Plantation silver,s match

Travelled on my own for this one, so first stop was the bridge in yatton, and I got to say providing you don't have the sausages which are really bad and have extra bacon instead, it's very nice (4.5).
Got to the fishery and wandered around to peg it, 17 fishing today which is probably one more than I would like, but it should be ok, today we had the fishery expert fishing in the shape of Mark broomsgrove with us, and my one pound benefactor Mathew culpin, he's even got his very own pound jar on the side in my house, but the way it's going I may have to upgrade it to a bucket.
I got the draw started and waited till the last but one and ended up with peg 2 which is old peg 3, a nice peg but to be honest you get a day's fishing in most pegs on this lake as it's one of it not the best silvers lake in the area.

Company wise I had Paul faiers on peg 1 and to my right was Glen "I wish the paste was working" bailey, and I had to sit and look at Dave wride all day who was directly opposite,
I set up three rigs, a couple of .3g rigs, one  double bulked the other with spread shot in the bottom half and a spread shot rig for roach at 4 mtrs. The wind was going to be troublesome as it was quite strong and blowing left to right making the trip  go with it, never a good combination.
At the start I cupped in two balls of groundbait with some caster in on the 11 mtr line slightly to the right, and another 2 balls with soaked micros slightly to the left at 13 mtrs, and began feeding caster short, I started on the 11  mtr line with caster and had a couple of roach, it was a bit slow looking around the lake, about 20 minutes in and I began to catch 6 to 8oz skimmers, then a few better ones turned up, the wind was making presentation difficult, if it eased a bit I could catch properly, but it was going ok, everyone seemed.to be catching , with good roach and skimmers being caught in most areas , I kept.trying to catch over the 13 mtr line, but apart from one skimmer and a handful of roach the fish didn't want to be there, the groundbait and caster line was by far the best, with single caster seemingly favoured by the fish, the short line wasn't to good although I did have a few.roach, but the peg is tucked back in a bit and roach wouldn't settle, towards the end of the match the carp decided it may be time to put in a bit of an appearance, so the last hour instead of getting better for silvers became a carpfest, at the end it was impossible to say who had won, we began the weigh in on peg 1 with Paul faiers, and he set the benchmark with just short of 30lb, a nice mixture of fish.

I was next and put 39lb on the scales, a lovely days fishing, I think there were a few more pounds to be had if the wind had been a bit kinder.

The lake fished really well with 4 weights over thirty pounds, with mine coming out  on top with 39.4, rod Wooten was second with 33.6, and dave.wride third with 32.12, the full weigh sheet is below.

Chilton trinity open match

Decided on a change today, so Jason and me were off down the a38 towards bridgwater, breakfast today was in a new place, the parkway cafe/diner, which has started opening at 7 for anglers, and it was nice ,also Mike West joined us .4.4, so I will be back.
Drove the 5 mins to the fishery, and found a sensible turnout 18 , so a nice number affording everyone a bit of room, as is normal here you always get a warm welcome from the family,
I got into the draw quite early and pulled out peg 14, which just happened to be the golden peg aswell, Mike West was.to my right on 12 and dave Evans to my left on 15, it had been a foggy journey down and it was still lingering now,  at least it hid Jason from view who was directly opposite.

Rigs today were a margin rig but it was a none starter as it was to deep for my liking, I did try but never had a bite on it, two other rigs were one for pellet at 14 mtrs, and a meat rig for topset and one and 11 mtrs,  both with .5g floats which would be more than heavy enough, even in the 8 foot of water with the lake being full up.
On the whistle I fed all lines and began on meat at 11 mtrs, I had a couple of minor indications before something more positive resulted in a 6lb carp being safely netted, that was my.Only fish on that line, I did see a couple a bubbles come up on the short line, so dropped the rig in there and had a nice 8lb ghostie.
The rest.of the match was spent on the  long line fishing banded 6mm pellet over hard 4,s, it was a frustrating match for , plenty of fish appeared to be present, but hooking them in the mouth was proving difficult, the float would go under and the fish would be hooked instantly, so they were on or about the bottom, Tom mangnal on peg 17 had a few shallow, so with about two hours to go I butchered my margin rig and turned it into a shallow rig, I hooked two on that, one came off, and I landed the other, which was a big fish probably close to 15lb of angry common, and I managed.to snap the topkit in the process, doh.
Gary o,Shea on peg 9 was also getting odd fish shallow, so here is that crappy word again, hindsight, should have set up  in the water rig at the start, especially as the day was exceptionally warm probably 15/16c,
Anyway by the end I had 71lb on my clicker for carp,  it I also had 10lb+ of accidental silvers on the hard pellet, but I new it wouldn't be enough as to had a purple patch in the last hour and had caught well down towards empty peg 18 on corn, and reckoned on having 100lb , and he wasn't to far out as he had 106lb for first on the day, well done  i says through gritted teeth, lol.

It's my.own fault, I didn't beat him as I probably fed a bit to much, even though I only fed about 3/4 of a pint of 4,s, I had a fair bit of fizzing .so my 83lb should have been a lot better, still it's been a nice day,

Silver,s went to Phil d on 28 with 21 of skimmers and small fish, so that was good, it's nice to see the silvers coming on so well, also the carp are in sparkling condition. Weigh sheets below, and as it shows it's fished well.

Viaduct winter league rnd 4

Stopped off at cannards well for breakfast and it was good, 4.35, hot and tasty.
Got to the fishery and draw time soon arrived, my turn on on lodge lake for this round, and I fancied either of the first pegs on cary, a corner on lodge or either side of the rope, Leon did the draw, and on paper it looked ok, Leon on 127, Ron on 96 me on the monk , 64, Clayton on 47 and out illustrious leader Clint on 15, not really a bad peg there if I'm honest.
My peg has had lots of form over the years , it's the end peg on the right hand bank going into the corner to my right, this lake is float only for this league, but with the end bank being 17.5 to 19 mtrs away, I was in for a painful day, at least it wasn't to windy, for company I had Martin rayet opposite on 66, and Craig (nudd)Edmunds to my left on 62, who now looks nice and clean in his new Browning colours. But where have those extra chins come from matey.

Back to my swim and there was no point in setting up a silvers rig as it's an out and out carp peg, but today I thought it was going to be hard as the lake had developed a brown algae bloom which most fish don't like, so I set up a couple of rigs , both  to fish meat, one rig would do for the empty pellet to my left, a bit of an adjustment meant I could use it at 6 mtrs, and at 17 mtrs to my right about 1.5mtrs off the end bank, another rig for 17mtrs again but fishing over the top of the monk right to the end bank, I also set a wag to fish towards the end bank with treble maggot.

To put it bluntly the fishing was  crap on our lake, with bites being at a right premium, I started on the wag after feeding a bit of meat on all pole lines, I gave it 45 minutes with one 2oz hybrid to show for my efforts. So a switch to the pole line but not against the bank, I had a liner , so lifted.and dropped the meat back in, and after.a.few.seconds I had a carp on, safely netted and at about 12lb it was very welcome, I never had another bite on that line, and to be honest I couldn't get a bite anywhere else, down the edge to my left, six mtrs and I changed.the hook on  wag to fish meat,   and that never worked either, I did have two bites against the end bank, which resulted in two more carp, so with thirty pounds in the net I was quite happy,  that's all I've got to report on my day. Basically three bites on meat and one in maggot, four fish and it's always hard when you ain't catching, especially  waving 17.5mtrs about, my three carp and small small hybrid went 31lb which was good enough for fourth on the lake, beaten by Ken rayner on 74 with 58lb, Steve Tucker on 107 with 50lb and Ben hagg on 70 who had 35lb, so  definitely form pegs ruled on our section today, oh and I nearly forgot, I got a quid off trig, so that's two a piece and all to play for on the last match in a fortnight.

and I did feel a bit for Martin rayet opposite on 66 As he books three carp, lost them all and weighed 2 1/2 oz,  I think trig may be giving you a bit of stick tomorrow in work .As normal the weigh sheets are all below, with the warmer bit of weather everyone was expecting the lakes to fish a lot better, but the fish obviously had other ideas.

Plantation silver,s match

Back on the main lake today, which is probably one of the fairest silver fish lakes about, maybe this is because apart from some bankside maintenance the owners do very little else, all the fish are in excellent condition, apart from some of the carp whose mouths are a bit worn, but they do get caught a lot during the warmer months.
Travelled Chris fox today and we stopped in the bridge for breakfast, again bypassing the sausages and having more bacon, all they need to do now is but some better quality coffee beans, (4.25).
This won't be a long blog as I'm a bit strapped for time, I had 16 fishing which is about as many as I like on there as it means there's no conflict between anglers,
I ended up on 14 today which is permanent peg 30, it's on a point with plenty of water to go at, to my right was Martin leaky on 13 (29) and Mike Jones to my left on 15 (37 I think).

At the start I fed a ball of groundbait at 13 mtrs in front with caster in and another same distance to my right but with micros in, and started feeding caster at 6 mtrs and down the left hand margin in 3 foot of water, the weather was glorious with unbroken sunshine 🌞, which was nice although I don't think it helped the fishing, I a nutshell the caster and groundbait line have me few small skimmers and roach, the pellet line was the best for better skimmers,  I did get a couple of fish in soft pellet but single maggot seemed the best bait, carp became a problem later in the match with Martin hooking one a bung at one stage, I only had one proper bream of over 2lb the rest were 6 to 12oz, also when the left hand margin for  shaded from the sun I had a few better roach there.

The 6mtr caster line was a none starts really, with only a few small.roach and a 6ozskimmer,
At the end it was hard to say who had won, but t it seemed Dave wride on 10 had caught all day although a lot of his fish were small, it turned out to be a close affair with Dave wride winning with 24lb, with several anglers having over 20lb, I ended up with 19.15 with a lost decent skimmer probably costing me overall, but others lost fish aswell, but that's fishing for you, weigh sheet below.

Landsend league rnd 4

Made sure I got to the fishery in plenty of time to enjoy one of di,s lovely breakfasts, always a good score for this one.
It was back to a random draw today as it's the first match, so hopefully a few different anglers to fish against for the remainder of the matches,
I got into the draw bucket second, behind Nick duckett , he pulled out 31 on the speci lake , and I followed him out with peg 32, we were both happy with the pegs as both are really good pegs on this lake.

The background can make seeing your float a bit hard,  but luckily I had steve Sewell opposite on 33 , so I could use his reflection as a background to help float spotting, thanks for not moving to much steve.

I intended to fish meat today, so I set up  4x14 to fish at 14 mtrs on front , and a 4x12 to fish up along the right hand margin towards the trees. I also set a rig to try dobbing maggots along the bank.
At the start I cupped in some meat at 14 mtrs , and a bit at 16 mtrs along the right hand bank, I began at 14  mtrs, and missed a bite first  put in, next drop I had a three pound bream, and about 10 minutes later a 6lb carp,  I stuck with that line for the first hour , but had no more on it, the wind was strong by this stage, but it was going to get stronger as the match progressed,
I spent the remaining 5 hours giving my body a serious bit  of grief, trying to hold a bait still against the end bank,

I'm fairly confident in saying that most poles wouldn't have taken the punishment, but the trusty daiwa tourney pro, withstood it all, bashing into trees , me holding on for grim death, and it  took it all, that's why they are the pole of choice for so many people on the commercials, as well as natural venues.
I can't remember ever swearing so much as today,  due mainly to the wind, as I new there were fish to be caught, also Nick on 31 began catching on meat in about 18 inches of water towards the island, I ended up with 11 carp, as did nick, so it was going to be close,
Nick weighed first and with my adding up had 93.5, I didn't think I had that as I had clicked 88lb, but my fish went 93.3, that was.close, but after.they had finished weighing in,  we double checked out weights, mine was correct but I had given Nick a  pound more than he had, so from losing by 2oz I had beaten him by just over. 1lb,, we were also first and second on the day with Paul elmes on peg one being third with over 80lb, all weigh sheets below.

I think I may be suffering tomorrow with my shoulders, arms etc, I .Just admit to thinking I may be getting to old for this long pole shenanigans, ye.right, I will be doing it again at the next opportunity no doubt LOL 😂😂😂😂

Dave Gillard silvers match

Back on bridge pool at huntstrete for this again, which I like as it's only a short 15 minute drive to get there, as after a bacon and egg sarnie from the local greasy spoon I soon found myself.At the lake, it was going to be a very windy day coming from the west, with heavy showers, and with the wind from this direction there is very little shelter from it whichever peg you end up on, and the weather never disappointed us , as it blew and rained as forecast, we even had a loud clap of thunder.
The lake seemed to have a nice colour to it, but it soon became apparent that the club had treated it with siltex the day before, so most thought this would affect sport, but I reckoned the wind would play a bigger part in making it hard.
Dave got the draw underway and I pulled out 29, which is along the left hand bank, for company I had day bazeley on 30 , and my one pound benefactor steve.tanner on 28,

Only two rigs today, a .6g bodied wire stem for over two lines at 13 mtrs , and a .4g again wire stem for 6 mtrs.
Dave shouted the all in at ten , I cupped in a ball on the two long lines ,11 and 1 0clock angles and began feeding cast in the 6mtr line when the wind allowed.
It didn't take long to get a bite and a small roach was the culprit, so better than last Sunday already.
looking around it seemed most were catching small fish , with slightly better skimmers also showing, but as expected the wind was playing a massive part in stopping people catching more qaulity, as and when the wind died down enough it helped enabling people to catch better fish, out of the blue ray had a 3lb bream which put him firmly in the driving seat along our bank, I tried the short line and had a few 2/3oz roach, which was ok but the rig was blowing through quickly with the wind, so I took a chance and put a ball of groundbait on that line, I went over it with the heavier rig, and had a 2lb skimmer straight away, so back up with ray, then a 10oz skimmer followed that followed by a roach of a similar size, but then it got hard, I had to keep rotating around the three lines, catching small roach and tiny skimmers,  it at least we were still getting bites, it seemed pretty much the same for everyone, the wind was giving us a right battering , with the occasional dousing, but the lake fished better than most expected after the water treatment, I also had a couple of f1,s and lost a carp, at the  end I thought I had 8lb, but I must have had more of those small fish than I thought as the scales went round to 12.12, which was enough to win the section and be top weight on the day, with the two f1,s I was just short of 16lb, but it's a silvers match so they don't count , although Dave does do a token payout type of thing for those who do catch some carp, which seemed ok.

Also I would like to thank Steve tanner for donating another pound to my jar, always appreciated 😁.

The weigh sheets are below as normal, complete with rain drops which make reading a bit difficult, this weekend it is back to my favourite venue, Landsend fishery for round 4 of the individual winter league, back to a random draw for this one so a change of company hopefully, I can nearly taste di,s breakfast , lovely.

Aaaaaaaargh viaduct winter league rnd 3

Where to begin, I know the journey down, picked Jason up early in case it was icy, and it certainly was.cold.

Just after I took this picture , the temp dropped down to -9c, I did take a pic of that aswell, but it was a bit fuzzy as I was laughing to much at the thought of jason having to break ice, he hates it and he is really bad at it.
the breakfast at cannards was nice , 4.25, and then it was off to the fishery, met with lots of moany anglers, it was frozen solid on all lakes, not to bad only about 10 mm , so it would be an easy break, my turn on Cary lake and I fancied 90 or 94, it would give you access.to an end bank which I thought would be an advantage today. But I ended up on 88, the pretty bush peg,

Not a favourite of mine, especially when trig Edmunds turns up on 94, all decked out in his finest Browning regalia, good to see trig, you deserve it. The other one I fancied was taken by Paul faiers, ice breaking didn't take to long, soon had a channel out to over 13 mtrs,.a.few.people.borrowed my breaker, the last one being the w,s,mare, pond pumper , mat culpin, who returned it with several knots in it lol.
and that was about as exciting as my day got, my only bite of the day was my breakfast, generally speaking I enjoy ice fishing, but today something was different, probably the water.was.about as cold as it can get, if it had been frozen for several days.It would have fished better as the temps would have been more constant, but it looked good, with some wintery sunshine and only occasional wind.

The match was won by trig on 94 with 5 carp for 54lb, top silvers.went to Lee jan with 26.6 of skimmers from peg 114, which was also second in the match, sections were being won with an ounce, I have never known it be this hard, with 51 blanking, and trig won his pound back from the match before, not that he enjoyed it, 😂

Weigh sheets below, some really good anglers blanked today, which no one enjoys to be honest.

Plantation silver,s match

With the forecast giving snow later in the day and minus temps on Wednesday night, I had a few cancel out of this one,  it we still had 13 attending, so not to bad, had breakfast in the bridge in yatton, and swapping the manky sausages for extra bacon elevated it to a 4.25 , so much more palatable.
Got to the lake in plenty of time so wandered around with co organiser Paul faiers , I've covered most of the lake, with only a couple of corners ice free, but the lake had a nice colour, so we thought it would be ok, and I reckoned on 15 lb to be a good weight.
Got the draw underway and I had the last but one ticket, I ended up on peg 2, which was original peg 4, so more than happy with that, on peg one was dave willmott who had the same peg last time and had 22lb of roach, on my left was Mike Jones , who providing the fish came.close enough (due to his eyesight) he will always do ok, we had a bit of ice breaking to do, but three chucks with the breaker and I had a nice channel out to 13 mtrs, Dave willmott tried to clear his but only managed 9mtrs.

Only one rig today, a .3g wire stem slim thingy I found somewhere, ending with 20 f1 guru maggot hook on .10  sensas feeling hooklenth.
At the start I cupped in some loose groundbait at the right hand side of my channel, and some caster and dead reds to the left against the ice, and started feeding caster at 6mtrs in front,  it not having a bite on that last time, I didn't really expect this time to be any different. It took awhile to get a bite, and that was a skimmer of about 8oz, but it snagged on the ice and disgorged itself,
But after.that I had a little run of skimmers, and looking around most people looked to be catching some.roach and skimmers, except for the anglers opposite one of which was Mr barnfield, but he was only moaning a bit.
Dave to my right had begun to catch roach steadily, but felt he needed to fish a bit further out, so what does he do, only feeds maggots into the ice, and the Canadian air force which had landed in the ice free corner to our right decided to start crashing through  the ice to eat them, and as the wind was blowing right to left, all the ice began building up in my peg, to say I was miffed was an understatement, I spent 20 minutes calling him several rude names, while I went about clearing my peg again, I think we were both upset as we never spoke for the next four hours, when I had  rid my peg of ice and with the help of a few well aimed  hits with a cupping kit, the Canadians also went back into the corner out of my way, the rest of the match was really good , catching roach on caster from the two long lines then towards.the end they turned up on the short line, catching quality roach on caster is one of the best bits of fishing you can get, and this lake has a huge head of these nice redfins, it was a bit of a fish race between my self and dave, but Paul faiers on the point peg over to my right was also doing well, as was Chris fox , but he was getting skimmers on the point peg over to the left hand end of the lake,
I did the weigh in, starting with Chris ollis on peg 1a , he had a nice day putting 18 of roach on the scales, next was dave(the ice queen) who put a very creditable 27 lb of roach on the scales, I was next , and I wasn't to sure I had that, but I did,my net went just over 32lb those early skimmers.were.the difference, before he tried to sabotage my fishing LOL 😂😂😂😂😂
Me.pictured below with my fish, and being photobombed by Andy gard, good to see him out and about again after his recent health issues, well done matey.

Me and dave.were.ok after the match, well I had to be really as I had to collect a quid off him. Ha ha ha.

Second place went to Chris fox with 28lb of skimmers, all caught in pinkies,

There were 5 weights over 20lb and 11 of the 13 had double figures, brilliant fishing at this time of year, let alone it was done through the ice. I promised not to mention Paul barnfield was last of the weighers with 11 1/2 lb, oops , sorry

As expected the next match is already full, can't wait.

Weigh sheets below.