This week we were on Mallard up at Woodlands. Mallard is one of the older match lakes at up at Woodlands and is rarely used as an open match lake but more for club matches and pleasure anglers. The last few times I’ve fished any of these older lakes they’ve fished very poorly, this is put down to a rumour of a big fish kill last winter during the deep freeze. The lakes have subsequently been stocked with small carp to boost the abundant roach and skimmer population. It was probably down to these reasons that there were only 10 of us booked on today. With 1st and 2nd prizes and a section a bank it was well worth putting in a decent performance as there was a 40% chance of picking up a brown envelope! Success would probably ride on the draw though, with the corner pegs generally out fishing the rest of the lake, especially at this time of year.
Prior to the match I’d decided on targeting the skimmers on a couple of lines and trying to get my head down for the day as it would be a race to catch as many as possible! The draw ensued and the last 3 pegs left in the bag were 1,10 and 19, all corner pegs. John drew 10, Stu drew 19 which left me with 1. So the plan would need to be revised somewhat as there would be a potential of catching from the side bank at the end of the lake.
I set up three rigs in total, one for fishing to a small bunch of sedges on the right hand bank at 15m, this was a 0.2g BGT shallow long float on 0.14 Ultima Power Match mainline and an 0.12 hooklength with a size 18 B911, this was complemented with a size 12 latex elastic. My next rig was my skimmer rig for fishing at 11m with a swim at 11 o’ clock and 1 o’ clock. This was a 0.3g Preston silver on 0.12 mainline and an 0.10 hooklength, this was finished off with a double 5 latex elastic. My final rig was the same as the skimmer rig but for fishing shallow, the only differences were the float which was a 4x10 Preston PB2 and the elastic was an 8 latex.
For bait today, I had a pint of whites, half or reds, some green swim stim groundbait, this was mixed on the dry side so it would only just hold its shape after a good squeeze. I also had an array of expander pellets for the hook from 4-8mm, and feed pellets were soaked 4mm hard pellets. The skimmer lines would be a maggot and groundbait approach with the odd 4mm used on the hook as a change and hopefully to pick off the better fish. I would fish either 6 or 8mm hooker on the carp line towards the sedges and feed 4mm rather than micros so to not get plagued by nuisance small fish, 15metres is a long way to go when your only bringing roach back!
The match kicked off at 10 o’clock and I shipped out to my first 11m skimmer line with a pot of groundbait and a dozen maggots, I repeated this on the second line before feeding the long line with 20 4mm’s.
First put out onto the right hand 11m swim and the float dipped and it was roach number one in the swim, I repeatedly swapped between the two lines before catching 2 fish off the right swim and one off the left as the bites were quicker on the right swim. After maybe a dozen roach I had my first skimmer of about 3oz, closely followed by a lull in bites of a minute or two and then two small stocky carp of 8oz a piece. Both swims then went quiet so I decided to re-feed the same again and have a look on the long line as Stu opposite was catching some sizeable fish off the aerator.
I went across armed with a 6mm hooker and half a dozen feed pellets and straight away the float was dancing all over the place, soon enough though I hooked a decent fish, up on getting to the net I saw it was around 2lb and then hook pulled! Marvellous! I put it to the back of my mind and went straight back across. I managed a run of maybe 10 fish before it went quiet again, they were all between 8oz and a pound so I wasn’t putting a huge weight together but I was easily winning my bank from what I could see although I knew Stu and John were catching fairly well too.
I re-fed the long line and fished for skimmers again for half an hour but wasn’t really getting anywhere, I was having to wait far too long between bites and the fish weren’t of any size. By now Stu was well in the lead and I’d heard John had caught quite a few so it was a case of getting my head down to push for second place and at least cement the section prize.
I went back over to the long line and managed another 7 or 8 carp in about 90 minutes, so it was fairly slow but they were all about pound each so worth having.
It went really iffy again and with only half an hour left I thought I’d try bag up on a few silvers to add those vital ounces! I’d been throwing half a handful of maggots to 4m in front of me and there’d been the odd swirl from small fish so thought it worth a go shallow. I went out with the shallow rig, slapped it in, fed and managed a roach of 2 ounce before repeating, I ended up putting a long lash on and essentially fished my top kit like a whip, I managed over 20 roach and rudd in fifteen minutes for nearly 2lb before I saw a big swirl on my long line. I dropped the “whip” and went straight onto it and managed 3 further carp for about 5lb in the last 15 minutes, which was a much welcome bonus including one on time!
The match had fished odd, I’d have expected more results from the skimmer lines but they dies as quickly as they started, with catching in spells and catching a lot of small fish I was unsure as to what I had but I’d hopefully won my bank.
I packed up quickly and due to being on peg one I was weighing in. I weighed 25lb 12oz and was fairly chuffed, I must have had 70-80 fish in total! Perhaps I was catching in longer spells than I thought! Mick Ayre on the next peg didn’t weigh in, we had a guest on the next peg who had a lovely net of silvers for just shy of 10lb. Rab was next with 12lb ish I think and last but not least Cooksey had 15lb off the other end peg. So I’d definitely won my section but was awaiting the other banks results. Honest John weighed over 36lb so I’d have to settle for the section, Stu romped the match with 91lb (this was nearly as much as everyone else’s weights combined!!!). Gordon ended up winning their bank by double default with 13lb, which meant I’d taken another quid from his pension!
So two sections on my last two matches are showing that things might be getting better, with our last scheduled match next weekend up at the Oaks can I make it 3 pickups in a row?
Top three looked like this.
1st – Stu “Superstar” Stott – 91lb
2nd – Honest John – 36lb
3rd – Steve Lupton – 25lb 12oz
Friday, 28 October 2011
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Carp Vale - Cyprio + Front pool 25th September, Woodlands - Skylark 2nd October, Oaks - Maple 9th October
After being on holiday for a couple of weeks we were at Carp Vale for hopefully a good days fishing, though I was a bit dubious with the last match fishing terribly.
My holiday saw me travel around Tuscany for a week, squeezing in a bit of fishing (of course). One of the campsites we stopped at backed on Lake Biguglia, a vast water that didn’t show up any information regarding fishing on a quick Google search, so myself and a couple of the lads rigged up simple waggler tactics on telescopic rods with a tin of corn for hook bait. We sat ourselves at the edge of a little harbour right next to the tents and on watching the locals, they were swinging in the odd roach which was encouraging although they were no more than an ounce or two. We cast in, sparked a fag, opened a beer and sat back in the evening sun and anticipated the roach sport! To our surprise when one of our floats did go under we were greeted with a fair bit of resistance, this was no roach! No it was a small common carp of about 2lb. In total we managed 30 between us whilst the locals caught about a dozen roach at best! This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a European Championship, so thankfully I can reflect positively that we’d done England proud!
Back to the Carp Vale match. There were 15 of us on today with 7 on Cyprio and 8 on the Front Pool. I was undecided as to which lake I’d prefer today with the apparent lack of bites of both lakes on our previous visit. The draw bag decided my fate and peg 61 would be my home for the day. Tony Koz won the lake off this peg last time, and Stu had also won a knock up off this peg. Tony advised me that if I got my head down I could win the match off that peg today. No pressure then
You’ve probably already guessed the end to this story. The lake fished appalling again, in fact both lakes did. Six out of the eight of us on front pool didn’t weigh in as we’d either blanked or only caught a couple of bits. Stef Armitage ended up fishing corn long in the last couple of hours and had over 60lb, a credit to him for correctly judging the conditions! Cyprio was won with 37lb which is miles off the fisheries general pace but good enough on the day. I didn’t bother challenging the scales with my two roach..................
The next match up on the calendar was Woodlands, this time fishing on Skylark, and to my knowledge I don’t think I’ve ever fished this lake? I’ve fished countless club matches and opens at Woodlands yet never drawn this lake.
There were 15 of us in attendance again and we’d have 8 on the front bank and 7 on the back bank. Normally with so few in attendance we’d have a lake 1st and 2nd with a section per bank. However the middle pegs had apparently been out fishing the ends so the sections would work where the end two pegs on both sides would form a section of 8 and the remaining 7 in the middle would form the other.
Cometh the draw, cometh.....peg 25, this is in the middle so I could hope for a better day than the end pegs, have a smaller section and a better view of how everyone else was doing!
I arrived at my peg and noticed the margins had been cut quite far back which made them look very tempting. Prior to the match I’d thought to just ignore the margins as I concentrate so much of my time feeding it throughout the match to never catch from them that it’s just a waste of time. However these margins looked so tempting that I’d set a rig up and feed it anyway, however, if no fish materialised like normal then I’d know to knock it on the head completely in future!
My main plan was to fish shallow at 13m and chase them out a section if I needed to. I’d also fish a top2+2 line straight in front of me that I could feed by hand. I also had a couple of rods set up, one with a method and 4inch hook length, the other a running half ounce bomb with an 18inch hook length.
Bait for the day, I had 2 pints of micros for the method, 4 pints of 6mm for my pole lines, 2 pints of 8mm for the rod rigs and 2 tin's of corn for the edge. I didn’t anticipate on using even half of this but depending on how the fish wanted it, I was at least prepared.
For company I had Stu on 27 and Bob on 23. Opposite I had Cooksey to my right and venue expert Les Bolton to my left.
At the all in I took the pole out to 13m just to use as a marker for cattying bait in. I fired some pellets in and then shipped back and slung the method out to 25 yards and pinged some 8mm pellets over the top. I persevered with this for about 40 minutes, constantly firing a few pellets over the method, half a dozen pellets on the shallow line and a handful at top2+2 every 15 minutes or so.
After the first hour I was still without a fish. So decided to try the shallow line. I got a couple of indications which was either small fish or perhaps fish a bit deeper trying to suck the suspended bait in. I added a couple of inches to my depth and managed to put 2 in the net both of around 4lb a piece.
It then went quiet again but Cooksey was catching on the bomb so I decided to flick a bomb out to 25 yards and managed to put a couple of fish in the net. It was then a case of switching between lines and hopefully picking up fish. I ended up fishing two bomb lines, one in front and one to my right and eventually put a run of 4 fish together although it was slow going.
At the all in I had 12 carp, which is slow going for the duration of a match! Stu had done similarly to myself. Cooksey had caught relatively well on the bomb for most of the day. Les had bagged up, though I expected that!
Come the weigh in Stu weighed 49lb12oz. I was up next and thought it would be close. My 12 fish went 51lb12oz so I’d beaten Stu, I’d also beaten Bob but forget his weight? I ended up coming second on the bank with Mick Ayre putting 97lb on the scales from the corner peg. Mick’s weight was good enough for second in the match with only Les’s 130lb beating him. Typically this would mean I’d have won the section but with it being swapped about meant I had to wait for another week to try!! Sods law was the fact that the opposite bank fished miles better than our bank, so it would have been fairer to do a section a bank!
My last match was up at the Oaks, it seems an age since I’ve fished up here and subsequently I wasn’t sure how to approach it. We were on Maple and after having a look through my past blogs, we fished here in the middle of October in 2008 and I fished a maggot match and won my section. The conditions for the day were forecast very similar too so that was my mind made up. A day on the maggot! With this I bought half a gallon from the shop on Saturday afternoon and filled up my maggot hook length box in the afternoon.
We were on pegs 30 to 68 and with an eventual 19 anglers booked on it was perfect for peg one miss one. I wasn’t too fussed where I drew as I think that when fishing maggot you’re targeting every fish and not just the odd pockets of carp through the match. I hung back at the draw and with 4 or 5 left to pick from I got peg 55. This is a lovely corner peg that contains some lumps on its day although it’s not an ideal maggot peg! D’oh!
With half a gallon of maggots sat in my bucket with no other chance to use them it was still going to be a maggot day. This would include a line in 3ft of water to the edge of the island at 14.5m, the same rig could also be used for fishing my top 5 down the edge. This would be a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.14 mainline to an 0.12 hook length and size 16 Gamma Black hook, this was all complemented by a 12 latex elastic. I also set up a rig for fishing the same swim to the island with 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hook length and a size 20 Middy 63-13 finished with a doubled 5 elastic. This was only if the going was tough or there were a lot of small fish in the swim. I also set up a paste rig to fish 15m to the bush to my right, this was 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hook length to a size 12 PR24 and 14 latex elastic, my float for this was a self cocking Preston paste float.
Due to not planning on fishing anything but maggot, the only other bait I had with me was half a bag of Crazy Bait Green Gold, which would have to do for my paste. It mixes too far on the sticky side and is far from an ideal paste consistency in my opinion but it would have to do.
For company I had Cooksey on 53, Stef on 51 and Stu on 49. We were starting a bit later today due to the massive queue in the cafe so the all in was called at 10:30.
On the all in I shipped out to the island with 100ml of maggots. What I tend to do is use my big 250ml cup and use my smaller cups to measure the bait into the big cup. This way I know how much I’m feeding and it also makes a damn site easier shipping out with a cup that’s half full rather than filling a small cup up to the brim and spilling them everywhere! I also fed a further 100ml of maggots down my right hand edge and finally cupped in half a big pot of 4mm pellets and a few lumps of paste out towards the bush.
First put in on the island line and I wasn’t getting any indications, I expected it might take 15-20 minutes for the fish to settle and rightly so. After twenty minutes the float dipped and I struck into my first fish, a roach of about 2-3oz. Next put in I managed an Ide of about 6oz. I decided to double kinder a pot of maggots in and this resulted in two F1’s both of about 2lb a piece. Another Ide pushing a pound and the line was quickly fading. Normally, or at least on any other peg, I’d have pushed into the mud line to try and snaffle a few more but this peg doesn’t allow you that privilege!
I decided to big pot the island swim again and have a look down the edge. After a couple of shy indication I managed a couple of small roach before deciding it was probably worth big potting here too and wait for some better stamp fish to turn up. With this I went out onto the paste line, as usual the bites are all over the place and so was my striking at sail away bites. Throughout the match I only managed 3 carp and a tench off this line though had enough bites to warrant 500lb of fish!
No one was really catching that I could see so I was constantly swapping between fishing and feeding the edge and the island as the paste line had beaten me! The island threw up the odd fish as did the edge but the wind was proving difficult fishing to the island. I decided I’d persevere with it though whilst heavily feeding the edge.
With twenty minutes to go I reckon I had about 18lb. I decided to go for it down the edge for the rest of the match as it was only small roach and Ide showing on the island line. The last twenty minutes proved fruitful with two small barbel, a small ghosty, an F1, two chunky Ide and a Perch of about a pound and a half which in total would add around 10lb to my final weight!
The matched ended at half four and although it had been hard I’d enjoyed it. The weigh in ensued and Stu put 45lb on the scale, Stef 30lb, Cooksey DNW’d and my fish went to 29lb 4oz. On speaking to Mr Thackwray I’d beaten him by 4oz for the sacred pound! Back in the cafe and it had been a better day than I thought. Stu had won the match, Bob the Builder was second with 38lb, Rab was third with 31lb and Gordon, Stef and Myself had picked up the section prizes. This is my first pick up the year which is more than welcome!
The final 6 looked like this
1st – Stu “Superstar” Stott – 45lb
2nd – Bob The Builder – 38lb-12oz
3rd – Rab – 31lb-8oz
4th – Stef Armitage – 30lb-8oz
5th – Steve Lupton – 29lb-4oz
6th – Gorgeous Gordy – 29lb (must try harder)
I’m playing a gig in London next week so will miss the Brafferton match and the next match is on the old lakes at Woodlands which the last few times I’ve fished them, they’ve been naff! So we’ll see about that one!
My holiday saw me travel around Tuscany for a week, squeezing in a bit of fishing (of course). One of the campsites we stopped at backed on Lake Biguglia, a vast water that didn’t show up any information regarding fishing on a quick Google search, so myself and a couple of the lads rigged up simple waggler tactics on telescopic rods with a tin of corn for hook bait. We sat ourselves at the edge of a little harbour right next to the tents and on watching the locals, they were swinging in the odd roach which was encouraging although they were no more than an ounce or two. We cast in, sparked a fag, opened a beer and sat back in the evening sun and anticipated the roach sport! To our surprise when one of our floats did go under we were greeted with a fair bit of resistance, this was no roach! No it was a small common carp of about 2lb. In total we managed 30 between us whilst the locals caught about a dozen roach at best! This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a European Championship, so thankfully I can reflect positively that we’d done England proud!
Back to the Carp Vale match. There were 15 of us on today with 7 on Cyprio and 8 on the Front Pool. I was undecided as to which lake I’d prefer today with the apparent lack of bites of both lakes on our previous visit. The draw bag decided my fate and peg 61 would be my home for the day. Tony Koz won the lake off this peg last time, and Stu had also won a knock up off this peg. Tony advised me that if I got my head down I could win the match off that peg today. No pressure then
You’ve probably already guessed the end to this story. The lake fished appalling again, in fact both lakes did. Six out of the eight of us on front pool didn’t weigh in as we’d either blanked or only caught a couple of bits. Stef Armitage ended up fishing corn long in the last couple of hours and had over 60lb, a credit to him for correctly judging the conditions! Cyprio was won with 37lb which is miles off the fisheries general pace but good enough on the day. I didn’t bother challenging the scales with my two roach..................
The next match up on the calendar was Woodlands, this time fishing on Skylark, and to my knowledge I don’t think I’ve ever fished this lake? I’ve fished countless club matches and opens at Woodlands yet never drawn this lake.
There were 15 of us in attendance again and we’d have 8 on the front bank and 7 on the back bank. Normally with so few in attendance we’d have a lake 1st and 2nd with a section per bank. However the middle pegs had apparently been out fishing the ends so the sections would work where the end two pegs on both sides would form a section of 8 and the remaining 7 in the middle would form the other.
Cometh the draw, cometh.....peg 25, this is in the middle so I could hope for a better day than the end pegs, have a smaller section and a better view of how everyone else was doing!
I arrived at my peg and noticed the margins had been cut quite far back which made them look very tempting. Prior to the match I’d thought to just ignore the margins as I concentrate so much of my time feeding it throughout the match to never catch from them that it’s just a waste of time. However these margins looked so tempting that I’d set a rig up and feed it anyway, however, if no fish materialised like normal then I’d know to knock it on the head completely in future!
My main plan was to fish shallow at 13m and chase them out a section if I needed to. I’d also fish a top2+2 line straight in front of me that I could feed by hand. I also had a couple of rods set up, one with a method and 4inch hook length, the other a running half ounce bomb with an 18inch hook length.
Bait for the day, I had 2 pints of micros for the method, 4 pints of 6mm for my pole lines, 2 pints of 8mm for the rod rigs and 2 tin's of corn for the edge. I didn’t anticipate on using even half of this but depending on how the fish wanted it, I was at least prepared.
For company I had Stu on 27 and Bob on 23. Opposite I had Cooksey to my right and venue expert Les Bolton to my left.
At the all in I took the pole out to 13m just to use as a marker for cattying bait in. I fired some pellets in and then shipped back and slung the method out to 25 yards and pinged some 8mm pellets over the top. I persevered with this for about 40 minutes, constantly firing a few pellets over the method, half a dozen pellets on the shallow line and a handful at top2+2 every 15 minutes or so.
After the first hour I was still without a fish. So decided to try the shallow line. I got a couple of indications which was either small fish or perhaps fish a bit deeper trying to suck the suspended bait in. I added a couple of inches to my depth and managed to put 2 in the net both of around 4lb a piece.
It then went quiet again but Cooksey was catching on the bomb so I decided to flick a bomb out to 25 yards and managed to put a couple of fish in the net. It was then a case of switching between lines and hopefully picking up fish. I ended up fishing two bomb lines, one in front and one to my right and eventually put a run of 4 fish together although it was slow going.
At the all in I had 12 carp, which is slow going for the duration of a match! Stu had done similarly to myself. Cooksey had caught relatively well on the bomb for most of the day. Les had bagged up, though I expected that!
Come the weigh in Stu weighed 49lb12oz. I was up next and thought it would be close. My 12 fish went 51lb12oz so I’d beaten Stu, I’d also beaten Bob but forget his weight? I ended up coming second on the bank with Mick Ayre putting 97lb on the scales from the corner peg. Mick’s weight was good enough for second in the match with only Les’s 130lb beating him. Typically this would mean I’d have won the section but with it being swapped about meant I had to wait for another week to try!! Sods law was the fact that the opposite bank fished miles better than our bank, so it would have been fairer to do a section a bank!
My last match was up at the Oaks, it seems an age since I’ve fished up here and subsequently I wasn’t sure how to approach it. We were on Maple and after having a look through my past blogs, we fished here in the middle of October in 2008 and I fished a maggot match and won my section. The conditions for the day were forecast very similar too so that was my mind made up. A day on the maggot! With this I bought half a gallon from the shop on Saturday afternoon and filled up my maggot hook length box in the afternoon.
We were on pegs 30 to 68 and with an eventual 19 anglers booked on it was perfect for peg one miss one. I wasn’t too fussed where I drew as I think that when fishing maggot you’re targeting every fish and not just the odd pockets of carp through the match. I hung back at the draw and with 4 or 5 left to pick from I got peg 55. This is a lovely corner peg that contains some lumps on its day although it’s not an ideal maggot peg! D’oh!
With half a gallon of maggots sat in my bucket with no other chance to use them it was still going to be a maggot day. This would include a line in 3ft of water to the edge of the island at 14.5m, the same rig could also be used for fishing my top 5 down the edge. This would be a 4x12 Malman Cedar on 0.14 mainline to an 0.12 hook length and size 16 Gamma Black hook, this was all complemented by a 12 latex elastic. I also set up a rig for fishing the same swim to the island with 0.12 mainline, 0.10 hook length and a size 20 Middy 63-13 finished with a doubled 5 elastic. This was only if the going was tough or there were a lot of small fish in the swim. I also set up a paste rig to fish 15m to the bush to my right, this was 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hook length to a size 12 PR24 and 14 latex elastic, my float for this was a self cocking Preston paste float.
Due to not planning on fishing anything but maggot, the only other bait I had with me was half a bag of Crazy Bait Green Gold, which would have to do for my paste. It mixes too far on the sticky side and is far from an ideal paste consistency in my opinion but it would have to do.
For company I had Cooksey on 53, Stef on 51 and Stu on 49. We were starting a bit later today due to the massive queue in the cafe so the all in was called at 10:30.
On the all in I shipped out to the island with 100ml of maggots. What I tend to do is use my big 250ml cup and use my smaller cups to measure the bait into the big cup. This way I know how much I’m feeding and it also makes a damn site easier shipping out with a cup that’s half full rather than filling a small cup up to the brim and spilling them everywhere! I also fed a further 100ml of maggots down my right hand edge and finally cupped in half a big pot of 4mm pellets and a few lumps of paste out towards the bush.
First put in on the island line and I wasn’t getting any indications, I expected it might take 15-20 minutes for the fish to settle and rightly so. After twenty minutes the float dipped and I struck into my first fish, a roach of about 2-3oz. Next put in I managed an Ide of about 6oz. I decided to double kinder a pot of maggots in and this resulted in two F1’s both of about 2lb a piece. Another Ide pushing a pound and the line was quickly fading. Normally, or at least on any other peg, I’d have pushed into the mud line to try and snaffle a few more but this peg doesn’t allow you that privilege!
I decided to big pot the island swim again and have a look down the edge. After a couple of shy indication I managed a couple of small roach before deciding it was probably worth big potting here too and wait for some better stamp fish to turn up. With this I went out onto the paste line, as usual the bites are all over the place and so was my striking at sail away bites. Throughout the match I only managed 3 carp and a tench off this line though had enough bites to warrant 500lb of fish!
No one was really catching that I could see so I was constantly swapping between fishing and feeding the edge and the island as the paste line had beaten me! The island threw up the odd fish as did the edge but the wind was proving difficult fishing to the island. I decided I’d persevere with it though whilst heavily feeding the edge.
With twenty minutes to go I reckon I had about 18lb. I decided to go for it down the edge for the rest of the match as it was only small roach and Ide showing on the island line. The last twenty minutes proved fruitful with two small barbel, a small ghosty, an F1, two chunky Ide and a Perch of about a pound and a half which in total would add around 10lb to my final weight!
The matched ended at half four and although it had been hard I’d enjoyed it. The weigh in ensued and Stu put 45lb on the scale, Stef 30lb, Cooksey DNW’d and my fish went to 29lb 4oz. On speaking to Mr Thackwray I’d beaten him by 4oz for the sacred pound! Back in the cafe and it had been a better day than I thought. Stu had won the match, Bob the Builder was second with 38lb, Rab was third with 31lb and Gordon, Stef and Myself had picked up the section prizes. This is my first pick up the year which is more than welcome!
The final 6 looked like this
1st – Stu “Superstar” Stott – 45lb
2nd – Bob The Builder – 38lb-12oz
3rd – Rab – 31lb-8oz
4th – Stef Armitage – 30lb-8oz
5th – Steve Lupton – 29lb-4oz
6th – Gorgeous Gordy – 29lb (must try harder)
I’m playing a gig in London next week so will miss the Brafferton match and the next match is on the old lakes at Woodlands which the last few times I’ve fished them, they’ve been naff! So we’ll see about that one!
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Woodlands - Partridge 14th August
After a week of bad weather I was massively unsure of how this match would fish. I had a little think the week previous and thought that I tend to plan my match in my head before I get to a venue and don’t take into account the day itself. So this week I decided to make my plan once I’d got to the venue and tailor my approach to the conditions.
I arrived a full café at half eight and paid on. By the time my sandwich order came through at five to nine I decided to get it take out and eat at my peg. I popped to the shop and got some fishery pellets before loading my barrow. I was making my way back to the café and the draw had nearly finished. With only four pegs left in the bag I drew peg 5. Dependant on the day, depends whether any of the pegs will fish or not so I was still unsure what to make of it, although Andy Nattrass had over a ton off I think this peg, on a previous match.
For company I had Martin Dodsworth on peg 2 and John “I’ve only got 8” Livesey on peg 7. On sitting down at my peg, it was evident that someone had been there recently as all the bushes in the left margin were nicely hacked back and there were what looked like a lot of soggy 8mm pellets littered around the platform. I levelled my box and sat down for a few minutes assessing what my days attack would be. I finally decided to concentrate my main swim fishing shallow at 13m, with it being warm but overcast and a gentle breeze blowing through causing a nice little ripple I fancied it for a few shallow. I would also plumb up a deep line at 13m to fish paste when the shallow line died off. Whilst i was prepping the 13m swim I would fish a line slightly to the left at 6m where I’d hopefully mug a few fish. I also plumbed up down the left margin for the last hour as the fish can really come onto the feed late on and they tend to be big, not that I ever seem to catch them! Finally I had my method rod set up to fish into open water should I need to, although I’d change this to a running bomb if I had time.
I plumbed up all my swims to dead depth and marked my top kits in case of any breakages or tangles, this way I could adjust my float back to the mark and be sure that I was fishing at the correct depth again. This is something I used to do all the time in matches and pleasure sessions but I seem to have not bothered over the last few months, when I wish I had!
My bait for the day was 4 pints of 6mm pellets, 2 pints of 8mm, a big bag of corn and a tub full of green swim stim paste. I also had a few 6 and 8mm expanders for the hook if the going was tough.
The all in was called at 10am and we were away, I went out to the 13m line and big potted some 6mm pellets in from a reasonable height to cause a bit of a disturbance. I also big potted corn down my edge but sneaked this in with my pot under the surface. I went out onto the 6m line with a 6mm expander and tipped in a dozen hard pellets and a few bits of corn. I started pinging a few pellets over the long line to begin my shallow approach and everything was falling into place. In the first half an hour I was half heartedly fishing my 6m line whilst prepping the long line. First put in on the 6m line, my float had barely settled before the float buried and elastic was pouring out, I’m assuming it was foul hooked as it snapped my 0.16 hooklength somewhere in the middle of the lake. I put a new hooklength on, re-measured my depth and we were back in business. I only managed 4 small skimmers in the first half an hour before deciding to have a look on the shallow line.
I baited up my shallow rig with an 8mm hard pellet, the rig was set at about 20 inches, with a 10 inch lash so I had plenty of scope for altering the depth up and down if I needed too. I shipped out, fired some feed out before slapping the rig half a dozen times and finally letting it settle amongst the feed. I repeated this every 30 seconds or so and after five minutes the tip of the pole buried under the surface and it was fish on. I fired a few more pellets about after guiding it out of the feed area and shipped down to my top five, normally I’d ship down to the top kit but with limited space behind I had to break down twice. When I’d got it back to the top five, I trapped it between my knees and fed again before attempting a go at landing the fish. After a fairly big tussle I had a mirror of about 8lb in the net. I re-fed before unhooking it and slipped it into the net. I decided to tighten my elastic up a couple of turns on the bung just to make sure they didn’t snag me on the margin boards. I repeated this again and although not frantic, at the half way point of the match I had 10 fish for an estimated 65lb. This was far beyond my expectations and I had my first Starbeck ton set firmly in my sights! Honest John had moved shallow too but wasn’t getting many indications on the pole and was now on the pellet waggler and was admitting to a dozen. I couldn’t see many other people bagging but everyone was catching a few.
Rab walked past and asked how I was getting on, this essentially killed my swim, I only managed 2 more carp, a tench and a couple of smaller carp for the remainder of the match, this was by switching between shallow, paste and the margin. Looking back I should have fished bomb in the last couple of hours but because my rod was set up with a method I dismissed it as I couldn’t be bothered to change it (which would have taken all of a couple of minutes!). I was so set on making my shallow line work for the rest of the match that I had the blinkers on to make anything else work, even when watching Paul and Tony catching opposite on the bomb!
Come the weigh in, Martin was first off peg 2 and weighed 76lb odd. It would be close between the two of us again as I was admitting to 75lb. Two weighs later and I recorded 79lb11oz, this is my new Starbeck PB so all wasn’t lost! Honest John was up next and his 18 carp went 113lb! All the weights on the remainder of our bank beat me with a couple of 80’s and another ton.
The top 3 looked like this:
Stu “Superstar” Stott – 132lb odd
Stu Turner – 116lb odd
Honest John – 113lb odd
The match on the whole had fished very well, out of 14 anglers, my 79lb was only good enough for 7th, Rab managed 103lb or so and didn’t even win his section!
We’ve not got a match next week so I’m not sure where to go, I’m off on holiday the following week though so I’ll have to cram somewhere in!
I arrived a full café at half eight and paid on. By the time my sandwich order came through at five to nine I decided to get it take out and eat at my peg. I popped to the shop and got some fishery pellets before loading my barrow. I was making my way back to the café and the draw had nearly finished. With only four pegs left in the bag I drew peg 5. Dependant on the day, depends whether any of the pegs will fish or not so I was still unsure what to make of it, although Andy Nattrass had over a ton off I think this peg, on a previous match.
For company I had Martin Dodsworth on peg 2 and John “I’ve only got 8” Livesey on peg 7. On sitting down at my peg, it was evident that someone had been there recently as all the bushes in the left margin were nicely hacked back and there were what looked like a lot of soggy 8mm pellets littered around the platform. I levelled my box and sat down for a few minutes assessing what my days attack would be. I finally decided to concentrate my main swim fishing shallow at 13m, with it being warm but overcast and a gentle breeze blowing through causing a nice little ripple I fancied it for a few shallow. I would also plumb up a deep line at 13m to fish paste when the shallow line died off. Whilst i was prepping the 13m swim I would fish a line slightly to the left at 6m where I’d hopefully mug a few fish. I also plumbed up down the left margin for the last hour as the fish can really come onto the feed late on and they tend to be big, not that I ever seem to catch them! Finally I had my method rod set up to fish into open water should I need to, although I’d change this to a running bomb if I had time.
I plumbed up all my swims to dead depth and marked my top kits in case of any breakages or tangles, this way I could adjust my float back to the mark and be sure that I was fishing at the correct depth again. This is something I used to do all the time in matches and pleasure sessions but I seem to have not bothered over the last few months, when I wish I had!
My bait for the day was 4 pints of 6mm pellets, 2 pints of 8mm, a big bag of corn and a tub full of green swim stim paste. I also had a few 6 and 8mm expanders for the hook if the going was tough.
The all in was called at 10am and we were away, I went out to the 13m line and big potted some 6mm pellets in from a reasonable height to cause a bit of a disturbance. I also big potted corn down my edge but sneaked this in with my pot under the surface. I went out onto the 6m line with a 6mm expander and tipped in a dozen hard pellets and a few bits of corn. I started pinging a few pellets over the long line to begin my shallow approach and everything was falling into place. In the first half an hour I was half heartedly fishing my 6m line whilst prepping the long line. First put in on the 6m line, my float had barely settled before the float buried and elastic was pouring out, I’m assuming it was foul hooked as it snapped my 0.16 hooklength somewhere in the middle of the lake. I put a new hooklength on, re-measured my depth and we were back in business. I only managed 4 small skimmers in the first half an hour before deciding to have a look on the shallow line.
I baited up my shallow rig with an 8mm hard pellet, the rig was set at about 20 inches, with a 10 inch lash so I had plenty of scope for altering the depth up and down if I needed too. I shipped out, fired some feed out before slapping the rig half a dozen times and finally letting it settle amongst the feed. I repeated this every 30 seconds or so and after five minutes the tip of the pole buried under the surface and it was fish on. I fired a few more pellets about after guiding it out of the feed area and shipped down to my top five, normally I’d ship down to the top kit but with limited space behind I had to break down twice. When I’d got it back to the top five, I trapped it between my knees and fed again before attempting a go at landing the fish. After a fairly big tussle I had a mirror of about 8lb in the net. I re-fed before unhooking it and slipped it into the net. I decided to tighten my elastic up a couple of turns on the bung just to make sure they didn’t snag me on the margin boards. I repeated this again and although not frantic, at the half way point of the match I had 10 fish for an estimated 65lb. This was far beyond my expectations and I had my first Starbeck ton set firmly in my sights! Honest John had moved shallow too but wasn’t getting many indications on the pole and was now on the pellet waggler and was admitting to a dozen. I couldn’t see many other people bagging but everyone was catching a few.
Rab walked past and asked how I was getting on, this essentially killed my swim, I only managed 2 more carp, a tench and a couple of smaller carp for the remainder of the match, this was by switching between shallow, paste and the margin. Looking back I should have fished bomb in the last couple of hours but because my rod was set up with a method I dismissed it as I couldn’t be bothered to change it (which would have taken all of a couple of minutes!). I was so set on making my shallow line work for the rest of the match that I had the blinkers on to make anything else work, even when watching Paul and Tony catching opposite on the bomb!
Come the weigh in, Martin was first off peg 2 and weighed 76lb odd. It would be close between the two of us again as I was admitting to 75lb. Two weighs later and I recorded 79lb11oz, this is my new Starbeck PB so all wasn’t lost! Honest John was up next and his 18 carp went 113lb! All the weights on the remainder of our bank beat me with a couple of 80’s and another ton.
The top 3 looked like this:
Stu “Superstar” Stott – 132lb odd
Stu Turner – 116lb odd
Honest John – 113lb odd
The match on the whole had fished very well, out of 14 anglers, my 79lb was only good enough for 7th, Rab managed 103lb or so and didn’t even win his section!
We’ve not got a match next week so I’m not sure where to go, I’m off on holiday the following week though so I’ll have to cram somewhere in!
Friday, 12 August 2011
The Oaks, Cedar - 7th August
This week we were up at The Oaks and we were fishing on Cedar. After doing a bit of reading through old magazines and trawling through the internet I’d decided to finally fish maggot for a full match. The method seems to work pretty well up there as you’re catching Ide, Barbel F1’s and anything that swims. After a quick chat with Ghandi though, he said if you fish maggot now you’ll just get bitted out by small Roach, something I didn’t fancy, so once again I’d be trying my hardest at fishing pellet whilst trying to meet my target of 40lb! Today was predicted to be hard, the winds were forecast strong with gusts up to 31mph, there had also been a lot of rain over night which followed a week of muggy overcast weather.
We were on pegs 50 to 80 this week, I’ve never been anywhere near these pegs on Club or Open matches so it would hopefully make a nice change!
Come the draw I took the last peg out of the bag and peg 61 was to be by home for the day. For company I had James on 59, Honest John on 62, Martin Dodsworth on 64, Cooksy on 65, Acko and Stu were also on the point on the late 60’s.
I already had my rigs set up on top kits, 2 method rods set up and all of my hook baits prepared so I had enough time for a decent plumb about. The wind was very strong blowing from left to right and it would prove difficult to fish the pole all day if it were to stay like this. I plumbed up one line in front of the sedges in two and a half foot water, I was able to fish this rig in front of 3 or 4 patches of sedges due to the depth being fairly consistent. I also had as rig set up for fishing tight against the bank, although this was much deeper than I was expecting, usually I look for 10-12 inches but I was getting over eighteen inches! I set up a paste line for down the track but didn’t really want to use it. I had a shallow rig that I could fish over the paste line too, just in case. Finally a rig to fish down each margin should the fish come over the feed towards the end of the match. A quick chuck of the method feeder to set my clip and I was ready, although only just, good job I had all my rigs already set up, plumbing all those rigs proved to take longer than I thought!
At the all in I fed both margins with a small handful of corn and would aim to keep feeding with a pinch of corn every ten minutes or so. I shipped out with the sedge rig, with a 4mm expander and some micros and we were away, the float bobbed before a little lift, I struck and was rewarded with a small skimmer. I repeated this a few more times until I had 4 skimmers in the net before finally getting my first proper fish, an F1 of about a pound and a half. The wind was very strong by now so I decided to come off the sedge line and try fish it with method instead. I was straight hooking a 4mm expander and hiding it in the green swim stim feed. I managed a couple more F1’s and small carp before I was waiting far too long between bites, looking back I should have maybe searched my swim with this as I got the feeling the fish weren’t in the settling mood.
John on 62 had managed to hook 3 shallow at 8m and put 2 out of the 3 in his net, this was a good invitation for me to have a go seeing as I wasn’t fairing any better on my other lines. I pinged out a few 4mm pellets to 8m, shipped out and slapped the rig a few times before letting it settle. The float dipped and as I struck I felt a bump signalling it was more than likely a liner. I slapped the rig again and this time was rewarded with a 2lb mirror. I carried on for another 15 minutes but no more bites materialised.
At the half way point I reckoned I had about 13lb and from what I could see and hear, no one was bagging anywhere. I had a quick look down the edge on the off chance and managed another small mirror on the first put in but this again was a lonely fish.
I decided to pile the bait in down the edge and try and force them to feed. Every half an hour for second half of the match I cupped in a big pot of corn on each line and eventually started cupping half pots of 4mm pellets in too to get there heads down.
I switched between all the lines for the remainder of the match but didn’t really get going on any of them, although I did manage a couple more F1’s.
The last hour arrived and I decided to stick to switching between the margin swims, depending if any bites were on the cards. I managed 5 fish in the last hour, 4 small mirrors and one big common at about 5lb.
The final horn sounded and I got the feeling everyone was glad that the match was over, as it had been gruelling! Mainly due to the wind!
The weigh in began and the first section, if I remember correctly didn’t have a weight over 20lb! James weighed a mid 20lb, I managed to stick 31lb 12oz on the scales, John weighed 25 ish, Martin weighed weighed 31lb 14oz, although I wasn’t sure if we were in the same section? Acko plonked a stand out weight of 60lb on the scale after feeding half the tackle shop down the edge and Stu managed 35lb.
Although I’d not done my 0lb target I was still fairly chuffed with the outcome although as it turned out, Martin had beaten to the section by 2oz! Overall I came 5th which is the best I’ve done since returning to fishing this year so I can take a positive from that at least. Oh and Gordon handed me a shiny pound coin too, which was nice of him!
The top 6 looked like this:
1st Mick Atkinson – 60lb odd
2nd Stef Armitage – 37lb odd
3rd Stu Stott – 35lb odd
4th Martin Dodsworth – 31lb 14oz
5th Steve Lupton 31lb 12oz
6th Rab – 30lb odd
We were on pegs 50 to 80 this week, I’ve never been anywhere near these pegs on Club or Open matches so it would hopefully make a nice change!
Come the draw I took the last peg out of the bag and peg 61 was to be by home for the day. For company I had James on 59, Honest John on 62, Martin Dodsworth on 64, Cooksy on 65, Acko and Stu were also on the point on the late 60’s.
I already had my rigs set up on top kits, 2 method rods set up and all of my hook baits prepared so I had enough time for a decent plumb about. The wind was very strong blowing from left to right and it would prove difficult to fish the pole all day if it were to stay like this. I plumbed up one line in front of the sedges in two and a half foot water, I was able to fish this rig in front of 3 or 4 patches of sedges due to the depth being fairly consistent. I also had as rig set up for fishing tight against the bank, although this was much deeper than I was expecting, usually I look for 10-12 inches but I was getting over eighteen inches! I set up a paste line for down the track but didn’t really want to use it. I had a shallow rig that I could fish over the paste line too, just in case. Finally a rig to fish down each margin should the fish come over the feed towards the end of the match. A quick chuck of the method feeder to set my clip and I was ready, although only just, good job I had all my rigs already set up, plumbing all those rigs proved to take longer than I thought!
At the all in I fed both margins with a small handful of corn and would aim to keep feeding with a pinch of corn every ten minutes or so. I shipped out with the sedge rig, with a 4mm expander and some micros and we were away, the float bobbed before a little lift, I struck and was rewarded with a small skimmer. I repeated this a few more times until I had 4 skimmers in the net before finally getting my first proper fish, an F1 of about a pound and a half. The wind was very strong by now so I decided to come off the sedge line and try fish it with method instead. I was straight hooking a 4mm expander and hiding it in the green swim stim feed. I managed a couple more F1’s and small carp before I was waiting far too long between bites, looking back I should have maybe searched my swim with this as I got the feeling the fish weren’t in the settling mood.
John on 62 had managed to hook 3 shallow at 8m and put 2 out of the 3 in his net, this was a good invitation for me to have a go seeing as I wasn’t fairing any better on my other lines. I pinged out a few 4mm pellets to 8m, shipped out and slapped the rig a few times before letting it settle. The float dipped and as I struck I felt a bump signalling it was more than likely a liner. I slapped the rig again and this time was rewarded with a 2lb mirror. I carried on for another 15 minutes but no more bites materialised.
At the half way point I reckoned I had about 13lb and from what I could see and hear, no one was bagging anywhere. I had a quick look down the edge on the off chance and managed another small mirror on the first put in but this again was a lonely fish.
I decided to pile the bait in down the edge and try and force them to feed. Every half an hour for second half of the match I cupped in a big pot of corn on each line and eventually started cupping half pots of 4mm pellets in too to get there heads down.
I switched between all the lines for the remainder of the match but didn’t really get going on any of them, although I did manage a couple more F1’s.
The last hour arrived and I decided to stick to switching between the margin swims, depending if any bites were on the cards. I managed 5 fish in the last hour, 4 small mirrors and one big common at about 5lb.
The final horn sounded and I got the feeling everyone was glad that the match was over, as it had been gruelling! Mainly due to the wind!
The weigh in began and the first section, if I remember correctly didn’t have a weight over 20lb! James weighed a mid 20lb, I managed to stick 31lb 12oz on the scales, John weighed 25 ish, Martin weighed weighed 31lb 14oz, although I wasn’t sure if we were in the same section? Acko plonked a stand out weight of 60lb on the scale after feeding half the tackle shop down the edge and Stu managed 35lb.
Although I’d not done my 0lb target I was still fairly chuffed with the outcome although as it turned out, Martin had beaten to the section by 2oz! Overall I came 5th which is the best I’ve done since returning to fishing this year so I can take a positive from that at least. Oh and Gordon handed me a shiny pound coin too, which was nice of him!
The top 6 looked like this:
1st Mick Atkinson – 60lb odd
2nd Stef Armitage – 37lb odd
3rd Stu Stott – 35lb odd
4th Martin Dodsworth – 31lb 14oz
5th Steve Lupton 31lb 12oz
6th Rab – 30lb odd
Monday, 1 August 2011
River Wharfe - 29th July, Carp Vale 31st July
With the weather being kind all week, I decided I’d have another go down on the River Wharfe at Pool. I headed down there after I’d finished work and was probably fishing by 5 o’ clock. I cast out a maggot feeder into a slightly deeper looking pool, about two thirds across the river with a maggot feeder and a 12 inch hooklength with 4 maggots on the hook. I was hoping that by putting 4 maggots on the hook the minnows might be put off. I was wrong, the tip never sat still with the minnows shaking the maggots off one by one. Another big problem was the amount of weed in the river, I ended up putting a new hooklength on with a hair rigged cork ball and maggots on the hook, just to keep the bait out of the weed, this did no good either though. I persevered with the swim for a couple of hours, even free lining a big black slug didn’t show any signs! I moved to a little gravel bed just downstream of the weir but the minnows were still proving a nuisance, although I didn’t have any problem with weed there. So in short, not a very productive evening but there’s not many nicer places to have a doze than down by the river!
Sunday arrived, and feeling a little ropey from the night before I made my way to Carp Vale with a bottle of Lucozade, this was probably the ideal time for a big breakfast, unfortunately its one of the few venues without a café, I’ve since realised an apple is not an adequate substitute for a big breakfast!
After the disappointments last year by the majority of people who fished the match lake, this season, Cyprio and Front Pool were to be used in the matches, not necessarily making it fairer as it’s treated like two separate matches anyway but at least everyone should have a good days fishing.
I received a lovely polished pound off Mr Thackwray from last week but gave it straight back to him for the football card, which again, I didn’t win. There were 16 of us in attendance today which meant we’d have 8 on each lake so we’d have plenty of room.
We drew at 9am and I managed peg 66, this is on the front pool and from what I could remember, this would be a good method peg. So much for a lot of room though, Kev was on p67, Gordon was on p66 and Andy was on 64. Granted I don’t fish here that often and these might all be good pegs on their own but when they’re all in? We’d have to see. Making up the numbers on my lake, Honest John was on the easiest peg on the lake with an island in pole distance, Bob the Builder and the two Tony’s were all on the opposite bank.
Once I’d plonked all the gear down and got my box sorted, I set about setting my clip for the method. After a quick chat with Kev, we decided he could have the clump of reeds between us and I’d fish the other side of the island. I clipped up to fish just in front of the reeds off the point of the island, and with fish cruising and crashing all over the lake I was fairly confident of a good day, especially after the last I fished here I had over 70lb. I set up a paste rig which would cater for a swim at 13m in front and 6m to my right. Finally I had a shallow rig to fish at 13m over my paste line.
I made sure that everything was just right before the match started, as last time; I missed out on a payout, mainly due to messing about during the match and losing fish. The all in sounded at 10am and we were away. I big potted some 6mm pellets and a few bits of paste on both lines and then fired the method out to the reeds. Five minutes past and I was already worried, no one had had a signal yet, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, nothing? I stuck with the method for 45 minutes and managed a couple of lines but these were by fish in the middle of the lake as I saw them boil on the surface at the exact moment I got a liner.
I dropped onto the 13m paste line and standard with paste I was getting a thousand and one indications but not connecting with any fish. I eventually put a carp in the net of about 3lb; I swapped onto the short paste line and managed another carp straight away of a similar size. I kept swapping between these two lines and put a “skimmer” that was probably a bream due to it being a dark bronze and about 3lb! I also put a nice crucian in the net that would’ve been about a pound and a half.
At the halfway point I was sitting on about 11lb with 4 fish, not brilliant! Although everyone else was struggling too, Andy had had a few on the tip, Gordon was fairing similarly to me on the tip, Kev had had a few silvers and lost a carp. The opposite side of the lake weren’t doing any better either. In fact it was only John on the easy peg and Tony Koz who were putting many fish in the net although they were both losing more than they were catching through foul hookers and snags.
I swapped between all my lines for the rest of the match and managed 2 more carp and a tench. I reckoned I might just scrape 20lb! So a poor day, but at least it was crap for everyone.
The weigh in ensued, Andy weighed 26lb odd, Gordon 25lb 4oz, Kev DNW’ed, then I was next, it was closer than I thought for the quid with Gordon, I weighed in 25lb dead, though that I feel may have been generous! Tony Koz weighed 52lb odd, Tony Minikin 25lb odd, Bob DNW’ed and John weighed 48lb. So all in all it was very close on our lake apart from Tony and John, both of them could fish to an island with the pole, granted they both lost a lot of fish but at least there were fish there for the taking!
The other lake had fished equally poor with Martin Dodsworth coming second with 36lb and Stu “Superstar – needs banning next season” Stott weighing in 91lb!
Next week its Cedar up at the Oaks, one of my aims this year was to catch over 40lb on a match at the Oaks, this is something I cant seem to do but always come close with big 30lb weights but always not quite there! Wish me luck!
Sunday arrived, and feeling a little ropey from the night before I made my way to Carp Vale with a bottle of Lucozade, this was probably the ideal time for a big breakfast, unfortunately its one of the few venues without a café, I’ve since realised an apple is not an adequate substitute for a big breakfast!
After the disappointments last year by the majority of people who fished the match lake, this season, Cyprio and Front Pool were to be used in the matches, not necessarily making it fairer as it’s treated like two separate matches anyway but at least everyone should have a good days fishing.
I received a lovely polished pound off Mr Thackwray from last week but gave it straight back to him for the football card, which again, I didn’t win. There were 16 of us in attendance today which meant we’d have 8 on each lake so we’d have plenty of room.
We drew at 9am and I managed peg 66, this is on the front pool and from what I could remember, this would be a good method peg. So much for a lot of room though, Kev was on p67, Gordon was on p66 and Andy was on 64. Granted I don’t fish here that often and these might all be good pegs on their own but when they’re all in? We’d have to see. Making up the numbers on my lake, Honest John was on the easiest peg on the lake with an island in pole distance, Bob the Builder and the two Tony’s were all on the opposite bank.
Once I’d plonked all the gear down and got my box sorted, I set about setting my clip for the method. After a quick chat with Kev, we decided he could have the clump of reeds between us and I’d fish the other side of the island. I clipped up to fish just in front of the reeds off the point of the island, and with fish cruising and crashing all over the lake I was fairly confident of a good day, especially after the last I fished here I had over 70lb. I set up a paste rig which would cater for a swim at 13m in front and 6m to my right. Finally I had a shallow rig to fish at 13m over my paste line.
I made sure that everything was just right before the match started, as last time; I missed out on a payout, mainly due to messing about during the match and losing fish. The all in sounded at 10am and we were away. I big potted some 6mm pellets and a few bits of paste on both lines and then fired the method out to the reeds. Five minutes past and I was already worried, no one had had a signal yet, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, nothing? I stuck with the method for 45 minutes and managed a couple of lines but these were by fish in the middle of the lake as I saw them boil on the surface at the exact moment I got a liner.
I dropped onto the 13m paste line and standard with paste I was getting a thousand and one indications but not connecting with any fish. I eventually put a carp in the net of about 3lb; I swapped onto the short paste line and managed another carp straight away of a similar size. I kept swapping between these two lines and put a “skimmer” that was probably a bream due to it being a dark bronze and about 3lb! I also put a nice crucian in the net that would’ve been about a pound and a half.
At the halfway point I was sitting on about 11lb with 4 fish, not brilliant! Although everyone else was struggling too, Andy had had a few on the tip, Gordon was fairing similarly to me on the tip, Kev had had a few silvers and lost a carp. The opposite side of the lake weren’t doing any better either. In fact it was only John on the easy peg and Tony Koz who were putting many fish in the net although they were both losing more than they were catching through foul hookers and snags.
I swapped between all my lines for the rest of the match and managed 2 more carp and a tench. I reckoned I might just scrape 20lb! So a poor day, but at least it was crap for everyone.
The weigh in ensued, Andy weighed 26lb odd, Gordon 25lb 4oz, Kev DNW’ed, then I was next, it was closer than I thought for the quid with Gordon, I weighed in 25lb dead, though that I feel may have been generous! Tony Koz weighed 52lb odd, Tony Minikin 25lb odd, Bob DNW’ed and John weighed 48lb. So all in all it was very close on our lake apart from Tony and John, both of them could fish to an island with the pole, granted they both lost a lot of fish but at least there were fish there for the taking!
The other lake had fished equally poor with Martin Dodsworth coming second with 36lb and Stu “Superstar – needs banning next season” Stott weighing in 91lb!
Next week its Cedar up at the Oaks, one of my aims this year was to catch over 40lb on a match at the Oaks, this is something I cant seem to do but always come close with big 30lb weights but always not quite there! Wish me luck!
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Brafferton F1 Lake - 24th July
I’ve not been fishing in a long while due to busy weekends with the band and finally completing my degree! After 7 years of further learning it’s finally finished, I can now hopefully get out on the bank a bit more often!
This week we were returning to Brafferton on the F1 Lake. I was at Fish O’ Mania the week before (not competing!) and managed to grab a couple of bargains so wanted to test out some of my new gear!
I arrived at the fishery at just after 8 o’ clock and before I got chance to order my breakfast, Gordon robbed me of all my change for the football card, nice to see things don’t change! There were 20 of us booked on today and all the pegging was down the central arm of the lake. I’ve only fished here 3 times, on the two end pegs, 63 and 64 and also mid way down the right hand bank on 56. I’ve never excelled here so fancied giving it a real good go today, especially after not fishing for a few weeks.
Come the time of the draw I managed to snaffle peg 54. For company I had Acko on my right on 52, Martin Dodsworth on 55, and behind me I had Gordon, Paul Jones and Bad Santa.
The wind was blowing through fairly strongly so first things first I got the method rod out and clipped up to fish in a little hole on the far bank. I also set up a rig to fish in 18 inches of water at 13m, a metre off the bank. My final two rigs were to fish paste at 5m in six and a half feet of water and margin rig to my right where I had a spare peg.
At the all in I fed my paste line with a potful of 6mm pellets and a few blobs of paste. I also cupped in a big pot of corner down the edge. Whilst these lines were resting I cast the method out to the gap in the island. 2 minutes later the line went slack as the fish backed away from the island, I struck and frantically wound in until I got some resistance, I played the fish for a few second before we parted company, not the start I was hoping for! I recast to the same spot (well, within about 10 yards!). The tip slammed round again and this time I was in, after a brief tussle I had my first fish in the net, an F1 of perhaps 12oz. I carried on in this vain for the first half an hour and put 4 further fish in the net, all of a similar size to the first. After recasting and waiting with no response, I had a final cast which again proved fruitless, so decided to have a look on the paste line, and big pot some more corn in down the edge.
First indication on the paste line was from a small barbel or about 5-6oz, hopefully there were a few bigger ones there! Thankfully there were, I put another half a dozen fish in the net before again it went iffy. I was trying a new tact with the paste rig today, I remembered reading a while back to use a sliding olivette as the bulk shot, this way when you ship out you get far less tangles as all the line is tight against the weight of the olivette. It worked well however I’ve a feeling the “jerk” it creates when hitting the stop shot down line may not be the way to go if using really sloppy paste?
I spent the rest of the match switching between lines, continually feeding the edge hoping it would come good in the last hour! I only put a few more fish in the net in these few hours, Acko was also having a nightmare and Martin was only putting the odd fish in his net too.
The final hour turned up and I probably had less than 15lb in my net, I desperately needed to catch some down the edge and thankfully this happened, it wasn’t manic but I put 4 fish in the net, all of a much better stamp. I probably had 15-16lb with these 4 fish including one that would have been pushing 7lb. this was nothing though, Bad Santa behind me had 3 fish for 40lb, including one that went 17lb 12oz!
Come the weigh in and I managed to put 32lb 8oz on the scales, not brilliant, but the last hour probably doubled my final bag. Gordon weighed in 17lb, but disappeared before he could give me his quid, I expect it to be sparkling by next week!
Top 3 looked like this:
- Woody – 103lb
- Bad Santa – 100lb 8oz
- Stu – 99lb 12oz
I’m presuming Woody and Stu fished pellet against the island; Stu remarked he was fishing a distance off it in about 14 inches of water. Bad Santa fished cat food all match and reportedly fed 12 tins! Food for thought for the next time we're at Brafferton!
This week we were returning to Brafferton on the F1 Lake. I was at Fish O’ Mania the week before (not competing!) and managed to grab a couple of bargains so wanted to test out some of my new gear!
I arrived at the fishery at just after 8 o’ clock and before I got chance to order my breakfast, Gordon robbed me of all my change for the football card, nice to see things don’t change! There were 20 of us booked on today and all the pegging was down the central arm of the lake. I’ve only fished here 3 times, on the two end pegs, 63 and 64 and also mid way down the right hand bank on 56. I’ve never excelled here so fancied giving it a real good go today, especially after not fishing for a few weeks.
Come the time of the draw I managed to snaffle peg 54. For company I had Acko on my right on 52, Martin Dodsworth on 55, and behind me I had Gordon, Paul Jones and Bad Santa.
The wind was blowing through fairly strongly so first things first I got the method rod out and clipped up to fish in a little hole on the far bank. I also set up a rig to fish in 18 inches of water at 13m, a metre off the bank. My final two rigs were to fish paste at 5m in six and a half feet of water and margin rig to my right where I had a spare peg.
At the all in I fed my paste line with a potful of 6mm pellets and a few blobs of paste. I also cupped in a big pot of corner down the edge. Whilst these lines were resting I cast the method out to the gap in the island. 2 minutes later the line went slack as the fish backed away from the island, I struck and frantically wound in until I got some resistance, I played the fish for a few second before we parted company, not the start I was hoping for! I recast to the same spot (well, within about 10 yards!). The tip slammed round again and this time I was in, after a brief tussle I had my first fish in the net, an F1 of perhaps 12oz. I carried on in this vain for the first half an hour and put 4 further fish in the net, all of a similar size to the first. After recasting and waiting with no response, I had a final cast which again proved fruitless, so decided to have a look on the paste line, and big pot some more corn in down the edge.
First indication on the paste line was from a small barbel or about 5-6oz, hopefully there were a few bigger ones there! Thankfully there were, I put another half a dozen fish in the net before again it went iffy. I was trying a new tact with the paste rig today, I remembered reading a while back to use a sliding olivette as the bulk shot, this way when you ship out you get far less tangles as all the line is tight against the weight of the olivette. It worked well however I’ve a feeling the “jerk” it creates when hitting the stop shot down line may not be the way to go if using really sloppy paste?
I spent the rest of the match switching between lines, continually feeding the edge hoping it would come good in the last hour! I only put a few more fish in the net in these few hours, Acko was also having a nightmare and Martin was only putting the odd fish in his net too.
The final hour turned up and I probably had less than 15lb in my net, I desperately needed to catch some down the edge and thankfully this happened, it wasn’t manic but I put 4 fish in the net, all of a much better stamp. I probably had 15-16lb with these 4 fish including one that would have been pushing 7lb. this was nothing though, Bad Santa behind me had 3 fish for 40lb, including one that went 17lb 12oz!
Come the weigh in and I managed to put 32lb 8oz on the scales, not brilliant, but the last hour probably doubled my final bag. Gordon weighed in 17lb, but disappeared before he could give me his quid, I expect it to be sparkling by next week!
Top 3 looked like this:
- Woody – 103lb
- Bad Santa – 100lb 8oz
- Stu – 99lb 12oz
I’m presuming Woody and Stu fished pellet against the island; Stu remarked he was fishing a distance off it in about 14 inches of water. Bad Santa fished cat food all match and reportedly fed 12 tins! Food for thought for the next time we're at Brafferton!
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
September 12th - Oaks, Cedar
I’ve missed the last couple of matches due to holidays, weddings and performing at Lodestar Festival in Cambridge, I had however managed a trip up to the Oaks to fish Maple on the bank holiday Monday where I managed a few fish by switching between, pellet on the sedge, paste on the slope and corn down the edge.
Seeing as this season hasn’t been going too well for me I’ve started preparing for next season already, essentially I’ve compiled a list of hooklengths that I’ll need for any eventuality and there’s plenty to keep me busy once the cold nights draw in! With this however, means that I’m also just using what I’ve got for the rest of this season. I had plenty of rigs and hooklengths tied up but felt they were a bit light for fishing Maple (the fixture list had changed without me knowing) but I was just going to make do and have a days fishing.
By the time of the draw (still thinking we were fishing Maple) Owen had struck a quid and was drawn on 58 and I was to be on 40 for the day. Now on Maple I’d have rather been on 58 as I like it down that end.
Owen said “You were on 40 for the Intersite weren’t you?
“No” I replied, “but we’re on Maple today aren’t we?
“No, the fixture list was changed ages ago!”
Good job Owen filled me in on this vital information otherwise I’d have arrived at my peg and tried to kick some pleasure angler off their peg!
So as it turned out my rigs would be more than adequate for the day as they’re not as big in Cedar as they are in Maple.
I go to my peg and had Jonesy for company on 41, Martin Dodsworth on 43, Kev Armitage on 45, Bob the Builder on 37 and Tupperware on 35 to make up my section. So my first thought was why I was on 40 and not 39 to make it peg one miss one, but hey ho!
The wind was getting up as we were all setting up and knowing what Cedar is like when it’s windy I made sure to get the method rod set up mainly to protect the pole from any breakages. The sedges on peg 40 aren’t as good as I’d have hoped, there’s a decent patch on the right hand side but then there is a long mud line before a cut back stretch of sedges. Not wanting to fish long if I could help it, I set up a sedge rig for the right hand sedge at each end of it. I also set up another rig for fishing to the mud although I wasn’t too confident in it today with the wind being so strong. I’d imagine the fish would back off from the strong ripples in the shallow water (so with this in mind you’d think I’d set up a line down the track where it gave the fish some shelter and it would also be easier to control a rig, erm no, don’t know why I didn’t set one up here? Out of practice perhaps!). My final rig was to fish both margins with a corn attack seeing as it had paid off the last time on Cedar and also on Maple a couple of weeks ago.
At the all in I swung the cupping kit down each side to act as a marker and threw a couple of grains of corn down either side. It was then across to the sedge armed with a 4mm pellet and a fruit shoot half full of micros. I lowered the rig in slowly which was difficult against the wind and the tow and eventually tapped my bait in over the top. The wind was proving difficult even with an 18 inch lash and two bulked number 8’s as a backshot. Eventually I started getting a couple of indications, and after 20 minutes I put a gudgeon in the net followed by a skimmer, nect I had my first F1 at just over a pound, another skimmer and a further F1 were the ripe old pickings before the gudgeon moved in. this is where I’d have normally pushed into the shallower water but I was less confident catching there today due to the weather. I had a quick look down either edge and to my surprise I managed a lonely F1 off the left sedge. After a further five minutes down either edge I decided to big pot a handful of corn down either side and then go out on the method.
Even though I’d had a few practice cast to get the clip set the wind and added weight of the feed were making it not quite go to plan, perhaps I need to clip up with a heavier lead to compensate for the weight of the feed, the added weight obviously arcs the rod further round on the cast making it go a bit further than expected? However after my first couple of naff chucks I’d got the clip set to drop it in between the front of the sedges and the mud. After ten minutes the rod was tapping round and another F1 was in the net, I carried on in the same vain but to no avail.
So at the half way stage I had 5 F1’s of no particular size and a few bits, not quite going to plan, Jonesy was now catching well heavily feeding maggot down the edge and rumours of Bob catching well the other side of me so I was getting battered!
The second half of the match was pretty much the same as the first, a further two F1’s off the sedge, two little mirrors on the tip and another little mirror from the right hand edge. So six hours and only ten proper fish! Although I got the opinion that no one had caught particularly well so planned on weighing in to see if I’d won any of the quids.
Me and Jonesy were the only ones to weigh in on our section as the rumours about Bob catching were simply that, rumours!
The weigh in ensued and Gordon shouted “I hope you’ve got more than 20lb” hmmmm not quite I thought to myself, weighing in 12lb dead I had a look at the board and I’d done it, Gordon holding up the rear with 11lb 7oz! Jonesy then weighed 50lb odd to cement my battering! Ian Bailey who decided to join us for the day comfortably won the match fishing maggot to amass over 90lb.
Back at the café and it was a quid to Acko and a quid to Owen and just as I was finishing my tea and thinking what a crap days fishing it had been I was awarded our section prize! With me and Jonesy being the only ones to weigh in and Jonesy’s weight being good enough for second meant I got the section by default! I almost felt embarrassed winning the section with 12lb but as its my first pick up of the year I couldn’t care less, its not always about picking up in style now is it!
Seeing as this season hasn’t been going too well for me I’ve started preparing for next season already, essentially I’ve compiled a list of hooklengths that I’ll need for any eventuality and there’s plenty to keep me busy once the cold nights draw in! With this however, means that I’m also just using what I’ve got for the rest of this season. I had plenty of rigs and hooklengths tied up but felt they were a bit light for fishing Maple (the fixture list had changed without me knowing) but I was just going to make do and have a days fishing.
By the time of the draw (still thinking we were fishing Maple) Owen had struck a quid and was drawn on 58 and I was to be on 40 for the day. Now on Maple I’d have rather been on 58 as I like it down that end.
Owen said “You were on 40 for the Intersite weren’t you?
“No” I replied, “but we’re on Maple today aren’t we?
“No, the fixture list was changed ages ago!”
Good job Owen filled me in on this vital information otherwise I’d have arrived at my peg and tried to kick some pleasure angler off their peg!
So as it turned out my rigs would be more than adequate for the day as they’re not as big in Cedar as they are in Maple.
I go to my peg and had Jonesy for company on 41, Martin Dodsworth on 43, Kev Armitage on 45, Bob the Builder on 37 and Tupperware on 35 to make up my section. So my first thought was why I was on 40 and not 39 to make it peg one miss one, but hey ho!
The wind was getting up as we were all setting up and knowing what Cedar is like when it’s windy I made sure to get the method rod set up mainly to protect the pole from any breakages. The sedges on peg 40 aren’t as good as I’d have hoped, there’s a decent patch on the right hand side but then there is a long mud line before a cut back stretch of sedges. Not wanting to fish long if I could help it, I set up a sedge rig for the right hand sedge at each end of it. I also set up another rig for fishing to the mud although I wasn’t too confident in it today with the wind being so strong. I’d imagine the fish would back off from the strong ripples in the shallow water (so with this in mind you’d think I’d set up a line down the track where it gave the fish some shelter and it would also be easier to control a rig, erm no, don’t know why I didn’t set one up here? Out of practice perhaps!). My final rig was to fish both margins with a corn attack seeing as it had paid off the last time on Cedar and also on Maple a couple of weeks ago.
At the all in I swung the cupping kit down each side to act as a marker and threw a couple of grains of corn down either side. It was then across to the sedge armed with a 4mm pellet and a fruit shoot half full of micros. I lowered the rig in slowly which was difficult against the wind and the tow and eventually tapped my bait in over the top. The wind was proving difficult even with an 18 inch lash and two bulked number 8’s as a backshot. Eventually I started getting a couple of indications, and after 20 minutes I put a gudgeon in the net followed by a skimmer, nect I had my first F1 at just over a pound, another skimmer and a further F1 were the ripe old pickings before the gudgeon moved in. this is where I’d have normally pushed into the shallower water but I was less confident catching there today due to the weather. I had a quick look down either edge and to my surprise I managed a lonely F1 off the left sedge. After a further five minutes down either edge I decided to big pot a handful of corn down either side and then go out on the method.
Even though I’d had a few practice cast to get the clip set the wind and added weight of the feed were making it not quite go to plan, perhaps I need to clip up with a heavier lead to compensate for the weight of the feed, the added weight obviously arcs the rod further round on the cast making it go a bit further than expected? However after my first couple of naff chucks I’d got the clip set to drop it in between the front of the sedges and the mud. After ten minutes the rod was tapping round and another F1 was in the net, I carried on in the same vain but to no avail.
So at the half way stage I had 5 F1’s of no particular size and a few bits, not quite going to plan, Jonesy was now catching well heavily feeding maggot down the edge and rumours of Bob catching well the other side of me so I was getting battered!
The second half of the match was pretty much the same as the first, a further two F1’s off the sedge, two little mirrors on the tip and another little mirror from the right hand edge. So six hours and only ten proper fish! Although I got the opinion that no one had caught particularly well so planned on weighing in to see if I’d won any of the quids.
Me and Jonesy were the only ones to weigh in on our section as the rumours about Bob catching were simply that, rumours!
The weigh in ensued and Gordon shouted “I hope you’ve got more than 20lb” hmmmm not quite I thought to myself, weighing in 12lb dead I had a look at the board and I’d done it, Gordon holding up the rear with 11lb 7oz! Jonesy then weighed 50lb odd to cement my battering! Ian Bailey who decided to join us for the day comfortably won the match fishing maggot to amass over 90lb.
Back at the café and it was a quid to Acko and a quid to Owen and just as I was finishing my tea and thinking what a crap days fishing it had been I was awarded our section prize! With me and Jonesy being the only ones to weigh in and Jonesy’s weight being good enough for second meant I got the section by default! I almost felt embarrassed winning the section with 12lb but as its my first pick up of the year I couldn’t care less, its not always about picking up in style now is it!
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