Windmill Sunday open.

Not been to windmill for a while as its been bit of a balls up match scene there for a while. The regular anglers have been messed around with which lake they are to use. But today was on match lake. 13 fishing today so plenty of room and I manage to pull out peg 6. I was pretty happy with it as its a decent peg. Opposite in the Island gap I had Tim Ford, so plenty of chatting would be going on, and to my right was Ryan Brushneen on peg 4. 4 rigs today all for carp as all I had on me bait wise was Pellets and corn. I thought I had a tin of meat in my bag, but nope, not there. So I set up a .15 Shalla Slim to fish the far side at 14.5 metres. But when I plumbed up I had about two inches of water right across. So I ended up coming back out by 2 metres and still only had 8 inches. I also set up a dibber for long lining across in the shallow water. A .5 slim to fish 8 metres on corn down the deepest part of the peg. And a .3 SS margin for both sides down the edge. Tho it was a lot shallower to my left I couldn`t be bothered to set up two rigs for that so id just slide the float up and down. I also set up the usual bomb rod for this place. Its always good for a few. At the start I went out on the bomb at the point of the island.

There were loads of carp there and half their bodies were out of the water and they were going nuts for the loose fed 8mm pellets but they were skilfully avoiding my hook bait. Tim started well and was straight into fish doing the same as me. as was Ryan casting to the shallow shelf across to the island. But me, I couldn`t get a sniff. every time I fed a few pellets carp were crawling up the shelf to grab them. Still not a touch. Tim was on three when I decided to change to the long pole and feed the shallow line. It worked and i had a couple in the next 15 minutes, but they were very spooky and bolting when they saw the pole. Tim was storming ahead of me but his fish were a bit small. The first half of the match was slow for me and after three hours I only had 6 all on the long pole. The margin had started showing a bit of life but they were so spooked all the time. They were scared of their own shadows.

The corn rig had only produced a skimmer first drop in then no other bites. Another try on the bomb and finally the tip pulls round and I managed to get one to the net. followed by another 10 minutes later. But then it was back to loads of fish showing and no pull rounds. Tim was catching pretty regular by now after an hour where he had nothing and Ryan was netting a few. At that point they were both well ahead of me. I did keep Tim informed about the mighty Bristol City demolishing Blackburn, I just couldn`t help it after he said how bad the Gas were yesterday. So with just over two hours to go I started to get the odd fish in the margins and they were good fish. I was nowhere near Tim numbers wise but my fish were a lot bigger so I started to peg Tim and Ryan back. A couple more followed when I tried the bomb again but the last two hours were spent mostly in the margins. At the end I admited to Tim to having just over the ton mark, but that was to bite me in the arse when I weighed in. First to weigh in was Matt Collins on peg 2 who put a mighty 218lb on the scales, and that was top weight on the day. Ryan was next and weighed 74.15. I was next and my bad guess was way out and I weighed 87-15. Which amused Tim as I was nearly 20lb out on my guess. I must have clicked one of the double figure fish twice. NUMPTY lol. I didnt follow the scales round so didnt see much of what was weighed, But Tim did let me know that he had whooped my arse by 5lb with 92-15, dave Wilmot had a good day too with 135-13v for second place. dave haynes won the silvers with a nice net for 17-9. Full results below.The sheet is a bit messy but you can see most of it

Landsend Saturday open

Off down the M5 again with all the Midlanders towing their caravans again. Be glad when the holiday season is over. Got to the fishery early and had a very nice breakfast as usual before the draw was made. 10 fishing today so plenty of room. I was in second and drew peg 5. Not fished it for a while so didnt really know how it would go with the water level so low. There were plenty of fish cruising around, but we all know they dont necessarily play ball. 4 rigs were set up today. A .15 Shalla Slim to fish across to the island on pellet, but after plumbing up I found I only had 4 inches of water so I had to come a fair way out from the island bank. But when I did fish it later I found it was snaggy as hell and it was hard to find a decent spot to fish. A .3 Slim to fish 14.5 metres into the gap with pellet. It would also do to fish 2+2 to the right of straight out. A .4 slim to fish meat at 2+2 to the left of straight out. And a .3 SS Margin to fish pellet between the two lily beds to my left. For company today I had Russ Peck to my left on peg 2...AGAIN!!!... he lives on that peg lately. And it was handy to keep an eye on him as we had a quid side bet as usual. At the start I went straight across and while shipping out I spotted a carp getting his head down on the pellets I`d pinged out and dropped my rig in front of it and had it hooked within seconds. So a 4 pounder was in the net in the first minute. But it went pear shaped across as it was so shallow the pole was spooking them, plus I was regularly hooking the tree roots that stick out from the mud. I spent about 45 minutes over there but didnt get anything else, so I went out to to the gap and took three in about 30 minutes. But the wind was blasting through the gap in the two islands and presentation was crap. Several times I had to let the pole go round as I couldnt hold it. So that didnt last to long. I tried the meat line next and in 20 minutes I hadn`t had an indication, Next line tried was the left margin by the lilies. That was fizzing like mad by now but I was getting bites I couldn`t hit. Must be those pesky silvers that hammer the pellets for a while. I noticed that the short pellet line was now fizzing so I dropped my pellet rig on it and I was straight into fish with 3 coming pretty quick. It was now 3 hours in and I had about 40lb in the net. The meat line was dead. No signs of feeding fish but I did try it again with the same result as earlier. So it was back to the pellet line and I got a few more, before I tried the margin line again. Withing seconds of dropping in I was into a lump but it slipped the hook at the net. Back out and I lost two more in the lilies. Back out on the pellet line and apart from 10 minutes near the end, when I lost 2 more and landed one from the margin, I stuck to the 2+2 line and took fish fairly regularly to the end. I did loose a lot of foulers, but thats par for me lately. What did bug me was I lost or trashed 6 rigs. They were going hard today.  At the end I was admitting to 120lb, but after being so far out with my guess last week I was over estimating most of the fish so I wasnt sure what I had. Russ was first to weigh and with him struggling with a dodgy back I had to lift his nets out. Luckily he didn`t have a good day so It was easy. Cheers mate and thanks for the quid 😂. Next was me and my nets went to 100-10,  so I was out by 20lb. Ken Rayner had 60-12 from peg 11. Mark Walsh on peg 13 had forgotten his nets so he risked putting all the carp he caught in one net instead of asking to borrow another one, and he went over by about 7lb so got knocked back to the fishery limit of 80lb all taken on paste. He did borrow a net for his silvers at the start so he totalled 87-7. Last to weigh was Rod Wooton who had no idea what he had as he`s crap at guestimating weights, But he had alot more than he thought and got top spot on the day with 110-11 from peg 24 pushing myself back into second spot. It was a strange day with the fish behaving in odd ways out in the deeper water. Wont go into details but they were doing things I hadnt seen before. anyway full results below.

Acorn Tuesday cost cutter.

Off to Acorn today for a day out with the oldies. Shouldn`t shout to load, I`m just about one of them now lol. Had a breakfast at the bridge Inn that was OK, but could be warmer sometimes. Into the draw and again my drawing arm was good to me. Peg 5 peg  on the island. Always a decent peg if you get it right.

The end road bank has been on fire lately so I was hoping I could get a few.a Tesco store. Only for about 5 months at the mo but its a way in for permanent work. And to make a good start to the day better , i got a call to say i`d got a job as in facilities at  Three rigs were set up. A .15 shalla slim to fish pellet tight to the island. A .4 Slim to fish at a 10 o`clock angle to my left at 2+2 range. And a .3 SS margin to fish by the overhanging grasses to my left margin. Peg 4 was in so I didnt bother with that side. All lines were to fished with pellet. Easy choice today.

Silvers fishing is pretty good there at the mo but this is a known carp peg so couldnt see the point of going for the small stuff. At the start I went over on the long line and had 9 carp in the first hour, but they were all small wit the biggest being 4lb. then It all went pear shaped for two hours and I lost just about everything I hooked. In that time I hooked 25 and landed two, one of which was 8 ozs. this problem was on all lines. the fish were at all levels crashing around and I could hit them in mid water, but when i fished shallow I didn`t get anything. I did manage eventually to get a few fishing with a 10 inch long rig fishing in the grass across, but I didn`t bother striking at bites, I just waited for the elastic to fly out. But that didn`t last long. So I concentrated on the margin for the last couple of hours and started to get a few but still loosing a boat load.

At the end I was disappointed with what I thought I had in the net. I had lost far more than I landed and it cost me today. Mike hill, on peg 9 had a good day catching most of his fish chucking a bomb under peg 8 platform and I was sure he had hit the 200lb mark, which he did with 202-13, which got him first place on the day. I recon peg 8 should be in the matches as peg 9 is just about unbeatable with a decent angler on it and everybody is just fishing for second place. Glen Bailey was second from peg 26 with his usual paste attack. Catching early then heavily in the closing stages to put 159 pound on the scales. The 2 bite less hours in the middle cost him first I recon. I put 131-07 on the scales for third. Should have been more, but then ya cant get it right every time. Need to figure out a way to avoid so many foul hookers. Full results below.

Landsend Saturday open 18/08/2018

As I`ve been relieved of my duties at my latest job I had the weekend off so I went down to Somerset for the usual Saturday knock up at Landsend. The obligatory breakfast was downed and then into the draw bucket.  I managed to pull out peg 11. ( fishing today so plenty of room so I wasnt to displeased with it though it hasn`t shown a lot of form for a while, but then Russ Peck usually draws it ( hahaha, sorry mate). there were fish showing in just about every peg on the walk to the far end of the lake so it was looking like it might be a decent day. 4 rigs today (overkill). The usual .3 SS Margin to fish either side in about 2 1/2 feet of water in pellet or meat. It would also do for the end bank if I decided to go that way. A .3 Slim to fish 2+2 on pellet. A .15 Shalla slim to fish a nice flat spot I found about 2 metres off the island at 14 1/2 meters. Any closer and it was so shallow the ducks were stading in the water and not getting their asses wet. And a .5 slim to fish the deep hole at the same length, but that rig never got touched all day. Opposite for company I had martin Lanaghan on 13 and Mark Walsh to my left on peg 7, so banter would be good today. I started on the shalla rig as there were a few fish showing by the island. It took about 10 minutes to get them responding and the first decent fish was netted. It wasnt hectic in the first hour but I did get a few going. Martin was getting nursery size fish out by the island but he was suffering with fish taking him through a snag. Looking down the lake and it wasn`t fishing as well as I though it would. I stuck with the long pole for the first couple of hours picking off fish and had about 40lb before I changed and tried a different line after loosing a few where they were feeding, as the other lines were fizzing like a jacuzzi everywhere I was feeding. I thought the rest might do it good. First I tried the 2+2 line and had a 6 pounder first drop in on 8mm pellet. But that was it. There was obviously something feeding down there but I couldnt get them going at all. Next was into the margins. The left side was lifeless but the right was fizzing so much I couldn`t see my float properly. I had a 2lb skimmer for about 15 minutes of frustration but again no other bites from there. I must have been a shoal of skimmers but they weren`t interested in 8mm pellets. So it was back out long and I started catching regularly putting a decent weight together. It was Nice to see a long time friend from my childhood days when Mark Little wandered a long for a watch. He brought me some luck as I caught a load when he was watching. He left with about 80 minutes to go and then my luck changed. If it could go wrong it did, and in the last part of the match I struggled to put much more in the net. My lucky charm had gone and taken the fish with him lol. The middle part of the match had gone very well though and It was looking like I had done enough today. Mark Walsh had a good finish, after struggling the first 3/4 of the match, and managed to close the gap but I though I had just edged him out. I was guessing on around 150lb. First to weigh was Russ Peck, with whom I had a gold coin side bet with as usual, and he put 128-12 on the scales. I thought I`d done him so told him to start polishing the quid 😁. Walshy was  next and his good finish got him 126-13. Next was me, and my first net was a bit of a struggle to lift as the water is so low, I couldnt get hold of the net low enough to drag it out so I had to get Steve Seager to help. It was looking a bit iffy with a net limit of 80lb, and yes I was over it with the first net by a couple of pound so it was rounded back to 80. My other nets were all legal and with my few silvers I managed 172-07 and first on the day. Martin, like me had a nightmare finish and caught next to nothing in the last hour but had 107-03 in the end.  Steve Seager on peg 24 was best weight on the far bank with 154-14 that got him second on the day. I cant go wrong at the mo with the draws so I`m making the most of it, as I know it wont last. Full results below.

Acorn Tuesday cost cutter.

Off to Acorn  today for the usual Tuesday bash with the oldies. Plenty of time for breakfast at the Bridge Inn, as I had collected my gear last night and came across the second Severn crossing which is much quicker cutting out all the Bristol bound traffic at the Almondsbury interchange, and a very nice breakfast it was too. Best I`ve had from there. Onto the fishery and my usual sale of floats was done and it was time for the draw. In early and out pops number 9. I was more than happy with that as that area has been chucking up some good weights for a while now. Got to the peg and there were fish everywhere. They were even rolling under my platform when I was setting my gear up. Happy days. I went mad and set up 5 rigs today. One for against the island, but apart from plumbing up that rig never got touched again. A paste rig for 2+2 to fish over micros. A .5 slim for top kit straight out off the end of my nets. A .3 slim to fish to platform 8. Again that never got touched after plumbing up. And a .3 SS Margin to fish both sides down the edge. At the start I went out on the paste rig. As soon as the micros I potted in hit the bottom it was like a jacuzzi fizzing away. The float was ripping under but I wasn`t hooking anything. Then after 15 minutes I had a good tench. Not what I was hoping for but it was a start. Stuart on peg 11 had three carp pretty quick at the start but they were not very big, so I thought I had better try something else. I had been feeding both margins and after 30 minutes I saw a couple of fish moving to my left.so the edge rig went into action , and that`s were I stayed for the rest of the day apart from a ten minute try off the end of my nets. There were carp climbing over each other both sides, but I stayed to my left for a while. I was hooking lots but landing few. The first 14 hooked I lost 12. Then I did manage to put a few in the net, but the left side was a bit hit and miss. Loads of fish but struggling to really get the bites I expected form that many fish. So I went to the right side after about an hour and that was it. It was manic. hooking fish every put in but I was loosing loads. After three and a half hours I has 150lb on my clicker but the lost fish were doing my head in. At that time I had lost 50. Like I said it was manic. At one stage I was basically slapping in the edge and I hooked and lost three in less than 20 seconds. But I was hooking and landing enough to put a big weight together. I did sort out the foul hookers with an hour to go. I had been hooking and playing fish and feeding before landing and that was lining the next fish up. But I was also feeding after I dropped my rig in and it was holding too many fish in the peg, hence the massive amount of foul hooker. So I completely stopped feeding after I dropped my rig in. That was allowing the frenzy of feeding to die back after I fed while playing fish and just kept a few lined up to hook. This resulted in a lot less fish lost and more hooked in the right area. In the last hour I must have put close to 100lb in the net. At the end I was guessing in the region of 260 to 280lb. I`d hate to think of how much Id lost as I recon it was around 80 carp lost, a lot more than I landed, and a lot of them were big fish. I recon that has to be a very unwanted world record lol. I weighed in 267-3 which was enough for the win today. Today was a personal best for me as I`d never weighed over 200lb before last week, now thats twice in two matches.Full match results below.

1. Stuart Barnett 267-03 p9
2. Roy Hughes 135-11 p40
3. John Thompson 128-09 p26
4. Lee Waller 123-06 p17
5. Dave Smart 121-01 p3
6. Mark Barden 110-12 p33
Silvers
1. Mike Chapman 21-09 p30
2. Keith Fisher 13-06 p19

Landsend Saturday open 28/07/2018

Left home a bit earlier as I knew the motorway would be a bit busy because of the school holidays, but I wasn`t expecting that many Brummies to be heading south. Bloody caravans everywhere. Plus a couple of accidents added about 20 minutes to the journey. But there was still time for a very nice breakfast 😊. 11 fishing today and we were on Match lake again. I was first into the draw and pulled out peg 21. Pretty happy with that as its been a good area for a while now, holding a decent number of good carp. But when I got to the bank I was surprised to see how low the lake was. Its the lowest i`ve seen it in my 6 years of fishing this place. In many pegs the far top shelf was out of the water so the only place for the fish to feed was in the deeper water. Four rigs today A .15 Shalla Slim to fish the 6 inches of water I was lucky enough to have. A .3 Slim to fish  at an angle at the bottom of the far shelf. Another .3 for meat at 7m in the deepest part of my peg. And  a .3 SS Margin to fish to my left margin at 8m close to an inviting lily bed. I tried to plum up at top kit length to my left but was struggling to get a plummet through the snags. The match started and I fed my lines and started at the bottom of the far shelf. I was probably last to get anything at only 5 minutes but I managed to loose the first 2 then got one out about 5lb. Over the next hour I managed to put 4 in the net but had lost 12.  A few foul hookers, but some were in the mouth and just pulling out. Tourettes time. Dave Ings was catching a few next to me on 22, as was Martin Pettifer on 24. I could see Russ peck on 7 through the island gap, and it wasn`t long before he shouted that we should have a quid on it. I didn`t realise he had close to 50lb in the net by then, and agreed. Sneaky bugger, but that was his last laugh as his fish slowed up and I was later to overtake him by a bit. After about  90 minutes I saw the first swirl so I ditched the long line and dropped in by the lilies with 8mm pellet. It wasn`t long before a good fish was netted followed by another good un. I also noticed a swirl where the snag was to my left so I chucked a few 6mm`s just off the end of the overhanging branches . Straight away fish were on it. So i adjusted my rig to fish just over the ledge on the slope and got into a steady run of good fish. Just after half time I lost a couple of  fish right in the feed area and it went quite for ten minutes, so I thought I`d give the far shelf a go as when I fired pellet over it was like fish soup with up to ten fins as fish struggled to get to the pellets in the shallow water. So I switched to a long line rig so as not to spook them as some of the carp had their  eyes out the water looking at my pole tip, lol. This, In hindsight, was a bad move, as I spent 45 minute and only had 5 fish that were not that big. But there were so many there I couldn`t resist spending time there. So I decided to come back to my short margin line and it was non stop with carp lined up until the end and they were bigger fish. During this time I dropped my number three section off the right side of my platform so had to go in for it. But after I got my boots off and slipped in off the platform I found it was only about 10 inches deep that side and picked it up straight away. There was an advantage of the low water level after all. I was guessing at around 180-190lb at the end, but wasn`t sure as I think I missed a few on the clicker. First to weigh was Mark Walsh on peg 2 who put 190-08, all caught on paste, on the scales, including 12-14 of skimmers. Russ was a bit disappointed as he had slowed up, but still made it to 127-00. But I knew the gold was coming my way. Rod Wooton on 13 just topped the ton with 100-08, but was fishless for the first 2 hours. Then Derick Beard was next to weigh, and I heard he possibly had over the 200lb mark. He did and put 217-06 on the scales, again all caught on paste. My turn and I didn`t think i`d beat him, but was surprised to see my nets go  212-08 for second on the day. That messing about long lining  probably cost me as I recon the same amount of time down the edge would have got me a lot more if i`d been patient. Ah well we live and learn. But to say it fished well is an understatement with the lowest weight at 70lb. And Russ Peck, don`t leave the country, I didn`t get my quid. Full results below.

Acorn Tuesday cost cutter

 First day on the bank for a couple of weeks thanks to my new shite job. Don`t like this stupid shift pattern but I gotta earn a crust. Got to the Bridge Hotel in time for a half decent breakfast. Off to the lake and was surprised to see how many were there. 26 fishing today. And with the likes of Callum Dicks, Tony Rixon and Steve Shaw there, I was in very good company. |Into the draw bag early and out comes peg 34. A decent peg next to the bridge on the right side looking up the lake.

A good weight came off of it Sunday from the right margin on the corner so a rig was set to fish tight in and another to fish the bottom of the shelf , both on top kit range. Also a separate edge rig was set up for the right side by the bridge as its six inches deeper. Both side would be attacked with pellet. A rig to fish half way along the bridge, again on pellet. And a shallow rig to fish the far side in 15 inches of water on, you guessed it, pellet. In fact my bait tray was pretty sparse of choice, though I did open a tin of corn just for something to do.

At the all in I did the usual feeding routine then dropped a pellet in on the far Side. Fish were straight onto the toss potted pellet but they were a bit wary, and it took a while before any indications, but that was a decent fish I managed to slip the net under. Nikki Miller to my right was on the same line but was struggling to get a bait tight over because of the overhanging grasses. Mike Hill on the island peg 1 was into fish early on his top kit fishing the corner of the island. But he did have tails sticking out the water while he was plumbing up. I was struggling to hook anything . The far side was solid with big carp but trying to get one to take a pellet was proving a bit tricky. I could let the float sit there without feeding and not get a touch. As soon as I fed a few pellets it erupted and the float would keep disappearing but I wasn`t hooking anything. And good sized fish were bolting every time. I wasn`t even  even foul hooking anything. Very strange. It was a case of feed, miss ten bites and hook nothing. Then the fish would move off. they just never stayed around without feeding, but as soon as I fed again they were on it. This routine continued for hours. I did get a few out but it took about four hours on and off, of frustration before I finally got a decent run going. The rest of the peg was pretty quiet, and the margin to my left was just a roach fest. It seems I get this problem all the time lately. 8mm pellet getting hammered by tiny roach. I did manage five in total from the margins but it was little reward for constant feeding and the time I spent there. So most of my fish came shallow across, but it was driving me nuts missing so many bites and not contacting with anything.With the amount of bites I missed I should have hit a lot of foul hookers but I only did that twice and I only lost a couple over there. At the end I knew Mike had given me a right spanking as he caught consistently throughout the match. Nikki hadn`t had a great day as he could only catch midway along the bridge but he lost a boat load. Mike weighed in first on the island and put 166-08 of good sized carp on the scales which was enough for second on the day. I was guessing at 85lb at best, but was surprised as it went 97-01, but Ray Bazzly said it should have been a couple of pound less as the scales were zeroed incorrectly. It`s strange to say I had a bad day and weigh 97lb. Nikki didnt bother weighing as he though he only had around 60lb and wanted to dry his nets out. Top dog today was Tony Rixon on peg 7 taking carp from just about anywhere in his peg to finish with 179-12.  Second was Mike. Third was D Turberville from peg 37 with 160-04. Top Silvers went to Mike Chapman on peg 15 with 22-11. Full results below.