Tuesday 15 December 2009

Catch up - Morndyke and the NIdd

Well i've not been for a couple of weeks, plans, uni work and weather have hindered my appearance for a few weeks but hopefully i'll be on the bank this weekend if all goes well.

I have however managed to get down to the Nidd at Little Ribston again. This trip wasn't so fruitful however, the massive influx of rain 'dampened' my spirits as well as the fishing, I manage to improve my casting technique ten fold on the stick and although I didn't have any signs of fish I was pleased to improve my casting.

The following day was a day out with team inbetweeny at Morndyke. I thankfully drew boss peg 3 and managed to snare 11 carp through the day all on the method with micros and either a 4mm expander or a bunch of dead red maggots as a hook bait. this was also good enough to win our little match and take home a few quid!

As I say, all being well I should be fishing this weekend! Wish me luck!

Saturday 24 October 2009

Woodlands - Partridge October 24th - the Oaks - Maple - 31st October - The Nidd - 8th November

After a fairly poor match catching bits at Brafferton last week, I was looking forward to catching some proper fish at Woodlands this week!

After a breakfast (of sorts) it was onto the draw!

I drew late and managed to snare peg 24. I would have preferred to have been a bit closer to the middle but this was still better than other draws as far as i was concerned. We were also informed there was a bait check that was going to take place at some point.

For company I had Tel on 23, Mr Thackwray on 22 and Howard on 21. My plan today was to fish a small method and build up a swim but also have a corn line at 14m as a back up.

In short it fished pretty pants, you either bagged up or caught a handful, I bet you can guess which I was!

I had 6 fish for 20lb, Gordons 5 fish were all a better stamp and so the quid went his way for the first time in a very long time!

A week later we were on Maple and I informed Mr Thackwray that I was winning in the quid steaks but only by a margin of one so it would either be a draw or i'd take the victory. We also drew next to each other to spice things up further!

I caught a few fish through the match but none of any decent stamp, unlike Mr Thackwray who took another quid off me! Mr Atkinson also took a quid off me again and that was that! The end of our club season!

This Sunday just gone I fancied a change to the norm and decided to get down on the River Nidd at Little Ribston, its only a 5 minute drive so ideal for a few hours fishing. After moving out of my flat back to the old mans the previous weekend I was desperate to get on the bank and I was eagerly anticipating my first trip to a river in over 6 years!

I got there at around 8 o clock and was greeted by a mate of mines dad and one of his mate who were both in search of a few fish too.

I had a walk with my gear and settled on a deep looking spot on the outside of a bend, i ran a 2bb Drennan big stick through a fe times and kept adding the depth but never seemed to be tripping bottom and i was running out of rod to cast it out! I persevered for a while but eventually moved to the otherside of the field along a fast flowing straight that turned out to be about 4ft deep and after a few runs through was rewarded with a small grayling and shortly after his twin brother! The excitement was short lived as i had to pack up but I might just head down there again this weekend now i've picked up some tips about how to fish a stick properly!

After speaking to a very excited Rab ealrier I think I know what i'm going to get Mr Thackwray for Xmas, he's not having much look with pole sections of late so I might get him a lucky rabbits foot!

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Brafferton F1 Lake - 11th October 2009

After my maggot approach the previous week on Poplars which ‘luckily’ resulted in a top 3 placing I was confident that it would work again this time round at Brafferton. I fished on the very odd occasion here before but never on the F1 Lake.

I arrived up at the fishery at 8:30 and went for a sandwich before unloading all my gear onto the barrow. Seeing as I was fannying about getting all my gear ready I missed the draw and was drawn peg 63, on the end of the peninsula so I had plenty of water to go at, as did everyone else in fairness, on an 80 peg lake there was only 17 of us!

With Gordon on his 83rd holiday of the year, Owen not in attendance and Acko down at Whiteacres I was already three quid down before the match had started! ;o)

After finally trudging my gear to my peg I was about ready for a kip! The culmination of the long grass and an overloaded barrow with a flat tyre didn’t make for an enjoyable walk!

Tony Koz was on 61 and I warned him that we weren’t in for a quiet day as Rab was to be joining us on the opposite of the point on 64! I had a quick look at my peg and decided on a line to the island at 13.5m and after a quick plumb up a line at both 4m and 10m at the base of the near and far shelf. There are no real shelves on this lake, its more like a bowl so I plumbed all my rigs to dead depth then added on 2 inches to make sure I was always fishing on the deck.

I set up a deep rig for 4 and 10m on 0.16, to an 0.14 hook length and a size 16 B911. Float choice was a 0.4g BGT Shallow long and elastic was 14 latex. My island rig was a 4x10 Malman Cedar on 0.14 to an 0.12 hook length, 12 latex and a size 18 B611 hook.

At the all in I potted some pellets on both the deep rigs which were both quite deep at about 6ft and then went over with a half a big pot of maggots onto the island. I started off on the island and it took me over half an hour to get my first indication, meanwhile Tony had put 3 or 4 carp into his net fishing at around 11m. My bites increased however and after a few silvers I managed 4 F1’s to take my tally to about 7lb for the first hour. I then went half an hour without a bite so it was time to try the deep lines. I started off at 9.5m before coming onto the short line. I tried both lines for a good 20 minutes but no signals of any fish!

The wind had by now picked up considerably so I went to the car for my tip rod and first chuck out once I got back with a 6mm banded pellet and a pellet full of micros I was into a small F1 from open water but a further 45 minutes and no more fish followed.

I’d decided that I’d rather be catching bits than nothing at all and so went back over to the far side with maggot. I was into small, I mean very small roach but I was bumping a few off due to my 12 elastic so I changed to the lightest I had in my armoury, a latex 10, this was helping a bit but I was still losing a lot of fish. I changed down to a hooklength of 0.10 and a size 22 (is winter here?) and I was putting 9 out of 10 fish into my net. I also put a 2ft lash on as the wind by now was horrendous but at least it kept me getting bites even if I was striking like Zorro to connect! I fished this way for the rest of the match and managed quite a few roach, skimmers and even the odd chublet but nothing to build any weight however I did manage to hook another 4 F1’s, I played them carefully and landed them all bar one, would this cost me?

At the all out Rab was admitting to one carp and 5 gudgeon, but he’s a liar and went to weigh in 17lb odd. I weighed 18lb 10oz and Tony Koz put 19lb 12oz on the scales so that F1 might just have cost me! The weights were all pretty poor although Stu Turner managed 50 odd pounds which was only bettered by Honest John who snared an 8lber just before time to take the match.

We’re back at Woodlands next week on Partridge, it’ll either be a day on the paste or a day on the tip; we’ll have to wait till the day to decide though where i'll probably fish something completely different!

The Oaks - Poplars - October 4th

Well, the previous week I got my wish to fish on Match pool at Carp Vale and right some wrongs, but as you may have guessed it didn’t go to plan and I weighed in 16lb 8oz for no where but still managed another quid off Mr Thackwray!

With Poplars this week I was in a quandary on how to approach it. I’ve never done terribly well on the lake and wanted to put that right today. We were on pegs 14-54 and with 21 fishing this meant it was just about peg one miss a peg. Owen initiated another three way quid between us two and Acko as they both wanted a chance of winning them back from the match on Maple, I duly obliged!

By the time of the draw Stu announced that the top 3 would get a pay out as well as three sections of seven. I held the draw bag and was greeted with the odd smile but the more occasional frown as the pegs were being lifted out. This left three pegs in the bag, Nige was drawn peg 25 as he was running a little late and this left Stu with 20 and me with 14. I was pretty pleased with this as peg 13 and 15 weren’t in so I had plenty of room and some pots to fish to on peg 13.

I bought a couple of pints of maggots and as I was walking to my peg Stu revealed that Minty and I were on scale duty! I’m sure I’ve done it half a dozen times this season, I don’t mind doing the weigh in to be fair but it takes me long enough to pack up as it is!

I got round to my peg, Minty was on 16, Wrighty was on 18 and Stu was on 20, that was as far as I could see. I got all the kit out of the car and had a sit down to assess where I’d be attacking today. With the pots in front of 13, this would be my main line of attack with maggot. I would also fish the same rig to the tree on my left, again with maggot. With no real cover straight in front I set up a pellet line to fish tight to the far bank. I also set up a line at the base of the far shelf at 11m to fish meat; this was more a token gesture if no where else was working!

My maggot rig was a Malman Cedar 4x10 on 0.12 Ultima to a 6inch hooklength of the same material and a size 16 B911, I’m aware this seems a bit big for maggot fishing but I wanted to fish 4 or 5 maggots at a time to target the better Ide, a lesson I’d learnt from fishing on Alders. Elastic was soft set 12 latex. My pellet rig was the same float but on 0.16 Ultima Power Match to an 0.14 hooklength and a size 18 B911 complemented by a 16 latex. My meat rig was a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.16 straight through to a size 16 PR36 with size 14 latex.

For bait I had 2 pints of maggots, half red half white. Plenty of hooker pellets, some micros and some meat but I was concentrating on the maggot and would only deviate to other baits if it was hard going. At the all in I potted some meat in down the track at 11m, and half a big Drennan pot of maggots to the pots on my right hand side. As with Maple a couple of weeks previous I thought I’d target the carp for the first 15 minutes or so as you often get them early on and they’re not worth missing out on. Anyway a biteless 20 minutes ensued and I sacked off the pellet line and went over the maggot line which by now would have hopefully settled.

I shipped out and double kinder potted over the tope of my float, by lifting and dropping my rig back into the feed zone soon sparked a response and Ide number one was in the net, with it being about a pound it was a good start. I caught another fish of a similar size before deciding to change down to a 10 elastic, as I was shipping back at angle it made it easier to ship back quickly without fear of losing the fish. I repeated this until I had 6 in the net all of a similar size and on the stroke of the first hour disappearing I struck like Zorro and managed to catch my float on a loner branch and although I had a hooklength on this wouldn’t do me any good as it was the mainline that was snagged. After pulling for a break I came back with a fraction of the rig I had shipped out, the loop on the connector to be precise! I chucked another rig on and seeing as I’d marked my top kit with tip-ex it was a quick process and I was back in the swim in no time. I only managed 2 more fish before I had to re-feed another big pot. I switched to the meat line whilst this pot of maggots settled but had nothing to show from it. By the end of the second hour I had 10 fish for probably 8lb.

Minty went for a walk and when he came back probably after a good half an hour I still only had the 8lb in the net. While he was gone I potted on the tree on the left hand side and by the time I went over it I caught another Ide straight away before repeating the process. I shipped out again and before I had time to feed I had hooked a fish on the drop. I tipped the feed in before playing the fish to the net, my first carp, a stocky of about 8oz.

It then died as soon as it started so to spark a response I changed to a hooklength of 0.10 and a size 20 B611. Going into the last hour I’d put the odd Ide into the net but nothing much was happening. I big potted onto both lines and then just switched between them until I got indications. It turned out to be my most fruitful hour with a couple of Ide and 4 proper carp to take my tally to around 25lb before the hooter sounded to signal the end of the match. Remarkably all the carp came to the net without much fuss, I thought I’d have to be careful with the light hook length and light laccy but they came up near enough straight way!

Minty had started packing up before the match had finished so I had a rush on to get packed up and off to do the weigh in. Seeing as I was on the first peg I put a marker down for everyone, I weighed in 25lb 10oz, Wrighty remarked that would be a good weight today but I knew he had caught, Stu had caught and apparently Rab and Howard had both caught well on 53 and 54 respectively. Minty didn’t weigh in which meant Wrighty was up next, he pushed me close but not close enough with 22lb odd. Stu then shattered my dreams by putting 34lb in the sling. The rest of the weights in our section were all in the high teens but no more above 20lb. Round to Acko’s peg and seeing as he wasn’t there Rab did the honours and 13lb 10oz was recorded. Acko shouted across the lake asking what he’d weighed, I replied ‘’a quid less than me!’’ Gordon weighed in 17lb ish so another quid was claimed. Tel took the section with a weight not much more than Gordon’s. Jonesy weighed 19lb odd which was good enough for the section and Owens weight wasn’t up to scratch meaning I’d be taking another Quid! Three quid’s out of three can’t be bad!

Up until this point I was still in second place behind Stu, with only Rab and Howard left who I knew would have more than me it meant I was guaranteed my section. Howard put 26lb 4oz in the sling; I’d been pipped by 10oz!

Now onto Rab who was last to weigh in, out came his first net and into the sling. He had a similar amount in the other net and it was going to be close between him and Stu to take the match. Rab pulled out his second net grabbed the bottom ring and started to feed them through to the top whilst keeping the middle of the net in the water, nothing wrong there you’d think, and you’d be right. Until Rab dropped the top of his net back into the drink and as he was still holding the bottom ring the inevitable happened! All his fish made a dash out the net and by the time the keepnet had been rescued there was nothing left to show for his days work! Now Rab isn’t one to take the micky out of anyone (and if you believe that then you need your head checking) so to say everyone erupted with laughter would be an under statement! A look of dismay crept into his face as his now single net weighed 17lb 12oz which meant he didn’t even win the section.

This however was good news for me and Wrighty as I crept into third spot meaning Dave took the section by default! So not a bad day at the office in the end! On reflection it wasn’t a bad match, I don’t think I missed a bite, although they were all fairly positive, I didn’t foul hook or lose any fish and the only thing I can think of that would have pushed me into second was the nightmare of getting my rig caught and having to put a new rig on. Apart from that I don’t think there was much more I could have done.

We’re at Brafferton on the F1 Lake next week, I’ve never fished here before but if the weather carries on being up and down then it might be another maggot approach. Its also now officially winter, I had to wear my jumper through the whole match this week and I’ve also been considering putting the heating on on a night! Considering not actioning, I’m not Rockefeller!

Friday 25 September 2009

The Oaks - Maple 20th September

Well after a disastrous week at Woodlands the week previous which really wasn’t worth the write up! I was taking a couple of my mates down to Weeton, one of my old haunts where I’ve had some good bags of Carp before the lake was trimmed down and it was all about bagging F1’s I’d now been told it was full of Ide too so the lads had a great opportunity to catch some good fish and not have the struggle! Some of the Ide go 2lb in there and because they don’t fight they are relatively easy to land for a beginner! Well I set my mate Pick up on the waggler and he was soon into his first fish, a 3oz perch, at least he’d not blanked! Then I set Joe up on my old pole fishing at 5m with maggot. I told them both to keep the bait going in little and often and they’d soon put some fish in the net. I swapped between them helping them out before fishing myself. By the end of the day Pick had managed just over 3lb of bits, feeding on the waggler just isn’t the same as on the pole and I think this was the downfall. Joe however managed 19lb 10oz and a PB Mirror carp of 4lb 7oz. I myself managed about 20lb of Ide and I only fished for a couple of hours, what a place! I’m thinking this might be a good place to go in winter for some Ide bagging!

On to this weeks club match we were back on Maple again and seeing as I’ve blown out the last two times I’ve fished it a change of tactics was in order as once I stop catching on pellet I never had a plan B, or at least a Plan B that worked!

I got to the fishery at 8:20 and had a leisurely breakfast and a chat with a few of the lads about my previous days fishing. Come the draw and most of the lads were asking why Minty was Nige’s trousers? The sections were announced to be two 5’s and two 6’s as there were 22 in attendance today. Everyone piled around the bag as usual and rather than pushing with everyone else I hung back for a change and by the time I drew I could only feel three pegs still in the bag. In went my left hand and out came peg 58, I was pretty pleased with this as its an area of the lake I never seem to be on and hopefully I’d be in for a good days fishing! When I arrived at my peg, I had Andy Nattrass for company on 56, Owen on 60, Acko on 62 and Nige on 62a. A three way quid was struck between Owen, Acko and I to add bragging rights to the day.

My plan this week was to fish meat at the bottom of the far shelf and on the mud line when this line petered out. I would also start on pellet in normal fashion in front of the sedges. In the past I tend to get half a dozen very early on before having to have a rethink and I didn’t want to miss out on these early fish whilst I was waiting for the meat lines to settle.

I had three rigs set up, a Malman Cedar 4x10 for in front of the sedges 2.5ft of water and the same rig but for the mud line. Both rigs were on 0.14 Ultima Power Match to a 6 inch hooklength of 0.12, again Ultima Power Match. On the sedge (pellet) rig I had a size 18 B911 and a size 16 for the mud (meat) line. Elastics were 12 latex for pellet and 14 latex for the meat. My track rig was the same as the mud line regarding line hooks and elastic but set at 5ft deep with a 0.4g BGT shallow long float. This rig would be fished an inch or two over depth. All my rigs were back shotted with no.8 Stotz, there was no ripple whatsoever but the tow seemed quite strong.

For bait I had two tins of meat cubed into 4mm pieces and also some 6mm pellets of meat I punched out of the left over slices. I also had a handful of 4mm Ringers expanders and some soaked micro pellets.

The all in was shouted at 10:15 and the match was underway. I went out with the cupping kit to 11m and tipped in a good handful of meat. Then it was onto my left hand sedge armed with an expander and a fruit shoot of micros. Instantly I took 3 small carp about 12oz a piece before switching to the right sedge to repeat the process. I caught a further three fish off this sedge although I did foul hook a carp of about 6lb that came up tail first I couldn’t reach it with my net, I pulled some laccy out of the pull bung, applied a bit more pressure and we parted company! Unfortunately my expletives had got the attention of Mr Atkinson and he was far from sympathetic! So I was sitting on 6 fish for about 5lb after the first half an hour. Owen had managed one or two at a slightly better stamp and Nige by all accounts was into bagging mode on boss peg 62a.

Both my sedge lines had died as expected and it was now onto the meat line. I had two kinder pots on so that I was able to feed at 11m with one pot and also feed at 14m on the mud every time I went out. I soon managed to catch a few fish and by the end of the third hour I had managed 14 fish. My initial 6 fish, 6 from 11m and two off the mud. By my reckoning I had 14 fish for 14lb. This wasn’t going to be good enough at this rate but nothing could be done. I fished the next two hours and only managed 2 further fish to take my tally to 16 for 16lb, these came from switching between lines and hoping to pick off the odd fish.

The last hour had arrived and I desperately needed to catch. Nige was easily winning our section and probably the match so the default section was all that was up for the taking as far as I was concerned. I went out to my right sedge armed with pellet again and the fish had arrived, not in great numbers but I did put 9 further fish in my net to take my tally to 25 for approx 25lb by the call of time.

Acko and Owen were interested to know what I’d caught and they both thought I was telling porkies or to quote Acko ‘’you lying little c**t!’’ At max I thought I would have 30lb but 25 fish for 25lb seemed about right in my head.

After watching Stu weigh in 57lb and Paul Jones with 40lb it was confirmed that the battle for the section was on. Jim also put a big 30 on the scales. We were soon round to my peg and my two nets went 38-08, perhaps I had underestimated a little, or by 50%! If only I’d have managed that big fish I lost at the start, that would have seen me sail into 3rd place overall! Owen weighed 29lb so that was one quid safe, Acko then weighed 35lb so both scalps had been captured! Nige weighed around 90lb I think from 3 weighs and won the match comfortably. Tel and Martin had had hard days on 64 and 66 respectively so I’d also won my section! My first pick up since January this year, about bloomin’ time!

We’re at Carp Vale again next week on Cyprio and Match Pool, I’m actually swaying more to fishing on Match Pool having now fished it and learnt a few lessons, I wouldn’t mind a day righting a few wrongs from a few weeks ago! However the fate of the draw bag will probably put me on Cyprio now!

Saturday 12 September 2009

Northern Intersite 29th August Oaks (Maple and Poplars)

Well the big day had finally arrived! Hopefully all of Simon’s hard graft would pay off and the day would run without a hitch. We were running a £10 optional which would pay the top four and also there would be prizes for the top two teams. Section prizes of £20 per 5 men made up the rest of the prizes.

Due to the differing squad sizes it would be an impossible task to fairly peg out equal team sections and award points at the end so it was an open draw and the top 6 weights in each team would make up the final team results.

In total there were 123 pegs for us to have a go at and with all 59 individuals turning up it was great to see that no one had let the side down! Tom kindly pegged the lakes for us and put 61 pegs in, generally peg one miss one to give everyone plenty of room!

After cutting out all the individual peg numbers and folding them up they were chucked into the draw bag and we were underway! Rob Hitchens got the draw underway and started picking out his team members pegs, duly managing to pull out 7 pegs on Maple and 1 on Poplars. By the time it got to Talk Anglings draw we presumed that all the Maple pegs had gone, fortunately we had a near enough even split; and my home for the day, Maple 32. I wasn’t too down heartened as apparently there had been a few fish showing recently in this area, I’d fished peg 31 a couple of weeks previous and although catching a few fish I was blown away (quite literally) by the gale force winds! And in truth it looked like this was going to be the same story today!

My main aim today was to beat Mr Hitchens who was round on peg 36! As well as getting a good weight for the team score!

I set up numerous lines, one in the margins to my left where Woody had informed me there was a slightly deeper spot from when they were clearing the reeds out! I then had a sedge rig, a mud rig and paste rig to fish at the bottom of the slope in about 3ft of water.

Bait today I had I had 4 and 6mm expanders, some dampened micros, a plethora of hard pellets and some cat sh*t.

The all in was called at 10:30, it was nice to have a bit longer to set up! I threw a handful of hard 6mm pellets down the edge and then shipped over to my sedge line. As usual by tipping in a few micros and armed with a 4mm expander I started to get little knocks before my first fish was in the net, a small carp of maybe 10oz.

I’d love to say I went back out and repeated the process for the rest of the day but that would be lying! By swapping between lines I managed to put the very odd fish in the net but the going was extremely slow and the wind was horrendous!

I tried the paste line a few times during the match, one time just as I dropped the paste in my elastic shot out as a fish had taken it on the drop, bit peculiar I thought but landed the fish to realise I’d hooked its eye, lovely!

The wind got so strong at one point that I got my method rod out of the car, first put out and I landed it butt up against the mud, perfect! The tip slammed round and I came back with a scale! How do you foul hook on the method!?

After scrapping every possible method about 3 times the match was brought to a close! Thank you lord! I must have lost more than I caught, for no known reason! I still can’t think now why I lost so many fish?

Anyway I quickly packed up and went and weighed in Poplars where some good and also some not so good weights came out. On my return I discovered what I myself had weighed for the day……11lb 11oz, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this as I didn’t think I had 10lb!

Back to the café and a quick maths lesson gave us the results for the day:

Poplars Lake

Peg Name Team Weight
1 Musselman YF 11-0
5 The Indian YMA 27-14
7 DAZ YF 21-08
9 R Edwards TA 8-2
11 Roger Gardom TF 37-4
13 Chris Shaw TF 25-12
15 John Iddon Big Bash 4-15
17 Steve Guy Big Bash 10-13
19 Botham YMA 18-6
21 Andy Fieldhouse TA 16-10
23 Hammy YF 0-3
25 Budd Nudd YMA 38-14
26 M Bates YMA 11-7
29 S Kelly Big Bash 30-10
31 Ben Rowbotham Big Bash 2-8
33 Johnny Mac TF 26-2
35 Steph YF 47-12
37 Simon Short TA 24-2
39 Oscar YF 8-8
42 DNW
44 John O'Driscoll TF 27-12
46 Malcom YF 4-9
49 Juzzy Big Bash 15-3
50 Nodrog TF 32-4
52 Nicky Dodds TA 21-4


Maple

1 M Hill YF 2-3
3 Steve Riley TA 43-03
5 Nigel Cook TA 18-15
8 Steve YF 6-10
10 Roger Young TA 8-10
12 Barney Big Bash 14-11
14 Mich Herrington TF 19-03
16 Jonathan Broadbent TA 24-12
20 Mike Hammond Big Bash 22-08
22 Kev Allen Big Bash 16-15
24 Mick Davison YF 1-11
26 Ian Gillies TF 12-3
28 Dan Hickman YMA 16-11
30 Dean Marsh Big Bash 18-07
32 Steve L TA 11-11
34 Chris Kendall YMA 28-06
36 Rob Hitchen Big Bash 7-6
38 Ricky Roberts Big Bash 12-10
40 Paul Atton Big Bash 13-04
42 Rob Walston Big Bash 2-08
44 Ricky Barker TF 8-08
46 W Mountain Big Bash 13-6
48 Matt Bailey YMA 20-4
50 Tom Gibson YF 0-3
52 Phil Sanderson YF 0-13
54 Steve Knowles TF 17-12
56 Lee Simpson TF 28-12
58 Noddicus YMA 15-05
60 Craig Melling TA 16-10
62 Art Hilmi Big Bash 32-10
62a Steve Gerrard TF 64-0-0
64 Tony Nottger TF 29-10
65 Simon Young TA 16-10


Teams - top six weights

TF Red - 186lb 10oz
Yorkshire Match Anglers - 147lb 6oz
TF Blue - 143lb 2oz
Talk Angling Red - 117lb 14oz
Big Bash 2 - 116lb 8oz
Talk Angling Blue - 92lb 9oz
Big Bash 1 - 91lb 15oz
Yorkshire Fishing A - 64lb 4oz
Yorkshire Fishing B - 58lb 15oz

Individuals

1st Steve Gerrard 64-0
2nd Steph Armitidge 47-12
3rd Steve Riley 43-3
4th Budd Nudd 38-14

Overall a very enjoyable day in great company, just a shame the fishing was so terrible! I’m sure next year will prove to be more fruitful, although I did beat Mr Hitchens!!

Friday 28 August 2009

Carp Vale - Cyprio & Match pool August 23rd

After missing the previous match at Woodlands I was eager to get fishing this weekend and Carp Vale was in store once again. Unfortunately we weren’t on front pool which I’d taken a good weight from a few weeks previous but Cyprio would certainly do the business although I was dreading a draw on Match Pool seeing as the weights were so low in comparison last time around.

Stu and Nige weren’t in attendance this week so Honest John was running the match. As there were 18 of us in attendance it was decided to have three sections of six. With six anglers on match pool and 12 on Cyprio the weights would hopefully be a bit higher on the match pool as everyone would have plenty of room.

So come the draw I wanted any number lower than 21, this would guarantee a peg on Cyprio. So typically I drew 31 and would have to spend the day on the dreaded match pool!

The necessary two trips to my peg were then undertaken, I could have done with a lie down by the time I’d settled everything down! My peg looked quite nice; I was in a wide bay about 30m wide probably, so I’d have a nice chuck to the reed fringed island although there was a tree directly above me which would hamper my casting. I also had the spare platform of peg 30 to fish towards and also plenty of open space in front of me.

I decided to have a method line, a cat food line towards the spare platform and also a line at 13m for fishing pellet. I already had the method set up, 8lb Maxima mainline, a 15g small Preston method feeder to use in conjunction with my new moulds and a short hooklength of 0.18 Silk Shock with a PR36 size 16 and a small hair rigged bait band. Rather than using the size 10 swivel that Preston say will give you a semi fixed bolt rig, I had opted for a quick change bead.

My pole lines were all a lot shallower than I thought they would have been, I probably only found a maximum of 4 foot on the 13m line and just over 3ft off the edge of platform 30.

Bait for the day, I had a load of cat food but initially opened two tins, I had some soaked micros, some 4 and 6mm expanders and some ground bait mixed up for the method if I wanted to cut down the food content instead of fishing pellets on the frame.

The all in sounded at 10:15 and the match was underway, I lobbed the method out to within a foot of the far bank, sank my line, tightened up and waited, and waited, and waited………after watching a free DVD on method feeder fishing with Des Shipp, I remembered him saying ‘‘if you don’t get bites on the method then there probably aren’t any fish in your swim!’’ so after an hour of not even a liner I ditched the method and decided to have a look on the cat food line which I’d big potted right at the start.

I was glad to not be casting as the tree above had started to annoy me so I was glad to get on the pole, however annoyingly I had to break down twice due to the bushes behind me, due to me fishing essentially down my right margin it meant I had to ship out 13m straight in front and then swing the pole round 90 degrees to my right, which also wasn’t ideal! I lowered in with a juicy bit of cat meat and tipped in a further two chunks, my float dipped and I missed the bite, as well as my hook bait coming off, so annoying I shipped back, re-baited and dropped in again. I had another knock but this time managed a carp of about 12oz. I carried on in this vein for an hour or two missing fish and then getting a small carp and I was going no where fast! After missing a bite and having to re-bait for the umpteenth time I decided to put a new hooklength on with a smaller hook and a hair rigged quick stop which marginally improved my catch rate. But I was getting annoyed and decided to start up my pellet line at 13m instead. I needed to get a shift on too as Bri Gascoigne just down the bank from me was catching a fish a chuck and had been all match!

I big potted some micros in and left them for 10 minutes whilst I exhausted the meat line and then it was time! First drop out I managed a carp of 4lb, followed by plenty of smaller stocky carp. I also managed another good carp and two Tench that would both be knocking on 3lb a piece. I knew it was too little too late at the final whistle though as Bri had sacked up, I just wish I’d started on the pellet a lot earlier! Lesson learnt for next time I suppose!

Come the weigh in and Steve Hoddo was winning Cyprio with either 85 or 95lb, can’t quite remember, Tony Minikin was 2nd with 75lb, Tom Hoddo was 3rd with 72lb and rumours of Woody having a catfish?! Well Bri weighed in 66lb so I knew I didn’t have that and would hope for the section, I weighed in 43-12 so not a bad weight at the end of the day I was just really annoyed with how I’d fished and the constraints my peg had put up on me, but once you’ve drawn what can you do? Apart from fish it as best you can, which I didn’t feel I’d done on the day.

I don’t know what the final result was as we had to rush off as Gordon was party bound! I’m still in hope that I snuck my section but I knew Tony Koz had two nets in so he probably put a bigger weight on the board than myself, I can live in hope before the next match though!

I’m fishing for www.TalkAngling.co.uk on Saturday in the Northern Intersite so hopefully I’ll have a good days write up on the cards come next week!

Saturday 15 August 2009

August 9th - Sessay - Alders

I’ve had a quite hectic week this week getting all my gear ready, seeing as I still store all my gear at my dads it makes it rather difficult to get stuff ready during the week so seeing as I was back over that way for band practice on the Wednesday night I decided I should at least set my rods up, so I set up the method rod and also set up a waggler rod just in case I drew one of the wide pegs on Alders. It was then a case of taking my box back to the flat to get rig making! Now most of the venues we fish I had catered for when tying up my rigs over winter, however I’d not tied any silver rigs, so a couple of full depth and a couple of shallow rigs had me nearly there before a marathon night of tying hooklengths!

I was at a 21st party on the Saturday which was held at a Casino, I luckily managed to win a few quid so I quit whilst I was a head as I thought it would cover my days fishing, bonus!

Well Gordon arrived at 8 o’clock with Rab and we chucked everything in the back of van and in the back of my mind I knew I was missing something but I had all my major gear, box, carryall, bait bag, rods, rod bag etc so I must have had everything! Or so I thought….

After a hearty breakfast with an extra sausage thrown in for good measure I was set up for the day and come the time of the draw I was looking forward to being anywhere but the top end! Luckily for me then I drew peg 8 which is the last peg in the narrows at the bottom of the lake, this would do nicely as I knew I could reach the island and it would hopefully be good for a few carp! My plan was to fish for carp in the first and last hour and fish for silvers in the middle to make up the rest of my weight. I walked over to the van to start emptying my stuff out and it hit me, my bib n brace and my boots! Still in the shed at home, thankfully Gordon had a spare bib n brace in the van, there was also room for someone else in them too if I got bored during the match ;o)

For company I had Nige to my right on peg 6 and Acko on 9. With Rab only up the road on peg 12 we were sure not to have a quiet match!

Rigs for the day were simple, I had a carp rig for tight against the island which consisted of a 4x10 Malman Cedar on Ultima Power Match 0.16 to an 0.14 hooklength of the same material and a size 16 eyed B911, elastic for this was size 14 latex. I then had my depth maggot rig for fishing 13m straight in front, this comprised of a 0.5g Preston Classic 10 on Ultima Power Match 0.12, a hooklength again in 0.12 and size 18 B911 spade and 10 latex. My shallow rig was the same as this but obviously shorter and with a 4x8 Preston PB3 float on a 12 latex. I did have a couple of 8 elastics ready with connectors and loops for the bungs and if need be I could have run them through a spare kit. My efforts putting the rods up midweek had paid off, or not as they stayed in half on the floor for the day, though if I’d have drawn 75% of the other pegs I’d have definitely used them.

Just before time I decided I best get some bait sorted. I quickly soaked some micros and drained them off and also pumped some 4mm expanders, I then went on the maggot run to the shop and got a pint of whites and a pint of reds. Thankfully I borrowed a maggot riddle of Acko, I think there was equal measures of maggots to maize in my box and if I was to be spraying maggots all day I’d have been blind by the end of the match!

The hooter sounded at 10:15 and the match was underway, two pouches of maggots out to the 13m line before shipping out in search for a carp! I was armed with a 4mm expander and a fruit shoot full of micros. I tucked the rig right into the far bank vegetation and tipped the feed in. Nothing, nothing nothing. I fished this line for perhaps 2o minutes without even a nudge, meanwhile Acko was catching silvers one a bung and I felt I’d perhaps made the wrong decision. I carried on feeding the maggot line and after 30 minutes with nothing to show off the far bank line it was time to go after the silvers before I got too far behind!

I shipped out with deep rig and a full kinder of maggots and lowered the rig in. I was into fish straight away albeit small roach, I maybe put a dozen in the net before I got the kiss of death! A Perch! I think by the end of the match I had 16 Perch, for about 3oz! You could see through them if you held them up to the light! I decided to big pot to spark a response from the better Ide in the lake, I dumped over 200ml of maggots in from a height to make a disturbance and it seemed to work! I put half a dozen Ide between 6oz and a pound in the net before I got a big one pushing 2lb but then the little fish moved back in! Another big pot and I was into a better stamp again. Thing is, I was quickly running out of maggots, I’d used my first 2 pints in about an hour and a half! Luckily Chris was having a walk round and he kindly agreed to get me a couple more pints! I carried on in this vein for the rest of the match, I tried a couple of times shallow but struggled to hit bites, so stuck to the deep rig and altered my shotting pattern instead. Every time I fed a full pot I’d get bigger fish and by changing hook size to a 16 meant I could mount up to 4 maggots and be a bit more selective to the size of fish I put in the net. I had a couple of Ide easily pushing 3lb but because they don’t fight you can fish relatively light! The time was now 3:00 and I’d dumped my last pot of maggots out and only had a handful of hookers left to persevere with! I managed a few more fish before I was completely out of maggots and then and then had to go for the carp on the far bank again. Nige had persevered with paste all day and the last 90 minutes he reaped the rewards and started to put some good fish in the net. I managed a couple of liners before bumping off a carp and that was the end of the match. I’d fed 4 pints of maggots in 4 hours and me and Acko realised that when ever either of us introduced a dump of bait the fish would move between our swims until the next person dumped so it was paramount to keep the feed going in. I could have easily put a gallon in but its not justifiable to spend £20 on maggots, £20 on the match fees and still not be guaranteed a pay out.

The weigh in got underway pretty sharpish, Bob Sinclar managed 34lb 12 oz and the next big weight was Nige with 46lb odd, next up was myself, I didn’t have a clue how much I had and was pretty glad to put 35lb of silvers on the scales, but it seemingly wasn’t enough, Acko put 43lb 8oz in the sling and because Steve Hoddo and Vince had caught on the other side it meant I missed out on my section once again. Still overall I came 5th but once again I played the part of the ‘nearly man’ with a decent back up weight. Acko had the right to feel aggrieved at missing out because if I’d have stuck to fishing for carp he’d have pushed on for 3rd place as we wouldn’t have shared fish all day, although he did congratulate me on fishing a good match and said that if a muppet had been next to him he’d have done it but because I twigged what was needed for the day it meant he had to put up with a section prize!

The top six finish looked like this:

1st – Vince O-Connor – Peg 32 – 68lb – Method feeder
2nd – Steve Hodson – 49lb odd
3rd – Nige Carter – 46lb odd
4th – Mick Atkinson – 43lb 8oz
5th – Steve Lupton 35lb
6th – Bob Sinclair – 34lb 12oz

Wednesday 5 August 2009

Carp Vale - August 2nd Match + Front pool‏

Well after a night of heavy drinking on the Friday the last thing I needed was a lads day out at the races on the Saturday so come Sunday morning I was feeling a little worse for fair after a couple of days on the pop. It’s amazing how any other time I’d have stayed in bed for the day but when there is fishing on the cards I’m first out the traps once my alarm goes off! The plan was for Gordon to pick me up at five to eight and with me doing no preparation for the match I more or less just chucked all the bait I had into my bait bag and hoped I’d not forgotten any major items of tackle.

Now there are two things I don’t like about Carp Vale, there isn’t a cafĂ© and you can’t push a barrow round the lake due to it being quite narrow and having steps every now and then. However hopefully the fishing would make up for this!

Gordon and Rab turned up and rather than just pushing my barrow into the back of the van like normal it was one item at a time, the trouble is I take that much stuff that i was thinking it would take me a couple of trips to get my peg!

We arrived at the venue in plenty of time and had time for a quick look round and to get dressed before the match got underway. With our match being spread over two lakes it was decided that on the front pool there would be a 1st and a section prize for the whole lake and that match pool would have 1st, 2nd and two sections. The main reason for this was that the front pool was guaranteed to out fish the match pool.

By the time of the draw I managed to squeeze in between Gordon and Acko and when my time came I was praying to be on the front pool, when peg 59 stuck to my hand I was on the right lake! I don’t fish Carp Vale from one year to the next and have never fished the front pool before so didn’t know what to fully expect although I had a few ideas. Martin Whittaker who’s been fishing the Tuesday evening matches up there was confident with his draw of peg 58 next to mine and told me that they are both tip pegs and that my peg generally out fishes his. Basically peg 58 and 59 have islands in front of them and a 20m gap between them so we each had our own island to fish to albeit that Stu Stott was opposite me and Gordon was opposite Martin and we would therefore have to steal each others fish throughout the match.

First thing to do was obviously get the box down with all the metal attached and nets in. Now for a change I took my tip rod down after Woodlands last week so had the chore of setting up the tip before I thought about plan B pole lines. I was using an 11-13ft Ron Thomson medium feeder rod on the 11ft length today with a front drag Ultimate reel loaded with 8lb Maxima. Down the business end I started off with a small Maver method feeder, in front of this a soft rubber bead, a Korum quick change bead and a 3 inch hooklength of 0.16 Ultima Power Match with a size 16 Preston PR36 and hair rigged band. I decided to start with a single hair rigged band and change to two if I felt the need. The reason for starting with one is that the method feeder I was using would have looked quite ugly with 2 8mm pellets hanging off it and there wouldn’t have been much room loose feed!

I set up a rig at 7m slightly to my right to fish cat food as from what I’d heard this was doing quite well at the venue.

Bait for the day I had a couple of tins of Morrison’s My Cat, 3 pints of micros dampened and dusted in pellet power 4 to stop them breaking down too much on the bank. I also had my box of varying pellets for the band. I had a plethora of bait left in the bag but hopefully this is where it would stay!

At the all in I cupped in a big pot of chopped cat food and dampened micros on my 7m line and then cast out to the post marker on the island. My first cast of the day was a beauty, exactly where i wanted it, I sank the line and after a few minutes the tip arced round quite slowly to my surprise, at first I thought it was a big liner but when it went slack I tightened up again before the rod nearly jumped off the rest! A brief tussle entailed and a small mirror of about 2lb graced my first net. I re-cast and didn’t have a bite in 5 minutes so reeled in, in order to keep the bait going in. I managed to put 3 further fish in my net to round off the first hour with about 14lb from four fish. I thought if I stuck at it the line would get stronger but over the next two hours and continual casting by the time the third hour had arrived I only had 9 in the net for a guess of 26lb. Martin meanwhile had had 18 fish from chucking in a different spot every time as he said they weren’t settling in one place.

I was well behind and with only the winner and one section being paid I now had to concentrate on winning the section as to catch up with Martin would be a big ask as he was still catching fairly regularly.

I’d topped up twice on my 7m line and on the halfway mark I decided that seeing as the tip wasn’t producing anymore I would try the pole for half an hour. Six instant fish one after another made me feel as though it was the right decision but as soon as they came they’d gone and I was now sitting on 15 fish for about 44lb and Martin was near enough waiting at the finish line for everyone else! One fish I caught was by far the luckiest moment in my angling career. My float dipped and I struck into what felt a good fish, I netted it and it was probably pushing 5lb. I was quite confused as to what was going as my hook was no where near the fish? I’d managed to hook a stot shot on a piece of trailing line that was hooked into the fish’s belly! ‘’Better to be lucky than good!!!’’

Stu and Gordon opposite were both catching in a similar pattern to myself and picking off one or two in spells before it went quiet.

I mixed and matched lines with no more fish coming for an hour. I’d seen Martin was using one of the Preston method feeders with the new mould which was considerably bigger than my feeder so I swapped over to a Middy inline elasticated method and the double banded hair rig to try spark a response. With an hour left I knew I needed at least 5 fish to stay in contention although Stu had caught in my blank hour so I felt he was ahead. So back on the tip and into the last half an hour without a bite, just as I was contemplating reeling in the tip flew round and again and again and again, until I put 6 in the net in 30 minutes before the all out was shouted! I felt I’d fished as well as I could have done and rang the changes to keep fish going in the net. I finished with 21 carp, a skimmer and a roach for about 66lb by my estimation.

Everyone congratulated Martin as it was evident he had won the match by considerable margin and had put 53 carp into the net over the course of the match. Mally had had a frustrating day on peg 61 losing a lot of fish but we’ve all been there so hopefully he’ll shake off the demons by next week.

Come the weigh in and everyone who’d been on match pool were cursing that it had fished rubbish and I think the lake winning weight was 18lb less than the lowest weigh in our pool! They weighed our lake backwards meaning Gordon was weighing in first as Robert had tipped back. Gordon’s two nets went 65lb and it was going to be very close as to who won the quid for the day! Next up was Stu and he managed 83lb and I knew I’d lost the section! Still I’d caught a few fish again and once again underestimated. My first net went 31lb dead and my second 43lb dead for a combined total of 74lb, beating my Starbeck top match weight again! Martin finally had his score on the board after 4 weighs to record 143lb 4oz, not that the ounces really mattered! So well done to him, fantastic job!

So I’d won the quid off Gordon, but he kindly reminded me that he’d paid for me at Morndyke a few weeks back, so I reminded him that he owed me a weigh in form a few matches ago so we’re quits now!

Got Alders this coming weekend, a venue that’s treated me very well on occasions so a good draw and a few fish in my peg wouldn’t go amiss to make it three good matches on the trot!

July 26th Woodlands Partridge

Well, it’s been rather a long time since I last blogged. Busy weekends and holidays have kept me off the bank for 5-6 weeks now so I was raring to go this weekend! I’d tied up plenty of hooklengths for the bomb and plenty of rigs to cover all eventualities and for once felt very prepared!

It’s amazing how quickly things change in fishing, during my absence Woodlands have lifted the ban on the method and Paul Cooksey’s had a match win and a second! Long time due, well done Paul!

I arrived at the fishery in plenty of time and thought I’d re-introduce myself to a Full English! Then a trip to the tackle shop to stock up on some fishery pellets and I was sorted for the day.

The draw was a little late and ideally we would have fished from 10:15 rather than 10 but with an evening match on straight after ours we were still to fish 10 while 4pm. This meant we only had 45 minutes to set up. I decided to set everything up as quickly as I could and the chuck the bomb out while I sorted everything else out.

I already had the bomb set up, an 11ft heavy feeder rod with 8lb Maxima lining the rings. I had a swivel bead with a 3/8oz bomb and a Korum quick change bead cushioned by a rubber bead. Hooklength for the day was a 12’’ length of Ultima Power Match 0.16, a Preston PR36 size 14 with a hair rigged band. I was experimenting today and had tied another band to the one on the hair in order to present two pellets at once.

I set up two rigs, keeping it simple with a rig at 6m to my left where I would feed 6mm pellets and corn and use either corn or a 6mm expander on the hook. My second line was at 13m where I would fish paste over a big pot of 6mm pellets.

The all in sounded and I was ready apart from making up my paste. I first of all fed the two pole lines and then lobbed the bomb out with two 8mm pellets, I fired a few around it and then got on with making my paste which was, as usual, pellet power+ on the medium to soft side. After a fruitless 20 minutes on the bomb I went on the 6m line and managed a carp of about 4lb first put in. Then I started to get silly sail away bites met with no resistance before I was rewarded with a roach, time to re-feed!

I then went out onto the 13m paste line. It took me half an hour of feeding (with the left over paste) before I got my first indication. I had a few more dips and knocks before I managed to put a run of fish together. A small Tench and 3 more carp had me sitting on about 16lb for the first 2 hours. I desperately needed to get into some more fish though as Tony and John were apparently catching on the earlier pegs.

I re-fed both lines again and went on the bomb. I’d been feeding the bomb line continuously all match and hoped there’d be a fish or two to have.

By constantly firing out 2 or 3 pellets I started to put a few fish in the net, I lost count at 12 carp for the day but thought I maybe had 16 even though a couple of them were less than 2lb.

There was on point during the match and I thought to myself ‘’I’m not doing too bad, I’ve not had any rig problems or breakages at all, makes a change!’’ at that moment the rod wrapped round and then sprang back, I thought it was far too vicious to be a liner, reeling in proved that I’d been snapped but with the quick change bead I was soon back in action. I must admit I’m quite impressed by them as they get you up and running very quickly in that sort of situation albeit they can be a bit fiddly to open with wet hands. Next cast and I was soon into another fish, just as I got it under the rod tip it pulled! I’d spoken too soon (or at least thought too soon!)

At the final whistle I reckoned to having 55lb in the net, Tony Koz on peg 6 reckoned I had more than that and he was admitting to 35lb. When the scales came round honest John was leading with a weight around the 80’s (I think) and Tony Minikin on 79lb. I knew I didn’t have that so was hoping they’d take the spoils and leave me with the section. T-Koz weighed 44lb, a slight underestimate but then my fish went 62lb 2oz so we’d both under exaggerated!

I was pretty pleased that my double banded pellet had worked too, whether they were just having it or whether the double bait proved too hard to resist only time will tell, but hopefully it will prove a worthy string to add to my bow! I might invest in one of the Mosella banding tools though as a couple of times, especially with wet hands I was faffing trying to get the two pellets banded, although with the quick change bead I could have spares set up on my side tray? Something to think about for next time!

There were some more big weights around the lake, Rab 83lb, Martin Whittaker (not sure but big), Paul Jones 72lb but undoubtedly the winner of the day was Vince O’Connor with 115lb. Vince was nearly opposite me and caught on the bomb all day. Nige directly opposite me had 75lb, all on paste including well over 20lb of skimmers!

It had also been noted that sticking to one method all day would generally see you reap rewards. Vince fished the bomb all day, not that far out by the looks of it, perhaps 20m and constantly flicked pellets over the top all day. Nige on the other hand had fished paste all day and come out with a section winning 75lb. Perhaps if I’d have stuck to the paste line and made it work or stuck to the bomb all day I’d have maybe caught a few more to push for the prizes? I was also fishing half way across which theoretically means it takes longer to get each fish in? A few small lessons learnt and hopefully I’ll push a bit harder in the next match at the venue!

Well, due to other high weights it meant no fluky pick up although I couldn’t be too down heartened as this is my biggest Starbeck Match weight and also my biggest weight at Woodlands which was previously 52lb on the pairs event last year.

I’ve a busy week this week, golf on Wednesday, cricket Thursday, work night on Friday and Thirsk races on the Saturday so I’ll see what frame of mind I’m in before booking onto Carp Vale this Sunday!

Monday 1 June 2009

31st May, Sessay - Cedar Open‏

With the Fish o’ Mania qualifier at Sessay next week there was quite a few in attendance, a few not so familiar faces obviously wanted to get a feel for the place. I arrived at the fishery at 9:30 giving me enough time for a bite to eat and get booked on. I think I was the 42nd name down and a few more booked on after me and in total 55 fished. The sun once again was beating down and it was predicted that we’d all struggle today. A weight of around 40lb should get you in the spoils, with a top 5 payout and 5 man sections there was plenty to play for.

The draw was a little late, so at 10:15 I decided my fate for the next 5 hours. Peg 43, this didn’t rally mean a lot to me as I’ve not fished the lake since the Christmas series. I’ve fished 47 and 48 before so I knew that 43 was on a point. When I got to my peg I was in a mixed mood about it, with the peg being on a bend it means you have plenty of water to go at, the only thing was that there wasn’t a breath of wind which might make the day even harder than predicted! To complete my misery I was pegged in an all star line up, Maver Barnsley’s Ian Bowman was on peg 41 to my left although he wasn’t in my section. Peg 42 was left out, Chris from Browning Quaker was on my right on 44, Preston’s Lee Kerry was on 46, not sure who was on 47 and Mark Coyne was on 49. So as with any open you have to be on your game if you want to pick up at the end of the day. I spoke with Chris on 44 and we both agreed that our pegs were good for 20lb but not much more. So I set about catching 20lb of fish and anything more would be a bonus, I was more bothered about keeping pace and not embarrassing myself though!

Cedar is an odd lake in the fact that basically the ‘in’ method changes so often, luckily it was either meat or pellet that would do the business, or so I was told. With not having vast experience with meat I decided to go down the pellet route as I’d have a bit more confidence in what I was doing.

Rigs for the day were as normal for the Oaks; I had a couple of 4x10 Malman Cedar’s set up on 0.14 Ultima Power Match, Hooklengths of 0.12 and B911’s in 16 or 18. I had one rig for in front of the sedges and one rig for the mud, or at least trying to get to the mud as the sedges were quite dense. I also set up a track rig at 4m so I was able to feed by hand through the match and hopefully snare the odd fish when I was struggling. I also had my method rod set up as a last ditch attempt but mainly if the wind picked up.

Bait was simple, some 4mm expanders, some micros and a tin of corn as a change bait, although I didn’t think it was a day for corn today, just a gesture for my side tray!

At the all in I threw a small handful of pellets to 4m and then shipped out to my first sedge, on the far left at 13.5m, tipped in some micros and dropped my 4mm expander into the ripples. I didn’t have to wait long before my first indication but the excitement was short lived when I dropped a gudgeon into the keepnet. Straight back out again and yet another gudgeon, I did this one final time before deciding to feed a full fruit shoot and move to another line. This was straight in front of the right sedge, there were a few sedges in the water which meant it was a difficult task to drop the bait in the right place, but perseverance soon paid off and I was into carp number one of the day. I thought it was bigger than was but a lovely mirror of about 2lb soon joined the gudgeon. Two small F1’s later and the gudgeon had moved in once again so I moved to another line to my right. This is how carried on for the rest of the day, sport was very slow but I was picking the odd fish up by changing lines and trying to catch one or two before moving on.

The middle of the match was very quiet so I went 15m to my left in front of the tree and managed to hook one first put in, a foul hooker, next put in another foul hooker, one final time and I was losing my rag. I put the shallower rig on and managed two carp of about 2lb a piece again before having to move swims again. It was a frustrating day not being able to get onto a ball of fish but I seemed to be fairing relatively well in my section.

In the last ten minutes I put 4 F1’s in the net and on time missed another bite, typical they turn up once time has gone!

At the all I reckoned on about 18lb, maybe a bit more, when the scales came round Ian Bowman weighed in 31lb, he’d caught all his shallow with plenty of tapping. I then put 21lb 8oz in the sling and was glad to have beaten my 20lb target. Chris next door weighed 17lb8oz, mainly silvers and he’d fed 4 pints of maggots through the match. Lee Kerry Tipped back, as did the lad on 47. My weight was looking good for a section prize until Mark Coyne weighed in 26lb 5oz. Still second place in a very difficult section, I can’t grumble at that!

Final result looked like this

James Dent (Maver Barnsley) 49-2-0, carp and F1s, pole and pellet, peg 52
Keith Mitchell (Garbolino Elton) 48-5-0
Brian Clarke (Oaks) 44-2-0
Chris Hall (Oaks) 43-12-0
Steve Rothery (Garbolino Ossett) 41-4-0
Adie Mitchell (Oaks) 40-12-0.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

May 23rd - Pleasure Session at Morndyke‏

Seeing as I was at Evolution festival in Newcastle on the Sunday and Monday I decided to make sure I got fishing on the Saturday so I didn’t miss a week. I’d spoken to Gordon and decided to join Honest John and himself up at Morndyke. After carrying out a few early errands I got to the fishery at just gone 9 and John and Gordon we’re just about set up. They we’re pegged on 7 and 8 so I decided to plump next to them round the corner on peg 9. I’ve never fished this area before and tend to fish on or towards the central island. I quite fancied a day on the method but all the pegs I fancied for this we’re taken so I opted to fish paste again and with a marginal bush on either side I had plenty of scope for different lines to fish.

Gordon and John were both fishing paste for the day too so it would be interesting to see what the outcome would be regarding who fed what and in what quantity etc.

I finally rigged up with a rig identical to the one from the week previous, and also mixed up some more of the pellet power+ paste. I first of all went out to the right bush and plumbed about for a bit. I decided to fish a foot or two away from the bush, one it meant the float was easier to see against the back drop and also the bottom flattened out nicely where as under the bush it was on a fairly steep gradient and I didn’t want all my feed to roll to bottom of the slope away from where I was fishing.

First put out with a blob of paste and half a dozen 6mm pellets and after a couple of minutes I was into my first fish. Now the fish in Morndyke average at about 4lb although that average will probably be nearer 4.5 to 5lb now! The bite was much just like a typical bite on any bait, not a frustrating bite you often get with paste, I played the fish for a minute or two as they fight like crazy in here and you just can’t get their heads up! I put the power on as it charged under the platform and we parted company. A couple of extra winds of elastic onto the bung and I wasn’t going to be beaten again!

Next put out I waited a minute or two and was soon attached to another, this led me a merry dance and due to the amount of pressure you have to put on them I ended up landing it with my number four still in place. It finally took a gulp of fresh air and soon nestled in the bottom of the net, this was a good fish by fishery standards, probably knocking on 6lb. I had a couple more before I felt the swim was fading away from me.

Now feeding patterns, Gordon didn’t seem to be feeding anything, John was big potting after every few fish and I was dripping half a dozen pellets in with my hook bait. The thing is no real trend could be found as we were all catching.

John had started fishing shallow and took one straight away. Seeing as my line had pretty much died I dumped a pot of bait in at 7m straight in front and a pot full down next to the bush also. I would then fish the 7m line and start feeding pellets at 13m every few seconds.

I managed to take a fish straight away off the deck at 7m but no more. I went back down the bush and managed a couple more but I had to wait a long time between bites. I’d been feeding the shallow line for the best part of 90minutes now and decided to give it a go, 30 minutes later and no signs what so ever I decided to sack it off and save my bait!

John and Gordon packed up at 4pm and by this point I think I had 11, John had 16 and Gordon had 19. I decided to stay on for a further hour as it had picked up a little. I managed four in the space of half an hour whilst they were packing away. It started to spit and I thought it was best to head home also so chucked the remainder of paste away but then the sun came out again and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so I pinched the rest of Johns left over paste and after they’d gone I managed another 3 fish in quick succession taking my tally to 18.

So another better weekend and a few more paste lessons learnt, I finished with 18 carp for about 70-80lb, easily my best result of the year and probably more than I’ve caught in the last few weeks put together!

No club match this coming weekend so probably another pleasure session somewhere, perhaps Morndyke again!

Monday 18 May 2009

May 17th - Pleasure Session at Sessay - Oaks Lake‏

With no club match this weekend and with the weather not looking too promising I was in two minds whether to go or not. However come dinnertime on the Sunday I was itching to go and decided on an afternoon up at Sessay where I planned on practicing my paste fishing. I arrived at the fishery at about 2:30 and all the lakes we’re matched up, there was no room on Alders, Poplars or Maple so I had a quick walk round Oaks and Firs and eventually decided to settle on the Oaks down the bottom end where Chris and Andy Nattrass were fishing. They’d both had a few on a variety of methods so I was fairly confident of catching a few for a change.

I’ve never really got into paste fishing but would quite like another string to my bow seeing as its wearing a bit thin of late and nothing seems to be working for me!

I only set up one rig, a 0.5g BGT paste float on 0.17 Powerline, a hooklength of 0.15 Powerline to a Mustad Carp Pellet in a size 14, although these hooks are a bit bigger than conventional hook sizes. Elastic was 14 Maver latex.

For bait today I mixed up some Sensas Pellet Power ground bait into a stiff paste with the view of adding more water the more confident I got with it. I also had a handful of 4mm pellets to kick start the swim.

I plumbed up carefully and settle on a flat area at about 7m. I’d plumbed up so that only the very tip of the float was showing however the shotting would only just drag the body under and the paste would do the rest of the work.

First put out with a ten pence size blob of paste and half a dozen pellets saw no action and when the float finally rose out of the water I struck to discover the paste had eventually gone. I would repeat this for the rest of the day and slowly build up a swim with my hook bait. On the third put in, the float rose out the water again and I just presumed the paste had disintegrated again before it slowly slid off into the depths and I was rewarded with my first fish, an F1 of about 2lb. For the next hour I was slowly building my swim and apart from a few liners I had nothing else in the net. I decided to dump in a small handful of pellets to see if I could interest a few more fish. By this time it was absolutely bucketing it down and most people were packing up or had already gone.

The big dump of bait had worked and I was soon into my second fish of the day, similar to the first, another good F1.

I’d been continually adding a bit more water to my paste so by the end of the session it was just about hanging on the hook and it proved to work as the bites were coming faster and easier to read.

I was slowly getting used to reading the bites and knowing when to strike and luckily I had plenty of chances to practice, I ended up putting 13 carp in the net, all at least 2lb a piece and a couple at 3 or 4lb, oh and one lonesome Ide! So all in all I probably had about 30lb in 3 hours, and the first hour I only had the one fish!

I’d had a really good day and given myself a proper induction into paste fishing. I just need a good draw on the next match to try it out again!

Monday 11 May 2009

May 10th - Sessay - Maple‏

With Gordon going to Holland straight after the match I had to make my own way to the venue for a change. I woke up with plenty of time to spare so after making my flask and packing the carryall I decided to make my top kits up and transport them to the venue ready to plumb up straight away. This would save me a bit of time before the match and I wanted to have a good plumb about on what ever peg I got and get a better feel for my swim. I’ve become a bit lazy and settling on fishing comfortable swims and not necessarily the right swims and so wanted to make a conscious effort of getting my rigs right for the day.

Come 9am and the draw was underway, ideally I wanted a peg between 30 and 45, we only had pegs 1-45 and I felt these latter few would throw up the better results. Needless to say I drew peg 4, I was still fairly confident but a difficult 7 man section would mean I’d have to pull out all the stops. Ian Farrington was on peg 1, Gordon was on peg 2, Owen was on peg 3, Leroy was on peg 5, Tel was on peg 6 and finally Nige was on peg 7. Owen is a new member to the club and told me it was from reading my blog that had encouraged him to join, I just hoped all my previous ramblings wouldn’t give him too much of an inkling into how to fish the venue!

Seeing as my top kits we’re already set up I set about preparing my expanders and then get on with the plumbing. I plumbed up from tree to tree on the far bank and found a fairly consistent depth of just over 2ft right across, although the right of my swim was perhaps 2 inches shallower. There was also a fair bit of crap in the water as the grass and the sedges had recently been cut, hopefully this wouldn’t hamper presentation.

I had 3 Malman Cedar 4x10 rigs set up, all on 0.14 to 0.12 Ultima Power match, one had a size 16 B911, one had a size 18 B911 and the other was set up for fishing to the mud again with a 16 hook. Elastics were 12 latex and 14 for the mud line. I also had a track rig set up.

Bait today I had everything for a change, the past few weeks I’ve limited myself so to not complicate things but when your baits aren’t working after the first few hours you’re left up poo creek without a paddle! So today I had half a pint of red maggots, some micros, some 4mm expanders, some 4mm meat, corn and even cat food in my bag as a back up!

At the all in I shipped out to the left sedge armed with a 4mm expander and tipped in a pinch of micros. After a lift and tap the float dibbed and I met this with a gentle lift, thus setting the hook and resulting in the first carp of the day, a mirror of about 3lb. After reading Clive Pritchard’s blog I decided to follow his rule of thumb in just gently lifting into bites rather than trying to yank the fishes head off, his reasoning was that if it’s a liner, that’s when you start foul hooking fishes in the upper depths, well, so far so good as this was hooked neatly in its top lip! I managed another 2 F1’s about 10 minutes apart which put me on about 7lb after the first half an hour. Then guess what happened? Correct, it went dead again, so many matches this year I’ve started off catching fairly well at the start of a match only to be kicked in the teeth and brought back down to earth! With our matches being 6 hours in duration it meant I went 5 hours without a fish before adding 3 further F1’s to the net by fishing as long in my peg as I could with corn and no feed. Meanwhile no one else was really catching either, most had a similar quantity to me and it was just a case of who had the bigger fish. However, Owen caught quite a few, he had at least double what I had and probably lost more than I had bites too, that’s the last time I tell him anything!

Come the weigh in, Gordon had to shoot off so I was left with weighing duty in his place. Ian on peg 1 weighed in 17lb odd, Gordon was next with 18lb odd and I thought to myself ‘’there’s another quid gone’’! Owen weighed in a very respectable 31lb which would easily take the section. I then weighed in, 14lb odd; ho hum…….another quid gone. Leroy weighed in 11 or 12lb, Tel had tipped back, as had Nige. There were then no real weights apart from those in the frame. T-Koz had 37lb, Stu Stott had 46lb odd, Chris Nattrass had 47lb to take the match win and Steve Hoddo made up the final placing with 41lb.

Even those who had weighed in over 40lb had said it fished crap, granted it did but try going 5 hours without a bite! Then you know its fished crap! Even the lads on the open had struggled to put any sort of weight together although Robbie managed a match win with nearly 70lb, I’m gonna have to take some lessons I think!

Wednesday 6 May 2009

April 26th - Sessay - Poplars‏

After a disappointing previous week, I’d tried to formulate a master plan which would hopefully overturn my run of bad form. Gordon picked me up, this week Rab had decided to have an early night so not to sleep in again!

We arrived at the fishery in good time and gave us chance to have a bite to eat and get some bait.

My bait for the day would hopefully cover every eventuality. I had a big tin of frenzied hemp, a pint of casters, half a pint of maggots, 4mm expanders and some dampened micros.

I was intending on fishing pellet for carp, and using the hemp and caster for everything! With the maggots to offer as a change bait.

At the draw I managed to pick out peg 38. By my reckoning this wasn’t a bad peg as it’s in a bay and you have quite a bit of water to go at. My section competitors for the day we’re Steve Hoddo on 42, Gordon on 41, Tupper-Ware on 39, someone on 36 and Honest John on 35. It was going to be very difficult to get anything from this match due to class of angler in my section, and Gordon….. Plus I owned the quid from the previous week and was reluctant in giving him it back!

I set up 2 lines for the far bank, one at 13m to my left for fishing pellet and a line at 15m straight out in front with caster and hemp. The fishing seemed to be enjoying themselves in the margin, time and a place please!

At the all in I went straight out to 15m with double caster on the hook and tip in a kinder of hemp and caster, I jiggled the float, lifted it and eventually after 15 minutes had an F1 in the net of about a pound. Straight back out and no more bites so I dumped in a big pot and went onto the pellet line as Gordon was catching and Tupperware was getting plenty of indication.

First drop in, with a pellet, I forced it tight to the cover and sprinkled a pinch of micros over the top, the float dipped then slammed under and after a 5 minute battle managed to put a common of about 4lb in the net, happy days! Next two put ins the same again and another two carp adding a pound and half each to my total.

Then the match for me and many other went a bit stale. I didn’t have a bite fish for the rest of the day, although I was hooking them. At one point I resorted to fishing the method on my pole so I could distance my pole tip from the fish but after a fruitless hour I was getting bored. Gordon was catching fairly regular but predominantly small fish. Tupperware had a good last hour and managed to catch up with Gordon a bit but it would be tight.

I fouled hooked 3 or 4 fish which all screamed off before either snapping me or attaching my rig to the island!

Come the weigh in I tipped back to save embarrassment, Honest John only had one foul hooked carp all day, the bloke to my right had 17lb I think, Tupperware had a low 20 which was good enough to beat Gordon’s even lower 20. the worst part of the day was yet to come, I sheepishly walked past Gordon and dropped a quid in his hand………..

Dennis Geldard won the match off peg 1, i think? With just over 50lb, so well done to him!

After missing the bank holiday weekend due to Uni commitments I’ll be glad to get back out on the bank with a few lessons learnt and a hunger to catch for a change!

Monday 20 April 2009

Partridge 19th April‏

Another week has rolled by and to mark the end of the week another club match. This time around we were on Partridge up at Woodlands. Gordon picked me up at 745, and there was no sign of Rab? Gordon had been to his before coming to mine and there was no sign of any life form, we went back to his after loading up the van with my gear but all the curtains were still shut and he wasn’t answering his phone, we would later find out that he’d had a night on the pop and slept in!

A quick sandwich and a visit to the shop for some fishery pellets before we started to unload the van. As we were finally loading the barrows and getting ‘dressed’ other club members were walking past and asking what peg we were on, we were drawing on time then! I managed to snare peg 14 and Gordon was to be on 23, we were both at the right end of the lake as all the weights had come from this top end on the previous few matches. Pete Whale was on corner peg 18 and I was fully expecting him to empty it if the lake was in the right frame of mind.

After having pretty minimal success up at Woodlands in the past I drew for some experience of some of the fishing forums. I got some good advice and formulated a plan of attack.

It was basically to fish a line at 6m with corn or expander over a light feeding of 6mm hard fishery pellets for the first three quarters of an hour and then move onto the long line which I’d have primed from the start by firing half a dozen 6mm pellets out every 10 seconds or so.

So with the plan of attack in place, I set up the following rigs to cope with every eventuality.

6m line - I had a 4x14 Preston float set up on 0.16 Ultima Power match, a hooklength of 0.14 to a size 16 B911, this had a bulk shot 2 feet away from the hook and a couple of droppers equally spaced thereafter. Elastic was size 14 Maver Latex.

14m deep line – this was the same set up as the 6m line just with a slightly deeper rig.

14m shallow line – this was a 0.2g Malman MTD1 on 0.16 straight through to a PR36 size 16 and a hair rigged band. Elastic for this was Preston Latex, size 16 and for the first time I laccied the kits up with Dacron connectors, hopefully I’d be able to snare a couple of fish and try it out.

Margin line – I didn’t intend on using this but set it up more as a desperation rig if I wasn’t catching.

Bomb – I teamed up my Shimano Catana medium feeder rod with a 4000 series Ultimate reel, mainline was 8lb Maxima, hooklength was 2ft of 0.16 Ultima Power match again with a PR36, 16 and a hair rigged band.

Bait for the day (in keeping with fishery regulations) was:

3 Tins of Corn (not that I intended to use them all)
2 Pints of fishery 6mm pellets
½ Pint of fishery 8mm pellets
The rest of my pellet quota was made up with some 6mm expanders and an array of different hookers.

Gordon finally called time, after getting permission of Stu; we wouldn’t want the match to start 2 minutes early again would we!

I shipped out to 6m with a dozen 6mm pellets, a couple of expanders and a couple of grains of corn and dropped them in. I decided to let it settle for 10 minutes and went out on the bomb to see if I could mug an early fish. Whilst on the bomb I had also started my rigorous feeding pattern on the 14m line.

No bites prevailed on the bomb and so after 10 minutes I went onto the 6m line expecting a bite straight away, I was wrong! When the float finally did dip at about 10:30 I was greeted by a skimmer of maybe 6oz. I plodded on with the 6m as I didn’t want to go long until at least 11 giving it an hour of constant feeding. As I was starting to get a bit fed up the float dipped and then yards of elastic poured out until the fish gave in and I slipped the net under a mirror of about 3lb, that’ll do! I carried on a bit longer than planned in the hope of another fish but no bites materialised.

Meanwhile Dennis Geldard on 13 had managed to carp for about 12lb and lost an absolute dog that was easily double figures. Martin Whittaker on 15 had had a skimmer but nothing else. Up on 17, Kev Bell was starting to extract a few fish and from where we were sat they all looked good fish too. Meanwhile Whaley on the end peg hadn’t had a thing.

I finally went to the long line at 11:15 and started on the deep rig. No sooner had the rig settled, the float dipped and I was into my first fish off the line, until it pinged off, a foul hooker. I repeated this twice more and losing another two fish before deciding it was perhaps time to go shallow!

Out with the shallow rig and the float was dipping but I couldn’t hit any bites, not that you need to really, generally they hook themselves and wake you up when you pole starts getting dragged off! I decided to try a bit deeper and see if they were sucking at the bait or if it was just smaller fish having a go. The extra depth didn’t bring me any more bites so I wrote it off as being small fish but kept feeding it.

Next plan was to go out on the bomb whilst continually feeding the long line. I would eventually just rotate lines and hope for bites, I couldn’t buy a bite anywhere although I did manage 3 more small carp and another skimmer on the bomb.

Kev Bell was now on about 30lb with 8 fish, Whaley I think only had one carp, Alan on 16 had had a couple and possible a similar weight to myself and either side of me still had the same 2 carp and one skimmer.

Entering the last hour it was dire, everyone was waiting for the final whistle and a few cheers echoed when the hooter finally went off.

I was hoping Kev had done enough to place in the top four as I’d not seen many catching and then hopefully push for my section.

Tony Minikin was leading with 91lb of carp taken on the bomb and ‘’50mm’’ pellet, quite an achievement on a very difficult day. There were a few 40’s and the odd 50 so my chance of a section had all but disappeared. I still however wanted to capture Dennis and Alan’s scalp for second in section. Dennis weighed his 2 fish in for 10lb 10oz, next up was myself and I surprised my self when the scale went to 12lb 12oz, with Martin not weighing his lonely skimmer in it at least meant I’d beaten either side. Alan weighed 12lb 11oz so I ounced him, get in! Next up was Kev who have just over 30lb, Whaley then surprised me when he weighed in 19lb 12oz of skimmers and Ide, all on maggot, his plan B worked, or at least better than mine! Over the other side there were weights averaging between 18-30lb with the odd bigger weight thrown in. Gordon hadn’t weighed in so I was at least taking my quid back from last week!

Overall a very frustrating day and I’m not sure why it didn’t produce as we’d all expected. The lake was flat calm all day and the sun baking hot which could have had something to do with it but you still expect more than 6 fish over 6 hours! Next week is Poplars up at the Oaks and I’m in 2 minds whether to go or not, but come the end of the week I’m sure I’ll be raring to catch next to nothing once more!

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Maple 12th April

It’s been quite a while since I last blogged so I’ve got a bit to catch up on.

We had a few knock up matches up at Morndyke a few weeks back where I managed to come 2nd with 3 carp and Gordon came 1st with 6 if I remember rightly, a couple of weeks before that I managed to lose 2 carp early on and subsequently blanked, Gordon won that time too with 8 or 9 carp, most of which were caught in the last hour.

We went to Woodlands probably a month ago now and I once again managed to draw Kestrel, I managed 3 carp throughout the whole match for about 7lb, certainly nothing to write home about!

Easter weekend, we had the second of our club matches on the Sunday, I’d missed the first one as I was moving into my new flat, plus it was at Brafferton and I didn’t fancy gudgeon bashing for six hours.

We were up at The Oaks, Sessay where our match was to be held on Maple, pegs 24-66. Gordon and Rab arrived at 7:45; we quickly loaded the van up and were on our way. A steady drive and catch up saw us arrive at the complex at around 8:15.

Typically the draw was a little bit late, as I walked into the shop Rab had already drawn his peg and managed to snare boss peg 66 which is throwing up some weights at the minute so he pretty much ran towards his peg. Gordon was on 28 and I managed 26, with it being peg, miss a peg it meant we were next to each other. Robert was on 24, his missus was on 32 and Martin Whittaker was on 30 which would complete our section.

I set up an array of rigs to fish to the island; I had 2 rigs with 4x12 Malman Cedars, one on 0.14 and one on 0.12, plus two identical rigs but with 4x10 floats. Elastics were 10 and 12 Maver Latex.

Gordon sounded the hooter a couple of minutes early and you could here people moaning all around the lake!

First put in on a 4mm expander, I dripped in some micros and was getting the odd liner until the float buried; we soon parted company although I was straight back out to catch the culprit, an F1 of about 8oz. Gordon had a few better fish early on and took a considerable lead of what I assumed to be about 6lb.

I plugged away swapping between rigs and swims and managed to put a couple more fish in the net before a lull of perhaps half an hour before the same run of fish again. Gordon shouted over and asked how many I’d had, I replied that I’d had a couple of stockies and a common of maybe 4lb. Gordon replied with ‘you kept that 4lber quiet’, although not all of us have to make a song and dance about every fish we catch, I said that next time I caught a bonus fish I’d stand up on my box and make the whole lake aware before doing a lap of honour! Thankfully that was my only big fish of the day!

It was quite a tedious match and because I’d not been fishing in probably a month it wasn’t filling me with any confidence for the upcoming matches. Maple as a lake is one that I have some confidence in as I’ve done average to quite well on in the past and it suits my ‘style’ of fishing, although by the end of the match I felt I’d taken a backward step more than anything else. The back straight where we were was fishing pretty poorly in comparison to the other parts of the lake though so it was all about going for the section win.

Approaching the last hour I feel I only had a maybe 15lb, Gordon was admitting to 20lb although I knew he was lying. A last ditch attempt meant I had to push to right hand side of the island at 15 meters where I managed another half dozen small F1’s as well as losing a good fish. I knew I’d not won the section but it would be interesting to see what I had in the net. Robert had started catching in the last couple of hours and thought he might have pushed me too.

I’d not realised either but Robert and I were on weighing in duty, which meant I’d get a nice thorough soaking before we headed back! Robert weighed in just over 20lb and I thought it was going to be tight, I managed to plonk 25lb 2oz on the scales and surprised myself as I didn’t think I’d have 20lb. Gordon then managed to up the bar by chucking 30lb odd on the scales which meant he took my quid, I told him I’d be having it back at Woodlands next week! Gordon took the section as Martin put about 23lb is on the scales.

There were some good weights in all the other sections with Stu and Woody ounces apart with over 48lb each but Woody narrowly took the section. Bob the builder claimed the next section with 55lb odd.

Then came the bagging section. I’ve to thank Honest John for giving me a work out, 4 weighs later he’d put a total of 116lb on the board which coincidentally resulted in another match win for the Starbeck Champion. John was on peg 62 and fished maggot shallow to the aerator. Tony Koz managed 68lb 8oz for second place overall and finally to weigh in was Rab. I asked him why he only had one net on the boss peg as we had a 50lb per net rule but he wasn’t biting. Rab also managed to triple default his section and took home the spoils.

So this week I let the team down with both Rab and Gordon picking up, I asked them if we were still sharing the winnings but they both told me the same thing, ho hum!

Well Woodlands next week and for once I can guarantee I won’t be on Kestrel! I better get making some beefy rigs up!

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Sun 25th Jan - Woodlands Open

Well with last weekend being terrible regarding weather conditions I must say I didn’t really fancy it. So when this weekend came around I was eager to get back on the bank even though the weather once again looked a little suspect. Although this week I finally had my new jacket after waiting for a few weeks to swap it so hopefully I’d stay nice and dry.

I arrived up at Woodlands a bit later than normal, probably 8:45 and so quickly paid on and bought my bait. There were about 40 booked on by 9 o clock and so four lakes were put in. Curlew was a 6 peg section, Kestrel was another 6 peg section and Skylark and Partridge had a section per bank.

I managed to draw Kestrel 28, in fairness I didn’t know if this was a good or bad draw but I was soon told it was a crap draw! Apparently the lake was won the day before with 10lb+ of silvers. So I was essentially fighting for my section and with this in mind I thought I’d try the first half hour on bomb and corn and see how it went then fish for silvers for the middle four hours and depending on how it was going I’d swap to the bomb again for the last half hour.

I got round to my peg and the 6 of us on the 38 peg lake obviously had plenty of room. I had Mark Longhurst from the shop to my left on 25, someone else on 31 and three others opposite including Rab.

The lake was flat calm and there was only a slight wisp of wind that would occasionally drift through.

I already had the bomb set up so cracked on with setting up the pole. I set up two identical rigs to fish at 11m, the only reason I set two up was in case I hooked a big un and got broke, it would just speed things up a bit. I was using a 4x14 carbon stem, very fine tip bristle Milo float on 0.12 Ultima Power Match to a hooklength of 0.10 Powerline and a Middy 63:13 size 20. Elastic was size 8 Maver Latex.

At the call of time I shipped out to my 11m line which was at 1 o’ clock and tipped in a dozen maggots and a couple of pieces of corn. I then baited up with corn and cast the bomb out. I was only giving it five minutes before recasting in the hope I could cast onto a carps head! The first hour went by without even a liner and this was typical for everyone. Mark to my left went on the pole line a few minutes before me and was getting silvers, one a chuck and had also had a carp of about 4lb. I thought it was definitely time to drop in on the pole line, first drop in and I was rewarded with a small roach, this carried on for the remaining four hours, and I managed to put maybe 60 fish in the keepnet over this time, so by no means frantic but I was still happy continually putting fish in the net, be it a skimmer, roach, gudgeon or even a rudd!

With about 45 minutes to go Rab had a carp on the bomb, then the bloke opposite me had one, with not wanting all my hard work silver bashing to be undone I baited up the bomb rod again and cast out to the middle. I had a couple of pulls before the tip flew round and I was soon rewarded with a carp, although be it only about 2lb it was still a boost. I recast and had continuous liners until the final hooter sounded and the match was brought to a close.

It was to be close and come the weigh in Rab was leading with a low 11lb, Mark put 11lb 8oz on the scales and then it was my turn, I’d managed 9lb 13oz of which at least 7.5lb was made up of silvers so I just needed a slightly bigger carp! The bloke to my right managed 7lb 10oz of silvers and had also been kept relatively busy but missed out on the weight boosting single carp.

Back to the car park and Gordon had managed to win his section and the match overall was won with 71lb off Skylark I think where as the back up weights were all around 25/26lb and all came from Curlew.

All in all I’d had a nice day, the weather almost spoilt things in the middle of the match but it didn’t last and I’d managed to come somewhere near on a venue I don’t have too much experience in although I did learn a few lessons throughout the match.

  1. I should have possibly tried to fish closer in, i.e. six metres instead of 11 would have perhaps seen me put a few more in the net.
  2. Maybe even risk fishing the full five hours for this duration, if I had say 8lb in four hours, that’s 10lb in five hours, teamed with fishing short could well push for a winning weight.

We’ll just have to wait and see though!

Monday 12 January 2009

Jan 11th - Sessay - Alders

I did manage to squeeze one match in before the end of 2008; I fished the open at Woodlands and had 4 carp for 15lb 6oz, which was only good enough for second in section and 3rd on my lake.

The first club match of the year was on Alders up at the Oaks, I tend to fish either terrible or really well on here, no real in between. Gordon and I arrived nice and early at just after eight and had a good hearty breakfast, they don’t half fill you up but at least you don’t feel hungry for the rest of the day!

There were 14 booked on today, as Stu took the remaining money Robbie and I pegged out the match as fair as we thought possible, though I expected there to be a few complaints. We can’t all fish the same peg though can we?!

I was almost last to draw and all that was left in the bag was 13, 15 and 33, ideally I fancied one of the two earlier pegs so I was relatively pleased when I drew peg 15, leaving Gordon on 33 and Stu on 13.

I got round to my peg and ‘got dressed’, I had some new thermal under trousers on today that I’d bought from Matalan for a quid, and as it turns out, their brilliant, what a bargain!

I got the box levelled and all the pole out, I found that to be on the slope I needed to fish 15m to just get onto it. I’d tied up two rigs the night before as when I looked in my box I didn’t really have anything adequate. I shipped out with one of them, a wire stem 4x14 with a nice thin bristle and the rig was miles too short, I tried the other rig but this was also too short. Buggar, I ended up using a pretty crude rig that I had left over from months ago, it was a 0.7g body down roach float which incorporated an olivette and a few droppers.

I also set up a rig for half depth (3ft) as a gesture but didn’t think I’d need it.

With the match starting in five minutes I realised I’d forgotten to get my bait so quickly ran to the shop for half a pint of red maggots. This was all I would use today although I did have some corn to use on the bomb if the ice thawed out on the island.

At the sound of the hooter I went out straight in front to 15m and cupped in half a dozen maggots and dropped the rig in on top. I had no indications for the first 10-15 minutes where as Stu had managed 2 small carp by big cupping liquidised bread in after every fish. The ducks then landed in my swim and pushed a mass of ice right where I was fishing so I decided to move to 15m at 1 o’ clock and set up a new line on the mark of half an hour. I tipped in another half a dozen maggots and waited. Stu managed another 2 small carp before his bites dried up. I think he’d now fed 4 cups of liquidised bread and as I watched him cup in the 5th my float disappeared but I missed the bite. I then foul hooked 2 fish and lost them both. I then managed to foul hook a Barbel of about 3lb in its pectoral fin but graciously tipped it into the keepnet.

I kept foul hooking fish throughout the day and tried up to a foot over depth and foot off bottom and everywhere in between but could only foul hook fish! Over the course of the match I lost 12 foul hookers, it doesn’t help sitting near Acko in times like these, although I probably provided his best bites of the day by snapping back at him!

By the end of the match I had 2 proper carp, 2 Barbel, 4 F1’s and an Ide but was still disgruntled at the thought of what weight I could have had. I felt pretty confident in the knowledge that I’d won the match mainly due to so many people walking round during the match as they weren’t catching so I was getting a pretty regular update that no one was really catching.

At the weigh in I was glad to be packing away as I was so frustrated at the amount of fish I’d lost and more so why I couldn’t locate them properly. I think through the match I only hooked two in the mouth, all the rest were in their fins, their backs, chins, foreheads, anywhere but the mouth! I managed to weigh in 20lb 8oz which seemingly was good enough to win the match, Gordon came 2nd with 9lb 15oz so I’d won pretty comfortably and it would also make for a pleasant trip home as we’d both picked up.

So in one sense a good start to the year in terms of reward but its still annoying me as I’m writing this that I should have weighed in at least double what I did!