Friday 28 October 2011

Woodlands - Mallard - 23/10/11

This week we were on Mallard up at Woodlands. Mallard is one of the older match lakes at up at Woodlands and is rarely used as an open match lake but more for club matches and pleasure anglers. The last few times I’ve fished any of these older lakes they’ve fished very poorly, this is put down to a rumour of a big fish kill last winter during the deep freeze. The lakes have subsequently been stocked with small carp to boost the abundant roach and skimmer population. It was probably down to these reasons that there were only 10 of us booked on today. With 1st and 2nd prizes and a section a bank it was well worth putting in a decent performance as there was a 40% chance of picking up a brown envelope! Success would probably ride on the draw though, with the corner pegs generally out fishing the rest of the lake, especially at this time of year.

Prior to the match I’d decided on targeting the skimmers on a couple of lines and trying to get my head down for the day as it would be a race to catch as many as possible! The draw ensued and the last 3 pegs left in the bag were 1,10 and 19, all corner pegs. John drew 10, Stu drew 19 which left me with 1. So the plan would need to be revised somewhat as there would be a potential of catching from the side bank at the end of the lake.

I set up three rigs in total, one for fishing to a small bunch of sedges on the right hand bank at 15m, this was a 0.2g BGT shallow long float on 0.14 Ultima Power Match mainline and an 0.12 hooklength with a size 18 B911, this was complemented with a size 12 latex elastic. My next rig was my skimmer rig for fishing at 11m with a swim at 11 o’ clock and 1 o’ clock. This was a 0.3g Preston silver on 0.12 mainline and an 0.10 hooklength, this was finished off with a double 5 latex elastic. My final rig was the same as the skimmer rig but for fishing shallow, the only differences were the float which was a 4x10 Preston PB2 and the elastic was an 8 latex.

For bait today, I had a pint of whites, half or reds, some green swim stim groundbait, this was mixed on the dry side so it would only just hold its shape after a good squeeze. I also had an array of expander pellets for the hook from 4-8mm, and feed pellets were soaked 4mm hard pellets. The skimmer lines would be a maggot and groundbait approach with the odd 4mm used on the hook as a change and hopefully to pick off the better fish. I would fish either 6 or 8mm hooker on the carp line towards the sedges and feed 4mm rather than micros so to not get plagued by nuisance small fish, 15metres is a long way to go when your only bringing roach back!

The match kicked off at 10 o’clock and I shipped out to my first 11m skimmer line with a pot of groundbait and a dozen maggots, I repeated this on the second line before feeding the long line with 20 4mm’s.

First put out onto the right hand 11m swim and the float dipped and it was roach number one in the swim, I repeatedly swapped between the two lines before catching 2 fish off the right swim and one off the left as the bites were quicker on the right swim. After maybe a dozen roach I had my first skimmer of about 3oz, closely followed by a lull in bites of a minute or two and then two small stocky carp of 8oz a piece. Both swims then went quiet so I decided to re-feed the same again and have a look on the long line as Stu opposite was catching some sizeable fish off the aerator.

I went across armed with a 6mm hooker and half a dozen feed pellets and straight away the float was dancing all over the place, soon enough though I hooked a decent fish, up on getting to the net I saw it was around 2lb and then hook pulled! Marvellous! I put it to the back of my mind and went straight back across. I managed a run of maybe 10 fish before it went quiet again, they were all between 8oz and a pound so I wasn’t putting a huge weight together but I was easily winning my bank from what I could see although I knew Stu and John were catching fairly well too.

I re-fed the long line and fished for skimmers again for half an hour but wasn’t really getting anywhere, I was having to wait far too long between bites and the fish weren’t of any size. By now Stu was well in the lead and I’d heard John had caught quite a few so it was a case of getting my head down to push for second place and at least cement the section prize.

I went back over to the long line and managed another 7 or 8 carp in about 90 minutes, so it was fairly slow but they were all about pound each so worth having.

It went really iffy again and with only half an hour left I thought I’d try bag up on a few silvers to add those vital ounces! I’d been throwing half a handful of maggots to 4m in front of me and there’d been the odd swirl from small fish so thought it worth a go shallow. I went out with the shallow rig, slapped it in, fed and managed a roach of 2 ounce before repeating, I ended up putting a long lash on and essentially fished my top kit like a whip, I managed over 20 roach and rudd in fifteen minutes for nearly 2lb before I saw a big swirl on my long line. I dropped the “whip” and went straight onto it and managed 3 further carp for about 5lb in the last 15 minutes, which was a much welcome bonus including one on time!

The match had fished odd, I’d have expected more results from the skimmer lines but they dies as quickly as they started, with catching in spells and catching a lot of small fish I was unsure as to what I had but I’d hopefully won my bank.

I packed up quickly and due to being on peg one I was weighing in. I weighed 25lb 12oz and was fairly chuffed, I must have had 70-80 fish in total! Perhaps I was catching in longer spells than I thought! Mick Ayre on the next peg didn’t weigh in, we had a guest on the next peg who had a lovely net of silvers for just shy of 10lb. Rab was next with 12lb ish I think and last but not least Cooksey had 15lb off the other end peg. So I’d definitely won my section but was awaiting the other banks results. Honest John weighed over 36lb so I’d have to settle for the section, Stu romped the match with 91lb (this was nearly as much as everyone else’s weights combined!!!). Gordon ended up winning their bank by double default with 13lb, which meant I’d taken another quid from his pension!

So two sections on my last two matches are showing that things might be getting better, with our last scheduled match next weekend up at the Oaks can I make it 3 pickups in a row?

Top three looked like this.

1st – Stu “Superstar” Stott – 91lb
2nd – Honest John – 36lb
3rd – Steve Lupton – 25lb 12oz

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Carp Vale - Cyprio + Front pool 25th September, Woodlands - Skylark 2nd October, Oaks - Maple 9th October

After being on holiday for a couple of weeks we were at Carp Vale for hopefully a good days fishing, though I was a bit dubious with the last match fishing terribly.

My holiday saw me travel around Tuscany for a week, squeezing in a bit of fishing (of course). One of the campsites we stopped at backed on Lake Biguglia, a vast water that didn’t show up any information regarding fishing on a quick Google search, so myself and a couple of the lads rigged up simple waggler tactics on telescopic rods with a tin of corn for hook bait. We sat ourselves at the edge of a little harbour right next to the tents and on watching the locals, they were swinging in the odd roach which was encouraging although they were no more than an ounce or two. We cast in, sparked a fag, opened a beer and sat back in the evening sun and anticipated the roach sport! To our surprise when one of our floats did go under we were greeted with a fair bit of resistance, this was no roach! No it was a small common carp of about 2lb. In total we managed 30 between us whilst the locals caught about a dozen roach at best! This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a European Championship, so thankfully I can reflect positively that we’d done England proud!

Back to the Carp Vale match. There were 15 of us on today with 7 on Cyprio and 8 on the Front Pool. I was undecided as to which lake I’d prefer today with the apparent lack of bites of both lakes on our previous visit. The draw bag decided my fate and peg 61 would be my home for the day. Tony Koz won the lake off this peg last time, and Stu had also won a knock up off this peg. Tony advised me that if I got my head down I could win the match off that peg today. No pressure then

You’ve probably already guessed the end to this story. The lake fished appalling again, in fact both lakes did. Six out of the eight of us on front pool didn’t weigh in as we’d either blanked or only caught a couple of bits. Stef Armitage ended up fishing corn long in the last couple of hours and had over 60lb, a credit to him for correctly judging the conditions! Cyprio was won with 37lb which is miles off the fisheries general pace but good enough on the day. I didn’t bother challenging the scales with my two roach..................

The next match up on the calendar was Woodlands, this time fishing on Skylark, and to my knowledge I don’t think I’ve ever fished this lake? I’ve fished countless club matches and opens at Woodlands yet never drawn this lake.

There were 15 of us in attendance again and we’d have 8 on the front bank and 7 on the back bank. Normally with so few in attendance we’d have a lake 1st and 2nd with a section per bank. However the middle pegs had apparently been out fishing the ends so the sections would work where the end two pegs on both sides would form a section of 8 and the remaining 7 in the middle would form the other.

Cometh the draw, cometh.....peg 25, this is in the middle so I could hope for a better day than the end pegs, have a smaller section and a better view of how everyone else was doing!

I arrived at my peg and noticed the margins had been cut quite far back which made them look very tempting. Prior to the match I’d thought to just ignore the margins as I concentrate so much of my time feeding it throughout the match to never catch from them that it’s just a waste of time. However these margins looked so tempting that I’d set a rig up and feed it anyway, however, if no fish materialised like normal then I’d know to knock it on the head completely in future!

My main plan was to fish shallow at 13m and chase them out a section if I needed to. I’d also fish a top2+2 line straight in front of me that I could feed by hand. I also had a couple of rods set up, one with a method and 4inch hook length, the other a running half ounce bomb with an 18inch hook length.

Bait for the day, I had 2 pints of micros for the method, 4 pints of 6mm for my pole lines, 2 pints of 8mm for the rod rigs and 2 tin's of corn for the edge. I didn’t anticipate on using even half of this but depending on how the fish wanted it, I was at least prepared.

For company I had Stu on 27 and Bob on 23. Opposite I had Cooksey to my right and venue expert Les Bolton to my left.

At the all in I took the pole out to 13m just to use as a marker for cattying bait in. I fired some pellets in and then shipped back and slung the method out to 25 yards and pinged some 8mm pellets over the top. I persevered with this for about 40 minutes, constantly firing a few pellets over the method, half a dozen pellets on the shallow line and a handful at top2+2 every 15 minutes or so.

After the first hour I was still without a fish. So decided to try the shallow line. I got a couple of indications which was either small fish or perhaps fish a bit deeper trying to suck the suspended bait in. I added a couple of inches to my depth and managed to put 2 in the net both of around 4lb a piece.

It then went quiet again but Cooksey was catching on the bomb so I decided to flick a bomb out to 25 yards and managed to put a couple of fish in the net. It was then a case of switching between lines and hopefully picking up fish. I ended up fishing two bomb lines, one in front and one to my right and eventually put a run of 4 fish together although it was slow going.

At the all in I had 12 carp, which is slow going for the duration of a match! Stu had done similarly to myself. Cooksey had caught relatively well on the bomb for most of the day. Les had bagged up, though I expected that!

Come the weigh in Stu weighed 49lb12oz. I was up next and thought it would be close. My 12 fish went 51lb12oz so I’d beaten Stu, I’d also beaten Bob but forget his weight? I ended up coming second on the bank with Mick Ayre putting 97lb on the scales from the corner peg. Mick’s weight was good enough for second in the match with only Les’s 130lb beating him. Typically this would mean I’d have won the section but with it being swapped about meant I had to wait for another week to try!! Sods law was the fact that the opposite bank fished miles better than our bank, so it would have been fairer to do a section a bank!

My last match was up at the Oaks, it seems an age since I’ve fished up here and subsequently I wasn’t sure how to approach it. We were on Maple and after having a look through my past blogs, we fished here in the middle of October in 2008 and I fished a maggot match and won my section. The conditions for the day were forecast very similar too so that was my mind made up. A day on the maggot! With this I bought half a gallon from the shop on Saturday afternoon and filled up my maggot hook length box in the afternoon.

We were on pegs 30 to 68 and with an eventual 19 anglers booked on it was perfect for peg one miss one. I wasn’t too fussed where I drew as I think that when fishing maggot you’re targeting every fish and not just the odd pockets of carp through the match. I hung back at the draw and with 4 or 5 left to pick from I got peg 55. This is a lovely corner peg that contains some lumps on its day although it’s not an ideal maggot peg! D’oh!

With half a gallon of maggots sat in my bucket with no other chance to use them it was still going to be a maggot day. This would include a line in 3ft of water to the edge of the island at 14.5m, the same rig could also be used for fishing my top 5 down the edge. This would be a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.14 mainline to an 0.12 hook length and size 16 Gamma Black hook, this was all complemented by a 12 latex elastic. I also set up a rig for fishing the same swim to the island with 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hook length and a size 20 Middy 63-13 finished with a doubled 5 elastic. This was only if the going was tough or there were a lot of small fish in the swim. I also set up a paste rig to fish 15m to the bush to my right, this was 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hook length to a size 12 PR24 and 14 latex elastic, my float for this was a self cocking Preston paste float.

Due to not planning on fishing anything but maggot, the only other bait I had with me was half a bag of Crazy Bait Green Gold, which would have to do for my paste. It mixes too far on the sticky side and is far from an ideal paste consistency in my opinion but it would have to do.

For company I had Cooksey on 53, Stef on 51 and Stu on 49. We were starting a bit later today due to the massive queue in the cafe so the all in was called at 10:30.

On the all in I shipped out to the island with 100ml of maggots. What I tend to do is use my big 250ml cup and use my smaller cups to measure the bait into the big cup. This way I know how much I’m feeding and it also makes a damn site easier shipping out with a cup that’s half full rather than filling a small cup up to the brim and spilling them everywhere! I also fed a further 100ml of maggots down my right hand edge and finally cupped in half a big pot of 4mm pellets and a few lumps of paste out towards the bush.

First put in on the island line and I wasn’t getting any indications, I expected it might take 15-20 minutes for the fish to settle and rightly so. After twenty minutes the float dipped and I struck into my first fish, a roach of about 2-3oz. Next put in I managed an Ide of about 6oz. I decided to double kinder a pot of maggots in and this resulted in two F1’s both of about 2lb a piece. Another Ide pushing a pound and the line was quickly fading. Normally, or at least on any other peg, I’d have pushed into the mud line to try and snaffle a few more but this peg doesn’t allow you that privilege!

I decided to big pot the island swim again and have a look down the edge. After a couple of shy indication I managed a couple of small roach before deciding it was probably worth big potting here too and wait for some better stamp fish to turn up. With this I went out onto the paste line, as usual the bites are all over the place and so was my striking at sail away bites. Throughout the match I only managed 3 carp and a tench off this line though had enough bites to warrant 500lb of fish!

No one was really catching that I could see so I was constantly swapping between fishing and feeding the edge and the island as the paste line had beaten me! The island threw up the odd fish as did the edge but the wind was proving difficult fishing to the island. I decided I’d persevere with it though whilst heavily feeding the edge.

With twenty minutes to go I reckon I had about 18lb. I decided to go for it down the edge for the rest of the match as it was only small roach and Ide showing on the island line. The last twenty minutes proved fruitful with two small barbel, a small ghosty, an F1, two chunky Ide and a Perch of about a pound and a half which in total would add around 10lb to my final weight!

The matched ended at half four and although it had been hard I’d enjoyed it. The weigh in ensued and Stu put 45lb on the scale, Stef 30lb, Cooksey DNW’d and my fish went to 29lb 4oz. On speaking to Mr Thackwray I’d beaten him by 4oz for the sacred pound! Back in the cafe and it had been a better day than I thought. Stu had won the match, Bob the Builder was second with 38lb, Rab was third with 31lb and Gordon, Stef and Myself had picked up the section prizes. This is my first pick up the year which is more than welcome!

The final 6 looked like this

1st – Stu “Superstar” Stott – 45lb
2nd – Bob The Builder – 38lb-12oz
3rd – Rab – 31lb-8oz
4th – Stef Armitage – 30lb-8oz
5th – Steve Lupton – 29lb-4oz
6th – Gorgeous Gordy – 29lb (must try harder)

I’m playing a gig in London next week so will miss the Brafferton match and the next match is on the old lakes at Woodlands which the last few times I’ve fished them, they’ve been naff! So we’ll see about that one!