Rnd 2 short(ish)pole series

Chilton trinity for this one, and it certainly improved the results here last year.with a longer pole option, so i hopefully expected it to be the same thus year,23 fishing so better pegging than last year with a few less, got the draw started on time and i let aaron draw for me as he did good for me in the last round, and he never let me down, peg 2, that will do nicely, aaron drew 32 for himself whuch was next to me just round the corner. My peg was a left handers as it has a good margin to the right, but it is a snag pit with loads of tree roots underwater. And i had one of my favourite old gits to my left in the shape of john white. i set up a rig for pellet on the deck at 13mtrs, a shallow rig, one for meat topset and one to the right, and another for pellet to the right, where i had 6 ft of water about a mtr off the bank, bushes stopped me going closer which may be a blessing as it kept me away from any roots(hopefully). Started on the deck at 13 mtrs, lost a fouler and that was it, joe McMahon on 27 and vince shipp on 26 caught early shallow, so i went out with that rig, and managed 5 fish in the next 90 minutes, but our end was flat calm, and looking up the lale the anglers with the slight ripple from the gentle breeze were definitely catching more, my section was being difficult, only tim clark round on peg 6 was getting some but as is normal with tim he was losing more.than he landed,the other anglers in my section were struggling, even the normal unstoppable martin rayet on 31 was having a mare, losing a coupke of early fish , i dont thunk he had a carp till ove halfway through, he wasnt getting to much stick though😆😆. luckily with my peg always has some resident fish in the right hand margin, althoigh they can be smaller than average for thus lake, but they never let me down, the short meat line only produced one small carp and a tench, i had several carp and another tench fishing 8 and 13 mtrs along the bank on banded pellet, at the end i new i had 80lb and hopefully a section win, only tim on 6 was a threat but his lost fish did me a favour, u ended up with 87 to tims 66, so it keeps me in the hunt after.two rounds, further up the lake joe and vince had a peg to peg battle both catching shallow, j joe won that one with 178lb to vinces 157lb, even though joe got knocked back on one net, i use digital scales whuch bottom out at 66lb, so if it shows error that net gets knocked back to 50lb, thats 2 matches on the trot now for him, i think his clicker is broken, so they were first and second on the day with chris fox up on 16 with over 100lb aswell, it definitely fished better again with the longer pole allowed.

Shiplate costcutter

Thursday and back to shiplate for the costcutter, as normal a good breakfast cooked by mark , all nice and hot with quality ingredients, including the sausages, 😂😂. john got the draw underway on time, andni was fairly.early into the bucket, and was.rewarded with peg 10, one of my favourite pegs on the lake. Its narrow to an island, well its 18mtrs and with the wind today that was going to be a no no,

it can also hold some good skimmers so a bit torn today as to what to do, so i set up a .5g silvers rig, a bit heavier than i would have liked bit the wind was going to be going through with the wind, left to right,2 lines one at 5 and another at 9mtrs for maggot over groundbait, that was after.i had scabbed a handfull of reds off nigel bartlett, ta matey. a pellet rig for 13mtrs, a pellet rig for the bush to my left at 4mtrs, and a meat.rig for the right, i went to 13 mtrs on that edge, mainly as it was three foot there, but much shallower any closer, mark jones did tell me it flattened out the further you went, and it did.

Started off feeding all lines, with the relevant baits, and started on the shorter groundbait line, had a couple of better skimmers, then nothing, so went further out and had a few more, i stuck with the silvers but after.a couple of hours i was really to catch, so i had a look down to the right, and i had 4 quick carp, with a couple of lumps, so that was the end of the silvers for me, so i basically stuck with the right hand side for the reainder of the match, catching odd fish, i did get one from the left hand side, the right hand margin got stringer towards the end, i put a thurd net in with 35 minutes to go and put 50lb in that one, and another carp into net 2, so nearly 60lb in the last 35minutes, i thought i had 160lb but thiught it may be a bit more, in fact i had 178lb for first on the day, nice day, top silvers were taken by nigel bartlett on peg 8 with 45lb, a mixed bag of roach, bybrids, skimmers and even eels, nice to see.

2

Sunday and it was the first round of the short pole league, as it was at todber on ash and home ground, it was never going to be anything other than short pole, 2 sections of 6 on each lake, i let aaron britnell draw.for me , and handed me 82, which is on the end bank of homeground, so happy days, we had the honour of des shipp fishing today standing in for his nephew ryan, he had the last peg in the hat as he was otherwise delayed (toilet), wasnt to ammused with 63 on ash, but the moaning was very muted, wherever you draw here ypu will be getting plenty of bites, ive had a simple match to be fair, caught topset and one to begin with, then the last half of the match either margin was good, ended up with 309lb for second in the section, behind martin rayet on his favourite peg, 76 with 320lb, well done, as expected the overall winner on the day was des with a whopping 500lb, from which to be fair is an unfancied peg, well done ryan(des).i dont have copies of the weigh sheets but the overall league positions are below.

Monday and off to landsend for a bank holiday open, 21 fishing so ade.split it over match and speci lake, (1&2), really.good breakfast cooked by Rachael, and assisted by ade. It wasnt my match so drew my iwn peg, and pulled out 19, not been on there for a long time. Cimoany was.mike Jefferies to my right and fishery caretaker dave ings.to my left, four rigs assembled, a short meat rig, a mugger.a few.fish were mooching about, a pellet rig for across, and another for the margins each side, at the start i begsn short and had bites straight away, mainly.small tench a couple of f1,s and one carp, with a bot of sunshine there odd ghostie,s about, these landsend pale.ones are.notoriously hard to tempt, but they nirmally have a.few normal carp for company whuch you cant normally see, but can be more obliging, i gave the mugging a go, but the fish were not having it at all. So baxk on the short rig for a couple more small tench, going nowhere fast.i tried mugging again, and i had one, a nice ghostie, from the fishing showing no interest, i now begsn having an odd fish, all ghostie,s, unusual to be fair, ive had it here before when the fish go from showing no interest to them having a bit of a go, in a 90 minute spell i had several fish all good ones, but as soon as they fed, they stopped again, and i never had another shallow fish for the reainder of the match, and apart from 2 smaller carp and some f1,s across i was now going nowhere, i only had one small carp and some f1,s/from the margins, i needed.to have a good last hoir or so as rob walters on peg 24 had caught odd fish all through fishing mainly shallow out by the bush in front of him, luckily my.shirt !ine started showing signs if life, odd bubbles and small fizzes, and the last gour was good, having several carp from that line, i still didnt think i had done enough to beat rob, i was hoping for 80lb, but was suprised to have 108, i didnt really factor in my.silver weight which was 18lb, i was still convinced rob had more, he ended up with 102lb, i didnt realise that he had lost several, in his own words , probably pulling to hard, i dont pay to rush on a hard day, overall top weight on the day went to rob watts on 32 with 146lb, obviously helped by his new hip, but dont ask him about it unless you have a spare 30 minutes, 😂😂😂😂😂😂 nigel the silver ace bartlett was top silvers with 27 from leg 36, sheets below.

Late again

Its getting hard to report on matches now as it all seems a bit samey if you know what i mean.but here goes, Thursday and Shiplate for the what is now back to a costcutter, £15, the £5 OPTIONAL extra pool was dropped as a few didnt agree wth it, but the clue is in the name, the days of winning good money in opens has long gone, especially mid week affairs, i cant remember the last time I won any money here anyway 😂😂. As always a good breakfast cooked by mark, drew peg 7 a bit of shelter from the cold wind, and sat in the sun, lovely, not to much to report to be fair, haf a few skimmers at the start on pellet short, one skimmer on the wag,and a few more long on pellet, one carp on the long pellet line, and three more on meat short towards the end, 17lb of skimmers and 4 carp for 35lb, 52lb total and no goof again, roll on some warm weather, top on the day was titch williams on peg 11 with 82lb, mainly on the tip, tony c was second to my right with 79lb, he had a few fish in the second half slapping a pellet around. Silvers went to dave wride on peg 12 with 32lb, well done all.

No fishing sunday, 40th wedding anniversary, so spent the day with judith, she needs a medal. Monday and boat fishing out of minehead on teddy boy charters with mikey, fishing was ok , we had lots of rays , a few conger and hounds, a whiting and plenty of the prolific dog fish, plenty of bites, nice boat , plenty of room and nice and stable, and i enjoy these trips, its a nice change from match fishing.

My middle child(james)and me with a nice pair of blondes. Thursday and westerliegh lakes behind the wot not , a really nice well looked after small fishery on the outskirts of bristol comprising of two small lakes with about a dozen pegs on each, stopped at cheeks kerbside diner at emersons green, breakfast roll and very nice. only 16 fishing today so mike put 8 on each canal, into the draw and i pull out peg 11 for myself, second peg down on the left hand side of the canal lake, nice peg with two islands to go at, peg 12 not in so plenty of room in the right hand margin, it was a simple.days fishing, started short on meat and had a steady coupke of hours on topset and two, it did slow a Bit, so kept going to the islands for more fish,banded 6mm over lossefed 4,s. i could then come back to the short and nick a couple more, towards the end some better fish turned up in the margin, i borrowed a net off paul clayton to my left, and put 39lb in that in the last 30minutes, at the end i admitted to 160 or perhaps a bit more, and i wasnt to far out as i had 173, it was one of thise days when nothing went wrong, i think i only lost 3 fish and they we in all probability fouled. I must say the fish in both lakes are in really good nick and fight hard, a good testament to all the hard work mark puts into the venue, well done.

2 again

Sunday was a trip down to viaduct again for the open on Campbell, not before chris and me stopped at the flyer in whitchurch for breakfast, different crew on today and probably not as good , but still edable, 😂😂. got to the fishery in plenty of time, but after the normal carpark banter it was draw time, into the tin and out comes 118 for me, happy , reasonable peg. Stu white had it the day before and had won the silvers from it, so a shortish meat rig was assembled, 6mtrs. A pellet rig for 13mtrs, and a suicide rig to fish down to another derelict peg in the shape of 117, again loads of snags, but always a fish holding area bit not for the faint hearted, man to beat today was going to be tom thick on form peg 115, and as always never shy about showing his best side 😂😂

He as always was.going to fish maggot short and down his edges, he makes it work thats for sure. Ive had a strange day, i fully expected to catch on the short meat line, but only had a roach and one carp, and no other bites, perhaps i should have fished maggot there, bit as i never had any with me , that wasnt happening. I had a few carp and some skimmers on the 13 mtr pellet line, and several more suicide fishing down by 117, i lost a few aswell, no suprise really, it was a case of hook a fish and pull as hard as you dare to try and get them out, to be fair the old daiwa tournament did me proud, it looked likely to snap on several occasions, but it held up, they may not be to stiffest and lightest pole on the market , but i think daiwa certainly make the strongest, finished with 16lb of skimmers and 120lb of carp, which ended up 4th on the day, and a default sectuon win as the angler who shouod have won had over 70lb in one net so was disqualified, unlucky really as the net that took him over only had 6 fish in it and they went 72lb, proper beasts , so top on the day went to tom on 115 with over 180lb which included 89lb of silvers, now thats a good day, well done tom.

Monday sedges silvers match again on tile with an overflow onto brick if needed, and it was. Lovely breakfast cooked by Denise, spot on, into the draw tin, out comes peg 3 on brick, not where i really fancied, i always like the middle pegs on this lake, but you got to put up with whatever you draw, no point moaning, set up a topset rig for caster short , and one rig for topset and two and 13 mtrs, same depth on both lines so easy peasy. Started with feeding groundbait on the two lines in front with caster in, and began feeding some caster onth topset line, started on the topset and two line, and basically stayed with it most of the match, started well with a good skimmer first drop, first 90 minutes was good, then as expected it slowed, mainly due i think to the ammount of carp in the area, rob parker to my right was getting one ever put in, which was good as he seemed to keeping the bulj of them in front of him, i did get a few from the long line, but it was slower, also i could catch a chunky rouach ever put in on the topkit, but i stuck with the in front short line mostly, catchung in fits and starts, but a nice day, hooked i thunk about 13/14 carp, not as many as rob, 😂😂. Ended up with 50lb, which was a nice days fishing, but not as nice as the winner , mike bendall did really well , having 85lb on the wag and mag from peg 28, nice one mike, the lakes have fished well, over 700lb of silvers caught with an average of over 28lb, and that was with 2 dnw,s, brilliant.

2

Last sunday and off to viaduct for the match on Campbell, sold out as only 21 pegs available. Breakfast in the wessex flyer in bristol, which as always very nice. Paid our pools and waited for the draw, plenty of good anglers here today so a nice draw would definitely be needed, got into the queue and pulled out peg 121, so sat on the top bank on my own looking back down the lake , so a bit of a grandstand view so i couod see what everyone was catching, not always a good thing, good company either side in the shape of mr shimano glyn Reynolds on my left and last of the mohicans tom Thick on my right, so plenty of banter, but due to toms verbal diarrhoea it can at times be a bit one sided, but you got to love him 😂😂. dan white was on thus peg the day before and had come 2nd with over 200lb, catching mostly on pellet down to empty peg 122, so a rig for that, nice depth at about 3ft, so a .25 slim for that, a meat rig for topset and 2, and a pellet rig for 13mtrs, in hindsight i should have set up a margin rig aswell, toms intention was to target.the silvers down hus margins caster and maggot, with the occasional carp thrown in as well, glyn was the same.as me., So all out carp, maunly as i didnt intend to go for silvers today, so bought no bait to do it. The match was a bit of a disaster for me, only a couple of carp and a skimmer on the 13 mtr line, again the short meat line didnt happen apart from a few late skimmers and a couple of carp, most of my action came.from the area down by disused 122, i think i lost as many as i landed, round the old legs of the swim, in twigs and any other bit of debris they could find, but it was an entertaining day for Tom, eventually limped home with 144lb, 5th on the day and thanks for donating to the framers.top on the day again was ben hagg on peg 115 with 250lb, man to beat here at the mo, top silvers weight was tom with a more than respectable 79lb, he also had a few carp which boosted him uo to 148lb, so he kindly relieved me of a quid, bugger.cant fault the the quality of the sport on the lake, but still miss the leagues and opens that used to be run here.

Thursday and with bridge pool being shut we needed to find an alternative venue for the coffin dodgers match, mike Nicholls got in touch with mark who controls westerliegh lakes and got us on the two lakes there , well dine mike and thanks mark. 8.30 draw(why) so it was a maccy d,s plastic breakfast on the way, not next time as the is a breakfast van oit at emersons green, thats got to be better. 20 of the old boys attending today, so ten on each lake, so a bit of room generally where it was needed, mike got the draw underway so we all delved into Mike's silk bag for a peg, i ended on peg 4 which i in the middle of the second island right hand bank of the canal lake, i was told it was a bit snaggy across on the island so it would pay to come away from it a bit, company today was dave gillard on three, and hayden withers on 5. Simple today, a meat rig fir 5mtrs, and it eas the same depth on my topkit so i woupd feed there aswell and hopefully get some fish there later in the match, a pellet rig for down the right hand margin, never had a touch there all match, so that was a waste of a few pellets, and a pellet rig for across, they were right about the snags, lots of roots sticking out , it was impossible to find a clear spot tight to the island, so i came off about 2ft i about 3 1/2 foot of water, still found a few obstructions but ni where near as bad as tight in, but it was still impossible to lay a rig in sideways, i had to feed it up the slope till the pellet grounded, started on the 5mtr meat line, took a while to get a fish, which was a small stockie carp, dave on 3 had had a couple on his topkit straight away, so he began singing to himself, but i began getting some bites on the meat with a few more small carp and one about 4lb. But after just over an hour the line died , and it never came back although I kept feeding it , the island was the place to be feeding hard 4,s and fishing a banded 6 and an 18 b960 to .16, been using these hooks for all my hair rigging for longer than i can remember, still haven't found a better hook, only ever opened one up on a fouler, strong as you ever need. Caught on and off , small carp mainly, with an odd better one to 8lb, losing a few.to the underwater snags, i also had 3 late fish on the short meat line, so enjoyable, and the fishery is very nice , mark has worked hard, well done mate. I ended up with 70lb which was top on this lalke and first over all, tony ponting won the other lake with over 40lb, we will be back there again in a coupke of weeks, looking forward to that and its only 20minutes from home.

3

Should have been 4 but i found it difficult to find to many positives about Huntstrete on Thursday, so i wont say anything. so sunday and shiplate pairs match for me and Chris fox, breakfast at the fishery greasy spoon, and as always very nice , cooked and prepared by mark and the long suffering Donna, shame no tinned tomatoes though. Into our respective draws, Chris was on the canals and ended up on 15 hawthorns, i was on the main lake and pulled peg 6, both indifferent draws to be honest, although alan q won off 5 on Thursday with nearly 200lb, so hopefully there would be some fish about, most of his fish caught slapping, not my cup of tea, seems more like an endurance test rather than fishing, i dont think I've got the stamina for that for 6 hours 😂😂. For company I had paul faiers on my right on 5 and the bugglegum and crocs sponsored angler luke fothergill on my left on 7, set up my usual things , waggler at depth, pellet for shallow and on the deck at 14 mtrs, and a meat rig down the edge at the bottom of the rocks, on the whistle i started on the shallow rig slapping, gave.that 30minutes for nothing, by theis time paul had three carp and a skimmer in the net, all on the method with with an orange boilie, really paul !!😕😕. Also luke got off quite well with a couple in the first hour again on the method cast to hus island, and sometimes on it, i tgink he only injured one nesting mallard 😂😂. But to be fair his casting was very good and accurate. i didset up a lead but only gave that 20 minutes ,boring boring boring, that is unless the tip goes round quickly, by the time i had my first carp whuch i had on the wag paul was on 6 and luke was on 3, but as always this match was turning into a marathon and not a sprint, i kept rotating round the lines, and ended up with 6 carp and double figures of skimmers, more skimmers than those iether side , but we all had 6 carp, luckily my carpnwere of a slightly better stamp, i ended up with 70lb to lukes 62 and pauls low 50, but still only good enough for secind in section as mark jones on 2 had 72lb, chris came 4th in his section, so we ended up on 6 points for 4th in the pairs first out, venue experts alan quantrill and gary flinders came first so well done, with dan squire and mark wynne second with mark poppleton and ken rayner third.

Momday for landsend brown green and silvers match, 17 fishing and lovely breakfast as always cooked by mrs Anderson, 12 on lake two and a section of 5 around the topendnof lake one, peg 20 for me , not an easy day, most of my fish falling to banded 6mm hard pellet over micros and 4,s, ended up with 15.12 for no good , jeff sparkes on 18 won oir section with 20lb, catching on pinkie, couldnt do that cos i never had any, top on the day was dave ings on 31 with 47lb of skimmers and f1,s, second was the irrepressible nick collins in 33 with 36lb which included 32lb of roach, very nice.

well ive just written a out Thursday's match at shiplate , got to the end , and managed.to delete everything about it, i csnt be arsed to re write it so heres the results, i drew peg 11 on Hawthorn and finished with 162.14, lovely day and it was good to be able to feed with a catty as the carp seemed to want to feed, unbelievably i had the exact same weight as dan pither on my left, well nearly, he did beat me by about 1lb, but due to him going over on one net by that ammount, we had a draw then , still a first for me , i have drawn before but never for first and certainly not at the next peg.