well that was a waiting game, viaduct rnd 2

this was the second leg of the teams of 5,s and with temps going down to minus 6 on sat night we were met with an iced over venue and the water under the ice beiong like gin so it was going to be hard, just not as hard as it turned out to be.
it was my turn to be on lodge lake so one of the corners would be fav as there are always one or two carp to be had, but no i ended up on 62 which is just past the middle of the lake on the right hand bank, not much chance of a carp but it has some form as a skimmer peg, and to be fair i did win the silvers off 61 last winter in icy conditions so i was confident of getting a bite or two, for company i had josh garrett on 64 and somersets only michael jackson impersonater freddie roberts on 60 which is a much better skimmer peg than mine(lol)that is providing there is a decent skimmer angler on there(square ass eh fred).
the ice was only about 5 mil so 15 mins with the breaker and i had a peg to be jelous of, as it was cleared to 17 mtrs and 6 mtrs wide, it was certainly one to be proud of.
the best thing about ice fishing is that one rig will do aLL so a 4x14 rig was soon made with an 18 6313 to .10 on the business end, a bit of dark g bait was soon knocked up and i was ready.
the whistle went to start and i cupped in opne ball at 13 mtrs and 2 balls each side of my peg at 16 mtrs each ball had a few casters and squatts in.
starting at 13 mtrs with a selection of baits from single squatt to single caster, i never had a bite, so after 1 hour it was out to 16 mtrs with the sam.
e baits, and not a bite there either, i even scaled down to a 22 but that never produced a thing. on the opposite side chris wave(i cant read pauls writing )on 73(corner) was getting odd carp and james cooper and phil (fabio)harding were getting a small roach a chuck, fabsy even txt me to make sure the pound coin was buffed up ready for him, also nick collins on 66(corner) had a carp.
it was well past the halfway mark now and judging by the shouting and laughing going on the whole venue had switched off, i,d even had 2 visits from mike nicolls who was blanking. 2 hours from the end fred on 60 started getting small roach, on about his tenth small roach he turned to me and said let that be a lesson to you mr r
but then at 5 past 2 i thought i had a bite so i lowered the rig back in and i did have a bite which was a 8oz hybrid woohoo. then fred had a skimmer, bugger, then i had a 2 pounder, so i changed the hook back to an 18 and had another big skimmer, ye fred and fabsy werent laughing now, by the end i had the 2 big skimmers ,2 good roach the hybrid and some plippy roach which went 7lb 8oz which was good enough for 3rd on the lake only being beaten by the match winner chris on 73 with 65.8 and john moody on 53(corner) with 1 carp for 10.3, and what of fred and fabsy as i told them its never over till the fat tackle dealer sings
1st was chris wave with 65.8 all carp down the edge on maggot
2nd mat tainton with 17.10
3rd chris hook 13.9
4th john moody 10.3
5th phil cardwell 8.12
6th t rixon 7.8
silvers
1st matt tainton 13.10
2nd chris hook 13.9
3rd phil cardwell 8.12
4th t rixon 7.8
5th ditch 6.9
on the teams front maver veals red won with 71 pts ,mainly due to the fact they had all 5 weigh in , even iff steve seager had to resort scooping motherless minnows off the ice. we had 2 catch for 27 pts 9th on the day and now 7th overall, i cant be assed to write any more so sod the rest of the team results.
monday morning now and my finger feels better so heres the team results
maver veals red 71
garbolino bmvmg 62
team jinx 57
somerset angling 42
westerliegh 39
silverfox 35
viaduct 30
keyford 28
avon angling 27
amigos 24
megabait 23
viaduct allstars 15
sensas thyers 12 maver veals blue 11
viaduct select 10
langport 8
somerset majik 4
o/all
maver veals red 111
team jinx 108
garb bmvmg 105
somerset angling 104
silverfox 103
weswterliegh 90
avon angling 89
viaduct 79
keyford 78
viaduct allstars 68
maver veals blue 66
amigos 61
megabait 54
langport 40
viaduct select 38
sensas thyers 36
somerset majik 33

weds landsend

another good turn out today so we used match and a bit of speci, leighton palmer drew for me(our new silver ace, move aside shrimphead)and handed me peg 15, it can be an excellent silvers peg as there is a tree in the water to the right and with 16 not in i fancied it for some of the big perch that are in this lake, so with this in mind i set up a 4x14 rig with a 18 6313 on .10 to fish by the tree and at 11 mtrs as its the same depth and a similar rig to fish the margin to my left, just in case. it sometimes pays to to set up a rig to fish undere the tree as there are usually some carp to be had, but if you feed it they normally show themselves as its only 2 ft deep so you can see them but it can be a bit suicidal as you need to fish in the submerged branches, so i didnt bother(when will i learn). at the start i cupped in some caster at 11mtrs and fed by hand some casters left, and right in front of the tree and under the branches. starting at 11 with double maggot it took 20 mins to get the first bite which was a good carp, over 10lb. a good start and as far as i could see it was fishing hard with some people still waiting for there first bite, a few mins later and a 3 pounder was also in the net to keep the first company, i then had a 8oz perch but lost a couple of foulers out in front but down to the left probuced 2 small perch, so that side was a non starter, out to the right hand side in front of the tree, 2 perch and another 3 lost foulers and it all started looking a bit pear shaped, it was now about halfway and things werent going to well with 2 carp and a few perch for my efforts, then i saw a gold shape under the bush so i started flicking some casters down the edge but it was another hour before i got off my box and made up a 4x10 rig on.16 with a xedion size 18 on the end, so with 2 hours to go i put 3 mags on the hook and lowered it in next to the branches, which was just a topset with a short 4 away, on lo and behold i had one first drop, now i had to pull like fxxx with the tip as low as possible so the rig didnt snag the branches, with it safely netted i refed and went back out to 11 mtrs, and i had a carp there, so that was it really as by the end i managed 5 from under the tree with only one loss due to the hook coming undone(angler error), and 6 from the 11 mtr line, i thought my 11 caRP and few perch would go abouit 55lb and as far as i could tell the only person on our lake with more fish was bristols finest flooring specialist adrian clark(e) on peg 21 who had 14 carp, and thats how it ended with adrians fish going69.7 all taken at 13 mtrs on soft pellet
2nd was me with 65.13 all falling to maggot
3rd nigel bartlett 50.8 peg 33
4th pete sivell 43.9 peg 24
5th andy france 43.8 peg 31
6th tom thick with an all silvers net of 25.14 on peg 5 using caster at 14 mtrs
2nd in silvers was jason (stumpy)radford with 15.1 on peg 35

chilton trinity xmas match

this must be the earliest xmas match i have ever fished lol, i think misha must be hoping to beat next years freeze up.
24 booked in so we were all on woodlands, as i wasnt organising i drew for myself and i ended up on 24 which was the end to be on the previous weds, but fish have fins and they do move, for company i had les (the chub)williams on my left and paul haines on my right.
just one rig today a 1grm affair with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish at 13 and 16 mtrs, i didnt make up a margin rig today as i had pegs each side and it had got a lot colder since midweek, at the start i cupped in some micro,s and dead mags at 13 and 16mtrs and started at 13 with a single red, the first hour for me was quiet with just a lost fouler to show , while brian chivers on 26 had a few on the method and timmy lewis on 2 was getting a ferw down the edge towards 1.
switching to 16 mtrs it was like fishing a different lake as i had bites almost straight away, first was a 8oz skimmer then a carp, so that was the rest of my match sorted, it was very enjoyable. every time i hooked a fish i would feed about 10 mags and the same number of micros, and not feed again till i hooked something, by the end i had 16 carp ,2 roach, and the skimmer for about 55lb i thought, brian on the method and tim on peg 2 had both dried up so it was looking good, paul elmes opposite on 14 had 9 better fish but i thought i was safe
the scales turned up and my catch went 61.10 which was good for first
2nd paul elmes with 45lb peg 14
3rd brian chivers 32.14 peg 26
4th martin lenaghan 29.10 on peg 32 33 and 34 he fished mainly down the edge
5th mike nicholls 29.8 peg 6
6th timmy lewis 29.7
silvers went to dean(stiff neck)malin with 7.3 on peg 7 easily seeing off the silver fox silver ace next door(the ronnies never fed)
well done misha for a well run affair and thanks to sue for the varios snacks delivered to the anglers on the bank foc

landsend lge top 10 plus other dates

t rixon 5pts 148.5
m poppleton 5pts 95.6
n collier 5pts 90.9
n duckett 6.5pts 96.1
m pettifer 7pts 56.12
d hodgson 7.5 pts 62.15
r crandon 7.5 pts 57.14
a clark 8pts 139.1
s seager 8pts 76.12
b gullick 8pts 51.11
SILVERS TOP 4
b gullick 3pts 40.3
t page 4pts 34.00
m pettifer 5pts 24.1
d hodgson 6 pts 12.3
FLOAT ONLY DATES AND VENUES
may 8 viaduct
june 5 landsend
june 19 chilton trinity
july 10 landsend
august 7 chilton trinity
august 28 viaduct
60 quid entry which is peg fees paid up front and pools paid for the last match will be used if i am let down meaning pools will have to be paid again for the last match
TEAMS OF 4,S
september 4 chilton trinity
september 18 cider farm
october 2 acorn farm
october 16 landsend
november 6 landsend
november 20 viaduct
entry 144 quid which is peg fees up front, monies to be in by the end of may. teams from last year will get priority as it will be limited to 11 teams again
BOOK EARLY FOR BOTH TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT LOL

chilton weds

another reasonable turn out for a weds with 17 fishing so we used all the lake meaning everyone had an empty peg at least on one side.
martin lenaghan drew for me so i ended up on 19, i drew for martin and he ended up on 17 and we had an empty peg between us.peg 19 is at the top of the lake meaning you can look down the lake and see who,s catching.
with no real wind to speak of i set up a 4x18 rig with an 18 on .10 to fish maggot or soft pellet in 8ft of water at 13 and 16 mtrs and a 4x16 rig to fish each side by some reeds in 3ft of water with maggot, if the small roach arent being a problem i think mags make the best winter carp hook bait, plus you will also get a few silvers as it isnt to selective, but thats only my opinion.
on the whistle i cupped in some soaked micros at 13 and 16 mtrs(same depth)and some maggot and micros each side by the reeds, starting at 13 with mag on i had a small roach first drop, but looking down the lake chris fox on 27 was playing a carp ,as was martin nextdoor, i could get small roach on maggot but that wasnt going to be any good today as they were to small, and after a frost with a full moon and bright sunshine i wasnt really expecting the silvers to feed properly, 30 mins in and i put on a soft pellet, i missed a bite then connected with a carp which came in dead easy till it got to the bottom of the near shelf then it did me in a snag, and that was the last bite i had on soft pellet, back on with double maggot and 2 lost foulers , i refed and went down the edge, and was rewarded with a 3 pounder, back out to 13 mtrs and i had another carp and a 2lb skimmer then that line died, by now and we were halfway through, and it appeared our end of the lake was fishing best as jason(gollum)radford on 15 had a few fish from the margin as had martin on 17 and andy(ruby)murry on 23, also peter sivell on 6 was getting some on corn down the edge, and bristols newest silver ace(move aside shrimphead this boy is c(r)lass)leyton palmer on 10 was getting some skimmers on soft pellet, by the end i had managed 4 carp from the margins and 4 from the long pole 3 from 16 mtrs and 1 at 13 plus 3 reasonable skimmers and a few roaches, it was pete sivell,s day in the end as he had 12 carp plus a few bits for 59.7 all taken on corn over micro,s down his right hand margin on peg 6
jason radford on 15 had 42.13 on peg 15 using maggot in his left hand margin
3rd martin lenaghan 37.15 peg 17
4th tony rixon 37.7 peg 19
5th andy curry 36.14 peg 23
6th chris(i want an empty peg each side)fox 22.14 peg 27
silvers leyton palmer 15.14 peg 10
steve kedge 11.2 peg 13
the water must have warmed up as the fish were bubbling a bit today, not fizzing , just enough bubbles to let you know something was there,aaaaaah roll on spring.

viaduct w/l

3 teams down on last year but it was still a good turn out with 17 teams of 5 which is a big match by todays standards. todays draw put me on b section which is cary lake and my chosen peg was 88, the pretty bush peg, probably one of my least liked pegs on the venue and one i tend to draw quite often, its a peg which doesnt afford you a proper lead chuck as you are opposite the diagonal bank which means those opposite are casting across you, so i decided on an out and out silvers attack especially as the carp had really shut up shop on this lake with only a handfull being caught during the last fortnight, with p[hil(fabio)harding for company on 87 at least the banter would be good.
i set up 3 rigs a 4x18 rig to fish maggot and caster over g bait at 14 mtrs , a 4x16 for caster over caster at 5 mtrs both these rigs with an 18 6313 to .10 and a 4x14 rig for down the edge again for caster but on .12 with the same hook. i also set up a small g bait feeder as the skimmers sometimes respond to this method fished at about 20 mtrs. on the whistle i cupped in 3 balls at 14, some casters at 5 and started throwing casters down the edge, i then had about 4 chucks with the feeder to put a bit of bait out then put a hook on with a single maggot, then it was a case of casting counting to 100 wind in cast again, i did give it 20 mins but my brain was beginning to luiquify and dribble out of my ear so with only 1 small roach to show for this no brainer i slung it up the bank, out with the pole to 14 mtrs, aaaaah proper. i was catching small skimmers straight away, mainly 4 to 6oz but it was a bite a brop with most being lifters as i had a small bulk of 3x no10,s just off bottom, the strong left to right wind was making life a bit hard as i nearly hit phil wioth pole a couple of times as the wind tried to blow the pole out of my hands,(and i,ve got to say the new gmax1000 pole i am using was mint, it coped wioth the wind very well and is very resonsive). apart from a few sorties at 5 mtrs and down the edge which produced some roach and a 10oz hybrid which was my biggest fish of the day the rest of the day was spent on the 14 mtr line, with only a handfull of carp caught with those caught by different anglers my descision to target silvers looked as though it may just pay off, fabio did panic me a bit towards the end as he miss cast into dan squires peg(86)he wound in straight away but hooked an 8 pounder in the tail so was expecting it to be close but i neednt have worried as the lake had been really hard and my silvers went 16.5 for a lake win and second in the silvers overall on the day.
first on the day went to jason radford with 82lb on spring lake 3 fishing bread to the island for an all carp catch, but he is an idiot as he forgot to do the super pool as he was to intent on having a fag outside the pub instead of doing the pools he is a wxxxxr
john gray wasnt complaing though as he was second on peg 132 with 78.2 and the winners pools of 115 quid(john doesnt smoke)
3rd will bohne 54lb
john howell 45.10
chris davis 43,.12
alan oram 35.3
SILVERS
chris davis 25.4
tony rixon 16.5
jamie parkhouse 14.4
nick collins 14.2
TEAMS
team silver fox 68pts
avon angling 62
somerset angling 62
maver veals blue 55
viaduct allstars 53
westerliegh 52

landsend wewds

firstly a quick apology for my last blog cos people thought i had been far to nice to mat (the shrimp)tomes, but i only did it cos he asked me to write something nice, but rest assured that will be the last time.
back to today and i let mike duckett draw for me and he handed peg 1 which is another corner, i,ve had that many corners this winter i am thinking of changing my name to adrian clark(did i mention he blanked at the weekend).
the weather men had it right today as it rained all day except for the tackling up period and the weigh in, how nice was that.
2 rigs to begin with ,both on .12 with an 18 6313 on the end ,one was a 4x14 to use at the bottom of the slope along the left hand margin and a 4x12 for fishing at half depth, also the bigger rig would do for the bottom of the island shelf out to my right.
at the start i cupped in some casters and mags down my left and towards the island, starting at the bottom of the island with double mag it was 15 mins before i managed my first fish , a 12oz perch, then i hooked a carp which i lost after a minute or so a bit annoying as the maggot folded over the point, no more carp there but i did manage a couple of f1,s and some more perch before it died, so after 2 houirs it was off to the margin at 14 mtrs, since the start i had been feeding some casters with a catty so it wasnt really a suprise to get some liners, as the fish have been coming off the bottom in these corners even during the cold weather, so out with the half depth rig but that just bought a couple of foulers, so the fish were even higher in the water, so i got off my box and made another rig up, a 4x10 rig to fish about 18 inches deep with a 16 6313 on .12 to use double maggot, it wasnt manic but i did manage 10 small carp and a few more perch by the end for about 40lb, most of my fish came on the shallow rig which just goes to show that the fish will come right up to feed even in cold water, the person to beat would be martin lenaghan on 31 who had 5 carp but they are bigger on that lake, so it could be close.
in the end my net went 42.3 for a narrow win over martin who was 2nd with 41.8,
what makes it even better is that my peg was one of the golden pegs worth an extra 100 quid(mint)
3rd nick collier with 32.1 on peg 21
4th tony page 20.14 peg 32
5th dave blakemore 17.5 peg 34
6th nigel bartlett 14.8 peg 33
silvers went to the gimp, john bradford with 13.6 on peg 19 just beating andy curry by 3oz on peg 16

landsend lge rnd 3

me with my 13lb of perch and mat(the shrimp)tomes below with some of his winning catch

2 let downs today firstly craig(trig) edmonds who couldnt be bothered to let me know ,and tom thick who got wrecked in bristol sat nite and couldnt get up, both now have to pay there pools for the last match again as they have lost there up front payment for the last match.
james withers drew for me and handed me 25 on the speci lake, which is a corner peg so the ice clearing would be a bit easier, it wasnt thick ice as the lakes had been clear for a few days but a minus 3 on sat nite gave us 2 or 3 mill of ice, but most people managed without to much trouble.
2 rigs today, one for on the deck at 14mtrs, a 4x12 with an 18 6313 to .10 in 5 ft and a 4x10 with the same hook but on .12 to fish up the shelf in 3ft.
the peg hadnt shown to much in the way of carp lately so i thouight a silvers approch might be good(wrong),i cupped in some casters and maggots at 14 mtrs up and down the shelf , then shipped out a single maggot , i had a bite first drop but it wasnt the expected perch judging by the ammount of elastic that was out under the ice, 20 mins later and a 10lb common was safely netted, a quick change to a .12 hooklength and out again, then i had a run of perch befor another carp was hooked , but that came off, and thats basiccally how my match went till the end, i would get a couple of perch, then a carp and then back to the perch, an enjoyable day considering we were fishing down ice channels again.
judging by the bankside banter the other 2 lakes were fishing hard so our lake was the place to be providing you were in a corner(lol) as mat tomes was putting in a fine performance on 33 whilst andy france on 32 opposite mat was also getting a few, but the rest of the lake was hard, even last years lge winner adrian clark on 39 struggled as he BLANKED probably due to the fact he wasnt in a corner, he even sits in the corner of the cafe to eat his breakfast.
by the end i had taken 7 carp ,14 perch and an f1 thingy but i didnt think it would be enough as mat had at least 10 carp,
in the end his 10 fish went 74.12 all taken at half depth on maggot, i couldnt see him but i understand that it was a very competent perfomance from the southwests finest silvers angler
2nd went to me with 67.6 which also included the top silvers on the day of 13.5
3rd andy france 40.15 peg 32
4th mike west 21.4 peg 29
5th nick collier 20.4
6th dale howson 18.7 peg 1
oh and did i mention that adrian clark BLANKED

landsend lgew rnd

landsend lgew rnd

chilton weds

only 11 booked in today so we used peg 10 round the top end of woodlands lake to peg 27 giving everyone a bit of room . i let the wannabe fishery manager (misha)draw for me and she handed me peg 10 , which was the end peg today, so no compl;aints from me, i had alan oram for company on 11 and venue ace and still self proclaimed silvers ace mat tomes on his favourite peg 13.
with the fresh southerly wind blowing and across us i decided to set up a 1.5 grm rig as the tow would be going with the wind on ouir side of the lake plus it was nearly 8 ft deep. at the business end i had an 18 6313 to .10. i also set up a 4x14 rig to fish down the margin.
at the start i cupped in some soaked micro,s at 11 mtrs and began feeding some dead maggots down the margin, i did feed the margin and fished it several time but never had a sign of a bite so that was a waste of time.
beginning at 11 mtrs with double maggot, i had my first bite after 15 mins which resulted in a 4lb carp which led me a merry dance on 4 elastic, i had 2 more carp in the first hour , then i changed to an 8 elastic and only had one more carp and the rest of the match was spent catching small roach. opposite me adrian clark and jason radford both had 3 carp at the same stage but they also had a few good skimmers so it was to close to call. alan oram at the next peg took 2 carp in the last 30 mins from his margin, but the whole lake seemed to have switched off for the 2nd half, so i just kept catching odd small roach up to the end and i thought i would just about have enough and thats how it ended up with my 4 carp going 16.5 and my silvers went 6lb for a 22.5 total and first
2nd went to adrian clark with 17.10 which included the top silvers weight of 8.13 off peg 27
3rd alan oram 14.14 peg 11
4th jason(lofty)radford 13.3 peg 26
5th martin lenaghan 9.15 peg 15
6th nigel bartlett 8.6 peg 24
chilton have got there xmas open on 23 jan draw at 8.30 ring sue or misha on 07720542141 to book in

avalon sunday open

18 fishing today and with most of the ice gone on the high numbers and a bit of minimal breaking needed on selected peg on the low numbers which was easily done by andy bush and paul elmes in a boat it made a nice change not to have to sling 10lb of steel around before we could fish. i let fabio draw for me and he pulled 25 which is probably the peg with the least ammount of form in the draw bag today, it should be ok as its on the end of an island, so a wag to fish at depth at 40 mtrs with banded pellet was assembled and two 4x16 rigs ,one with a 20 6313 on .10 for 13 mtrs over g bait and one with a 18 6313 on .12 for 16 mtrs with various baits over softened micro,s.
at the start i cupped in 2 balls of dark g bait at 13 mtrs with a few casters in and about 100 micro,s(no i didnt count them it was a guess)at 16 mtrs and fired 4 8mm pellets to the island, starting at 13 mtrs i missed a bite on maggot after 10 mins, but had small roach next drop, but it was a bit slow and after the first hour i only had 6 small roach to show for my efforts, so i fed another small of g bait and had a look at the 16 mtr line ,but couldnt raise a bite on any bait i had so it was back to the 13 mtr line. dave hodgson on 24 had a carp first put in down his margin but apart from some small roach that was the only carp he had all day. vince brown on 30 had a couple of 12 oz skimmers fishing 20 mtrs (thats 4 poles to mike nicholls), also the inform martin mcmahon had taken a couple of small carp on the feeder on peg 32 and apart from an odd small carp here and there it was fishing as hard as expected but with a water temp of 2c rising to 3c during the day you cant really blame the fish for not wanting to feed, i could get regular bites over the g bait from small roach and rudd but there was no quality, i did manage 2 10oz skimmers one over the pellet line and one ovber the g bait and i lost a small carp over the pellet line , i also had a couple of small indications over on the wag but after losiong 2 floats on the island i gave that up as a bad job, so saw the rest of the match out getting small roach over the g bait and pellet lines. by the end martin mcmahon had taken 15 small carp on the feeded fishing 5 mags on a 14 with a small g bait feeder about 1 mtr off the island on peg 32 for a weight of 21.8 and first on the day
2nd went to alan healey on 42 with 9.11
3rd tim ford 7.7 peg 37
4th dean malin 6.10 peg 44
5th alan oram 5.14 peg 35
6th tony rixon 4.12 which was the top silver weight on the day wit vince brown coming second in the silvers with 4.9 and ed wynne with 4.7 for 3rd
there isd a match at chilton trinity on weds 9 am draw ring me at the shop on 01179517250 to book in