With the Fish o’ Mania qualifier at Sessay next week there was quite a few in attendance, a few not so familiar faces obviously wanted to get a feel for the place. I arrived at the fishery at 9:30 giving me enough time for a bite to eat and get booked on. I think I was the 42nd name down and a few more booked on after me and in total 55 fished. The sun once again was beating down and it was predicted that we’d all struggle today. A weight of around 40lb should get you in the spoils, with a top 5 payout and 5 man sections there was plenty to play for.
The draw was a little late, so at 10:15 I decided my fate for the next 5 hours. Peg 43, this didn’t rally mean a lot to me as I’ve not fished the lake since the Christmas series. I’ve fished 47 and 48 before so I knew that 43 was on a point. When I got to my peg I was in a mixed mood about it, with the peg being on a bend it means you have plenty of water to go at, the only thing was that there wasn’t a breath of wind which might make the day even harder than predicted! To complete my misery I was pegged in an all star line up, Maver Barnsley’s Ian Bowman was on peg 41 to my left although he wasn’t in my section. Peg 42 was left out, Chris from Browning Quaker was on my right on 44, Preston’s Lee Kerry was on 46, not sure who was on 47 and Mark Coyne was on 49. So as with any open you have to be on your game if you want to pick up at the end of the day. I spoke with Chris on 44 and we both agreed that our pegs were good for 20lb but not much more. So I set about catching 20lb of fish and anything more would be a bonus, I was more bothered about keeping pace and not embarrassing myself though!
Cedar is an odd lake in the fact that basically the ‘in’ method changes so often, luckily it was either meat or pellet that would do the business, or so I was told. With not having vast experience with meat I decided to go down the pellet route as I’d have a bit more confidence in what I was doing.
Rigs for the day were as normal for the Oaks; I had a couple of 4x10 Malman Cedar’s set up on 0.14 Ultima Power Match, Hooklengths of 0.12 and B911’s in 16 or 18. I had one rig for in front of the sedges and one rig for the mud, or at least trying to get to the mud as the sedges were quite dense. I also set up a track rig at 4m so I was able to feed by hand through the match and hopefully snare the odd fish when I was struggling. I also had my method rod set up as a last ditch attempt but mainly if the wind picked up.
Bait was simple, some 4mm expanders, some micros and a tin of corn as a change bait, although I didn’t think it was a day for corn today, just a gesture for my side tray!
At the all in I threw a small handful of pellets to 4m and then shipped out to my first sedge, on the far left at 13.5m, tipped in some micros and dropped my 4mm expander into the ripples. I didn’t have to wait long before my first indication but the excitement was short lived when I dropped a gudgeon into the keepnet. Straight back out again and yet another gudgeon, I did this one final time before deciding to feed a full fruit shoot and move to another line. This was straight in front of the right sedge, there were a few sedges in the water which meant it was a difficult task to drop the bait in the right place, but perseverance soon paid off and I was into carp number one of the day. I thought it was bigger than was but a lovely mirror of about 2lb soon joined the gudgeon. Two small F1’s later and the gudgeon had moved in once again so I moved to another line to my right. This is how carried on for the rest of the day, sport was very slow but I was picking the odd fish up by changing lines and trying to catch one or two before moving on.
The middle of the match was very quiet so I went 15m to my left in front of the tree and managed to hook one first put in, a foul hooker, next put in another foul hooker, one final time and I was losing my rag. I put the shallower rig on and managed two carp of about 2lb a piece again before having to move swims again. It was a frustrating day not being able to get onto a ball of fish but I seemed to be fairing relatively well in my section.
In the last ten minutes I put 4 F1’s in the net and on time missed another bite, typical they turn up once time has gone!
At the all I reckoned on about 18lb, maybe a bit more, when the scales came round Ian Bowman weighed in 31lb, he’d caught all his shallow with plenty of tapping. I then put 21lb 8oz in the sling and was glad to have beaten my 20lb target. Chris next door weighed 17lb8oz, mainly silvers and he’d fed 4 pints of maggots through the match. Lee Kerry Tipped back, as did the lad on 47. My weight was looking good for a section prize until Mark Coyne weighed in 26lb 5oz. Still second place in a very difficult section, I can’t grumble at that!
Final result looked like this
James Dent (Maver Barnsley) 49-2-0, carp and F1s, pole and pellet, peg 52
Keith Mitchell (Garbolino Elton) 48-5-0
Brian Clarke (Oaks) 44-2-0
Chris Hall (Oaks) 43-12-0
Steve Rothery (Garbolino Ossett) 41-4-0
Adie Mitchell (Oaks) 40-12-0.
Monday, 1 June 2009
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
May 23rd - Pleasure Session at Morndyke
Seeing as I was at Evolution festival in Newcastle on the Sunday and Monday I decided to make sure I got fishing on the Saturday so I didn’t miss a week. I’d spoken to Gordon and decided to join Honest John and himself up at Morndyke. After carrying out a few early errands I got to the fishery at just gone 9 and John and Gordon we’re just about set up. They we’re pegged on 7 and 8 so I decided to plump next to them round the corner on peg 9. I’ve never fished this area before and tend to fish on or towards the central island. I quite fancied a day on the method but all the pegs I fancied for this we’re taken so I opted to fish paste again and with a marginal bush on either side I had plenty of scope for different lines to fish.
Gordon and John were both fishing paste for the day too so it would be interesting to see what the outcome would be regarding who fed what and in what quantity etc.
I finally rigged up with a rig identical to the one from the week previous, and also mixed up some more of the pellet power+ paste. I first of all went out to the right bush and plumbed about for a bit. I decided to fish a foot or two away from the bush, one it meant the float was easier to see against the back drop and also the bottom flattened out nicely where as under the bush it was on a fairly steep gradient and I didn’t want all my feed to roll to bottom of the slope away from where I was fishing.
First put out with a blob of paste and half a dozen 6mm pellets and after a couple of minutes I was into my first fish. Now the fish in Morndyke average at about 4lb although that average will probably be nearer 4.5 to 5lb now! The bite was much just like a typical bite on any bait, not a frustrating bite you often get with paste, I played the fish for a minute or two as they fight like crazy in here and you just can’t get their heads up! I put the power on as it charged under the platform and we parted company. A couple of extra winds of elastic onto the bung and I wasn’t going to be beaten again!
Next put out I waited a minute or two and was soon attached to another, this led me a merry dance and due to the amount of pressure you have to put on them I ended up landing it with my number four still in place. It finally took a gulp of fresh air and soon nestled in the bottom of the net, this was a good fish by fishery standards, probably knocking on 6lb. I had a couple more before I felt the swim was fading away from me.
Now feeding patterns, Gordon didn’t seem to be feeding anything, John was big potting after every few fish and I was dripping half a dozen pellets in with my hook bait. The thing is no real trend could be found as we were all catching.
John had started fishing shallow and took one straight away. Seeing as my line had pretty much died I dumped a pot of bait in at 7m straight in front and a pot full down next to the bush also. I would then fish the 7m line and start feeding pellets at 13m every few seconds.
I managed to take a fish straight away off the deck at 7m but no more. I went back down the bush and managed a couple more but I had to wait a long time between bites. I’d been feeding the shallow line for the best part of 90minutes now and decided to give it a go, 30 minutes later and no signs what so ever I decided to sack it off and save my bait!
John and Gordon packed up at 4pm and by this point I think I had 11, John had 16 and Gordon had 19. I decided to stay on for a further hour as it had picked up a little. I managed four in the space of half an hour whilst they were packing away. It started to spit and I thought it was best to head home also so chucked the remainder of paste away but then the sun came out again and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so I pinched the rest of Johns left over paste and after they’d gone I managed another 3 fish in quick succession taking my tally to 18.
So another better weekend and a few more paste lessons learnt, I finished with 18 carp for about 70-80lb, easily my best result of the year and probably more than I’ve caught in the last few weeks put together!
No club match this coming weekend so probably another pleasure session somewhere, perhaps Morndyke again!
Gordon and John were both fishing paste for the day too so it would be interesting to see what the outcome would be regarding who fed what and in what quantity etc.
I finally rigged up with a rig identical to the one from the week previous, and also mixed up some more of the pellet power+ paste. I first of all went out to the right bush and plumbed about for a bit. I decided to fish a foot or two away from the bush, one it meant the float was easier to see against the back drop and also the bottom flattened out nicely where as under the bush it was on a fairly steep gradient and I didn’t want all my feed to roll to bottom of the slope away from where I was fishing.
First put out with a blob of paste and half a dozen 6mm pellets and after a couple of minutes I was into my first fish. Now the fish in Morndyke average at about 4lb although that average will probably be nearer 4.5 to 5lb now! The bite was much just like a typical bite on any bait, not a frustrating bite you often get with paste, I played the fish for a minute or two as they fight like crazy in here and you just can’t get their heads up! I put the power on as it charged under the platform and we parted company. A couple of extra winds of elastic onto the bung and I wasn’t going to be beaten again!
Next put out I waited a minute or two and was soon attached to another, this led me a merry dance and due to the amount of pressure you have to put on them I ended up landing it with my number four still in place. It finally took a gulp of fresh air and soon nestled in the bottom of the net, this was a good fish by fishery standards, probably knocking on 6lb. I had a couple more before I felt the swim was fading away from me.
Now feeding patterns, Gordon didn’t seem to be feeding anything, John was big potting after every few fish and I was dripping half a dozen pellets in with my hook bait. The thing is no real trend could be found as we were all catching.
John had started fishing shallow and took one straight away. Seeing as my line had pretty much died I dumped a pot of bait in at 7m straight in front and a pot full down next to the bush also. I would then fish the 7m line and start feeding pellets at 13m every few seconds.
I managed to take a fish straight away off the deck at 7m but no more. I went back down the bush and managed a couple more but I had to wait a long time between bites. I’d been feeding the shallow line for the best part of 90minutes now and decided to give it a go, 30 minutes later and no signs what so ever I decided to sack it off and save my bait!
John and Gordon packed up at 4pm and by this point I think I had 11, John had 16 and Gordon had 19. I decided to stay on for a further hour as it had picked up a little. I managed four in the space of half an hour whilst they were packing away. It started to spit and I thought it was best to head home also so chucked the remainder of paste away but then the sun came out again and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so I pinched the rest of Johns left over paste and after they’d gone I managed another 3 fish in quick succession taking my tally to 18.
So another better weekend and a few more paste lessons learnt, I finished with 18 carp for about 70-80lb, easily my best result of the year and probably more than I’ve caught in the last few weeks put together!
No club match this coming weekend so probably another pleasure session somewhere, perhaps Morndyke again!
Monday, 18 May 2009
May 17th - Pleasure Session at Sessay - Oaks Lake
With no club match this weekend and with the weather not looking too promising I was in two minds whether to go or not. However come dinnertime on the Sunday I was itching to go and decided on an afternoon up at Sessay where I planned on practicing my paste fishing. I arrived at the fishery at about 2:30 and all the lakes we’re matched up, there was no room on Alders, Poplars or Maple so I had a quick walk round Oaks and Firs and eventually decided to settle on the Oaks down the bottom end where Chris and Andy Nattrass were fishing. They’d both had a few on a variety of methods so I was fairly confident of catching a few for a change.
I’ve never really got into paste fishing but would quite like another string to my bow seeing as its wearing a bit thin of late and nothing seems to be working for me!
I only set up one rig, a 0.5g BGT paste float on 0.17 Powerline, a hooklength of 0.15 Powerline to a Mustad Carp Pellet in a size 14, although these hooks are a bit bigger than conventional hook sizes. Elastic was 14 Maver latex.
For bait today I mixed up some Sensas Pellet Power ground bait into a stiff paste with the view of adding more water the more confident I got with it. I also had a handful of 4mm pellets to kick start the swim.
I plumbed up carefully and settle on a flat area at about 7m. I’d plumbed up so that only the very tip of the float was showing however the shotting would only just drag the body under and the paste would do the rest of the work.
First put out with a ten pence size blob of paste and half a dozen pellets saw no action and when the float finally rose out of the water I struck to discover the paste had eventually gone. I would repeat this for the rest of the day and slowly build up a swim with my hook bait. On the third put in, the float rose out the water again and I just presumed the paste had disintegrated again before it slowly slid off into the depths and I was rewarded with my first fish, an F1 of about 2lb. For the next hour I was slowly building my swim and apart from a few liners I had nothing else in the net. I decided to dump in a small handful of pellets to see if I could interest a few more fish. By this time it was absolutely bucketing it down and most people were packing up or had already gone.
The big dump of bait had worked and I was soon into my second fish of the day, similar to the first, another good F1.
I’d been continually adding a bit more water to my paste so by the end of the session it was just about hanging on the hook and it proved to work as the bites were coming faster and easier to read.
I was slowly getting used to reading the bites and knowing when to strike and luckily I had plenty of chances to practice, I ended up putting 13 carp in the net, all at least 2lb a piece and a couple at 3 or 4lb, oh and one lonesome Ide! So all in all I probably had about 30lb in 3 hours, and the first hour I only had the one fish!
I’d had a really good day and given myself a proper induction into paste fishing. I just need a good draw on the next match to try it out again!
I’ve never really got into paste fishing but would quite like another string to my bow seeing as its wearing a bit thin of late and nothing seems to be working for me!
I only set up one rig, a 0.5g BGT paste float on 0.17 Powerline, a hooklength of 0.15 Powerline to a Mustad Carp Pellet in a size 14, although these hooks are a bit bigger than conventional hook sizes. Elastic was 14 Maver latex.
For bait today I mixed up some Sensas Pellet Power ground bait into a stiff paste with the view of adding more water the more confident I got with it. I also had a handful of 4mm pellets to kick start the swim.
I plumbed up carefully and settle on a flat area at about 7m. I’d plumbed up so that only the very tip of the float was showing however the shotting would only just drag the body under and the paste would do the rest of the work.
First put out with a ten pence size blob of paste and half a dozen pellets saw no action and when the float finally rose out of the water I struck to discover the paste had eventually gone. I would repeat this for the rest of the day and slowly build up a swim with my hook bait. On the third put in, the float rose out the water again and I just presumed the paste had disintegrated again before it slowly slid off into the depths and I was rewarded with my first fish, an F1 of about 2lb. For the next hour I was slowly building my swim and apart from a few liners I had nothing else in the net. I decided to dump in a small handful of pellets to see if I could interest a few more fish. By this time it was absolutely bucketing it down and most people were packing up or had already gone.
The big dump of bait had worked and I was soon into my second fish of the day, similar to the first, another good F1.
I’d been continually adding a bit more water to my paste so by the end of the session it was just about hanging on the hook and it proved to work as the bites were coming faster and easier to read.
I was slowly getting used to reading the bites and knowing when to strike and luckily I had plenty of chances to practice, I ended up putting 13 carp in the net, all at least 2lb a piece and a couple at 3 or 4lb, oh and one lonesome Ide! So all in all I probably had about 30lb in 3 hours, and the first hour I only had the one fish!
I’d had a really good day and given myself a proper induction into paste fishing. I just need a good draw on the next match to try it out again!
Monday, 11 May 2009
May 10th - Sessay - Maple
With Gordon going to Holland straight after the match I had to make my own way to the venue for a change. I woke up with plenty of time to spare so after making my flask and packing the carryall I decided to make my top kits up and transport them to the venue ready to plumb up straight away. This would save me a bit of time before the match and I wanted to have a good plumb about on what ever peg I got and get a better feel for my swim. I’ve become a bit lazy and settling on fishing comfortable swims and not necessarily the right swims and so wanted to make a conscious effort of getting my rigs right for the day.
Come 9am and the draw was underway, ideally I wanted a peg between 30 and 45, we only had pegs 1-45 and I felt these latter few would throw up the better results. Needless to say I drew peg 4, I was still fairly confident but a difficult 7 man section would mean I’d have to pull out all the stops. Ian Farrington was on peg 1, Gordon was on peg 2, Owen was on peg 3, Leroy was on peg 5, Tel was on peg 6 and finally Nige was on peg 7. Owen is a new member to the club and told me it was from reading my blog that had encouraged him to join, I just hoped all my previous ramblings wouldn’t give him too much of an inkling into how to fish the venue!
Seeing as my top kits we’re already set up I set about preparing my expanders and then get on with the plumbing. I plumbed up from tree to tree on the far bank and found a fairly consistent depth of just over 2ft right across, although the right of my swim was perhaps 2 inches shallower. There was also a fair bit of crap in the water as the grass and the sedges had recently been cut, hopefully this wouldn’t hamper presentation.
I had 3 Malman Cedar 4x10 rigs set up, all on 0.14 to 0.12 Ultima Power match, one had a size 16 B911, one had a size 18 B911 and the other was set up for fishing to the mud again with a 16 hook. Elastics were 12 latex and 14 for the mud line. I also had a track rig set up.
Bait today I had everything for a change, the past few weeks I’ve limited myself so to not complicate things but when your baits aren’t working after the first few hours you’re left up poo creek without a paddle! So today I had half a pint of red maggots, some micros, some 4mm expanders, some 4mm meat, corn and even cat food in my bag as a back up!
At the all in I shipped out to the left sedge armed with a 4mm expander and tipped in a pinch of micros. After a lift and tap the float dibbed and I met this with a gentle lift, thus setting the hook and resulting in the first carp of the day, a mirror of about 3lb. After reading Clive Pritchard’s blog I decided to follow his rule of thumb in just gently lifting into bites rather than trying to yank the fishes head off, his reasoning was that if it’s a liner, that’s when you start foul hooking fishes in the upper depths, well, so far so good as this was hooked neatly in its top lip! I managed another 2 F1’s about 10 minutes apart which put me on about 7lb after the first half an hour. Then guess what happened? Correct, it went dead again, so many matches this year I’ve started off catching fairly well at the start of a match only to be kicked in the teeth and brought back down to earth! With our matches being 6 hours in duration it meant I went 5 hours without a fish before adding 3 further F1’s to the net by fishing as long in my peg as I could with corn and no feed. Meanwhile no one else was really catching either, most had a similar quantity to me and it was just a case of who had the bigger fish. However, Owen caught quite a few, he had at least double what I had and probably lost more than I had bites too, that’s the last time I tell him anything!
Come the weigh in, Gordon had to shoot off so I was left with weighing duty in his place. Ian on peg 1 weighed in 17lb odd, Gordon was next with 18lb odd and I thought to myself ‘’there’s another quid gone’’! Owen weighed in a very respectable 31lb which would easily take the section. I then weighed in, 14lb odd; ho hum…….another quid gone. Leroy weighed in 11 or 12lb, Tel had tipped back, as had Nige. There were then no real weights apart from those in the frame. T-Koz had 37lb, Stu Stott had 46lb odd, Chris Nattrass had 47lb to take the match win and Steve Hoddo made up the final placing with 41lb.
Even those who had weighed in over 40lb had said it fished crap, granted it did but try going 5 hours without a bite! Then you know its fished crap! Even the lads on the open had struggled to put any sort of weight together although Robbie managed a match win with nearly 70lb, I’m gonna have to take some lessons I think!
Come 9am and the draw was underway, ideally I wanted a peg between 30 and 45, we only had pegs 1-45 and I felt these latter few would throw up the better results. Needless to say I drew peg 4, I was still fairly confident but a difficult 7 man section would mean I’d have to pull out all the stops. Ian Farrington was on peg 1, Gordon was on peg 2, Owen was on peg 3, Leroy was on peg 5, Tel was on peg 6 and finally Nige was on peg 7. Owen is a new member to the club and told me it was from reading my blog that had encouraged him to join, I just hoped all my previous ramblings wouldn’t give him too much of an inkling into how to fish the venue!
Seeing as my top kits we’re already set up I set about preparing my expanders and then get on with the plumbing. I plumbed up from tree to tree on the far bank and found a fairly consistent depth of just over 2ft right across, although the right of my swim was perhaps 2 inches shallower. There was also a fair bit of crap in the water as the grass and the sedges had recently been cut, hopefully this wouldn’t hamper presentation.
I had 3 Malman Cedar 4x10 rigs set up, all on 0.14 to 0.12 Ultima Power match, one had a size 16 B911, one had a size 18 B911 and the other was set up for fishing to the mud again with a 16 hook. Elastics were 12 latex and 14 for the mud line. I also had a track rig set up.
Bait today I had everything for a change, the past few weeks I’ve limited myself so to not complicate things but when your baits aren’t working after the first few hours you’re left up poo creek without a paddle! So today I had half a pint of red maggots, some micros, some 4mm expanders, some 4mm meat, corn and even cat food in my bag as a back up!
At the all in I shipped out to the left sedge armed with a 4mm expander and tipped in a pinch of micros. After a lift and tap the float dibbed and I met this with a gentle lift, thus setting the hook and resulting in the first carp of the day, a mirror of about 3lb. After reading Clive Pritchard’s blog I decided to follow his rule of thumb in just gently lifting into bites rather than trying to yank the fishes head off, his reasoning was that if it’s a liner, that’s when you start foul hooking fishes in the upper depths, well, so far so good as this was hooked neatly in its top lip! I managed another 2 F1’s about 10 minutes apart which put me on about 7lb after the first half an hour. Then guess what happened? Correct, it went dead again, so many matches this year I’ve started off catching fairly well at the start of a match only to be kicked in the teeth and brought back down to earth! With our matches being 6 hours in duration it meant I went 5 hours without a fish before adding 3 further F1’s to the net by fishing as long in my peg as I could with corn and no feed. Meanwhile no one else was really catching either, most had a similar quantity to me and it was just a case of who had the bigger fish. However, Owen caught quite a few, he had at least double what I had and probably lost more than I had bites too, that’s the last time I tell him anything!
Come the weigh in, Gordon had to shoot off so I was left with weighing duty in his place. Ian on peg 1 weighed in 17lb odd, Gordon was next with 18lb odd and I thought to myself ‘’there’s another quid gone’’! Owen weighed in a very respectable 31lb which would easily take the section. I then weighed in, 14lb odd; ho hum…….another quid gone. Leroy weighed in 11 or 12lb, Tel had tipped back, as had Nige. There were then no real weights apart from those in the frame. T-Koz had 37lb, Stu Stott had 46lb odd, Chris Nattrass had 47lb to take the match win and Steve Hoddo made up the final placing with 41lb.
Even those who had weighed in over 40lb had said it fished crap, granted it did but try going 5 hours without a bite! Then you know its fished crap! Even the lads on the open had struggled to put any sort of weight together although Robbie managed a match win with nearly 70lb, I’m gonna have to take some lessons I think!
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
April 26th - Sessay - Poplars
After a disappointing previous week, I’d tried to formulate a master plan which would hopefully overturn my run of bad form. Gordon picked me up, this week Rab had decided to have an early night so not to sleep in again!
We arrived at the fishery in good time and gave us chance to have a bite to eat and get some bait.
My bait for the day would hopefully cover every eventuality. I had a big tin of frenzied hemp, a pint of casters, half a pint of maggots, 4mm expanders and some dampened micros.
I was intending on fishing pellet for carp, and using the hemp and caster for everything! With the maggots to offer as a change bait.
At the draw I managed to pick out peg 38. By my reckoning this wasn’t a bad peg as it’s in a bay and you have quite a bit of water to go at. My section competitors for the day we’re Steve Hoddo on 42, Gordon on 41, Tupper-Ware on 39, someone on 36 and Honest John on 35. It was going to be very difficult to get anything from this match due to class of angler in my section, and Gordon….. Plus I owned the quid from the previous week and was reluctant in giving him it back!
I set up 2 lines for the far bank, one at 13m to my left for fishing pellet and a line at 15m straight out in front with caster and hemp. The fishing seemed to be enjoying themselves in the margin, time and a place please!
At the all in I went straight out to 15m with double caster on the hook and tip in a kinder of hemp and caster, I jiggled the float, lifted it and eventually after 15 minutes had an F1 in the net of about a pound. Straight back out and no more bites so I dumped in a big pot and went onto the pellet line as Gordon was catching and Tupperware was getting plenty of indication.
First drop in, with a pellet, I forced it tight to the cover and sprinkled a pinch of micros over the top, the float dipped then slammed under and after a 5 minute battle managed to put a common of about 4lb in the net, happy days! Next two put ins the same again and another two carp adding a pound and half each to my total.
Then the match for me and many other went a bit stale. I didn’t have a bite fish for the rest of the day, although I was hooking them. At one point I resorted to fishing the method on my pole so I could distance my pole tip from the fish but after a fruitless hour I was getting bored. Gordon was catching fairly regular but predominantly small fish. Tupperware had a good last hour and managed to catch up with Gordon a bit but it would be tight.
I fouled hooked 3 or 4 fish which all screamed off before either snapping me or attaching my rig to the island!
Come the weigh in I tipped back to save embarrassment, Honest John only had one foul hooked carp all day, the bloke to my right had 17lb I think, Tupperware had a low 20 which was good enough to beat Gordon’s even lower 20. the worst part of the day was yet to come, I sheepishly walked past Gordon and dropped a quid in his hand………..
Dennis Geldard won the match off peg 1, i think? With just over 50lb, so well done to him!
After missing the bank holiday weekend due to Uni commitments I’ll be glad to get back out on the bank with a few lessons learnt and a hunger to catch for a change!
We arrived at the fishery in good time and gave us chance to have a bite to eat and get some bait.
My bait for the day would hopefully cover every eventuality. I had a big tin of frenzied hemp, a pint of casters, half a pint of maggots, 4mm expanders and some dampened micros.
I was intending on fishing pellet for carp, and using the hemp and caster for everything! With the maggots to offer as a change bait.
At the draw I managed to pick out peg 38. By my reckoning this wasn’t a bad peg as it’s in a bay and you have quite a bit of water to go at. My section competitors for the day we’re Steve Hoddo on 42, Gordon on 41, Tupper-Ware on 39, someone on 36 and Honest John on 35. It was going to be very difficult to get anything from this match due to class of angler in my section, and Gordon….. Plus I owned the quid from the previous week and was reluctant in giving him it back!
I set up 2 lines for the far bank, one at 13m to my left for fishing pellet and a line at 15m straight out in front with caster and hemp. The fishing seemed to be enjoying themselves in the margin, time and a place please!
At the all in I went straight out to 15m with double caster on the hook and tip in a kinder of hemp and caster, I jiggled the float, lifted it and eventually after 15 minutes had an F1 in the net of about a pound. Straight back out and no more bites so I dumped in a big pot and went onto the pellet line as Gordon was catching and Tupperware was getting plenty of indication.
First drop in, with a pellet, I forced it tight to the cover and sprinkled a pinch of micros over the top, the float dipped then slammed under and after a 5 minute battle managed to put a common of about 4lb in the net, happy days! Next two put ins the same again and another two carp adding a pound and half each to my total.
Then the match for me and many other went a bit stale. I didn’t have a bite fish for the rest of the day, although I was hooking them. At one point I resorted to fishing the method on my pole so I could distance my pole tip from the fish but after a fruitless hour I was getting bored. Gordon was catching fairly regular but predominantly small fish. Tupperware had a good last hour and managed to catch up with Gordon a bit but it would be tight.
I fouled hooked 3 or 4 fish which all screamed off before either snapping me or attaching my rig to the island!
Come the weigh in I tipped back to save embarrassment, Honest John only had one foul hooked carp all day, the bloke to my right had 17lb I think, Tupperware had a low 20 which was good enough to beat Gordon’s even lower 20. the worst part of the day was yet to come, I sheepishly walked past Gordon and dropped a quid in his hand………..
Dennis Geldard won the match off peg 1, i think? With just over 50lb, so well done to him!
After missing the bank holiday weekend due to Uni commitments I’ll be glad to get back out on the bank with a few lessons learnt and a hunger to catch for a change!
Monday, 20 April 2009
Partridge 19th April
Another week has rolled by and to mark the end of the week another club match. This time around we were on Partridge up at Woodlands. Gordon picked me up at 745, and there was no sign of Rab? Gordon had been to his before coming to mine and there was no sign of any life form, we went back to his after loading up the van with my gear but all the curtains were still shut and he wasn’t answering his phone, we would later find out that he’d had a night on the pop and slept in!
A quick sandwich and a visit to the shop for some fishery pellets before we started to unload the van. As we were finally loading the barrows and getting ‘dressed’ other club members were walking past and asking what peg we were on, we were drawing on time then! I managed to snare peg 14 and Gordon was to be on 23, we were both at the right end of the lake as all the weights had come from this top end on the previous few matches. Pete Whale was on corner peg 18 and I was fully expecting him to empty it if the lake was in the right frame of mind.
After having pretty minimal success up at Woodlands in the past I drew for some experience of some of the fishing forums. I got some good advice and formulated a plan of attack.
It was basically to fish a line at 6m with corn or expander over a light feeding of 6mm hard fishery pellets for the first three quarters of an hour and then move onto the long line which I’d have primed from the start by firing half a dozen 6mm pellets out every 10 seconds or so.
So with the plan of attack in place, I set up the following rigs to cope with every eventuality.
6m line - I had a 4x14 Preston float set up on 0.16 Ultima Power match, a hooklength of 0.14 to a size 16 B911, this had a bulk shot 2 feet away from the hook and a couple of droppers equally spaced thereafter. Elastic was size 14 Maver Latex.
14m deep line – this was the same set up as the 6m line just with a slightly deeper rig.
14m shallow line – this was a 0.2g Malman MTD1 on 0.16 straight through to a PR36 size 16 and a hair rigged band. Elastic for this was Preston Latex, size 16 and for the first time I laccied the kits up with Dacron connectors, hopefully I’d be able to snare a couple of fish and try it out.
Margin line – I didn’t intend on using this but set it up more as a desperation rig if I wasn’t catching.
Bomb – I teamed up my Shimano Catana medium feeder rod with a 4000 series Ultimate reel, mainline was 8lb Maxima, hooklength was 2ft of 0.16 Ultima Power match again with a PR36, 16 and a hair rigged band.
Bait for the day (in keeping with fishery regulations) was:
3 Tins of Corn (not that I intended to use them all)
2 Pints of fishery 6mm pellets
½ Pint of fishery 8mm pellets
The rest of my pellet quota was made up with some 6mm expanders and an array of different hookers.
Gordon finally called time, after getting permission of Stu; we wouldn’t want the match to start 2 minutes early again would we!
I shipped out to 6m with a dozen 6mm pellets, a couple of expanders and a couple of grains of corn and dropped them in. I decided to let it settle for 10 minutes and went out on the bomb to see if I could mug an early fish. Whilst on the bomb I had also started my rigorous feeding pattern on the 14m line.
No bites prevailed on the bomb and so after 10 minutes I went onto the 6m line expecting a bite straight away, I was wrong! When the float finally did dip at about 10:30 I was greeted by a skimmer of maybe 6oz. I plodded on with the 6m as I didn’t want to go long until at least 11 giving it an hour of constant feeding. As I was starting to get a bit fed up the float dipped and then yards of elastic poured out until the fish gave in and I slipped the net under a mirror of about 3lb, that’ll do! I carried on a bit longer than planned in the hope of another fish but no bites materialised.
Meanwhile Dennis Geldard on 13 had managed to carp for about 12lb and lost an absolute dog that was easily double figures. Martin Whittaker on 15 had had a skimmer but nothing else. Up on 17, Kev Bell was starting to extract a few fish and from where we were sat they all looked good fish too. Meanwhile Whaley on the end peg hadn’t had a thing.
I finally went to the long line at 11:15 and started on the deep rig. No sooner had the rig settled, the float dipped and I was into my first fish off the line, until it pinged off, a foul hooker. I repeated this twice more and losing another two fish before deciding it was perhaps time to go shallow!
Out with the shallow rig and the float was dipping but I couldn’t hit any bites, not that you need to really, generally they hook themselves and wake you up when you pole starts getting dragged off! I decided to try a bit deeper and see if they were sucking at the bait or if it was just smaller fish having a go. The extra depth didn’t bring me any more bites so I wrote it off as being small fish but kept feeding it.
Next plan was to go out on the bomb whilst continually feeding the long line. I would eventually just rotate lines and hope for bites, I couldn’t buy a bite anywhere although I did manage 3 more small carp and another skimmer on the bomb.
Kev Bell was now on about 30lb with 8 fish, Whaley I think only had one carp, Alan on 16 had had a couple and possible a similar weight to myself and either side of me still had the same 2 carp and one skimmer.
Entering the last hour it was dire, everyone was waiting for the final whistle and a few cheers echoed when the hooter finally went off.
I was hoping Kev had done enough to place in the top four as I’d not seen many catching and then hopefully push for my section.
Tony Minikin was leading with 91lb of carp taken on the bomb and ‘’50mm’’ pellet, quite an achievement on a very difficult day. There were a few 40’s and the odd 50 so my chance of a section had all but disappeared. I still however wanted to capture Dennis and Alan’s scalp for second in section. Dennis weighed his 2 fish in for 10lb 10oz, next up was myself and I surprised my self when the scale went to 12lb 12oz, with Martin not weighing his lonely skimmer in it at least meant I’d beaten either side. Alan weighed 12lb 11oz so I ounced him, get in! Next up was Kev who have just over 30lb, Whaley then surprised me when he weighed in 19lb 12oz of skimmers and Ide, all on maggot, his plan B worked, or at least better than mine! Over the other side there were weights averaging between 18-30lb with the odd bigger weight thrown in. Gordon hadn’t weighed in so I was at least taking my quid back from last week!
Overall a very frustrating day and I’m not sure why it didn’t produce as we’d all expected. The lake was flat calm all day and the sun baking hot which could have had something to do with it but you still expect more than 6 fish over 6 hours! Next week is Poplars up at the Oaks and I’m in 2 minds whether to go or not, but come the end of the week I’m sure I’ll be raring to catch next to nothing once more!
A quick sandwich and a visit to the shop for some fishery pellets before we started to unload the van. As we were finally loading the barrows and getting ‘dressed’ other club members were walking past and asking what peg we were on, we were drawing on time then! I managed to snare peg 14 and Gordon was to be on 23, we were both at the right end of the lake as all the weights had come from this top end on the previous few matches. Pete Whale was on corner peg 18 and I was fully expecting him to empty it if the lake was in the right frame of mind.
After having pretty minimal success up at Woodlands in the past I drew for some experience of some of the fishing forums. I got some good advice and formulated a plan of attack.
It was basically to fish a line at 6m with corn or expander over a light feeding of 6mm hard fishery pellets for the first three quarters of an hour and then move onto the long line which I’d have primed from the start by firing half a dozen 6mm pellets out every 10 seconds or so.
So with the plan of attack in place, I set up the following rigs to cope with every eventuality.
6m line - I had a 4x14 Preston float set up on 0.16 Ultima Power match, a hooklength of 0.14 to a size 16 B911, this had a bulk shot 2 feet away from the hook and a couple of droppers equally spaced thereafter. Elastic was size 14 Maver Latex.
14m deep line – this was the same set up as the 6m line just with a slightly deeper rig.
14m shallow line – this was a 0.2g Malman MTD1 on 0.16 straight through to a PR36 size 16 and a hair rigged band. Elastic for this was Preston Latex, size 16 and for the first time I laccied the kits up with Dacron connectors, hopefully I’d be able to snare a couple of fish and try it out.
Margin line – I didn’t intend on using this but set it up more as a desperation rig if I wasn’t catching.
Bomb – I teamed up my Shimano Catana medium feeder rod with a 4000 series Ultimate reel, mainline was 8lb Maxima, hooklength was 2ft of 0.16 Ultima Power match again with a PR36, 16 and a hair rigged band.
Bait for the day (in keeping with fishery regulations) was:
3 Tins of Corn (not that I intended to use them all)
2 Pints of fishery 6mm pellets
½ Pint of fishery 8mm pellets
The rest of my pellet quota was made up with some 6mm expanders and an array of different hookers.
Gordon finally called time, after getting permission of Stu; we wouldn’t want the match to start 2 minutes early again would we!
I shipped out to 6m with a dozen 6mm pellets, a couple of expanders and a couple of grains of corn and dropped them in. I decided to let it settle for 10 minutes and went out on the bomb to see if I could mug an early fish. Whilst on the bomb I had also started my rigorous feeding pattern on the 14m line.
No bites prevailed on the bomb and so after 10 minutes I went onto the 6m line expecting a bite straight away, I was wrong! When the float finally did dip at about 10:30 I was greeted by a skimmer of maybe 6oz. I plodded on with the 6m as I didn’t want to go long until at least 11 giving it an hour of constant feeding. As I was starting to get a bit fed up the float dipped and then yards of elastic poured out until the fish gave in and I slipped the net under a mirror of about 3lb, that’ll do! I carried on a bit longer than planned in the hope of another fish but no bites materialised.
Meanwhile Dennis Geldard on 13 had managed to carp for about 12lb and lost an absolute dog that was easily double figures. Martin Whittaker on 15 had had a skimmer but nothing else. Up on 17, Kev Bell was starting to extract a few fish and from where we were sat they all looked good fish too. Meanwhile Whaley on the end peg hadn’t had a thing.
I finally went to the long line at 11:15 and started on the deep rig. No sooner had the rig settled, the float dipped and I was into my first fish off the line, until it pinged off, a foul hooker. I repeated this twice more and losing another two fish before deciding it was perhaps time to go shallow!
Out with the shallow rig and the float was dipping but I couldn’t hit any bites, not that you need to really, generally they hook themselves and wake you up when you pole starts getting dragged off! I decided to try a bit deeper and see if they were sucking at the bait or if it was just smaller fish having a go. The extra depth didn’t bring me any more bites so I wrote it off as being small fish but kept feeding it.
Next plan was to go out on the bomb whilst continually feeding the long line. I would eventually just rotate lines and hope for bites, I couldn’t buy a bite anywhere although I did manage 3 more small carp and another skimmer on the bomb.
Kev Bell was now on about 30lb with 8 fish, Whaley I think only had one carp, Alan on 16 had had a couple and possible a similar weight to myself and either side of me still had the same 2 carp and one skimmer.
Entering the last hour it was dire, everyone was waiting for the final whistle and a few cheers echoed when the hooter finally went off.
I was hoping Kev had done enough to place in the top four as I’d not seen many catching and then hopefully push for my section.
Tony Minikin was leading with 91lb of carp taken on the bomb and ‘’50mm’’ pellet, quite an achievement on a very difficult day. There were a few 40’s and the odd 50 so my chance of a section had all but disappeared. I still however wanted to capture Dennis and Alan’s scalp for second in section. Dennis weighed his 2 fish in for 10lb 10oz, next up was myself and I surprised my self when the scale went to 12lb 12oz, with Martin not weighing his lonely skimmer in it at least meant I’d beaten either side. Alan weighed 12lb 11oz so I ounced him, get in! Next up was Kev who have just over 30lb, Whaley then surprised me when he weighed in 19lb 12oz of skimmers and Ide, all on maggot, his plan B worked, or at least better than mine! Over the other side there were weights averaging between 18-30lb with the odd bigger weight thrown in. Gordon hadn’t weighed in so I was at least taking my quid back from last week!
Overall a very frustrating day and I’m not sure why it didn’t produce as we’d all expected. The lake was flat calm all day and the sun baking hot which could have had something to do with it but you still expect more than 6 fish over 6 hours! Next week is Poplars up at the Oaks and I’m in 2 minds whether to go or not, but come the end of the week I’m sure I’ll be raring to catch next to nothing once more!
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Maple 12th April
It’s been quite a while since I last blogged so I’ve got a bit to catch up on.
We had a few knock up matches up at Morndyke a few weeks back where I managed to come 2nd with 3 carp and Gordon came 1st with 6 if I remember rightly, a couple of weeks before that I managed to lose 2 carp early on and subsequently blanked, Gordon won that time too with 8 or 9 carp, most of which were caught in the last hour.
We went to Woodlands probably a month ago now and I once again managed to draw Kestrel, I managed 3 carp throughout the whole match for about 7lb, certainly nothing to write home about!
Easter weekend, we had the second of our club matches on the Sunday, I’d missed the first one as I was moving into my new flat, plus it was at Brafferton and I didn’t fancy gudgeon bashing for six hours.
We were up at The Oaks, Sessay where our match was to be held on Maple, pegs 24-66. Gordon and Rab arrived at 7:45; we quickly loaded the van up and were on our way. A steady drive and catch up saw us arrive at the complex at around 8:15.
Typically the draw was a little bit late, as I walked into the shop Rab had already drawn his peg and managed to snare boss peg 66 which is throwing up some weights at the minute so he pretty much ran towards his peg. Gordon was on 28 and I managed 26, with it being peg, miss a peg it meant we were next to each other. Robert was on 24, his missus was on 32 and Martin Whittaker was on 30 which would complete our section.
I set up an array of rigs to fish to the island; I had 2 rigs with 4x12 Malman Cedars, one on 0.14 and one on 0.12, plus two identical rigs but with 4x10 floats. Elastics were 10 and 12 Maver Latex.
Gordon sounded the hooter a couple of minutes early and you could here people moaning all around the lake!
First put in on a 4mm expander, I dripped in some micros and was getting the odd liner until the float buried; we soon parted company although I was straight back out to catch the culprit, an F1 of about 8oz. Gordon had a few better fish early on and took a considerable lead of what I assumed to be about 6lb.
I plugged away swapping between rigs and swims and managed to put a couple more fish in the net before a lull of perhaps half an hour before the same run of fish again. Gordon shouted over and asked how many I’d had, I replied that I’d had a couple of stockies and a common of maybe 4lb. Gordon replied with ‘you kept that 4lber quiet’, although not all of us have to make a song and dance about every fish we catch, I said that next time I caught a bonus fish I’d stand up on my box and make the whole lake aware before doing a lap of honour! Thankfully that was my only big fish of the day!
It was quite a tedious match and because I’d not been fishing in probably a month it wasn’t filling me with any confidence for the upcoming matches. Maple as a lake is one that I have some confidence in as I’ve done average to quite well on in the past and it suits my ‘style’ of fishing, although by the end of the match I felt I’d taken a backward step more than anything else. The back straight where we were was fishing pretty poorly in comparison to the other parts of the lake though so it was all about going for the section win.
Approaching the last hour I feel I only had a maybe 15lb, Gordon was admitting to 20lb although I knew he was lying. A last ditch attempt meant I had to push to right hand side of the island at 15 meters where I managed another half dozen small F1’s as well as losing a good fish. I knew I’d not won the section but it would be interesting to see what I had in the net. Robert had started catching in the last couple of hours and thought he might have pushed me too.
I’d not realised either but Robert and I were on weighing in duty, which meant I’d get a nice thorough soaking before we headed back! Robert weighed in just over 20lb and I thought it was going to be tight, I managed to plonk 25lb 2oz on the scales and surprised myself as I didn’t think I’d have 20lb. Gordon then managed to up the bar by chucking 30lb odd on the scales which meant he took my quid, I told him I’d be having it back at Woodlands next week! Gordon took the section as Martin put about 23lb is on the scales.
There were some good weights in all the other sections with Stu and Woody ounces apart with over 48lb each but Woody narrowly took the section. Bob the builder claimed the next section with 55lb odd.
Then came the bagging section. I’ve to thank Honest John for giving me a work out, 4 weighs later he’d put a total of 116lb on the board which coincidentally resulted in another match win for the Starbeck Champion. John was on peg 62 and fished maggot shallow to the aerator. Tony Koz managed 68lb 8oz for second place overall and finally to weigh in was Rab. I asked him why he only had one net on the boss peg as we had a 50lb per net rule but he wasn’t biting. Rab also managed to triple default his section and took home the spoils.
So this week I let the team down with both Rab and Gordon picking up, I asked them if we were still sharing the winnings but they both told me the same thing, ho hum!
Well Woodlands next week and for once I can guarantee I won’t be on Kestrel! I better get making some beefy rigs up!
We had a few knock up matches up at Morndyke a few weeks back where I managed to come 2nd with 3 carp and Gordon came 1st with 6 if I remember rightly, a couple of weeks before that I managed to lose 2 carp early on and subsequently blanked, Gordon won that time too with 8 or 9 carp, most of which were caught in the last hour.
We went to Woodlands probably a month ago now and I once again managed to draw Kestrel, I managed 3 carp throughout the whole match for about 7lb, certainly nothing to write home about!
Easter weekend, we had the second of our club matches on the Sunday, I’d missed the first one as I was moving into my new flat, plus it was at Brafferton and I didn’t fancy gudgeon bashing for six hours.
We were up at The Oaks, Sessay where our match was to be held on Maple, pegs 24-66. Gordon and Rab arrived at 7:45; we quickly loaded the van up and were on our way. A steady drive and catch up saw us arrive at the complex at around 8:15.
Typically the draw was a little bit late, as I walked into the shop Rab had already drawn his peg and managed to snare boss peg 66 which is throwing up some weights at the minute so he pretty much ran towards his peg. Gordon was on 28 and I managed 26, with it being peg, miss a peg it meant we were next to each other. Robert was on 24, his missus was on 32 and Martin Whittaker was on 30 which would complete our section.
I set up an array of rigs to fish to the island; I had 2 rigs with 4x12 Malman Cedars, one on 0.14 and one on 0.12, plus two identical rigs but with 4x10 floats. Elastics were 10 and 12 Maver Latex.
Gordon sounded the hooter a couple of minutes early and you could here people moaning all around the lake!
First put in on a 4mm expander, I dripped in some micros and was getting the odd liner until the float buried; we soon parted company although I was straight back out to catch the culprit, an F1 of about 8oz. Gordon had a few better fish early on and took a considerable lead of what I assumed to be about 6lb.
I plugged away swapping between rigs and swims and managed to put a couple more fish in the net before a lull of perhaps half an hour before the same run of fish again. Gordon shouted over and asked how many I’d had, I replied that I’d had a couple of stockies and a common of maybe 4lb. Gordon replied with ‘you kept that 4lber quiet’, although not all of us have to make a song and dance about every fish we catch, I said that next time I caught a bonus fish I’d stand up on my box and make the whole lake aware before doing a lap of honour! Thankfully that was my only big fish of the day!
It was quite a tedious match and because I’d not been fishing in probably a month it wasn’t filling me with any confidence for the upcoming matches. Maple as a lake is one that I have some confidence in as I’ve done average to quite well on in the past and it suits my ‘style’ of fishing, although by the end of the match I felt I’d taken a backward step more than anything else. The back straight where we were was fishing pretty poorly in comparison to the other parts of the lake though so it was all about going for the section win.
Approaching the last hour I feel I only had a maybe 15lb, Gordon was admitting to 20lb although I knew he was lying. A last ditch attempt meant I had to push to right hand side of the island at 15 meters where I managed another half dozen small F1’s as well as losing a good fish. I knew I’d not won the section but it would be interesting to see what I had in the net. Robert had started catching in the last couple of hours and thought he might have pushed me too.
I’d not realised either but Robert and I were on weighing in duty, which meant I’d get a nice thorough soaking before we headed back! Robert weighed in just over 20lb and I thought it was going to be tight, I managed to plonk 25lb 2oz on the scales and surprised myself as I didn’t think I’d have 20lb. Gordon then managed to up the bar by chucking 30lb odd on the scales which meant he took my quid, I told him I’d be having it back at Woodlands next week! Gordon took the section as Martin put about 23lb is on the scales.
There were some good weights in all the other sections with Stu and Woody ounces apart with over 48lb each but Woody narrowly took the section. Bob the builder claimed the next section with 55lb odd.
Then came the bagging section. I’ve to thank Honest John for giving me a work out, 4 weighs later he’d put a total of 116lb on the board which coincidentally resulted in another match win for the Starbeck Champion. John was on peg 62 and fished maggot shallow to the aerator. Tony Koz managed 68lb 8oz for second place overall and finally to weigh in was Rab. I asked him why he only had one net on the boss peg as we had a 50lb per net rule but he wasn’t biting. Rab also managed to triple default his section and took home the spoils.
So this week I let the team down with both Rab and Gordon picking up, I asked them if we were still sharing the winnings but they both told me the same thing, ho hum!
Well Woodlands next week and for once I can guarantee I won’t be on Kestrel! I better get making some beefy rigs up!
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