avalon open

a decent turn out of 28 today which goes to show that the venue is becomming more popular which has a lot to do with the hard work leigh and vic have put in over the last few years , its still got its doubters but i think it always will but thats there loss as its one of the fairest venues you can get with different pegs winning all the time.
back to the draw and ron hardiman drew for me and gave me peg 1, its a peg i have always wanted to draw but never had till today, another plus today was the fact that i was sheltered from the strong southerly wind which had begun to blow. i began with three pellet rigs today, one at 16mtrs in front and 2 for the right hand margin one on top of the shelf and one halfway down, all rigs on .18 with the usual b960 size 16,s on.at the start i cupped in some 6,s in front and some down the margin. starting in front i had 3 carp and a couple of decent skimmers in the first hour, then i began foulhooking, i tried changing the feeding by cupping ,by catapult by not feeding nothing really seemed to work except fot the not feeding, then i had no bites !!!!!!!!!!!! a qiuick look in the margins resulted in 3 more carp and a tench then that went quiet, so i put in half a cup of 6,s at 16 mtrs , i then had a chat with the dark lord and he advised me to set up a paste rig, so 2 1/2 hours in i duly complied and unfortunately i began adding to my total so by switching between the two lines i managed to end the match with 15 carp and some silvers.
i was first to weigh and my catch went 93.11 for first on the day
2nd went to steve skelton with 74.12 on peg 7
3rd phil(fabio)harding with 73.14
4th alan oram 51.12 peg 12
5th tom mangnall 50 lb peg 17
6th mat fisher 46.4 peg 30
silvers went to fish and field very own blip basher chris derrick with 14.12 of bits and bobs on caster shallow.
yet again dean malin entertained us with stories from his youth the best of the dunch today was about the time dean and a mate kidnapped his neighbours ginger tom and turned it into a mini tiger with the help of an indelible marker, i dont expect the owners were to happy

a day out with the ducketts

landsend weds open today and it was good to swee mike fishing today as he hadnt got his tackle out since april, no wonder di aint happy lol.mike west bought his work experience lad along to have a go so i let him draw for me, and he handed me peg 7 on the match lake, not the best of pegs but i have done alright off it in the past, its a peg which seems to get stronger as the match goes on providing you dont ease up on the feed , cos the fish turn up on the far bank , coming round from the gap on peg 6. but i wanted to be on the speci lake really as it had been fishing well, and with nearly a foot of extra water in it, it could only be good, and with fabio on 31 again and nick duckett on 27 i was going to have my work cut out to win today.
4 rigs today , a 4x12 dibber for shallow, a 4x12 for pellet on the deck and up to the empty pallet to my right, and a 4x8 rig for over in 10 inches of water by the island, all the rigs on .18 to fish banded pellet.
at the start i cupped in some soaked 4,s at 6 mtrs, half a cup of 6,s to the empty pallet, and began feeding 6,s with a catty to the island.
starting at 6 mtrs with a banded 6 i soon had a skimmer ,then i lost a fouled carp, a couple more skimmers followed then a 5lb carp in the mouth, i stuck with this line for about 90 mins as i wanted to let the island swim settle, next door on 5 adrian bishop went straight to the island and had built up a 6 or 7 carp lead, but i think he was paying for it now as he was suffering lots of foulers as the carp werent really settleing in his feed area. i went over with a 8mm on the hook and started getting indications straight away as i could see fish moving through the weed bed (small lillies)which you fish in as the carp feed with more confidence due to the cover, it took a while to find a clear spot amongst the weed but i was soon getting the odd fish which helped clear some weed as the .18 was strong enough to break off the stems making the catching area bigger.
then the ducks arrived so i had to stop feeding with a catty for a while and started cupping in some pellets after each fish, it wasnt as effective as feeding with a catty as i think the noise of the pellets fired by a catty attract the fish, i dont think the ducks upset the fish as they see them all the time , they just annoy me, and to be honest i think they have helped in the past as the colour and mud they kick up can help but pellets are for fish not ducks.when they went it was back with the catty and i had a steady stream of fish right to the end, and as i expected the swim was more productive in the second half, i ended the match with over 30 carp which would be enough for top on the match lake but with both fabio and nick admitting to over 30 fish on the speci lake it wasnt going to be enough for today.
and so it proved to be with nick duckett on 27 was top on the day , fishing pellet to the island and ending up with 196 lb for his best weight ever
2nd went to phil(fabio)harding with 163.14 on 31 again on pellet over, i think mike is going to ask him to contribute to the rates as he spends so much time on the peg
3rd was me with 147 lb
4th dean malin 82.7 peg 1
5th andy bryant with 61.7 peg 21 and he took a quid of the past(e)master off the next peg tony(one trick)witcomb
6th adrian bishop 58.8 peg5
silvers went to john bradford with 20.8 on peg 29 mainly skimmers on soft pellet
he just edged out the southmead sniper aka leon hubbard on peg 11 with 20.6
dont forget avalon this weekend so book early to avoid dissapointment ha ha

shop bitz part ?

over heard fabio chatting to martin alexander on monday morning, martin asks him how he did at the weekend, so fabsy runs him through his match, then admits he only weighed 7lb, martin says "fairplay fabsy you very nearly made that sound interesting". its a good job 5 people dnw,d as he would have been 55 th on the day but then 50th dont sound to good does it.
trig (craig edmunds)had a panic on monday night as he lost his hair thickening powder whilst out with his mate, turns out he dropped it in his car so his mate left it behind the shops neighbours wall for him to pick up on tues morning, that was certainley a missed opportunity , i wonder what he would have looked like with black groundbait dye on his head. he was in early on tues with another of his follically (i think thats how you spell it)challenged mates, philtones very own printing magnet niel mercer, i think his hair line has gone beyond lasers and fairey dust i think his best option has to be eyebrow extensions and back combing,or borrow some off the printing trades very own monkey boy as he has plenty.(you know who you are). any way him and trig were in the shop to pick up some casters as they were fishing a print trade corporate day at colemans cottage in essex, niel always asks some strange questions and today was no exception, he asked what effect all the heavy rain might have on the way the fish would react, HOW THE FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF WOULD I KNOW but last time i looked they seemed quite happy to spend there lives in water so bit extra aint goin to hurt is it, and i think niel, colemans is taking part in a new pilot scheme where all the fish are being given the chance of a brollie if they need it.
then theres les(the chub)williams who is planning a mullet trip to a small harbour near tenby in west wales which is fed by a river off the mountains, he asked me if i thought the river would go into spate and colour the harbour making the mullet go off the feed, again, HOW THE FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF WOULD I KNOW, i dont go to wales as i dont like paying 11 quid to get in, perhaps they aint so daft if our government were to start charging an access fee to get in to our country (and make it big)we may not get the same ammount of immigrants turning up for the free handouts.
still waiting for mr anon to come out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one in the eye for mr anonymous

round 4 of the float only lge found us back at landsend on all 4 lakes and with only larry let down (mr notton) we still had 55 fishing (does that constitute a proper match mr anon). i let trigger draw for me and he handed me 29 which is on the far side of the speci lake , not a bad draw, but with dean malin on 31 and gary etheridge on 32 i would have my work cut out to win the section. i set up 2 identical rigs to fish over to the island with banded 8mm on the usual 16 b960 on .18 line, a corn/soft pellet rig for 11 mtrs and a paste rig for down the edge. at the start i cupped in some soaked 3,s at 11 mtrs and some 6,s down the edge, by this time dean on 31 was already playing a carp, so i began feeding 6,s to the island in front and another area to the left at about 16.5 mtrs, and i did manage to mug one straight away so at least i was level with dean. then the fun began, with the water levels being so low with at least a foot of water missing from the lakes the far shelf was now only 12 inches deep so lifting and dropping the bait wasnt really working also these fish are to cute to take a suspended bait, and you cant swing the bait around as there is to much foliage hanging over the water, so you had to ease the rig in towards the island and lift and drop as best you could without snagging the bushes, which i managed to do a lot trashing rigs in the process. foulers were a major problem and i was losing more than i was landing, about halfway through the fish seemed to settle a bit and i began to get them in the mouth, by this stage i think me and dean were about even, but then the aerater went off and deans peg went a bit quiet whereas i kept sneaking a few. i did get one carp at 11mtrs on corn and lost 2 foulers there as well, and the edge paste line never got looked at,by switching between the to island swims i managed to end up with 25 carp to deans 18 so the section win was looking good, when the scales turned up my 25 fish went 156.2 and i did have about 6lb to much in one net but luckily it didnt cost me but it was close as nick duckett on peg 1 on the match lake put 145.14 on the for second spot
3rd dean malin 119.9 on peg 31
4th john dursley 108 on peg 11
5th fred roberts 106.8 peg 19
6th craig(trigger)edmunds 71 on peg 13
sivers went to trigger with 38 lb of skimmers chub and tench on peg 13
hopefully the anonymous fool will have the guts to put a comment on and leave there name but some how i dont think they will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyone interested i am running a match at avalon next sunday 10 draw fish 11.15 to 5.15. book early to avoid dissapointment lol

gone to the dark side

it was another pole only at viaduct and with 31 booked in it just goes to show how popular these matches are.i drew peg 100 on cary, which wasnt really the lake you wanted to be on as cambell as it was fishing well. and with the on form andy powers on 115 it looked to be a forgone conclusion. walking to my peg and having a chat with mash ,he reckoned that the pellet approach wasnt working to well on this lake as all you seemed to do was foulhook everything. so what do i do, set up a pellet rig for on the deck which was a 4x12 j2 on .18 with the favourite b960 size 16 , and a up in the water rig . at the start i cupped in half a cup of 6,s at 14 mtrs and wwent straight in with a banded 8, the peg started fizzing straight away but it still took me 20 mins to put the first carp in the net, by which time mash on 97 had 3 on paste and glen bailey opposite on 78 had taken a couple shallow and they contineud to take fish for the first 3 hours with glen swapping between shallow pellet and paste to catch and mash just sticking to the paste, during the same time all i had to show for my efforts were a few decent skimmers and several large scales. with people catching on the paste there was nothing else but to sneak up to the van and get a bag of paste(urgh). i cupped in some 6,s and made a rig up which didnt take long as all you need is a float and a hook, with it fished dead depth the paste sets the float, and what i,ve seen it dont even matter if the float is lying st 45 degrees as the fish still pull it under, first put in the float buries and a 12 pounder is netted, and all of a sudden the world begins to look like a better place, by the end i had 11 carp and about 10 lb of skimmers, the scales arrived and the carp weighed 109.3 and the skimmers 10.10 for a total of 119.13, not enough to frame but enough for a default section as mash framed up.
the match was won by andy powers with 293.3 off 115 all taken shallow at 16 mtrs. it seems he cant stop catching at the moment, he,s even caught 4lb up on erewash canal during a practice match for the div 2 national. what with him and dan squires i,m beginning the think ginger people are going for world domination.
2nd was chris fox on 119 with 192.10 again taken shallow at 16 mtrs
3rd kieth masheeder(outed)with 179.14 on 97 with my favourite bait,PASTE
4th alan oram 161.1 peg 132
5th ray hayward 140.2 peg129
6th glen bailey 133.3 peg 78
silvers went to brendan currie on 111 with 48.14 of skimmers and tench on meat
another good match with plenty of fish caught all round

putting it right

after last weeks poor showing on the match lake at viaduct i was looking forward to going back for another go.i think the main problem last week was that i never attacked the peg enough so i was determined to do better this week. at the draw i ended up with 47 which hasnt shown to much form since they restocked the lake, it used to be a proper flier a few years back when the big carp were in there as it is the shortest chuck to the island for the pellet wag , but unfortunately khv took care of most of the better fish so it has now been stocked with f1,s , skimmers and tench with a few small carp aswell.
only 2 rigs today ,a 4x14 for 13 mtrs and a 4x12 for 16 mtrs as it was a tad shallower further out both on .12 with a 16 6313 hook , the plan was to feed 4mm expanders with micro,s and a bit of dusty g bait at 13 mtrs and then caster and micro,s at 16. i cupped in some feed at 13 and 16 then went straight in at 13 with double maggot and an f1 was soon in the net, then i lost a good skimmer, the bites went a bit funny then so i put on a piece of corn and had several skimmers and a couple of f1,s, by kindering some feed in after every 2 fish i kept getting odd skimmers and small f1,s and i did get a 2lb tench aswell, i had left the 16 mtr line for as long as possible , but i had been cupping in some micro,s and casters about every 20 to 30 minutes so with 2 hours to go i went on it and began getting indications and it wasnt long before a small carp was in the net, i did get a couple of 3 pounders on that line plus some more f1,s and i also had another good skimmer at 13 mtrs with all the fish taking double maggot in the last 2 hours, the good thing with this peg is that you can see all the other anglers on the lake apart from the three on the bottom bank as the island blocked my view, and the only person who seemed to be a threat was paul elmes on 51 who had been catching small carp and f1,s quite regularly , martin mcmahon on 50 was really struggling next to paul as he was only fishing at 13 mtrs so he put another section no and went out to 14.5 and began catching really quickly up until then he only had 2 fish but endd the match with 21lb 20 lb of which came in the last hour and a quarter, why does that happen.
at the end i thought i had 35 to 40 lb but my catch went 42.8 which was enough for first and i also had the top silvers weight of 21.11
paul elmes was 2nd with 37.5 on peg 51 on soft pellet and maggot over micro,s at 14 mtrs
3rd craig(trig)edmunds 27.11 peg 43
4th adrian jeffrey 26.2 peg 48
5th jason radford 25.6 peg 42
6th leon hubbard 24.8 peg 40
highlight of the day was jason radford stepping off the platform into the lake , good job it was only 2 foot deep so he managed to keep his head above the water. another interesting day with silvers being an important part of the overall weights with skimmers and tench being the bonus fish which is a refreshing change and with no pegs standing out it is as i said last week a fair venue with winning pegs changing every time

pier fishing at landsend

with us having the driest 6 months since 1929 this is a venue which is in desperate need of some serious rain. its normally filled up from the numerous springs which run in from the surrounding hills but they have run dry , as they seem every year now probably due to the water companies abstracting from source, what makes it worse is the fact they are foriegn owned. and when i drew peg one it looked as though i was going to need a drop net not a landing net as the platform was a good 4 foot above the water,i set up a rig for the island to the right for banded pellet in 1 foot of water, a pellet rig for the left hand margin against the trees, a shallow stalking rig and a hard pellet rig for 5 mtrs on the deck, with the bushes sucking the water up as well and growing at a rate of knots i could only see a large north bristol brickie opposite on 24 (he was supposed to be in work so i cant say his name)and ed wynne(who would love to be in work) on 22.
starting out stalking only produced a couple of rudd which i managed to shake off and 1 lost carp , not a promising start and with ed taking 3 or 4 fish quickly i was already behind as far as i could see.i had been feeding to the left and the island with 6,s so out to the left but apart from a couple of liners and a try with the shallow rig which produced no bite at all it was the island for me, with a few swirls and tails showing i soon had 2 carp in the net ,then i had a bit of a wobbly moment, why are all fisheries right hand friendly, there was abig bush behind me to my right which i kept getting my net handle caught up in making putting fish in the net difficult, so i decided to move the keepnet to the other end of the bar to give myself a different angle with the net handle, and yep i dropped the net and it sank, so a bit of panic sets in as i couldnt get it with the landing niet as it was 4 foot deep so off the box to get the weed cutter and walked into my top set which snapped, but i did get the net back and the 2 carp were still in there.
with the water levels so low the carp were hard to get in the mouth and everyone was suffering foulers on the islands, as i,ve said before these landsend fish a cagey fish as they have been in there for a long time and have seen it all , they are not to keen to take a static bait against the island, but will take a falling bait, but with 18 inches of water missing there wasnt enough time for a fish to take it before it hits the bottom, and they wont take it shallow, and if you dont feed or cut the feed right back or stop the fish dont even come in to the swim, but by switching between the left hand margin and the island i ended the match with 15 carp and 2 tench for about 50 lb.
i was first to weigh and put 59.2 on the scales which was top until we got to
mat(the shrimp)tomes on peg 10 who had 16 fish for 89.14 on 8mm banded pellet at 8mtrs and that ended up top on the day.
2nd stu foale(he beat me so you are named and shamed)with 60.7 peg 24 with most of his fish taken on meat at 6 mtrs
3rd me 59.2 peg 1
4th phil(fabio)harding 57.1 peg 15
5th mike west 49.4 peg 19(i excpect the carp were glad of the rest)
6th andy bryant 45.7 peg 5
silvers went to the gimp john bradford with 18.8 on peg 21 on caster