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

ULC Knock up match, 05.10.14, Hall Lane – Bessie’s

Weather:

Sunny intervals, 5C start rising to 14C, 18mph S wind, Air Pressure 1008

19 Fished

I had a pleasure session the day before the match (peg 71) using just pellet feeder and top 2.  I wanted to try these methods combined as I have done my back in and I had written off holding the pole past 5M for the day of the match.  I had over 60 carp in 5 hours in this session and considering I had 2 breaks of about 30 minutes each that averages about 15 carp an hour, averaging 2lb each.  Tim had joined me for this pleasure session and he too had caught well.  Even though we had caught well, we knew it would be a lot harder the day of the match, considering there would be 3 matches on Bessie’s (50-60anglers) and there would be a very cold night ahead of us.

The draw was to be at 9am, but I made sure I got there for 8am so I could trolley up and sort the peg numbers.  I had advised everyone to get there in good time so I could collect their peg fees and make payment for the match before the draw.  Today was a bit of an experiment with regards to the pools / pay out, as we were to pay out sections rather than 4 places.  I explained that there would be 3 sections of 5 and 1 of 4 and that that the section prize was £15, £35 for the winner (2nd in winners section gets the default section win).  Collecting the pegs fees wasn’t as much hassle as I had envisaged as everyone came up and paid well before the draw.

We had permanent pegs 49-74 and I was really sure or bothered where I drew as I don’t know what are considered to be the best areas. There was, however, 4 end pegs so one of these would be preferable.  We had joked before the draw that there was actually only 3 end pegs available as Colin would surely get one.  I drew permanent peg 59, Tim was on an end peg and Colin, true to form, had drew end peg 49.

Set up:

Browning 8ft F1 feeder, pellet feeder, PR36 18 with band.

MW Pear 8×11, 3ft, .11 to .10 B911 F1, white hydro

Bait:

1 pint micros

1 pint 4ml pellets

2 pints maggots

Sweetcorn

Hemp

Sonubaits margin mix – 1/2 kilo

At the all in I went over with the pellet feeder, about 2ft off the far bank where it was about 2ft deep.  It took 2 minutes to get my first fish and then it wasn’t until 15 minutes when I got my second – this was slower than expected. In fact things were to get even slower and at one point I went an hour without a fish.  After about an hour I had 4 fish and I decided to rest the far bank and try the top 2 where I had been lose feeding maggots and I got 2 quick fish before they became a little spooked and I fouled hooked a couple and the swim completely died.  At this point, I decided to change my top 2 swim to hemp and sweet corn, so I fed a small amount and went back on the pellet feeder.  From here until the end of the match I couldn’t really get a run of fish from anywhere and my top 2 swim had completely died, although I was getting the odd missed bite from it.  I eventually settled on the pellet feeder and although it was extremely slow, I found that by playing the waiting game of up to 15 minutes a cast, the tip would eventually go round and I would get a stockie.  On the all out I had 16 carp on the ticker, averaging 1.5lb, so I reckoned on 24lb. At the weigh in the other leg (pegs 63-74) had the better weights with a few in the 20’s and 2 in the 30’s, with Timmy coming out on top with 39lb.  I was first to weigh in on my leg and I weighed 26lb and Mark was the only other one to weigh in, in my section with about 15lb.  In the last section, I think Eddie had about 20lb and Spoon won section 4 with 33lb.

On reflection, I reckon if I had just sat on the tip all day I may have caught more carp, but I don’t think it would have been enough for the win. I seemed to ruin my top 2 line by switching baits and I probably went on it too early –  I should have stuck to maggots all day and not gone on it until the second half of the match.  I did switch back to maggots on it but I had already ruined it by switching baits.  Even though I had spooked this swim a little, I should have tried a lighter hook as I was sure a few fish were present and a subtle change like this can result in more positive takes.  To be fair to myself I think 26lb from a tough section wasn’t a bad weight.

After the match a few of the lads commented on how they enjoyed and preferred the section pay outs, as it motivated them to keep going for the full 5 hours trying to get ahead in the section.  Maybe going forward, it’s something we should consider doing.  There also seems to be a bit of demand for extra matches in the Spring and Autumn, so maybe we could have an optional mini league (3 Spring / 3 Autumn), but I will have to check on the demand for this at our annual meeting in January and it would certainly have to be separate from the usual schedule of 12 matches

I’m gonna try and get up to Partridge Lakes on Saturday for the open, so the next blog should be about me being pools fodder for Andy Bennett and Co.

Tight Lines

ULC Match 12, 21.09.14, River Weaver – National length

Weather: Cold to start then Sunny 18C, light wind, Air Pressure 1024

With there being very little rain of late and the bright sunny, high pressure weather we have been having and would also have on the day of the match, I predicted that todays match would be won with roach and I didn’t expect to skimmers to show.  For this reason,  I prepared an active roach ground bait on the morning of the match, but I also mixed up a little brown crumb for the feeder, just in case the skimmers were showing.

Today we would go all in a little late at 9.40am as we could only gain access to the stretch at 8am and with the pegging out and everything else that goes on before the draw, the draw didn’t take place until 8.35am.  After giving us access, Steven Flood, the Winsford match secretary, came down to the bank with us and gave us some advice on which pegs to pick along the stretch and he also advised that he thought it would be best to target roach today, which concurred with my thinking and tactics. Unfortunately for us there were a couple of carp anglers taking up about 4 of the best pegs and with us having to peg around them, it meant we had to put in a couple of the far end pegs in, which we had been told were the poorest pegs along the stretch.

I was hoping for an early number in the draw as these pegs were to be right near the car park and they were also a lot shallower than the far end pegs, with 9ft at 13m compared to 16ft on the higher numbered pegs.  I got my wish and drew peg 2 and as usual Tim declared that I had drew the best peg.

I was to stick to the plan I had made days before this match and go all out for roach.  I would spend the first half hour on the feeder putting a bed of brown crumb on the feeder line whilst I let the roach swims settle.

Set up:

Feeder rod – 3ft paternoster to B560 18, .10 powerline

Drennan Quad 1.5g, 9ft .10 to .08 powerline, b511 18, Middy 4-6 purple – 13M maggot over groundbait

Turbetine styx 4×16, 5ft, .10 to .08 powerline, b511 18, Preston 4 slip – 7m caster and hemp

Bait:

1 pint red maggots

1 pint hemp

1 pint casters

Brown crumb

Black Lake / Sensas Noire

 

I did think about setting up a more stable rig on the 7M line just in case the river started to move more or the wind got up, but I ran out of time whilst setting up, and besides the river was flat calm so I thought the styx float would be right for the 7m line.

At the all, I balled 6 jaffas on my 13M line and cupped in 200ml of hemp and about 50 casters on the 7M line and then I went out with a large feeder and would cast every minute putting the bed of brown crumb down and on most casts I would come back with a roach.  After 6 roach and 15 minutes gone I was now convinced that the roach lines would be good and although I was sure the feeder line would be a waste of time today, I gave it another 15 minutes, not to catch fish but to let my roach swims settle longer and besides I was putting a good bed of feed down should I have needed to go back on the feeder line.  After half hour it was on to the 13M line and there was a bite every put in but a lot of them were bumped and when I did hit them they were less than an ounce.  I gave this half an hour and put a steady stream of roach into the net, but not one was over an ounce.  I had been loose feeding casters over the 7M line every minute for the entire first hour and on the hour mark I decided that although I didn’t want to fish this line as early as this, there was a lot of roach in the area and I could catch them quicker and hopefully bigger from this line. Onto the 7m line and the roach came instantly and were up to 3oz but bites seemed to tail of a little after 20 minutes on this line (I had gone on it too early).  I switched to the 13m line on  a few occasions to give the 7m line a rest and again it was a roach of less than an ounce every put in.  A few hours into the match and the river began to pull a little and the wind got up and my styx float wasn’t quite right for the conditions so I decided to get a more stable rig out for the 7M line.  Whilst setting this up I got the rig in a little tangle and the rig was trashed, so I decided to abandon the idea of a new rig and make do with the styx.  I persevered on the 7m line for most of the match and although I didn’t think the rig was right I was getting a roach on most put ins just as the bait touched the bottom.

At the all out I reckoned I had about 70 roach (should have counted them) and by my estimations, with them being on average an ounce each I would have just over 4lb.  Steven Flood was stood behind me for the last 20 minutes and he reckoned that the roach I was putting in the net averaged about 1.5 oz, so if he was right this would give me over 6lb.   The scales arrived at my peg and I was the last member to weigh in and  I was informed that Tim was winning it with 4lb 5oz, which I thought I would fall just short of.   Luckily for me I had under estimated the size of the roach and I weighed 6lb 5oz for the win, so Steven was right.

On reflection, I made the right decision to fish for roach and even though they were really small, I plugged away and resisted any temptation to target skimmers.  I should have set up a more stable rig for the 7M caster line and I also should have left this one for 2 hours instead of 1 and target the first part of the match on the 13M line as I think this would have resulted in the bigger roach when I eventually went on it.  I think fishing pinkie or squatt on the 13m line would have resulted in more hit bites as a lot of the time the roach were just mouthing half the maggot, causing missed bites.  Having said that I got the main decision right, which was roach, roach and roach!

So that’s it for the season – it’s been a good one for me with 5 wins and the overall averages with 24 points from the 11 matches I fished. Colin was second overall, then Tim, then Chris.

No pictures today as I was busy packing up whilst they weighed in.  I did get one though, Timmy at one with nature.

Tim , at one with nature

 

I am currently trying to sort out a knock up match for the lads on 5 October, so hopefully I can  manage this and blog it, if it happens.  Besides that I am going to make an effort to get up to partridge lakes a lot this winter, where I can be poolsfodder in the weekend opens.

Tight Lines

 

 

 

ULC Match 11, 14.09.14, L&L Canal – Newburgh

 

Weather:  Sunny intervals, 19C, 12mph E Wind, Air Pressure 1024

I only fish the canal once a year which is always the one club match we have on a canal, so It’s a bit of a pain having to prepare for this as elastics need changing and small B511 hooks with fine lines need preparing.  Having said that we have a match on the River Weaver next week so I can keep the same elastics in until after that match.  This match was originally scheduled for Burscough Town Centre but after having a look at it last week we decided that there was far too many barges moored up and a change of stretch was required.

Before the draw there was a little debate on whether to include the 2 pegs in the basin as a few of us were saying this would give an unfair advantage to whoever drew it, whilst other were of the opinion that it was just like drawing an end peg on a commercial so it should be left in.  We put it to a vote and of the 12 fishing only me Timmy and Colin voted to leave it out so the basin was left in.

I wasn’t really bothered where I drew but I did have a preference for the higher numbers as the canal narrows slightly here, meaning I wouldn’t have to fish as long in targeting the far shelf.  I drew peg 3 and only had a little walk to my peg.

Set up:

KC Carpa Canal 4 x 14, 5ft, .09 to .08 powerline, B911 20 – track line ( 5 inches overdepth – pin bait down) – 4 slip elastic

Turbetini Styx 4 X 14, 5ft, .09 to .08 powerline, B911 20 – track line (1 inch off bottom – targeting roach on punch) – 4 slip elastic

KC Carpa 4 x 12, 3 ft, .09 to .08 powerline, B911 20 – far shelf – middy 4-6 elastic

Chianti 4×8, 2.5ft, .09 to .07 powerline, B911 22 – far shelf – 4 slip elastic

 

Bait:

1 pint pinkies

1/2 pint maggots

Bread punch

Brown Crumb at 10 O’clock and lake+Noire at 2 O’clock both at 16M on far shelf.

I decided to start the match on my punch line down the track so I fed this first and then spent another 10 minutes cupping in on the 16M lines but as it was taking so long I decided to throw the brown crumb in in the end.  I went on the punch track line and as I was lowering my float in it continued to go under making me think I had overshot the float.  I rebaited and went back in and the same happened but this time I gave a sharp lift into a 2oz roach and next cast gave me a 1oz roach.  At this point I thought I was in for a good day but the bites slowed right down and all I could get was the odd pair of eyes.  I noticed a lot bubbles in the swim and decided to lay on a little hoping the skimmers had moved in and that was why the roach bites had dried up.  After 5 minutes I did get a skimmer bite but I struck at it far to quickly and after a good amount of elastic pulled out of the pole the hook pulled.  Although the swim still had some bubbles, I couldn’t get a skimmer from it and all I could manage was the odd pair of eyes – I think the hook pulled skimmer had spooked the swim.  I decided to have a look over my brown crumb swim at 16m where I had been pinging casters and this produced 2 quick small Rudd of about 2oz a piece but this swim also died quickly.  A look over the other swim produced roach about the size of my little finger.  I swapped around a bit all day  and the last hour a settled on catching roach a t 16M which went about 4 to the ounce.  Fishing at 16M for tiddlers on this canal was hard work and very frustrating as the tow path was extremely busy and there was many times I feared I would suffer a pole breakage from the cyclists or the runners jumping over it, but I decided to stick with it, with the aim of framing and getting the necessary points I needed to take the overall averages for the season.  I plugged away and managed 30+ roach for 1Lb 5oz, which was good enough to tie for 4th.

Eddie won the match, catching a pike late on, with a weight of 3lb 10oz, Harold was second from the basin with 2lb 6oz, Colin got 3rd with 1lb 8oz and me and Ray tied for 4th.

On reflection, I shouldn’t have fished at 16M as the tow path is far too busy for this and I couldn’t feed the swim properly via a catapult (due to the wind) and by hastily shipping in and out to accommodate the boat traffic and the tow path traffic I lost a lot of bait out of the tosspot through bouncing my pole and also this constant shipping caused me to trash 2 of my rigs.  I wish I had brought my rods and I could have fished them for the last 2 hours instead of catching the 20 roach at 16M which only amounted to about 5oz – this would have been so less stressful.  To be honest, I would rather not fish these canals at all as it is not comfortable fishing and in my opinion catching a pair of eyes every put in is little reward for the hard work that goes into pole fishing on the canal.

1st – Eddie – 3lb 10oz

2nd – Harold – 2lb 6oz

 

ULC Match 10, 24.08.14, Wrightington Fishery – Rivington

Weather: Sunny intervals, 18C, 5mph W wind, Air Pressure 1012

This venue is one I look forward to as, along with never getting to fish it, I think it is a fairish venue, with a variety of pegs that require different approaches.  It is therefore not completely a draw bag job, unlike some of the snake lakes we fish, where you can be fishing for 2nd or 3rd after the draw has been made.  Having said that there are obviously preferred pegs and today my preference would be for pegs 24 to 28, where it gives you open water and is a good area for UITW, failing that any island peg would do.  I had spoken to Paul (the owner) the day before our match and he informed that it was fishing well with 98lb winning the Saturday club match, from peg 26, fishing UITW on pellet.

Chrissi and I arrived at the fishery at about 7am and Timmy and Brian had already pegged it out and they had decided that, as we had the whole lake and taking into consideration the wind direction of the previous few days, they would leave permanent pegs 1 to 6 out and peg; 7,10,12,15,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28.  I felt that, with pegs 1 to 6 out, pegs 25 to 28 would be even stronger today as there would be no anglers opposite them, hopefully my drawing arm would not let me down today.

At the 8am draw, Timmy had already drew peg 26 and Colin had drew end peg 28, before it was my turn to draw, so the odds of me getting in the area I wanted were slim. Luckily for me I drew peg 25 and although I was well chuffed with this I would again be up against Colin on an end peg.

Set up:

Wellardz .07g, 2ft, .13 to .13 powerline, PR36 18, black hydro, UITW pellet

Wellardz .1g, 3ft, .13 to .13 powerline, PR36 18, black hydro, UITW pellet

Scone V6 .3g, 2.5ft, .15 to .13 powerline, B911 14, purple hydro, margins (not tight in)

MW Pinger .4g, 6ft, .13 to .13 powerline, B911 16, grey hydro, corn 7m

Pellet waggler, Bomb and method

Bait:

2,6,8ml pellets

Pint maggots

Corn + Hemp

Paste

1 kilo sonubaits margin mix

At the all in I went straight on the pellet waggler, trying to mug an early fish, without feeding much. 15 minutes without success and I decided to feed my 7m swim with a big cup of corn and hemp and then chuck out the bomb where I had fed a few 8ml pellets on the waggler.  The bomb produced nothing so a switch to the method produced a 3lb common and then the small skimmers moved in.  An hour had gone by and I only had 5lb in the net, but this wasn’t bad as no one was catching much.  I switched to my 7 m line and caught a couple of 1lb skimmers, but as my target fish today was carp I left this line after giving it a good top up.  A switch to my 13m line, where I had been pinging 6ml pellet over produced one carp in half an hour and I found that I would only get the carp a little bit interested when there was a ripple and with the wind being almost no existent to day, a ripple would only appear for brief 5 minute spells.  I found the best way of taking fish off the 13m UITW swim was to keep pinging pellets over it and as soon as a ripple appeared I would go over it and this produced a few 5lb carp throughout the match.  I did have a little run on the pellet waggler and caught 4 2-3lb carp but even this line, like every other  line, was very slow today.  No one was catching much and towards the end of the match I felt that I was probably lying second as Chris on peg 7 seems to be doing well off the corner of the island and Colin was struggling on peg 28.  I went on the margin swim with an hour to go and I caught a good carp of about 6lb straight away, I re-fed and went straight over the top of it, but no more were to be had so I gave it another 2 cups of groundbait and went on the 13m swim, where the brief ripple had returned and I immediately got a small carp.  I could see the carp had returned to my margins so I went back over it but although the carp were there and mouthing the bait a bit they were not totally switched on to the feed and I couldn’t get ant positive takes, just little dips of the float.  I tried going over depth by 6 inches but I didn’t have any success until 10 seconds to go when I hooked one but the hooked pulled after a few seconds.

At the all out I had 35lb on my ticker and speaking to Timmy on the next peg, we agreed that Chris on peg 7 had probably won it and I would probably get second. Colin had really struggled on peg 28 and had only 2 carp and Timmy had lost more than he had caught.  I weighed in 41lb and there were no more weights higher than 20lb until Chris was the last to weigh in and when he pulled his net out it was apparent that he did not have enough to win, in fact he weighed in 27lb 9oz.  Although Chris had caught more fish than me his average stamp was probably half the size of mine and he lost a lot of fish through hook pulls. So happy days…….. a win for me!

Both Timmy and Chris had lost a lot of fish today and I think this was down to fish not feeding positively enough, cautiously sucking and blowing the bait above the feed, resulting in poor hook holds and foul hookers.  I took most of my fish shallow and therefore there is less chance of foul hooked fish and I did work out that the carp were not positively down on the feed in the margins so I didn’t strike at anything, having said that I did only manage one from the margins.

There were a few picture refusals today and I’m not sure if was down to the disappointing weights or they’re simply getting fed up with me wanting to take pictures.

1st – Me – 41lb

2nd – Chris Wong – 27lb 9oz

3rd – Michy – 19lb 7oz

4th – John Grimshaw – 17lb 5oz
PICTURE REFUSAL!!

6th – Dave Gibbons – 14lb 1oz
PICTURE REFUSAL!!!

8th – John Battle – 12lb 7oz

On reflection, I could have targeted skimmers on the 7m line but this is easy to say in hindsight and with a target weight of 60lb+ it would take a brave man to do so.  I did work out quickly that the fish were easily spooked today and were not on the feed and I took my opportunities of catching the fish on the 13m line when it had a rare ripple for cover.  Other than that I don’t think I got a lot wrong and I’m not sure what else I could have done to increase my catch.  There were some good anglers on some good pegs today so if the carp were wanting to feed, I’m sure that they would have caught a lot more..  I think we just hit it on a bad day ( we seem to use that excuse a lot.)

I was going to go fishing today but the weather has put me off, so I will stay in and tie some hook lengths in preparation for next weeks trip to Whiteacres …………. can’t wait.  Having said that Chrissi has now told me she wants me to build a higher barrier around her chicken coup to stop them from escaping, I spent 2 hours on a chicken run last night trying to catch one that had escaped!

Tight Lines

CHICKEN UPDATE:

After Chrissi bought 2 more chickens (Cleopatra and Betsie) and introduced them to the 3 she has already had for 5 weeks (Nadine, Jess and Fanny) all hell broke loose on Saturday and the new chickens were not made welcome.  2 of the original chickens were so stressed out with the new living arrangements that they escaped yesterday, whilst we were out fishing.  I received a call from our decorator at 10.30am (well into our fishing match), who has been painting the windows, to inform me 2 had escaped and although he had managed to get one back into the chicken area, one had got right out of our garden and was on next doors front lawn.  I didn’t let Chrissi know until after the match as I knew how upset she would get and besides I had carp to think about, not Fanny! We actually managed to get Jess back at 9.30pm after trapping her in one of my larger landing nets.  There is still a tense atmosphere in the coup today and Fanny is putting herself about a bit, but hopefully things will calm down over the next few days.

I erected this today to keep Fanny at bay

Fanny is the dark one at the front

Check future blogs for the odd chicken update and find out how Chrissi’s Fanny is behaving.

ULC Match 9, 09.08.14, Sycamore Fisheries

Weather: 20C, Mainly sunny, 15mph SW wind, Air Pressure 1008

After a poor performance in the open match at Sycamore a few weeks ago I decided a practice on this water was needed to figure out my feeding and also whether to target the F1’s or the carp. I managed to get up there the Sunday before the our club match and with there being the usual weekly open on it, I had to wait until they had weighed in and I would be able to fish from about 4.30pm – 8.30pm. I set up rigs to fish 4ml pellet on a lasso and paste tight against the near bank. It was a shame I didn’t have maggots and groundbait as this would be one of the lines I would fish on the match. The carp came thick and fast on my top 2 lines and even though I was bagging and having great fun, I decided I had to leave these lines alone and target the F1’s to see how big they were and how fast I could catch them. The F1’s averaged about 14oz and if you could catch them at the rate I was in practice you would certainly ton up. Although I had caught a good deal of fish, I knew that under match conditions and earlier in the day, the fish would not respond in the same way. Having said that, this practice had enabled me to formulate a plan of attack for the match. My plan for the match would be to target the F1’s and then move on to top 2 lines as soon as the carp were having it. If I could catch carp at a good rate from the off, then all well and good, if not I would concentrate on the F1’s until the carp were feeding confidently on the top 2.

We arrived at the fishery at 7am on the day of the match, an hour before the 8am draw, giving me plenty of time to mix my groundbait and trolley up the gear and take it up to Rowans. Timmy and Mitchy were already there and had pegged out for 15 anglers that would be fishing. We put 8 anglers on the far / high number side as this seems to be the better side and 7 anglers on the near side. There was a good ripple on the water but only on the pegs at the car park end (36-40, 21-24). After having a look at the water I decided I wanted to draw between pegs 36-40 or failing that any peg on the far side. I helped John with the 8am draw as Bagger Naylor, our draw man, was not here today. The 2 pegs left for me and John, after everyone else had drew, were 31 and 37 and to honest I would have be pleased with either – 37 would be good for UITW and 31 was an end peg with recent good form. I drew 31 and left John with 37. The one big downside to my draw was that it was flat calm at my end and this would probably make UITW difficult and also Colin had drew end peg 40 and had a good ripple on the water – he would be tough to beat from that peg.

Bait:
3 pints maggots
4ml pellet
Paste
Hemp
Sonubaits margin mix

Set up:
Scone wellardz .07g, 1.5ft, .15 to .11 powerline, PR36 18, white hydro – 4ml banded pellet
Jigga, 1ft, .11 to .11 powerline, PR36 18, white hydro – 4ml banded pellet
MW Rattie, 10 inches, .13 to .11 powerline, 808 18, white hydro – paste tight in
Malmans winter wire, 4×14, 5ft, .11 to .11 powerline, B911 F1 18, white hydro – track
Malman dolphin, .2g, 2ft, .11 to .11 powerline, B911 F1 18, white hydro – maggot top 2

At the 9am all in I decided to have a quick look shallow, but before I did I fed a pot of groundbait on my 2ft top 2 line. I hit an F1 immediately and Timmy on the next peg was also straight in, things were looking good. Our early optimism wash dashed as the F1’s had either backed off or there just wasn’t enough of them there to make them feed confidently and we I went the next 20 minutes without a fish. I worked out the only way I could get one was tapping the water 2m away from the feed area and even this was extremely slow and I could only get the odd fish. The shallow approach wasn’t working and all I could get on my top 2 lines was tench or the really small crucians. A rethink and a new approach was in order and I decided to take advantage of the right hand bank. I plumbed up a 2ft swim at 11m and also plumbed up my rattie rig tight against the far bank mud line, I also opened a tin of sweetcorn that I would fish with hemp on these lines. I initially tried potting in on these lines and rotating between them but this only produced one foul hooker on the mud line and a small tench on the 2ft line. I changed my feeding to tosspotting to try and draw fish in with a steady trickle of bait through the water but this made no difference. There was the odd sign of fish on the mud line but I couldn’t get them, I was either getting something wrong or they simply were not having it yet.  2 hours in and I had 5lb in the net, this was a disaster and the only thing that made me think that maybe I wasn’t that crap at fishing was that Timmy was also struggling on the peg next to me, that was until he went down the track and started to put a good run of big F1’s together.  I hadn’t set up a track rig at the start as this wasn’t part of my plan of attack, but having watched Timmy put about 10lb in is net in half an hour, I reached for rigs and set up a track line and I also pumped some expanders for hook and feed.  After setting this up I decided to have another look shallow for the F1’s where I had been feeding for 10 minutes whilst setting up the track line.  Thankfully they were there and in the next 40 minutes I put about 25lb of them in the net, until they backed off.  The same thing had happened the week before in practice and it was down to the carp moving in and feeding shallow and I found that by changing to a longer line and slapping the rig well away from the pole tip, I could get amongst the 2lb carp.  I tried my Wellardz rig and slapped it about 2.5ft away from the tip but I only managed one carp and the fish that were now in my swim seemed to be a little spooked and I couldn’t get them competing for the feed. I got a call from Chrissi, who was on the other side, with about 90 minutes to go and she informed me that it was even harder on the other side, so the 30lb I had in the net didn’t seem that bad after all.  Things went a quiet for an hour and then with 30 minutes to go the carp had come in on my top 2 lines and in the last 10 minutes the line became even stronger with fish after fish, averaging about 2lb.  I didn’t want to call the all out at 2 pm as my catch rate at the end was about 50lb an hour – if only we fished 10-3!  If we were to fish 10am to 3pm like almost every other club our weights would be much higher as, like on this water, the fishing gets better later into the afternoon on a lot of commercials and in fact I had noted that on the open match the last hour, 2pm-3pm, was the when anglers would put over 50% of there total into their nets.Having said that, I was thankful that they turned on to the feed close in, in time for me to put another 20lb+ in the net.  Timmy on the next peg had also began to catch close in, that was until he lost his top 2 from a viscous take from a carp. I didn’t see his top 2 in the water at first, all I seen is Timmy running towards me with his pants half down and it was a relief when I realised it was his top 2 he was running towards and not me! He tried to chase it with his pole but it quickly submerged in my peg and he gave up the chase. Timmy explained that his pants were half down because he was hot.  This is becoming a common theme in our club (not running round with our pants down, but pole chasing), with Chris Wong losing his top 5 on the previous match.

I had 49lb on the ticker and with my usual under estimation I guessed at 55lb.  Colin had 2 nets in on peg 40 and he had caught a lot of F1’s shallow on maggot.  It was obvious Colin had won, so I was hoping for 2nd and in fact that is what I got, with Colin weighing in 81lb for a new club record and me getting 53lb 8oz.

1st – Colin – 81lb – UITW maggot

2nd – me -53lb 8oz – UITW pellet + top 2 maggot

3rd – Grimmy – 42lb 5oz

4th – Timmy – 36lb 7oz – pellet

1st – Colin – 81lb
New club record

2nd – Me – 53lb 8oz

3rd – John Grimshaw – 42lb 5oz

4th – Timmy – 36lb 7oz

5th – Chrissi – 35lb 8oz

On reflection, I’m not sure what I got wrong or how I could have increased my weight.  It was not great conditions for catching them shallow with the water being so still and not having the benefit of a ripple to give the pole some cover. Feeding maggots on my top 2 early on just brought in small tench and crucians so maybe it would have been better to just pot in groundbait and sit and weight for the odd carp and only start to put maggots in when more carp came in and forced the small fish out.

So well done Colin – top angling!   I think its down to a 2 horse race now between me and Colin for the overall averages after this result and with 3 matches remaining it will surely go down to the wire.

Even though a lot of anglers struggled today, they all seemed to like the place and with it only being £5 a peg we will hopefully be back next year.

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 7, 13.07.14, Lathom Fisheries – Pond 1

 

 

Weather: 18c Sunny Intervals, NW 15mph, Air Pressure 1010

I had a chance to fish Lathom the day before the match as there was no match on it.  I got to the fishery about noon on the Saturday and found that Timmy, who I had arranged to meet there, was already set up on peg 10 so I decided to set up on peg 12.  It was basically fish after fish and we probably could have caught over 200lb each if we settled on catching F1’s but we were both experimenting and trying to get through the F1’s and catch some of the bigger carp, but what ever we did the F1’s would be straight on the feed.  The wind had been lightly blowing towards peg 1 for that last couple of days but was due to change and blow towards the opposite corner for the day of the match. What I learnt from the session is that the f1’s in this lake had grown a little and are now averaging about 14oz and if I could get them feeding I should target them on the match.  I also learnt that for sweltering hot days like today Timmy should invest in a pair of shorts, as he ended up taking his jeans off and fishing in his underpants.

Timmy in his undies

 

The pegging is very tight at this place and with booking 16 pegs the baliff gives us an extra 3 allowing us to leave the pegs out after each end peg and the corner peg out.  This does however still make pegging extremely tight on the bend in the bay, so we took the liberty of leaving another one of these out and pegged round to permanent peg 20.  As I have mentioned on previous blogs on our matches at Lathom, the end pegs have been 1st and 2nd on our last two matches, so taking this into account I was keen to get an end peg.  With a fresh wind blowing into the bay I wanted to draw permanent peg 20, as I was convinced that the bay would be stuffed with fish today. Failing that I would like pegs, in order 18 (we left out 19),20 then 1.  When I drew peg 1 I was obviously pleased but I was a little worried that the fish would move out of this corner and follow the wind.  Having said that there had been a light wind blowing into this corner for a few days so maybe they would stay there for a while.  Mark had drew the other end peg and he would be tough to beat.

Set up:

MW F1 Slim 4×11, 2ft, .11 to .11 powerline, B911 F1 18, white hydro – maggot top 2

MW F1 Slim 12×11, 4.5ft, .11 to .11 powerline, B911 F1 18, white hydro – pellet 7M

Scone V6 .3g, 2ft,  .15 to .13 powerline, B911 14, black hydro, margins

Scone Wellardz .1g, 1.5ft, .13 to .13 powerline, PR36 18, grey hydro – shallow pellet

2 Jiggas, one for pellet and one for caster

 

Bait:

2 pints maggots

2 pints casters

1/4 kilo worms

2,4,6,8ml pellets

On the all in I went on my 7m with pellet at 4.5ft and started to drip feed pellets over the top, but after 3 feeds I was getting a few liners and it was obvious the fish wanted to feed high in the water.  Mitchy on the next peg had 3 F1’s in as many put ins on his top 3 at 3ft so I decided to give my top 2 ago at 2ft on maggot, whilst I loose fed casters on the 7m swim.  This produced about 5 F1’s then a bonus 5lb mirror and then the fish spooked a little on this swim and from past experience on this place I knew that the fish wouldn’t settle her long under match conditions so I went 7m shallow with caster.  I was feeding a chop/soil slop through a kinder pot and loose feeding casters over the top and this was producing the odd F1.  A switch to pellet and my catch rate increased and although the F1’s were not ravenous the action was steady. After 2.5hrs I had 40lb ( I always underestimate F1’s and probably had about 50lb) on the ticker and I was thinking about putting my second net in, which I didn’t do at the start as the pegging is so tight and if I put it out to my right this would take the margin away from Mitchy on the next peg.  Mitchy said he wasn’t bothered about that margin so I decided that after the next fish I would put the second net out.  I, in fact, didn’t get to put the second net out until an hour to go as the F1’s vanished.  I spent an our and a half desperately trying to locate them through the depths and by going long but I only managed a couple of small carp in the next 1.5hrs.  With an hour to go I accepted that the F1’s had vanished from our corner and followed the wind away from us, Mitchy had also stopped catching F1’s and was now putting the odd skimmer in the net. I went shallow at 13m with pellet trying to get into some proper carp with no success before going on to my margin to the left, where I managed the odd 3lb fish from it, but I made the mistake of leaving this line on occasions and trying to force the f1’s shallow at 7M.  I eventually sat on the margins for the last half hour and settled on getting the odd 2 to 3lb fish.

At the all out I had 54lb on the ticker, but I knew I had underestimated a little and probably had around 60lb. I was a little disappointed with this, as at one point I thought I would ton up.  They started the weigh in from Mark at the other end before I was packed up, so I left my gear and went round to join the weigh in and get a few pictures. Mark had already weighed in 67lb and a felt I would be just short of this. A couple of 40lb+ and a few 30lb+ weights followed and then Chrissi put 54lb on the scales, so I thought I was destined for second. It was my turn to weigh and to my surprise I put 77lb on the scales for 1st place.

Timmy – 37lb 2oz

Ray Bagger Naylor – looking despondent after his 16lb 6oz

Chris 4th 46lb 6oz

Eddie – 30lb 1oz

Chrissi 3rd – 54lb 12oz

Mitchy – 35lb 6oz

On reflection, I was a little slow to realise the F1’s had left the area and followed the wind down the other end and rather than trying to get them back I should have forgot about them and targeted the carp by potting in.  I think I  predicted it right knowing that the area would hold a lot of fish at the start before a lot of them followed the wind and went down the other end and I did make the most of my catching period.  I learnt from past experience not to waste too much time on the top 2 when the fish become spooked and I came straight of this line when it wasn’t right and I only went back on it for quick looks. I was a little disappointed to only put about 20lb in the net in the second half of the match, when if I read it right and changed my tactics to suit I could have added enough to reach the ton.

Next match up is Orchetons in 2 weeks.

Tight Lines

 

ULC Match 6, 22.06.14, River Weaver – Marina Length

Weather: 20C, Sunny, light wind, Air Pressure 1023

The first of our 2 visits to the Weaver was upon us and I spent many hours preparing for this, much longer than what I usually spend preparing for a commercial as natural venues are not something I am geared up for.  I had to change 3 top kit elastics, prepare my hook lengths, dig out my Weaver floats, re-do a rod for the feeder line and prepare a ground bait mix, which doesn’t sound much but it actually took me about 3 hours.

The rule of thumb I go by when fishing the Weaver is if it’s been raining and it’s coloured then I target Bream, if we have had little rain and it is not as coloured then I target roach. With there being little rain of late I chose a ground bait mix with roach in mind which was 1/2 bag Supercup, 1/2 bag Sensas Breme, 1/2 Sensas Lake (black) 1/2 leam and to this I added 1/2 pint dead pinkies and a little hemp.  This sounds an expensive/ complicated mix but, except for the leam, I had 1/2 bags of the rest in the garage.  I also bought a bag of brown crumb in case a got one of the good feeder swims and I planned to use this on it’s own in the feeder.

By 7.40am the 10 people that were to fish this match had arrived at the car park, so we did the draw early, which is just as well as I was only ready with 5 minutes to spare.  We hadn’t pegged the 2 pegs that have a feeder chuck into the actual marina itself as when we got there, there was a couple of pleasure anglers on it and as there was only 10 of us there was not point in disrupting them.  We also do not peg in between the 2 bridges because some of those pegs are difficult to get down to.  My peg for the day was the 3rd one in from the bridge.

Set up:

Drennan Tipo 2g. 13ft.10 to .08 B511 20, Middy 4-6 purple elastic

Drennan Tipo 1.5g, 13ft, .10 to .08 B511 20, Middi 4-6 purple elastic

Turbetini Styx 4×16, 9 ft, .10 to .08 B511 20, Preston silp 4 (5 meter caster / hemp rig)

Bait:

1/2 pint pinkies

1/2 pint red maggots

1 pint casters

Tin of Hemp

Tub of worms

On getting to my peg I could see there was little flow so I was happy to use the 2 Tipo rigs on my 14 meter Bream swim where I would inch the 1.5g float through and hold back on the 2g swim.  Incidentally I would much prefer to used a wire stem float but I only have a Drennan quads up to 1.5g and the one I have of this looked a bit battered, so I opted for the carbon stem Tipo floats with 4 no.8 shots below the stem, to help the stem cut the flow a little.

At the all in I balled in 8 Jaffa sized balls of my ground bait mix on the 14 metre line which I would then leave for an hour while I tried out the feeder line and the 5m caster line. I hadn’t had a chance to cast round with the feeder and have a feel of the bottom before the all in so after I had balled in I went in a bit blind on the feeder. I tried to find a swim away from my 14 metre line but after 5 chucks in different areas and using all my 5 hook lengths, I had prepared, from getting snagged/snapped up on every cast, I chucked the rod up the bank and went on my caster line which I had been feeding from the off.  At this point the flow was very slow and, although I had intended to catch roach on this line,  I was able to hold back the Styx float a little which resulted in a skimmer of about 8oz.  I managed another pair of eyes on this line before an hour was up and time to go on my 14 meter line.  I opted for the 1.5g at first but the flow had started to increase so I changed to the 2g float, which resulted in about 3 roach until the flow increased dramatically.  I decided to leave this swim alone until the flow decreased which can often happen on the Weaver due to the locks.  I created a new line with my 1.5g rig at 7 meters just past my caster line, where because of my bad throwing arm, a lot of the loose fed casters had landed. I snagged up after about 3 put ins and snapped my elastic and lost the rig.  I did manage to grab my elastic before it shot into the tip, so I tied a crows foot and was able to put another rig on it, which this time I opted for the heaviest rig I had, a 3g Tipo for the 14 metre line, but even this was far too light for the flow.  To cut a long story short I struggled all match and a couldn’t cope with the flow and all I could manage was the odd pair of eyes from my 14 metre swim.  I tried casting over my 14 metre swim with a bomb but even here I would get snagged on the bottom.  I think I had 12 casts on the feeder / bomb and I got snagged up 10 times and lost the hook length, wherever I seemed to cast there was a snag.  Steven Flood, the Winsford AA match secretary came to talk to me during the match and he informed that the overhanging trees on the far bank had been cut away and all the branches had been discarded in the water, which was why me and most people were getting snagged up.  With 15 minutes to go and losing another hook length on my pole rig I decided to chuck the feeder in and tackle down – but I got snagged again! Last 10 minutes I decided to run the Styx float through a little shallower and this resulted in 3 roach, which by my standards on the day, was bagging!!!!

I thought I had about 1lb in the net and besides Colin and John Grimshaw I had not heard of anyone catching a great deal so maybe I could frame?  It turned out that Colin had actually caught some good Bream fishing worm and crumb feeder close to some reeds he had on the far bank and he managed a great weight of 24lb 9oz.

1st Colin 24lb 9oz

2nd John Grimshaw 3lb 4oz

3rd Chris Wong 1lb 7oz

4th Me 1lb 5.5oz

1st Place – Colin 24lb 9oz Great net of Bream

2nd – John Grimshaw 3lb 4oz

Brian Mitchem was too embarrassed to show his 7oz’s

Billy weighing in his 4oz for 7th

 

On reflection I didn’t fish a good match and my set up could not cope with the conditions today.  There was bream to be had today and if I had a rig that was able to cope with the float such as a 5g Cralusso shark I could have presented a still bait over the 14 ,metre swim which did have a clear spot of about a metre where I had balled in and I am sure this would have resulted in one or two bream.  I have never had the need to fish over a 3g float on the Weaver and I guess I have just hit it in the past when the flow has been slow and steady.  I will invest a few heavier Cralusso shark floats for days like today.  I didn’t find anywhere in my swim that was clear for the feeder but I didn’t look less than half way across and I should have come close in on the feeder when the flow became unmanageable where I reckon there would not be any discarded braches laying on the bottom.  Running the styx rig through was successful in the last 10 minutes, so again this was another option for me when I could not cope with the flow.  I spent too long trying to hold an over shotted and over depth 3g float still and sitting there like a garden gnome (I’d actually sort of resigned to defeat) when I knew it wasn’t working.  Well 4th place from a poor performance is not so bad.

Well done to Colin who blew the field apart with a great net of Bream and showed us all how to cope with the conditions.

Well this week I will be ditching those light elastics and B511’s for Black/Purple Hydro and B911’s in preparation for some proper bagging at Whiteacres, where I go for a week on Saturday……can’t wait!

I will blog the 2 matches I fish down there when I get back.

Tight Lines

 

 

 

ULC Match 5, 15.06.14, Hardys Pool

Weather: 15C, Very low wind, Light rain, Air Pressure 1026

I always look forward to this match as it’s a little oasis of a place, a picturesque lake, quiet and tranquil and well stocked with a variety of species. The stocking includes lots of silvers; ide, rudd, roach, skimmers, hybrids and lots of tench, brown goldfish, carp, bream and koi.  Many different methods can work so its suits most styles of angling and consequently is a fair match venue.

We got there early at 7.15am so we could sort out the usual draw but also do the draw for the annual pairs match.  We had permanent pegs 2 to 21 and with there only being 16 of us we left out 2 and 21 and also left out 11 and 12 which are in the corner/ bend of the lake and the room is a little more restricted here, especially if you want to fish long.  I wanted to draw pegs 3 to 7 or 14 upwards so really the only pegs I didn’t fancy were pegs 9, 10 and 13, and even these pegs are OK, it’s just that I wanted to be away from the corner and also I had fished it the day before and noticed that the little wind that can hit this place was blowing towards the early numbers.  Incidentally, the day before I fished peg 9 and done OK catching plenty of silvers………  I drew peg 9!  My pair for today was to be Billy Bennett.

I have fished 4 matches on this place and had 2 wins and 2 seconds.  I always target the silvers as you are usually guaranteed a 30lb+ weight and that is usually good enough to frame and sometimes if you really get them going, a 50lb+ weight is easily achievable.  So therefore my plan today was to keep it simple and just target the silvers by trying to catch them using a whip method.  This whip fishing is not done by using a conventional whip, but by using my old yank and bank margin pole fitted with light elastics, using the match top 3 plus the number 4 section. I have 2 match 3 sections, one fitted with blue hydro and one fitted with NG white amber core.

Setup:

Turbertini whip float 4X16, .11 to .10 powerline, Drennan silverfish match 16 (whipping to 7 metres)

Turbertini whip float 4X14, .11 to .10 powerline, Drennan silverfish match 18 (whipping to 6 metres)

Chianti 3×8. .10 to .09 powerline, Drennan Silverfish Match 18, 2 ft deep

Malman winter wire 4×14. .11 to .10 powerline, 6ft,  Drennan silverfish match 18 (5 metres out down the near slope)

Bait: 6 pints of maggots.

I did pick up my rods on this morning but just before I packed them in the car I decided against it as I didn’t want to deviate from my plan of just targeting the silvers.

I was ready at 8.35am, 25 minutes to spare, which is rarity for me, but as I was fishing a simple match with one main line I didn’t have too many rigs and no bait to prepare.

On the all in I went straight out with the whip and began to feed about 20 maggots ( a constant stream of about a pint an hour).  After 3 whips I got my first ide of about 5oz and then a few more followed.  The first hour was OK and I had about 6lb in the net which although I wanted more and was hoping for 1 or 2 bonus 3lb ide or 2lb Brownfish, it was to be expected as this type of fishing usually gets stronger as the match goes on and the swim gets stronger and eventually as soon as your whip rig hits the water a 8oz Ide or Rudd is ripping the elastic from your pole.  This wasn’t to be the case today as in fact the swim became weaker and I could not get them feeding confidently enough for the whip method to work properly.  I don’t think I ever had enough fish feeding in the swim to give them that competitive edge with there feeding.  I didn’t have the usual swirling of ide feeding inches deep and the small balls of fish I had in my swim were wary and not attacking the bait enough for them too self hook. This resulted in many missed bites and lots of lost fish due too poor hook holds from spooked fish.  I did find out that as the fish were not taking it aggressively on the drop that by leaving the rig to settle at its 2ft depth I could pick up the odd 8oz hybrid and even a bonus 2lb brownfish.  Half way through and I was struggling with 10lb and it was at this point I was kicking myself for not bringing my rods as it was apparent that the fish had backed right off. Spoon on the next peg was getting the odd 2lb Brownfish on the pellet feeder and I thought to myself that if I had my feeder rod I could of alternated with this and my whip swim, which could have given my whip swim a much needed rest and time for the silvers to regroup. Towards the end of the match it got just slightly better with the odd swirl but they were still not right on the feed and bites were hard to hit on the whip. I could get a few ide on my shallow rig by keeping a tight line and fishing inches deep but after 2 or 3 fish they would back away from the pole tip.  I did try altering my 6ft rig and searching the depth over my whip swim to see if I could locate what depth the fish where feeding at but I had little success and concluded the fish had backed right off the feed.  With about an hour to go I hooked into something decent which I thought was one of the big ide and I had it on for a while and lost it right near the net (on reflection I think it was more likely to be one of the 2lb Brownfish as the fish didn’t surface like an ide, which usually give themselves up pretty easily and surface quickly after being hooked).

On the all out I had 14lb on my clicker but I knew I would probably have a little more as I was losing count of the ounces I was catching.  It turned out that everyone had struggled and no-one was admitting to more than 15lb except Colin who said he had about 20lb.  So it looked like a win for Colin who did in fact weigh in 22lb 1oz and I, to my surprise, weighed in 21lb 5oz.  I didn’t see the last 2 weigh ins on pegs 3 and 4, as they weren’t admitting to much, and took my stuff up to the car park, but it turned out that Mark on peg 4 had won with 22lb 4oz and Colin had been done again by ounces!  Mark told me he fished pellet on the deck at 7m for the first 2 hours, then he caught silvers shallow on caster and maggots at 9 metres.  So 3rd place for me which, although I’m not too disappointed with, is my worst result on this venue. I’m kicking myself a little as I had lost more than 1lb by trying to swing in 5oz rudd instead of netting them and that would have been enough to win.

On reflection……… don’t put all your eggs in one basket!!!   I should have taken my rods and fished a bomb rod and loose fed lightly over the top,  This would have given me opportunity to give the whip swim the much needed breaks and I would have picked up at least one or two bonus fish. I did in fact speak to John Grimshaw who fished the bomb and pellet in the last hour and went from an empty net to 16lb 4th place, which proves that the fish where definitely backing off the feed a little as the bomb was much more successful than the feeders today.

So well done Mark and unlucky Colin who lost out by ounces again.

I couldn’t get good pictures of the weigh in today as Dave Hardy junior does the weigh in and wants to return the fish to water as quickly as possible, so I have posted a few random pictures (Timmy is on most of them – he loves the camera!)

Final weights:

1st – Mark Henderson  22lb 4oz

2nd – Colin Mooney 22lb 1oz

3rd – Me 21lb 5oz

4th – John Grimshaw 16lb

 

I nearly forgot to mention that Colin and Timmy won the pairs with a combine weight of 35lb 5oz, so some consolation for Colin.