Wednesday 17 August 2011

Woodlands - Partridge 14th August

After a week of bad weather I was massively unsure of how this match would fish. I had a little think the week previous and thought that I tend to plan my match in my head before I get to a venue and don’t take into account the day itself. So this week I decided to make my plan once I’d got to the venue and tailor my approach to the conditions.

I arrived a full café at half eight and paid on. By the time my sandwich order came through at five to nine I decided to get it take out and eat at my peg. I popped to the shop and got some fishery pellets before loading my barrow. I was making my way back to the café and the draw had nearly finished. With only four pegs left in the bag I drew peg 5. Dependant on the day, depends whether any of the pegs will fish or not so I was still unsure what to make of it, although Andy Nattrass had over a ton off I think this peg, on a previous match.

For company I had Martin Dodsworth on peg 2 and John “I’ve only got 8” Livesey on peg 7. On sitting down at my peg, it was evident that someone had been there recently as all the bushes in the left margin were nicely hacked back and there were what looked like a lot of soggy 8mm pellets littered around the platform. I levelled my box and sat down for a few minutes assessing what my days attack would be. I finally decided to concentrate my main swim fishing shallow at 13m, with it being warm but overcast and a gentle breeze blowing through causing a nice little ripple I fancied it for a few shallow. I would also plumb up a deep line at 13m to fish paste when the shallow line died off. Whilst i was prepping the 13m swim I would fish a line slightly to the left at 6m where I’d hopefully mug a few fish. I also plumbed up down the left margin for the last hour as the fish can really come onto the feed late on and they tend to be big, not that I ever seem to catch them! Finally I had my method rod set up to fish into open water should I need to, although I’d change this to a running bomb if I had time.

I plumbed up all my swims to dead depth and marked my top kits in case of any breakages or tangles, this way I could adjust my float back to the mark and be sure that I was fishing at the correct depth again. This is something I used to do all the time in matches and pleasure sessions but I seem to have not bothered over the last few months, when I wish I had!

My bait for the day was 4 pints of 6mm pellets, 2 pints of 8mm, a big bag of corn and a tub full of green swim stim paste. I also had a few 6 and 8mm expanders for the hook if the going was tough.

The all in was called at 10am and we were away, I went out to the 13m line and big potted some 6mm pellets in from a reasonable height to cause a bit of a disturbance. I also big potted corn down my edge but sneaked this in with my pot under the surface. I went out onto the 6m line with a 6mm expander and tipped in a dozen hard pellets and a few bits of corn. I started pinging a few pellets over the long line to begin my shallow approach and everything was falling into place. In the first half an hour I was half heartedly fishing my 6m line whilst prepping the long line. First put in on the 6m line, my float had barely settled before the float buried and elastic was pouring out, I’m assuming it was foul hooked as it snapped my 0.16 hooklength somewhere in the middle of the lake. I put a new hooklength on, re-measured my depth and we were back in business. I only managed 4 small skimmers in the first half an hour before deciding to have a look on the shallow line.

I baited up my shallow rig with an 8mm hard pellet, the rig was set at about 20 inches, with a 10 inch lash so I had plenty of scope for altering the depth up and down if I needed too. I shipped out, fired some feed out before slapping the rig half a dozen times and finally letting it settle amongst the feed. I repeated this every 30 seconds or so and after five minutes the tip of the pole buried under the surface and it was fish on. I fired a few more pellets about after guiding it out of the feed area and shipped down to my top five, normally I’d ship down to the top kit but with limited space behind I had to break down twice. When I’d got it back to the top five, I trapped it between my knees and fed again before attempting a go at landing the fish. After a fairly big tussle I had a mirror of about 8lb in the net. I re-fed before unhooking it and slipped it into the net. I decided to tighten my elastic up a couple of turns on the bung just to make sure they didn’t snag me on the margin boards. I repeated this again and although not frantic, at the half way point of the match I had 10 fish for an estimated 65lb. This was far beyond my expectations and I had my first Starbeck ton set firmly in my sights! Honest John had moved shallow too but wasn’t getting many indications on the pole and was now on the pellet waggler and was admitting to a dozen. I couldn’t see many other people bagging but everyone was catching a few.

Rab walked past and asked how I was getting on, this essentially killed my swim, I only managed 2 more carp, a tench and a couple of smaller carp for the remainder of the match, this was by switching between shallow, paste and the margin. Looking back I should have fished bomb in the last couple of hours but because my rod was set up with a method I dismissed it as I couldn’t be bothered to change it (which would have taken all of a couple of minutes!). I was so set on making my shallow line work for the rest of the match that I had the blinkers on to make anything else work, even when watching Paul and Tony catching opposite on the bomb!

Come the weigh in, Martin was first off peg 2 and weighed 76lb odd. It would be close between the two of us again as I was admitting to 75lb. Two weighs later and I recorded 79lb11oz, this is my new Starbeck PB so all wasn’t lost! Honest John was up next and his 18 carp went 113lb! All the weights on the remainder of our bank beat me with a couple of 80’s and another ton.

The top 3 looked like this:

Stu “Superstar” Stott – 132lb odd
Stu Turner – 116lb odd
Honest John – 113lb odd

The match on the whole had fished very well, out of 14 anglers, my 79lb was only good enough for 7th, Rab managed 103lb or so and didn’t even win his section!

We’ve not got a match next week so I’m not sure where to go, I’m off on holiday the following week though so I’ll have to cram somewhere in!

Friday 12 August 2011

The Oaks, Cedar - 7th August

This week we were up at The Oaks and we were fishing on Cedar. After doing a bit of reading through old magazines and trawling through the internet I’d decided to finally fish maggot for a full match. The method seems to work pretty well up there as you’re catching Ide, Barbel F1’s and anything that swims. After a quick chat with Ghandi though, he said if you fish maggot now you’ll just get bitted out by small Roach, something I didn’t fancy, so once again I’d be trying my hardest at fishing pellet whilst trying to meet my target of 40lb! Today was predicted to be hard, the winds were forecast strong with gusts up to 31mph, there had also been a lot of rain over night which followed a week of muggy overcast weather.

We were on pegs 50 to 80 this week, I’ve never been anywhere near these pegs on Club or Open matches so it would hopefully make a nice change!

Come the draw I took the last peg out of the bag and peg 61 was to be by home for the day. For company I had James on 59, Honest John on 62, Martin Dodsworth on 64, Cooksy on 65, Acko and Stu were also on the point on the late 60’s.

I already had my rigs set up on top kits, 2 method rods set up and all of my hook baits prepared so I had enough time for a decent plumb about. The wind was very strong blowing from left to right and it would prove difficult to fish the pole all day if it were to stay like this. I plumbed up one line in front of the sedges in two and a half foot water, I was able to fish this rig in front of 3 or 4 patches of sedges due to the depth being fairly consistent. I also had as rig set up for fishing tight against the bank, although this was much deeper than I was expecting, usually I look for 10-12 inches but I was getting over eighteen inches! I set up a paste line for down the track but didn’t really want to use it. I had a shallow rig that I could fish over the paste line too, just in case. Finally a rig to fish down each margin should the fish come over the feed towards the end of the match. A quick chuck of the method feeder to set my clip and I was ready, although only just, good job I had all my rigs already set up, plumbing all those rigs proved to take longer than I thought!

At the all in I fed both margins with a small handful of corn and would aim to keep feeding with a pinch of corn every ten minutes or so. I shipped out with the sedge rig, with a 4mm expander and some micros and we were away, the float bobbed before a little lift, I struck and was rewarded with a small skimmer. I repeated this a few more times until I had 4 skimmers in the net before finally getting my first proper fish, an F1 of about a pound and a half. The wind was very strong by now so I decided to come off the sedge line and try fish it with method instead. I was straight hooking a 4mm expander and hiding it in the green swim stim feed. I managed a couple more F1’s and small carp before I was waiting far too long between bites, looking back I should have maybe searched my swim with this as I got the feeling the fish weren’t in the settling mood.

John on 62 had managed to hook 3 shallow at 8m and put 2 out of the 3 in his net, this was a good invitation for me to have a go seeing as I wasn’t fairing any better on my other lines. I pinged out a few 4mm pellets to 8m, shipped out and slapped the rig a few times before letting it settle. The float dipped and as I struck I felt a bump signalling it was more than likely a liner. I slapped the rig again and this time was rewarded with a 2lb mirror. I carried on for another 15 minutes but no more bites materialised.

At the half way point I reckoned I had about 13lb and from what I could see and hear, no one was bagging anywhere. I had a quick look down the edge on the off chance and managed another small mirror on the first put in but this again was a lonely fish.

I decided to pile the bait in down the edge and try and force them to feed. Every half an hour for second half of the match I cupped in a big pot of corn on each line and eventually started cupping half pots of 4mm pellets in too to get there heads down.

I switched between all the lines for the remainder of the match but didn’t really get going on any of them, although I did manage a couple more F1’s.

The last hour arrived and I decided to stick to switching between the margin swims, depending if any bites were on the cards. I managed 5 fish in the last hour, 4 small mirrors and one big common at about 5lb.

The final horn sounded and I got the feeling everyone was glad that the match was over, as it had been gruelling! Mainly due to the wind!

The weigh in began and the first section, if I remember correctly didn’t have a weight over 20lb! James weighed a mid 20lb, I managed to stick 31lb 12oz on the scales, John weighed 25 ish, Martin weighed weighed 31lb 14oz, although I wasn’t sure if we were in the same section? Acko plonked a stand out weight of 60lb on the scale after feeding half the tackle shop down the edge and Stu managed 35lb.

Although I’d not done my 0lb target I was still fairly chuffed with the outcome although as it turned out, Martin had beaten to the section by 2oz! Overall I came 5th which is the best I’ve done since returning to fishing this year so I can take a positive from that at least. Oh and Gordon handed me a shiny pound coin too, which was nice of him!

The top 6 looked like this:

1st Mick Atkinson – 60lb odd
2nd Stef Armitage – 37lb odd
3rd Stu Stott – 35lb odd
4th Martin Dodsworth – 31lb 14oz
5th Steve Lupton 31lb 12oz
6th Rab – 30lb odd

Monday 1 August 2011

River Wharfe - 29th July, Carp Vale 31st July

With the weather being kind all week, I decided I’d have another go down on the River Wharfe at Pool. I headed down there after I’d finished work and was probably fishing by 5 o’ clock. I cast out a maggot feeder into a slightly deeper looking pool, about two thirds across the river with a maggot feeder and a 12 inch hooklength with 4 maggots on the hook. I was hoping that by putting 4 maggots on the hook the minnows might be put off. I was wrong, the tip never sat still with the minnows shaking the maggots off one by one. Another big problem was the amount of weed in the river, I ended up putting a new hooklength on with a hair rigged cork ball and maggots on the hook, just to keep the bait out of the weed, this did no good either though. I persevered with the swim for a couple of hours, even free lining a big black slug didn’t show any signs! I moved to a little gravel bed just downstream of the weir but the minnows were still proving a nuisance, although I didn’t have any problem with weed there. So in short, not a very productive evening but there’s not many nicer places to have a doze than down by the river!

Sunday arrived, and feeling a little ropey from the night before I made my way to Carp Vale with a bottle of Lucozade, this was probably the ideal time for a big breakfast, unfortunately its one of the few venues without a café, I’ve since realised an apple is not an adequate substitute for a big breakfast!

After the disappointments last year by the majority of people who fished the match lake, this season, Cyprio and Front Pool were to be used in the matches, not necessarily making it fairer as it’s treated like two separate matches anyway but at least everyone should have a good days fishing.

I received a lovely polished pound off Mr Thackwray from last week but gave it straight back to him for the football card, which again, I didn’t win. There were 16 of us in attendance today which meant we’d have 8 on each lake so we’d have plenty of room.

We drew at 9am and I managed peg 66, this is on the front pool and from what I could remember, this would be a good method peg. So much for a lot of room though, Kev was on p67, Gordon was on p66 and Andy was on 64. Granted I don’t fish here that often and these might all be good pegs on their own but when they’re all in? We’d have to see. Making up the numbers on my lake, Honest John was on the easiest peg on the lake with an island in pole distance, Bob the Builder and the two Tony’s were all on the opposite bank.

Once I’d plonked all the gear down and got my box sorted, I set about setting my clip for the method. After a quick chat with Kev, we decided he could have the clump of reeds between us and I’d fish the other side of the island. I clipped up to fish just in front of the reeds off the point of the island, and with fish cruising and crashing all over the lake I was fairly confident of a good day, especially after the last I fished here I had over 70lb. I set up a paste rig which would cater for a swim at 13m in front and 6m to my right. Finally I had a shallow rig to fish at 13m over my paste line.

I made sure that everything was just right before the match started, as last time; I missed out on a payout, mainly due to messing about during the match and losing fish. The all in sounded at 10am and we were away. I big potted some 6mm pellets and a few bits of paste on both lines and then fired the method out to the reeds. Five minutes past and I was already worried, no one had had a signal yet, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, nothing? I stuck with the method for 45 minutes and managed a couple of lines but these were by fish in the middle of the lake as I saw them boil on the surface at the exact moment I got a liner.

I dropped onto the 13m paste line and standard with paste I was getting a thousand and one indications but not connecting with any fish. I eventually put a carp in the net of about 3lb; I swapped onto the short paste line and managed another carp straight away of a similar size. I kept swapping between these two lines and put a “skimmer” that was probably a bream due to it being a dark bronze and about 3lb! I also put a nice crucian in the net that would’ve been about a pound and a half.

At the halfway point I was sitting on about 11lb with 4 fish, not brilliant! Although everyone else was struggling too, Andy had had a few on the tip, Gordon was fairing similarly to me on the tip, Kev had had a few silvers and lost a carp. The opposite side of the lake weren’t doing any better either. In fact it was only John on the easy peg and Tony Koz who were putting many fish in the net although they were both losing more than they were catching through foul hookers and snags.

I swapped between all my lines for the rest of the match and managed 2 more carp and a tench. I reckoned I might just scrape 20lb! So a poor day, but at least it was crap for everyone.

The weigh in ensued, Andy weighed 26lb odd, Gordon 25lb 4oz, Kev DNW’ed, then I was next, it was closer than I thought for the quid with Gordon, I weighed in 25lb dead, though that I feel may have been generous! Tony Koz weighed 52lb odd, Tony Minikin 25lb odd, Bob DNW’ed and John weighed 48lb. So all in all it was very close on our lake apart from Tony and John, both of them could fish to an island with the pole, granted they both lost a lot of fish but at least there were fish there for the taking!

The other lake had fished equally poor with Martin Dodsworth coming second with 36lb and Stu “Superstar – needs banning next season” Stott weighing in 91lb!

Next week its Cedar up at the Oaks, one of my aims this year was to catch over 40lb on a match at the Oaks, this is something I cant seem to do but always come close with big 30lb weights but always not quite there! Wish me luck!