Hillview

Up to Tewkesbury to hillview fishery for this philtone sponsored match, it has a team's of 7 format with myself, Craig edmunds and professional dobber Martin rayet As team captains, the teams were drawn behind closed doors up in the philtone printers board room, ok so it was the kitchen, list below.

Some names you may recognise and some you wont,
the breakfast at the fishery was very nice to be fair , so I will give it a 4.4, nice and hot and quickly served, thanks clint.
niel for the draw sorted and I did out teams , and I found myself on peg 81, which today was one out of the corner on the third canal, it looked good but I was told by several people who have fished it recently that it was the wrong end of the canal,  it you never know, and I am normally fairly positive as to how I fish, so we would see, Martin rayet had drawn it the day before and had 80lb+ off it, mainly dobbing bread across to the far side, into a small bay off to the right,

So I set up a rig for that, also it looked good up towards the end bank to my right, with lots of overhanging dead foliage, so I set up the dobbing rig which would also do for the end bank,

 I felt the meat would be a good net today so I set up a rig for the left hand margin where it a nice three foot deep,

For company I had Clint wojtyla to my left, and Tim Ford behind me on canal two, so good banter , Tim managed to turn up with no hooks or rigs, he had done some the night before(keener) but had forgotten to put the drawer back in his box, luckily his captain Martin rayet and Clint next door sorted him out with a few bits to get him goung.
It was an interesting match with getting a few small carp on dobbed bread early doors but it wasn't going to well to be honest looking around it seemed a few people were catching steadily,  but both myself and Clint were struggling, Tim behind had plenty of carp swimming around on the surface, but as is normal on this venue, can be tricky to tempt,  but Tim was getting odd ones. I caught nothing to my right amongst the foliage, I was getting occasional fish from the far bank, I had to wait till the last two hours before I got any sense from the swim, I had a good burst down the track on maggot, but it didn't last, but I started catching fish down the left hand side on meat, most people had stopped catching by now, except for trig Edmunds and niel Mercer who were next to each other in the middle of canal one, so I felt i was clawing some ground back on those who had caught in the first half of the match, I didn't want the match to end as I felt.my.margin was getting stronger, at.The end I felt I may have 60lb, , I was last but one to weigh and was a bit surprised to have a level 80lb called. and as expected trig was top with over 130lb

with his boss niel second on the next peg with 89lb, my first net went 39lb and the other went 41lb so 80lb in total, which was good enough for third , and to top it off my team came.out on top, so a good day then , sheet below.

a big thanks and well done  to Niel and Phil mercer.for arranging it and sponsoring it, it was a good day with plenty of bites for most.
And lastly Judith and me hope you all have a happy ,prosperous and healthy new year,

Shiplate Xmas match

Stopped in at the Wessex flyer for breakfast with Lee waller and Martin lenaghan, nice breakfast (4.5) and we were the only ones in there, very strange as it's normally buzzing.
Got to the lakes to find there were 35booked in , so 10 on each of the side canals, Hawthorn and West pool, and 15 on the main lake, I must admit I was hoping for one of the side lakes, hopefully Hawthorn as I never get to fish it, and it's a style of fishing I really enjoy, lots of far bank fishing this time of year and a bit of margin work aswell, also the wind would be off our backs, into the draw bucket and peg11 on the main lake was my peg for the day, a good peg and I couldn't believe I was in it, then I realised Paul faiers wasn't here today, he's drawn it that often recently the feet on his seatbox has left imprints in the mud that no ones else's box will fit.
For company I had the affable Mike Owens on 10 and local expert John Hawkins on 12.
I set up two pole rigs, both .4g , one a drennan as4 and the other a wire stem float I think it's an as7, but don't hold me to it, both with 18 guru f1 maggot books on ,10 sensas feeling .
And also set up was a wag on which I was going to fish meat in line with the end of the island in about 4foot of water, books on this were the Preston 15 inch ones with the bait bayonet and a size 18 hook, I normally tie all my own books but I tried these last year and I got to say they are very good, I have tried a few other makes with the guru ones being very good aswell, but that's where it ends, I've tried other high profile makes  but they don't reach the mark .
Any way the match for underway and I cupped in a small ball at 5mtrs , three balls at 13 mtrs slightly to the right, and two balls to the left.
Starting at 5 mtrs and I expected to catch some roach straight away, but 25 minutes and only one bite and one roach, and I was reaching for the rig to fish at 13 mtrs, I had a couple of handsize skimmers for both lines, then a 2lb sample but after that it went quiet, so I had a go on the wag with 8mm meat, which I had been feeding from the start, the float went under after about 20minutes but all I hooked was fresh air, but it did correspond with ducks swimming over my line, but next chuck it went under again, but this time solid resistance, and a nice 8lb fish was soon in the net, 20 minutes later and another of about the same size, I was becoming to think I may start getting a few , but nothing for 30 minutes, so back on the pole for a few 8to 12oz skimmer,s, that slows so I refed both lines and went back out on the wag, and I was soon netting a nice 10lb common.
Back onto the silver,s, and I had a some more 10/12oz skimmers before they disappeared again, so the last 45minutes was spent back out on the wag, a good move as I had my best fish, another nice common but this was about 13lb, so by the end I thought my carp would go 40lb and I had double figures of silvers. The scales.for to me and 40+ pounds.was.winning the lake and as far.as.I had seen Mark Thorne behind me on West pool was top with just over 50lb, my silvers.went 13.4 and my 4 carp weighed 41.12 for a 55lb total, which was top until they weighed Hawthorn lake where Mark wynne on peg 4 had just short of 70lb, so I ended up 2nd but my silver weight was top on the day, and I got another nugget off the bank of culpin.

The weigh sheets below as normal, well done and thanks to Steve and Carol for running a nice match, with mince pies and sausage rolls, and thanks to Ray wickhams wife for the puff pastry mince pies, very nice.

I hope you all have a nice Christmas from Judith and me.

Huntstrete coffin dodgers

Off to my local fishery again today, the Dave crookes fishery at Huntstrete, bridge pool again for this costcutter, 17 fishing , a few down for various reasons, into the draw and hoping for a peg out of the wind and rain as it was meant to be a horrible day today, into the bag and peg 30 disc was looking back at me , not the best as you still don't want to be past the 2nd island as the fish seem to prefer this end at the mo. My peg was the first on the third island left hand bank, at least I was out of the wind so able to get the Brolly up as it was going to rain hard most of the day, and it did.

The island is a long way off, a good 18mtrs but I did set a rig for 17.5mtrs in about 5 foot of water, only one other rig today a.8g drennan as4 for 5 and 13mtrs as it's the same depth. At the start I cupped in a couple of balls in the two longer lines, one 11 o,clock and 1 o'clock angles, a ball short at 5 mtrs, I began on the short line with maggot whilst feeding a few casters, no  idea so with Paul Clayton to my right having a couple of decent skimmers early I went out to the 13 mtr line at 1o'clock, started with small skimmer followed by small roach, all on caster, it was steady to be fair, plenty of bites but nothing of any size, mainly roach between 1 and 4 oz, I tried the short line, and again there seemed to a few roach there aswell so I stuck with hat for a while, also getting a 1lb skimmer from that line aswell, bites stopped there as fast as they started, so I had a quick flirt at 17.5mtrs, but after a couple of small roach , I decided it was never going to be worth the effort so binned that, back over the 13 mtr line on the 1 o'clock line and had a good perch before the small roach returned, I started feeding some caster to my right in about 5 foot of water, so I could use the 17mtr rig over that line, and it was a good move as I had a a 2lb skimmer there and some handy size roach, and I did lose another good perch ,but they are inclined to drop off, by the end I new I had doubles of silvers which was ok as far as I could see, but some carp and f1,s had been caught further down the lake as expected, I ended up with  13.14 of silvers.which I was happy with,

  but got beaten for first in the silvers by Steve Dawson on peg 16, with 16lb, too weight went to Pete greenslade on peg 19 with 18lb+ , mainly 3 good carp on meat down the edge, weigh sheets below.

A weekend's fishing

Unusual for me but I fished Saturday and Sunday this week. Started the weekend at Todber manor for the Xmas match, went down with Chris fox , but not before a breakfast in cafe fox, really nice 4.99, thanks Caroline, plenty of time to get to the fishery, 86 people in attendance, and I managed.to get near the front of the queue, into the bucket and out comes 58 on hillview, it was.The area to draw last week, and with the wind being off our backs along this bank I fancied it, so I set up a wag for pellet on the deck, a straight lead for bread and a pole rig for maggot at 14mtrs. Just before the start we had a terrible squall pass through, kit blowing all over, there was even a tackle box blown into the lake, I had one of my roller bags blow in and sink, then my Eva net bag blew in, luckily it went upside down with air  pocket in it, I went across to John Gray on 48 who kindly retrieved it for me.

At the start I fed the long pole line with some micros and maggot, but started on the lead with bread, 3 chucks without so much as a twitch, so that was up the bank never to be slung out again, out on the pole and a few skimmers seemed to be obliging before I had a carp, our bank didn't seem to be as good this week, the only angler getting any sport seemed to be Nick chedzoy on peg 60, fishing the feeder towards the end of the island , and some , lol.
Apart from a quick couple of flirts on the wag which didn't produce anything I spent the rest of the match on the pole just getting odd bites, by the end I thought I had about 50lb, I wasn't to far out as I had 53, ok on our bank apart from Nick on 60 who had 89lb, the pegs on the spit 44 round to 53 seemed. To have fished the best, young George Jones (15)to my right had a nice fish of over 18lb, nice to see young match angler on the bank and he is certainly keen so I hope it goes well for him, well done to his grandad who is his official caddy and taxi, and to Ben hagg who I know gives him lots of encouragement and advice.

The lakes fished well considering the time of year, and ever peg was in, top weight on the day was taken by the very seasonal elf on the shelf , Gary o,Shea on peg 27 whitepost with over 160lb, well done, I didn't get.The with sheets in afraid, but there were several weights over 100lb, very good, and a big thank you and well done to Mr and Mrs candy on a well run affair, with help from his more than able staff.
Into Sunday and it was the last of the viaduct silvers league, and I was second going into today's match so nothing short or a section win would do if I had any chance of winning it, but breakfast first and myself and Chris ended up in the cross keys at lydford for food and all very nice and tasty, 4.65.
Into the fishery and again I found myself near the front of the queue, 4th in and I delved into the run hoping to avoid one of the swims that give very little or no chance of winning the section, pull out a ticket and SHIT, peg 64 on lodge, the monk peg up in the corner, a flyer carp peg. It produced a few.skimmers early on in the league before all the colour dropped out of the water. I remember Mark Harper having 40lb of skimmers on this peg, but it was probably 20 years ago, also there are rumoured to be a few perch living down by the monk, but I can't recall any being caught there for at least 20 years again, (legendary mythical beasts), I was definitely in for a bit of a scratcher, so I set up two 16 mtr lines, one to the left , another for the trees opposite, one for 14 mtrs just to the left of the trees, and a short caster rig topset and two. After putting casters across to the trees, and groundbait and caster on the other two long lines , then began on the short caster line, I caught straight away on caster , nothing big but 1 to 4oz roach, it was going ok, until I hooked a branch and that finished that line off, apart from some tiny plippy roach on maggot I couldn't catch any better ones. I had to keep rotating around the three long lines, catching mostly in single caster, I had one 4oz skimmer, a 12oz hybrid and a 10oz perch, other than that it was small roach, the wind was really bad making long pole fishing extremely difficult, but I persevered, at the end I new I hadn't won the section as Russ peck on 69 managed.to share a few which would be enough to win the section, also Gabe skarba on 70 had also had a lot of tiny skimmers, but it was closer than I thought as I had 7.13, Russ had just over 9lb and gabe had 8lb exactly, so a lot closer than I thought it was, I should have tried to catch a few more roach instead of trying to force some quality from a peg that didn't have any, it's that crappy word hindsight again. Alvin Jones was top weight today with 21lb, weigh sheets below, and the league was won by rich aherne, even though he was 4th in his section he ended up with 6 points, and I managed.to hang into 2nd with 7 points, the league overalls are also below.

I forgot to smile 😃

And in this one I never 😁😁😁

Two again

Very late with last weekend's match, so very short for this one, I ran a match on Todber manor using hillview , with 21 fishing just enough, I fancied a peg along the road bank, 55 to 61 as the wind would be off our backs,  it no such luck, Lee culmer  drew for me and handed me 45, not a bad peg , second one up on the left hand side of the spit, Paul elmes to my left and gabe skarba on my right, it was already windy but this was just a gentle breeze for what was going to hit us later, and coming into us on an angle.from the right it was always.going to be hard.

Topset and two on the pole with pellet, two bites on that and one lost fish, I did get about a dozen carp from the island in banded pellet on the lead but that was difficult, didn't come prepared today no feeders which was probably the way to go, so I chucked back before the end , Paul to my left had about the same and gabe to my right probably had 40+, but we never bothered the scales man, (me), well done bela bakos on the win with 160+ off peg 59 , catching on the straight lead with bread, feeding nothing, although he did keep during an empty catty, which did confuse a couple , lol. Weigh sheets below.

Not Thursday and I was back at Shiplate for the next round of Ron stark,s silvers league, having missed a match and had a third in section last round, nothing short of a section win would do if I'm honest, so I was a bit disappointed to see peg 6 on my chosen card, same peg as last time, and with Dave wride on 3 and Ryan Jordan on one again I was thinking third again may be my best . But who knows , fish do move, only two rigs one for topset and two a .4g drennan as4 for caster, same rig would do for 13 mtrs to my right and the other rig was .6g wire stem for 13 mtrs slightly to the left at 13 mtrs,

On the whistle I cupped in three balls to the left with some caster and dead reds in, and two to the right with some softened micros, then started.short on caster, last time on this peg I caught quite well to begin with, but today it didn't happen, 30 minutes and no bites, looking around there was very little being caught, so out to 13 mtrs on the left swim, bites came , but not fast, I was putting small skimmers in the net,  so I stuck with it swapping mainly between the two long lines, I did get a few small roach , I also foulhooked a 12 oz perch in the dorsal which was interesting, and I did get a couple of 2lb skimmers towards the end, I could see a lot of the lake from this peg, and it had switched off today, I did hear Dave wride had done ok but it transpired that his elastic being on show for a lot of the match was due to carp, when steve and Jim arrived with the scales Paul faiers on peg 11 (again) was.Top with 8lb+, I new I had more than that, but was still surprised to see scales go round to 13.14 which was top on the day but more importantly it was the section win I needed, dave.wride ended up second in the section with 4lb, Paul faiers is winning the series with three 1 points, so well done matey, the last two matches are in the new year, hopefully we will get some settled weather as the fish done know whether they are coming or going with these ever-changing weather patterns and pressure changes, so the weigh sheet is below, off to Todber tomorrow for there Xmas match then viaduct on Sunday for the last of the silver league matches there.

Huntstrete coffin dodgers

It was always going to be a difficult day today, after several frosts the colour had dropped right out, you could see all the leaves and stones down to three foot.
The draw was a bit earlier at 8.30 and leader Ken got it underway on, into the room bag and peg 19 comes out for me, ok really it's a short walk down the steep slope in the car park and your there, it looks nice with an island out in front but to be fair it's not really an option as I think it's just outside the boundaries of the swim, a nice big bush to the right always looks inviting, and a small ready bay to the left.

Over to the right on the other bank was Mike jones, but there was another angler between us and that was Steve Dawson , but I couldn't see him due to the bush. Over to my left was Dave Gillard .

Not a great deal happened to be fair, as we thought it was rock hard with bites at a premium, the lake fished just about as hard as it can do, I fed a groundbait line out at 14 mtrs but only had a few whispy perch from there, being over 8 deep out there I feel it was to deep, the best part of the match was the last couple of hours when I started dripping a few casters in a few areas around the margins in 5 foot of water, maggots on the book only attracted.The micro perch, so I waited it out on single caster, I had 7 f1,s , one good perch (lost 2), and some 2 to 5oz roach, I did try to swing a 4oz roach half an hour from the end which came off and the rig shot into the free above my head, my total weight was 14.6 which was good enough for second, being beaten by Pete Turner on peg 10 with 14.8, so the roach cost me, weigh sheets below.

Viaduct silvers league round 5

A cold start to the day , no frost but proper chilly, I picked up Chris fox and went around to the Wessex flyer for breakfast, it was quite nice but the sausages could have been cooked for a tad longer, so 4.15.
We got to the fishery with plenty of time to spare, good to see a full house (I think), anyway got into the draw tin near the front, out comes ticket 80 , on cary next to the spit, with the water now clear after the cold weather and all the fresh water that's been fun through it, and it's probably one of it not the shallowest peg on the lake at less than three feet deep, but there are options, corn on the wag so that was out together, a groundbait feeder to fish beyond the end of the spit, also assembled, a pole rig for against the spit to my left as there can on occasions be some good hybrids to be had on caster, and a pole rig for 14 and 16 mtrs slightly off to the right in the hope some of the skimmers may venture from the deeper water to my right, but I wasn't to confident of to many.
On the whistle I cupped in two balls of groundbait at 14 am 16 mtrs, on the very soft side as it's a very silly peg with a soft bottom, all balls laced with a few pinkies/dead reds and a few.casters, cupped some casters against the spit, same depth to within a couple of inches as the long pole lines, then I began on the feeder whilst feeding some caster and a bit of corn on the waggler line, I stayed on the feeder for 40 minutes, and did get three hand size skimmers, but I was getting bored quickly, so up the bank it went and went out on the 14mtr line on caster, first drop a 6oz skimmer, oooh there may be some there, nope just small roach after that, so out to 16mtrs, same thing a 12oz skimmer first drop them small roach, so I refer both lines and tried against the spit, I had a bit of a purple patch catching some good roach with one found nearly a.pound, but that was an exception, most were 2 to 5oz, not big but good weight builders, I kept a few.casters going through with a cup as catapulting was difficult as there were a couple of branches getting in the way, I tried the wag but never had a bite on that. And as expected.The spit swim got more difficult, so it was a case of rotating, the two long pole lines produced plenty of plippy roach and one 1lb skimmer, and a couple of handsize samples, everyone I went back to the spit I would get a short burst of fish before I had to refeed, and rest it, but it was enjoyable. I had a couple of the legendary hybrids to 12oz, also a tench of about 2 1/2lb, a proper bonus, then towards the end I had a pound plus perch, so a good day really off a peg I didn't expect to much.
I I thought I had done ok , bela bakos on peg 81 the other side of the spit was admitting to 8lb, I thought I had ten pounds but secretly thought 12lb would be closer, when steve arrived with the scales bela got his fish out and they went 12lb, so obviously I have him a bit of stick for lying, I shouldn't have said to much really as my fish went nearly 17 lb, so the cereals were more than willingly returned. But I didn't mind to much as it gave me much needed section win to keep in second spot in the league.

Rich aherne kept up his good run in this league with a second in section off peg 86, so well done to him, too weight on the day was Ricky mills on 131 with a bit over 20lb, so again well done to him, weigh sheets and overall placing in the league below.