Thursday costcutter at Shiplate farm

This week Steve decided to put us on the two canals, West pool and hawthorns, not to fussed really which one  I would like, but a day on Hawthorn would be nice as I havnt been on it for over 5years, after one of marks good breakfasts, (it was worth the wait) it was draw time, into the bucket and out comes 6 on Hawthorn, one or 15 would have been nice, but Mike nicholls and John Roberts got those. Only a short walk, and it did look nice, it was a tad overgrown against the far bank, Steve had trimmed westpool and he had done down as far as peg 9 on this pool, and he will finish the rest this week.

Rigs today , were a meat rig for 5 mtrs and down the slope each side, a pellet rig for the margins, and a shallow slapping rig just in case and a couple of pellet rigs for as close as I could get to the far side . All plumbed up and ready to go in time for the hooter, I began at 5mtrs on meat and had two carp in as many put ins, then it went a  bit strange with the fish wanting to come up, but I couldn't get one, so I binned the meat and began feeding pellet on that line, went straight across on the pellet, but it was torrid with lots of underwater bits making it all but impossible to get a clean fall for the pellet, so I started feeding to the left and right into what looked like quite clean areas, the left hand side was not to bad, but I had several altercations with an overhanging bramble , losing a few rigs and hooks, but I caught a few there, I tried a few times on the 5 mtr line shallow as it was fizzing and i did get a few , and they were bigger fish, 

I tried each side margin, but I wasn't feeling it as I couldn't get any indications, so most of the match was spent on the far bank, between the left and right hand spot, with the right hand spot being the best, catching quite well in spells with fish to 8lb, at the end I thought I may have 100lb , but my clicker was telling me a bit less. Mike nicholls on 1 had caught well early and late so I expected him to win the lake easily, when the scales  got to me 94lb was winning the lake (John hawkins) so I was a bit surprised to plonk 122lb on the scales, with mike winning the lake with 128, so closer than I thought, toweight on the day was gary(ned) flinders on west pool with 150lb, well done matey.

Weigh sheets below, on the whole it fished well, with the fish being in good condition, so the float only will be ok in a couple of weeks time, also Mark will be there cooking breakfasts on the day from 7.30, as it's only a small kitchen a bit of a heads up if you intend to have one there would help him as he can do a bit of prep.

Landsend open, match lake, no2

Travelled on my own today as Jason wanted to watch the football, and Judith didn't come as we didn't have a dog helper, but as normal di didn't disappoint with the breakfast, the normal 4.9. Only 13 fishing , probably due to the football I think. I would much rather be outside than watching a forgone conclusion I must say, but there were a couple of radios on the bank so we knew what was going on, even though Steve seagars 4g was operating several seconds behind the radio, so we all new the score before he did, lol.
I let Joe McMahon draw for me and he handed me 19, obviously no complaints from me on that one.
Company wise I had Leon Hubbard to my left on 18, who is threatening to fish the over 55,s matches , as he turns 55 tomorrow, happy birthday tomorrow matey., And Joe drew 21 and was the next angler to my right. Opposite I had none other than than the fire brigades only daffodil, Tony witcomb, on his first trip out this year, and as he was sitting on form peg 6 with his bucket of sloppy paste at the ready , we hoped it wouldn't work as we would never hear the last of it.
Only had 6 mm hard pellets for feed and some 8,s for the hook, I set up a mugging rig, a couple of pellet rigs , one for across in 8 inches of water, and a margin rig which also would do for across in a little bay in the reed bed, and a rig for 5 mtrs on 8mm hard pellet only, the 5 mtr line never had a look, and the margin never gave me a bite, so no more on those areas then.

I began on the mugging rig, and had 6 fish on that by the end of the first hour, which was as good as anyone else I could see, into the second hour and with the fish disappearing I had to go across into the island, plenty of fish showing but extremely cagey, basically you have to keep feeding and wait for one to make a mistake, and a few do, but not enough for me today, Joe to my right and Gary o,Shea next to him seemed to be doing the best, also Steve seagar had a good first half of the match, but slowed a bit in the second half, I had a quiet middle of the match whereas Leon had a real strong spell, catching well against the island , going into the last hour it was tight between Leon and me, but we were well adrift of the two anglers to my right, but I had a reasonable last hour, while Leon and Steve seagar all but stopped catching, I thought I had at least 120lb but I new Joe and Gary both had 150+, I wasn't to far out as Joe won with 170+ and Gary had 150+, so well done to those two, I was third with over 130lb and Steve seagar had a few pounds over the ton, it was a torrid day for most of us with loads of fish in the shallows against the island,  it very hard to tempt, weigh sheet below,
On a bright note , Mike has got a contactor coming in every month to run through each lake clearing the bankside and islands, starting from next week, I must say it is still one of my favourite venue,s, it's always a bit challenging, with different pegs winning every week at this time of year, winter time is a bit different, but what venue isnt.
Float only at Todber next Sunday on hillview and homeground, so looking forward to that, also the Thursday costcutter at Shiplate is on the canals, can't wait, as I hadn't been on Hawthorn for a few years and not on  westpool for nearly a year.

Thursday over 55,s huntstrete

Back on bridge pool again for this one, but not until I had stopped at the Toby inn for breakfast, ideal.
Got to the car park at the lakes to find 23 fishing which is about as many as you need here to be honest, got into the draw bag early, hoping for an island swim as the carp and f1,s seem to want to be in the shallow water at the moment.
Wasn't upset to see 14 disc looking up at me, an island swim, but a full 17.5 mtrs again, I'm going to have arms like Arnie at this rate, I had Dave Poole to my left on 15 and Bob "the bread" price to my right . And a tree above my head which needs a definite prune.

Only three rigs today, a .8 as5 for silvers at 11mtrs and 4 mtrs as it's the same depth, and a couple of pellet rigs for the island, one for 16.5 mtrs in about 3 foot of water and the other 17.5 mtrs for  close to the isalnd, at the start I cupped in some groundbait at 4 and 11 mtrs just with a few casters in, and began firing 6,s to the island,
I started on the 4 mtr line but only small roach seemed to be  there , so I went out to 11 mtrs, and had a couple of small f1,s plus a couple of skimmers, the silvers didn't want to play ball by the seem of things, as no one as far as I could see was catching much, I have it over an hour trying to catch silvers , but to no avail, so it was over to the island on the 16 mtr line, catching f1,s and small carp, we have to stop after three hours to weigh the carp and return them, so I was quite pleased to put 37lb on the scales at this time , and with plenty of fish in the shallow water against the island I fully expected much of the same in the second half. This must be one of the most unfriendly long pole swims I have fished for a long time, there is a big wooded bank close behind you meaning you have to pass the pole back with your arms stretched above your head, trying at the same time to control an angry carp on the other end, certainly a proper workout for your arms, but sore now.
I have it ten minutes at the start of the second half on the silvers line as there was a bit of fizzing going on, I had a  tweIve ounce skimmers and a small f1, and that was it, so the rest of the match was spent pumping iron to the isalnd, starting at 16.5 mtrs and I had a few more small carp and f1,s, but it was quiet, so I had to go the extra painful mtr , and started catching more carp including my biggest fish of the day at about 10lb, by the end I new I had more than the first half , and I did as my second half net went 50lb ish , and with my few silvers I ended up with 92.15 which was enough for first on the day, and Paul haines was second again with 70 something on peg 28 , catching mainly f1,s on the method, and top silvers went to Steve Dawson again with 16lb from peg 21.

As normal the weigh sheets are below, also I still have a couple of spaces for Landsend on Sunday, msg or txt me if you fancy it.

Viaduct spring league final round

Travelled down with Chris fox and Judith today, after a nice breakfast at the Toby inn carvery in whitchurch, for which chris,s wife Caroline joined us, all very civilised, got to the fishery with about ten minutes to spare, no pools to pay as we paid that in our entry fee.
I wanted a draw on Campbell if poss, so I let Judith draw for me and as normal she didn't dissapoint, peg 127, not necessarily a peg of choice, but at least I could expect some bites,
Plenty of time for tackling up, so I set up a deep and shallow pellet rig for, 14 mtrs, a meat rig for 5mtrs, and a wag to fish at depth just past 20 mtrs.
At the start I began on the deck at 14mtrs, it didn't take to long to lose the first fouler, followed by several more, looking around most were suffering the same problem, except for the Welsh lad (sorry forgot the name , it's been a long time since our paths crossed) who was fishing the tea bag on the lead on 126 and he was catching steadily. On my right was Martin Hudson who was on lodge the day before on the maver qualifier , on peg 70 and blanked, I bumped into one of his mates in the carpark,  didn't want to give me his name, but he assured me that he answers to Gaylord, and is a chef by trade, and he is staying in one of the fishery lodges this week.
He was getting some early fish shallow, but i tried and couldn't get a bite on it, so back on the deck, I managed a couple of carp, but it was a problem trying not to foulhook, my first fish was in  the tail lol.
I tried the wag and had a couple but it wasn't right.

So untried the meat line, a bit earlier than I should have, but I was getting desperate, there were some good skimmers there, and I did get a carp out of the blue, for me it stayed difficult till about 90 minutes from the end, when all of a sudden I began to hook fish in the mouth, never enough to effect the outcome in the section, especially when you have trig in the section, but it turned out the section was fishing hard.

For some reason the fish seemed to settle , I even managed a couple on the short line, along with some good skimmers, opposite Gary o,Shea on 115 was winning a peg to peg battle with Sam Powell on peg 114, but Gary seemed to have the upper hand towards the end, it probably did him no harm when Martin Preston packed up early on 116.

At the end of turned out a lot closer than ok thought in our section, after  Niel (drawbag) Mercer had 150+, trig had 129, Martin also had 129 but less ounces, and my nets went 117, so two more carp would have out me second in the section, I certainly put back more than enough to  do that, but I never so it don't matter.

Too weight on the day went to Clayton Hudson on 85 with 250lb of mainly margin caught fish.

The league was trigs to lose, but after drawing 130 it was going to be a big ask, aidan  borduik drew 64 on lodge lake and no one was expecting him to make a mistake, and he never , winning his section, giving him a perfect score for the league, well done mateg, trig did well to come second from his peg, and

Winners pictured below, I never got the weigh sheets, so if you are reading this steve, any chance you could get  mat to send them to me, thanks

Aidan is the one in the middle, flanked by trig to  the left , Sam Powell to the right, then Mark wynne to his left again, and two to the right , Gary o,Shea, well done all, not an easy league to win or frame in as the standard is very high, well done to the long family for running another great league.

I'm running a match at Landsend fishery next Sunday , 9.30 draw , message or ring me to book in, cafe will be open.

Thursday costcutter at Shiplate farm

Back on the main lake for this one, with only 16 fishing plenty of room really, but before the draw it was time to sample one of Mark jones,s tasty breakfast,s, I wasn't dissapointed, a definite 4.85, so he's getting there, he has also taken over the running of the cafe at bullocks farm, I'm sure he will make a success of it.

I was actually first into the draw tin today, and pulled out peg 3, it's at the far end of the first island on the left hand bank, nice wind in and across, but very strong , I wanted to fish to the island so sat at the right hand end of the peg, making it only!!! 16mtrs to the island.

So I set up a .2g rig for over there, also the same rig would do down the left hand margin, a slightly heavier .3g for the right hand margin where it was a bit deeper, and a silver,s rig for 11 mtrs out in front, at the start I cupped in two balls of groundbait at 11mtrs, just with caster in, and fed each margin by hand and cupped some pellets across to the island,
Started on the silvers line, with maggot, small skimmer first drop, then small roach, switched to caster and had a 1lb skimmer, but that was it, I felt there were some fish there as the float was getting funny indications, but the wind was blowing the rig through to fast, just out of interest I put a soft pellet on, and it seemed  to work I had some more small skimmers, so I sieved  all the casters out of the groundbait, and replaced them with softened micro,s, that worked as I had a couple of better skimmers, I stuck with this for a couple of hours , but the waving tails on the island got to hard to resist, so over I went, to say the wind was making it difficult would be an understatement, if I only weighed 10 stone I would never have been able to do it lol.
But I did manage it, and was rewarded with a few nice carp, all on banded 8,s over 6,s , I lost a few  foulers,  due to the wind hacking the rig through, but as far as I could see no one had much apart from Mike Owens on 11  and was catching on the method slinging to the end of the island in front of him.
I persevered with the island till about an hour from the end when some fish turned up in the left hand margin, where I had a few towards the end, I thought I had 90lb , and when the scales for to me Mike on 11 was winning with 82lb,
My silvers went 10lb and my carp nets went 114 for a 124 total and first on the day.

On the whole the lake fished a bit better, I think the windy cooler weather helped, there was nothing showing on the surface like we have seen on recent matches, weigh sheet below.

Float only league rnd 2

Landsend fishery for this one, with 2 sections on speci, and three sections on match and johns, as normal the breakfast was good, 4.9.
Had a bit of time for a chat in the car park before draw time, interesting to see Chris Davis perhaps looking at a bit of a sport change, but I can't see it really, with his temper tantrums everything will be bent around a tree in no time.

Also Mike nicholls was well buttoned up against the sunshine , either that or he still had his night shirt on.

Got the draw underway and waited for trig Edmunds to get to the front and got him to draw for me as we drew each other in the k/o, he hands me peg one, ok, then he opens up 32 for himself, a nice corner peg on speci, said he didn't fancy it, but he normally does lol.
Like peg one normally so quite fancied it for a few, I spent a bit of time cleaning the end bank at 16 mtrs , , so I set up a rig for that to fish pellet , the same rig would cover the front of the island, a pellet rig for the shallow water in front of peg two against the island, a meat rig for 5 mtrs and another for pellet down to my right against the bank at a topkit range,

Well I've had a bit of a hard time of it today, started short on meat to try and get a couple of sucker fish, which I did, unfortunately it was two roach and a perch, I did lose a decent carp, but it was one of those  lazy wallowers  which fell off when I reached for the landing net, apart from a lost fouler later in the match that was the extent of the meat fishing for me, most of the match was spent swapping between the island and end bank shallow water, plenty of fish showing but extremely cagey, or I've done it wrong, or not enough there to make them compete, who knows , Shaun Townsend up on peg 6 was doing well fishing into the shallow water, in fact he was flying , and towards the end his peg was getting stronger, I  think niel  Mercer over on 18 gifted it to him a bit LOL.
Any way I ended up with 65lb for third in section, so a bit of a disaster , second in section would have been ok but Martin rayet on 7 beat me  by a pound and a half, hey ho, Shaun with just a couple of fish from his 187lb net, well done matey.

As we are getting used to recently , there was only going to be one winner today, and it was that man trig again, with 249lb , I think we should try and convince him to have Chris davis,s golf clubs and give us all a break LOL, well done trig, as always .

Result sheet below, in the whole it fished reasonable, it appears a lot of venues are struggling at present , possibly down to oxygen levels, also the lakes need a bit of a trim, as a lot of anglers found it hard to get the best out of the swims, but I'm sure Mike has plans to do it, and I know he had someone already doing the bankside, but he will be doing the islands, also I am running an open here on Sunday 24th so message or ring me to book in, 9.30 draw, match lake to begin with but I have the option for another lake of needed,

Thursday over 50,a huntstrete, bridge pool

Had breakfast on my own today at the Toby inn carvery in whitchurch village, and as normal it was very nice too, 4.25 on the rixster scale.
Again it only took ten minutes to get to the fishery, ideal.
24 fishing today, which is about as many as you would like to put in this lake,(bridge pool).
Early into the draw bag as I was doing some of the recording, and out comes disc 30, a peg up on the left bank and first peg on the  last island, a good peg, both silvers and carp, so a choice to be made,
So I decided to target the silvers initially while I fed a pellet line across to the island, well nearly to the island as it was 19 mtrs wide here, so I only went to 17.5, which is far enough to be fair. So I set a couple of rigs to fish pellet on the deck in about 5 foot of water, also a shallow rig for the same line, a margin rig for pellet, never had a bite on that, and a silver,s rig for 11 mtrs.

For company I had Jeff Francis to my left, and bathampton legend hughie Evans to my right, and just to cap it off I had to look at Mike Jones and Jimmy (calamity) norris, who was going to entertain us in the last half of the match.
At the start I cupped in some balls of groundbait with worm and caster in, began fishing 4mm hard pellet on the 17 mtr line, but began on a piece of work over the groundbait, it took a while to get a bite , and that resulted in an f1, I stick with this line probably longer than I should of, as I only had about 5 lb of silvers and a few f1,s, and as we stop after three hours to weigh the carp, (club rules), then begin again. So with 90 minutes I went into the 17mtr line, shallow to begin with, and I caught f1,s straight away, and I had a a nice time fishing about 18 inches deep, then for some reason I couldn't get a bite up in the water, so I went on the deck, and the peg got a bit stronger towards the end of the first three hours, I also had a nice common just into double figures, so after three hours I weighed just over 40lb, and fully expected to carry on in the second half as the first half had ended,
So when the whistle went for the second half, I was straight out feeding 4,s with a banded 6, fishing on the drop at full depth, but I couldn't get a bite, and no one else seem seemed to be fairing any better, it probably took me nearly an hour to start putting a few bites together, the f1,s had disappeared , so I switched to feeding 6,s and fishing with a banded 8mm  on the hook, this worked , as I began getting small proper carp, and not an f1 in sight. It was about now when calamity norris began performing, fishing down his margin, Jimmy began hooking a few, his first was in the mouth, but after that I don't think he had one any where near the front end, he did land a nice fish , probably over ten pounds, but he made a right hash of transferring it to his keepnet, and it fell back the wrong side, then he lost several more after that, even one which went around the legs of the empty pellet next to him, my side's were hurting at one stage as I was laughing to much.

By the end I hadn't added to my silvers tally, and I thought I had about 40lb of carp, so I was a Bit surprised when they went 48lb , and with my first half 40lb and over 5lb of silvers I ended with a level 94lb,

Beating Paul haines into second who had just over 80lb, but he was a bit unfortunate as he lost 16 carp to some underwater snag on the island, 

Too silver weight was taken by steve Dawson on peg 10 with 35lb  of skimmers, a nice net of silvers on a day when the silvers didn't really want to feed.

Weigh sheets below, there were a fair number of fish caught , but some areas were a lot harder, although a lot of venues seem a little off the pace in recent weeks,

Viaduct spring league 4

Had a nice breakfast at the Toby inn in whitchurch with Chris and Caroline fox and Judith aswell, into the van and off to viaduct with Chris and Judith, little did I know this was to be the best bite of the day, got to the fishery with about ten minutes to spare, just right.
Drew about halfway and was a bit disappointed to see 57 staring up at me from the ticket, it's the disabled peg in the right hand corner of lodge lake, God only knows I wouldn't have chosen that one, but at least we would be in the shade all day, not really what Judith wanted and expected LOL.
Only three rigs today, a deep pellet rig for 16 mtrs on a couple of lines a meat rig for 5mtrs, and a pellet rig for up towards peg 58, which is never in, I had Lee petissio on 59 and trainee nursery school teacher on 56, Martin preston.
My days aren't getting any better at the moment, I had a carp of about 5lb 20 minutes in at 16 mtrs on the deck, I couldn't get another bite from anywhere after that, and the white fluff from the willow trees wasn't helping the cause, it was nearly impossible get a rig through it at times, not that there was much point as this part of the lake seemed a bit devoid of life.

The air was thick with it and Judith was having a hard time keeping it out of her coffee.

It took 4 1\2 hours to catch my next carp, and that was from the empty pellet of 58, I had another towards the end and lost two, I think I would have had several fish if I could get a rig to go through the fluff, I ended up with three fish for 16lb, another inform angler in the shape of aiden  borduik on 62 won the section with 94lb of mugged fish, second in the section was gary o,Shea on 53 and I was third, it was definitely the section of death today. 

The match was won by Sam Powell on 85 with 325lb, half mugged and half down the edge , well done to him.

And second on the day was they man edmunds, who can do no wrong at the moment, and after drawing 116 , he was always going to do ok, so just over 300lb later, and a section win he is looking good for the series win, but aiden also has max points but he is a long way behind on weight.

Onwards and upwards for me then.