Sedges, Brick Lake, 10 July (20 pegs)

I was a bit worse for wear when the alarm went off this morning following a late night sampling the delights of Staple Hill but I just about made it to Hilltops cafe for breakfast.
It was quite busy in there probably as there was a delay while they cooked up a special for Bela although it has to be said he is now a picture of physical perfection and the envy of many.
A full house today with 20 fishing which was good to see, payouts were for the top 3, 1 silvers and 2 sections plus a Pairs match just to spice things up a bit.
Will had split the sections across the lake as opposed to a section on each bank which was a good move giving those down the sheltered end a chance of picking up, he has been trained well!
There was a bit of conflicting information during the pre-draw discussions over the results of Lee Wiliams's Saturday match on the lake. (see here)
Apparently some were saying there were had been  seven weights over 100lbs but  I had heard peg 10  had walked it with 150-odd but the next best weight was half that and quite a few had struggled.
I suspect they were getting mixed up with a match on Tile or another match that had involved some decent anglers!
Anyway, the Gimp drew peg 10 so it was unlikely to be producing a three-figure weight today.
Somehow I managed to avoid drawing a corner and ended up in the middle of nowhere on 15.
My pairs partner Matt Williams drew peg 2 which was going to be tough as the wind was pushing up the opposite end towards 11 which was occupied by Degsy Williams.
I made sure though before the draw I had £1's with Alan Healey, Steve Sewell and Pete Uzzell just to cover my losses and make sure I went home with something.
Alan drew next door to me on 14 so I could keep a close eye on that pound.
On my left side was the "Silvers Slayer" Lee Waller who was not very well hidden behind the reeds ... a few more months of growing would be required before he would be completely obscured.
Today I had a cunning plan, well it wasn't much of a plan as it was the same thing I always do at Sedges and involved a 6g pellet wag, a brand new catapult (I've lost 2 at recent Viaduct matches) and lots of 8mm pellets but I also had a back-up plan which involved lots of corn and a tin of hemp to fish on the deck at 13m and down the edge.
The left hand edge was a no-go as I couldn't get the rig anywhere close to the edge due to collapsed reeds under the surface so I set up 2 rigs at top kit plus 2 down the right margin.
One tight against the vegetation at 3 foot deep and the other a meter off where it was a foot or so deeper.

At the start I gave all the pole lines a generous helping of corn and hemp then went out on the wag after firing out a healthy dose of pellets towards the rope.

Most were doing the same, including Chris Gay on 7 who had a carp on within minutes.

And it didn't take long for my first one either which I suspected was fouled but it turned out to be a fairly hooked common of 14lbs ... not a bad start by any means.
The match started slowly for most and in the first hour I had a smaller carp plus another double that put me well into the running.
Both Alan and Lee had started off on the pole and neither were getting any bites, it seemed the only carp being caught were coming on the wag or shallow on the pole.
I had a quick look round my pole lines and never had a touch on the deep rig while the edge rig was being pestered by small fish.
Back out on the wag and it was still hard work and was made harder as the wind had increased and was pushing back towards our bank.
By halfway bites were still hard to come by and those that I was getting I was missing due to slack forming in the line, a few were walking the bank and the news was that some hadn't caught anything but Degsy Williams was, predictably, doing well on 11 and so too was Luke Pester on 8.
There was a lot of fizzing going on out on my wag line so reluctantly I set up a lead rod and chucked that out.
It did produce one fish and another when I struck at an "iffy" bite that came off almost straight away.
I was getting loads of liners so I swapped back to the wag but with a 10g pike float on instead.
That was an improvement and I managed a couple more fish on this before the end.
My pole lines never produced anything.
Alan did eventually catch a carp but it was the smallest carp in the lake at about 2lbs (he got a bit of stick today bless him)

As expected the match was won by Degsy Williams with 95-12 followed by Luke with 83-4
and Ryan Radford was 3rd with 57-7
My seven fish total went 56-5 which got me the section and (more importantly) all 3 pound coins.
The silvers was won by the gimp with 13-7 and the pairs was won by Ryan and the gimp who had mugged a 14½lb fish on his silvers gear just to enter into the spirit of things.

Full Result:

1. Degsy Williams (11) 95-12
2. Luke Pester (8) 83-4
3. Ryan Radford (19) 57-7
4. Steve Burgess (15) 56-5
5. Chris Gay (7) 53-15
6. Steve Sewell (13) 41-3
7. Rich Jones (12) 39-1
8. John Bradford (10) 27-13
9. Adam Caswell (3) 25-14
10. Lee Tourettes Waller (16) 21-13
11. Mark Radford (6) 19-11
12. Rocket Ron Hardiman (20) 18-0
13. Steve o'Toole (17) 16-3
14. Matt Williams (2) 15-5
15. Will Dearlove (18) 11-9
16. Pete Uzzell (5) 11-3
17. Keith Ray (4) 10-11
18. Ross Sewell (9) 9-15
19. Alan chip shop Healey (14) 9-10 
20. Keith Bilder (1) 6-11

Silvers:1. John Bradford (10) 13-7
2. Luke Pester (8) 12-14

Pairs:Ryan Radford / John Bradford

Viaduct, Campbell, 03 July (17 pegs)

Seems like ages since I last did a blog post or fished a psv match for that matter so I was very much looking forward to this one.

Will had booked us in for an 11-5 match with a 9:30 draw which everyone I spoke to seemed more than happy with, and it meant I had time to enjoy my breakfast at Canards (served by a very pleasant young lady) and had plenty of time to set up all required kit with time to spare which makes a change.

In fact the drive down was that leisurely I got overtaken by some Coffin-Dodgers in a Honda Jazz but I am on 9 points at the moment which is my excuse!

For my sins I drew 119 which I was happy with as there were a lot of fish showing all around the peg as there were next door in Ryan Radford's peg.

Ryan has been doing really well lately so I had a feeling it wasn't going to be an easy ride today. 

I set up a shallow rig for 14m where there were a fair few fish swirling around, a pellet rig for on the deck, an identical rig without a band for meat and a rig to fish as far into the corner as was sensible as it's a bit of a tackle graveyard tight into the corner so I opted for 13m, about 2m off the bank and probably 3m out from the corner.

I also untangled two float rods, 1 shallow and 1 on the deck to fish between the overhanging trees in front of 120 but other than one bite on the deep rod that I missed they were a waste of time.

For some reason I've never done much good with the pellet wag on Campbell, no idea why.
The lead rod stayed in the bag as it was quite calm so there would be no problems for float presentation,

Only trouble with this peg is that you can't see much of what's going on around you which isn't good when you've got 3 pound coins at stake but fortunately Adam was across the other side on 125 so I would have a good idea of who was "emptying it"!

As it turned out most of the "emptying" would be coming from next door but anyways ...

At the all-in I went straight out on the shallow rig and hooked a fish straight away which unfortunately snapped the hooklength .... bugger!
After that slight hiccup a few fish followed, not all of them coming in the right way round but never mind.
After the first hour I was doing ok and ahead of Ryan who had started on the lead without success before switching to a shallow pole rig.
During the second hour he quickly caught me up as I was struggling to keep the bites coming.
I had a go on the deep pellet rig as there was a lot of fizzing but that only produced one fish amongst the liners.
The meat rig got me bites but I never connected with anything?

While I was fishing on the deck there would be fish moving shallow but when I went back on the shallow rig they backed off ... Frustrating!

With a couple of hours to go Ryan's shallow line had also slowed but he was well ahead of me and he was now catching down his left margin.

Rumour has it that Chris Szakacs and Mark Radford on the next 2 pegs down were doing well too.

I had a first look down towards the corner with meat and hooked a fish straight away which trashed the rig.

The rest of the match went well once I got the hang of how much pressure I could put on my pole to haul the fish away from the snags. 

The old Aspire might be a bit on the heavy side but it can take a lot of stick.

The same couldn't be said though for Stevie Wynne's pole.

He was fishing the Capenters Arms match on Cary and his top 3 exploded while playing one of Cary's bigger inhabitants so he decided to put 4 sections across his knee in a fit of rage (as you do)!

By the end I estimated I had near the 100lb mark with Ryan on 150 

The far bank was weighed first and the top weight came from guest Scott Russell on 132 with 106-4 followed by Alan Healey with 105-9, he chucked a 2lb skimmer back to save getting another net which cost him the section but nobody took the piss (honest)!

Matt Williams weighed in 20-7 of silvers from 123 which looked unlikely to be beaten.

My nets went 103-2 and Ryan had 144-5 so my guessing wasn't far off.

Chris Szakacs was painfully close with 142-2 and third place went to Ade Crawley who suprised everybody nearly as much as he suprised himself with 114-12 from peg 112

The unlikely lads ....

Full Result:

1. Ryan Radford (118) 144-5
2. Chris Szakacs (116) 142-2
3. Ade Crawley (112) 114-12
4. Mark Radford (115) 111-3
5. Scott Russell (132) 106-4
6. Alan Healey (130) 105-9
7. Steve Burgess (119) 103-2
8. Lee Williams (110) 100-12
9. Adam Caswell (125) 88-10
10. Steve Sewell (128) 88-2
11. Pete Uzzell (114) 86-6
12. Will Dearlove (111) 65-6
13. Ross Sewell (126) 63-11
14. Matt Powell (129) 55-0
15. Paul Preston (124) 46-0
16. Matt Williams (123) 45-8
17. Lee Waller (127) 39-14

Silvers:

1. Matt Williams (123) 20-7
2. Lee Waller (127) 15-8
3. Chris Szakacs (116) 13-13

Landsend match & lake 3

Today match at the popular landsend had 22 people fish so we decided as opposed to all be cuddling each other on match lake a few would take the walk up to Lake 3, a few groans
But I think we are all happy families again.
16 on match lake and 6 on Lake 3 plus a few day ticket guys who had about 500 rods and more pegs than a clothes line.
Fancied pegs on match went to Matt Taynton on 12, Steve sewell on 13 with rich Jones,  Steve Wynne,  Chris szakacs and new member Keith bilder on 18 to 22. As for me I draw peg 42 again no sign off fish moving but I was hopefully of getting some as was Ryan opposite on 68.
as it turned out both lakes were a bit of a struggle with just odd fishing being caught, I had 23 fish however a lot smaller than usually especially as they were taken shallow fishing across to the island with only 3 fish coming from the inside margin.
Top on Lake 3 was the man on form matt Williams who edged out mark Radford fishing paste in the margins
, surprisingly he only had 15 fish but all of a good stamp for 77lb.
Match lake was a close match between Chris szakacs and Keith bilder on 21 and 22 who both caught across on pellet and then short on meat to finish with 93lb and 106lb with Keith taking the overall winner.
Even the silvers did not play ball today much to the disappointment of Mr Bradford with similar belcham taking the win with 12lb and Matt Taynton 2nd with 11lb.

Winners was Keith bilder off peg 22 with 106lb
2nd peg 21 Chris szakacs 93lb
3rd and Lake 3 winner off peg 58 matt Williams 77lb
Silvers winner site Belcham off peg 3 with 12lb

Sections lake 3 mark Radford 68lb
Lionel leggings peg 16 70lb
Darren north peg 10 with 52lb

Thanks to Adam for doing the weight in, in his all winter bib n brace, fleece and jacket always brings the laughs considering most were wearing tshirts and shorts.

Viaduct Scary Cary June 12th

Today's blog brought to you by your local daiwa fan I'll leave the humour to fellow bloggers.
Only 11 booked in today which was a surprise as this is probably the best fishery in the uk but maybe it's the size of these carp that puts people off, defiantly not an issue for me.
We had Ryan,  Keith and one of our silvers experts on the top bank with Lee waller and Chris szakacs taking the fancied pegs backing onto lodge. As for me peg 80 again, the same as the open the week before when the fish were to far past the end of the spit however today with aerator on there was no sign of fish moving.
The match was slow for us on the Campbell bank with no one getting a take until a few hours in, the fish were coming into heavy feed but not really giving you any positive indications, feeding less or drip feeding didn't work as they just didn't want to settle with the water movement , over on pegs 94 and 96 Lee and Chris were having a fish battle, Chris down into the corner however his fish did look smaller resident fish whilst Lee was catch well fishing shallow.
As it turned out the top bank was the place to draw with a lot of fish showing and bubbling up, the guys caught on the waggle or pole fished at depth with pellet over loose fed pellets.
Winner was Ryan on peg 88 with 134lb courtesy of Keith sharing his platform with the ducks and deciding on a late catch and release programme costing him the win and a place in the winners final later in the year.

Results
Ryan Rafford 134lb
Keith ray 122lb
Matt Williams 114lb
Lee waller 111lb
Chris szakacs 108lb
Will dearlove 83lb
Alan heavy 79lb
Mark Rafford 68lb
Mike Wilson 62lb
Ron hardie an 60lb
Adam caswell 36lb

Silvers winner was Alan heavy just pipping Ron with 16lb.

Boddington accomodation

Accommodation options for Boddington.
Glebe farm, the mill house, little paddock farm, old Manor Farm bnb, there is a travellodge at Silverstone which is a 20 minute drive. All places circa £80  for twin rooms.  I would advise to car share as the car park is limited.

Rood Ashton 23 pegs 5/6/16

Off to deepest Wiltshire today for our once a year visit to the lovely old mature lake that is Rood Ashston, 22 in attendance today which was about the max for this lake and with alittle help Adam Caswell sorted the pegging, monies and payouts were sorted by captain 'birdseye' Burgess and Steve decided on paying the top two and then splitting the lake into three sections paying the top two in each section, also at the draw was the owner who done his usual gesture of offering 50quid out of his own pocket if anyone beat the match record, he did have a wry smile on his face when he announced it and the news was met with a few chuckles including Alan Healy who asked if all our combined weights together would count towards it which was met with stony stare! also apologies for a lack of pictures in this blog as i never expected to be writing it but as Captain 'birdseye' Burgess is in the process of sorting his new trawler home out on the kennet and avon and with a lack of internet i sorta got handed the baton.

Rood is quite an unusual venue as unlike most lakes the main body of water is actually more shallow than the margins! an average depth of a foot and a half with an extra foot of depth in most margins this makes things interesting when you hook an angry carp up the arse end as not being able go down they can only bolt to the side or away which can result in some ass twitching moments holding onto expensive bits of carbon! The owner also informed us the carp had been in full spawning mode the week before that coupled with the bright hot conditions the omens didnt look good for the usual decent returns the club achieve at the venue.

As it happens theres not much to write about really as the match itself turned into a grueller for everyone, odd fish were caught around the lake but no one could string any number together with most people waiting long times between bites.

For my sins i drew peg 16 which is round the back of the second island and is probably one of the narrowest pegs on the lake, a method rod was set up plus two pole rigs one for under the trees ether side and along meat rig for out in front. the first four hours were very slow like most only taking nine small carp on the method chucked as close to the jungle of an island i could get away with, the last two hours were slightly better taking another ten with five of them being of good stamp 4-7lb in my right margin on meat. to my total surprise my weight of 63lb 9oz was enough to win on the day.

Second spot and not far behind was Brian Shanks round on 22 on the back of the lake, Brian caught in fits and starts during the day all on poled pellet rotating several swims weighing 62lb 15oz.

Third spot and section winner was Lee Waller on 17 who after having a blank first four hours and walking the bank several times came good in the last two hours catching on most put ins fishing pellet at 13 metres in front of him.

The other two sections were won by Matt Williams and Adam Caswell respectivly, Adam in particular had his usual total nightmare in peg one losing twice as many as he landed and probably should of won the match easy but at least he kept Alan in the next peg amused during the day!

So a proper hard match for all which is very unusul for the venue but at least everyone enjoyed the sunshine in lovely surrondings.

FULL RESULT

1. Chris Szakacs (16) 63-9...
2. Brian Shanks (21) 62-15
3. Lee Waller (17) 62-4
4. Darren North (19) 42-13
5. Ryan Radford (22) 36-14
6. Matt Williams (13) 36-11
7. Adam Caswell (1) 35-0
8. Rich Britton (11) 31-8
9. Derek Lucas (20) 29-2
10. Rich Jones (14) 26-1
11. Chris Gay (12) 25-8
12. Ron Hardiman (15) 23-10
13. Degsy Williams (4) 21-12
14. Colin Ellaway (6) 21-8
15. Steve Burgess (9) 20-11
16. Steve Sewell (5) 20-0
17. Pete Uzzell (8) 17-12
18. Alan Healey (3) 17-5
19. Mark Radford (10) 7-2
20. Ross Sewell (7) 5-11
and 2 dnw's

Silvers:
Rich Jones 1½ oz

Sedges, Brick Lake, 29 May 2016

We started the day with 20 booked in so a full house however my trusty assistant failed to pass on the update that 2 of our regulars were off sunning themselves, so we ended up with 18. Most people commenting we should leave out the early pegs as those who took a walked around said the fish were doing their business in the reeds.

Most people still wanted the fancied high numbers and with the fishery owner taking pegs 2 and 19 out, the rumours sounded true.

Keith Ray and Lee Waller were the lucky anglers running to their end pegs 10 and 11, myself and Rich Jones drew peg 1 and 20.

Simple tactics today with the sun out, the fish would be up in the water, so a pellet wag, slapper rig and a rig for 3ft deep about a metre from the end bank just pass the reeds to fish double corn.

Starting on the wag I never had a touch  despite fishing moving in the fed area, Rich opposite had a few on the slapper rig, I followed suit but again I could not get a take despite the fish moving around, after 2 hours and no bites it was time to try the corn rig which I had been feeding heavily with corn and groundbait hoping to stop a few fish before they ventured into the reeds.  This change worked well, bites were forthcoming by lifting a dropping the corn I would temp the odd large carp onto the hook and by fishing far enough away from the inside shelf, those fish looking for something other than food didn’t cause too many problem. Regularly feeding large pots of bait kept the fish interested, switching to pellet only brought the float moving all ways but under so the heavy rig and bait was the key with a little bit of movement. (Those interested in the rig, elastics, feeding patterns and my flower shorts will just have to catch me on the bank)

I ended the day with 17 carp in the net, 2 weighted in plus a few that I opted for the catch and release policy on for a total of 184lb, which I was hoping would be enough for 2^nd as Rich Jones on peg 20 was catching on a regular basis.

As it finished it appeared the lake had fished hard due to the spawning fish with most anglers struggling, Lee Waller on 11 throw in the towel early to watch Mr Jones, whilst Keith on 10 lost more than he caught.  Most anglers had around 25 – 35lb with only myself and Rich Jones weighing over 50lb, thankfully my 19 fish were enough to topple Rich's 23 for 1^st place on the day.

Top silvers went to my neighbour Mike Wilson who stuck with it and managed to find a few of the lakes skimmers for a total of 10lb with Chris Gay 2^nd.

We were also running a pairs event today with a member of each pair on each side of the lake, the result would be the team with the lowest points score, thankfully with a match win that was 1 point and my partner Chris Gay managing 3^rd in his section for a total of 4pts, which was enough to take the win from  2^nd place Rich Jones and Keith Ray who managed 6pts

Results:

1^st Will Dearlove Peg 1 = 184lb

2^nd Rich Jones Peg 20 = 146lb

3^rd Mat Taynton Peg 13 = 48lb

Silvers Winner Mike Wilson Peg 3 = 10lb

Full results can be found on our facebook page, this month’s meeting will be on the 7^th June, usual place and time.

Thanks

Will.

Leech pool 8/05/16

Couple of firsts today, first time the club had visited Leech pool and the first time that newly appointed assistant match secretary Adam Caswell was in charge of proceedings....what could possibly go wrong!!

Leech pool is basically a farm pond near melksham backing onto the owners farm house and out buildings, it is also stuffed solid with lots of carp of all sizes but mainly in the 12oz to 2lb range with the odd lump amongst them, you are usually guaranteed plenty of bites and it can turn into abit of a fish race. With that in mind it was abit strange why we could only muster eight anglers turning it into abit of a knock up although with the lake only taking twelve it did give the guys abit of room.

To be fair to Adam he did run everything fine even letting venue expert Chris Gay take care of the pegging and sorted monies and payouts with no fuss, we will see how he gets on with bigger venues with over twenty fishing but hes got off to a good start so all credit to him. Draw wise i dont think anyone was to fussed where they ended up but with the wind blowing strongly into the carpark bank that end did seem very favourable.

Into the drawbag and out popped peg 8 for me which was the bottom corner in alittle bay and end peg next to the farm house.

I had mixed reservations about the peg, having fished the lake before i knew it could throw up a weight but today it was a mill pond with the wind howling up the top end of the lake and what was more alarming was the clarity of the water being able to see the bottom up to four metres out! Pegs one to four had a strong wind blowing into them and were occupied by Alan Healy, Mark Radford, Ryan Radford and Chris Gay repectively and i fully expected these guys to be the ones to beat.

Simple plan of attack today start shallow at 11metres on hard 6mm pellet and just see what happens, after 45mins and only one 6oz carp in the net i was beginning to think id got it badly wrong again. Then the wind strength increased and adding a couple of sections and fishing on the edge of the ripple i started to string a few together although they were the smaller stamp fish 

Elsewhere people were having varying levels of success, Rich Britton next door on peg seven started really well catching three or four on as many put ins but it was short lived as his swim just died a death and never recovered till the last hour, over on six Matt Challenger was catching in fits and starts on the paste and down on four Chris Gay seemed to be getting a few long down to the corner on corn. Alot of the action seemed to be taking place on pegs one and two next to the farm house with Alan and Mark going fish for fish for most of the match, unfortunatly for Alan his peg died in the last hour letting Mark forge ahead.

Over half way through and i decided on a change of tactics to try and increase my catch rate dumping in a big pot of 6mms on my thirteen metre line and fishing on the deck with a banded 8mm on the hook, this had an immediate effect as instead of the 6-12oz fish i was catching shallow i was now catching 2-4lbers it was never fast and furious but nice and steady even managing to snare a lovely ghostie of 7-8lbs and come the end no one was sure who'd won.

lucky for me the bigger stamp fish seem to make a difference enabling me to take first place on the day with 91lb 10oz

second place with his mainly shallow caught fish was Mark Radford with 82lb

followed closely by Alan Healy with 62lb 12oz 

just behind was Matt Challenger with 61lb 14oz, i didnt get a pic of matt as he tipped back before i got the chance but did get one of fifth place and venue expert Chris Gay with his 52lb 4oz

FULL RESULT

1. CHRIS SZAKACS        91LB 10OZ     PEG 8
2. MARK RADFORD       82LB                        2
3. ALAN HEALY              62LB 12OZ             1
4. MATT CHALLENGER 61LB 14OZ             6
5. CHRIS GAY                   52LB 4OZ              4
6. RYAN RADFORD         51LB 12OZ            2
7. RICH BRITTON            32LB 4OZ              7
8. ADAM CASWELL        24LB                      5

Next week the club are back at Harescombe fishery which should be a similar contest lots of bites and a close contest.