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Thursday 23 December 2021

Three more

Firstly last sunday and it was the first of the Landsend winter leagues, nice breakfast at the fishery cafe to start the day 4.6. The draw nearly got underway on time, and i pulled out ball 55 from ades bag of doom, top left hand corner on lake three. Wouldnt have chosen that as its been a tough one lately, for company i had beany to my right and nick duckett opposite on peg 58, which is a favourite of mine, its been really tough today , onky a handful of small roach on caster, that was after a bit of bread dobbing around the end bank for one roach, the only place i could get bites was at 16mtrs towards the island on banded pellet, small crucian, teo f1,s and three carp in the last 30 minutes from the same line, i did also get one carp on meat down the right hand margin, to be honest it was hooked in the tough bit of the tail, but i will take them anyway I can on a hard day, ended up with 21lb for 5th on the lake so not a total disaster, tip weight onnthe lake and in the match was taken by jason radford with 8 or 9 carp for over 50lb, some on the pole at the start ten a few more on the lead, it was a tough day all round as the weigh sheets below show.
monday and itn was the sedges silver,s match on tile lake today, again another good breakfast at the fishery, 4.65. Then i had peg 38 drawn for me, good peg but the general conscientious was that the further up the lake you were . The more chance of skimmers. And so it proved with adie bishop running out and easy winner with over 20lb from peg 32, with eric fouracre and steve kedge coming second and third from opposite, made a mistake not taking a feeded.rod today as most started on it and caught some early fish on it, i only fished the pole and it took me 90 minutes to get my first fish, a small roach, that was at 13 mtrs, but i had to got to 16 mtrs to catch, only.ending up with 6lb+ , but still managed.to beat quite a few, but paid the price for leaving the tip rod at home, wegh sheet below.
Thursday and back to plantation main lake for a silvers only match, breakfast in the bridge in yatton, very nice, as long as you have extra bacon instead of the sausages, cos they aint nice. so 4.4. 18 fishing so plenty of room , had des shipp fishing again today, he was hoping not to draw peg 1 again as he struggled. There last time, but i did try and convince him it can be a good roach peg as you have plenty of water to go at, so when he drew one again you csn imagine how blue the air went, it didnt help matters when several people had a laugh, but having run winter matches for a few years on this venue, i now full well that it can produce the goods, but not according to todays tenant, i was on 25 this time, with mike nicholls on 24 and mark broomsgrove on 27, last match i caught really well fishing short, plenty of roach on caster, but not today i only had one fish from that line all match, mike Nicholls haf a few fishing a 4 mtr whip with caster, but ive had to catch at 11 and 13 mtrs, with caster or maggot over groundbait, ending up with 21lb which was good enough for forth, oh and guess who won from crap peg 1😂😂😂😂😂😂, yep , des managed to moan out a nice net if mainly roach for just over 30, cracking fish.
Mark broomsgrove on 27 haf 26lb and dave willmott on 19 had 24lb, there were still a coupke of difficult areas as the wegh sheet below, but most people had double figures, which just goes to show what an excellent silvers venue this is, and james travis is working hard to improve it all the time , tidying the banks up and replacing platforms, well done,
I thunk des may like peg 1 now, i had a quick look at the swim after the match, and found a couple of odd items in the swim,
but dont worry des i have got them in the van so i can return them to you at the next match, unless you need them before that and i will gladly post them to you, but then again you probably buy them in bulk.😆😆😉😉

Monday 13 December 2021

Two days in kingston seymour

Sunday and were off to plantation main lake for the second round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, breakfast with Chris fox in the bridge in yatton, very good 4.5. Got to the lake in plenty of time, ron got the draw underway, he asked me to draw for him, he wont ask again, peg 39 for him, nice carp peg LOL 😂, he then drew for me and pulled me out peg 24, happy as i had won off the peg a couple of weeks ago on a Thursday match, nice peg as its got a nice new wooden platform, and looking at the water it was noticeable that there was a slight tinge of colour compared to Thursday. Nice easy peg to fish as its the same depth at topkit and one out to 13 mtrs, so onky two rigs, a .4g double bulked, and a.3g shotted to fish bulked initially, but with the option to spread the shot if necessary, last time here i caught roach and decent skimmers on topset and one and topset and two, plus a few on the longer lines, but the water was a bit clearer, so not convinced it would be the same, but still attacked it the same, 2 balls of groundbait at 11mtrs, and three at 13 mtrs. All laced with caster and a few pinkies. I started on topset and two feeding caster with the same on the hook, ive had a roach first put in, followed by more, so i came closer and kept catching, so i spread the shot and fished to hand, laying the rig straight out in front, and ive had a nice 2 hiurs catching roach steadily, but it didnt last more than the two hours, but it was good while it lasted, i did follow them out for a while to topset and two, but it wasnt long before they went from there aswell, so out on the skimmers it was then, which unfortunately never really happened, when i did get one, which wasnt very often, it would only be a small one, the biggest i had was about a pound, the roaxh cameback inthe last hour on the topset and two line, so a nice days fishing but none of the quality skimmers for me which you need to do well on the venue, but i still ended up with 26lb, of which 20lb was roach, a cracking day, but only good enough for 4th in the section and 7th on the day, topspot went to leon(peter pan) hubbard on 28 with 38lb, after that therer was two 32lb with kev winstone just ouncing ryan jordan out of second from pegs 11 and 4 respectively, well done all , a good match as the sheet below shows,
Monday and back down to kingston again for a knock up on acorn paddock lake, only 11 fishing so we had plenty of room, drew peg 3, nice draw in the middle of the island, with paul faiers on peg one and darren knight on 5. Set up rigs , one for dobbing against the far side, a margin rig for each side empty pallet, and a rig for maggot at topset and three off to the left. Started on the bread across for three small carp, then no bites, not even liners, i persevered with it, ut nothing happened, darren was getting a few on pellet across, and paul was getting silvers as thats what he enjoys most, all of a sudden there was just over 2 hours left and i had nothing in the net, so i got off the box made up a rig for topset and two for maggot in front, and changed.the hook on the dobbing rig for a b960 with a band for hard pellet, also started feeding pellet across with a catty and cupped some maggots on the new short line, these changes certainly seemed to change the peg around, i started to catch carp across, i had a couole couple of good tench short, the peg got better towards the end, i had a couole couple of good carp from the short maggot line aswell and some decent roach and a skimmer, thought i may have nearly 60lb, but paul faiers on peg 1 had probably won the day as he had been catching some nice tench to go with some good roach and skimmers, and he did ,as he had 38lb of silvers and 43lb of carp for the win with 81lb, i managed second with 67lb and john mills on 13 was third with 63lb, pictures of paul , and weigh sheet below.

Thursday 9 December 2021

Plantation silvers only

Back to the fortnightly silvers match on this normally prolific roach and skimmer venue. No breakfast on the way, just a bacon roll grabbed on the way through from a layby butty van. Got the draw started a bit early as we were all there, i let ron hardiman draw for me and wa s well happy with peg 8, best carp peg on the lake and also a good silvers area , peg 7, was taken up by kev winstone, so thats twice on the trot ina silvers match, could be close for the quid as 7 has lots of form for silvers, as far as rigs go, i always try.to keep it simple, so a .3g float shotted with 9,s & 10,s so i could bulk it or spread the shot if needed, the other a ,4g bouble bulked, its pretty much the same depth all around most pegs on the lake making it simple. at the start i fed two lines with groundbait and caster, one at 11 mtrs at 2 o,clock angle and the same straight out, but i started topset and two loose feeding caster, as thus has been a bit of a banker in the last two matches, but i wasnt to sure as the colour had dropped right out, and aftwr 25 minutes and not a touch, my fears were recognised, and although i kept trying it throughout the day, i only had 4 smallish roach so no more on that, i went out over the groundbait line at 11 mtrs but nothing , so out to 13 mtrs, and i had a good start with several good skimmers, bait didnt seem to matter, caster, maggot ,pinkie, i was catchimg on all, but as soon as the skimmers were there, they drifted away, to be replaced by smaller samples and odd roach, by swithching between the two long lines ,fishing single.maggot or double pinkie, i had odd skimmers all through, but it was a waiting game.for a bite, i still needed to put some feed in, as if i left it i couldnt get a bite, but put a small ball of feed in and you could expect a response, but to much and no signs, but i cant help myself and probably tried to force it to much, the lake has difficult for most , especially those in the early pegs, where some anglers never had a bite for over two hours, but everyone started to catch towards the end, on the all out i new i had over 20lb, but hoped for 25, so not to far out as i had 25.15, i thought gary bowden on 16 had beaten me but he had smaller skimmers for 23lb, dave willmott on 31 was admitting to 18lb so i was fairly sure he would have enough as he hardly ever.tells the truth.lol, and i was right as he had just over 26lb, he had lots of roach and a few skimmers, all on loosefed caster at about 11mtrs, so only one decent skimmer seperating the top 3, there were still lots of double figure weights but it had been a tough one,weigh sheet below, all on permanent peg numbers.

Monday 6 December 2021

4 matches and brief

First off, last sunday and it was the final round of mat culpins teams of three at shiplate, my turn on hawthorn lake, needed a peg with a bit of room preferably, and got my wish, peg3, rod Wooten on my left on peg 2, Jamie parkhouse on the right on 5. So peg 4 not in so and option to go there towards the end of the match, plan today was to start on bread just off the far bank, then switch to maggot , maggot down in front of 4, and maggot down the middle, bob gullick on 7 main lale and our leader Mat Culpin peg 1 west pool. it all started.well withba carp first put in on the dobbing bread, end of the first hour and i had three carp in the net, and doing well at my end of the lake, then it got hard, i had 4 more on maggot off the far line and two down by peg 4, did well at my end of the lake but as the weigh sheet shows there seemed to be more carp in the middle of the lake
Our team went into the match with a 12 point buffer, and we ended up twenty points clear, so a nice payday for us, well.done to bob gullick who scored most of our points, and even mat came good in the end with a lake win., Steve howell won on the day from hawthorn 7 with over 70lb, sp well.done, and i think he even had most of them in the mouth.
monday and attempted to run a match at acorn , but only 6 fished, wont dwell on that, paul faiers had a nice day on peg 9 catching silvers on caster to win with 22lb , well done paul, i was second with a few carp and silvers for 15lb on peg 13, i will.hold my hands up to having some assistance from a fouled 8lb common.
Thursday and back to huntstrete for the fortnightly coffin dodgers match, into the bag of doom and out comes peg27, good peg for sure, but with the water being clear, you could see the bottom of the keepnet,i feared the worst. for company I had dave (topset diddly bonk)haines on 26, and phil(fizzy) morgan on 28, dave asked for a quid side bet, which i duly accepted, ut he wanted it on silvers only, oh well, that would have to do then. I have caught on this peg on bread across to the island, but didnt really expect that to be good today, and i was right , 30 minutes in and not even a liner, luckily i had fed some groundbait at 13 mtrs.with some caster in, and i started getting indications straight away, but bites were hard to get, i persevered and had a few.better skimmers, and roach, mainly.on single caster, i also had a couple of f1,s in three foot of water away from the island and 1 small carp, ended up with 17lb, 7lb of silvers and ten pounds of carp, , won £20 for my.efforts and the all important quid off hainer.
Sunday again and first round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, this one at shiplate on the main lake, breakfast at cafe fox was excellent as ever , 4.95. Got to the fishery in plenty of time, most people wanted a draw on the far side , just to try and get a bit of shelter from the gusty north westerly. The draw wasnt kind, peg 7 , wind blowing in and across from the right, very cold to say the least. Trainee silver angler on my right kev winstone, who luckily for seems to have plenty of pound coins in the ash tray in his car.he did manage a quid off me on Thursday, but only because i had to give him change from a two pound coin 😳😂😂. i fed two lines on the pole at 11 and 13mtrs, two balls of groundbait on each with a few casters and pinkies in, i gave the feeder half an hour, but not even a tremble, so that was binned, first out in and a 2lb on pinkie, then a small roach, then not a touch for an hour, paul(dead in the head)elmes had a run of skimmers on the feeder on 12a, also clint wojtyla on 12 had snuck a couple out aswell, but not in my section so not to worried, the last two biurs were not to bad, i haf a few better skimmers and small roach, enough to keep me interested, presentation was difficult, and i think if i hadnt used the pole bump bar j wouldnt have caught as much, kev wandered up for a bit of coaching, and had a few skimmers when he went back, i ended with 6 decent skimmers and small roach for 13.13, enough for a section win and thurd on the day, clint was top on the day with 19lb to pauls 18lb, weigh sheet below.

Saturday 27 November 2021

Only a bit late

Last sunday it was off to ivy house with chris fox for the winter league as stand ins, oml and willow for me and and the canals for him, fishery breakfast was ok. Into the draw tin and peg 33 for me, last peg on the island on the far side of willow. I had the option of the end of the island to fish to, but with it being very cold i felt that would be to shallow, so i decided to fish the wag and pellet about 10 mtrs off the island in about three foot of water, i could have gone further to the left where there is nearly 6 feet of water, but it was a good 40 mtrs and with a nasty cross wind i decided not go that far, should have set up a lead rod.
i also set up to fish a skimmer line at 13 mtrs over groundbait, and to be fair i could have had quite a few, but only small ones, so with it being a weight match i didnt spend to much time on it,.endwd the match with 4 carp and 6lb of skimmers for 39lb and third in the section, stu (tin) foale to my left had 5 carp and a few.skimmers for over 40lb and the angler over on peg 23 winning the lake with 68lb. Monday and off down the a38 to bridgwater and the sedges for the silvers match on brick lake, had peg 18 drawn for me, would have preferred to be a couple of pegs to my right, only set up one rig, a .8g with an 18 guru f1 maggot hook on, fed two lines, one at 6mtrs and another at 13mtrs, fed both with groundbait with some caster in, had a sort of steady day, never catching well but enough to keep me interested, steve kedge opposite on 3 seemed to be doing the best, with adie bishop on 8 also catching some aswell, i did get a bonus in the shape of a crucian of about 1 1/2lb, i ended up with 11.12 which was good enough for third with kedgy having 14lb and adie coming second with 12lb, weigh sheet below.
with the cold weather now set in i was glad we were at plantation main lake for a silvers match, undoubtedly this is the best silvers lake we have in the area, the secret to its success is probably the fact its left alone so sort itself out, not try and make something the lake is not capable of withstanding. Kev Winstone drew for me and peg 24 was my home for the day, not an area you generally want to draw, i was next to me old mate shaun putley who was on 25, good to see him in a match as we haven't fished the same match for at least 15 years.
I had an overhanging bush to my right so a rig to fish by the branches in case there may be some perch in residence, with it being the same depth from tooset and one out to 13 mtrs i set up a conventional rig and a double bulk rig, i fed four lines at the start, a small ball of groundbait on the topset and one line, the same another section further out, then two balls on the 11 and 13 mtr lines in front, starting on the top and two line feeding caster i was soon catching roach steadily, i took probably about two hours to catch a skimmer, only 8oz, but welcome, i dropped back to top and one and had atwo pound fish staight away, i upped the groundbait on the two short lines which had the desired effect as more skimmers turned up, on both lies, the linger lines gave me a few but the short lines were much better. Ever fish i caught today was on single caster, just hooked lightly like a maggot, (jim norris). Again ive haf a lively days fishing, and i thought i had 35lb by the end, started weighing round on peg 1 , dave wilmot on peg 2 had 40lb, i wasnt to sure i had that.
i got to my peg and he was still winning, as soon as i pulled my net out i new it was tight, my fish went 44lb which was enough to be top today, with kev winstone on 15 coming third with 32lb.
The weigh sheet below shows how well it fished, considering there was a cold northerly wind its been really good,

Thursday 18 November 2021

This week

Sunday and it was mat culpins teams of three rip off, penultimate round, my turn on west pool, after a nice jess breakfast (4.8) it was draw time and i told bob i wanted any peg at the far end or peg 5, i really feel as though an empty peg next to you is an advantage on this pool, so he draws me peg 6, this is the third time we have drawn this sequence of pegs in the series so far, unfortunately the pegs are in either side. Bob gullick had it last time and won the lake from it, but he had Paul faiers on his left trying to catch silvers, not like that foe me today, jamie parkhouse on my left and paul nichols on my right, it turned out to be as difficult as i expected, ob had a lot of bis carp at 11 mtrs on maggot, but i only had one skimmer from that line, and lost a fouler, my only fish came from tight over on meat, ending up with 44lb which was enough only for 5th on the lake, quite happy with that, paul winning the lake from peg 5 with over 80lb, well done. Good to mike duckett fishing, hes had a bad leg recently, so i enquired as to how it was progressing, really good he said, changed his medication by all accounts with the doctor prescribing a stronger course of anti "imflammables" legend. Weigh sheets below as normal, luckily we can still rely on bob gullick to carry us through again withanother la lake win from peg 1 on Hawthorn, and with mat even helping with five points from the main lake the team won on the day mgiving us a 12 point buffer going into the last round on sunday week, but i know it could always go horribly wrong, seen it before.😬😬
Monday and i ran a match at. Acorn down at Kingston Seymour, not been here for a long while, was going to run a match here a couple of months back, tested positive for the covid on the morning so that was cancelled, fairplay to the Chinese, they havnt given us many things that have lasted this long😣😕😷😷. Only ten of us so only used pegs 1 to 21 so empty peg each side for everyone, thanks to the fishery for letting us use every other peg. Had breakfast in the bridge and it was nice , dont have the sausages go for the extra bacon instead, rubbish sausages. I had the last peg and ended up on 19, not a peg of choice, andy gard.to my left on bridge peg 21 and beany on my right on 17 not expecting to do to well today and i never. Had 18lb of silvers and a few carp for just over 50lb, maggot was the best bait today down the middle, and some from up by empty pag 20. Martin rayet made no mistake on peg 11 with just over 100lb, catchimg on soft pellet over micros across to begin with, then on worm over micros down his left hand margin towards the end, alan quantrill on peg 3 was second with 93lb, and darren (daiwa)knight on 5 was third with 60+, paul faiers wan the silvers with 24lb from peg 1, proper silvers aswell, i dont allow f1,s or carasio thingy,s to count as silvers, they go in a net with small.carp. Weigh sheet below.
Thursday and Shiplate again for the costcutter, 19 fishing so every peg in, jess doing breakfast again, so 4.89 as the tomatoes were hot today, first to draw and pulled out peg 13, a peg on the far side which is what i fancied as the wind would be more favourable for fishing the waggler. So got to the peg and set up very little really, a margin rig just in case some fish showed up, but they never, probably to clear and cold now, a meat rig for 8 and 14mtrs, this swim is very shallow till you get to 8mtrs, where it drops down to full depth, and of coarse a wag to fish banded 8mm pellet on the deck at about 25/30mtrs, Started on the meat on the pole, ut apart from a lost fouler, that was my lot , so after an hour i was out on the waggler, started getting indications and liners from the off, but the fish took a while to settle, the last couple of hours were the best landing several carp up to about 12lb, including a nice grass carp of about 11/12lb, as.these fish dont like being messed about with to much you only get 10lb for one if you catch one.
On the all out i thought i had 90lb, wasnt to far out as my carp and lone tench went 94lb, it was a hard day for most as dom Sullivan was second with 37lb, he aslo had the best silver weight with 11lb, weigh sheet etc below.

Thursday 11 November 2021

The good, the bad and the excellent

Ivy house on sunday, fishing as a stand in as it is the continuation of last years winter league, halted back then due to covid, i think i was standing in for ryan shipp, went with chris fox who was also a stand in but for Anton page, we were on willow and old match lake, breakfast first which was nice. into the draw and out comes 18 for me which is the corner peg on the old match lake. Chris was behind me on willow, so a nice short walk from the van for both of us.
Lots of options for me, a long right hand margin, so i set up a dobbing rig for that, a small island slightly to my left in front at about 30mtrs, a margin rig for down the left, and a pellet rig for 14 mtrs in front,a wag for pellet to the island and a short corn rig. so only a small roach on the dobbed bread, nothing in the left hand margin, i did get two reasonable skimmers from the right hand bank on pellet later. Wag to the island was no good as the wind was blowing it through, so switch to casting along the end bank was good for about 45 minutes when i had some stockies, i had a few fish, (stockies and skimmers ) on the long pellet line, then in the last hour some better skimmers and three bigger carp graced.the net, so i ended up with 60+ pounds for second in the section, beaten by phil on peg 23 with just over 70lb, so that was an interesting day, Monday and off down the a38 to bridgwater and the sedges and the silvers match on tile lake , i didnt realise that the breakfast was going to be my best and only bite of the day, drew peg 29 again which is third time on the trot, i can honestly say I never had a touch for five hours, but i stuck it out till the end, christ that was painful, nothing else to say about that, 8lb won off peg 35. Thursday and it is the first of the silvers matches i run during the winter on plantation main lake, always good as its probably the best all round silvers lake we have got in the area, with shiplate coming a close second on its day, plantation main lake is consistently good no matter.what the weather, 17 fishing which is a nice number. Dave willmott drew.for me and handed me peg 7 , thanks dave, people who know the Lake will know this is one of the best pegs on the lake for carp or silvers, i made up three rigs, a .3 slim pattern for topset and two, a .4g double bulked for 11 and 13 mtrs , where it was the same depth on those two lines, and a .3 slim again to fish more on the drop, bait was simple, caster and groundbait, and hopefully just caster on the hook, i did have a smidge of reds for the hook just in case, at the start I fed one ball of groundbait at topset and two, and two balls on each of the longer lines. Starting short and i was into 6/8 oz skimmers from the start, aswell as some nice roach, to be honest i have had most of my fish from this short line, as the match went on i had some better skimmers/ bream up to 3lb and lots of roach and a spattering of perch, none of the bigger ones but 4 to 8 oz fish, i could catch on the longer lines but the fish were no bigger, so refular top ups with groundbait on the short line with plenty of caster feed over the top, the carp turned up in the last hour, and i lost the hooks on all three rigs in the lat 5 minutes, so i packed up , no sure what i had but làst time I had this peg i weighed in 50lb, i thiught i had much the same, but was pleased to see the scales register a few.ounces over 60lb, a proper days fishing.
Second was paul barnfield with under 40lb, ouncing out ryan jordan by a few ounces into third.
The weigh sheet shows just how well it fished, as i said earlier this is one incredible silver fish lake, well worth a visit this winter.

Friday 5 November 2021

An improving three

Sunday and it was off to Shiplate again for the mat Culpin teams of three rip off league. No jess at the fishery today to cook breakfast as she had a weekend off to celebrate her 20th birthday, a bit thoughtless really 😂😂. Travelled with Chris fox so cafe fox did us proud with a couple of good breakfast rolls(4.70). Any way my turn on the main lake, so bob gullick did our team draw and handed me peg 7, happy with that as its been a good area of late for carp, and as our team (no calamities) was winning the league it was just a carp attack today. So meat.at 5mtrs just off to the left, same.at 13 mtrs, a margin rig for maggot on the rocks close in, a wag and pellet.for on the deck at 25 mtrs, a lead.rod, and a pellet.for 13 mtrs to the left at.the bottom of the rocks,
Well, nothing on the wag as the wind and tow was going the same way, nothing on the lead as i get bored to quick, all the time i was blanking on on these methods jamie parkhouse on the left was catching on the method to the island, and martin rayet on the right was catching on the meat short. I eventually had a couple of carp on the 13 mtr line, ut by now Jamie was catching on the pole and martin was still catching on the meat short, ive had a hard match to be fair but i have done thing wrong today and have recieved a proper spanking, beaten like a step child severly each side, jamie ony doubled my weight with 230lb and martin the other side had 216, i haf 115lb which was only good enough for 5th on the lake, luckily Bob gullick won west pool with 120lb, and mat is improving with 7points off Hawthorn, so we are still top of the leafue and mamaged.to stretch out lead to 12 points, weigh sheets below.
Monday and off down the a38 again to the sedges for the silvers match, breakfast at the fishery cafe, all nice (4.8), on brick lake today and i fancied a draw on pegs 1 to 10, as the trip would be against the wind given the wind direction, but after.laughing at steve kedge for drawing peg 15, cold wing blowing in and across from the left, i end up with peg 14, so a cold uncomfortable day for us then, the other bank had flat.water with a favourable tow, a couple of one gram rihs made up one with a 16 hook and the other an 18, it was difficult today to get any sensible presentation, i fished two lines, 5 and 11 mtrs, feeding balls of caster laced groundbait fairly regularly, and had a few fish off eaxh line before refeeding, again carp were a problem as the match progressed, but it looked as though it was hard today for all, chris rolf over on the Majorca bank was sneaking a few out, by the end i new i had double figures but was pleasantly surprised to weigh 15.5, not quite enough as mr.rolf had 15.8 for a narrow win, well done chris, i wont mention that i beat steve kedge on 15 for the quid, weigh sheets below as normal
Thursday and back to shiplate on the main lake, jess back in attendance today looking none the worse for getting wrecked at the weekend, good breakfast and as she now does tinned tomatoes i will give her a 4.89. I drew peg 14 for myself, and had clayton hudson on my right and paul faiers on my left,
One pole rig to fish meat at 5 and 13 mtrs again, a margin rig for each side but didnt try it as the water had lost a lot of colour and we had had a lot of rain and some frosts which didnt help and lastly the trusty wag rod to fish 8mm hard pellet on the deck, i did get a carp of about 7lb after about 30 minutes, and a skimmer, but apart from one skimmer and a couple of lost foulers on the pole, the last couple of hours were spent on the wag, which i had to fish about 18inches over depth to slow it up, but i managed 8 more carp on that to nearly 20lb so not to bad, it fished hard, i reckoned on having 80lb , and really close on the guestimation today as my nine carp went 80lb and the lone skimmer was 1lb so 81lb total, enough to win today, with john andres on 11 coming second with 57lb, top silvers went to paul on my left with 14lb, pics etc below.

Thursday 28 October 2021

Three to reprt

Started off on sunday for one of jon darby,s matches, which was a pairs match, headed up there with chris fox, arriving just in time for the last pair of pegs, chris on 48 old canal, and me on peg 2 for the second match running, decided on a different approach today, corn long and short on the pole, pellet down the margin and pellet on the wag and lead to just off the island. well it nearly paid off, ive had a few small carp at 13 mtrs , some on the wag (5) one carp and a huge f1 down the edge, and a decent run of better carp on the short corn line, ending up with 80lb, with just over 100lb winning the section, perhaps if i had gone on the shorter line a bit earlier i may have had a few more, or maybe not, a well run match by jon, so well done to him, weigh sheets below.
monday and it was back to the sedges for the monday silvers match, back on the canal lake, so a smaller turnout for this one, 13 i think. After a nice breakfast in the new fishery cafe, jamie got the draw underway, i pulled out 47 which was a peg i won off earlier in the year with about 14, and its where the lake starts to get a bit narrower, i was next to bob pascoe again, so it was never going to be quiet, this warm weather has got mother nature a bit confused i think, thi mallard has got a new brood of ten chicks, i cant help thinking they may not make it.
With it being a difficult lake i decided on a bit of a negative approach, feeding three lines , topset and one, topset and 4 straight out and the same number of sections to the right, nowhere near the far side as the reeds were moving about with the carp, i started short and had two small skimmers, and that was my only fish from that line, i did get a few fish off the tep longer lines , a mixture in sizes of skimmers from 2oz to about 1 3/4lb, i did set up a rig for caster under the tree to my left but one bite and one small perch, i thought i had about 6/7lb but was suprised they went 10lb exactly for topweight.
now onto thursday and the costcutter on shiplate main lake, another good breakfast on site, then draw time, into the bucket nd out comes peg 6 for me, im on this lake on Sunday, and will need to catch carp, so today that was all i was fishing for, so two meat lines, one in front on topset and two, and the same ammount of pole to my.left at the bottom of the margin rocks, a margin rig for amongst the rocks to the left, a wag for pellet on the deck, and a lead rod for the same spot.
Started on the wag but took about 35 minutes to get a carp, soon followed by another, then i lost one, and for some reason the bites stopped, so a look on the meat liners, produced nothing.back on the wag and had a couple more, but the tow was making presentation very difficult, so i had a quick look on the lead, only a couple of liners, mid match i did get three quick ones on the wag, but that was it, luckily for me the left short meat line showed signs of life, and i had a few from there in the last hour, along with a couple from the margin rock swim, including a fish which was close to 20lb , on the all out inwas playing a fish which was to prove essential as paul glasson oner on 12 had had a good last couple of hours in his margin, when the scales got to me paul was winning with 126lb, i thought i may just have 130, so it was going to be close, that final fishwhich was about 12lb was decisive as my fish went 136.8 for the win, so happy days. Pete zimniak won the silvers from peg 4 with 38lb, due to the torrential rain at the end there is noe weigh sheet, so the few top weights are listed below