Late again

Its getting hard to report on matches now as it all seems a bit samey if you know what i mean.but here goes, Thursday and Shiplate for the what is now back to a costcutter, £15, the £5 OPTIONAL extra pool was dropped as a few didnt agree wth it, but the clue is in the name, the days of winning good money in opens has long gone, especially mid week affairs, i cant remember the last time I won any money here anyway 😂😂. As always a good breakfast cooked by mark, drew peg 7 a bit of shelter from the cold wind, and sat in the sun, lovely, not to much to report to be fair, haf a few skimmers at the start on pellet short, one skimmer on the wag,and a few more long on pellet, one carp on the long pellet line, and three more on meat short towards the end, 17lb of skimmers and 4 carp for 35lb, 52lb total and no goof again, roll on some warm weather, top on the day was titch williams on peg 11 with 82lb, mainly on the tip, tony c was second to my right with 79lb, he had a few fish in the second half slapping a pellet around. Silvers went to dave wride on peg 12 with 32lb, well done all.

No fishing sunday, 40th wedding anniversary, so spent the day with judith, she needs a medal. Monday and boat fishing out of minehead on teddy boy charters with mikey, fishing was ok , we had lots of rays , a few conger and hounds, a whiting and plenty of the prolific dog fish, plenty of bites, nice boat , plenty of room and nice and stable, and i enjoy these trips, its a nice change from match fishing.

My middle child(james)and me with a nice pair of blondes. Thursday and westerliegh lakes behind the wot not , a really nice well looked after small fishery on the outskirts of bristol comprising of two small lakes with about a dozen pegs on each, stopped at cheeks kerbside diner at emersons green, breakfast roll and very nice. only 16 fishing today so mike put 8 on each canal, into the draw and i pull out peg 11 for myself, second peg down on the left hand side of the canal lake, nice peg with two islands to go at, peg 12 not in so plenty of room in the right hand margin, it was a simple.days fishing, started short on meat and had a steady coupke of hours on topset and two, it did slow a Bit, so kept going to the islands for more fish,banded 6mm over lossefed 4,s. i could then come back to the short and nick a couple more, towards the end some better fish turned up in the margin, i borrowed a net off paul clayton to my left, and put 39lb in that in the last 30minutes, at the end i admitted to 160 or perhaps a bit more, and i wasnt to far out as i had 173, it was one of thise days when nothing went wrong, i think i only lost 3 fish and they we in all probability fouled. I must say the fish in both lakes are in really good nick and fight hard, a good testament to all the hard work mark puts into the venue, well done.

2 again

Sunday was a trip down to viaduct again for the open on Campbell, not before chris and me stopped at the flyer in whitchurch for breakfast, different crew on today and probably not as good , but still edable, 😂😂. got to the fishery in plenty of time, but after the normal carpark banter it was draw time, into the tin and out comes 118 for me, happy , reasonable peg. Stu white had it the day before and had won the silvers from it, so a shortish meat rig was assembled, 6mtrs. A pellet rig for 13mtrs, and a suicide rig to fish down to another derelict peg in the shape of 117, again loads of snags, but always a fish holding area bit not for the faint hearted, man to beat today was going to be tom thick on form peg 115, and as always never shy about showing his best side 😂😂

He as always was.going to fish maggot short and down his edges, he makes it work thats for sure. Ive had a strange day, i fully expected to catch on the short meat line, but only had a roach and one carp, and no other bites, perhaps i should have fished maggot there, bit as i never had any with me , that wasnt happening. I had a few carp and some skimmers on the 13 mtr pellet line, and several more suicide fishing down by 117, i lost a few aswell, no suprise really, it was a case of hook a fish and pull as hard as you dare to try and get them out, to be fair the old daiwa tournament did me proud, it looked likely to snap on several occasions, but it held up, they may not be to stiffest and lightest pole on the market , but i think daiwa certainly make the strongest, finished with 16lb of skimmers and 120lb of carp, which ended up 4th on the day, and a default sectuon win as the angler who shouod have won had over 70lb in one net so was disqualified, unlucky really as the net that took him over only had 6 fish in it and they went 72lb, proper beasts , so top on the day went to tom on 115 with over 180lb which included 89lb of silvers, now thats a good day, well done tom.

Monday sedges silvers match again on tile with an overflow onto brick if needed, and it was. Lovely breakfast cooked by Denise, spot on, into the draw tin, out comes peg 3 on brick, not where i really fancied, i always like the middle pegs on this lake, but you got to put up with whatever you draw, no point moaning, set up a topset rig for caster short , and one rig for topset and two and 13 mtrs, same depth on both lines so easy peasy. Started with feeding groundbait on the two lines in front with caster in, and began feeding some caster onth topset line, started on the topset and two line, and basically stayed with it most of the match, started well with a good skimmer first drop, first 90 minutes was good, then as expected it slowed, mainly due i think to the ammount of carp in the area, rob parker to my right was getting one ever put in, which was good as he seemed to keeping the bulj of them in front of him, i did get a few from the long line, but it was slower, also i could catch a chunky rouach ever put in on the topkit, but i stuck with the in front short line mostly, catchung in fits and starts, but a nice day, hooked i thunk about 13/14 carp, not as many as rob, 😂😂. Ended up with 50lb, which was a nice days fishing, but not as nice as the winner , mike bendall did really well , having 85lb on the wag and mag from peg 28, nice one mike, the lakes have fished well, over 700lb of silvers caught with an average of over 28lb, and that was with 2 dnw,s, brilliant.

2

Last sunday and off to viaduct for the match on Campbell, sold out as only 21 pegs available. Breakfast in the wessex flyer in bristol, which as always very nice. Paid our pools and waited for the draw, plenty of good anglers here today so a nice draw would definitely be needed, got into the queue and pulled out peg 121, so sat on the top bank on my own looking back down the lake , so a bit of a grandstand view so i couod see what everyone was catching, not always a good thing, good company either side in the shape of mr shimano glyn Reynolds on my left and last of the mohicans tom Thick on my right, so plenty of banter, but due to toms verbal diarrhoea it can at times be a bit one sided, but you got to love him 😂😂. dan white was on thus peg the day before and had come 2nd with over 200lb, catching mostly on pellet down to empty peg 122, so a rig for that, nice depth at about 3ft, so a .25 slim for that, a meat rig for topset and 2, and a pellet rig for 13mtrs, in hindsight i should have set up a margin rig aswell, toms intention was to target.the silvers down hus margins caster and maggot, with the occasional carp thrown in as well, glyn was the same.as me., So all out carp, maunly as i didnt intend to go for silvers today, so bought no bait to do it. The match was a bit of a disaster for me, only a couple of carp and a skimmer on the 13 mtr line, again the short meat line didnt happen apart from a few late skimmers and a couple of carp, most of my action came.from the area down by disused 122, i think i lost as many as i landed, round the old legs of the swim, in twigs and any other bit of debris they could find, but it was an entertaining day for Tom, eventually limped home with 144lb, 5th on the day and thanks for donating to the framers.top on the day again was ben hagg on peg 115 with 250lb, man to beat here at the mo, top silvers weight was tom with a more than respectable 79lb, he also had a few carp which boosted him uo to 148lb, so he kindly relieved me of a quid, bugger.cant fault the the quality of the sport on the lake, but still miss the leagues and opens that used to be run here.

Thursday and with bridge pool being shut we needed to find an alternative venue for the coffin dodgers match, mike Nicholls got in touch with mark who controls westerliegh lakes and got us on the two lakes there , well dine mike and thanks mark. 8.30 draw(why) so it was a maccy d,s plastic breakfast on the way, not next time as the is a breakfast van oit at emersons green, thats got to be better. 20 of the old boys attending today, so ten on each lake, so a bit of room generally where it was needed, mike got the draw underway so we all delved into Mike's silk bag for a peg, i ended on peg 4 which i in the middle of the second island right hand bank of the canal lake, i was told it was a bit snaggy across on the island so it would pay to come away from it a bit, company today was dave gillard on three, and hayden withers on 5. Simple today, a meat rig fir 5mtrs, and it eas the same depth on my topkit so i woupd feed there aswell and hopefully get some fish there later in the match, a pellet rig for down the right hand margin, never had a touch there all match, so that was a waste of a few pellets, and a pellet rig for across, they were right about the snags, lots of roots sticking out , it was impossible to find a clear spot tight to the island, so i came off about 2ft i about 3 1/2 foot of water, still found a few obstructions but ni where near as bad as tight in, but it was still impossible to lay a rig in sideways, i had to feed it up the slope till the pellet grounded, started on the 5mtr meat line, took a while to get a fish, which was a small stockie carp, dave on 3 had had a couple on his topkit straight away, so he began singing to himself, but i began getting some bites on the meat with a few more small carp and one about 4lb. But after just over an hour the line died , and it never came back although I kept feeding it , the island was the place to be feeding hard 4,s and fishing a banded 6 and an 18 b960 to .16, been using these hooks for all my hair rigging for longer than i can remember, still haven't found a better hook, only ever opened one up on a fouler, strong as you ever need. Caught on and off , small carp mainly, with an odd better one to 8lb, losing a few.to the underwater snags, i also had 3 late fish on the short meat line, so enjoyable, and the fishery is very nice , mark has worked hard, well done mate. I ended up with 70lb which was top on this lalke and first over all, tony ponting won the other lake with over 40lb, we will be back there again in a coupke of weeks, looking forward to that and its only 20minutes from home.

3

Should have been 4 but i found it difficult to find to many positives about Huntstrete on Thursday, so i wont say anything. so sunday and shiplate pairs match for me and Chris fox, breakfast at the fishery greasy spoon, and as always very nice , cooked and prepared by mark and the long suffering Donna, shame no tinned tomatoes though. Into our respective draws, Chris was on the canals and ended up on 15 hawthorns, i was on the main lake and pulled peg 6, both indifferent draws to be honest, although alan q won off 5 on Thursday with nearly 200lb, so hopefully there would be some fish about, most of his fish caught slapping, not my cup of tea, seems more like an endurance test rather than fishing, i dont think I've got the stamina for that for 6 hours 😂😂. For company I had paul faiers on my right on 5 and the bugglegum and crocs sponsored angler luke fothergill on my left on 7, set up my usual things , waggler at depth, pellet for shallow and on the deck at 14 mtrs, and a meat rig down the edge at the bottom of the rocks, on the whistle i started on the shallow rig slapping, gave.that 30minutes for nothing, by theis time paul had three carp and a skimmer in the net, all on the method with with an orange boilie, really paul !!😕😕. Also luke got off quite well with a couple in the first hour again on the method cast to hus island, and sometimes on it, i tgink he only injured one nesting mallard 😂😂. But to be fair his casting was very good and accurate. i didset up a lead but only gave that 20 minutes ,boring boring boring, that is unless the tip goes round quickly, by the time i had my first carp whuch i had on the wag paul was on 6 and luke was on 3, but as always this match was turning into a marathon and not a sprint, i kept rotating round the lines, and ended up with 6 carp and double figures of skimmers, more skimmers than those iether side , but we all had 6 carp, luckily my carpnwere of a slightly better stamp, i ended up with 70lb to lukes 62 and pauls low 50, but still only good enough for secind in section as mark jones on 2 had 72lb, chris came 4th in his section, so we ended up on 6 points for 4th in the pairs first out, venue experts alan quantrill and gary flinders came first so well done, with dan squire and mark wynne second with mark poppleton and ken rayner third.

Momday for landsend brown green and silvers match, 17 fishing and lovely breakfast as always cooked by mrs Anderson, 12 on lake two and a section of 5 around the topendnof lake one, peg 20 for me , not an easy day, most of my fish falling to banded 6mm hard pellet over micros and 4,s, ended up with 15.12 for no good , jeff sparkes on 18 won oir section with 20lb, catching on pinkie, couldnt do that cos i never had any, top on the day was dave ings on 31 with 47lb of skimmers and f1,s, second was the irrepressible nick collins in 33 with 36lb which included 32lb of roach, very nice.

well ive just written a out Thursday's match at shiplate , got to the end , and managed.to delete everything about it, i csnt be arsed to re write it so heres the results, i drew peg 11 on Hawthorn and finished with 162.14, lovely day and it was good to be able to feed with a catty as the carp seemed to want to feed, unbelievably i had the exact same weight as dan pither on my left, well nearly, he did beat me by about 1lb, but due to him going over on one net by that ammount, we had a draw then , still a first for me , i have drawn before but never for first and certainly not at the next peg.