Stafford moor weekend away

With my daughter being able to dog sit at the weekend, Judith and me were off to Stafford moor fishery with an overnight stay in the duke of York pub in eddesliegh, jubbly.
After a nice serve yourself breakfast in the Toby inn in whitchurch it was off on the 95 mile drive to the fishery, got there about midday and went off to find a peg to fish, it was quite busy but we settled on 27 tanners, not the best of pegs but its a venue where you can always catch a few on most pegs, the plan was to get Judith to catch a few , so with that in mind I only set up my drennan margin pole to fish meat at 7 mtrs and pellet the same distance down the side, it didn't take to long to get bites on the meat line, mainly skimmers, but they were mostly of a decent size, and an odd carp made an appearance, I got Judith to sit on the box and she had a good couple of hours, catching skimmers out in front and some nice carp to 10lb down the edge , she did really well with hardly any assistance from me , only occasional help with the disgorger or getting sections apart which got jammed cos of the rain they never forecast, by the end we had about 80lb of carp and 25lb of skimmers for a nice few hours, and more importantly Judith loved it.

It's a shame we can't get a few more wives and girlfriends out on the bank, it can only be good.
Back to the duke for tea and some drinks, and as normal both were good, ate to much again so didn't sleep to well, but up for breakfast as normal, and very nice to, a 4.75 from me as it had real tomatoes and not tinned, but Judith gave hers a straight 5, scrambled egg with smoked salmon, it did look good.
Off to the fishery and there were 34 fishing spread over tanners and woodpecker, into the draw bag and out comes 20 woodies, which is old 36, a proper wag peg, but with a strong wind blowing left to right through the gap it was always going to be a tough ask to make it work today as the float would be blown off the island to quickly. But I set up the pellet wag anyway and a pellet rig for 13 mtrs and one for my left hand margin as that can produce,

To begin with I fed to the island but the wind was making it hard to get any bait sensibly near the island, then started on the pole with 8mm hard pellet, especially as yesterday the meat was getting ragged by pickers and skimmers. I stuck with topple for the first hour, and did manage a couple of carp and skimmers, but it was good, a look on the pellet wag confirmed the wind was going to render it useless, so I swapped it for a big bodied drake wag, which although it was creeping through it was half sensible , a lead would have been better but that rod was at home in the shed, lol. I did get some carp on it but it was more difficult due to the bow in the line , so a few bites were missed, it seemed to be fishing hard on this lake , the only person I could see catching sensibly was Martin heard on peg 1 behind me , but he was helped by Dave Stockton on peg 2 developing a bad back ,and leaving early, but I think it was more like neck ache watching Martin catch, lol.
I had a good last hour when some fish turned up on the pole line, I reckoned I put 45lb in the net in the last 45 minutes, so by the end I thought I had about 90lb, and I was very close as I had 91.7, the lake was won by Martin (birthday boy) Hearn with 121lb.
Overall the match was won by Andy dare on peg 3 tanners, woodpecker weigh sheet below.

A lovely  weekend away with Judith , a few fish nice food , and hats off to jo and Paul as they are doing a sterling job on the fishery.

Viaduct spring league final round

Went to Landsend fishery for breakfast with Judith and Chris Fox, and very nice too, 4.75.
Then off to the fishery, got there in plenty of time so enjoyed a good chat in the Carpark with some good people, always a pleasant start to the day.
Quite late into the draw , hoping for a peg on Campbell as I havnt been on there so far in the series, I'm beginning to think its only a figment of people's imagination, and today was no different as Judith pulled out peg 97 on the diagonal bank of Cary, it was a hard section as I was next to Andy power on 98 and with trig Edmunds on form peg 88 and Paul elmes on 90, it was always going to be an up hill struggle.
Minimalistic set up today as it was baking hot already and forecast to get hotter, and as I needed to win my section with about 500lb to stand any chance of getting into the league money, ever thing was positive, a wag rod to fish pellet on the deck at 30 mtrs, a meat rig for 5 and 14 mtrs and a shallow rig, a quick look at Andy's rigs had me confused, 4 wag rods with different floats set at different depths, a lead rod and a couple of pole rigs.
At the start I fed my various lines then started on the 5 mtr meat line, Andy was stood up looking for fish to throw his  pellet at, he looked like a ginger heron

Andy was soon playing a carp , then had another, I feared the writing was on the wall, it wasn't until I went to 14 mtrs on meat and had a good fish, probably 16/17lb but Andy had another to keep him well ahead also trig had a couple and Paul in the corner had a couple .
I went out on the deep waggler, it took a while to get a bite but I persevered and eventually had a couple.

As expected Cary fished hard and it was a difficult one to call as far as our section went as , myself, Andy , Paul and trig were adding odd fish all match, by the end Andy had 10, I had 12 Paul had 12 plus some silver's and trig had 13 so the section was tight, Andy had 112lb, I had 114, Paul had 118 and trig won the section with 120, so only one fish separated the top four, and trig had it LOL, as far as the match overall went , Mark wynne on 64 the monk peg on  lodge easily won with 324 .13 of mugged fish, so well done matey
2nd Tom downing on 85 had 215.3
3rd des shipp on 119 with 188.13
4th James guy on 110 with 187.4
5th Sam Powell on 135 with 171.11
6th Loeb Atwood on 81 with 160 .11
There we r 18 weights over 100lb today and I was 16 with 114.2 so it fished quite well considering how hot and flat it was.
League wise mark wynne won with 4 points
2nd trig Edmunds with 6 points
3rd Paul Greenwood 6 points, bigger dropper
4 th Paul elmes 7 points
5th Chris Davis 7 points bigger dropper
6th Bob Giles 8 points
Jnt 7 Dan white and me with with 9 points. It was a good league with good anglers making it a difficult one to win so well done to the framers.and  winners.
Also after missing a match last week it was good to have Judith sat behind me taking pictures and the piss out if me,

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

After a decent breakfast at the bridge in yatton, where the staff coped with the 13 anglers well, (4) it was round the corner to the fishery, 24 fishing today, including a couple of Welsh raiders, Steve Shaw and peanut, always good to see them, also Tom thick was in attendance, so all in all it was going to be a tough one to win as all the normal regulars were on the bank aswell.
Ray soon had his ball bag of doom ready so it was draw time, I got in fairly early and pulled out peg on the island, no complaints.
Company wise I had Ray bazeley on 5, George sumsion on 2 and Steve Shaw on 1.
So rigs today , a maggot rig for down the edge, a pellet rig for up to empty peg 3 and slightly down the shelf across, and the normal pellet rig for on top of the shelf.

At the start I fed all lines then picked up the shallow rig for across, by which time Ray was playing a carp, and by the time I had my first ray had 7, this wasn't going to plan then 😩.
It was definitely a day for careful feeding, not really a forte of mine during the summer months, Ray was just potting a few pellets over his rig, also Tom thick over on 21 was probably doing his normal frugal feeding method as he was catching well, as the match progressed I slowly clawed my way back on Ray to edge ahead of him, but he had 8 fish on the pellet feeder, 3 of which came in the last 15 minutes, when I only had 1, so I new it was going to be close between us but those last few did the damage as he had 101lb to my ounce short of 95, but we were well short Tom who had 150lb, well done matey good to see you back, also he is managing a new fishery down by lydford on the Fosse, so good luck with that. Picture of the winner with a glowing face and a pensioner in tow, sorry Mike.
Also the top six results , and silver's.

Saturday and Sunday this weekend veals have got the people from bsa guns down showing off there guns, so why not come down for a look, also other departments in the store will have some bargains , so pop in and check it out.

Float only league rnd 2 Landsend fishery

No Judith today as she had to much to do at home , so it was just Jason and me in the van today, got to the fishery in plenty of time and enjoyed one of di,s delicious breakfasts , definitely a 4.85, always tasty, hot and spotless , and olive.serving it up always good.
Before the draw the k/o was sorted out I drew Paul elmes which was handy as he was away on holiday, so a bye for me then as reserves don't count in the k/o.
Got the draw underway and I got Mike west to draw for me as it was his birthday today, and I can't complain as he drew peg 15 for me , certainly no complaints from me as its deffo a peg of choice any time of the year. Section wise it could be tough as Nick chedzoy was on 16, cosmic Ken rayner on 13, Chris Fox on 11, and the man to beat , Craig Edmunds on 9., so a good section to win.

Before I could start getting my kit sorted there appeared to be a large branch in the middle of my peg, so first job was to get my cupping kit on the pole with the frangler hook on the end and drag it out, and it took some dragging as it weights about 40lb and was stuck in the bottom, but after a bit of tugging managed to get it out, and it was just as well cos it was massive, it probably weighed 40 to 50lb,
Not to.many rigs today, a meat rig for 6 mtrs to my left, a pellet rig for 16 mtrs to my left down the shelf a bit, and my favourite little float for pellet against the island, a .1g drennan as 4, the far bank was only 6 to 8 inches.deep, but I now the fish are happy to feed in this depth at this fishery so i wasnt to worried.
We started at 11, and whilst feeding the pellet lines I began on the meat at 6 mtrs, it didn't take to long for fish to turn up on the far side, but I decided to leave them alone for a while, in fact I left them for 90 mins, while I fished the meat, I did have 4 carp, an ide, a big skimmer.and an f1 in that time, but I couldn't ignore the tails on the island any longer, and was soon shipping out a banded 8mm hard 6,s, and I never looked back, catching steadily.right to the end of the match a, I fed.quite heavily, which I'm sure helped me Nick some fish from Ken rayner who had really decided no to fish the island, cheers matey. Also I had a family of ducks in my peg for the most of the day, which I'm convinced helps, as they colour up the water which gives the carp some confidence to feed properly in such shallow water.

I even caught this golden koi which I have had at least ten times.on the last 12 years. Most in our section was catching a few , but nowhere near what I was having , although both Nick and trig were having some, there's not a lot more to right about really as the rest of the match was spent in a couple of spots on the far side, by the end I thought I had just about 200lb, and when the scales reached me trig was winning with 138.3 off peg 9, which is excellent off that peg as its normally really bad. When I finished weighing my fish my final total was 209.13 , which was first on the day, so two matches in the league and two wins, so more than a good start.

Trig was next with 138.3
3rd Nick chedzoy on 16 with 125lb
4th Mike Nicholls on 19 with 114.13
5th Bob gullick on 33.with 113.11
6th Glen Calvert on peg 65 with 110.5
Silver's went to Steve seager with the help of a dubious f1 to give him 21.9
2nd in silver's with 19.17 of real silver's for 19.12.
Off to acorn on Tuesday for the costcutter then down to viaduct next Sunday for the last round of the spring series, I may even get on Campbell, fingers crossed.

Tuesday costcutter acorn fishery

Back to acorn again today and after a breakfast in the bridge it was off to the fishery, a bit of a disappointing turnout, but considering the winds were forecast to be gusting to 60mph it was hardly surprising,
Pools paid and Ray bazeley soon had his ball bag of doom ready for the off, into the bag and out comes peg 8, not normally in but Ray tied to give all of us a bit of protection from the wind. For company I had Scott Russell on peg 6 and Vince (don't tell the wife I'm fishing ) Brown on peg 10.

Only three rigs today, a bit lazy to be honest and I know it cost me , so a pellet rig for right over , another to fish on the nice flat shelf about a mtr off, and the same rig would do for down by pallet 9, and a maggot rig for 5 mtrs, at the start I cupped in some maggots at 5 mtrs and over on the mtr off line towards the far side, began firing some 6,s down to pallet 9 and fed some maggot to my.left in the margin.
I began on the 13 mtr line towards the island, and it was very slow, by the end of the first hour I only had one carp, and looking around that seemed to be on a par with most other people, only Vince seemed to have a few more. I had to bite the bullet and put another section on and go to the far bank, but the wind was certainly making it hard , I made the mistake of not going round and pruning it back, so after a few fish and a problems with waving grass, I got off the box and went round and set about the foliage with the shears, that's some fish I missed out on, mistake one, by now Vince was catching slapping a pellet around just off the island, I never made one up, mistake 2, I did manage to get something feeding well, but it was on my pallet and not in the water.

There were plenty of fish against the island but the wind was blowing the rig along making foulers a big problem, it was one of the worst days I've had at this venue with foulhooking, to make matters worse I normally land more than my fair share of wrongly hooked fish , but not today, towards the end I had some fish down my left hand margin over the maggot, but mistake three meant I didn't set up a proper maggot rig, I tried to utilize my far bank pellet rig with 5 maggots in the band but it was all wrong, and Vince was still catching odd fish slapping making it worse, I did manage a few fish down by empty peg 9 , but the 5 mtr line was a waste of bait, I had one roach and a skimmer. By the end it was obvious Vince had won with probably over 100lb and I hoped I had done enough to be second, luckily that's how it ended with Vince having 107lb

My net went 80 which was just enough by ten pounds to beat Nick Jones on peg 40, fairplay he drove up from Plymouth to fish today. Weigh sheet below.

Viaduct spring league rnd 4

Travelled down with Judith and Chris Fox today, we also met Adriano Mercato in the Toby inn in whitchurch for what is normally a good breakfast but not so good today , only rated a 2.5, tea urn was cold and some of the food was none to hot either, at least the conversation was good , Chris was telling us about the lovely meal Caroline and him had at Raymond blancs  restaurant on Saturday, he was explaining how nice the starter was he shared with Caroline, it was a meat platter type thing with several different meats, Judith enquired as to whether there was any tongue on it , as she loves a bit of tongue, well you can imagine as to how the rest of the conversation went , and I reckon she blushed for a good 5 minutes.
So off to the fishery and a hope I would have a good peg on Campbell, so I let Judith draw for me again as she has been doing ok on that front, but not so good today as out comes 71 on lodge again, definitely not a peg to be on when you need a section win to stand any chance of getting in the main money at the end of the league, any peg on my left , around to the monk would have done, I drew the peg in the first round and came third in the section which if I'm honest is probably about all you can hope from the peg ,

I can't really say to much about the fishing today as nothing really happened, I ended up with 5 carp and a few skimmers for 59.12 for 4th in the section, so one place worse than last time, I would have been third but trev senior had a flying last 30 minutes down his edge on 70 to overhaul me at the death, as expected a corner won our section, Emma Drysdale on peg 64 , the monk, with just over 160lb, I lost a couple of foulers which I played for a long time which probably cost me second in the section which trev managed on my left. I also had one decent carp down to my right by the brambles , 

I hooked another one , but the brambles claimed that one and demolished my rig , so that was the end of that line ,especially as there was only 30 mins left , so all in all a crappy days fishing , but the banter was good , and as a whole the lakes fished well with 23 weights over 100lb with Steve Tucker up on peg 118 leading the way with 219.12

2nd was Mark handyman on peg 111 with 195.2

3rd Mark wynne on 124 with 174.11

4th Craig Edmunds on peg 127 with 170.11

5th Martin Preston on 116 with 162.7

6th dick bull on 123 with 160.14

Also the silver's had a bit of a munch as Andy power on 60 had 68lb of skimmers on hard pellet.

Oh well onwards and upwards, acorn on Tuesday and Landsend next Sunday for round two of the float only league, can't wait.