A brief three roundup

Starting with Thursday, and the first round of the huntstrete silvers matches on bridge pool run by dave gillard, the weather didnt disappoint, it was forecast to be wet and windy all day, and it was, hence no pics, not even the weigh sheets as it was nearly impossible to read. Peg today was 15, end of an island if required at 16 mtrs, ut with the wind forecast i decided i woukd only go to 14 mtrs , which was about 2 foot up the island shelf, so a rig for caster there, another rig, for caster or maggot over groundbait at 611&13 mtrs, had an interesting day, the two longer groundbait lines seemed to be barren, i could catch roach from the short line, then later on the 14 mtr line towards the island, again on caster, i also haf a 1lb perch from that line, ending up with 12lb of silvers which was enough for first on the day, makes up for being soaked right through, including all my kit, charming. sunday and first roumd of the ivy house winter league, travelled up with chis fox, the rotation put chris on heron where he drew peg 7 and i was on willow, peg 28 for me today, bela bakos had a couple of carp from it last week in corn by the aerator along with some silvers, so a rig for that, i also set up a lead rod to the island, and a waggler as the wind was half sensible, well its been a match of two halves, fished the lead for an hour with varios baits for one liner, then the wag for thjrty mins and no bites on that either, onto the pole by the aerator, a couple of quick roach on corn then no more bites, so 2 1/2 hours gone and only two roach in the net, before the start chris telling was advising me that the roach could be more than a viable target as there were some nice one,s to be had. I shoukd have listened, so back to the van to get some caster,s, back in the peg make a rig and start fishing at 6 mtrs, it tok about ten minutes to get a bite, then i had a really enjoyable 2 hours catching some nice roach, ended up with 10.11 , not sure where that was in the section, and the fishery hasnt posted the weigh sheets, but no money and with chris only having 4lb there was no reason to stay, so back home in time for a nice roast tea, i do know john howell won my lake with over 90lb from fabled peg 23, well done . Monday and baxk down to the sedges for there weekly silvers match, brick lake today, but i dont Mind which lale its on to be fair, had a really nice fishery breakfast, (4.75), the covid safe draw got underway, and with all the others chatting in the Carpark i was first to have my peg drawn, out comes peg 2, been good recently for silvers so no complaints from me. Had steve jackson to my left, so the normal banter ensued. Last time here i made a mistake by not fishing a feeder at the start, so that was assembled with a small groundbait feeder on it and a 20 hook, only one pole rig a .8g bodied with a fibre tip, nice and sensitive with 20 f1 maggot hook on.10, to start i fed three lines with a ball of groundbait on each, one at 11mtrs and two at 14 mtrs at 11 and 1o'clock angles, i had a really slow start, well actually it was a non event start, it took 70minutes for my first bite, at 11 mtrs which came for a 1 1/2 skimmer. And after.that by rotating around the lines i had occasional bites from all lines, when i did get a fish it was a sensible skimmer, there didnt appear to be any small fish in the area, at the end i thought i may just have 20lb, i was first to weigh in and my fish went 18.11 which was enough to win, so happy days then, really enjoying the silvers fishing this winter, always a challenge, but always interesting.

Ok and should have been

Sunday and round two of the Landsend winter league, my turn on the speci lake, need a good draw to keep me in the running, baxk to doing a covid draw with mike in charge of the bucket of doom, ably assisted by ade who was in charge of names, my name got called out about halfway down the list and mike did me proud pulling 31 out for me, end of the island on the far bank , and more importantly the right end of the lake, for company i had long ashton,s finest stalker, steve seager on 32 and ex pat stu Barnett on 30,with the weather being so mild i expected to catch up on the island shelf today which was about 20inches deep, so a bread dobbing rig for over, also a pellet rig for the same if the bread didnt work, which was 16mtrs, and a meat rig for just off to the right in front of the island just down the slope, but that was 17mtrs, so a har day, luckily the wind was slightly from behind, so that would help.

Started on the bread, small.roach, followed by a nice f1, after that i couldnt get a piece of punch into the water without a small roach or Rudd taking it, so that was binned in favour of banded 6mm hard pellet over loose fed 4,s, the next couple of hours were pleasant, catching f1,s and a few carp, bit it didnt last, i did manage a couple of carp off the meat line twords the end, i thought i had 60lb which looked to be enough to win the lake . My 8 carp and f1,s went 62.15, with nick duckett on 35 coming second with 46 and mr.seager third with 43,

the weigh sheets below show how its fishing, and to be fair its on a par with most other fisheries in the area, and better.than some.

Its a bit of a longer walk to lake three, so its nice to see the fishery going out of there way to help get the older anglers there pegs, looked like bodecia and sparticus rocking up in the Carpark, not to sure who was who though.

monday and chris fox and me were off to acorn for a match organised by Laurie lang, 23 fishing, which is an ok number, again a covid draw with chris pulling out the balls and laurie doing the writing , my turn came and chris pulled out peg 21 for me, had lee waller to my left the other side of the bridge on 22, and mark broomsgrove on peg 19 to my right,

Fished it totally wrong today, fully.expected it to fish ok off the back of this recent mild weather, same as yesterday, i pellet was my.main attack, well that was a waste of time, i had one fouler hooked in the tough bit of the wing, so duly landed. The only other fish i had were three tench, 2 small and one about 2 1/2 lb, a skimmer and a roach, i think i blew my peg apart early on by feeding hard pellet, anyone who caught today, caught on maggot in the main, as i did in the middle at about 7mtrs, needless to say i lost nearly all my quid bets today, the only one i won packed up early and left, i wont say his name to save him any embarrassment, (was.that ok Alan quantrill), when the scales.got to me 55lb was winning with brian slipper on peg 6 having that, and with two 8lb,s and a five winning the silvers i put all fish into one weigh, bugger. Hadnt checked the payout properly, all winnings were by default, with section payouts better than the silvers prizes anglers with better silvers.weights were either framing or section winners, so john fry won the silvers with 4.5 , that would have been close, and lee waller came.second with just over a pound, definitely had that, so cost meself £30 minimum, not a life changing ammount, but would have paid for the day, my.own fault for not checking properly.weigh sheet below.

Xmas new year two

Up the m5 to Tewkesbury and hillview fishery for a teams of three event organised by yearly by niel mercer, sadly his dad passed away earlier in the year and was missed today, 😢. after a fishery breakfast, hmmm, i did our team draw, i ended up on lake 3 peg 73, what a crap.day.that was then, last year there were blanks on this lake, i thought it coukdnt be the same, how wrong could i be, it seemed as the the lake was totally devoud of any life, no liners lost fish or anything, i had 4 bites , 2 f1,s and a small carp down the middle and a small carp right across, my 4 fish went 5lb+ which was third on the lake, martin rayet on my left was second on the lake with a slightly bigger 5lb, and ron hardiman to his left on the end peg won the lake with 12lb, tim ford to my right who is no fool had one fouler, lake three was the place to be again, with joe McMahon winning the day with 80lb, helping his team to victory on the day, well done , again thanks to niel for organising the match, and paying for the lakes. Weigh sheet below, apologies for the crappy writing , for someone who works in the printing industry, niel your writing is worse than mine and thats abysmal, 😕😕

Thursday and back to plantation main lake for a silvers match organised by adam palmer, nice breakfast in the bridge in yatton, 4.65, as.long as you dont have the sausages and have extra bacon instead 😊. 19fishing which generally as mamy as.you want, into the draw and peg 11 for me, just into the bay at the far end, generally speaking a peg where a good day is about as much as you can hope for, especially as peg 12 is in today.occupied by mat tomes.

Simple rigs today, a .3 slim pattern bulked initially, but with the option of speading the shot if necessary, the other rig was a .4 bodied wire stem float, doubled bulked. At the start i fed a small ball of groundbait on the topset and two line, then one ball at 11mtrs and 3 ball's at 13mtrs, all with some caster and a few.dead.pinkies. starting short i had bites and indications, ut not really enough to get into contention, especially as chris fox on 7 was into decent skimmers straight away, and nick collins over on 19 was doing well aswell, apart from that i didnt really have a clue as to what was being caught, joe McMahon on peg 8 was.doing ok but not really well enough, there were three of us in the bay, myself, mat and ricky mills on 16, and there wasnt much between us for most of the match, all of us had to keep switching lines to continue putting a few.fish in the net, by the end it was clear none of us in the bay were going to threaten anyone , myself and ricky had 17lb with mat in the worst peg having 14lb, Top weight today was taken by jack jones on peg 27 with just over 30lb, well done, no picture sorry i never went round as i wasnt doing the scales, after.that there were two 29lb weights with chris fox having a few more ounces then nick collins, pic of chris below.

Again its been a really consistent match with all but two having double figures, again showing what a exceptional silvers lake this is, weigh sheet below, heres wishing you all a good new year, hopefully better socially than last year.

Three more

Firstly last sunday and it was the first of the Landsend winter leagues, nice breakfast at the fishery cafe to start the day 4.6. The draw nearly got underway on time, and i pulled out ball 55 from ades bag of doom, top left hand corner on lake three. Wouldnt have chosen that as its been a tough one lately, for company i had beany to my right and nick duckett opposite on peg 58, which is a favourite of mine, its been really tough today , onky a handful of small roach on caster, that was after a bit of bread dobbing around the end bank for one roach, the only place i could get bites was at 16mtrs towards the island on banded pellet, small crucian, teo f1,s and three carp in the last 30 minutes from the same line, i did also get one carp on meat down the right hand margin, to be honest it was hooked in the tough bit of the tail, but i will take them anyway I can on a hard day, ended up with 21lb for 5th on the lake so not a total disaster, tip weight onnthe lake and in the match was taken by jason radford with 8 or 9 carp for over 50lb, some on the pole at the start ten a few more on the lead, it was a tough day all round as the weigh sheets below show.

monday and itn was the sedges silver,s match on tile lake today, again another good breakfast at the fishery, 4.65. Then i had peg 38 drawn for me, good peg but the general conscientious was that the further up the lake you were . The more chance of skimmers. And so it proved with adie bishop running out and easy winner with over 20lb from peg 32, with eric fouracre and steve kedge coming second and third from opposite, made a mistake not taking a feeded.rod today as most started on it and caught some early fish on it, i only fished the pole and it took me 90 minutes to get my first fish, a small roach, that was at 13 mtrs, but i had to got to 16 mtrs to catch, only.ending up with 6lb+ , but still managed.to beat quite a few, but paid the price for leaving the tip rod at home, wegh sheet below.

Thursday and back to plantation main lake for a silvers only match, breakfast in the bridge in yatton, very nice, as long as you have extra bacon instead of the sausages, cos they aint nice. so 4.4. 18 fishing so plenty of room , had des shipp fishing again today, he was hoping not to draw peg 1 again as he struggled. There last time, but i did try and convince him it can be a good roach peg as you have plenty of water to go at, so when he drew one again you csn imagine how blue the air went, it didnt help matters when several people had a laugh, but having run winter matches for a few years on this venue, i now full well that it can produce the goods, but not according to todays tenant, i was on 25 this time, with mike nicholls on 24 and mark broomsgrove on 27, last match i caught really well fishing short, plenty of roach on caster, but not today i only had one fish from that line all match, mike Nicholls haf a few fishing a 4 mtr whip with caster, but ive had to catch at 11 and 13 mtrs, with caster or maggot over groundbait, ending up with 21lb which was good enough for forth, oh and guess who won from crap peg 1😂😂😂😂😂😂, yep , des managed to moan out a nice net if mainly roach for just over 30, cracking fish.

Mark broomsgrove on 27 haf 26lb and dave willmott on 19 had 24lb, there were still a coupke of difficult areas as the wegh sheet below, but most people had double figures, which just goes to show what an excellent silvers venue this is, and james travis is working hard to improve it all the time , tidying the banks up and replacing platforms, well done,

I thunk des may like peg 1 now, i had a quick look at the swim after the match, and found a couple of odd items in the swim,

but dont worry des i have got them in the van so i can return them to you at the next match, unless you need them before that and i will gladly post them to you, but then again you probably buy them in bulk.😆😆😉😉

Two days in kingston seymour

Sunday and were off to plantation main lake for the second round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, breakfast with Chris fox in the bridge in yatton, very good 4.5. Got to the lake in plenty of time, ron got the draw underway, he asked me to draw for him, he wont ask again, peg 39 for him, nice carp peg LOL 😂, he then drew for me and pulled me out peg 24, happy as i had won off the peg a couple of weeks ago on a Thursday match, nice peg as its got a nice new wooden platform, and looking at the water it was noticeable that there was a slight tinge of colour compared to Thursday. Nice easy peg to fish as its the same depth at topkit and one out to 13 mtrs, so onky two rigs, a .4g double bulked, and a.3g shotted to fish bulked initially, but with the option to spread the shot if necessary, last time here i caught roach and decent skimmers on topset and one and topset and two, plus a few on the longer lines, but the water was a bit clearer, so not convinced it would be the same, but still attacked it the same, 2 balls of groundbait at 11mtrs, and three at 13 mtrs. All laced with caster and a few pinkies. I started on topset and two feeding caster with the same on the hook, ive had a roach first put in, followed by more, so i came closer and kept catching, so i spread the shot and fished to hand, laying the rig straight out in front, and ive had a nice 2 hiurs catching roach steadily, but it didnt last more than the two hours, but it was good while it lasted, i did follow them out for a while to topset and two, but it wasnt long before they went from there aswell, so out on the skimmers it was then, which unfortunately never really happened, when i did get one, which wasnt very often, it would only be a small one, the biggest i had was about a pound, the roaxh cameback inthe last hour on the topset and two line, so a nice days fishing but none of the quality skimmers for me which you need to do well on the venue, but i still ended up with 26lb, of which 20lb was roach, a cracking day, but only good enough for 4th in the section and 7th on the day, topspot went to leon(peter pan) hubbard on 28 with 38lb, after that therer was two 32lb with kev winstone just ouncing ryan jordan out of second from pegs 11 and 4 respectively, well done all , a good match as the sheet below shows,

Monday and back down to kingston again for a knock up on acorn paddock lake, only 11 fishing so we had plenty of room, drew peg 3, nice draw in the middle of the island, with paul faiers on peg one and darren knight on 5. Set up rigs , one for dobbing against the far side, a margin rig for each side empty pallet, and a rig for maggot at topset and three off to the left. Started on the bread across for three small carp, then no bites, not even liners, i persevered with it, ut nothing happened, darren was getting a few on pellet across, and paul was getting silvers as thats what he enjoys most, all of a sudden there was just over 2 hours left and i had nothing in the net, so i got off the box made up a rig for topset and two for maggot in front, and changed.the hook on the dobbing rig for a b960 with a band for hard pellet, also started feeding pellet across with a catty and cupped some maggots on the new short line, these changes certainly seemed to change the peg around, i started to catch carp across, i had a couole couple of good tench short, the peg got better towards the end, i had a couole couple of good carp from the short maggot line aswell and some decent roach and a skimmer, thought i may have nearly 60lb, but paul faiers on peg 1 had probably won the day as he had been catching some nice tench to go with some good roach and skimmers, and he did ,as he had 38lb of silvers and 43lb of carp for the win with 81lb, i managed second with 67lb and john mills on 13 was third with 63lb, pictures of paul , and weigh sheet below.

Plantation silvers only

Back to the fortnightly silvers match on this normally prolific roach and skimmer venue. No breakfast on the way, just a bacon roll grabbed on the way through from a layby butty van. Got the draw started a bit early as we were all there, i let ron hardiman draw for me and wa s well happy with peg 8, best carp peg on the lake and also a good silvers area , peg 7, was taken up by kev winstone, so thats twice on the trot ina silvers match, could be close for the quid as 7 has lots of form for silvers, as far as rigs go, i always try.to keep it simple, so a .3g float shotted with 9,s & 10,s so i could bulk it or spread the shot if needed, the other a ,4g bouble bulked, its pretty much the same depth all around most pegs on the lake making it simple. at the start i fed two lines with groundbait and caster, one at 11 mtrs at 2 o,clock angle and the same straight out, but i started topset and two loose feeding caster, as thus has been a bit of a banker in the last two matches, but i wasnt to sure as the colour had dropped right out, and aftwr 25 minutes and not a touch, my fears were recognised, and although i kept trying it throughout the day, i only had 4 smallish roach so no more on that, i went out over the groundbait line at 11 mtrs but nothing , so out to 13 mtrs, and i had a good start with several good skimmers, bait didnt seem to matter, caster, maggot ,pinkie, i was catchimg on all, but as soon as the skimmers were there, they drifted away, to be replaced by smaller samples and odd roach, by swithching between the two long lines ,fishing single.maggot or double pinkie, i had odd skimmers all through, but it was a waiting game.for a bite, i still needed to put some feed in, as if i left it i couldnt get a bite, but put a small ball of feed in and you could expect a response, but to much and no signs, but i cant help myself and probably tried to force it to much, the lake has difficult for most , especially those in the early pegs, where some anglers never had a bite for over two hours, but everyone started to catch towards the end, on the all out i new i had over 20lb, but hoped for 25, so not to far out as i had 25.15, i thought gary bowden on 16 had beaten me but he had smaller skimmers for 23lb, dave willmott on 31 was admitting to 18lb so i was fairly sure he would have enough as he hardly ever.tells the truth.lol, and i was right as he had just over 26lb, he had lots of roach and a few skimmers, all on loosefed caster at about 11mtrs, so only one decent skimmer seperating the top 3, there were still lots of double figure weights but it had been a tough one,weigh sheet below, all on permanent peg numbers.

4 matches and brief

First off, last sunday and it was the final round of mat culpins teams of three at shiplate, my turn on hawthorn lake, needed a peg with a bit of room preferably, and got my wish, peg3, rod Wooten on my left on peg 2, Jamie parkhouse on the right on 5. So peg 4 not in so and option to go there towards the end of the match, plan today was to start on bread just off the far bank, then switch to maggot , maggot down in front of 4, and maggot down the middle, bob gullick on 7 main lale and our leader Mat Culpin peg 1 west pool. it all started.well withba carp first put in on the dobbing bread, end of the first hour and i had three carp in the net, and doing well at my end of the lake, then it got hard, i had 4 more on maggot off the far line and two down by peg 4, did well at my end of the lake but as the weigh sheet shows there seemed to be more carp in the middle of the lake

Our team went into the match with a 12 point buffer, and we ended up twenty points clear, so a nice payday for us, well.done to bob gullick who scored most of our points, and even mat came good in the end with a lake win., Steve howell won on the day from hawthorn 7 with over 70lb, sp well.done, and i think he even had most of them in the mouth.

monday and attempted to run a match at acorn , but only 6 fished, wont dwell on that, paul faiers had a nice day on peg 9 catching silvers on caster to win with 22lb , well done paul, i was second with a few carp and silvers for 15lb on peg 13, i will.hold my hands up to having some assistance from a fouled 8lb common.

Thursday and back to huntstrete for the fortnightly coffin dodgers match, into the bag of doom and out comes peg27, good peg for sure, but with the water being clear, you could see the bottom of the keepnet,i feared the worst. for company I had dave (topset diddly bonk)haines on 26, and phil(fizzy) morgan on 28, dave asked for a quid side bet, which i duly accepted, ut he wanted it on silvers only, oh well, that would have to do then. I have caught on this peg on bread across to the island, but didnt really expect that to be good today, and i was right , 30 minutes in and not even a liner, luckily i had fed some groundbait at 13 mtrs.with some caster in, and i started getting indications straight away, but bites were hard to get, i persevered and had a few.better skimmers, and roach, mainly.on single caster, i also had a couple of f1,s in three foot of water away from the island and 1 small carp, ended up with 17lb, 7lb of silvers and ten pounds of carp, , won £20 for my.efforts and the all important quid off hainer.

Sunday again and first round of ron hardiman,s silvers league, this one at shiplate on the main lake, breakfast at cafe fox was excellent as ever , 4.95. Got to the fishery in plenty of time, most people wanted a draw on the far side , just to try and get a bit of shelter from the gusty north westerly. The draw wasnt kind, peg 7 , wind blowing in and across from the right, very cold to say the least. Trainee silver angler on my right kev winstone, who luckily for seems to have plenty of pound coins in the ash tray in his car.he did manage a quid off me on Thursday, but only because i had to give him change from a two pound coin 😳😂😂. i fed two lines on the pole at 11 and 13mtrs, two balls of groundbait on each with a few casters and pinkies in, i gave the feeder half an hour, but not even a tremble, so that was binned, first out in and a 2lb on pinkie, then a small roach, then not a touch for an hour, paul(dead in the head)elmes had a run of skimmers on the feeder on 12a, also clint wojtyla on 12 had snuck a couple out aswell, but not in my section so not to worried, the last two biurs were not to bad, i haf a few better skimmers and small roach, enough to keep me interested, presentation was difficult, and i think if i hadnt used the pole bump bar j wouldnt have caught as much, kev wandered up for a bit of coaching, and had a few skimmers when he went back, i ended with 6 decent skimmers and small roach for 13.13, enough for a section win and thurd on the day, clint was top on the day with 19lb to pauls 18lb, weigh sheet below.