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Landsend fishery today(sunday) for the last of the individual winter league matches, tight at the top with several in with a chance of winning or framing overall, realistically i needed a section win to stand any chance of, but that still relied on a couple of the anglers above me dipping out, i was.on lake three today, and the draw was ok for me in the shape of 51, happy enough sectuon wise, its the only peg on thus side with a feature opposite in the shape of a bush, so i set up a rig to fish either side of that, a meat rig for down the edge and 5mtrs in front, i had rod Wooten on my left and beany on the right, well to say its been hard would be an understatement, 2 hours in and all i had to show for my efforts were 4 small f1,s, with rod and beany having even less, dave tagart on 41 was catching lots of silvers, and james Matthews on 42 was doing his best to keep the lake stocked by returning his fish before he could put them in his net, baxk in my swim and things improved slightly and i began getting a few bites across by the bush, small f1,s mainly, i did get 3 smallish carp aswell, i had one bite on the short meat line whuch was a roach, never had a touch down the edges.at the end i was looking at 2nd in section at best, that would be enough to keep me in the overalls, but i ended up with 23lb which was thurd in section behind dave on 41 with 29lb of silvers.

And james.got 2nd with 25lb, i needed one more carp,top.on the day was the irrepressible tom thick on peg 31 standing in for dan pither , he had 120lb so well done to him, as for the league leader from the start russ peck stumbled at the last fence coming last in his section, letting alan oram who was second in his section win the league, well done mate, dan pither ended up second, russ thurd and i snuck in 4th on weight over steve seager, well done to all and thanks for supporting the leafue and fishery, thanks to Rachael anderson for the after match nibbles, always welcome.well.done dave.tagart on winning the league silvers.

Monday and baxk to the excellent sedges fishery for the monday silvers, breakfast at the lakes as.always very nice, into the draw and peg 4 on brick was where my day was going to be spent, mike jones on my right, not the Bristol one, a summer exile from up north,and the legend that is bob pascoe on my left. fed three lines at the start , 5 9 and 13 mtrs, first half of the match was hard, hardly any bites,things improved towards the end with some good skimmers turning up, trouble was to many arrived, i probably overdid the feed, getting liners and fouling fish, Mike had loads of carp trouble but i only hooked three, bob on my left started catching on his topkit, catching good skimmers right to the end, was good to see, 84 years old and still catching, needles.to say he was giving me a bit, but thats part of the reason i like these monday matches, good set of blokes , good banter and never any bad feelings, it is how matches should be, 22 fished today and the numbers will increase as the weather improves, top today was alex kerr on 22 with 47lb all on maggot, mainly on the pole, second was mike bendall on 30 with 43lb, and third was bob pascoe with 38lb, my fish went 27lb for nowhere, the lakes fished well with over 500lb of silvers caught, with an average of over 24lb, brilliant.

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Sunday and round 5 of the Landsend winter league, my turn on the match lake(no2), but not before a lovely fishery breakfast cooked by Rachael. i cant remember who drew for me but i ended up on peg 15, happy with that as Russ Peck had it last time and had ovwr 150lb on meat mainly short, realistically i didnt think it would be the same, but you never know. Up against pegs 11 and 13 in the section, which are normally the go to pegs, these were occupied by james(spooner) mathews and Dave(beany)Westcott respectively, on my right was nick duckett on 17, who you can never discount as its been his home turf all his life. So rigs today were a short meat rig topset and 2, meat rig for the right hand side to peg 14, a shallow pellet rig for down the right hand side and across to the island, well as i sort of expected, a shrt run down of the action, 3 carp and a small tench on the short line, at varying times of the match, 1 carp and a small tench on meat to the left , most of my fish coming from across and down the right, plenty of small f1,s and odd carp from both areas, ended up with 43lb of carpand 20lb of mainly small f1,s, so 63lb for second in the section behind james on 11 who had 66lb, well done matey, top weight on the day went again to the fishery night watchman Dave Ings on peg n5 with 98lb, whuch included top silvers weight of 30+lb.

Monday and off to the sedges for the monday silvers match, again a lovely breakfast cooked by Denise, into the draw fist and out comes peg 12, would have preferred to be a bit further down the lake, alan mills on my right on 11 and the legend that is walley on 13, fished my normal match of a groundbait attack on a couple of lines, 11 and 14 mtrs, tried a short line to begin with, only a couple of small skimmers, then after about 45 minutes went on to the 11 mtr line and a had a brief run of decent skimmers and apart from a couple from the 14 mtr line that was my match done and dusted, i couldn't get a bite from any line, alan also had about the same as me, but after a slow start he had a better ending, perhaps there weren't to many fish in the area and mine just shifted to the right, who knows, walley on ny right taught me a lesson catching 18lb at 7 mtrs on meat, nice one wal.

Thursday and back to plantation main lake for the last silvers match of this winter, only haf 13 fishing today, some missing due to illness, or work or family commitments, and one has run out of pound coins(KW), well apart from the relentless rain it was a brilliant days fishing, we had a couple pack up before the end, cant blame them the rain was disgusting, i set up two ling lines 13 mtrs, one for groundbait and caster, then a pellet rig to the right just abouve the silt line, and a short caster line, topset and 2, started short for a coupke of roach and small skimmers, very slow to start on that line , i expected bites as the water was a lovely colour. Soout on the groundbait line, i only had 2 skimmers from there, the pellet line was a bit better, i have had several from there, and by way of a change i fished banded hard 6mm on that line, but looking around the pellet anglers were having it a bit hard today, i had paul(bitterwell)Isaacs on my left on point peg 19 and mat tomes.to my right at the other end of the bay on 11, most of my match has been on the short line, lovely fishing fishing single caster or maggot ofer loose fed caster and an odd ball of groundbait, paul to my right was catching better than me but i felt i was getting some better fish, so it made for a nice peg to peg battle, by the end we both admitting to 40lb, as was dave Wilmot on peg 2 and adam palmer on 26. started weighing on peg 2 where Dave put 54lb of roach, skimmers and perch on the scales, a lovely net of fish.

my net went 47lb and paul had 46lb, so that was close, bit still not enough to beat adam over on 26 who had 53lb, 21lb was last of the 11 who weighed in, brilliant fishing, as all these venues that are just left to get with it without being meddled with bear testament to, nature always sorts itself out.

Silvers pairs, final round

Back to Huntstrete and withy pool for the last round of the dave gillard pairs extravaganza, silvers matches, me and my.partner, andy gard were lying second behind the pairing of andy greenham and tony ponting, who were favourites to win, but second was fairly safe barring any serious slip ups, dave got the draw underway, and as its an open draw its good if you can avoid drawing the same section as your partner, into the draw and i pull out 65 which is on the point in front of the containers, good draw, then my partner pulls out 66, so same.section and next.to each other, not ideal. To my right was paul(cous cous) clayton, Only two rigs today, a .4slim for the short line, topset and two, and a .75 bodied wire stem for the longer lines, a bit of a heavier rig than normal, but the forecast was for strong gusty winds and light rain at times, at the start i fed groundbait at 9 mtrs in front and a line at 11 mtrs to my left, then some soaked micros a 11 mtrs in front, nothing to far out as the wind was going to make life and presentation difficult. i like to start short so i did as normal, but 20 minutes in and no bites, along with paul to my right having 4 skimmers in that time , i was reaching for the heavier rig, out at 9 mtrs with single maggot, i had a roach a small perch, then a nice 12oz skimmer, most of the match was spent swapping between the three li longernger lines, picking off a couple of skimmers or a decent roach before having to go to one of the other lines, i did keep trying the short line,but only had two bites there, i had a pound and a half perch, then pulled the hook out of another, and that was my only indications i had there, quite unusual as i normally have some nice roach from that line, but not today.but i had enough bites from the longer lines so i was happy.enough, mostly skimmers between 4 and 12oz, but i did get a 2lb fish which was a bonus, but ended up with 16lb which was enough to win the section and be first on the day.

My partner had a torrid day on my right with less than 2lb, but we did enough to stay second, andy and tony making no mistakes coming first and second in there section, kev winstone was second from peg 40 with 14lb of mainly quality roach.

Late again, only 2

Monday sedges silvers match again, on tile lake, 16 fishing, not suprising with the cold wind and rain forecast today, normal good fishery breakfast cooked again by denise, Again into the draw early, hoping for a swim on the far side as the wind would be from behind, out comes 22, today the first peg in on the far side, 21 not in, so plenty if room, on my left was Somerset,s finest fencing firm owner, wally. Set up 2 fairly similar rigs, one with a 20 f1 maggot hook on, and the other with a 22 , both on .10 line.fed three lines, one short on maggot, and 2 groundbait and caster lines, one at 13 mtrs slighlty to the right and 14 mtrs slightly to the left, cut a long story short, nothing in the short maggot line, but had bites on the two longer lines, not constant, but enough, mainly single maggot on the smaller hook, ended with about 18 skimmers for 25lb, only.good enough for second as the sedges mr consistent martin tizard on 33 won with 26lb,

Thursday plantation main lake for a silvers match again, drew peg 28, good area, its been a trying day, i felt there were of fish in the peg most of the time but didnt get to grips with it if im honest, had 25lb again for 5th, had a lesson off mat tomes to my left on 31 who fished a tidy match to end up with 38lb, which was second to john Fuidge on peg 7 who had over 40lb, then dave wilmott on 11 had 36lb and mark Broomsgrove on peg 24 did well to have 32lb, brilliant silvers venue, and its showing signs of waking up as its been a bit difficult lately,

3 brief ones again

Firstly back to the sedges last Monday for the silver,s match on brick lake. 19 fishing so every peg in bar no1, lovely fishery breakfast polished off before it was time to draw, early into the draw and out comes peg 20, probably wouldn't have chosen that one, i generally prefer to be in the middle on these lakes, cut to the chase , i had 8 or 9 reasonable skimmers for 14 lb all on the pole at 13 and 16mtrs, tried the wag and corn bit after three quick carp i binned that and stuck with the pole and a default section win, alex kerr kept up his recent run of form winning with 21lb, beating kedgy into 2nd who had 18lb, with jacko third with 16lb.

Thursday and off to Huntstrete for the silvers match on withy, full house with 24 fishing, dave gillard got us started with the draw, and i ended up on 56, good area, i had andy greenham on my right and the irrepressible ray Bazeley on my left, ive had bites on several lines, and its been a good peg to peg battle with andy, i had 12.4 to andy,s 10.12, so quite tight, the match was won by kev winstone on peg 44(again) with 14lb, mainly quality roach.

Lastly and Landsend fishery for the winter league, another lovely fishery breakfast, no better way to start the day, back to a random draw today, so i found myself on peg 36, no complaints, set a couple of meat rigs, one for the edge to empty swim 37, but no bites there, the other for 5mtrs, one fish late from there, i started on the bread dobbing against the island, 40 minutes in and i had one carp and lost a fouler, so a switch to pellet it was then, i picked a couple of spots against the island, cupping in about 15/20 4mm hard pellets in each spot, started.well catching a few carp, it slowed to a stop about 3/4 of the way through, but the fish csme back towards the end, i new i had well over 100lb which was going to win the section, but allan oram over on 32 had caught well and was going to be top weight on the lake, i ended up with 127lb, allan had 135, but top on the day was venue regular russ peck on peg 15 with 150lb+, and dan pither on 13 was 4th with 119lb, plenty of fish fish caught in some areas ,but others struggled. Top silvers went to dave tagart on peg 34 with a mixed bag for 29lb, nice net.