Sunday 11th January - Sion Farm (silver fish only)

I decided on another match here at sion today after last weeks match, although expected it to fish much harder as on arrival at the lake half was still frozen solid and the other half thawed, all the cold water melting in was not going to do the fishing any good! i drew peg 5 along the right hand bank not where i wanted to be as the left hand bank was in its slighly shallower along that bank but seems to hold those better fish, any way the ice in my peg was only very thin so 2 throws with the ice breaker and i was able to push out a large sheet of ice out past 13 metres, and within 20mins it was clear! i decided on 2 rigs one to fish the caster short around 6 metres out and a maggot line at 11metres, i fished a yellow bodied sensas float on the short line not sure on the name but it has a wire stem and a nice hi vis tip, thats easy to shot down if need be, fished on 0.10 stright through to a 20 gamma black, fished with a bulk and 2 droppers, with a 6 vespe elastic this rig was to be fished 2 inch over, my rig to fish the maggot was a 4x10 chianti again on 0.10 straight through to a 20 gama black shotted with 3 number 11's and 2 number 12 spead out! the last shot being 12 inch from the hook again on a 6 vespe, on the start i cupped in around 30 casters short and fired a few maggots long and went straight out to 11metres, where i waited 2 1/2 hours for a bite!!! during this time noel to my right was also bite less, the 3 pegs in the middle were picking up the odd small fish, and i couldn't se much being caught on the opposite bank, to cut a long story short i managed 7  all taken on maggot long for 4lb 15oz the last fish i landed was well over 1lb 1/2, a lovely looking roach!  as expected the opposite bank produced the top 2 with a big 9lb 1st, phill took 2nd with 7lb and mark malin took 3rd with 6lb the best weight off my bank,

Saturday 10th January - Moorlands Farm Pairs

Today was to be the first round of the moorlands pairs league and with 16 pairs entered there would be a few quid up for grabs each match, fishing in sections of 8, paying the top 3 individuals on each round and top 2 in each section between me and mark i decided i would go for a draw on either bank or the island pool leaving the meadow for mark, this was down the the meadow fishing extremely hard and me leaving my top kits with light elastics at home should mark need to go for silvers he would be better equipped, thinking i would stand a better chance of hooking a carp on the island pool or the bank, i was dreaming of peg 14 on the island when i drew my peg, when i eventually pulled out peg 24 on the island, mark had a rough draw putting him on 34 right down on the end of the meadow not where you wanted to be! anyways on arriving to my peg the majority of the ice that had been on the lakes in the week had melted, and because the aereators had been on over night to stop the lakes re frezeing it hadnt quite cleared my peg leaving me the only peg on the venue with cat ice infront of me that was impossibe to clear, as once i cleared a channel more ice would form and drift in the gap, i decided i would just set up one pole line at 11metres where it was top 4 deep, where i used a 4x16 carpa gent on 0.14mm mainline to a 0.12mm hooklength and a 20 B911 to fish douple pinkie. with just a bulk and 2 droppers. i was expecting to be sat in the van for the first 2 hours till the ice cleared enough to fish but 5 minutes before the all in the wind had picked up and pushed all the cat ice into the bank i was fishing meaning i could fish the pole line over the top, on the all in i cupped in a small pot of pinkie and went straight over the top on double pinkie. 20 mintues passed and i hadnt seen a fish caught on my lake, when my float dipped slightly and i was into my first fish of the day a small roach around 2oz i was relieved to have avoided a blank as i expected there to be a few today! i mangaged a few more small roach over the next 40 minutes, and just on the hour mark i had a good bite that saw me strike and connect into something alot bigger 2 ft off bottom, on its first run the hook pulled, i assumed it was a carp, and thought there might be a few more, i went back out and waited nothing! so i re fed with another small pot of pinkie, i then spent 5 mins clearing out more ice that had moved infront of me, shipped back out lay my rig in 30 seconds later the float shot under and i was into a carp this time it was hooked in the month and came to the net with ease! around 3 1/2 lb wasnt the biggest but welcome, just as i landed it the guy on 14 had hooked his first, which turned out to be around 9lb which was foul hooked, and the guy on 13 had landed a carp on the bomb around 7lb, a few minutes later! i thought there might be a few more to be caught but i was wrong and i managed half a dozen small roach to finish 3rd on the lake with 4lb 7oz, the 2 flyers pegs 13 produced that carp and a few big skimmers the last hour to finish with 9 lb, and peg 14 adding a few pound of roach and skimmers to that big carp to finish with 14lb, that also put him 2nd in the match! the other 5 on the lake blanked.over on the meadow pool only 3 out of the 16 on there caught, with 2lb winning the lake and 1lb taking 2nd, as for marks section there was not a fish caught. 21lb won the match 3 big carp on the bank pool peg 24 fishing next to the ice, and as there was only 2 pairs where by both anglers caught, both filled the top 2 pairs! the next round isnt untill the 7th feb so hopefully we have a better match!

Sunday 4th January - Sion Farm (silver fish only)

With another hard frost forecast for the saturday night i decided to stay local and fish a silver fish only match at sion farm today, hopefully getting a few bites to keep warm! there was only 7 of us mad enough to venture out but was in good company so was sure to have a bit of banter during the day, we decided to fish the left hand bank toady, so we quickly drew pegs and made a start on breaking the ice, it was the thickest i have encountered during my 8 years or so match fishing, and after around 2 hours we had prepared 7 swims, with my swim only broken out to about 6metres i didnt have much option but to fish one line right on the edge of the ice, fishing a 4x10 chianti to 0.10 straight through to a 20 gama black hook shotted with 3 number 11's and 2 number 12's spread out fished on a  6 latex! 2 pints of bronze maggot on the side tray and i was set up in no time at all. i started the match just touching bottom with singe maggot feeding 4 maggots at the start and then waited around 10 minutes passed and after a small indication i had a proper bite and i had landed the first fish a roach around 8oz a nice fish to start, i think i had 2 more netters around the same size before anyone else caught, and then slowly everyone started to catch. after those first few fish i missed a few bites so started to come off the deck and i was catching the small 2 oz roach quite regular feeding half a dozen maggots every 30 seconds or so, i just got my head down and kept putting fish in the net! we was all catching but then going into the last hour phil on the end peg!( yes another) and jeff to my left (who for once wasnt on an end peg) started catching better net fish short i manged a couple more netters the last hour but i knew jeff had done me! and so the weigh in proved, with jeff finishing 1st with 17lb, to my 15lb, there was another two 13lb weights a 12lb and a couple of 6 lbs. all in all a good match with plenty of bites,

Saturday 3rd January- Tunnel Barn Winter league

i was to be fishing for the MCM team again today at tunnel barn with mark moseley drawing me peg 24 on the extension, first task was to begin breakin the ice, the peg had been fished during the week so i thought it wouldnt take too long breaking through, as it should only have a thin layer on, how wrong could i be! first throw and the sash weight i was using bounced! oh the joy! an hour later and i managed to clear out a channel going out 10 metres! so that was going to have to do! not having worm and joker with me i was just going to fish one swim at 5 metres and one at 10 on the edge of the ice both with maggot! i set up a 4x10 chianti with 3 number 11's and 2 number 12's strung out on 0.10 with a 20 B611, and white hydro, to fish on the deck, on both the short and long line as it was exactly the same depth i also had a 3x8 chianti set up incase they were sitting off the deck and perfered a slightly slower fall,  on the all in i went straight out on the 5metre line flicked in a few maggots and waited, 20 minutes or so passed without a fish so i flicked in a few more and went out to the long line, again 15 minutes went by without a fish, looking round i had only seen des shipp a few pegs up have one and a couple of fish caught down to my left in the gap between the islands! i decided to drop back on my 5 metre line and before the rig settled the elastic shot out and shortly after i landed an F1 about a pound, next put in i had another about the same size before it went quite again, so i fed a few more maggots went onto the long line and had a fish before the rig settled, back out again and nothing, tried a lighter rig thinking they was sitting mid depth but nothing,  that was it really untill the last hour and half were i managed another 4 fish all on the longer line, all the fish were taken on a single bronze maggot, i ended up with 7 fish for 9lb and 11th in my 20peg section, there was a 3lb weight to my left and a 1lb to my right, i just dont think there were many feeding fish in the area and the pegs on the end to my right and the ones in the open water between the islands all caught. the team struggled overall finishing with 40 odd points and half way on the day,