Three

Again a bit late with this one, so short and sweet, last Thursday and back to shiplate for the nearly costcutter, breakfast was.good again, well done mark. Drew peg 12a, probably my.least favourite peg on the lake, its got the least room of the pegs used, and its veey shallow out to about 7mtrs, last time I drew this peg there was an annoying branch above my head which made casting a bit tight, i did mention it at the time but was a bit dissapointed to find it still there but it had grown a bit more, i did snick it a few times.so hopefully its been trimmed back a bit, but apart from that ive had 5 carp, one on the wag and 4 mugged on the pole, plus a few skimmers for 63lb, the match was won by gary flinders on peg 14 with 151lb of shallow and muggers, well done , second went to mark jones on peg 15 with 101lb, and titch on peg 1 had 70+, silvers went to jeff sparkes on peg 5 with 33lb.

Sunday and it was the penultimate round of the short pole match at Chilton trinity on woodland lake, not the draw i wanted.peg 13, thus lake now is a tough nut to crack, some wuality carp in here but they now whats good and whats not, i started on the paste(😉😉😏😏)and had a couple in the first hour, two shallow and 6 on hard pellet on the deck in the last 90minutes, i also had a big eel, a skimmer and an f1, which went 7lb, my carp were tiny again by this las standards as they only went 58lb, the norm would be 80 to 100lb, but it was enough to win the section, as expected the carpark bank was beast with martin rayet on 28 winning with 133lb, of mainly late margin fish, vic bush won the silvers with 30 from peg 25.

Monday and sedges it was then for the silvers match, lovely breakfast at the fishery as normal, there were 28 booked in, but as there was going to be an overflow onto brick lake, as it was scheduled for tile.lake, a couple of anglers pulled out as in there wisdom they felt there was no chance of winning off brick, anyway i was nearly.last into the draw and pulled out ping pong ball 4, on brick, the beauty if these lake's is that its virtually impossible to say where the winner may come from, anyway it was a day fishing and the wind was from behind, so it was going to be comfy, normal groundbait , caster with a tiny bit of worm mixed in, 2 balls at 5 mtrs and 4 balls at 11 mtrs to start, started.short and had a 3lb bream first put in, but nothing after.that apart from a lost big eel and and a 1lb grog, ive had to keep moving to keep me.dropping skimmers into the net, carp have been a huge problem today, it got to a stage.i was scared to strike as i was aware.of the outcome, but things improved in the last 90 minutes, and i began hooking more skimmers than carp, so at the end i new i had at least 25lb, but it sounded as thiugh it was going to be a tight match, and it was, alan mills was top weight on peg 7, 34lb on mainly.meat, wally on 38 was second with 30.08 and i was 3rd with 30.06, just goes to show fishing is very unpredictable.

Monday sedges silvers

With the threat of record temps for monday i thought i was a bit mad going today, but after sunday off i felt i needed to go, so off down the a38 to bridgwater it was then, arrived there to a nearly empty carpark, the weather had certainly kept a lot away, so instead of the normal 25/30, we.were.down to a hardy 12 today. So after.a lovely fishery breakfast cooked by Denise it was draw time, due to jamie having covid, rob parker was in charge.today. I was late into the draw today and pulled out ping pong 17, happy enough with that, but as ive said before im not to fussed where i draw as the skimmers seem to move about a bit, for company i had mr.parker on my right and alan on my left, bit i felt Martin tizard on peg 19 may be the man to beat, he is a bit of a legend here with his bread approach. i soon had myself.sorted out, two rigs, oth .5 slims, one with and 18 hook and the other a 16, both guru f1maggot hooks.

At the star i cupped in 1 ball at 3mtrs on a small flat spot, two balls at 6mtrs and 4 at 11mtrs. I will have to admit its been quite hard as it was roasting, thank god for the brollie, carp.were.a massive pain, there were loads all over the surface, but there seemed.to be an equal ammount on the bottom, the 3 mtr.!ine was rubbish, 6mtrs was ok for the first couple of hours, i kept trying the 11 mtr line but it never happened there until the last couple of hours when i kept putting some good skimmers in the net, single.caster.or double red was best today, i new i had over 30lb so hopefully that would be good enough for second as martin on 19 had caught steadily for most of the match, except when he was attached to a carp. When the scales.got to me paul homewood was.top on peg 12 with 29lb, i thought i had that , and i had a bit more with 34lb, but as expected, martin was last to weigh and didnt disappoint as he plonked, 48lb on the scales, well done, 20lb on bread, and the rest on soft pellet, also i met up with a real blast from the past today in the shape of tom rattenbury, he was one of the men to beat back in the day in Somerset and devon, after.a 20 year layoff, it is good to see him back.

Beer self drives

With a good weather forecast, judith managed.to get the day off, so off to beer in devon for a day in the self drives launching off the beach of this lovely little devon beach, and with the wind coming from the northwest, and a sunny day expected, there aint many better p Aces to be for a bit of a relaxing day. Breakfast on the beach overlooking the sea, does it get any better😊😊. Simon had the boat in the water and waiting for us by the time we had done food, it wasnt to long before we were poodling out under the white cliffs towards beer head.

It can be worthwhile drifting for plaice across the bay towards seaton, but we never had any worm with us so that was not going to happen, a brief stop off the head to try for mackerel drew a blank, mackerel fishing as we know is very hit and miss for the best part. But not to worry as i had bought mackerel, bluey , squid and raw king prawns for bait.so we went out about 500mtrs beyond the dead and dropped the anchor in about 50 ft of water, we both soon had a squid bait on the bottom, ut as normal first blood to judith in the shape of a small smoothhound,

Perhaps we were going to have a good day catching the sporty fish but it was a false dawn as it was the only one we had, which was a tad disappointing, but we still had plenty of bites from small conger and dogfish, not everyone's cup of tea but fun on 30g outfits, even the doggies twitch a bit. We gave a few hours on thus mark, but up anchored early afternoon and moved further out amongst some pots, so hopefully broken ground. we enjoyed a good few hours here , congers up to mid doubles which put an impressive curve into these light outfits.

Also some bream, more doggies and one small tub gurnard which had eyes.bigger than its belly as it took a whole squid bait on a 4/0,

we also had a few mackerel on the bream rod which was a sleeper rod fished just off bottom with a 2 hook paternoster on, it nearly got pulled in a couole of times by the bream and mackerel. So a really good day with some quality time with judith which is always good, so if you fancy trying it, just google beer self drives , pick your days according to the weather, so if you can get away and book at short notice you wont be dissapointed.

Sunday and monday

Sunday and it was shiplate for round 4 of the float only league, had to get a few reserves, and did make a mistake reading someomes text, who wasnt coming due to other commitments, so i can only apologise sam p. My mistake. going to be a hot one today so a peg with cover woukd be ideal, i let ricky mills draw for me and he pulled out peg 13 on west pool, a good area but with 12 in with shay gilman on it and an aerater rope and wire between me and 14(empty) so no margins which can be a bit of a banker on this lake, so leon hubbard on end peg 15 was probably going to be the one to beat. Rigs today was a far bank pellet rig, a mugger/shallow, a pellet rig for the bottom of the far shelf, and lastly the meat rig for topset and two. ive had a difficukt day, primarily.as ive.totally overcooked it with a catty on the far bank doukers were a nightmare, ive had plenty of fish over there, but mouthhooking them was not easy, so i came away from it to try and mug some of the cruisers, but i know fro experience on this lale they can be really hrd to fool, but i had to give it a go as i was behind leon and steve seager on peg 10, and after the last round i need a section win to keep in the hunt, as i expected it was hard, lots if fish moving but not interested really, but i did manage to annoy some fish into taking the bait, certainly enough to get me back in contention for the section, and as normal, some of these muggers were good fish, i did manage a couple from across aswell, plus one carp and a couple of skimmers from the deeper pellet rig, the meat line only gave me two better skimmers, but i had done enough to win my section which was the object for today, 85lb, and as i thought leon was foing to be one to beat, he was second with 76lb, it was a hard day across the fishery, mark cook was top on the day with 108lb, just beating Vic bush on 15 west pool by a couple of ounces, top silvers.went the normal.way of ryan shipp with iver 50lb, knocking martin rayet into second with 47lb, the lakes probuced and average weight of 55lb between the 40 anglers,

momday and i ran a silvers match at Landsend fishery on lake two, only a dozen fishing and with temps due to hit 30c a draw on the far bank in the shade would do me just fine, but not until i had had a nice breakfast at the fishery cooked by sharon, Did the draw and i let nigel bartlett draw mine, peg18, nice in the shade all day and a nice cooling breeze coming from behind.

Just hard pellet today, feeding 4,s and fishing banded 6mm, mainly topkit to hand targeting the crucians, f1,s, small tench and skimmers, it looked as though carp could be a pain as there were hundreds and hundreds mooching about, so next time someone says there are no carp in the lake, take it from me its solid, plenty if indications all match, so by the end i new i had at least 20lb, but really not a clue, and carp were a problem, making there presence felt for everyone. And consiring the hot weather again today, 30c again its fished well, dave(the pro) ings.winning again in his front garden with 36lb on peg 21, nigel bartlett was second on 5 with 28 , shay gilman had 26 on 15 and me 25lb, good fishing with it impossible to predict the winning peg, as its different every match,

Well , it couldnt continue.

After several 2nd spots recently i was hoping for more, so sunday and round three of the float only league, Landsend fishery for this one, and being a fishery u really enjoy i was hoping for the best, bot to the fishery in plenty of time for one of Rachael,s lovely breakfast,s. That done and draw time , so i let bob gullick draw for me as we drew each other in the k/o, he was on 36 which is an ok peg, and he pulled out 32 for me, a corner peg.which can be very good, so all to play for, it was a good section with vince shipp on 31, me 32 , trig on 33, james.spooner, mathews on 34 and bob bunghole gullick on 36, had a quick james with james telling how i would fish his peg as it can be very good as lomg as its attacked a bit. I normally spend a bit of time clearimg the end bank so as to get into it , but i spent most of my spare time filming trig who was tree climbing doing a proper job, i was hoping for a slip and a splash but it never happened, i cleared a bit but not enough as it transpired. So rigs were the std short meat rig, but only a hybrid on that, two pellet rigs for along the bank, one a mtr off at full depth, and one for against the bank where there used to be a small ledge, but i thing the fish have got rid of that since i last drew it, as it was no longer there, so it was onlt about 6 inches shallower than full depth, and a rig to slap about or fish tight to the bank for any slurpers which showed up hopefully, we had a difficult day with the wind today, it definitely couldnt decide which way it wanted to go, so i decided to call it a acdc wind, quite fitting i thought, well its been a bit of a strange day, the peg wes definitely worth a lot more than i caught, i paid the price for not doing a bit more of a hatchett job on the end bank branches, there were some fish shallow in the shade for a while ,but i couldnt get the rig to where i needed to be, so consequently although ive had a days sport, mt 95lb was only good enough for 4th in the section, bob won the section with 114lb, trig had 110 and james had 97lb, so oit of the k/o, and thus would hopefully be my dropper, top on the day was sam powell who again showed his class by winning on a venue he had never seen before from peg 66 with 115lb, well done, dave (silvers) ings won the silvers.with 29lb from peg 38. Weigh sheets below.

Monday and. By way of a change, myself and chris fox had an early start to fish a maggot drowners match at the glebe fishery, up by Leicester, nearly a 3 hour drive each way, again ive had a nice days fishing, although the wind made it hard , i was on lake 1 peg 10, dont really know the venue that well, but i would have preferred to have been further the the right,

Any way i was goimg to attack it with hard pellets, 6,s over 4,s at 5mtrs, and 8,s over 6,s at 11mtrs, any further out than that and the wind was making life to hard, pushing the rig through to hard, started.ok ish on both lines, bit soon faded , i had fed with a catty, which was wrong today for me, i ended up cupping some pellet in and fishing it out, the fishing got better towards the end, my cock up, 130lb won and 109lb was third, definitely attainable, i just didnt read it quick enough, and the angler to my right had a cracking day fishing corn at 6mtrs, he ended up with 87lb of skimmers and bream, lovely days fishing that, its a shame the fishery isnt closer as its a beautifully maintained fishery with plenty of fish, just to damn far. Thursday and it was back to shiplate for the nearly costcutter on the main lake, mark jones seems to have the breakfast sorted, very nice with quality sausages making the difference, into the draw and peg 5 again, drew it last.week and came.second, i had 20lb of skimmers on pellet,at 13 mtrs plus two carp and 7 more carp on the wag with pellet on the deck, well today was differnt with the lake having a proper moody one.

the skimmers didnt want to play ball, and there no signs of feeding carp , but i kept at it, i did manage 2 carp on the wag, and some fish were there towards the end but i couldnt get them to feed properly, ended upnwith a level 30lb for nowhere, steve seager won on peg 14b with 80lb, 8/9 carp onnthe wag, well done mate, gary(the apprentice 2pot) Bowden was second on peg three with just over 60lb. Silvers went to the ever consistent dave wride on peg 1 with 26lb, Back here on sunday for round 4 of the float only league, wouldnt mind being on thr canals as the far bank have had a trim and i di enjoy rat hole fishing, but the fish onnthe canals have been spawning again, so that may affect it a bit, we will have to see.

Two from the week

Sedges monday silvers match again, brick and an overflow onto tile if the numbers show up, so after another good breakfast at the fishery, it was draw time, and with 29 fishing one bank of tile wouod be in, into the bucket and hopefully I would get a ping pong with over 31 on it, yay, 34 nice. Bit of a wind blowing in but where i wanted to be.

Lovely fishery which has some really consistent skimmer fishing all summer long, as long as the carp stay away, set up three rigs today, one short halfway up the shelf, but apart from a few roach not the skimmers i had hope for, so no more of that, two rigs for 5 and 11 mtrs, a 1grm wire stem bodied float with a 16guru f1 maggot hook on, the other a .65g slim with a 18 of the same pattern, i fed the two lines quite aggressively with groundbait with some chopped worm and caster in, and swapping between the two lines i haf a steady day, not constant but enough to keep me in the hunt, i needed to catch a fish or two off a line before putting another another ball in and going to the other line, finished with 35lb which was good enough for second (again), losing out to jess jordan on peg 39 with 42lb, well done matey,

Thursday and the normal costcutter at shiplate, again it was so well attended there was a small overflow match on west pool, breakfast cooked by mark at the fishery was really good and the sausages are spot on. into the draw peg 5 today, ryan jordan on my left, and phil Morgan on my right. So pretty standard Shiplate fishing for me today, a meat rig for each side at the bottom of the rocks, a mugger/shallow rig, a pellet rig for 13mtrs, banded 6 over hard 4,s, and a wag for on the deck at 25mtrs feeding and fishing hard 8,s, started on the 13 mtr line, and had a few skimmers, there was plenty of fizzing , but as usual bites were hard to get, but shiftimg the bait in and around the activity odd bites were to be had. But now i could see bubbles on the wag line, sout on the wag and i soon haf a carp of about 8lb in the net, i was gettin indications and odd proper bites on the wag so i spent most of the match on it, especially as i couldnt see to much being caught, just titch williams on peg 15 was catching odd fish, i did get two carp on the pole towards the end , surprisingly not a bite down the margins, ended with 9 carp and double figures of silvers, and apart from titch that looked good as far as i could tell, john started the weigh in from peg 15 and when he got to me titch was top with 116lb, i didnt think I had that, but in the end i was one fish away as my carp went 88lb and my silvers 20lb, so happy enough, second (again) there seems to be a pattern forming here, 😂😂