Burnham on sea

Me and Judith fancied a go at a bit of beach fishing, so with Burnham on sea fishing well over low water we.decided on a go on Monday evening after work, but bad news was that the fish seemed to have disappeared from the venue over the weekend so Steve ace advised us not to bother, but we thought we would give it a go anyway, low water.was.at.About 9.30 so we got there about 7ish following the water out, the mud wasn't to bad, in fact as the water receded the ground got harder, doesn't take to long to get rigged up and cast out, so the trap was set, Judith looking comfy and waiting

, we don't tend to catch anything when we go beach fishing so expectations weren't to high, but the surroundings were good, with lovely backdrop.

It took about 1 1/2 hours to get a bite , and that was on Judith,s  rod, it looked like a decent fish but halfway in it came off, gutted for her, I rebaited her rod and it was soon out in the muddy water, hopefully for another bite, but ten minutes later my rod went off, and I soon had a nice bass on the beach, of about 3 1/2 pounds, I did try and release it but I couldn't get it to go,

 so that was tea sorted for Tuesday night then, and very nice it was too, even with the hind end of binks the lurcher  in the background.

It was an enjoyable evening and we will be doing it again soon, and with a few early codling showing up it may be sooner rather than later.

Float only.final match

First of all a massive thanks to steve.Evans , who without his help it may end up a bit of a shambles lol, and thanks for the support from the anglers taking part, also the standins  who help out when spaces become available, filling empty pegs, empty pegs in a series never help, so basically thanks to all, including the fisheries for giving us some excellent sport this year, a!though some venues had some difficult areas sort on the whole was good, and apart from that hard areas can change a league massively, don't moan , just get on with it,
Had Judith for company today so we stopped off in the brewers fayre in street/Glastonbury, very nice aswell so good Judith went up for seconds, so a 4.8 from us.
Got to the fishery and an easy day today looks had been paid so it was just a case of getting the draw underway, trig drew for me and handed me 94, the same peg as the first match, I won the section off it then and to be honest was confident of doing the same as the section ran from 86 round to 95, I caught well that time fishing the wag to the end bank in about 18 inches of water with pellet, so the acolyte was out and assembled , as for the pole, a depth rig and a shallow rig for 14 mtrs, for company I had tony thick (long suffering dad of tom) on 95 and John fuidge opposite on 90.
I started on the pole at 14mtrs with pellet on the deck, it was slow, no fizzing which is unusual on here , the fish seem to like blowing bubbles on here, so it was a bit concerning to have nothing,

 it took me an hour to catch a carp, by which time Adrian Jeffery(the oldest swinger in town) on 88 had had a couple on the wag out in front, then I had a few.foulers which owing to the size of the fish in here was always a loser for me, Adrian managed.a.couple.shallow, I tried but never had a bite, I tried a few times during the match,  it couldn't catch on it. I was now behind, and I needed a section win to stay where I was going into this match, 3rd overall or possibly 2nd,
I had been feeding the end bank and there appeared to be a few fish there, so into the wag, I soon had a fish but overhanging branches were a bit of a problem, I did clear it out before, just not good enough, I did have to go round on a few occasions to cut a branch off and wind it in.

Judith reckoned I had to give her a quid everyone I hooked a tree, and according to her I owed her 7 pounds by the end, I didn't have the heart to tell her she must have missed a few 😂.
I must say the 12 foot acolyte carp.waggler rod is an exceptional piece of kit, I have been it further than I dare to say but it comes with it all, I've been and bought a second one I'm that impressed.

I had a few from there but I felt I was always a fish or two behind adrian, plus I had a couple of the smaller stockies, so the needed section win slipped away, also Tony thick did well with corn on the wag taking 38 lb of silvers and three carp, he weighed first and had 75,12 , my fish went 75,11, doh, Adrian won the section with 91lb, so another two fish and I would have had him, lol.
the weigh sheets below as normal , also the daily winners sheet, and more importantly the league winners at the end of the series, well done to Neil Mercer on the series win, it's been a while coming but at least he has made his years of drawing flyers finally pay of, ha ha, seriously well done trig, sorry niel, second was trig also well done to him, ever consistent, it was a tight finish and if I had won the section I would have been second, it was that close, instead I was 6th and last in the money.

Well done Glen on the win today off peg 85 , all on paste I suspect, or a derivative,  and well done Tony thick on winning the silvers with his 38lb.

Off to bullocks farm next weekend for the first round of mat Culpin,s snake lake series, should be interesting I havnt been here for maybe 15 years.

Thursday costcutter at Shiplate farm

Back to this popular fishery , and after the normal Thursday bacon butty stop in whitchurch at debs cafe I got to the fishery to find 21 fishing, so a few more than normal.
Had plenty of time for a chat before the draw , good to see Dave wride back and Mark poppleton had also made the journey from devizes to fish, along with all the usual locals and regulars.
I was first into the draw bucket hoping for 1/2/ 3, but wasn't to disappointed to see number 14 on my ticket, this is as close as I have ever been to the fabled peg 14, but I had mr poppleton on 14b and I couldn't see him letting to many fish through and I had ash Saunders to my right on 13a, and the man with the golden arm John "turkey" Thompson was over on peg 1 (best peg in somerset), so I had a grandstand view of him.

I set up four rigs today, a shallow and deep rig for 14 mtrs to fish banded 8,s over 6,s, a margin rig for pellet again, and a corn rig for skimmers at 5 mtrs, where it was virtually the same depth as the long lines,
At the start I began on the short skimmer line after feeding all other lines, I had a short wait before I had a skimmer, but it didn't look to be going anywhere on that line, and with plenty to fizzing on the long line I was soon shipping out the depth rig, and after a short wait I was shipping back in with a carp on, happy days. Mark had pinned all his faith in shallow fishing and dropping a method over the same line, ash had begun on a silvers approach but he was struggling.
Next fish was a skimmer, then another carp, then liners so out with the shallow rig, Mark was having a mare losing a few, mainly foulers possibly, but who knows, most of them looked to be booked correctly looking as to how the elastic was behaving. I was doing ok getting a few shallow, and as far as I could tell, no one was doing to well, even John on peg 1 was quiet, I then had a bit of a bonus on the shallow rig in the shape of a nice grass carp which went 13.12, very useful.

With a couple of hours to go Turkey over on peg 1 began to catch down his margin, and for a while it was entertaining, with the hooked fish doing there best to go round into the bay to his right, some were successful and escaped others John managed to get back, he only lost one lot of elastics, a few hooklengths and one snapped top kit, it is a brutal peg,  I ended up on the depth rig catching right up to the end only odd carp but enough to keep me in the running, with the biggest threat seemingly John on peg 1, Mark to my left had a bad day with lots of lost fish, another day they will all stick but that's fishing.
I was third to weigh and was happy to to put 168lb on the board, and I did think I may have about 160 according to the clicker.

And I was still winning all the way round with the only threat being John on peg 1 but he fell a bit short with 130+. So that's three wins in my last three visits to this nice fishery, looking forward to going back in a fortnight as it's on the side canals.
Silver,s today eventually went to Mike Jones with 29lb, it's been a while coming Mike so well done, 😂.

Weigh sheets below as normal, but I'm not even going to mention I beat Mark by over 100lb as I'm sure it will come back and bite me on the ass at some stage, LOL 😂.

Ivy house

Hadn't been here for a while, so me and Chris fox headed up the m4 towards Swindon and the fishery, got to the fishery at about 8, ordered the breakfast and say down for a chat with Alan oram and Mike etheridge, it took a while for the food to arrive, but it was worth the wait especially when we got the correct amount on the plates LOL 4.6.
Into he draw tin early and out comes.43, a good swim with silvers and carp form, only 14mtrs wide so quite easy ,
I set up a margin rig, a far bank pellet rig to fish as right to the farside weed as possible, a shallow rig and a silvers.rig for caster short and soft pellet down the middle.

I started.the match on topset and 1 feeding caster quite heavily, hoping for some skimmers, but 30 minutes in and I had one 8oz skimmer and a roach, not the start I expected, so I went into the mid lake soft pellet line, and that was no good either, to my left baggy was having a bit of success on paste , and to his left Chris telling was putting some carp in his net, fishing right across.
I binned the soft pellet line and began feeding hard 4,a into that line, and it did trigger a bit of fizzing, while I left that to settle I went across on banded pellet, I had a small carp quite quickly, but I was going nowhere fast, in fact when Andy wandered up after.a couple of hours I only.had two small carp and a pair of plippy roach and my lonesome skimmer, there were fish across,  it as I fed with the carry they were not really coming off the weed line, I asked Andy if I could have gone round  and cleared the far bank, and he said I could of, I was tempted.to go round and do it now,  it with people fishing the far side I didn't think it would be fair, but I was fishing in three foot of water which was to deep, as the fish were coming up, but due to the weed bits under water  the rig wouldn't sit right, first mistake, second mistake.was.to continue with the catapult, I should have started.potting as I think the fish would have stayed down, but you never know, I did get a few shallow, but the best rig was a full depth rig but fished lightly shouted and catching on the drop, I also had a few on hard pellet down the middle, including my best three fish , 4 to 5lb, but most other fish were small 1 to 2lb, plenty of indications in the last half of the match,   I was always trying to catch up but although I felt I was doing as well as the anglers to my left the slow start was going to cost me, by the end I thought I had at least 40lb, but to my left had caught more, to my right it had been even harder, elick won on the end peg with over 70lb, Chris had 60+ and baggy had 58., It was.enjoyable but a couple of stupid mistakes have cost me.a few fish,  it probably not enough ,
got to say Andy and Karen are doing a lovely job at the fishery it's looking really good, and the fish are in excellent condition, weigh sheet below.

Huntstrete coffin dodgers

Thursday morning and it was on the bacon butty run before driving to the dave crookes fishery at huntstrete, for there and we ended up with 21 fishing, so not to bad, I had a quick walk round with Mike Nicholls before the draw, and we both fancied a peg towards the car park end of the lake, I did mention that I would like 21 as I've never drawn it, but as long as I avoided any peg past the second island I would be confident of having a day's fishing, I think the westerly winds have pushed virtually all the fish to the near end of the lake, captain Ken got the draw underway on time, and I was fairly early into the draw bag of doom, and out comes peg 1, you couldn't get further away from the fish 😂. Mike nicholls won off this peg a fortnight ago, but with no wind on the water, which was going to make for a comfortable day as it was blowing a hooly towards the other end, but the fish had gone with it, so my best chance would be to target the residents which live under the weeds on the end bank.

I did think I may get a few silvers early doors so I set up a rig for skimmers on a topset and 2 to fish caster over a bit of groundbait, a rig for hard pellet at 14 mtrs slightly to the left, a margin rig for the left hand side, (no bites on that), another to my right against the weeds,(tackle graveyard)at 9mtrs.
At the all in I fed all lines with the various baits I was going to use, started on the short caster line, 20 minutes and no bites, so I put on a maggot, result 2 inch perch, after a few of those it was back out with a caster, towards the end of the first hour just as I was beginning to think I was wasting my time, when I had a small run of half tidy skimmers, 4 to be precise, and a couple of small tench, that was the end of my short line, the few times I tried it resulted in plippy roach, the visiting skimmer shoal never returned. I tried the long pellet line and had two bites, an f1and a 2lb common, that was it for that line aswell, into the right hand margin , I was soon attached to a carp which won the battle of the reeds, next bite came from a ferry nice looking f1 cross, definitely a bit of goldfish in this one.

I followed this one with couple of small carp, but again apart from a couple of liners that line dried, out of desperation I plumbed up at 16 mtrs fishing over the top of the aerater, which was the only part of the peg which seemed to show any signs of life, but that was only  occasional life, I did manage two better carp from this line and lost three, definitely not fishing for the faint hearted, at the end I thought I had about 20lb, not to far out 23.12, as expected all the weights came from the car park end with nothing of note being caught past the second island, the three anglers to my left never weighed and the corresponding pegs opposite also had nothing of any consequence, Mike nicholls won off 21 with 90lb, making it three on the trot, he certainly seems to have the venue taped at the moment, and he never goes further that topset and and one, (normally), I think John Smith on 28 was second with Steve Dawson on 16 third, silvers again went to Paul barnfield on peg 26 with 17lb, off to ivy house this weekend for the open, it's on the canals and I'm looking forward to it,

Short pole series last match

Back to the prolific tobder manor fishery today, 24 of us on hillview , so not to many empty pegs, travelled with Judith today,still no Jason as he is still away on his sabatical. Stopped off at cannards well for breakfast, and not as.good as normal as they have changed the  sausages.to some cheap crappy ones, a decent sausage makes a breakfast, so only a 3.99, I hope they read this and upgrade the sausage.
Got to the fishery with plenty of time, so a chat with Mr candy which is always a laugh and informative,
Steve.and me got. The draw underway on time , I needed a good peg as I was winning the league by one point, over several anglers, with Dean malin leading the charge on a greater weight than the rest of the pack, John Darby popped up in the queue so I asked him to draw for me , and he did good for me, 48, nice . Possibly the second best peg in the southwest behind peg 1 on Shiplate main lake, 😂😂😂.
It's a flyer on the end of the spit on the left hand side, a good right hand margin and plenty of open water in front, but as it's a short pole league(topset and three), the open water was not going to be used, I had joe McMahon to my left on 47, so I have him a chance to get his quid back from last week.
only two rigs out up today, a 4x12 for in front at.topset and one, and a margin rig to my right, plumbing up out in front was not promising as the peg got steadily deeper as I went to my left, the right hand margin was quite shallow but the fish don't mind the shallows, the biggest problem today was going to be the wind as it was blowing right to left and slightly into us on this bank, blowing the rig through, so foulers were going to make it difficult.
on the all in I began out in front and we were all soon catching fish, and it became apparent that it was going to be a bit of a fish race, with most of the fish being 1 1\2 to 3lb with the occasional fish to 6lb, early doors I was ahead of joe, but I had made a mistake by not making a heavier rig up, Joe had begun on the 4x12 but switched to a 4x14 which was a lot better for him, I persevered with the lighter rig which was to light in the conditions, although I was slipping behind joe, it was never to far so I stuck with it(to lazy to change).

It's bad enough being beaten by a school leaver , but when your wife starts ripping into you aswell, it begins to hurt 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂.
Looking around when I had chance, as it doesn't pay to stop to much as it will cost you a fish or two which can be the difference, everywhere you looked there was a multitude of different colours of plastics stretching across the lake. About 2 hours to go I went down the edge where I had been watching fish for most of the match, second mistake.was.not to go down there earlier, I began catching quickly, and losing a few.aswell, it was hard not to foul hook a few as the fish were in such shallow water, also the sun went around making it hard to see the float with the ripple conspiring with the sun to make float spotting nearly impossible. But I was catching well enough, I needed to win my section to secure first place in the league, but with Joe having a few big fish late on I new second was more realistic, and to be fair even without his bigger late fish he would probably still have won the section, I had to rely on the rest in the chasing pack to finish second or worse in the sections, Dean was first to weigh on our scales and he put 240lb on the board, but Martin rayet pushed him down into second in section with 288lb,  the scales.Got round to our section, and as expected Joe won our section with 284lb ,I had 243lb, should have done better from the peg but it's still a good day.

So on the day Martin rayet won with 288, Joe had 284, Chris fox was third with 253, I had 243, Dean had 240, Mike nicholls, 232 and bela bakos made up 6th place with 221,
Top silvers weight went again to Ryan shipp off peg 45 with over 40, which is an excellent silvers weight in the conditions.

As for the quid with joe, he got his revenge this week and I had to hand back the nugget I had off him last week.

Young Freddie wojtyla was pegged behind me on peg 51 and had his best day ever with over 150lb, so well done fred, good to see, and also good to see Clint (dad) for giving him the time and encouragement to do well. Well done both, and they do have some entertaining spats on the bank.

A big thanks to Steve Evans who helps massively with the running of the league, it would probably be in a right mess of it was left solely to me, also thanks to everyone who fished as it's a good bunch and we do have a bit of a laugh which I think is important, people are losing track of the fact what we do is only a game really, don't take it to seriously.
Luckily I held on to first place by one point , so that was good then, weigh sheets and results below, and if my sums are correct, the average weight today was over 172lb between the 24 anglers, with virtually every peg in, that's massive,

What an exceptional fishery this is, John candy and his crew have and are doing a really good job ensuring that all aspects of this sport as far as coarse and speci fishing is catered for, be it carp and cats to good sizes or massive match weights , or if it's just a day's pleasure fishing you won't be dissapointed, well worth a visit, and not a bramble in sight anywhere near the water 👍

Two matches, two days

I was meant to be fishing with a customer on Wednesday but he had a bit of a wobble and ended up in hospital,  he's ok so that's good, so I booked into Todber for the Wednesday open, travelled on my own and had a breakfast in the riverside cafe just outside Gillingham, it was nice but a bit expensive, 4.25 , cannards for me in future. Got to the venue and found over 20 fishing so we were spread over hillview and ash, I fancied a peg on hillview, and wasn't to disappointed when I saw 53 on my ticket, a  ice corner peg on the right hand side of the spit.

I does look good with good margins either side, and at the moment the margins are the place to fish.

It's the last round of the short pole match on Sunday on this lake , so I was only.ever.going to fish close, so a drug for our in front at.topset and two, a shallow rig just in case , and a rig for.the margins each side.

I was only going to fish pellet , 8,s over 6,s in front and again 8,s over 4,s in each margin. 

At the start I began out in front, had a few , lost more, foulers, I persevered with it, and it did improve with less fouling , so I stuck with it hoping the margins would come good, our side of the lake seemed to be fishing harder then the other half, but I started to get some in the margins in the last couple of hours , and as the match drew to an end I couldn't get I quick enough, on the all I thought I had at least 170 which was ok this half of the lake, but with a few other anglers admitting to over 200lb, the best I could hope for would be a section win, and that's how it panned out , my nets went 190lb, which was only good enough for 6th on the day,

 Vince Brown on peg 48 came.out on top with over 230lb, catching short in front at the start , then work or maggot over groundbait down the edge.

Weigh sheets below

 Onto Thursday and I was off to Shiplate farm for the Thursday costcutter. I got into the draw bucket first and out comes the best peg in Somerset, peg 1, lol, of what I could see the majority of the anglers.today were going to be targeting the skimmers and bream , if which the lake holds a good amount of, peg one is a lovely peg which has everything, and island of you want it , open water , a lovely margin to the right and a bag to the right which holds lots of fish.

So I set up a rig for on the deck out in front at 14 mtrs, another for on the deck to the right in the entrance to the bay, a shallow rig and a margin rig, again just peeled on the side tray, 4,s for the margins and 6,s for the long lines, not to much to right about to be honest, I've had a simple.match, began on the deck and had a couple of carp, then liners , so out shallow and started.to get some.carp, then went down into the 3mtr to the bay and had a similar response, a couple on the deck, then liners , so out shallow and kept catching , I can't fault the tourney pro x pole, I've had it bent in frightening angles.today as fish tried to get back into the bay, not to many poles on the market.you can do that with. I've had him Thomas sat with the me for most of the match, and we've had a good day chatting and having a laugh. At the end I had 235 on the clicker but I was aware.I had over.clicked just to be safe, I was last.to weigh and was.happy to have caught 222lb, John andres.on 11 had 168lb for.second, silvers went to Gary flinders on peg 12a with over 75lb of skimmers on corn, got a picture of Shiplate steve holding the weigh sheet in his shed.

And a.readable weigh sheet is below as normal.and below that , todays.entertainment comes.from Claude Jacobs who had his top 4 pulled off half an hour from the end, but he managed.to retrieve it only to snap his topkit whilst playing the carp ,  but  Fairplay he got it back, even though it had covered the whole lake in that 30 minutes.

So two good days on two good venues and over 400lb of fish aswell, can't be bad, roll on sunday.

Penultimate short pole series match

Back to Chilton trinity for this match, on woodland lake, but with no wind forecast it was likely to be a bit of a trial, I travelled down with my old mate Dean malin today which is always a laugh and we do have some very interesting conversations, I won't say I am particularly pc, but Dean can be a lot worse 😂 but most of what he says is fairly accurate,  but most of us won't say it.
So after a nice breakfast at lillypool (4.75), and a journey putting the world to right we got to the fishery to be met by misha who soon had the kettle on.
24 fish this league and we soon had the full amount of anglers in attendance, I had to find four reserves which I managed, so thanks to those who stepped in.
I let Steve seager draw for me, and more than happy with peg 6, it's the first peg on the far bank, and a flyer, lots of green algae on the surface.today, and the slight breeze had blown it all down into my corner, green algae is ok for the fish, with the brown stuff being not so favourable,

For company I had Vince shipp on the end bank on 3, and now McMahon to my left on 7, and he insisted on a quid side bet.opposite I had Mike nicholls on 32, who borrowed my shears to clear his margins, and a good job he did, I bet he doesn't work this hard on his own garden.

This being a short pole match we are a bit limited as to what we can do, it's a topset and three only, so a margin rig which would do both margins, a rig for full depth at the max length, a shallow rig for over the same.line, and a rig for.topset and one, which is about halfway up the shelf straight in front, but I didn't give that line to much attention, so I wont say any more about that line.
I started shallow as there were some fish moving sbout, but after 40 minutes I had had two bites and one carp to show for my efforts, it looked to be the same for everyone, most were struggling, so I went out on the deep rig, and hooked a fish trailing a rig, landed that one,  bonus. There was a bit of activity in the left hand margin, so dropped in on that and had a carp quite quickly, then back out on the deep rig, and I hooked a big fish in the wing, a bit of a tussle but it was safely netted, much to Joe's disgust, it was a nice fish though.all of about 14lb.

The lake was being a tough but to crack today, no one seemed to be running away with it today, so I kept switching between the two margins and the 6mtr line, nicking the occasional fish from the three lines, I had 91lb on the clicker y the end which I thought was good in the section, but Ryan shipp on peg 9 had been catching lots of silvers and had 8 carp to go with them, so it was close between us, Glen Bailey seemed to have done the best on the far bank, and looked to have well over 100lb, Tom and misha were kind enough to do the weigh in, and soon for to me, and my two carp nets and lonesome perch actually went 102lb,

but as I thought it was close with Ryan as he had 103lb, it he wiped top in the silvers weights today with 37lb of mainly skimmers, mainly caught in while worm baits.

Glen Bailey was top weight today with over 120lb from peg 23 on his favourite paste book bait, sorry no pic as he was on the far bank, as I said it was difficult today, probably due to the lack of wind and changing air pressures, I don't have a clue really 😂. Weigh sheets below as normal, last round of this league is at Todber manor on hillview lake, so that should be plenty of bites for all,  it you never can tell.

Oh yes and I nearly forgot i won a quid off of young Joe McMahon who did a really good impression of a chip shop sausage, 😂.

Huntstrete, over 55,s

Before going to the fishery I stopped in a different cafe to get a sandwich, I won't go back , there is no need to make sarnies out of asda,s 50pence bread, and they forgot the sauce 😠 , so back to belland drive next time and not easy dundry, poppies gets a 2.
Got to the fishery and there were 23 fishing, a couple less would make for easy pegging but you can't turn people away.
Got into the draw bag and found 29 looking back at me from the disc, no island today, a good winter silvers peg, but it's been no good for anything this summer, for company I had Paul's either side, barnfield to my right and haines to my left, generally an island in front is a massive advantage, be it for silvers or carp.
I decided on a mainly silvers approach, which seemed my best option for a bit of a return on my pools, so I set up a caster rig for 6 mtrs, another for shallow over the same line and in the margin to my left, lastly a rig to fish banded 6mm pellet over hard 4,s.
At the start I began on the short line with caster over a bit of groundbait, and had bites straight away, small skimmers and odd fish to 10oz, it lasted about an hour before it petered out, and all had off the line during the rest of the match was a couple of small tench, I had a few roach and small perch from the inside, plus a few f1,s, and the long pole line was a bit of a waiting game, although there was some fizzing, it was difficult to get a bite, it when I did it was a decent fish, occasional skimmers to 2lb plus a couple of small carp and f1,s, Barney to my right had a good match catching skimmers and later some carp off the same line, so well done to him, as for carp it ended up being a two peg battle between John Smith on 10 and Mike nicholls on unfancied peg 1, Mike came out on top with 69lb despite losing 14 carp, john(cliff)Smith ended up with 63lb,

Not to sure about that picture, they looked far to comfortable LOL, 😱
Silver,s went to Barney as it always seems to with 24lb.

My silvers went 17 which was good enough in the silvers pool for second, so I did get a bit of a return, weigh sheets below.