Viaduct silver's league rnd 3

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

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

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

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

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

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

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

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

Sunday open, Landsend fishery

25 fishing today so Mike let us spread over match and 3, so plenty of room, I made the mistake of letting Shawn kitteridge draw for me and he handed me peg 3, not an ideal peg for this time of year, especially as the temps are beginning to fall.
I set a caster rig for 4 mtrs and down to the left edge as its the same depth, a soft pellet rig for 11 mtrs to the left and the same rig would do for down to empty peg 4 , a meat rig for down to empty peg 2 as this is normally a banker for a few, and a pellet rig for just down the island slope in about 2 foot of water,

With trig Edmunds on peg 11 the chances of winning off my peg were very slight, the main body of carp seem to like living at the other end of the lake and down the far side as far as 19, so I thought my best chances of a pickup would be with silver's, so at the start, I fed some micros on the soft pellet lines but began on the caster at 4 mtrs, I new I was going to be in trouble when it took me 30 mins to get a bite, definitely not ideal. In fact it turned out to be a really tough one at this end of the lake, Joe McMahon on peg one had a carp first drop on corn over by the island, but that was his lot to begin with, I fed some meat down by  peg 2 after about an hour as nothing was happening, I also fed some hard pellets onto the island shelf just in case, and I was surprised to see some water movement after a few minutes, so it was off the box and a shallow rig was assembled, I went straight across and had two quick carp before they disappeared, not really surprising as the water was only 10 inches deep and I could see the fish, back on the caster lines and the first bite I had down the edge resulted in a carp, which after playing it for a few minutes managed to get into the margin debris and break me ,
The caster fishing never picked up, so with odd people catching f1,s even the silver's pickup was looking very unlikely, Ken rayner on 5 was also finding it hard but he was losing a few, by the halfway stage I could look up the lake and see trig was now catching really well, so that looked to be the match sown up again, I kept trying down to pallet 2 but only managed one bite down there which resulted in a 8lb fish but that part of my peg remained lifeless, to be honest all the peg seems lifeless, I had one small skimmer on soft pellet, one carp plus a few silver's on caster at 4 mtrs and 4 carp from across on the island.

By the end I had 6 carp for 24lb and 5lb of silver's so nothing in the wallet today, oh except for Joe McMahon,s quid lol.
1st as expected as soon as he drew was Craig Edmunds, who showed his class by paralyzing the match with 188.11, well done.
Only nearly 100lb behind with 94lb was mat tomes on peg 42 with 94lb
3rd was Tom mangnal on peg 70 with 88.9
4th Steve seager on 19 with 68.12
5th Adrian Jeffery with 64.12
6th Leon Hubbard with 55lb
Silver's on the match lake went to Clint wojtyla with 9.3
And on lake 3 Gary o,Shea had 9.4, so the silver's seemed to have had a proper off day,
Back to acorn again on Tuesday then off to viaduct for the silver's league next Sunday, no real cold weather or frosts forecast so it should be ok on both venues.

Tuesday costcutter open acorn fishery

Travelled with Chris Fox today , so Mrs Fox (Caroline) treated us to one of her tasty breakfast omelettes, very nice to.
Short trip to the fishery and there was 20 booked in, so a decent turn out again.
Early into the draw bag and out comes ping pong ball 31, I like this area as you generally get a bit of room as its deemed a bit of a tough area, but I reckon its ok.
For company in had John barker on the bridge peg 33 and Keith Fisher on 27, so like I said plenty of room. This peg had a nice margin , its about 2 foot deep, so I set up the maggot rig for each side, a maggot rig for on the deep water at 5 mtrs and 2 pellet rigs, one for across on the island shelf and the other for down to empty pallet 30.
At the start I began on the island rig , but it was a bit slow, I only had 2 carp in the first hour, over on 24 Dave wride had got off to a flying start and was putting fish into his net fishing disbelieve soft pellet. Also I could see Chris Fox on 9 having a few, and Mark Jones on 34 was doing ok.
My far line started to produce more fish when the ducks turned up and began colouring the water up, this is one of the few venues where I encourage ducks into my peg, you can often see the carps tails in between the ducks.

The second half of my match was enjoyable, I was catching fish from the far side, down to the empty pallet and a few from the 5 mtr line on maggot, I was always trying to claw back Dave's early lead, his swim slowed up towards the end but in was getting a few so by the end it was always going to be close, I did ask my runner to keep and eye on what was being caught, but to be honest, he wasn't very good .

Well he never kept a close enough eye on Dave wride as he came out top today with 144..9
I was 2nd with 141.14, one fish short
3rd Chris Fox on 9 with 108.9
4th Mark Jones on 34 with 97.12
5th Mike Owens on 40 with 68.8
6th John Darby on 22 with 56.13
Ed wynne continues his dominance in the silver's by winning that with 7.6 off peg 36

Viaduct silver's league rnd 2

After a decent breakfast at lillypool, it was off to the fishery, after a disastrous start in the first round, I really needed a good draw to get a section win, early into the draw tin, out comes peg 80, not a peg of dreams for sure, more a peg of nightmares, its one everyone wants to avoid as its only 2 foot deep at best and with the water clearing it was definitely a peg to avoid, at least all the people in the draw queue behind heaved big sighs of relief with that one gone. I certainly never rushed the peg, for company I had sam"tom"Powell on 78, and as that peg is twice the depth of 80 I was fearing the worst.

I'm not going to bore you wither he details , but as expected the peg never got going, only small roach from all lines, the two long lines , one by the spit feeding chopped worm and caster, in the vane hope some of the lakes big hybrids and good perch may show up, but I expect you have guessed that they never, a groundbait line at 14 mtrs to the right slightly was fairly productive , again for small roach and the odd 3 oz skimmer, til the last hour when I had a 3lb tench followed by a 1 1/2 hybrid, so by the end I had double figures but bit was no good again today, I did catch quite well at 4 mtrs on the deck and shallow , but it was only small roach, Sam in the mean time had a nice day catching initially to the sunken tree to his right then topping up with some good skimmers on the long pole later in the match, but he had done enough to win on the day with 35.3, it was a nice mixed bag of fish.

2nd was Bob gullick on 98 with a level 30lb
3rd Glen Calvert on peg 27.6
4th Craig Edmunds on 114 with 23.8
5th Dom Sullivan on 60 with 22.14
6th Nick ewers on 62 with 22.13
Weights are dropping a bit but the temps are dropping and the water is clearing , so it's going to get a bit more difficult, winters coming.
I'm running a match at Landsend fishery next Sunday, so get in touch to book in , 9 o,clock draw, breakfast at the fishery from 7.30

Silver's winner final, viaduct fishery

After a stop off at Landsend fishery cafe for breakfast, it was off to the fishery, 64 fishing today so Steve spread us over Campbell, Cary, lodge and spring, not to fussed as to where I drew but one of the pegs on the far side of spring lake would be nice, 16 to 19, so I wasn't to disappointed when I opened up the ticket to reveal 16, nice start, but I just had to hope the main shoal of skimmers were at my end of the section, but they do have a habit of shoaling in 1or 3 pegs, time would tell.

4 rigs today, a couple of caster ones for short and down the edge, and 2 the long pole , .25 and .4 g . I chose 3 lines for the long pole , one at 11 mtrs and 2 at 14 but on different angles.
At the start I fed 3 balls on each of the long pole lines with some chopped worm and caster, but began on the short pole line with caster , fully expecting to catch some roach from the off, but it never happened, I couldn't get a bite, very strange as this lake has a lot of small nuisance roach, but they did by seem to want to play ball today, so after 30 mins and with only.2 small roach in the net I was shipping out a caster to the 11 mtr line, that's when I discovered where the small roach were, all out on the long pole lines !!!!!!. So back out with a healthy chunk of worm but the little blighters were nailing that aswell, and it didn't really get any better as the match went on, it appeared the skimmers were happy to sit in front of peg 18 where Sean Wilson was making no mistakes plundering them , ably assisted by his coach in the shape his dad who seemed to talk him right through the match. I spent most of my match rotating around the long lines with bits of worm on the hook, caster or maggot on the hook never got even close to the bottom, Sean and his dad did well to keep the skimmers coming, cupping in plenty of neat worm and fishing pieces over the top, I couldn't get a decent skimmer, I had odd ones up to about 1 1/4  oh yes and plenty of small roach, I did get one roach of nearly a pound from the inside, but it was a loner.
No one I could see was going to beat Sean on our lake , but I didn't know about the other lakes, I did have a bit of carp trouble today , especially towards the end, I think I lost 8 in the end. By the end I reckoned on double figures but was going to be miles behind Sean, who was admitting to 45lb, and he wasn't to far out as he weighed 50.4 for the win and £750, I got the section by default with just over 15lb, I'll take it anyway I can lol.

Sean with most of his fish, well done matey.
2nd James Allen on 99 with 40.2
3rd des shipp on 66 with 31.2
4th stu white on 115 with 31.6
5th bela bakos on 69 with 30.2
6th Fred Roberts on 125 with 29.7
Back to viaduct again tomorrow for the second round of the silver's league,

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Back to acorn again ,and with a decent turn out of 22 I was looking forward to it, after Steve Burgess,s comments on the psv blog there were a couple of there clubs finest on the banks hoping to do well, early into the draw and out comes pingpong 17, no complaints as its been a very consistent area this summer, but with the weather cooling and the water clearing it maybe a different proposition today. I reckoned it was still warm enough for the fish to be up in the shallow water across, so I set up a rig for that to fish pellet, I was surprised to find it really shallow tight across so I came a mtr off the far side and still only had 12 inches depth, but that would do. It was shallow enough tight across that the geese could stand there and hardly get there bellies  wet.

I also set up a pellet rig to fish to my right in the margin and down to the empty pallet, and a rig for maggot to my left, again in the margin and up to the empty pallet that way, apart from the bridge pegs everyone had an empty peg each side. For company I had Ray bazeley on peg 15 and Barry fitchew on peg 19, Ray would be trying to catch carp but Barry would be on his normal silver's attempt.
I began the match on banded 6mm pellet over loose Fed 4,s, I didn't have long to wait for a bite and I had two fish in the net after 15 minutes, and there were a few fish beginning to show in the shallow water across, but they were a bit spooky with the clarity of the water, but I was getting enough to make it worthwhile staying across, as far as I could see no one was catching much, I had a few looks down each margin in the first half of the match but never had a bite, Barry had caught a few carp on maggot fished in the deep water, as had Ray, so I made a rig up to fish in the deep water with maggot. I also swapped the right hand margin to a maggot line and started to see some movement in there, the wind picked up for the last couple of hours making presentation across in the shallow water difficult, and I started foulhooking carp as the rig was getting blown through to fast, but the short maggot line gave me three fish and the right hand margin also produced a few better fish, so by the end I new I had over 100lb and I still hadn't seen to much caught, although Ray to my right ended on a flourish, again catching on maggot down his right hand margin, but it was to little to late for him.

As it turned out I was the only person to break the ton with 113.7
So a nice interesting day, after that the back up weights were very tight , making for a good match
2nd was Mike Chapman on 11 with 74.14
3rd John baker on 38 with 74.12
4th rich Heatley on 6 with 74.7
5th Lee Waller on 5 with 71.6
6th Ray bazeley on 15 with 67.7
The silver's had a proper off day today and Keith Fisher on peg 3 won that with 13.3 with Lee Waller on peg 5 coming 2nd with 9.7.
The only extra quid I won today was off gabe skarba who had 59.14 off 33, he managed to scarper before I could get the pic of him handing it over, so here is a Pic of the quid anyway.

Thanks gabe, I know its probably only borrowed for now LOL

Pairs series , todber manor

Travelled with Ken cosmic rayner today as he is my partner for this four match series, after a passable breakfast at cannards well, it was off to the fishery, there were 20 pairs booked into the series a week ago , but as is normal people started crying off, just leaving 14 pairs, luckily fishery boss did mark poppleton a good deal on the pegging so well done to him, and we found ourselves pegged over ash and hillview lakes, one section of 6 on ash and 3 sections on hillview, into the draw and out comes 38 on hillview, General opinion was the it was likely to be the worst section, so I was partly glad to get it out of the way before the cold weather arrives, for company I had Chris Malkin on 37 and the evergreen Nick ewers on 40, the rest of my section was made up of Steve nadin on 34, fishery expert and in house professional Nick merry on 35 and Fred Roberts on 41.
Simple set up today , a meat rig to fish halfway down the near side slope in about 3 foot of water to my right , a pellet rig for on the deck at 6 and 13 mtrs, for banded 6mm over hard 4,s, and last but not least a METHOD feeder to fish out by the island.

At the start I began by feeding the three pope line's then chucked the feeder out, and I was soon getting bites and catching on banded pellet, plenty of bites on it providing I landed about a mtr off the side of the island, I did lose a few as I was fishing an inline feeder, I should have used an elasticated one as the inline one was banging some  Off, although I wasn't catching well, I thought I was doing ok, that was until Nick merry came onto his pole line and began catching pastie stock carp really well, and Steve to his left was catching well on a small pellet feeder, all of a sudden I was falling behind as Nick to my right also began catching quicker than me, I came onto the pole on banded pellet, but bites only came from roach, then micro tench, not a good start, I was miles behind Nick merry and Steve nadin, also Nick to my right was beating me, but I new I was ahead of Fred, but it was close between me and Chris,
I tried the meat line about halfway through but that showed no signs so the next 90 mins were spent between the feeder and the longer pole line, the short pole line also was a non starter, but by now Steve Nick and Nick were all catching on there short lines, so wit about an hour and 15 minutes to go in dropped onto the short meat line and the fish had turned up, I had skimmers to 2lb and the bigger carp rocked up, and the peg got stronger towards the end, so instead of looking at nearly last in the section, I was climbing back up chasing down Steve and Nick, who were still catching but only small carp, with the size of fish I was catching I suddenly had thoughts of winning the section, but the match finished about 10 minutes to soon for me, when the scales got to me Nick merry was winning the section with 104 lb, I didn't think I had any where near that, I was more than surprised to weigh a few ounces over 100lb , so like I said another ten minutes would have probably been enough time to overhaul him but then again I may not have had another big fish and Nick may have got one, it doesn't matter now though as its all over, second in section good enough considering how far behind I was, the lakes fished really well as the sheets below will show, the next round is in November, so it may be a bit more difficult by then, cosmic Ken had a bit of a grueller, he only had 68lb which was only good enough for 4th in section, son we have it all to do in the last three matches.

Off to acorn again on Tuesday, then next weekend its a double header silver's fest at viaduct, all winners silver final on Saturday, then round 2 of the silver's league on Saturday,

A rarity, a short pleasure session

I had a few hours to kill this afternoon so decided on a short pleasure session on plantation main lake , I havnt fished this lake for a few years , but it was always good , with a good head of skimmers aswell as the normal carp, I could have gone to acorn today, but I fished it yesterday, and although there a silver's in those lakes , the large head of carp generally beat the other species to the bait, also I could have gone to bullocks farm to fish one of there intimate lakes, but I will save that for my next sorte, I drove into the Carpark at plantation and was surprised to see loads of cars , I had a quick look at the lake , and sure enough there were plenty of anglers around the lake with all the normal flyers being occupied,
I settled on a peg in the bay just around the left hand side, permanent peg 11 I think.

I set up one rig , a .3g with an 18 b960 for banded pellet, all I had was 4mm for feed and a few 6,s for the band, a quick plumd around revealed about 4 1/2 foot of water at 14 mtrs and the same at 5 mtrs, so I opened up on the long line springing the 4,s, I didn't have to wait long for a bite and I was soon catching skimmers up to a pound, and I had a small (3lb) carp, but after an hour the 5 mtr line was fussing, so I abandoned the long line , put moats of the pole away and spent the next couple of hours on the short line and it was enjoyable, I had 9 more carp up to about 9lb, several skimmers up to 3lb aswell as a tench and an old warrior of a fanatic.

All in all a very pleasant three hours sat in the autumn sunshine, anyone looking for a few hours good fishing need look no further than the three excellent fisheries in and around the small village of Kingston Seymour, and they can all be really good in the cold weather too, well worth checking out all rear round.

Sponsored anglers welcome, Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

16 of us today , so still a good turnout, I got into the draw bag and managed to pick ping pong ball 27. Not the best of pegs but as you normally get a bit of room at this end of the lake it has been known produce the goods a few times this year so I was hopeful.
My nearest anglers to me were Dave blakemore on 24 and Ray bazeley on 31, so like I said, plenty of room.
I set up rigs to fish maggot each side in the margins, a pellet rig to fish down to empty pallet 28 and the usual pellet rig for across on the island.
At the start I fed all the relevant swims the the chosen baits and began across on the pellet, I had 2 quick carp before it went iffy, the water was a bit clearer than the last time here, and I could see the carp on the far side a bit to easily, meaning they could see the pole over there heads , making them very wary and shying away very quickly, only to return instantly the pole was taken away, all very annoying really.
I kept at it though as I wanted to leave my margin swims for as long as possible, hoping to catch well here in the last half of the match, but they never showed any real signs of life till about 2 hours from the end, and I probably had over 60lb in this spell, which was enjoyable but was never going to be enough as Steve Shaw on peg 34 was catching well, fishing down his edge on maggot over groundbait, but with a 1 kilo limit now in place he ran out towards the end, but it never stopped him winning again with 200lb 9oz, he really has made this venue his own and is very hard to beat, and not just here as he is doing well ever where else aswell, so fairplay to him.
2nd Colin butler on peg 11 with 126.6
3rd Scott Thomas on 33 with 118.15
4th Mike Chapman on peg 5 with 117.11
5th me with 114.4
Silver's went to ed wynne with just over 11lb on peg 17.
Off to todber manor this Sunday for a 4 match pairs series being run by Mark poppleton, I'm partnering Ken "Colmic" rayner, its being fished on the new lakes there, and I'm looking forward to it, the only down side is that I will have to take a method feeder rod with me , but I may not need to use it.

Viaduct silver's league rnd 1

Second trip to the fishery in 2 days, yesterday was the all winners final and today was the first of the silver's league, its a well supported league with 50 fishing, and I really enjoy this league, its not a carp race, generally its a skimmer job with odd bonuses in the shape of tench and perch to add a bit of spice, the weather forecast was not to good today with unbroken sunshine and no wind, not ideal bream weather,
Got into the draw early and pulled out peg 125 on Campbell, a good silver's peg without doubt, so I was happy, for company I had Bob gullick on 124 and Steve Jackson on 126, and with Clayton Hudson on 123 and Dan squire on 118 it was a tough section, daddy was on 119 but he would probably have some severe carp problems as they weren't really troubled the day before in this swim ,(lol Mark p)

My main line of attack was as normal caster or maggot over groundbait, I made up a couple of rigs , a .25 and a .4 g for over the groundbait and a .3g for caster on the topkit line as this can be a good roach line with a good chance of tench and odd skimmers,
At the start I fed 4 balls at 9 and 13 mtrs but began on the topkit line , it all began as expected with small roach being fairly obliging, Steve to my right  and Bob to my left also began close but not as close as me as they chose to go topset and one , which by the end was a good move, I did get a tench in the first 30 mins and a few roach, which put me ahead of my immediate neighbours, but it wasn't really good , so I went out onto the 9 mtr line and I soon added a couple of good skimmers to keep me in front, and used fully expected a good day to follow, but it got hard very quickly, and I didn't really help my cause as I tried to force it to much and fed to much expecting the skimmers to settle over it later in the match, but it never really happened, also either side of me were catching on worm head as the match went on and I left it to late to change to worm on the hook, a definite schoolboy error on my part , as Bob was catching well in the last half of the match after a very slow first half, and Steve had been catching steadily most of the match on his close line , adding a few good skimmers, I should have fed and fished slightly further out on the close line, also carp were becoming more of a problem for everyone towards the end, but you still needed to feed to get skimmers interested, but it encouraged the carp ever time, by the end I new I was well down in my section, with Bob, Dan and Steve all beating me , but I've come away knowing I have made a couple of mistakes today which have cost me dear on the day, and as the scales confirmed I was 4th in the section with 27.6. Well done to Bob gullick who won the section and the match with 40.14, his close line was the difference today with several good skimmers and and a couple of tench off it

2nd Dan squire on 118 with 38.14
3rd Sam Powell on 115 with 36.10
4th Mark Saunders on 60 with 36.9
5th trig Edmunds on 97 with 36.4
6th mat tomes on 73 with 32.10.
A good close match and it fished surprisingly well considering the weather, off to acorn on Tuesday then down to todber manor next Sunday for the first round of a four match pairs league, with my partner for the series Ken "colmic" rayner.

Viaduct all winners final

Travelled down with trig Edmunds today, so it was a stop off at lillypool cafe for breakfast, and it was ok to be fair.
Off down to the fishery to join with the rest of the drawbags for this match which was worth a grand to the winner, I got about a third of the way back at the draw and like most people wanted a draw on  Campbell, but it wasn't to be as 98 Cary stuck to my hand, trig was on 60 on lodge , so he wasn't best pleased as he had to get directions to his peg, he never even new this lake existed.
For company I had Jamie parkhouse on 99 and Dave "slapper" white on 97, so we had a three way pound.
I set up a waggler rod and a lead rod to fish at about 30 mtrs and a short pole for meat at 6 mtrs.

Realistically it was a carp or bust match, with very little point in fishing for silver's, at the start I began on the meat line and did manage two good carp in the first hour, and with very little being caught around me it was a good start, but it never really improved, foulers were a problem , probably lost about a dozen as did Jamie to my left, I ended up with 8 carp and two skimmers for at least 80lb which was looking good for the three way squids if nothing else, I had two on the short meat line, 5 on the wag and 1 on the tip, so not a really hectic day, and no chance of getting into the overalls, but I did win my section which was worth 60 quid so at least it was a free day, and the squids from each side made it even more enjoyable, as my 91lb was more than enough as Dave had 45lb (nearly) and Jamie had 58lb (nearly).

Top weight on the day went to Andy power on 105 with 226.11, catching on meat or 16 mtrs
2nd Steve Shaw on 115 with 193.6
3rd Fred Roberts on 85 with 187.4
4th Dan squire on 127 with 174.9
5th trig Edmunds on 60 with 167.8
6th Alan oram on 114 with 159.14
It fished well again with 20 weights over 100lb, I don't think there is a more prolific bagging water in the country.
Off back down to viaduct again tomorrow for the first of the silver fish league, looking forward to that but I don't think the weather is going to help, bright sunshine and no wind, ideal.