Friday 17 August 2012

Oaks Thursday Open 2nd August

After a good result at the weekend I was hoping to make the most of a rare midweek match by putting a few in the net. I think the main reason why I don’t seem to put decent weights together on Cedar normally is because of the amount of people fishing. Normally on our club matches on here there’s over 40 anglers on the lake with a few clubs fishing at the same time. Hopefully this midweeker with only 17 on the 80 peg lake, I’d be able to beat my personal best of 56lb. The draw got underway and peg 26 stuck to my hand. I wasn’t too bothered where I was to be honest because on looking through the past results, a decent weight is doable from most pegs. I had Whaley to my right on peg 28 and couldn’t see anyone else, but if I could keep pace with him, I’d probably be doing OK as he frames fairly often. I planned on two main swims today, the deep water at around 10-11m and a shallow line to my right. I also set up rigs for my right margin and the mudline but hoped I wouldn’t need them. My three main rigs were on 0.16 mainline with 0.12 banded hair rigs and size 18 hook and doubled 5 elastic. I had a 0.4g pencil for the deep and used 0.2g dibbers on my shallow rigs which were set at 10inch and 18inch. Bait today I had some casters, a few worms, some 4mm feed pellets and some 6mm pellets for the band. At the all in I pulted a full pouch of caster onto my shallow line to get it going, I’d then feed half a dozen casters here for the first 90 minutes to two hours depending on how it was going. I shipped out to my deep line with a 6mm pellet and tipped a few 4mm’s over the top. I didn’t have to wait long for my first bite and soon had an F1 in the net. I kept on with this and although it wasn’t frantic I was catching a few. After 90 minutes I’d had 12 fish, which was OK but Whaley was catching fairly well and Adam was catching very well on peg 31 by all accounts so I needed to up my game. I pulted a few full pouches of casters onto my shallow and then dropped in the middle of it. I had a few nuisance silvers at first but eventually had an F1. Rather than getting bogged down with the caster I decided to change over to feeding pellet sooner rather later because I knew I’d just get annoyed catching roach and rudd all afternoon. I was soon into a decent rhythm catching an F1 every put in. If it went slow I’d fire a full pouch in, which seemed to draw another ball of fish into the area. At one point it went almost dead so I dropped my full depth rig in over my shallow line and managed two fish off the deck whilst continually spraying pellets at my float in order to drag them back up in the water again. This did the trick and for the rest of the match I caught fairly well again although I did throw an F1 straight back in the lake! I even dobbed a lump off the top by near enough dropping my pellet in its mouth, this was the only decent fish I had at around 7lb and was most welcome, though it took a while to get in on the light elastic. By the end of the match I knew I’d beaten my old personal best but by how much? Catching in spells made it difficult to keep track on what I’d caught but reckoned I should have somewhere around 70lb. Following the weigh in round there were a few ton up weights before we got to my peg so it was all about beating my PB today. My first net weighed 44-12 and my second net 47-00, so I’d smashed it with a total of 91-12. Whether it’s down to the lack of angling pressure or a few tips I’d picked up the week before I’m not sure but I’ve finally managed a big weight on Cedar (by my standards anyway). The weights really show how good this fishery is, my 91lb was only good enough for 9th! With Gaz Malham winning with 158lb and Adam Richards coming second with 148lb. Unfortunately though, Delboy Brady beat me today, taking the bragging rights north across the border. His 30lb guesstimate actually weighed 92-06. He’d beaten me by 10oz!!!! The difference was probably the fish I threw back!!

Thursday 2 August 2012

July 29th - Brafferton F1 Lake

We were back at Brafferton today and after a few not so good results we should hopefully have a better day today as there were only 14 of us booked on and we had the whole 80 peg lake to go at. After breakfast I held the bag for the draw and with two pegs left, I drew myself peg 53, leaving Stu with peg 7. I’ve not been down the arm for a long time so was quite looking forward to it. On arriving at my peg I had acres of room with Steve Cromie on peg 57 to my left and no-one to my right until peg 29! I had probably a third of the lake to myself! The back straight doesn’t seem to produce match winning performances that often so they’d been left out. I set my box up remembering all the lessons I’d learnt on the Monday and set about my rigs. I was going to concentrate on two lines today. One in the deep water in front of me and a shallow line to my left, just far enough away from deep line so they didn’t get confused. My deep rig was a 0.4g homemade wire stemmed pencil float on 0.16 mainline to an 0.12 hooklength, size 18 Drennan Power hair rigger and a small bait band tied to the hair. Although the swim was around 7ft deep there wasn’t much tow on the lake although there was a bit of a ripple that got stronger as I was setting up. If the tow picked up then I could switch over to a heavier pattern should I need to. This rig was finished off with a double 5 elastic and a newly made sprinkle pot. I had two shallow rigs set up one for fishing 6-12 inches and the other for 12-24 inches. Both of these were the same line, hooks and elastic as the deep rig but with 0.2g Rizov shallow floats. For bait today I had some 6mm hard pellets for the band, 4mm hard pellets for feed, two pints of casters, a handful of maggots and a few worms. The all in was called and I armed the deep rig with a 6mm pellet, filled up my pot and shipped out. I lowered the float in slowly, before tipping a few pellets over the top. Constant twitching of the float and drip feeding saw bites come nearly straight away and after a few minutes I was slipping the net under my first F1. I carried on in this way whilst constantly firing half a pouch of casters onto my shallow line. After an hour and a half I had 10-12 fish in the net and seemed to be doing OK. I even managed a small F1 around 6oz from under my feet whilst I was filling my pot up! Although I thought I was doing OK and seemed to be catching fairly steadily, the shallow line was calling. Although I planned to feed this for two hours before going on it, the water was erupting every time I fired some casters in and I couldn’t resist any longer!! I went out with the deeper shallow rig fishing around 18 inches deep and was into fish straight away, by constantly flicking a few casters out every ten seconds or so I was catching one every put in! Be it a chub between 6oz and a pound or an F1, I was always putting something in the net, it was solid! I tried the shallower shallow rig but the better fish seemed to be sitting a little bit deeper, I was just getting plagued by roach and small skimmers in the top foot of water. At the half way point of the match, as always I switched to my other keepnet and three hours in I reckon I had 42lb in my first net, which made a nice change! The fishing started slowing down a little and the stamp of fish were getting slightly smaller. It was more than coincidence that my supply of casters were running out too! I was being a little more sparing with them to make them last but it was having a big affect on my catch rate. I’d only taken two pints as with the forecast intermittent thunderstorms predicted I wasn’t sure how effective the shallow approach would be. I started firing 4mm pellets onto the same line but it wasn’t the same, or at least to start with. It took probably half an hour to convert them onto pellet though I did get the odd one in this drier spell. I was soon into a rhythm of catching one near enough every put in though I did lose a couple, which I think is down to the length of the hair I was using as I noticed I landed the odd fish hooked in the nose rather than the mouth. Eventually it was a case of fishing 6 inches deep with as short a lash as possible, slap the rig a few times, stir the surface like mad with the pole tip and wait for the laggy to rip out. I only fed pellets when I was playing fish to keep them in the area. The fish were really on the feed now and I remember looking at my watch and seeing there was only seven minutes left. In this time I had 4 F1’s and lost one! The match drew to a close and I’d really enjoyed myself, by my reckoning I had 80lb, with 42lb in the first net and 38lb in the second net. John and Martin started the weigh in, Martin had 38lb and John 34lb if I remember correctly? I was up next, my first net weighed 47-08, so a little more than expected, my second net at first glance looked bigger than my first and this was confirmed as the 50lb scales went round twice! Had I done my first proper ton on a match? After tipping a few fish back into the keepnet my second weigh was 43-12, my third and final weigh of 9-08 meant I’d done it 100lb 12oz, a lot more than I expected and proof that I’d taken on board a few tips from Mondays master class! Going up the lake there were some more good weights, including Gordy’s 45lb (that’ll be a quid ta!!) and 88lb from Steve Cromie which was good enough for third overall. Acko (I’ve got anything between 70 and 100lb) had to spoil things though by weighing in a fantastic 111lb from peg 63! In the end I came second and had thoroughly enjoyed my day, it had been nonstop and even the quiet spells were busier than my normal bagging days! Roll on Cedar on Thursday!

Thursday 26 July 2012

Oaks, Cedar - 23rd July - With Alan Scotthorne

After a disappointing match on my first ever trip to Langwith on the Sunday I was looking forward to a day’s coaching with Alan Scotthorne up at Sessay. The days coaching came from the “Win a day with the stars” competition on the http://bigbash.fishing-buddys.com/ forum. I’d entered a few previous competitions to win days with anglers such as Tom Pickering and Bob Nudd but to no avail, so when I discovered I’d won a day with Alan I was over the moon. As this was a day for two I decided to invite Gordon along (as he needs the most help) and he’s been very good to me over the years with all things fishing so it seemed an apt way to pay him back. We met Alan in the cafe at the Oaks Lakes at 9am and had a quick chat over breakfast before deciding to do a bit of fishing. Venue expert Ghandi was on hand to give Alan the low down on what was working at the minute and what areas to concentrate on so we’d have a rough game plan. We drove around to the first arm and I eventually plonked all my gear on peg 15, with Gordon on peg 13 so it was more like match circumstances with a spare peg. I started to set up my gear, getting my box levelled and attaching all my arms and trays etc. Now I was under the impression that I had a relatively good setup and always seemed fairly comfortable. One look at my setup and Alan was already asking questions, why was my side tray so high? Why isn’t my box exactly level? The positioning of my nets? The positioning of my top kits? Soon all these queries were addressed and as soon as I sat on my box everything felt much more comfortable, closer to hand. Not that my setup was terrible in the first place but the creases have now been ironed out. Even down to putting my carryall a bit further behind me to rest my landing net on so that it’s a foot closer than it used to be, it’s all these little extra stretches, twists and turns that probably add to the equation of back ache at the end of a match. Now my station was set, I got my pole out and a few top kits. This last year I’ve taken to using lighter doubled elastics for most of my fishing, and on Cedar I generally use doubled 6’s. On stretching these softly set elastics from the pole Alan deemed them a bit heavy, and so we used my doubled 5’s instead which were also deemed a touch too heavy at first stretch. Being the top bloke that he is, Alan dug his top kits out from his bag for me to use but unfortunately they wouldn’t fit my pole. But having a stretch of the laggy in these top kits, they had a similar power to my doubled 5’s but everything was much much smoother, he had the Drennan Bungee in these, it was either green or yellow, being colour blind doesn’t help! So, now onto rigs. The first swim we’d look at would be in the deep water as far out before the bottom started sloping up again. I got out my usual slim pencil float rigs but these were soon turned down in favour of one of his own, not because they were wrong necessarily but because he obviously understands his own rigs and how they work so would be able to better understand how they were working when watching from behind me. This was a 0.3g slim Didier Delanoy Rive float with a carbon stem and a cane tip. This was on 0.16 mainline, which may seem heavy, but justified in the fact that it may see some stick throughout a session and with the pressure of the shot on the line there’s no point creating an unnecessary weak link, especially when you’re using a hooklength which is essentially all the fish should see. I’ve been doing this myself in recent months, tying my rigs to 0.16 and using hooklengths from 0.10 to 0.16 as it also makes it much easier tying lots of the same rig up instead of a couple on 0.12 a couple on 0.14 etc, turns out there was method behind the madness and not just making my life easier. Shotting was simple with six No.9’s spread two inches apart above the six inch hooklength. The hooklength was 0.117 to a size 18 hook and a micro band in a hair as close to the hook as possible as we were going to fish with hard pellets today. With the rig attached he shipped out to around half way across, lowered the rig in with a nice heavy plummet and found the bottom, he then shipped out half a section and did the same again, he did this until the depth started to shallow up. Back came the rig, moving the float down to the approximate depth and repeating the process to find the bottom of the far shelf, having a look left and right too it was evident there was a nice flat spot though it did go fractionally deeper the further left he went. So, rig ready? Not quite, with a lash of about 12 inches between pole tip and float, he equally space out two No.9 shot, these backshot would be held out of the water but would help control the line above the float and keep everything a bit more direct. Adding a small homemade sprinkle pot to the end of the top kit we were ready to rumble. Slipping a 6mm hard pellet into the band I started to load the pot up with hard 4mm’s before Alan told me to flick my rig into the water whilst I was filling the pot, chance of a bonus fish that way! “You’re not going to get a fish if the hook isn’t in the water”! So armed with hook bait and a full pot I shipped out, picked my marker on the bank and on my pole and lowered the rig in before tapping a few pellets over the top. Straight away I was getting dips on the float but I was still waiting for a “proper” bite. All these dips were “proper” bites, in fact they were the best bites, according to Alan. “You shouldn’t be choosing what bites to lift on, lift at every movement on the float”. When I started doing this, I started putting a few fish in the net, in fact one every put in. My strike was still too aggressive though, I thought that I was just doing a gentle lift, maybe lifting a foot to eighteen inches out of the water, but by lifting only the float out of the water at a bite, if I missed the bite, by only lifting this distance, you’re essentially presenting the hook bait right in the fishes eye line, this proved correct as when I started only lifting the float out of the water at a bite, if I missed I’d get a bite straight away again. If I didn’t get a bite then I’d lift in the same way as “striking” and present the hook bait again, if after another thirty seconds or so without a bite I’d tip a few more pellets in. It was very busy fishing, always moving, always working. Normally I’d ship out, tap all my pot of bait in and sit and wait for five minutes, if I didn’t get a bite I’d lift my rig out, drop it in again and if I still didn’t get a bite I’d ship and start over, not working very hard at all! I started putting a decent run of fish together and must have started doing it all correctly and feeding regularly enough because Alan had stopped shouting “lift don’t strike”, “feed”, “lift”, “feed”. If on the odd occasion I didn’t get a bite and I’d tipped all my bait in I then started pinging 6 to 8 pellets over the float to spark a response. Generally when I did this, I’d lift my rig, lower it down then feed, but I was told that the five seconds after your float has settled is probably the most important time to concentrate looking for the bite as the fish has seen your bait and will now be looking for it so by waiting five seconds you’re concentrating on your float and not feeding. It all makes perfect sense its now just a case of making it a habit. After a spell of a fish a chuck it went iffy for ten minutes, the float was also sitting slightly lower in the water making it harder to read bites, I brought the rig in and we nipped a no.9 off and put an no.11 on, back out and the float was now sitting taller than before and the bites weren’t as positive, it was quite puzzling as we nipped another no.11 on, went back out and started catching straight away again. It turned out I must have spun the pole round maybe a foot to the left (obviously not in line with far bank marker) and I was now in the slightly deeper water, with the weight of the pellet dragging the float down that extra bit. So an important lesson, something as silly as being a foot away from where you should be can make you go from one a bung to nothing, “once you’ve picked a marker, stick to it”. After a couple of hours I was still catching well on this line but it was time for a new tactic, now in a match circumstance I’d have stayed on this deep line as I was catching but it was purely a day of learning today. Whilst fishing down the track Alan had been telling me to feed a pinch of casters to 9-10m by hand. Now, I’m a left hander, so feeding casters this distance with my right hand posed a problem, I was throwing them all over the place! I kept trying but ended up using my catty instead to keep the feed more concentrated, it wasn’t as quick but a damn site more accurate. It’s something I’m going to have to practice though because I missed a few bites when picking my catty up to feed, apparently I’m the worst person he’s seen throw bait in (then again girls can’t throw). So after feeding the line with casters for two hours the fish were boiling on the top every time a pouch full hit the surface. There were quite a few silvers boiling on the surface too, hopefully they wouldn’t become a nuisance. Whilst I’d been fishing down the track, Alan had set up a shallow rig for me, he quickly talked me through it and we were soon fishing again. I’d feed half a pouch whilst baiting up the rig, then drop the rig in the middle of it, if I didn’t get a bite, I’d feed a full pouch and drop the rig in again, I was getting the odd twitch on the float but eventually the pole buried under surface with elastic pouring out and it was another good F1 in the net. I fished this for around two hours again and it was a fish a chuck, I had the odd silver get in the way but the odd 2lb Ide isn’t so much of a nuisance! The F1’s were all a slightly better stamp than the ones I’d been catching down the track too so it was proving more beneficial fishing here. It wasn’t even a case of fishing really, it was more just keeping a track on the feeding and letting the fish hook themselves, it was almost, dare I say it, too easy! Now I’ve caught shallow before but never to this extent. When the casters ran out I started pinging pellets instead, it took five or ten minutes without a bite and constant feeding before the fish gained the same confidence as they had before but then it was back in the same routine again. Feeding casters seemed to draw the silvers in, closely followed by the F1’s and carp, where as when feeding pellets the silvers didn’t show an interest and it took a little longer to get the carp going. Again, after catching for a few hours, the swim was still going strong but it was time to have a look down the edge. The right hand edge of my peg had been cut back nicely and I had a lovely area to have a go at. Alan had been feeding a cup full of stodgy groundbait in one hole for an hour or so and we’d seen the odd tail pattern so it was time to have a look. I had two F1’s on a single grain of corn before I could get a proper bite. By changing to half a worm I was soon attached to a margin lump. Even though only still using doubled 5 elastic down the edge I soon tamed a big common around 8 or 9lb. This would be my last fish down the edge as they’d obviously backed off. In a match this would be the time to go back on the shallow line and carry on as normal and hope to see more tail patterns down the edge, but the session was drawing to a close and we decided to call it a day. Unfortunately for Gordy, with myself being so useless, Alan spent the whole day sat behind me and didn’t get chance to observe Gordy, though he still picked up a few tips and I filled him in with all I’d learnt on the way home so hopefully it wasn’t a wasted day. Lifting my nets out at the end of the day for the final catch shot I had over 60lb from only a few hours fishing. I can’t wait to get back on Cedar next week and put all I’ve learnt into practice. I’d learnt more today than I’d probably learnt in the last ten years of fishing, my whole approach to a match will hopefully benefit from this day if I put all the tips and tricks into practice. It was also proof that there are no secrets in angling, all day we used normal rigs, normal baits, it really is down to feeding and presentation! As a final note, thanks must go to Steve Guy and Kev Allen for organising this and who both do a fantastic job for the Big Bash and a massive thanks to Alan for sparing his valuable time to sit behind a numpty like me for the day!

Thursday 19 July 2012

The Oaks - Maple - July 15th

This week we were up at the Oaks to fish on Maple. I last fished Maple on the Jubilee weekend on the Tuesday open and managed 27lb off peg 10 for nowhere. There was 17 of us on today and with 35 pegs, this meant we’d have a decent amount of room. Come the draw there were three pegs left, 1, 10 and 27. I delved in and drew peg 10, I wasn’t too impressed as I’d not enjoyed it on my previous trip and would have much preferred peg 1, though I’d prefer 10 to 27 so all wasn’t lost. Acko drew flyer peg 1 which meant late arrival Steve Cromie was stuck with peg 27. On arriving at my peg, my section was completed with Rab on 7, Gordy on 5, Martin Dodsworth on 3 and Acko on 1. With not enjoying my last time on peg 10 I’d hopefully right a few wrongs today. Last time I didn’t concentrate my time on a particular swim and swapped between the edge and the island all day and therefore I didn’t really get into a rhythm. Today I’d fish to the island for at least the first half of the match and feed the edge to fish the last couple of hours down there. Rig wise I had two set up for fishing across, these were both some new homemade pencils in 0.1g and 0.2g, these were to fish in 3ft of water at 13m and 12 inches of water at 14.5m. Both of these were on 0.16 mainline, 0.12 hooklengths, size 18 hooks and doubled 6 elastic. I had a shallow rig to fish off the end of the build out on the edge of the island, and finally I had a rig for down the edge, this was quite a crude rig, with heavy line and heavy laggy but I wanted to give myself more of a chance than last time I fished this peg. I also had the method set up to chuck down the edge in case I needed to repair any rigs! For bait I had a tin of 4mm meat and some cat meat for down the edge. Micros and expanders for across and 4mm hard pellets for shallow. At the all in I went out to 13m with a 4mm expander and tipped in a fruit shoot of micros. I didn’t even think about feeding the edge and was trying to forget it until the second half of the match. I sat watching my motionless float, lifting and dropping every so often, re-feeding, waiting longer between feeding but after the first 90 minutes all I had was a small ghosty and half a dozen roach. Whilst fishing this line I was pinging half a dozen pellets onto my shallow line and I’d seen the odd swirl so decided it was perhaps time to have a go. I fed a pouch full of pellets and slapped my rig in over the top. I carried on this process and after 10 minutes or so was finally rewarded with an F1. I had 4 in succession before I waited another ten minutes without a sign. I changed my depth to about two foot but still wasn’t getting any signs. I decided to carry on feeding here throughout the match and hope that I’d be able to another handful of fish in the net as the day progressed. I fed a quarter of a pot of micros onto the mud line at 14.5m just before I started fishing shallow and although there wasn’t the tell tale signs of fish’s backs poking out of the water there had been the odd “ring” rippling off the bank. I dropped my rig in carefully, as tight to the island as I could and tipped a cap of micro’s in. I didn’t have to wait long until I put a further 3 F1’s in the net one after another until the bites stopped altogether. I decided to drop off the island and fish in about two foot of water as I thought they may now be seeking a bit more shelter from being spooked in the shallow water but it was more apparent that they’d just gone!. With two and a half hours to go, I had my first look down the edge. First of all I fed another quarter pot on the mud line and carried on pinging a few pellets onto my shallow line. I baited up with half a chunk of cat meat, I pulled the hook through with a baiting needle to get a decent hook hold (I was using cat meat as when using meat last time it was just getting whittled down by the roach and gudgeon, hopefully the cat meat would be a bit more robust). I dropped my hook bait in and tipped a dozen pieces of meat over the top. Just like the last time I fished this peg, the action was fairly rapid, after a few minutes my float dipped and I was ready to rip the head off whatever it may be to stop it getting into the reeds. After a very quick fight on my heavy gear I had another small F1 in the net. I had a couple more of a similar size and wondered why there wasn’t many sizeable fish down here. Then no sooner did I think this and I was almost being dragged in by a margin monster! It took me straight into the reeds and I eventually came back with a rig minus a hooklength (though my new floats were still in top nick!). For the rest of the match I carried on picking off the odd fish but it was slow. I rotated between my shallow line, the mud line and the margin and I think I finished the match with 18 or 19 fish. Clearly not enough to trouble frame and another frustrating day on peg 10! I think I hooked 4 decent fish down the edge, that all buried me, the only fish I did get out were small stockies. If I fish this peg again I might just ignore the margin, its more hassle than it’s worth! Acko took the lead off peg 1 with 63lb, Martin managed 18lb, Gordon.....................8lb, Rab had done well off peg 7 with 58lb and then it was my turn, 25lb 8oz, so I’d won the quid, but was a bit miffed I’d not beaten my 27lb that I had on the peg the previous time around. As it turned out, Acko and Rab came 1st and 2nd respectively so I double defaulted the section prize, happy days after all! We’re at Langwith next week, another new venue for me, but I’m looking forward to hopefully catching a few!

Friday 13 July 2012

Brafferton F1 Lake - 8th July

I’ve not been able to blog in a month or so due to being so busy. I managed a couple of matches over the jubilee weekend, firstly fishing the Saturday open on Cedar winning my section with a lake personal best of 56lb, followed by a disappointing 27lb from Maple on the Tuesday. My last club match was also disappointing weighing just over 20lb on Horseshoe lake at Poppleton and also sacrificing another pound to the pensioner. It now stands 7-4 in the quid steaks, granted in my favour, but it’s about time I pulled my finger out again. This week we were back at Brafferton, I’d missed our last match here a week or two back due to being on holiday and the results weren’t great but neither was the weather by all accounts. The week running up to the match, the forecast was different nearly every day, thankfully when I arrived at the fishery, there was a gentle breeze running to the bottom of the lake and the sun was shining!!!! Come the draw I managed peg 20, I was quite optimistic as on previous matches, this has proved to be a consistently good area to be in. I eventually found my peg, there seems to only be peg numbers on half a dozen of the 80 pegs! This with the long grass and bogs it proved a tiring journey to my peg! Improvements to little things like this could make the fishery so much better! I finally got sat down on my box, I had Jim Atkinson to my right on 17 and Kev Bell on 23 to my left. I set up three rigs, a margin rig, which covered both sides on my top 4. A rig for fishing in the deeps at 5m and 13m, and finally a shallow rig as there were plenty of fishing cruising around and splashing whilst I was setting up. Finally I had the method rod set up to chuck to the end of the island as I couldn’t reach with the pole. At the all in I fed a golf ball of micros and a dozen or so 4mm’s at 5m and then chucked the method out. I was getting plenty of liners on the rod but most of these were from shallow fish away from the island. I started flicking half a dozen 4mm pellets to 13m at the 10 o’clock position to see if I could spark a response. After over an hour on the tip and only a 3lb mirror to show for my efforts I decided to have a go shallow, I’d fed it for about an hour whilst on the method so hopefully they’d be queuing up! Alas, they weren’t. I altered my depth, changed my feeding, slapped, didn’t slap, slapped more, slapped less. I couldn’t even get a sniff. They were rolling on the surface occasionally when I was feeding but seemed to be backing away from the pole. I shallowed down to about 4 inches, this gave me a lash of about two feet to swing the rig out and hopefully not spook them with the pole however this also wasn’t working. It was time to go on the 5m line. Previous matches this has been my get of jail swim. When all has failed I’ve always caught here. And so it proved again, for the next hour I put small carp, roach and chub into the net, I still only had around 10lb but looking round everyone was struggling and we all seemed to be doing similarly. Everyone else carried on catching the odd fish, with Jim and Kev both catching quite a few now, I was getting left behind, fast! The next three hours I didn’t even have a bite, I was even striking at blatant liners in the hope of foul hooking fish but even this didn’t work. On the positive side, I practiced casting my method for an hour or so, I say practiced, I was still fishing, but I think you have to catch something for it to be classed as fishing. The last hour I went back shallow, I kept it fed all day every now and then just flicking a few pellets out. After maybe ten minutes, my pole shot under the surface and it was fish on, it felt like a decent fish and after a decent fight, I slipped the net under a 4lb mirror. I had a couple of smaller carp soon after, then my pole vanished under water again but from all the slapping, my line had wrapped around the tip of my pole and we soon parted company. Thankfully the line gave way rather than the pole! Then that was it, the match finished and it had been a frustrating day, I’d also been well and truly fishcaked! Kev’s 58lb turned out good enough for the match and Jim’s 44lb was good enough for third. My 19lb was good enough for nothing (surprisingly). Were on Maple at Sessay next week, I’ll be hoping for a good day for a change. Although in fairness, I think this was the first match I’ve fished this year and it’s not rained!!

Monday 21 May 2012

21st May, New Lakes - Sessay

With no club match this week I decided to chance my luck on the Sunday open at the Oaks. Last time I fished the new lakes I came third overall and won my lake so I was hoping for a repeat, or at least a decent days fishing. With the draw not being until 9:30 it was nice to have a bit of a lie in, especially after playing gigs on the Friday and Saturday night. By the time of the draw there were 23 on, with a top 4 payout and a section a lake. My hand went into the bag and I managed peg 22 on Beech. From keeping up to date with the results I knew Beech 7 was a bit of a flyer and my peg was opposite this so hopefully they’d come across. The wind, as per the last few weeks was blowing in my face and from my right to left so presentation may be an issue but that would be the case for most apart from the top pegs on Beech where there was no wind and it was flat calm, these two pegs being taken up by Dean Smith and Shane Atkin, and with Gandhi on the next peg to my right I’d have to keep a calm head to get anything from the match. I only set up two rigs to keep it nice and simple, these were both my homemade slim pencil floats, a 0.4g for 11m and an 0.2g for 13m, these were both on 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hooklength and size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook, both finished with a doubled five elastic. The 0.2g rig would also do for down the edge. Bait today I had 4mm and 6mm expanders, soaked micros for feed and also a few 4mm hard pellets to throw down the edge. Gandhi bellowed time at 10:30 and we were away. On plumbing up the wind was quite strong at times so I decided to start at the base of the shelf at 11m as it would be marginally easier than holding 13m. The lad opposite me on peg 6 was in straight away and looking at the length of his rig I think he was fishing on top of the shelf. My float soon went under though and it was game on. By varying the feed from a full fruit shoot to nothing, and everything in between I kept the fish coming, and at the half way point in the match I had 32 fish and seemed to be doing OK. I always do half a match in each net on these lakes as I think it gives you a good idea of how you’ve caught as the days gone on. Switching nets seemed to be the kiss of death though, In the next hour and three quarters I managed six fish! I couldn’t understand it, from feast to famine in a blink of an eye. I put a shot directly under my float to enable me to check my depth is still correct and after a few bites with no resistance I had a look and my float had moved a couple of inches over depth, hopefully adjusting this would see me back amongst the fish? No, still liners, so I shallowed up a floats depth and the bites stopped altogether, I gradually altered my depth half an inch at a time but the liners eventually turned into a motionless float. I tried a few times on the 13m line but only managed a couple of fish, they were far from queuing up! Bob and Mick on the end pegs to my left were now catching me up, both fishing down the edge. I’d been feeding the odd few pellets down there and I had nothing to lose. It turned out to be the right decision as it was solid, I managed 18 fish in the last hour and a quarter and finished the day with 56 fish. I was pretty sure my fish averaged about 12oz so that would give me about 42lb. I knew I'd done OK but thought that the bad middle of the match would cost me today. I packed up all my gear and followed the weigh in round, Simon Medd was leading with 63lb, there was a 49lb and then Bob on my lake weighed in 50lb, so I knew my chance had gone, the lad opposite me on peg 6, who I'd caught a similar amount to weighed in 43lb so I thought my estimation was about right. Shane Atkin had tipped back off the end peg, Dean Smith on the opposite end peg weighed 55lb, then Ghandi weighed a high 40lb. Next up was myself, the first net, with 32 fish, weighed 31lb 8oz! So maybe they were a bit bigger than I thought, my second net of 24 fish weighed 21lb 12oz giving me a total of 53lb 4oz! That pushed me up into 3rd place so I was hoping the rest of the weights were obviously less than mine! Unfortunately Mick to my left had sacked up in the second half of the match down the edge and weighed in 58lb, massively making up for his slow start and a cracking result on his first attempt at these lakes. I'd not heard of any other weights so I was hoping to cling onto 4th place, until Ant Stock weighed 53lb 5oz, ouncing me into 5th! Back in the cafe and I'd managed to secure 5th place overall and also won my section by double default. The top 5 looked like this: Simon Medd - 63lb 10oz Mick Grant - 58lb 2oz Dean Smith - 55lb 8oz Ant Stock - 53lb 5oz Steve Lupton - 53lb 4oz I can't fish next week due to other commitments, and we've no club match the week after either, so I might be back on the new lakes again!

Friday 18 May 2012

Brafferton F1 Lake - 13th May

After doing well off a “bad peg” last week I was hoping to carry on in the same vain and put a few fish in the net. Whilst loading my gear out of the car I was looking out over the lake and it was set to be a hard day as the wind was pushing through and it was forecast to only get worse. Come the time of the draw and Gordon was holding the bag, I drew with about half the pegs left in the bag and drew flyer peg 1. Now it is a flyer, but with the wind being so strong today any peg would be difficult to fish, and with the wind blowing to the other end of the lake, would there be any fish up here still? Tony Haw was next to me on peg 3 and there was a chap on peg 80 on another match opposite me. With peg 1 you have the choice of fishing to the end of the island, down the long margin and plenty of open water, being on the end of the island though, today would be particularly tough with the strong winds coming straight into face. After levelling my box I decided I’d have three main lines today, and island swim, a margin swim and a line at 6m. Our last match on here, I was on peg 25, the complete opposite end of the lake to peg 1 but I’d caught small fish nearly all day at 6m as the wind was horrendous that day too so I was hoping it would work again today. For across to the island I had a homemade 0.2g pencil float on 0.16 with an 0.12 hooklength and a size 16 hook, I’ve started using bigger hooks on here mainly because more often than not, I’ll fish a 6mm pellet rather than 4mm because you get bitted out by gudgeon on the smaller pellet. Elastic was a solid 12.For the margin I had a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.16 with an 0.14 hooklength and a size 16 hook and solid 14 latex elastic. My track rig was a 0.75g BGT Blue on 0.16 mainline to an 0.12 hooklength and size 16 hook, this was finished with a solid 12 latex. I also set up a shallow rig and had the method rod set up to fish to the end of the island if I needed it. For bait I had some 6mm expanders, some micros, some dampened 4mm pellets and some swim stim for the method. Thanks to only person shouting “TIME!!!”, and them being at the other end of the lake, a few of us probably started ten minutes late as no one seemed to filter the call down the rest of the lake! I saw Tony go across straight away whilst I fed my short line and my margin. I decided to start fishing on the short 6m line and see how Tony got on in the wind. As it happened I caught a couple of small stockies straight away and although Tony had only managed one, it looked a lot better stamp to mine. I persevered on this line and started putting a run of fish together, it was far from frantic but I seemed to be faring better than Tony, who by now had also moved onto a short line but with no luck. The bloke opposite had only had a couple so I felt I was doing OK as I had around 15 in the net. The fish seemed to back off a bit from this line and for the rest of the match I chopped and changed and managed to keep a few fish coming to the net be it on the island line, the method or back on the short line. The margin didn’t seem to want to produce though and every time I looked down there I’d only get plagued by gudgeon or roach so I just kept feeding it hoping that the small fish would get bullied out. With all my swims fading away I spent the last twenty minutes down the margin hoping that they’d turned up, which they had! I had size carp in the last 20 minutes, all averaging a pound which was double the size of my average stamp. Just a shame they hadn’t turned up earlier, as time was called before I got chance to empty it! I packed up quickly as I was weighing in again! Tony Koz walked past asking how I’d got on, I reckoned to have at least 25lb but probably nearer 30, he thought I was telling porkies but I’d seen him catching fairly well, though he admitted he was half tempted to pack up early so we’d see! I was first to weigh in and my two nets went 33lb so I was relatively pleased as I had more than I thought, though I wasn’t sure how well everyone else had caught but imagined it wouldn’t be good enough! Tony Haw weighed in 16lb odd, which came as a surprise because I thought we’d caught a similar amount! Taxi Dave then had 43lb odd, Tony Koz 41lb odd, then the bank got stronger as we went along! We got to Gordon’s peg and his first net weighed 24lb odd, I said he’d better not have more than 9lb in his other net or he’d have done me for the quid. His reply was that he only had a few fish in his second net, but he’s been hanging around with Rab for too long and his second net weighed 35lb giving him a total of 59lb odd! I was gobsmacked, someone must have helped him! But credit where its due, I handed the pound over, but only for him to look after until next week!! It’s now 7-3 to me in the quid stakes so I’d best pull my finger out if I’m going to rub any more salt into the wounds!! Cooksy weighed in over 70lb which was good enough to win the match (even if he was on the wrong peg!!) The top 3 looked like this: 1st P. Cooksey – Peg 15 - 73lb 06ozs 2nd S. Stott - Peg 25 - 72lb 15ozs 3rd A. Nattrass – Peg 20 - 66lb 11ozs There’s no club match next week so I’ll decide on where to go depending on what the weather is like!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Woodlands - Skylark - 6th May 2012

After a very wet, very blustery weekend last week, I was expecting more of the same this week, especially as it was a Bank Holiday! I couldn’t have been more wrong though, according to the met office website it was to be sunny most of the day with broken cloud, highs of 10 degrees and maximum winds of 15mph. This would at least give me chance to get all my gear spread out behind me to give a final air through from last week’s drying efforts. This weekend we were at Woodlands on Skylark. It’s been quite a while since I last fished one of the big squares at Woodlands so was quite looking forward to it. There were a million and one rumours going around as to how the previous weeks fish stocking/netting had gone, that in the end I just ignored all of it and assumed to fish it as normal. After an expensive and rather disappointing breakfast I got the barrow loaded, which I came to realise isn’t big enough to take my new box, the draw then got underway. I held the bag and most people wanted to be somewhere in the middle which is ideally where I wanted to be, but with Stu taking the last but one peg, I was left with peg 34, right in the corner, right at the opposite end to where the wind had been blowing, and right next to where every Tom, Dick and Harry would march past throughout the day! Miffed? Face On? You Bet!! I trudged my gear round to my peg to see that it was near enough the only part of the lake with no wind on, and looked up to the far end where you could see the vast amount of scum covering the top 2 or 3 pegs, proving that the wind had definitely been blowing up that way. I had Paul Cromie opposite on peg 2 and Stef to my left on peg 32, who were also both rather miserable about the anticipated days fishing. To my surprise, whilst setting up there were quite a few fish rolling in my swim, from my fee right out to the aerator, whether they would feed or not was a completely different question entirely. I set up a few rigs to hopefully cover every eventuality. My main rig would be to fish out at 13-15m on the deck. This was a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hooklength, size 14 Gamakatsu Pellet hook. This was finished with a solid 14 latex. If it was really hard going I’d also set up a lighter version of this rig for the same swim but hopefully wouldn’t need it! I also set up a shallow rig for over the top of this line, this was a 0.2g Rizov RF83 on 0.18 straight through to a hair rigged band and size 16 Drennan Power Hair Rigger. This was again on a solid 14 latex. My final rig was to fish at 15m tight to a clump of grass on my right up the side of the lake, this rig would also serve my left margin too and was a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hooklength, size 14 Gamakatsu Pellet hook and a solid 16 latex. I also had the bomb set up for fishing towards the aerator. My rig for the right hand side of the lake would hopefully come into play later on in the match once the disturbance had died down from everyone walking to their pegs. Bait wise today it was all pellet, I had some 4,6 and 8mm feed and also 4,6 and 8mm expanders. I had some corn in my bucket too but this would be a last resort/change bait. With my 4mm feed pellets, I’d left them to soak for 10 minutes before draining the water, this made them a bit softer, seeing as I was expecting it to be quite hard today, these pellets would break down much quicker and I’d hopefully get in amongst the skimmers as well as any bonus carp. At the all in I’d not even put my keepnets in, so I decided to feed my 13m line with a kinder pot of soaked 4mm pellets, feed a few 8mm pellets towards the aerator and then chuck my nets in whilst these settled. Once my nets were in I had a quick look down my left margin as there had been plenty of swirls and boils whilst I was setting up so I was hoping for a bonus early carp. After a few minutes of watching a still float, I fed my 13m line again and threw the bomb out. I had a few casts and continually fired one or two pellets over the top whilst also topping up my 13m line. The tip eventually went round and I was rewarded with my first carp of the day. At around 4lb it was a welcome start. By now the wind was steadily blowing down to my end of the lake but with it came all the scum, my rigs were constantly covered in blossom and the feathery bits off the willow trees. An hour in and the open match lads started walking past to the other lakes which wasn’t helping my side swim calm down but what can you do!? I had a further couple of fishless casts on the bomb before having a look on the 13m line. I had a carp, again about 4lb and a skimmer in my first two puts in but was getting liners all the time and the fish were obviously shallow. I went out over my 13m line with my shallow rig, fed a few pellets, slapped a few times and after 5-10 minutes of repeating the feeding and slapping, the float bobbed and I lifted into a fish. This was much bigger and after a hefty tussle I slid the net under a 7lb common. I went back out hoping for a few more, the float once again dipped but this time my lift resulted in an angry foul hooked carp tearing off into the middle of the lake before we parted company and I only had a scale as a souvenir. The next put in, the same happened again, so with this I decided to shallow up and was now fishing 10-12 inches deep, however I now couldn’t get an indication, the clouds covered the sun and there was a definite change in temperature, the wind had also dropped leaving the lake flat calm so I decided to have a look back on the deck. I carried on swapping between the deep and shallow rig, with the deep rig providing a few more fish throughout the day. With two hours to go, I had around 25lb in my net, Stef must have had around 50lb as his second net had gone in, Cromie probably had a bit more than Stef but was admitting to a lot less! I decided to have a look down the boards at the side of the lake and went out armed with a 6mm expander and a few 4mm pellets. It was a nightmare to see the float at 15m due to all the scum on the surface however managed to make out a bite on my first put in. There wasn’t yards of elastic pouring out but it felt like a half decent fish, after a one sided battle a barbel surfaced and I had another 2lb in the net. I was hoping that his brothers and sister were also lurking down there! For the remainder of match I caught a few small stockies around 12oz off the boards and half a dozen fish around 5lb. I think I lost three that were obviously foul hooked as most of them surfaced at the aerator before either shedding the hook or on one occasion snapping me. There were still a couple of people walking round and whenever they walked down my bank I had to wait a lot longer for a bite, up to 20 minutes in some instances, which when you’re catching one near enough every put in, this drastically affects your catch rate and could cost you valuable fish! The match drew to a close and from what I could tell it had been a hard match for most, Cromie admitted to 45lb but I knew he was telling porkies, I reckoned I had 55-56lb and that Stef would have beaten me though there wouldn’t be a lot in it. I packed up my gear and being on the end pegs, Stef and I were weighing in our bank. We started up on peg 18 to work our way back down and up until Stef, Rab was winning the section with 28lb10oz, so it had fished a lot harder than I’d suspected. Stef’s two nets weighed 68lb4oz so I knew I was beaten. My first net weighed 36-08 and my second 24lb12oz giving me a combined weight of 61lb4oz. Cromies “45lb” weighed just over 80lb so he won the match with Stef and I coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. So after a miserable trudge to my peg in the morning, it turned out the “wrong” end of the lake wasn’t the wrong end after all! I just hoped that not so many people were walking around as I think this would have helped me to push further up the placings! Gordon had tipped back, and judging by the shine on the pound coin he gave me I think he’d been polishing it for most of the match! Acko also hadn’t faired too well and after disappearing last week we had double or quits this week, which he graciously handed over in the cafe! The final results looked like this: 1st P. Cromie – Peg 2 - 80lb 06ozs 2nd S. Armitage – Peg 32 - 68lb 04ozs 3rd S. Lupton – Peg 34 - 61lb 04ozs Sec1 A. Nattrass – Peg 6 - 33lb 10ozs Sec2 R. Ogilvie – Peg 28 - 28lb 10ozs Were at Brafferton next week, hopefully the weather, and the fishing will remain positive!

Friday 4 May 2012

Oaks - Cedar - Club Match - 29-04-12

After a disappointing days fishing a week ago I was glad to be back on “home” soil. After a lovely breakfast I caught up with Acko and Woody to decide which pegs to use. With us having pegs 42-80 and 19 anglers fishing it made sense to fish it every other peg, you’d end up having a relatively pleasant day free from wind if you drew on the points but it’d be horrendous on any of the straights! Thankfully come the draw, I managed peg 64, which is bang on the end of a point! Although it was to be believed these flyers were no longer flyers, I was glad that I’d be able to fish properly for the day! I had Acko to my left on peg 62 and Cooksy to my right on 66. I’d heard Ian Bowman had fished peg 62 the day before and only weighed in 15lb so I was prepared for a struggle, although the angler on peg 65 managed 38lb. So if I got somewhere in between I’d be happy! It was lightly drizzling at the start of the match but the longer I went on setting up the rain got worse. Normally I don’t use a brolly but if it’s raining before the match I tend to put it up, plus the wind on the end of this point wasn’t too bad so hopefully I’d be alright. I set up three rigs for the day, the first being for down the track, this was one of my homemade KP 0.4g floats on 0.14 mainline, 0.12 hooklength with a size 16 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hook. A size 16 hook may seem a bit big but I was going to fish meat on this line, and I overheard Woody say he a 16 might be better than 18, I could always swap to an 18 if I decided it wasn’t right. The next rig was exactly the same as the track rig but with a 0.2g version of the float for fishing in front of the sedge in 3ft of water, this rig would also do for both my margins. My final rig was pushing up the side of the sedges and was again the same line and hook but with a 4x12 Malman Cedar. All rigs were topped off with doubled 5 elastics. Bait wise, I had some 4 and 6mm expanders, some micros, some 4mm feed pellets and a big tin of meat chopped into 6mm cubes, chopped with a kitchen knife, unlike Gordon “I can’t do my meat without a meatcutter” Thackwray! At the all in the rain was now in full force, the brolly was keeping a bit of my gear dry but when its coming in sideways there’s naff all you can do to keep dry! I threw a dozen 4mm pellets down each margin and keep doing this every five minutes or so whilst I fished in front of the sedges. I baited up with a piece of meat and put half a dozen cubes in my pot and went across to my right hand sedge. The float sat motionless, I came back every 5 minutes or so to keep a few cubes of meat going in but after 45 minutes and 3 gudgeon in the net I wasn’t going anywhere fast. I had a look down the margins and managed 2 F1’s and a small mirror before that also dried up. I fed a full kinderpot onto my deep line and left it ten minutes before going over it. First put in and I was rewarded a mirror of about 3lb, by feeding 5 or 6 bits of meat every put in I started putting some fish in the net. It was by no means frantic but I was certainly glad to be putting something in the net. The wind was occasionally gusting through and had by now taken the brolly down and launched it up the bank, strange how its less annoying to sit in torrential rain than under a brolly! I carried on catching slowly off the track line when I felt it slipping away from me, I fed a dozen bits of meat to try spark a response and also fed the same on a new line a few meters further to my right. Whilst these had time to settle I spent five minutes back in the margins which I’d been continually feeding throughout the match, but after catching a gudgeon off my left swim and a roach off my right swim I was soon back onto the track swims. For the remainder of the match I alternated between the two track swims and did manage to keep a slow but steady stream of fish coming to the net. The all in was finally called at 4 o’ clock and Acko was already half packed up. He was admitting to about 15lb but tipped back, so at least I was a quid up (I’ll have that next week a t Woodlands please!). I reckoned I might have about 30lb and Paul was admitting to a bit less. The scale came round and Rab had managed 53lb odd off peg 70 (flyer), Tony Koz had had 46lb, Bob Sinclair 42lb and young Joe had managed 39lb. So it was going to be close on our point, Paul weighed in a low 20lb and then it was my turn, I managed 38-04, so I’d more than I thought but still not enough. After trudging the gear back to the car, we met back in the cafe to dry off a bit. The top three looked like this: 1st J. Wood - Peg 48 - 73lbs 02ozs 2nd R. Ogilvie – Peg 70 - 53lbs 00ozs 3rd T. Koz - Peg 68 - 46lbs 04ozs Next week were at Woodlands, this will be the first time I’ve fished there this year so it’ll make a nice change, I just hope the fishing is kind and the weather kinder!

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Brafferton F1 Lake - 15th April

After missing the first two proper club matches of the year I was looking forward to today, after having had nearly 60lb out a few weeks ago I was hoping for a similar days sport! I couldn’t have been more wrong though, I got to the fishery just after 8am with a bit of a sore head from the night before and was faced with rather strong, particularly cold winds, thankfully I had an extra jacket in my bag because it was going to be a cold one! The frost the night before probably wouldn’t help matters either!

After forcing my breakfast down I loaded my gear onto the barrow and awaited the draw, the wind had definitely got stronger and it was freezing! Everyone was hoping for any peg that wasn’t down the bottom end, although these pegs have done well on our last matches, they’re completely in the shade and the wind would be blowing in your face all day.

The draw eventually got underway and I drew peg 25. Which not only is in the deep dark woods so I’d be freezing, I’d have the wind in my face all day and to top things off its the furthest peg away from the car park, especially when you walk the wrong way around the lake! The long grass made it a nightmare to push my barrow and by the time I got to my peg I was ready for a kip and to be honest, wasn’t really in the mood!

It took me an age to set up and for the first time in a very, very long time I wasn’t ready by the start of the match. I’d plumbed up down my left edge but it was all over the place and seeing as I had to fish maybe ten metres to the platform it was very difficult holding the pole still enough in the wind so I got this rig somewhere near and if it settled down later then I could fine tune it. I did the same with my across rig to fish to the end of the island but the wind was coming from every conceivable direction so I put this to rest with my edge rig. My final rig, and only rig that was actually ready was a 0.75g BGT Blue on 0.16 mainline to an 0.12 hooklength and size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. This rig was the full length of my top kit and even this rig was slightly struggling with the tow, I had some 1g rigs in my box but I thought the smaller one would do. This rig was finished with a soft set 12 elastic and pull bung. I plumber up and I could fish this rig from 4-10metres as it was very uniform, ideally I’d start at 10m at the bottom of the far shelf but it would be wind dependant! I also had a small Preston method set up which I would start with after feeding my other line.

Bait today I had micros and 4mm’s for feed and some 4 and 6mm expanders. I also had a bit of corn to use as a change bait.

At the all in I finished off setting up and then chucked the method out, and again, and again. And again, the wind was swirling all over the place and even though only a short chuck of 14m to the island I was really struggling and was throwing it all over the place. I sacked this off and went on my deep rig at 10m where I’d fed a golf ball of micros to kick start. Although I got a small F1 first put in it was very difficult holding the pole at that length so I decided to do what I should have done at the start, fish short! At least by fishing short I could present a bait correctly, not get over frustrated and hopefully still put a few fish in the net.

I fed a line on my top 5 and was starting to calm down after a disastrous start! Thankfully the fish were there, I was catching a fish almost every put in, though I was waiting a while for a bite, by lifting and dropping the rig I was tempting small stockies, smaller barbel and smaller still gudgeon into the net. Although not manic I seemed to be doing OK from what I could see, Tony Koz on 23 was catching similar to myself and had put a few fish in the net whilst I was messing about at the start too! John on 27 was also getting a few down the edge but was getting pestered by bits.

As it looked like I was doing OK I just battled on fishing here and tried to get my head down, I’d started feeding a few hard 4mm pellets every put in by now instead of the balls of micros and it seemed to be working a little bit better. John had decided to give it a go across and managed 3 or four fish one after another before getting “blown off”. Stu had come for a walk round and had said everyone else was doing crap so I knew to keep plugging away. I did try across and managed a small chub first put in and a small F1 on the second before the wind got too much again and forced me back onto the 5m line.

It was a case of sticking at it for the rest of the match at 5m and although I did try across for the last ten minutes it was to no avail.

John, myself and Tony had all caught fairly steadily throughout the match and although I thought I’d beaten John I reckoned that Tony had done me though it would have been tight between the three of us.

At the weigh in they started from either end, up to John, Rab was winning with 24-14, John managed 17lb and then it was my turn. Although I had two nets in they were by no means full, I just like to split my fish half a match in each net. The tight so and so’s on scales gave me 22-15, though I could have sworn it was nearer 23lb! Tony was next and as he lifted his net out I knew he’d done me, he weighed 27lb odd and took the match.

So a frustrating day for all due to the weather but I managed 4th overall and a section win, if I’d have had my head screwed on at the start I could have probably pushed a bit higher up the frame but it wasn’t to be!

The top 5 looked like this, very close with just over 5lb separating the top weights.

1st T.Koz peg23 27lb 05ozs
2nd S.Armitage peg18 25lb 12ozs
3rd R.Ogilvie peg34 24lb 14ozs
4th S.Lupton peg25 22lb 15ozs
5th B.Sinclair peg15 22lb 00ozs

Next week were at Raker Lakes on Horseshoe pond, I’ve never even seen the place so it could be interesting!

Tuesday 10 April 2012

6th April - Good Friday Open, New Lakes - Sessay

I didn’t deem the previous weeks match a write up, I fished the open on Cedar at Sessay and struggled sat amongst the worm lads and up until the last hour I only had around 8lb in the net, I started feeding a black groundbait slop across and put small F1’s in the net up until the end and weighed in 27lb to slightly spare my blushes.

The following Monday was my birthday and I managed to sneak in 3 hours at Sunrise near Spofforth. I fished peg 11 and managed 26 F1’s and small mirrors for about 45lb, lovely afternoons sport and glorious weather to boot!

On to this week, with other commitments over the bank holiday weekend I decided to fish the Friday open up at Sessay, seeing as I wasn’t fishing for the rest of the weekend I’d have to make the most of it.

This would be my fifth time at fishing these lakes so I’m still relatively new to them and I last fished them in November last year and managed 45lb for 6th in the match. This time around I drew peg 15 on Sycamore, I’ve drawn on Sycamore twice before and always found the fish in here to be a lot smaller stamp than in the other 2 lakes. Peg 15 is right in the corner and with the wind blowing down towards me and the Steve Hawkins being the next angler on peg on my bank I had plenty of room, though everyone seemed to as there were only 6 or 7 anglers on each lake. I had Mark opposite me on peg 18 and Draw bag Whale on the end peg on Beeches behind me, everyone else was too far away!

After speaking to Rob before the match he recommended fishing slightly to my right away from the corner in order to draw more fish in to my peg rather than hammering the fish in the corner. I plumbed up right along the shelf from 13-14.5m left to right and found it to be fairly consistent apart from the odd deviation of an inch or two. I set up a rig to fish all these lines on top of the shelf and I’d have to alter my depth slightly here and there when required. This rig was one on my own 0.2g slim pencil floats on 0.12 mainline and 0.10 hooklength with a size 18 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hook, this was finished with a doubled 5 elastic. I also set up a rig for fishing 3 lines in the deep water, this was identical to the other rig but with a 0.4g version of the float.

For bait today all I had was half a bag of fishery micros, swelled up to make two pints of feed and some 4 and 6mm expanders.

At the all in I went straight out just past my 13m section pointing to my right, I was fishing in line with Marks peg so it was nice and easy to get the float in the same hole every time. I lowered the rig in with a 4mm pellet and tipped in a full fruit shoot of micros over the top. I didn’t have to wait long before my first indication and my first fish, a small F1 around 8oz, I repeated the process putting 4 fish in the net whilst Mark had seemingly lost his first three hooked fish. I altered the feed for the first hour and managed to put 12 fish in the net although they were all small fish.

I carried on in the same vein for the next hour or so and seemed to be doing OK, Mark was catching a few but I thought I had the upper hand, I could see Bert catching a few in front of the little hut but he was probably catching at the same rate as Mark. I heard Whaley tell Jonesy that he’d had 20 and I think at that point I had 16 so I wasn’t doing too bad. With these being five and half hour matches the half way point was 13:15, at this time I switched keepnets to do half a match in each net and at the half way point I’d had 36 fish and seemed to be doing OK though there were rumours of Dean Smith and Richie Newton both catching well on Beeches.

In the second half of the match I decided to move swims or at least give my original swim a rest as it had marginally slowed down from how it started.

I went over to my left at 14.5, I was fishing a couple of metres of the rushes still in the deep water of the shelf as it slopes up quite shallow into the reeds so I was still fishing at my original depth.

I kicked off with a kinder sized pot of bait and hoped to feed after every couple of fish, the fish were having it on the other line with a full pot every put in but I was waiting a few minutes for a bite. Hopefully feeding a fruit shoot of bait after every few fish I’d get quicker bites.

I was straight into fish and although I didn’t seem to be catching any faster from putting less feed in, it was quicker to not feed purely through filling the pot etc. I was still catching well though I was now getting a few liners and lifting into thin air. I didn’t think it was down to my feeding as I’d dramatically cut down by now, feeding after every three or four fish. I foul hooked maybe four in a row and was starting to get annoyed as I lost them all! I shallowed up by about four inches and started hooking fish again, I was back into a similar rhythm before the lines started again so I shallowed up another couple of inches, this worked a treat and the bites kept coming, considering it wasn’t that warm and after the midweek snow they were more than happy feeding off bottom.

Then I suffered a setback, I hooked a fish of a similar size to the others but just I was about to land it, it snapped me just below the loop to my connector so I lost the whole rig! I couldn’t understand it!!

I didn’t dwell on it and shallowed up my track rig to the same depth as the previous one and was straight into fish again. I managed to finish the second half of the match with 42 fish and a total of 78, I had 39 fish in each net so it would be interesting to see what they weighed.

Mark asked if I had 80lb, to which I replied “you must be kidding!”, the average size of my fish was probably 8oz, I thought I’d have 40lb though Jonesy reckoned I’d have 60lb with that many fish, we’d have to wait and see though.

Ash had fished really hard with most anglers just scraping past the 10lb barrier though Ian Exley managed a lake win and section with 37lb odd. Beech had fished relatively well, with Dean Smith weighing 65lb off around peg 7, Richie Newton then went into the lead with 88lb, Whaley finished off their lake with 53lb odd. Onto our lake and with Mark Calvert weighing 50lb I was dubious as to whether I’d get the section, my first net weighed 30lb dead and my second net 30lb6oz, so I’d won the lake and managed third overall on the match. Though I must split my fish a bit better and improve guessing my weight!

I was more than chuffed with this result and the final top 5 looked like this:

1st R. Newton - B20 - 88,2
2nd D. Smith - B6 - 65,0
3rd S. Lupton - S15 - 60,6
4th P. Whale - B25 - 53,8
5th M. Calvert - S6 - 50,4

Going back, it wasn’t until the next day that I realised why my rig had snapped. Normally with my bottle tops, I thread a loop of elastic under them and attach them to my top kits with the tight loop of elastic, rather than damaging my pole with the rigid plastic. I’d done a couple of fruit shoot lids by cutting a slit from one hole to another so I could thread them on and off without having to take my rig off. I remembered at one point my rig had got caught in the slit as I was unhooking a fish but I just sorted it out and carried on fishing, this must have damaged the line without me knowing! I’ll definitely go back to my elastic cups for the future as one day a mistake like that could cost me! The larger downside of this was obviously that a fish would now be attached to this rig, hopefully it would spit the hook fairly easily, then someone will be the proud owner of one of my homemade floats!

Thursday 22 March 2012

Oaks - Cedar Open - 17-03-12

This week I was trying my luck on the open up at the Oaks. One of my aims this year was to do 50lb on both Maple and Cedar, with having 56lb on Maple the other week that was one aim crossed off, now could I repeat this feat on Cedar?

After looking through my results, my personal best on Cedar was 39lb-13oz from peg 19 on the TalkAngling.co.uk Northern Intersite match back in August 2010. Cedar isn’t a lake I fish all that often, maybe three or four times a year so every time I fish it, it’s changed massively in the way you should approach it.

Today I was hoping for a good draw (though I wasn’t sure where that was!). I managed to draw peg 34 along the back straight. I’ve fished this on one of the Christmas Cheer qualifiers before and seemed to remember only weighing in because of the lucky peg draw after the match.

Peg 34 has hardly any sedges on the far bank and because of this I decided to fish at a comfortable distance of 13m where I found just less than 3ft of water. I set up two swims at 13m, one to my let and one to my right. This rig was a 4x10 KC Belter on 0.12 to an 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 Drennan Silverfish Pellet. This was finished off with a doubled 5 elastic and pull bung.

I set up an identical rig for fishing in a foot of water 14m if the fish were more confident in the shallower water. My final rig was to fish 13m to the platform on peg 35. This was a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.14 to an 0.12 hooklength and a size 18 Gama Pellet and Paste Hook, this was finished off with a solid 12 latex. Rob had mentioned that a chap had fished here on a previous match due to it being so windy and managed around 60lb. Though there was no really wind today, there was the occasional breeze drifting into this area of the peg so it would hopefully be good for the odd fish.

Bait for today I had a pint of soaked micros and some 4 & 6mm expanders.

At the all in I fed a golf ball of micros onto my margin swim and would top up as the day went on. I then went out with the “sedge” rig armed with a 4mm expander and half a pot of fruit shoot of micros. It took a few minutes before my first indication but I eventually hooked my first fish, an F1 about 2lb, I repeated the process and managed another two F1’s about a pound each, after this I was getting liners all the time and either lifting into thin air or foul hooking fish! I foul hooked three on the bounce and lost all of them, I decided to try my shallower line but had no indications therefore after an hour I decided to feed around 100ml of micros on the 3ft line and have a go down the margins.

This proved to be a good move as I ended up putting around twenty small stockies in the net over the next couple of hours before it started to go quiet. Before the line faded I potted half a big pot of micros and had another go across. With the fish responding so well down the edge I found myself having to soak some more feed pellets as I’d run out, the first time in a long time I’ve needed more than a pint of bait for a match!

I was continually getting pestered by gudgeon and small roach across on both lines whether I fed sparingly or heavy so gave it up and with around 90 minutes to go I went back down the edge.

I managed to get into a similar routine as previous and was putting a fish in the net on quite a frequent basis although only small I did have a couple of better fish, three for 10lb which was a welcome boost! I also hooked into another better fish down the edge and just I was about to slip the net under it we unfortunately parted company, at first glimpse it was a mirror of about 4lb, it was one of those “keep calm and carry on” moments or at least a “swear under your breath and put a new hooklength on moments”!

The match drew to a close, Ghandi had sacked up on peg 30 although claimed to have not had a bit during the middle of the match!

Ghandi was first to weight with 80 odd, the chap next to me claimed he’d been battered both sides but I didn’t see what he weighed (perhaps a week or so early for the worm and caster route!). I the weighed 46lb dead, so a personal best for me on the lake but not quite that 50lb target! There were some good weights going round the lake with Jonesy taking the section with 52lb, those foul hookers and the lost mirror might have cost me there! Woody weighed in a big 70 including a 12lber that weighed 9lb! Robbie won the match of peg 68 with 92lb, a fantastic weight for any time of year let alone march!

Suppose I’ll have to try my luck again next week!

Friday 16 March 2012

Brafferton Club Friendly Match - 11th March

Our club season doesn’t start until the end of the month but an impromptu match had been arranged for this weekend on the F1 Lake at Brafferton. Our last match on here saw me win the match with around 25lb on a cold autumn day, with the weather making a dramatic u-turn in recent weeks and the sun beaming down us we were all hopeful of a few fish after the low winter weights of the previous few weeks.

We met up at the Oaks for breakfast and to do the draw as its only a couple of miles away. After a decent breakfast I helped Stu peg the match, with 20 of us fishing and the whole of the 80 peg lake to fish we’d have plenty of room. Stu had decided to give every angler an option on pegs, i.e. if you draw peg 1, you could choose peg 1 or 2 to fish, peg 4, you’d have 4 or 5 and so on. This would hopefully give the individual a bit more choice if their initial peg had any major obstructions such as branches in the water or a dodgy peg etc as most of us hadn’t seen the lake in since last year.

The draw got under way and by the end there was only Stu and myself to draw with peg 4 and 7 left in the bag, so either way we were next to each other. Stu gave me the privilege of drawing and peg 7 stuck to my hand, which left Stu with 4 (apparently THE worst peg on the lake)!! I believe you Stu though there are many that would disagree!

We set off in convoy to the fishery and arrived just after 9 o’clock. On arrival Honest John had realised he’d left the weigh slings at home so it was back to the Oaks for him to borrow one, so we were now fishing 10:30 – 16:30 so we had plenty of time to set up! I had the choice of pegs 7 and 8 and decided to plump for 7 so I had both the island and the gap to have a go at during the match.

With the lake holding some very sizeable fish as well as a dent average stamp I stepped my gear up for the first time in months!

My first rig was for fishing at 15m to end of the island where I plumbed up two swims a couple of metres apart, I could have done with that extra metre in fairness as I was a two feet off the island so if they backed off I’d be stuffed but decided to make this my main plan of attack. This was a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.16 mainline and 0.12 hooklength, size 18 Gama Pellet and Paste finished off with a 12 latex and pull bung. 0.16 may seem a bit heavy but it gave me the option to step up my hooklength if the munters were about!

My second rig was for fishing down the edge to a bush (collection of twigs), this was the same as my island rig but with an 0.14 hooklength and size 16 hook to a 14 latex.

I also set up a line at 13m towards the middle of the gap between the islands, I set up rigs for fishing on the deck in about 7ft of water and a shallow rig for over the top as there were fish (big fish at that) cruising the whole time we were setting up.

Bait for the day was simple, some soaked micros for feed with 4 and 6mm expanders for over the top. I’d also riddled off last week’s maggots to pile in the edge late on if I was struggling. I also had some hard 4mm’s for shallow.

The all in was called at 10:30 and we were away, I pinged out a few pouches of 4mm’s onto the shallow line and went straight over the top of it. I slapped and carried on feeding for the first ten to fifteen minutes but to no joy, meanwhile Woody was bagging on peg 1 and probably had 10lb in the net already!

I sacked off the shallow rig but would keep feeding until I saw any swirls. I shipped out to the island to my left hand swim armed with a 4mm and tipped in a dozen micros. I didn’t have to wait long for a bite and I soon had my first stocky in the net at about 8oz. I carried on in the same vain but feeding a full pot and catching two or three fish off it and it was all going swimmingly, I didn’t have to wait long for a bit and I was coming back with a fish almost every put in. The fish though were small, varying between 6 and 10oz with the greedy roach and gudgeon often getting to the pellet first. I started using 6mm hooker pellets and this put the tiddlers off a bit although I was still getting the odd one.

The first three hours were hectic and Me and Stu were probably fish for fish. Woody had slowed down massively after taking a toilet break and Stu and I had near enough caught him up. I caught all my fish off the same line, “if they’re feeding then why fish somewhere else?”, but it had slowed up and so I moved to my right hand swim and put another run of a fish together before that also went quiet.

I decided to put half a big pot of micros on the original island swim and give them chance to settle again. I’d still been feeding my shallow line but there was no evidence of any feeding fish and after another quick go with no results I decided to stop wasting my time on it. I had a quick look down the edge and managed one lonesome F1 before the silvers were bashing at my hook bait again. I’d now rested the island swim for 15-20 minutes and decided it was time to have another look, with only an hour or so left I’d need to put a fair few fish in the net to stand a chance of competing.

Stu had offered me a quid side bet as he knew it was going to be close, I ummed and aahed for a bit before lifting into another fish and duly obliging. With extra pressure of the newly formed pound the heat was on!

I managed to put another decent run of fish together in last hour and put a few more fish in the net than Stu but it would still be very close! The all out was called and it had been a good day apart from the frustrating middle of the match! Woody owned up to hooking a fish after time and as evidence we watched him put it back, all 7lb of it!

The weigh in ensued and due to everyone in the club owning up to a bad back when it comes to weighing in, it was passed on to yours truly!

Woody was first with a very healthy 64-14, Stu pushed him close with 62-10 and it was now my turn. My second half of the match weighed 20lb, I knew I’d caught a lot better in the first half but would it be good enough? Err, no, my other net weighed 38lb giving me 58lb dead so Stu had done me! Still working it out, we’d all had over a hundred fish each, not bad for the start of March!

Tony Koz was next up to take the lead with 89-02, he’d caught well for most of the day either against the island or down his left hand edge on peg 12. Even Howard surprised us all with an initial weight of 62-04 before finding another fish in the bottom of his net to take over Stu with 63lb odd. Andy Nattrass was next with 67lb odd for second overall! Our section had fished brilliantly and my weight was only good enough for 6th in the seven man section!

The middle strip hadn’t fished as well as our section with much lower weights although John and Steph but had 50lb. Steve Cromie managed to claim third 66lb odd off peg 63 at the end of the point.

On the whole the match had fished very well for this time of year, even Gorgeous Gordy managed 30lb, minus a quid!

With Mother’s day next weekend and being the model son that I am, I’m off to get battered on the Saturday open on Cedar at Sessay, wish me luck!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Maggotdrowners Winter Knock Up - Oaks, Maple - 04/03/12

After 4 pick ups on the trot (forgetting a blank!) I was eager to do the business today and hoping for a kind draw on some fish for a change!

After a hearty breakfast I squeezed into the queue to draw my home for the day, when peg 29 stuck to my hand I was narked to say the least, I even tried turning it upside down and convincing Mark it was peg 62 but he wasn’t having any of it. Peg 29 is on “suicide straight”, I’ve never liked it along here although I have picked up a section in the past.

I got to my peg and decided I’d just have to make the most of it and not let the draw beat me, the weather would try its hardest to do that today! I got dressed and made sure I had the brolly up to try and keep my box and side tray dry. Seeing as I was expecting a grueller of a day scratching for bites I decide to stay faithful to the super light rigs that have done been proud over the last few weeks.

I set up a track rig at 12m towards the far bank trees both left and right, this was a 4x12 KC Carpa Belter, 0.10 mainline, 0.08 hooklength, Size 20 Drennan Silverfish Match and finished with a 6 elastic and pull bung. Peg 29 is quite shallow and I only found just over four foot at the base of the far slope.

I also set up a sedge rig that was a 4x10 KC Carpa Belter, 0.10 mainline, 0.08 hooklength, Size 20 Drennan Silverfish Match, again with a 6 elastic and pull bung. The sedge were shallow again so I set these lines a metre or two back from the sedges where I found two and a half feet or so.

My final line was on my top six towards the tree in my right hand margin, I didn’t expect to catch off here but it would be a bonus if I did.

Feed for the day was dampened micros, 4mm expanders, black swim stim and a pint of whites.

The all in was called at 10am and I shipped out to my hand track swim, tipped in 6 micros and a fruit shoot worth of groundbait and dropped the rig in over the top. It took all of twenty seconds before the float bobbed and I lifted into what felt like a good fish. With fishing so light I took my time and after a very healthy scrap and plenty of elastic stripped out of the bung I slid the net under a lovely 7lb mirror! What a start this was! I shipped out to the same line again, re-fed and the float buried again. This time a smaller F1 about a pound but welcome all the same. I repeated this for the first hour and by the stroke of 11am I had nine fish in the net for 25lb! This was made up a 7lb common, 4lb mirror, 3lb F1 and 6 further F1’s.

The day couldn’t have started any better and I carried on in the same vain although the line did slow in the second hour. I managed 3 fish in the second hour, another 7lber and two F1’s to take my tally to 35lb all in the first two hours!

As often happens when I fish Maple the action slowed right down and over the next 3 hours I only managed 6 F1’s and a few roach by moving through all my swims. I thought I’d have about 40lb by now but knowing what my guessing of weights are like I decided to put my other net in just in case!

The last hour and the bites had all but dried up from the carp and I was getting plagued by roach so decided I’d fish for them and try and keep warm. The rain battered it down from start to finish to hopefully whipping a few roach out would help me warm up a bit. I went out to the left hand track swim, tipped in a dozen maggots and dropped a double maggot hook bait over the top. I had a few roach before I put a further two F1’s in the net to boost my tally. With ten minutes to go the roach had slowed down too but thankfully one final gasp the float buried and I was into my final good fish of the day, time was called “FISH ON” and I slid the net under a 3lb ghosty!

At the end of the match I reckoned to having 40lb in the first net and 6lb in the second net. Bri Clay was winning the match up my weigh with 49lb so it was going to be very close!

I weighed my little net first which went 8lb-13oz, my big net went 47lb-7oz so I’d done it, a total of 56lb-4oz to take the match. Chris Hargreaves weighed a very health 44lb off peg 18 too to come third overall.

So although I could have been beaten by the draw I stuck at it and managed my first win of the year and more importantly making it 5 pick ups in 5 on the Maggotdrowners matches. Even more importantly though, I took another pound off Mr T!

The top 3 looked like this:

1st – 56lb – Peg 29 – Steve Lupton
2nd - 49lb – Peg 55 – Bri Clay
3rd – 44lb – Peg 16 – Chris Hargreaves

Thursday 1 March 2012

Maggotdrowners Winter Knock Up - Oaks, Alders - 26th February

After three sections on my last three Maggotdrowners matches I was sceptical as to whether I could continue my good form (scratching for bites!!).

We were on Alders this week which has 34 pegs and there were only 21 of us fishing so we’d have a bit of room. Alders has been good to me in the past, I’ve won a few knock ups on here, as well as a winter club match, even going back to my junior matches I always picked up a few points off this lake. It’s also been terrible on occasions too, with my weights being marked on the board as DNW!

What I like about Alders is the options you have, this is peg dependant but you’ve to be ready to go at it with a number of methods. With the island being 20-25m in some areas I’d packed the waggler rod as well as the method, I was hoping it was now warm enough to winkle a few out on the method, we’d have to wait and see though.

Typically after preparing my tackle all week, I drew peg 5 which you can normally reach the island with, or at least in the middle of summer when there’s plenty of vegetation on the far bank! With only having 15m of pole to play with it left me about a metre short where as the chaps on pegs 3 and 7 could both reach!

I was unsure as to how it would fish, I assumed the carp would still be in winter hiding even after the milder temperatures and also didn’t think it would be warm enough for the Ide to be there in any great numbers so I planned on scratching around for bites.

I set up a maggot line at 13m straight in front and this was a 4x12 KC Carpa Belter on 0.10 to a 0.08 hooklength and size 20 Drennan Silverfish Match, this was finished off with a size 6 solid latex. I also set up a pellet lines at 15 to my left and right, this was a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.12 to an 0.10 hooklength and a size 20 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hook, this was finished off with a doubled 5 latex. My final attack would be the method tight to the far bank, although casting would have to be a case of punching it out to hit the clip to avoid the overhanging branches (that I clipped a few times whilst setting the clip!).

Bait for today, I had a pint of white maggots, last week’s pint of casters that I’ve stored in my pellet pump, some micros, 4mm expanders and some black swim stim. I planned on mixing the micros and groundbait as and when I needed for the method.

The match kicked off at 10am and I shipped out with a kinder pot of maggots onto the 13m line before going out to the left hand 15m line with a 4mm pellet, the float settled and I tapped a few micros and a fruit shoot worth of groundbait over the top. After plenty of lifting and dropping, 10 minutes later, the float quivered and I struck into my first fish, a dumpy roach of a few ounces, at least I’d not blanked! A re-feed on the second put in saw me put my first F1 in the net of about a pound, this gave a healthy scrap on relatively “heavy” gear.

No more bites materialised on either 15m line, I’d been feeding a kinder of maggots ever 15 minutes or so on the 13m line and decided it was now worth a look. Chris on peg 3 had managed a couple of half decent fish off the point of the island and the chap to my left had only had a few bits. After 90 minutes I think I was the only one with a carp in the net on our bank although the majority of Ide in Alders are bigger than the F1 I had in the net! I got into a rhythm catching tiny roach and rudd off the 13m line but they were incredibly small.

I started to up the feed and was spraying a few maggots over my float with the catty. I started to get a few liners and striking at thin air so decided to set up a shallow rig to have a go over the top. This was a Preston PB3 on 0.12 to 0.10 and size 18 Middy 63:13, elastic for this was a solid 6 latex. I set the rig around 18 inch deep and went out with double maggot, I planned on feeding caster so but went with the more robust maggot so I could slap the rig in. I had a few small roach from the off before an Ide of about a pound, a few more roach followed before the laggy shot out and the pole tip buried under the surface. The fight was on and when I finally got back to my top 2 I stripped a few feet of elastic from the pulla kit and eventually slid the net under a lovely 4lb mirror. When possible I fed with the catty whilst playing the fish although the emphasis was on landing the fish!

I went back out on the shallow line and managed a few more roach before the sun hid behind the clouds and the fish seemed to back off a bit. I tried on the deck again and although I was getting indications I was missing a few bites. I decided to big pot some maggots in, only maybe 100ml but I hoped this would settle the fish on the deck again.

Whilst I waited for this line to settle I had a quick chuck over the far bank with the method to see if there was anything there. I’d been firing the odd 4mm pellet over there but this was to no avail, after 15 minutes I’d not even had a liner so carried on firing the odd pellet out there and went back to the 13m line.

The big pot had settled the fish, or sort of, I managed another F1, another 1lb Ide and the roach were back in force! I decided to carry on hammering the roach to keep pace with everyone else and hope that my bigger fish would carry me through. Chris on peg3 was flying by now putting good fish in the net quite often, as was the chap on the other side of the point so I was fishing for the section again.

The all out was called at 4pm and by my reckoning I might just scrape 10lb (4lber, 2 F1’s 2 decent Ide and loads of bits).

The weigh got underway and Chris plonked 35lb on the scales (I wouldn’t be troubling that!). My 10lb 8oz fell way short of the mark but was good enough to beat my other neighbour who managed 8lb13oz. I wasn’t sure how the sections were working today, a couple of lads put an 18lb and a 25lb on the scales from the bay on my side of the lake and the other side had disappointed with Bri Clays 12lb odd winning the bank. Last to weigh off the end peg and other side of the point to peg 3 weighed a very respectable 37lb of Ide and one lonely F1.

The match hadn’t fished as well as I’d hoped though there were still some good weights but showing that the fish are still very tightly shoaled up.

Back in the cafe and my name was read out for the 4th time in four matches, another section under my belt! The pressure is really on now for Maple next week in order to carry on my good form!

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Maggotdrowners Winter Knock Up - Oaks, Poplars - 20th February

I’ve had a mixture over the last few weeks, another section and my first blank for a very long time!

This week we were on Poplars up at the Oaks and I was determined to redeem myself after my blank! On arriving at the fishery at 8am, driving past the lake it looked to be frozen, as it transpired the aerators had been purposely left off to try not ball the fish up in certain areas. With the sun shining and a bit of a breeze it hopefully wouldn’t take long for the cat ice to thaw.

There were 22 in attendance today, and with the temperatures being slightly kinder over the week prior, although minus temperatures overnight, we’d all hopefully snare a few.

I really fancied being anywhere from peg 34 to the end or peg 1 which is a noted peg on the end of the island. So in went my hand, with only three pegs left I drew peg 6, Gordon took the last peg, 36!! The peg John had had some success on a few weeks ago.

I made my way round to my peg to discover that peg 2 to 5 were clear of ice, peg 7 up looked clear of ice, and my peg, peg 6, iced right across! Due to the low sun and a tree behind my peg meant that the sun wasn’t quite getting through to my peg! This would be interesting!

I set about breaking as much of the ice as I could with my landing net, but it was unsuccessful, I managed to set up a line about 5m in front of peg 7’s platform and also plumbed up a line at 11m and in front of the sedges. I wouldn’t be able to fish the second too but managed to plumb up for when the ice hopefully disappeared.

My rigs for in front of peg 7 and 11m were both KC Carpa Belters 4x12, these were on 0.10 Ultima Power Match to 0.08 Preston Powerline and size 20 Drennan Silverfish Pellet hooks, both on solid 6 latex elastic. The sedge rig was the same but with a 4x10 float and soft doubled 5 elastic. The deep rigs were only 3ft at best, I’m sure its normally nearer 5ft, though my sedge line was still 2-2.5ft.

Bait today I had some micros and some 4mm expanders and some black swim stim. I also had half a pint of whites and a pint of casters.

The all in was called at 10am and we were away, sort of.....I had to fish my short line, and if I hooked a fish, I’d have to navigate through the slalom of ice! I fed my 11m line with 3 micros and a pinch of groundbait first though to try encourage some fish into my swim for later. I fed the short line with half a dozen casters and hooked a single caster like a maggot and dropped it in. I was lifting and dropping the float every fifteen seconds or so eventually tempted a bite, I was a bit too eager on the strike though and missed it. I came back and rebaited and went in the same hole again, no sooner had my float settled and the wind picked up and you could see the ice starting to shift! I shipped in and amazingly 10 seconds later all the ice had near enough cleared my peg “upstream”!

Guessing the bite I’d had would have been from small roach I decided to put this rig down and go over the pellet line at 11m instead in search of “proper” fish but keep dripping a few casters in on this line just in case.

I dropped in on my 11m line with a 4mm pellet and slowly lowered the rig in, the float was a mere pimple and I was lifting the float 6inch out of the water every 15 seconds or so to try an entice a bite. Eventually the float “wobbled” and I lifted into my first fish. The 6 elastic was perfect and I soon had an F1 of about 12oz in the net. I shipped back out and this time fed 4 micros over the top, repeating the lifting of the float I hooked into a better fish and after a brief tussle slipped the net under a big F1 that must have 2lb plus, just goes to show that even on really light lines these bonus fish can be landed if you take your time. I repeated this for the remainder of the first hour and managed 9 F1’s for about 10lb.

I anticipated this line would fade and started to feed another 11m line but to my left instead. The first swim died and the second one never got going! Seems to be a common theme in my matches lately, I just can’t seem to get the fish to settle and once I’ve lost them that’s it!

I decided to drop in on my short and managed a few tiny roach and a perch of about 6oz. I then scratted about for bites for the rest of the day but only managed 2 more F1’s off the sedges and a handful of small roach.

At the all out I had 11 F1’s and my few silvers. From looking round, the other anglers at my end of the lake had struggled although the chap next to me had caught silvers fairly well all day and the lad on peg 1 had easily beaten me fishing down either edge.

At the all in peg 1 was leading with 31lb, peg 3 DNW’ed and then I weighed 13lb 4oz, the chap next to me ended up weighing 12lb 10oz so it was very close in the end and those few silvers I caught had vitally boosted my weight.

The match was won with 60lb from around peg 18ish and 52lb came second off the winners neighbour. Tubby Roofer weighed 17lb and he’d done me for the quid again! That makes it 2 all this year, need to pull my finger out! Or borrow Gordies drawing arm! Honest John had 9 fish for 6lb, obviously just a much smaller stamp than mine.

With the top four being paid out I managed my section again, as did Gordon!

It’s Alders next week, so hopefully with a bit of warmer weather the fish will be in more of a mood to feed!

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Maggotdrowners Winter Knock Up - Oaks, Cedar - 15th January

After a chat with Gordon, we decided to book onto one of the Maggotdrowners knock ups at the Oaks, these have been running for a while now and with the majority of Club matches not beginning again until spring there always seems to be a good turnout. Despite the weather being freezing and the previous days match being won with a low 20lb and 9lb being good enough for third it was good to see 31 anglers brave the banks.

After a hearty breakfast I was set up for the day and was hoping for a decent draw and a few fish. We had the whole 80 peg lake to go out so there would be plenty of room, the straight nearest the woods (pegs 71-80) had been left out apart from peg 72 because although the aerators were on the night before, the previous days match saw this start to freeze over again before the end of the match! The draw began at quarter to nine and we weren’t staring until ten so we had plenty of time to get sorted. I dipped into the bag and came out with 72, I was gutted to say the least, it was going to be a hard day and a cold one at that as these pegs never see any sunshine because of the woods! Still I remained upbeat and thought I’d have to remain positive to get anything from the match.

One thing about this time of year is that you expect to catch very little and it’s a case of keeping disciplined in order to not kill your peg by overfeeding. With 9lb being good enough for third the day before I thought this would be a good target to aim for and would also help me gauge how much to feed.

Gordon was on peg 2 and because there was nobody else on the straight meant that we were actually pegged next door to one and other albeit a gap of ten pegs!

I set up three rigs for the day, knowing it was going to be hard I set up a 4x10 Preston Chianti on 0.12 mainline to an 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 Gama Pellet and Paste hook, this would be for fishing a single grain of corn right across the far bank in about 2.5-3ft of water, this was finished off with a size 8 latex elastic.

I also set up a rig for fishing across with maggot, I was using one of my own home made pencil floats, an alternative version to the one I used the week previous, this was a 0.2g slim pencil body, with a wire stem and a fine plastic tip, this was again on 0.12 to 0.10 but with a size 20 Middy 63:13 and size 6 latex.

For down the track I had an identical rig to the maggot rig but with a 0.4g version of the float and a doubled 5 elastic, this would be my pellet rig and so I used a size 20 Gama pellet and paste hook.

For bait I had some corn, dampened micros, black swim stim, 4mm expanders and last week’s maggots that I’d riddled off.

At the all in I went over with the corn rig and lowered it in on my left hand swim, I had 4 lines along the far bank that I could drop this in. My plan was to fish it in one swim for ten minutes before moving to the next one. I’d try this for the first couple of hours before using my other lines. On my first put in I realised my backshot was a bit too close to my float so I shipped back to move it up an inch or two and whilst I was doing this Steve Hawkins was into his first carp on peg 70 but they soon parted company, probably foul hooked. I went back out and had a bite almost instantly and after a few seconds I had a big F1 in the net at around 2.5lb, good start! I then rotated between the lines with corn for about an hour and a half but no more bites materialised, perhaps I should have come off this earlier as they obviously weren’t there, where as Steve on peg 70 was putting one in the net fairly often. They’d obviously decided to hide around the corner for the day!

I decided to have a look down the track with the pellet rig, I dropped in with a 4mm expander and tipped in half a dozen micros and a fruit shoot of ground bait. Just as the float settled I heard a commotion on the next peg. Steve had landed a fish but his landing net handle came apart, as he went to reach for it he tripped and end up laid in the water edge on top of the reeds! He managed to grab his net, get back on his box and eventually land the fish! I would have asked him if he was alright but I was far too busy laughing! Thankfully he had some spare clothes in his van otherwise it would have made for an even colder afternoon!

The pellet line eventually came good and I managed two more F1’s about a pound each but I was going nowhere fast! Even though Steve decided to go for a swim it didn’t affect his fishing and he carried on putting fish in the net!

I eventually ended up scratching for silver down the track on maggot and managed a few roach half a dozen dumpy perch. Then that was it, the all out called after a very tough match!

Steve ended up winning the match with 40lb, a fantastic result considering the conditions! I scraped a section win with 6lb 3oz, Rab managed his section with around 12lb and Gordon tipped back a lonesome F1!

There’s another knock up arranged for next week which is programmed for Maple if it’s not frozen over!