Plantations silvers only

Looking forward to these matches, a proper quality silver,s venue, good roach and skimmers, plus a few decent perch, these matches are starting a bit earlier than normal thus year, hopefully the lakes plentiful carp stocks wouldn't be to muxh of a problem. 18 fishing which is a nice number on the lake, so I didnt mind where i drew, i let ryan jordan draw for me, he handed me peg 5, a nice peg on the left hand bank, paul faiers to my right and reborn match angler , hot from his triumph on the river kenn, jerry salisbury on my left, i like to start short on this lake, trying to catch roach, so a 4x12 slim to fish to hand on a topkit, then a couple of .3g slims for skimmers at 6 and 11mtrs. So at the start i cupped in two balls at 6 mtrs and 4 balls at 11 mtrs all with a few caster and and chopped worm in, Starting on the short line with caster, it was slow, 2 roach and a lonely 2oz skimmer in 20 minutes, and i was going out on the longer lines, i had plenty of fish on the longer lines judging by the bubbles, but getting them to take the bait was hard, the fished seemed to be above the feed, not showing to much interest in feeding properly on the deck, best tactic seemed to be was sit there with a big piece of worm and wait, when i did get a fish, they were of a good size, i couldnt really see to much of what was going on as the bankside vegetation was still to high, the only person i could see catching well was mark broomsgrove on peg 38, he was having a good day, but judging by the banter, dave willmot on 2 and ryan jordan on 1 were both catching, paul faiers was catching quite steadily, although he was moaning he had not a lot, but he always does , ive learnt over the years which people i can believe, and to be honest no one to my right would be capable of lying straight in bed. On the all out i reckoned i had 35lb+, but realistically i never had a clue, started on 1 and ryan had 42lb,dave on 2 had 55lb of mainly.roach, a lovely net of fish,

paul had a large 20lb , well 37lb to be precise 😂😂😂😂😂😂. I had 44.12, so i undersold my weigh aswell, i stayed 2nd all round till.we.got to mark broomsgrove on 38 who had 51lb, i think the fish seemed.to have followed the southerly wind to our end of the lake, but there were still good weights all round, i thunk these matches are going to be really popular this winter, the next one is already sold out with a waiting list, dead mans shoes it is then.

Bad and good

Sunday and it was the teams of four on shiplate fishery, stopped at the wessex flyer for breakfast and as normal , very good, nice and hot and help yourself, i also recommended to mark poppleton to go to the sidcot hotel, still a premier inn, so you would have expected it to be the same, but no, it took 40minutes for the food to arrive and it was rubbish, as was the service, shouod have been help yourself, but it came out plated , they weren't happy. Also at last all the new mosella eva is available , ive had a few.of the new pieces and it looks good , the 4+ net bag was big enough for 6 nets, and the trolley bags are slightly bigger, all have good zips and hard tops, ideal as an extra bait table if needed.and all very eye catching.

my turn on the main lake, low. Numbers, wanted to draw between 1 and 4, possibly 9, 5/6/7/8 not ideal, i drew peg 6, not to much to wax lyrical about, had one carp on the wag, 15lb of skimmers on hard pellet at 14 mtrs, and a big 17lb fish on meat at the bottom of the rocks to the left, limped home with 37lb, i needed one more carp probably for 2 more points, which would have made a difference on the day for the team, john hawkins won the matxh on peg 1 with 190lb, method to his right, well done. Sheets etc below, after.two matches we still have a chance as its commulative points, it will only take one good match, out team is being held togetger by alan quantrill, well done.

back to the sedges on Monday for the silvers match, yet again well supported with 24 fishing, normal lovely fishery breakfast cooked by Denise, meant to be on brick but with these numbers there was an overfolw onto tile lake, breakfast was the normal mix of good humoured banter , with some sensible conversation aswell, well it was after roy(bomber)worth left the table😆😆. on a bright note roy has decided to start a you tube channel, giving people the chance to see how he does it then as long as do the opposite, people should be fine. Anyway I was lucky to draw on tile, and a flyer aswell, peg 38, had bob(the masked singer) pascoe on 39, he was on here a couple of weeks ago and won with 40lb, so he was happy as conditions were nearly identical. Three rigs, a 1grm lifter, a .75 slim both to fish at 5 and 11mtrs, and a .3 slim to fish in about 1 mtr of water.to my left , at the start i cupped in one ball of groundbait at 5 mtrs and three at 11mtrs, strted short , gave it 20minutes not a bite, so out to 11mtrs, and had a couple of better skimmers quickly, but then really struggled, the match started at 10.15, and by 1.15 i reckoned I had about 15lb, which by the sounds of thing wasnt to bad, but i kept topping up and the second half got a lot better, with the peg getting stronger towards the end, i even managed 4 good skimmers on the shallow line to my left, i had 47lb on the clicker by the end but felt i may have over clicked a bit, but i was close as my fish went over 50lb, best hookbait today was single dead red, groundbait was the normal mix i use all year round, sensas black lake, thatchers original and brown crumb, equal amounts of each, its a nice mix you can adapt to any situation,

Todber manor silvers match

I think it was guy manton who thought it may be a good idea to run a silvers only match on wadmill lake, but john candy probably had a hand in it somewhere. 28 fishing so it was quite popular,some of the areas qaulity anglers attending, and kev winstone.😂😂😂😂😂😂 i think i fished it about 15 years ago in a trade match. I think i had about 70lb of small carp back then , mainly shallow, bit today skimmers and roach were the target species. Didnt want to hook to many carp as i thunk they go over 30lb, and lots of them. paid the pools which included the the normal donation to CAT(candy,s added tax) which i dont mind as its a well run well stocked fishery. Into the draw , peg11 today, whuch was about 4 pegs from the far end on the right hand bank, one peg short of where i drew the last time on here. Rich butler on my left and tim martin on my right, opposite was des shipp, so at least i could keep an eye on him, generally the man to beat on these matches, but a stiff breeze blowing in at the anglers on that bank, that may make.things a bit more difficult over there, wind off my back for me, lovely.

Three rigs today, a 4x12 topkit to hand for roach, but not to confident on that working as it was less.than 2 foot deep there, a .4 slim with an 18 drennan acolyte silverfish hook on .10, and a .55slim with the same.pattern drennan hook but in a 16, these hooks are brilliant, fine but strong and havnt had a blunt one yet. I fed groundbait on two lines, one ball at 9mtrs, and three balls at 13mtrs, all.with some worm Caster and corn in, some micros at 11 mtrs off.to the left for soft pellet, but that turned into a wasted.line as i couldn't get a bite there. Started.at 9 mtrs but couldnt a soft bait to the bottom, so put corn on, ive had a stedy couple of hours, catching some nice skimmers and bream to 3lb, i aslo had a.few.nice.roach on the short line on caster , but they didnt stay, once gone they never returned, so the last couple of hours was spent swithching between the 2 longer lines, mainly on a big bit of dendra, but it was a long wait between bites, i couod catch small.roach on maggot or caster , but i didnt feel i coukd catch them.quick enough as des was catching roaxh steadily plus he had caught a few skimmers and bream aswell, also mark bowden on 18, had some bream aswell, at the end i had 45lb on my clicker, but i had only counted.the bream and skimmers, i hadnt included the roach and perch, so i happy to weigh 50.10, just ahead of des who jad 45lb, third was jack stamp on peg 30 with 37.10 of roach, then mark bowden with 37.6, lots.of good roach weights ,.mainly in the early pegs, there will be some more silvers matches on here for sure, so keep an eye on the fisheries face book page for the date.

A late 4

Oh well better late than never 😕😕😆😆 Shiplate teams of four on sunday, hawthirn lake for me in thus first round, i like thus lake, its a bit like landsend with some sneaky fish in it, did my draw and ended up on 11, nice peg to be honest, a good margin, mud opposite, and a reed bed just off to the left, well its been a tough day, nothung in the margins, two on the short maggot line, three from the mud opposite, and 11 from the reed bed, ended up with 74lb for fourth in section, peg was worth more, i shoukd have gone round and cleared some of the dead reeds out as i was having trouble getting the bait to sit on some clean bottom, also i would have liked to have got in tighter as the match went on, ive had to stay about a mtr off, when i new fairwell i would have done better late on the tighter i got, russ peck won the section from peg5 with just iver 90lb and tom thick on unfancied(his words) peg 15 with a level 90lb, and Mark wynne on 7 with 84lb, the match was won by in form luke fothergill who made.no mistake on peg one main lake with 225lb, well done, as for the team we managed.to end up second in the team stakes.one point behind first, so no disaster, helped by alan quantrill coming second with 160lb.👍👍.

Monday and sedges silver,s peg 2 on brick, not ideal, with peg 1 not in it may be a carp fest, and it was , probably hooked 20 carp, whjch was annoying as there were some skimmers to be had for sure, but ended with 28lb which was good enough for third, Bob pascoe on 39 won with over 40lb, and that man martin tizard on 32 had 35lb, well done all, especially bob as he was the oldest there and had to contend with a howling gale blowing in at him,

Tuesday bitterwell silvers, peg 13 was home for the day, a hard day for all bites were definitely at a premium, finished with just short of 10lb for 4th, paul barnfield was top with just shy of 16lb, and ryan jordan next to me on 12 had 15lb for 2nd, and mat challenger had 13lb, good to see the tv cameras there to do a bit for the evening news on the triumph in the national junior champs which they won against some really good opposition, well done boys and paul for managing them along the way.

Thursday and back to shiplate for the nearly costcutter, drew 14, nice, started on corn at 14mtrs hoping to catch skimmers and carp, had a few skims, lost a few fouled carp, out on the wag a depth on pellet and haf a couple of carp, but that wasnt happening, converted the long corn line to pellets and had a couple of carp and a few skimmers, then in the last hour i had some more skimmers and three big carp on the short meat line, ended np with 87lb for 2nd , beaten by lee(bad back)hilton on 15 with 92.14, merv clark on peg one coming 3rd with 82lb, silvers went to pete zimniak on peg 10 21.8. So there you have it, 4 matches in brief.

4 days again

Landsend fishery 3 day event, shoukd have been 33 fishing, but one no show, and they onky paid a bit of the money, dont understand it, why cant people just ring or text to let organisers know so someone else can fish, bit selfish really, breakfast at the fishery everday, vwry nice aswell, drew 58 first day , up on lake three, one of my favourite pegs as it favours left handers, with a big weedbed up to the right, reeds to the left and an island to go at,

thought i was going to be in for a rasonable day but it was tough, even going 14 mtrs to the weedbed was no good, all i had there was a tench and an f1, wierd. I had a few carp on meat at 9mtrs, a couple of the island on pellet and some more smallish ones to my left towards the reeds, ended up with 68lb for secomd in the section, beaten by steve(lanerz) lane on 41 with 71lb, so not to bad a start.well done to rich major on winning the lake from peg 68, obviosly the coaching from rod wootten and mike williams on margin fishing is paying off,

day two and my turn on lake one, speci lake, more than happy to pull out 33, corner peg behind the cafe,

had a really slow start which got difficult after a bit, I've hooked a carp which went under the aerator and snagged me. Pulled for a break but lost my rig, so off my box with hooks and blades attaxhed to net handles and cupping kit, i was aroung the side doing snag clearance, not ideal 90 minutes into the match, it took a while to start catching , but i caught quite well for a spell, i even had martin rayet worried over on peg 31 who was winning the lake and section But a bad last hour didnt help, so i had to settle for second in the section again, with 112lb, martin won our section with 140lb, so the first ninety and last 60 may have cost me. day three and lake two, into the hat and comes peg 13 up in the corner, all the lakes switched off today, two cold nights probably didnt help, managed.to winkle out 72lb , mainly.from the right hand margin, but christ these Landsend fish are switched on, they arent to worried by a pole over there heads, but they certainly knkw when your rig is in the water, but i managed to be top weight on the lake so a section win and i my just sneak in with 5 points, managed to come 5th so a bit of money, always.welcome , well done to luke fothergill on winning with 4 points, beating dan squire on weight, mark jones also had 4 points but less weight again, bob gullick was 4th with 5 points beating me on weight, then i did the same.to nick duckett who also had 5 points, big thanks to gary and Rachael anderson for putting up with us and our moaning, nice touch with the food after Rachael, much appreciated, ade the tea boy did a good job delivering food and drinks to the pegs during the match, without even using the quad, LOL 😂😂.and to Mike ducket for the organising, a thankless job, and steve seager for the results. Nearly had a day off on monday to watch the funeral, after.all it was a slice of history we will never see again, and she did our country proud, But decided to go to the sedges for the silvers match (over55,s), another lovely fishery breakfast, them drew peg 39 for myself, end peg on the day, angler on my right today was the legendary bob pascoe, always going to have a laugh with him nearby, anyway fed lines at 7 and 9 mtrs with groundbait with caster and a small.ammount of chopped worn, and loose fed caster on ny topkit line just to the left in 4 foot of water, again ive had a nice day catching good skimmers on all lines, trying to avoid the carp, which was nigh on impossible, the hook box certainly took a beating, ended with 47lb, which was enough to win, beating martin tizard whi had 43lb, tile lake.fished well, brick was a bit more difficult as the weigh sheet shows.

A busy four days

Friday and Saturday was the 2 dayer at shiplate, day one on the canals, day two on the main lake,, after a nice mark breakfast, it was draw time, peg 7 came out for me, witht he levels down the far bank was to shallow, the pegs to my left were the same but to the right everyone had at least 12 inches against the far bank, and my margins werent to good, to deep to the left and snaggy.to the right, well thats my excuses done then, limped home with 60+ pounds fourth in section so two dayer hopes gone then, Saturday.peg 12 on the main lake, not my favourite peg, really shallow for 5 mtrs, 6 to 10 inches before it dropped off, shouod have taken the offer of some wellies, again a no good day, 4 carp and 10lb of skimmers for 50lb, oh well always next year. Well.done john on winning , bob gullick second and paul faiers third, well done.

Sunday and it was baxk to the mayhem that is todber manor, the fishing is crazy, good to do from time to time, but to strenuous for me on a regular basis, as ive said before john and his fishery crew certainly do a good job, from cats and big carp to huge match weights, something for everyone.we had 35 fishing and there was 10,100 of fish caught, 288lb average, mad. Trig was first on the day with 618lb on peg 89, I,ll let the weigh sheets do the talking, i was on 85 and had 439lb, most ive ever caught, and it was a 5 hour match

Monday and sedges silver,s match, lovely fishery breakfast cooked by Denise, csnt beat a nice tinned tomatoe, (mark at Shiplate), 29 fishing today, so tile and one bank of brick, drew peg 32 so happy,

but its been a difficult, nit hard, just difficult, carp were a pain, but some days you just got to wade through them, ive caught at 5 and 11mtrs, all baits worked, worm, magggot and caster on the hook all caught me a few fish, ended hp with 37.12 which was good eniugh for 4th, rob parker did well with 54.14 mainly on bread and corn i think, well done mate, nice net of fish that. Ron stark on my left was second with 48lb, and on 27 was mr consistent martin tizard with 47lb, weigh sheet below.

Three

After being on top of the blogs recently ive fallen behind again, so a quickie report on the last three as the results have been posted elswhere already. Last Thursday and Shiplate for the nearly costcutter. (£20), nice breakfast cooked by mark in the hut, very tasty. Drew peg 13a with alan quantrill to my right and old friend jer Salisbury on my left, who was always going to find it tough after he showed me a pint of frozen hemp he had got out of his freezer that morning, shame it turned out to be a bag of frozen peeler crab. i intended to fish corn for the silvers today, but set up all the customery carp rigs aswell, started on corn for a few decent skimmers, alan had caught a few slapping a rig around, there were a few cruising around , and there body language had me thinking they may be muggable, alan had tried but failed, i had to give it a go, they were more difficukt than i had expected but managed 6 good fish in the next two hours before they stayed out if range, cute fish.they were good fish with the biggest going 17.8.

I had neglected.the skimmer line a bit during thus time, so it tooka while to start getting bites again, but they turned up towards the end, i ended with 32lb of skimmers and the 6 carp went 72lb, should have stuck with thesilvers as 40lb won the silvers by ron stark on peg 10, well done matey, the match was won by gary flinders on peg 9 with 179lb.

Sunday and a rare visit to viaduct fishery for a match on Campbell, drew well 112, so a decision was carp or silvers, decided on a silver approach as there had been a lot of the lakes skimmers in this area, so topset and two for corn again, a 13mtr line for pellet and a margin rig for down the left, ive had a nice day day catching some good skimmers on the short line, a few on pellet long , and even had a three in the margins, and of course a few carp thrown into the mix aswell, ended up with a level 60lb of skimmers and 87lb of carp for top silvers weight and also winning the section, cant moan about a bit of double bubble, ben hagg won of peg 132 with over 260lb, well done mate.

Monday and landsend for the gary wall memorial match, 21 fishing so gary let us use lakes two and three, so lots of room, i let tom thick draw for me, i shiukd have known better, peg 3 for me😕😕, then he pulls out peg 13 for himself, so a forgone conclusion really, tom won with 210lb of margin caught fish, i ended up with 155lb, catching on all rigs, meat short , either side in the margins, and some fish from across, ut as everyone who fishes this venue, those far bank fish a buggers to catch, top silvers went the usual way with dave(the night watchman)ings on peg 11 with just short of 50lb, well done all.