Philtone 7 a side

Landsend fishery was playing host again to this annual event organised by Phil and Neil Mercer from philtone printers, it is a bit of a mixture of employees and friends, and towards bit of spice its turned into a team match with 7 a side, des shipp was in charge of one team and me the other, over breakfast at the fishery which was as good as usual we drew for teams, then for pegs so we alternated around the lake , I ended up on peg 42, not a bad peg and probably about the deepest on the lake at nearly 5 foot deep, for company I had des on peg 41 and Craig "trigger"Edmunds on 45, looked like being a tough day with some more neckache for me, or even worse whiplash, lol.
Three rigs would be enough today , a couple of rigs for straight out at 14 mtrs , one for banded pellet and another for maggot, and another for fishing maggot down the track to my left towards trig, didn't take to long to sort out, but the start was put back 10 mins as there was a bit of ice breaking needed.

To begin I cupped in some hard 4,s out on the 14 mtr line and some micros and maggots down the track to my left, I was still feeding when des had his first bite, but it was a liner as he never connected , I started on double maggot o it at 14 mtrs and had a good start with a 4lb carp first drop, and an f1 next put in, des also had a carp but trig was very quiet, I had a couple more f1,s on maggot but apart from odd liners  nothing much was happening, Neil Mercer over on 66 had a couple as did willow to his right on 65, a switch to the banded 6mm pellet produced a few more fish in the shape of 2 more carp and some more f1,s.

I did get my biggest fish to my left on maggot at about 7/8lb and I lost a couple of foulers from there aswell, by the end I thought I would have about 30lb, 4 carp plus 9 f1,s, but looking up the lake Martin rayet on 55 had a good last hour fishing meat at 16 mtrs along the end bank, also Neil Mercer ended up with 7 carp , so that would beat me aswell.
First was Martin rayet with 61.4
2nd Neil Mercer on 66 with 42.6
3rd me with 31.6
4th trig 23.7
5th Alan oram on 62 with 23.5
6th Clint wojtyla on 70 with 22.9
Silver's top weight was me with 11.8 of f1,s.

A quick look at the points revealed that team tone triumphed over team des by 4 points allowing us some bragging rights till next year, big thanks to Phil and Neil Mercer for organising the match, much appreciated,
Anyone interested I am running a match here on Sunday 8th Jan, not sure which lakes yet, will decide when I get some numbers, so ring, txt or msg me on fb or contact Mike at the fishery on 07977545882 to book in, it will be a 9am draw.
Finally in hope you all have a good new year from Judith and me, all photos kindly taken by Judith today , she appears to be improving .

Viaduct 2 day silver pairs

Booked in to fish this 2 dayer with Craig Edmunds, so with him drawing for us I was guaranteed a flyer, wasn't I ,?
Into the draw tin on day one and he pulls out 12 on spring for himself, not the best, then he lets 110 on Campbell leap into his hand for me, cheers pal, with it being a very shallow peg, incessant to confident to be honest, I had Phil cardwell next peg on 111, it was the first outing for my Xmas prezzie from Judith in the shape of the new MAP Z30 seat box , and first impressions are that it a nice sturdy piece of kit, so if anyone is looking for a box upgrade , this range of new boxes is well worth a look, all models in stock at veals fishing tackle in Bristol.

With it being so shallow and clear I wasnt to sure it would be ok, so at the start I cupped in balls of groundbait on lines at 11 and 14 mtrs, some neat caster at 16 , and some caster with a few chopped prawns down by the stump to my left and some at 14 mtrs off to the left, for perch and tench hopefully, to cut a long story short the prawn lines were a non starter as I had 2 carp for about 24lb on the 14 mtr line, and not a bite down by the stump.

The long pole lines were just giving me tiny roach, with not a skimmer in sight , but Phil to my right was getting some decent skimmers, so just love an hour from the end I cupped in 3 balls of groundbait at 16 mtrs to my right about halfway between me and Phil, I had my first skimmer of about 10 oz 40 minutes from the end shortly followed but another, then 5 mins from the end I had a 2 1/2 lb fish to drag me off last in the section to 4th, Phil won the section with 16 lb, I put his success down to him being a good angler and having 12 more inches of water than me, plus his platform does go out further into the lake, a disaster for me but luckily trig managed second in section, so two section wins on day two would be needed to get us in the money, first on the day went to that man des shipp with 22.8 of mainly skimmers on the pole on peg 3 on spring.
2nd Dan squire on 37 with 20.12
3rd Phil cardwell on 111 with 16.2
4th mat Parsons on 123 with 14.12
DAY 2
Trig drew again for us today, handed me 60 on lodge which I wasn't to upset with . And lo and behold 110 for himself, serves him right LOL, for company today I had John fuidge on 59 and birthday boy Martin McMahon on 62, who had his son, Joe, opposite on 68, so at least they could share there swims with no arguing, well nearly none !!!!.

It was another fairly rubbish day for me again today , with not even plippy roach to annoy me , and I had to watch the angler at the next peg feed a fairly steady stream of skimmers into his keep net, no not Martin to my right , but John to my left, whilst I sat there virtually biteless, I did get the odd skimmer but it was like there was a brick wall between me and John as nothing seemed.to be getting through, in fact it only appeared to be John catching anything on our lake.

Martin Preston over on 69 had a few fish on the wag and caster, but he wast in out section, as expected John won our section with 23.12 and I was second in the section with 5.1, that's winter fishing for you.
On the day it was that man des again who won on the day with 33.10 off peg 128 fishing single caster on the waggler, catching quality fish in the shape of skimmers, perch tench and hybrids, there's no stopping him.
2nd was his nephew , Ryan on peg 119 who fished the same way for 27.12
3rd John fuidge with 23.12
4th Mark Harper on peg 17 with 21.7.
Pairs
Des shipp/mark Harper with 4pts (max) 82.10
Ziggy slowinski/John fuidge 7pts 47.15
Martin(mullah) preston/ Phil cardwell 9pts 40.4
Ryan shipp/rucky mills 10pts 48.15
Off to the docks tomorrow to try some drop shorting for perch then it's off to Landsend fishery on Friday for the annual philtone team match

Todber manor pairs series final match

Before I go on about the days fishing , bit of a shout out for Nick merry and his mate who are doing a charity car journey for this country to mali for a couple charities close to there hearts , one is for a heart condition and  the other is for premature babies , both good causes, he is looking for donations so here is the link to to do it
www.justifying.com/fundraising/nick-merry1
They leave boxing day and be in Mali by the 16 January, his travelling partner is John buttress, its called the Dakar challenge and they have to do it in a 300.00 quid banger, the two charities are anaphylaxis campaign and pickle pickles,  both good causes so please take the time and donate a few quid.
Back to today and it was my.turn on ash lake which has been the most consistent lake in the series, a draw in the middle of the lake would be good as that's where the weights have been coming from, into the draw and out comes peg 75, the far end peg, its been a hard peg for the series so far, but you never know.

The view looking down the lake towards the good pegs, which were occupied by Fred Roberts and nick"cant count"ewers, not content with being on the flyer Fred also walked around the far side to retrieve his waggler from the far side, or he may have been trying to walk a few more fish down to his peg. !!!!!!!!.

I set up rigs to fish banded pellet on the pole on a couple of spots at 14 mtrs and also 14 mtrs to my right about a mtr off the end bank, and a waggler was assembled as it been a good method on this lake recently, fished towards the far bank in about 2 feet of water, at the start I cupped in some pellets on all lines then picked up the wag rod,
And so began a very enjoyable match, catching smallish carp regularly on banded 8mm hard pellet, I spent probably 4 of the 5 hours on the wag, and the other half was spent on the pole nicking a few fish from the long pole lines , again on banded 8mm hard pellet, I new I was keeping in touch with the good pegs , and it looked a although I may be ahead, Steve nadin innate end peg the other end was also catching so it may be close at the end , but tot wasn't to close as I had enough with 128.8 for first .
Jnt second with 96.4 was Fred Roberts and Steve nadin
4th Nick ewers with 91.8
5th Nick merry with 49.8
6th ash Tompkins with 40.10.
The series was won by Mark poppleton and Nick merry, son well done to them, and thanks to mark for running the series, hopefully he will get up to 20 pairs next year.
A nice sunset to finish the day off .

No more matches this week so I hope you all have a good Xmas and all get what you want.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

All I've really got to say about today was that the breakfast in the bridge in yatton was very nice, myself, Leon Hubbard, Adriano mercato and even Dave wride was having one so it must be very good value for money.
Off for the draw and out comes 31 for me , not the best but Mr wride did win the silver's off it last week with 3 skimmers for 4lb, for company I had "our Mark" Thomas on peg 34 next to the bridge and Paul faiers the other side on 27, shame he got set up and plumbed up before he was advised with 15 mins to go he was actually set up on 28, so he had to move, I hope I'm not as bad as him when I'm his age.

But he soon had it sorted with the only angler older than him fishing today, organiser Mike Chapman.
I havnt got to much to say about how the day went as I never had a fish from in front of me or to my left either up or down the shelf, I put some groundbait down the middle to my right and did have a couple of skimmers, a goldfish, an f1 and a couple of roach, no bites to my right up or down the far shelf, about an hour from the end I had a few bites down by the empty pallet to my right and managed 4 carp and lost a couple of foulers, I also lost two foulhooked carp down the middle, it was definitely a case of to little to late as Mike Chapman on peg 24 had a good half of the match catching some carp on dobbed bread then on single maggot, also it turns out Ray bazeley was making full use of his new sponsorship deal with mother's pride and catching on dobbed white stuff on bridge peg 6, so Mike won with 50+ pounds to his travelling partners 40+ which was second, and Paul "can't  count" faiers won the silver's with 10+. Weigh sheet below.

Viaduct silver's league, final round

After a nice breakfast at lillypool cafe with Judith and Jason Radford it was off to viaduct, with absolutely no chance of getting into the overall league standings it was a day to try and win the match, I let Judith draw for me again and she did nth disappoint as she pulled me 126 on Campbell, a nice area and definitely a potential winning or framing peg, for company on 125 was Leon Hubbard and Dave burns on 127. It didn't take long to tackle up, a couple of rigs to fish maggot or caster over groundbait at 11 and 14 mtrs, and a rig to fish with prawns, I did a bit of a throw away line off to the left at 16 mtrs.

To begin with I put in 3 balls on each of the two long lines. And a few chopped prawns on the 16 mtr line, I started at 5 mtrs with caster on one of the long pole rigs , and after 20 minutes of that and with only a few small roach to show I was soon at 11 mtrs, but the small roach were there aswell, but still not many at all, normally they are a nuisance , but not today, I couldn't catch a skimmer or tench to save my life, and to be fair apart from Tim Clark opposite on 115 who had a few early skimmers on the pole, and Adrian Jeffery on 111 who was fishing prawns on the lead, it was quiet all round by the look of things, it took me till about halfway through to get my first skimmer, and it was decent at about 2lb.

I had another soon after ,then lost one , that seemed to unsettle the swim for a while before I had another of about 1lb, and apart from a few small skimmers that was the end of my bream action for the day, apart from losing a late one, bigger. As for the prawn line , well I did manage two perch and lost two aswell, so to be honest I have had a bad day at the office as those two lost skimmers and perch probably cost me framing today, but that's fishing, sometimes they don't all stick, I ended up with 11.4 which was good enough for second in the section, so a bit of coin back then, the section was won by Mark Saunders on peg 124 with 14lb, he had a worse day than me on lost skimmers, strange day, no wind or trip probably didn't help matters, the match months day was won by the old campaigner Mike Nicholls on peg 70 with 30.3 of waggler caught roach and skimmers on caster.
2nd was gabe skarba on peg 78 with 22lb
3rd paddy on 62 with 17.5
4th Bob gullick on 128 with 16.3
5th kev Newman  on 100 with 16lb
6th Sam Powell on 88 with 15lb
League overall
1st mat tomes on 8 points dropping a 3
Well done mat, did well off not always the best draw
2nd stu white also on 8 points but dropping a 4
3rd Sam (Tom) Powell also on 8 points but dropping a 5.

So that was a tight finish in a hard league with a good standard of angler, as always a well run league so well done to Steve and mat for doing a good job, and to Colin dyer for always being on hand to help with the weigh in , as for me , well there's always next year, this league has been good to me in previous years with me winning it then being second for the two years after that, so I will be back LOL.
I nearly forgot, here's one of my prawn caught perch, its the first one I've had on this bait, but in still reckon they are better in a cocktail starter or in a sarnie with a nice dressing.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Only a desperate dozen out today for hopefully a bit of a fish fix, so after a decent breakfast in the bridge pub in yatton with Chris Fox , and our pools paid, it was into the draw bag, a peg towards the entrance was hoped for ,but no I go and draw 22 next to the bridge at the far end, it was obviously expected to be hard as I had 9 empty pegs to my left , the next angler there was Dave wride, soon had myself sorted, but I still seem to end up with a bit of a bomb site looking peg lol.

Several areas to target today, by the bridge, 11 , 13 and 16 mtrs at the bottom of the far shelf off to my left, and by the empty pallet to my left, on top of the shelf and at the bottom of the near side shelf, the bait today would be the plain maggot, at the start I fed a few maggots on all lines with a few soaked micros aswell, I began against the bridge, but it took a while to get a bite.

It was a small carp, I went straight back in but never had a sign, so I fed a few more maggots there and tried the 11 mtr line, had another small carp there, but it was the same pattern, went back in but no bites, so refed a bit and went back to the bridge and had an f1, but again no more, the day was spent swapping between all lines but only managing one fish at a time, the near side down to my left never produced a bite , all bites came from the bottom of the far side shelf, but it was only very odd bites, by the end I had 7 small carp and 3 f1,s for about 30lb , which looked to be ok except for Dave blakemore on peg 15 who had 8 better size fish, which ever one expected to be enough on the day, and it was as he weighed 43lb exactly for a well earned win.

I was second with 30.13
The Peter pan of Bristol match fishing, Leon Hubbard on peg 6 had 24.5
3rd Mike Owens on 13 with 17.2
4th Ray bazeley on peg 9 with 15.10
5th Mike Chapman on 2 with 15lb
6th John (Turkey)Thompson on 5 with 2 foulhooked carp for 12.6

Landsend winter league, rnd 1

33 booked in for this series, which is ok, 11 on a lake then. After a di special in the cafe it was draw time, Ken rayner was doing the honours again this year and it can be a bit of a thankless task, so fair play to him, he still has his brief case of dreams though.

I let Judith draw for me again today as she did ok last time , so into the bucket and out comes 55, its the end peg on lake 3, not the best as the other end of the lake is normally best, and any of the pegs on the far side up to about halfway up the lake, but normally ok for a few, but rarely a match or section winning peg.
As expected ice breakers were called for, especially on our lake as every peg had a lid on it, but it wasn't to thick, so 10 minutes of lead ball slinging soon had it broken up , and then another 5 minutes clearing the ice out, it was going to be tough but I do enjoy ice fishing and thus is about the best fishery about for bites in these conditions.
Two rigs today, both .2g as6  floats with size 20 middy 8313 hooks one on .12 and the other with .14.
Three lines today, 11 and 14 mtrs out slightly to the right on the edge of the ice, and the other line was over to the left at 14 mtrs towards the end bank, all lines to fish maggot with a few micros.
At the start I fed all lines with smidge of bait and began on the 11 mtr line

, I was surprised to get a bite first put in, but it wasn't unexpected, I missed it, so back out with a single maggot and I soon had a few small roach and perch, then 30 mins in I had a 3lb carp, dead handy,

Then it was back to the small fish, then that dried up aswell, so I went out to the 14 mtr line , small fish again then another carp came my way, this was better than I expected to be honest. After that carp on the long line bites all but stopped apart from a 1lb skimmer, the last couple of hours were spent mainly against the end bank where I hooked 5 more carp but lost two of them in an old weed bed to my left at about 8 mtrs which cost me a place in the section, Tom mangnal on peg 41 won the section with 43.2, and Adrian Clark on 51 also had 5 carp ,but of a larger stamp which went 24.14, but it was a good day as I've spent it with Judith who was in charge of photos again, the only problem She had was that we were about as far from the loo as you could get, about halfway through the call for the wee room got to much, but she thought it was to far to walk to , so it was off into the bushes for her, when I had enforced toilet stop a couple of weeks ago on the way to todber and managed to sting a bum cheek I had no sympathy from anyone including her , so you can imagine how much sympathy she got from me when the same thing got her LOL.
1st on the day was Gary o,Shea on 62 with 81.2, catching mainly on maggot long down to his left.
2nd Tom mangnal on 41 with 43.2
3rd Russ peck on 27 with 41.10
4th Joe McMahon on 70 with 41.4
5th Lewis Jones on 33 with 34.11
6th kev molten on 66 and Pete Ashton on peg  with 29.7
Top silver's went to Paul elmes on 68 with 15.4.
Off to acorn on Tuesday then the last round of the silver's league at viaduct

Avalon silver's league, last match

As I worked Tuesday this week I was given Saturday off instead, so I decided to fish this last match as a stand in to help out , so in was fishing for Nigel Sanders today, he had little, well, no chance of framing in the series, his only chance of a pickup was by ending up above Pete neate, winning there 20 quid side bet, and with Nigel having a near 6lb lead and with today looking to be hard as its been very cold this week, he should be safe !!.
I travelled down with Chris Fox again today , so I was treated to one of carolines lovely brekkies,
Got it the fishery and it was good to see 20 fishing, so not to bad for a Saturday, into the draw early and out comes peg 5, a good summer carp peg but a bit iffy for silver's, and with the wind blowing left to right and in at me presentation was always going to be tricky, as the tow would be going in the same direction, for company I was next to Ken rayner who needed a good day to improve on his 4 place standing going into this match.

 Today was going to be a really simple approach, one rig only, a .8g drennan as6, its a slim float but I've always found it ok in difficult conditions, the business end had an 18 middy 6313 on .10 sensas feeling line.
At the start I fed two lines at 13 mtrs with a couple of balls on each and a line straight out at 9mtrs, it was as hard as I expected with odd small fish, roach and skimmers , but I did get two better skimmers about halfway through, and I lost one at the net aswell, looking around as at as I could see, I was doing as well or better than most, so I just kept plugging away on the three lines, but no more skimmers came my way, apart from a few 2oz samples, I was first to weigh in and was happy with my 10.4, which ended up third on the day, rich Coles on 34 won with just shy of 16lb and Pete neate on 19 had 13 lb, it fished as hard as expected, but everyone had some bites and fish so it was ok.

Off to Landsend fishery tomorrow for the first of the winter league matches, although there can be some bad pegs this time of year, it still ranks as one of my favourite venues, let's hope I'm still saying that tomorrow night , LOL.