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.