First on the day was Carp maestro Eric Searle, put this guy on the right peg and bingo. He seems to go into overdrive and leaves every one in his wake. Today was no exception and from peg 25 which was also the golden peg smashed it with a very commendable weight of 139 lb 01 oz. His tactic was feeder to the island with pellet as bait.
In second place was young Ian Grabham from Taunton. We have to keep an eye on this lad as he never seems to have a bad match and appears consistently in the top echelons of the results table. Today of of peg 37 Ian had a good total of 104 lb which included a nice carp of over 12 lb. He had two carp on the pole and paste but the vast majority of his catch was feeder to the island.
Mr Pete Curnow (for strangers to the blog, that’s me) found himself in uncharted territory by being 3rd in the results table, well saying that I did finish 3rd two matches back. But having relatively two short spaced placings is certainly a rarity. Well from peg 22 and using feeder and pellet to the island earned me a head spinning 81 lb 11 oz.
Mr I am never far of the top found himself in 4th. One Steve Warren had a good day from peg 35. Steve kept things simple with pole and meat and found himself with a very good haul of 78 lb 04 oz.
In 5th place is a fella who seems to be suffering a bit of a lean spell. Rob Dodd normally resides in the top 3. But 5th place was where he finished today from peg 39. His total haul was a reasonable 75 lb 07 oz but not to be out done he obtained top silvers weight with a cracking 47 lb 07 oz. Rob fished the pole with maggot over ground bait.
Mr Dave Colley our NHS hero who finished 6th was late getting to the match owing to traffic on the motorway. Dave who resides in Bristol left the motorway at Highbridge to try to make up for lost time but to no avail. He had peg 38 from which he managed to net 60 lb 01 oz from. Dave utilized pole and corn and at times feeder with pellet to the island.
7th was Alan Bland who fished peg 21 the first corner swim on the road side. Alan did struggle for bites but persevered and managed to eek out a descent weight from what seemed to be mediocre peg on the day. Pole paste and meat was the plan of attack that earned him a weight of 54 lb 12 oz. Not bad considering Alan went two and a half hours without a bite.
In 8th place we find Phil Dodd. Phil like Mr Colley arrived late and some one had to draw for him. When we got to his peg for the weigh in, he had packed up and gone. Hence I did not see him at all on the day. Mr steath indeed manged a weight of 52 lb 12 oz from peg 36. Knowing Mr dodd he probably used dead maggot on method feeder.
Silvers basher Paul Smith was 9th on peg 34. Pauls approach was pole, worm and soft pellet. Although finishing well down in the overall results he did have second top silvers weight. He managed to put on the scales 39 lb 07 oz.
Alan Jenkins who was next to me to my left on peg 23 enjoyed himself with a not to be snubbed at weight of 39 lb 07 oz. Alan who ended up in 10 th place employed mainly the feeder and pellet.
Dave Nash found himself on corner peg 40. Ending up at position number 11 he put on the scales 32 lb 01 oz. Just using top 3 with maggot and caster got him his weight.
Bob Pascoe finished in 12th with a weight of 27 lb 07 oz . From peg 24 on the roadside veteran Bob caught his carp on sweetcorn and his silvers on pole and maggot.
Another angling veteran fishing on the day was bee keeper Tony Richards. Ending up in 13th spot from peg 32. Tony put a weight of 18 lb 04 oz on the scales. In his own words it was “caster, meat and feeder”.
Dave Colley 
Alan Bland 
Paul Smith 
A smiling Alan Jenkins (Right) with a smiling Rob Dodd.
Bob Pascoe 
Tony Richards
Way back in the mid to late nineties a series of VHS videos called The Compleat Angler were produced by a company called Artsmagic ltd. This was series of angling videos presented by top rated anglers covering certain topics within our beloved sport. Different videos in the series became available every two weeks in newsagents and if memory serves me right I think there was twelve in all.
There is one particular video in this series that should strike a chord with local anglers in the Bridgwater area. The aptly named Stoned With Hemp. This video was made on the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Smithies. Mike Stone who at the time was an England Squad member presents this little gem and shows the ins and outs of fishing hemp. The running time is approximately 60 minutes. Now I did buy the video at the time but unfortunately over time it has become lost. However as luck would have it I came across a copy on E bay and had it converted it to DVD. Now folks I would love to down load it to You Tube but I am erring on the side of caution here reference copy right laws. But to give you lovely people a insight I have have taken a few screen shots. I will look in it to see if it is possible to put it on You Tube.
I had the pleasure last Tuesday to talk to the ex chairman of Bridgwater Angling Association one Mr John Hill. I paid him a visit and what should of been an half hour chat turned into a hour and a half chinwag. The highlight of this meeting was that John who is a sprightly 87 lent me a booklet for me to copy by a guy called Harry Sutton entitled The Bridgwater Angling Association And Some Remarks About The local Fishing Over Many Years. Yep that’s the Full title all 14 words. Well it’s intriguing reading and I shall put some extracts in a post or posts on the subject of the history of the Bridgwater Angling Association in the near future. So it’s a case of watch this space.
Well that’s all for now so it’s tight lines to one and all.
Pete C