Veals silvers league, huntstrete bridge pool

Anyone interested I have a couple of spaces for the float Only league , dates and venues are
31st May viaduct
14th June landsend fishery
5th July landsend fishery
19th July ivy house
2nd August  sedges
30th August viaduct
If interested ring me at veals on 01179260790 or message me on here or ring my mobile 07974807941, 56quid entry which is the peg fees paid up front and pools paid for the last match
Back to today and not the draw bag and out comes peg 6 AGAIN, same peg as last match, I wasn't complaining as I came third off it so hopefully today would be the same or better, for company I had John barker on 5 who was fishing one handed as he has just had an op on the tendons in his fishing hand , and the other side on 7 was dave wrides aged apprentice , Mike Owens. The knockout draw was a bit harsh as I drew dave wride who is my pairs partner for this series , and he was on 21 with no one on 20/22 or 23 so plenty of room for him , which can be an advantage on any fishery.
Last match here I did have a lot of quality roach and a tench fishing over to the island just down the slope a bit in 4 foot of water, so a .4g rig was assembled for that , and a .6g rig for in the deep water. At 5 and 13 mtrs for caster at 5 mtrs and soft pellet at 13. Both rigs had size 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10. At the start I cupped in some groundbait and caster at 5 mtrs , some groundbait with micros at 13 mtrs slightly to my left and some caster and dry groundbait at 13 mtrs on the island slope, starting at 5 mtrs with caster was no good , 25 mins of that and not the mearest hint of a bite, I put double maggot on and shipped out to 13 mtrs , 2 small roach later and I tried a soft pellet but the wind was really strong blowing in and across me , making any presentation all but impossible, mike Owens was getting some small skims on pellet , but he was able to fish directly into the wind so at least his float was staying relatively still. Also John to my right had caught one of the bigger bream, so I was behind again , the same as last week. So I made the decision to go with the caster line on the island slope, again I started getting some nice roach and odd good perch, about two hours in, I hooked a tench which after a few seconds broke my hook length halfway down the line , so I think it must have gone through a snag, bugger, I kept plugging away on the caster line catching roach or 12oz and a couple of 1lb perch, two hours from the end I hooked a tench , no mistake with this one and it was safely netted, so I was back in the mix as far as the section goes, mikes skimmers had buggered off now leaving him biteless, John had now had three bream so I was still well behind him, or so I thought , 30 mis from the end the wind eased a bit so I went out on the soft pellet line , I had three tiny skimmers then hooked another tench , a bit bigger than the last one , and I must admit I thought it was a rogue carp as it went miles up to my right, then it stopped shook it's head and came back, nice, so with that safely netted I reckoned on being at least second in the section, with John now adding a couple of decent skimmers to his three bream I reckoned I was still second, all out was called so I had to wait for the scales. Top weight in the section was Harry muire with 12 lb when I got my net out I new I had that but was suprised when the scales settled on24.13, which was enought o win the match on the day , just beating dave wride who had 24.6 he didn't expect to be knocked out with that sort fofweight
3rd was Paul barnfield on 14 wth 22.6
4th mike nicholls on 31 wth 21.7
5th John smith on 16 with 20.2
6th John barker on 5 with19.8

Viaduct winter league final round

A quick mention for Paul greenwood who has decided to leave the fishery , he has done a good job the time he has spent there, it's hard work and perhaps his age has finally caught up with him, we wish him all the best in streets maccy d,s drive through .
My turn on match lake today and I was happy to finish the series on this lake as it has been improving  and with a nice mild day forecast I thought it would be ok, into the draw tin and out comes number 19 which gives us pegs, 132/102/71/52 and 15, I was on 52 which used to be a fovourite peg back in the day, but it's been a bit difficult in recent years, for company I had don Sutherland on 51 and dan squire round the corner on 40, meat has been the bait on here recently so I had some cut up into 6mm bits, I made a rig to use at 13 mtrs in front and at 14 mtrs to my left using dan as a marker, a margin rig was made as I had loads of room to my left ,and I set up a wag to fish to the corner of the island , At the start I cupped in some meat on the two lines then tried a bit of bread sodding down the margin, first thing I had was a big branch then I bumped something which I thought was probably a branch of slightly smaller size, I then missed a couple of bites before having a small roach, I tried it for a bit longer but apart from a couple of uncertain dips which I put down to roach it was a none starter , so I fed some corn and caster done there, I did try it a couple of times during the match but never a touch, so no more of that then, I had a try on the wag but with the wind blowing left to right and trying to keep the wag near the island not going to plan , that was binned fairly quickly , although I did get and f1 on it and a couple of plippy roach, don had caught a couple of small carp on the tip and dan was already on the pole fishing meat and catching a few. I switched to the pole and meat and soon had a bite which resulted in a 5lb carp, my next two bites came from carp so I reckoned I had put 3 fish in the net for at least 12 lb, a good start. Then it was f1,s taking the bait , and I had a nice 2 hours catching some nice f1,s, kindering some meat on both lines and alternating between the left hand line and in front. After about an hour the left hand swim dried, so I was now concentrating on the straight in front line, dan on 40 was now catching well, as was ray Hayward on 50, also Jason Radford on47 was doing well, after an hour in front that line also went a bit pear shaped, I went front putting fish into the regularly , to not putting anything in the net , in fact I was getting no bites at all, dan was still catching as was ray , and to make matters worse don was now catching f1,s well but he was fishing more to his right towards ray, by the end I new I had been beaten by the people around me and I didn't really understand why the swim just stopped, perhaps they just weren't there in numbers or more likely it was something I did as we just don't get the practice catching f1,s as there aren't to many waters around here with a big enough head of them to do it.
Or lakes fished really well with dan being top with 85lb ray was second with 75 then the weights went 69/65/46 with lots of thirties and twenties, my net went 40lb giving me 13 points out of 19. I didn't wait for the results so I am not to sure as to who won and what with, possibly Chris Davis on 125 would have won as I think he had 20 odd carp, Chris fox,s blog , maesknoll matchfishing or dom Sullivan's caught short blog will show the results.

Veals silvers league,huntstrete bridge pool

After a bit of a disaster last round I needed a good draw today, into the draw bag and out comes peg 6, it's up on the right hand bank and it's the first peg on the top island, a flyer carp peg I was told, no good today though as it's silvers only, for company I had Ireland's quietist angler Harry muire on 7 and charlie(I am legend ) Barnes behind the island in the narrows on 5, and boy was he moaning, I was still going for the groundbait approach today but I intended to be a bit more careful this week, two rigs today , a .4g for 5 mtrs and a .6g for 13 mtrs at the bottom of the island shelf, both rigs had my favourite size 18 middy 6313 on ,10 line, my rig mainline was .16 sensas feeling , again it's a line that is consistent and fairly close to it's stated diameters.
At the start I cupped in one ball with casters in at 5 mtrs and two balls at 13 mtrs just with micros in.
Starting at 5 mtrs with single caster it took me 25 mins to land a fish and that was a 1lb skimmer, and that was my last bite on this line, Charlie to my right had landed a couple of skimmers in this time and a near 4 lb fish, so if the whistle had been blown at 11 I think he would have won, to make matters worse worse Harry was quietly (not ) landing some skimmers and opposite mIke Owens on 28 was catching which wasn't good for me as I had him in the k/o. And the ever consistent dave wride on 10 was also catching skimmers. I persevered with the short line for the first hour before venturing out to 13 mtrs, when I did all I could muster in the next 45 mins was a couple of tiny roach, so I refed the long lines but put a biggish handfull of caster in the ball I put in each swim, I tried the short line but that was no good, so back out to 13 mtrs on caster and although it wasn't brilliant at least I was getting more roach now, Charlie had stopped catching and was back into moaning mode, Harry was still getting odd skimmers , but not as well as mr wride. I did get a couple more 1lb skimmers and a nice perch at 13 mtrs and with 2 hours to go I had a nice 4lb bonus tench, which got me back in touch with the section pace setters, apart from dave wride that was as he was catching really consistently,
Out of desperation a bit with just under two hours to go I plumbed up at 13 mtrs towards the island to my left and found about 5 foot of water , so I butchered my .4g rig to use there and cupped in some casters and loose groundbait, I tried the deeper water for a few minutes then went to the shallow and started catching nice roach, then I had another 4 lb tench which was a proper bonus, then went back to getting roach again with some nice fish up to 12oz,
At the end I thought I had about. 14 lb and with Harry looking at his fish and reckoning on 12 lb I was hopefull of second in section behind dave wride who looked to have won the match , making it two on the trot in this series,
And he did win with a nice net of skimmers on soft pellet over micros and groundbait on peg 10, his 38.2 was well clear of second placed Alan jones who managed to make it to the end of the match this week and weigh in 20.1
Third was me with 19.14
4th John smith next to the winner on 11 with 16.6
5th mike key on 18 with 14.2
6th mike Owens on 28 with 13.12

Viaduct winter league round 4

Just a quick get well soon to mike nicholls who was taken into hospital with newmoanial the other night , he will soon be out no doubt.
Back to today and into the draw tin and out comes draw sequence 13 which gave us Clint on 125, Clayton on 94 me on 62 , Ron on 46 and Tim on 15. ,some good and bad in that lot, mine was definitely a bad one , and with the wind blowing in and across and some heavy rain forecast for later it was never going to be pleasant. For company I had don Sutherland on 61 and Adrian jeffery on the monk peg 64. So the pound bet was. Struck with don, but I never asked ade as his peg was to good !!!
I set up a wag to fish corn mid lake, a caster rig for over groundbait at 13 mtrs which was as far as I dared to go with the forecast , a meat rig for 2 o,clock angle at 13 mtrs  and a meat rig to go to empty pallet 63, at the start I fed all lines then started on the wag and corn, I had two bites in the first 30 mins endeping up with 2 hybrids for about a pound in the net, the wag was never going to work as the wind was pushing it through to much even with lots f line on the deck so I binned that after 40 mins, out on the caster and small skimmers were pretty obliging but they were small 2 to 4oz mainly, I tried the meat line but only had a perch there , I did try it several times during the match but no good, the 13 mtr caster line was the best, I did manage a couple of better skimmers of about a pound but the rest were mainly small, I had been feeding meat down the edge all match and I did give it a couple of goes but only had one roach, until I grace it one last go for the last 15 mins and lo and behold the float buried and a ax pounder was safely in the net with five mins to go, and then the end was called. My silvers went just over 9lb and the carp just over 6 for 15 1/2 lb for 11 points in the section, our lake was won by steve long on 73 with 107lb followed by dan squires on 66 with 70 odd pounds, the match was won by andy power with a couple more pounds than steve. Off to huntstrete this Thursday for the veals silvers league then back down to viaduct next Sunday for the last winter league, my turn on match lake , let's hope for a decent draw as I havnt really had a good peg in this series so far,

Landsend league round 4

Back to a random draw again today to determine sections for the following rounds, I was near the front of the queue again today, and with mark poppleton appearing to wave the white flag on. The series the. Normal banter was missing,
Into the draw bucket and out comes 34 which is definitely a good draw on the. Speci lake, for company I had Kieran guppy on 33 to my left and Tom cruises body double Pete nurse on 36, today I was going to keep it mainly simple , just pellets ,4,s to feed and a banded 6 in the band on the trusty b960 hook on ,16 line, two rigs one for 15 mtrs to my left towards the end of the island down the shelf and the same rig same distance to my right using a 4x12 float. The other rig was a 4x10 float for against the island in 2 foot of water, the weather was supposed to kick up a bit later with strong southerly winds and a dose of heavy rain, and it didn't disappoint , we had rain for near enough the whole duration of the match, and it was straight into my face, the island did afford me a bit of shelter to fish in but poor Kieran had it straight in with no protection, it wasn't to long before the cold got into him and I could see the end of His pole trembling , due to him shivering.
Back to my swim and after talking to Adrian Clark who had fished a little while ago and had done well by not feeding a thing and just lifting and dropping a pellet under the bush on the far side, due to the water level being up there was no chance of fishing under the bush so I decided to fish my pellet along the island bank in front and along to the left, I find feeding nothing really hard to do so I fed the two deep lines only left and right but fed nothing where I was going to bounce the pellet around to cut a long story short I never picked up the deep rig and just fished up the island shelf for the whole match, I ended up with 27 carp into double figures , I only had three nets with me so when I had put 9 in each. Net I decided to pack up and that was about 25 mins from the end, but as far as I could see I had won the lake and more importantly the section so that keeps me in contention in the league, I stopped at 9 in a  net as there is an 80lb weight limitat this fishery and I thought I may be close to it, and I wasn't to far out as I ended up with 213.1 which is a good day whatever time of year, which was well enough for first on. The lake and overall on the day,
2nd went to Paul elmes on 15 with 110 lb
3rd nick chedzoy on 19 with 96.9
4th steve Seager peg 11 with 92.10
5th ken Rayner on 31 with 91.9
6th Gary oshea on 13 with 67.5
Top silver weight went to Russ peck on 42 with 10.10

Veals silvers league round 3

Back to huntstrete again for this one again, 27 of us on bridge pool, I didn't really mind to much where I drew , but I would like to avoid 25/23&22 as they are all set back in bays , ok if it's a carp match but with it being a silvers only affair they are best avoided.
Into the draw bag and out comes 25 ,shit. For company on 24 I had bristols finest top set thrasher dave Haines and on 26 was bristol legend bob "the bread" price, neither angler is renowned for there long pole fishing so I decided to fish two lines , one at 5 mtrs and one at 14 which was beyond the anglers each side as far as pole fishing goes, but bob did have his favoured lead rod assembled , at the start I cupped in one ball at 5 mtrs with a few casters in and three balls at 14 mtrs with some soaked micros and no casters, I felt I may have overdone the caster last time as small roach were a real problem, starting at 5 mtrs I had a small roach first drop and that was it I couldn't get a bite there, so it was out on the long line, by now ray bazeley and dave wride on the carpark bank were catching skimmers and bream and ray had caught a 6lb tench as his first fish, so I had to try and catch bream to do any good, dave on my right was catching plippy roach but I didn't see any point in doing that , and when Paul barnfield round on 21 had a couple of bream it confirmed what I had to do, but it never happened, the small roach that proved a real nuisance last time were noticeable by there absence, I had to sit and watch ray on the end bank catching, and judging by the bank side banter dave wride was still catching, I ended up with 4.12 which was made up mainly by 10 small skimmers, dave to my right had fished hard for the whole match to put the same weight as me on the scales of roach fry, bob on my left had 10oz, I didn't wait for the results as it had rained all day and I had just about had enough !!!!!!. Dave wride won with 46lb and I think ray next to him was 2nd with 29lb I don't know what was next as I was driving out of the carpark and they were still weighing, but mike nicholls will post the weigh sheets on his blog.
Off  to landsend Sunday for match number 4 in the winter league and it's a random draw again for this one , fingers crossed for a good draw then, and next Thursday it's back down to emerald , so anyone fancying it ring me in veals on 01179260790 to book in

Day on the chew

I had a spare morning so I thought it would be nice to go and try and catch a grayling , as the last one I had was when I was 14 and that was on the river chew at woollard, so today I was back on the same river but a bit further down at Compton dando where bathampton have the rights to two fields on the right hand bank upstream, as with woollard I hadn't fished this stretch since I was at school and apart from being very overgrown it was pretty much the same . This was proper travel light fishing, a rod a reel with 3lb line on a few shot and a couple of 3AA loafers plus some 18 hooks on ,14 line , half a pint of red maggots and a landing net.
I walked to the top of the second field planning to fish my way back to the bridge in any swim I could poke a 12 foot rod into, something shorter would have been better but I don't posses one , the river was a nice colour with a proper flow so I was hopeful , but after fishing my way through half the field I was getting a bit despondent, all I could catch was minnows and a few minnow sized micro trout, next swim was about 100 mtrs above a footbridge just round a bend , so I repeated what I had done previously , so I just sat on the bank flicking a few maggots into the flow, after 5 mins I dropped the float in , it went about 6 feet and buried, like it had done fifty times before, I expected another snag or a minnow , but this kicked back, and I was soon looking at a nice little grayling in the net of about 10oz, job done . Next run through I had another of about the same size but further down the swim, these cousins of the trout certainly are pretty fish and fight surprisingly well for there size. I stuck witht he swim for another 20 mins and had a dace of about 4oz and a 8oz brownie, I fished a few swims back to the bridge but had no more grayling, in fact I had very little of anything apart from a nice dace that may have gone 8oz, well it was bigger than 6oz !!!.
Apart from the top of the second field I couldn't even catch minnows, it seemed as though the river just switched off, but I wasn't complaining as I succeeded in catching what I wanted ,and it was nice to run a float down a nice bit of flow, something I haven't done in a long time, I may try it again before the river season shuts.