Not a good weekend

Landsend was the opener this weekend , and after di,s normal excellent breakfast it was into the draw, at first only 11 were fishing, then a blast from the past, Steve (cheesy) Collins arrived, so peg 3 went back into the draw, and yes I go and draw it , I've  drawn I that often I have carved my initials into the pallet, a draw farther up the lake with a bit if shelter from the cold westerly Gale which was funnelling down the lake would have been nice, but its not to be.

 It turned out this was not the side of the lake to be on , or this end as most fish were caught and lost from peg 11 down to 24, not brilliant weights but fully expected with the cold snap, Steve Collins won from 21, and second and third were on his right, and rod wootten on peg 5 won the livers with 9lb of invidious silver's, well f1,s to be precise , lol.
I ended up with 3 carp and a few bits for 14lb ,so that's my.lot for Saturday, weigh sheet below.

Now onto Sunday and round 5 of the viaduct silver's league, went with Chris Fox and Judith today, and Chris,s wife Caroline cooked us a splendid breakfast, bubbly.
Got to the fishery with time to spare so plenty of time for a chat, got into the draw queue early and pull out 119 again, same peg as last time, managed 2nd in the section last time with the help of a few bonus fish, so hoped for pretty much the same today, but it wasn't to be , so I'm not going to bruise my finger tips with to much righting, I ended up with 3.5 , of one perch and some small roach , it was dire, the whole section fished carp with 9lb winning it and 4lb coming second, I did lose a good perch from the right hand margin, but they just drop off sometimes for no apparent reason, didn't hang around for the results , but the weigh sheets will be on the viaduct face ache page or I'm sure Mike Nicholls will have them on his blog, but I think only 20lb won the whole match, from lodge lake, Craig Edmunds drew the same peg as last match which he won , he never won his day today but won his section with 18, narrowly winning his section, well not to narrow as 3lb was second, so he is still winning the league, and avoiding something drastic, looks set to win another series, fairplay to him.

So after last weekend success, it was down to earth with a bump, I don't thick I just hit the earth with a bump ,I think I missed it completely and fell off the planet, never mind there's always next week, Landsend winter league starts next week, can't wait, I think Ken rayner still has a couple of spaces, so contact him for details on 07768325552, or ring me in veals on 01179 260790 .

Todber manor pairs series, final match

Last round of this popular well run series, so after a nice breakfast with Ken (cosmic pb) rayner we trundled down to the fishery, we were third in the league going into this match but only a point behind the leaders , the two marks, poppleton and wynne, and behind Alan oram and Andy Lloyd on weight, so all to play for.
Into the draw and I wanted to miss the 30,s in the section, only just managed it pulling out 41, not moaning as I had an island fairly close , 30 mtrs so options for a waggler, left my lead rod at home.
For company I had the ivy house sick note Andy Lloyd on 40 and John Gray on form peg 43. So wag sorted and two pole rigs , both to fish at 13 mtrs , one for banded pellet and the other to fish maggot over the same line, where I would be feeding 4mm hard pellet, and all the time feeding some hard 6,s in the deep water away from the island.

At the start I began on the pole at 13 mtrs on banded 6mm pellets over potted 4,s, it took a while to hook a fish, which came off , as did the next one, John to my right caught straight away on the long pole and Andy to my left began on the wag over towards the island, and soon had a couple in the net, then I had a couple but I was still behind the anglers either side, by the end of the first hour, so I tried the wag as Andy was getting plenty of indications, I had a couple of fish quite quickly on banded 8mm pellet over the sixes, but I felt it was all wrong fishing in the deep water especially as Andy seemed to be catching in about 3 foot of water, so I stopped 're plumbed to find about 3foot, and was surprised to find the island shelf came off a long way, so I was probably about 20 foot off the island to find 3 to 3 1/2 foot of water, and that was where I spent the remainder of the match, getting plenty of indications and catching share as far as the section was going, as the match progressed it was clear that John Gray was going to win the section, and it was likely to be between me and Alex Murray for second in the section, who was also catching on the wag . As expected John won the section and was top weight on the day with 84lb ,I was second with 63lb and Alex third with 59, so second in the section was a good result , I packed my gear away and drove round to home ground lake where Ken was on the lake flyer, peg 90 to find he had come second in the section aswell, and with Andy Lloyd slipping to 6 th in his section so we over took that pairing, and when Mark wynne surprisingly came last but one in his section me and Ken came out on top, well happy with that , so well done Ken, good to see you tried a bit harder than last year LOL
So
Ken rayner , Tony rixon 24 points
Alan oram , Andy Lloyd 27 points
Mark wynne , Mark poppleton 29 points
Tom mangnal, Bob gullick 33.5 points
Steve Tucker , Gary o,Shea 35 points
So a good weekend for me , ending up 575 quid better off,
Today's weigh sheets below

Well done Mark for running the series, I know how hard and frustrating doing these things can be , hopefully he will do it again next year, ably assisted by cosmic Ken rayner.

Avalon silver's league final round

Went into this match 1lb3oz behind Mark leader who was winning, so I just had to beat him by a pound and a quarter to win the series, although Joe (Bush) McMahon was behind by over ten pounds you can never  discount him especially as it had been a lot cooler  and the fish may be balled up somewhere ,
Only 12 fishing which is a shame, especially as there is a 200 quid golden peg up for grabs, why commit to a series if you don't intend to see it out, at least one angler had the decency to get his pools to me as he just didn't want to fish, thanks Dave its a shame more don't think like you.
Had the draw and had the last peg in the hat, 37 that would do nicely, but no for some reason peg 15 had disappeared out of the draw bag, but I know I put it in there, so REDRAW, and as disc 15 was now missing I put 14 in the bag as the 15 disc, last to draw again , and yes you may well have guessed, peg 14 disc the last one in there, so same peg as last week again, grueller 15 MINT.
Followed gabe skarba up the bank, who suffered a trolley malfunction on about peg 5, don't you dare take a picture he said, possibly the wrong person to say that to lol.

After I had shuffled past trying not to laugh, I got to my peg , I had travelling partner Jason Radford on peg 16 then jack(the crooner) Jones to my right on peg 13.

I would like to say it was better than last week, but it wasn't , I hardly had a bite on the inside, whereas last week there were a lot of small roach and small skimmers, today I fed two pellet lines at 6 and 13 mtrs and a caster and groundbait off at an angle to my left at 13 mtrs, to be honest the groundbait line was a virtual waste of time with me only having 3 small skimmers over it all day, most of my fish came on maggot over micros on both pellet lines, I had 1 3lb bream and a nice hybrid of about 2lb, (hooked fair and square in the anal fin) and several smaller skimmers, but it was really hard with hardly any bites at all, I could see Mark leader over on 36 who was also really struggling, (luckily), but I could hear Joe McMahon on 30 dropping some fish in, even though I couldn't see him, at the end I new I had beaten Mark, but I needed it to be by at least a pound and a quarter, which I did as Mark had 6.9 to my 9.10, so guaranteed 2nd, but it all depended on Joe, who won on the day with 21.12 , so it was going to be tight, and it was as his six match total was 107.13 to my 107.7 then Mark with 105.9, so very tight in the end, day weigh sheet below.

A silver's weekend

I got to say that having worked most Saturday's for nearly 40 years , I am really enjoying fishing these Saturday matches and series, or just having the chance to spend a Saturday with Judith, and she is enjoying it aswell.
Any first off it was round 5 of the Avalon silver's league, I went into this match with a 12lb+ buffer over Mark leader, so a good draw was required to keep it that way, I stopped off with Jason at Landsend fishery for breakfast, and as usual di didn't disappoint, and we still got to Avalon with plenty of time, 13 of us attending today, so it was 7 on the left hand bank with a rear wind and the other 6 opposite with the wind and rain in there faces, into the draw bag and out comes peg 15, well actually it was the last one in the bag, quite happy with that as Rob watts did ok off it last round, when I was on 16 and really struggled, today that was Martin McMahon,s peg for the day, on my right was Jack Jones who would hopefully be keeping the carp away from me.

Last match there were a lot of fish caught on soft pellet, so this week I had some , so I set up to fish two pellet lines at 7 and 13 mtrs, a rig for caster and groundbait at 13 mtrs on a different angle and and a caster rig for on my topkit to hand, all I want to say really is that I had a difficult day , with all the long lines not doing particularly well, I did get a couple of better skimmers on maggot, but the longer pellet lines only gave me a few small skimmers and roach, to add insult to injury Martin on peg 16 was doing ok, catching odd big skimmers on mainly soft pellet, my best line was the topkit swim, where I had a decent perch, a good hybrid and a couple of 1lb skimmers along with a lot of small roach, I ended up with an ounce short of 13 lb, and I was top weight on our bank apart from Martin who did well off the peg no one wanted with 22.3 for second on the day behind Mark leader who had 26 lb and was no3 ahead of me by just shy oysters 2lb, so all to play for next Saturday, its only yours to lose mark lol.

Onto Sunday and it was round 4 of the viaduct fishery silver's league, I needed a good result today to keep me in contention, a good draw on Cary would be nice, but no I go and draw 119 on Campbell, perch down the edge can be good here , not to much out in front as the skimmers havnt really ventured this far up the lake recently, so possibly tench perch and maybe a rogue skimmer, and always the plippy roach would oblige, opposite Alvin Jones on 123 wouldn't be making to many mistakes.

I set up a rig for the right hand margin, for perch ,and a couple of rigs for caster,  on the topset and 2 and the other for 11 mtrs. I didn't want to go any further as the wind was near Gale force in our faces on this bank, I started on the short rig after feeding all lines, and was surprised when my first bite resulted in a 1lb skimmer, soon followed by a 2oz skimmer, so a good start, but that was my lot on that short line, out on the long line the dreaded plippy roach were in attendance, it was a hard day with most of my section really struggling, I did manage another decent skimmer on the long line along with a tench of about 1 1/2 lb, I also had two perch down the edge, one about 5oz  and the other probably closer to 3lb than 2, and I lost another big one down there aswell , but perch do have a nasty habit of getting off, but it never cost me as Alvin won the section with 18lb, but I managed second with 10.12 , so a decent result, keeping me in third place in the league, Craig trigger Edmunds won again off peg 59 with 28lb, and surprise surprise he is also winning the league, well done matey, weigh sheets below.

Avalon final round next Saturday then todber pairs series final match on Sunday, can't wait.

One for Judith rixon,s days out

I have been asked to write a bit about about fishing from the female prospective. I am not really into match fishing, or at least not to serious about catching the most, (unless it means doing better than Tony), I just enjoy being outdoors and with my husband.
I have done quite a bit of fishing over the years, with my first love being boat fishing, now closely followed by barbel fishing .
Tony and I used to go boat fishing quite a lot before the kids arrived. Then I had to find a hobby I could do and take the little monsters with me if necessary.
So when I got my third munsterlander the breeder asked me if I would show him and try and qualify for crufts, which we did and I won best puppy dog with him, I was bitten and enjoyed showing for many years, with varying amounts of success, but always managing to qualify for crufts.

Unfortunately last year I hurt myself and am no longer able to show, as everybody seems to think I should have a hobby I asked Tony if I could start fishing again, and he was only to happy to oblige, mainly going with him to matches and watching, but also when able having a go after the match, also we began doing a bit of drop shotting and lrf fishing which is great fun, which is very affordable and great fun for young and old.

Also there is no groundbait or dirt involved  so nothing to get under my nails lol.

Then we started doing a bit of boat fishing mainly in the self drives off beer beach ,great fun being out on the sea with Tony, plus I normally manage to out fish him, which he says he doesn't mind but I now better, I can't believe how competitive I have become, I don't even mind putting my own bait on even if it is trying to savage your fingers when you do(ragworm), and you can eat what you catch.
For a change Tony took me to Huntstrete to try and catch some carp, Tony showed me how to use the bander etc for the pellets , all was ok but I still need a bit of practice with my knots, fairplay to Tony he seems to have endless patience, I had several nice carp between 5 and 14lb

 ,
 catching more than Tony again. We've done this a few times during the summer and the time just seems to fly.
Not long after this I saw Shaun kitteridge had been to the river wye and had some barbel, we had tried to catch some a few years ago but only managed to get a few chub. So Tony had a word with Shaun and jon in the shop (veals) and they suggested a place called aramstone fishery which is run by a river keeper called Stan, so a day was sorted and we soon found ourselves on the bank in a swim reserved for us by Stan, after a few more lessons from Tony in the use of bait drills and chrochet hook, (bait needle) it took me about 45 minutes to get a bite which resulted in a nice 5lb barbel, my first and I was made up and wouldn't care if I never had another  bite, but I did and had another one shortly after, Tony was now sulking , but it all came good in the end as we had 4 each, but mine was the biggest being 7,10, which was 1oz bigger than Tony,s best .
I needed another fix of this so we found ourselves driving over to the Wye again on 10th of November for another crack at the river, after a 4.9 brekkie in the premier inn just north of Gloucester, (that score as they did buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup).
 As there were no other anglers there on the day we had the whole stretch to ourselves, so after getting stuck in the mud up by the old bridge, Tony managed to push us out, we decided on a swim just below where we fished last time, as Stan said the area had been producing a few in recent days, and as the temperature had dropped significantly since our last trip, we heeded his advice, I was a bit more confident about getting sorted and tackling up so we were soon ready and fishing, with large cage feeders with a halibut groundbait with 6mm pellets mixed in and double hair rigged 8,s on the hair.

It was always going to be a struggle due the to cold wind and lower water temperature,s, but it doesn't help when I look around at the wildlife , namely swans and kingfishers both of which came really close today,
I missed a bite which Tony reckoned on being a chub as it was just a bit of a rattle, then Tony connected with a fish that turned out to be a nice chub of over 3lb.

Soon after that I had another bite which thus time I connected with and also had a nice chub of about 3lb.

About 1,30 Tony said we ought to have a move so we upsticks and went about 300 mtrs further down, again its a bit hard with no bites , so at about 3.45 tony says we will give it another 15 minutes then pack up, a few minutes later and my rod goes over and I'm attached to a nice little barbel of about 5 lb, so at least I had one.

 Back out again for "one last  cast ", and the tip soon goes over again, this time it all goes solid mid river in a snag, Tony told me to put the rod in the rest and give it some slack line as this sometimes works with the fish pulling the tackle free from the snag, and luckily it did and I soon had a nice chub in the net, it was a nice fish which Tony weighed, and it went a level 4lb which is 1/2 oz bigger than tonys best, then I get a lesson with scales and ask for a reweigh, never ask for a second go as it now went 3.15, 1/2 oz smaller than Tony,s  best , lesson learnt. I'm sure Tony did a little dance to celebrate.

But at least I did better than him again with 2 chub and a barbel to his single chub, without a doubt we will be back on this lovely river , probably towards the end of the season, unless we get a nice mild spell in the weather.
I have been asked if I am ever going to fish a match, but I'm not sure I couldn't sit still for that long ,there are a few women in the area who match fish, but I'm still learning to be honest so we  will have to wait and see,
I'm surprised more wives and girlfriends don't have a go, they May be pleasantly surprised.
And of course none of these days would be at all possible without the help of our daughter who helps out with the dogs, so lots of love to Lauren rixon x .

Todber manor pairs series rnd 3

Travelled with Ken rayner today and Judith joined us hoping for a better day weather wise than our last visit, stopped at cannards for breakfast and it was ok , a level 4 pointer.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time for the 8.30 draw, I let Judith pull my peg out and ended up on 66, an ok peg but with Andy power on 74 and Andy Lloyd on 75 , which was the end peg , the rest of us would definitely be fishing for third at best, first job was to get judiths,s  chair sorted out , didn't take to long as its nice flat banks all round,

so with the wife happy it was time to sort my kit out., it doesn't take to long to get my swim into the type of order I like, which basically us no order at all.

With the wind blue to get stronger I set up a lead rod to fish banded pellet over to the far side , and a wag for the same area, then two pole rigs, one a banded pellet rig and the other with a normal hook on to fish maggot or corn, primarily on the short line(6mtrs) but also over the 14 mtr line as a change bait.
At the start I fed all lines but started on the wag, ash Tompkins to my right started on the long pole line and caught from the off, to my left Martin Rogers began pretty much the same as me, I had one fish in the first twenty minutes and was already several fish behind ash, so I came back onto the pole at 14 mtrs, feeding 4,s and using a banded 6mm on the hook, I had a few fish, but it was hard with the wind making presentation difficult, so I switched to an 8mm in the band which seemed to help, about halfway through I started feeding 6,s which made it better and I started to claw a few fish back on ash, as expected the Andy and Andy show up at the end were catching well with Mr power catching best on the small pellet feeder, whereas Mr Lloyd was catching on corn on the pole towards the end bank, I caught odd fish up to the end with a couple of better fish up to 9lb,

so by the end I thought I had beaten the three to my left and I thought it was close between me and ash, but Alex Murray the other side of ash had caught quite well on the waggler to the far side.
A quick pack up was needed as we finished at 4 and it was going to get dark pretty quickly, also it rained towards the end, ideal.
As I expected I beat the three to my left ,I weighed 63lb ash just did me with 66lb , Alex had over 80, then the two Andy's had 106 and 114 with Mr Lloyd coming out on top and being top on the day, so 5th in the section wasn't a total disaster and with Ken coming second on his section means we are still in third place one point behind first and behind Andy Lloyd and Alan oram on weight, so all to play for on the last match, weigh sheets below, sorry a bit dark and fuzzy but it was dark, they may be easier to read on Mike Nicholls blog as he uses a proper camera.

Avalon silver's league rnd 4

Stopped off at Landsend fishery for breakfast on the way through, and as is normal very nice it was to.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time for the 8.30 draw. A bit disappointing turnout with only 13 there, a few have jumped ship from this league to fish another, which is a bit wrong in my book to be honest, I think if you commit to a league its only fair on the organiser and the other anglers to see it out, nuff said.
Any way drew peg 16 today which has shown a complete lack of form during this series so far, maybe today would be different.

But it never disappointed and really lived up to expectations, NOT, basically if I managed to avoid the micro roach on the drop it was a bit of a carp fest, my normal caster and groundbait attack never worked today, I ended up with 8.14 which was a bit of a blow out as its a weight series, the main shoal of bream still seem to be ensconced on the second island, with Mark leader on peg 13 coming out a clear winner with 26lb, I don't think its that Peggy but peg 13 is doing its best to prove me wrong as its won 3 out of the 4 rounds so far, send was Rob watts to my right on 15 with a big 17lb then smiling John fuidge on 10 was next with a smaller 17lb, 4th was the old campaigner rich Coles on 32 with 15lb followed by gabe on 9 with 14lb,
Lots of fish caught on soft pellet today, of which I had none, best take some next time then.
Off to todber manor pairs league tomorrow, my turn on ash lake it is then, Judith (my very own draw bag) will be there tomorrow so peg 75 it is then lol.