Shiplate Farm, Hawthorn. 22 January 2012 (15 pegs)

There is a vicious rumour circulating the match angling fraternity that this blog only ever gets updated when the Match Secretary has a good day .... so this should well and truly put that to rest with absolutely no bitterness involved whatsoever!
And so with all fifteen pegs filled it meant the pegging wouldn't be too much of a problem and having counted out the pegs twice over, there was little chance of there being a redraw, and there wasn't fortunately, which meant that the biggest problem would be down to the blustery wind.  And fortunately again that was straight off our backs so there was no real problem there either .... so far so good!

Chris Gay with "25lbs" which miraculously turned into 54lbs!

As far as the match itself went it was pretty much business as usual with Chris  Gay (left) being closest on hand to draw the golden peg (peg 1) and then proceeding to "innocently" draw it for himself (strangely) and then win it!
And with Alan spawny bollox Healy using some kind of Jedi powers to cement second place ahead of up-and-coming superstar, Will Dearlove, closely followed by the "gruesome twosome" of Simon Belcham and Darren North in fourth and fifth respectively.

Will doing his best impression of Freddie Mercury!

For the record, Chris Gay spent half the first half of the match fishing up to the rope barrier on the left bank of peg one fishing maggot over micro with a few maggots catapulted over the top and caught just off the deck by regularly lifting and dropping.  He spent the remaining part of the match at 13m across to the far bank using the exact same tactics as before and cruised to victory with 54lbs 11oz.
Alan, on peg 11, fished on top of the far shelf at 13m with maggot for 28lbs exactly and Will (pictured above) had one carp across and the rest down the inside edge from a slight depression in the bottom, again on maggot / micro for 20lbs 4oz.

Stevie Wynne contemplating life after 5hrs pegged next to Mike Wilson

It was a first visit for many of us to Shiplate and it must be said that this looks like rapidly becoming one of the top venues locally thanks to the top quality facilities and warm welcome from owners Steve and Carol.
More info for Shiplate can be found here or alternatively look for the Shiplate Farm page on Facebook.

Overall result:

1. Chris Gay* .... peg 1 ... 54-11
2. Alan Healy ...........11 ... 28-0
3. Will Dearlove ....... 4 .... 20-4
4. Simon Belcham ... 10 ... 17-4
5. Darren North ....... 12 ... 14-15
6. Keith Ray ............ 13 ... 14-8
7. Mike Welling ........ 8 ..... 12-5
8. Bob Warren ......... 9 ..... 8-4
9. Mike Wilson ......... 6 ..... 7-12
10. Rich Britton ......... 3 ..... 7-2
11. Paul Reed ............ 15 .... 6-4
12. Kev Jefferies ........ 14 .... 6-4
13. Stevie Wynne ....... 5 ..... 5-1
14. Derek Lucas ......... 2 ... dnw
15. Steve Burgess ...... 7 ... dnw

*yep, golden peg!

Boyd Valley, 08 January 2012 (12 pegs)

For the first match of the new year it was a return to Boyd Valley and after a week of gale force winds and rain it was a welcome relief to be greeted with mild temperatures, sunshine and a light breeze.  It was hoped that as a result of this  the lakes' larger inhabitants would be spurred into feeding, or at least the skimmers would show as they had been noticeable by their absence in the previous two matches (perhaps something to do with the cormorants that have been paying regular visits)
Unfortunately though, as before, the skimmers turned out to be few and far between and the carp rarer still which meant it was roach all the way for most with the few carp that were caught (three of them) deciding the framing weights.


For the second time running peg 4 produced the goods with a (marginally) tidier-looking Simon Belcham being the fortunate soul to draw it.
The bearded wonder fished at 3m with single maggot on the hook for a total of 13lbs 6oz of roach boosted by a decent skimmer and the biggest carp of the day.

Mark Radford, having managed a reserve place at the last minute, took second spot from peg 9 with 12lbs 11oz.  Fortunately for him 5lbs of that came "Alan Healy style" in the last five minutes of the match when, after moaning that the roach were too cold for five hours, he decided to chuck the lead across to the gap between the islands (where the carp were swirling and boshing about) and snare one at the death which comfortably knocked match secretary, Steve Burgess on peg 10 back into third place. (no bitterness there whatsoever)!
Steve spent half the match in a comfortable second spot courtesy of a 4lb carp and four skimmers caught on white maggot over micro at 13m which accompanied the obligatory roach caught on caster at 4m for a well-earned total of 11lbs 5oz.

Rich Britton, having yet again pulled out the golden peg, completed the frame with an all roach weight of 8lbs 8oz from peg 11 caught on single maggot at 3m.

*pictures courtesy of Roy Garland @ BEP

Overall Result:

1. Simon Belcham .... peg 4 .... 13-6    special hat for the cameras
2. Mark Radford ....... 9 ........ 12-11   braved the cold
3. Steve Burgess ..... 10 ....... 11-5   providing the takeaways
4. Rich Britton* ....... 11 ........ 8-8   f**ked up a flier
5. Bob Warren ......... 8 ......... 8-0   as above
6. Kev Jefferies ........ 2 ......... 7-1   beat Chris Gay
7. Chris Gay ............ 5 ......... 5-9   beaten by Kev
8. Derek Lucas ........ 12 ....... 5-8   not last
9. Keith Ray ............ 1 ......... 5-7   playing Grandad
10. Darren North ....... 6 ......... 5-4   what happened there???
11. Steve Wynne ....... 7 ......... 4-8   back to usual form
12. Paul Reed ............ 3 ......... 3-2   see above

*golden peg again

Footnote:

If you've ever wondered what a guinea pig would look like on a lead .....

Christmas Match, Westerleigh, 11 December (22 pegs)

Apparently the coffin-dodgers had fished a match on both lakes the day before and also on the Thursday and with the water being cold and clear a tough day's fishing was anticipated. And with the new lake having been fishing poorly this year the bottom lake was the place to be and sure enough this was where all of the top five weights came from.
Leading the charge (and entertaining everyone within earshot) was Craig Trigger Edmunds on peg 9 who took full advantage of the fact that his peg was stuffed with feeding fish.  Craig alternated white maggot and soft pellet on the hook and only fed 15 micros and 3 maggots to get them interested at the start.  He landed a carp on his first put in and followed this with a steady run of small roach, carp, f1's and crucians plus a mutant goldfish for a total of 33lbs 7oz which won him £55 in pools plus a free membership and a Mosella Kompact4 rod holdall!
   Just missing out on the rod holdall was match organiser, Steve Burgess on peg 6 who landed five carp and a few silvers for 21lbs 10oz.  Steve fished at 9 metres with maggot and caster hookbaits over micro pellet feed and later with double red maggot over caster four feet off the platform of peg 5.  In an ironic twist to last week's result at Boyd Valley, and much to the amusement of Trigger,  Steve managed to loose seven foul-hookers which cost him the match (and the rod holdall) but he remained chirpy and not bitter in any way, shape or form and was more than happy with a stink bag, keepnet and fifty notes!
    Third on the day went to Rich Britton on peg 8 (you may have noticed a pattern developing here) with 16lbs.  Rich caught 12lbs of that in the first ten minutes with one fish that took his white pinkie hookbait.  He spent the rest of the match catching tiny roach on pinkie and watching Trigger catching quality fish 8 feet away from his float. Rich took home a power net handle and £45 for his efforts.
    Paul Elmes couldn't stop smiling when he drew peg 1 and was witnessed running to his van from the pub carpark to get to his peg. Normally you would expect Paul to be heard across the entire lake, especially with Trigger in "abuse range" but today he was very quiet indeed, no doubt wondering why he hadn't easily won the match from the best peg on the lake.  Despite at one point going off to buy more fags and a length of rope from B&Q (to hang himself), he eventually weighed in 13lbs 12oz for fourth place which earned him a Preston pole support and £40.

Overall Result:
(Results in red are on the top lake)

1. Trigger ........ peg 9 ... 33-7
2. Steve Burgess ... 6 ... 21-10
3. Rich Britton ...... 8 ... 16-0
4. Paul Elmes ....... 1 ... 13-12
5. Kev Jefferies ..... 2 ... 11-3
6. Jamie Brown .... 21 .. 10-7
7. Andy Bush ....... 4 .... 9-3
8. Rich Jones ....... 14 ... 8-3
9. Chris Gay ........ 19 ... 6-15
10. Stuart Riddle ... 26 ... 5-9
11. Alan Healy ....... 31 ... 5-4
12. Dave Tippet ..... 23 ... 3-13
13. Mark Radford ... 24 ... 3-4
14. Stuart Ashton ... 12 ... 3-3
15. Mike Welling ..... 32 ... 2-10
16. Eddie Wynne .... 28 ... 2-0
17. Paul Reed ........ 33 ... 0-13
18. Darren North ... 35 ... 0-5
19. Steve Wynne ... 11 ... 0-1
20. Neil Mercer ...... 15 ... 0-2
21. Derek Lucas ..... 21 ... 0-1
22. Simon Belcham .. 17 .. dnw

Many thanks to all who turned out and made it a thoroughly enjoyable day and to all who have supported the club throughout the year.
Thanks also to Tony Rixon for his help with the tackle prizes which were much appreciated and also to Dean Malin.
Thanks also to Mugger Shanks for doing the pegging and organising the breakfast.
And thanks to Chris Gay (and wife) for organising the food which was excellent and also to Sam and Sonny Burgess for heating it up!
Finally, hope everyone has a great Christmas and see you all in the New Year at the next meeting on Tuesday 3 January (which may possibly be a curry night if anyone's interested)!

Boyd Valley, 04 December (9 pegs)

It was a shame that only nine fished this one as it was originally fully booked with a waiting list so it does help a great deal if I get plenty of warning if someone can't make it to give others a chance to fish (it can be difficult to get hold of bait at times on a Saturday night)!
Anyway, fortunately there were no major disasters at the draw although strangely, having decided to leave out peg 5 (too muddy) and peg 11 (restricted by pegs 10 and 12) and to put the other 10 pegs in the bag I managed to find myself drawn on peg 11!  I wasn't too disheartened though as I hadn't brought any rods so had no intention of throwing things in the direction of the island even though the most recent match there had apparently been won with carp caught on the method with 10mm pellet.
At the off it soon became clear that the carp weren't going to respond to depth charges in the shallow water around the island and most turned their attentions to the roach, which were very obliging,in close and in the margins and odd skimmers. The occasional carp did make an appearance to boost the top weights although former male model-turned-ambulance chaser Paul Reed on peg 4 was having problems avoiding them. Despite losing 7 foul hookers he did manage to extract four which, along with some good skimmers and roach, gave him a comfortable win, well ahead of Alan Healy on peg 2 and Darren North on peg 1.
For the record, Paul (pictured below) caught by alternating worm and single or double caster on the hook over chopped worm and caster feed and a bit of micro down his left margin in 10 inches of water towards the reeds.  He found it was easier to wait for a gap to appear between the backs and tails of the feeding fish in his peg to lower his bait into the water!
If you're wondering why I know quite so much information about Paul's impressive win it's because I was fortunate enough to give him a lift home so if you draw next to Paul at the Christmas match make sure you ask him how he caught, in fact, don't bother because he will tell you anyway!

Full Result:

1. Paul Reed ... peg 4 .... 28-10
2. Alan Healy .......... 2 .... 18-10
3. Darren North ...... 1 ..... 18-6
4. Steve Burgess .... 11 ... 17-15
5. Bob Warren ........ 10 ... 16-8
6. Chris Gay ........... 6 ..... 15-8
7. Simon Belcham ... 7 ..... 10-8
8. Derek Lucas ........ 8 ..... 9-15
9. Mike Welling ........ 12 ... 7-0

Please note that eveyone is welcome to come along to the Midland Spinner on Sunday evening for the PSV Christmas festivities

Psv Christmas Extravaganza 11 December 2011

 

As you are probably aware, this years hotly anticipated Christmas Match is booked for Sunday 11 December at Westerleigh on both lakes.

The match format will generally be the same as last year with payouts for the top three overall and three section payouts (by default) on each of the lakes.

The winner will also have free membership* for next season *(not transferable).

There won't be a silvers pool unfortunately as I have enough to sort out already!

As before the match will cost £40 in total with £20 up front which covers the generous tackle prizes and £20 on the day to cover peg fees and pools.

By now I should have had all the money in for the tackle prizes however I am still waiting for a few which I need as soon as possible in order to get the prizes organised, so please bring your £20 along to Boyd this Sunday (if you are fishing) or to the meeting on the following Tuesday at the absolute latest thanks!

Likewise, anybody who is booked in but can't make it please let me know as early as possible so that I know exactly how many bait boxes and disgorgers to get!

And it wouldn't be a bad idea for everyone to confirm their place either by text or by using the comments box below (include your name)! as you probably already know that I can be a bit flaky when it comes to writing things down.

If the numbers booked-in remains unchanged the payout will be as follows or thereabouts:

First Overall: £55

Second Overall: £50

Third Overall: £45

Section 1: £40 x 2

Section 2: £30 x 2

Section 3: £20 x 2

The important bit!

In a change to previous years Mugger Shanks has kindly arranged for breakfast for everybody in the New Inn at Westerleigh which will be open from 8 and cost a fiver (I think). Also the draw will be at the pub and unlike our normal Sunday morning free-for-alls which so often in the past have resulted in general chaos,  redraws, and a suicidal match organiser, this will be a far more civilised affair run with military precision as follows:

• Order your breakfast
• Pay your £20
• Draw your peg and record it
• Eat your breakfast
• Fuck off to your peg 

This way, those of you who like to set up ten topkits and do your hair / nails / make-up before the all-in can get there nice and early and have all the time in the world to get themselves sorted! Special thanks to Derek Lucas for that bit of inspiration no doubt born from the frustration of watching me make a hash of things first thing on a Sunday morning as a result of Saturday night fever (alcohol abuse)!
Fishing time will be from 10 till 3, all the pegging will have been done in advance and there will be a set of scales and a board on each lake (maybe even two pens as well). Moaning about the pegging, or anything else for that matter, is strictly forbidden.
Naturally, the festive fun and frolics will follow at the Midland Spinner where we will be having the results, payouts and tackle prizes followed by a generous buffet (thanks to Chris Gay), raffle and maybe one or two alcoholic drinks.
Feel free to bring plenty of money for the raffle as no expense has been spared on prizes (I've had to forego my spray-tans for the last month to pay for it)!

If anyone is interested, last year's winner was Paul Elmes with 18-8 from peg 19 on the old lake followed by Adam Caswell with 17-2 from peg 1 (also on the old lake)
Sections were:
Old lake 1. Ryan Jordan ... peg 2 ... 15-0
Old lake 2. Trigger ......... peg 10 ... 14-10
Old lake 3. Stevie Wynne ... peg 15 ... 13-12
New lake 1. Neil Mercer ... peg 26 ... 15-6
New lake 2. Simon Belcham ... peg 33 ... 13-13
New lake 3. Eddie Wynne ... peg 21 ... 13-6
The lakes had been frozen for a fortnight previously hence the low weights!


The previous year Neil Mercer won with 43-5 from peg 2,  2nd was venue expert Darren North with 38-3 from peg 15  and 3rd was Ryan Jordan with 31-0 from peg 1
Sections were:
1. Tony Rixon (who)? ... peg 23 ... 17-0
2. Mark Radford ....... peg 31 ... 16-12
1. Paul Elmes ....... peg 9 ..... 15-6
2. Bob Warren ...... peg 5 ..... 13-12


In our most recent matches Alan Healy won by a whisker on the old lake (9 October) with 64-6 from peg 1  followed by Mike Wilson on peg 17 with 33-4.
And on the new lake (30 October) Paul Elmes won with 15-11 from peg 22  followed by Alan Healy with 13-6 from peg 25

Landsend, Match Lake, 14 August (14 pegs)

Overall Result:

1. Craig Edmunds ... peg17 .... 106-8
2. Simon Belcham ...... 11 .... 69-11
3. Paul Elmes ............. 5 ..... 69-8
4. Darren North** ..... 13 .... 64-0
5. Eddie Wynne ......... 19 .... 43-8
6. Mike Welling .......... 7 ...... 38-12
7. Steve hutchinson ... 21 .... 36-6
8. Bob Warren* ......... 24 .... 32-14
9. Alan Healy ............ 1 ...... 27-10
10. Keith Ray .............. 20 .... 17-2
11. Will Dearlove ......... 3 ..... 15-15
12. Steve Burgess ....... 15 .... dnw
13. Derek Lucas .......... 18 .... dnw
14. Chris Szakacs ........ 9 ..... dnw

Silvers:

1. Craig Edmunds ...... 20-12
2. Bob Warren ........... 19-6
3. Paul Elmes ............ 15-1
4. Alan Healy ............ 10-8
5. Keith Ray .............. 4-10
6. Simon belcham ...... 4-9
7. Eddie Wynne .......... 2-6
8. Steve Hutchinson .... 2-2
9. Will Dearlove .......... 1-9

Viaduct, Cary, 07 August (17 pegs)

I really should follow the examples set by Mr Nicholls and Mr Rixon and post these updates the same day (or very soon after) as at my age the brain loses more information than it stores however ....
By Psv standards with seventeen fishing it was a healthy turnout and at the draw, as per usual, it was Alan Healy that looked to be hot favourite in peg 90 which is in the far corner of Cary and has a long reedbed into the corner. With the wind blowing into that corner it was looking to be a repeat of the previous match at Ivy House that Alan won with ease having drawn the best peg on the entire complex!
Unfortunately for Alan though, match fishing is never as cut and dried as it seems and it soon became apparent that the carp in that corner weren't having it or (more likely)  he had fished it completely wrong and he was forced to abandon any plans of another win and instead concentrated his efforts on choking roach fry with maggots!
In the meantime, on peg 17, match secretary Steve Burgess was finding the carp in a more obliging mood and was catching odd decent fish on the straight lead with banded 8mm pellet while Rich Britton and Simon Belcham on pegs 88 and 86 repectively were also doing well with Rich catching on both the tip and the waggler and Simon opting for a "feeder" approach.
New member Will Dearlove looked to be having a good day although it later became apparent that he spent most of the match playing the same fish as was "will-he-won't-he" Mike Wilson (pictured below).
Top silvers went to Alan with 22-14 although this would have been more but a lot of his fish were so small they were able to swim back out of his keepnet through the mesh.  Bob Warren, who on his fourth match of the week finally managed some coin, took second with 16-2.  Just out of the silvers money (but worth a mention anyway) was Dave the worminator Tippet who found that £20's worth of worm and caster and a handful of river rigs were no match for Cary's larger inhabitants!

Undecided Chairman Mike Wilson plays one of Cary's "babies" whilst wondering how it will fit into his landing net!










Full Result:

1. Steve Burgess .. peg 97 ... 105-9
2. Rich Britton ......... 88 ... 94-14
3. Simon Belcham* .. 86 ... 79-5
4. Will Dearlove ....... 78 ... 75-11
5. Mark Radford ..... 100 ... 71-15
6. Mike Smith ........ 102 ... 67-5
7. Derek Lucas ........ 80 ... 64-11
8. Bob Warren ......... 81 ... 61-5
9. keith Ray ............ 96 ... 54-9
10. Paul Reed ........... 85 ... 50-10
11. Mike Wilson ........ 99 ... 46-13
12. Chris Gay ........... 74 ... 32-1
13. Alan Healy .......... 90 ... 30-6
14. Darren North ....... 76 ... 27-15
15. Dave Tippet ........ 94 ... 24-2
16. Mike Welling ...... 105 ... 10-11
17. Adam Caswell .... 109 ... dnw

Silvers:

1. Alan Healy .... 90 ... 22-14
2. Bob Warren ... 81 ... 16-2
3. Dave Tippet ... 94 ... 15-4
4. Mike Wilson ... 99 ... 14-3
5. Paul Reed ...... 85 ... 10-4
6. Darren North .. 76 ... 9-12
7. Chris Gay ...... 74 ... 4-9
8. Keith Ray ...... 96 ... 4-3
9. Simon Belcham .. 86 .. 2-13
10. Mike Smith .... 102 .. 2-0

*golden peg

Ivy House, 31 July (12 pegs)

Any regular readers of this blog could be forgiven for thinking that Alan  Austin Healy is some sort of match fishing legend however, the truth is that Alan has an uncanny knack of drawing fliers.
This week was no exception as the Knowle West pheasant beater drew peg 24 which, as any Ivy House regular will know, is without any shadow of doubt the best peg on the lake bar none!  Fortunately for the rest of us, he didn't manage to draw the £94 golden peg (that honour was bestowed upon Chris Szackacs on peg 15).
So with the winner already sorted before anyone had put their keepnets in (a good idea to do this before the match starts Chris Gay) it was effectively reduced to an eleven peg match.
Best of the rest was the ever consistent Darren North on peg 10 whose six carp totalled 40lbs 10oz. Darren chose to target the cruising carp with a shallow pellet approach and later switched to the margins with corn (nothing new there then)!
Third place was a tie between Steve Burgess and Rich Britton on pegs 14 and 22 respectively, both weighing in 23-3.  Steve caught two carp on the pellet wag and one good fish at 4m in his left margin where, due to boredom, he was fishing for "ronnies" with corn (didn't have any maggots).
Rich had a couple of smaller carp along with a thirteen pounder and a proper bream.  Unfortunately he found a roach in his keepnet after the weigh-in which would have secured him another £15 pools money but we won't dwell on that as the scalesman (eager to get home to his new wife no doubt) was a bit generous with his weight in the first place!
 The famous Ivy House bream failed to show, probably due to Steve Burgess' heavy duty groundbait attack, but the best  silvers weight on the day went to    Chris Gay who, despite trying at least ten different methods and bait combinations, still managed to avoid the shedload of carp that were swirling in his peg.
For anyone interested Alan Healy (below) won the match convincingly with 97-7 of carp on lobworm fished over chopped worm and caster in the margins with a little bit of pellet fired over the top.  He lost another 100lbs+ to the infamous gully in his peg that connects the match lake with the lake behind.

Full result: 

1. Alan Healy  ... peg 24 ...... 97-7
2. Darren North ...... 10 ..... 40-10
3. Steve Burgess ..... 14 ..... 23-3
4. Rich Britton ........ 22 ...... 23-3
5. Chris Szackacs* ... 15 ..... 23-0
6. Mark Britton ........ 8 ....... 22-11
7. Bob Warren ......... 17 ..... 17-14
8. Ryan Radford ....... 23 ..... 16-2
9. Paul Reed ............ 21 ..... 14-5
10. Chris Gay ............ 13 ..... 13-14
11. Adam Caswell ...... 12 ..... dnw
12. Mark Radford ....... 19 ..... dnw

Silvers:

1. Chris Gay ...... 11-2
2. Bob Warren ... 9-10
3. Chris Szackaks .. 6-8
4. Rich Britton .... 5-13
5. Paul Reed ....... 3-2

 * golden peg