Trinity, Wildmarsh, 24 Feb (10 pegs)

I've been racking my brains since Sunday evening for inspiration to come up with something positive to put in this update but to be honest, I've failed.
For most of us it was our first time on the Lake and nobody was expecting an easy days fishing as it was bitterly cold although not as windy as had been forecast.
And we weren't dissapointed either.
Misha had kindly let us have the first 30 pegs to choose from which was good with only 10 fishing, but nobody had much idea how to peg it so, following Misha's advice and a bit of logic, we left out peg 15 and the corner pegs by the bottom of the car park and spread the rest out evenly.
Only one peg stood out as a flier (peg 11), which has a narrow strip of reed bed on the left that extends right across the Lake although much of it has died off leaving an underwater bar that the carp and tench patrol around (apparently).
No awards for guessing which number was left in the bag for me to cock up!
As for the match itself it was a classic winter affair with some getting a few and others (especially me) not getting a few.
Leading the "charge" was in-form psv winter specialist Paul Reed (not something you see often) on peg 25 which is on the point of the spit. Paul adopted his standard tactics of dumping a pot full of groundbait and other stuff at 13m and fishing over it  for 6 hrs like a gnome, which today worked a treat as it produced the only decent fish of the match in the shape of a 4lb bream.
Also setting the pace was Kev "trigger" Jefferies on peg  9, so called as he has a habit of turning up once in a blue moon and mugging the pools.
Taking a break from the tougher competition of the Acorn over 55's* he used similar tactics to the gnome which produced a regular supply of good sized roach and skimmers.
But the big suprise of the day was Mark Radford who was hidden away on his own around the corner from the gnome on peg 29.
Mark spent most of the match struggling but in the last hour the skimmers turned up over his groundbait and chopped worm feed and four of them managed to hang themselves taking him from nowhere to top spot with 9lbs 4oz.
The gnome took second with 8-8 and Kev Jefferies snared 3rd with 8-0.
For the record, on my flier peg I managed three roach on caster which came in a frantic 10 minute frenzy. I put this epic failure down to the two grebes that were also fishing in my peg although Misha's theory that "I'm rubbish" was probably a bit closer to the truth!
Mind you, this was coming from someone who completely ballsed up my match bookings probably due to the fact that she puts the bookings on her 1-Direction calendar instead of a proper year planner but I've decided to let her off on this occasion as she has apologised and still remains the club's favourite fishery manager(ess)!

*Kev puts his youthful looks down to good family genes and plenty of moisturiser.


Full result:

1. Mark Radford (peg 29) ...... 9-4
2. Paul the gnome Reed (25) ........ 8-8
3. Kev trigger Jefferies (9) ......... 8-0
4. Stevie Wynne (23) .............. 4-14
5. Rich Jones* (14) .................. 3-4
6. Darren North (6) ............... 2-10
7. Si Belcham (17) ................ 2-2
8. Stewart Riddle (1) ............. 1-12
9. Steve Burgess (11) ........ 0-9  0-12
10. Ryan Radford (20) ........ dnw

*golden peg

For the record, the Clevedon match we should have had on Woodlands fared a little better as some of them seem to know what they're doing and managed a few carp ... click here for details

Staunton Court (pole only), 17 Feb (15 pegs)

Another trip up the wrong direction of the M5 this week to Psv's favourite "hole-in-the-ground", Staunton Court.

For those who are unfamiliar with this venue, it's situated at the back of a small industrial estate a few miles past Gloucester on the A417  heading towards Ledbury.  It's not the most picturesque of venues, with one bank backing onto a row of units which restricts shipping back a pole, especially when someone turns up in a lorry and gets the jetwasher out.  And when the brick-cutting unit is on overtime it can get a bit noisy. However, the saving grace is that the lake holds a large head of carp into double figures and plenty of silvers and is currently home to the Psv match record of 314lbs held by Craig (Trigger) Edmunds.

As is now the norm breakfast was at the Watersmeet Hotel which is handy as it's just down the road and is as good a breakfast as you'll ever get for seven quid and even those with the healthiest of appetites would probably struggle to finish it all.  And an added bonus is that the waitress service is top quality!

Anyway, enough of that and apparently the match on the Saturday (and the ones in the week) had fished well for the time of year and the Saturday match had been won with over eighty pounds so with an overnight frost and bright sunshine added to the mix the prospects for our match were looking, shall we say, interesting.

Pegging, thanks to Will Dearlove who doesn't do breakfast and therefore missed out on the waitress's delightful rear, was 1 > 6 on the concrete, 7 & 8 on the far end bank, 9 > 14 on the grass bank (peg 14 being the famous "bin peg") and the last peg being on the near end bank (a peg that normally would win in winter but didn't today).  There wasn't any more room on this bank as someone had kindly parked a 10 ton excavator in the middle of the path!

Fortunately for Alan Healy on peg 15 (the one that normally wins in winter but didn't today) the owner of the digger decided to take it for a spin behind his peg while we were setting up .... there was a lot of sympathy for Alan at this point!

The match itself was fairly uneventful with most of the action concentrated around the higher-numbered pegs and the early pegs on the concrete, the further away from these areas the harder it got (no awards for guessing where I was).

Top honours went to club comedian, Darren North in the bin peg with three carp plus silvers for 31lbs exactly.

Darren (pictured below) fished mainly at 14m with maggot over pellet and various other things.

Close second (but probably should have won), with a similar net of 3 carp plus silvers was Alan Healy with 29-9 but, as always, controversy surrounded this result as Alan managed to get one of his carp in his silvers net which may mean his weight could be disqualified pending a steward's enquiry.

Will Dearlove on peg 3 took the 3rd spot with 29lbs of carp caught on corn along with silvers taken on maggot.

And Simon Belcham rounded off the top 4 with 26-11 from peg 13.

Top silvers on the day went to Matt Taynton on his first visit to Staunton with an impressive 21-6 of decent skimmers caught on caster from peg 12.

Full Result:

1. Darren North (peg 14) ....... 31-0
2. Alan (should've won) Healy (15) .... 29-9
3. Will Dearlove (3) .......... 29-0
4. Simon Belcham (13) .... 26-11
5. Matt Taynton (12) ......... 25-12
6. Rich Jones (11) ............ 20-7
7. Ryan Radford (2) ......... 17-13
8. Derek Lucas (1) ............ 15-14
9. Steve Burgess (8) ......... 12-14
10. Rich Britton* (6) ............ 11-0
11. Mark Radford (10) ......... 8-4
12. Stevie Wynne (9) .......... 7-1
13. Chris Szakacs (4) ......... dnw
14. Mike Smith (5) ............... dnw
15. Adam Caswell (7) ........ blank

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Matt Taynton ..... 21-6
2. Rich Britton ....... 11-0
3. Simon Belcham ... 10-3
4. Derek Lucas ...... 9-6
5. Darren North ...... 6-4
6. Will Dearlove ..... 5-8
7. Steve Burgess ... 4-8
8. Ryan Radford .... 3-3
9. Rich Jones ......... 2-11
10. Mark Radford ..... 1-10
11. Stevie Wynne .... 1-1

Next week we're on Wildmarsh at Trinity which is a first for Psv and it looks like being a bit of a cold one so best remind Adam Caswell and Mike Smith to bring plenty of paste with them seeing as it was so successful this week!

Revised Match Calendar

Due to a mix-up with Trinity, none of our matches were in their diary so I've managed to rearrange all except one that were affected.

The up to date fixture list is as shown below.

• 3-Feb, Plantations (Horseshoe)
• 10-Feb, Harescombe
• 17-Feb, Staunton Court
• 24-Feb, Trinity (Wildmarsh)
• 3-Mar, Sedges (Tile)
• 10-March, Plantations (Coarse)
• 17-March, Viaduct (Cary)
• 24-March, Shiplate
• 31-March, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 7-April, Staunton Court
• 14-April, Trinity (Woodlands)
• 21-April, Viaduct (Cary)
• 28-April, Sedges (Brick)
• 5-May, Landsend
• 12-May, tba
• 19-May, Shiplate
• 26-May, Rood Ashton
• 2-June, Viaduct (Cary)
• 9-June, Sedges (canal)
• 16-June, Trinity (Ash Pool )
• 23-June, Weekend Away (possibly)!
• 30-June, Landsend
• 7-July, Walters S-Cerney (Blue / White)
• 14-July, Shiplate (Frys inter-club)
• 21-July, Trinity (Woodlands)
• 28-July, Sedges (Brick)
• 4-Aug, Viaduct (Cary)
• 11-Aug, Landsend (John's Lake)
• 18-Aug, Trinity (Wildmarsh)
• 25-Aug, Durleigh Res (Frys inter-club)
• 1-Sept, Harescombe
• 8-Sept, Walters S-Cerney (Blue)
• 15-Sept, Landsend
• 22-Sept, Sedges (Brick)
• 29-Sept, Shiplate
• 6-Oct, Trinity (Wildmarsh)
• 13-Oct, Harescombe
• 20-Oct, Landsend
• 27-Oct, Shiplate (Frys inter-club)
• 3-Nov, Sedges (Tile)
• 10-Nov, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 17-Nov, Harescombe
• 24-Nov, Trinity (Woodlands)
• 1-Dec, Viaduct (Spring)
• 14-Dec (Saturday), Acorn Christmas Match

Recently Added
Calendar Changes

*shared with coffin dodgers


2014 Dates 

• 16-March, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 13-April, Avalon
• 20-April, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 15-June, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 29-June, Avalon
• 27-July, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 7-Sept, Viaduct (Campbell)
• 14-Sept, Avalon
• 26-October, Viaduct (Campbell)

Harescombe Match Lake, 10 Feb (13 pegs)

A few lessons were learnt today.  Firstly, the Preston Soft Shell pole jacket is more suited for summer showers than all-out "wrath of the Gods" weather, although the £20 ski trousers from Lidl did manage to hold their own in today's horrendous conditions.
Secondly, maggots and rain don't mix and, of course, the big one .... don't leave your expensive long bit of carbon fiber resting on your pole roller when you go for a wander.
Anyways, for those that don't know it (it was a first for Psv), Harescombe Fishery is tucked away in Cotswold bandit country somewhere between Gloucester and Stroud and the Match Lake that we were booked on is a 30-peg canal lake with a narrow central island running it's entire length so that each peg is 13m wide to the island with a depth of 5' down the track and a shelf of about 18 inches deep extending about 1m from the near and far banks.
Other than the above the lake has no features, the aim being that no peg has an advantage and makes pegging nice and easy!
The lake is heavily stocked with F1's and carp averaging 1lb and "bonus" fish to 3lbs along with a healthy stock of silvers ,mainly small skimmers.
So I was hoping (when I booked the venue) that despite the weather everyone would have a chance of a few fish.
Another appealing factor is that the venue has it's own large cafe (complete with a log-burning fire) where you can get a decent breakfast and there are layouts of each of the lakes on the wall  complete with peg numbers hung on pins, Hillview style, which is handy.
On the negative side the lake sits at the bottom of a steep valley and has no protection from the elements and also, it has suffered a landslip which has wiped out five pegs but that actually worked in our favour as it made the pegging easy with everybody having a spare peg to one side (no moaning)!
On arrival and setting up after the draw the weather was bearable, cold with drizzle and an Easterly breeze but once the match started the drizzle turned to proper rain and the breeze became a biting wind which made things difficult to say the least and worsened throughout the day.
In a repeat of last week's match, Simon Belcham was into a fish straight away, in fact, it was that quick I hadn't even got my nets in or any bait in the polecup as it had taken me longer than I thought to set up 2 rigs and it wasn't until the moaning started that I dug my phone out of it's little dry home and I realised it was 10:03.
A quick look round and it became apparent that there were several more poles with elastic coming out so I hastily cupped in some micros and maggots at three spots along the bottom of the far shelf and also cupped in a big potful on top of the inside shelf next to an overflow pipe slightly to the left of the platform of the up-wind peg (23) just in case.  But as it happened I never tried this swim as it would have meant turning round to fish head-on into the wind and rain which I wasn't keen on doing!
I also fed some maggot and micros by hand down-wind at about 8m along on the bottom of the nearside shelf.  Plumbing up had revealed that one rig would work anywhere in the peg in the deeper water.
Rigs were a 4x12 inline Mosella Impact float on 0.11 powerline (it's winter) to a size 18 808 for single red maggot in the deeper water with 4 no12 droppers to help anchor the rig in the tow.  To fish on top of the shelf I had set up a similar 4x10 float with the same line and hook, but this rig never got used!
First put in at 12 o clock on the 12m line with a maggot on the hook and the float settled and went under resulting in a skimmer of about 10oz which was soon followed by it's little brother and then an F1 of about a pound.  Swapping to the 10 o clock position produced a couple more F1s and by re-feeding and swapping these two swims I was able to keep a steady run of fish coming for the first couple of hours as well as getting the odd fish from down the inside at 8m, although these fish seemed to be smaller and it took longer to get bites here.
By now though the wind and rain were getting worse and it was getting more and more difficult to hold the pole at 12m plus decent presentation was almost impossible.  But as long as I could keep the pole still and the rig steady for long enough I could catch across.
To add to my problems my top kit got stuck on the no4 so I could no longer use my pole cup and had to make do with dripping feed in with the kinder pot but that probably did me a favour as it made no difference to my catch rate.
Looking around I could see Chris Szakacs opposite on 7 catching across as was Lionel Legge on the next but one peg down (20).  The bankside rumour-mill also revealed that Adam Caswell was catching with chopped worm up on the far shelf on peg 13 and both Darren North on 15 and Stewart Riddle on 18 were emptying their pegs.
Elsewhere, some of the lightweights had given in to the elements and were heading home for early baths.  I had a walk round the survivors and a swift opinion poll was held and it was decided to cut the match short by an hour.
At this point disaster struck as while I was away my flash new Maver double pole roller decided to do a cartwheel and snap my no8 section which put paid to fishing across although by this point the wind was gusting so badly that it was almost impossible anyway, so the rest of the match was spent at 8m down the peg picking up odd fish to finish up with about 25 F1's and baby carp plus half a dozen small skimmers for 31lbs 3oz and first place.
Second place went to Stewart Riddle with 24-10 followed by Darren North with 19-10 and Chris Szakacs with 17-0.  Only seven brave souls stuck it out to the end!

Full Result:

1. Steve Burgess (peg 22) .... 31-3
2. Stewart Riddle (18) ......... 24-10
3. Darren North (15) ........... 19-10
4. Chris Szakacs (7) ............ 17-0
5. Lionel Legge (20) ............ 14-8
6. Paul Reed (11) ................ 6-0
7. Simon Belcham (9) .......... dnw
8. Everyone Else ........... early baths

Thanks to Lionel Legge for "volunteering" to weigh in even though he never had his glasses but I don't think anyone was too worried about a few ounces here or there!
Next week Staunton Court, breakfast is booked at Watersmeet from 7:30 onwards.
Finally, there are a couple of late additions to the Match Calendar:
10 March, Plantations (Coarse Lake)
26 May, Rood Ashton

Plantations, Horseshoe Lake, 03 Feb (16 pegs)

A healthy turnout today of 16 was encouraging considering the time of year and the day started well with breakfast at the Plantations cafe which is now run by Karen (who used to run the cafe at Bullocks).
A really nice breakfast it was too for a fiver and turned out quick as well so no hanging about either which was good as I have known cafes to collapse under the strain of a horde of hungry anglers descending all at once.
It was probably not quite substantial enough for those that like an early morning Man vs Food challenge but I'm sure she would be happy to do something on a slightly larger scale for the Rixons and Bakos's and others that obviously like a good portion in the morning!
On to the fishing, and the pegging went 1-9 anti-clockwise on the inside of the "horseshoe" then the rest spread around the outside with 10 being the first peg as you enter the lake.
As expected with winter fishing it was relatively tough going for most although both Simon Belcham and Derek Lucas were into carp early on but these turned out to be "false dawns" for both of them and not much else happened for either and both ended up in the list of dnw's.
The best of the action was concentrated in the left side of the lake,
Matt Taynton and Chris Szakacs in pegs 2 & 3 seemed to be doing well as was Rich Britton in peg 11.  But Mark Radford, after a slow start in a featureless peg 12, then turned his attention to his margins where he found plenty of fish willing to feed  and cruised to a convincing win with 55lbs 14oz.
Mark fished at 11m alternating between his left and right margins fishing double white maggot over caster.
Matt Taynton, who is well known for his winter "scratching" abilities (apparently), finished up second with 29-6 caught on red maggot tipped with a pinkie and feeding micros and pinkies.
A bit of a late turnaround for Darren North, who had spent much of the early part of the match whingeing about a lack of section payouts and catching very little, meant he went from nowhere to third with 27-2 out of peg 15 which goes to show there's a lot of truth in the saying "good things come to those that wait".
Fourth place, and just 2oz out, was Rich Britton with 27-0.
Top Silvers went to Chris Szakacs by default courtesy of a lonely 2lb 1oz fantail.
However, there is (unusually for me) a bit of controversy here as Darren actually won the silvers with an equally lonely 2lb 10oz crucian and, as the Silvers payout was bigger than the overall 3rd place payout he should have had the Silvers money which then put Chris into 4th overall by default.
Anyway, Chris doesn't know about that yet so apologies mate if you are reading this but you owe Darren a fiver and Rich Britton £15, there we go, job done!
Confused? .... So am I!
As for me, well I drew peg 13 which put me at the back of the lake out of the worst of the wind and a nice easy reach to the island of 13m or so.
Three rigs, one at the bottom of the far shelf at 10 o clock which was as far as I could go leftwards without going out of the shade of the trees and being unable to see my float in the glare, and one at 3 minutes past 12 (just to be different), again at the bottom of the far shelf.  The third rig was at the bottom of the near shelf at 2 o clock at "maggot-throwing" range to slaughter the silvers if need be.
All three rigs were on 0.13 powerline (it's winter) to size 18 808's for single / double maggot / corn or 4mm soft pellet.
After about an hour the 12 o clock line produced a good carp but nothing much else and the 10 o clock produced absolutely naff all for the entire match.  Although on my first look at that line I got the rig stuck on an overhanging branch which, due to my far from brilliant eyesight, I couldn't see against the background of undergrowth on the island.
Now I  know that Powerline is a tad understated in its diameters but whoever it was at Preston that made this batch of "0.13" must have got it mixed up with something normally used for big-game fishing or towing broken down tanks so pulling for a break from the tree was a bit traumatic to say the least but it did provide some amusement for Darren and Mike Wilson who were hoping to see my topkit explode or myself impaled by a polefloat missile so sorry to disappoint!
So anyway, a change of plan was required so I set up a fourth rig to fish on top of the shelf across which produced a "sailaway" and a "dink" neither of which connected with anything.  But this rig doubled up to fish my near right margin which, having spotted Mark Radford slaying his margins, I had "cautiously" filled-in with maggots. 
Sure enough the fish arrived but it was too late in the day to do any damage and to cap it off my "cautious" feeding had sent the residents into a bit of a maggot frenzy resulting in me losing three good ones in a row due to the hook pulling out.
The end result was 13-7 for 7th place but on the plus side I gained pound coins from venue expert Mike Smith (7-11 from peg 5) and self-confessed superstar Alan Healy who ran to peg 9 with a huge grin on his face but ended up tipping back his pathetic three roachlets.




Full Result:

1. Mark Radford (peg 12) .... 55-14
2. Matt Taynton (2) .......... 29-6
3. Darren North (15) ........ 27-2
4. Rich Britton (11) .......... 27-0
5. Chris Szakacs (3) ......... 24-6
6. Mike Wilson (14) .......... 14-0
7. Steve Burgess (13) ....... 13-7
8. Mike Smith (5) ............. 7-11
9. Ade Crawley (8) ........... 7-7
10. Adam Caswsell (6) ........ 1-9
11. Ryan Radford (16) ........ 1-8

Nobody else, including Alan Healy, weighed in. And I wont bother listing the Silvers as other than the two lonely ones already mentioned and a couple of odd skimmers and perch nothing much else showed although Alan did claim 3 roach which nobody else saw and I will assume didn't exist as he didn't weigh in!
Don't forget this month's meeting tomorrow night as normal for booking into matches which includes Harescombe match lake this coming Sunday which is a new one for Psv so should be interesting.
Finally, a quote from the day ...

  "If I don't win today from this peg I'm going to pack in fishing"

There are no prizes for guessing who came up with that gem but he is fishing the Frys series next week at Bullocks which is as close as you can get to packing-in fishing!