Hard water

I will keep this short, Thursday and plantations main lake for a silvers match, had a couple of lightweights cry off for this one, so only 15 fishing, the lake had a hard surface, mainly.due to it being minus 9 on the journey down there.the ice wasnt to bad only about 15 mm, i drew peg 28, good enough i thought, i took me 3 1/2 hiurs to get a bite, then i managed 1lb 5oz of plippy roach, its been rock hard with mark broomsgrove only needing 6lb to win off peg 8, so well done mate.

Sunday and with the first round of the Landsend winter league being cancelled due to the ice, i managed to get me and chris fox into the heather bush memorial match at avalon, with all proceeds going to the air ambulance charity, a very worthy charity. The ice was a lot thicker today, over 2 inches for most, and really hard to break, most only managing 5 mtrs, me included. I was on 38, with martin rayet on my left, and shawn kitteridge on my right but couldnt break the ice so went home, the weather was atrocious, even though the temps were up a few degrees, we had rain all day and it was freezing, luckily it was off our backs , unlike the poor souls opposite, they had it really bad, another difficult day, martin to my right was catching after about 45 minutes, niel mercer opposite on 10 caught virtually straightaway, it too me over 2 hours for my first bite, then ive had indications right to the end to finish with over 6lb, of small skimmers and roach, hard to understand why martin has caught early, but its taken me all that time to get my first bite, the other side of martin chris fox never had a bite till ten minutes from the end, mr mercer.won with 14lb, martin second with 11, and paul elmes thurd from the only ice free peg in somerset with 10lb, well done all for sticking it out in terrible cold conditions, but itwas in a good cause and i think over £300 was raised forn the charity, well done andy gurd for providing sausage and bacon rolls in the morning, and after heathers mum made a big stew whuch was very welcome,the bush family did us and the charity proud, well done vic and the crew. plus mince pies,everone had a prize, and the raffle was.brilliant aswell and finally today huntstrete on bridge pool, 17 fishing so plenty of room, andy gard drew for me and gave peg 28, nice, opposite i had kev winstone who was telling me his nurse has told him he needs to lose a bit of weight, and judging by his paltform she aint wrong.

No ice today and the temperature was positively balmey, but it did rain most of the day, it was a good day compared to recent ones, i caught roach at 5 mtrs , and i could have caught well there but i intended to fish for f1,s out towards the island, so the last few.hiurs were spent doing just that, i had been cupping some casters out at 16mtrs, first try and i had an f1, but after that small roach were a problem, so i switched to cupping some corn in with the caster with corn on the hook, caught quite well right to the end, probably ended with about 25 f1,s, mainly small ones but jt was good considering the recent matches, finished with 29lb of f1,s and 5lb or roach, which was top on the day, phil"the fizz"morgan was second from peg 7 with 23lb, and andy greenham on 10 had 17lb, top silvers.went to dave.wride on peg 26 with 7lb.

Rons silvers rnd 2

It was avalon for this round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, woke to a slight dusting of snow and minus temps, had to get a few reserves.for this one , but still one short on the day cos of a snow show, as expected the lake had a lid on it, so ice breaking it was then, i quite enjoy it if I'm honest,drew peg 42, probably the wrong end of the lale according to vic bush. i managed to cut myself a channel out to nearly 14 mtrs, then helped a couple of the older anglers a hand with there's,

Easy fishing, one rig does all as its the same depth from 5 to 14mtrs, so a .5g bodied wire stem float was.the only rig on show today with 20 acolyte silverfish hook on .10 at the start i cupped in some loose groundbait on three lines, 5/11 and 14 mtrs, never had a bite at 5mtrs, had my frst bite an hour and 20 in at 11 mtrs, i had to keep swapping between the 2 longer lines to keep odd bites going, feeding a bit of loose groundbait after every couple of fish, ended with about 16 small skimmers and a few roach for 5.8, which gave.me the all important section win, as vic expected, the top end and the other section was the place to be, with three weights over 20lb, with martin rayet coming out on top with 22.8 of quality skimmers on peg 32, all caught at 5mtrs.

Not to many blanks to be fair, and looking at other fisheries results at avalon wasnt to bad, as long as its not frozen the next matches here will probably be ok.

Thursday coffin dodgers

Back to bridge pool at huntstrete yesterday, temperature on the van was reading minus 5 near the fishery, i was glad i dragged.the old breaker from the shed , bit as it turned out there was no ice on any of the lake's, happy days, although i do enjoy a bit of ice breaking. 17 fishing so again plenty of room, all reasonable pegs in the hat, and i certainly was to upset to pull out peg 16, even though a few others seemed a bit disappointed, lol. Its a lovely peg , only 13 mtrs tight to the island, but wouldnt be going there as the water was very clear.

I had an old team mate to my right in the shape of shay(of the avon) gilman on 15, and around the corner on 18 was paul (rigsby)clayton. Only two rigs, one for topset and two, the same rig would do for 8mtrs in front at the bottom of the shelf and off to the right at 13 mtrs,all in about 7ft of water, and the other was for 10mtrs up the island shelf in about 4ft of water. Fed all the deeper swims with some groundbait and caster, and cupped some caster on the shallower line, started at 8mtrs, and had a small roach after about 5minutes, then another on straight away, switched to caster on the hook and never changed for the rest of the match, caught roach and a couple of small.skimmers , plus a lone 10oz chub, as well as 7 small f1,s, i had some better roach up to 10oz from the shallower swim, so considering how cold it was ive had a nice day, ended up with nearly 17lb of mainly roach, and the f1,s went 6lb for a total of 23lb, whuch was topweight on the day silvers and overall.

2xsilvers

Sunday saw myself and mr fox off to plantation main lake for ron hardiman,s silvers league first round. Stopped at the wessex flyer for all you can eat brekkie, very good too. draw was.at 9 so plenty of time, got to the carpark with loads of time, 18 fishing the league, a nice number on this lake, into the draw and i pull out two tickets, one for me and one for ron, peg 4 (again) for me and peg 5 for ron, so after.the same.peg on Thursday, same.rigs today, but this time i fed the 14 mtr from the off, i think the fish must have known wd are entering a few days of very cold weather, the short line in front gave me.two small roach, the right hand short line was the same as Thursday, i would get one bite or fish than have to leave it, i did get the one pound perch again , i was sure it was the same one as before. 11 mtrs was slow but oo for odd small roach and small skimmers for a while, then again the best line was 14 mtrs, some better skimmers and roach, i could see martin rayet on 19 was catching from the off but slowed right up in the sexond half of the match, whereas paul elmes on 27 had odd skimmers all through, and kev winstone on 32 had a better second half, the match was won by paul with 26, followed by martin woth 25, then Joe mcmahon on 24 haf a bigger 18lb than kev winstone , my fish went 13 ending up 3rd in section behind martin on 19 and gordon canning on 8, so not to bad, it certainly fished harder than expected, but looking at results lots of venues switched off today.

Monday and back to the sedges for the monday silvers match on the canal today, normal excellent breakfast at the fishery cafe. A bit dissapointing as only 12 fishing, even roy worth was absent. So jamie put every other peg in, into the draw bucket and peg 45 comes out for me, still a good area , but with plenty of room for all anything could happen on what most were expecting to be a hard day, local ace martin tizard on my left and bob c on my right, at the start i fed 5 lines with a bit of loose groundbait with some caster and dead pinkies in it, two swims at 6mtrs left and right, the same at 11 mtrs, then some at 13mtrs whuch was not quite the far side, and fed some caster.to the right in front of a dead reed bed, Started on the right hand short line, first fish was a carp, oh dear. But after that, i have had a nice day, small tench, crucians, roach, skimmers from about two ounces with one about 1lb and another nearly 2lb, two golden tench, one 4oz and the other 1lb, and nust for good measure i had two perch from the right hand weedbed for 4lb, i had nothing from the far bank line, a few fish from the two 11mtr lines, most of the fish csme from the right hand short line, ended up with over 19lb, a lovely looking multi coloured net, second was rob parker on 59 with 12lb.

The last three

Landsend on sunday for a silvers match on lake 2, took jason Radford with me , but still only 10 fishing, normal tasty breakfast at.the fishery cooked by sharon, ade got the draw underway on time, and most wanted pegs 11 or 13 as thats where the fish have been holed up recently, peg 13 came out for me , happy days then. Had two fishery legends for company, rod Wooten on 11 and dave ings on 15, the silvers on here are basically anything but proper carp, so f1,s, crucians, tench(small) skimmers, roaxh, rudd and perch, and you need to have several swims on the go and keep feeding and rotating all of them, so thats what i did, fed a variety of baits in all swims, from pellets on a line towards the end bank to my left, two shirt caster lines left and right, loose groundbait at 11 mtrs and maggots at 14, to be fair i caught on all lines initially, but as soon as i started cupping in loose groundbait on all lines sport improved, single maggot or caster on the hook doing the business, caught all the above species for a nice days fishing, the only fish i had over a pound were a few skimmers, so a nice day, ended up with 25lb, only.good enough for second as stu white on peg 20 had over 30lb, shame there wasnt a few.more as it fished well as the sheet shows.

Monday and the sedges for the monday silvers match, drew peg 39, caught 12lb, shoukd have done better, martin tizard won with 16lb from peg 35 , maggot on a small open ender, just beating steve kedge into 2nd who had a smaller 16lb, a hard day for all.

And today(Thursday)plantations mane lake for the fortnightly silvers match, james travis drew peg 4 for me, happy enough, mike nicholls on my left and andy wride on my right, 19 fishing which is one to many. Fed and fished three lines to begin with, topset and two, deep margin to my right and 11 mtrs straight out, it was the first proper cold day today, no wind, no ripple made for finick bites, but again. By rotating round i mamaged to keep some roaxh and skimmers going, the bigger skimmers were noticeable by there absence today, about 90 minutes to go i decided to get some more sections out and fed another line at 14mtrs, glad i did as i had some slightly better skimmers with a couple nearly 2lb, it had fished harder than normal ,but not suprising with the cold flat conditions, thought i had about 18lb , im crap at silver weight guessing, i had 26lb 😯😯😂😂. Good enough for third , that man dave (willy)Wilmot won of oeg 11 With 28lb and neil(drawbag) mercer had 27 from peg 8, close weights again as the sheet shows.

Oh yes and thanks for the clean sweep on the £1,s you know who you are LOL😂😂👍👍👍👍

Oh dear, never mind, its only a game.

Sunday and rnd 5 of the shiplate 4,s, west pool was my destination for today, oit team needed.a good result today to stand any chance of getting in the team overalls, into the draw and peg 11 for me, not ideal, its been the bad area of late, but you never know. For company today was two fishery regulars each side, on the right was fishery chef mark jones , and on my left was Steve warren. A dobbing rig for across, a maggot on the deck topset and one, and a margin rig, at the start i did give bread a quick go but it was to coloured , so a switch to maggot, and to be fait there were some fish there, started half depth and lost one straight away, then another, so shallowed up a bit, still fouling, kept shallowing till i was only fishing 6 inches deep, and i still foul hooked a couple, end of the first hour and i reckon i had lost 8, all fouled, unusual for me to lose so many, as people who know me i do land more.than my share of wronguns, LOL 😂. From a bad start my.match spiralled into misery, most people began catching a few, apart from me, i ended up with 5 carp, three from across and two on the short maggot line, 31lb for last in the section(lake), to make matters.worse steve.won the section to my left with 74lb, and mark to right was second with 57lb, so do i think i got it wrong, hell yes 😲😲😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. Well.done steve.and mark, its taken me nearly a week to write this, the Samaritans talked me round to doing it though. As for the team, i think me , bob and chris all were last in section, only.team hero alan quantrill did the business (again) coming second in the section, but we are out of it now, ah well always hard being in a one man team isnt it alan. Monday and i was intending to go to the sedges for the monday silvers match, but the forecast was horrendous, strong winds and torrential rain, i left home intending to go to bridgwater, but got as far as my local cafe, with the wind and rain doing its best to hamper things, i binned the idea , went and had a breakfast and went home, gave it and hour and dexided to go to huntstrete, as i would be able to get out of the worst of the weather on the far side of bridge pool, and thats what happened, sat under my Brolly as i was protected from the gale, but not the rain, heavy rain most of the day, but i haf a bite a chuck, roach up to 8oz, skimmers and bream up to 3lb and plenty of f1,s up to and over 2lb, excellent sport but i was the only person mad.enough to sit there, 😄. Thursday and back to huntstrete for the coffin dodgers and short walk match, hoped for a drwa on the far side as again there would have been some protection from the gales and rain that were forecast again, but due to a pegging error thise swims didnt even go in the hat, 😯😯😆😆. Peg 8 was my home, wind and rain straight in the face, fed groundbait and caster on two lines, 5 and 11 mtrs.and caster.down the edge to my left, it took about thirty mo to get a bite, ut after that i haf an indication or bite most put ins, mainly.small roach, but indidnhave a few better ones from the left , also i had 6 f1,s, ended up with 10lb of silvers and my.6 f1,s went 12.14 for a 22.14 total which was.good enough for fourth on the day, first went to chris ollis on peg 4 with 30lb of mainly f1,s, well.done matey, second was paul barnfield on peg 19 with 26lb, half. And half f1,s and silvers,and third was dave wride on 34 with 23lb, which was an excellent weight from there with lots of pegs in in that area. most anglers today had plenty if bites which was good to see as the lake has had a difficult couple of months, but there seems to be plenty of fish still in there. I

Plantations main lake silvers only

Back to Kingston Seymour and plantation main lake again, these matches are really popular, so if you miss a match from now on, there is no guaranteed place, someone has to drop out before a place comes up, all names carried forward to the next one. So i let mat tomes draw for me today, 31, not the best but a days.fishing is expected from any peg, and mat tomes was next to me on 32, arguably the better peg, but every day is different. i set up a.25 slim for topset and two, a..3 slim for 9 and 11 mtrs, and another .25 for the edges for maybe a perch ot two. Fed the two longer lines at the start with groundbait with a few casters in, started feeding a few casters.each side in the edge, then started.on the topset and two line with caster , caught straightaway , roach mainly, indid have a decent hybrid and a pound perch, but bites slowed after an hour, so i cupped in some groundbait.on the short line and tried the long line, 9 mtrs first and a pound skimmer first drop, then Nothing, so 11 mtrs, same.result, strange, onto the edge rig for a few roach and one small perch, the short line was definitely the place to fish today, lots of small roach with odd skimmers, enjoyable fishing as fishing close.you see everything going on with the rig, and easy to feed, plus the banter.was.pretty relentless with mat, so a good day. Ended up with just over 26lb, beating mat by just over 1lb, a good day, i ended up third, dave willmott won on peg 23 with 37lb, well done dave, ever consistent.

Kev winstone on 27 was second with 30lb, me third with 26 and paul faiers on 8 4th with 25, weigh sheet below.

1 out of three was ok

Todber last Thursday for a silvers match on wadmill again, only 16 fishing due to lots being away at whiteacres for the drennan silvers.festival, well more like an f1 festival to be fair. Well baxk to tidber and the draw was a bit cruel to me , peg in the middle of the bank at the far end, this was the third match on here and it has been a tough area, and tiday it got even tougher, it took me 30 minutes to get my first, and it didnt really improve, ended up with 3 1\2lb of small.roach, the action improved in the last 90 minutes, but with the wrong species, i hooked 7 carp in that time and not a single silver, all the weights of skimmers came from the normal.area , just past halfway up the lake, vince brown won with 39lb of mainly feeder caught skimmers, followed by steve kedge.with 26lb then dave Wilmot with 25, well dome to all, i was that bad even roy worth beat me, i very nearly bought some golf clubs, 😬😬. Sunday and john darby was running a match at shiplate on the canals, it was runas a xharity match with proceeds goimg to the poppy appeal, john worked hard getting some prizes so well done to him a big thanks to all the companies and shops which contributed. Draw.for me peg 6 on hawthorn, happy.enough, easy fishing, only maggots required, a bit frustrating to be fair, fish cruising up along the far bank, but i couldn't get one in the mouth, i had a couple across and one short , bit most of my weight came.down by empty peg 5, ended up with 52lb, a bitnof a days fishing but not enough , uncle ju was top on the day with 80lb+ from peg 3, followed by nephew john on 11 with 70+, it wasnt all about the fishing (luckily) and nearly £500 was.raised for the charity, so a big well done to john, weigh sheet below.

Monday and back to the sedges for the weekly silvers match, this week it was on the canal lake. Lovely fishery breakfast it was draw time, into the ping pong bucket oit comes ball 43, well happy with that one, chris rolf to my right and mark leahay on my left, also i could keep an eye on the in form roy worth over on flyer 64 in the corner, definitely the man to beat. I fed three lines in front at the start, one at 5 mtrs, and two at 9 mtrs , all with a bit of groundbait with a few pinkies and casters in, also started feedimg a few maggots and casters under the trees to my right, its normally good for some barbel . Owner jamie had a few there the last match on here, so definitely worth a go, first 40minutes on the short line for a couple of small roach and a small skimmer, so out to 9 mtrs, it was ok for a coupke of hours, a couple of better skimmers, a nice hybrid and two nice crucians, along with some roach, then the carp turned up and it all became a bit torrid, so a look under the trees , had three big gudgeon sized barbel and sev3ral small chub up to 8oz, but that never lasted to long but it was worth about 3lb, so more than welcome on this tough venue, the linger lines were now iver run with carp, so the end was good to here , my fish went 12lb, which was enough today to win, 2nd went to allen mills on peg 54 down the other end where no one ever does well from with 10lb of mainly small chub, so well done to him, roy was very quiet on 64, nuff said. 😂😂. Sheet below.

Shiplate and sedges

Sunday and it was shiplate for the teams of 4,s, chris fox and me stopped at the wessex flyer.for breakfast, all good, mark jones was cooking at the fishery, but i like a bit of warmth when eating, a bit to cold for open air eating, which is a shame as mark does do a really good breakfast. My turn on west pool, so first section to draw, first in the tub hoping for peg 13, nearly got it but peg 11 would have to do, dave romain had the pleasure of 13 , so would be the one to beat, and with the ever consistent mark wynne on 15, third was going to be a realistic result but you never know. I had tom thick to my right on 10, always hard to beat , at.least it wasnt going to be quiet as those who know tom will testify. It was an interesting day, both myself and tom had a couple of early fish from the far side, but that soon stopped and all.we had was occasional small roach bites or liners, dave and mark were catching a few, but our pegs in the middle seemed fishless, but it seemed as thiugh a few carp moved upnas far as me in the last 60minutes, catching on maggot against the far side, ended upnwith 57lb , beaten by dave and mark to my left who had 87lb each with 4 oz seperating them with dave just edging it, john hawkins on 5 had 62lb, luckily for him he had a nonshow on 6 which helped him, the team is still being held up by alan quantrill, well done matey, so we are hanging on to 4th spot,

Monday and down to the sedges for the silvers match, really nice matches with a nice set of regular anglers, nice breakfast aswell, tile lake today, not to fussed as to where i drew, but a bit of shelter.from the wind and rain would be nice, well that didnt happen, peg 32 with the wind and rain blowing in and across from the left, set up to fish three lines, topset and two in front of the bush to my right, straight out at topset and three, and 11mtrs straight out, fed.a.small.ball of groundbait on the two short lines and three balls at 11 mtrs, by now the wind was picking up, i coukdnt have fished further than 11 mtrs if i wanted due to the wind, i caught a few roach and tiny skimmers in front of the bush, but that died quite quickly, topset and three never gave me.a.bite all.day, most of the action came.at 11 mtrs,.i had to wait over two hours for my first skimmer over 1lb, phil dodd on ny left had had a few on the tip, ut i couldnt see much going on, i just kept plugging away on the longer line for occasional fish, while i was struggling to hold the pole roy worth was turning on the style opposite on 29 putting a steady stream of skimmers into his net, fish down towards empty peg 30, and he ran out and easy winner with iver 30lb, well done the bomb. Tom rat was.second with 14lb and steve.jackson third with 13lb, i had 12.10 for a default section win, I'll take that. Weigh sheet below being held up by the winner on the day, showing his best side.

3

Sunday and a rare trip to Viaduct for chris and me, stopped off in the brewers fayre in street for breakfast , very tasty, bumped into clint wojtyla and leon hubbard who were also there for breakfast, clint had 2 or 3 of everything on his plate, not really to healthy but he felt it would be ok as he was going to deposit two natural yoghurts on top of the fry up, obviously working for clint😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂.

Got to the fishery and drew 112 for myself, decided to fish corn short for silvers and pellet at 13 mtrs, shoukd have set up a wag aswell but didnt(mistake), at the start i began on the short line with corn, 1 hour later and one skimmer, that wasnt going to work then, so 13 mtrs on pellet, a couole more skimmers and a carp but that wasnt cutting it either, just over halfway through and i was off the box, putting some new line on a reel and setting the wag up for pellet on the deck, i had 6 more carp on that, i really ought to start listening to myself , finished with 78lb for nowhere, sam Williams won off 131 with 136lb, well done. And nigel easton on my left won the silvers with 39lb, mainly on caster.

rig Monday and a day boat fishing out of watchet on the lorna doone, skippered by tom(tommo)Wright, only 5 of us on there, dan and jamie shipp, long time good friend dean malin, and judith and me. Only an inshore trip, nust as well as the wind was going to be strong but mainly off the shore, we have a mix of fish to be sure, thornback ray, spotted and blond, the biggest being a 13lb blond caught by dan on a micky mouse tiny poachers rod.

Judith had a nice huss just short of 12lb and i haf a decent 11lb+ cod, it also poured down for over three hours, and with no waterproof trousers, to say i was damp was an understatment, but it was still enjoyable and makes a nice change,

Dean seems very pleased fo me, LOL 😂😂😂. Thursday and back to plantation main lake for another silvers match, 19 fishing, only had 18 tickets in the draw, so redraw it was then, everyone took it well, peg 5 for me , mark broomsgrove on 4 to my right and phil Morgan on 7 to my left, i fed three lines, topset and one, 9 mtrs and 11 mtrs, caught fish on all lines, but the short line was by far and away the most productive, skimmers of all sizes , some roach and perch aswell, a lot harder than the last match, but we have had a lot of rain which may have upset the fish, it was a close match, Kev winstone won off of 26 with 35lb, nice one kev and about time 👍👍😉😉. There were 8 weights over 30lb with the fish well spread out all round the lake, a brilliant venue.oh yes and it rained again,

This week

Sunday and it was shiplate teams of 4, my turn on the far side of the main lake. Into the draw and 13 for me today, its been a good peg recently so not to upset, russ(the legend) peck to my right and roy ede on my left, i didnt bother with a sbort meat rig today as the water is really shallow out to 7/8 mtrs, so meat at 14mtrs and in the margin, and wag and pellet on the deck at 25mtrs, not to muxh to report, 16lb of skimmers, and 8 carp for 104lb, russ won the section with 124lb, largely helped by a late run on worm over groundbait, including a beast of a carp on the pole of over 23lb, i ended up 4th in the section, there was a 108 and. 104.12. Dan squire.was top weight on the day with 145lb from Hawthorn 15, as normal alan quantrill held the team up with a second in section, sheets etc below.

Monday and off to the canal lake at the sedges, generally you need to draw at the left hand end of the lake, my drawing arm never deserted me and 61 ball came out of the bucket of doom. Had an interesting day, had a few.crucians , skimmers and tench of various colours, had 15lb for second, ron stark won with 17lb from peg 58, well.done, 18 fished so not to bad.

Thursday and plantations main lake for a silvers match, always popular and it very rarely dissapoints, 18 of us which is just right on this lake, i let ryan jordan draw for and was not to happy to have him hand me peg 23, up in the top right hand corner of the lake, a hard peg made even more so when you have des shipp next door on 24. Well ive had a bit of a lesson today, ive caught ok on topset and one, and 7 and 11 mtrs, mainly.skimmers with several going up to 3lb, but i was always trying to catch up with des, he had a very good spell about 2 hiurs from the end on his short line, that was until the carp moved in, but everyone had carp problems today, des battered me and the rest today with over 72lb, a brilliant weight, dave wilmott was 2nd off peg 2 with 47lb, i was third with 44.15 with ryan jordan 6oz behind me, brilliant.weights all round.

Two silvers matches

Firstly condolences go to the bartlett family.at acorn fishery, adrian, mark and zoe at the sad loss of there wife , mum and gran, lovely lady who will be missed by not just her family but by all the anglers who knew her, RIP Bev. monday and the sedges silvers match, bit of a strange journey down, as regulars will know the usual lane down to the fisjery is shut , there is a short detour in place, which i managed to miss, so instead of getting to the fishery at about 8.20 for a leisurely breakfast , ended up driving round the moors aimlessly, had to put the sat nav on and managed.to get to the lakes at 8.50, for a not quite so leisurely breakfast, still very good though. last in the draw and 24 on tile for me, so happy enough, had jess jordan on my right and steve bracey on my left, set up three rigs, one short in a bout a mtr.of water off to the side, never had a bite there. Two skimmer rigs for 5 and 13 mtrs, a .8 lifter and a .55 slim, both with 18 acolyte silverfish hooks on .10, this latest range of hooks from drennan are excellent, never losing there points, and strong enough to deal with any rogue carp which turn up, it was a steady day catching skimmers on both lines with the shorter line being the most productive, especially towards the end, never hectic , just steady, had to wait for bites and be patient, but worth the wait as most of the fish were quality, single maggot and caster doing it today. ended with 32.01 fir second, behind martin tizard on peg 22 who had 32.10 from peg 22, well done martin, with jess jordan between us coming third with 22lb, so obviously the area to be in.

Thursday and back to todber for another silvers match on wadmill lake, normally a carp runs water, but it had a large head of skimmers and roach aswell, 28 fishing, so popular again. got into the draw early hoping for a draw towards the top end , but couldn't have got further away, peg 30, whuch was the middle peg of three on the near end bank, nearest the carpark, on my right was martin rogers, and on my left i had long time friend nick Collins, after.the last match we expected it to be a roach match for us, ut the last match this area produced plenty of 20lb plus nets , with a couple of thirties aswell, jack stamp had over 30lb of mainly roach from my peg last time, i set up two simple rigs, a skimmer rig for 11 mtrs just in case, and a 4x12 slim with a solid tip for topset and two, where i had just over 1 mtr of water, but i felt the only chance of a pickup for me and nick would be the friendly quid side bet, started by feeding some groundbait on the long line, then began on the short caster line, after ten minutes without a fish me and nick were fearing the worst, also martin was getting no bites, but things did improve but it was obvious early on the 30lb was going to be unattainable, but just kept plugging away, with virtually every bite coming as the bait just reached the bottom, not enough quality, probably used my net about 10 times, with most fish being 1 to 4oz, so busy enough. But not busy enough to be in contention, chris martin was top on the day from peg 19 with 32.10, with some qaulity skimmers/bream, well done, as expected it was the cheeky quid for me and nick, which i managed to win with 19.10, of roach,to. Nicks 13.6. i did have an 8oz perch, and a lone 6oz skimmer from the long line, in nicks defence he had to go to 8mtrs to get any depth, whereas topset and two was where i needed to go, always going to be quicker, the shorter you can fish, but as anyone who knows nick will know its always a pleasant day sitting next to him, always laughing, cant be doing miserable people.

Plantations silvers only

Looking forward to these matches, a proper quality silver,s venue, good roach and skimmers, plus a few decent perch, these matches are starting a bit earlier than normal thus year, hopefully the lakes plentiful carp stocks wouldn't be to muxh of a problem. 18 fishing which is a nice number on the lake, so I didnt mind where i drew, i let ryan jordan draw for me, he handed me peg 5, a nice peg on the left hand bank, paul faiers to my right and reborn match angler , hot from his triumph on the river kenn, jerry salisbury on my left, i like to start short on this lake, trying to catch roach, so a 4x12 slim to fish to hand on a topkit, then a couple of .3g slims for skimmers at 6 and 11mtrs. So at the start i cupped in two balls at 6 mtrs and 4 balls at 11 mtrs all with a few caster and and chopped worm in, Starting on the short line with caster, it was slow, 2 roach and a lonely 2oz skimmer in 20 minutes, and i was going out on the longer lines, i had plenty of fish on the longer lines judging by the bubbles, but getting them to take the bait was hard, the fished seemed to be above the feed, not showing to much interest in feeding properly on the deck, best tactic seemed to be was sit there with a big piece of worm and wait, when i did get a fish, they were of a good size, i couldnt really see to much of what was going on as the bankside vegetation was still to high, the only person i could see catching well was mark broomsgrove on peg 38, he was having a good day, but judging by the banter, dave willmot on 2 and ryan jordan on 1 were both catching, paul faiers was catching quite steadily, although he was moaning he had not a lot, but he always does , ive learnt over the years which people i can believe, and to be honest no one to my right would be capable of lying straight in bed. On the all out i reckoned i had 35lb+, but realistically i never had a clue, started on 1 and ryan had 42lb,dave on 2 had 55lb of mainly.roach, a lovely net of fish,

paul had a large 20lb , well 37lb to be precise 😂😂😂😂😂😂. I had 44.12, so i undersold my weigh aswell, i stayed 2nd all round till.we.got to mark broomsgrove on 38 who had 51lb, i think the fish seemed.to have followed the southerly wind to our end of the lake, but there were still good weights all round, i thunk these matches are going to be really popular this winter, the next one is already sold out with a waiting list, dead mans shoes it is then.

Bad and good

Sunday and it was the teams of four on shiplate fishery, stopped at the wessex flyer for breakfast and as normal , very good, nice and hot and help yourself, i also recommended to mark poppleton to go to the sidcot hotel, still a premier inn, so you would have expected it to be the same, but no, it took 40minutes for the food to arrive and it was rubbish, as was the service, shouod have been help yourself, but it came out plated , they weren't happy. Also at last all the new mosella eva is available , ive had a few.of the new pieces and it looks good , the 4+ net bag was big enough for 6 nets, and the trolley bags are slightly bigger, all have good zips and hard tops, ideal as an extra bait table if needed.and all very eye catching.

my turn on the main lake, low. Numbers, wanted to draw between 1 and 4, possibly 9, 5/6/7/8 not ideal, i drew peg 6, not to much to wax lyrical about, had one carp on the wag, 15lb of skimmers on hard pellet at 14 mtrs, and a big 17lb fish on meat at the bottom of the rocks to the left, limped home with 37lb, i needed one more carp probably for 2 more points, which would have made a difference on the day for the team, john hawkins won the matxh on peg 1 with 190lb, method to his right, well done. Sheets etc below, after.two matches we still have a chance as its commulative points, it will only take one good match, out team is being held togetger by alan quantrill, well done.

back to the sedges on Monday for the silvers match, yet again well supported with 24 fishing, normal lovely fishery breakfast cooked by Denise, meant to be on brick but with these numbers there was an overfolw onto tile lake, breakfast was the normal mix of good humoured banter , with some sensible conversation aswell, well it was after roy(bomber)worth left the table😆😆. on a bright note roy has decided to start a you tube channel, giving people the chance to see how he does it then as long as do the opposite, people should be fine. Anyway I was lucky to draw on tile, and a flyer aswell, peg 38, had bob(the masked singer) pascoe on 39, he was on here a couple of weeks ago and won with 40lb, so he was happy as conditions were nearly identical. Three rigs, a 1grm lifter, a .75 slim both to fish at 5 and 11mtrs, and a .3 slim to fish in about 1 mtr of water.to my left , at the start i cupped in one ball of groundbait at 5 mtrs and three at 11mtrs, strted short , gave it 20minutes not a bite, so out to 11mtrs, and had a couple of better skimmers quickly, but then really struggled, the match started at 10.15, and by 1.15 i reckoned I had about 15lb, which by the sounds of thing wasnt to bad, but i kept topping up and the second half got a lot better, with the peg getting stronger towards the end, i even managed 4 good skimmers on the shallow line to my left, i had 47lb on the clicker by the end but felt i may have over clicked a bit, but i was close as my fish went over 50lb, best hookbait today was single dead red, groundbait was the normal mix i use all year round, sensas black lake, thatchers original and brown crumb, equal amounts of each, its a nice mix you can adapt to any situation,