Targets for 2014

Last year I set myself some targets to try and achieve in matches. This was enjoyable to try and ensure I meet these targets and frustrating at the same time as some were a little out of my control. I am going to again set myself some targets but make them more challenging. I felt that I improved a lot of aspects of my fishing and understanding last year so should have a more successful year in 2014. As long as I draw well in Whitehall matches next year!

8 sections points or less in the Maver Classic final. FAILED

2 open match wins. SUCCESS (2 at Larford, 2 at Cob House)

Weight 200lb+ in a match. SUCCESS (268 Wyatts and 282 Laurel *new lake record*)

Win Whitehall league FAILED

Weight 650lb+ aggregate weight in Whitehall league matches this year. SUCCESS 668lb

This year I am going to split my targets between club events and fishing on the open circuit:

 

Club:

• Win the league
• Win the knockout
• Weight 750lb+ in league matches

Cob house x2: 300lb
Tirley x2: 150lb
Greenhills x2: 150lb
Whitehall x3: 75lb
Hallow: 30lb
Manor Farm: 75lb
Fishponds: 20lb

Opens:

• Win 4 open matches
• Frame on 10 matches
• Finish with less points than in 2013 classic final (22 points)
• Top 20 position in Larford festival

Classic Qualifiers

Unfortunately I could not get to Larford for the first few weeks of the classic qualifiers due to club commitments and having my knee operated on. I wanted to get myself qualified before Christmas as I found the matches much more enjoyable without the added pressure last year. The first match I fished was on Specimen Lake but I drew out of it on peg 24 and my knee hurt, surely a valid excuse, the results were good for some though:

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Dean Dickinson (Colmic)	77	Method feeder	127-03-00
2nd	Tony Higgins (Storey's)	8	Margins	121-06-00
3rd	Andy Kinder (Maver / Marukyu)	71	Method feeder	120-13-00
4th	Mark Johnson (Bait-Tech)	75	Pole and pellet / margins	108-09-00
5th	Chris Bradney (Maver)	28		108-03-00
6th	Thomas Hanson (Barnsley Bait)	67		100-10-00

The next qualifier match I fished was a couple of weeks after this match, due to club commitments, on the 2nd November it was onto the match lake in gale force winds. I drew peg 10 that I have had three times and not done well on it. I fished quite a tidy match on the short pole at 5m-7m chasing the F1s around and then catching a few down the edge. My rigs for my short lines were both Sconezone V8's in 0.2 on 0.15 and 0.13 hooklengths. The 0.13 was to a band and an 18 B911 with the 0.15 going to a 14 B911 for a 6mm expander. All was looking well before... disaster!!

 I was feeding Old Ghost Krill groundbait with dead reds to the back of a clump of reeds to my left, just out of picture, at 11m in 10" of water. It was solid with fish and I was about to go onto this line when a gust of wind blew over my rollers and saw carbon splinter everywhere. A nightmare of broken carbon lay behind me and I couldn't reach the fish!! I had a top 5 to fish to the other side of reeds but the fish did not venture around there in numbers. A big chance missed, although I don't think I would have caught up with Matt on the end peg.

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Matt Greening (Woody's)	28	Pole and pellet	112-06-00
2nd	Brian Jones (Maver)	19	Pole and pellet	99-12-00
3rd	Andy Kinder (Maver / Marukyu)	4	Method feeder	92-03-00
4th	Matt Blackmore (Maver)	22	Margins	90-10-00
5th	Matt Barnes (Whitehall)	10	Pole and pellet	83-10-00
6th	Paul Cook (Maver)	16	Margins	67-04-00

I had a small enforced break due to the breaks in my pole but returned to the Match lake again on 16th November. I drew possibly the worst peg on the lake, well any peg next to Blacky is crap. At least I could give him a lesson in how to catch.

The match started really slow; I started with 2 method chucks and was flicking 4mm pellets at 6m. I thought I might catch a few short early so went on the 6m line and found it was not to be... An hour passed and one skimmer had been caught on the entire lake. It was grim.

I chucked the method again after sprinkling a few 4mm pellets on my 13m line and the tip wanged around before I got the rod on its rest with a 2lb F1 being the culprit. It then went stone cold dead on me. I chucked a bit longer but no good.

I caught all my fish between 13m and 14.5m on 4mm expander pellet over 4mm feed. I used a heavy and a lighter rig and found the lighter rig caught more fish on the day. Both were 0.15 to 0.13 to a 16 B911. The heavier rig was a 0.3g sconezone V8 and the heavier was a 0.6g hillbilly billybob. Feeding was funny and I couldn't get into a regular pattern and stay with it to keep the fish coming they were very scatty in how they wanted it.

I needed a more consistent catch rate or for my short line to come good to get anywhere near qualifying from this match. Anyway I gave Blacky a goo hiding!!

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Paul Cook (Maver)	48	Pole and pellet	108-10-00
2nd	Jordan Holloway (Browning)	16	Pole and pellet	84-05-00
3rd	Matt Barnes (Whitehall)	22	Pole and pellet	64-07-00
4th	Steve Prophet (Larford)	50		61-07-00
5th	Rob Cox (Wyre Forest)	24		59-14-00
6th	Matt Blackmore (Maver)	20		46-09-00

I was starting to get some stick about not getting qualified so I had to pull my finger out and how better that to return to Specimen lake where I qualified from the previous 2 years. 1st December was quite mild and the fishing had been up and down on the venue. I drew particularly well on 16 which is my favourite area (14-20) of the whole complex. I qualified off of 17 last year!

The match was pretty straight forward for me. Especially when I wanged the feeder out to 55 turns and it went round straight away. I then chucked back and was rewarded with another carp so 20lb in first 10mins. Groundbait was old ghost krill and match carp mixed 60/40 with a sprinkling of protein binder due to the depth I was fishing in. I played with micros but the groundait was what they wanted. I then had to chase the fish about a bit. I went onto my 13m line when it went quiet on the method and had 10lb of skimmers in 20mins before a carp ran e around and eventually smashed me up thus ruining that line. No fish in the last 45mins cost me the match but I qualified so am happy with that.

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Ray Lamb (Maver)	63	Pole and pellet	99-07-00
2nd	Matt Barnes (Whitehall)	16	Method feeder	93-11-00
3rd	Brian Jones (Maver)	12	Pole and pellet	77-06-00
4th	Andy Kinder (Maver / Marukyu)	66	Feeder	68-03-00
5th	John Skidmore (Maver)	10	Bomb and meat	59-12-00
6th	Rob Cooksey (Maver)	22	Pole and pellet	49-08-00

 

Larford Specimen Lake - Open Match

Decent warm up before Classic Qualifiers

1stMick Bull (Shimano / Dynamite Baits)66Meat short146-08-00

2ndMatt Blackmore (Maver)0Bomb / Method feeder113-02-00

3rdBrian Clark (Vespe / Marukyu) Method feeder107-06-00

4thMatt Barnes (Whitehall/Miracle baits) Method and edges 104-11-00

5thJohn Cattermole (Maver) Method feeder103-14-00

6thPaul Cook (Maver) Method feeder102-08-00

With the matchfishingscene.co.uk annual lash up/match next week and the classic qualifiers also starting next week I really wanted to give Larford a bash as I have not been there for a long while. Walking in to the café I face Blacky giving all the club anglers advice, poor blokes! Just after I arrive Mike Spragg arrived followed by Scotty Poynten and Tony 'Glugger'.

Top banter at the draw with us using the bingo balls for whatever reason and certain anglers ability to pull out fliers was cheered or jeered when pegs were pulled out. I pulled out 60, not on area I have spent much time on. Mike was on 58 end peg and I had Paul Cook to my right. I have been pegged next to Paul a few times and always get battered.

I had sorted out in my mind how I wanted to fish this match and with conditions being horrendous with heavy wind and persistent rain my plans worked out. The peg looked good for my approach of fishing the tip most of the day between the method and bomb and a short pole line. I had a lovely edge line 13m to my right towards next platform with 2ft of water just under a metre from bank.

Set up:
Long range method rod - 12ft maver powerlite matched to a 4000 shimanno exage. 35g Kobra large method feeders. 0.22 n-gage hooklength to a 14 Guru MWG
Short method rod - 11ft maver powerlite matched to a 3000 daiwa regal-Z. 35g Kobra large method feeders 0.22 n-gage hooklength to a 14 Guru MWG
Bomb rod - 11ft maver powerlite matched to a 3000 daiwa regal-Z. 1oz lead 18" 0.19 powerline hooklength to a 14 Guru QM1

6m line - 0.75g Hillbilly dweezel on 0.17 powerline to a 0.17 hooklength to a 14 B911. 12-20 Maver retro dual core
Margin - 0.3g Sconezone samurai on 0.19 powerline to a 0.17 hooklength to a 12 B911 X. Orange Garbolino bazookarp

I started off the match chucking the method out at 25m whilst pinging pellets and soon got a couple of carp. I then had a number of skimmers come to this line. The wind then started to pick up so regular feeding was impossible to do accurately. I had to therefore ping double or triple pouches when the wind did die. I pulled out of a couple of carp after 40mins in, I was using a size 16 MWG hook, so upped to a 14 MWG. I stayed on this line all day and kept fish coming by fishing past feed for a couple of chucks, in front of feed and to the side also worked when bites came slow. I used a mix of Marukyu 150 with some Old Ghost protein binder to sticky the mix up a bit. Hookbaits were a change of red/white boilies, 8mm pellet and single corn.

Towards the end of the match this started to slow down. I had around 50lb with 2 hours to go and filled my edge in with 4 pots of orange miracle baits pellet crumb with some corn and dead reds. I then went onto my 6m line whilst the edge swim was settling down.

I had been flicking corn on this line for a good hour or so now so the fish should be there. I had a decent skimmer first drop in. I was just feeding by hand but the bites were far between. I therefore potted in a ball of groundbait and corn on my line. Straight away the float buried and a 6lb carp was quickly subdued. I then foul hooked and subsequently lost another carp. The skimmers then moved in. They were a decent stamp however  I was not catching them quick enough.

As this wasn't working I went down the edge and the float zipped under with a 3oz perch on the end. On return I had a lump of about 12lb then another before getting smashed on 0.19 powerline. To be fair if the fish can break 0.19 powerline I don't want to catch it as it would be stronger than me!! After this the line was quiet so 2 more pots went in. I now flicked the method over 5m/6m but this did not work at all.

The last hour I had 3 more edge carp and after the 3rd put another cup of groundbait in but this proved to be the kiss of death as no more fish came off here in the last 30mins. I could not believe the short pole/plopping method did not work for me as this is usually a banker in the last hour. Blacky came round with the scales which surprised me as I didn't think he could read. I thought I had 80lb but my fish weighed a bit more than I thought with me weighing 104lb 11oz. This was enough for 4th on the day. Pleased with that from an OK area. Mick Bull won the match with 144lb, a 113lb bag second and Brian Clarke 3rd with 107lb.

All is Lost... What targets I have met for this year

I have gone and messed it all up...

Well after a couple of good results I went into Sunday's Whitehall club match at Solhampton with a confident feel about the match. I walked the pool and drew an area I though looked quite good. Upon setting up I had very little water in front of me so margins and shallow did not really kick off. To cut a long story short I messed up in a hard match where winner had 50lb I had 27lb.

Its only one match but it meant quite a lot. The league system at the Whitehall takes best 10 of 12 matches and having a couple of shockers I couldn't afford any more slip-ups. I was also drawn against my mate Ash in the semi-final of the knockout and got royally beaten up!

Just want to go over my targets I set myself this year:

8 sections points or less in the Maver Classic final. FAILED! (13 points)

2 open match wins. SUCCESS!

20 points or less in Maver Larford Festival. DID NOT COMPETE

Weight 200lb+ in a match. SUCCESS

Win Whitehall league LOOKING UNLIKELY (3 matches to go currently 2nd with a match in hand against Rich Oliver)

Weight 650lb+ aggregate weight in Whitehall league matches this year. LOOKING UNLIKELY (Need 170lb in next 3 matches)

3 Whitehall matches to go: 2 at Tirley 28th Sept and 12th Oct and a Match at Whitehall on 3rd Nov. I will need to pull a miracle out of the bag to meet the 2 targets I have yet to meet!!

Hitting a bit of form...

Wednesday 28th August 2013 - Cob House Fisheries, Laurel Pool.

(282lb - new lake record)

 

Out of all of the lakes at Cob House Laurel pool has always been a favourite of mine. 5 years ago when I first started match fishing I had a pb of 93lb on the pool and then a year later had my pb haul of silver fish when I had 42lb of skimmers, rudd, crucians and tench from peg 20 including a rudd of 2lb. I have also enjoyed taking students from school here to fish as part of their fish husbandry course as they always caught whatever time of the year it was.

 

I wanted to give the sloppy groundbait shallow approach a go on here as a couple of anglers had made work on wyatts on the drennan knockout cup. I thought it would work especially well on laurel as it is quite deep short in in places. I mixed up a really sloppy concoction of marukyu efg130 and miracle baits red pellet crumb. A squirt of predator plus and 3 pints of dead maggots also went into the mix. It was amazing how much water it took to get it into the perfect messy slop. I wanted to take pictures with my phone but everything was somehow covered in the slop even before I started the match!!

 

What a float: Strong, Durable and Sexy...

I set up 4 rigs for 2 lines... all of them were the wonderful SconeZone V6 (fast becoming my favourite float). My shallow used a 0.2g pattern on 0.17 powerline straight through to a 14 B911X. I matched this to 12-20 maver retro dual core. My edge rig was a 0.3g V6 on 0.19 straight through to a 12 B911X and the elastic of choice was orange bazooooooooocarp. The other 2 rigs... easy they were duplicates!!

 

I started at top kit plus 2 feeding sloppy balls regularly, the fish were boshing into the mix and seemed comfortable coming close in. I had 4 rudd in the first minute and thought I may not have thought this through very well due to the big head of silver fish present in the pool. However the carp soon arrived on this line. Not much to say than I was feeding slop, slapping the rig, landing fish!

 

Half way into the match I had noticed fish in the edge and I hadn't fed a thing. The shallow line was slowing and getting funny so a switch to the edge saw me connect with fish. I pulled the rig right up the slope and fished it 8" over depth. I had my shot just resting above the bottom and pulled my float towards the bank. Most of the bites were ripping the elastic out of the pole using this method. Had I tried to fish the margin with a 'normal' rig I would have suffered foul hookers.

 

With 90 mins to go I had to go get 2 more nets to take my tally to 6 keepnets. I thought that 300lb was on the cards. However with about 40 mins left although I was getting lots of bites the fish went really small on me and were all around the 1lb-2lb mark. I tried to go deeper/further out on my margin and tried shallow again but had to stay with the smaller fish until the end. I thought I had 270lb by my net calculations so was chuffed to see 282lb go on the scales and set a new lake record!!

 

Monday 26th August 2013 - Hillview Lakes, Tewkesbury.

1st...Nev Groves................186-8...........25 heron.....all pellet short and edge.
2nd.. M Barnes .................162-4.......... 15 moorhen..... pellet long shallow/corn and paste edge
3rd.. Justin (king ?)............162-0..........27 heron
4th...Terry King..................161-6.........35 heron
5th...Billy Hill.....................158-8.........19 moorhen
6th...Howard Green.............125-8.........32 heron
 

Well after my last visit being quite infuriating, seeing me catch really well shallow the first part of the match then not being able to make it work down the edge, I had to make amends. The match was a pegged match on the 2 pools and not the canals (thank god, although they do throw up big weights). This suits me for 2 reasons, 1 I prefer open water than snake lakes and 2 I am usually quite good at drawing.

 

The draw was OK on 15 up at the top end of Moorhen with anglers to my right and also on the end bank to my left although I had the corner free to my left. It looked a good peg and I went about setting up to fish long shallow to start the match at 13m and hopefully come a bit closer and then eventually plunder the margins.

 

 

The blue arrow is my long shallow line which I fished at 13m all of the time and was catching F1's quickly on this line. I ended up with 83lb of F1's which were between 12oz and 2lb 8oz in size. I caught a few a bit deeper to start with, this was on a sconezone nigaz 0.1g set on 0.15 to a 4" hooklength of 0.13 to a 18 B911 hair rigged with a  micro band, I started having a few at 2 1/2ft before getting liners. I quickly changed over to a slapping rig and set the depth to 18". I was catching well and by constantly raining in 4/5 6mm fishery pellets and alternating between a 6mm fishery pellet and a white pellet on the hook.

 

Eventually I had to come right 'up in the air' ad was fishing at around 8" deep. At this point I found the most affective pattern was to feed a pouch when I hooked a fish. Break down to top 4 and feed a pouch. Break down to top kit and net fish or feed again and feed again when re baiting then again when about to ship out. I then didn't feed when float was in water and instead slapped the water to entice a bite. It really didn't take long at times to see white hydro spilling out of my pole tip.

 

At 13:30 I put 2 big potfulls of corn down the left long margin towards the next platform. I then starting feeding top kit + 1 lines with pinches of corn. When shipping back I had a look and saw swirls and all sorts of commotion down my long margin line. I didn't want to go over that as it would lead to potential foul hooked fish and spook them all away. I decided to leave the line alone for a while as I was catching on the pellet shallow line.

 



 

I went onto my margin line at 14:00 with 2 hours to go and was straight away rewarded with a vicious bite in my 20" deep margin. However a roach touching a pound in weight, although a lovely fish, was not what I wanted. It was clear the fish had eaten the full 2 pot fulls of corn. I went back out with half a pot and then put the rig over the top. The rig I was using was the brilliant SconeZone V6 float in 0.3g on 0.19 to a 0.17 hooklength with a 14 B911X at the business end. The rig was shotted with a bulk 8" from the hook. As I was fishing to a platform you quite often find a slope as opposed to any flat spots, therefore the rig was pulled up the slope or if bites were iffy or slow was lifted and dropped 2ft away from the bank.

 

I soon got into the fish and a 5lb carp followed by one a little bigger started off the pattern of catching. They responded well to a big kinder pot full of corn over the top after every fish. After 4 carp and 2 F1s I was seeing swirls on my short margin line. I started feeding 6mm pellet here and swung in some paste. I could see the bottom was being churned up but could not get a bite on the paste. I wasted a good 40mins for 1 carp and 2 foul hookers.

 

After wasting my time I filled in my long margin line with corn again and went back over and started getting regular bites. I had 6 more carp from this line and hooked a real plodder on the whistle. The fish came to the surface about 7m out with purple hydro being yanked out, it was easily 15lb a real fat mirror. I managed to get the fish closer only for a hook pull!! I thought I was close to winning the lake but after that I thought I might get piped to it!

 

Turns out I put 83lb of F1s and a couple of skimmers on the scales and 79lb odd from 11 margin carp. This gave me the lake win 163lb 4oz and 2nd overall with 180lb beating me. I rued my decision to come of my long margin line and mess around with paste short as I could have easily got to that!

 

 

Coming out of a Lull with a Bang!!

Well a few weeks ago I was having a real grim time with my fishing; my drawing arm was letting me down and I was messing up some pegs and not catching the potential of fish I should have in these pegs. It was really getting grim in terms of results; A crap time at hillview and cob house on opens and Whitehall matches on Elmbridge, Hawford Bridge and Laugherne Island at Cob House I completely messed up and after I got battered at Barston on an MFS match and messed up at meadowlands on another MFS match things were looking grim.

At Barston I really messed up whilst fishing the method, which I class as a method I'm confident with, guys either side of me fishing shorter on the method when I was wanging it 90 turns. It was blowing a gail so my feed must have been scattered everywhere with shoddy casting! I managed 43lb, which wasn't a million miles off with 62lb winning section, but I was very much saved of my blushes by a 13lb lump on the method short late on.

My tip at Barston didn't move much!!!

I was having a disaster and just not putting weights together with any conviction or much thought it would seem? Methods and venues that I thought as strengths were just not producing for me. I fished a matchfishingscence match at meadowlands on Warren lake which I weighed in just under 47lb which was 3 carp and 11 skimmers. I was ounced out of 2nd in section by my welsh friend from Larford Glyn and Sconey won the section and later schooled me in edge fishing. I was fishing in near enough 3ft of water feeding groundbait, corn and maggot fishing the worm on the hook.

Now you might not think this is too bad. However when you find out I hooked and lost 4 fish (potentially 40lb) then it becomes a bit more disastrous! I was losing the fish on their first run with hook pulls so can only really attribute this to foul hooking the fish. Now I thought of shallowing up and fishing bunch of maggots after the 2nd lost fish but unbelievably continued thinking the fish will settle.

After the match sconey put 50lb odd on the scales, he managed 5 fish from the edge. When speaking to him he confirmed that coming off the bottom and pinging ensured he wasn't foul hooking as the fish came into the deep edge swim. DOH!!!

 I needed to get my head right and catch some fish to get my confidence up. After taking some sound advice I went as much as I could to some venues I will definitely catch some fish and can fish to my strengths. First off the snake lake at Docklow lakes. Cesspit. Well enough said about that place!

Catching a few more...

Hillview Lakes

So with a bit of time on my hands I go over to Hillview with Mike and find myself at a venue I have fished just the once on a rover match with a load of locals. Well I know that the F1s shallow on the lakes was good and they had some lumps down the edge and I hate snake lakes so there was no way I was going on the canals. Mike Spragg went on canal 3 and bagged up finishing 2nd with 152lb - WELL DONE MIKE!!!! 

I plumped for peg 5 on Morehen and caught about 70lbs shallow on 6mm pellet and with 2 hours to go started testing the edge and coming off my shallow line NEVER LEAVE FEEDING FISH!! I caught an 8lb lump and then a fish of about 5lb and then nothing down the edge line, which the locals told me after never produces. I tipped back as I needed well over a ton to frame.

Ockeridge

Second week of holidays I was off to Ockeridge. I drew on apple pool and had a lovely looking island 15.5m away from me. It shallowed up to less that 1ft and was really snaggy so fished on the slope at 14.5m in 2'5" of water. I fished 6mm expander over 4mm feed and soon shallowed up right up to about 10" where I was catching regularly most of the day.

Funnily enough they were not having it when catapulting feed in and preferred a kinder pot and the water would be swirling and pulling the elastic out of pole tip. If I didn't have a fish after dumping feed in I would pot in water and then bang fish on. I fished a 0.1g Sconezone Jubleez on shallow line to 0.15 line an 0.13 hooklength with a 16B911 to a banded pellet. The fish seemed to hit a 6mm white sonubaits band'um faster than any other pellet. I lost a couple of these rigs in the far bank vegetation so had to beef up to black hydro 0.15 hooklength and a size 16 hook. I ended up with 138lb which put me no where as blokes had been on top kit down edges all day catching 2 180lb weights for frame.

Sorting out my Edge Fishing...

Next was onto Cob House Fisheries where I fished the Wednesday open on Oak. Drawing peg 2 gave me a good draw however with a rover going on behind me bsome noisy black country folk I caught 2 fish in first hour. I was planning to catch on top 4/5 on paste and had a few smaller fish during the first couple of hours but they were not having it.

I fed the edges after the first hour and they started coming in. I caught the majority of my fish to my left feeding maggot and groundbait and fishing bunches of 8 maggots on the hook. My margin rig was a new Sconezone V6 tied on 0.19 powerline to a 4" hooklength of 0.17 powerline to a 14 B911X. These floats are similar to the jubleez float and is brilliant for margins of 2ft or less.

I started catching really well in the last hour of the match and probably put 80lb into the nets in the last hour. People around me were struggling and losing fish. However I had figured out these fish were coming in numbers and boshing up the mag and groundbait. I came off the bottom and actually ended up fishing about 8" deep.  I knew I hadn't won the match as Craig Cartridge on peg 15 (out and out flier) had caught all day. I weighed 168lb which was good for 2nd. I could have got a lot closer to the 200lb weight that won if I hadn't been surrounded by morons the first 90mins and I hadn't gone over in 2 nets possibly losing 10lb.

Shallow, Shallow and more Shallow!!

Now I had started to catch some fish and was feeling much happier and confident about my fishing but our club were due to fish at Hallow Angling Clubs water which is notoriously tricky. I hadn't fished the water the last season but the year before I won it with shallow fishing and mugging fish. Every where I read about was catching shallow and after my Ockeridge and Hillview  visits I was too, even cob house saw me fishing off the bottom in the edge. So I had Hallow pools,  match at laugherne island and moorlands farm coming up maybe shallow will come into my attack.

Hallow Pools

I started the Whitehall club match at Hallow pools at 5m to try and mug a fish on corn over pellet whilst feeding my long line with pouches full of casters. I had 3 rigs set up for this line the first was a Hillbilly floats 0.1g billybob set to fall through 4' of water. The nxet was a Sconezone jubleez in 0.1g set to fish from 2'6" upwards. The final rig was a sconezone slapz set to fish 18" upwards if they were coming to the noise and I needed to slap the rig. All rigs were 0.15 mainline to 0.13 hooklegths to a 18b911 with a hair-rigged mirco band.



Sconezone Slapz

Sconezone Jubleez

I started on the longer rig and was immediately plagued with liners and false bites. I immediately reached for the shallower rig with the jubleez float. The float buried straight away and a 1lb carp was soon subdued. The fish kept coming up and I was soon fishing at 18".  They were not taking the pellet on the slap but were coming in to the caster feed being heavily catapulted in, leading to 1 bust catapult.

Half way through the match the fish had started to get weary and lots of fish were cruising around the pool. I cut the feed and started to flick the rig into the path of cruising fish. I shallowed right up to 6" with a white 6mm pellet being the best bait to snaffle a few fish. I just want to point out I wasn't dapping my bait on the surface I was placing the rig in front of the fish. I had a lot of rejections and fish swim straight past and found it was better to wait with pole on rollers and then ship out quickly, much to Dan Sydall's amusement, at groups of fish. I thought I had 40-45lb but was shocked to weigh 60lb.

Laugherne Island

I couldn't wait to fish Laugherne Island after screwing up on the Whitehall club match on the venue. I started 13m shallow using a Jubleez and a Slapz set of rigs with 0.17 to 0.15 powerline and a 16B911 with a hair rigged band for 6mm pellet. I fed 4mm pellet and started catching a few fish at 2ft. I then had to go out to 16m to catch a few more at 12". I continued to feed at 13m and the fish settled back on this line in the middle of the match. Between 1 and 2 I put about 50lb in the net catching steadily and feeding my edge line with 2kg on groundbait and 4 pints of maggots through the last 3 hours. I hardly saw a fish come onto my edge lines and the guy on the end peg next to me also couldn't cath down edge. I weighed in 95lb of shallow caught fish. I couldn't believe off of peg 14 I haven't caught down the edge as that would have easily bumped my weight to well over the ton and a space in the main frame.

Moorlands Farm Evening Match

I was asked if I wanted to fish the evening match at moorlands farm by Scott Poynten. I asked how its fishing, he told me shalla and edges so I of course I was going!! I drew peg 14 which is meant to be a good area and had a great edge line to my left, however yet again I have not been able to catch much at all down the edge.



 I started the match at 14.5m feeding and fishing 6mm pellet. After about 30mins I got into the fish fishing at 2ft. I later changed to a Sconezone Slapz as they were coming to the noise of the slap and I was catching quicker on the slap.

I may well have slapped a little too much though as I managed to loose 2 top kits through the session with hooked fish taking them to the depths. DOH!!!

Once again I haven't been able to get them going very well down the edge. I had 3 smaller carp down the inside which added to my 80lb of shallow fish gave me 88lb of fish in total. Had I not lost my top kits and lost my rhythm shallow I would have easily had more. I also lost a double at the net and mistakenly fed my edge from start of match instead of just before I go on it to maximise the feed quantity I had to use in last 2 hours with the strict 5 pint limit.

Baggin' Mecca... Wyatts

Onto another Whitehall league match at Cob House and it was the prolific Wyatts pool! I had bravely said that if I don't catch 200lb today I will jump in after the match and buy everyone a drink back at the Whitehall... pressure on!

So I took an early draw and pulled out 26 which is roughly the area and definitely the right side of the pool I wanted. I set up my box on the right and side of the wooden platform in order to fish next to the platform in the edge.

I started on my top kit straight out in front of me in nearly 4ft of water on miracle baits paste feeding 4mm pellet heavily by hand. Rig was a Sconezone Jadz 0.6g as it was choppy on 0.19 straight through to a 12B911X. I had 3 duplicates of every rig set up for speeeeeed. I had 4 fish in the first 30mins, luckily for me they were between 7lb-8lb each.

After 45min fish were boiling by the platform, I hadn't fed here, so I had to go onto this as I wasn't catching. I had 2ft tight in which was ideal. Again feeding 4mm pellet and fishing miracle baits paste and some coppens pellet turned into a doughy paste so I could swing it in. Orange bazoo carp ripped out of the pole as soon as I lowered my rig, a 0.3g Sconezone V6 on 0.19 through to a size 10 B911X, into the edge. I had to pull the rig tight in to the side to get a bite. If the rig was a foot away from the bank I wouldn't get a bite quick enough.

I had spells of catching quickly but had a 30min spell where I had a couple fish and tried deeper water and shalla again quickly before the fish settled in edge again. I estimated 230lb after the match in my 5 nets. At the weigh in Nigel also had 5 nets and was claiming close to 200lb. When his nets went 130 odd I though I had maybe over estimated my fish?! The first 2 nets went to 95lb and then I lifted the 3rd. It was well over 60lb I cant believe I had done that after going over in oak a couple of weeks ago. I think it was my last 45mins net I went over in as I didn't want to go and get another net as it was close to the end. I had 155lb and was winning with 2 nets to weigh in. I had another 2 nets of 50lb+ which gave me 263lb. A win, new personal record and a new club match record.

Larford Weekend - Fish'o'mania qualifier and Classic Final

Fish'o'mania

Well all in all I had a disappointing weekend and having to re-live Sunday and Monday again is going to be painful.

Saturday's Fish'o qualifier was fished in breezy and grey conditions, for the morning, which cleared to a lovely day by 5 o'clock that day. The buzz was brilliant before the match and everyone was keen for a draw in the 80's on speci or peg 4 match which was solid with fish ready to feed before the big spawn. Would my drawing hand let me down? Well I really fancied the burr bank on speci if I was to win the match at all and an end peg obviously wouldn't be frowned upon!

Into the draw bag I went and 17 stuck to my hand, where I qualified for the classic final from. Is this an omen? My favourite area on the venue and with a spare peg 18 next to me I was pleased with the draw. I got to my peg and sat and composed myself for 10mins. Martin Churchill, Paul Law and Andy Kinder all came and settled my nerves and reinforce the lines I had plumbed up and talked me through my feeding for the day. I was settled until Phil walked past and shouted 'Hamish I bet your a. hole is going on there'. I laughed it off but he was right!!

I set a pole line up at 6m that was going to be my main attack with pellet and corn. 3 rigs were set up a light float; 0.4g Billybob on 0.17 to 0.15 powerline. I then set up a 0.5g and 0.75g dweezil on the same lines all to a B911 XS. I had a method clipped at 25m and a 13m pole line set up to fish for first 2 hours whilst feeding the short line to get the big fish I would need to win in the peg. I had a margin line which was 3ft deep which I didn't speculate I would catch on and ended up only going down there for a couple of minutes a time.

The all in went and I chucked the method for the first hour whilst feeding the short pole line by hand with pinches of dampened 6mm pellet and corn. A couple of skimmers and not a sign of a carp I came on the 13m line and picked up some more decent sized skimmers but it was slow. After 2 hours I came on short line with about 10lb in nets I knew I was fishing for a section unless this line comes alive late on. I struggled and chopped and changed things until I managed 3 carp in the end to give me a total weight of 38lb. This was ounces out of the section money so a 2nd in section I was happy with and a couple of those the next 2 days wouldn't go a miss.

Maver Classic Final 2013

 

 

After my decent draw and section result the previous day tied with my recent form at the venue being quite good I went into the classic this year full of confidence. However this was soon scuppered as I drew the worst peg in E section on speci lake the first day. I managed a paltry 32lb for dead last in the section. This consisted of 2 small 6lb carp and skimmers from my short pole line on corn over pellet.

 

A day where I tried everything twice before I found a fish at 6m in only 4ft of water on corn. Strangly the skimmers here would not take a pellet but the corn was going. The carp finally moved in but due to the shallow water were bolting off, the one took my 12-20 retro the best part of 25m out of the pole tip before the size 14 hook pulled. I plopped my method in and made sure I put bait runner on to save from losing a rod. I did this whist changing my hooklength to a size 12 hook. The tip whizzed around and a small carp quickly came to net. Instead of going back on pole I plopped the method in at 5m again and again it went round with 5min to go this carp went a bit silly and gave me no time to go back in.

 

I was not happy but with match lake going crazy the day before and me being on it the next day I was looking forward to catching some fish!

 

The drawbag once again was cruel to me. I drew 53 on the match burr bank a poor area. On arrival to my peg I found I had no margin lines either due to bushes in the way and protruding into my peg. The shallowest water I could find was 3ft 6inch. This is far too deep to catch the F1s that were in the bushes and sat on top of the sunken platform when I got to peg.

 

The first 2 hours was an infuriating time getting plagued with liners, fowl hookers and perch intercepting my bait!! Richie Hull was having the same problem next to me. I went out to 13m and fished 6mm pellet shallow and managed a couple of small carp, 1 F1 and some silvers but I was getting plagued with these silvers and going nowhere.

 

The last hour I plumbed a line at the end of the platform and filled it in with pellet and corn. I then did a cheeky little trick of making a load of disturbance by taking my net out of the water... theory being the big clever carp would then come in and feed as they think the angler has moved. I had 5 carp in the last hour on the paste and lost 3 by bullying them out on orange bazoocarp laccy. This gave me a weight of 58lb which was nowhere in the section and summed up a miserable final for me. Always next year I suppose and onto the whitehall matches next weekend. I have set myself some targets to meet this year and need to get my head down and meet them!!

 



 



A 'cracking' time at Larford classic qualifier 28th April 2013

Weather: Overcast and very windy
Water: White horses... Akin to the North Sea!!
Baits: 4mm,6mm and 8mm fishery feed pellet, 4mm and 6mm miracle baits expanders, miracle baits pellet crumb 50/50 fish meal and green and some worms for the edge oooooosh!!
Weight: 38lb nowhere!!

The final qualifier of the year and some much needed practice on the speci lake at larford was on the cards for me this week. 40 odd anglers made the visit with some last minute qualifiers and practice for the upcoming classic finals and the fish'o'mania qualifier was their ideas as were mine.

I went into the match wanting to really have a go on the short pole lines for some mighty lumps as I believe this will be key to having a chance of winning fish'o. However my draw put me on the chalet bank and I wasn't as confident with using this method as much as over on the burr bank. Therefore I set a 13m pole and pellet line along with my short line and set up a method line at 50 turns. I plumbed a line under a tree to my left but never went on it for any time.

Well as the title to the post suggests I had a cracking time, especially after the all in when shipping back after feeding my long line I heard a loud crack and my no7 bend at a right angle. Luckily enough I grabbed the 6th section before I lost my top 4 to the depths of speci lake. After a little cry with 2 parts of a section across my lap I composed my self and chucked the method out. This basically went round every now and then with a skimmer on the end. They were coming to red krill boilies on the hook. After an hour or so they backed off a little so I chucked the bomb out 8 turns past method line and picked up some bigger slabs. It then went dead on me and the 2 guys to my right who had shocking days unfortunately.

I ended up nicking a few more on the method at 13m and 5m as the wind was too severe to even fish the short pole accurately, although I did pick a few off on the pole the method was more productive.

Here's to hoping that the bank holiday weekend of fish'o qualifier and classic final goes better. Check back to see my report.

Something New - Match Report Whitehall Carp/Silvers Doubles

Right'o been asked to do something new and that is a match report for our Whitehall league matches as well as how I have fished the match. So watch out; anything out of the usual, anything side splittingly funny and anything I have seen during out matches will be reported. So Steve stop loose feeding pole sections, Mick stop swearing, ya b*****d, Ash lay off of the booze and Hopey speak up I cannot hear you from 3 pegs down.

Well onto the doubles match, Dave asked us all to be a little early meeting for breakfast as draw may take a while to do. But where was Dave? On the loo apparently, unbelelievable after poor Ash and Dan had got there without any sleep and both smelling like a brewery pickled in jagerbombs! Alf was in the cafe when I got in and we had a little chat about recent outings and how hard fishing has been. The rabble soon followed and the banter started flying, especially when Spraggy walked in to ask how I was attacking the pool today after me telling him its all maggot in the week and then saying I was feeding lose groundbait and fishing 'shalla' he didn't look best pleased.

On to the pool and the standard crazy parking was back with Carl parking in the way of Hopey, this was brilliant and he was biting like a good one already! The draw was made and I guided my half cut partner to his peg and issued him a couple of my method rods and pointed out which way for him to sit on his box. I then sorted myself out and was sat next to Billy 'the greyhound' and Dave 'club champion' Warren.

All of the low bank decided on fishing silvers which meant we would be competing against each other and I didn't rate my chances against these 2 seasoned (grey haired wrinklies) silvers anglers either side of me. I fished it pretty straight forward with a top 2 and 2 line straight in front of fished with groundbait disks ad pinkies by hand and single maggot on a 20 drennan silverfish maggot to 0.08 to a 0.10 mainline on all my rigs. I set up a rig at dead depth and then 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 depth to cover the fish coming off the bottom. I had a line at 8m to fish 'the shell' but caught naff all off here... rubbish!

The match started with the carp boys looking like gnomes. Cut a long story short they all maintained this look throughout the match apart from 2 anglers. Well 3 anglers but one was after silver fish, oops! We had to keep shouting over to the carp boys as they were looking motionless at times. 3 carp were snared late on in the day off of the end peg 4 by Steve Williams. Mike Spragg was very close to losing his place in the club by sitting by Hopey and catching some phenomenal silvers including a bream of 4lb and an ide of 1lb for his total weight of 8lb odd. Dave next to him followed suit and Richard 'Olly' Oliver (not sure how he got his nickname) netting 7lb and 6lb weights. This game newomers Steve and Olly the win on points, well done lads!! I caught a load of little fish but they were properly small and didn't weigh a thing. Think I had close to a 1000 fish for my 4lb. I caught most at between 1/2 depth and 1/4 depth. It was the case of continually light feeding and rig movement to get any bites at all! Hard work but rewarding. I even got some windmill feeding in at one point ooooooosh!!

Hey ho not the best result for me but I enjoyed the day, but it was to get better in the Whitehall after the match. A few of us were unsure about the date of the first match so we thought we better clarify this with Hopey. 17 or 18 times would do and Hopey gave us all the best bites of the day launching into a tirade of abuse that nobody was safe from. I think our first match is the 12th May now though but I would encourage you all to call Mike to clarify this point!! Look forward to seeing you all then and having a cracking match to report on afterwards.

Until then...
 

Classic Qualifier Maver Larford Lakes - 14th April

Weather: Overcast and mild but very windy
Water: Starting to colour up
Baits: 4mm fishery feed pellet, 4mm and 6mm miracle baits expanders, fishmeal and orange miracle baits pellet crumb and krilled dead reds.
Weight: 75lb 4oz (1st)

 

After last weeks match win I went to Larford with a bit of a spring in my step and seeing another top class field of anglers I was looking forward to a competitive match. I drew OK and was just down from last week opposite the island.

 

Now I think I could have won this match, again I have agonisingly lost 5 carp throughout the match, 2 to a snag and a few F1s coming off at the net. This has probably cost me 15lb-20lb. I also was happy catching skimmers and odd F1s and carp on long pole line before coming down the edge as I couldn't see or hear others catching. If I had known the end peg 6 was catching I would have gone to my edge line or short pole line sooner to find some quality carp to bump weight up.

 

I fished a simple match with pole and pellet at 13m, a short line which I didn't go to for any period of time and an edge line. I started chucking my bomb rod around the island but didnt have a touch on this so went to the pole after 45mins being biteless. At 13m I started very simply with a med cad pot full of 4mm dampened feed pellet an a 4mm miracle baits expander of the hook.

 

At this point my mate Ash came around and started to point out others were playing carp when the float dipped and a lift saw white hydro streaming out of the pole. Slowly shipping back allowing the carp to tire itself I got back to the top kit and found it had snagged me to my left, not a great start! I returned my rig, an 0.3g Billybob by Hillbilly mounted on 0.13 powerline, and lowered this into my 7ft swim. 6 4mms followed by catapult. I started catching F1s and I could tell Ash was enjoying watching a master at work, so much so he went for a bloody walk around the complex and returned to take the mick out of me yet again losing a carp to a snag!

 

The float started going under regularly and skimmers were coming to the net with ease and quickly followed by the odd small carp. The fish were really responding to catapulted feed every fish and my feeding didn't change all day to keep skimmers and small carp coming. I wanted to try upping feed but with water only just warming this could have been the kiss of death!

 

Mid way through the match and the carp started coming quicker, a 5lb fish was a welcome edition to my net at half way through the match. Matt to my left had a 'proppa whoppa' on and was playing it for a while. I looked back over and he had another, I said you've found those big fish haven't you! His reply was, "this is the same one mate". Later weighed at 13lb, could have done with a couple of those!

Finally I went down the edge after feeding with a big pot of groundbait and maggot at 13:45 and caught 3 smaller carp upto 2lb on the bounce. I thought I was in here and althought it slowed a bit was catching and managed a couple of decent carp. The last 30mins I had one more carp down the edge, I fed half a pot once bites slowed but could not get the carp back down the edge. I was furious with myself but really couldnt see where the fish had gone. I tried fishing a meter off feed but the fish were simply not there. Below are the results from website, my next visit is Sunday 28th April in preparation for my fish'o'mania and classic final on Larford the next weekend!

 

Classic Qualifier - Match Lake

Saturday, 13th April 2013

 

Twenty one anglers fished the Match lake in the hopes of a qualification placing.
Winner on the day was Carl Brookes (Maver), who drew end peg 6 in front of the cafe. Fishing pole and pellet at 13m, carl landed F1's and carp to finish the day 20lb clear of the next man with 96-15-00.

Second on the day was Matt Barnes (Miracle Baits), who drew the far end of the shallow bank peg 26. Fishing pole and pellet at 13m and dead red maggots in the margin, Matt found carp and F1's to weigh 75-04-00.

Third placed Matt Greening (Woody's) drew peg 24 and opted for pole and pellet at 13m landing 65-01-00 and a place in the May final.
Fourth placed Luke Hughes (Maver) drew peg 10 landing 63-09-00 of F1's and carp to bomb and pellet fished at around 25m.

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Carl Brookes (Maver)	6	Pole and pellet	96-15-00
2nd	Matt Barnes (Miracle Baits)	26	Pole and pellet	75-04-00
3rd	Matt Greening (Woody's)	24	Pole and pellet	65-01-00
4th	Luke Hughes (Maver)	10	Bomb and pellet	63-09-00 

Weather: Sunny and quite mild
Water: Ice in the edge at start of match, was a bit of colour coming in.
Peg: 30
Baits: 4mm and 8mm fishery feed pellet, 4mm and 6mm miracle baits expanders, fishmeal and orange miracle baits pellet crumb and  krilled dead reds.
Weight: 51lb 3oz (1st)

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Matt Barnes (Miracle Baits)	30	Pole and pellet	51-03
2nd	Steve Charles (Steven's Tackle)	12	Pole and pellet	42-02
3rd	Simon Jones (Maver)	14	Pole and pellet	25-09
4th	Jamie Meakin	16	Pole and pellet	24-04

My attention is now firmly on practicing for my fish'o'mania qualifier and for the upcoming classic final both at larford lakes. I therefore am going to spend a bit of time on the larford complex honing the methods required if I am lucky enough to bag a good draw on the finals.

Well my drawing certainly didn't let me down with end peg 30 with wind blowing into it sticking to my hand at the draw. Many groans and moans were audible at the draw. To be fare this is my first really good draw of 2013 with a couple of bum draws at larford previous weekend.

Onto the match and my set up for today was going to be relatively simple, however at the same time I need to cover my options at this time of year to find feeding fish. Firstly I set up a bomb and pellet rig and a groundbait feeder set up. The bomb rod selected was a 10ft 6 maver powerlite with a daiwa regal z bait runner loaded with 8lb maver jurrasic. I used a nice light 20g bomb and an 18" 0.19 hooklength to a 16 Guru QM1 hook.

Onto pole lines and I fished 3 lines; 14m in 71/2 ft of water, top 2 and 2 in 31/2 ft. Finally 2 edge lines to my right one 3 ft from bank in 18" of water and one 2m out in 3ft of water really to see if they dont come right in to the edge.

At 14.5m I fished a light and heavy rig as it was calm however wind was forecast so planning for this at start of match would save time when you should be fishing during the match. Light rig was a 0.3g Hillbilly Billybob on 0.13 powerline to a 0.11 hooklength and a 16 B911 f1. Heavier rig was the same fished on a 0.5g float. Top 2 and 2 again was a 0.1g billybob on 0.13 straight through to a 16 B911. Down the egde I used one of my special grass bank margin floats as shown to me by Andy Kinder and provided by hillbillyfloats.co.uk. This was on 0.15 line straight through to a 14 B911 on maver retro 12-20 elastic.

Baits for today were very simple with 4mm pellet for pole lines and miracle baits expanders for the hook. 8mm fishery pellet for feed and for hook on bomb line.

 

 

For the edge I was keen to experiment with the interesting orange pellet crumb that miracle baits produce. My theory was simple, the grass bank has an orangy red sand, I wanted to mimick this as a cloud in the water. When the fish feed in edge they will be stirring up an orange cloud, therefore seeing this fish will see this as safe to feed in and come into edge. This paired with tried and trusted krilled red maggots should produce.

 

Onto the match then and I will state now I was disapointed with my weight and was really having a sweat at the weigh in as I know I should have one this match! I chucked the bomb to start feeding 2 8mm's over top every minute. I had an f1 first chuck which fell off at the net, bad angling but there were fish there. The guy to my left picked up 2 early carp off of the island so I started chucking shorter in line with where he was. Unbelievably I hooked and lost 2 more f1's in first 45mins and came back with hooklength covred in weed, twigs and even a bloodworm speared on the hook.

 

I had 1 skimmer in the net and was getting infuriated. I had fed around 20 4mm's on my long pole line and went on this at 11:30 and started catching small skimmers regularly with the odd small f1 mixed in. Fish were really responding to lifting and dropping with float not settling before bite on few occasions. I was feeding initially by kinder pot but then switched to catapulting after every fish. These seemed to queue the skimmers up so I was catching regularly.

 

I was starting to see less and less carp on this line and the skimmers were small and taking a long time to get in from 14.5m. I started feeding my top 2 and 2 line at 13:00 with loose 4mms by hand. At 13:30 I switched to this line and picked up a couple of f1s. I also fed my shallow egde line with miracle baits pellet crumb and maggot. I saw swirls appear down the edge at 14:00 but left it until 14:30 to go onto this line. I caught 12 small f1's down this edge and fed after the first 5. I reckon it would have been ok to go onto this line earlier as the fish were feeding very confidently down the edge. The all out was called and if the match would have gone on for another 30mins until 16:00 as it usually does run to I would have easily put another 15lb-20lb on my weight.

 

I was annoyed that no proper carp showed up on this line as this would have really bumped weight up. Not as annoyed as I was with the 8 F1s I lost on varios lines. If this had cost me the match I would have really kicked myself, however I cannot affoard this on the fish'o and classic finals.

 

 

 

Larford Lakes Classic Qualifier Specimen Lake - Monday 1st April 2013

Weather: STILL COLD!!
Water: Clear in the sides, could see about 2ft down. Choppy because of wind
Peg: 66
Baits: 4mm fishery feed pellet and 4mm expanders. Krilled reds.
Weight: 19lb 9oz 4th and section win

I fished Larford good Friday in a charity pairs match, completely hungover which was not a good start, and poor Steve Mayo had to accompany me as a partner. I was begging for a draw after been put on match lake. I fancied somewhere in the 20's where it had been producing, and where I have never managed to draw, alas my nemesis stuck to my hand.

Peg 10 match the cruel bitch that inflicted misery and strife on me in the classic final last year and the last day of the summer festival giving me last in setion on the later! This peg is shallow, last year it was 2ft at most; however, I had 4ft and some more room so could this be the day I crack it... No... just under 6lb which beat everyone to my left but got stuffed by those to my right in the section. I caught 2 f1's and 5 skimmers; all within the first hour which meant I was very miserable for the remaninder of the match not getting a bite on anything.

Onwards and upwards to the monday's match. Speaking to Andy Kinder on the phone he assured me that the chalet bank was fishing well with skimmers coming to the long pole in the later stages of the match. However this didn't happen as the results below show:

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Peter Bennett (Banbury Gunsmiths)	82	Corn in the margins	84-07
2nd	Richie Hull (Garbolino)	58	Cage feeder	63-00
3rd	Andy Kinder (Maver / Marukyu)	78	Short pole	46-03
4th	Matt Barnes (Miracle Baits)	66	Method Feeder	19-09

A strange match with weights really dropping off, the 2 end pegs walked it with Pete Bennet fishing just out of the edge and Richie catching all bream net on the cage feeder. Unbelievably Andy had caught 5 carp on top 5 line in last 20mins otherwise he was going nowhere. A lot of DNW's and weights around 10lb meant my measly 19lb nabs 4th

I started by setting up rods for today, I had a maver powerlite feeder at 11ft matched to a shimano stradic to fish the cage feeder and set up another 11ft powerlite feeder method rod with my Daiwa regal-Z baitrunner for the method. For my pole lines I set up a light rig and a heavy rig for 14m, a 0.5g and 1g hillybilly dweezil on 0.13 powerline to a 0.11 hooklength with a 16 B911 F1 hook. However when fishing I had to change to a 1.5g dweezil to comat the wicked tow. These were matched to tops with white hydro running on a side pulla. I also set up a top 5 line as these carp had to come in, a Kinder proved, and 1 or 2 can be all it takes to get a place in main frame from nowhere.

Bait wise I was experimenting with my new miracle baits gear. For the cage feeder and method I mixed the pellet crumb in fishmeal and the green version 70% - 30% for a darkened mix. These plugged my dead reds in the feeder. I mixed the groundbait the night before and over wetted this and riddled it twice. By the morning it had a brilliant fluffy texture and when tested in margins exploded with fiz once hit the bottom. I also used the miracle baits expander pellets in 4mm and 6mm.

I started the match chucking at 25m or so and getting some bait in with the groundbait feeder. 5  small drennan gripmesh feeder loads of groundbait and dead reds went out. I chose to fish the feeder quite short as I have found at larford the fish come closer and closer when more bait has been going in. I was getting strange signs straight away. Interestingly the method had not been working and a long tail of 18" - 2' on the cage feeder had been working. As the venue had been hammered the last few days I wondered if the fish were hammering the groundbait in the feeder then. I chucked the method and couldn't tighten up. Strange I thought; as I wound in the rod lurched round into solid resistence. After a quite pathetic fight a 4lb carp was a welcome first fish. Lots of 'tuts' rang out around me. I chucked the method again and for the next hour was picking off the odd small skimmer between 6oz-8oz.

As I was catching I did not want to come off this line, my golden rule not to come off feeding fish, and others were not catching at all. However these skimmers are tiny for Larford specimen lake standards so I was going nowhere catching these. I must have sat on the skimmer junior school. Therefore I feed my pole line with a half a pot of 4mm fishery pellet with a squeeze of miracle baits pellet crumb.

Back to the tip line and these skimmers dry up after the 20th micro skimmer. I pick up the pole at around 13:30 and at 14:00 I was back on my tip rod. I tried the cage and the method but didn't have a sign, so started chucking a small method about my peg looking for the odd carp. It quickly became clear that it wasnt happening for anyone with people walking the bank asking how things were going. Nobody bar the end peg 82 had a carp and I knew Richie was having a few skimmers. So I was in for a shout. at 15:00 after spraying 6-8 4mm's on my 14m pole line every 8-10mins I went back on pole line. My float towed through and buried and a little hybrid graced my net. Straight back out and not a touch. I played with rigs, shotting, laying line on the deck and even put shot on the deck to induce a bite however it wasn't going.

Whilst battling with the long pole I was feeding 5-6 hard 6mms on my short line. I went onto this line with 30mins to go. Usually within 5mins you have had some signs or are heaving in a lump however it wasn't to be. I stayed on this line hoping and praying but it didn't happen. I knew I had beaten those around me however I needed to snare a couple of carp and needed to be sat on the bigger skimmers to get near the main frame. When the conditions are what they were you cannot always make it work and have to catch what is in front of you. Apart from maybe catching more smaller fish I don't think there is anything else that could have been done.

Out of Action but Keeping Busy

This time of year I fish fewer matches due to rugby commitments and the weather being grim. I usually start to get going more around march time however disaster has struck. Unfortunately I had a bad injury that has completely stopped me doing anything and for the past week I could not move very easily off the sofa. I am not one for sitting still for long so cabin fever is well and truly kicking in!

As a result I have been busy sorting out terminal tackle for the forth coming season, including; pole rigs, hooklengths and replacing reel lines.  I try to keep on top of pole rigs throughout the year however it sometimes needs a complete overhaul and with some new patterns becoming favourites. I wanted to keep to a few patterns for my fishing and I know the venues I am targeting this year so have made them specific to the needs of these. Below is the finished article of busy rig tying sessions:

The patterns I have plumped for are from hillbilly floats range and from sconey's floats at sconezone.
I have tried to think of all the circumstances I would come up against and these are the floats I have chosen to cover these:

1. For winter silverfish up in the water and on the deck
Sconezone bitz and hillybilly guzzunders

2. Long deep (up to 12 ft)  fishing for skimmers and carp in open water. Pellet and corn.
Hillbilly Dweezils
3. Down the track on a Snake, open water on pellet corn, worm, maggot.
Hillbilly Billybob

4. Tight across on a snake shallow 18 inches to 24 inches deep. And tight across to deeper water up to 3 ft.
Hillbilly ratcatcher or small billybob

5. Meat/big particles at 4 to 6m in 4 to 6 ft of water.
Sconezone double deez or a hillbilly billybob

6. Down the edge in 2 ft and on occasion 3 ft of water fishing big baits and needing to distinguish between liners and proper bites.
Hillbilly AK47 and a sconezone jubleez for shallow margins, up in water down the side or pellet in margins
7. Shallow.
Hillbilly ratcatcher or a sconezone slapz or for f1s a wellardz. If deeper that 2ft I go for a billybob

8. Paste
Sconezone Jadz

So onto hooklengths, something I strongly dislike doing, and I had a complete overhaul of my hooks. Because of the new B911 XS and B911 F1 patterns I now almost exclusively fish B911's on the pole. With the F1's being excellent for shy F1s small carp and skimmers and the XS being perfect for margins, paste and big fish fishing.

The only exception is out and out silver fishing, where a drennan silverfish maggot hooks are employed, and when banding pellets I have really got to like the drennan carp rigger hooks. I have also decided to have a play with drennan red maggot hooks in size 14 for f1s on krilled red maggots as they are starting to get cute on these. Below are my brimming boxes stuffed with different options for my fishing.

I have been lucky enough to gain a bait sponsorship with miracle baits and a great company to be affiliated with as they really do provide top quality baits for the style of fishing I often employ and also the fisheries I go to. I made a big order of expanders, paste, pellet crumb, soft hookers and some of the additives. The quality of the products is first class and really will assist me in my pellet and paste fishing.

The paste looks perfect for big lumps and also speed paste fishing on top kit at places like cob house. The pastes come in a variety of colours and flavours, however I like to use natural coloured products so the fishmeal and garlic varieties I have plumped to use this year.

Expanders are something I use almost every time I go out, having so much confidence in this style of fishing I need to have a good bait to use and the elite expanders do the job pumping well and staying firm and sinking consistently in my home tests, can't wait to get them on the bank. In addition a range of flavoured soft hookers offer a change bait for if fishing gets funny, always something to have on the tray.

The pellet crumb is a groundbait, like a lot of groundbait on the market, that is made from blitzed pellets. Ultimately this is what pellet turns into if not eaten on the bottom of a fishery and pellet is also what most commercial fish are raised on and feed on. Therefore a 'natural' food for the fish and when feeding down the edge or balling in fish see this as safe food. These groundbaits come in some interesting colours with orange being one I feel I will match with krilled maggot feeding down the edge. These can be maximised with the addition of the additives that come in scopex, strawberry, garlic, and the 2 I think will get most use are squid and MPZ-1 that has a meaty amino smell perfect for worm and meat fishing.

So all in all I feel very confident going into the new season, with a big list of achievements I want to achieve, I cannot wait to get going. Once I am fit I will be out and regularly blogging with how I am going, lets hope I report some successful results!