Two very brief roundups

Firstly back to the sedges for the first round of the float onky league, 40 fishing again this year, and i had a bit of a waiting list, so good to know its still popular, this series has been going for over 30years, run originally by nigel milkins back in the day, assisted by steve Evans, i took over well over 20 years ago, still being assisted by steve. Who has made the league run a lot smoother than had i been doing it alone, last year it never happened due to c19 so hopefully we can complete it this year. todays weather was forecast to be horrendous, and it never disappointed, severe gales coupled with heavy rain, TORRID. Ryan jordan did a good job in drawing me a peg with a bit of shelter, 23 on tile. I did feel for the anglers at the other end of the lake (ye right lol), the weather made it difficult to say the least, but some good weights were had , i ended up with 80lb, a few on the shallow wag, a couple on the deck on pellet at 13 mtrs, and a few late.fish on meat over the short line. No pictures as it was to wet and horrible, weigh sheets below and a big well done to john andres on winning the first match from peg 40 with over 160lb.

on to monday and i ran a short pole match at acorn, topset and three, i had 22 booked in until they saw the weather forecast, so ended up with 18, still not to bad ,i had last peg in the hat, which was 22, ok to be fair, and i can honestly say I never did the peg justice, on a brighter note i was pegged next to leyton palmer again, so gauranteed a laugh, and he never let me down, ended up with 67lb, struggled to begin with, that was untill i started to put some groundbait in down the middle and it seemed to kick start the swim, first a few skimmers, then the carp showed up, and as I said,i should have done better, strangely i never had a bite by by the bridge, nor did leyton, although he was catching well towards the bridge at the end but in the margin. topweight was by des shipp on 33 with 111lb which included the best silvers weight of 27lb, he has caught over groundbait, then on worm towards the end when he couldn't get the rig in quick enough, legend. In form dave(foggy swamper) ings was second from peg 3, and mark(bunt) broomsgrove was third with 71lb, leaving me in 4th and no pick-up, there is a weigh sheet but i cant find it, if i do i will pop it on at some stage.

Sedges wednesday costcutter

A good turnout of 26 at this popular somerset venue, tospdays match was on tile with the overflow onto brick lake, jamie and denise got the draw underway and pulled out peg 37 for me, not to displeased as.i won off 38 last week on the shallow wag, it was a nice day, today.was.different, a.string howling wind blowing into out bank and from the right, so wind and trip together, totally ruining any chance of the wag, not that i could have fed far enough out in these conditions, i had decided to fish solely for carp today as ots the first of the float only league matches on sunday, and carp are needed for good section points, so pellets and meat it is then, so a margin rig and a 5 mtr.rig for meat, and a deep pellet rig for 13 mtrs as long as the wind allowed, after feeding all lines i started.at 5 mtrs on meat, but no bites, the wind was relentless, trying to pish the rig through, no bites there, i tried it a few times during the match and had one bite which was a skimmer towards the end of the match, in the first 2 1/2 hours i had 3 eels, for 5/6lb, so good ones, i did have some skimmers on banded pellet on the 13 mtr line, and one small carp, but presentation was crap, i did foul a few carp but with the wind pushing everything through i wasn't to suprised, i had two bites in the margin, landed one 9lb carp and got snapped by a bigger fish as i never shipped on, error. Top weight on the day was.taken by liam rowland on 26 with 145lb on the method to the island, top silvers went to wally adcock on peg 10 with 24lb, luckily my accidental silvers went just over 21lb, ouncing out jess jordan, lol, weigh sheet below, monday im running a match at acorn, short pole match, so topset and three max, and on sunday 30th I'm running another on the canals at shiplate, so get in touch to book in on iether.

Sedges wednesday costcutter

Down to bridgwater to the sedges , the match was on brick lake with an overflow onto tile, 23 fishing so the overflow was needed, denise and jamie did the draw and pulled out peg 38 for me when it was my turn, on tile so happy with that, for company i had chris ware to my left on 39, and behind me on 4 brick was the irrepressible thomas thick. I fancied a day silvers fishing, so i set up a .6g float for worm or maggot over groundbait with worm and caster in it, a short meat rig as the skimmers sometimes come to this line, aswell as carp in the latter stages of the match, a pellet rig for on the deck at 14 mtrs, and lastly a pellet wag to go towards the island at about 35/40 mtrs.

On the all in i fed two groundbait lines, one at 6 and the other at 11 mtrs, some hard 6mm pellet at 14mtrs, and while that was settling i picked up the pellet waggler rig, still using the drennan acolyte 12 ft carp waggler rod for this , and i have had them for probably 5 years and cant fault it, i had a double figure fish virtually straight away, and soon followed by another, so in all fairness that was my day decided for me, i caught odd fish all match on the wag, although i did have a couple of looks on the silvers lines and to be fair there seemed to be a lot of skimmers there , but of a small average size, also chris to my left had begun to catch good skimmers on meat in his left hand margin, so i stuck mainly with the wag. Best depth seemed to be about two foot, feeding and fishing 8mm brown pellets(tom thick), biggest fish i had was probably about 12lb, i tried some of the new matrix pellet wagglers today and i must say they performed very well, cast ok, never dived and stayed in one piece, the whole range is available in premier angling in keynsham,

As you can imagine, and those that know him, tom was full of his normal banter, which i always enjoy, but i got to say his pellet waggler setup may need a bit of fine tuning, i cant see him doing to well with this ,

By the end i admitted to 180lb, but only weighed 175, but i did chuck back about 4 1/2lb of skimmers, so it would have been close, second went to roy worth on 31 who caught on and alien method for him, the bomb.😂. Chris to my left won the silvers with 41lb, so hes had a nice day, weigh sheet below.

Acorn monday

Trying to run fortnightly matches here on a monday, so the next one is on the 24th of the month, as a trial im making it a short pole match which will be topset and three, ( just for you george sumsion, 😀), should be ok and easier on the joints, after that im not sure as mat culpin begins his monday evening matches so i will se who books in for thise before i decide what to do, The forecast wasn't to good, a gusty wind with a bit of drizzle, WRONG, gale force winds and heavy showers and a bit of sun, only 13 fishing so pegged it with a bit of room far all. I did a social distancing draw, mark broomsgrove drew mine and gave me 38, happy days the wind was from the southwest so it was from the right and off the same shoulder, so the far bank was an option, so a pellet rig for that, another pellet rig for down the middle, another for up to empty 37, and a short maggot rig, topset and one, company wise i had frys angling club silvers ace , ray Cooper on 36, and Leighton Palmer on bridge peg 40, so a banter day was assured.

Called the all in and fed all lines but started down the middle on banded pellet, 40 minutes later and one carp had me coming off that, tried the far bank swim, ha dan early fish but the wind was pushing the rig along so liners but no proper bites, a bit less wind and it would have been ok, apart from a couple of lost foulers that was my lot from there, a shame really as i had cleared a nice spot over there to fish in, ray on my right was quietly going about the business of catching silvers, whereas Leighton on the other hand was also catching well, and guving me a knowing grin that he was beating me, and he was. I came short on maggot and had some silvers, including a few tench, from 2oz to 3lb,

I also expected the pallet to my right to come good, but i only had three fish from there , two carp and a 4lb+ tench, so the shirt line was the place to be for me today, catching skimmers roach perch and odd carp and small tench, by the end i wasnt to sure as to what i had, clear winner today looked to be dave(foggy swamper) ings on peg 2 , silvers short on maggot and carp mainly down his edge towards peg 1, Walking around to start the weigh in with aaron, leighton was very keen to show me his rig that he had successfully used to beat me, 😒hmm, dave had 109lb, whuch was obviously enough for today, paul faiers had 68lb, then leighton put 77lb on the scales, and he was still showing me the rig, oh dear, i had 81lb, i tried to get a picture of the rig he had used to let me beat him, but i think he had already smashed it up LOL 😂😂😂, ray won the silvers with a nice mixed net for just over 30lb, and dan clayton on peg 11 was third with 78lb, well done all as the wind was terrible, weigh sheet below as normal, showing it was a nice close match, and good to see so many silvers coming out.

Short pole series , round 1

Off to John candy,s prolific todber manor for the first round, i only have 24 fishing this series, so today we were on ash and homeground, fancied a draw on homeground as generally in these short pole matches it tends to be the more consistent, aaron britnell drew for me and handed me 80 on homeground, happy with that, for company i had kev winstone on peg 79 and vince shipp on 81 in the corner, so a bit of banter was guaranteed,

Simple today, a pellet rig for on the deck infront, topset and two, but it was the same depth with three on, a meat rig for just past my nets in 3 foot, and a pellet margin rig , in hindsight i shouod have set up a shallow rig. At the start i began at topset and two,feeding hard 6,s withna banded 8 on the hook, and had a few carp quite quickly,but after an hour or so, the bites stopped there, sp i put the extra section on and went a bit further, i had a really good spell, and i began to think a section winning weight was on the cards, but all of a sudden just past the halfway mark , bites stopped on that line, vince to my left was having a good time fishing meat, so i tried the short meat line, but not a touch, vince was a section further out so i put an extra section on, replumbed and fed some meat, while that settled i went back to the long line, i had a couple but the fish seemed to have come up in the water, as i said hindsight is a wonderful thing, 😬. Kev to my right was catching short on meat and in the last hour maggot down the edge, vince left hus short meat line to try and catch down his margin, but that was a mistake for him as the margin never happened for him, unlike martin rayet on 82 who was slaying it on margin fished maggot, my short meat line was ok for the last hour, i thought i may have approaching 200lb by the end but new i had been beaten by quite a few on the lake, in fact i came 4th in my section of 6 with 203lb, martin rayet.was.top on our lake with 287lb so well.done .

But top weight today came from ash lake with Joe McMahon on peg 69 had 326lb fishing topset and one with pellet, well.done joe. weigh sheets below, got to say the fish are in really good condition, and are.fighting like tigers, and if you get them into the net without to much fight, the buggers give you a torrid time when trying to get the hook out.

Shiplate thursday costcutter

Baxk down to this well kept fishery again, twenty booked in so still popular, john hawkins got the draw underway, i wasn't upset to be called out with peg 3, its a good carp peg with an island at 16mtrs and good margins as thwre is plenty if room to the next anglers, on my right was dave white on 2 and merv clark on my left on 4, ably assisted by the yorkie devil dog who doesn't seem to like anyone or anything apart from merv.

Although its a good carp peg and not shown a lot of silvers form recently, i decided to try and catch some of the lakes skimmer population, i do enjoy catching these slimy little bream, but with spawning time approaching, as long as the water temp gets to where it needs to be, most of the better ones are a bit rough at the mo, so a .4g wire stem float with a 16 guru f1 maggot hook on .12 line, a meat rig for topset and two at the bottom of the rocky slope, and a pellet rig for over by the island in the shallow water, but as it turned out that was a waste of time, line and a hook, there were odd fish over there but as the water was quite clear, as soon as the pooe went over there they would disappear, i may have had one liner , but at least the ducks appreciated the free feed, the skimmers didnt want to play ball, only odd fish coming my way, but as far as i could see, that was more than most, so i persevered, the skimmers were mooching about as the odd small touches showing on the float indicated. I did hook two carp on meat on the short line, the first one was fouled, and although it was on for a while, came off near the net, the second one stuck, and was about 12lb, at the end i reckoned on about 16lb of silvers and the lone carp, dave to my right had three carp as did merv to my left, merv came out top on the day with 33.12 , well done merv .

I was glad i stuck with the silvers as my 18.8 was enough to take the silver pool, and my.carp went 12.1 , so 30.9 was fourth on the day,

The weigh sheet below shows how hard it had been, hopefully as the weather gets better so will the fishing, this time last year most of us were furloughed and basking in mid 20,s centigrade, a bit different this year, we are still getting frosts, it cant be normal 😂, global warming, ye right.

Two nice days

Sunday and i was off to Todber with chris fox for a match on hillview being run by john darby,on hillview. nice breakfast omelette at cafe fox before the journey, very nice. Not to bad a journey down , seemed to be a lack of sunday drivers about, im not complaining. Paid our money and john got the draw started on time, i was fairly well down the queue, but was more than happy to pull out 54, its a corner peg with plenty of room and options,

i was next to chris on 55, and a long way off to my left and around the corner was bob ( not sure about this one)gullick on 53. I had been told pellets werent really working on this lake, meat was the way to go, although all the other lakes were responding to pellets, so today i would be mainly fishing pellets.i had nice margins left and right, so two rigs there, a topset and two line , same rig for 11 mtrs, and a toeoset and one for meat.not to much to say really , ive had a pleasant day sat with the sun in my face, catching fish on all lines, even managing to mug 5 fish, by the end i thought i had about 200lb, wasnt to far off as i had 198lb, only good enough for third as mark wynne on 57 had 207lb for second with bib gullick on 53 had 210lb, so a very tight match.

Weigh sheet below , plenty of fish caught today.

Monday and chris and me were off to shiplate on the main lake, the forecast was atrocious, winds gusting up to 50mph and heavy rain, i fancied a day skimmer fishing, so pegs 8 or 9 would be ideal as the wind would be off the back, but no john pulls me out peg 12 , so a nice silvers peg with an overhanging bush to my right, always a chance of a carp or two from there,

didnt go mad on rigs, basically one for skimmers at 11 mtrs , a .6g wire stem jobby, and a .2 for the shallow water by the bush, as.i normally do , at the start I cupped in three balls of groundbait with some worm and caster in attendance 11mtrs, and a bit of meat by the bush, they got the wind right today, blowing right to left, forcing the trip to go the same way, no chance of holding the rig any way near still, i even used a bump bar today, which helped, but the wind blew the pole off of that several times, much to the ammusment of kurtis to my left, i had a slow start but a good middle , catching some nice skimmers, and one carp. I lost quite a few fouled skimmers today, all due to the rig getting pushed through, worm or triple maggot were the best bait, i think if the wind had only been half as strong, a decent weight would have been onthe cards, but it wasnt to be, i did get two carp down by the bush towards the end. I ended upmwith 29lb of skimmers and the three carp.went over 30lb, the skimmers were good enough for second in the silvers, beaten by travelling partner chris on peg 8 with 44lb.

Top weight today was taken by uncle julian on peg zero with over 140lb, so well done especially as he was in the face of the gale, that must have been uncomfortable.Weigh sheet blow, a bit damp but just about readable.

No alan quantrill today so i had a quid with, shane (the shane show) pope , so that was one up, and another with fishery boss john, so two up.

I aslo had one with tom thick, which i duly lost but managed to escape before i had to hand it over, LOL, see.you soon Tom .