Monday open, Landsend fishery

19 fishing today so Mike let us use the match lake and one bank of lake 3, so after one of di,s delicious breakfasts, I got the draw sorted, I wasn't worried where I drew , so I waited for the last ticket which turned out to be peg 11, after a couple of cartwheels around the Carpark I pushed the trolley down to the end of the lake, for company and the only person I could see was Ken rayner over on 13, also a good peg.

I set up several rigs, a couple for pellet on the island shelf and just off, another pellet rig for down to empty peg 12 , and the obligatory meat rig for 5 mtrs, we weren't to sure as to how it was going to fish as there was plenty of spawning activity.
At the start I fed all lines with the relevant baits, I started with the island shelf rig which was a drennan as4 .1g float , first drop and a carp was on its way to the net, I would like to say I had a difficult day, having to work hard for every fish, but I never picked up another rig all match as the carp kept coming to the banded 8mm pellet over 6,s, fed by catty. It was one of those days when not to much went wrong , I ended the match with 67 carp spread between 5 nets, opposite Ken found it a real struggle , it was that hard for him he packed up and left with about 90 mins to go, although he did say he didn't feel to good !!!!!!!

The picture above shows what a nice peg it is , no wonder its got the reputation as being one of the best pegs on the fishery.
I thought I may have between 250 and 275 as a lot of my fish were the smaller male fish, although I did get a few bigger fatter females, when the scales got to me I was pleased I wasn't over in any nets and I had a total of 294  for a fairly comfortable win,
2nd was trig Edmunds on 19 with 196.14
3rd was anton page who has come out of retirement and had 190.8 on peg 7
4th Tony (the swallow) witcomd on peg 55 with 174.1
5th Bob gullick on 42 with 166.5
6th Gary o,Shea on peg 18 with 144.6
In all there were 10 weights over 100lb, so it's fisheries head off really.
Silver's went to Steve seager on peg 16 with 25.12 of mainly good skimmers/bream
As for Ken rayner , the scalesman was a bit concerned when he wasn't at his peg at the end, he waited for him but he was nowhere to be seen.

WHAT NO KEN

Float only league rnd 1

Viaduct was the venue for the first match, and only a slight cock up as I missed someone's name from the list, so we had 41 fishing instead, LOL.
Got the draw underway, and I let Alex Nadine draw for me and he handed me peg 74 which is the first peg up the left hand sided of Cary, I got to the peg and was met with lots of fish on view but it was down to spawning and not feeding, but some fish are always happy to feed even during the most frenetic sexual activity, I must admit I tend to get a bit peckish, but that's another story.
For company I had Dan whites grand dad in the corner on 109 in the shape of Dave white, and Nick ewers on 76.
As its the narrow end of the lake I left the wag rods in the van, so I set up the pole , rigs were shallow and deep pellet rigs to fish at 14 mtrs out by the trees, a meat rig for 6 mtrs and a pellet rig for mainly down my right hand margin, which I must say is one of the best looking margins on the fishery, but it can be a bit drought with problems as its a bit of a parrot cage making it sometimes a bit awkward to extract the Cary lumps out of.

I started on the long pellet line out by the tree's, but I never had so much as a twitch, a quick look on the meat line just in case there was a mug fish, no such luck, by now Nick on my left was catching short down his margin amongst the spammers, also Dave was catching steadily. I tried the pellet rig down to the left by pallet 75, 1hour 15 in and I had a bite but the fish went under the pallet, and my line and elastic was doing a very passable cats cradle.
I had a go short down to my left and was finally rewarded with a nice carp, and in the next hour I had 3 more from the same spot.

But that was my lot from there, I went 14 mtrs down into the lions den, got plenty of indications from the sex crazed fish , but it was difficult to tell a liner from a proper bite, so losses were always going to happen, I did mug a couple in open water and I had one late on the meat line, I ended with 13 carp up to 15lb, ok in the end but I was properly beaten each side, I ended up with 129lb exactly, but on my right Dave white won on the day with 205lb, so well done to him, picture withdrew of his fish below.

2nd Nick ewers on 76 with 182.3
3rd Chris Fox on 135 with 181.7
4th Chris Davis on 130 with 165.1
5th Ken rayner on 94 with 161.5
6th Dan white on 123 with 144.12
Silver's
Paul Blake on 110 with 25lb
Mike Nicholls on 111 with 12.8
Considering lots of the carp were spawning it hasn't been to bad really, the next round is at Landsend fishery in 2 weeks time so the spawning will be well and truly finished with by then,
I'm running a match there tomorrow, and I still have a couple of spaces so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in, or turn up in the morning , as long as you are there before 9.15 I can put extra pegs in.

Thursday costcutter, viaduct fishery

A good turnout with 34 booked in so Steve put 17 on Campbell and Cary, I fancied a peg on Campbell, but it wasn't to be as I pulled 102 , again, but plenty of room with my neighbours being on 100 and 105, last time on this peg I didn't catch on the wag so that stayed in the bag today,

4 rigs for the pole, 2 for the long pole , one shallow and one deep, a pellet rig to fish down by 103 and the normal meat rig for 5 mtrs.
There were one or two cruisers about so at the start I went out to 14 mtrs, and began feeding a few pellets and slapping the rig into the feed, it didn't take long to get my first carp, but it was a bit of a false dawn as it soon proved to be difficult, the odd cruisers I saw didn't respond to my normal stalking tactics, I did get a few more shallow but it was not really going to plan, there didn't seem to be enough fish at our end of the lake to make them compete shallow, Tom mangnal on 85 got off to a flying start fishing shallow, also Chris Cameron on 80 was catching steadily,
I had no problem getting some feeding fish in my peg, as it was fizzing well, but I was having a torrid time with foulers, if you fed it was fouled , and if you never fed you couldn't get any indications, when I did connect with a bite , it seemed to be anywhere but in the mouth, halfway through , I had to go up to the shop to get some dacron connectors after I had two ripped off, so that was 20 mins of my match gone then.
Our end of the lake was difficult, Chris on 80 caught well towards the end whereas Tom had a bit of a barren spell in the middle  so it was tough to call between them, I thought I ended the match with 10 carp including a good fish of 19.2

When the scales got to me Chris was top on the lake with 208.5, to Tom's 197.9, I miscounted again as my 10 carp turned out to be 8, I nearly threw the counter into the lake , but I will persevere with it, so I ended up with 75.8 for no where today,
Chris was first on the day with Tom coming second.
3rd was Gary flinders on 114 with 151.6
4th Scott Russell on 116 with 140.15
5th , Ray bass on 110 with 129lb
6th Joe McMahon on 130 with 122lb.
Silver's went to the gimp, John Bradford on 123 with 48.6 which included 9 tench, so he enjoyed himself.
Float only league on Sunday on Campbell and Cary, so that should be good.
Monday I am running a match on Landsend, 9.30 draw , so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Travelled down with Chris Fox again today , and we got to the fishery to find 20 fishing, so a good amount , must be the weather. Even des shipp managed to get his passport stamped to get him out of yate.
The draw got underway and as I was holding the draw bag, Craig challingsworth drew mine and handed me 18, same peg as last week then, I had 86lb last week and came 4th ,so it would be nice to better that this week. Company wise I had glen"2 pots"Bailey on 15 and Gary "Ned" flinders on 21.
Rigs pretty much the same , a pellet rig for on top of the island shelf, and a deeper one for just  down the shelf , and the same rig would do for under empty peg 17. And a rig for caster in my margins , but I never had a bite down there after a couple of tries, so I won't mention that again, this won't be a long blog as I basically stayed on one rig for biggest part of the match and that was the shallow rig against the island , feeding hard 6,s and fishing an 8 in the band, I ended up with 30 decent carp , mostly against the island , but I did manage to mug a few and had 5 down by empty peg 17 in the last 45 mins , I reckoned on having about 110lb , but with des shipp on peg 11 admitting to 90lb , I new he would be likely to win as he always underestimates, "lies lol" his weights, but it was close for the top 3 with des just edging it with 120.14, catching a lot of his fish in the last hour on maggot over groundbait against the island
2nd Craig challingsworth on peg 5 with 119.15
3rd me.with 117.15
4th rich Heatley on 9 with 88.3
5th Chris Fox on 33 with 80.3
6th Alan oram on 36 with 74.3

Viaduct spring league rnd 3

After another top nosh breakfast at cafe Fox ,then Chris and me were off to the fishery, usual conversation putting the world to rights over brevity, social scrounge, terrorism, immigration etc, you all know the drill lol.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time so the normal banter with anyone in range is always a good way to start the day.
Early into the draw tin of dreams and out comes 126, I haven't been on this bank since the silver's league last autumn, for company I had two of anglings heavyweights, on 125 was Andy Crocker and Dan white on 127, and with mikey Williams on 124 we were never going to have a quiet day.

A real simple approach today, a shallow and deep pellet rigs for 14 mtrs, and a meat rig for 5 mtrs, chatting to Andy Crocker before the start and he was cutting his meat up on the bank, he was intending to cut some 7 and 8mm, as he thought the 7mm might sink a bit slower, like the fish are going to care over  1mm, that is of coarse unless they got a michrometer, on the bottom, in the end he only cut 8mm ,
I began on the long pole with pellet on the deck, Dan began on his normal 16 mtr slapping rig , it took a while for people to begin catching, that is apart from trigger over on peg 115, who was catching on his short meat line , the righting was firmly on the wall,
Dan had a couple of fish shallow, so I was soon reaching for the shallow rig, I hooked a couple of fish but I suspect they were fouled, but I soon had 4 in the net, so me and Dan were on the same for a while , Leon Hubbard on 128 was doing well fishing short on meat , I think I stared at 14 mtrs for to long as Dan pulled a fish ahead, I did get a coupe more but I think I missed the boat by not going longer, trig was flying opposite, and Mickey was snarling a couple shallow by now, and Mark wynne over on 118 was catching on the lead, luckily Dan wasn't in my section, so the people I needed to beat were mikey and Mark, Andy next door was having a mare, losing a few and also getting his air 16 mtr section blow off the roller and suffer a drink, that's going to be dear I know. Also mikey snapped a topkit.
As the match went on I struggled , I had a few on the meat, but mikey was doing well and having a good burst in the last hour on his short meat line , as was Andy who was getting good fish short, but my lines had bit the bullet and I couldn't catch, at the end it was obvious trig was going to with with at least 250lb, also Ben hagg on 110 had caught well, but that was to be expected as it was the second time on the peg in 2 days.
Trig finally weighed in 269.1, he is proper on fire
2nd Ben hagg with 208.7
3rd mikey (hillbilly) Williams with 191lb
4th Leon Hubbard on 128 with 190.11
5th Luke sorokin on 53 with 180.9
6th duck bull on 90 with 176.6.
Not as good as the last match when there was 32 weights over 100lb, only 22 this time , and I think I was 16th with 132lb, and 3rd in my section, as trig is joint top on 5 points and in am right behind on 6pts, so not a total disaster,

City rovers charity match, shiplate farm

Apologies for no photos today, it was to wet to get the phone out.
It was a 12 a side match and it was the last of a three match series, city won the first at duchess pond, rovers won the second at acorn fishery, so today was the decider, it must be said that rod Poole the rovers captain did enlist a few ringers in the shape of Shaun Townsend, Glen Bailey, Tim Ford and myself, but fishing can be cruel and difficult to predict, there was no money involved.in the match as all proceeds were going to charity, so it was just pride, into the draw and I ended up on west pool 14, not quite the end peg as that was 15, but hopefully I would draw a few up. For company I had my old travelling partner Pete sivell on 12 so no push over today as he knows the venue considerably better than me as he fishes quite often with the frys boys aswell as the opens.
Rigs today were 2 meat ones, one for 6 mtrs to the aerater and the other for the margin, and three pellet rigs , one for tight against the far side, one for about a mtr off, and the other a shallow slapping rig just in case.
I began on the mtr off rig on banded 8mm, feeding hard 6,s with a catty, so the overspray was feeding the far side aswell, I soon had my first carp within a few minutes, so a good start.
I soon was joined by another before the bites got silly and fouling became a problem, so I went in to the far side and had a few more, then it went tricky again, I tried the meat line by the aerater and had my one and only bite there , I managed one on the shallow rig but they being a bit to cagey for that today, so the rest of the match was spent swapping between all lines, taking odd fish from all, Pete had some fish aswell, but due to the bankside herbage I couldn't see him, so by the end it didn't want to say who had beaten the other, and knowing Pete of a old it never pays to believe what he says, just wait for the scales, as it turned out I beat him by 15lb in the end and I was also top weight on the day with 65.6
2nd Shaun Townsend on 14 main lake with 64.6
3rd Gary mealing on peg 11 with 60.10
4th Luke Cox with 54.10
5th Pete sivell with 51.7
6th Tim Ford with 50.9
Team wise rovers won the team event with 395lb to city's 175lb,
The main winner on the day was the charity which is better off to the tune of 1300 quid, so well done to rod Poole for organising the event,
Off to viaduct tomorrow for the 3rd round of the spring league series, should be good, after getting soaked through today I'm hoping for a dry day so I can get my kit dried out.

Thursday costcutter, shiplate farm

Bit of a change today, back to shiplate, its a venue I havnt fished in nearly 2 years, and with the Rovers v city charity match on Saturday and with a round of my float only league here in August I thought it would be a good idea to go and see how its going, the warm welcome from Carol and Steve was a good as ever, and the fishery looked good with plenty of tree's and vegetation round all lakes, and there seemed a lot less water fowl which was a major plus.
The draw was soon organised and I was second into the bucket, opened the card and there was number 1 looking back at me , a good draw on all lakes , but especially good today as we were on the main lake.

It's a good peg with an island in front and a good margin to the right , plus it can be a good shallow on the pole straight out, so the rigs were soon sorted, a margin meat rig  , a deep pellet rig for 13/14 mtrs and a shallow pellet rig, I managed to get my hands on some of the new drennan clear slapper/margin floats so I put the .2g one on to try, they also have some new wire stemmed carp floats which seem nice aswell, all will be in veals from next week.

I also set up a pellet wag for the island but it didn't get much of an airing as the water was covered in that horrible white fluffy crap which comes of the willow tree's making rod and line fishing a nightmare, I did lose a fish on it , but it was fouled,
At the start up began on the deep pellet rig , fully expecting a couple of bites or liners at least , but it wasn't happening , Lee Waller was next to me on 1a, the peg which won  Sundays match, and he wasn't getting anything either, so 45 mins out of desperation I went for the shallow rig, after a couple of slaps I noticed a fish mooching along at 3 mtrs so I quickly got back to my topkit, slapped the pellet on its nose and it took it, happy days, 9lb in the net then, back out to 13 mtrs and I had a couple shallow , and I was beginning to get a bit of fizzing, which I always like to see, at least you know they are there, the new drennan float fished and sat nicely so I think they are on to a winner with those,
It wasn't a manic days fishing by any standards, but it was enjoyable as you needed to work to get bites, but as far as I could see, the rest of the lake had switched off a bit, so I just kept plugging away shallow initially but having been throwing a few pieces of meat down the edge I kept trying it, and I did get 5 fish from down there aswell, by the end I thought I had just over 100lb as my clicker registered 120lb, but it pays to over click so as not to go over in the net, lol, I nearly forgot to mention gabe skarba who went to hill view on Wednesday, and he had three nets in by the end , trouble was he had over 100lb in 2 of them , so losing both, I think he only had 45lb in the third, well done matey my mistake pales into insignificance against that.
Back to today and I wasn't to far out with the clicker as my net's went 108.7 for first on the day.

2nd Ashley Saunders on14 with 50.2
3rd Mike Owen on 15 with 48lb
4th ticth Williams on 11 with 43.13
5th Gary Flanders on 3 with 33.14
6th Phil Deakin on 14b with 31.2
Silver's went to Mike Jones on 13 with 24.12 of mainly whitebait, well mini Rudd actually, most carp were caught on the pole today, one or two fell to the lead , but they seemed to have had a bit of an off day, and looking at the forecast for Saturday I think it may be a bit of a grueller for some .