By way of a change

With no match I really fancied this sunday, and Judith fancying a day in the fresh air I thought a day chasing bream at Newbridge would be a good option, especially as the river was spot on, so after a nice breakfast in Mario's cafe in stockwood (4.6) it was off to the river, I managed to park in the gateway at the top of the road which leads to the old pumphouse, there were a few of the normal culprits already fishing just above the pump, Derek coles, Warren Bates and Dean harvey, they had been fishing for just over an hour and were all cashless at this stage, but with the river looking so good they were all expecting to catch,
Judith and me.went a bit further and settled on of 36 in the middle of the straight, mat Sheppard was a couple below on 38 and had a small chub, but by the time I was sorted and ready to start he had had two bream, so the signs were ok, there was a strong cold North westerly blowing straight up the river, I was a bit cold but Judith seemed ok sheltered from the worst of it behind some brambles.
I started off about 2/3 across with a large feeder to get some caster and a few pinkies in.
I started on 4 red maggots on a 14 and missed a bite after about 30 minutes, all the maggots were gone, it took another 20 minutes to get another bite but this time it resulted in a nice 2lb hybrid.

It was a much harder day than I expected with bites at a premium for everyone, I did manage a 6oz roach next , then three more proper bream between 3lb and probably about 4 1/2 lb.

I think there a few about as I did have 4 or 5 liners during the session, also I had a decent like on for a while but it had taken my feeder , and the link in the feeder opened meaning it enjoyed a plastic snack, I got everything back apart from the feeder, may down below had the best day of everyone today with about 45lb, well done in a difficult day.

Surprise catch of the day went to Dean harvey on peg 20 who thought he had booked the mother of all bream , but  it turned out to be a lovely river carp of over 8lb,

The dark side comes to newbridge, also most of you will know the saying,
Any village looking for an #@%& this could be your man, nice to see you Dean it's always a pleasure.
Also we were treated.to the sight of an otter going down the far side, Judith,s first wild sighting, I know they are not everyone's cup of tea, but it's not  their fault, a lovely.looking animal but we all know they are capable of doing lots of damage especially on the lakes, and some of the barbel waters, the middle Avon seems to have suffered horrendously ,  it nature has its own way of sorting things, we.will have to wait and see on that one.

Dave Gillard silvers

Back to huntstrete and bridge pool for this silvers match today. Didn't bother with proper breakfast today , just an egg and bacon sarnie from my local greasy spoon. So got to the fishery in plenty of time, the weather was ok , not to cold with very little wind, it had been cold and the near end had been frozen over the day before, which probably helped to make the lake very clear, nice conditions for dobbing for carp on the right pegs but this was a silvers match so the bread was left at home.
I got into the draw quite early and peg 16 came out, probably the narrowest swim to an island, and it's an ok silvers peg, even though it's narrow. For company I had baths karaoke king on 15 and Pete greenslade to my left on peg 18, also I could see Dave wride on peg 19 who I had drawn in the k/o.

I like to keep things simple, so I set up a rig for skimmers to fish I threw spots with the same depth, straight out at 7mtrs, to my right at 11 mtrs at 1.30 o'clock angle and another at 3 o'clock at 13 mtrs, Mike nicholls wandered around before I tackled up and advised me that the 1.30 swim was the area which seemed to be the most effective, I also set a rig to fish in a couple of spots halfway up the island shelf, with hopefully perch or quality roach in mind,
Dave Gillard shouted the all in and Mike Jones not wanting to be left out blew his whistle, so I cupped in one ball of groundbait on the three deep lines with some dead pinkie and caster in , and potted some caster in on those two lines on the shelf,
I expected.a.bite fairly quickly, but t it took over an hour for my first indication, which I missed, Dave wride was carrying well but they were only tiny blades on his soft pellet approach, I had started on the straight in front swim , but by now I had been through all the swims, and the first indication was on the 1.30 swim, a few minutes after I had my first fish, an 8oz skimmer, it was a case after.that first fish of knicking off fish from the two groundbait !ones to my right , the in front swim didn't even give me a bite, with the clarity of the water the fish seemed to not want to settle, so it was a case of rotating around, also I had some better roach from the caster.lines a!ing with a pound plus perch, I also lost two good perch for here aswell, don't they do your head in , some days you will land  every one , and other times you can lose them all !!!.
I new I had beaten Dave in the k/o purely on size of fish as his had been all small skimmers and he had probably 4 times the amount of fish I had, it was good to see , and I did the weigh in on one side of the lake and a lot of these small bream were weighed in, I hope they stay in there and are given chance to grow.. By the time I got to my peg 6lb was winning , I new I had that and popped 11.6 into the scales, which won my section,

but was only good enough for second on the day as Ray bazeley on peg 8or 9, not sure which as I didn't get a pic of that weigh sheet who had 12.15, well done ray, Dave also gives a token payout  for the top overall weight in each section, and Jeff Francis on 24 took that with 17lb, a couple of carp and some f1,s.
Also I had another squid off Steve tanner who had drawn peg 21 , but unfortunately blanked, but it can be a massively but it miss peg.

Only weigh sheet I have got is from my side of the lake, I will try and get it and out it up.

Viaduct winter league rnd 2

Back to viaduct and my turn to be on Campbell lake today, so hopefully a draw at the near end would be a good start as the fish seem to like to overwinter at this end ,  it not before I stopped off at cannards well for breakfast, it was ok 3.99.
Got to the fishery with about 30mins to spare before the draw, so plenty of time for a chat, being my turn on Campbell it was down to me to do the team draw, which I did and quite a good draw I managed to do, me on 112 , Clayton on 78, Clint on 107, Leon 42, and Ron on 4, not really a poor one there, but fish having fins, anything can happen, for company I had Toby Burrell on 111 and andy batstone on 113, and directly opposite I had to sit and look at trig Edmunds on peg 129, so no chance of a banter free day.

I stood looking at the water for a few minutes, and there seemed.to be a few fish topping all over the lake but as normal mostly at the car park end , which was occupied by Ricky mills on 110, steve.Tucker on 132, the diminutive form of Paul faiers on 131, but hopefully there would be a few to catch, to do any good I needed carp, so I set up a wag and lead to fish meat at about 25/30 mtrs,.a.pole rig for meat at 16 mtrs, and a bread dobbing rig for the right hand margin back into  the bay back towards Andy on 113, for some reason this little bay always seems to hold a.few.fish against the bank, probably the only two pegs on the lake this happens in on the lake when every peg is in at this time of year.

The match for underway at 10.30, and it didn't take long for Paul and steve.over on 131 and 132 to get off the mark, steve.Jackson on 130 fouled a couple early on aswell, as for me, well I started on the dobbing rig with bread to my right with Andy doing the same,  Andy caught one fairly quickly, I missed a couple of bites fishing 4 inches off the deck, so I  shallowed up another 4 inches and soon had a fish in the net,
it turned out to be a bit of a grind , bites were hard to come by, except for the normal swims, but the lake seemed.to be fishing ok further up the aswell, so odd fish were going to make all the difference for the lesser placing on the lake, I never had a bite on the lead, but did only chuck it out the once, trig opposite had two early fish on it but no more, also I tried the 16 mtr pole line, had one bite on that but it may have been a liner, I ended up having 4 down the edge and losing three, one was fouled and the other two managed to transfer my hook into an underwater branch,  of which there was plenty, perhaps I should have had a bit of a clearout down there before the start, but I didn't want to risk unsettling any fish down there in these clear water.conditions, I did get a skimmer and two carp on the waggler , including a good double right on the all out, much to the dismay of trig opposite as he was looking good for the quid side bet again, but this was an equalizer at least,
As  expected 131 and 132 were first and second on the lake, but as the lake section board below the fish had at least spread out a bit ,

And as you can see from the sheet, I managed to win my quid back from trig,  it it was only grudgingly handed over,  lol, I thought he was going to cry.

Top weight on the day went to mosella,s latest signing Scott puddy who guests for the guru team with 166lb from peg 85, catching in th straight lead out in front and down his edge, still in the lead, well done, that man  des shipp won the silvers off peg 127 catching 27lb mainly on meat on the wag, topping up with three carp aswell , all the other weigh sheets below.

Plantation lake silvers match

Paul faiers managed to get 5 dates to have silvers matches on the main lake at plantation lakes, so we ended with 18 fishing which is probably a couple to many as you generally need  a bit of space to feed around your swim and rotate around the peg, after breakfast at the bridge (3.25) we.got.to the fishery in plenty of time, so draw time and it went very well until there was a ticket short in the tub, ha ha REDRAW, all good the second time round, peg 10 was my.home for the day, not a peg of choice as it's every peg in along this bank and it is a bit tight, walking around I bumped into Mr faiers who had decided not to fish peg 11 as he was down and out with a bad case of girl flu, and it was a bit to tight between pegs , so instead of letting him to home to sulk, I talked him into fishing , which was a bit daft of me as it would have given me the room I needed to catch properly, he was to my left, and on my right was Darren vowles, so it was like being pegged between clevedon,a answer to Morecambe and wise, but less funny 😂.

Set a couple.of rigs fairly quickly, both to fish maggot caster of soft pellet, as it's a fairly uniform depth the same.rigs would do everywhere, before the start I wandered back to the van to get something, and couldn't resist taking.a.picture of Geoff(the duck whisperer) Francis mixing his groundbait in a baby builders bucket, I think he has been travelling to much with Mike nicholls.

At the start I began on caster over groundbait at 11 mtrs, after putting a bit of groundbait and micros out at 14mtrs, also started feeding caster at 5mtrs, without droning on to much , it was a harder day than normal on this normally prolific silvers.lake, as we thought the pegs that did well we're those with a bit of room, I couldn't catch on the 5 mtr line , most of the fish came at 11 and 14 mtrs, some skimmers up to  nearly a pound and some.roach, Paul to my.left did manage two better ones which would go about 5lb between them, he even had one of them in the mouth, but I was happy.to end with 13.11 as it was difficult, bite could be got but you had to work at it switching and feeding between the two main lines, Paul had 15lb to my.left and Darren to my right had nearly 6, so a tough end, too on the day was dave.wride on peg 32 with 27lb of soft pellet snared.skimmers, and Dave willmott on peg 3 had 22lb 4 mainly.roach, weigh sheet below.

Viaduct winter league rnd 1

It was the first match in this always popular winter teams.of 5 series, I went with Jason Radford and stopped off in burnham on sea for a breakfast in the cafe run by the people who used to run the hilltop cafe in pawlett, on the a38, I was convinced to go there by our team captain Clint wojtyla and his little mate leon Hubbard, I went for the liver breakfast, 4.35, so I will go back but only when I am going to somewhere near bridgwater, as it put over 20 miles into my normal distance.
It was down to Clayton to do the team draw today, and I got to say he was very selfish with the draw, 110 on Campbell for himself, 76  cary for clint, 103 leon, Ron on 40 and me on 2,
I had an island but it's a reasonable chuck, and after.a bit of casting, it soon became.apparent that my 10lb Berkeley iron silk line was probably to heavy to be consistent with the casting, so a mental note to replace the barbel fishing line with something better to cast with, at least it kept trig Edmunds on peg 3 amused.

After.the lead I set up a wag to fish meat out to the aerater, which can be a good option in this swim.

So it is going to be a hard series to do well in with anglers like trig and  des shipp to contend with, the nice thing about  des is that he is always happy to take a bit of time  out to help less fortunate anglers than himself, well done matey.

I then set up a couple of pole rigs, one to fish caster.at about 6 mtrs and the other for a groundbait line at 14mtrs,
At the start ,as is normal I fed all lines then picked up the lead rod, hair rigged meat.was.my choice of bait, and I launched it at the island, but it was consistently falling short, so a change.of line is definitely  called for.
There was a blue  spom sort of thing hanging from the  tree between me and trig, someone needs a casting lesson methinks, what I didn't know was that the anglers braided mainline had snapped somewhere near the  rod, so when I did fluke one and get it right to the island, when I wound in I had all this braid coming out of the water as it had gone around the island, oh well, no  doubt Steve will retrieve it before next week, any way I never had a bite on the tip to the island, but trig had three bites in the first three chucks to the island, landing two carp and losing one, so the quid bet was looking  dodgy from the start, luckily I had hedged my bets and had a quid with Weston super mares finest, mat.culpin.
So onto the pole over.the groundbait, and it was very slow mainly small roach and very occasional small skimmers, trig came back into his pole line and began catching skimmers, bugger, the pound was now looking well and truly lost, I couldn't get any quality, then I began getting small perch and tiny rudd, aaaargh, I hate little rudd, a look on the wag and meat.and I had two  bites fairly quickly, a skimmer then a roach, but that was my lot. Back on the pole and it was no better, only small fish, also the short caster line didn't really get going, I had some roach but it wasn't quick enough,.So I threw the lead out just past my wag line,  I did get two big skimmers.and a small one, then about 45 minutes from the end I hooked a carp, which fought really hard, but also I was very careful.with it as it was worth a few points it took quite a while to land but at 14lb, it was worth it, trig also had a good run of skimmers.and another carp, so I handed over.the quid straight after.the match, well done.

I didn't wait for the results so I will add the weigh sheets later.when I get them, but trig had 20lb of skimmers along with 38lb of carp to win the lake, I had the 14lb carp and over 11lb of silvers which has it turned out was only.5 oz out for the silvers money, must.try harder.
The match  was won by Dan squire with over 150lb from peg 107, fishing meat on the pole at 22.5mtrs and some.on the way aswell, well done dan.

Huntstrete silvers match

Back to a 10 minute drive to the fishery, which is always a plus. Dave Gillard has arranged this little series so well done matey, twenty fishing so it's turned out to be quite popular, we were on bridge pool, which has a fair head of skimmers along with some quality roach with the odd bonus in the shape of perch and tench, I helped with the draw, recording the names , so I was late into the draw bag, with only three discs left, I pulled out number 14 , happy with that as it's a narrow one to an island, only 17 mtrs, it's a good carp peg, but more importantly a good skimmer peg,

I only.set up two rigs, one to fish at 13 and 14 mtrs, 13 mtrs on front and 14 mtrs off to the right, basically it was two slots where I could drop the same rig into ash it was the same depth, the other rig was to fish caster at 16 mtrs straight out , halfway up the island shelf in 4foot of water, the deeper water areas were 7 foot deep, for company I had Pete greenslade on my left and steve.Dawson to my right, which was handy as we had drawn each other in the k/o, also I could see steve.tanner on the other side of the island, who wanted a quid with me, and I hate to disappoint .
At the start I cupped in a ball of groundbait on the two deep water.lines and some casters out to 16mtrs.
I dropped in on the 13 mtr line, waited a couple of minutes and the float went under, a decent skimmer on nearly got it to the net and it came.of, not what you need on a day and with the clarity of the water meaning it was always.going to be hard, next out in and I hooked another, which I landed , so it may be a good a day, false.dawn as I couldn't get another bite I had started.on maggot , but 24 minutes in I switched to caster on the hook, and had a little run of skimmers, not the biggest but with fish between 12 oz and a pound, all.welcome, especially as most people seem to be struggling.
I tried the 14 mtr line on several occasions during the match, but apart from a few.roach and a lost.skimmer late on it seemed devoid of any quality on that spot, also the 16 mtr line would have turned into a bit of a carp fest, as first try over there I lost a carp, next drop I had a 4lb carp, and was getting liners, so I ditched that line, without a doubt the 13 mtr line was the one to concentrate on in the main, topping up regularly with small balls of groundbait, which definitely helped, as bites quickly followed each introduction, unless I was a bit to keen and put a ball in to often,(I can't help myself sometimes).
Towards the end maggot tipped  with  pinkie, at the end I knew I had won my section and beaten Steve Dawson to progress in the k/o, I thought I had 15lb at least ,and when the scales turned up the need!e went round to just over 20lb,
It out me second on the day as Dave wride over on 28 had 31lb, so fair play to him.

The only payouts today were sections, so first in section took the majority of the money, but Dave did a lesser payment payment to the overall top weight in each section as there were always going to be some accidental carp caught, all this was explained before the start, aswell as a written explanation was handed out, but I don't think some really understood it.
And for the tanner quid , it's now in my pocket, thanks steve, weigh sheets and the pound handover below.

Landsend individual winter league round 3

Judith came.along today, which was good as I needed a good draw to stay in the hunt either overall or in the silvers, so we picked Jason up and got to the fishery in plenty of time to enjoy one of di,s lovely breakfasts, and as usual it didn't dissapoint, my turn on the match lake today, any peg would do, and I wasn't disappointed when Judith pulled 19 for me, flyer, it's the gap peg in the islands , and beany came second off it on Saturday, so there were a few fish there , and hopefully there would be some here today. Loads of room as there are only 9 anglers on each lake, for company I had fishery owner, Mike duckett to my right on 21 and Steve Sewell on 16 to my left. Opposite I had super sub Gary o,Shea on peg 5, rigs today were a silvers rig to fish caster at 5 mtrs, a meat rig to fish at the bottom of the island shelf in front, 16 mtrs each way down the middle, also the same.rig would do for the empty swim 18 to my left, a pellet rig for just into the island gap, and another one for up on the island shelf in the shallow water.

On the whistle I fed all lines with the relevant baits, then started on the short caster line, fully expected to catch silvers but after 20 minutes and one 4oz roach from the only bite, so that was binned , especially as Mike had caught two carp by now, so I went to my right at 16mtrs and missed a bite, (liner probably), went out to the island in meat, and had a few indications, but no proper bites.
So went across on the pellet line with banded 6mm over 4,s, no bites, aaargh.
So two hours in and I was on just the one roach, in fact I was the only person on the lake without a carp. It looked as though Mike or Gary opposite were going to be on for the lake win, the third hour was slightly better, I had three carp, but they were only small and probably only went 9lb between them, I tried the right hand swim again and had one bite which resulted in a 8lb common, but I was still behind a few people on the lake, the shallow rig against the island never gave me a bite, so with nearly two hours to go I went to the left, and had a purple patch for 90 minutes,

I couldn't get in there fast enough.

With fish to nearly.double figures taking a liking to my 8mm meat , it didn't take me.to long to catch Mike up and go past him, only Gary opposite was a threat now , and by the end I didn't want to call it for the lake win, my clicker was saying 91lb, but I do tend to  over click a bit, just to be safe.
Gary weighed in before me and had 77lb, and to be fair I thought it was going to be close, but all was.good as I had 92lb, so with 91 clicked I was amazingly close,

Me with part of my catch, and the blurred vision on my left is Stu Barnett trying to get pictured with some money winning fish, something he hasn't seen in quite a while LOL.
Also I had a quid with Bob gullick who was on his peg of choice (13) he weighed just short of 50lb, so that's two on the trot, one with silvers on the last match, and carp.this time, back and drawing board springs to mind, 😂.

So at the halfway stage silvers are out of the window, I will have to target carp now to stand any chance of framing overall, well done to Martin rayet who was top.weight on the day on peg 32 on the speci lake with 96lb, steve.Sewell won the silvers on our lake with 10lb, on the speci lake Ken rayner won the silvers with 14lb, and on lake three Steve seager won the silvers with a meat assisted 3.5,
Weigh sheets below as normal, it was a hard day , but most places are being difficult at the moment, after all it is winter, and the lake we were on the water looked black with it being quite clear,  without a doubt meat is the way to go at the moment, and to be fair I may have have caught earlier if I fed and fished meat into the island gap instead of pellet, hindsight again.

Ivy house Thursday match

At last a midweeker which isn't a costcutter, and a chance to win enough money to cover the days costs., I went on my own, so music on loud and a bit of a selfie sing  along, traffic was.ok as the school brats are still off, so no parent taxis on the road ferrying there offspring the 200 yards to school. Got to the fishery and sat down to one of Karen's finest, finished it just in time to get into the front of the draw queue, in front of des, well I beat him at that lol. 20fishing so a good number.
Out comes ball 20, means nothing to me, but the locals didn't seem to think it was that good, but it used to be ok before andy started digging and mud moving, it was an open water peg but now Andy has built some islands and spots.to fish against, and my.peg had an earth prominentery jutting out from the causeway.

Two pole rigs were.assembled, a .3g rig to fish caster at 13 mtrs, and another for banded pellet or corn on two lines at 16 mtrs, and also a wag for banded pellet towards the mud bank, but I had to come about 4 mtrs off the  mud bank to find about 2 foot of water, very shallow considering that it was very cold, especially as most of the lake is 5 1/2 foot deep, but I don't think the  carpet are as worried about shallow water as much as we are sometimes. So on Andy's whistle I fed all the lines but started.on the 13 mtr line with maggot over caster, it didn't take to long to get a bite from a small roach, soon followed by another, so  a switch to caster and the size of fish went up,  couldn't get the feeding right to be honest,  toss potting a few.casters. But when it went iffy I started firing some in and that seemed.to help for a while, then a switch back to the pot , but as the match went past.the halfway point, bites became very hard to come by, the only other angler I could see catching silvers.was.des. On 26 who seemed to be getting very small roach, on pinkie so it transpired, I had a look on the wag and was surprised when the float went under, only for me to miss it, so back out towards the mud bank, and I had a 4 pounder, but That was it, so back to scratching around on the pole, the two 16 mtr lines failed to provide a single indication, then 45 minutes from the end the wag line came.to life, and during that spell I hooked 7 carp and landed 5, the two I lost were both fouled, always a  big risk when you are fishing on a slope, but I wasn't complaining.

I thought that late burst may have propelled me into the frame, the only person that seemed to have done ok was John Williams on 29, and so it transpired, as he won on the day with 44lb, I was second with 40lb and Chris Cottrell had 35lb, des.won the silvers.with 7lb ,and  I was  second with 51/2 lb , so good day with double bubble pick up, so more than a enough of a pickup to cover my day.
Landsend on Sunday for round three of the winter.league, my turn on the match lake, can't wait.

Withy pool, huntstrete fishery

Managed to grab a few hours for a bit of a short session , so went to huntstrete on withy pool, hoping to get on peg 54, it's a nice narrow peg and shallower than most other pegs, and last year it was the go to peg for some quality roach and some nice perch, Judith came.along for a bit of fresh air, and getting.to the fishery I was glad.to see.the swim unoccupied. We soon got around to the swim and only put up.a.couple of rigs, a .3g as4 for caster at 7 mtrs, and an as5 for the corner of the island for carp on pellet, simples.

Well the pellet line to the corner of the island was.a.no hoper, nothing atall.

I started.at.7 mtrs on caster but never had a bite, so 45 mins in and I put in another section where it was about a foot shallower, and I began getting some roach, nice fish aswell up to 10oz.

I expected to catch some nice perch,  it apart from one of about 10oz they were conspicuous by there absence.

A couple of surprises came.along in the shape of two good skimmers/bream, with the biggest going over 3lb.

To be honest I fully expected a really good session as the weather has been good with mild temps, and the lake is full up, it wasn't a bad few hours as all the fish were of a good stamp, ending up with double figures, it's a good venue with quality fish, so well worth a visit., Check out the bathampton website for more details.