This weeks roundup

To start i was at shiplate for round three of mat culpins teams of three rip off league. Mybturn to be on the main lake, mat on hawthorn and bob g on westpool, but before the draw it was breakfast in a box cooked by jess, and still a nice meal, no complaints, (4.8), perhaps tinned tomatoes may be good (jess). Bob did our draw and he pulled out peg 11 for me, its a nice peg with a island to fish off the end of, and a nice bush down to the left which can be a good fish holding area.

So a wag and a lead rod for the end of the island in 2 foot of water, a rig to fish meat down to the bush to the left, and a rig for the skimmers with corn hookbait for 13 mtrs.i began trying for skimmers with corn onthe 13 mtr line, had a few but nit quick enough, i had been fedding hard 8,s to the island, and it wasnt to long before i saw a tail pattern or two, so apart from a couple of sorties down by the bush which gave me a couple of good skimmers, and a very shirt spell on the lead out by the island , ive fished the wag mostly, catching fairly steadily , but not mad by any standards, but i ended upnwith 140lb which was good enough for second on the lake and second on the day, paul nicholls on peg 8 had a good day and put 209lb on the scales, well done, top silvers went to craig Edmunds on 3 main lake with 55lb of skimmers on meat.

Monday and back down tthe a38 to bridgwater and monday silvers match, which this week was on tile lake, brekkie in the fishery cafe was nice, still doing a social distancing draw here so i had ping pong 29 pulled out for me, wasnt to impressed as i drew it the last time the silvers match was on here and hooked more carp than skimmers, it was a wet day and breezy, so i fished two lines, 6 and 11 mtrs, both with maggot over caster in groundbait, it was a hard day with carp again making there presence felt, but i managed enough skimmers to end up with 29lb off peg 29 for the win , beating chris rolf into second with his 26lb, downside is i now need to sit down and tye more hooks 😕😕

Thursday now and back to shiplate and another nice jess brekfast, into the draw and todays peg was 12a, most of the swims have plenty of room but this one is a little bit tighter than most Again today i set up a corn rig for 13 mtrs but only a few 8oz skimmers on that, a margin rig, nothing on that, a short meat rig and a wag to fish on the deck with banded 8mm pellet over hard 8,s, most of the day was again spent on the wag, catching odd carp, whic as far as i coukd see was better than most, the meat line started to show signs of life about 45minutes from the end and i had three carp and a good skimmer on that. Ended up with 115lb for first on the day, top silvers went to nigel bartlett on my left with just over 30lb.

The weekly blog

Ivy house for the sunday open which was sold out over the two big lakes. Went with chris fox , we had breakfast at the fishery and as always was very nice. Andy got the draw done and i pulled out peg 2, can be ok as there is a island to fish to, so i set up a wag and a straight lead (yes), then a margin rig(fruitless), 5 mtr corn rig for skimmers and a 14 mtr one for pellet. Well.the wag was never.going to work as the wind was mainly blowing back at our bank, and it wasnt strong enough to get rid of the it of brown scum which was making sinking the line impossible, the lead was ok, i did get a couple of carp on that bit wasnt enjoying it, so i spent most of the time on the pole for very little reward to be fair, 42lb and no good, as the weigh sheet below shows , there were plenty of fish caught in several areas and all enjoyed a few fish with ovef 200lb winninng, up there again in a couple of weeks for a john darby match which is a pairs match, so chris and me in for that, on the old match lake and canal,

Back to one of my real favourite fishing days on monday, the self drives off beer beach, so an early start for judith and me , got the beach at about 8, just right to get into the anchor pub just above the beach for breakfast, very nice and good value for money, down on the beach to meet boat owner simon, load up the boat and we were off, flat calm it was, and very little chance of anything changing with a northerly breeze coming straight off the shore, we were soon just off beer head, a quick stop to catch some fresh mackerel for bait, and just for a change they were plentiful, with some good fish aswell with the biggest going just about 2lb.

With enough bait aswell as enough to take home for the freezer, we pushed out about another 1000mtrs and dropped the anchor. And to be honest we had a load of fish, i never thought i would say black bream were the nuisance fish, but today they definitely were, they were even getting to the baits before the doggies, but we had at least 40 bream but it may have been 50, we lost count, along with small gurnard , small.rays, strap conger, it was a bite every drop, a brilliant and enjoyable day in perfect conditions.

Looking at the long range forcast this was probably our last trip of the year doing this, shame really as it would have been good to get another one in, all the fish were on light 30g spinning outfits, so all nice and sporty. Thursday and backto Shiplate, with 20 fishing it meant peg zero was in, so after the good and sensibly priced breakfast done by jess in her hut ,(4.85), into the draw, in the bucket and 9a is my place of residence for today, a peg ive never drawn, but can be ok with decent margins both side , but the bush on the right always seems to be the best, so simple today, meat by the bush to my right and down the left hand side, then corn out at 14mtrs, but with an island at 30mtrs it would have been rude not to set up a wag and lead

i fed all lines, then begsn on the wag, by now john the manager had turned up for a look, so you can imagine the stick i gave him when i hooked a bramble on the island and lost a float, (bramblgate), so out in the lead but only a couple of liners, so the rest of the daywas spent on the pole, i had a few skimmers and small carp on the corn long line, but with acouple of hours to go the right hand margin came good with several good fish up to about 14lb on meat, and i did get one from the left, i didnt think I had 100lb, so when the scales arrived alan quantrill was winning with 114lb, so i handed my quid over to , oops, when i finished weighing my fish i ended up with 119lb , alan couldnt quite believe it and spent several minutes checking the adding up.

but i ended up 2 as ben haggs uncle colin on peg zero won with 127lb, well done , with titch williams winning the silvers with 28lb off peg 6. Oh yes and alan had to give me £2 quid back, i dont think he has forgiven me yet.😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

This weeks roundup

Shiplate on sunday for mat Culpin,s teams of three rip off, breakfast roll at the fishery which was very nice as always, my turn to be on hawthorn lake today, and the team draw put me on peg 3, which i wasnt to upset about , especially when peg 4 isnt in, company today was aaron britnell to my left on 2 and mark thorn on 5, ive had the peg before and caught well across to the far side, there is a nice shelf just over a foot deep which was ok, so a pellet rig for there, a maggot rig for on the deck down the middle, a meat rig for topset and two, then a rig to fish maggot over and micro and maggot feed down by pallet 4, on the all in i fed each lines and started.across , there were fish coming over the feed but as soon as the rig went in they backed off, obviously not happy in the shallow water, i did manage one, bit i lost a couple of foulers, one on the deep maggot line, it was definitely an off day for the lake as it was impossible to catch even a small fish on maggot anywhere in the peg, with about 90 minutes to go, aaron was on 9 carp with me on 4, but luckily fo me the margin in peg 4 had a few turn up in it, i ended with 9 carp so it was tight between me and aaron for the quid, it turned out there were a few of us with 9 carp, with steve brown having 10, so he won the section with 60lb, so the rest of us with 9 so it was quite close, all the weigh sheet below, as a team we did ok even with mat culpin trying to drag us down, well done bob gullick on winning on the day with 150lb, luckily in our team.

Monday and off down the A38 to the sedges in bridgwater, todays silver match was on the canal, im not going to waste to much time on this match, the best part of the day was definitely in the fisheries new cafe, nice food and very reasonably priced, (4.7).drew.peg 50 caught 1lb 4oz and left pretty sharpish, rob eagles on 58 won with 9lb and steve kedge on 59 was second with 8lb. It was a really hard day for most and my.meagre.weight actually beat a few LOL 😂 THE END now Thursday at shiplate for the weekly costcutter, good news is , jess now does a full breakfast, small/large or XL, i went for the large which was plenty , and i will give it a 4.8. First in the draw tin, out comes peg two, happy with that, but again it was a difficult day, the fish didnt seem to want to stay on the island in the shallower water, ive ended the day wit 8 carp and a few skimmers, ive had 4 at 16 mtrs close to the island, one from the right hand margin and 3 to my left at the bottom of the margin rocks, my 8 carp.went 87lb and my few.skimmers 7 for 94lb which was only good enough for third on the day, chris timms drew peg 4 again for the second match running and made.no mistake winning again with 110lb catching mainly to his left just off the left hand margin on meat over corn, well done , and alan quantrill on 11 was second with 104lb, si silvers went to nigel bartlett with 35lb. Got to mention the weed cutter made by lee murphy which screws onto the cupping kit, first time ive used it properly today, and it made short work of silvers a couple of nuisance brambles on the island, very good. also i have been using some Berkeley line for putting my rigs on, £6.99 for 300mtrs, whats not to like, available at premier angling in keynsham, huge range of sizes and breaking strains.

Weigh sheet below as normal, again a close match where one or two fish could have made.all the difference

A brief roundup of last weeks matches

With a lack of matches locally , i ran a small match on lake three at Landsend, as always a good breakfast at the fishery, (4.8), so set up and ready to go, got the draw underway and waited till the end when there was only two pegs left, i let Clayton Hudson draw mine and out comes peg 70, leaving my favourite peg on the lake ,58 for Rod wootten, last time I let hum draw for me. My peg does look nice with a big weedbed to my right, a snag pit margin to my left and a bank of mud straight out, but at least i was sat in the sun, unlike the pegs opposite who would be in the shade, so t shirts my bank and thermals opposite 😂😂.

Initially I set up rigs for the far side mud, a right hand margin, one to the weedbed and a mugger.as.there were some fish up sunbathing , and a rig to fish small pellet for silver,s. Company today was.rich major on 68, clayton opposite on 41 and beany on 42. All in called and i started at 9 mtrs for silvers, that was a waste if time, 30 minutes in and two roach and a small crucian, so mugging it was then, but with the water temps falling now even that was hard,i managed.a.few but for everyone that took the bait, probably about ten just turned away, fish were coming into the margin but were sketchy to say the least, then withnabout 2 hours to go i took the 14 mtr section off to try and catch a cruiser, swung the pellet round and my 13 mtr section snapped in half, for no apparent reason,( well thats what customers have always said over the years😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂).so ive got.a.spare which i thought i had with me, nope, home in the shed, doh. So last ootion was the left hand margin, i chose a spot at my now limit of 11 mtrs, and managed a few small resident fish, aswell as losimg a few which i expected. Ended up with awhat i thought would be about 65lb, started.the weigh in opposite, and it was apparent that it had been hard for all those on the far bank sat in the shade, the first peg in the sun, rod on peg 58(mine) had just over 90lb to win,catching mainly short on pellet, as he does,steve seager(yes steve seager) on 61 haf 79lb for second with me coming third with 68lb. Chris fox on 46 shivered 12lb of silvers to take that prize fishing maggot short.

Monday and off the sedges for the silvers match, today was the first day with the fishery cafe being open, i never knew so i stopped at the normal burger van at silverfish, which was still very nice, todays draw put me on 29, i dont generally mind where i draw in this lake as the skimmers can be well spread out,

But today as i was sat on the majorca bank again the carp were in residence in numbers, its cost me plenty if hooks today, ending up with 21lb, just ounced out of the section, well done jess jordan on flyer carp peg winning with 38lb, with steve kedge coming second on 32 with 31lb,

lastly and it was Thursday at shiplate for the weekly costcutter, 18 fishing so a good number on the big lake, as always jess in the bacon butty wagon did a very good roll, a good way to start the day, into the draw bucket and out comes peg 8, next to where i was last week(9), made an error last week by not setting up a tip rod as there were a lot of fish on the island, but with it being so shallow my.perseverance with the wag was not the way to go, so i left the wag in the bag , out with the rusty tio rod,

Other than that it was a margin rig for each side, a pellet rig for 14mtrs and a rig for under the tree to my right at the bottom of the margin shelf,i will make this short ive had 4 on the tip to the island, losing two to a snag by the aerator, and two came off, possibly fouled,, ive had three on the pole about halfway through, one from the right hand margin and another on the long line towards the end, so ending up with 9 carp and a skimmer for 82lb, and no good(just the quid off alan quantrill on peg 9), chris timms on peg 5 won with 115lb on peg 4 fishing the tea bag, second was paul faiers on peg zero with just over 100lb, on worm over micros, silver were won by ron stark on 15 with 48, beating nigel bartlett on 2 who had 41lb, off to shiplate again sunday for mat culpins teams of 3 , my turn on Hawthorn, looking forward to that

Thursday shiplate

Back on the main lake today which is nice as you have a good bit of water in front of you to go at, jess had the breakfast roll wagon open and very nice it was , bacon,egg,sausage and hash brown, all very nice , 4.75, good news is that she will be doing full breakfasts from next week. roll devoured just in time for draw time, into the bucket and out comes the only.peg i didnt fancy, peg 9, my.drawing arm seems.to have.deserted me.a.little bit of late. The peg looks good with an island out at about 40mtrs, bit it is very shallow, better suited to lead chucking, but not for me, wag it was then.

Also assembled was.a.pellet rig for 14 mtrs, a silvers rig for 11 mtrs, and lastly a margin rig to fish along the left hand side, normally.you can catch quite short but not today , the only place i could get in tight enough was at 13 mtrs, and only.then if i lent forward , definitely needs a.prune.

On the whistle i put some groundbait at 11 mtrs some pellets at 14 and began firing some 8,s to the island, (occasionally wind allowing), starting on the silvers line i had a 6oz skimmer first drop, then next put in a small eel, not a good sign. I gave it an hour on that for about 3lb, so not good , i went out to the island and had a couple of carp(small) quite quickly, but that was the only two from there, i gave it a really good go but even though there were carp over there i couldnt get a bite on the float, i should have bitten the bullet and thrown the lead out, but i never, probably cost myself (again), next time. As for the pole and pellet line all i had was one skimmer, so that was no good. I tried the groundbait line on and off and had a few.small skimmers, but i was going nowhere fast as far as silvers went , i did manage one carp down the edge and five more on the wag towards the trees to my left, along with a couple of tench and two better skimmers.

Alan quantrill won on the day on peg 1 (again), not saying he draws it very often but its now got AQ1 on the peg number, and there are 20 notches in the fence behind ,probably be 21 next week, well done , and another quid off me, but i call it a hollow victory as you chucked the method LOL 😂😂😂.

Top silvers went to ron stark on 15 with a shade over 30lb, nice one ron, picture

Here,s a few

Not reported anything for a while as both me and judith had the c19, ive recovered well but judith is struggling with her energy levels , but she is getting there, so my first match was last Wednesday at Todber manor for a southwest tackle dealers match , supposidly for people working within the trade, hmmm. Anyway drew 86 on homeground, caught 178lb short for no good, well done lee woodhouse for the win with 380lb on peg 82, maggot shallow doing it still. Next was.the three day mini festival at Landsend fishery, well done to mike for running it, always difficult but he did good, day one peg 8 on lake 2, not a peg of choice, limped home with 59lb nust beating three in the lake section, so festival.over as you cant carry anything less than a top three on any day, realistically top 2 is normally required, rod Wooten on peg 21 won the lake and john Hawkins on 19 was second. Second day and lake.three, peg 46 for me.had a better.day, 107lb for 4th on the lake , John Hawkins on 68 won the lake with rod Wooten second on 62, Day three and speci lake, peg 25 not a good draw, had a laugh with steve seager opposite on 40, quid bet which i beat him by one fish, john hawkins on 31 made.no mistake winning the lake with well over 260lb, which also won him the festival with his travelling partner steve (peanut)howell coming second, so well done to them. Monday and judith and me had a boat trip out of watchet on the lorna doone boat, even that was more difficult than we expected, but we had three different species of rays, small conger, baby tope doggies and bull huss, so really plenty of fish but no real quality, skipper Tommo did his best but today just seemed as though all the better fish shut up shop. bit of a short right up im afraid ,hopefully back to normal this week.

Thursday shiplate

Back to a match om the main lake today, and a nice breakfast roll from the butty wagon all prepared by jess, well cooked and hot again. In charge of own draw today and i pulled out peg 7 for myself, i had an island chuck but that was never going to happen,

Also its a swim with a lovely left hand margin with an overhanging tree at 16mtrs, but i wasnt going to go that far as undoubtedly it would be beyound the boundary of the peg, so 13 mtrs that way.

For company i had silver ace pete zimniak on 8 to my left and alan quantrill on my right on 6 Rigs today , a silvers.rig for 7mtrs, to fish worm maggot or caster.over.groundbait. A shallow and deep pellet rig for 14 mtrs, a meat rig for 5 mtrs to my left at the bottom of the margin rocks, and a pellet rig for 13 mtrs to my left, again at the bottom of the rocks. after feeding all lines with the appropriate baits i started on the short groundbait line, whuch was a massive disapointment, after.an hour all i had to show for my efforts were two small skimmers and a roach, what was.worrying was.that there were no bubbles or fizz on any other lines. I did managed.a.foulhooked carp and a big skimmer in the next hour, looking around no one seemed to be catching much, alan had a couple of big skimmers, and pete.was.getting small fish, but at the start of the 4th hour , my meat and long margin pellet line began to come to life, i began catching big skimmers and then a couple of carp, so life all of a sudden was good again, also i had a few.carp from the longer margin pellet line, so the last part of the match was very enjoyable, including the skimmers and three tench i had i new i had well over 100lb, when the scales got to me alex murray on peg 15 was top with 99lb, my carp went 97lb and the silvers went 30lb giving me a total of 127lb, enough for the win,

nigel bartlett won the silvers from peg 1 with 36lb which is a good silvers weight from there, so alex was second overall and john andres was third with 80+ from peg 3, weigh sheet below.