29/09/16 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 47lb 9oz (20lb 14oz - silvers)
Catch - 66 Skimmers, Hybrids, Roach, Rudd and Perch, plus 3 Carp
Weather - Mostly bright and sunny. Cooler later.
Match - Costcutter - 2nd out of 34 - silvers (1st on Cary)

Today was the last chance for a bit of practice before the all winners final on Saturday and I really wanted to be on Campbell. Well the law of averages has to come into my favour at some point!

Well not today. When I saw 77 on the draw ticket I had to laugh, but as Steve said I'll probably draw Campbell on Saturday - lets hope. Back to my peg and 77 hasn't been great recently although it has produced some silvers, which put me in a bit of a quandary. I hadn't come to catch silvers and being a cost cutter I didn't want to fork out on a couple of pints of caster. A chat with Dave White suggested I could catch on worm over groundbait, both of which I already had, which meant I had a fall back position should the carp not feed.

Plumbing up revealed over 4ft of water by the bush, which was deeper than expected, thanks to the aerators been constantly on and probably the reason why the carp haven't frequented the area of late. It was pretty much the same depth at 13m, before it shallowed up the further right you went.

Because I had spent too much time faffing about I wasn't quite ready for the all in, so chucked the lead with 8mm pellet towards the 2nd aerator whilst I got myself organised. With no bites after 10mins, I switched to fishing at 13m were it started to shallow up, toss potting a couple of pellets with a hair rigged 8mm pellet. My first bite was a small skimmer soon followed by a 6lb carp, before the skimmers returned trying to wittle away the 8mm pellet.

A look by the tree were I fed a few 6s & 8s, produced a tench, then another small skimmer. With an hour gone and only carp in the net, I decided to start feeding groundbait by the tree mixed with a few dead maggots and corn. The 13m was still producing nibbles from those small skimmers, so switched to a skimmer rig fishing 6mm pellet and promptly hooked a sizable carp - how many times does that happen?

Because of the tree I couldn't just ship back, because the carp would have snagged me, so I ended up playing the carp which had gone left with 13m of pole in the air in an attempt to stop it running and hopefully persuade it to move to my right. Eventually it did and after 15mins landed a 12lber.

With no more carp and the skimmers only averaging 4-6oz which I wasn't catching quickly enough, it was time to try by the tree. Fishing a segment of worm and regular top ups with a small ball of groundbait, I caught mostly small skimmers. Dead maggot only produced a tiny roach, so stayed with the worm.

When ever the swim slowed the swim was topped up with a large ball of feed and switch to the 13m line which was still only producing small skimmers. Down the right hand margin I only caught 1 perch.

I was a little surprised I had so far only caught 1 tench and the none of the better sized skimmers. Fortunately the better fish turned up in the last hour with a big hybrid and big skimmer to boost my silvers weight.

Overall an enjoyable day, with plenty of bites and winning the silvers on Cary. Since the payouts were the same for each lake I didn't need to worry about Nigel Bartletts 42lb from Campbell. However this is the 4th time this year I've come 2nd overall in the silvers missing out on the silvers all winners final, but you really need to be on Campbell for the better weights.

1. Nick Merry (Colmic) - 204lb 11oz - peg 74
2. Byron Woodsford - 192lb 2oz - peg 132...
3. Chris Fox (Bristol) - 171lb 13oz - peg 116
4. Ian Williets (Wiltshire Angling)- 151lb 9oz - peg 119
5. Roy Worth (Viaduct) - 148lb 6oz - peg 130
6. Paul Bowyer - 148lb 6oz - peg 105

Silvers
1. Nigel Bartlett (Sensas) - 42lb - peg 111
2. Ken Rayner (Colmic) - 20lb 14oz - peg 77
3. Titch Williams - 20lb 6oz - peg 126

25/09/16 - Todber Manor - Hillview

Weight - 43lb 6oz
Catch - 22 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 3 Tench
Weather - Bright and breezy, with one heavy shower.
Match - Marukyu Open - 48 fishing

With the forthcoming pairs competition in 2 weeks I was keen to see the new lakes and get some practice, so booked in for this match.

The new lakes are as you expect a little barren, but they will mature over time and being able to park behind most pegs will surely prove popular. The lakes are also a big change from those used to fishing Park Lake (which has now been redesigned and converted to a specimen lake) and Whiteposts. With the exception of Ash which is a strip lake, Hill View and Home Ground are open waters with central islands.

I managed to get quite a bit of information on tactics and pegs. The one thing I was told, was to avoid the bottom end of Hill View because for what ever reason it is a poor area of the lake. Well I drew smack in the middle of the poor area, peg 37. A text from Mark said it was the worst peg on the complex and I should go home! Well that is a nice way to start your day.

Anyway I made the effort to drive here, I wasn't going to simply turn around and go home, however when I got to my peg I wasn't confident of a good day. The wind was blowing left to right and I really fancied those pegs at the windward end of the lake.

After plumbing up I was a little surprised at how deep it was. From the margin it simply slopped away to about 6ft at 2+3. I had initially considering fishing at 13m, but soon binned that idea as a non-starter due to the depth and gusting wind, deciding instead to fish at the bottom of the slope, feeding pellet and corn.

With an island opposite a method was also setup feeding gonut micros and a banded pellet on the hook. On the all in and 2nd cast on the method  I landed my first fish, a 4lb carp. 2 more smaller fish followed, losing another at the net during the first hour.

In fact there didn't appear to be much happening on our side of the lake. A look over the short line produced a stockie carp first put in, but no more followed. I tried fishing shallow, but after 2hrs of pinging pellet at 13m I never had a touch, so that was binned.

Back on the method would produce a couple of fish then nothing, which meant coming back on the short line which was also slow. In the meantime, the anglers at the windward end of the lake started catching.

Out out of desperation, I had some dead maggot in the bag so started fishing that over the short line and at last started picking up some skimmers up to a 1lb and a few more stockies up to 2lb. A switch to corn later produced a couple of better carp, which was progress but knew I was falling behind the anglers to my right.

If I left the island alone for 30mins I would normally get a carp straight away but no more, before coming back on the pole. I also tried down my left margin, purely because that was were the spare peg was, feeding 6s. Unfortunately this line didn't produce a bite, although I wasn't the only one struggling to catch in their margins.

I wasn't unhappy to hear the all out. My fish weighed a little more than expected thanks to those stockies. I beat the 2 locals either side of me, so job done in some ways and from what I understand I didn't stand a chance of doing any good from the draw, so cant be too disappointed. 

Overall our lake fished hard by comparison with the other lakes. Dave Roper won our lake from p42 at the windward end. Well done to Nick Merry for winning the match overall and I'm looking forward to the pairs starting in 2 weeks. 

1st - Nick Merry (Colmic) 144lb 8oz (Peg 86 Homeground)
2nd - Gary O'Shea (Preston) 121lb 6oz (Peg 78 Homeground)...
3rd - Matt Skyme (Todber) 109lb 4oz (Peg 67 Ash)
4th - Nick Chedzoy (Preston) 108lb 9oz (Peg 77 Homeground)
5th - John Candy (Todber) 105lb (Peg 72 Ash)
6th - Alex Murray 104lb 12oz (Peg 81 Homeground)

Section A Hillview - Dave Roper 91lb (Peg 42)
Section B Hillview - Howard Kaye 89lb (Peg 53)
Section C Ash - Simon Diment 100lb 14oz (Peg 71)

Section D Homeground - Nick Ewers 99lb 3oz (Peg 84)

24/09/16 - Viaduct - Lodge

Weight - 82lb 4oz
Catch - 10 Carp, 5 Roach, 4 Skimmers, 3 Hybrids, 1 Perch
Weather - Bright & breezy
Match - Open - 25th out of 48 anglers, 7th out of 12 - lake

With 48 anglers booked in we were spread over Campbell, Cary and Lodge. With the All Winners final coming up next weekend and having not fished here for a few weeks I wanted  to get back in touch with the venue, particularly now the weather is starting to cool. A draw on Campbell would have been ideal since I haven't been on there since May as I keep drawing Cary instead. Well at least I wasn't on Cary, but p53 on Lodge wasn't great. General consensus was it hasn't been fishing well and looking at past results 70-75lb appeared to be the average weight.

As I was plumbing up the margins were less than 1ft in places and about 2.5ft all over.

Starting on 8mm meat, toss potting a couple of bits of meat and a few 6s by the left hand edge of the tree I soon had my first carp, but in the main the meat was getting attacked by small silvers. Over the next couple of hours, by pinging a few pellets at 14m towards the posts and down the left hand bank I picked up a few carp and quite happy with my progress, although I was no where near Roy Worth on 71 who had thrown away his lead rod and was catching down his right hand margin under the brambles. As for everyone else it was still up for grabs.

So far I had left fishing tight to the far bank alone, leaving a safe zone for the carp to back off to target later. In theory it was a good idea, the problem became the wind switched around a little and the fish I could see moving had disappeared.

Fortunately I had been feeding meat by the right hand edge of the trees, which produced a couple of carp, a few skimmers and a decent hybrid, but it was hard going.

With 2.5hrs left to go 8 pots of groundbait went in down the right hand margin where I found a flat spot about 18ins deep. I would like to say I went on to empty it, instead I had an incredibly frustrating end to the match, hooking 10 carp and only landing 2, either on double worm or bunches of maggot. I tried cutting back on the amount of feed, however the problem became I needed to feed to pull in the carp, but if I cut back I would get pestered by silvers. In hindsight I might of been better off using corn or meat.

I kept pinging pellet to my left, but the fish seemed to have vacated the corner and my meat line was mostly full of silvers, so I was reliant on the margins to produce the goods. Although I had a decent weight for the peg  compared to recent results, I still felt I got it wrong, but will be fishing Thursdays costcutter to hopefully make good on my mistakes.

1. Jon Mills - 300lb - peg 125
2. Craig Edmunds - 241lb 12oz - peg 129...
3. Mark Wynne - 236lb 7oz - peg 80
4. Roy Worth - 218lb 4oz - peg 71
5. Sam Powell - 217lb 9oz - peg 116
6. Dan Squires - 177lb 9oz - peg 130

Silvers
1. Steve Jackson - 65lb - peg 70
2. Paddy Curry - 45lb 3oz - peg 123
3. Nigel Bartlett - 44lb 13oz - peg 97
4. James Rock - 34lb 15oz - peg 100
5. Nigel Easton - 32lb 3oz - peg 78

18/09/16 - Lavington - Merretts

Weight - 82lb 6oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 4 Roach, 3 Skimmers
Weather - Bright start, cloudy later
Match - Airsprung AC - 2nd out of 12

When we arrived a couple of us walked around the lake to select the best pegs and after seeing 30 or so carp in the shallow water of the inlet at the top end of the lake, peg 14 became the number everyone wanted. Alas I ended up on peg 3 at the bottom end, not a great peg, but it can produce down the margins later in the match. For company I had,ex tackle dealer (and happier for it) Steve Ince on peg 1 and

Mark Poppleton on peg 5 opposite the island.

Plumbing up revealed it got deep very quickly, it fact it was too deep for any rigs I had set up. However I didn't realistically expect to catch in the deepest water, so ended up setting a paste and pellet rig to fish at 8m left and right were is was a little shallower but still 6ft. A long line mugging rig was also set up, together with 2 rigs to fish down the margin, one for paste rig and the other the fish corn or meat.

The water clarity was a surprise (and a concern), because I could see the bottom of the keepnets as they settled in 2.5ft of water. It would mean the fish were likely to be very spooky.

Starting off on the mugging rig with meat and soon had a 10lber in the net, which would have been followed by another of 7-8lb had the hook not pulled at the net, catapulting the rig into the tree above - no one laughed.

As expected the carp soon shyed away and became incredibly spooky. Unfortunately the light condition meant I had a lot of white water in front of me and spotting fish was a bit of a nightmare. Those fish I could see would turn for the bait when it was swung out, but wouldn't take the bait. Mark was having similar issues, however with the island being a natural fish magnet, managed to steadily put fish in his net, including a proper lump of 18lb 8oz.

As for me I was becoming increasingly frustrated. I was really struggling to spot any fish, so started to fish my 8m left and right hand swims to try and put some fish in the net, since Steve had managed a couple of carp on paste at 4m. Over the next hour or so I would fish the short line and when ever I spotted any fish coming into range switch to the mugging rig, but the fish more often than not disappeared before I could get the rig out. As for the short lines, I immediately lost a foul hooker then got unhittable bites either from small silvers or small carp who's mouth are so small they struggle to suck in a 6mm pellet (I'm not joking). A change to a pellet rig resulted in a few roach and skimmers, plus one of those small carp, however I wasn't going anywhere fast.

With 3hrs gone I had 2 carp in the net, whilst Steve had 6 and Mark was closing in on a 100lb. All this meant I needed my margins to come to life. I had started feeding 4s and 6s down the right hand margin 30mins previously and the first 3 put ins with gonuts paste resulted in 3 fish.

I had also started feeding groundbait/micros down the left hand side. Initially I couldn't get a bite, but kept cupping in the groundbait until I saw my first swirl. Fishing double corn I caught fish up to nearly 15lb and was much happier, despite putting a 9lber the wrong side of the net. It went very quite either side of me, at least they gave it 15mins before taking the piss!

I thought I was on for a 100+ weight, but the last 45mins was a struggle again. In the meantime Mark's edge swim was getting stronger and stronger putting 80lb in the net during the last 45mins, whilst I could only manage one.

As it transpired I had done enough to come from no where to claim 2nd overall, however I should have caught more in that last hour. Whether it was coincidence or not, but I added a load more particles (hemp & micros) to bulk out the groundbait and shortly after struggled for a bite.

Well done to Mark who got his tactics spot on today to claim a lake match record.

1st - 268- 2 - Mark Poppleton (Colmic) - p5
2nd - 82- 6 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p3
3rd - 76-14 - Tom Ince (Airsprung) - p21
4th - 73-14 - Steve Musitano (Browning) - p18
5th - 52- 5 - Billy Turner (Airsprung) - p14

11/09/16 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 79lb 4oz
Catch - 28 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather - Sunny and windy
Match - Airsprung AC - 3rd out of 9

A trip to one of my favourite summer venues, although reports suggested it hasn't been fishing well recently. With an interclub match at Barton Farm, numbers for this match were down on normal, but at least the pegs were well spread.

Peg 2 put me in the 2nd gap in the trees, which I didn't fancy because it doesn't offer much of a margin

I started on a small hybrid method with gonuts micros and a banded orange wafter, cast slightly to my left at 30m. After 3 casts and no bites a switch to an 8mm gonut pellet resulted in an immediate pull round. A further 6 carp followed before it went quiet.

In the meantime, I had been feeding 8s at 20/25m (aided by the wind) slightly to my right and switched to fishing 8mm pellet on the straight lead were I had regularly caught.


As the match progressed Kev Hanson to my left and Nick Merry to my right were both catching and we were all within a couple of fish of each other over the next couple hours. It sounded like the anglers on the far side were struggling, so it was just a case of keep catching.

Well that was the theory, however the 3 of us started to struggle for bites.

I had primed my right hand margin with pellet & corn, but this only resulted in bites from roach. A cup of meat didn't improve matters. The left hand margin was fed with groundbait, but again no bites.

At 11.5m under the left hand tree were I fed pellet from the off, produced roach on 6mm expander. A switch to 8mm pellet resulted in 3 carp in as many put ins and then nothing. The fish really weren't settled.

Kev managed to keep catching a few more fish on the pole, but Nick's swim had dried up. I did manage 1 carp from the left margin and a couple more on the lead, although I had a run of losing 4 carp for no particular reason which was frustrating.

By the all out Kev was admitting to 32 carp, so I knew he had beaten me and Nick had 26, however most of his fish came to the feeder and for some reason the feeder fish tend to be quite small, hence the reason why I mostly fished the straight lead instead.

When we got back to the car park Nick joked that Mark had been quiet for the latter half of the match which meant he probably started catching and would weigh 100lb. As it turned out he wasn't far wrong. Whilst we struggled in the last hour, Mark picked up some big fish from his margin to claim the win.

1st 95- 0 - Mark Poppleton

2nd 93-12 - Kev Hanson

3rd 79- 4 - Ken Rayner

4th 76- 1 - Tom Ince

Lands End Festival

Rather than provide a detailed breakdown for each day of the Lands End Festival, here is an overview of the whole week.

Unfortunately only 10 anglers turned up, after 25 had initially expressed their interest, which was disappointing, however on the positive side it was 2 more than last year, so hopefully as time goes on the numbers will improve.

Day 1 - Monday 5th - Match Lake - p13 

Weight - 141lb 6oz
Catch - 32 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Damp start, mostly cloudy and muggy

In retrospect it seems a bit churlish to say I struggled having just weighed 141lb. However after 2 hours and only 2 carp in the net, whilst Steve Seager on p11 and Mike Duckett on p15 had 7 or 8 carp, I was a little concerned.

I tried across by the island at 17m, but that was hard work for little reward. An 8m line along the left hand bank fed with pellet produced a carp straight away on paste (Gonuts red), but I couldn't get a proper bite, so switched to pellet for a roach and a perch!

An hour into the match I started feeding the right margin with 4s and 6s, fishing paste over the top. Throughout the match I could only catch fish in 1s and 2s down here, but at least I was catching. I also nicked a few fish tight to the left hand bank and slowly catching Steve and Mike.

The 8m line was still a source of frustration, as there definitely fish there, but couldn't get them to settle, so with 2 hours left to go decided to dump a full pot of pellet. Well that had the desired effect, as I managed to pick up a better stamp of carp on paste and probably put 80lb in the net in the last 2 hours.

1st 209-13 - Craig Edmunds - p5
2nd 141- 6 - Ken Rayner - p13
3rd 125- 7 - Nick Duckett - p19
4th 121- 9 - Lewis Jones - p22

League
1st - Craig Edmunds - 5pts (209-13)
2nd - Ken Rayner - 5pts (141- 6)
3rd - Nick Duckett - 4pts (125- 7)

Day 2 - Tuesday 6th - Johns Lake - p42 

Weight - 65lb 12oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 17 Skimmers, 2 Rudd
Weather - Warm and muggy

A walk around lake revealed a lot of fish at the top end of the lake and to be honest I would have been happy with any of the middle pegs, where the bigger fish tend to reside.

I drew peg 42, which is a great silvers and winter peg, but hasn't been great during the summer. My section today ran from peg 41 (Chris Fox), p46 (James Withers), p51 (Steve Seager) and p55 (Trigger)

The lake had fished well on the 2 previous matches and we were all expecting a bumper day, however it turned out to be a struggle for most.

My attack revolved around paste again. Starting on the point of the island I had 3 carp in the opening 30mins, before it went quiet. A 6m line by the weed bed failed to produce a carp, which was a surprise and since I struggled to get a proper bite on paste, switched to fishing 6mm pellet and caught mostly skimmers, during a period when the lake appeared to have switched off.

Back over by the island fishing on top of a narrow shelf, I caught a number of carp on paste including an 11lber.

The frustration today was how spooky the fish appeared to be. I was expecting the action to pick up in the last 2 hours. Instead things just became more difficult. The fish didn't want to feed in the deeper water (and p42 is one of the deeper pegs on the lake), which meant I had to rely on catching in the shallow water of the island and down the margin. Getting the fish into the swim was fine, but they disappeared when the pole came over the heads.

As the match progressed, Steve was catching lumps down his margin and looked like he would win the section. Trigger said he was struggling as well and I thought if I could get a couple more fish I should secure at least 2nd in section, but in the last hour struggled to get a bite. The big disappointment was hooking a decent fish down the margin 10mins from the end, but the hook pulled. I knew it would cost me and it did, losing 2nd in section to Trigger by 1lb. Have to say I was little gutted.

In hindsight the top 3 weights came from the top half of the lake, which meant I had the best weight in the bottom half, but cant shake that feeling I should have down better.

1st 105-15 - Lewis Jones - p62
2nd 79- 0 - Steve Seager - p51
3rd 67- 1 - Craig Edmunds - p55
4th 65-12 - Ken Rayner - p42

League
1st - Craig Edmunds - 9pts (276-14)
2nd - Lewis Jones - 9pts (227- 9)
3rd - Ken Rayner - 8pts (207- 2)

Day 3 - Wednesday 7th - Speci Lake - p27
Weight - 55lb 12oz
Catch - 8 Carp, 6 Chub, 2 Roach
Weather - A little cooler. Cloudy & sunny periods

After the disappointment of yesterdays match, I really needed to get back on track. Speci Lake can be really peggy and of the pegs in the draw I really fancy 25, 27, 29 or 40. Unfortunately I found myself on p27, which is on the widest side of the lake and an area that can appear quite barren. Usually if I drew here I'll fish for silvers, but today I didn't image that would be possible. My section included p29 (James), p36 (Lewis), p38 (Steve) and p40 (Russ) and I fancied either Steve or Lewis to win the section.

The match turned out to be hard work. I caught all my carp at 16.5m by the island on paste. it was just a case of waiting for the carp to swim around and pick up the bait. When the sun came out the carp became really spooky and difficult to tempt.

A short meat line, a 14m pellet/paste line and right hand margin by the p28 pallet were I had fed pellet all didn't produce, other than 2 roach.

With 2 hrs to go, a kilo of groundbait was deposited in my left margin, fishing double corn all I caught was chub.

As expected Lewis & Steve caught to come 1st and 2nd in section. It also meant my run of 7 straight pick ups at Lands End had come to end.

1st 124- 9 - Craig Edmunds - p31

2nd 115-10 - Nick Duckett - p34

3rd 104- 8 - Lewis Jones - p36

4th 81- 5 - Steve Seager - p38

League

1st - Craig Edmunds - 14pts (401- 7)

2nd - Lewis Jones - 14pts (332- 1)

3rd - Steve Seager - 11pts (271-14)

Day 4 - Thursday 8th - Match Lake - p15
Weight - 106lb 10oz (24lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 19 Carp, 12 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Ide
Weather - Cloudy & sunny periods

When I drew p15 I was really happy, because I had a chance to get back into the running. Having won the Garry Wall Memorial match from here 9 days ago I was confident of catching a few. However, my section included Trigger on p18 and Lewis on p19, plus Steve was p11, so 4 out of the top 5 were in the same section.

Well my match didn't go according to plan. I struggled to catch across by the island either on pellet or paste and was falling further behind Trigger, Lewis and Steve early on. The left hand margin were I caught really well 9 days ago was a struggle and in fact caught a few skimmers instead on either paste or 6mm pellet.

By the half way point I had 30lb in the net and really couldn't see how I was going to catch up. A new swim was set up to my right by the p16 platform, feeding 4s and 6s. I decided to concentrate on the left and right hand swims hoping to catch some proper carp, rather the squeakers by the island.

Whilst I started to catch more carp, I had very few over 6lb, and I was catching more skimmers, which I was too disappointed about, because there was £125 up for grabs for the highest total weight of "accidental" silvers over the week.

A strong finish to the match, but effectively my festival was over.

1st - 185- 4 - Craig Edmunds - p19

2nd - 146- 9 - Steve Seager - p11

3rd - 124- 5 - Russ Peck - p5

4th - 122- 1 - Lewis Jones - p19

League (after dropped result)

1st - Craig Edmunds - 15pts (519-10)

2nd - Lewis Jones - 14pts (332- 1)

3rd - Steve Seager - 13pts (306-14)

Day 5 - Friday 9th - Johns Lake - p66
Weight - 43lb 9oz (2lb 9oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 F1
Weather - Showery, then sunny

My only chance of a pick up was the accidental silvers prize, which thanks to yesterdays net of skimmers meant I was leading with a total weight of 45lb 12oz. Nick Duckett was 12lb 3oz behind and James Withers was 24lb 10oz behind. Nick was lying 4th in the festival and had a very real chance of picking up in the overalls, so I was hoping he would target the carp rather than silvers, but when he drew p41 which is a good silvers area and I drew p66 which is a crap silvers area I knew my 12lb safety margin was in doubt. James drew p62 which is a carp area and to be honest I couldn't see him making up nearly 25lb in silvers, although he did suggest he would catch 30lb of silvers today, which prompted Trigger to state he would jump in the lake if he caught 30lb of silvers!

Back to my peg and Nick said the reed bed to the right is a carp magnet, because when he fished it Tuesday a lot of fish dived straight into the reed bed. My intention was to fish for carp, but I could keep an eye on Nick just in case he did target silvers.

Starting my the point of the island I hooked a fish straight away on paste and initially the carp was behaving itself steering it away from reeds, before it bolted eventually snagging itself in the reeds in peg 65! Not happy. Rather than pull for a break and potentially cracking a section I waded in to recover my rig. Needless to say I fished commando for the rest of the match.

As the match progressed everyone seemed to be struggling for bites. I could see Nick had caught a few silvers, so decided to try myself, catching a skimmer and F1 on 6mm pellet, before hooking a carp, then losing a foul hooker, which unsettled any silvers in the area.

I did manage another skimmer from the point of the island, but the lake was fishing really hard. So far I had avoided fishing next to the reed bed, but since I couldn't catch anywhere else decided it was time, so a paste rig with tighten 19h elastic was set up. I only lost 2 fish but didn't enjoy dragging fish out of their lair. 10mins from the end I had to go wading again, rescuing a carp which had wrapped itself around the reeds. Mike assured me the reeds will be removed before the Winter League starts.

As expected Trigger won from the in form peg 51 and there was no danger of him taking a dive into the lake as James only managed 3lb of silvers. Nick on the other hand caught 13lb 14oz, finishing only 14oz behind me overall!

1st 157-14 - Craig Edmunds - p51

2nd 130- 7 - Chris Fox - p42

3rd 77-14 - Lewis Jones - p55

4th 60- 2 - Steve Seager - p58

League (after droppers)

1st - Craig Edmunds - 20pts (676-15)

2nd - Steve Seager - 18pts (367- 0)

3rd - Lewis Jones - 17pts (454- 2)

Leading up this week I had a good run of results and hopeful of a top 3 position. However, after such a good start my week fell away. In hindsight I probably over fished the paste rather than fish pellet, also my fishing pellet shallow along the island let me down.

Overall a good week, with plenty of laughs, plenty of good fishing with an average weight over the week of 82lb per angler.

03/09/16 - Avalon

Weight - 19lb 3oz
Catch - 68 Fish (9 decent skimmers, plus hand size skimmers, roach, rudd and perch)
Weather - Sunny start, wet and windy later
Match - Silverfish League - rd 1 - 4th out of 23

Following a couple of matches during the summer which showed some quality skimmers, I was looking forward to this series. 23 anglers had booked in (only 22 turned up), which included some good quality silvers anglers and venue regulars. A lot of my silvers fishing usually revolves around pellet fishing, but being early September carp could be a real issue, so whilst I had some pellet with me just in case, the intention was to base my attack around groundbait, 3pts of caster and worm.

With 22 anglers fishing I was expecting us to be spread around the lake. Instead, there were 14 anglers in line down the left bank (p5-p19) and then 8 anglers between (p33-p40), so end pegs were likely to massively important.

I drew p37, which put me in the middle of the right hand section, with Ray Wickham to my left and Steve Fouracre to my right.

The weather forecast was for wind and rain, with the wind would be blowing up the lake left to right. With that in mind I set 2x rigs to fish on the deck, 4x16 wire stem and a 1.5g wire stem if the wind picked up which never got used. I also set a shallow rig for roach and rudd, 2 margin rigs, 1 for worm hoping for a tench or big perch and a 4x16 jolly to fish caster.

On all in 2 balls of F1 green with caster and a few 4s were deposited at 8m and 3 balls at 13m (I didn't want to fish longer due to the wind). Whilst that settled I started on my top 3 fishing shallow with caster and after 20 minutes had 20 roach & rudd.

A switch to the 8m line with half a worm and my first bite resulted in a decent skimmer, followed 15mins later my another.

As the match progressed it was a case of switching between lines. The 8m line was topped up every 15/20mins with a small ball of feed, as was the 13m line, but this line proved to be a struggle all match. I did hook and loss a decent skimmer, but I also hooked and land 2 carp from this line. Fortunately my carp problems weren't as severe as Steve on my right, who had fed more pellet and was getting carped out.

Down my margins I had fed some groundbait, caster and few 4s to my left and just caster to my right. Initially started on the worm rig hoping a tench or 2, which never arrived although I did net a few hand sized skimmers, but fishing the caster rig proved to be better and the left hand margin swim proved to be the strongest.

With 90mins left to go my long line really hadn't produced and my 8m swim was fading, so decided to give the long line 2 balls of feed and stopped feeding the 8m swim altogether. Instead I set up another swim to my left at 9m with a pot of groundbait/caster.

The last hour proved to my best with 5 decent skimmers over both short lines to finish the match with 19lb 3oz. It was no surprise to see the end pegs come 1st & 2nd and I was quite pleased with my efforts from the middle of the section, although a little disappointed to lose 3 skimmers as I was shipping back.

Whilst the league runs on total weight, the pay out on the day was top 3, plus 3 sections and I managed another pick up thanks to a double default section.

1. 28- 8 - Paul Faires - p33

2. 24- 3 - John Fuidge - p40

3. 23- 0 - Vic Bush - p17

4. 19- 3 - Ken Rayner - p37

5. 18- 9 - Lee Woodhouse - p12

6. 18- 0 - Ziggy - p9