Huntstrete coffin dodgers

Back to bridge pool again today, gotta love these short drives.
17 fishing today, still not back up to the normal 20/21 but with a few away still not to bad, it's always difficult to peg with fewer in attendance, there were a couple of pegs in today at the far end pegs 1 and 33, the peg I would avoid by choice would be 33, open water (no island) but the margins can be ok, just not recently, into the draw bag , and yes you have probably guessed it, disc 33 , oh no, at least it made Paul barnfield smile, and a few others wondering how I would do without an island LOL 😂. On my right was ray Ray bazeley on 31, across from me on 1 was Mike nicholls and 4 was occupied by Steve dawson.

 At least I was going to be in the shade all day , and after the day before getting roasted on the sea I was grateful if that, I hadn't bought any maggot or caster with with me, so it was going to be a soft pellet approach for hopefully some skimmers, fished over a bit of groundbait and micros at 5 and 13 mtrs , one rig for that as it's the same depth, and a couple of hard pellet rigs, one for 16 mtrs to my right at about 1 o'clock angle, and the other for the margins each side.
I fed the 5 and 13 mtr lines with some groundbait and micros, some hard 4,s at 16mtrs and fed some hard 6,s each side in the margins, I spent the first couple of hours getting odd bites from small fish and one f1 on the two groundbait lines, after that those two lines, died completely, the rest of the match I spent at 16 mtrs and down the margin,s, nothing to exciting happened, I had one f1 and 4 small chub from the margins and three better skimmers and an f1 from the long pellet line, very hard as I thought it would be, the only person I could see getting much action was Paul barnfield on 6 who was catching on odd better skimmer on worm with a couple of carp from the island , amongst the ducklings. I always weigh in As I've say there for six hours and it's nice to see how bad it was, I was last to weigh in so I said to Chris ollis who was in the scales I would do it in one weigh, so I put the f1,s in the sling and silvers on top, Chris reckoned I should weigh the silvers separately as not much had been caught, so I took out the three f1,s , and the silvers went 11.13, then weighed the three f1,s which went 3 lb for a 14.13total, as it transpired my meagre.silvers managed to scrape in third in the silver pot meaning I had my money back, every cloud and all that .
Top weight on the day was taken by the feast or famine angler j(g)Francis on peg 21 with 51lb, well done  j(go)eff.

Weigh sheets below show how hard it was for most, as is the case with a lot of fisheries the carp seem to be more interested in spawning but they are not quite ready for it yet, of to viaduct for the first round of the float only league, in Campbell and cary, the carp on can were spawning yesterday, but the bigger fish on cary hadn't started, so Sunday is going to be a difficult day again,  it you never know.

Beer boats

Judith and me booked this day off ages ago in the hope that the weather would be good enough to get out in the self drive boats launched off the beach in the small Devon resort of beer, the weather god must have had a good day as the weather was for light northerly winds , going southerly but staying light, and lots of sunshine.
We stopped off in Taunton at a premier inn for breakfast, nice, 4.2.
An hour after that we were driving down to the beach car park , where it's possible to park all day for a fiver, can't be bad.
Wandered down to the beach and found simon, who runs the operation, and found we were in the same boat as the 4 times we have done this before, a wooden boat called Endeavour, not quick boats but lovely and safe, we soon had everything on board and were heading out under the white cliffs going out towards beer head.

The plan was to drift for plaice , but Simon thought there may not be enough he to push us along, and even less wind, and he was right, we tried a couple of drifts but it didn't seem to be right, Judith had the only flattie(about right) a nice fish of about 1 1/2 lb, which went back unharmed, we only fish for fun and some of the pleasure comes from seeing them swimming off.

We did try for another but it never looked to good , but it was extremely relaxing.

There was an algae bloom which most probably never helped, as the water had a lot of colour to it, we decided to motor out beyond the head to see if there were any early bream about, there had been some good ones coming out but not to many, also the smoothounds were in and as we had some crab we may get some of these aswell, as we went beyond the head the water changed colour, the clouds of algae disappeared giving way to nice clear blue sea, so we dropped the anchor and sent some baits to the bottom.
Lots of big jelly fish about today, that many that we were suffering liners from them all day.

 We had plenty of bites all day, unfortunately there seemed.to be a plethora of dogfish on the bottom, Judith did hook a good fish which was stripping line, but unfortunately it came off, then we had a small conger  which was unhooked in the water, then I had a small hound of about 6lb, which was good fun on the light spinning outfits we tend to use,

 after that it was back to the doggies, still it's better than nothing, and it's funny watching Judith wrestling with the rough skinned mini sharks.

Not to many fish today of the desired species, but the weather and the company was faultless, these days out with Judith the best, we have a right laugh proper quality time together,
Anyone interested can book these small boats weather permitting, give Simon a ring on
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Viaduct spring league rnd 3

Breakfast on the way at cannards well, very nice 4.5.
Got into the draw queue about halfway through, into the tin and out comes peg 113, on Campbell at last, it can be a good peg except you are back in a bay several mtrs behind the pegs either side, which today were occupied by travelling partner Jason Radford on my left on 112 , and Clint wojtyla to my right on 114.

Behind me was John Darby on 77, luckily for him I found his rodrest on the way to my peg. He seemed pleased to get it back, and it fits just nice into his Preston tool bar.

I decided on a bit of an easy day, so I set up three pole rigs , one for 7mtrs straight out, and two more to go down to my left under the tree, one tight to the bank and the other a couple of mtrs off under the branches.

Lastly a waggler to fish on the deck at 25 mtrs, again with pellet, nice and simple on the bait table, just a pot of 6,s and the same of 8,s,
I started on the 7mtr line while feeding the other lines, it soon became apparent that the lake, and the fishery as a whole was fishing hard, I was feeding 8,s on the pole and wag line and 6,s under the tree. I've had a steady day catching a few on the 7 mtr line, it's normally a banker for a few under the tree, but not today, I had two and lost one from there, after The few.early fish on the pole the rest of my fish were caught in the waggler, at the end I thought I had done ok, I was confident I had over 130lb, but was hoping it would be closer to 140, Ryan shipp on 116 was also admitting to 140, so it was between him and me for the section, he weighed in first and had a bit less than he thought with 132lb, but he did have a lovely net of skimmers, 45lb. My nets went 145lb, so happy days.
So I need.to have two more section wins to stand any chance of getting in the final frame, at least I won the quid side bet with clint, who was pulling his best village idiot face as he handed it over, but then again my face wasn't much better.

Top.weight on the day went to that man trig again, he's fairly unstoppable at.The moment , he had 168lb from peg 130, well done craig.

Weigh sheets below as normal, next week its.down here again for the first round of the float only.league, it will be a 9 o,clock draw, we have got.a match at.Todber in the series again, and they have a no standing to spot fish rule, so to make it simple , there will be no standing in any of the matches this year to spot and mug,

Shiplate farm, Thursday costcutter

Haven't been here this year yet so was really looking forward to it, breakfast stop on the way was breakfast at timothy,s, for a kerbside kitchen I must say it was very good, 4.4. It must be ok as john(mardons)Roberts stops there and he manages to eat it even with his second hand dentures.
Into the fishery and I had to park in the top overflow car park , as along with our match the kingswood disabled bunch were on Hawthorn and the squircle.
Steve was running the match today as Carol is away, but with me old mate him Thomas assisting all was ok, got into the draw tin and out comes 6,

it's an open water peg so the plan was to fish for the silvers with a back up plan to fish pellet at 16mtrs and the waggler at 30mtrs, so a .3g rig for the silvers on two lines at 13 mtrs was out together, a shallow pellet rig for mugging and shallow, and a depth rig at 16mtrs, and a .4g middy fat boy waggler for the 30 mtr line. The water was over a foot down meaning the islands were very exposed ,showing how much they have been undercut by fish and water movement.

For company I had venue professional Gary flinders to my left and John(mardons)Roberts to my right, the other local ace ,titch Williams was on peg 1, so we were really fishing for second, there were a few fish cruising about, but they were more intent on trying to spawn, but it's not quite right yet on this big lake, unlike on the smaller lakes where there was a fair bit of spawning going on.
At the start I began on the 13mtr lines on soft pellet, nothing happened on the left hand side, so a switch to the right have me a 10oz skimmer, then a fouled carp, which came off somewhere out in the middle of the lake, I persevered with trying to catch silvers, but with few already sneaking a few out, it soon became apparent that it was going to be carp for me, so I started attacking the pole and wag lines, as I said there were enough fish on the top to try mugging , but they weren't interested atall. I never managed to get one , and a few others were trying with the same result. Tom thick over on 13 managed a couple slapping blind, and although I couldn't see him titch, had a couple of early fish, but on the whole it was proving difficult, the early part of the match was a pain as there were a lot of fish moving but not feeding foulers were a problem as they were just bumping into the line, I lost several, a few fish began feeding properly towards the end, and I did even one shallow, but the bulk of the fish weren't interested, I thought it would be out of Tom thick and titch Williams for first, the scales started around the far side, and when they got to me Tom was winning with 75.12, I ran him close with 75.4, but I'm claiming a morale victory as Tom dropped a pellet feeder into his margin after he lost the elastic in all his top kits, very poor tackle maintenance there matey, and had a ten pounder, I wasn't bitter , but  I did bite his feeder off his rod and grind it into the gravel in the carpark. LOL 😂.
As expected titch won off Somerset,s best peg with 97lb, well done matey, and Dave wride won the silvers off peg 12 with 20lb.

Back to viaduct for the spring league, but the spawning issues may still be a problem as we don't seem to be getting any settled warm weather to help it along, who knows.

Short pole rnd 2

Down to Dorset to Todber manor on ash and homeground lakes today, stopped in cannards for breakfast , and again it was very nice, 4.65.
It only takes about 35 minutes to get there from cannards, so we got there in plenty of time, the anglers started arriving and the full compliment was soon in attendance, so the draw was got underway on time, as I had Mark (podge) Jefferies I let him draw for me, most were hoping for homeground lake, but he hands me 68 on ash, basically smack in the middle, that was after he pulled out 89 for himself which is a corner on homeground, and as we had drawn each other in the k/o I new I had a bit of a hard job on my hands, ash lake is full of fish , as are all the lakes here, but the carp seem to like it on the long pole line or on the wag or lead to the far side , which is between 20 and 30 mtrs wide, but these matches are topset and three only, and with no line longer than your topkit, so all those dark shapes in the distance would on the whole be quite safe, for some reason this lake the margins only occasionally produce.

Rigs today were a depth pellet rig for as far out as allowed, a meat rig for slightly to the right up the shelf in three foot of water, a margin rig for pellet, and a stalking rig just in case some of the bigger fish that were cruising about would make a mistake and come closer than 16 mtrs.
I've been using some small floats from sensas for a while now, as the quest for something unbreakable in a float is always hard to find, and as yet I haven't even chipped a bit of paint , let alone break one, ccx power , I used the .2 in the margins and .3 on the long lines, both meat and pellet.

Just before the start Shawn kitteridge wandered up for a chat and enquired if his rig would be ok to use today especially as he had crushed the barbs on his size ones,

He may have got away with with a one hooked clipped down rig, but a three hook flapper may be a step to far LOL 😂.
The match on this lake was a bit difficult at times , as we expected the fish seemed to be happy further out, although there were plenty of bites, in the whole the fish were quite small, lots of little dark carp with the occasional better one to 4lb, the margin was a waste of time, even though there was an occasional mud plume, the short meat line have me three small carp and a skimmer, all my fish came from the longer pellet line, mostly on the deck, but I did manage to mug a couple of better fish when one lost its way, Glen Bailey to my left had started well on the paste,  but his sport all but dried up in the second half, Tom mangnal on 64 was catching roughly about the same pace as me, so by the end it would be between him and me for the section, and he weighed in 96lb to my 89lb, so about three fish in it, I did go 1lb over in a net but it never mattered luckily,
On peg 70 Ryan shipp had a lovely day catching 60lb of silvers and 50b of pounds of carp which was too weight on our lake,

As we thought all of the top overall weights came from homeground, with Dean  malin making no mistakes on peg 90 for top weight on the day with 180lb, well done,

Weigh sheets below as normal, lots of good weights with plenty of fish caught , even on a limited pole length match.

Over 55,s huntstrete

With so many people away this week including the normal organisers I was asked to run today's match, there were 7 or 8 of the normal suspects missing today so only 14 people in attendance, pegging was difficult but at least we would all get plenty of room, except for peg 15 as due to the angles of the swims there would be plenty of water to go at. I got john(cliff)Smith draw for me and I ended up with 15 looking back at me, normally a good skimmer peg but it's also an easy reach (15mtrs) to the island.

Also a bonus is that you have a good view up the lake meaning I could keep an eye on what was going on, company wise I had John fry to my right on peg 14 and Wayne storey to my left on 16, I decided to ignore the silvers and set up two pellet rigs , one for about a mtr off the island and another for on top of the island shelf, it looked good close to the island but there were a few brambles growing down into the water which could be troublesome.

The weather was due to be reasonable with occasional showers WRONG, it rained for hours, and with the wind blowing into my face made for an uncomfortable day, but as far as the fishing went it was a nice day, starting off the island in three foot of water it took a while to get my first fish, I fully expected bites straight away, but the fish seemed to be happy further along the island last John fry, but I kept the pellet going in hoping the noise would draw them along, and it did as the swims got better as the match went plenty of f1,s and occasional carp, I was losing a few to the brambles , and I eventually lost the whole rig, so a switch to the shallower water was ok and I kept getting bites till the end, I thought I had done enough but Dave wride over on peg 9 caught some better fish down his margins, I thought I had about 75lb so I was a bit out as I ended up with 94lb, and with a 50lb net limit here it could be a problem getting your fish sizes wrong, but I had just over 45lb in each carp net and over three pounds of silvers, Dave wride ended up with 72lb for second. Silver,s went to Paul barnfield on peg 27 with 31lb of skimmers, weigh sheets below, this weekend it's off to Todber manor on ash and homeground for the second round of the short pole series, should be good as the forecast is for a nice day with light winds, we'll see lol.

A couple of short sessions

No matches to report , we had a family funeral on Thursday, and the shop was short staffed on Sunday so I went in to help out.
So Judith and me decided on a short session on huntstrete with bridge pool being the lake of choice as the f1,s and small carp are generally very obliging, we sat on peg 18 and just set up one rig to fish down each margin with banded pellet over hard pellets, I had a fish first out in, an f1, and that was the last time I fished as Judith jumped into the box and was soon getting a succession of decent f1,s and small carp.

In the background was Paul barnfield and Chris ollis who had 50 and 25 lb of silvers respectively, also it was good to see Jimmy norris again who was also having a good day further up the lake, I did manage a bit of fishing when the rain started as Judith went and say in the van, it was still a bite a chuck, but I packed up before I got to wet,

I was back out but on my own on Sunday evening as Judith was off at a family meal, so I went and say on peg 31, it's 16 mtrs to the island and it has a nice margin, so again only one rig which would do for across and down the margin.
I began feeding with a catty across to the island and it was really good, feeding 4,s  and fishing a banded 8, I had a fish nearly every put in across by the island , small carp of various sizes and scale patterns up to about 5lb , the picture below is of a small slightly linear scaled mirror which was the best looking one of the session.

And the f1,s  are really nice looking fish, with lots of them now going over 2lb, with some possibly approaching 3lb.

I had been feeding 6,s down the margin and had a few better fish down there towards the end, with the biggest probably just about 10lb.

So two good sessions on a lovely fishery, there are three lakes at the fishery, bridge is probably the most prolific, but withy is also very good with a bigger average size to its carp with fish to 20lb , and both bridge and withy have large heads of bream and roach with bridge also having quite a few tench in.
The main lake is also popular with the speci carp anglers as there are fish over 40lb ,s swimming about with several 30,s and plenty of 20,s , there can't be many club waters around with fishing like that available on an open membership, also the main lake is fishing really well for good skimmers and reasonable bream which respond well to micro pellet in a bit of groundbait with a soft pellet fished over the top, bathampton have a nice venue with something for everyone, even pike anglers are catered for as there are plenty of  pike in there but more of a fun size with a fish over ten pounds being a nice fish,  adult membership is £40 and there is an additional day ticket at a cost of £4 available in veals fishing tackle .