Harescombe Match Lake, 30 March (17 pegs)

Over the course of the last few months I have gotten into the habit of paying for my morning paper with ten pound notes (whenever I can), the reason being so that I have plenty of £ coins to hand out on Sundays.

But I have now found myself in a bit of a predicament as there is nowhere left in the fishing bus to store them all.

Anyway, (more on that later) with 17 fishing today I entrusted fishery manager Andy with the pegging which gave everyone an empty peg to one side and with the weather forecast to be warm and sunny with a bit of breeze, conditions were ideal.

Payout today was to be top 3 plus 3 sections, 2 sections of 6 and 1 with 5 in!

No silvers pool as here the silvers go in the same net as the mini F1's and the bigger fish go in a separate net.

I made sure I had the last peg and for the second week running was left with peg 1 which is a corner with plenty of options and not much to complain about.

For company I had Rich Jones in 29 which used to be a corner but is now a secluded bay since part of the hillside became a major feature of the lake.

And Mark Radford in 3. The rest of my section was made up of Steve O Toole, Darren North and another new signing, Andy Gay (no relation to Chris).

I set three rigs up. A shallow rig for across to the island with a banded 6mm, a rig for the bottom of the far ledge and a rig for the margins.

I would have set up a couple more but the rabble were getting a bit restless by 10:07 so I shouted the "all-in" before I had my nets in and let them get on with it.

It was soon apparent there were plenty of fish up this end as both Rich, Mark and myself all caught well from the off.

Rich looked to be doing the best partly due to the 5 minute head-start and his being super-organised and having 3 pole rollers set up.

After feeding some wetted micros and meat in various places and pinging some 4mm's over to the island  I started on the shallow rig with a banded 6mm over towards the corner of the island at 14m and caught straight away.

I was having a bit of a mare to begin with as with my 1-roller setup I was having to break my pole down twice to ship back up the slope behind but after a couple of adjustments I got it reasonably sorted though it still wasn't quite right.

Rich jones meanwhile was catching anywhere he could get his bait in the water and Mark (pictured below) was fishing tight over with soft pellet and doing his best to try to convince me and anyone else who could be bothered to listen that he was being battered by the two of us but it can be a bit tricky to hide what you're catching from someone sat next to you.

I had a bit of a quiet spell mid-match when the fish seemed to back off and a look on my other lines kept a few fish coming until they returned with a spot towards the left edge at 14m producing a few better fish by lifting and dropping small pices of meat on the deck but I was having to wait too long for bites for it to be worthwhile and I was soon back out on the shallow rig by which time the fish had returned.

The last hour was quite frantic for all three of us and I was getting bites non stop but the fish were snatching at the pellet and I was getting foul-hookers and pulling out of a lot.

Being tucked out of the way up this end, and with no Adam Caswell to provide a running commentary, I couldn't really see what was going on around the lake but it seemed that other than the three of us, and also Lee Waller and Brian Shanks on the far end pegs (15 & 16), nobody else was setting the place alight and that's how it finished up with Mark lying his way into first place with 71-0, Brian second with 61-13 caught mainly on corn down the edge (I think), and Lee 3rd with 60-13 caught on (not too sure)

I managed to scrape the default section money (and 4th overall) with 59-9 beating Rich by just 5oz so that last fish netted on the all-out made all the difference for me,

Jason Bird won the middle section, which also had Brian & Lee in, with 27-7 from peg 9 and in-form Ryan Radford won the small section with 39-5 from peg 21, earning Uncle Adam Caswell a small bonus as Adam had paid for him to go in the pools this week which, according to Mark, was a good move as it gives Adam a better chance of picking up money!

Although there was no official Silvers pool today, the unofficial silvers was won by Simon Belcham with 6-10 caught on his leftover maggots from the Westerleigh Winter Series.

It's a little known fact that Simon was a member of the team that won the National Mortgage Lenders Angling Association fishing competition not once, but twice ... not a lot of people know that!

Full Result:

1. Mark Radford (peg 3) ..... 71-0
2. Brian Shanks (16) ......... 61-13
3. Lee Waller (15) ............. 60-13
4. Steve Burgess (1) .......... 59-9
5. Rich Jones (29) .............. 59-4
6. Ryan Radford (21) ......... 39-5
7. Steve O Toole (4) .......... 37-2
8. Alan Healey (19) ............ 29-4
9. Matt Challenger (22) ....... 28-6
10. Jason Bird* (9) .............. 27-11
11. Ron Hardiman (10) ........ 20-10
12. Andy Curry (13) ............ 16-2
13. Simon Belcham** (12) ... 15-10
14. Darren North (6) ........... 9-7
15. and 2 DNW's (including Pete Sivell again)

*golden peg 

**silver peg

And finally, going back to what I mentioned earlier about my pound coin predicament, well it wasn't made any easier today by Allan Healey, Pete Sivell, Jason  Bird or Andy Curry and so if they don't start trying a bit harder I'm going to have to find a bigger coin pot in the van,

Fortunately for the aforementioned, I didn't go on about it too much ... Or did I?

No match next Sunday (I'm away for the weekend and didn't want to loose any league points) but there is a meeting on Tuesday night at The Horseshoe where I will be taking bookings for our next matches which are ,,,
Avalon on 13 April
Campbell on 20 April (Easter weekend)
Sedges (Tile) 27 April 
and Hillview 04 May

Plantations, Coarse Lake, 23 March (18 pegs)

18 fishing today, then 19 and then back to 18 (confused? So was I)!
Anyway, 18 is about as many as you would want as although there are officially 40ish pegs available, due to the unusual shape of the lake a lot of pegs clash with each other and it's not an easy one to peg out.

I had spent a long while on Saturday night trying to sort 18 pegs out from the above map but it's quite old and doesn't really represent the lake as it is now.

Fortunately Chris Gay, who knows the venue really well (his words, not mine) kindly volunteered to sort the pegging while I enjoyed my breakfast courtesy of Karen in the Plantations cafe and after three laps of the lake we were sorted!

For a change today the payout was to be  top 2 plus 3 sections and despite Kev Jefferies being down at Emerald on Tony Rixon's match, just the one Silvers pool.

So, following last week's catastrophe at Viaduct I made sure I saved the last number for myself and I wasn't disappointed as it revealed peg 1, the shortest walk and a corner with the wind blowing into it (it could have been worse)!

For company I had Adam Caswell in peg 3 who was well happy as I had let him have the whole of my left margin.

Up from Adam were Chris Szakacs in 4 and my replacement travelling partner in the fishing bus, Stewart Riddle in 5 followed by Rich Jones in 7 and Alan Healey in 8.

Alan was looking very confident as he was armed with some hi-tec groundbait mix that looked expensive ..... I don't think he will be wasting the kids' KFC fund on that again in a hurry!

Across from me on 38 was Darren North and over on the far side I could make out Simon Belcham and one of our new members, Lee Williams.

My peg seemed fairly straightforward as with the wind blowing into it and no island to snag up on it was going to be a margin job into the corner.

I also set up a rig for 13m to plunder the skimmers for a couple of hours while the corner margin was being primed.

Chris Szakacs wandered round and suggested a long chuck with a method feeder over towards the edge which apparently  does well here  but I wasn't keen  and was fairly confident of getting a few down the edge on corn.

On the start I put 3 balls of caster-laden groundbait in at 13m, another at 14.5 and fed the margin with a cocktail of caster, corn, 4mm pellet and groundbait.

Out to 13m and sure enough, absolutely nothing! So I stuck with it for an hour or so mucking around wth shotting and different baits and still the float never even trembled.

In the meantime, Darren had started off chucking a wag to the island and had snared a carp more or less straight away but it came off at the net,
Lee looked to be in a similar position to myself and I couldn't see much going on to my left other than Chris Szakacs getting one or two fish from the island.

Adam had hooked one on the pole line that snapped the end of his topkit but he got it in but that was all he had by the midway point.

I had by now given up on the long line and was fishing at 5m and next to my keepnet with single caster getting odd tiny roach but missing most bites which was annoying so in desperation I had dug out the lead rod and hurled that out with a banded 8mm on the hook to a spot between two trees on the end bank where Chris had suggested but it was too far away to feed anything in the wind and produced nothing other than sticks and branches.

I had a look on my corner margin line and again nothing but it did reveal a problem in that it was full of underwater junk that had collected over the winter.

I did notice a fish swirl a bit further along the bank, out of pole range, so I plopped the lead over in that direction and cattied a few 8mm's over the top to feed the ducks.

Adam had just come back from a wander and it seemed Ryan Radford was catching well as was Mark and Brian Shanks and a few others wre getting odd fish including "that new bloke" (Lee)

The only good news was that Alan and his devastating new groundbait were struggling.

At this point Adam asked if I had caught but before I could answer the rod tip headed round in the direction of Bullocks Farm and I had my first carp in the net.

A couple of chucks later a second carp followed which took me into double figures and out of the embarrassment zone.

I spent the last 90 minutes doing the same which gave me five more carp which I was guessing would take me to 30lbs.
My guess wasn't far off the mark with the scales giving me 31-2 which was good enough to win the section ahead of Chris Szakacs.
And, more importantly, pound coins from Alan Healey, Pete Sivvell (who packed up early moaning about a bad back), and Adam Caswell (uncollected as yet)!
The match was won by Ryan Radford from peg 11 with 73lbs caught short from his left and right margins with meat over meat and corn feed.
Unfortunately his Dad, Mark, is too tight to pay for him to go in the pools so the money went to 2nd placed Lee Williams with 66-8 caught partly on the wag and down the edge.
You can read Lee's own version of events here
The Silvers honours went to another "newbie", Chris Davis with 15-10 of skimmers on meat at 5m.

Full Result:

1. Ryan Radford (peg 11) .... 73-0
2. Lee Williams (32) ............ 66-8
3. Brian Shanks (28) ........... 62-2
4. Mark Radford (19) ........... 57-10
5. Darren North (38) ........... 31-7
6. Steve Burgess (1) ........... 31-2
7. Chris Szakacs (4) ............ 27-5
8. Chris Davis (24) .............. 20-10
9. Alan Healey (8) .............. 18-12
10. Pete Uzzell (15) .............. 16-8
11. Rich Jones (7) ................ 15-10
12. Chris Gay (29) ............... 15-9
13. Simon Belcham (31) ...... 13-8
14. Matt Challenger* (26) ..... 10-1
15. Adam Caswell (3) ........... 8-12
16. Mike Wilson (27) ............. 6-1
17. Stewart Riddle (5) .......... 1-8
18. Pete Sivell (18) .............. DNW

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Chris Davis .......... 15-10
2. Simon Belcham ..... 13-8
3. Matt Challenger ..... 10-1
4. Pete Uzzell ........... 7-1
5. Alan Healey .......... 5-8
6. Rich Jones ............ 4-0
7. Mike Wilson ........... 3-3
8. Darren North ......... 2-10
9. Chris Gay ............. 1-10
10. Stewart Riddle ...... 1-8
11. Lee Williams ......... 0-12
12. Steve Burgess ...... 0-6

Sections:

1. Steve Burgess ...... 31-7
2. Mark Radford ....... 57-10 (default)
3. Darren North ....... 31-7 (double default) 

Next Sunday we are at Harescombe which has been producing some good results of late and with the weather looking favourable it promises to be a good match.

Viaduct, Campbell, 16 March (20 pegs)

Another pleasant day, not as warm as last Sunday and a bit breezier but after the crappy wet winter we've had any bit of sunshine is more than welcome.

20 fishing today, which is a good number as it makes the maths easy!

Payout today was to be top 4 and 2 silvers as there was no Kev Jefferies and I was hoping for some good weights seeing as the recent warm weather had got the resident carp into feeding mode and hopefully they would be spreading out a bit now that the winter pellet ban had been lifted.

As for my match it was cursed from the start as I left home without my fishing hat which has been firmly attached to my head for every match since before I had grey hair, except for one match last year down at Landsend when Bob Warren had left his behind and it was pissing down with rain so, against my better judgement,  I let him borrow it and he kicked my arse off the next peg

which was a first as far as I remember.

Following on from that initial disaster, at the draw there were two tickets left in the back of the fishing bus and Will Dearlove had decided he was going to have the last one despite the fact that I always have the last peg.

So seeing as Will had dug his size 6 Cuban heels in and wasn't going to give in I let him have the last one and he drew peg 116 and I ended up with 131 and even Steve Long in the shop couldn't come up with something positive to say about that draw so that was disaster #2.

But that won't be happening again as I will be having the last peg from now on no matter how much of a stalemate there is. 

And I noticed that even Tony Rixon has cottoned on to this as he had the last peg at Landsend yesterday and drew 19!

Anyway, arriving at the peg it was looking even less promising as the water was quite clear and there was no sign of anything (carpy) moving, although there was a bit of fizzing at 11m which I guessed / was hoping would be skimmers.

For company I had Stewart Riddle on 132 and Steve O Toole on 130.

Rich Britton was on 129 and I expected him to do the best out of these 4 pegs.

I hadn't prepped any kit on the night before as i never seem to do any good when i turn up organised so I just set up a lead rod and a full-depth wag outfit (both for a banded 8mm pellet,

Which left me just enough time to set up a pole rig for the 11m line  to fish last week's maggots over last week's micros.

And I had a shallow pellet rig in reserve just in csse!

At the "all-in" I fed the pole line with a pot full of maggots and micros and went out on the wag.

Derek Lucas, opposite on 111 landed a carp straight away, much to the disgust of his neighbour for the second week in a row, Brian Shanks  and with others further up the lake also catching, I resigned myself to a day of spectating but the float went under and carp #1 gave itself up.

Carp #2 followed shortly along with a third by the end of the first hour leading me to believe there was hope but it was short-lived (a "false dawn" as they say)!

Nothing further followed on the wag or the lead and a half-hearted switch to the shallow wag also produced nothing.

Steve and Rich Britton were doing a little better but not a lot, and Stewart was doing his best to moan a carp out of peg 132 without success.

Opposite, Derek had failed to build on his flying start whereas Brian was catching a few on the pole shallow and giving him (and Chris Szakacs) a repeat of last weeks fishing lesson at Trinity.

Keith in 110 was slso struggling but all the pegs further up the lake were catching.

By now Stewart had given up fishing for non-existant carp and was out on the pole with an ultra-light rig for skimmers which could only have one inevitable result and sure enough he was soon having a torrid time!

My 11m line was only any good for "blade" roach so I gave it up and resigned myself to catching the same stamp of fish on my topkit either side of my nets just to keep myself occupied and to use up last week's maggots and micros.

This proved to be quite successful with a bite every put-in but unfortunately it takes a lot of roach to make up a good silvers weight when they average 4 to an ounce and when the "bonus"  2-ouncers fall off mid swing it can be a tad frustrating!

So I got fed up and slung the last of the micros in to my right margin and put 2 maggots on the hook which produced my fifth and final carp of the day.

My five carp went to 30lbs-ish and with my collection of roach and perch fry went a total of 34-0 for absolutely nowhere but I had faired better than the other three pegs at this end.

Stewart was long gone and both Keith and Derek in 110 & 111 had tipped back.

I didn't follow the scales round as, despite not being able to see a great deal from my peg, I had a good idea what had been caught from the Bankside Telegraph and also the fact that a few anglers had wandered down our end to borrow extra nets which was a bit of a giveaway.

The match was won by Rocket Ron Hardiman with 201lbs 10oz from peg 118

It would have been a bit more but he had 7lbs knocked off of one his nets ... There's always one! Although there were actually two but I don't include Chris Szakacs as he does it every time he fishes at Viaduct (can't count past 10)

For the record Ron caught on meat and pellet on the lead and later with meat on the pole in close.

Second on the day was Will Dearlove with 145-1 caught from the peg I should have had, 116 (but I won't go on about it).

Will caught on meat on the full-depth wag, I think, but I'm sure he will correct that in the comments if it's wrong.

Third place went to Lee Waller with 134-5 caught on the pole with pellet from peg 126
And in fourth place was a much improved Matt Taynton with 129-3 from peg 127.


Full Result:

1. Rocket Ron Hardiman (118) ...... 201-10
2. Will Dearlove (116) ....... 145-1
3. Lee Waller (126) .......... 134-5
4. Matt Taynton (117) ....... 129-3
5. Matt Challenger (123) .... 112-9
6. Ryan Radford (119) ....... 107-15
7. Brian Shanks (112) ........ 99-11
8. Chris Szakacs (115) ....... 92-1
9. Adam Caswell (125) ....... 90-2
10. Alan Healey (124) .......... 85-6
11. Rich Jones (127) ............ 76-15
12. Mark Radford (128) ........ 67-7
13. Rich Britton (129) ........... 57-0
14. Steve O Toole (130) ....... 50-13
15. Steve Burgess (131) ....... 34-0
16. Chris Gay* (114) ............ 17-0
17. plus 3 dnw's and 1 early bath

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Mark Radford (128) ...... 18-9
2. Chris Gay (114) ........... 17-0
3. Brian Shanks (112) ...... 15-15
4. Matt Challenger (123) ... 13-13
5. Ryan Radford (119) ...... 12-1
6. Rich Britton (129) ......... 7-3
7. Ron Hardiman (118) ..... 6-2
8. Rich Jones (127) .......... 6-2
9. Lee Waller (126) .......... 4-7
10. Steve Burgess (131) ..... 4-7
11. Will Dearlove (116) ....... 4-5
12. Steve O Toole (130) ..... 4-3
13. Chris Szakacs (115) ...... 2-9
14. Alan Healey (124) ........ 1-12  

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)

Sedges, Tile Lake, 23 Feb (12 pegs)

First of all my apologies for the lack of activity around here but unfortunately I've been busy with work and other stuff.
So here's a quick summary of what has been missed.
Back at the end of January we were up at Harescombe but due to the shitty weather forecast (strong winds and rain all day) only eight of us fished it, and to be honest, neither myself nor my travelling partner were very keen as the wind and rain started as we were loading the van.
Because of the forecast and my lack of enthusiasm I hadn't put any effort whatsoever into preparing for the match but it actually transformed into a decent afternoon and my lack of prep resulted in finishing 7th (1 place above the dnw).
The match was won by Matt Taynton with 59-13 with Chris Szakacs coming a close second with 56-12.
I don't have the peg numbers as whoever was writing down the results didn't bother with that bit but from memory Matt & Chris were next to each other on 15 & 13 respectively (or thereabouts) but I'm sure Chris will put me right as he is younger than me and has a better memory and is better looking!
I was a bit disappointed with the turnout for this match as it is a brilliant winter venue that guarantees a few fish even on the worst of days and is only 45 minutes away but never mind!
Next up was at Shiplate on the main lake. I wasn't at this match and I haven't seen the weigh-sheet but fortunately Carol is very organised and puts their results up on Facebook!
She wrote this (bless her cotton socks) .....

Two of Bristol's match groups Frys and PSV fished matches at Shiplate at the weekend.
Fry's fished the two canals, Hawthorns and Westpool whilst PSV fished the Main lake.
After the prolonged influx of cold rain water recently, the results were going to be unpredictable.
Fry's match group had the better weights of the day with Jason Bird on peg 9 of the Hawthorns fishing the pole down the margins using maggot for bait and lightly feeding maggot at the same time and ended with top weight of the day, 53lb 10oz.
PSV's match on the Main lake proved much harder. Matt Taynton on peg 13 caught 31lb 14oz of Silvers to win the match.

Fry's results
1st Jason Bird p9H, 53lb 10oz (pictured)
2nd Steve Howell p12W, 46lb
3rd Ray Cooper p15W, 33lb
3rd Andy Curry p5H, 33lb
4th Gordon Jones p10W, 19lb

PSV results
1st Matt Taynton p13, 31lb 14oz
2nd Alan Healey p14, 28lb
3rd Mark Radford p1, 14lb 4oz
Silvers went to Adam Caswell p3, 6lb 8oz


Following that was a match on Acorn's old canal but I was forced to cancel that one as, again, as the weather forecast was crap and the rumour-mill had been busy sending out negative vibes about the recent form resulting in hardly any interest.  It also clashed with the Westerleigh winter league which fished really well!!

16 Feb saw us back at Harescombe and this time round the weather forecast was better and as a result we managed 17 with the help of a few guests.
The top two was a repeat of our last visit with Matt Taynton winning from peg 2 with 63-2 and Chris Szakacs taking 2nd  from peg 11 with 51-4.
Section winners were:
Lee Waller, peg 4, 49-0
Steve O'Toole, peg 10, 34-0
Simon Belcham, peg 16, 48-10
Darren North, peg 20, 40-0

A good day with the average weight being around 30lbs (I weighed in below average)!

Anyway back to today, or should I say last Sunday, and there were 12 of us this time round so 6 on each bank and plenty of room for all.

Strangely I found myself on peg 40 again and even more strangely I had Lionel lead-slinger Legge for company on 38 again .... déjà-vu!

I hadn't had time last night to sort out rigs as I had spent the night searching through draws to find the log book for the car but anyway the waggler rod was left in the bag as the wind was too strong for that.

The lead rod came out still with the same pellet feeder on from last time but I changed the hook length to take a banded pellet.

2 pole rigs were dug out, 1 for down the edge which was getting on for 3 feet deep and the other for 6m which was as about as long as was comfortable in the wind.

At the start I fed the 6m line with chopped worm & caster in 3 balls of groundbait and the margins with a few casters before slinging the feeder stuffed with micros in the general direction of the island.

After 30 minutes, 3 cigs and 2 coffees the tip hadn't moved an inch and the popped-up expander remained untouched and even though Lionel had snagged 2 decent carp on the tip enough was enough and the feeder rod was abandoned in favour of the  6m line with a bit of worm on the hook.

This produced a similar result but I persevered and eventually the float went under and after a bit of unnecessary drama the culprit turned out to be a carp around 3lbs hooked neatly in the wing.

Topping up with a bit more feed then produced a small skimmer, this time hooked up the wrong-un which had me thinking there was something badly wrong with my presentation (I think the 0.4g float was a bit too light) and after a lean spell and a bit of playing around with the shotting a perch of about a pound gave itself up, this time hooked in the cheek (so getting closer).

More feed produced a 2lb skimmer (hooked properly) and some of his offspring which had me thinking I could stick with the silvers.

The next bite produced a carp which put paid to that idea as things tailed off after that prompting a look down the margins with double caster on the hook.

The right hand margin gave up a solitary roachlet and nothing else.

But first put in down the left side and the float buried as soon as it settled.

Unfortunately, after a bit of ploughing about in the deeper water, that one managed to unhook itself somehow (much to the amusement of my neighbour).

Back in again and the float went again and this one managed to stay on but made its way over the top of the keepnet where it got the hook stuck but managed to stay on. After a bit of poking and prodding I managed to get it into the landing bet but somehow the rig was still attached to the keepnet, I couldn't get my head round that!

Persevering with the left margin produced another good perch, a bit bigger than the last one and then, timed to perfection on the arrival of Keith Ray who had given up on peg 30, another carp which I reckoned was on the small side but miraculously turned into a net-stretcher.... Happy days.

The end result of that was 27-1 which was good enough for third (by default) as Matt Taynton took the Silvers money.

The match was won comfortably by new boy Steve O'Toole with 93-14 from 33 all caught on corn over corn at 6m or thereabouts.

Matt Challenger was 2nd with 74-9 from 26 (bread-slinging) and Matt Taynton won the silvers with 11-12

Full Result:

1. Steve O'Toole (33) ..... 93-14

2. Matt Challenger (26) .... 74-9

3. Matt Taynton (23) ...... 30-10

4. Steve Burgess (40) .... 27-1

5. Chris Szakacs (28)* ..... 26-10

6. Lionel Legge (38) ...... 20-14

7. Alan Healey (36) ....... 17-14

8. Mark Radford (25) ..... 17-1

9, Adam Caswell** (21) ... 6-13

And 3 dnw's

* golden peg

** only fished for 5 hrs due to having a diabetic hypo episode resulting in a visit from an ambulance crew

Silvers:

1. Matt Taynton ..... 11-12

2. Steve Burgess ..... 8-0

3. Alan Healey ....... 7-15

4. Steve O'Toole .... 4-8

As it happened I was chatting to Steve Wynne in the Hilltops Cafe at breakfast (he was fishing the Carpenters Arms match on Brick) and I predicted that Tile would produce the better weights today as it fishes better than Brick in winter and I was proved right but it was good news for Steve as he won his match with 71lbs from peg 20 fishing maggot at the bottom of the nearside shelf so good weights all round.

This weekend is at Shiplate on the main lake although it could turn into a knock up with Frys as they have the canals but I won't be there so Alan will be taking the reigns ,.. Hence anything could happen! 

And finally, don't forget that Tuesday is the AGM at the Horseshoe on Siston Common (memberships)!

Latest Happenings!

Firstly, thanks to all who attended last nights meeting at the Horseshoe (all 5 of us)!

Unfortunately I have had to cancel this Sundays match at Acorn so I apologise in advance for those of you who had made plans to fish this one.

I have now booked up another weekend festival at Holgan Farm for 19-21 September.

The format should be pretty much the same as the last time (1 match on each of the three lakes, winner of the first match gets first pick of the accommodation) only this time round we will all be able to stay on the venue as Ian has now built 2 new lakeside lodges as well as the existing farmhouse.

The cost of the weekend will be £125 which includes 2 nights B&B plus 3 days of fishing.

Obviously pools, evening meals and alcohol are extra but if you have a look under the desk in the tackle shop or under the dog's bed there should be a couple of bottles of single malt lying around.

Please let me know as soon as possible and I will be looking for a deposit of £20 at the next meeting which will be on Tuesday 4 March at The Horseshoe.

Please note that the March meeting will also be the AGM and membership renewal time so if you have any concerns / criticisms over how the club is being managed or if you fancy having a go yourselves then now is your chance to shine!

I suggested at the meeting last night that we should keep the membership open this year (rather than capped as before) to attract a few new members as the numbers fishing recent matches have been pretty dire which is a shame.

So if you are reading this and fancy joining feel free to come along.

In the meantime there are spaces left for the next three matches which are:

Harescombe (16 Feb)

Sedges - Tile (23 Feb)

Shiplate - Main lake (2 March)

Sedges, Tile Lake, 19 Jan (13 pegs)

The New Years resolution didn't last too long as was probably expected but anyway ...

13 fishing today which included 2 guests, Dean Malin had managed to drag himself away from Shiplate for a day and John the gimp Bradford had also graced us with his presence so I thought it best to put 2 silvers in the payout to avoid the inevitable whinging from certain quarters.

Pegging was a bit of a head-scratcher, Denise suggested leaving out all four corners which I didn't like the sound of (so she had a sulk) but luckily a quick phonecall to Jamie who was fishing a club match at Landsend sorted things out and everybody ended up with a bit of space (sort of)!

The previous Sunday had seen 19 of Tony Rixon's superstars on the same lake so no doubt plenty of information had been exchanged during the week and there seemed to be a definite bread theme going on although, to be fair, it seems to be the  "in thing" at a few venues at the moment.

It was quite interesting after the match to see the different interpretations of the bread theme as the evidence was floating around in the margins....

Kev Jefferies up in corner peg 30 had gone for the K&A approach which resulted in a net of fry that even the average canal angler would have been ashamed of while over in the opposite corner (31) Will Dearlove, who does an excellent impersonation of a shrunken down Steve Ringer, had gone to the opposite extreme and it looked as though he had been using a bread punch fashioned from an empty sweetcorn tin however his three carp totalled over 21lbs!

Anyway, back to the match and I had the last ping pong ball out of the basket which put me on 40 and the golden peg (drawn by Denise after she'd stopped sulking).

As there was nobody on 39 I was reasonably happy to say the least. For company I had Lionel  leadslinger Legge on 38 who seemed to be having a few problems with the tree behind him so I guess he'd forgotten his glasses.

My plan of action for today was 3-fold.

Slinging a pellet feeder with maggot to the island, waggler with maggot in the open water and, later on, caster into the corner margins which would be my banker as the margins at Sedges are around 2' deep so will still produce in the depths of winter.

And in this peg there is a second shelf further out about 4' deep before it disappears down to 8'-ish so I set up rigs for both.

I didn't bother with a rig for the deep water as I fancied a day fishing the wag so that was untangled from the rod bag and the float set at (a guessed) foot off the deck.

I started off with the inevitable chuck to the island with two maggots which fell too short. The second chuck hit dry land but luckily plopped into the island margin with no drama and looked quite impressive but it took a few more random chucks to provoke a bite which I missed.

A few chucks later I managed to snare one of the culprits but a 2oz roach was not part of the plan!

Eventually I did manage a small carp although Lionel next door had one in the net and pulled out of a second putting his rig in the tree behind.

I stuck with this for an hour or so and managed a second small carp but Lionel was by now well ahead and showing off dropping a method feeder 2 inches off the island.

So, having been sparingly pinging out 4mm pellets since the start, it was out with the wag and double maggot which was quite successful, producing a steady-ish run of small carp.

Not really setting the world alight but enough to overtake the neighbour and it didn't look like Adam Caswell or the gimp were doing much further up so I persevered with it.

With an hour and a half left I thought it was time to empty the margins but that proved a waste of casters as the low sun made it impossible to see anything so that was a pint of caster wasted.

I did manage 3 minutes down there when the sun went behind a cloud but that only resulted in a skimmer fry so I abandoned it and spent the rest of the match back on the wag which produced a couple of better fish.

First to weigh in was Matt Taynton on 21 who put 42lbs on the scales which was worrying as I hadn't seen him catching.

Next up was Ryan Radford with 42-11 caught on the bread / lead.

Steve Wynne weighed in 6-9 of silvers before Alan Healy on 26 (who had been admitting to 14 carp on bread) produced 48-14.

This was eclipsed by Dean on 27 with 73-0 also caught on the bread / lead combination.

Mark Radford managed 38-11 and Kev Jefferies' K&A tactics only yielded 7-14 which included a 2lb carp fry.

Will Ringer weighed in 23-11, the Gimp had packed up early and was somewhere on the M5.

Next door on 33 Bristol's other tackle shop owner, Matt Challenger had sewn up the silvers with 8-8 caught at 14m over groundbait and squatt (owning your own tackle shop has it's advantages)

Adam weighed in 7-4 of skimmers which would be good enough for 2nd in that department.

Next up was Lionel who's lead slinging was good enough for 34-12.

I was admitting to 30/35 lbs but hoping for 40, luckily that grew into 48-11 which was enough for 3rd and left me feeling a bit bruised as Alan had beaten me to 2nd by 3oz, about the same as the roach I dropped at my feet that flipped its way to freedom, never mind!

Overall:

1. Dean Malin (27) ..... 73-0

2. Alan Healey (26) .... 48-14

3. Steve Burgess (40) ... 48-11

4. Ryan Radford (23) ... 42-11

5. Matt Taynton (21) ..... 42-0

6. Mark Radford (28) .... 38-11

7. Lionel Legge (38) ..... 34-12

8. Will Dearlove (31) ..... 23-11

9. Matt Challenger (35) ... 8-8

10. Kev Jefferies (30) ..... 7-14

11. Adam Caswell (37) .... 7-4

12. Steve Wynne (24) ..... 6-9

13. John Bradford (33) ... dnw

Silvers:

1. Matt Challenger ..... 8-8

2. Adam Caswell .... 7-4

3. Steve Wynne ...... 6-9

4. Kev Jefferies ...... 5-10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until then .....