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.

Rnd 2 short(ish)pole series

Chilton trinity for this one, and it certainly improved the results here last year.with a longer pole option, so i hopefully expected it to be the same thus year,23 fishing so better pegging than last year with a few less, got the draw started on time and i let aaron draw for me as he did good for me in the last round, and he never let me down, peg 2, that will do nicely, aaron drew 32 for himself whuch was next to me just round the corner. My peg was a left handers as it has a good margin to the right, but it is a snag pit with loads of tree roots underwater. And i had one of my favourite old gits to my left in the shape of john white. i set up a rig for pellet on the deck at 13mtrs, a shallow rig, one for meat topset and one to the right, and another for pellet to the right, where i had 6 ft of water about a mtr off the bank, bushes stopped me going closer which may be a blessing as it kept me away from any roots(hopefully). Started on the deck at 13 mtrs, lost a fouler and that was it, joe McMahon on 27 and vince shipp on 26 caught early shallow, so i went out with that rig, and managed 5 fish in the next 90 minutes, but our end was flat calm, and looking up the lale the anglers with the slight ripple from the gentle breeze were definitely catching more, my section was being difficult, only tim clark round on peg 6 was getting some but as is normal with tim he was losing more.than he landed,the other anglers in my section were struggling, even the normal unstoppable martin rayet on 31 was having a mare, losing a coupke of early fish , i dont thunk he had a carp till ove halfway through, he wasnt getting to much stick though😆😆. luckily with my peg always has some resident fish in the right hand margin, althoigh they can be smaller than average for thus lake, but they never let me down, the short meat line only produced one small carp and a tench, i had several carp and another tench fishing 8 and 13 mtrs along the bank on banded pellet, at the end i new i had 80lb and hopefully a section win, only tim on 6 was a threat but his lost fish did me a favour, u ended up with 87 to tims 66, so it keeps me in the hunt after.two rounds, further up the lake joe and vince had a peg to peg battle both catching shallow, j joe won that one with 178lb to vinces 157lb, even though joe got knocked back on one net, i use digital scales whuch bottom out at 66lb, so if it shows error that net gets knocked back to 50lb, thats 2 matches on the trot now for him, i think his clicker is broken, so they were first and second on the day with chris fox up on 16 with over 100lb aswell, it definitely fished better again with the longer pole allowed.

Shiplate costcutter

Thursday and back to shiplate for the costcutter, as normal a good breakfast cooked by mark , all nice and hot with quality ingredients, including the sausages, 😂😂. john got the draw underway on time, andni was fairly.early into the bucket, and was.rewarded with peg 10, one of my favourite pegs on the lake. Its narrow to an island, well its 18mtrs and with the wind today that was going to be a no no,

it can also hold some good skimmers so a bit torn today as to what to do, so i set up a .5g silvers rig, a bit heavier than i would have liked bit the wind was going to be going through with the wind, left to right,2 lines one at 5 and another at 9mtrs for maggot over groundbait, that was after.i had scabbed a handfull of reds off nigel bartlett, ta matey. a pellet rig for 13mtrs, a pellet rig for the bush to my left at 4mtrs, and a meat.rig for the right, i went to 13 mtrs on that edge, mainly as it was three foot there, but much shallower any closer, mark jones did tell me it flattened out the further you went, and it did.

Started off feeding all lines, with the relevant baits, and started on the shorter groundbait line, had a couple of better skimmers, then nothing, so went further out and had a few more, i stuck with the silvers but after.a couple of hours i was really to catch, so i had a look down to the right, and i had 4 quick carp, with a couple of lumps, so that was the end of the silvers for me, so i basically stuck with the right hand side for the reainder of the match, catching odd fish, i did get one from the left hand side, the right hand margin got stringer towards the end, i put a thurd net in with 35 minutes to go and put 50lb in that one, and another carp into net 2, so nearly 60lb in the last 35minutes, i thought i had 160lb but thiught it may be a bit more, in fact i had 178lb for first on the day, nice day, top silvers were taken by nigel bartlett on peg 8 with 45lb, a mixed bag of roach, bybrids, skimmers and even eels, nice to see.

2

Sunday and it was the first round of the short pole league, as it was at todber on ash and home ground, it was never going to be anything other than short pole, 2 sections of 6 on each lake, i let aaron britnell draw.for me , and handed me 82, which is on the end bank of homeground, so happy days, we had the honour of des shipp fishing today standing in for his nephew ryan, he had the last peg in the hat as he was otherwise delayed (toilet), wasnt to ammused with 63 on ash, but the moaning was very muted, wherever you draw here ypu will be getting plenty of bites, ive had a simple match to be fair, caught topset and one to begin with, then the last half of the match either margin was good, ended up with 309lb for second in the section, behind martin rayet on his favourite peg, 76 with 320lb, well done, as expected the overall winner on the day was des with a whopping 500lb, from which to be fair is an unfancied peg, well done ryan(des).i dont have copies of the weigh sheets but the overall league positions are below.

Monday and off to landsend for a bank holiday open, 21 fishing so ade.split it over match and speci lake, (1&2), really.good breakfast cooked by Rachael, and assisted by ade. It wasnt my match so drew my iwn peg, and pulled out 19, not been on there for a long time. Cimoany was.mike Jefferies to my right and fishery caretaker dave ings.to my left, four rigs assembled, a short meat rig, a mugger.a few.fish were mooching about, a pellet rig for across, and another for the margins each side, at the start i begsn short and had bites straight away, mainly.small tench a couple of f1,s and one carp, with a bot of sunshine there odd ghostie,s about, these landsend pale.ones are.notoriously hard to tempt, but they nirmally have a.few normal carp for company whuch you cant normally see, but can be more obliging, i gave the mugging a go, but the fish were not having it at all. So baxk on the short rig for a couple more small tench, going nowhere fast.i tried mugging again, and i had one, a nice ghostie, from the fishing showing no interest, i now begsn having an odd fish, all ghostie,s, unusual to be fair, ive had it here before when the fish go from showing no interest to them having a bit of a go, in a 90 minute spell i had several fish all good ones, but as soon as they fed, they stopped again, and i never had another shallow fish for the reainder of the match, and apart from 2 smaller carp and some f1,s across i was now going nowhere, i only had one small carp and some f1,s/from the margins, i needed.to have a good last hoir or so as rob walters on peg 24 had caught odd fish all through fishing mainly shallow out by the bush in front of him, luckily my.shirt !ine started showing signs if life, odd bubbles and small fizzes, and the last gour was good, having several carp from that line, i still didnt think i had done enough to beat rob, i was hoping for 80lb, but was suprised to have 108, i didnt really factor in my.silver weight which was 18lb, i was still convinced rob had more, he ended up with 102lb, i didnt realise that he had lost several, in his own words , probably pulling to hard, i dont pay to rush on a hard day, overall top weight on the day went to rob watts on 32 with 146lb, obviously helped by his new hip, but dont ask him about it unless you have a spare 30 minutes, 😂😂😂😂😂😂 nigel the silver ace bartlett was top silvers with 27 from leg 36, sheets below.