Mat Culpin,s snake lake series

Landsend for the penultimate round of this series, and it's my favourite venue so looking forward to it, had a change for breakfast today and went to the Wessex flyer in hengrove , which is a brewer's fayre restaurant, not the cheapest to be fair, but it was nice, 4.65, eat as much as you like with cereals juices, cakes and a full english, all good.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time, and a full house again, fair play to mat, as it's always a headache making sure all the pegs are full.
First into the draw bucket and out pops peg 9, not a peg I would have chosen as it's one of the shallowest, but I quite like shallow water at this venue as the temps start to drop. It looks good with a few options. Oh yes and it was the golden peg aswell.

there is a nice bit of shallow water slightly to the left against the island , but at only about 8inches deep I wasn't sure the fish would want to be in such shallow water.

And just to the right across on the island there were some reeds which came out far enough to give me full depth against them.

I set up a meat rig for against the reeds, and the same rig would do for the short meat line, a pellet rig for the right hand margin towards the empty pallet, and lastly a pellet rig for about a mtr off the island in about 15 inches of water, hopefully the fish would be happy in that depth., Bait tray was a simple affair today, some hard 4,a for feeding, some 6,s and 8,s for the band, and some 8mm meat, no confusion there then.
At the start I fed a couple of spots over towards the reeds with meat, some pellets towards the island, and some down the edge.
I began over by the reeds and had a few fish in the first hour, I had a quick look on the short meat line , I had a liner but that was all, so back to the reeds on meat for a couple more, but it didn't last , so across on the pellet line, I had two fish in the first two drops, I was feeding with a catty, and I started to see odd fish right up in the shallow water, so I shallowed up a bit more and pushed the rig further up the shelf, I had a couple of fish again, but the rig wasn't right, so I got off the box and made one up, which was better, and the catch rate increased for a while, I had a look in the margin and had a fish but that was my only bite from there. I did catch some more by the reeds in the last hour, I also had three fish in the last hour on the short meat line, the shallow swim went very iffy towards the end, the fish would be there when you fed, but they wouldn't stay there with the pole over there heads, some colour seemed to have dropped out during the match, my last fish from the island was a nice double figure ghostie, which I had seen several times in the swim but not caught till now, and it certainly pulled hard, which isn't surprising when you see the size of its tail.

At the end I had 110lb on the clicker, I new I had won the section, but several people were admitting to 100lb+,
I wasn't to far out as I weighed just over 123lb, which was enough for the win and the added bonus of the golden peg money aswell, jubbly. Lee(honest I've only got 70lb) Williams was second with 111lb from peg 21.
Weigh sheets below,

It fished ok today considering the drop in temps and all the rain we have had, so back for the last round in a fortnight, may be a bit different by then , especially if it gets much colder.
Just be quickie to end, kev molten give me a ring in veals or on my mobile, just a catch up as we havnt spoken for a while.

Huntstrete coffin dodgers

I was back to bridge today following bramblegate over a month ago, I still maintain brambles have no place in a lake, they are about as useful as wasps and snow.
A good turnout today with 23 fishing, so pegging would be hard, with a few pegs going in that would not normally be used, I really wanted an island swim, as they are good for carp and f1,s aswell as skimmers which seem to enjoy living in the channels between them.
I got into the draw bag early on, and out comes 19, it's in the left hand corner on the car park bank, no island but a bit of room,

There is an island in front, but it's probably 25mtrs away, a lead of wag would get there , but it would mean casting beyond the peramiters of my swim, and as we weren't at viaduct I probably wouldn't get away with it (lol).
I decided on a silvers approach in the main today as it's got more form for those than carp, although there is a nice looking right hand margin, so I set up a rig for hard pellet down to the bush there, there is a reedy bay to the left but for some reason there is a rope across it, and something the club lovingly call a fish refuge, basically it's an underwater dinner table which the fish can rush under when a cormorant lands,  hmmm, don't think so. There is one in the right hand swim in this bank and it does cause major problems with carp going around and under it, the ropes are ok but underwater structures are a pain.
I set up two divers rigs, a .5g rig for caster and soft pellet, it was the same depth at topset and two as it was at 13 mtrs at 11and 1o'clock, and a .6g for worm and caster straight out where it was a few inches deeper, a 16 guru maggot hook on that one, and a 18 in the same pattern for the caster/maggot/soft pellet rig.
At t the start I cupped in one ball with a bit of worm and caster on the short line, and three balls straight out with the same contents, then on the two angled lines just some groundbait with some soaked micros,
The water was very clear and I could see the bottom of my nets , I started short but as I half expected very few bites , only a handful of small roach and perch, so 45 mins in and I was expecting to catch over the straight out line on a life of worm, but only a small perch there, so if the right with soft pellet, at last a skimmer, so on with the maggot and an f1, but no more bites, so over to left with maggot, the float settled and went straight under, a small carp of about two pounds was soon netted, and I went on to catch a couple more small carp and f1,s before bites stopped, over to the right and another f1, then nothing , so refed and went to the left, another couple of f1,s and again nothing, so again refed, and went right, and that was the pattern for the match, swapping between the two angled swims nicking an f1 or two off each, I had one skimmer over the worm line. Also the margin was hard, I had an f1 and a 5lb carp late on, in the main the lake fished quite hard but it was fair, I thought I had about 30lb, but several anglers were admitting to about the same, so it was going to be close,
My fish went 36.5

which was just enough to beat Harry Muir on his favourite (and everyone elses) peg number 11 by a few ounces.
Silver,s went to organiser Ken on peg 24 with 16lb+, well done.

Weigh sheets below, not a massive weight match, but enjoyable for those who caught a few, unfortunately with the numbers today some swims were out in today which aren't normally out in,

Burnham lower light

With small tides now, Steve ace said it would be a good one for lower light at Burnham on sea, so try and get there for 7 and fish the first 3 hours of the flood, which Steve reckons to be the best, so straight in from work, change and out the door with judith, we stopped off at the local burger joint for a large portion of cheesy chips and we were away. Got to Allendale drive and tackled up by the van as it's a bit to torrid assembling kit in the mud, and take as little kit as we could get away with, is was planning to walk up as far as the lighthouse, but there were already a few other anglers there, so we dropped in a couple of hundred yards short of that, soon had us baited up with rag and lug cocktails, and launched both baits out into the mirror flat sea.

15 minutes in and I decided to change the baits, so while doing Judith , my tip started dancing about, woohoo first blood to me, only small at about a pound but anything for us off the beach is a bonus, Judith holding it up for me .

Bragging rights with me at the mo then, but I should have known it wouldn't last, Judith got in on that just after that with a better eel of about 3lb,

Next chuck out it didn't take to long for her to get another, this time a smaller one of about 2lb, but to be fair it fought much harder than the previous one, so I was expecting a larger one as I waited on the water line .

I was changing the fairs and fully expected to catch more myself but it wasn't to be, Judith had a cocking which is a first for her, so that puts her even further in front in our species contest, I think I'm about 5 behind at the mo.

Then to cap it off she gets a small whiting to finish the evening off, not a first for her luckily.

So it was a good short spell by our standards as we normally catch nothing off the beach, and we never missed a bite,
With the wind blowing down the beach from the right , we could hear the other anglers to our right talking , and they were catching aswell,  conger and a ray  was beached, on yes and someone had a doggy, so there seem to be plenty of fish about, and the estuary further up seems to be really good with plenty of cooking showing, a good time to get out methinks, as for my evening , the pheromones did me again, I think if any bait company out there can bottle female pheromones as an additive they will be on a sure fire winner.

Viaduct silvers league round 2

Travelled with Chris fox again today , so we stopped off in the Toby inn carvery in whitchurch for breakfast, and the wives joined us, so that was good, the food was nice but the service left a bit to be desired.
Still got to the fishery with time to spare,
Somehow managed to end up near the front of the queue, into the run of doom and out comes 70 on lodge lake, happy with that as it is on the car park side of the rope, a peg with a lot of form for skimmers, for company I had Nick chedzoy to my right on 71, and Lloyd romain on my left the other side of the rope on 69.

I was going for a mainly skimmer attack, but I did set up a wag to fish banded 6mm hard over loose fed 4,s, but not to much to say about that, I did try it a couple of times but only hooked  a couple of carp.
Two pole rigs only, a .3 g with spread shot and another the same size but double bulked, the lighter rig would do for the inside aswell,
At the start I chopped a few worms to put into the groundbait, and on the whistle I cupped in one ball on the Top set and two line, three on the 13 mtr line, and 4 out at 14mtrs and slightly to the left, all with caster and worm in.
I started short and caught small ,(not plippy) roach from the off, to be fair it I probably put a few pounds in the net before the end of the first hour, but needing skimmers I was  soon out on the 13  mtr line, and the rest of my match was spent swapping between the two longer pole lines, worm on the book was. A waste of time, so I fish double or treble maggot, at the end I thought I may have 25lb, when the scales got to me Paul elmes on peg 68 was top on our section with 27lb+then it was my.turn to weigh, I had 26lb+, for second in the section again, top weight on the day was Richard aherne  with over 33lb,

Well done rich, the weigh sheet are below as normal .

Huntstrete main lake silvers match

This was the second match we were allowed to have, trying to remove some silvers to go into bridge, the last one was quite hard, and I didn't expect to much to change, and it didn't to be honest so this will be short and sweet.
But not before I mention Jeff Grant who managed to find a pair of non binary, gender fluid fishing boots, so we thought that today he would be identifying as an oompah loompah.

Mike nicholls got the draw underway and I pulled out disc 10, which today was going to be the end peg on the left hand bank, not right at the end probably about 4 or 5  pegs back up, at least I had about an acre of water to draw from. It looked nice but I feared the worst, Geoff Grant was on it last match and struggled for just over 3lb, but it looked nice.

Set up the same rigs with skimmers in mind, and was pleasantly surprised to find the same depth as the peg  I had last time, but that was a close as it got to the last match, it turned into a plippy roach match for most, but even they wouldn't settle,  probably due to the numbers of pike that were chasing them about, I should have changed things about and fished for them, but no I really felt the skimmers and bream may have a feeding window, but no, Leighton Palmer turned up for an hour, but after deciding he wasn't going to learn anything, so he shuffled off., As it turned out it was only Mike Nicholls who found a few on the tip, further up the lake, but he only weighed in 8lb+, and my meagre 3.14 scraped me into 5th, so I got £25 making it a free day, weigh sheet below as normal.

Mut calpins snake lake challenge

Back to Shiplate farm today for rnd 4 of mats inaugural snake lake league, and it's a been an enjoyable experience so far as it's being contested by a nice bunch of people, breakfast in the wooden spoon again in weston super mare,, 4.65.
And it was raining again, we had had a load overnight, plenty of massive puddles about and the lakes had come up by several inches, mut got the draw underway on time, and I was first into the hat, I had a proper victor meldrew moment, I DONT BELIEVE IT, peg 14 squircle for the second time, I had a third in section off it last time, and I couldn't see much changing today with Mark broomsgrove on peg 6 and Lewis Jones on 8, so the other 4 of us were on a damage limitation exercise,

Pretty much the same rigs as last time, a pellet rig to fish in several areas in the deepest water (3foot), a margin rig for each side , and the same rig would do for the island, and a short meat rig, I also had a pint of maggots with me just in case it was really hard.
at the start I fed about 6 pellet lines and the short meat line, beginning close to the island I soon had a goldfish , then another, and another, you need proper carp on this lake to stand any chance of doing well , and it soon became obvious the carp were off to the right of me , in pretty much the same area as last match, Mark on peg 6 was making the most of the 5 empty pegs to his left , catching steadily, mainly proper carp with a few goldies for good measure, to his right and with an empty peg between them, Lewis Jones was also getting in on the act, so as expected first and second in section was signed and sealed, back to my swim, my keepnet was beginning to look more like a pet shop aquarium with ever fish, I resigned myself to not being in better than third again in the section and got my head down for the small golden lovelies with the odd carp thrown in, even the carp I did have were about the same as the goldies weight wise, I was glad I had bought the maggots as they turned out to be the best bait, fished over hard 4,s, Mark won the section with 79lb , Lewis was second with 50+ and I ended up third again with 32lb,

 not a good result but not a total disaster, Landsend for the next two rounds, so hopefully I will do better there.
as a whole the lakes fished hard today, Bob gullick was too weight on the day with 114lb from peg 9 on Hawthorn, so well done to him.
league organiser mat drew.the fancied peg 15 on West pool but likely they didn't fancy casters today as I managed to win back my pound from last time.

Weigh sheets below as normal, this Thursday it's back to huntstrete on the main lake for another silvers match, then on Sunday it's back to viaduct for the silvers league,

Shiplate Thursday costcutter

Back to this lovely venue again, plenty of bites to be had here, whether it's carp or silvers, virtually guaranteed action, and no brambles.
Not to many here today ,only 14 today a few.down on previous weeks, but it just means more room for everyone,
I was first into the draw bucket , and blow me down if I didn't go and pull the second best peg in Somerset, 15 , a peg I have never drawn, so I was looking forward to it, the best peg in Somerset, peg 1 was occupied by fishery regular titch williams, so we could keep an eye on each other.

As it's an end peg I decided not to fish to long today, so it was 13 mtrs maximum. I set up a pellet rig to fish on the deck there, and a shallow rig just in case. A margin rig for down the left and a short meat rig. For company to my right was Paul faiers, who was going to fish for silvers as he had left his method rod at home,
I started off on the deck at 13 mtrs, and was soon on the end of fouler, which came off, in fact I lost 4 before I landed one, I've had it before where fouling can be a pain , but sometimes if you just keep plugging away all things come good, and today was The same , it wasn't busy but odd carp kept gracing the net, Fitch was also struggling, I never had  a fish shallow, the margin only gave me three smaller carp,  it the short meat line came good for the last 45 minutes, where I had three good carp and several more than useful skimmers, I thought I had beaten titch, but you can never tell as a few bigger fish can make the differnce, I was first to weigh and had 14lb of skimmers and 92lb of carp , and was too weight all round the lake , the only threat was titch and luckily I beat him by about 10lb, so those lake skimmers were more than welcome.

As normal the weigh sheet below,

Back to Shiplate again on Sunday for another round of mat Culpin,s snake lake ripoff, I hear he has already put his kit on peg 1 on Hawthorn LOL 😂.

Viaduct silvers league round 1

Travelled with Chris fox today, so we stopped in the Toby inn carvery in whitchurch for breakfast, ok 4.35.
Got to the fishery with 15 minutes to spare, so all good.
I managed to get near the front of the queue for the draw and opened up my ticket to see peg 130 on Campbell written on it, it's on the far side of Campbell, so at least the howling gale would be off my back,

I had some good company either side in the shape of Stu woods to my left on 129, and Dave romain to my right on 131, there was still a bit of colour in the water, so I set up a rig to fish caster at topset and one, then two rigs for 11 and 14 mtrs, one a positive double bulk rig with a 16 hook for worm or maggot, and the other a conventionally shotted rig with an 18 on the end , I decided to attack a bit today so I decided to put in 3 good balls at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14 mtrs , all with some chopped worm and caster in. At the start after feeding the two lines with the groundbait I started on the short line, I say there looking at a motionless float , whereas dave.and Stu both catching odd fish, 30 minutes in  and only two small roach to show for my efforts, so out on a piece of worm at 11 mtrs on the double bulk rig, no bites, so a switch to triple maggot, aaargh, carp on !!!!!, Next out a tidy skimmer, a few minutes later I had another, so I had clawed back some weight against the anglers each side. As the match progressed I was doing ok, I was ahead of Dave and stu, I was getting odd better skimmers on the 11 mtr line mainly,  but carp were being a right pain, I landed a few and lost several, dave.to my right was hooking carp on all lines as was Stu on my left, and poor old gabe skarba the other side of the spit on 128 was .losing them just for fun, snapping his wag rod in the process, , all was.going well till the last hour, when Mr romain stopped booking carp on his short line and was getting tidy skimmers instead, I thought it was close going into the last few minutes, when we both booked a skimmer with about 1 minute to go, mine jumped 4 times.and fell off, whereas dave duly netted his, I didn't think it would matter though, Dave was.First to weigh and had 25.5, it could be closer than I thought, my fish went 24.14, but I wasn't bitter, (much lol), that flying skimmer did cost me, well done Dave romain. so a second in section start will have to do then. Weigh sheets below.

Huntstrete main lake

Bathampton gave us permission to fish on the main lake at the Huntstrete complex for a silvers only match, which is appreciated as it's been fishing really well for skimmers and bream all year with nets approaching three figures with fish going to nearly 8lb, so we were looking forward to it, with Dave Gillard being housed by the nhs at the no it was left to Mike Nicholls and me to sort out, we arranged to get there early and sort the pegs out, well just for a change I was there early whereas Mike went via hungry horaces in speedwell for brekkie, then tried to blame it on the traffic, so I did it and in hindsight should have out more pegs on the right hand bank further down the lake, but had been advised that a lot of the break were at the near end. Pegging done mike was soon getting the draw underway, into the disc bag and out comes peg 12 for me, proper peg 25, which cheered Paul barnfield up no end as it was close to where he had practised in the week and had caught 70lb on the method and white 10mm white boilie, with fish to 7.11. For company I had Jeff Grant to my left and Dave Poole to my right. Autumn seems to be fast approaching with the leaves starting to drop and change colour.

Even though Paul had caught in the feeder, I decided to fish the pole and wag, especially as the wind was of our backs in the main, so I set up a wag for corn or
Pellet, a close caster rig as there are plenty of small roach to be had normally, but after a couple of colder nights and heavy rain I wasn't to sure it would be a skimmer and bream fest that we were hoping for. But I set up a couple of long lines at 14 mtrs, one to the right at 1o'clock angle for chopped worm and caster, with groundbait, then another line to the left at 11 o,clock angle with soaked (in lake water) micros in groundbait.
On the all in I put 3 balls to the right long line with the w and c in, and two balls to the left with just micros. And started feeding a few 4,s on the wag line.
I started short on caster but never had a bite, I perhaps should have gone a couple of meters further out as Dave started getting some small roach from the off, also Jeff was into a skimmer on the feeder virtually straight away, and followed it up with another quite quickly,  it not having a feeder rod with me that was never going to be an option.
I went out on the worm line with a piece of worm, but never had a touch, so I went over the same line with maggot, small roach were a problem on that so a switch to caster resulted in the same, back on a worm piece and the plippy peaks were now on that line a rash,
So I swapped rigs to the soft pellet rig to the left, I lowered the rig in and was just thinking of putting another shot on the float when it shot under and a skimmer was on, a nice fish of about 1 1/2 lb, back out and I had a run of about 5 fish before it went a bit quiet, so a small ball of g bait and I went over the worm line, small roach still in attendance, so back over the soft pellet line and another skimmer, then the small roach developed a taste for it, so switch to corn helped, although the roach were tapping it about they weren't as keen as with the soft pellet, as I had thought it wasn't fishing to well, in fact I think there may have been a blank at the other end, I just kept plugging away on the two pole lines adding off skimmers and small roach, I think I only had 4 skimmers over the worm line, the micro and groundbait line was definitely better, the wag was no good I had one small roach on a banded pellet, and my smallest skimmer on a piece of corn, and I missed a bite,  by the end I thought I may have approaching 30lb, and judging by conversation,s I could here from the other end of the lake that would probably be enough today, when the scales arrived with steptoes  love child in charge, (James buckle) Gary Bowden was winning with 13lb, my fish pulled the needle round to 27.12,

which was enough to win on the day, Jeff to my left was second with 18lb,  so this end was the place to be, probably due to the fact the water is half the depth of the other end of the lake , only three foot.
 Weigh sheets below as normal, showing how hard it was in the deeper water at the other end.