Todber manor Sunday open

A bit of a rare one today, John candy doesn't normally have Sunday opens, but Mark poppleton organised this one , and it was fairly popular as 24 fished, which is enough on hillview, I took Jason with me and we stopped at cannards well for breakfast and was nice so a 4.5 from me.
Not a massively long drive, only about an hour and twenty, got there in plenty of time to enjoy a bit of banter with the organisers.
Into the draw bucket and I pull out 42, around the right hand side of the lake, it's a nice peg as it has a bit of space either side, and there is an island in front, which you can throw a wag or feeder at.

I set up three rigs, a meat rig for two plus two on front, a pellet rig for 13 mtrs, and a margin rig to again fish pellet, as the wind was ok I also set up a wag to fish to the isalnd, but plumbing up over there I really had to come a couple of mtrs off to get any depth, 2 foot.
At the start I began at 13 mtrs with banded 8mm over loosefed 6,s, whilst feeding the other lines, and apart from some liners and a list fouler the first 30 minutes past with nothing in the net, the only person I could see catching was now McMahon on peg 45, who was catching short ,(topset and one), I tried the wag but by now the wind had picked up blowing in and across from the right, pushing the wag through so no presentation what's so ever, so that was out down never  to be used again, so I came in on the short pole line on meat, but apart from a small tench that was my.only fish on the meat, Joe was still catching so I changed the hook and started feeding hard 6,s on that line, and it appeared it was the right choice as I began to get indications and put small carp in the net, and most of the rest of the match was spent on this 2+2 line, the wind was making it difficult even at this short range as it was tripping through with the wind, but I persevered and was doing ok as far as I could see, except.For joe who was catching sreadily, the wind coming off his back definitely helped with his presentation,  but Fairplay he was doing well. During the match I did get a few on the 13 mtr line and in the last hour I had 4 or 5 down the left hand margin, I had fed left and right, but the wind made fishing to the right all but impossible, whereas the left I was going with the wind to a certain extent helping to get some sort of presentation, I started the match in a t shirt enjoying the warm sunshine, by the end I was wrapped up as best I could to try and stay warm, and the drennan  windstopper did it's job and I stayed warm throughout.
I thought I had just over 100lb by the end, I seem to be having a hard time sizing the fish here as I went over in one of my nets again, with fish varying in size from less.than a pound up and into  double figures it can be hard, well for me anyway lol. My nets went 137lb which was good enough for second on the day,
Tom mangnal took my picture and he got me just right in the middle of me giving him a bit of stick, hence the face pulling.

Luckily going over never cost me as Joe was the clear runaway winner with over 190lb.

Too silver weight went to Dave willmott on peg 25 with 23lb, which he reckons he caught mainly in the last 5 minutes ha ha.
Weigh sheets below as normal

Thursday costcutter, bridge pool

Back to huntstrete and bridge pool today, so the obligortary stop at the Toby Inn in Whitchurch, they have downsized the plate size, so for some it will be at least two visits to the food bar lol, but I managed to get enough on one trip.
21 fishing so not to bad, I did receive a bit of stick for drawing islands all the time, so not wanting to disappoint I pulled out peg 6, so I had a bit more abuse, bit i enjoy it, I'm not fat, it's just very thick skin ha ha.

It does look nice , but with the water clearing I wasn't to convinced the carp and f1,s would be happy to feed in the shallows against the island, so I set two rigs for the island, one right in , in about 12 inches of water, and the other about a mtr off in 3foot of water, I also set up a rig for the deep.water for worm over groundbait, off to my right in 6 foot of water, company for the day was Harry muire to my left on 7 and Geoff Francis to my right on peg 4, 5 was left out as it was in the shade !!!!, At the start I fed three balls of worm and caster laces groundbait 11 mtrs to the right , down the middle, and began firing pellets to the island, I went straight over the groundbait with a piece of worm, and had a skimmer over a pound straight away, followed by several more of varying sizes quite quickly, by now there were fish against.the island, but I decided to leave it so as they got confident, also I thought it would definitely a good idea to leave it as it was sunny and I thought it may be better to wait for the shadow to get over the water ,(mistake), I carried on with the skimmers for the first 90mins, and topped it up aswell, which was probably another mistake as small roach turned up, I shouldn't have refed and just waited a  bit longer for bites, also by the time I went across the shadow had got on to the water and my carp had disappeared around the other side of the island to do a bit of sunbathing, I did get one carp and an fi for 9lb ish but I couldn't get  any bites at all. I kept.trying the skimmer line bit only put small roach in the net, I think I tried to force that line to much.
I had to wait until the last hour before I got any more signs on the island, and I did manage 4 smallish carp against the island for about 19lb,  I did manage to weigh in 44lb which included 16.2 of silvers, which was 4th on the day , but my silvers.net did get me second in the silvers pool by default, Dave wride won off peg 20 with 74 lb pushing Mike nicholls into second on peg 10 with 72lb, John Smith on 8 was third with 48lb, well done to Mike Jones for winning the silvers off peg 22 with a smidge over 20lb, you got to feel.a bit sorry for him, here is is trying to work out which foot goes into which shoe after the match.

As normal the weigh sheet are below

Landsend fishery mini festival

Mike duckett decided to do a three day job this year, as last year it was five days and people didn't fancy it, and it seemed to be better as 26 ended up fishing, there may have been a few more but it clashed with some other things on the same weekend, can't be helped sometimes.
Judith came.with me for the weekend, which is always nice, and we decided to stay over the weekend local to the fishery, so Judith booked a cottage at brickyard farm, in Ian's cottage, and we must say it's one of the nicest self catering places.we have stayed in, spot on. And only.about 5 minutes from the fishery.
Breakfast at.the fishery ever morning cooked by Di and served by olive, and every day was very good, so a 4.99 score, (no cappuccino lol).
First day was a random draw, so I sent Judith into the queue saying 58 would be a nice draw, with some protection from the wind and rain, and she pulls it out of the hat, lovely ., So lake three , johns Walter lake first day, speci second and match lake third, an ideal rotation to be honest.
We got to the lake and it wasn't as protected as I would have hoped , with the wind blowing in and from the right, but bearable, the other end of the lake was going to bear the brunt of the weather. Not to many rigs as it's the same depth everwhere, with the levels right down, it was 15 inches deep, so one rig for 11  mtrs on front, the same rig for the point of the island, another to the right by a bush and also to a weedbed at 14.5 mtrs beyond that, also a margin rig to my left, I did set up a island rig but it didn't produce so no more on that waste of line and shot.

The weather didn't turn out to bad with only a bit of rain, and the fishing was ok, I ended up with 84lb catching odd carp from all areas for third on the lake, but all the fish seemed to have followed the wind as Stu Barnett won the lake off peg 42 with over 140lb, with Tom thick coming second with 115lb from 41, so an ok start for me but a section win would be needed on the second day, first day weigh sheets below.

Missed peg 1 with the camera Dave hodgson had over 70lb

Second day and speci lake, and it was forecast to rain but lighter winds, and it certainly rained, with no let up, Judith drew peg 40 for me, sometimes they turn up , but there are always some resident fish here, to cut a long story short , it was a struggle, as expected the fish were up the other end again with Tom thick on 34 winning the lake with 160lb plus and Bob gullick on 29 second with with 155, russ peck had 77 on 27 and I was 4th with 55, so series over for me, weigh sheets below. After day one Steve seagar did nothing but moan about leaves in his peg ruining his chances of doing any good, so Mike had a present for him at the draw on day two.

Day three and match lake , so Judith got into the draw early and handed me peg 11, lovely, and it was raining again, but the forecast was saying it was going to stop at about 11, and they were nearly right as it stopped at 12, then the sun came out and and dried everyone's kit out, excellent. I set up rigs to fish each side margin, a short corn line, and an island rig for over in the shallow water.

I started short on corn but only had an f1, and by now there were carp up in the shallows against the island, so across it was then, but there fish are notoriously hard to fool, and today was no exception, but it is a very enjoyable way (for me)to catch, it's a challenge for sure, at times I have had ducks stood amongst the carp I was trying to catch.  the fish certainly got more confident towards the end , and I was catching well, but I was never doing well enough to catch up with Bob gullick on 21 who won the lake with 211lb with the consistent Tom thick coming second with 196lb, and Stu Barnett on 1 having 138lb, sheets below.

It was a weekend for the comeback kid, tiger woods won a good open and tom thick who has been away for a while was top over the three days so well done matey, good to see.

Steve Howell came second followed by  bob gullick, then Nick duckett and joe McMahon, silvers went to Martin pettiffer then Ray white, well done all the framers and winners, also a big well done and thanks to Mike for running the event , ably assisted by cosmic men rayner with h his computer and stress sheets meaning the results were quickly done, and a thanks to do for supplying chip buggies after the last match.
Judith did have a bit of a fish on lake 4 after the first day and did manage a couple of carp , then I educated her on the diners art of foul hooking,and she done good as the picture  shows lol.

All in all a good weekend, a nice few days away with Judith and an interesting days fishing with a really good bunch of blokes, with some good laughs along the way, hopefully it will be on again next year.

Landsend

With very little on I decided to run a knock up on lake three, and with Mike running a three day event at the end of the week it would give us a chance to see how it was fishing, I ended up with 14 fishing so di let me out 11 on three and three as an overspill on lake 4, but before the draw it was time for one of di,s lovely breakfasts, 4.9.
Got the draw underway and I let beany pull mine and he gave me peg 51, it's an ok peg so I expected a bit of action, for company I had the legend rod Wooten on 50, and the oh so chatty Gordon canning on end peg 55.

Rigs were simple, one 4x10 to fish to the far bank on the corner of the island, aswell as to my left at 14 mtrs down the middle, also at the bottom of the nearside shelf, left and right., Also a shallow rig to fish along the island to the left, in about 10 inches of water.
At the start I began on the long line to my left, and due to the lake being so low, I saw fish stirring the bottom up almost straight away, and I did catch one quite early, but these Landsend fish are really cagey, they have been in the lakes for years and have seen it all, and apart from several lost foulers I never had another proper  bite on that line, even though I could see fish there all day but they seemed nigh on impossible to hook, also the margins seemed.very.quiet, odd fish were coming.to feed, but not stoppimg, they were.definitely eating on the move, I did have one fish from the margin, and it was ten  pounds, but it was the only.time the float.went under, most of my fish came from the shallow island swim,  it  was a struggle, I ended up with a dozen carp for 57lb, and no good on the day, Joe mcmahon on peg 75  lake 4 won with 92lb, catching.on mainly meat down his left hand margin, well done.

Silver,s went to Pete nurse on peg 68 with 5lb 7oz, so that was a struggle . The whole weigh sheet is below as normal, it was quite a close match, which I think is far better than someone running.away.with a massive.weight, I'm looking forward to the end of the week. For the three days fishing.

Tackle.dealers.trade.match

Mark Harper (Preston innovations) and Dave drake (drennan international) organise a match for there dealers and associated people each year, last year it was shearwater, this year it was at.Todber manor, on hillview and ash lake, only 28 of us fishing so we had plenty of room. Also they had sorted breakfast at the dolphin inn in Gillingham, it.was.a help yourself brekkie and it was very nice, 4.6.
I travelled.down with mr.drake., And we had a good journey trying to sort the problems with the trade, we never succeeded but we felt better about it LOL.
After.the food Mark Harper got the draw sorted, with drake ending up in 68 ash,
I pulled a peg and opened up 69, obviously always a favourite number.
As we had a van pound we could keep an eye on how it was going.
Easy tackle assembly, with a wag for the far side, but a nasty side wind blowing right to left was going to make that a bit tricky, a margin rig for left and right, and two rigs for 13 mtrs, one for the deck and the other shallow.

Drakey  set up a paste rig and a method feeder, both of which can be very effective on these lakes,
Good news for mosella is the news that the tall pole rollers are now back in stock, and for a sub 70 quid roller there probably isn't a better one out there , with enough height to get your pole over otter fences and hedgerows.

At the start I fed the 13 mtr line with 6mm hard pellets, the margins with 4,s and fired some 8,s across to the far side, I started at 13 mtrs and had indications straight away and began getting small stocky  carp, dave was also getting some on paste , and diminutive Glen from tackle UK was catching short on meat to my right. I began missing some bites so went out on the shallow rig, I had a few f1,s and some proper carp,  it it wasn't hectic, I did manage to mug a couple of better fish,   but there wasn't loads about. I kept trying the wag, but the wind was blowing the float through, making foulers a huge problem, if the wind died I could catch properly, there were a lot of fish on the far bank for sure, Drakey was by now on the method, and was getting bites as soon as it hit the water, and accuracy obviously wasn't important, for a while the quid was in doubt, and I was writing an advert  in my head to eBay my kit lol, but luckily his fish were mainly on the small side, whereas most of my fish were bigger than his, I also had some better fish down the margins towards the end, so by the end I new I had saved my quid, never mind my pride, I weighed 119lb but lost out on a bit as I went over 66lb in one of my nets, surprisingly that was good enough for third on the day, being beaten by Steve kedge on the end peg up to my right with 144lb but he was beaten by Scott Russell on the end peg to my left with 208lb , he also went over the 66lb net limit in all three of his nets, hillview fished quite hard with Pete neate being top on that lake with 115lb, I gratefully accepted the quid off of Dave back at the pub, where there were sandwiches and chips waiting for us, all very civilized.

All the weigh sheets are below.
Still got a few spaces.for Landsend on Sunday.

Short pole final match

Travelled down with Jason again today, so a stop in lillypool for breakfast was first on the list, and it was very nice , 4.6.
Off down to bridgwater and Chilton trinity and woodland lake, well run by misha and tom, getting there in plenty of time, Tom was on tea duty which is always a nice touch. Misha turned up after all the work was done, I was hoping for my little draw bag in the shape of lily to pull my peg,  but she wasn't about, so I let Mike nicholls pull one out for me, not a peg of choice but there are worse peg than 24, and Jason had one of the worse in the shape of 20, but the wind was blowing up into the top bank so it may be ok, but when the peg Jonah Chris fox drew next to him on 19 the writing was on the wall, as they say.
For company I had Tom (the flasher)mangnal on 23 and des shipp younger brother Vince on 25, so good company, not forgetting vince,s terrier bullseye, who was well behaved, and it is a dog friendly fishery which is nice .
Only three rigs, a shallow slapper, a margin and one to fish at depth at the permitted topset and three pole limit.
At the start I began on the deck at 6 mtrs, I fully expected it to start fizzing as soon as we all fed,  but no , nothing, no liners nothing, in fact it took me 30 minutes to get my first bite, which felt like a small fish for a second, then it went heavy and I thought I had a carp in the tail, then it went light again towards the surface, and a 4oz skimmer popped out, which had been taken by a big eel, just after I hooked it, it had the imprint of an eels mouth on each side, that's a first for me, Vince had a fish on the deck early on but neither myself or Tom could get a bite, I eventually hooked one in the wing, but it was only about 3lb but still welcome, Vince began catching odd fish slapping, but as much as I tried I couldn't get a bite up in the water, I began feeding heavier and I did draw some fish into the peg as I was getting intermittent strong fizzing, but a few foulers later and nothing in the net had me wishing I possibly hadn't of fed quite as aggressively, as Vince had the best results by just throwing 3 or 4 pellets at a time in, I did start hooking odd fish in the second half of the match, but never enough to worry Vince, by the end I had 6 carp and one dead eel ravaged.skimmer, for what I thought would go about 50lb, and I was quite close to my guess as I had 48lb ,Vince to my.left had a level 77lb to win the section , and tom had 24lb, this top corner of the lake was hard , and the lake as a whole had a bit of an off day, but 27 on the lake is a lot, and it may not of liked the pressure.
Top weight on the day was a shared affair, with Joe mcmahon and Mike West both having 84.14, Joe was on unfancied 3 and Mike on an equally iffy peg 29,

I only managed to get a pic of Mike as I left my.phone at the peg, sorry Joe , but your fish looked much the same lol
Vince was third with his 77
4th Bob gullick on 8 with 69.8
5th Martin rayet on peg 17 with 62.10
silvers went to Mike nicholls on peg 30 with 24.6 of small roach, he loves it.

Weigh sheets below

Overall the went to Joe mcmahon with a clean sheet, 4 section wins for 36 points, also winning the k/o, so a good payday for him, well done matey.
2nd Bob gullick 32 points
3rd Martin rayet 31 points
4th Ryan shipp 30 points
5th Steve seagar 25 points
Next Sunday I'm running a match at Landsend fishery, message or ring me to book in, 9.30 draw, fish 11 till 5.

Thursday costcutter at Shiplate farm

Travelled down with the diminutive Jason Radford today, I decided to stay in Bristol for breakfast and went to rachael,s in hengrove park, which is very nice, clean and reasonably priced, 4.5.
Nearly a mistake as the traffic getting out of Bristol was horrendous,  but still managed to get to the fishery with  ten minutes to spare, we got the kit out, paid the pools and it was draw time, thought I would have a change this time and waited for the last peg, didn't mind where I drew as we were on the two canals , I enjoy fishing these narrow lakes. Anyway peg 6 on west pool was going to be my home for the day, I had Geoff Francis to my left on 7, and Gary flinders to my right on peg 4, I only had to set up three rigs, one for down the middle , another for right across towards the car bank, the same rig would do for the margins aswell as it was the same depth, and another to fish about two foot from the far bank in about two foot of water.

At the start I fed each margin, fired some 6,s across then started down the middle, I gave it thirty minutes on that line , but nothing to show apart from some fizzing and a couple of liners, so across the far side it was then, on the slightly deeper rig, I soon hooked a ghostie of about 4lb, which tried to cheat when I had got down on my topkit, as it shot around the back of my nets, so I had to carefully thread my topkit being my.nets, which I did , and Geoff was suitably impressed as he didn't think I was that flexible any more. I had a couple more fish on the deeper rig, but with carp moving in the shallows towards the far side, I went across after them, and I enjoyed a good spell, catching steadily, using a banded 6hard pellet, the right hand margin was being visited by fish but they didn't want to settle, so I kept feeding it and went back to the far side, by now the ducks had turned up, probably because I was the only one feeding to the far side with a catty, but I don't mind ducks when I am fishing in shallow water, the fish seem to feed with more confidence under there webbed feet.

The same happened in the margin, I had ducks in there aswell, even happening to feed off the bottom, and the carp were in amongst them, and towards the end I couldn't get in fast enough, with the carp taking the pellet on the drop even in a foot of water, I thought I was playing catch up with Mike nicholls on peg 2, as I could hear him landing quite a few , and the fact he was calling the ducks all sorts of rude names meant he was getting some, but the feathered things were annoying him massively, lol. Unfortunately Gary being a fireman was kept away due to being on a shout somewhere in chipping sodbury, so Mike and me had a lot of room between us which obviously helped, I thought at the end I may have.150, but admitted to a  bit less, and Mike thought he had about the same, when the scales.got to me Mike hill was.top on the lake with 79lb, catching on the pole in his margins, obviously a  bit of an alien method to him as he  has been doing well of late getting himself caught by lots of fish on the method, ha ha .
I was surprised a bit to weigh 170lb, underclicked a bit today, a record for the lake,  it not for long.

We.got to Mike and started.to weigh him in and it soon became obvious it was going to be close, but he ended up coming out on top with 178lb , well done matey we both thanked Gary for not fishing today, although he did get back in time to do the weigh in, weigh sheet below.

Beer boats

No match today, for a change Judith and me decided last minute to go to beer for a day in the self drive boats, launched off the beach. First though we stopped at Taunton Dean services for breakfast, not to bad, a 4 ,
Simon who runs the operation at beer was going to give us a ring just after 7 if it was unlikely we could launch, mainly due to South easterly wind blowing into the bay, which can make a bit choppy,
We got to the beach at 9.15 and met.Simon who thought at the moment it was to choppy, but the forecast was for the wind to decrease, so we went and had a coffee to kill and hour, then wandered back onto the beach, Simon thought it was a bit to lumpy still, but we managed to convince him that we would stay out for more than an hour so he relented, and put a boat into the sea, there was also a space on the beach car park by now, so I went up into the town car park to move the van, only.to find I had overstayed my ticket by 20 minutes, and was now the proud new owner of a fifty quid parking ticket,MINT.
Never mind, we.were.Soon heading out towards beer head, where we stopped just short of the end and anchored up for a go, we gave it just over an hour, I never had a bite , but Judith did it to me again landing a couple of nice plaice.

But with no other bites, I pulled the anchor up and moved out into the rough ground beyond beer head, dropped the hook. We.dropped down a bit of a mixture of squid and worm baits, and soon had some rattles.from small bream, again Judith had the first and was beginning to  gloat a bit lol.

,
 I'm just getting used to it, pheromones again.,  but I soon had some bream of my own, as we were doing a species hunt today and not numbers, I switched to squid baits on the bottom, which have me a procession of the lsd,s, but it was another species, even if it.was.doggies. But with us using light spinning rods, even the dogs were giving a good account of themselves.

So I was.behind by one species, but not for long as I had what was the smallest  thornback I had ever seen, but still another species.

So level again, then she goes and gets a mackerel, so up again, not long after that I've had a better bite which resulted in a small smoothound, which on these light rods is an enjoyable experience.

We had to make several moves during the day as the fishing was quite difficult at times, maybe down to the fact the water wasn't as clear as it should be, even the mackerel anglers seemed.to be blanking, so maybe it was.just one of those days, we had plenty of bites from bream, but they were mostly small, less.than a pound, Judith had the biggest maybe a pound and a half, and today I was definitely the dog whisperer, couldn't escape them at one point, but it's better than nothing,
All in all it was a good day which we both  thourally enjoyed, it made.a.lovely change from match fishing, even if Judith is hyper competitive.
If any one fancied a go give Simon a ring on 07773923120, I don't think you will be dissapointed.