Wednesday 28th October 2015 - Sedges Tile Lake

The men started turning up for muster on a warm autumnal morning, the final count being 17 of " Dad's Army" finest.   Tea and Coffee was drunk and tactics talked before the draw at 9-0 o'clock. Ernie wasn't complaining !!! but said peg 21 should not be in the draw, so like a good organizer I left it out and put in peg 30.   Surprise surprise Ernie drew peg 30, I don't think it will be included next time, could be we will run out of swims!! 

The match got underway, I drew 33, on my right was young John Newall, and after a slow start he caught carp steadily.  Danny ( Sheriff of Nottingham ) was on corner peg 31, unseen and silent, very bad news.  Pete (Robot Duck) Cooke on 40.     George (Bolton Boy) on 39 looked to have a good chance, but things didn't work out the way planned  .

The outcome was ANOTHER win for Welsh Mercenary Brian Chivers, who was told by the treasurer Tony Fry, it was becoming a habit.   The silvers went to SPD Danny, who with a bad back and all, did most of the weigh in.

The results were     1st Overall    Brian Chivers             61lbs 4ozs          peg 28

                             2nd   "         John Newall               37lbs 12ozs         peg 32

                             3rd              Mike Bendell              37lbs 2oz            peg 25

                        

                             1st Silvers    Andy Danahay          11lbs 9ozs          peg 31

                             2nd             Bob Pascoe               10lbs 0ozs           peg 33

      Thanks for the good company,see you at Emerald Pool next Wednesday

                                                 Chair Bob 

Score sheet...

Sunday 25th October 2015 – Sedges Tile Lake

I was the first to appear in the car-park, closely followed by Martin Western and Colin Lambert. Martin was wrapped up and heavily ‘diseased’, wishing he had stayed in bed. Chair Bob and George was next to arrived and I was immediately shown a yellow card by Bob for match booking offences!! People were talking about the amount of frost on their cars and whether the snap chill would put the fish off. We had a full compliment for the lake; well until Matt Culpin no-showed and with the prospect of a nice day I was looking forward to a day practicing my silvers fishing. Cometh the draw and I drew 23. I had not fished any of the low 20’s before so it was an interesting prospect. Ninja Searle drew 21 and immediately declared he wouldn’t catch. I had Dick on my right and another silvers man, Dave ‘Tiverton’ Harvey on my left. I had decided that I wouldn’t fish too far out because the water is deep and at 2+2 it was about 7 foot. I had two nice margins which were about 3 foot deep. These were my 3 lines for the day and my bait was the humble caster and maggot with worm, soft pellet and paste in reserve. I had some nice sweet smelling crumb for attractor and a few micros.

Peg 23….

With the clocks going back we are now fishing 10 to 3 and at 10 I fed the 2+2 with a couple of balls of crumb and let it rest while I tried the margins. My right margin never produced a bite all day but the left immediately started offering bits. I also had a nice perch on for about 5 seconds before it said adios to my net. Next put in was taken by a very ugly little common of 2lb. I then went onto the 2+2 line and started getting a bites but only from small bits. It would take  a good 5mins to get a bite but there was nothing of any reasonable size. After a couple of hours swapping between out front and left margin, I then tried a shallow rig and immediately got rapid bites. Most of these were from very small bits but there was also the odd 3oz roach. At the 3:00 o’clock horn I reckoned I had about 3lb of bits plus the small carp. Well, the bits went 2lb 13oz and the carp 2lb 1oz. Not a good day at the office!!

Dave Harvey was fishing a similar line to me but managed to find a few better size skimmers and showed me how a good silvers man fishes, lol. He put 5lb 2oz on the scales; still not setting the world on fire!! Dick on my right had one small skimmer as did Eric on 21. Both of them DNW. A highlight of the day was that man Fletcher, again. He obviously hooked into a vermin and proceed to play it for 30 mins before getting any sight. When it finally gave up George had the tricky task of getting a large foul hooked carp into the fishery sized landing net. George weighed the fish immediately before returning it. It went 20lb 5oz, well done George!!

George and his latest girlfriend……….

I could see Brian on peg 31 catching regularly and so was Steve Meakin on 34 but other than that I didn’t hear/see much excitement. Eric got up for a walk and I told him to report back. He came and said that a ‘lad’ on 27 had a good net full. The lad being Martin Western!! Rob Eagles did a good job of trying to match Georges carp with a 20lb 4oz specimen.

At the weigh in it was the three guys I mentioned previously who took the honours with a following pack in the 30’s and 20’s  range. The silver weights were poor overall with Chair Bob showing us all how it is done with a hard won weight of 8lb 9oz. Again we think the sharp frost dented their interest in feeding.

The days winners were,

Overall

1^st Martin Western (27) – 71lb 5oz

2^nd Brian Chivers (31) – 64lb 7oz

3^rd Steve Meakin (34) – 58lb 10oz

Silvers

1^st Bob Pascoe (37) – 8lb 9oz

2^nd Dave Harvey (24) – 5lb 2oz

3^rd Mike Davis (32) – 4lb 3oz

Also, Tony asked me to mention that he beat Phil (again) for the £.

Score sheet…..

Wednesday 21st October 2015 - Trinity Woodlands

Here we go again!! 14 of Dads Army lined up for the draw in light rain, for the weekly maneuvers. Most of us had traffic problems getting to the venue, this made us a tad late but the start was on time .  Treasurer Tony started well with a  couple of netters, while our Welsh mercenary Brian Chivers was denying all knowledge of the carp he was catching .  My swim seemed devoid of fish, but it could be the angler at fault.  Across the lake I watched George catch regularly, and I could see my £1 disappearing into his bottomless pocket.  Just up from me John Barker was calling for a replacement landing net, as he had broken two, which was no wonder for when weighing his largest fish it was 17lbs 12ozs.   Dave Harvey on his light silver rig caught a carp 12lbs 4ozs, but tried to call it a silver, you can't trust these Tiverton boys!!!

The results were  1st Overall         Brian Chivers                    70lbs 0ozs      

                          2nd                   John Barker                      60lbs 0ozs

                          1st  Silvers        Simon Garbutt                  16lbs 12ozs

                          2nd                   George Fletcher                13lb 4ozs

                       Next week Sedges       Until Then

                                                        Chair Bob 

Sunday 18th October 2015 – Shiplate Main Lake

A view from peg 7 up to the top of the lake…..

I was the second of the HLS guys to arrive at the Shiplate fishery and it was immediately noticeable that there was a chilly NE breeze. This was a lot stronger than predicted and was swirling all around the main lake so that most pegs had the ‘pleasure’ of it. The pre-draw discussion was if the usual flyer pegs, 1 & 15, were still performing. Local knowledge said that they had been replaced by peg 7 and that the carp had moved down the lake into the deeper water. Pegs 14, 13, 12 were still considered to be the best for silvers. Chair Bob got the draw underway 10 mins early to allow those who had the longest walk to have more time. Well, my fingers connected with Peg 7, the new flyer peg!! Shaun Larkham drew 1 and Eric Searle drew 15. I had a feeling that Eric was going to take the honors having looked at the pegs earlier. I got to my peg and realised I was sandwiched between George Fletcher on peg 8 and Chair Bob on 6A….. ‘The rose between two thorns’!!!

My peg….

I had this peg the last time I visited Shiplate and it was more ‘crash n burn’ than flyer. Again I had come prepared for silvers and now was presented with a carp dilemma. I was given some local knowledge from PSV fisherman, Al Healy. He said to fish for the carp at 13 metres to my left under the overhanging tree with corn. So, I set up a rig for there. Another rig for in front at about 8 metres to target mainly silvers. And finally a margin rig just to the left hand of me. Two lead rods were assembled; one with a method and the other a straight lead, both to fish over to the island but apart from putting these out when I had a bite to eat, they were not really used.

Horny Beards blew the horn at 10 and I fed my 3 lines and put out a lead rod while I had a cuppa and let the lines settle. 15 minutes later, I started on the left hand line. I spent the best part of 4 hours on this line and hooked two carp, landing one. Both of these fish responded to a bunch of maggots. Corn, pellet and paste got no interest. I fed my front line with plenty of micros and tried it to see if there was any carp there, but no luck. With an hour to go I got the silvers rig out and had a great time picking off skimmers and roach for 4lb 8oz. I also had the appearance of a 8lb carp for entertainment on my light silvers rig. So, on the basis of the silvers I caught in an hour, should I have targeted them for the whole match????

Being sat for a long time with no action I was entertained by the activities of George and Bob catching their regular quantities of silvers. Although Bob had a significant risk of landing one of the many ducks on the lake. He seemed to be making an effort to chat to his feathered friends and discuss the merits of orange sauce!! George was catching regularly. At one point I noticed his No.3 elastic start heading for Weston but he managed to land the ‘vermin’; a nice 9lber. With the size of the lake I couldn’t hear much else. Eric did shout out, asking what was the net limit, so we knew he was catching. Kev Hayes on peg 6 was having an interesting time trying to cast to the island. I think he had been to the Roger Coombs school of casting. Later on he and Shane had a domestic because of crossed lines. The only other people I could clearly see was Andy Rossiter on 9 who was catching a steady amount of silvers. Over on 9A I saw Tony land one carp but not much else.

So, it was down to the weigh in and the returning guys to hear their tales of ‘delight’. First to weigh and post the unbeatable figure of 136lb was Eric. Next to him was Paul Berry who had decided to target the silvers on corn. It was a good decision because he posted 24lb 2oz of silvers in a total of 31lb 6oz. The rest of the weights showed the usual performance of the lake with Shaun taking No.2 spot on 1 with 62lb 6oz. Dave Allen also got a good net of silvers on 14 for 20lb 4oz. In conclusion, the lake performed to its usual standard and usual pegs. Next time, unless I’m on 1 or 15 I’m going for silvers!!!

The winning weights were…

Overall

Eric Searle (15) – 136lb

Shaun Larkham (1) – 62lb 6oz

Martin Western (14A) – 37lb 8oz

Silvers

Paul Berry (14B) – 24lb 2oz

Dave Allen (14) – 20lb 4oz

Bob Pascoe (6A) – 18lb 9oz

PS: I just want to let you all know that if you’re struggling getting to/from your peg, Mr Beards is volunteering to help by pushing your trolley. Well, after witnessing him help Geoff Rossiter yesterday I could only guess that he had been instructed to get more exercise. You’ll be off to help the refugees next, eh Phil?

Score sheet….

Dad's Army Trophy - Match details!!

DADS ARMY 6 MATCH COMPETITION TROPHY FOR OVERALL AND SILVERS

4 Best results to count

All the matches at Viaduct   Dates and Lakes as follows:-

14th October  2015    Match Lake

11th November "        Lodge

2nd December "        Spring

13th January  2016    Match

10th February            Lodge

2nd March                Spring

I have also been toying with the idea of entering HLS teams for the Angling Times Supercup, this would be subject to the thoughts and interest shown by club members.   I shall get details and explain what it entails at the next few matches.

Cheers,

Chair Bob

Wednesday 14th October 2015 - Viaduct Match Lake

HLS Angling fished match lake at Viaducts on a cold morning, but the day turned out good weatherwise, and the 11 anglers who took part all caught and enjoyed it.   The draw was made, and George 'moaner' Fletcher pulled peg 41.   His first comment was "I don't know why you put the peg in, it never produces so I am going home".   Six hours later who topped the scales overall, and the Silvers, but George!! Which meant I might have a peaceful drive home  Amen to That!!    On the bright side it gave myself the silvers by default, thank you George.

Everyone said they had a good day, and would like to try Lodge Lake, which our club has not fished before, which set me thinking.The outcome was, that after telephone calls, the club would have its first internal competition for the Dad's Army Trophy the details of which are laid out in the following blog....

Score sheet...

Sunday 11th October 2015 – Landsend Match Lake

So, it was a return to Landsend, a fortnight after we had a hard match and we were therefore hoping the match lake was going to be kinder to us. 18 HLS members turned up and the pre-draw banter seem to centre around which were the favourite pegs for the day and the fact that the Rossiter Bros. had turned up so the Preston vs Browning rivalry was raised along with the ‘pound’ wagers. Many did comment that Chris was looking in good ‘form’. He said it was just a bulky body warmer!!

Mr ‘Pi’ himself, sat on flyer 11 ……

I had come with a desire to fish for silvers but had brought meat, pellet and paste if I drew a carp flyer. I didn’t need to worry as peg 3 stuck to my fingers. Phil Beards drew 17 and was hoping that he could repeat his victory from the previous match. The flyer pegs were drawn by Shaun (11), Matt (13) and Chris (19) and not least, Chair Bob on 18, although he would not be targeting the ‘vermin’.

When I arrived at my peg I found I had Roger ‘casting king’ Coombes on my left and Colin Lambert to my right. Then there was George Fletch and then Shane Western, so I knew there was going to be some bitchy banter happening to my right all through the match.

The water had a lot of leaves on the surface but the colour was good and it was overcast, so I was hopeful. I repeated my 4 rigs from the last visit with a light silvers rig to be fished at 11m, another at 2+1 and then the left and right margin. I lined up maggots, casters, sweetcorn, 4mm expanders along with some ground bait for attraction.

My peg for the day….

Phil blew the horn at 10:00 and I fed the forward lines. Chucking a few maggots in the left and right margins, I tried them while the fed lines settled. The match took on the same format as previous and bites were very hard to get, even from small roach and perch on single maggot. A single maggot at 11m was taken by a carp who gave me some good sport until it decided to head for Colin Lamberts platform and the hook length explode and even left my float bobbing halfway between me and Colin. I rescued that in the pole pot and pulled out a fresh rig. So, alternating between my 4 lines I struggled to catch some silvers but did have a bonus Crucian. Later on in the match I had a take very close in to the platform and it was a carp who immediately went under the platform and cut the line on the platform leg.

There was lots of anguished comments throughout the match at the lack of bites but the odd carp were putting in an appearance. Due to the lack of fish, there was lots more banter than usual and Bob ‘treated’ us to more songs and poetry than usual. Fletcher's parentage was called into question on many occasions to the point that he put tissue paper in his ears to block out the noise. This had the effect of making him look like Deputy Dog (nice call Phil, haha).

There was little excitement coming from the flyer pegs although a few carp showed. If Phil had managed to land the carp that he hooked then he surely would have lead the field.

In the last hour a number of guys admitted they were going to DNW and some started packing up early. I was quick to pack and took my kit back to the car before picking up the score sheet. Tony did not weigh and accompanied me and Roger to weigh in. Starting at Dave Allen on 1 he posted, what turned out to be, a reasonable weight on the day with 19lb 8oz!!!! My handful of silvers went 5lb 3oz. As we progressed down to the flyer pegs, George posted the top weigh so far with 27lb 7oz, including a monster Ghostie. We got to Shaun on 11 and he had not managed to find much with 12lb 1oz. Matt then took the lead on 13 by 4oz from George with 27lb 11oz. Phil on 17 weighed 18lb 1oz so he was looking good for the ‘pounds’!! Next up, Chairman Bob showed us all how to fish on a very hard day. He took the overall lead and best silvers weight with 28lb 4oz. Last but not least, Martin Western on 24 managed a respectable 25lb 5oz.

The post match analysis showed that the silvers weights were poor and some of the DNW’s regretted tipping back!! Well, the hope for a better days fishing was scuppered and questions were asked as to where we had gone wrong. Or, was the lake just fishing poor? 

Next Sunday we were heading off to Shiplate main lake. I wonder if peg 1 or 15 will win?????

The winners were…

Overall

1^st Bob Pascoe (18) – 28lb 4oz

2^nd Matt Culpin (13) – 27lb 11oz

3^rd George Fletcher (5) – 27lb 7oz

Silvers

1^st Ross Baker (3) – 5lb 3oz (default win after Bob won the overall)

2^nd Dave Allen (1) – 4lb 4oz

3^rd Eric Searle (8) – 3lb 2oz (default win after Matt won an overall prize)

Score sheet….

Christmas Match 2016 Details - Book Now!!

The Christmas Fur and Feather match has been arranged, and will take place at Emerald Pools on the 20th December.   

The draw and breakfast are at the 37 Club with Breakfast starting at 07:15, and the draw at 08:30.  A pegging fee of £5-00 will be charged, and all pools will be optional to be decided on the day.  All entries to be made to me with the £10 entry fee as soon  as possible.   This is our our club's first Christmas match so lets make it a GOOD ONE. Everyone gets a prize, and the bar's open. 

HLS is funding a small buffet at the prize-giving, this will be 16:45 at the 37 Club.

Good Luck

Chair Bob          

01278683243   

7th October 2015 - Sedges Brick Lake

15 of F Troop lined up on the banks of Brick Lake at  Sedges Fishery.  8 lucky ones drew pegs between 1 and 10 so had the wind at their backs, myself being one of them on peg 4.Next to me on peg 3 was Mike Bendell, a very good silvers angler, while Pete (robot duck) Cooke was drawn on the fancied peg 8. On the far side pegs 11 to 20, the lads set up and snugged down trying to keep warm the best they could.   Phil the Horn tooted and things got  underway, my start was very slow, and it wasn't long before I lost my best rig to a big 'scaley', followed by a lot of cussing and swearing.  Mike on peg 3 was catching steadily, while denying he had more than 2 fish!!! But I knew better.   Across the lake Stan "dog end" Butt was catching carp, as was Phil on peg 19.  Danny next up was shivering away wishing he wasn't fishing at all, but everyone was catching fish.

At the weigh in, starting at peg 20 "backwards as usual" Stan weighed in some lumps for 77lbs 2oz to win overall, with Phil on peg 19 second with 57lbs 6ozs.   The silvers was taken by Robot Duck Cooke with 24lbs  2ozs, with myself pushing Pete close with 23lbs 10ozs on peg 4, and Mike on peg 3 with 21lbs 4ozs.

Good Luck

Chair Bob          

01278683243  

Sunday 4th October 2015 - Trinity Woodlands

19 Anglers turned out on a cold misty morning.  After the draw not even George was complaining, amazing!!! Phil on his usual high blew the horn for the tee off, and business began. My peg was 32 , it was two small roach then my ever present carp , but gradually I built a reasonable weight.

At the other end and side of the lake, Steve (the Kingfisher) and Martin were catching steadily, and looking good, and so it turned out.

The other matter of interest, was the appearance of a pole in the water beside Danny, Danny's comment was "its not sinking,  so I carried on fishing" It turned out to belong to another angler fishing on the lake behind him, and was returned safely.

Result of the match

1st Overall  Peg 13       Steve King                     76lbs 9ozs

2nd   "        Peg 32       Bob Pascoe                   35lbs 4ozs

3rd    "        Peg 17      John Barker                    32lbs 12ozs

                                 

1st Silvers   Peg 14      Martin Western              15lbs 12ozs           

2nd    "        Peg 30       Dave Allen                    13lbs 12ozs

3rd     "        Peg 26      George Fletcher              11lbs 0ozs

Good Fishing 

Chair Bob

Wednesday 30th September 2015 - Shiplate Hawthorns lake

10 of the "F" for fish  troop  lined the lake on a sunny day but with an easterly wind.  Fletch had drawn peg 1 which is a carp peg, but as he is known to say, "I'm not moaning"!

Everyone struggled from the start, but fish were caught, and the match weights were fairly even.  Danny managed 7lbs 8ozs to win the silvers off peg 4, fishing next to Roger Coombs who s 2nd overall on peg 3  with 35lbs 6ozs . 

I was fishing peg 15 next to Pete Cooke on peg 14, Pete did his best with his "Robot Duck" ruining my swim, but Chair Bob prevailed with top overall weight of 42lbs 8ozs . 

It was an enjoyable day with plenty of chat, thanks to Shipate Fisheries for their welcome and looking after us.

Next Wednesday we tackle Sedges Brick Lake, until then Chair Bob.