Acorn, old canal, 12 Jan (7 pegs)!

Happy New Year all, and I hope all your New Years Resolutions are going well, if so I guess the cafe at Shipham has been doing a roaring trade in dry toast, salads and decaf coffee.

My New Years Resolution is to update the psv blog on the day so here goes (don't worry, it won't last long)!

Only 7 fishing today which was unfortunate but some were fishing the Westerleigh winter series (or counting the leaves on the bottom of the lake ) and a few others were tied up on the Shiplate winter series.

As for the rest, well I guess they are in hibernation and waiting for the sun to come out but anyway despite the low turnout it was a case of quality over quantity with the cream of the club in evidence ( and Chris Gay )!

Anyway, I won't drag this out too much ..... Suffice to say that Chris Szakacs very kindly offered to do the pegging out and that was the most exciting part of his day on peg 1 (yes, that is the peg that used to win every match),  the rest of it was spent watching Rich Britton on peg 2 apply a liberal coating of batter.

I did feel sorry for Chris as he doesn't take defeat lightly and so packed up at the end and vanished with his tail between his legs.

Rich meanwhile had comfortably pissed the match with 16-5 of carp and skimmers caught on maggot over pinkies at 13m.

In second place was myself with 5-1 from peg 4 which was next to the bridge.

This consisted of 4 carplets and a goldfish all caught on punched bread in  a gap in the fat bank sedges.

Apart from a couple of dinks on a soft pellet I never had a bite elsewhere in the peg.

Lionel Legge was on the other side of the bridge which was also the golden peg ( and worth £32 ) but that was academic as he had one bite all day which he missed!

3rd on the day was Stevie Wynne up on peg 7 (far end of the lake).  Steve managed 2 carp for 4-12, again on punched bread.

Chris Gay could only manage 3-13 for 4th but lost a fish of about 5lbs which cost him dearly.

And Matt Taynton had one carp of 3-10 which he was quite proud of!

The Acorn Antiques ( over 50's and misunderstood ) faired a little better on Paddock.

Ray Bazeley took the honours from peg 11 with 31-14 and Bob Warren was 2nd with 19-ish from peg 40.

This I know as Bob lent me the slice of bread I used and stopped by after the match to see if I had any left!

Anyway, next week is at Sedges (tile) and there is plenty of room so let me know.

Until then .....

Acorn, Paddock Lake, 30 Sept (20 pegs)

A rare treat today having managed to grab a section of Paddock (pegs 1 to 20) from the Coffin Dodgers who have booked most Sundays on here for this year and the next two years also.
So if you're planning on booking a Sunday on Paddock you might want to invest in a 2015 year-planner and get in there sharpish!
Anyway, I didn't have the pleasure of fishing this one so the details are a bit sketchy.
What I do know though is that the blustery winds made things difficult for most but Alan Healy and Eddie Wynne in pegs 7 & 8 respectively weren't affected by the wind at all and Alan went on to win easily fishing across to the far shelf with 135lbs 14oz fishing maggot on the hook and feeding the same.
Eddie Wynne wasn't very close behind with 59-9 for second which included the top silvers weight of 18-10.  Ed caught the same way as the winner but had smaller fish (I think I've heard this before .....).
Third place went to Adam Caswell, superstar of Dave Clutterbuck's Thursday evening Docks series, with 39-4 from peg 17.
Top silvers went by default to Mike Wilson with 6-6 from peg 18 and Paul Reed and Chris Gay shared the default second place both weighing 3-9 from pegs 4 & 12 respectively.
Luckily for Alan, Roy Garland was on hand to record his epic performance for the Evening Post and his TopPeg website.  That report can be found here
In Roy's after-match interview Alan is quoted as saying:

“I had no idea how the match was fishing but unknowingly, at the time when I called for a second net, I had already done enough to win.
“I knew that I was doing well but when fishing a well-stocked lake anything can happen so I got my head down and never relaxed until I heard the all-out shout.
“The fish at Acorn vary so much in size that it is difficult to keep an accurate account of what is in each net. I called for each extra net well before they had reached their 70lb limit just to be sure of not being disqualified.” 

Which makes a change from the normal bs that Alan spouts before, during and after our matches!

Overall Result

1. Alan Healy (peg 7) ...... 135-14
2. Eddie Wynne (8) .............. 59-9
3. Adam Caswell (17) .......... 39-4
4. Simon Belcham (10) ........ 36-3
5. Rich Jones (11) ................. 31-9
6. Chris Gay* (4) ........... 28-9 (wind assisted weight)
7. Rich Britton (14) ............... 28-5
8. Ryan Radford (13) ............. 28-0
9. Keith Ray (6) ..................... 25-8
10. Mark Radford (20) ............. 24-7 

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Eddie Wynne ........ 18-10
2. Mike Wilson ......... 6-6
3. Paul Reed / Chris Gay .... 3-9
4. Rich Britton ........... 2-12

This week's "Hero to Zero" award goes to Rich Britton who, with no waggler rod in sight, proved he is without a doubt a "one-trick pony"!
The "Expensive Day" award goes to Darren North who now has just nine topkits left on his Sensas pole.
Just out of interest the Coffin Dodgers' match was won by Ian Cole with 57-11 from peg 37 and Clive Richards was 2nd with 56-1 from peg 36.
Meanwhile, Alan went on to fish the Tuesday open and won that with over 100lbs from peg 6 and I believe Ed Wynne was 2nd!
Please note there are spaces left for our match on Sunday against Frys at Shiplate where, hopefully, we will be inflicting a large dose of pain on our guests!

Acorn, Old Match Lake, 11 March (12 pegs)

Overall Result:

1. Alan Healy ....... 46-10
2. Mark Britton .............. 36-0
3. Mark Radford ............ 33-3
4. Ron Hardiman ........... 32-8
5. Simon Belcham ......... 27-15
6. Darren North ............. 22-6
7. Mike Smith ............... 17-0
8. Paul Reed .................. 12-14
9. Mike Wilson .............. 11-1
10. Ryan Radford / Will Dearlove .... 9-0
11. Derek Lucas ............... 7-9

Silvers:

1. Darren North ..... 1-10
2. Simon Belcham .. 1-7
3. Paul Reed ........... 1-6
4. Will Dearlove ..... 1-4
5. Mark Radford ..... 1-1

Acorn, Paddock Lake, 05 June (11 pegs)

1. Simon Belcham .. peg 10 ... 52-13 most sheltered peg on the lake
2. Bob Warren ............ 21 ... 42-0 venue expert
3. Chris Gay ............... 17 ... 39-2 tip rod???
4. Mark Britton ........... 24 .... 35-7 2 empty pegs to his right
5. Steve Burgess ........ 26 ... 34-12 should have won it (apparently)
6. Alan Healy ............. 14 .... 31-2 lost a few pound coins for once
7. Ade Crawley ........... 30 ... 29-2 had a nasty cough
8. Steve Wynne* ......... 33 ... 25-3 golden peg was safe on a flier
9. Darren North .......... 12 ... 24-8 sore loser
10. Paul Reed ............... 22 ... 21-14 another wasted flier
11. Derek Lucas ............ 28 ... dnw had a bad leg

*golden peg

Acorn, Old match lake, 13 March (8 pegs)

It's often been said that some people can fall in a pile of shit and come out smelling of roses. And that is a very fitting description for Alan 'the pheasant beater' Healy.
Anyway, as I'm not a bitter person or a sore loser or anything like that then that's enough bitching for today's post.
So not being happy enough with winning Matchman of the year, the winter league, the last two club matches and a pile of pound coins mugged from other club members, Alan (who was responsible for pegging out the match) managed to pull the golden peg, worth £46, out of the drawbag (peg 6) and, as you have probably already guessed, went on to win that as well!
Alan fished and fed maggot at 14m and in both margins and with the help of an hectic last hour put 35-8 onto the scales (not including the fish caught 10 minutes after the all out), consisting of carp between 8oz and 4lbs along with a bonus tench and a solitary skimmer.
Second on the day was the ever consistent Darren North on the end peg 17. Darren fished corn over micro pellet feed into open water at 8m and into the corner margin for a total of 25-12.
Match Sec (and possibly new Chairman), Steve Burgess completed the frame with 25-4 from peg 9 caught on red maggot over micro pellet and maggot feed at 12m to the corner of a clump of reeds on the far bank. Steve was fish for fish with Alan for the duration of the match but with an hour to go, a good fish smashed his rig in the reeds and killed the swim for the rest of the match leaving the pheasant beater to cruise to an easy victory.

Alan looks pleased with his catch which netted him £97

















Darren North looks overjoyed with coming second.












Ade Crawley looks for inspiration.














Simon Belcham looks scruffy!













Overall Result:

1. Alan Healy* ..... peg 6 ........ 35-8
2. Darren North ........ 17 ....... 25-12
3. Steve Burgess ........ 9 ........ 25-4
4. Simon Belcham .... 12 ....... 19-8
5. Ade Crawley ......... 15 ....... 10-13
6. Stuart Riddle ........ 16 ....... 8-12
7. Chris Szakacs ........ 4 ........ Dnw
8. Mark Britton ......... 2 ........ Dnw

*Golden peg

Acorn Match Lake, 6 September (10 pegs)

Taking a year out from match fishing to sharpen his skills seems to have paid off for Ryan Jordan winning both today's match and the last one he fished at Viaduct plus framing in the previous match and twice in Tony Rixon's "float only" series! The prospect of capturing some pictures of the man of the moment, Ryan, in action also meant that Roy Garland was on hand to record the action for Saturday's Evening Post.
As ever at Acorn the draw was all important with the end pegs being favourite and the narrow middle section being the least desirable.
Ryan was drawn on peg 7 and with a comfortable reach to the far bank margins decided to fish in one spot, tight over, with lassoed 8mm pellet over micro-pellet feed to put together a convincing win with 67lbs 13oz. He caught steadily from the off but his peg died towards the middle of the match only to pick up again later but he was then hampered when he trashed his pole rig and had to make do with hooking his banded pellet rather than the hair-rigged version he had been using and this resulted in quite a few lost fish due to hook pulls and foul-hookers.
In the next peg down, match secretary and winner of the knockout cup event, Steve Burgess, [pictured above] had also chosen to fish the far bank margins where with careful plumbing, he had found a slightly deeper area where he was able to concentrate the fish. Steve alternated between soft pellet on the hook and paste and restricted his 6mm pellet feed to a minimal amount, just enough to keep the fish interested without causing them to back off too far. Steve was catching the odd fish steadily through the match and found small fish were coming to the paste while the soft pellet approach would produce the odd better fish. During the last hour of the match, as the wind picked up, Steve was getting a bite every put-in on the paste and was starting to worry Ryan on the next peg but with 25lbs to make up even someone with Steve's extraordinary talent was going to struggle and he had to make do with second place and another pound coin from Alan Healy with 44lbs 14oz.
Meanwhile at the bottom end of the lake, the increase in wind during the last hour had improved things dramatically for most who had been struggling through the earlier part of the match, most especially for Mark Britton on end peg 2 (permanent 3) who was able to put together a good late run for 40lbs 10oz of quality fish for a close 3rd place and also for Alan Healy who claimed 4th spot with 37lbs 13oz.
At the far end of the lake Mr consistent, Darren North caught well but was let down by the small average size of his fish and ended up with 30lbs 14oz.
Adam Caswell meanwhile decided to bring along his girlfriend and her best mate!

Overall Result:

1. Ryan Jordan ...... peg 8 ........ 67-13
2. Steve Burgess ..... peg 7 ........ 44-14
3. Mark Britton ...... peg 2 ........ 40-10
4. Alan Healy ......... peg 4 ........ 37-13
5. Darren North ..... peg 10 ...... 30-14
6. Mark Radford** . peg 3 ........ 29-11
7. Derek Lucas ........ peg 9 ....... 23-3
8. Adam Caswell* .... peg 6 ....... 17-11
9. Simon Belcham ... peg 5 ....... 13-11
10. Paul Reed ............ peg 1 ....... DNW

*golden peg
**silver peg

Pairs Results:

1. Alan Healy / Mark Radford ....... 26 pts ....... 67-8
2. Darren North / Adam Caswell ... 23 pts ...... 48-9
3. Simon Belcham / Derek Lucas... 20 pts ....... 36-14
4. Paul Reed / Steve Burgess.......... 17 pts ........ 44-14
5. Mark Britton / Dave Tippet ....... 15 pts ........ 40-10

Acorn Match Lake, 21 June

1. Adam Caswell ....... 63-0
2. Darren North ........ 57-1
3. Alan Healy ............ 42-11
4. Bob Warren .......... 31-12
5. Mark Radford ....... 30-12
6. Eddie Perkins ....... 23-14
7. Derek Lucas (gp) .. 23-9
8. Simon Belcham / Paul Reed ... 20-0
9. 
   
10. Ryan Radford (jnr) .. 7-13

• Golden peg total = £107

Pairs to date

1. Darren North & Adam Caswell .... 268-2
2. Alan Healy & Mark Radford ........ 169-1
   
3. Derek Lucas & Simon Belcham ... 106-13
   
4. Paul Reed & Steve Burgess .......... 78-9
   
5. Mike Wilson & Adam Woodland .. 44-14
   
6. Mark Britton & Dave Tippett ........ 36-11