Total Pageviews

Thursday 29 January 2015

Weds emerald open

Only 10 ended up fishing today mainly due to the weather forecast, freezing cold with a strong westerly wind pushing rain, hail and sleet along with it, mike jones did his best to give everyone a bit of shelter behind the conifer trees, so 8 on ruby and 2 on sapphire, the only peg that was going to be weather affected badly was peg 1, but it's a good peg n the top bank of ruby with a small island at 10 mtrs so into the draw bag and out comes 1, happy with that , and the weather men have been known to get it wrong!!!!!. I got to the peg and not only was it the coldest, but it was also the muddiest.
Three rigs today, one for just off the island straight out and another at 11 mtrs to the right for a couple of spots, both for banded pellet so it was a b960 on ,14 for those two rigs and a caster rig for 4mtrs in front and to the left in front of a overhanging branch, that had the usual 6313 size 18 on ,10 line.
At the start I fed the three pellet lines with softened 4,s then started on the short caster line , I had bites from roach straight away, great, but it never lasted, and basically after about 20 mins that was the end of the close line, I did get a carp straight out and three down to the right but it was hard , our end didn't seem to have to many roach as rich Coles to my left and the gimp next to him were both fishing hard for them but they were really struggling getting only odd ones, looking further down the lake mike nicholls seemed to be swinging some out and mike jones next to him was also catching, so that decided it quite early on, carp it was then. Glen bailey on 7 seemed to be doing the best fishing banded pellet out to a small island at 14 mtrs in front of him. I went out to my little island and caught straight off , small carp and small goldfish crosses, but that soon got more difficult, so I tried the two longer lines off to the right but apart from a couple of small inbred thingy,s it was no bites there then, I fed the lines again and tried the caster lines but two small roach in 10 mins had me chucking that rig up the bank never to be used again, I persevered with the island swim gettin odd small carp but glen was pulling further ahead all the time. I had a really bad two hour spell in the middle but glen kept catching, then about two hours from the end , the two 11 mtr lines started to come good, only odd better carp(2lb) and lengthy of small crosses and even a couple of proper goldfish and fantails, but proper carp were being hard to come by, so the first 90 mins were ok and the last two hours were really enjoyable , which is more than can be said for the weather, the promised hail, sleet and rain, blowing into me and across, so by the end I had no feeling in my feet and hands and I was covered in mud. Considering the cold it fished well again with glen bailey winning with 47lb , second was Adrian jeffery on sapphire with 43lb, I was third with 39lb and dave bacon was fourth with 37lb , 5th was mike nicholls with about 24 lb which included top silver weight of 14lb ish, see his blog for the weigh sheet .
Off to viaduct for the second round of the winter league  it's my turn on cambell, it can be a cruel venue n the cold weather , but not to cruel to me I hope.













Monday 26 January 2015

Landsend league round 2

After a nice brekkie in lillypool cafe it was off to the draw with smeagol, aka Jason Radford, we got there just before the draw and with a bit of tactical chatting (learnt from Anton page) I found myself near the front of the queue, just ahead of Anne hegerty( mr poppleton) and waiting for Kendra Rayner to put the tickets into the relevant buckets as this is a series where you fish each lake once then have a redraw on the fourth match, it was my turn for match lake today, into the bucket and out comes 15, a good draw but on Saturdays match this lake fished really hard with only 30 something pounds and glyn wickham on my peg only managed 2lb of silvers(so I was told). I also had ken(dra) in the k/o and he was on 20 which was the peg he had drawn the day before and won the silvers with 11lb, but looking at the water I was suprised to see a tinge of colour in the water which was promising , getting to my peg I had trig Edmunds for company on 13 and an angler who has turned into a bit of a nemesis to me in the shape of a slightly chubby dan white. Also me and trig had a big slab of cat ice in our swims , but it melted away before the start, after the last time I was here and having to watch ken(dra) catch on prawns in his margins I had got some with me today but I had to put them into a dirty box to stop me eating them, I set up a margin rig for them and also the same rig would do for corn into the other side margin, but I only tried these margins once towards the end of the match but with no indications and a gut feeling I wasn't going to get a bite either, so no more on that waste of line and a hook then, I was glad I never took all the prawns today so that's a sarnie filling sorted for next week.
I set up a caster rig for 5 mtrs and two long pole rigs to fish at 14 mtrs at 11 and 1 angles , there was a big depth variation on the 2 lines with it being only 3 foot to the right but but 5 foot to the left, mainly due to the aerator in 13 which shifts all the silt/fish poo down the lake, hence the shallow water to my right , I set up to fish maggot over micros to my right and banded 6mm hard pellet over loose fed 4,s to my left. All rigs were 4x12 affairs as there was no wind to speak of and none forecast, the pellet rig had an 18 b960 on .14 line. The maggot rig had a 18 8313 on .12 and the silver rig had my fave hook which is the 6313 on .10.
At the start I fed some soaked micros with a few 4,s in some prawns and corn each side and fired some 4,s to my left, then started on the caster at 5 mtrs, it took me 10 mins to get a bite which was from a good perch, by now trig had snared a carp an f1 and lost one on soft pellet out by the aerator at  14 mtrs, 20 mins later the float dipped again and I was attached to something angry which wasn't hooked in  a part of the body it should have been, I came back with a slightly opened hook, so I took that off and put the stronger 20 8313 on .12 , this hook is the same size as the 18 6313 but much stronger making it a good hook for silvers aswell as being strong enough for carp, but that was the end of my silver line I never had another bite there, trig was catching and losing fish, but luckily he wasn't in my section, as I expected it was a hard day for most , including me , although I ended up with 60lb for a section win it wasn't hectic, I had 8 carp, three to my right on treble maggot over the micros and four to my left on banded pellet and one on a banded maggot shallow rig at 16 mtrs towards the end of the island , trig had a few on. The same sort of rig up the end bank , he also caught well on banded pellet on top of the island end bank shelf, just goes to prove on some days even in. The depths of winter the fish will venture into shallow water, it all depends where the warmest bit is, trig only fished in there as he could see them swimming up and down the far bank, not to much like an aquarium then. He ended up with 20 carp for 115lb and his second win in two weekends , second was Adrian Clark on peg 1 with 111lb, third was nick duckett on peg 11 AGAIN with 97lb then in. Fourth it was the irrepressible Pete nurse on peg 33 with over 90lb, I didn't get the full results but I,m sure ken will have. Them on his blog, I think I was 5 th with 60lb and mike duckett 6th with 57lb.
Top silver weight was Jason Radford on peg 70 with 16lb ish.
Off to emerald again on Thursday then round 2 of the viaduct winter league on Sunday, but with a nasty icy blast due towards the end of the week I,m not expecting it to be to good especially as I am on cambell Sunday and it can be a cruel lake in the cold .





















Thursday 22 January 2015

Thursday veals open, emerald pool fishery

Mike jones was running this one on sapphire pool today , which is the shallowest lake on the complex , but has bigger carp in than ruby and the roach are of a better stamp, mike got the draw under way at 8.45 and I took a ticket off rich Coles as he pulled two out stuck together, he did warn me as I opened it to reveal peg 2, and he had peg 3, the other side of me on peg 1 was mike keys, which was a bit f an end peg as the swims to his left were left out as the Reeds were a bit thick and all were right parrot cages where it was all but impossible to lift a topkit up. Only 3 rigs to put together today , a roach rig for caster at 4/5 mtrs , a banded pellet rig for the far side against the island at 11 mtrs, which was still about a mtr off the island due to the collapsed foliage coming off the island , and I had bought a couple of slices of bread  a bit of dobbing, but  with all the underwater snags I didn't holed out much hope of it working,
Now as far this blog is going to go I haven't got to much to say, I started on the short caster line as did  mike to my left , the only difference was he was getting a bite a chuck whereas me and richard sat biteless virtually, I had a couple of roach but the swim never got going in any shape or form, odd roach from here and there , three carp off the island , two on pellet and one on bread . While all the time mike was catching well, roach at 4 mtrs then towards the end carp, all falling to maggot over maggot, richard to my right kept plugging away on the roach but didn't really do much as they kept coming and going, all the fish seemed happy to sit in front of anglers with a bit of room, mike key ended up with 51.3 which was 17.7 of roach and 33.12 of carp which I thought would bee nought o win, but mike west had other ideas , he was on the island and ended up with 55.4 to win
3rd was the gimp with 39.15
4th gabe skarba with 34.10
5th Adrian jeffery 28.6
6th Pete turner 13.13
So I was well and truly chip shopped sausaged as I ended up with 11lb and rich Coles on a 3. Had 11.11, roll on next Thursday as we are back down there again but on ruby , which at this time of year is the better lake as there aren't the big reed beds for the fish to hide in.






Monday 19 January 2015

Viaduct winter league round 1

Tha draw for this series is in the pub in somerton, where for a fiver it's a help yourself brekkie, which is very nice as the food is good quality but it does tend to be a bit cool at times, but it is very good value for money, I'll be back .
This first match determines the rotation of lakes for the team, so into the draw tin and I pull out letter E so with my name at the top of the team sheet I was on spring lake today and for the rest of the series I will be on cambell next ,then Cary followed by lodge then match lake last, doing it this way gives the anglers a bit more chance to prepare and even practice if they feel the need, next  was to draw a number which gives us out sequence of pegs for the day, I pulled 10 which gave us 123/87/59/1 and me on 11, a couple of. Reasonable pegs but not the best draw in the tin, as it was my birthday I was expecting a birthday peg doh , peg 12 is far from good, in the spring lake section generally speaking you are looking for an island chuck or a couple of the corners, peg 11 is neither, unless you are one those who push the limits of there swims in which case you could throw the angler on 16 a deffy and throw in his peg, but that's not me (honest) especially when the angler on that peg was a nice bloke in the shape of steve Skelton , and he wouldn't have done it to me, lol.
For company I was next to minuscule travelling partner, Jason Radford on 12 and welsh lead chucking legend glyn Reynolds on 10, who being the gent that he is offered me the option of casting to the tree in front of him but I declined, mainly due to the fancy that by he had finished trying to lip up close to the tree, the 30 attempts had probably scared most of the large scaly foe well out of the swim !!!!! Ha ha .
The pound bet was struck with glyn, and with the. Odd times we had had a bet I don't think he has beaten me, but he does normally carry a stupid yellow bobble hat around for his conquests to where so he can put it on FB with the beaten handing there quid over, so that was a spur on for me .
I set up today to fish corn on the wag over towards the island but about 20 mtrs off, and two pole rigs, one for 4 mtrs with caster over caster as sometimes some good perch show along this bank, and a skimmer rig to fish over groundbait and caster at 14 mtrs, at the start I fed the relevant pole lines by which time I think steve long on 19. Was playing a carp caught against the island, so I picked up the wag with apiece of corn on, there was a bit of pull on the lake even though there was no wind at the mo , but third cast the float buried and I had a carp on, after a careful 5 minute fight a nice ten pound common was in the net, good start. But the wind picked up a bit pushing the float through to much , I did have another bite on the wag but it looked more like a liner and the corn was still on the hook when I wound in.
I did try it for over an hour but nothing was happening, there kad been a couple more carp caught by the island anglers and in two of the corners, so I was still in the mix really, time for the pole, starting on the 4 mtr line with caster only a couple of small roach , so probably no perch in residence at present, so out to 14 mtrs, first two put ins and two lost skimmers gutted, after that it became a bit harder as you would expect, when I did get e bite it was from small skimmers and roach, with the water being clear you can't really afford to bump these fish. I spent the rest of the match swapping between the two pole lines catching small fish, I did manage skimmers to 12 oz aswell as perch of the same size but it wasn't good , especially as some anglers now had two or three carp off the form pegs, Jason to my left had a couple of small fish and glyn to my right had caught a couple of shell shocked skimmers on the feeder, perhaps I should have chucked the tip out and tried to snag a couple of carp but with the anglers each side doing that for most of the match to no avail I think I made the right choice, and at least I felt I was doing something other than an asda gnome impression, by the end I new I was going to be a bit down the lake section as there were a few anglers with two or more good carp which would be enough to beat me, as expected our bank was dire, Dom Sutherland on 13 had 2oz, Jason had 1.7 I had 18.8 with the help of the 10.2 carp and 8.6 of silvers, glyn had 6lb & Chris fox on 9 had 5lb, the lake weights all came from a couple of corners and island pegs, I left before the results but I know trigger won off peg 73 on lodge dobbing bread up and down his margin for about 150lb, there was another ton on lodge on 66, aswell as 97 on Cary and 110 & 132 on cambell, silvers didn't really feed probably due to the bright skies and clear water, I think about 15lb won that off spring, mike nicholls has probably got the weigh sheets on his blog,
Thursday I am off to emerald again, so that will be a few bites even in this cold weather, so give me a ring on. 07974807941 or ring veals on 01179260790 and book with me or mike jones to book in.




















Thursday 15 January 2015

Thursday veals open, emerald fishery

We started with 13 and ended up with 9 fishing, mainly down to various sickness bugs, which can't be helped .
After the normal nice breakfast at lillypool cafe it was off to the fishery, these matches tend to be mainly frequented by the Thursday coffin dodgers, so it was no suprise to see the complan communal mug being passed round, luckily I can't partake of this ritual till Sunday , after which I will be 55 and legible(I can hardly wait). Pools paid to organiser mike jones and I went for a wander round, we were fishing on ruby lake today , which is the smallest of the three coarse lakes, it has lots of small carp and fantail/ goldfish crosses, which are normally very obliging all year round, unfortunately it's not the best for silvers with only roach being present in any numbers.
Time for the draw after my walk and out comes peg 6 which today was the end peg on the far bank towards the left hand end, company wise I had organiser mike jones to my left on 5 and the gimp ( I can't get away from him lol) on 8 which was on its own on the top bank, rigs were simple , 2 4x12 rigs one for roach with caster and the other was for maggot and corn over micros at 11 mtrs on 2 angles , 12 and 2 o,clock ( no soft pellets today as I forgot to bring them ). At the start I began at 4 mtr on caster after I had fed the longer lines, it didn't take long to start catching roach , and they weren't to bad a size really with most of them being between 2 and 5 oz and with a few small carp mixed in it was nice to have some bites considering the weather, glen bailey on 4 was doing the best on the carp stakes , although they did look to be small fish, I plundered the roach for as long as I could , but when the bites stopped about 90 mins in I couldn't get them back, even going further out didn't help, so I all but binned that line, mike to my left kept catching a few and looked to be on course to take the silvers money, but mike nicholls opposite on peg 9 was winkling a few out in between some carp aswell, even the gimp on 8 was beating me now as his roach shoal had disappeared , only to be replaced by small carp, much to his disgust. Both my 11 mtr lines gave me a couple of carp but it wasn't really happening , I tried corn, which again produced a couple but it wasn't good, so I got off my box, opened the 4 mm hard pellets and began kindering a few on each line and fished a banded 6mm over them, it turned my day around, and the last couple of hours were good with carp coming to it , anything from goldfish and small crosses up to my biggest fish of about 5lb, feeding both lines and trying to alternate between the two kept the small carp coming,  at the end it was hard to say who had won , I had glen down for first and probably mike nicholls down for second, so was a bit suprised to plonk 46.4 on the scales for first,
2nd was glen bailey with 43.8
3rd mike nicholls with 43lb, which included the top silver weight of 8.4
4th John Bradford 39.8
5th rich Coles 33.3
6th Pete turner 32.2
Off to viaduct this Sunday for the first winter league,
Anyone looking for a match this Sunday , there is an open at chilton trinity on woodland lake, to book in give mish a ring on 07896982567,
Next Thursday we are running another on at emerald , but this time we will be on sapphire pool, which has a much bigger head of silvers, with some real quality roach being present, also the carp are of a better average size, to book in ring me or mike jones at veals on01179260790 or ring or txt my mobile 07974807941 to book in














Monday 12 January 2015

Landsend loyalty match

Only 14 of us fished this one so mike put 7 on speci and the same on match, so into the draw and out comes two tickets stuck together, I should take a leaf out of mike nicholls book and chuck them back in and find a loner ticket without a parasite stuck to it, but no I offer one to mike duckett which turns out to 33, possibly the best all year round peg on the lake , and I open 39, not a god peg any more at any time of the year, so off to the peg but not feeling to confident, there were a few fish at this end the day before , but I had my doubts as to whether the would still be in attendance today. I drew the same peg last time I was on here a few weeks before in the landsend league and dipped out , I did catch some silvers so I half made my mind up to fish solely for them today, but due to the fact the carp fed the day before I kind of talked myself out of it. I haven't got to much to say about the match really, I did get one carp of about 7lb on soft pellet , a couple of f1,s and a skimmer on hard pellet by the island and some roach, who were proving to be a nuisance, I did lose a couple of foulers on the island but it was generally hard, so not to much to report as I weighed 15.12 for no good at all , as expected the fish were caught as normal on 31/32/33/34. Apart from ken Rayner opposite who did well to win the silvers with 13lb, he caught most of his perch if not all on prawn over caster, he also managed a carp on it aswell, I went round to have a look and he seemed to be feeding a few chopped prawns on a bed of finely chopped iceberg lettuce with a bit of thousand island dressing drizzled over the top, even it fancied it, I was duly beaten by a surf and turf angler, top on the day was steve Seager on 32 with 98lb and second went to trigger on 24 with 89lb, 3rd was mr duckett on the peg he stole from me 33, with 50 something pounds , followed by his son nick on 11. With a slightly smaller 50lb, so well done to all of them, I,m off. The emerald on Thursday for a mike jones match, but looking at the weather forecast I,m not sure if that's going to be a good idea, ye right I,ll be there I,m looking forward to it already, and next Sunday it's the first of the viaduct winter league matches.

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Well it was a costcutter for me then , even though I don't really like them, as I have to work Wednesdays now they seem to be my best option, these acorn affairs are well run by mike chapman and ray bazeley , well they don't seem to get to many problems.
No brekkie at the fishery today as the chef is off sick, get well soon bev.
So into the draw tin and I was being a bridge troll today as I pulled 34 , for company I had the ever laughing Barry fitchew on 33 and the next angler to my left was andy gard on 37.
I set up a couple of rigs to fish along the bridge in various places, but the normally reliable shoal of fish which inhabit this bridge seemed to have gone as I never had so much as a dip on the float so I won't mention them again.
A rig for 7 mtrs which was just over halfway to the island and another to use to my left at the bottom
Of the slope, maggot was my main bait today , so at the start I cupped in some caster at 7 mtrs and to my left, some maggot and micro along the bridge (wasted),
I started at 7 mtrs with single maggot and it took 10 mins to get a bite, that was from a skimmer, and by the end of the first hour I had 2 f1,s one carp and another skimmer, and that was my last bite for a couple more hours, no one seemed to be getting much and even the silver ace mr fitchew on33 never had a fish till about 15 mins from the end, I did get a couple more skimmers down to my left and missed a couple of sail aways aswell down there, and I can only put them down to liners as all I hit was fresh air, in the last hour I shallowed up a bit and went up the ledge towards the far side, and I. Had 1 more f1 and two carp , one of which I was playing on the whistle , which turned out to be the biggest one of about 6lb, at the end I thought I had 7lb of silvers and I thought my three carp would go 10lb and I wasn't to far out as my silvers went 7.6 and the carp went 11.10 for a 19lb total and first on the day
2nd went to venue expert and match organiser mike chapman on 6 with 17.11
3rd andy gard on 37 with 17lb
4th lee Waller on 11 with 16.14
5th j Gunter on 40 with 11.4
6th mike Owens on 27 with 9.6
Silvers by default went to dave wride on peg three with 5.8





Monday 5 January 2015

Avalon open match

Well it's been three years to the day all Barr one since I last fished this venue, and I was looking forward to it as it's been fishing ok and as always it's a place where it's hard to predict which peg is going to throw up the winner.
We had 20 fishing which ain't to bad for a Sunday open around here, I think we would have had more but some of the venue regulars were committed to other things,
Into the draw bag and out comes 29 which is the first peg on the top island on the right hand bank, for company I was next to Leon Hubbard on 27 and venue expert Tom mangnall on 32, so plenty of room for all. With a light wind blowing off my back I decided to not set a lead rod up(like it was going to happen anyway), so wag for full depth for 8mm pellet, and two pole rigs, both .4 pencils, one with an 18 6313 on ,10 to fish maggot and caster at 13 mtrs over g bait and the other with an 18 8313 on ,12 for 16 mtrs for various baits over micros.
At the start I cupped in three balls of caster laced g bait at 13 mtrs and some soaked micros at 16 mtrs, and fed some 6,s towards the island, the anglers each side started on the lead whereas I started on the pole at 13 mtrs on single maggot, to see if there was a mug skimmer about early on, there was but it was all of 2oz, so I put that down and picked up the wag, chucked it out and sat there not expecting to much, so I was well suprised when it buried and I was winding a 3 lb skimmer in,  false dawn again, I sat on it for a further 45mins for not another bite, I did miss a bite on it towards the end but I don't think it was going to happen, Tom to my left had a couple on the lead chucking to his island and trig opposite on 20 was getting some squeaker carp on the lead and 8 mm pellet. I went back on the pole and stayed on it till the end fishing between the two lines, but that was very slow with only small roach to show for my efforts, Tom was on the pole now and had popped a couple of skimmers into the net, but both me and Leon were struggling, Nigel Bartlett on 24 was catching small fish down by a sunken tree but no one else seemed to be setting it on fire, only fishery owner vic bush on peg 6 was getting much and according to the bush telegraph he was getting odd carp on the feeder cast tight to the island with maggot on the hook,
It was only in the last couple of hours that my swim started to Yield a few, I had some good skimmers/ bream off both lines with fish to over 3lb, Leon had a few aswell as did Tom who also had some small carp aswell, I had 1 carp at 16 mtrs and lost one too, At the end I thought I had 16lb of silvers and one carp for hopefully 20lb, I got round to help vic with the weigh in vic on peg 6 was top on the day with 66.12 , catching mainly on the feeder but he also had a few on the pole ,
2nd was Tom on 32 with 32.7
3rd trigger on 20 with 27.8
4th me with 24.13 which included the top silvers weight on the day with 20.01
5th Nigel Bartlett on 24 with 21.13
6th steve Seager on 12 with 19.2
Fishing again on Tuesday but not to sure where to go yet, probably acorn as I don't think there are to many options on a tuesday