Viaduct, Campbell, 26 October (16 pegs)

Up bright and early this morning as my normal travelling partner Derek wasn't fishing today as he has been having a bit of an identity crisis of late and now thinks he's a Secret Agent.

Instead I'd offered to pick up "Little Les" aka Adam Caswell but this did mean travelling into deepest, darkest Knowle and as I had no idea where I was going around the backstreets of Beirut it was a case of lock the doors, don't stop for anything and pray the Satnav doesn't let me down.

Fortunately it didn't (almost) and as a result we were around the first arrivals at Lilypool cafe in Shipham which is a new one for me.

Arriving at Viaduct, on time for once, it was also good to discover that the immaculately turned out Will Daiwalove, who had been given a day pass by his wife (seriously), had pretty much sorted everything out for me and for my penance I was given the choice of the two last tickets.

I chose 125 and Will ended up with 129 so both good pegs and mine had won the match the day before so no complaints were forthcoming.

A trip to Viaduct HQ with the weigh sheet revealed The Gimp boiling a dozen maggots to death to provide 6hrs-worth of hookbaits - I prefer to freeze mine humanely but I guess either way is fairly unpleasant if you're a maggot - but anyway, Paul advised I concentrate on chucking a lead or full-depth wag out into the centre of the lake, slightly to the left, where the fish would be queuing up to be caught.

I was happy with that as they were the only rods I had made-up anyway.

So on arriving at my peg I stuck those two rods together and set up a rig for 6m to use up the tin of meat I'd bought.

For company I had the comedy partnership of Steve O Toole and Lee Waller on 126 and 128 and up in 123 was Ryan Radford which was today's Golden Peg and therefore safe because, as everyone knows, this peg is stuffed full of big fat skimmers and tench!

Across from me Keith Ray had occupied 119 with Rich Jones next to him on 118.

And next down was another comedy partnership of Rocket Ron Hardiman (116) and Brian Shanks (115) who had disguised himself as Clint Elliot.

The start was on time as I'd only had to set up one rig and after feeding the meat line I started off on the tip with an 11mm pellet in the band and gave it the obligatory pellet barrage.

After a short wait the rod bent double and a good sized fish was soon in the net to start the ball rolling.

I wasn't alone though, as Ryan had somehow managed to avoid the skimmers and tench and was on his second carp. And a few others had early fish as well including Rich Jones and also Stevie Wynne down on 112.

Chris Szakacs, who hadn't been too happy with drawing 110 again was also catching.

Meanwhile i was finding it slow going and with 45 minutes gone had only added another fish to my nets.

So the tip rod was dumped and teplaced by the full-depth wag rod but it didn't improve my catch rate and by now Ryan was leaving me standing and I was just about holding my own elsewhere.

I was also finding it tricky to get the wag out to where I'd been sending the pellet artillery and it wasn't until the end of the second hour and a few more fish later that I discovered the problem which was that the line was wrapped around the tip between the tip eye and the next one down, which was most likely due to setting the rods up last night in the kitchen whilst being distracted by The X-Factor and bottles of Stella.

That was duly sorted and after that the float cast out a whole lot better but it still never really made much of a difference to my catch rate which was slow but consistent.
Ryan meanwhile was getting one-a-chuck on 8mm banded pellet at 13m and by the half-way stage Brian Shanks had gotten his act together after going through various methods (I'm sure I even saw a lead plop out at one stage) and was catching steadily on the pole on the deck I think.
Halfway through the match and even Steve O Toole was getting carp next down to me on the pole line, although he was having a bit of drama getting them in, all the same I had a look on the pole line with meat on the hook and had two fish straight away but lost the second one which killed it so I was soon back out on the wag / tip.
By now the fish were swirling on the feed so, not having had a pellet wag set up, I shallowed up the waggler rig and tried that which resulted in no fish and a couple of foulers that broke the hooklengths, back on the tip then while I re-made the waggler rod.

The last hour was my best hour and I even managed a couple that snatched the hookbait as it landed including the best fish of the day.
Brian also was having a late charge catching regular fish from his margins and it was looking like he was going to give Ryan a run for his money as Ryan was struggling by then but it turned out he had done enough, uncomfortably winning with 161-0 which resulted in a good earner with £60 winnings and £48 for the Golden peg.
I say "uncomfortably winning" as his first net went 79-12 and so was 4oz away from being disqualified.
Brian managed second with 134-12 and sneaking into 3rd was Will Daiwalove with 125-8 ahead of myself with 113-13.

The Silvers pool was won by Lee Waller with 18-2 from 127 just ahead of his neighbour Colin Butler who weighed in 15-2

Ryan Radford

 Full Result:

1. Ryan Radford (peg 123)* ..... 161-0
2. Brian Shanks (115) ........... 134-12
3. Will Daiwalove (129) ......... 125-8
4. Steve Burgess (125) ......... 113-13
5. Ron Hardiman (116) ......... 106-8
6. Richard Jones (118) .......... 105-10
7. Chris Szakacs (110) .......... 104-12
8. Steve Wynne (112) ........... 90-2
9. Steve O Toole (126) .......... 89-1
10. Keith Ray (119) ................ 78-4
11. Lee Waller (127) ............... 54-14
12. Mark Radford (111) ........... 34-10
13. Adam Caswell (132) .......... 30-2
14. Colin Butler (128) ............. 15-2
15. John Bradford (114) .......... 10-12
16. and one dnw read all about it here!

*golden peg


Silvers:

1. Lee Waller (127) ..... 18-2
2. Colin Butler (128) .... 15-2
3. Mark Radford (111) ... 13-10
4. John Bradford (114) ... 10-12
5. Will Daiwalove (129) ... 10-6

There was a bit of controversy today but fortunately not in our match.
Next door on Cary another club was fishing a match and I guess they weren't regular visitors as there seemed to be a bit of a misunderstanding over the net limits.
One guy went over the 70lbs limit and as a result missed out on winning the match and didn't take it to well.
Apparently he reckoned that their match secretary hadn't explained the rules properly and had given the impression that a couple of pounds over the "70" wouldn't matter as long as it was under 80lbs
He then decided that the match organiser, the club and the fishery were all a bunch of ***** and stormed off after resigning from the club!

And on a lighter note ... please note that Psv members wanting to fish the Christmas match at Bitterwell (Sunday 07 December) will need to get their £15 pools to Mike Wilson or myself by, or at, the November meeting which is on Tuesday 04 November at The Midland Spinner, Warmley.

2015 Match Calendar

Shiplate, Hawthorns, 19 Octtober (13 pegs)

A bit of a late start this morning as the cafe at Shipham seemed busier than usual and there were some unfamiliar faces in the kitchen and things didn't seem to be running quite as efficiently as usual ... A half hour wait for the wrong breakfast but never mind.

In addition I had made the classic match secretary's mistake of working out all the figures the night before and so with one no-show and one not going in the pools that was binned and another version hastily cobbled together which gave us a payout of 1st and 2nd overall, 1 silvers and 2 section payouts (sections of 6).

By some amazing coincidence Ryan Radford, who wasn't in the pools, drew peg 8 which put him in between the two sections.

I had the last ping-pong ball and that put me next to Ryan on 7.

I won't make a song and dance about it as it wasn't one of my most memorable of matches and my Shiplate jinx continues.

I set up a shallow rig to fish a 6mm pellet across to the far bank where I fed the ducks* with micros and maggots and caught chuff-all.

Cutting the band off and going over with maggot on the hook produced a roach plankton that never made the 14m journey back over and that rig was abandoned.

I set up a rig for 5m on the deck to fish maggot / 4mm expander over groundbait / micros for silvers to keep occupied while I waited for my inside line to kick in.

After an hour that line produced a roach-skimmer type thing followed by a carp that took me all around the peg on my new 5-8 "silvers" hollow elastic until it bottomed it out and unhooked itself on an underwater branch.

I had a rig set up to fish maggot over groundbait at the bottom of the inside shelf which was where I hoped to achieve glory but there were carp "tailing" in amongst the cut back reed stems tight into the bank so the abandoned shallow rig was re-deployed here to try to tempt these fish out of their reedy snag-pit.

The first one I hooked was buried in the undergrowth before the float tip had made it completely below the surface!

I eventually managed a couple of fish from the shallow water (in between fighting off the ducks)* and in the last hour, a few more on the deep rig.

Another go on the "silvers" gear produced some more plankton, followed by an half-tidy skimmer (sussed it)? 

And then another carp that did a couple of journeys up and down the far bank before depositing the hook in a tree somewhere down in Adam Csswell's peg  which was the end of another fancy (Nick Gilbert) handmade float and also the end of my pathetic attempt at fishing for silvers.

So the end result of this tale of woe was a massive 27-10 which included 3-4 of silvers (for absolutely nowhere) and I think next week at Viaduct I shall be spending an hour sat behind the Gimp to learn how to fish for plankton properly because I can't seem to get to grips with it.

But in the meantime, as I've already mentioned, my Shiplate jinx continues.

For the record the match was won by camera-shy Pete Sivell, pictured below after he had sobered up, with 74-9 from peg 2.

I've no idea how he caught but I would imagine he talked them out of the peg.

Second was Chris Gay with 70-4 from peg 1 and again, I've no idea, but rumour has it that he fished a method feeder with a banded expander on the hook.

I'm sure Chris will elaborate in the comments!

Mike Wilson (below with the silly hat) took third with 65-12 from peg 10.

He caught most of his fish on maggot over groundbait on his topkit.

In other news, Lee Williams made a sound move having chosen to fish the Pawlett club match on Westpool and the Main Lake he then went on to draw peg 15 on the Main Lake and win the match with 156-ish.
I'm sure you will be able to read all about it on Lee's blog http://woolavy.blogspot.co.uk/ just as soon as he's finished uploading another picture of his seatbox!

*and if you're wondering about the ducks ... They are a complete pain at this fishery.  As soon as you move your pole they are in there like a scavenging hoarde  and in shallow water will wipe out any feed you put in within seconds.

Pancakes and hoisin sauce springs to mind!

Full Result:

1. Pete Sivell (peg 2) ......... 74-9
2. Chris Gay (1) .................. 70-4
3. Mike Wilson (10) ............. 65-12
4. Mark Radford (3) ............ 53-14
5. Matt Taynton (15) ........... 52-3
6. Alan Healey* (9) .............. 47-10
7. Adam Caswell (6) ........... 46-13
8. Lionel Legge (11) ........... 30-8
9. Steve Burgess (7) .......... 27-10
10. Ryan Radford (8) ........... 23-12
11. Derek Lucas (13) ........... 18-3
12. Jason Bird (12) .............. 18-0
13. and 1 dnw

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Matt Taynton .......  11-2
2. Mark Radford ....... 8-6
3. Alan Healey ......... 5-6
4. Mike Wilson ......... 5-2
5. Steve Burgess ...... 3-4

Harescombe Match Lake, 12 October (14 pegs)

It was a bit nippy out last night when I was loading the fishing bus up in my shorts late last night and I was fully expecting to be scraping ice off the windscreen this morning, which would not have been great for the prospective day's fishing, but as it turned out it wasn't too bad, 5-ish degrees and foggy so no wind and a dry day which is always a blessing up at Harescombe with it being so exposed to the elements.
The on-site cafe was busy as the locals were having a match on one of the other lakes but most of our lot had opted to visit Ronald MacDonald.
I'm not a big fan of MacD's "breakfasts" so I took my chances with a "Pricey" in the cafe.
I don't think the ironic naming of the "Pricey" breakfast was intentional but at £7.25 (once you've added a cup of diy instant coffee) it's a little, well ... pricey!
But it wasn't bad and it filled a hole which is more than can be said of a MacMuffin.

Anyway, fourteen on the list today and with no Silvers pool the payout was to be top two overall plus two sections of seven paying first and second (well it made sense to me)

No scrabbling about in the bag for me as I had the last peg which gave me peg 24, one of the landslide pegs and one that wins a lot here so I wasn't displeased.

It's a peg I've had here before and the last time I had it I started off well but ended up totally messing things up so I was keen to avoid doing that again.

For company I had Mike Wilson on my left and on the opposite side was my pound coin nemesis, Lee Williams who was sandwiched between Adam Caswell and Lee Waller. 

Alan Healey was next down from him so I could see whether or not my other pound coin was safe but I suspected it would be as there was no phonecall to Dean Malin for instructions.

I set up rigs for the bottom of the near shelf (topkit plus 2), to fish with soft pellet or maggot.  A rig for the margins which would also cover the far bank and finally a shallow banded pellet rig to fish 6mm pellet at 14m over to the right where the landslide goes into the lake.

This was where I expected to catch mainly as there were fish swirling there and mooching about in the shallow water against the mud.

At the kick off I fed the close lines and the far bank with micros and maggot and pinged out a few pellets over to the right edge.

By the time I'd done that a few fish had already been caught so I was guessing it would be a bit of a fish race.

I started (under advice from the guy in the cafe) on the short line down the shelf with a soft pellet on the hook and after a few missed bites eventually made contact with a small F1 to get the ball rolling.

It was slow though and a few were struggling to get anything.

I stuck with it, topping up with micros, and it was getting gradually better with a few more small F1's and junior skimmers surrendering.

A drop in with maggot on the hook only produced a roach fry so that was scrapped.

Elsewhere a few were catching. Word was that Mark Radford was doing well on the other side of the landslide (peg 29) as was his offspring Ryan on peg 2 who was denying catching and therefore must have been doing well.

Alan was quite pleased with himself as he had landed a 2lb chub and I heard Chris Szakacs was doing ok down in peg 14.

Adam however, after an hour of sitting over a golf ball of F1-resistant paste, decided to do a "Mark Britton" and marched off with his kit into the distance to the pleasure lake to find a pensioner in a deckchair who he could hopefully win a pound from.

Meanwhile, I was overcome by the urge to fish up to the landslide so I dumped a pot of micros on the short line and went over with the shallow pellet rig.

And it didn't take long to hook a "proper" carp of a couple of pounds followed by a second one foul-hooked in a fin.

By this time a steady stream of floating casters that had come from the bottom end of the lake had grabbed the attention of a few fish so, as I never had any caster (floating or otherwise), I catapulted out a couple of pouches of maggot and went over with a newly made up shallow rig with maggot on the hook.

To cut a long story short, apart from a couple of small F1's from the right margin and one from the far bank I spent the rest of the day with the shallow rig over to the landslide catching fairly steadily.

The last hour was a good spell with most drops ending up with a small F1 (8 to 12oz) along with odd chublets plus a few more bonus carp which were caught in the really shallow water against the bank just a few inches deep.

To get these was just a case of laying the rig in the shallow water and waiting for the big swirl and the elastic to come out.

Unfortunately this would spook the rest of the fish so I didn't spend too much time chasing them and stuck with the smaller fish in the deeper water.

I'm not comfortable fishing to my right side, especially long, and I couldn't feed while I was fishing as my bait tray and catty were behind me so I was feeding a couple of pouches of maggots and then going over it until I hooked one but it seemed to be working ok.

By the end of the match I had no idea what I had but I was guessing about 40lbs which hopefully would get me my section dependant on Chris Szakacs who I'd heard had done well.

Mark Radford was first to weigh and put 51-2 on the scales which included all six of the lake's barbel population.

Next up was Chris Gay who weighed 43-11 and a wet leg as he slid into the lake getting his nets out bless him. 

Ryan weighed 40-0 which was 8oz more than Alan and after a couple of 30's weights, Chris Szakacs' one net went 43-7 (his other net had been "moused").

I was last to weigh and my net of big stuff went 20-8 but my F1/silvers surprised me a bit going to 40-8 for a total of 61-0.

So a little bit out on my estimation but it's easy to lose track of these small fish.

Full Result:

1. Steve Burgess (peg 24) ...... 61-0
2. Mark Radford (29) ............. 51-2
3. Chris Gay (30) ................. 43-11
4. Chris Szakacs (14) ........... 43-7
5. Ryan Radford (2) ............. 40-0
6. Alan Healey (4) ............... 39-8
7. Rich Jones (11) ............... 36-0
8. Lee Williams (7) .............. 35-8
9. Mike Wilson (22) ............. 35-0
10. Stevie Wynne (17) .......... 25-15
11. Derek Lucas (12) ............ 10-7
12. and 3 Dnw's

Next week we are down at Shiplate on Hawthorns which should be interesting as at the moment it's the only place outside of an aquarium where Alan Healey has any chance of framing!

October Newsletter

Thought I'd try something a bit different and post up some of the highlights from last Tuesday's meeting for the benefit of those who were too busy with work or too ill to make it.

So matches this month are: Harescombe this Sunday for which there are plenty of spaces left for anyone who fancies a trip up North where everyone is guaranteed a few fish.

The following Sunday (19 Oct) we are at Shiplate on Hawthorns only and this one is now fully booked so if you want to fish that one you will have to go on the reserve list and I can phone you on the Sunday morning if anyone doesn't turn up!

After that is Viaduct on Campbell (26 Oct) for which there are still some spaces but not many

And then finally we are at Landsend (2 Nov), plenty of spaces for that one at the moment.

The leaderboard for the season so far is as follows:

Year Totals:

1. Mark Radford (477pts)  1,415lbs 13oz
2. Brian Shanks (439)  1,439lbs 10oz
3. Steve Burgess (354)  1,002lbs 3oz
4. Ryan Radford (354)  977lbs 11oz
5. Alan Healey (336)  843lbs 7oz
6. Ron Hardiman (331)  1,148lbs 10oz
7. Chris Szakacs (315)  954lbs 5oz
8. Adam caswell (284)  731lbs 12oz
9. Lee Williams (274)  883lbs 6oz
10. Chris Gay (273)  864lbs 5oz

Summer Series:

1. Mark Radford (214)  685lbs 0oz
2. Steve Burgess (166)  500lbs 3oz
3. Chris Szakacs (153)  504lbs 10oz
4. Chris Davis (147)  694lbs 15oz
5. Alan Healey (143)  382lbs 10oz
6. Ryan Radford (140)  405lbs 4oz
7. Lee Williams (139)  480lbs 1oz
8. Adam Caswell (139)  349lbs 8oz
9. Chris Gay (132)  541lbs 1oz
10. Ron Hardiman (118)  430lbs 10oz

Those of you that are good with figures may have noticed that these are slightly different from the figures quoted by myself at the meeting.
The reason being that I had missed a match out from my Excel spreadsheet from back in June which explains why I'm not an accountant or have never worked in a bank!

A few other points were raised at the meeting;

• Regarding the Christmas match at Bitterwell Lake on 7 Dec.

This year the club will be paying for the prizes and peg fees (and hopefully the buffet) so it was agreed that the pools on the day will be £15.
However (the important bit), this needs to be paid upfront at or before the November meeting.
The reason for this is to avoid a headache for whoever has the honour of sorting out the prizes.
The evening presentation and buffet will be conducted at The Midland Spinner in Warmley which  conveniently brings me on to the next point ....

• Change of Venue for the monthly meetings

A vote was taken and it was decided that we will be holding future meetings at The Midland Spinner which is now under new management and being run by a Michelin starred chef who will be happy to provide canapes etc.
There was 1 vote against the change of venue (wonder who that was)!

• It was also discussed about not having a meeting every month through the winter.

• And finally I have decided to resign my position as Match Secretary after this season and let someone else have a go.