Landsend winter league

Sunday and it was the final round of the individual winter league, i was going into this match with a 4 point buffer and a bit of a weight advantage, on lake three today and hoping to draw peg 58, as the winds been blowing towards that end for a while now so i fully expected the fish to be holed up against the end bank at that end. But breakfast first , cooked by karen and it was very nice , 4.8. Never get a bad breakfast at this venue. Draw got underway and I was a little #issed to pull out peg 61, its a average peg but very rarely a winning peg, it looks good with a corner of the island to go at, and a nice right hand margin with a bush in the water, rig graveyard to be honest, i had dom sullivan to my left, opposite was russ(i caught 70lb in the last ten minutes) peck, and mike jefferies, up in the corner on the far bank was rich major and on flyer peg 58 was dave ings, who was moaning about being unable to get a rig into the water due to the amount of carp in front of him, and he wanted silvers. The banter and micky taking was a bit relentless, bit good natured. its been a more difficult match on this lake than any of us thought it would be, started short on meat for no bites, went to the island, coupke of liners but no fish, down the edge after two hours and finally a small carp was in the net. Only dave ings was catching, silvers with the odd carp, also dom to my left was starting to get an odd carp, i did get one small carp and a bit of a skabby skimmer from the island, but the ony place i could get any indications was down the right hand margin on meat, i did lose a couple in the bush and had a few liners, but i ended up with 8 small carp and the lonesome skimmer, i turned out i just did enough, dom won on my left with 58lb, dave to my right had 53, and russ late show peck had 41lb , i came 4th on the lake with 40lb, so couldn't be caught, my closest risk was from nick duckett who had ddrawn 31 on the speci lake and weighed in over 190lb, well done . He won the lake obviously but was still 1.5 points behind me so i had held on for the series win and a £400 pickup, that will do nicely, big well done to mike and steve seager for running it , thanks to Rachael and karen for breakfasts and the spread after the match on sunday, and not forgetting ade for his bankside food delivery sevices, and im sure i saw gary occasionally.

as i had won some money i felt i could afford the fuel to go to bridgwater and fish the silvers match at the sedges, another nice fishery breakfast, 4.8 again, cant fault it .24 fishing so 8 on each bank of tile lake and 8 on the high numbers on brick. It was windy so a any peg with a 2 at the start of it would do as the wind would be slightly off the back, but no 26 for me so wind in and across , lovely, wind and tow going the same way, two rigs today, 1g for the 5 mtr line, and a 1.25 for 9 and 13 mtrs, both drennan s7 patterns, hooks today were 18 brennan finesse silver fish pattern on .10, very impressed with these new hooks, strong for the gauge of wire, and good long lasting points. At the start i fed 5 , 9 and 13 mtrs.with groundbait with a bit of caster and very dead pinkies in, presentation was horrendous, the first third of the match was a bit slow, but as it got further in to it things improved, the 13 mtr line was no good, most of the fish came from the 5 and 9mtr lines, some nice skimmers, all on double and single maggot, aswell as some on pinkie towards the end, ended up with 35lb, so not a bad day in the conditions, but only good enough for second as martin tizard over on 19 brick had a realy good day catching 56lb of skimmers mainly on bread at 6mtrs, well done martin. Steve kedge was third with 33lb, as the weigh sheet shows both the lakes have fished well.

Thursday shiplate costcutter

17 fishing today, so not to bad, also john has started doing a £5 superpool on top of the normal £15 entry, i think all but one didnt enter it so obviously there is a need. the draw was crucial as we were forcast to have 45 mph westerly winds , so any peg on the far bank would be good so the wind wpuld be from behind, my draw arm was ok today in that respect as i pulled out ping pong ball 9a, probably the most sheltered peg on lake, so i set up a wag to fish pellet halfway to the island, a silvers rig for 11 and 14 mtrs same.depth, and a meat rig for the bush to my right , which is normally a banker for carp,

At the start i cupped in 2 balls at 11mtrs and three at 14, dropped some meat down by the bush, then started on the wag, i wasnt expecting to much, so it was a shock when the float went under, a 2lb skimmer was the culprit, i would like to say i had a few more on it , but i never had another bite on it all match, and i tried it several times. Also the meat down by the tree was a waste of time aswell, the pole lines were really slow aswell, only odd bites, including a ruffe which is normally a sign that not much else is feeding.

I was getting enough bites to just about justify sticking with the silvers, but it got harder as the match went on, about 90 minutes from the end i turned into paul faiers, i got off the box and made up a light rig, 4x12 with a 22 hook and began fishing single pinkie, and i seemed to work to a degree, as i had a couple of better skimmers, but i think it was more coincidence, also out of desperation i dropped the rig down by the meat bush with single maggot, and had a tench of about 1 1/2lb, but it was a one off, by the end i new i had double figures, but not sure how much as bites were and fish were well spread out, hard but enjoyable. When the scales got to me alan quantrill was winning with 82lb from peg 14 , fishing the method over to the tree on the island, well done and a quid off me. top silvers was dave wride with 36lb, but my fish went 18.8 which was good enough for second in the silvers, and luckily for me the silvers winner never did the super pool, thanks dave👍👍. Weigh sheet below.

Shiplate and acorn

Sunday and it was the silvers league penultimate round, run by ron hardiman,, todaynandnit was the main lake at shiplate, plenty of silvers, but with a minus 3 frost over night it may be difficult, haven't been here for a couple of momths as on Thursdays i have been going to the excellent plantations lake for silvers matches and huntstrete for the same, so i was looking forward to today as this lale also has a huge head of quality silvers in it, all these good silvers venues seem to do best when the lakes also have a good head of carp, skimmers and roach like eating carp pooh by the seems of things, carp do have a short digestive system so obviously they pass plenty of nutrients out for the traditional silvers can eat, trying to create a silvers only lale never seems to work, a fact that gets born out with regular monotony with fisheries paying the price for attempting it. Anyway today i was off to peg 15 for the day, good carp peg, but the majority of the bigger skimmers seem to have been further up the lake recently, i had ryan(the float) jordan to my right and opposite on peg one was peter pan himself , leon Hubbard. Three rigs today, one with a twenty hook on to fish maggot over groundbait at topset and two, and at 11 mtrs at 11 o,clock angle and another with an 18 for 1 o,clock angle, also a margin rig for the left as on some days it can be good for tench, but i never fished it as every time i put a bit of bait in all i had was carp tail patterns,

the match started and i fed the relevant baits in all areas, a slow start was an understatement I had my first bite after 1 hour and ten minutes, carp on , not a big one , about 6lb, so safely netted, by now leon opposite was catching small skimmers , but our bank was extremely slow judging by the bankside banter. But as the match progressed my swim got better, mainly smallish skimmers from 4oz to 12 oz, the middle three hours were the best for me, with the 90 minutes at either end being a struggle, although i did get three better ones towards the end, also carp were a problem for me, as i hooked 16, it dont help the cause thats fot sure, i thought i had about 25lb and wasnt to far out as i had 26.15,

i felt loen had over 30lb so he looked like todays winner, but after joe mcmahon put 33 lb on the scales it may be close, but leon just edged it with 34lb so well done.

Leon is well out in front at the mo, one round to go and he could easily still win the league even though he isnt fishing the last round, with no droppers and no reserves allowed he will get maximun penalty points but the chasing pack still needs to do well to catch up.

Monday and down to acorn, struggling to get monday matches off the ground here, only 7 of us today, so i pegged everyone with the wind off our backs,peg 3 for me. nothing to report by me on this one, started off feeding pellets with a catty, the ducks moved in and never left, i like them in the summer but not when its hard, ive had a proper shoeing either side with mat tomes on my left on getting it right just kindering a few pellets across, catching f1,s, some carasio and small carp, anything which looks like a carp, is a carp in my matches, paul faiers on peg one was silvers bashimg and doing well, me i couldnt get a bite hardly, even the short maggot line which paul was cathing on( or should i say short pinkie line), and in the last half of the match mat was catching well on, i felt as though i was watching 👀 a tennis match, i had a stiff neck by the end, 😂😂 well i csme last with 26lb, well done to mat who won with 68lb which included 40lb of silvers, and paul on my right was second with 44lb and that included 40.03 of silvers, think i may have got it totally wrong today😕😕😆😆, onwards and upwards as they say, it was a hard day for some reason, with the decent carp being very noticeable by there adsence, it fished better the next day thats for sure.pics and weigh sheet below

Monday plantation silvers match

Back to this brilliant silver fish lake today, but equally there is a huge head of carp well into double figures aswell, but not before a stop off in the bridge for breakfast with mark Broomsgrove and dave willmott, nice breakfast which dave tried to ruin by covering it with vinegar, really, but he did confess that his favourite breakfast dish is boiled egg with toast soldiers to dip in it, but horror, he puts vinegar in the egg, it just dont sound right. 16 booked in, but one no show, he forgot. I let chris ollis draw for me and he handed peg 7 to me, oooh, dont mind if i do. On my right was shaun(ferris)kittridge, and on my left was long time friend nick collins, so a good day reminiscing, and a bot of a slagging off for todays social problems and any thing else we felt the need to moan about, all very enjoyable, good company. three rigs today, a double bulk rig for 11 mtrs, aswell as a standard rig, and a 4x12 for topset and two. Groundbait today was my normal skimmer mix, equal ammounts of sensas lake, thatchers original and brown crumb. On the whistle i cupped in one ball on the short line, and 2 balls on one line at 11mtrs straight out, and three balls at 10 o'clock angle, all with a few casters in. it was a.slow slow start to be honest, only a few roach short, so i went out to the 11 mtr lines and began to get a few smallish skimmers, i never felt as though i was catching well , but by swapping between the three lines i kept catching , with the biggest skimmers again coming from the short line, but i had to keep topping up all lines to keep the fish interested, again the fish seemed to be happy sat above the feed, but hard to catch, but i had a good day, not sure what i had but new i had over 40lb. The only person i could see doing really well was mat Tomes on peg 19, and by the time i got to him with the scales dave (vinegar) willmott was winning with 38lb of mainly roach again, he certainly has the roach sorted out in this lake, but mat took the lead with 51.3 of mainly skimmers, didnt think i had that.

When the scales.got to my peg i lifted my net out and i new it was going to be close, but fortunately for me, my mainly skimmer net went 51.9 sorry Mat.

The lake has fished brilliantly with the bottom weight being 24lb, weigh sheet below.

Plantation main lake, silvers only open.

Normal stop off in the bridge for brekkje, really good today , good value for money at £6.70, just not the sausages though, go for extra bacon, trust me. anyway 18 fishing today and i had last but one ticket and ended up on 25, well happy.with that , its a consistent area. On my right was chris rolf, and bob teakle on my left, the weather was meant to be warm and sunny with little or no wind, and thats how it panned out, a of a breeze would have been nice, but it wasnt to be, flat calm and hot all day.

Three rigs today, a .3g lifter.float , as the na!e implies its for lift bites double bulked, a 4x12 for topset and two, options to spread the shot or bulk as normal, the other was a .3g slim bulked with one dropper.on the all in i fed one ball of groundbait at topset and two, two balls at 11 mtrs, and three balls at 13 mtrs, all.with some caster.and a small bit of chopped worm. Starting short i had a 1lb skimmer first drop, followed by a couple of roach, then it went quiet so i put another small ball in, and the bites.returned, thus ensued a nice 4 1/2 hours fishing, the 13 mtr line was not good, just a couple of skimmers, 4 and 11 mtrs were.the most productive, nice skimmers and bream up to 3lb and some quality roach and hybrids, most people were catching, which is the real beauty of this lake, obviously there are some swims you want to avoid, but there re more good than bad pegs, and whichever peg you draw , generally you get a days fishing. best hookbait today was single red maggot, for me but others caught on caster and worm, i ended up with a couple of ounces over 50lb, brilliant considering the weather,

2nd was mr consistent, dave willmott on peg 7 with 42lb, with probably 35lb of that being roach, caught mainly short.

Todays weigh sheet below shows its fished well all round, also i have a silvers match there again on monday, got a few.spaces.left so get in touch if you want to fish.

Three matches, a bit short but also a bit sweet.

Really must try and do these blogs a bit quicker, these matches have already been reported on FB or with other blogs so thus will be short. Thursday and the last round of the huntstrete silvers pairs league, well run by dave gillard, even with the constant heckling,😂😂, well done, my pairs partner , pete turner couldn't make it today so i had super sub brian Derrick standing in again, best was going to be third in the pairs to be fair, we drew ok, myself on 51 behind the island , its been ok for reasonable silvers with a good chance of a carp or two, my partner was the next peg to my left on 51, been a good peg so far, well i have had plenty of bites from small fish including my most detested fish, micro rudd, but ive had bites all day to end up with 11lb, plus two carp on meat to the island for 22lb for a total weight of 33lb, but the emphasis is on silvers, which paul barnfield on 57 moaned and talked 11.4 into his net, my partner struggled for just under 4lb, but it was still good enough to keep us in third, so a bit of a pickup, top pairs was mike nicholls with tony ponting, beating long time leaders kev(where's me quid) and hughie (eggo)evens on weight.top on the day was the Weston super mare journey man dave wride with 14.3. Weigh sheets below.

sunday and the Landsend winter league, which i was leading going into this match, my turn on match lake and i really needed to avoid one of the pegs of doom, but no i end up on what has been one of the worst pegs on the lake apart from on the first match when mike duckett was top on the lake off it,yep peg 9, much merriment at the draw 😂😂😂😂. First three hours and with a 1lb skimmer all i had for my efforts, i was concerned, but not suprised, ive had to look across at leon hubbard on 15 and jason radford on 13 catching carp, also to my right dave(pole breaker)mealing on 11 catching silvers and odd carp, and silvers expert dave ings on my left doing what he does best battering the f1,s and small silver,s. Ive ended up fishing 14 and 16 mtrs to my right, on hard pellet, ending up with 6lb of f1,s and the loan skimmer, but did get 5 carp aswell for 32lb total, 7th on the lake so better than expected, i think it may be tight at the top now, but ive not seen the overall results yet as the man whi does the working out has gone down with covid, but daily sheets below.

Monday and a bit of a knockup at acorn , only 11 of us for this first one , hopefully i will try and do them fortnightly, next one on 4th of april so book in with me or at the fishery with zoe. peg one today, fished hard 8mm pellet on all far bank areas to weigh 109lb to win, luckily Gary Bowden to my lefy on three started catching late on his favourite paste bait towards the end, ending with 78lb ror second, shaun (ferris)kittridge won the silvers off 17 with 17lb, weigh sheet below.

Ivy sunday, sedges monday

Sunday and it was up the m4 to ivy house for the last round of the winter league, both chris and me have had a torrid time of it, with niether of us picking up a penny so far, hopefully that would change today, the draw got underway and we both drew well to be fair, chris on peg 8 on the old match lake, and me on peg 11 heron, a nice peg with a nice island chuck and a long corner margin to my left.

Well i dont think i did the peg justice to be fair, made the mistake of trying to catch on maggot on the pole when i think pellet may have been the answer, had a few fish on the pole at 11 to 14 mtrs, only really when i switched to pellet, three small carp down the edge, most action came from fishing the wag towards the island, but unless i got a bite quickly the wind pulled the float away to quickly, another mistake was not chucking the lead out, so consequently i only ended up with 21lb for no good, but to be fair i think the fish were a couple of pegs to the right where jamie dixey on 9 and chris(shipp) davis on 8 were moaning about liners all the time.on the pole, chris faired much better winning his lake with over 40lb, well done to steve walters for winning the league with a perfect 5 point score, well done to the lloyds for a well run league, always.difficult. A quick product thing now, if you are looking for a quality line for making rigs this Berkeley line available at premier angling is well worth a try, only 6.99 for 300mtrs and ive been using it since last summer with no issues at. all.

Monday and back down the a38to the sedges for the silvers match, on brick lake today, i like to draw in the middle.of these lakes for silvers, and i wasnt disappointed when i pulled out peg 5, especially with an empty peg to my left, two rigs a .5g slim and a .75 open water.wire, ive had a nice days fishing today, catching skimmers over.groundbait off three lines, 4/11&13 mtrs, mainly.on maggot, with both rigs working well, the short line was probably the best, except for and hour between 1 & 2 oclock when the wind had a change of direction and my bites completely stopped but a few came.back for the last hour, i ended up with 36lb for the win, jon andres was second off peg 2 with 19lb, it. Was nice to be sat there in some nice spring sunshine with very little wind for a change.