Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 07.11.15

Weather: Rain, 13C, 15-25mph wind, Air Pressure 1012

Peg: Covey 12

66 Fished

There was some bad weather forecast today, with a heavy wind that was due to keep changing direction coupled with persistent rain.  I sometimes back out of these matches when the weather is bad but with winning my section the week before I was in a positive mood and raring to go.  October had been a great drawing month for me with a couple of flyers and many good end pegs coming my way and I was hoping I could carry this through to November and continue drawing the better pegs.   I was left disappointed at the draw bag after puling out peg 12 on Covey 1, an area I had only ever fished once before about 4 years ago.  I asked a few people about the area and most people grimaced when I told them what peg I had drawn and one guy advised me to go home!  My draw became worse when I arrived at my peg to find out peg 13 was also in and we would have to share the reed beds that were between us. Peg 11 was spare and there was someone on peg 10, although he was in the first section.  I was in a 6 man section of 12,13,15,17,20,21.  I wasn’t aware of these sections until after the match and spent the match trying to compete with peg 10.

45lb was framing in some matches of late so my target weight wouldn’t be high today and with me not being too happy about my draw I reduced my target weight from 40lb to 30lb.

Set up:

Malman Secret 4 X 14, 6ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – track

MW F1 Slim, 8X11, 3ft, B510 18 – far side, peg 11 pallet and left hand reeds

Malman Snake Mk2 4×10, .13 top .11 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – dobbing

Bait:

2 pints maggots

Handful of Sonubaits F1 Dark + Leam

Slice of bread

I wasn’t that optimistic of catching much by dobbing bread today, I don’t know why, it just didn’t seem a good area to do it.  The reeds looked good to my left, but with me only having half of them I would only be able to go up to 7M and with me not wanting to go pole tip to tip with peg 13, I decided to just plumb one 3ft swim at 5M and I wouldn’t dedicate too much time to that.  My 3 main swims would be 3ft across at 2 O’clock, 3ft by peg 11 and my track at 6M.

On the all in I started to dob at 2ft, against the reeds to my left, across and by the pallet of peg 11. I spent half an hour doing this with no success, but I did spend the quiet time watching other anglers to see where they had caught from.  Peg 10 was catching down the track, peg 13 had lost one carp dobbing against the reeds he was sharing with me and besides that little was being caught.  I decided to start fishing my 3ft swims whilst continuing to loose feed over my track line.  After 2 hours of the match had gone by I only had 2 F1’s in the net and although this was bad, most anglers were in the same boat, except for peg 10 who was on about 12 f1’s at this point, still catching from his track line.  It seemed the track would be the best place to catch fish from and although I don’t like going on this line this early in the match I felt I had no choice.  I had been loose feeding over the track from the start and when I went on it I decided to toss pot my maggots in to give a tighter feeding area. This worked a treat and I had a good run of about 12 F1’s in the next half hour until they spooked a little.  I had now put myself back in the section and I had myself ahead of everyone I could see.  With the fish backing off from the track line a little I decided I needed somewhere to go whilst I could give the track line 10 minutes rest spells and I chose to use the pallet of peg 11.  For the rest of the match it was a case of getting 2 or 3 F1’s from the track before resting it for 10 minutes and taking what I could from the pallet of peg 11, although I did only manage one solitary F1 from this pallet.

On the all out I had 28 F1’s on my clicker so I reckoned I had about 35lb. Peg 10 weighed in 34lb before me and it was only then I realised he wasn’t in my section so I didn’t have to worry about beating him.  I weighed in 38lb for the section win with peg 15 32lb, peg 17 26lb, peg 13 21lb and pegs 20 + 21 DNW.

Peg 12 Section Win

On reflection, I thought it was a well-earned section win from not a great peg.  Having said that me and peg 10 had the 2nd and 3rd best weights on the lake, after Kieran Rich taking 55lb from peg 2, so maybe I wasn’t in such a bad area after all.  It just goes to show that these F1’s do move about and you shouldn’t always right off an area before you fish it.  I don’t like going on my track line as early as I did and I much prefer to take fish from elsewhere before hitting the track towards to the end of the match, but I felt I had no choice today.

I have booked on for Saturday 14th Nov, but I’m not sure I will be able to fish as I have had a little operation on my right elbow and it’s pretty sore right now, I will have a late fitness check on Friday.

Tight Lines

Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 31.10.15

Weather: Overcast, 15C, 10mph S wind, Air Pressure 1018

Peg: Covey 100

65 Fished

I have not been up to Partridge Lakes for about a month, but I have been keeping a check on the results and one thing I had noticed was that the pegs on the splits had started to frame a lot more lately; pegs such as 20-22, 72-75 and 97-100, although I haven’t noticed the split on Covey 2 framing that much.  Other pegs that have done well are pegs that are near the splits such 85,86,60.  I was hoping my run of good draws would continue and I wasn’t left disappointed when I pulled out peg 100 on Covey 4 – proper flyer!!  My section for the day was 95,96,97,98,100.

On arriving at my peg I realised I had left my heavier elastic tube of 4 top kits in the garage, so that meant the heaviest elastic I would have today would be white hydro which is heavy enough and can cope with any big bonus carp with the use of the side puller.

Set up:

Malman Secret 4 X 14, 6ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – track

RW Dink 4 X 12, 2ft, .11 to .10 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – across and side of pallet

RW Dink 4 X 12, 3ft, .11 to .10 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – across

Chianti 4 X 10, 2ft. 11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – shallow maggot

Later I set up a Malman Snake to replace my Chainti

Bait:

2 pints maggots

Micros

4ml expander

1/4 pint of Sonubaits Supercrush Dark

On the all in I started in 2ft of water tight against the far bank rushes where I had found a flattish spot at 11 O’clock, on pellet.  I fed about 30 micros and I would immediately get fish moving into the swim, but I was missing the bites an after half an hour of doing this without a fish I decided it was not right. I think a longer lash might have helped me get more positive bites in the clear water as the fished seemed happy to feed in that depth but were spooking from the pole tip.  I decided to concentrate in 3ft of water as I felt the fish would feed more confidently in this depth of water and I immediately got an F1 from my 11 O’clock swim.  That was a solitary fish as it took me about another half hour before I got another which was at 3ft towards the pallet of 99 and that was on maggot.

2 hours in and I was blowing a good peg with only 2 F1’s in the net, whilst peg 98 had about 6 and I could see the guy on peg 85 had about 4.  I decided to have a quick look on my track at 6M where I had been loose feeding about 6 maggots every couple of minutes from the off, but there was nothing there.  I could see that there was a lot of carp starting to top to my right so I decided to have a dob with my shallow rig.  I shortened the depth to about a foot which meant I had a long a lash and was able to swing my float well away from the pole tip and I put some bread punch on the hook..  After a few minutes the float shot under and I had my first carp of about 4lb.  Back out and after about another 10 minutes the float shot under again and I was connected with something much bigger and although it came in quickly it stayed deep under my feet for a long time.  I only had yellow middy shockcore elastic and this was too light to cope with such a large fish as even though I have the benefit of a side puller, the elastic is bottomed right out and this puts a lot of pressure on the hook length.  I did get a look at the fish at one point and it looked to be about 12lb, but just as I thought it was going to give in it shot to my right and broke the hook length.  I quickly set up another rig with a long lash for dobbing and I also change my elastic to white hydro. Back out and after a short wait I was into another which again snapped my hook length – this was my own fault as I just used the rig staright from my rig box and didn’t chang the hook length and it was probably too light maybe a .10 and not the minimum .13 that was needed.

I was really down at this point as I was blowing a good peg and I had lost about 20lb from just 2 fish.  On the positive side I was putting the odd 4lb carp in the net and I was back in contention for the section.  The activity of the topping fish and me catching them dobbing was slowing down and although I would get the odd one I would have to wait a long time for bites.  With about half an hour to go I hooked into another Barney Rubble and after getting this to the net my elastic snapped just as I was about to scoop it.  I was well gutted now!  I decided to have a quick go on my track to see if the F1’s had turned up yet as there was no sign off them on the previous quick looks I had given this line throughout the match.  If they weren’t there I would get another dobbing rig out.  They were there and I went on to put 7 F1’s in the net in the last 20 minutes.

On the all out I had 40lb on my clicker and although I thought this would be enough to win the section I should have been well ahead and looking at the framing spots.  I weighed in 42lb for the section win with peg 98 getting second with 32lb.

On reflection, I should have made top 3 overall and if I had dobbed from the start with the right tackle, who knows what weight I would have had, maybe even a ton!  I lost 30lb from 3 lost fish, 2 down to me fishing too light (elastics and hook lengths) and the other fish was lost from my white hydro snapping.  I’m not blaming myself for the elastic snapping as I do check it before every match and although it had the usual fraying look at the end it seemed okay – it must have wore out more as I was fishing.  Although I love the action of white hydro I have now had enough of it and lost all confidence with it, I will be using an alternative in future which will probably be NG microbore 8-12.  70lb would have given me 3rd overall, so those lost fish cost me big time.

It will probably 2 weeks before I am back out on the bank

Tight Lines

ULC Mini League Match 6, 24.10.15, The Cunneries – S-Canal

Weather: Rain, 12C, 12mph W wind, Air Pressure 1012

7 Fished

Peg 25

I had fished peg 25 the day before and after only getting 8 F1’s in the first 3 hours the peg came alive and I ended up with 75 F1’s for a 100lb+ weight.  Tim had also pleasure fished the day before on peg 1 (opposite me) but he didn’t have such a good day and ended up with 10 F1’s.

We were due to have 10 turn out today as a few couldn’t make it, but we had a few more drop out on the day leaving us with only 7.  The first 2 legs on the S-Canal can be really peggy, with the first leg, pegs 1-13 being narrower than the other leg and therefore this leg can be a bad place to draw if there are a lot of the pegs taken.  With this in mind we always try to put more anglers on pegs 14-25, even though there is one less peg on this side.   With only 7 fishing today we could give all anglers a lot of space and we pegged out 1,6,13,14,18,22,25.  If you have been reading my blogs you will know that I have drawn well in this mini-league, getting 3 corner pegs on the bounce, so when I drew the flyer, peg 25, I couldn’t believe my luck! The banter erupted when I drew and Tim even handed over the “winner takes all” pot.

With fishing this peg the day before, I decided to keep things simple and just fish maggot with my 2 main rigs being 4ft channel and 3ft top 2 to my right, down the side split.  My plan was to start short and then go across after half an hour, where hopefully the F1’s would have settled.

Set up:

MW F1 Slim, 10X11, 4ft, Guru LWG 20 – track

MW F1 Slim, 8X11, 3ft, Guru LWG 20 – top 2

RW Dink, 4×12, 3ft, .13 to .11 powerline, Guru LWG 18

Bait:

2 pints maggots

Handful of Sonubaits F1 Dark

I had set up two 3ft rigs with the dink having a slightly thicker tip of 1.5mm meaning it was easier to read when fishing at 11M across.  The MW f1 Slim, with a 1.2mm tip would only be used on my top 2.  I didn’t have to plumb up across as with fishing the peg the day before I could just plumb up one of my short lines and I knew the exact spots across, this meant I could leave the far lines untouched until I went on them.  I was expecting a slow start today, hopefully picking up the odd fish before the last 90 minutes when my channel swim would come to life.

The only down side today was that there was a 4 man Open on the third leg and peg 26 was being used – he may take away some of my fish.

On the all in I had a quick look short on my top 2, down the narrow channel and I had 2 F1’s in the first 10 minutes on maggot, I was loose feeding 6 maggots every minute.  I then went at 5M on the other side of the narrow channel, where I would feed the same amount of maggots, but this time I used a tosspot for accuracy, and I had another 2 quick F1,s before they backed off.  4 F1’s in the first 20 minutes was a better start than expected and if yesterday was anything to go by, this swim was going to get stronger – maybe I could ton up!

The 2 short swims died on me so it was time to go across, but I would continue to feed my top 2 swim and my track line – 6 maggots every minute or so.  It was slower than expected for the next 3 hours and I only managed about another 8 F1’s although I did foul hook a few.  I had most success my feeding about 10 maggots and some sloppy ground-bait and then keeping the rig perfectly still, laying on the slope about an inch.

I had a few looks on my track line but it didn’t produce until 75 minutes to go when I got 6 F1’s on the bounce and just when I thought I was going to bag up in the last hour the sun came out and the swim completely died.  I should have went back across in the shaded areas at this point but I rotated between my track and top 2 and with 30 minutes left I decided to abandon the track and just concentrate on my top 2, where the F1’s would have more cover.  I put another 4 F1’s in the net in this time.

On the all out I had 22 F1’s and I was sure this was more than everyone else, some had really struggled.  I was pushed close though as Paul had caught 25lb from peg 6 by fishing a maggot feeder.  I weighed in 33-8 for the win.

On reflection, I’m actually gutted with my weight as after a good start I thought I could do a good weight.  I think if the sun hadn’t of come out the fish would have stayed on the track line and I would have doubled my weight. It’s only 4ft deep down the channel, so at this time of year when they don’t feed like piranhas and they are easily spooked, shaded areas on sunny days is what you need to look for.  Furthermore, the water in front of me today was flat calm and I didn’t have a ripple like the previous day which would have given the fish more confidence to feed.  I don’t think my top 2 was as strong as expected because I had an angler on peg 26 who was also taking fish from the narrow channel.  Not a bad day though, as a wins a win, even in a small match like this.

Well that’s the club scene over now until next May and I don’t think we will be doing the optional Mini-League next year as the demand isn’t there.  We do have a couple more members for the club so we should end up with 16, which is a good amount for club matches.  I’m now looking forward to a winter of Open match fishing at Partridge Lakes, although I’m pretty busy right up until Xmas, so I’m not sure how many times I’ll be able to get up there before then.  I should be there next Saturday.

Tight Lines

Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 26.09.15

Weather: Sunny Intervals, 15C, 5mph SW wind, Air Pressure 1034

Peg: Covey 25

40 Fished

With Covey 5 not being in today, due to a low turnout, I was hoping to get on a North side of one of the lakes, pegs such as 23-25, 50-54,1-6 and 76-80, so I was well happy when I drew peg 25 on Covey 2.  The only down side was that Steve Openshaw had drawn just before me and pulled out peg 28, which would be in my section of pegs 23,25,28,30,33.  Peg 23 has some recent form so I felt I would have to battle it out with the pegs either side of me and to be honest I had already resigned myself to be fishing for a default section win as Steve Openshaw is ripping this place apart at the moment.  I felt I was in a good area, so even if there was to be no brown envelope today I would hopefully catch a few fish.

Set up:

MW F1 Slim 8 X 11, 5ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – top 2

MW F1 Slim 8 X 11, 6ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – track

Chianti 4 x 10, 3ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – 6m nearside left

Jigga , PR36 18 – banded caster

Malman Elko .2g, 2ft, .11 to .10 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – Margins and across

Bait:

2 pints casters

2 pint maggots

Micros / expanders

1/2 pint of Sonubaits F1 Supercrush Dark

I had a lovely looking reed bed to my left and just before this I had a nice hole in the margins at about 5M which was about 2ft with a slightly sloping bottom and I had also trimmed a nice gap in my right hand margin.  I had decided to start on the margins, before going across, whilst loose feeding my track line with casters and my top 2 with maggots.  I had also plumbed my 3ft Chianti rig tight against the reeds at 6M to my left.

On the all in I fed my right had margin with a nugget of ground-bait and about 20 maggots and I went over my left hand margin with an expander on the hook and about 20 micros in tosspot.  I spent about 20 minutes on the 2 margins with no sign, so I decided to go across with pellet.  A further 10 minutes with no sign and I decided to switch to fishing maggot across and I would feed 6 maggots and a pinch of ground-bait.  This worked and I got 2 F1’s before I foul hooked one and had to rest the swim, so I went on my top 2 and immediately got an F1.  Next put in on my top 2 and I hooked into a lump which shot off to the right and unfortunately I didn’t react quick enough and get the rest of my pole on before it bottomed out the elastic and pulled the hook.  I spent the next hour or so switching between across and my top 2 lines and before I knew it nearly half the match had gone and I only had 3 F1’s.  Steve Openshaw on peg 28 and peg 23 both had about 10 F1’s apiece, so I had some catching up to do.

At the half way point I decided to concentrate my efforts to the left in front of the reeds and I did manage a couple of F1’s at 3ft at  6M before they spooked a little.  I decided I would rotate this line with a shallow attack at 11M in front of the reeds towards the platform of peg 26.    I spent the next hour catching well shallow and I had probably pulled myself back into the section with an hour to go.  The last hour slowed down for me and although I did catch the odd one shallow I felt I hadn’t done enough to get the section as peg 23 had done OK from catching shallow under the bridge.

I weighed in 36lb 7oz for 3rd in the section, peg 23 had 42lb, Steve Opensahw had 39lb from peg 28, peg 33 had packed up and gone home and peg 30 had weighed in less than 20lb.  Peg 23 actually had the best weight on the lake and was only 7lb off from framing overall.

On reflection, I am a little disappointed as I don’t think I made the most of a good draw and it took me too long to target the reeds to my left which obviously held a lot of F1’s, in fact I could see them topping and knocking the reeds.  Steve Openshaw had a quick chat afterwards and told me he had fished the peg recently and found that the reeds held a lot of F1’s and he even told me where he had fished them, which was the same spot where I had plumbed up my 3ft Chianti rig.  At least I have learnt a lot about the swim and where to target should I draw it again.  50lb was needed to frame today and I think that was easily achievable from my swim, never mind, lesson learnt and I’ll know better next time.

I might get back to Partridge next Saturday before the club match at Hall Lane next Sunday.

Tight Lines

Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 19.09.15

Weather: Sunny Intervals, 17C, 5mph SW wind, Air Pressure 1028

Peg: Covey 117

59 Fished

I was reasonably happy with my draw today as I haven’t fished Covey 5 for quite some time, so it would make a nice change.  The slight wind which was forecast today would be blowing towards the North side of the lake, but with it being so light I didn’t think it would have much effect on the fishing.  There was to be 6 in my section, starting with me, then 119, then a gap to  Connor Barlow on 123 and 3 on the track starting with peg 125.  I knew I was probably in for a battering from Connor so I was resigned to fishing for a default section before the start.

Set up:

Malman Thin .4g, 5ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – top 2

MW F1 Slim 10 X 11, 6ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – track

Chianti 4 x 10, 3ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – 5m nearside left

Jigga , PR36 18 – banded caster

Bait:

2 pints casters

2 pint maggots

1/2 pint of Sonubaits F1 Supercrush Dark

I had decided on a maggot and caster attack today, I would feed the track line at 7m slightly to my left, where I would try to catch shallow and later on the bottom.  I set up the Chianti to the left in front of the line of reeds as it looked like a fishy area with it being a corner with the cover of the reeds.  I was late getting to my peg and I didn’t have time to set up a mudline and margin rig, but I would do this if I wanted it as I went along.  The 1ft mudline and margin line has started to fade a little of late, probably down to the cold nights we are now having, so it wasn’t part of plan A,B or C and I would only go on it if I felt there was fish to be had on it.

On the all in I went on my 3ft line to left, where I could loose feed maggots by hand.  I would feed about 10 maggots on this and my top 2 line every minute and I would also feed about a dozen casters, every 30 seconds, over my track line.  I could only really see the anglers on 119 and 115 ( I could just about see Connor in the distance) and I was first to catch, although I wasn’t getting the quality F1’s and my first four fish were all about 8oz’s.  I plodded away for the first 40 minutes alternating between my 3ft line and my top 2 and although I had 12 F1’s in this time I only had about 7lb on the clicker.  Pegs 119 and 115 had about 3 fish each but they were a better stamp than mine and there wasn’t nothing between us at this point.

I went shallow on my track after 40 minutes and I began to put a few better F1’s in the net but I found I would have t come off it after 2 or 3 fish and go on my top 2 where I would get 1 or 2 before returning shallow.  For the next 90 minutes I alternated between the 2 lines and took my clicker weight to about 30lb, which was made up of about 40 F1’s.  Just when I thought I had it sussed and I would go on for a decent weight the fish backed of from all my lines. From this point up until the last hour I alternated between 3 lines; shallow, 3ft near side left and top 2, but it had slowed right down for me and I was going about 10 minutes between each fish and when I did get one it was usually one of the smaller stamp of F1’s.  I did hook one larger sample of about 3lb, but after missing about 5 netting opportunities I lost it at the net…… gutted!  I managed to have a run of small stockies, around the pound mark, in the last hour by feeding casters by hand over the top and then laying my track rig in amongst the loose feed.  I made the mistake of feeding ground-bait on this swim after foul hooking a couple, thinking this would get them back down, but this seemed to kill the swim off.

At the all out I knew I had beaten both pegs either side of me and when the guy on peg 115 told me that the split had fished hard I started to think about the section.  I knew Connor on peg 123 had caught well as although he was well away from me, he was in my eye line and it seemed he was always playing a fish.  Connor weighed in 104lb which not absolutely blitzed the section but he went on to win overall.  With a default section up for grabs I had 44lb to beat from peg 125, which I was confident I could do.  When I emptied my net into the net bag there didn’t seem as much as I had anticipated and it was going to be close.  I weighed 43lb 7oz, just 10oz’s short of the section win.

On reflection, I actually think I fished a good match and I got a lot out of the swim.  The better weights from the lake all came from the North side, with 123, 103,104 and 106 all making the top 5 overall and the guy who pipped me for the section was also up the North end on peg 125.  I had about 65 fish today, but I was catching the smaller stamp of F1’s.  I’m a little gutted I missed out on the section after losing that big F1 at the net and having a few chances to net it.  I lost a few others through foul hooking and hook pulls, but I should have had that one – it was just bad netting and a £40 mistake!

I’m actually starting to feel I can compete at Partridge in the summer as I am usually beating those around me and I have had a few section wins and a few near misses of late.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at framing standards yet, far from it, but I have lost the “out of my depth” feeling and I am fishing with a lot more confidence.  The fast approaching winter months will be a different kettle of fish and the confidence will probably take a knocking, but hopefully I have learnt enough from last winter to pick up a few more brown envelopes.

Off to the River Weaver tomorrow on a clubby and back at Partridge one day next weekend.

Tight Lines

Whiteacres – Rover, 10.09.15, Twin Oaks Peg 3

Weather: Sunny, 19C, 20 mph SE wind, Air Pressure 1025

155 Anglers fished

Numbers 1 to 180 were put in the draw bag today, with 155 fishing (they always extra numbers in).  If you have read any of my previous blogs of the Whiteacres Rovers, you will know that I usually draw a poor number and end up with a late pick of pegs and Chrissi is usually one of the last to pick a peg. Chrissi went first and drew 128 (an improvement by her standards) and I pulled out 155….  Doh!

It is hard to formulate a plan between us with such late picks.  We always try to fish the same side of the complex and Chrissi tries to get a peg that, if not next to me, is near me.  Our initial plan was to get on Twin Oaks for a change, as we have never gone for it on a Rover, probably because by the time we come to pick most of the 2 lakes are full.  We fancied pegs 1 and 2 on Twin Oaks, which would have the wind blowing towards them today, but the chances of that would be slim.  When it came to Chrissi’s pick, surprisingly no one had taken pegs 1 to 5 on Twin Oaks so Chrissi chose peg 2 and we hoped no one would squeeze in on 1 before I picked.  When it got to me the last peg left on Twin Oaks was peg 3, which I took and we were quite happy with what we had ended up with considering the late picks we had drawn.

When I got to my peg, one of the first things I did was cast out so I could clip up and as soon as I had cast out straight out in front of me, the guy on peg 4 said I was in his swim!  The way the pegs are situated, if we both cast out straight we are 2 metres apart.  As Chrissi, on peg 2, was not fishing across I agreed I would go further to my left as peg 4 had nowhere else to go.  The only problem with this is I was now casting to a bank that ran away from me and not the usual straight bank that makes it much easier to get tight.

Set up:

Pellet Feeder , Bomb

Wellardz .1g, 18 inches, .15 to .13 powerline, .PR36 18, black hydro – UITW

MW Diamond .4g, 5ft, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 16, black hydro – 5m meat

MW Pinger .4g, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 16, black hydro – 13M deck

Scone V6, .3g, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 14, purple hydro – margins

Bait:

2 pint micros

2 pint 6ml

2 pint 8ml

2 pints of meat

2 kilo Sonubaits margin mix

Worms

I started on the feeder and I was the first to get a fish being a carp of 5lb and this was followed by one of 4lb 10 minutes later.  Not a bad start, but it was slower than everyone had hoped.  On the half hour mark and after casting extremely tight across I hooked a Barney Rubble which took me an age (15 minutes) to get in, but I was well happy when I slipped the net under an 11lb fish.  20lb on the ticker with 45 minutes gone and I was doing well but things started to slow down from this point and in the next 45 minutes I only added another 4lb to the clicker.  This wasn’t so bad as peg one had indicated to the guy on peg 4 that he had 20lb at this point, so I was probably slightly ahead of those around me.

I was trying to fish tight across, but with me not having a straight bank to cast to I was not as accurate as usual and I was invariably hitting the bare bank across and by doing so I had made a crack in my pellet feeder.  This crack would cost me a good fish as at the start of the third hour, when I had a take from a big carp that I saw turn in the shallow water across, but this immediately snapped my hooklength, which I reckon severed against the serrated edge of the cracked feeder.

I decided I needed to give my feeder line a rest as it had gone quiet and even chucking the bomb over it proved biteless, the only trouble was it was extremely difficult to fish any of my pole line in the strong winds.  The rest of the match was poor for me and I only took my clicker weight up to 35lb, by getting the odd F1 from the pellet feeder line.  I decided I wouldn’t weigh in as peg 4 had tonned up and peg 1 was admitting to 75lb.  Peg 4 went on to weigh 106lb and peg 1 got 77lb.  There were a lot of people weighing in with less than thirty pounds and this made my 35lb not seem so bad.

On reflection, I should have fed more on the feeder line and stuck with it as that is what the guy on peg 4 did.  He stuck with it all day and when he wanted to rest it, he would drop 5 metres short of the far bank on the bomb and feed pellets over it.   I did try to feed over my feeder line with pellets but I was slightly out of range, they were going everywhere in the strong winds and I was probably fishing a further 10 metres away from myself compared to  peg 4, who could reach his pellet feeder line with catapulted 8ml’s.  Me going on the pole to rest it was a stupid idea in the strong winds today.  Peg 4 was also getting extremely tight on most cast, whereas I wasn’t, but that was down to not having a straight bank to aim at.  The problem with fishing to an angled bank is that the line of your cast has to be spot on and this was almost impossible in the strong winds and I found myself casting slightly to the right, to compensate for the strong right to left wind, and let the feeder swerve back in to my spot…. not easy.  If I had a heavier feeder on me I would have used it, but I didn’t.

Chrissi only had 2 fish from peg 2 but they were bothe Barney Rubbles which, if she weighed them, would have been enough to beat most people today.

Hopefully next year we will get a good draw and an early pick of pegs.

Tight Lines

Whiteacres – Gold Match, 07.09.15, Twin Oaks Peg 23

Weather: Sunny, 19C, 10 mph SE wind

55 Anglers Fished

Section: Twin Oaks 20,21,23,24,26,27

I was made up with my draw today as I had drawn on the lake I wanted, but also I was getting on one of my favourite pegs.  It is not one of the flyers like 15 and 16 Twin Oaks, but it is a good peg and a big advantage to me was I had fished it the day before. The feeder line was not as good as expected the day before but I had caught some stockies at 11M by pinging pellets and I had finished well in the margins, so I was able to formulate a plan based on this.

Set up:

Pellet Feeder , Bomb

Wellardz .1g, 18 inches, .15 to .13 powerline, .PR36 18, black hydro – UITW

MW Diamond .4g, 5ft, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 16, black hydro – 5m meat

MW Pinger .4g, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 16, black hydro – 13M deck

Scone V6, .3g, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 14, purple hydro – margins

Bait:

2 pint micros

2 pint 6ml

2 pint 8ml

2 pints of meat

2 kilo Sonubaits margin mix

Worms

My plan was to start on the feeder and when that fades I would give it a rest and go at 11M, deck then shallow, get a few here and then hopefully return to the feeder line.  The 5M line and then margins would be fished towards the end of the match.

Starting on the pellet feeder with 6ml on the band and micros to fill the feeder I chucked out tight across at 30M.  I gave it 3 minutes and with no signs I recast and this time the tip went straight round and I was rewarded with a 3lb carp.  It took another 3 casts before I got another bite and I was then rewarded with 3 F1’s on the run, although they were small 1lb’ers. I had to cast quite a few times before I got another and this time I got a 2lb F1.  After giving it another 10 minutes of no action I came of it and I would have came of it sooner but I could see that peg 21 was doing OK on his feeder and I was hoping I could draw the fish to my feeder line by loose feeding 8mls, but it wasn’t happening for me. An hour gone and only 8lb on the ticker and not the 20lb+ I was hoping for.

I had been pinging 6ml’s at 11M since the start and I was hopeful of getting a few quick carp off the deck, like I did the previous day, but I was left disappointed as all I could manage was a couple of small skimmers.  I tried shallow with no success and with 2 hours gone and a poor weight so far I decided I had rested the feeder line long enough and I would go back on it.  The rest had done it good and I began to catch small carp and F1’s for the next hour taking my clicker weight up to 30lb, which put me back in the game.  The next hour was a disaster for me as just when I was getting into a good rhythm, I snapped the carbon tip on my feeder rod.  I initially tried to carry on using it by pinning the broken eye far away from the feeder with a stotz, and although I did catch another F1, it wasn’t right and I decided to throw my bomb rod out over the same line whilst I got my other feeder rod out.  Whilst I was setting up the feeder rod I got what seemed to be like a big line bite and as I was tightening back up I tightened into a fish.  This was a big carp but it was foul hooked and after a 20 minute fight I lost the fish.  Back out and 5 minutes later just as I had set up the feeder, the bomb tip flew round again and this time it was a proper bite and another Barney Rubble was on.  I got this one to the net a lot sooner and I missed the first opportunity to net it and my heart started racing a bit as this one was over 12lb.  I slowly brought it back to under the rod tip but just as I thought it was about to give in the hooked pulled.  I gave it another 15 minutes on the bomb, but with no signs and the clock ticking I decided to try the feeder again and hopefully get back into the earlier rhythm of catching F1’s and small carp on most casts.  It wasn’t to be as I only managed one F1 and before I knew it there was only an hour left and the section seemed to have slipped away from me with peg 21 doing well and I had peg 24 slightly ahead of me.  I gave the 5m meat line 20 minutes but there was only small skimmers feeding on this line, so it was time for the margin attack, which would hopefully be my “get out of jail card”.

I fed 3 large pots of ground-bait on my margin, just 2M to my right and although the odd carp was coming in to have a look they would not stay in the margin and I was getting plagued by small perch taking my double worm hook bait. With 20 minutes to go and after piling it in I managed 2 carp in succession, one 5lb and the other 6lb and I was hopeful of sneaking 1 or 2 more before the all out.  Unfortunately the carp backed off totally in the last 10 minutes and I didn’t catch anything else.

I was gutted with the 43lb on my clicker at the all out, as I had expected to catch at least 75lb and I had no chance of the section.  I weighed in 47lb 4oz and although I beat peg 24 by 4lb and I knew 26 only had 23lb, I was well beaten by peg 21 who weighed in 73lb.

I went up to the bar afterwards, where they do the presentation at 5pm, not in hope of a jammy default section win but because I Iike to have a couple of swift ones and see what won the match.  They started to shout out the section winning weights which were all quite low weights of around 50lb from Twin Oaks and when they got to my section they called my name out……..  Jammy default section win!  It turns out peg 21 got 6th overall and I was next best weight….. happy days and £30 of beer tokens!

On reflection, I don’t think I got a lot wrong tactically and if I hadn’t snapped my tip and lost my mojo for about an hour, I may have continued with the rhythm I had and possibly got one or two of those Barney Rubbles or maybe the swim may have got stronger with F1’s.  Having said that, peg 23 was a good draw so I should have done better.

Hopefully I would do better on the Thursday Rover.

Tight Lines

Whiteacres – 06.09.15 to 12.07.15– The Pleasure Sessions

Day 1 – Twin Oaks peg 23 (12 to 6pm), Weather: Sunny Intervals, 17C, 10mph W Wind

I had bumped into to Mel, the bailiff at Partridge Lakes, the evening before, who was also down on a weekly holiday and as we arrived for our first session on Twin Oaks we bumped into him again in the car park.  He had just finished his session and he told us that although he had caught, he had to work for his fish and couldn’t stay on one line for too long. The low numbers Twin Oaks were almost full but there was plenty of room on the high numbers lake, so I chose one of my favourite pegs; 23 and Chrissi went on 24.

I started on the pellet feeder tight across and immediately caught a 6lb Carp followed by a few smaller Carp and F1’s before they backed off and I went 20 minutes without a sign.  I then went on my 11M pole line on the bottom and caught a few small stockies before this line died and after trying shallow over the same line for 20 minutes without a fish I decided to come off it and go back on the feeder line which would hopefully now be solid after giving it the much-needed rest.  Unfortunately the feeder line didn’t kick in as I had expected and I would have to wait for my fish and when I did catch one it was either an F1 or a carp of about 3lb.  I ended up going on the margins, with worm over ground-bait, at about 4.30pm and although I caught well on this I only caught one fish over 10lb, with most of them being about 4 or 5lb.

I ended up with 107lb on the clicker, with probably 70lb taken from the margin towards the end of the session.

Day 2 – Gold Match – separate blog

Day 3 – Twin Oaks peg 1 (12 to 6pm), Weather: Sunny Intervals, 19C, 20mph SE Wind

With the wind blowing into this end of the lake we decided to go on pegs 1 and 2.  As usual I started on the feeder and had a quick run of fish before they backed off and today I decided to alternate this with a 5m meat line.  I was on the meat line after about 40 minutes, where I caught  two small carp before returning to the feeder line. The feeder line was now pretty solid and I was getting a fish every chuck, although I had nothing over 4lb, with most of my fish being F1’s.  I stuck on this until about 4pm, at which point I had 95lb on the clicker, and I then decided to concentrate on my margins and 5m line.  I had a few F1’s at 5M on meat, including a 5lb+ specimen but I didn’t get a fish in my margins even though I had a lovely looking margin to my left along the end of lake bank and I didn’t see any fish come in on my near side right hand margin.  I ended up with 118lb on the clicker, with most of the fish off the feeder line and the margins not producing.

Day 4 – Jennys pegs 23 (12 to 4pm), Weather: Sunny, 20C, 25mph SE wind

Festivals aside, this is the busiest week of the year at Whiteacres and with the Bronze match taking up Twin Oaks, Acorn and Trelawney and the Burt Baits festival taking up Canal, an early rise is needed on a Wednesday to get one of the better pegs on the remaining lakes.  We had woken at 5.30am and we were both wide awake, but with it still being dark we decided on another hour in bed.  That hour turned into 3 as we both woke again at 8.30am!   With us not wanting to fish Sycamore or Python and most of the pegs taken on the other lakes, we were left with a choice of Pollawyn pegs 33 to 35 or Jennys pegs 20 to 24.  Although I like the pegs we could have had on Pollawyn, Chrissi has never done any good on this lake and with the wind blowing towards the available pegs on Jennys we chose to fish pegs 23 and 24 Jennys.

To cut along story short we really struggled and although I could catch the odd F1 on the feeder tight across we couldn’t get much on our pole lines and decided to end the session early, fed up with the strong wind in our faces.  It was only 3ft deep at 10m here, I did have a few shallow in a 15 minute spell at 10M, but it was almost impossible to fish shallow in the strong wind, so I couldn’t be bothered persevering with this line.

20lb on the ticker and probably the worst ever pleasure session at  Whiteacres

Day 5 – Rover – separate blog

Day 6 – Acorn peg 5 (11.30am to 6.30pm), Weather, Sunny intervals, 19C, 15mph SE wind

We hadn’t fished Acorn for a while and with having fished Twin Oaks 4 times this week this made a nice change. Chrissi wanted a comfortable sheltered peg as she was fed up with me choosing wind end pegs in the strong winds we were having this week.  Pegs 5 and 6 fitted the bill and there was a nice ripple at 11m.

I decided to fish pole only today and I started short at 4m on hard 6ml pellet and I put 18lb in the net in the first half hour and I also lost a Barney Rubble, which would have taken me around the 30lb mark, so a promising start. This line went dead for the next half an hour so I decided to give it a rest and try shallow at 11M where I put 3 quick F1’s in the net before they backed off.  I went back short for half an hour with no fish whilst I continued to feed my shallow line and when I when back on it I had a good spell of catching F1’s shallow and I took my clicker weight to about 75lb in the next 90 minutes, before they backed off.  From about 3pm until the end I decided to alternate between the margins and 4m until eventually sticking with the margins from 5pm onwards.  I was catching fish but they were not coming thick and fast.  I did have a good run on worm over ground-bait but I eventually got snapped up.  I ended up with 125lb on the clicker but I had lost 4 fish which I think were all over 10lb, with 3 of the fish being hook pulls and one snapped.  Although I don’t lose too many fish from hook pulls using a B911, I lost a little confidence in them for fishing for Barney Rubbles on strong elastics, maybe they opened up slightly under pressure?  I would try a stronger hook pattern on my margins the next day, being a Guru X Strong.

Most of the margin carp I got in today were around the 4lb mark, which is not the usual stamp of margin fish for this lake.  I ended up with 112lb on the clicker.

Day 7 – Acorn peg 5 (11am to 6.30pm), Weather, Cloudy, 15C, 15mph W wind

Chrissi had her favourite days fishing of the week on the Friday so we decided to finish of our week on the same pegs and have a nice peaceful day on Acorn, in fact we had the whole lake to ourselves all day.

We had a lot of overnight rain and the day was colder and I had predicted that the fishing would be a little slower today.  I was proved right and after only getting 8lb from my pole lines in the first 90 minutes I decided I would take a break and go and get us some lunch and I would come back with my rods from the car.  Back fishing at 1.30pm I began to fish pellet feeder across and for the next hour I got a fish on most chucks but I didn’t get anything over 3lb.  I took my clicker weight to 40lb before this line went dead. I decided I would fish the margins for the rest of the session hoping to finish my week with a load of Barney Rubbles.  I fed the left hand margin with ground-bait as I had done the same before and I kept feeding it for the rest of the session trying to pull in the carp, but all I could attract over it was shoals of small Roach.  The carp would feed under my feet and I managed a few but again it was manly 3lb fish that I was getting and the although the big carp would occasionally move in they would easily spook away.  I ended up with 75lb on the clicker after a disappointing margin attack!

Well the week was quickly over and although the weights were much lower than we usually get and the big carp didn’t show as much this week, it was still thoroughly enjoyable.  I think the high pressure we had experienced this week had pushed the weights down – 4 Barney Rubbles from a week at Whiteacres is unheard of!

44 weeks and counting until my next visit!

Tight Lines

Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 31.08.15

Weather: Sunny Intervals, 13C, 3mph N wind, Air Pressure 1018

Peg: Covey 31

59 Fished

                              Peg 31, Covey 2

I got there early at 8.10am today so I could hopefully get some casters and luckily enough the on site tackle shop had a few pints left.  I then had along wait until the 9.30am draw so to kill some time I took a couple of walks around the lakes.  One thing that was apparent was the large amount of carp swirling in the margins, particularly on Covey 4 between peg 85 to 88, incidentally peg 85 had won the day before.  There was not a lot of F1’s topping but there was a lot of bubbles coming up from the track.  With the weather forecast to be rainy with no wind I was anticipating the track line would be a good area today and that maybe the shallow line wouldn’t produce that well.  As usual I was one of the last to draw and I was disappointed when I pulled out 31 and a few of the lads behind me advised me to go home!  Even though I was a little downbeat about my peg, I tried to stay positive and in fact I think I have seen matches won from peg 29 and 33 this summer, so maybe I wasn’t in too bad an area after all.  Having said that I did reckon that pegs 23 and 25 would be the pegs to beat.  My section for the day was a 6 man one of 23,25,27,29,31,34.  By the time I had drawn and got to my peg I had 35 minutes to set up before the 10.30am all in – I had no chance of being ready!

Set up:

Malman Thin .4g, 6ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – track

MW F1 Slim 8 X 11, 5ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – top 2 (originally had a PR36 18 for banded pellet)

HB Ratchatcher 1, 2ft, .13 to .10 powerline,, B911 F1 18 – margins and far side

Jigga , PR36 18 – banded caster

Bait:

2 pints casters

1 pint maggots

1/2 pint of Sonubaits F1 Supercrush Dark

Micros + 4mls

Expanders

I decided to use the carbon stemmed Malman Thin for the track instead of a MW F1 slim as I wanted a slow fall with a spread out shotting pattern, and with the water being flat calm I could get away with not using a wire stem.  My plan was the usual one – start on the near side margins and try to nick a few quick fish before switching to 6M where I would feed casters from the off.  If the fish did not respond at 6M I would then venture across.  I had also decided to try a change of bait today and decided to concentrate on pellets a bit more – just fancied a change!

At 10.40am (10 minutes late going in) I fed my right hand margin (top 2) with micros and a few expanders and I went on my left hand margin at 5m, with maggot and I fed 6 maggots and topped it off with a nugget of ground-bait.  10 minutes later and 2 feeds later, I had my first F1 of about a 1lb and this was followed by a 3oz F1, so I fed about 20 maggots and a little ground-bait and went on my right hand margin with pellet.  It was obvious there was no fish in the margins, I wasn’t getting any bites and there was no movement on my float, so I decided to come off it pretty early and go across in the rat-hole at 2ft on pellet.  There was signs of fish there at first but they soon spooked and vanished so I had to move.  About 40 minutes of the match had gone by and I decided to have a look shallow at 6M and immediately I was into F1’s but just as I thought I was on for a god run they backed off after a quick 3 fish.  I had been feeding 4m pellets on my top 2 so I decided to give this a look but one quick bite followed by 15 wasted minutes and I had to move again.

I had noticed a few fish knocking the reeds across at 2 O’clock and I could reach this with 13M so I decided to push my jigga rig right up to it and feed a few casters over the top and I started to put the odd F1 in the net, but I made the mistake of keeping my light elastic on and I lost a couple of fish in the reeds, along with a couple of jiggas.  Even though the fish where still there and knocking the reeds, I stopped catching them and I must have went half an hour without a fish, maybe I had spooked them when losing the 2 fish in the reeds.  I didn’t catch much in the 3rd and 4th hour of the match, just the odd one shallow from 6m and across against the reeds and pegs 29 and 33 had overtaken me and I reckon peg 27 had been ahead of me from the start.

With an hour to go I decided to abandon pellets as I wasn’t catching on them and I decided to feed maggots on my top 2.  This worked well,  as I started to put a good run of F1’s together and I probably put about 20lb in the net in a 40 minute spell until they backed off.  I managed to nick a couple shallow before the all out.

I reckoned I had beaten the pegs either side of me but I wasn’t sure what peg 27 had done – I had seen him catch a few.  When the scales arrived peg 23 and 25 had already weighed and 23 had put 64lb on t he scales which I knew I couldn’t beat.  I weighed 43lb for 3rd in the section. Peg 34 – 39lb, peg 29 32lb, peg 27 50lb+, peg 25 had about 25lb.

On reflection, I should have caught a lot more as there was loads of fish in my swim to my right.  They were topping in the track to my right and there was plenty knocking the reeds across at 2 O’clock.  I caught plenty at 5ft on my top 2, so instead of trying to catch them shallow to my right, I should have realised the fish would be easier to catch in deeper water and come off the reeds a little and fished down the slope in deeper water –  a foot off the reeds at about 3ft. I didn’t feed much today, only 1 pint of casters and half pint of maggots, so maybe I wasn’t aggressive enough with my feeding, particularly on my shallow line at 6M.  I did try the track a couple of times but surprisingly I didn’t get a bite, so maybe the best feeding depths were between 3 to 5ft and not shallow or full depth at 6ft.  I’m kicking myself a little as if I could have worked out how to catch the large amount of fish I had in my swim I could have had a good weight, but I couldn’t figure it out.  I reckon one of the top anglers would have worked out quickly that the fish could be caught between 3 and 5ft to the right of the swim and put a good weight together – I can only work this out afterwards, never mind, lesson learnt!

There were no framing weights from our lake, Covey 2, today and there was only one weight over the ton from the lakes used, Covey 1-5.

Not sure if I can get back at Partridge before November as I have a few clubbies and a week at Whiteacres, but hopefully I’ll squeeze one or two in.

Tight Lines

ULC Match 10, 22.08.15, Sycamore Fisheries – Rowans

Weather: Sunny Intervals, 23C, 5mph SSE wind, Air Pressure 1018

10 Fished

Peg 35

Chrissi and I arrived very early this morning at 7.45am, and it was a good job we did as when unpacking the car we realised I hadn’t packed Chrissi’s pole.  We took our gear up to the lake before a mad dash back home for Chrissi’s pole and we returned at 8.40am, 20 minutes before the draw.  The 10 anglers that were to fish had all turned up at this point so we decided to start the draw early and also we did the draw for our annual pairs match.  I was to be paired up with young Dillon.  With there only being 10 anglers on the lake we pegged out every other peg and by the time it was my turn to draw, all the corner pegs had gone and Colin had drawn the peg that most people fancied, peg 31.  Although I wanted to win today, one of my main objectives was to finish ahead of Tim and Colin, as I have a little lead on them in the overall season’s averages and beating them today would make it very difficult for them to catch me on the remaining 2 matches, even though I will be missing the next one.  I wasn’t confident of beating Colin off peg 31 but hopefully I could stay ahead of Tim on peg 27.

With the weather due to be warm and muggy today, with virtually no wind, I set myself a target weight of 50lb.

Set up:

MW F1 Slim 8 X 11, 5ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B911 F1 18 – track

Chianti 3 X 10, 2ft, .11 to .10 powerline, PR36 18 – shallow banded caster

Jigga rig, PR36 18 – shallow banded caster

Malman Elko, 18 inches, .11 to .10 powerline, B911 F1 18 – far side Sweetcorn

Scone V6 .2g, 2ft,, .11 to .10 powerline,B911 F1 18 – top kit margins maggot

Micro pellet feeder

Bait:

2 pints maggots

2 pints of casters

Sweetcorn

1 kilo of Method Match ground-bait

My plan of attack was to chuck the feeder across whilst I fed a 7m shallow swim with caster and I would look to come on to the margins later on when the fish would feed here more confidentally.  I had set a deck rig up for the track just in case I couldn’t get them shallow and I would only go across with the pole if I was struggling on the feeder or my other swims were not producing.

On the all in I decided to cup a 250 ml pot of ground-bait across and I would fish the feeder over it and although this did draw the fish in, I was suffering from liners to begin with and the fish were spooking a little.  After about 15 minutes I had my first small carp of about 1lb and then it went quiet for the next 15 minutes.  I thought the best thing to do was to come off it and not feed it so heavily as I did at the start as it brought in too many fish and the crafty carp were wafting the ground-bait up and feeding off the bottom.  A switch to the shallow 7m swim brought a couple of stockies and an F1 before this went quiet so I was forced back on the feeder which brought 2 quick fish.  An hour had gone and things were pretty slow, but it was for most on the lake and my 10lb I had on the ticker was probably better than most.  The next 2 hours were extremely hard and all I could manage was the odd fish, from either fishing shallow or across on the feeder.  In the 4th hour I could see that Tim on peg 27 had started to catch from his track line at full depth and although I wasn’t worried at first, as I had myself ahead of him, going into the last hour he had probably overtook me.  I was getting the odd one shallow and Colin on peg 31 was also getting the odd one and may have been ahead of me.  I was starting to worry a little and I was just praying that my margins would produce and I could claw back the weight.  I had 2 margin swims at 2ft, the one to the left I fed with maggots by hand and the one to my right I fed by potting in groundbait.  I began to get the odd one from my margin but it was no faster than I was catching shallow, until about 40 minutes to go when I began to get one after another.  Although they were now coming thick and fast I was having trouble with lost fish and although I did foul hook one or two, I was losing them from the B911 F1 hook not coping with the heavier 10-14 elastic I was using and I was suffering from the hook opening up a little from the 3-4lb stockies.  Rather than change the hook pattern I decided to put a lighter elastic (white hydro) on and this did solve the problem a little, although I did lose the odd foul hooker.

At the all out I had 32lb on the ticker and I was left feeling deflated from losing so many fish, I think I lost 10 carp, and when you consider that the average stockie in here is now about 2.5lb that’s a lot of weight. Tim had caught steadily for the last 2 hours and Coiln had finished strongly and was admitting to 50lb, so I was just hoping I could snatch 3rd.

I was one of the first to weigh in and to my surprise I put 49lb 3oz on the scales which turned out being enough to win, with Colin getting 45lb 9oz and Tim, who I thought had won it, weighing 35lb 5oz.  Tim later explained that he too had lost a lot of the fish he had foul hooked.

Another bonus was that me and Dillon won the pairs with a combined weight of 86lb 9oz

1st – Bandana Bri, 49lb 3oz

2nd – Colin, 45lb 9oz

3rd – Dillon, 37lb 6oz

4th – John Battle, 37lb 5oz

5th – TIm, 35lb 5oz

On reflection, I fished a poor match and made a lot of mistakes but I got away with it and managed a win from a peg I expected to be fishing for second from.  The main mistake was not fishing with balanced tackle, with the hook not being strong enough for my top 2 line on 10-14 elastic.  I have been advised in the past to use a B510 hook for maggot and although I do use these in the winter when fishing on lighter lines with single maggot, I have still persisted with the B911 F1 throughout this summer ( I had a lot of them tied up in my hook boxes).  I think I will tie some B510’s up to stronger bottoms so I can use them when fishing maggot on stronger elastics and when I need a wider gape hook I will go back to using the 808’s or a standard B911.  I switched from using an 808 to the B911 F1’s a couple of years ago because the 808’s seemed to blunt pretty quickly, but I have noticed a few blunt B911 F1’s of late and I have lost faith in them.  The carp in sycamore have grown considerably since last year and a hook that isn’t prone to springing open is a must.

Like I said, the carp are bigger now and they are much wiser, so they don’t give them selves up as easy, especially in the margins.  You need to pin your bait down more by using heavier floats, lay on a bit more and I should have used a bigger B911 hook with 3 or 4 maggots on.  The carp today were straight onto the groundbait but they would cleverly waft it up and feed this way, resulting in some foul hookers.  I have noticed that lately that on the opens sweetcorn is having some success and maybe this is because it is a heavy bait that these wiser carp are used to taking off the bottom.

One thing that surprised me today was the lack of F1’s as last year I had about 20 of them compared to only 1 this year.  Maybe it was the peg and that the F1’s will back off to the corner pegs as I caught them off peg 31 last year and Colin had a few on that peg today.

It’s hard when you only fish a venue once a year as you don’t know the feeding habits of the stocked fish, that’s why researching the venue beforehand is so important.

I’m going to miss our next club match and my next match will hopefully be an open at Partridge Lakes next Bank Holiday Monday.

Tight Lines