Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Not a bad turnout considering the hottest day of the year being forecast, so 18 of got in the draw queue, I was about 3rd in and pulled out peg 31, I fancied it as the far bank had been cleared so I could fish across with no grass issues, I did go round and pull a few more roots and grass out but it did look better.

After the last match where Steve Shaw gave me a right battering on maggot over groundbait down his edge last match, I didn't make the same mistake today as I had some groundbait and maggots today, so I set up a rig for down my margin, a slapper rig just in case and a pellet rig for over to the far bank and another pellet rig for down to empty peg 30, I fed it but never used it, so nothing more about that the.
For company I had Lee peanut on bridge peg 33 and the other side on 27 was ed wynne who was only fishing for silver's, so that was good for me then.
At the start I began on the far bank swim, and caught straight away on 8mm pellet over loose Fed 6,s, so that was good then, as us normal with this style of fishing you do have to endure the odd fouler, but I was getting more in the mouth though, Lee was struggling and gabe the other side of the bridge was not having it to good with lots of lost fish. I new my match was going to well as all of a sudden it went pear shaped, my own fault as it was poor tackle maintenance on my part , after three lost rigs down to elastic breakage, I was back in the van trying to 're elasticate a topkit, but I did so was back in the game, from what I could here and see Steve Shaw round on 38 was catching well, as was Glen Bailey on peg 1. I went back across , but kept about a foot off the bank to avoid the snags, and did catch some fish that were a slightly better stamp, so all good then, I had been potting groundbait down each side margin, and about 2 hours from the end I began to see some movement in my right hand margin, but nothing to my left, so the last two hours were spent fishing 3 or 4 maggots on a 16 , over the groundbait while feeding maggot over the top, my peg got stronger towards the end and by the end I couldn't get in quick enough, it was a nice margin with about 20 inches of water tight to the grass.

Lee next door was also catching down his edge  , but I had built up a good early lead over him so he wasn't a threat, gabe was catching well as was Steve Shaw, I saw something I never expected today, Lee next door was finding it hard to catch, so he fished the method on the pole hoping that the fish would start to catch him, it worked for a few but it was to slow, he also fished it behind a snag which I told him about after the match, and I bit off his feeder after the match and accidentally threw it into the lake , ooops.
I ended up with 42 carp so hopefully that would be enough, when the scales got to me Steve Shaw was winning with 157.4. I wasn't sure I had that , but my fish went 173.10 for first on the day, pushing Steve into 2nd.
3rd was Glen Bailey on peg 1 with 137.13
4th gabe skarba on 34 with 134.8
5th Lee peanut on 33 with 127.5, (chip shop sausage LOL)
6th Mike Chapman on 15 with 127.3
Silver's went to Mike Chapman also with 21.8 of mainly skimmers on caster.down the middle.
It was good to see Charlie Barnes turn up for a watch, he was bought along by John barker, but I think it was a bit to hot for him today, as he had to leave a bit early, hope you are ok Charlie if you read this 😁

Avalon fishery float only practice

After the normal good breakfast at Landsend, where di was under a bit of pressure as it was very busy, but credit where credit is due , her and olive did good, though olive did look a bit flustered.
Off to the fishery and with 34 booked in Vic let me use the whole lake, finally got the draw underway, so I waited for the right person to come along to draw my peg, who gambles up, no other than self proclaimed drawer of flyers, Nick chedzoy, so after drawing 32 for himself, he only goes and draws 24 for me, anyone who knows the venue will know that it is a very good peg in a corner with lots of history, I had to walk to my peg as Vic wanted the top Carpark left for the 24 hour divvy boys on the top lake , shame really as I would have only had a 10 ft walk to my peg, but its a hard road all the way to the top, so no drama really.
Soon got the box positioned, and I must say it looked good , with a nice end bank to fish to, although its normally a bit of a snag pit.

The tree's are about 20 mtrs along and as I had left the float rod in the van the weren't going to be used today, so inset up a couple of pellet rigs for the end bank at 15 mtrs, one shallow and one on the deck, which was about 3 foot deep, a deep and shallow rig for straight out at 14 mtrs, and a meat rig for 6 mtrs.
At the start I fed the end bank with a catty, threw some meat to 6 mtrs, but began at 14 mtrs on the deck, it started well with 2 carp in the first two put ins, then I fouled one ,  ten mins later and after another lost fouler, I was reaching for the shallow rig, and that's where in spent most of the match, feeding and swinging the rig around , feeding 6mm hard pellet and using a banded 8mm pellet on the hook, it was never hectic , but in was getting odd fish, and I wasn't seeing to many fish being caught, to be honest, apart from Martin lenaghan opposite on 23 and Steve seager on 20, I couldn't see anyone else as the tree's and bushes obscured my view, although I did spend most of the match out and shallow, I did fish into the end bank, but it left me a bit traumatized, I was getting beaten up by those edge dwellers, and to make matters worse I new the fish weren't particularly big, but those small commons are dambed quick, tying me around reeds and roots , I was losing more.hooks than landed fish, so not to much time was spent down there, even the long shallow line had its problems, I had two plastics break, but they have been in all year so that's down to me really.
The fish were a lot bigger on the long shallow line, with fish to just about double figures, including this nice ghostie.

By the end of the match in thought I had about 120lb, which according to the bankside banter , it should be enough for today, when the scales got to me , Tom mangnal was top with 86.15, I was confident of beating that , and for once I wasn't to far out on my guess as I my fish went 125.2 for first today
2nd was Tom with 86.15
3rd Steve Skelton on 28 with 70.14
4th Dave romain on 44 with 69.12
 5th Steve seager on 20 with 65lb
6th Nick chedzoy on 32 with 63.5
Silver's went to Paul faiers on 35 with 21.8.
Quite a close match really, I don't think we had enough cloud cover and ripple really for it to fish better, the quality silver's didn't seem to want to know it.
Emma Drysdale is running a short pole match on Saturday's starting soon , so for more info contact her via face book , she only needs a couple more to fill it.

Thursday costcutter, shiplate farm

Went into Weston today for breakfast at the copper kettle cafe, run by Wendy who used to run lillypool cafe at shipham, and I must say it was good to see she has lost none of her cooking skills as the food was as good as ever, and her cafe is spotless and looking good, so with Landsend cafe and the copper kettle, I don't see the need to go any where else, which one will depend on where I am going as the both are superb,

Back to the fishery and with 16 fishing today it goes to show the venue is becoming more popular, I got early into the draw bag and opened up peg 7, I won off peg 6 last visit so I fancied it for a few , I had an island Chuck so the pellet wag would get an airing today.

Also I had another really sexy looking margin down to my left under some branches with a Bush at the end, so I set up a pellet rig for down there .

Also I set up an up and down pellet rig for 14 mtrs in front, on the all in I fed in front, down the edge and out on the island, I started on the wag and fully believed to catch on it but after 35 mins and not a bite I was reaching for the shallow rig, but apart from a couple of roach twitches on that in the next 30 mins, that was a waste, so out on the deep rig, it took me a about 30 mins more to get my first carp, plus a couple of skimmers, about halfway through I went down the edge  and had two carp straight away, Jim Thomas was watching me and said the chances were that I would probably empty it . But no it went quiet, so out on the wag and I actually had a bite, but missed it, a couple of chuckles later.and I had one , then about 15 mins later another one graced the net, but I was on my third float by now as my waggler attachments seem to have perished and the floats kept coming off, so I binned the rod, out on the long pole shallow and one ripped the elastic out when I was looking down the lake watching Dom Sullivan netting another over on 14b. Also Stan b on 13 was catching on the lead, also "our" Mark Thomas on peg 1 was catching, firstly on a method feeder fished 10 foot down his margin then later on the wag, but that was a bit further out.
The latter bit of the match I spent down under the tree's getting odd fish but they were on the small side, so I was never going to be threat today, and it was to little to late, oh well there is always sunday, results sheet below , with Dom Sullivan first , Stan b second and our Mark third with me fourth.

After the match Dom Sullivan gave us a swimming demonstration as he lost a top 4 the week before and the last place it was seen was out in front of peg 6 so fairplay to him he got in for a feel about .

Notice the solar panel for a sex machine, I can remember Dom when he had hair and it wasn't grey lol. But good for him as he found it tethered to a tree on the island, but the fish had gone , at least it was  a good bit of post match entertainment.

Still got a couple of spaces for this Sunday at Avalon so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Well not to much to report on this one , into the draw bag and o it comes ping pong ball number 21, same peg as last time a fortnight ago, I don't like drawing the same pegs as they never seem to fish the same, and with more anglers here today than last time (20) it meant there was an angler the other side of the bridge, and today it was acorn regular Dave Stevenson, my closest angler to my right was Steve Shaw, from over the bridge . Always a difficult one to beat,
Last time I caught well at the start on pellet down to my left against the bridge so a rig for that, also late in the match I caught on pellet over groundbait to my right , so another rig for that, then my final rig was for pellet over to the far side, and that was the best part of the day for me as I couldn't get any part of my swim to get going, or caught odd fish from all parts, but I wasn't able to string any fish together, Steve to my right seemed to be doing the best with him having a good second half of the match fishing maggot over groundbait down his margins, up thought he had won easily, but I hadn't seen Darren vowels sneaking fish out on the method feeder on peg 1, he ended with 140.5 for first on the day, I didn't get a picture of him and his fish so I will apologise for having to put a pic of Steve Shaw with some of his fish which helped him into second spot with 132.15

3rd spot went to the fishery expert Bob Smith on peg 9 with 107.15
4th Glen Bailey with 90.2 on peg 36, after those weights it turned into a bit of a struggle for most , so here are the weigh sheets.

Avalon Sunday, still got a few spaces left so give me a ring to book in 07974807941

Short pole series 2nd round

Before this weeks report, just a note to say I am running a float only open at Avalon next Sunday, 17th, 9.30 draw fish 11 to 5. Ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in, or ring veals and speak to me or leave a mage for me , tel 01179260790 .
Back to today and a full house of 24 fishing, not to sure as to where I wanted to be , misha drew for me again today, and I wasn't complaining when I saw number 15 on the ticket, its a bit of an end peg on the far bank, and John had been in with his digger and sorted a bit of collapsed bank to the left of the swim, so it looked as though I would have a nice bit of scraped back clay bank to fish to, so first thing when I got to the peg was to have a scrape around with the weed cutter to check for snags, it soon became apparent it was a no go area as it was full of roots and snags. For company I had Tom mangnal on 17 and Pete nurse on 14, rigs today were a deep and shallow rig for 6mtrs, (the pole limit) a meat rig for off to the left at the same distance, and  a pellet rig for on the deck about about a mtr off the bank where as far as I could tell the snags had finished.
In started on the deep pellet rig and lost a fouler quite quickly, Tom caught one early on shallow meat, and with no more signs on the deep rig , despite the fact my peg was fizzing massively, as was everyone else's as far as I could see !!!!!.
So it was out with the shallow pellet rig, it took me a while to get a bite , but I did , landing a carp which was soon followed by another, but apart from a roach that was my last shallow fish from that line, in fact I only had one more shallow and that was when I slapped a pellet against the new clay bank, to was by now catching a few on shallow meat, it seemed the way to go today, possibly due to it being slower sinking, whatever it was pellets didn't seem to be so effective today, the rest of the match was spent trying not to fall to far behind Tom, my peg was hard to say the least for most of the match but towards the end in the last couple of hours I began to put a few fish together, switching between the meat line and my nearly down the edge rig, by the end I thought I had 65 lb but Tom reckoned on 100lb and Clayton over on 25 thought he wasn't to far behind, and he wasn't as Tom weighed in 101.8 for a narrow victory.

2nd Clayton Hudson on 25 with 96.1
3rd Joe McMahon on 13 with 77lb
4th Glen Bailey on 3 with 76.6
5th Martin rayet on 10 with 75.7
6th was me with 75.3
Silver's went to Martin McMahon on 24 with 15.12 of mainly roach fry.
2nd Paul Blake on 32 with 10.5

Thursday costcutter viaduct fishery

After a nice breakfast at the junction with bela(trev) bakos and Glen two pots Bailey it was off to the fishery to find there was going to be 25 of us split between lodge and match lake, good to see Mike (ginger) hall in attendance, our paths havnt crossed for quite a while so it was good to catch up and the banter was as good as ever.

Into the draw and out comes 59 on lodge lake, not my favourite swim as it hasn't been to good here for quite a while to be honest, but it is always a bit of a banker as far the margin goes , especially late in the match.

Rigs today consisted of two pellet rigs for 14 mtrs one deep and one shallow, a couple of meat rigs , one for the sexy looking margin to my left and another for 6 mtrs, and a wag rod for 25 mtrs, on the deck to begin with.
On the all in I fed all lines but began on the deck with 8mm hard pellet over loose Fed 6,s, it all started so well, with 2 carp in the bag after 15 minutes I was beginning to think the peg may be ok for a days action, but apart from a small shallow carp a couple of hours in, and a few skimmers, that was all I could muster from that line. I did get one on the shallow was of about 13lb, but it was fairly hooked right in the base of the tail, so no chance there of getting bitten off then 😁. I lost a couple of fish on the shallow wag, one fouled again and another when my main line snapped by the locking shot, doh.
As expected I had a bit of a flourish in the margin and ended the match with 11 carp plus my few silver's for about 100lb, as far as I could see only isle of Wight immigrant Lee Davison on 73 had more , and he did , weighing in 126.2 for first on the day, so well done to him on his first visit to the fishery, since sneaking in from the island,
2nd was me with 102.14
3rd Glen 2 pots Bailey on 44 with 101.2
4th Jamie Bowden on 55 with 89.7
5th Paul bowler on 60 with 79.5
6th Beal bakos on 64 with 76lb
Silvers
Rob eagle on 70 with 30.14 of skimmers

Float only league rnd 3. Landsend fishery

Still had a full house today with 41 fishing, so we were using the three main lakes, after di,s normal spot on breakfast it was time to get the draw underway, I had Neil Mercer in the k/o so I let him draw for me after he pulled peg 1 for himself, he handed me peg 24 , so opposite Neil, so at least we keep an eye on each other, several rigs today, a margin rig , not used today, a meat rig for 5 mtrs, and three rigs for along the end bank by a tree growing out of the bank on water level.

And at only 14 mtrs along the bank , no to painful a day then.
So two pellet rigs for along the bank, one just off in 3 feet of water and another tightish in in 2 foot, about a foot deeper than I would have liked, but there is no shelf along this bank, and the last rig was a shallow rig just in case fish started slurping against the bank. Soon ready to begin, with a bit of time to spare.

The start of the match began well for me , as I had two carp straight away from the meat line in the first 10 minutes, but apart from a lost fouler that was the end of the days sport from that line.
I was soon going along the end bank, where I had a couple of quick carp but not a lot after, at the 4 hour mark I was on 8 carp, two skimmers and a golden tench, whereas Neil opposite had been catching well, fishing across to the shallow water on the island, it wasn't an option for me as the island is over 20 mtrs away. Going into the last couple of hours and going nowhere fast i decided to really up the feed to try and make something happen, and it did get better as I couldn't get the rig in fast enough towards the end, with the peg getting stronger and stronger, but it was to little to late as Neil had me well beaten, and when you've got Craig Edmunds on 19 and Paul elmes on 18, both in my section, third was my only realistic position, especially as both of them had caught well, with trig seemingly doing the best, and he did as he won again today with a good weight , well 206.6 to be precise, catching mainly in the shallow water against the island.
2nd went to Nigel Mercer opposite me with 144.4
3rd was Paul elmes on 18 with 127.11,
4th Joe McMahon on 11 with 126.3
5th me with 113.5
6th Steve Tucker on 16 with 108.13
Silver's
Alan oram on peg 6 with 35.10 of mainly skimmers with a few f1,s thrown in for good measure
2nd was Ken rayner on peg 21 with 28.10

Trig with a few of his fish, there is just no stopping him at the moment.
My next open is a float only match on 17th July at Avalon fishery, so to book in ring or txt me on 07974807941 .