Sunday 06-04-2025 - Westerleigh Winter League - Round 7 - Taylor's Pool and Shipp's Canal

My turn on Taylor's Pool. The plan was to fish for silvers as too far behind in the league, but second in the pairs but not sure how far behind first place, likely to be too much. Bri Shanks was away so Steve Rogers stepped in to run the match, which was bit worrying😅

Mark Taylor thought the fish had started to spread out from their winter haunt's and with the wind blowing down the opposite end thought middle to far end would be good for silvers and a few Carp. 

Into the draw bag and found myself on peg 26. Pegs 14, 26 and 22 have been the pegs to draw all winter for Carp. Not really a silvers peg. Lee my pairs partner had drawn flyer peg 2 on Shipp's so silvers plan out of the window, Carp it would be and perhaps pull some weight back and give us chance on the last match.

Two rigs - 4x14 to fish top set plus either three or four barrels which took the end section to just touching the fence. A 0.3 gram RJ slim to fish either three barrel down to the reeds or with a slight depth adjustment down the RH side on the top set.

Pinched some corn off Johnny W started with a piece on the hook over some kindered micro at three barrels and straight away getting indications, thought it was silvers. Switched to 4 mm semi hard pellet and had 20 F1's for 5 lb 6 oz 😆. The line died so tried down to the reeds with LR's on the hook over kindered LR's and a bit of micro and had a small Carp which had a plummet and hook in it mouth (later established to be Ricky Mills rig he lost three weeks ago). Had a few Ronnie's so went back out on the 4 mm pellet and had a small Carp and a decent F1. After trying various other lines and baits everything seem to be dead. So tried the margin on the top set with LR's over LR's and micro and hooked a biggish Carp which fought really hard testing my patients too much causing the hook to pull - bad angling another - careful couple of minutes would have made the difference. The upshot was had four decent Carp, but with 15 minutes to go hooked a branch on the bottom which unsettled the line so no more bites.

Weighed 32 lb 15 oz for third in section 10 oz out of a pick up - note to self must be more patient with the bigger Carp.

The match and Shipp's Canal was won by Ron Hardiman (pictured) from peg 11. Ron caught on meat. Well done matey.

Taylor's Pool was won by Johnny Clarke (pictured) with 43 lb from peg 20. Johnny caught down both margins on meat. Well done matey.

Silver on Taylor's was by default Dave with a lowly 2 lb 3 oz from peg 22 and Taylors it was Martin McMahon with 5 lb 11 oz from peg 1.

Back to the pub and glad I didn't pick up today as a good few more were in attendance, Probably due to the sunny warm weather we're having.

Weigh Sheets:

Thursday 03/04/2025 - Windmill Cost Cutter - Match Lake

Breakfast in the Beefeater, Ok but not the best for the money. Didn't want to walk too far around the lake today as left knee has been playing up also took my chances on not having a short walk. Should have done as ended up on peg 11 the longest walk!! Luckily the slope was dry and not too steep.

The wind was coming in from the NNE so the car park end would have been my choice. But down under the bank on peg 11 was warm being out of the cold wind. The fish are all balled up in the reeds at the moment so having some down to my right and reachable with the margin pole was my preferred line. So set up a 03. gram RJ Slim with 0.2 GLine straight through to a Guru 20 super spade. Also set up the waggler to give me some choice with LR's.

As a reed wobbled decided to started down to the reed with pinched corn over kinder micro and had a fish take it on the drop but missed it. Back out and a proper bite and a hard fighting 1 lb 3 oz Tench in the net. No more indications on corn so switched to kindered LR's and triple reds on the hook and had two quick Carp before it dried, decided to rest it in favour of the waggler fished out in front at 20 metres with double reds over loose fed LR's in the meantime started to loose feed down to the reeds to see if I could entice some more Carp out. Second cast had another Carp. Things were looking good as Glenn Bailey came down at 11 o clock and said he was blanking and I was probably winning the match. Thinking have I got enough nets!! As it turned out I could have gone Home after Glenn left as couldn't get another bite!!

Weighed 15 lb 14 oz for nowhere. On hindsight after catching the Tench should have fished for silvers on the Ronnie rig.

The match was won by Steve  Mundy (pictured with the Silvers winner) with 39 lb 2 oz from peg 8. Steve caught 6 Carp on the straight lead with bread hook bait over to the reeds and 2 Carp on the pole on maggot. Well done matey.

Pete Greenslade picked up the silvers from peg 20 with 5 lb 13 oz. Pete caught on my Ronnie rig set up with maggot and GB. Well done matey got that sorted.

The best part of the day is usually the breakfast or a pick up or the after match curry. However, the best part today was seeing my good friend Glenn Bailey out fishing again and winning his section. Welcome back matey, forget the sections you broke 😉

Weigh Sheets: