One word, uncomfortable !

Only a short blog today, no pics the weather was to bad, and it was difficult for most, with odd carp making up the top weights,
But that seems to be how withy pool at huntstrete is at the mo, but no doubt that will change with the onset of spring, but I'm beginning to think we will go straight back to autumn at the end of april.
Still the day started well with a nice breakfast at the Toby inn carvery in whitchurch, 4.3.
Got to the lake and there were 19 of us over 55,s fishing, which is not to far off about as many as you would like to see on here, a couple more though would be ok.
Not quite first into the draw bag first as that is for anglers requiring a short walk, Harry Muir was hoping not to draw 74 as it's the end peg in the narrows, and he struggled off it last match. Guess what ha ha ha
As I was recording names of meant I could get into the draw before the rest, method in my madness there, out comes 59, a peg that has a lot of historical form, as have all the pegs on this back bank, but history hasn't really been repeating itself recently.
For Company I was between league organiser Chris Rolf on 60 and one of my early match fishing peers James (jimmy) norris on 58, and with Chris ollis on 57 it was a bit of a who's who from yester year.
Rigs today , a .5 drennan as5 for caster at 5mtrs. Another of the same pattern to fish caster at 13 mtrs to my right at 13 mtrs again just over caster, but as it was about 7 foot deep here it was a .8 version , a bit heavier than I would normally have used but with the wind and rain blowing in slightly from the left, but mainly straight in, it afforded me a bit of stability, the last rig was again another drennan pattern , which was bodied but with a wire stem to fish caster over groundbait at 13 mtrs,
On the whistle I cupped in some caster at at 5mtrs, some at 8mtrs slightly to my right, and some more at 13 mtrs on the same angle, about 1.30 on the clock dial, then some groundbait at 13 mtrs.
Starting at 5mtrs I missed a bite first drop, then had a 3oz roach, next put in an 8 oz version, next I lost a fouled carp, and I never had another bite on this line, so 30 mins in and I dropped the wire stem rig into the 7 mtr line, and caught straight away, nice roach 3 to 6 oz fish , aswell as a skimmer of over 2lb, I had an enjoyable 90 minutes , not flying but enjoyable, especially as those around me couldn't get a bite, but it never lasted and the rest of the match was fairly quiet, the groundbait line only produced a small roach and a couple of tiny skimmers, the only other person I could see catching  anything was John Smith opposite who was getting some skimmers, but that died for him at about the same time as my fish stopped , I did get a nice perch and a 2lb plus hybrid off the 8 mtr line later in the match, but that was it, as far as the match was going I seemed to have done ok, only being beaten probably by  people with carp, of those Harry (moaner) Muir seemed to have done the best as he had 2 , certainly moaned them on matey LOL.
The scales got to me quite quickly as not to many were weighing, and those who did never had a lot, my fish went 13.2 which I was pleased with as conditions were horrible with a chilly wind and freezing cold rain battering us on this bank for most of the match, Harry won on the day with his two carp for 27lb, as normal the weigh sheets are below.

Sunday open, Chilton trinity

Back to woodlands lake today, again it's another venue I haven't been to since last summer, we had a nice breakfast at lillypool, and got to the fishery in plenty of time, normal warm welcome from Tom, misha and little lily, only 14 fishing today, which is more than they have had lately, so still plenty of room for everyone, I normally let misha or lily draw for me, but they had to leave before draw time as they were off to pick dad John up from hospital after an op, I'm sure everyone who knows him will be wishing him a speedy recovery.
So Judith muscled (lol) her way to the draw tin with instructions to get peg 2 if poss, it wasn't to be, but 14 will do nicely, especially as 15 wasn't in, I set up three rigs, a silvers rig for 5mtrs, a hard pellet rig for 14mtrs, and a margin rig to fish pellet in front of 15 where there was a nice flat spot of about 3 1/2 foot deep .
At the start I cupped in two balls of groundbait at 5mtrs, some hard 4,s at 14 and some 6,s in front of 15.
I started on the short line and soon had a few plippy roach in the net.

I stuck with it for a while , but the fish weren't getting any bigger, even caster on the hook didn't improve matters, and it wasn't long before Steve seager who was the lucky one to draw 2 was getting  his first carp.
I decided to switch to the long pole line on banded 6mm ,

it certainly wasn't going to plan with carp being noticeable by there absence, I did get a couple of pound plus skimmers and a handful of 4oz ones, but it was very hard. There were odd carp being caught, except for Steve on peg 2 who was getting a bit of action, I'm not going to waste to much time writing about very little, a few people did catch carp shallow on the wag, but they weren't feeding fish, it seemed it was occasional cruisers , and if your hookbait fell   past there nose , you would get a bite, I did set up a wag with about 2 hours to go, but I think I missed the boat today, and I never had a bite, I really did expect a few carp down my left hand side but it just didn't happen till the last 30 mins when the float went under twice , two foulers and both on and off very quickly, I did spend a fair bit of time fishing with just my topkit with maggot  and caster over small balls of groundbait, catching small skimmers and roach, and it was the same depth there as at 14mtrs, I'm glad I did as I ended up weighing in 10!b of silver which was enough to take the silvers pool on the day, just beating kev Perry by 7oz. There were a few carp about as Mark broomsgrove to my right had 5, plus a few silvers to come second with 35!b behind Steve seager on 2 who had over 70!b, weigh sheet below,
Thursday this week  I'm at the over 55,s at huntstrete, then next Sunday it's back down to Todber manor for the silvers all winners final .Looking forward to that

Thursday costcutter, shiplate farm

It's been a while since I've been here, to long if I'm honest as it's a lovely venue with lots of options, and you are always met with a warm welcome from owners Steve and Carol.
I got to the fishery with time to spare , even after stopping at lillypool cafe for a 4.5 breakfast, just a quick heads up for anyone thinking of going there for breakfast on Sunday morning, the cafe isn't opening till 8am so another option for this week is called for.
Draw time came , and I delved into the bucket hoping for a draw on the far  bank as the bigger skimmers tend to frequent that side, or one or fifteen which are the flyer carp pegs. But no out comes peg 3 , a peg I have never fished before, it's a nice peg with an end of an island to fish to, if the carp decided to have a go, but I didn't think that was likely as the water was freezing.
I had good marker on the Far bank in the shape of the hls angling clubs silvers demon, Bolton George, so hopefully that would help me guage how the lakes silvers population were responding.

One of the best things about here is that you are never short of a bit of room in the swim, which is very handy when you as untidy as me.

I set up a wag to fish pellet towards the end of the island, 8mm over 8mm, but apart from a possible indication I never had a sign during the match, and I probably wasted nearly an hour on it, so no more about that then.
The only other kit I set up were two pole rigs , a .6g drennan as1 and a .4g drennan as4 , both with a guru size 20 f1 maggot hook on .10.
At the start I cupped in 4 balls of groundbait at 13mtrs with a few casters and micros in it, then started at 5 mtrs on caster, but 15 minutes in and not a bite, I went out on the heavier rig to 13mtrs, and I began getting bites straight away, small skimmers and smaller roach, but looking round, not a lot seemed to be happening, so I just got my head down and kept at it, the skimmers were mainly small  but I did get one of a pound and another of 1 1/2 lb during the match, but most were 4 to 6oz, just had to keep dropping an odd ball of groundbait in when the bites slowed,I kept trying the short line and did get two perch and a few roach, but  it  never warranted staying in it for to long as the bites were to far apart,  I've had a busy match , mainly down to the average size of the fish, it was obvious by the end that the overall monies would be going elswhere
Tom light was first to weigh on peg 15 and after putting 114.10 on the board that was first place sorted, and by the time the scales for to me there was already 3 weights over 20lb of silvers, being lead by Mike nicholls on peg 5 with 24.4 , I thought I may have 15/16lb but was more than surprised when Steve called out 24.12 , beating Mike by a few ounces to win the silvers on the day, I did feel a bit embarrassed to be so far out in my estimation, but it didn't last long, especially after Mike called me a rude name LOL.

Looking forward to going back again in a fortnight, hopefully it will warm up a bit by then and the carp will spread out a bit, but there is obviously a huge head  of silver,s in the lake and there is a chance of a day's fishing on most pegs. Weigh sheets below.

This weekend misha is running a match on woodland lake at Chilton trinity, so as it's also been a while since I've been there, I've booked in , looking forward to catching up with tom and mish, and the forecast don't look to bad.

Landsend league final round

Off to Landsend again today, I got to say the roads were ok despite the media doing it's best along with some keyboard warriors trying to put me off, it wasn't happening, !!!.
The worst snow was up by lulsgate airport, as you would expect, but even there I wouldn't say it was dangerous, but it was down to individual choice as to whether you wanted to drive in it or not, I do know for a couple of people who live at the bottom of a hill, so they would obviously struggle. Still the poo!s were paid for this one so no issues with the payout, less people to beat lol. As it turned out 11 never made it, that worked out as 4 missing on speci and lake three, and three missing from match lake, Stu Barnett already had the league sown up , so I was hoping he wouldn't be able to make it from Wales as I had him in the final of the k/o, but he managed to battle his way through the monstrous drifts and blizzard to get there.
Breakfast was di,s normal 4.95, and just the job for today, so into the draw tin for the match lake and out comes 22, not a peg of choice, I would have chosen 1 or 11 with 13 a next best choice, but it wasn't to be, I had  joe McMahon on 20 and Steve seagar over on my peg of choice no1.

Rigs today, a pellet rig for banded 6mm over to the point of the island at 16mtrs, and a couple of caster rigs, a .3g drennan as5 for the bottom of the island shelf at 14 mtrs, and a .4g as5 for 6mtrs. Quite  a heavy float for that line,  but with the wind blowing in and across from the right I wanted a bit of stability to the rig.
At the start I fed some caster on two short lines, one at 10 o,clock  angle and one straight out, some casters across to the island , and some 4mm hard pellets to the point and some off to the left at 14 mtrs, again at 10 o,clock angle.
I started short on maggot and missed a bite straight away, Joe had a roach. I put a caster on and was soon catching small roach, with not a lot being caught I stuck with them, Joe had an f1, but he was struggling for proper bites and was being troubled by proper plippy roach, I went across to the point swim on the island in banded 6mm, and lost a fouled carp, shortly after I had an 8oz skimmer, then an f1, so it was beginning to look up, the island point swim gave me two more f1,s , one on pellet and the other on maggot. I was doing ok for silvers on the lake until Gary o,Shea on peg 18 began catching some good silvers fishing long to his left and across into the gap between the island's, I needed to come at least third on my lake to hang onto second place in the league, but with Steve seager now catching odd carp in his right hand margin, and Gary was sneaking an odd one out aswell, I looked in trouble, also Jason Radford up on 13 also started to catch some in his right hand margin towards the end.
I was also leading the silvers league wise, so I concentrated mainly on the two 6mtr lines, and I had a good last 90 minutes, landing several good skimmers and a very unseasonal tench, considering the weather I didn't feel to cold to be honest, even though the temperature never got above zero all day, my landing net was freezing to my keepnet  between fish, and at the end of the match was frozen solid, and all the snow that had settled on my kit had turned to ice, but I would still much rather be outside,

Our lake was won by Gary on 18 with 57lb followed by Mr seager on 1 with 46lb the Jason Radford on 13 with 28lb , my silvers went a surprising 27lb to win the silvers lakewise  ensuring I won the league silvers,

Stu Barnett had a brilliant league and just to top it off, he was top weight today with 106lb off peg 51 on lake three, so well done to him, and obviously he crushed me in the k/o, in the end I dropped down to 5th in the overalls , one out of the money, but I won the silvers beating league organiser Ken rayner by one point I think, weigh sheets below, and I'm glad to report we all got home safely.
Well done Ken for running the league , a thankless job to be sure, as most organisers will agree with, also thanks to Andy  seery for sponsoring the league with a good selection of his Gonuts products which everyone appreciated.
And di and olive for doing the breakfasts , really good and piping hot everytime.

Rolfy,s rip off Thursday open

Back to huntstrete and withy pool again for this match, and after a mild spell I thought it may be a bit better than last time.
Judith didn't come with me today , but we did have breakfast together at the Toby inn in whitchurch, and it was nice today, so a 4.25 .
So after that it was off to the lake, only 18 fishing today , must have been a few missing in action.
I couldn't draw 54 again today as it had been left out, so after the people who need short walks had there pegs, I dived in and out comes disc 57, still around the Back of the island, but is a peg that has been very consistent for quality silvers, and as it was mild I thought a few carp may be mooching around the end of  the island from the channel, I set up 2 .4g as4 floats to fish at 7 mtrs in the deep water and the other at 8mtrs which was just up the island shelf, also a .6g as4 for 13 mtrs to my right for caster and maggot over groundbait.
And a .3g binny to fish banded pellet at 13 mtrs to the edge of the island.

To begin I fed all lines and began on maggot over the 13 mtr groundbait line, I had bites straight away from small roach and one 6oz skimmer, but the groundbait seemed to be attracting nuisance plippy roach. So I came into the 7mtr caster line, and started to catch quality roach, which was very nice, I also had a 3lb bream on this line, I had a reasonable 2hours on this line before it started to slow, so I went further into the 8mtr line , again with caster, and the nice roach kept coming along with some nice hybrids and some perch, although the sport slowed on this line, I could still get odd fish but I had to constantly move the bait around to induce a bite, I did get a carp of about 5lb off this line and lost one aswell,
I kept trying the pellet line at 13mtrs by the island , but it wasn't till about 30 minutes from the end when I've had a carp on banded 8mm pellet over hard 6,s, then 15minutes later I had another, so by the end I had a good day with over 20lb of silver,s and three carp for about 20lb, and as far as I could tell no one else had anything like that,
In the end my three carp went 20.13 and my silvers went a satisfying 27.1 for first on the day,

I must say it was a good peg to draw today, plenty of shelter from the wind and no tricky light making seeing the float a bit difficult, unlike a few of the others.
All the weigh sheet below.

Last day barbel attempt

Well I havnt bone this for many a year, the last day of the river season and I find myself on the banks of a river, along with Judith and my middle child james, both of whole are really enjoying there fishing and doing really well, I never realised how competitive Judith is, she has a species and size list going between her and me, and it makes for fairly bad reading, it only counts when we are out together, and she is beating me on species by more than a few , and on size in several of those aswell, but Fairplay cos as I've said before, I'm really enjoying the fact she comes along now , whether it's in a supportive capacity to help spot my bites lol, or actually fishing. And as always a big thanks to our daughter Lauren who does the dog sitting duties so we can get out together, x.
Back To Today and after a stop off at the premier inn in gloucester, and after the last couple of Times here which was very nice we were very dissapointed , it was now help yourself and only worthy of a 3.
Left there full, but not happy, 30minutes later, and we were driving up the banks of the river Wye,  at amanstone fishery, run by stan, and at 15 quid , not to bad a price , especially when you consider Judith and James were 12 quid each to fish at shearwater.
With the river several feet up, but dropping I thought it may be ok , and as there were several barbel caught the day before, so we went about 2\3 the way up the first field and found a nice long piece of low bank where all three of us could fish comfortably,
Tactics today were fairly simple , 60/70 grm  cafe feeders with a halibut based groundbait mix, and a various selection of hookbaits, pellets in various sizes , meat , sausage maggots , so hopefully something to entice a fish or two,
 And it started off ok with James having a chub of about 3lb very soon after starting.

But it turned out to be a massive false dawn ,as apart from a couple of missed bites on a maggot feeder by me , which I think we're small fish as there was very little bait damage, it wasn't till late in the afternoon when Jamie struck again , into what was obviously a barbel by the way it was fighting, after a nice fight  our only barbel of the day was netted , and pulled the scales down to a nice weight of 8.5. So well done to him, only two fish and both to him, his best chub to date and his first wild barbel, but we will be back , already making plans for next year as Judith seems to have the barbel bug, and there aren't much better oofr more beautiful places to spend a day than in the wye valley.

Landsend league rnd 5

Due to the snow and general bad weather last weekend, we had a bit of a clash this weekend, unfortunately Steve at viaduct had no choice but to use this Sunday to re -schedule the last  round of there teams of 5 winter league, so there were several spaces needed filling for both matches, Ken managed to fill Landsend, and I think Steve nearly managed to fill viaduct, so I think it worked out ok in the end.
As I was doing well at Landsend, and really badly at viaduct it was a no brainer for me, luckily Andy gard stepped in for me at viaduct so Landsend it was then. Judith came along again today so at least I was going to get a good peg with her golden arm in attendance !!!!!.
After a really nice breakfast at the cafe at the fishery, which Judith scored 4.9, it would have been a 5, but no hash brown LOL.
So after our breakfast it was into the draw, as I was on the speci lake, any of the corners would do for me 25/32/33/40 or failing that  31or 34, I needn't have worried as Judith pulled me out 32, a good corner and the swim I had a few hours in on Thursday afternoon, so pre baited then ha ha. For company I had birthday boy Mike West on 31 who was standing in for Tom mangnal, and opposite was travelling partner Jason Radford on 33 and Alan oram on 34 who I had in the k/o. Rigs today were simple , a.3g as5 for caster at 6 mtrs,  a .2 binny  for maggot at half depth along the right hand end bank and a .25 pc slim for pellet on the deck along the bank and a .3 binny for hard pellet on the deck straight out at 16 mtrs.
On the whistle I fed some caster on the short line and fired some 4,s straight out at 16 mtrs, then I went down the right hand end bank with treble white maggot on an 18 hook, the first hour was ok as I put 3 carp in the net to 9lb, 2 were hooked in the wing and one in the mouth, still they all count, and the sun was out , lovely.

After that it went a bit pear shaped with foulers being a problem, I shallowed up to about 18 inches but had no indications at all, about 2 foot seemed to be optimum depth, which was about half depth, I had a few more but lost several foulers, Alan over on 34 was suffering the same, losing several aswell, it just seemed that the majority of the carp were just swimming about with no interest in food,
I tried the caster line and had a few nice roach up to 10 oz but it  wasn't good enough to stick with, especially as Bob gullick on 28  targeting the silvers and was catching small roach quite well.
So back out along the end bank, and I did pick off a few more, I was getting odd indications which stopped me from feeding anything along there, in fact I didn't feed anything there till about 2 1/2 hours to go, when I fed some hard 4,s . A look on the in front pellet line gave me few skimmers, mainly small but I did get a 2lb one, back down the edge on banded 6mm where I picked a few more carp off, and towards the end I had a couple off the 16 mtr line out in front, along with a few more small skimmers, I ended up with 11 carp and hopefully 10 lb of si!vers,
My 11 carp went 76 lb and my silvers just over 10, so a lake win and second in the silvers on the lake, as expected Bob was top silvers weight on the lake with 23lb exactly,

Well done matey, below is me with a few of my fish, I think I am still second in the league behind stu Barnet, but hopefully still winning the silvers dropping my worst result.

Weigh sheets below, it still fished quite hard, even though it was pleasantly warm today, the water is still cold so I think it will be a few weeks yet until this and most venues start to fish well.

After the match we were entertained by Mike West doing his seaman stains (that's for those amongst us that remember captain pugwash) impression to get his topkit back from where he had left it tethered to an island bush, I'm glad he never capsized as the water was to cold to mount any sort of rescue.

Sunday knock up

With the viaduct winter league final match cancelled this week due to the weather,  more importantly the access road being blocked with snow, if it hadn't been for that I'm sure we would have been fishing, with the help of some ice breakers.
Anyway , I sorted a hasty sweep at Landsend fishery and ended up with 11 like minded souls who just wanted to get out after going a bit snow stir crazy.
First though it was a breakfast, today I went to mario,s in stockwood , meeting up with Ron hardiman and Lee waller, also Judith came for the breakfast as she said it was a good one , it was passable but only a 4, I will try it again even Judith said it wasn't as good as normal.
Well off to the fishery, and pulling in it was obviously still covered with a lid, but Mike assured us it was only soft and shouldn't take to much breaking.
Got the draw underway and had the last ticket, peg 11 for me then, very nice to.
Certainly a peg with plenty of form, first job out with the breaker, 10 minutes  and I had cleared a channel towards the island to 13mtrs, I would have gone a bit further but I had a couple of people waiting to use it, Ron hardiman and Andy cranston, Andy did have a breaker but got was a tad light and he was having difficulty getting it through the surface film never mind the ice, he reckons he's a builder, maybe , all I can say is those Lego bricks must be really heavy now, any way my peg was done , and Gary o,Shea took pity on Andy and did his aswell.

A nice channel and the pile of ice, I enjoy ice breaking , and love ice fishing and Landsend is always fairly fair, as you can expect bites in every peg.
Only set up two rigs today, a .3g as5 to fish off the deck with maggots, and a .4g as5, for on the deck, only bait today was maggot, double on a 20 guru f1 pellet book on .12 senses feeling line . On the whistle after feeding a couple of lines at 11 and 13 mtrs I started short at 7 mtrs trying for a mug perch or roach, but to good so after about 15 minutes I went out on the 11 mtr line, and missed a bite first drop,
2nd drop no mistake and carp one in the net, you got to love the colours of these clear water winter fish.

Sport was never fast and furious which is about right for ice fishing, with the water temp probably about 4c they were never going to be crawling  up the line, but I had an enjoyable day, ending up with 6 carp, two roach and an f1 for 39.4,

which was just about top on the day, 2nd went to russ peck on 22 who had top silvers weight on the day with 24.6 of skimmers and two carp giving him 37.10 in total.

Adrian Clark was third off peg 24 with 36.10, so one fish between first and third,
Also Gary o,Shea had a nice day on the silvers with off peg 3 with 23lb, if roach and skimmers.

Not to bad a day really considering we had to break our way in, weigh sheet below.