Viaduct spring league rnd 2

Off to viaduct again today, and we are still having cold winds, which were extremely strong on saturday, so hopefully the water will have had a bit of a mix up making the fish move and feel the need to feed properly, we.stopped off at cannards well for breakfast, it was quick and very good, 4.75,
Still.Got to the fishery in plenty of time, and parked by the lodge, thinking was I parked by Campbell for the first round and drew a car park corner on lodge lake, which was as far away from Campbell as you can get, so I thought by parking far away from Campbell I may draw it, I was actually first into the draw tin , out comes peg 80 on cary, closer to Campbell as it was.12 feet behind me, for company I had birthday boy aiden borduik to my left on the other side of the spit, and to my right was Roy "the lead"(gend) worth who was soon ready as it don't take long to get his lead rig off its winder,
My.peg is normally good for a few.as there is a gap in the trees along the spit which is the draw of choice, also it's a good lead or wag swim when fished out just become the end of the spit.

with the wind off my back I set up a wag for pellet, and two pole rigs, one for the spit and the other to fish slightly to the right , but as it showed no signs of life on the few times I tried it, there's no more to be said about that waste of a hooklength.
at the start I fed the lines and began on the wag, it took stars to get my first bite,  it it was from a decent common of about ten pounds, I expected it to get better as the match progressed,  but it never did, it was a hard day, to cut a long story short I had four carp on the wag, losing two foulers which took me around the end of the spit, the margin seemed barren apart from a pound and a half eel on a 8mm pellet til the last hour when a few fish arrived, I hooked 4 and landed three, which included my biggest fish of about 16lb, at the end I admitted to 75lb and was very close as I the fish went 76.3, which was good enough for 2nd in section behind Des Shipp on peg 86 with 80lb, the match was won by Sam Powell on 129 with over 200lb of mugged fish, well done.

The weigh sheets below shows that it fished quite hard all round, but looking at results locally a lot of venues had an off.day.

That is a match at Landsend next Sunday on lake three with the option of the speci lake aswell if we get enough , get in touch with Mike or myself to book in if you fancy it.

Over 55,s, huntstrete bridge pool

Had my obligatory bacon and egg sarnie on the way and got to the fishery in plenty of time, after to warm weather of recent days it was a bit of a shock to the system when I got out of the van, there was a blustery cold wind blowing across the lake, so a nice sheltered swim would do, chatting with Mike nicholls he said he fancied 24 , so into the draw bag and what do I pull out ,24 !!!!, It's a good peg and one I normally head to when Judith come out with me as it's a nice short reach to the island, about 11 mtrs, but I tend to fish at about 7 mtrs which gets you into about 2foot of water. With pellet over pellet, (hard of course).

Also being stuck out on a bit of a point it gives a nice margin each side , and with about 2 foot of water in these areas the same rig which I was going to use towards the island would do the same swims.

Also it can be a reasonable skimmer peg, ( yes it has it all), so a rig for soft pellet at 8 and 13mtrs slightly off to the left in the deeper water, I also set a pellet rig to fish on the left and right hand side of the island in about 12 inches of water,
At the start, as normal I fed all areas with the relevant baits, but started on the skimmers to let the carp (hopefully) settle, I decided to give the skimmer lines about an hour, but ended up spending 90 minutes on them , but  it wasn't happening with about 3lb to show for my efforts, so onto the carp rig at 7mtrs, and I soon had a couple of f1,s, followed by a couple of 2lb skimmers, all on 8mm hard pellet, then I had a nice carp of about 12lb,  a  bit of an old warrior, with one eye, and it's a fish I caught on the last match here when I was up on peg 1.

That was the last of my action from there, I tried the shallow island swims, but although there were odd fish mooching about I think the water although looking coloured was deceptively clear, I did get an f1 and a ten pound carp late on from there but it's not right at the moment, the carp seem to want to be in slightly deeper water, so most of the match was spent in each margin,
The right hand margin was the most productive to begin with with the lakes f1,s making it interesting, I was losing a few as there is a weedbed about 2  mtrs off the bank, although it's soft weed and the line cuts it off a few did escape  enroute. Also I had a couple of small carp from there, but the bigger carp from the left hand side, at the end I thought I had about 65lb of carp plus my few silvers, And when Thursday newbe Jeff Grant arrived with the scales I wasnt to far out as my carp went 69lb and silvers 7lb, for 76lb total, and first on the day, silvers went to Mike nicholls on peg 30 with 20lb,

It was a difficult day for most, certainly not made any easier by a horrible gusting wind the kept changing direction direction due to the hills around the fishery, the weigh sheets below show how difficult it was for people due to the wind.

Short pole series, rnd 1

Off to Chilton trinity for the first round of this league, but not after a stop at lillypool cafe for breakfast, and it was very nice 4.6.
Net Dean Malik in the cafe and I managed to offload Jason on him so he could have a smoke.
I got to the lake (woodland) and went for a wander round to have a look at the work they have done on the far side, all the platforms have been removed, mainly due the fact all the bank was getting undermined by the water movement, when it's all settled.down I think it will be ok, a couple of pegs have been lost but that's not a problem as all the pegs are never used in matches.
I think the local heroin population like it as they a few.shallower margins to go stalking in for breakfast.

Back to the hut to find mish in charge of the  kettle, always a warm welcome by the family here.
Soon had everyone in attendance so got the draw started, I got mish to draw mine and she handed me 14 which is old peg 15, so more than happy with that, on my left on 16 was North Bristol finest scaffolder, Ricky Mills, and on my right was a new two pots angler in the shape of mark"podge"Jefferies on 13.

Today's weather was going to be  hot 🔥 with light winds, and they weren't wrong, we had unbroken sunshine with little or no breeze to cook it down a bit, only three rigs today, a .5g to fish pellet on the deck in the deep water, but I never had a bite on that, also a margin rig , but plumbing that was a nightmare as the bottom is all over the place close in,  I never had a bite on that either, I think my bait may have been going into gaps and holes on the bottom, all my sport during  the day came on the slapping/mugging/shallow rig, I caught a few conventionally lifting and dropping in the feed, but with no ripple it was never going to last, I had been feeding down the margins left and right, with the left clouding up nicely I went in with the shallow rig, and had a fish straight away, then I saw a fish to the right so went in there and hooked another which tied me up around some underwater snags, but pulling for a break the fish popped out , lucky,
For the next couple of hours I was mugging some and booking fish in the margins, but it was all a bit torrid, there were lots of snags underwater on the inside, and with most of the fish being 7 to 14 lb it's not easy to stop them lunging through the snags, every fish I landed had run through these snags meaning the rig line was getting properly chaffed, I was replacing the hooklengths sometimes after two fish of even after one of the damage was to great, even the .22 mainline was getting damaged with that snapping aswell with very little pressure, I got through 15 hooklengths  and had to tackle up at least 8 times, mush did say she would get Tom into the lake with the chesty,s on the try and clear it,   but I think it's mainly roots etc which will clear in the fullness of time, by the end I thought I had 115lb, but it should have been closer to 200.
I actually weight 119 so not to far out with the guestimation, and I won the section so a good start to the league.

Top weight on the day was taken by Joe mcmahon on peg 6 with over 240lb of mainly mugged quality fish, these shallow fish are generally on the large size, well done joe.

Second was part time angler (lol) Dean malin with 130 and third was Vince shipp with 129, I was fourth and Steve seagar had just over 100lb, too silvers weight was taken by Dave Lewis with 31 lb of roach and skimmers, a good weight considering the condithions,

 next match in series is on the 12/5 at Todber on ash and homeground,
Weigh sheets for today is below.

The goby challenge

With an early finish in the shop today Judith and me decided to have a couple of hours down in Portishead marina for a competitive mini species hunt, always a bit of fun and definitely a bit of needle about it lol, so armed with a few ragworm we got there at about 6.30 , and was soon set up with a simple one hook paternoster rig,
It was a bit slow to begin with but we were soon getting rattles from some common gobies, I took a three fish lead early on, but as I've found out to my cost Judith does have a competitive edge and really tries ,  but these small fish are extremely sneaky just nipping and bumping the bait without taking the hook, we don't fish to small on the hook size as although smaller books may produce more fish we don't want to run the risk of these mini,s swallowing the hook, also we crush the bards on the books to make things easier, as I said I drew first blood with a small brown goby, they certainly seem to have a bit of attitude about them.

It didn't take Judith long to get into the score card with a goby of her own,

Then it started to go horribly wrong with Judith overhauling me and sneaking into the lead, but then I had a nice little flounder, always good fun on these ultra light rods.

Note the envious look in the background, I think the fish felt sorry for her as it wasn't long before Judith got in on the flattie  score with one of her own, and I do think it was slightly bigger than mine, interestingly while hers was coming to the surface another was following it,

We had a few more gobies  but it was starting to go a bit quiet, then I had two small schoolie bass , certainly not keepers lol.

Then Judith got in on the act with a small whiting ,

a first for her , so to go with her first flounder she now has two new species  to go on our species hunt, keeping her firmly in the lead, also she beat me ten fish to eight on the night, and a quick stop in maccy d,s.for tea it was a most enjoyable evening, good fun fishing which doesn't need expensive or special equipment, a small small  feeder or float for will suffice, or pop into veals and we have some excellent LRF rods from as little as thirty quid, and with a few bits of terminal tackle and a few ragworm it's a good way of  whiling away a few hours in the fresh air.

Westerliegh

Just for a change Mike nicholls arranged for us to have a knockup at this little fishery run by Mark taylor, there are only 12 usable swims so I soon had ten names, I stopped off in Mario's cafe in stockwood with jason, and it was fair 4.10.
The traffic wasn't to bad so we got to the lake with  plenty of time to spare, it's probably been at least 12 years since I fished here last, and it had changed, Mark has done loads of work on it, and it's really beginning to take shape.
Had a no show so we were down to 9, martin(shaun) McMahon sorted the pegs out, then with everyone there I did the draw at 9, not so much as a draw more.like a pickup as I threw them on the floor. I picked up with three left and had peg 11 , second peg down on the left hand bank, means nothing to me but venue regulars.reckoned it was a good peg, then again they were saying that about every peg.
But it looked ok as I had two islands to go at, only down side was that I had to look at bela bakos and Ron hardiman all day.

I was told maggot in the deep water and pellet would probably work over to the islands, but the regulars were fishing corn , and also putting some groundbait in As there were some sensible skimmers.to be had, either side of me I had the the bathampton dad's army crew in the shape of Hubert Evans to my right and Mike Jones to my left,   both of which would probably fishing for silvers.
I set up three pellet rigs for towards the island's,  one shallow for on the mud line, another for just off in 20 inches of water.and another in about 30 inches, the only other rig was a maggot rig for 5 mtrs feeding soaked micros and maggot.
at the start I fed.some maggots and micro short and began firing hard 4,s at both island's,  beginning short I was catching tiny crucians and carp, which count as silvers.for now, until they have grown on a bit, the only.drawback is that you have to net everything, I soon got bored with that, especially as bela and Ron were catching a better.stamp carp towards the island, so over it was with banded 6 mm hard pellets over hard 4,s, I was soon putting 6 to 12 oz carp in the net, no quality but plenty of them, I was changing between rigs quite a lot to keep them coming, but towards the end of the match I had a few better fish , with the biggest about 8lb, on the all out i thought those late better fish had got me in the mix, but after John Clark weighed  50, Ron just over 50 and bela 51 i wasn't sure I had done enough, going round doing the weigh in bela was still winning when we got to me ,  but as soon as I lifted my.net I knew I had done enough , and I had just over 62lb, certainly a bit more than I thought I had,

Photo bombed by Rickymills, one day be may even learn how to count past one.
Top silver.weight on the day went to Mike nicholls on peg 6 with 24lb, all small.crucians, tiny carp and a couple of skimmers.

Weigh sheets below as normal.

Viaduct spring league rnd 1

Back to viaduct for this hotly contested and popular series,  but not after a stop off in cannards with Jason for breakfast, which I must say has been really good the last few times I have stopped. 4.6.
Got to the fishery and parked at the bottom of Cary and close to Campbell in the vain hope I would draw on one of those lakes, but after getting in to the draw tin a bit further back in the queue than I normally like, I go and pull 57 out, it's the corner peg on lodge that is normally used for wheelchair anglers, it's about as far as you can get from the good pegs as is possible, it can throw up some.good weights from time.to time , but recently it has shown no form whatsoever,

I set a wag for pellet at depth towards the aerator, a couple of pellet rigs for out in front at 16 mtrs and slightly to the right under an overhanging branch, that one would do for 5 mtrs as it was the same.depth, and a small float for pellet over by empty peg 58, which can be good for a few especially towards the end of the match, to my left I had Tom mangnal lookalike and reserve for the day in the shape of Dan white, and around the corner on my right was Mark Jones from across the water in the valleys.
I began straight out at 16 mtrs on banded pellet , whereas most around me began on the short line, I had to wait a while for my.first bite which resulted in a 8oz skimmer, then nothing, so I dropped back into the short line, it was only a short wait until I was attached to a decent carp, it was well under control, when the line went slack and it was gone, I thought it had just come off, but the line had been broken well above the hooklength, so I can only assume it had gone around and underwater snag, probably a branch, so a new rig was out on and I dropped it in, not expecting to get a bite,  it I did, and I  play this one a bit more forcibly, and soon a nice 10lb common was safely netted.

That was my.only.fish from there , in fact it was a really hard match for most on this lake, only.the top corner pegs 64 and 66 seemed.to catching (and losing), as my.match went along , I had one on the wag, losing three , two seemed to be fouled I couldn't tell about the other as it tied me around something hanging from the aerator rope out in front, I did get one carp out in front and another to the right by the branch in the water, and as I half expected two more from in front of pallet 58, and I had one come off at the net from there aswell.

I had a few skimmers aswell but only 5lb of them, others in my section had double figures of them, I don't think they wanted to come into my corner today, I reckoned on having 50lb and wasn't to far out with 52lb, one lost fish cost me second in the section and two more and I would have won the section. Kieran bakey won the section from 55 with 65lb with Dan coming second with 60lb, third in the section although not good , it's not as bad as it could have been, some very good anglers have blown out today,
Top  weight on the day with 245lb was part time angler Lee pesticcio (p.nut) on peg 78, casting his lead.around the peg, which suites his style, (or lack) of casting prowess lol, good to see , well.done lee.

The overall weights looks very good, but some.anglers really struggled with at least three not even bothering the scales, weigh sheets below ,

Huntstrete on. Bridge pool

Back for my fortnightly visit to huntstrete, bacon and egg sarnie from my local cafe and a 15 minute drive to the fishery, can't be bad.
Only 17 or 18 fishing today, so plenty of room, Mr Gillard allowed me to sort the pegs out today, so I put peg 1 in today, much to the dismay of several anglers.
and guess who drew it, he ha  me, a few said it served me right for putting it in, but I fancied it as it was at the end of the lake with plenty of room, and it was a short walk from the van.

As I said it's an end peg with an aerater at 14 mtrs secured in place with a scaffold tube , which could prove to be a bit torrid if I wasn't quick enough.

First job put the nets out  to dry, and I must say I've had the nets for over two years now, and had no issues, no holes and no broken rings, 2.5mtr mosella space savers, best out there I reckon, certainly standing the test of time for me.

The pegs a bit unknown for matches as it's not often in, but it's been pleasure fished a few time  recently and it's fished ok for skimmers, so I set up a soft pellet rig for 13 mtrs, and a caster.rig for 4 mtrs(never used), a margin rig for pellet along the right hand edge, another pellet rig for on the deck just past the scaffold tube, (not a bite on that), and lastly a mugging rig as there were odd fish up and sunbathing. The  whistle went and I cupped some micros and groundbait at 13 mtrs,
and Cupped some pellets along the margin aswell, went out on the soft pellet and had as one small fish and one skimmer of about a pound, but I could see some clouding down the edge and I couldn't resist it, first  put in a 4lb mirror, good start, next drop and I'm attached to an angry ten pound common, which very nearly got under the aerator, then nothing so back out  on the soft pellet for a couple of better skimmers and a small tench, then after resting the margin it was back in for  a couple of f1,s, there were a few fish cruising about but I couldnt tempt one, so it was a case of catching odd skimmers then going down the edge for an f1 or small carp, then about halfway through something changed as I mugged a good fish, then the last  half of the match went well with going from the fish showing no interest to them having a go as long as I could get a pellet on there nose, and they were good fish , no f1,s or small stockies, looking down the lake and listening to the comments , it was proving a hard day, with few.fish being caught, Mike nicholls on peg 11 was doing ok,  I could see he was getting nearly all f1,s, by the end I new I had over 100lb, and was  confident it was going to be more than enough to win today, in fact I had 115lb, with Mike coming second with 38lb, and steve.Dawson was third with 34lb , mainly.skimmers, but it was hard.for.most.

 weigh sheets below

Shiplate farm, West pool

Couldn't get into the match on the main today so I organised a knockup on the West pool, ended up with ten fishing, so not to bad, breakfast on the way in lillypool, and I got to say it was very nice, 4.6 on the rixster scale.
Got to the fishery and got out draw sorted before the other match,mat culpin drew for me and handed me 14 , second longest walk in the fishery, the longest walk was taken by Dave wride (15), I drew for mat and handed him 12, so we were next I each other as 12 wasn't in today, the other side of mat was John page on 11, so I was next to Weston super mares most deadly duo,😂😂😂.
First job was to go around to the far side and clear a couple of spots to fish against.

I should have bought my shears round cos that spiky grass is a bit rough to be pulling at.

I set up a pellet rig for the far side, a shallow pellet rig for half depth against the far side of possibly mugging , as there were a few fish on the top , even though it was bitterly cold, then a rig for pellet just down the far shelf, and lastly a meat rig for by the aerator and to my right just in front of a reed bed.
At the start I began on the pellet rig down the far shelf, there seemed to be a few fish about as i had some liners and lost a couple of foulers before landing a carp of about 4lb,  it I was already behind mat And John as they had had a couple a piece,   but that was my.last fish from that line,
I went across to the far side, and again liners were the only indications, the fish were swimming through without stopping to feed. It was about now that I saw a tail next to my net to the right, so I went in with my shallow rig and I had a 6lb carp, just two feet from my net, I threw a few pellets in and went back across, 15 minutes later after having had a fish from across there was another next to my net, I went in and had that one aswell,  but that was to be my last from there,  odd fish showed down there during the match but I couldn't tempt another from there, I had odd fish across but it was hard for everyone, even the main lake was being hard, dave.wride to my left was.fishing his normal soft pellet.approach, and his peg for better as the match progressed, he was catching plenty of skimmers, nothing big but plenty of bites, as for the carp side of things , John page seemed.to be doing the best as far as I could see, I was a few.fish behind him , but in the last hour I had a few better fish on meat down to my right by the weedbed, I had though mat was in between us, but I wasn't to sure as there seemed to be a total lack of activity  from him. We ended at 4.30 and I don't think anyone's was complaining as it was the coldest I have been in weeks, dave.to my left was.First to weigh , his silvers went 20lb exactly, which was enough to take the silvers money, just edging out Mike nicholls by 4oz, my fish went 52 lb which was good enough for second.

As I expected John page won on the day with 64lb, I think John and me benefited from the two empty pegs between us, oh no sorry I forgot  mat was between us , I think,

Thanks for the quid mat , shame I had to pass it straight on to John LOL 😂

The weigh sheet is below as normal, it's fished a lot harder than expected, but we had a lot of cold rain during the night and the cold.wind got a lot stronger during the day , but the main lake was a lot harder with 38lb winning overall.

When I went around to clear my.peg out , I stopped for a quick chat with (our) Mark Thomas who I haven't seen for a while, I thought he had sold his match tackle, the only rods he has got now are 5 lead rods, so I told him it pays to fish to your strengths then wandered back to my peg.

"our Mark"