Landsend Match Lake, 26 July (12 pegs)

I thought we had 18 booked in for this one at some point but come Sunday morning that number had reduced to 12 due no doubt to the crappy weather forecast.
Friday had been cold, wet and miserable all day and after a break on Saturday more of the same was due today.
It was mainly down to the fact that I'd not been out for the last two weekends that I was still semi-keen but I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to a day sat on a box in the wind and rain and had to force myself out of bed and, after a hurried stop for nourishment at Shipham cafe, made it to Landsend with about 5 minutes to spare.

Alan was in charge of proceedings, pegging every other peg (almost) and  paying out the top 3 and 1 silvers.
And he also made it pole only to save any controversy which I thought was a good move.
I pulled out peg 17, no complaints as I was on the more sheltered side and Alan wasn't complaining either as he drew 13  which had won the Saturday open with 133lbs although he had Chris Davis opposite on 11 so had his work cut out today. I think Chris has been banned from Ivy house to give Tony Rixon and the locals a bit more of a chance of framing.

For company today I had Rich Jones on 19 and Lee Williams on 15, although I could only see their poles as the trees and bushes have grown back with a vengeance since their trim last year, but this probably wasn't such a bad thing.
Opposite on peg 7 I could make out Lee Waller through the gaps in the trees (he's not easy to miss) and on 5 the Gimp had settled in for the day.

My plans for the day were to fish short (5/6m) and down the edges with corn or meat so that I could easily feed by hand and stay as comfortable as possible, no chasing mud suckers on the far bank today ....
However, as we were tackling up the rain eased off and the wind dropped so I set up a shallow rig for banded pellet across at 14m (or so I thought).

My bait stash consisted of meat and corn to be supplemented by whatever pellet I had left in the bag from the last outing ... there wasn't any, so I paid a quick visit down to Lee Williams to scrounge some 6mm's.

Kicking off the match I fed all the short lines with corn, meat and pellet, pinged a few pellets over to the island and went across with a banded 6mm.
With 14m on I was nowhere near the far bank so I hastily blew the cobwebs off the 16m section and proceeded to annoy the residents by impaling them in places where they didn't want to be hooked and loosing them (some people never learn)!
By the end of the first hour I'd landed 2 (1 in the mouth) and released about 6 although I wasn't counting.
It was a different story for Richard next door as he had adopted a far more sensible approach and stuck to deeper water at 13m and had a great first hour, putting 9 fish in the net so a battering was on the cards.
Both Lees were getting a few as well so it was already looking like a double-battering.
I had a bit of fizzing happening on the left hand 6m line so went in on that with a piece of corn on the hook and it wasn't long before a carp gave itself up.
That was soon followed by a 1½lb skimmer and then a bigger carp that was fouled in the wing and took an age to land having swam round the peg in ever decreasing circles and annoyingly knackered the peg for a fair while.

I spent the rest of the match swapping round the various lines and picking odd fish off.  The margins were disappointing although I think I was being a bit too careful with the bait to make it last, the left hand 6m line seemed the best but I also had fish from the right hand short line on meat and across at 13m, again on meat.
The 16m pellet rig didn't last to the end of the match as the foul-hookers finally got the better of it and although I hadn't took too much notice of what I'd caught, by the "all out" I was guessing at 60lbs, as were mostly everyone else.

Chris Davis didn't disappoint and made the most of his guest pass with 120lbs of mostly small carp.
Alan's "60lb" miraculously grew into 90lbs for second and Chris Szakacs managed 3rd place with 80-14.

The silvers pool was safely covered by The Gimp with 30-4 which included a nice tench and some big skimmers caught on pellet with the rest falling to worm and caster (I think).
My collection of carp and 2 skimmers went 59-12 (no scandalous underestimation from me) which was one of the lower weights on the day
as the lake fished really well overall and it was a close result with 10lbs separating six places so I really quite enjoyed it as the weather wasn't as bad as I was expecting and the only downside was having to give Alan one of his pound coins back.

I wasn't quite so disheartened about giving Lee a pound as it was a fair bit cheaper than buying pellets from Scott's!



Full Result:

1. Chris Davis (peg 11) .... 122-8
2. Alan Healey* (13) ...... 90-6
3. Chris Szakacs (9) ....... 80-14
4. Lee Waller (7) ........... 77-2
5. Richard Jones (19) ..... 75-10
6. Chris Gay (21) ........... 74-10
7. Pete Uzzell (1) ........... 72-12
8. Lee Williams (15) ....... 70-13
9. Steve Burgess (17) ..... 59-12
10. Lionel Legge (3) ......... 59-8
11. John Bradford (5) ....... 30-4
12. and 1 dnw

Silvers:

1. John Bradford ...... 30-4
2. Alan Healey ......... 10-8
3. Chris Szakacs ....... 8-8
4. Pete Uzzell .......... 6-4

Sedges, Brick Lake, 05 July 2015

Back this week to one of my favourite summer venues, Brick lake at Sedges where, at this time of year, almost any peg is capable of throwing up a match-winning weight and as the carp in this lake average a hefty size you don't need loads of them either.
Generally that will be fishing shallow, either on the pole or wag, or from the margins (or a combination of both).
As the carp here like to hang out in the surface layers they do tend to follow the wind which usually blows up the lake towards the corner pegs (10 & 11) so a draw up that end would be good news.
Good news for me then as Denise handed me the draw basket and out popped peg 11 and even better news was that there would be nobody on 12.

The only downside was that the last time we fished here in similar conditions peg 11 dnw'd which was a slight concern but to be honest not a massive one as there were obviously a few fish in the area today.

The picture above was taken when I got to the peg and it was flat calm then but it didn't stay that way for long.

First out of the bag today was the obligatory pellet wag rod followed by 3 pole rigs.

The first for bottom of the shelf at 13m along the end bank where it was about 5 foot deep to fish with corn and then 2 shallow rigs, with and without bands.
After feeding the pole line with a pot of corn and 6mm pellet it was out with the wag and after about four chucks the first carp of the day was hooked and landed.

Three more followed in the first hour so hardly hectic but I couldn't see anyone else catching so I was happy with that.

And by the end of the first hour most who had started on the wag had long since abandoned it.

As I've found before here the carp weren't taking the pellet on the drop and it was a case of chucking the wag out and firing pellet over the top (as best as possible in the gusting wind) and waiting for a bite.

The trouble with this is that you invariably get a bite while you're loading the catty so a lot of bites are missed and in addition the wind was pushing the float back towards me so that when I did get a bite I often had too much slack line to hit it.

At one point I tried reeling in slowly to keep in touch with the float and just watched the rod tip which worked for one fish.

After the second hour I was up to maybe 7 and my neighbour Ron Hardiman had wandered up and confirmed that nobody else was catching much and it seemed the lake was fishing below par although it can often switch on late here so there was still plenty of time for things to change.

Around midway through the match I had a look on the pole line and hooked a fish straight away, a big red and black koi that I'm sure I've caught before.

Next put in and another fish was hooked and I could tell straight away that this was a big one but it didn't want to come in and kept plodding off until the hook pulled, bugger!

The next fish was a fantail / crucian type thing (most likely an escapee from the canal) that was my only "silver" of the day.

After that I started getting roach holding up the corn hookbait so I dumped a pot of pellet and corn on their heads and after a brief and fruitless look on the shallow pellet rig in the right margin where I'd been throwing pellet at regular intervals, went back on the wag.

This coincided with the first of several torrential thunderstorms which got all my kit and bait completely drenched.

After the second of these downpours the wind suddenly dropped and the lake became flat calm.

This break in the weather allowed me to fish the wag properly and while it lasted I had three or four fish but going into the last hour the wind returned and changed direction and was now coming straight at me making it virtually impossible to fish the float or feed with the catty, especially as my pellet had turned to mush (twice).

Even worse for me was that across the lake on peg 8 Brian Shanks, who had caught hardly anything all day, had a complete transformation and was getting a fish a chuck on the pole.

Every time I looked up he was playing another one or wandering over to the scales on the bank.

At 4:15 I shouted the all out and hoped I'd done enough in the first five hours to hold off Brian's sprint finish.

But when he weighed in a total of 94-3 I was pretty sure I wasn't going to beat him and I was right as my nets went 81-12 for 2nd

Third place went to Chris Szakacs from peg 16 with 77-0 caught late on meat at 5m

Completing the frame was Matt Taynton with 55-14 from peg 4

That place could have been taken up by Lionel Legge but unfortunately his seven carp had an early release when his net slipped into the lake, unlucky!

Top silvers went to Steve Sewell on peg 9 with 15-1 of meat-caught skimmers.

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (8) ......... 94-3
2. Steve Burgess (11) ........ 81-12
3. Chris Szakacs (16) ......... 77-0
4. Matt Taynton (4) ............ 55-14
5. Steve Sewell (9) ............ 49-8
6. Rich Britton (14) ............ 43-3
7. Alan Healey (15) ............ 39-4
8. Rocket Ron (13)* ........... 39-1
9. Ross Baker (17) ............. 29-0
10. Mark Radford (20) .......... 28-10
11. Colin Butler (10) ............ 27-12
12. Ryan Radford (6) ........... 22-0
13. Paul Preston (1) ............ 17-8
14. Lionel Legge (18) .......... 9-8 (oops)
15. Julian Nurse (5) ............ 6-5
16. Adam Caswell (7) .......... 6-1
17. Lee Waller (3) ....... dnw 

Silvers:

1. Steve Sewell (9) ....... 15-1
2. Chris Szakacs (16) ...... 13-2
3. Paul Preston (1) .......... 12-2

And finally I often hear comments about the amount of kit match anglers take to their pegs and I now know the answer to that as there were four or five guys having a knock-up on the canal lake who I guess were staying in the caravans and were obviously "travelling light" as each of them must have walked behind me about ten times during the match.

I don't think they were from round these parts as one of them stopped for a chat but I couldn't understand a word he said, must have been a northerner (or Welsh).

But anyway that is why we take everything but the kitchen sink, so that we can cater for every eventuality.

Try telling that then to Adam Caswell and Steve Sewell who both never bothered to bring their coats and both got a bit damp!

Avalon, 28 June

Only 10 of us fishing today, the Radfords, Alan Healey and Lee Waller had all opted out in favour of a fifteen peg open on Shiplate's Hawthorn lake and the other half of the match organising partnership had lost his day release pass, but then it wasn't a venue beginning with the letter "V" so no suprise there!

As Adam Caswell had been abandoned by the Shiplate Raiders and Derek wasn't fishing I volunteered to take Adam as it meant a free breakfast in Shipham which was very nice of him and it was enjoyable as ever (especially the views)

With no official match secretaries in attendance it was down to me to sort things out although there wasn't a lot of that to do as Vic had pegged it and Adam was in charge of collecting the money (he's good at that) and even I can't go wrong sorting out a payout for a 10-pegger.

The best part of it was it meant I could start when I was ready and finish when I had a fish on (as if I would really do such a thing)

Loads of room then and the last peg in the bag gave me peg 9.

That put me next to Adam on 11 (golden peg) and Brian Shanks on 7.

Matt Taynton was further down on 5 so at least I would see plenty of fish caught today, to my right at least!

Rigs today were a deepish shallow rig and a deep rig, both for banded 6's at 13m as suggested by Mr Bush and a margin rig to fish tight to the bank under a tree stump where it was still 4' deep.

And of course the obligatory pellet wag to fish with 10mm pellet which I'd picked up instead of 8mm's, due again to my dodgy eyesight, and I will hopefully be getting some free 8's in a minute from Matt Challenger by way of compensation.

(But I may be waiting a while in the shop)

No lead rod today as there's too much skill involved so best left to people who know what they're doing with that one - Giles Cochrane springs to mind.

Kicking off I dumped a pot of pellet and corn at 13m and under the tree stump and launched a few donkey chokers out to the end of the island.

Starting on the deep/ shallow rig I was getting some good silvers straight away which was a bit of a dilemma as they weren't part of the plan but I fancied I could have a good weight of them if I stuck it out but then Brian next door was catching carp from the off on the wag (casting 1.5mm from the grass) so the pole was dumped and replaced with the wag rod.

Unfortunately my casting standard isn't quite in the same league as Mr Shanks and after the first hour I was about 6:1 down to my neighbour and even Adam was ahead of me.

My 13m line was meanwhile fizziing like crazy so I had a look over it with a piece of corn on the hook and had a bream of about 3lbs straight away which sounded promising but was a false dawn as the next fish was a carp hooked in the tail that took ages to land and not much followed.

The middle of the match was a bit of a struggle spent swapping between the 13m rigs and the wag with not much success.

A first look down to the stump with corn and the float buried and an angry carp tore off and wrecked the rig in the reeds, bugger!

Rig 2 went on and angry carp 2 transferred the hook into a snag which I managed to pull out and consisted of a long length of rope connected to a length of electrical cable and was apparently the remains of a straw bale.

Carp 3 put up less of a challenge which was no suprise as it weighed about 12oz and carp 4 was a skimmer that thought it was a dolphin.

Brian had slowed by now from his hectic start to a more leisurely rate but was still a good 80lbs ahead and was having a bit of a battle with Matt Taynton on 5 who was giving him a good run for his money and getting 0.5mm closer to the island than Brian to get takes.

I went for a slightly different approach to save on floats and end tackle by filling in the open water and it worked to a degree as I had a good last hour on the wag.

The top end of the lake had done better, benifiting from the wind, winner on the day was Lionel Legge on 19 (2nd time for him off that peg) with 122-7.

It wasn't all good news as he did break his Reactolite wag rod but having seen the "tow-rope" line he uses I'm not that suprised.

Chris Szakacs was 2nd on 23 with 111-1, again mostly caught on the wag.

And the big news was that the silvers was won by Matt Challenger with a new lake match record of 61-3 (not caught on 10mm pellets) ... Well done Matt, and it even raised a smile!

Full Result:

1.  Lionel Legge (19) ...... 122-7
2. Chris Szakacs (23) ....... 111-1
3. Brian Shanks (7) ......... 102-1
4. Matt Taynton (5) .......... 79-13
5. Matt Challenger (16) ..... 61-3
6. Steve Burgess (9) ........ 46-10
7. Adam Caswell* (11) ..... 41-15
8. Ron Hardiman (13) ....... 33-7
9. Lee Williams (3) ........... 26-4
10. John Bradford (21) ....... 19-12

 Silvers:

1. Matt Challenger (16) ..... 61-3
2. Lee Williams (3) ........... 26-4
3. John Bradford (21) ....... 19-12
4. Brian Shanks (7) .......... 10-12
5. Steve Burgess (9) ......... 7-0

And as for the Shiplate Raiders, the less said the better but rumour has it that Ryan won the silvers but with a lot less than 61lbs

Harescombe, 21 June (13 pegs)

I wasn't around for this match as I was away on my annual camping / fishing expedition at Hartleton lake near Ross on Wye which is always a good laugh with old friends

The fishing was a bit slow but I did enjoy a good couple of hours on the last evening when, after four days, the bream finally showed up and it was "one a chuck" until I couldn't see my float any more. So the chicken madras and Stella  must have made the difference.

Or maybe it was due to the hi-viz Frenzee net being chucked up the bank in favour of a not quite so conspicuous one, who knows.

In the meantime the Harescombe match fished well with Matt Taynton topping the weigh sheet with 93-4 from peg 29

1. Matt Taynton (29) ........ 93-4
2. Chris Gay (24) ............ 89-8
3. Lionel Legge (6) .......... 60-12
4. Adam Caswell (19) ...... 56-6
5. Ryan Radford (18) ....... 54-14
6. Pete Uzzell (21) ........... 49-4
7. Rich Jones (5) / Steve Sewell (15) 45-15
8. Mark Radford (2) ......... 42-2
9. Alan Healey (30) ......... 41-15
10. Kev Jefferies (11) ........ 36-3
11. Simon Belcham (16) .... 29-6
12. Steve Wynne (22) ....... 28-0
13. Paul Preston (3) .......... 27-1
14. And 3 dnw's

Trinity, Woodlands / Rood Ashton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full Result:

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

Silvers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full Result:

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

Avalon, 31 May (19 pegs)

I may go off on a bit of a tangent this week as I haven't got much to write about fishing-wise after my dismal performance today.

So first up then and a short apology as it has been brought to my attention that I may have upset someone with my recent semi-drunken ramblings.

I won't go into details but to that person who I offended I do apologise if I over-stepped the mark a bit but please be assured that nothing that goes down on these pages is intended to cause bad feeling etc.

Talking of taking the piss (or banter as it is known these days) Giles Cochrane wrote an interesting passage about this on his FaceBlog thingy.
 You can read that here

Funny enough, the same person who was named and shamed in that piece was also up to his usual antics in the cafe at Shipham this morning but I can assure Mr Rixon that the Halall sausages were actually really good and I would thoroughly recommend them.

So after receiving my first dose of Sunday morning abuse (there was plenty more to come), I made it down to Avalon with about 3 minutes to spare mainly due to the chef not turning up at the cafe but it has to be said that the Lilypool Spice Girls did a great job and the breakfast was as good as it always is, just about 30 minutes longer in the making.

No travelling partner this week as Derek had gone off to London for the weekend for a "gay wedding" so next match I shall be making sure the centre armrest  in the fishing bus is well and truly fixed down and I will be hiding the Elton John cd

19 fishing today then, including the fishery owner Mr Bush who kindly organised the pegging.

And that gave us the normal left bank (1 - 23) and four pegs dotted along the back of the top Island.
In a similar fashion to last week Will was paying out 1st and 2nd overall, 2 silvers and 2 sections and we even had a golden peg to go at this week which was peg 21.

With the chilly wind blowing over the backs of most of us but forecast to swing right to left up the lake I fancied peg 23, 24 (top corners) or the right hand end of any island peg which would allow a waggler to drift into the reeds.

Getting in the queue early I got myself peg 17 which was worthy of a smug grin as it's a nice peg on a small island.

Three slight problems though ...

I was on the wrong end of the island,

There was an overhanging branch in front that was already decorated like a tackle shop Christmas tree,

And Alan Healey was on 16, which had apparently won the open on the previous Thursday with 108lbs

which you can read about here

Peg 17 and my new hi-viz nets

A very determined looking Alan Healey

Alan had unfortunately been on the receiving end of quite a lot of "banter" last week at Staunton Court after recording a massive dnw from the next peg to the winner but these things happen (even to good anglers)!

Nonetheless he was pretty determined it wasn't going to happen again this week.

On my left today, and on the good side of an island, was Keith Ray who was sporting a slightly less blinding version of the Team Frenzee look and down from Alan on peg 13 was Lee Williams who spent the first 15 minutes of the match doing an impression of an otter searching for his missing keepnet. 

Elsewhere Mark Radford and Vic Bush were on 23 & 24 which both looked likely to do well, 2-pegs Taynton had finally managed to draw away from me and was hiding round the back on 27 and Chris Szakacs had drawn the shortest walk on the lake, a flat calm peg 1, and wasn't looking overjoyed even though it had come second in the Thursday match.

That was the last I saw of Chris so I guess as fish have fins they had used them to bugger off elsewhere, as did poor Mr Szakacs.

To cut a long story short the match was won by Lee Williams who is currently on a bit of a roll and, despite swimming round his margins for 15 minutes, managed 106-13 of carp caught mostly on the wag.

And you can read all about that here

He chose not to weigh in his 3 accidental roach and that almost proved costly when we got round to Matt Taynton as after his first 2 weighs it was looking mightily close but he ended up 2nd with 102-14 also caught on the wag.

3rd place went to Vic with 66-3

Top silvers on the day went to Lee Waller with 16-6 of skimmers from peg 11

Just ahead of Steve Sewell's 16-2 from peg 28

Lee caught on worm over chopped worm and caster / groundbait at 14m

Full Result:

1. Lee Williams (13) ....... 106-13
2. Matt Taynton (27) ........ 102-14
3. Vic Bush (24) ............. 66-3 (section)
4. Keith Ray (19) ............ 55-10
5. Will Dearlove (9) ......... 48-14 (section)
6. Lionel Legge (6) .......... 36-9
7. Mark Radford (23) ....... 32-4
8. Ryan Radford (7) ......... 29-11
9. Matt Williams* (21) ..... 27-0
10. Adam Caswell (3) ........ 24-15
11. Steve Sewell (28) ........ 23-10
12. Paul Preston (5) ........... 17-7
13. Lee Waller (11) ............ 16-6
14. Alan Healey (16) .......... 13-12
15. and 5 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Lee Waller  (11) ...... 16-6
2. Steve Sewell (28) .... 16-2
3. Mark Radford (23) .... 12-12
4. Keith Ray (19) ......... 11-10
5. Paul Preston (5) ....... 11-5
6. etc

And if anyone was wondering ....

After a couple of successful practice chucks before the start my first proper chuck with the wag ended up in the tree much to Alan's amusement and my match never really improved from that point on.

My 1 carp, 2lb skimmer and handful of bits harpooned on my shallow rig would have struggled to make double figures but we'll never know as they never made it to the weigh net.

Alan didn't do much better but he weighed in for the satisfaction of getting one of his pound coins back.

Next week we're down at Trinity which suits me better as there's none of that island chucking nonsense!

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

Inter-club vs Crapenters Arms, Sedges, 17 May (31 pegs)

Before I venture down the long and drawn out road of self appreciation it's worth mentioning that I fished a match on the Saturday at Docklow pools near Hereford.

It was a 58 peg "knock-up" that had been organised by Norm Sterry through the Match Fishing South West Facebook page.

I have to say that Docklow was a bit of an eye-opener for me as not only do they have 8 well kept lakes, but there are also holiday cottages, a pub/restaurant and a proper tackle shop 

http://www.docklowpools.com/

The match itself didn't go quite to plan for me as I treated it like I would do at the venues I'm more used to and to be honest it went a bit "tits up" from start to finish but my peg did look nice ....

Ok so I never bothered to trouble the scales but it still beats work!

And with this in mind I was determined to make up for my failings today so I spent Saturday night making up suitable rigs like proper anglers do.

On to today then and I was on my own in the fishing bus as my usual travelling partner was away watching a non-league football match which his team scraped through by the skin of their teeth to secure a place back in the proper league so well done them.

My first port of call was breakfast at Hilltops which was comical as Trigg was in there quizzing Bela on the finer details of his "random slapping method" while eating lemon meringue pie which is a scene you don't come across every day.

We had 31 between us fishing today on Brick and Tile and everyone was in good spirits with the usual nonsense pre-match banter flying around.

The two team captains sorted out the draw aided by fishery owner Jamie which gave us a fair, if not complicated, mix of pegs and as Carpenters had less fishing than ourselves they kept Stevie Wynne and Rich Jones (who are members of both clubs) and I believe we lent them Keith Ray to balance the numbers (but I could be wrong on that)

The wind was blowing left to right and slightly towards pegs 20 & 40 (looking down the lakes) so I was hoping for a peg with the wind behind me which would make the wag easy to fish, or any corner except 1 or 30.

Most people were hoping for a draw on Brick as it contains a bigger average stamp of carp although Tile has big fish in it but also a lot of smaller ones.

Our lot drew first and I took my chances in the middle and pulled out peg 10 on Brick which is a corner and one of the most desirable pegs out of the two lakes.

Most people would have ran to it but I chose to take a steady stroll with a smug grin and tried to ignore the obvious comments.

Lee Williams drew 30, and he didn't run to his peg either but for entirely different reasons ... never mind!

Read his tale of woe here

For company today I had Chris Woolley on peg 9 who apparently is quite an artist when it comes to fishing the paste and legendary amongst his Carpenters Arms colleagues.

Down from him on 8 was, yet again, 2-pegs Taynton who I reckon must have a bit of a man-crush on me considering how often he appears near me on the bank. I think I'll have to print him off a picture to keep under his pillow for the rest of the week!

Behind me (and the tree) was Phil Terry in 31 who I was expecting to do well and next(ish) to him on 33 was our Team Captain Will Dearlove who had somehow managed an empty peg either side of him which was a massive advantage and one not to be squandered in a team match.

Meanwhile Alan Healey, who had drawn 26 on Tile, popped over for a chat and attempted to give me his pound before the match had kicked off but I made him keep it warm and flatly refused to fall for his mind games. I do find it quite comical the depths some people will sink to for the sake of a shiny pound coin!

I did at one point consider walking down to fetch another net before the all in but as I said, I'm not into winding people up.

Anyways, rigs for today consisted of a shallow rig which was capable of supporting an 8mm pellet (unlike yesterday's).

This was to fish tight to the reeds near the tree stump towards the corner and would double up as a rig for "random slapping" in open water.

Next was a rig for the same area but about a meter away from the bank where there was an even depth of about 4 feet and that would be for meat over meat / pellet.

A third rig was set up for meat at 5m at 1 o' clock which was more of an emergency back-up in case all else failed.

Finally a shallow wag rod was set up with a 3ssg float set to 18" as there were quite a few fish swirling all around the peg.

Bait today was nothing fancy, 8mm pellets for the wag (but more like 10's),

2 tins of meat (there's a 3 tin limit at Sedges currently), and a bag of 6mm pellet left over from Docklow for feeding the ducks by the tree stump.

Nothing there to interest the silvers as they were not on the menu today (hopefully)

Will shouted the All-In at 10:30 and after feeding my pole lines I started out on the wag and by 10:31 my float had vanished and I was playing my first fish which took me a bit by suprise, a nice black and yellow ghostie of about 8lbs

Chris next door though was having none of it and also landed a similar sized wag caught fish minutes later and this was how it continued for the first 2 hours with myself and Chris matching each other fish for fish, not loads of them but they were averaging around 10lbs.

And from what I could see of it we were the only ones catching anything of note and especially on the far bank of Brick there was a line of glum looking faces.

The guy in 11 (with the nasty cough) who I had spoken to before the start had said he was going to target down the end bank by the reeds with paste but it seemed that hadn't gone to plan and he was later slinging a wag around to no avail.

A look over my shoulder and I got a big thumbs down from Will who was struggling from his three pegs and he reckoned nobody on Tile was getting a great deal.

After the first couple of hours the wagg line seemed to grind to a halt, bites were few and far between and those I did get I was missing. So I had a look round the pole lines.

The tree stump produced nothing even though I had seen fish moving there and the short meat line gave up one bite that I missed.

I had a go at the random slapping but it only produced one fish that was hooked in the chin.

Chris meanwhile had gone out long with paste and was catching well on it which was concerning as I had hit a wall and was getting nothing.

The bankside rumour mill reckoned Matt Taynton had been catching all day long on the wagg and looked to have it seem up.

With 90 minutes to go I started to get some fish from the tree stump and I was catching well for the last hour adding maybe another 40lbs in that time.

Come the all-out it seemed that Brick had been the better lake and had produced the top 6 weights but Tile had been more consistent with lots of weights  in the 50's and 60's

Matt was the clear winner with 135lbs 2oz followed by myself with 115-14 and then Chris with 91-4 (but still battered from both sides).

Lionel Legge in peg 20 took 4th spot with  79-0.

Top weight on Tile was Keith Ray with 69-13 from peg 22

The top Silvers  went to Colin Butler with 22-7 of skimmers from peg 5

The inter club match was decided on the top ten weights from both clubs and predictably went to Psv with 656-2 against 582-2

Weigh Sheet:

The guy in peg 11 with the nasty cough packed up early, fishless. I reckon he coughed all the fish out of his peg!