Thursday costcutter at huntstrete

Back on bridge again for the over 55,s , but not before the Toby inn breakfast, disaster, a burst water main in the kitchen meant the kitchen was shut, oh well back up plan it is then and a bit of a double back to the cafe in belland drive in whitchurch, nice to 4.5, only the sausages let's it down, as is the case with lots of cafes.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time and Mr Rolf got the draw sorted, into the bag and out comes peg 30, it's a peg I've done well on in previous matches, but it's a long way to the island, over 18mtrs, on my way to the peg I noticed what I thought was some fly tipping at the end of the carpark,

But I needn't have worried as Chris ollis came back to claim it all.
Soon got the peg and got sorted, a couple of rigs to fish on the deck as close as I could get with 17.5 mtrs, a shallow swinging rig to get a bit closer but with lots of foliage hanging off the island of could be difficult, and a rig to fish banded 6,s over hard 4,s at 5 and 13 mtrs.

Well it never went to plan today, started feeding across with hard 6,s and an 8 in the band, nothing happens !!!, And the first half went by with very little to show for my efforts, in fact at the halfway weigh in I had just over 12lb,

To be fair I probably blew my peg in the first hour and I couldn't see it getting any better in the second half, and it never, with nothing showing on the island except for some f1,s in the grass on the island eating the pellet over shooting, with about ten minutes to go I had about 10lb, then I noticed a boil down the right hand margin, where I had been feeding some pellets all match, so I dropped the swinging rig in and it went straight under with a nice double figure mirror, very welcome but never going to be enough, Martin McMahon on peg 21 won with 57lb , followed by Paul barnfield on 8 with 56lb, then John Smith on 16 had 50lb, I snuck in 4th with 34lb, so money back it was then, so not a complete.loss.

Huntstrete bridge with judith

With the shop shutting early due to it being bank holiday, Judith and me decided to grab a few hours on bridge pool at huntstrete, we.Got there about 5 and we were surprised to see no one on bridge, which I find surprising as it's fishing really well for.skimmers, f1,s and small to medium sized carp, it's a pleasure anglers dream, but it's doesn't seem to be getting the attention it deserves, it's cheap fishing really.
Anyway.we.settled.on 24 which is a short reach to the island, we set up one rig, a .2g rig to fish about a mtr off the island ,and in the right hand margin.
Only.using 8mm pellet.as feed.and hook bait , nice and simple. It took a while to get a bite which was a suprise, but Judith was soon attached to an angry 8lb common, and it didn't get any better tempered once in the net, it was one of those wild one which was hell bent on swimming out of the net , but Judith was more than a match for at, although it did ammuse her, lol.

I hardly got a look in to be honest as.Judith was enjoying herself to much to let me have a go, catching f1,s and small carp.along with her least favourite fish, slimy skimmers, she had a really good three hours fishing, capped off with a couple of nice doubles from the right hand margin, both of which gave her a good scrap in the water where it should be, they both behaved impeccably once on the bank, both  were really nice pretty dish, unmarked.

Float only lge, final round

Viaduct was the venue for this match, and with a damp and breezy day forecast, it should fish ok, stopped off at lillypool for breakfast and it was very nice too, 4.7.
Got to the fishery in plenty of time, I took a couple of pegs out due to no shows, but to be fair both anglers had good reasons for not attending.
I can't remember who drew for me but I ended up with 86 , it produced 180lb on Thursday, but that was on the lead, can't do that today though.
To my right was two pots bailey,  it he wasn't in my section, my.section was to my left, Shawn kitteridge on 88, trig on 90, Chris Davis on 94 ,and Shawn Townsend on 95, so quite a hard section, with trig being the favourite in the corner.
Shawn to my left is doing his best to grow a beard, definitely a work in progress.

I set a waggler to fish at depth at about 25 mtrs, a rig for 13 mtrs on the deck, and a margin rig for each side, the one for the left would also double for a shallow rig,

This is the only.picture I took during the match as it rained for the duration of the contest, it was very heavy at times aswell, I think the gore tex may need reproofing.
At the start I fed The relevant lines then started on the wag, expecting bites , but it took me over 30 minutes to get my first fish, presentation was awful, not the wind and rain causing problems , Steve has put an aerator on the end of the spit between 80 and 81, which in turn sends a current of water towards the end bank, pulling the float in and across to the left, I did manage two fish on the wag , but it was never going to happen, the rest of the match was spent on the pole, feeding 8,s and fishing the same,  it was a torrid time.The flow was pushing the rig through making foulers a huge problem, couldn't get a bite shallow, couldn't get a bite if I never fed, fouled when I did, but it wasn't just me today, virtually everyone I spoke to lost a lot today, with the cary fish causing the most problems.
There were some good weights today with the top six all having over 200lb with Dan ,(marine boy) white winning with 280lb, so well done to him, I never got a pic of him with his fish, but I did get one of him in the lake trying to find his phone and other bits after he fell in head first , no one laughed ,(much).

I needed.to win my.section to stay where I was going into this last match, I was lying third, but as expected trig won the section with 201lb , I was second with 115, so I thought I may just sneak in the overalls, and I did , coming 6th.
Top  silver weight today went to Shawn kitteridge with 43lb of skimmers.on soft pellet.

The overalls and todays winners are below, well done to trig who has now won this league 4 years.on the trot so well done matey, beating his mate.paul(beever)elmes by a point, but he did have a large.weight advantage.if needed.

Pleasure day

Decided not to fish a match today, instead I planned a day's pleasure fishing with judith,s and mine good friend, Tony harding who is over to sort out some things after losing his lovely wife barb, a few months ago.
I decided on a trip down to the sedges in bridgwater, especially as tone fancied a day on the method, and tile lake at this fishery is good for it with some islands to cast at, but firstly breakfast needs sorting, and today we went to Rachel's in hengrove, and it was very nice , 4.65.

It got polished off quickly and we soon on our way to bridgwater, it took about 45 minutes to get there,we  had a quick look around and decided to fish on pegs 21 and 22, Tony sat on 21 as it's a good method peg with an island, I soon had tony set up and casting ok.

I set up on 22 , only.set up a top set and 2, and started feeding pellets, soon had some fizzing , and had a couple of carp and some skimmers, I had a wander.down to see tony, and he was struggling, only a few skimmers to show for his efforts, so I got him to start feeding a short pole line, it soon started to fizz, so I set him up with my acolyte margin pole, no chance of him breaking that lol, and he never looked back, catching steadily for the rest of the day.

We both had a good afternoon and ended up with over 100lb, with some nice fish for both of us to 15lb +.

And to cap off a nice day we came back up the a38 and went into the Nelson in churchill, for a carvery, which is undoubtedly the best carvery out there, we were met there by Judith , Lauren and dean, and I'm still stuffed sat here two hours later writing this.

Off to viaduct this Sunday for the last of the float only.leagues, on Campbell and cary, should be ok, and with the weather starting to cool off a bit, it will be a lot more comfortable.
Also I am

Float only.rnd 5

The sedges was the venue for the penultimate round of this 40 peg league, so both time and brick lakes were used,
Jason and me stopped at lillypool for breakfast on the way , and it was very nice. 4.6 on the rixster scale. Got to the fishery and recieved the normal warm welcome Jamie and denise,
Got some nets sorted out as the fishery supplies them and waited for the players.to turn up, good to see Dave Lewis on time obviously he arrived from a music festival judging by his attire, seen here chatting to cosmic Kendra rayner.

Got the draw underway and about halfway down the queue up pops one of our junior competitors in the shape of Shawn kitteridge, so I let him draw for me, and 16 on brick lake was going to be home for the day, wasn't to upset as if you can't draw a corner the middle pegs are next choice, and when trig goes into the draw and pulls out peg 10, at least he wasn't in my section.

Neighbours today were Tom mangnal to my right and nicotine free nick Brown to my left.
I set up three pole rigs to fish pellet, one on the deck at 13.5 mtrs and another shallow for the same range, one for the margin left and right, a meat.rig for 5 mtrs, and lastly a pellet waggler , although I didn't expect to .such on it as the wind was strong and gusty blowing in left to right.
On the all in I fed all lines with the relevant baits, then began on the wag, I had a bite after 20 minutes which resulted in an 8lb common gracing the net. Another 20 minutes on the wag and not another touch, so I had an early.try.on the meat , three skimmers in as many out ins , and that was my.lot, I never had another touch on it for the rest of the match, apart from a brief spell on the wag in the middle of the match, when I missed a bite and lost a fouler, the wind was making presentation impossible, so most.of the match was.spent with the depth rig at 13.5 mtrs, gettimg.off bites, the fish seemed to want a bit slung at them, with the peg getting stronger. towards the end, by the end I had 80lb on the clicker but thought I may have a bit more, hoping for closer to 90lb, I was out a bit as I had a bit over 77lb, enough for a much need needed section win that's all, the match was won by Martin rayet on peg 40 with over 140lb, Gary o,Shea had 134lb for second with Glen Bailey weighing in 118 and trig 4th with 115, silvers.were.won by rich coles who had 22lb , edging out mosella supremo Vic Bush who had 21lb, weigh sheets below.

Next sunday see,s the last round , and that's on viaduct on Campbell and cary , it's fairly tight at the top with Craig Edmunds, Martin rayet and Paul elmes all on the same points, but trig  has the superior weight, all to play for between  those three.

Huntstrete over 50,s , bridge pool

Back to huntstrete again today for this popular fixture, but not until I have had my breakfast in the Toby inn carvery in whitchurch, and an added bonus today was that I was joined by my good friend Tony Harding, who is over here from South Africa sorting a few things out, also be is going to spend the day with me which has made my day even more enjoyable.

After the breakfast we drove the short way.to the lake's and found out 22 were fishing, a nice number,
I thought about letting Tony draw for me but thought better of it, as his drawing arm was never that good, so got in to the bag quite early and pulled out peg 26, another island peg, but still over 16.5 mtrs, and with a nasty gusty wind it was going to be a tough day, I set up a couple of rigs for the island, one on top of the shelf and the other about 2 foot off in about 3 foot of water, the shallow rig would also do for fishing down to empty peg 25, I also set.up a rig to fish hard pellet short in case I had to fish for some skimmers.

Its.an awkward swim as it's close to 27 which was occupied by rod dufferty, it took a while.to sort out the rollers but it was ok in the end, I went high and rod went low, to my right was silvers ace steve.Dawson on 24.
At the start I went across to the island on the slightly deeper rig, and caught and overhanging branch first cast, much to tony,s amusement, so rig up again, back out avoiding the branch and I soon have a carp in the net, followed by an f1, then it went quiet, I couldn't get a bite, but presentation was terrible with a strong left to right wind, with no bite forthcoming on the deeper rig I went closer in on the shallow rig, and had a few more small carp and f1,s, but I was finding it nearly impossible to hold the rig still, I could get bites of the wind dropped meaning the rig was staying stillish, but it didn't happen to often. The half time weigh in gave.me.23lb , not to good but more than most at this stage.
The second half started.pretty much the same as the first half ended , with me fighting the wind with 17 mtrs.of carbon, I new there fish to be had against the island, but the wind had strengthened, making it even harder to fish, I had been feeding down the edge in front of 25, and in the last half.of the second half.of the match a few better fish turned up down there in about 10 inches of water, so by the end I thought I had just over 50 lb in this half,  I new Mike nicholls had had a reasonable second half on 21, as had Paul barnfield on 14, other than that I hadn't seen to many others catch, apart  from steve.Dawson who had caught some nice skimmers and a few carp fishing over to the shallow water towards the island, we started.with Steve ., And he had a nice net of skimmers which went 29lb which was enough to win the silvers on the day, well done.

I weighed next and ended up with 81lb which was enough to come first overall, definatley got beaten by the weather as far as fishing to the island , but luckily those better margin fish made all the difference today.

Mike nicholls was second with about 61lb and Barney was third with a smaller 61lb, it didn't fish as well as  previous weeks but we had a lot of rain diluting the night and the wind beat most of us, Tony enjoyed.his day especially the numerous mistakes.and schoolboy errors he witnessed, lol.
Weigh sheets below.

Short pole rnd 3 Todber

Breakfast in cannards today , and nice it was ,4.25. Got to the fishery in plenty of time, Steve and me got the draw underway on time, and I let Freddy wojtyla draw.For me, and he handed me 59, happy with that, company wise I had Chris Davis to my left on 58, and the aged scribe  Mike "silverfox" nicholls on 60.

Three rigs today, a depth rig for topset and two, another for the same place but on the drop and off the deck, and a margin rig at topset length to my.left by a reed.clump.

At the start I began on the topset and two length feeding hard 6,s with a banded 8 on the hook, I began feeding some dynamite flavoured 4mm pellets.down the edge, only.cos I was given them to try,.I won't be trying them again as they had carp repellent on them, no fish over them in the margins whereas Chris was having tails up straight away in his edge, Mike was catching from the off on his favourite paste attack, by the end of the first hour I had less than 10lb in the net and was getting battered all round, (chip shop sausage), the fish didn't seem to want to eat.those  pellets in the margin and on the 5mtr line the carp wanted.to come up, but even on the half depth rig I couldn't get a sensible bite, so a rethink, got.off the  box and soaked some micros and 4,s to feed in the edge, and began feeding 8,s up the shelf at.topset and one, which was a bit better, also fish began to appear in the margin over over the normal skretting pellets, as it's a fish race on this lake it was going to be a struggle to claw back the early lead of the anglers.either side, I was catching well enough towards the end but the early bad spell was going to my downfall, I was beaten by Mike with 197lb and Chris the other side with 180lb, I ended with 150lb, still a good days.fishing , hence the following picture lol.

The weigh sheets below to to show what and incredible fishery this is, top on the day was joe McMahon on peg 42 with 268lb, beating venue expert Bob gullick in peg 50 with 240lb and then Martin rayet on 45 with 221lb . Silvers.went to Ryan shipp on 37  26lb of mainly skimmers.on meat and corn, second in silvers.went to Freddy wojtyla on 41 with 16lb , so.well.done.fred.
Out of the 27 fishing on the lake which means there is only one empty peg 20 anglers had over 100lb, the weighing in is always hard so many thanks to those who did it.