Avon angling open, sedges , brick lake

20 fishing today so every peg was, this venue doesn't suffer because of it, in fact it seemed to help some venues and this is one of them, it's a square lake which is normally about 8 foot deep but as with most venues we need rain desperatley and the level was down about 18 inches but it still was 6 foot plus deep, I fancied peg 10 or 11, I waited till nearly the end to draw , in fact there was only two tickets left in the draw , there was only myself and glen  ( the spod ) bailey left to draw , he took a ticket and ended up on 10 and mine was peg 7, a good. Silvers peg with a chance of carp aswell, the chances of winning were also reduced as Craig Edmunds was on 11 and providing he tried this week it looked to be either him or glen would be the man to beat.
I set up three rigs today,  a pellet rig to fish banded 8,s over loose fed 6,s. a meat rig for 5 mtrs and a rig for corn or caster over caster in the margin, for company I had Martin McMahon on 6 and bela bakos on 8.
At the start I began at 14 mtrs on the pellet rig aswell as throwing some meat at 5 mtrs and some caster down the edge, it was a bit of a slow start , bela was catching early on on paste and Martin was also catching on the method, although I was a few fish behind the anglers either side I soon began getting odd good bream on the pellet and occasional carp put in an appearance, I had a nice enjoyable match not really bagging but steadily putting skimmers and carp in the nets, bela slowed up after his good start but he did suffer quite a few skimmers. Dropping off mainly due to them flying about after they were hooked ,Martin stopped catching after he lost his lucky pellet. All the time glen on 10 and trig over on 11 had Been steadily  catching carp, glen on paste over his pellet mountain and trig over his normal 3 pieces of meat, two completely different feeding techniques but both effective .
By the end it was a two horse race between trig and glen but I fancied trig to edge it. As for myself I thought I had 40 lb of skimmers with a lot on pellet but several on the meat line at 5 mtrs,
First on the day went to Craig Edmund son 11 with 123.7 of meat caught carp at 14 mtrs in front and some up his right hand end bank
2nd and opposite him on 10 glen bailey had 116.14
3rd was me with 94lb which included. The top silver weight on the day with 44.12 of all skimmers
4 th Tom mangnall with 75.2 on peg 15
5 th Philip Harding on 16 with 69.11
6 th joe McMahon on 17 with 67.15
Off to viaduct on Wednesday for a match on the match lake with an overspill onto lodge if needed

Weds landsend open

With 16 of us booked in today mike let us use the match lake and the far bank of the speci, with that much room I wasn't to bothered where I drew , in fact I let fabio draw for me and he gave me 29 on the speci. For company I had Martin lenaghan on 31 and Alan oram on 27. ,
I set up a couple of pellet rigs to fish just off the island and one to poke in tight against the mud under the overhanging plants, a meat rig for each side margin, a slapping rig and a pellet rig for on the deck at 5 mtrs, at the start I began firing 6,s to the far bank, and fed some meat and pellet in the various parts of my swim, the margin meat line was a waste during the match as all I could do was let roach turn the cubes into little marbles,
Starting with the depth rig just off the island I was soon attached to and angry fouler, then after losing it and missing a couple of liners I went out with the shallow rig and soon had a nice double figure common in the net , swiftly followed  by the 5lb f1 which resides in the lake, but I can't bring myself to call it a silver so I stuck it in the carp net, but that was the end of the shallow fishing proper, with the overhanging foliage making it all but impossible to do it properly, if I could have weighed in nettles I would be winning, so it was onto the island depth rig about a metre off , fishing banded 8mm over 6,s fed by catty. There were plenty of fish mooching about so most of the rest of the match was spent lifting and dropping as close to the foliage as possible, I ended the match with 23 carp and a few silvers for what I estimated to be about 130lb,.
I would have had a bit more but I called all out and left my rig in and about 2 secs after I shouted I was attached to a big fish which turned out to be the 18 lb common which I have caught three times before, gutted as I watched it swim away out of the landing net, why couldn't it have taken the pellet 3 seconds earlier, I said to mike duckett who was stood watching that it would probably cost me today, I didn't know how the match lake had fished as it had been unusually quiet on there even with Tom thick in attendance, as it turned out gabe skarba on15 had won with 152.11 of mainly meat caught carp(I think)
2nd was me with 134.15( that fish would have done it then)
3rd mark leader on peg 7 with 118.11
4th Martin lenaghan with 117lb on  peg 31
5th Tom thick on peg 3 with 115.12 and he had the top silver weight of 17.10
6th Alan oram on 27 with 90.12

Float only league, final round

This was the last of the series and we were at viaduct on Campbell and Cary, with 20 on each, I let Tom thick draw for me and he gave me 95 and I drew for him and gifted him 112, definitely got the short straw there then, but saying that I wasn't to upset as I needed a section win to get in the overalls and at least on Cary lake there is always a chance to catch up with some of the bigger fish that inhabit this lake, whereas on Campbell it can be a bit of a fish race making it hard to catch up once you are a few fish behind, for company I was next to fabio again on 94 which is the corner peg , which I fancied as the wind has been blowing in there for a few days, and on 96 was the welsh / Australian hybrid in the shape of  stuart(skippy) barnett, so at least I had someone cheerful to talk to on one side ( I will leave that one to you to work out). I set up a wag rod and a paste rig but never used either, and a depth pellet rig , I didn't set up a shallow rig as I have never had to much success on this lake fishing shallow.
On the whistle I shipped out the pellet rig to 14 mtrs fired in some 8,s and waited, it didn't take to long to foulhook one which came off as did the next 4 aswell, in the meantime dan white was slapping a shallow rig about and by the end of the first hour he had 7 carp in the net, I had managed to put 2 in the net but liners were a problem, so at the end of the first hour I was off the box and assembling a shallow rig, I was soon into the first carp on it and to be honest apart from a couple of attempts to catch on the deck which just resulted in liners and a couple foulers I stuck with the shallow rig for most of the match putting odd fish to about 15ib in the net, fabio had banked on the wag to the end bank and was catching some and on the other side skippy was catching and losing on several methods including paste, and pellet shallow and deep , the lake was fishing well with lots of people catching , Paul elmes over on 79 had lost count of the number of scales. He had put in his net , luckily for him Craig Edmunds at the next peg was keeping count and by the end he had 50 on his clicker, Paul couldn't deny it as he had lost count.
By the end I had 19 carp and 4 skimmers in the nets and with them weighing 164.8 it was the section win I needed to keep me in the overall money, Craig Edmunds had all but won the league before today , with the only person to possibly upset. His win was Shaun Townsend who was on 111, but he needed to win his section with over 300lb and for trig to dip out, FairPlay he won his section and the match with 228.14, so not enough to oust trig
2nd Tom thick on 112 with 196.5
3rd mash on 105 with 180.6
4th mike west on 125 with 172lb
5 th tony Rixon 164.8 peg 95
6th Scott puddy on 116 with 161.3
Silvers
 Gary etheridge with 44.11 on peg 86, catching skimmers of various sizes on soft pellet over softened 4,s
Overall league
Craig. Edmunds 25 pts 576.8lb. £325
Shaun Townsend 25 pts 525.7lb £250
Paul elmes 24 pts 548.7 lb. £175
Tony Rixon 24 pts 478.5lb. £100
Tom mangnall 23 pts. 686.4 lb. £50
Another good league finished now till next year and it was a good tight finish, mainly due to the small 5 peg section, roll on next year
Having another go on wildmarsh at chilton trinity next Sunday so give me a ring at the shop if you fancy it 01179517250

Viaduct open, Campbell lake

This was a pole only with a 13 mtr limit, ok for most but those with daiwa pole had a bit of a moan as there's are only 12.7 with the tips taken out of the match kits, 0.3 can make all the difference lol.
With 17 originally booked in it looked like a nice match on this solid lake, but with a couple of our older anglers crying off with bad backs we ended up with 15, plenty of room so a good day in prospect.
Into the draw tin and out comes 116 , a good peg ,but then again every peg on this lake is a flyer on its day, for company I  had Philip blakemore-fox (fabio))on 115 and new Wednesday sliver Ron hardiman on 118, 117 wasn't in as its cut back in a bay so the empty peg would be beneficial, four rigs today, 3 for pellet, one in my right hand margin, a depth one for 13 mtrs and a shallow slapper, also the obligatory 5 mtr meat line rig.
I only had 8mm to feed and fish with, so nice and positive, at the start I shipped out the shallow rig fed a few pellets over it slapped it around a couple of times then went to throw some down the edge but didn't have time as the elastic was going across the lake, nice start an 8lb fish in the net , yet again this was a bit of a false dawn as I only managed one more small carp on the shallow rig , but I stuck with it for the first 45 mins, although you could see the occasional boil in the feed , I don't think they were to happy to feed shallow, possibly due to the bright sun and no wind, there seemed to be plenty being caught down the lake to my left with Tom thick on 114, mash on 112 and dave romain over on 130 all catching well, the anglers opposite me seemed to be struggling a bit.
I went out on the deep rig and although liners were a bit of pain I was now getting odd fish , fishing a light rig with only 2 number 10,s down the line lots of the bite were on the drop, fabio was having bit of a torrid but he was trying to fish meat at 13 mtrs but small fish became a bit of a problem very quickly , so he came onto the 5 mtr line a lot earlier than he really wanted but he started catching putting some good fish in the net, I stuck with the long line catching a few and I felt as though I was keeping in touch with the anglers off to my left, I kept trying the short meat line but it never really got going for me and I think I only had 4 or 5 fish on it, I started to have a go down the edge with about 90 mins to go and it was solid, I couldn't get in there quick enough, the fish were a bit small but there seemed to be plenty there, with some tench thrown in for good measure, I did lose several to snags and hook pulls, but I think that was mostly due to the pressure I had to put on the fish to get them out of the edge weakening the hook hold, but it was a good day with plenty of banter with fabio and mr thick, I ended up with 37 carp and about 8 tench for what I hoped would go 175lb ish, the word on the bank after was that mash on 112 had won and he did with 223.15 mainly caught on banded pellet out at 13 mtrs then down to his right hand margin towards the end of the match
2nd was tom( I will jump in if I have over 200lb)thick 209.15, coward bottled it
3rd local dairy farmer dave romain on 130 with 189.11
4th me with 189.1 peg 116
5th Martin lenaghan on 111 with 186.8
6th Philip Harding on 115 with 159.13
Silvers
M skyme ( I can't read the weigh sheet so I,m sorry if that's wrong) with 45.5 off peg 125, mainly tench with a few skimmers on worm and caster

Gary wall memorial match, landsend fishery

29 fishing so we used the speci lake , number 3 and half the match lake, 1 to 11, I let Anton draw for me and he pulled 32 for me which is the far bank corner swim, another flyer , I will say it before mr anon does, for company I had dave blakemore on 31 and Martin pettiffer over on 33, steve Seager was on 34 and had his moaning head on as he felt he had been hard done by as he was the only person on the lake without a spare peg but he did have the end of the island to fish to, but I,m sure he didn't mean it (ha ha).
Several rigs today, a shallow rig (6 inches) for slurpers against the bank , a couple of on the deck pellet rigs, one for as tight as I could get to the bank which was 3 foot deep and one for at the bottom of the shelf  in 4 foot of water, I set up the meat rig to fish at 13 and 5 mtrs.
At the start I cupped in some meat on the two lines and began firing pellets along the far bank trying not to get too many on the bank as it was going to be hard to catch the slurpers as there is a fair bit of foliage overhanging, starting at 13 mtrs on meat it was very slow but I stuck it for 45 mins but all I had to show for my efforts was two roach and a skimmer, looking down the bank I could see Scott puddy on 26 hooking plenty on his paste rig, what I didn't realise was at he was losing lots of them, opposite Martin was having a few shallow , but steve hadn't managed to moan anything on yet.
After 45 mins I went in on the pellet line at the bottom of the shelf and began getting indications ( well bites really) and started to catch , but the fish were on the small side with fish as small as 2 lb,
I spent the rest of the match up the edge apart from a couple of short looks on the 5 mtr meat line but all I had there was a 1lb chub,
There were plenty of fish up the edge but fouling was a problem, due to the sun now shining on the water trying to catch shallow was proving difficult as as soon as you tried to catch shallow the shadow of the pole spooked them, the best option was to fish a rig with just a couple of no 10 shot down the line with lots of the bites coming on the drop, I did try fishing at various depths but with only odd liners , the lightly shotted depth rig seemed to be the best, the fish remainder small as I ended up with 25 carp plus some silvers in the shape of chub and f1,s. I thought I had 110lbish but thought Scott had at least that but I hadn't realised he had put plenty back, even steve Seager had started catching down his margin and on his meat line, he even had a very large common which he said was 20lb and it may have been when he hooked it but due to the length of time he played it must have run off 2lb, I did tell him it was 18lb as its a known fish which comes out quite often and it's normally between 16 and 18lb and when we weighed it it was 17.14. Still a nice fish as its very long and in really good condition.
1st on the day went to Craig Edmunds ( who has a flying year ) with 211.2 off un fancied peg 9, catching on meat fished over to the island then on his 5 mtr line later in the match, I think we may have to slash the tyres on his car to stop him catching
2nd Anton page ( he,s had a lean time) with 134.6 off peg 42
3rd Tom thick on peg 5 with 129.14
4th. Tony Rixon, peg 32 with 114.8
5th scott(there goes another one) puddy with 101.7on peg 26
6th Clint wojtyla on peg 70 with 99.7
Silvers
Nigel Bartlett on peg 50 with 25.7 of mainly small roach

Windmill virgins

First time at this venue for most of us hence the title, there were a few regulars fishing so it was going to be difficult for us newby,s. after a breakfast in a cafe in st George / Hanham border which will remain nameless as it was shit it was off to the fishery, it's quite a new lake and terry is looking to improve it all the time and I,m sure he will get it right.
Into the draw and I have the last ticket which was 24, I was told it was a good peg and more importantly I could reach the island at 15mtrs, so a pellet rig was put together to fishin about 10 inches of water just off the island , a pellet rig to use at 5 and 10 mtrs in about 9 foot of water and a rig for dead maggot down the edge( nothing on that apart from a couple of Rudd bites). At the start I fed both pellet lines in the deep water and began firing 6,s to the island, it took  15 minutes to get my first bite at 5 mtrs and that came from a 5 oz skimmer. I stuck with it for another 30 mins but never had another bite on pellet there , I did switch to maggot on that line and had a pound plus skimmer and a tiny carp but that was my lot there , and I never had another bite on either line in the deep water. The rest of the match was spent wrestling with the wind over by the island, it was impossible to hold the pole still at times and the fish that were on the island really wanted a still bait and the only way to achieve that on the pole was to fish over depth by quite a bit but that increased the liners . On my left kevin Jeffries did it right by getting a couple of early fish on the method then fishing paste at 11 mtrs then later 10 mtrs(mainly due to him snapping the but of his pole on the strike) but whichever  way you wantd to look at it he was busting mine and Shaun townsends ass who was e other side of him, the person who seemed to be doing the best was Gordon cannings on 8 who was fishing a tight match using soft pellet and meat at about 10 mtrs, and that's how it turned out with Gordon winning easily with 77.15 which included the top silver weight of 8.10
2nd was kev Jeffries on 26 with 47.3
3rd Pete wild on2 with 46.6
4 th was me with 39.11
5th Shaun Townsend on 28 with 37.2
6th rod wootten with 16.10
I don't think the weights really reflected what the lake is capable of , mainly due to the wind blowing down the lake, a northerly and it was cold until the sun came out about mid afternoon, so I will be back as we need a decent fishery in Bristol and I think with the support it needs it stands a good chance of becoming that, some may disagree but I think the signs are there.

Landsend weds open

Firstly a couple of matches this weekend with some spaces, Sunday we are off to windmill fishery near westerliegh, it's a first visit and its only fair to go and have a look, I've heard some mixed reports  but lately it seems to be on the up, so terry may be be on the way to sorting it out, then on Monday we are off to landsend for the annual Gary wall memorial match, so if you fancy either ring me at the sho to book in on 01179517250.
With only 8 booked in this was not really a match more a small sweep but it was good company and the sun was shining so it was ok. Into the draw tin and out comes peg 5, with so few here the only person I could see was Ron hardiman on peg 7, although I could hear Tom thick on peg 24 and fabio puffing and groaning over on 19,
I set up a meat rig for 5 mtrs, a shallow stalker pellet rig, a rig for pellet over on the island shelf and rig for dead maggot down the right hand side, after feeding all lines and waiting for the waves from turkey thompsons initial feed onslaught up peg 11 to subside I noticed a big ghostie swimming towards me , these big white thins are notoriously hard to tempt here so I wasn't to confident as I swung the stalker rig towards it, and bugger me if it didn't take it, and I soon had a 9lb white one in the net ,I switched to the 5 mr meat line and stayed with it for the first hour and I had 2 more carp plus a tench and a couple of f1,s and a good skimmer, after an hour it was over to the island where there were plenty of fish showing with the occasional tail waiving at me I spent a few hours over there but it was hard to get a fish to take the pellet in the mouth, it was much easier to hook them in the tail , side and fins , but you don't land to many of those, I had a look. Down the edge on dead maggot but all I had to show was two perch, I think it was to deep at about 3 foot, I started throwing a few maggots down there instead of cupping and had a look on the meat line, I had a few decent fish on that ,  then I saw a few fish sucking maggots off the reeds in the margin, not having a shallow maggot rig , I put 4 dead maggot in the band on the stalker rig and dropped it in, I took 4 good fish quickly here before the fish drifted away and none returned, but one there was only about 45 mins left
Which I spent on the far side getting a few more carp, ending up with about 25 carp plus a few silvers, I hadn't heard to many fish being caught , fabio had had a few and Tom thick had a good end to the match, but I had enough as my catch went 143.2 for first
2 nd was Tom thick on 24 with 115.6
3 rd fabio on 19 with 92.13 which included the top silver weight of 24.10
4th Ron hardiman on peg 7 with 62.9
5th dave blakemore on peg 1 with 38.12
6th John Thompson on peg 11 with 31.14