Viaduct silver's league rnd 3

Another reasonable breakfast at cannards, although the bacon was a tad overcooked,
Got to the fishery in plenty of time , even though the draw was thirty minutes earlier due to the clocks going back.
I fancied either lodge or Cary as I thought the carp in Campbell would still be a problem, I got early into the draw and pulled out 62 on lodge , right lake and possibly a good peg as long as the skimmers are at this end.

For company I had Nick ewers on 61 and Steve denmead on 64, who was the first angler in the next section, signs were good as there appeared to be skimmers rolling around at this end, but they quite often seem to do this on this lake but can be hard to tempt, I set up a couple of rigs for 11 and 14 mtrs and a short caster rig, the match began and I fed the two long lines with groundbait and began short on caster, and as expected some small roach were soon coming to hand, but it was fairly short lived, I went long a bit earlier than I wanted to , to be honest, I had a 6 oz skimmer straight away, but that was it, so onto the longer line to be met with more small roach, I want to say the skimmers arrived and I had a nice match, but it never happened like that, it was a case of swapping round all lines nicking a few roach and a very rare skimmer, all the while Gary o,Shea on 56 was putting fish of all sizes into his net, and to make matters worse Nick was putting a few skimmers in his net, and that was how it continued to the end, I did have a couple of better skimmers on the 14 mtr line, and a bonus 2lb tench, I also lost a good perch down the edge, they can be a pain as they have a nasty habit of dropping off, also carp were a pain, I landed a couple of doubles , one of which broke my net handle. I won't say who had only just given it back to me after repairing it .

Any way I've had a laugh with Nick next to me and in was never in contention for the section , Gary won it with 26lb and Nick was second with 24, Alvin was third with 21 and I was 4th with 15lb, so that will hopefully be my dropper, the match was won by Craig trigger Edmunds on 78 with 32lb , catching mainly on banded 6mm over 4,s , and Vince Brown was second on 77 with 31lb, I didn't get the sheets after the match but no doubt Mike Nicholls will have them on his blog, there were plenty of decent weight today with in think 20 weights over 20lb, all to be seen on the viaduct face book page, two matches again next weekend, Avalon silver's league on Saturday and the todber pairs on Sunday, can't wait, even though its going to be a bit cooler this week.

Todber manor pairs series rnd 2

Travelled with Judith and cosmic Ken rayner today, so we had a stop at cannards for breakfast, and I must say it was very nice (4.65). We got to the fishery in plenty of time for the 8.45 draw, it was my turn for A section which was on home ground lake , first time on this lake for me, Judith was going to draw for me, with peg 90 being the flyer, even fishery owner John candy managed to win the lake off this one last round, I can always rely on Judith, and she only goes and draws it for me, partner Ken was on 40 on hillview, for company I had gabe skarba to my left around the corner of the lake and Nick chedzoy to the right , also around the corner, peg 90 is on the end bank all on its own, so plenty of room. First job was to get the base camp sorted for Judith, but it was hard as the Gale force wind was coming straight at us, meaning she had a good view of the field behind us but nothing of the lake.

Done it as well as I could then set about sorting my peg out, due to the weather I decided to keep it really simple , only two rigs , a .2 for down each side in three feet if water, and a ..6g gram ng float which I had to adapt as the ones I bought from him were crap, I did try and message him three times to discuss it but he never had the decency to reply, so that will be the last time I buy anything from Mr Gilbert.

I was using the same rig to fish at 5 and 11 mtrs in front, there was only.a 4 inch difference between the two lines, I was going to feed 6,s and fish a banded 8 over it. At the start I fed both margins and long lines but started at 5 mtrs, it was slow and it took 10 minutes to get my first bite and fish, soon followed by another, but that was all I had from that line, apart from a short look down the margins , which was never going to happen as it was to rough and cold, the bulk of the tech was spent out at 11 mtrs, there were plenty of fish on that line , but with the Gale blowing straight in any presentation was none existent, foulers were a massive problem, as the fact it began raining hard at times meaning I couldn't see out of my glasses, coupled with the fact the float was constantly trying to hide under my pole tip, but I kept plugging away putting odd stockie carp in the net, by the end I had 45lb on my clicker and actually weighed in 46, so that was good for me, the lake and section was won by Neil Fitzpatrick 4 pegs round to my right with 50lb , on the cage feeder and pellet, so well done to him, the match was won by Craig Edmunds on peg 45 with just over 100lb, I don't have the weigh sheets at the mo but as soon as I do I will put them on here. So I was second on my lake and Ken managed 5th on his, so we are now joint top on points with the two marks, poppleton and wynne,

Avalon silver's league rnd 3

Travelled with Jason Radford again today for this and we stopped on the way at Landsend fishery for one of di,s lovely breakfasts, which also served to increase the personal ballast as storm Brian was going to be blowing nearly 50mph and I didn't want to get blown in did I !!!!!!!
We got to the fishery and found Brian wasn't going to disappoint and was howling straight up the lake, it was meant to blow slightly off the left hand bank later in the day so a draw on that bank would be advantageous, especially towards the end of the day, Vic Bush wasn't fishing today, and he probably won't be until next May at the earliest as he was on holiday I Greece last week and noticed someone drop a Euro, and in his haste to get it snapped his Achilles tendon, (ouch), so he is house bound with his leg elevated above head whilst laying down, get well soon matey, he had Joe McMahon reserving for him today.
I had last peg in the hat today which turned out to be peg 10, so at least I was on the desired bank, for company I had gabe skarba on peg 9 to my right and Martin McMahon on peg 11, so the three way pound side bet was struck. With it being so windy I set up an open feeder to fish towards the island if necessary, and two 1gram pole rigs, one double bulked with a 16 hook, and the other conventionally rig  with a bulk and three droplets and an 18 hook, I have switched hook patterns from my favoured 6313 muddy hooks to the guru f1 maggot hooks, although not as strong as the middy pattern, more more than a match for most silver scenarios.
With it being so rough I decided to fish 5 and 9 mtrs, and adjusting the rig by about a floats length to fish the left hand side at the bottom of the near side shelf.
At the start I cupped in two balls of groundbait on both the 5 and 9 mtr lines, and one ball down the edge , I then chucked the feeder out, that last all of 15 minutes, and I think gabe and Martin gave it even less time than that, so I picked up the 18 hook pole rig and went out in front at 5 mtrs, Martin to my.left had gone down his edge and had a small fish, I went out and had a 12 oz skimmer and gabe was yet to get off the mark, but I couldn't beget a bite then, so I went out to 9 mtrs and with the wind blowing the rig through to fast I couldn't get a bite there either, Martin had a few small skimmers down his edge , so I followed suite, and had a few small skimmers and roach, so at least I was putting something in the net, then I fell behind very quickly with Martin getting a good perch and a tench from his edge and gabe had two skimmers, then I had a good skimmer down my margin, but gabe added a couple more, so at this stage my squids were looking dodgy, but these affairs are never a Sprint, more like a steady marathon, and slowly I started to claw my way back then overtake my neighbours, catching on double maggot fished about a floats length overdepth , so by the end I new I had beaten them both, Gabe was first to weigh and recorded 17lb , my fish went over 27lb.

Then Martin's went 18lb, so the squids were safe, second on the day went to no3 McMahon on the end peg on the far bank with just short of 22lb, (how many is that on the trot now Joe). Considering how bad the weather was it fished quite well, with fish being caught all round, its a good venue for a silver's league as it is impossible to predict where the winner will come from, probably due the fact its the same depth all over in every swim. Weigh sheet below.

Off to todber manor tomorrow for the second round of the pairs league with Ken rayner, and Judith is coming along so more pictures courtesy of her . The forecast is for a little less wind so hopefully some better tackle control will ensue, my turn on homeground lake which I have never been on before, as the wind is westerly tomorrow I hope Judith draws me a peg with a bit of shelter.

Landsend open and viaduct silver's league

Decided to go to Landsend on Saturday, it may have been a good idea to let Judith know I was going lol. Any way I picked Jason up and got to the fishery in plenty of time to indulge in one of di,s delicious breakfasts, 15 of us turned up today, so not to bad, into the draw and out comes peg 11, I made scorch marks up the Carpark, only to be called back as Mike had forgotten to put Pete nurse down, even though he paid, so RE DRAW, back into the tub and thus time peg 21 graced my Palm, its been a hard area of late with all the carp seeming to be happier at the other end of the lake. For company I had Roy worth on peg 22, who was going to fish for silver's, and on 19 was rich lovering , who is carefully feeling his way back into fishing as he is recovering from a shoulder problem, I set up three rigs today, a couple of pellet rigs, one for the left hand margin, which looked nice and was about 18 inches deep.

A pellet rig to fish across by the island in 12 inches off water , in two spots, one place was straight across by a couple of collapsed plants, and the other was off to the left where I now there is a nice wide shelf to fish on.

The final rig was for silver's , due to the fact I never expected the carp to be down this end in enough numbers.
I began on the silver lines , a couple of loose Fed caster swims and a couple of groundbait line further out, also I began feeding 6mm hard pellets in the two spots by the island, and hard fours into the margin, the silver's never happened, after 90 mins all I had to show for my efforts were a handful of roach , mini perch and an f1, so I binned that especially as I could see some activity against the island, so I went across with banded 8mm, and never looked back, catching fairly steadily right to the end, hardly foulhooking anything which is always a bonus , if not unusual when attacking the far side, I ended up with 129lb to win on the day, with rod Wooten on 5 coming second with 70+pounds, weigh sheet below.

Sunday and it was down to viaduct for the second round of the silver's league, I was first into the draw tin, which I haven't done for a while, trig told me all the bad pegs are in the aswell, including 53, I nearly got it but ended up on 55

, as far as sections go this is probably one of the fairest in the league, for company I had ziggy slowinski on 57, and Alvin on 53, but I couldn't see him due to the foliage, to do any good you need to catch skimmers, so I set up two .4g rigs , one with 16 hook and the other with an 18, also a .3g for roach at 5 mtrs on an angle to my left. At the start I cupped balls in at 11 mtrs , and 2 lines at 14 mtrs, starting on the short caster line I soon started to plop a few small roach into the net, and I probably gave it the better part of an hour, but as i said you really need skimmers to do any good, so I started rotating around the long pole lines over the groundbait, picking up I'd skimmers, along with losing a few carp, as the match progressed it became apparent that lodge lake was fishing hard, and I could see everyone apart from Alvin, and I was doing ok, ziggy had a few as did Glen Calvert, I could also hear Alvin splashing a few in, I looked to be winning the section with about 2 hours to go, then ziggy throws out the feeder and snares 5 good skimmer on it, so it wasn't clear cut now , especially as I couldn't get a bite towards the end of the match, it also doesn't help when I lost three good skimmers on the bounce , I did get one more towards the end but I new it was going to be close, and it was as I weighed 22.14 to win the section with ziggy coming second with a level 20lb, the lakes fished a bit harder than the day before in the silver's final, with Campbell being carp carnage today, with lots of lost carp, along with some elastic and rigs no doubt, weigh sheets below.

Next week its th a third round of the Avalon silver's league on Saturday, then it's todber pairs on Sunday, can't wait .

Bit late so it will be short

Saturday saw me heading for Landsend fishery again for the open, had di,s normal good breakfast then got into the draw, only 11 fishing so plenty of room, in the bucket and out comes 19, that's good then.

Well I've had a difficult day, loads of fish on the far side , but as it was only 8 inches deep they were very spooky and hard to catch, I did get three on the short pellet line and one down the edge, and I topped up with a few from the far side, ending the match an ounce short of 80lb, but with Steve seager sat on peg 11 , a peg he knows so well, there was only.going to be one winner, and he didn't let himself down with over 122lb

, second was Mike duckett on peg 9 with 88lb, making me third, weigh sheet below.

Onto Sunday now, and it was the third round of the Colmic backed pairs series at todber manor fishery, I was partnering Ken rayner again this year, and he did promise to try a bit harder this year, we had a decent breakfast in cannards well, so that was ok, at least the sausages were cooked through this week, LOL.
Ken decided to start his campaign on ash lake, so that left me on hillview, into the draw and out comes 60, I was told its a good method peg, but thats not for me, so I set up a wag to fish in the shallows by the island out in front , a short meat rig and a margin pellet rig was put together, and a pellet rig to fish on the deck at 13 mtrs, didn't need to drop Ken anywhere as he was pegged behind me on peg 68, back to my lake and I had Andy Lloyd to my.left on 58 , and the ever cheerful Nick chedzoy to my right on 61, not a lot to say about the day to be fair, except that I had a good day with plenty of bites on the 13 mtr line, feeding hard 6,s and fishing an 8mm on the hook, only small carp between 8oz and 2lb, the other lines didn't really do anything, nothing from the margin, only two on the wag , and one on the meat line, I ended with 112.10, which was good enough for third in my section, being beaten by gabe skarba on 53 with 177lb with fish to 14lb, also ash Tompkins on 55 had 116lb. But with Ken also coming third in his section came third with 90lb, the next round is in a fortnight, so maybe the weather will be a bit cooler by then, as today it must have been 70c, again weigh sheets below.

A day on the wye

Judith has been expressing a desire to catch a barbel for years now, and with us both having Friday off and with not much rain about, we decided to go over onto the Wye to have a pop. Shaun and John in the shop recommended we go to the  aramstone  stretch which is run by Stan Turner for the estate. We stopped off at the Gloucester services for breakfast, and I got to only score it a 2.75, very disappointing, and very expensive, still we got to the river at about midday , to be met by Stan, who had kept a swim for us, he called it the pump swim , well there is an old pump in the bank, we were quite surprised as to how busy it was, there were 13 other anglers spread over the stretch, we got fishing at about 12.30,

We got to say its a beautiful stretch of water, even if there were nearly 40 swans in our peg most of the day, we normally fail miserably when we try to catch a specific species, but after about 45 minutes of regular casting with a big 70gram cage feeder filled with swimstim method mix with a bag of halibut groundbait with also some tuna fish and a lot 6mm halibut pellets, Judith rod hooped over and she was attached to her first ever barbel, and it was a nice fish of nearly 7lb, she was over the moon to be honest, and I was well pleased , job done really with mission accomplished.

She soon followed it up with another one , but slightly smaller, I was now 2 down and was getting worried, but I soon had a couple of my own, both in the 5/6 lb bracket, nice fish and good fighters.

I treated us to a nice coffee Made with the help of our Kelly kettle, and I must say its a good way of having a boil up on the bank, all you need is a few twigs to get some boiling water.

Stan drove up and down a few times and told us that most people were struggling , with only odd fish coming out, so we stuck to our task, regular casting with the big feeders , it must have been the right thing to do as we had odd fish during the afternoon, and missed a few bites aswell, the best bait seemed to be double hair rigged  8mm halibut pellet, towards the end of the day Judith contacted with a slightly better fish, and while she was playing it I hooked one too, but it was only about 5lb which I got out quickly, and returned, Judith took a bit longer as it turned out to be the biggest fish of the day  at 7.10, which is also bigger than my best ever by 1oz.

That was the last of the action, as we had to be off the water by 7pm, but it was a brilliant day with Judith, and finished off with a peach of a sunset in a beautiful piece of countryside.

We ended up with 8 barbel , which was good on the day as the other 13 anglers only managed 6 between them, I don't think it will be to long before we are back for another go.

Saturday and Sunday, loving it !!

First of two matches was at Landsend fishery, got there in plenty of time for me and Jason Radford to partake in one of di,s delicious breakfasts, 4.75. Only a dozen fishing so plenty of room on the match lake,
First into the draw bucket and pulled out two tickets, I kept hold of the one I was holding and Ron hardiman took the other one, I had peg 1 and Ron ended up with 19 doh, should have put them back and started again, peg 1 is not a swim I would have picked for sure.
The only thing that was good was that I had Steve seager on 3 and Russ peck opposite on 24, so I had a quid with both of them as that was the only chance of picking up today. To say the lake fished hard was an understatement, I had one carp in the first hour, and it never really picked up to any extent, Steve seager was having a torrid one , with no bites and Russ opposite was doing just as bad, the only person seeming to catch was Ron on 19, the only place I could catch was along the end bank and in the shallow water on the end of the island, but it was a struggle. But I had some pretty fish.

At the end I had 12 carp, for about 51lb on the clicker and ended with 56.15, which was fourth on the day with Ron winning it on 19 with 80lb , weigh sheet below.

Now onto Sunday and the first round of the viaduct silver's league, with 48 fishing this and with the good standard of angler in attendance, it a hard one to win, a certain amount of good fortune in the draw tin is definitely required, I travelled down with Chris Fox and we stopped at cannards well for breakfast and in was a little disappointed , a 3.25, but it was better than hilltops as Clint wojtyla found out as it was shut, he had to make do with a maccy d cardboard breakfast roll liturgy.
Any way, into the tin and out comes 94 on Cary, a peg I really like whether its carp or silver's,

 with plenty of room as the next peg each side was occupied by Ricky mills over on 90, and on my.left on 96 was my good friend Tim Clark ,who hasn't been out much this year due to the petticoat government, so it was good to see him with a pass for this series.

We also had a cameo appearance by the legendary Thomas thick who was standing in today , but unfortunately had the last peg in the tin and it turned out to be 64 on the monk on lodge lake, he very nearly turned round and went straight home , especially as his peg was covered in carp when he got to it, but he kept smiling ,

Back to the fishing and I had a nice day, catching skimmers between a few ounces and 2lb, mainly on maggot over groundbait, I started at 5 mtrs, that didn't last long so I was soon out to 11 mtrs, where I caught for a while before I had to spend the majority of the match at 14 mtrs, fishing two lines, 11 and 1 o'clock angles, by the end I thought I had about 30lb but was pleasantly surprised to see the scales go round to 36.3, which was top weight on the lake , but more importantly I had the needed section win,
First on the day was Craig "trig" Edmunds on 123 with 39.12
2nd gary"the googan"Webber on 115 with 39.2
3rd ziggy slowinski on 126 with 37.6
4th me with 36.3
5th Sam Powell on 98 with 35.8
6th Chris Davis on 77 with 35.2
So all in all a really good close match, roll on to the next one, no Judith today , to many jobs at home to catch up on, but we are off on the Wye next Friday so she can try and catch a barbel, should be ok, then it's the start of the todber pairs on Sunday, not to sure what I will be up to on Saturday, I can see some serious creeping coming up LOL.