Landsend fishery, philtone works match

I managed to get in on this one as they made it a 6 on 6 team match, with only 12 on the lake we all had a bit of room, I was hoping for a draw on the far bank 13to24 so the wind would be off our back, I wasn't disappointed as 18 came to my hand .for company I had Anton page on 19 and Clint Montoya on 16 and with Paul elves on 15 Alan oram on 21 and trig Edmunds on 22 it was never going to be quiet, peg 18 is on the end of the far island so there is a gap to fish into so I set up a hard pellet rig for there and the same rig would do to fish to an overhanging Bush just to my left on the island, I put open a meat rig but never had a bite on it on the rare occasions I tried it, the last rig was a caster rig for 5 mtrs.
On the all in I fed all lines and began on the caster line, but it didn't start to well as all I had in the first hour was a few roach and one perch, Anton had 4 carp in the same time and both Paul and Clint off to my left had about the same, so I went over to the Bush and in the next couple of hours I had 6 carp but Clint and Paul had pulled even further ahead, Anton in the mean time had dried up and was struggling to get a bite. Now my bush swim completely died so I went into the gap on pellet, where I wanted to fish quickly proved to be impossible as part of the island had fallen in and it appeared there was some branches or sticks gone in with it making to snaggy to fish so I had to fish more into the middle of the gap, but I did get a couple more carp and some silvers in the shape of f1,s and skimmers, a look back on the caster line gave me a near 2lb perch and another 2  decent skimmers, with no chance of an overall pickup I began to think I may get the silver's and by the end with no one admitting to more than about 10lb I thought that was looking good , as far as the overall on the day it was going to be a three horse race between Martin reyat on 13 , Paul elmes on 15 and trig on 22, but as Paul had been singing like a canary on crack for the most of the match I reckoned he would have it . But it turned out to be a lot closer , with as expected with 91lb. Martin was second with 90lb and trig had 88lb the back up weights we r e ok as well considering the really bad weather with the wind and torrential rain, I had 18 1/2 pounds of silver's but Neil Mercer on pegs 2 and 3 had 19lb, as it was his works match he was allowed to move from peg 2 as he deemed it to windy !!!!!, faggot at least I had my silver's out of one peg lol.

Harescombe fishery

This was an open match organised by Steve Sewell, and with 17 fishing not to bad and about right on this lake as it means everyone gets an empty peg on one side at least. I travelled up with Ron hardiman and we arrived in plenty of time to enjoy one of Andy's breakfast which isn't to bad.
I got into the draw about halfway through, really wanting to draw one of the corners, 29 or 15 preferably, but it wasn't to be , out comes peg 10 which can be a good area as its in the Carpark and plenty of bait goes in on these pegs. At least I could park close enough to the peg not to worry about getting the trolley out.

I was tempted to reverse over my peg so as I could use the tailgate as cover as it was passing down and it didn't look to be stopping any time soon. I was still expecting the hard pellet to be the way to go again, so I set a 4x14 rig for 5mtrs and a rig for over to the island and the same rig would do for down the edge.
For company I had Alan Healy on 9 and t welsby on 12.
I started on the close pellet line , fully expecting to catch straight away , but it took 10 mins to get my first fish, a decent f1, and by the end of the first hour I was on 3 , and it wasn't going to plan at all, in fact the whole match didn't pan out as I expected , bites were at a real premium, Chris szakacs over on 22 caught smallish f1,s most of the match and I could see Sean Clayton up on 29 whose peg got better towards the end of the match, and looked to have won easily by the end, and he did with 35.4 of caster caught f1,s and small carp.
2nd was Chris szakacs on 22 with 26.8
3rd Keith Meredith on peg 24 with 26.4
4rd Lee Waller on 16 with 24.5
5th rod Wooten on 3 with 23.5
6th adie(creepy)crawley on 18 with 23lb
Low weights by this fisheries normal standards, but it was fair, I did manage a few more f1,s from various parts of my peg, but only ended up with 17.1 for nothing today, it was exactly the same as my travelling partner for the day..
Andy is running a silver's match on field lake on New year's eve, so if anyone fancies it ring Andy on 07896959071 and book in

Xmas eve land send open

After the normal tidy brekkie in lillypool cafe it was of down to the wind and rain at the fishery, but that was meant to stop by 10, which it did luckily, 16 fishing so we put 12 on the match lake and 4 on the good pegs at the top end of the speci.
I didn't mind where I drew nearly last and ended up on 19 for the second time in a week, didn't really mind as thought I did think I did it a bit wrong last time , so try and put that right today.
For company I had Andy Gard on 17 and Ricky the scaffolder on 20, so no option of any margin fishing as back towards 18 there is a big bush right next to 19 pallet, which you can't get past.
Only three rigs to begin with. One for across in the island gap for pellet as this turned out to be the best catching area, one for pellet down the shelf and a meat rig for 13 mars off to the left at 11 o'clock angle. At the start I cupped in some meat at 13 and began firing some 4,s across to the island for up and down the shelf. I gave the meat line a good hour to begin with, but all I had was a rectal fin hooked 8lb common which did give me a proper run around. So I went across at the bottom of the island shelf fully expecting to get at least liners, but nothing happened, now this was a worry, so I tried up the shelf and had a couple of carp and f1,s, going nowhere fast with this one then. And I would really like to say things improved but it never . The only person doing well was Paul Elmer on 11 who was getting a few on pellet across to the island and some on meat in the deep water, trigger opposite was catching f1,s on soft pellet against the island . I did set up a rig for caster against the island and I did have an f1 and a few perch but not to much else. So most of the rest of the match was spent in the island gap, I did manage a few more carp plus a couple of f1,s and skimmers, I thought I was well off the pace to pick up a bit of coin, I did lose a good fish in the last 5mins which I thought may cost me . And I was straight as I ended with 5 carp for 27lb and my silver went 11lb for 38lb
1st was Paul Elmer on 11 with 70.8
2nd Alan oram on 7 with 45.8
3rd Kevin molten on 24 with 43.8
4th Adrian Clark on 15 with 39.4
5th Russ peck with 38.14 on peg 22
6th was me with 38lb, so that lost l a st fish did cost me!!!!
Silver went to trig on 5 with his mainly f1 and late skimmers for 22.8.
Just wrote this waiting for me turkey dinner which smells as though it may be ready soon 😁😁😁😁 so I hope you are having a really good Xmas.

Landsend fishery , loyalty match

A bit of extra cash in the pot today as 13 of us had been paying a pound every visit to the fishery during the year , till we get to 15 quid then it was capped , so on top of the daily pools Mike was going to pay out top three and top two in silvers out of the extra.
Into the draw tin and outcomes 19, not to bad then , although it hast had a win off it recently it is a peg with more than a little form lol.
Company wise I had the gimp on 18 and trigger on 21. Only three rugs today , two pellet rigs, one for just up the far island shelf and one for on top of the said shelf, and a meat rig for. 9 mtrs.
At the start I cupped in some meat at 9 mtrs and began firing some 4mm pellets across towards the island and into the gap of the islands. It was just about now that Adrian Jeffrey returned after going home to get his holdall he had inadvertently left on his drive, it must be posh where he lives , no one nicked it.
Trig next to me had a fish before Adrian got to his peg, using his beloved meat at 13 mtrs, I started on the pellet across, but it was a bit slow, by the end of the first hour I had 2 f1,s and a roach , where's trig was on about 4 carp , and Ken rayner was also doing well on peg 7 fishing the far side on pellet, and Paul elmes on 16 also had a couple on meat at 6 mtrs, but for the rest it was hard going.
I was really. Struggling to catch carp, I did foul a couple , but I wasn't even getting liners to any degree, as can be a problem on this peg, so I don't think there were lots of carp in residence , I kept an odd f1 going into the net and as they count as silvers here !!!!, I thought I may sneak the silver prize. I did get a few carp in the last couple of hours fishing on top of the island shelf but it was always to little to late as trig and Ken caught odd carp all through , and by the end they were both admitting to 80lb ish , so it was going to be tight for top spot . As it turned out Ken just did enough putting 88.9 in the scales.
One fish behind in second was Craig Edmunds with 84lb
3rd Paul elmes on 16 with 67.15
4th was me with 62lb including the top silvers weight of 16.9,
5 th Mike duckett and kev molten both with 22.2
Back down there again this Thursday for a costcutter  9am draw , ring or St me on 07974807941 to book in or ring or text Mike at the fishery on 07977545882 to book.

Thursday affordable , harescombe

15 turned up today which is ok , not to sure as to where the fish would want to be at the mo as the weather is stupidly warm for the time of year, a peg at the windy end would be the obvious choice, but I wasn't to upset to dip into the bag and come out with 29, I think I only drew it as stuart graham wasn't here today to rest it .
It's a flyer as its a little lake all to yourself due to the landslip out in front , also the water source runs in just to the right of the peg so the fresh water hits the swim first, that can only be good then. For company I had Dave cook on 30 then Chris telling round on peg three, the other side of the landslip was Mike Nichols on 24. Rigs today were a .3g rig to fish maggot at 3 and 5 mtr lines  just to my right on the edge of the flow and a pellet rig for towards the island at 13 mtrs and along the left hand bank, there were quite a few carp showing at about 18 mtrs towards the landslip , but unless I set up a wag or lead they were going to stay safe today, also there is a big pipe sticking out of the water at 14 mtrs making rod and line fishing past it frought with problems .
At the start I cupped in some maggots and a few 4 mm pellets on the two short lines and began firing some 4,s to the island and left had swims.
Starting on maggot and it soon became clear that it was going to be impossible to determine as to where they going as the bit of flow coming in via the stream was sending rigs and maggots all over the swim, so ten minutes in and after a couple of small roach I was putting a banded hook on the rig and feeding 4,s only, at least the robins and wrens enjoyed the maggots, I soon started catching small proper carp and occasional f1,s, but it was a case of catching two or three from one spot then switching to another line and resting the others, the only other person who seemed to getting a few was Chris telling who had some fish on dobbed bread to begin with then on pellet later in the match,
I just had fish from all lines , I even had a few trotting in the  flow from the stream , by the end I reckoned on 50lb , with Chris being my closest threat , but I new I had beaten him, and as I was at the top of the lake looking down at all the others , not to much had been caught, I was last to weigh and was happy to see the scales read 60.3 for the win
2nd was Chris telling on peg 3 with 37.5
3rd Martin hook on 7 with 33.8
 4th Roy Liddell on 13 with25.9
5th Alan oram on 9 with 24.9
6th Mike Nichols on 24 with 21.15
I used the drennan acolyte carp pole again and at 13 mtrs it was a nice pole to fish with , even when I did a stint at 14 mtrs it was well manageable, I've only had fish up to 5lb on it so far but I felt very confident , and I can't wait to get some proper lumps on it , but I can't see it letting me down.
Next Thursday on Xmas eve I am running one at landsend fishery , as normal it will be a 9am draw , and it will be a 16 quid costcutter, so ring or text me on 07974807941 to book in.

Viaduct silvers league , final match

Travelled down with Chris fox today and after the normal nice brekkie at lillypool cafe, it was off to the fishery, there were a few no shows today , which as far as the payout goes didn't matter as the pools for the last match are paid as part of the entry fee, it's just a bit annoying having empty pegs as people get points they might not have ordinarily had ,
I was early into the draw as is my want , and out comes 126 on the far bank of Campbell, definitely no complaints from me on that one , proper flyer for silvers. I needed a section win to stand any chance of winning the league, and I still had to rely on Sam Powell and Dan squire having a bit of a blow out, Dan drew 99 so he was on a good peg, and Sam was on 66, which to be fair hasn't been to bad for a few fish in the series so far but he was up against some better pegs,
Getting to my peg I had Mark leahay on 127, Andy power on 128 ,Alan or am on 129 and ziggy slowinski on 132, peg 130 wasn't drawn, the other side of me on 125 and in the other section was Nick chedzoy, so good company .
Chatting to Gary oshea after the draw he told me he won the silvers the day before off my peg with 21 lb of skimmers on corn on the wag, he said it was to windy to do anything else, so with that in mind I set a wag on the new shimano beastmaster 11 ft wag rod with a 3aaa float and a 18 middy 6313 on .12 . Two pole rigs today, nearly identical except one was 4x12 and the other 4x14. Both with my favourite middy size 18 6313 hooks on .10. At the start I cupped in three balls of caster laced groundbait on the 11 mtr line and the same at 14 mtrs, leaving that to settle I picked up the wag rod slipped a piece of corn on and slung it out, almost straight away mark nailed a 3lb tench on his short pole line, on a worm head I think, so up against it early on, I missed a couple of tentative bites before connecting with stench of my own , but it looked half the size of marks. After 30 mins and only a couple me iffy indications I was reaching for the pole , straight out into the 11 mtr line with a caster on and the float settled and went straight under, a good start with a 3 lb bream safely netted, followed by several smaller samples, thus ensued a nice match with small skimmers being obliging, lots of 6 oz fish, I did get a couple more better ones during the match and another tench, I also had a nice 2lb goldfish on the wag when I tried it again at. The halfway stage , very welcome as proper goldfish. Count as silvers. Bite were very iffy as there was no wind , just for a change , so although the rigs were set up for double bulks but lifters were virtually none existent, so I found it best to fish as close to dead depth as poss with the float dotted down and most bites going under , Mark started to catch a few better skimmers towards the end and I felt I needed a couple more bonuses, which luckily I had in the shape of a better tench and one of my 3 better skimmers 2 mins from the end, Andy power had really struggled as had Alan pram the other side of the spit, ziggy on 132 was admitting to a nice day wag and caster fishing , and he was first to weigh and plonked 19.12 on the scales, Alan had 9 plus, Andy had 14 something and Mark had 18, then I put 27.2 on the scales for a section win and first overall on the day,
2nd went to Bob gullick on 119 with 24.2
3rd Fred Roberts on 62 (I think)with 22.2
4th Roland Lucas on 110 with 20.12
5th Craig Edmunds on 96 with 20.8
6th ziggurat slowinski on 132 with 19.12
A nice close frame really, makes it interesting , no one running away with it.
Final placing
1st Sam Powell with 6 points dropping a 3 pointer, well done to him as he won his section off not to good a peg really
2nd was me also on 6 points but dropping a 4
3rd Dan squire on 7 points
4th Dom Sullivan on 9 points dropping a 3
5th Bob gullick on 9 points but dropping a 4
And 6th and last in the money was steve kedge also on 9 points but dropping a 5
As normal this was a well run league as most matches at this venue tend to be , so well done to steve for doing another good job.

Thursday costcutter, avalon

Only 9 turned up today, probably the crappy weather forecast kept a few indoors. We spread the pegs out on the left hand bank as the wind was meant to swing round to a more westerly direction so it would be off our backs , not blowing strongly up the lake from the carpark as it was when we were getting ready to draw, kev molten drew for me and handed me 9, means nothing really as its a venue where it's nearly impossible to predict the winning peg, perhaps that's one of the reasons people don't like it as there are less excuses if they do bad, also it's not normally a big weight venue with someone running away with it.
Rigs today were two silver ones , a 1g bodied and a .75 g pencil to fish at 4 and 9 mtrs, no chance of fishing any longer as the wind wasn't showing any signs of changing direction, even 9 mtrs was going to be tough, I also set up a wag rod to fish at the end of the island in front , in case the wind eased or changed direction, I was trying out a new shimano beastmaster 9/11 wag rod , and it does feel quite nice , but catching a fish on it would be the best test, but unless the conditions changed it wasn't going to happen today.
At the start I cupped in 3 balls of groundbait with some casters in at 9 mtrs and one ball at 4 mm, and just about managed to get some 6mm hard pellets to the island , straight out to 9 mtrs with maggot on, 5 mins later and a small perch was swung in, a change to caster and 5 minutes later and I had a 2lb skimmer, at the same time terry Bruton on peg 7 was netting a carp caught from his margin, signs looked good but a definite false dawn as terry never had another bite all day, the longer line was really hard to get presentation on due to the wind which was so strong I had to let the pole blow round on several occasions, it was that fierce, but at least the promised rain didn't seem to be arriving.
I tried the close line but apart from a perch and two small skimmers that was biteless, for most of the match I had to battle the wind at 9 mtrs for an odd bite, the small roach which can be a real nuisance at this venue when fishing maggot were absent today, very strange after another good skimmer on caster I spent the rest of the match on double maggot at 9 mtrs apart from a 15 minute spell when the wind finally decided to do as it was forecast and blow from behind, I did have two bites on the wag and landed two small carp, and it has to be said the rod felt nice with a good cushioning action when the hooked fish are under your feet, and at £110 quid for a 9/11 foot rod it seems like good value for money.
I had odd skimmers during the match ending up with 10 good ones and the two carp for an estimate of 25lb, which sounded as though it would be enough for today, and luckily it was as the skimmers went 23.8 and my two carp were 5.8 for 29lb total.
2nd rich Coles on 5 with 18.10
3rd Mike west on 23 with 16.6
4th kev molten on 17 with 11.7
5th Chris Rolf on peg 1 with 9.11
6th john Bradford on 13 with 9lb
Not an easy day certainly not helped with the strong winds, oh well off to viaduct on Sunday for the final round of the silvers league then back up to harescombe next Thursday , hopefully the wind and rain may have stopped by then , I'm getting sick of chasing a float through my pegs being pushed by
A gale , o for a wind against trip swim.

Landsend individual league , round 1

didnt have my usual brekkie at lillypool today, as I've been off for a few days with problems at either end and cramps in the middle I decided scrambled eggs on toast would be the best option, just in case.
Travelled down with Jason Redford so at least I saved him a bit of money .
Thirty fishing the league this year, a few down on previous years and I can't understand why really as it's an interesting venue which produces bites in every peg, you just got to read quickly enough as to whether you go for the overall market or silvers on each lake , there are prizes on the day and overall , so plenty to go for. With only 10 on each lake there would be plenty of room, to much some days when the fish aren't interested as the fish seem to back off into the unoccupied pegs and I'm sure they return and have a proper munch up on the bait you have tried to tempt them with during the match.
Anyway into the draw tin and I hoped for a shortish walk as I was still a bit iffy after dodgy tum, no such luck, peg 51 comes out , towards the far end of lake three, not to upset as there was a section each side of the lake so I was in with 41 to 55, anglers to contend with were Nick ewers on 41, Adrian Jeffrey on 42, dale houses on 46 myself on 51 and Nick duckett on 55, so as you can see plenty of room.
With the weather being so warm I decided on a meat and pellet attack, so I set up a meat rig from r 9 mtrs, a down the edge pellet rig that would double up to fish shallow across the island where part of it has collapsed in, another pellet rig for tight to the island on the deck and a caster rig for some silvers close.
At the all in I began in the 9mtr meat line whilst feeding pellets to the island either side of the small bush which covered the collapsed bank section and some each side to the empty pegs, and some casters on the short line, I stayed on the meat line to long really, I fouled one in the tail early on , which came off sending my rig into the tree above my head, so another rig on and I soon had carp in net on meat , then I missed some iffy bites before I had a small skimmer, so 1 hour 20 I chucked the meat rig up the bank and tried the caster line , there were some obliging roach about but with odd carp being caught on 41 and 46 I decided to go for them, so I shipped out the island deep rig and fished to the right of the bush, I had a couple of smallish carp and skimmers on 6 mm pellet but it wasn't going to well, so a switch to the left of the bush in front of the landslip was much better and a good run of small carp, which was ok but it didn't last to long. A look down my right hand margin didn't produce so I swung round to the left and was rewarded with my biggest fish of the day in the shape of an 8lb common, looking down the lake at the hallway stage I thought i was winning the section, Adrian on 42 was still to catch a carp and Nick on 41 after an early burst had now dried, my deep island swim never kicked I and the last two hours were a bit difficult , I had a few fish off the landslip and two more in my right hand margin, but unfortunately Adrian started to catch some fish shallow on the end of his island , so by the end I thought he had just pipped me for the section, I lost a good fish 3 minutes from the end , it was lip hooked and just came off obviously badly hooked, I thought it may cost me , and it did as Adrian won the section with 50.15 to my 50.5, I new I should have caught a few more roach as Adrian had 9lb of silvers to my 2lb, bugger. The lakes didn't fish as well as most expected with the temps going up to 15c, I think it was probably one of he warmest days I had fished in December, stupidly mild !!!!!.
1st was Paul elmes on peg 7 with 94.12
2nd steve seager on 33 with 66.11
3rd Andy hembrow on 66 with 66.12
4th Craig Edmunds on 34 with 62.4
5th Jason Radford on 68 with 56.3
6th Gary oshea on 5 with 54.6
Top silvers went to Alan or am on peg 25 with 24.9 of roach perch and skimmers .
Thursday's match is at Avalon again 9 am draw , ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in or ring me in veals on Monday or Wednesday on 01179260790.

Viaduct silvers league. Penultimate round

travelled with Chris fox today, so after the normal lillypool brekkie it was off to the fishery, the wind was meant to be horrendous with gusts possibly to 60 mph, so bearing this in mind a draw on the left hand banks would be best so the wind would be mostly off the left shoulder, early into the draw tin again , and out comes 53 on lodge , definitely not the draw I had hoped for as I needed a section with or second at worst to keep me in contention for Some overall monies, and this peg has been no good in the league so far ,  with Nick Collins on the first match doing the best with 19lb , but still not a section win on that day, it has a lot more form as a carp peg as its a nice big reed fringed bay with a big willow tree overhanging between me and nick ewers who was on 73. To my right was bristols finest auto electrician , Tim Clark on 55, which had won our section in the last two rounds.
4 rigs today, 3 of which were 4x12 floats , one for my left hand margin, another for under the tree, both of those were for some hoped for perch and hybrids, another for the 5 mtr caster line just in front . And a .4 pencil to try and tempt an odd skimmer at 14 mtrs to my right on a angle.
To begin the match I cupped in three balls onto the 14 mtr line fishing with the wind , which to be fair  was ok for me as I had some shelter from a bank and some trees, so wind strength was not to much of an issue for me , unlike many others , it was making any long pole fishing all but impossible for most.
After feeding the caster lines I began at 5 mtrs in front, it took twenty mins to get my first fish which was a Rudd (I don't like small Rudd), it was certainly slow , but looking round it seemed the same for everyone , with no one setting it on fire, after an hour I had added some more small roach and a few small hybrids, but if it carried on like this it would be the final nail in my series coffin, I had a look on the groundbait line at 14 mtrs but all I could get were some small roach, I did top it up and try a couple more times but it seemed the skimmers didn't want to be on that line.
The margin and tree swim both produced one small roach each, so it was back onto the 5 mtr line catching small roach with an odd one going 6oz, I spread the shot on the rig and found that was better , with the fish nailing it on the drop, by the halfway mark I thought I had about 4 lb, which was still probably winning the section by then, only Andy power on 60 was catching small fish in my section, I couldn't see Tim, but I heard him telling someone he was really finding it hard, out of interest I tried my left hand margin rig over he 5 mtr line, as I was catching on the drop, and that was the turning point for me , the swim seemed to come to life, it appeared the fish wanted it 12 inches off the deck, I had some good roach up to 12oz, more surprisingly I had a couple of 3lb bream way off the deck and some chunky hybrids, I also had a nice near 2lb hybrid from under the tree, aswell as some chunky roach, but I also lost a couple of carp there , and I always felt the carp weren't to far away and I missed some sail away bites there but the caster was untouched, liners most likely from the carp, I did see quite a few swirling and boiling along the end bank.
Luckily my off the deck rig on the 5 mtr line kept giving me odd fish nearly to the no of the match , so by the end I thought I had about 15 lb , the only threat was from Tim who had a late burst of  skimmers towards the end , plus a big perch and a hybrid , but it was just to little to late for him as my net went 19.6 to his 15.15, so I got the much needed section win,
1st on the day went to Chris boulten on 126 on Campbell with 21.3
2nd Dom Sullivan on 112 with 19.9
3rd me on 53 with 19.6
4th ziggy slowinski on 124 with 18.8
5th Chris fox on 130 with 18.4
6th Gordon canning on 125 with 17.5
A really close match to be fair, and I think if the wind had been a bit kinder the weights would have been much better, as for my swim , I probably wouldn't won the section , it was purely down I think to being able to get some sensible presentation as I had some shelter, ha ha ain't life a bitch.

Thursday costcutter , Avalon.

Only twelve of us today, just enough  to make it interesting. I was on the the phone to 3 network trying to sort out ne f my contracts with them that someone had hacked into and caused me no ends of problems that have been going on for 6 weeks, the match started at 10.15 and I eventually got off the phone at 11, so that was three hours of my life I ain't getting back as the calls began at 8, and I had made 19 calls to them by then, eventually talking to someone in Scotland who hopefully sorted it in about ten minutes, unlike the the Mumbai call centre which is a total waste of time as they ok
Moly give answers from prompt cards I'm sure,
Whilst I was on the phone I stood behind vic bush on peg 11 who had 3 carp and a skimmer by the time I had finished n the phone, the carp obviously hooked themselves as is normal on the lead , but I did need to coach him a bit as to when to strike on the skimmer, but I would have thought that his line dropping back slack would have told him something was going on !!!!!!!!.
With only a bit of time to get started I only set up one ,75 pencil float to fish for silvers, so after feeding two balls of ground bait at 11 mtrs and 3 at 14 I began on the shorter line and was soon catching small roach, with a couple of small hybrids, but no skimmers, so out to 14 mtrs and the same result, small roach only, so I refed quite heavily to try and force the issue, then I used he same rig to fish on my top set with caster , and I did start catching some better 4 oz roach , but as expected it didn't last, I dropped a small ball of g bait in there and later I did get an 8oz skimmer there but that was the only one , back out to the two longer lines, neither were to good with the shorter one being a total waste , and the longer one only still giving up small roach, with only 2 hours to go I went back to my can and got a reel then set up a wag to fish off the corner of the island with banded pellet and I was soon wishing I had fed and fished it from the start as I started getting indications immediately , and I soon had a couple of 6lb carp in the net, I ave the line a bit of a rest and dropped in over the longer silvers line , the float was only in there for a few minutes before the float lifted and stayed up, so the big strike was met with a fair bit of 5 elastic coming out of the pole and a 2 lb plus skimmer was safely netted, followed shortly by another a few minutes later, but that was my loy off that line apart from the small plippy roach, so most of the remainder of the match was spent on the wag, as I said I should have done it from the start as I finished the match with seven carp, only three sensible ones but the peg was definitely worth a few more if I had done it from the start, but I never so I didn't , end of lol.
I put the results sheet somewhere safe so that was the end of that then, but I will do my best to remember the top six.
1st vic bush peg 11 41lb
2nd Tom mangall peg 20 33lb
3rd me with 32lb
4th terry Bruton peg 3 29lb
5th Adrian Jeffrey on 21 with 28lb
Silvers
Tom mangall 19lb
John(the gimp) Bradford 16lb
3rd was veils oldest employee Mike Jones with 9lb

Sunday landsend open

only 14 fishing today so it was the match lake only, going into the second day of a cold snap I wasn't to sure as to how it would fish, last time here the fish seemed to want to be in there normal winter quarters, so a draw on the far side in the high numbers were preferred, I waited till near the end to draw , and just for a change pulled out peg 3 again !!!!!, I can't seem to get away from the peg, it's a nice summer peg and I quite enjoy fishing it if ice breaking is called for as there are usually some perch around. But today I thought would be difficult, rig wise I set a 4x12 for 14 mtrs on an angle to my left for hard pellet and the same rig would be ok to fish n front of peg 2 as it's the same depth as out in the lake, another 4x12 rig for the same depth to my right for maggot or expander over micros, and a caster rig for 4 mtrs in front and down to my left as again it's the same depth. On the whistle I fed to my left at 14 mtrs with hard 4,s aswell as cupping a few in by pallet 2. I would have like to feed it with a catty down by the pallet but the bush has grown a bit to much and it's nigh on impossible to get any down there with a catty, micros off to my right, again at 14 mtrs, but began on the caster at 4 mtrs, I did fire a few 4,s to the far side just in case but the water seemed a bit clear and cold to encourage any carp up on the shelf.
First drop and I had a 6 oz perch followed by a few of a similar size, but already the favoured far side swims were producing carp, with Paul elmes on 18, Adrian Jeffrey on 19 and ken(Kendra) Rayners on 21 catching early on , and hey seemed to be getting plenty of liners so the main body of fish looked to be wintering up. As with the last time on this lake the near side was extremely hard with only odd carp and very few silvers being caught , the carp pegs kept putting a few into the nets with Adrian on 19 sounding to be doing the best. My long pellet lines each way at 14 mtrs never produced a bite. And the down to the pallet line to my left gave me one bite which I skillfully abated to impale my hook into the tail of a 5 lb common which led me a proper dance before I managed to reverse it into the net, but it did make a mess f my inside line, during the match I did hook 6 carp , three I landed two of which were lip hooked and the other three escaped, one with a rig. About 90 mins from the end I shall owed up my maggot rig and swung it into the far side on double maggot , I was rewarded with a 1lb stripy , so I quickly changed that rig into a proper caster rig for over there and began firing a few casters to the spot, silvers wise on the lake was wide open with no one catching much, the skimmers were scarce as were the perch so it was a case I of nicking odd fish from my three silvers line, even the ever reliable john"the perch slayer" Bradford on 5 was getting no luck, but he did get a nice ide and a skimmer later in the match, he seemed to be doing the best with him and me being pretty close with the silvers, then about 30 mins from the end I managed to snare a 2lb unseasonal tench from my left hand margin to put me in th edriving seat as far as the silvers went.
Beany aka Dave Westcott was first to weigh on peg 1 and put one carp and a few silvers on the scales for 9.4. I was next and my three carp went 15lb and the silvers went 9.12, the only threat as far as I could tell for the silvers payout was john on 5 and luckily my tench seemed to have edged it as his silvers went 7.8, so at least we got some money back .
1st on the day was Adrian Jeffrey on 19 with 80.14 of maggot tempted carp just at the bottom of the island shelf
2nd was Ken Rayner on 21 with 69.7
3rd Paul elmes on 18 who started well but his swim died quite quickly but he ended with 46.6
4th was me with 24.12
5th Andy hembrow on 13 with 19.1
6th Martin lenaghan on 15 with 17.10
Thursday we are off to Avalon again so if anyone fancies it ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in for the 9 am draw.
This Friday veals are having a bit of a Black Friday clearance with selected items in the coarse, sea , game and gun sides being reduced, so it may well be worth paying us a visit , could be an early Xmas pressie some where for someone

Thursday affordable at harescombe fishery

travelled up with Chris fox today, we were nearly late as a motorcyclist decided to fall off at jct 13 a bit of a tailback but we managed just get by and got the fishery well in time for brekkie, sadly only 9 of us turned up, so at least we would have plenty of room. Into the draw bag and out comes 8, as of yet I haven't drawn the same peg twice, and I ain't had a bad days fishing yet, Chris drew 14 which was the end peg on our bank, so I reversed up to his peg and dropped him off, then Dave to mine , where I unloaded the gear and set about tackleing up, all was gong well until Andy the fishery manager arrived to tell me I was getting ready on peg 9, doh, senior moment, and that was the first time I have ever done that, plus it was raining which it wasn't meant to do in Gloucester , they got that right then as it pissed down all day !!!!!!.
So kit moved onto the right peg and still enough the to get ready, I have indulged myself with a new drennan acolyte carp pole so I gave it a run out today, and I got to say it's a nice piece of kit , bearing in mind it's a carp pole so it's not going to be ultra stiff and light but it is manageable up to 14 mtrs easily , so looking for a quality all round pole definitely give this one the once over.
Back to the fishing , and I thought maggots would be worth a go today and with the weather still very mild I thought the fish would still be against the island on the shelf, so I set up a maggot rig for that and a pellet rig for further along the island and the same rig would do for down the edge, big mistake was not setting up a rig for 4 mtrs in front at this stage.
At the start I cupped in some maggots against the island and fed some pellets in the two areas, margin and island.
Starting across on maggot resulted in a couple of small roach the a barbel, followed by a three pound carp then another barbel, followed by more and more and more small roach, then an f1 then back to the roach fry and gudgeon, an hour in and going nowhere on the maggot so I binned that and switched to the island pellet line , but that proved difficult with only odd f1,s and even fewer carp. Down the edge wasn't much better, and I could see Adrian Jeffrey opposite catching steadily as was Martin hook to my right and Chris fox beyond him, all,of a sudden there was only two hours left , looking along Martin to my left was still catching short so I set up a 4x14 rig to fish at 4 mtrs, luckily I did start feeding the line not long after the start just in case , so I started catching some decent f1,s and in the last two hours I probably put 3/4 of my final weight in the net but it was never going to be enough especially as Chris on 14 was still catching and Mike Nichols over on 20 also had a good last couple of hours, just fishing with his topkit down each side margin, but in th end I was a lot closer than I realised , another hour and I may have had him, Mike won on the day with 63.2
2nd was Chris fox with 60.6
3rd me with 52.10
4th Martin hook with 46
5th stuart graham on 29 again with 44.14
6th Adrian Jeffrey with 42.4
Off for an open at landsend on Sunday , still got some space so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in of contact me in veals on 01179260790

Viaduct silvers league round 4

after brekkie at lillypool it was off to the fishery for the 9am draw, into the tin fairly early and out comes112 , it was ok for the first couple of matches then n match three mash drew it and got carped out and dnw,d, and getting to the peg I thought today may go the same way as there were carp moving all around my peg, for company I had fromes very own Olympic cyclist and down hill skiing champion steve denmead on 111 and Mrs brown impersonator Bob gullick on 114, the wind was still quite strong blowing in and across, but not unmanagble, so I set up rigs to fish caster at 3 mtrs, a .4g pencil, and town .4g rigs to fish caster and maggot over groundbait at 9 and 13 mtrs , all rigs had my favourite silvers hook on ends,  middy 6313 size 18,s to .10 line.
At the start I cupped in two balls at 9 and three at 13 mtrs, then started on the short caster line, small roach soon became a problem , no quality at all, with lots of the roach so small they were dropping off before I could grab them, after 20 mins I had had enough of that and went out onto the 9 mtr line, that wasn't to good either with the small fish being a pain there aswell, Bob g on 114 was catching small skimmers and Nick chedzoy on 115 had a tench and some skimmers too, I lost a flying skimmer of about a pound quite early on the 9 mtr , then shortly after that I had a 2 lb er, but that line seemed to be full of plippy roach , so most of my match was spent out at 13 mtrs where there seemed to be more in the way of skimmers, Bob kept catching skimmers of all sizes for most of the match, Nick on 115 caught steadily to and steve on 111 was getting odd quality fish, I did get a good 4th hour catching a few better skimmers which used me ahead of steve but I was never in much danger of catching the two to my right , then steve had a late skimmer making it very tight between us, in the end steve had 20.10 to my level 20lb , which put me 4th inthe section, not the result I wanted or needed, oh well that will hopefully be my dropper then.
1st on the day went to Chris Davis on 55 with 29.10 , catching on worm over worm
2nd Dom Sullivan catching the same way as the winner with 28.10 on peg 73
3rd Bob gullick on 114 with 27.4
4th Nick chedzoy on 115 with 26.9
5th Dan squire on 68 with 25.3
6th g Powell on 124 with 23.2
All in all it fished quite fairly , with my 20 lb putting me 11th on the day,
Next Sunday I am running a match at landsend , so to book in ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in .

Avalon Thursday costcutter

16 fishing today so another reasonable turnout. I let ziggy slowinski draw for as we were having a quid on silvers and he gave me 20 , which as venue regulars know it is a good carp peg as there is a small gap in the island in front of you which the carp seem atracted to, it can be a good wag peg as long as conditions allow , and with no sign of the forecasted edge of storm Abigail hitting us , the wag was assembled, also a long line pellet rig for 14 mtrs and a silvers rig for 8&13 mtrs to fish slightly to my right . For company I had Dave Poole to my right on 19 and the old warrior which is rich Coles to my left on 21.
On. The all in I cupped in two balls at 8 mtrs and three at 13, also I cupped some pellets at 14 mtrs slightly to my left so it was well away from the hoped for silvers line. Starting on the wag and I managed about 6 casts before the gale. Sprang up from nowhere, rendering the wag useless as it was blowing across and in at me, a quick mental note to self, always ensure I carry a lead rod, although I don't enjoy being caught by carp I would probably have let them have there fun today.
As for the 13 mtrs line , that was three balls of groundbait wasted then, the wind was that strong.
I did pop a ball at 3 mtrs and begin feeding a few pellets along my left had reed line as it was within 4  inches the same depth As out in front, rich to my left had three carpin. As many chucks. My match turned into a proper grind really , which was a shame as before the wind started there were skimmers rolling in the area , even once the waves started odd ones could still be seen topping. .not long into the. Match I had to replace the .7g pencil float which normally works well, but they don't lend themselves to really rough conditions, especially with a hard trip going with the wind, so I swapped it for a wire stemmed bodied pattern , which was better, but the wind/trip going the same way even that wasn't enough, a 2g may have been even better but I don't carry floats of that size normally as the venues I fish don't require them, I did mange three better skimmers and a couple of smaller ones from the three and eight mtr lines plus a handful of bits for possibly ten pounds , and I had one. Small. Carp from the margin and lost another which tied me to the stick ups .
The match looked to comfortably won by Martin heard over on peg 30, who by his own admission was helped by the wind as it was slightly off his back meaning his was was blowing in against the island, and he ended up with 23 float caught carp on banded pellet fished about 18 inches deep, as for the silvers there were three of us admitting to ten pounds, but knowing how much we all lie only the scales would tell the truth .
Overall Martin ran out an easy winner with 107.2. A good weight on a difficult day
2nd went to Adrian Jeffrey on peg 9 with 73.5
3rd rich Coles on 21 with 40.10
4th was terry Bruton on 7 with 40.1, and a happy birthday to him as it was his 79th.
5th kev molten on 39 with 39.8
6th Mike west on 32 with 31.12
Silvers
Rich Coles 11.13
Vice bush 11.12
Me 11lb
Off to viaduct Sunday for round 4 of the silvers league, the following Sunday I am running an open at landsend fishery, that's the 22nd  , so phone or txt me 07974807941 to book in or ring me at veals on 01179260790 to book in , or better still come into the shop to book in and check out the new hands on shimano stands which look good.

Tuesday costcutter, acorn fishery

Only 13 here again today, possibly the forecasted strong winds and rain played a part there. Into the draw bag and out pops 12 ping pong ball, I haven't been here for about 18 months but it still looked the same , 12 is a good peg with a nice long margin down to the right , and with these mild temps I fully expected to catch down there, I intended to fish caster today as I had accumulated several pints and it would be a waste not to use them. So I set a margin rig for left and right in about 2 foot of water , a rig for 5 Mars in the deep water and another for down the margin shelf in about 3 foot of water. On the all in I started feeding caster on all lines and began at 5 mtrs fully expecting to catch straight away , to say it was a surprise to have to wait 1 3/4 hours for my first fish was an understatement , then it was 1oz perch, mint, but shortly after that I had two carp from the same line in as many put ins, looking around no one seemed to be getting much, Ray bazeley  on 6 seemed to be doing the best , but he was so far from the next angler I was beginning to think he was in another county, Andy gard was his neighbour and he was on 11, better blame it on the pegger lol.
I had tried my margins by now and across on the island but couldn't raise a bite anywhere, then with 2 hours to go a few fish turned up on the island, and it should have been enough, towards the end I lunged at a fish with the net and broke it off, I thought straight away it would cost me , I did have one bite down the edge for one carp which s unusual for this swim as its normally a margin banker, I ended up with ten carp which I thought may go 40lb, and I wasn't to far off as they went 39.14, Ray in his pleasure peg had 15 bridge carp on his favourite bait BREAD for 41.14 , well done Ray,
3rd was in form venue regular on peg 22 with 38lb
4th Andy gard on 11 with 35.12
5th ed wynne on 15 with 33.8
6th d Stephenson on 34 with 31.8
Silvers went to ed wynne with 4lb of goldfish

Sunday open field lake , harescombe fishery

Only managed to get 13 booked in for this one  , but Andy reckoned on only putting 15 on the lake max , so 13 would mean some extra room, after pegging the lake and having a brekkie it was draw time , as none of us had fished the lake before I didn't have a clue as to what was a good draw, so I waited till the last peg and ended up with peg 10 which today was the first peg around the right hand side. For company I had mat tomes on the end of the dam ,and bela "berty" bakos to my right ,
Getting to the swim I was quite happy as there were some carp topping and I had a nice margin to my left, rig wise I set up a caster rig for close as the lake has a big head of quality roach, but the water had coloured up from when I looked at it on Thursday , so I wasn't to sure the roach would feed properly, so I also set up a meat rig for 6 Mtrs on the deck in 8 foot of water, then two pellet rigs , a shallow slapper as there were enough fish showing to possibly make it a goer, and a margin rig to fish down my left in about 3 foot of water, at the start and with the wind forecast to get strong I decided to go shallow to begin with but feed my other lines , 3 Mtrs caster line. 6 Mtr meat and my margin pellet swim. I only fished 13 Mtrs and wasn't expecting to much, and was surprised when I had a bite first drop, but I missed it , in fact. Missed two more before I connected , I was already. Two fish behind bela after twenty mins, I have seen his random feeding and slapping technique work well before , and today he was feeding at 14 and fishing at 11, but it seemed to be working at the mo, lol.
No one else apart from myself and bela seemed to be getting much action, so we stuck to the shallow fishing and it was nip and tuck for a while till I had three on the trot to ease ahead of my neighbour, and that was how the match panned out with me getting a few extra over bela, especially with 5 late fish from down th edge on pellet, the meat lines only gave me one fouler and the roach didn't want to play ball, so I ended the match with 22 carp for 114lb exactly ,
2 nd went to bela with 84.3
3 rd Mike Nichols had 53lb
4th Ryan Jordan with 41.13
5th rod Wooten 29lb
6th mat tomes 28.14
Silvers
Stuart graham with 12.2 of roach
Thursday I,m off to Avalon again , so to book in ring or text me on 07974807941 to book in, then it's off to viaduct for round 4 of the silvers league on sunday

Harescombe , Thursday costcutter

Not to bad a turnout really considering the weather forcast, 13 hardy souls in attendance, for comfort I fancied peg 2 as I would have some shelter from the wind and rain, well blow me down if I don't go and draw it !!!!!.
I planned on a meat close line and two pellet lines, one across against the island and another down the edge to my right, nice and simple, the pellet rigs had b960 size 18 hooks on and the meat rig had an 18 middy 8313 hook on.
At the start I fed the pellet lines and started on the 5 Mtr meat line with 6 mm meat on the hook, after 45 mins and with. Only two small carp for my troubles I was soon reaching for the far side pellet rig, and apart form a couple of fish from the margins the rest of the match was spent working a banded pellet along the far bank, feeding 4,s with a catty and fishing a banded 6 on the hook, as the match progressed it became fairly apparent the fish wanted to be in the wind , feeding more confidently in the ripple, although I was comfortable with little or no wind to trouble me the fish were hard to nail down, with not many times when it as possible to get mare than 2 fish from one spot before a move was needed, by the end I thought I had 40lb ish and actually weighed in 45 for 4th on the so it was ok, the match was won by Adrian Jeffrey on peg15 with 74lb , Mike Nichols continued his love affair with the venue and came second with 69lb, from about peg 21 I think and Martin hook was third on peg 7 with 50lb, don't know the rest of. The weights as the weigh sheet had disappeared by the time. Got back to the carpark, no doubt Mike Nichols with have it on his blog.
Sunday I am back there again but I am running a match on field lake which is the second one up, I do have two spaces still so if any one fancies it txt me on 07974807941 to book in.

Over 50,s slivers match , sedges bridgwater

as I wasn't working today and having plenty of casters and groundbait left from Sunday , I felt it would be rude not to fish again today, so it was off to the sedges, and once I got there and discovered we would be fishing the canal, there was a good chance I would have most of the groundbait and caster left after the event as the canal can be hard ,and as the water had gone a bit clearer it looked odds on that today wasn't going to be any different. There was 14 of us fishing today and the talk at the draw was that you really needs to be on 62/63/64/41/42/43 which is at the deeper end of the lake, I nearly got it right and pulled out ball 60 , means nothing to me as I have never fished this lake before, the last silvers match on here was won with 5lb, so no one was expecting to much today.
For company I had hls,s finest in the shape of Bolton George on 59, who was not going to moan about his peg as there was nothing in it to moan about as he drew it last time and caught very little.
The other side n 61 was Bridgwater Pete, further along on 63 was bridgwaters oldest import rich Coles , who was the favourite to take the honours,
Only two rigs today, both PCs pencils, a .4g for in the deep water and a .25 for down the edge and across and slightly up the island shelf,
At the start I cupped I a ball at 5 Mtrs , and two balls at 11 Mtrs at 11 and one o'clock angles ,and a soft one on the island shelf, and started feeding caster down the edge. I started at 5 Mtrs , and did have a bite first drop but missed it , then nothing , so ten minutes in I put a caster on instead of the starter maggot, and a nice 1lb crucial was my reward, a good start on a hard day, but apart from one small roach that was the only fish I had from that line, also several tries down the edge during the match fail to give me even a bite, most of my action came from the 2 11 Mtr lines and later the island slope area, I had odd skimmers , and I mean odd as it was impossible to string more than one fish at a time from each line. By the end I thought I may have 6lb but George reckoned I had more, and he was right as I actually weighed 8.5 which was enough to win today with rich Coles coming a close second with 8.1
3rd john barker on 41 with 6.6
4th Bob on 64 with 5.8
5th Mike on 62 with 5.6
6th George on 59 with 4.9
It was a difficult day but weirdly I really enjoyed the struggle, off to harescombe next Sunday and I still got a couple of spaces left

Viaduct silvers league round 3

i really needed a good draw in this match as I am sat on two section wins, aloe with Dan squire, I said I fancied 96 or 97 but with 49 fishing it wasn't to good on the odds to get one , I followed Adrian Jeffrey into the draw tin, he pulled out 2 tickets , I took the one stuck out and blow me down if it wasn't 97 , lol. Only real problem was that I had San squire on 96 for company who is always a tough one to beat. , be it silvers or carp.
Three rigs today all .25 g PC pencils , one to fish my topkit to hand , and two for over the groundbait, one double bulked , the other more of a spread shot affair, all rigs had size 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10 sensas feeling line, groundbait as always was sensas lake mixed 50/50 with veals gimps ,
At the start I cupped in 2 balls at 11 Mtrs and 3 at 14 , all with a few casters in. Then I started on the topkit to hand rig, to catch the usual few small roach, but after 20 mins without a bite that rig was consigned to the rig scrap heap for today, out to 11 Mtrs and after a couple of small roach I started to get a few hand size skimmers, as was Dan , the fish didn't seem to want to come in to close today as no one was catching short on our lake, even the 11 Mtrs line started to die , it was out to 14 Mtrs for the duration of the match, it was a good contest between myself and Dan , with each of us getting little bursts of small skimmers, it really looked as though the fish were moving between us as Dan would catch a few and I wouldn't then it would switch round with me catching and Dan struggling, we expected a few better skimmers as the match went on, but it wasn't really until the last couple of hours when a few began to show, and it was nip and tuck between us all through , but by the end I thought San had pipped me as he had on more bigger skimmer than me , I weighed first and put 22.12 on the scales, Dan did look a bit concerned but the extra skimmer did the business as he weighed 24.13 to win the section, but second in section will do for me.
On the whole it fished a lot harder than people expected as it's been so mild ,
1st S Powell won on peg 111 with 34.3 of skimmers
2nd don Sutherland on 114 with 26.6
3rd Martin Preston on 62 with 25.12
4th Dan squire peg 96 with 24.13
5th steve denmead on 24.10
6th Dave roper on 55 with 24.1
It was a close match with me coming in in 8th with 22.12 , and there were plenty more double figure weights,
Next Sunday I am running one at harescombe on field lake which is a bit of an unknown  one as I haven't fished and nor has anyone else I now of under match conditions ,all I know is that there are plenty of carp along with some nice roach and skimmers,
I have a few spaces still so ringer txt me on 07974807941 to book in, it will be a 9am draw and breakfast is available in the on site cafe

Avalon Thursday costcutter

a better turn out today with 15 fishing, I hope it continues as its a good fair venue and generally impossible to predict where the winner will come from, perhaps that what some people don't like , who knows, or is it that you very rarely need over a hundred pounds to win, and some anglers gauge a venues quality by how many ton plus weights come out on the day, which is ok , but a lower weight affair and closer weights is becoming more attractive to many anglers now.
Back to today and I fancied another days silvers fishing , so unless I drew one of the corners where I would have fished solely for carp, skimmers it was then, I waited till nearly the end to draw , I went in when there was only two discs left in the bag , I pulled 16 which I fancied, last peg left in the bag for gabe skarba who was running a bit late, and he ended up with 17.
I got the peg drilled some gimps and sensas lake ground bait into life and started rig making, last match vic bush won the silver fishing hard pellet , 6,s over 4,s so I set up a PC .4g slim with a 18 b960 on .14 to fish at 14 Mtrs, and two .7g pc pencils, one for worm. With. 16 middy 6313 on .10 and the other with an 18 6313 on .10 to fish maggot or small pieces of worm. Gabe had arrived by now and was well impressed with the venue as like he said it looks like a proper lake.
And with ziggy slowing kid up on 19 there was some friendly banter going, even if it was a tad difficult to understand at times , lol.
At the start I cupped in three balls at 6 Mtrs, 4 at 11 Mtrs and put some 4,s at 14.
Starting on maggot at 6 Mtrs I soon had a couple of small roach , so a switch to the worm rig was called for , first drop resulted in a 1lb skimmer, but that was my lot on that line for a while , gabe had just started by now, his first fish was a skimmer just over the pound Mark, shame he put it back on the wrong side of his nets top ring, I never laughed though !!!.
Then it went a bit quiet, but I wasn't to worried as it can be a bit of a slow burner here for the skimmers with the last half of the match seeming to be the best time, halfway through and both myself and gabe had some skimmers , with gabe probably just edging it at this stage , then it all went wrong for me, I think I may have overcooked it with the worms , whereas gabe with his groundbait and pellet approach steadily pulled ahead, also I could see Mike Jones on 13 also thrashing out some roach on his short line( he can't see well enough to fish long) plus I saw him net a couple of better fish, my long pellet line only produced a couple of hand size skimmers, I did get a few more better skimmers on maggot and mainly over the 11 Mtrs line, but gabe kept putting skimmers in the net , so by the end I new I was well beaten, as I new gabe had at least 35lb and I wasn't sure I had 20. I packed up quickly as we finished at 4.15 and with it being cloudy the light would be quick to go.
1st on the day was fishery owner vic bush on 21 with 72.14. Catching 50/50 on the feeder cast to the island and the rest on the pole on various baits, maggots , worms and pellets.
2nd Adrian Jeffrey on 20 with 60.8
3rd Mike west 47lb on peg 3
4th terry Bruton on peg 7 with 41.12
5th gabe skarba with his all skimmer catch of 37.1
6th Ray white on 11 with 32.8
Silvers
Gabe 37.1
Mike Jones 22.14 peg 13
Me 22.4, definite chip shop sausage today, battered all round then.
Off to viaduct Sunday round three of the silvers league , just a reminder it's a 9am draw not 9.30 as the clocks have gone back.

Landsend open match

Woke up to a frost this morning which s only the second so far  this autumn , so not to bed then, and it wasn't to hard so hopefully it wouldn't affect the fishing to much . After the lillypool normal tasty brekkie it was off to e fishery, the carpark was busy as carpenters arms 2000 were on the speci lake so we would be using match and three, 27 of us fishing today so we put 14 on the match lake and 13 on 3, not to bothered as to  where I wanted to draw so I let trig draw for me, he handed me peg 3 then pulled 22 for himself, cheers then !!!, I don't mind 3 but it wouldn't really be a peg of choice with the water clearing .
For company I had Mike west on 1 and brian shanks on 5, only three rigs , a pellet rig for over on the island , a meat rig for down the middle and the same rig would do down the edge as it was the same depth, and a pellet rig for 14 mtrs to my left at 10.30 angle.
At the start I fed pellets across and at the angle but started down the middle on meat, first drop I fouled a carp, looking promising then that there may be a few about, but no, 30 mins later and I only managed to put a good skimmers in the net, but things improved slightly by the end of the first hour with 2 carp gracing  the net, by the end of the second hour I was up to 5 carp and a couple of  f1,s . But th ewriting was on the all as opposite , Martin lenaghan was catching on 19 as was Gary Oshea on 21 and trig on 22, plus we didn't know how lake three would be fishing.
As the match progressed it seemed as though the fish didn't want to be on the north bank, perhaps the sun warmed the water up a degree or so against the island, as most people opposite were catching steadily. I went across to the island and had a few from there but with the water being a bit clear and probably cold I couldn't string two fish together from there, the angle line at 14 mtrs gave me one carp and a skimmer , the margin never produced at all which I was surprised at as it's normally a bit of a banker down that deep margin, I snuck a couple more from the far side but it was never going to be enough as I ended up with 10 carp for 47lb and 6lb of silvers for 53lb and no good today, but I was happy to catch that as only myself and Mike west weighed in on our bank with Mike having 20lb.
First on the day went to Gary Oshea on 21 with 81.2 beating in form Craig Edmunds off the next peg.
2nd was rod Wooten on 65 with 80.02
3rd Craig Edmunds with 77.12 on  peg 22
4th Martin lenaghan on 19 with 76.4
5th Andy hembrow on 15 with 58.6
6th was steve Seagar on 46 with 55.10
Top silvers on the day was a bit of a lowly affair with john(the gimp) Bradford on peg 58 with 9.3 of moaned on small fish.
This Thursday its off to Avalon again so anyone wanting to book in ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in, or you can always contact me in veals on 01179260790.

Thursday costcutter , harescombe fishery

travelled on my own today as my normal travelling partner Jason Radford was off with a sick note, 16 of fishing today which is a reasonable. Turnout and just about right for this lake , so everyone had a spare peg on at least one side,  into the bag and out comes peg 25 which s the end peg around the far side  next to the landslide, it's an end peg now but due to the landslip the peg is very tight. To the end, but I had an empty peg to My left then Ray bass was on 23, 4 rigs today, a corn rig for down the middle and three hard pellet rigs, one for the left had margin, one shallow and another for on the deck against the island, all with size 18 b960 hooks on .14 line, the corn rig had a middy 8313 size 18 on .12 line,
At the start I fed some pellets across , some down the left margin and some along the mud bank to my right , I started on the corn and had a couple of f1,s quite quickly, but it wasn't going to well, and 40 mins in and some mud was being kicked up along the mud bank in the two spots I had fed, so I went in the shallow rig at 4 mtrs and was soon playin a small proper carp, quickly followed by several more from the 4 mtrs spot , but as I expected the fish didn't keep coming as the water has lost some colour and it was barely a foot deep. Where I was catching, so it was out to a11 mtrs against the mud where I had several more including a monster for this lake of about 6lb, I had been feeding two spots on the far bank and tried the shallow rig over there but couldn't raise a bite on that , I tried the depth rig against the island and had a couple of f1,s. The fishing was never that frantic but it was enjoyable , nicking odd fish from the different lines including the margin, I had more proper carp during the match and a lot fewer f1,s. Than in previous matches, that was probably down to the shallowness of the peg possibly, or I may have not been using an f1 friendly bait, but I thought I had done just enough to win, the only threat I could see was Mike Nichols on peg 20,  and it was fairly close, we were weighed in metric today which to be honest I prefer to lbs and oz,s , I was first to weigh and ended with 25.72 kg
2nd Mike Nichols with 21.62 kg
3rd kev jefferies on 15 with 18.26 kg
4th rich heatley on 17 with 14.48kg
5th glen Bailey on 10 with 14.02 kg
6th Ray (Harry) cooper on 3 with 13.32 kg
Off to landsend this Sunday for an open on the match lake and number three if necessary , so ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in and also it's back to Avalon next Thursday so again ring or txt me on the same number, the matches are now 9am draws owing to the locks going back.

Viaduct silvers league round 2

anyone interested I am running a landsend match next Sunday 9am draw as the clocks go back, ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in .
Back to today and after the silvers final yesterday it was going to be a tough call as to which peg or areas might be good today, into the draw tin and out comes 99, 😊. Gabe skarba drew it yesterday and had 32lb for second , so hopefully the skimmers would still be in the vicinity, for company I had bristols finest auto electrician on 100 and kev Newman on 97, I wasn't going to change to much on what I did yesterday , so 2 rigs made up , both .25g pencils , one with a small double bulk and the other with the shot a bit more spread, bait wise all I had my table were some casters a small handful of dead reds and some groundbait , which was my normal veals gimps gold mixed with an equal amount of sensas lake, at the start I put in one small ball at 4 mtrs , 2 at 11 mtrs and 4 at 14 mtrs, all with a few casters in. I started on the close line on caster feeding a few by hand, I dropped off the first three roach I hooked possibly due to there minuscule size, then I had a few but 45 mins in and the inside not really happening I was soon dropping a caster n the hook into the 11 mtrs line, but that was not to much better with small roach being a nuisance, so out to 14 mtrs and at was where I spent the rest of the match, catching small hand size skimmers to begin with, plus carp were being a proper pain in the ass, by the end of the match I reckoned I had lost 18 and landed one , also smashing a topkit in the process, how is .10 hook lengths don't break , and the top set. Breaks instead, but I was pulling quite hard !!!!!.
I did start to catch the odd better skimmer in the last half of the match, and the swim was getting stronger the closer to the end of the match we got, I probably put 12 lb in the net in the last 30 mins, I didn't want the match to finish, but it did and after a quick look I thought I had 25 lb ish, and it looked as though that was going to be enough to win the section which is what you need in this series, when the scales arrived my net went 27.13 which was well good enough for the section, in fact it was good enough to for third on the day, the lakes fished a lot harder than the previous day , and the bait going in the day before certainly triggered the carp into having a munch as most people had no end of problems, Andy power reckons he lost 28 and lots of people were into double figures of lost carp.    1st on the day went to don Sutherland on peg 124 with 33.14 on maggot over groundbait at 14 mtrs
2nd andy power n 103 with 28.12
3rd me with 27.13
4th Craig Edmunds on 69 with 24.04
5th Nick chedzoy on 112 with 23.02
6th mark leahy on 125 with 20.14

Viaduct silvers all winners final

I travelled down with Chris fox to this one , just to make sure he turned up to have one of the shit pegs, lol. So after the normal hot and tasty brekkie in shipham in the lillypool cafe it was off to viaduct for the draw, 46 were fishing and most of the talk was hoping for. The preferred pegs in the middle of lodge or themed 120,s on Campbell , no real mention of Cary except for trying to avoid 80, but we didn't have to worry as Bob gullck who managed  to push in front of the old boys in the draw queue pulled that out of the tin, serves him right 😂😂.
Shame Paul elmes didn't suffer a similar fate , but he pulled 78. Which is a Cary peg you always got t fancy.
I went into the tin and out pops 119, a nice carp peg but really lacking in any silvers form for a while now, so only the section or go for realistically , but with steve kedge on 116, client wojtyla on 123 and Gary Oshea on 126, which is where he had a good weight on Thursday. So I had my work cut out.
Rigs were as simple as ever 3 to make up, a .2g for down my right hand margin, which s a good depth and historically is good for tench and good perch, but recently it ain't , then I made up a .3 for top set  and 1 and also for 13 mtrs at 2 o,clock angle to my right and a .25 Corby pencil for 13 mtrs in front, double bulked for skimmers hopefully .
At the start I put a small ball of caster laced groundbait at 4 mtrs , 3 at 13 mtrs in front and 2 on the angle, loose fed some caster down the edge, starting at 4 mtrs feeding caster I was soon catching small roach in the 1/2 to 1 oz range , not. My favourite size fish, but at least something was going in the net, I gave it 45 mins And with no fish of any quality , I binned that line , well not totally binned I kept feeding it and had the occasional go on it but the size of fish stayed the same. Out at 13 mtrs and I couldn't get a bite to begin with, but after about 20 mins I started to get a few hand size skimmers,
But as has been normal here of late it's a case of catching a 2 or 3 then refeding and going to the other line and repeating the process, so although it wasn't fast and furious it was interesting with enough bites and indications to hold my attention, unfortunately my margin line only seemed to hold the same small roach I was getting at 4 mtrs so that was a waste of a hook then, so. I spent most of the match on the two 13 mtrs lines , I did. Get 4 good skimmers and two tench, one good one and the other a small stockie one , plus a good number of hand size fish, at the end I thought I may have 17lb ish bit after a quick look I thought 20 was a better bet, I new I had beaten the anglers in my section opposite but steve kedge had 7 tench on 116 plus other. Silvers, steve was first to weigh in our section  and put 20.7 on the scales, I got my net out and it looked close but I just edged it with 22.15, it was the 3lb er I had 5 mins from the end , Mr kedge now owes me 2 quid , perhaps I can talk him into double or quits tomorrow in the second round of the silvers league ,
Today's winner and going home 750 quid better off was mark saunders on peg 112 with 35.01 of mainly good skimmers on caster at 6 mtrs,
2nd was gabe skarba on 99 with 32.06. So all the good skimmers are far from dead in Cary
3rd steve den dad on 129 with 29.01
4th Andy power on 68 with 28.11
5th steve tucker on 110 with 26.04
6th Paul elmes on 78 with 26.03
Back tomorrow for the second round of the silvers league, then it's harescombe on Thursday for there costcutter, then next Sunday I am running an open at land send fishery so phone or txt me on 07974807941 to book in for Sunday, if you fancy harescombe just be at the fishery before the &Sam draw time

Avalon Thursday costcutter

Only going to be a short blog this one as only 8 of us turned up, so it's not enough to be called even a sweep, realistically I would like at least 10 or more to make it worthwhile, so I am doing another in a fortnight and if I don't get enough on that one I may not bother any more, I can't understand it really as its one of the fairest venues at the moment with the silvers and the overall being won off different pegs each time, the skimmers are spread out all over the lake probably due the uniformity in depth and features, and the carp are also spread fairly evenly with winning weights coming from all over the place,
So today I drew peg 36 and ended up with 27.10 of skimmers on worm over groundbait at 6 and 11 mtrs and six small carp on corn at 14 mtrs for 19.8 giving me a 47.2 total, no good in silver or overall,
First on the day went to the Aussie Taff , stuart barnett on 48 with 84.12, catching on pellet at 16 mtrs along the end bank
2nd and somehow Jason Radford on peg 42 came in with 80.12 of paste fish
3rd vic bush on peg 32 with 63.13 which included the top skimmer net of 39.7, all his fish falling to hard pellet
4th me with 47.12
5th Ray white on 30 with 39.4
As I said I will run another in a fortnight and hopefully get into double figures in attendance, it will be a 9am draw as the evenings are drawing in, this weekend it's a double header at viaduct with that'll winners silver final on Saturday and round 2 of the silvers league on Sunday, hopefully it will fish ok but the weather has cooled down and we are having some nasty easterly winds at the mo and it ain't going to change till the end of next week.

Viaduct open , lodge lake

firstly steve is still waiting for a few to confirm as to whether they are fishing the silvers all winners final on Saturday, so please ring him and let him know.
Thursday I am running one at Avalon again 9.30 draw , same rules , no floating or buoyant baits allowed including bread or artificials to be fed or used. So ring or text me on 07974807941 to book in, don't ring me in veals I got a week off, also Sunday 25th October I have one at landsend fishery so ring or text me on the same number to book, that will be a 9am draw as I think the clocks go back that day.
Back to viaduct and the draw , pegs to avoid really are the ones on the carpark bank so after trying to will peg 56 into Dom sullivans hand I only go and draw it myself !!!!!!!!, bugger, it's a peg with hardly any carp form and as far as the silvers go, the skimmers very occasionally Go or a break from being caught on the middle pegs . I discounted going for carp which may have been a mistake and decided to see how many silvers I could catch, looking on it as a bit of a practice for the silvers double header this weekend, the silvers all winners final on Saturday and round 2 of the silvers league on Sunday.
Only two rigs put together , both 4x12 rigs with my now normal size 18 middy 6313 hook on .10.
One rig was to fish close with spread shot for roach and things and the other was a small double bulk affair for hopefully putting a few skims in the net from the long line at 14.5 mtrs, at the start I cupped in 2 balls at 11 mtrs and 3 at 14 , but started on the close line with single caster on the hook, the small roach were fairly obliging , and with no one else seemingly finding the silvers on the munch I decided to stick with it , by the end of the first hour I was still catching 1to 3 oz roach and I had also had 2 8oz perch so was probably winning th esilvers at this point , but then odd skimmers began to put in an appearance further up the lake , trigger on 62 had a couple to go with his early carp on meat, Chris Davis on 70 was really struggling as were the anglers on the other silvers peg, Nick merry on 68, Roland Lucas on 69 but I think he was really fishing for carp and kev molten on 60 was fishless at this stage, Dom Sullivan on 73 had now begun to catch on soft pellet over softened 4,s , I tried the long lines, the 11 mtrs line was very slow but out at 14 mtrs I could get a bite a chuck but it was mainly small roach again, with only very occasional hand size skimmers, I spent the rest of the match switching between the two lines, I had my best fish from the inside line with a few more sensible perch and a loner skimmer of about 11/2 lb. it was fast turning into a bit of a small fish race for the silvers with Dom catching small skimmers on his pellets , then on maggot over groundbait towards the end, but we were being threatened by trig who was getting odd good skimmers on meat and Chris Davis was was now also getting a few better ones on chopped worm and caster so the silvers were going to be tight, as for the overall , you can't give an angler like Gary Oshea a peg like 66 and not expect him to catch. And he wasn't disappointing as he was catching steadily, not manic but enough to stay in front of trig who was making the most of the empty pegs around him, to end the match with 8 carp and several good skimmers, the last 30 mins I did have some hand size skimmers turn up on the long line and I couldn't get in there fast enough, but I thought it would b to little to late as trig and Chris had decent fish and Dom had topped up with a good hybrid and perch down his edge. I was third to weigh in and was really surprised to plonk, 24.11 on the scales, I was happy with that, and I led the silvers right round to Dom on 73 who put 27lb in the net, so no coin today.
1st place went to Gary Oshea on 66 with 101.9
2nd Craig Edmunds on 62 with 85.15
3rd Paul elmes on 57 with 31.8
4th mark wynne on 53 with 30.2
5th Jason Radford 29.13 on 59
6th Jamie Bowden on 64 with 28.13
I think it may get harder at the weekend as the wind is going to come from the north forcing air and water temps down which in turn will clear the water so a spot on draw will be more important than ever, you still got to fancy lodge lake pegs 68/69/70/71 60 and 62 , or somewhere on Campbell in the mid 120,s but who really knows as fish are funny things and don't always do as you would expect.

Harescombe thursday costcutter

Back up the m5 again to fish this nice little fishery, there was a much better turnout with 16 fishing, so after the not to bad a breakfast it was into the draw bag , out comes 22 , which doesn't really mean to much to me as I think it's a fairly fair venue with no peg that you would expect to win, even the much hyped 29 by the landslide only rarely seems to win ,for company I had terry girdlestone on 23 and today's travelling partner Jason Radford on 20. I only bought pellets to fish with today, so it was 4,s to feed and a 6 for in the band, so three rigs , a shallow one , a deep one for down the middle and another to fish on the deck against the island ,and also it would do for down th edge .
Terry called the all in and I started down the middle on the deck , it seems the norm that the lake can be a bit of a slow starter, and today seemed no different with very few fish being caught, 30 mins in and I was still fishless, but I wasn't to worried as I could see some fish on the far bank obviously feeding on the pellets I was firing over, so 30 mins in and I was going across with the shallow rig, never to try the deep down the track rig again , I was soon catching steadily on a banded 6 mm hard pellet , and the biggest part of my match was spent over by the island fishing 8 to 12 inches deep, getting plenty of bites and putting enough fish in the net to be doing ok as far as I could see, I had been feeding some 4,s down my left hand margin where the marginal spiky grass had been cleared , and I did have a few from there towards the end of the match, by the end I thought I may have just approaching 100lb but terry thought I would have closer to 130, but I new I never had anything approaching that weight, terry was the first person to trouble the scales and plonked 47.9 in the pan,
I was next and wasn't to far out with my estimate as I had 96.9 which was enough to take first spot .
2 nd was Mike Nichols on peg 12 with 67.12
3rd glen Bailey in 14 with 56.15
4th stuart barnett on peg 3 with 48.9
5th terry girdlestone on 21 with 47.9
6 th rich heatley on 11 with 41.5.
For those who are interested the viaduct silvers final is being fished on the Saturday 17th of October , for those that have qualified can you please let steve know asap as to whether you are fishing, phone him at the fishery on 01458274022 to confirm
Off to viaduct for a match on lodge lake Sunday , then next Thursday its another costcutter at Avalon, so to book in txt me on 07974807941 or ring me in veals on 01179260790 to book in

Viaduct silvers league , round 1

after the normal tasty breakfast at lillypool cafe it was off to the fishery ,49 were fishing today , there was meant to be 51 fishing but a couple of Larry let downs knocked it back, I can't believe people can't phone or txt to let organisers know they ain't coming, it's hard organising these things, that's me whinge over and done with.
I got early into the draw tin, and I fancied a peg on lodge preferably 68/69 or 70, I wasn't to disappointed to find 71 staring back at me from the swim card. It can be a good skimmer peg , suffice to say I had a bit of stick from the rest of the queue, for company I had inform craig(trigger) Edmunds on 73 and another tony ? On peg 70, and with Fabio, Dan squires , Nicky Collins and Paul elmes at our end of the lake it was never going to be quiet , and the banter was good , unfortunately for Fabio it was mostly directed at him, after all he hasn't fished to much this year so we had a bit of catching up to do, but he took it well.
I like to keep all things as simple as possible for my silvers fishing , so only two rigs to make up. Both 4x12 floats , heavy enough as the water is down at least a foot , one for a double bulk and the other a more conventional pul the float only type rig, both had size 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10 line, I have tried a few other hooks but this pattern from middy rarely lets me down, it doesn't look like a strong pattern but it seems man enough to land most rogue carp providing there lip hooked.
I don't use any worm on this venue it seems to be a bit of a carp attractor at this time of year , so it was a ground bait and caster approach, and not to heavy on the casters, ground bait was my normal mix of veals gimps gold and sensas lake. At the start which was blown a tad early by steve, that was a first he is normally a couple of minutes late but he caught us all on the hop today, he must have a new battery in the clock. I cupped in one small ball at 4 mtrs, 2 at 11 mtrs and three at 14 mtrs.
I started at 4 mtrs and soon had a few small roach and skimmers and a hybrid of about 8oz, but that was my lot there really apart from a few small fish when I tried it during the match. I was soon out at 11 mtrs , and I was catching hand size skimmers straight away, plus a couple of the lakes better ones, and there isn't to much to say about my match really as it went well, swapping between the 11 and 14 mtrs lines feeding both lines with occasional balls of g bait with a sprinkling of casters, I started on caster hook bait , but a switch to maggots on the hook was better, but caught steadily till about the last 45 mins when the carp turned up , upsetting the skimmers, but at the end I had a quick look in my net and reckoned on 45lb ish, I was a bit fearful of going over 50 in my net but trig confirmed what I thought and it looked like mid 40,s. In fact it was 46.8 which was enough for first on the day , and it was a busy day as I had a lot of small skimmers plus some better ones, I never got through a lot of bait , probably 1/2 a pint of caster and 1 1/2 kilo of groundbait,
2nd was Dom (limp wrist ) on 103 with 35.1, catching mainly on 4 mm expander over groundbait , which was good to see as most thought Cary was going to be really tough, so we'll done to him.
3rd steve kedge on130 with 32lb
4th Dan squire on 55 with 29.5
5th Nick ewers on 125 with 29.3
6th Paul elmes on 60 with 29.2
That was close then. 😂
Off t harescombe again on Thursday  so plenty of bites there then and back to viaduct again next Sunday for a match on lodge lake again

Two for the price of one

fished two matches this week, Avalon on Sunday then the over 50,s silvers only at the sedges on Monday.
Sunday firstly and it's a little bit disappointing that I could only get 11 to fish this one , especially when it fishing so well for carp and silvers , and it's about as fair a venue as you can get ,as it seems there are plenty of skimmers and bream up to 4lb seemingly in ever peg , plus there is a myriad of small fish to be caught on a topkit to hand, back to the match and I ended up on 35 which is just past the end of the second island , I could cast. Swag back at the island so the shallow wag was put up, then two long pole rigs for pellet , one on the deck and one shallow, and a silvers rig for 5 Mars for worm over ground bait with chopped worm and caster, I had an enjoyable day really , I think I may have caught well on the shallow wag out by the island but due to a nasty underwater snag which kept slicing my hook lengths I shelved that one , but I did get a couple , I also had a few carp on the deep pellet rig , but I kept coming back over the silvers line taking good skimmers , so by the end I thought I had 35lb of silvers and 45lb of carp, I actually had 39lb of silvers and 52lb of carp for 91lb in all,
The weights were good with 164.14 being top weight off peg 24, Dave downton
2nd 119.12 off peg 42 Paul elmes
3rd 97.10 peg 37, steve seager
4th 92.11 on peg 30, Jason radford
5th 91lb on peg 35 tony rixon
6th 89.15 on peg 38 Mike west
Silvers
39lb peg 35, tony rixon
34.13 peg 28 stuart graham
Monday over 50,s sedges brick lake.
25 turned up for this one today which is an excellent turnout really, even if we were all oldies,lol.
With that many fishing it meant we were going to be on brick with an overflow onto tile, everyone felt a draw on brick would be needed to win today as the skimmers are a much bigger stamp on that lake, so I go and draw 33 on tile lake , not ideal really, for company I had Phil clapp on 32 and mark , I can't read his surname sorry , on 34 , but I will say his wife makes lovely cakes which we had after the match with the usual complimentary tea and coffee supplied by Denise, I also had steve(scud) Jefferies behind me on 6 , who wanted a quid side bet seeing he was sat on a flier, only two rigs today, one to fish caster and the other with a bigger hook to fish worm, at the start I cupped in two balls at 6 Mars and three at 13 , all laced with caster and chopped worm, with skimmers and perhaps a tench and some eels in mind, well to say it was difficult was an understatement , odd bites was all you could get, with the caster rig being the most productive, small 2to 4oz skimmers being the only fish that seemed to want to feed , even those were proving difficult to trap, I kept topping up with balls of g bait bpduring the match, but it didn't seem to help or hinder, no one was emptying it , mark on my left had decided to fish the whip shallow and caught small fish the whole match, and Phil on my right was making his chopped worm and caster work to fashion , taking slightly better skimmers than me , but he did have a bit of carp trouble, I just kept plugging away putting small skimmers in the net with the odd better one to 12 oz, 10 mins from the no I was adrift of the anglers each side of me with Phil talking about chip shop sausages and being battered all round, but then I had 3 skimmers in the last ten mins that would probably go 3 1/2 pounds between them, making it close with the anglers each side, but the lakes had fished hard and Pete ? Won on peg 5 with 19.2
2nd was mark to my left with 16.4
3rd was me with 15.14 with the help of those three late skimmers
4th Phil Coupar on 9 with 15.6
5th Phil clapp on 32 with 15lb
6th Bob c n 15 with 13.4.
Ans what of steve Jefferies, well nuff said on that one , his 8.11 meant I was going large on the way home , thanks steve.

Thursday costcutter, harescombe

back to Gloucester today to harescombe fishery , I still can't believe it shaken me this long to to start fishing it as its a really nice fishery , with plenty of bites, also the onsite cafe isn't  to bad. I travelled up with Mike Nichols again and I find it strange that more people don't fish it , only 10 today and half of those were from Bristol, plenty of room for us all today then , into the draw bag and out comes peg 9, it doesn't mean to much to me as apart from the end pegs they are all the same , 13 mtrs ish wide, 5 foot in the middle and 2 foot against the boards on the island, only three rigs today , a shallow rig , one for down the track at about five mtrs on the deck, and another to fish against the boards and down the margin, bait today was 4 mm hard pellets to feed and 6,s for in the band.
Either side was stuart Barnett to my left and Gloucester old boy terry  girdlestone to my right, terry started the match with his patented duck caller , I went in at 5 mtrs expecting bites straight away but nothing happened, stuart also was struggling , but terry starting on the method flew out to the blocks , catching immediately , as was Adrian Clark next to him again, by the end of the first hour I had 3 f1,s and a couple of skimmers, stuart didn't have much more but terry and Adrian probably already had 15  f1,s I had been feeding 4,s to the island from the start , so went over with the shallow rig and never really did much else but fish shallow against the island catching steadily till the end and to be honest the peg was getting stronger towards the end, but I thought I was going to be a few fish behind from the bad start I had , the only plus was at I had caught quite a few 2 to 3lb proper carp so that may even things up a bit, I thought Adrian Clark two my right was going to win , and he did with 122.12, catching probably 90lb on the pellet feeder, and he rest on the pole towards the end
2nd was me with117lb
3rd stuart graham ( good to see him after a bit of a lay off) 100.14
4th Mike Nicholls 99.10
5th stuart barnett 97.4
6th terry girdlestone 91.4
No complaints with those weights when you consider its lots of f1,s and if you get a fish of three pounds it's a bonus, so I will be back there again in two weeks for lots more bites, hopefully a few more will turn up.
This Sunday I originally booked a match for landsend on lake three but I already had Avalon booked , somavalon it is then , if anyone fancies it ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in or ring me at veals on 01179260790 to book in

Sunday open, landsend fishery

I was hoping to get enough to use 3 and 4 lakes today , but with a couple of cry offs due to injury and a bit of fixture clashing , we only ended up with 11 so t was lake three only, I was last but one to draw and ended up on 58 which tends to be the last swim used on the right hand bank, it's always been a good draw so I wasn't moaning . For company I had to look at Dave westcott aka Mr bean over on 54 and my nearest neighbour was rod Wooten on 62 , rigs today were a meat rig for 5 mtrs, a pellet rig to fish n the deck each side and across on the island and it was all the same depth within a couple of inches so one rig did all on those pellet lines, and finally a shallow slapper/stalking rig.
At the start I began feeding 6 mm hard pellets across to the island and up by peg 57 to my right and a few 8,s to my left at 3 mtrs, and some meat at 5 mtrs, I began on the meat line and had a carp first put in , but a definate false dawn on that as I only managed one more on that line during the rest of the match , so no more about that , an hour in and with the sun out some fish were up on the top mooching about so it was out stalking and I managed a few good fish to 10 lb on that before the sun went in and most of the cruisers disappeared, I managed a few slur perks from the island but as always these fish are cagey and were quick to disappear once the pole appeared above there heads, so the margins were the most productive , left and right , so I ended up with I think 27 carp , but the margin fish were of a smaller stamp, Ron Hardiman on 66 also had 27 carp but of a bigger stamp so he was going to be the man to beat , also Dave roper on 70 was admitting to 100lb.
Ron came out n top with his 27 fish going 166.13. Catching all on meat from his right hand margin on meat
2nd was me with 133.9
4th Dave roper on 70 with 99.9
5th rod Wooten with 68.6 off 62
6th kev molten on 50 with 60.12
Silvers
Clapton Hudson on 42 with 23.10

Thursday cost cutter , avalon

i beginning to find it a bit strange that we are only getting small turnouts for these matches, only 10 today so we spread out on pegs 1 to 23 , I let ziggy draw for me today as we were having our normal pound , I ended up with 16 which is on the small island on my own, it's normally a good carp peg on the wag and lead, so just the wag for me then. I also set up a margin rig for pellet to empty peg 17 and a deep pellet rig for 16 mtrs, also a skimmer rig for 5 mtrs for worm over caster and worm in groundbait. I should have set up a shallow rig but never , well not at the start anyway.
At the start I cupped in some 6,s at 16 mtrs, and three balls of g bait at 5 mtrs, also some pellets to the empty pallet but apart from a liner that was a no hoper then. Starting at 16 meters with a banded 8mm I had a carp second drop then a skimmer, then nothing, I had a bit of fizz over the close line so went out with half a dendra , a short wait and a 2 lb skimmer was soon netted, I was also feeding pellets to two spots against the island and it didn't take to long for them to start slurping , but it was weird I had loads of fish in the swim but I couldn't get a bite, I had one fish on it but it was all very frustrating . I kept trying it but was going nowhere fast, I was also falling way behind in the carp stakes as glen Bailey , Mike west and Adrian Jeffrey were all catching well with glen and Mike catching well on the  paste and Adrian on the wag, I should have just concentrated on catching some skimmers but I kept trying to catch carp, but to no avail, I did set up a shallow rig with a couple of hours to go and had two quick carp and some nice hybrids , so I think if I had set it up at the start I would have had a few more carp , but I,m not sure it would have been enough as glen was still catching as was Mike west and I could see some splashing up on 23 where Gary (ned) Flanders was getting a few aswell, I kept dropping back onto the silvers line and netting odd good skimmers along with a couple of tench, by the end I thought I would have at least 25lb of silvers and 4 accidental (lol) carp, I hoped it would be enough to take the silver pool, but I new ziggy and Mike Nichols on peg 1 would be trying for them, but my 25lb turned into 34.5 for a silvers victory, so money back today which is always handy, the match was won by glen on peg 19 with 172.12 of paste fish.
2nd went to the Avalon bridesmaid , Mike wet with 134.12 again on paste on peg 9
3rd Gary flinders on 23 with 129.7, again mainly on paste
4th Adrian Jeffrey on 13 with 113lb
5th me with 61.9.
Off to land send again on Sunday on lake three with an overspill into 4 if I need it , so if anyone fancies it give me ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in r ring me in vials on 01179260790, it will be a 9.30 draw fish 11 to 5,
Also for those fishing the silvers league at viaduct , steve would like your monies or at least a phone call to confirm you are fishing, so ring him on 01458 274022