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.