Stafford moor fishomaniac weekend

I havnt fished this event for years, but now I have weekends off I didn't take much convincing to give it another go, so Judith and me were on our way at 6am on Saturday morning, which was only possible as my daughter agreed to dog and house sit for the weekend, so much love and thanks to Lauren, we stopped for breakfast at the rose ash cafe/ rest area, and it was ok, 4.25, only the sausages let it down, why do some cafes have to spoil things by using such crappy sausages.
Any way got to the fishery at 8.30 and got straight into the draw bag, and this is where my chance of winning a grand finished, 27 tanners was looking back at me , ok so me and Judith pleasure fished the swim a few weeks back and had a good day, but that's pleasure fishing,I did have an island at about 30 mtrs, so it gave me a glimmer of hope.

 but with des shipp to my left moaning , and Beal bakos with Clare to my right being his normal cheery optimistic self , and also Judith sat behind giving me a bit it was never going to be quiet, looking along the bank and the match was probably won before the start as the relentless trig Edmunds was on 36, which is an end peg, and with carp already noseying along the board's just past the bridge the writing was on the wall, the match for the three of us was pretty uneventful, des ended up with 5 carp and some silver's, I had 5 carp and a lot les silver's, and bela had no carp just silver's. Des had 44lb I had 36 and bela ended with 29, so that was us into the numpty match on sunday. I did lose three around the end of the island but even with those landed it would never had been enough.

As expected trig had a flying day fishing the pole long down by the boards, he did have a few quiet spells , but that was only when he had to wait nearly two minutes for a bite, but he ended with 350lb  for the win and a new match record for the venue, well done matey.

So off to the b and b to dry out and go into torrington with Judith, Ron hardiman and Brian shanks for a curry, a good evening as both of them are always good company.
Back to the b and b and a night's sleep, up for breakfast at 7.30, and a very good one it was aswell, a straight 5 and that was for the whole package , not the cheapest b and b but definitely one the best I have stayed in,

Off to the fishery, and I let Judith draw for me today and she pulled 11 on oak ,a new one for me as I have never fished it, luckily it was one of the best pegs on the lake, and after yesterday's struggle I was in dire need of a bit of a fish fix, it was deep as its on the dam wall of the lake , 8 foot deep at 4 mtrs and 13 , so I set up deep rigs to fish meat on the shorter line and hard pellet on the longer, on the deck but due to the depth I set up a shallow rig for the longer line, as I had three pints of caster and a kilo of worms I set up a margin rig to fish to my left at 6 mtrs, and a pellet rig for further along at 13 mtrs,
The worm and caster line attracted rudd, the shallow rig only got me one bite and that came off at the net, and the short meat line only gave me two fish, I had a nice day catching on the long line on the deck, feeding two pouches of 6 mm pellets after every two or three fish, not big fish but mainly 2to 4lb fish, the good thing with this peg is that you are looking directly up the lake so you can see what's going on

 and I was fairly confident I had won the lake as I thought I had 90 to 100lb, odd anglers had caught but I felt not enough, and I was right as I had 108 lb with 75 lb coming second off peg 15.

As for the fishomaniac match for the 1000lb, that went to my mosella team mate Steve Shaw on peg 1 with just over 200lb so a big well done to him but, he did have e a bit of good fortune as the angler on 36 lost one of his net's as he went over 90lb in it and losing the lot, you got to feel for him, as normal a big well done to jo and Paul for running a good two days , and the fishery is looking really good, and improving all the time, looking forward to my next visit already.

England ladies fundraiser, Barston lakes.

Early start for this one , left at 6am with Chris Fox and got to the premier inn just down from the fishery by about 7.45, and a nice breakfast it was aswell, we were joined by Mark poppleton, Nick merry and Mark wynne for breakfast, so the normal p taking ensued, its a good job mark got thick skin.
Got to the fishery and into the draw queue, into the draw cup and out comes peg 60, means nothing to me but I was reliably informed it was a flyer, carp up and down on the pole aswell as on the wag, and the margin can throw up some lumps towards the end, nice easy walk after I had dropped Chris off at peg 95, not a good area as the weights at the end showed, for company I had up and coming young lady angler Sarah Taylor on 58 and junior coach John Gray on 61 who reckoned he was only here to support his wife who was on 109. Anyway my peg looked ok, not to many fish showing and the lake was a bit flat.

So rigs today were a margin rig to fish meat, two pole rigs for the long pole , one for the deck and a shallow one, and two wagglers, one a shallow pellet wag and a deep one to fish on the deck, just a quick word about the reels I have been using for a while now, shimano sustains in the 4000 size to say I am impressed is an understatement, smooth with a lovely clutch.

At the start I began by cupping some 6mm pellets at 14 mtrs began firing some more out to 30 mtrs for the wag and threw a bit of meat down the edge .
I went straight out on a banded 8mm pellet, it was slow, I had three skimmers in the first hour, with no liners it was fairly apparent that there were no carp about, I tried the pellet wag and shallow on the pole just in case , but no bites were the result, so back on the pole and the skimmers seemed to have turned up, and I had a very enjoyable 3 hours catching skimmers and bream up to 3lb , all on banded 8mm pellet, carp gear really, I was tempted to change things to a lighter rig with lighter elastic and a different hook, but I stuck with it, as they say if it ain't broke don't change it, about 90 mins from the end it went a bit iffy, so I tried the margin, nothing doing there so out on the deep wag, where I had a few more bream and in the last 30 minutes I had two f1,s aswell, but that was close to carp as I got during the match, the scales started at 55 and that was the section winner sorted with 73lb, then there was a 67 , Sarah did well with 28 then I had 65 which was 59lb of bream and skimmers and the two f1,s for 6lb, a really enjoyable match and there was a decent amount of money raised for the ladies cause,

weigh sheet below.

2 match weekend

I think having Saturday's and Sunday's off is going to be ok, this weekend as Judith was busy it meant I could do two matches, so it was off to Todber manor on Saturday with Chris Fox, a good breakfast in cannards well then off to the fishery, over 30 fishing which wasn't a surprise as its a venue where you get a days fishing in any peg, so into the draw and out comes 38 on hillview, not a peg of choice , but still a days fishing and I could park 4 mtrs from my peg, 4 rigs today, two for 11 mtrs with hard pellet , one on the deck and a shallow one, a margin rig, again for pellet and the compulsory meat rig for 5 mtrs, not to much to write about for the first 4 1/2 hours really, the meat line didn't work, the longer.line was ok for small carp and even smaller tench, although I did get a couple of 2lb fish shallow on this line, all this time I had to watch Gary o,Shea on the form peg 49 catching steadily, also Craig Edmunds next door on 48 was doing ok as was Dave Stockton on 47, the last quarter of the match for me went well, as the margins switched on, I could hardly get in fast enough, and they were decent fish up to 7lb. By the end I hoped for 80lb plus, but its hard to call as there are a lot of small fish, but the venue fished well, fairplay to John candy and his team they have certainly provided the areas anglers with a top venue, I actually ended up weighing in 110lb for no good, I did only.miss out by about a pound for the default section as the top three came out of our section, with Gary on 49 winning with Dave Stockton on 47 coming second with trig in between the pair of them and coming third, (chip shop sausage syndrome). Weigh sheets below.

On to Sunday and it was round 2 of the short pole series , fished at Chilton trinity, short pole is topset and three more, 24 fish this series and it was full up which is good, had breakfast in the copper kettle cafe in w s mare, and it was nice , a 4.5.
Misha and Tom were in attendance, and always make there customers feel really welcome , nice people.
Their near 2 year old was there so I let her draw for me , she didn't disappoint as she pulled out 17 for me , well done Lily.
I set up a margin rig for each side, and a shallow and deep rig for the long pole, bait today was.pellet.only, so at the start I began by feeding.each margin then starting shallow, I missed a couple of bites the had a nice common of about 7lb , tat was my.last bite shallow, so I tried the deep rig over the long line , no bites or liners even, so into the left hand margin, and had a couple from there, but it wasn't to good, Jason Radford on 2 looked to be doing the best, catching shallow against the end bank, I changed from feeding 8,s on the long line to 6,s and that got a bit of fizzing, and soon had a nice coloured common.

It was certainly difficult at our end of the lake , I had a few from the right hand margin and a couple more on the deep rig but only at 4 mtrs, I also had a good eel of perhaps 2 1/2 lb.
At the end I thought I had about 70lb, which was looking good for the section win, but it was clear Jason on peg 2 had won and inform Joe McMahon on 8 was looking good for second. And that's how it ended with Jason beating Joe into second place by about 20lb, so well done matey, that's your first win in a while.

First in the silver's went to Dave Lewis on peg 9 with 38lb, which is a really good weight , he caught mainly on worm over groundbait. Second placed Joe McMahon had a bit of luck today as he was next to Phil(Fabio) Harding on peg 7 fell in head first and went home, Joe then caught well down towards the empty pallet, well done matey, results and weigh sheet below.

Off to Barston on Tuesday for a fundraiser for the English ladies team, then back to Stafford moor next weekend for the fishomaniac two dayer
Judith came today hence some pictures , and she's coming to Stafford next weekend so hopefully more pics, and I like the company.

Evening at portishead marina

Back to portishead marina for a bit of a short session with Judith again, and it was OK ish,  the gobies were obliging again with the first 4 falling to me,  so an early lead for a change.

Ok they ain't big but they are a challenge, we have had two species of these, the common and the black variety, so an early lead for me, but Judith was soon catching a couple,  and then she really upset my apple cart with an 8oz Ballan wrasse, bit of a surprise really.

It was nip and tuck after that, plenty of nips and bumps on the bait but difficult to transfer into fish, so as it was getting dark, (9.30) I had a proper bite which resulted in a schoolie bass making the score 9to8 to me with a tye on the species hunt, it may have been a narrow victory but at last I beat her, 😂

So another interesting session, and I enjoy it as its a nice change from match fishing,  although Judith has made it very competitive, also plenty of people stop for a chat so hopefully it encourages a few more to have a go, its easy and cheap to do, also a short lead or feeder rod would do if you don't want to buy a rod just to try it, but if you do enjoy it, its possible to buy a good little rod for about 30 quid.

Float only league rnd 4

We should have been at shiplate , but due to a clerical error most likely on my part I got the dates wrong, luckily a bit of hasty ringing and Mike duckett at Landsend was able to accommodate the league, so it was back to Landsend fishery for the third match in a row, not ideal as I like to mix it up a bit, but it was better than having to lose a match, so thanks Mike .
And the breakfast was as good as ever, well done di, 4.85.
K/o organised and I drew Gary o,Shea for this round, so I needed a good peg to stand a chance of beating him, I let John Bradford draw for me , peg 7 turned out to be my home for the day, it is a peg I quite like, so no grumbles , Gary drew peg 39 on the speci, which I would have fancied a bit more.
For company today I had Clint wojtyla on 6 and the genial gent who is Nick Brown on peg 9.
The water level is way down at the fishery , probably 20 inches of water was missing, so the far bank was really shallow , 6/7 inches , but I know the fish still go into this shallow water to feed, but on some days they can be extra cautious, hopefully not today though.

I had a nice bit of bare bank opposite which I was going to feed 6mm pellet and fish a banded 8mm over the top, to the left of the reeds I was going to cup in dead maggots and fish 4 or 5 dead maggots on a 16 hook , floats for both lines were .1g drennan as4 floats, ideal for this shallow fishing, I set up a meat rig for 5 mtrs, but I fed it and never had a bite on it all match, so the less said about that the better, the anglers either side were getting fizzing over there short lines, but I couldn't get a sign. I also set up a rig to fish in front of the weed bed as Dan white was on it last match and that was the only place he could get a bite, but again it never really went for me as I only had one carp from there. Most of my fish came from the left hand side of the reeds on pellet, but I did get a run of fish from the right hand side of the reeds on dead maggots

 but as the match progressed it soon became clear that second in section was as good as I could expect as Joe McMahon on peg 5 was catching well, his peg was solid and he was doing well to catch them as they were right on top of the island shelf in 6 inches of water. Clint on 6 and myself never threatened Joe, there were just to many fish in his peg !!!!, he even admitted himself that he was doing well to avoid them lol.
By the end I thought I may just scrape 100lb and Clint would have at least 75lb, but Joe was admitting to 180 , so that would be nearly 200 then, I wasn't to far about as Joe had 198.6, I had 101.5 and Clint got chip shop sausaged with 85lb. Match and speci lake fished well but lake three was a bit hard.
First on the day was Craig trigger Edmunds on 27 with 228.15
2nd gary(that's me out of the k/o then) o,Shea on 39 with 198.12
3rd Joe McMahon on peg 5 with 198.6
4th Mike "silverfox" Nicholls on 11 with 113lb
5th Tom mangnal on 34 with 111.10
6th Dave romain on 19 with 107.12
Silver's
Neil Mercer on 24 with 24 14
Gordon canning on 18 with 7.3,
Mike Nicholls was actually second in the silver's with 15lb , but I pay the silver's on default, one prize one person, it helps spread it out a bit.
Picture of both winners below.

Short pole series continues at Chilton next Sunday, if anyone CAN'T make it please let me know asap, 9.30 draw as normal.
I was missing Judith again today , I may have had a few more if she was here as she normally tells me when I have a bite lol, but she will be back next week, that is providing she has finished my ironing LOL.

Portishead marina

Judith and me had a few hours to burn this afternoon (Saturday) so we decided to go and have a go in the Marina at Portishead, we get quite a few customers in veals who do a bit of lrf,drop shotting and spinning in here for various species , bass , Pollack, gurnard ,blenny etc, also there are lots of mullet in here but we didn't take the right tackle to target those, but it may have been a struggle, as when we got there the wind was blowing straight down the dock, which would have made float fishing awkward, as the water level seemed to be down a couple of foot meaning it was a bit high off the water, we drove round to the top end as it may be a bit more sheltered, but it was just as bad, we did manage to tuck in behind some buildings, we started differently, with Judith fishing bits of rag on a short paternoster set up, while I started on a 3g mini jig head with a piece of isome threaded up it, first drop in and Judith had a lovely little common goby which a little girl walking by with her nan wanted to see then hold, which we duly obliged, then we let her put it back before we could get a picture, out of interest, we had a few people with families stop for a chat and it was the women or little girls which showed the most interest, as we keep saying this type of fishing is ideal for families to do, just do what we do, either make it a numbers thing or a species hunt, keep a tally and you soon see how competitive people can become, (Judith rixon), anyway back to the fishing, and although I had a few rattles on the medium size isome I couldn't connect, whereas Judith was getting bites and was soon on her second goby.

I changed my end tackle to the short paternoster set up, but instead of a piece of rag, I hooked a piece of small isome through the middle and started twitching it back towards me, it did give me two small gobys, but Judith was getting more indications than me on the ragworm, possibly due to the bit of colour in the water, and they were small, but with this style of fishing size in my opinion isn't to important, numbers and different species is what makes it interesting for us.

It always amazes me as to how fast time goes when you are doing this, four hours soon went, and we only stopped as we were getting a bit cold, just a t shirt wasn't enough today, Judith managed to bust me again 8 to 4 , not the most hectic sport we have enjoyed this week, but I think conditions were really against us, Judith also had 3 crabs and she managed to hook me in the finger, luckily none of those counted, lol, but it still took me 15 minutes to convince her to pack up, I had to throw the worm away and promise her a Costa coffee, she has got the knack teasing these mini species onto her hook, which I don't seem to able to emulate, even though I do try, her level of concentration has surprised and impressed me, but she ain't to keen on the bites bait though lol.

Off to Landsend fishery tomorrow for a hastily rescheduled float only league fixture, at least Judith isn't fishing so that will be one less to beat !!!!!!!

Beer self drives

It's back to doing the blog tonight, Judith reckons she has shown me the way and I can build on what she has shown me.
So armed with a pound of rag, a box of squid and Judith three mackerel from the night before we were soon on the beach in beer looking for Simon to sort the boat out, same boat as last time, called endeavour, a 14 ft clunker built wooden thing, ideal fishing platform , especially for today as there was little or no wind forecast, we fancied anchoring up for a bit of bottom fishing, Simon gave us a few marks to try, which meant lining up with a white house on the shore and various rocks along the headland, it didn't take to long to get to the first mark, it took a bit longer to get a bite, and surprise surprise it went to Judith, and we soon had a nice ballan wrasse of perhaps three pound in the boat, so well done to her it was a nice fish which put up a good fight on the spinning outfits were using mainly.today.

As you can tell, I had one just after and it was nowhere near the same size, she wasn't floating yet, just giving me those sideways glances and knowing smile most women do really well.
After an hour and with no more bites, it was up anchor and fate another 5 minutes chugging we were just o it past beer head, in a bit more depth , we were soon getting bites from doggies, which to be honest was good fun on light gear, then Judith , yes Judith, connected with something more spirited, which turned out to be 5lb + smoothhound, well done I said through gritted teeth.

 Then to make matters worse she goes and gets a nice little black bream, just about to small to keep, at least that's what I told her.

I had a couple more doggies then it went quiet again, so another move again well out beyond the head, it turned out to be our most productive spot with Judith getting two more bream, one of which we kept for her mum, all I could get were dogs , but it was better than nothing, we were getting quite a few rattles which I thought were most probably from bream, but they were hard to connect with, I did eventually get one which may just have pushed 2lb , so at least my mum won't be hungry.

Then after that it was back to doggies, but all in all it was a very enjoyable day out, and Judith even managed to wrestle with some of her dogs to retrieve the hooks.

Last day of our holiday today as we had Friday to Friday in the apartment, so what better way than to have a lovely day afloat , with stunning coastal scenery as a back drop with somebody I am really fortunate to be spending my days with.

And she ain't to bad at this boat fishing lark as she used come with me all the time years ago before the kids, and she would regularly out fish most on the boat, must be the feramones.

Anyone fancying a go at this down on beer  give Simon a ring on 07773923120, its really good fun with some good fishing for a variety of species without having to steam for hours, 5star.

Portland the re- rematch

So it was time for a re-match after I had beaten  the husband the other day. The weather today was looking very good with the wind down to a minimum. So off to Portland it was, had to have a selfie with the light house, not quite Cape Agulhas but we will return there.
We decided on a 4 hourish match today and the area we fancied was free

I started off straight down the side but it took a few minutes for the first fish to turn up, a beautiful Ballan Wrasse, then a cork wing and another Ballan, Tony then did get a Wrasse of his own. It went a little quite so I decided to try out a little over a sand bed and on the drop I managed to catch a Bass, Tony was now starting to sulk again but he manage to have the biggest fish 

Please note that Tony is holding my Bass.

We both began to catch a few but no one told me that the bait bit back!!!  Dam ragworm.

After the Bass it went quite again so off to the end I went but it was a bit weedy and snaggy

So back to the side and up popped a Pollack a few more wrasse. I was now well ahead on numbers and on species. We decided to stop for some nibbles that we picked up on route. Tony was now losing the will to live!!  Anyway after some food Tony started to catch a few , I was having a problem with something that kept stealing my bait, after about the 5th drop I manage to catch the thief, a sweet little topknot blenny the colour variations in all those fish is amazing.

Tony bless him was still trying but was never going to catch up today and at the end of the  4 hours it ended up 25 to me during our match and 16 to him. He did try a bit of spinning after the whistle but didn't catch anything, did I mention I had 3 more 😂

I must say that I love my little LRF rod, HTO rock fish 1 to 8grm, coupled with a shimano catana 1000. I like to use bright yellow line because I can see it easier.

Next Round West Bexington on Chesil beach

After he had finally stopped sulking with the help of a 99 ice cream it was to Chesil for a bit of beach casting, this one was up to Tony to bring home the fish because I am exempt on medical grounds, well that's what they always say on I'm a celebrity!! So I sat on the chair and watched and waited and watched and waited

Tony did have a really good bite but missed it but who cares it was a lovely evening and so warm, we then noticed that the guy to our left had caught a couple of Mackrell, so after Tony got carried away and totally over cast so he lost his weight and hook etc, no pocket money for him this week. He decided to try with a few feathers after about 4 cast it was starting to hurt his elbow so I asked if I could have a go because the set up was lighter, I can't cast out so Tony done that bit I could wind in.Well on my second wind in guess what happened.?

Off to Beer boat fishing tomorrow, if I am not home on Friday evening please get in touch with the coast guard who were out today and do a fantastic job......to be continued

Judith rixons days out

After a very enjoyable week down here in West Bay in May, we thought that it would be nice to return for a rematch!
We came down on Friday evening after having to turn around because someone who will remain nameless (Tony ) forgot to put the LRF rods in the van, so Friday was just a beer and a walk around the harbour.
Saturday morning it was up and off to Portland for our first rematch, it was going to be a very hot day, when we got there and got all stuff out it was time for an ice cream to eat on the way to our spot.
Once there it didn't take long for our first bite, well mine which was a lovely wrasse, then my second and someone was sulking.

Tony did manage to catch one but by this time I had about 4 , we decided to move across to a different spot because quite a few people were swimming, one word there MAD.

Tony then started to catch a few but I was still ahead



 But boy was it getting hot, so we decided to cut our match short and head back home for some food and because we had some ragworm left a little dabble of the end of the pier at West Bay.

Final score from Portland me 11 sulking husband ended up with 8.

We didn't count the micro fishes that we caught on the pier, we got lots each  but I did have 2 weever fish and the biggest Weaver fish which Tony did unhook for me, forever the gentleman. We then carried on to catch wrasse, pouting but it did end up turning into Benny Blenny fest

Sunday morning we went to visit Karen to see her beautiful litter of large munsterlander puppies,

I neetd  a Munster fix but Tony was starting to suffer with his man flu, so it was back to the flat so that he could have a lie down for a few hours, which gave me time to watch the F1 race.

Early evening and after his nap we thought we would try a bit of beach casting , well lovely evening sat on the beach, not one fish bite on either rod big epic fail !!!

On to Monday and Tony feeling much better so after a breakfast at the greyhound 4.5 it was off to Weymouth old stone pier for an other rematch.

We started catching wrasse, Pollack and pouting straightaway but Tony did manage a Blenny so he won this one with species

I can't believe that we spent 6 hours fishing, we had some beautiful micro fish the colour variations between the different types of wrasse is amazing, so  in total we had 118 fish between us.

I only regret that we didn't discover this sort of fishing when the children were younger, it is easy and great fun for the family to spent a few hours with just a few squids worth of ragworm.

So after the match we walked back into Weymouth for fish and chips, it was only after I got back into the van that I found I had been walking back with a ragworm on my face !!!

Tomorrow we going to try Portland again, O the final score was 50 to me and 68 to him, I had to let him win at some stage because I couldn't cope with all the sulking😂