St.Johns Autumn League - Otherton Pool 28th August 2011

Weather: 16C-18C sunny for most part with a torrential downpour 10 mins before the end.
Water: Muddy Brown
Peg: 24
Baits: Screttings Micro's, Got Atomic Paste, Ringers 4mm Expanders, Bag'Em Krill Seaker groundbait, Worms and White Maggots
Weight: 80lb 7oz (1st)

After missing the first of the St.Johns Autumn league matches on my favourite Tooby's pool I was looking forward to a days carp bashing on the prolific Otherton pool. Now this venue is full of fish that are often very difficult to catch in a match so this often gets my head whirring. Today though I had decided to make them have it short and down the edge.

I set up 3 lines, only 2 produced so I will just talk about those. Firstly I knew paste has been out fishing the pellet on the pool so this was the first line I went about setting up on the shelf at 4m in front of me in just over 3ft of water. I set up a SconeZone Jadz 0.2g to 0.17 straight through to a size 12 B911, this was matched to black hydro. On this line I also set up a pellet/maggot rig incase the paste did not produce; a 0.2g Maver invincible series 7 was set up on 0.15 - 0.13 hooklength with a 18 B911 on grey hydro.

The final line was tight into the edge next to some boarding holding the bank up in 18 inches of water. I set up a Hillybilly ratcatcher 2 to 0.17 straight through to a Kamasan animal size 14, again matched to black hydro.

At the all in I potted a medium cad pot of micros onto my line at 4m and went over the top with a double maggot to see what was in the peg... couple of roach later and carp being caught to my left on the paste on that line I immediately had to change. A change on to the paste saw carp coming reguarly for an hour and a half before starting to slow.



Showing peg position and the lines fished.



I pilled in 2 large pots full of loose groundbait down the edge and went over with 4 maggots on the hook, before the float settled a fish was streaming elastic out of my po

le tip. I went straight back over and had another quick fish. After this I could see a number of fish coming in and spooking off, I pressumed that they were spooking from the pole being held over the edge so came off that line.

I re-fed one pot full and went back to the paste line. It was solid again with fish and I mistakenly fed micros with my paste which resulted in a couple of foul hookers pulling out and one coming to the net. It was far better not feeding a thing on that line. I fished this line for another hour and a half until 13:00, whilst feeding a big pot of groundbait down the edge every 30 mins.

The penultimate hour saw me catching reguarly down the edge on 2 halfs a worm and on occasions changing to 4 maggots on the hook. The trend seemed to be that if fish were visible down the edge then the maggot would catch quicker whereas if I could not see any movement the worm would catch quicker. The final 30 mins saw me get one liner with a minute to go from the all out which was frustrating, I had gone back on the paste line to no avail and tried the other margin but there seemed to be no fish about.

At the all out I reckoned I had 65lbs which I thought was enough for a win but was very surprised when my nets went 80lb. If the fish had of kept coming and not lost the 4 foul hookers I think I could have easily done the ton from this peg. In reflection I am glad I went for an attack where the fish usually feed on that pool, I think the fish are always close on this pool it is just a matter of getting them feeding over these lines. Next up Laugherne Island for Whitehall and Tooby's for St.Johns, two matches I quite fancy getting something from lets hope so!!



Whitehall League Match - Hallow Club Pools 21st August 2011

Weather: 20C-22C sunny.
Water: Dark Brown, in the shade for most of the match.
Peg: 17
Baits: 4mm screttings pellet, 2mm coppens pellet, 6mm  van den eynde marine expanders Atomic Paste, caster and white Maggot
Weight: 53lb 6oz (1st)

An early start was needed in order to find this one and to try and decifer Mr Hope's directions and the legend that he is got me there without getting lost!

Nothing known about this place apart from its stocked with carp and silvers which doesnt make the match easy to go about planning for. I planned to fish caster for no other reason than I had 3 pints of them I had turned myself. They were rank and much titilation was had in the car park before the match, resulting in them being covered in tumeric?

I set up a caster line at 10m on the deck at 5ft with a 0.2 homemade pencil on 0.13 powerline and a 0.11 hl to a 18 B911 and a on the drop 2ft - 1ft rig with a 4x10 (stotz) Hillybilly guzzunder to the same line combination. These were on double 5 latex and preton 9h respectively. I set up a pellet line at 5m on a 0.2 maver invincible series 7 on 0.15 to 0.13 to a 16 B911. A paste line was set up here but not used. Final line I set up was towards an empty platform on my right in 18inches of water on a Hillbybilly Ratcathcer 2 float to 0.17 straight throught a 14 B911. (This had 2ft of line above eventually as the fish were spooking, more of that later)

I started pinging caster at 10m and had the odd fish, a lovely mixed bag included roach, rudd, perch, chub, tench and a small carp from this line. I had to play with depths, shotting and feeding to keep fish coming and never really put a string of fish together. I alternated from this line and my 5m pellet line which I was feeding with a medium cad pot every 10mins. By this stage it was 2 1/2 hours into match and people with the sun in their pegs were catching carp irregularly. By 3 1/2 hours I had 8lbs in my nets, not good by any means, however the sun was moving towards my peg and with it cruising carp.

I fed my margin swim with a pot full of micros and a pot full of caster and went over with 4 maggots on the hook. I had 3 quick fish giving me great confidence. The fish then started to spook easily in the margins so I changed to a longer rig and held the pole away from their heads.

I put some more in the net this way, feeding a ball of pellet every fish by hand. By lengthing the rig I had also made myself a 'mugging' rig. I tried flicking the rig past the nose of cruising fish and hoped they would snaffle the 'quad mag' bait. I managed 10 fish out of an attempted 30 on the mugging front. At the same time I put the rig into the edge whilst waiting for a suitable fish to 'mug' and then hurridly postioned my pole. This was a frantic last hour where I put 40lbs in the net and was swinging my pole around a lot, my shoulders ached to say the least.

When the scales came around I couldnt believe I had done 50lb and beat 2nd place by over 20lbs after the appauling start to the match, just shows that you should never pack up early. Next match Laugherne Island at Cob House, a Nemisis of mine as I have never done very well on opens there although I enjoy fishing it. The semi finals of the knock out will also take place here so all to play for.

Whitehall League Match - Pheasant Pool Elmbridge Fishery 14th August 2011

Weather: 18C-22C overcast.
Water: Rich clay like brown
Peg: 20
Baits: 4mm and micro fishery pellet, 6mm  van den eynde marine and ringers expanders, paste from fishery pellets
Weight: 54lbs 3oz (4th)

So after missing a few weeks due to holidays and the sort I get back to fishing with a mid week open at Ockeridge and finish 4th with 86lb off of Meadow 20. Onto the Whitehall league and after missing a match on the club pool I need some points. So peg 20 comes out of the bang and the long and the short of it is I finish 4th. So 3 matches, 3 peg 20's and 3 4th places.

Getting to my peg I am pleased to see an overhanging tree with a cut in to the bank with 2ft of water tight in to my left and an inlet pipe to my right with again 2ft of water. The marginal shelf quickly slopes off to 4 1/2ft at 2+2 and at 13m this remains the same. The info I have is that pellet and paste is fished short for most wins on the opens.

Showing peg position and lines fished

With this in mind I set up a pellet rig at 2+2 with a 0.4 Maver invincible series 7 to 0.17 preston powerline and a 0.15 h/l to a 16 B911 this was matched with grey hydro. For this line I also set up a paste rig with a 0.4 SconeZone Jadz on 0.19 poweline straight through to a 12 B911 on black hydro. My margin rigs were a 0.1 Hillybilly Billybob to 0.19 powerline straight through to a 14 B911 for the worm over micros, this was matched to purple hydro.

I started my match wanting to go to 13m and feed my 2+2 line for at least 30mins before going onto it. However feeders started to crash in around that line from the adjacent bank and my peg was fizzing away from 4m-7m out. I went out with a medium sized cad pot of 4mm pellets and a 6mm pellet on the hook. The float was burying at a good rate and a good number of mixed sized skimmers came to the net between the 30min mark and the 1hour 15min mark. People up the pool were catching carp, big munting carp as well, so I had to change.

Next time the float dipped a 4lb carp came to the net. So back out I went feeding after every fish or 5mins as I was feeding before (varying the amount of pellets to the fish I was catching). The float dipped slightly then burried and a long fight ensued. A carp of well over 15lb came to netting range when ping the hook pulled from the leviathon. This triggered me to move onto the paste from here on in, whilt maintaining the pellet feed.

The 2nd and 3rd hours of the match was spent steadily putting small carp to 3lb and skimmers to 1 1/2 into the net on the paste without a sign of any big fish. I estimated myself on 25lb-30lb which was slightly below the 40lb that the bayliff had told me i need in the first 3 1/2 hours before going down the side for 50lb+. I had seen some people start to plunder the margins early with some monsters coming out so I put 2 250ml pot fulls of micros down each edge.

I went straight down the left hand (tree) edge on double dendra worm and had a fish to 8lb straight away. I followed this by going down again and after loosing 1 to the trees and getting a huge mirror scale back I went down the other edge. Again first put in sees purple hydro streaking down the pool and another 8lb fish goes to the net. Again I go in and get another fish out to around 7lb.

The last hour was frustrating as a few perch took the worm bait down the edge. I spent most of my time thinking about back to my paste line but then what if I miss a couple of 10lb+ carp down the edge. All in all a rather frustrating final hour that saw the 1st and 2nd places bag up down the edge and only a couple of other fish coming out, including a 21lb stonker!!