I,m back

As a lot of you will be aware, i had my van stolen back in mid july, with over £4000 worth of tackle in the back, i got up on that sunday morning , looked out of the window at ehere the vsn was left the night before, outside my house, hmmm, empty space. But i still went out and had a quick reccy up and down the road just incase i did leave it somewhere else , but i new i hadnt, f%&+#@£ torrid, after being in the tackle trade for 46 years i have seen many people whise tackle had been stolen, a few had just given up fishing after, especially those with no insurance, and to be fair it does feel as though you have recieved a proper kick in the nuts, but onwards and upwards as they say , and i did have cover for goods away from the home, as word got out i began to get calls and messages.from friends and acquaintances from over the years, some of which i hadnt heard from in probably 15years, all offering kit etc, i even haf the loan of a van from a good friend to use until i had managed.to get another, so withun the the week i had been sorted out by good friends with enough kit to get out agsin, luckily all poles and rods were not in the van , as i said some i see regularly, and some i hadnt seen for years, i was truly humbled by people's generosity, and it went a long way to restoring my faith in human nature after the scummy lowlifes who stole from me, I'm not going to name anyone who helped me but you know who you are, i will be eternally grateful, and be in your debt, but not in a bad way, in the words of freddie mercury, i thank you all. as for the insurance, they only paid me out for less than 50% of what i claimed, so it will take me a bit longer to get my kit baxk too where it was before. As for fishing, its been ok, won a few, framed.in a few , come second overall in the Landsend silvers league, and 4th in the float only, A few pics below of various venues, and the float only final league placing. Mike silverfox nicholls has managed to find a commode attachment for his aging boss box, amazing what ypu can find on ebay

Peg 10 at shiplate, managed.to edge a win off that one,

And the float only final league table,

And in between all thus my daughter got married, that was a special day, she is no longer a rixon, but now a mrs Gazard, love and best wishes to them for whatever the future holds for them, im sure they will be fine as dean has learnt his place in that household 😂😂

Getting later

To be honest its really getting difficult to do these blogs , although i still really enjoy my matches, i also enjoy other branches of the sport, match fishing is a bit same old same old now, the open matches are now struggling for numbers, while the club scene is fairly bouyant, also individual leagues are generally well supported, so i may just begin posting in the dreaded face book, even though the place is full of some very strange people. So here's a brief for now. And heres a picture of a white admiral butterfly sat next to me at huntstrete sunbathing, nit rare but not often seen, well at least by me.

last monday week and landsend for a silvers match, well done pauk faiers who made no mistake on peg 13 with 46lb of the usual brown, gold , green and silver mainly on small pieces of paste, 2nd was dave ings on peg 10 with 40lb, me i limped home with 29lb, still a nice days fishing but over cooked the peg with feed and the carp turned up on all lines, running another silvers match here on monday 17th so contact me or the fishery to book in.

Ni match till the following sunday, and back to Landsend for a round of the float only, 30 fishing spread over 2 & a half lakes, aaron britnell drew for me and handed me 22, thsnks mate. Had a nice day after a difficult start, lots of carp on the island but the wind was making it a but hard to get proper presentation in the shallow water, foulers making it hard i did get a few but was not doing well enough, never had a bite on the short meat line, but luckily the margins came to life and finished with 213lb for tip weight in the day but more importantly max section points, just beating craig(trig) edmunds on peg one who had just short of 200lb.

two midweek matches now, Wednesday and myself and chris fox did the 6 hiur round trip to the Glebe fishery near Leicester for the annual maggot drowners match, lovely well kept fishery, shame its not closer, well peg 28 lake one, good draw, told it was a good skimmers peg, but no silvers payout today, so i woukd try and mix it up a bit, agsin a lovely days fishing, 70lb of skimmers short on corn and a few late carp down the edge for 127lb which was top weight at my end if the lake so a section win only, chris won with over 180lb from peg 2 , mainly short on pellet, well done.

Thursday and the coffin dodgers for a silvers match at huntstrete on withy pool, the club didnt want carp kept in nets hence silvers only. Peg 49 for me which at the back of the far island, must say i fancied it,

started short topset and two, caught straightaway, roach and a few skimmers and one 3lb bream, then the micro rudd and roach arrived, came onto my topkit with caster for a few quality roach i tried long on pellet but that was to slow, so i went to the left on the topset 2 distance with banded pellet whuch was ok, as the match went on carp arrived in the peg i landed 8 up to about 14lb, and hooked a few more, finished with 28lb which was good enough to win, so happy days, shay "the tickler"gilman was second with 22lb from peg 63, all but 2 people had double figures With some quality roach caught by everyone, good venue. Forgot to get pics of the weigh sheets, i will try and get them and put them on.

2

It was Huntstrete on Thursday for the over 55,s and walking wounded, back on bridge pool again, and with 19 fishing we may get a better idea as to how its going. As always organised by dave gillard, when it was my turn to draw i pulled out 28, lovely peg, end of an jsland even if it is 16/17 mtrs.to reach it, had hughie(eggo)evans on my right and haydn withers on my left, one rig for 11 mtrs on the deck, another for 16mtrs towards the island, and a shallow rig in case the f1,s came shallow, only bait on the side tray was 4mm hard pellet for feeding, all via a catty, and some hard 6,s for hook bait. Started at 11mtrs on the deck, had a couple of f1,s, but it wasnt busy, tried shallow over the line and had 2 f1,s quickly but i never had another one, so back on the deck for 2 decent skimmers, but bites were hard to come by on that line, so the remainder of the match was spent towards the island, catching on the deck in about 3 foot of water, f1,s were quite obliging, i did manage.to mug a 10lb fish on the shallow rig, also i had 2 proper carp on the deck towarss the island, ended up with 3 carp for 23lb and the rest was f1,s plus the 2 skimmers for a 66lb total for top on the day, 2nd was mike nicholls on 21 with 49lb, top silver weight went to shay gilman on peg one with 37lb, a nice net of skimmers mainly, as a whole the lake fished ok, the road bank was the hardest , but its been like for a while for some reason,

Sunday found me and chris going to viaðuct, but not until we had visited the Wessex flyer for breakfast, very nice to. 17booked in, so down a couple, i fancied a days silvers fishing as the skimmer sport had been exceptional, 115lb won on saturday, thats a lovely days skimmer fishing, into the tin of doom and peg 126 was mine for the day, plenty of skimmer form , and a decent carp peg. For company on my right was dave white, and on my left was long time friend mark cook, the skimmers wer were on the pegs opposite yesterday, so most expected scott russel on peg 116 to be the man to beat, I set up three rigs, a pellet rig for the margins, a.3 slim and a .2 in case the fish prefered a lighter approach, i fed three lines to begin with, topset and one, topset and 2 and 9mtrs, the 9mtr line was a waste of time, never had a fish from it, the teo shorter lines were the best, i fed some worm and caster in groundbait, and the skimmers seemed to be enjoying it, judging by the bubbles coming up, i did get a coupke of early skimmers on worm, but triple dead reds seemed to be the preferred hookbait, ive had a lovely day catching skimmers, and towards the end they came really short , topkit only, groundbait seemed to be the key today, i stopped putting worm in and it never made any difference i new i had over 80lb, but was happy when steve arrived with the scales and my nets went 94lb, but still only just won the silvers as scotty opposite was one fish behind me with 92lb, top on the day was phil hardwick on Thursday129 with just over 250lb, well done matey, fish of the day was caught by bave white , who had had an eel of 5.15, a monster,

A few to catch up on

Been a bit lax lately, sorry. So here.we.go with 4 outings. last Thursday and shiplate main lake for the costcutter, nice brekkie cooked by mark, obviously donna has trained him . Well into the draw bag and out pops disc 9, not a bad peg as generally you have plenty of room as i did today, its like yoir own little lake to be fair, with an island to chuck at, a long left hand margin which is usually a banker for a few, got to the oeg and there were a few, not lots,cruisers, ut hard to spot as the light wasnt quite right, so a few rigs put up, a mugger, a depth pellet rig for 14 mtrs, a short meat rig and a rig for.the left hand margin again to fish meat, so ive had 5 muggers, all nice fish.

I left it a bit late to go down the edge, went in with meat, had 2 skimmers then a small carp, then the small roaxh found it, torrid. So a switch to pellet was better and i had 2 more carp, then the wind changed direction a bit and all that crappy willow fluff covered where i was fishing, i did manage one more down the edge but only 4 mtrs, perhaps i should have fed it earlier, ended with 100lb, 9 carp for 92lb and 8lb of silvers, gary flinders won off peg 12 with 160lb, of course no one metioned he had fished the peg the evening before 😂😂😂😂.

Sunday rnd 2 of the float only league, Landsend fishery for this one, again a lovely fishery breakfast cooked by Rachel, paul elmes drew peg 17, happy, that was until tom mangnal rolled on 13, deffo the man to beat, had a bit of a struggle for the best part, mugged a couple, had 3 short on meat, very little off the island, but some turned up in the right hand margin in the last 90 minutes, so ended with 93lb for second in the section behind tom on 13 who had 108lb, top on the day was rj floats ceo ryan jordan on 34 with 135lb, the lales fished well to be fair with an average weight of over 70lb , very good, as usual Ryan has given me some floats to hand out as i please, so i have decided to give them to the lowest weight on the day, thanks matey.

Bit of a change on monday and boat fishing off beer on the self drives, out with dan shipp from the shop, we had mackerel, doggies , bream ,conger Pollack, and wrasse, oh yes and a huss with a very bad attitude.

Sunday back to Landsend for the silvers league, founf myself on peg,21, i dint mind where i draw on these matches as all pegs seem to be full of small tench and crucians, with the chance of an odd decent skimmer anywhere, the better f1,s seem a bit localized, but as long as you are getting bites you will.always.do well, and thats what happened , i have had most of my fish on caster fishing just my tokit to hand, iether in front or off to the side of the pallet, nice fishing, ended with 39lb whuch gave me the required section win, top on the day was the ever consistent silvers angler stu white on peg 5 who weighed 52lb, all on maggot over maggot and micro, all over his peg, again its fished really well as the sheet shows.

Also a pic of steve seager who dropped a couple of no8 stotz on the floor, i think he found them but it took a while

Lastly sedges monday silvers on tile with an overflow onto brick, drew 7 on brick, thought it may be hard as tile had been fishing well, this will be the shortest, took 4 hours to get silver, and that was a 1oz skimmer, every bite was a carp, whatever i fed i had carp swirling in the feed, it was that bad i set up a shallow pellet rig just to do something, and caught several carp, but not what i really wanted , just needed something to do, i did manage a few.more small.skimmers and limped home with a very impressive 1lb 2oz, that was very bad then, rob birch to my right had 28lb aswell, , but all the main weights come from tile as expected, roy worth has been saying for weeks , this silvers fishing is easy, and nust to prove it he won on the day with over 50lb from peg 29, mainly on meat, well done roy. these reprts my not be in order, but im sure you will get the gist of it LOL 😂

Just for you jason 😂😂😂😂

Last Thursday week and i went to acorn fishery for the first of the evenung matches, good attendance, 23 ,zoe got the draw underway , into the bag and out comes. 38, not my first choice of pegs, or 2nd 3rd 4th and on, company was jason (the grinning assassin) on 40 and kev perry on 37, decided on my normal pellet attack, short and the margins, big mustake there, it turned out to be a paste affair(had none with me)limped home with less than 30lb, kev had 112lb and jason about 70,so chip shop sausaged all round, i think paul faiers may have won from peg9,again on paste as all the framers used as far as im aware. but not sure as i cant find the reult anywhere, and no pics the reason for thus will become apparent last monday and out boat fishing from watchet in the bristol channel on the lorna doone, skippered by tom, fishing was a bit testing with the bristol channel doggies making life a bit hard, with them taking all baits , well nearly all, dropping hard backs down accounted for some hounds with dean malin and judith both having double figure fish, i did manage a dlond of about 12lb thay was my best fish, now the reason for no pics, i took a picture of a nice thorny judith had, went to put my phone back in the pocket of my bib and brace, missed it, slid down hit my foot and shot out of the scupper, oh well s#%@ happens, we had a bit of excitement whule at anchor off minehead, mike on teddy boy charters anchored up a couple of hundred mtrs away, and told tom over the radio he may have to call the lifeboat out as he had a customer on board who was sea sick and in a very bad way, anyone whi has been seasick properly will know how miserable it is, and in the channel there is no chance of getting back in early as the harbours dry out, so the lifedoat was launched off minehad gasworks beach and they came out and took him off mike boat, thung is with seasickness is that as soon as he was back on terra firma he was probabaly off to the chip shop , when i first started boat fishing i was sick, so even now i still take a pill, and have never had a problem since.💅😹😴 Managed.to get some pics from tom the skipper.

3 brief again

Laat weds and i ran a silvers matxh at Landsend fishery, 13 booked in on lale 2 so plenty of bites, Rachel as normal cooked a lovely breakfast, had last but one in the draw and ended up on peg 12, corner peg, loads of options, as ive said these will be brief, loads of carp about, and they would prove to be a pain, but it was the same for everyone, but i have had plenty of bites from the required species, tench, crucians, f 1,s roach and skimmers, all taken on either 6mm meat or banded 6mm hard pellet over loose fed 4mm, rotating around several lines, from topkit in the margins out to 9 mtrs max, finished with 37.11, narrowly beating the the ings who had 37.9, followed by nick collins with over 36lb, plenty of fish caught.

Sunday and round one of the float only league, shiplate farm for this one, only main lale and hawthorns being used as we are down to 30 thus year, shame really but it seems the match calendar is very busy this year, oh well it will be what it is, normal nice breakfast at the fishery, good to see donna in charge doing it properly, 😂😂. Got the draw started and let ex chef mark pull mine out, peg 6 on hawthorn, happy days, company today was Landsend finest on my left, russ (pecker)peck, and north bristols finest ryan shipp on my right, but fortunately for me he wasnt looking to good after. Night carp match at bitterwell lake, i enjoy this lake as it normally entails fishing the far bank shallow water (12 inches) with banded pellet being my bait of choice, so i set up a mugging rig as there were a few about but most seemed to be recovering from the cigours of spawning so they proved to be impossible to tempt, a far bank rig, a .1 tr1, a .2 slim for about a mtr off, and a meat rig for short and a margin rig, it started hard, took me an hour and fifteen to get my first carp, so not the start i wanted, ut as the day went on i kept adding a few to the net, i did mug a few (5) nothing on meat, nothing in the margin and nothing a mtr off, all fish coming from the far bank, russ had a few fish early then stopped, ryan also had odd fish all through and Bob gullick and steve seager caught early aswell, so at the end it was going to be tight for the section, but i managed to edge it with 77lb to bons 74 and ryans 73, tom Mangnal was best on our lake with 87lb from peg 14, so one fish in it. Top on the main lake was mark Jones on peg 6 with 80+ well done all, and thanks to rj floats for donating some packs of floats to hand out as i felt appropriate, so this week it was given to the lowest weight weighed in, thus dubious pleasure was taken by mike hill, onwards and upwards matey.

Monday off to acorn with chris to fish a short pole match, topset and 3, 26 fishing so a popular format on a popular venue, good to see top blogger and philip schofields redundant stunt double in attendance, jamie rich, and he had bought along nick(Dom) and jenny aswell, the banter was good, i let jenny draw mine and she handed me 36, in the shade with the cold easterly blowing in from the right and into me, ive had a cold day, the fishing was difficult aswell, the peg is the deepest on the lake at over 7 foot, also the aerater was left on so i had a strong tow left to right if i fished to my left, and if u fished to my right the wind was blowing the rig back towards me, very confusing and nigh on impossible to get any sense out of it, cut to the chase i caught very little most of the match then fish turned up in the right hand margin, and i ended up with 111lb and thanks for coming, top on the day was gareth boycott on peg 10 with 250lb, 2 lewis walker on 22 with 218, and well done to sue faiers on peg 9 winning the silvers with 54lb,

Here,s 3

Thursday and Shiplate for the costcutter, 21 fishing, john forgot about a couple, so 15 on the main lake for the costcutter, and 6 of us elected to fish on hawthorn, winner take all, but not before one of marks lovely breakfast,s, into the draw tub and peg 1 comes out for me, happy enough, i had chef mark on peg 3 as my neighbour, no silvers payout, so a simple carp day it is then. Unfortunately the carp decided to do the nuptials, and they were goung mad along the far bank, mainly in the red willow roots, but they were tearing up the reeds aswell, its been a testing day, if you went within a mtr of the far bank it would result in a fouler, although i did manage a few.small male carp from there, i did get 6/7 fish mugging the odd individual loner swimming through, i think they must have been gender neutral and wanted no part in the far bank shenanigans, i had one short on meat, then luckily my left hand margin came to life towards. The end , which was good, apart from my one meat fish all the rest fell to banded 8mm over loosefed 6,s, i won the canal with 108lb.john be won the main lake with 101lb from peg 12 and pete zimniak won the silvers with 30lb from peg 7.

sunday and i snuck off back to viaduct with chris fox for the open on Campbell. Wessex flyer.for breakfast first then off ot the fishery. 19 booked in so nearly full, steve did the draw and i found myself on peg 118 again, same as.last time, for company i had phil hardwick on 119, and the todber legend jack stamp on 116, we haf a visit from the ea licence checkers, i had mine but phil had left his in the car, so he had to prove who he was, i did tell the official his real name was.schofield, and he started.to write it down, i thunk they caught 5 without licences, and probabaly the best excuse ever was from a licenceless carp angler behimd me wo said he was unable to give them his detsils as he was under witness protection, really LOL 😂. anyway the lale was a bit moody today, i only managed.two carp, but i did mamage.to win the silvers with 41lb, catching skimmers on triple maggot over groundbait, the groundbait today was mix we are.doing in the shop mixed by ourselves, a blend of crumb fishmeal with sweet additive, available in natural and dark, i got to say it smell nearly good enough to eat myself, and it mixes well, craig Edmunds won on the day from 125 with 180, well clear of second place, dave white with 108, well done all,

Lastly and i was baxk down to the sedges for the monday silvers match on brick with an overflow onto tile if needed, and it was with 21 attending, another lovely denise breakfast, into the draw. Early and peg 33 for me on tile lake, i was.end peg but had local expert and bread demon martin tizard on 34, lots of carp mooching about, i dont think it will be to long before they spawn here, i set up a coupke of rigs to fush caster and maggot over groundbait, topset and 2, and 2 lines at 11 mtrs, left and right of centre, and a rig for close in on a topkit, it was.another funny day with the fish not wanting to settle, i had a good skimmer first drop on the short line, and another smaller one a shortly after, but apart from roach opi never had another one there, i stuck mainly with the two longer lines getting odd fish off each swim, i did have two on a piece of worm, and a few on single caster, but double maggot was best bait today, ended up with 35lb which was top on tile and brick until the scales got round to the high teens on bricl where there was 2 weights over 40lb and a high 30, best on the day was the consistent Alex Kerr with 44lb on peg 18 narowly beating steve kedge on 19 with 43lb and mike bendall falling just a few ounces short of 40lb on peg 16.

A late short 3

Thursday and back to westerliegh with the over 55,s and disabled, in the absence of Mike nicholls it was down to me to organise, several people away at whiteacres, so only 16 fishing, 8 on each lake, even had bob the bread price here today, good to see him as i havnt for a few.years, he dont look any older 😅😅. And then i drew next to him on taylors pool, me on 19 bob on 21, small carp on this lake 1 to 3lb, with shallow expected the way to go, ive had a bit of a frustrating day, really struggled to catch shallow, probably as there was no ripple at out end, whereas martin McMahon on 26 and vince shipp on 14 started.well, so i think iwas probably 8 to 10 fish behind before i even had a bite, i did start to det a few but never quick enough to compete, although i did get some fish rock up in the margin on meat and i had a good last hour, nearly catching up, but i never so that was that then, no complaints as i ended upnwith 86lb, but no envelope as vince had 99lb, and Martin 95, so it was cclose on our lake, paul barnfield managed.to moan 52lb on the hook on peg 1 on shipp canal for top on that, best silver weight was taken by hughie"eggo"evans on peg 23 with 14lb of mainly small skimmers on soft pellet.

Sunday and round 1 of the Landsend silvers league, anything other than normal carp to count, so it was f1,s, crucians, tench , skimmers , roach and rudd etc, lovely breakfast at the fishery, cooked by mrs.anderson, didnt mind where i drew, so when it was.down to the last two in the bucket it was me and beany for the dregs, well he ended up in peg 12 with me on 10, happy enough as its one of the shallowest pegs, and the small fish seem to like that, again ive had a lovely in the main, although carp were a bit of a pain and got worse for everyone towards the end. But i caught on everything during the match from various areas from topset, meat at 2 o,clock angle, topset and 2 , same on pellet in front, pellet in the left hand margin, and hard pellet across, although the far side turned into a no go area as it filled up with carp each time i fed, i ended up with 34lb and a section win to begin with, so a good start, top on the was the ever consistent silver ace, stu white on peg 6 with 42lb, i think he will probably be the man to beat. I was next to steve.seager on my left which was quite entertaining, especially when he lost his only rig and plummet in some far bank foliage, but he did a good impression of seaman stains,( for those old enough to remember) to get it back.

Monday i got talked into running a silvers knockup on the speci lake, only 9 so plenty of room, another fishery breakfast, this time cooked by sharon, still good.i cant remember who drew for me but i was off to 33 for the day, a nice corner peg with lots of carp😬😬😱😱but plenty if silvers.aswell, had the Landsend lothario on my right on 34, but apart from being a good fishery nightwatchman, he is no slouch with the silvers here.

Again ive had a lovely day catching tench, hybrids , skimmers, roach rudd and crucians, again targeting several areas on meat caster or pellet, even tried some new sweet fishmeal groundbait we will be doing at premier angling, along with a few other flavours for other species, finished with 34lb again, but only good enough for second, as roger Kimberley over on 31 had a.bit of a skimmer day finishing with 35lb, well done matey, dave to my right was third with 26lb, again carp becsme a real pain, i was even feeding them at my feet next to my net, this wouldnt happen if it was a carp match.