Culpin,s calamities series rnd 1

With nothing on this weekend I managed to get in as a reserve for this first round, it was over speci and lake 3, with plenty of room I didn't mind where I was, although I did have a bit of a fancy for peg 58 up on lake three, I needn't have worried as Judith drew it for me, good girl. It's a long walk (by lake standards), but I've gone down with a nasty bout of lady flu, which is obviously far worse than man flu, so due to me feeling really bad this is going to be short and sweet, 58 is a nice peg.with plenty.of features, an island over with a corner and a bit of collapsed bank which was good last time I drew it a couple of weeks ago, also a nice left hand margin which was also good last time, and a weed bed at 16 mtrs to my right, always.a.fish holding area,

This is going to be short as I ended up with 51.10 for second on the lake, so it fished hard all round, the speci lake was better with mat winning his opening match in his series with 98lb on peg 28, Adrian Jeffery was second on 34 with 91lb, after that I didn't know about as I was feeling proper rough and went straight home, hey ho there is always next weekend,
Carpenters arms 2000 were on the match lake and Adriano Mercato won that one on peg 7 with a high 50lb, it was nice to see someone who was more untidy than me, take a look at this picture of Steve wynne with his kit in the Carpark, he definitely need a sort out, most of it belongs at the tip, including the top he is wearing LOL, utg.

Worms and plastics with judith

Just for a change and because we enjoy it , it was off to Portishead Marian for some mini,s on ragworm, then if we had enough time stop off in Bristol docks to try and catch some perch on plastics, we got to Portishead and found the steps at the top end vacant, so we were soon parked in the swimming pool Carpark, and after the obligatory 99 ice cream it was off to do battle with the sneaky gobies, they can strip a hook clean in the blink of an eye, little buggers. We soon got amongst them, never big but hard won,

I did spend a bit of time working a whole small ragworm about and did get lucky.with a lovely bass, which gave a good account of itself on the hto .5g to 8g rock fish rod, but apart from a few more tentative rattles which I think we're from even smaller bass, that was my lot on that. Judith managed a better fish in in the shape of a nice little wrasse, which she managed to catch with her eyes shut.

At about 5ish the bites seemed to stop so it was a quick pack up, a maccy d,s in Portishead then off to Bristol docks , Bathurst basin was where we ended up, normally a good perch are , but it was not to good, I had a good fish on after about 15 mins , which felt like a good perch of over a pound at least, so you can imagine our surprise when a nice roach bream hybrid of about 1 1/2 lb popped up, hooked fair and square in the corner of the mouth, very strange.

 We did get a few plucks and bangs but nothing on the hook till last knocking when Judith managed a small perch on Fox micro fry, so there was at least one in there.

Off to Landsend tomorrow guesting in mat culpins league, its on speci and number 3, so looking forward to that.

Two days of patience

Saturday and it was off to Avalon for the second round of the silver's league, after winning the first one with 32lb I needed another good result to stay on top, as its a weight league it was going to be another attacking match, some thing I don't mind as I like to Chuck a bit in, into the draw bag and out comes 36, last match it had less than 8lb off it, but I take no notice of facts like that. For company I had team mat gabe skarba on 35 and on 37 was Mark leader , who was second in the last match, so as long as I beat him it would help my cause, I got some new nets off Vic , the new mosella space saver silver's nets, ideal, I just hoped I didn't suffer the new net curse.

Soon had myself sorted out, only 2 rigs, a .6g rig with a guru size 16 f1 maggot hook, for worm and a .5 g rig with the same hook pattern but in an 18, for maggot and caster.

Last match I caught a lot of fish at 4 mtrs , so I cupped in a ball there at the start, then 2 balls at 11 and three more at 14 mtrs, all with some caster and a bit of chopped worm, I started on the lighter rig at 11 mtrs with maggot, but nothing was getting to the bottom, so a switch to the heavier rig with a large piece of dendra on the hook, it took a while to get a skimmer, and by the end of the first hour I had two in the net, gabe to my right had about the same , but Mark to my left was blanking, nothing really improved during the match, it was a real struggle, a big bait was called for just to try and avoid the bits on the drop, so it was the big piece of worm, or three or four maggots, apart from a few small fish I ended with 10 skimmers for what I hoped was 15lb, I had a bit more with 16 plus pound which was good enough for third on the day, behind Vic who was on form peg 13, Jack was on peg  10, which has been a good skimmer peg recently, well a lot of bream came off it in the week, all my fish came from the 11 and 14 mtr line , the short line was no use at all.
Sunday and it was another trip up to ivy house, this time I had my own personal draw bag with me in the shape of Judith, so after a 4.65  score breakfast, Judith got into the draw and pulled me out peg 19, another corner, a swim I've never had before, so a maggot rig for the left hand margin, a pellet rig for the long right hand margin, and two pellet rigs for o it in front at 14 mtrs, one straight out and the other slightly to the right in about 18 inches less water.

It was pretty much the same as yesterday, just feeding a bit and waiting for the odd bite, the left hand margin swim with dead maggot was a non starter , never even had a perch, the right hand long margin only gave me a couple of foulers to lose, no proper bites there, only place I could get any bites or indications was on the two long lines out in front, feeding 4,but later on I switched to feeding 6,s and fishing with a banded 8mm, the angler on peg 1 started well but faded whereas I just had the odd carp throughout the match,

ending with 10 carp , on my clicker I had 51lb on it. And I was really close as my carp went 50.10 and my three skimmers went 4.2 , so 54.12 , which was top weight on the match lake , so a section win , I was beaten by two on the canal lake , with baggy winning the match with 109lb on paste.
It was.an enjoyable two matches to be honest, wasn't involved in a fish race at all, just trying to get a bite was enough without having to try and chase another angler down, today's weigh sheet below.

Thanks to Lauren again for doing the dog sitting so Judith could come along and take some pics, 😀

9 of 9

Well I've got to say that's been a really enjoyable 9days, hard work, but would I do it again, well yes, tomorrow if I could, I'm enjoying my fishing as much as ever, which is made even better as Judith comes along now as and when she can, but that's dependent on my daughter Lauren dog sitting, so many thanks to her, also Judith is doing a bit aswell, she doesn't mind the lake fishing , but I thing she enjoyable sea fishing a bit more, but she always did , before the kids we always had at least one boat trip a month, and she was always there  , often catching more than most of the men on the boats, I'm sure if a few more fishing widows had a go they may even find they enjoy it.

Back to today , and it was a match at ivy house lakes,  went up with Chris Fox and we arrived in plenty of time for one Karen's tasty breakfast (4.5). A bit disappointing as there were only 10 fishing, but someone still has to win, the weather forecast was for an increasing wind and rain, so into the draw tin and out comes wooden ball 10, wind and rain straight in the face, but a good peg so got to make the most of it, I drew it a couple of years ago and had over 80lb of bream from it, but I never had any slimy,s bait today, only hard pellet and some dead maggots from yesterday.

So with carp in mind I set a rig for 13 mtrs , one for against the causeway bank at 14/16 mtrs, both of those with pellet, and a maggot rig to the left margin at 13 mtrs, just as it started to shallow towards the next peg.
I started on the 13 mtr line out in front, but to say it was slow would be an understatement, after 2 hours I only had 4 skimmers in the net, but I couldn't see anyone really catching, Clint wojtyla on 12 got off to a flyer on the skimmers but after a couple of hours they stopped for him, so I went to the right , but with a really strong wind coming in at me , it was really difficult to get presentation. Let alone be able to hold the pole, I got blown out of the water on several occasions, I had a sensible couple of hours catching several carp up to 11lb, the only other angler I could see catching was Liam (sorry don't know his surname) on peg 6, also I saw Vince shipp on peg 18 sneaking an odd one out. I had two fish from the left hand side on maggot, it was a hard day made so by the horrible weather, by the end I new I had done 9 days, my back and neck were hurting a bit, only due to fishing long across the wind, but the pain will be gone by the morning, when Andy got to me with the scales Clint wojtyla was winning with just over 60lb, but my net's want 84.14 which was enough to win on the day, so I won on day 1 and on day 9, and a bit of money was won in between aswell, so a good little run.

Liam on peg 6 was second with 64lb so well done to him as its the first match he has fished in 7 years as he has been travelling the world , so fair play to him, weigh sheet below.

Must mention the mosella 70cm duo rollers, I've been using them for over 12 months no, with no issues, they go to over 5 feet high so otter fences and hedges and bushes are no problem, also you can get some spiky attachments which enable them to be fished flat on the floor, ideal when found are down below the bank, the small spiky legs make sure it do eat move behind you, proper piece of kit, and cheaper the most.

8 of 9

This is going to be short, tunnel barn farm for this one , fishing the ttaa teams event, a yearly teams of 4 event , run by Mr John Roberts with a little help, and a very good job he does aswell, as its a thankless job doing these types of events, especially when no shows occur, so well done John, its a team event, and Louis diorazio was our Capitan so he did the team draw, and he put us both on high pool, him on 45 which is ok , and me on 37 on the dam wall, after a bit of asking about, it turns out these pegs only seem to get put in when they need the pegs, last match here this section was won with 11lb.

To cut a long story short it was a long six hours, two f1,s in the first 2 drops on maggot short . Then a few small skimmers , and that was about my lot till the last 90 minutes, when a few more f1,s turned up on the 6 mtr line, I ended up with 17lb for no good, to my right had 6lb to his right was blank, to my left was 16lb , then there was a 60lb before it got patchy again, but the other end of the lake was the place to be , with more consistent sport, but I still enjoyed it, last day of the 9 of 9 tomorrow, and I'm of to ivy house with Chris Fox, havnt been there for a while and I'm looking forward to it.
Meant to say that the the breakfast was ok but only a 3.25.
Also it was the first time for a week Judith wasn't with me , and I missed her, Jason Radford just ain't the same , apart from the height LOL.

7 of 9

                   The real 7 of 9, that's one for the trekkies .
Well today was the last day of the Landsend mini tourney, and its been an enjoyable week, Judith and me stayed in a log cabin in cheddar, and we have had a nice time and the cabin was excellent, there was only seven of fishing in the end which is disappointing , Mike was gutted, so next year he is just doing a three dayer in September , and he will be taking a non returnable deposit, which is the only way really.
But the company was good with Dale housen, Mike and Nick duckett, Russ peck, Lewis Jones and Steve seager, a good set of blokes and there were no issues all week, and di,s breakfast,s were tops again.
Going into this match and it was between me and Lewis , whichever one beat the other was going to be tops on the week, Judith drew for  and handed me 24, its been a good peg in recent weeks, and Lewis had peg 5, its a peg with a good long right hand margin, with nice shallow water against it, just right for this time of year.

So with an all out pellet attack today I set a couple of rigs for along the end bank, one for down my.left hand margin, and another for 5 mtrs, and the same rig would do for the empty pallet to my left. I would like to say I have had a hectic day catching well from start to finish , but it was a slow start and a steady day, catching mainly along the end bank till the last hour, when some better fish began feeding down the edge , I ended with 128lb on my clicker and weighed 123 lb, but that was only good enough 3rd on the day with Russ peck on 13 having 129lb and Lewis on 5 who was admitting to only having 100lb (again) but had 141, his bed must be a funny shape as he could never possibly lie straight in it, so he won on the day and the week so well done matey, and you took the stick really well, I came second and Russ came third beating Nick on weight.

Off to tunnel barn tomorrow and ivy house on Sunday , so that will be 9days on the trot,

6 of 9 lake three, landsend

Judith drew for me again today, and her drawing arm didn't disappoint, peg 58, last peg used on the far bank, a good peg with plenty of options, good margins left and right and an island to go at, I got Judith comfy and went about sorting my rigs.

I set a margin rig for my topset only.to my left, another to my right but at 11 mtrs, one for off the point of the island and another just down to the left along the island where a bit of bank had collapsed in, pellet was the bait of choice on all lines, the meat seems to have taken a bit of a back seat lately.
I began on the corner of the island, but it was a bit quiet, I did lose a couple of foulers, de ja vue, then I saw a fish co mind towards me.so I slapped my shallow margin rig on it and it took it, big fish aswell, probably 12lb, good start , and I needed it as Russ peck on 62 was already on 4 fish, but I kept my head down and kept rotating round my.swim, catching in all areas, but the left hand short margin and the far bank where the collapsed bank was.

All the time I was catching I could hear Russ doing the same, so by the end I thought he had just beaten me, when the scales got to me 80lb was winning , that was Nick duckett on 51 , I thought I may have 180lb but the scales read 169, Russ was admitting to 150lb so I new it was going to be close , and it was as he had 167lb, to close for comfort , tomorrow we are back on the match lake , so let's hope Judith drawing arm comes good again.
Me and Judith turned our kit around and sat on a peg on lake 4 after.the weigh in, as there are some nice fish in here, and we weren't disappointed as Judith had six carp with the biggest two both going about 15lb, a common and a mirror, making for a nice pair, so well done to her, its good to see her enjoying it ,

And I got my pictures back tonite 

5 of 9 and hanging in there

Speci lake today, Judith drew again for me today and handed me peg 38, no complaints, its a nice island peg , normally you are fishing in 12 to 15 inches of water, but today with the water down about 20 inches, I had to fish on the second shelf, which was nearly 2 foot deep, a bit deeper than I like at this time of year as the fish are very active and foulers can be a huge problem, but it did look good across,
Well it was about now I was going to put a few pics of my day, but it appears something doesn't like the server down here in cheddar, where we are staying, it let me so far this week but it appears to have thrown its dummy out of the router, so no pics, any way Lewis Jones won today off peg 34 with 125lb and I was second with 122lb, I should have won but I had a keep net arm malfunction trying to put an 8lb fish in the net, the fish kicked as I tried to put it in, breaking the rivet allowing the top ring to collapse forward and the fish flipped and went the wrong side, and as I said foulers could have been a problem, and they were. Nuff said, bit gutted about the pics , I will try again tomorrow night, when t will be 6 of 9,
Judith fished on after and a had a couple of carp on meat ,one of which was a nice common after about 12lb, and a nice perch aswell.

4 of 9

Lake three (John Walter) was our home for this round of the mini tourney, I let Judith draw for me today and I wasn't to disappointed to see 41 looking back at me, a nice peg with good margins, the right hand side tends to full of small carp which fight like little tigers as you are catching them close to snags, the bigger.margin fish come from the left, so rigs set up for either side to fish pellet, a rig to fish out by the aerater and point of the end bank and a slapper rig,
I began out by the aerater at the start, and I had a few small carp and skimmers, but no quality.

And that was how my match began to pan out, plenty of carp but not many over 3lb, that was until some showed up in the left hand margin, but they were hard to catch as its so shallow , but I persevered and had a few up to about 9lb, by the end it was hard to see how anyone else had done as its hard to see around the trees and bushes, although Mike has done a fair but of gardening, so it looks good, I was first to weigh and put 110lb on the scales, and luckily that was enough to win on the day , so it keeps me in the mix, Lewis Jones came second with 103lb, so he is on two seconds, so is winning after two days, we are on the speci lake tomorrow, which can be hard and a bit Peggy, with corners often doing the business, we,ll see.
After the match we.fished on and Judith had a go, and she did well, having about 70lb in 90minutes from each side margin, with fish to 13lb, landing and unhooking them all herself, it was good to see, and she enjoyed it, I had to take the bait away to make her pack up LOL.

3 of 9 Landsend mini tourney

A bit gutted for Mike at the fishery, last week he had 18 booked in, come the day only 7 fishing, lots of cry offs, some more than legitimate, and the others , well who knows, anyway some one has to win it, after di,s delicious breakfast, it was draw time, into the bucket out comes peg 1, not a peg that has featured much in recent times, but with 24 opposite being the form peg I thought a few might be about, venue regular Russ peck was opposite on the flyer, next peg to my right was occupied by trig ,peg 5, not a peg you would want to give to an angler like trig, luckily he was only fishing today as an open, he never had the best of starts to his day as he put 40squids worth of unleaded into his diesel Peugeot, he topped it up with some of the right stuff , but it certainly didn't like it., any back to peg 1 and I've got my personal photographer with me for the week, so no doubt we will be getting plenty of pictures of judiths foot (just for you Jimmy Norris).

Plenty of options in the peg so I set up pellet rigs to fish in the right hand margin, the island in a couple of spots, and along the left hand margin, also a meat rig at 5 mtrs, as I've already said these may be short blogs, at the start I began over towards the island but apart from a couple of foulers , the fish didn't seem to be down this end , especially as I could here fish being caught further up the lake, even Steve seager was catching judging by his constant chatting, and huffing and puffing lifting fish out, he sounded like a slightly slimmer mark poppleton, LOL.
Russ opposite was also struggling, it wasn't really till about 2 hours in when things began to happen, but it was to late by now and my fish were on the small side, but at least I was getting some sport, but by now trig was flying, catching on pellet against the island, but later in the match his right hand margin really took off, my best area was against the island slightly to my right at 16 mtrs in about 8 inches off water.

I never had a fish from the left hand margin , which I thought was going to be the banker area, also on the meat I had a perch and a roach, I had 5 carp from the margin, but again they were on the small side, Russ opposite had begun catching, and his fish were certainly bigger than mine.

By the end I had 100lb on my.clicker so I expected just under that , and I did as I had 97lb, trig won on the day with a mighty 280lb, with Lewis Jones on 19 coming second with 150lb, this will be my dropper I hope .LOL.
Mike duckett won the silver's on peg 11 with 32lb, all on hard pellet, nice.

Lake three tomorrow and I can't afford to lose another wheel, but its a funny old game and anything can happen.

Short pole series , last round. 2 from9

With the promise of wind and rain all day this could be a miserable day, went into Burnham on sea to try and find the new site for hilltop cafe, didn't find it so we ended up in the crusty cafe, it had loads of good reviews on the net, so hopeful of a good one, the best thing i can say about it was that it was open and the coffee was good, 3.25.
Got ton the fishery and I had managed to maintain a ful house , with the help of a few reserves, so thanks to them, I don't really understand why people book to fish a series then let you down towards the end, I'm sure if those same people were in contention they would be moaning about stay a ways affecting daily payouts and the league overalls, I'm not the only match/league organiser who suffer with these problems, and we all find it a tad annoying.
Moan over.
I let Lily (Tom and misha,s little girl) draw.for me , and she handed me 18 which was on the top bank, at least we had a bit of shelter from the wind and rain, so Judith was happy as her waterproof coat is no longer waterproof, a call to shh will be made this week, but after missing a few outings with me lately it was good to have her with me again.
For company I had Joe McMahon on 19 and rod Wooten on 17
As I said yesterday these blogs may be a bit short .

We started at 10.45 and I never landed a fish till about 1 o'clock so it was looking a bit dodgy as I needed to end up at least 2nd in my section to guarantee me winning the league for the second year running, and when I did land one it wasn't even a proper carp, it was a fantail, a bit exotic but it was more than welcome.

As the match went on began i to put a few fish in the net, a few foulers were a nuisance, but by the end I had 6 carp and the fantail for about 35 lb , at worst 3rd in section but it was tight between me and rod, Paul faiers 15 won the section with 50lb and I was second , so job done for the league.
1st on the day was Glen Dailey on 11 with 71.6
2nd Emma Drysdale on 32 with 71.2
3rd Dave Evans on 33 with 69.15
4th Beal bakos on 2 with 51.4
5th Paul faiers on 15 with 50.14
6th Jason Radford on 23 with 41.10
K/o Jason Radford with 41.10
Silver's on the day
Dave (again) Lewis 20.13 on peg 14
2nd Mike Nicholls on peg 7 with 12.6
Overall league
Tony rixon 23 pts
Jason Radford 21 pts
Gordon canning 20 pts
Joe McMahon 19 pts
Off to Landsend fishery tomorrow for the start of there week long mini festival, should be good.

Avalon silver's league rnd 1

Looked forward to this one as its a nice fair venue as far as the silver's go, being its the same depth all over the skimmers and bream can turn up anywhere, this may be quite a short blog as I'm about to do 9 matches in 9 days.
So today just about got to the fishery as I had to go back for my casters which I left in the fridge , I was only just past the airport so not to bad really, even still had time to stop off at Landsend for one of di,s delicious breakfasts.
So into the draw bag hoping for an end peg but managed to pull out peg 13 which was right in the middle of the pegs being used on the left hand bank, a good carp peg but as in said these skimmers can show anywhere, but it looked good.

I tend to attack this venue with a mainly positive rig and feed pattern, so I set up a .6g rig to double bulk with worm or maggot, and a lighter rig .4g just in case I needed a bit of finesse, on the whistle I cupped in a ball of groundbait at a topset and one , two balls at 11 mtrs and 3 balls at 14 mtrs, all with some chopped worm and caster in, starting short with the lighter rig only produced a small roach, and to be honest the hook was struggling to get to the bottom , so down with that rig and out on the double bulk rig, with a large piece of worm on the hook, nothing short so out to 11 mtrs, and I had a couple of skimmers, but tilt went quiet so a top up and out to 14, had a skimmer there , but that was the only one I had out there, the 11 and short line was the best, with either a big piece of worm on the hook or 4 or 5 dead reds, it was a bit of a writhing game , but the fish were worth waiting for, the short line was fizzing well, but they were being hard to get on the hook, but i was connecting with enough to keep me in contention as far as I could see, lots of anglers were getting carp trouble , I had a few aswell, but not as many as those around me.
I ended up with 32.3 which was enough to win on the day with Mark leader coming second off 37 with 26lb

Off to Chilton trinity tomorrow for the last of the short pole series . Then five days on the trot at Landsend fishery, can't wait.