Whitehall League - Riflemans Arms stretch of the Droitwich Canal 9th October 2011

Weather: 12C Light cloud cover with short sunny spells.
Water: BOATS - WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY PEG??
Peg: (Next to Chairman, best behave!) non permanent 6 (spinners section)
Baits: Pinkie, pink ones with a few white ones, chopped worm, Dynamite Baits Silver X black.
Weight: 11lb 6oz (1st)

When I saw this fixture on the list at the start of the year I thought one thing; "I'll have a nice lie whilst the boys gruel that one out". However with the league on a knife edge I had to give it a go, even though the only think I have used a canal for in the past was as a latrine.

Well over to Alans I go in the week and ask Chris to sort me out, he hands me an empty packet of size 22 Kamasan B511's, very funny says I, look closer says he, agh says I they are quite small!! Onto elastics and a my double number 3 is laughed off in the chatbox on MFS and I am instructed to use a single use of size 3, I have stronger elastic in my knickers! But now I am sorted and prepared for scratching around for bites on the canal.

On arrival I am surprised to see the canal has a lot of bankside vegetation and the weed beds offer a lot of options to fish to, at least they would if it was a commy snake lake stuffed with fish. The banter is flying around at the start of the match about certain members fondness of the paste and whether they were going to fish it today. Apparently one did, I shall leave that judgement up to you...

OK onto the session and the rigs I set up were quite simple nearside reeds, track and far side. I started down the track and didn't have a bite for 20mins and never went back to that line so I won't go over rigs for that.

Please excuse the mess, I was half way through packking up when I dedcided to take photo....

For the near side (red boxes) I set up a DC10 in 4x8 for 2 1/2 ft of water (that went to 2ft through the match) this was on 0.10 powerline to a 0.07 hooklength and size 22 B511. This was matched up to a 3 elastic through the top 2 sections of a match kit. My intention here was to feed a small ball of groudbait at each side and feed for bite with pinky over the top.

For the far bank reeds (blue) I intended to fish sloppy mixture of worm, peat and groundbait with a worm over the top. I set up one of my homemade silver pencil floats in 0.2g in 3ft of water on 0.13 powerline to initially 0.10 and a size 18 B511 but changed to a 0.13 and a 18 B911 as the match went on as I kept bending the predecessor hook and the line kept going week around hook due to amount of perch being caught. This was matched to doubled 4 elastic in order to drag fish from the reeds. I did not bump a single fish on this set up.

As previously stated I started my match down the track messing around on punch and pinkie to no avail. I had fed my left hand near side line but did not want to go on them too early. I placed my rig into the hole in the reeds and the float kept sinking to which I thought I had majorly over shotted it, upon lifting my rig out no3 hi-viz elastic is streaming out of my top kit and perch no1 is in the keepnet. I then kept on catching down this side consistently ficking 5 pinkies over the line every 2 fish. After 45 mins of catching I fed my right hand swim so that I had a back up line should this line slow.

Eventually after 90mins of perch bagging the swim started to slow right down. I swapped over and re-fed a ball of groundbait and 12-15 pinkies. The other swim had perch there again, it wasn't as prolific but I was catching (which did not hit home until later) so I was building a weight.

At 1 o'clock and after some boat traffic and lock movement I noticed a drop in the water levels and my nearside lines were dead. Time to feed and try the farside swim. A small pot of sloppy choppy went over and was left for 15mins. I then went over with a half a dendy on the hook to see float bury instantly and the biggest fish of the day graced my landing net, a 8oz-9oz perch. I fed with a toss pot every 3 fish initially and then upped the feed to every 2 fish when the swim really picked up.

One thing I noticed was that when boats went through I went straight back over to the far swim with and a larger specimen would take the hook bait, maybe due to the extra cloud in the water, who knows? In the last 30 mins I had slowed on the far bank so switched to the quicker nearside and caught well at 3/4 depth (20inches) and alternating sides and feed to maximise the swims.

At the weight in I could not call my weight and had 5lb to beat which I thought would be close. When I got my net out I couldn't beleive the amount of fish I had caught! I had to double take when the needle went beyond 10lb and I was really chuffed to have done such a good weight on a venue I was considering to be a write off for me. I think I shall now retire from Canal fishing on a high and concentrate on improving my less than adequate commercial fishing haha!!

Whitehall League - Laugherne Island 11th September 2011

Weather: 16C-18C Light cloud cover with sunny spells.
Water: Thick muddy brown colour
Peg: (Next to Mick Whatling AGAIN!!) 8
Baits: Bag'em Machins Method mix and Bag'em Krill Seaker, Atomic Paste, Coppens 4.5mm pellets, Worm, Dead-Red Maggots, Sonubaits banded hard white pellet.
Weight: 150lb 6oz (3rd)

I have been looking forward to this match for a long time now and it really did not disappoint in any way. I got to cob house a bit early so I could have a cappuccino and a chin wag, I met Snelly in the cafe and started to boggle his brain with the approach to this match.

I fancied a draw on the point of an island or a gap to chuck the method for the first part of the match. At the draw peg 8 stuck to my hand and next to me Mick had drawn 10 and was gloating that he had a gap in the island, oh how I enjoyed seeing his face drop as he pushed his gear gingerly past peg 8 slap bang in the middle of the island!!

My approach was to have them from the island for the best part of 3 1/2 hours or more with the back up of paste at 6m just before the ledge. Then plunder the margins for some big munters late on. I went about setting up my box in the clay bank that had formed since the water dropping so much, I think people were willing me to fall in which is slightly unkind so I gave them a finger salute and got on with extended my box legs at all sorts of weird and wonderful lengths and angles.

For the island I chucked a small Kobra 20g method feeder over with my 9ft Garbo Rocket Picker with my dinky Daiwa Crossfire reel loaded with 4lb sensor. Hooklength was 4inches of 0.24 powerline to a 14 B911 for dead reds and a 14 B911 with a hair rigged band for the pellet.

My paste line was only 3 1/2 ft - 4 ft deep but with the wind and the tow that this pool often has I opted for a 0.6g sconezone jadz float and this was on 0.17 powerline straight through to a  size 12 B911. This was on black hydro, my favourite carping laccy. My edge line was shallow but I managed to find a 18inch hole between 2 fallen in bits of bank and the same depth 2ft from the bank the other side of me. I opted for a hillybilly ratcacher 2 float tied to 0.19 straight through to a 14 Kamasan Animal hook.

The session went as planned with me putting 40lb in the net in the first hour even with a break above the feeder on one BIG fish. Hour 2 saw the bites dry up a bit and I had 30 mins of casting without a touch which told me it was time for a change. I had been throwing dampened pellets over my paste line all morning so went over this line with the paste and was into a fish straight away. I had 4 fish on this line within 20 mins and I had about 60lbs in the net by the half way stage. At this point Dan to my right had started to bag up off the island so I had to chuck over there as the paste was not fishing right for me. I was into fish straight away and put another 30lbs into the net with 10 quik fish.

During this spell I had been throwing in roughly squeezed balls of groundbait down both edges. I now started to cup it in to be more precise with the feed and concentrate the fish. The one edge was tails and backs everywhere which was tempting but I decided that was a one way ticket to foul hookers and ruining that swim. I went down the other edge with 2 whole worms (minus their heads as to leak out some juices) on the hook. 8 edge fish later the all out was called and I foul hooked a beast which pinged off before I could shout fish on. What a match, very rarely things go so well to plan, especially on this pool. I thourougly enjoyed the match due to using a variety of methods and catching a variety of sized fish too.

In further news I have just come back from a second place at St Johns Angling's Tooby's with 43lb of method feeder caught carp with a bonus smimmer of 2lb and a crucian of 10oz. Using my long range casting gear set up from the Barston matches (detailed below) made casting a doddle. Method mix was Bag'ems Machins method mix with super XP green and dead reds, meat and banded white pellet for hook.

Not a bad day you may think, well I caught all those within 11:10 and 12:30. So the first part and end of match were rubbish, to put pay to that I was only 1 fish from 1st place!! I was on peg 3 and cast towards a hump I found on the bottom, just before half way and not just past half away across. I also tried down the edge and short method but it didnt work.

 

Droitwich Cup - Broadacres 4th September 2011 (representing Whitehall)

Weather: 12C-16C Overcast and drizzly rain for the most part, torrential rain at the start.
Water: Clear with colour starting at a foot deep
Peg: Non permanent E6
Baits: Ringers 4mm Expanders dyed red, Fisheries own red strawberry (stupid) pellets, Worm, Caster and RedMaggots
Weight: 7lb 12oz (2nd in Section)

A damp Broadacres played host to the Droitwich cup where 6 teams of 7 anglers go to head to head on  the big pool and charlies pool at broacres. Having done o.k. on the big pool in the Whitehall league match at the venue I was hoping to draw on that pool as snake lakes are not my cup of tea. My drawing hand let me down once again!

So off to Charlies pool I go, A strange old pool which saw me fishing from an island over to another island with another island behind me?! Sound confusing, you should of been there. The three lines that immediately screamed out to me was the far bank, the bottom of the near shelf and the bottom of the far shelf.

Red = Tight to island line.
Blue = Bottom of shelf lines

This pool was not dominated by carp, although it was banded around that you would need a few to get a section win for your team here. So a cocktail was created in order to cover all bases. Half a bait tub of worm was chopped to a slop and then 1 pint of casters and half of red maggot was added, to boost this a bit more dampened fishery pellets were added along with a squirt of red dye. This was used as my feed for the entire session on all lines.

My silvers rigs needed a bit of dusting off to say the least and a size 18 hook looked tiny after spending my summer dragging out mud pigs. The 2 shelf rigs I had plumbed up identical at just under 4ft so I opted for a 0.2g Hillybilly Billybob float, these are stable floats due to the diamond body shape and high density foam body however in the smaller sizes are ultra sensitive for silvers. This was on 0.13 powerline to a 0.11 hooklength to a 18 Drennan silverfish pellet hook, I matched this with white hydro. My rig for over to the island was a bit beefier as I may have to drag some fish from this snaggy area, I found 12-18 inches of water so a Hillybilly ratcatcher 2 was obvious float choice. This was tied to 0.15 straight through to a 16 B911 on double 5 latex.

To start the session I potted in a medium cad pot of my feed onto the near shelf and then went with a pot and a 1/4 of a worm over to the far bank. Fish were coming in straigt away and as I was plumbing up on the island I was having liners but they were spooking from the pole tip. Leaving line was not an option due to me having to poke the pole under the reeds to get tight over. I persevered and managed a few F1's and a small chub.

A change to the pellet and first put in I had a carp on, it wanted to go straight for a sunken tree off the point of the island, however I managed to steer it well away. A healthy 2 1/2 lean common was not a bad start when only one other carp had been landed to my knowledge, but this swim wasn't right. I decided to come off it and put in a half a big pot of mix to try and get the fishes heads down.

I went on to my near margin swim (about 4m) and it was solid with F1's and 6 fish came to the net quickly followed by a couple of small skimmers, feeding a small cad pot after every other fish seemed to keep bites coming and 1/2 worm was doing the damage. This then went quite so I re-fed my island swim and gave the far shelf a go. As my near shelf was this was then solid and 5 F1's and a tench came to the net in quick succesion.

The remainder of the match saw me changing between the 2 shelf swims with the near shelf being slightly more productive with small fish coming to the net frequenlty. The island swim was giving me nightmares as the fish were coming to the feed but were spooking from the pole tip. I reckon I would have had my section had I swung a small method in on the pole as the fish were certainly there. I was surprised to have a 2nd in section and give the team some good points on a grueling day, I got beaten by a paste head who sat it out for the proper carp down the track. As a team we had to carry a last place which dented our chances of winning but a 3rd overall wasn't bad and 3 of the 7 picked up, including me for a default section win.

St.Johns Autumn League - Otherton Pool 28th August 2011

Weather: 16C-18C sunny for most part with a torrential downpour 10 mins before the end.
Water: Muddy Brown
Peg: 24
Baits: Screttings Micro's, Got Atomic Paste, Ringers 4mm Expanders, Bag'Em Krill Seaker groundbait, Worms and White Maggots
Weight: 80lb 7oz (1st)

After missing the first of the St.Johns Autumn league matches on my favourite Tooby's pool I was looking forward to a days carp bashing on the prolific Otherton pool. Now this venue is full of fish that are often very difficult to catch in a match so this often gets my head whirring. Today though I had decided to make them have it short and down the edge.

I set up 3 lines, only 2 produced so I will just talk about those. Firstly I knew paste has been out fishing the pellet on the pool so this was the first line I went about setting up on the shelf at 4m in front of me in just over 3ft of water. I set up a SconeZone Jadz 0.2g to 0.17 straight through to a size 12 B911, this was matched to black hydro. On this line I also set up a pellet/maggot rig incase the paste did not produce; a 0.2g Maver invincible series 7 was set up on 0.15 - 0.13 hooklength with a 18 B911 on grey hydro.

The final line was tight into the edge next to some boarding holding the bank up in 18 inches of water. I set up a Hillybilly ratcatcher 2 to 0.17 straight through to a Kamasan animal size 14, again matched to black hydro.

At the all in I potted a medium cad pot of micros onto my line at 4m and went over the top with a double maggot to see what was in the peg... couple of roach later and carp being caught to my left on the paste on that line I immediately had to change. A change on to the paste saw carp coming reguarly for an hour and a half before starting to slow.



Showing peg position and the lines fished.



I pilled in 2 large pots full of loose groundbait down the edge and went over with 4 maggots on the hook, before the float settled a fish was streaming elastic out of my po

le tip. I went straight back over and had another quick fish. After this I could see a number of fish coming in and spooking off, I pressumed that they were spooking from the pole being held over the edge so came off that line.

I re-fed one pot full and went back to the paste line. It was solid again with fish and I mistakenly fed micros with my paste which resulted in a couple of foul hookers pulling out and one coming to the net. It was far better not feeding a thing on that line. I fished this line for another hour and a half until 13:00, whilst feeding a big pot of groundbait down the edge every 30 mins.

The penultimate hour saw me catching reguarly down the edge on 2 halfs a worm and on occasions changing to 4 maggots on the hook. The trend seemed to be that if fish were visible down the edge then the maggot would catch quicker whereas if I could not see any movement the worm would catch quicker. The final 30 mins saw me get one liner with a minute to go from the all out which was frustrating, I had gone back on the paste line to no avail and tried the other margin but there seemed to be no fish about.

At the all out I reckoned I had 65lbs which I thought was enough for a win but was very surprised when my nets went 80lb. If the fish had of kept coming and not lost the 4 foul hookers I think I could have easily done the ton from this peg. In reflection I am glad I went for an attack where the fish usually feed on that pool, I think the fish are always close on this pool it is just a matter of getting them feeding over these lines. Next up Laugherne Island for Whitehall and Tooby's for St.Johns, two matches I quite fancy getting something from lets hope so!!



Whitehall League Match - Hallow Club Pools 21st August 2011

Weather: 20C-22C sunny.
Water: Dark Brown, in the shade for most of the match.
Peg: 17
Baits: 4mm screttings pellet, 2mm coppens pellet, 6mm  van den eynde marine expanders Atomic Paste, caster and white Maggot
Weight: 53lb 6oz (1st)

An early start was needed in order to find this one and to try and decifer Mr Hope's directions and the legend that he is got me there without getting lost!

Nothing known about this place apart from its stocked with carp and silvers which doesnt make the match easy to go about planning for. I planned to fish caster for no other reason than I had 3 pints of them I had turned myself. They were rank and much titilation was had in the car park before the match, resulting in them being covered in tumeric?

I set up a caster line at 10m on the deck at 5ft with a 0.2 homemade pencil on 0.13 powerline and a 0.11 hl to a 18 B911 and a on the drop 2ft - 1ft rig with a 4x10 (stotz) Hillybilly guzzunder to the same line combination. These were on double 5 latex and preton 9h respectively. I set up a pellet line at 5m on a 0.2 maver invincible series 7 on 0.15 to 0.13 to a 16 B911. A paste line was set up here but not used. Final line I set up was towards an empty platform on my right in 18inches of water on a Hillbybilly Ratcathcer 2 float to 0.17 straight throught a 14 B911. (This had 2ft of line above eventually as the fish were spooking, more of that later)

I started pinging caster at 10m and had the odd fish, a lovely mixed bag included roach, rudd, perch, chub, tench and a small carp from this line. I had to play with depths, shotting and feeding to keep fish coming and never really put a string of fish together. I alternated from this line and my 5m pellet line which I was feeding with a medium cad pot every 10mins. By this stage it was 2 1/2 hours into match and people with the sun in their pegs were catching carp irregularly. By 3 1/2 hours I had 8lbs in my nets, not good by any means, however the sun was moving towards my peg and with it cruising carp.

I fed my margin swim with a pot full of micros and a pot full of caster and went over with 4 maggots on the hook. I had 3 quick fish giving me great confidence. The fish then started to spook easily in the margins so I changed to a longer rig and held the pole away from their heads.

I put some more in the net this way, feeding a ball of pellet every fish by hand. By lengthing the rig I had also made myself a 'mugging' rig. I tried flicking the rig past the nose of cruising fish and hoped they would snaffle the 'quad mag' bait. I managed 10 fish out of an attempted 30 on the mugging front. At the same time I put the rig into the edge whilst waiting for a suitable fish to 'mug' and then hurridly postioned my pole. This was a frantic last hour where I put 40lbs in the net and was swinging my pole around a lot, my shoulders ached to say the least.

When the scales came around I couldnt believe I had done 50lb and beat 2nd place by over 20lbs after the appauling start to the match, just shows that you should never pack up early. Next match Laugherne Island at Cob House, a Nemisis of mine as I have never done very well on opens there although I enjoy fishing it. The semi finals of the knock out will also take place here so all to play for.

Whitehall League Match - Pheasant Pool Elmbridge Fishery 14th August 2011

Weather: 18C-22C overcast.
Water: Rich clay like brown
Peg: 20
Baits: 4mm and micro fishery pellet, 6mm  van den eynde marine and ringers expanders, paste from fishery pellets
Weight: 54lbs 3oz (4th)

So after missing a few weeks due to holidays and the sort I get back to fishing with a mid week open at Ockeridge and finish 4th with 86lb off of Meadow 20. Onto the Whitehall league and after missing a match on the club pool I need some points. So peg 20 comes out of the bang and the long and the short of it is I finish 4th. So 3 matches, 3 peg 20's and 3 4th places.

Getting to my peg I am pleased to see an overhanging tree with a cut in to the bank with 2ft of water tight in to my left and an inlet pipe to my right with again 2ft of water. The marginal shelf quickly slopes off to 4 1/2ft at 2+2 and at 13m this remains the same. The info I have is that pellet and paste is fished short for most wins on the opens.

Showing peg position and lines fished

With this in mind I set up a pellet rig at 2+2 with a 0.4 Maver invincible series 7 to 0.17 preston powerline and a 0.15 h/l to a 16 B911 this was matched with grey hydro. For this line I also set up a paste rig with a 0.4 SconeZone Jadz on 0.19 poweline straight through to a 12 B911 on black hydro. My margin rigs were a 0.1 Hillybilly Billybob to 0.19 powerline straight through to a 14 B911 for the worm over micros, this was matched to purple hydro.

I started my match wanting to go to 13m and feed my 2+2 line for at least 30mins before going onto it. However feeders started to crash in around that line from the adjacent bank and my peg was fizzing away from 4m-7m out. I went out with a medium sized cad pot of 4mm pellets and a 6mm pellet on the hook. The float was burying at a good rate and a good number of mixed sized skimmers came to the net between the 30min mark and the 1hour 15min mark. People up the pool were catching carp, big munting carp as well, so I had to change.

Next time the float dipped a 4lb carp came to the net. So back out I went feeding after every fish or 5mins as I was feeding before (varying the amount of pellets to the fish I was catching). The float dipped slightly then burried and a long fight ensued. A carp of well over 15lb came to netting range when ping the hook pulled from the leviathon. This triggered me to move onto the paste from here on in, whilt maintaining the pellet feed.

The 2nd and 3rd hours of the match was spent steadily putting small carp to 3lb and skimmers to 1 1/2 into the net on the paste without a sign of any big fish. I estimated myself on 25lb-30lb which was slightly below the 40lb that the bayliff had told me i need in the first 3 1/2 hours before going down the side for 50lb+. I had seen some people start to plunder the margins early with some monsters coming out so I put 2 250ml pot fulls of micros down each edge.

I went straight down the left hand (tree) edge on double dendra worm and had a fish to 8lb straight away. I followed this by going down again and after loosing 1 to the trees and getting a huge mirror scale back I went down the other edge. Again first put in sees purple hydro streaking down the pool and another 8lb fish goes to the net. Again I go in and get another fish out to around 7lb.

The last hour was frustrating as a few perch took the worm bait down the edge. I spent most of my time thinking about back to my paste line but then what if I miss a couple of 10lb+ carp down the edge. All in all a rather frustrating final hour that saw the 1st and 2nd places bag up down the edge and only a couple of other fish coming out, including a 21lb stonker!!

Whitehall League Match - Wyatt's pool Cob House Fishery 10th July 2011

Weather: 20C-22C sunny.
Water: More mud than water
Peg: 20
Baits: 4.5mm fishery pellet, 4.5mm and 6mm  van den eynde marine and ringers expanders and red maggot (paste was in the bag but never came out)
Weight: 116lb

I wanted a few things from this match; a ton weight, to qualify for king of sections if I don't frame, to beat Mick Whatling in the league knockout and to beat Keith Holt in the singles knockout competition.After some strange pegging of the pool saw a couple of anglers with a great deal more space than others I got to peg 20 between Mike 'sex god' Hope and my knockout opponent Mick 'foul mouth' Watling.

Approaching my peg I started to try to set my platform up in the water but Mich quite rightly pointed out that I was still as drunk as a skunk so he wouldn't advise this tactic. On to the rigs, quite simple today, pellet on top kit and pellet on top kit + no4 section. Job done. Rigs were all maver incible series 7 pencils on 0.15mm powerline to the same diameter hooklength with a 16 B911 or a banded pellet hair rigged on a size 18 B911. I also set up a shallow rig on a homemade 0.1g pencil float to the same 0.15mm powerline. I wanted to start on grey hydro and change to black hydro or double 8 when bagging but the fish were bolting so much I had to many pulls on the later so stuck with grey throughout the match.

I plumbed a line a top kit out between my nets and then one at a top kit and no4 section straight in front of me. Match started slow with some not catching until 15mins into the match and Mick next to me having a horrendous time and using some exceptional expletives to demonstrate his frustration. I was catching steady on the deck on 4mm expanders, the new van den eynde marine expanders are light which matched the coppens feed pellets perfectly.

I caught steady thtoughout match having to swap to maggot on occasions to keep the speed of my catches quick enough. The last hour and half was where the damage was done, I shallowed up to avoid foul hookers that were a problem and got the fish at 18inches a top kit out. The fish were coming fast and responding to feed, I fed nearly 4 pints of pellet in last 90mins of the match and put 50lb in the net in this time. I was connecting with the better fish shallow and had a number of 3lb-4lbers in the last hour.

I was chuffed with getting 116lbs from a unrenowned area on wyatts and also being squashed in with other anglers who didn't get big weights. I also qualified for king of sections and beat the 2 knockout opponents!! Result!!