Sedges, Tile, 20 March (18 pegs)

Back to one of my favourite winter venues this week, Tile Lake at Sedges and with Will away sulking due to his inability to catch fish and Alan fishing a Frys series at Acorn I was reprising my role as match organiser for the day.
Nice and easy though with 18 fishing meaning the payouts would be 1st and 2nd overall, 2 silvers and 2 sections.
As ever Denise was on hand with tea and coffee and a stern  telling off for anyone foolish enough to put a wet spoon in the sugar bowl. And this week I had a lecture on the correct pronunciation of "aerator" as apparently "aereator" is a Bristolian made up word!
Come the draw and as per usual I kept the last ping pong ball for myself and that gave me peg 40!
Which will probably provide a bit of amusement for the cynical few that seem to think I only ever draw corners at Sedges, but anyway I was more than happy with that and I never had to run to it either as its the shortest walk on the lake. 

Keeping me entertained today was Ryan Radford on 39 and Brian Shanks on 38 and Steve Sewell (who has his name stitched on his waterproofs in case they get lost) was just about within piss-taking distance on 21

Sadly my travelling partner Derek had to go back home as a member of the family had passed away in the early hours of the morning so I re-jigged the sections a bit putting peg 30 into our section making 2 sections of 8 as Ryan wasn't in the pools (which was probably not the best decision he's made this year)!

Mark Radford, who was in 30, wasn't too concerned as for the second week running he was expecting a carpless day and to be honest I had to agree with him on that (it's certainly not a peg that I would run to)

Back to peg 40 and it's a peg I have drawn a few times now and it has loads of options.

I untangled the tip rod from last week at Viaduct (starting to sound like a "lead-slinger") which could be chucked to the island or along the left-hand bank, and set up a pole rig for 14m and a rig for down the edge in various places between 5m and 14m where I could find roughly the same depth (about 3½') which in places was tight to the edge but further down towards the corner was around a metre away from the edge.

Bait for the day was meat mixed with a bit of damp 3mm pellet plus a pint of dead reds that actually stayed dead this time so I'm guessing Derek's freezer kills them better than mine although he did phone me at 3:30 on Friday to ask if I wanted any bait from Scotts so they had got a bit longer to freeze than mine normally get!

Anyway, starting off I went out on the straight lead to the island with hair-rigged meat and straight away was getting little knocks and indications which I put down to roach or skimmers having a poke at the bait, then 5 minutes in I had a proper indication .... the rod bent through 90 degrees and line came off the reel, so probably not a skimmer, and I was correct as it was a carp of about 5lbs ... a nice start.

2 or 3 carp followed during the first hour and I seemed to be doing better than most.

Pete Uzzell in 31 had an early fish and Keith and Ron were getting odd ones up the same end of the lake, Ron fishing the shallow wag which was an interesting choice.

I could also see Steve Sewell catching on the tip opposite on 21 ... I knew it was him as he has his name embroidered on his waterproofs (I may have mentioned that earlier)

Ryan next door had started on bread on the tip but despite getting liners was having a bit of a "torrid time" hooking snags and loosing fish but he did get a nice big scale which was a bonus for him.

I got bored of waiting for the rod to rip round so had a look on the pole line which gave me a nice skimmer followed by a good sized carp (hooked in the wing) then went a bit quiet so I re-fed it and went back on the tip but this time chucked down the bank and that produced almost immediately.

Next chuck was one of those that you wished you'd caught on video as it landed within inches of the bank and went round instantly. Unfortunately, the fish instantly snagged me and that was the end of that rig.

Ryan meanwhile had switched to meat and had gotten his act together and was landing a few, but it soon went torrid again when he landed a "weigher". He was looking at it in the landing net and doing mental maths trying to work out whether to put it on the scales or not when the landing net collapsed and the fish returned itself to the lake and at the same time, the stray net handle landed on his pole and broke the no4 but I didn't laugh (honest)!

And it was just as well because I then completely mis-cast and sent the rig into a tree which put paid to the lead rod for the second and last time.

So back out on the pole and a quick look down the short edge with maggot produced no bites at all (odd) but out at 14m in front gave me a couple of carp.

But they weren't coming out as frequently as I would have liked and they certainly weren't coming out as frequently as they were next door as Ryan had gone into overdrive and his tip was going round every chuck and he was landing big fish as well.

Into the last hour and I had been joined by Mark Radford and Nick Saunders who had both surrendered and reckoned it was a 2 horse race between myself and Ryan as nobody else was catching except maybe Degsy Williams on 22.

A look down into the corner with meat gave me a fish straight away which was good news for Nick as he ate my chocolate bar while I was playing it.

Three more followed before the all out and I was kicking myself that I hadn't gone down there earlier but never mind.

As I suspected, Ryan's late charge was more than enough for him to take the honours with 88-5 (the catch and release incident would have easily took him over the 100lb mark),

My 74-14 was good for 2nd and top pools payout (thanks Ryan) and Degsy was 3rd with 56-14

Silvers went to Lee Waller with 15-6 of skimmers from peg 37.

Overall Result

1. Ryan Radford (39) 88-5

2. Steve Burgess (40) 74-14

3. Degsy Williams (22) 56-14

4. Brian Shanks (38) 49-6

5. Chris Gay (26) 41-9

6. Steve Sewell (21) 38-8

7. Ron Hardiman (33) 25-5

8. Keith Ray (32) 25-3

9. Adam Caswell (24) 23-12

10. Lee Waller (37) 19-15

11. Pete Uzzell (31) 13-9

12. Lionel Legge (29) 10-14

13. John Bradford (27) 4-3

14. Matt Taynton (28) 3-11

And 4 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Lee Waller 15-6

2. Keith Ray 7-0

Viaduct (Campbell), 13/3 and a little bit of Staunton Court from last week!

First up then is a bit of an apology as many have probably noticed, maybe not, the psv blog updates have been a bit thin on the ground over the last few months.

The main reason being that after almost 25 years of "wedded bliss" the wife decided that she was no longer happy being a work / fishing widow and as a result life has been a bit strange for me over the last few months.
Not all bad news though as after losing one in the margins it didn't take too long to hook and land another one which means that Sunday's winnings?? are no longer going to Curry Kings in Kingswood but are now being spent at Mike's Kitchen in Frome (strange name for a Chinese takeaway but very nice food).
With all this travelling, house selling etc it has meant that fishing and blog writing has taken a bit of a back seat.
I have actually still been going fairly regularly but preparation has been almost non existent so to be honest, I've been making up the numbers on Sundays which is only any good for Alan Healey's pound coin collection.
Anyway things are looking a bit brighter now and I even introduced Miss Frome to the joys of elasticating topkits and cutting up tins of meat on Saturday night which she found quite amusing in a totally bemused kind of way .... she's a fast learner though and she can see better than me so some lessons in making rigs up may be overdue.

So anyway, back to the fishing and last week we were up at Staunton Court which is usually good for a few fish and in the colder months a possibility of some good nets of skimmers when they can get a look in past the carp.

Only 10 were booked in which meant there was no need to peg the end banks and therefore no need to make it pole only.

For some strange reason I had volunteered to pick Adam Caswell up which meant a detour to the wrong side of town but at least I got myself a free breakfast at Watersmeet which was nice even if Brian Shanks never got a grilled tomato on his.

I drew peg 3 which put me halfway up the concrete bank and the aerator to aim a lead at (which I expected would be my main line of attack). 

I also set up a deep rig for out in front and later a margin / shallow rig.

Bait was corn with soaked micros for feed, no maggots as I never made it back from Frome in time to get any which was probably a good thing in hindsight.

For company I was sandwiched between the Radfords (father and son) and Brian Shanks was in peg 1 which is now devoid of the derelict platform but the legs are still there to provide entertainment value!

Chris Szakacs was "running a bit late" so he was donated peg 5 next to Ryan.

He was running that late that he actually never made it which gave Ryan quite a lot of room!

To cut a long story short Darren North ran away with it from the start.

Fishing in the "bin peg" he caught his first carp shallow out in open water and then caught a shed load fishing long into the corner margin with either meat or corn, or both (I don't remember) but either way he ended up well ahead of everyone else with a total of 75-1

Second place went to Ryan Radford with 56-8.

As for my match, I started off on the lead with corn in the vicinity of the aerator (and a few yards past it) and stared at a motionless tip for the best part of an hour before switching to the deep rig on the pole which eventually produced a small skimmer or 2.
Having seen Darren and Brian Shanks both catch shallow, a hastily assembled shallow rig produced a nice ghostie that was neatly hooked in the wing and I managed a further carp and a proper skimmer from my left margin for a fairly disappointing 17-8
My travelling partner faired worse coming last with 4lbs of silvers although he did manage 1 carp after the all out when he tried down his edge with a method feeder and the tip wrapped round within seconds ..... if only!

Full Result:

1. Darren North (10) ...... 75-1
2. Ryan Radford (4 & 5) ... 56-8
3. Brian Shanks (1) ........ 36-8
4. Mark Radford (2) ....... 35-3
5. Simon Belcham (7) .... 22-2
6. Steve Burgess (3) ...... 17-8
7. Pete Uzzell (9) .......... 16-10
8. Will Dearlove (8) ..... 11-0
9. Adam Caswell (6) .... 4-0
10. Chris Szakacs .... running a bit late!

Moving on a week saw us on Campbell at Viaduct so a bit of good fortune would be required at the draw.

A nice short drive for me today and no breakfast stop as Miss Frome had got up and made me bacon sandwiches.

I had told her I'd like to draw either 114 or 127. 

For a change I sneaked into the queue early and nailed 128, no complaints as it's in the right area and had framed on the Saturday.

For company today I had Matt Taynton on 127 (he likes to be close to me) and Derek Williams hiding behind the safety of the spit on 129.

Typically, Alan Healey was looking smug opposite on 114 and Keith Ray and Pete Uzzell were making the most of the shade on a nice spring day in 112 & 111 respectively.

I set up the obligatory tip rod plus rigs for13m out in front and over to the spit.

Only one bait for the day and that was meat and an unopened tin of corn just in case but it stayed unopened.

No big surprises today as the carp were still concentrated mainly in the middle of the lake. 

Keith got off to a bit of a flying start, as did Alan and Derek, all three hooking carp more or less from the off, as did Nick Sanders up in 119 although that was a false dawn and his day went "tits up" from then onwards.

I had liners on the first two casts followed by a big skimmer and from then on, odd carp on the lead / meat.

It wasn't hectic action though and by midway through the match I was up to about 10 carp plus the skimmer and a stray tench, but I seemed to be holding my own although I had a feeling that Alan and Keith had 1 or 2 each more than me and I had no idea what Derek had except from the procession of bank-walkers who reckoned he "had a few".
It was however far more hectic than many others were experiencing.
Mark Radford was crying in peg 132 and doing his best to convince Steve Sewell and Matt Williams that none of them were going to catch anything.
Chris Szakacs was getting restless in 123 and had joined Adam Caswell in the queue at the lodge for maggots, Will Dearlove had given up all hope of ever catching a carp again and Ryan was moaning almost as much as his dad.

By now I was getting bored of waiting for the tip to go round and was itching to have a look on the pole lines I'd been feeding but a quick look on both never produced a bite which was a bit of a pisser as I was expecting a few fish to have moved in on the end of the spit.
I had also been throwing bits of meat into the right corner margin so I gave that a try and it didn't take long for the float to bury resulting in a very angry F1
The next fish beat me in the tug of war competition and pulled free under the brambles but I managed to get the third one in successfully but then I hooked a right lump that after taking me under the brambles, under my platform (twice) and knitting a pattern through my keepnets, made a second attempt at getting in the brambles and smashed the rig up.
I chucked the lead back out while I tried to remake the rig and that went round twice during the re-tackling process (should have stuck with it) and I managed another fish from down the edge before Will shouted the all out.
Apparently Derek had had a really good last hour and weighed in 120-12 to win it, followed by Alan with 109-7 (I still lost a pound) and Keith wasn't far behind with 97-6
My efforts totalled 94-7 for 4th place and the section which I was pleased with.

Full Result:

1. Derek Williams (129) ...... 120-12
2. Alan Healey (114) ........ 109-7
3. Keith Ray (112) .......... 97-6
4. Steve Burgess (128) .... 94-7
5. Matt Taynton (127) ..... 69-11
6. Pete Uzzell (111) ........ 23-14
7. Mike Wilson (115) ..... 21-9
8. Nick Sanders (119) .... 20-13
9. John Bradford (110) ... 13-15
10. Adam Caswell (116) .. 12-2
11. Mark Radford (132) ... 5-8

and 6 dew's

Silvers:

1. Mike Wilson ..... 21-9
2. John Bradford .... 13-15