Staffs-Worc canal Castlecroft Sunday 27/11/11

This was the last match of the year for one of my clubs Halesowen on our own stretch of the staffs-worc canal at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton, this stretch can be a bit peggy with most of the winning weights made up of Chub that seem to live in numbers on certain pegs.The Chub flier on this stretch is peg 35 and if you have read my blog before this peg has won a lot of matches on here due to an overhanging ivy bush that sticks out into the canal creating a haven for the Chub, in an attempt to stop the domination of this peg we have decided to move the peg to the left on the edge of the ivy and move peg 36 to the opposite end to try and share the fish out a bit? This will either share the fish out or create 2 fliers leaving the rest of the field fishing for third only time will tell. I was sitting pretty on top of the clubs averages with an 11 point cushion over my nearest rival Shaun Waite, but with 21 of us turning out today meant that 21 points were up for grabs so a win for Shaun and a blow-out for me would see him take the title. We all went in for the draw and I came out with peg 21 which to be honest I was quite happy with as during a match up here earlier this year Andy Smart had won the section off just beating me with 6lb odd of small fish, with the peg having no Chub form I thought the chances of winning or even framing off of it was very slim but as long as I could catch a few slivers and come in the top 10 the title would be mine. A quick word with Shaun reviled that he had drawn peg 17 a noted chub peg (jammy git)and would be going all out for the win but normally peg 18 is the better peg with a lot more form, peg 21 is next to a bridge which is the only peg from 18-24 to be used loads of room I can here you shout but it cannot be that good as it has 3 empty pegs either side and pegs 13-18 are all in, why? because that's were all the fish are? Peg 21 is around 13m wide with a big set of reeds to the right which stick out virtually into the middle of the canal and the canal naturally narrows right down at this point just before going under the bridge, the very edge of the reeds can be reached with only 6m of pole and the deepest part of the canal is only 4m out where the boats line up to get under the bridge. The canal was very clear the clearest I have ever seen it to the point that from 10-13m I could see the bottom so all my lines were going to be at angles either side of me using the spare peg to my left and the bridge to the right, I planned to fish the punch at 6&8m the worm & caster to my right on the edge of the reeds and a caster line 13m down the canal towards peg 20 just out of the track at around a 10'o clock angle. I set up 4 rigs to cover these lines,
Rig 1, 4x12 Tubertini styx float, 0.08 mainline to a 0.07 hooklength and a 22 B511 hook, set 1 inch off the bottom in around 3 1/2 ft of water down the track finished with a no3 elastic.
Rig 2, 4x8 Tubertini styx float with the same line, hook & elastic as above but at 8m where the canal shallowed right up to around 2ft deep beyond this I could see the bottom.
Rig 3, 4x12 Drennan caster float, 0.12 straight through to a 18 B611 hook, J-range 6-10 hollo elastic for Perch & Chub fished to the edge of the reeds at 8m.
Rig 4, 4x12 Drennan caster float, 0.08 straight through to a 18 Preston PR322 hook, no 4 elastic fished down the canal at 10'o clock 13m.
For bait I had brought a loaf of liquidized bread, 1/2 pint each of casters & squatts and 1/2kg worms plus a few pinkies for the hook along with a couple of slices of bread also for the hook, just before the whistle Shaun came walking passed on his way to see his mate Gary who was on peg 26 saying all he needed was for him to win the match and me completely blow out "Cheers mate all the best to you as well" I said "only joking" he said but I knew that the competitor in him meant it.
On the whistle I feed the short bread line with a golf ball size of bread the worm line got around 1/4 of a pot of chopped worm and 20 casters while the 13m down the track swim was fed with 12 casters just loose fed with the catapult, I was going to leave the 8m bread line alone until I had gauged the response of the first bread line in-case I had to feed squatt there if the fish didn't like the bread. I kicked off on the bread with a 3mm punch on the hook and no soon as the float had settled it shot under and Roach no1 was swung in at around 1oz it was a good start, over the course of the first hour I stuck with the punch getting bites on a regular basis and had around 12 roach for around 1lb. The only thing about being so far away from any other anglers is that I couldn't tell if anyone else was catching then I saw 2 figures walking towards me down the tow-path, it was Andy and Bob who were on pegs from around the corner saying that neither of them had had a bite yet while Shaun had 2 Chub and Martin 1 I thought they were on the wind-up but they weren't. Great that's all I need this early in the match Shaun bagging but then I reassured myself that I didn't need to win the match just catch fish and with people starting to walk already it was a good sign for me, the punch line had started to slow so it was time for a little top-up I put in just half the amount of the initial feed a walnut size of licky went in. I changed up in hook size to 20 B511 and switched to a 4mm punch as I had dropped a couple of fish off while swinging them in so hopefully the bigger hook would help with this, the first 2 Roach I had after re-feeding were slightly bigger around 3oz each then it went quite for 3-4mins before I hooked a bigger fish some distance down the peg away from the feed area a 10oz skimmer which was a welcome bonus. Hoping for more of the same but over the next 10mins I couldn't get another bite so I put in another small amount of licky just enough to cover the bottom of the pot and fed it loose instead of a ball which is normally a no no on this stretch as it has a steady flow all the time, I thought that the smaller Roach were hanging higher in the water so I changed back to a smaller 3mm punch and shallowed up to around 3 inches off the bottom. This worked for a time with around 6 Roach in the 1oz bracket before the bites totally dried up and with around 2 hours gone the bread line had dried up so switch to the worm was called for, I had topped up the worm line a couple of times while fishing the punch but before I could ship out the worm my phone rang and it was Steve Robson who was up on peg 1A saying that he was dry and so was the rest of the top section apart from JB on peg 6 who was catching punch fish. This was good news for me to get into the top 10 and win the averages so I shipped out the worm and lay the rig in which promptly carried on going under a 4oz Perch was the culprit, the next 10mins saw me have 2 more Perch around 2oz each before bites dried up on this line as well so with around 2 1/2 hours gone I thought I had got around 3lb so all was good. I went back on the punch line but never had a bite so I fed the line another section over at 8m with a small nugget of lickey and a few squatts before I tried the 13m caster line, no bites on the caster despite sitting on it for around 15mins and no bites on the new line either on the punch or squatt. I had failed to get a bite at all for the last 45mins and was starting to get worried, despite trying all the swims I had put in I couldn't get another bite it was like there were no fish left in the swim at all. I opened up a new line down the canal at 13m towards the bridge with a small amount of worm mush & fluro pinkies a sure fire get out of jail tactic but even this failed to get me a bite, the whistle sounded and I couldn't get my head why I had caught for the first 2 1/2 hours then totally blanked for the next 2 1/2 talk about a game of two halves! I was just hoping that I had done enough to get into the top 10 as the last I heard from Shaun was that he had got at least 6 Chub and a couple of big Perch, before long the scales arrived after weighing in Shaun and Martin first Shaun had a fantastic 28lb 14oz with 8 chub and 4 Perch, Martin had 3 Chub+ bits for 9lb 14oz, my first half fish gave me 3lb 7oz I just hoped it was enough. I packed in and walked up the canal stopping at Shaun who was still packing away to congratulate him he said that apart from the Chub one of the Perch he had went 3lb 1oz! (no wonder we cannot catch any gudgeon up here) what a great canal weight, Shaun said that the more bait he put in the better it got running out of bait in the end after putting in 1/2kg of worm and a pint of casters! He also said that he had tried to stop one Chub from going through reeds so he pulled harder with his tight black hydro the result ended in his top kit looking like 50 pence piece smashed into around 8 pieces? OOPS! Well done to Shaun for annihilating the match, Martin was 2nd and John Bab was 3rd of peg 35 with 6lb odd. There were 2 4lb+ weights from JB on peg 6 and Gary on peg 26 who said he had 20 chub in the 1-2oz bracket, I ended the day 7th after getting done by Ade on peg 13 by 4oz with 3lb 11oz that done by 2oz last week on the river and 4oz this week but I cannot complain the season I have had ending up winning the averages. Next week we have the last match of the year with Cradley Heath the fur & feather on the Staffs-Worc canal at Hinksford but with 1 match left to go I have already won the averages unable to be caught?

Stourport River Severn Sunday 20/11/11

This weekend saw us on the river Severn at Stourport for a Halesowen club match on the BAA stretch at Newalls Meadow below the bridge and a few pegs above the bridge on the Littleton water, I have not fished this stretch for around 25 years so it would be a bit of a blast from the past for me. If you catch the river conditions right weights of 20lb+ of Roach & Dace are on the cards but as the river has been running clear lately the open matches run on the upstream Littleton water have been won with weights of 10-15lb, most of the weights are taken on the stick float, waggler or bolo there is the odd bonus Chub, Bream or Barbel but sticking your neck out on the feeder can end up with you catching very little. I drew out peg 14 which was down towards the bottom end of Newalls Meadow and for company I had Shaun Waite next to me on peg 13 who was chasing me for the clubs averages so we could at least keep an eye on each other, what we did notice on the way down was that the pegs at the top end of the stretch seemed to have a lot of room in-between them some had 2-3 pegs each. I made a comment to Shaun as we walked passed these top pegs saying that you watch when we get to our pegs there will be no room in-between them! We got to our pegs and I put my barrow down and shouted to Shaun "I told you so" the bottom 5 pegs had all been put in all in a line GREAT I thought but then it got worse Stu had drawn peg 15 below me all of about 8 yards below, basicly this was going to be a float match and I had no room to run the float down????????????????? I don't normally moan about pegging but this was taking the piss some of the guys had miles of room while we had been all packed in like sardines, I went and looked at the rest of the pegs which all seemed to have around 15-20 yards in-between them mine was the worse of the lot. Now I know that pegging out is a thankless job but it looked to me that the bottom 5 pegs had been put in the the other 6 on Newalls had been spread out once they had realised there was a lot of room left, I was fluming at this point with with smoke coming from ears ranting and raving I get one day a week to go fishing and I had just been f****d up the a**e before the start. I felt like going straight home and not even set up if I could have got my hands on the w****r than had pegged out he would have gone swimming no messing, I had to fish as I was in the running for winning the averages so after I had calmed down a bit I began to set up as the pegg'er out'er was a mile away above the bridge I couldn't do anything about it.

I set up the stick and straight lead as the waggler would be out of the question due to such a short run down I would have been on top of Stu before the shot had settled, I went for a 6 no4 in 5 1/2ft of water around 2 rod length's out stick shotted with strung out no6's and two no8's near the hook on a 13ft light stick rod and a closed face Abu 706 reel, Mainline was 2.6lb with a 20 B520 hook on a 0.08 hooklength. The straight lead was my Shimano Beastmaster 11/9ft rod with the lightest tip in set at 9ft a Shimano 2500 super gtm reel with 3lb maxima mainline, a 18 B520 hook with a 0.10 hooklength I put just 2 swan shot on a paternoster rig. I had brought 2 pints of bronze maggots and 1 pint of hemp for bait plus a few worms if I had to scratch around for a few Perch, I had set up and had a fag & coffee before the all in still trying to calm down after my earlier rant.

At the all in I began feeding a dozen maggots as far upstream as I could throw them which was easier said than done as there was a overhanging tree above me stopping me from throwing them as far as I would have liked and a few grains of hemp straight in-front of me, after a few runs down it seemed there was a bit of weed on the bottom covering the hook-bait at one spot some 3/4 of the way down the peg so I had to hold back the float hard to get over the obstruction, it took some 30mins to get my first bite which was a small 2oz Perch from virtually right underneath Stu's keepnet which I was allowing to run down as far as possible as Stu had started on the waggler. Next run down produce the same out come and another 2oz Perch then I went around 10mins before my next bite a 3oz Dace which came from a lot higher up the peg, another couple of small Dace and a solo Roach was the sum total of the first hour's work for around 12oz. Hour 2 followed a similar pattern with just odd fish here and there saw me struggling for bites without me being able to get the fish into some sort of pattern with around 1 1/2lb in the net I was going nowhere fast then I hooked a nice 4-5oz Dace right underneath my rod top by accident! I was having to reel in and feed with the rod in the rests and the rig in the water pick up the rod and cast underarm due to the tree to my left I couldn't do the usual side cast, it was while doing this that I hooked the Dace on a line that was some 12 inches shallower than where I was fishing so I decided to have another go at it. Putting the 1ft extension in-to my rod making it up to 14ft to get over the marginal weed I repositioned my rod rests and messed about with the shotting and depth to lay the rig on holding the float back hard, the next 10mins produced 2 more Dace and a Roach for around another 8oz which was a little better then the bites dried up on this line I think due to how clear the water was the fish were spooking. This seemed to set the pattern for the rest of the match you would catch 2-3 fish then they would back off due to the clear water then you would go bite-less for around 10-15mins before they would come back, I am sure that had there been a bit of colour in the water that we would have been able to keep the fish coming for longer. I had a frustrating period in the match with about an hour to go until the end I started hooking Dace right under my rod top hooking around 10 fish in quick succession but only landing around 4 they were twisting off despite me going up in hook size to a 18 I had tried a 16 hook earlier but failed to get a single bite with the bigger hook, that was the best period of the match for me which I failed to capitalize on and soon enough the match came to an end with Stu below me struggling all day for half a dozen fish I thought I had got around 5-5 1/2lb and with on one walking around I didn't know how the others around me had got on. As I got up bank starting to pack my gear away Shaun above me appeared who I couldn't see due to the trees in-between us saying he had got around 5lb and so did Dave Wood on the peg below Stu so it looked like it was going to be close at this bottom end unless they were all liars? The scales soon came down and Bob the bosun on peg 17 was the first to weigh with a level 5lb then Dave on peg put 6lb 6oz on the scales, Stu on peg 15 had just 12oz for last in the match? (sorry mate) I put my fish on and scales-man gave me 6lb 4oz just 2oz short of Dave, then Shaun above me put 6lb 20z just 2oz short of me so it had been close on the bottom 5 pegs were we had been packed in like sardines. Up the top end of the stretch there was a 8lb dead and a7lb 6oz & 7lb 4oz topped off by John Billingham on the first peg 7 in the bay with a great 15lb 14oz, above the bridge there had been a 7lb 2oz and another 6lb+ weight. Well done to John for winning the match a good angler on a good peg! Not taking anything away from John but he had got 3-4 empty pegs below him and no one above him for until above the bridge some 200-300m above him! All the top 3 came from above us at the top end of Newalls where there was a bit of room in-between the pegs so if that doesn't tell you the storey then nothing will, I was done for the section by Dave with that 2oz extra and the only good thing was that I managed to beat Shaun by the same 2oz margin to stay on top of the averages by 10 points with just one match left to go! I caught up with the pegger out'er in the pub after the match and gave him a piece of my mind along the lines of him needing a white stick and a guide dog (or words to that effect minus the swear words?), he did apologise but that's always easy after the event.

River Avon Fladbury Sunday 6/11/11

This weekend saw us on the river Avon at Fladbury for a Cradley Heath club match, it has been more years than I care to remember since I last fished here so I was looking forward to it, although we thought it would fish hard as the bit of rain we had a couple of days before had failed to put any colour in the water and the Avon normally needs it for it to fish well. I know that there are the odd Barbel & Chub caught from the pegs by the bridge and the rest of it is mainly Roach & bits, a couple of years ago 2 pegs above the bridge Dave Wood won a club match with 23lb of Roach on the stick float so there are fish here if they decided to feed. There were only 13 brave (stupid!) soles that turned up for this one as there were a few of our guy's fishing another match on the river Severn and another few that thought better of it, the water was pushing a bit due to some heavy rain that we had on Thursday but for some reason there was no colour in the water and for that reason we had only pegged a couple of pegs above the bridge and the rest below leaving the faster water below the weir out. As we were about to draw Brian Smith said that he didn't mind where he drew as long as it was not the peg on the fence known as the deeps I asked him what was the peg number he replied "7", yes you know what number I pulled out of the hat yep 7 great start to the day I thought. As I tackled up I soon found out why they call it the deeps Dave Wood on the peg above had got around 6 ft a couple of rod lengths out, I started to plumb up and had 10ft of water right on the end of the rod and around 11ft a rod and half out so that is were I decided to fish the stick float. I threw out the option of fishing the waggler due to the depth and the extra pace on the water so set up a small maggot feeder for over and a straight lead for over the top of the stick float line.

Rig 1, the stick line I fished a 13-14ft float rod with a closed face reel, a 8 x no4 alloy stick, 2.6lb mainline to a 0.08 hooklength and a 20 B520 hook, with no6 shot strung in the bottom half of the rig and 2 no8 down the bottom end.

Rig 2, the maggot feeder was a 11ft 6in rod with 6lb mainline & 0.14 hooklength and a 16 B611 hook, 3/4oz maggot feeder.

Rig 3, 10ft bomb rod, 4lb mainline to a 0.10 hooklength with a 18 B611 hook and a 3/8oz bomb for searching the bottom end of the stick line.

For bait I had brought 2 pints of bronze maggots, 1 pint of hemp and a few worms, I had brought some 4 & 8mm pellets but as I not drawn up by the bridge these would stay in the bag.

I started the match on the stick and after only a couple of runs through hooked my first fish of the day a Gonk, another 5 mins passed and Gonk no2 was swung in and after 30mins my count was up to 5. At least I was catching as the 2 guy's above me were still dry but Brian below me had around the same Gonk count and a couple of small Dace, by the end of the first hour I had managed to put another 2 Gonks and 3 small Dace in the net with 1 of the Dace around 3oz. While the sport was not fast at least I was having a few bites as Dave & John were still dry and Brian below me had around the same number of fish as me, then on around the hour mark the the wind began to blow a bit stronger and it was quite cold and in the worst direction downstream. I thought it was just me but over the next hour me & Brian failed to get another bite? just like flicking a switch they stopped feeding, I had cut back on the feed, tied the straight lead altered the shotting & depth on the stick but all met with the same blank result. With 2 hours gone my phone rang and it was Steve Robson who was on a peg 4 just below the bridge asking how things were going and after I had told him he said that he was doing ok with 4 fish, 4 what I asked he said Barbel? I replied that he must have been smoking a Jamaican woodbine and too stop taking the pee he said got to go my rods nearly got pulled in! With us not catching at the time I would take 5mins off and go for a walk upstream to see Steve, so I poured a cup of coffee and went to see him although he was only 3 pegs above me I could see JB on peg 5 Steve was only on peg 4 but must have been 400 yards above him and was left scratching my head as to why there was such a long gap in the pegs. When I got to Steve he said that he had lost that one on the lead so he was still on 4 Barbel two on the stick float and two on the lead & pellet, he had got the first 2 Barbel out on the stick on just 2lb line and when he realised he was on a few decided to chuck the lead while he re-set up the stick with 4lb line had hooked a further 3 on that? Must be solid I said and went back to my peg wishing him all the best, Stu above Steve was like the rest of us with one little Chublet and I Gonk so it looked like all the Barbel were in Steve's peg. Too cut a long boring story short it never got any better for the rest of us for the remainder of the match I managed another 3-4 Gonks before the all out, it had fished crap apart from Steve, around 3 hours into the match Brian & JB went up to have a look at Setve and said the he had 2 Barbel & lost 1 in just the 10mins they stood behind him and was now on around 8-9 fish? By the end of the match we had all had enough on a very hard day and to make it worse me & Brian had got to weigh in, to give you a feel of the match I will give you a full run down of all the weights from the bottom peg upstream.

peg 13 John Bab 4oz 8 drams

peg 12 Ade 4oz 8 drams

peg 11 M.Whitmore D.N.W

peg 10 Baz Robson D.N.W

peg 9 Martin 2lb 13oz 3rd a big 1 1/2lb perch on the feeder helped.

peg 8 Brian 15oz

peg 7 me 1lb 10z 4th

peg 6 Woody 2oz 8 drams

peg 5 JB 8oz

peg 4 Super Steve 94lb 7oz 1st but only just my 89lb?

peg 3 Stu 7oz

peg 2 Big Ritchie 5lb 12oz 2nd 3 Chub on the feeder above the bridge.

peg 1 K. Whitmore D.N.W

Steve ended the day with 16 Barbel and losing 5 with all but 2 falling to the bronze maggot and stick float the other 2 on the lead & pellet, well done to Steve which is the best bag of fish I have ever seen from the river Avon probably from any river, I still told him he was crap for not breaking the ton, he said it was the best days fishing he had ever had and better than catching 200lb of Carp, for the rest of us it was just Crap.

Blythe Pairs Winter League Sunday 30/10/11

This weekend saw us back at Blythe Waters for the start of this years pairs winter league which me and my travelling/fishing partner Jon (Stavros) Baker are the defending champions the title we won earlier this year in May. This year we had decided to limit the league to 9 pairs as we are only going to use one pool Cherries, last year we had it on two pools to re-leave some of the pressure off the Cherries pool as the league was getting more popular with 13 pairs which is to many to have on one pool so we used Bridge pool as well, so this year was a first come first served basis. We had planned to come up for a practise the in the week leading up to the match but I failed to get the time off work so we were going to have to rely on passed knowledge of the venue, the weather was still very mild for the time of the year in fact the temperature went up to 15c and I fished in a t-shirt all day is this 2 days before November! We walked around the pool before the draw and it was like a lot of pools around the country at the moment suffering from a low water, the scaffold tubes that hold the floating boom down that runs along the length of the pool were now around 2 1/2ft out of the water where normally they are around 1ft out so the pool has lots around 18 inches. I sent Stav up for the draw so I could blame him if we got bad pegs he came back with peg 20 for me and 29 for him two very good pegs so it was now down to us to catch a few and we had no excuses off these pegs not to do well, My peg 20 is the last peg in A section and a corner peg with a long right-hand edge to it's self and probably the shortest pole reach to the boom at 13m, Stav's peg 29 is around 14.5m to the boom and has threw up a few good weights over the years as with next door peg 30 the both stick out on a point making them able to reach the boom the peg either side 28 & 31 have to throw a feeder/wagg to reach it. I have won a Halesowen club match off peg 20 a couple of years ago with 78lb caught mainly shallow by the boom, a lot of people catch well from the edge on this peg where as well as the usual Carp there is also a few Chub that hang the reeds down the edge so this was how I was going to attack the peg. I planned to fish pellet shallow & on the deck up to the boom and fish worm & caster down the edge at 13m with a back up pellet/corn line down the edge at 6m where I could feed by hand.

Rig 1, 13m shallow pellet rig 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.16 Silstar to a 16 Preston PR27 hook with a lasso for a 6mm hard pellet fished from1 to 2 1/2ft deep with Preston 13 hollo elastic.

Rig 2, 13m on the deck rig for pellet or corn, 4 x 14 Maver Jona, with the same line and elastic as above but with a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook.

Rig 3, 13m edge rig for worm, Preston Durra 10 4x12 float, 0.16 line to a 3 175 hook, with black hydro elastic set on the deck in 3ft of water.

Rig 4, 6m pellet/corn line all the same as above but only around 2 1/2ft deep.

For bait I had brought the usual array of pellets from micro-8mm as you could be feeding 4-6mm pellets for a shallow line like today or feeding 6-8mm pellets for the pellet wagg on one of the wider pegs or micro's for the method on the same wide pegs so you have to bring everything at this time of the year to cover all eventuality's depending on your draw, I had also brought 2 pints of casters, 3/4 of a kilo of worms (which I failed to use a couple of weeks ago on a Chubbing match on the canal), a couple of tins of corn and a few 6mm expanders for the hook.

I started off by feeding a pot of worm/caster with the odd grain of in on the 13m edge line and fed a few 4mm pellets with the odd grain of corn on the 6m edge line for later, I mounted a 6mm hard pellet onto the lasso and shipped out to the boom with the rig set around 18 inches deep and started to fire 6-8 4mm pellets over the top. Only 5mins into the match and after lifting and dropping the rig every time I fed to try and simulate the loose pellets falling through the water the float carried on down the hole and my 13hollo elastic following, I shipped back a bit sharp to get the fish away from some roots that were trailing underneath the boom from some bushes that had been cropped off above but they had left the roots in. I had found these roots while plumbing up with the deck rig and for that reason I had put a short no4 into my pole and added my 14.5m section to give me a bit more reach so I was feeding a line around 1m away from the roots along the boom, the fish was soon in the net a common of around 3lb and a welcome start to the match so early on. Another 2-3 mins later the same again only a smaller 1lb sample this time and the next put-in I didn't have time to feed before the elastic was pulled from the pole, the first hour followed suit with 10 carp all falling to my shallow attack most of them in the 1-2lb bracket a bit on the small side but as far as I could see up the top end of the pool I was doing a lot better than everyone else I was not complaining. As I re-fed my worm line for later on I saw Stav land another fish in the distance which I had seen him do a couple of times the first hour out of the corner of my eye so at least we were both catching, but as I was the furthest peg up the pool I couldn't see the guy's on the disabled pegs & bay pegs in my section so I just had to get my head down and catch as much as I could. Back out on the shallow rig and Carp no11 was soon hooked but this one hadn't read the script and ploughed straight through the trailing roots off the end of the boom, after trying different angles to pull the fish out of the roots I was sure the fish had gone just leaving my rig attached to the roots some 13m away and as I pulled for a break my 13hollo elastic broke at the bottom end of my pulla kit and shot over to the boom, Great de-elasticated. After a bit of swearing I calmed down and got another top kit from my holdall deciding to up the elastic to black hydro to get the fish away from the boom a bit quicker as the fish grow big in here up to 20lb! It took me around 20mins to get a bite back on the shallow rig and it looked like the disturbance of loosing that fish had spooked them off a bit but at around 5-6lb it was a better stamp of fish, another 20mins passed before I landed another fish this one around 4lb so maybe the bigger fish had moved in pushing the stockie's out of the way in-between these two fish I had pulled out of a couple making me think that the elastic was a bit too strong? But what do you do fish lighter and risk them getting stuck in the roots again? I decided to have a look on the edge worm line and rest the shallow line for a while, first put-in with a worm head on the hook I hooked a fish that shot off along the edge of the reeds towards empty peg 21 I applied as much side-strain as I could without my pole breaking but couldn't stop the fish ploughing through the reeds and shedding the hook leaving me stuck up again only this time some 16m away! Shit! luckily this time I only lost the rig 2 put-ins loosing 2-0 to the carp! After sorting another rig all I hooked was a couple of small roach & a skimmer so I put a big pot of feed in and had a quick look on the 6m margin but after only 5mins without a bite I was back on the worm line, this time the float buried and I pulled as hard as I dared a 6lb common came out spitting water around 30 seconds after being hooked! A've it. Another carp of 3lb was all I could extract from the worm line before all the bites dried up another 15mins later on the shallow rig and I was now struggling to get a bite of any description, with around 3 1/2 of the match gone I picked up the deck rig put a 6mm expander on the hook and shipped out to the boom within 30 seconds I had a 3lb carp and a 1lb skimmer next put-in. Just when I thought I had found them again the 2 bites in the deck was all I could muster and a quick look on both my margin lines produced just 2 small Roach, now we were into the last hour so I was going to stick to the shallow rig which I had most of my fish on and over the next half hour had 5 small Carp in the 8oz-1 1/2lb bracket. With around 15mins left I hooked a bigger fish which found the roots hanging below the boom and the same as the one after the first hour I had to pull for a break loosing the rig this time but leaving my elastic in the pole, that was the end of the action for me but Ollie on peg 19 next to me hooked a fish a few minutes before the whistle he had only had 4 Carp all day but this one wasn't playing ball. A few minutes after the whistle a big swirl erupted by Ollie's net as he tried to net the beast I saw the tail of the fish it was BIG, after another attempt with the net Ollie managed to get the fish in and I shouted " Has anyone got a saddle for this one Ollie could ride this one home" later the scales revealed the fish to be 18lb 8oz! I told you they grow em big up here!. I packed in and walked down to the bay end of my section pegs 8 & 10 where Steve & Chris had fished both of them saying it had fished hard with Steve only having 1 Carp and Chris having 2 lumps in the last half hour to get him our of jail as he was dry until then, it looked like this end of the lake had fished hard as the first three pegs on the disabled pegs in my section weighed in no one broke double figures, Steve's 1 Carp was 4lb and Chris's 2 late get out of jail lumps went 20lb, there was another 20lb+ weight before Ollie put 35lb on the scales with that last lump doubling his weight he had got 4 other Carp to go with it. I had got 20 Carp but with around 13-14 of them under 2lb a big weight was not on the cards but I was more than happy to win the section with 51lb 8oz, I had to have a word with Carl the gaffer about the roots in the peg and the gear I had lost he said he would sort it out, I could understand the ones I lost up the edge on the reeds but there is no need for roots trailing off the boom it would take less than a minute to cut them out with a knife and a boat! Carl himself had caught a few fish on the feeder and up in the water to put 36lb on the scales to put him in the lead in his section Stav said it would be close as he might have around the same weight, there was a couple of 20lb+ weights in the section then Stav put his fish on to reveal 40lb odd and with only 2 left to weigh in his section he was sitting pretty, the other 2 weighed 16lb & 12lb to give Stav the section win and us the perfect start to the league with 2 section wins and a perfect score along with 1st & 2nd on the match. Rock on a great start to the league long may it continue.

River Severn Arley Sunday 23/10/11

This weekend saw us back on the river Severn at Arley this time for a Halesowen club match, if you have been reading my blog I won the Cradley match on here some 6 weeks ago with just 2 barbel & 1 Chub for 12lb we were all hoping that the river would fish a bit better this time as there were a lot of anglers struggling for bites that day. This match had been nominated as the fur & feather for this year back at January at the A.G.M so there was an extra incentive to do well today with Turkeys up for grabs, I drew out a peg just one below where I had won the Cradley match from so I was happy with my draw and confident of catching a couple of Barbel from it if they were in a feeding mood. On the Cradley match I had one Barbel on the pellet and a Barbel & Chub on the maggot so they were the same baits I had brought with me today along with a some hemp. I planned to fish the feeder around 3/4 of the way over on the edge of the slightly faster water while feeding the maggot & wagg line down the middle for later if the Barbel didn't want to play ball, I plumbed up on the wagg line and found a nice 7ft of water which I planned to feed from the start while fishing the feeder early on. The river was not clear but had that nasty cold tea colour again which is sediment you can see collecting on your keepnet by the end of the day, there is always a big debate as to why the river fishes harder than it used to but I feel that this sediment blocks the fishes gills which stops them from feeding so well.

My gear for today was my trusty old Silstar TraverseX heavy feeder rod coupled with a Shimano Stradic 4000GTM, 8lb Maxima mainline, 40gram large Kamasan block end feeder, 3ft of 0.22 Slistar hooklength to a 14 Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hook for the pellet.

My maggot feeder set up was a Maver Barbel Specialist rod with the same reel & line as my pellet set up but with a 16 Drennan super specialist hook.

The waggler rod was a ABU Suveran 13ft float, a Shimano Super 2500gtm reel, 5lb Maxima mainline, Dave Harrell 4AAA waggler, 0.14 hooklength to a 18 Drennan carbon chub hook.

For bait I had a mixed 3mm Dynamite & 4mm Sonu elliptical halibut pellets and a few 4mm Dynamite Source pellets for the feeder, for the hook I had got 6,8 & 10mm halibuts and 8mm Source pellets, 4 pints of white maggots & 2 pints of hemp.

I started the match on the pellet feeder cast to the edge of the crease where the water is slightly faster and after 4-5 quick casts in the first 10mins to get some feed in I settled down prepared for a long wait, I had also started to feed the waggler line with maggots slightly upstream of me and some hemp just in-front of me. After around 30mins the tip pulled forward and dropped back as a good fish had dislodged the feeder and I was connected to the first fish of the day, the fish tore of downstream and I knew straight away that it was a Barbel and after a good 4-5min battle I netted a nice fish of 5-6lb a great start. I was happy to have caught a fish early on as it settles you down I was just hoping it was not a solo fish, around 4-5 casts later and the rod top pulled forward again as fish no2 had picked up my 8mm halibut pellet. While I was playing the fish I was aware of someone standing on the top of the bank watching me and after I netted it he said well done and I turned around to see Dave Foxall who runs the float only Tuesday matches on this stretch, the fish was a good 6-7lb and after unhooking it and putting it in the keepnet Dave said that Oliie below me had just had a 4lb Chub on the wagg so it looked like the fish were going to have a go. After a quick chat with Dave he said he was off to see how the rest were getting on and I recast the feeder to the same spot and after only 30 seconds the rod pulled around again as fish no3 was hooked, I couldn't believe how quick the bite had come after the cast and it looked like there was a few fish down there having a go. This fish got stuck in some weed out in the middle but with a little pressure he came through it this one was a little smaller around 4lb, another 20mins later Gary Mason who had drawn below Cromwell's hole by the car park came up for a walk saying that he had not had a bite and apart from Ollie no one was catching. Ollie had another good chub but for the rest it was hard going so I was sitting pretty on 3 barbel and Gary said he was going for a walk upstream to see if his mate Shaun Waite was catching who was a few pegs above, with around 2 hours gone now another bite saw me connected to Barbel no4 just a Gary came back saying that Shaun & Martin above me were both blank! This fish was giving me the run around getting stuck in some more weed a bit further down the peg than the last fish I had to slack off on the fish which is good tactic too fool the Barbel into thinking he is free and swims out of the weed on it's own (sometimes!), if you keep on pulling most of the time you are making it worse by pulling the fish deeper into the weed. After a good 6-7 battle I slipped the net under a good fish which I estimated at around 8lb Gary said I was making him feel sick and was going back to his peg to have another go, I was enjoying this 2 hours into the match I was 4-0 up on the Barbel and I was thinking that if the fish kept on coming like this a good weight was on the cards. The next hour produced another 2 Barbel so with 2 hours to go I had 6 Barbel but hadn't had a bite for the last half hour of that last hour, another 30mins later without any more signs it was time to rest the swim and have a look on the waggler. I run the waggler through the peg for around 15mins for 2 Dace and 1 Roach around 2-3 ounce apiece at this point I felt that if was to hook any Barbel or Chub on this I would have had one by now as I had fed this line for 3 1/2 hours before trying it, I felt that I rested the pellet line long enough so I went back out on that for another 1/2 hour but as the match was coming to a close I got the feeling that the Barbel had done a disappearing act on me. With half an hour left before the all out I decided to have a last throw of the dice on a maggot feeder thrown down the bottom of the peg in the area that I felt where most of my loose fed maggots down the middle were landing just in-case there was a Barbel/Chub hanging around there, I had 3 fish from line in the last knockings of the match but sadly they were only Gudgeon and the all out sounded. I was happy with my 6 Barbel haul and I was hoping that they would be enough to get me a Turkey for the Christmas table and get me into the misses good books ( mega bonus brownie points!), the word on the bank was that the rest of the stretch had fished as hard as it had done a few weeks ago on the Cradley match here but I never count my chickens before they've hatched. Gary came and weighed my fish in giving me 39lb 13oz which I was more than happy with, Ollie below me had 3 Chub on the waggler for 11lb odd and big Ritchie in the car park had 1 Barbel & 1 Chub for 10lb odd. The top section at Hexton's farm had fished very hard with Steve Robson the best weight with 6lb odd of Dace and the middle section above the Island won by Andy Paggget with 2 Barbel for 8lb odd, I had won the match with plenty to spare so I was well pleased with my day's fishing and the added bonus of it being the fur & feather to boot.

Staffs-Worc canal Botterham Lock-Swindon 16/10/11

This match was another Cradley Heath club match on the Staffs-Worc canal at Swindon and Botterham lock, normally when these two stretches are used the winner comes from Botterham lock as this pound contains a large head of Chub. The Saturday before our match some of our club members were on the Botterham stretch with weights of 18,14,13 and two 10lb weights of Chub you can see why it is the place to draw, not that Swindon is rubbish but it is more of what I would call normal with weights of silverfish on squatts & hemp with just odd Chub & big Perch. With this in mind we had decided to pay out as two separate matches and with 20 names down this had worked out easily with 10 pegs put on each, so we were all set and after a good breakfast in the Green Man pub in Swindon village we took the draw. I came out with peg 8 at Botterham and a day hunting Chub was the order of the day, my travelling partner Stav had pulled out peg 20 ( the end peg again!) at Swindon so I gave him my squatts as I was going all out Chubbing with worm, caster & big maggots. This was the first time I had even seen this stretch let alone fish it as every time we have had the two stretches over the years I have always drawn the short pound or Swindon, the short pound is what it says on the tin a short stretch above Swindon bridge with a few mooring in-between two locks with only enough room for 3-4 pegs but full of Roach and a few odd Chub. The last time we fished this stretch a couple of years ago I framed with 9lb odd of hemp Roach and two small 1lb Chub, at last this time I was walking past these pegs up and over the next lock as the pegs at Botterham are on the opposite bank and up too Chub heaven. The first 100m above the lock cannot be pegged due to overhead power cables then as you turn the corner the first peg (our peg 10) was on a set of reeds the rest of the stretch looks very Chubby indeed with lots of overhanging trees & bushes. I put my tackle down on peg 8 and went for a walk along the stretch to have a look at the two most famous pegs here the end peg by the cottage (peg1) and the green pipe peg (peg2), they both looked very good and it was the pipe peg that had won the match the week before with 18lb. At my peg I was told by John Morgan who had fished here the week before that he was 2nd with 14lb form somewhere in-between mine and Baz's peg to my left as they had only put 8 pegs up here last week, so at least we were in an area that had some form. My peg had two bushes on the far bank that was only 11m wide with a 1m gap in-between them that looked nice and fishy, I was only going to set up two rigs one for over and one for down the shelf in the deeper water away from the bushes so I could run the rig through when the locks opened.

Rig 1, for the far bank a Preston 4x10 pink float, 0.14 Silstar straight through to a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook and tight black hydro elastic through just in the top section of a power kit.

Rig 2, in the deeper water a 4x14 M.A.P pole stick for holding back with the same hook and line as above but black hydro through the top 2 of a power kit.

For bait I had got 1/2 kilo of worms, 1 pint of casters, 1 pint of hemp and a pint of big white maggots nice and simple I was going to fish hemp & maggot over and worm & caster down the track, Just before the all in the locks opened and the first of the days boats was on its way and I was shocked at the pace of the water with only around 300m in-between the two locks. I started on the deeper water rig but was unsure whether or not to feed and wait for the impending barge, well after around the first 40mins and 10 boats later we were all moaning how busy the canal was and no bites as you could hardly get the bait in the water. It looked like every boater on the canal was out today on the very unseasonal hot sunny day for October then all of a sudden like someone had flicked a switch and the boats stopped and we didn't get another one until the last 10mins of the day? very strange. I had a couple of gonks on the maggot before I hooked my first Chub which I managed to get away from the roots of the bushes only to pull out of it down the track as I had to double break down my pole due to the bank behind me falling away very steeply, never mind I thought there are plenty more where that came from, WRONG. To cut a long story short it fished crap I hooked what I thought was another Chub half way through only to ping out of it a second later leaving my rig up the bushes Great, it was like someone had poisoned the water with acid or something no one was catching there was only Ollie on the end peg (1o) with 3 Chub and John Crump on peg (1) with 2 chub and two Chublets the rest of us had nothing. I had a few gonks, 2 Perch and 4 Roach I couldn't believe it the first time I had managed to drawn up here and the Chub had failed to feed for what ever reason CRAP is the only word to describe it. John's fish on peg 1 went 4lb odd Steve on the famous pipe peg 2 had a 3lb Chub on the last put-in of the match (jammy git) to weigh 3lb 9oz then 5 DNW's on the trot, John Morgan who had 14lb the week before had 1 Roach first put-in then nothing for the rest of the of the match just 1 fish? My bits went 1lb 9oz then Ollie on the end peg (10) had 6lb 9oz for his 3 Chub & a few bits. Four anglers weighed in out of 10 lepers bath water or what! Down at Swindon BIG Ritchie had 2 Chub & a small Carp for 1oz short of Ollie with 6lb 8oz, my partner Stav was joint 3rd with Martin Yardsley with 5lb 15oz both of them small fish squatt weights. It was noticeable that all the money was won from end pegs on both of the stretches! This was one to forget for me.

Staffs-Worc canal Hinksford- Navi Sunday 9/10/11

This one was another Cradley Heath club match on the canal at Hinksford which has been good to me the last couple of times I have been there and I was hoping for more of the same, the only concern we had was that there had been a league match on the stretch the day before so the weights were expected to be lower than normal. I drew in-between two good pegs the cables and the bird feeding table, I started off having a few small fish on the squatt for the first couple of hours before having the odd better Roach on the hemp later on. The word on the bank was that the canal was fishing very hard after the day's before fishing and the unseasonal amount of boats for the time of year, it was strange to be fishing in a t-shirt in October and the boats were out in force one of the lads had fished the day before and said that we had more boats in the first hour than they had all day on the Saturday. There had been a big Chub caught up the top end by the bridge and JB was catching a few Roach on the hemp apart from that it had fished very hard, it turned out that it was John Babbington had caught the chub which was 4lb 6oz added to a few smaller fish won the day with 6lb 9oz loosing another 2 Chub. 2nd was JB with 5lb 10oz of hemp roach and my 4lb 11oz was enough for 3rd which I was happy with, in hindsight I should have gone back on the squatt for the last hour for a few more small fish instead of sitting on the hemp waiting for Roach that never returned after I had caught a few. There was weights of 3lb 14oz, 3lb 12oz, 3lb 10oz and 3lb but a few failed to break a pound when you consider I won the fur and feather with over 10lb and 4lb+ was needed for 10th in December in cold weather it had fished quite hard.

River Avon Pershore Sunday 2/10/11

This match was probably the best river match of the year with 3olb of Roach & Skimmers winning and 4lb needed for 10th place, this was a Cradley Heath club match on the left and right hand banks of the river Avon at Pershore. I was told by Stav that the stretch was full of Bleak and worth going for if they were in-front of you after he fished it two weeks before, did I listen did I heck! After spending an hour on the stick then a hour on the wagg trying to get through hordes of Bleak I decided to have a go on the feeder in an attempt to get some bait on the deck, I should have gone for the bleak after 5 hours of fishing my poultry 3lb 2oz was nowhere. Ade was easy winner from the first peg next to the bridge on the right bank with 30lb of big Roach and Skimmers on the wagg with hemp & caster, 14lb odd was 2nd of mainly bleak and another 14lb of roach on the hemp & tare was 3rd, there was a lot of good backing weights between 7 & 9lb. Stav had told me what to do and I didn't listen so it was my fault for not catching, he had 9lb odd for 4th of mainly Bleak! Two match's on the river Avon and the wheel's have come off big style!!!!!!!!!

River Avon Bredon Sunday 18/9/11

This was one to forget for me with no water in the river and running very clear I thought that the bream wouldn't feed as we had the next stretch adjacent to this a couple of years ago under similar circumstances which I won with 4lb roach on the pole/hemp and not a single skimmer/Bream was caught. So I set up for a scratching match with the pole as main attack but Shaun Waite next to me went shit or bust with a single feeder rod & groundbait attack, Yes you've guest it after around an hour his tip went around and bream no1 was in the net then next chuck the same response! My 2 Perch were now looking sick. Shaun went on to obliterate the match with 5 Bream for 16lb, Malcolm on the next peg had 2 for 6lb and 2nd, all I had was 3 perch which I threw back in disgust for a DNW after spending the rest of the match on the feeder in an attempt to try and sneak a Bream or two off the end of Shaun's shoal ( and failing miserably ). From Shaun downstream the next 14 pegs all failed to break the 2lb barrier with many only weighing in ounces then the last 3 pegs found a few silvers with 4lb, 3lb and 4lb respectively nearest to the car park where they must get a bit of feed from the odd pleasure angler. God I was bored spending hours staring at a motionless tip and to cap off a bad day I broke the number 5 section of my pole over £200 worth when I was pulling a log in closer I had hooked off the bottom, Great I love fishing!

River Severn Arley Sunday 11/9/11

Another Cradley match this one back on the Severn at Arley which to be honest fished very hard or crap to be truthful I had one barbel on a 8mm pellet then another barbel and a chub when I switch to the maggot feeder later in the match. When with around an hour of the match to go Shaun Watie walked passed on the way home after packing up early saying that there was only one other barbel caught on the whole of the match I thought he was pulling my leg, well it turned out to be true my 3 fish for 12lb 9oz was more than double the next weight which was Baz Robson with that one 6lb barbel and a lot of good anglers with 1lb odd or less of bits.

Larford Speci Lake Sunday 4/9/11

This was a Cradley club match on the Speci lake at Larford, this turned out to be a lot harder than we all imagined, this one was won by Bob (the bosun) Evans with 74lb and Steve Robson 2nd with 68lb. I was 3rd with 51lb with 2 carp on the pellet wagg early on nothing in the middle of the match then hooking 3 carp in the last 30mins on the pole & meat at 6m, the last 2 in the last 2 put-ins going around 23lb one around 15lb netted after the whistle.

The Riddings Folly Pool Sunday 28/8/11

This was another Halesowen club match on a new venue to me and most of the the club at the Riddings near Tamworth, after doing a bit of digging it became apparent that because of the pellet feed ban ( allowed on the hook only!) on the venue that meat, worm and casters are the main baits to take. I drew on the right-hand bank in a gap in-between one of the 3 lilly pad islands that run down the centre of the Folly pool which I must say is one of the most picturesque I have seen in a long time. I won this one with 78lb 4oz on the pellet wagg with a 8mm pellet on the hook and feeding 8mm cubed meat over the top using 4 tins of feed, I feed a worm & caster on the pole line at the start but never even picked it up after that, Martin Yardsley was 2nd with 53lb which I thought was a good result when the afternoon open match on the pool the day before was won with 64lb.

Clattercote res Sunday 21/8/11

I was hoping that this Halesowen club match fished better than when we came for a practise where I ended up with 1 carp and lost 2, well it didn't Steve won the match with 7 carp for 60lb, I had 3 carp for 26lb 12oz on the method for 4th on the day and one to forget as it's around 120 miles round trip from home twice for 6 bites in 10 hours of fishing. I for one will not be in a hurry to return here in a hurry!

Solhampton Kingfisher pool Sunday 7/8/11

This was a Cradley club match on the Kingfisher pool at Solhampton and I have caught a few fish from here in the past so was confident with a good draw that I could do well. I drew on the car park bank which is a good area the main man too watch was Kev Clarke on the end peg by the Duck pond. I caught fish from all over the peg from margins to 6m and up in the water on a combo of pellets and maggots, by the end of the match I weighed in 90lb 5oz for 2nd with Kev winning the match with 108lb ( a good angler on a good peg/ game over). Stav managed 78lb for 3rd but not enough to take the £1 side bet mini series so fron 2-0 down I had come back too win 2-3 and the golden nugget was handed over by Stav, ( that's 3 years on the trot mate must try harder!).

Playing catch-up.

Sorry I have not been reporting on my bolg for sometime but I suffered a great personal loss a few weeks ago on the 21st of August following the sudden death of my Mom, as you can imagine I have not been in the right frame of mind for writing about my fishing in the last few weeks. I will attempt to play catch-up and fill you in the best I can with just short reports to get back up to date.

R.I.P Mom I will miss you forever.

Day 4 Fishing Week Cob House Open 4/8/11

Back again for another Cob House breakfast sorry Open but you have to fuel up before you do battle with the fish in Laugherne Island and after the 4th Cob breakfast in 8 days I think I will have to get some bigger jeans, there was the same amount of anglers as yesterday 15 but with 39 pegs on the pool we would have plenty of room and hopefully plenty of fish. Into the draw bag and I pulled out peg 16, Stav went in and came back with peg 22 a peg he has had a couple of time before and had a moan as peg 22 is in the bottom bowl with no island to throw too, my peg is on the opposite bank looking across the pool to Satv but with the last peg able to throw to the bottom point of the island, although 5 pegs apart we had drawn next to each other again for the 3rd day running and with us virtually facing each other it would be another battle for the £1 side-bet-series. Scott had drawn another end-peg corner peg 36 but Stav and I had couldn't complain about the amount of room we had,

In an attempt to play catch up I will cut this one short, I weighed in 119lb 9oz to come nowhere with 250lb winning and Scott 2nd with 197lb. I caught most of my fish on the method feeder and spent too much time trying to catch fish down the edge on the paste but couldn't make 'em have it, I think if I had have stuck to the feeder I would have made 3rd which was 140lb. The best part of the day was when Stav weighed in 119lb 7oz just 2oz less than me to make it 2-2 in our £1 side bet series so we would have to battle it out on our club match at Solhampton on Sunday.

Day 3 Fishing Week Cob House Open 3/8/11

Today we had booked into the open match at Cob House Fisheries which was on Wyatts pool and we were looking forward to it after yesterdays disaster at Clattercote , Wyatts pool is absolutely solid with fish and you are guaranteed to catch lots of fish at this time of the year the hardest part is trying to hit the bites as there are so many fish in the pool. The day started off with the usual full English in the excellent Mayfly Cafe then off around the tackle shop to pool up, there was 15 booked into the match which would give us a bit of room on the 30 peg pool so some big weights should be on the cards. I pulled out peg 5 which Stav had won our knock-up off seven days earlier and then Stav pulled out peg 3 the next peg in so we were going to have another peg to peg battle, after getting to the peg and setting up my platform in the water I decided to set up the usual 3 rigs to keep it nice and simple.

Rig 1, 3m deck rig a 0.30gr Maver Invisible series 7 float, 0.18 mainline to 0.16 hooklength with size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, Preston 13 hollo elastic, all the shot bulked up 6inches from the hook in 3ft of water.

Rig 2, 3m down the edge, 4X12 Preston Durra 10 float, 0.16 line straight through to size 3 175 hook with the same 13 elastic and shotting in 18 inches of water.

Rig 3, 3m shallow rig, 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.16 to Preston PR27 hook for a lassoed pellet, 13 hollo elastic.

For bait I had decided just to go with pellet and corn as feed I normally take a few pints of dead maggots to feed down the edge but as I was on a weeks holiday from work I couldn't be bothered to fetch any, along with a few 4&6mm expanders for the hook was all the bait I had brought for the day. A lot of the big weights on here have been coming on the paste but I am not the best when it comes to this bait so I tend to fish to my strength's instead of pulling my hair out trying to hit the bites, I know I should fish it a lot more to get my head around it and I have won a few match's on it in the past but I prefer to fish it when I am targeting bigger fish. Scott (the local hero) Jones had drawn peg 20 and with one guy ringing up just before the draw to say he couldn't make it there was one peg that was going to have a lot of room!, yes you've guessed it with every other peg in it was nice and easy pegs 1,3,5 and so on 15 blokes on 30 pegs Scott on peg 20 had got 4 spare pegs from 16-19 to himself up to the end of the pool after the guy had cancelled, not only does Scott know all the fishes individual names as he works on the fishery but he knows how to catch them too and would be very hard to beat today from that peg. With Scott aside I had to concentrate on beating Stav off the next peg as if I let him take 3-0 lead in our traditional £1 side bet it would be all over, we had only planned to fish 2 more match's this week and he would be hell to sit next to with all the bragging rights going back home in the car.

At the start of the match I set off on the usual 3m deck rig with a 6mm expander on the hook and feeding 6-8 4mm feed pellets every put-in, it took only a few seconds to hook the first fish of the day and the first hour took on a familiar pattern with 23 in the net I was just hoping that they would keep coming this time and not slow down as they had on my last visit. It was another very hot day with the mercury rising to 30'c the same as yesterday but as on my last two visits after the first hour the bites on the pellet became very hard to hit, I started to miss a lot of bites and suffer from some foul-hooked fish so out came the shallow rig but I put on the long no4 instead of the short one to put the rig into slightly deeper water. This solves the problem of the liners and foul-hookers as most bites just hook themselves at this short a distance and the fish tend to be of a slightly better stamp, Scott was catching well as expected but with the weather so hot and a lot of fish basking around on the surface he said that they may well be getting ready to spawn again as some were swimming around in pairs( this is August!). I could here Stav catching but with the water level down there was a bush in-between us so I couldn't see him or how fast he was catching so I just got my head down and tried to extract as many fish as possible from the peg, for the rest of the match I caught most of my fish on the shallow rig and again failed to catch much from the edge the same as my last visit but this time we had got room so I was at a loss as to why they wouldn't settle there.

At the all out I had managed 113 fish and a quick walk down to Stav revealed he had around 95 fish so unless he had a lot of bigger fish i might have pulled one back in our series? A quick shout over to Scott before we started to weigh in revealed he was claiming 150-160 fish and the rest of the anglers on the bank saying he had won it out of sight, a lot of the other anglers said they had caught but had not counted the fish so we would have to wait for the scales to see how well. It might sound a bit daft catching so many fish but in the heat with a lot of the fish sunbathing it had fished harder than I thought I was thinking there would be more fish caught as it's not uncommon here for there to be a few double tons. The scales started on peg 1 but the angler on it failed to weigh I think he was just out for the day fishing from a carp chair on top of the bank and looked to tip back 30-40lb, Stav's 95 fish went 126lb and my 113 fish went 150lb 140z and the most important part of the day had been done pulling it back to 2-1 in our side bet series. The guy on peg 7 had 103lb and pegs 9 & 11 had 115lb & 129lb receptively there were no more big weights on our bank then Scott put 209lb 8oz to take the match, the next best weight on the other bank after Scott was 125lb so that left me in 2nd place so I was happy to coin and beat Stav at the same time. Stav had missed out on 3rd place by 3lb (must try harder mate), so well done to Scott for giving us all a good battering (on the end peg flier) and we had to drive all the way home only to come back again in the morning to do it all again (it's a hard life). Scott had organized a match on Laugherne Island, we had planned to go to Manor Farm the next day but after a long consideration the Cob House breakfast won hands down.

Cob House, Worcester Open 3rd August 2011

Wyatts - 3rd August 2011
Peg 3 Baker John 126 7
Peg 5 West Simon 150 14 2nd
Peg 22 Jones Alan 125 10
Peg 13 Waters Len 96 8
Peg 15 Cannon Martin 63 4
Peg 20 Jones Scott 209 8 1st
Peg 24 Evason Graham 89 5
Peg 9 Silke Derek 115 3
Peg 28 Gray Jamie 71 15
Peg 30 Fellows Luke 72 4
Peg 11 Nobbs Sam 129 2 3rd
Peg 26 Tudor Alan 68 12
Peg 7 Browning John 103 4
Peg 1 Nixon Michael DNW

Day 2 Fishing week Clattercote Tuesday 2/8/11

Today's match at Clattercote Reservoir was only a knock-up between 6 of us as a bit of practice for a forth coming Halesowen club match on the venue, there was only one of us JB who had fished the place before so after a bit of homework Stav and I had decided to take rods only and leave the poles at home. We have fished most of the other British Waterways venues like Boddington, Drayton & Earlswood which are all no go areas for expensive carbon poles and are home to method feeders, pellet/baggin' waggler and straight lead methods. Me and Stav decided to have a go on the baggin' wagg for a change as it is a method both of have not used to any great effect over the years, after watching the Guru DVD with Steve Ringer fishing it on the same venue at was all we needed to have a go at it after all that's what a practise session is all about. We both dug-out some old baggin' wagg's that we had made ourselves a few years ago but they looked short stumpy jobs made from pike floats so we decided to buy a few off the bailiff John Bonney, we had arranged to meet John on the car park before we started to buy some pellet and baggin' wags off him after hearing that so many of the top flight anglers like Steve Ringer, Grant Albutt and Andy Neal all use his home made pellet waggs. I had heard of these pellet waggs last year when a friend of mine Ian Giddins had made it to the last 4 of the Drennan Knock out cup at Boddington and he said that they were all using them as they fly straight in windy conditions which most of these big waters suffer from, I had wanted to get my hands on some of these pellet waggs for some time but as Clattercote/Boddigton where John is the bailiff is some 60 miles away from home it has took until now to get some. I know I am waffling on a bit about some bits of balsa but trust me after using them they are well worth buying, so if you get the chance to get some do it , you have been told. Right back to the day, John put us on some pegs in the 30's where we could all fish in a line as there were 6 of us he was going to let us use our nets so we could fish for the holy £1 side bet between us and more importantly pride, Stav and I sat on pegs 31 & 33 leaving the spare peg in-between us to park our barrow's on as the boards you walk on around the lake are quite narrow. We both set up the baggin' and pellet waggs I also set up the straight lead to fish over the top of the pellet line Stav later set up the method feeder, we both used 1.75lb barbel rods to chuck the baggin' which weigh around 3oz when fully loaded matched with 8 or 10lb mainline and hook-lengths of 0.22 or stronger. On the bait front I had gone for a mix of ringers red and red standard g/bait with a pint of micro's and a few expander pellets, hook bait was white or red 10mm boilies, I had also brought 3kg of 10mm halibut pellets for the pellet wagg. When we were all ready we shouted the all-in and Stav and I started on the baggin' wagg while starting to feed the pellet line and it took half an hour before I got my first bite and carp no1 was hooked which slipped the hook at the net (shit), around 20 mins later and carp no2 was hooked which kitted to my right towards Stav and ended up leaving the hook in the leg of the empty pallet in-between us (double shit) Carp 2 Westy 0 at least I had hooked fish all the rest of the lads were dry, Stav had been straightened on the strike on the baggin' wagg but that was it (that's what you get for striking like Zoro?). To cut a long storey short it was crap it was very hot 29'c and the carp were cruising in the middle of the lake not wanting to feed just sunbathing, Stav got fed up of no bites so went into the holdall to assemble a method feeder rod I went for a walk to see how the lads were getting on but it was not good all 4 of them were dry? Not a bite between them. Ade was fishing the candle/doggy casting into a ball of carp that were cruising about but they wouldn't even take the freebies let alone the one with the hook in so what chance have you got of hooking one, no chance. Stav was the first to put a fish in the net a small skimmer before he hooked and landed a carp then started to get odd skimmers on his method rig, I went on to hook and land my only fish of the day a 10-12lb carp on the pellet wagg Stav ended up with 1 carp and around a dozen skimmers to win all the £1's. The only other one of us to get a bite was Ollie who had 1 small 5lb carp the other 3 went dry? You couldn't believe it with so many carp swimming around that you couldn't get any bites we could only put it down to the very hot weather, John the bailiff confirmed that the whole lake had just switch off with the best on the opposite side in a match from Tesco was 3 carp. Lets hope the conditions are better for our match in a couple of weeks, the rest of the lads stayed on for another hour after we packed in and Ollie ended up with 3 carp the best around 7lb but the others remained dry. The worst of all was that I was now 2-0 down to Stav in our mini series (anybody want to buy some tackle?).

Start of Fishing Week Cob house Monday 1/8/11

This is fishing week for me and Stav which this year we have moved forward from the middle week in September to this week due to Stav booking a holiday on our normal week. Today we had booked into an open arranged at Cob house fishery to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the Mayfly cafe opening (and celebrate the cafe we did in the usual plate full manner, burp!), today's match was to be on the old Victorian pools which as the name suggest are very old which neither of us have fished before. We went for a walk around the pools last week when we fished a knock up on Wyatts and there were some very nice fishey looking pegs on them they are quite small and narrow with only around 12 pegs on each pool, there was around 20 fishing on 3 of the 4 pools to give us a bit of room these were Pips Willow, Jade's Island and Ryan's pool. These pools contain all sorts of species from eel's to 20lb carp and are more natural pools as apposed to the other carp filled 100lb+ pools on the complex which would be interesting and a nice change from the norm (better than work!), i drew Pips Willow peg 1 and Stav got Jade's peg 5 my pool was further away than Stav's so i could have a look on the way around at his peg. Stav's peg looked great with the point of an island to fish to right in-front of him it looked well nice and when i got to my peg it looked just as good in a corner all on my own with a nice left-hand edge which was the end of the pool i could even reach the other side of the pool with 16m of pole. With us not fishing the pools before and more of a mixed fishery we both decided to bring worm and caster as well as the usual pellet, corn & paste bait's. After sitting down for a while to asses the situation i decided to keep thing simple with a 3 line attack.

Rig 1, 13m worm line a Maver Invincible series 7 0.20gr set just 2'' overdepth in 3ft of water, 0.16 main to 0.14 h/l and size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, 13 hollo elastic.

Rig 2, 13m worm line down the edge to a brick wall which was the end of the lake and 1ft deeper than out in-front of me the only thing different to the above rig was a 4x12 Preston Durra10 float.

Rig 3, 6m paste line, 0.18 line straight through to a size 5 175 hook, a Preston size 1 self cocking paste float just touching bottom in 2ft of water and black hydro elastic.

I fed both worm lines with a mixture of chopped worm, caster, pellet & corn with a splash of predator plus liquid and the paste line got pellet & corn.

The first half hour of the match went by with just a couple of small Rudd to show before i landed a small 1lb carp and then a small Tench of around the same size, i had 1 small 6oz skimmer before i hooked and landed a Bream of around 3 lb just on the hour mark as things were starting to get better. Scott had said before the start that he thought that a weight of around 40-50lb would normally win most matches on here so i was happy that i had around 5-6lb in the last half hour as long as things kept going, the second hour i managed 3 carp plus odd silvers but the carp were on the small side in the 1-2lb bracket but at least i was having a few bites. I had a couple of carp from my edge line on the worm but yet again they were on the small side around 1lb each plus a couple of small eel's, we were now at the half way point in the match and i was falling behind on my target weight i guessed my weight at around 12-13lb and needed to find some bigger fish. A look on my paste line produced another carp of around 1 1/2lb before i hooked a much better carp which turned out to just what i was looking for a nice 5lb'er but it was a false dawn as all i had on this line in the next 20mins was a couple of small skimmers, back on the long worm line and i had 3 nice roach in the 10-12oz bracket before i hooked a much bigger fish which tore off down the lake before the hook pulled (crap) that totaled the line which never recovered for the rest of the match. I could here Scott on the opposite side but out of sight on my pool doing a bit of swearing saying he was loosing a lot of fish but all i could see were the two guy's too my right which seemed to be having around the same as me just odd carp now and then, i caught 2 more small carp from the margin swim before i decided to sit on the paste for the last half hour in an attempt to try and find a couple of bigger carp as the guy to my right had landed 2 or 3 bigger carp from his margin line. I had nothing until the last 10mins when i landed a carp of around 2lb and pulled out of a 3lb fish just before the all-out which proved to be costly when the scales came round, my 31lb 3oz was just 1lb short of the pool & section win which was won by the guy next to me with those late better carp and 32lb 3oz (close but no cigar), Scott weighed 28lb but said he had lost in the region of 15-20 fish which were burring themselves in some tree roost under his feet losing lots of rigs, elastic and a top kit (oops). Stav said he had got 30-40lb which was a good guess when he put 40lb 1oz and the section/pool win so at least 1 of us had coined on the first day of our fishing week but worst of all i was 1-0 down in our daily £1 side (shit), the top 2 weights came off the pool right by the car park Ryan's with a 48lb & 46lb which turned out to be a good prediction by Scott from the start with a 40-50lb estimate. It had been a good fair match with lots of close weights and a change from trying to catch 100-200lb which is the norm at this venue this time of the year, i for one wouldn't mind fishing the pools again as the fish need catching and don't jump on the hook, a thoughly enjoyable day out in the sun ( better than work any day).

The short fat hairy one with the red shirt on is Stavros and the good looking guy in the background is yours truly!

1. Cob House 1st Birthday Open on Victorian Pools

   Thanks to everyone who took part today today.
   
   Birthday Match - 1st August 2011, Pips Willow, Jades Island, Ryans
   Peg No Surname First Name Telephone Number lb oz Position
   
   Peg J2 Baker John 40 1 Section Win
   Peg J5 Davenport Martin 27 14
   Peg J10 Legg Ken 32 4
   Peg J6 Powell Keith 18 14
   Peg J9 Allen Ross 31 0
   Peg J8 Stanko Rino 29 10
   
   
   Peg R2 Boden Danny 48 14 1st
   Peg R7 Kitson Mel 46 10 2nd
   Peg R8 Lloyd Mark DNW
   Peg R9 Reynolds Colin 25 13 Section Win
   Peg R3 Sanders Derek DNW
   Peg R4 Swain Rob DNW
   
   
   Peg PW2 Dugmore Martin 32 3 Section Win
   Peg PW6 Evason Gra 8 15
   Peg PW 7 Jones Scott 28 15
   Peg PW 4 Jones Alan 19 4
   Peg PW5 Melville Kevin 31 14
   Peg PW 1 West Simon 31 3
   Peg PW 8 Wood Bob 23 0
   Peg PW 3 Humphries Josh 23 15

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Cob House Knock-Up Wednesday 27/7/11

Had to swap my day off to fish this one organized by two mates of mine Matt & Shaun on Wyatts pool at Cob house fishery, i had traveled down with my chauffeur Stav (aka uncle fester!) and after the usual belly-buster breakie in the excellent Mayfly cafe we made our way to the pool side to do the draw. It soon became apparent to us that it would be a harder than normal match as we had 16 blokes fishing and another 14 peg club match on the other side taking up all 30 pegs up on the pool!, we even had to pinch one of there pegs from the other side as there is only 15 pegs on each bank on Wyatts. So with every peg in i thought that a light feeding regime might be the order of the day and after the usual mickey taking and good banter it was time for the draw, i pulled out peg 12 and Stav got peg 5 which normally doesn't make any difference on this pool as it is solid of fish on every peg. After setting up my platform in the water which is allowed on the fishery as the pegs are quite high off the water due to the low water levels all the pools and rivers are experiencing this summer i set up my rigs as follows-
Rig 1, on the deck at 3m for pellet, 4x12 Maver invincible pellet pencil, 0.18 mainline to a 0.16 hook-length with a size 2 Tubertini 175, set just touching bottom in 3 1/2 feet of water with all the shot bulked up 8 inches from the hook.
Rig 2, shallow rig for the same line, 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.14 line straight through to a 18 Preston pr27 hook with a lasso for hard 6mm pellets set 18 inches deep with all the shot under the float.
Rig 3, margin rig down my left-hand edge to some grass cover for maggot (i only tend to feed 1 edge here so i can put my keepnets the other side to keep them away from my short line?), a Preston durra 10 float 4X12, 0.16 line straight through to size 3 Tubertini 175 hook set 2 inches over depth in 18 inches of water with all the shot bulked 6 inches from the hook.
For bait i had brought 4 pints of 4mm fishery feed pellets and 4 pints of dead maggots to make up my 8 pint limit of feed but with every peg in i was now looking to feed only around half of this amount, for hook bait i had brought 6mm expander's and hard pellets, some corn and a 1/4 of a pint of live maggots.
I started the match on the 3m deck rig feeding pellets in 6-8 at a time while starting feeding maggots down my margin line for later in the match as the last time i fished this pool i had some of the bigger stamp on this line, most of the carp in Wyatts range from 8oz to around 4lb with the fish averaging 1lb-1 1/2lb. I started catching the odd fish on the deck and while not setting the world on fire by the end of the first hour i had managed 21 fish which i thought with every peg in was OK, if i could keep it up and end up with around 100 fish this would give me around 120-130lb which should be enough for a top 3 place today with as-well as all the pegs in the sun was out 25'c and the pool flat calm from any breeze. Just as i thought everything was going swimmingly the bites started to go from hittable to UN-hittable and i started to foul-hook a lot of fish, i tried cutting back on the feed but this stopped the bites altogether so i had to feed to get bites but they were not on the deck anymore and after loosing around 6 fish on the bounce i reached for the shallow rig. I was catching odd fish shallow but i think that the amount of pressure on the pool was talking it's toll but the fish i was catching up in the water were of a slightly bigger stamp, by the end of hour 2 i had only managed another 12 fish so my 20 fish per hour had gone out of the window!

That was the pattern for the rest of the match I would have odd fish on the deck but it made no difference to my hooked fish ratio weather or not i fished soft expander's or hard banded pellets, after a time the bites would become almost impossible to hit so i would switch back to the shallow rig for a few fish and to be honest this is were i caught most of my fish. I had a couple of looks on the margin maggot line which only produced a couple of fish as with every peg in i felt that the fish would not settle on the feed properly, this thought was mirrored by a mate of mine Scott Jones a that works at the fishery and he knows the place inside out so I didn't pursue this line for very long. I ended the match with 76 fish which i thought would give me around the 90lb mark and hoped that would be enough for a frame place in today's hot and pressured conditions, a quick walk down the bank and chat with Stav reveled he had got 95 fish and was looking good for a top spot but he said that the guy on the end peg 1 had also got a few fish. After packing the gear away we started the weigh-in at peg 1 who put 109lb on the scales, Stav put 124lb on to take top spot so far, there was a 82 & 93lb weighed in before it was my turn and my bag went 105lb 4oz which put me 3rd with the guy on the opposite bank in the corner having 90lb. So well done to Stav for the match win which i think fished fantastic with every peg in, i know that most fishery's normally shut up shop with that much pressure, not this place, it's Solid! I was happy with 3rd place with a few fish in the net is better than a day at work anytime, me and Stav were talking on the journey back home about how the fish in Wyatts have packed some weight on in the last 12 months since the last time i fished it Stav's fish averaging 1.30lb and mine 1.38lb so roll on next week when we embark on our fishing week which we have booked into 2 opens at Cob house which we are both looking forward to.

Quick catch-up time

I have been doing a bit of work at home over the last couple of weeks and haven't found the time to update my blog regularly so i will just give you a quick run through of my last few matches in the hope of catching up before Stav and I start on fishing week which begins next week.

Sunday 26/6/11- This was a Cradley club match fished at Packington Sommers on Geary's pool, i drew peg 7 on the high bank and fished mainly the method at long range on a very hot sunny day( the hottest so far this year i think at 29-30 c!), the match was very hard in the hot conditions and i managed to win my section with 16lb odd made up of 2 carp + bits, Stav won the match with 31lb a nice bag of skimmers on the pole & pellet so well done to him.

Sunday 3/7/11- This was a Halesowen club match fished on the Woodside stretch of the Dudley canal near Merryhill and the less said about this match the better as someone changed the pegging before the start of the match putting 4 pegs in at the top end of the stretch that have not been fished for 12 months? There has been a 10 match winter/spring league run on this venue and these pegs have not been used ( if they were any good they would have been used during the league), yes i drew one of them and amassed an awesome 1lb 4oz for the second best weight off the 4 of us the match was won by Ollie on peg 51 with 15lb odd of chub.

Sunday17/7/11- Another Halesowen club match this time on the river Severn at Trimpley i only normally fish the river once a year to remind how bad they are ( Stav and i call it our 12 monthly injection!) but this year we have two on the bounce and i decided to fish both of them come rain or shine or dry net! I drew the bottom of the island at the top end of the stretch and had 4 small Barbel and 2 chub for 11lb 10oz and 4th overall all on caster & hemp. I think i would have had a few more if i had not have had 3 canoes get stuck on rocks while going over the very shallow ford, the joy's of river fishing where exterior forces can ruin you day out on natural venues! The match was won by Baz Robson with 29lb made up of 8 small Barbel & a few bits off a peg on top of the bottom island below the outfall.

Sunday 24/7/11- Cradley club match at the Stanley waters on the river Severn, a right gruler this one as the river seemed to be carrying a rusty tinge of colour but with no extra water on? Whatever the reason the fish just refused too feed at all and i finished with 1 Barbel & 3 eel's for a grand total of 5lb 9oz for 5th overall and a section win, the match was won by Kevin (Sid) Sidaway with 6 Chub for 15lb odd but there were a lot of good river anglers with nothing or next to nothing to show for 5 hours of fishing? Now while i have enjoyed my break from the commercials over the last few weeks i have to say that i am looking forward to catching some fish, i am not knocking the guys that only fish the rivers but if i had to go back to fishing them week in week out i think i would seriously consider taking up golf ( or drinking lots of Stella). Double injection over and done with and i am now cured of the running water disease for another 12 months! ( now it's your turn Stav you have to have a big injection as you missed your booster jab last year?).

Now that i am up to date i hope to bring you a normal full length blog as there should be lots to write about as Stav and i embark on our fishing week soon, CHEERS.

SOAP BOX TIME

I felt i must have my say on the madness that is going on at some of my local fishery's in this era of mad 50lb keepnet rules most fishery's insist on at least 2-3 nets and some where big weights are common there have been some crazy weights 250-300lb with anglers using 6-8 nets has fishing gone MAD! I am going to have my say on the stupid net rule that some fishery's are imposing i believe that a 3m keeepnet can easily hold 100lb without harming the fish at all take a look at some of the BIG commercial fishery's in my area Tunnel Barn, Moorlands Farm & Woodlands view that allow you up too 100lb in one net now these fishery's have been around for a long time and produce regular big weights. Some of the smaller up and coming fishery's should take note of the big boy's and stop imposing stupid rules knocking anglers weights down if they go over the 50lb limit, now most of these anglers are working guy's with 1 day off a week to go fishing away from the misses & kids with a few mates to have the crack a bit of fishing with a bit of competition thrown in for good measure. Now the lucky guy has finally managed to draw a flier and catch a few fish only to have some jumped up Hitler type fishery owner on a power trip knock a few pound off his weight for going over in one of his umpteen keepnet's and costing him the match, now don't get me wrong i am all for fish welfare but i think that 3 nets is more that ample for most fishery's and these fishery owner's had better watch out as i work in tackle shop and hear all the moaning from a lot of dissatisfied anglers about certain fishery's with all the rules and regulations of bait restrictions YOU MUST BUY OUR PELLETS AS THEY ARE BETTER FOR OUR FISH, B******S BETTER FOR YOUR BANK BALANCE! Coupled with you carn't do this and carn't do that the pleasure of going out on your day off is slowly wearing a bit thin and i think that those fishery's with to many rules in the future might come unstuck when the majority start voting with there feet and boycotting these fishery's. Now i know on the pellet front how much they cost and how much you can sell them for to make a decent profit but there are a couple of my local fishery's that are BIG hitters in the world of commercials that are ripping there customers off big style with the price of there pellets, i know they are making stupid amounts of profit on these pellets some in excesses of 200-300% what they should be and they have even got the nerve to make the measures shorter every time you go! In the future you might see a swing back towards rivers and canals as people get sick to the back teeth with all the commercials ripping them off and treating them like naughty little boys don't do this and don't do that F**k this they will be back on the rivers with next to no rules?
Sorry rant over.