Woodland View Fisho Qualifier 05.06.13

Weather:
Cloudy 13C, 6mph wind

Well I haven’t been looking forward to writing this blog as I didn’t do as well as I did Saturday at Partridge Lakes, in fact it was a disaster and a reality check for me.

I was up at 4.30 and ready to go at 5.20am, so off I went and arrived at the fishery at 7am. I immediately went for a walk around the lakes and on doing so I could see that many fish had been and were about do go into spawning mode. I fancied a day on my rod so I was hoping to get Arles, Hay or Barley where I could get a feeder chuck.

I fished this fisho last year and I drew peg 46 next to Grant Albutt who was on the corner peg 48. Grant started off on fire, with 30lb in the first 45mins (I thought I was gonna get a proper spanking!!) until the heavens opened and Grant lost his fish from the margins. I on the other hand had to wait until the fourth hour were I began to get a run of carp casting a small cage feeder to the underwater aereator with worm on the hook and some chopped worm and caster plugged with damp 4mls. I ended up with 38lb for second in the section, just pipping Grant (I’ve not stopped going on about this, even a year later). The guy to my right on peg 45 had one carp all day.

Anyway, enough about last year and back to yesterday. I was right at the back of the queue, as always, and when I did finally draw at 9.20am I pulled out Back Deans 45, which I was really disappointed with as it is not one of the noted good pegs and it was the next peg to the one I fished last year, but I tried to look at it positively and told myself that with the recent good stable weather that I would catch quite a few lumps……. How wrong was I!

My setup:
2 feeder rods; a small pellet feeder to fish micros and dead maggot and a small cage feeder to fish worm and pellets3

A pellet waggler rod 6g,flighted, loaded

One margin to my right under the tree stump at 3ft deep and another margin by the platform to my left where it was 1 ft deep. Both on .17 to .15 B911 size 14 and both to black hydro

One UITW dibber on .15 to .13 PR36 18 with micro band to red middy shockcore 12-16.

For my 2+2 swim and my 6 section swim I would use the same float which is a daiwa (can’t think of the model but it has a long 2.5mm tip) .5g to .15 to .13 B911 14, to red middy shockcore 12-16.

Bait: 2/3 kilo of worm, 2 caster, Pellets 2,4,6,8 mls – 1 pint each. red meat, dead maggots and woodland view soft pellets for the hook.

By the way at 2+2 I had 4ft and at 6 sections it was about 6 inches deeper. I had decided to use a heavy .5g float as I would be after lumps and could shot this long, thick hollow tip right down.

On the all in I decided to chuck the cage feeder to the aereator with a half worm on the hook (a method that brought all my fish last year). After half an hour I hadn’t had a bite, but I wasn’t panicking as no one seemed to be catching lots. I switched to the pellet feeder but another half hour went buy and I hadn’t had a bite. By this time everyone had seemed to have caught at least one carp and some had about 4. I had been pinging 6mls at 13m all the time I had been on the feeder so I decided to have a look shallow. First put in and the elastic streamed out, but after having it on for a minute or so the hook pulled. I went back out and persevered shallow for another 30 mins but had nothing. I then decided to have ago on my 2+2 where I had been chucking 4mls in every so often, I had a couple of dinks but no fish materialised. I then had a look in my margins where I hooked and lost another carp. With 90 mins to go I was getting desperate and I was chopping and changing and trying to force things – a complete mess really. With 30 mins to go I decided enough was enough and I chucked out my feeder rod and began to tackle down my pole rigs. At the all in all I had in my net was a 4oz roach which I had got on worm in my margins.

On reflection:
My float wasn’t right for my 2+2 plus 2+4 swims.
Should have included sweetcorn in my bait allowance.
Chopped and changed too much and tried to force swims when I should have been more patient, laid the trap and waited.
Badly prepared for this match – I didn’t do enough research or preparation.
I have alot to learn about this type of fishing.

For the last couple of years I have focused most of my fishing on F1’s and when I am after lumps I usually target them UITW or pellet waggler and method feeder. It dawned on me yesterday that I never really fish for carp on the bottom and this is how people were catching yesterday. Furthemore I don’t really have any float patterns that I favour for this type of fishing. I have decided that I need to focus a bit more on this type of fishing and I will get plenty of oppotunity when I am down at Whiteacres on the 29th of this month. I have also decided that my rig trays are an absolute mess and I have far too many different floats, some of which do the same job, so I am going to simplify this.

I did infact simplify my winter F1 float recently by getting rid of the many different types of floats I was using and just using a Mick Wilkinson F1 slim and now because I am so use to it I can read it really well and this has consequently put more fish in my net. Therefore if I simplify my summer carp floats and get to know them well I should get more confidence and more sucess in what I am doing.

Anyway, there you go, a bad day for me and back down to earth with a crash!!!!
I really didn’t want to write this blog but if I only wrote them when I had a good day we wouldn’t learn as much from them and I have to remember their purpose, which is:
A diary to look back on
Info for the MFS members
Info that I can look back on when needed
After a few years I can check my progress

So that’s my fishos over for this year and I am already looking forward to next years. I did think about packing them in as I have felt a little out of my depth but Saturdays 2nd has given me confidence, although yesterday has knocked that considerably……. onwards and upwards.

There will be the usual ULC match blogs coming up, plus I will blog my week at whiteacres, including a gold and rover match.

Tightlines