Viaduct silver's league, penultimate round

Only me and Judith travelling down today as Pete notton is still a sick note, after a nice brekkie in shipham it was off to the fishery.
Early as normal into the draw, but due to my drawing arm seemingly fallen off I decided to let Judith draw for me, luckily Mike Nicholls had already drawn 132 so that was one peg of doom gone then, I wasn't to upset when Judith pulled 102 out of the tin, its on Cary and there has been a bit of an explosion of small skimmers  on this lake and this seems to have been a good area for them with the chance of the odd big one thrown in,
3 rigs today , a couple of 4x12 rigs , one bulked and the other spread shot , and a .4g double bulked .
At the start I cupped in balls of groundbait at 11 and 14 mtrs with virtually no feed in it , then began at 5mtrs with the spread shot rig trying to catch some roach, it was a bit slow, so after 20 mins it was out to 11 mtrs, and I was soon catching small skimmers with the best bait being single maggot, most of the match was spent at 11 mtrs withy he odd look out to 14 mtrs, it was a busy day shipping in and out so at least it kept me warm.

The banter was ok aswell as I had mat tomes and Steve Jackson behind me on lodge , either side I had Mark leahay to my left and dick bull to my right, and with the rest of my section consisting of Fabio on 105, trev senior on 99 and the ever consistent Gary o,Shea on 98, so quite a hard section to be fair. I did my give my official photographer to much stick as I was in a bit of a precarious position

As in said I have spent most of the day at 11 mtrs with an odd sorte out to 14 , plenty of bites all day but no quality, my biggest fish may have just scraped 12oz, Nick bull managed a few better skimmers including  3lb bream which he had to reverse into the net, but I don't mind as I've had my fair share of those over the years. I did have one torrid bit about 5 mins from the end when my top 4 fell off shipping back with a small skimmer on from 14 mtrs, I managed to get it back to about 4 mtrs from the bank before it sank, so not to worry Steve normally gets sections back out, so it was off the box , a new no4 section put on and back out with the spare 4x12 rig, I managed another 4 oz skimmer as the all out was called, and that fish was crucial , duck bull won the section with 14.14, I was second in the section with 13.4 beating Gary o,Shea by 1oz, ha ha .

First on the day went to Sam (Tom) Powell on 59 with 19.4, that's his second match win of the series so well done to him.
2nd Glen Calvert on 115 with 16.12
3rd des shipp on 68 with 15.13
4th stu white on 86 with 15.3
5th dick bull on 100 with 14.14
6th paddy on 77 with 14.13
A good tight match really so a few bonus fish for anyone in the top 10 could have made all the difference, now looking forward to next Sunday and the first round of the Landsend fishery winter league , ably run by Ken rayner, for those fishing di will be cooking her normal tasty breakfast at the fishery, it should be good as the recent heavy rains have filled the lakes up, there may still be a space or two left, so contact Ken rayner to check.
I did manage to get my top 4 out at the end with a clever little gadget called a frangler, its a mosella invention where you get a little blade designed to cut line and rigs from overhanging branches and reeds, also you get a hook both of which screw into your cupping kit, so I screwed the hook in and managed to retrieve it on the first attempt, definitely a must have small item.

A short lrf session

Been down to Cornwall this week with Judith, and she expressed an interest in trying some lrf, which basically is fishing with really light rods with imitations , namely soft plastics mounted on a jig head, trying to target all sorts of small to moderate size fish, in and around rocks, entities and piers, usually with the emphasis on variety as far as competition goes. Unfortunately the weather was against us from the off with cold easterlies making virtually all the rock and pier venues unfishable, we finally found a bit of shelter in the outer harbour wall at mevagissey, but fishing back into the harbour was still the only option. We bought a pasty (well it is Cornwall) to share, and wandered up to the steps towards the end, I sorted Judith,s rod out while she was munching her half, after she had picked a pukey green rubber worm to go on the jig head, by the time she had finished her half of pasty, her rod was ready to go, I handed it to her and started to have a munch, I was on my second bite and looked up to see her rod hooped over and an angry fish dragging a bit of braid off the reel, she soon had an angry wrasse on the surface of about 1 1/4, it certainly put a bit of a bend in the light hto rod, to say she was pleased was an understatement, and I hadn't even got my rod together yet !!!!!.

I dropped it back , and was quite hopeful of getting a few, but it wasn't to be, we stuck for over an hour but we never had another touch, gutted, I walked back off the pier a broken man!!!

Todber manor pairs series, rnd 3

Three in th a van today as Chris Fox joined me and Ken rayner as his van has an intermittent fault, so after loading up it was off to cannards well for breakfast, and in the absence of the miserable old git who used to do the food and seemed to enjoy upsetting his staff the food was nice and the ambience 100 per cent better, we got to the fishery with about 10 mins to spare so just right.
I was in c section today and as long as I drew above 53 I didn't mind , as 52 and 53 are down in the end of a bay and last match the pegs were last and last but one in the section, and with the chilly breeze blowing down there I thought it may be hard again, so into the draw tin and out comes peg 53, not what I wanted , but you never can tell, as the little buggers do have fins and sometimes move about, for company I was next to venue expert Nick merry who was also moaning a bit, but not to much as he had three empty pegs to his left, so at least he had a lot to draw from, my peg was nearly against the end bank so I was going to rely on a few (hopefully) sneaking past Nick.
I set up 2 rigs, one for banded pellet at 13 mtrs to my right slightly , just at the bottom of the end bank shelf, and another for 6 mtrs in front for maggot over micros and the same rig would do for corn again at 13 mtrs out to the left, and of course I had to put together the obligatory method feeder.

After feeding the pole lines I fished the method feeder for 35 mins but with only a 4oz ghostie to show for my efforts I was soon reaching for the pole, I started on the short line with maggot, and lost a good fish straight away, but it felt fouled, then it was plippy roach, but they were going to do me no good so I all but binned that line, the remainder of the match was spent mainly on the pellet line at 13 mtrs, with an odd look over the corn line, but banded 6mm over 4,s seemed the best, the corn line fish were a bit smaller, with the small tench being a bit of a nuisance, I even had a gudgeon on corn !!!!!. Both Nick and myself caught well for most of the match, no quality just plenty of small carp, with nothing over 1lb, my swim began to fade about 45 mins from the end whereas Nick had a good spell burning that time. So I thought he had beaten me, and he did as he weighed 48lb to my 41, neither of us expected to do any good as the anglers over on the road bank which is in the same section, were catching bigger fish, but surprisingly we were second and third in the section with just Fred Roberts beating us with 60 odd pounds so well done to him, as seems normal the top weight came off ash lake with n white catching 90.12 from peg 67. Alan oram got second spot from hillview 45 with 76.8, weigh sheets below, there plenty of fish caught all round the lakes showing what a good venue this is.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Back to Kingston Seymour again for this match popular Tuesday fixture, after a breakfast at the bridge inn at Hatton it was off to the venue, a little disappointing with a low turnout of only 12, must be the onset of winter,
Nearly last into the ping pong bag and out comes ball 5, a nice peg which I won off last time I drew it about a month ago, but we have had some cold weather since then, so it would be harder today, even though the last couple of days had been unseasonably warm, there were plenty of fish making so we were hoping for a decent day, at least no one was moaning, oh I forgot about des shipp on 38 who hadn't seen a fish move, I did try explain that they would be most probably be feeding on the bottom, but he wasn't convinced.
Not to many rigs today, a pellet rig for across on the island shelf, a maggot rig for left and right margins and another rig to fish a couple of spots in the deep water at 6 and 11 mtrs.

I fed all lines at the start with the necessary baits, but began across on banded 6mm pellet, I had a quick fish , and I expected a few more as there were some fish moving around on the shelf, I was getting a few liners so it kept my interest going, I had the odd fish and with no one really catching I stuck with it, but it got harder instead of easier , the rest of the match was spent chasing round the peg for odd bites, a few down each side .one on the 11 mtr maggot line and some late just down the far shelf on the trusty maggot (triple), I thought I would have nearly 65lb , Mike Owens on 1 had about the same as me , but des behind us on 38 was admitting to 55 lb but even without being able to keep an eye on him I reckoned he had closer to 80lb, and as the weights below show I wasn't to fat out with my estimations.

Dave wride won the sildver's with a net of fairground prizes , all various shades of orange, well done ed wynne for catching 5lb of proper silver fish.

Des with part of his 55lb lol.

Viaduct silver's league rnd 4

Proper short blog this one , best part of the day was breakfast. Not the best part of the day was a drawing peg 132 on Campbell, nice corner peg for carp but a silver's no hoper peg at the mo, my bay went a bit like this, first 30 mins at 6 mtrs and 1 roach to show for it, out to 14 mtrs for a brief flurry of small roach, a look down to my right under the branches of a willow produced only a couple of small roach and some carp, back out to 14 mtrs and a few more small roach and a couple more carp, the wag gave a couple of roach (plippy) , I did get 2 better skimmers in 2 chucks on the wag for about 1 1/2 lb but that was my day done , I weighed 4lb for last but one in section, which is about Parr for the course from the peg really, at least I won a quid off ziggy slowinski on the next peg, as far as the carp went I landed 6 and lost 7, its amazing how hard you can pull on ,10 line and a middy 6313 hook, I didn't wait for the results as I had had enough by the end, off to acorn on Tuesday and todber manor next Sunday, hopefully a bit more action than I had today with the right species lol.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Well the best part of today was finding a decent breakfast close to the fishery, the bridge inn just outside yatton opens at 8am for food and at 5.75 was more the adequate. Myself and Glen Calvert were the only 2 in there, probably a couple more next week though.
Again I was early into the draw and was happy to pull out peg 7, but with only 11 of us fishing if the fish didn't want to play ball there were to many places for them to hide, and that was how the match seemed to pan out, I had a carp of about 7lb first put at 9 mtrs in front, then I had a real crucian at 14 mtrs to my right, and that was it till about 2 hours from the end, I had another carp at 9 mtrs but to get any bites at all I had to fish 17 mtrs to the bridge in front of peg 6 where I had 4 more carp, but I was miles off the pace.as Mark Jones on peg 1 was catching well, mainly going across the lake and fishing by pallet 35 with maggot on the hook, 2nd was Ray bazeley on form peg 13 with 50 odd pounds on dobbed bread and third was rays taxi driver with 35lb on peg 37, my 25lb was only good enough for 6th, oh well onwards and upwards hopefully at the weekend, weigh sheet below, also if anyone is looking for a match on Sunday there is an open on trinity on woodland lake, so phone the fishery to book in.
Well I would have put the weigh sheet up but I'm having problems lol, I will try again later

Now Wednesday morning and the picture sorted 😂

Todber manor pairs rnd 2

Partnering Ken rayner for this series, the intention was to leave my house at 6.45 so we could have a leisurely breakfast at cannards well, but Ken couldn't get his sorry ass out of bed and was 15 mins late, but we still had enough time , my official photographer in the shape of wifey , Judith also came along for the ride, fair play to her as it was going to be a cold one with a biting northerly wind forecast. I fancied a peg with my back to the wind and wasn't disappointed when I pulled out peg 45,
3 rigs today  . A pellet rig for on the deck at 13 mtrs in 3 spots , 9, 11 and 1 o'clock angles and a meat rig for 5 mtrs to the left just down the shelf in just over 3 foot of water, and a maggot rig for the long lines and a it would do the 5 mtr line in front as it is all the same depth.
At the start I fed all lines , but began on maggot at 5 mtrs over micros, after I had , a couple of small silver's soon had me dropping that rig in favour, yes favour of a go on the method, especially as Nick ewers on 48 was catching on it from the start, but 30 mins on that with only a couple of liners to show it was back out on the pole , but at 13 mtrs with banded 6mm over hard 4,s, I was getting odd bites but it was proving difficult, Nick merry to my left on 43 was putting his local knowledge to good use and catching well on the pole, but he did look cold as the wind was blowing into his peg, every now and then the sun would come through the clouds making it feel quite nice.

I was getting enough bites to do well but I was missing some quality, I really needed some bigger carp but it just never happened, the two nicks, merry and ewers had some good fish and Steve nadin on 49 also had some big fish down his edge towards the end , but I had to make do with stockies and gold fish.

No matter what in did I couldn't get any of the big fish I needed so by the end I was looking at 4th in section at best, and that's how I ended with my 32lb coming 4th in section, with Nick ewers winning the section with Nick merry second and Steve nadin third, the top three framers came off ash lake, but considering this was our first really cold snap it was ok. Weigh sheets below.

Viaduct silver's league could be interesting next Sunday if we keep with the cold snap, hopefully the wind will change direction by then !!!!!!