Hard water

I will keep this short, Thursday and plantations main lake for a silvers match, had a couple of lightweights cry off for this one, so only 15 fishing, the lake had a hard surface, mainly.due to it being minus 9 on the journey down there.the ice wasnt to bad only about 15 mm, i drew peg 28, good enough i thought, i took me 3 1/2 hiurs to get a bite, then i managed 1lb 5oz of plippy roach, its been rock hard with mark broomsgrove only needing 6lb to win off peg 8, so well done mate.

Sunday and with the first round of the Landsend winter league being cancelled due to the ice, i managed to get me and chris fox into the heather bush memorial match at avalon, with all proceeds going to the air ambulance charity, a very worthy charity. The ice was a lot thicker today, over 2 inches for most, and really hard to break, most only managing 5 mtrs, me included. I was on 38, with martin rayet on my left, and shawn kitteridge on my right but couldnt break the ice so went home, the weather was atrocious, even though the temps were up a few degrees, we had rain all day and it was freezing, luckily it was off our backs , unlike the poor souls opposite, they had it really bad, another difficult day, martin to my right was catching after about 45 minutes, niel mercer opposite on 10 caught virtually straightaway, it too me over 2 hours for my first bite, then ive had indications right to the end to finish with over 6lb, of small skimmers and roach, hard to understand why martin has caught early, but its taken me all that time to get my first bite, the other side of martin chris fox never had a bite till ten minutes from the end, mr mercer.won with 14lb, martin second with 11, and paul elmes thurd from the only ice free peg in somerset with 10lb, well done all for sticking it out in terrible cold conditions, but itwas in a good cause and i think over £300 was raised forn the charity, well done andy gurd for providing sausage and bacon rolls in the morning, and after heathers mum made a big stew whuch was very welcome,the bush family did us and the charity proud, well done vic and the crew. plus mince pies,everone had a prize, and the raffle was.brilliant aswell and finally today huntstrete on bridge pool, 17 fishing so plenty of room, andy gard drew for me and gave peg 28, nice, opposite i had kev winstone who was telling me his nurse has told him he needs to lose a bit of weight, and judging by his paltform she aint wrong.

No ice today and the temperature was positively balmey, but it did rain most of the day, it was a good day compared to recent ones, i caught roach at 5 mtrs , and i could have caught well there but i intended to fish for f1,s out towards the island, so the last few.hiurs were spent doing just that, i had been cupping some casters out at 16mtrs, first try and i had an f1, but after that small roach were a problem, so i switched to cupping some corn in with the caster with corn on the hook, caught quite well right to the end, probably ended with about 25 f1,s, mainly small ones but jt was good considering the recent matches, finished with 29lb of f1,s and 5lb or roach, which was top on the day, phil"the fizz"morgan was second from peg 7 with 23lb, and andy greenham on 10 had 17lb, top silvers.went to dave.wride on peg 26 with 7lb.

Rons silvers rnd 2

It was avalon for this round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, woke to a slight dusting of snow and minus temps, had to get a few reserves.for this one , but still one short on the day cos of a snow show, as expected the lake had a lid on it, so ice breaking it was then, i quite enjoy it if I'm honest,drew peg 42, probably the wrong end of the lale according to vic bush. i managed to cut myself a channel out to nearly 14 mtrs, then helped a couple of the older anglers a hand with there's,

Easy fishing, one rig does all as its the same depth from 5 to 14mtrs, so a .5g bodied wire stem float was.the only rig on show today with 20 acolyte silverfish hook on .10 at the start i cupped in some loose groundbait on three lines, 5/11 and 14 mtrs, never had a bite at 5mtrs, had my frst bite an hour and 20 in at 11 mtrs, i had to keep swapping between the 2 longer lines to keep odd bites going, feeding a bit of loose groundbait after every couple of fish, ended with about 16 small skimmers and a few roach for 5.8, which gave.me the all important section win, as vic expected, the top end and the other section was the place to be, with three weights over 20lb, with martin rayet coming out on top with 22.8 of quality skimmers on peg 32, all caught at 5mtrs.

Not to many blanks to be fair, and looking at other fisheries results at avalon wasnt to bad, as long as its not frozen the next matches here will probably be ok.

Thursday coffin dodgers

Back to bridge pool at huntstrete yesterday, temperature on the van was reading minus 5 near the fishery, i was glad i dragged.the old breaker from the shed , bit as it turned out there was no ice on any of the lake's, happy days, although i do enjoy a bit of ice breaking. 17 fishing so again plenty of room, all reasonable pegs in the hat, and i certainly was to upset to pull out peg 16, even though a few others seemed a bit disappointed, lol. Its a lovely peg , only 13 mtrs tight to the island, but wouldnt be going there as the water was very clear.

I had an old team mate to my right in the shape of shay(of the avon) gilman on 15, and around the corner on 18 was paul (rigsby)clayton. Only two rigs, one for topset and two, the same rig would do for 8mtrs in front at the bottom of the shelf and off to the right at 13 mtrs,all in about 7ft of water, and the other was for 10mtrs up the island shelf in about 4ft of water. Fed all the deeper swims with some groundbait and caster, and cupped some caster on the shallower line, started at 8mtrs, and had a small roach after about 5minutes, then another on straight away, switched to caster on the hook and never changed for the rest of the match, caught roach and a couple of small.skimmers , plus a lone 10oz chub, as well as 7 small f1,s, i had some better roach up to 10oz from the shallower swim, so considering how cold it was ive had a nice day, ended up with nearly 17lb of mainly roach, and the f1,s went 6lb for a total of 23lb, whuch was topweight on the day silvers and overall.

2xsilvers

Sunday saw myself and mr fox off to plantation main lake for ron hardiman,s silvers league first round. Stopped at the wessex flyer for all you can eat brekkie, very good too. draw was.at 9 so plenty of time, got to the carpark with loads of time, 18 fishing the league, a nice number on this lake, into the draw and i pull out two tickets, one for me and one for ron, peg 4 (again) for me and peg 5 for ron, so after.the same.peg on Thursday, same.rigs today, but this time i fed the 14 mtr from the off, i think the fish must have known wd are entering a few days of very cold weather, the short line in front gave me.two small roach, the right hand short line was the same as Thursday, i would get one bite or fish than have to leave it, i did get the one pound perch again , i was sure it was the same one as before. 11 mtrs was slow but oo for odd small roach and small skimmers for a while, then again the best line was 14 mtrs, some better skimmers and roach, i could see martin rayet on 19 was catching from the off but slowed right up in the sexond half of the match, whereas paul elmes on 27 had odd skimmers all through, and kev winstone on 32 had a better second half, the match was won by paul with 26, followed by martin woth 25, then Joe mcmahon on 24 haf a bigger 18lb than kev winstone , my fish went 13 ending up 3rd in section behind martin on 19 and gordon canning on 8, so not to bad, it certainly fished harder than expected, but looking at results lots of venues switched off today.

Monday and back to the sedges for the monday silvers match on the canal today, normal excellent breakfast at the fishery cafe. A bit dissapointing as only 12 fishing, even roy worth was absent. So jamie put every other peg in, into the draw bucket and peg 45 comes out for me, still a good area , but with plenty of room for all anything could happen on what most were expecting to be a hard day, local ace martin tizard on my left and bob c on my right, at the start i fed 5 lines with a bit of loose groundbait with some caster and dead pinkies in it, two swims at 6mtrs left and right, the same at 11 mtrs, then some at 13mtrs whuch was not quite the far side, and fed some caster.to the right in front of a dead reed bed, Started on the right hand short line, first fish was a carp, oh dear. But after that, i have had a nice day, small tench, crucians, roach, skimmers from about two ounces with one about 1lb and another nearly 2lb, two golden tench, one 4oz and the other 1lb, and nust for good measure i had two perch from the right hand weedbed for 4lb, i had nothing from the far bank line, a few fish from the two 11mtr lines, most of the fish csme from the right hand short line, ended up with over 19lb, a lovely looking multi coloured net, second was rob parker on 59 with 12lb.

The last three

Landsend on sunday for a silvers match on lake 2, took jason Radford with me , but still only 10 fishing, normal tasty breakfast at.the fishery cooked by sharon, ade got the draw underway on time, and most wanted pegs 11 or 13 as thats where the fish have been holed up recently, peg 13 came out for me , happy days then. Had two fishery legends for company, rod Wooten on 11 and dave ings on 15, the silvers on here are basically anything but proper carp, so f1,s, crucians, tench(small) skimmers, roaxh, rudd and perch, and you need to have several swims on the go and keep feeding and rotating all of them, so thats what i did, fed a variety of baits in all swims, from pellets on a line towards the end bank to my left, two shirt caster lines left and right, loose groundbait at 11 mtrs and maggots at 14, to be fair i caught on all lines initially, but as soon as i started cupping in loose groundbait on all lines sport improved, single maggot or caster on the hook doing the business, caught all the above species for a nice days fishing, the only fish i had over a pound were a few skimmers, so a nice day, ended up with 25lb, only.good enough for second as stu white on peg 20 had over 30lb, shame there wasnt a few.more as it fished well as the sheet shows.

Monday and the sedges for the monday silvers match, drew peg 39, caught 12lb, shoukd have done better, martin tizard won with 16lb from peg 35 , maggot on a small open ender, just beating steve kedge into 2nd who had a smaller 16lb, a hard day for all.

And today(Thursday)plantations mane lake for the fortnightly silvers match, james travis drew peg 4 for me, happy enough, mike nicholls on my left and andy wride on my right, 19 fishing which is one to many. Fed and fished three lines to begin with, topset and two, deep margin to my right and 11 mtrs straight out, it was the first proper cold day today, no wind, no ripple made for finick bites, but again. By rotating round i mamaged to keep some roaxh and skimmers going, the bigger skimmers were noticeable by there absence today, about 90 minutes to go i decided to get some more sections out and fed another line at 14mtrs, glad i did as i had some slightly better skimmers with a couple nearly 2lb, it had fished harder than normal ,but not suprising with the cold flat conditions, thought i had about 18lb , im crap at silver weight guessing, i had 26lb 😯😯😂😂. Good enough for third , that man dave (willy)Wilmot won of oeg 11 With 28lb and neil(drawbag) mercer had 27 from peg 8, close weights again as the sheet shows.

Oh yes and thanks for the clean sweep on the £1,s you know who you are LOL😂😂👍👍👍👍