Plantation silvers

Thursday and back to plantation main lake for another silvers match, the weathwr was going to be horrible with 40mph winds with rain and possibly hail early on but clearing later, and to be fair for a change the weather "people" got it nearly right. Picked mat tomes up as his van was needed for work which was good as it saved me paying for my own breakfast in the bridge 😂😂. as usual for a pub chain breakfast it was ok, 4.5. Got to the Carpark and with everone a bit early got thr draw underway, money and names on the list matched , end of the draw and one angler left without a peg hmmm, ah my fault then, forgot to put someones name down, and i hadnt put my own money in, REDRAW. First one of those ive had in a while, sorry all as some on good or sheltered peg,s ended up in the wind or on not quite such good pegs, me , well i ended up on 16 second time round, after having peg 5 first time, second draw much more favourable as i had a bit of shelter from some bankside vegetation. on my left was long time friend(over 40 years) martin cox, good to see him out again, and on my right was steve rolfe, who hopefully would listen to what his dad (chris) would have told him to do, and do the opposite.😁😁😂😂. 3 rigs, a .3g slim for on the drop full depth, .4 slim bulked for in the drop, and .2 slim for up in the water just in case the roach came up, all with a 20 guru f1 maggot hook on.10. As normal for me, most of my lines would revolve around a groundbait attack, normal mix for winter.fishing for me, 1kg sensas lake, 1kg of brown crumb, and 450g of thatchers original, as the water warms up i double the thatchers, and if i dont use it all i take it home and freeze it. At the start i cupped in one ball at 8mtrs, and 2 balls on two lines at 13 mtrs, 11&1 angles , then started.short at 5 mtrs on caster , i a few chunky roach in the first 30 minutes, but felt it wasnt going to happen, so i went onto the 8 mtr line and began catching some skimmers, not big fish but 4/8oz, although i kept feeding the short line i couldn't catch anything there , so i concentrated on the three groundbait lines, putting fish from all lines into the net, regularly enough to keep me in contention, it soon became clear that thus bay at the top end was the place to be as myself, steve on 12, dave willmott on 11 and mark Broomsgrove on 8 seemed to be doing the best, and that was where the top 4 came from, dave willmott came out top with 29lb, i was second with 26lb, mark had 25 and steve on 12 had 23lb, which is a very weight from there, a few struggled today, not really suprising considering the weather though.

Bit of match, bit of pleasure

Thursday and it was the Huntstrete silvers pairs league on withy pool as bridge is still struggling with the brown algae bloom, its a better colour now but i think it will be a few weeks yet before its open again, my normal partner pete turner had called in sick with covid so i had super sub brian derrick filling in for him. I was happy with my draw, 56, 2 before the island on the right hand bank, brian was on 66, a good peg so we should be ok today, for company i had the paul(the quiet man) haines on 55, and chris(70,s throw back) rolfe on 57, dangerman in the section was paul barnfield who was on my favourite peg 54, very narrow to the island and shallow, my go to peg for a pleasure day. Only 2 rigs, a .4g slim rig for 5 mtrs in 5 foot of water, and a .6 bodies float for 13 mtrs on a couple of lines. I started.short(5mtrs) over loosefed caster , and had a few roach and a perch quite quickly, but it went quiet, so out to 13 mtrs switching between the two lines, catchimg small roach consistently, but they were small, i did keep dropping back onto the short line, and i did get some better roach up to 8oz, and for a short while i did catch some shallow and on the drop by adjusting the shotting pattern, i may have done better by having a dedicated rig made up for that. Ive had bites for the whole match but mainly from small.roach, i did get one skimmer of just over a pound and i did lose another which was fouled, i was probably winning the section going into the last hour, then paul on 54 had a flying last hour, catching a good bream and some quality roach. So in the end paul won the section and the match with 19+, his bream was probably 3 1/2lb and we weighed his biggest roach which was 1.14, and pristine, well done matey, i was second in the match and section with 15lb, my reserve partner was. Aslo second in section with 12lb, so still in touch with the leaders, so two matches left and all to play for.

Sunday and the Landsend winter league was cancelled due to the storm, so had a nice day off with judith and eldest grand son brody, made a nice change. momday and i could have gone to the sedges but couldn't run the risk of being sat looking into 60 mph winds, so had a late.start and went down to kingston Seymour, three fisheries to choose from, Acorn, bullocks farm, and plantation lakes, had a quick look at acorn, but the best areas looked a bit exposed, didnt fancy bullocks, so went to plantation, decided to go on horseshoe lake, drove around to the far side as as i would get the wind off my back and there was a good size hedge which was acting as a good windbreak

Very simple today as i find pleasure fishing hard to do, so one rig, .a 4x14 bodied float , three lines , topset and one, and two at 11 mtrs on different angles, i fed one ball of groundbait on the short line and 3 on both of the longer lines, started short and had bites straight away, feeding caster over the top, nice roach from 2 to 6oz, it was a bite every drop. the longer lines were the same with the added bonus of the occasional skimmer and bream, with some of the fish probably going 4lb.

Got to say the sport was very good, and only a handful of people ever seem to go on this lake, the added bonus is that you can park right behind your chosen swim, so only a 5 mtr walk to the swim, james is doing a lot of work on the lake so it will only get better, all three fisheries in Kingston Seymour are good giving excellent sport on all, be it carp or silvers, and luckily not to far from bristol, well worth a visit to any of them, i caught right up till the time i packed up ending up with probably over 35lb, i even had a couple of bream on the short line, surprisingly i never hooked one carp, which suprised me as there are plenty in there, perhaps they haven't woken up yet.

Two trialing days

Ivy house on sunday for the third round of the winter league, travelled with mr fox so it was a stop at the wessex flyer in whitchurch for breakfast, very nice 4.7. Got to the fishery in plenty of time for the 9am draw, my turn on kingfisher, which is the old canal for thise out there who remember it, did the draw and pulled out peg 45, not the best , peg 37 end peg is the dominant peg, so just try and have a few bites, to say it was unpleasant is an understatement, strong wind luckily slightly off my back, and heavy rain, generally speaking i dont mind one or the other, but together its a real pain. i decided to try for silvers down the middle just to get something in the net , a rig for over to fish pellet, and a rig for the margins to my left and right to fish maggot, no pics and not to much to report, silvers line was a waste, two carp from the margin on maggot, and several small ones from the far side, ending up with 24lb for middle of the section, as expected peg 37 was top with over 50lb jamie dixey making no mistake, second was jon howell on 48 with 47lb catching down the niddle on corn in the last couple of hours, turns out my bib and brace is still waterproof, but the jacket isnt, 6 layers on and my skin was wet, at least it wasnt cold.

Monday and back down to plantation fishery for a silvers match, cant fault this fishery for the consistent sport you get. Dont mind where i draw as a decent day is virtually guaranteed, quality roach and skimmers are the target, cant remember who drew for me but i had 11 handed to me, just into the big bay at the far end, happy with that, not to sure how it would fish today as we had a lot of cold rain the day before, to my left at the back of the bay was the always genial lee waller, and to my right was gary "proper angler" cross and river brue champion, always good to see him as he likes a laugh, Ive had the stiff breeze blowing into me, i set up a .4g rig for 11 mtrs on two lines left and right, and a .3g for topset and two line, i fed both longer lines with two balls of groundbait with some caster in, but started short , second put in i had a nice skimmer of over 1lb, so expected a good day, definite false dawn then, never had another bite on the deck on that line, i did have a few roach later on the drop but it was never going to be any good, i concentrated on the two longer lines picking up odd skimmers. Although i started with a .4g rig, i swapped it for a .65g wire stem for a bit of stability, as the rig was vlowing back at me very quickly, hiding under my pole tip, presentation was crap, but i was catching as well as anyone i could see, about 4 hours in, paul faiers had a bit of a landing net handle malfunction, whilst netting a good skimmer, the top section came off, he was on his knees stretching to retrieve it but slipped in, knocking the two other sections of the handle in, which duly sank , so as he was already in to the nether regions he decided to stay in to try and retrieve the bits, needless to say he never found them, shame he forgot to take his phone out of his pocket before he got right in.

And yes he did pack up and go home, lightweight, 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 anyway it was a bit of a tricky day, i ended up with 17.13 for forth, so happy, consistent dave(des) willmott drew peg 1 and made no mistake to win with 24lb of mainly roach, well done , just beating steve kedge who had 22lb on peg 32, and mat tomes on 4 had 19lb, so not as good as the Thursday before but still good sport, well worth a visit.

Plantation silvers only

16 booked in for this one , missing a couple of the regulars, for various reasons, so easy to peg missing out a couple of the ropey pegs, breakfast in the bridge, very good as long as you dont have the sausages and have extra bacon instead, 4.6. So with everyone ready in the carpark by 9, i got the draw underway, everone was waiting to see if des drew peg 1 again, but luckily dave Wilmot got in before him for that one, des moved along a bit and was on 4, good peg with plenty of room as peg 3 is never in. I ended up on peg 16 at the far end of the lake in the back of the bay, i was happy as its had plenty of skimmers in it recently, although it hasnt framed i was expecting a good day,s fishing, i also had plenty of room as my nearest neighbour,s were kev winstone on peg 11 and paul faiers on peg 19. three rigs today, .3g slim and a .4 same pattern for 5/11&14mtrs. There was a few inches depth difference between the three lines, but a few tippex marks on the pole meant it only took seconds for the adjustments, lastly a shallow rig just in case the roach decided to come up. at the start i decided to go positive with groundbait on the two longer lines, so 2 balls at 11 mtrs.and 5 balls at 14 mtrs. Started at 5mtrs, but it was very slow, only a couple of small roach, so 30mins in and out to 11mtrs, started catching skimmers between 4 and 12 oz, caught for a while but it slowed, so refed and went out to 14 mtrs for a couple of quick skimmers before that stopped, so i didnt refeed that line as i felt there was probably enough there to keep the fish in the area, came back to the short line, again only.for a coupke of roach, so i decided to put a ball of groundbait on that line and left it, just kept feeding some caster over the top. i went back kut to the longer lines swapping between the two lines, catching skimmers up to a pound. Also aboit the halfway match i came back short and had some better fish up to 3lb, i also had a few better roach to 12 oz sha!!ow over the same line. It ended up being a good day,s fishing catching fish on all lines, but i could see des catching well, so new i would be lucky to beat him today, i new i had over 30lb, but i was aware des probably had over 40, and he confirmed that when i walked past to get the scales, also dave on one was admitting to over 30 aswell, no surprise for anyone when des plonked a nice net of fish on thescales which went 47lb, lovely net of fish.

I ended up with 38lb which was a few more pounds than i thought.

Dave willmott on peg one did well to come third with 34lb, and john fuidge on 31 was 4th with 28lb, the lake has hushed well with all anglers returning double figures, weigh sheet below, i still dont think thereis a better silvers lake anywhere in the area.

Here,s three

Thursday and it was back to huntstrete, meant to be on bridge pool, but due to a nasty brown algae bloom, it has been shut for a few weeks to let it recover.so withy pool it was then for todays match, plenty if pegs to choose from, but always a difficult one to try ensure we were all going to get a few bites, dangerous dave got the draw underway and I pulled out peg 65, a flyer on the point behind the bailiffs container

Chris ollis on my left, and jeff grant on my right, close pegs so we coukd have a chat and see how we were doing, troubke is im sure chris has gone a bit deaf LOL 😂. Only two rigs , one for 5 mtrs to fish caster, the other 13 mtrs to fish caster and maggot over groundbait, started.short and had a small roach, but apart from a small perch halfway through that was my action from the short line, lots of fish on the 13 mtr line, but all small, mainly skimmers from 1 to 6oz, bites all day, bit nothing of quality, it was enjoyable, well it was apart form chris catching a better stamp of skimmer and a 2lb perch just for good measure, ended up with just over 13lb for third in the section, chris did well with over 14lb, which won the section.

also mike nicholls on 59 had a bigger 13lb than mine fishing the wag and caster, he likes that. tony ponting on 46 was.top on the day with 20lb, well done, weigh sheets below.

Sunday and round three of the Landsend winter league, my turn on matxh lake, with the wind meant to be blowing at 40 mph all day a draw towards the topend of the lake was preferred, got my wish in the shape of peg 15, oops nearly forgot , breakfast good, mushrooms not quite right (just for you rachael LOL 😂), 4.75. I had teo good margins three foot to my left and 18 inches to my right, and the same depth on the island so smae rig as the right hand side would do that, and the left hand rig would do the short meat line aswell.

bit of a strange day, i haf a fouler after.ten .minutes on the short , lead me a merry dance , behind my nets , under the platform, all very torrid, but eventually netted, also fed meat.to the left, but maggot over to the island and down the right, had one on maggot on the island , to much small fish attention on maggot so fished meat over maggot to the island and down the right, had one more on the island, three to the right in meat , and 5 on meat over meat to the left, ended up with 10 carp for 47lb which won the lake easily, with 20lb coming second. The speci lake fisher og with dan pither destroying it from peg 37 with over 160 of dobbed carp , with 80 60 and 40lb coming off the lake aswell, sheets below

Monday and back to the sedges on tile lake, breakfast at the fishery cafe, 4.75.drew peg, 28, and had a steady day, one good skimmer from the short caster line, most of the match was spent swapping between the 11 mtr and 14mtr lines fishing maggot and pinkie combo over groundbait with some caster in, no small fish showing today, so every fish wad a decent skimmer, bit of a waiting game for bites but well worth the wait as the fish were all nice, ending up with 28lb which won on the day, and another quid off somersets finest, mr kedge,

Three to report

Thursday and back to plantation main lake for a silvers match, but not before breakfast in the bridge, very nice(dont have the sausages, extra bacon)4.5. 18 booked in again showing how popular this venue is for silver matches, lots of fish to be caught all round the lake, obviously not all winning pegs but bites to be had in most pegs. Got the draw underway and I was given peg 28, happy days , a peg with plenty of form,

paul (des) faiers drew peg 38 again making it three times on the trot. I had glen bailey on my right on 27 and on form dave (magic)willmott on my left just round the corner on 31. I normally dont fish more than 13 mtrs, but glen was going to push it to 14, so i felt i had to follow suit, ive had a steady day catching skimmers, with a few better ones and ended up with 21lb, beating glen to my right, but got battered by dave to my left who won the match with 31lb, which included lots of nice roach, second was mat tomes on 19 who ran dave closest with 28lb, mainly skimmers, pics and sheet below.

Sunday and it was back to the same venue for ron hardiman,s silvers league. With Chris fox today, so we stopped at the Wessex flyer on the way, £9.5 eat as much as you like and all freshly cooked at this time of day, 4.65. Got to the lake, and nearly the first ones there. A quick mention for joe McMahon who picked up gordon Canning in fishponds, took his milo pole case out to load gordy,s and forgot to put it back into the van, by the time he realised his mistake, it was too late and the case was gone , inside hus map 901 , with 15 topkits , a map margin pole Along with a couple of landing net handles, so if anyone is offered anything which may be joes, let him know. Back to the match and i drew 24 for myself, had kev winstone on my left, so a good banter day, fed three lines , 5mtrs, 13 mtrs,and 14mtrs, short line was a blank, i had a few fish at 13 mtrs, but the bulk of my fish came at 14mtrs, mainly skimmers, the roach didnt seem to want to know again, i thunk i paid the price for not attacking my peg with enough groundbait at the start, kev put 6 balls on one of his longer lines, going into the last 45 minutes i probably had the edge over him, but where i had a couple of small skimmers, kev landed 3 decent ones , so at the end he ended up with 24lb which was enough to win on the day, well done kev, you fished well,shame about your rigs though 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. Im not bitter. A close match today, martin rayet on peg 11 was second with 23, and i was 5th with just under 22lb.

Monday and sedges brick lake for the monday over 50.s silver match, breakfast was really nice , 4.8, draw not so nice, peg 16 cold string wind into our bank coming slightly from the right, so expected the tow to be going with the wind, the opposite bank looked nice with the wind off there backs, but put all the clothes on and got on with it, fed two pole lines with groundbait caster and pinkie, 5 and 11 mtrs, but started on the tip with a small groundbait feeder, 30 minutes and nothing in the net, so the pole it was then, very very slow and difficult to get any presentation, but ended up with 3.5 , which was 10 small skimmers and a few.plippy roach, but with jess jordan on peg 11 coming second with 4.8 i defaulted the section money. Kev on peg 3 won with 8.8, weigh sheet below.

Sunday monday

Ivy house winter league on sunday and my turn on heron lake section 1, normally guaranteed some bites on this lake as its stuffed with small carp and f1,s(😕😕). As it turned out the best bite of the day was in the wessex flyer in hengrove , the breakfast was spot on and you can eat and drink as much as you like for 9 quid, even took a couple of cakes as an after match treat. Had a terrible day but i wasnt alone, i ended up with 4 small carp for 3.10, on my right stu foale had 3 for 3.06 and jon howell on my left had 4 for 4.01, and with chris fox having 6lb on willow for no good we were soon on our way home. Well thats my league over and done with then, well.done to those who caught a few , considering how many fish are in these lakes it was frighteningly hard, but looking around other matches on other venues, everywhere seems to be having it tough, monday and i ran a silvers match at plantation main lake, 18 fishing which is about right, giving everyone a bit of room or a spare peg on one side, stopped (not stripped)at a laybye just down from the kingshead for a roll, and it was good. Got to the fishery in plenty of time, in fact everyone was there a tad early, so got the draw done , mat tomes drew.mine and i ended up on peg 11, i had it a couple of matches ago, its up in the start of the far end bay, probably not a winning peg but certainly worth a lesser placing. I had shay gilman on my left on 12, which is a bad peg to be fair, and tony ponting on my right on the point peg 8. the peg has a flat bottom from 4 mtrs out as far as you want, so elected.to fish one short line and two ling lines at 13 mtrs on different angles. i began on the short line after potting in two balls of groundbait on each of the longer lines and one small ball short, i had a couple of roach quickly, but after 30 minutes and not really going anywhere, it was out to the longer lines, there were some skimmers about but mostly of a small sample, 4 to 8oz, i could see john fuidge on 24 catchimg well, as was dave willmott on 5, and it looked as though they were having some better size fish, with magic dave seemingly doing the best, he must have been catching the most as the plantation heron kept trying to steal fish off him, he only succeeded once stealing a good skimmer from him, strange thing today was the absence of the roach shoals which inhabit this lake, it was a skimmer day. I kept swithching and feeding the two longer lines, and have had bites all day on and off, so i cant complain, todays spit the dummy went to paul faiers who drew peg 39 again and went to acorn for a "practice" , second prize went to mat tomes who drew peg one and did a brilliant des imitation, 😂. baxk to the match and i was happy.to come 4th with 21lb, dave willmott on 5 won with nice net of mainly skimmers which went 37lb,

john fuidge and 24 had 26lb and john dursley on peg 7 had 25lb. The lake fished as a whole with everyone having some bites, and it had been frozen over a couple of days before, weigh sheet below.