UFC Match 3, Orcheton Farm Fishery, 24.05.15

Weather: Cloudy, 12C, 25-35mph NE wind, Air Pressure 1020

12 Fished

Peg 23

Another low turn out today with 12 fishing, but people did have good reasons not to attend.

I had taken a day off work on the Friday and decided to have a practice at this venue.  I was first on the venue and instead of taking one of the better pegs I decided to fish peg 23 as this would have to be included in the match.  Furthermore, the wind was blowing into this corner and it looked really fishy to me.  The bailiff and one of the regulars told me that they were surprised that I had picked this peg as this bay is rarely fished.  To quickly sum up I was catching F1 after F1 at 11M shallow and I could have easily done 120lb in the 4.5 hours but I came off the line for at least 2 hours trying other things such as the margins, pellet waggler and fishing short on the deck.  One thing that was apparent was that the carp would not come into the margins and all that was there was silvers and I had noticed that, from the 9 pleasure anglers on the lake, not many carp were caught.  I ended up with 70lb on the ticker before the cold got the better of me.

Todays weather was to be similar to that of Fridays practice session with a strong wind blowing towards pegs 26 and 27 I anticipated that the match would be won from the smaller bay and I therefore wanted to draw, in order of preference, 26,27, 19 or 23.  If I was to draw one of these pegs I would target the F1’s whilst keeping an eye of others to see if the carp were on the feed.  If I was to draw in the more wind sheltered bigger bay I would target carp as I didn’t think the F1’s would feed aggressively enough in the calmer waters.  I got my wish and drew peg 23 and with having fished it only 2 days before I could set up really quickly, using the same rigs and knowing exactly where my roller need to be.  After Fridays session I didn’t expect the margins to come into play so I didn’t mix any groundbait, but I did set up a rig just in case.

Set up:

HB AK47, .2g, 1.5ft, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 16, black hydro – margins

HB Shady Shallow, 2.5ft, .15 to.13 powerline, Pr36 18, black hydro – long line shallow 8ml pellet

Scone Wellardz, 1.5ft, .15 to .13 powerline, Pr36 20, grey hydro – shallow 6ml pellet

Malman Thin, .4g, 5ft, .13 to .11 powerline, Pr36 20 – white hydro – 6M 6ml pellet

2 x Pellet Wagglers – 2ft + 3.5ft

Bomb

Bait:

2,6,8ml pellets

Corn

I decided to start off on the pellet waggler for 15 minutes before fishing the bomb for the next 15 minutes, whilst pinging 6ml’s at eleven metres to get the F1’s feeding shallow and during the first half hour all I had was 1 carp and 1 F1 for about 4lb.  Not a great start and no big bonus carp that I was hoping for.  I went shallow at 11M at this point and I began to catch a steady stream of F1’s and I stuck with this for the first 2 hours and I had myself ahead of all anglers I could see with about 40lb and although the F1’s weren’t giving themselves up as easy as Fridays session, I was putting about 20-25lb per hour in the net.  At this point I fancied my chances of tonning up, especially if I could knick 5 or so bonus carp along the way.  In the third and fourth hour my lines slowed right down and the F1’s seemed to back off completely.  I got a few on my 6M line and a few more by going to 13M but my catch rate had slowed dramatically and I don’t think I put much more than 10lb in the net in this time.  During my slow period Grimmy on peg 19 was getting carp after carp on his bomb line and he had surely overtook me.  To try to claw him back I began aggressively feeding my bomb line (my swim was 25M to the left of Grimmy’s) to try to draw some of the fish away from him but all I could get from this line was F1’s.  Pegs 26 and 27 were really struggling and were not getting any carp from there pole lines, which told me that the carp were further to my right in the deeper water, but even though I could have gone another 10M to my right within my boundary, I felt this wouldn’t be fair on Grimmy and as he put it himself, he was having a red-letter day catching carp after carp.

My wife Chrissi, on peg 26,had decided to take a break half way through and went to make a brew in the hut and she was hoping to see Richard (the owner) and join him in bottle feeding a lamb, but with him nowhere to be seen she returned and gave me half of  her coffee.  She explained that she was getting soaked on her peg as the wind had picked up and the ripple in front of her had now turned into waves and were splashing up from her platform into her face.  She asked me if I was using my micros and as I had no intention of fishing the method it I let her take them, so she could fish the method in her margins.  With an hour to go Chrissi got a Barney Rubble from her margin and I had taken a carp amongst F1’s from my 6M line.  I had given up on my long shallow line and the bomb as I was just catching the odd F1 and I could do this at 6M.  It seemed there was a few more carp knocking about now and after getting snapped at 6M by a big carp, I decided the margins would be worth a try as the carp had moved in closer. I had been chucking 6ml’s at my 2 margins and with 50 minutes to go I had cupped in some sweetcorn on both, so with 40 minutes remaining I went on them.  I put 5 good carp in my net in this time with 4 of them coming from in front of platform 24.

At the all out I had 68lb on the ticker, which I knew wouldn’t be enough to beat Grimmy and I wasn’t sure what had been caught in the bigger bay.  When the scales arrived at Grimmy’s peg we were told that Colin had weighed in 93lb from peg 3, and with 49lb the next best weight I was destined for 3rd. The only question was would Grimmy beat Colin and would he ton up?  He put 98lb 5.5oz on the scales for a well-earned victory.  I weighed in 79lb 8oz, a little more than expected.

Chrissi – Biggest Fish 11lb 4oz

1st – John Grimshaw, Peg19, 98lb 5.5oz, bomb, 8ml pellet, 25 metres

2nd – Colin Mooney, Peg3, 93lb 15oz – pellet waggler

3rd – Brian Shepherd, Peg 23 79lb 8oz – UITW 6ml pellet, then margins

4th – Dave Brown, Peg 33, 49lb 6oz – pole pellet on deck

On reflection, if you had given me my weight before the match I would have taken it, especially as the previous days match had been won with a much lower weight.  I thought I could win with F1’s but after 2 hours I should have taken my F1 head off and figure out how to get the carp.  I did do this to some extent by mainly fishing my rods for about 1.5 hours but I think I was targeting the wrong area (25m in front of me and 25M in front of peg 25).  It should have been apparent that this area didn’t hold the carp as I didn’t see any topping here and 26 and 27 had struggled all day.  I think the F1’s had started feeding less aggressively as more carp came into my area after 2 hours and although I didn’t have them in abundance, like Grimmy on peg 19 I think there was ways of catching them, such as chucking a bomb over my 11M line and fishing the margins a lot earlier.  It wasn’t a bad performance and 79lb is not a bad weight, but 4 or 5 more, good carp could have given me a ton and the win.

The biggest lesson of the day was understanding why the F1’s backed off – more carp had moved in on my pole lines!!

Our next match is at Firswood next Sunday.

Tight Lines

ULC Match 8, 26.07.14, Orchetons Farm Fishery

Weather: Sunny, 25C, 3pmh SE Wind, Air Pressure 1018

I love fishing this place but unfortunately I only get on it once a year for our club match. I’m gonna make an effort to fish it more in future – maybe a few early darts from work on Fridays for some pellet waggler fishing.

I’d been monitoring the weather all week leading up to this match and noted that there had been an ESE wind for most of the week. With the weather being so warm lately it was a good bet that the fish would follow this wind, especially the shoals of F1’s.

There was only to be 14 anglers today and we had the whole lake so this would give everyone plenty of room and hopefully lead to some good weights.

Chrissi and I arrived at the fishery at about 7.15am and met Timmy and Mitchy who had also just arrived. We all had a walk around the lake so we could check that we had the correct permanent peg numbers and whilst we were doing so it was apparent that pegs 9-12 had received a lot of the wind as there was a build up of surface scum in this area. The 14 pegs we chose were 1,2,4,5,9-12,18,19,24,26,27,33. Peg 5 is usually dropped before peg 17 and 3 but with the wind blowing towards that corner of the lake all week we decided to leave it in. The match can be won from most pegs but, bearing in my the wind and the collection of scum around pegs 9-12, I was hoping to draw one of those pegs, failing that I wanted, in order; 27,26,18,19,1,33,24,5, which only leaves pegs 2 and 4 and even these are good pegs. True to form for me at this place I drew my least desired peg and I pulled out 4. I wasn’t too downhearted because as I said, the match can be won from anywhere and peg 3 did in fact win the mid-week open.

On arriving at my peg, after dropping Chrissi off on peg 26, I could see lots of carp cruising beneath the surface, but I was worried that, with the still, hot, muggy weather we were having, these fish would not want to feed.

Set up:
Pellet waggler
Method
Bomb
Wellardz .1g, 2ft, .13 to .13 powerline, PR36 18, black hydro – UITW
Scone V6,2.5ft, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 14, purple hydro – margins
mosella dibber, 4g .13 to .13 powerline, PR36 18, grey hydro, long line to float for dobbing.

Bait:
2,6,8ml pellets
1/2 maggots
Large expanders
Match pack worms

I called all in at 9.04am, 4 minutes past the deadline as I could see Chrissi wasn’t ready. She still wasn’t set up when I called it but I was getting a lot of pressure from a few for not going in on time.

I started on the method and after the first cast with no feed I started to loose feed over it so I could draw fish in and also see how the surface fish were responding to the feed. 15 minutes on this and I had nothing and I had noticed that Chris Wong on peg 11 who had started on the waggler had 2 good carp already. I switched to the waggler and stuck on this for the next 45 minutes and put about 17lb in the net, which included 2 carp and an F1 and then the carp seemed to back off and I began to catch skimmers. I then decided to have a go on the bomb and method for 30 minutes whilst I loose fed my 11 metre shallow swim. After about 1.5hrs I could see Timmy (9) and Chris (11) had began to catch F1’s shallow and they were catching steadily and good sized fish. I was itching to get on my shallow line as I could see a few swirls, but unfortunately for me they were silvers as all I could get was roach and the odd good sized skimmer. For the next 2.5hrs, I wasted fishing shallow, I only had about 8lb of fish and I made the mistake of trying to force the F1’s (I only got 3!). I did feed the margins with some ground bait and pellets but after giving it a few minutes and getting pestered by roach, it was apparent that the carp would not move in over the bait. I spent the last 40 minutes on the waggler and I managed 4 carp for about 25lb. I cut right back on the feed and just relied on plopping the waggler near enough to a fish to get the take. There was definitely more fish to be had on the waggler line towards the end of the match and a few of them began to move towards my light feeding. A few minutes before the all out my waggler rod shot off my lap as a looked away for a second but luckily for me the rod rest held it up for a second which gave me just enough time to jump in the water and grab the rod and then land a 7lb common. At the all out (wet shoes and socks, but nicely cooled down)I knew that both Timmy and Chris Wong had beat me and although I couldn’t see Colin on peg 27 I was pretty sure he would have a decent weight from that peg. I weighed in 49lb for 4th which although isn’t the worst result I don’t think I made the most of the peg. Timmy weighed in 72lb, which we all thought would be enough to win, until Colin put 75lb on the scales.

Me 4th – 49lb 7oz

Eddie 6th – 38lb 2oz

Chris Wong 3rd – 67lb 13oz

Timmy 2nd – 72lb 4oz

Chrissi 5th – 39lb 5oz

Colin 1st 75lb 6oz

Timmy missed out by a few pounds but still smiling with the winner

On reflection, I should of fished pellet waggler for the whole match as, although I would have periods of not catching much, the odd carp you do pick up on this line are real weight builders. I made the mistake of following Timmy and Chris and trying to force the F1’s when I should have realised much earlier that I did not have them in numbers in my swim. Another factor that made me stick with it was Eddie on peg 5 was also getting a few. I did say to myself at one point that the only way I could win was targeting the carp on the waggler, but for some reason I didn’t follow my instincts until it was too late.

Half way through this match Chris Wong, who was flying at the time, had a carp pull his top 5 sections from his pole and he then spent an hour or so trying to retrieve it. He was, at first, walking round the lake casting a bomb over it and then he decided to get the lake boat out and he followed the fish to peg 6, where eventually the pole submerged and was not to be seen again. So an expensive loss of pole and bearing in mind he was only 8lb off 1st, he surely would have won the match if he did not have to go chasing after his pole.

Next blog will be the next time I go fishing in 2 weeks on our next club match at Sycamore.

Tight Lines

ULC – Match 9, 25.08.13, Orchetons Farm Fishery

Weather, Sunny 20C, NW 9mph wind

I think this is probably my favourite club match venue, so I was really looking forward to this one. This venue caters for all types of fishing, it is a particularly good pellet waggler venue, but also suits the bomb, UITW and some pegs have good margin form. It is also home to many big ghosties and commons.

We had the whole lake and we only had to peg for 16 as we had 1 no show, so pegged out the standard way (the way it is pegged on the opens), pegs 1-5, 9-12,17-19, 25-27 and 33. The pegs I didn’t want were 4,5,9,17 and 25. I have won the last 2 matches here from pegs 9 and 25, but I still didn’t fancy them as on peg 9 you have a metal post sticking up at about 25 metres so you are risking getting snagged up round it if you chase the fish past this point and I got out of jail in the last hour on peg 25 with 40lb in the last hour from the margins. Peg 17 is a bit boxed in and pegs 4 and 5 never seem to produce big weights.

Well to say my drawing arm is consistently bad is an understatement as I drew peg 5!!! Colin who is 2 points ahead of me drew peg 12, which I was informed after the draw that it has good form (if pegs 13-16 are left out) and has won a few matches of late. The other form pegs were 26 and 27 (the wind had been blowing into these pegs all week) and Chris Wong drew the one I wanted – 27.

Set up:
3 rods – pellet waggler, bomb and method.
1 margin rig .17 to .15 powerline to B911 14
1 Scone Wellardz .1 .15 to .13 powerline PR36 18 with micro band (UITW)
1 Mosella dibber .4g, .15 to .13 powerline PR36 18 with micro band (long line UITW)

I didn’t have time to set up a deck rig but I wasn’t that bothered as my main approach was going to be pellet waggler and bomb.

Feed:
8 ml pellets
6 ml pellets
2 pints dead maggots
Micros
Expanders for margins

On the all in I went out with pellet waggler with no feed trying to mug an early fish. After a few casts with no feed I began my feeding and casting routine which was feed 3 pellets, cast and count 10 secs, feed 3 pellets a few feet short of the float and twitch float in to feed area as they land, count another 10 and if nothing start routine again. In the first 20 mins I had 1 F1 which I lost at the net so I switched to bomb with 8ml pellet, and changed my feeding to 3 pouchs of pellets after I had cast and then wait.

After an hour and half I had 1 F1, whilst Colin on peg 12 was bagging again (he is on fire at the moment). I decided to leave my 30 metre swim and have ago at 13metres UITW. I started getting the odd F1 of about 1 1/2 pounds so I plugged away and put a few fish in the net and built up the weight to about 20lb, which was putting me in third as Chris on peg 27 had also started to catch big fish on pellet waggler from peg 27. With an hour to go I decided to look again for the big fish in the margins and on bomb and pellet waggler but to no avail. During this time Timmy and Brian on pegs 9 and 10 respectively caught a couple of lumps each and Brian’s were both possible Barney Rubbles.

By the way about 3 hours in my wife Chrissi rang from peg 17 to say she was struggling although she also had caught a Barney Rubble on her first cast.

The weigh – in:
I am always last to tackle up and tackle down so I often miss some of the weigh in and on this day I got a lot of stick off the lads for missing it as Chrissi weighed in a Common of 14lb 8oz, which wins our biggest fish of the year. (I’m not jealous, honest)

1st Colin 72lb peg 12 (pellet waggler)
2nd Chris 63lb peg 27 (Pellet waggler)
3rd Brian Mitchem 33lb peg 10 (bomb + pellet)
4th Me 25lb peg 5 (13m UITW 6ml pellet)
5th Timmy 22lb peg 9 (13m deck soft pellet)

After the match I spoke with Richard, the owner, for about 10 minutes and booked our match for 2016. I totally forgot to drive round and pick Chrissi up from peg 17 and left her waiting for about 20 minutes

On reflection I don’t think I did anything wrong and that it was a simple case of a bad draw and that the big fish didn’t want to feed in numbers in this area on this day.

Even though it was a bad result and a low weight for me I still enjoyed this match (strange!) and I am already looking forward to this match next year.

Well I am going to miss our 10th match on the Rufford Canal so there will be no blog. I am however, off to Whiteacres on Saturday so I will try and blog at least the 2 matches I fish (Gold and Rover) when I get back.

Right I’m off to make up about 20 rigs and about 50 hooklengths for Whiteacres.

tight lines