1 of my 4 targets for the season met!!

Venue: Larford Lakes (Speci Lake)
Peg: 76
Weather: Cool, frost in the moring and a biting northerly wind that changed to a westerly mid day.
Result: 46lb, 4th and qualifed.

Well, as many of you know I have been chasing qualification for the Maver Larford Classic final when I have been out through the winter and spring. As Larford was a new venue and a whole new skill set I have had some indifferent results. This weekend was the last opportunity I had to qualify and it was all or bust for me. So, here goes.

I had researched methods that were working and had set my mind on bomb and pellet and pole and pellet for my two main lines with the pellet waggler if the fish were showing or intercepting the pellets on the drop. Andy Kinder was very obliging and gave me a heads up on phone to fish a lot shorter than has been the norm on the peg I drew this week, some top advise, I wouldnt have had the result was it not for this heads up.

So onto my peg, on looking at it I had 2 overhanging bushes both sides and was considering putting in a margin swim however due to the frost in the morning I thought this would not produce so put a line in at 6m if the big boys came close late on. This was going to be a throw away line as I didn't see it producing so was not going to put any faith into this line.

My first line of attack is the bomb and pellet fished at 30m. For this I set up my 11ft version of my powerlite feeder system with a 2oz tip. This was matched with a Daiwa Caprice 2500F loaded with 0.22 Daiwa Sensor. A 2/3oz Guru Lead was cliped onto a link swivel, I also attach my hooklength to this swivel, this was 0.17 powerline tide with a band 15mm from the bend of a size 16 B911.

To back up I set up a pole line at 12.5m to fish pellet for skimmers and any carp that may show up. As there was a slight breeze and ripple on I set up a 1g Sconezone Berweemz in 8 1/2ft of water. This was on 0.15 reflo powerline to the same hooklength size and a size 16 B911. This was matched to a soft set grey hydro.

On the all in I potted in a full 125ml pot of dampened 6mm pellet with 30 or so krilled red maggots. I then chucked the bomb and started to ping 4 8mm pellets over the bomb line every 30 seconds for the first 5 mins. The tip wanged around after 2 mins and a lenghty fight saw me pull out just before the net. I was furious with myself however I cannot loose my head this early on.

After 10mins the tip moved back and forth and a strike saw solid resistance and a 1lb skimmer came to the net. 10mins later another skimmer slightly bigger followed. I kept pinging for 5 lots of 1 min bursts of 4 pellets and then left the swim for 3-4 mins and then repeated. The tip went round for my 2 biggest carp of the day at around 12:30-13:00.

I then rested the line and went onto the pole line that I had been feeding with a big pot every 45mins. At this point Andy Neal to my right had started to catch skimmers at a real pace. I could not match this and spent a little too long trying to make this line work. I later found out he was having to use a 2g float to combat the tow and wind on the water.

I had contined to ping pellets over my bomb line, I had hoped the rest would see fish settle, and on returning the line was strong. I had 6 fish within an hour, they were all smaller carp but I was catching and a lot of people were not around me. I stayed on this line until the end, some of the bites were now ripping the rod off of the rest, so the fish were confident on this line. I tried for 5mins on my 6m line and even chucked bomb over long pole line to pick up a bonus fish but without fruition.

Roll on next week and the maver match this qualifer at Barston Lakes... praying for a good draw.

Getting back to old ways

Venue: Ockeridge Lakes Willow Pool
Peg: 7
Weather: Cool, westerly wind with heavy rain showers
Result: 50lb 2nd on lake, 3rd overall.

After fishing Barston last year a few times and thoroughly enjoying my time on there I had earlier decided to fish some bigger venues to challenge myself as an angler. Namely Larford lakes and in particular the specimen lake. I have had some mixed fortunes on there and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the classic final in may.

Well Sunday last I drew a great area and a corner peg. Unfortunately the carp had moved out of the area and were not feeding,  I fished for munters all day and had one bite in last minute down the edge which resulted in a scale the size of my fist coming back on the hook. I was desolated to have blanked on a peg that Neil McKinnon and Martin Churchill said I could win the match off today but then again that is fishing! To make it worse when packing away and chatting to the owner Phil my barrow decided to try and go for a swim and fell over nearly emptying its contents into the depths of speci lake. But a well done to fellow club man Gary Whatling for qualifying!

I therefore decide to get my head back in the game and head to Ockeridge Pools just past Hallow. A lovely, well looked after and prolific venue of 4 small sized pools. Going back to this style of commercial pool fishing would surely get my confidence back in my fishing. It was also good to see fellow club man Dave Warren there and an added bit on inter-club competition to be had.

At the draw I pulled out Willow pool peg 7, which meant nothing to me as I had ventured to Ockeridge 5 times before now and drawn on Oak pool every time. Speaking to a couple of regulars they all said I would struggle to do a big weight there which was encouraging, or not, but I did not let this deter me. I am here to catch lots of fish and that is what I will do no matter what. Plan was to have them on pellet short and long and maybe a few shallow then plunder the edge for last 2 hours.

Map Showing peg and lines fished

On getting to my peg I had a good plumb around to try and find some features on this pool. First thing I always look for is the slope going away from me, usually found at around top 2 and 2, however I could only find the same depth around this distance. I came close to find a steep slope a top kit out from me this was no good for today as the fish are not coming in that close yet. I then found the same depth, just over 4ft, from this point on all the way to 13m. As this was the case I opted on fishing a top 2 and 2 line and a line at 11m as this gives plenty of space between the two swims. I didn't need to go the extra distance out on such a small pool. My other attack would be down the edge of the shelf about 2ft of depth under an overhanging tree and bush to my right looked very fishy as my left hand side was blocked off due to a tree next to me obstructing my pole.

As I had the same depth rigs could be the same although if the wind picked up I would have opted for a heavier float at 11m for added control. For the pellet I fished a sconezone piranha in a 0.2g on 0.15 powerline to a 0.13 hooklength and 16 B911 hook. This was matched to grey hydro. My margin line was a 0.1g Jubleez on 0.17 line with a 14 B911 hook and I matched this to purple hydro initially but after pulling out of fish I switched to black. I also set up a paste line with a sconezone 0.2g jadz on 0.15 to a 14 hook and a shallow rig with a 0.07 Wellardz to 0.11  hooklength for banded pellet.


Piranaz for pellet on deck



Jubleez for margins






Jadz for paste



Wellardz for shallow



Onto the session and I started off on my top 2 and 2 line hoping to mug some carp short early on. A medium cad pot full of 4mms went in and a 6mm pellet on the hook. After 30 mins and 4 skimmers I moved off this line as I was not connecting with the carp, opposite me an angler was just landing his 6th carp, so something needed changing.

I went out to 11m with around 20 4mm pellets and 8 krilled maggots in the pot, it is silty in this area, therefore too much feed would lead to lots of line bites and foul hookers as the fish forage through the silt for the feed. Lifting and dropping saw some interest but again there was something not right. I changed from my bulk at 12 inches and no droppers shotting pattern to a strung bulk with last shot at 8 inches and then shot at 2 inch intervals. This saw 3 more carp all around 1lb 8oz come to the net with a blast of 8 pellets over the top of that line every fish. I kept catapulting in the same quantity of loose feed every 4mins to draw fish to the swim and every 2 fish put another cad pot in over the rig. I was catching steady but the carp were small and the skimmers even smaller. The first 2 hours were hard for most, I had under 10lb and was beginning to sweat. 

Whilst fishing the long line I was always flicking pellets on my top 2 line and went over this line at times through the day, this produced the odd carp here and there, however they were not there in numbers so my long line was my most consistent bet. Constant lifting and dropping enticed bites from here but then out of the blue it died completely. I then had to focus on my short line in the 3rd and 4th hour of the match.

On going back to this line I changed to a much more positive shotting pattern of 1 no10 dropper at 6 inches and bulk at 12 inches. The carp here were of a bigger stamp and the skimmers when they showed would be caught in 2's and 3's before carp moved back in. I really upped my feed here and after hooking a fish would throw in a good 15 pellets. I followed this up by a full cad pot over my rig when going back over. With 2 hours to go I reckon I had 25lb-28lb and needed my edge line to produce. I had cupped in 125ml cup of krilled maggots into the swim from the start on every hour.

When initially going down the edge I got obliterated by roach so cupped in a large pot full and started to flick bunches down the edge. With just over an hour to go there were swirls in the edge and I went in with a bunch of 5 maggots on the hook. The float failed to settle before elastic was streaming out of my pole tip and the first edge fish was there. Usually I would big pit after every fish when on the maggot but as it had fished so hard in the day I flicked out bunches of maggots to try and imitate my hookbait when that hit the water.

After this initial carp I put the rig in and a little dip made me think another carp was around andthen 2 more dips and on the 4th dip I grew impatient and struck into a wobbly thing. Decent chub I though, nice change. Next put in the same again a little dip and a strike sees purple hydro again wobbling all over my swim and a huge mouth come up. A decent looking chub, or so I thought, of 3lb+ which most likely would not have been caught on corn or meat down the edge. It turned out at the weigh in that they were indeed Ide, and not chub, which easily gives me a new pb for that species.

Stupidly I had opted for purple hydro for the edge, not sure what I was planning on catching, which led to two hook pulls late in the session so I changed this to black hydro and did not suffer the same again. With 5 mins to go my margin had seemingly gone dead. I kept flicking maggots down the edge and lowering my hookbait in. I was looking around at Dave Warren sacking up in the last half hour when all of a sudden my pole tip was being pulled down and around my swim. Black hydro was streaming out and I had finally hooked into one of the lumps. After having to use the pulla on my black hydro and shouting fish on at the whistle (2 things I haven't done for a while) a lovely 7lb- 8lb lean common was in the net on the whistle.

I thought I might sneak 2nd on the pool and get my section but be beaten by the guys on the pool behind me who caught all day. Turns out their carp were a much smaller stamp just averaging over 1lb so I ended up doing a little better than I thought.

Next in line is Barston the next 3 weeks with a Matchfishingscene.co.uk match on good Friday, Barston Masters on the 14th April and Maver Match this on the 22nd April. Along with this I will hopefully have 2 more bites at the cherry with qualification to the classic final at Larford. Keep looking on as I will be updating my goings on on here more regularly now the season is starting in full.

Thanks for reading,

Matt