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.

Landsend individual winter league round 1

I enjoy this league , it a friendly affair fished by a nice bunch of people, and always starts with one of di,s lovely breakfasts, ably assisted by the efficient olive.
Being round 1 this starts the series with a random draw, by the time I had had my breakfast and got my kit out of the van I was fairly late into the bucket, in I go and I pull out 58, which is the last peg in use on the right hand bank of lake 3, and it's the longest walk, but I will admit it is one of my favourite pegs at the fishery, it's an island in front , two nice margins , and a sunken weedbed at 15 mtrs to the right , which is a banker area of all else fails.

The only angler could see today was mat tomes opposite on peg 55, to my left on peg 62 was Nick duckett , I couldn't see him, only the end of his pole stuck out beyond the end of the bushes.
I set up a rig to fish pellet off the end of the island, the same rig would do for down the right hand margin, and also towards the weedbed , it was within a couple of inches wherever I fished, which is dead handy, saves making up to many rigs, the other rigs were one for to the left with meat, and another for dobbing maggot and meat.around the peg, at the start I went out on the  dobber with treble white maggot, as bread is banned.
40 mins in and only.two small rudd were in the net, Matt opposite had had a couple, so I binned the  dobber and went to the island with banded 8mm, after I had fed all lines minimilistically, (don't think that's spelt right).
I had a bit of a disaster, as I hooked three and lost all of  them, two were fouled, but one wasnt, it was a wallower, and they come in easy across the top nodding from side to side, and they often come adrift, as this one did, so I left this line for a while.And went to the weedbed, luckily I hooked one and it ended up in the net this time, I had a flurry of fish up towards the weeds, which probably edged me ahead of matt , who was on 4 fish, also I could see Nick getting odd fish. Went back across to the island and nicked a couple.from there, then back to the weedbed and  two more, I tried to catch as much as I could up towards the weeds as from experience I know it dies as the match goes on, probably due to the commotion created by dragging  fish away from the weeds, I did try.The margins each side but never had a bite, even though the right hand side looks great.

When the scales got to me Bob gullick on 41 was winning the lake with 36lb, my.fish went 48lb but my lead was short lived as Nick had 52lb, so I had to settle for second on the lake, it was a difficult day on the fishery as a whole, even though Paul elmes on 16 did well to win with 111lb, but nick was second on the day and I was third.
The weigh sheets below show hard it was for many today.

Thursday costcutter at huntstrete bridge pool

Back with the over 55,s again today, (of which I am one), went out to load the van and was greeted by a minus 3 frost, and with the rain from the previous day it was a bit of a struggle to get into it. Any way locked and loaded and it was off to the local cafe in belland drive for a breakfast roll to go, and it was ok (4).
A nice short drive (15 minutes) to be greeted by 16 other hardy souls , a noticeable absence was Mike nicholls, who it transpired had been in hospital for a week being treated for suspected lepto spyrosis, (wheils disease) he's out now and hopefully on the mend,  but the rat may not have been so lucky, lol.
Mr Rolf got the draw underway, and I was early in and pulled out peg 11, spot on, it's a peg I have wanted to draw all year but have never managed it, and the best part of drawing these good pegs is the look of disbelief on Paul barnfield,s face, it's a double result lol.
With the water being so clear we all expected a bit of a hard day, and it was clear as you could see the bottom of the nets.

Still someone was going to win, I set up three rigs, a dobbing rig for 16 mtrs just short of the island in about 3 foot of water, a caster rig for 4 foot of water at 14mtrs, and a skimmer rig for 13 mtrs in the deep water, 7ft.
For company I had the silent silvers assassin Dave wride on 9 , and John fry on 14.
I couldn't wait to start as it's a peg which is equally good for silvers and carp.

And it's about the only peg on the road side which affords you a good bit of space for unshipping.
Chris blew his whistle at 10 and I began by feeding two lines at 13 mtrs on  two angles , 11 and 1 o,clock, I never fed any caster on the 14 mtr line.as I felt it may be to close to the island and affect the dobbing line,
Then I went straight across to the island, dropped a piece of  bread in set at  2 1/2 foot, and the float settled and went straight under, carp on, safely in the net, back out and another one on and in, I don't think anyone else had had a bite yet and I've got 6lb in the net, third drop and another one . This was to good to be true, then an f1, then some missed bites, so I shallowed up another 6 inches, but changed to triple maggot on the hook and never looked back really, catching fairly steadily till the last 90 minutes when it got a bit harder, with only a couple more in the time, I must say the fish in the lake look really good especially this time of year with the colours of the fish really standing out.

Darren canning, this fish is called a CARP, remember !!!!!!
By the end I new I had over 100lb,  and I did as I had 122lb for a win, I did give the skimmer line about 20 minutes and have a couple, and I did have some fizzing over the groundbait line to the right but no signs of life in the left hand swim.

I will be honest and say I never fed a thing across to the isalnd, it was just a case of swinging the rig along the island , just dropping it in here and there, never staying to long in one spot, these fish weren't feeding fish, just swimming round the island and sucking in the bait as it falls past the nose  or they just bump into it, I didn't have to fish light, a strong  18 hook on .16 line, no finesse needed, and it's a method that works well  on lots of venues at this time of year, is it difficult, no not really, the hardest part is not to feed anything, and for me that very hard, I find it helps to throw in some bait short just to feel I am doing something, all you need are some fish in the swim or be on the winter route of a few as the mooch about, off to Landsend on Sunday for the start of the winter league, and most of the weights seem to coming to the same.method, and with all bread banned there meat has been the rest bait, just need to keep my hands out of the bait box LOL.
Today's weigh sheet below.

Viaduct silvers league round 4

After a really enjoyable week away at Stafford moor with Judith , it was back to what has become a proper grind for me, the viaduct silvers league, I normally ok at this sort of thing, but this year i have had some at best poor draws,capped off last round sitting on peg 80, but good or bad I'm always there, being a league organiser I know how hard and annoying it can be to find reserves, but saying that as long as the person not fishing funds the reserve I it's not a problem, it saying that it pays to fish these hard matches as it can only serve to make you better as there are always a.little something to be learnt. On my own today so I dropped into the cross keys at lydford for breakfast, again very nice with quality ingredients, 4.8.
Got to viaduct and got into the first half of the draw queue, hoping to hear someone pulling out peg 80, I couldn't beat another day there, into the tin , open up the ticket, and yes you may well have guessed it, peg 80 looking back at me, much merriment from the queue, on the plus side at least it made Roland Lucas smile for the second time this weekend, glad to have helped, !!!!!.
I stumbled off to the peg muttering and moaning to all who cared.to listen, even those who didn't care I made.then listen LOL. At least the peg looked nice in all its autumn glory, and it did produce the lakes silvers.winner in Thursday with 18lb, but with the sudden drop in temps I didn't in all fairness expect a repeat performance.

Well I won't be waxing lyrical about my day, even though I did better than the last match, it was hard to string more than a few bites together on the pole lines, I fed caster by the spit and a caster and groundbait line, both at 14 mtrs, I set up a light feeder rod to fish a small feeder to fish beyond the end of the spit,

At the start I fed the pole lines but started on the feeder, a small roach first drop, meant cast, then two  hand size skimmers, then nothing, so into the pole after 45 minutes, a few.small roach then nothing, so the match was spent rotating around the two pole lines and the feeder, oh yes and of course the hell coot arrived and mopped up my casters I had been lovingly putting in along the spit, but I did manage.to forcibly convince it that my.peg was.not the place to be, so it went to my right to do the same.to Brendan curry and Paul Greenwood who were on 78 and 77 and the copy was was loving there casters .
I did get three better skimmers on the feeder and four handsize ones and with my smattering of small roach I weighed 9.11 for third in section, Paul Greenwood won the section with 14lb and Clint wojtyla had 11 lb from peg 85, so I was fairly happy with the result, Sam Powell won the match from lodge lake with 24lb so well done to him, and John fuidge won his section again on 125 to be winning the league, so well done john, keep it up. Top weights and overalls below.

Landsend winter.league starts.next week, and I'm looking forward to that, as it's still a favourite venue of mine, and the breakfast is always tops, I think there are still a couple of spaces so if you fancy a go , let Ken rayner, me. Or Mike at the fishery know.

A week away at Stafford moor

Drove down to Devon after work with Judith for a week in one of the lodges at the fishery, all nice then.
Got there at about 9 ,had a coffee and had an early night, had to be up early as I was guesting in the fishery run teams of four winter league. Got up in plenty of time , and juditJ made a nice breakfast for us both, 5.25, (4.5 really). Got to the shop in plenty of time for the draw, and it.was good to meet up with some old friends that I don't see to often, and some I do when they venture further north.
I did the team draw and I ended up on peg 6 on oak, which was fine with me as it's got lots of stockie carp in it so ensuring bites in most pegs, with only 7 on the lake we all had plenty of room, to my left I had Ben evenden , and to my right was Nigel Rhodes,  I only.had hard pellets with me, but the general advice was to fish softer baits, but I wasn't going to do that as I never had any. So a pellet rig for 5mtrs , another for 13 mtrs, and another for the right hand margin in 30 inches of water against the bank.

At the start I began at 5 mtrs on banded 6 over hard 4,s, twenty minutes later and I only had .a small skimmer, by now Ben had had a few carp out in front at 13 mtrs, and Nigel to my right had also caught a few, so I was having to do something to try and catch up, so it was out on the 13 mtrs line kindering some hard 4,s with 6 on the hook , and luckily I began to get a few, then I got a bit to excited with the feed and got the catty out , big mistake it got them off the deck, bugger , foulers, back to kindering, but the damage was done, although I was landing some correctly hook fish I lost several foulers, about 90 minutes from the end I had a light bulb moment and started potting some 6,s and fishing an 8 in the band, this seemed to help as I got little runs of two and three fish, which was helping me keep up with the also rams on the lake, as Ben and Nathan Underwood who opposite Ben on 12 were going to be first and second on the lake, both were catching into the margins along the dam wall, with Ben fishing a really tidy match and was always going to be the clear winner on this lake, my highlight was to catch the oak lake goldfish, a really bright red fish that seems to come out fairly regularly, according to the official photographer, at the fishery, Rob coomdes.

As it turned out on the day ,oak was the place to be if it was some bites you were after, with Ben winning the lake with 124.15, and Nathan second with 98lb, I managed to.scrape third on the lake with just over 70lb, beating have Bruton by about a pound, must have been the gold fish, lol. Lake weigh sheet below.

Monday Judith and me went to Ilfracombe to try and catch some wrasse off the see wall, we got there only.to find a bit of a swell running which in turn was making the water surge in and out along the wall, which in turn had coloured the water and kept washing.any.rig into the snags, all very annoying and costly, I did manage one wrasse about a pound with some small Pollack.,

Judith had a new friend though in the shape of an immature cormorant which seems is a regular visitor to the quay, and only.to willing to eat from your hand, at.least this is one cormorant which is where it should be.

So we packed up and headed up to the valley of the rocks as Judith had never been there, and I had only.driven through there to fish a stupid mark on the north Devon coast a few years back with the ducketts from landsend and Dean, so we had a bit of a look around and climbed to the top and took a selfie looking back down to woody bay, why is it that selfies always come out back to front, it was a bit breezy up there mind .

Thursday over 55,s, huntstrete bridge pool

Earlier draw now the clocks have gone back, 8.45, so the toby may have cut it a bit fine so I dropped into my local cafe in belland,(careful spelling on that one) drive, a bacon and egg stick to go then it was , and it was ok, I don't have a scale for that so no score.
Got to the fishery and found 20 fishing, so that was ok. Good to see Chris Rolf back at the helm for today, got quite early into the draw and out comes disc 9, so I had a bit of a moan as it's not usually in, but you never know .
It's got an island in front but it's 25  mtrs to it, so really it would be a lead chuck as the wind was fairly strong and from all angles,

As it's a flat bottom lake with little or no silt, I only set up two rigs, one to fish banded pellet at 14 mtrs , a4.x14 , and the other a .6g for maggot or soft pellet at 11 and 14 mtrs, for.company I had Dave gillard.to my right on 8, and Pete Turner to my left on 11.
At the start I cupped in on two lines at 11 mtrs, to my right with caster in the groundbait, and to the left with some micros in, then out at 14 mtrs I fed hard 4,s to the right and again groundbait and micros to the left, I won't be mentioning the long lines again as although I had several goes over them, I couldn't raise a bite, even on maggot, very strange. I had  all of the action on the two 11 mtr lines, I could get bites on the caster and groundbait line, but not a twitch over the micro and groundbait, so I changed that to caster aswell towards the end and had skimmers on each line, not the bigger skimmers.that you need for a good weight, and I probably only had two over a pound, and it was never busy, but I was getting enough indications and bites to keep me interested, I lost a few  foulers where the fish were well Off bottom, by the end I new I was well into double figures but not sure as to how much, Mike nicholls on 6 thought he may have 30lb of silvers aswell as three carp, so it looked as though he was going to win both today, and he did as his silvers went 25lb and his three carp went 15 lb giving him a smidge over 40lb, so well done to him.

My silvers.went just over 19lb, and I had one small carp and an f1 to give me 22lb . Maggot was.The best bait today , I did find it weird that I couldn't catch over any of the pellet lines, perhaps it was to clear, to cold, or there were  no pellet fish in the swim, who nows. And it was typical that I moans about the peg then do ok off it, Fairplay Chris for ignoring me lol.,  I got first in the silvers by default, so that was ok, thanks mike.

The lakes have certainly.gone clear, making some areas very.difficult, anywhere up past the top island didn't seem the place to be, there were no skimmers at that end today that's for sure, most up at that end only caught small roach, or odd carp. Although it was share , most people seem to enjoy the challenge, and looking at other cost cutter results today other venues fished hard aswell, out weigh sheets are below.

Off to Stafford moor for a week  from saturday with judith, can't wait .

Viaduct silvers league round 3

Travelled with Chris fox today, and for a change we stopped at the cross keys pub at lydford on the fosse, a good shout as the food was really good, tasty and hot, so I will definitely be stopping there again, they open at 7.30 Monday to Saturday and 8am on Sundays.
Into the fishery, and got into the draw queue early, dipped into the bucket and I only go and pull out peg 80 on cary, not a peg of choice as it's the shallowest peg on the lake, not ideal as we have had some frosts this week, and the lake had gone clear, it's probably half.The depth of most other pegs on the lake, I had Roland Lucas to my right on 78, and the other side of the spit was John fuidge. Knowing how shallow it was I set up a couple of drennan as4 floats .2g size , one for against the spit to my left where some big perch and hybrids can show up, and the other was to fish at 14 mtrs out and slightly to my right, a.3g in the same pattern to fish to hand just in case some roach decided to feed closer in, but I did try it several times for no return , so another wasted hook.

I also set up.a wag to fish corn at about 25 mtrs, but the wind was blowing in and across from the left, I tried it a couple of times aswell but it was tripping back towards me to much to be affective, all in all its been a bad day for me, the only place I could catch was on the 14.5 mtr line off to the right , I did  hook three decent skimmers in the first 30 minutes, I had a jumper come off, another fell off, and I landed the third, the rest of the match was spent catching small roach, apart from 2 x 6oz skimmers and a perch of the same size, and as the match progressed even they dissapeared, so all in all a bad day for me,I was slightly miffed I never had any of the decent perch and hybrids against the spit, also I had to contend with the coot from hell which took every opportunity when I wasn't watching to dive down on the casters against the spit and eat them all. I eventually weighed in 6.14 which surprisingly beat two people in the section, John to my  left on the other side of the spit won the section with 14lb, and Roland to my right was second with 12lb, the lakes fished hard , but Dan white on 59 lodge lake came out good with just over 30lb, as for the league , my attempt for glory is well and truly scuppered, hopefully there is always next year lol. Top ten listed below, well done to them.