End of year

I'm not going to go on about what I've won, (not as much as I used to lol) it doesn't matter to much any more, I really.enjoy the matches , as much for the banter and on the whole the good people that fish, most are ok , some are up themselves a bit , but that's just human nature I suppose, as long as we all enjoy it , that's all that matters.
It's been a bit of a cruel year , losing some really good friends , and pets, but that's life, you just got to pick yourself up and get on with it suppose, but it ain't that easy sometimes.
Some of my best days on the bank this year have been with judith, whether she watched or we had days when just the two of us did something different, be it barbel on the wye, drop shotting on the canal , Portishead marina or from a rock Mark or pier somewhere in the southwest, and she does quite enjoy catching good carp on the pole with fish to 18lb for her this year, with some good photo opportunities on the way, my favourite has to be her being bitch slapped by a carp on an evening at huntstret, priceless.

And Landsend fishery aswell lol

I see  a pattern forming, also we have been given our first grandchild by our eldest and his wife, well done Simon and Georgia, welcome brody. To say we are chuffed is an understatement. 😍.

Here's to some more outings with her this year, I'm not going to write any more  except to wish everyone a really good and hopefully prosperous new year, but above all I hope for a healthy new year for all of you.

 from Judith and me.

Landsend open

Plenty of matches to choose from today, but decided on Landsend fishery as it's one of my favourite fisheries, never easy at.this time of year, but always interesting, ended up with 24 fishing so Mike let us put 12 on lakes two and three, so plenty of room for all. Had one of di,s lovely breakfasts , no need to score it as it's always good, and she was on her own today with no olive to help, but she managed to 22 platefulls on her own, Fairplay.
I got steve(cheesy) Collins draw for me, and he handed me peg 1, it's been a good peg recently, steve.seager won off it on Saturday with 68lb so it should be ok today,

It's a peg with plenty of options, so I set up a couple of pellet rigs to fish up the left hand bank, one for on the deck down the shelf , and the other for on top of the shelf in about 20 inches of water.

The same.rigs would do for off the front of the island , again for pellet, I also set up a meat rig to fish to the right of a dead reed bed.

I also set up a meat.rig for my right hand margin, but I never had a bite on that , even though it was 3 foot deep there, my last rig was a .3g to fish caster at 5 mtrs.

I started off using my meat rig shallowed up to dob maggots around the peg, but all I had was one small roach, so binned that approach and went into the 5mtr caster line, I had a few.small roach and two good skimmers ,also hooked two carp and landed one, I tried the deep pellet lines a couple of times but never had a twitch, I did get one carp and lost one on the longer meat line and had 4 on top of the shelf on banded 6mm, Adrian Clark on three had a better match fishing soft pellet over micro 14 mtrs to his right down the middle, I did get a couple more better skimmers from the caster line and some waspy perch and small roach, but it's fished hard, which as I said I don't mind as it makes you think a bit more . Stu Barnett opposite on 24 had an early bath , only.managing two carp, one in the mouth and one in the tail, 

Top weight on the day went to Bob gullick on peg 15 with 109lb, catching all his fish against the island on banded 6mm hard pellet over potted 4,s, so well done to him

,top silver,s weight went to me with 11lb+, weigh sheets below.

Double blog

Two for the price of one with this blog, firstly went down to Stafford moor with Ron hardiman on Sunday for there Xmas match, breakfast in Taunton services and very tasty , 4.25 . It was going to rain all day and have a strong southerly wind blowing across it, so I said to Ron I fancied peg 7 on woodies, mainly because it's only just about 25 mtrs to the island, so with hat wind it would make for a nice wag chuck, well I was close and pulled out peg 6, trouble is you are set back over 16 mtrs from 7 and the island is angleing  away from you, making it probably 45mtrs , which is a long way.For the wag, but with a following wind I t was sort of doable, so I set up the biggest drake wag I possess , I could get it there , but it was hard to see with the ripple, I also set up the lead for for the same.spot, and a couple of pole rigs, one for 13 mtrs on the deck and the other for the left hand margin as it does have a bit of form for this, but not recently.
I'm not going to right much more about this day, mainly due to the fact I don't have much to say to be honest, I started in the wag, and it say there ok, and it went under just the once and I was connected with a fish for  a moment but it came off so I think it was fouled, I chucked the lead out and had nothing on that,only a couple of small liners, I went into the long pole and had two carp fairly quickly, but apart from a few skimmers and a lost.fouled fish that was.my.lot there, I kept.trying the margin but it wasn't till the last 40 minutes I had a couple of indications and had two mre.carp, final.weight 27lb for no good, steve ford who drew.7 ended up with 48lb, with the lale.winners coming from the far side, as for the match ,andy.dare.on peg one tanners won with over 100lb, good angler.on a good peg, always.hard.to beat, there was a 90 and an 80 after.that, everyone caught a few.And  jo and Paul out on a bit of a spread in the shop after, which was a nice.touch, it's a lovely.fishery.which the coombes family  are constantly striving to improve further, so well done to them.

Today I went to acorn there were a couple of other matches on today, Todber manor, which I didn't fancy doing the drive to, and Landsend which I never new about, so acorn it was then, picked up Jason Radford and went into the bridge in yatton for breakfast, not the best, 3.25.
I think about 18 fished today I drew for mike the organiser and handed him peg 11 , much moaning from the queue lol, then I pulled out 21, the same.peg.as the last visit, hopefully there would be some bigger.fish in the swim today, it's a bridge.peg so plenty of cover , but the fish can be on the small side, for company I had Martin Alexander to my left on 23, and to my right on 18 was mardons ac 2nd best angler Mike hill, who I had already struck a pound side bet before the draw, , it was a different day today, no wind and no rain, so a good chance to dry some Things out.

I set up a rig to fish pellet towards.the far side of the bridge, as well.as down to the empty pellet to my right and across by the aerator, it was all the same depth !
A maggot rig for halfway across the bridge and down the middle and off to the right down the middle, and a dobbing rig for along the far bank, Mike Chapman on peg 11 for us underway at 10 , and after feeding all the lines I was going to feed, I went across on the dobber, and it was pretty much the same result as last time , 35 minutes and one small common (8oz), and that was.my.only action on that, down by the bridge wasn't much better I did get a coupe.of small carp, I had no bites.on any of the open water swims at all, which is pretty much the same.as.everyone else, no bites.either down by the empty pellet to my right, well that's a bit of a lie as I lost.a.fouler, it standstill I started cupping  in just  4mm hard pellets, I did get a couple more better fish on triple maggot in the middle of the bridge, and also a couple more on banded 6mm towards the far side of the bridge, not the bigger fish you tend to need , but all the same.3 pounder were more.than welcome, with an hour to go Mike hill had had enough and was BLANKING, so he tried to sneak up and give me his quid, but I was having none of it, I had to get up and chase him to get the selfie picture of the pound handover .

But after walking around the lake and having a quick chat with his aged.mentor John  Roberts, he came back and managed.to snare 4 small carp for 7lb, I ended with 29lb for 4 th, Alan oram came.out a comfortable winner with 64lb off peg 38, all on dobbed bread fish just off the far bank,

Geoff stones was second off 5 and Mark Walsh on 13 was third, all the weights below.

Got a match at Landsend fishery on Sunday either contact myself.or Mike at the fishery to book in, 8.30 draw.

Thursday Shiplate silver,s lge

This was the last round of this enjoyable small series run by Ron stark for the fishery, and he ran it very well, I must learn how to do a spread sheet for my league's, well I may get Judith to do it as she understands what to do more than me that's for sure.
Today I needed a good draw as I needed to win my section to stand a chance of ending in the top 3 of the league, so early into the draw bucket and out comes number 10, it's in the top right hand end of the lake in a 17 mtr wide channel to an island, I've drawn it in the summer and it's a good carp peg, but being a bit shallower than the pegs in the open water it can be a bit hit or miss as far as silvers go, on the plus side I could get my Brolly up and stay dry unlike tuesday, BONUS.
They are only small.section , only 4,s , next to me was nigel.Wickham on 11 and the other two were opposite on 5&6.
I set up three rigs today, a  4x12 for roach on the short line, which at topset and two is the deepest part of the swim, then it gradually shallows up towards the island,
The other two rigs were identical, .3 wire stem  thingys to fish over groundbait at 11 mtrs in front and 13 mtrs off to the left, with only 4 inches difference from the 11 and 13 mtr lines, it only takes a second for a slight adjustment.

Base camp, this is a bit of a wildlife heaven with lots of different birds and animals to see, and it was good to see a large  egret on the river next to the lake.

At the start I cupped it two balls at 11 mtrs with caster in , then two more on the 13 mtr line with soft micros the only feed in that, I picked up the short caster rig, dropped it in and it went straight under with a 2 oz hybrid, that was it for 15 minutes, and to be honest I only had a handful of plippy roach from there in the few occasions I tried it, out at 11 mtrs and it was pretty much the same , a bite a chuck from small roach,  I did get a one pound skimmer but apart from small  roach there no more skimmers from that line, 2 1/2 hours in and I was struggling, I had tried the soft pellet line a few times but again it was small roach all the way, I tried my roach rig over it out of desperation, nothing on it until I picked it up to try somewhere else and I fouled a good skimmer which came off, so straight back out with the soft pellet rig and I had a good next two hours catching skimmers and add bream up to 3lb, also Nigel to my left started getting a few aswell, but I had got an early lead on him which I felt he probably wouldn't claw back as I had caught well before his fish turned up, but it was really enjoyable, and by the end I new I had won my section so I was hoping Ron on peg 1 would beat Lee waller on 2 meaning I would win the league on weight, I thought I had 30lb and wasn't to far out with 33.2 , Nigel ended with 17lb , unfortunately the fish turned up a bit to late for him,

And luckily for me Ron did beat Lee so I won the series on weight with 90lb from the four matches I fished, weigh sheets and final league placing below, Ron is going to run another series again  from about the third week of January, Fairplay matey, and thanks to Steve and Carol for doing the weigh in and supplying everyone with free tea and coffee before and after the match.
Can't get the overall tables to load , Ron was second and Lee was third , I will try again later , off to Stafford moor on Sunday for there  Xmas match lovely.

Wet wet wet ft Winnie the pooh

As the title says , it rained all day and was extremely blustery, mint. Stopped at the bridge for breakfast and it was ok, 3.99.
For to the fishery to find only 6 fishing with John (Turkey) Thompson say in Mike Chapman's chair doing the necessary with the money as Mike wasn't here today, with the weather being so atrocious we eventually decided on a river as none of us could agree which pegs to use, also a big thanks to Adrian and the fishery for waving the peg fees , mainly due I think to them thinking we were slightly mad to be fishing.
I pulled out ball 5 so nearly last to draw so Dan Hurley on 39 in case he had to go and serve a customer, Mark Walsh on 12 must have been mad, me on 21 , craig(not challingsworth) on 24, , Turkey ball 1 on 27, Dave Collins on 36.
I went for 21 as I thought the bridge may afford me a bit of protection from the left to right wind, only took one pic today as I thought it would be a safer option for the phone.

I can't say to much about the day to be honest, it was extremely difficult for all of us, the dobbing approach to the far side didn't work for anyone, although it was nearly impossible to fish the far side, I did get one 8oz carp over there and lost another of a similar size which the  wind blew off, lol.
And so  ensued a hard day, I struggled.all day , only one small carp across, a few down the middle then a short burst of small carp up to 2lb from 3/4 the way across the bridge towards the end, Dan Hurley on 39 won with 31.8 fishing popped up bread towards the bridge, craig (not challingsworth) was second off 24 with 23lb, I was third with 17.8 Dave  Collins had 16.15 and Turkey ended up with just over 11lb, as for Mark Walsh who was sat in the full force of the game and was last.seen being blown across the moors like Mary poppins hanging on to his bait tray brolly, 
The weather got worse as we packed up with the rain going from persistently heavy to persistently torrential, I don't mind rain but I can do without the wind.

Viaduct silvers league final round

Last round of this popular and well run series, and to be honest I'm glad it's finished, I've had a proper torrid league, it may have been hard for me, but I've still had an enjoyable time as most of the anglers are up for a bit of a laugh which suites me just fine, I stopped off for breakfast at the cross keys at lydford,  it could only manage egg on toast as we were out for the shop's Xmas nosh up, we went to cosmo,s for the all you can eat global buffet/ meal, totally over did it , consequently I felt rough for all sunday, ridiculously salty , and I don't think it agreed.With my stomach, I think I may be MSG intolerant, lol.
Any way back to the fishing, I got to say I drew well 125 on Campbell, a consistently good peg and area during the league,

 I had steve.Tucker to my right on 126 and chris(shipp) Davis to my left on 124.

Well I would like to wax lyrical about how my day went , and I won the match and had a lovely.day, but I never, and it's really hard to write any thing positive about my day, steve.to my right had a couple of decent skimmers , and Chris to my left had 5 decent skimmers to win the section with 11lb, I was nearly.second in the section with 5.13 , that was until the angler on 118 had a late tench to weigh 6.3, if I fished it again tomorrow I probably.wouldn't do to  much different
, Top.weight on the day went to Shaun kitteridge on peg 85 with 23lb ish, well.done matey.
The league was won by the consistent Sam Powell, so well done to him, torquays youngest resident.

Thursday silvers league, Shiplate farm

Only a dozen fishing this match, which is a shame as Ron stark is doing a good job, trying to give everyone a chance of a day's fishing by trying to peg it with comfort in mind, who would be a match organiser eh, lol.
First into the draw bucket and hoping for a peg between 1 and 9 as the wind would be mainly off our backs, the pegs to avoid were 9a/10 and 11 as the icy easterly was blowing in and across them, I opened the ticket and number 5 was on it, I waited with fingers crossed hoping no REDRAW was called, but no all was good , so of I wandered to my peg, it's in the middle of the near bank, and generally a good skimmer peg, they tend to be smaller along this bank, with the bulk of the bigger skimmers preferring the far bank for some reason, company wise I had the old stalwart Jim Thomas on 6 and the even older Ray Wickham on 4, to be honest I'm not to far behind.

Three rigs today, a caster.rig for short 5 mtrs, in 3 foot of water. Two .4g affairs to fish 11 and 13 mtrs over groundbait.
On the whistle  I cupped a couple balls at 11 mtrs with caster in and two at 13 mtrs on a different angle With some soaked micro, s,
I began on the short line but never had a bite on maggot or caster, and I did give it a couple more goes during the match, but never had a touch on it, I think due mainly to the fact the peg is very shallow out to about 7mtrs. So to cut a long blog much shorter I spent most of the match switching between the two longer lines, with single maggot being the best bait, it was never busy fishing with a bit of a wait normally for each bite. And when they did come the skimmers.were 2 to 5oz, I did get one of a pound on my first put in, and one of about 1 1/2 lb towards the end, I also lost two better ones during the match with the maggot going over the point of the hook, at the end I thought I may have 8lb ish, and was happy.to see.The scales bounce round to 11lb, so a section win it was then, so still right in the mix for the league, I felt.For the anglers opposite as it looked really.cold, so fairplay.to dave wride, Mike Jones and Keith Fisher for sticking it out. Any way weigh sheet below as normal.

Off to viaduct for the last round of there silvers league this weekend, I'm doing absolutely no good whatsoever in this league, but I'm still going as it's a decent size match to try and win,

Tuesday costcutter at acorn fishery

Well I havnt been here for months, so with a couple of Tuesday's off it would be rude not to have a go. I stopped in the bridge in yatton for breakfast, only  a 3.75 as.The sausages.had been nuked a bit to much.
Got to the fishery to find 20 fishing so that's ok, Mike Chapman got the draw underway and asked me to draw his peg, so I pulled out 30 for him, much merriment all round, except for mike, I drew next and pulled out ping pong 13, jubbly , nearly melted the soles on me boots hurrying to the peg, proper flyer at the mo, then I heard the dreaded 6 letter word , REDRAW. Someone hadnt.paid there pools, doh. So into the bucket for a second time for mike, this time peg 5 for him, no merriment, just groans and a bit of a slagging for me, until I drew 25 for myself , that cheered them all up, well it's a peg I have never drawn before so off I went with definitely no smoke coming from my boots. Nice short walk from the van door, all of 6mtrs. I had Craig challingsworth to my right on 23, and Keith Fisher to my left on 27.
Rigs today were a dobbing rig for across, a maggot rig for 4 mtrs in front, and the same rig would do to fish at 13 mtrs left and right , again with maggot, then a pellet rig for platform 26 and across to my left against the grass.

I fed the lines I wanted to put bait in at the start, then went across on the bread, it didn't take Craig long to hook a carp on the far side,  it it was probably fouled as it came.Off halfway back, I hooked one shortly after, which also came off, fouler. Then Craig landed a couple. I lost three more before landing one, Craig was fishing maggot so I switched to the same and began catching a few, it no where near as fast as craig, so I was trying to catch up for the entire match, but never managed to threaten him, he has fished nearly the entire match fishing the far side in about a foot of water, without feeding a thing, I did introduce a few maggots at one stage but it didn't seem to make any difference, I even managed.to mug a couple down the middle as they swam past, not bad for December. I also had three fish towards the end on the 4 mtr line, and one on the 13 mtr line to my right, no bites on pellet today, I thought I had about 65lb at the end and ended up with 63, I'm getting better this guestimation business lol.
Craig had  121lb, but that was only good enough for second as Martin rayet on peg 11 won on the day with 127lb, caught mainly short (5mtrs) on maggot, nice and  easy.

The lake fished well considering it's only 2 weeks to christmas, with the fish spread quite well around the lake, silvers were a different proposition, only 4 lb won that, Mike Wilson on peg 34, mainly.one tench.

Landsend fishery individual league

My turn on speci lake today, so after one of di,s lovely breakfasts, which doesn't need a score anymore, as it's always consistently good. So into the draw queue early hoping to avoid 27 or 29, these two pegs are normally ok for a few carp when it's warmer, but this time of year the carp tend to inhabit the far end of the lake, where Stu BarnettBarnett(32) Mike duckett(31) and Adrian Clark on (34) were.drawn, 25 and 40 can produce but they tend to be smaller resident fish which love the undercut bank along the edge, Joe mcmahon was on 25 and colin hobbs.was on 40, so you can see where this is going, peg 27 noooooooo, but at least I had Bob gullick on 29 for company, and as we had drawn each other in the knockout we could keep an eye on each other, so we had a quid aswell.

At least I had an island to fish to,  but I wasn't at all convinced I was going to catch over there, but I set up a couple of rigs to over, one on top of the island shelf and the other just off in about 2 foot of water, both to fish banded 6mm pellet over hard 4,s. I drew on 28  last year and had over 20lb of roach at topset and two, so I set up two caster rigs, one for on the deck and another for about 2/3 depth,
Mike shouted the all in, so I threw some casters.on the short line, and fired some pellets across to the island, well they landed somewhere handy as the wind was doing it's best to send them somewhere else.
Starting short on caster.I expected a bite straight away, but nothing happened, so on with a maggot, I had a bite from a small roach, which got blown off, Bob also lost a fish on maggot, so I went back on a caster, had a bite and stayed With it, catching mainly 2-3 oz roach most of the match, early on Bob was catching the same As me , but as he had fed a micro line for skimmers he felt the need to go over it and have a go, he did have a ten ounce fish but spent a bit to long on it and when he came.back short it was never the same.For him, but by swapping between the depth and shallower rig I caught small roach for most of the match, I did get a pound perch off this line aswell, both Bob and me tried the island but as expected it was a non started for us, the lake was actually won by Nick duckett on peg 36, a peg  which has its days for sure, he had 60lb, followed by Adrian Clark on 34 with 56lb,who had a nice bonus in the shape of a near 13lb grass carp.

 then Stu Barnett on 32 with 37lb, as for the peg to peg mosella battle with me and Bob it was me who came.out on top , I thought I had 15 lb but weighed 16.8, so not to far out on the guess, oh yes and Bob had 8.2

So the pound was handed over, Bob tried not to lose for the picture, but it's got to be done, not sure if it was a smile or a grimace lol.

Top weight on the day went to Steve seager on peg 1 on the match lake with 67lb so well done to him, didn't get a picture as he was on another lake.

It was a hard day with fish difficult to tempt as the weigh sheets below show.

Thursday over 55,s , huntstrete bridge pool

Did breakfast for myself at home before leaving,(5 lol), got to the fishery in plenty of time as normal as it's only 15minutes from home, and I think 21 were fishing, so that was good. Got into the draw bag early as I was doing the recording on a board, wasn't to displeased to see disc 31 looking back at me, even though not a.lot has been caught off it recently, there is an island at 16 mtrs, and these channels around the islands can be good for silvers as you can always find a trip which I like as the fish have to move a bit ,

I don't tend to set up more rigs than generally I think I may use, so today it was a .6 as4 to fish caster or maggot over groundbait at 13 mtrs, as this was at the bottom of the shelf before it starts shallowing up, it would also do to fish at top set and two where I was going to feed a few casters, the other rig was a .3 as5 for dobbing bread or maggot about a mtr off the island in about 30 inches of water.
For company I had Dave "teatotal"gillard to my left on 32 and organiser Chris Rolf on 30.
Rolfy  blew for the start, so I cupped in two balls on two 13 mtr lines, one at 11 and the other at 1 o,clock . Started feeding a few casters on the short line, then went across on a piece of bread, not really convinced it was going to go under, and after 15 minutes I was beginning to expect the worst, a switch to maggot was no better, although I did shake off a couple of plippy roach. butafter another 20 minutes on that I picked up the caster rig and dropped it in on the short line, no  bites there either, so out to 13 mtrs, and I started to catch, but only small roach, there were skimmers starting to be caught,  further to my right , which is normal here, the skimmers don't seem to like it at this end of the lake which is strange as it's the same depth, I also started firing a few 4mm pellets.to the island, I could catch small roach off all lines by now,   but none of the all important skimmers needed to to do well in the silvers, about halfway through I went over to the island in maggot, but no sign of a fish over there now, not even small raoch.
Out of desperation I changed the hook to fish a banded 6mm hard pellet, went across, first drop I had what I thought was a slight indication, so lifted and dropped, and  lo and behold it went under, an f1 was duly netter, next two put ins produced two proper carp, a six pounder and a two pounder, then I lost one, after that I couldn't get another bite, so back on the roach it was then, I did lose a good perch on the short line, and I had a couple of 12 oz skimmers from the right hand  groundbait line, I kept dropping in on the island swim but I had to wait till about 45 minutes from the end for another bite on the island, and I had another three carp and a good f1, so I ended up with probably mid twenties, and I wasn't to far out as I had 26lb exactly, which ended up third , I was happy with that as the peg hasn't produced recently, the match was won by Mike nicholls on peg 16 with 17lb+ of silvers and 13+ of carp for just over 31lb, second was Pete Turner on 18 with 26.1, Mike actually won the match and the silvers, but with a one prize one person rule the silvers were.won on default by paul(why do I always draw crap) barnfield opposite me on 4 with 11lb, it fished quite hard , still due I think to the clarity of the water, as you could still see your nets to the bottom. Weigh sheets below.

Covey farm fishery

Tom thick is having a go at running a fishery, Fairplay to him as it can be a proper torrid affair, so we had a bit of a knockup on it today, all very civilised, met in the cross keys at lydford for breakfast , (4.8), only 7 of us fishing and we all had breakfast. It's only a three minute drive to the fishery, so dead handy. Tom was telling us about all the fish that have been put into the lake, so we were really looking forward to it, shame we had a frost to contend with, and after the recent warm weather , it may affect it, there are 16 pegs on the lake , but about 12 is a good number , so people will get a bit of room,

today Tom put in pegs 1 to 13, so every other it was then. Into the draw and I fancied an end peg, but peg 3 was going to be my home.For the day. for company I had the legendary Terry (niblet) green on one and Mark leader on 5. And fishery boss Tom came up for a chat before the start.

I set up three rigs to begin with, one for hard pellet at 13 mtrs straight in front, another for maggot at 11 and 1 o'clock angles at 14 mtrs, and another for maggot halfway up the far shelf at 16 mtrs. At the start I went through the normal ritual of feeding all lines, and began on the 13 mtr pellet line, 40 minutes in and no one had had a fish, a switch to the left hand maggot line and I had a small f1. Followed by another slightly bigger one, and over the next hour I had 4 more, and was winning until Tony thick had a couple of small carp to take the lead, then Terry to my left, had a better carp, so my early lead was cancelled out, to say it was fishing hard was an understatement, I went across to the halfway up the shelf swim, and had one more f1,
With just over an hour to go I set up a rig to fish right over in two foot of water, unfortunately it was 17 mtrs wide , luckily no wind to contend with, and the last hour was the best with some.more f1,s and one slightly better carp of about
1 1/2  lb , which I will admit was hooked in the side, most people were catching odd fish by now, but john(turkey)Thompson up on end peg 13 seemed to be catching some small but proper carp against the far bank shelf, by the end Terry to my left had two fish, Mark to my right had two aswell, so it was difficult. I was first.to weigh as Terry threw back , then I put 12.10 on the scales, all f1,s apart from the one carp.

Which lead right until we got to Turkey who came.out on top today with 13.15 , fewer fish than me , but proper carp , small but bigger than the f1,s.

It was hard and listening to Tom telling how many fish are in there , it was hard to understand as to why it was difficult, probably a combination of the first cold night in a while and the fact it  had the  most anglers it had seen on it so far, who really knows, but he has several thousand more fish going  in in the not to distant future, so I think it will be a good little venue when it's finished, ideal for a small club booking, so ring Tom on 07703771705 to book it, also he will only charge for pegs used and not the whole lake,

Viaduct silvers league round 5

The weather was going to be ok today , and as it's been unseasonably mild I thought it may fish of , especially as the wind had gone South westerly aswell.
Judith came with me today to try and draw me a good peg, we stopped off at the cross keys again for another nice breakfast made with proper sausages, mmm.
Still got to the fishery in plenty of time, but we still ended up over halfway back in the queue, but she drew me a nice peg in the shape of 87, not necessarily a winning peg but a peg where a few bites are guaranteed, for company I had Alvin Jones on my right and Nige Easton to my left, skimmers were the main target today with perhaps a bonus tench or perch if I was lucky, only.two pole rigs todat, a .4g bulked and a .3g spread rig. I thought about the way but binned that as the wind had a bit to much South in it and it would blow it back at me, and I should perhaps had a few chucks on the feeder, but chose not to.
I decided on two slots to go at, one at 11mtrs slightly to my right and another at 13mtrs slightly to my left, both in white water, cos as those of you who know the lake will know it's nigh on impossible to see the float it the sun comes out of the wind puts a ripple on the water, at the start I cupped in two balls of groundbait with some casters and a few squats on each line, in hindsight probably a bit to negative, Alvin out in 5 balls to my right , and Nigel just a couple, but started on the feeder,

The sun was out so Judith was happy, and it was very.pleasant. First drop at 11mtrs and a small roach into the net, followed by a couple more, then two handsize skimmers, then nothing , Alvin started slowly but was soon catching small.skimmers over his more positive approach, I tried the 13 mtr line, and was met with the same.response, it soon became apparent that I had been to negative, (I think).also Nigel had pulled ahead of me aswell as he caught a few slightly better skimmers on the tip. I tried forcing it a bit , which helped a bit but but on numbers of fish Alvin was always ahead, also Gary o,Shea over on 96 which is the end peg in the section had begun to catch well, I did manage a couple of better fish which kept me in the hunt with alvin, but it was a chase to beat him.

About 90 mins from the end I put in 4 balls at 14mtrs and went over it, and had a couple more better fish and some s smaller samples, I also dropped the rig into  the 13 mtr line towards the end and had a proper bonus in the shape of a 3lb skimmer, Alvin was now looking worried and was convinced I was now beating him, I had a lot less fish than him, but those few better fish may be the difference, and at the end it was a lot closer than I thought , my fish went 19.11 then Alvin had 20.8, so he called it better than me, well done matey. Gary won the section with 28lb which was also second in the match meaning I defaulted second in section money, too weight on the day went to Steve Tucker on 81 with 32.14, well done steve, as.For peg 80, well trig drew it much to most people's joy, but fished a good match to end up with 19.10, catching some big skimmers on the feeder to begin with, then some.nice hybrids along the spit, and some skimmers.on the long pole aswell, I forgot to ask him weather the copy from help was in attendance, lol.

Ron stark silver,s league

Shiplate farm for this one again, and with winds allegedly going to be gusting to 50mph, it's was never going to be easy, so after.a sandwich stop in my local cafe it was off down to the fishery, no real surprise to find only 12 fishing, but it's a series and it's all to play for, even though I have missed one, Ron decided to use West pool today, as the wind was due to go westerly so it would give us a bit of shelter, the choice didn't please everyone, including me to a certain extent,  but by the end Ron was going to be vindicated for his choice. Into the draw first and put comes peg 4, in the narrows (13mtrs), and as I have never fished for silvers on this lake I never really had a clue, but I know the lake holds a good head of skimmers, roach and quite a few.chub, with an occasional tench and crucian.
For company I had Ron stark to left and Keith Fisher to my right, I only set up two rigs, a .4g wire stem jobby to fish at three, six and 11 mtrs, with mainly caster over groundbait, and a .3g as4 to fish for chub (hopefully) against the far side.

I fed.all lines , groundbait on the short and longer line , caster on the middle line, and some.caster and maggot against.The far bank.
I started short with a caster on the hook, no bites, and I could see others catching from the start, including Ron to my left, only small fish, but catching non the less, on with a maggot  and small roach began to attach themselves.to it, I switched back to caster, and began getting slightly better roach, then I had a couple of reasonable skimmers, and by loosefeeding a few.casters and introducing odd walnut size balls of groundbait, the roach and small to moderate size skimmers kept.coming, after.a couple of hours the short line died,   but by swapping between the two longer lines I kept getting a few, and I did get one of about 2lb, so happy days, even the wind died down so it was quite pleasant, the last hour was hard with only 2 skimmers and a handful of roach, but by the end I thought I would have about 20lb, so was pleased.to weigh 23lb+ to win the section and be top weight on the day, to be fair it fished well all through, so as I said at the start , Ron was totally vindicated for switching it from the main lake.

The weigh sheet is below as normal, this weekend it's off to viaduct for another round of the silvers league, Judith is coming this week to draw for me , cos she can't draw any worse than peg 80, can she !!!!.
then I have got a day.Off next Tuesday and I'm going to fish covey lake in a knockup, it's a new fishery being run by Tom thick, so that should be interesting.