Trinity 27 March / Harescombe 03 April

I'm not going to dwell on the Trinity match too much as only 6 of us turned out and although I was really hoping that with being spread out along the back bank with a breeze blowing into us we'd have some decent weights, unfortunately it wasn't to be.

In fact it was one of the hardest matches I've fished for a long while as for whatever reason the lake just switched off completely.

I did manage to get a nice picture though 

I drew peg 8 and set up rigs for meat at 11m and down the margins.

After feeding all lines I went straight down the edge and caught a 7lb fish within 5 minutes and that, apart from one line bite and a few dinks on the float, was it for the day!

Winner on the day was Simon Belcham with 15-14 consisting of 3 carp plus 5lbs of whitebait caught mainly in the edge on maggot.

Matt Challenger was 2nd with an all-skimmers net of 10-11 and my solitary carp was good enough for 3rd!

Pictured below are the winner and default silvers winner (Rocket Ron) with their bonus prizes.

Onwards and upwards then (up the M5) to this week and Harescombe where hopefully this time round a few fish would be caught.
Thirteen fishing today so lots of room and that included a guest, Shane Caswell, who inevitably got lost and for the third week in a row I was running the show which is always good news as it meant I had time to fine tune some rigs with it being a 10:15 start.
I kept the last peg for Shane and pulled out the second from last one for myself.
That gave me peg 6 and 22 for the straggler so won't be doing that again as peg 6 is a bit of a bum draw whereas 22 can be a flyer.
Not to worry as fish have fins etc etc and I set up a banded pellet rig for across on top of the shelf, a rig for meat at top kit +2 out in front and a rig for both edges to fish maggot.
For company I had Derek on 4 and Steve oToole on 8 so a quiet day then!!
On the off I dumped a big pot of meat / pellet on the 2+2 line, fed some maggot down both edges and went across with a banded 6mm  over 4mm's and very soon hooked and lost my first F1 and after about 15 minutes it was 3-0 to the F1's before I gave that up in anger and frustration and tried the other lines.
The left margin, despite heavy doses of maggot feed was only any good for "eyes", the right margin produced nothing at all and, apart from one missed sailaway, the 2+2 line was also devoid of action .... not the best of starts but I wasn't alone as Steve oToole was having a similar struggle and Derek was happy catching "eyes"....

Not everyone was in the same boat though, Degsy Williams (yes, he has his name on his jacket too) opposite me on 24 was doing ok despite suffering losses and the wind-assisted pegs towards the bottom of the lake, 10-18, were all catching as well.
By the midway mark I had worked out that by feeding pellet across and fishing meat in the band I could hook and lose more F1's than with a banded pellet alone and, better still, shallowing up and slowly lifting and dropping the rig would add to the excitement of hooking and losing even more of the frustrating little ****s
However Mr oToole's regular heavy doses of loosefeed on his short lines were starting to pay off and after a very slow first half he went into overdrive and later in the match was catching F1's every put in on meat.

No such change of fortune for me unfortunately but Steve had given me a proper battering eventually winning the match with 83-4

Full Result:

1. Steve O'Toole (8) 83-4 

2. Matt Challenger (18) 71-5

3. Lee Waller (2) 61-4

4. Matt Taynton (10) 61-2

5. Chris Szakacs (15) 58-7

6. Lee Williams (30) 56-0

7. Lionel Legge (13) 49-0

8. Degsy Williams (24) 44-14

9. Shane Caswell (22) 39-11

10. Ross Sewell (29) 25-4

11. Steve Sewell (20) 24-12

12. Steve Burgess (6) 19-8

13. Derek Lucas (4) 15-4

Trinity, Woodlands / Rood Ashton

You may have noticed it's gone a bit quiet around here for a couple of weeks, but no, I haven't been on holiday or anything but after three dismal performances in a row I have slipped into one of those depressive states where you wonder why you bother getting out of bed on a Sunday morning.

In fact the way things have been going recently I reckon I'd struggle to catch crabs in a brothel but never mind, there's always the next match ....

So first up then was Trinity (Woodlands) back on the first Sunday in June and it was a nice warm day with a bit of breeze which under normal circumstances would have promised good weights for the 18 of us fishing.

But on arrival the carp in Ash Pool (both of them) were going at it like rabbits and chatting to fishery manager Misha who (judging by the size of her bump) has been as well,  the carp in the much deeper Woodlands lake had not started spawning properly and were likely to be more interested in following each other around than eating.

I drew peg 19 which is on the top bank and it was in the shade so while everyone else were stripping off and slapping on factor 30 I was shivering in my shorts and t-shirt. 

The peg looked good though with a big reed bed on the right and an overhanging tree on the left. I set up rigs for banded pellet shallow and deep at 11m and a rig for corn in the margins which I was expecting to be my banker.

Unfortunately none of the above really came good and my best run came when I switched to fishing shallow at 5m feeding by hand and even that didn't come to much.

I ended up with a handful of smallish carp and accidental silvers for 36-9

The match was won by Ivy House refugee Brian Shanks with 85-4 from peg 27 and his sidekick Rocket Ron Hardiman was 2nd with 75-1 from peg 7

It was an entertaining match all the same especially listening to Steve o' Toole catching eels and Mark Radford moaning constantly about the lack of fish in his peg but the highlight for me was Alan Healey who came with a grand plan of feeding off the hordes of tiny silvers armed with 6 pints of dead maggots.

He weighed in 1 carp and 300 micro fish that totalled 18-6 ... That worked well then!

Full Result:

1. Brian shanks (27) ..... 85-4
2. Ron Hardiman (7) ...... 75-1
3. Darren North (10) ..... 56-14
4. Matt Taynton (32) ...... 52-11
5. Matt Challenger (13) ... 44-1
6. Rich Jones (20) .......... 41-8
7. Steve Burgess(19) ..... 36-9
8. Lee Waller (4) ........... 30-2
9. Ryan Radford (14) ..... 28-13
10. Julian Nurse (30) ....... 27-5
11. Lionel Legge (11) ....... 27-1
12. Adam Caswell (17) ..... 24-8
13. Mark Radford (24) ...... 22-10
14. Alan Healey (29) / Steve o'Toole (23) ... 18-6
15. Steve Wynne (2) ........ 17-6
16. John Bradford (8) ....... 9-0
17. Derek Lucas (26) ....... dnw

Silvers:

1. Steve (snake-charmer) O'Toole  ... 11-3
2. Mark (the moaner) Radford ... 10-13
3. Alan (whitebait) Healey ... 10-2

The following Sunday we were at Rood Ashton which has long been an annual pilgrimage for Psv.

The only chance of a breakfast here has previously been Wetherspoons in Trowbridge (or TrowVegas as John Atkins calls it) but they don't open until 8 which means a late start.

But the good news was that fishery owner Alan's daughter has now started doing bacon baguettes which can be pre-ordered and delivered to the lake.

I had one and I was glad I did, next time round I will be ordering 5 to be delivered at hourly intervals (order one and you'll see where I'm coming from)!

Rood Ashton is a funny place, it's only a foot or so deep on the whole but is stuffed full of carp, roach and small skimmers.

We don't bother with a silvers pool here although I've no idea why as there are loads of them in there including plenty of quality roach.

Generally peg 1 nearest the car park and the end peg round the back in "the jungle" tend to be the best areas but anywhere can produce.

 I drew the first peg around the first corner which sticks out on a small spit.

I've done well at Rood Ashton before fishing paste in the margins but this time round (and God knows why after what happened to Alan last week) I opted to feed 3 pints of dead maggots down the left edge with a bit of corn and fish over it with corn or bunches of maggots to pick out the carp.

The same combination went next to an overhanging branch on the left at 11m and the same rig would do for the right margin at topkit range to be fished with meat over meat and 4mm's.

I set up a shallow rig to fish banded pellet (on the deck) at 13/14m and finally, as I had a bit of time to spare, a pellet wag.
There were a lot of fish cruising round in front of me so I started off on the pellet rig but all that produced were small roach that managed to choke on an 8mm pellet and swirls and bow waves from spooked carp.
Upping the feed brought in plenty of fish but connecting with any of them (in the mouth) was another matter.
Out by the tree branch with corn gave more roach and some carp but almost every fish I hooked I pulled out of.
In fact the whole match turned into a nightmare for me and when I finally worked out I'd been fishing with a blunt hook (caused by getting the plummet stuck in a snag before the start) I was too fed up to care about it.
The pellet wag was a waste of space (I hooked and lost one fish on it), the margins never came to life and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes or so that i finally managed to get some proper bites at 14m on the pellet rig.
My eventual total of 19-2 was only good enough for 13th place and with only 13 fishing it won't be a match I'll be remembering for too long.
And to add insult to injury, when I came round with the fishing bus to pick my kit up my margins were full of waving tails like something from a show at Seaworld ... why does this always happen!

For the second week running the match was won by Brian Shanks with an impressive 142lbs 3oz 

Second place went to Pete Uzzell from peg 1 with 82-4 

and the third spot went to Mr method feeder, Chris Gay with 76-0 from the "jungle" which conveniently brings me on to the highlight of the day which was when Chris got pulled into the lake by a particularly spirited fish along with his seatbox and everything attached to it including his phone.
Lee Waller commented that it was worth the £20 just to witness Chris's Tom Daly impersonation!

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks ....... 142-3
2. Pete Uzzell .......... 82-4
3. Chris Gay ............ 76-0
4. Mark Radford ....... 57-7
5. Ron Hardiman ...... 52-13
6. Alan Healey .......... 50-12
7. Lee Waller ............ 49-13
8. Steve Sewell ......... 37-12
9. Matt Williams ........ 35-0
10. Ryan Radford ........ 34-10
11. Steve O'Toole ........ 34-5
12. Adam Caswell ........ 25-6
13. Steve Burgess ........ 19-2

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 12 April (16 pegs)

My first match in a non-organisational role started with ..... collecting the money as one half of the new match secretary team, Alan Healey  was running late due to Shipham cafe being a tad busy (the other, smaller half wasn't fishing today).
Luckily, I had skipped Shipham in favour of Hilltops as it's quicker for me to go straight down the motorway and to be honest, they do a good brekkie there and it comes out pretty quick too although the staff may not be quite as glamorous!
Anyway, 16 fishing today and Misha sorted out the pegging for us (no need for her bodyguard today as they're now married).
Taking my turn with the rest of the rabble this week I found myself on peg 10 which put me in the company of Rich Jones on 11 and, yet again, Matt "2 pegs" Taynton on 8 who was still trying to live down the memories of last week and muttering something or other about the bush between us meaning he wouldn't be able to watch me kick his arse again!

A quick chat with Mr Jones who knows the lake like the back of his neck confirmed what I suspected that it would be an up-in-the-water / margin day as we had a stiff breeze blowing at us and up to the top corner (peg 17) which was occupied by Simon Belcham so there was a fair chance that his sprat-bashing was going to be interrupted today.
I never had a quick chat with Mr Taynton as he was still sore about last week.

I set up a shallow rig for 8mm pellet, a full depth rig, about 8' deep, to fish meat over soggy 4mm pellet for as far out as was comfortable in the wind (11-13m) and a rig to fish towards the bush on my right at topkit plus 2 sections which was beefed up a bit as some of the fish here can be quite hefty.

As I had a bit of time left I also set up a wag rod set to about half depth in case the wind dropped which it didn't so no more on that one, as they say (I've been dying to put that in somewhere)!
After cupping in a combination of pellet and meat on the pole lines I started out on the shallow rig (as did pretty much everyone) with a banded 8 and feeding 6's over the top.
And after a few minutes of old-school lifting and plopping the rig in (I can't get my head round the slapping nonsense) I was playing my first fish.
And looking round while I was playing it, it seemed that everyone else on our bank were also playing fish.
Unfortunately it wasn't so on the opposite bank as nobody was getting much over there and as the match progressed there seemed to be a bit of jealousy creeping in ... not that I was too bothered!
Sticking with the shallow rig I was getting odd fish but nothing like as many as Darren North and Chris Gay who were having a close battle on pegs 14 & 13 but for the time being I was keeping up with Rich Jones next door thanks mainly to a monster of a fish that would have been more at home at Cary.
I had an early look down the edge which resulted in missing a bite and putting my rig in the overhanging bush .... bugger!
This is a problem I'm getting a lot now as my 50 year old eyesight is failing rapidly and I struggle to work out distances and colours but never mind.
With a new rig on I went back down the edge and had another double-figure fish and a lucky escape as while I was playing it on my topkit I noticed out of the corner of my good eye the rest of my pole sliding off the roller into the lake and luckily, with a bit of one-handed carp juggling, managed to grab it before it vanished.
With my shallow fishing not really setting the world on fire I had a look on the deep rig but presentation was a nightmare as the tow was going with the wind and pushing the rig back towards me at a silly rate.
I hooked 2 fish on this rig, both fouled when I was lifting the rig out, managing to get one of them in backwards so I have a suspicion they weren't on the deck!!
As the match progressed Chris and Darren were still catching miles more than everyone else and Rich Jones (below) had a  second wind catching shallow close in.

Up on Peg 17 Simon Belcham was, as predicted, suffering carp problems,  the whingers on the opposite bank were still whingeing, Lionel Legge had even taken the opportunity to have a lie down in the sun.
Although Ron Hardiman on 32 had a few and Ryan on peg 20 was also catching so it wasn't all bad over that side.
I did manage a couple more out of the margin before the all-out but it never really lived up to expectations.
Rich next door had one on the all-out and provided a bit of comedy when he dropped his landing net and while retrieving it managed to get the hook off one of his other kits stuck in his hat and got in a bit of a pickle.
I was going to help him out but he'd got himself sorted by the time I'd stopped laughing at him!
My efforts went a total of 53-14 which was good enough for 5th place and one off the money but more importantly (for me) it meant another pound coin from Alan Healey and another lesson for 2-pegs Taynton who was well and truly "chip-shopped" as his other neighbour Matt "chatty-man" Challenger came 3rd with 85-1 caught mainly on paste down the edge, so I went home happy.
The match was won by Darren North with 96-2 all caught shallow with pellet and Chris Gay was one fish behind with 92-2
Mr Jones took fourth with 64-10 so the 2oz rudd I chucked back never cost me.
The silvers was won by Lee Waller on 29 with 7-13 of skimmers.
Ryan Radford was 2nd with 5-7 but wasn't in the pools allowing Simon Belcham to frame with 5-4 of whitebait by default.

Full Result:

1. Darren North (14) ......... 96-14
2. Chris Gay (13) ............. 92-2
3. Matt Challenger (7) ...... 85-1
4. Rich Jones (11) ........... 64-10
5. Steve Burgess (10) ...... 53-14
6. Ryan Radford (20) ....... 46-15
7. 2 Pegs Taynton (8/9) .... 42-4
8. Chris Szakacs (2) ......... 38-10
9. Ron Hardiman (32) ....... 35-2
10. Adam Caswell* (24) ...... 32-12
11. Mark Radford (27) ........ 24-8
12. Lee Waller (29) ............ 21-14
13. Ross Baker (23) ........... 11-4
14. Sim on Belcham (23) .... 5-4
15. and 2 dnw's 

 

 Silvers:

1. Lee Waller (29) .......... 7-13
2. Ryan Radford (20) ...... 5-7
3. Simon Belcham (17) ... 5-4
4. Ross Baker (23) ......... 4-4

 

 

Next week's adventure is on the new canal at Ivy House and it's a long while since we've been there so should be interesting.

Trinity Waters, Wildmarsh, 09 November (11 pegs)

Only eleven fishing today as Wildmarsh can be a bit "challenging" and a few had opted to fish elsewhere.

Personally I don't mind a tough venue, for me it's all about the competition and whether that's measured in pounds or hundreds of pounds makes no odds to me. 

Today every ounce was going to be important and the object was to make every bite count and hope for a bonus fish or two.

Things didn't start off too well though as we were due to have pegs 6~11 and 21~30 but on arrival, despite the notice at the entrance, there were encampments set up in pegs 7 and 8 and (as seems to be the way of the carp angler) their lines were spread out covering most of that end of the lake .... they like to get value for money from their   peg fees!

Anyway, it wasn't the end of the world as the roadside bank was free and there were signs of fish down there so rather than turf the carp anglers out of their camouflaged temporary accommodation we settled on 9 pegs along here and 4 on the end of the spit (26,28,29 & 30) which are usually good for a few fish.

A quick call to Misha and this was ok'd although under the circumstances I think she would have agreed to anything as she was nursing an hangover from the previous night due to celebrating her hen night ....

But anyway, on to the match, and after pulling out 62 on the road bank and dumping Derek off on the golden peg (26) I set up a 0.3g rig for silvers (hopefully big skimmers) which would  do for 2 spots at 14m (using Lee Williams and the Gimp as markers) and another at 11m plus a rig for roach on the edge of the lillys at 5m where there was a depth of about 3 feet.

And after a slightly delayed start of about 3 minutes I fed the long lines with combinations of groundbait, stunned red maggots and micros and fed the short line with caster.

Unfortunately though all this careful plan of attack was wasted as it took a good hour or more to get a bite of any description and despite rotating all three long lines with various baits this came from a 2oz roach on the inside caster line.

The long lines seemed to be completely devoid of fish and not just for me but all three anglers to my left were in the same boat.

The Gimp had gotten off to a much better start and was catching silvers at a reasonable rate on maggot over groundbait at 7/8m.

Lee next door was eventually doing similar, after a fruitless few chucks on the tip, but wasn't keeping up with Mr Bradford.

Next to me on 61, Adam Caswell was getting odd skimmers by fishing 3 maggots over huge amounts of groundbait (??) 

and the rumour mill was indicating that Brian Shanks was catching well on the end peg (58).

Elsewhere, Darren North was catching silvers on peg 30 but 2 hours in and  everyone else were struggling for bites.

In fact (misfiring) Rocket Ron Hardiman, on my left, had not had the merest tremble on anything and was moaning his way to a possible bl**k which is worrying for an angler of Ron's calibre!

Derek had also had nothing on the golden peg but he did manage a couple of roach later after scrounging some mags off Lee Williams.

Ron was not so fortunate and packed up after five hours with one bite (a tiny skimmer) to show for his efforts.

I did eventually manage a handful of skimmers plus a "bonus" skimmer of about a pound from the 14m line but Adam had well and truly done me from the next peg which cost me a pound.

As it turned out Brian Shanks came out clear winner with a total of 31-9 having caught the only two carp to make an appearance.

They didn't matter though as he also also topped the silvers with the help of some good crucians and a proper skimmer of a couple of pounds.
Brian caught on caster over micros.

The Gimp was second with 15-10 of mainly small skimmers caught on maggot over groundbait, boosted by a bonus tench and crucian so he was happy as he has struggled to catch anything of consequence here in previous matches.

Third and fourth places were separated by an ounce!

Darren edged it with a last gasp big skimmer taking his total to 11-12 ahead of Lee Williams' 11-11 click here

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (58) ......... 31-9 (24-2 Silvers)
2. John Bradford (29) ........ 15-10
3. Darren North (30) ......... 11-12
4. Lee Williams (28) .......... 11-11
5. Adam Caswell (61) ........ 5-8
6. Ryan Radford (59) ........ 4-12
7. Mark Radford (65) ........ 4-10
8. Steve Burgess (62) ....... 3-0
9. Alan Healey (64) .......... 2-9
10. and 2 dnw's

Trinity, Woodlands, 28 Sept

Originally I had seventeen booked in for this match but by Thursday that number had dwindled down to 10 so I gave Misha a ring to let her know that we wouldn't want the whole lake. Come Sunday morning (after 1 more had booked out) I arrived at the lake, a little worse for wear, to find there were only five of us as four hadn't showed up!
At least three of those are usually reliable so I can only assume that somebody, possibly me, had got their wires crossed somewhere along the line but to be fair out of a membership of nearly 40 you would have thought we would have had an half decent turnout at a popular venue like Trinity and with a good weather forecast too!
And not good for the fishery's income either but Misha did have the last laugh by leaving the otter fence switched on which thankfully, Mark Radford discovered before me!
This only reinforced my thinking that perhaps it's time I hung up my match secretary boots and let someone else have a go who can possibly inject a bit more enthusiasm into the club.

Anyway, enough of my whinging and back to the "match" (5 peg knock-up).
Plenty of room then so we spread ourselves out between pegs 6 and 15.
Ron Hardiman was in 6 which was where I would have liked to have been or maybe 8 which was occupied by Mark Radford.
I landed up in 11 but with this much room it didn't really matter much.
I had planned to have a nice easy day, nothing complicated and no 16m section coming out of the holdall.
So, I set up 2 shallow rigs for 14m (one was set for a foot deep and the other at about 3 feet which would double up as a margin rig).
I also set up a rig for on the deck at 6m where it was about 8 feet deep and fortunately this was the same rig from the last day at Holgan farm and was identical in depth within a couple of inches which was handy.
These rigs were all for 6mm hard pellet plus I set up a rig to fish dead maggot over groundbait which seems to be the fashion these days in the right margin between an overhanging bush and a small submerged branch.

The groundbait I had was actually some old green fishmeal method mix but it's all the same to me and I didn't expect the carp to be too fussy either.

At the start I fed a pot of 6mm's at 6m, which erupted into a mass of fizzing almost instantly, and went out on the deeper shallow rig with a 6mm in the band.
That only gave some little dinks on the float that I guessed were roach but after changing to the shallower rig I soon had my first fish which was an F1 (a new one for me at Trinity).
Not much followed on the shallow rig and I was itching to come over the short line which was still fizzing like crazy.
First drop in over that produced a small carp that was shaped like a football, followed by a foul-hooker that made it to the middle of the lake before the hook pulled.
The next fish was a slow-moving dead weight that obviously didn't realise I was trying to pull it out of the lake as, despite my best efforts, it was still milling around on the bottom amongst the feed but when it finally did wake up it cruised straight into the margin where I had plumbed up and transfered the hook into the previously mentioned branch which turned out to be quite a lot bigger than I originally thought, a small tree would be a better description and that was the end of that rig's short life.
So a new rig went on and the next fish tore off at a rate of knots and broke that one at the knot where I'd added a foot of line ... won't be doing that again!
Rig number three on and the next fish was a big bugger that was hooked in the tail and took me an age to get in.  After much fretting, elastic pulling and platform leg trauma I eventually managed to get it in by hand-lining the elastic ... not something I would recommend but it did the job.
I wasn't the only one having problems though,  Matt Taynton next door was having big problems with the undergrowth and seemed to be spending more time putting new rigs on than fishing. 
So after all that commotion I gave the short line a rest and had another go on the shallow line but only got one fish off that.
Back on the 6m line and I had a "run" of 2 skimmers followed by odd carp, some hooked properly but I was loosing lots, probably mostly but not all foul-hooked.
Over to my left I got the impression that Ryan on peg 15 was putting a few fish together and Mr Taynton and myself were even Stevens.
I could hear lots of splashing coming from my right but I couldn't see down that end so I assumed both Ron and Mark were also doing well.
I'd had a look in the margins with four dead maggots on the hook but I had discovered a problem with this method.
It can be a bit problematic if your peg is solid with "eyes" and I reckoned that even if I had put 40 maggots on the hook I would have had the same problem.
Matt was doing something similar and was also getting "roached out" but he must have had better groundbait as he was snaring carp as well, including one that you could put a saddle on (his words) which was worrying.
As it turned out though my efforts had proved fruitful as Ryan weighed in 58-15 to Matt's 46-9 and my nets went 63-12 helped by a couple of late fish including my biggest fish which I had on the shallow rig over the 6m line.
Mark's paste attack let him down badly and Rocket Ron weighed in 56-5 so happy days but a close match and I had achieved my target of catching more today than I did over the three matches last weekend.

1. Steve Burgess (11) ...... 63-12
2. Ryan Radford (15) ...... 58-15
3. Rocket Ron (6) ............ 56-5
4. Matt Taynton (13) ....... 46-9
5. Mark Radford (8) ........ 40-15

Finally, I won't be around for Sedges on Sunday as I'm going to Perranporth for the weekend so next week's thrilling installment will be brought to you by Chris Szakacs (if he turns up)!

Trinity, Wildmarsh, 06 July (12 pegs)

Due to the well publicised problems on Woodlands Lake this match was switched to Wildmarsh which is a stunning-looking lake (as the above picture shows) but due to it's size it doesn't have the stocking levels and relatively easy fishing that we are used to at many venues these days and so nobody was expecting three-figure weights today.

Frys had fished a match here on the previous Sunday which I think was won by Andy Curry with 50lbs-ish so that would be a more realistic target to aim for.

As usual the very lovely Misha was on "meet & greet" duty and sorted out 12 pegs for us (altered slightly by venue expert, Adam Caswell)  as well as providing me with a pen as I was not quite as prepared as I usually am on a Sunday morning but we got there in the end!

To cut along story short, it was hard work for most of us.

I drew peg 2 which was about 5 steps from the car park and set up a shallow wag rod, a tip rod, a shallow pellet rig (because a carp topped in front of me while I was setting up) and a rig for down the left and right margins.

The left margin had a large willow overhanging and to the right was a tangle of tree roots in the water that looked "carpy" although getting fish out might have been a bit of a problem (but I need not have worried).

Bait for the day was corn and meat for the margins and the usual 6's and 8's for the wag / lead.

To cut a long story short, after three hours of watching Mark Radford opposite me on peg 24  catching on paste and Brian Shanks giving him a good run for his money  on 22, I finally got a bite down my right-hand edge on corn which produced a roach of about six ounces.

This was then followed by a "run" of two skimmers and another similar sized roach before I bumped a third skimmer, which was no suprise on 16 elastic, and that put paid to that.

With about 90 minutes left the wind picked up putting a bit of ripple on the lake prompting another go on the wag and that produced a 6lb carp followed by a duck which was the end of my match giving me a total of 11-5 but at least my duck was bigger than Alan Healey's and his two tench went 6lbs odd so I got a pound off him but unfortunately I had to give that one to Adam who had somehow managed to "hook" a couple of carp and skimmers for 16-15.

Despite claiming to only have a couple of carp and lost loads etc etc ... Mark Radford was the clear winner with 51-5 of carp and skimmers all caught on paste.

Chris (£14 a kilo)* Szakacs took second place with 37-8. 

He also had a biteless first half but found a few fish that moved in on his paste line late on.

Brian Shanks made up the frame with 34-10

And with Mark also winning the silvers with 12-5 of skimmers Alan Healey's two tench for 6-3 caught on worm gave him the silvers by default with Adam Caswell following with 4-15.

Full Result:

1. Mark Radford (peg 25) ........ 51-5
2. Chris Szakacs (13) ............ 37-8
3. Brian Shanks (22) ............. 34-10
4. Rich Britton (11) ............... 27-0
5. Adam Caswell (7) ............. 16-15
6. Steve Burgess (2) ............ 11-5
7. Steve Wynne* (24) ........... 6-10
8. Rich Jones (9) / Alan Healey (21) .. 6-3
9. and 3 DNW's

Silvers:

1. Mark Radford ....... 12-5
2. Alan Healey ......... 6-3
3. Adam caswell ....... 4-15
4. Steve Burgess ...... 4-9
5. Rich Jones ........... 1-10

Since this update Woodlands lake has reopened and is fishing well.
The Carpenters Arms match this Sunday was won with over 90lbs so hopefully the damage wasn't too severe and the lake will soon recover.


*subject to confirmation!

Trinity blind pairs, 18 May (19 pegs)

Having given it a miss last week to keep the wife in line I was really looking forward to this especially seeing as the forecast was for a shorts & flip-flops day.

My usual travelling partner was away on family duties today so he was replaced by my end-of-the-draw-queue nemesis, Will Dearlove.
Unfortunately, the last pegs in the box let us down badly this week but that's another story.
As the title suggests, this week was a blind-pairs match and Misha kindly drew the pairs and sorted the pegging.
Payout was top three and one silvers overall, plus the top three pairs paid out additionally.
With the recent spell of warm weather a lot of the carp on the lake  were otherwise occupied and there was a breeze blowing diagonally across the lake into peg 6.
I won't bore you with the details as the winner, Lee Williams, has already done a good job of that : http://woolavy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/psv-match-180514-trinity-woodlands-lake.html

Winner on the day was Lee in peg 6 with 116-4, close second was Brian Shanks with 114-12 from peg 8 and in third place (and battered from both sides)! was Darren North with 84-5 from peg 7.
Rich Jones came close to upsetting the windward corner domination with 83-5 from peg 32.

Silvers went to Adam Caswell on peg 15 with 7-12.
Winners of the pairs were Simon Belcham and Rich Jones.

Overall Result:

1. Lee Williams (peg 6) ......... 116-4
2. Brian Shanks (8) ............. 114-12
3. Darren North (7) ............. 84-5
4. Rich Jones (32) ............... 83-5
5. Simon Belcham (12) ........ 55-7
6. Ron Hardiman (13) .......... 42-7
7. Pete Uzzell (2) ................ 40-9
8. Mike Welling (30) ............ 40-7
9. Andy Gay (27) ................ 36-0
10. Ryan Radford (26) ........... 35-15
11. Chris Gay (29) ................ 33-9
12. Chris Szakacs (17) .......... 26-11
13. Steve Wynne (10) ........... 21-0
14. Mark Radford (23) ........... 19-0
15. Adam Caswell (15) .......... 16-0
16. Alan Healey (19) ............. 13-9
17. Steve Burgess (24) .......... 11-8
18. Will Dearlove (20) ........... 6-15
19. Lee Waller (3) ................. dnw

Silvers:

1. Adam Caswell ....... 7-12
2. Mike Welling ......... 7-3
3. Will Dearlove ........ 6-15
4. Chris Gay ............. 6-0
5. Ryan Radford ........ 5-12
6. Pete Uzzell ............ 5-1

Pairs:

1. Simon Belcham / Rich Jones (9pts) ... 138-12
2. Brian Shanks / Mike Welling (10) ...... 155-3
3. Pete Uzzell / Darren North (10) ........ 124-14
4. Lee Williams / Steve Wynne (14) ...... 137-4
5. Ron Hardiman / Chris Gay (17) ......... 76-0
6. Andy Gay / Mark Radford (23) .......... 55-0
7. Chris Szakacs / Steve Burgess (29) ... 38-3
8. Alan Healey / Adam Caswell (31) ...... 29-9
9. Will Dearlove / Lee Waller (37) ......... 6-15

Through to the next round of the knockout this week were:
Lee Williams
Mark Radford
Andy Gay (beat Ryan Radford by 1oz)
Simon Belcham
Darren North

Trinity, Woodlands, 09 March (15 pegs)

Firstly thanks to all who attended last week's Agm at The Horseshoe.
And a welcome back for the new Chairman, Mike Wilson who has returned to the helm after a break of a couple of years.
And thanks to all who have fished throughout the year and assisted with organisation, weighing-in etc which has resulted in a successful season with some great results and no re-draws!
Well done also to Mark Radford who wins the Matchman of the Year title.
Back to today and for once we were forecast a warm spring day and that's exactly what we got, the warmest day of the year so far in fact.
As per usual fishery manager Misha (complete with new dark hair colour) was in charge of the welcoming committee and offering plenty of useful advice.
So with fifteen fishing the payout was top three overall and (with Kev Jefferies at Emerald Pool), two Silvers payouts.
I won't go into too much detail as to how the match went as Brian Shanks, on peg 12, had his first carp in the net fishing 8mm pellet shallow before I'd even filled my bait tubs and he continued in the same vein up to the "all out" fishing mostly at 14m between 18" and 3' deep.
He also caught in the margins on meat for a total of 124lbs exactly.
A stewards enquiry considered disqualifying his 3rd net but he would have still won!
In second place was new member Steve O' Toole on peg 7 with 80-0 caught on meat in the margins (left & right) on just his top 2,
And third spot went to Chris Gay with 72-10 from peg 31, again caught on pellet shallow.
Silvers went to Lee Waller with 9-12 from peg 6.
As for my match, I had planned to fish the waggler with caster but that was a no-go as the wind was blowing towards me and to my right making the presentation rubbish.
The long pole line, which I'd fed with groundbait containing micros and caster never produced a bite and after seeing too many people catching shallow a hastily assembled pellet rig also produced nothing.
Most of the match was then spent in the margins.  First put in down the left side produced an instant bite and a good sized carp was hooked but unfortunately it shed the hook, or should I say, it shed the rig and kept the hook as the rig came back with a curly pigtail of line where the hook should have been (not good).
I did manage a handful of carp down the right margin towards the empty platform of peg 14 and a late look back out on the shallow rig produced two fish in a row before the rig got completely wrapped up around the pole and put the dampers on that.
My meagre 28-6 was by no means the worst performance of the day as over in peg 20 Matt Taynton, who is more often than not, a force to be reckoned with could only manage a few silvers (no carp whatsoever) and from a peg that even Chris Gay and Colin Ellaway have managed to catch from before now so Matt most definitely qualified for the "Hero to Zero" award this week!
Talking of awards, Chris Gay took the "Best Dressed Angler" award with his very smart new outfit which caused a bit of amusement at the draw especially at the expenses of our resident (Daiwa) tackle / clothing tart Will Dearlove.
I never got a picture of Chris in his finery but I did get one of Derek Lucas giving his neighbour Brian Shanks a lesson in catching carp on the pole (see below)

Unfortunately for Derek, what this picture doesn't show is that Brian put 2 fish in his net while Derek was playing that one!


Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (peg 12) ...... 124-0
2. Steve O' Toole (7) ......... 80-0
3. Chris Gay (31) .............. 72-10
4. Darren North* (9) .......... 51-8
5. Mark Radford (17) ......... 39-0
6. Ryan Radford (24) ......... 38-6
7. Keith Ray (30) .............. 36-14
8. Will Dearlove (25) ......... 29-4
9. Steve Burgess (15) ....... 28-6
10. Derek Lucas (13) .......... 20-14
11. Lee Waller (6) .............. 9-12
12. John Bradford (27) ........ 8-1
13. Matt Taynton (20) ........ 7-6!!!
14. Chris Szakacs (10) / Lionel Legge (28) .... dnw

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Lee Waller (6) ......... 9-12
2. Keith Ray (30) ......... 8-4
3. John Bradford (27) .... 8-1
4. Matt Taynton (20) ...... 7-6

And on a lighter note, down at Shiplate and the final round of their Winter Series, Alan Healey needed a good result to ensure a place in the overall money.
Especially he needed to do better than Steve Howell which he was quite confident of doing as he had taken a few pound coins off him over the series.

I dont know what happened there then, but at least Adam Caswell, who was standing in for Dean Malin (and fishing for Fry's?) managed to retain some self respect ........


"On points the series was won by Dean Malin (Shimano/Dynamite), with Steve Howell (Shiplate) taking Second and Rich Hawkins (Bristol PO) in Third place. The Silvers league was won by Julian Pinkett (Bristol PO) and Second was Gordon Jones (Shiplate).
The Pairs prize was won by Dean Malin and Alan Healey.

The match itself on the day was won by Steve Howell on the pole, fishing worm shallow to the far bank, and margins, feeding micro.
1st Steve Howell (Shiplate) p12W, 50lb 9oz (pictured)
2nd Adam Caswell (Frys) p1H, 39lb 3oz"


 (courtesy of Shiplate Carp Fishery Facebook page)

Trinity Waters, Woodlands, 24 November (8 pegs)!

One positive about posting my updates a  day or two after the event is that I get the chance to see how the rest of the circuit has been doing over the weekend.

And with a mini cold-snap over the previous few days ( consecutive frosts on Friday and Saturday nights ) it was expected to be tough.

The first round of Mugger Shanks' Westerleigh winter league was won with 18-8 from peg 6 by Psv's very own Darren North. 

Things were a little better at Acorn on Sunday for the over 43's coffin-dodgers match with current Acorn superstar and  another Psv member, Ray Bazeley method-feedering his way to victory there with 43-12 from peg 5.

Psv's Mike Wilson shared second with M? Richards who both weighed in 40-5 and 4th was yet another psv veteran, Bob Warren with 36-1 so that would have been a close match.

The Saturday open at Landsend was hit by the cold, bright weather and 37-12 was enough for Rod Wooton to win from peg 15.

Over on Shiplate it was hard work for Mr Rixon and his superstars on the main lake, 27-10 was enough to win for Kev Molten from peg 1 but strangely the canals fished much better for the Shiplate winter series.

Tim Lewis won that one with 87-9 from peg 9 on Hawthorns.

A bit closer to home the recently reopened and refurbished Bitterwell Lake had its first match (I think) on Sunday but again it was a tough one and only 21lbs was enough to win that one.

Incidentally, second was someone called Des with 19-4.

By now I expect you're wondering where the hell this is all leading but the (very long-winded) point of this is that we are now well and truly in winter mode where every bite counts and one lost bonus carp can make the difference between framing or coming nowhere.

Personally I enjoy this type of fishing although I don't enjoy those days in the depths of winter when you know you'll be lucky if you get a bite but, as they say, "a bad day's fishing is better than a good day's work" (ok, I made that up)!

ANYWAY, on to the big event and it was a pretty poor turnout with just 8 fishing.

Thankfully the lovely Misha let us have the far bank to ourselves and only charged us the peg fees which was generous especially seeing as there had been an overnight charity carp match on Wildmarsh where 32 were booked in but "only" 24 turned up ... Bless her!

For a change, and seeing as there were only 8 of us, I thought I'd do a quick rundown of each peg so here goes.

Peg 6, Will Dearlove

Will has got it into his head that the last peg in the bag (which I normally have) is always a flier so to humour him I gave him the choice of the last 2 and sure enough he drew peg 6 in the bottom corner which was the peg everyone fancies and is usually a really good margin peg.

Not today though as Will never had anything down the edge and caught at 14m on corn, and feeding corn.

He ended up with a couple of lumpy carp and 11-12 of silvers for a total of 26-11.

His silvers net was made up mostly of good quality roach and a confused tench and was easily enough to take the silvers pool.

Peg 8, Stewart Riddle

One carp and a decent net of silvers for a total of 12-7

Peg 10, Mark Radford

Unfortunately Mark managed to forget to bring any maggot or caster but it made little difference as he caught down the edge to an overhanging bush on corn (I think) to weigh in a total of 29-3 which was good enough for second on the day.

Peg 12, Matt Challenger

Arguably Bristol's most popular tackle shop owner Matt fished 16m with soft pellet over micro where he caught silvers and a couple of decent carp. He also caught (and lost) a few more fishing to the empty platform next to him.

His total weight of 30-13 was enough to win the match and just about covered his bait costs.

Peg 14, Me

No chance of winning today as this was the golden peg but I did better than last week.

I fed 3 areas at 14m, to the left I put in quite a bit of groundbait, caster and micros. In the middle it was just caster / maggot / micros and to the right I fed ultra-cautious (just the one potfull).

I also put a bit of maggot and caster at 11m and fed both margins with caster and groundbait just to make sure I never had to take any home.

The long lines produced small silvers straight away on double maggot and over the groundbait, where I was getting a bit of fizzing, I had 2 small carp before hooking a scale which seemed to kill it for a bit.

The shorter line was also giving up tiny roach as did the left margin which I'd been topping up with casters.

First put in down the right on caster produced a pole-bender which snapped the rig line on its way down to Matt's peg.

It was an old rig I'd dug out of the box and stuck a new 0.12 hook length on so that was a possible match-winning fish lost due to laziness unfortunately.

I stuck with this margin for the last 2 hours, topping up with groundbait and caster and managed a further 3 carp and a good skimmer on double maggot for a total of 25-1 and 4th place.

Peg 16, Ryan Radford

Ryan fished a tidy match but didn't seem to have any fish in front of him ... Dnw

Peg 18, Pete Uzzell

Pete seems to like drawing this peg although the peg doesn't seem to like drawing him!

One carp and a few silvers gave him 11-10 and the "must try harder" award.

Peg 20, Chris Gay

Fiortunately Chris didn't need the 30lb ice-breaker that together with the world's heaviest seatbox knocked about 10mpg off the fishing bus's fuel consumption on the motorway.

Chris caught very late down the left margin towards the corner on triple caster (nothing on single or double)!

Apparently the carp turned up in his margin in the last half hour which was too late to make a difference.

Mind you halfway through the match he decided to go down with his landing net and do a bit of swim clearing which may have also cleared out any carp that were in there ... nice logic!

Chris ended up with 22-3 and would have won if we'd fished on for another 30 minutes.

Full Result:

This Sunday we are on Spring lake at Viaduct and currently have 11 / 12 booked in. It should be a good day's fishing so don't miss out!

Catch up time / clearing the backlog!

Yes, I know it's been a while but I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks and then to add insult to injury I got lumbered with some necessary domestic repairs.  Well the shower has been leaking for years now and besides the slight inconvenience of turning the downstairs lighting circuit off to have a shower the living room ceiling was looking like it was about to go through at any moment.
That just leaves painting the woodwork on the stairs which isn't a rush job as there has been masking tape on the handrail since the 90's so a few more months won't hurt!
Anyway, first up in the backlog was a match at Trinity (Woodlands) way back on 18 August.
It was another glorious sunny day with very little wind and prior to the start there were fish showing all over the lake which looked promising.
For whatever reason though, most likely down to the bright calm conditions, the carp were cagey on the shallow pole line and the way forward seemed to be with paste.
Pete Sivell did the honours from a flat clam and unfancied peg 2 with 108lbs on (you guessed it) .... paste.
Second on the day was Chris (2 pieces of worm) Gay with 77-11 from peg 27 followed by Brian Shanks on golden peg 8 who staged a legendary comeback after a fruitless first half of the match to weigh in 71-11.
Silvers was a tie between Simon Belcham and Chris Gay both with 11-0 although Simon collared the money by default.
I had yet another bad day after drawing peg 13.  I struggled to catch shallow on the pole so switched to trying to catch skimmers on meat which was semi successful but they were small fish.  I had tails waving in my right margin but I hadn't plumbed it up and just went in there with meat on my adapted shallow rig.  If I had have plumbed the margin I would have realised that there was a complicated network of tree roots under the surface and saved myself a whole lot of heartache!
I ended up with 8-1 of silvers and 26-2 of carp for a measly 34-3 which was a lot closer to the bottom of the weigh sheet than the top and meant handing over pound coins to both Alan Healy and a very smug Pete Sivell.
I was even beaten battered off the next peg by Alan Healy's apprentice, Garth Creese, who has not long taken up fishing matches and caught mostly plopping a method feeder in the margins which I'm not knocking because he did a lot better than me and he's built like a brick shithouse!
Speaking to Misha's bodyguard and resident expert, Tom after the match he seemed to think the pellet wag would have been the way to go, he may have been right but who knows as I don't recall anyone using it on the day.

Next up was the "much anticipated" inter-club with Fry's at Durleigh res.
Merv Sivell loves this place and had enthusiastically talked me into this one and to be fair I've heard the fishing (especialy for the roach and bream) is awesome but I had a sneaking suspicion that we weren't going to have a very good turnout from psv with mutterings about horrendous walks to pegs etc.
As it happened we had 2 turn out for psv and one of those was a "ringer".
Lee's blog from this match can be found ..... click here
To be honest I would have been more than happy to have fished it myself as I've never even seen the place but unfortunately I was in Skiathos at the time and I have absolutely no idea of the result!

The following weekend was on the match lake at Harescombe near Stroud.
30-ish pegs in an oval around a central island at around 14m with no features to speak of and stuffed full of small carp and f1's averaging 1 to 2lbs so a nice and fair venue where you need a lot of fish to do well.
Winner on the day was Andy Curry with 81-8 (peg 3) followed by Mark Radford with 73-2 (peg 15).
Another Fry's defector, Jason Bird was 3rd (he's took my advice on board and seems to be trying a bit harder) with 67-13 (peg 9)
Alan Healy was 4th with 66-12 (peg 5).
 I've just been through the results and in actual fact Ryan Radford was 3rd with 71-2 (peg 29) so perhaps Jason Bird really ought to try that litle bit harder!

Next up was Walters Lake at South Cerney.  This was our 3rd visit here and my first match back from holiday so I was hoping for a good day today as the previous two visits had been disappointing (crap).
Walters consists of four interconnected canal-style "lanes" set out in a in a "w" shape and the Saturday opens regularly produce weights of 200lbs plus
This time round we were on the Blue lane which is supposed to be the best one and there was another club match on White behind us.
To cut a long story short, it fished crap (again)!
Mark Radford took the honours with 63-8 from peg 18 caught on pellet.  He was struggling for the first few hours until the fish eventually turned up in force.
Chris Szakacs repeated his previous performance here by taking 2nd place (again) with 62-12 from peg 8.
Third place went to Pete Uzzell from end peg 19 fishing worm up towards the corner and weighing in 59-15, closely followed by Brian Shanks with 58-0 from peg 16.
Brian also collared the Silvers with 5-10.
Ironically peg 1 (best peg on the lake) never got drawn.  The following Saturday produced a new venue record of 400lbs-odd  so no prizes for guessing which peg produced this weight!
My day was grim to say the least. After nearly five hours I had nothing bar one lost fish that I'd hooked on meat swinging a long shallow rig out as far as I could get towards the far bank at 16m. Once hooked it had trashed my rig in the undergrowth!  I managed to avoid the dreaded blank with a couple of late fish from the margins and that was heart-stopping as on my peg (bridge peg 11) they like to take you round the corner and under the bridge to freedom so it's a bit of a tug-of-war even with the small ones.
One day I'm sure we'll get this venue right on the right day but at £8.50 for a large brekkie and a coffee I'll be taking sandwiches!
  

Trinity, Ash Pool, 16 June (10 pegs)

Unfortunately, or maybe not, I chose to give this one a miss what with it being Fathers' Day 'n all and also having been away fishing for four days over the previous weekend but all is not lost as one of the ten brave souls that ignored there kids carefully hand-crafted cards has generously provided a match report (of sorts).
Considering he came 2nd on the day his report isn't quite as modest as mine might have been but he'll learn and apologies for the dodgy punctuation etc but he does work in insurance!

   Another match that was booked and anticipated as an experiment and that it was ! For most of the field if not all apart from Adam who admitted to getting bites all day long (Must of been fishing double maggot and biting each other because he only had 10 fish!!!!) the experiment was learning how to sleep sat on a seat box whilst getting buckets of water thrown over you.

   The day was hard and with very few silvers making an appearance it was a case of waiting for the carp.

Full Result:

1. Adam Caswell ...... 25-2
2. Will Dearlove  ...... 18-1
3. Mark Radford ....... 14-0
4. Ron Hardiman ...... 12-15
5. Alan Healy ........... 12-7
6. Ryan Radford ....... 11-7
7. Simon Belcham .... 8-8
8. Brian Shanks ....... 7-5
9. Darren North ....... 5-11
10. Matt Taynton ....... 5-3

Not the most impressive set of results but coincidentally the West's finest were fishing on Wildmarsh at the same time and having read Tony's blog it seems the fish were having an off day all round, especially on peg 65, which you can read about here or maybe all that chasing after aging Rock stars has adversely affected his focus, who knows!

There's no match as such next week as I have organised a trip on the Katy Ann out of Weymouth but it will be back to business as usual the week after at Landsend.

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 14 April (15 pegs)

Earlier in the week the weather forecast had promised the best day of the year so far.  Unfortunately, by Sunday that had all changed and instead we were given a warm day but accompanied by strong winds that made decent presentation all but impossible.
The far bank had the wind straight in their faces which meant the only options on that bank were either to fish the tip or down the edge.
While on the bank nearest the car park, although the wind was coming from directly behind making it a bit easier it was still causing problems as Matt Taynton found out when four sections of his pole blew off the roller and slid straight into the lake.
However, at Psv we're a hardy bunch and Matt stripped down to his boxers and went for a swim.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture to show the look of shock on his face when he came to terms with the water temperature or the fact that the lake drops off to 8 feet deep quite rapidly and needless to say he never found his pole.
Rich Jones came up with the novel suggestion of ringing Misha to get her swimmers on and have a paddle about but I'm guessing she had better things to do and besides I expect her "bodyguard" would have put a stop to it anyway (unfortunately)!
Anyway, back to the fishing and after his successful day at Staunton Court last week where he came a close second behind the Mugger, the club's golden wonderboy, Chris Packet, continued his run of good fortune.
Drawn on peg 14 Chris fished 13m(ish) down his left margin with 8mm meat on the hook where he had found a small depression that held a few fish.  He caught steadily all day to win the match clearly with an all-carp weight of 70lbs 9oz which was quite an impressive feet in the wind but don't tell him that or it will go to his head and we will all be suffering small depressions from listening to him.
Second and third places were very close with Rocket Ron Hardiman on peg 20 just edging it by 5oz with 47-8 from Trinity expert, Rich Jones on peg 27.
In the Silvers, Mark Radford on peg 6 managed to find a few skimmers to take the spoils with an unimpressive 8-8.
While on 13, Simon Belcham enjoyed a very busy day foul-hooking roach fry on maggot at 4m to take second in the silvers with 3-8 which did include a couple of bonus 1oz fish.
Worthy of a mention was Stevie Wynne who managed to find a few suicidal carp on the pellet wag at 11m, that was until he managed to break his reel which is something you don't see every week.
Fortunately he was able to loan a replacement off his neighbour (I have my uses)!


Full Result:

1. Chris Packet (peg 14) ..... 70-9
2. Ron Hardiman (20) ........ 47-8
3. Rich Jones (27) ............. 47-3
4. Adam Caswell (31) ........ 39-11
5. Matt Taynton (21) ......... 39-3
6. Bob Warren (29) .......... 34-13
7. Mark Radford (6) ........ 34-12
8. Keith Ray (8) ............... 27-13
9. Stevie Wynne (25) ....... 20-5
10. Lionel Legge (11) ........ 14-0
11. Simon Belcham* (13) .. 12-11
12. Steve Burgess (24) ..... 12-7
13. Paul Reed** (10) ....... 12-0
14. Darren North / Ryan Radford ... dnw

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

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 16 Sept (13 pegs)

Apparently Brian Shanks's wife uses his tip rod to prop up her washing line at home and seeing as he doesn't have a plummet he has no idea that Woodlands lake at Trinity is actually 7 feet deep.
There's also a rumour circulating that Andy Seary is naming his new lodge at Stafford Moor "Mugger's Retreat" after him.
And apparently there's an unsubstantiated story doing the rounds that he is the only person ever to do a ton at Windmill (but that's getting into the realms of fantasy)!
So as you have probably already worked out, Westerleigh's greatest export, Brian Shanks took the honours today at Trinity although he did struggle as this time round he could only manage 135-9 which was over 90lbs short of the match record (set by ........ Brian Shanks).
Drawn on peg 14 Brian caught shallow at 14 & 5m on 8mm pellet.
Second and third place was a next-peg battle on the opposite bank with Alan Healy on peg 27 edging it from Chris Gay by ounces with 74-7 caught on paste over pellet at 8m.
Chris weighed in 73-3 from peg 25 fishing pellet shallow at 14m and paste on the deck over the same line.
Fourth place went to Darren North with 62-8 from peg 10 caught mostly shallow at 5m.
Top silvers went to Brian's traveling partner, Ron Hardiman with 11-8 of skimmers plus a tench and a suspicious looking fan-tail / f1 thing. 

Overall Result:

1. Mugger Shanks (peg 14) ... 135-9
2. Alan Healy (27) ................. 74-7
3. Chris Gay (25) ................... 73-3
4. Darren North (10) .............. 62-8
5. Mark Radford (23) ............. 56-2
6. Steve Burgess* (8) ............. 53-8
7. Rich Jones (12) .................. 47-8
8. Ryan Radford (17) ............. 32-5
9. Ron Hardiman (31) ........... 20-6
10. Mike Smith (6) .................. 19-5
11. Paul Reed (33) ................... 16-8
12. Adam Caswell / Lionel Legge .... dnw

Silvers:

1. Ron Hardiman ....... 11-8
2. Rich Jones ........... 5-0

*golden peg curse

Filling in the gaps!

A few technical issues (my 12 year-old iMac has gone off to Apple heaven)  and a canalboat holiday have lead to a slight backlog of postings on here so I'll sum up the highs and lows of the last few weeks in one go.

Trinity, Woodlands, 19 August (19 pegs)

It's refreshing to know that when I'm not there it's still possible for the draw to go badly wrong resulting in tears and tantrums (mostly from Adam Caswell who wasn't happy about putting his flier back in the draw-bag).
And it was nice to see, after much abuse from his staff at Fairview Engineering, Brian Shanks finally making it into the elite Psv 200+ club with 228lbs 8oz which is a new record weight for Trinity.
Brian (I'll hazard a guess) fished pellet shallow at 13m or in the margins (or both) from peg 17 although he did have the choice of four empty pegs around him with the wind blowing in.
As I was on Sunday roast duty I never fished this one hence the results were a bit sketchy.

1. Mugger Shanks (17) ... 228-8
2. Darren North (peg ?) ... 94-10
3. Chris Gay (peg 7) ...... 65-2
4. Matt Tainton (peg 2) .... 60-13
5. Mike Smith  (peg ?) ..... 57-15

Silvers: Simon Belcham  (peg ?) .... 25-0


Staunton Court, 26 August (11 pegs)

Most of the members of the elite Psv 200+ club have gained their claim to stardom at Staunton Court but the ranks of the 200+ club weren't swelled today as it was a bit of an off-day by Staunton standards.
With eleven fishing there were three pegs on the concrete, two on the top bank which had the wind blowing in and were the most fancied pegs, five on the long grass bank and one in nomansland on the bottom bank.
Alan Healy made the best of it with 95-2 from peg 2 which was in the middle of the concrete bank.
Alan caught strongly down the edge for the latter half of the match on a large helping of bullshit (as usual)!  Lionel Legge was a close second with 89-14 from peg 3 on the concrete.  Lionel is usually seen thrashing shallow pole rigs about but today caught mainly on paste in close. A man of many talents!
Will Dearlove was third from peg 1 with 88-7 making it a clean sweep from the pegs on the concrete bank.  Will caught close in with corn (I think) or maybe paste!
Fourth place went to Simon Belcham with 79-11 from peg 7 catching mostly on tares on the deck at 8m.
Strangely, the pegs on the top bank didn't fish as well as expected and neither did the legendary "bin" peg (10) occupied by Adam Caswell although, in fairness, it was the golden peg which usually spells the kiss of death!
No tremendous weights today but a close match.  Next year's Staunton matches are winter matches which means the huge weights of carp should give way to the big skimmers that don't get a look-in on the summer matches but are present in good numbers, should be interesting.

Full Result:

1. Alan Healy (peg 2) ....... 95-2
2. Lionel Legge (peg 3) .... 89-14
3. Will Dearlove  (peg 1) ... 88-7
4. Simon Belcham (peg 7) .... 79-11
5. Mugger Shanks (peg 4) .... 64-12
6. Adam Caswell (peg 10) .... 62-2
7. Richard Britton (peg 9) .... 61-0
8. Steve Burgess (peg 8) ..... 52-0
9. Darren North (5) ........... 47-10
10. Ron Hardiman (11) ....... 47-8
11. Chris Gay (6) ................ 45-10

Landsend Match Lake, 2 September (11 pegs)

Another day and another venue that didn't want to fish to it's full potential.
Rich Jones cruised through this one though with 96-9 from peg 17 fishing corn.  Next best was one of psv's new superstars, in-form Will Dearlove with 58-5 from peg 1.  Will caught long down the edge and to his right margin into the tackle-smashing bush on paste.
Chris Gay was third from peg 15 with 49-4.  Chris had an eventful day getting bitten by red ants and snapping his pole resulting in a trip out in HMS Duckett to retrieve it.  Maybe not a wise idea to play an angry foul-hooked Wedmore carp with six sections up in the air!

Chris Gay flexing his pecs on the way to third place .........

.... and retrieving his top set aboard HMS Duckett!

 Full Result:

1. Rich Jones (peg 17) ....... 96-9
2. Will Dearlove  (1) ........... 58-5
3. Chris Gay (15) ................ 49-4
4. Alan Healy (13) .............. 44-8
5. Simon Belcham (21) ....... 37-11
6. Ed (corner peg) Wynne (24) .... 37-11
7. Adam (foul-hooker) Caswell (5) .. 33-7
8. Keith Ray (9) ................... 26-14
9. Bob Warren (19) .............. 24-7
10. Lionel Legge (7) & Steve Burgess (11) ... dnw

Silvers: Simon Belcham ....  23-6


As you've probably worked out, today wasn't one of my most memorable matches with my two skimmers and one perch going an estimated 14oz had they made it to the scales which they never!
Perhaps I should stick to canal fishing.

 

Trinity, Woodlands, 22 July (11½ pegs)

Originally there were sixteen booked in for this match which was an ideal number however, by Saturday that number had dwindled to 9 but was boosted up to 11 by a couple of new members. Last week there were just ten at Landsend, not great numbers by any means and makes it difficult to book venues for a year in advance when you have no idea how many you are going to have until the day before the match (or even at 8:45 on Sunday morning in some cases)!
Anyway, at least the sun was shining (for once) and a gentle breeze on the lake promised some decent tans and maybe a few fish.
Rich Jones made the best of it with an almost identical performance to the last time he fished Trinity back at the end of May when he came second with 86-14 from peg 33 fishing corn down the edge.  This time he was on peg 31 and finished up with 96lbs 2oz caught on ...... corn down the edge!
Darren North gave him a good run for his money though, just one fish behind with 90lbs exactly from peg 4.  Darren fished pellet shallow at 5m.
Third place went to Stevie Wynne (below) with 76-13 from peg 7 caught shallow at 13m and down the edge under the tree at 5m.

Part of Stevie Wynne's 3rd place catch, the t-shirt is wishful thinking!

Fourth place for the second week running went to Steve Burgess on peg 27 with 72-13 caught on pellet, shallow at 14m and later on the waggler fished 3 feet deep over the pole line.  This included the top accidental silvers weight of 13-7 consisting mostly of chunky roach plus a couple of slimy green things which all took a fancy to banded 8mm pellets.

Entertainment today was provided by Stevie Wynne who can usually be relied upon to break something, this week it was his topkit which gave up the ghost on his last fish of the day.  Colin Ellaway impressed his neighbours by growing a sixth finger after pulling for a break on a snagged rig and spearing his hand.

And Mike Smith entertained his neighbours with a very poor attempt at singing!

If you were wondering why the title of this post says 11½ pegs, the "½" refers to Derek's grandson Wayne who pleasure-fished next to grandad. Wayne caught 2lb 9oz of silvers on maggot but numbers-wise had more fish than everyone else combined (they weren't that big)!

I did manage to get a good picture of Rich Jones with his winning net but somehow during the excitement of the weigh-in it must have deleted itself from my phone, and seeing as Darren was a little bit put out that I never took his picture I've dug this one out from under my pillow.

One for the ladies!

Overall Result:

1. Rich Jones ...... (peg 31) ... 96-2
2. Darren North ...... (4) ... 90-0
3. Stevie Wynne ..... (7) ... 76-13
4. Steve Burgess* ... (27) ... 72-13
5. Derek Lucas ....... (13) ... 51-14
6. Matt Tainton ...... (25) .... 46-9
7. Colin Ellaway ..... (22) .... 46-0
8. Dominic Ellaway ... (9) .... 40-3
9. Paul Reed .......... (11) ... 38-14
10. Mike Smith ......... (20) ... 36-5
11. Lionel Legge ....... (29) ... dnw

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Steve Burgess ...... 13-7
2. Dominic Ellaway .... 12-7
3. Mike Smith .......... 8-13
4. Colin Ellaway ....... 7-10
5. Matt Tainton ........ 7-5
6. Darren North ....... 4-5
7. Rich Jones ........... 4-0
8. Derek Lucas ........ 3-13
9. Paul Reed ........... 3-12

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 17 June (12 pegs)

Didn't fish this one so not much info other than the weights ...

1. Mike Smith ........ 54-6
2. Pete Uzzell ......... 51-14
3. Dean Malin ........ 51-8
4. Alan Healy ......... 44-3
5. Kev Jefferies ...... 41-8
6. Paul Reed ........... 34-3
7. Adam Caswell .... 29-8
8. Matt Williams ..... 28-10
9. Mark Radford ..... 22-0
10. Chris Szakacs / Lionel Legge / Ryan Radford ... dnw

Silvers:

1. Dean Malin ...... 23-4
2. Kev Jefferies .... 12-8
3. Mark Radford ... 6-4
4. Matt Williams ... 6-0
5. Pete Uzzell ........ 4-8
6. Paul Reed .......... 4-0
7. Mike Smith ........ 2-13

Trinity, Woodlands Lake, 20 May (17 pegs)

With the weather having warmed up a bit of late Trinity is really starting to fish well on most methods, but in particular, pellet shallow and fishing the margins are the way to go.
And when it comes to fishing the pole shallow, there aren't many around that can compete with Brian Shanks.
Drawn on peg 11, and with empty pegs either side (Adam Caswell was on 10), the Westerleigh mugger fished 8mm banded / feed at 14m for a winning total of 108-10.
Rich Jones in peg 33 spent a token 10 minutes waving a shallow rig around before dropping into his left hand margin where he caught steadily all day to take second place with 86-14.  Rich caught mainly on corn over corn and 6mm meat feed.
Third place went to Darren North on peg 27 with 76-11 fishing pellet shallow at 14m followed by Ron Hardiman on peg 14 with 70-2.  Ron also caught shallow but had most of his fish on paste down the edge.
First out of the money (but well ahead of Alan Healy on the next peg) was Steve Burgess with 66-8 from peg 7.  Again Steve started the match fishing pellet shallow before switching to the right margin and catching on meat.
Top silvers went to Derek Lucas in peg 2 where, despite losing various rigs to trees and carp, managed 11-10 fishing caster close to the reeds.

Overall Result:

1. Brian Shanks (peg 11) ...... 110-9
2. Rich Jones (33) ........... 86-14
3. Darren North (27) ....... 76-11
4. Ron Hardiman (14) ...... 70-2
5. Steve Burgess (7) ........ 66-8
6. Alan Healy (8) ............. 57-2
7. Mike Smith (24) ........... 37-14
8. Mark Radford (25) ........ 34-9
9. Simon Belcham (20) ..... 30-0
10. Steve Wynne (19) ......... 22-6
11. Derek Lucas (2) ............ 17-4
12. Paul Reed (28) ............. 16-11
13. Adam Caswell / Mike Welling / Ryan Radford ... dnw
14. Mark Britton / Chris Szakacs ... early baths!

Silvers:

1. Derek Lucas ..... 11-10
2. Simon Belcham ..... 7-4
3. Steve Burgess ....... 7-2
4. Paul Reed ............. 6-4
5. Mark Radford ........ 5-0