By way of a change

With plenty of cod showing in the channel, I decided on having a chuck with the shops sea fishing guru, Steve ace, probably one of if not the most knowledgeable sea angler in the area, he grew up on the upper channel and knows it like the back of his hand,  but he seems to know about just every southwest Mark you care to mention, so Friday night myself , Gary elcox, Dave shaw, and Gary withey and of course Steve , headed up to the tanks at avonmouth, somewhere I have been to and to be honest without Steve we would probably have ended up in one of the many ditches in amongst the reeds .
We all.Got the shore safely and began to get sorted, with the water still 50mtrs away Steve said we would need to go through the mud and get an early chuck in, I watched Steve slosh through the mud and cast his first rod out, nope that's not for me so I said I would wait another ten minutes for the water to get close enough to cast into, but fair play to Steve , he took my rod and chucked the rig into darkness, Gary elcox was by now making his was across the mud to chuck out, then after few minutes I heard a cry from the darkness, for those of you that are old enough to remember dad's army, with the scene of private pike getting stuck in the barbed wire in coastal mine field, it was the same now, help, help .help, I'm stuck and I'm not joking , I need help, so Steve ace was sent down into the mud to help the hapless gary, who by more was a bit worried and exhausted from trying to free himself, and try as he might Steve couldn't get the suction of the mud and clay to release him, they were just thinking of getting him out of his waders when the tide reached him and a bit water made all the difference, and the seal broke and Gary rushed back to the shore leaving Steve to bring his rods back, if it hadn't been so dark and they weren't to far away it would have made a good video lol, whilst this was going on I had a bite and had a nice codling of about 2 1/2 lb, a nice start.

And the sport was.ok for me, I ended up with 4 in size codling , 2 mini,s and a decent flounder, so for a short three hour season I must say I really enjoyed it.

Gary managed a nice flounder aswell which cheered him up after his near brush with death, hence the manic grin, or was it a look of relief.

dave Shaw also got in the act with a nice flounder , which he was happy with as he loves catching  flounders,

Gary withey also had a nice flounder but I never got a picture of that, as for Steve he did get one in size codling which he returned , and a mini aswell, so we all caught and we had a laugh , we.packed up with frost on the kit , but the walk back warmed us up, even when steve took a wrong turn in the reeds and he fell into ditch, then Gary fell over after jumping across another small ditch, to say he was by now absolutely plastered would be an understatement,  but he was still smiling, so Fairplay to him, I'm looking forward to getting out again soon but next time Judith will be coming with me , so I will be fully expecting a bit of a beating.

Straight 5,

Shiplate Thursday silvers league

I missed the second one of these leagues due to a lovely week away with Judith at Stafford moor, so I needed to get a section win to keep me in with a chance, I got into the draw about halfway through and pulled out peg 6, happy with that sank think it's a fair section, I set up three rigs , one for the left at 13 mtrs  another to the right at the same distance where it was about a foot shallower, and a rig to fish caster at 5 mtrs.

Normal bomb site peg , I wouldn't have it any other way, LOL.
At the start I cupped a couple of balls at 13 mtrs to the left with some caster in and a couple to the right with some softened micros in , but began short on caster, I caught from the off, only small roach but more than welcome, especially as it seemed to be fishing very hard, I stuck with it but with odd people having some skimmers I went out to the right in the shallower water on soft pellet, I had a couple of quick skimmers including a 1lb fish,  it that was my.lot on the soft pellet, so over to the left and a skimmer on maggot, then nothing again, and that set the pattern for the day, feed the longer lines, spend a short time on the short line before going out on the long lines, perhaps getting a small.skimmer , then nothing so reffeed and try the other line or come short, I did get a couple of better skimmers in the last 30 minutes but it was to little to late, Alan quantrill on three won the section with 17lb with big Ryan Radford second with 14lb, so well done to them, Paul faiers on peg 11 was.Top weight on the day with 19lb, weigh sheet below.

Chilton trinity

Tom and mish were running an open on sunday, so me.And Chris fox decided to give it a go, neither of us had been there for a while so it would make a nice change, a stop off in the wooded spoon cafe in weston super mare for a bumper breakfast , and very nice to, 4.65. And opening at 7am everyday makes it a popular cafe with lots of the Weston anglers, and it's not to far off the beaten track for anglers travelling South from bristol.
Breakfast accomplished and it was off to the fishery, we got there to find only 11 fishing, a bit disappointing really as I think it's a really fair venue , especially at this time of year, perhaps that's what people don't like, plus it's a lake which doesn't give up its fish to readily.
Into the draw and out comes.peg 9, which is a few pegs up on the far side, happy with that, then the shout if doom goes out ,REDRAW. Lol, Tom got his sums wrong, even coming from Somerset and having twelve fingers he still got it wrong, 😂😂😂.
Into the draw , and yep , peg 9 again, maybe a good omen, time would tell

, Chris drew 7 first time then peg 16 was his home.for the day, up on the Top bank all on his lonesome.

I had Phil h to my right on 7 and Gary ? To my left on golden peg 11.
Three rigs today one for the right hand margin under a free stump in 4 foot of water, and two for the long pole , at 14 mtrs slightly to the left for maggot or corn over micros, and a pellet rig for 16 mtrs slightly to the right, hard 4,a for feed with a banded 6mm over the top. At the start I cupped in some micros at 14 mtrs some hard 4,s at 16 mtrs and put a few hard 4,s down by the stump. Starting on maggot over the micros I soon had a couple of small roach, both lines were starting to fizz a bit which surprised me a bit, and the two pegs either side had proper fizzing going on, probably due to the fact as both anglers were feeding micros quite heavily, Phil and Gary both had early carp , then Gary had another, then I had one on the pellet line, and with bubbles coming up I was fairly confident of getting a few, which I did but always a fish or two behind gary, but i was getting a.few.decent skimmers on the hard pellet or on corn over micros, going into the last couple of hours things slowed up, the bubbles stopped and so did any more activity from carp, all I could get we're hand size skimmers, and not to many of those, most had stopped catching anything, it was heading towards a fairly low weight affair, Gary to my left had a few fish towards the end to keep himself ahead, and that was how it ended, with Gary coming out on top with 65lb, I was second with 51lb which included the top silver weight with 13 lb of skimmers, and Phil to my right was third with 48lb, so as I said not a high weight match but it's fair, as you can never predict where the top weight will come from, weigh sheet below.

Huntstrete

It was going to be a cold one today, so a quick stop in the cafe in Belland,( got to spell that correctly) drive for a couple of bacon and egg sarnies, as usual very nice.
It took the normal 12 minutes to get to the fishery, well before draw time , but I wasn't the first there , it wasn't to long though before there were  20 of us in attendance, so cowboy Ken sorted the draw out, peg 2 was out in with the option for anyone  who drew it to fish peg 1 if they do wished. After the short walks were sorted it was time for the rest of us, I got in quite early, and yep, there it was peg 2 disc in my hands, it's about as far away from the skimmers , f1,s and carp than you can get on the lake at this time of year, I drove the van to the peg as there is a parking spot 6 paces from the swim, I decided to opt for peg one, and as I was stood on the platform counting the stones and leaves on the bottom, it was really clear, an f1 wandered through, so just maybe there might be a few about.
The swim looks nice with long reedy corner to the right which in the warmer weather holds plenty of fish, but today the bottom was visible all round the end, there's an aerater as an option to fish under and as it's 6 foot close to it it may be a good option, my other option was for hopefully some skimmers off to the left .

So I set up a rig for off to the left, a.8g , which is quite heavy, but it was very windy with a strong easterly blowing into my corner, and it was 8 foot deep, a  rig for by the aerator, and just in case a bread dobbing rig for around the feed fringe, my closest angler was Gary Bowden on peg 4, and on the other bank on 31 was Jeff Grant.
At the start I cupped in groundbait on two lines at 14 mtrs and also on a 16mtr line, I then began on the dobbing rig, I have it 20 minutes but never had a sign, which I really expected to be the outcome, it was out over the groundbait lines and I started catching small roach and perch(bumblebees)on maggot, I had put a casters and pinkies in the groundbait, and a switch to caster on the book bought a slightly better stamp of roach, I had to keep swapping lines to ensure the bites kept coming, and regular groundbait too ups definitely helped, and judging by the bankside banter very little was being caught, especially silvers wise, so just stuck with it, plopping small roach into the net, I did get two net skimmers which had obviously either got lost or felt sorry for me, one about 4oz, and the other probably just short of a pound, I had more bites than anyone else I should think, so not to bad for a swim no one ever wants, when the scales arrived at me as I was the last to weigh, Dave Gillard was top with quite a lowly weight of 19lb
And top silvers was Wayne storey on peg 8 with 5 better skimmers on the feeder. My small fish net went 7.6 which was good enough for second in the silvers, happy days.
This Sunday I'm going to Chilton trinity for an open match, looking forward to that as it's a good deep lake of a uniform depth so the winner tends to come from anywhere,

A quick catch up

Judith and me have been away for a week at Stafford moor, so no Wi-Fi , we left last Saturday in the evening, stopped at Churchill for a bag of chips and the old can wouldn't start, called the rac out and a faulty starter was the problem, he got us started but decided it would be to risky to continue with my van so we went home and loaded up judiths,s van instead, so all good , got to lodge in the dark but at least we got there, up early the next morning as we were back up the motorway for the last round of mat Culpin,s snake lake series, we stopped at maccy d,s  for breakfast, it filled a hole, nuff said. Got to the fishery and fair play to mat he had got enough reserves in to make sure we had a full house again. Early into the draw and out comes 40 which is the first corner on the speci lake. I like the peg as there are always some resident fish along these end banks. I intended to fish pellet up and down the shelf at 14 mtrs to begin with, feeding sparingly and if it went wrong (no bites) I would go a bit further and fish meat, and that's how it panned out, Mike duckett on 39 took an early lead with a couple of carp off the island, it took me three hours to get a carp, and that was at 16mtrs on meat,

After that I had to go to 17mtrs again in meat and had four more carp, which was going to be good enough to win the section with 32lb, so it meant I ended up on the same points as john Hawkins , but he did me in weight, I was never going to recover from drawing the squircle at Shiplate twice, but I'm not complaing John fished a good series and deserved.the win, so it was a trip down the motorway £350 quid better off,

After Sunday the weather went downhill massively, with northerly gales and heavy rain, I managed.to get out for few hours on weds morning and had 7 carp on the waggler on woodies, with a nice near double ghostie being the pick of the bunch.

That evening with a bit of a weather window as far as the wind was , it was briefly going to go southerly, so we shot off down to ilfracombe pier for a few hours, it was fairly good weather wise but rain (torrential) was.meant to start at about 5pm, but it arrived at about 4, but we still had a few whiting and a small conger, no real need to say who caught the most.

And we got soaked , so it was pack up early and go for fish and chips, all very nice, thank God for Gore tex,
We fished up on woodies again on Friday where we had a good few hours fishing banded pellet at 11 mtrs on peg 10, it took a while to start catching but when they turned up it didn't take to long to rack up nearly 100lb, as the fish on here are of a very good stamp, and fight really well.

The week was gone all to quickly, as always the lodges are spot on, warm and dry, and you can always expect a warm welcome from jo and paul, smashing fishery and accommodation.
Sunday and back down to viaduct for round 4 of the silvers league, and I needed a first or possibly a second in section to keep me in the running, so imagine my.horror to pull out 55, which is in the middle of the car park bank on lodge lake, it's the shallow end, with barely 3 foot of water anywhere, so I set up a rig for skimmers which I was going to fish for at 14mtrs , then a rig with spread shot for roach hopefully, I've had the peg before and caught best off to the left at 6mtrs.

At the start I fed 6balls of groundbait at 14 mtrs(positive), but with it being so shallow I didn't expect to have any not from the lakes decent skimmers, I did set up a wag for corn at 20mtrs, but a couple of tries during the match gave me.nothing, the skimmers.were.further up the lake in the deeper water, my 14 mtrs line and wag line were about 8inches shallower than the 6 mtr line. So that was where I spent most of the match catching small 1-3oz roach,  it I was keeping busy, and I wasn't seeing to much activity, so I was happy to stick with it, I did get a 1 1/2 lb perch, and a 8oz skimmer on the long line but the rest were roach and small hybrids, I ended up with 15.12 which was enough for the section win, the skimmers.never.really fed, apart from paddy curry on 68 who was getting odd better ones on corn over groundbait, and ended up with a tad.over 25lb, which was top on the day., This now leaves me second in the league with two matches to go, rich aherne has done well and is too at the mo with 4 section wins, which is no mean feat as there are some really good silvers angles.fishing this league, and.  Bob gullick, lol. But only after.Two frosts.

Thursday costcutter at huntstrete on bridge pool

12 minute drive to the fishery, which makes a change, not to many here today , only 16 for various reasons, but all that means more room for us, I had a quick walk around with Mike nicholls, there was a slight tinge of colour at each end of the lake, with the middle section a bit clearer.
Ken got the draw underway and I was early into the bag and pulled out 26, nice peg, not shown to much as far as silvers go recently, so I made up my mind to fish for carp and f1,s, I had some of the new daiwa f1 groundbait mixed up just in case, I had used it last time and caught f1,s so decided to try it again.

It's a lovely looking peg with an island at 16mtrs, so I did fancy it, and

I set up a rig to fish pellet straight out towards the island, and another pellet rig to the left by an overhanging willow, another for the deep water at the bottom of the island shelf in a couple of spots, maggot over the f1 groundbait in these spots, and one for the right hand side in about 4 foot of water, again maggot over groundbait,
To begin with I put in a ball on each of the deeper lines, one down the right hand side , and cupped some pellets across to the island, started short on caster with the deep rig just in case there were any rogue fish close in,  it nope , nothing doing there then .
So out on the deep rig with maggot over caster, an hour later and one skimmer from the 14 mtr right hand line, then an f1 from the left hand 14 mtr line, so going no where fast, I had a look on the pellet line and had another f1 , but no more, a look down to the right produced a couple of f1,s, so things were starting to look up. I then decided to go 16 mtrs to the left by the willow into shallower water with maggot over groundbait, and it improves things , by swapping between the right hand side I about 4 foot of water and the shallow island ledge I could use the same rig, so I kept a bit of groundbait with some micros in both swims and had odd f1,s with the occasional small carp aswell right to the end, I also had a nice looking goldfish, which must have come in with the f1,s.

I had a few rogue skimmers down to the right aswell, with the biggest probably going 2 1/2 lb. Best bait turned out to be treble maggot today, at the end I new I had over twenty pounds but when the scales arrived I was surprised to be given 37.01, mainly f1,s so the groundbait looks to have worked again.

But that was only good enough for second as john(cliff) Smith on peg 10 caught some good fish down his margin for over 49lb, so well done, weigh sheets below.

Viaduct silvers league round 3

Back to viaduct today , travelled with Chris fox again and we stopped at the cross keys at lydford for breakfast and it was enjoyable, 4.55.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time for the draw.
I managed  get near the front of the queue and went into the tin and came out with 105 in cary, it had top weight of silvers on Thursdays costcutter by Alvin Jones with about 27lb, so hopefully a few still about.its on the edge of the good area to be fair, no one to my left as it's going into carpy corner so it's left out as it's a silvers only match, to my right was mosella team mate Bob gullick on 103, obviously the pound side bet was on then.
Behind me was the diminutive figure of Kevin Millard who was reserving for Ricky mills,

Judging by now he has his box set up he has a secret yearning to be tall, trouble is , every time he wanted to get off his box he had to call for help, he could always take up base jumping.
I set up three rigs, one for topset and one, also the same rig would do for caster down to my right against some brambles. Two rigs for out in front one double bulked and the other more conventionally shotted.

At the start I cupped in two balls at 11 mtrs and 5 off to the right at 13mtrs, fed some casters.down to the right , then began close on caster, had bites from small roach, so sticking with it for a while, Bob went straight out over his groundbait line and started catching small skimmers straightaway, so after30 minutes I followed suit and went out to the 11 mtr line and had an 8oz skimmer first drop in, then it was just small roach, so out to the 13 mtr line, and it was the same, a small skimmer then nothing, all the time Bob was catching small skimmers all the time, whereas  I was really strggling, but I kept plugging away, small.roach on the short line and down the edge, I also had a couple of small perch from the margin, the 11  mtr line was a waste of time with just occasional small roach, luckily for me I managed.a.few.better skimmers from the 13 mtr line, mainly on double and treble dead reds, but by the end I thought I just not done enough to beat bob, but judging by the bankside banter the diagonal bank had been very hard, so I thought a possible second in section would have to do, when steve.Got to us with the scales 15lb was winning the section, then Bob put 18.12 on the scales, then me, and as soon as I pulled my net out I new I had him, and plonked over 22lb on the the scales for a section win which keeps me in the hunt.

And more importantly I had the all important bit of gold off Bobby g.

The lakes definitely fished harder in this round, which isn't to surprising considering the amount of rain and cooler temps we have had recently,
Top weight on the day went to paul(beaver)elmes on peg 70 with 32lb of corn on the wag skimmers, well done.

2nd and third was tight with Martin rayet on peg 112 with 27.4 just three ounces ahead of gabe(2pegs lol) skarba who had 27.1, weigh sheets below.

Two posts again

Back to Shiplate for round one of Ron starks,s silvers league, enjoyable as you get plenty of bites for the large head of skimmers of various sizes,(normally).
Into the draw bucket and peg 13a stuck to my hand, that's ok, it's on the far bank and traditionally the best bank for silvers. For company I had league organiser Ron stark on 14, and mr.Walsh to my right on 13.
I was.going to fish three areas of my peg, toast and two with caster and a bit of groundbait, 11 mtrs straight out with the same groundbait approach but fed positively with 5 balls, and a slightly less positive line at 13 mtrs off to the right with a few micros in the groundbait for soft pellet.

After feeding all lines I began on the short line, I had a handsize skimmer straightaway, then a few roach, not what I wanted, Rob had begun further out and was catching small skimmers, so after about thirty minutes I was out on the long lines, hmmm, no bites, it took me quite a while to begin getting indications, and start to add fish to the net, triple dead.red turned out to be the best bait, but it was a waiting game for bites, but I did get odd better fish amongst the small skimmers, at the end I really thought Ron had beaten me,  it his fish turned out to be mostly small skimmers as he had 13lb+, I new I had more than that and ended up with 18.6, which was a good start to the series as it was enough for the all important section win,

Top.weight on the day was taken by Andy fry on peg 10 with 21.6, well done andy.

Weigh sheet below.

PART TWO
I decided to have a go at one of the veals leagues run by steve ace at either Littleton or aust, and on Friday night it was going to be at aust, early in the week the forecast looked good with moderate southerly winds , so mainly off our backs,  it by the time Friday night arrived it was going to be South westerly blowing up to 30 mph with rain, it Steve assured me that as it was along the riverside walkway it would be quite an easy walk even if it did rain, so that was ok then, got to the draw and luckily for me and steve Nick snow turned up with a double whopper meal for the pair of us, thanks matey. The rain was hammering down , so into the draw and I pull out card,5, Steve assured me it was a good area, but a bit of a walk, I started.to think the double whopper meal may have been a mistake, set off on the long walk straight into the wind and rain, so much for the easy walk, there had been some heavy plant going up and down meaning the walk was going to be torture, slipping and sliding all the way, if my pedometer on the phone can be trusted it was a 2000mtr too in really severe conditions, but I made it and set about assembling the kit, the business end had a two hook flapper with the third hook flowing, by now it was hammering down with horizontal rain, at least I had struggled up.with the brolly, so the kit was dry, Bait today was just lug and ragworm, just lug on the Top two hooks, and a lug and rag cocktail on the bottom hook.
At the 8.15 start I sent it out into the blackness, then settled down to wait for the first bite,

 after 30 minutes the tip banged and the lead broke out, dead handy, the fish turned out to be a nice flounder, the weights are worked out on a length to weight chart, and I was more than pleased to see my neighbouring angler confirm a length of 39cm, a big flounder to be sure, no picture as by now me and everything else was covered in mud, and even the fish after being dragged in was a sorry sight, so fish returned safely , Bait changed and back out, the angler.to my left came.down and had a top up codling, and just as he left my.peg, my lead broke out again, wound it in and was surprised just to see a 16 cm top up on the Top hook, I couldn't believe a fish so small managed to trip the lead, so fish recorded and returned went back and started.to refresh my hookbaits, it was then I noticed a codling on the bottom hook, so wandered back to my neighbour and got him to verify it and at 37 cm a handy fish, if not a tad embarrassing that I hadn't known it was on the end, LOL.
I had to wait till the last hour for another bite and that resulted in another flounder, a bit smaller at 37cm, but dead handy.

The match was due to end at 12.15 am, but I packed up 10 minutes early, partly due to the fact if I did catch another in the dying minutes I had no realistic way of returning it, so back for the return journey, the mud was even worse now , but at least the walk back was wind assisted, but arduous, it turned out I had won my zone and had the biggest flatfish on the night, so at least intent home with £70 to show for my efforts, but more importantly I had beaten mr ace on the night, so I reckon I can extend the bragging rights for weeks yet lol.