Three briefs

Firstly sad news , Bob(motty)Sheppard passed away on sunday, without a doubt one of the best river anglers to come out of bristol, being the same age we fished the same circuit and teams.for quite a few years, he will be missed by many, thoughts and condolences go to his family at this difficult time, rip Bob 😞. Thursday and the costcutter at shiplate, not quite a costcutter any more as john does a superpool which most seem to enter. Peg 6 for me ,

only a pellet and meat attack, so pellet at 5 and 13 mtrs, pellet on the wag at 20mtrs, and meat down the edge, quite a quiet day to be fair, 4 carp, on on pellet at 13mtrs, 2 on the wag and one down the edge, plus 17lb of skimmers on pellet accidentally for 53lb, andy f on 14a won with 144lb of mainly margin caught carp on corn to his left, that man dave wride won the silvers again, with 26lb from peg 11.

sunday and i had thought i had the first of my short pole matches , but due to a clerical error😲😂😂😂😂😂😂 i got that wrong, so i ran a match at whitepost down at todber, 20 fishing so just the right number, peg 1 was my residence for the day, lovely peg but to many options, ended up trying to feed and fish 6 areas but realistically should have stuck a nice to 2 or 3, got a bit lost and didnt do anything properly, ended up with 131lb for no where, Mat Sheppard was top on the day with 168lb, just beating ryan shipp on peg 5 by about 1lb, well done mat.

Monday and.down to the sedges for the float only, 25 fishing, a really good turnout, first into the bucket of doom, and ping pong 18 comes out, a good area, but to be fair i don't mind where i draw , for company i had jess jordan on my left on end peg 19 and his good friend ade bishop on my right, both good venue anglers so today was.going to be interesting, still pinning my faith on caster and groundbait , so i fed.one ball at 5 mtrs 2 at 11 mtrs and three at 13mtrs at the start, ive found recently its been a bit of a waiting game for bites, but when you got one it was a decent skimmer, and today was no different, 13 mtrs was no good , 11 mtrs gave me.a few.fish, but the short line was the most productive, as the match went on carp were a real pain, not just for me, bjt everyone seemed.to be hooking them, at the end i never really had a clue as to what i had, except that i knew i had over 20lb, my fish actually went 33lb which was only good enkugh to win the section on our bank, martin tizzard over on tile lake on peg 37 does what he does well, totally destroying the competition witha brilliant 75lb on punched bread, fair play and well done, kedgy was a bit behind in second place with 56lb from peg 8, weigh sheet below

Shiplate and acorn

Sunday and it was the last round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, its been a good league run over 6 matches, next year its being run over 8 matches and already there is a waiting list showing how popular silvers matches are now, instead of playing carp lotto, we did have a couple of no shows today but they were covid related, not much we couod do about that as it was the night before. Wessex flyer for chris and me for breakfast, but the food shack is open again at the fishery with mark jones and partner being on the griddle again, and it all looked good so i will have one on Thursday. Ron did the draw and i pulled out peg 8 for myself, on my right was chris and over on 9a was bristols most improved silvers star, Kev winstone, going into this match i was lying 4th and realistically i needed to come top 2 in the section to improve on my position, but i felt it may be a dit to difficult from this peg, but i would attack it the same as always and hope something happened, so i set up rigs to fish three lines with groundbait and caster being the main line of attack, usual groundbait today , equal measures of Thatcher original, sensas lake and brown crumb, so at the start i cupped in two balls at 11 and 13 mtrs, and one ball at 5mtrs, i also set a caster rig for the margin as i have seen some tench and skimmers caught here at this time of year, pre spawning, but not today just a few roach, as the match went on i kept topping up the groundbait lines, but think i may have over cooked it a bit as ive lost a few foulers off each line with the fish seeming to be over the feed , but ive had a few but but not enough, ending up with 29lb for 4th in the section, kev on 9a had over 50 to win on the day withna nice mixture of skimmers and tench, well done, i owe you £2, i wont forget 😆😆.

Gordon canning on 1 had 45lb and shaun townsend on 3 had 31lb, weigh sheet below and a picture of ryan jordan who won the other section with 38lb and also finally got one of his quids back.

Monday and off to acorn for a match , ended up with 23 fishing so not to bad, unfortunately there were a few pleasure anglers at the top end so we were a bit more tightly pegged than i would like, so i ended up on 22 which is a bridge peg, i had john dursley on 21 and steve seager on end peg 23, so a bit hemmed in but hopefully there would be some tench and carp about. But as expected it was difficult, fizzing over the maggot line at 4 mtrs, but hard to get a bite there until the last hour when i had a couple of better carp and some tench, during the match i had two carp and 3 small tench by the bridge, and a few carp across on pellet, but it was clear the carp were in the fairly normal haunts with paul elmes winning easily off peg 1 with 167, and chris davis coming second from peg 2 with over 90lb, niel(drawbag) mercer won the silvers from peg 9! With 48lb and Paul(I've only got 15lb) faiers was second with 32lb, the lake has fished quite well nto be fair, i ended up with 73lb so ive had a days fishing so no complaints.

Landsend winter league

Sunday and it was the final round of the individual winter league, i was going into this match with a 4 point buffer and a bit of a weight advantage, on lake three today and hoping to draw peg 58, as the winds been blowing towards that end for a while now so i fully expected the fish to be holed up against the end bank at that end. But breakfast first , cooked by karen and it was very nice , 4.8. Never get a bad breakfast at this venue. Draw got underway and I was a little #issed to pull out peg 61, its a average peg but very rarely a winning peg, it looks good with a corner of the island to go at, and a nice right hand margin with a bush in the water, rig graveyard to be honest, i had dom sullivan to my left, opposite was russ(i caught 70lb in the last ten minutes) peck, and mike jefferies, up in the corner on the far bank was rich major and on flyer peg 58 was dave ings, who was moaning about being unable to get a rig into the water due to the amount of carp in front of him, and he wanted silvers. The banter and micky taking was a bit relentless, bit good natured. its been a more difficult match on this lake than any of us thought it would be, started short on meat for no bites, went to the island, coupke of liners but no fish, down the edge after two hours and finally a small carp was in the net. Only dave ings was catching, silvers with the odd carp, also dom to my left was starting to get an odd carp, i did get one small carp and a bit of a skabby skimmer from the island, but the ony place i could get any indications was down the right hand margin on meat, i did lose a couple in the bush and had a few liners, but i ended up with 8 small carp and the lonesome skimmer, i turned out i just did enough, dom won on my left with 58lb, dave to my right had 53, and russ late show peck had 41lb , i came 4th on the lake with 40lb, so couldn't be caught, my closest risk was from nick duckett who had ddrawn 31 on the speci lake and weighed in over 190lb, well done . He won the lake obviously but was still 1.5 points behind me so i had held on for the series win and a £400 pickup, that will do nicely, big well done to mike and steve seager for running it , thanks to Rachael and karen for breakfasts and the spread after the match on sunday, and not forgetting ade for his bankside food delivery sevices, and im sure i saw gary occasionally.

as i had won some money i felt i could afford the fuel to go to bridgwater and fish the silvers match at the sedges, another nice fishery breakfast, 4.8 again, cant fault it .24 fishing so 8 on each bank of tile lake and 8 on the high numbers on brick. It was windy so a any peg with a 2 at the start of it would do as the wind would be slightly off the back, but no 26 for me so wind in and across , lovely, wind and tow going the same way, two rigs today, 1g for the 5 mtr line, and a 1.25 for 9 and 13 mtrs, both drennan s7 patterns, hooks today were 18 brennan finesse silver fish pattern on .10, very impressed with these new hooks, strong for the gauge of wire, and good long lasting points. At the start i fed 5 , 9 and 13 mtrs.with groundbait with a bit of caster and very dead pinkies in, presentation was horrendous, the first third of the match was a bit slow, but as it got further in to it things improved, the 13 mtr line was no good, most of the fish came from the 5 and 9mtr lines, some nice skimmers, all on double and single maggot, aswell as some on pinkie towards the end, ended up with 35lb, so not a bad day in the conditions, but only good enough for second as martin tizard over on 19 brick had a realy good day catching 56lb of skimmers mainly on bread at 6mtrs, well done martin. Steve kedge was third with 33lb, as the weigh sheet shows both the lakes have fished well.

Thursday shiplate costcutter

17 fishing today, so not to bad, also john has started doing a £5 superpool on top of the normal £15 entry, i think all but one didnt enter it so obviously there is a need. the draw was crucial as we were forcast to have 45 mph westerly winds , so any peg on the far bank would be good so the wind wpuld be from behind, my draw arm was ok today in that respect as i pulled out ping pong ball 9a, probably the most sheltered peg on lake, so i set up a wag to fish pellet halfway to the island, a silvers rig for 11 and 14 mtrs same.depth, and a meat rig for the bush to my right , which is normally a banker for carp,

At the start i cupped in 2 balls at 11mtrs and three at 14, dropped some meat down by the bush, then started on the wag, i wasnt expecting to much, so it was a shock when the float went under, a 2lb skimmer was the culprit, i would like to say i had a few more on it , but i never had another bite on it all match, and i tried it several times. Also the meat down by the tree was a waste of time aswell, the pole lines were really slow aswell, only odd bites, including a ruffe which is normally a sign that not much else is feeding.

I was getting enough bites to just about justify sticking with the silvers, but it got harder as the match went on, about 90 minutes from the end i turned into paul faiers, i got off the box and made up a light rig, 4x12 with a 22 hook and began fishing single pinkie, and i seemed to work to a degree, as i had a couple of better skimmers, but i think it was more coincidence, also out of desperation i dropped the rig down by the meat bush with single maggot, and had a tench of about 1 1/2lb, but it was a one off, by the end i new i had double figures, but not sure how much as bites were and fish were well spread out, hard but enjoyable. When the scales got to me alan quantrill was winning with 82lb from peg 14 , fishing the method over to the tree on the island, well done and a quid off me. top silvers was dave wride with 36lb, but my fish went 18.8 which was good enough for second in the silvers, and luckily for me the silvers winner never did the super pool, thanks dave👍👍. Weigh sheet below.

Shiplate and acorn

Sunday and it was the silvers league penultimate round, run by ron hardiman,, todaynandnit was the main lake at shiplate, plenty of silvers, but with a minus 3 frost over night it may be difficult, haven't been here for a couple of momths as on Thursdays i have been going to the excellent plantations lake for silvers matches and huntstrete for the same, so i was looking forward to today as this lale also has a huge head of quality silvers in it, all these good silvers venues seem to do best when the lakes also have a good head of carp, skimmers and roach like eating carp pooh by the seems of things, carp do have a short digestive system so obviously they pass plenty of nutrients out for the traditional silvers can eat, trying to create a silvers only lale never seems to work, a fact that gets born out with regular monotony with fisheries paying the price for attempting it. Anyway today i was off to peg 15 for the day, good carp peg, but the majority of the bigger skimmers seem to have been further up the lake recently, i had ryan(the float) jordan to my right and opposite on peg one was peter pan himself , leon Hubbard. Three rigs today, one with a twenty hook on to fish maggot over groundbait at topset and two, and at 11 mtrs at 11 o,clock angle and another with an 18 for 1 o,clock angle, also a margin rig for the left as on some days it can be good for tench, but i never fished it as every time i put a bit of bait in all i had was carp tail patterns,

the match started and i fed the relevant baits in all areas, a slow start was an understatement I had my first bite after 1 hour and ten minutes, carp on , not a big one , about 6lb, so safely netted, by now leon opposite was catching small skimmers , but our bank was extremely slow judging by the bankside banter. But as the match progressed my swim got better, mainly smallish skimmers from 4oz to 12 oz, the middle three hours were the best for me, with the 90 minutes at either end being a struggle, although i did get three better ones towards the end, also carp were a problem for me, as i hooked 16, it dont help the cause thats fot sure, i thought i had about 25lb and wasnt to far out as i had 26.15,

i felt loen had over 30lb so he looked like todays winner, but after joe mcmahon put 33 lb on the scales it may be close, but leon just edged it with 34lb so well done.

Leon is well out in front at the mo, one round to go and he could easily still win the league even though he isnt fishing the last round, with no droppers and no reserves allowed he will get maximun penalty points but the chasing pack still needs to do well to catch up.

Monday and down to acorn, struggling to get monday matches off the ground here, only 7 of us today, so i pegged everyone with the wind off our backs,peg 3 for me. nothing to report by me on this one, started off feeding pellets with a catty, the ducks moved in and never left, i like them in the summer but not when its hard, ive had a proper shoeing either side with mat tomes on my left on getting it right just kindering a few pellets across, catching f1,s, some carasio and small carp, anything which looks like a carp, is a carp in my matches, paul faiers on peg one was silvers bashimg and doing well, me i couldnt get a bite hardly, even the short maggot line which paul was cathing on( or should i say short pinkie line), and in the last half of the match mat was catching well on, i felt as though i was watching 👀 a tennis match, i had a stiff neck by the end, 😂😂 well i csme last with 26lb, well done to mat who won with 68lb which included 40lb of silvers, and paul on my right was second with 44lb and that included 40.03 of silvers, think i may have got it totally wrong today😕😕😆😆, onwards and upwards as they say, it was a hard day for some reason, with the decent carp being very noticeable by there adsence, it fished better the next day thats for sure.pics and weigh sheet below