weds open, acorn fishery paddock lake

27 fishing again today with several new faces so the venue is becoming more popular, probably due to its close proximity to the motorway and bristol, it only takes me 35 mins to get there from my house which is a short journey .
somebody pulled two tickets out stuck together so i had the one closest to me and ended up on peg 15, its hard to say which is a good draw and which is bad, the only thing is that this end of the lake does tend to hold bigger fish, hard to say why that is unless its just down to wind direction as the prevailing south and westerly winds blow to this end. the forcasters nearly got it right today with rain from 10 am to 2 pm. well it started at 9 but it did actually stop very nearly at 2 exactly then the sun came out and dried us all up, and they got the wind right as it was very gusty and strong and when the rain stopped the wind got stronger which on snake lakes can make presentation very awkward, martin alexander on my left set up a lead rod and with a couple of anglers catching on the method in recent matches that may not be a bad shout, my plan was just top 3 and 2 and just meat on the hook, so i set up a .5g and a .8g rig with 18 9313 hooks on .14 which is plenty strong enough for these fish as they average about 3lb ish, and a margin rig with the same hook and line.
at the start i cupped in half a pot at 5mtrs and down the edge, starting a 5mtrs i had to wait about 5 mins for the first bite and fish, martin had already had one on the lead but that was all he had on it, the first couple of hours went quite well with about 15 fish which wasnt manic but no one was running away with it so i thought i was still doing ok, it took another 2 hours to get to 20 fish which was all i wanted to put in one net, the last 2 hours were marginally better but with only 10 fish going into the second net i thought a section win was going to be my only chance of a pick up, the margin gave me a couple of fish but they were only small so that was a bit of a waste of time, at the end i thought my carp would go about 90lb and with 10lb of silvers i may just scrape 100lb, and walking round to start the weigh in only a few people were admitting to having 100lb, and that s how it turned out with one fish seperating the top 4.
1st on the day went to paul lock on peg9 with 115.13 catching close on meat
2nd mark bartlett who must have got it wrong on peg 5 as he only had 113.8, if he doesnt have to cast 200yds and feed with a spod he does tend to struggle
3rd tony rixon 111.11 peg 15
4th adrian jeffery 111.05 peg 12, i only just beat him as i had a last gasp 4lb fish hooked in the eye lol
5th mike nicholls 107.06 peg 2
6th glen bailey 93.5 peg 29
silvers went to new silvers ace phil(fabio)harding on 22 with 31.5 of f1,s and skimmers at 5mtrs on caster

sunday open ,landsend fishery ,tealham and tadham lakes

we had enough to put both match and speci lake in today, but that still gave most anglers at least an empty peg on one side, i decided to let everyone draw for me so i had the last ticket, so i ended up on peg, not a swim you really want at the moment as no one has caught much off it in recent weeks, on wednesday the angler sat there never had a carp. its a swim with lots of options, probably to many and you can end up running round in circles if you aint careful, there is a big overhanging tree to your right which holds lots of carp but it can be a proper pole buster so first job was to get the old traverse x pole out , bugger, its not there, i was going to change holdalls but never did it but i did take out the trav x and never put it back in, so no under the bush fishing for me then. i set up 3 pellet rigs ,one for shallow/mugging, and one each for up the left hand margin and another to the island towards peg 2, all on .16 with a b960 size 16, a meat rig on the end of the bush to my right and a paste rig (it cant be that hard)with the normal anchor on .18 at the business end. at the start i fed the meat line, then put a pot of 4,s at 13 mtrs and began firing 6,s up the left hand bank and towards the island.
starting with meat by the bush i had a carp first drop, then i fouled another next put in which came off, then a skimmer and that was the end of the meat fishing. out with the paste rig into the fizz and a couple of carp on that but there didnt seem to be many fish there either, so i refed it and went to the left hand margin but i couldnt get in tight enough, there were some fish on the surface but due to overhanging bushes i couldnt slap the rig around and these fish are to wise to just take a suspended bait, so that part i left alone for the remainder of the match, out of interest i tried slapping the rig in the fiz on the paste line and was rewarded with a fish quite quickly so thats got it sorted then, NOT, i never had another bite doing that , i did manage to mug a good fish swimming through but there werent any fish in open water swimming about, i put a big pot of pellets over the meat line and had a look towards the island and managed a couple of carp and lost some foulers , by now my new paste line was fizzing so it was there i spent the rest of the match ending up with 14 carp and about 10lb of silvers. the only anglers i could see were adrian jeffery on 24 and dave"beany"westcott on 22, i could hear some splashing from further up the lake, and the talking from the speci lake let me know there were some fish being caught there aswell, most of the summer the bulk of the fish on the match lake have been on the island at this end of the lake but today they decided to have a bit of a jolly towards the other end as that was were the most fish were caught,
1st on the day went to craig edmunds on 25 with 137.2 mainly caught shallow long the end bank
2nd tom mangnal 115.8 peg 34
3rd alan oram 106.15 peg 38
4th dave evans 102.12 peg 11
5th dave roper 95.14 peg 17
6th dean malin 92.8 peg 20
silvers went to nick collins on peg 29 27.01 of caster and worm caught whitebait
2nd was dave hodgson with 25.3
my net went 81lb so no coinage today, except from three river(proper)anglers who i had a pound with but i had to give them all 10 to 1 on there weights but none of them managed to break 5lb, shawn townsend did say he would have done it but he never had another bite once an otter turned up in his swim lol, it can only happen to him.
teams of 4,s start the first week in september i think i may have a couple of spaces for teams so anyone interested give me a ring at the shop on 01179517250 for details

weds landsend open

we had the smallest turnout for a while today due to some people having work and family commitments so with only 11 of us we had plenty of room on the match lake, with so few on the lake its always hard to peg as these fish on this venue tend to back off to the quiet parts of the lake and i,m sure they return for a bit of a munch when we have gone home. i let mr duckett draw for me and he handed me peg 24 which wasnt the best draw in the hat as the better fish dont always turn up here and all you can catch are the resident small dark fish that inhabit the end bank snags.
for company i had mike west on 22 and opposite nigel bateman on 1 and due to the foliage that was the only anglers i could see. i set up a couple of meat rigs, one for out in front at 6 and 14 mtrs and one for the margins, both with .16 and a 16 middy 9313 hook, and 2 pellet rigs for up the right hand end bank margin, one 6 inches deep for slurpers and one 4x12 for on top of the shelf in about 2 foot of water.
at the start i cupped in some meat at 6 and 14 mtrs, plus some into the margins and began firing pellets up the margin at 14 mtrs towards the trees.
starting at 6 mtrs i soon hooked a carp of about 5lb which was duly netted, mike on 22 potted his usual kilo of pellets straight in and was finding it difficult to see his float but he did begin to catch a few but they were on the small side. i stayed on the 6 mtr line for a couple of hours , i didnt catch to many fish but they were of a good average size , looking bigger than mikes fish, although he did get one good fish of about 9lb but after netting it he let it jump back out of the landing net and the hook fell out , oh how he laughed, oh no it wasnt him laughing it was me and mike duckett and by the time we had finished extracting the urine he was deffo a bit pissy, after watching a paste angler i think i could do that, all you need to do is keep piling pellet in to ensure the there is enough fizz to make the float hard to see, then dont put any shot on the line to ensure the float sits at 45 degrees and never strike till the float has gone under 3 times, simples.
back in my swim and although there seemed to be fish on the 6 mtr line it was hard to get a bite , the fish came up off the deck i think but in 6 foot of water they are hard to nail down, i went to the 14 mtr line but all that gave me was a lost fouler so no more about that line, a quick foray into the margin and the small roach were there turning cubes of meat into a marble in no time at all, going along the end bank and the first fish did me in the snags, i never moved quick enough, so i tightened down the elastic a bit and threw the pole back as soon as i hooked something , that seemed to work as i never lost another in a snag.
the rest of the matck was spent between the 6 mtr meat line and the end bank pellet line, i did et a couple of good skimmers and ide at 6 mtrs but the sport was never fast and furious, there were odd fish cruising towards the end and 5 minutes from the end i saw 2 good fish out at 13 mtrs on the surface so i swung my margin pellet rig at them and the float went and i had my best fish of the day , a nice common of about 9lb. i had 15 fish plus some silvers for what i thought would go 80lb ish,
adrian clark was admitting to 21 fish and they went 103.10 for first today , he was on peg 7 and caught on banded 6mm against the far bank
2nd martin lenaghan peg 19 95.1
3rd tony rixon 91.5 peg 24
4th mike(put another pot in)west 85.3 peg 22
5th adrian jeffery 83.13 peg 3 which included the top silvers on the day with 23.10
6 ken rayner 46.11 peg 11
still got a couple of spaces for an open at landsend sunday on the match and speci lake so ring me at the shop to book in on 01179517250

float only rnd 5 sedges, brick and tile lake

a full turnout today so 40 fished and with the rain really thumping down i was suprised no one turned round and left before the draw, the rain was proper heavy and there was loads of flooding locally , as usual tom thick turned up in his shorts but at least he had ditched his trainers in favour of a pair of asds trainers, the only person in flip flops was martin mcmahon but he was only showing off the webbing between his toes.
i was in the last 4 of the k/o today and with the top 3 picking up money i needed a good draw, i let ziggy zowinski draw for me for the first and last time as he handed me peg 28 on tile lake, not the best of pegs , it does have an island chuck but its a big one and 4ssg is needed and you dont need any wind to make it difficult but at the mo it was very still, just someone was throwing buckets of water out of the sky. my opposition in the k/o had drawn well with niel mercer on 21 tile and trigger edmunds and shawn townsend on 8 and 19 respectivaley on brick, so my chances of picking up looked very slim as the draw was going to dictate the result unless my peg was going to give up a red letter day but i wasnt overly confident, so the wag was assembled, plus a meat rig and pellet rig for the pole and a shallow pellet rig just in case, for company in my section i had ziggy on 26(serves him right lol)clint wojtyla on 27, nick collins on 29 and the ever smiling anton page on 30, with nick fishing for silvers i had the island to my self so there may be a slight chance, starting on the wag feeding 8,s as close to the island as in could it soon became aparent the fish werent going to play ball, as at the end of the first hour all i had to show for my thrashing was two small carp and with only a few fish being caught on the wag around the lake it looked as though the rain or something else had switched the normally obliging island carp had decided to have an off day, a quick look on the meat line produced a tiny fouled skimmer and a succesion of missed bites, so i put a big pot in and went out onto the 14mtr line with banded 8, that was just as bad with a couple of 6oz skimmers ending up in the net, this lake normally fizzes over the pellet but but there was no sign of that today , back out on the wag and a couple more small carp,but the wind was now blowing right to left putting a big bow in the line , and i did get a few bites but with the line in a big bow it was impossible to connect as it is very rare for the fih in this lake to pull the tip round and hook themselves, i tried a piece of meat over the 14 mtr pellet line and i had a small carp straight away, sussed it NOT then it was back to the small skimmers nibbleing the corners off the meat, for the last hour i decided to stay on the 5mtr meat line where i had a few more small carp but it all got a bit torrid as i lost 4 more , one came off two broke me one of which on a snag on the inside the other was fouled and just kept going and the other was down to equipment malfunction when the elastic snapped at pulla bung and it shot out of the pole stealing the rig and elastic, but the elastic has been in since early in the year, the really annoying thing is that it was a good fish probaly about 10lb and i had it in the net once as it came in like a bream but managed to find a turbo boost once it had touched the net, and it stole me kit, i weighed 24.2, which was the same as nick collins net of whitebait, anton won the section with 32lb so that carp cost me, it was the worst section of the match with both ziggy and clint not weighing
1st on the day was craig edmunds on 8 with 104.4 which included top silver weight on the day of 39lb, catching on pellet at the start then meat towards the end of the match
2nd niel mercer 86.9 peg 21
3rd shawn townsend 85.9 peg 19
4th martin rich 79.12 peg 40
5th vic bush 74.13 peg 14
6th eric fouracre 72.9 peg 11
silvers by default went to john baker with 37.12 on soft pellet then meat
first 3 in the match were first second and third in the k/o so i think the draw was a bit cruel to me today , but they did well as you still have to catch them when you draw these pegs and they are all capable of doing that.
i,m running an open at landsend next sunday if interested ring me at the shop on 01179517250

acorn fishery, paddock lake weds open

the turnouts are getting better and better for this venue and we had 27 fishing today which is excellant for a wednesday, i had the last ticket in the hat today and ended up with peg 4 on the island, 5 was in with roger crago sat on it but 3 was empty so i had a bit of room down the edge but with the wind blowing from that way it was always going to make presentation difficult as the rig blows back under the pole tip, but i set up a 4x14 rig for that and the same rig would do for over at 12 mtrs as it was the same depth, it had an 18 xedion hook on .14 for meat down the edge and across, and i set up 2 rigs for meat at 5mtrs a .75 and a 4x16 ,the heavier had a middy 6313 size 16 on .12 and the lighter had the xedion size 18 on .14 just in case i needed a bagging rig.
with the wind forcast to pick up i decided to ignore the far bank pellet attack and went for meat on all lines. at the start i cupped in meat on the 5 and 12 mtr lines and down the edge ,going in on the 5 mtr line and i missed a bite first put in but it wasnt long until the first carp was in the net, i was fishing with the .75 rig with the 16 middy 6313 on .12 and never changed for the duration of the match, some may think the rig was a tad on the heavy side but with the strong right to left wind i think the heavier rig was giving me better presentation as it wasnt getting blown through to much, apart from 2 fish across and 3 carp and a few skimmers down the edge i spent the whole match at 5 mtrs catching steadily throughout.looking around john thompson on 7 was catching well on paste as was adrian jeffery on 10, anton page on 34 was catching really well and i thought he would be pushing for a place but it turned out he had a lot of fish, probably more carp than anyone else in the match but these bridge peg fish can sometimes be tiny and thats how it turned out for him, by the end i had 53 carp and a few silvers, i wasnt to sure as to what i had weight wise but if they averaged out at 3lb which is what i guessed at that would be 150lb but i only admitted to about 120 just to be on the mega careful side, but in the end my total weight went 166.5 and i had 20 fish in one net and that went over the 70lb net limit by 3lb, these fish are really growing
2nd adrian jeffery 132.2 peg 10
3rd john thompson 127.11 peg 7
4th mike nicholls 117.14 peg 15
5th mat tomes 89.6 peg 37
6th tom thick 87.5 peg 12
silvers
craig edmunds 41.14 peg 16 all caught at 5 mtrs on single caster, mainly skimmers.

sunday open stafford moor fishery

we havnt been here since the christmas match in december so a visit was long overdue, the journey down was enjoyable as tim clark and me were entertained with how life should be according to deans world, i will leave it all to your imagination as those of you that know dean will understand why i cant write the details on here LOL.
we stopped at exeter sevices for breakfast and i cant really put into words what it was like just to say it was probably the worst breakfast food i have ever had it was virtually inneadable and we all left some , the people at moto should be totally ashamed of the shit they are serving to travellers plus 3 meals with drinks cost nearly 35 quid, so we wont be going back there and i wont reccomend anyone else ,anglers or non anglers please do your best to give it a wide berth.
onto the fishery and by the time we got there i was feeling decidely sick and was looking a bit green, into the draw bag and out i come with 36 tanners, i still draw fliers for myself, dean was 0n tanners 13 and tim on woodpecker 8, all good draws.
plenty of advice for my peg with the general concencus being that you had to cast a shallow wag towards peg 1 and wait for the carp fest to begin, i was told to ignor chucking the wag down the end bank as the fish tended to be small. i set up a deep and shallow rig for the pole to fish at 16 mtrs at the end of the bridge and that was my lot. beginning on the wag i expected a bite first chuck so after 30 mins without a bite i was beginning to worry, but then again no one else was catching, andy seery walked round and told me to keep at it as they will turn up, but i think they were alreasdy there as carp were moving everywhere but seemed to not want to eat, then chris haines from frome who was on 32 wanderded down to see how i was doing as he had only had one bite but he gave me some indigestion tabs which started to work after a little while, i stayed on the wag for 2 hours but after 3 bites and 2 fish in the net a change was called for, so it was the small fish down the edge then. by now the wind had picked up and the line was blowing against the bridge so when i did get a bite there was to much bow to pick up and i missed the bites, perhaps the lead would have been a better option but even the lead slingers were struggling a lookon thepole produced 1 carp then some silvers so it was back on the wag and a couple more carp but it was fishing very hard, it wasnt till the last hour that the pole line began to give up a few carp but the wind was making life very hard, i was quite happy to end with 12 carp which went 85.6 for 7th on the day, nearly winning the section but that went to paul bamforth on peg 1 with 93.2.
1st on the day was paul(plumber)morris on 17 woody,s with 146.10 all caught shallow on the pole, he also went 10lb over the 75lb net limit
2nd frank hayhurst 36 woody,s 125.8
3rd mark hayman 28 woody,s 106.14
4th kev osbourne 3 woody,s 98.12
5th paul bamforth 1 tanners, 93.2
6th big ben 25 tanners 91lb

weds open , landsend fishery

16 fishing today so we used the match lake and the carpark bank of the speci, martin lenaghan drew for me today and he handed me peg 19 which is probably the best all year round peg on the lake, the last weds match we had here was won on this peg by anton page with 279lb so hopefully the fish would be obliging today, walking to the peg it looked as though it was going to be a slapping/stalking fish fest as the surface was littered with fish sunbathing or going round in small shoals perhaps thinking of having another spawn, who knows, for company i had mike nicholls on 21 and ray bazeley on 17 , niether of which are far bank long pole merchants as they struggle with the old artheritis, so the far bank was all mine then, not to many rigs today, a meat rig for the margins but i never got it wet apart from plumming up, and a slapping stalker rig which was a j range j13a(i think)which is a fat top bristle float with the spring eye on it making it very strong and at .2 it was an ideal float for throwing around at fish, i would like to say i had an interesting match fishing properly but all i have done for the biggest part of the match was slap the pellet in front of a cruiser and sometimes it would take it and sometimes it wouldnt, i hooked my first carp in under 10 seconds and had 13 by the end of the first hour so it wasnt particularly difficult all you had to do was make sure the pellet landed about 6 to 12 inches in front of the fish and ensure the pole didnt cast a shadow across the fish, and that was my match from start to finish, i fed pellet to the corner of the island but fished most of the match fishing between 8 and 13 mtrs, i didnt go to the island till the last hour when the cruisers seemed to dissapear a bit, and i had a few there so by the end of the match i thought i had about 60 carp in 5 nets with some good fish up to 10lb ish plus some smaller ones aswell, the fish generally average out at just over 5lb but the few bigger fish may make the difference as the venue record stands at 342lb caught by anton page off peg 31 last year fishing the same way, i didnt really have a clue as to what weight i had except that it was over 250lb and probably more than my previous best of 270lb, so i was more than happy to weigh 351.10 which is the new record for the venue and first on the day
2nd anton(ex record holder)page 227.13 peg 31
3rd dean malin 161.3 peg 5
4th tom thick 158lb peg 24
5th martin lenaghan 129.5 peg 11
6th dave roper 100.13 peg 15
silvers
anton page 28lb, f1s and chub on pellet to the far side peg 31