Paste Fishing

 Having posted my blogs on my matches at Viaduct I received a comment from a person called Dave if I could explain how I fish it. Here goes Dave…

Firstly the way I fish paste has not really changed that much since I first tried a long time ago. In fact I remember when I first tried it, it was at Cider Farm Lakes. I was catching well across when my pole roller blew over and my pole snapped, all I could fish now was top set plus two sections. I tried fishing pellet here in the deep water and got plagued with foulers, that made me reach for a paste rig out of frustration. I was amazed how it worked and from a bad situation I think I got third place. That’s the day when I realised it was a method worth exploring.

There are many ways of fishing paste, this is my way and it works for me but there are many variations and it’s all about what you have confidence in. 

Firstly my paste itself, I make mine from Thatchers groundbait. When I get to my peg I tip some dry groundbait in a 3 pint bait tub then cover it with water and mix it in, it will be soupy in texture at this point. Ten minutes before the match have a look at it, if it’s too soggy and you can’t form a ball add a little bit more dry groundbait, if it’s dried out too much add a little water a bit at a time. Hard to explain without showing but I try to avoid to stiff and to sloppy lol.

Next what you feed, it’s simple for me, it’s always 4mm pellets, and I take a bag of Sonubaits pro feed pellets and put them in a bait box. I have fed these pellets straight from the bag, but I’ve also soaked them so they swell up. Skimmers seem to like the soaked pellets but I’ve got them over both. Some people I know have fed 8 to 10 pints of pellets in a match, but the way I feed I’ve generally never fed the whole bag.

My rig is very simple, I use some old Big H paste floats but I’m down to my last two 😢😢. I use 0.21 Powerline as mainline, then attach a hook length from the Preston pre tied 12 XSH to 0.17. You could fish 0.19 but I know that 0.17 won’t break my pole if I hook a fouler. No shot are put on the line.

Plumbing up is very important, with no shot on the line the paste has to set the float. I plumb to have about 3/4 of the bristle showing. But beware, plumbing and then fishing with paste may give a different result, this is due to silt usually, so be prepared to alter the depth first drop, it’s worth getting right. Also as your match progresses you will have to push the float up as feeding fish scour out the silt, so don’t fish too short a line above the float.

Now to get the paste out to your required distance you need a pole pot to put it in. The depth of the venue will have a big impact on where the pot goes. The position of the pot from the end of your pole is important to stop the rig from tangling as you ship out. Too close to the tip and it’s tangle time, too far away and it can make the line too tight and feeding tricky. Now this is important, when you put your initial pot of feed of pellets in with your cupping kit do not ship to the end of the pole. If you do this, then go out with your paste when you tip the paste pot over it will be short of the feed! Last week at viaduct my Preston paste pot down from the end of my pole by about the same length as my dolly butt. When I started I fed the pellets when I got to the end of the normal pole section, then when I shipped out with paste I shipped to the end of the dolly butt, tipped the paste out, then slid the pole back to the end of the normal section so my pole was above the float. It helps if you put the float in the right spot too, otherwise it will sink and only pop up when in the right place. You must avoid lifting the float jerkily, this will knock the paste off  the hook.

Now the fun part begins, trying to hit the bites. With carp you are looking for a very positive bite, a very fast movement on the float, usually the float disappears in a blink of the eye. Slow movements are usually liners and the float can go out of sight and reappear, if it’s sits well then it was a liner, if the float pops right up like the paste has come off then strike. It’s either a bite or the paste did come off.

Skimmers often but not exclusively give lovely lift bites. They can cause lots of liners and some are even bites sometimes, it’s suck it and see. Some days you have spells you pull your hair out missing bites, there’s not much you can do to change things other than how you feed. Obviously this is the hard part, sometimes big potting top ups are great, and other times filling your paste pot with feed pellets is great.

The size of your paste is again trial and error, I have used pea size up to a big 50p piece, but generally start on a pear drop size piece. Just get a piece of paste, lay the hook in it and then fold the paste over. I like a flatter end to sit on the bottom and point above the hook.

I think that about covers it, like everything else you do need to practice it. You can get some serious fizzing over your feed when fishing paste, when only odd carp are coming in sometimes you literally can watch the fizz heading towards your float, it’s quite entertaining especially when the float whacks under. I hope you can catch a few on the paste, like everything else it has its place on certain days. 

Viaduct Holiday Going Home Day

 Friday going home day, that meant no alarm and so I awoke naturally. Some of us had a last breakfast in M&M cafe and said our goodbyes to Mandy for another year. Back at the lodge I packed my bags and loaded the van, and then we decided to conduct an experiment! Gary had posed the question if you fill a bucket full of water and weigh it and then you put some fish in the bucket (and no water escapes) does the bucket weigh more or not? With no one sure of the answer (though thought it must weigh more) we set the experiment up, caught a few roach put them in the bucket of water, and yes, the bucket weighed more.

After this I wandered over to watch Martin, Chris and Mark pleasure fishing. Chris took my advice and fished paste on a top set on Carey, Mark fished his favourite pellet waggler, and Martin was on Lodge lake giving the paste a go with me passing on tips. Martin had not fished paste all week and had struggled on Campbell lake without it, we told him he needed to get the method in his armoury! He enjoyed himself in the end with plenty of skimmers and carp.

Can now confirm Martin is a paste head!

Chris had a lovely day catching many skimmers, carp and a few tench.

Mark got among the Carey carp, but they were crafty buggers lol.

Eventually I had to pull myself away and get going, I gave the keys back to Mat Long and said thanks and goodbye to him and his Dad Steve, I really need to try to get back for a few open matches I think. I’d had a great week, three second places, a top silvers weight and a team win. Caught nearly 900lb of fish over 6 days. 

Thanks to all the lads who made the trip so great, and to all the fellow anglers I met during the week. Special thanks to Woody for organising the holiday, we’ve discussed a few tweaks for next year, but Somerton residents will still have to put with us for a week 😂

Viaduct Holiday Day 6

 Last match of the holiday today and the Costcutter on Campbell. Forgot to put this photo on my day 5 post, it did get a little chilly some nights with a jacket required late on, but Glenn decided to improvise with a sheet lol.

With another very hot day forecast there was only one thing I was hoping for, and that was a peg in the shade. I was about halfway back in the draw queue and when I got to the famous coffee tin I was amazed to see nearly every peg drawn on the sunny bank. I was well happy when I pulled out 118 and a day in the shade was on, it’s also a nice peg with a bit of room as 117 is never used.

There’s an overhanging tree branch to my left where the day before Chris Ollis had 50lb of silvers.

There’s also an inviting looking margin which is behind the platform, I intended to fish this at top set plus one on my margin pole. Although Chris hadn’t caught a carp here yesterday.

As this was a cost cutter fishing for carp or silvers was ok as the payout is the same for both. After yesterday’s skimmer bonanza I was up for fishing for them again. I put up my faithful paste rig again for fishing under the tree and also at 11.5m, just a couple of inches difference in depth. A mugging / shallow rig was set up but not used, and a 4x14 edge float with 0.17 to 12 XSH. I had Glenn on my right on 119 which he didn’t fancy at all, Woody was on my left on 116. Adrian Jeffrey was back on this match and he had moved from one end bank to the other and was on 121.

I started the match on the paste under the tree, I had 3 quick skimmers and thought here we go, but that was the end of that. I’d already fed a pot of 4mm pellets out long so was soon out here fishing paste. The skimmers were feeding here and showing themselves by the fizzing. It wasn’t as good as yesterday, I missed lots of bites for some reason and it was frustrating at times, but I stuck with it. I was feeding very little trying to keep the carp at bay as I was happy catching skimmers but of course one or two carp put in an appearance. Glenn was really struggling to catch, and Woody didn’t have much either, but on 115 Gary Bowden was seemingly doing well catching carp and skimmers.

I guess it was about just gone halfway when the carp became more active and the skimmers moved off. I had no clue what was being caught further down the lake, but could see opposite was poor, so I changed tactics and upped the feed for carp. I caught a couple and then as the match went on I fed heavy by the tree with 4mm pellets and this brought the carp here too. It was those tricky to catch them, despite me not feeding regularly some carp were coming into the area shallow and knocking the line and the paste off. I did get a few carp here though. 

About 90 minutes to go I fed the margin with a big pot of micro pellets, left it for 15 minutes then had 3 small carp from there on double worm. Two skimmers followed so I fed again and tried elsewhere. Five minutes before the all out I hooked a decent carp in the margin, after getting it out of the danger zone I took my time with it. But it came off whilst playing it in front of the nets, it snapped the hook length, guess I should have been on 0.19. That was the end of the match.

With the weighing in starting at 110 I had plenty of time to pack up, and as Glenn had already gone home I popped down to see the others. Woody said he had about 80lb, but Gary was admitting to 180lb and worried that his skimmers in one net might go over the 50lb limit! When the scales got to me I weighed my skimmers first, they went 44lb 7oz. Adding my carp to this, my total weight went 160lb 8oz. Woody had 93lb and was chip shopped when Gary plonked 197lb on the board, his skimmers went 47lb 4oz so he was safe and won the match overall.

I was second overall so another pick up, silvers was won with 79lb 8oz by Rob Eagle, all on casters.

Final night and a meal at the Globe followed by a few beers back at the Lodge. There had been some debate about snoring in the other Lodge, with Martin Rayet saying he couldn’t sleep if room mate Mark Tanner got to sleep before him. He resorted to drastic measures to get some sleep…..,

The holiday had gone very fast but was as enjoyable as ever. No more matches but one more day to catch on in the next post.

Viaduct Holiday Day 5

 Wednesday and no open matches today, but the fishery management Steve and Mat Long, allowed us to use Campbell lake as long as we paid a peg fee. With nine of us we again decided for a friendly team match, teams of 3 of course today. The teams were determined by the pegs we drew, so as the anglers went round the lake each peg was A B C then A B C, hope that makes sense.  My team mates today were Mark Tanner on flyer 116, Glenn on 130 (next to where I was yesterday) and I was on 124. 124 had been awful all week but I had plenty of room with 123 and 125 left out, but still wasn’t too upbeat if I’m honest, and also it meant another day of frying in the sun with no shade. I was envious of those on the opposite bank.

For me it was a case of setting up the same rigs as the day before, but till now I’d not mugged a carp or caught more than one in the Campbell margin. Gordon was on my right on 126, he couldn’t get away from this area all week and really had poor draws, and Gary Bowden was on 121 and could see a lot of carp in front of him.

I decided to fish the paste at 13m today, and was well happy when my chosen spot began to fizz immediately and I had a skimmer first drop. A couple more skimmers and then my first carp, and this was my best start to a match this week. After the first hour I reckon I had 25lb of skimmers on paste and the one carp, but that was behind Gary who was getting plenty of carp. Still I ploughed on as the skimmers were ravenous and I was really enjoying catching them.

Another hour gone and a couple of carp interrupted the skimmers. Normally I get a phone call from Glenn if he’s struggling but not today, so I called him and he told me he was catching carp steadily, well done team mate, he was shocked when I said I had 60lb and 40lb of that was skimmers. I kept thinking the skimmers would disappear but they didn’t until after 4 hours when the carp decided to get in on the act. I did feed the margins but saw no signs so carried on with the paste.

I was on three nets for skimmers and two for carp when the match ended. A very busy day with just a couple of quiet spells, goodness knows how many times I shipped  in and out with my hands burning on the red hot pole 😂.

When the scales got to me Glenn was top with 227lb, Gordon struggled to get 81lb and then on my turn my carp went 97lb 12oz and my skimmers 107lb 10oz for a total of 205lb 6oz. Gary would surpass that with 215lb . We were the top 3.

Undoubtedly my best ever bag of skimmers and all on the paste. That made my heart skip a few beats too 😂

On the team front we had a mare… Glenn lost 6lb by going over in one net, and we’re not sure if Mark Tanner actually faced the right way catching 12lb of 116 🙈🙈. We lost the team match by 5lb 🙈🙈 that’s the way it goes.

As you can see the skimmers had a good munch today, and Lee Masey had 81lb of them on worm and caster.

Wednesday night meant curry night, not sure what was hotter the curry or the restaurant itself 🥵. Still we all enjoyed the food that’s for sure, and after 1 pint in the Unicorn we returned to the Lodge for more fun and banter.

Viaduct Holiday day 4

 It was Tuesday and we were fishing the open match on Campbell lake. The night before we had been debating where a good draw would be, and believed the wind would be blowing into 132 so that was the favourite. I was close to this when I pulled out 131 and with 130 left out (as only 16 fishing) I had a bit of room, also the lad on 129 “Rocky” was fishing for silvers. Howard Webb inventor of Sillybait was the one who got 132, a good angler and I already had him down as the winner in my head.

The day started badly for Woody when the axle on his motorised trolley snapped, meaning he had to borrow wheels of another angler once they had got to their peg.

The only downside to my peg today would be sitting in the sun with no shade, so a hot day ahead. I had now discounted fishing for silvers due to my previous attempts and it was all out carp. Only a few rigs, a mugger rig, paste rig 0.17 to 12 XSH and margin rig 4x12 edge with 0.17 to 12 XSH. Howard set up two lead rods and was clear on his approach, and he started well with a carp first cast! My paste approach appeared to be not so good as I had no fizzes and no bites for 35 minutes or so before a skimmer got me off the mark. Howard had another carp but wasn’t flying but then he kept nicking odd carp. I joked with him that I was known as the comeback kid but honestly I was just expecting a battering.

Two hours into the match and after a decent run on skimmers the carp started to slowly put in an appearance. But it seemed every time I hooked a carp so did Howard, and though I was catching I couldn’t make in roads on his lead of about 60lb (Howard’s estimate). About this time there was a load bang as Glenn’s 13m section snapped in half, ouch!

My peg got stronger as the match went on and I was really enjoying catching on the paste, I’d not had many foulers or lost fish, and had changed one hook length all match. Howard got snapped up twice and it did allow me to gain a couple of fish back. When the match finished I was really happy about the day, not only the fishing but the company as Howard was great to talk to.

Howard was first to weigh and had an impressive 197lb 14oz. My silvers went 25lb and when added to my carp I was surprised and a little gutted when I weighed 197lb 4oz, just 10oz between us. This lead Howard to say I was very nearly the comeback kid lol. As it turned out we were first and second on the day with Dave White 3rd with 180lb from in form peg 116.

Howard buying a new landing net after one of his broke.

Silvers weights were way lower today, with Luke Broderick needing just 36lb 13oz to win by just 11oz! Close all around today then!

All lodge mates were feeling a little jaded today and it was a much quieter night where we debated many things including snoring, some lodge mates were having their ears and sleep affected by unnamed snorers lol. Unfortunately for me I have been having some strange issues with my heart of recent, an was wearing a special heart monitor, during the night and early morning I suffered with a pounding and irregular heartbeat which caused me to be awake as it makes me breathless and feel uneasy. Hopefully the monitor will have picked that up and help the consultant to get to the root cause.

Viaduct Holiday day 3

 Monday meant our traditional Lodge residents match on Lodge lake. We were now joined by Mark Tanner for the rest of the week and Geoff Francis came just to fish this match. Over too much beer the night before I floated the idea of making this a team match, and that’s what we did. My team consisted of Geoff peg 68, Martin peg 71 and Gary peg 73, Gordon peg 53, I was on 64 on the monk peg and could see all of my team mates on the far side.

Having fished this peg a couple of times before and always had more than 100lb I was very happy. As the match was going to be decided on weight I only set up for carp, so a paste rig for 11m, banded pellet rig 11m down RH margin, and an edge float for the LH margin. I use 0.17 hook lengths on my rigs.

As you can see in the picture to fish the RH margin you need to fish inside of the monk. I began on the paste rig today, I had bites from the off from skimmers and was happy to put something in the net. Lee Masey opposite me on 66 had nothing in front of him and so went down to his margin and started catching carp straight away. I did manage a few small stocky carp on the paste but despite catching skimmers regularly I thought I had to go down to the margin to try to stay with Lee. This was ok to start with on banded pellet but I soon began to suffer liners and foulers. I tried shallow but never got a bite, back to depth and mainly foulers. Then I started to catch branches, and I soon realised this was probably my issue.

I could see that my team mates were doing well but I was letting them down, I spent far too much time in the margin chasing fish catching branches. I was having a torrid time not helped by Lee getting one a bung. I tried the paste again and managed 1 decent carp, and also found 2 carp in the LH margin, but it was not enough and I limped home having had a poor day. Had I had a rake I may have been able to clear the margin of branches and then caught the carp that were clearly there.

As it turned out my side of the lake had fished poor compared to the opposite side. That was in my team’s favour and we won the competition 589lb to 469lb.

Lee was easy winner with 209lb and fished a great match. He had a strange caterpillar nest behind him, which I believe belongs to a small eggar moth.

We retired back to the lodge’s enjoying the evening sunshine, we decided to stay there and ordered some takeaway food and sip on the beer we all had with us. Hard to put into words how relaxing it is sitting in the fantastic scenery surrounded by wildlife. It was the next day before we headed to bed.

Viaduct Holiday day 2

 I must confess to feeling a tad muzzy Sunday morning,  but it was a feeling shared by all of us in the lodges, think we all got a bit over indulgent on our first night. We were on another Campbell open, again a sell out. I drew peg 110 which had produced 50lb of silvers the day before and I was told had not much carp form, and with Adrian Jeffrey on peg 135 this usually affects peg 110, so silvers attack again to start I thought. 

Adrian sat on 135 as the scum blew in.

My rigs set up today were the same silvers rigs, pellet rig for 13m down the LH margin, and the paste rig was readied from the start.

I started for the silvers again, but once again I failed miserably to muster more than a handful of small skimmers in the first hour. Meanwhile opposite me 4 anglers in a row we’re catching silvers steady and next door on 111 Gary Bowden was getting big skimmers on paste. I followed suit and got on the paste, but couldn’t believe it when I couldn’t get any indications. Gary was still catching and his peg was fizzing, mine was devoid of fish it appeared. A look down the margin produced one foul hooked carp which I landed and nothing more.

Back out on the paste and I saw my first fizz, told Gary this and 20 seconds later my first bite and landed a carp. 10 minutes later I repeated the process, but it was a flash in the pan. With less than 2 hours left I had just 20lb and had been mainly kept amused by watching the guys opposite getting plagued by carp, Nige Bartlett in particular was having a torrid time. However, much like yesterday my peg sprang into life on the paste line and I started getting carp, it coincided with Gary’s paste line dying, so guess the carp moved. I made a good charge to the end of the match, but with Gary getting a few late carp I thought I was still way behind him.

My fish weighed 125lb 4oz, nearly the same as yesterday, so I was consistent lol. Gary just pipped me by one fish to weigh 132lb 15oz, and he got the section money to leave me without a pick up today. Winner was in no doubt in my mind when Dan Squires drew 116 which won the day before, he didn’t disappoint and won with 190lb.

Another Viaduct regular Phil Hardwick was second with 142lb of peg 118. Silvers was won today by Chris Albiston with a fantastic 83lb 12oz of skimmers on peg 115. 

Back to the Globe for a roast dinner which we had preordered and it was to my liking. The lads joked that on the last two days I had been the comeback kid with my late bagging, with Gary suggesting I was like red rum galloping to the finish line 😂. Of course I’d like to be able to catch some fish in the first 4 hours if possible! 

Viaduct Fishery Holiday Day 1

 I really look forward to this holiday and cannot wait for it to come round. Takes a bit of thinking about and preparation for 6 matches, and certainly fills the van up! Bit of a challenge getting to the fishery on time, but just made it, paid my pools and quickly greeted the rest of the lads. Martyn Woodington, Glenn Bailey, Gary Bowden, Lee Masey, Martin Rayet, Gordon Cannings and Chris Ollis were all on the holiday.

First match was the Saturday open on Campbell and it was a 21 peg sell out, I was looking forward to fishing for skimmers if I drew a decent peg. I pulled out peg 121, it’s on the top bank on its own with corner pegs 119 and 123 either side. I’ve drawn it before and done ok on carp but never won off it or bagged a lot of silvers, but Nick Ewers told me 40lb of skimmers had come off the peg in the week.

You get a good view of the lake from this peg.

I had messaged Stu White in the week to get an insight into how to approach catching the skimmers, and I was armed with worms, casters, maggots and groundbait. I set up 4x14 and 4x16 rigs with 0.12 to 16 SFLB. A 4x12 with same for fishing in the margins. I also set up a shallow rig for carp, and a mugging rig too.

Matches here are fished 10:30 to 4:30, and at the start I fed for silvers at 5m and 10m, and decided to start fishing at 5m. I put double red maggot on the hook and hoped for a quick bite, and it didn’t take long for the float to go under but a carp was hooked. I was about to net it and the hook came out. Went back out but it was quiet so tried the other lines, but all I could get was the odd roach.

After 40 minutes and just 1 skimmer I changed to look for carp fishing shallow. There were carp here coming to the 6mm pellets but in 45 minutes I never had a bite! Back on silvers then, but just one skimmer and out of the blue a tench in the margin, but I was going nowhere. Three hours in and I had a carp, at this stage peg 119 had 2 carp, pegs 123 and 124 had 1 carp each. I noticed a few carp started swirling down to my right by a tree, so a change of plan required, I got out a hard pellet rig and started feeding 6mms there. I also found out that Glenn Bailey and Gary Bowden were getting a few carp on paste, so I got a paste rig out and turned some of my gbait into a paste.

Fishing first down to the tree and there was instant signs on the float and I picked a good few carp here, at the same time Martyn Woodington on 123 caught in his margin. We both caught for about an hour here then we both stopped catching. I reckon I had about 40lb with 1 hour and 45 minutes left, but then the carp rocked up on the paste line and I caught them steady till the end of the match and knew I had over 100lb.

The Match was won by Lee Masey on peg 116 with 150lb 6oz, he caught mostly carp in his left hand margin. I was second with 126lb. Silvers was won by Nick Hargreaves with a great 63lb of skimmers.

A great start for me and some beer money, which was soon spent in the globe that evening lol.

Windmill Fishery Open

After an enforced break for a few weeks due to family engagements (including my wedding anniversary) I was back to fishing this Sunday. Friday though I was lucky to enjoy hospitality at Gloucester cricket club for my eldest daughter’s birthday. Glos won which made the evening even more special. Saturday afternoon was spent tying rigs, hooks and elasticating top sets, not just for Sunday but for my up coming week away at Viaduct Fishery.

I was awake before my alarm Sunday and that meant I got to Wetherspoons in good time for my breakfast. Arrived at the fishery in good time and plenty of anglers there as there were 21 fishing meaning tight pegging. I was near the front of the queue to draw and was soon looking at peg 24 disc. I thought that might be OK, but I was soon told by Kev Winstone that the peg had been one of the worst in recent times with 4 carp the most off it recently. Oh dear, but with wind blowing towards me I thought it might be okay.

Got to the peg and oh dear.. carp were spawning like mad around the lake, though not really in my peg. But on 25 the reeds were full of carp spawning and Shaun Townsend was on that one, on my right on 23 was good mate Geoff Francis.

My peg had the end of an island and carp were spawning under the bush, I set up a straight lead for here.

The RH margin looked ok and depth was not as deep as expected, but the foliage was well overgrown and I couldn’t get near it to trim. I set up a rig to fish maggots or worms or corn here with a 12 XSH to 0.17. Also set up a slapping rig with a 4x13 carp shallow, and a 4x10 chianti for catching silvers on the drop if I needed to go for them.

We started at 10:30 and I started slapping a pellet at 14m, no luck here. Slapping a pellet by the reeds also didn’t work so onto the lead where I had been feeding 8mm pellets. Gave this about 40 minutes and lost 3 foulers due to spawning I guess. Shaun had lost 5 carp at this stage and I’d only seen a couple of carp landed, so I tried for some silvers. It was very slow in front, but then going left over some caster I had a 4oz skimmer and a 2 1/2lb skimmer. Sadly that was the end of that line and all I could catch was the very odd tiny roach or Rudd. I sacked this off eventually as I couldn’t see me getting 5lb and Gerry Welsh had that already.

Shaun had now got 6 carp and was getting more by slapping, other than peg 3 I couldn’t see many carp being caught, even venue expert Leighton Palmer was walking. I tried the lead, nothing, went in the margin with a bunch of maggots and was about to give up when the float went under! I half expected it to be fouled but it wasn’t, and a 7lb carp was netted. Couldn’t repeat the trick though. 

The spawning activity had relented with 2 hours to go, and this coincided with me catching 3 carp on the lead in about 30 minutes. Of course this died lol. Back in the margin, nowt, back on the lead and hooked another but must have been fouled as pulled like mad for 20 seconds on the clip and then pulled out. Margin produced 3 liners and a Rudd, so pretty pants as was predicted.

It was obvious Shaun had won, and despite him losing loads his catch of 99lb 11oz was nearly double the second place, that went to Matt Challenger on peg 17 with 50lb 11oz. Silvers was won by Gerry Welsh with 14lb 4oz on peg 19 and Nick Saunders on 20 came second with 9lb 5oz. Well done lads.

I ended up 6th with just 24lb which shows how tough it was today. Still the sun shone, the birds sang and we had a laugh, that’s still a good day out in my book.