Only a bit late

Last sunday it was off to ivy house with chris fox for the winter league as stand ins, oml and willow for me and and the canals for him, fishery breakfast was ok. Into the draw tin and peg 33 for me, last peg on the island on the far side of willow. I had the option of the end of the island to fish to, but with it being very cold i felt that would be to shallow, so i decided to fish the wag and pellet about 10 mtrs off the island in about three foot of water, i could have gone further to the left where there is nearly 6 feet of water, but it was a good 40 mtrs and with a nasty cross wind i decided not go that far, should have set up a lead rod.

i also set up to fish a skimmer line at 13 mtrs over groundbait, and to be fair i could have had quite a few, but only small ones, so with it being a weight match i didnt spend to much time on it,.endwd the match with 4 carp and 6lb of skimmers for 39lb and third in the section, stu (tin) foale to my left had 5 carp and a few.skimmers for over 40lb and the angler over on peg 23 winning the lake with 68lb. Monday and off down the a38 to bridgwater and the sedges for the silvers match on brick lake, had peg 18 drawn for me, would have preferred to be a couple of pegs to my right, only set up one rig, a .8g with an 18 guru f1 maggot hook on, fed two lines, one at 6mtrs and another at 13mtrs, fed both with groundbait with some caster in, had a sort of steady day, never catching well but enough to keep me interested, steve kedge opposite on 3 seemed to be doing the best, with adie bishop on 8 also catching some aswell, i did get a bonus in the shape of a crucian of about 1 1/2lb, i ended up with 11.12 which was good enough for third with kedgy having 14lb and adie coming second with 12lb, weigh sheet below.

with the cold weather now set in i was glad we were at plantation main lake for a silvers match, undoubtedly this is the best silvers lake we have in the area, the secret to its success is probably the fact its left alone so sort itself out, not try and make something the lake is not capable of withstanding. Kev Winstone drew for me and peg 24 was my home for the day, not an area you generally want to draw, i was next to me old mate shaun putley who was on 25, good to see him in a match as we haven't fished the same match for at least 15 years.

I had an overhanging bush to my right so a rig to fish by the branches in case there may be some perch in residence, with it being the same depth from tooset and one out to 13 mtrs i set up a conventional rig and a double bulk rig, i fed four lines at the start, a small ball of groundbait on the topset and one line, the same another section further out, then two balls on the 11 and 13 mtr lines in front, starting on the top and two line feeding caster i was soon catching roach steadily, i took probably about two hours to catch a skimmer, only 8oz, but welcome, i dropped back to top and one and had atwo pound fish staight away, i upped the groundbait on the two short lines which had the desired effect as more skimmers turned up, on both lies, the linger lines gave me a few but the short lines were much better. Ever fish i caught today was on single caster, just hooked lightly like a maggot, (jim norris). Again ive haf a lively days fishing, and i thought i had 35lb by the end, started weighing round on peg 1 , dave wilmot on peg 2 had 40lb, i wasnt to sure i had that.

i got to my peg and he was still winning, as soon as i pulled my net out i new it was tight, my fish went 44lb which was enough to be top today, with kev winstone on 15 coming third with 32lb.

The weigh sheet below shows how well it fished, considering there was a cold northerly wind its been really good,

This week

Sunday and it was mat culpins teams of three rip off, penultimate round, my turn on west pool, after a nice jess breakfast (4.8) it was draw time and i told bob i wanted any peg at the far end or peg 5, i really feel as though an empty peg next to you is an advantage on this pool, so he draws me peg 6, this is the third time we have drawn this sequence of pegs in the series so far, unfortunately the pegs are in either side. Bob gullick had it last time and won the lake from it, but he had Paul faiers on his left trying to catch silvers, not like that foe me today, jamie parkhouse on my left and paul nichols on my right, it turned out to be as difficult as i expected, ob had a lot of bis carp at 11 mtrs on maggot, but i only had one skimmer from that line, and lost a fouler, my only fish came from tight over on meat, ending up with 44lb which was enough only for 5th on the lake, quite happy with that, paul winning the lake from peg 5 with over 80lb, well done. Good to mike duckett fishing, hes had a bad leg recently, so i enquired as to how it was progressing, really good he said, changed his medication by all accounts with the doctor prescribing a stronger course of anti "imflammables" legend. Weigh sheets below as normal, luckily we can still rely on bob gullick to carry us through again withanother la lake win from peg 1 on Hawthorn, and with mat even helping with five points from the main lake the team won on the day mgiving us a 12 point buffer going into the last round on sunday week, but i know it could always go horribly wrong, seen it before.😬😬

Monday and i ran a match at. Acorn down at Kingston Seymour, not been here for a long while, was going to run a match here a couple of months back, tested positive for the covid on the morning so that was cancelled, fairplay to the Chinese, they havnt given us many things that have lasted this long😣😕😷😷. Only ten of us so only used pegs 1 to 21 so empty peg each side for everyone, thanks to the fishery for letting us use every other peg. Had breakfast in the bridge and it was nice , dont have the sausages go for the extra bacon instead, rubbish sausages. I had the last peg and ended up on 19, not a peg of choice, andy gard.to my left on bridge peg 21 and beany on my right on 17 not expecting to do to well today and i never. Had 18lb of silvers and a few carp for just over 50lb, maggot was the best bait today down the middle, and some from up by empty pag 20. Martin rayet made no mistake on peg 11 with just over 100lb, catchimg on soft pellet over micros across to begin with, then on worm over micros down his left hand margin towards the end, alan quantrill on peg 3 was second with 93lb, and darren (daiwa)knight on 5 was third with 60+, paul faiers wan the silvers with 24lb from peg 1, proper silvers aswell, i dont allow f1,s or carasio thingy,s to count as silvers, they go in a net with small.carp. Weigh sheet below.

Thursday and Shiplate again for the costcutter, 19 fishing so every peg in, jess doing breakfast again, so 4.89 as the tomatoes were hot today, first to draw and pulled out peg 13, a peg on the far side which is what i fancied as the wind would be more favourable for fishing the waggler. So got to the peg and set up very little really, a margin rig just in case some fish showed up, but they never, probably to clear and cold now, a meat rig for 8 and 14mtrs, this swim is very shallow till you get to 8mtrs, where it drops down to full depth, and of coarse a wag to fish banded 8mm pellet on the deck at about 25/30mtrs, Started on the meat on the pole, ut apart from a lost fouler, that was my lot , so after an hour i was out on the waggler, started getting indications and liners from the off, but the fish took a while to settle, the last couple of hours were the best landing several carp up to about 12lb, including a nice grass carp of about 11/12lb, as.these fish dont like being messed about with to much you only get 10lb for one if you catch one.

On the all out i thought i had 90lb, wasnt to far out as my carp and lone tench went 94lb, it was a hard day for most as dom Sullivan was second with 37lb, he aslo had the best silver weight with 11lb, weigh sheet etc below.

The good, the bad and the excellent

Ivy house on sunday, fishing as a stand in as it is the continuation of last years winter league, halted back then due to covid, i think i was standing in for ryan shipp, went with chris fox who was also a stand in but for Anton page, we were on willow and old match lake, breakfast first which was nice. into the draw and out comes 18 for me which is the corner peg on the old match lake. Chris was behind me on willow, so a nice short walk from the van for both of us.

Lots of options for me, a long right hand margin, so i set up a dobbing rig for that, a small island slightly to my left in front at about 30mtrs, a margin rig for down the left, and a pellet rig for 14 mtrs in front,a wag for pellet to the island and a short corn rig. so only a small roach on the dobbed bread, nothing in the left hand margin, i did get two reasonable skimmers from the right hand bank on pellet later. Wag to the island was no good as the wind was blowing it through, so switch to casting along the end bank was good for about 45 minutes when i had some stockies, i had a few fish, (stockies and skimmers ) on the long pellet line, then in the last hour some better skimmers and three bigger carp graced.the net, so i ended up with 60+ pounds for second in the section, beaten by phil on peg 23 with just over 70lb, so that was an interesting day, Monday and off down the a38 to bridgwater and the sedges and the silvers match on tile lake , i didnt realise that the breakfast was going to be my best and only bite of the day, drew peg 29 again which is third time on the trot, i can honestly say I never had a touch for five hours, but i stuck it out till the end, christ that was painful, nothing else to say about that, 8lb won off peg 35. Thursday and it is the first of the silvers matches i run during the winter on plantation main lake, always good as its probably the best all round silvers lake we have got in the area, with shiplate coming a close second on its day, plantation main lake is consistently good no matter.what the weather, 17 fishing which is a nice number. Dave willmott drew.for me and handed me peg 7 , thanks dave, people who know the Lake will know this is one of the best pegs on the lake for carp or silvers, i made up three rigs, a .3 slim pattern for topset and two, a .4g double bulked for 11 and 13 mtrs , where it was the same depth on those two lines, and a .3 slim again to fish more on the drop, bait was simple, caster and groundbait, and hopefully just caster on the hook, i did have a smidge of reds for the hook just in case, at the start I fed one ball of groundbait at topset and two, and two balls on each of the longer lines. Starting short and i was into 6/8 oz skimmers from the start, aswell as some nice roach, to be honest i have had most of my fish from this short line, as the match went on i had some better skimmers/ bream up to 3lb and lots of roach and a spattering of perch, none of the bigger ones but 4 to 8 oz fish, i could catch on the longer lines but the fish were no bigger, so refular top ups with groundbait on the short line with plenty of caster feed over the top, the carp turned up in the last hour, and i lost the hooks on all three rigs in the lat 5 minutes, so i packed up , no sure what i had but làst time I had this peg i weighed in 50lb, i thiught i had much the same, but was pleased to see the scales register a few.ounces over 60lb, a proper days fishing.

Second was paul barnfield with under 40lb, ouncing out ryan jordan by a few ounces into third.

The weigh sheet shows just how well it fished, as i said earlier this is one incredible silver fish lake, well worth a visit this winter.

An improving three

Sunday and it was off to Shiplate again for the mat Culpin teams of three rip off league. No jess at the fishery today to cook breakfast as she had a weekend off to celebrate her 20th birthday, a bit thoughtless really 😂😂. Travelled with Chris fox so cafe fox did us proud with a couple of good breakfast rolls(4.70). Any way my turn on the main lake, so bob gullick did our team draw and handed me peg 7, happy with that as its been a good area of late for carp, and as our team (no calamities) was winning the league it was just a carp attack today. So meat.at 5mtrs just off to the left, same.at 13 mtrs, a margin rig for maggot on the rocks close in, a wag and pellet.for on the deck at 25 mtrs, a lead.rod, and a pellet.for 13 mtrs to the left at.the bottom of the rocks,

Well, nothing on the wag as the wind and tow was going the same way, nothing on the lead as i get bored to quick, all the time i was blanking on on these methods jamie parkhouse on the left was catching on the method to the island, and martin rayet on the right was catching on the meat short. I eventually had a couple of carp on the 13 mtr line, ut by now Jamie was catching on the pole and martin was still catching on the meat short, ive had a hard match to be fair but i have done thing wrong today and have recieved a proper spanking, beaten like a step child severly each side, jamie ony doubled my weight with 230lb and martin the other side had 216, i haf 115lb which was only good enough for 5th on the lake, luckily Bob gullick won west pool with 120lb, and mat is improving with 7points off Hawthorn, so we are still top of the leafue and mamaged.to stretch out lead to 12 points, weigh sheets below.

Monday and off down the a38 again to the sedges for the silvers match, breakfast at the fishery cafe, all nice (4.8), on brick lake today and i fancied a draw on pegs 1 to 10, as the trip would be against the wind given the wind direction, but after.laughing at steve kedge for drawing peg 15, cold wing blowing in and across from the left, i end up with peg 14, so a cold uncomfortable day for us then, the other bank had flat.water with a favourable tow, a couple of one gram rihs made up one with a 16 hook and the other an 18, it was difficult today to get any sensible presentation, i fished two lines, 5 and 11 mtrs, feeding balls of caster laced groundbait fairly regularly, and had a few fish off eaxh line before refeeding, again carp were a problem as the match progressed, but it looked as though it was hard today for all, chris rolf over on the Majorca bank was sneaking a few out, by the end i new i had double figures but was pleasantly surprised to weigh 15.5, not quite enough as mr.rolf had 15.8 for a narrow win, well done chris, i wont mention that i beat steve kedge on 15 for the quid, weigh sheets below as normal

Thursday and back to shiplate on the main lake, jess back in attendance today looking none the worse for getting wrecked at the weekend, good breakfast and as she now does tinned tomatoes i will give her a 4.89. I drew peg 14 for myself, and had clayton hudson on my right and paul faiers on my left,

One pole rig to fish meat at 5 and 13 mtrs again, a margin rig for each side but didnt try it as the water had lost a lot of colour and we had had a lot of rain and some frosts which didnt help and lastly the trusty wag rod to fish 8mm hard pellet on the deck, i did get a carp of about 7lb after about 30 minutes, and a skimmer, but apart from one skimmer and a couple of lost foulers on the pole, the last couple of hours were spent on the wag, which i had to fish about 18inches over depth to slow it up, but i managed 8 more carp on that to nearly 20lb so not to bad, it fished hard, i reckoned on having 80lb , and really close on the guestimation today as my nine carp went 80lb and the lone skimmer was 1lb so 81lb total, enough to win today, with john andres on 11 coming second with 57lb, top silvers went to paul on my left with 14lb, pics etc below.

Three to reprt

Started off on sunday for one of jon darby,s matches, which was a pairs match, headed up there with chris fox, arriving just in time for the last pair of pegs, chris on 48 old canal, and me on peg 2 for the second match running, decided on a different approach today, corn long and short on the pole, pellet down the margin and pellet on the wag and lead to just off the island. well it nearly paid off, ive had a few small carp at 13 mtrs , some on the wag (5) one carp and a huge f1 down the edge, and a decent run of better carp on the short corn line, ending up with 80lb, with just over 100lb winning the section, perhaps if i had gone on the shorter line a bit earlier i may have had a few more, or maybe not, a well run match by jon, so well done to him, weigh sheets below.

monday and it was back to the sedges for the monday silvers match, back on the canal lake, so a smaller turnout for this one, 13 i think. After a nice breakfast in the new fishery cafe, jamie got the draw underway, i pulled out 47 which was a peg i won off earlier in the year with about 14, and its where the lake starts to get a bit narrower, i was next to bob pascoe again, so it was never going to be quiet, this warm weather has got mother nature a bit confused i think, thi mallard has got a new brood of ten chicks, i cant help thinking they may not make it.

With it being a difficult lake i decided on a bit of a negative approach, feeding three lines , topset and one, topset and 4 straight out and the same number of sections to the right, nowhere near the far side as the reeds were moving about with the carp, i started short and had two small skimmers, and that was my only fish from that line, i did get a few fish off the tep longer lines , a mixture in sizes of skimmers from 2oz to about 1 3/4lb, i did set up a rig for caster under the tree to my left but one bite and one small perch, i thought i had about 6/7lb but was suprised they went 10lb exactly for topweight.

now onto thursday and the costcutter on shiplate main lake, another good breakfast on site, then draw time, into the bucket nd out comes peg 6 for me, im on this lake on Sunday, and will need to catch carp, so today that was all i was fishing for, so two meat lines, one in front on topset and two, and the same ammount of pole to my.left at the bottom of the margin rocks, a margin rig for amongst the rocks to the left, a wag for pellet on the deck, and a lead rod for the same spot.

Started on the wag but took about 35 minutes to get a carp, soon followed by another, then i lost one, and for some reason the bites stopped, so a look on the meat liners, produced nothing.back on the wag and had a couple more, but the tow was making presentation very difficult, so i had a quick look on the lead, only a couple of liners, mid match i did get three quick ones on the wag, but that was it, luckily for me the left short meat line showed signs of life, and i had a few from there in the last hour, along with a couple from the margin rock swim, including a fish which was close to 20lb , on the all out inwas playing a fish which was to prove essential as paul glasson oner on 12 had had a good last couple of hours in his margin, when the scales got to me paul was winning with 126lb, i thought i may just have 130, so it was going to be close, that final fishwhich was about 12lb was decisive as my fish went 136.8 for the win, so happy days. Pete zimniak won the silvers from peg 4 with 38lb, due to the torrential rain at the end there is noe weigh sheet, so the few top weights are listed below

This weeks roundup

To start i was at shiplate for round three of mat culpins teams of three rip off league. Mybturn to be on the main lake, mat on hawthorn and bob g on westpool, but before the draw it was breakfast in a box cooked by jess, and still a nice meal, no complaints, (4.8), perhaps tinned tomatoes may be good (jess). Bob did our draw and he pulled out peg 11 for me, its a nice peg with a island to fish off the end of, and a nice bush down to the left which can be a good fish holding area.

So a wag and a lead rod for the end of the island in 2 foot of water, a rig to fish meat down to the bush to the left, and a rig for the skimmers with corn hookbait for 13 mtrs.i began trying for skimmers with corn onthe 13 mtr line, had a few but nit quick enough, i had been fedding hard 8,s to the island, and it wasnt to long before i saw a tail pattern or two, so apart from a couple of sorties down by the bush which gave me a couple of good skimmers, and a very shirt spell on the lead out by the island , ive fished the wag mostly, catching fairly steadily , but not mad by any standards, but i ended upnwith 140lb which was good enough for second on the lake and second on the day, paul nicholls on peg 8 had a good day and put 209lb on the scales, well done, top silvers went to craig Edmunds on 3 main lake with 55lb of skimmers on meat.

Monday and back down tthe a38 to bridgwater and monday silvers match, which this week was on tile lake, brekkie in the fishery cafe was nice, still doing a social distancing draw here so i had ping pong 29 pulled out for me, wasnt to impressed as i drew it the last time the silvers match was on here and hooked more carp than skimmers, it was a wet day and breezy, so i fished two lines, 6 and 11 mtrs, both with maggot over caster in groundbait, it was a hard day with carp again making there presence felt, but i managed enough skimmers to end up with 29lb off peg 29 for the win , beating chris rolf into second with his 26lb, downside is i now need to sit down and tye more hooks 😕😕

Thursday now and back to shiplate and another nice jess brekfast, into the draw and todays peg was 12a, most of the swims have plenty of room but this one is a little bit tighter than most Again today i set up a corn rig for 13 mtrs but only a few 8oz skimmers on that, a margin rig, nothing on that, a short meat rig and a wag to fish on the deck with banded 8mm pellet over hard 8,s, most of the day was again spent on the wag, catching odd carp, whic as far as i coukd see was better than most, the meat line started to show signs of life about 45minutes from the end and i had three carp and a good skimmer on that. Ended up with 115lb for first on the day, top silvers went to nigel bartlett on my left with just over 30lb.

The weekly blog

Ivy house for the sunday open which was sold out over the two big lakes. Went with chris fox , we had breakfast at the fishery and as always was very nice. Andy got the draw done and i pulled out peg 2, can be ok as there is a island to fish to, so i set up a wag and a straight lead (yes), then a margin rig(fruitless), 5 mtr corn rig for skimmers and a 14 mtr one for pellet. Well.the wag was never.going to work as the wind was mainly blowing back at our bank, and it wasnt strong enough to get rid of the it of brown scum which was making sinking the line impossible, the lead was ok, i did get a couple of carp on that bit wasnt enjoying it, so i spent most of the time on the pole for very little reward to be fair, 42lb and no good, as the weigh sheet below shows , there were plenty of fish caught in several areas and all enjoyed a few fish with ovef 200lb winninng, up there again in a couple of weeks for a john darby match which is a pairs match, so chris and me in for that, on the old match lake and canal,

Back to one of my real favourite fishing days on monday, the self drives off beer beach, so an early start for judith and me , got the beach at about 8, just right to get into the anchor pub just above the beach for breakfast, very nice and good value for money, down on the beach to meet boat owner simon, load up the boat and we were off, flat calm it was, and very little chance of anything changing with a northerly breeze coming straight off the shore, we were soon just off beer head, a quick stop to catch some fresh mackerel for bait, and just for a change they were plentiful, with some good fish aswell with the biggest going just about 2lb.

With enough bait aswell as enough to take home for the freezer, we pushed out about another 1000mtrs and dropped the anchor. And to be honest we had a load of fish, i never thought i would say black bream were the nuisance fish, but today they definitely were, they were even getting to the baits before the doggies, but we had at least 40 bream but it may have been 50, we lost count, along with small gurnard , small.rays, strap conger, it was a bite every drop, a brilliant and enjoyable day in perfect conditions.

Looking at the long range forcast this was probably our last trip of the year doing this, shame really as it would have been good to get another one in, all the fish were on light 30g spinning outfits, so all nice and sporty. Thursday and backto Shiplate, with 20 fishing it meant peg zero was in, so after the good and sensibly priced breakfast done by jess in her hut ,(4.85), into the draw, in the bucket and 9a is my place of residence for today, a peg ive never drawn, but can be ok with decent margins both side , but the bush on the right always seems to be the best, so simple today, meat by the bush to my right and down the left hand side, then corn out at 14mtrs, but with an island at 30mtrs it would have been rude not to set up a wag and lead

i fed all lines, then begsn on the wag, by now john the manager had turned up for a look, so you can imagine the stick i gave him when i hooked a bramble on the island and lost a float, (bramblgate), so out in the lead but only a couple of liners, so the rest of the daywas spent on the pole, i had a few skimmers and small carp on the corn long line, but with acouple of hours to go the right hand margin came good with several good fish up to about 14lb on meat, and i did get one from the left, i didnt think I had 100lb, so when the scales arrived alan quantrill was winning with 114lb, so i handed my quid over to , oops, when i finished weighing my fish i ended up with 119lb , alan couldnt quite believe it and spent several minutes checking the adding up.

but i ended up 2 as ben haggs uncle colin on peg zero won with 127lb, well done , with titch williams winning the silvers with 28lb off peg 6. Oh yes and alan had to give me £2 quid back, i dont think he has forgiven me yet.😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂