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!
Wednesday 25 January 2012
Friday 20 January 2012
Team Inbetweeny – Poplars – 8th January
Today I was joining Gordon, John and Stu for a day on Poplar up at Sessay, Poplars isn’t a lake I fish very often up here but I’ve always done OK on. Robbie told me anywhere around peg 37 in the bay would be a good spot for the day but we were going to do a little rover match between pegs 45 and 39. I managed to draw second pick and plumped for 45 where Pete Whale had done well from during the week. Gordon was on 43, Stu was on 39 and John decided to go on 37, (which wasn’t a peg to choose from).
My main reason for fishing today was to try out a homemade float, if it was successful I could then make a few more, the last thing i wanted to do was to make a whole bunch for them to all be useless! I had two different types to try today, both 0.4g pencil float bodies with 1mm stems, 1.8mm hollow tips and figure of 8 spring eyes. One stem was stainless steel, the other clear glass fibre. I’d been warned about the stainless steel stem being too thick, this was proved when it sank under its own weight!! The glass fibre stem version took six No.8’s, and a No.10 dropper. This wasn’t the ideal float to use today as it was pretty cold, although relatively mild for January, but at least I could get an idea of how it sat in the water, and if it took any water on throughout the day.
I set this float up for fishing down the track at 11m on 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 Gama Pellet and Paste hook, this was finished with a doubled 6 elastic. I also setup another rig for fishing across, this was on the same line, hook and elastic but with a 4x10 Malman Cedar.
Bait for the day was a pint of maggots, some black swim stim, micros and 4mm expanders. At the “all in” everyone was still waiting for me as i’d not shot tested my floats prior to today so was still fiddling about getting it to sit correctly.
I was finally ready and went to 11m to fish down the track armed with a 4mm pellet and a fruit shoot with a down micro’s in and topped off with some black swim stim. First put in I had an indication and struck like Zorro! I missed it but lowered the rig back in this time when the float bobbed I was ready and met it with a gentle lift and it was fish on. The bites were so shy that they float only just pulled under the surface so you could still see it under water. It was fish number one in the net, a small F1 about 10oz. Stu and Gordon seemed to catch one at the exact same time I had done so we were all in lead, with John the only one to not have caught (off the flyer peg).
We were all steadily putting one or two fish into our nets apart from John who was still fishless after the first hour, much to his dismay as everyone that turned up for a chat we’d get to ask John how many he’d had to rub salt into the wound!
After two hours I’d had ten fish down the track and was doing OK but this is where the bites stopped, coincidental that Gordon and Stu had also stopped catching, probably because of all the commotion by our “visitors” and more likely the curse of Dave Wright!!
John had started catching one or two now that we’d all stopped and in the end he was getting a bite every put in and being rewarded with a small carp or F1 every time including some much better bonus fish up to 4 or 5lb.
So all our teasing hadn’t troubled John and he was now sailing away with the lead. We stopped fishing at about 3 as we were all bored (apart from Bagger Livesey on the flyer peg)!!
We did a quick weigh in, my 11 fish went 9lb odd, Gordon DNW’ed, Stu had 6lb odd and John........just shy of 40lb......
So an enjoyable day and it was even more rewarding seeing one of my own floats go under......and beating Mr T for the pound!
My main reason for fishing today was to try out a homemade float, if it was successful I could then make a few more, the last thing i wanted to do was to make a whole bunch for them to all be useless! I had two different types to try today, both 0.4g pencil float bodies with 1mm stems, 1.8mm hollow tips and figure of 8 spring eyes. One stem was stainless steel, the other clear glass fibre. I’d been warned about the stainless steel stem being too thick, this was proved when it sank under its own weight!! The glass fibre stem version took six No.8’s, and a No.10 dropper. This wasn’t the ideal float to use today as it was pretty cold, although relatively mild for January, but at least I could get an idea of how it sat in the water, and if it took any water on throughout the day.
I set this float up for fishing down the track at 11m on 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 Gama Pellet and Paste hook, this was finished with a doubled 6 elastic. I also setup another rig for fishing across, this was on the same line, hook and elastic but with a 4x10 Malman Cedar.
Bait for the day was a pint of maggots, some black swim stim, micros and 4mm expanders. At the “all in” everyone was still waiting for me as i’d not shot tested my floats prior to today so was still fiddling about getting it to sit correctly.
I was finally ready and went to 11m to fish down the track armed with a 4mm pellet and a fruit shoot with a down micro’s in and topped off with some black swim stim. First put in I had an indication and struck like Zorro! I missed it but lowered the rig back in this time when the float bobbed I was ready and met it with a gentle lift and it was fish on. The bites were so shy that they float only just pulled under the surface so you could still see it under water. It was fish number one in the net, a small F1 about 10oz. Stu and Gordon seemed to catch one at the exact same time I had done so we were all in lead, with John the only one to not have caught (off the flyer peg).
We were all steadily putting one or two fish into our nets apart from John who was still fishless after the first hour, much to his dismay as everyone that turned up for a chat we’d get to ask John how many he’d had to rub salt into the wound!
After two hours I’d had ten fish down the track and was doing OK but this is where the bites stopped, coincidental that Gordon and Stu had also stopped catching, probably because of all the commotion by our “visitors” and more likely the curse of Dave Wright!!
John had started catching one or two now that we’d all stopped and in the end he was getting a bite every put in and being rewarded with a small carp or F1 every time including some much better bonus fish up to 4 or 5lb.
So all our teasing hadn’t troubled John and he was now sailing away with the lead. We stopped fishing at about 3 as we were all bored (apart from Bagger Livesey on the flyer peg)!!
We did a quick weigh in, my 11 fish went 9lb odd, Gordon DNW’ed, Stu had 6lb odd and John........just shy of 40lb......
So an enjoyable day and it was even more rewarding seeing one of my own floats go under......and beating Mr T for the pound!
Wednesday 11 January 2012
Oaks - Cedar Starbeck Club Christmas Match
The final match of the year came around and with a very cold day! Today was our club Christmas match. With 3 man sections it was all to play for! Also with a giant Christmas feed thrown in at the end of the match it got the numbers up with 29 in attendance, probably the best attendance of the year! It’s amazing what a free lunch can do!
We were fishing on Cedar up at the Oaks and had pegs 18 to 56, this meant we could have the three man section in a row and then a gap before the next section. This wasn’t ideal at this time of year but it seemed the only way to peg it fairly, plus it would mean you could see both your competitors!
As it happened I drew peg 56, which although the end of our match, the next match started on peg 57 and it later materialised that I would be bang in the middle of 5 in a row! Far from what you needed today when it was going to be a grueller! To rub salt into the wounds, this end peg meant I also had to weigh in!
For company I had Terry on 55 and Martin Whit on 54, we soon struck up a three way quid to add to the bragging rights!
I only set up two rigs, one for fishing at the base of the far slope in five and a bit foot of water. The other rig was for fishing in 3ft of water on the sloping shelf. Both these rigs were 0.4g Garbolino DC13H floats, which I don’t particularly like but they’d have to do, these were on 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hooklength’s and size 20 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hooks. The rigs were finished with doubled 5 elastics. Bait was also simple today with some micros, some black swim stim, some 4mm expanders and a few maggots.
The all in was called at 10am and we were only fishing five hours today due to it being dark at 4 o clock nowadays! I expected it to be hard but as the match panned out, it was harder than I’d have expected. The first hour or two were OK, I put a few F1’s and a couple of small Barbel in the net, as well as losing a few fish. At one point it was more like Tel and I were seeing who could lose the most fish rather than catch them! After this initial spell of fish, it went dead, and to spark a response I fed a handful of maggots onto the island to try batter the small fish to build up a weight, I think I had a dozen in the last three hours where as Martin and Tel were catching far more, even though they were only tiny. I need to learn that when it’s cold, dumping in bait to “spark a response” very rarely works, I’d have been better off doing the softly softly approach and feeding a few maggots every put out!
Well the match drew to an end, and I must admit the last few hours were a bit tedious, the only thing that kept my spirits up was the prospect of a hot meal!
I was first to weigh in and managed a not so impressive, 9lb11oz, I was instantly a quid down to Tel when he weighed 13lb odd, Martin cemented my misery when he plonked 16lb odd onto the scales which turned out good enough for 3rd on the day! Jonesy won the match from around peg 50 with 20lb. So it had fished hard but we’d all had a good laugh!
Back in the warmth in the cafe, the Christmas dinner went down a storm, a huge plateful of everything you could imagine! (As well as sampling all three puddings.......and mince pies.....and Christmas cake.....) I only had the one chocolate mint though as I had my tea waiting for me at home....
Thanks must go to Mary for the splendid meal, it was much appreciated by all, shame we don’t do this after every match!
We were fishing on Cedar up at the Oaks and had pegs 18 to 56, this meant we could have the three man section in a row and then a gap before the next section. This wasn’t ideal at this time of year but it seemed the only way to peg it fairly, plus it would mean you could see both your competitors!
As it happened I drew peg 56, which although the end of our match, the next match started on peg 57 and it later materialised that I would be bang in the middle of 5 in a row! Far from what you needed today when it was going to be a grueller! To rub salt into the wounds, this end peg meant I also had to weigh in!
For company I had Terry on 55 and Martin Whit on 54, we soon struck up a three way quid to add to the bragging rights!
I only set up two rigs, one for fishing at the base of the far slope in five and a bit foot of water. The other rig was for fishing in 3ft of water on the sloping shelf. Both these rigs were 0.4g Garbolino DC13H floats, which I don’t particularly like but they’d have to do, these were on 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hooklength’s and size 20 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hooks. The rigs were finished with doubled 5 elastics. Bait was also simple today with some micros, some black swim stim, some 4mm expanders and a few maggots.
The all in was called at 10am and we were only fishing five hours today due to it being dark at 4 o clock nowadays! I expected it to be hard but as the match panned out, it was harder than I’d have expected. The first hour or two were OK, I put a few F1’s and a couple of small Barbel in the net, as well as losing a few fish. At one point it was more like Tel and I were seeing who could lose the most fish rather than catch them! After this initial spell of fish, it went dead, and to spark a response I fed a handful of maggots onto the island to try batter the small fish to build up a weight, I think I had a dozen in the last three hours where as Martin and Tel were catching far more, even though they were only tiny. I need to learn that when it’s cold, dumping in bait to “spark a response” very rarely works, I’d have been better off doing the softly softly approach and feeding a few maggots every put out!
Well the match drew to an end, and I must admit the last few hours were a bit tedious, the only thing that kept my spirits up was the prospect of a hot meal!
I was first to weigh in and managed a not so impressive, 9lb11oz, I was instantly a quid down to Tel when he weighed 13lb odd, Martin cemented my misery when he plonked 16lb odd onto the scales which turned out good enough for 3rd on the day! Jonesy won the match from around peg 50 with 20lb. So it had fished hard but we’d all had a good laugh!
Back in the warmth in the cafe, the Christmas dinner went down a storm, a huge plateful of everything you could imagine! (As well as sampling all three puddings.......and mince pies.....and Christmas cake.....) I only had the one chocolate mint though as I had my tea waiting for me at home....
Thanks must go to Mary for the splendid meal, it was much appreciated by all, shame we don’t do this after every match!
The Oaks - Open 20/11/11
After last week’s triumph I was ready to tackle the Sunday open at the Oaks again. After a minor personal victory last time around I was ready to right a few wrongs and put some more ideas into practice. There were 23 fishing today, a good turnout for a cold November day! Gordon and Rab had also made the journey so the quid was on once again with Mr T.
All 3 lakes would be used so we would all have plenty of room. I managed to snare Sycamore peg 21. I always prefer being in the middle of these rectangular lakes, similarly to Woodlands, the ends can often be hit or miss. After parking at the wrong end of the lake, two trips saw me eventually get all my gear to my peg. This week I hadn’t had chance to set up my top kits the day before which meant I would be rushing to get a decent amount of time to plumb up.
I only set up two rigs today, one for on the shelf at 13m and one down the track at 11m at the bottom of the slope. I wasn’t too confident in my ability for fishing on the slope so decided to pin my faith in these two lines instead.
There was a thick mist hanging over the whole fishery, this light grey sky would initially prove a nightmare for seeing a float at any distance, thankfully the black marker made a welcome appearance from the bottom of my box! I had the same rigs as two weeks previous, but this time I used a doubled 5 latex for the shelf and a solid 8 for down the track.
Bait wise I had half a pint of white maggots, some black swim stim, some micros, some 4millies, and 4 & 6mm expanders.
At the all in I went onto the deep line where I was expecting to catch most of my fish today. It probably took 15 minutes before I hooked into my first fish after a few tentative nibbles. The chap opposite on his debut on the lakes had already caught about 4 I think! I could also see Chappy, Ghandi and Josh Newton putting a few in the net. I stuck with this line and in the first hour managed 12 fish. The second hour slowed somewhat and I only managed 8, though because I was still doing OK in the grand scheme of things I stuck with it for the third hour and managed a further 10 to take my total to 30 fish in the first three hours. It didn’t quite feel right and the fish weren’t of a great average stamp so I fed a fruit shoot of bait on the shelf and left it for ten minutes before going over it. This turned out to be a bad move, I stuck at it for an hour which was far too long, I only managed 4 fish and so decided to go back down the track. Looking back I should have stuck at it down here or had a go on the slope as a practice as I was far from contention.
The change to the deep line proved a good one and in the last ninety minutes I had a further 16 fish taking my tally to 50 for the match so I’d beaten my fish quantity since the last time by 11 fish so I couldn’t grumble at that, though I knew my weight would be less. The average fish size I was getting was far less than on Beech!
At the weigh in I managed 36lb dead, Chappy won our lake and the match with 62lb. Rab had 42 fish for 40lb from the last peg on Sycamore, a much better stamp than I was getting? I did however beat Mr Thackwray for another pound!
An interesting point on average fish size though. Phil Sellars on Beech 7 where I fished a couple of weeks ago had 48 fish for 56lb, this works out at 1lb3oz per fish, this tally’s with my 39 fish for 45lb8oz, again 1lb 3oz. Whereas my 50 fish today averaged only 12oz! If my 50 fish had have averaged that 1lb 3oz I’d have had a weight of 62lb!! I’ll have to have a think on why I only managed to attract smaller fish into my peg, too much feed? Too little feed? Wrong type of feed? All good questions, questions I’ll hopefully answer next time I’m on the bank!
The top 4 looked like this
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 62-14-0, carp to 2 lb on 14 m pole and pellet, Sycamore 5
Phil Sellars (Garbolino Elton) 56-10-0
James Woods (Oaks) 56-1-0
Chris Hall (Oaks) 54-2-0.
All 3 lakes would be used so we would all have plenty of room. I managed to snare Sycamore peg 21. I always prefer being in the middle of these rectangular lakes, similarly to Woodlands, the ends can often be hit or miss. After parking at the wrong end of the lake, two trips saw me eventually get all my gear to my peg. This week I hadn’t had chance to set up my top kits the day before which meant I would be rushing to get a decent amount of time to plumb up.
I only set up two rigs today, one for on the shelf at 13m and one down the track at 11m at the bottom of the slope. I wasn’t too confident in my ability for fishing on the slope so decided to pin my faith in these two lines instead.
There was a thick mist hanging over the whole fishery, this light grey sky would initially prove a nightmare for seeing a float at any distance, thankfully the black marker made a welcome appearance from the bottom of my box! I had the same rigs as two weeks previous, but this time I used a doubled 5 latex for the shelf and a solid 8 for down the track.
Bait wise I had half a pint of white maggots, some black swim stim, some micros, some 4millies, and 4 & 6mm expanders.
At the all in I went onto the deep line where I was expecting to catch most of my fish today. It probably took 15 minutes before I hooked into my first fish after a few tentative nibbles. The chap opposite on his debut on the lakes had already caught about 4 I think! I could also see Chappy, Ghandi and Josh Newton putting a few in the net. I stuck with this line and in the first hour managed 12 fish. The second hour slowed somewhat and I only managed 8, though because I was still doing OK in the grand scheme of things I stuck with it for the third hour and managed a further 10 to take my total to 30 fish in the first three hours. It didn’t quite feel right and the fish weren’t of a great average stamp so I fed a fruit shoot of bait on the shelf and left it for ten minutes before going over it. This turned out to be a bad move, I stuck at it for an hour which was far too long, I only managed 4 fish and so decided to go back down the track. Looking back I should have stuck at it down here or had a go on the slope as a practice as I was far from contention.
The change to the deep line proved a good one and in the last ninety minutes I had a further 16 fish taking my tally to 50 for the match so I’d beaten my fish quantity since the last time by 11 fish so I couldn’t grumble at that, though I knew my weight would be less. The average fish size I was getting was far less than on Beech!
At the weigh in I managed 36lb dead, Chappy won our lake and the match with 62lb. Rab had 42 fish for 40lb from the last peg on Sycamore, a much better stamp than I was getting? I did however beat Mr Thackwray for another pound!
An interesting point on average fish size though. Phil Sellars on Beech 7 where I fished a couple of weeks ago had 48 fish for 56lb, this works out at 1lb3oz per fish, this tally’s with my 39 fish for 45lb8oz, again 1lb 3oz. Whereas my 50 fish today averaged only 12oz! If my 50 fish had have averaged that 1lb 3oz I’d have had a weight of 62lb!! I’ll have to have a think on why I only managed to attract smaller fish into my peg, too much feed? Too little feed? Wrong type of feed? All good questions, questions I’ll hopefully answer next time I’m on the bank!
The top 4 looked like this
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 62-14-0, carp to 2 lb on 14 m pole and pellet, Sycamore 5
Phil Sellars (Garbolino Elton) 56-10-0
James Woods (Oaks) 56-1-0
Chris Hall (Oaks) 54-2-0.
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