Whitehall League Match - Broadacres 19th June 2011

Weather: 16C - 20C overcast for most of day with sunny patches.
Water: Murky green/grey
Peg: 30
Baits: 4mm, 6mm, 8mm meat (half natural/half red), red corn, fishery (red) pellets, casters
Weight: 35lb 8oz

Onto the third Whitehall match and I felt before this match I need to start pulling my finger out with 2 mediocre results prior to this match I wanted a frame, if not at least a section win. Although I do approach every match wanting to win!!

So an early start with an 8 o'clock draw and fishing 9 until 2 made me think a bit more about tactics for the match. I heard the fish go quite big and don't see many pellets or past compared to other pellet driven fisheries so this screamed 2 things worm or meat. I have blown out so many times on the worm it had to be the meat for me and away I went the night before dying bits of meat red... I turned up the next morning looking like I had just murdered someone and with frozen meat that I was trying to defrost with the heaters in my car, much to the amusement of the lads there!!

The draw came around and 30 stuck to my hand, excellent a long range island chuck, lovely stuff. I sped the car around and started to set my gear up. Plan was going to be to mug a few carp on the meat at the bottom of the shelf early and then have a long line on the meat and a pellet feeder to the island.

Pole rigs for the day were my favourite big bait floats of KC carpa 2's. The bottom of the ledge plumbed up at 4ft and my 14m line was 4.5ft so a 4x14 float was used for both swims. These were rigged with 0.15 preston power line to a 0.15 hooklength with a 16 B911 both on grey hydro on a pulla. I fish the meat a bristle length over depth so the weight does not interrupt the shotting of the float and bites are usually quite savage anyway so the finesse is not needed. Also prevents striking at roach playing football with your meat on the bottom. I also set up a caster rig at 4ft on a 0.2g homemade pencil with 0.11 to 0.09 with a 18 drennan silver fish pellet hook to preston 11h set soft.

KC Carpa 2 4x14



My feeder set up was a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey mach 1 XT with 3lb maxima line. This was ties to a quick change swivel where I could then clip on my feeder. I have been using the pellet feeders by preston recently as opposed to the method with pellets. I feel a lot more confident that my pellets have got to the deck in these feeders and they also offer more grip on a slope up to an island that the tradition method feeder does. I clipped one of these on to the quickstop and clipped up a foot away from the left on the island where a branch was overhanging into the water. I used a 6inch 0.21 hooklength to a size 14 Kamasan animal with a red hi-viz quickstop on a hair.

 

I started the session by potting in a full 250ml pot of caster on my 6m line followed by a good handful of 6mm meat. I then fished this for 30mins with one foul hooked car being the result... it was dead looking around me nobody was catching, Les had a few good roach and skimmers next to me on the same line so I boshed in some more casters on this line and stuck a big pot of meat and casters out at 14m. I had 6 quick roach and then the swim died off after catapulting in 10 casters after each fish. There were fish cruising in the morning sun at this point and I kept looking to the island for any movement but couldn't spot any.

Onto the long line, firstly with caster rig to see what was there... roach were there and I had 4 before it went dead. A switch to the meat saw a few liners and then the float sunk a solid strike saw solid resistance and the carp went tearing off right into the next pegs swim. Finally getting the 5lb+ fish into the net was a relief and I think the first carp landed although John Snelson had a huge eel.

Messing about on this line for a further 20mins saw nothing but a roach on 6mm piece of meat so it was time to chuck to the island. Mid day is about the time I wanted to start chucking however I hoped more fish would have been in the net by then I had about 7lbs so far which was about par.

Showing peg and lines fished (Red = Pole / Blue = Feeder line)

Stuffing the pellet feeder with pellets and with 2 8mm cubes of red meat on the hook it took 4mins for the tip to violently wrap around. A 6lb battle axe came to the net. The tip flew around about 20mins after that and then the drag started to scream until it quickly hit the clip, I managed to unclip it to look up and see a big fish top out past the island. A long battled ensued and finally I got the leviathans head up and to the net. A good 15lbs I thought where as the scales read just over 13lb for the long and thin common.

Now I am a fit lad but boy my arm was aching after that. At this point it was 45mins until the end of the match. My next cast saw yet again the tip wrap around and playing the fish whilst talking to John Snelson is not a good idea... he managed to jinx me and the hook pulled at the net. Never mind next cast saw a slender 4lb fish in the net and with 5 mins to go another huge wrap around saw me playing a fish well after the all out had gone and what I thought was another double was just short of that mark.

With the length of the fish and the way they pulled I thought I had 40lb in my net easily. The scales came around and told a different story however I had more than enough for the win. I rued not chucking the feeder at the start however the match could have done differently if I had.

Final note is if you fancy some preston pellet feeders all you need is a boat and head down to Broadacres and on the small island there are 3 there dangling away like baubles.

Whitehall Thursday Evening Match - Whitehall Pool 16th June 2011

Weather: 16C cloudy with one heavy shower at start of match
Water: Dark brown
Peg: 9
Baits: Fishery pellets paste, paste and paste
Weight: 30lb 0oz

Onto my second Whitehall evening match, I have thoroughly enjoyed the 2 I have fished and will be looking to get to more in the future when Rugby training allows. My first match was a straight shoot out between me and the next peg, unfortunately I could not get another carp out or winkle a few silvers out to make up the extra 1lb that beat me off of the next peg. So this is how the match on the 16th went...

My attack today was going to be paste for lumps and as a back up paste for lumps. I got to my peg and immediately noticed the tree in the water in my left hand margin and the scum that was attracting flies floating on top. Now this was either going to hold carp or deter them from the swim which I'll find out later. I then set upon finding where the slope levels off enough to fish the paste and this was found at 7m in 9 and a bit ft of water.

I have struggled with fishing the paste in the depth of water you find at the Whitehall pool however a switch to a different shotting pattern has helped to firstly get teh rig out and then to read bites. I am using the Sconezone 'Jadz' paste floats in a 0.8g in this swim and shot this with 0.6g of shot (10 no8 stotz), I have 7 shot 8 inches from the float and then 3 shot are placed directly under the float. This I find helps with the rig being blown around and line swinging around when being cupped in and also settles the rig and the float alot quicker in the deep water. This was on 0.17 preston powerline straight through to a size 12 B911 to a top 2 with black hydro on a pulla. My edge rig was again a Sconezone Jads in 0.6g with the same line and hook combo but to purple hydro on a pulla.



SconeZone Jadz 0.8g

Onto the session; I started off at 7m with a decent ball of atomic paste and and filled the paste pot up with dampened 4mm fishery pellets. It didn't take long for the peg to start fizzing away with smaller fish and after 2 more balls of paste went in on the hook I had a bite which I promptly lost. At this point the peg was silly with fizzing so I went half a section out (inch deeper). As soon as the float settled I was getting nods and then the float sat under the surface, a strike saw black hydro race across the pool and my pole sections quickly following it out. Quite a lengthy battle ensued but resulted in a lean 6lb mirror in the net.

At this point I had stopped feeding pellet and was really squeezing my paste hard on the hook to get it down past the silvers. I had a 20min mess around in the edge and it was solid with silvers and the scum was getting on my new sconezone floats, so without a sign of a carp I chucked the top kit up the bank and focused on that 7m line. I had to wait 15mins for my next bite which was a classic paste sail away a firm strike saw my elastic sit straight above my swim. On shipping back I thought I had a big ol'bream however as soons as this fish saw the net he decided to go beserk!! A near miss with the tree in my margin and a 8lb-9lb was in the net.

I am now over the half way stage in the match and to my right Lee Davey has 3 fish and Dave Warren has 2 lumps. I then get into another dopey 8lb fish that easily comes to the net, this time I am back on the original 7m line and have started banging in the pellets to make something happen. I ship back out and wollop the float flies under and a firm strike pulls my pole tip under the surface. Hey up, a long battle results in a good double as fat as it is long in the net. Now Lee on the peg next to me has 4 fish in his net with 30min to go and he says thay are small. I don't believe it so am begging for that float to go under for 1 more fish.

A long biteless 20mins of the match where I tried longer, shorter, more feed, no feed and even put some green atomic cloud in my paste resulted in a few liners and a nervy weigh in. I weighed 30lbs dead  and enough for the win thanks to the size of my fish. I couldn't have done it without Dave Yapp's sausage and bacon sanwich before the match - pukka!!

Barston Lakes MFS Champions League 30th May 2011

Weather: 10C-12C Constant rain all day.
Water: Deep green/brown
Peg: 20
Baits: green swim stim for method with dead reds, tutti fruti 8mm boilies and white fish 8mm boilies. Micros, 4mm&6mm expanders and dead reds for pole.
Weight: 49lb 4oz

A miserable day greated my first MFS match of the year however upon walking into the club house at Barston that was soon forgotten, what wonderful facilities for the use of a fishery. The tactics for the match was going to be long range method fishing, with some lads not even contemplating setting up a pole line. However with 2 hours to set up and my rods already set up to go I had to set the pole up, if anything to stop from being bored in the driving rain.

The peg I pulled out had no obvious features being between the 18th green and the island. On having a chuck around I kept getting snagged at 50 turns so chucked at 65 with the option if going to 75 if they backed off the feeder crashing in to the relatively shallow water at Barston. I set up a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey Mach 1 XT loaded with 4lb daiwa sensor. I also got out my old MAP power carp feeder rod which has loads of casting power if the wind got up or I needed the longer chuck, to the same reel combo again.

After clipping both reels up and tying marker knots on the line at the same distance I set up a pole line at 13m just as a back up/last resort type thing if the method had gone completely dead. I had just over 4ft at 11m, 13m and 14m so settled on the 13m line, if it worked out I needed this line I could come closer and also follow them out from 13m. I set up a maver invincible series 7 pencil on 0.13 to 0.11 hook length with a size 18 b911.

Onto the session, on the all in I chucked out 6 feeder fulls of my method mix in a med cage feeder, this was spread between 60 and 70 turns on the reel and because of my dodgy casting a little left and right of my marker. I then followed this in with the method, because of the distance I plumped for a large brass stem feeder by Kobra, these can really be punished on the cast and the stem wont flex like the plastic counterparts.

First cast I sat and waited in anticipation for all of 3mins when wallop, my tip flew round and the line hit the clip, I luckily got the line free to hear my drag screaming away (I could have been off the coast of Florida keys for a moment hooking into a Marlin, then I remembered how wet and cold I was and how big the carp go in Barston). A long battle ensued and the double figure beasty just fit into my landing net. A great start. The next hour produced 6 little F1's on the method line and then I had a quiet 30min spell. I decided to lob it that bit further to 75 turns. As soon as the method hit down I struggled to tighted up, something must be wrong so I reeled in about 20 turns until I hit something solid. Must be those snags I had found earlier right... wrong turned out to be the worlds biggest drop back bite and the fish just kept swimming towards me until it realised he was in netting distance and a nice 5lb of carpy lump was in the net. Hour 2 and 3 were steady with me changing the distance of casting I was making to keep skimmers and f1's up to 2lb coming to the net.

Hour 4 went a bit dead so I plonked in some micros a few expanders and some dead reds onto my pole line and had 2 more fruitless chucks whilst pinging maggot over the top of my pole line. 1st put in on the pole line and the float bobs and dips for 30 seconds before a big lift and a sail away reults in a decent bream of 3lb odd coming to the net. After this I had 2 roach and an f1 fall off the hook in 20mins so back to the rested method line for the last hour. 2 proper carp followed with 1 being smaller that most the f1's and the other around 3lb and the last 20mins was made up of 4 more skimmers on the method line.

At the weigh in I had 2 huge weights of 79lb and 86lb to my right and I knew I had beaten all thise to my left in my section. I just needed a bit of luck here to get a double default. On hearing that there were a few 90's from other sections I thought this was a goner but waited in the bar anyway until I had to shoot off. Unfortunatley before my sectioned was called out duuuuur, £40 that could have found a good home!

In other news I had 122lb on wyatts at cob house on the top kit+1 ans pellet for 5th. Not much to talk about there catch, feed, rebait and repeat.