Sedges, Brick Lake, 28 July (14 pegs)

Not much, well nothing actually, to say about this one as I was being entertained by the wife down at the Harbour Festival so it's results only.
Well done to Chris Szakacs (pictured below looking quite pleased with himself)!
Normal service should be resumed next week at Cary.

Full Result:

1. Chris Szakacs (peg 10) .. 136-14
2. Aaron Britnell (12) ........ 89-10
3. Alan Healy (6) .............. 86-10
4. Mike Welling* (9) .......... 65-10
5. Will Dearlove (20) ......... 56-10
6. Keith Ray (17) .............. 46-14
7. Kev Jefferies (11) .......... 45-14
8. Darren North (7) ........... 44-10
9. Lionel Legge (14) .......... 43-10
10. Matt Challenger (4) ....... 42-6
11. Mike Wilson (3)  ........... 22-0
12. Bob Warren (18) .......... 15-14
13. Derek Lucas (15) ......... 10-2
14. Garth** (1) ................. dnw

*golden peg
**silver peg

Silvers:

1. Darren North (7) ..... 26-12
2. Matt Challenger (4) ... 21-4
3. Alan Healy (6) .......... 16-4
4. Bob Warren (18) ....... 15-14
5. Mike Wilson (3) ........ 11-4
6. Aaron Britnell (12) .... 10-12
7. Kev Jefferies (11) ..... 8-2
8. Keith Ray (17) ......... 7-12
9. Lionel Legge (14)  .... 3-6
10. Derek Lucas (15) ..... 2-14 (1 Eel)
11. Will Dearlove (20) .... 0-6

Trinity, Woodlands, 21 July (19 pegs)

Another week and another venue calamity but fortunately this time it was in our favour as on the Thursday I had a call from our favourite fishery manager, Misha, to say that Clevedon had double-booked their match with Durleigh Res and had cancelled their match on Woodlands leaving it available if we wanted it.
Which was ironic as I had originally booked Woodlands for this date a year ago but "somebody" forgot to put it in the Trinity match diary so we were relegated to Wildmarsh.
The decision (Woodlands or Wildmarsh) took approximately 3 seconds! And strangely, once the information was circulated, I had a flurry of late bookings.
It was a decision that made no difference whatsoever to Lionel Legge as for some strange reason he decideded to go to The Sedges a week early, which was most likely due to disorientation caused by his recent nose reconstruction surgery (I cant wait to see his suntan when his cast comes off)!
With it being yet another hot, cloudless day there were plenty of fish splashing about and cruising around and it looked like a few would be caught and so it turned out (especially for the venue-pickers).
Winner on the day was Brian Shanks in peg 31 who, predictably, caught shallow at 13/14m slapping a pellet rig around for an impressive 190-5.
In second place, next door in peg 32, Darren North used similar tactics for a very respectable  137-1 although Darren did catch well in his margins for the last hour or so.
Mark Radford grabbed 3rd with 113-5 from peg 8 also fishing pellet shallow, closely followed by Adam Caswell (Mark seems to spend most of his life being closely followed by Adam) with 112-14 from peg 20 fishing paste in the margins (or corn if you were to believe the constant drone coming from the top of the lake).
Top silvers on the day went to Pete Sivell with 46-6 of paste-caught skimmers from peg 28 followed by Kev Jefferies with 26-10 from peg 26.
Worthy of a mention was Simon Belcham's 3rd place silvers catch of 21-12 from peg 15 which was made up entirely of small roach caught on hemp and tares, a method that Simon has perfected over the years to devastating effect.
Also worthy of a mention (he gets mentioned quite often on here) was Alan Healy who seemed to have a few problems with his keepnet attachment and had to go swimming three times to rescue his net.  The first time he did it he was playing a fish so I got volunteered to hold onto his pole (nice) while he went for a paddle, the second and third times I left him to struggle on his own as I'd run out of sympathy and he was beating me!
As for me, I was doing ok for a while catching odd fish shallow and making pretty patches of fizz everywhere I fed until I happened to mention that I hadn't lost a single fish.  Unfortunately, the next fish was a pole-bender that had no intention of seeing dry land and snapped my elastic.  After that, the new rig didn't want to perform properly and it all went wrong, never mind, I'll put that one down to the curse of the golden peg!
In all though, a very good day with four weights over a ton, two just under and an average weight of 74lbs plus some good silvers weights.



Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (peg 31) ..... 190-5
2. Darren North (32) ........... 137-1
3. Mark Radford (8) ............ 113-5
4. Adam Caswell (20) .......... 112-14
5. Richard Jones (13) .......... 99-4
6. Will Dearlove (27) ........... 98-4
7. Chris Gay (24) ................ 85-4
8. Ryan Radford (7) ............ 79-8
9. Alan (Tom Daly) Healy (11) .. 76-12
10. Pete Sivell (28) ............... 75-6
11. Lionel (no nets) Legge (19) ... 54-15
12. Kev Jefferies (25) ............ 52-0
13. Garth (14) ................  46-2
14. Steve Burgess* (10) ........ 38-13
15. Keith Ray** (4) .............. 38-4
16. Ron Hardiman (17) ......... 38-0
17. Stevie Wynne (2) ............ 30-14
18. Simon Belcham (15) ........ 21-12
19. Derek Lucas (29) ............ 18-11 

*golden peg
**silver peg

Silvers:

1. Pete Sivell (28) ..... 46-6
2. Kev Jefferies (26) .. 26-10
3. Simon Belcham (15) ... 21-12
4. Chris Gay (24) .......... 15-15

Psv vs Frys, Shiplate (Hawthorn & Westpool), 14 July

Unusually there was a bit of a mix-up this week as we were due to have the whole complex, I had booked up the 2 canals and Frys had booked the main lake (hence the inter-club) but for some unknown reason owner Steve had his summer series on the main lake and this only came to light by chance when I phoned on Saturday afternoon just to check.

So there followed a flurry of phone calls and texts as I was worried everyone would turn up geared up to fish the main lake or worse still we would not have enough pegs. 

As it turned out a couple of our lot cancelled as they didn't fancy fishing the canals and we were left with 24 fishing which was nice as it gave us four sections of six.

That wasn't the end of our woes as after the draw John Macey found himself pegged on Hawthorns 16 (Merv organised the pegging) which by my reckoning put him on the stock pond behind Hawthorns or possibly somewhere on the River Axe!

Luckily that one was easily sorted and everyone was reasonably happy.

Apparently the Frys boys are used to this sort of thing on a Sunday morning but it was a bit of a new one on me as we are used to our matches running like clockwork!

I do like these matches even if they are a tad disorganised as you get to see some old faces and it's nice to have someone different next door to wind up. 

For my sins, on Hawthorns 11, I was sandwiched between Shane Caswell and Rod Wooton so I had plenty of opportunity for a bit of nonsense.

The only downside was that I was still within earshot of Pete Sivell on H9 but then again so was everyone else!
Hawthorns was the favoured destination although an end peg on either lake was what most fancied.  As it turned out both lakes fished ok, no huge weights but a fair match that could have produced a winner from anywhere (except maybe the first half on Westpool which was a bit grim).
Winner on the day, who tried to play down his catch rate and failed miserably, was Pete Sivell on Hawthorns 9.  Pete took advantage of an empty peg 8 and fished down the track with paste for a total of 68-6.
Second, was Jason Bird (pictured below) who made the best of a gift of a peg (Hawthorns 1) to weigh in 53-6. Take note Chris Fox!
Third place went the way of Matt Challenger with 50-2 from Westpool 11 and top silvers was Mike Fergusson on Hawthorns 3 with 8-0.
As for me, I had a few fish across early on caster but gave it up as although there were a few fish over on the far shelf they didn't seem to want to settle on the feed presumably down to the bright conditions and shallow water.
I spent the rest of the day fannying around with caster shallow out in front and with corn in the margins for a total of not a great deal but slightly more than Alan Healy so I managed to put another dent in his pound coin collection even if I did have to hand it straight back to Pete Sivell who, I might add, was more than a bit pleased with taking that off me as I think I was 2-0 up on him until then and he (like Alan) doesn't take to kindly to batterings!
I'm guessing that Rod Wooton next door on 10 had been picking up tips from my exploits at Landsend as he spent the day across amongst the sedges on the far bank where he hooked and lost about 5 times as much as he landed, including a very disgruntled duck which was probably the only thing he caught all day that actually took his bait properly in the mouth.

Pictured above is Jason Bird with part of his catch. 

Jason's rather smug-looking grin actually has nothing to do with his days fishing but stems back to one of our matches a few weeks back at Rood Ashton where, when he was weighed in, I may have mentioned that he should stick to fishing down the Docks where he would have done alright. It turns out that he was a bit taken aback by that and was only too happy to shove that back down my throat (bless him).

Full Result:

1. Pete Sivell (H9)  ......... 68-6
2. Jason Bird (H1) ............. 53-6
3. Matt Challenger (W11) .... 50-2
4. Derek Coles (W13) ......... 45-0
5. Matt Taynton (W12) ....... 42-11
6. Andy Hembrow (W9) ...... 31-6
7. Chris Szakacs (H5) ......... 31-2
8. Rod Wooton (H10) ......... 29-13
9. Adam Caswell (H15) ....... 28-4
10. Mike Fergusson (H3) ....... 25-4
11. Steve Burgess (H11) ....... 24-5
12. A Jones (W7) ................. 24-4
13. Alan Healy (W5) ............. 22-2
14. M Weston (W14) ............ 21-8
15. Steve Cox (H7) .............. 17-1
16. Merv Sivell (H2) ............. 16-2
17. A Whiting (W15) ............ 15-2
18. John Macey (H13) .......... 14-0
19. Pete Uzzell (H14) ........... 10-4
20. Shane Caswell (H12) ...... 5-3
21. and 4 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Mike Fergusson ..... 8-0
2. Steve Cox ........... 5-2
3. Steve Burgess ...... 3-2

Landsend, 30 June / Walters, 7 July

Landsend, Match Lake, 30 June (14 pegs)

No big weights but a close result.
The ginger whinger and his apprentice, Aaron Britnell and Adam Caswell both started off well which was apparent by the constant drone coming from their pegs which could be heard across the whole complex but it didn't last.
Chris Szakacs, on peg 5, had a frustrating first half which involved plenty of lost fish, a fair few lost rigs and head-in-hands moments accompanied by much muttering of Hungarian curses but he managed to get his act together for the second half and caught steadily catching on pellet tight across and a last gasp carp on the all out was enough to put him ahead of Brian shanks on, peg 16, to win the day and the $100 golden peg by just a few ounces.
After 30 seconds of fishing sensibly, I got the catapult out and it all went wrong again.
Thanks to our guest of the day, Lee Williams, who "volunteered" to do the weigh-in.  Lee is making a bit of a comeback onto the Somerset match scene and does a blog of his own.  Judging by the fact he was on facebook yesterday scrounging a platform I'm guessing he was fishing with Clevedon today at Durleigh Res.  Lee is a shining example to everyone of how to keep your gear in immaculate condition (OCD springs to mind), unfortunately he takes a bit longer than most to set all his gear up and make it look pretty which isn't a good thing at psv as some of our members get a bit irritable if we start late.
But we start when I've got my shit sorted, like it or not!
Click here for Lee's Blog
For Lee's version of events on this match click here (it's a lot more informative than my own)!


Full Result:

1. Chris Szakacs* (peg 5) ... 75-2
2. Brian Shanks (16) ......... 74-4
3. Alan Healy (11) ............ 56-15
4. Adam Caswell (18) ........ 52-10
5. Mark Radford (9) .......... 49-4
6. Aaron Britnell (21) ........ 48-4
7. Kev Jefferies** (19) ...... 40-7
8. Lee Williams (1) ........... 37-8
9. Pete Uzzell (13) ............ 27-2
10. Steve Burgess (7) ......... 25-1
11. Mike Welling (3) ............ 22-3
12. Ryan Radford (15) ......... 18-10
13. and 2 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Alan Healy (11) ... 18-7
2. Kev Jefferies (19) ... 17-10
3. Mark Radford (9) .... 9-7

Walters Lake, South Cerney (Blue & White), 7 July

20 fishing on this one split over two lanes (less the first 5 pegs on each) which still left us with plenty of room and we only had to pay the peg fees which was a bit of a relief for me as it's a bit of a gamble when you book venues like this a year in advance regarding how many pegs are required.
Des Shipp had recently broken the match record here with 446lbs so everyone had brought plenty of nets (God only knows why) and with the proper summer now in full swing hopes were high for a good day but to be honest it was a bit of a struggle in the bright, hot conditions.
Matt Taynton was top on the day with a meagre 54-9 caught on worm over worm / caster across from Blue 17.  Mark Radford gave Brian Shanks a lesson in fishing pellet shallow to take 2nd from White 12 with 41-7 and Chris Szakacs was 3rd from Blue 7 with 39-2 caught mainly chucking a banjo feeder with pellet to the far bank.
Alan Healy took the silvers (by default from Mark Radford) with 9-10 of caster fish.
Luckily for me I managed to scrape a couple of pound coins if nothing else, I spent them on some of Colin Ellaways handmade floats and have named them "Alan" and "Paul"

Full Result:

1. Matt Taynton (17B) ...... 54-9
2. Mark Radford (12W) ..... 41-7
3. Chris Szakacs (7B) ....... 39-2
4. Brian Shanks (13W) ..... 38-0
5. Will Dearlove (15B) ...... 36-0
6. Chris Gay (19B) ........... 31-10
7. Aaron Britnell (9B) ....... 28-9
8. Colin Ellaway (17W) ..... 28-0
9. Steve Burgess (10W) .... 27-6
10. Ray Bazeley (9W) ......... 19-9
11. Rocket Ron Hardiman (16W) ... 18-10
12. Alan Healy (11W) ......... 15-14
13. Garth (7W) ................ 14-12
14. Richard Jones (14W) .... 11-0
15. Paul Reed (8B) ............ 9-0
16. Adam Caswell (18B) ..... 8-9
17. Ryan Radford (8W) ...... 7-2
18. and 3 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Mark Radford .... 11-8
2. Alan Healy ........ 9-10
3. Colin Ellaway ..... 7-4
4. Paul Reed ......... 5-0

Random Stuff!

Nothing to declare this week as there was no match booked and instead I had booked a boat fishing trip out of Weymouth which was cancelled due to the gale-force winds forecast.
Rather than stay home for a second Sunday in a row, I booked into Tony's short pole match on Landsend's match lake and lake 3 (John's, Sidney's or whatever it's called).
I won't bore you with the details as I drew peg 66 and got well and truly "chip-shop sausaged" by Shaun Townsend on 65 who came second overall with 72-10 and by Rich Lacey on 68 who was a little bit nearer my pathetic efforts with 26-10, although I might have saved the double battering if I hadn't have lost the munter which snapped the hook length on my "silvers" rig.
So much for my plan of going for silvers!
It wasn't all bad news though as Psv stalwart Stevie Wynne was top weight on Match lake and third overall with 63-11 from peg 20.
He did make me laugh when after collecting his envelope he announced he would be at Trinity next week with the Carpenters Arms so would be fishing with some proper anglers.
The full bite-by-bite account can be found on the match-winner's blog here
and also (with the results) on Mike Nicholls' blog here
Despite that, it was an interesting day and may well be a good idea for some of our matches in the future if anyone fancies it.
Meanwhile, I was having a trawl through the laptop and came across a few old pictures from matches that I'd forgotten about so I thought I'd stick a few up.  Obviously the "action" shots have been taken by me when I've been taking a rest from bagging!
If you would like any of the following framed and autographed let me know ...

Adam Caswell concentrating on one of his "lighthouse" paste floats

The "big fella" Ryan Jordan fishing 6m out in front and behind

Mr Crabtree aka Simon Belcham 

Bob Warren, always smiling as long as it doesn't cost money

Paul Elmes carp wrestling and flexing his biceps for the camera

Chris Szakacs the silent assassin

Alan (Louis Spence) Healy sorting out the family's supper

Neil Mercer looking like he should be at Tracey Park and not Rood Ashton

I may add some more to this later.

Ryan Jordan

Adam Woodland

The original Mr Flip-Flop back when he still had some hair (of sorts)

Paul "Beaver" Elmes

Mark Radford (when he was still good)!

No comment!

Trinity, Ash Pool, 16 June (10 pegs)

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

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

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

Full Result:

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

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

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

Sedges, Canal Lake, 9 June (10 pegs)

This was intended to be a bit of an experimental match as we've not fished the canal before but unfortunately I was unable to take part in the experiment as I was away on my annual camping / fishing weekend in Ross-on-Wye.

No massive weights (as expected) but I got some good feedback from those that fished it, although Adam Caswell did give up and go and fish one of the other lakes as, presumably, there weren't enough carp in his peg to foul-hook and he never had anyone sat behind him telling him what to do ie: Aaron Brittnel or Ian Heaps (seriously).

Full Result:

1. Mark Radford (peg 60) ...... 42-2
2. Brian Shanks (41) .......... 31-0
3. Darren North (62) .......... 26-12
4. Alan Healy (42) ............. 21-7
5. Rocket Ron Hardiman (43) .. 21-0
6. Derek Lucas (61) ........... 16-3
7. Jason Bird (64) .............. 15-2
8. Mike Smith (45) ............ 9-6
9. Adam Caswell / Ryan Radford .... dnw

Silvers:

1.  Alan Healy .... 14-13
2. Derek Lucas ... 10-2
3. Jason Bird ...... 6-12
4. Mike Smith ..... 5-14
5. Ron Hardiman .... 3-0
6. Darren North ..... 2-12
7. Brian Shanks .... 2-4
8. Mark Radford .... 1-9

Viaduct, Cary, 2 June (22 pegs)

Unsurprisingly I was going to put this up on Sunday night but I only got as far as doing the results before I fell asleep but anyway...
Another good turnout with 22 fishing, it was almost 23 but I don't take bookings in Shipham cafe on Sunday mornings and as the Fry's match on Campbell was also full (with 13 fishing) so Aaron Britnell had to make do with coaching Adam Caswell for six hours.
For a change the sun was shining and as a result the carp were starting to spawn all over the complex and those that weren't were cruising around in groups looking for love.
The day before had seen the 83 peg Maver qualifier spread over Campbell, Cary, Lodge and Spring with the top weight of 150-12 coming from peg 111 on Campbell.  Cary had fished quite hard with a top weight of 90-ish so it was looking interesting.
To cut a long story short I caught early on the pellet waggler and kept odd fish coming by switching between the wag at various depths and straight lead with pellet. I never had a fish in the last two hours apart from 2 foulers that both came off but the first four hours were enough to win with 102-4 from peg 85.
I did have 1 skimmer that went straight back as I thought I would need my third net and then never had another fish so maybe that was a bit of a jinx (never mind).
Quite a way behind in second place was last week's winner Stewart Riddle on peg 96 with 87-5.  Stewart caught in a similar fashion but had most of his fish on the waggler on the deck.
Third place went to Adam Caswell (coached by Aaron) with 76-2 caught on meat over pellet and meat feed at 16m.  Adam and Aaron also managed the top silvers weight of 31-13.
Mike Smith was fourth with 73-9 from peg 81 caught mainly on the lead down towards the end of the spit.
And fifth place went to Chris Szakacs with 73-0 although his carp net went over yet again which cost him dearly yet again! (some people never learn)
This Sunday we are at Sedges on the canal and I won't be there as I'm away camping and it's a pole venue so if you want to book in you need to get in touch with Louis Spence lookalike Alan Healy (07846 581 971)
He does lifts and will even do a detour to pick your fishing kit up if it involves a free breakfast!

Full Result:

1. Steve Burgess (peg 85) ...... 102-4
2. Stewart Riddle (96) ......... 87-5
3. Adam Caswell & Aaron Britnell (90) .. 76-2
4. Mike Smith (81) .............. 73-9
5. Chris Szakacs (98) ........... 73-0
6. Mike Wilson (88) .............. 72-6
7. Rocket Ron Hardiman (100) ... 60-11
8. Rich Britton (97) ............. 57-12
9. Colin Ellaway (94) ......... 50-14
10. Mark Radford (76) ......... 38-8
11. Chris Gay (87) ............. 36-12
12. Bob Warren (105) ......... 28-7
13. Ryan Radford (99) ......... 28-2
14. Mike Welling (78) .......... 25-2
15. Matt Challenger (102) .... 15-2
16. Darren North (103) ...... 13-7
17. Matt Taynton (79) ........ 7-11
18. Derek Lucas (95) ......... 7-5
19. and 4 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Adam Caswell / Aaron ...... 31-13
2. Ron Hardiman ....... 26-1
3. Mark Radford ........ 20-6
4. Colin Ellaway ......... 16-12
5. Matt Challenger ...... 15-2
6. Bob Warren ........... 14-13
7. Darren North ......... 13-7
8. Mike Wilson ............ 9-12
9. Matt Taynton .......... 7-11
10. Derek Lucas ........... 7-5
11. Mike Smith ............. 6-0
12. Chris Gay .............. 3-10
13. Mike Welling .......... 1-11