weds landsend match lake

we just about had enough to use 1 1/2 lakes today so we used the match and 33 to 40 on the speci, with fabio back for his first outing since his operation i let him drae for me so i ended up on peg 11 which is a nice peg with lots of options , only 13 mtrs to the island and with the water levels right up that meant that there was a decent depth over there(15 inches). so the normal rig of a 4x8 rig for banded pellet on .16. a 4x14 rig for pellet at 5 mtrs , a shallow stalking rig as there were a few on the surface and a 4x12 to fish to the end bank at 16 mtrs. the only other angler i could see was fabio on peg 13 down my own bank all i could see was the poles sticking out.
at the start i fed the island and end bank with some 8,s and the 5mtr line with 6,s and picked up the stalker, 5 mins in and a 7 pounder was netted as did fabio i quickly added another but as there werent to many at this end they seemed to be spooking and they were rapidly dissapearing . after 90 mins i had taken 6 fish but that was it as i couldnt see any fish on the surface now, the only person still catching shallow now was trig edmunds on 19 as there a re usually a lot of fish on this peg as they seem to be atracted to the gap in the island and he reckons he took 15 fish before his melted away.
i did try the 5 mtr line but never had a bite , mike nicholls had the peg a couple of weeks ago and had 40lb of silvers off it but i probably put more bait in in the first 5 mins than mike did in 6 hours , i just cant help myself , it probably didnt help playing carp in that area either.
so over the island where there were fish moving , so i went in with the shallow rig and was rewarded with several chub on 8mm pellet but that was no good as there were several anglers fishing solely for silvers and i would be to far behind, so i upped the feed and that had the desired effect as tails began appearing and nice orange ones at that .
but these fish are hard to get in the mouth ,only due to the fact that they are feeding in such shallow water so foulers become a real problem , the depth rig to the end bank only produced a good roach but a go on the shallow rig against the bushes did give me 3 carp and 2 tench but it was hurting my bad shoulder twisting to fish ther so i knocked that on the head and spent the rest of the match at 13 mtrs against the island(less painfull), by now phil was feeling a bit worse for wear opposite and was struggling to fish as he was in a bit of pain, i think its to soon to out on the bank another week of r and r is needed i think, but he did inform me that trig was still catching again on 19. so i fished around the end of the island and had odd fish right to the end, about an hour from the end i put a pint of 6,s down the edge and 30 mins from the end ther were two fish with tails up at 2 mtrs under a bush so dropped the island rig in and promptly caught a 6 pounder .
by the end with the help of my counter i thought i may have 95lb but admitted to 90 , the scales arrived and my catch went 102.2 which was winning until we got to craig edmunds on 19 who had 134.6 for first on the day
3rd was stuart foale on speci 35 with 75.12 which included top silver weight on the day with 51.6 which was chub on worm and caster over to the island and later skimmers on paste down middle
4th jason radford 75.4 peg 33
5th nigel bartlett 58.12 peg 40
6th phil(fabio)harding 56.12
special mention to roger kimberley on peg 21 who being from north of glos could be deemed slightly tight , he dropped a catty in of the platform and dived in to try and save it (actually he slipped)completely forgetting about the i phone 4 in his pocket i think he may let the catty sink next time.
off to the river this weekend to fish a big money match at newbridge , should be interesting to say the least , i get a feeling the banter may be quite interesting from the "proper" anglers ha ha .

shiplate farm west and hawthorn ponds

with 25 fishing we used all pegs on both lakes and i didnt really mind where i drew , andy bryant drew and handed me peg 10 then drew 11 for himself both of us on hawthorn, drawing on this pool means i didnt have to worry about silvers as that would probably be won on west pool as long as the bream and skimmers played ball. back to my peg and with the wind off our backs and it only being about 13 mtrs it was going to be easy on the joints.
it was 6ft in the middle and down the edge so a .4 rig on .14 with a xedion hook for corn or soft pellet and a 4x8 and 4x10 rig again on .14 with the same hook for over tight and just off the far shelf again for soft pellet and corn .
starting at 9 mtrs i was able to feed by hand due to the wind being so strong, so much for the weather men saying it was going to be 23c with a gentle breeze , it felt more like 15c with a gale blowing up my ass, by the end i was all but shivering sat in my flimsy t shirt.
i started feeding softened 4,s at 9 mtrs and over to the far side ,and began feeding some corn at the bottom of the nearside shelf, it took about 20 mins to get my first carp and that was on corn on the 9 mtr line , it was soon followed by another then the bites went a bit funny , so out with the far bank rig as an up in the water rig and 2 more carp then i couldnt get a bite shallow but not to worry as there seemed to be plenty of fish against the far bank, as andy bryant was proving on peg 11 as he had a 6 fish lead over me and he was proclaiming it as the best fishery in the northern hemisphere and that i may need to think about buffing a pound up for him, i did get one on corn down the edge but that was the only sensible bite i had there, i ended up with about 17 or 18 carp which according the fish counter would weigh about 49lb so i abmitted to 44lb to be on the safe side my net actually went 48.2 so the counter keeps working
the match was won by john(the gimp)bradford with a rare crp and silvers weight of 70.4 off peg 10 on west pool
2nd and just missing out on a hat trick of wins off peg 1 on hawthorn was tim ford with 61.13
3rd 2oz behind with 61.11 was adrian jeffrey on west pool peg 9
4th rod wootten 49.11 peg 3 hawthorn
5th dean malin 49.9 peg 2 hawthorn(chip shop sausage)
6th chris fox 49.8 peg 4 west pool which included the top silver weight of 32.9 mainly skimmers on his topset using worm, caster and maggot
7th t rixon 48.2 and a quid off andy bryant whose peg dried towards the end giving me a chance to catch up
all in all it was a good close match which everyone seemed to enjoy apart from steve seager on peg 15 hawthorn who did really well to avoid the fish, but he did manage the top weight of eels on the day
3r

shiplate farm west pool

only a small match today with 10 of us so the lake was full with all pegs taken , there were some road works in the lanes leading to the fishery with the lane from weston super mare being closed totally, so the only access was from the a38 side , so after a couple of phone calls kieth and shane turner arrived as did the bridgwater lothario in the shape of mike west, so draw under way and trig drew for me and gave me peg 4, he was on 5 and dean malin was on 3 and with the pegging being of a friendly nature it was going to be hard. just 2 rigs today , the bream and skimmer rig for the middle was a .6g affair which i later changed to a 4x14 with a 16 6313 on .12 and a 4x8 rig on .14 with the same hook for over to hopefully catch carp. the bream in this lake go to 8lb so they can make all the difference on the day. at the start everyone started in much the same way, feeding some softened pellets of various sizes down the middle and cupped some 4mm and micros with a bit of corn over , i thought cupping was the best option as the ducks would probably annoy me as they seem to be able to spot a catty at 1000mtrs and upend and eat your bait, dean next door fed with a catty and sure enough the feathered horrors arrived but at the end as we all know they upset us more than the fish. anyway everyone started getting skimmers and odd bream from the start but with it being flat calm this only lasted for about the first hour, then we all began struggling, craig(trig)edmunds on 5 put 2 balls of g bait in at 5 mtrs at the start and that paid off as he had 2 better dream and some skimmers over it during the day, so thats definately an option not to be ignored next time, it seemed you only got a couple of bites in one place then you would have to refeed and go to the other line, i did have 2 carp off the far side and a few good skimmers but the carp just seemed to be swimming through as i was getting odd liners, whereas dean on 3 ended up with 6 carp down mainly i think to him using the catty and making more noise and putting up with the ducks, by the end it was clear that the frampton legion stalwart kieth turner on peg 10 had probably done enough as he had 9 carp for what was going to be about 40lb with dean being closest with his carp and silvers mix.
the minor placings were up for grabs with jason radford having 2 late carp to put him in the mix ,and with me and trig both declaring that one had more than the other, with me thinking his 2 big bream foulhooked over his g bait making the difference.
as it turned out kieth turner was a popular winner with 43.3 of carp on corn to the end bank
2nd dean malin 36.8 peg 3
3rd jason radford 25.14 peg 8
4th tony rixon 23.11 peg 4
5th craig edmunds 23.8 peg 5 (you still have much to learn grasshopper, like the fish still have there mouths at the front oooh 3oz that hurts)
6th joe thompson 21lb peg 1

viaduct match lake

this isnt going to take me to long to write as i didnt catch to much today , and with 2 bloggers to my right in the shape of tim ford on 46 and chris fox on 47 and with both of them catching considerably more than me i will let you read there blogs as it makes far more interesting reading, i let andy bryant draw for me so i ended up on 47 which is a corner peg with a long margin to a reed bed which sometimes produces some small carp and tench so in set up a rig on .16 and i did get 4 small carp down there and lost a couple as they are faster than me and made the weeds before i could pull them out , also my banker method of micros and caster fished at 13 and 16 mtrs which has served me well in recent matches failed me today with only 9 skimmers making it to the net.

the match was won by tim ford on 46 with 35.7 which comprised of 12lb of skimmers and the rest carp down the edge on corn , fair play to tim as it isnt generally a peg you would want .

2nd was dave evans on 49 with 32lb of maimly carp on meat on the waggler

3rd dean malin 27.9 peg 43

4th clayton hudson 26.10 peg 45

5th chris fox 25lb peg 47 and it was the top silver weight made up of skimmers on the pole then on the wag towards the end

6th t rixon 16.6

the lake fished harder than expected possibly due to the rain we had overnight as it can have an effect on the oxygen levels, thats the best excuse i can think of though lol

float only lge after round 4

tony rixon 28 pts 411.01lb

mat tomes 24 pts 250.04lb

chris davis 23pts 313lb

clayton hudson 23pts 240.15lb

craig edmunds 23pts 197.12lb

gary etheridge 22pts 227.04lb

thomas thick 22pts 219.09lb

ed wynne 22pts 142.11lb

dick bull 21pts 180.10lb

dean malin 20pts 221.08lb

mike nicholls 20pts 219.07lb

scott puddy 20pts 168.12lb

dave roper 20pts 166.06lb

nick collins 20pts 137.06lb

last 4 of the k/o to be fished at chilton trinity

mike nicholls

dean malin

tony rixon

dick bull

weds landsend match lake

only 12 of us today so loads of room, good to see pauline quirks weight loss guru in the carpark in the shape of leyton palmer. just for a change i had the last peg in the hat so i ended up on peg 7, its a peg which seems to get stronger in the last half of the match , especcially when peg 6 isnt in as the fish tend to come round the end of the island to the feed, just a pellet attack today as the meat seems to have lost some of its attractivness, so all rigs were on .18 with a 16 b960 for banded pellet, i set up a shallow stalking rig, a margin rig which never produced a bite and a couple of rigs for up and down the far shelf and one for pellet at 5 mtrs, i started at 5 mtrs with a banded 6 over hard 4,s ,but after an hour all in had was 3x f1,s , a skimmer and 2 roach and with no fizzing it didnt look good for that line, the next hour was spent chasing shadows with the dapping rig but i never got a bite on it so that was that then. over with the down the shelf rig in about 3 foot of water this produced 2 carp and a couple of lost foulers , as i had been feeding 8mm pellets over straight in front and on the angle at 10 o,clock since the start i was seeing tails and swirls in both swims so that was the rest of the match sorted then. by swapping and feeding the 2 area,s i kept fish going into the net right to the end , finishing with about 20 fish for what i thought (with the help of my new counter)85lb ish, tom thick was first to weigh on peg 1 , and he was admitting to 13 small carp, obviously being from shepton mallet he had to stop counting when he ran out of fingers ,cos he had 20 for a weight of 70lb 1 oz ,but it was only good enough for second as mine weighed 90lb 3 oz, this fish counter is working out ok

3rd was clint wojtyla with 66.9 on peg 17

4th leyton palmer 61.4 peg 3 (team any peg . com)

5th pete sivell 60.8 peg 21

6th mike nicholls 41.8 which was all silvers on peg 11 using his favourite soft pellet approach at short mtrs

float only landsend rnd 4

with 49 fishing mike let us use 3 1/2 lakes again so plenty of room for most, i let fabio draw for me today and i ended up on 24 which is a nice corner peg, according to bob gullick i have drawn so many corners even my ass is square now.i needed a section win to keep me at the top of the lge , and 24 is more than capable of winning the section, my main threat was always going to be dean malin on 19,

i set up a meat rig for the margin but never used it, at shallow/stalking rig, a full depth pellet rig and 2 margin rigs for up the right hand margin at 14 mtrs by a tree trunk.

i started by cupping some 6,s at 13 mtrs and fired some 8,s up the edge , first and second drop over the 6,s at 13 mtrs resulted in 2 lost foulers , and that was the end of my sport for what seemed like ages, even though i had a bye in the knockout i still had to at least catch a fish to progress to the final round and i was beginning to think i would blank as we started at 11.30 and i finally landed a 8 pounder at 1.10 that i had to stalk then i had 2 more doing the same very quickly and another 7 during the next couple of hours , some stalking and some properly , but by now the fish had wised up and seemed to be staying out of range. so it was time to go up the edge and i needed to catch as dean was getting fish quite regularly across on the island plus it sounded as though the speci lake was fishing ok as the bush telegragh had reported that tim ford on 33 was catching ok and judging by the swearing chris davis on 32 was losing some , any way i began getting bites straight away , landing a couple then losing some under the stump butn i was landing enough to keep up with dean, by the end dean had 21 carp and a couple of skimmers whilst i think i had 19 but my fish were of a slightly better stamp so it was going to be close, craig(trigger)edmunds gave me a fish counter to try and keep tabs on what i have caught as i have had to much on several occassions this year, and my clicker was telling me i had 117lb spread over 2 nets, as i had over estimated the size of my fish i thought it would be closer to 100lb

as it turned out tim ford on 33 was first on the day with 126.12 of pellet (read his blog) caught carp

my nets went 111.3 for second and the all imprtant section win

3rd was dean malin with 99.15

4th mike nicholls 94.14 on 36 which included the top silver weigth of 32lb

5th paul elmes 86.4 peg 31

6th chris davis 85.8 peg 32

it was nice to see the match and speci lakes full of water giving a decent depth to work with on the islands and margins, also mike has begun to tidy the islands up trimming all the weeds back which saves losing to many rigs and hooks.