Monday open, Landsend fishery

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

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

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

WHAT NO KEN

Float only league rnd 1

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

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

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

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

Thursday costcutter, viaduct fishery

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

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

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

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

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

Viaduct spring league rnd 3

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

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

City rovers charity match, shiplate farm

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

Thursday costcutter, shiplate farm

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

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

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

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

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

16 fishing today so plenty of room for everyone, the draw was at 8.45 and I was quite early into the draw bag and out comes peg 18, not complaining as it can be a good swim and it has thrown up some decent weights in th a last couple of months, I was next to Dave wride who was on 15 , apologise to the angler on 21 , I didn't get his name,
No guesses for the first item out of the box today.

Ha ha ha .
Rigs today were a couple for on the deck over, one for down

the shelf in about 2 feet of water, the same rig would do for the empty pallets each side, the other over rig was for on top of the shelf in about 12 inches of water, and the last rig was a dibber for shallow in case any decided to come up. I was soon ready to go but still had 30 mins to kill , so a bit of a wander , and a chat with kev Jefferies on 34(yes Bob gullick, he was meant to be there), back to my peg with just enough time to put the nets in.
I began in the 2 foot deep swim across , and was soon netting my first carp, but apart from a couple of foulers and a few small pasties that was my lot for the first hour, a bit worrying , especially as I could see a few catching, Paul faiers on 23 seemed to be doing the best , but Alan oram over on 2 was sneaking a  few in, gabe skarba on 5 was doing ok but losing plenty.
I was having a proper grueller , after 3 hours I was up to 3 carp and a couple more mini carp, then I began to get a few across in the shallow water , all proper carp, not an f1 in sight, but in was loose feeding hard 6,s with an 8 in the band, not really conducive for f1,s, I caught odd fish right it the end with carp up to about 7lb, I ended up with 22 proper carp and a handful of mini,s.

22 on the clicker, 11 in each net so no cock ups today, I thought I may have 70lb , but it wouldn't be any good today,
1st on the day today was Alan oram on peg 2 with101.1 catching mainly down the track on soft pellet
2nd Lewis walker on 9 with 95.9
3rd gabe skarba on 5 with 90.9
4th me with 86.8, the fish in here are certainly getting bigger.
5th ziggy slowinski on 37 with 75.13
6th mat tomes on 27 with 74.10.
A close match where one or two fish would have made.all the difference.
Off to shiplate for there costcutter on Thursday, should be a nice bit of practice for the rovers v city match on Saturday, then round 3 of the viaduct spring league on Sunday,
Still got some spaces for the bank holiday Monday match at Landsend, ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in.

Round 1 short pole series

Back to Chilton trinity and woodland lake for this 4 match series, 24 booked in, so 4 sections of 6 for the points. I got mishandled to draw for me and she handed me peg 13 , not a bad draw, especially as 12 isn't in as its a tad close, for company I had rod Wooten on 14 and Emma Drysdale on 11, we can only use a topset and 3 sections, so inset up a pellet rig for the margin mainly down towards 12 , a deep meat rig for the "long" line and a shallow pellet rig,
At the start I went straight in on the deep meat rig, but it was a bit slow, only Joe McMahon on 33 and Bob gullick on 32 were catching early doors, and they were fishing shallow, so 20 mins in and with only a good f1 on the meat I was reaching for the shallow rig, I kept feeding meat but slapped pellet around shallow , and I soon began catching, after 2 hours I had 9 carp in my first net, so I put in a second, and from then on I caught well enough to keep me in contact with Joe and Bob, Emma Drysdale began catching a few , some shallow then later on meat in her margins, rod Wooten the other side was also catching quite well in the margins, I was doing well but I suffered a massive meltdown on the fish counting and weight guestimation in my second carp net, by the end I thought I may be over the 70lb net limit in the 2nd net , only the scales would tell, the weigh in started on the far side and Joe was winning with 145.11 to Bob's 137.9 , Emma Drysdale plonked 1 ounce over the ton , now I new in was in trouble with my second net , my first net went 58lb , and as soon as I lifted the second out I new I had gone way over, 70 to 80 you get 70, over 80 and the net is lost, so today I was mainly a twat as I had about 90lb so lost the net, that is the first net I have ever lost totally, I've been over the 70 Mark and lost a few pounds , but today it probably cost me winning, at least it gave everyone a laugh, as I said , today in am a twat.
So Joe won Bob was second Tom mangnal was third with 120.4 on peg 29 and Emma Drysdale
was 4th 29th 100.01.
Silver's went to Martin McMahon with 16.8 of whitebait, meaning it was a father and son double win so fairplay to them.

That's enough from me as I'm off to slash my wrists , no doubt I will be having a bit of stick this week, but lucky for me I'm not fat, I've just got very thick skin LOL.

Harescombe Thursday costcutter

17 today so just about right for this lake, after one of Andy's nearly adequate breakfasts it was draw time, second into the bag and out comes 24 disc, nice , Stuart Graham drew it on Tuesday on the old gits invitation only match on Tuesday and won it with 150lb, so I was hoping for a few then, for company I had Terry Jones on 23 and no one on 25, so I had an end peg aswell.
Out and out pellet attack today, so a shallow and a deck rig for across, and the same rigs would do for down my margin and on the end bank, also a deep rig for 4 mtrs.
At the start I fed all longer lines with 4mm pellet and began at 4mtrs, it didn't take long to hook an f1, unfortunately it was in the tail, but it was safely netted. Apart from a skimmer.that was my lot off that line, meanwhile Terry girdelstone down on 21 was catching on his favoured small method feeder slung to the far bank, it was a good chuck it must have been all of 13 mtrs, lol.
With the short pellet line seemingly devoid , unfortunately went to the far bank, that wasn't much better, with only a couple of missed bites, so it was the end banks turn, although not brilliant, I did begin to put some fish in the net, but I was playing catchup with Terry, who was still catching on the method, not quickly but at least he was putting some away, the rest of the lake looked to be fishing hard , I came back into the margin, and had a nice little run of decent f1,s, meaning I had reigned Terry in a bit as the middle part of the match was harder for him, I mainly concentrated on the margin and end bank till the end of the match, catching odd fish but never setting the world on fire, it seemed to be impossible to get the fish lined up, , they certainly didn't want to feed properly as I had a fair few fish hooked around the face, I did lose more today than I generally do, so I put it down to them not being to hungry for some reason, by the end I thought I may just scrape 50lb, so when Andy started the weigh in with me I was happy to put 61.14 on the scales, it should have been more as I missed the net with 2lb, and it cost me today as Terry won on the day with 62.12
3rd was Mike Nicholls on 30 with 46lb
4th John wood on 6 with 40.10
5th Stuart Graham on 3 with 33.14
6th Terry Jones on 23 with 31.2

Another long walk from the van then, off to Chilton Sunday for the first round of my short pole series, I still got room for a couple more.

Viaduct spring league rnd 2

After another spot on breakfast cooked by Caroline at cafe Fox it was off to the fishery with Chris.
Full house again with 54 fishing so Campbell Cary and lodge in the mix. In early at the draw behind Mark poppleton, and we were pitted against each other in the k/o, he pulled out 2 tickets so I relieved him of one , he ended up on 102,  a peg I had on Thursday costcutter and struggled a bit, I opened my ticket and had 109 staring back at me , its tucked back in the corner of Cary right by the Carpark, a definite feast or famine peg, there are always some resident fish here, but the wind had been blowing into this corner for several days so I hoped some better fish had been blown in, but its a nice peg as its your own little lake to fish in and you get a good view looking up the lake.

I could have set up a wag and lead but didn't fancy that so it was a pole job today, so inset up a meat rig for 5 mtrs in front, and the same rig would do for down to the left, which was a proper snag pit with lots of branches and other vegetation to cause problems with hooked fish, so the meat rig was put on the acolyte carp pole , which seems to be high on unbreakable.

I set up a deep pellet rig for out by the tree in front at 16 mtrs, but I never had a bite there , so no more on that then, a shallow rig just in case , but again a non starter, and the other rig was for 16 mtrs off to the left against the bank in about 15 inches of water , set up to use banded 8mm over loose Fed 6,s,

On the whistle I Jed all lines with the relevant baits and began at 5mtrs on meat, first drop the float settled and went under, carp on, shame it was hooked in the tail and came off, then it got a bit better as I landed 6 fish in the next 40 mins , so off to a good start, but with this peg a good early start came be bad as the fish bigger off away from the commotion, and they did from that line as all I had from it during several attempts during the match resulted in one tench. So next it was down to my left in the snag pit, and in had several more from there, I was glad of the carp pole as in think anything else would have blown up, cos I had to pull like a bitch to drag them out from under the snags, I also landed several nice branches along the way aswell, some times I landed several branches all tied together with line ,and a few fish managed to transfer my hook to the branches , but I did get some nice fish up to 14lb.

After all the commotion it became a bit difficult down that edge , so I had to go along the left hand edge  where several more graced the net, I ended up with 19 carp ,which would be ok but with Gary o,Shea also having 19 carp it was between us two for the section, I admitted to 180lb but Gary thought he would have 190ish, good weights really but smiles off the pace today as Andy Crocker was top on the day with a very impressive 309.5, all caught short on the meat with some top ups down his edge .
2nd was Tony Gilbert on 53 with 296.2
3rd callum Craig on 135 with 256.12
4th Bob Giles on 112(again) with 247.13
5th Steve seager on 114 with 220.10
6th Gary o,Shea on 103 with 205.14
Gary won our section then but I was second with 182.12, which was actually 7th on the day, the weights were incredible with 31 weights over 100lb with 1 over 300 and 5 more over 200, there isn't another venue like it in the country, fairplay to Steve and his family for making it the fishery it is.

Thursday costcutter, viaduct fishery

Another good turnout today with 39 booked in, so we were spread over Campbell Cary and lodge, waiting for the draw I had a conversation with roy"the bomb" worth who fancied a day on the wag as he has made himself some to try out, that would be interesting, there must be an aresly bomb incorporated into there construction some where, he even has the end of his float rods painted orange, a quick Selfy of me and Roy the legend below, I'm not sure who looks older !!!!!!!!!

Into the draw tin of dreams and out comes 102 on Cary, a nice peg with lots of form, but the word was that Cary had switched off a bit, so I was expecting a bit of a grueller, rigs today were a couple of wag affairs, one shallow and one deep, a couple of pellet rigs to fish at 14 mtrs again one shallow and one on the deck , and the obligatory meat rig for 6 mtrs. Travelling partner Chris Fox was on 74 so no moans from him , I think he was just grateful to have avoided lodge lake. For company I had Glen "2pots" Bailey on 103, and he was having a bit of a moan as he reckoned his peg wasn't normally in, pic below of my peg and Glen sat on his aswell.

At the start I began on the depth pellet rig at 14 mtrs, but nothing happened, worrying . Normally as soon as you fire some pellets around the float on this lake , liners follow as the carp move in, attracted by the noise, opposite on 74 Chris managed to mug a couple early doors, , Glen started on the wag and soon lost one, that was the only real action either of us had on the wag, so no more of that , I did lose a fouler but I didn't count that, it was really strange that liners on the depth wag were nearly non existent, which on this lake is virtually unheard of.
It turned into a match of 2 halves for me , the first half gave me one carp and a skimmer, the second half started better with some decent skimmers turning up on the long pole line , then 90 minutes from the end I had a carp and a skimmer on the short meat line , then 3 quick carp on the long pole on the deck, and in was still catching odd skimmers, by now Glen had caught 6 carp on the tip, I must say it was sad to see, he has gone from being one Bristol finest float anglers to someone who fishes with a bell on his rod, I did get one more carp on the whistle, so I had the same number of carp as Glen but I had good doubles of skimmers, so the peg to peg battle was won by me but overall we had done no good, and Jack billett the other side of Glen had beaten him aswell, chip shop sausage LOL.
Jack had 111lb Glen 64 and me 87, it was quite difficult. I did have 25.3 of skimmers so I hoped I may sneak in and perhaps get my money back. Top weight on the day went to Ben ludwell on 111 with 184.2
2nd ash on 119 with 157.8
3rd Scott Russell on 124 with 155.7
4th I Dunlop on 126 with 153.2
5th Chris Fox on 74 with 142.13
6th Wes Gardner on 81 with 128
Silver's 1st Scott Russell on 124 with 45.1 of skimmers
And I snuck in second with 25.3 of accidentals just 2 ounces.ahead of the gimp, John Bradford who fished for them all match ha ha ha .
Anyone interested I will be running an open on Landsend on bank holiday Monday at the end of May, match and number 3 lake , so anyone interested ring or txt me on 07974807941 to book in

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Only 8 turned up today, very disappointing. I think there may be some issues between the controlling club and the Tuesday and Sunday organisers, nuff said.
So plenty of room for all, I took the last ping pong and ended up with 24 in my hand, non for company, just gabe skarba to look at but unable to hear due to the wing being westerly meaning the constant drone of the m5  was very loud,
Rigs today were two pellet rigs for across, one up in the grass and the other just down the shelf in 2 foot of water, a pellet rig to use each side to the empty pallets ,but I won't mention them again as in tried them several times but never had a bite.
The other rig was a caster rig to fish each side at 4 mtrs in the margins in about 15 inches of water, I don't normally take casters but I was let down on Sunday by someone who ordered them then never had them, you will know who you are lol, TF.
to cut a long story shirt I've had an interesting day catching on all pellet rigs across and later in the match on caster down my edge , mainly to my right , I did get a few to my left but not until I went a bit longer, about 7 mtrs.
Gabe opposite caught well down his edges as was Dave wride down on 15 so it was going to be between those two for the main places, but being a costcutter third place was basically a get your money back, the weigh sheet below tells the tale of the tape with Dave wride coming out on top, with gabe filling second spot and me beating Dom Sullivan into 4th for my money back, a nice day with plenty of bites really, so no moans from me , there was also a new by on the banks today in the shape of George brinza from Romania, he seemed to enjoy his day and had 50plus pounds off peg 3.

Sunday Landsend open, sunday

After one of di,s delicious breakfasts I had a quick walk around the lakes , then went back to sort the pegs out and take the pools, 28 booked in or so I thought !!!!,,
I did the shout and got the draw underway, with only a few left to draw it became apparent that I had missed a name , I had taken the money but forgot to a name , so unable to get everyone back for a redraw, I decided to put the extra peg in, as it stood everyone had an empty swim on one side or an end bank to fish to, the only option I could see was to put 20 in, but that meant all  pegs between 18 and 22 would be in, it probably comes as no surprise that I ended up on the extra peg, which probably wouldn't help me , also it would make life a bit harder for Mike Nicholls who was on 21, and he had just lost the bonus of his empty peg, sorry Mike.
The other side of me on 19 was my favourite polish match angler, ziggy slowinski , who wanted a pound , so I duly obliged, even though I thought I may be giving it away.
I didn't set up to much in the way of rigs , a couple to fish pellet, one against the island , and the other to fish down the island slope a bit in 3 foot of water, and the other rig was to fish meat, 2 lines at 13 mtrs, 11 and 1 o'clock, and also at 6 mtrs,
At the start I began on the longer meat lines , but it was difficult, with no one at our end of the lake seemingly to be catching, I could see some splashing up my left in the vicinity of Tim Clark,
By the end of the first hour I had managed 1carp, a big die and an f1, so not really going to plan then, the island gave me a couple of carp and another big skimmer, so I tried down the shelf a bit and had a couple of f1,s 2 carp and 2 big skimmers before that died,  after that it became all but impossible to get a proper bite anywhere, ziggy had by now pulled ahead so the quid was looking dodgy, Mike the other side was having just as difficult time as me, there seemed to still be a lot of splashing up at the other end of the lake, my best spell was in the last 90 mins when there were  some fish on the short meat line , I ended up with 14 carp up to about 9lb and some more skimmers, for what I thought may go 70lb but I admitted to 60, it was going to be close between me and ziggy for the quid, but incessant expecting to pick up today.
It turned out to be a good close match, with Gary o,Shea coming out on top of the pile with 103.4 off peg 16, catching on meat fishing across tight to the island.
2nd Tom mangnal on peg 61 with 102lb
3rd Paul faiers on peg 70 with 90.14
4th Bob gullick on peg 41 with 87.8
5th Tim Clark on 15 with 85.5
6th Leon Hubbard on 13 with 83.15
7th was me with 83lb
Silver's
1st was the invisible man on peg 8 with 25.4, mainly skimmers and f1,s
2nd was me with 19.12
3rd Joe McMahon on peg 42 with 16.12
4th Martin Alexander on peg 66 with 15.11
All in all I good tight match.