even blind squirrels pick up at landsend

good turn out today 21 fishing so all the golden pegs were in but i never got one . martin lenaghan handed me 33 which is behind the hut on the speci lake, and with 34 not in i had lots of options. 1 4x12 rig for hard pellet on the deck , 1 4x10 for in the left hand edge, 1 4x10 for over on the island and a dibber for shallow. 11.45 start and i began by cupping in 4mm in the deep water at 15 mtr and some at 14 mtr in the margin , and fired some 6,s over to the island.
first put in and a 5 lb carp was in the net followed by another on the next drop , then a couple of foulers which came off, then a nice f 1 thingy, then at 12.15 , mikes wave maker began, and for the next 2 hours all i had was 2 carp and 3 chub. i thought i might catch trotting down the side of the island but apart from the 2 chub and 1 lost fouler that was hard aswell especially as i had to use 17 mtrs to do it, so a quick look in the margin , first put in and a snag! next put in and i hooked a carp which went down thru a snag taking my rig with it so i gave that up as a bad job.
back on the deck rig and wait for the water wheel to stop, i did get a couple of liners but no fish.
aerater went off at 2.15 so it was time to go to the island 17 mtrs again , christ its hard work, but there were some fish showing . i began to get bites straight away and had a couple of quick fish before they dissapeared, as it was only 12 inches deep they spook quite quickly so you keep feeding but fish back on the deep line till there confidence returns and you start to see movement, by swapping between the two lines i kept odd fish coming ,and ended up with about 20 carp which i thought would go about 100 lb. apart from gary wall next to me who was admitting to about 85 lb the only ather angler to have much was martin lenaghan who managed to draw peg 19 for himself so that was 2 fliers he had drawn in 1 day and he trys to tell us he cant draw and he had 27 carp and they went 125. 3 for first place, all caught shallow at 13 mtrs on pellet. i was second with 109.1
3rd gary wall 89.13 peg 35 on paste
4th a oram 73.8 peg 18 meat at 4 mtrs
5th tim clarke peg 7, 71.4
6th phil(fabio)harding peg 13 ,50.12
sivers tom thick on peg 1 20.7 on worm and caster
2nd john bradford 17,3 peg 15
good to see charlie has got some help to get to his peg now in the shape of a battery trolley, and it has to be said that it is very good cos i took it for a test drive around the carpark. and i nearly lost it by the corner of the hut. s0 all you oldies out there who are finding it a bit of a struggle now it could be a life saver so eddie wynne it might just be for you the battery will do 5 miles so it would be ok for those long long walks to infinity and beyond or even the corn field.

shop bitz part 5

cant believe the cheek of some people. a certain psv rent boy aka darren north was in the shop commenting on what a good freebie it was on the AT last week. it was an avanti method feeder and mould(rec retail 7.99 lol winkers preston is only 4.98 for mould and feeder), and then he asks me how to use it, ooh wonder what i told him, cant say here cos my mum reads this!!!!!!!!
i, m still having a few problems with the coffin dodgers. firstly mr nicholls, he repaired a pole section of mine as an experiment in carbon repairs with a view to doing repairs properly but after doing it he quickly realised that it wasnt financially viable, any way when doing repairs the sections have to be held straight , now i aint quite sure how he did it cos the repair was nice and straight but he just had to apologise for the ammount of vaseline that was still all over the section hmmm i wonder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
another oldy namely adrian jeffery proudly announced that he was off to a tom jones concert shortly , and he even admitted to buying the tickets, and they try and tell us that the male menopause is just a myth ,if they need proof just get a doctor to spend an afternoon in the shop and all will be confirmed.
congrats to my wife judith who has been on a asda diet for 2 weeks now , she is doing really well cos she has only put 1 pound on, perhaps tesco will be next .
cant go without mentioning fabio , after not doing to well on the river at the weekend it could be that he was to weak after having a barry white night with fi fi on saturday , now as he isnt seeing her tonite he has taken 2 porno dvd,s someone dropped in today so he can have a barry white night on his own (know what i mean). so it will be over with quick time and so he shouldnt be so tired tomorrow at landsend, time will tell.
i hope pete wild is on the mend as he came in last friday complaining of a cracked ring(nasty)

bullocks with charlie

with 20 people booked in for the match lake , it all looked good for a nice match, trouble was charlie hasnt worked out how to work his answering machine so there is now 24 booked in and the extra 4 were to be put on north pool on the good pegs at the bottom of the arm. when the draw got under way i pulled peg 8 which has a bit of form as a down the edge peg towards no7 which isnt in. as i mentioned last time , phil has employed a gardner to tidy the place up a bit , if i was phil i would sack the lazy idle git cos i couldnt even lift a top set up in my peg , so i had to do some pruning myself. 3 rigs today 1 4x12 silvers at 8 mtrs . 4x8 hard pellet rig against the island under a tree and a 4x10 rig for down the edge.
at the start i cupped in some grounbait and caster on the 8 mtr line , some 4mm against the island and a mix of caster, maggot, pellet and corn down the edge either side. nothing like giving them a choice.
starting on caster i had to wait about 15 mins for my first bite , and a lipless fantail ended up in the net, i was getting indications but no real positive bites , although i did get a couple more rantails and , hybrids a change to small pieces of corn and the bites improved with more fantails ending up in the net, after about 2 hours i went down the margin to peg 7 and had a 2lb carp on corn straight away, (that was the end of the silvers then , more fool me). apart from a few liners no more bites were forthcoming, so i cupped in some pellet and maggot and had a look to the island.
lowering the pellet in as tight as i could and the float kept going and another 2lb carp was in the net, quicklly followed by 2 smaller ones . tme to go down the edge again this time to the left and after snagging first put in i decided to leave this side and concentrate on the right hand side, although it was nearly 12 inches shallower the bottom was clear.
this time i went in with treble maggot on , which the fish seemed to prefer, and by alternating between the island and the margin odd fish kept gracing the net , problem was the fish were on the small side it must be a nursery peg, by the end i had 12 small carp which i estimated would go about 30lb with the silvers. they actually went 30lb 15 oz for no where in the match,
the match was won by gary bedford with 75.10 on north pool peg 12 using soft pellet down the edge and across,(poxy split venues cos a pensioner cant work his answering machine lol)
2nd the old sly fox himself mike nicholls 58.8 peg17 match lake mostly taken on a rapala magnum draggeb across there backs.
3 rd adrian jeffrey 50.4 19 match lake on maggot down the edge mainly in the last hour
4th tom tick 49.7 25 match lake again maggot down the edge
5 th jason radford 40.6 22 match lake
6th paul faires 36.2 6 north pool
silvers was a father and son doudle act with ray and glyn wickham both having 12.5 on pegs 24 and 26 respectivaley
jason radford had to go in after the match to find his half ex which slid in before the start and with the water over 3 foot deep he had to use a pole section as a snorkel but he did find it, nick collins looks like a giant stood next to jason
pictures of jason will be available on mikes blog
any one looking for a match next sunday i am running one at bullocks again

shop bitz part 4

i,m starting to worry about the older anglers coming into the shop. it hit home today when ed wynne was chatting to gus manton about the size of the hemp and commented on the quality of it and i must say it is huge but it wont split, any way after guy left the shop ed walked over to an open sack grabbed a handful and said what lovely hemp it was , shame really as it was a sack of 4mm coarse pellets, i think ed ought to consider suing the opticians in his local pound shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
trig(aka craig edmunds)came in today on his way back from his latest laser treatment he has now started with some liquid the clinic gave him , he has to use a syringe to put about 2 ml on twice a day so he thought he would do the first dose in the shop , problem was it had a particularly stubborn child resistant lid on it which he failed to remove so i had to do it so after squirting it on his head he sat down to let it take effect trouble i think it was made of acetone and cow piss judging by the smell. then dean came in and decided that it was time for the second treatment, and it wasnt a pretty site that of dean giving trig a head masage cos trig looked to be really enjoying it . he must have a soft spot for dean after the ball licking incident.
nice to see fabs and fi fi had a good time on the isle of wight last weekend shame it was cut short when they were caught dancing naked around a rams head in a sechluded piece of woodland and they got themselves evicted on the first night lol

close at avalon

strange how you manage to draw the same pegs on the same venues innit, i ended up on peg 12 yet again, good wag peg and not to bad on the pole iether, but i would like to draw a different peg occasionally. three pole rigs , one 4x14 for hair rigged pellet on the deck , 4x12 up in the water, paste rig and of course the pellet wag for over. starting at 14 mtr i cupped in half a pot of 4mm and started to fire 8mm to the island, i would have liked to have fed 6,s to the island but its about 35 mtrs and with no wind to help they wouldnt quite get there. 10 minutes in and my first bite resulted in a 7 lb common finding its way into the keepnet, by the end of the first hour i had only added 1 more to the tally, but i had lost a couple of foulers. oh well out with the paste, but that was no good all i could get was a few funny dips which i put down to skimmers . after 2 hours it was time to chuck the wag , and i had 1 first chuck, although there were a few fish showing on the island they were a bit cagey and not really willing to stray to far from the island, so the tighter you could get the more chance of a bite , but you tend to lose some as you got to pull like hell to stop them going thru the gap , all the time i was feeding 4,s on the pole line ,but the fish seemed to be backing away from the feed, as every time you fed the minimal fizzing stopped, so it seemed better to feed 3 pouches and leave it , and when some bubbles appeared go in with the pellet rig and wait for a bite . normally lifting and dropping in the bubbles brings a response but today it seemed better just to sit and wait for a bite. by alternating between the wag and pole i ended up with 14 carp and 1 skimmer, both gary wall and martin lenaghan also had 14 carp so it was going to be tight. as it turned out gary had 79.12 on peg 21 with one fish going 18lb
2nd me with78.1
3rd martin lenaghan 77.9(my 1.2 skimmer was crucial)peg 9 pellet wag
4th tony wittcomb 61.6 peg5 wag(wot no paste)
5th chris fox 60.1 peg 16
6th colin dyer 35.2
so 1 fish seperating the top 3 thats much better than someone running away with it.
cant go without mentioning the silvers master chris derrick, having decided that he had the silvers sussed he announced he was going to catch carp today so we could do away with the silver pool, 6hours later and 2 carp in the net i think he was beginning to regret it , even after spending 4 hours at dodgy,s house on tues evening for some coaching from the new paste master (dave downton)and several phone calls during the day it just never happened . dodgy couldnt understand what went wrong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

teams of 4 2010

with the collapse of the league this year for varios reasons , here are my ideas on payouts and venues. 6 venues, trinity, cider, viaduct,bullocks, landsend and avalon , all over by xmas.
entry would be £144 which is the peg fee, up front for all the venues, then £100 compulsory team pools on the day out of which £20 taken from that which is £5 per angler per match giving o/all team paouts at the end of 600/440/340/240 and 80 for 5th.
individuals on the day 150/130/100/80/60 for overall to 5 not top carp weight !
silvers on the day 85/65/45
and 40 quid every 5 pegs all payouts by default one prize one angler.
the anglers i have spoken to have all seemed more than interested in it going this way and already 6 of the teams which pulled out this year have said they will definately be up for it again next year on those terms.
you will have noticed the absence of stafford from the venues its not that i have a problem with the place it just turns into an expensive weekend costing the best part of 200 quid if you are to do it properly with bait , bits booze and digs and not forgetting fuel. if it was 50 miles closer it wouldnt be a problem cos andy and debbie have one of the best run and fish filled fisheries in the country, and andy appreciates that it is a long way to go in the present financial climate. cos the 200 quid for that weekend is probably 50% or more of the weekly take home pay of a lot of the people taking part, i did hear yesterday that andy is going to run a 2 day pole only on the league dates this year, so anyone interested give andy a ring on 01805804360, and to be fair i wouldnt be suprised if he didnt get a few for it. he might have to change his tape recording at the draw though from the usual of cast the lead 40 mtrs to the bar and fire 8,s or 10,s at it with a 10mm or conker on a hair lol
so anyone interestd give me a ring at the shop or comment on here

oops back out of the comfort zone

with the teams of 4 cancelled , the only left to do was run an open at avalon which was to be the first match in the series. the next match was scheduled for bullocks on the 11 oct so we will have another open so anyone wishing to partake give me a ring at the shop, 01179517250,back to avalon.peg 25, so near yet so far to peg 24.
i would love to report that i had kept the winning streak from wednesday but no, i had 3 fish in the first hour that went 33lb , 2 on pellet on the deck and 1 on paste all at 14 mtr,s and apart from a few foulers during the next 5 hours it was pooh. i even contemplated river fishing again , but after beating myself with my half ex around the head several times , i quickly realised that it was never going to happen. i have had this happen here before when you get a few early fish then nothing, i think i will put it down to a case of bad angling or it could be not enough fish in the peg , it wasnt until the last 30 mins that i got a few bubbles back and i fouled 2 fish in the last 10 minutes, never mind there is always wednesday. first on the day was the dodge miester aka dave downton with 115.2 on peg 7 on solvite at 13 mtrs
2nd was gary wall 109.10 peg 28 on green solvite at 16 mtr
3rd clayton hudson 85.9 peg12 wag and pellet
4th ron hardiman 61 peg 24
5th vic(leadchucker)bush 57.1 peg 5
6th martin lenaghan 55.5 peg 33
silvers chris derrick 17.12 all shallow at 13mtr on caster, he seems to have the silvers here sorted right out
the only person not to weigh was pete wild who took 5 and 3/4 hours to land his first fish, he is off t0 whiteacres shortly to fish the parkdean , i bet there are a lot of people going that hope he is in there section, but he was pegged next to me and i think we were in a bit fishless area , as the wind has been northerly for 2 weeks now the fish seem to have shifted down the lake slightly,
talking to liegh he was telling me that they are getting 3 big bubblers put in which will only help, also they intend to chalk it next year which seems to kickstart lakes into fishing well, and as most fishery owners will tell you it can be a long and difficult journey sometimes until fisheries begin to realise there true potential, with a lot of trial and error needed until it comes good, but without the support of anglers it can be hard . luckily leigh and vic have the support of quite a few anglers be it match, pleasure and speci boys who enjoy the fishing and surroundings, as far as matches go it good to go to a venue where different pegs win.