Culpin,s rip off canal lake league rnd 3

Shiplate for this round but not after a stop for breakfast in the wooden spoon cafe in weston super mare , nice too , 4.65.

Only a ten minute drive to the fishery after that, so all good, we had thirty anglers spread over the three canals, and there was also a match on the main lake , Frampton Cottrell club, good to see some faces I hadn't seen for a while including the turners on tour, Sam ,Keith and shane, who is always smiling.
Mot got the draw underway on time, I got in quite early hoping for a draw on either side canal, but out comes 14 on the squircle, not a lake to win off,  but. Being a series it's the section win that's important, and with two wins so far another one wouldn't go amiss, I got to the peg and it looked ok, only.a.small lake but plenty of options, an island at 7 mtrs,  but no depth against it, only 5 inches deep!!!,

There were three of us in this part of the lake which is a bowl, and the other three were down the straight to my right, if Rob watts and me had both fished 13 mtrs we would have been pole fencing in the middle.
So a rig.to fish about a mtr off in 12 inches of water, that rig would do for the margins aswell, a rig for the deep water (3foot), with pellet the only bait I had with me, 4,a to feed and a banded 6 for the hook , attendees after was felt  it the margins and island were a  bugger to plumb and fish as there were no shelves, just a slope, I started on the island slope and was soon getting bites and catching odd small.carp and goldfish, it soon became apparent the slightly better fish were down the straight to my right, not in the bowl at this end, so it was a case of swapping around all my lines, all six of them, getting enough bites but due to the size of the fish was never going to threaten russ peck on the end peg and Mark broomsgrove, also thought rod Wooten was doing well, I did enjoy it I must admit , but new I hadn't done to well section wise, Russ was first to weigh and had 79lb, with fish to nearly 10lb, rod was next with 42, then Mark had 53, Rob had 28, Chris weatley in the corner had 13, then was surprised so out 43lb on the scales, so a section third, although not good, not a total disaster, as expected, the side canals fish better, with league organiser mot calpin winning off peg two on Hawthorn with 177lb of caster.caught carp, only feeding 20 pints of casters (😂), well.done.

Weigh sheets below.

Thursday costcutter Shiplate farm

Bacon sarnie on the way today, so got to the fishery with time to spare, strangely not to much in the way of traffic. Only 14 fishing, a few short but at least plenty of room, I fancied any peg on the far bank as there was plenty of shelter over there from the strong South westerly, into the bucket and peg 4 comes out, on the near bank then.

The direction of the wind meant we would have to contend with wind and tow going in the same direction, I wanted to fish for silvers primarily, so I set up a couple of rigs for that, one with a 16 hook for worm and another with an 18 for maggot or soft pellet, I intended to fish slightly to the left with worm and caster, also slightly to the right with soft pellet, both at 9mtrs, also a hard pellet rig for 13 mtrs straight out, then a meat rig to the end of the  bush to my right.
At the start I fed groundbait to my left with chopped worm and caster, then to my right groundbait and micros,  some hard 4,s straight out at 13 mtrs, and began peppering some meat down to my right by the bush,
First two put ins on the worm line and two sensible skimmers followed by some smaller samples, then nothing , so I refed that line and went over the soft pellet line, but no bites, in fact that line only gave me one small roach all match, the worm and caster line was the best, but it needed regular top ups after every few fish or the skimmers drifted away, after the first two which were tidy, they were now 4oz , a look on the long line with hard pellet, a couple of slightly better skimmers and a smallish carp,  but presentation was a pig, it was impossible to hold the rig steady on any line, back on the shorter line , but even that had gone hard ,I did get a carp of about 8lb on that line, and some more small skimmers on double caster, I was well Off the pace in either silvers or overall,  but luckily my right hand margin line came to life in the last hour and a bit with several carp up to 15lb and some nice skimmers.

I thought I had 20lb of silvers and 60lb of carp, when the scales for to me John (slimfast) Andres was.Top with 66lb, I new I had that, my silvers went just under 26lb and my carp just over 63, so not to far out,

Weights were down a bit today on recent matches , but after several days of heavy rain it has to be expected, but it was a close match on both overalls and silvers, as the weigh sheet below shows, I'm back here again on Sunday for  mat Culpin,s rip off league, on the three canals, looking forward to that but the weather looks a bit iffy.

Landsend three day mini festival

Three matches in three days at this prolific fishery, Judith and me.finally found some self catering accommodation after being let down by homeaway holiday let's at the last minute, even though they took our money well before the date, we.found out on the Wednesday they had double booked us, and we had no where to stay, but Judith got on the case and eventually found us somewhere Wednesday evening, a lovely little place in moorlinch, which we found on the airbnd site, so homeaway thumbs down, airbnd big thumbs up.
First day into the draw for the random draw and out comes 32 on speci, a flier of a peg, three rigs , a deep pellet rig, another along the right hand end bank, and a swinging rig to attack the island to my left which was 19 mtrs away,.cut a long story short , I had a couple of fish on the deep rig, several along the end bank, plus  a top up on the swinging rig towards the island,

and result 180lb and a lake win, good start. First day weigh sheets below.

Day two and onto the match lake, no 2. Into the bucket and another corner comes out, 24, not the best corner and recently not the best end of the lake, Nick duckett drew it the day before and caught short on meat in the last half of the match, so I set up a rig for that on topset and 2, a margin rig for the left, and another for along the right hand bank,

The start was very slow for me, only.a.couple.of early fish on the short line, so a switch along the end bank started to produce odd fish, but mainly small resident fish, mat tomes was.well ahead by the half way mark, so I dumped a big pot of corn in front of peg 23, left it for 5 minutes then went over it with double corn and had three good carp and some skimmers but that was it, I came back over the short meat meat in the last hour and the better fish had appeared , I couldn't get in fast enough, and from being 40lb behind mat i managed.to catch him up and just beat him for the lake, so on max points after.two days, weigh sheets below.

So on to say three, and after a good fry up which I cooked for Judith and me, (4.9)

Got to the fishery and I needed a good draw as just behind me was John Hawkins and james.withers both on three points but John had the biggest weight. So into the draw and I end up with peg 41, more than happy with that, Joe mcmahon had won the section the day before on it, all caught short on meat, and in the margin, so I set up for that, and a shallow rig for along the right hand margin and end bank where it was only about 8inches deep,

Starting on the meat short I had a carp first out tin and thought , here we go then,  it that was the only fish I had there, also to the left towards some weeds where Joe had caught, I only had one there, and that was late on, there were lots of fish in the shallow water along the end bank, so that was where I spent most of my match, fishing 8mm hard pellet over hard 6,s, catching reasonably well, but not well enough as rod wootten over on 68 caught steadily, lots of small fish early,  but better fish towards the end, also mat tomes up on 62 had had a good day so I was looking at third on the lake at best, and that was how it finished on the lake, rod had 170 mat 160 and me 140, so I needed to have John and james to struggle, james.duly obliged but John on 11 did well with 190lb to end with second on the lake and giving him 5 points overall, the same as me but he had the better weight, so he won overall , well done matey. Day three weigh sheets below.

Overall sheets also below , and the silvers overall winners aswell, which Ray white won, beating Bob gullick on weight.

I've got to say the lakes fished very well, with 31 weights over 100lb over the three days,.even thought the lakes are very low , top weight over the three days was caught by Lewis Jones on the last day with 309lb, on of 18, but he lost a few pounds by over going over in a net so actually ended up with 284,
It was a good weekend with lots of laughs and some good sport, and to top it off di prepared a buffet for us after which was most welcome, and well done mike for organising it, hopefully do it all again next year.

Mat Culpin,s snake lake series end 2

Off to Summerhayes on kings for this one, and with 30 booked in I didn't think it would handle the pressure to well, a  it of room would be an advantage. But first thing first, a stop in the wooden spoon cafe in weston, and it was nice , 4.35.

There were several of us in the cafe and we all left at the same time, all wanting to not be first or last to the fishery as it would mean either opening or shutting the level crossing gates behind the boat and anchor pub, I was 4th through so I got away with it lol.
Only one no show so 29 fishing, I got into the draw bucket about halfway through, out comes peg 35, happy days, the winning peg from last week when Paul elmes.had 114lb.
It looked nice with a bit of a bay opposite, and not to many issues with overhanging foliage, and no effing brambles in sight, deep joy !!!!!

I was going to fish towards the far side in the mane ,  it I did bring a few pints of dead maggots for the left hand margin, but apart from a lost fouler and a few swirls I had no action from there. I set up three rigs for across, one for right in on the mid line, one just off in 10 inches of water and the last one slightly further out in 18inches of water,
At the start I fed a few pellets.across in a couple of spots and began on the deeper rig, I had a small carp first drop in of about two pounds, then lost a couple of foul hooked fish before I had my second, I was firing some hard 4,a across by now and there were some lips ducking at the mud, so across with the mud rig and I began to catch a bit better,  it with the bright sunshine and lack of water they soon began to get a bit twitchy, so I had to keep swapping rigs to keep odd fish going into the net, also it seemed better to feed all.along the mud bank, and pick off odd fish all along the far side, the fish didn't want to stay in just one of two places, but by feeding everywhere I could catch one before going to another spot.

It was a difficult day, as I half expected, with some anglers only having one of two fish, there was even a blank. By the end I hoped for 60lb, which according to the jungle.drums would probably be enough to win on the day, when the scales.Got to me I plonked just over 58lb into the weigh bag, so not to far about with my estimation.

Top silver.weight went to Glyn Wickham with 6lb, so that was hard aswell, off to Landsend fishery next week Thursday/friday/Saturday and Sunday for  Mike's mini festival, really looking forward to it as it's still my favourite venue,  and I just don't seem to get the chance to go there as often as I would like.

Two on the trot again

Had Wednesday off to fish a trade match at Todber manor fishery, it was. A match for tackle dealers , associated individuals and , "tea boys", we met at the dolphin pub in Gillingham for breakfast and the draw, the breakfast was tasty but small, and no beans, how can you have a breakfast without beans, so a score for no beans and a thin on the plate ammount,(3.25).
Into the draw tin and out comes 53 again, it's strange.how you can draw the same peg on numerous occasions at certain venues, it's a lovely peg with the wind blowing in today.

Company wise I had steve kedge from Somerset taking to my left, and Andy Lloyd to his left, Steve was going to fish for silvers, I hoped that would help me today, I set up a rig for topset and one and topset and two, and a margin rig for topset each side, as expected the fish turned up virtually straight away in the margins , but I left them for a while, starting at topset and one in front, had a few then nkthing, so out another section and began catching again, but after about 90 minutes I couldn't resist the margins, so the rest of the match was spent either side chasing shapes, I was enjoying it but always aware I wasn't catching fast enough to do to well today, Steve kedge.was doing well.with the silvers, but good to see his tourettes hasn't deserted him, with reports of several.angler shaving over 200lb there was only the section to hope for I thought I had about 180 according to the clicker, but had to settle for 172lb, Andy Lloyd had 168 and Mark Harper had 180+ but luckily for me Mark ended up fourth in the day , Scott russel was first for the second year running with 297, his partner in crime from tackle uk, (oops sorry) was second with 240+, and mosella supremo Vic Bush third with 230+, silvers.went to me kedge with just over 50lb, back to the pub for sarnies and chips, which was ok and filling. Weigh sheets below.

Into Thursday and back to the over 55,st huntstrete on bridge pool, only 19 today as there a few on holidays or work commitments, into the draw and 14 comes out, it's a good island peg but it is 17mtrs, doable as long as the wind doesn't pick up,

So I set a couple of rigs for pellet across, one about a mtr off and the other right in, and I set up a rig for worm over groundbait at 13mtrs ,
At the start I fed 4 balls to 13 mtrs and fired some 6mm pellets across, I had intended to feed 4,s but the wind was making it impossible to get any accuracy.
I began across and soon had a small carp in the net, followed by an f1, then the curse of the brambles reared its ugly head, every fish I hooked after that went right and had me over big time amongst spiky branches which were coming out nearly 9 foot underwater into the lake, why do fisheries some fisheries only trim thing once a year,.Aaaaaaaargh, so I came further down the shelf, but it wasn't
as good, with far fewer bites, so the match was spent between that and the 13 mtr line trying to catch skimmers, which for some reason were proving to be very elusive, it was an annoying day.as.I new if I could have fished closer to the island it would have been a good day, hopefully the club will get it sorted . Top on the day was Mike nicholls with 56.6 on peg 30, ouncing out gary"junior" Bowden who got caught by 55.12 of carp and f1,s on peg 28, too silvers.for the second match running was steve.tanner on 17 with 25lb of skimmers on worm.

Summerhayes Sunday open

With round two of mat Culpin,s snake lake series on here next sunday, I thought it may be a good idea to go and have a look as I havnt been here for probably 4 or 5 years, stopped off in w-s-m for breakfast, a new cafe.for me , the wooden spoon which is by the rugby ground, and it was nice, so 4.65, got to the fishery and paid my pools , had time for a natter before the draw, looking at the lake the level I well down, perhaps 20 inches, lots of fish in a smaller lake then ,
Into Pete's bucket of doom, and ball one comes out, I was told it's an ok peg, a bit shallow, and only.10 mtrs to the island, so that was going to be easy then.

I set up.a couple of pellet rigs for the island, the right hand side of the island was only 6 inches deep, and the left hand side of the corner was 15 inches, so two separate rigs, I also set up a dibber rig in case there were some mud slurpers, the same.15 inch rig would do for the right hand margin by some reeds, and also up into the corner  14mtrs away, there was a big platform to my right , but with four legs going into the water I decided to stay away from it as it would have been a tackle graveyard.

The days fishing was very frustrating, fish in all areas.that you fed but very difficult.to tempt, I don't think they are intentionally avoiding the hookbait, I just don't think they suck it in, so I've caught on 8mm hard pellet over catty fed 4 &  6,s,

Picture courtesy of gabe skarba, who wandered round for a chat,
I thought I had at least 85lb at the end but not quite 100lb, so by the time the scales.Got to me Paul elmes was.winning with 111lb form peg 29 ish, Gareth Lennox on 7 then had 102lb, but my fish just beat him as I had 103lb, and I think Toby Burrell on 36 had 80+ for fourth, and I nearly forgot Martin rayet never weighed in 😁.
Sorry I never got the weigh sheet so nothing to go below I'm afraid, the end.

Shiplate Thursday costcutter

Looking forward to this match as it was going to be on the two canals, Hawthorn and West pool, the numbers were boosted today as the Birmingham lads were down for four days, three of those on Shiplate and one in the sedges, so there was an advanced party today meaning 26 were fishing, all 15 on Hawthorn and 11 on West pool, I fancied a peg on Hawthorn, so I got into the bucket early as all the pegs are still in there, but peg 12 on West pool was going to be my home for the day, for company I had Ollie corbett to my right on 10, and his dad tony.to my left on 13, so least I had an empty peg on my.right, which may help, I would have my work cut out today in the corbett sandwich as they are both good anglers, with Ollie breaking the record on the lake last year,  but that has been beaten now by venue expert gary"ned"flinders, and that was on my peg (12). I walked around to the start of the lake but I had been told by steve it may need a bit of a trim on the far side, so I went across the bridge and armed with shears set about clearing the grass , brambles etc, it looked good ,.So I went back and carried on with my kit towards my.peg, I got to Ollie who asked what peg I was on, I said 12 hmm says he, why have you cleared peg 11 then !!!!!, 😬😆😂😅, he could have told me when I was round there, so back around with the shears again then, and the right peg was.now barren of overhanging rubbish.

I only had pellets today so I set up a rig for the margin, one for across, another for just down the shelf on topset and two, and a mugger, as there were some fish about sunbathing.,
At the start I fed all lines and started.across, a few.liners, then I saw one to my right in the margin, so I went in  and had one after.About 10 minutes, but apart from another later in the match from my.left hand margin that was all I managed from the edge, although fish kept coming in, they were extremely cagey, I did managed to mug a few, but most of my fish were coming from the far side, fishing shallow, but even 6 inches deep I was fouling fish even though I couldn't see them, all very frustrating,  I the end all three of us this end of the lake were admitting to about 60lb, but I thought I had over 70, when the scales reached me 44lb was tops, my fish went 87lb before Tony corbett had 72lb, but I thought Eddie swann on end peg 15 had beaten me as he had a very good last hour catching in his margin, and he did with 92lb which was top weight on the day over the two canals, well done eddie. Weigh sheets below.

Although it fished a bit harder today than expected, I'm sure it will pick with a bit of bait going in, I hope it does for them as they seem like a good bunch of blokes, even ollie, LOL.

Two for one

I'll begin with Thursday's over 55,s at huntstrete bridge pool, both right ups will be fairly brief as there isn't to much to right about to be honest, I drew peg 17 which is a peg going into the corner by the bridge, I had an island to go at which was 16 mtrs away, it's quite close to peg 18 which can effect the long pole , especially in 18, Hubert Evans was occupying that one today, and he had silvers in mind, the island in front of me had a fish which I could fish either side of.

Also it had a ice left hand margin with a bush in it, so I set up a pellet rig for the island, another for the margin, and lastly a silver rig for caster or maggot or soft pellet over groundbait, at topset and two distance, and as an afterthought a hard pellet rig for hard pellet at 13 mtrs in the deep water, I began short on caster and in the first couple of hours I had a mixture of small roach, tiny tench and some sensible skimmers, but as I expected it didn't last, so the rest of the match was spent on hard pellet in the various parts of the swim, I only had one fish from the margin, a 2lb mirror, I had a couple of better skimmers on hard pellet at 13 mtrs plus a couple of f1,s, I had to wait till the last hour for any island action, when I had 4 better carp, I ended up with 39lb which was good enough for second, steve.Dawson on 21 won on the day with 48lb, too silver weight on the day was taken by steve.tanner on 11 with 29.14, a good weight on the day.

Weigh sheets below show how hard it was for most.

Well what can I say about part two, it was off to bullock  farm on rushcombe lake, it was.the first round of mat Culpin,s snake lake series, I havnt fished here for years, at.least twelve, possibly 15, I can't remember, I had breakfast at the bridge in yatton, and it was nice, mainly due to the fact I had extra bacon and none of the horrible sausages, so 4.8, there were 30 booked in, but we had one no show, so 29 it is then, into the draw bag first and out comes peg 11, which was about three pegs back from the bend at the end of the first straight, I was next to Russ peck on 12 and Paul swain on 10, it was another long walk for me though

The shadow on the floor is being cast by the van, lol, just how I like it, it was only 11 mtrs wide,  but the far bank was covered in my peg hate , BRAMBLES, aaaargh . So I went around and cleared.a couple of spots, rigs today were a margin rig which would also do the car bank as it was the same depth, and a roach rig for down the middle as I had been told there were some quality roach in here, but roach have a tendency to switch off in these small.waters.when the pressure is on, I began on the roach rig,  it that turned into a waste of time, only a couple of small ones and a small brown goldfish, Russ had a small carp quite early and paul.was catching some small silvers, hard was an understatement, and to be fair the match panned out as we thought it would, after an hour I went to the far bank and had a small carp, and in the next two hours I had four more and lost 8, not big carp but there were lots of underwater snags, which the fish made.the most of, and the last three hours passed with very little action apart from an odd liner of small roach on maggot, at the end I thought I had 7lb, and was.close.As I had 7.9, which was good enough to win my 6 peg section, so a good start to the league, top.weight on the day went to steve"peanut" Howell on peg 5 with 32.12, an exceptional weight from the area , so well done matey, top "silver" weight went to Paul swain to my right with a level 3lb, not bad eh.

Weigh sheets below, now that was hard, I don't think we will be asked back next year as the anglers on peg 1 told Phil the owner what he thought of his fishery,
I know pleasure anglers.catch plenty on here , but I don't think it will.stand the pressure of a match with 30 anglers tramping around the banks, it may have been better if we never had the sun beating down as it is a shallow lake.