On my god

Well this will be my last blog for a while, unless I feel the need to put thumb to kindle to voice an opinion, the main reason we are on lock down is mainly due to the vast amount of complete dicks ( no disrespect to the Richards out there) that thought it would be a good idea to overrun all the tourist attractions last weekend, ok to be fair the same goes for all the anglers which ventured out over the weekend, of which I was one, but to be fair the match I fished for the best part social distancing was adhered to, and whilst fishing we were a minimum of about 10 mtrs from the nearest angler. Now with all my local fisheries being closed down and premier angling having to close for a minimum of three weeks inr going to be housebound, Judith on the other hand still has to go to work As she is classed as a key worker in the food industry, also my daughter Lauren is also key as she is an end of life carer, I hope she knows how proud we are of her.
And my eldest and his wife Georgia will be on lock down with the tiny terrorist of the grandson, Brody, Sian also has her own issues being being on lockdown with my other son James. If we are lucky it will only be a three week shut in, but I fear it may be a bit longer, also with twelve week in doors for the over 70,s we must make sure our older relations and friends are ok and have everything they need to get by this difficult spell and keep them safe.
As.for my short pole series and float only league , they both begin within the 12 week period the government is implementing, so my only course is to cancel both leagues for this year, I will keep the dates in place at the fisheries, and run opens on those dates as long as the fisheries are ok with that.
Back to the last match, I was going to travel to Chilton trinity with Chris fox, but we made the decision to go separately, as did everyone else who was at the fishery, also when this three week or how ever long it's going to be is over its going to be months before I feel it will be safe to travel with anyone else apart from Judith,
Misha did a good draw, you were called to pay your money into a bucket and then draw , all this being done with a safe distance from anyone else, I was last but three to draw and ended up on 18, up in the top right hand side of the lake, I know it has won occasional matches, but generally you can't rely on it, so although I would feed a left hand margin and 14 mtrs in front for carp, and two silvers lines at 5 and 11 mtrs in front with caster and a bit of corn in some groundbait.

At least I was out of the wind and say in the sun all day, it was glorious, and no me to wade through was a bonus.
The match went to plan to be honest, carp were hard to catch, not just for me but as far as I could see most others, so most of the match was spent after the silvers, never had a bite at 5 mtrs, all the action came from the 11 mtr swim, but it was  a wait for bites,  but the skimmers were a good size, I didn't mind the wait as it was a bit to sit here in the sun and able to dry my kit out without the fear of a last minute shower, by the end I thought I had 25lb but the net went 29.4 which was more than enough to win the silvers, Brian slipper was second in silvers with 7lb.

Top weight today went to Andy b on 28 with 59.8 so well done matey, also it was a bonus peg so and extra £100 was a welcome bonus especially as he snapped the 13 mtr section of his pole.

The weigh sheet below shows it was a tough but to crack today, the overnight frost and bright sunshine coupled with a brisk North East wind blowing down the lake, not that I noticed day in my suntrap corner.

Monday night Judith and me ventured out up near the Severn bridge to try and catch a codling or two Steve ace did tell me that there only a few minis about at the mo up there but it was a lovely evening so it would just nice to be sat there, Steve was right, we did get a few rattles from minis, I had none and Judith managed one, so she beat me again, and she had more sites than me, only upshot was she did break a nail which upset her as she loves her nails.

Well this will be my last blog for a few weeks at least, a BIG stay safe message to all my friends , family, customers , and the angling family in general, hope we come out the other side and continue as we always seem to, so pic below is my last sunset on fishing for a while. X.

Huntstrete coffin dodgers

Back to my.local.venue again, only 12 minutes from home, and just as well.as I forgot my waterproofs, so a quick journey home sorted that and I was still back well before the draw, good to see 19 fishing, the covid 19 didn't stop them today, but it may sometime in the not to distant future, match organiser Dave Gillard drew.for.everyone with his rubber gloves on, when it was my turn he pulled peg 24 for me, a swim with lots of options, an island which is close by this lakes standards,

It's very shallow close to the island so I set up.a rig to fish caster at 8 mtrs in about 4foot of water, another rig for skimmers over groundbait at topset and two, and a couple of lines at 13 mtrs, one with caster and the other with some caster, the short line also only had caster in. My last rig was a pellet one to fish into the right hand margin, as it can hold some f1,s and small carp.

To begin with I fed one ball on the short line, and two balls on the two longer lines., Fed some caster into the 8mtr island swim and fired some hard 4,s into the right hand margn.
Starting on the short line I soon had a few.roach and a skimmer, it was never busy, so I tried the longer lines, but that was even worse, just a few even smaller roach, so back to the short line , the rest paid off as I had a few more 1lb skimmers, I fed.a Ball of groundbait back on that line and tried the island caster swim, a good move as I've had an enjoyable time catching some quality roach, barely swingable, but I did anyway, all the time I had been feeding pellets down the right hand side, also a few.to the left aswell, a look to my right and I had some f1,s on banded 6mm hard pellet, then back to the roach and some.more nice fish, I also had a couple of f1,s down the left, but there seemed.to be more to my right, it ended up being one of those matches you don't want to end, but it did,  it it had been nice, swapping around catching a few fish from various parts of the peg,
Top silver.weight today went to Paul Clayton for the second match running with 24lb from peg 19, again a nice net of skimmers on soft pellet, I wasn't to far behind with 22lb of roach and skimmers, but I had 22lb of f1,s and small carp to go with it, giving me.Top weight on the day of 44lb, so a nice day.

It seems.to be getting better , with more fish coming out each time.we.fish it, so hopefully the warmer months will be good. Weigh sheets below.

Three on the trot

Just about got round to giving an abbreviated run down of the weekend, but a bit about corona virus, I for one don't believe we are being told the whole truth about what it is and where it has originated from, probably man made. I do know it's going to have a massive impact on the global economy, and trade. All I hear about on telly is the doom and gloom. And how about the people on low wages who are struggling to keep a roof over there heads, all of a sudden on statuary sick of about £90 having to pay rents, mortgages, never mind feeding a family and paying all the bills, what is being put into place to help those, as far as I can see , bugger all. Perhaps a bill break  being made to people who are going to struggle paying there daily costs, I could go on and on but I wont, ok one more, who cares about celebs having to stay at home self isolating, instead of talking to these ,  try talking to some people in the streets to see how they are going to cope.
Anyway Saturday at Todber for the last round of the Todber teams of five, my turn on the low numbers on hillview, hoping for 37/38 but I ended up in 39, close but not normally close enough, the aforementioned pegs is that there is an island gap to cast into, my peg has the front of an island.

Not to much to say really, I had four small carp and a couple of small silvers on the pole, then a run of skimmers on the maggot feeder towards the end to end up with 26lb which amazingly won the section, and to make it all better the team had a reasonable day, so we ended up 4th in the league, well done barry,mark,ken, and Chris. Well done to thatchers vets on winning the league, and also Steve Tucker who ran it well, never an easy task.
Todber manor final standing Rd5

Overall on the day
1st Jon gray 128.10
2nd Martin Rogers 125.09
3rd Mark Poppleton 118.12
4th Ryan Shipp 115.00
5th Chris Rust 113.00

Silvers
Freddy Roberts 26.08

Teams on the day
Sw all-stars 10pts
One local 12pts
Thatchers vets 16pts

Overall league
1st thatchers vets 71pts
2nd sw all-stars 72pts
3rd BAS 76. 5pts
4th one local 79pts
5th parsigns 79.5pts
6th tackle UK 87
7th pi thatchers 87
8th Westerleigh 90
9th cod fathers 90
10th sas 93
11th misfits 100
12th pr floats 125
Into Sunday and it was back down to Todber, but this time on whitepost lakes, a match organised by Mark poppleton, 20 originally booked in, but with excuses like mud , rain and self confinement we ended up with 16, but for some reason mark had a senior moment and pegged it for 17, but at least he did the right thing by drawing peg 19 on the bottom lake 😂, which left 24 empty, which was going to aid the anglers on 22 and 25, me.Well I drew 3 on the top lake, not the best as pegs 7 to the end have been the best recently, but at least I didn't have to battle to much mud to get to my peg, the bottom lake is like a tough mudder course, every cloud as they say.i had Pete bailey to my left on 2 and the ever genial Welshman Glyn Reynolds on 5, again I've had a difficult day, I had three short on meat in the first hour, then I've fished 16mtrs across for most of the match on banded pellet, I've had a few fish but nothing to threaten anyone today, Pete to my left had a good last half of the match, catching on meat down his left hand margin, peg one not being in probably helped him, but he did well as current form for this end has been bad, Mark wynne made.no mistake on peg 11 with just short of 170lb, and travelling partner Chris fox was second with 125lb ish, didn't get a copy of the weigh sheet as Mark was seen wheel spinning out of the car park while I was still helping Chris retrieve his kit from the top lake, oh and I did lose a quid to mark as I bet him the rain wouldn't be to bad, got that wrong aswell, thanks to the BBC weather app, it pissed down for most of the match.
And then on Monday I went sea fishing with Steve ace, good to have a bit of a catch up , first mark was a ledge between Walton and layde bay, I had a couple of bites, one a bit iffy, but the other a proper slack liner, but nothing on the end, Steve managed a couple of codling and a nice day of just under 10lb.

The walk to this mark was a steep walk down a boggy hillside followed by a short scramble across sharp rocks, a bit of a jaunt back up the steep hill at the end of that session, into the services for a burger king for me and a kfc for steve, then off to black rock for low water, no hills on this one ,just a bruising struggle across weed covered rocks and boulders, you must wear studs or you would be In danger of slipping and possibly ending up with a nasty injury, but studs are a painful footwear, I wear the snowbee rockhoppers, neoprene they may be, but still painful under foot, we went down to the left hand edge to begin with, I've had a torrid one , firstly lost a 4lb codling under my feet in the weed, then lost a strap conger in the same weed, Steve managed a couple more codling.

Then the bites stopped so we took the decision to go up to the other end , which again entailed another trek across the weed strewn deathtrap rocks, but there with no injuries, and at least it was going to be shorter easier walk back to the car, as it's just a bit muddy this end, again Steve had a couple more, but I did eventually get one so saving the blank.

Steve showed his class today, and to be fair he is a good caster, consistently dropping his bait 120mtrs ever chuck, I was falling probably 40 mtrs short of that, and today distance was the key, some days it doesn't matter but today it did, so I know someone who does casting tuition, so I will be taking some lessons. Sorry it's a bit late with this blog but I just didn't seem to get time to sit down and do it, this week it's off to huntstrete on Thursday  with the overs and disabled, we may have a couple missing , then Sunday it's down to Chilton for an open, to be fair being outside with no real close contact with anyone is more than likely the best place to be, so get to your local tackle shops for a bit of panic buying, just in case we have to shut , hopefully not but we don't in all honesty know how this is going to pan out, I don't think we are being told the whole picture about this though,

Plantation lake silvers match

Looking forward to fishing this prolific lake again today,  it I did question my sanity slightly, when I found myself driving through an horrendous nail and rain storm with a couple of claps of thunder thrown in for good measure, but the deluge had stopped by the time I got to the bridge in yatton for breakfast, and it was really nice, 4.6.
That some it was.off to the lake to sort the pegging, with the wind due to blow at 40+ mph all day I pegged it as best I could to give most people a bit of respite.
Only 16 fishing as a couple cried off due to illness, probably not corona.
I got the draw underway and it was .left to me and tom mangnal to fight over the last two pegs, he ended up in 5 and me on 7, booth good pegs,  it badly affected by the wind, I had it left to right and tom had it straight in his face, I felt for Bob teakle to my left on 8 as it's a good peg but the wind and the Sun's reflection, ( when it came out) made.it probably the most difficult of days.
I only.set up two rigs, both .3g drennan,s, one a carbon stem slim thing, for spread.shot for on the drop, and the other a wire stem float, bulked for on the deck properly,
At the start I cupped in on two lines at 9 mtrs, 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock angles.
I started.short topset and two feeding caster,  it it was slow with only a few.roach in the next 30 minutes, so it was out into the two longer lines and a real test of endurance battling the gale, I soon started.to catch skimmers of varying sizes,.from 6oz to 3lb, and they wanted.feeding, every.two or three fish I had to top up with a ball of groundbait with casters, I actually ran out of groundbait with about 90minutes to go, so a quick scramble in the bait bag and I found half a bag of margin groundbait, so I mixed it up but the fish didn't seem to like it as much as the sweet mix I had been using, sport slowed right up ,but although I was looking around seeing plenty of fish coming out, I thought I would probably have done enough today, I didn't have a clue as to what I had, I knew I had over 40lb but after.that I wasn't sure, I was second to weigh, Tom had 26lb, then I had two weighs and had 57lb called, so an excellent day and a win.

After that the weights got very close, kevin(kerry) winstone was.second from peg 10 with 31.8, judging by the picture, kevs can't quite believe he has caught that much.

Mike Jones had 31.6 and Chris ollis had 31.5, and after.that there were several 20lb+ weights, and no complaints from anyone today, accept about the wind, which was awful, I felt for Bob to my left, his peg for snagged.On the bottom and the bottom for ripped out, losing 25/30lb, but he took it well, with sheet below.

Todber teams of five

Penultimate match in this league, my turn on whitepost, which has been the most consistent section so far, as long as you can avoid the dreaded peg 16, but first it was into the riverside cafe for breakfast, it was nice, clean and quick, 4.5.
Got to the fishery , and with no one else in view from our team, I convinced Chris fox should do the draw for us, he wasn't keen as his drawing arm is generally fairly crap, sure!y it couldn't continue, it was !, Yep 16 whitepost for me then, but at least he drew carp for himself in the shape of 34 hillview, so I dropped him of in his mismatch and went to my very own mudbath, when is this rain going to stop, at least we had a bit of shelter from the wind.

For company I had tackle uk,s birthday boy to my right Scott Russell on peg 13, and to my left mark(marco)Smith on 20, plenty of room but that normally means it's rubbish.
My match started.Well with 4 carp bread dobbing across the far side, but as expected that didn't last, I was feeding maggot on a couple of lines at 8 mtrs,  it no bites there so starting to get a bit concerned 😟, but at least either side hadn't caught much iether, but the other end of the lake was getting some action, mat skyme on 22 , mat challenger on 25 and the crooner himself jack Jones on end peg 27, back to my desert and I did begin to get odd bites on my 8mtr lines , so started.slipping a few carp in the net, and towards the end I did manage a few.from the right hand margin on maggot, including my biggest fish of the day a 7/8 lb common which I was playing in the all out,  it I was never going to threaten the three pegs at the other end, mat skymes won the section with 120lb+, he had a really good last couple of hours down his left hand margin, Jack on the end had just over 100lb and mat challenger just under, (I think), I admitted.to 60lb, and actually weighed 60.02, Scott on my right had 35lb and Mark on my left had 42lb, so we were definitely at.the wrong end, that's fishing for you. Individual and team results listed below.
Todber Winter l round 4 results.

Indv
1st Ryan Shipp 175lb
2nd Nick Ewers 152-06
3rd Tony Picton 152.00
4th Glen Picton 142lb.00
5th Paul elms 130lb

Silvers
1st Paul Greenwood 25lb
2nd Chris Davis 22lb
3rd lee Woodhouse 18lb.

Winning team
Codfarthers 11pts

Overall
Thatchers vets 55
Bac 58.5
Parsigns 61.5
Sw all stars 62
One local 67
Westerleigh 69
Pi thatchers 71
Tackle UK 71
Sas 73
Cod fathers 73
Misfits 81
Pr floats 98

Last round nx sat march the 14th.

Huntstrete silvers match on bridge pool

Nice turn out today, back to 20, which was a surprise as it was going to hard till about 1pm, into the draw bag of doom and out comes peg 14, it's a good f1 and carp peg , but it's a good 17mtrs to the island, and with the emphasis on silvers I decided to ignore them and try and catch some skimmers, the swim was definitely one to draw last year,  it for some reason the skimmers seem to have vacated.this area of the lake, preferring the taste of the water towards.the other end of the lake, oh yes.And it did rain till 1, so they got it right for a change.

Thank God for the mosella 70 ltr trolley bags this winter, with all the rain we've had, it's been a blessing to have the kit stay dry, with the lip on top you don't even have to zip it up, it also doubles as an extra.bait table as it's got a hard lid, proper piece of kit.
Back to the fishing , and I only set up one rig today, a .6g wire stemmed.affair with an 18 guru f1 maggot hook on the end, on my right on peg 11 Mike nicholls was going to target the carp and f1,s fishing the wag and maggot, and on my left Mike Jones was going for silvers.aswell,  it be had half a dozen pieces of kit assembled, all very confusing, on the whistle which was eventually blown, I cupped in one ball at 5 mtrs, and two balls on two lines at 13 mtrs, all with some casters in, starting short I had a micro perch on a maggot, so out again with a caster, and a slow bite resulted in a skimmer of about 12oz, Mike Jones was.already on his third skimmer by now, Mike nicholls was busting himself with the micro perch aswell on the waggler.
I did get a couple more skimmers on the short line, but it was hard going, I fully expected to catch on the longer lines but all I could catch were.roach, not particularly large but big enough to keep it ticking over. Mike Jones seemed.to be doing better than me as he was using his net fairly frequently, and Mike to my right began getting a few carp.so that looked as though the token carp weight was taken care of, and to be honest I was just sat there going through the motions as I felt like Jones had beaten me well, so at the end I was shocked to see he only had just over 9lb , I was next to weigh and put 10lb 11oz in the pan for the section win, and Mike to my right won the runners up pool with 40lb, top weight of silvers went to Paul Clayton on unfancied(by many) peg 3 with over 21lb on soft pellet, well done.

The weigh sheet below as normal, also a  if thanks to premier angling in keynsham for there continued sponsorship for these matches, it's greatly appreciated.

Viaduct winter league final round

After the breakfast stop at lydford for to the fishery and just about managed to find a parking spot, my turn on Cary lake today and with me doing ok in the overall individual side of things , one of the carp flyers was definitely required,  and in the absence of leon, we had drafted in the well known drawbag specialist Niel Mercer to do the bizz, not to bad, himself on 118, me.on 90, Ron on 68, Clayton on 52 and lastly , our leader Clint on 15, not the best but all worth a few points,

my peg is a corner on cary, I thought I would be good for a few carp, but the strong and gusty wind was going to make my first choice of pole fishing short lived , as it may just be ok to do at the start but the wind was due to get worse, I set up a rig for dobbing bread against the end bank which was a ball breaking 16/17mtrs away, and a tip rod for for further along the bank, but I could only go about 25mtrs as there a  bush and a tree in the way.
On the whistle I began on bread dobbing rig, and I was surprised when the float went under and I had a 4lb carp on the end, duly netted and back out again, missed a bite , or liner. Back out and a 6lb carp again netted, so a good start, but a bit disappointed with the size of the two fish, normally every fish is 10lb plus, by now the wind had increased meaning the pole and rig were blowing into the bank, so I cupped in some meat over there in the vain hope the wind would ease enough to have a go.
Into the lead with bread, not a touch, so a switch to meat produced another small carp(3lb), so up to three fish but only about 13lb in the net, I did try the pole a couple more times but the wind made it impossible to get any presentation, so I had to spend all the rest of the match on the tip, I did get four more pull rounds, three slightly better carp and a small tench,

 so ended up with six carp and a tench, which was looking fairly good to be honest as the lake was a tough nut to crack today, I thought I had about 40lb , not to bad a guess as I had just over 43lb, I was unlucky with the size of fish, normal size cary fish would give me between 60 and 90lb, I must have been in the carp nursery today, I'm not complaining though as it put me fourth on the lake so hopefully keep me in the hunt in the individuals. Mat tomes was top on our lake with 63lb on peg 102, but as expected top weight was on Campbell peg 131, well done Gary coton with 99lb, beating Andy power opposite on 111 by a few pounds, and he did the pools this week so a nice pick up for him.

Team wise thatchers  won by over a 30 point buffer so well done to them.

Overall individuals was won by Andy power with 74 points, so well done, I managed to hang on to second with 71 points, so happy days.

 All weigh sheets below

Big thanks and well done to Steve , mat and Helen long for a smoothly fun league again, and thanks to bait tech for the sponsorship, always appreciated.