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.

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!