesday costcutter

On my own today so decided to go to this popular Somerset venue , for hopefully a bit of a bag up as its been fishing well with winning weights normally topping 200lb and there is always a chance of over 300.
16 fishing today so organiser Mike Chapman gave everyone a bit of room. Early as normal into the draw bag and ping pong ball no9 stuck to my hand, another peg I havnt fished before, its nice as its only 11 mtrs wide so nice and easy today.

It was a nice depth on the the far bank so I set up a .1g as4 for there with banded pellet, a .15 pc slim for down to empty pallet 8, and another .1 as4 for maggot down each side margin.
At the start I began on the far bank on banded pellet, I had a fish quite quickly, but it wasn't easy as the fish seemed to be shying away from the pellet, I was getting odd fish, gabe skarba on peg 6 was struggling at this stage, and ed wynne on 11 was trying to catch silver's as he had the same peg on Sunday and won the silver's with over 20lb , but it didn't seem to be happening today as carp seemed intent on ruining his day.
Ray bazeley on peg 5 was catching well on soft pellet on his topkit, but he was having a few issues, I tried to get a pic of him netting a fish, but it was taking a long time , the picture shows him playing a good fish just before it did him under his pallet LOL.

As the match progressed, gabe began to catch well on his much loved soft pellet over groundbait, plus a few pellets aswell, I started catching well in my right hand margin going into the last two hours, the fish seemed to want to go into really shallow water only about 8 inches deep, just over loose Fed maggots, I fed 4mm pellet to my left but it wasn't a effective as the maggot line to my right.

Although in was catching well in the last couple of hours , I was always well adrift of gabe as he began catching well about 2 hours in, so he was looking favourite to win today, he really seems to have this venue sorted so well done to him. By the end I thought I had at least 150 but gabe was admitting to over 200, and after weighing he was well over 200 with 257.5, another easy win as I was second with 177.5.
Mike Owens on peg 33 was 33rd with 130.10
4th Ray bazeley finally managed to get over 100lb in a long time with 112lb
5th Paul faiers with 73.9 on peg 21
6th Dave Stephenson on peg 24 with 72.3
Silver's
John barker on peg 2 with 13.4
Off to Chilton trinity woodlands lake on Sunday, got a few spare places, so txt , ring or message me if you fancy it, 9.30 draw.

Sunday open, Landsend fishery

16 fishing today, would have been 17 but a normal twat timewaster who sent me several texts confirming they were fishing but never showed, they also never answered there phone, so in future , no name no fish, but then again they may have had a plays able excuse, but even so it doesn't hurt to let organisers know, moan over with, life's to short to bother with some people.
Back to the draw and I let Judith draw for me again, peg 35 on the speci lake was my home for the day, for company I had a regenerated Pete notton on 34 , back for his first match in a few years, good to see him back . The other side was newlywed Joe Godfrey on 37, we were using the Carpark side of this lake with the rest pegged around lake 3.
I got to my peg and was pleased to see a few fish moving around on the surface, so I put together a stalker rig, plus rigs to fish pellets over on the island shelf, one for meat at 5 mtrs and a rig for maggot down the edge, but plumbing up down there revealed over 2 feet of water , which I felt was a tad to deep,

Even though the lake was over a foot down, there was still 12 inches of water tight in so I was happy with that, with a few fish still on the surface  I decided to try and mug a few to begin with, and was rewarded with a double figure common within seconds of the start.

Nice start, the first hour was ok as I had 4 more fish on the stalker rig before they disappeared, I had a quick look on the meat line and had a decent skimmer first drop, then after that it was nibblers, and although I tried a few more times during the match, it was nibblers aplenty. Most of the rest of the match was spent across on the island shelf, where I had been feeding three spots with a catty and 6 mm pellets and used a banded 8mm on the hook, the only other person who was catching now was Pete on 34 , but he had a bit of a disaster when his 16 mtr section snapped, luckily I had a spare section in my bag which fitted his just about right, so he was able to carry on fishing across, and I began to curse my generosity as he began to catch really well, and it wasn't to long before there wasn't to much between us, , but I just kept plugging away moving between the three far bank swims , as I feared the inside maggot line was totally useless , but I was getting enough fish across to edge ahead of Pete, but they were on the small side , from about 3 to 6lb, but at least something was going into the net.

By the end I thought I about 120lb with people pegs Pete on about 100,
I wasn't to far adrift by my standards as I put 134.3 on the scales for first on the day.
2nd was Pete with 115.3
3rd Steve seager with 102.8
4th Gordon canning with 61.5
5th Clint wojtyla with 59.14
6th beany with 51.12
Silver's went to Paul faiers with 23.2 on peg 38
All pictures courtesy of Judith rixon

Ivy house Tuesday costcutter

Just for a bit of a change Chris Fox and me decided to Andy and Karen a visit at this popular Wiltshire venue, its not a huge weight venue normally, 100lb will win most matches and silver's weights regularly top 50lb, so with all this in mind both of went equipped with worms, casters, groundbait pellets and paste, all thing hopefully covered then, I did bring three pints of dead maggots for down the edge, as its been working to a certain degree on a few venues.
After one of Karen's nice brekkies it was time to draw, I was one from the end and pulled out peg 5, a good peg for carp but not so good for silver's apparently, so the silver's baits stayed in the bag.
It's a nice view from the cafe door though.

I got to my peg and found myself looking straight across the lake at travelling partner Chris Fox, who was mainly targeting silver's today.

I set up a maggot rig for down the edge , but apart from a couple of perch that was a total.waste of maggots, so I won't be mentioning that again, the other rigs were a deep and shallow pellet rig for 14 mtrs, and a paste rig , yes a paste rig, you read it right !!!!!!.

Frank Donochie,s son drew this peg at the weekend and had a tough time with foulers, Frank said he cured it by plopping the method feeder onto the pole line, but I don't do that but after the way my day went perhaps I may need to look at it , as the day went I did have a torrid time with lost fish , mostly fouled but I lost several fish hooked in the mouth, even two fish I hooked shallow, I was trying some new elastic lube , blue in colour, I normally use the mosella silicone lube and very good it is to, but I think this new lube seemed to not like the old lube which was still on the plastics, making it all very juddery and sticking, which I don't think helped, so I think it will be back to the mosella lube for sure, the other lube I think is fine providing its on virgin elastic which hasn't seen any other lubes.
By the end I thought I had about 50lb and wast to far out as my fish went 52.12.
The match was won by Gary etheridge on peg 2 with 92.10, and another pensioner was second in the shape of baggy , next to me on 6 with 70.2 on corn, he also had the top silver's weight of 38.4, all at about 5 mtrs, weigh sheet below, I think in will be back there next Tuesday and try and sort it out a bit, oh yes and I did catch 2 carp and a tench on PASTE .

Avalon open

Only 14 of us fishing today, there were quite a few other matches on today so no real surprise.
I let Judith draw for me for me with the strict instructions to draw peg 24  for me , well that's the last time she does that, peg 32 indeed, its a peg on the small island about 3/4 the way up, a very snaggy island if you get to close, so I set up a pellet wag , but with the wind blowing left to right it was always going to be hard on that as the float was getting blown off the island in double quick time.

4 pole rigs today, a shallow and deep pellet rig for 16 mtrs and a couple of silver's rigs, one for worm and the other with caster , both with middy 6313 hooks on .12, an 18 for caster and a 16 for worm.
I had the local legend Craig "trigger" Edmunds to my right on 30 and Mike "pikey" west on 33.
At the start I cupped in 6 balls of worm and caster laced groundbait at 13 mtrs, 3 on each angle 11 and 1 o'clock, some 6mm pellets at 16 mtrs and fired some of the same  onto the wag line , I started on the wag as the wind was nearly manageable to begin with, and my first bite resulted in a lost hooklenth as the hooked fish made the snags, so that was up the bank then.
Onto the pole and pellet at 16 mtrs and after a couple of lost foulers I was looking to the silver's lines, especially as trigger had a couple of big fish on paste at the start, but was now getting a bite every throw on the pellet  wag over to his island, but it was sounding like a one in twenty bite to connect ratio, quick fish, admittedly lots of the bites are from silver's, but even the carbonate really quick, I binned the long pole pellet line as I could just tell it would get torrid, I did try shallow for a while but it only gave me a roach, so most of the rest of the match was spent trying to catch the decent skimmers which are in the lake, I did manage one on the wag, but the wind got worse as the match progressed.

But luckily I had enough bites and indications to keep me going at it , especially as trigger was now catching on the wag and later on the pole and paste, but the bream are of a decent size and they seem to have a taste for Vic,s finest dendra,s.

It was never frantic sport , more of a waiting game for each bite, swapping and feeding between both lines, catching on both worm and double caster, I ended up with 14 or 15 skimmers and a tench , I did also get 3 nuisance carp on the worm , all of which try there hardest to get under the pallet, the buggers. I reckoned on having nearly 30lb of skimmers and 4 carp for 20lb, as expected normal service was resumed with trig winning with 124.12, taking about half and half on the wag and on the paste, so well done to him,

2nd was Martin lenaghan showing his adaptability , landing a 43lb carp last week and framing today with 77.5
3rd was Stuart Barnett with 64lb
4th was me with 54.4 which included the days top silver weight of 33.12

5th Mike west 49lb and last in the frame was Steve seager with 46.2.
2nd in silver's went to ziggy slowinski with 26.8.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

18 fishing today , so at least we would all have an empty peg each side or a bridge , so plenty of room for all, into the draw quite early and out comes ping pong ball no 7, a new one for me, never been on this one before, but gabe skarba have me the low down on it as he has had it several times, then he scurried off to his nice corner peg 11, so he would be the one to watch, as was Steve Shaw on 15.

Only down shot really was that I had to look at Bob feltham all day over on peg 5.
After listening to the advice I decided to completely ignore the far bank, which was a first for me on this venue as I normally target the@ rat holes,
So today I set rigs to fish maggot down the edge at 4mtrs, a pellet rig for on the deck at 2plus 2 about 1.5 mtrs off the bank, and a pellet rig for up to empty peg 8.
On the all in I fed the 2+2 pellet line and fed some pellets up to the next pallet, and began feeding maggots down the margin,
Starting on the short pellet line I was soon into my first carp, and I caught a few quite quickly, then I started fouling a few. Lifting and dropping helped but didn't cure the problem, I tried my next pallet rig over the same line, which was about 6 inches off the deck, and I had a bit of a purple patch, catching well on a 6mm banded pellet just suspended off the deck,

  That lasted for a while but it wasn't quick enough to see me winning, especially as Steve and gabe had begun to catch well in the second half of the match, the last 2 hours were spent on the margin maggot line and up to the next pallet with pellet , catching off both lines by the end it was to tough to call between me gabe and Steve, but I new I had over 200lb with the other two admitting to less but I know not to believe people , as I'm one of the worst lol.
My last fish was a nice 8lb common on maggot down the edge , Mark Bartlett was on hand to take a pic of me netting it.

It turned out I didn't need the last fish as I weighed 219lb which was enough to win, but it shouldn't have as Steve Shaw over on 15 went over in two of his net's, 76 in one and 77 in another, so he lost those two nets , we think his clicker must have gone into reverse after 50lb, but never mind, thanks Steve LOL.
2nd was the ever dangerous and new mosella signing ,
Gabe skarba on 11 with 191.6
3rd Sean Clayton on peg 1 with 183.4
4th rich Heatley on peg 33 with 158.12
5th Nick Miller on 13 with 118.2
6th Mark Walsh on 22 with 98lb
Silver
Mike Owens on 9 with 19.15
Avalon Sunday for anyone who is looking for a match, ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in, 9.30 draw fish 11 to 5

Sedges brick lake

Full house with 20 on the lake, not to sure where I wanted to draw, but 10 or 11 would be my favoured draw for the win or a middle of the lake for silver's, I let Alan oram draw for me and he handed me peg 20, its a end peg but its not the best, the carp do sometimes turn up on this peg but its definitely more famine than feast and its a rubbish silver's peg for the most part, so I never set a rig up for silver's to begin with, I set up a couple of rigs for along the end bank, one on top of the shelf and the other down a bit in 5 feet of water, and a meat rig for 5mtrs.

I started on the slightly deeper pellet rig along the bank, but after 45 minutes and not even a liner it was definitely looking like a famine day , I tried up on the island shelf for 15 mins but nothing there either, odd fish were being caught further up the lake but out end was hard to say the least,
I was now assembling a silver's rig for worm and caster in groundbait, so I deposited 6 balls at 11 and had a few minutes dabble up the edge for no avail, out on the silver's.line and it was about as exiting as I thought it would be, a few eel bites which I turned into a couple of snakes and a couple of skimmers but it was a long wait for a bite, I did connect with a lovely lift bite and connected with a nice lump of iris root system which also managed to swallow the hook.

I had odd bites on the silver's line but it was a no hoper today , it only enlivened up in the last hour when I hooke two fish along the edge but both came off, fouled presume , I did get 6 carp in the last hour on the meat line at 5 mtrs but I could see to many fish being caught at the other end of the lake especially trigger who had managed to draw peg11 , I just hope he never draws a proper flyer, LOL. Those 5 late carp had put me into contention to win the section, my main threat was from Paul elmes on peg 4 who also had a late burst of close meat fish, but there was only going to be one winner today after he drew 11 , there's no stopping trig at all, especially if he keeps drawing pegs like this, he had an easy win with 142 .14, he also benefited from a late burst on the meat towards the end, probably putting 80lb in the net in the last hour.
2nd Glen "2 pots" Bailey on peg 6 with 95.12
3 rd Alan oram on peg 14 with 77.12
4th Martin rayet on peg 7 with 68.3
5th Tom mangnal on 15 with 67.8
6th Steve seager on peg 10 with 67.3
I ended up with 6 carp and 10lb of silver's for 58.11 to sneak the section away for Paul elmes by 6lb.

Silver's went to fatboy not so slim Clint wojtyla with 28.14 on peg 9.
2nd in silver's went to the horseshoe horizontal boxing champion Martin rayet with 23.5 on peg 7
Next Sunday off Avalon so get in touch to fish, all welcome,