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

Staunton Court, 24 May (14 pegs)

As usual the first port of call today was the Watersmeet Hotel for breakfast which  is always a good start to the day.

14 fishing so Will pegged 5 on the concrete bank, 5 on the grass and 2 on each end paying out first and second overall, one silvers and two sections.

Some eyebrows were raised at the inclusion of a silvers payout but no concerns from me even though I wouldn't be targeting them.

I drew 14 which put me on the bottom end bank next to Contraversial Chris (Gay) on 13 and Kev Jefferies on peg 1 which was the first peg on the concrete bank.

There were a lot of fish swirling within pole range which was a good sign and the shallow margins in front of Chris were also full of active fish but over in the corner (the famous bin peg) that was occupied by Lee Williams there was a full scale carp orgy going on in the reeds which is never a good sign.

Lots of options in this peg, obviously open water out in front, a long reed lined margin to the left and I remember Ryan Radford drawing it once and breaking his no4 section early on but he caught well later in that match on his topkit so that was another option to think about.

Pole only today so I set up a shallow rig for banded 8's, a deep rig for the same, and a rig for corn tight to the reeds down to the left where it was 2½ feet deep.

Chris had set up pretty much the same but had also set up a kit with a method feeder stuck to the end of it ... contraversial as ever!

He had mentioned earlier that it would take 200lbs to win today, I got the impression he meant he was up for that but he reckoned otherwise, however he was keen to have a pound with me but with a possible £3 loss on the cards for me already (Alan, Adam and Lee) I declined and he had one with Lee instead, in hindsight I should have taken him up on his generous offer.

Bait today was 8mm pellets, corn and 4mm's for the margin and some cubed meat which never got used.

After feeding a pot of 8mm's at 11m and some corn and 4's down the edge I started out on the shallow rig at 11m.

The pellet was under constant attack from bottle-top sized skimmers but I managed to snare a couple of carp quite quickly on this before it went quiet.

Chris had gone straight into his margin where there were still fish swirling but this was only producing skimmers and even the deadly pole/method combination didn't offer up any carp.

Lee had also gone down the margin but was only getting scales.

I kept plugging away with the shallow rig for the first hour and that took me up to four fish from about 400 false bites.

The pole line was by now fizzing like a jacuzzi so I tried the deep rig but that gave more of the same bites from tiny silvers so I didn't persist with it.

I had a look down the edge with a grain of corn on the hook and got the same result but I was hooking some better skimmers down there but they were coming off on the way back due to the heavy elastic so a change of plan was required and I fired a couple of pouches of 4's and corn into the margins while I dug out a lighter rig on light elastic to target these until the carp turned up.

Chris had all but given up on carp and was catching good sized skimmers in his margins.

My attempt at silvers fishing didn't last too long.

After about 10 minutes the float buried accompanied by a huge swirl and 20yds of green knicker elastic headed off towards Kev Jefferies before bottoming out accompanied by another big swirl before something gave way and the rig returned with a little pigtail of line where the hook should have been .... bugger!

I went back down there with the heavier gear but nothing followed.

By now we were past halfway but the only person really doing any good was Keith Ray up in peg 8 on the top end of the grass bank.

Alan Healey on 7 was virtually blanking and getting a lot of stick and Mark Radford wasn't doing much better judging by the moaning coming from his end of the lake.

Most others were on 3 or 4 fish although Contraversial Chris reckoned Lee had a few more than that, the whole lake was fishing badly.

At this point Adam Caswell on peg 9 hit a bit of a purple patch and started catching a few refugees from Keith's peg on his shallow line and making sure everyone in earshot knew about it which was handy as I went back out at 14m shallow and managed to put another 10 carp in the net ... Adam went a bit quiet again after that.

As Keith had by now easily won the match and it was looking to be between myself and Lee Williams for 2nd and we were both admitting to 14 carp although he had one at the death which was a proper net-stretcher.

As expected Keith won it with 110-10 catching on meat and paste down the edge.

Lee's "14" carp went 100-4 for second and you can read all about that here
My nets totalled 78-0 for 3rd (and the section) but I wasn't bitter in the slightest!

Silvers went to Contraversial Chris with 28-0 of skimmers.


Full Result:

1. Keith Ray (8) 110-10
2. Lee Williams (12) ..... 100-4
3. Steve Burgess (14) ... 78-0
4. Simon Belcham (11) .. 61-8
5. Darren North (4) ....... 56-6
6. Chris Gay (13) .......... 54-4
7. Lee Waller (6) ........... 54-0
8. Adam Caswell (9) ...... 50-0
9. Will Dearlove (3) ....... 41-6
10. Pete Uzz (10) ............31-10
11. and several dnw's (including Alan Healey)

Silvers:

1. Chris Gay ...... 28-0
2. Simon Belcham .... 15-0
3. Lee Williams ......... 6-0
4. etc

Staunton Court 14 pegs

Another trip up the m5 this week to deepest Gloucestershire and a visit to Staunton court fishery. Now when you think of commercial fisherys and the proverbial puddle Staunton court is right up there, being a smallish square lake with one whole bank made of concrete flanked by industrial units it sure ain't pretty!! but what it lacks in looks it makes up for in a healthy stock of hard fighting carp and an abundance of silver fish usually resulting in a good fishing match.

With Steve on his annual clubbing holiday to Ibiza with the local YMCA it was left to docks legend and serial piss taker Alan Healy to sort out proceedings and with fourteen fishing it was decided on a top four pay out no silverpool.......seeemples

On to the fishing and with Lionel Legge cleaning out the golden peg last week at Harescombe and with the club not visting the fishery for a fair while no one was really sure what a good draw would be. One thing for sure tho with the size and nature of the lake there would be no hiding place and everyone could see who was catching what which usually means one thing.....banter!!

The match started fairly quiet with not a lot caught early doors, I drew peg 7 which was on the bottom bank and had misgivings about the peg as from previous experience I know this area can be very much feist of famine, I actually started well i'd planned a pellet shallow attack and when the whistle went and shipping out to thirteen metres I reached over for the catapult just in time to see the end of the pole slam in to the water as a 6lber hung itself, next put in same thing again unfortunately this one came off and even more unfortunate was I never had another bite for a hour and a half!

Elsewhere slowly a few people started to put weights together and the concrete bank seemed to be the place to be, Kev Jefferies on peg five started to get a few fishing paste at 6-7 metres.

kev in action!

Next to him on four was Daiwa poster boy and all round good egg Will Dearlove and he was putting together a decent weight fishing meat short although he had abit of a mare losing rigs to unseen snags, up on the top bank on pegs 13-14 both Rich Britton and big Col Elaway were catching a few, Rich on banded 8mm pellet on the deck at 5metres and Col doing similar but fishing catmeat. over on peg 3 middle of the concrete bank tho was where most of the action was taking place as Chris Gay seemed to have it sorted with a steady run of carp coming to the net, Chris chose a caster attack feeding around eight pints and caught well in both margins infact he done enough to win the match bringing a very creditable 154lb 5oz to the scales which included 12lb of skimmers.

winner on the day

second with 140lb 5oz was Rich Britton

third with 124lb 7oz was Will Dearlove

fourth and last in the frame was Col Eleway with 115lb 10oz, apologies to Col as I thought Kev Jefferies came fourth so didn't get a pic of Cols catch so your have to make do with a pic of Kev with his fifth place catch of 114lb 11oz.

 FULL RESULT..

1ST      CHRIS GAY             154LB 5OZ    PEG 3
2ND     RICH BRITTON       140LB 4OZ           13
3RD     WILL DEARLOVE   124LB 7OZ            4
4TH      COLIN ELAWAY    115LB 10OZ         14
5TH      KEV JEFFERIES      114LB  110Z          5
6TH      STEVE O'TOOLE       85LB    7OZ       10
7TH      MARK RADFORD     81LB    4OZ         2
8TH      CHRIS SZAKACS      79LB     9OZ        7
9TH      ALAN HEALY           40LB    2OZ          8
10TH    RYAN RADFORD      39LB     9OZ       11
11TH    PETE UZZEL              39LB     5OZ         9
12TH    ADAM CASWELL     32LB     4OZ         1
AND TWO DNWS

Next week were down at the sedges on brick lake which hopefully will be another goodun.

Staunton Court, 7 April (13 pegs)

Finally it seemed we were going to have a day off from the relentless winter and the forecast was for a cloudy day with light winds and 10º and although I was still scraping ice off the fishing bus first thing, the forecast was spot on and it eventually turned into an almost nice spring day. As ever breakfast was at the Watersmeet hotel in Hartpury served by our favourite waitress who this week had her arm in a plaster cast but that didn't affect the breakfast which was as excellent as ever.
13 fishing today and pole only so five on either side (avoiding the shallower "corner of death" where three of us struggled last time round). We then had 2 on the top bank, and 1 on the bottom bank but that was switched round under the advice of our Polish Hungarian contingent.  As it happened, the top end of the lake fished better than the bottom end probably due to the warm(ish) wind blowing up that end and the "corner of death" would most likely have fished totally different today but who knows.
I would say though that this lake would benefit greatly from having proper platforms to fish from which would give people a bit more room to manoeuvre on the concrete bank where space for shipping is limited and on the opposite grass bank where the bank on some pegs slopes straight to the edge of the water resulting in a fair bit of adjusting of box legs to get a stable base to fish from.  Shipping back on this bank also has its problems as the bank behind rises about 10 feet from the water, made up presumably from what was dug to form the lake itself.  It would also allow anglers to cover a few extra metres of water in pole-only matches (which ours are).
Anyway, at the start most chose to fish long and on the deck, apart from Simon (Des) Belcham whose standard 1 rig was set up at about 6m.
Adam Caswell got off to a good start and was catching decent skimmers from the off but elsewhere not a great deal was happening.
Darren North, on peg 2, in a bid to impress his boss Brian Shanks was having a go with a shallow rig and must have caught on it as a few others soon switched to the same tactic.
Mark Radford on peg 4 was also catching odd carp shallow as was the mugger on peg 5 although Brian doesn't possess any rigs more than three feet deep so nothing new there.
A couple of hours in and Adam, the club's new silvers expert was still fishing, still catching skimmers and still making plenty of noise but his neighbours Chris Szakacs and new member Chris Packet were also catching carp shallow as was myself although mine were coming out of Chris Packet's peg when he wasn't looking.
Club superstar Alan Healy meanwhile was having an unusually uneventful day on peg 12 and was missing the absent Paul Reed who would have been his only chance of regaining any money today as even the silvers weren't helping him out and he was having to endure a fair amount of abuse.
The mugger however was now catching shallow both out in front and long up against the steel shuttering that holds the bank in on that peg and with three nets in the water, was looking well ahead of anybody else. Chris Packet had likewise dug out a third net and my peg had started to produce well in the last hour and I no longer needed to stray too far to my left to catch and even had a couple from the shallower water in death corner.
And that's the way it finished up with the Mugger first with 102-2 followed by Chris Packet with 92-8 and myself with 82-8. Simon Belcham gave Adam (whose skimmers eventually deserted him) a lesson in silvers fishing with 25-12 of mostly skimmers ranging in size from plankton to a couple of pounds caught on maggot and caster at 6m.
I've not done it for a while but the Hero to Zero award this week easily went to Alan as it's always refreshing to see someone have an off day and take it on the chin without bitching and moaning about certain other people's pegs being "solid"!
It was nice to see a bit of decent weather for a change and a few fish come out as a result although it seems Trig did a little better fishing shallow at Landsend today winning it with 226-3 from peg 22! Trinity next week and the weather is promising to be good again which is always a bonus down there.



Full Result:

1. Mugger Shanks  (peg 5) ...... 102-2
2. Chris Packet (8) ...... 92-8
3. Steve Burgess (7) .... 82-8
4. Mark Radford (4) ..... 81-10
5. Darren North* (2) .... 77-7
6. Chris Szacaks (10) .... 61-2
7. Simon Belcham (6) ... 45-0
8. Matt Taynton (3) ...... 22-11
9. Adam Caswell (9) ..... 22-9
10. Alan Healy (12) ........ 19-9
11. Will Dearlove (1) ...... 17-8 
12. Derick Lucas (11) ..... 4-11
13. Ryan Radford (13) .... dnw

Silvers:

1. Simon (Des) Belcham .... 25-12
2. Adam Caswell ........ 14-1
3. Matt Taynton ......... 9-11
4. Chris Packet .......... 9-6
5. Alan Healy ............ 8-5
6. Derick Lucas .......... 4-11
7. Mugger Shanks ...... 3-7
8. Chris Szakacs ........ 2-15
9. Steve Burgess ....... 2-12
10. D/arren North ....... 2-8
11. Mark Radford ........ 2-1
12. Will Dearlove ......... 1-8

Staunton Court (pole only), 17 Feb (15 pegs)

Another trip up the wrong direction of the M5 this week to Psv's favourite "hole-in-the-ground", Staunton Court.

For those who are unfamiliar with this venue, it's situated at the back of a small industrial estate a few miles past Gloucester on the A417  heading towards Ledbury.  It's not the most picturesque of venues, with one bank backing onto a row of units which restricts shipping back a pole, especially when someone turns up in a lorry and gets the jetwasher out.  And when the brick-cutting unit is on overtime it can get a bit noisy. However, the saving grace is that the lake holds a large head of carp into double figures and plenty of silvers and is currently home to the Psv match record of 314lbs held by Craig (Trigger) Edmunds.

As is now the norm breakfast was at the Watersmeet Hotel which is handy as it's just down the road and is as good a breakfast as you'll ever get for seven quid and even those with the healthiest of appetites would probably struggle to finish it all.  And an added bonus is that the waitress service is top quality!

Anyway, enough of that and apparently the match on the Saturday (and the ones in the week) had fished well for the time of year and the Saturday match had been won with over eighty pounds so with an overnight frost and bright sunshine added to the mix the prospects for our match were looking, shall we say, interesting.

Pegging, thanks to Will Dearlove who doesn't do breakfast and therefore missed out on the waitress's delightful rear, was 1 > 6 on the concrete, 7 & 8 on the far end bank, 9 > 14 on the grass bank (peg 14 being the famous "bin peg") and the last peg being on the near end bank (a peg that normally would win in winter but didn't today).  There wasn't any more room on this bank as someone had kindly parked a 10 ton excavator in the middle of the path!

Fortunately for Alan Healy on peg 15 (the one that normally wins in winter but didn't today) the owner of the digger decided to take it for a spin behind his peg while we were setting up .... there was a lot of sympathy for Alan at this point!

The match itself was fairly uneventful with most of the action concentrated around the higher-numbered pegs and the early pegs on the concrete, the further away from these areas the harder it got (no awards for guessing where I was).

Top honours went to club comedian, Darren North in the bin peg with three carp plus silvers for 31lbs exactly.

Darren (pictured below) fished mainly at 14m with maggot over pellet and various other things.

Close second (but probably should have won), with a similar net of 3 carp plus silvers was Alan Healy with 29-9 but, as always, controversy surrounded this result as Alan managed to get one of his carp in his silvers net which may mean his weight could be disqualified pending a steward's enquiry.

Will Dearlove on peg 3 took the 3rd spot with 29lbs of carp caught on corn along with silvers taken on maggot.

And Simon Belcham rounded off the top 4 with 26-11 from peg 13.

Top silvers on the day went to Matt Taynton on his first visit to Staunton with an impressive 21-6 of decent skimmers caught on caster from peg 12.

Full Result:

1. Darren North (peg 14) ....... 31-0
2. Alan (should've won) Healy (15) .... 29-9
3. Will Dearlove (3) .......... 29-0
4. Simon Belcham (13) .... 26-11
5. Matt Taynton (12) ......... 25-12
6. Rich Jones (11) ............ 20-7
7. Ryan Radford (2) ......... 17-13
8. Derek Lucas (1) ............ 15-14
9. Steve Burgess (8) ......... 12-14
10. Rich Britton* (6) ............ 11-0
11. Mark Radford (10) ......... 8-4
12. Stevie Wynne (9) .......... 7-1
13. Chris Szakacs (4) ......... dnw
14. Mike Smith (5) ............... dnw
15. Adam Caswell (7) ........ blank

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Matt Taynton ..... 21-6
2. Rich Britton ....... 11-0
3. Simon Belcham ... 10-3
4. Derek Lucas ...... 9-6
5. Darren North ...... 6-4
6. Will Dearlove ..... 5-8
7. Steve Burgess ... 4-8
8. Ryan Radford .... 3-3
9. Rich Jones ......... 2-11
10. Mark Radford ..... 1-10
11. Stevie Wynne .... 1-1

Next week we're on Wildmarsh at Trinity which is a first for Psv and it looks like being a bit of a cold one so best remind Adam Caswell and Mike Smith to bring plenty of paste with them seeing as it was so successful this week!

Staunton Court, 18 November (16 pegs)

After a week of mild weather things were a little different on Sunday morning as clear skies overnight meant scraping the windscreen of the van outside and inside but Staunton is a deep lake (8 foot past the margins) and hopefully would not be too badly affected by the overnight frost.
As is the norm with Staunton matches breakfast was at the Watersmeet Hotel which is conveniently just a mile or so down the road from the fishery and provide a top quality breakfast accompanied by log fires and served up by a very attractive young waitress for six quid ... happy days!
On to the fishing and sixteen on the lake meant six on each of the long banks and two on each end which is just about as many as the lake can hold comfortably. 
Brian Shanks had the pleasure of drawing the golden peg (12) which is usually the kiss of death for most club members but not for the Westerleigh mugger who then went on to win the match with 93lbs 12oz.
Brian fished at 10m with corn on the hook over corn and pellet feed.
Next door on 13, Mike Smith also fished corn (over micros) at 6 & 14m for second with 80-2 followed by Will Dearlove on 15 who (you guessed it) fished with corn at 11m.  After a slow (hangover???) start, Alan Healy finally managed to get his act together on peg 7 and grabbed the last of the cash with 48-13 caught short on maggot.
Simon Des Belcham put his one rig to good use on peg 3 to take top silvers with an impressive 31-11 caught on maggot on the short pole line which included quality skimmers and a couple of bonus perch.
This week's Expensive Day award went to Ryan Jordan who unfortunately managed to get his no4 and 5 sections stuck together and after a lot of wiggling, tapping and pulling managed to create another two joints that weren't in the original pole.  Funnily enough he wasn't overjoyed when someone suggested he should have "hit it with an ironing board"!
Hero to Zero this week went to Jimmy Saville's love child, Adam Caswell who successfully managed to have the winner on one side of him as well as being battered from the other side by Ryan Radford, the club's only junior.
(Well I'm hardly going to nominate myself am I)

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks* (peg 12) ...... 93-12
2. Mike Smith (13) ............ 80-2
3. Will Dearlove (15) ......... 52-9
4. Alan Healy (7) .............. 48-13
5. Mark Radford (2) .......... 48-5
6. Darren North (4) .......... 40-6
7. Paul Reed (6) ............... 34-14
8. Ryan Radford (10) ........ 33-4
9. Derek Lucas (1) ............ 32-0
10. Simon Belcham (3) ........ 31-1
11. Steve Burgess (5) ......... 26-12
12. Ryan Jordan (9) ............ 24-12
13. Steve Wynne (16) ......... 21-10
14. Adam Caswell (11) ........ 21-6
15. Eddie Wynne (16) .......... 14-0
16. Steve Tanner (14) .......... dnw

Silvers:

1. Simon Belcham ....... 31-1
2. Brian Shanks .......... 19-8
3. Darren North .......... 14-6
4. Eddie Wynne .......... 14-0 (of whitebait)!
5. Alan Healy ............. 13-4
6. Steve Wynne .......... 10-8

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.

 

Staunton Court, 26 June (new club record)

Another poor turnout, this time better than last week but still only seven turned up!  But for Craig Trigger Edmunds it was worth the journey as he broke his previous Psv club match record of 270lbs 12oz by over 40lbs increasing it to a massive 314lbs 11oz!
Craig had the far grass bank to himself and with the wind blowing into his peg caught fish all day in both his margins.

1. Trigger ......... peg 3 ..... 314-11
2. Paul Elmes .......... 6 ..... 121-4
3. Chris Gay ........... 5 ...... 102-12
4. Mark Radford ...... 4 ...... 85-6
5. Ryan Radford ...... 2 ..... 46-4
6. Adam Caswell ..... 7 ...... 40-8
7. Mike Wilson ........ 1 ...... 36-12

Staunton Court, Pole only, 4 April (14 pegs)

It was suggested by Psv's chairman, Mike Wilson, that I book up for breakfast at Watersmeet Hotel, which turned out to be an excellent start to the day with a top notch full English for £5.50 and just 5 minutes away from Staunton Court. I'm sure it will become a regular feature of future Staunton matches.
A month ago at the last match, the carp had been reluctant to feed and quality skimmers had been the target but this time round was a completely different affair (for some) with most of the carp action coming from the bottom end of the lake and, in particlar, the early pegs on the concrete bank.
Drawn on peg 3, new Dad Paul Elmes fished 6mm pellet shallow, varying his depth, at 13m to weigh in an awesome 186-11 to take the top spot just ahead of his travelling companion, in-form Neil Mercer on peg 2 who fished exactly the same method as Paul to weigh in 25 carp for 177-5.
Just around the corner on peg 14 Mark Radford made good use of a decent draw (for once) and fished paste up to the corner reed bed for 3rd place with 116-2 of quality carp.
Last in the frame was old stalwart Bob Warren on peg 11 who caught skimmers and carp on soft pellet at 12m before switching to his inside line to take some decent sized carp on maggot for a total of 53-7.
Bob has forgotten more about fishing than most of us will ever learn!
This match also saw a welcome return for Simon "limpy" Belcham, who after his oscar winning fall at the Westerleigh Christmas match, has had to endure the last four months off work and a lengthy spell in a knee brace. Still in a lot of pain, the 38 year old (he's had a hard life) computer programmer had to fish the match in his new Korum disabled chair but despite this he still managed 8th place and a creditable 34-4.

Overall Result:

1. Paul Elmes ...... peg 3 ..... 186-11
2. Neil Mercer ....... 2 .......... 177-5
3. Mark Radford ... 14 ......... 116-2
4. Bob Warren ....... 11 ......... 53-7
5. Adam Caswell .... 1 .......... 40-11
6. Stuart Riddle ..... 9 .......... 37-5
7. Chris Zak ........... 13 ......... 34-6
8. Simon Belcham .. 4 ......... 34-4
9. Alan Healy* ........ 5 ......... 25-1
10. Mike Smith ........ 10 ........ 19-8
11. Yan (Colin) ......... 6 ......... 10-9
12. Paul Reed ........... 12 ........ 10-4
13. Mike Wilson ....... 8 ......... 9-9
14. Steve Burgess ..... 7 ......... 6-0

* golden peg

Staunton Court, Pole only, 7 March (11 pegs)

Despite a hard overnight frost and temperatures down to -5, fortunately the lake was free of ice but it was unlikely that the Staunton carp would be on the feed so the main target for the day was the lake's neglected population of skimmers.
The carp still had an influence on the final outcome though, as four out of the top six weights included a bonus fish.
Fair-weather angler Rich Jones, pegged on the concrete at the start of the metal pilings, had a good start with a bonus carp early into the match but his neighbour in the corner peg, former Spitfire pilot and serial fish-avoider, Derek Lucas was the man to beat.
After snaring a good sized carp in the tail early on Derek went on to capitalize with a run of good sized skimmers on soft pellet over micros at 14m.
Derek said after the match: "I started on maggot (donated by Rich Jones) but was getting only small stuff until changing to soft pellet (donated by Steve Burgess) which sorted out the decent skimmers"
Steve Burgess, pegged on the bottom bank with the icy wind in his face fished two lines at 13m, one fed with groundbait and the other with 3mm pellet. Fishing double red maggot and alternating between the two lines, Steve caught at a steady pace from start to finish and included a near 8lb foul-hooked carp in his 19lbs 8oz total.
Most of his fish which included some good skimmers up to the 2lb mark were caught over the pellet feed.
This meant that Steve was able to claw back a pound coin off the Knowle West pheasant beater bringing the 2010 score back to a more bearable 3-2 to Alan.
With Steve and Derek van sharing it was rumoured that Curry Kings would be getting a good seeing-to later on!
Third spot went to Southmead veteran Stevie Wynne with an impressive all-skimmer net of 18lbs 9oz caught on maggot over micro pellet feed. Steve could easily have won the match had he landed the "proper" bream that managed to snap his power kit before making it's getaway.
It is rumoured that Stevie Wynne's pole now contains more gaffer tape than carbon!
The final frame place went to silvers specialist Chris Zak pegged next to the wooden pontoon with a total of 17lbs 10oz. Chris started on the chopped worm but struggled until switching to his long line where he fished soft pellet over micro and was able to put together a good run of skimmers until, unfortunately, a lost carp unsettled his peg and left him virtually biteless for over an hour.
And on a final note, matchwinner Derek Lucas never managed to turn up for work on Monday so it seems his new found success got the better of him (or the Natch did)!


Overall Results:

1. Derek Lucas ..... peg 5 ..... 21-9
2. Steve Burgess ........ 11 ..... 19-8
3. Steve Wynne .......... 8 ...... 18-9
4. Chris Zak ............... 1 ....... 17-10
5. Adam Woodland* . 10 ..... 13-15
6. Alan Healy ............. 6 ...... 11-3
7. Rich Jones ............. 4 ...... 11-1
8. Adam Caswell ........ 9 ...... 10-9
9. Stuart Riddle ......... 3 ....... 8-15
10. Mark Radford ........ 7 ....... 8-0
11. Paul Reed ............... 2 ....... 5-10

*golden peg

Staunton Court, 30 August 2009 (8 pegs)

New Psv Club Match Record!

It's been a long time coming but Alan Healy finally stopped leaking pound coins and ended his dismal run of form stylishly today by smashing the Psv club match record, previously held by fellow "Cookie Crew" member Mark Radford, and posting the biggest match weight of the year at Staunton Court.
Drawn on the concrete bank in front of the brick cutting shed, Knowle West bagger Alan chose to fish pellet on the pole shallow and took full advantage of a peg that was obviously solid with carp, catching steadily all through the match, more than making up for the disatrous last placed weight that he posted here back at the end of June.
Alan suprised himself and everyone around him at the weigh-in as he was convinced he had only caught around 20 fish but after five weighs he was more than happy with a combined weight of 223lbs 14oz which was almost double the weight of second placed Mark Radford.
Mark was drawn on the well fancied corner peg 8 (where Craig Edmunds had won the last match) and managed a healthy 112lbs 6oz followed by Adam Caswell on peg 1 with 107lbs 13 oz making it a clean sweep for the Cookie Crew.



Overall Result:

1. Alan Healy .......... 223-14 [peg 2]
2. Mark Radford ..... 112-6 [8]
3. Adam Caswell ..... 107-13 [1]
4. Darren North ...... 90-8 [6]
5. Simon Belcham** .. 89-10 [3]
6. Steve Burgess ........ 73-8 [5]
7. Bob Warren* ......... 47-4 [7]
8. Steve Wynne ......... Dnw [4]
   

Silvers:

1. Bob Warren .......... 6-12
2. Darren North ........ 5-0

*Golden peg
**Silver peg

Staunton Court (pole only), 28 June

This was the second win in as many matches for carp magnet, Craig (Trigger) Edmonds and luckily for him the carp at Staunton Court were in an obliging mood.
Drawn on peg 10 (the "bin" peg) Craig fished 8mm banded pellet, shallow, out in front and into the left corner margins for an impressive 190lbs 15oz of carp into double figures.
In second place was Craig's travelling partner, Paul Elmes.
Paul, drawn on the concrete bank (peg 3), also fished banded 8mm pellet at 13m, shallow and on the deck to weigh in 159lbs 9oz.
Chasing Paul for 3rd spot was Mark Radford. Drawn on the end peg 5, again on the concrete bank, Mark fished out in front and into the corner margins with paste for 136lbs 9oz.

1. Craig Edmonds ...... 190-15
2. Paul Elmes ............. 159-9
3. Mark Radford ........ 136-9
   
4. Ryan Jordan .......... 126-15
   
5. Steve Burgess ......... 70-10
6. Adam Caswell** ..... 60-8
7. Bob Warren* .......... 59-10
8. Paul Reed ............... 54-8
9. Adam Woodland .... 53-1
10. Alan Healy ............. 26-7

*Golden peg (worth £100)
**Silver peg (worth £17)

In total, 938lbs was weighed in (an average of 94lbs per man), most of which was caught by the top 4 anglers!