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.