Whitehall King of Sections - 30th October 2011

Weather: 11C Overcast with Threats of Rain.
Water: Colour had dropped slightly but still a good rich brown colour
Peg: 17
Baits: Skrettings Micros, Chopped Prawn and Worm, 6mm VDE RS Expanders, GOT Atomic Paste.
Weight: 34lb 0oz (2nd to Carl Graham AGAIN!!)

A great initiative by the club and Dave Warren to run a final for those who have won a section during the year and £1 of pools from club matches going to this big money final. It was fished on the club pool and a good turn out should make for a good match. I drew on peg 17 on the deep side of the pool and had some scores to settle with this pool on matches having never really sussed it.

I got to my peg and plumbed the depth at 13m to find 9ft of water straight in front of me. I then plumbed a line again at 13m but at 10'oclock to me, this plumbed up exactly the same so the same rig was used. I used a Sconezone double deez in 0.8g to 0.17 powerline and a 0.15 hooklength to a 16 B911. This was matched to a top 2 with grey hydro on a pulla. Down my left edge I had 8ft a metre from the bank so set a paste rig up here in the hope that some munters would come in at some point in the match. This rig was a Sconezone Jadz 0.6g to 0.14 through to a 12 B911 on black hydro.

My two out lines would be fed completely differently. I fed both lines a mixture of dampened micros chopped prawns and worms that formed into a ball nicely. I fed straight in front with a large cad pot every 8mins or every large fish and my '10 o'clock' line with a large pot every 45mins. I started on my line straight in front and had  a number of small fish on the worm and the prawn wasn't really producing. It was hard going but I had managed to snare a 4lb carp, 4 of the year old stockies, a 1lb plus perch, a crucian and 8 roach and rudd by 12:15 when I decided to go on the 10 o'clock line. I had a lost carp on this line, a fan tail and a few bits and pieces.

At 13:30 I decided to try down the edge where I had fed balls of micros. First put in I missed a huge sail away. 2nd put in a little twitch and a big stike saw black hydro sit oabove my swim and plod around very frimly. A true munter was on and this plodded around my swim for a while before then deciding to bottom me out, I hurridly got some more sections out  and got the leviation in. Later weighed at 14lb 6oz. A couple of smaller beasties later the paste line had died. The last 30mins saw me go out again and get another stockie and a beautiful Koi Carp my first ever. I had won my section but had I enough to beat the on form Carl Graham a nervy weigh in revealed I was 1 carp short. What a great competition and 2 matches left for me until the early spring a possible Autumn league decider with St. Johns and the Fur and Feather where a prize will be guaranteed. Thanks for reading!!

Whitehall League - Tirley Pete's Lake 23rd October 2011

Weather: 10C-12C Overcast
Water: Slight ripple on surface, good carp puddle brown
Peg: 5
Baits: Coppens 4.5mm feed pellet, VDE RS 6mm Expanders, Ringers Cool Water 4.5mm Expanders, White Maggot, Got Atomic Paste.
Weight: 56lb 6oz (6th) and section win

Unfortunately this fixture came a few weeks too late to have a 'baggin' match on this heavily stocked carp pool. A good turn out to the last Whitehall league fixture of the season saw me needing a top half finish to win the league and a bigger weight than Carl Graham to score a double and win the clubs knockout competition.

On to the draw and 5 sticks to my hand and puts me next to Dave Warren who has a habbit of doing well on heavily stocked carp pools. I drew on the shallow side of the pool and set my box up 3 ft into the water and still had inches of water around me. Regardless of the Island being an inviting prospect I immediately put my efforts towards the pole lines for speed of catching in order to put a weight together. My pole lines were at 5m, 10m and down the edge.

At 5m I found 3 1/2ft in a small hole to the left which rose to just 2ft towards my right, I fished in this hole and found just 3-4 inches more depth at 10m. Instead of using same rig I set up seperate rigs for the pellet as I like to fish as short a line from float to pole tip as possible. My rigs for lines at 5m and 10m were the same; 0.3g Maver Invincible series 7 pencil floats on 0.17 powerline to 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B911. This was matched to grey hydro. For the 5m line I set up a paste rig to go on if I was getting plagued by gudgeon on pellet and maggot, this was a 0.2g Sconezone Jadz on 0.17 straight through to a 14 B911 and on black hydro. My edge rig was one of my new SconeZone Samurai's on 0.17 powerline straight through to a size 14 B911 for a bunch of maggots down the edge on black hydro.

New SconeZone Samurai Margin Floats

I started the session with a medium cad pot of pellets at 5m and double maggot on the hook, I always do this to check what is currently in the swim. After 5 gudgeon I changed to a 4.5mm pellet and after 5 more gudegeon I changed to a 6mm pellet. The swim then went quiet so either a carp was present or I had caught all the gudgeon, it was a carp and 3 2lb stamp fish came to the net quickly. After this flurry the swim died, I was potting in with a medium cad pot every 5mins or after every carp so a time to change. I reduced the feed and this brought more gudgeon so a change was needed.

I went out to the 10m line and fed the same as I had started at the beggining of the match and had a few fish from this line. The match continued to fish hard and I had to chop and change between the 2 lines, fishing pellet and maggot and the amount of feed going in. Towards the last hour I had fed my margin line and saw 3 fish come in, I went over them straight away with 4 maggots on the hook, the float buried I struck into the back side of a large carp to see 3 bow waves fly off and my rig come flying back towards me. The fish never returned.

I saw other anglers feeding large amounts towards the end so I filled in my 5m line with a large pot of 4.5mm pellet and fished the paste over the top. In the last 45mins I had 5 decent carp on the paste at 5m which gave me 17 carp and 29 gudgeon in my nets. I thought I had around 45lbs so was glad I went over the 50lb barrier, although it seemed the hardest 50lb I have ever scratched around for. At the weight in I had enough to take me to the league championship however the real interest was on the KO with Carl Graham. He pulled out one bag at 32lb, stating his next bag was silvers I thought I had it but seeing him pull out another net of carp to go 30lb+ my heart sank, well angled mate!!