Weather: 16C - 18C overcast for most of day with sunny patches.
Water: Rich Brown
Peg: 11 (non permanent)
Baits: Micros and 4mm skrettings feed pellets, 4mm and 6mm van den eynde marine and ringers expanders, paste and the humble maggot.
Weight: 13lb 7oz
Well on arrival I drove straight down to the pool and sat there feeling sorry for myself after the skinfull I had the night before. The draw was up on the car park so I gingerly made my way back up to draw peg 11, off of the island and with no clear features apart from an overhanging bush on my left hand margin swim.
Without any knowledge of the fishery or any clear features I decided on the usually productive pole lines for a commercial fishery and plumbed a line on the deck at 13m in open water, a line at 5m on the slope and 2 margin swims. I was going to set a shallow rig up however with the depth being 5ft in my swim and the pool generally only used by pleasure carp anglers I reckoned that the carp would be used to feeding hard on the deck.
I used Maver invicibles series 7 pencils for my pellet and maggot work, using a 0.4g at 13m in 5ft of water and a 0.2g at 5m in 3 1/2ft of water, both with 0.15mm to 0.13mm and a 16 B911 both to grey hydro. For my paste line I used a SconeZone Jadz in 0.2g on 0.15mm straight through to a 14 B911. The edge rig was a Hillbilly ratchatcher 2 on 0.17mm to 0.15mm and a size 14 B911.
On the all in I put a whole big pot of micros and 4mm pellets on the 13m line and started on 5m line feeding micros and fishing maggot through a cad pot and. Well after 40mins with no sign of a fish my side of the pool and a number of anglers catching well from the island I decided to have a look on the 13m line as the fish must have backed off.
Feeding through the cad pot was not working but I was getting signs on the float, I decided on potting in another pot of micros, 4mm pellets and maggot. Straight away the peg started to fizz and I had a number of small roach and tiny carp and 2 eels off this line in the next 2 hours. I fed a whole big pot of pellet every 20mins whilst flicking maggot and pellets on my 5m line and potting in 4mm pellets and lumps of paste down both edges.
I had stopped getting bites on my 13m line and just before coming off it to have a look for some lumps my float buried and I struck into a 3lb carp which scrapped all the way to the net, with the peg still fizzing I stayed on that line a bit longer. Float buried again and this time a foul hooked carp trashed my hooklength.
After another 10mins I went down the edge and straight away a splash and a splosh and black hydro is stretching across the pool only for it to ping out. Straight away another carp on to the hook, this time no bigger than 12oz. There was some movement in the edge so I went straight back into the swim and this time had to wait 2mins for the float to bury and before I could strike seeing black hydro shooting across the pool. A lengthy scrap insued and the result was an 8lb ghostie, my 2nd and biggest ghostie ever!!
The margins then seemed to die with no movement, no bites and nobody else catching. I went onto my 5m line with some paste and had another carp pull put which was frustrating giving that the weights were so low. After the shortest weigh in ever and the most DNW's I have ever witnessed on a commercial fishery I found my self beaten by 2 island pegs which I cannot grumble about, especially with 2 DNW's in my section and my section winning with 10oz.
I think Cob House next week shall be a little different.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Friday, 24 June 2011
Whitehall League Match - Broadacres 19th June 2011
Weather: 16C - 20C overcast for most of day with sunny patches.
Water: Murky green/grey
Peg: 30
Baits: 4mm, 6mm, 8mm meat (half natural/half red), red corn, fishery (red) pellets, casters
Weight: 35lb 8oz
Onto the third Whitehall match and I felt before this match I need to start pulling my finger out with 2 mediocre results prior to this match I wanted a frame, if not at least a section win. Although I do approach every match wanting to win!!
So an early start with an 8 o'clock draw and fishing 9 until 2 made me think a bit more about tactics for the match. I heard the fish go quite big and don't see many pellets or past compared to other pellet driven fisheries so this screamed 2 things worm or meat. I have blown out so many times on the worm it had to be the meat for me and away I went the night before dying bits of meat red... I turned up the next morning looking like I had just murdered someone and with frozen meat that I was trying to defrost with the heaters in my car, much to the amusement of the lads there!!
The draw came around and 30 stuck to my hand, excellent a long range island chuck, lovely stuff. I sped the car around and started to set my gear up. Plan was going to be to mug a few carp on the meat at the bottom of the shelf early and then have a long line on the meat and a pellet feeder to the island.
Pole rigs for the day were my favourite big bait floats of KC carpa 2's. The bottom of the ledge plumbed up at 4ft and my 14m line was 4.5ft so a 4x14 float was used for both swims. These were rigged with 0.15 preston power line to a 0.15 hooklength with a 16 B911 both on grey hydro on a pulla. I fish the meat a bristle length over depth so the weight does not interrupt the shotting of the float and bites are usually quite savage anyway so the finesse is not needed. Also prevents striking at roach playing football with your meat on the bottom. I also set up a caster rig at 4ft on a 0.2g homemade pencil with 0.11 to 0.09 with a 18 drennan silver fish pellet hook to preston 11h set soft.
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I started the session by potting in a full 250ml pot of caster on my 6m line followed by a good handful of 6mm meat. I then fished this for 30mins with one foul hooked car being the result... it was dead looking around me nobody was catching, Les had a few good roach and skimmers next to me on the same line so I boshed in some more casters on this line and stuck a big pot of meat and casters out at 14m. I had 6 quick roach and then the swim died off after catapulting in 10 casters after each fish. There were fish cruising in the morning sun at this point and I kept looking to the island for any movement but couldn't spot any.
Onto the long line, firstly with caster rig to see what was there... roach were there and I had 4 before it went dead. A switch to the meat saw a few liners and then the float sunk a solid strike saw solid resistance and the carp went tearing off right into the next pegs swim. Finally getting the 5lb+ fish into the net was a relief and I think the first carp landed although John Snelson had a huge eel.
Messing about on this line for a further 20mins saw nothing but a roach on 6mm piece of meat so it was time to chuck to the island. Mid day is about the time I wanted to start chucking however I hoped more fish would have been in the net by then I had about 7lbs so far which was about par.
Stuffing the pellet feeder with pellets and with 2 8mm cubes of red meat on the hook it took 4mins for the tip to violently wrap around. A 6lb battle axe came to the net. The tip flew around about 20mins after that and then the drag started to scream until it quickly hit the clip, I managed to unclip it to look up and see a big fish top out past the island. A long battled ensued and finally I got the leviathans head up and to the net. A good 15lbs I thought where as the scales read just over 13lb for the long and thin common.
Now I am a fit lad but boy my arm was aching after that. At this point it was 45mins until the end of the match. My next cast saw yet again the tip wrap around and playing the fish whilst talking to John Snelson is not a good idea... he managed to jinx me and the hook pulled at the net. Never mind next cast saw a slender 4lb fish in the net and with 5 mins to go another huge wrap around saw me playing a fish well after the all out had gone and what I thought was another double was just short of that mark.
With the length of the fish and the way they pulled I thought I had 40lb in my net easily. The scales came around and told a different story however I had more than enough for the win. I rued not chucking the feeder at the start however the match could have done differently if I had.
Final note is if you fancy some preston pellet feeders all you need is a boat and head down to Broadacres and on the small island there are 3 there dangling away like baubles.
Water: Murky green/grey
Peg: 30
Baits: 4mm, 6mm, 8mm meat (half natural/half red), red corn, fishery (red) pellets, casters
Weight: 35lb 8oz
Onto the third Whitehall match and I felt before this match I need to start pulling my finger out with 2 mediocre results prior to this match I wanted a frame, if not at least a section win. Although I do approach every match wanting to win!!
So an early start with an 8 o'clock draw and fishing 9 until 2 made me think a bit more about tactics for the match. I heard the fish go quite big and don't see many pellets or past compared to other pellet driven fisheries so this screamed 2 things worm or meat. I have blown out so many times on the worm it had to be the meat for me and away I went the night before dying bits of meat red... I turned up the next morning looking like I had just murdered someone and with frozen meat that I was trying to defrost with the heaters in my car, much to the amusement of the lads there!!
The draw came around and 30 stuck to my hand, excellent a long range island chuck, lovely stuff. I sped the car around and started to set my gear up. Plan was going to be to mug a few carp on the meat at the bottom of the shelf early and then have a long line on the meat and a pellet feeder to the island.
Pole rigs for the day were my favourite big bait floats of KC carpa 2's. The bottom of the ledge plumbed up at 4ft and my 14m line was 4.5ft so a 4x14 float was used for both swims. These were rigged with 0.15 preston power line to a 0.15 hooklength with a 16 B911 both on grey hydro on a pulla. I fish the meat a bristle length over depth so the weight does not interrupt the shotting of the float and bites are usually quite savage anyway so the finesse is not needed. Also prevents striking at roach playing football with your meat on the bottom. I also set up a caster rig at 4ft on a 0.2g homemade pencil with 0.11 to 0.09 with a 18 drennan silver fish pellet hook to preston 11h set soft.
 |
| KC Carpa 2 4x14 |
My feeder set up was a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey mach 1 XT with 3lb maxima line. This was ties to a quick change swivel where I could then clip on my feeder. I have been using the pellet feeders by preston recently as opposed to the method with pellets. I feel a lot more confident that my pellets have got to the deck in these feeders and they also offer more grip on a slope up to an island that the tradition method feeder does. I clipped one of these on to the quickstop and clipped up a foot away from the left on the island where a branch was overhanging into the water. I used a 6inch 0.21 hooklength to a size 14 Kamasan animal with a red hi-viz quickstop on a hair.
I started the session by potting in a full 250ml pot of caster on my 6m line followed by a good handful of 6mm meat. I then fished this for 30mins with one foul hooked car being the result... it was dead looking around me nobody was catching, Les had a few good roach and skimmers next to me on the same line so I boshed in some more casters on this line and stuck a big pot of meat and casters out at 14m. I had 6 quick roach and then the swim died off after catapulting in 10 casters after each fish. There were fish cruising in the morning sun at this point and I kept looking to the island for any movement but couldn't spot any.
Onto the long line, firstly with caster rig to see what was there... roach were there and I had 4 before it went dead. A switch to the meat saw a few liners and then the float sunk a solid strike saw solid resistance and the carp went tearing off right into the next pegs swim. Finally getting the 5lb+ fish into the net was a relief and I think the first carp landed although John Snelson had a huge eel.
Messing about on this line for a further 20mins saw nothing but a roach on 6mm piece of meat so it was time to chuck to the island. Mid day is about the time I wanted to start chucking however I hoped more fish would have been in the net by then I had about 7lbs so far which was about par.
 |
| Showing peg and lines fished (Red = Pole / Blue = Feeder line) |
Stuffing the pellet feeder with pellets and with 2 8mm cubes of red meat on the hook it took 4mins for the tip to violently wrap around. A 6lb battle axe came to the net. The tip flew around about 20mins after that and then the drag started to scream until it quickly hit the clip, I managed to unclip it to look up and see a big fish top out past the island. A long battled ensued and finally I got the leviathans head up and to the net. A good 15lbs I thought where as the scales read just over 13lb for the long and thin common.
Now I am a fit lad but boy my arm was aching after that. At this point it was 45mins until the end of the match. My next cast saw yet again the tip wrap around and playing the fish whilst talking to John Snelson is not a good idea... he managed to jinx me and the hook pulled at the net. Never mind next cast saw a slender 4lb fish in the net and with 5 mins to go another huge wrap around saw me playing a fish well after the all out had gone and what I thought was another double was just short of that mark.
With the length of the fish and the way they pulled I thought I had 40lb in my net easily. The scales came around and told a different story however I had more than enough for the win. I rued not chucking the feeder at the start however the match could have done differently if I had.
Final note is if you fancy some preston pellet feeders all you need is a boat and head down to Broadacres and on the small island there are 3 there dangling away like baubles.
Whitehall Thursday Evening Match - Whitehall Pool 16th June 2011
Weather: 16C cloudy with one heavy shower at start of match
Water: Dark brown
Peg: 9
Baits: Fishery pellets paste, paste and paste
Weight: 30lb 0oz
Onto my second Whitehall evening match, I have thoroughly enjoyed the 2 I have fished and will be looking to get to more in the future when Rugby training allows. My first match was a straight shoot out between me and the next peg, unfortunately I could not get another carp out or winkle a few silvers out to make up the extra 1lb that beat me off of the next peg. So this is how the match on the 16th went...
My attack today was going to be paste for lumps and as a back up paste for lumps. I got to my peg and immediately noticed the tree in the water in my left hand margin and the scum that was attracting flies floating on top. Now this was either going to hold carp or deter them from the swim which I'll find out later. I then set upon finding where the slope levels off enough to fish the paste and this was found at 7m in 9 and a bit ft of water.
I have struggled with fishing the paste in the depth of water you find at the Whitehall pool however a switch to a different shotting pattern has helped to firstly get teh rig out and then to read bites. I am using the Sconezone 'Jadz' paste floats in a 0.8g in this swim and shot this with 0.6g of shot (10 no8 stotz), I have 7 shot 8 inches from the float and then 3 shot are placed directly under the float. This I find helps with the rig being blown around and line swinging around when being cupped in and also settles the rig and the float alot quicker in the deep water. This was on 0.17 preston powerline straight through to a size 12 B911 to a top 2 with black hydro on a pulla. My edge rig was again a Sconezone Jads in 0.6g with the same line and hook combo but to purple hydro on a pulla.
Onto the session; I started off at 7m with a decent ball of atomic paste and and filled the paste pot up with dampened 4mm fishery pellets. It didn't take long for the peg to start fizzing away with smaller fish and after 2 more balls of paste went in on the hook I had a bite which I promptly lost. At this point the peg was silly with fizzing so I went half a section out (inch deeper). As soon as the float settled I was getting nods and then the float sat under the surface, a strike saw black hydro race across the pool and my pole sections quickly following it out. Quite a lengthy battle ensued but resulted in a lean 6lb mirror in the net.
At this point I had stopped feeding pellet and was really squeezing my paste hard on the hook to get it down past the silvers. I had a 20min mess around in the edge and it was solid with silvers and the scum was getting on my new sconezone floats, so without a sign of a carp I chucked the top kit up the bank and focused on that 7m line. I had to wait 15mins for my next bite which was a classic paste sail away a firm strike saw my elastic sit straight above my swim. On shipping back I thought I had a big ol'bream however as soons as this fish saw the net he decided to go beserk!! A near miss with the tree in my margin and a 8lb-9lb was in the net.
I am now over the half way stage in the match and to my right Lee Davey has 3 fish and Dave Warren has 2 lumps. I then get into another dopey 8lb fish that easily comes to the net, this time I am back on the original 7m line and have started banging in the pellets to make something happen. I ship back out and wollop the float flies under and a firm strike pulls my pole tip under the surface. Hey up, a long battle results in a good double as fat as it is long in the net. Now Lee on the peg next to me has 4 fish in his net with 30min to go and he says thay are small. I don't believe it so am begging for that float to go under for 1 more fish.
A long biteless 20mins of the match where I tried longer, shorter, more feed, no feed and even put some green atomic cloud in my paste resulted in a few liners and a nervy weigh in. I weighed 30lbs dead and enough for the win thanks to the size of my fish. I couldn't have done it without Dave Yapp's sausage and bacon sanwich before the match - pukka!!
Water: Dark brown
Peg: 9
Baits: Fishery pellets paste, paste and paste
Weight: 30lb 0oz
Onto my second Whitehall evening match, I have thoroughly enjoyed the 2 I have fished and will be looking to get to more in the future when Rugby training allows. My first match was a straight shoot out between me and the next peg, unfortunately I could not get another carp out or winkle a few silvers out to make up the extra 1lb that beat me off of the next peg. So this is how the match on the 16th went...
My attack today was going to be paste for lumps and as a back up paste for lumps. I got to my peg and immediately noticed the tree in the water in my left hand margin and the scum that was attracting flies floating on top. Now this was either going to hold carp or deter them from the swim which I'll find out later. I then set upon finding where the slope levels off enough to fish the paste and this was found at 7m in 9 and a bit ft of water.
I have struggled with fishing the paste in the depth of water you find at the Whitehall pool however a switch to a different shotting pattern has helped to firstly get teh rig out and then to read bites. I am using the Sconezone 'Jadz' paste floats in a 0.8g in this swim and shot this with 0.6g of shot (10 no8 stotz), I have 7 shot 8 inches from the float and then 3 shot are placed directly under the float. This I find helps with the rig being blown around and line swinging around when being cupped in and also settles the rig and the float alot quicker in the deep water. This was on 0.17 preston powerline straight through to a size 12 B911 to a top 2 with black hydro on a pulla. My edge rig was again a Sconezone Jads in 0.6g with the same line and hook combo but to purple hydro on a pulla.
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| SconeZone Jadz 0.8g |
At this point I had stopped feeding pellet and was really squeezing my paste hard on the hook to get it down past the silvers. I had a 20min mess around in the edge and it was solid with silvers and the scum was getting on my new sconezone floats, so without a sign of a carp I chucked the top kit up the bank and focused on that 7m line. I had to wait 15mins for my next bite which was a classic paste sail away a firm strike saw my elastic sit straight above my swim. On shipping back I thought I had a big ol'bream however as soons as this fish saw the net he decided to go beserk!! A near miss with the tree in my margin and a 8lb-9lb was in the net.
I am now over the half way stage in the match and to my right Lee Davey has 3 fish and Dave Warren has 2 lumps. I then get into another dopey 8lb fish that easily comes to the net, this time I am back on the original 7m line and have started banging in the pellets to make something happen. I ship back out and wollop the float flies under and a firm strike pulls my pole tip under the surface. Hey up, a long battle results in a good double as fat as it is long in the net. Now Lee on the peg next to me has 4 fish in his net with 30min to go and he says thay are small. I don't believe it so am begging for that float to go under for 1 more fish.
A long biteless 20mins of the match where I tried longer, shorter, more feed, no feed and even put some green atomic cloud in my paste resulted in a few liners and a nervy weigh in. I weighed 30lbs dead and enough for the win thanks to the size of my fish. I couldn't have done it without Dave Yapp's sausage and bacon sanwich before the match - pukka!!
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Barston Lakes MFS Champions League 30th May 2011
Weather: 10C-12C Constant rain all day.
Water: Deep green/brown
Peg: 20
Baits: green swim stim for method with dead reds, tutti fruti 8mm boilies and white fish 8mm boilies. Micros, 4mm&6mm expanders and dead reds for pole.
Weight: 49lb 4oz
A miserable day greated my first MFS match of the year however upon walking into the club house at Barston that was soon forgotten, what wonderful facilities for the use of a fishery. The tactics for the match was going to be long range method fishing, with some lads not even contemplating setting up a pole line. However with 2 hours to set up and my rods already set up to go I had to set the pole up, if anything to stop from being bored in the driving rain.
The peg I pulled out had no obvious features being between the 18th green and the island. On having a chuck around I kept getting snagged at 50 turns so chucked at 65 with the option if going to 75 if they backed off the feeder crashing in to the relatively shallow water at Barston. I set up a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey Mach 1 XT loaded with 4lb daiwa sensor. I also got out my old MAP power carp feeder rod which has loads of casting power if the wind got up or I needed the longer chuck, to the same reel combo again.
After clipping both reels up and tying marker knots on the line at the same distance I set up a pole line at 13m just as a back up/last resort type thing if the method had gone completely dead. I had just over 4ft at 11m, 13m and 14m so settled on the 13m line, if it worked out I needed this line I could come closer and also follow them out from 13m. I set up a maver invincible series 7 pencil on 0.13 to 0.11 hook length with a size 18 b911.
Onto the session, on the all in I chucked out 6 feeder fulls of my method mix in a med cage feeder, this was spread between 60 and 70 turns on the reel and because of my dodgy casting a little left and right of my marker. I then followed this in with the method, because of the distance I plumped for a large brass stem feeder by Kobra, these can really be punished on the cast and the stem wont flex like the plastic counterparts.
First cast I sat and waited in anticipation for all of 3mins when wallop, my tip flew round and the line hit the clip, I luckily got the line free to hear my drag screaming away (I could have been off the coast of Florida keys for a moment hooking into a Marlin, then I remembered how wet and cold I was and how big the carp go in Barston). A long battle ensued and the double figure beasty just fit into my landing net. A great start. The next hour produced 6 little F1's on the method line and then I had a quiet 30min spell. I decided to lob it that bit further to 75 turns. As soon as the method hit down I struggled to tighted up, something must be wrong so I reeled in about 20 turns until I hit something solid. Must be those snags I had found earlier right... wrong turned out to be the worlds biggest drop back bite and the fish just kept swimming towards me until it realised he was in netting distance and a nice 5lb of carpy lump was in the net. Hour 2 and 3 were steady with me changing the distance of casting I was making to keep skimmers and f1's up to 2lb coming to the net.
Hour 4 went a bit dead so I plonked in some micros a few expanders and some dead reds onto my pole line and had 2 more fruitless chucks whilst pinging maggot over the top of my pole line. 1st put in on the pole line and the float bobs and dips for 30 seconds before a big lift and a sail away reults in a decent bream of 3lb odd coming to the net. After this I had 2 roach and an f1 fall off the hook in 20mins so back to the rested method line for the last hour. 2 proper carp followed with 1 being smaller that most the f1's and the other around 3lb and the last 20mins was made up of 4 more skimmers on the method line.
At the weigh in I had 2 huge weights of 79lb and 86lb to my right and I knew I had beaten all thise to my left in my section. I just needed a bit of luck here to get a double default. On hearing that there were a few 90's from other sections I thought this was a goner but waited in the bar anyway until I had to shoot off. Unfortunatley before my sectioned was called out duuuuur, £40 that could have found a good home!
In other news I had 122lb on wyatts at cob house on the top kit+1 ans pellet for 5th. Not much to talk about there catch, feed, rebait and repeat.
Water: Deep green/brown
Peg: 20
Baits: green swim stim for method with dead reds, tutti fruti 8mm boilies and white fish 8mm boilies. Micros, 4mm&6mm expanders and dead reds for pole.
Weight: 49lb 4oz
A miserable day greated my first MFS match of the year however upon walking into the club house at Barston that was soon forgotten, what wonderful facilities for the use of a fishery. The tactics for the match was going to be long range method fishing, with some lads not even contemplating setting up a pole line. However with 2 hours to set up and my rods already set up to go I had to set the pole up, if anything to stop from being bored in the driving rain.
The peg I pulled out had no obvious features being between the 18th green and the island. On having a chuck around I kept getting snagged at 50 turns so chucked at 65 with the option if going to 75 if they backed off the feeder crashing in to the relatively shallow water at Barston. I set up a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey Mach 1 XT loaded with 4lb daiwa sensor. I also got out my old MAP power carp feeder rod which has loads of casting power if the wind got up or I needed the longer chuck, to the same reel combo again.
After clipping both reels up and tying marker knots on the line at the same distance I set up a pole line at 13m just as a back up/last resort type thing if the method had gone completely dead. I had just over 4ft at 11m, 13m and 14m so settled on the 13m line, if it worked out I needed this line I could come closer and also follow them out from 13m. I set up a maver invincible series 7 pencil on 0.13 to 0.11 hook length with a size 18 b911.
Onto the session, on the all in I chucked out 6 feeder fulls of my method mix in a med cage feeder, this was spread between 60 and 70 turns on the reel and because of my dodgy casting a little left and right of my marker. I then followed this in with the method, because of the distance I plumped for a large brass stem feeder by Kobra, these can really be punished on the cast and the stem wont flex like the plastic counterparts.
First cast I sat and waited in anticipation for all of 3mins when wallop, my tip flew round and the line hit the clip, I luckily got the line free to hear my drag screaming away (I could have been off the coast of Florida keys for a moment hooking into a Marlin, then I remembered how wet and cold I was and how big the carp go in Barston). A long battle ensued and the double figure beasty just fit into my landing net. A great start. The next hour produced 6 little F1's on the method line and then I had a quiet 30min spell. I decided to lob it that bit further to 75 turns. As soon as the method hit down I struggled to tighted up, something must be wrong so I reeled in about 20 turns until I hit something solid. Must be those snags I had found earlier right... wrong turned out to be the worlds biggest drop back bite and the fish just kept swimming towards me until it realised he was in netting distance and a nice 5lb of carpy lump was in the net. Hour 2 and 3 were steady with me changing the distance of casting I was making to keep skimmers and f1's up to 2lb coming to the net.
Hour 4 went a bit dead so I plonked in some micros a few expanders and some dead reds onto my pole line and had 2 more fruitless chucks whilst pinging maggot over the top of my pole line. 1st put in on the pole line and the float bobs and dips for 30 seconds before a big lift and a sail away reults in a decent bream of 3lb odd coming to the net. After this I had 2 roach and an f1 fall off the hook in 20mins so back to the rested method line for the last hour. 2 proper carp followed with 1 being smaller that most the f1's and the other around 3lb and the last 20mins was made up of 4 more skimmers on the method line.
At the weigh in I had 2 huge weights of 79lb and 86lb to my right and I knew I had beaten all thise to my left in my section. I just needed a bit of luck here to get a double default. On hearing that there were a few 90's from other sections I thought this was a goner but waited in the bar anyway until I had to shoot off. Unfortunatley before my sectioned was called out duuuuur, £40 that could have found a good home!
In other news I had 122lb on wyatts at cob house on the top kit+1 ans pellet for 5th. Not much to talk about there catch, feed, rebait and repeat.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Whitehall League Match - Whitehall Pool 22nd May 2011
Weather: 12C - 16C cloudy with showers, very strong wind 20mph+ gusts.
Water: Rich brown with 16ft breakers (in my peg anyway).
Peg: 27
Baits: 4mm feed pellet, 6mm & 8mm expanders sensas crazy bait red broundait and meat
Weight: 9lb something
Well conditions were far from perfect today. I stood at the car park on my first club match thinking crikey I wish I had a cooked breakfast this morning, oh and of course how the hell am I going to present a bait in this.
I decided to go for a anything that swims and can fit a 6mm pellet in its gob approach and found 8ft of water at 7m to attack as this was the limit of holding my pole in these conditions. Second approach was to pile in groundbait into the edge and fish big chunks of meat over the top to snare some of the bigger carp towards the end of the match.
Rigs I set up:
Pellet on the deck was a 0.8g Maver Invincible series 7 shotted with a spread bulk of no 8s and 2 no 10 back shots. This was on a 0.17 powerline to 0.15 powerline hooklength tied to a B911 size 16. Due to conditions this was set the float bristle length overdepth and half a tub of bristle grease to stop it sinking into the waves. This was set to soft set black hydro which lands anything with a pulla
I also set up a couple of shallow lines which did not produce so I'm not going to talk about them!!
Margin line was a 0.2g Hillybilly Billybob undershotted so the meat took the bristle to 1cm above the raging weir pool I had in my margins. Line was 0.19 powerline straight through to a Kamasan Animal size 14, and this was fished to Red Hydro.
Started off kinder potting squeezed balls of 4mm feed pellets on my out line and fishing a 8mm over the top to wait for the bigger residents which resulted in 2 gudgeon. Not what was expected, a switch to the 6mm propmted the crucuans and f1s to have ago and in the first hour and half I put 3lb of bits and pieces in my net. To my left maggots were being pinged in and that killed my swim cold. Little interest for the pellets on the deck, shallow, shorter or longer than where I was fishing. A solitary skimmer and a 2oz scale from a foul hooked monster was all I gained for my troubles.
Onto the margin line that I had been feeding with loose groundbait, first put in and the float dibs and before it dob it shoots under and I am met with solid resistance. A beligerant fight insues and a snare the 5lb beasty in no time. Straight back in and the float keeps traveling down, after thinking the meat had pulled it down the slope I lift gently in to a funny shaking fish. It zigged and zagged around leading me to thinking it is a tench however out came a load of fins and not a lot of fish. Getting very excited after seeing everyone else struggle I go back down the edge only to be sitting in hope that my float would then sail away. Both edges didn't produce a touch for best part of an hour and half and my pellet line just produced some other bits and pieces. Overall a little disapointing but not too bad with the other weights coming from the pool and with some anglers failing to catch all day. Winning weight of 16lb was done on the maggot catching the silvers that are so prolific on the venue.
Water: Rich brown with 16ft breakers (in my peg anyway).
Peg: 27
Baits: 4mm feed pellet, 6mm & 8mm expanders sensas crazy bait red broundait and meat
Weight: 9lb something
Well conditions were far from perfect today. I stood at the car park on my first club match thinking crikey I wish I had a cooked breakfast this morning, oh and of course how the hell am I going to present a bait in this.
I decided to go for a anything that swims and can fit a 6mm pellet in its gob approach and found 8ft of water at 7m to attack as this was the limit of holding my pole in these conditions. Second approach was to pile in groundbait into the edge and fish big chunks of meat over the top to snare some of the bigger carp towards the end of the match.
Rigs I set up:
Pellet on the deck was a 0.8g Maver Invincible series 7 shotted with a spread bulk of no 8s and 2 no 10 back shots. This was on a 0.17 powerline to 0.15 powerline hooklength tied to a B911 size 16. Due to conditions this was set the float bristle length overdepth and half a tub of bristle grease to stop it sinking into the waves. This was set to soft set black hydro which lands anything with a pulla
I also set up a couple of shallow lines which did not produce so I'm not going to talk about them!!
Margin line was a 0.2g Hillybilly Billybob undershotted so the meat took the bristle to 1cm above the raging weir pool I had in my margins. Line was 0.19 powerline straight through to a Kamasan Animal size 14, and this was fished to Red Hydro.
Started off kinder potting squeezed balls of 4mm feed pellets on my out line and fishing a 8mm over the top to wait for the bigger residents which resulted in 2 gudgeon. Not what was expected, a switch to the 6mm propmted the crucuans and f1s to have ago and in the first hour and half I put 3lb of bits and pieces in my net. To my left maggots were being pinged in and that killed my swim cold. Little interest for the pellets on the deck, shallow, shorter or longer than where I was fishing. A solitary skimmer and a 2oz scale from a foul hooked monster was all I gained for my troubles.
Onto the margin line that I had been feeding with loose groundbait, first put in and the float dibs and before it dob it shoots under and I am met with solid resistance. A beligerant fight insues and a snare the 5lb beasty in no time. Straight back in and the float keeps traveling down, after thinking the meat had pulled it down the slope I lift gently in to a funny shaking fish. It zigged and zagged around leading me to thinking it is a tench however out came a load of fins and not a lot of fish. Getting very excited after seeing everyone else struggle I go back down the edge only to be sitting in hope that my float would then sail away. Both edges didn't produce a touch for best part of an hour and half and my pellet line just produced some other bits and pieces. Overall a little disapointing but not too bad with the other weights coming from the pool and with some anglers failing to catch all day. Winning weight of 16lb was done on the maggot catching the silvers that are so prolific on the venue.
Been a bit occupied...
What was going to be an almost weekly venture into blogging has turned into a sad neglected account of some odd fishing exploits. Must try must harder in future although I have been side tracked by the odd bits and pieces at work (KERCHING).
To sum up from my last post, I have been mostly taking part in club events with a few opens here and there. During the Easter break I went to Ockeridge for 3 mid week opens, I had heard a lot about the place and it was responding well to the pellet. I had some good weights of 69lb 78lb and 79lb all on the pellet and bit of paste down the edge but was always short 25lb-30lb for the frame, usually coming from end pegs which i failed to draw. I also ventured to cob house on a miserable April day, was the only day in April it rained, to fish a Wednesday open on Laurel. I like this pool because of the prolific catches of all the varied species in there. Conditions stopped huge weights coming out and 95lb won with lots of 60s and 50s. I came 4th with 63lb of pellet caught fish with an impressive silvers net weighing 29lb of skimmers, roach, Rudd, crucians and tench.
On the club scene I have had a truly miserable spring league with St.Johns after coming 3rd in the Autumn series I set the bar quite high for myself. The 3 small pool fished miserably with very tight fields and then came tooby's on the windiest day EVER. I drew the car park side right in the corner with the wind battering me all day and tried for the first hour to fish bagging wag and pellet wag. Truly pants! I had mixed a load of groundbait expecting a great day so 2 hours left and a Rudd in my net I filled in a line at 8m and tried to fish my pole. Now if you were pegged to my right 8m away you would now be without head as all I do was get spun around on my box with the wind which was now sending waves over my footplate. Chucked a method feeder out and wallop 1st carp of 4lb in the net, next put in a drop back and a skimmer, next put in tip flies around and drag starts screaming 13lb now in the net with this beasty. I then chucked back in and had a small carp of 2lb after 10mins wait. All the while I was looking into the corner as I saw some tails in the edge so I had a chuck. All of a sudden a back appears out the water and I reliase I must have cast into about 8inches of water and there goes my tip, after a long battle out comes another 7lb-8lb fish so about 22lb in the net and 10mins left. Which swim do I choose, I went for the edge swim and luckily the tip went around and a nice 6lb-7lb fish was the result. 29lb I put on the scales which I thought would be enough not to be embarrassed but everyone else had struggled bar Dobbo out of the wind on the baggin wag and his 2lb test curve rod. So I ended up with 3rd and a 100% record of framing on tooby's.
Onwards now to the Whitehall league campaign, starting at the club pool.....
To sum up from my last post, I have been mostly taking part in club events with a few opens here and there. During the Easter break I went to Ockeridge for 3 mid week opens, I had heard a lot about the place and it was responding well to the pellet. I had some good weights of 69lb 78lb and 79lb all on the pellet and bit of paste down the edge but was always short 25lb-30lb for the frame, usually coming from end pegs which i failed to draw. I also ventured to cob house on a miserable April day, was the only day in April it rained, to fish a Wednesday open on Laurel. I like this pool because of the prolific catches of all the varied species in there. Conditions stopped huge weights coming out and 95lb won with lots of 60s and 50s. I came 4th with 63lb of pellet caught fish with an impressive silvers net weighing 29lb of skimmers, roach, Rudd, crucians and tench.
On the club scene I have had a truly miserable spring league with St.Johns after coming 3rd in the Autumn series I set the bar quite high for myself. The 3 small pool fished miserably with very tight fields and then came tooby's on the windiest day EVER. I drew the car park side right in the corner with the wind battering me all day and tried for the first hour to fish bagging wag and pellet wag. Truly pants! I had mixed a load of groundbait expecting a great day so 2 hours left and a Rudd in my net I filled in a line at 8m and tried to fish my pole. Now if you were pegged to my right 8m away you would now be without head as all I do was get spun around on my box with the wind which was now sending waves over my footplate. Chucked a method feeder out and wallop 1st carp of 4lb in the net, next put in a drop back and a skimmer, next put in tip flies around and drag starts screaming 13lb now in the net with this beasty. I then chucked back in and had a small carp of 2lb after 10mins wait. All the while I was looking into the corner as I saw some tails in the edge so I had a chuck. All of a sudden a back appears out the water and I reliase I must have cast into about 8inches of water and there goes my tip, after a long battle out comes another 7lb-8lb fish so about 22lb in the net and 10mins left. Which swim do I choose, I went for the edge swim and luckily the tip went around and a nice 6lb-7lb fish was the result. 29lb I put on the scales which I thought would be enough not to be embarrassed but everyone else had struggled bar Dobbo out of the wind on the baggin wag and his 2lb test curve rod. So I ended up with 3rd and a 100% record of framing on tooby's.
Onwards now to the Whitehall league campaign, starting at the club pool.....
Monday, 4 April 2011
Whitehall Silvers Match 3rd April 2011
Weather: 10C-16C cloudy patches of strong sun, gusts of wind and storm clouds narrowly missed us at end of match.
Water: A clear top layer then a rich brown colour (sediment dropped with high pressure).
Peg: 20
Baits: White & Bronze maggot, Worm and Groundbait mix
Weight: 10lb 6oz
Water: A clear top layer then a rich brown colour (sediment dropped with high pressure).
Peg: 20
Baits: White & Bronze maggot, Worm and Groundbait mix
Weight: 10lb 6oz
I trundled into the Whitehall at 7:45 a good deal less hung over than the previous match which helped with my input into the usual fishing tales of the past fortnight and banter from the last match. Unfortunately, again, I had no tales of my own to add over the breakfast table so I just ploughed as much food and coffee down my gob as possible.
Onto the pool and again the open was a sell out, full credit must go to the organiser Dave Warren but also to the pool which has been fishing well. A lot of poor mothers were unfortunatley neglected. Was nice to see a couple of fellow st.johns anglers in Ash Jauncey and John Snelson. The drawbag came round and 20 came out, 21 for Ash and 18 for John, so a good competitive day was going to be had. Before I get into the nitty gritty of the match I will post a photo of my new kitpod I recently won from MFS, it is getting a lot of attention so here it is for you all to drool over:
Onto the match, now I have heard some storys of how Alf Hands has been clearly winning these events so have kept these under wraps until now, when this is the last in the series. Luckily I was pegged opposite him so could keep an eye on him, unluckily he was the only angler with 2 free pegs either side of him and on one of the best pegs on the pool.
I opted to get the fish up early, I had heard frequent small balls of groundbait to be the key to getting the silvers feeding in the upper layers. The mix I used for this was 500g sensas lake black, 300g bag'em super skimmer dark and 200g brown crumb. I mixed it quite wet as all of the mixes soak up a lot of water and I wanted to loose feed it as a small disk. Hookbaits were white and bronze maggot for this line. I also fancied some big perch so brought around a 1/4 kilo of worm that I aimed to fish the margin with.
I looked to fish between topkit +1 section to topkit +2 sections shallow for speed of fishing and ease of feeding groundbait and maggot. I plumbed up to find bottom to set a rig on the deck just in case the fish were again reluctant to leave the bottom, I had a good 9ft of water a top kit out and this got half an inch deeper 2 more sections out. Float of choice was a Garbo DS21 in 0.8g on 0.11 powerline to a 0.09 powerline hooklength to a 20 drennan silverfish maggot. Shotting was in mind to search a bit of water for a bite so a 0.5 olivette was used with 5 no9 shot as droppers evenly spaced from olivette to the 6inch hooklength. I used this on a top 2 with doubled 5 set soft, this had to be used with a spare no4 section due to the depth.
Onto the match and I potted in a lightly squeezed tangerine size ball with as much loose groundbait as could fit in my pot on my topkit +2 line. I then went over the top with my deck rig with single bronze maggot. First 3 put ins resulted in 3 savage bites before the olivette had settled properly. I instantly threw the topkit on my roost and get the shallow rigs out to play.
8 Fish in the next 10 minutes and I start getting into a rhythm of catching throwing in a disk of groundbait shipping out feeding 5-6 maggots and repeat. This was all looking good and the fish were all of the 3oz mark but I was catching quicker than those around me. I got my self into quite a rhythm at points in the first half of the match and when this was happening I was catching quickly.
I had 30 fish by the 2 hour mark, then it went slow on people, this was in time as I got to give others some stick on the size of the 'roach' they were into as there elastic got taken for a ride by a lump of carpy things. John to my left had struck into something big and unforuntely it turned out to be a decent perch, they were on the feed and my shallow line had slowed down. I then potted my worm goo down the edge and follwed with a big worm... 30mins later without a sign and constantly feeding maggot and disks of groundbait onto my shallow line i returned to tiddler bashing.
I had been changing depths a lot during the day but found 6ft to be the optimum depth on return i was struggling with liners so went in at 5ft then shallowing to 4ft and a had a good run of rudd and ide. When this died I had to stick on an extra section to follow them out but kept feeding my short line. The last hour was sluggish with people struggling to catch, I kept chopping and changing between deck shallow rigs and even had a look down edge again. A few fish were had in the last 10 but was it enough?
When the scales came to me I saw Alf had weighed 16lb, I wasn't confident of getting close to that but second was 10lb 8oz which I fancied with around 45 fish. John put 10lb 4oz on the scales and he was catching at a similar rate to me in the middle of the match and had a lot bigger fish than mine. When I pulled my bag out it looked impressive with the number of bright roach and ide. Scales wobbled between 10lb 2oz and 10lb 10oz and finally settled on 10lb 6oz. I had beaten John but still short of 2nd so sat in 3rd, a 12lb bag then beat me out of the money but beating the other st.johns boys sat next to me was payment enough.
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