Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

As I can't seem to get enough to have an alternative costcutter at Landsend fishery every other Tuesday, it was back to acorn again, normal decent breakfast at the bridge in yatton then down to the fishery, I think 14 were fishing so plenty of room again, into the draw and out comes peg 7 from from Ray bazeley,s ball bag of doom, more than happy with that then. I had to get the shears out and do a bit of pruning on the far bank so I could get in against the far bank.

I had to go over the bridge to do the swim clearing but had to fight off the bridge troll who was hinting at a possible toll fee, but I managed to swerve that one ,

Dave wride with a smile on his face, after I told him I would pay after the match, luckily for me he had a bad day and packed up before the end, it may have been the more to do with the fact he had to break into his second quarter pint of micros.
For company I had Adriano Mercato and ed bull sat behind me watching today, Adriano had to leave before the end so just a selfie of me and me long term friend eddy.

As

                 

As for the fishing today I've had a steady day catching mainly in the cleared space on the far side in about 12 inches of water, I tried the short pellet line to begin with and only lost two foulers ,

My banker maggot approach down the margins only gave me a couple small pasties, I did get a few down to empty peg 8 , but the far bank probably produced 90 per cent of my fish, I ended up with 134.7

2nd was Shane Caldwell on 21 with 101.12

3rd Glen Bailey on 31 with 92.13

4th Mark Walsh on 10 with 76.8

5th ed wynne on 4 with 74.7

6th Lee Waller 54.11 on peg 24

Silver's

John barker on 12 with 16.9

Float only league rnd 1

As is normal the first round of this 40 angler sell league is held at viaduct fishery  on Campbell and Cary, there are rounds at Landsend fishery , shiplate, the sedges aswell before we end up back at viaduct ,
Took a slight detour to Landsend for breakfast and Judith scored it a 4.9 on me old mate Nigel ainscough,s scale, and she wasn't wrong , it was very good.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time to collect money from various people and got the draw underway, I let Judith draw for me hoping for a nice draw on Campbell, but instead she pulled out 88, the pretty Bush peg on the Cary bank on Cary, one peg away from where I was last Sunday, Dan squire had this peg on that day and had a few, and I won the section off 87 last week, hopefully there were some fish in the vicinity again, in my section I had Chris Fox on 90, Gordon canning on 94 , Mike "Silverado" Nicholls on 95 and Gary o,Shea on 96, so again good anglers.to beat again.
I set up two wag rods, a shallow one and the other to fish on the deck, and two pole rigs, a .3 g drennan Crystal margin float for shallow mugging and a .25 pc slim for meat on the deck at 6 and 16 mtrs, at the start I went straight out on the mugging rig and missed two bites off stalked fish , gutted, but I soon managed.one and by the end of the first hour I was on 5 fish up into double.figures, nice fish indeed.

After that I have had a steady day catching odd fish on the pallet fished shallow , a few on the deep wag, I never had a bite on the shallow wag  . And towards the end a few fish turned up on the short meat line, I didn't catch loads I ended up with 19 carp a skimmer and a hybrid for what I hoped would be about 180lb, I did lose a good common just before the end and I thought it may cost me getting in the overalls today , but after Steve had finished weighing me in my 19 carp and two silver's went 197.13.

Which was a surprise to me, especially as I was top weight on the day, so I may let Judith draw for me again.
2nd went to Shaun Townsend on peg 115 with 187.6
3rd Dave Evans on 81 with 160.15
4th Neil Mercer on 123 with 154.5
5th Joe McMahon on peg 124 with 151.5
6th Shaun kitteridge on 121 with 140.8
Silver's
Shaun Townsend 29.13
Paul faiers on 132 with 21.11
Glen Calvert on 129 with 16.12
So a good start to the series, and it was good to see Cary beginning to pick up a bit, but the fish still havnt spawned , hopefully it will get even better when they have.
I was trying to get a costcutter going at Landsend fishery on Tuesday, but it doesn't look as though I will be getting enough to make it worthwhile, so it looks like a trip down to acorn again, but it is fishing well so that will do then.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Breakfast in the bridge pub at Hatton, 4 on the scale, so not to bad, got to the fishery to find 15 fishing, so not to bad, got into the draw and pulled peg 37 out of rays ball bag of doom, no complaints as Paul Haines won off it on Sunday, its next to an aerater which I decided to leave on as I think it upsets the fish more by switching it off as they expect it to be going , plus it gives me a bit of ripple and some water movement.
Mainly a pellet approach today , right hand margin and across to the island,

And another to fish maggot down my left hand margin, normally a good ploy for later in the match.

On the all in I fed all the relevant lines, but began across on a banded 8mm over loose Fed 6,s, without dragging this out to long I had a really enjoyable match, it was a bit of a slow start but that's quite normal on this venue , but it got better from about the middle of the match onwards, I had a few down the left side on maggot , some from the right side on pellet and the rest across by the island, I thought I had about 150lb but ended with 174.12.

Pushing Glen Bailey down into 2nd spot with 132.8 on peg 27
3rd on peg 40 was Dave wride with 82.14
4th rich Heatley on peg 18 with 58lb
5th Adriano Mercato on 21 with 54.11
6th ed wynne on 11 with 53.6
Silver's
Mike (bridge troll) Chapman on peg 33 with 19.6
John barker on peg 24 with 17.4
Good to see quite a few silver's caught all round,
I'm trying to get a costcutter off the ground at Landsend fishery next Tuesday but I need at least ten to make it worthwhile so give me a ring asap to book in, as if I don't have enough by Monday midday it won't be happening.

Viaduct spring league rnd 3

Travelled down with Judith and Chris Fox again today, and after a nice breakfast in the Toby inn in whitchurch village, (4.25) it was off to the fishery, Judith was delegated to draw for me, we got in towards the back of the queue and she drew  87 on Cary, not a lake of choice or peg to be honest, as the carp in the lake a struggling a bit at present, desperate to spawn but conditions won't allow, for company I had Dan squire on 88, Emma Drysdale on 90, Bob gullick on 94 , Martin Preston on 96 and up and coming leg end trig Edmunds on 96, so some good anglers to beat, I was going to keep it simple today so only set up a meat rig for 6 and 16 mtrs and a waggler to fish pellet at full depth at 25/30 mtrs . While in was doing this Judith got her base camp sorted out complete with cross stitch and hat on the side to keep the sun out.

The match got underway at 11 and I started on the short meat line, I lost a fouler early on but had no bites there again, I went out on the long line with meat and again lost a fouler, then no bites again, so out on the wag, as both Martin Preston and trig were both on a couple of fish early on, and I soon had one , so off the mark and it was over ten pounds as a lot of the fish on this lake are,

 I had a few more on the wag in the next hour or so, and lost a few foulers aswell, it was about now a few fish began mooching around on the surface , so it was off the box and a shallow rig was assembled, virtually straight away I mugged a nice fish , then got one over the 16 mtr line on banded 8mm, but it was just passing fish, they weren't stopping to feed properly, so I spent the rest of the match switching between the pole and waggler, catching odd fish on both, I must say the more I use the drennan acolyte carp waggler rod , the more I like it, it really is a superb rod, crisp, light but forgiving enough not to pull hooks when the fish is close.

Up until the last hour there were 4 of us on 10 fish a piece, but in the last hour I managed 4 carp on meat at 16 mtrs while the others only had one more, 14 fish looked good for the section but 11 fish could weigh more, and they very nearly did as trig had 121lb and my 14 went 130, enough for the section so it just about keeps my hopes alive.
As expected , Campbell was the place to be with Andy power on peg 123 having a massive 369.12 on pellet fished up his edge at 13 mtrs
2nd on 118 Jon Martin had 216.4
3rd Paul elmes on 119 had 208.6
4th Lee on 132 with 149.10
5th Jed on 105 with 148.9
6th Mark wynne on 69 with 144.6
Float only league starts next week so I will texting all competitors next day or so to remind them, it is sold out so no late drop outs please !!!!!!

Last two days

Don't time fly when your having fun. Yesterday we went to chesil beach for a bit of lead slinging , we had ragworm , hermit crabs and sandeel for bait, its only a short drive to abbotsbury, but I think I picked up a speeding ticket on the way, caught by a mobile camera parked around a blind bend and no warning signs out, also it was parked with two wheels on the pavement, we are told these things aren't cashcows but done purely for safety reasons, like anyone believes them !!!!!!!!!!.
Anyway back to chesil, and after doing the rounds with the baits available I managed two bites and one smooth hound, well it was more like a smooth pup tbh, it must have gone all of 1 1/2lb, but it was a first shore caught hound for me .
So after I lost a hook to a spider crab we decided to venture back onto the old stone pier in Weymouth for a rematch on the mini fish, luckily for me I managed to win this one 18 to 10, but I did spend a fair bit of time chucking a Dexter wedge off the end as it was free of feather flingers for now, I lost a fish and had a small school bass of perhaps 1 1/4lb, but again we had some pretty little wrasse as well as I had a small Pollack again and some sort of blenny type thing, then we sat on the quayside eating fish and chips with wrasse and ragworm flavoured fingers, does life get any better.

So today with a sensible weather forecast and after a quick phone call to Simon in beer who runs the small boats for hire business in the town it was a short drive down there for a spot of boat fishing out tin the bay, we ragworm with us as there were rumoured to be a few places about, after a brief instructional from Simon an how to turn the boat on and off, we were on our way, we went out just short of the end of beer head , where Judith dropped some feathers over, she soon had three mackerel, but with little likelihood of us being able to anchor further out for rays and things over the broken ground due to it being a bit to choppy out there for a 14 ft wooden boat we let them go, so we had a day just drifting , dragging worm baits along the bottom for place, and it was quite entertaining, as we ended up with 10 plaice possibly up to nearly 2lb, I had 6 and Judith had 4, then I had a doggy and Judith boot to be outdone had one aswell, then just to stick the knife in a bit deeper she had a gurnard and a wrasse, so this week she has battered me twice and outdone me on the species front, can anyone recommend a good golf coach for me . !!!!!!.

Back to my comfort zone on Sunday , back to viaduct for the spring league, I may let Judith fish in my place, she is on a roll.
Back home tomorrow but its been a lovely week away with with my favourite person, as is normal we havnt had a cross word all week but we didn't manage to do a couple of things off her bucket list 😀😜

Lrf Weymouth stone pier

Judith and me are down at west bay for the week, but the weather has been against us so far, lots of rain and wind making the sea rough and the water to coloured, the only place the water was clear was Portland but again it was to rough with lots of weed floating around, so we ended up at the stone pier at the entrance to Weymouth harbour, we got there and found some feather flingers on the end catching a few mackerel, and odd bass, also a few sea trout to 5lb have been caught this week, initially we did try to catch on small plastics but for some reason the fish didn't seem interested in artificial, so it was back to the ever reliable ragworm , and the small wrasse and scorpion fish lapped it up, well they did for Judith, I was well and truly spanked, 15 fish to 3 , my only saving grace was that I had a small Pollack on a red and white jig, but as you can imagine I am getting right in the neck, she was even stopping random people on the pier to tell them how crap I am, but tomorrow is another day, it was proper fun fishing , and its a style that is good for all the family, especially as you can turn it into a bit of a competition, its ideal for all the family and its quite cheap to get kitted out, you can get a proper lrf/dropshot rod for under 30 quid and a reel for 15 pounds or less and there's no need to go down the braid route, as its such close range fishing there is no need to worry about the stretch factor on nylon, pop into veals for a chat as there several rods and reels available in-store which are more than adequate, a few pictures below of mainly Judiths fish, but I did get the biggest of the day with the Pollack.

Some of these small fish are stunning and the colour variations are outstanding, making ever fish a right little gem.

Two match blog

I fished Saturday and Sunday this week, todber manor on Saturday and Chilton trinity on Sunday.
I travelled down with Chris Fox on Saturday, with a breakfast stop at cannards, and to be fair it was very nice, they had an older lady in the kitchen doing the food and she was very good, so 4.5 on the ainscough scale. Got to the draw and found John candy had a new assistant match Secretary, non other than the colonel himself, Nigel Sanders, John doesn't let him right anything or play with the money but he has been entrusted with the fishery stapler.

35 fishing today so we were spread over hillview and ash lakes, not to fussy about where I drew as you are in for plenty of bites wherever you draw, so out pop's 74 on ash which is one out of the corner, that was inhabited by tackle uk,s finest and fishery regular ash, last time I was on this lake I was on the end peg and had over 100lb to win the match and caught mainly on the wag and pellet , so that was assembled , but with the wind due to pick up I wasn't really expecting to get to long on it, other rigs were for meat at 5mtrs, a margin pellet rig and a deep and shallow pellet rig for 13 mtrs.

To cut a long story short , the pellet wag became unfishable very quickly due the increasing strong wind blowing left to right, but I did manage three fish on it in the first thirty minutes, but I was a few fish behind on the people in the middle of the lake which tend to be the flyers as its a bit narrower. Ash had begun catching some skimmers , so I went onto the pole at 13 mtrs with banded 8mm over 6,s fed via a catty, and I had an enjoyable match from then on, catching 1 to 3 lb carp , the margins only gave me a two skimmers so a bit of a dead loss there, also the short meat line only kicked in towards the end when I had my biggest fish of about 8lb and several more skimmers, I even had a barbel of about 1 1/2 lb, as far as I could see I had done ok on my lake with just Gary o,Shea being the biggest threat, but behind on hillview Alex Murray and Fred Roberts on 57 and 56 respectively were catching steadily, when the scales got to me on our lake Gary was top weight with 96.1, but I just edged him out with 112.2 which included  24.8 of silver's.

Alex beat me into 2nd place with 127.13.

3rd place was Fred Roberts with 106
4th Steve Lee with 96.12
5th Gary o,Shea with 96.1
6th Nick merry with 92.14
Silver's
Ash Tompkins 35.12 next to me
2nd me with 24.8 of accidentals
The match was sponsored by marukyu, so a big thanks to them, always good when suppliers and manufactures get involved, its always appreciated.
Now for Sunday and round one of my short pole series at Chilton trinity, only the topset and three more allowed , so after a breakfast at the copper kettle cafe in w s m it was down to the fishery, 24 fishing again this year so sold out again, so thanks all for turning up.
Misha drew for me and handed me 27 which is in the middle of the Carpark bank, not an ideal draw.and it turned out to be a difficult section, I can't right to much about it really as it was a bit of a non event really , I ended up with 8 carp 2 skimmers and a perch, I had two carp shallow , 6 on the deck and a skimmer and a perch and another skimmer down the edge .
The early leader was Joe McMahon on peg 17 catching shallow , obviously he had his tactical talk from his dad before the start and had the forthought to do the opposite, Chris Fox down on peg 6 did his best to chase him down but never had a fish in the last hour and a quarter , but then again nor did Joe, but he had done enough to win with 119lb, with fish to 18lb, well done him.

Chris Fox was second with 89.3
3rd was "our" Dave , Dave Evans on 32 with 88. 7
4th Martin rayet on 8 with 78.11
5th Clayton Hudson on 15 with 62.9
6th John white on 14 with 58.2
Silver's went to Martin McMahon , who must have listened to what Joe told him to do as he ended up with 17lb of whitebait off peg 13.

 2nd in the silver's was Mike Nicholls on 19 with 16lb of again mainly whitebait.
Full weigh sheet below

Off now for a week in west bay with Judith hopefully for  a bit of beach fishing and lrf , also might try a sneaky try at a mullet or two, I was hoping for a day on a self drive boat out of beer , but the forecast is looking to favourable, but they do get the weather wrong don't they !!!!!

Viaduct spring league rnd 2

Went to the Toby inn in whitchurch village today before driving down to somerton, and it was very nice, could have been a tad warmer but it was a help yourself breakfast, Chris Fox definitely had eyes bigger than his belly and Judith wasn't far behind, lol.
Still got to the draw in plenty of time, I held back towards the end of the draw and there were still several good pegs on Campbell left, but I go and pull 73, on lodge again, one peg away from the last round, I can't remember the last time I was on Campbell, I think it was in the winter league, if and when I do get on it I will probably need a Sat nav to find it.
At least its a nice corner peg with at least resident fish to catch, it looks nice with a big overhanging willow 17 mtrs away.

So rigs today were the obligatory meat rig for 6 mtrs , a pellet rig for down the edge which would just about double as a stalker rig, and another out towards the end of the tree.
I started on the meat line and hooked a carp after a couple of minutes , only for it to drop off , I hooked another a bit later only for that one to drop off aswell, it was on a new hook pattern I was trying as I'm trying to find a replacement for the middy 8313 which for some reason middy are discontinuing, fools.
Most of the match was spent down by the tree and under it, hooking odd fish and trying to get the pole back before they take you under the tree, I did manage to mug two that cruised past and I even had an eel from the margin under the tree, foulhooked in the side and dyeing over a pound it was an entertaining scuffle.

By the end of the match I had 11 carp and a few silver's but new I had been beaten further up in my section by James guy (sooner he gets to swimming the better LOL) and Chris Davis on 69, and they did with James ending up with 123lb and Chris had 102 lb , I estimated I had 70 lb and was very close with 70.2, so third in section, bad but not a total disaster, as expected Campbell was the place to be with with Dan squire co mind first with 217.12 off peg 119
2nd Mark wynne on 110 with 200.15
3rd Bob Giles on 128 with 183.5
4th trig Edmunds on 113 with 181.10
5th Jack billet on 115 with 174.11
6th Nick ewers on 112 with 136.2
Working all week this week but got next Saturday off instead so I'm going to Landsend for the Saturday open, then it's the first round of the short pole series at Chilton trinity on woodlands lake , after that I'm off for a week down at west bay with Judith, looking forward to that, a bit of lead slinging off chesil, some lrf off the rocks and piers, and if the weather allows maybe even a bit of boat fishing, and if all that fails its just a nice bit of time away with Judith, I am enjoying some proper holiday time off with her. And its good she is enjoying a bit of fishing.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

I had tried to get a costcutter going at Landsend fishery, but it just ain't happening, I'm beginning to think it just a lack of anglers available on a Tuesday and the ones that are out seem quite happy to visit the same fishery every week, so I bit the bullet and booked into acorn myself with Chris Fox, Judith was off today aswell son we went into the bridge in Hatton for breakfast and very good it was 4.25, its good value for money .
Got to the fishery in plenty of time, and with 16 booked in we still had plenty of room, Judith drew for me and pulled out ball 21 from rays ball of doom bag, its a bridge peg but it hasn't been used in a while as the aerater was in peg 20 and people didn't like the wake it was kicking up, so Ray turned it off before the start, so I went and turned it back on I think the fish are used to it and the sudden silence of it going off unnerves the fishy creatures.
Only two rigs today, a .2 as4 to use topset and one by the bridge to my left, down by empty pallet 20 in the rough water from the aerater, also across down the shelf by the bridge and the other was my favourite shelf float, a .1 as4, both rigs had the normal size 16 b960 hooks on .16 sensas power, a good consistent line which is fairly close to the diameters it states on the packet, unlike many of the others. So I was soon ready.

At the start I fed all lines then begun down by the fridge on my topset and one, I gave it an hour and had one small carp and several f1,s, then it died never to return, even though I tried it several times during the match, apart from a couple of weird liners I never had another fish there.
I went across to the far side, but the fish didn't seem to want to stay in the shallow water, I did get a few but it wasn't happening at all, so two hours in and not really to much to show, only Ray bazeley on peg 1 seemed to be catching.
The second half of the match was definitely best for me as I was catching down the shelf over and in the rough water down by pallet 20, most of my fish were on the small side as these bridge dwellers seem to be , I had some better fish down by 20 with the biggest one going about 8lb.

Now the only problem with leaving aerater on is the noise, it seems to have an adverse effect on some people , and I must be one of those lol.

By the end I though I may just scrape 120lb which Ray on peg one thought he had aswell , but I was a bit out and ended up with 111.4 which was enough for second , Ray bazeley on peg one ended up with 123.7 so well done to him, in third place was my team mate gabe skarba on peg 27 with 90.14.
4th Mark Walsh on 4 with 82.6
5th rich lovering on 15 with 69.10
6th Chris Fox on 9 with 61.2
Silver's went to Mike Chapman on peg 18 with 6.8.
It must be getting warmer a Judith has left her thermal boots off for today , she is back with the walking boots.