After a few beers on the Saturday and not getting to bed until 2 I was feeling a little worse for wear when I woke up at 7am. I decided it was probably best to go the back way along the country roads and avoid the motorway just in case I got stopped. I arrived at the fishery and had my breakfast which didn’t go down too well and then paid on. There were 52 fishing today and it was decided that 5 man sections would be fished with £50 per section and two sections of six that would be fishing for £60. The top prizes were more than worth winning today, 1st place - £500, 2nd place - £300 and 3rd place - £200, put that with the £50 section and it was well worth pulling your finger out.
Come the draw I picked out peg 47, I’ve fished 47 and 48 before; I had 20lb odd from 48 for no where and 36lb odd for 4th a few weeks ago from 47 so wasn’t too down heartened although other areas were fishing better than this over the last couple of weeks. I was just glad I wasn’t in the 30’s along the back straight, I can’t stand it there!
I drove round to my peg and started to set up, with the draw being a little late we had until 10:15 before time was called. I set up my normal rigs, a 4x10 Malman Cedar and a 4x12. These were both on 0.12 Ultima, 0.10 hooklength to a Middy 63-13 size 22. Elastics were 8 latex. I also had a rig for down the track, I used a 0.7g float, a bit heavy but with the wind thrashing through I put an 18 inch lash on.
For bait I had a pint of reds and some corn. At the all in I shipped out with the 4x12 to the sedge straight in front, let the float settle and then held the back shot. I had to wait maybe 20 minutes before I got my first indication, the ripples on the surface were proving a little too much in order to read the float correctly. I finally manage to hook a fish, it ran me ragged for a couple of minutes but I took my time and was soon rewarded with a Barbel of 2lb. I went back out an instantly hooked another fish, this fought the same as the first fish but after a brief tussle we departed company and it was still one Barbel on its lonesome. I went back out and managed 3 F1’s, another Barbel and a lovely chub of about a pound. All in all at the end of the first hour I had about 9-10lb. I was pretty pleased as I’d only seen people nicking the odd fish so felt I was ahead. I then couldn’t get a bite anywhere, four hours I sat there struggling against the wind but no reward. I did however manage another small Barbel and an F1 right at the death and felt I had about 12lb. Martin up on 45 had been catching on the bomb, something I should have done rather than being so lazy! I could see Chappy round the corner and I’d seen him catch a few although they were all small fish. I knew I’d been beaten for the section but was still fairly pleased come the weigh in.
I managed 14lb; Martin sacked up on the bomb and had 33lb odd for 4th in the match. Chappy and Pimmy both had 26lb odd so I was well beaten but did manage to beat Tupper Ware and the bloke on 48 who only had 7lb odd.
There was a presentation do on at the local pub so after a quick pack up I was glad to be in the warmth and out of the wind. Everyone who weighed in received a prize; I managed a bottle of red and 6 cans of lager for coming 25th out of 52. I cannot remember the top 3 but I’m sure they’ll be in the paper next week. Afterwards there was a raffle with hundreds of pounds worth of prizes. With £20’s worth of tickets in front of me I didn’t have a single number, although once all the prizes had gone they raffled off all the money that was raised from ticket sales and I managed to come away with £50 so not a bad day at the office after all!
This will more than likely be my last fishing trip of 2008, it’s been an up and down season, I’ve achieved a few goals but there’s still plenty more up for grabs next season. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank those that have helped me this year, my results have improved greatly as a result of this and I’ve made some good friends too, as well as strengthening some friendships I already had.
So happy Christmas everyone and may next year be full of fish!
Monday 22 December 2008
Monday 8 December 2008
Sunday 7th December – Alders, Oaks – Sessay
The plan was set for Gordon to pick me up at 7:30 on the morning of the match, as I was getting my final few bits together Gord rang to let me know that Alders was frozen all the way around and that the aerators weren’t shifting it! We decided it was still worth going otherwise it’d have been a day in front of the tele, of which neither of us wanted.
We arrived at the complex at 8:15 and decided to go see what was happening. The lake was definitely frozen all the way around and didn’t look like it was going to break itself! I ended up chucking the plastic life ring in on every peg, that was until 5 pegs in Pete ‘The Key Juggling’ Whale let go of the rope and we were then left looking at a ring that we couldn’t retrieve! Wayley managed to retrieve the ring by hooking the rope with his bomb rod!
After that little mishap Tom went around in the boat which broke the ice but in fairness it all just settled like shattered glass on the surface.
Something to do with organising getting drunk in a brewery distinctly came to mind when trying to sort the draw and people paying on, thoughts of a rover match on the whole complex were also suggested but instead we were to fish Alders and make do after all the effort that went into breaking the ice, that and the fact that all the other lakes were frozen too.
Last week there were 29 people booked on for this match. A fair few turned up, 14 paid on and by the time we were sorted only 6 people actually fished! The open on Cedar was also cancelled due to the lake being frozen.
Gord and I decided to go near the bottom aerator, Gord settled on 38 and I was on 36. Gord had a completely clear peg in front of him and the ice started out of pole reach so hopefully he’d do ok. I on the other hand could fish 13m but if I caught any fish I would have to bring them back through a slalom path of ice!
I only set up the one rig, for fishing full depth and it was the same rig that I used last week.
Within 10 minutes of starting I had a bite, which was a surprise in itself, let alone that there was elastic coming out! The excitement was short lived and the fish and I departed company. This would seemingly be my only bite of the day.
Fifteen minutes later Gord repeated my earlier misfortune and hooked and lost his only bite of the day.
Then the excitement really started, Gord got the bomb rod out! After tweaking his set up for a few minutes he decided his plan was to cast onto the ice then slowly drag it back so that it plopped in just in front of it. Easy enough by the sounds of it! Anyway up the rod went followed by a light chuck onto the ice. This is where the bomb and the rest of his rig stayed for the rest of the match, on the ice! His bomb froze solid to the ice and wasn’t going anywhere; it was still there at the end of the ‘match’.
After losing his bomb he went to the shop to buy some more links, swivels or whatever and I decided to have a walk around the lake to warm up and see how everyone else was doing. First stop on my walk was superstar Stu Stott – blanking. Next up Nige – blanking although he did catch the bottom when I was watching him. Next up Bob ‘the builder’ Sinclair – wait for it……………a chub AND a roach! We can’t all be angling superstars I suppose. Last but not least was Acko - ……….blanking.
By the time I got back around to my peg the sun was disappearing and it was getting colder. We decided to pack in at 2pm and make our way home to the warmth! Easier said than done. The van was stuck! The more the wheels span with no conviction the nearer it got to the waters edge. Plan A – I would put the barrow ramp under one of the rear tyres and Gord would try slowly drive up it, this wasn’t working, even setting off in second didn’t even see the van make it onto the board let alone drive on it. Plan B – I remembered seeing a shovel outside the café, this would be used to clear a path in the snow for the van to drive up, genius, if I do say so myself. After clearing a path Gord started up the van and…………. Plan C – it was noticeable that the van was just spinning on the ice under the rear wheels, so with this Gord would spray de-icer on the ice around the wheels whilst I tried to get us out. After covering Gord in diesel fumes and snow we were still no further. Plan D…..never happened even after doing my best impression of Ray Mears by chopping up a branch with the shovel. Plan E and frankly the plan we should have gone with from the start, ring Robbie, to ring Tom to get David to come pull us out in the tractor. Sorted!
On our way out in the car park we met Bob the builder who was receiving his prize money from Stu, Acko also claimed £20 for being the only other person to catch, a tiny, tiny roach! Probably the most valuable roach ever caught!
I’m not fishing next week as I’m off to the Peak District for a beer fuelled weekend. The weekend after however sees the Xmas Cheer match on the Sunday! I might even try get down on the river on the Saturday for a few hours depending on a few things…….oh ok, depending on the weather!
We arrived at the complex at 8:15 and decided to go see what was happening. The lake was definitely frozen all the way around and didn’t look like it was going to break itself! I ended up chucking the plastic life ring in on every peg, that was until 5 pegs in Pete ‘The Key Juggling’ Whale let go of the rope and we were then left looking at a ring that we couldn’t retrieve! Wayley managed to retrieve the ring by hooking the rope with his bomb rod!
After that little mishap Tom went around in the boat which broke the ice but in fairness it all just settled like shattered glass on the surface.
Something to do with organising getting drunk in a brewery distinctly came to mind when trying to sort the draw and people paying on, thoughts of a rover match on the whole complex were also suggested but instead we were to fish Alders and make do after all the effort that went into breaking the ice, that and the fact that all the other lakes were frozen too.
Last week there were 29 people booked on for this match. A fair few turned up, 14 paid on and by the time we were sorted only 6 people actually fished! The open on Cedar was also cancelled due to the lake being frozen.
Gord and I decided to go near the bottom aerator, Gord settled on 38 and I was on 36. Gord had a completely clear peg in front of him and the ice started out of pole reach so hopefully he’d do ok. I on the other hand could fish 13m but if I caught any fish I would have to bring them back through a slalom path of ice!
I only set up the one rig, for fishing full depth and it was the same rig that I used last week.
Within 10 minutes of starting I had a bite, which was a surprise in itself, let alone that there was elastic coming out! The excitement was short lived and the fish and I departed company. This would seemingly be my only bite of the day.
Fifteen minutes later Gord repeated my earlier misfortune and hooked and lost his only bite of the day.
Then the excitement really started, Gord got the bomb rod out! After tweaking his set up for a few minutes he decided his plan was to cast onto the ice then slowly drag it back so that it plopped in just in front of it. Easy enough by the sounds of it! Anyway up the rod went followed by a light chuck onto the ice. This is where the bomb and the rest of his rig stayed for the rest of the match, on the ice! His bomb froze solid to the ice and wasn’t going anywhere; it was still there at the end of the ‘match’.
After losing his bomb he went to the shop to buy some more links, swivels or whatever and I decided to have a walk around the lake to warm up and see how everyone else was doing. First stop on my walk was superstar Stu Stott – blanking. Next up Nige – blanking although he did catch the bottom when I was watching him. Next up Bob ‘the builder’ Sinclair – wait for it……………a chub AND a roach! We can’t all be angling superstars I suppose. Last but not least was Acko - ……….blanking.
By the time I got back around to my peg the sun was disappearing and it was getting colder. We decided to pack in at 2pm and make our way home to the warmth! Easier said than done. The van was stuck! The more the wheels span with no conviction the nearer it got to the waters edge. Plan A – I would put the barrow ramp under one of the rear tyres and Gord would try slowly drive up it, this wasn’t working, even setting off in second didn’t even see the van make it onto the board let alone drive on it. Plan B – I remembered seeing a shovel outside the café, this would be used to clear a path in the snow for the van to drive up, genius, if I do say so myself. After clearing a path Gord started up the van and…………. Plan C – it was noticeable that the van was just spinning on the ice under the rear wheels, so with this Gord would spray de-icer on the ice around the wheels whilst I tried to get us out. After covering Gord in diesel fumes and snow we were still no further. Plan D…..never happened even after doing my best impression of Ray Mears by chopping up a branch with the shovel. Plan E and frankly the plan we should have gone with from the start, ring Robbie, to ring Tom to get David to come pull us out in the tractor. Sorted!
On our way out in the car park we met Bob the builder who was receiving his prize money from Stu, Acko also claimed £20 for being the only other person to catch, a tiny, tiny roach! Probably the most valuable roach ever caught!
I’m not fishing next week as I’m off to the Peak District for a beer fuelled weekend. The weekend after however sees the Xmas Cheer match on the Sunday! I might even try get down on the river on the Saturday for a few hours depending on a few things…….oh ok, depending on the weather!
Monday 1 December 2008
Alders Practice Match November 30th
We’ve got a couple of extra matches booked in on Alders up at the Oaks over the winter period, with the first one coming up on the 7th of December it seemed ideal to have a practice this weekend and get a feel for how its fishing.
Gordon arrived at my house at around 7:45 with Rab and we made our way up to the fishery. With a bridge out it meant we had to take an alternative route through the villages to get there. We arrived up there at 8:15 and were greeted by Honest John, Paul Cooksy and Pete ‘the garlic kid’ Whale. With a few already setting up on the lake we decided to dump our tackle on our pegs before we headed for breakfast. I drew peg 34 and to my right I had Paul on 36 and Pete on 38, to my left there was Rab on 32, Gordy on 30 and Honest John on 28. I was fairly pleased with my peg, its very wide; probably over 20m and this meant I had plenty of scope for various methods.
Anyhow we went for breakfast and I had time to plan my attack for the day. I was planning on a 14.5m line on the pole with bomb tight up to the island. Hopefully this simple approach would pay off.
We started to set up at 9am and fish 10-3; I was official timekeeper for the day so would let everyone know ‘TIME!’
I already had the bomb set up, a half oz lead with a 6inch hook link of 0.13 to a PR36 18 which also incorporated a hair so I could present up to 2 bits of corn. Pole rigs were the same I normally use on Cedar. I had a 0.5g Preston float on 0.12 with a bulk 18inches from the hook and a few droppers. My hook length was 0.10 Powerline to a size 22 Middy 63-13. I also had a typical Cedar ‘Sedge’ rig set at 2ft to use over the top if the fish came shallow.
I shouted time at precisely 10 o’clock, and proceeded to ship out around 70ml of maggot and 5 bits of corn to my 14.5m line. I tipped it in from a height and tried to spread the bait around a bit. Then it was a nice chuck to the island with the bomb. I planned on fishing the bomb 30 minutes and if I’d had no real indications then to drop onto the pole line. I managed a few liners but nothing more. All the while I had been flicking maggots (in an area the size of a football field) to 14.5m. After a non existent first half hour I went out on the pole with single maggot. I was about 3 inches over depth and after a couple of indications I was into my first fish of the day, an F1 of about a pound. It lead me a merry dance on my 8 elastic but was soon in the net. I managed a couple more of a similar size and was soon creating a lead over the rest of Team In-Betweeny! John, Gordy and Pete had all had one carp each, Paul hadn’t had one and Rab had had 2 F1’s.
It remained like this for the rest of the match, for them anyway, I was obviously on fish and after tinkering with my depth and shotting pattern I got into a rhythm were I was getting a fish almost every put in. At one point I had all 5 of my competitors watching behind me, the fish were obviously there and fancied a bit of feed so I would constantly keep flicking out half a dozen maggots and re-laying my rig in until I got a bite, even if I struck late into a bite, yards of elastic would still pile out, this was brilliant!
Paul and Pete decided they’d had enough and packed up at 2pm and headed home. John, Rab and Gordon had also started packing, meanwhile I was still catching one or two although it had slowed somewhat. Although I did manage a mirror of 3lb and a common of 5lb with 10 minutes to go. Normally on Alders, especially at this time of year you would expect the Ide to be feeding and not the carp, but hey ho I’d had a really good day.
At 3 o’ clock I shouted time, even though I was the only one still fishing! I had my personal photographer with me so managed a final catch shot to round off the day. In total I’d had 18 F1’s, a Skimmer and two proper carp fro over 30lb. Rab finished with 2 carp and 3 Ide so came 2nd.
In one sense I’m looking forward to next week, although I just hope I’m on fish, if not I also might be heading home early!
Gordon arrived at my house at around 7:45 with Rab and we made our way up to the fishery. With a bridge out it meant we had to take an alternative route through the villages to get there. We arrived up there at 8:15 and were greeted by Honest John, Paul Cooksy and Pete ‘the garlic kid’ Whale. With a few already setting up on the lake we decided to dump our tackle on our pegs before we headed for breakfast. I drew peg 34 and to my right I had Paul on 36 and Pete on 38, to my left there was Rab on 32, Gordy on 30 and Honest John on 28. I was fairly pleased with my peg, its very wide; probably over 20m and this meant I had plenty of scope for various methods.
Anyhow we went for breakfast and I had time to plan my attack for the day. I was planning on a 14.5m line on the pole with bomb tight up to the island. Hopefully this simple approach would pay off.
We started to set up at 9am and fish 10-3; I was official timekeeper for the day so would let everyone know ‘TIME!’
I already had the bomb set up, a half oz lead with a 6inch hook link of 0.13 to a PR36 18 which also incorporated a hair so I could present up to 2 bits of corn. Pole rigs were the same I normally use on Cedar. I had a 0.5g Preston float on 0.12 with a bulk 18inches from the hook and a few droppers. My hook length was 0.10 Powerline to a size 22 Middy 63-13. I also had a typical Cedar ‘Sedge’ rig set at 2ft to use over the top if the fish came shallow.
I shouted time at precisely 10 o’clock, and proceeded to ship out around 70ml of maggot and 5 bits of corn to my 14.5m line. I tipped it in from a height and tried to spread the bait around a bit. Then it was a nice chuck to the island with the bomb. I planned on fishing the bomb 30 minutes and if I’d had no real indications then to drop onto the pole line. I managed a few liners but nothing more. All the while I had been flicking maggots (in an area the size of a football field) to 14.5m. After a non existent first half hour I went out on the pole with single maggot. I was about 3 inches over depth and after a couple of indications I was into my first fish of the day, an F1 of about a pound. It lead me a merry dance on my 8 elastic but was soon in the net. I managed a couple more of a similar size and was soon creating a lead over the rest of Team In-Betweeny! John, Gordy and Pete had all had one carp each, Paul hadn’t had one and Rab had had 2 F1’s.
It remained like this for the rest of the match, for them anyway, I was obviously on fish and after tinkering with my depth and shotting pattern I got into a rhythm were I was getting a fish almost every put in. At one point I had all 5 of my competitors watching behind me, the fish were obviously there and fancied a bit of feed so I would constantly keep flicking out half a dozen maggots and re-laying my rig in until I got a bite, even if I struck late into a bite, yards of elastic would still pile out, this was brilliant!
Paul and Pete decided they’d had enough and packed up at 2pm and headed home. John, Rab and Gordon had also started packing, meanwhile I was still catching one or two although it had slowed somewhat. Although I did manage a mirror of 3lb and a common of 5lb with 10 minutes to go. Normally on Alders, especially at this time of year you would expect the Ide to be feeding and not the carp, but hey ho I’d had a really good day.
At 3 o’ clock I shouted time, even though I was the only one still fishing! I had my personal photographer with me so managed a final catch shot to round off the day. In total I’d had 18 F1’s, a Skimmer and two proper carp fro over 30lb. Rab finished with 2 carp and 3 Ide so came 2nd.
In one sense I’m looking forward to next week, although I just hope I’m on fish, if not I also might be heading home early!
Monday 24 November 2008
22nd and 23rd November - Oaks Open, Cedar
Saturday morning soon came around once again and I’d planned on another weekend up at the Oaks. There had been a vast drop in temperature and even when I was packing the car I was thinking to myself that it was going to be a grim one! I arrived at the fishery at half eight ish and got paid on and breakfast etc…
I was hoping for another kind draw today so that I’d either catch a few or at least have a peg out of the wind so that I’d be comfortable for the day. The fishery has recently been restocked with 5,500 small stock carp averaging at 4oz, hopefully these would be feeding and presumably on the pellet as that’s what they be used to.
I got in the queue and was midway by the time of the draw and managed to snare peg 54. Dave from the shop told me that a rake of fish was put in on this peg so hopefully I’d be in for a few. With these fish averaging 4oz it meant you needed a hundred of them to have 25lb, which meant 20 an hour! I thought about this and due to me not being used to speed fishing I halved this to 50 fish for the match, although this depended if I was on them or not!
I arrived at my peg and had Brian ‘Tupper’ Ware on 52 and someone else on 56? Looking at my peg it looked ok; I had plenty of sedge cover on the far bank and the aerator to my left just in case the sedges weren’t showing. The sun was shining down onto my right hand side although it was still bitterly cold and the wind coming from left to right which would hamper my presentation.
Bait for today I had some pumped 4mm Sensas Expanders, half a pint of whites with a few reds, some corn just in case and some micros for feeding if the pellet was working.
Rigs for today I had my usual Malman Cedars, 4x12 and 4x10, both on 0.12 Ultima to an 0.10 hooklength and size 22 Middy 63-13 hooks. Elastics on both rigs was Maver 8 Latex. I had an aerator rig too just in case at 11m.
At the all in I went straight across to the sedge straight in front of me, baited up with an expander, I was having difficulty holding the 4x10 float in position and the majority of the time it just laid on its side due to the heavy ripple passing through. I shipped back and changed to the 4x12 rig, this was spot on and I could let the float drift from one side of the sedge to the other and repeat this until I got a bite. My first bite came after 15 minutes, a stocky of about 4oz. all fish had to be netted to keep them in top condition so it took a little longer to get it in due to not being able to swing it in. I went back and managed another 2 of a similar size but was having a bit of trouble keeping the pellet on the hook. Due to the wind blowing through I was having to strike fairly hard to make good contact, the only thing was that this heavy strike meant the pellet came off if I missed the bite.
I decided to use maggot as hook bait instead as this wouldn’t come off on the strike. I also started to feed a pinch of micros after each fish to keep them interested. By the end of the first hour I had 10 fish in the net, all of about 4oz, so I needed to keep plugging away in order to build up any sort of weight although at least I was on target for 10 an hour.
Into the second hour and it was much like the first, struggling to hold the pole at 13.5m in the wind and striking at any dip I got in hope that I would connect. I was still feeding a pinch of micros through my fruit shoot top after every fish but had a slower hour than the first taking my tally to 17 after the first two hours. This meant I was behind by 3 fish, although was I? Neither side of me had had a bite in the first two hours so really I was ahead if not by my own standards set.
Into the third hour and the fishing picked up somewhat, perhaps due to the perseverance of the sun which had finally broken through to heat the water a little. The wind had also died down somewhat although the ripples were ever consistent. I was plugging away with maggot and a few micros when Chappy and Adam Richards walked past. Chappy was on 74, out of the sun and in the wind and wasn’t doing very well so had decided on a walk to warm up. He asked me how many I’d had and I think at the time of asking I’d had 25. By the time he came back around I’d finished my 3rd hour on 35 fish so I’d put 17 in the net, back on track! Although Darrell Taylor had had 60 in the first hour! Yes 60 in an hour! Although he now couldn’t get a bite. Meanwhile John Illingworth was getting one a chuck and had been since the start!
Chappy came to sit with me for half an hour and gave me some notable pointers which In turn saw my catch rate improve once again! There were a few things he noticed about my set up;
I wasn’t using a back shot
I was using maggot not pellet as a hook bait
I was too much over depth
My pole pot wasn’t near enough to the end of my pole tip.
I was feeding after every fish
After sorting out these few tweaks, adding a number 8 buckshot 5inches above the float, changing back to pellet, changing my depth by a couple of inches, moving my pole pot right to the end and feeding every 3-4 fish I managed to amass 24 carp in the 4th hour, which meant my total catch thus far was 59! I’d beaten my target of 50 and with an hour to go and the fishing at its prime I had my sights set on the 70 mark!
But I was wrong, the clouds came out, the sun was hiding and the chill factor had also changed, it was freezing! Due to this temperature drop in the air it meant my last hour wasn’t as fruitful as I’d hoped. I managed a further 8 fish and finished on 67. I was chuffed to bits to have caught that amount of fish, especially in winter when bites are generally at a premium. Brian on 52 had had a liner and one fish in 5 hours and the bloke to my right packed up and went, he was hiding behind his brolly all day so I’m not sure how he got on?!
There were a few moaning about how rubbish it had been. This really gets my goat, now I know I’d had a reasonably good day and caught plenty of fish but most people wait all week to go fishing and then when they get there all they do is moan! They don’t have to go fishing! Nearing the end of November do you expect to catch big bags of fish week in week out? No! So don’t complain about it!
Come the weigh in, John Illingworth was leading the match with 58lb, made entirely of stockies, he’d had an approximate 220 fish in 5 hours! That some going by anyone’s standards!
5 people to my left didn’t weigh in and I then plonked 18lb 6oz on the scales, maybe they average a little more than 4oz?!
Back to the café I was hoping with so little people weighing in that I would have done my section. Middy read out the results and I was pleased to hear my name, I’d come 6th overall! Another good result although they only pay top four and Ray Singh who came 5th was in my section so he took the honours with his 19lb 10oz bag.
Saturdays Results (34 fished)
John Illingworth (Daiwa Dons) 58-13-0, carp, pellet, peg 16
Gavin Stansfield (Selby) 27-0-0
Andy Middleton (Oaks) 25-3-0
Ian Bowman (Maver Barnsley) 22-14-0
Ray Singh (Garbolino Elton) 19-10-0
Steve Lupton (Oaks) 18-6-0
Not to worry, I’d be back on the Sunday for what would prove an even bigger grueller weather wise!
Now Sunday morning I awoke at 7 o clock, had a quick phone call from Gordy, he was off to Woodlands with a hot water bottle for the day. I decided another trip to the Oaks and get my 6th and final qualifier in for the Xmas cheer match.
Over night it had snowed and there was a thick frost covering my car which took an eternity to clear!
To cut a long story short on the fishing front, I drew 33, along the back straight, somewhere I didn’t want to be at all!
I was hoping for another kind draw today so that I’d either catch a few or at least have a peg out of the wind so that I’d be comfortable for the day. The fishery has recently been restocked with 5,500 small stock carp averaging at 4oz, hopefully these would be feeding and presumably on the pellet as that’s what they be used to.
I got in the queue and was midway by the time of the draw and managed to snare peg 54. Dave from the shop told me that a rake of fish was put in on this peg so hopefully I’d be in for a few. With these fish averaging 4oz it meant you needed a hundred of them to have 25lb, which meant 20 an hour! I thought about this and due to me not being used to speed fishing I halved this to 50 fish for the match, although this depended if I was on them or not!
I arrived at my peg and had Brian ‘Tupper’ Ware on 52 and someone else on 56? Looking at my peg it looked ok; I had plenty of sedge cover on the far bank and the aerator to my left just in case the sedges weren’t showing. The sun was shining down onto my right hand side although it was still bitterly cold and the wind coming from left to right which would hamper my presentation.
Bait for today I had some pumped 4mm Sensas Expanders, half a pint of whites with a few reds, some corn just in case and some micros for feeding if the pellet was working.
Rigs for today I had my usual Malman Cedars, 4x12 and 4x10, both on 0.12 Ultima to an 0.10 hooklength and size 22 Middy 63-13 hooks. Elastics on both rigs was Maver 8 Latex. I had an aerator rig too just in case at 11m.
At the all in I went straight across to the sedge straight in front of me, baited up with an expander, I was having difficulty holding the 4x10 float in position and the majority of the time it just laid on its side due to the heavy ripple passing through. I shipped back and changed to the 4x12 rig, this was spot on and I could let the float drift from one side of the sedge to the other and repeat this until I got a bite. My first bite came after 15 minutes, a stocky of about 4oz. all fish had to be netted to keep them in top condition so it took a little longer to get it in due to not being able to swing it in. I went back and managed another 2 of a similar size but was having a bit of trouble keeping the pellet on the hook. Due to the wind blowing through I was having to strike fairly hard to make good contact, the only thing was that this heavy strike meant the pellet came off if I missed the bite.
I decided to use maggot as hook bait instead as this wouldn’t come off on the strike. I also started to feed a pinch of micros after each fish to keep them interested. By the end of the first hour I had 10 fish in the net, all of about 4oz, so I needed to keep plugging away in order to build up any sort of weight although at least I was on target for 10 an hour.
Into the second hour and it was much like the first, struggling to hold the pole at 13.5m in the wind and striking at any dip I got in hope that I would connect. I was still feeding a pinch of micros through my fruit shoot top after every fish but had a slower hour than the first taking my tally to 17 after the first two hours. This meant I was behind by 3 fish, although was I? Neither side of me had had a bite in the first two hours so really I was ahead if not by my own standards set.
Into the third hour and the fishing picked up somewhat, perhaps due to the perseverance of the sun which had finally broken through to heat the water a little. The wind had also died down somewhat although the ripples were ever consistent. I was plugging away with maggot and a few micros when Chappy and Adam Richards walked past. Chappy was on 74, out of the sun and in the wind and wasn’t doing very well so had decided on a walk to warm up. He asked me how many I’d had and I think at the time of asking I’d had 25. By the time he came back around I’d finished my 3rd hour on 35 fish so I’d put 17 in the net, back on track! Although Darrell Taylor had had 60 in the first hour! Yes 60 in an hour! Although he now couldn’t get a bite. Meanwhile John Illingworth was getting one a chuck and had been since the start!
Chappy came to sit with me for half an hour and gave me some notable pointers which In turn saw my catch rate improve once again! There were a few things he noticed about my set up;
I wasn’t using a back shot
I was using maggot not pellet as a hook bait
I was too much over depth
My pole pot wasn’t near enough to the end of my pole tip.
I was feeding after every fish
After sorting out these few tweaks, adding a number 8 buckshot 5inches above the float, changing back to pellet, changing my depth by a couple of inches, moving my pole pot right to the end and feeding every 3-4 fish I managed to amass 24 carp in the 4th hour, which meant my total catch thus far was 59! I’d beaten my target of 50 and with an hour to go and the fishing at its prime I had my sights set on the 70 mark!
But I was wrong, the clouds came out, the sun was hiding and the chill factor had also changed, it was freezing! Due to this temperature drop in the air it meant my last hour wasn’t as fruitful as I’d hoped. I managed a further 8 fish and finished on 67. I was chuffed to bits to have caught that amount of fish, especially in winter when bites are generally at a premium. Brian on 52 had had a liner and one fish in 5 hours and the bloke to my right packed up and went, he was hiding behind his brolly all day so I’m not sure how he got on?!
There were a few moaning about how rubbish it had been. This really gets my goat, now I know I’d had a reasonably good day and caught plenty of fish but most people wait all week to go fishing and then when they get there all they do is moan! They don’t have to go fishing! Nearing the end of November do you expect to catch big bags of fish week in week out? No! So don’t complain about it!
Come the weigh in, John Illingworth was leading the match with 58lb, made entirely of stockies, he’d had an approximate 220 fish in 5 hours! That some going by anyone’s standards!
5 people to my left didn’t weigh in and I then plonked 18lb 6oz on the scales, maybe they average a little more than 4oz?!
Back to the café I was hoping with so little people weighing in that I would have done my section. Middy read out the results and I was pleased to hear my name, I’d come 6th overall! Another good result although they only pay top four and Ray Singh who came 5th was in my section so he took the honours with his 19lb 10oz bag.
Saturdays Results (34 fished)
John Illingworth (Daiwa Dons) 58-13-0, carp, pellet, peg 16
Gavin Stansfield (Selby) 27-0-0
Andy Middleton (Oaks) 25-3-0
Ian Bowman (Maver Barnsley) 22-14-0
Ray Singh (Garbolino Elton) 19-10-0
Steve Lupton (Oaks) 18-6-0
Not to worry, I’d be back on the Sunday for what would prove an even bigger grueller weather wise!
Now Sunday morning I awoke at 7 o clock, had a quick phone call from Gordy, he was off to Woodlands with a hot water bottle for the day. I decided another trip to the Oaks and get my 6th and final qualifier in for the Xmas cheer match.
Over night it had snowed and there was a thick frost covering my car which took an eternity to clear!
To cut a long story short on the fishing front, I drew 33, along the back straight, somewhere I didn’t want to be at all!
I managed to foul hook and lose a fish off the sedge and then foul hook a 1lb Barbel in its tail all match. Needless to say I tipped back!
Ghandi won the match with 34lb made up of stockies and fish up to 5lb.
A few people in the café said how hot and cold I was, they were right my Saturday performances have been good of late yet Sundays are proving to be a nightmare!
Sundays Results (32 fished)
Chris Hall (Oaks) 34-4-0, carp to 5 lb, corn, peg 11
Tony Kozaczek (Oaks) 26-14-0
Dave Pimlot (Garbolino Elton) 24-0-0
James Wood (Oaks) 16-13-0
Ray Singh (Garbolino Elton) 14-12-0
Ray Knox (Aireborough) 14-3-0
Even though I’d had a rubbish day, did I moan? Did I buggary!
Gordy had also won the match at Woodlands with 24lb 4oz, beating 2nd place who had 24lb dead. Apparently one of the lakes was won with 4lb, oh dear!
Monday 17 November 2008
Sat 15th & Sun 16th November - Oaks, Cedar Open
I arrived up at the fishery at about 8:30, paid on and went for my breakfast. After last weekends horrific weather I was looking forward to a days fishing where I’d be able to fish how I wanted to and hopefully catch a few. The fishery owners had recently stocked some small mirrors, ranging 3-8oz, hopefully these would perk up the older residents and get them feeding!
The draw came at 9am and there were 40 booked on, a vast increase on last week. With Cedar holding 80 pegs it meant it would be every other peg in so we would all still have plenty of room. I dipped into the bag and peg 47 had stuck to my hand. I wasn’t too down heartened by this as a few weeks ago I drew 48 and had about 20lb. As I was walking to the car I had a quick word with Chappy and the last thing he said to me was, ‘don’t feed, don’t even put a cup on!’’
I got to my peg and for company I had Ray Singh on peg 45, Tim ??? on peg 49 and Mal Bailey on 51. I definitely had to my work cut out (as always!) to get anything from this match.
Bait for the day I had a tub of corn from last week which I’d frozen. I read an article by Paul Coyle, he said he often fishes with defrosted corn as it seems softer and the fish tend to have a go at it a bit more. Plus it’s cheaper as you can use the same tin of corn for weeks! I also had half a pint of white maggots and a handful of reds.
I set up my usual 3 rigs. A 4x10 and a 4x12 Malman Cedar, both on 0.12 mainline to an 0.10 hooklength and size 20 B611. Both these rigs were on match kits with 8 latex elastic. Shotting for these rigs was typically shirt button with number 11’s with 12’s and 13’s dotting it right down. I also set up a track rig but hopefully wouldn’t need to use it. I also didn’t get any pole pots out!
I plumbed up in front of the sedges and found a good depth of 2.5-3ft, this depth was consistent right across the bank and with a spare peg either side it meant I could go pretty far down the bank if I needed to.
Weather wise it was very nice in contrast to the previous week, the sun was out and would blind me for the whole match and there was also a steady ripple on the water running from right to left. Usually the ripple gives the fish a bit more confidence as I think the shadow of the pole can put them off a bit as the water is fairly shallow and pretty clear at the minute too!
Time was called at 10:15 and I shipped out with the 4x10 rig with single red maggot, I tucked the float right into the sedge on my right, just before the marker tree at 14m. The float was well dotted down and the ripples were making it a bit difficult to see. However I didn’t need to see the float as within a few seconds my light 8 elastic was streaming out of the tip! After a brief tussle the first fish was in the net, an F1 of about a 1lb. I quickly shipped back out to same spot, the ripples had died down now so I could see a lot easier. The float once again dipped, I missed it, it dipped again and a gudgeon was soon in the net! I went out a third time and snared another gudgeon so I decided to try corn instead as I didn’t want to catch bloody gudgeon all day!
I managed a couple of the small stockies and 2 or 3 more F1’s before the swim was dieing a bit. I’d also changed to a 10 latex elastic as my 8 was dragging me all over the place. I thought I’d persevere for 5 more minutes before writing the swim off and starting up a new line further along the bank. My perseverance paid off, my change in elastic also! I lifted into what felt a good fish, but rather than a healthy scrap the fish came up pretty much straight away, a common of about 5lb hooked in its chin!
For the rest of the match I carried on in the same vein, by the half way point I estimated to having about 13lb, if I could keep this up I’d be on for a good weight and 28lb won the match a week ago so I thought it might put me somewhere. Ray and Tim to my immediate left and right were getting the odd fish but I felt I had the upper hand. Mal Bailey on 51 was fairing better than those two and probably had a similar weight to myself.
I kept on with the corn for the remainder of the match picking up 2 or 3 fish off one line then waiting 10-15 minutes on a new line before I got an indication. At one point I set up a new line at 15m to my left and managed to pick off 3 fish for about 7lb. With half an hour to go I had a few more stockies but it was slow going. By my estimations I had 25lb in the net, now seeing as 28lb won the previous week I thought I’d done well but needed one or two more fish to seal the deal!
3:15 came around and with it ‘TIME’ just I hooked into a big F1 of about 2lb. This meant I had 27lb by estimation. I’d had a great day I just hoped it was good enough as those around me had all struggled apart from Mal Bailey on 51 who was admitting to 25lb including a 4lb Barbel on time!
Whilst packing up my gear it was obvious I’d done well as most people on the point were all at my peg asking me questions on how I’d fished, where I’d fished, how much feed? Gareth came round to weigh in our half of the lake, Ray Singh put 15lb on the scales, next up was my peg, I dragged the keepnet out and realised I had perhaps under estimated! As Gareth said ‘F***ing Bagged Up!’ the scales went round to 36lb 8oz! I’d done a lot better than I thought! Tim to my right weighed 19lb so I beaten both my neighbours, put together!
Next up was Mal Bailey, he’d also under estimated and put 38lb 10oz on the scales, his big barbel had pushed him into the lead. Further round the bank there were two weights of 37lb. Chappy weighed in 34lb 4oz so my fish on time had also edged just in front him!
Back in the café I realised I’d come 4th overall out of 40 anglers so I was chuffed to bits! Chappy remarked that he was going to stop telling me what to do as it was now having detrimental effects on his final position. They were also only paying out top 4 so it meant he had to put up with a section ;o)
I got £50 for coming 4th which would nicely pay for my weekends fishing! I’ll also see my name up in lights for the first time, or at least in the Anglers Mail!
Mal Bailey (Garbolino Elton) 38-10-0
Bert Lockwood (Bob-Co) 37-12-0
Steve Sharples (Oaks) 37-10-0
Steve Lupton (Oaks) 36-8-0
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 34-4-0
Mick Grant (Oaks) 33-10-0
Sunday came around very quickly and I was full of confidence after the previous day and couldn’t wait to get back out on the bank. I got there nice and early again so not to be rushed. By the time of the draw there were 47 booked on! At the end of the match I heard the match organiser say that someone had said ‘why’ve you put this peg in? It was in yesterday!’ to which he replied ‘well there are only 80 pegs on the lake so where do you want me to get me some more from?’’ The joys of being a match organiser I suppose!
This time around I drew peg 31, a crap draw and the day before most people along that bank didn’t even weigh in! I looked on it positively though and thought I’d try make the most of a bad draw!
I set up the same as yesterday yet I set up two 4x10 rigs as the wind was non existent, there was even a ripple on the surface which might make my day even worse! On setting up my setting rigs I went out with the rig I used the day before with a new hooklength on and found the sedge line was perhaps only 18 inches deep! I did manage to find one spot that was just over 2ft but not a big area! I also had an aerator to my left so plumber up down here. It was one extreme to another, this line was well over 6ft; my top kit was only just long enough for the rig!
In short I didn’t have a bite for the first two hours. I foul hooked a carp and lost and then had 6 bites which I managed to turn into fish, 4 stockies, an F1 and an Ide. Steve Sharples on jackpot peg 29 weighed in 35lb dead by using his foul hooking technique ;o) and John Fallows on 33 managed 17lb odd. I weighed in 6lb dead purely because on a Sunday they do a draw from a bag and whatever weight comes out if you had it you win some coin. Anyway 33lb 11oz was drawn from the bag so nobody won again.
Final result looked like this and I was disappointed as I wanted to show that the previous day wasn’t a fluke but at this time of year you need to take it whilst you can. On the Saturday I was clearly on a few fish yet the Sunday I clearly wasn’t. Not to worry still an enjoyable weekend and I’ll be back again next week!
Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 38-10-0
Steve Sharples (Oaks) 35-0-0
Anthony Stock (Oaks) 34-10-0
Adie Mitchell (Harrogate Angling) 24-12-0
Bert Poole (Oaks), Chris Hall (Oaks) and Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) all 24-4-0
On a lighter note I got a text off Gordon saying he’d found my blog and asked who had taken the photo in the top corner, was it a professional? So to repay the favour here is a picture that I took of Gordon down in Whiteacres, ‘Say Cheese!’
Gorgeous Gordie - The Pensioners Pin Up
The draw came at 9am and there were 40 booked on, a vast increase on last week. With Cedar holding 80 pegs it meant it would be every other peg in so we would all still have plenty of room. I dipped into the bag and peg 47 had stuck to my hand. I wasn’t too down heartened by this as a few weeks ago I drew 48 and had about 20lb. As I was walking to the car I had a quick word with Chappy and the last thing he said to me was, ‘don’t feed, don’t even put a cup on!’’
I got to my peg and for company I had Ray Singh on peg 45, Tim ??? on peg 49 and Mal Bailey on 51. I definitely had to my work cut out (as always!) to get anything from this match.
Bait for the day I had a tub of corn from last week which I’d frozen. I read an article by Paul Coyle, he said he often fishes with defrosted corn as it seems softer and the fish tend to have a go at it a bit more. Plus it’s cheaper as you can use the same tin of corn for weeks! I also had half a pint of white maggots and a handful of reds.
I set up my usual 3 rigs. A 4x10 and a 4x12 Malman Cedar, both on 0.12 mainline to an 0.10 hooklength and size 20 B611. Both these rigs were on match kits with 8 latex elastic. Shotting for these rigs was typically shirt button with number 11’s with 12’s and 13’s dotting it right down. I also set up a track rig but hopefully wouldn’t need to use it. I also didn’t get any pole pots out!
I plumbed up in front of the sedges and found a good depth of 2.5-3ft, this depth was consistent right across the bank and with a spare peg either side it meant I could go pretty far down the bank if I needed to.
Weather wise it was very nice in contrast to the previous week, the sun was out and would blind me for the whole match and there was also a steady ripple on the water running from right to left. Usually the ripple gives the fish a bit more confidence as I think the shadow of the pole can put them off a bit as the water is fairly shallow and pretty clear at the minute too!
Time was called at 10:15 and I shipped out with the 4x10 rig with single red maggot, I tucked the float right into the sedge on my right, just before the marker tree at 14m. The float was well dotted down and the ripples were making it a bit difficult to see. However I didn’t need to see the float as within a few seconds my light 8 elastic was streaming out of the tip! After a brief tussle the first fish was in the net, an F1 of about a 1lb. I quickly shipped back out to same spot, the ripples had died down now so I could see a lot easier. The float once again dipped, I missed it, it dipped again and a gudgeon was soon in the net! I went out a third time and snared another gudgeon so I decided to try corn instead as I didn’t want to catch bloody gudgeon all day!
I managed a couple of the small stockies and 2 or 3 more F1’s before the swim was dieing a bit. I’d also changed to a 10 latex elastic as my 8 was dragging me all over the place. I thought I’d persevere for 5 more minutes before writing the swim off and starting up a new line further along the bank. My perseverance paid off, my change in elastic also! I lifted into what felt a good fish, but rather than a healthy scrap the fish came up pretty much straight away, a common of about 5lb hooked in its chin!
For the rest of the match I carried on in the same vein, by the half way point I estimated to having about 13lb, if I could keep this up I’d be on for a good weight and 28lb won the match a week ago so I thought it might put me somewhere. Ray and Tim to my immediate left and right were getting the odd fish but I felt I had the upper hand. Mal Bailey on 51 was fairing better than those two and probably had a similar weight to myself.
I kept on with the corn for the remainder of the match picking up 2 or 3 fish off one line then waiting 10-15 minutes on a new line before I got an indication. At one point I set up a new line at 15m to my left and managed to pick off 3 fish for about 7lb. With half an hour to go I had a few more stockies but it was slow going. By my estimations I had 25lb in the net, now seeing as 28lb won the previous week I thought I’d done well but needed one or two more fish to seal the deal!
3:15 came around and with it ‘TIME’ just I hooked into a big F1 of about 2lb. This meant I had 27lb by estimation. I’d had a great day I just hoped it was good enough as those around me had all struggled apart from Mal Bailey on 51 who was admitting to 25lb including a 4lb Barbel on time!
Whilst packing up my gear it was obvious I’d done well as most people on the point were all at my peg asking me questions on how I’d fished, where I’d fished, how much feed? Gareth came round to weigh in our half of the lake, Ray Singh put 15lb on the scales, next up was my peg, I dragged the keepnet out and realised I had perhaps under estimated! As Gareth said ‘F***ing Bagged Up!’ the scales went round to 36lb 8oz! I’d done a lot better than I thought! Tim to my right weighed 19lb so I beaten both my neighbours, put together!
Next up was Mal Bailey, he’d also under estimated and put 38lb 10oz on the scales, his big barbel had pushed him into the lead. Further round the bank there were two weights of 37lb. Chappy weighed in 34lb 4oz so my fish on time had also edged just in front him!
Back in the café I realised I’d come 4th overall out of 40 anglers so I was chuffed to bits! Chappy remarked that he was going to stop telling me what to do as it was now having detrimental effects on his final position. They were also only paying out top 4 so it meant he had to put up with a section ;o)
I got £50 for coming 4th which would nicely pay for my weekends fishing! I’ll also see my name up in lights for the first time, or at least in the Anglers Mail!
Mal Bailey (Garbolino Elton) 38-10-0
Bert Lockwood (Bob-Co) 37-12-0
Steve Sharples (Oaks) 37-10-0
Steve Lupton (Oaks) 36-8-0
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 34-4-0
Mick Grant (Oaks) 33-10-0
Sunday came around very quickly and I was full of confidence after the previous day and couldn’t wait to get back out on the bank. I got there nice and early again so not to be rushed. By the time of the draw there were 47 booked on! At the end of the match I heard the match organiser say that someone had said ‘why’ve you put this peg in? It was in yesterday!’ to which he replied ‘well there are only 80 pegs on the lake so where do you want me to get me some more from?’’ The joys of being a match organiser I suppose!
This time around I drew peg 31, a crap draw and the day before most people along that bank didn’t even weigh in! I looked on it positively though and thought I’d try make the most of a bad draw!
I set up the same as yesterday yet I set up two 4x10 rigs as the wind was non existent, there was even a ripple on the surface which might make my day even worse! On setting up my setting rigs I went out with the rig I used the day before with a new hooklength on and found the sedge line was perhaps only 18 inches deep! I did manage to find one spot that was just over 2ft but not a big area! I also had an aerator to my left so plumber up down here. It was one extreme to another, this line was well over 6ft; my top kit was only just long enough for the rig!
In short I didn’t have a bite for the first two hours. I foul hooked a carp and lost and then had 6 bites which I managed to turn into fish, 4 stockies, an F1 and an Ide. Steve Sharples on jackpot peg 29 weighed in 35lb dead by using his foul hooking technique ;o) and John Fallows on 33 managed 17lb odd. I weighed in 6lb dead purely because on a Sunday they do a draw from a bag and whatever weight comes out if you had it you win some coin. Anyway 33lb 11oz was drawn from the bag so nobody won again.
Final result looked like this and I was disappointed as I wanted to show that the previous day wasn’t a fluke but at this time of year you need to take it whilst you can. On the Saturday I was clearly on a few fish yet the Sunday I clearly wasn’t. Not to worry still an enjoyable weekend and I’ll be back again next week!
Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 38-10-0
Steve Sharples (Oaks) 35-0-0
Anthony Stock (Oaks) 34-10-0
Adie Mitchell (Harrogate Angling) 24-12-0
Bert Poole (Oaks), Chris Hall (Oaks) and Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) all 24-4-0
On a lighter note I got a text off Gordon saying he’d found my blog and asked who had taken the photo in the top corner, was it a professional? So to repay the favour here is a picture that I took of Gordon down in Whiteacres, ‘Say Cheese!’
Gorgeous Gordie - The Pensioners Pin UpMonday 10 November 2008
Sat 8th & Sun 9th November - Cedar Open
I’d decided to book myself onto the Christmas Cheer match up at the Oaks on the 21st December, with a top prize of £500 and an evening do with a buffet and a raffle I thought why not?! To qualify for the match however, you need to fish 6 matches between the 1st November and the date of the match itself. With a free weekend just gone I decided to fish both Saturday and Sunday to get a couple out of the way. I arrived at the fishery at around 8am on the Saturday morning, ready for a bite to eat, get some bait and book on. The draw was to be at 9 and fish 10-3, just like our club matches we started 15 minutes late ;o)
Dave was holding the draw bag, my hand went in and out came peg 58, I asked him if it was a good peg and he paused before saying, yeah, yeah its alright, the pause told me everything! Today however I would have been glad to be in a peg out of the wind and actually fish my match how I wanted rather than the wind dictating how I approached it.
Thankfully when I pulled up at my peg I was 2nd peg into the point and therefore would have the wind on my back all day but would hopefully be able to fish my own match. I had Ian Bowman (Maver Barnsley) round the corner on peg 56, someone on 60 and Bob ‘The Builder’ Sinclair on 62 so I’d have to fish my heart out to get anything from the day.
Rigs for the day, I had two sedge rigs, a 4x10 and a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.12 Ultima, the lighter float had a hooklength of 0.10 Powerline to a Fox Carp Match 20 and the heavier float had a size 18 B611. Both sedge rigs were on 8 latex elastic. I also set up a track rig at 12m.
My main sedge line for the day was to be 14.5m to my right, tight to the sedges in front of the tree. I was able to use the same rig right across the swim as the depth was consistent. For bait I had a pint of whites and a few reds.
Time was called at 9:15 and I shipped out with the 4x10 rig out with a single red maggot and spent the first 45 minutes searching the swim, not feeding anything and simply fishing different lines for five minutes. If I didn’t get any indication I would simply drop it in a metre further down the bank. My efforts were finally rewarded when I slipped the net under a little ghostie of about a pound. The bloke on my left had also had 1 and peg 56 had nothing. I then decided to introduce a bit of feed to my main sedge line. I tipped in 4 maggots and swung my rig over the top. Within a few minutes the float dipped and a brief tussle entailed and soon I had an F1 of about a pound in the net. I managed a further 2 F1’s of a similar size before it went quiet again. I started to search around again but no look. Ian on peg 56 had started to put a few together and I think with 2 hours to go he 2 Ide, a Chub and 4 F1’s so I was 3 fish behind. The bloke on 60 had also had 4 fish by now.
By the last hour I had caught Ian up and on the final I had another fish on to mark the end of the match, I finished with 9 carp and one Ide. At the end of the match I was getting regular dips on the float but couldn’t connect. Ian finished with 9 fish in total and the bloke on 60 still only had the 4. It had fished hard but hopefully I could take away the knowledge of beating some of the regulars. Ghandi came round for the weigh in and Ian on peg 56 put 12lb 6oz on the scale so it was to be close. I managed 13lb dead so had beaten him and also the bloke on 60. Bob ‘The Builder’ weighed in 5lb so I felt I’d done ok. Mark Calvert weighed 16lb odd off 64, peg 66 had 20lb and 68 16lb odd.
Although I’d not won the section I was happy to beat the anglers immediately around me. I spoke to John Chapman after the match and he weighed 9lb 11oz so overall I’d not done too badly. James Dent won the match fishing corn and managed about 30lb I think.
Sunday came and with it winds of up to 40mph! Not gusts of 40mph, just constant all day! I drew peg 15, this time around Dave said that there were a few fish to be had there, again it was just a case of being able to fish!
For company I had Dave Pimlott on peg 17, Steve Sharples on 13 and Tony Koz on 11. The wind was to prove to be a problem with the gust coming from left to right through my swim. Due to me being on the end of the point it meant I couldn’t see how everyone else was doing so I’d have to guess they were doing well and try to do better myself.
Rigs were the same as yesterday and I had my remaining maggots from the day before as I’d probably only used a dozen from the pint! Today I also brought the bomb rod with me, I was glad I did as the wind was terrible!
To cut a long story short, the first two hours came and went and all I had were a few skimmers and gudgeon, the wind was as predicted and felt more like 100mph. the second two hours the winds remained but with it came a driving icy rain, I didn’t put the brolly up as I thought it would be more hassle than its worth so got cold and wet! I also remembered I’d torn the crotch on my waterproof trousers and so after a few hours had a little scare when I thought I was wetting myself, gladly to realise the rain was running off my jacket into tear! Phew!
I couldn’t feel my hands for the most of the match due them being so cold and seeing as I couldn’t fish further out than my top four I decided to chuck the bomb out and sit and wait until the tip went round. After 45 minutes of it being in the water the tip finally arced around and my first F1 was in the net. After that the wind and rain both subsided to I put the pole out to the same hole I’d got my bite from and nothing else, not even a liner. I managed a few more silvers before the final whistle but was more than relieved when time was called.
I tipped back to save embarrassment, Steve Sharples had ‘10’ for 17lb odd and Dave Pimlott had 13lb I think? Chappy managed 3rd with 25lb odd I think. Robbie managed to double default his section with 13lb 14oz. Stu tipped back 5 carp and for most it was a day to forget! I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a cuppa so much!
Anyway I’ll be back again next week; hopefully the weather will behave itself!
Dave was holding the draw bag, my hand went in and out came peg 58, I asked him if it was a good peg and he paused before saying, yeah, yeah its alright, the pause told me everything! Today however I would have been glad to be in a peg out of the wind and actually fish my match how I wanted rather than the wind dictating how I approached it.
Thankfully when I pulled up at my peg I was 2nd peg into the point and therefore would have the wind on my back all day but would hopefully be able to fish my own match. I had Ian Bowman (Maver Barnsley) round the corner on peg 56, someone on 60 and Bob ‘The Builder’ Sinclair on 62 so I’d have to fish my heart out to get anything from the day.
Rigs for the day, I had two sedge rigs, a 4x10 and a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.12 Ultima, the lighter float had a hooklength of 0.10 Powerline to a Fox Carp Match 20 and the heavier float had a size 18 B611. Both sedge rigs were on 8 latex elastic. I also set up a track rig at 12m.
My main sedge line for the day was to be 14.5m to my right, tight to the sedges in front of the tree. I was able to use the same rig right across the swim as the depth was consistent. For bait I had a pint of whites and a few reds.
Time was called at 9:15 and I shipped out with the 4x10 rig out with a single red maggot and spent the first 45 minutes searching the swim, not feeding anything and simply fishing different lines for five minutes. If I didn’t get any indication I would simply drop it in a metre further down the bank. My efforts were finally rewarded when I slipped the net under a little ghostie of about a pound. The bloke on my left had also had 1 and peg 56 had nothing. I then decided to introduce a bit of feed to my main sedge line. I tipped in 4 maggots and swung my rig over the top. Within a few minutes the float dipped and a brief tussle entailed and soon I had an F1 of about a pound in the net. I managed a further 2 F1’s of a similar size before it went quiet again. I started to search around again but no look. Ian on peg 56 had started to put a few together and I think with 2 hours to go he 2 Ide, a Chub and 4 F1’s so I was 3 fish behind. The bloke on 60 had also had 4 fish by now.
By the last hour I had caught Ian up and on the final I had another fish on to mark the end of the match, I finished with 9 carp and one Ide. At the end of the match I was getting regular dips on the float but couldn’t connect. Ian finished with 9 fish in total and the bloke on 60 still only had the 4. It had fished hard but hopefully I could take away the knowledge of beating some of the regulars. Ghandi came round for the weigh in and Ian on peg 56 put 12lb 6oz on the scale so it was to be close. I managed 13lb dead so had beaten him and also the bloke on 60. Bob ‘The Builder’ weighed in 5lb so I felt I’d done ok. Mark Calvert weighed 16lb odd off 64, peg 66 had 20lb and 68 16lb odd.
Although I’d not won the section I was happy to beat the anglers immediately around me. I spoke to John Chapman after the match and he weighed 9lb 11oz so overall I’d not done too badly. James Dent won the match fishing corn and managed about 30lb I think.
Sunday came and with it winds of up to 40mph! Not gusts of 40mph, just constant all day! I drew peg 15, this time around Dave said that there were a few fish to be had there, again it was just a case of being able to fish!
For company I had Dave Pimlott on peg 17, Steve Sharples on 13 and Tony Koz on 11. The wind was to prove to be a problem with the gust coming from left to right through my swim. Due to me being on the end of the point it meant I couldn’t see how everyone else was doing so I’d have to guess they were doing well and try to do better myself.
Rigs were the same as yesterday and I had my remaining maggots from the day before as I’d probably only used a dozen from the pint! Today I also brought the bomb rod with me, I was glad I did as the wind was terrible!
To cut a long story short, the first two hours came and went and all I had were a few skimmers and gudgeon, the wind was as predicted and felt more like 100mph. the second two hours the winds remained but with it came a driving icy rain, I didn’t put the brolly up as I thought it would be more hassle than its worth so got cold and wet! I also remembered I’d torn the crotch on my waterproof trousers and so after a few hours had a little scare when I thought I was wetting myself, gladly to realise the rain was running off my jacket into tear! Phew!
I couldn’t feel my hands for the most of the match due them being so cold and seeing as I couldn’t fish further out than my top four I decided to chuck the bomb out and sit and wait until the tip went round. After 45 minutes of it being in the water the tip finally arced around and my first F1 was in the net. After that the wind and rain both subsided to I put the pole out to the same hole I’d got my bite from and nothing else, not even a liner. I managed a few more silvers before the final whistle but was more than relieved when time was called.
I tipped back to save embarrassment, Steve Sharples had ‘10’ for 17lb odd and Dave Pimlott had 13lb I think? Chappy managed 3rd with 25lb odd I think. Robbie managed to double default his section with 13lb 14oz. Stu tipped back 5 carp and for most it was a day to forget! I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a cuppa so much!
Anyway I’ll be back again next week; hopefully the weather will behave itself!
Monday 27 October 2008
October 26th - Maple Pairs Match, Oaks
Well, where to start? The weather this week leading up to the match had been very poor, high winds, rain and a big drop in temperature. Thankfully the winds weren’t meant to be too bad for the Sunday, it can rain as much it likes but I can’t stand fishing in the wind, as you may have read in last weeks blog! Oh and I managed to get a new number four too so it was all stations go for the last club match of the year!
I arrived at the fishery at 8am to give me time to demolish one of the wonderful full breakfasts! I paid on and then bought my bait for the day, a pint of whites, with a few reds mixed in for a change bait.
Stu and Nige were running a pairs match today, with the top four pairs getting paid out along with the individual winner. They were also running a guess the weight competition for the winning combined weight. Rather than picking pairs before the draw it was decided that your partner was selected from the draw. As I was one of the latter to draw it meant I got to see who my partner was. I drew peg 17, along the back straight, not a bad draw and I fancied a few fish from it. My partner, Paul Whittaker drew peg 51, I had my work cut out, last match him and Alan drew peg 63a and 64 and neither of them weighed in, not to worry though. I’d just have to fish my socks off!
I got to my peg and to be fair I was a bit disappointed whilst setting up. The sedges were miles away! Order for the day was that I had one line at 11 o’ clock towards the dividing bush at 15m and one at 1 o’ clock to the sedges, even at 15m I wasn’t as tight as I’d have liked to have been but I still found a good depth of about 3ft so wasn’t too put off although I knew I was in for a grueller if the wind picked up! My target weight for the day again was 30lb but felt 40lb would be needed to pick up.
I set up two rigs for across and one for down the track at 13m which was the base of the shelf. I used the same rigs as last week on Cedar, carrying on my motto of ‘’fish light, get a bite!’’
Honest John had told me that we were finishing at 3:30 today as it would be dark earlier due to the clocks going back. Maple can often throw up a weight in the last hour so with the clocks going back the last hour was actually not the last hour and we’d have another hour after? If you know what I mean?
At the all in I shipped out to my right sedge, tipped in 6 maggots and then went to my left sedge which I fed with a dozen maggots and aimed for this to be my positive swim. I went 50 minutes without a bite, this was a horrendous, I’d seen a few people catch one or two but not loads so I wasn’t too far behind but desperately needed to find the fish. My first bite came, a foul hooker that came off no sooner had I hooked it, next put out the same happened, I then foul hooked my third in a row, this one I played for a while before the hook eventually pulled!
The middle of the match was strange, the fish started to feed! Or in my peg at least! I changed to my right sedge, tipped in another six maggots and eagerly watched the pimple of a float. After a couple of minutes it dipped and I lifted into what felt like a good fish, I eventually got It out on my light gear, a mirror of about 4lb, just the start I needed! Next put out and not a bite, so I decided to create a new swim, to the right of my left sedge, I repeated the process and caught another good fish of perhaps 5lb. for the next 2 hours I only managed another 4 fish but they were all good uns! I had one that must have been knocking on 7lb. It just goes to show that by using balanced tackle you can get pretty much anything out. After all I was using an 0.10 bottom and a size 20 hook with a soft 10 elastic, it took some time to get them in but who cares? At this time of year you need to make every fish count so I just took my time.
With the last hour and a half looming it went quiet again and I’d only pick up a very odd fish and they were only small F1’s. Half three came and went, but no whistle! We must have been finishing at four as normal! I think I had two more small F1’s in the last half hour and felt I’d had a pretty good day, but what had my partner had?
From peg 1 right around to peg 45 I was winning with a weight of 37lb 12oz, the bloke to my right had 31lb and to my left had 12lb I think. So I had surpassed my 30lb target and wasn't too far off 40lb. Mick Akko spoilt my day when he put 54lb on the scales. My partner had 1lb 15oz so we were going nowhere with our combined weight. I think he needed 20lb to get us a pay out, the pegs either side of him both had 25lb ish so I don’t know where he’d gone wrong?
Back in the café I realised I’d come 5th overall and in normal circumstances I’d have walked my section but it wasn’t to be today. Well with the club season over I’m going to fish a few opens and hopefully get on the rivers, it must be 5 or 6 years since I last fished running water! Bring it on!
I’ve been keeping a record of my match weights throughout the year and I think at present my average is just over 24lb. the reason I’ve done this is so that next year I can compare results and see if I’ve improved or not, let’s bloody hope so!
I arrived at the fishery at 8am to give me time to demolish one of the wonderful full breakfasts! I paid on and then bought my bait for the day, a pint of whites, with a few reds mixed in for a change bait.
Stu and Nige were running a pairs match today, with the top four pairs getting paid out along with the individual winner. They were also running a guess the weight competition for the winning combined weight. Rather than picking pairs before the draw it was decided that your partner was selected from the draw. As I was one of the latter to draw it meant I got to see who my partner was. I drew peg 17, along the back straight, not a bad draw and I fancied a few fish from it. My partner, Paul Whittaker drew peg 51, I had my work cut out, last match him and Alan drew peg 63a and 64 and neither of them weighed in, not to worry though. I’d just have to fish my socks off!
I got to my peg and to be fair I was a bit disappointed whilst setting up. The sedges were miles away! Order for the day was that I had one line at 11 o’ clock towards the dividing bush at 15m and one at 1 o’ clock to the sedges, even at 15m I wasn’t as tight as I’d have liked to have been but I still found a good depth of about 3ft so wasn’t too put off although I knew I was in for a grueller if the wind picked up! My target weight for the day again was 30lb but felt 40lb would be needed to pick up.
I set up two rigs for across and one for down the track at 13m which was the base of the shelf. I used the same rigs as last week on Cedar, carrying on my motto of ‘’fish light, get a bite!’’
Honest John had told me that we were finishing at 3:30 today as it would be dark earlier due to the clocks going back. Maple can often throw up a weight in the last hour so with the clocks going back the last hour was actually not the last hour and we’d have another hour after? If you know what I mean?
At the all in I shipped out to my right sedge, tipped in 6 maggots and then went to my left sedge which I fed with a dozen maggots and aimed for this to be my positive swim. I went 50 minutes without a bite, this was a horrendous, I’d seen a few people catch one or two but not loads so I wasn’t too far behind but desperately needed to find the fish. My first bite came, a foul hooker that came off no sooner had I hooked it, next put out the same happened, I then foul hooked my third in a row, this one I played for a while before the hook eventually pulled!
The middle of the match was strange, the fish started to feed! Or in my peg at least! I changed to my right sedge, tipped in another six maggots and eagerly watched the pimple of a float. After a couple of minutes it dipped and I lifted into what felt like a good fish, I eventually got It out on my light gear, a mirror of about 4lb, just the start I needed! Next put out and not a bite, so I decided to create a new swim, to the right of my left sedge, I repeated the process and caught another good fish of perhaps 5lb. for the next 2 hours I only managed another 4 fish but they were all good uns! I had one that must have been knocking on 7lb. It just goes to show that by using balanced tackle you can get pretty much anything out. After all I was using an 0.10 bottom and a size 20 hook with a soft 10 elastic, it took some time to get them in but who cares? At this time of year you need to make every fish count so I just took my time.
With the last hour and a half looming it went quiet again and I’d only pick up a very odd fish and they were only small F1’s. Half three came and went, but no whistle! We must have been finishing at four as normal! I think I had two more small F1’s in the last half hour and felt I’d had a pretty good day, but what had my partner had?
From peg 1 right around to peg 45 I was winning with a weight of 37lb 12oz, the bloke to my right had 31lb and to my left had 12lb I think. So I had surpassed my 30lb target and wasn't too far off 40lb. Mick Akko spoilt my day when he put 54lb on the scales. My partner had 1lb 15oz so we were going nowhere with our combined weight. I think he needed 20lb to get us a pay out, the pegs either side of him both had 25lb ish so I don’t know where he’d gone wrong?
Back in the café I realised I’d come 5th overall and in normal circumstances I’d have walked my section but it wasn’t to be today. Well with the club season over I’m going to fish a few opens and hopefully get on the rivers, it must be 5 or 6 years since I last fished running water! Bring it on!
I’ve been keeping a record of my match weights throughout the year and I think at present my average is just over 24lb. the reason I’ve done this is so that next year I can compare results and see if I’ve improved or not, let’s bloody hope so!
Monday 20 October 2008
October 18th - The Oaks, Cedar
Well this was to be my 2nd ever open after my first at Woodlands earlier in the year. I’ve never fished Cedar Lake up at the Oaks but was assured it was similar to fishing on Maple just that the average fish size was smaller so with this in mind I could scale down if I felt I needed too. The weather forecast leading up to Saturday didn’t look too bad apart from the wind! Averaging at 18mph all day with gusts up to 30mph, so far from ideal!
I arrived at about 9:15, had my breakfast and got booked on in the tackle shop. The 10am draw soon arrived and I was probably in the last half dozen to draw and managed peg 48. This meant nothing to me as I’ve not fished it before; in fact I’ve never even seen it!
I made my way round to my peg which was just after one bend and a couple of pegs down from another. I probably had 4 spare pegs to my right and another spare peg to my left. Tony Koz was on 46 and there were three other lads on 44, 42 and 40 which ‘filled’ our point.
Whilst setting up I realised how horrific the wind was going to be today, whilst plumbing up my sedge line the pole was getting thrown all over the place. With this in mind I set my roller fairly low so if they did blow off they wouldn’t have far to fall!
I set up two rigs for across, the first being a 4x10 Malman Cedar on 0.12 Ultima to an 0.10 Powerline hooklength with a Fox Carp Match size 20, this was on an 8 Maver latex elastic. This rig would be fished at 14m to my right in front of the sedges next to the peg dividing tree. This would be my positive line where I’d feed only maggots. My second across rig was the same float but a 4x12, mainline and hooklengths were the same yet I had a size 18 B610, this was finished with an 8 size Maver Later elastic. This rig was to fish to the other peg dividing tree at 14m to my left. I would feed this line with a couple of maggots and the odd bit of a corn as a back up line to my positive line. With the wind being pretty bad I also plumbed up down the track with a 0.5g Preston float, on 0.11 straight through to a size 20 B610, elastic was a size 10 Maver latex elastic. All my rigs were 2-3 inches over depth.
Bait for today I had a pint of white maggots and a few reds thrown in for good measure. I also had a tin of corn.
11 o’ clock soon came and with it time was called. I first went out to my left sedge and tipped in 4 maggots and 2 bits of corn. Then I got cracking with building my right sedge swim up. I went out with a single red maggot and 7-8 maggots in my pot. I forced the float tight to the sedges and tipped the free offerings over the top. I’d been told the first hour could be quite slow, you’re not wrong! I got my first bite after 40 mins and missed it! I went back out and tipped a few more maggots over the top and got another bite, I soon had a small F1 of about a 1lb in the net. Soon followed by another. I then battled through the wind until the halfway point and I think I had 6-7lb in the net at this point. I then decided enough was enough with the wind and decided to fish my track line.
I went out with double maggot and tipped a kinder pot of maggots in to try and force them onto the feed straight away. I managed half a dozen roach, a few gudgeon and a skimmer before I latched into a better fish. The awkward fight led me to believe this could have been a Barbel, I was right, a pristine fish of 1.5lb. I then managed a couple more F1’s and another smaller Barbel before disaster struck. I was playing an F1 of about 2lb which was a welcome bonus however whilst I was playing it on the top kit the wind got hold of my pole which somehow blew the male end of my number 4 between my box and box leg, a sudden gust then ripped my entire pole of the roller, with my number 4 now being wedged a crunch sounded as the top 8 inches snapped cleanly off my number 4. ‘’Bar-Steward!!!!’’
Thankfully when I bought my pole last year the bloke I bought it off also included a spare number 4, be it a repaired section it was a welcome lifeline!
When I got back up and running it went from bad to worse. I hooked a big Barbel of about 3lb, just as I was slipping the landing net under it the hook pulled, as I stretched in desperation to scoop the fish it woke up and bolted off. ‘’Bar-Steward!!!!’’
After this I think I foul hooked and lost 8 fish on the trot and just couldn’t understand it, I’d strike, slowly ship back keeping adequate pressure and the hook would pull! ‘’Bar-Steward!!!!’’ (Per fish).
So after a relatively calm start to the match and an afternoon of swearing at everything how had I done? Ghandi came round to do the weigh in, the bloke on peg 40 had 22lb, peg 42 had 15lb, peg 46 on the point with no side wind had 22lb, T-Koz on 46 had 26lb and I dumped 20-13 on the scales so in the grand scheme of things I not done too bad in the area I was fishing.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get a new section by next weekend. Next weekend I’m back up at the Oaks on Maple again but seeing as it’s the last of our club matches for the year we’re having a bit of a pairs match too.
Tight Elastics and watch that wind!
I arrived at about 9:15, had my breakfast and got booked on in the tackle shop. The 10am draw soon arrived and I was probably in the last half dozen to draw and managed peg 48. This meant nothing to me as I’ve not fished it before; in fact I’ve never even seen it!
I made my way round to my peg which was just after one bend and a couple of pegs down from another. I probably had 4 spare pegs to my right and another spare peg to my left. Tony Koz was on 46 and there were three other lads on 44, 42 and 40 which ‘filled’ our point.
Whilst setting up I realised how horrific the wind was going to be today, whilst plumbing up my sedge line the pole was getting thrown all over the place. With this in mind I set my roller fairly low so if they did blow off they wouldn’t have far to fall!
I set up two rigs for across, the first being a 4x10 Malman Cedar on 0.12 Ultima to an 0.10 Powerline hooklength with a Fox Carp Match size 20, this was on an 8 Maver latex elastic. This rig would be fished at 14m to my right in front of the sedges next to the peg dividing tree. This would be my positive line where I’d feed only maggots. My second across rig was the same float but a 4x12, mainline and hooklengths were the same yet I had a size 18 B610, this was finished with an 8 size Maver Later elastic. This rig was to fish to the other peg dividing tree at 14m to my left. I would feed this line with a couple of maggots and the odd bit of a corn as a back up line to my positive line. With the wind being pretty bad I also plumbed up down the track with a 0.5g Preston float, on 0.11 straight through to a size 20 B610, elastic was a size 10 Maver latex elastic. All my rigs were 2-3 inches over depth.
Bait for today I had a pint of white maggots and a few reds thrown in for good measure. I also had a tin of corn.
11 o’ clock soon came and with it time was called. I first went out to my left sedge and tipped in 4 maggots and 2 bits of corn. Then I got cracking with building my right sedge swim up. I went out with a single red maggot and 7-8 maggots in my pot. I forced the float tight to the sedges and tipped the free offerings over the top. I’d been told the first hour could be quite slow, you’re not wrong! I got my first bite after 40 mins and missed it! I went back out and tipped a few more maggots over the top and got another bite, I soon had a small F1 of about a 1lb in the net. Soon followed by another. I then battled through the wind until the halfway point and I think I had 6-7lb in the net at this point. I then decided enough was enough with the wind and decided to fish my track line.
I went out with double maggot and tipped a kinder pot of maggots in to try and force them onto the feed straight away. I managed half a dozen roach, a few gudgeon and a skimmer before I latched into a better fish. The awkward fight led me to believe this could have been a Barbel, I was right, a pristine fish of 1.5lb. I then managed a couple more F1’s and another smaller Barbel before disaster struck. I was playing an F1 of about 2lb which was a welcome bonus however whilst I was playing it on the top kit the wind got hold of my pole which somehow blew the male end of my number 4 between my box and box leg, a sudden gust then ripped my entire pole of the roller, with my number 4 now being wedged a crunch sounded as the top 8 inches snapped cleanly off my number 4. ‘’Bar-Steward!!!!’’
Thankfully when I bought my pole last year the bloke I bought it off also included a spare number 4, be it a repaired section it was a welcome lifeline!
When I got back up and running it went from bad to worse. I hooked a big Barbel of about 3lb, just as I was slipping the landing net under it the hook pulled, as I stretched in desperation to scoop the fish it woke up and bolted off. ‘’Bar-Steward!!!!’’
After this I think I foul hooked and lost 8 fish on the trot and just couldn’t understand it, I’d strike, slowly ship back keeping adequate pressure and the hook would pull! ‘’Bar-Steward!!!!’’ (Per fish).
So after a relatively calm start to the match and an afternoon of swearing at everything how had I done? Ghandi came round to do the weigh in, the bloke on peg 40 had 22lb, peg 42 had 15lb, peg 46 on the point with no side wind had 22lb, T-Koz on 46 had 26lb and I dumped 20-13 on the scales so in the grand scheme of things I not done too bad in the area I was fishing.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get a new section by next weekend. Next weekend I’m back up at the Oaks on Maple again but seeing as it’s the last of our club matches for the year we’re having a bit of a pairs match too.
Tight Elastics and watch that wind!
Monday 13 October 2008
October 12th - The Oaks, Maple
Well back up the A1 to the Oaks this weekend to see if I could capitalize on last weeks tactics and make the maggot work again. I arrived at the fishery at about 8:15, had my breakfast and then got roped in to taking the money whilst Nige went for a fag! The draw was typically late again but this time it saw us drawing at half nine so we would be fishing 10:30-16:30.My plan this week was to fish maggot again but fish two lines rather than the one I fished last week. The reason for two was that I could feed one sparingly and feed the other a bit more positive. This would then enable me to see what was best on the day. For bait today, all I had was a pint and a half of maggots, nothing else!
We had pegs 24-66 as the first 23 pegs were booked on another match. At the time of the draw my ‘lucky’ left hand delved to the depths of the draw bag and my hand re-emerged attached to peg 24. With this being the first peg in our match it also meant I was weighing in, I don’t mind weighing in as you get to see how everyone has done although you do get a thorough soaking!
Anyway a quick drive around to my peg and I have Paul Jones on peg 25 for company. There was also a bloke on 23 fishing in the other match so unlike everyone else I didn’t have a spare peg. Dennis Geldard, Howard, Tony Koz and Bri Gascoigne made up the rest of my section.
Peg 24 and 23 are on a corner and there is an aerator between them both in the corner which is well worth fishing too but as I was setting up the bloke on 23 was plumbing up all around it so decided to leave him to it, I’m glad I did as at the start of their match he filled it in with cat food and only caught four fish from it!
I set up two lines to sedges in front of me at 14m, one to the left of the gap and one to the right. I plumbed up so that I could use the same rig on both lines without switching kits or altering depths all the time. My plan B this week was to still fish maggot but on the point of the island where I would big pot. My aim this week again was to catch 30lb but what I really wanted was to beat last week’s effort and hopefully claim another section, or better!
My rigs were similar to last weeks, I set up two Malman Cedar floats 4x10, both on 0.12 Powerline, the rig for the sedges had a size 20 Fox Carp Match Barbless on 0.10 Powerline and I had a B610-18 on 0.11 Powerline for the point of the island. Both rigs were 2-3 inches over depth. Once again they were both teamed up with a 10 latex elastic.
The all in was called at 10:30 and I shipped out with a kinder pot of maggots to my right sedge and tipped in 5 or 6 maggots and then moved to my left sedge and tipped the rest pf the cup in. I switched between lines for the first hour trying to tempt a proper fish but was constantly getting bitted out by the resident gudgeon and roach! After an hour I finally got a positive bite and put my first F1 in the net, only about a pound but hopefully this would kick start things. I managed to snare another one on the next put in of a similar size and then an Ide of 8oz soon after. Then came my first proper carp, a mirror which would boost my tally to about 4lb. meanwhile Paul Jones on the next peg was catching fish after fish, be it and Ide, a Chub or an F1.
By the time the 4th hour came around I maybe had 6-7 pound in the net, by switching lines I was picking up the very occasional mug fish and giving the roach population a good battering. I decided it was time, ‘’Sh*t or Bust time!’’ I potted in around 150ml of maggot on the point of the island and decided to stick it out here for the rest of the match. After a 20-30 minute wait I got my first fish of many leaving me an hour and a half to catch up! I got into a run of fish be it a small carp, F1 or Ide. Then I had a much welcome boost, my pimple of float, dipped, only slightly, but my eagerness saw me lift into what felt like a good fish, after a long tussle I managed to get the fish to the surface, arse first! This was a good fish, especially for Maple. I only had my small pan net today as usually the fish tend to get lost in my bigger nets! I managed to finally net the fish by kneeling on my footplate at full stretch with the landing net, the fish was that much bigger than my net that I actually didn’t net it but balance it onto of the frame and slid it across the surface until I got it to my feet and it eventually sunk into the net, double in half! It was a much welcomed boost at around 7lb and had completely worn me out! Next time I’ll perhaps set up a big landing net too, just in case ;)
The all in was called ‘fish on’, everyone looked over as I swung in a 2 oz roach! I quickly packed up before having to weigh in. Dennis and Paul witnessed my weigh, 27lb 4oz, not far off my target so I was pretty pleased, and for the minute I was winning the match! Paul Jones then left me ruing my poor start by weighing in just over 40lb, next was Dennis who put 27lb 10oz on the scales. I could have been annoyed but to come within 6oz of Dennis was pretty good as he’s a very good angler. Howard didn’t bother weighing in and next up was Tony Koz who managed 42lb 12oz odd to take the section, Bri Gascoigne on 31 managed 25lb odd so overall I’d done ok. There were a few 40’s and plenty more 20-30lbs so the fishing is slowly picking up again! Honest John did it again from peg 66 with nearly 50lb and put some more money towards his new front teeth fund! ;)
Stu and Tony Koz split third prize as they both had 42lb 12oz which meant they won less than if they’d have won there section!
Well with a week off before our final club match I’m jumping in at the deep end by the fishing the Open on Cedar next Saturday! Let’s hope I snare a few!
Monday 6 October 2008
October 5th - The Oaks, Maple
This is a photo I took in around June time whilst on a microlight flight. This is the Oaks complex to those of you who don't know. Looks a bit different from the air I must say!
Well this week saw me return to the Oaks to fish Maple again. Gordon picked me up at 7:45 and we arrived up at the Oaks at about twenty past eight, we thought it rude to not have a breakfast so quickly got in the queue. I had another new tactic today, I’d decided to leave the method feeder at home this week, its tailed off over the last 2-3 weeks and hasn’t been producing as well as it had been and with a fair bit of a rain and a dramatic drop in temperature over the last week it was a definite no go. My new tactic today was maggots, maggots and more maggots! I know a lot of the regulars have been catching well on Cedar with maggot for the last few months and after speaking to one of them on the Oaks Banter site it was decided my best line of attack would be to fish maggot on one line all day and make it work! I did have a plan B though which I could try in the last hour if I was struggling but hopefully I wouldn’t need to use this. I’ve also decided to set my self a personal target for each match, that way I can be pleased with my performance even if I get battered. Today’s target was 30lb, this would be tough to achieve on somewhere that hasn’t been fishing all that well but I thought It was achievable and also thought it might get me in the money.
There was 37 booked on today with a few guests and a few of the lads from the Otley club that had gone to White acres with us. We had the whole lake today so we would have a bit of room. I drew peg 30, not a bad draw, there’s certainly worse. Peg 30 is on a corner with a small overhanging willow in the margins which looks very appealing but I was going to ignore it today. My one line tactic was to be across to the island in 2.5-3ft of water on the shelf, this ended up being to my right at 1 o’ clock in line with another small tree on the far bank.
Rig wise I had a couple set up, still both for the same line. I had a Malman Cedar float in 4x10 on 0.12 Ultima to a 6 inch hooklength of 0.10 Powerline to a size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet hook. This rig was for fishing on the drop or at least to give the bait a slower fall and would be back up to my main rig which was the same but with a 4x12 float with 0.12 Ultima straight through to a size 16 Gamakatsu Pellet Hook. Both of these rigs were attached to some match kits incorporating a soft size 10 Maver latex elastic teamed with pull bungs. My plan B rig was a 0.4g BGT shallow long float for fishing at 10.5m at the bottom of the shelf, this was on 0.13 straight through to a 16s PR36. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to use it but if I did I had a tin of cubed meat at the ready dusted in green Swim Stim.
Weather wise it wasn’t too bad for a change, the sun was out for the whole day all be it cold enough to need jumpers and fleeces on. Wind was minimal with the odd gust very rarely but on the whole the lake was very still.
Gordon’s hooter went off at 10:15 (another typical late draw) and the match was underway, I went out with a 250ml cup half full of maggots and tipped them in, spreading them about a little bit as to not concentrate the fish too tightly. I then went out with the positive straight through rig, double red on the hook and dragged it up the slight slope; I was fishing 3 inches over depth to ensure the bait was always on bottom with the undulating depth; this would also pin the bait down and keep it more static. The first half an hour went by without so much of a nudge on the float where as Jim on peg 31 had had a couple of gudgeon and a small F1, the bloke to my left on peg 28 had a carp first put in but I don’t think it was a big one. I hadn’t put any more bait in during this half an hour as I didn’t want to overfeed and so after a motionless first 30 minutes I switched to the lighter rig again with double maggot but this time cupped in a dozen maggots as I laid the rig in. The float was held up for a second, I struck but nothing. I laid the rig in again; the bait this time had time to reach the deck before a subtle lift that forced the top of the body out of the water, this was met with a gentle lift and the first fish was on, a gudgeon but at least it was a start, I caught a couple more gonks before I had my first better fish, an Ide of about 6oz. After I had this Ide I switched to the more positive rig as I felt the 4x10 rig wasn’t getting to the bottom quick enough (even when I grouped the shot 8 inches away from the hook). The 4x12 rig was laid in and some more maggots cupped in over the top. The float lifted again and Ide number 2 was in the net. This carried on until I had 5 Ide in the net until I lifted into something that felt a lot better, after a short tussle on the ‘’light’’ elastic I stretched the top kit in the air and slid the net under a Barbel of about a pound, hooked in its side! I then went back out and another better fish, a tench of maybe 12oz was soon in the keepnet. Then after my first small F1 of the day it went quiet for 20 minutes so I big potted another 125ml of maggot in on the same line. This worked a treat and I soon put another 3 better F1s in the net.
I think there is a definite advantage to fishing one swim all day and making it work as throughout the day you’re always aware of what’s going on in the swim. I usually have half a dozen different swims and to be fair I can’t keep up with them all. Or as Mick Bandy would say, ‘’I’ve got more lines going than Pete Doherty’’.
Quarter past one soon arrived to mark the half way point (we have 6 hour matches) and I estimate I had 14lb in the keepnet so I was just about on course to my 30lb target. I hooked a decent fish which I’m saying was foul hooked and subsequently the hook pulled! D’oh! (Or at least words to that affect). For the rest of the match I would catch half a dozen fish, Ide and F1’s, and then have a quiet 20 minutes, a big kinder pot of maggots would switch them back on for another 5 or six fish. If I big kindered any sooner than 20 minutes then I would still have to weight so decided every 20 minutes to introduce a bit more feed unless I was catching and then I would simply feed a dozen maggots after every fish.
Honest John snared a lump of about 6lb and had a few other better carp but by the end of the match he only admitted to 15lb although I thought he had a lot more than that. The pegs either side (28 and 31) both tipped back where as I was confessing to 25lb but thought I may have 30lb at a push.
A quick pack away and I managed to join the weigh in at Tony Minikin who had 50lb odd to take the lead from peg 11 I think (the first one on the straight just after the corner). I watched a few more weighs and it had a fished a bit better than normal with a few 20lbs and then Bri Clay who was a guest from the Otley Club dragged his net which had over 60lb of fish in it. The only problem here being that as a club and the fishery we have a 50lb per net rule, you can use two nets and have 60lb in one and 10lb in another but with only one net in you can only have 50lb. Bri plonked his on the scales and it kept going round until the scales bottomed out at 50lb. This meant his weight was capped to 50lb and his fish didn’t even get weighed. Perhaps a bit harsh to a guest but rules are rules and others were capped a few weeks back so it would have caused far too many arguments if this one had slipped through the net, no pun intended.
There were no real weights in my section and when we got round to my peg I was shocked when lifting my net out as I perhaps had a bit more than I had estimated! I plonked 36lb 4oz the scales which would take the section depending on what Honest John had. John was being honest, nearly, and put 20lb on the scales so I had won my section.
There were no real massive weights on the rest of the lake, Nige had 18 odd and Gordon had a similar amount. Martin Dodsworth did manage to put 46lb on the scales which turned out to be good enough for fourth.
Back to Caf for a chip butty and a cuppa and also to claim my second envelope of the year. Tony Minikin won the match and Stu also won his section. The open on Cedar had fished terrible with 49lb winning, Ian Bailey had 36lb and Robbie only managed 32lb so it must have been hard. I just hope they don’t decide to come on the club matches instead!
So to conclude, my one line attack worked a treat and with a second pick up of the year I can’t grumble. At the start of the year I didn’t expect to come anywhere in any match but now with a section and 2nd under my belt I have the much needed confidence that I have perhaps been lacking. For once I not only had a tactic but a tactic that I’d employed and I’d also made it work! Role on next week when were back on Maple again!
Well this week saw me return to the Oaks to fish Maple again. Gordon picked me up at 7:45 and we arrived up at the Oaks at about twenty past eight, we thought it rude to not have a breakfast so quickly got in the queue. I had another new tactic today, I’d decided to leave the method feeder at home this week, its tailed off over the last 2-3 weeks and hasn’t been producing as well as it had been and with a fair bit of a rain and a dramatic drop in temperature over the last week it was a definite no go. My new tactic today was maggots, maggots and more maggots! I know a lot of the regulars have been catching well on Cedar with maggot for the last few months and after speaking to one of them on the Oaks Banter site it was decided my best line of attack would be to fish maggot on one line all day and make it work! I did have a plan B though which I could try in the last hour if I was struggling but hopefully I wouldn’t need to use this. I’ve also decided to set my self a personal target for each match, that way I can be pleased with my performance even if I get battered. Today’s target was 30lb, this would be tough to achieve on somewhere that hasn’t been fishing all that well but I thought It was achievable and also thought it might get me in the money.There was 37 booked on today with a few guests and a few of the lads from the Otley club that had gone to White acres with us. We had the whole lake today so we would have a bit of room. I drew peg 30, not a bad draw, there’s certainly worse. Peg 30 is on a corner with a small overhanging willow in the margins which looks very appealing but I was going to ignore it today. My one line tactic was to be across to the island in 2.5-3ft of water on the shelf, this ended up being to my right at 1 o’ clock in line with another small tree on the far bank.
Rig wise I had a couple set up, still both for the same line. I had a Malman Cedar float in 4x10 on 0.12 Ultima to a 6 inch hooklength of 0.10 Powerline to a size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet hook. This rig was for fishing on the drop or at least to give the bait a slower fall and would be back up to my main rig which was the same but with a 4x12 float with 0.12 Ultima straight through to a size 16 Gamakatsu Pellet Hook. Both of these rigs were attached to some match kits incorporating a soft size 10 Maver latex elastic teamed with pull bungs. My plan B rig was a 0.4g BGT shallow long float for fishing at 10.5m at the bottom of the shelf, this was on 0.13 straight through to a 16s PR36. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to use it but if I did I had a tin of cubed meat at the ready dusted in green Swim Stim.
Weather wise it wasn’t too bad for a change, the sun was out for the whole day all be it cold enough to need jumpers and fleeces on. Wind was minimal with the odd gust very rarely but on the whole the lake was very still.
Gordon’s hooter went off at 10:15 (another typical late draw) and the match was underway, I went out with a 250ml cup half full of maggots and tipped them in, spreading them about a little bit as to not concentrate the fish too tightly. I then went out with the positive straight through rig, double red on the hook and dragged it up the slight slope; I was fishing 3 inches over depth to ensure the bait was always on bottom with the undulating depth; this would also pin the bait down and keep it more static. The first half an hour went by without so much of a nudge on the float where as Jim on peg 31 had had a couple of gudgeon and a small F1, the bloke to my left on peg 28 had a carp first put in but I don’t think it was a big one. I hadn’t put any more bait in during this half an hour as I didn’t want to overfeed and so after a motionless first 30 minutes I switched to the lighter rig again with double maggot but this time cupped in a dozen maggots as I laid the rig in. The float was held up for a second, I struck but nothing. I laid the rig in again; the bait this time had time to reach the deck before a subtle lift that forced the top of the body out of the water, this was met with a gentle lift and the first fish was on, a gudgeon but at least it was a start, I caught a couple more gonks before I had my first better fish, an Ide of about 6oz. After I had this Ide I switched to the more positive rig as I felt the 4x10 rig wasn’t getting to the bottom quick enough (even when I grouped the shot 8 inches away from the hook). The 4x12 rig was laid in and some more maggots cupped in over the top. The float lifted again and Ide number 2 was in the net. This carried on until I had 5 Ide in the net until I lifted into something that felt a lot better, after a short tussle on the ‘’light’’ elastic I stretched the top kit in the air and slid the net under a Barbel of about a pound, hooked in its side! I then went back out and another better fish, a tench of maybe 12oz was soon in the keepnet. Then after my first small F1 of the day it went quiet for 20 minutes so I big potted another 125ml of maggot in on the same line. This worked a treat and I soon put another 3 better F1s in the net.
I think there is a definite advantage to fishing one swim all day and making it work as throughout the day you’re always aware of what’s going on in the swim. I usually have half a dozen different swims and to be fair I can’t keep up with them all. Or as Mick Bandy would say, ‘’I’ve got more lines going than Pete Doherty’’.
Quarter past one soon arrived to mark the half way point (we have 6 hour matches) and I estimate I had 14lb in the keepnet so I was just about on course to my 30lb target. I hooked a decent fish which I’m saying was foul hooked and subsequently the hook pulled! D’oh! (Or at least words to that affect). For the rest of the match I would catch half a dozen fish, Ide and F1’s, and then have a quiet 20 minutes, a big kinder pot of maggots would switch them back on for another 5 or six fish. If I big kindered any sooner than 20 minutes then I would still have to weight so decided every 20 minutes to introduce a bit more feed unless I was catching and then I would simply feed a dozen maggots after every fish.
Honest John snared a lump of about 6lb and had a few other better carp but by the end of the match he only admitted to 15lb although I thought he had a lot more than that. The pegs either side (28 and 31) both tipped back where as I was confessing to 25lb but thought I may have 30lb at a push.
A quick pack away and I managed to join the weigh in at Tony Minikin who had 50lb odd to take the lead from peg 11 I think (the first one on the straight just after the corner). I watched a few more weighs and it had a fished a bit better than normal with a few 20lbs and then Bri Clay who was a guest from the Otley Club dragged his net which had over 60lb of fish in it. The only problem here being that as a club and the fishery we have a 50lb per net rule, you can use two nets and have 60lb in one and 10lb in another but with only one net in you can only have 50lb. Bri plonked his on the scales and it kept going round until the scales bottomed out at 50lb. This meant his weight was capped to 50lb and his fish didn’t even get weighed. Perhaps a bit harsh to a guest but rules are rules and others were capped a few weeks back so it would have caused far too many arguments if this one had slipped through the net, no pun intended.
There were no real weights in my section and when we got round to my peg I was shocked when lifting my net out as I perhaps had a bit more than I had estimated! I plonked 36lb 4oz the scales which would take the section depending on what Honest John had. John was being honest, nearly, and put 20lb on the scales so I had won my section.
There were no real massive weights on the rest of the lake, Nige had 18 odd and Gordon had a similar amount. Martin Dodsworth did manage to put 46lb on the scales which turned out to be good enough for fourth.
Back to Caf for a chip butty and a cuppa and also to claim my second envelope of the year. Tony Minikin won the match and Stu also won his section. The open on Cedar had fished terrible with 49lb winning, Ian Bailey had 36lb and Robbie only managed 32lb so it must have been hard. I just hope they don’t decide to come on the club matches instead!
So to conclude, my one line attack worked a treat and with a second pick up of the year I can’t grumble. At the start of the year I didn’t expect to come anywhere in any match but now with a section and 2nd under my belt I have the much needed confidence that I have perhaps been lacking. For once I not only had a tactic but a tactic that I’d employed and I’d also made it work! Role on next week when were back on Maple again!
Tuesday 30 September 2008
September 28th Alders
I had a week off last week as our club match was at Brafferton who have reportedly had a fish kill and its fishing pants so I decided not to bother. The week before I was on Maple and tipped back about 10lb! God knows why everywhere is fishing so poorly at the moment? I still manage to prop everyone else up every match so it’s alright for them!
This week I was to return to Alders up at the Oaks, I had a club match up here in May and also fished the Northern Intersite here where I came last in section from peg 24.
Anyway I arrived at the venue at half past eight, got my sandwich and a cuppa and sat down to watch Match of the day, first bite into my sandwich and the yolk exploded over my lap! ‘That’ll make a mark,’’ at least it’s yellow so It can’t be mistaken for anything else!
Then to the draw, my ‘’lucky’’ left hand delved in and out came……you’ve guessed it, peg 24! My left nor my right hand have given me a decent draw this year, perhaps I’ll use my feet next time, or re-enact apple bobbing in future.
With a grueller in prospect I drove right to my peg, got out the car and had a quick look at the water in front and had a think about the days attack. Whilst pondering I got shat on, literally, by a seagull, thanks for that. Although they say it’s meant to be lucky I kept it quiet as I had Mick Bandy on peg 23 and I wouldn’t have heard the end of it for the next 6 hours! I had a spare peg on 25 and then Pete Whale on 26 otherwise known as the Garlic Kid.
Now as I’ve mentioned before this top end isn’t brilliant due to it not getting as much sun as the rest of the lake, especially pegs 20, 21 and 22. So when Brian ‘’Tupper’’ Ware drew peg 20 he was absolutely fuming as he’d pegged the match and left this one out! Oops, it was amusing for us though to see him marching up and down the bank muttering to him self!
Seeing as I did so poorly last time, I decided to solely fish for carp today and go all or bust. I spoke to Ian Bailey after the last match and he said it was more of a carp peg due to it being fairly shallow up that end, around 4ft and that the Ide prefer a bit more depth. So with this in mind I set up a Pellet feeder to fish to the island which was about 18m away then have a meat line on the pole at 14m and a line to the edge of the bush on my left.
My pellet feeder rig was 0.20 Ultima on my Shimano Catana 3000 reel, a 9ft Silstar Bomb rod (which to be honest has seen better days!), I used a Dinsmore paste feeder and a had a short 4inch hooklength of 0.17 Powerline, a size 16 B911 and a hair rigged band completed the set up.
Pole lines I had a 4x14 Preston PB14 for meat at 14m on 0.15 straight through to a 16s B911, I had a shallow rig set up for over the top of this line. I also set up a 0.4g BGT Shallow Long float for a bush to my left.
Bait wise I’d kept it very simple, soaked micros for the feeder and hard 4mm pellets for the band and then two tins of 6mm meat.
At the all in I cupped in a 100ml pot of meat on the 14m line and then cast the feeder out. For the first half an hour I stuck to the feeder in hope that a couple of fish would be on the meat line. With no indications whatsoever after 30 minutes I switched to the meat line. I Shipped out and dropped a couple of bits over the top, lifting dragging, twitching, laying the rig in brought me nothing at all. I stuck with this for an hour trying to make it work, I started spraying a couple of bits of meat over the top in hope that the fish might no be feeding on the bottom but still no luck.
Bandy on 23 was catching a few bits and had also had a 4lb carp to boost his weight, Pete was catching Ide quite steadily but they were only small fish. I decided to go back on the feeder, a decision which paid off, I cast tight to the far bank and after 5 a five minute weight my tipped was bouncing off the keepnet and I was into my first fish. I soon slipped the net under a small F1 of about a pound. Next cast resulted in sharp take no sooner than the feeder had touched bottom, this time I knew it was a better fish, I was right and added a 4lb mirror to the keepnet. I stuck to this line for a couple of hours but you’d catch a couple of fish and then have to weight half an hour. I managed 4 carp and 4 F1’s for somewhere between 15 and 20lb. Bandy and Pete were still catching small fish one a chuck with the occasional bigger Ide.
With an hour to go I decided to try up in the water on the meat line as I’d now been spraying a couple of bits of meat over it for a good couple of hours and thought there might be one or two competing but not so much as sniff. I finished the last half hour dumping a pot of meat down to the left just off the end of the bush and sat it out in hope that a big carp might swim past and fancy a feast! Gordon’s hooter signalled time and although I’d still not bagged I’d definitely done better than the last time I visited the peg!
At the weigh in 40lb was winning and I knew I had no where near that, Brian of peg 20 had 21lb odd despite all his whinging, Bandy weighed 17lb odd, next was me, I put 19lb 12 on the scales before The Garlic Kid put 28lb of Ide on, maybe some of fish weren’t tiddlers after all!
Once again John Livesey put on a fine display with 19lb of carp and 30lb of Ide from the late 30’s for another match win with 49lb. Well done to John who can perhaps put his winnings towards some new front teeth, although Christmas isn’t that far away….
Next week I’m back on Maple which I’ve done terribly on despite thinking before the matches started that I could hopefully do well on due to fishing it quite regularly on an evening. I’ve been messaging one of the regulars up at the Oaks on the Oaks Banter website over the past few weeks so hopefully I can have a better days fishing after putting in a fair bit of homework. If not then there are only 3 matches in total on Maple now which will finish our season, then I can maybe fish one or two opens in order to hopefully learn a bit more before next season kicks off.
Tuesday 9 September 2008
Oak Tree Leisure, Pond 1 - Sept 7th
Well, after a week off the Club matches we were back this weekend at Oak Tree Leisure on Pond 1 again. I’ve had mixed results here this year, the first match I blanked and the last match we had there I came 2nd with 42lb 8oz. Overall this year the pond has fished, well, crap! I’ve also heard through the grapevine that the owners have been transferring fish from this lake to the other lakes, whether it’s true or not I don’t know but it would explain such low winning weights from a venue that last year you needed over 100lb to win.
Anyway on the Saturday I prepared my bait and checked I had some adequate rigs. My plan was to fish pellet to the island, have a couple of margin rigs and a rig for down the middle that I’d try a bit of paste. Above all else I had decided that my main priority would be to land every fish I hooked as I knew it would be a hard match and one fish could decide whether you frame or not with the average stamp being about 3lb.
I arrived at the venue at about ten to nine for a 9am draw due to a lot of the roads being either closed or flooded; luckily the draw didn’t happen until the usual quarter past so I still had time for a butty and to load up the barra.
My hand went into the bag and I pulled out peg 38, this doesn’t really mean a lot to me as I’ve only ever fished here 3 times. I knew roughly where it was and so headed towards the far corner on the nearside bank. My peg was 2 or 3 up from the corner and due to the venues recent form there was only 19 fishing on a 50 peg lake so I had a couple of spare pegs to either side. I had an aerator to my left in front of peg 39 and the island was about 14-15m away. I had no real feature in the margins apart from the spare platforms. My platform was also under 6'' of water too so it was a case of get all the splashing out of the way and then stay sat for the rest of the day!
Bait for the day I had, well, everything. I had 4 and 6mm expanders and a big bucket of micros for fishing toward the island, three tins of corn for the margins and finally some Green SwimStim paste and some hemp for my middle line which would now be towards the aerator at 8m. I also had some maggots as a change bait for the island.
As far as rigs go I had BGT shallow floats, 0.2g for the far bank and margin lines on 0.17 Powerline, the island rig had a PR36-16 and the margin a size 14. My paste rig had a Preston PB13 4x14 on 0.18 Silk Shock with a Kammy Animal size 12.
There was roughly 2-2.5ft depth on the island shelf and the margin shelf and it was 4-4.5ft next to the aerator where there was quite a large flat spot.
At the all in I cupped in some corn down the margin and planned to feed little and often throughout the duration of the match. I also cupped in a potful of 4mm next to the aerator and then proceeded to go out to the island line with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot full of micros. As expected it wasn’t hectic and I had to wait 20 minutes before getting any sort of indications. I was taking it slow and feeding a potful every 10 minutes or ideally after every fish. I was getting silly line bites so shallowed up six inches but no more bites were forthcoming so I re potted and went back to dead depth. When I finally hooked my first carp after about 35 minutes, I soon got it in, a small mirror of about 3lb. I quickly went back out, inches from the island and hooked another carp, possibly foul hooked as I pulled out and 3 or 4 other fish were spooked and sent waves right down the far bank. Seeing as this had happened quite a lot on previous visits to the lake I decided to rest the swim for ten minutes and let the fish gain a bit of confidence.
I fished the left margin with double corn but no indications; I once again potted some 4mm pellets out to the aerator and then went back to the island. I managed another 3 carp of a similar stamp, 2 on 4mm expander and one on triple maggot. So two hours in and about 12lb in the net. Cooksy had had 5 by this point and lost a couple and I don’t think Howard to my right had had any. I then sat for three hours without a bite, whether I fished the paste line, the margin or the island, Cooksy had also stopped getting any bites and Howard probably had 7 fish in those three hours putting him on for the section.
With the last hour descending upon us I potted three big pots of corn down the margin in a hugely desperate bid to snare a monster. I left it for 15 minutes before dropping my rig. No sooner had the hook bait hit the bottom and my top kit was nearly ripped out of my hands and pointing straight to the middle of the lake, I quickly put on 2 emergency sections and followed it before getting it under control and shipping back to the top kit.
I knew this was a good fish and took my time as I knew this could possibly win me the section, this was a real solid fish as when ever I lifted into it the connector would still just hover over the surface of the water and more elastic would come out. After a ten minute tussle, with no bullying whatsoever it just pulled out, gone! I was hacked off to say the least, after a few choice swear words I was tempted to pack up I was that annoyed, but persevered until the end.
Come the weigh in the whole lake had fish poorly, Howard to my right had 22lb, I weighed 11lb 12oz and Cooksy weighed 18 odd. Next was Alan Whittaker who plonked 46lb on the scales for 1st place, he’d managed a couple of proper lumps to double his weight, Nige was next with 26lb for 2nd place and Gordon put a bigger 18 odd than Cooksy on the scales, much to his delight and Paul’s dismay!
Another poor match at a continually poor venue, next week we’re back at Sessay on Maple which also hasn’t been fishing well of late, for me at least, I’ll be hoping for a kind draw and hopefully the fish will be a bit hungrier than last time! Although I imagine the persistent rain might ‘dampen’ (excuse the pun) proceedings.
Anyway on the Saturday I prepared my bait and checked I had some adequate rigs. My plan was to fish pellet to the island, have a couple of margin rigs and a rig for down the middle that I’d try a bit of paste. Above all else I had decided that my main priority would be to land every fish I hooked as I knew it would be a hard match and one fish could decide whether you frame or not with the average stamp being about 3lb.
I arrived at the venue at about ten to nine for a 9am draw due to a lot of the roads being either closed or flooded; luckily the draw didn’t happen until the usual quarter past so I still had time for a butty and to load up the barra.
My hand went into the bag and I pulled out peg 38, this doesn’t really mean a lot to me as I’ve only ever fished here 3 times. I knew roughly where it was and so headed towards the far corner on the nearside bank. My peg was 2 or 3 up from the corner and due to the venues recent form there was only 19 fishing on a 50 peg lake so I had a couple of spare pegs to either side. I had an aerator to my left in front of peg 39 and the island was about 14-15m away. I had no real feature in the margins apart from the spare platforms. My platform was also under 6'' of water too so it was a case of get all the splashing out of the way and then stay sat for the rest of the day!
Bait for the day I had, well, everything. I had 4 and 6mm expanders and a big bucket of micros for fishing toward the island, three tins of corn for the margins and finally some Green SwimStim paste and some hemp for my middle line which would now be towards the aerator at 8m. I also had some maggots as a change bait for the island.
As far as rigs go I had BGT shallow floats, 0.2g for the far bank and margin lines on 0.17 Powerline, the island rig had a PR36-16 and the margin a size 14. My paste rig had a Preston PB13 4x14 on 0.18 Silk Shock with a Kammy Animal size 12.
There was roughly 2-2.5ft depth on the island shelf and the margin shelf and it was 4-4.5ft next to the aerator where there was quite a large flat spot.
At the all in I cupped in some corn down the margin and planned to feed little and often throughout the duration of the match. I also cupped in a potful of 4mm next to the aerator and then proceeded to go out to the island line with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot full of micros. As expected it wasn’t hectic and I had to wait 20 minutes before getting any sort of indications. I was taking it slow and feeding a potful every 10 minutes or ideally after every fish. I was getting silly line bites so shallowed up six inches but no more bites were forthcoming so I re potted and went back to dead depth. When I finally hooked my first carp after about 35 minutes, I soon got it in, a small mirror of about 3lb. I quickly went back out, inches from the island and hooked another carp, possibly foul hooked as I pulled out and 3 or 4 other fish were spooked and sent waves right down the far bank. Seeing as this had happened quite a lot on previous visits to the lake I decided to rest the swim for ten minutes and let the fish gain a bit of confidence.
I fished the left margin with double corn but no indications; I once again potted some 4mm pellets out to the aerator and then went back to the island. I managed another 3 carp of a similar stamp, 2 on 4mm expander and one on triple maggot. So two hours in and about 12lb in the net. Cooksy had had 5 by this point and lost a couple and I don’t think Howard to my right had had any. I then sat for three hours without a bite, whether I fished the paste line, the margin or the island, Cooksy had also stopped getting any bites and Howard probably had 7 fish in those three hours putting him on for the section.
With the last hour descending upon us I potted three big pots of corn down the margin in a hugely desperate bid to snare a monster. I left it for 15 minutes before dropping my rig. No sooner had the hook bait hit the bottom and my top kit was nearly ripped out of my hands and pointing straight to the middle of the lake, I quickly put on 2 emergency sections and followed it before getting it under control and shipping back to the top kit.
I knew this was a good fish and took my time as I knew this could possibly win me the section, this was a real solid fish as when ever I lifted into it the connector would still just hover over the surface of the water and more elastic would come out. After a ten minute tussle, with no bullying whatsoever it just pulled out, gone! I was hacked off to say the least, after a few choice swear words I was tempted to pack up I was that annoyed, but persevered until the end.
Come the weigh in the whole lake had fish poorly, Howard to my right had 22lb, I weighed 11lb 12oz and Cooksy weighed 18 odd. Next was Alan Whittaker who plonked 46lb on the scales for 1st place, he’d managed a couple of proper lumps to double his weight, Nige was next with 26lb for 2nd place and Gordon put a bigger 18 odd than Cooksy on the scales, much to his delight and Paul’s dismay!
Another poor match at a continually poor venue, next week we’re back at Sessay on Maple which also hasn’t been fishing well of late, for me at least, I’ll be hoping for a kind draw and hopefully the fish will be a bit hungrier than last time! Although I imagine the persistent rain might ‘dampen’ (excuse the pun) proceedings.
Tuesday 2 September 2008
Carpvale, Maple and Woodlands Pairs
Over the past few weeks I’ve been a little busy so that’s why I’ve not updated. I've got three matches to fill in but unfortunately I can only skim through the details of each match otherwise I’d never catch up!
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve fished two club matches and a pairs open:
August 17th – Carpvale – Cyprio + Matchpool
August 24th – Sessay – Maple
August 25th – Woodlands Pairs Match
Right, so Carp Vale, I managed to draw on Cyprio again on peg 9, I’ve always fancied this bay and it was ideally where I wanted to be, perfect! Or not! I like these pegs because you’ve got so much water to go at, it’s a good 40 yard plus chuck to the island where I had a tempting little lily bed. I had a bush on both sides in the margins and then a vast expanse of water out in front.
I started off with fishing the method to the island for the first hour after I’d potted some feed down on the margins and a 13m line. I realised when fishing on the tip how terrible my casting is, I seriously need to fish the rod more often, a lot of the venues I fish it isn’t called for so when you get somewhere like Carp Vale I definitely felt out of practice.
The first hour passed and no knocks or indications so I went down the left margin. First put in I hooked a nice little mirror of about a pound and a half. Next put in, before I had time to strike my float was 3ft below the surface tangle around the root system of the bush! With the bush being so close it was hard to pull for a break, in the end I decided the safest way was to keep the tip under the surface of the water and pull the bung out and keep pulling until it gave way! Now with 0.18 straight through it took some pulling I can tell you!
I then went out to the 13m line with a blob of paste, once again first put in the float slid away, this time though there was no real fight just a dead weight, I slowly shipped back dragging the dead weight to eventually see a colossal Bream grace my net, it only just fit in my landing net and must have been all of six and half pound! Easily my biggest Bream to date. Any way back out on the paste line and no more bites.
By this time I was getting a little bored so I decided to go back out on the tip and feed a shallow line over my paste line, I constantly dripped in 6mm pellets for an hour, then I started to see the odd swirl so out went the shallow rig. I was wind milling the rig and still firing pellets out and managed to finally hook a carp after about 15minutes, it was a good fish however when I hooked it every other fish in the swim got spooked and swirled on the top before buggaring off for the rest of the match! I got the fish in though, a big common about 9lb so a healthy boost to my other 2 fish but it definitely wasn’t enough and it meant another poor match for me, I must be due a good day soon enough!
Anyway my 3 fish weighed 16lb on the dot; Steve Hodson had one fish that weighed 17.5lb so even one of his fish was better than my tally!
I didn’t stick about for the final weigh in and results although I think Honest John may have been up there as he 70 odd pound.
The match up at Sessay was another dire affair, I weighed in 9lb 12oz, a lot of people DNW’d and it was won by Mick Atkinson on his favourite peg with 51lb. I’d been up for a couple of practices a couple of weeks before and done atrociously so sought the advice of one of the regulars and fished method feeder for the match with the correct set up and correct bait and still couldn’t muster up a weight! Not to worry.
After the poor result at Sessay Gordon and I were fishing the pairs match up at Woodlands so hopefully we’d both catch a few fish!
After a coin toss we decided Gordon was on the good lakes (Skylark and Partridge) where as I had the least favourable draw or Curlew, Wagtail or Kestrel.
Gordon ended up on Skylark 20 and I was to be on Curlew 8, Nige told me that my peg had the potential to be a match winner today so no pressure then! In fairness I never expected to win nor even frame as I’m a newbie up at Woodlands and a lot of the other guys know the place inside out.
Anyway I ended up with 52lb 6oz and Gordon weighed 24lb, so we weren’t even close, the match was individually won off the peg to my right with 140lb, oops, what was I playing at then?
It was won by Darrell Taylor and Adam Richards who had 87lb and 107lb respectively (I think???).
Anyway pleasure fishing for a week and then back to Huby where I picked up my first and only brown envelope of the year however its still fishing poorly so I’m not hoping for a weigh day!
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve fished two club matches and a pairs open:
August 17th – Carpvale – Cyprio + Matchpool
August 24th – Sessay – Maple
August 25th – Woodlands Pairs Match
Right, so Carp Vale, I managed to draw on Cyprio again on peg 9, I’ve always fancied this bay and it was ideally where I wanted to be, perfect! Or not! I like these pegs because you’ve got so much water to go at, it’s a good 40 yard plus chuck to the island where I had a tempting little lily bed. I had a bush on both sides in the margins and then a vast expanse of water out in front.
I started off with fishing the method to the island for the first hour after I’d potted some feed down on the margins and a 13m line. I realised when fishing on the tip how terrible my casting is, I seriously need to fish the rod more often, a lot of the venues I fish it isn’t called for so when you get somewhere like Carp Vale I definitely felt out of practice.
The first hour passed and no knocks or indications so I went down the left margin. First put in I hooked a nice little mirror of about a pound and a half. Next put in, before I had time to strike my float was 3ft below the surface tangle around the root system of the bush! With the bush being so close it was hard to pull for a break, in the end I decided the safest way was to keep the tip under the surface of the water and pull the bung out and keep pulling until it gave way! Now with 0.18 straight through it took some pulling I can tell you!
I then went out to the 13m line with a blob of paste, once again first put in the float slid away, this time though there was no real fight just a dead weight, I slowly shipped back dragging the dead weight to eventually see a colossal Bream grace my net, it only just fit in my landing net and must have been all of six and half pound! Easily my biggest Bream to date. Any way back out on the paste line and no more bites.
By this time I was getting a little bored so I decided to go back out on the tip and feed a shallow line over my paste line, I constantly dripped in 6mm pellets for an hour, then I started to see the odd swirl so out went the shallow rig. I was wind milling the rig and still firing pellets out and managed to finally hook a carp after about 15minutes, it was a good fish however when I hooked it every other fish in the swim got spooked and swirled on the top before buggaring off for the rest of the match! I got the fish in though, a big common about 9lb so a healthy boost to my other 2 fish but it definitely wasn’t enough and it meant another poor match for me, I must be due a good day soon enough!
Anyway my 3 fish weighed 16lb on the dot; Steve Hodson had one fish that weighed 17.5lb so even one of his fish was better than my tally!
I didn’t stick about for the final weigh in and results although I think Honest John may have been up there as he 70 odd pound.
The match up at Sessay was another dire affair, I weighed in 9lb 12oz, a lot of people DNW’d and it was won by Mick Atkinson on his favourite peg with 51lb. I’d been up for a couple of practices a couple of weeks before and done atrociously so sought the advice of one of the regulars and fished method feeder for the match with the correct set up and correct bait and still couldn’t muster up a weight! Not to worry.
After the poor result at Sessay Gordon and I were fishing the pairs match up at Woodlands so hopefully we’d both catch a few fish!
After a coin toss we decided Gordon was on the good lakes (Skylark and Partridge) where as I had the least favourable draw or Curlew, Wagtail or Kestrel.
Gordon ended up on Skylark 20 and I was to be on Curlew 8, Nige told me that my peg had the potential to be a match winner today so no pressure then! In fairness I never expected to win nor even frame as I’m a newbie up at Woodlands and a lot of the other guys know the place inside out.
Anyway I ended up with 52lb 6oz and Gordon weighed 24lb, so we weren’t even close, the match was individually won off the peg to my right with 140lb, oops, what was I playing at then?
It was won by Darrell Taylor and Adam Richards who had 87lb and 107lb respectively (I think???).
Anyway pleasure fishing for a week and then back to Huby where I picked up my first and only brown envelope of the year however its still fishing poorly so I’m not hoping for a weigh day!
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Woodlands Open August 10th
Initially I was booked onto the Starbeck club match as a reserve but at five past seven on Sunday morning Nige rang me to say someone had dropped out and that I could get on. Bonus! My plan was to turn up and fish the open if I couldn’t get on but thankfully I’d made it onto the match, or had I!? Somehow Nige had made a mistake and already had one too many booked on the match before I arrived. Not to worry though, Nige sorted me out and I was fishing the open which was to be held over two of the lakes, Kestrel and Skylark. Ideally I wanted to be on Skylark as it is supposedly a much better lake than Kestrel. I’ve also fished Kestrel before and not done very well as you may have already read!
With the draw not until 10am I sat around and had a think of what tactics to employ. The draw finally came around and I was to be on Kestrel 8, brilliant! Or not! I gave Nige a ring to get filled in on how best to approach it and he said ‘big fish down the edge and fish a pellet line at 13m and after every 3 or so fish chuck the bomb over the same line and fire a load more bait in!’’ Easy I thought!
I already had the bomb rod set up with 0.20 Ultima mainline to an 0.17 Powerline trace (12’’long) with a PR36 size 16; I also employed a hair rigged band in the set up.
I plumbed both margins and only found a deviation of a couple of inches so the one rig would do for both lines with a bit of alteration in between. The margin rigs were on 0.18 silk shock straight through to a PR36 size 14. As for the float, it was once again one of my trusty BGT shallow floats 0.2g. Elastic was 16 latex.
I also set up a line at 13m for on the deck, this was the same line and hook as the above rig but with a hair rigged band. Float was a Preston PB13 4x14. Elastic was 14 latex.
Finally I had a shallow rig to go over the 13m line just in case.
Bait for the day in accordance with the limits were: 2pints 6mm feed pellets, ½ pint of 6mm expanders, ½ pint 8mm hard pellets for the band and 3 pints of meat for the margin.
The hooter sounded at 11am to signal the all in, I quickly potted in either margin with a big pot of meat, then out to 13m with a potful of pellets. My plan was then to try and snare a fish or two down the edge before moving onto the 13m line. I tried for 10 minutes on either side without a sniff, not even a liner. So I decided it was time for the 13m line.
Whilst fishing the margins the weather had changed for the worse! The wind had picked up so that even presenting a bait at 2m was difficult let alone 13m and the rain was hammering down! This is how it remained for the rest of the match, lovely! Although we should be used to it by now!
For the rest of the match I was forced to fish the bomb on the 13m line as this was the only method I could present properly. I managed to snare quite a few fish and ended up with 34lb 12oz. once again I couldn’t snare any of the monsters from the margins to bump up my score but that’s how it goes. After the match I spoke to a few people who kindly informed me that meat doesn’t work at Woodlands, so maybe that’s why I can’t get them from the margins then if I’m feeding meat! D’oh! The bloke to my left on peg 6 battered me with 96lb yet the bloke to my right on peg 10, who is a regular up at Woodlands only managed 46lb so I didn’t feel too bad although I knew I could have done better!
The club match was won with 113lb by Vince and Pete Whale came 2nd with 111lb, so some very good weights, there were also a lot of backing weights around 60-70lb mark.
With the draw not until 10am I sat around and had a think of what tactics to employ. The draw finally came around and I was to be on Kestrel 8, brilliant! Or not! I gave Nige a ring to get filled in on how best to approach it and he said ‘big fish down the edge and fish a pellet line at 13m and after every 3 or so fish chuck the bomb over the same line and fire a load more bait in!’’ Easy I thought!
I already had the bomb rod set up with 0.20 Ultima mainline to an 0.17 Powerline trace (12’’long) with a PR36 size 16; I also employed a hair rigged band in the set up.
I plumbed both margins and only found a deviation of a couple of inches so the one rig would do for both lines with a bit of alteration in between. The margin rigs were on 0.18 silk shock straight through to a PR36 size 14. As for the float, it was once again one of my trusty BGT shallow floats 0.2g. Elastic was 16 latex.
I also set up a line at 13m for on the deck, this was the same line and hook as the above rig but with a hair rigged band. Float was a Preston PB13 4x14. Elastic was 14 latex.
Finally I had a shallow rig to go over the 13m line just in case.
Bait for the day in accordance with the limits were: 2pints 6mm feed pellets, ½ pint of 6mm expanders, ½ pint 8mm hard pellets for the band and 3 pints of meat for the margin.
The hooter sounded at 11am to signal the all in, I quickly potted in either margin with a big pot of meat, then out to 13m with a potful of pellets. My plan was then to try and snare a fish or two down the edge before moving onto the 13m line. I tried for 10 minutes on either side without a sniff, not even a liner. So I decided it was time for the 13m line.
Whilst fishing the margins the weather had changed for the worse! The wind had picked up so that even presenting a bait at 2m was difficult let alone 13m and the rain was hammering down! This is how it remained for the rest of the match, lovely! Although we should be used to it by now!
For the rest of the match I was forced to fish the bomb on the 13m line as this was the only method I could present properly. I managed to snare quite a few fish and ended up with 34lb 12oz. once again I couldn’t snare any of the monsters from the margins to bump up my score but that’s how it goes. After the match I spoke to a few people who kindly informed me that meat doesn’t work at Woodlands, so maybe that’s why I can’t get them from the margins then if I’m feeding meat! D’oh! The bloke to my left on peg 6 battered me with 96lb yet the bloke to my right on peg 10, who is a regular up at Woodlands only managed 46lb so I didn’t feel too bad although I knew I could have done better!
The club match was won with 113lb by Vince and Pete Whale came 2nd with 111lb, so some very good weights, there were also a lot of backing weights around 60-70lb mark.
Wednesday 13 August 2008
August 9th – Sessay – Alders – Northern Intersite
I’d book on to fish the Northern Intersite match for www.talkangling.co.uk; we were to be up against 3 other forums, www.maggotdrowning.com, www.totalfishing.com and www.anglingforums.com.
In the weeks running up to the match we’d all been busy collecting as much information as we could about the venue. We had a team plan formulated and hopefully our hard work would see us reap the rewards, bragging rights!
I arrived up at the oaks at about half nine, the draw wasn’t until 10:30 so I had plenty of time for a cuppa and a chat, I bumped into Bri Clay who I’d recently been to White Acres with, so after a brief discussion about all things fishing, I eventually spotted a talk angling t-shirt! I met up with the guys whilst they were walking around the lake and in fairness, there wasn’t an awful lot of activity on the lake, the occasional swirl was all the fish were giving away!
All the captains were rounded up to draw our teams’ pegs, we all then drew our individual pegs from a hat and I was to be on peg 24 for the day. Not where I wanted to be but what can you do? Peg 24 is about 17m to the island and with only 15m of pole this meant my island line would be a bomb and pellet attack.
So, rigs for the day were to be the bomb rod for the island which I already had set up. Then I had two lines at 13m, one at 11 o’ clock for the carp and one at one o’ clock for the Ide.
For the carp line I was to use a Preston PB13 in 4x14, this was on 0.15 Powerline with a size 16 PR36. I also set up a shallow rig to fish over the same line with a Gaz Malman MTD2 0.2g float with the same line and hook but with a hair rigged band.
For the Ide line I used a Preston PB23 0.5g on 0.12 Silk Shock – with a hooklength of 0.11 Powerline to a Gamma Green 18. I also had a shallow rig for the Ide line too; the same as the depth rig but with a Drennan Caster float.
Bait for the day, I had 3 pints of casters for the Ide, some micro’s, 4mm hard pellets and also some 4 and 6mm expanders. I also had a little bit of meat to use as an alternative to pellet on the bomb.
At the all In I cupped in a 150ml pot of casters on the Ide line and the same amount of micros and 4mm pellets on the carp line. My plan was then to fish the bomb for the first hour whilst continually spraying the respective baits over the 13m lines to try to get the fish shallow.
I’d clipped up to the island and as long as I held the rod perfectly upright after casting the bomb would splash down within half a yard of the island. This worked well and for once I didn’t snag up on the island for the whole match. I had a banded 4mm pellet and every few minutes I would spray half a dozen 4mm pellets over the top. It became a bit of a juggling act feeding all three lines and having to use two different catapults but I managed to get my head and get on with it. I didn’t have so much as a liner on the bomb for the first 15 minutes so I changed over to double caster to see if there was anything about but still not even a twitch on tip. I stuck to it for 45 minutes though as I wanted my 13m lines to be well primed before I went on to empty them!
Eventually I gave up on the bomb and went out to the Ide line with the full depth rig, I had double caster on the hook. I swung the rig out as the way it had been shotted would hopefully give a nice slow fall through the column of bait. The rig was working as I’d expected and you see each shot register on the bristle, the only thing was the bristle wouldn’t go under from the resistance of a fish! I fished this line for nearly an hour trying to induce a bite but nothing. This was until the float started to slide off sideways, the tip buried and I struck into my first fish of the day, a 2oz roach, at least I hadn’t blanked, therefore I was able to weigh in at the end and at least pick up one point for the team!
At this point the guy to my left hadn’t had anything still but the lad on my right (who was also using his car as a pole roller!) had one carp and a couple of Ide. No-one I could see was bagging so at least I could hopefully make it up.
I decided to leave the Ide line as I’d still being spraying pellets onto the carp line. I shipped out with the depth rig armed with a 4mm expander. Generally I use the tackle shop ‘own brand’ expanders but seeing as I’d run out the past few weeks I’ve been using some Sensas ones that I received when I took a magazine subscription, I’m very impressed with them, they go quite rubbery as long as you don’t leave them too long. I’ll definitely carry on using them as the ‘own brand’ ones can go a bit mushy over the course of a session. First put in I got a liner but ignored it and then BANG! The float shot under and my pole tip slapped the water, carp on, I quickly got it in on the 14 latex and swiftly placed it in the keepnet, it was only just over a pound but hopefully this would get the ball rolling. I shipped back out and the float buried again, get in I thought! It must have been foul hooked as it steamed off and pulled out sending a giant bow wave through my swim, after a few choice words I was shipping out again but to no avail. The swim was devoid of any fish life.
For the rest of the match I swapped between the two pole lines and the bomb but couldn’t tempt a bite. Meanwhile the guy to my left where it gets a bit wider and also a bit deeper was lining the Ide up and the lad on my right was getting a few carp off the island rushes at 16m.
By the time the all out was called I had the lonesome roach and single carp in my net, what a disappointment after all the preparation I’d done.
I weighed in 1lb 7oz for last in section. As a team I think we came joint 3rd, so technically last but it was a good day out even if it did chuck down all day.
Due to the rain two of my sections had got stuck together, now with my old pole, the sections were much shorter so if this happened I could just bung them in the back of the car and usually by the time I got home they’d dried out and would pull apart. However my current pole there isn't a chance they would fit. So I went to the café just before it shut to get some boiling water to pour over the female joint to hopefully make it expand, this didn’t work! In the end it took 4 of us to get it apart, with Woody and I on either end pulling whilst Ian Bailey and another chap rolled and tapped it respectively, thank god t came apart, otherwise I’d still be there now!
Hopefully I’d be able to get on the Starbeck match on the Sunday otherwise I wouldn’t have had a days fishing this weekend!
In the weeks running up to the match we’d all been busy collecting as much information as we could about the venue. We had a team plan formulated and hopefully our hard work would see us reap the rewards, bragging rights!
I arrived up at the oaks at about half nine, the draw wasn’t until 10:30 so I had plenty of time for a cuppa and a chat, I bumped into Bri Clay who I’d recently been to White Acres with, so after a brief discussion about all things fishing, I eventually spotted a talk angling t-shirt! I met up with the guys whilst they were walking around the lake and in fairness, there wasn’t an awful lot of activity on the lake, the occasional swirl was all the fish were giving away!
All the captains were rounded up to draw our teams’ pegs, we all then drew our individual pegs from a hat and I was to be on peg 24 for the day. Not where I wanted to be but what can you do? Peg 24 is about 17m to the island and with only 15m of pole this meant my island line would be a bomb and pellet attack.
So, rigs for the day were to be the bomb rod for the island which I already had set up. Then I had two lines at 13m, one at 11 o’ clock for the carp and one at one o’ clock for the Ide.
For the carp line I was to use a Preston PB13 in 4x14, this was on 0.15 Powerline with a size 16 PR36. I also set up a shallow rig to fish over the same line with a Gaz Malman MTD2 0.2g float with the same line and hook but with a hair rigged band.
For the Ide line I used a Preston PB23 0.5g on 0.12 Silk Shock – with a hooklength of 0.11 Powerline to a Gamma Green 18. I also had a shallow rig for the Ide line too; the same as the depth rig but with a Drennan Caster float.
Bait for the day, I had 3 pints of casters for the Ide, some micro’s, 4mm hard pellets and also some 4 and 6mm expanders. I also had a little bit of meat to use as an alternative to pellet on the bomb.
At the all In I cupped in a 150ml pot of casters on the Ide line and the same amount of micros and 4mm pellets on the carp line. My plan was then to fish the bomb for the first hour whilst continually spraying the respective baits over the 13m lines to try to get the fish shallow.
I’d clipped up to the island and as long as I held the rod perfectly upright after casting the bomb would splash down within half a yard of the island. This worked well and for once I didn’t snag up on the island for the whole match. I had a banded 4mm pellet and every few minutes I would spray half a dozen 4mm pellets over the top. It became a bit of a juggling act feeding all three lines and having to use two different catapults but I managed to get my head and get on with it. I didn’t have so much as a liner on the bomb for the first 15 minutes so I changed over to double caster to see if there was anything about but still not even a twitch on tip. I stuck to it for 45 minutes though as I wanted my 13m lines to be well primed before I went on to empty them!
Eventually I gave up on the bomb and went out to the Ide line with the full depth rig, I had double caster on the hook. I swung the rig out as the way it had been shotted would hopefully give a nice slow fall through the column of bait. The rig was working as I’d expected and you see each shot register on the bristle, the only thing was the bristle wouldn’t go under from the resistance of a fish! I fished this line for nearly an hour trying to induce a bite but nothing. This was until the float started to slide off sideways, the tip buried and I struck into my first fish of the day, a 2oz roach, at least I hadn’t blanked, therefore I was able to weigh in at the end and at least pick up one point for the team!
At this point the guy to my left hadn’t had anything still but the lad on my right (who was also using his car as a pole roller!) had one carp and a couple of Ide. No-one I could see was bagging so at least I could hopefully make it up.
I decided to leave the Ide line as I’d still being spraying pellets onto the carp line. I shipped out with the depth rig armed with a 4mm expander. Generally I use the tackle shop ‘own brand’ expanders but seeing as I’d run out the past few weeks I’ve been using some Sensas ones that I received when I took a magazine subscription, I’m very impressed with them, they go quite rubbery as long as you don’t leave them too long. I’ll definitely carry on using them as the ‘own brand’ ones can go a bit mushy over the course of a session. First put in I got a liner but ignored it and then BANG! The float shot under and my pole tip slapped the water, carp on, I quickly got it in on the 14 latex and swiftly placed it in the keepnet, it was only just over a pound but hopefully this would get the ball rolling. I shipped back out and the float buried again, get in I thought! It must have been foul hooked as it steamed off and pulled out sending a giant bow wave through my swim, after a few choice words I was shipping out again but to no avail. The swim was devoid of any fish life.
For the rest of the match I swapped between the two pole lines and the bomb but couldn’t tempt a bite. Meanwhile the guy to my left where it gets a bit wider and also a bit deeper was lining the Ide up and the lad on my right was getting a few carp off the island rushes at 16m.
By the time the all out was called I had the lonesome roach and single carp in my net, what a disappointment after all the preparation I’d done.
I weighed in 1lb 7oz for last in section. As a team I think we came joint 3rd, so technically last but it was a good day out even if it did chuck down all day.
Due to the rain two of my sections had got stuck together, now with my old pole, the sections were much shorter so if this happened I could just bung them in the back of the car and usually by the time I got home they’d dried out and would pull apart. However my current pole there isn't a chance they would fit. So I went to the café just before it shut to get some boiling water to pour over the female joint to hopefully make it expand, this didn’t work! In the end it took 4 of us to get it apart, with Woody and I on either end pulling whilst Ian Bailey and another chap rolled and tapped it respectively, thank god t came apart, otherwise I’d still be there now!
Hopefully I’d be able to get on the Starbeck match on the Sunday otherwise I wouldn’t have had a days fishing this weekend!
Friday 8 August 2008
Carp Vale - July 6th
Sorry for the late update but for the past two weeks I’ve been on a bit of a road with half a dozen of my mates. We travelled right down the west coast of France experiencing fine breads, cheeses and wine, also some not so fine wine! I fished this match the weekend I got back from Whiteacres. Seeing as we’d fished everyday for the past week I was eager to get back on the bank after a days rest on the Saturday.
I got there at about 8:45 and paid on straight away seeing as I was a little late. I’d not fished Carp Vale since I was in my junior league so it was good to be back as I did well on one match catching a few good carp on the method tight to the island on around peg 8 or 9. Seeing as we’d just got back from Whiteacres I didn’t have any time to tie up any rigs but most of them were on 0.15-0.18 so hopefully I’d still be able to haul some kippers out even though rumours of people being snapped on 0.22 were bounding around!
Since I was last at Carp Vale they’ve divided the big lake into 2, this now comprises of Match Pool and Cyprio. There is also the front pool but I’ve never fished this. We were to be on Cyprio and Frontpool today and to be fair I fancied Cyprio mainly because I’ve fished it before, so when I drew peg 18 out I was pretty chuffed!
I got to my peg and it looked like I’d be in for a nice easy days fishing. I had an island with roots and plenty of vegetation poking out and it was only around 13m away. I set up a rig tight to it comprising of a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.18 with a PR36 size 16. I set up the same rig but with a 0.2g float for the left margin.
Time was called at 10am and I threw a handful of 6mm pellets in the margin, then shipped out to island with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot of 4mm pellets. The float sat motionless for a few minutes and then shot under! The pole nigh on got ripped out of my hands! I managed to haul it in, all 6lb of it. I went back out and caught another of a similar size. The next put out I didn’t get any sort of indication so shipped back in and went out double corn, it worked and I put another 3 carp all of around 4lb in the keepnet. I also managed a tench of about 2lb before my hour of bagging came to a dramatic standstill. At first I was thiniking if I can catch at this rate all match I would be on for a ton! However things didn’t materialise and I didn’t get another bite on the island for the rest of the match.
Midway through the match I saw Ian Bailey sitting on peg 8 I think, he had the majority of his pole in the air with elastic streaming out, he eventually netted what looked like a decent fish and then proceeded to fall in the lake! What was he doing? I think he lost his footing and slipped into the drink. The lad on the next peg helped him out and others gave him a cuppa and some dry clothes to try warm him up a bit.
Stu on the opposite side of my island had managed to hook it and Ian started shouting ‘that’s cheating, you cant pull it closer to you!’ I swear I had to put another section on!
I did manage to hook something that was probably nearer the description of a steam train than a fish down the margins which coincidentally snapped my 0.18 mainline. I put an identical rig on and managed to snare a tench of about 3lb. then that was it, the all out was called and by my predictions I had nearly 30lb, not brilliant but I though I might get a section from it. When the scales came round I managed to put 19lb 8oz on the scales! What?! I think my fish must have joined fat fighters when they were in the keepnet! I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ll be estimating from now on, Paul Cooksy found this amusing as he thought I’d beaten him all match!
Ian Bailey even after going for a swim managed third with 64lb, John ‘Honest John’ Livesey put 75lb 8oz on the scales from peg 68ish for second and Martin (sorry, forgot your surname) managed 87lb 8oz for 1st.
All in all I enjoyed the match but perhaps I’ll have to learn to estimate before my next match.
I’m fishing the Northern Intersite team match for talkangling.co.uk on Saturday. The match is on Alders up at the Oaks so it should be a good match. Then on Sunday I’ve another club match up at Woodlands on Partridge.
Tight elastics………..
I got there at about 8:45 and paid on straight away seeing as I was a little late. I’d not fished Carp Vale since I was in my junior league so it was good to be back as I did well on one match catching a few good carp on the method tight to the island on around peg 8 or 9. Seeing as we’d just got back from Whiteacres I didn’t have any time to tie up any rigs but most of them were on 0.15-0.18 so hopefully I’d still be able to haul some kippers out even though rumours of people being snapped on 0.22 were bounding around!
Since I was last at Carp Vale they’ve divided the big lake into 2, this now comprises of Match Pool and Cyprio. There is also the front pool but I’ve never fished this. We were to be on Cyprio and Frontpool today and to be fair I fancied Cyprio mainly because I’ve fished it before, so when I drew peg 18 out I was pretty chuffed!
I got to my peg and it looked like I’d be in for a nice easy days fishing. I had an island with roots and plenty of vegetation poking out and it was only around 13m away. I set up a rig tight to it comprising of a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.18 with a PR36 size 16. I set up the same rig but with a 0.2g float for the left margin.
Time was called at 10am and I threw a handful of 6mm pellets in the margin, then shipped out to island with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot of 4mm pellets. The float sat motionless for a few minutes and then shot under! The pole nigh on got ripped out of my hands! I managed to haul it in, all 6lb of it. I went back out and caught another of a similar size. The next put out I didn’t get any sort of indication so shipped back in and went out double corn, it worked and I put another 3 carp all of around 4lb in the keepnet. I also managed a tench of about 2lb before my hour of bagging came to a dramatic standstill. At first I was thiniking if I can catch at this rate all match I would be on for a ton! However things didn’t materialise and I didn’t get another bite on the island for the rest of the match.
Midway through the match I saw Ian Bailey sitting on peg 8 I think, he had the majority of his pole in the air with elastic streaming out, he eventually netted what looked like a decent fish and then proceeded to fall in the lake! What was he doing? I think he lost his footing and slipped into the drink. The lad on the next peg helped him out and others gave him a cuppa and some dry clothes to try warm him up a bit.
Stu on the opposite side of my island had managed to hook it and Ian started shouting ‘that’s cheating, you cant pull it closer to you!’ I swear I had to put another section on!
I did manage to hook something that was probably nearer the description of a steam train than a fish down the margins which coincidentally snapped my 0.18 mainline. I put an identical rig on and managed to snare a tench of about 3lb. then that was it, the all out was called and by my predictions I had nearly 30lb, not brilliant but I though I might get a section from it. When the scales came round I managed to put 19lb 8oz on the scales! What?! I think my fish must have joined fat fighters when they were in the keepnet! I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ll be estimating from now on, Paul Cooksy found this amusing as he thought I’d beaten him all match!
Ian Bailey even after going for a swim managed third with 64lb, John ‘Honest John’ Livesey put 75lb 8oz on the scales from peg 68ish for second and Martin (sorry, forgot your surname) managed 87lb 8oz for 1st.
All in all I enjoyed the match but perhaps I’ll have to learn to estimate before my next match.
I’m fishing the Northern Intersite team match for talkangling.co.uk on Saturday. The match is on Alders up at the Oaks so it should be a good match. Then on Sunday I’ve another club match up at Woodlands on Partridge.
Tight elastics………..
Monday 7 July 2008
White Acres 27th June - 4th July
After a meeting at the pub a few days prior it was decided that Gordon, Stu and I would set off at 3am on the Friday morning in order to get there for around dinnertime and do a couple of hours fishing in the afternoon. We packed the van the night before so we were ready to set off with no hiccups in the morning and hopefully we hadn’t left anything behind. We packed the van such that our barra’s were loaded up with our gear one behind each other and we were able to wheel them on and off on Gordies ramp. This turned out to be a godsend as we could pull up somewhere and get fishing without having to load up the trolleys every time! I didn’t get picked up until perhaps 3:20 but we should still get there before dinner. Our first hiccup was when we tried to get onto the A1 at Wetherby, we stopped at a set of temporary red lights at the roundabout for probably 5 minutes before we realised they weren’t working properly, bearing in mind its only 3:30 so the roads are hardly busy! Any way after that we were making good progress until we hit the 50mph average speed check, we were in the inside lane doing bang on 50 when an ASDA lorry started to overtake (perhaps his 50 was different to hours?), the lorry then decided to come back into the inside lane, forgetting we were there, Gordon nigh on stopped to prevent us from being crushed against the barrier, there must have been an inch of room either side, no joke! So with our hearts in our mouths and clenched buttocks we started again and this time made it down to Gordano services where we met the lads from the Otley Club. After a quick chat, mainly about fishing, a cuppa and a sandwich we were back on our way. Approaching White Acres and we only had enough fuel for……0 miles, but Brian in the van in front went past White Acres as we said we would go to Morrisons for a second breakfast, we eventually made it to the pumps, the van coughing and spluttering as we were probably running on the fumes by this point!
After another breakfast we finally made it to White Acres, we picked up the keys and headed down to the tackle shop to pick up our permits for the week and find out about matches. We’d booked some knock up matches between the ten of us so that we only had to pleasure fish 1 days in the week but Gwinear was closed due to disease so we now had to pleasure it 3 days! I don’t hate pleasure fishing but I do prefer a challenge instead of dropping fish straight back in the water.
Our first pleasure session saw us fish on Pollawyn, mainly because it was a short walk and we only needed to entertain ourselves for a couple of hours before the pub opened! Gordon (the Pensioners Pin Up) went on 9, I was on 10 and Stu went on 11. We had a van pool for the week which only counted in matches and basically it was a three way quid, just for a bit of fun. We decided when we were setting up that who ever caught the first carp would be the proud owner of a free pint off the other two. Unbeknown to us the pegs we picked are quite frankly, crap! I managed three bream and a few roach, Stu managed some skimmers and roach, Gordon caught a few roach on 11mm pellet and a Crucian which took the prize by default. In my opinion if a Crucian is classed as a carp then so is a roach, they are both members of the carp family!
So grudgingly Stu and I got Gordon the first couple of pints for the holiday. We drank into the night after an excellent meal at the onsite restaurant and by the end of the night I was pretty drunk and ready for bed! Apparently I’d said I would only stay for a bit longer but would only drink soft drinks, ‘double Jack Daniels and Coke please!’ was my apparent reply, how much truth is behind this is unbeknown to me!
Monday was the Gold Match and it was to be on Trelawney and Nelsons. I wasn’t too sure on where I wanted to be but 19 and 20 Trelawney looked ok with the big reed lined bay and 18 also didn’t look too bad as you could reach the island. So after breakfast we did the draw and I got 18 so I was pretty pleased. Gordon was on 19 so at least we could have chat. I set up a couple of lines on the far bank at 14m, a line to my left margin and a paste line at 7m. At the all in I cupped in some corn and some pellets down the margin and a big pot also went out to 7m for later. I then shipped across to the far side with a 6mm expander and tipped half a kinder pot of 4mm pellets over the top. My float sat motionless for the first half an hour until I started to get the odd liner. I changed to a banded 6mm pellet and started to feed pellets of the same size but could only manage 5 small roach. Strange how back at home you wouldn’t even dream of a roach taking a 6mm hard pellet?! I decided to have a look down into the margin and managed to snare one carp of about 2lb and then a further nothing. I went out on the paste line but as with a lot of the lakes at White Acres the tow is very strong due to the constant aerators so I was finding it hard to present the bait properly. Whilst I was trying to get my paste line going my carp jumped out of the keepnet and back into the lake, could this day get any worse! Well I didn’t catch another fish for the rest of the day and tipped back my 5 roach.
Gordon had fished well and caught a fair few carp from down the margins and put 34lb 5oz on the scales which just beat Otley Dave’s 34lb 4oz. Back up at the pub for the presentation and Stu, Gordon and Otley Rob had all won their sections and Robbie had come 2nd overall off Nelsons 11 with 74lb odd, he fished at 17 to the island all day and because of this borrowed Stu’s Middy arm rest for the rest of the week!
Wednesday and we were back at Mawgan Porth were earlier in the week I’d done my first ton but with only 8 of us on the lake. This time around it was the open with around 20 of us including 3 venue experts including one of them who did an article for match fishing a few months back. Now I don’t want to label people cheats but there is certainly something suspect that the experts can manage to draw the ‘flyer peg’ week after week after week. Rumours were bounding around that the old guy who holds the tub with the pegs in holds the flyer between his fingers and the experts grab that off him instead of from the bucket. Other suggestions were going round that the owner only rings the experts when us newbie’s have booked on so it gives them some pools to play for, if we weren’t there then there would only have been about six of them, some open match! If I ever fish there again it will certainly be on one of our knock ups rather than an open as with more people on the match it also didn’t fish to half its previous capabilities. I drew peg 47 on the island which is meant to be a very good peg and only managed to put 25lb 4oz in the net, the match was won by one of the experts with just over 100lb. We had booked onto another open on the Friday but after the match we all booked off it due to the poor performance.
Thursday saw us all on the Rover match, on the previous night we had walked around the lakes with the lake guide and marked on pegs that we fancied. I fancied either peg 19 on Trelawney or 38 on Pollawyn. Stu was an absolute bag of nerves before the match and couldn’t make his mind up where to fish for the day so when he drew out peg 1, this unsettled him even further. He ended up going on the same peg he drew in gold, peg 23 on Trelawney and he did well getting just over 60lb. I managed number 15 but when I went into the tent I remembered peg 4 on Sycamore and decided to go here, even though the pegs I wanted were still free! What was I thinking! Lesson learnt for next time! By the time I got to my peg I realised there were 4 of us in a line which would make things difficult as I fancied fishing bomb and hard pellet to the island where as the lads either side were both on the pellet waggler so the pellets were flying all over the place all day! I fished another poor match and with an hour and a half to go I packed up and took everyone a cuppa, I’m good like that! Robbie came 2nd again using the same tactics and the same peg from the Rover, this time weighing in 124lb for another 2nd overall and Alan managed 135lb off Eery peg 5, fishing bomb onto the sand bar, so well done to those two. We all told Robbie he should have pulled his finger out as we all wanted a free holiday but he wasn’t biting!
All in all i think we all had a very good week and learnt a lot for the next time we go. Next time ideally we’ll have a match everyday, know what lakes and pegs to fish and take EVEN BIGGER pellets to avoid the roach. Hopefully we’ll have all learnt the lyrics to the Benny Hill song Ernie by then too so we can sing a long with Gordon in the van!
After another breakfast we finally made it to White Acres, we picked up the keys and headed down to the tackle shop to pick up our permits for the week and find out about matches. We’d booked some knock up matches between the ten of us so that we only had to pleasure fish 1 days in the week but Gwinear was closed due to disease so we now had to pleasure it 3 days! I don’t hate pleasure fishing but I do prefer a challenge instead of dropping fish straight back in the water.
Our first pleasure session saw us fish on Pollawyn, mainly because it was a short walk and we only needed to entertain ourselves for a couple of hours before the pub opened! Gordon (the Pensioners Pin Up) went on 9, I was on 10 and Stu went on 11. We had a van pool for the week which only counted in matches and basically it was a three way quid, just for a bit of fun. We decided when we were setting up that who ever caught the first carp would be the proud owner of a free pint off the other two. Unbeknown to us the pegs we picked are quite frankly, crap! I managed three bream and a few roach, Stu managed some skimmers and roach, Gordon caught a few roach on 11mm pellet and a Crucian which took the prize by default. In my opinion if a Crucian is classed as a carp then so is a roach, they are both members of the carp family!
So grudgingly Stu and I got Gordon the first couple of pints for the holiday. We drank into the night after an excellent meal at the onsite restaurant and by the end of the night I was pretty drunk and ready for bed! Apparently I’d said I would only stay for a bit longer but would only drink soft drinks, ‘double Jack Daniels and Coke please!’ was my apparent reply, how much truth is behind this is unbeknown to me!
Saturday morning soon came around and we were on one of our knock up matches. Today we were to be on Mawgan Porth. We met up at Morrisons for breakfast and followed the Otley lads to the venue. After a drive down some of the narrowest roads I’ve ever come across, and also passing the ‘Magic Cove’ we arrived at the fishery. Gordon made up some story about the Magic Cove being a wishing well, he told us all that his first wife had fallen in and drowned, I don’t think everyone got it!
We were to draw at 10 and fish 11-4pm, the lady read out the rules and told us that we all had two keepnets, a landing net and a towel on our peg, this was to cut down on cross contamination of different venues, not a bad idea but the landing nets held so much water your were drenched all day and the towel was smaller than a flannel, cheers!
This is very much for me a novelty fishery, once you’ve fished it there’s not much point in going again, especially not on an open as I’ll explain later. Basically you fish your top kit all day literally hauling the carp out. There only 12oz-1lb in size but they aint half fit, I used a 14 solid latex and still got run ragged all day, lesson learnt. I started off fishing a 6mm expander and dripping in 4mm pellets, after 4 fish in as many put ins the bites became silly as there were too many loose offerings making them dart about, a quick switch to paste and no loose feed saw me bag up for the rest of the match. You definitely need duplicate rigs at this place as after 50 or 60 fish your rig is looking a bit worse for wear, my silicone tubing split and instead of putting a new rig on which would take time I crudely taped it on with some black insulation tape, the bites still came thick and fast so the presentation certainly wasn’t a must have! I ended up realising the best way to fish the paste was a piece the size of thumbnail and holding a tight line to the float. I could then make up a ball of paste for the next put in without looking at my float as the laccy would simply stream out. A lot of my fish were quite small, 6-8oz but I still had perhaps 200 fish split between the nets. After packing up, which takes literally minutes seeing as you don’t need to get the rest of your pole out the owner came around and weighed us all in. I lifted my first net out which went dead on 50lb. I thought to myself if I’ve the same in the next one then I’ve done my first ton! Due to the rings getting stuck on the boards I couldn’t lift the net out properly but once I received help from a spectator the net was out and I knew I had done my ton, the second net weighed 69lb 4oz so I had a total of 119lb 40z, so I’d done my first ton it was just a shame we were only paying out top two. James Clay weighed a staggering 196lb so just missed out on getting on the board in the hut and Otley Rob weighed 143lb which was also his best ever match weight! After a tiring day we went for a meal at the nearby Two Clomes and then headed back for a few beers!
Rob and Tony arrived late Saturday night, early Sunday morning because Rob had fished the Kamasan final; he won his section so well done to him, picking up a nice medal and a few bits of tackle for his efforts. Seeing as I’d had a few it took them a while to wake me up and unlock the door to the caravan, oops!
We were to draw at 10 and fish 11-4pm, the lady read out the rules and told us that we all had two keepnets, a landing net and a towel on our peg, this was to cut down on cross contamination of different venues, not a bad idea but the landing nets held so much water your were drenched all day and the towel was smaller than a flannel, cheers!
This is very much for me a novelty fishery, once you’ve fished it there’s not much point in going again, especially not on an open as I’ll explain later. Basically you fish your top kit all day literally hauling the carp out. There only 12oz-1lb in size but they aint half fit, I used a 14 solid latex and still got run ragged all day, lesson learnt. I started off fishing a 6mm expander and dripping in 4mm pellets, after 4 fish in as many put ins the bites became silly as there were too many loose offerings making them dart about, a quick switch to paste and no loose feed saw me bag up for the rest of the match. You definitely need duplicate rigs at this place as after 50 or 60 fish your rig is looking a bit worse for wear, my silicone tubing split and instead of putting a new rig on which would take time I crudely taped it on with some black insulation tape, the bites still came thick and fast so the presentation certainly wasn’t a must have! I ended up realising the best way to fish the paste was a piece the size of thumbnail and holding a tight line to the float. I could then make up a ball of paste for the next put in without looking at my float as the laccy would simply stream out. A lot of my fish were quite small, 6-8oz but I still had perhaps 200 fish split between the nets. After packing up, which takes literally minutes seeing as you don’t need to get the rest of your pole out the owner came around and weighed us all in. I lifted my first net out which went dead on 50lb. I thought to myself if I’ve the same in the next one then I’ve done my first ton! Due to the rings getting stuck on the boards I couldn’t lift the net out properly but once I received help from a spectator the net was out and I knew I had done my ton, the second net weighed 69lb 4oz so I had a total of 119lb 40z, so I’d done my first ton it was just a shame we were only paying out top two. James Clay weighed a staggering 196lb so just missed out on getting on the board in the hut and Otley Rob weighed 143lb which was also his best ever match weight! After a tiring day we went for a meal at the nearby Two Clomes and then headed back for a few beers!
Rob and Tony arrived late Saturday night, early Sunday morning because Rob had fished the Kamasan final; he won his section so well done to him, picking up a nice medal and a few bits of tackle for his efforts. Seeing as I’d had a few it took them a while to wake me up and unlock the door to the caravan, oops!
Sunday morning quickly arrived and we were all up at 7am, getting our stuff ready for a pleasure session. We went down to the onsite café for breakfast. Whilst we were eating we decided we’d have a few hours on Jenny’s as it’s not a far walk from the tackle shop car park. We unloaded all the gear on the barrows and made our way to the slope that takes you up to Jenny’s. There is a small kerb before the slope and when I tried to push the trolley up it but on first attempt it didn’t want to go. I thought if I gave it a bit more a push and tried to bounce it up I’d be rolling, alas, no, my wheel sheared off the trolley! After a few choice words I carried all my stuff to around peg 19 ish and threw my barrow back in the van. I set the feeder up and fished the long cast to the island and caught steady all day, catching Crucians, f1’s and skimmers but still no decent fish. I caught by using riddled meat in an open end feeder that I’d dusted initially with icing sugar to get it sticky then with some crazy bait gold. I then either banded big pellets or used big bits of meat on the hook.
We called it a day and went for a walk around the lakes. Being a bit bored with Jenny’s, Gordon and I made our way to Python to try a bit of paste and tempt some of the resident big fish! Gordon had one first put in down the margins that was definitely a double! I managed three good carp all around 7-8lb and a couple of big Crucians at around 2lb a piece.
Monday was the Gold Match and it was to be on Trelawney and Nelsons. I wasn’t too sure on where I wanted to be but 19 and 20 Trelawney looked ok with the big reed lined bay and 18 also didn’t look too bad as you could reach the island. So after breakfast we did the draw and I got 18 so I was pretty pleased. Gordon was on 19 so at least we could have chat. I set up a couple of lines on the far bank at 14m, a line to my left margin and a paste line at 7m. At the all in I cupped in some corn and some pellets down the margin and a big pot also went out to 7m for later. I then shipped across to the far side with a 6mm expander and tipped half a kinder pot of 4mm pellets over the top. My float sat motionless for the first half an hour until I started to get the odd liner. I changed to a banded 6mm pellet and started to feed pellets of the same size but could only manage 5 small roach. Strange how back at home you wouldn’t even dream of a roach taking a 6mm hard pellet?! I decided to have a look down into the margin and managed to snare one carp of about 2lb and then a further nothing. I went out on the paste line but as with a lot of the lakes at White Acres the tow is very strong due to the constant aerators so I was finding it hard to present the bait properly. Whilst I was trying to get my paste line going my carp jumped out of the keepnet and back into the lake, could this day get any worse! Well I didn’t catch another fish for the rest of the day and tipped back my 5 roach.
Gordon had fished well and caught a fair few carp from down the margins and put 34lb 5oz on the scales which just beat Otley Dave’s 34lb 4oz. Back up at the pub for the presentation and Stu, Gordon and Otley Rob had all won their sections and Robbie had come 2nd overall off Nelsons 11 with 74lb odd, he fished at 17 to the island all day and because of this borrowed Stu’s Middy arm rest for the rest of the week!
Tuesday came and we had booked onto Bolingey for the day. We walked down to the bank furthest from the car park and decided to all fish next to each other so we could have some good banter and it meant people wouldn’t sit between us. We did a mini draw and I ended up on peg 19 with Stu on 18, Rob on 17, Gord on 20 and Tony on 21. I thought I’d set the bomb rod up, chuck it out and then that would give me chance to set the pole up. I fished a 3/4oz bomb, on 0.20 Ultima mainline with an 0.18 trace to a size 14 PR36; a hair rigged band completed the set up. I put an 8mm pellet in the band cast tight to the island and fired half a dozen 8mm pellets around it. Put it this way, it was solid; I had 8 carp all around 5-6lb before I even got the pole out my holdall!
I decided to leave the bomb for a bit and set up the pole. I setup a line to fish at around 7m in 7-8ft of water on paste. I had a 0.5g BGT paste float on 0.18 direct to a big Mustad size 12. I made some paste up out of some micros, potted in a big pot of 6mm pellets and sat over it. I had 3 fish in 3 put ins, all around the same stamp as on the bomb. Robbie and Stu were fishing shallow on the pole at about 13m and getting a carp a chuck by feeding, slapping the rig in 2 or 3 times and then waiting for the pole to bury under the surface. I’ve never tried shallow fishing properly before and thought this would be an ideal opportunity to gain some confidence in it.
I set up a small Dick Clegg dibber on 0.18 straight through to a size 16 PR36 with a hair rigged band. I put one number 8 stotz about 3 inch from the hook; this would give a third splash including the pellet and the float. I’d put a big pot of 6mm pellets out at 10m to get the fish in the area then started firing pellets over the top little and often, slapping the rig in. It took 5-10mins before the first fish succumbed to the 8mm banded pellet but after that there was no looking back. I managed to get 21 carp on this method to take my tally to 32 for the day and around 170lb, Robbie must have had 4-500lb of fish in the day, an awesome achievement, he had half a dozen that were between 10-15lb. Rob and Stu were both fishing shallow at 13m+ and picking up better fish, smallest of around 8lb but my fish at 10m averaged at 6 probably, so maybe fishing further out would have got me a few bigger fish, but I wasn’t complaining! This must have been the best days fishing I’ve ever had and certainly one of the best venues! I’ll definitely be going back!
Wednesday and we were back at Mawgan Porth were earlier in the week I’d done my first ton but with only 8 of us on the lake. This time around it was the open with around 20 of us including 3 venue experts including one of them who did an article for match fishing a few months back. Now I don’t want to label people cheats but there is certainly something suspect that the experts can manage to draw the ‘flyer peg’ week after week after week. Rumours were bounding around that the old guy who holds the tub with the pegs in holds the flyer between his fingers and the experts grab that off him instead of from the bucket. Other suggestions were going round that the owner only rings the experts when us newbie’s have booked on so it gives them some pools to play for, if we weren’t there then there would only have been about six of them, some open match! If I ever fish there again it will certainly be on one of our knock ups rather than an open as with more people on the match it also didn’t fish to half its previous capabilities. I drew peg 47 on the island which is meant to be a very good peg and only managed to put 25lb 4oz in the net, the match was won by one of the experts with just over 100lb. We had booked onto another open on the Friday but after the match we all booked off it due to the poor performance.
Thursday saw us all on the Rover match, on the previous night we had walked around the lakes with the lake guide and marked on pegs that we fancied. I fancied either peg 19 on Trelawney or 38 on Pollawyn. Stu was an absolute bag of nerves before the match and couldn’t make his mind up where to fish for the day so when he drew out peg 1, this unsettled him even further. He ended up going on the same peg he drew in gold, peg 23 on Trelawney and he did well getting just over 60lb. I managed number 15 but when I went into the tent I remembered peg 4 on Sycamore and decided to go here, even though the pegs I wanted were still free! What was I thinking! Lesson learnt for next time! By the time I got to my peg I realised there were 4 of us in a line which would make things difficult as I fancied fishing bomb and hard pellet to the island where as the lads either side were both on the pellet waggler so the pellets were flying all over the place all day! I fished another poor match and with an hour and a half to go I packed up and took everyone a cuppa, I’m good like that! Robbie came 2nd again using the same tactics and the same peg from the Rover, this time weighing in 124lb for another 2nd overall and Alan managed 135lb off Eery peg 5, fishing bomb onto the sand bar, so well done to those two. We all told Robbie he should have pulled his finger out as we all wanted a free holiday but he wasn’t biting!
All in all i think we all had a very good week and learnt a lot for the next time we go. Next time ideally we’ll have a match everyday, know what lakes and pegs to fish and take EVEN BIGGER pellets to avoid the roach. Hopefully we’ll have all learnt the lyrics to the Benny Hill song Ernie by then too so we can sing a long with Gordon in the van!
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