Ivy House new canal 15pegs

A short drive down the m4 today to Ivy House lakes, its been awhile since the club have visited the fishery and in that time the venue has changed owners with the very capable Andy and Karen Lloyd taking over the reins. The couple have really done a fantastic job and its turning into a first class venue.

We were on new canal today which was a total unknown for all that were fishing so no one knew what to expect, but with 18 pegs and 15 fishing talk in the carpark by the venue experts (Dean Malin) suggested it could fish hard! and boy he wasn't wrong! we could of filled the lake but had to cap it at 15 with Darren North, Lionell legg and Brian Shanks travelling up anyway and fishing the open on the main lake, Darren in particular was really looking forward to pitting his wits against all the locals and venue experts in attendance including England international and Bristols finest Des Shipp, Darren was so excited he was seen running to the car to fetch his autograph book and after the draw even offered to carry Des's tackle to his peg bless him.

Alan Healy was running things today and one half of the new match secretary duo was taking things easy sampling one of the great breakfasts on offer, the nine oclock draw time came and went meaning
we ended up drawing at half past and fishing from half ten to half four, pay out wise it was top four and two silvers so lots to go at

No one was really fussed where they drew as no one had fished the lake before so everyone was clueless on what was a flyer good peg bad peg etc, as it happens they were all bad pegs! Not a lot can be said about the match really as the lake just didn't fish and it was a struggle for everyone in fact it was that bad a third of the field had gone home with two hours to go, why that is I don't know as the lake has plenty of fish in it they just didn't want to play ball today.

It ended up being a bitter sweet day for the Radfords as dad Mark came first and son Ryan came second but yet again Mark never paid Ryans pools which I guess over the course of the last season has probably ended costing Mark a fair few quid the amount of times Ryan has framed!!

Mark was on peg 16 and caught most of his fish in the first hour and half , ending with three carp and several tench all caught tight over on pellet, Ryan was on 11 and took a leaf out of the Adam Caswell school of foulhooking landing two large carp hooked in the wrong end which made up most of his weight. Third went to myself on 17 and my match started in great fashion, shipping out on the whistle I lowered the rig in against the far bank and it kept going and within a minute a bemused ten pound common was laying in the net but that was as good as it got with a handful of f1s tench and skimmers making up the rest of my weight, fouth went to Si Belcham on 10 with a decent net of skimmers and one carp, Si also came first in the silvers followed by Steve Sewell on 12 with a net of tench and f1s

the view from 17

FULL RESULT

1ST   MARK RADFORD     29LB 14OZ   PEG 16
2ND  RYAN RADFORD      19LB 14OZ           11
3RD  CHRIS SZAKACS       18LB  8OZ            17
4TH  SI BELCHAM              17LB                     10
5TH  ALAN HEALY             10LB  9OZ             8
6TH  LEE WALLER                9LB  8OZ             1
         STEVE SEWELL            9LB  8OZ           12
7TH  MATT CHALLENGER  6LB  8OZ           15
8TH  JULIAN NURSE             5LB  1OZ           18
9TH  ADAM WOODLAND     2LB  1OZ            3
AND FIVE DNW'S

SILVERS

1ST  SI BELCHAM               10LB
2ND STEVE SEWELL            7LB  12OZ

Next week the club are on the match lake at plantations Kingston Seymour and the blog will back in the capable hands of the soundwell love guru and Fatima Whitbread body double Steve Burgess