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!

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!

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!

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!