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Monday 10 December 2012

Christmas Match details

Just in case anyone missed what was decided at last week's meeting the arrangements for next Sunday are as follows.

Draw at 9 (or earlier if possible)
Fishing from 10 til 3
There will be two sets of scales on the go which will be allocated at the draw.
Pools will be £20 on the day which will be paid out in full as the club will be paying the peg fees.
32 fishing so there will be four sections of 8

Payout:

1st overall £100
1st Silvers £65
2nd Silvers £35
4 x Sections of:
  1st £70
  2nd £40

=£640 (11 payouts)

As per usual, default payouts will apply.

The results and payouts / tackle prizes will be presented afterwards at the Midland Spinner along with a generous buffet which will be lovingly prepared by the wife and mother-in-law (you've been warned) and a raffle so bring plenty of money as no expense will be spared with the raffle prizes!
All are welcome at the evening do so feel free to treat the wife / girlfriend to a well-deserved night out!
We haven't done it for a few years but this year the top prize will be a hamper which will include a free membership for next season plus a turkey, a brace of pheasants (hopefully Matt) and plenty of exciting Christmas goodies and will be well worth winning.
The winner won't have to choose the hamper but the free membership goes with it regardless.
I think that just about covers everything so i will see you on Sunday.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

December meeting

Due to flooding the Midland Spinner is currently closed, so this month's meeting will be at The Horseshoe, Siston Common.  (Tuesday 4 Dec)
This will be the last chance to book in for the Christmas match as I will need to get the tackle prizes sorted out.

Monday 19 November 2012

Staunton Court, 18 November (16 pegs)

After a week of mild weather things were a little different on Sunday morning as clear skies overnight meant scraping the windscreen of the van outside and inside but Staunton is a deep lake (8 foot past the margins) and hopefully would not be too badly affected by the overnight frost.
As is the norm with Staunton matches breakfast was at the Watersmeet Hotel which is conveniently just a mile or so down the road from the fishery and provide a top quality breakfast accompanied by log fires and served up by a very attractive young waitress for six quid ... happy days!
On to the fishing and sixteen on the lake meant six on each of the long banks and two on each end which is just about as many as the lake can hold comfortably. 
Brian Shanks had the pleasure of drawing the golden peg (12) which is usually the kiss of death for most club members but not for the Westerleigh mugger who then went on to win the match with 93lbs 12oz.
Brian fished at 10m with corn on the hook over corn and pellet feed.
Next door on 13, Mike Smith also fished corn (over micros) at 6 & 14m for second with 80-2 followed by Will Dearlove on 15 who (you guessed it) fished with corn at 11m.  After a slow (hangover???) start, Alan Healy finally managed to get his act together on peg 7 and grabbed the last of the cash with 48-13 caught short on maggot.
Simon Des Belcham put his one rig to good use on peg 3 to take top silvers with an impressive 31-11 caught on maggot on the short pole line which included quality skimmers and a couple of bonus perch.
This week's Expensive Day award went to Ryan Jordan who unfortunately managed to get his no4 and 5 sections stuck together and after a lot of wiggling, tapping and pulling managed to create another two joints that weren't in the original pole.  Funnily enough he wasn't overjoyed when someone suggested he should have "hit it with an ironing board"!
Hero to Zero this week went to Jimmy Saville's love child, Adam Caswell who successfully managed to have the winner on one side of him as well as being battered from the other side by Ryan Radford, the club's only junior.
(Well I'm hardly going to nominate myself am I)

Full Result:
  1. Brian Shanks* (peg 12) ...... 93-12
  2. Mike Smith (13) ............ 80-2
  3. Will Dearlove (15) ......... 52-9
  4. Alan Healy (7) .............. 48-13
  5. Mark Radford (2) .......... 48-5
  6. Darren North (4) .......... 40-6
  7. Paul Reed (6) ............... 34-14
  8. Ryan Radford (10) ........ 33-4
  9. Derek Lucas (1) ............ 32-0
  10. Simon Belcham (3) ........ 31-1
  11. Steve Burgess (5) ......... 26-12
  12. Ryan Jordan (9) ............ 24-12
  13. Steve Wynne (16) ......... 21-10
  14. Adam Caswell (11) ........ 21-6
  15. Eddie Wynne (16) .......... 14-0
  16. Steve Tanner (14) .......... dnw
Silvers:
  1. Simon Belcham ....... 31-1
  2. Brian Shanks .......... 19-8
  3. Darren North .......... 14-6
  4. Eddie Wynne .......... 14-0 (of whitebait)!
  5. Alan Healy ............. 13-4
  6. Steve Wynne .......... 10-8

Thursday 15 November 2012

Christmas Match

A bit of a change this year as I have managed to grab a Sunday that wasn't booked by the coffin dodgers on Acorn's  Paddock Lake for December 16th.
The cost will be £20 up front to cover prizes plus pools on the day (to be decided).
The draw will be at 9 and fishing from 10 til 3.
Results, payouts and prizes will follow at the Midland Spinner accompanied by a buffet and raffle as normal.
Please be aware that the closing date for entry will be the December meeting to give me time to sort out the prizes etc

Sunday 11 November 2012

Stoneyard, Litton, 08 November (9 pegs)

This week's match was a bit of an unknown quantity as nobody actually knew anything about the venue or even where exactly in the wilds of Mendip bandit country it actually was!
Our collective pool of dodgy information suggested that the lake(s) were somewhere between Chewton Mendip and East Harptree and unfindable unless you knew where they were, contained only carp and crayfish, was 5' deep and was accessed via a heart-attack inducing hill and with an overnight frost forecast, was going to be rock-hard fishing!
In reality, it was reasonably easy to find, approximately 2 to 3 feet deep, nobody caught any crayfish and the fishing was good (if you had lilys in front of you) and the muddy, deeply rutted hill back to the car park was an experience to be treasured.
Chris Gay found himself in the most lily-pad (and carp) infested peg on the lake, peg 2 (a noted flyer) and caught from start to finish rotating between 16m to the island margins and various points around the edge of the lilys fishing with corn over caster / micro feed for an impressive weight of 84lbs 8oz which included a 15lb ghostie and a grass carp of nearish double-figures (pictured below).





















Second in the running was Mark Radford on peg 6 which was on the opposite side of the same bed of lilys.  Mark (pictured below with his catchj) fished 16m to the edge of the lilys alternating corn and triple white maggot on the hook for a total of 52-1 

Third place went the way of Adam Caswell in peg 3 who also fished to the edge of the lily pads at 8m with soft pellet over pellet feed for 43lbs exactly.


This week's "Expensive Day" award belongs to matchwinner Chris Gay, who is fast becoming a regular for this award.  This time round Chris managed to snap a number 4 while playing an "absolutely monstrous" fish leaving 2½ sections of pole and it's attached zoo creature circling around his peg for several hours like a scene from Jaws.  Strangely though, when he eventually managed to rescue the broken sections and land the fish it must have gone on a crash diet as it turned into a fish of around five pounds!
And the "Hero to Zero" award goes to .... (been looking forward to this bit) .....
Alan Healy who spent the best part of his match moaning about anything and everything and showing a very bitter and twisted side of a person that doesn't like being battered from both (all) sides like the proverbial chip-shop sausage.

Overall Result:
  1. Chris Gay (peg 2) .....  84-8
  2. Mark Radford (6) ....... 59-1
  3. Adam Caswell (3) ...... 43-0
  4. Steve Burgess (4) ...... 38-15
  5. Alan Healy (5) ........... 34-7
  6. Ryan Radford (1) ....... 26-10 
  7. Derek Lucas* (9) ....... 18-4
  8.  Lionel Legge / Matt Taynton .... early baths
*golden peg


Sunday 4 November 2012

Boyd Valley, 04 November (12 pegs)

I didn't fish this one, fortunately, hence the sketchy results. I say fortunately as those that did turn up were greeted by snow and rain and a lack of peg numbers to do the draw with. I did consider, for a fleeting moment, jumping out of bed at 8am to make the short journey down to Boyd with the draw bag and numbers but after a quick look out of the window I soon jumped back into bed with a warm wife and a cup of coffee for company .... well ok, i never even bothered to get out of bed!
Anyway, the match was won convincingly by Simon Belcham  with an impressive display of method feeder fishing on the swingtip with corn on the hook for 67lbs 4oz. 
The club's youngest member, Ryan Radford, took second place with 26-8 also catching on corn. 
Unfortunately Ryan wasn't in the pools so second in the money and third overall was Matt Taynton with 24-12 (corn again).

Overall result:
  1. Simon Belcham ...... 67-4
  2. Ryan Radford ......... 26-8
  3. Matt Taynton ......... 24-12
  4. Brian Shanks ......... 14-12
  5. Pete Uzzell ............ 14-7
  6. Alan Healy ............. 14-4
  7. Mark Radford ......... 13-0
  8. Paul Reed .............. 5-0
  9. Derek Lucas ........... 3-8
  10. Darren North ...... early bath

Monday 29 October 2012

Sedges, Tile Lake, 28 October (15 pegs)

The first frosts of the year on Friday night and the early part of Saturday night meant that most were prepared for a hard day's fishing but a drastic change in the weather overnight brought rain and the fish at Sedges seemed to be unaffected.
With fifteen fishing the corner pegs 21, 30 and 31 were left out as according to Jamie they hadn't been producing and everything else went into the drawbag.
I found myself on peg 25 in the middle of the roadside bank which gave me a debatable chuck to the corner of the island and an expanse of open water to fish.  So I untangled a lead rod and set up one rig at 13m for skimmers.  Will Dearlove next door had set up a shallow wag so I untangled that one as well although I wasn't expecting it to produce much.
Having been to a haloween party on Saturday night I hadn't had any time to sort out bait so it was going to be a day of using up whatever was left in the Asda "bag for life" and  last week's leftovers from the freezer which consisted of a bag of micros, some corn  and a pint of dead reds.
Luckily there was a big bag of 8mm's lurking in the bottom of the bag for life.
At the start I fed the 13m line with a pot of micros and dead reds and chucked the lead out with 4 dead reds on the hook and pinged out some 8mm's (the band broke on the first attempt at banding a pellet hence the maggots).
This produced two small carp (one of which came off due to one of the four maggots masking the hook point).
A look on the 13m line produced a few good skimmers and a weigher of 3-6 but by now Will next door was furiously thrashing at the island with the wag so I went out on that and upped the pellet barrage to keep any fish away from him!
First chuck the float shot under which I missed as it was the least thing I was expecting to happen and the second chuck produced a small carp followed by a good tench before going a bit quiet so I went back out with the lead while tyeing up a new hooklength with a band on.
This was a lot more successful so I spent the rest of the match lead-chucking with the odd chuck on the waggler which produced a couple of proper fish and a final weight of 73lbs for first on the day.
Steve Tanner finished a close second on peg 29 with an all carp weight of 69-12 caught on corn on the pole and on the method. 
Stewart Riddle managed third from corner peg 40 with 55-10 caught on soft pellet over micro / caster feed.
Top silvers went to Alan Healy with 21-13 caught on maggot and soft pellet over groundbait at 4 & 11m.  Mike Smith was second with 16-3 caught on soft pellet and maggot over micros with half that weight consisting of two "weighers".
Unfortunately we had two slapped wrists from Jamie, one of our newer members who hadn't fished Sedges before was unaware he had to use the fishery nets and Alan Healy "forgot" to weigh a bream that ended up in his silvers net.  Fortunate then that Alan lost a bream he estimated at 10lbs as I dont think Jamie would have been too happy to see that one in a keepnet!
This week's "Hero to Zero" goes to Will Dearlove who despite rather selfishly claiming the whole of the island in front of him giving himself 1½ pegs to fish, still managed to get well and truly battered.
And the Expensive Day award this week went to Mike Smith who is now the proud owner of a telescopic number 4 section!

Overall Result:
  1. Steve Burgess (25) ... 73-0
  2. Steve Tanner (29) ......... 69-12
  3. Stewart Riddle (40) ...... 55-10
  4. Paul Reed (39) .............. 37-9
  5. Alan Healy (38) ............ 36-6
  6. Mark Radford (37)  / Matt Taynton (28) .... 34-13
  7. Will Dearlove (24) ........ 31-11
  8. Bob Warren (32) ........... 28-7
  9. Chris Szakacs (35) ........ 26-6
  10. Eddie Wynne (33) ......... 23-11
  11. Mike Smith (27) ........... 19-8
  12. Adam Caswell (26) ....... 14-10
  13. Ryan Radford (23) ......... dnw
  14. Keith Ray* (24) ............. dnw
Silvers:
  1. Alan Healy .......... 21-13
  2. Mike Smith .......... 16-3
  3. Adam Caswell ...... 13-4
  4. Steve Burgess ....... 13-0
*golden peg
 

Sunday 21 October 2012

Avalon, 21 October (13 pegs)

A bit of a tough one this time round with a couple of dnw's and even the silvers had seemed to shut up shop for the day.  But Psv stalwart Mark Radford finally proved to the doubters that he can fish more than one method with a convincing win from peg 17 with an all carp net of 70-7.
Mark started on paste at 13/14m catching a few early fish but after having problems with missed bites and foul-hookers switched to fishing the waggler shallow to the corner of the island and with the left-to-right wind working in his favour caught carp steadily up until the all-out, by which time he had the fish queuing up in front of him.
Second place went to pellet wag expert Chris Szakacs on peg 5 with 56-12 followed by another of psv's waggler masters Lionel Legge on peg 19 (again) with 49-13.
Top silvers (unsurprisingly) went to Alan Healy with a lowly 6-2 from peg 11 followed by Derek Lucas with 5-3 from peg 13 which mainly consisted of a confused tench.
This week's Hero to Zero award was an easy one as last week's winner and golden peg rapist Luke Tanner registered a big fat dnw this time round and the Expensive Day award goes to Dominic Ellaway who's Sensas power kit gave up the ghost in dramatic style to a particularly angry-double figure fish.

Overall Result:
  1. Mark Radford .... (peg 17) ...... 70-7
  2. Chris Szakacs .... (5) ..... 56-12
  3. Lionel Legge ..... (19) .... 49-13
  4. Adam Caswell .... (9) .... 36-4
  5. Colin Ellaway ..... (1) .... 35-15
  6. Alan Healy ......... (11) ... 29-11
  7. Steve Burgess ..... (16) ... 23-8
  8. Steve Tanner ....... (3) ..... 17-11
  9. Ryan Radford ..... (23) .... 15-8
  10. Derek Lucas ........ (13) ... 6-11
  11. Vic Bush ......... (16/17) ... 4-8
  12. Dominic Ellaway (21) ... dnw
  13. Luke Tanner (7) ........... dnw
  14. Stewart Riddle (12) .... early bath!

Sunday 14 October 2012

Filling In The Gaps (Again)!!

Shiplate, 7 October, Psv vs Frys

Following our previous interclub match with Frys at Shiplate back in May which Frys dubiously claimed to have won???? it was our turn to host the rematch.
Psv had 17 fishing against Frys' 13 so each of the 3 lakes had a section of 10 with a payout of First, Second and Silvers overall plus top 2 and a silvers on each section so 12 payouts in all.
The top 10 results overall from both clubs were counted to decide the winner.
All three lakes fished well with the lower numbers on Hawthorns being especially useful and producing the top weight for Pete Sivell on peg 1 (85-2)  and 3rd for Matt Taynton on peg 3 (79-15).
Alan Healy worked his magic on the Carp lake for second place with 81-8 made up of just 5 carp including a 13-6 Grass Carp and 16-2 of silvers.
Westpool however was the most consistent section with five weights over 40lbs.
Shiplate's famous "big skimmers" showed up in all sections with Psv's Chris Szakacs weighing in five of them in his 32-0 winning silvers weight from peg 5 on the carp lake.
Bragging rights went to Psv with a convincing overall victory!

Overall:
1.  Pete Sivell (Frys) ..... Hawthorns 1 .... 85-2
2. Alan Healy (psv) ..... Carp Lake 14 .... 81-8
Silvers: Chris Szakacs (psv) ... Carp Lake 5 ... 32-0

Hawthorns:
1. Matt Taynton (psv) ... peg 3 ..... 79-15
2. Stewart Riddle (psv) ... peg 11 ... 48-14
Silvers: John Gingell (frys) ... peg 5 ... 10-3

Westpool:
1. Mike Smith (psv) ... peg 15 ..... 65-9
2. Andy Curry (frys) ... peg 9 ..... 59-14
Silvers: John Macey (frys) ... peg 5 .... 17-4

Carp Lake:
1. Steve Preece (frys) .... peg 1 ... 59-8
2. Jason Bird (frys) .... peg 11 .... 37-4
Silvers: Eddie Wynne (psv) ... peg 6 .... 28-0

Al Healy with his 13-6 Grass Carp from the main lake

 























And finally .... a competition!!

Win a luxury spa weekend break for 2 at a 5* hotel on Siston Common.  All you need to do is explain in less than fifty words how you would fit 10 anglers on a 15 peg lake so that every angler has an empty peg next to him!
Answers on a postcard please to: matchorganiser@giveusafrigginbreak.com  



Viaduct, Match Lake, 14 October

Unfortunately, due to having to cook Sunday lunch for the wife, kids and outlaws I wasn't present at this one but it was a successful day for Luke Tanner on peg 52 winning the match with 65-12 and the £100 golden peg!

Result:
  1. Luke Tanner (52) ...... 65-12
  2. Mark Radford (49) .... 40-6
  3. Alan Healy (51) ........ 39-0
  4. Derick Lucas (44) ...... 31-8
  5. Matt Taynton (45) ...... 27-4
  6. Darren North (43) ...... 23-4
  7. Pete Uzzell (39) ......... 22-14
  8. Adam Caswell (42) .... 21-11
  9. Simon Belcham (48) ... 20-2
  10. Paul Reed (50) ......... 16-3
  11. Rich Jones (47) ......... 15-8
  12. Ryan Radford (40) ..... 14-10
  13. Steve Tanner (41) ...... 14-0
  14. Steve Wynne (46) ...... 8-6

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Acorn, Paddock Lake, 30 Sept (20 pegs)

A rare treat today having managed to grab a section of Paddock (pegs 1 to 20) from the Coffin Dodgers who have booked most Sundays on here for this year and the next two years also.
So if you're planning on booking a Sunday on Paddock you might want to invest in a 2015 year-planner and get in there sharpish!
Anyway, I didn't have the pleasure of fishing this one so the details are a bit sketchy.
What I do know though is that the blustery winds made things difficult for most but Alan Healy and Eddie Wynne in pegs 7 & 8 respectively weren't affected by the wind at all and Alan went on to win easily fishing across to the far shelf with 135lbs 14oz fishing maggot on the hook and feeding the same.
Eddie Wynne wasn't very close behind with 59-9 for second which included the top silvers weight of 18-10.  Ed caught the same way as the winner but had smaller fish (I think I've heard this before .....).
Third place went to Adam Caswell, superstar of Dave Clutterbuck's Thursday evening Docks series, with 39-4 from peg 17.
Top silvers went by default to Mike Wilson with 6-6 from peg 18 and Paul Reed and Chris Gay shared the default second place both weighing 3-9 from pegs 4 & 12 respectively.
Luckily for Alan, Roy Garland was on hand to record his epic performance for the Evening Post and his TopPeg website.  That report can be found here
In Roy's after-match interview Alan is quoted as saying:

“I had no idea how the match was fishing but unknowingly, at the time when I called for a second net, I had already done enough to win.
“I knew that I was doing well but when fishing a well-stocked lake anything can happen so I got my head down and never relaxed until I heard the all-out shout.
“The fish at Acorn vary so much in size that it is difficult to keep an accurate account of what is in each net. I called for each extra net well before they had reached their 70lb limit just to be sure of not being disqualified.” 


Which makes a change from the normal bs that Alan spouts before, during and after our matches!

Overall Result
  1. Alan Healy (peg 7) ...... 135-14
  2. Eddie Wynne (8) .............. 59-9
  3. Adam Caswell (17) .......... 39-4
  4. Simon Belcham (10) ........ 36-3
  5. Rich Jones (11) ................. 31-9
  6. Chris Gay* (4) ........... 28-9 (wind assisted weight)
  7. Rich Britton (14) ............... 28-5
  8. Ryan Radford (13) ............. 28-0
  9. Keith Ray (6) ..................... 25-8
  10. Mark Radford (20) ............. 24-7 
*golden peg

Silvers:
  1. Eddie Wynne ........ 18-10
  2. Mike Wilson ......... 6-6
  3. Paul Reed / Chris Gay .... 3-9
  4. Rich Britton ........... 2-12

This week's "Hero to Zero" award goes to Rich Britton who, with no waggler rod in sight, proved he is without a doubt a "one-trick pony"!
The "Expensive Day" award goes to Darren North who now has just nine topkits left on his Sensas pole.
Just out of interest the Coffin Dodgers' match was won by Ian Cole with 57-11 from peg 37 and Clive Richards was 2nd with 56-1 from peg 36.
Meanwhile, Alan went on to fish the Tuesday open and won that with over 100lbs from peg 6 and I believe Ed Wynne was 2nd!
Please note there are spaces left for our match on Sunday against Frys at Shiplate where, hopefully, we will be inflicting a large dose of pain on our guests!

Monday 24 September 2012

Sedges, Tile Lake, 23 Sept (17 pegs)

A pity really as I was confident on getting this blog out before Tony Rixon's following his unkind remarks about the frequency of my updates but it seems he must have got up early as he has beaten me to it but never mind.
17 fishing this one which was a great turnout for us although we were full up at one point and I had reserves so please bear this in mind for next week at Acorn which, at the moment is also full with a reserve list and if anyone can't make it let me know as soon as possible please so someone else can fill the space.
Anyway, as forecast it was a wet and miserable day from start to finish but luckily the wind wasn't as bad as was expected so that was a small blessing.
But despite the weather Rich Britton on peg 31 was still in summer mode and left his pole in the holdall (I think he owns a pole) and fished the pellet waggler across to the aereator in front of him with 8mm pellet and the same feed  catching carp all day for a total winning weight of 116lbs 14oz.
On the next peg (32) Mark Radford, another "one trick pony" gave him a good run for his money fishing, unsurprisingly,  paste for 108lbs exactly.
Possibly the fact that these two pegs were the only pegs on the lake that had shelter from the Easterly wind would explain why there were so many fish up in that corner of the lake but who knows.
Back in the real world the contest for third and fourth places was a next-peg battle between Keith Ray on 39 and myself on corner peg 40.  (End-peg Eddie and Mugger Shanks weren't fishing today which meant anyone had a reasonable chance of drawing in a corner)!  As it turned out Keith just sneaked into third with 47-4  ahead of myself with 45-8.   Keith caught short on paste and meat after mucking about with a feeder to the island which produced nothing despite the fish that were swirling and boshing about where his feeder was landing!
As for myself, I caught very little for five hours until the fish suddenly turned up in the last hour giving themselves up readily to meat over meat feed on the deck at 8m (first out of  the frame for the second week running).
This week's "expensive day" award went to Keith who snapped his landing net handle whilst attempting to land a fish under the confines of his umbrella but at least he managed to keep his hair and designer fishing jacket looking pristine which is what matters I suppose.
The "hero to zero" award went to Mr Inconsistent ,Darren North, who after last week's stunning performance managed this week to produce a big fat DNW despite having an end peg and an empty corner peg next to him. But at least he had a good view of Richard and Mark opposite him emptying the lake!
Thanks to Mike Welling for assuming the role of weigh-man albeit rather quietly.


Overall Result:
  1. Richard Britton (31) .. 116-14
  2. Mark Radford (32) ........... 108-0
  3. Keith Ray (39) ................. 47-4
  4. Steve Burgess (40) ........... 45-8
  5. Lionel Legge (27) ............ 43-5
  6. Simon Belcham (36) ........ 40-7
  7. Steve Tanner (24) ............ 31-15
  8. Stewart Riddle (22) ......... 30-8
  9. Chris Szakacs (35) .......... 29-8
  10. Steve Wynne (26) ............ 24-6
  11. Paul Reed (37)* ............... 21-5
  12. Rich Jones (28) ............... 19-14
  13. Mike Welling (21) ........... 19-12
  14. Bob Warren (33) ............. 17-10
  15. Ryan Radford (23) .......... 16-0
  16. Mike Smith (38)** .......... 13-0
  17. Darren North (29) ..... DNW
* golden peg
** silver peg
(both of these were saved today by dismal performances)!





Silvers:
  1. Mark Radford ...... 37-8
  2. Bob Warren .......... 15-6
  3. Stewart Riddle ..... 15-0
  4. Steve Wynne ........ 13-6
  5. Mike Smith .......... 11-8
Just in case anyone wanted to check the results are genuine!



























 

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 16 Sept (13 pegs)

Apparently Brian Shanks's wife uses his tip rod to prop up her washing line at home and seeing as he doesn't have a plummet he has no idea that Woodlands lake at Trinity is actually 7 feet deep.
There's also a rumour circulating that Andy Seary is naming his new lodge at Stafford Moor "Mugger's Retreat" after him.
And apparently there's an unsubstantiated story doing the rounds that he is the only person ever to do a ton at Windmill (but that's getting into the realms of fantasy)!
So as you have probably already worked out, Westerleigh's greatest export, Brian Shanks took the honours today at Trinity although he did struggle as this time round he could only manage 135-9 which was over 90lbs short of the match record (set by ........ Brian Shanks).
Drawn on peg 14 Brian caught shallow at 14 & 5m on 8mm pellet.
Second and third place was a next-peg battle on the opposite bank with Alan Healy on peg 27 edging it from Chris Gay by ounces with 74-7 caught on paste over pellet at 8m.
Chris weighed in 73-3 from peg 25 fishing pellet shallow at 14m and paste on the deck over the same line.
Fourth place went to Darren North with 62-8 from peg 10 caught mostly shallow at 5m.
Top silvers went to Brian's traveling partner, Ron Hardiman with 11-8 of skimmers plus a tench and a suspicious looking fan-tail / f1 thing. 

Overall Result:
  1. Mugger Shanks (peg 14) ... 135-9
  2. Alan Healy (27) ................. 74-7
  3. Chris Gay (25) ................... 73-3
  4. Darren North (10) .............. 62-8
  5. Mark Radford (23) ............. 56-2
  6. Steve Burgess* (8) ............. 53-8
  7. Rich Jones (12) .................. 47-8
  8. Ryan Radford (17) ............. 32-5
  9. Ron Hardiman (31) ........... 20-6
  10. Mike Smith (6) .................. 19-5
  11. Paul Reed (33) ................... 16-8
  12. Adam Caswell / Lionel Legge .... dnw
Silvers:
  1. Ron Hardiman ....... 11-8
  2. Rich Jones ........... 5-0
*golden peg curse







Sunday 9 September 2012

Shiplate Farm, Hawthorns, 9 Sept (9 pegs)

Another disappointing turnout due, I guess, to a few regulars being away on holiday and weekends away at least meant there was plenty of room for all to enjoy the late summer sunshine and catch a few fish.
A steady breeze blowing down the lake towards peg 1 and a strong right to left tow meant presentation on the far bank was difficult for most so as a result most of the action today came from the margins and with a few colder nights of late the normal pellet tactics had given way to maggot in recent results and pretty much everyone adopted the same approach.
With his impressive form at Shiplate it was no surprise that Alan Healy on peg 11 headed the field .
Alan started the match long across with limited success but soon found plenty of fish in close.
Fishing at 4m down his left margin with maggot Alan caught steadily throughout the six hours, feeding 5 pints of other people's maggots to weigh in 96lbs 13oz which included a couple of hard-fighting "proper skimmers" around the 5lb mark.  With an hour to go Alan was forced to scrounge a keepnet and more maggots from his neighbour (me) which cost him his £1 side-bet (unlucky)!
In hindsight I should have made him do the walk of shame back to his car to get his own keepnet seeing as after scrounging maggots off me with an hour left, he then filled in his margin with the maggots he already had (which must have been a pint at least) and used mine to finish the match.
The morale of that little tale I suppose is never to trust a shifty-looking Knowle-Wester although anyone who has witnessed Alan's weight estimations will know this already!
Anyway, getting back to the important stuff, Chris Szakacs (fresh back from anger management classes) managed to remain composed long enough on peg 6 to take second place with 72-0.
Chris caught on maggot in close and also on paste down the track and included a skimmer of around 8lb in his catch.
Most psv matches somebody manages to break a pole section or two, this week was Chris's turn to go home with his Connoisseur G8 in more bits than it should have been!
Third on the day went to myself with 69-12 from peg 12 caught on maggot across and in the right margin and fourth place went to Eddie (end-peg) Wynne on peg 1 with 65-9.
Eddie caught on maggot and also on pellet. Had his fish been a similar size to everyone elses he would have won the match easily but for some reason he seemed to have had rather a lot of pasties which, I suppose, is the story of his life!

Overall Result:
  1. Alan Healy (peg 11) ..... 96-13
  2. Chris Szakacs (6) ................ 72-0
  3. Steve Burgess (12) .............. 69-12
  4. Eddie Wynne (1) ................. 65-9
  5. Adam Caswell (15) ............. 62-0
  6. Mark Radford (8) ................ 55-10
  7. Derel Lucas (9) ................... 31-10
  8. Will Dearlove (3) ................ 27-12
  9. Ryan Radford (4) ................ 22-1

Saturday 8 September 2012

Filling in the gaps!

A few technical issues (my 12 year-old iMac has gone off to Apple heaven)  and a canalboat holiday have lead to a slight backlog of postings on here so I'll sum up the highs and lows of the last few weeks in one go.

Trinity, Woodlands, 19 August (19 pegs)

It's refreshing to know that when I'm not there it's still possible for the draw to go badly wrong resulting in tears and tantrums (mostly from Adam Caswell who wasn't happy about putting his flier back in the draw-bag).
And it was nice to see, after much abuse from his staff at Fairview Engineering, Brian Shanks finally making it into the elite Psv 200+ club with 228lbs 8oz which is a new record weight for Trinity.
Brian (I'll hazard a guess) fished pellet shallow at 13m or in the margins (or both) from peg 17 although he did have the choice of four empty pegs around him with the wind blowing in.
As I was on Sunday roast duty I never fished this one hence the results were a bit sketchy.


  1. Mugger Shanks (17) ... 228-8
  2. Darren North (peg ?) ... 94-10
  3. Chris Gay (peg 7) ...... 65-2
  4. Matt Tainton (peg 2) .... 60-13
  5. Mike Smith  (peg ?) ..... 57-15
Silvers: Simon Belcham  (peg ?) .... 25-0


Staunton Court, 26 August (11 pegs)

Most of the members of the elite Psv 200+ club have gained their claim to stardom at Staunton Court but the ranks of the 200+ club weren't swelled today as it was a bit of an off-day by Staunton standards.
With eleven fishing there were three pegs on the concrete, two on the top bank which had the wind blowing in and were the most fancied pegs, five on the long grass bank and one in nomansland on the bottom bank.
Alan Healy made the best of it with 95-2 from peg 2 which was in the middle of the concrete bank.
Alan caught strongly down the edge for the latter half of the match on a large helping of bullshit (as usual)!  Lionel Legge was a close second with 89-14 from peg 3 on the concrete.  Lionel is usually seen thrashing shallow pole rigs about but today caught mainly on paste in close. A man of many talents!
Will Dearlove was third from peg 1 with 88-7 making it a clean sweep from the pegs on the concrete bank.  Will caught close in with corn (I think) or maybe paste!
Fourth place went to Simon Belcham with 79-11 from peg 7 catching mostly on tares on the deck at 8m.
Strangely, the pegs on the top bank didn't fish as well as expected and neither did the legendary "bin" peg (10) occupied by Adam Caswell although, in fairness, it was the golden peg which usually spells the kiss of death!
No tremendous weights today but a close match.  Next year's Staunton matches are winter matches which means the huge weights of carp should give way to the big skimmers that don't get a look-in on the summer matches but are present in good numbers, should be interesting.

Full Result:
  1. Alan Healy (peg 2) ....... 95-2
  2. Lionel Legge (peg 3) .... 89-14
  3. Will Dearlove  (peg 1) ... 88-7
  4. Simon Belcham (peg 7) .... 79-11
  5. Mugger Shanks (peg 4) .... 64-12
  6. Adam Caswell (peg 10) .... 62-2
  7. Richard Britton (peg 9) .... 61-0
  8. Steve Burgess (peg 8) ..... 52-0
  9. Darren North (5) ........... 47-10
  10. Ron Hardiman (11) ....... 47-8
  11. Chris Gay (6) ................ 45-10

Landsend Match Lake, 2 September (11 pegs)

Another day and another venue that didn't want to fish to it's full potential.
Rich Jones cruised through this one though with 96-9 from peg 17 fishing corn.  Next best was one of psv's new superstars, in-form Will Dearlove with 58-5 from peg 1.  Will caught long down the edge and to his right margin into the tackle-smashing bush on paste.
Chris Gay was third from peg 15 with 49-4.  Chris had an eventful day getting bitten by red ants and snapping his pole resulting in a trip out in HMS Duckett to retrieve it.  Maybe not a wise idea to play an angry foul-hooked Wedmore carp with six sections up in the air!
Chris Gay flexing his pecs on the way to third place .........

.... and retrieving his top set aboard HMS Duckett!








 Full Result:
  1. Rich Jones (peg 17) ....... 96-9
  2. Will Dearlove  (1) ........... 58-5
  3. Chris Gay (15) ................ 49-4
  4. Alan Healy (13) .............. 44-8
  5. Simon Belcham (21) ....... 37-11
  6. Ed (corner peg) Wynne (24) .... 37-11
  7. Adam (foul-hooker) Caswell (5) .. 33-7
  8. Keith Ray (9) ................... 26-14
  9. Bob Warren (19) .............. 24-7
  10. Lionel Legge (7) & Steve Burgess (11) ... dnw
Silvers: Simon Belcham ....  23-6


As you've probably worked out, today wasn't one of my most memorable matches with my two skimmers and one perch going an estimated 14oz had they made it to the scales which they never!
Perhaps I should stick to canal fishing.

 

Sunday 12 August 2012

Viaduct, Campbell, 12 Aug (17 pegs)

Still on a roll from last weekend's convincing Psv weekend series win at Holgan Farm, Match Secretary (and club chairman), Steve Burgess continued his winning ways today with an epic performance at Viaduct's Campbell match lake.  Due to a slightly late draw and a 10 o clock start Steve bravely chose to leave his pole in it's holdall and opted to aggressively target the carp on peg 132 with straight lead and waggler tactics only.
Fortunately this decision payed off handsomely with a couple of early fish on the waggler with 8mm scopex flavoured banded pellet fished over towards the platform of peg 135 before an early tree incident forced a change to the straight lead.
This produced a steady run of small-ish carp for a couple of hours until a run of lost fish, liners and foulers prompted a change back to the shallow waggler which produced some better fish and a final total of 131lbs 7oz for a well-earned first place.
The rest of the action was concentrated around the top corner of the lake with Will Dearlove on 115 leading the pack. Will fished pellet shallow at 14m before switching to the waggler over the pole line (as the fish were spooking off the pole) for a total of 120-7.
Mark Radford was just one fish behind from peg 116 fishing pellet shallow at 13m for 116-6 followed by Ron Hardiman on 118 with 112-3 caught on similar tactics.
Top silvers went to Simon Belcham on peg 127 with a mixed bag totalling 34-1 caught on meat at 8m.
Bob Warren took second in the silvers from the next peg (126) with 31-7 caught in a similar fashion.
Strangely, Bob and Simon both weighed in the same overall weight of 74-15!

Overall Result:

  1. Steve Burgess (132) .. 131-7
  2. Will Dearlove (115) ........ 120-7
  3. Mark Radford (116) ........ 116-6
  4. Ron Hardiman (118) ....... 112-3
  5. Lionel Legge (112) ........... 90-6
  6. Simon Belcham (127) ...... 74-15
  7. Bob Warren (126) ............ 74-15
  8. Stewart Riddle (119) ........ 63-0 
  9. Keith Ray (123) .............. 58-5
  10. Alan Healy (114) ............ 55-8
  11. Paul Reed (124) .............. 54-4
  12. Steve Wynne (111) ......... 52-1
  13. Ryan Radford* (129) ...... 51-14
  14. Rich Jones (130) ............. 49-0
  15. Darren North (110) ......... 43-3
  16. Adam Caswell (125) ....... 31-9
  17. John Darby (128) ........... 13-9
*golden peg

Silvers:
  1. Simon Belcham ....... 34-1
  2. Bob Warren ............. 31-7
  3. Darren North ........... 21-12
  4. Paul Reed ................ 17-7
  5. Alan Healy .............. 16-15
  6. John Darby .............. 13-9

Monday 6 August 2012

Holgan Farm Weekend Results

Ten of Psv's finest made the journey "just across the bridge" to Ian Heaps' Holgan Farm fishery in Pembrokeshire for this 3 match weekend festival and they were treated to what must be one of the best-kept and well-designed fisheries in the country.
Ian took care of everything for us from the draw to the weigh-in and was on hand to tell everyone exactly how and where to fish their pegs and then spent plenty of time during the matches to wander round the lake and offer extra advice, much of which revolved around the "feed and plonk" method which apparently his mate the "Plonker" uses to devastating effect.


Day 1. (Match Lake)
This match had an added twist in that the winner got to choose whether they stayed on the fishery or at the B&B 8 miles away!

  1. Adam Caswell ...... 103-6
  2. Steve Burgess ...... 91-8
  3. Alan Healy ........... 70-5
  4. Mike Welling ......... 56-0
  5. Darren North ........ 50-12
  6. Ryan Radford ....... 40-8
  7. Derek Lucas ......... 38-11
  8. Kev Jefferies ........ 36-1
  9. Mark Radford ....... 29-2
  10. Keith Ray ............ 20-0
Day 2. (Carp Lake)


  1. Ryan Radford ....... 53-14
  2. Derek Lucas ......... 38-4
  3. Darren North ........ 37-1
  4. Kev Jefferies ......... 36-9
  5. Steve Burgess ....... 34-14
  6. Mark Radford ........ 32-14
  7. Adam Caswell ....... 24-8
  8. Alan Healy ............ 24-0
  9. Mike Welling .......... 23-2
  10. Keith Ray .............. 21-12
Day 3. (Tench & Crucian Lake)
A close match hampered slightly by monsoon rainfall in the afternoon which was accompanied by a five foot high waterspout (and that's not a joke)!


  1. Mike Welling ........ 12-8
  2. Steve Burgess ..... 12-4
  3. Adam Caswell / Ian Heaps .... 11-4
  4. Ryan Radford ....... 11-0
  5. Mark Radford ....... 10-2
  6. Darren North ....... 9-8
  7. Derek Lucas ........ 7-4
  8. Alan Healy ......... dnw
  9. Keith Ray / Kev Jefferies ..... dnf (tarts, scared of a drop of rain)!

Overall Result:
The overall result was so close that it came down to the last weigh and 1lb 4oz separated the top 3 places (1 crucian)!
  1. Steve Burgess (24 points)
  2. Adam Caswell (22)
  3. Ryan Radford (22)
  4. Darren North (19)
  5. Mike Welling (19)
  6. Derek Lucas (17)
  7. Alan Healy (14)
  8. Mark Radford (13)
  9. Kev Jefferies (10)
  10. Keith Ray (2)



Monday 30 July 2012

Avalon, 29 July (18 pegs)

A far better turnout today with 18 fishing, which included a welcome return to the Psv family for Ryan Jordan who's creaky Garbolino swivelling seatbox has been sorely missed at our matches for a number of years now.  As a result we had the entire left bank and three pegs at the top of the right bank so lots of room.
Predictably, the pellet waggler was the dominant method and with Rich Britton taking time out from his busy work schedule to fish it looked like a case of who would take second as when it comes to fishing the wag there aren't many (if any) at Psv that can match him at it.
True enough, Richard (pictured below) cruised to victory from peg 11 with 139lbs 7oz.


The competition for the rest of the framing places was a closer battle between two more waggler experts (Will Dearlove and Chris Szakacs) and Stewart Riddle.  Greatly assisted by drawing a "pleasure fishing" peg (16), Stewart took second place with an all-carp catch of 99-3 followed by Chris on peg 23 who fished the whole match today and mixed long pole up the end margin and waggler for 94-14.  Will completed the top four with 86-8 from peg 13.
  Having drawn the winning peg from the last match here, 19, Alan Healy opted to ignore the masses of carp that hang around this corner of the island and instead fished for the silvers. Fishing at 8m with soft pellet and paste he managed a healthy 26-9 for the top weight of slimy things.
Paul Reed took second with 17-8 from peg 12. Paul was a bit cagey about tactics but I believe he caught in a similar fashion to Alan.  Paul is pictured below, fortunately not smiling!


Unfortunately, what was otherwise a good day's fishing was blighted by some interruption from a group of "doggers" who had took up residence in the undergrowth.  The shocking picture below just goes to show how low some members of society will stoop to get their kicks!



Overall Result:
  1. Richard Britton (peg 11) ... 139-7
  2. Stewart Riddle (16) ....... 99-3
  3. Chris Szakacs (23) ........ 94-14
  4. Will Dearlove (13) ......... 86-8
  5. Mike Smith (26) ........... 76-12
  6. Mark Radford (17) ........ 62-5
  7. Lionel Legge (24) ......... 60-9
  8. Alan Healy (19) ............ 56-1
  9. Steve Burgess (28) ....... 55-4
  10. Matt Tainton (1) ........... 54-3
  11. Chris Gay (21) ............. 46-15
  12. Ryan Jordan (5) ........... 41-7
  13. Adam Caswell (30) ....... 35-11
  14. Matt Williams (7) .......... 28-11
  15. Paul Reed (12) ............. 25-0
  16. Derek Lucas (3) ............ 22-9
  17. Ryan Radford (9) .......... 22-7
  18. Pete Uzzell (6) .............. 22-3
Silvers:
  1. Alan Healy ....... 26-9
  2. Paul Reed ........ 17-8
  3. Matt Williams .... 10-4
  4. Chris Gay ......... 21-7
  5. Derek Lucas ..... 7-5
  6. Adam Caswell .... 6-13
  7. Ryan Jordan ...... 6-3
  8. Pete Uzzell ........ 5-12
  9. Steve Burgess .... 5-10
  10. Matt Tainton ....... 4-12 



Sunday 22 July 2012

Trinity, Woodlands, 22 July (11½ pegs)

Originally there were sixteen booked in for this match which was an ideal number however, by Saturday that number had dwindled to 9 but was boosted up to 11 by a couple of new members. Last week there were just ten at Landsend, not great numbers by any means and makes it difficult to book venues for a year in advance when you have no idea how many you are going to have until the day before the match (or even at 8:45 on Sunday morning in some cases)!
Anyway, at least the sun was shining (for once) and a gentle breeze on the lake promised some decent tans and maybe a few fish.
Rich Jones made the best of it with an almost identical performance to the last time he fished Trinity back at the end of May when he came second with 86-14 from peg 33 fishing corn down the edge.  This time he was on peg 31 and finished up with 96lbs 2oz caught on ...... corn down the edge!
Darren North gave him a good run for his money though, just one fish behind with 90lbs exactly from peg 4.  Darren fished pellet shallow at 5m.
Third place went to Stevie Wynne (below) with 76-13 from peg 7 caught shallow at 13m and down the edge under the tree at 5m.
Part of Stevie Wynne's 3rd place catch, the t-shirt is wishful thinking!
Fourth place for the second week running went to Steve Burgess on peg 27 with 72-13 caught on pellet, shallow at 14m and later on the waggler fished 3 feet deep over the pole line.  This included the top accidental silvers weight of 13-7 consisting mostly of chunky roach plus a couple of slimy green things which all took a fancy to banded 8mm pellets.
Entertainment today was provided by Stevie Wynne who can usually be relied upon to break something, this week it was his topkit which gave up the ghost on his last fish of the day.  Colin Ellaway impressed his neighbours by growing a sixth finger after pulling for a break on a snagged rig and spearing his hand.
And Mike Smith entertained his neighbours with a very poor attempt at singing!
If you were wondering why the title of this post says 11½ pegs, the "½" refers to Derek's grandson Wayne who pleasure-fished next to grandad. Wayne caught 2lb 9oz of silvers on maggot but numbers-wise had more fish than everyone else combined (they weren't that big)!
I did manage to get a good picture of Rich Jones with his winning net but somehow during the excitement of the weigh-in it must have deleted itself from my phone, and seeing as Darren was a little bit put out that I never took his picture I've dug this one out from under my pillow.
One for the ladies!
Overall Result:
  1. Rich Jones ...... (peg 31) ... 96-2
  2. Darren North ...... (4) ... 90-0
  3. Stevie Wynne ..... (7) ... 76-13
  4. Steve Burgess* ... (27) ... 72-13
  5. Derek Lucas ....... (13) ... 51-14
  6. Matt Tainton ...... (25) .... 46-9
  7. Colin Ellaway ..... (22) .... 46-0
  8. Dominic Ellaway ... (9) .... 40-3
  9. Paul Reed .......... (11) ... 38-14
  10. Mike Smith ......... (20) ... 36-5
  11. Lionel Legge ....... (29) ... dnw
*golden peg

Silvers:
  1. Steve Burgess ...... 13-7
  2. Dominic Ellaway .... 12-7
  3. Mike Smith .......... 8-13
  4. Colin Ellaway ....... 7-10
  5. Matt Tainton ........ 7-5
  6. Darren North ....... 4-5
  7. Rich Jones ........... 4-0
  8. Derek Lucas ........ 3-13
  9. Paul Reed ........... 3-12

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Landsend Match Lake, 15 July (10 pegs)

Only ten fishing today so plenty of room for all and after the recent deluge the weather stayed dry for a change so that was good news although a good downpour may have sobered up the match organiser a tad as he was a bit ropey-looking for most of the day after a night sampling the hotspots of Staple Hill.
The honours went to Chris Szakacs on peg 24.  Chris, having decided to stay to the end of this one, fished caster to his left and later meat along the end margin for 62lbs 15oz.
Second place went to Adam Caswell on 19 with 54-10 and Stewart Riddle took third with 48-14 from peg 15.
Top silvers went to Mike Wilson on peg 3 with 20-13 caught on chopped worm.

Overall Result:

  1. Chris Szakacs ... (peg 24) ... 62-15
  2. Adam Caswell ..... (19) ..... 54-10
  3. Stewart Riddle .... (15) ..... 48-14
  4. Steve Burgess .... (13) ...... 47-2
  5. Mike Wilson ........ (3) ....... 33-11
  6. Darren North ...... (7) ....... 29-13
  7. Simon Belcham ... (1) ....... 28-6
  8. Alan Healy ......... (11) ...... 26-8
  9. Derek Lucas ....... (21) ...... 24-1
  10. Will Dearlove ...... (5) ....... 18-7
Silvers:
  1. Mike Wilson ...... 20-13
  2. Alan Healy ....... 20-0
  3. Simon Belcham ... 19-8
  4. Steve Burgess ..... 9-10
  5. Darren North ....... 8-12
  6. Adam Caswell ...... 7-10
  7. Chris Szakacs ...... 6-13
  8. Will Dearlove ....... 4-5
  9. Stewart Riddle ..... 3-4
  10. Derek Lucas ........ 2-14

Monday 16 July 2012

Thursday 5 July 2012

Holgan Farm Weekend update

I've had a bit of a rethink regarding the pools and payouts and I reckon it will be better to have a £10 pool per match and an optional overall super-pool of £15. 

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Holgan Farm Festival arrangements

Fishing:
Friday 3rd August:  Match Lake
Saturday 4th August:  Carp Lake
Sunday 5th August:  Tench Lake

Draw will be at 9-ish, fishing 11 to 5.30
Ian will organise the draw and weigh-in and be on hand for advice on how best to fish the lakes.
All nets are provided, fishery pellet only for feed.

Payouts:
Pools will be £15 per match
Payout per day:
1. £50
2. £40
3. £30
Silvers £20

Overall Payout  (to be decided on points):

1. £100
2. £75
3. £50
4. £30

Accommodation:
Seven people will be staying at Holgan Farm (1 double room, 1 twin and 1 triple)
The remaining six will be in a local B&B
(Keith and Kev have arranged their own accommodation at Banks Farm)
Evening meals have been arranged for 7:30 / 8:00 at The Bush Inn at Robertson Wathen
which is 200yds from Banks Farm

Cost:
Cost for the weekend will be £153.50 (£55.50 for those that have arranged their own accomodation) which includes all peg fees, accommodation and breakfast and evening meals on Friday and Saturday.

Websites:
Holgan Farm Website
The Bush Inn

More Stuff for Sale!

Anybody interested in some Daiwa tournament luggage, circa 20 months old consists of 12 tube holdall, carryall including net bag and if i can find it a single rod sleeve, this is the blue version still in very good condition.
looking for £50 ono. anybody interested drop me a txt on 07912849178
Will. 

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Avalon, 1 July (13 pegs)

Avalon is a great venue with plenty of fish but due to the nature of the venue it sometimes requires a bit of effort to get them out.  For best results a waggler or lead is required to be chucked within inches of the islands' margins which are in most cases guarded by trees and other vegetation. In addition there are also plenty of unseen snags below the water which the carp are well aware of and head for at a great rate of knots as soon as they are hooked which can lead to a frustrating day with lots of lost tackle and fish.
On the upside I've been told there are 20 pounds of skimmers on every peg although only two anglers managed to locate their twenty pounds worth on this occasion! (more of that later)
Today's top performer was Lionel the legend Legge on peg 19.  Lionel fished a pellet waggler to the right-hand edge of the island to land 20 carp for a total of 95lbs 2oz fishing and feeding 8mm and twitching his float to get bites.
Lionel very kindly lent me his tip rod as mine came out of it's rod sleeve minus it's reel. He wasn't too bothered as he reckoned he's never caught a fish on it (Tony Rixon would be proud).
I did manage to christen it for him but my second fish "done me".  Pulling for the break was a bit hair-raising as I think the last time Lionel used that reel he was fishing for conger over a wreck!
Anyway, second place went to Mugger Shanks on peg 5 with 82-2 caught on pellet wag and later on the pole, shallow at 12m and 3rd went the way of Mark Radford with 66-11 of carp on the wag (yes he owns a rod) and skimmers on paste from peg 7.
Will Dearlove took fourth spot with 55-0 from peg 23 fishing 16m up the margin and losing 20 fish in the process.
Top silvers went to Mark Radford (right) with 23-1 of paste-caught skimmers.  In the picture you can see Psv's silvers expert Adam Caswell looking admiringly at his idol's catch (bless him)!
Running a close second was the mugger's traveling partner Ron Hardiman (pictured below) with 22-5 of big skimmers  from peg 11.























Overall Result:
  1. Lionel Legge .... (peg 19) ... 95-2
  2. Brian Shanks ......... (5) ... 82-2
  3. Mark Radford ........ (7) ... 66-11
  4. Will Dearlove ....... (23) ... 55-0
  5. Chris Szakacs ....... (16) ... 43-2
  6. Stewart Riddle ...... (12) ... 36-15
  7. Adam Caswell ...... (21) ... 33-15
  8. Ron Hardiman ...... (11) ... 33-9
  9. Kev Jefferies ......... (6) .... 32-4
  10. Steve Burgess ....... (17) ... 30-4
  11. Alan Healy ........... (1) ..... 29-10
  12. Derek Lucas ........ (13) .... 24-12
  13. Ryan Radford* .... (9) ...... 15-13
*golden peg

Silvers:
  1. Mark Radford ........ 23-1
  2. Ron Hardiman ....... 22-5
  3. Steve Burgess ........ 10-11
  4. Alan Healy ............. 7-14
  5. Derek Lucas ........... 6-0
  6. Adam Caswell ....... 5-12
  7. Stewart Riddle ....... 5-7
  8. Kev Jefferies ......... 2-3
  9. Ryan Radford ....... 1-13
  10. Will Dearlove ....... 0-12

Monday 2 July 2012

Psv July Meeting

Monthly Club meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday 3rd) at the Midland Spinner for 8.
Will be taking bookings for the next matches which are:  Viaduct (Campbell) on the 8th, Landsend (Match Lake) on the 15th,  Trinity on the 22nd and Avalon on the 29th.
As always, booking priority will go to those who turn up for the meeting.
see you there (smart casual dress please)

Thursday 28 June 2012

For Sale: Preston X3 Onbox & Shuttle

As the title suggests ... For Sale: Preston X3 Onbox & Shuttle
Both in excellent condition, owner is selling them together (not splitting) for £130
If you are interested comment on here or phone me and I will pass you on.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Sedges, Brick Lake, 24 June (16 pegs)

With sixteen fishing today on a very windy but, thankfully, dry Brick lake  it was decided that rather than face the agonising trauma of picking four pegs to leave out  all 20 pegs went into the very minging draw bag (it had spent the previous week in a bag with the equally minging weigh net) and let fate decide.
As it turned out, peg 1 was left in the bag which is a peg that often causes controversy as nobody ever wants to draw it but on the odd occasion that we've put it in it has done well.
I doubt if it would have produced today as the wind was blowing into peg 20 in the opposite corner where fate had decided to put Match Secretary and Club Chairman (me) who wasn't complaining to much!
Next door in peg 19, Bob Warren had decided to go for the skimmers as  there were good anglers in all the the carp pegs (his words not mine) which I found highly amusing!
As it happened, if you would have put a bet on the result you wouldn't have made much as the three corners that were in all framed. 
Peg 20 did the business for Steve Burgess (above left) who fished the pole straight out with meat at 11 meters for the first two hours which produced a run of decent skimmers (much to Bob's disgust) before plundering the corner margins with corn for a winning tally of 56lbs 14oz.
Mike Smith continued his run of form with a close second from peg 10.  Mike took two carp early on paste straight out at 14m before switching to 8mm pellet to weigh in 51-10.
Darren North took advantage of an empty peg 12 to take third spot with 49-15 from peg 11 fishing corn and worm (left over from his adventures in Holland last week) in his left & right margins and beating his boss (and idol) mugger Shanks into fourth place by just 9 ounces.
Alan Healy, who seems to have a knack of always going home with money, took top silvers from peg 4 with an impressive net of bream and skimmers totaling 35-8.  Alan caught at13m on soft pellet over wetted micro/ 4mm with green swim stim (presumably robbed from Dean Malin's bait stash).
Second in the silvers went to Bob Warren with 16-7 of skimmers from peg 19½ caught on soft pellet at 8m over micro feed.


Overall Result:
  1. Steve Burgess (20) ..... 56-14
  2. Mike Smith (10) ....... 51-10
  3. Darren North (11) .... 49-15
  4. Brian Shanks (13) .... 49-6
  5. Alan Healy (3) .......... 35-8
  6. Chris Gay (14) .......... 26-13
  7. Bob Warren (19½) .... 23-9
  8. Ron Hardiman (5) ..... 21-0
  9. Steve Wynne (8) ....... 18-13
  10.  Keith Ray (12) .......... 17-12
  11. Pete Uzzell (9) ........... 13-13
  12. Paul Reed (2) ............. 12-7
  13. Simon Belcham (16) .. 11-4
  14. Matt Williams* (18) ... dnw
  15. Will Dearlove (3) ....... dnw
  16. Rich Jones (7) ............ dnw 
*golden peg
 
Silvers:
  1. Alan Healy ....... 35-8
  2. Bob Warren ...... 16-7
  3. Steve Burgess ... 14-7
  4. Simon Belcham .. 11-4
  5. Steve Wynne ...... 11-3
  6. Ron Hardiman .... 10-9
  7. Brian Shanks ...... 6-12
  8. Pete Uzzell ......... 6-4
  9. Paul Reed ........... 6-0
  10. Mike Smith ......... 1-9
  11.  

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 17 June (12 pegs)

Didn't fish this one so not much info other than the weights ...

  1. Mike Smith ........ 54-6
  2. Pete Uzzell ......... 51-14
  3. Dean Malin ........ 51-8
  4. Alan Healy ......... 44-3
  5. Kev Jefferies ...... 41-8
  6. Paul Reed ........... 34-3
  7. Adam Caswell .... 29-8
  8. Matt Williams ..... 28-10
  9. Mark Radford ..... 22-0
  10. Chris Szakacs / Lionel Legge / Ryan Radford ... dnw
Silvers:
  1. Dean Malin ...... 23-4
  2. Kev Jefferies .... 12-8
  3. Mark Radford ... 6-4
  4. Matt Williams ... 6-0
  5. Pete Uzzell ........ 4-8
  6. Paul Reed .......... 4-0
  7. Mike Smith ........ 2-13

Friday 22 June 2012

Sedges this Sunday

Three places are left for Sedges this Sunday ... first come first served (don't all rush at once)!

Sunday 10 June 2012

Rood Ashton Pairs Match, 10 June (21 pegs)

A full house today with 21 fishing on a typically wet and miserable June day.   I suppose a few more could have been squeezed in around the back of the lake in the jungle but it would have meant some serious battling through the undergrowth and a day's fishing out of sight (and earshot) of anyone else which would be no fun.
For a bit of a change, seeing as we don't normally bother with a silvers payout, I thought I'd make this a one-off pairs match with £60 in the pot for the winning couple.  As it happened the winning couple came first and second which was a bit of a flook but at least it didn't take me long to work out the winners!
Owner's son Alan was on hand to collect the peg fees and (as on previous occasions) offered a £50 bonus for anyone who broke the venue record of 225 lbs(ish) and I'm sure I saw him have a little chuckle to himself as he drove off as, for what it was worth, he might just as well have offered a £50,000 bonus!
As it turned out it fished hard with only the usual fliers producing anything of note.  The car park bank was particularly difficult apart from peg one which is always good for a few fish due to the huge reed bed that stretches out in front of it providing a home for the lake's residents.  Things improved from the middle of the left bank and round to the back where the best pegs (and the bigger fish) are, although there were a couple of hiccups.  Most notably for Adam Caswell who has been firmly stamping his name on the Thursday evening Docks series of late, who could only manage 31lbs from end peg 21.
But at least it does go to show that it is possible not to win every match from that peg!
Winner on the day was Mike Smith on peg 20 (the concrete overflow).  Mike (pictured above right) fished paste and pellet at 6m for a total of 98lbs 4oz which even he couldn't moan about.
Next best, and Mike's pairs partner, was Chris Szakacs (left) on peg 15 with 68-10 of carp caught on a banjo feeder (not a method feeder) with banded pellet and groundbait fished about two thirds across towards the island.
Unusually, Chris opted to fish the full six hours which was just as well as Mark Radford finished just one fish behind him from peg 1. 
One-trick-pony Mark unsurprisingly  fished paste at 13m close to the reeds (and occasionally in them) for a total of 66-1.
Fourth place went to new member Pete Uzzell with 45-14 from peg 19 who also caught on paste at 9m straight out and to the overhanging bush on the left.
Finishing up the frame was another new member, Chris Mastrey on peg 13 who fished the method feeder into open water at about 30m loaded with 3mm pellet and alternated between banded pellet and a white mini boilie on the hook for 45-2 despite not having had a bite for two hours.
Poor Alan Healy had a bit of a nightmare in corner peg 9.  I've been told that this peg can be a flier when the wind is blowing in that direction (which it was) but not today as Alan was biteless for the best part of the match and despite a few fish turning up late he could only manage 18-4 costing him a "full house" of pound coins and another big dent in his collection which must be looking a bit sparse right now!

Overall result:
  1. Mike Smith (20) ......... 98-4
  2. Chris Szakacs (15) .......... 68-10
  3. Mark Radford (1) ........... 66-1
  4. Pete Uzzell (19) ............. 45-14
  5. Chris Mastrey (13) ......... 45-2
  6. Rich Britton (2) .............. 37-12
  7. Steve Burgess (14) ......... 36-14
  8. Brian Shanks (4) ............ 35-15
  9. Rich Jones (18) .............. 32-2
  10. Kev Jefferies (3) ............ 31-4
  11. Adam Caswell (21) ........ 31-0
  12. Lionel Legge (7) ............ 25-15
  13. Darren North (17) .......... 25-1
  14. Paul Reed (16) ............... 21-12
  15. Derek Lucas (6) ............. 19-12
  16. Alan Healy (9) ............... 18-4
  17. Steve Wynne (5) ............ 14-9
  18. Ron Hardiman (10) ........ 14-2
  19. Simon Belcham (12) ...... 14-1
  20. Keith Ray* / Ryan Radford .... dnw
*golden peg

Pairs:
  1. Chris Szakacs / Mike Smith  (41)  166-14
  2. Pete Uzzell / Adam Caswell (29)  76-14
  3. Kev Jefferies / Rich Britton (28)  69-0
  4. Chris Mastrey / Lionel Legge (27)  71-1
  5. Mark Radford / Steve Wynne (24)  80-10
  6. Steve Burgess / Derek Lucas (22)  56-10
  7. Paul Reed  /  Rich Jones (21)  53-14
  8. Keith Ray / Brian Shanks (16)  35-15
  9. Darren North / Ron Hardiman (13)  39-3
  10. Alan Healy / Simon Belcam (9)  32-5

There will be a meeting at the Midland Spinner tomorrow night (Tuesday 12th) where I will be taking bookings for Trinity (17th), Sedges (24th) and Avalon (July 1st).  Only 20 pegs on Sedges (brick lake) so this one could fill up quick but there should be plenty of room on the other two.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Viaduct, Cary, 03 June (15 pegs)

On the right day Cary can provide some excellent fishing and huge weights however it's not as consistent as Campbell and does seem to suffer from off-days when the fish aren't interested and unfortunately today seemed to be one of those days where the fish were reluctant to settle and no one method seemed to keep the fish coming.
Rich Britton, on peg 90, made the best of it and continued his winning ways starting off with the pellet waggler and later switching to straight lead with banded 8mm  for 72lbs 8oz.

Photobucket

Mike Smith on peg 80, although struggling to begin with, managed to string a few fish together fishing paste long up the edge of the spit for second with 64-2, just scraping ahead of Alan Healy on peg 94.  The Knowle West part-time pheasant beater opted for a "catch anything" approach with soft pellet on the hook which gave him third place with 62-4 which included 18-1 of silvers which was the best silvers weight of the day.
As a result Mark Radford made a rare appearance in the frame taking 4th overall (3rd by default) with a paste caught 59-8 from peg 97 and Will Dearlove completed the frame with 45-7 from peg 96 despite breaking a pole section and his new Airity landing net handle so I doubt his $20 winnings (sorry US laptop) made much impact on the cost of his day out!
On a lighter note, it was great to see Bob Warren back on the bank following his recent stroke. As expected he received no sympathy whatsoever from Tony Rixon in Shipham cafe or from anyone else for that matter!  He was offered the choice of a short walk to an early peg but chose instead to take his chances in the draw bag in search of silvers glory, but despite drawing peg 81 on the spit and getting a few pointers from silverfish guru, Mike Nicholls he could only manage a total of 14-4 including  8-3 of silvers for nowhere and no coin.  All being well though, he will soon be back on form and mugging his fellow pensioners at Acorn and Hunstrete.
And if anyone was wondering why in the picture Rich Britton isn't on peg 90 it's because I dug the picture up via google and it's a few years old from back in his Raglan days when he was only going a little bit thin on the top!

Overall Result:
  1. Rich Britton (peg 90) ........ 72-8
  2. Mike Smith (80) ............ 64-2
  3. Alan Healy (94) ............. 62-4
  4. Mark Radford (97) ......... 59-8
  5. Will Dearlove (96) ......... 45-7
  6. Steve Burgess (105) ....... 37-14
  7. Adam Caswell (99) ........ 37-6
  8. Paul Reed (85) ............... 16-7
  9. Mike Welling (86) ......... 15-5
  10. Bob Warren (81) ............ 14-4
  11. Stewart Riddle (88) ........ 11-9
  12. Ryan Radford (78) ......... 9-5
  13. Darren North* / Keith Ray / Lionel Legge .... chucked back!
*golden peg

Silvers:
  1. Alan Healy ....... 18-1
  2. Stewart Riddle .... 11-9
  3. Bob Warren ........ 8-3

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 20 May (17 pegs)

With the weather having warmed up a bit of late Trinity is really starting to fish well on most methods, but in particular, pellet shallow and fishing the margins are the way to go.
And when it comes to fishing the pole shallow, there aren't many around that can compete with Brian Shanks.
Drawn on peg 11, and with empty pegs either side (Adam Caswell was on 10), the Westerleigh mugger fished 8mm banded / feed at 14m for a winning total of 108-10.
Rich Jones in peg 33 spent a token 10 minutes waving a shallow rig around before dropping into his left hand margin where he caught steadily all day to take second place with 86-14.  Rich caught mainly on corn over corn and 6mm meat feed.
Third place went to Darren North on peg 27 with 76-11 fishing pellet shallow at 14m followed by Ron Hardiman on peg 14 with 70-2.  Ron also caught shallow but had most of his fish on paste down the edge.
First out of the money (but well ahead of Alan Healy on the next peg) was Steve Burgess with 66-8 from peg 7.  Again Steve started the match fishing pellet shallow before switching to the right margin and catching on meat.
Top silvers went to Derek Lucas in peg 2 where, despite losing various rigs to trees and carp, managed 11-10 fishing caster close to the reeds.

Overall Result:
  1. Brian Shanks (peg 11) ...... 110-9
  2. Rich Jones (33) ........... 86-14
  3. Darren North (27) ....... 76-11
  4. Ron Hardiman (14) ...... 70-2
  5. Steve Burgess (7) ........ 66-8
  6. Alan Healy (8) ............. 57-2
  7. Mike Smith (24) ........... 37-14
  8. Mark Radford (25) ........ 34-9
  9. Simon Belcham (20) ..... 30-0
  10. Steve Wynne (19) ......... 22-6
  11. Derek Lucas (2) ............ 17-4
  12. Paul Reed (28) ............. 16-11
  13. Adam Caswell / Mike Welling / Ryan Radford ... dnw
  14. Mark Britton / Chris Szakacs ... early baths!
Silvers:
  1. Derek Lucas ..... 11-10
  2. Simon Belcham ..... 7-4
  3. Steve Burgess ....... 7-2
  4. Paul Reed ............. 6-4
  5. Mark Radford ........ 5-0