I had a week off last week as our club match was at Brafferton who have reportedly had a fish kill and its fishing pants so I decided not to bother. The week before I was on Maple and tipped back about 10lb! God knows why everywhere is fishing so poorly at the moment? I still manage to prop everyone else up every match so it’s alright for them!
This week I was to return to Alders up at the Oaks, I had a club match up here in May and also fished the Northern Intersite here where I came last in section from peg 24.
Anyway I arrived at the venue at half past eight, got my sandwich and a cuppa and sat down to watch Match of the day, first bite into my sandwich and the yolk exploded over my lap! ‘That’ll make a mark,’’ at least it’s yellow so It can’t be mistaken for anything else!
Then to the draw, my ‘’lucky’’ left hand delved in and out came……you’ve guessed it, peg 24! My left nor my right hand have given me a decent draw this year, perhaps I’ll use my feet next time, or re-enact apple bobbing in future.
With a grueller in prospect I drove right to my peg, got out the car and had a quick look at the water in front and had a think about the days attack. Whilst pondering I got shat on, literally, by a seagull, thanks for that. Although they say it’s meant to be lucky I kept it quiet as I had Mick Bandy on peg 23 and I wouldn’t have heard the end of it for the next 6 hours! I had a spare peg on 25 and then Pete Whale on 26 otherwise known as the Garlic Kid.
Now as I’ve mentioned before this top end isn’t brilliant due to it not getting as much sun as the rest of the lake, especially pegs 20, 21 and 22. So when Brian ‘’Tupper’’ Ware drew peg 20 he was absolutely fuming as he’d pegged the match and left this one out! Oops, it was amusing for us though to see him marching up and down the bank muttering to him self!
Seeing as I did so poorly last time, I decided to solely fish for carp today and go all or bust. I spoke to Ian Bailey after the last match and he said it was more of a carp peg due to it being fairly shallow up that end, around 4ft and that the Ide prefer a bit more depth. So with this in mind I set up a Pellet feeder to fish to the island which was about 18m away then have a meat line on the pole at 14m and a line to the edge of the bush on my left.
My pellet feeder rig was 0.20 Ultima on my Shimano Catana 3000 reel, a 9ft Silstar Bomb rod (which to be honest has seen better days!), I used a Dinsmore paste feeder and a had a short 4inch hooklength of 0.17 Powerline, a size 16 B911 and a hair rigged band completed the set up.
Pole lines I had a 4x14 Preston PB14 for meat at 14m on 0.15 straight through to a 16s B911, I had a shallow rig set up for over the top of this line. I also set up a 0.4g BGT Shallow Long float for a bush to my left.
Bait wise I’d kept it very simple, soaked micros for the feeder and hard 4mm pellets for the band and then two tins of 6mm meat.
At the all in I cupped in a 100ml pot of meat on the 14m line and then cast the feeder out. For the first half an hour I stuck to the feeder in hope that a couple of fish would be on the meat line. With no indications whatsoever after 30 minutes I switched to the meat line. I Shipped out and dropped a couple of bits over the top, lifting dragging, twitching, laying the rig in brought me nothing at all. I stuck with this for an hour trying to make it work, I started spraying a couple of bits of meat over the top in hope that the fish might no be feeding on the bottom but still no luck.
Bandy on 23 was catching a few bits and had also had a 4lb carp to boost his weight, Pete was catching Ide quite steadily but they were only small fish. I decided to go back on the feeder, a decision which paid off, I cast tight to the far bank and after 5 a five minute weight my tipped was bouncing off the keepnet and I was into my first fish. I soon slipped the net under a small F1 of about a pound. Next cast resulted in sharp take no sooner than the feeder had touched bottom, this time I knew it was a better fish, I was right and added a 4lb mirror to the keepnet. I stuck to this line for a couple of hours but you’d catch a couple of fish and then have to weight half an hour. I managed 4 carp and 4 F1’s for somewhere between 15 and 20lb. Bandy and Pete were still catching small fish one a chuck with the occasional bigger Ide.
With an hour to go I decided to try up in the water on the meat line as I’d now been spraying a couple of bits of meat over it for a good couple of hours and thought there might be one or two competing but not so much as sniff. I finished the last half hour dumping a pot of meat down to the left just off the end of the bush and sat it out in hope that a big carp might swim past and fancy a feast! Gordon’s hooter signalled time and although I’d still not bagged I’d definitely done better than the last time I visited the peg!
At the weigh in 40lb was winning and I knew I had no where near that, Brian of peg 20 had 21lb odd despite all his whinging, Bandy weighed 17lb odd, next was me, I put 19lb 12 on the scales before The Garlic Kid put 28lb of Ide on, maybe some of fish weren’t tiddlers after all!
Once again John Livesey put on a fine display with 19lb of carp and 30lb of Ide from the late 30’s for another match win with 49lb. Well done to John who can perhaps put his winnings towards some new front teeth, although Christmas isn’t that far away….
Next week I’m back on Maple which I’ve done terribly on despite thinking before the matches started that I could hopefully do well on due to fishing it quite regularly on an evening. I’ve been messaging one of the regulars up at the Oaks on the Oaks Banter website over the past few weeks so hopefully I can have a better days fishing after putting in a fair bit of homework. If not then there are only 3 matches in total on Maple now which will finish our season, then I can maybe fish one or two opens in order to hopefully learn a bit more before next season kicks off.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
September 28th Alders
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Oak Tree Leisure, Pond 1 - Sept 7th
Well, after a week off the Club matches we were back this weekend at Oak Tree Leisure on Pond 1 again. I’ve had mixed results here this year, the first match I blanked and the last match we had there I came 2nd with 42lb 8oz. Overall this year the pond has fished, well, crap! I’ve also heard through the grapevine that the owners have been transferring fish from this lake to the other lakes, whether it’s true or not I don’t know but it would explain such low winning weights from a venue that last year you needed over 100lb to win.
Anyway on the Saturday I prepared my bait and checked I had some adequate rigs. My plan was to fish pellet to the island, have a couple of margin rigs and a rig for down the middle that I’d try a bit of paste. Above all else I had decided that my main priority would be to land every fish I hooked as I knew it would be a hard match and one fish could decide whether you frame or not with the average stamp being about 3lb.
I arrived at the venue at about ten to nine for a 9am draw due to a lot of the roads being either closed or flooded; luckily the draw didn’t happen until the usual quarter past so I still had time for a butty and to load up the barra.
My hand went into the bag and I pulled out peg 38, this doesn’t really mean a lot to me as I’ve only ever fished here 3 times. I knew roughly where it was and so headed towards the far corner on the nearside bank. My peg was 2 or 3 up from the corner and due to the venues recent form there was only 19 fishing on a 50 peg lake so I had a couple of spare pegs to either side. I had an aerator to my left in front of peg 39 and the island was about 14-15m away. I had no real feature in the margins apart from the spare platforms. My platform was also under 6'' of water too so it was a case of get all the splashing out of the way and then stay sat for the rest of the day!
Bait for the day I had, well, everything. I had 4 and 6mm expanders and a big bucket of micros for fishing toward the island, three tins of corn for the margins and finally some Green SwimStim paste and some hemp for my middle line which would now be towards the aerator at 8m. I also had some maggots as a change bait for the island.
As far as rigs go I had BGT shallow floats, 0.2g for the far bank and margin lines on 0.17 Powerline, the island rig had a PR36-16 and the margin a size 14. My paste rig had a Preston PB13 4x14 on 0.18 Silk Shock with a Kammy Animal size 12.
There was roughly 2-2.5ft depth on the island shelf and the margin shelf and it was 4-4.5ft next to the aerator where there was quite a large flat spot.
At the all in I cupped in some corn down the margin and planned to feed little and often throughout the duration of the match. I also cupped in a potful of 4mm next to the aerator and then proceeded to go out to the island line with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot full of micros. As expected it wasn’t hectic and I had to wait 20 minutes before getting any sort of indications. I was taking it slow and feeding a potful every 10 minutes or ideally after every fish. I was getting silly line bites so shallowed up six inches but no more bites were forthcoming so I re potted and went back to dead depth. When I finally hooked my first carp after about 35 minutes, I soon got it in, a small mirror of about 3lb. I quickly went back out, inches from the island and hooked another carp, possibly foul hooked as I pulled out and 3 or 4 other fish were spooked and sent waves right down the far bank. Seeing as this had happened quite a lot on previous visits to the lake I decided to rest the swim for ten minutes and let the fish gain a bit of confidence.
I fished the left margin with double corn but no indications; I once again potted some 4mm pellets out to the aerator and then went back to the island. I managed another 3 carp of a similar stamp, 2 on 4mm expander and one on triple maggot. So two hours in and about 12lb in the net. Cooksy had had 5 by this point and lost a couple and I don’t think Howard to my right had had any. I then sat for three hours without a bite, whether I fished the paste line, the margin or the island, Cooksy had also stopped getting any bites and Howard probably had 7 fish in those three hours putting him on for the section.
With the last hour descending upon us I potted three big pots of corn down the margin in a hugely desperate bid to snare a monster. I left it for 15 minutes before dropping my rig. No sooner had the hook bait hit the bottom and my top kit was nearly ripped out of my hands and pointing straight to the middle of the lake, I quickly put on 2 emergency sections and followed it before getting it under control and shipping back to the top kit.
I knew this was a good fish and took my time as I knew this could possibly win me the section, this was a real solid fish as when ever I lifted into it the connector would still just hover over the surface of the water and more elastic would come out. After a ten minute tussle, with no bullying whatsoever it just pulled out, gone! I was hacked off to say the least, after a few choice swear words I was tempted to pack up I was that annoyed, but persevered until the end.
Come the weigh in the whole lake had fish poorly, Howard to my right had 22lb, I weighed 11lb 12oz and Cooksy weighed 18 odd. Next was Alan Whittaker who plonked 46lb on the scales for 1st place, he’d managed a couple of proper lumps to double his weight, Nige was next with 26lb for 2nd place and Gordon put a bigger 18 odd than Cooksy on the scales, much to his delight and Paul’s dismay!
Another poor match at a continually poor venue, next week we’re back at Sessay on Maple which also hasn’t been fishing well of late, for me at least, I’ll be hoping for a kind draw and hopefully the fish will be a bit hungrier than last time! Although I imagine the persistent rain might ‘dampen’ (excuse the pun) proceedings.
Anyway on the Saturday I prepared my bait and checked I had some adequate rigs. My plan was to fish pellet to the island, have a couple of margin rigs and a rig for down the middle that I’d try a bit of paste. Above all else I had decided that my main priority would be to land every fish I hooked as I knew it would be a hard match and one fish could decide whether you frame or not with the average stamp being about 3lb.
I arrived at the venue at about ten to nine for a 9am draw due to a lot of the roads being either closed or flooded; luckily the draw didn’t happen until the usual quarter past so I still had time for a butty and to load up the barra.
My hand went into the bag and I pulled out peg 38, this doesn’t really mean a lot to me as I’ve only ever fished here 3 times. I knew roughly where it was and so headed towards the far corner on the nearside bank. My peg was 2 or 3 up from the corner and due to the venues recent form there was only 19 fishing on a 50 peg lake so I had a couple of spare pegs to either side. I had an aerator to my left in front of peg 39 and the island was about 14-15m away. I had no real feature in the margins apart from the spare platforms. My platform was also under 6'' of water too so it was a case of get all the splashing out of the way and then stay sat for the rest of the day!
Bait for the day I had, well, everything. I had 4 and 6mm expanders and a big bucket of micros for fishing toward the island, three tins of corn for the margins and finally some Green SwimStim paste and some hemp for my middle line which would now be towards the aerator at 8m. I also had some maggots as a change bait for the island.
As far as rigs go I had BGT shallow floats, 0.2g for the far bank and margin lines on 0.17 Powerline, the island rig had a PR36-16 and the margin a size 14. My paste rig had a Preston PB13 4x14 on 0.18 Silk Shock with a Kammy Animal size 12.
There was roughly 2-2.5ft depth on the island shelf and the margin shelf and it was 4-4.5ft next to the aerator where there was quite a large flat spot.
At the all in I cupped in some corn down the margin and planned to feed little and often throughout the duration of the match. I also cupped in a potful of 4mm next to the aerator and then proceeded to go out to the island line with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot full of micros. As expected it wasn’t hectic and I had to wait 20 minutes before getting any sort of indications. I was taking it slow and feeding a potful every 10 minutes or ideally after every fish. I was getting silly line bites so shallowed up six inches but no more bites were forthcoming so I re potted and went back to dead depth. When I finally hooked my first carp after about 35 minutes, I soon got it in, a small mirror of about 3lb. I quickly went back out, inches from the island and hooked another carp, possibly foul hooked as I pulled out and 3 or 4 other fish were spooked and sent waves right down the far bank. Seeing as this had happened quite a lot on previous visits to the lake I decided to rest the swim for ten minutes and let the fish gain a bit of confidence.
I fished the left margin with double corn but no indications; I once again potted some 4mm pellets out to the aerator and then went back to the island. I managed another 3 carp of a similar stamp, 2 on 4mm expander and one on triple maggot. So two hours in and about 12lb in the net. Cooksy had had 5 by this point and lost a couple and I don’t think Howard to my right had had any. I then sat for three hours without a bite, whether I fished the paste line, the margin or the island, Cooksy had also stopped getting any bites and Howard probably had 7 fish in those three hours putting him on for the section.
With the last hour descending upon us I potted three big pots of corn down the margin in a hugely desperate bid to snare a monster. I left it for 15 minutes before dropping my rig. No sooner had the hook bait hit the bottom and my top kit was nearly ripped out of my hands and pointing straight to the middle of the lake, I quickly put on 2 emergency sections and followed it before getting it under control and shipping back to the top kit.
I knew this was a good fish and took my time as I knew this could possibly win me the section, this was a real solid fish as when ever I lifted into it the connector would still just hover over the surface of the water and more elastic would come out. After a ten minute tussle, with no bullying whatsoever it just pulled out, gone! I was hacked off to say the least, after a few choice swear words I was tempted to pack up I was that annoyed, but persevered until the end.
Come the weigh in the whole lake had fish poorly, Howard to my right had 22lb, I weighed 11lb 12oz and Cooksy weighed 18 odd. Next was Alan Whittaker who plonked 46lb on the scales for 1st place, he’d managed a couple of proper lumps to double his weight, Nige was next with 26lb for 2nd place and Gordon put a bigger 18 odd than Cooksy on the scales, much to his delight and Paul’s dismay!
Another poor match at a continually poor venue, next week we’re back at Sessay on Maple which also hasn’t been fishing well of late, for me at least, I’ll be hoping for a kind draw and hopefully the fish will be a bit hungrier than last time! Although I imagine the persistent rain might ‘dampen’ (excuse the pun) proceedings.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Carpvale, Maple and Woodlands Pairs
Over the past few weeks I’ve been a little busy so that’s why I’ve not updated. I've got three matches to fill in but unfortunately I can only skim through the details of each match otherwise I’d never catch up!
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve fished two club matches and a pairs open:
August 17th – Carpvale – Cyprio + Matchpool
August 24th – Sessay – Maple
August 25th – Woodlands Pairs Match
Right, so Carp Vale, I managed to draw on Cyprio again on peg 9, I’ve always fancied this bay and it was ideally where I wanted to be, perfect! Or not! I like these pegs because you’ve got so much water to go at, it’s a good 40 yard plus chuck to the island where I had a tempting little lily bed. I had a bush on both sides in the margins and then a vast expanse of water out in front.
I started off with fishing the method to the island for the first hour after I’d potted some feed down on the margins and a 13m line. I realised when fishing on the tip how terrible my casting is, I seriously need to fish the rod more often, a lot of the venues I fish it isn’t called for so when you get somewhere like Carp Vale I definitely felt out of practice.
The first hour passed and no knocks or indications so I went down the left margin. First put in I hooked a nice little mirror of about a pound and a half. Next put in, before I had time to strike my float was 3ft below the surface tangle around the root system of the bush! With the bush being so close it was hard to pull for a break, in the end I decided the safest way was to keep the tip under the surface of the water and pull the bung out and keep pulling until it gave way! Now with 0.18 straight through it took some pulling I can tell you!
I then went out to the 13m line with a blob of paste, once again first put in the float slid away, this time though there was no real fight just a dead weight, I slowly shipped back dragging the dead weight to eventually see a colossal Bream grace my net, it only just fit in my landing net and must have been all of six and half pound! Easily my biggest Bream to date. Any way back out on the paste line and no more bites.
By this time I was getting a little bored so I decided to go back out on the tip and feed a shallow line over my paste line, I constantly dripped in 6mm pellets for an hour, then I started to see the odd swirl so out went the shallow rig. I was wind milling the rig and still firing pellets out and managed to finally hook a carp after about 15minutes, it was a good fish however when I hooked it every other fish in the swim got spooked and swirled on the top before buggaring off for the rest of the match! I got the fish in though, a big common about 9lb so a healthy boost to my other 2 fish but it definitely wasn’t enough and it meant another poor match for me, I must be due a good day soon enough!
Anyway my 3 fish weighed 16lb on the dot; Steve Hodson had one fish that weighed 17.5lb so even one of his fish was better than my tally!
I didn’t stick about for the final weigh in and results although I think Honest John may have been up there as he 70 odd pound.
The match up at Sessay was another dire affair, I weighed in 9lb 12oz, a lot of people DNW’d and it was won by Mick Atkinson on his favourite peg with 51lb. I’d been up for a couple of practices a couple of weeks before and done atrociously so sought the advice of one of the regulars and fished method feeder for the match with the correct set up and correct bait and still couldn’t muster up a weight! Not to worry.
After the poor result at Sessay Gordon and I were fishing the pairs match up at Woodlands so hopefully we’d both catch a few fish!
After a coin toss we decided Gordon was on the good lakes (Skylark and Partridge) where as I had the least favourable draw or Curlew, Wagtail or Kestrel.
Gordon ended up on Skylark 20 and I was to be on Curlew 8, Nige told me that my peg had the potential to be a match winner today so no pressure then! In fairness I never expected to win nor even frame as I’m a newbie up at Woodlands and a lot of the other guys know the place inside out.
Anyway I ended up with 52lb 6oz and Gordon weighed 24lb, so we weren’t even close, the match was individually won off the peg to my right with 140lb, oops, what was I playing at then?
It was won by Darrell Taylor and Adam Richards who had 87lb and 107lb respectively (I think???).
Anyway pleasure fishing for a week and then back to Huby where I picked up my first and only brown envelope of the year however its still fishing poorly so I’m not hoping for a weigh day!
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve fished two club matches and a pairs open:
August 17th – Carpvale – Cyprio + Matchpool
August 24th – Sessay – Maple
August 25th – Woodlands Pairs Match
Right, so Carp Vale, I managed to draw on Cyprio again on peg 9, I’ve always fancied this bay and it was ideally where I wanted to be, perfect! Or not! I like these pegs because you’ve got so much water to go at, it’s a good 40 yard plus chuck to the island where I had a tempting little lily bed. I had a bush on both sides in the margins and then a vast expanse of water out in front.
I started off with fishing the method to the island for the first hour after I’d potted some feed down on the margins and a 13m line. I realised when fishing on the tip how terrible my casting is, I seriously need to fish the rod more often, a lot of the venues I fish it isn’t called for so when you get somewhere like Carp Vale I definitely felt out of practice.
The first hour passed and no knocks or indications so I went down the left margin. First put in I hooked a nice little mirror of about a pound and a half. Next put in, before I had time to strike my float was 3ft below the surface tangle around the root system of the bush! With the bush being so close it was hard to pull for a break, in the end I decided the safest way was to keep the tip under the surface of the water and pull the bung out and keep pulling until it gave way! Now with 0.18 straight through it took some pulling I can tell you!
I then went out to the 13m line with a blob of paste, once again first put in the float slid away, this time though there was no real fight just a dead weight, I slowly shipped back dragging the dead weight to eventually see a colossal Bream grace my net, it only just fit in my landing net and must have been all of six and half pound! Easily my biggest Bream to date. Any way back out on the paste line and no more bites.
By this time I was getting a little bored so I decided to go back out on the tip and feed a shallow line over my paste line, I constantly dripped in 6mm pellets for an hour, then I started to see the odd swirl so out went the shallow rig. I was wind milling the rig and still firing pellets out and managed to finally hook a carp after about 15minutes, it was a good fish however when I hooked it every other fish in the swim got spooked and swirled on the top before buggaring off for the rest of the match! I got the fish in though, a big common about 9lb so a healthy boost to my other 2 fish but it definitely wasn’t enough and it meant another poor match for me, I must be due a good day soon enough!
Anyway my 3 fish weighed 16lb on the dot; Steve Hodson had one fish that weighed 17.5lb so even one of his fish was better than my tally!
I didn’t stick about for the final weigh in and results although I think Honest John may have been up there as he 70 odd pound.
The match up at Sessay was another dire affair, I weighed in 9lb 12oz, a lot of people DNW’d and it was won by Mick Atkinson on his favourite peg with 51lb. I’d been up for a couple of practices a couple of weeks before and done atrociously so sought the advice of one of the regulars and fished method feeder for the match with the correct set up and correct bait and still couldn’t muster up a weight! Not to worry.
After the poor result at Sessay Gordon and I were fishing the pairs match up at Woodlands so hopefully we’d both catch a few fish!
After a coin toss we decided Gordon was on the good lakes (Skylark and Partridge) where as I had the least favourable draw or Curlew, Wagtail or Kestrel.
Gordon ended up on Skylark 20 and I was to be on Curlew 8, Nige told me that my peg had the potential to be a match winner today so no pressure then! In fairness I never expected to win nor even frame as I’m a newbie up at Woodlands and a lot of the other guys know the place inside out.
Anyway I ended up with 52lb 6oz and Gordon weighed 24lb, so we weren’t even close, the match was individually won off the peg to my right with 140lb, oops, what was I playing at then?
It was won by Darrell Taylor and Adam Richards who had 87lb and 107lb respectively (I think???).
Anyway pleasure fishing for a week and then back to Huby where I picked up my first and only brown envelope of the year however its still fishing poorly so I’m not hoping for a weigh day!
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Woodlands Open August 10th
Initially I was booked onto the Starbeck club match as a reserve but at five past seven on Sunday morning Nige rang me to say someone had dropped out and that I could get on. Bonus! My plan was to turn up and fish the open if I couldn’t get on but thankfully I’d made it onto the match, or had I!? Somehow Nige had made a mistake and already had one too many booked on the match before I arrived. Not to worry though, Nige sorted me out and I was fishing the open which was to be held over two of the lakes, Kestrel and Skylark. Ideally I wanted to be on Skylark as it is supposedly a much better lake than Kestrel. I’ve also fished Kestrel before and not done very well as you may have already read!
With the draw not until 10am I sat around and had a think of what tactics to employ. The draw finally came around and I was to be on Kestrel 8, brilliant! Or not! I gave Nige a ring to get filled in on how best to approach it and he said ‘big fish down the edge and fish a pellet line at 13m and after every 3 or so fish chuck the bomb over the same line and fire a load more bait in!’’ Easy I thought!
I already had the bomb rod set up with 0.20 Ultima mainline to an 0.17 Powerline trace (12’’long) with a PR36 size 16; I also employed a hair rigged band in the set up.
I plumbed both margins and only found a deviation of a couple of inches so the one rig would do for both lines with a bit of alteration in between. The margin rigs were on 0.18 silk shock straight through to a PR36 size 14. As for the float, it was once again one of my trusty BGT shallow floats 0.2g. Elastic was 16 latex.
I also set up a line at 13m for on the deck, this was the same line and hook as the above rig but with a hair rigged band. Float was a Preston PB13 4x14. Elastic was 14 latex.
Finally I had a shallow rig to go over the 13m line just in case.
Bait for the day in accordance with the limits were: 2pints 6mm feed pellets, ½ pint of 6mm expanders, ½ pint 8mm hard pellets for the band and 3 pints of meat for the margin.
The hooter sounded at 11am to signal the all in, I quickly potted in either margin with a big pot of meat, then out to 13m with a potful of pellets. My plan was then to try and snare a fish or two down the edge before moving onto the 13m line. I tried for 10 minutes on either side without a sniff, not even a liner. So I decided it was time for the 13m line.
Whilst fishing the margins the weather had changed for the worse! The wind had picked up so that even presenting a bait at 2m was difficult let alone 13m and the rain was hammering down! This is how it remained for the rest of the match, lovely! Although we should be used to it by now!
For the rest of the match I was forced to fish the bomb on the 13m line as this was the only method I could present properly. I managed to snare quite a few fish and ended up with 34lb 12oz. once again I couldn’t snare any of the monsters from the margins to bump up my score but that’s how it goes. After the match I spoke to a few people who kindly informed me that meat doesn’t work at Woodlands, so maybe that’s why I can’t get them from the margins then if I’m feeding meat! D’oh! The bloke to my left on peg 6 battered me with 96lb yet the bloke to my right on peg 10, who is a regular up at Woodlands only managed 46lb so I didn’t feel too bad although I knew I could have done better!
The club match was won with 113lb by Vince and Pete Whale came 2nd with 111lb, so some very good weights, there were also a lot of backing weights around 60-70lb mark.
With the draw not until 10am I sat around and had a think of what tactics to employ. The draw finally came around and I was to be on Kestrel 8, brilliant! Or not! I gave Nige a ring to get filled in on how best to approach it and he said ‘big fish down the edge and fish a pellet line at 13m and after every 3 or so fish chuck the bomb over the same line and fire a load more bait in!’’ Easy I thought!
I already had the bomb rod set up with 0.20 Ultima mainline to an 0.17 Powerline trace (12’’long) with a PR36 size 16; I also employed a hair rigged band in the set up.
I plumbed both margins and only found a deviation of a couple of inches so the one rig would do for both lines with a bit of alteration in between. The margin rigs were on 0.18 silk shock straight through to a PR36 size 14. As for the float, it was once again one of my trusty BGT shallow floats 0.2g. Elastic was 16 latex.
I also set up a line at 13m for on the deck, this was the same line and hook as the above rig but with a hair rigged band. Float was a Preston PB13 4x14. Elastic was 14 latex.
Finally I had a shallow rig to go over the 13m line just in case.
Bait for the day in accordance with the limits were: 2pints 6mm feed pellets, ½ pint of 6mm expanders, ½ pint 8mm hard pellets for the band and 3 pints of meat for the margin.
The hooter sounded at 11am to signal the all in, I quickly potted in either margin with a big pot of meat, then out to 13m with a potful of pellets. My plan was then to try and snare a fish or two down the edge before moving onto the 13m line. I tried for 10 minutes on either side without a sniff, not even a liner. So I decided it was time for the 13m line.
Whilst fishing the margins the weather had changed for the worse! The wind had picked up so that even presenting a bait at 2m was difficult let alone 13m and the rain was hammering down! This is how it remained for the rest of the match, lovely! Although we should be used to it by now!
For the rest of the match I was forced to fish the bomb on the 13m line as this was the only method I could present properly. I managed to snare quite a few fish and ended up with 34lb 12oz. once again I couldn’t snare any of the monsters from the margins to bump up my score but that’s how it goes. After the match I spoke to a few people who kindly informed me that meat doesn’t work at Woodlands, so maybe that’s why I can’t get them from the margins then if I’m feeding meat! D’oh! The bloke to my left on peg 6 battered me with 96lb yet the bloke to my right on peg 10, who is a regular up at Woodlands only managed 46lb so I didn’t feel too bad although I knew I could have done better!
The club match was won with 113lb by Vince and Pete Whale came 2nd with 111lb, so some very good weights, there were also a lot of backing weights around 60-70lb mark.
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
August 9th – Sessay – Alders – Northern Intersite
I’d book on to fish the Northern Intersite match for www.talkangling.co.uk; we were to be up against 3 other forums, www.maggotdrowning.com, www.totalfishing.com and www.anglingforums.com.
In the weeks running up to the match we’d all been busy collecting as much information as we could about the venue. We had a team plan formulated and hopefully our hard work would see us reap the rewards, bragging rights!
I arrived up at the oaks at about half nine, the draw wasn’t until 10:30 so I had plenty of time for a cuppa and a chat, I bumped into Bri Clay who I’d recently been to White Acres with, so after a brief discussion about all things fishing, I eventually spotted a talk angling t-shirt! I met up with the guys whilst they were walking around the lake and in fairness, there wasn’t an awful lot of activity on the lake, the occasional swirl was all the fish were giving away!
All the captains were rounded up to draw our teams’ pegs, we all then drew our individual pegs from a hat and I was to be on peg 24 for the day. Not where I wanted to be but what can you do? Peg 24 is about 17m to the island and with only 15m of pole this meant my island line would be a bomb and pellet attack.
So, rigs for the day were to be the bomb rod for the island which I already had set up. Then I had two lines at 13m, one at 11 o’ clock for the carp and one at one o’ clock for the Ide.
For the carp line I was to use a Preston PB13 in 4x14, this was on 0.15 Powerline with a size 16 PR36. I also set up a shallow rig to fish over the same line with a Gaz Malman MTD2 0.2g float with the same line and hook but with a hair rigged band.
For the Ide line I used a Preston PB23 0.5g on 0.12 Silk Shock – with a hooklength of 0.11 Powerline to a Gamma Green 18. I also had a shallow rig for the Ide line too; the same as the depth rig but with a Drennan Caster float.
Bait for the day, I had 3 pints of casters for the Ide, some micro’s, 4mm hard pellets and also some 4 and 6mm expanders. I also had a little bit of meat to use as an alternative to pellet on the bomb.
At the all In I cupped in a 150ml pot of casters on the Ide line and the same amount of micros and 4mm pellets on the carp line. My plan was then to fish the bomb for the first hour whilst continually spraying the respective baits over the 13m lines to try to get the fish shallow.
I’d clipped up to the island and as long as I held the rod perfectly upright after casting the bomb would splash down within half a yard of the island. This worked well and for once I didn’t snag up on the island for the whole match. I had a banded 4mm pellet and every few minutes I would spray half a dozen 4mm pellets over the top. It became a bit of a juggling act feeding all three lines and having to use two different catapults but I managed to get my head and get on with it. I didn’t have so much as a liner on the bomb for the first 15 minutes so I changed over to double caster to see if there was anything about but still not even a twitch on tip. I stuck to it for 45 minutes though as I wanted my 13m lines to be well primed before I went on to empty them!
Eventually I gave up on the bomb and went out to the Ide line with the full depth rig, I had double caster on the hook. I swung the rig out as the way it had been shotted would hopefully give a nice slow fall through the column of bait. The rig was working as I’d expected and you see each shot register on the bristle, the only thing was the bristle wouldn’t go under from the resistance of a fish! I fished this line for nearly an hour trying to induce a bite but nothing. This was until the float started to slide off sideways, the tip buried and I struck into my first fish of the day, a 2oz roach, at least I hadn’t blanked, therefore I was able to weigh in at the end and at least pick up one point for the team!
At this point the guy to my left hadn’t had anything still but the lad on my right (who was also using his car as a pole roller!) had one carp and a couple of Ide. No-one I could see was bagging so at least I could hopefully make it up.
I decided to leave the Ide line as I’d still being spraying pellets onto the carp line. I shipped out with the depth rig armed with a 4mm expander. Generally I use the tackle shop ‘own brand’ expanders but seeing as I’d run out the past few weeks I’ve been using some Sensas ones that I received when I took a magazine subscription, I’m very impressed with them, they go quite rubbery as long as you don’t leave them too long. I’ll definitely carry on using them as the ‘own brand’ ones can go a bit mushy over the course of a session. First put in I got a liner but ignored it and then BANG! The float shot under and my pole tip slapped the water, carp on, I quickly got it in on the 14 latex and swiftly placed it in the keepnet, it was only just over a pound but hopefully this would get the ball rolling. I shipped back out and the float buried again, get in I thought! It must have been foul hooked as it steamed off and pulled out sending a giant bow wave through my swim, after a few choice words I was shipping out again but to no avail. The swim was devoid of any fish life.
For the rest of the match I swapped between the two pole lines and the bomb but couldn’t tempt a bite. Meanwhile the guy to my left where it gets a bit wider and also a bit deeper was lining the Ide up and the lad on my right was getting a few carp off the island rushes at 16m.
By the time the all out was called I had the lonesome roach and single carp in my net, what a disappointment after all the preparation I’d done.
I weighed in 1lb 7oz for last in section. As a team I think we came joint 3rd, so technically last but it was a good day out even if it did chuck down all day.
Due to the rain two of my sections had got stuck together, now with my old pole, the sections were much shorter so if this happened I could just bung them in the back of the car and usually by the time I got home they’d dried out and would pull apart. However my current pole there isn't a chance they would fit. So I went to the café just before it shut to get some boiling water to pour over the female joint to hopefully make it expand, this didn’t work! In the end it took 4 of us to get it apart, with Woody and I on either end pulling whilst Ian Bailey and another chap rolled and tapped it respectively, thank god t came apart, otherwise I’d still be there now!
Hopefully I’d be able to get on the Starbeck match on the Sunday otherwise I wouldn’t have had a days fishing this weekend!
In the weeks running up to the match we’d all been busy collecting as much information as we could about the venue. We had a team plan formulated and hopefully our hard work would see us reap the rewards, bragging rights!
I arrived up at the oaks at about half nine, the draw wasn’t until 10:30 so I had plenty of time for a cuppa and a chat, I bumped into Bri Clay who I’d recently been to White Acres with, so after a brief discussion about all things fishing, I eventually spotted a talk angling t-shirt! I met up with the guys whilst they were walking around the lake and in fairness, there wasn’t an awful lot of activity on the lake, the occasional swirl was all the fish were giving away!
All the captains were rounded up to draw our teams’ pegs, we all then drew our individual pegs from a hat and I was to be on peg 24 for the day. Not where I wanted to be but what can you do? Peg 24 is about 17m to the island and with only 15m of pole this meant my island line would be a bomb and pellet attack.
So, rigs for the day were to be the bomb rod for the island which I already had set up. Then I had two lines at 13m, one at 11 o’ clock for the carp and one at one o’ clock for the Ide.
For the carp line I was to use a Preston PB13 in 4x14, this was on 0.15 Powerline with a size 16 PR36. I also set up a shallow rig to fish over the same line with a Gaz Malman MTD2 0.2g float with the same line and hook but with a hair rigged band.
For the Ide line I used a Preston PB23 0.5g on 0.12 Silk Shock – with a hooklength of 0.11 Powerline to a Gamma Green 18. I also had a shallow rig for the Ide line too; the same as the depth rig but with a Drennan Caster float.
Bait for the day, I had 3 pints of casters for the Ide, some micro’s, 4mm hard pellets and also some 4 and 6mm expanders. I also had a little bit of meat to use as an alternative to pellet on the bomb.
At the all In I cupped in a 150ml pot of casters on the Ide line and the same amount of micros and 4mm pellets on the carp line. My plan was then to fish the bomb for the first hour whilst continually spraying the respective baits over the 13m lines to try to get the fish shallow.
I’d clipped up to the island and as long as I held the rod perfectly upright after casting the bomb would splash down within half a yard of the island. This worked well and for once I didn’t snag up on the island for the whole match. I had a banded 4mm pellet and every few minutes I would spray half a dozen 4mm pellets over the top. It became a bit of a juggling act feeding all three lines and having to use two different catapults but I managed to get my head and get on with it. I didn’t have so much as a liner on the bomb for the first 15 minutes so I changed over to double caster to see if there was anything about but still not even a twitch on tip. I stuck to it for 45 minutes though as I wanted my 13m lines to be well primed before I went on to empty them!
Eventually I gave up on the bomb and went out to the Ide line with the full depth rig, I had double caster on the hook. I swung the rig out as the way it had been shotted would hopefully give a nice slow fall through the column of bait. The rig was working as I’d expected and you see each shot register on the bristle, the only thing was the bristle wouldn’t go under from the resistance of a fish! I fished this line for nearly an hour trying to induce a bite but nothing. This was until the float started to slide off sideways, the tip buried and I struck into my first fish of the day, a 2oz roach, at least I hadn’t blanked, therefore I was able to weigh in at the end and at least pick up one point for the team!
At this point the guy to my left hadn’t had anything still but the lad on my right (who was also using his car as a pole roller!) had one carp and a couple of Ide. No-one I could see was bagging so at least I could hopefully make it up.
I decided to leave the Ide line as I’d still being spraying pellets onto the carp line. I shipped out with the depth rig armed with a 4mm expander. Generally I use the tackle shop ‘own brand’ expanders but seeing as I’d run out the past few weeks I’ve been using some Sensas ones that I received when I took a magazine subscription, I’m very impressed with them, they go quite rubbery as long as you don’t leave them too long. I’ll definitely carry on using them as the ‘own brand’ ones can go a bit mushy over the course of a session. First put in I got a liner but ignored it and then BANG! The float shot under and my pole tip slapped the water, carp on, I quickly got it in on the 14 latex and swiftly placed it in the keepnet, it was only just over a pound but hopefully this would get the ball rolling. I shipped back out and the float buried again, get in I thought! It must have been foul hooked as it steamed off and pulled out sending a giant bow wave through my swim, after a few choice words I was shipping out again but to no avail. The swim was devoid of any fish life.
For the rest of the match I swapped between the two pole lines and the bomb but couldn’t tempt a bite. Meanwhile the guy to my left where it gets a bit wider and also a bit deeper was lining the Ide up and the lad on my right was getting a few carp off the island rushes at 16m.
By the time the all out was called I had the lonesome roach and single carp in my net, what a disappointment after all the preparation I’d done.
I weighed in 1lb 7oz for last in section. As a team I think we came joint 3rd, so technically last but it was a good day out even if it did chuck down all day.
Due to the rain two of my sections had got stuck together, now with my old pole, the sections were much shorter so if this happened I could just bung them in the back of the car and usually by the time I got home they’d dried out and would pull apart. However my current pole there isn't a chance they would fit. So I went to the café just before it shut to get some boiling water to pour over the female joint to hopefully make it expand, this didn’t work! In the end it took 4 of us to get it apart, with Woody and I on either end pulling whilst Ian Bailey and another chap rolled and tapped it respectively, thank god t came apart, otherwise I’d still be there now!
Hopefully I’d be able to get on the Starbeck match on the Sunday otherwise I wouldn’t have had a days fishing this weekend!
Friday, 8 August 2008
Carp Vale - July 6th
Sorry for the late update but for the past two weeks I’ve been on a bit of a road with half a dozen of my mates. We travelled right down the west coast of France experiencing fine breads, cheeses and wine, also some not so fine wine! I fished this match the weekend I got back from Whiteacres. Seeing as we’d fished everyday for the past week I was eager to get back on the bank after a days rest on the Saturday.
I got there at about 8:45 and paid on straight away seeing as I was a little late. I’d not fished Carp Vale since I was in my junior league so it was good to be back as I did well on one match catching a few good carp on the method tight to the island on around peg 8 or 9. Seeing as we’d just got back from Whiteacres I didn’t have any time to tie up any rigs but most of them were on 0.15-0.18 so hopefully I’d still be able to haul some kippers out even though rumours of people being snapped on 0.22 were bounding around!
Since I was last at Carp Vale they’ve divided the big lake into 2, this now comprises of Match Pool and Cyprio. There is also the front pool but I’ve never fished this. We were to be on Cyprio and Frontpool today and to be fair I fancied Cyprio mainly because I’ve fished it before, so when I drew peg 18 out I was pretty chuffed!
I got to my peg and it looked like I’d be in for a nice easy days fishing. I had an island with roots and plenty of vegetation poking out and it was only around 13m away. I set up a rig tight to it comprising of a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.18 with a PR36 size 16. I set up the same rig but with a 0.2g float for the left margin.
Time was called at 10am and I threw a handful of 6mm pellets in the margin, then shipped out to island with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot of 4mm pellets. The float sat motionless for a few minutes and then shot under! The pole nigh on got ripped out of my hands! I managed to haul it in, all 6lb of it. I went back out and caught another of a similar size. The next put out I didn’t get any sort of indication so shipped back in and went out double corn, it worked and I put another 3 carp all of around 4lb in the keepnet. I also managed a tench of about 2lb before my hour of bagging came to a dramatic standstill. At first I was thiniking if I can catch at this rate all match I would be on for a ton! However things didn’t materialise and I didn’t get another bite on the island for the rest of the match.
Midway through the match I saw Ian Bailey sitting on peg 8 I think, he had the majority of his pole in the air with elastic streaming out, he eventually netted what looked like a decent fish and then proceeded to fall in the lake! What was he doing? I think he lost his footing and slipped into the drink. The lad on the next peg helped him out and others gave him a cuppa and some dry clothes to try warm him up a bit.
Stu on the opposite side of my island had managed to hook it and Ian started shouting ‘that’s cheating, you cant pull it closer to you!’ I swear I had to put another section on!
I did manage to hook something that was probably nearer the description of a steam train than a fish down the margins which coincidentally snapped my 0.18 mainline. I put an identical rig on and managed to snare a tench of about 3lb. then that was it, the all out was called and by my predictions I had nearly 30lb, not brilliant but I though I might get a section from it. When the scales came round I managed to put 19lb 8oz on the scales! What?! I think my fish must have joined fat fighters when they were in the keepnet! I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ll be estimating from now on, Paul Cooksy found this amusing as he thought I’d beaten him all match!
Ian Bailey even after going for a swim managed third with 64lb, John ‘Honest John’ Livesey put 75lb 8oz on the scales from peg 68ish for second and Martin (sorry, forgot your surname) managed 87lb 8oz for 1st.
All in all I enjoyed the match but perhaps I’ll have to learn to estimate before my next match.
I’m fishing the Northern Intersite team match for talkangling.co.uk on Saturday. The match is on Alders up at the Oaks so it should be a good match. Then on Sunday I’ve another club match up at Woodlands on Partridge.
Tight elastics………..
I got there at about 8:45 and paid on straight away seeing as I was a little late. I’d not fished Carp Vale since I was in my junior league so it was good to be back as I did well on one match catching a few good carp on the method tight to the island on around peg 8 or 9. Seeing as we’d just got back from Whiteacres I didn’t have any time to tie up any rigs but most of them were on 0.15-0.18 so hopefully I’d still be able to haul some kippers out even though rumours of people being snapped on 0.22 were bounding around!
Since I was last at Carp Vale they’ve divided the big lake into 2, this now comprises of Match Pool and Cyprio. There is also the front pool but I’ve never fished this. We were to be on Cyprio and Frontpool today and to be fair I fancied Cyprio mainly because I’ve fished it before, so when I drew peg 18 out I was pretty chuffed!
I got to my peg and it looked like I’d be in for a nice easy days fishing. I had an island with roots and plenty of vegetation poking out and it was only around 13m away. I set up a rig tight to it comprising of a 0.4g BGT shallow long float on 0.18 with a PR36 size 16. I set up the same rig but with a 0.2g float for the left margin.
Time was called at 10am and I threw a handful of 6mm pellets in the margin, then shipped out to island with a 4mm expander and a kinder pot of 4mm pellets. The float sat motionless for a few minutes and then shot under! The pole nigh on got ripped out of my hands! I managed to haul it in, all 6lb of it. I went back out and caught another of a similar size. The next put out I didn’t get any sort of indication so shipped back in and went out double corn, it worked and I put another 3 carp all of around 4lb in the keepnet. I also managed a tench of about 2lb before my hour of bagging came to a dramatic standstill. At first I was thiniking if I can catch at this rate all match I would be on for a ton! However things didn’t materialise and I didn’t get another bite on the island for the rest of the match.
Midway through the match I saw Ian Bailey sitting on peg 8 I think, he had the majority of his pole in the air with elastic streaming out, he eventually netted what looked like a decent fish and then proceeded to fall in the lake! What was he doing? I think he lost his footing and slipped into the drink. The lad on the next peg helped him out and others gave him a cuppa and some dry clothes to try warm him up a bit.
Stu on the opposite side of my island had managed to hook it and Ian started shouting ‘that’s cheating, you cant pull it closer to you!’ I swear I had to put another section on!
I did manage to hook something that was probably nearer the description of a steam train than a fish down the margins which coincidentally snapped my 0.18 mainline. I put an identical rig on and managed to snare a tench of about 3lb. then that was it, the all out was called and by my predictions I had nearly 30lb, not brilliant but I though I might get a section from it. When the scales came round I managed to put 19lb 8oz on the scales! What?! I think my fish must have joined fat fighters when they were in the keepnet! I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ll be estimating from now on, Paul Cooksy found this amusing as he thought I’d beaten him all match!
Ian Bailey even after going for a swim managed third with 64lb, John ‘Honest John’ Livesey put 75lb 8oz on the scales from peg 68ish for second and Martin (sorry, forgot your surname) managed 87lb 8oz for 1st.
All in all I enjoyed the match but perhaps I’ll have to learn to estimate before my next match.
I’m fishing the Northern Intersite team match for talkangling.co.uk on Saturday. The match is on Alders up at the Oaks so it should be a good match. Then on Sunday I’ve another club match up at Woodlands on Partridge.
Tight elastics………..
Monday, 7 July 2008
White Acres 27th June - 4th July
After a meeting at the pub a few days prior it was decided that Gordon, Stu and I would set off at 3am on the Friday morning in order to get there for around dinnertime and do a couple of hours fishing in the afternoon. We packed the van the night before so we were ready to set off with no hiccups in the morning and hopefully we hadn’t left anything behind. We packed the van such that our barra’s were loaded up with our gear one behind each other and we were able to wheel them on and off on Gordies ramp. This turned out to be a godsend as we could pull up somewhere and get fishing without having to load up the trolleys every time! I didn’t get picked up until perhaps 3:20 but we should still get there before dinner. Our first hiccup was when we tried to get onto the A1 at Wetherby, we stopped at a set of temporary red lights at the roundabout for probably 5 minutes before we realised they weren’t working properly, bearing in mind its only 3:30 so the roads are hardly busy! Any way after that we were making good progress until we hit the 50mph average speed check, we were in the inside lane doing bang on 50 when an ASDA lorry started to overtake (perhaps his 50 was different to hours?), the lorry then decided to come back into the inside lane, forgetting we were there, Gordon nigh on stopped to prevent us from being crushed against the barrier, there must have been an inch of room either side, no joke! So with our hearts in our mouths and clenched buttocks we started again and this time made it down to Gordano services where we met the lads from the Otley Club. After a quick chat, mainly about fishing, a cuppa and a sandwich we were back on our way. Approaching White Acres and we only had enough fuel for……0 miles, but Brian in the van in front went past White Acres as we said we would go to Morrisons for a second breakfast, we eventually made it to the pumps, the van coughing and spluttering as we were probably running on the fumes by this point!
After another breakfast we finally made it to White Acres, we picked up the keys and headed down to the tackle shop to pick up our permits for the week and find out about matches. We’d booked some knock up matches between the ten of us so that we only had to pleasure fish 1 days in the week but Gwinear was closed due to disease so we now had to pleasure it 3 days! I don’t hate pleasure fishing but I do prefer a challenge instead of dropping fish straight back in the water.
Our first pleasure session saw us fish on Pollawyn, mainly because it was a short walk and we only needed to entertain ourselves for a couple of hours before the pub opened! Gordon (the Pensioners Pin Up) went on 9, I was on 10 and Stu went on 11. We had a van pool for the week which only counted in matches and basically it was a three way quid, just for a bit of fun. We decided when we were setting up that who ever caught the first carp would be the proud owner of a free pint off the other two. Unbeknown to us the pegs we picked are quite frankly, crap! I managed three bream and a few roach, Stu managed some skimmers and roach, Gordon caught a few roach on 11mm pellet and a Crucian which took the prize by default. In my opinion if a Crucian is classed as a carp then so is a roach, they are both members of the carp family!
So grudgingly Stu and I got Gordon the first couple of pints for the holiday. We drank into the night after an excellent meal at the onsite restaurant and by the end of the night I was pretty drunk and ready for bed! Apparently I’d said I would only stay for a bit longer but would only drink soft drinks, ‘double Jack Daniels and Coke please!’ was my apparent reply, how much truth is behind this is unbeknown to me!
Monday was the Gold Match and it was to be on Trelawney and Nelsons. I wasn’t too sure on where I wanted to be but 19 and 20 Trelawney looked ok with the big reed lined bay and 18 also didn’t look too bad as you could reach the island. So after breakfast we did the draw and I got 18 so I was pretty pleased. Gordon was on 19 so at least we could have chat. I set up a couple of lines on the far bank at 14m, a line to my left margin and a paste line at 7m. At the all in I cupped in some corn and some pellets down the margin and a big pot also went out to 7m for later. I then shipped across to the far side with a 6mm expander and tipped half a kinder pot of 4mm pellets over the top. My float sat motionless for the first half an hour until I started to get the odd liner. I changed to a banded 6mm pellet and started to feed pellets of the same size but could only manage 5 small roach. Strange how back at home you wouldn’t even dream of a roach taking a 6mm hard pellet?! I decided to have a look down into the margin and managed to snare one carp of about 2lb and then a further nothing. I went out on the paste line but as with a lot of the lakes at White Acres the tow is very strong due to the constant aerators so I was finding it hard to present the bait properly. Whilst I was trying to get my paste line going my carp jumped out of the keepnet and back into the lake, could this day get any worse! Well I didn’t catch another fish for the rest of the day and tipped back my 5 roach.
Gordon had fished well and caught a fair few carp from down the margins and put 34lb 5oz on the scales which just beat Otley Dave’s 34lb 4oz. Back up at the pub for the presentation and Stu, Gordon and Otley Rob had all won their sections and Robbie had come 2nd overall off Nelsons 11 with 74lb odd, he fished at 17 to the island all day and because of this borrowed Stu’s Middy arm rest for the rest of the week!
Wednesday and we were back at Mawgan Porth were earlier in the week I’d done my first ton but with only 8 of us on the lake. This time around it was the open with around 20 of us including 3 venue experts including one of them who did an article for match fishing a few months back. Now I don’t want to label people cheats but there is certainly something suspect that the experts can manage to draw the ‘flyer peg’ week after week after week. Rumours were bounding around that the old guy who holds the tub with the pegs in holds the flyer between his fingers and the experts grab that off him instead of from the bucket. Other suggestions were going round that the owner only rings the experts when us newbie’s have booked on so it gives them some pools to play for, if we weren’t there then there would only have been about six of them, some open match! If I ever fish there again it will certainly be on one of our knock ups rather than an open as with more people on the match it also didn’t fish to half its previous capabilities. I drew peg 47 on the island which is meant to be a very good peg and only managed to put 25lb 4oz in the net, the match was won by one of the experts with just over 100lb. We had booked onto another open on the Friday but after the match we all booked off it due to the poor performance.
Thursday saw us all on the Rover match, on the previous night we had walked around the lakes with the lake guide and marked on pegs that we fancied. I fancied either peg 19 on Trelawney or 38 on Pollawyn. Stu was an absolute bag of nerves before the match and couldn’t make his mind up where to fish for the day so when he drew out peg 1, this unsettled him even further. He ended up going on the same peg he drew in gold, peg 23 on Trelawney and he did well getting just over 60lb. I managed number 15 but when I went into the tent I remembered peg 4 on Sycamore and decided to go here, even though the pegs I wanted were still free! What was I thinking! Lesson learnt for next time! By the time I got to my peg I realised there were 4 of us in a line which would make things difficult as I fancied fishing bomb and hard pellet to the island where as the lads either side were both on the pellet waggler so the pellets were flying all over the place all day! I fished another poor match and with an hour and a half to go I packed up and took everyone a cuppa, I’m good like that! Robbie came 2nd again using the same tactics and the same peg from the Rover, this time weighing in 124lb for another 2nd overall and Alan managed 135lb off Eery peg 5, fishing bomb onto the sand bar, so well done to those two. We all told Robbie he should have pulled his finger out as we all wanted a free holiday but he wasn’t biting!
All in all i think we all had a very good week and learnt a lot for the next time we go. Next time ideally we’ll have a match everyday, know what lakes and pegs to fish and take EVEN BIGGER pellets to avoid the roach. Hopefully we’ll have all learnt the lyrics to the Benny Hill song Ernie by then too so we can sing a long with Gordon in the van!
After another breakfast we finally made it to White Acres, we picked up the keys and headed down to the tackle shop to pick up our permits for the week and find out about matches. We’d booked some knock up matches between the ten of us so that we only had to pleasure fish 1 days in the week but Gwinear was closed due to disease so we now had to pleasure it 3 days! I don’t hate pleasure fishing but I do prefer a challenge instead of dropping fish straight back in the water.
Our first pleasure session saw us fish on Pollawyn, mainly because it was a short walk and we only needed to entertain ourselves for a couple of hours before the pub opened! Gordon (the Pensioners Pin Up) went on 9, I was on 10 and Stu went on 11. We had a van pool for the week which only counted in matches and basically it was a three way quid, just for a bit of fun. We decided when we were setting up that who ever caught the first carp would be the proud owner of a free pint off the other two. Unbeknown to us the pegs we picked are quite frankly, crap! I managed three bream and a few roach, Stu managed some skimmers and roach, Gordon caught a few roach on 11mm pellet and a Crucian which took the prize by default. In my opinion if a Crucian is classed as a carp then so is a roach, they are both members of the carp family!
So grudgingly Stu and I got Gordon the first couple of pints for the holiday. We drank into the night after an excellent meal at the onsite restaurant and by the end of the night I was pretty drunk and ready for bed! Apparently I’d said I would only stay for a bit longer but would only drink soft drinks, ‘double Jack Daniels and Coke please!’ was my apparent reply, how much truth is behind this is unbeknown to me!
Saturday morning soon came around and we were on one of our knock up matches. Today we were to be on Mawgan Porth. We met up at Morrisons for breakfast and followed the Otley lads to the venue. After a drive down some of the narrowest roads I’ve ever come across, and also passing the ‘Magic Cove’ we arrived at the fishery. Gordon made up some story about the Magic Cove being a wishing well, he told us all that his first wife had fallen in and drowned, I don’t think everyone got it!
We were to draw at 10 and fish 11-4pm, the lady read out the rules and told us that we all had two keepnets, a landing net and a towel on our peg, this was to cut down on cross contamination of different venues, not a bad idea but the landing nets held so much water your were drenched all day and the towel was smaller than a flannel, cheers!
This is very much for me a novelty fishery, once you’ve fished it there’s not much point in going again, especially not on an open as I’ll explain later. Basically you fish your top kit all day literally hauling the carp out. There only 12oz-1lb in size but they aint half fit, I used a 14 solid latex and still got run ragged all day, lesson learnt. I started off fishing a 6mm expander and dripping in 4mm pellets, after 4 fish in as many put ins the bites became silly as there were too many loose offerings making them dart about, a quick switch to paste and no loose feed saw me bag up for the rest of the match. You definitely need duplicate rigs at this place as after 50 or 60 fish your rig is looking a bit worse for wear, my silicone tubing split and instead of putting a new rig on which would take time I crudely taped it on with some black insulation tape, the bites still came thick and fast so the presentation certainly wasn’t a must have! I ended up realising the best way to fish the paste was a piece the size of thumbnail and holding a tight line to the float. I could then make up a ball of paste for the next put in without looking at my float as the laccy would simply stream out. A lot of my fish were quite small, 6-8oz but I still had perhaps 200 fish split between the nets. After packing up, which takes literally minutes seeing as you don’t need to get the rest of your pole out the owner came around and weighed us all in. I lifted my first net out which went dead on 50lb. I thought to myself if I’ve the same in the next one then I’ve done my first ton! Due to the rings getting stuck on the boards I couldn’t lift the net out properly but once I received help from a spectator the net was out and I knew I had done my ton, the second net weighed 69lb 4oz so I had a total of 119lb 40z, so I’d done my first ton it was just a shame we were only paying out top two. James Clay weighed a staggering 196lb so just missed out on getting on the board in the hut and Otley Rob weighed 143lb which was also his best ever match weight! After a tiring day we went for a meal at the nearby Two Clomes and then headed back for a few beers!
Rob and Tony arrived late Saturday night, early Sunday morning because Rob had fished the Kamasan final; he won his section so well done to him, picking up a nice medal and a few bits of tackle for his efforts. Seeing as I’d had a few it took them a while to wake me up and unlock the door to the caravan, oops!
We were to draw at 10 and fish 11-4pm, the lady read out the rules and told us that we all had two keepnets, a landing net and a towel on our peg, this was to cut down on cross contamination of different venues, not a bad idea but the landing nets held so much water your were drenched all day and the towel was smaller than a flannel, cheers!
This is very much for me a novelty fishery, once you’ve fished it there’s not much point in going again, especially not on an open as I’ll explain later. Basically you fish your top kit all day literally hauling the carp out. There only 12oz-1lb in size but they aint half fit, I used a 14 solid latex and still got run ragged all day, lesson learnt. I started off fishing a 6mm expander and dripping in 4mm pellets, after 4 fish in as many put ins the bites became silly as there were too many loose offerings making them dart about, a quick switch to paste and no loose feed saw me bag up for the rest of the match. You definitely need duplicate rigs at this place as after 50 or 60 fish your rig is looking a bit worse for wear, my silicone tubing split and instead of putting a new rig on which would take time I crudely taped it on with some black insulation tape, the bites still came thick and fast so the presentation certainly wasn’t a must have! I ended up realising the best way to fish the paste was a piece the size of thumbnail and holding a tight line to the float. I could then make up a ball of paste for the next put in without looking at my float as the laccy would simply stream out. A lot of my fish were quite small, 6-8oz but I still had perhaps 200 fish split between the nets. After packing up, which takes literally minutes seeing as you don’t need to get the rest of your pole out the owner came around and weighed us all in. I lifted my first net out which went dead on 50lb. I thought to myself if I’ve the same in the next one then I’ve done my first ton! Due to the rings getting stuck on the boards I couldn’t lift the net out properly but once I received help from a spectator the net was out and I knew I had done my ton, the second net weighed 69lb 4oz so I had a total of 119lb 40z, so I’d done my first ton it was just a shame we were only paying out top two. James Clay weighed a staggering 196lb so just missed out on getting on the board in the hut and Otley Rob weighed 143lb which was also his best ever match weight! After a tiring day we went for a meal at the nearby Two Clomes and then headed back for a few beers!
Rob and Tony arrived late Saturday night, early Sunday morning because Rob had fished the Kamasan final; he won his section so well done to him, picking up a nice medal and a few bits of tackle for his efforts. Seeing as I’d had a few it took them a while to wake me up and unlock the door to the caravan, oops!
Sunday morning quickly arrived and we were all up at 7am, getting our stuff ready for a pleasure session. We went down to the onsite café for breakfast. Whilst we were eating we decided we’d have a few hours on Jenny’s as it’s not a far walk from the tackle shop car park. We unloaded all the gear on the barrows and made our way to the slope that takes you up to Jenny’s. There is a small kerb before the slope and when I tried to push the trolley up it but on first attempt it didn’t want to go. I thought if I gave it a bit more a push and tried to bounce it up I’d be rolling, alas, no, my wheel sheared off the trolley! After a few choice words I carried all my stuff to around peg 19 ish and threw my barrow back in the van. I set the feeder up and fished the long cast to the island and caught steady all day, catching Crucians, f1’s and skimmers but still no decent fish. I caught by using riddled meat in an open end feeder that I’d dusted initially with icing sugar to get it sticky then with some crazy bait gold. I then either banded big pellets or used big bits of meat on the hook.
We called it a day and went for a walk around the lakes. Being a bit bored with Jenny’s, Gordon and I made our way to Python to try a bit of paste and tempt some of the resident big fish! Gordon had one first put in down the margins that was definitely a double! I managed three good carp all around 7-8lb and a couple of big Crucians at around 2lb a piece.
Monday was the Gold Match and it was to be on Trelawney and Nelsons. I wasn’t too sure on where I wanted to be but 19 and 20 Trelawney looked ok with the big reed lined bay and 18 also didn’t look too bad as you could reach the island. So after breakfast we did the draw and I got 18 so I was pretty pleased. Gordon was on 19 so at least we could have chat. I set up a couple of lines on the far bank at 14m, a line to my left margin and a paste line at 7m. At the all in I cupped in some corn and some pellets down the margin and a big pot also went out to 7m for later. I then shipped across to the far side with a 6mm expander and tipped half a kinder pot of 4mm pellets over the top. My float sat motionless for the first half an hour until I started to get the odd liner. I changed to a banded 6mm pellet and started to feed pellets of the same size but could only manage 5 small roach. Strange how back at home you wouldn’t even dream of a roach taking a 6mm hard pellet?! I decided to have a look down into the margin and managed to snare one carp of about 2lb and then a further nothing. I went out on the paste line but as with a lot of the lakes at White Acres the tow is very strong due to the constant aerators so I was finding it hard to present the bait properly. Whilst I was trying to get my paste line going my carp jumped out of the keepnet and back into the lake, could this day get any worse! Well I didn’t catch another fish for the rest of the day and tipped back my 5 roach.
Gordon had fished well and caught a fair few carp from down the margins and put 34lb 5oz on the scales which just beat Otley Dave’s 34lb 4oz. Back up at the pub for the presentation and Stu, Gordon and Otley Rob had all won their sections and Robbie had come 2nd overall off Nelsons 11 with 74lb odd, he fished at 17 to the island all day and because of this borrowed Stu’s Middy arm rest for the rest of the week!
Tuesday came and we had booked onto Bolingey for the day. We walked down to the bank furthest from the car park and decided to all fish next to each other so we could have some good banter and it meant people wouldn’t sit between us. We did a mini draw and I ended up on peg 19 with Stu on 18, Rob on 17, Gord on 20 and Tony on 21. I thought I’d set the bomb rod up, chuck it out and then that would give me chance to set the pole up. I fished a 3/4oz bomb, on 0.20 Ultima mainline with an 0.18 trace to a size 14 PR36; a hair rigged band completed the set up. I put an 8mm pellet in the band cast tight to the island and fired half a dozen 8mm pellets around it. Put it this way, it was solid; I had 8 carp all around 5-6lb before I even got the pole out my holdall!
I decided to leave the bomb for a bit and set up the pole. I setup a line to fish at around 7m in 7-8ft of water on paste. I had a 0.5g BGT paste float on 0.18 direct to a big Mustad size 12. I made some paste up out of some micros, potted in a big pot of 6mm pellets and sat over it. I had 3 fish in 3 put ins, all around the same stamp as on the bomb. Robbie and Stu were fishing shallow on the pole at about 13m and getting a carp a chuck by feeding, slapping the rig in 2 or 3 times and then waiting for the pole to bury under the surface. I’ve never tried shallow fishing properly before and thought this would be an ideal opportunity to gain some confidence in it.
I set up a small Dick Clegg dibber on 0.18 straight through to a size 16 PR36 with a hair rigged band. I put one number 8 stotz about 3 inch from the hook; this would give a third splash including the pellet and the float. I’d put a big pot of 6mm pellets out at 10m to get the fish in the area then started firing pellets over the top little and often, slapping the rig in. It took 5-10mins before the first fish succumbed to the 8mm banded pellet but after that there was no looking back. I managed to get 21 carp on this method to take my tally to 32 for the day and around 170lb, Robbie must have had 4-500lb of fish in the day, an awesome achievement, he had half a dozen that were between 10-15lb. Rob and Stu were both fishing shallow at 13m+ and picking up better fish, smallest of around 8lb but my fish at 10m averaged at 6 probably, so maybe fishing further out would have got me a few bigger fish, but I wasn’t complaining! This must have been the best days fishing I’ve ever had and certainly one of the best venues! I’ll definitely be going back!
Wednesday and we were back at Mawgan Porth were earlier in the week I’d done my first ton but with only 8 of us on the lake. This time around it was the open with around 20 of us including 3 venue experts including one of them who did an article for match fishing a few months back. Now I don’t want to label people cheats but there is certainly something suspect that the experts can manage to draw the ‘flyer peg’ week after week after week. Rumours were bounding around that the old guy who holds the tub with the pegs in holds the flyer between his fingers and the experts grab that off him instead of from the bucket. Other suggestions were going round that the owner only rings the experts when us newbie’s have booked on so it gives them some pools to play for, if we weren’t there then there would only have been about six of them, some open match! If I ever fish there again it will certainly be on one of our knock ups rather than an open as with more people on the match it also didn’t fish to half its previous capabilities. I drew peg 47 on the island which is meant to be a very good peg and only managed to put 25lb 4oz in the net, the match was won by one of the experts with just over 100lb. We had booked onto another open on the Friday but after the match we all booked off it due to the poor performance.
Thursday saw us all on the Rover match, on the previous night we had walked around the lakes with the lake guide and marked on pegs that we fancied. I fancied either peg 19 on Trelawney or 38 on Pollawyn. Stu was an absolute bag of nerves before the match and couldn’t make his mind up where to fish for the day so when he drew out peg 1, this unsettled him even further. He ended up going on the same peg he drew in gold, peg 23 on Trelawney and he did well getting just over 60lb. I managed number 15 but when I went into the tent I remembered peg 4 on Sycamore and decided to go here, even though the pegs I wanted were still free! What was I thinking! Lesson learnt for next time! By the time I got to my peg I realised there were 4 of us in a line which would make things difficult as I fancied fishing bomb and hard pellet to the island where as the lads either side were both on the pellet waggler so the pellets were flying all over the place all day! I fished another poor match and with an hour and a half to go I packed up and took everyone a cuppa, I’m good like that! Robbie came 2nd again using the same tactics and the same peg from the Rover, this time weighing in 124lb for another 2nd overall and Alan managed 135lb off Eery peg 5, fishing bomb onto the sand bar, so well done to those two. We all told Robbie he should have pulled his finger out as we all wanted a free holiday but he wasn’t biting!
All in all i think we all had a very good week and learnt a lot for the next time we go. Next time ideally we’ll have a match everyday, know what lakes and pegs to fish and take EVEN BIGGER pellets to avoid the roach. Hopefully we’ll have all learnt the lyrics to the Benny Hill song Ernie by then too so we can sing a long with Gordon in the van!
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