Summary of 2012

Here we go, haven't posted since May, a Summary of 2012...

Thanks for coming in to read and again sorry for those who have expected me blogging regularly and have unfortunately been disappointed. 2012 has been an extremely busy year for me with work, Rugby, Olympic games, buying & moving in to new house and fishing which unfortunately played second fiddle at times.

Here, I shall endure to summarise the key fishing events of 2012 and how I went about things this year. I have been asked, and I really want to, keep this regularly updated on almost a match by match basis in 2013.

Whitehall Season:

Whitehall Pool

After the Classic Final it was time to start the Whitehall league and attempt to defend my title of club champion. This would be a difficult feat with the addition of even more quality anglers to the already skilled anglers at the club.  The first venue was the unpredictable club pool. Things couldn't have started worse for me weighing 1lb 2oz which was made up of 2 chub. I had been catching in the week coming up to the match on maggots shallow short and pellet shallow long. Neither of which worked on the day with the two chub coming at 3/4 depth at 11m on maggots. Not the best start and a real head scratcher for me.

Hawford Bridge

Unfortunately I had a dodgy beer before the Hawford bridge match which meant missing it. This was especially silly after sneaking of a match with Mick Whatling the week before and winning with 45lb of stockies between 10oz and 1lb and 2 lumps shallow long in last 10 mins for 62lb. Dave Warren was in good form winning 2 from 2 from the opening Whitehall matches.

Greenhills

Onto a new venue for myself and one I was really looking forward to after seeing good results on the web and hearing good things from inside the club. Greenhills Kingfisher pool was the venue and a chilly morning met the many anglers present. A good read of the rules board before the match limited my options with no pellets of any type allowed and no pole pots this would limit lines to be fished. However my research showed a short approach would benefit of this venue. My draw gave me an excellent margin to my right up against some corrugated steel holding the bank up. Due to the wind blowing harshly into my face I couldn't fish corn on pole out any further that top kit + 3 so this was set up with a bomb and meat line which didn't produce due to wind.

2 hours in I had 1 carp on bomb and 2 small carp on corn line. I started feeding dead reds for the next hour down the right hand margin and started seeing tails, tails and more tails. I left it for a while but then had to get down there!! So with 2 1/2 hours to go I went down there and caught regularly on maggot and worm hookabaits. I was laying the rig up against the metal side and before rig settled black hydro was screaming out of pole top. A good win and 91lb in horrendous wind I was more than happy with.


 

Whitehall Memorial

Back to the Whitehall pool and after my last venture would I change my plan of attack... No is the answer and 12lb of Rudd, Ide and F1's shallow on pellet for 4th was an improvement but still haven't cracked the venue. Weights were really down due to the pressure from anglers and also the changeable weather really effected results here.

 

Broadheath Willow Pool

The previous week I unfortunately missed the big weight Tirley due to being at the Olympic games. However a break from Olympic sport allowed me to fish Broadheath. Another new venue for me to match fish, even though as a child I spent my summer holidays as a school boy sneaking onto this venue, was Willow pool at Broadheath fisheries. The venue has had mixed results as had everywhere this time of last year with dry winter then lashings of rain in summer. I drew an average peg and found a 3 1/2 ft plateau out at 20m so fished bomb and pellet and pellet wag over this line. The other lines that worked on the day was a paste line set at 6m and an edge line to my left as my right was blocked off by a large bush. I picked a few small carp and then 8 skimmers on bomb and pellet line in first hour whilst feeding the paste line so decided to have a look on the paste. The float buried and another skimmer was the result. I persisted and even changed to 6mm expander to try and speed up catch rate but the skimmers were mad on the paste. I wasn't catching carp between these as frequently as I would have liked so tried other lines. Eventually I went down the edge with krilled maggots and picked up 3 large carp to bump weight up, I had 31lb of skimmers and small carp and 21lb of carp from the edge which gave me 2nd place. Felt I should have done better to find carp elsewhere and being just 10lb from winning this would have been beneficial although the skimmers I caught really bumped my weight up.

 

 

Elmbridge Heron Pool

A return to the often prolific Elmbridge fishery. This time a change of pool to the Heron pool that although doesn't have the larger specimens in but is well stocked none the less. I was little disappointed I didn't draw an island however I did have a spare peg to my left which was a rarity after the pool being stuffed full with 2 clubs on it. I fished a pellet feeder over to a bar in the middle of the lake for the first 2 hours whilst feeding a short paste line and a pellet line long at 13m, which never come to play. On the pellet feeder I had 4 carp to 3lb in first 4 chucks, after this I had 10 smallish carp in first hour and half for about 25lb. I moved on to paste line, after putting 8 feeder fulls out on feeder line, and picked a few carp up with a few big skimmers in between. I fed dead maggots down the edge and fished a worm over the top, this was going ok but not prolific so I picked up feeder rod again after dumping 1 pint of maggot down edge. I had 2 quick wrap arounds and lost a double at the net which turned the air a bit blue. I then went down the edge for last hour with krilled maggots and picked up a few more carp. I was furiatingly foul hooking a lot and loosing them down my shallow edge, the fish were foul kooing theselves at times which was extremely annoying. I managed to take the scales to 74lb for 2nd place and 1 fish, especially the one I lost at the net, from the win. Really was a match where I had the fish there to win but haven't fished it particularly well. If the match was 30mins or an hour later the fishing would have been tremendous as this really is a venue they switch on in last hour.

 

Greenhills Kingfisher (2)

A return to Greenhills and the same pool is a good addition to the calendar as people can understand how to fish the venue and go back and try it again. The pool was once again kind to me, but so to was the draw which saw me in a corner with a lot of reeds.

 

 

As the rules had changed to allow pole pots more options on the pole became available. However a simple match for me. Corn at 11m, dump potting it in, with corn or dyed yellow meat as hookbaits. After 2 hours of this I then went down the edge and caught the best to my right in the reeds. The fish were all of a smaller stamp with a couple of bigger fish to 8lb. When the scales went round my mate Ash had weighed 100lb+ and I genuinly thought I had caught less than the last match on the venue. However after 3 weights 123lb gave me the win. The fish on the corn line really helped to bump my weight up from last time althought the fish I had were all of a small stamp.

 

 

 

Final Whitehall League Match

Some more clashes saw me miss out on Tirley and Ockeridge. The league table was primed for the last match with 3 people mathematically still in the running for the title. Dave Warren leading with Ash Jauncey 6 points behind and Nigel Crane just behind them. I drew the flier peg 12 in the final league match of the year and would I change my plan to fish the famous edge line in this peg... No as I was going to refine my pellet shallow long 14m (blue line) and maggots shallow at 5m (green line). The only line I set up on the deck was at 14.5m (red line) to my right in 12ft of water where I balled in 3 baby heads of groundbait and caught one roach from all day.

 

I caught silvers early short before hooking a 1lb 8oz perch that ran my solid 5 latex around the peg and obviously scared the fish away. I tried my long line on the deck whilst pinging pellet over long line and latched into a 5oz roach before bumping some smaller samples. The fish were not here as expected so onto the shallow long line. I latched into 2 small skimmers at 3/4 depth before coming up to 1/2 depth after a string of missed bites. Again the bites were not coming so I shallowed up to my 2ft rig and latched into a few rudd and chub then a 1lb carp. The pool then went dead and I even succumbed to feeding my right hand margin in last hour but float didn't move.

 

Open Fishing

Larford Opens

I have had limited time to fish any where else but my beloved Larford this year. After the classic I had booked myself onto a Maver Match This final and also the Larford Festival so I had to get some practise in before these events. I got to fish speci lake twice in opens picking up a 3rd and a 2nd in both which was my best results to date. These were on different methods all together, with one match seeing me weight 76lb for 2nd made up of 6 edge carp and 10lb of skimmers on peg 12 and the other 67lb of bomb and pellet fish off of peg 68 on chalet bank.

 

The Maver Match this Match on 30th June saw me 3 pegs down from the winner with 199lb on paste (which hasn't worked all year to date). Me and Paul Holland next to me couldn't believe what we were seeing. I had a few fish short on the method feeder but my 60lb was paltry in comparison.

 

The Larford Festival 2012 was an eye opener for me having never fished a festival in any guise before. Preparation before the week was frantic to cover all my options. The week was excellent fishing, although my usual good drawing let me down this week. Although I missed out on some better section points on Monday and Thursday by narrow margins my poor performance off of peg 10 grass bank Friday was grim and you cannot carry an 8th place. 

Barnes

Matthew

34.94

5

20.65

3

25.82

4

25.06

5

15.52

8

121.99

25

I was not happy with my performance overall on the week although I enjoyed the fishing. A definite improvement is required next year and I would strongly recommend the festival to anyone.

 

Cob House

The other venue I got to fish was Cob House Fisheries and managed to do a few weights however just missed getting that elusive double ton figure. Weighing 192lb (wyatts), 189lb (Laugherne Island) and 186lb (wyatts). Not knowing that the paste has been accounting for the bigger weights on wyatts and scaling up hooks and elastic would assist me in getting this. I have my eye on this figure this year and hopefully break the Whitehall record on the way.

 

Larford Classic Qualifiers 2013

Well already I have fished 4 qualifiers this year. The first 3 matches I managed to be pegged next to the winning angler; Andy Kinder (my favourite), Paul Cook and Chris Bradney.

 

After being bridesmaid to these the fourth match I went to with a good angling friend Scott Poynten and as luck would have it I got pegged next to him, myself on peg 17 very close to my favourite peg 18 with Scott on 19. We had drawn a good area so here was how the match panned out for me.

 

 

I started the match without feeding my long pole line with copious amounts of 4mm as I often do to draw the skimmers in but instead mixed half a pot of 4mm with a handful of Marukyu efg 130. I then chucked the method clipped up at 100 turns. I had my powerlite system set up at 12ft matched with size 40 shimmano stradic loaded with 6lb sensor. A small 30g kobra method feeder loaded with marukyu efg130 mixed 60/40 with liquidised marukyu nori pellets and some sfa 400 krill powder.

 

The tip sprung back after a minute of being in the water and a 10oz skimmer came winding back, an excellent start and I really hope it isn't a loner skimmer. I chucked to the same spot and after 3mins of being in the water I looked at the tip slowly drop back and the line slacken. I started to wind in and after 10 or so turns the rod lurched around into something solid which made the clutch whizz off. I must admit I slackened it off a bit so Scott would hear off of the next peg. A 6lb-7lb carp was a very welcome addition on a cool morning where I had ran over ice covered puddles on my way to my peg.

 

After this welcome fish that I had told Scott was close to 20lb (haha) I fed another half pot of 4mm pellets on my long pole line. I chucked the method feeder out again and picked up another 3 skimmers. On coming onto the long pole line I was picking up the odd carp on 6mm pellet. The pellets I used were VDE RS Elite in 6mm which were pumped in liquid brasem.

 

I fished 2 rigs over this 10 1/2 ft line; the first was a 0.75g hillbilly dweezil at just over dead depth shotted with a bulk at 2ft  and 3 no 9 droppers at 6 inch intervals. The second was a 1g dweezil float with 6 inches layed on the deck, shotted double bulk style with two no8 shot at depth and bulk at 18 inches. Both on 0.15 powerline to a 0.11 hooklength with a size 16 B911 F1 hook. The latter was the better rig giving much more positive bite indication on the day. Feeding was done by kinder pot every fish which doesn't traditionally is not the best way to line the skimmers up.

 

The fishing was poor all over the lake, I had an about par amount of skimmers however Mick Bull 2 pegs to my left had 3 carp to my 1. Nobody else around me had carp and in the last hour Ray Lamb was catching carp short on corn over on peg 62. I had to figure how to find another carp and after the angler on my left was not catching a thing short.

 

I fed 25-30 grains of corn with 2 hours to on short line and kept going over this line between skimmers on my long line. I experimented with corn, meat, punched corn sausage (thanks to Scott's Old Ghost links). I fed a few grains every 15mins. There wasn't a sign of a fish until 30mins to go where I had a small liner. I decided with 10mins to go on putting a Marukyu 10mm Nori JPZ. The result was a 19lb common that plodded around the peg heaving Maver Retro 12-20 around my peg for 5mins after the match which got me a crowd of on lookers; Scott and Matt Blackmore watched as I shuffled the leviathan into the pan.

 

The result was 40lb which saw me 3rd in the match behind the already qualified Andy Kinder and Mick Bull. I was ecstatic with the result and really didn't think I could have done much more than 5lb more of skimmers on long line throughout the match. The real plus was beating Scotty off of the next peg for some serious blagging rights.

 

All the best for the new year. Please check back for my ventures on Larford prior to the Classic final in May.

Maver Larford Classic 2012

Well unfortunatley the weather and the fishing was poor for me. I was planning on writing up an in depth blog about these two days but I think it would be unfair to waste your time on what I did in the attempt to catch a fish. Istead I have put a little competition at the bottom of this post.

Day 1 saw me draw 67 on speci with pegs either side and not a lot caught here the day before I must admit I felt uninspired. I set up long method, bomb and pellet, pellet waggler, long pole on deck for skimmers and 2 edge lines for the day. Resulted in 5 bites all day 3 skimmers, 1 6lb carp and lost a huge margin fish at death.

Day 2 I drew peg 9 on the grass bank of match lake and had to mess around on long pole, short pole, bomb and pellet and the edge for a few fish, one thing i didnt set up was the method and tim bull next to me had a run of fish down the edge of that method. Overall a grim 2 days which has knocked the confidence slightly. A couple of good results are needed desperately now!!

!!CAPTION COMPETITION TIME!!

I am the 4th angler up and Gary Watling is the 6th angler up:

Add a comment to this post with your caption:

Winner gets a bag of Marukyu AFP Paste:

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

When it all starts going wrong

Venue: Larford lakes speci lake
Peg: 80
Weather: freezing cold, rain and wind!
Result: 6th with 12lb 1 place out of qualifiers

Well I've already blogged on my recent woes at Larford. To cut a long story short they continued on my recent outing to the speci lake on a classic qualifier. I was feeling a little more confident this week and pinned my hopes on catching on a groundbait feeder and maggot.

I had been keeping an eye on the results from the silvers festival held on speci during the week and groundbait feeder and pole and pellet was coming up in many winning results. This tied with the strong winds meant that this approach may win over pole tactics. I was always going to set up the obligatory method feeder as well.

Onto the day and the weather was abhorant, temperature had dropped 10*C in 2 days, so was going to make the fishig tough. Banter was as usual about my drawing hand and once again it didn't disappoint, peg 80, end peg flier which was also the golden peg.

The match didn't go my way until the last hour where I extracted 11lb of skimmers from my 13m pole and pellet line. Not a sign of a carp down the edge despite 2 being caught opposite me from down there. Also not a bite on groundbait feeder. I had a F1 and a skimmer on the method and lost a carp to a snag. That cost me.

I have learnt some lessons the hard way unfortunately. I knew the pole line would best be plundered in the last 2 hours. However I should have chucked the method all day as fish were not settling over feed during the day because of the cold conditions. All that was needed was one carp from the method to have qualified or to have framed!! Chucking the method throughout the day would leave a small feeding area for fish to settle over in last hour when they feed hard. The method is also an area I would say is a strength rather than a groundbait feeder approach do I should have fished to strengths. I also spent an hour down the edge looking for a carp, I managed 1 perch on this line.

So to take a few points forward:
- listen to what's working but make that work to my strengths
- do not have a Pre-determined plan in winter conditions
- just chuck the method and leave it

My plans for 2012

Hi to all of my regular readers, would love to update you on some good news but I haven't been doing too well as of late. I thought I would also share my plans for this year so you can see what is in store for the blog in 2012.

Firstly I have been visiting Larford during a spell of injury stopped me playing rugby, I usually stop angling as much in winter but have managed 3 more of the Maver Larford Classic Qualifiers. I had a terrible draw on match lake and with only 18inches out to 16m it was a wonder I caught anything. Managed to get 28lb of skimmers and F1's with 3 anglers around me blanking I was pleased but 108lb won the match. I then fished arena on a rock hard day, only 1 fish with the rest of my bank blanking... Yes in arena lake at larford. Winners had 30lb odd. Finally I drew peg 18 on speci lake a right flier. Well for 3 hours all that had been caught was a number of skimmers on the method at range, I had 3 and then went on my 14.5m pole line. Well I bagged up for an hour for 17lb then they disappeared and I couldn't do anything to get them back. What made it worse was next peg caught for last hour and half and bagged 30lbs skimmers on his pole line. I also had an enjoyable day on laugherne island and finished 4th with 37lbs and 7lbs separating 1st and 7th place, this was one of the tightest matches I've ever heard of let alone fished. What made it worse I lost 2 fish with the strong wind blowing my pole the other direction to the fish causing a pull out and a h/l break... My language was a little blue after this to say the least!!

Well on to my plans for 2012;
- Qualify for Maver Classic Final on the 6th and 7th May through opens on larford
- Barston Masters on Saturdays of April 14th,May 12th, June 9th, August 11th 2012 and The Final Saturday - September 8th.
- Maver Match This qualifier on Barston 22nd April
- Maver Match This qualifier on Larford 30th June
- Larford Summer Festival 30th July - Friday 3rd August
- All of the Whitehall matches 20/05/2012 Sunday Whitehall Club Pool
10/06/2012 Sunday Trevor Smiths Reddings Pool
24/06/2012 Sunday Greenhills Fishery  Kingfisher Pool
01/07/2012 Sunday Whitehall Club Pool
08/07/2012 Sunday CLUB MEMORIAL MATCH
14/07/2012 SATURDAY Tirley Court. Pete’s Lake
29/07/2012 Sunday Willow Pool Broadheath Fishery
12/08/2012 Sunday Hallow Pool’s
19/08/2012 Sunday Elmbridge Heron Pool 25 Pegs
02/09/2012 Sunday Greenhills Fishery  Kingfisher Pool
08/09/2012 SATURDAY Tirley Court. Pete’s Lake
30/09/2012 Sunday Oak Pool Ockeridge
21/10/2012 Sunday Whitehall Club Pool


So all in all a busy match calendar when I add a few opens as well as evening matches on Thursday at larford and at the Whitehall. I will endeavour to let you know exactly how I do in all of the above matches. I can't wait for the spring and summer!

Winter sort out...

...A slightly different entry...

As we are well into winter, even though the weather has been quite mild I tend not to be out fishing as much. It is a very busy time for me at work and with my Rugby playing commitments on a Saturday it leaves little time for fishing on the weekends.

Instead of just neglecting my gear in the garage to collect cobwebs and dust I use my time on the evenings and occasionally sat in front of some Rugby or Football on a Sunday to organise my gear for the spring. This includes sorting rigs, tying hook lengths and generally making sure bits and pieces are clean and tidy.

First on my list of "to do's" was to clean my pole; not an easy job and a job that is best done when the woman of the house is out shopping. I do this by getting the sections out and standing them up in the bath, I then use some car shampoo with wax mixed with some warm water to wash down sections. Then with the shower head a blast down the section to remove any loose dirt or grit. These are then towel dried and stood up to dry on top of an old towel.

Secondly my carryall, I could not believe the state of the bottom of my carryall. I was very tempted to bin it and start again!! Bits of pellet, paste and all manner of sludge had found its way to the bottom of the bag, even though I use a separate bait carryall. I had to empty this and get in it with the hose pipe, even the dog turned its nose up at it. Was then a case of simply hanging this out to dry.

The labour recently has been on my pole rigs. I have checked old rigs, re-tyed, tyed new rigs, changed some patterns and have managed to amass this lot of rigs that cover the styles of fishing I have started to hone and hope to start to get better at over the next year. These rigs are made to cover everything I will want to do on a fishery and therefore won't cover every style of fishing perceivable. Here they are in all there glory:



... Next up is my hooklengths and feeder / waggler stocks watch this space...