Mathern Mill saturday open

Short trip to mathern today. Breakfast was brought to the fishery as the previously aranged breakfast at the Millers was cancelled due to all pubs being closed from friday night. 21 fishing today so only one empty peg on the lake. I drew 20 and was pretty happy with that as Norm said anglers had a boat load of carp the day before that end of the lake fishing a pellet feeder and maggot. And i had the empty peg in 21 next to me so a bonus, though pegs 22 and 1 would be the ones to watch. started the match on the pellet feeder but no pull rounds.

 In fact the lake was dead. In the first hour from what I could see only one carp had been caught and no silvers.I tried a maggot line at 10m but the wind was blowing a holligan. It was just about impossible to fish the pole, and even though I did try several times I just could not present a still bait.. It was 2 hours 45 before I got my first bite, a ripper of a pull round on popped up wafter, I was supprised I got it in as it went mental and had me bottomed out on my lineclip for a minute before I made any line on it.i thought cold weather slowed them down. No chance in this place they are the hardest fighting fish I`ve come across. I then tried the laft margin as i`d been feeding it for three hours and took a carp first drop in. Then had to wait another half hour before the next down the margin, but it was a big beast around 14lb. two more late fish on the bomb was my lot for the day. no lost fish and only two missed bites. i did all I could today but it was hard.
paul Nicholls on 22 Has a steady second half of the match catching at 14m by the airator and on a 6m line. Rich Lovering on peg 1 had a few as well. They were able to fish long poles as the wind was more into thier face and was blowing along the pole. The scale came round and Neil Morgan on Peg 11 was top weight with 96lb. My 5 carp went 46-10 which was very close to my guestimate. That ended up third on the day. Paul went a bit better with 55-6 helped by a 15 pounder ten minutes from the end and another right on the all out for second place. A rough day in the wind and very few bites, but thats winter fishing for you. Full results below.

Landend winterleague final round

It was the last of this years winterleagye at Landsend and this was the rearange match after the 5th round was cancelled through severe weather. I was just 4 point ahead at the top of the league so realy needed a good draw after bombing out last match.lake three today and I draw out peg 66. Not bad as this had the old weedbed in it that always held fish in this area. The weather was horendous so the first bit of kit set up was the brolley. Some say your a soft cock if you sit under a brolley, but you`d have to be soft in the head to sit in that rain for hours. started off fishing across to the island at 14 1/2 metres on 6mm banded pellet. it took a while but I did start to get a few bite. After just over an hour I had 4 carp in the net.  then lost the next three. it went a bit quiet so I came in on the 2+3 meat line. not a touch on that, and thats how that line was all day. a try down the righ margin just off the weed bed produced one small carp. Back across to the island. I took three more over but it was a bit slow with bites few and far between. Russ peck opposite, sitting in for Rob watts was fishing light for silvers as Rob was very close at the top of the silvers table, But russ was hooking carp after carp. But he had to stick it out for the small stuff for Robs sake. at 1-30 the rain stopped and that killed the peg, as it did for quite a few. it was hard work for a couple of hours taking just three more untill the last half hour when I took three good fish to my right margin.At the all out i was confident i`d done enough as my nearest rival, Lee Williams, two pegs to my right was admiting to around 50lb.
Mike started the weigh in on the other bank. Steve Seager maoned his way to 54lb after saying it was crap and there were no fish in his peg.  He was quiet when he was catching early so we have to be thankfull for little mercy`s. Russ did well to land quiet a few carp on silvers rigs for a total of 44-15. Nick Duckett up on 58 put 66-03 of carp on the scale, and that got him the win on the day. Lee had a very good start but the rain stopping killed his peg and had next to nothing last 3 hours. He put 52-14 on the scales. My dozen 13 carp pushe d the scales round to 65-12, just pipped by Nick, and that was enough for second on the day and the league win. So Im a happy little bunney. Nice little pay packet to take home. Mike Duckett ended up winning the silvers so well done to him. Yet again it was a pleasure to fish this league, with good organisation and load of laughs, mainly at Steve seagers expence. Thanks to mick Duckett for running it and to all that fished. Cheers guys. Full results of today below. Didnt get a final standing photo so will putit up when Mike uplaids it.

Landsend winterleague round 6 sort of.

A few days late doing this blog. As the last round was postponed this should have been the last match but we got one more re-aranged match to go. We were on match lake today and as I am at the top at the mo I needed a good draw to make things comfortable in the last round. I drew peg 11. A few weeks ago I would have ran to this peg but its a feast or famine peg and at the mo its seams to be a bit of the latter. To say it was hard going is an understatement. I struggled all day for 12 bites. I switched around rigs and lines every 15 minutes just searching for fish. The best line was the deep hole off the end of the island at 14 1/2 metres on pellet. I managed 4 carp and one skimmer from there. I also took one F1 from the end of the island in the shallower water and my biggest carp of the day, around 8lb, foul hooked dropping in amoungst the reed bed to the left. I totaled 28-10 for absolutely nowhere on the day. So that is my dropper weight. It was strange as I never saw a single fish top all day, and in a lake with so many fish in it that was pretty unusual. First on the day was Nick Ducket who never had a touch untill 3 hours in then proceeded to empty his peg on meat for 134-14 from peg 19. Second was Dale Howsen on 24 with 78-12. Third, and getting too close for comfort in the final standings, was Lee Williams on peg 15 with 56-12. That puts him just three points behind me going into the final match in two weeks. A good draw is deffinately needed. No slip ups next time I hope. Full results below.