fish at last

today was the first round of the viaduct teams of 5. fairplay to steve and paul who did a brilliant job breaking and clearing ice so the event could happen. if they had left it the match would have been cancelled, and as most people hadnt been for 3 or 4 weeks most were keen to drown some bait. with the team draw done i ended up on peg 61 on lodge, not the best but there is always a chance of a carp and some skimmers .
2 pole rigs today , a 4x14 to a 20 808 and .10 to fish maggot at 16 mtrs over g bait, and single caster over caster at 16 mtr on an angle to my right, i also set up a waggler rod to fish on the deck at 25 mtrs, the last rig was a 4x12 rig on .14 to an 18 xedion hook for the right hand margin as odd big fish do show in the margins. on the whistle 2 balls of g bait with a few casters and pinkies were cupped in at 16 mtrs staight out, some casters on the angle and some down the edge. then i went straight out on the wag with a piece of corn on an 18 hook, the slight breeze was coming ocross and in at me so presentation wasnt the best ,as the float was getting pushed back towards me, so next chuck i deepened up by about 6 inches to try and slow the drag down, and it seemed to work as the float buried anb i hooked what i thought was small carp but it turned out to be a 2lb tench, a good start but after the early excitment i couldnt get another bite on anything or any where, but on our lake both paul blake on 73 and andy lloyd on 53 both into carp straight away, so the rest of the section was going to fighting for 3 place in the section.
looking across on cary i could see george perkins on 85(again) getting carp on maggot on the tip, and clayton hudson on 86 catching on hair rigged corn also on the tip. back to my peg but still no bites and by now tim pallant on 69 had begun to get odd skimmers on the wag so he was looking good for 3rd providing no one else had carp but that was looking unlikely. at half one rob randall on 63 had 2 skimmers on the trot so i decided to come off the wag and try the pole again as there may be a few skimmers over the groundbait i had put in at the start , i hadnt fed again as there had been no indications over it . lowering in a single dead red the float settled and went straight under, and a 2lb hydrid joined the lonely tench , it was now 1.45 and by 2.45 i had 10 skimmers then they were gone, i did put a couple more balls in during that hour and when i did i caught over it straight away, but the last 45 mins were very quite with only a few small roach to show for my efforts.
at the end i thought i had about 14 lb which i reckoned was good enough for 3 rd or at worse 4th in the section(lake). andy lloyd won our lake with 75.2 which was 9 carp on the wag cast into the corner 2nd on our lake was paul blake with 4 carp for 39 lb on the pole down the edge. my skimmer and tench catch went 15.5 for 3rd on the lake but it was also the top silvers catch on the day which means i qualify for the silvers final later in the year.
on the day george perkins won with 144.13 on 85 which was 18 fish
2nd martin preston on131(cambell) with117.2 fishing maggot on the wag
3rd clayton hudson 107.6 peg 86 corn on the lead
4th andy lloyd 75.2
5th steve denmead 74.7 peg 130
6th m wright 43.4 peg 128
teams on the day
keyford 90 pts(new record)
maver veals red 71
viaduct select 70
somerset angling 68

ouch

we all know how much it hurts when we get a 14 or 16 barbless hook in the finger it certainly makes you wince, spare a thought for tony harding, he,s slipped and put a 10/0 straight into his pinkie, so it was pack up time and off to the hospital to let the local witch doctor dig it out. i dont think barbara(the sane and sensible side of the marriage), minded paying the 60 quid hospital fee as she said it was good that he knows what a small prick feels like lol

not again

even though everything was frozen solid a few of us decided to go to boyd valley lake to break the ice and have a knockup. as you only seem to have to clear to about 5mtrs to get some roach action it sounded like a good bet, the only thing that might stop us was the weather.
the forecast was for heavy overnight snow giving us several inches by the morning, the met office couldnt get it right again could they, quick answer yes, it started snowing at 5 pm tues and it was still coming down at 6 am weds morning, so a few txt,s and calls were made to let people know it was off, then back to sleep. to be honest if my van had been a front wheel drive and not rear i would probably have gone somewhere.
i phoned viaduct this afternoon to see if the league will be on this sunday and steve told me that the ice and snow was melting very quickly so he wouldnt be making a decision till thurs morning and he was sure there would be enough free water for a match on sunday or possibly the league. we will have to wait and see, but it looks as though the temps are rising so the weekend is looking good to wet a line with the chance of a few fish, i dont think my brain will stand another day without a fish.

not one to remember

with most lakes being covered in ice to a thickness of 3 inches or more most people had had enough of ice breaking so martin mcmahon came up with the bright idea of going to the feeder canal, and what started off with as half a dozen sweep turned in to a 17 peg sweep. as there is no peg fee on this venue i just made it a tenner all in paying the top 3 and 2 sections. i drew peg 16 which was one off the downstream end peg. one rig again today , a 2grm jolly to a 22 and .10 hooklength, and even with the nasty downstream skim it went through just lovely. at the start i cuppedin 1 ball of dark g bait with a few pinkies in and fired about 6 mags to the far bank at 18 mtrs, i had thought we would get a few bites as up until the previous weekend it had been fishing quite well with lots of small roach and dace being caught but not today , i cant bore you any more but everyone blanked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 people did claim to have had bites, but i think they were suffering from ibs ,no not irritable bowel syndrome it was more like imaginary bite syndrome, good news was the weigh in didnt take long which is just as well as i forgot the scales. so any clubs out there looking for a for a fair match venue , look no further and its very cheap to fish as you dont need to buy any bait. the payout took longer than anything else as i had to walk along and give them all there pools money back. it was strange as everyone fished right to the end as 1 fish would have taken all the money. i cant understand why i couldnt get any interest for another go next week

they are mad in sa

firstly i would like to thank the person who commented on my last entry with some foul and unnecessary language , it wasnt needed, but if people do feel the need to use language like it perhaps they should have the courage to put there name to the comment, comments are all part of the fun as i enjoy the p taking as much as the next person , but i do think certain words shouldnt be posted for all to read, so from now on i will need to review all comments before posting. thanks whoever you were.

back to some fishy business i had an e mail from tony harding in south africa to let me know that his fishing bud had caught a good ragged tooth shark from a mark i fished when i was over with him. it ONLY weighed about 130 kg which is about 280 lb in english money . thats a right monster off the shore, he ended up landing the fish approx 1 km from where he hooked it , which is a feat in itself as the rocks tony and him were scrabbling over were dangerous enough then you have to grab it by the tail and try to man handle it onto the rocks, then once its unhooked and piccy,s taken you have to get it back into the water get in with it to support it whilst it regains its strenth or it may just sink to the bottom and drown, fair play to brandon ,i said they are all mad but at this rate he aint going to see his 19 birthday is he , see pics above.

acrtic viaduct

just a quick mention on blood and joker, we all know the majority of of it comes from russia and poland so how can it be bought into the country without a health check, every other animal that arrives on our shores has to undergo stringent health checks, obviously polish and russian sewer systems dont have any diseases in them. clubs that allow it on there enclosed waters cant think that there are any problems with it.
thats the moaning over with , now back to viaduct, and more moaning lol, yep frozen over again so out with the new breakers with more rope and stronger chain, and i drew 125 again, even though it had been broken out to 13 mtr the day befor , it had frozen again with the ice about 10 mm thick , but 10 mins with the breaker and the peg was clear again. same rig as last time cos i actually put it on a winder , all i had to do was put a fresh hook on, so the 4x16 impact 6 float was ready , and the mark for the depth was still on the pole.
at the start i cupped in a ball of g bait with a few casters in ,and waited for the skimmers to turn up. first bite after 30 mins resulted in a half ounce roach , at least it was a start, shame tim (64 turns)pallant on 123 had had about 20 blips by now so i was already behind if it turned into a blippy fight , and it did. i kept trying to catch some quality but apart from 2x 3 oz skimmer the peg seemed only to have small roach in it, i was getting plenty of bites and indications but i was missing bites and the fish kept dropping off, i dont think the fish could get the 20 808 hook in there mouths, i think i am going to have to put some proper size 20,s and 22,s in the box and i might even have to go so far as putting some faggot elastic in a top set. any way tim kept catching the bits right to the end so he was looking good for the section at least, the scales arrived and i had 2lb 5oz then tim weighed 5lb 5oz which turned out to enough for first on the day, 2nd spot went to dean malin on 116 wit 3 kimmers for4lb 14oz
3rd mark broomsgrove on94 with 4lb 5oz
4th brian slipper on 112 with 3lb 10 oz , he was admitting to 7lb after the match but he lost several good skimmers from ahole in his net as he lifted it out , and it was agolden peg lol
5tht rixon 2lb 5oz
6th dick bull 2lb 4oz
i,ve had enough of ice breaking now ,so if the big man upstairs is listening can we have 12c with a 10 mph south westerly for the next few weeks ta very much

apology

just a quick apology to the bathampton match secretary ,as it wasnt him who cancelled the canal match at the weekend . it seems the match was left in the capable hands(lol)of mr gilman and britt. i think the final decision must have been left to mr g , as the thought of spending extra money on shop bought blood and joker must have been to much to bear, so cancelling was a way of not spending to much money. darren is the only person i know who,s wallet is fitted with a combination lock, he,s even got the edge on mike nicholls for the part of scrooge in next years panto at the hippodrome, but then again mike may get it if it goes to age.
but i still dont agree with members of the public allegedly selling bait on the bank, perhaps if they were to register there home adress,s as a business adress it would be ok