Weather: 7C - 12C cloudy with patches of strong sun, very little wind.
Water: Dark green / brown.
Peg: 26
Baits: White & Bronze maggot, Caster and Groundbait mix
Weight: 5lb-14oz
A lovely early spring day greeted this Sunday along with a sore head and cotton like mouth. Nothing a few gallons of tea and a good breaky at the Whitehall didn't soon fix.
On arriving at the pool a good crowd had turned up from some neighbouring angling clubs. It looked as though a good match would be on the cards. At the draw I pulled out peg 26, an awkward peg with a tree directly behind it but a good peg for some decent fish. All the talk before the match was of big bream that had been coming out the past week and that to catch a few would send you well on your way.
Off to my peg I went, I had planned to use a groundbait approach as the fish were still reluctant to leave the deck on most pegs. Bait wise I kept it simple, 70% Bag'Em super skimmer dark was mixed with 30% brown crumb and 2 hand fulls of caster. Hookbaits were caster and white maggot.
Setting up a line for the deck at top3+2, I also found that top3+3 and top3+1 were all the same depth of around 8ft, ideal. I used a Garbo DC18 4x18 on 0.10 to 0.09 bottom with a Drennan silverfish maggot size 20 hook. This was fished dead depth due to the lack of wind about today. This was matched to double middy hi viz 3-4 elastic. Second top 3 was set up to fish on the drop at 7ft deep with a 0.6 homemade pencil straight through on 0.10 to the same hook as above, this time matched to solid 6 latex.
At the all in I potted two small balls of groundbait in my top3+2 line and went out with a single maggot. To my left a 1lb 7oz roach was landed first bung and to my right a 1lb perch. My float flew under soon after and a solid strike saw 3ft of elastic stream out of my pole and stay solid. The fish swam towards me lethargically when shipping back, I thought I had located the big bream. When I lifted my top kit a huge carp lurched up to the surface only to realise whats going on and to shoot off for the opposite bank. TWANG... One broken hook length and a huge birds nest on the end of my pole.
Back to square one and after 6-7mins I sort myself out, angler to my right has just had the same problem. On to the roach and 10 fish come in the next 30mins all on maggot. A switch to the caster brings a quiet spell so back to the maggot for 5 quick roach. I was feeding after striking into a fish to let the bait get down to the bottom by time I got my rig in the water. This seemed to be working and I was in a rhythm when once again a carp showed up. This time I decided not to hook it in the mouth but to have some fun and hook it in the tail. 45mins later with 6 sections of pole in the air and me standing on my box frantically scooping at the fish I get it in 8lbs or more this fish and a straightened hook to boot. At least it cheered the lads up around me watching me wrestle the thing in.
After the carp had ruined my swim it was back to square one feeding wise and I got back into a rhythm and put 8-10 fish in the net quickly. The swim went quite after an hour so I came closer in to have a look and had 3 goldfish, immediately putting those back I went long and had another 5 fish. Back to my rested line I had a few funny bites and then a solid lump, again it hardly moved and I got very excited as I thought it may be a bonus bream, alas it was a clonking F1 of at least 4lbs, I had never seen a fish like it, after showing the bailiff opposite he confirmed it a rare catch. Would have liked a photo with that fish but it had to go back for another day.
The last hour saw me going out long for all my fish at 7-8m. I tried coming up in the water but they were not having it. In the good old fashion way I filled a line in with 4 balls of groundbait with 30mins to go. I needed a bonus fish to frame. A bonus fish I got with another carp taking my single maggot, a lengthy battle followed which ended up with my rig up in the tree above me!!
Overall a disappointing day, I was not the only person to have to fight off the carp but I provided the most entertainment value doing so!! 5lb 14oz went on the scales which I was pleased with having probably half the 4 hours taken up messing around with carp.
Monday 21 March 2011
Saturday 12 March 2011
Whitehall Silvers Open 6th March
New year, a new club and a new venture for me into blogging.
After my first year with St.Johns Angling Society I had met 'Team Dave' also of Whitehall Inn Angling Club. I was sold on the description of the club pool and also the venues that were proposed for the club's matches in 2011. So into the new year and with limited time for getting out due to ice come February I finally got down to the club pool for some practice. My first trip down I plumped for peg 5 and promptly went about bagging on silvers at half depth and above as instructed by Dave Warren. My second venture to the Whitehall club pool was a social gathering with Mike and Team Dave joining for some silvers action. This time I went for peg 4 as there was a bit of movement in the margins, which I later pillaged for 6 carp to 11lb in 30mins. Again a bumper net of roach, rudd, ide and gudgeon was had on the white maggot at varying depths. Some sizeable roach were netted from peg 4 and a great day was had.
Onto my debut match on the Whitehall pool:
Weather: 3C - 6C overcast in morning with cool wind, clouds broke up midday and warmed up.
Water: Rich brown colour, strong surface ripple.
Peg: 5
Baits: White & Bronze maggot
Weight: 5lb-8oz
At the draw I was a little anxious, not knowing the pool too well at all. As you could imagine having a peg I have fished before gave me great confidence, however it was in an area that came in the last 2 in the previous weeks match.
Attacking the peg I plumbed up two swims on the deck at 4m and 7m. These swims were exactly the same depth of 9 1/2ft. Rig used for this was a 4x18 Carpa Porth, with a 0.5 olivette and 4 no 10 droppers. Mainline was 0.11 powerline to a 0.08 hooklength with a size 20 drennan silver fish pellet hook. This was paired to doubled middy hi-viz 3-4 through a match top 3. Second rig I set up was a 0.4 homemade thin pencil float shotted with no 10's evenly spaced along the line, line and hook was the same as above. This rig was initially set at 8ft, with the intention of getting the fish to half depth later in the day. This was matched to a no6 through a match top 3.
I had gone for a particle only approach, just fishing white and bronze maggot with a few red's sprinkled on top. The thinking behind this was to avoid the big carp in the lake and save time playing these fish on my light set ups or getting broken, I wanted to build a weight through the speed of fishing.
At the all in 10 maggots were potted onto my 4m line and I was straight into small roach of 2oz hard on the deck. I fed 8-12 maggots every 2 fish by hand. The first hour I was catching at a good rate and was catching quicker than those around me, however I did notice the size of my fish were considerably smaller than others. I then decided to see if the bigger fish were hanging around over my feed or past my feed at 5m-6m-7m. All I found was the same small sized roach and rudd but was catching at a slower rate. Back onto my 4m line on the deck and the same continued with small fish being the only apparent inhabitants of my peg. The last hour was slowing down for everyone around me, I potted in a full 125ml pot of maggot on my 7m line and had 8 fish in the last hour from this swim. I was disappointed I couldn't get the fish up off of the bottom, recent cold spell may have caused this. I was also a little disappointed with the size of my fish with a 6oz-8oz rudd being my biggest catch by a long way.
When the scales came round I estimated 5lb as I had 42 fish around 2oz so wasn't surprised to hear 5lb-8oz called out. I was interested to see the catches opposite me as they had been into bigger fish on the opposite bank. Although a lot less fish than me they had a good number of sizeable perch and roach in their net and were wrestling big carp throughout the match. These pegs produced good weights due to the average stamp of fish caught. These catches were had on maggot however the bigger fish were more prominent in their pegs. My theory therefore was all the smaller fish were scared over to my peg as the opposite pegs were full of monsters of the deep!! Groundbait was also playing a part in the winning bags that came from the opposite end of the lake from my peg. A consideration I must now take for the next time I fish the venue.
Back to the drawing board for the next match 19th March.
After my first year with St.Johns Angling Society I had met 'Team Dave' also of Whitehall Inn Angling Club. I was sold on the description of the club pool and also the venues that were proposed for the club's matches in 2011. So into the new year and with limited time for getting out due to ice come February I finally got down to the club pool for some practice. My first trip down I plumped for peg 5 and promptly went about bagging on silvers at half depth and above as instructed by Dave Warren. My second venture to the Whitehall club pool was a social gathering with Mike and Team Dave joining for some silvers action. This time I went for peg 4 as there was a bit of movement in the margins, which I later pillaged for 6 carp to 11lb in 30mins. Again a bumper net of roach, rudd, ide and gudgeon was had on the white maggot at varying depths. Some sizeable roach were netted from peg 4 and a great day was had.
Onto my debut match on the Whitehall pool:
Weather: 3C - 6C overcast in morning with cool wind, clouds broke up midday and warmed up.
Water: Rich brown colour, strong surface ripple.
Peg: 5
Baits: White & Bronze maggot
Weight: 5lb-8oz
At the draw I was a little anxious, not knowing the pool too well at all. As you could imagine having a peg I have fished before gave me great confidence, however it was in an area that came in the last 2 in the previous weeks match.
Attacking the peg I plumbed up two swims on the deck at 4m and 7m. These swims were exactly the same depth of 9 1/2ft. Rig used for this was a 4x18 Carpa Porth, with a 0.5 olivette and 4 no 10 droppers. Mainline was 0.11 powerline to a 0.08 hooklength with a size 20 drennan silver fish pellet hook. This was paired to doubled middy hi-viz 3-4 through a match top 3. Second rig I set up was a 0.4 homemade thin pencil float shotted with no 10's evenly spaced along the line, line and hook was the same as above. This rig was initially set at 8ft, with the intention of getting the fish to half depth later in the day. This was matched to a no6 through a match top 3.
I had gone for a particle only approach, just fishing white and bronze maggot with a few red's sprinkled on top. The thinking behind this was to avoid the big carp in the lake and save time playing these fish on my light set ups or getting broken, I wanted to build a weight through the speed of fishing.
At the all in 10 maggots were potted onto my 4m line and I was straight into small roach of 2oz hard on the deck. I fed 8-12 maggots every 2 fish by hand. The first hour I was catching at a good rate and was catching quicker than those around me, however I did notice the size of my fish were considerably smaller than others. I then decided to see if the bigger fish were hanging around over my feed or past my feed at 5m-6m-7m. All I found was the same small sized roach and rudd but was catching at a slower rate. Back onto my 4m line on the deck and the same continued with small fish being the only apparent inhabitants of my peg. The last hour was slowing down for everyone around me, I potted in a full 125ml pot of maggot on my 7m line and had 8 fish in the last hour from this swim. I was disappointed I couldn't get the fish up off of the bottom, recent cold spell may have caused this. I was also a little disappointed with the size of my fish with a 6oz-8oz rudd being my biggest catch by a long way.
When the scales came round I estimated 5lb as I had 42 fish around 2oz so wasn't surprised to hear 5lb-8oz called out. I was interested to see the catches opposite me as they had been into bigger fish on the opposite bank. Although a lot less fish than me they had a good number of sizeable perch and roach in their net and were wrestling big carp throughout the match. These pegs produced good weights due to the average stamp of fish caught. These catches were had on maggot however the bigger fish were more prominent in their pegs. My theory therefore was all the smaller fish were scared over to my peg as the opposite pegs were full of monsters of the deep!! Groundbait was also playing a part in the winning bags that came from the opposite end of the lake from my peg. A consideration I must now take for the next time I fish the venue.
Back to the drawing board for the next match 19th March.
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