21st May, New Lakes - Sessay

With no club match this week I decided to chance my luck on the Sunday open at the Oaks. Last time I fished the new lakes I came third overall and won my lake so I was hoping for a repeat, or at least a decent days fishing. With the draw not being until 9:30 it was nice to have a bit of a lie in, especially after playing gigs on the Friday and Saturday night. By the time of the draw there were 23 on, with a top 4 payout and a section a lake. My hand went into the bag and I managed peg 22 on Beech. From keeping up to date with the results I knew Beech 7 was a bit of a flyer and my peg was opposite this so hopefully they’d come across. The wind, as per the last few weeks was blowing in my face and from my right to left so presentation may be an issue but that would be the case for most apart from the top pegs on Beech where there was no wind and it was flat calm, these two pegs being taken up by Dean Smith and Shane Atkin, and with Gandhi on the next peg to my right I’d have to keep a calm head to get anything from the match. I only set up two rigs to keep it nice and simple, these were both my homemade slim pencil floats, a 0.4g for 11m and an 0.2g for 13m, these were both on 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hooklength and size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook, both finished with a doubled five elastic. The 0.2g rig would also do for down the edge. Bait today I had 4mm and 6mm expanders, soaked micros for feed and also a few 4mm hard pellets to throw down the edge. Gandhi bellowed time at 10:30 and we were away. On plumbing up the wind was quite strong at times so I decided to start at the base of the shelf at 11m as it would be marginally easier than holding 13m. The lad opposite me on peg 6 was in straight away and looking at the length of his rig I think he was fishing on top of the shelf. My float soon went under though and it was game on. By varying the feed from a full fruit shoot to nothing, and everything in between I kept the fish coming, and at the half way point in the match I had 32 fish and seemed to be doing OK. I always do half a match in each net on these lakes as I think it gives you a good idea of how you’ve caught as the days gone on. Switching nets seemed to be the kiss of death though, In the next hour and three quarters I managed six fish! I couldn’t understand it, from feast to famine in a blink of an eye. I put a shot directly under my float to enable me to check my depth is still correct and after a few bites with no resistance I had a look and my float had moved a couple of inches over depth, hopefully adjusting this would see me back amongst the fish? No, still liners, so I shallowed up a floats depth and the bites stopped altogether, I gradually altered my depth half an inch at a time but the liners eventually turned into a motionless float. I tried a few times on the 13m line but only managed a couple of fish, they were far from queuing up! Bob and Mick on the end pegs to my left were now catching me up, both fishing down the edge. I’d been feeding the odd few pellets down there and I had nothing to lose. It turned out to be the right decision as it was solid, I managed 18 fish in the last hour and a quarter and finished the day with 56 fish. I was pretty sure my fish averaged about 12oz so that would give me about 42lb. I knew I'd done OK but thought that the bad middle of the match would cost me today. I packed up all my gear and followed the weigh in round, Simon Medd was leading with 63lb, there was a 49lb and then Bob on my lake weighed in 50lb, so I knew my chance had gone, the lad opposite me on peg 6, who I'd caught a similar amount to weighed in 43lb so I thought my estimation was about right. Shane Atkin had tipped back off the end peg, Dean Smith on the opposite end peg weighed 55lb, then Ghandi weighed a high 40lb. Next up was myself, the first net, with 32 fish, weighed 31lb 8oz! So maybe they were a bit bigger than I thought, my second net of 24 fish weighed 21lb 12oz giving me a total of 53lb 4oz! That pushed me up into 3rd place so I was hoping the rest of the weights were obviously less than mine! Unfortunately Mick to my left had sacked up in the second half of the match down the edge and weighed in 58lb, massively making up for his slow start and a cracking result on his first attempt at these lakes. I'd not heard of any other weights so I was hoping to cling onto 4th place, until Ant Stock weighed 53lb 5oz, ouncing me into 5th! Back in the cafe and I'd managed to secure 5th place overall and also won my section by double default. The top 5 looked like this: Simon Medd - 63lb 10oz Mick Grant - 58lb 2oz Dean Smith - 55lb 8oz Ant Stock - 53lb 5oz Steve Lupton - 53lb 4oz I can't fish next week due to other commitments, and we've no club match the week after either, so I might be back on the new lakes again!

Brafferton F1 Lake - 13th May

After doing well off a “bad peg” last week I was hoping to carry on in the same vain and put a few fish in the net. Whilst loading my gear out of the car I was looking out over the lake and it was set to be a hard day as the wind was pushing through and it was forecast to only get worse. Come the time of the draw and Gordon was holding the bag, I drew with about half the pegs left in the bag and drew flyer peg 1. Now it is a flyer, but with the wind being so strong today any peg would be difficult to fish, and with the wind blowing to the other end of the lake, would there be any fish up here still? Tony Haw was next to me on peg 3 and there was a chap on peg 80 on another match opposite me. With peg 1 you have the choice of fishing to the end of the island, down the long margin and plenty of open water, being on the end of the island though, today would be particularly tough with the strong winds coming straight into face. After levelling my box I decided I’d have three main lines today, and island swim, a margin swim and a line at 6m. Our last match on here, I was on peg 25, the complete opposite end of the lake to peg 1 but I’d caught small fish nearly all day at 6m as the wind was horrendous that day too so I was hoping it would work again today. For across to the island I had a homemade 0.2g pencil float on 0.16 with an 0.12 hooklength and a size 16 hook, I’ve started using bigger hooks on here mainly because more often than not, I’ll fish a 6mm pellet rather than 4mm because you get bitted out by gudgeon on the smaller pellet. Elastic was a solid 12.For the margin I had a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.16 with an 0.14 hooklength and a size 16 hook and solid 14 latex elastic. My track rig was a 0.75g BGT Blue on 0.16 mainline to an 0.12 hooklength and size 16 hook, this was finished with a solid 12 latex. I also set up a shallow rig and had the method rod set up to fish to the end of the island if I needed it. For bait I had some 6mm expanders, some micros, some dampened 4mm pellets and some swim stim for the method. Thanks to only person shouting “TIME!!!”, and them being at the other end of the lake, a few of us probably started ten minutes late as no one seemed to filter the call down the rest of the lake! I saw Tony go across straight away whilst I fed my short line and my margin. I decided to start fishing on the short 6m line and see how Tony got on in the wind. As it happened I caught a couple of small stockies straight away and although Tony had only managed one, it looked a lot better stamp to mine. I persevered on this line and started putting a run of fish together, it was far from frantic but I seemed to be faring better than Tony, who by now had also moved onto a short line but with no luck. The bloke opposite had only had a couple so I felt I was doing OK as I had around 15 in the net. The fish seemed to back off a bit from this line and for the rest of the match I chopped and changed and managed to keep a few fish coming to the net be it on the island line, the method or back on the short line. The margin didn’t seem to want to produce though and every time I looked down there I’d only get plagued by gudgeon or roach so I just kept feeding it hoping that the small fish would get bullied out. With all my swims fading away I spent the last twenty minutes down the margin hoping that they’d turned up, which they had! I had size carp in the last 20 minutes, all averaging a pound which was double the size of my average stamp. Just a shame they hadn’t turned up earlier, as time was called before I got chance to empty it! I packed up quickly as I was weighing in again! Tony Koz walked past asking how I’d got on, I reckoned to have at least 25lb but probably nearer 30, he thought I was telling porkies but I’d seen him catching fairly well, though he admitted he was half tempted to pack up early so we’d see! I was first to weigh in and my two nets went 33lb so I was relatively pleased as I had more than I thought, though I wasn’t sure how well everyone else had caught but imagined it wouldn’t be good enough! Tony Haw weighed in 16lb odd, which came as a surprise because I thought we’d caught a similar amount! Taxi Dave then had 43lb odd, Tony Koz 41lb odd, then the bank got stronger as we went along! We got to Gordon’s peg and his first net weighed 24lb odd, I said he’d better not have more than 9lb in his other net or he’d have done me for the quid. His reply was that he only had a few fish in his second net, but he’s been hanging around with Rab for too long and his second net weighed 35lb giving him a total of 59lb odd! I was gobsmacked, someone must have helped him! But credit where its due, I handed the pound over, but only for him to look after until next week!! It’s now 7-3 to me in the quid stakes so I’d best pull my finger out if I’m going to rub any more salt into the wounds!! Cooksy weighed in over 70lb which was good enough to win the match (even if he was on the wrong peg!!) The top 3 looked like this: 1st P. Cooksey – Peg 15 - 73lb 06ozs 2nd S. Stott - Peg 25 - 72lb 15ozs 3rd A. Nattrass – Peg 20 - 66lb 11ozs There’s no club match next week so I’ll decide on where to go depending on what the weather is like!

Woodlands - Skylark - 6th May 2012

After a very wet, very blustery weekend last week, I was expecting more of the same this week, especially as it was a Bank Holiday! I couldn’t have been more wrong though, according to the met office website it was to be sunny most of the day with broken cloud, highs of 10 degrees and maximum winds of 15mph. This would at least give me chance to get all my gear spread out behind me to give a final air through from last week’s drying efforts. This weekend we were at Woodlands on Skylark. It’s been quite a while since I last fished one of the big squares at Woodlands so was quite looking forward to it. There were a million and one rumours going around as to how the previous weeks fish stocking/netting had gone, that in the end I just ignored all of it and assumed to fish it as normal. After an expensive and rather disappointing breakfast I got the barrow loaded, which I came to realise isn’t big enough to take my new box, the draw then got underway. I held the bag and most people wanted to be somewhere in the middle which is ideally where I wanted to be, but with Stu taking the last but one peg, I was left with peg 34, right in the corner, right at the opposite end to where the wind had been blowing, and right next to where every Tom, Dick and Harry would march past throughout the day! Miffed? Face On? You Bet!! I trudged my gear round to my peg to see that it was near enough the only part of the lake with no wind on, and looked up to the far end where you could see the vast amount of scum covering the top 2 or 3 pegs, proving that the wind had definitely been blowing up that way. I had Paul Cromie opposite on peg 2 and Stef to my left on peg 32, who were also both rather miserable about the anticipated days fishing. To my surprise, whilst setting up there were quite a few fish rolling in my swim, from my fee right out to the aerator, whether they would feed or not was a completely different question entirely. I set up a few rigs to hopefully cover every eventuality. My main rig would be to fish out at 13-15m on the deck. This was a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hooklength, size 14 Gamakatsu Pellet hook. This was finished with a solid 14 latex. If it was really hard going I’d also set up a lighter version of this rig for the same swim but hopefully wouldn’t need it! I also set up a shallow rig for over the top of this line, this was a 0.2g Rizov RF83 on 0.18 straight through to a hair rigged band and size 16 Drennan Power Hair Rigger. This was again on a solid 14 latex. My final rig was to fish at 15m tight to a clump of grass on my right up the side of the lake, this rig would also serve my left margin too and was a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hooklength, size 14 Gamakatsu Pellet hook and a solid 16 latex. I also had the bomb set up for fishing towards the aerator. My rig for the right hand side of the lake would hopefully come into play later on in the match once the disturbance had died down from everyone walking to their pegs. Bait wise today it was all pellet, I had some 4,6 and 8mm feed and also 4,6 and 8mm expanders. I had some corn in my bucket too but this would be a last resort/change bait. With my 4mm feed pellets, I’d left them to soak for 10 minutes before draining the water, this made them a bit softer, seeing as I was expecting it to be quite hard today, these pellets would break down much quicker and I’d hopefully get in amongst the skimmers as well as any bonus carp. At the all in I’d not even put my keepnets in, so I decided to feed my 13m line with a kinder pot of soaked 4mm pellets, feed a few 8mm pellets towards the aerator and then chuck my nets in whilst these settled. Once my nets were in I had a quick look down my left margin as there had been plenty of swirls and boils whilst I was setting up so I was hoping for a bonus early carp. After a few minutes of watching a still float, I fed my 13m line again and threw the bomb out. I had a few casts and continually fired one or two pellets over the top whilst also topping up my 13m line. The tip eventually went round and I was rewarded with my first carp of the day. At around 4lb it was a welcome start. By now the wind was steadily blowing down to my end of the lake but with it came all the scum, my rigs were constantly covered in blossom and the feathery bits off the willow trees. An hour in and the open match lads started walking past to the other lakes which wasn’t helping my side swim calm down but what can you do!? I had a further couple of fishless casts on the bomb before having a look on the 13m line. I had a carp, again about 4lb and a skimmer in my first two puts in but was getting liners all the time and the fish were obviously shallow. I went out over my 13m line with my shallow rig, fed a few pellets, slapped a few times and after 5-10 minutes of repeating the feeding and slapping, the float bobbed and I lifted into a fish. This was much bigger and after a hefty tussle I slid the net under a 7lb common. I went back out hoping for a few more, the float once again dipped but this time my lift resulted in an angry foul hooked carp tearing off into the middle of the lake before we parted company and I only had a scale as a souvenir. The next put in, the same happened again, so with this I decided to shallow up and was now fishing 10-12 inches deep, however I now couldn’t get an indication, the clouds covered the sun and there was a definite change in temperature, the wind had also dropped leaving the lake flat calm so I decided to have a look back on the deck. I carried on swapping between the deep and shallow rig, with the deep rig providing a few more fish throughout the day. With two hours to go, I had around 25lb in my net, Stef must have had around 50lb as his second net had gone in, Cromie probably had a bit more than Stef but was admitting to a lot less! I decided to have a look down the boards at the side of the lake and went out armed with a 6mm expander and a few 4mm pellets. It was a nightmare to see the float at 15m due to all the scum on the surface however managed to make out a bite on my first put in. There wasn’t yards of elastic pouring out but it felt like a half decent fish, after a one sided battle a barbel surfaced and I had another 2lb in the net. I was hoping that his brothers and sister were also lurking down there! For the remainder of match I caught a few small stockies around 12oz off the boards and half a dozen fish around 5lb. I think I lost three that were obviously foul hooked as most of them surfaced at the aerator before either shedding the hook or on one occasion snapping me. There were still a couple of people walking round and whenever they walked down my bank I had to wait a lot longer for a bite, up to 20 minutes in some instances, which when you’re catching one near enough every put in, this drastically affects your catch rate and could cost you valuable fish! The match drew to a close and from what I could tell it had been a hard match for most, Cromie admitted to 45lb but I knew he was telling porkies, I reckoned I had 55-56lb and that Stef would have beaten me though there wouldn’t be a lot in it. I packed up my gear and being on the end pegs, Stef and I were weighing in our bank. We started up on peg 18 to work our way back down and up until Stef, Rab was winning the section with 28lb10oz, so it had fished a lot harder than I’d suspected. Stef’s two nets weighed 68lb4oz so I knew I was beaten. My first net weighed 36-08 and my second 24lb12oz giving me a combined weight of 61lb4oz. Cromies “45lb” weighed just over 80lb so he won the match with Stef and I coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. So after a miserable trudge to my peg in the morning, it turned out the “wrong” end of the lake wasn’t the wrong end after all! I just hoped that not so many people were walking around as I think this would have helped me to push further up the placings! Gordon had tipped back, and judging by the shine on the pound coin he gave me I think he’d been polishing it for most of the match! Acko also hadn’t faired too well and after disappearing last week we had double or quits this week, which he graciously handed over in the cafe! The final results looked like this: 1st P. Cromie – Peg 2 - 80lb 06ozs 2nd S. Armitage – Peg 32 - 68lb 04ozs 3rd S. Lupton – Peg 34 - 61lb 04ozs Sec1 A. Nattrass – Peg 6 - 33lb 10ozs Sec2 R. Ogilvie – Peg 28 - 28lb 10ozs Were at Brafferton next week, hopefully the weather, and the fishing will remain positive!

Oaks - Cedar - Club Match - 29-04-12

After a disappointing days fishing a week ago I was glad to be back on “home” soil. After a lovely breakfast I caught up with Acko and Woody to decide which pegs to use. With us having pegs 42-80 and 19 anglers fishing it made sense to fish it every other peg, you’d end up having a relatively pleasant day free from wind if you drew on the points but it’d be horrendous on any of the straights! Thankfully come the draw, I managed peg 64, which is bang on the end of a point! Although it was to be believed these flyers were no longer flyers, I was glad that I’d be able to fish properly for the day! I had Acko to my left on peg 62 and Cooksy to my right on 66. I’d heard Ian Bowman had fished peg 62 the day before and only weighed in 15lb so I was prepared for a struggle, although the angler on peg 65 managed 38lb. So if I got somewhere in between I’d be happy! It was lightly drizzling at the start of the match but the longer I went on setting up the rain got worse. Normally I don’t use a brolly but if it’s raining before the match I tend to put it up, plus the wind on the end of this point wasn’t too bad so hopefully I’d be alright. I set up three rigs for the day, the first being for down the track, this was one of my homemade KP 0.4g floats on 0.14 mainline, 0.12 hooklength with a size 16 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hook. A size 16 hook may seem a bit big but I was going to fish meat on this line, and I overheard Woody say he a 16 might be better than 18, I could always swap to an 18 if I decided it wasn’t right. The next rig was exactly the same as the track rig but with a 0.2g version of the float for fishing in front of the sedge in 3ft of water, this rig would also do for both my margins. My final rig was pushing up the side of the sedges and was again the same line and hook but with a 4x12 Malman Cedar. All rigs were topped off with doubled 5 elastics. Bait wise, I had some 4 and 6mm expanders, some micros, some 4mm feed pellets and a big tin of meat chopped into 6mm cubes, chopped with a kitchen knife, unlike Gordon “I can’t do my meat without a meatcutter” Thackwray! At the all in the rain was now in full force, the brolly was keeping a bit of my gear dry but when its coming in sideways there’s naff all you can do to keep dry! I threw a dozen 4mm pellets down each margin and keep doing this every five minutes or so whilst I fished in front of the sedges. I baited up with a piece of meat and put half a dozen cubes in my pot and went across to my right hand sedge. The float sat motionless, I came back every 5 minutes or so to keep a few cubes of meat going in but after 45 minutes and 3 gudgeon in the net I wasn’t going anywhere fast. I had a look down the margins and managed 2 F1’s and a small mirror before that also dried up. I fed a full kinderpot onto my deep line and left it ten minutes before going over it. First put in and I was rewarded a mirror of about 3lb, by feeding 5 or 6 bits of meat every put in I started putting some fish in the net. It was by no means frantic but I was certainly glad to be putting something in the net. The wind was occasionally gusting through and had by now taken the brolly down and launched it up the bank, strange how its less annoying to sit in torrential rain than under a brolly! I carried on catching slowly off the track line when I felt it slipping away from me, I fed a dozen bits of meat to try spark a response and also fed the same on a new line a few meters further to my right. Whilst these had time to settle I spent five minutes back in the margins which I’d been continually feeding throughout the match, but after catching a gudgeon off my left swim and a roach off my right swim I was soon back onto the track swims. For the remainder of the match I alternated between the two track swims and did manage to keep a slow but steady stream of fish coming to the net. The all in was finally called at 4 o’ clock and Acko was already half packed up. He was admitting to about 15lb but tipped back, so at least I was a quid up (I’ll have that next week a t Woodlands please!). I reckoned I might have about 30lb and Paul was admitting to a bit less. The scale came round and Rab had managed 53lb odd off peg 70 (flyer), Tony Koz had had 46lb, Bob Sinclair 42lb and young Joe had managed 39lb. So it was going to be close on our point, Paul weighed in a low 20lb and then it was my turn, I managed 38-04, so I’d more than I thought but still not enough. After trudging the gear back to the car, we met back in the cafe to dry off a bit. The top three looked like this: 1st J. Wood - Peg 48 - 73lbs 02ozs 2nd R. Ogilvie – Peg 70 - 53lbs 00ozs 3rd T. Koz - Peg 68 - 46lbs 04ozs Next week were at Woodlands, this will be the first time I’ve fished there this year so it’ll make a nice change, I just hope the fishing is kind and the weather kinder!

Brafferton F1 Lake - 15th April

After missing the first two proper club matches of the year I was looking forward to today, after having had nearly 60lb out a few weeks ago I was hoping for a similar days sport! I couldn’t have been more wrong though, I got to the fishery just after 8am with a bit of a sore head from the night before and was faced with rather strong, particularly cold winds, thankfully I had an extra jacket in my bag because it was going to be a cold one! The frost the night before probably wouldn’t help matters either!

After forcing my breakfast down I loaded my gear onto the barrow and awaited the draw, the wind had definitely got stronger and it was freezing! Everyone was hoping for any peg that wasn’t down the bottom end, although these pegs have done well on our last matches, they’re completely in the shade and the wind would be blowing in your face all day.

The draw eventually got underway and I drew peg 25. Which not only is in the deep dark woods so I’d be freezing, I’d have the wind in my face all day and to top things off its the furthest peg away from the car park, especially when you walk the wrong way around the lake! The long grass made it a nightmare to push my barrow and by the time I got to my peg I was ready for a kip and to be honest, wasn’t really in the mood!

It took me an age to set up and for the first time in a very, very long time I wasn’t ready by the start of the match. I’d plumbed up down my left edge but it was all over the place and seeing as I had to fish maybe ten metres to the platform it was very difficult holding the pole still enough in the wind so I got this rig somewhere near and if it settled down later then I could fine tune it. I did the same with my across rig to fish to the end of the island but the wind was coming from every conceivable direction so I put this to rest with my edge rig. My final rig, and only rig that was actually ready was a 0.75g BGT Blue on 0.16 mainline to an 0.12 hooklength and size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. This rig was the full length of my top kit and even this rig was slightly struggling with the tow, I had some 1g rigs in my box but I thought the smaller one would do. This rig was finished with a soft set 12 elastic and pull bung. I plumber up and I could fish this rig from 4-10metres as it was very uniform, ideally I’d start at 10m at the bottom of the far shelf but it would be wind dependant! I also had a small Preston method set up which I would start with after feeding my other line.

Bait today I had micros and 4mm’s for feed and some 4 and 6mm expanders. I also had a bit of corn to use as a change bait.

At the all in I finished off setting up and then chucked the method out, and again, and again. And again, the wind was swirling all over the place and even though only a short chuck of 14m to the island I was really struggling and was throwing it all over the place. I sacked this off and went on my deep rig at 10m where I’d fed a golf ball of micros to kick start. Although I got a small F1 first put in it was very difficult holding the pole at that length so I decided to do what I should have done at the start, fish short! At least by fishing short I could present a bait correctly, not get over frustrated and hopefully still put a few fish in the net.

I fed a line on my top 5 and was starting to calm down after a disastrous start! Thankfully the fish were there, I was catching a fish almost every put in, though I was waiting a while for a bite, by lifting and dropping the rig I was tempting small stockies, smaller barbel and smaller still gudgeon into the net. Although not manic I seemed to be doing OK from what I could see, Tony Koz on 23 was catching similar to myself and had put a few fish in the net whilst I was messing about at the start too! John on 27 was also getting a few down the edge but was getting pestered by bits.

As it looked like I was doing OK I just battled on fishing here and tried to get my head down, I’d started feeding a few hard 4mm pellets every put in by now instead of the balls of micros and it seemed to be working a little bit better. John had decided to give it a go across and managed 3 or four fish one after another before getting “blown off”. Stu had come for a walk round and had said everyone else was doing crap so I knew to keep plugging away. I did try across and managed a small chub first put in and a small F1 on the second before the wind got too much again and forced me back onto the 5m line.

It was a case of sticking at it for the rest of the match at 5m and although I did try across for the last ten minutes it was to no avail.

John, myself and Tony had all caught fairly steadily throughout the match and although I thought I’d beaten John I reckoned that Tony had done me though it would have been tight between the three of us.

At the weigh in they started from either end, up to John, Rab was winning with 24-14, John managed 17lb and then it was my turn. Although I had two nets in they were by no means full, I just like to split my fish half a match in each net. The tight so and so’s on scales gave me 22-15, though I could have sworn it was nearer 23lb! Tony was next and as he lifted his net out I knew he’d done me, he weighed 27lb odd and took the match.

So a frustrating day for all due to the weather but I managed 4th overall and a section win, if I’d have had my head screwed on at the start I could have probably pushed a bit higher up the frame but it wasn’t to be!

The top 5 looked like this, very close with just over 5lb separating the top weights.

1st T.Koz peg23 27lb 05ozs
2nd S.Armitage peg18 25lb 12ozs
3rd R.Ogilvie peg34 24lb 14ozs
4th S.Lupton peg25 22lb 15ozs
5th B.Sinclair peg15 22lb 00ozs

Next week were at Raker Lakes on Horseshoe pond, I’ve never even seen the place so it could be interesting!

6th April - Good Friday Open, New Lakes - Sessay

I didn’t deem the previous weeks match a write up, I fished the open on Cedar at Sessay and struggled sat amongst the worm lads and up until the last hour I only had around 8lb in the net, I started feeding a black groundbait slop across and put small F1’s in the net up until the end and weighed in 27lb to slightly spare my blushes.

The following Monday was my birthday and I managed to sneak in 3 hours at Sunrise near Spofforth. I fished peg 11 and managed 26 F1’s and small mirrors for about 45lb, lovely afternoons sport and glorious weather to boot!

On to this week, with other commitments over the bank holiday weekend I decided to fish the Friday open up at Sessay, seeing as I wasn’t fishing for the rest of the weekend I’d have to make the most of it.

This would be my fifth time at fishing these lakes so I’m still relatively new to them and I last fished them in November last year and managed 45lb for 6th in the match. This time around I drew peg 15 on Sycamore, I’ve drawn on Sycamore twice before and always found the fish in here to be a lot smaller stamp than in the other 2 lakes. Peg 15 is right in the corner and with the wind blowing down towards me and the Steve Hawkins being the next angler on peg on my bank I had plenty of room, though everyone seemed to as there were only 6 or 7 anglers on each lake. I had Mark opposite me on peg 18 and Draw bag Whale on the end peg on Beeches behind me, everyone else was too far away!

After speaking to Rob before the match he recommended fishing slightly to my right away from the corner in order to draw more fish in to my peg rather than hammering the fish in the corner. I plumbed up right along the shelf from 13-14.5m left to right and found it to be fairly consistent apart from the odd deviation of an inch or two. I set up a rig to fish all these lines on top of the shelf and I’d have to alter my depth slightly here and there when required. This rig was one on my own 0.2g slim pencil floats on 0.12 mainline and 0.10 hooklength with a size 18 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hook, this was finished with a doubled 5 elastic. I also set up a rig for fishing 3 lines in the deep water, this was identical to the other rig but with a 0.4g version of the float.

For bait today all I had was half a bag of fishery micros, swelled up to make two pints of feed and some 4 and 6mm expanders.

At the all in I went straight out just past my 13m section pointing to my right, I was fishing in line with Marks peg so it was nice and easy to get the float in the same hole every time. I lowered the rig in with a 4mm pellet and tipped in a full fruit shoot of micros over the top. I didn’t have to wait long before my first indication and my first fish, a small F1 around 8oz, I repeated the process putting 4 fish in the net whilst Mark had seemingly lost his first three hooked fish. I altered the feed for the first hour and managed to put 12 fish in the net although they were all small fish.

I carried on in the same vein for the next hour or so and seemed to be doing OK, Mark was catching a few but I thought I had the upper hand, I could see Bert catching a few in front of the little hut but he was probably catching at the same rate as Mark. I heard Whaley tell Jonesy that he’d had 20 and I think at that point I had 16 so I wasn’t doing too bad. With these being five and half hour matches the half way point was 13:15, at this time I switched keepnets to do half a match in each net and at the half way point I’d had 36 fish and seemed to be doing OK though there were rumours of Dean Smith and Richie Newton both catching well on Beeches.

In the second half of the match I decided to move swims or at least give my original swim a rest as it had marginally slowed down from how it started.

I went over to my left at 14.5, I was fishing a couple of metres of the rushes still in the deep water of the shelf as it slopes up quite shallow into the reeds so I was still fishing at my original depth.

I kicked off with a kinder sized pot of bait and hoped to feed after every couple of fish, the fish were having it on the other line with a full pot every put in but I was waiting a few minutes for a bite. Hopefully feeding a fruit shoot of bait after every few fish I’d get quicker bites.

I was straight into fish and although I didn’t seem to be catching any faster from putting less feed in, it was quicker to not feed purely through filling the pot etc. I was still catching well though I was now getting a few liners and lifting into thin air. I didn’t think it was down to my feeding as I’d dramatically cut down by now, feeding after every three or four fish. I foul hooked maybe four in a row and was starting to get annoyed as I lost them all! I shallowed up by about four inches and started hooking fish again, I was back into a similar rhythm before the lines started again so I shallowed up another couple of inches, this worked a treat and the bites kept coming, considering it wasn’t that warm and after the midweek snow they were more than happy feeding off bottom.

Then I suffered a setback, I hooked a fish of a similar size to the others but just I was about to land it, it snapped me just below the loop to my connector so I lost the whole rig! I couldn’t understand it!!

I didn’t dwell on it and shallowed up my track rig to the same depth as the previous one and was straight into fish again. I managed to finish the second half of the match with 42 fish and a total of 78, I had 39 fish in each net so it would be interesting to see what they weighed.

Mark asked if I had 80lb, to which I replied “you must be kidding!”, the average size of my fish was probably 8oz, I thought I’d have 40lb though Jonesy reckoned I’d have 60lb with that many fish, we’d have to wait and see though.

Ash had fished really hard with most anglers just scraping past the 10lb barrier though Ian Exley managed a lake win and section with 37lb odd. Beech had fished relatively well, with Dean Smith weighing 65lb off around peg 7, Richie Newton then went into the lead with 88lb, Whaley finished off their lake with 53lb odd. Onto our lake and with Mark Calvert weighing 50lb I was dubious as to whether I’d get the section, my first net weighed 30lb dead and my second net 30lb6oz, so I’d won the lake and managed third overall on the match. Though I must split my fish a bit better and improve guessing my weight!

I was more than chuffed with this result and the final top 5 looked like this:

1st R. Newton - B20 - 88,2
2nd D. Smith - B6 - 65,0
3rd S. Lupton - S15 - 60,6
4th P. Whale - B25 - 53,8
5th M. Calvert - S6 - 50,4

Going back, it wasn’t until the next day that I realised why my rig had snapped. Normally with my bottle tops, I thread a loop of elastic under them and attach them to my top kits with the tight loop of elastic, rather than damaging my pole with the rigid plastic. I’d done a couple of fruit shoot lids by cutting a slit from one hole to another so I could thread them on and off without having to take my rig off. I remembered at one point my rig had got caught in the slit as I was unhooking a fish but I just sorted it out and carried on fishing, this must have damaged the line without me knowing! I’ll definitely go back to my elastic cups for the future as one day a mistake like that could cost me! The larger downside of this was obviously that a fish would now be attached to this rig, hopefully it would spit the hook fairly easily, then someone will be the proud owner of one of my homemade floats!

Oaks - Cedar Open - 17-03-12

This week I was trying my luck on the open up at the Oaks. One of my aims this year was to do 50lb on both Maple and Cedar, with having 56lb on Maple the other week that was one aim crossed off, now could I repeat this feat on Cedar?

After looking through my results, my personal best on Cedar was 39lb-13oz from peg 19 on the TalkAngling.co.uk Northern Intersite match back in August 2010. Cedar isn’t a lake I fish all that often, maybe three or four times a year so every time I fish it, it’s changed massively in the way you should approach it.

Today I was hoping for a good draw (though I wasn’t sure where that was!). I managed to draw peg 34 along the back straight. I’ve fished this on one of the Christmas Cheer qualifiers before and seemed to remember only weighing in because of the lucky peg draw after the match.

Peg 34 has hardly any sedges on the far bank and because of this I decided to fish at a comfortable distance of 13m where I found just less than 3ft of water. I set up two swims at 13m, one to my let and one to my right. This rig was a 4x10 KC Belter on 0.12 to an 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 Drennan Silverfish Pellet. This was finished off with a doubled 5 elastic and pull bung.

I set up an identical rig for fishing in a foot of water 14m if the fish were more confident in the shallower water. My final rig was to fish 13m to the platform on peg 35. This was a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.14 to an 0.12 hooklength and a size 18 Gama Pellet and Paste Hook, this was finished off with a solid 12 latex. Rob had mentioned that a chap had fished here on a previous match due to it being so windy and managed around 60lb. Though there was no really wind today, there was the occasional breeze drifting into this area of the peg so it would hopefully be good for the odd fish.

Bait for today I had a pint of soaked micros and some 4 & 6mm expanders.

At the all in I fed a golf ball of micros onto my margin swim and would top up as the day went on. I then went out with the “sedge” rig armed with a 4mm expander and half a pot of fruit shoot of micros. It took a few minutes before my first indication but I eventually hooked my first fish, an F1 about 2lb, I repeated the process and managed another two F1’s about a pound each, after this I was getting liners all the time and either lifting into thin air or foul hooking fish! I foul hooked three on the bounce and lost all of them, I decided to try my shallower line but had no indications therefore after an hour I decided to feed around 100ml of micros on the 3ft line and have a go down the margins.

This proved to be a good move as I ended up putting around twenty small stockies in the net over the next couple of hours before it started to go quiet. Before the line faded I potted half a big pot of micros and had another go across. With the fish responding so well down the edge I found myself having to soak some more feed pellets as I’d run out, the first time in a long time I’ve needed more than a pint of bait for a match!

I was continually getting pestered by gudgeon and small roach across on both lines whether I fed sparingly or heavy so gave it up and with around 90 minutes to go I went back down the edge.

I managed to get into a similar routine as previous and was putting a fish in the net on quite a frequent basis although only small I did have a couple of better fish, three for 10lb which was a welcome boost! I also hooked into another better fish down the edge and just I was about to slip the net under it we unfortunately parted company, at first glimpse it was a mirror of about 4lb, it was one of those “keep calm and carry on” moments or at least a “swear under your breath and put a new hooklength on moments”!

The match drew to a close, Ghandi had sacked up on peg 30 although claimed to have not had a bit during the middle of the match!

Ghandi was first to weight with 80 odd, the chap next to me claimed he’d been battered both sides but I didn’t see what he weighed (perhaps a week or so early for the worm and caster route!). I the weighed 46lb dead, so a personal best for me on the lake but not quite that 50lb target! There were some good weights going round the lake with Jonesy taking the section with 52lb, those foul hookers and the lost mirror might have cost me there! Woody weighed in a big 70 including a 12lber that weighed 9lb! Robbie won the match of peg 68 with 92lb, a fantastic weight for any time of year let alone march!

Suppose I’ll have to try my luck again next week!