Plantation lake silvers only

Back to this venue, which is probably the best silvers lake we have in the area, plenty of roach and skimmers, both to a sensible size. First stop the bridge in yatton for breakfast and again very nice, 4.6.
That some it was off to the lake and a quick walk round to sort the pegs , 18 fishing which is more than enough as it hopefully ensures we all get a good day. Got the draw underway and had two tickets left at the end , me and Kerry winstone  left to draw, I ended up with peg 5 which was permanent peg 31, a good peg I have done on before, but it is tucked back into the start of a bag to my right, which has two pegs in but I left them out so plenty of room, next angler to my right was paul barnfield on peg 28(permanent) 6 on the day and to my left was good friend Ron hardiman.
Target species to win is normally skimmers to 3lb(bream really) and a top up with some nice roach. A quick plumb around found two areas at the same depth, one at 11mtrs straight out and the other slightly to the left at 13mtrs, a roach rig for 5mtrs which was also the deepest part of the peg, and another rig for caster by the brambles(aaaaargh) just to my left, as it can hold some nice perch and roach. As I said generally skimmers play a big part in the winning weights, so at the start I cupped in three balls of groundbait on the 11 mtr line with caster in, and two balls with some softened micros in on the 13 mtr line, I started on the short line, not really expecting to catch early on this line, and I never. So out to 11mtrs fully expecting to catch some roach of nothing else, no bites on maggot or caster, so trying to get a bite I swung the rig over the 13 mtr line, at last a bite, but it was a carp, doh. Looking around everyone seemed to be in the same boat, only Darren vowles (venue ace) two to my right was getting occasional skimmers, but as expected the lake did improve, but not to the standard it can . Barney to my right started to put a few fish together, and Ron to my left seemed to be catching steadily. My swim was still not doing much, in fact it was.downright hard, I did get three skimmers.to about a pound and a half, but very little else, I was scratching my head, it had been flat calm for most of the day, then about 90minutes from the end the wind picked up from the right and put some trip into the lake going against the wind, and it was like a switch was flipped, it was a roach a  chuck now, I didn't want to finish but it did and I didn't have a clue as to what I had , but it turned out to be  a lot closer than I thought, top on the day was Dave willmott on perm peg 7 with over 23lb some tidy skimmers and quality roach.

Mike nicholls was second with 22 Dave wride 21, barney 20.12, Ron 20.4 and me 20lb level, so a good right match with only a skimmer or two separating the top 6, just how it should be, weigh sheet below as normal.

And a quick mention to Darren vowles who stood on the peg woodwork , and proceeded to home his diving skills to try and get into the UK diving team ,  but his attempt was more John Smith's than Tom Daley, I don't think his backward belly flop is going to meet the criteria required by the selectors.😂😂😂😂😂😂🏊🏊

Todber teams of five rnd 2

A it late doing this one as I am finding it really hard to think of anything positive to say, best parts of the day were breakfast cooked by Caroline fox very nice to.
(4.9). And the drive home.😂.
My turn on ash lake and a draw anywhere halfway up the lake was needed to be on the fish, Ken rayner drew for us and handed me 63, 2nd peg up from the near end, 😵. I had Dave romain on the end peg on my left, and Paul elmes on my right, I normally set up a waggler on this lake. But with the wind coming in and across from the left I had my doubts as to whether it would work so I never set it up. A couple of pole rigs , one for maggot out in front and a meat rig for our to my right, but the wind was making any sensible presentation all but impossible, I did try it a couple of times but to no avail, and lastly a lead rod for various baits.

At the start I fed the pole lines then three a banded pellet to the far side, tightened up and the tip started dancing immediately, a carp on but fairly hooked on the root of the tail, so after a bit of a tussle a 3lb common safely netted, and by the end of the first hour I had three more but correctly hooked, two on meat and one on banded maggot, I thought there may be a few fish at this end but I was mistaken, I waited another 3 hours and 40minutes for my next bite which was on a maggot feeder rig, and of match, and as expected the lake was better further up, John Moody 90+lb, Callum dicks 88lb and Gary o,Shea 70+lb, Paul elmes was last in the section, Dave to my left 2nd from last and me third, so that's it for this one, I will get the weigh sheets later and put them on,

A couple of short ones

Wednesday and down to Landsend fishery again for a costcutter, only after a breakfast at lillypool cafe which was very good 4.7. Got to the fishery and only 8 in attendance, so it didn't take to long to sort to the pegging out, plenty of room for all, and it was good to see the lakes full, not surprising considering all the rain we have had, everywhere seem to have water in abundance at the mo, and plenty of bankside mud to go with, although Mike is reinstating the paths with fresh stone, anyway I let that renowned drawbag  Adrian Clark pull my peg, lucky 13 looking back at me from the ticket, I certainly.scorched the path going to that one, the right end for sure, lots of fish in this area at the mo, it's an end peg aswell.

Now just as I trial Mike was going to let us use bread today,  but only on the hook, this peg has some form with catching fish shallow in the winter, fishing off to the right at 14 mtrs but normally with white maggot on the hook, so I set up a rig to fish at about half depth there which is about three foot as this peg is the deepest on the lake where the aerator has pushed the silt away, another rig for meat in the same area of the bread didn't work, and a pellet rig for 16 mtrs along the right hand end bank,  it spa couple of tries during the match gave me nothing so no more on that, at the start I went straight out with bread on the 14 mtr line and had a nice carp virtually straight away, and apart from a few on meat towards the end I stayed with the bread all match, catching in the deep water , a couple shallow on the left hand end bank, and a bad a good spell fishing bread off the deck down by empty pallet 14, at the end I thought I had about 120lb, but I had more in my second net than I thought, in fact I had 85 lb in it so 5 lb over, but I still changed 145lb which is a nice day on a winter's day, Colin butler second on peg 24 with 58lb also on bread, Mike is now going to allow it matches only between the start of November and the end of February. Weigh sheet below.

Thursday and I was back to Shiplate farm for the last round of ron starks silvers league, just a quick update on Ron who had a bit of a heart wobbler last Thursday, he is still in the bri, but the news today was good, he is up and about but he has a difficult time ahead , so all the best matey from me and of all your fishing mates, hope to see you soon, I needed to win my section and have league leader Paul faiers come second or worse for me to beat him, I wanted to be in the same section as him, but it never happened, he was on 14 b on the far bank and me, I was in 4, which is ok I think it is the fairest section, for company I had Burnham on sea,s finest ratcatcher, Alan (the pied piper) quantrill on 3 and ash Tompkins on 5, Alan suggested.a pound bet, and in the absence of mat culpin I felt it would be rude not to accept.

I thought it was going to be hard today , especially off the back of a few frosts, which had seen the lakes partly frozen a couple of days ago, only two rigs, a .3g drennan as4 with a 20 guru maggot hook which would do close for roach or a lighter rig over the long line, and the other a .4g in frostie with an 18 hook of the same pattern for skimmers(hopefully). The whistle went and I putt two balls to the left at 13mtrs with caster in,  two to the right with micros for soft pellet, and one straight in front with a bit of both in.
Started short but not a bite, so went to the left long line and had a small roach, followed by a couple more, not what I wanted as I needed to win my section, so switched to the right with a soft pellet, and had a bite which resulted in a 2 1/2lb bream, proper handy . But that was my only bite on pellet, the match as expected was a really torrid affair, with bites from any quality being rare, it was ok getting bites from micro roach but they weren't going to be section winning fish, so I kept plugging away with double and treble maggot over the long lines, I ended up with 6 skimmers, 5 from the right where I had fed soaked micros in the groundbait and one from the left over the caster infused mix, only a couple of slightly better roach straight in front, I did feed caster to my right down by an overhanging bush and towards the end had a few 2oz roach and a lovely hybrid of over a lb, so I thought I realistically thought I may have 8lb so was shocked when steve called out 11lb, so I won my section,  it so did paul, so the league stayed the same as it was at the start of the match, Paul first, me second and Dave wride third, so a bit of a pickup , it's a nice little league which is enjoyable as it does take a bit of thought, as most silvers only matches are. And thanks to Alan next door on the quid allowing me to go large on the way home 😁

Weigh sheet below, thanks for running it again Ron and we all hope and expect you to be back and run it again next winter.

Viaduct winter league rnd 2

Stopped in the cross keys at lydford for breakfast , very nice it was aswell , would have been a good score on the rixster scale but the bacon was well cooked so only 4.35.
Just about got to the fishery in time for the draw, which Ron did for us, but not before captain Clint handed me a bag with a present as it was my birthday the day before, the big 60. There was a nice thorntons double choc cake which Helen cut up and I handed it out after the match, the other thing in the bag was a wrapped present which was soft, so knowing Clint loves his designer clothing I thought he had bought me a nice t shirt or top, but no, see the pictures below, but it's the thought that counts.

 And for those who can't read the packaging, a close up below, lol.

Any way, my peg for the day was going to be peg 38 on middle lake, which is a split section between middle, spring and match lake. Back in the day it was called the Crabtree peg as it was such a flyer, but not know, occasional carp live here but it has a better reputation as a silvers peg, good perch down to the right by a reedbed, skimmers on the wag with corn, and skimmers on the long pole over groundbait,

so rigs set up for all that, and a lead did to fish to the island off to the left. At the start and after feeding all lines I went out on the lead towards the island with meat on the hair, I had a liner after about 5minutes, so I threw out again, had a big liner but left it there, another 5 minutes and the tip flies round and I was attached to a decent carp on, which turned out to be a nice 13lb fully scaled mirror, a good start indeed. But although I stayed on the tip for a while longer  , and several more spells on it during the match I had no more indications, I also had a few bites on the wag and lost a skimmer , luckily for me the long pole line came good towards the end of the match, with the skimmers moving in, of which I had several in the last hour, with treble maggot being the best bait., The right hand margin which has been good recently for quality perch was no good, only two small samples, so a  bit disappointing on that front.
I ended up with the 13 lb carp and 10.01 of silvers which got me fourth on my lake/section, and third overall in the silvers pool, so a nice little pickup, all weigh sheets below, on the team front it was another blow out as it was only me and captain Clint who caught anything LOL.

Plantation lake silvers match

These matches are always popular, as it's probably one of if not the best silvers lake in the area, with lots of quality roach and skimmers with the occasional tench and perch thrown into the mix. So after a breakfast in the bridge which was ok as I managed to swerve the sausages and had extra bacon, (4.6).
Got to the lake and walked round with Paul faiers to peg it, put 18 pegs.out but only needed 16 so I took a couple of pegs out, all paid by 9 so I got the draw underway, myself and mike(silverfox)nicholls had the last two pegs and we ended up next to each other, Mike on 16 which is permanent peg 4, with on 17 , permanent peg 3, next angler to my right was chris(orris)ollis in corner peg 1.
The weather forecast was horrendous with Gale force winds and heavy rain, did they get it wrong, hell no, it was vile.
So only two rigs a roach rig for short, .3g drennan as4 for the that, and a .4g hb frostie for 11 mtrs, as that was about as far as I could hold the pole at.
At the start I cupped in some groundbait on two lines at 11 mtrs, one to the left with caster.And one to the right with micros for.soft pellet. And fed.caster short for the roach, but apart from one bite I never had a touch there,
It started.very slow with only small roach on the long line over the caster and groundbait line, whilst nothing over the pellet line, Mike by now was having some skimmers on his frugally (5micros) fed line on soft pellet, so two hours in and he was ahead by a few pounds, but as the match went on I started to claw a bit back, catching odd skimmers from both long lines, with caster maggot or soft pellet on the hook, presentation was awful, losing four good skimmers , but they were almost certainly fouled,  I the end I new it was close between myself and mike, but to be honest I thought he had just edged it as he had a better start, but I manged.to beat the sneaky old bugger , 22lb to 19, so that was ok, 

But not enough to win as the soft pellet wizard Dave wride had 25lb on permanent peg 10, below is a rare picture of Mr wride smiling, well done dave.

Weigh sheet below, considering the conditions the weights were ok, hopefully in a fortnight conditions will be more favourable.

Viaduct winter league rnd 1

Back to this popular venue with the future networks team again this year, comprising myself, Clint wojtyla, Leon Hubbard, Ron hardiman and Clayton hudson, went into the brewers fayre in street for breakfast, help yourself brekkie and it was nice , so a 4.5.
Into the fishery and with 17 teams of five it's about the biggest team match in the area, and as always well run by steve and mat. The draw was slightly different this year in the fact that you still drew for lake rotations but then drew for your pegs on each section randomly, and it seems to have been well recieved. I drew for the team and on paper it looked good, Clint on 131, Leon on 94 , me on 73, Ron on 37 and Clayton on 18, all good pegs with mine being a bit dodgy as there don't seem to have been many carp in this corner for a while now, but with 53 in on the opposite side of the corner I hoped it would keep some fish moving about, the left hand margin looked nice with brambles, and Paul faiers drew it last and lost three carp down there so I set up a meat rig for down there.

But the main killing area is the right hand margin, fishing down towards the big tree, which is 17.5mtrs away but plumbing up fishing right to the tree was a no no as it was to snaggy, so I set up a bread dobbing rig for along the bank, and as an afterthought a waggler to fish to my left again with meat as bait, to do well I thought I would need to catch some carp.

At the start I began on the bread rig , I had bite straight away from small roach, catching one of about 2oz, missed a few more and thought bigger that, so I cupped in a few pieces of meat at 14 mtrs down the edge, and had a sling on the waggler, I thought I missed a bite but couldn't be sure , so out again but the ripple was making the float hard to see, but it went under and I had a 1lb skimmer, but another 15 minutes and no mtr indications had me reaching for the margin pole rigs, I tried the left but nothing, and several attempts down there were fruitless, so down the right and I had a bite , after a bit of a tussle I had an 8lb common in the net, but that was it for now, back out on the waggler and I fouled one in the tail which came off halfway back, then I had a 12 oz skimmer fairly hooked in the dorsal fin, I didn't realise how important that would be in the end. With two hours to go I got off my box and made up a roach rig and started fishing caster topset and two, caught a few roach the fouled a carp which came off with the rig round the end of the pole looking like a bird nest, so that was it, so I decided to stay on the meat either down the edge and on the wag, with and hour to go I had a bite down the edge and had a 1lb hybrid, a few minutes later another bite resulted in another 8lb common,  both these bites coming just short of the tree at 16.5mtrs, 15 minutes left on the clock and I went out on the waggler, lo and behold it went under and another 8lb common in the net, and that was it for today, I new I had done ok as far as I could see but the only pegs I couldn't see were along my bank past the tree's, with Nick chedzoy on 66 having 4 carp so it could be right with him having a couple of the new stockies, the scales got to us quickly and my three carp and silvers went 28.14, I followed the scales along , Nick got his carp out and it was going to be tight, but luckily his 4 went 28.7, meaning I had won the lake so a good start, and that 12oz skimmer was dead handy, sorry Nick (LOL 😂).
On the whole the venue fished hard with Andy power showing his class by doubling the weight of second place with over 160lb off peg 96, all the weigh sheet below.

Midweek double header

As I know have Wednesday's and Thursday's off I have started.to run a costcutter at Landsend every fortinight, and this week's was the first one, so after a nice breakfast in lillypool, 4.6, and I'm sure I saw the cook smile. I arrived at the fishery with about 10 minutes to spare, ten of us this week, hopefully a few.more.for the next one. Basically pegged it very other swim so plenty of room, last but one to draw and peg 7 comes out, it can be ok, it's one of the shallower ones on the lake, but there is a dead weedbed opposite which can hold a few carp at times,

Jason to my left on 5, Mr duckett to my right on 9, and the diminutive (lol) form of John andres opposite on 17.

I half expected the peg to be a hard one, and it was, I had a skimmer down the middle on a small piece of meat, and with no other bites there after 30 minutes I changed that to a maggot line, Mike was.getting some small fish on it to my right, but at the top end of the lake in 11 and 13 , Steve seager and Adrian Clark were catching carp, so in the vane hope that the weedbed was holding a few , I went across with meat on the hook,  it wasn't really feeling it, but you never know.

But it never happened, I did manage 4 carp during the day, another good skimmer towards the end and some bits, but Steve seager kept catching, with his peg getting stronger towards the end, he ended up top on the day with 115lb

with Adrian opposite coming second with 58lb, and the silvers went to Mike duckett with 5 good skimmers and some bits for 12lb.

Weigh sheet below.

Onto Thursday and it was the penultimate round of Ron starks silvers league at Shiplate on the main lake, 15 fishing, so three sections of 5, and I need a section win from this match to keep me in touch with Paul faiers who is winning and looks a solid favourite to win the league. So into the bucket and certainly.wasn't upset to have a number 10 looking back at me, it's a good silvers and carp peg, but I hoped the latter.would stay away from me.

Three rigs today, one for caster at.topset and two, one for 13 mtrs straight out, and another for 14 mtrs slightly to the left. I had Lee waller to my left and the not so large now Ryan Jordan over to my right. At the start I fed some caster short, put two balls with caster in At 13 mtrs, and three balls with the same at 14mtrs, I started on the short line, and had two small roach then a near 1lb skimmer, but apart from occasional small roach I never had anymore quality off that line, I've spent most of the rest of the match swapping between the two long lines, catching odd better skimmers from each line. By the end I new I had done enough to win the section, and had over 20lb, dave Stephenson won on the day with over 30lb from peg 13, catching on soft pellet at 7mtrs, my fish went 23lb so I was happy with that.

as normal the weigh sheet is below, sorry it's a bit faint but the rain got to the paper.

Todber teams of five rnd1

Looking forward to this league being organised by Steve tucker, 12 teams of 5, so a decent turn out, after a nice breakfast omelette in cafe fox, Chris and me were.soon on our way, and today was a good drive as it only took us 65minutes to get to the fishery
. Mark poppleton had got there early and did our team draw, I didn't complain as he handed me 48 on hillview, a run to peg at any time of the year,
I went to the peg fairly confident I would catch on the hard pellet out in front and meat down the right just off the point in about three foot of water, and with an island out in front I did set up a lead rod for bread out there aswell.

At the start I cupped in some hard 4,s at 13 mtrs on front and some meat up the edge, then I chucked out the bread to the island, a couple of small indications first chuck, second throw the tip flies round and the first carp catches me, and I had a few more in the next thirty minutes, but the pole was beckoning, especially as Bob gullick two to my left had a carp , as did Chris Davis beyond him, so out on banded 6mm, I managed a few, but foulers were a problem, I persevered, and was rewarded.with several carp, and seemed to be doing ok in the section, but with the rest of my section behind me on the other side of the spit, it was difficult to keep an eye on what was happening, unlike mat Skyme over on 59 who was catching well on the lead from the start, but not in my section. I went up the edge towards the end and expected to catch well,  but although I had some it wasn't the flying end I expected, and to make matters.worse every time I looked around , Callum dicks on 52 seemed.to netting a fish, I dropped a big error today in not switching to maggot on the long pole line, it probably cost me as I think maggots seemed.to be the better bait today, I was first to weigh in the section and had a bit over 98lb, also I was a few pounds over in a net, and as I expected Callum won the section with 125lb, you can never really be sure, but if I had switched to maggot it may have been a bit closer, but you can never tell, so well done Callum, top on the lake was matt on 59 with 160lb+, which was good enough for second on the day behind des shipp on peg 27 on whitepost with 232lb, a very good angler on a good peg is always hard to beat, but a brilliant weight to be sure.big thanks to John candy who donated £400 of the peg fee money back to the league which has been added to the end of league team prize monies, and well done to Steve Tucker for his organisation on the day, all very professional. Weigh sheets below show how well it's fished.

2019 review

Oh well it seems to be a bit fashionable to do a review of the previous year now we are into 2020,
All round it's been an ok year, I've really enjoyed fishing with Judith , doing various things including LRF, beach and boat fishing with the self drives down at beer being a real favourite, also the barbel and chub fishing on the wye ranks up there aswell, or just her company on the bank on matches is always nice, luckily she takes no offence to the banter and had language.
As for the matches, I don't keep records so all I can say is that I won a bit , did ok, did I make a profit, probably not but it doesn't matter, it's about enjoying the days , and importantly keeping it might hearted as it's only a game we play , although there are some serious people about, but that's not to say I don't always give it my best, but we are generally in the hands of the draw, which at times can be cruel,   no one likes to hear loud moans about drawing what they think is a no hope peg, and it's normally from good anglers, just get on with it. I think there is always something to be learnt even from a bad peg.
nearly Finally a big thanks to Vic and Heather Bush at mosella for there continued support, it's really appreciated, and with Vic being an angler of many years most of his products are top  notch.
And finally(now), look after your local tackle shops, don't always look to the internet for the best prices, always give the shops chance to compete, especially those t#&+ts who come in , ask loads of questions see what they want them order online, trouble is me for one has been around long enough to spot these idiots,

Aramstone fishery

New year's day and a nice way to spend it would be a day on the lovely river wye, so that's what Judith , son number 2 James and me decided on, a stop in the premier inn on the North side of Gloucester for breakfast, (4.5) and we were soon on our way to aramstone fishery, run by Stan turner, a no nonsense bailiff and fishery boss, we get on well. There is a track along the riverbank so it's possible to park where you fish, all very sensible,

With the banks very soft, Stan puts some big tarps down to make sure turning around and parking is not an issue, a nice touch. It doesn't take to long to tackle up, and we were soon fishing, or possibly sleeping in Judith case.

It didn't take Judith long to get a bite which resulted in a 2lb+ chub on banded pellet, I had one about 10 minutes later which was probably near to 3 1/2lb, again on pellet.

 We struggled a bit after that, although we did miss some bites on meat which were probably chub Judith and me didn't catch, but James had a nice fish about the same size as the one I had.

We decided on a move a bit further down for the last couple of hours, which turned out to be a good move, as I had a barbel of 7.4, after losing one which broke my 12lb hooklink, a bit unusual, I think it probably did me around some snag or feature,

 Judith soon got into the barbel action with a fish of about 6lb, which was nice.

She put her success mainly down to her little bag of bait additive which she keeps in her pocket, only getting it out to coat her hookbaits, sneaky.

And then just at last knocking as I was about to say we ought to be going, she hooks another which turns out to be the biggest on the day, and her best to date, at 8.4 a nice fish and a good end to a very pleasant outing.

You just can't beat those pheromones, it's a shame there isn't a pheromones additive available, it obviously works.