A quick couple

Thursday and Shiplate it was then for the optional costcutter, mark cooked a nice breakfast today, 4.7. Into the draw and peg 9 ball stuck to my hand, it was a hard as i expected, the fish seem to want to be at the other end of the lake, i managed to mug three reluctant carp, one on the wag to the left towards the trees along the bank towards 9a, one hybrid shallow on pellet , a decent skimmer and a tench, that was my lot, 46lb and a wheel spin out of the carpark, even gary flinders who wins more than his fair share here actually blanked on peg 8, top on the day was john wolfsencroft on peg 15 with 92lb beating colin on peg 1 by 2oz. Top silvers went to john andres on peg 5 with 34lb, well done all.

Sunday i was going back to viaduct for the open on cambell, i still feel its a shame there are no bigger matches or leagues on this venue, but i also understand the reasons. anyway peg 119 for me, up in the corner, its been an ok peg recently so i wasnt moaning. I had glen radford on my left on 118 and mat parsons over on 121 , nice peg mine with lots of open water in front and a tree to my right which holds fish but its normally a bit torrid.

I set up a meat rig for topset and two, a pellet rig for 11mtrs, a mugger rig but i couldnt see any fish and i never for the duration of the match, and a tree rig. Again for pellet, the match started slowly for me , glen to my left caught better thasn me at the start, also mat seemed to be doing ok, catching plenty of skimmers on his short line, along with odd carp, mat had a bit of a bad day as his silvers net fell off his bar after a couple of hours and he never noticed, oh dear never mind, he had about 20lb escape. Ive had odd fish off all lines , bit my peg definitely got stronger towards the end on the short meat line, so by the end i thought i had over 140lb, steve.started.the weigh in on peg 110 and when the scales.got to glen 146lb was winning off peg 116, then glen put 152.8 on the board. I was next and came close with 151.8, henry smith was third off 131 with 147lb , mat( i thought you more skimmers.than that) parsons had 144lb and bela bakos on 130 was 6th with 143lb, so ony one fish seperating the top 6. A good tight match. Silver,s top weight went to nigel easton on peg 126 with 52lb of skimmers, with the effervescent clint wojtlya having 47lb on peg 111, a pic of nigel and the weigh sheet below,

Bridesmaids

Got to have a moan , fuel costs are getting ridiculous, £10 a gallon, REALLY. I know its a long time ago, but i can remember sitting in the back of my parents car and listening to them moaning about petrol going past the 50p a gallon price, and ive just listened to the news and them saying the cost of heating and running your house may increase by another £1000 this autumn, the power companies are warning, its not as though these companies arent making huge profits is it, obviously all out mp,s and government officials have fingers in all these pies, bit depressing really. On a lighter note went to todber manor last Thursday for a small knockup with some of my friends from bristol and beyond, only on ash lake and with only 9 on there plenty of room for all, into the draw and hoping for 75 as the wind was blowing into the corner, but 72 was me for the day, not a difficult day, started short , as you do here, had a couple but was missing bites, liners. Tried shallow on the short line, no bites, the wind was ok so i was managing to throw 6mm pellet to 9 mtrs, and with fish showing i went out there shallow and stuck on it for the rest of the match, catching plenty of fish but of a small stamp, i managed to mug a couple of better fish but not quite enough, ended up with 304lb for second, 5lb behind martyn woodington on 64 who had 309lb, with martin rayet third with 278lb, i thought i haf a picture of the weigh sheet but no sorry, but there were a few more wieghts over 200lb. Got to be said its an incredible fishery, in all probability the best fishery in the country, whether it's huge match weights, big carp or big catfish, a real credit to john and his team. Found the weigh sheet.

Sunday and down to shiplate for an open on the main lake, peg 2 for me, and 9 for chris, i know who had the pooh end of the stick there, and i was happy, its a nice peg with an easily reached island,

Again the lake has had a bit of a moody day, but being big fish they tend to throw there dummies out from time to time, and today was one of those times, normally catch against the island in various parts, but not today, only had a couple of bream over there, i ended up catching 7 carp agsinst the aerator which was a bit different.

And one more on meat down the left at the bottom of the marginal rocks, colin on peg one was first on the day with 117lb catchimg on the pole and pellet at 13 mtrs towards peg zero, so inwas second again, mark jones won the silvers with 36lb of corn caught skimmers on peg 7,

Monday and i ran a silvers match at Landsend fishery, only ten of us but it was a good field, beany drew peg 14 for me, after drawing peg 5 for himself again,😂😂. Paul faiers to my right, so a quid there, and the legend nick Collins opposite on peg 11, ive had a lovely days fishing catching on caster on my topkit initially, then on pellet to my left on banded 6 mm hard pellet over softened 4,s, roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, f1,s, crucians and small tench, bites all day to be fair, gary , Rachael and ade are.working hard to sort the fishery out, and what they have achieved so far is very good, and it will continue to improve im sure, second for me again with 43lb, losing out to dave(resident professional)ings on peg 1 with 44lb, well done, and beany was 3rd on peg 5 with 39lb, weigh sheet below.

Two to report

Didnt fish any matches last week as judith and me had a few days awaynin the anchor pub overlooking beer beach in devon, we were hoping to get outon the self drives, but the wind and swell was too much so no chance, we did manage a mini species hunt on weymouth stone pier, we had plenty of fish, but you may well have guessed i lost 5 to 4 on species althiugh i did have the most, i did try and change it to quantity, but jusdith was having none of that, so the walk of shame back to the carpark, dragging my knuckles along the floor😂😂. Sunday and round 2 of the float only.league at Landsend fishery, got to the venue in plenty of time for the fishery breakfast, as always very nice, did the draw for the k/o in the cafe , all done by adrian(the corner) clark, and he paired me up with leon hubbard, coukd be hard.then especially with his drawing ability, got the draw started and someone drew peg 41 for me, first peg on lake 3, ok as long as.leon drew.crap, he ended up on peg 5, so i thought it would a fair one. I nad tony thick, the long suffering dad of tom on my left, and pete(tom cruise) nurst opposite on 70, and ryan shipp on 68. I set up rigs for meat short, pellet on the deck out by the aerator, a couple of margin rigs again for pellet each side, and a mugger. I started.on the shirt meat line, and after.15 minutes I,d had a carp a roach and a skimmer, but that was my.lot.for the short line, out by the aerator gave a one small carp and couple of small tench, and f1,s, ive managed to mug 4 but only landed one, most of my fish have come down along the right hand end bank, ut its always a bit brutal in thus peg as although the fish tend to be small resident fish in the peg but they are buggers to get out, but ive had to go right into the snags to get bites.

ive managed to land 14 small.carp for 52lb, which won the section, so two out of two a good start, no weght, only just over 100lb, with anglers around me having over 200lb, tom mangnal was.top on the day with 142lb from peg 22 on lake 2 well done tom. weigh shhets below, i have had to block out a word on lake two match sheet as someone obviously thinks it funny to use obscene language, i dont like it when its put out there for anyone to read, men, women, kids and my mum, so please no more.

Monday and down to the sedges for the monday over 50,s silvers match, lovely breakfast at the fishery cafe, finished just in time for the draw, early into the bucket and out comes peg 37, just about right, and me old mate steve kedge on 38, so we could keep an eye on the quid. Normal 2 line approach, 6 and 11 mtrs today, two rigs, one for maggot , a ,8 bodied float with an 18 f1 maggot hook, and the other with a 14 acolyte finnese for worm, at the start i cupped in two balls at 6 and 4 balls at 11 mtrs, started well on the lighter rig, catching small to medium size skimmers on maggot, first hiur was good, but it just died after the first hour, the 11 mtr line seemed devoid , and only occasional bites on the short line, as for worm, i never had a bite on it, strange, but then again i wasnt getting bites anywhere, and to make it worse kedgy was now catching, i felt there were fish there , so i got off the box made up a .5g rj slim with a 20 f1 hook, whether it's just coincidence or something else i dont know, but all i now is that i began to catch off both lines, i like to think they just turned up. Anyway i finished with 38lb and a quid off mr kedge, which is more important than the match win, that went to wally over on peg 22 who had 40lb on meat, a very popular win, i ended up 3 rd.so managed to cover the fuel and breakfast costs, so all good.