Psv Christmas Spectacular, Acorn, Paddock Lake, 14 December

Only 16 fishing today which was a bit of a disappointment seeing as we had 31 last year.  Unfortunately, I suppose, I had booked the Saturday as the coffin-dodgers have a bit of a monopoly on Sunday matches here which meant quite a few of the regulars had to work or whatever.
Next year's match is also on the Saturday however I am thinking of cancelling in favour of a different venue, we shall see.
Anyway, the good news was that it was dry and mild and it was looking to be a good day's fishing however that would soon change when the gale-force winds arrived at about 11 putting the blocks on fishing the pole at anything more than a couple of sections.

Winner on the day, by a country mile, was Rich Britton on peg 6 with 70-15.
Richard caught long on pinkie, kindering a pinch of pinkies after each fish.
He tried various other baits but pinkie was the only bait that produced for him.
I took the photo of the winner before the start of the match, so I guess that means I can predict the future or more likely it goes to show the importance of a good draw on winter commercials.
You can also see in that pic how calm the lake was, which changed dramatically later on for everyone although it did remain reasonably calm in Richard's peg!
Second on the day was Acorn (and Westerleigh) superstar, Simon Belcham who put 40lbs on the scales from peg 33.
Chris Szakacs was third on peg 31 with 26-12. Chris caught early across on top of the shelf with various baits but struggled in the later half after the wind got up.
Fourth place went to another of the Acorn coffin-dodger regulars, Bob Warren with 20-11 from peg 2.

As for my day, peg 10 was the last ping-pong ball in the bag for me and after a chat with my friendly neighbour (and Acorn expert) Kev Jefferies the plan of action was to start across in the gaps to nick a few carp early on and bank on some quality fish from down by the empty platform on peg 11.
So the first hour or so was spent hunting around the gaps in the sedges on the far bank and produced sod all.
Kev meanwhile was doing the same and hooking plenty of fish (landing none) which inspired me to stick at it but I never had a single bite there so I came down into the deeper water at 11m and managed a small skimmer on maggot so a blank was avoided.
Nothing more happened there until a change to soft pellet produced 2 carp in 2 put-in's followed by a lost foul-hooker which seemed to kill it.
An early look down to the platform produced a small carp on maggot and then the wind picked up making things extremely awkward.
I did manage another carp from the deep water in between the gusts and lost another but I spent the rest of the match hanging on to my top 3 down the edge where there was a big clump of sedges which produced a carp that unhooked itself plus a micro roach and a half-tidy skimmer.
I never had a bite in the last 20 minutes which coincided with a visit from two fellow competitors who will remain nameless, one of whom beat me by 4lbs for the section (hmm) but I'm not one to get bitter and twisted so I took that on the chin gracefully.
And to be fair, I did give him a fair bit of stick when he was losing a few so "swings and roundabouts" I suppose and he did buy me a beer in the pub which  always eases the pain a little.


Full Result:

Sections:

Finally, big thanks to everyone who fished today and all who have done through the year and provided many laughs along the way.

Pete Uzzell for volunteering to do the weigh-in which is something that doesn't happen often, an eager volunteer that is.  Mind you it was the first fish he'd seen all day.  

And thanks to whoever it was that filled in the weigh sheet as they had very neat writing which is a big help when I'm sorting the results.

Also thanks to everyone who attended the evening do and especially Lynne Britton for her bingo calling skills and Mrs B for doing the buffet.

Next matches are back on Acorn (top lake) on 12th Jan followed by Sedges (Tile) on the 19th and I will be taking bookings at the meeting on Tuesday Jan 7th.

In the meantime, Happy Christmas to all.

Christmas Match Details

As it stands at the moment we have 16 booked in for Saturday, it could be 17 but even with the best will in the world I don't think one day will be enough to recover from double laser eye surgery to be able to spend five hours staring at a float tip, even if it is the current superstar of Acorn!

So based on that the arrangements are as follows:

Draw at 9 or sooner

Fish from when I'm ready (as normal)

Finish at 3 or when I get my last fish on (whichever is later)

Peg fees will be covered by the club.

Pools £15 plus optional £5 Silvers Pool

Payout will be overall winner £80 plus 4x sections of £40

The winner will also qualify for a free membership.

Results, Payouts and Prizes will be at The Horseshoe, Siston Common

As discussed and agreed many months ago the prizes will be drawn instead of what we have done before with the prizes going in order of the results sheet.

Please feel free to come along on the evening as the wife will have spent all day Saturday preparing the buffet and I'd hate to see it wasted on the "pond life" of Kingswood that frequent the Horseshoe!

If anyone isn't happy with any of the above let me know otherwise, see you on Saturday.

And by the way, "having to go to a Baby Shower" is without a shadow of doubt, the most pitiful excuse I've ever heard for missing a match!

Trinity Waters, Woodlands, 24 November (8 pegs)!

One positive about posting my updates a  day or two after the event is that I get the chance to see how the rest of the circuit has been doing over the weekend.

And with a mini cold-snap over the previous few days ( consecutive frosts on Friday and Saturday nights ) it was expected to be tough.

The first round of Mugger Shanks' Westerleigh winter league was won with 18-8 from peg 6 by Psv's very own Darren North. 

Things were a little better at Acorn on Sunday for the over 43's coffin-dodgers match with current Acorn superstar and  another Psv member, Ray Bazeley method-feedering his way to victory there with 43-12 from peg 5.

Psv's Mike Wilson shared second with M? Richards who both weighed in 40-5 and 4th was yet another psv veteran, Bob Warren with 36-1 so that would have been a close match.

The Saturday open at Landsend was hit by the cold, bright weather and 37-12 was enough for Rod Wooton to win from peg 15.

Over on Shiplate it was hard work for Mr Rixon and his superstars on the main lake, 27-10 was enough to win for Kev Molten from peg 1 but strangely the canals fished much better for the Shiplate winter series.

Tim Lewis won that one with 87-9 from peg 9 on Hawthorns.

A bit closer to home the recently reopened and refurbished Bitterwell Lake had its first match (I think) on Sunday but again it was a tough one and only 21lbs was enough to win that one.

Incidentally, second was someone called Des with 19-4.

By now I expect you're wondering where the hell this is all leading but the (very long-winded) point of this is that we are now well and truly in winter mode where every bite counts and one lost bonus carp can make the difference between framing or coming nowhere.

Personally I enjoy this type of fishing although I don't enjoy those days in the depths of winter when you know you'll be lucky if you get a bite but, as they say, "a bad day's fishing is better than a good day's work" (ok, I made that up)!

ANYWAY, on to the big event and it was a pretty poor turnout with just 8 fishing.

Thankfully the lovely Misha let us have the far bank to ourselves and only charged us the peg fees which was generous especially seeing as there had been an overnight charity carp match on Wildmarsh where 32 were booked in but "only" 24 turned up ... Bless her!

For a change, and seeing as there were only 8 of us, I thought I'd do a quick rundown of each peg so here goes.

Peg 6, Will Dearlove

Will has got it into his head that the last peg in the bag (which I normally have) is always a flier so to humour him I gave him the choice of the last 2 and sure enough he drew peg 6 in the bottom corner which was the peg everyone fancies and is usually a really good margin peg.

Not today though as Will never had anything down the edge and caught at 14m on corn, and feeding corn.

He ended up with a couple of lumpy carp and 11-12 of silvers for a total of 26-11.

His silvers net was made up mostly of good quality roach and a confused tench and was easily enough to take the silvers pool.

Peg 8, Stewart Riddle

One carp and a decent net of silvers for a total of 12-7

Peg 10, Mark Radford

Unfortunately Mark managed to forget to bring any maggot or caster but it made little difference as he caught down the edge to an overhanging bush on corn (I think) to weigh in a total of 29-3 which was good enough for second on the day.

Peg 12, Matt Challenger

Arguably Bristol's most popular tackle shop owner Matt fished 16m with soft pellet over micro where he caught silvers and a couple of decent carp. He also caught (and lost) a few more fishing to the empty platform next to him.

His total weight of 30-13 was enough to win the match and just about covered his bait costs.

Peg 14, Me

No chance of winning today as this was the golden peg but I did better than last week.

I fed 3 areas at 14m, to the left I put in quite a bit of groundbait, caster and micros. In the middle it was just caster / maggot / micros and to the right I fed ultra-cautious (just the one potfull).

I also put a bit of maggot and caster at 11m and fed both margins with caster and groundbait just to make sure I never had to take any home.

The long lines produced small silvers straight away on double maggot and over the groundbait, where I was getting a bit of fizzing, I had 2 small carp before hooking a scale which seemed to kill it for a bit.

The shorter line was also giving up tiny roach as did the left margin which I'd been topping up with casters.

First put in down the right on caster produced a pole-bender which snapped the rig line on its way down to Matt's peg.

It was an old rig I'd dug out of the box and stuck a new 0.12 hook length on so that was a possible match-winning fish lost due to laziness unfortunately.

I stuck with this margin for the last 2 hours, topping up with groundbait and caster and managed a further 3 carp and a good skimmer on double maggot for a total of 25-1 and 4th place.

Peg 16, Ryan Radford

Ryan fished a tidy match but didn't seem to have any fish in front of him ... Dnw

Peg 18, Pete Uzzell

Pete seems to like drawing this peg although the peg doesn't seem to like drawing him!

One carp and a few silvers gave him 11-10 and the "must try harder" award.

Peg 20, Chris Gay

Fiortunately Chris didn't need the 30lb ice-breaker that together with the world's heaviest seatbox knocked about 10mpg off the fishing bus's fuel consumption on the motorway.

Chris caught very late down the left margin towards the corner on triple caster (nothing on single or double)!

Apparently the carp turned up in his margin in the last half hour which was too late to make a difference.

Mind you halfway through the match he decided to go down with his landing net and do a bit of swim clearing which may have also cleared out any carp that were in there ... nice logic!

Chris ended up with 22-3 and would have won if we'd fished on for another 30 minutes.

Full Result:

This Sunday we are on Spring lake at Viaduct and currently have 11 / 12 booked in. It should be a good day's fishing so don't miss out!

2014 Match Calendar

Not fully complete as there are a couple of empty dates, and I will be sorting out the weekend away in September over the Christmas holidays.

Harescombe Match Lake, 17 November (15 pegs)

This was our 4th and final trip up to Harescombe this year and I was looking forward to it, especially after last week's match on Campbell which was a bit of a struggle.

For once the weather was expected to be kind with little or no wind and reasonably dry too so it would be interesting to see how we would get on with the venue in decent conditions where presentation wouldn't be a problem.

The Tuesday match had been won with 104lbs with two weights of 99lbs and the previous Sunday had been won with 112lbs so despite the recent drop in temperature it looked like the fish were still very active.

Looking through the recent results showed no particular area standing out although Andy the owner reckoned pegs 5/6 were producing consistently recently (more on this later)!

Incidentally, if you are interested, you can find the match results here.

On to the match then and the pegging was sorted by Andy and almost everyone had an empty peg one side or at least plenty of space.

Payout was 1st and 2nd overall with three section payouts.  As Ryan Radford doesn't go in the pools I did suggest that if Ryan won his section I would leave it to the discretion of the default section winner to hand over part of their spoils to him although this suggestion was met with a rather mediocre response!

As usual I drew last and was left with peg 6 (more on this later).

Being quite an open venue it's quite easy to see (or hear) who is catching and from my vantage point, halfway down the carpark bank I could see plenty of elastic coming from the pegs to my right, most notably Brian Shanks on peg 9, Chris Szakacs 2 down on 13 and Rich Jones to my right on 7.

Jason Bird was sandwiched between Brian and Chris on peg 11 and I couldn't see much elastic coming from his pole although I guessed he had formulated a cunning plan of attack and would come good as the match progressed ( he didn't  though which was a shame)!

At the top end of the lake, fortunately I couldn't see him, Simon Belcham was also off to a tremendous start on the temporary end peg 29.

Luckily for everyone around Simon's neighbour Lionel Legge was keeping score with regular updates of how many fish Simon had .... By the time he reached 84 most were bored!

Mr Shanks meanwhile was steadily putting fish in his net in between losing fish and snagging the far bank undergrowth.

On the other side of the lake Derek Lucas had gotten off to a flying start on peg 18  (yes, you read that correctly), as had Stevie Wynne on 22 and I could just about make out Darren North opposite me on the other temporary end(ish) peg 24 putting a few in his nets.

And that was pretty much how it ended up with Brian Shanks taking the honours with 74-2 just ahead of Simon Belcham's tremendous weight of 70-0.

Miraculously Chris Szakacs' estimated 40lbs suddenly grew into 68-15 for third place.

Section winners were Dean Malin's bitch, Alan Healey (by default), Chris Szakacs (also by default) and Stevie Wynne who won his section fair and square and never broke anything so a good day for him!

Not a good day for Jason Bird however as he was well and truly "chip-shopped" between Brian and Chris, oh dear!
I did take the trouble to find out the secrets of the top 3's success.
Simon's response was "clean living" which made sense really as I wasn't expecting a sensible answer.
Brian and Chris were a little more forthcoming....
Brian caught on double maggot over kindered micros, feeding approximately 15 micro's after four fish.  He caught mostly on the shelf with a few fish caught down the shelf.
Chris fished similarly but fed maggots and found lifting his rig a few inches would induce more positive bites.
Neither admitted to lashing bait in with a polecup, lesson learnt! 

See below for the scores on the doors.

Oh, and back to what happened on peg 6.  Not a lot to be honest!

I've always been a believer in the saying:

"Fail to prepare and prepare to fail" so with this in mind I sacrificed my normal Saturday dose of Ola Jordan on Strictly and set about making up some "special" F1 rigs which included ultra sensitive floats, light (0.12) line, size 16 Tubertini 808 hooks and lots of tiny no. 11 shot that could be spread around as required.

I also equipped a topkit with some light elastic so all was looking good.

I started the match feeding 2 spots at the bottom of the far shelf with micros and dead reds, a cup of the same went down the track and also in front of the empty platform to my left.

Starting at the bottom of the far shelf not much was happening apart from a few tiny skimmers on drm's and after flogging a dead horse for 30 minutes it became apparent that everyone else were catching in the shallow water on top of the far shelf which I hadn't accounted for in my clever plan of attack.

So a pot of feed was dumped up there while I fished around in the box for a suitable rig.

The best I could come up with was a shallow rig left over from the summer which had what looked like 0.18 line and a 14 B911 on but it would have to do and that was stuck on a topkit with 16 elastic in ( another leftover from the summer)!

I messed around with this rig up on the shelf with 2 or 3 drm's on the hook but it was a major struggle and was only producing small silvers and the odd half-decent suicidal carp/f1. Those that I did get seemed to be a bit bigger than what most people were catching but they were very few and far between and my best fish turned out to be a chub of about a pound and a half.

Corn produced sod all and the platform swim gave up a small skimmer and a missed bite.

I spent the last half hour down the track which produced a few tiny things and a last gasp decent carp in extra time just seconds before I called the "all out" ... Funny that!

Anyway the end result of that dismal performance was 20-8 for 15th (my fingers won't allow me to type the "L" word. But at least I never chickened out of weighing in and it was still an enjoyable match with plenty of bites for most of us which is what you want this time of year.
Next week we are on Woodlands at Trinity and at the moment we are a bit light on numbers so don't be shy.

Viaduct, Campbell, 10 November (15 pegs)

After a week of wind and rain the weathermen had promised a bit of a respite today and they were right and although the overnight temperature only just held above freezing we were blessed with a warm(ish) and clear day with hardly any wind for the second fixture of the Psv Winter Series.

For whatever reason however, maybe the weather conditions, the recent top up of cold rain or the start of the winter pellet ban, the fish decided to shut up shop for the day and it was tough going and not just for us as the matches on Cary and Lodge were also a struggle.

Apart from a few odd fish coming out around the lake, Mike Wilson had one early on the pole and Matt Taynton also snared one early on the waggler, most of us were resigned to the frustration of motionless floats and rod tips and even the silvers were refusing to cooperate.

As the day went on though a few pegs were showing signs of activity with Chris Szakacs finding a few fish on the 14m line down on 129 and both Matt Taynton and Will Dearlove (126 & 116) catching odd fish on the waggler with corn as was Brian Shanks on 119.

And that was pretty much how it finished up with Chris Szakacs (pictured below) winning fairly convincingly with 54-10 caught on meat at 14m.

Chris is on a bit of a roll at the moment having won or framed in every match he's fished recently. 

He has been doing well lately catching down the edge over groundbait although this week he tried something a little different and fed a Samsung Galaxy S3 down the edge. I tried to call him later to ask how he got on but unfortunately his phone was switched off!

Will Dearlove took second place with 41-0 caught on corn on the waggler and Brian Shanks was 3rd with a similarly caught 32-10. 

Silvers went to Simon Belcham with 13-6 from peg 112 which came as no surprise as Simon is the only club member with the patience to target fish that aren't capable of pulling a float all the way under for six hours.

Bob Warren did once go through a phase  of chasing silvers glory, no doubt under the influence of his midweek carer Mike Nicholls, but he has now regained his senses and even managed to catch proper fish on the lead today.

Seond in today's Silvers pool (yes, 2 silvers payouts today in the absence of Kev Jefferies) was Mark Radford with 9-2 from peg 110.

Full Result:

1. Chris Szakacs (peg 129) ...... 54-10
2. Will Dearlove (116) ....... 41-0
3. Brian Shanks (119) ....... 32-10
4. Ryan Radford (118) ....... 23-8
5. Matt Taynton (126) ........ 22-0
6. Bob Warren (130) .......... 20-8
7. Simon Belcham (112) ..... 13-6
8. Mark Radford (110) ........ 13-2
9. Steve Burgess (127) ....... 9-13
10. Derek Lucas (123) .......... 4-12
11. and 5 dnw's

Silvers:

1.  Simon Belcham ........ 13-6
2. Mark Radford ............ 9-2
3. Matt Taynton ............ 5-12
4. Derek Lucas ............. 4-12
5. Brian Shanks ............ 3-12
6. Chris Szakacs ........... 3-5
7. Steve Burgess ........... 2-9
8. Bob Warren ............... 2-0

Finally, just to clear up a bit of confusion, the match at Trinity on the 24th is on Woodlands and not Ash Pool and there are plenty of spaces available so book now to avoid dissappointment.

And also, could I have names please (and ideally) deposits for the Christmas match so that I know how many prizes to get.

Sedges, Tile, 03 November (10 pegs)

It was a bit of a chaotic start for me today as the fishing bus (which had been loaded up the night before) decided it wasn't going to start unless it had a new battery so a hasty phone call resulted in fishing bus no2 being brought into service much to the delight of its owner, Derek, who was waiting for me with his kit in his back lane.

Luckily for us though there were only three people in The Hilltop Cafe so we never had to wait for breakfast and we arrived at The Sedges just about in time to cobble together something resembling a draw.

Jamie wasn't about today as he was fishing the first of the "Teams of 3" at Avalon (see here for results) so Denise was in charge of the hut and she reckoned it was best to leave out the pegs at the bottom end as the fish had pushed up the lake a bit.

So with only ten fishing it was a simple case of every other peg going in which gave everyone plenty of room.

The match itself started slowly with a few odd fish coming out around the lake but nobody seemed to be setting the world on fire.

I had a small carp early on the tip as did Matt Taynton on peg 24. 

I could also see Brian Shanks opposite on 33 sneaking a few out and although fortunately, Chris Gay was out of sight hidden by the island on 37 apparently he was getting a few small carp on the method feeder.

And Steve Wynne was having a bit of an adventure in peg 22 hooking and losing fish on the shallow wag along the end bank.

Lionel Legge was also suffering a few mishaps in peg 30 but luckily he didn't manage to fall off his box (see pic below)

As the day went on though things picked up and the last 90 minutes saw the fish switch on and get their heads down.

Chris Szakacs in peg 31 ( yes he drew another corner peg ) had a late run of big fish from down the edge catching on worm over groundbait and Rich Jones was tackling some proper lumps from the margins in peg 26 after following some tactical advice from Tony Rixon and filling his margins in with caster ( it worked)!

Winner on the day was Chris Gay with 62-0 of small carp caught on the method with a popped up expander plus a few from down the edge on dead maggots,

Second was Chris, corner peg, Szakacs with 58-10, just ahead of Brian Shanks who had 57-10 and avoided framing by 1lb (must try harder).

Silvers, in the absence of Simon Belcham, went to Rich Jones with 7-4

As for myself, I drew peg 28 which I was happy with as this was the most consistent area last winter.

Last night I had a dream that I was catching huge bream that wouldn't fit in the landing net and it's very rare for me to dream about fishing so I took this as some kind of premonition and with that in mind I set up a rig for on the deck at 11m with light elastic and fed it at the start with 4 babies heads of sweet/fishy groundbait laced with a couple of big handfulls of micros.

I also put a feeder set-up together and I would have set up a waggler for on the deck further out but I didn't have time so I put together the shallow wag rod that was in the bag and set it at about 3 foot deep.

I never had a touch on that so never mind.

To start off I chucked the feeder out with a piece of punched meat in the general direction of the island and had a 2lb carp in the net after 10 minutes.

That was a "false dawn" though as it took almost an hour to add another.

By then it was about time to try the 11m skimmer line and with a soft pellet on the hook I was in to a small carp almost straight away followed by its brother and then it died so I plopped in another 2 babies heads (still thinking about my dream of a bream bonanza) and then hooked a proper carp that took an age to land on skimmer elastic. 

After that the 11m line died a death so I fed it again and left it to settle while I had a play about with the feeder/ lead which didn't produce.

Another look at 11m produced a 4oz skimmer (happy days) followed by 2 foul hooked (and lost) carp which completely killed the swim so I went down the edge with caster which only produced a few roach and not the anticipated crocs that Rich Jones was struggling with next door so, having run out of options, I went back to the 11m line and spent the last 15 minutes of the match wrestling a near-double figure fish which boosted my total to 34-2 and no trip to Curry Kings!

And on a lighter note I had a chat on the phone earlier with  Alan Healey.

He didn't fish our match today as he was fishing the open on the main lake at Shiplate with his sidekick Des Malin, practicing for the winter series, which Dean (Des) is currently winning with 2 wins out of 2 matches (plus a golden peg win).

Unfortunately though, they both crapped out today and to add insult to injury, they got drowned in torrential rain whereas 14 miles down the road at Sedges, other than a few light showers, it was quite pleasant.

I will be sleeping with a smile on my face tonight knowing that!

Full Result:

1. Chris Gay (peg 37) ....... 62-0
2. Chris Sakacs (31) ........ 58-10
3. Brian Shanks (33) ....... 57-10
4. Rich Jones (26) .......... 54-12
5. Matt Taynton (24) ....... 52-11
6. Lionel Legge (30) ........ 35-10
7. Steve Burgess (28) ..... 34-2
8. Ron Hardiman (35) ...... 28-2
9. Derek Lucas (39) ......... 21-12
10. Steve Wynne (22) ........ 12-0

Silvers:

1. Rich Jones ..... 7-4
2. Chris Szakacs .... 4-12
3. Brian Shanks / Derek Lucas .... 4-8

 

And finally, a reminder that the meeting this Tuesday is at The Horseshoe (not The Spinner) and I will be readily accepting monies for the Christmas Match prizes.

And finally finally, the winter pellet ban will be in force for Sundays match at Viaduct.

Psv v Frys, Shiplate Farm, all lakes (24 pegs)

This was our third and final inter-club for the year with Frys at Shiplate.
I'm not sure of the overall result of the first match back in July, I never got round to working it out (so that must have been a win for us).
The match in September was a draw so there was a lot of pride at stake today.
Unfortunately we were at a big disadvantage from the start as I had a few cancellations ....
Ryan Radford was out due to an England Under 21's trial (football, not fishing), which also meant dad, Mark, wouldn't be fishing or Uncle Adam either.
Aaron Britnell was also booked in but I was kind of expecting a "no show" as he's about as reliable as a pva condom and I received a Sunday morning text from the Bromley Heath drunk tank which counted Chris Gay out.
The upshot of that was that we had just 8 fishing against 16 of Frys big guns and local "ringers".
Unusually the pegging / draw was incident free with three sections consisting of 7 on Westpool, 8 on Hawthorns and 9 on the main lake giving everybody an empty peg either side.  Payout was 1st and 2nd overall with 3 section payouts and a Silvers payout in each section.
I usually have the last peg in the bucket but Dean Malin insisted and I wasn't going to argue so I took the second-last peg which was 9 (or 9a) and Dean was left with peg 1 on the main lake (how do they do it)!
As it happened the match fished really well with lots of close weights and, despite the unfavourable weather, everybody caught.
As expected, the top weights came from the main lake and no surprises then that the winner was Dean Malin with 73lbs 4oz.  Dean caught early on the method feeder to the island but caught most of his weight at 5/6m on corn and maggot (I think)!
Second was Brian Shanks on Main Lake 7 with 69-2 caught on corn down the edge.
Third place went to Andy Hembrow on Main Lake 13 with 61-10.
Silvers went to Ray Cooper with 21-3 from Main Lake 5.
And the all-important overall result went to Frys with 143 pts against 89 (after dropping their 8 worst results)!


Overall Result:

Sections:

Silvers:

As for myself, as mentioned earlier, I drew peg 9 , or 9a on the Main 

Lake (I even had a choice of pegs) and I was quite happy to find I had what must have been the most sheltered peg in the South West today which was a bit of good news considering the harsh weather we were expecting!

I was told by Dean and owner Steve to fish into the inlet channel to the left so I set up a lead rod with a banded 8mm for that and also to fish down the right margin with corn so I set up a rig for there and another for 13m straight out into open water.

Starting on the tip I didn't have to wait long for my first fish which was about 3lbs.  The next one was a lot bigger but came off and a few more followed but it wasn't hectic and I was getting a few liners and odd foulers which had me thinking the fish were coming up for the pellets as I was struggling to catapult them out in the wind.

I had a look on the 13m line but this was only good for small skimmers and a couple of small carp, one of which was hooked in the dorsal, which again had me thinking they were up in the water.

A look in the margin produced a 2lb skimmer and nothing else until 15 minutes from the end when I managed to sneak out my best fish of the day so I spent most of the match on the lead to end up with 47-10 which got me halfway in the section and 11th overall which wasn't too disapointing.

I did have to give Pete Sivell a pound as he beat me by 4oz but he should have beaten me by a lot more from peg 15 but I wasn't too worried as Alan Healy and Jason Bird's coins covered that slip-up.

Thinking about it I think I would have caught well on the waggler, shallow as I had the wind off my back and it would have been easy to fish but never mind!

Important Update!

Please note that for the foreseeable future the venue for our monthly meetings and the Christmas festivities has been changed to The Horseshoe at Siston Common. I hope this doesn't cause a problem for anyone but the Midland Spinner has had some "reliability problems" of late and the manager at The Horseshoe has assured me we will be well looked after so I'm happy with that.

(And it's within falling distance from my front door)!

If anyone has a problem with this please let me know.

Last Sundays match was scheduled for Landsend Match Lake but due to low numbers Mike thought it would be better to have it on the Speci Lake as he reckoned the Match Lake would fish crap with too much space for the fish to hide in.

As far as I'm concerned nobody knows a fishery better than it's owner so I was happy to go along with that, especially as I wasn't fishing it anyway.

I haven't seen the full result as yet but it was a repeat of the previous result at Harescombe with Chris (corner peg) Szakacs taking top honours from peg 33 with 127lbs ish and Lionel Legge taking second with 80ish from peg 31.

Thanks to Simon Belcham for reprising his role as match organiser for the day although I suspect he secretly enjoyed it.

I will put the results up as soon as I get them back.

And finally for those who are missing Roy Garland's weekly fishing page in the Evening Post (apparently the powers-that-be decided there wasn't enough space in the paper or enough demand for it), Roy has created a new website.

The address for it is http://www.anglingpress.co.uk

And even more finally some of you may be wondering why I wasn't fishing Sunday so wonder no more!

I managed to invite myself to an end of series match at Rolfs Lake in Oxford.

As a first timer at the venue I was the butt of much abuse (nothing new there) and was expecting to be going home with my tail between my legs and my pole in a million pieces but it didn't quote turn out as bad as that as I drew peg 2 ( a corner as peg 3 is redundant) and with all my elastics tightened up enough to play tunes on them I managed 9 carp for 86-ish and even managed to pick up second in my section albeit by default.

My last fish swam behind the keepnets and after a bit of comedy I managed to thread the topkit behind and it was still on but despite much pulling I couldn't get it's head up and the hook pulled out which was a shame as it was well over 20lbs and would have won me the section and got me 3rd but I guess nobody ever won anything with lost fish and if that was the case Adam Caswell would win every Psv match!

Harescombe Match Lake, 13 October (18 pegs)

Last week's "match" was on Wildmarsh (Trinity Waters) but the turnout was a tad disappointing with only 8 fishing, which was a shame as it is a good venue but it's not easy fishing which probably put a few off.
I couldn't make it myself as I was away for the weekend in Krakow but the match was run very professionally in my absence as can be seen from the "weigh-sheet" below!

I've only mentioned it as Matt Taynton (sixpack) won the match and with it the £100 golden peg with 48-7 from peg 23 and that included the top silvers weight of 32-8 so well done that man (and his worms).

Anyhow, this was our third trip up the M5 to Harescombe.  The last time we were up there was back in early September which I missed due to being away on holiday but the match was won by Andy Curry with 81-8 from peg 3 and the back up weights were close with only 15lbs or so separating the top 6 anglers.
Bearing in mind that fish over a pound are a bonus that's a lot of fish and as you can see from the results below there was no particular area that was more productive which was the intention when the lake was dug a few years back.
Plenty of bites all year round and no features to hold the fish, although that has changed a bit since the landslip that filled in pegs 26 to 30 which has created two end pegs but the owners have re-jigged the pegs on either end of the lake to compensate for this.

Our first visit up there was back in February which was memorable for two reasons, firstly that it was won by myself and it was the worst weather conditions I have ever fished in which is probably the biggest drawback as the lake is very exposed, perched halfway up a hill, in a wind and rain tunnel.
(see here for the highlights of that particular match)
Which brings me round to today's match as although I had been informed in the week by our resident meteorologist, Chris Gay that we were going to have a dry day with little wind it turned out to be quite horrendous, extremely wet and windy but luckily the fish weren't put off by it.
Winner on the day was Chris Szakacs (and another golden peg win) with 75-12 from peg 2.
Chris caught on corn and soft pellet over caster and micro but it was very close as around the other side of the lake, Lionel Legge (steeplejack??) on peg 21 weighed in 74-9, losing out by 1 or 2 fish.
Lionel caught mainly on dead maggot fished shallow.
Third was Andy Curry with 70-4 from end peg 29 followed by Jason Bird with 62-2 from the other end peg 23.
It's worth mentioning though that there was a bit of a cock-up with the draw which meant there was an extra peg in the bag and as a result peg 24 wasn't drawn giving young Jason three pegs to himself (kind of) so he could have, and should have, done a lot better!
I won't bore you with a blow by blow account of my match as it didn't really go all that well and worse still I ended up adding to the pound coin collections of Pete Sivell, Jason Bird and Alan Healey but by way of a small consolation  I managed to  pick one up from my neighbour for the day, Derek Lucas and would have had another from my other neighbour, Chris Gay if I had have taken up his offer at the start of the match.
Entertainment today was provided by Kev Jefferies and Chris Gay.
For some strange reason Kev's topkit gave up the ghost on a small F1 and ended up in four pieces like a comedy magician's wand while his travelling partner Chris had his 14m butt section collapse on him presumably under the weight of the rain on his pole, the joys of buying second-hand Maver from eBay no doubt, but on the plus side "Rixons Repairs" should be busy this week!

Full Result:

And finally this week, a spot the difference competition (with thanks to Rich Jones for the inspired bit of photography)

Psv v Frys, Shiplate Farm, all lakes

 

I thought I'd stick this picture on because I found it quite amusing, in fact I want one (Steve / Carol)!  Although judging by some of the performances today maybe it should read "I'd rather be Knitting or Playing Golf".

Anyway, 22 fishing today with all three lakes to choose from so loads of room for everybody and it was looking to be a good day with decent temperatures and a gentle breeze putting a nice ripple on the lakes, not very autumnal at all.

Payout was top 2 overall and 2 silvers (still no sign of Kev Jefferies) and a section on each lake which spread the pools money about a bit and gave everybody a good chance of picking up something.

The overall result would be decided on points, 1 point for the winner etc so the lowest points score would win less the bottom 2 PSV results as we had 2 more fishing (somehow I forgot to mention the points scoring system)! 

From my home for the day (peg 5 on the main lake) I could only see three other people on the opposite bank and a bit of Chris Gay on peg 1 (which was enough thanks), and I could hear Pete Sivell about 500yds away over on Westpool 15.

But I had no idea what was happening behind me on Hawthorns as all I could hear was ducks and geese arguing on the stock pond behind so I didn't have much idea of what was going on.

As it happened, all that hard work scratching about for bites down the docks on Thursday evenings must have paid off for the top 3 as Andy Curry took top honours from 15 on the main lake with 79lbs 14oz caught mostly on paste at 13m and later 5m.

Following him was Alan "have you got some meat Dean" Healey with 78-10 from Hawthorns 5, caught on .... no point in asking but probably Dean's meat as Alan is very fond of a bit of Dean's meat!!

And in third place was Jason Bird with 71-10 from Hawthorns 13.  I've no idea what Jason caught on as he was too busy gloating over his pound that he robbed off me but I got one back off Pete to cover it which was a relief.

Top silvers went to Mike Wilson with 16-2 consisting of a bream plus skimmers caught on maggot over groundbait from peg 3 on the main lake.

That was followed by Paul Chapman with 15-6 from peg 14, again on the main lake.

Sections went to Matt Taynton on Westpool 10 with 68-12, Jason Bird on Hawthorns (by default) with 71-10  and Mark Radford on Main Lake 7 with 57-8 (again by default) which included the biggest fish of the day, a 14lbs 4oz common that must have wandered out of Chris Gay's peg (peg 1) where most of the proper fish on that side of the lake tend to hang out.

And the end result was ..... A DRAW! Probably due to my inspirational points system but anyway 106 points each which was a fitting result as the weights were close across all the lakes with a couple of exceptions.

As for my day, as already mentioned, I was drawn on peg 5 which was one of the last 2 pegs in the bucket, Dean drew Westpool 3 which he was welcome to as I was hoping for the lake because I've always struggled on the canals.

Apparently it was a good draw with lots of open water to go at and the plan (according to Dean) was to go at it with the waggler and method feeder with 8mm pellet and leave the pole in the van (should have left the pole in the van).

I had a waggler rod already set up but the method feeder is still a bit new-fangled for me so that was substituted for a lead rod.  Both were paced out on the bank and clipped up so they'd be fishing in the same spot (very technical stuff), and I also set up a rig for on the deck at 13m as Andy Curry reckoned the legendary bream could move onto that line later in the day and I set up a margin rig.

After feeding the 13 m line with four balls of groundbait / micro I went out on the lead and commenced the 8mm pellet barrage which started to produce indications.  In fact the tip was just moving an inch or so backwards and forwards for ages which I assumed was a skimmer "licking" the pellet so I got fed up of waiting for a proper pull and struck but instead of the expected skimmer the rod bent double and line started clicking off the spool and a very strange fight ensued and I was starting to think I had a monstrous bream on or maybe even one of the resident sterlets which got my palms sweating a bit but it turned out to be a carp hooked neatly in the dorsal.

Further chucks with the lead produced only liners and lost foul-hookers so the wag went out but that was hard work as the crosswind was dragging the float about and the ducks were a nightmare. 

Swapping about between the lead and the wag kept a few odd fish coming to the net including a proper bream but liners, foul-hookers and ducks were getting annoying so I got tempted by the 13m pole line.

Unfortunately this line was only any good for a few hand-sized skimmers and the margin wasn't happening so I spent the rest of the match on the wag with meat pulled onto the band which  seemed to work better than the pellet and throwing handfulls of maggots into the margins was keeping the ducks occupied. I think I was starting to get the hang of it by the end of the match and I was getting fish swirling on the feed but too late as usual.

The end result was 51-11 and another mid-table nowhere result much to the amusement of Jason Bird.

Overall:

Sections:

Points:

Membership

I quite often get phone calls from people interested in joining the club be it new people or former members who want to come back but because the club has got quite popular over the years we have had to cap the membership around 38 and that fills up quite quickly. 

The reason for the capped membership is so as not to have to have to run matches on a "first come, first served" basis over the phone especially as I work 6 days a week on building jobs and don't have immediate access to my booking-in sheet. Plus the fact that I have a memory like a sieve which is why it's always better to text me and why we have always encouraged people to book in at the monthly meetings.

Secondly, because I have to book matches 18 months to 2 years in advance (especially at places like Viaduct) I don't want to be guessing how many will be fishing a match 2 years away!

In other words, I try my best not to have to turn anyone away from a match although it does happen rarely.

On the plus side, this year we've introduced "guests" where a non-member can fish if there is space available but this is limited to one match for the season and one "guest" per member.

Although we have a membership around 38 I've found that we have a "core" group of about 10 who fish every week.

A few more, (some are also members of other clubs) fish once or twice a month, and then there are some that fish a couple of matches a year and the Christmas match. This means that the turnout averages around 15 which on the venues we fish is about right.

So if you're reading this and would like to join, the best thing is to come to the AGM around April / May time to avoid dissappointment.

Sedges, Brick Lake, 22 September (19 pegs)

Unfortunately for most of us today it was a tale of two halves as other than Rich Jones on peg 5 who started the match like a pro from peg 8 on the pellet wag, the left bank that's shared with Tile lake was a bit of a struggle.  There was no wind on the lake at all today to push the fish around so maybe it was down to the extra activity on that bank with pleasure anglers walking (and cycling) up and down or just the quality of the anglers, who knows!

At the start around half the field went out on the wag and the rest were out on the long pole but nobody was setting the world on fire other than Rich Jones who had 3 quick fish on the waggler. 

Matt Taynton on peg 18, after a fruitless 30 minutes out at 14m on the deck dropped back onto his short line with worm and caster and started catching a few carp and skimmers and I could see elastic coming out further up the lake from what looked like Darren North on 16

As it turned out Matt never really looked back and caught steady all day on the short line and despite loosing a fair number of foul-hookers he won the match comfortably with 172-2 which is a new record for Brick lake and not a bad days fishing for the cost of a pint of caster and KFC for his kids. Apparently he was digging his garden on Saturday and told his  2 daughters that if they wanted chicken with their chips they had to spend all day collecting worms!

Matt is pictured below "sword-fencing" with 5 sections of pole and an angry carp.

Runner up was Darren North on 16 with 97-9 also caught on the short line but on meat.
Chris Szakacs was third from peg 13 with 83-5. Chris had struggled for most of the match but had a really good last hour catching fish to over 14lbs on worm over groundbait in the margins.
Silvers went the way of Alan Healy with 30-5 of mostly skimmers caught on soft pellet over groundbait from peg 4.
Matt Taynton was second with 26-10 which meant Matt Challenger took the second Silvers money by default with 23-12 from peg 14.
(2 Silvers payouts today as Kev Jefferies wasn't with us)!
As for me, I drew peg 19 which is a peg I've won off before so I was happy and despite the flat calm conditions I was still expecting to catch on the wag (and straight lead) out towards the cable that powers the aerators that runs down the middle of the lake.
I also set up a shallow rig and a rig for down the margin at the bottom of the shelf.  I set up a duplicate rig for that line but it was too short but I kept it anyway as it would do to push up the shelf.
On the all-in I fed the margin line with a couple of cups of groundbait with dead maggots and micros (properly dead this week) and went out on the lead while feeding a barrage of 8mm's which was expected to get the fish queueing up  for the pellet wag.
After 15 minutes the tip hadn't moved an inch and thrashing about on the wag was equally unsuccessful but I had noticed a few fish were cruising about in pole range so I switched to the shallow rig at 14m with an 8mm on the band and feeding 6s .... nothing!
I then had an indication which was missed but the pellet was gone (and the band with it) so rather than set up a new rig I stuck a piece of meat on and hooked a carp straight away followed by a skimmer around 1½ lbs  but they weren't staying and I was waiting ages between fish.
By mid-day a few fish were crashing about on the wag line but despite my best efforts they didn't want to know that and I wasn't happy with reeling the waggler through the pole line so I scrapped it and stuck with the long wait on the 14m line.
I had a look down the edge with a bunch of maggots on the hook but that was only good for micro-skimmers but eventually a decent carp took it followed by more "milk-bottle tops" so I stuck a piece of corn on which produced a double-figure orange and black koi.
The next fish tore off at 100mph and made it almost to the centre of the lake before breeching like a whale and snapping my line just above the hook.
One more decent fish followed before the all out and the end result was 56-6 which was a decent weight on the day but a proper battering from Matt next door.

But on the upside I got a pound back off Alan Healy which was still warm from last week.

Full Result:

1. Matt Taynton (peg 18) ....... 172-2
2. Darren North* (16) .......... 97-9
3. Chris Szakacs (13) ........... 83-5
4. Brian Shanks ................... 77-5
5. Rich Jones** (8) .............. 71-5
6. Matt Challenger (14) ........ 67-8
7. Steve Burgess (19) .......... 56-6
8. Mark Radford (2) ............. 54-7
9. Adam Caswell (9) ............ 54-11
10. Alan Healy (4) ................. 39-5
11. Mike Wilson (11) ............. 35-3
12. Derek Lucas (10) ............. 29-14
13. Ryan Radford (15) ........... 19-12
14. (not so) Rocket Ron Hardiman (7) .... 15-6
15. and a few dnw's

*golden peg
**silver peg

Silvers:

1. Alan Healy (4) ........... 30-5
2. Matt Taynton (18) ...... 26-10
3. Matt Challenger (14) ... 23-12
4. Mark Radford (2) ....... 10-1
5. Ron Hardiman (7) ...... 10-0
6. Chris Szakacs (13) ..... 8-8
7. Mike Wilson (8) ......... 8-7
8. Darren North (16) ..... 6-6
9. Adam Caswell (9) ..... 5-5
10. Steve Burgess (19) ... 4-4
11. Rich Jones (8) .......... 4-0
12. Ryan Radford (15) .... 3-6
13. Brian Shanks (12) .... 2-12
14. Derek Lucas (10) ...... 2-5

Next week is at Shiplate and we have the whole venue with Fry's so there is plenty of room at the moment and it's fishing well with Sunday's open being won with 100-10 from peg 6 on Westpool and 2nd was 84-9 from peg 6 on Hawthorn.

Landsend, Match Lake, 15 September (15 pegs)

Fifteen fishing today which was a good number although one more would have been ideal in that the cost of the lake would have been covered.
The weather forecast was not good at all with strong winds and rain forecast for most of the day but we were lucky in that the wind seemed to blowing over the top of us and the rain wasn't as bad as I'd expected, at least not until we were heading home when it became a bit more biblical so we got away lightly there.
Some familiar faces on familiar pegs today with Alan on 13, Will on 24 and Kev Jefferies on 19 (again) and presumably keen to improve on his dismal performance from this peg last time round.
Those of you that know this lake will be aware that there are more fish in peg 19 than there is water but anyway .....
Following the all-in, which was on time this week as I had all my rigs made up the night before, it was apparent that Adam Caswell was catching a few by all the splashing and bullshit coming from peg 1, other than that, Kev Jefferies was having a "torrid" time sticking hooks into various parts of fish across towards the island and also Bob Warren in 22 was sneaking a few from across although, as seems to be the norm here, he was foulhooking more than he was landing.
I couldn't see much else from my vantage point but apparently Lionel Legge was catching well on meat short over on peg 3 which was unfortunate because it was the golden peg and I'd said at the draw that if anyone managed to win the match from peg 3 I'd double the golden peg money (great idea)!
As it turned out the lake had fished well below par, maybe because there had been some cold nights previously.  First to weigh in was Adam Caswell on peg 1 with 52-4 but that was soon eclipsed by Lionel who dumped 66-10 onto the scales which looked like it was going to be hard to beat but luckily (for my pocket) Rocket Ron Hardiman saw that off with 71-8 from peg 15.
Simon Belcham took the Silvers honours from peg 9 with an impressive mixed net of maggot caught fish for 20-10.
If it was any consolation, the Saturday open hadn't fished that well either, the results from that one can be found ... click here
As for me, I'd based my plans on a "catch anything" day which meant feeding the margins and the track with micros and "stunned" maggots in groundbait.
The maggots were supposed to be dead after their spell in the freezer but once thawed most of them re-incarnated themselves hence "stunned".
I didn't have to wait long for a bite over the groundbait down the track but the strike didn't connect with anything for the first 2 feet so needless to say that one was neatly hooked in the pelvic fin but he came in after giving me the runaround.  That line didn't produce much after but the margin down towards the empty peg 20 gave up a few perch and seeing as both Bob and Kev either side of me were loosing a few across I had a try at 16m where the piss-takers were waving their tails at me.
  This resulted in a few fish, some hooked in the mouth, but it was hard work and after loosing a monstrous ghostie I gave in and fished the rest of the match down the edge which produced a few more proper carp on the stunned maggots for a final total of 49-7.

Full Result:

1. Rocket Ron Hardiman** (peg 15) .... 71-8
2. Lionel Legge* (3) ........ 66-10
3. Mark Radford (18) ....... 61-12
4. Alan Healy (13) ........... 60-11
5. Brian Shanks (12) ....... 57-9
6. Adam Caswell (1) ........ 52-4
7. Chris Szakacs (16) ...... 49-7
8. Steve Burgess (21) ..... 49-7
9. Will Dearlove (24) ....... 45-0
10. Ryan Radford (7) ........ 34-12
11. Simon Belcham (9) ..... 26-10
12. Bob Warren (22) ......... 25-2
13. Garth Creese (11) ....... 12-12
14. and 2 dnw's

*golden peg
**silver peg

Silvers:

1. Simon Belcham ..... 20-10
2. Alan Healy .......... 13-5
3. Steve Burgess ..... 4-2
4. Lionel Legge ....... 3-0

It's probably worth a mention that one of those dnw's was Kev Jefferies on 19 who packed up early after yet another very torrid day and sloped off for an early bath looking a bit downbeat.
I suspect he will be off to fish the open at Windmill next Sunday as he's good there and kicked Tony Rixon and Shaun Townsend's asses either side of him in a recent match there, so good luck with that Kev!

Catch up time / clearing the backlog!

Yes, I know it's been a while but I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks and then to add insult to injury I got lumbered with some necessary domestic repairs.  Well the shower has been leaking for years now and besides the slight inconvenience of turning the downstairs lighting circuit off to have a shower the living room ceiling was looking like it was about to go through at any moment.
That just leaves painting the woodwork on the stairs which isn't a rush job as there has been masking tape on the handrail since the 90's so a few more months won't hurt!
Anyway, first up in the backlog was a match at Trinity (Woodlands) way back on 18 August.
It was another glorious sunny day with very little wind and prior to the start there were fish showing all over the lake which looked promising.
For whatever reason though, most likely down to the bright calm conditions, the carp were cagey on the shallow pole line and the way forward seemed to be with paste.
Pete Sivell did the honours from a flat clam and unfancied peg 2 with 108lbs on (you guessed it) .... paste.
Second on the day was Chris (2 pieces of worm) Gay with 77-11 from peg 27 followed by Brian Shanks on golden peg 8 who staged a legendary comeback after a fruitless first half of the match to weigh in 71-11.
Silvers was a tie between Simon Belcham and Chris Gay both with 11-0 although Simon collared the money by default.
I had yet another bad day after drawing peg 13.  I struggled to catch shallow on the pole so switched to trying to catch skimmers on meat which was semi successful but they were small fish.  I had tails waving in my right margin but I hadn't plumbed it up and just went in there with meat on my adapted shallow rig.  If I had have plumbed the margin I would have realised that there was a complicated network of tree roots under the surface and saved myself a whole lot of heartache!
I ended up with 8-1 of silvers and 26-2 of carp for a measly 34-3 which was a lot closer to the bottom of the weigh sheet than the top and meant handing over pound coins to both Alan Healy and a very smug Pete Sivell.
I was even beaten battered off the next peg by Alan Healy's apprentice, Garth Creese, who has not long taken up fishing matches and caught mostly plopping a method feeder in the margins which I'm not knocking because he did a lot better than me and he's built like a brick shithouse!
Speaking to Misha's bodyguard and resident expert, Tom after the match he seemed to think the pellet wag would have been the way to go, he may have been right but who knows as I don't recall anyone using it on the day.

Next up was the "much anticipated" inter-club with Fry's at Durleigh res.
Merv Sivell loves this place and had enthusiastically talked me into this one and to be fair I've heard the fishing (especialy for the roach and bream) is awesome but I had a sneaking suspicion that we weren't going to have a very good turnout from psv with mutterings about horrendous walks to pegs etc.
As it happened we had 2 turn out for psv and one of those was a "ringer".
Lee's blog from this match can be found ..... click here
To be honest I would have been more than happy to have fished it myself as I've never even seen the place but unfortunately I was in Skiathos at the time and I have absolutely no idea of the result!

The following weekend was on the match lake at Harescombe near Stroud.
30-ish pegs in an oval around a central island at around 14m with no features to speak of and stuffed full of small carp and f1's averaging 1 to 2lbs so a nice and fair venue where you need a lot of fish to do well.
Winner on the day was Andy Curry with 81-8 (peg 3) followed by Mark Radford with 73-2 (peg 15).
Another Fry's defector, Jason Bird was 3rd (he's took my advice on board and seems to be trying a bit harder) with 67-13 (peg 9)
Alan Healy was 4th with 66-12 (peg 5).
 I've just been through the results and in actual fact Ryan Radford was 3rd with 71-2 (peg 29) so perhaps Jason Bird really ought to try that litle bit harder!

Next up was Walters Lake at South Cerney.  This was our 3rd visit here and my first match back from holiday so I was hoping for a good day today as the previous two visits had been disappointing (crap).
Walters consists of four interconnected canal-style "lanes" set out in a in a "w" shape and the Saturday opens regularly produce weights of 200lbs plus
This time round we were on the Blue lane which is supposed to be the best one and there was another club match on White behind us.
To cut a long story short, it fished crap (again)!
Mark Radford took the honours with 63-8 from peg 18 caught on pellet.  He was struggling for the first few hours until the fish eventually turned up in force.
Chris Szakacs repeated his previous performance here by taking 2nd place (again) with 62-12 from peg 8.
Third place went to Pete Uzzell from end peg 19 fishing worm up towards the corner and weighing in 59-15, closely followed by Brian Shanks with 58-0 from peg 16.
Brian also collared the Silvers with 5-10.
Ironically peg 1 (best peg on the lake) never got drawn.  The following Saturday produced a new venue record of 400lbs-odd  so no prizes for guessing which peg produced this weight!
My day was grim to say the least. After nearly five hours I had nothing bar one lost fish that I'd hooked on meat swinging a long shallow rig out as far as I could get towards the far bank at 16m. Once hooked it had trashed my rig in the undergrowth!  I managed to avoid the dreaded blank with a couple of late fish from the margins and that was heart-stopping as on my peg (bridge peg 11) they like to take you round the corner and under the bridge to freedom so it's a bit of a tug-of-war even with the small ones.
One day I'm sure we'll get this venue right on the right day but at £8.50 for a large brekkie and a coffee I'll be taking sandwiches!
  

Quick reminder

I won't be around for a couple of weeks so if anyone wants to fish Durleigh Res this weekend Frys are organising this one so for more details speak to Merv Sivell on 07811 746484.

For the match at Harescombe next weekend, Alan is looking after this one 07846 581971

Normal service will resume after that at Walters (South Cerney) on 8 Sept, not forgetting of course there is a meeting at the Spinner in Warmley on Tuesday 3rd.

In the meantime I'm at Gatwick and about to get on a plane to Skiathos.

Landsend, John's Lake, 11 August (11 pegs)

Only 11 fishing today so plenty of room for everyone but the downside was there would only be one payout in the silvers.  This wasn't too much of a problem however, as nobody was actually fishing for them, I think Alan Healy may have spent some time targeting silvers but never made a very good job of it but then he never made a very good job of fishing for the carp either!
Pete Uzzell had a flying start in corner peg 41 catching two fish almost straight away on caster as did his opposite number Ryan Radford in 70.
But the winner by a long way was the Westerleigh pools rapist, Brian Shanks with 120-11 from peg 61, which was just short of Mike Duckett's ambitious forecast of what would be required to win (130lbs).  Obviously Mike has never fished a psv match as Brian's nearest rival (Ryan Radford) was 54lbs short of his weight with a far more realistic 64-11.
For the record Brian caught mainly on meat on his topkit plus one section straight out in front and not one single pellet was used in anger.  Brian got through 1½ tins of meat and probably would have caught a lot more if he had spent another pound on an extra tin (he sold the other ½ tin to Ron in exchange for use of his meat-cutter).
As at his previous landslide victory at Landsend Brian also won the silvers with an impressive 5lbs of accidental crucians which meant Mark Radford picked up the silvers money by default with 4-11 from peg 46 (awesome)!
I won't bore anybody with the details of my miserable performance although it wasn't bad enough to stop me taking another pound off Alan Healy which seems to be getting easier each week.
Walking back past Tony's match on Match Lake I couldn't see any pole elastic or hear any splashing (or any noise at all for that matter), just quite a few very serious looking faces so it will be interesting to see how they got on when Tony eventually gets round to updating his blog!

..... Well it seems I jumped the gun a bit there as there were 10 weights over 100lbs in Tony's match so I guess we are crap after all.  Perhaps I should leave it a week or so to update this blog in future, but last night when I got home I had the house to myself and a bit of peace and quiet to get on with it so Tony's comment (below) isn't too far from the truth.

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (peg 61) .... 120-11
2. Ryan Radford (70) .......... 64-11
3. Will Dearlove (50) .......... 57-10
4. Pete Uzzell (41) ............. 54-0
5. Mark Radford (46) .......... 46-10
6. Adam Caswell (58) ......... 43-13
7. Steve Burgess (68) ........ 36-11
8. Rocket Ron* (51) .......... 30-13
9. Alan Healy (42) ............ 30-10
10. Garth Creese** (55) ..... 16-5
11. Derek Lucas (65) .......... 11-0

*golden peg
**silver peg

Viaduct, Cary, 04 August (24 pegs)

Unfortunately this week I've had a few minor complaints brought to my attention so, seeing as I like to see Psv as one big happy family, I've tried to deal with them as best I can.
Firstly, it seems there were a couple of inaccuracies in my reporting from the match at Trinity two weeks ago so to put the record straight ....
Simon (Raffles / Pink Panther) Belcham's impressive silvers net which consisted of 21lbs 12oz of roach was not actually caught on hemp and tares but was in fact caught on wheat. And also in that same report I wrote that "Darren [North] did catch well in his margins for the last hour or so" when in actual fact he didn't and he caught all his fish on pellet shallow (like what Shanksy did)!
Secondly, there was a criticism that when I run the matches there's only ever one payout for silvers and yet when I have a day off there are two silvers payouts which is a bit of a blow when you've been second in the silvers three times and not picked up.  Well that one's even easier to deal with because as far as I'm concerned, if you choose to waste out-and-out flier carp pegs fishing for roach fry and slimy milk bottle-tops (peg 19 at Landsend for example) then you're fishing the wrong matches but, in order to keep everybody happy, I made a special effort today to pay out three places in the silvers which was an unfortunate shame as Kev Jefferies couldn't make today's match because he was at Thorpe Park ... bugger (as Mike Nicholls would say)!
And lastly, it was pointed out that although there were only ten members present at the July meeting there were 24 fishing today which doesn't quite add up mathematically seeing as booking into matches is supposed to be done at the meetings but I guess the other 14 were on holiday and never had any phone signal or something so .... this month's meeting is on Tuesday at the usual venue (Midland Spinner, Warmley) where I will be taking bookings for the coming month's matches.
[deep breath] and anyway back to today ..........

And this past week Viaduct had been fishing well with matches being won with well over 200lbs, on Wednesday Viaduct had hosted the Preston (Bait-Tech) Uk champs and (copied from the Preston website)

"Back on the other 3 lakes and it was clear that Viaduct was showing people why it’s renowned as the mecca it is. The fish had turned up and decided to take on the anglers at their own game. Everywhere you looked there were people wrestling with these huge creatures and it was clear to see that the experience of the anglers on the UK were really showing through as huge weights of fish were amassed all over the complex.

Going into the last two hours it was so tight and any number of anglers could in fact run out on top.

 

At the all out some sighed.. most however sighed as the fatigue of munter hunting had taking it out of them. Everyone felt sorry for Paul and Steve as they started the weigh in. this was going to take some time as most of the field had caught a weight of fish.

Rumours were rife as people started to realise what they had caught.

 

It was some time before all the sheets were collated. Adam Wakelin had continued catching all match and landed a staggering 60 carp for a unbelievable 279.6lb. With everyone thinking it was a done deal and Adam had won, Andy Power put an amazing 27 carp on the scales for rod creaking 279…. Wait for it… 279.5lb. just an ounce short. John Arthur then started tipping masses of fish on the scales and ended in 3^rd overall with colossal 242lb. these weight were far from alone though and more and more people recorded some awe inspiring catches. Grant won Lodge Lake with 200 exactly. Such was the quality of the fishing you had to feel for those who had caught a massive weight and suffered a low score at the same time. Si Fry is one example of many who weighed 185lb only managing 5^th in his section…

There were 200lb weights all over and 10 double tons were recorded. Not only that but as well as this there were another 28 weights between 100-and 200lb! Over half the field recording a ton plus. This gave the average weight per head of exactly 100lb per man throughout the match. A new UK Champs Record and one that I’m sure will stand for a long long time.

Steve and Paul of Viaduct clearly run a fantastic ship there. looking after large numbers of big fish is a hard job. Getting them to a standard of health and fitness they have to produce as match of this spectacle is incredible and certainly testament to their hard work."

Apparently Steve Ringer was on 109 and his 125lbs  never even came anywhere in his section (more on this later). However, with 24 on the lake and a change in the weather nobody was expecting weights like those and the curse of psv  made doubly sure of that.

Colin Ellaway (below) was the only angler with a weight in excess of the ton weighing in fourteen carp plus a few accidentals for a total of 132-10 from peg 81.

Colin caught on the lead with pellet chucked up the edge of the spit and later down in the right corner margin.

Colin's nearest rival was Keith Ray with 97-2 from peg 86 followed by son-in-law Will Dearlove on 96 with 84-10.

Winner in the silvers was Fry's table tennis superstar of the seventies, Bob Warren (who really doesn't target silvers) with 26-12 from peg 95 which meant Keith's van was a happy place to be with all three of it's occupants having picked up in the pools.

Second in the silvers payout was Darren North on peg 78 with 19-0.

As for myself, I drew peg 109, a peg I've never had before but the shortest walk on Cary so that was a bonus.  It's a bit of a marmite peg that looks inviting but isn't a top choice for many, including Chris Gay, although Chris dnw'd today on 101 so he probably would have been happier with 109 today.  

On arrival at the peg there were fish swirling in the right margin and a few bow-waves in the open water so I was happy and secretly hoping to outdo Steve Ringer's weight off the peg (some hope) which would have made an interesting blog update and got a few mentions in the pub on Tuesday night!

Paul in the shop had told me to fish 16m up the left edge and 10m down the right into a small break in the reeds a bit past where an overflow pipe runs into the lake.

I only went 14m though as I'd taken off my 4 & 5 sections and put a power 5 section on instead.  Unfortunately the left edge was full of underwater branches and other obstacles  and looked a bit of a tackle graveyard but after an hour of fruitless chucks around with a shallow waggler out in front and a solitary skimmer on the lead with 8mm pellet while the initial pots of meat and pellet were settling it didn't take long before the float went under and an angry carp headed up the bank and under the tree towards peg 74.  After a bit of a tug of war that fish gave in but after 5 minutes ploughing around in front of me the hook pulled just when it was about to surrender.

A  look down the right produced nothing other than a lot of float jiggling as the resident roach sucked on my meat (as they say) so it was back over to the right where beast number 2 exploded off up the margins and straight under the tree (a pattern was emerging).  Like it's brother, this one was also hauled out from under the branches but then kited off to the right and headed towards Adam Caswell on peg 105.  I eventually got it under control and nearly knackered out and then it decided to dive into the reeds at my feet.  The second time it did it it gave it everything and the hook pulled .... 2-0 to the carp and I was getting near having a Chris Szakacs head-in-hands moment.  Number 3 was slightly smaller (single figures) and not a fighter so I finally had one in the net.  

The right hand margin only produced a roach and a mini skimmer and then the left produced a skimmer and went dead which signalled the start of a 3 hour quiet spell during which I tried every trick I know to get a bite including the "pour a coffee trick" and the "hunt around the bag for a chocolate bar trick", neither worked although I did manage 1 carp on the lead.

Eventually, with 45 minutes left, the float went under for the 100th time in the right margin but this time it wasn't a roach as there was a huge swirl and the elastic shot off across the peg under the tree to the left and beyond, and kept going until the line snapped.

Four fish followed from the same spot before the all-out which were all landed.

The end result was a meagre 51-13 for nowhere but it was better than Alan Healy's  40lb and Paul Reed's "2 twenties" and 7lbs of silvers that went 35-10 so it wasn't all doom and gloom with 2 pound coins back in my pocket, plus Chris Szakacs buggered off without his section winnings (by double default) so the trip to Curry Kings was covered ... happy days!

Full Result:

1. Colin Ellaway (peg 81) ..... 132-10
2. Keith Ray (86) ............ 97-2
3. Will Dearlove (96)* ..... 84-10
4. Mike Wilson (97) ......... 81-14
5. Brian Shanks (80)* ....... 71-5
6. Rich Jones (98) ........... 60-2
7. Ron Hardiman (103)* ... 58-12
8. Adam Caswell (105) .... 55-14
9. Steve Burgess (109) .... 51-13
10. Chris Szakacs (85)* ...... 49-7
11. Ray Bazeley (100) ....... 47-8
12. Bob Warren (95) ......... 44-12
13. Alan Healy (87) ........... 40-13
14. Darren North (78) ....... 39-12
15. Ryan Radford (76) ....... 39-10
16. Steve Wynne (79) ....... 37-15
17. Mark Radford (102) ..... 37-14
18. Paul Reed (90) ............ 35-10
19. Paul Haines (74) ......... 30-12
20. Garth Crease (77) ....... 20-4
21. Mike Welling (94) ........ 15-2
22. and 3 dnw's

*section winners

Silvers:

1. Bob Warren .... 26-12
2. Darren North ... 19-0
3. Mike Wilson ..... 17-14
4. Brian Shanks ... 13-10
5. Mark Radford ... 13-2
6. Ryan Radford ... 10-12

etc...