Landsend sunday open 16/4/17

Off to Landsend for what could be my last comp. Off to Australia next week so i wanted to do well in my last hoorah. 22 fishing today so it was set over Match and lake 3 and fished as two matches. After a really good breakfast, cooked by Do and served up by Olive, it was into the draw bucket. A bit strange as my ticket said 45/6, so I had a choice of which end of two islands I could fish. So i decided to sit on 46 with the islands gap to my right. Opposite was Fishery owner, Mike Ducket, and on my left but 3 pegs away was Rod Wooten. Joe McMahon was on my right but too far to see. The weather forecast wasn't looking good with strongs winds forecast. I set up four rigs today​. A shallow pellet rig for against the island. A long liner for mugging. A rig to fish meat at 2+2. I also mixed up a bit of paste and would use the same rig. Plus a margin rig to fish close to the bush to my left. Started on paste and had a 4 pounder first drop in. But only one other bite after 15 minute's so it was over too the island. Had two over there but not too many bites as presentation wasn't good in the wind. After 40 minutes i tried the mugging rig as the odd fish was showing. Gave that about 40 minutes but only had two, though one was a good 15lb. Switched around all lines for a while but the wind became so strong after 2 hours it wasn't worth the risk of fishing long, so the rest of the match was fished short. But saying  that fishing 2+2 just about became impossible, so i added a section and turned downwind about 45 degrees
Even then i had to use a foam padded spray bar to hold the pole still enough to stop the float being ripped around. Well that did the trick as i had a good run of quality fish for the rest of the match on meat. Also had about 6 to my left margin late. At the end i was hoping I had 130lb. Well I was close with my nets taking the scales round to 139-11 to win the lake. Tony Rixon, was second on our lake with 116-13 And Joe McMahon third with 81-10. It fished realy well, with some good weights. Leon Hubbard and Sean Townsend were going fish for fish on pegs 15 and 18, with Sean piping Leon by 143-14 to 141-13. Weigh sheets below. I gotta say since my return from my first stay in Australia I've been reaquainted with many old friends and made some fantastic new friends in the fishing community. I will miss this so much and would like to thank you all for making match fishing such a pleasure. The banter is unbeatable. Loved every minute of it. Farewell my friends and who knows I could be back to take your money again. Nothing is written in stone as far as the future goes. 

Acorn Good Friday Open 14/4/17

Drew peg 4 today. It was dire. End of blog

Landsend open 9/4/17

A good turnout today, 27, so we were on match and 3. A lush breakfast as always followed by me pulling out peg 65 on lake three. A nice peg with a reed bed to the right which i don't mind fishing amongst. At the start I tried the slapper but was frustrated by a few cruisers just turning away. After 20 minutes it was over on the shallow island rig but it wasn't happening. An F1 and a roach was all i got so it was another try on the slapper. Waste of time. The 2+2 line didn't give me anything. One small carp on the island rig was all i had out there so it was a try by the reed bed. Lots of movement in the reeds but it was slow. Think it was the lake nursery with a couple of puppies. Then i mugged a decent fish on meat in the reeds to get me going. I then fed a line smack in the middle of them and fished 8mm meat.
Had a run of good carp, landing 9. Had a few go deeper into the reeds but by keeping my margin pole high over them and putting alot of pressure on the rig can be dragged out without snagging up too much. Then they started bolting deep into the reeds and i lost 4 in a row. That stuffed things up. It went quite for ages. I had one from the left side against some reeds before a few more small samples just before the end to the right. I managed 77-5 which got me default section money. Happy days. And the first bit of sunburn for the year today.Tony Rixon won today with 185lb ish from peg 6 on Match. Think he should donate a quid to me for drawing it for him. Full results on his blog for today.

Viaduct costcutter 6/4/17

Still not had alot of experience here but i did know that my draw, peg 129, was a decent draw. Started on the bomb with 8mm pellet out by the airiator and had 6 in the first 45 minutes. But it slowed a bit after that and the next 45 only produced a couple more. Steve Shaw opposite​ was catching well on the wag shallow so I chucked mine out but struggled for quite a while. But i got it sussed. I had to feed cast right on top and hope one grabbed it on the drop. One it had gone to my set depth i got nothing. Steve was catching casting out and letting it sit there feeding over the top. But i couldn't get that to work. But i did have a very nice day catching some decent fish. Got broke off a couple of times but some hefty lumps. The last hour i came in on the 2+2 meat line. I had tried it easier and had a few tench. But now the carp had moved in and i put about 80lb in the net in that last hour. Would have been more but i spooked them for 15 minutes when i put a other net in. At the end i was guessing on just over 200lb. Very good guess as I had 199-05. That got me 4th on the day. Steve won it easily with 300-12. Paul Greenwood next to me on 131 had a storming finish putting  around 120lb in the net in the last hour, beating me by 2lb. Overall it fished it's nuts off. A nice day for nearly everybody today with 18 ton+ weights from 35 anglers.

1st Steve" bomber" Shaw, 300-12, peg 114.
2nd Ziggy, 249-10, peg 119.
3rd Paul Greenwood, 201-6, peg 131
4th Stu Barnett 199-5, peg 129

Acorn cost cutter 4/4/17

This is gonna be a short one as I've been a bit slack doing blogs and got three to do. Drew peg 13 which i was quite happy about. Set up three rigs. Far side shallow for pellet. A rig for 2+2 to fish 6's over 4's. And a meat rig to fish to empty pallet 12. Well it was a slow start. Tried the far side for an hour but only had one and was getting pestered by deformed roach. Don't know where they got them from but they are all bloated and miss shaped. Gabe on 15 had a great start and was surfing ahead fishing soft pellet over gbait tight across. After trying my other lines with no success i changed to maggot over gbait across but still nothing. With 90 minutes to go i was really struggling but i saw some movement under pallet 12 and had a reasonable finish taking around 8 fish. Gabe had struggled second half but three late fish was enough for a comfortable win. His total with a few silvers was 81-7 thanks to that flying start. Mine went 50-6 got 4th. Not too bad after a pretty bad first few hours. Sorry if i got the results a bit wrong but the photo of the sheet was crap

1st Gabe Scarba 81-7, peg 15
2nd M Hannam 74-7, peg 40
3rd Nikki Miller 52-0, peg 21
4 Stu Barnett 50-6, peg 13

Viaduct Sunday open 2/4/17

Back to viaduct today to try my luck again. Had a bad start as my Ray-Ban sunglasses disintegrated when I shut the glove box a bit hard. So a new pair of PI sunnies were purchased as my eyes are still not right yet and dry eyes from the wind is very uncomfortable. Into the draw bucket and 59 on Lodge was my home for the day. I wont go into too much detail but as of late, I realy struggled for the first 5 hours. Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but i just cant get a good start or catch throughout a comp. But I wasn't the only one. Three of us in a row struggled for anything. Even the silver were conspicuous by thier absence. Out of the three of us I was doing best with 2 shallow waggler caught carp and 3 skimmers after the five hours. And only  two other missed bites even though i continuously switched lines looking for for anything. With an hour to go i saw a couple of carp moving out by the airiator and got two more on the wag. Then with 30 mi Ute's left i dropped in on the margin line again under the tree and got 3 more and lost 2. At the end i was more than a little surprised to find out my 61-8 total was enough to get me the section win. Shows how poor it fished in places. Winner today was Gary O'Shea  224-03 on peg 64 catching shallow.