Maple Lake, The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk

Maple Lake, The Oaks, Thirsk

The next match in Robin Hood A.C.'s calendar was to take place on Maple Lake at The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk.

As I was en-route with Frontrow, I said that 40lb would win today and 20lb would be a good weight.  How far out in my guesstimation, would I be?  This was based on an estimation following the Fishomania qualifier held last week at the venue.

As we were driving past the weather sock at Dishforth, I said to Frontrow 'Look, no wind'.  To which he replied 'Let me just check'.  At this point, he licked his finger, lowered the car window and stuck his finger out of the car and said 'Mick, it is windy, very windy, about 80mph winds'.  THE PLUM!!!

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago when I was pegged next to Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead a pound side bet was struck and I had to dig deep into my pockets to give him one of my well earned pounds.  When I arrived today, Lurch came up to me and said, 'Mick, shall we have a pound, no, why not make it two pounds?'. I said 'Yeah, why not'.  The side bet was struck, there was a lot to play for.

In addition, you may have read previously that Lurchio was having one or two problems with his landing net. Whilst waiting for the draw, Frontrow shouted him over and said to Lurchio that he had just signed for a parcel from UPS and it was addressed to Lurchio.  When he opened it, he found that he had received a new landing net....

Chris 'Lurchio' Moorheads new landing net.

The Draw

We had pegs 1 - 27 and there were 22 on the match, so there would not be many empty pegs.  I wanted to draw between pegs 1 - 10 and did not want to be on the long straight (pegs 11 - 23).  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 22.  CRAP!!!  On Peg 21, I had Gary Jowitt.  Peg 23 was empty (that was a bonus), Paul 'Woofer' Clough was on peg 24, Frank Crook Brook was on peg 25 and Alan 'What did you catch that on?' Hunter was end peg 26.  There was another club match on the lake and they started around peg 29.

The Peg

14m across to the island.

The Margin swim - Peg 23's platform at 10m - Woofer on peg 24 didn't have just one aerator to fish to, he had two!!

The Rigs

I set up 4 rigs today...

Rig 1 - 4 x 10 Bauja float on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook.  The rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic   This rig was set up to fish shallow, if the fish decide to come up in the water.

Rig 2 - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 B911 eyed hook with a hair-rigged bait-band.  I plumped up across to the island to the right of the peg, under the tree and found that I had about 12 - 18".  This was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.

Rig 3 - 4 x 10 Bauja on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Trabucco T1 hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up across to find that I had 12" depth between the sedges.  This rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic.

Rig 4 - .3g Garbolino DC6 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up to the next platform and found that I had about 3ft of depth.  This rig was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.  As I was plumbing up, Woofer was guiding me so that I do not fish past the platform.  'Left a bit, back a bit, back a bit more, keep going'.  If I had left it to Woofer, I would have been fishing to the platform to my left, not right.  Back a bit, my backside.  He wanted all of the corner to himself. LOL.

Top Rig - 4 x 10 Bauja
Middle Top - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp
Middle Bottom - 4 x 10 Bauja
Bottom - .3g DC6

 Bait

For bait today, I had 1/2 tin of 8mm cubed meat, 1.5 tins of 6mm cubed meat, 6mm Bait-tech expander pellets, 2mm micro pellets, 6mm hard pellets, 2pts of mixed red and white maggots and some Sonu Baits groundbait.

All In

At the all in, I got rig 2 and baited up with a piece of meat, and put 6-8 pcs of 6mm meat in a toss-pot with a splash of groundbait and shipped out to the right of the peg across to the island under the tree.  I must of waited for all of 1 minute, the float dipped, shot under and 10ft of white hydro elastic was trying to get out of the pole.  I pulled back some of the white hydro via my side pulla kit, and after a couple of attempts, I managed to get the fish in the net.  It was about 7lb.  :-)

The first fish of the day for your truly.

Over the next hour I managed to not catch anything else.  It was going to be one of them days.  I had swapped between baits and lines and I could not even get a little dip on the float.  I put a 6mm expander pellet on Rig 3 with some micro pellets in a tosspot, shipped out to the island, dropped the rig in and waited. Some 5 minutes later, the float dipped, shot under and the fish ran towards me.  I shipped back as fast as I could and managed to catch up with the fish.  I got it under control and netted the fish.  It was a mirror about 4lb.

I re-baited and shipped back out and waited and waited and waited.  Nothing. Zilch, Zip, Nada.

I put a piece of meat on Rig 4 and put a few bits of meat and groundbait in a tosspot and shipped out down the edge to the next platform.  I lowered the rig in and waited.  A couple of minutes later, the float went under and I struck.  1ft of green 13h elastic came out and an F1 about 12oz was soon in the net.  No more bites came on this line for now.

I proceeded to swap lines, trying (being the definitive word) to sneak a fish off each line.  I tried maggot and caught a roach and lost a carp.  I tried hard pellet and caught 1 carp and pulled out of a skimmer.  I tried expander and caught a gudgeon and a carp.  I tried meat and caught a couple of barbel and a couple of carp.

Lurch had taken a visitor with him as the visitor had not fished for a while and wanted to see how to catch fish, so sat with Lurch.  After a couple of hours, Lurch as sent the visitor on a recce to see how I was doing. As the visitor stood behind me, watching, I caught a little carp about 1lb, I told him to tell Lurch that I had not caught anything.  There was pride, honour and £2.00 at stake.  It was serious.

At one point during the match, a car went past on the lakes on the main road and some young ASBO shouted out of the car window 'You F......g Wa......r' to which I asked Woofer if they were his friends. :-!

That was it.  The match was over.  I had 2 barbel, 1 roach and about 1doz carp and was not sure what I had weight wise. I thought that I had about 22/23lb ish.

Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was on peg 1 and weighed in 19lb odd. Frontrow was on peg 2 and had 20lb odd. Paul 'Pid' Farley was on peg 3 and I am not sure if he did not weigh.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson was on peg 4 and DNW'd.  Peg 5 (Charlie Colefax) DNW'd.  It had fished hard.  Dave 'Mr Soft' Horsfall, put 22lb odd on the scales from peg 10.  Lurchio was next to weigh from peg 12 on the straight.  He wasn't there!! Where had he gone with my 2 quid???  Apparently he had gone about an hour ago as he had blanked.  Where was my 2 quid?? Relief, he had given my £2 to Dave Webster.  It is obvious that he had gone as he didn't want to hang about to get some well deserved abuse due to blanking.  I wonder how much his visitor had learned today.  Hehe.  Michelle put 4lb odd on the scales, maybe next time she will have £2 with Lurch as he is easy money :-).  There were a few empty nets up the long straight until it got to Ian 'Sooty' Waddell on peg 19, he put 24lb odd on the scales and was winning it.

Gary put 13lb odd on the scales.  Now it was my turn.  I lifted my net out, put the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round to.....

21lb odd. damn.  I was now in 3rd place with three more anglers to weigh.  Woofer put 15lb on the scales, Frank tipped back and Alan weighed in about 13lb odd.

I had managed to come 3rd and my predictions were not a million miles out as although 40lb did not win, I did say that 20lb would be a good weight.

The Results

1. Ian Waddell (Peg 19) - 24lb odd
2.  Dave Horsfall (Peg 10) - 22lb odd
3. Mick Herrington (Peg 23) - 21lb odd
4. Daz Harrison (Peg 2) - 20lb odd
5. Barry Hunter (Peg 1) - 19lb odd.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.  There is always next week.

Tightlines.

Mick

Catfish

A few months ago, I helped to net a friends garden pond and we found this....

He put in 6 of them many years ago and this was the only one left (or that we could find).

The funny thing was, when we fished matches on his pond, you always struggled to catch roach and skimmers........ I must have moved about 30 large Sensas buckets full of roach between 1oz - 4oz and skimmers up to 8oz.  It is amazing what some people have in their garden ponds.

Barnburgh Lakes, Doncaster

I was supposed to be on a club match with Robin Hood AC at Hayfield Lakes, Doncaster and for one reason or another Frontrow and I decided to go and fish the open match at Barnburgh Lakes

I had heard good results for the place, last week Les 'War & Peace' Peace had won the match with 230lb+.  One-time Oaks Lakes regular Andy 'Rosie and Jim' Stonner had 113lb for about 7th in the match.

As I had not seed the place before, I rang Rosie and Jim and had a natter and got some ideas of what I needed to do.  Fish shallow at 11-13 with 4mm pellet.  One lad last week had 130lb+ on worm and caster.

I spoke to Frontrow and he opted to fish worm and caster and I was going to pellet it.

We arrived for about 8.30.  Following the venue rules, we dipped our nets and left them to dry whilst we had a quick look at the complex.

There are 3 lakes in total with about 80/85 pegs in total split across the 3 lakes.  The lakes are Top, Middle or Bottom - a bit like that game show 'Strike it Rich - where do you want to go, Top, Middle or Bottom'.

We were on Bottom Lake.  The pegs looked a bit tight and close to each other, but the venue was clean and fresh looking.  The lake was rectangle in shape and there was a central island about 14m away.

The Draw

I didn't know where I wanted to be.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 23 and Frontrow drew peg 8.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had War and Peace on end peg 25, Howard (? - don't know his surname) was on peg 24, 22 was empty and Mick Owen was on peg 21 to my right.  Rosie and Jim was on peg about peg 17.

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Shallow 1- was a .1g Garbolino DC2 with a .12 baitbanded hooklength, set about 1ft deep and I tied this to a double 5 Preston Slip elastic.

Shallow 2 - was a .2g Garbolino DC 2 also with a .12 baitbanded hooklength set about 2ft deep and this was attached to a hollow Drennan green elastic.

Margin rig - was a .2g Sensas Powerpencil float with a .12 hooklength.  This was attached to green Preston 13h elastic. I plumbed up and found that I had about 2.5-3ft down the edge.  This was the depth at the next platform - which was top 4 kit away (I said it was close!!!)

(Apparently the lake is about 7ft deep down the middle).

Bait

For bait, I bought a bag of the venues own 4mm sinking pellets.  I also had some Dynamite Baits 4mm and 6mm sinking pellets for the baitband and about 2pts of 6mm cubed meat.

That's it, I was ready.

Time - to start

At the start of the match, I baited up shallow rig 2 with a 4mm pellet, shipped out, pinged about 6/8 4mm pellets out over the top of the float waited all of 15 seconds before the float shot under and I caught an F1 about 6oz.  I repeated the process and managed to catch 5 fish in quick succession, then the fish seemed to disappear.  I then started to get liners, so I baited up the .1g rig and dropped that in.  I twirled the rig a couple of times, slapped it in and caught another fish.

I was now about 1hr into the match and had about 25 little f1's, the biggest being about 12oz.  Mick Owen was emptying it to my right, Howard was struggling as was War and Peace.

As I seemed to be doing okay, I decided to continue to fish shallow.  Howard kept trying across to the island and was snaring one or two fish but seemed to be waiting for bites.

I persevered with fishing shallow for the next few hours.  The fish seemed to be coming in two's and three's, catch a couple then nothing, put on the deep rig, catch a couple then nothing.  Throughout the duration of the match, I was flicking a few bits of meat down the edge.

I realised that although I was catching a couple of fish now and again, I was getting beat by Mick and now War and Peace was catching a few as was Rose and Jim and Pete on peg 15/16 ish.

Last Two Hours


I decided to go down the edge.

I baited up with a piece of meat, dropped in and waited.  I didn't have to wait long. The float dipped, went sideways, then shot under.  An f1 about 12oz was soon in the net.

I re-baited and dropped in again, the elastic was ripped out of the pole tip.  Another f1 was soon subdued.  I then fished down the edge for the last part of the match.

That was it.  The match was over.  How had I done???, I knew that Mick Owen had caught and Les 'War and Peace' Peace started catching late on.  Rose and Jim had caught a few down the edge.  When I looked up everyone around the lake seemed to be catching fish.  I thought that I might have about 90-100lb.

The scales arrived at peg 1 and he plonked about 64lb on the scales.  By the time that the scales had arrived at Frontrow's peg, 80 odd pounds was winning.  I walked round to Frontrow and asked how he had got on, he said that he had about 40lb.  Frontrow uses a clicker to count his fish - which due to his short memory span (I am sure that it is shorter than that of fish), he said that after 10 fish, he got sick of pressing it and binned it.  I suggested to him that the springs had gone haywire and the clicker had exploded.  The scales will tell.  He tipped his first net and had 32lb, his second net wen 38lb for a total weight of 70lb - the lying bar steward.  The scales arrived at the bottom bank and 96lb was winning by this point.  James Burke plonked 117lb on the scales - the new leader.  Pete Gosney had about eleventyseventysix weighs and plonked 178lb on the scales.  Rose and Jim was next and weighed in 122lb.  The first peg to weigh on my bank dropped a mid-ninety on the scales.  Mick weighed in his first net and put 52lb on the scales, his 2nd net needed two weighs and went 85lb for a total weight of 137lb.

As I had been walking around, I had seen the typical stamp of fish being weighed in.  There seemed to be two sizes primarily - 4 - 6oz and 8 - 12oz.  I was starting to 2nd guess my weight an started to think that I had about 80lb.  There seemed to be lots of fish caught and I honestly did not think that I had caught that many fish - although I had been steadily away all day to the extent that I did not get off my box to have a pee (mental note made to self, next I go to Barnburgh Lakes, take a catheter bag with me).

I lifted my first net out and dropped 47lb on the scales.  I had been splitting my fish pretty much evenly or so I thought, so that would give me a 94lb weight.  I lifted my 2nd net out and there were a few more fish in this one.  The needle spun round and ended up at 58lb for a combined weight of 105lb.  I was well happy with that.  Howard plonked 45lb on the scales.  Last to weigh was 'War and Peace', he had two nets and weighed in about 45lb and 51lb for a 96lb total weight.  I had come fifth.  Very, very happy with that.

Full Result.

1st Pete Gosney - 178lb
2nd Mick Owen - 137lb
3rd Andy Stoner - 122lb
4th James Burke - 117lb
5th Mick Herrington - 105lb

After speaking to Rosie and Jim post-match, he informed me that I was in the small fish pegs as they hang around between pegs 22 and 25.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Nice bunch of lads.  Good fishing, plenty of bites and a really nice day out.

'Til next week, tightlines.

Big Pellet.

8967

8967

Wholesea Grange - Pond 2

A couple of new recruits joined Robin Hood AC today.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson and his side-kick Stuart 'Talking Donkey' Waterhouse.

Lurch, Tattoo, Shrek, Talking Donkey and I all met up for a breakfast, then as they had not been before, we all set off in convoy with yours truly leading the way to Wholesea Grange Fishery.

I have fished pond 2 twice before over recent years.  The first time, I drew peg 3 and won the section with 5lb (47lb won) and last year I was in peg 11 or 12 and weighed in 33lb odd for 4th.

Before the start of the match I was saying that I did not want to be low numbers (1-5) or high (30-35) as usually the weights come from the other part of the lake.

Paul 'Woofer' Clough was running the match today and asked me if I could peg the lake.  There were 20 of us on the match.  As I was pegging out, I got to pegs 3 and 4, there were carp and ide crashing everywhere in the lillies and reeds that were in the peg.

Within our entry fee, we chip a £1 into a raffle to raise a few extra quid for the club.  New recruit, Shrek Thompson won the raffle and in addition, the winner of the raffle always gets to draw first.  He is a lucky so and so. He put his hand in the draw-bag first and ended up with peg 7 stuck to his fingers.  The rush was then on to draw.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 3.  BAUBLES!!!.  Tattoo Harrison was on peg 31, I was not sure where Talking Donkey or Lurch had drawn.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had  Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter to my right on peg 1, peg 2 was empty and Lurchio (wasn't he a character played by Frankie 'oooo errrrrr' Howard in Up Pompeii??) Moorhead to my left on peg 4.

The Peg

Peg 3 had a tree to my right that had branches touching the water and looked very fishy.  I had some lily pads at 16m at about 11 o'clock and a smaller patch of lily pads to my right at about 2 o'clock.  There was a gap between two islands at about 23/24m away.

The Rigs

I set up a method rod and given that the fish were crashing and rolling at the back of some lily pads near to the reeds, the GURU Drag line was going to get severely tested today.

I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:

Rig 1 was the margin rig under the tree.  This compromised a .2g Sensas Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline hooklength with a size 14 hook.  I plumbed up and had 2.5ft.  This rig was tied to some Middy Whopper Stopper hollow elastic.

Rig 2 was a rig set up to fish in open water at 11m and was a .3g Preston Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .11 Preston Powerline Hooklength and size 16 hook attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic.  On this line I had approx 4ft depth.

Rigs 3 and 4 were Cralusso floats set up on .17 Powerline to .15 Powerline hooklengths.  One was set to fish to the lily pads to the right where I had about 2ft and the other was set up to fish to the lily pads to my left where it was about 2.5ft.  Both of these rigs were attached to Preston 15h hollow elastic.

Bait

For bait i had 1pt maggots, 2 pts casters, 1pt 4mm expanders, some 6mm hard pellets (for the method), some 8mm hard pellets (for the method), some micro's with a dusting of Sonubaits green supercrush groundbait and 1kg of worm.  Basically it was going to be worm for ide or pellet for carp.

Due to having Lurchio to my left, I struck up a quid side bet.  Lurchio said to me 'Hey Mick, were you bullied by everyone at school?'.  I replied ' Not by everyone, just by big dumb ugly people like you' or words to that effect.

The Match

At the start of the match, I fed a pot of pellet and corn to my right under the bush.  I put a 6mm hard pellet on the baitband, loaded up the method and lauched it towards the island where the fish were crashing. I put the rod down and started to take up the slack line and whoooosshh!! fish on.  15 seconds later I was snagged in some lillies and the fish was gone.  1 - 0 to the fish.  At least there was some fish there.

I did the same again and re-cast.  Whooosh, fish on.  About 10 seconds later, I was snagged and had to pull for a break and ended up straightening a Preston C1 method hook. 2 - 0 to the fish.  I rebaited and cast slightly off to one side, trying to find a clean spot.  I managed to get this one out. It was a carp about 2lb. 2 - 1 now to the fish.  Over the next hour, I proceeded to plug away with the method and the score after the first hour was 7 - 4 to the fish.  I had by now put on a .21 Preston Powerline hooklength with a baitband to a size 14 Kamasan Animal hook.  The fish had stopped crashing now.  I wonder if the method had spooked them.

I swapped over to the pole and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet, shipped it out to 16m to the lily's to the right, the float settled, dipped a little, went to the left, then shot under.  A carp of about 1.5lb was soon subdued and was in the keepnet.  I re-baited and dropped back in the same spot.  The float dipped, shot under and a gudgeon was soon in the net.  It didn't have much of a fight on yellow Preston 17h elastic. LOL.

I went back out and caught a couple of roach and another gudgeon, so I put in a pot of pellets and corn and switched to fish under the tree.

I baited up with a 6mm expander and dropped it under the tree.  The float dipped, I struck.  About 2 yards of Middy elastic came out, then shot back into the pole and a barbel about 12oz was soon in the net.  I dropped in again and pricked a carp.

The fish were back crashing about on the method line, so I went back onto the method rod.  The only way that I was having a fighting chance with getting the carp out was to strike, get the rod high and do not give an inch.  The fish were only about 1lb - 2lb, but if they got 1ft of line back, they were straight in the reeds and lilys.

Over the next couple of hours, I swapped between my lines and had managed to snare about 15 little carp, and I had lost about a dozen.

With about 1.5hr to go, I baited up the margin rig with a pellet and went down the edge under the tree.  I waited about 5 mins, the float shot under and the elastic was doing it's best to get out of the pole.  I landed the carp, it was the biggest one yet at about 4lb.  I managed to get another 3 carp, before that line went quite.

I went out to the clump of lilys at 16m at 11 o'clock with a pellet on the hook.  I lowered the bait in, and waited. a couple of minutes later, the float dipped, I struck and a carp was soon in....... the lily's.

I managed to get another couple of fish from the 16m lines and down the edge and that was it, the match was over, how had I faired?  I could see that Lurch had caught a few, and Barry had been splashing about all day.  Front-row was starting to get a few at the end of the match.  Reports were coming back that Macca had emptied it and lost about 100lb also.

I was 2nd to weigh, Barry weighed in 47lb 4oz.  I put 47lb 10oz on the scales.  Lurch weighed in just over 70lb made up of about 40lb of ide and 30lb of carp.  He had also lost a few carp. Shrek Thompson weighed 53lb ish, then there was a mid 50 by Ray Dix who had apparently fished top 2 + 2 all day.  The scales arrived at Macca's peg and Lurch was leading with 70lb followed by Craig with 69lb.  Two weighs later and Macca had 77lb odd.  Woofer Clough was next to weigh and upon lifting his net out, this was going to be close.  He plonked 76lb on the scales.  There were a couple more 30 - 45lb weighed in.  Front-row weighed in 37lb, most of which had been caught on a whip and last to weigh was Paul Wilson who plonked 60lb odd on the scales.

When we last fished this lake, the weights were primarily made up of ide, ide and more ide.  Where the flip had all the carp come from?!

Just about everyone in attendance had thoroughly enjoyed today.  Everyone had had plenty of bites and although there were a couple of DNW's, the lowest weight weighed in was about 30/35lb ish.  The average weight was just over 50lb.  I really enjoyed it today as did a few others.

The GURU line had stood up to the test today, I had lost two or three hooklengths, but I had not lost any method feeders.

Lurchio never stopped twittering and yacking all day.  Maybe I should rename him 'Talking Donkey' instead.

The result:
1. John 'Macca' McCall - 77lb odd
2. Paul 'Woofer' Clough - 76lb odd
3. Chris 'Talking Donkey' Moorhead - 70lb odd
4. Craig McKenny - 69lb odd
5. Paul Wilson - 60lb odd

Well done all.  Great days fishing, nice weather, good banter and a few fish too.

Lindholme Lakes - Laurels Lake

Remake of Fantasy Island

Lurch joined Frontrow and I for a quick breakfast and then posed for a remake of Fantasy Island:

'Look boss, the plane, the plane' said Tattoo Harrison

By the time we arrived at the draw, there were 20 on the match and we were allocated pegs 1 - 40 by Neil 'Uncle Fester' Grantham.  A few of the knockout rounds were being finalised today.  Erik the Viking and myself for one, where I was carrying a win and a 38lb weight advantage.  Tattoo and Paul Wilson were also fishing their second leg with Tattoo having a win and also carrying a 2lb weight advantage (looking at the picture above, he looks to be carrying more than a 2lb weight advantage. :-)

I put my hand in the bag and snared peg 28, which was one of the corner (peg 29).  Barry 'Alaaannn, do you want a sandwich' Hunter was to my left on peg 27.  Tattoo drew peg 16 at the end of the spit, Lurch was on end peg 3, Dave Webster was on corner peg 12 and everyone else was dotted around the lake.  My key rival for the day, Erik the Viking, was on peg 7.

The Peg

When we were last here (late last year) there were overhanging bushes and willows all the way along the edge of the lake.  I arrived to find that he had trimmed them back a bit (too much if you ask me) and the wind was blowing directly at me with a slight right to left angle and was coming through the remaining tree stumps.

The Rigs

All of my rigs are set up on .17 Drennan Rig line with a loop at the end to allow me to fish with either a  heavy or light hooklength and with or without a baitband.

I set up 2 shallow rigs - one about 18" deep with a .12 hooklength one white hydro elastic and one about 3.5' deep with a .13 hooklength on Preston 13h elastic. 1 deep rig set at 5ft deep with a .12 hooklength and plumbed up at 14.5m directly in front of me and a margin rig about 2.5' deep with a .13 hooklength which at 14.5m from the peg to where I was fishing along the bank.

For bait I had some venue micro, 4mm and 6mm pellets, meat, corn, 6mm Bait-tech expander pellets and some hard Dynamite baits 6mm pellets (primarily for fishing shallow). Oh and a bounty for yours truly.

Pellets, pellets and more pellets.

At the start of the match, I put on a 6mm expander and put some 4mm and 6mm hard pellets in a tosspot, shipped out to the 14.5m margin swim, tipped the bait over and dropped my rig in.  I must have waited about 20 seconds, the float shot under and an F1 about 12oz was soon in the net.  I repeated the process and the float shot under, nothing, I missed it.  I did the same again.  The float buried and back and struggled to lift the fish off the lake floor.  All of a sudden the fish came to the top and it was a barbel about 6oz.  Baubles (or words to that effect).  I then potted in some corn and pellets to my margin swim and went out on the deep rig baited up with a 6mm expander pellet.  I tipped some 4mm and 6mm hard pellets over the top of the rig and waited.  And waited and waited.  Whoosh.  The float shot under and an F1 about 10oz was soon in the net.

We were now about 1 hour into the match and I had 6 F1's and a couple of small barbel for about 4lb or so.

Squelcher Moorhead

You may recall last weeks episode with Lurchio and his landing net.  When will he ever learn. Obviously not this week.  His landing net came apart again, with a fish in it again.  This time he had to get in the lake to retrieve it and got his foot and trouser leg wet in doing so. By the end of the match, he had trenchfoot and we called him Squelcher.

When I fed pellets with the polepot on to the deep rig line, I got some liners.  I then tried to get them shallow by flicking a few 4mm pellets out which due to the wind, seemed to land in the water behind me, so I swapped to flicking out a few 6mm pellets.  It was not the same.  They did not want to stay down or come up properly.  I am sure that the cold northerly wind was having an effect.

Looking around the lake and from the grumbles doing the rounds, the lake seemed to be fishing very hard with the odd fish being caught now and again.

The last 2 hours

We were now into the last 2 hours of the match and I had approx 8lb.  Dumptruck who was opposite me had a similar weight and 'Alaann, do you want a sandwich' had a ghost carp about 9lb and a couple of small bits.  Sooty who was on about peg 24 was catching some good size perch and odd carp and skimmer on chopped worm.

Mick 'Dumptruck' Aveyard acting as my windbreak - look at the flat water in front of him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a swirl at about 10m along the bank to my right.  I got my margin rig and baited up with a 6mm expander pellet and dropped in.  The float settled and then shot under.  Another F1 about 10oz was soon in the net.  I pulled out of the next 3 fish, which was probably down to the 13h elastic. I quickly swapped over to white hydro.  I then proceeded to fish down the edge until the end of the match.  I could see that Dave 'Newlywed' Webster was catching some big fish and Dave Wathen on about peg 36 was catching a few.

At the all out, I thought that I had about 30lb and seemed to have done okay, based on what the anglers seemed to have caught around me.

The scales arrived and Dave Wathen was leading from peg 36 with 39lb 6oz.  I plonked 32lb 8oz on the scales.  Alaann, do you want a sandwich weighed about 14lb, Sooty had nearly 30lb.  Tattoo had 21lb odd, so with his previous weight, Paul Wilson needed to catch 25lb+. Dave Webster weighed in 43lb 2oz from peg 12, fishing meat down the edge.  Erik the Viking did not weigh and had gone by the time the scales arrived to his peg.  Paul Wilson weighed in 29lb, therefore winning the round and knocking Tattoo out of the knockout competition.  Last to weigh was Squelcher Moorhead.  A few people said that he had caught a few.  He weighed 39lb 2oz.

I had come 4th  and won my section, in addition, I was up another £5.00 courtesy of the knockout competition and I was through to the next round.

Result:

Dave Webster 43lb 2oz, Peg 12

Dave Wathen 39lb 6oz, Peg 36

Chris Moorhead 39lb 2oz Peg 3

Mike Herrington 32lb 8oz Peg 28

Pegs 12, 36 and 28 were all corner pegs and peg 3 was an end peg.

Tightlines for now.

Thanks

Big Pellet.

Double Header This Weekend - Lindholme and Woodlands

I fished 2 matches this weekend, the first one at Lindholme on the open on Saturday, followed by a visit to Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk with Robin Hood AC.

Lindholme

I picked up the car-less one - Buddy 'Anaemia' Keville.  Oh my god, that man needs either a good feed or a good sun tan (or both). :-)

We arrived at the draw to find that we were on Strip and Bonsai due to the numbers there and also that there was a club match on part of Bonsai.  I had a quick natter with Greg 'Beanpole' Norris before the draw and he said that he wanted to draw peg 16 on Strip, he drew peg 8 on Strip, which is opposite where he wanted to be.  I pulled out Peg 53 on Bonsai, which was indifferent to me.  I spoke with Steve Mazza and Beanpole and they both said that sometimes big mirrors hang about there just off the island, which was about 19m away and there is a 16m pole limit at Lindholme, and the wind will be right for it today (it was off my back) as I would be able to feed with the catapult.  I had someone on peg 51 and peg 56.  Anaemia drew peg 79.

The conditions were, bright, sunny, bit of a cold wind coming off my back and there had been an overnight frost.

I set up a bomb rod, pellet waggler (about 3 ft deep), 2 shallow rigs, one with white hydro and one with Preston green 13h, and a margin rig.

For bait I had some Lindholme 4mm & 6mm pellets, Bait-tech 6mm expander pellets and some corn.  At the all in, I cast the bomb to within a foot of the island and waited for it to go round.  I fed a handful of pellets and expanders down the margin and flicked a few 6mm pellets out to the island and some 4mm pellets at 14.5 to try to catch shallow.

After about an hour I had 2 little F1 carp both on the bomb.  The lad on 51 had 3 carp and the lad on peg 56 had 1 carp.  It was going to be hard.

I then swapped and changed methods to catch one fish on one line, before having to change to a different line.  Odd fish on the bomb, 2 fish shallow at 14.5m and a couple of fish down the edge resulted in me tipping back about 22/23lb ish.  The lad on peg 51 tipped back similar, peg 50 tipped back about 5lb, peg 49 tipped back about 15lb and the lad on peg 56 weighed in (possibly about 25lb).  It was hard.

Anaemia tipped back about 35lb or so and said that Steve Mazza on peg 78 had about 70/80lb.

By the end of the match Anaemia only needed a good feed due to the sunburn on his bonce.

As I was leaving, I spoke to Tim Moran who was on about peg 38/39 and he was admitting to about 70lb.  I could see that the lad on peg 69 had been catching steadily all day.  I did not wait for the full results.

Woodlands - Skylark

The following day, I was in Thirsk for a club match at Woodlands Lakes.  We were on Skylark lake.  The previous days conditions had resulted in 2 x 200lb+ weights from end pegs 1 and 37 on Partridge lake and 120lb ish from peg 34 on Skylark and a big 90lb from peg 6.  So, it seemed that all the fish were at the car park end of the lakes.  On my last 2 matches here I have been 3rd twice from peg 32 and 30 respectively with about 70 - 80lb.  The wind was very cold and quite strong and was blowing into my peg from everywhere on the lake and it was over-cast.

Due to the increase in club members, it was decided that there would be an increase to the club knock-out.  I originally had a bye to the next round.  Anyways, I was put back in the knock-out draw and got drawn against Erik the Viking.  I decided to have my first leg at Woodlands and Erik is yet to decide on the return leg venue.

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 34.  Hmmmm.  Mixed thoughts.  The match results from Wednesday all came from the other end and 3rd was from middle of the lake.  Peg 34 used to be called the boards, but they have now rotted away and there are one or two bits of twigs, brambles and branches on the waters edge.  Frontrow drew peg 11.  This was his first visit to Woodlands, a quick chat about methods and lines and we were both off.

I arrived at my peg to find that Colin 'The Worm' Weaver was on peg 1 and I had Sadsack (Pid) himself next to me on peg 32.  Lurch was on peg 4 and my competition for the day, Erik was on about peg 22.

I set up the method rod, bomb rod, 1 shallow rig and two margin rigs, one to fish with expander pellets/corn/meat and the other to fish with a hard banded pellet (if I was getting mithered by bits).

For bait, I had some hard 8mm pellets, 6mm pellets, Sonubaits Green Supercrush groundbait with some micro pellets, meat and corn and some 6mm expanders from the day before.

10.30, the match was under way.

I baited up the method rod with an 11mm pellet and chucked it out about 2ft off the 'boards' and fed a few 8mm pellets over the top.  2 minutes later, nothing.  Quick reload and out again.  I waited all of 30 seconds and the tip flew round and the freespool was screaming away.  I lifted the rod and proceeded to reel the fish in.  I got it back to the landing net where it made a last ditch for freedom and SNAP.  The hooklength broke and it was gone. DAMN!! or words to that effect came from my mouth.  I then put on a proper hooklength - a Preston Innovations C1 Method Hooklengths (0.19 Dia).  I must have had on a winter method hooklength of about .15 dia.  Lurch saw me hook my first carp and get it to the landing net before it made one last bid for freedom and snap me.  He then started to take the Michael, so to speak and started shouting something about Deja Vu.

I baited up again with an 11mm pellet and lobbed it back out to the same spot.  Some 5 minutes later a 6lb carp was in the net.

About 1 hr into the match, Lurchio hooked his first fish and spent for ever and a day playing it and shouting to all and sundry that would listen that he had a fish on and it was a monster.  I could tell that it was foul-hooked from where I was due to the jig, jig, jig of the line.  I shouted over that it was foul-hooked.  After about 10 hours, he managed to get it into the landing net, that is when both calamity was against him, but the gods were with him.  His landing net pole broke and the landing net fell back into the lake with the fish still in it.  He then managed to hook onto the landing net with his broken pole and managed, somehow (I am sure that I saw the hand of god - no, not Maradonna,) managed to get the fish and said net back to the bank and took the hook out of the fishes tail and put said fish in his net.  THE SPAWNY B^%%^$K!!!

I had caught 2 carp in the first hour of the match.  I then had a go on the pole at 14.5m along the boards and baited up with double 6mm expander.  I put a few pellets and a splash of groundbait in a toss pot, shipped out and waited.  After a couple of minutes, the float bobbed, then shot under.  I struck and pricked a fish.  I re-baited and shipped back out to the same spot and waited about 4 or 5 minutes when the float shot under and a carp was on.  It was about 5lb.  I now had 3 carp for approx 15/16lb.

I swapped between the method and the pole down the boards, whilst continually flicking a few 6mm pellets out to 14m to try on the shallow rig.

Just over halfway into the match, I had 5 carp for about 25lb or so.  I cast out the method down the edge and waited.  The tip flew round and I hooked into a fish.  About 10 seconds later, the fish felt weird as I was trying to reel it in.  I could see the boils and swirls from the fish and it was not moving.  I was tethered to some old tow rope fishing line that was laying in the water.  I commando crawled along the bank (and the boards) to where the fish was still tethered to the old fishing line and netted the fish (and about 10 miles of 100lb fishing line).  This commotion and activity so close to where I had been casting had completely cream-crackered my peg.  Dagnamit.

I managed to add another carp over the next hour or so.  By this point, Sadsack had 2 carp, The Worm had 1 carp, Lurchio had 2 carp, it was fishing hard.  Rumours were coming back to me that Mark Wright was catching in corner peg 17 and Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was catching a couple of pegs away.  I could see Dave 'Mr Newlywed' Webster catching the odd fish on about peg 20.


Guru Drag-Line (6lb)

I cast out on the method again and hooked a fish which ran into some roots or something.  I pulled for a break and lost my method and hooklength.  I had just loaded my reel with some new line that same morning.

I had been using some white line on my method reel and can't remember what it was, but I was not happy with it.  When I had been casting out and just before tightening up the slack line, the line was coiling and twisting and then wrapping around the eyes on the rod, TOTAL NIGHTMARE!  As part of my Guru freebies, I got a 250m spool of 6lb Guru Drag-Line.  Before the morning of Sunday's match, I decided to strip the line off my old spool and fill it with the Drag-Line.  Following the exploits of catching some towrope and some underwater trees, I have only used it for one session, but I am quite pleased with it.  It had a bit of stretch when I was trying to pull for a break and did not suffer any abrasion (as I could see or feel) when I hooked the towrope.  Only time will tell.

I managed to snare another couple of fish over the duration of the remainder of the match and ended up with 8 fish.  The scales started to weigh in from peg 1.  The Worm had a couple of fish.  The lad next to him had about 3 fish, Lurchio tipped back 2 fish.  Horsfall on peg 10 had 53lb, Frontrow 48lb, then there was a string of 60+ weights, Alan do you want a sandwich had 68lb, Paul Wilson had 68lb, Frank Brooks (I think that is his name) weighed 88lb from peg 14/15 ish and Mark Wright had 63lb.  The scales came down my side and Ian on peg 18 had 37lb, Mr Newleywed weighed 13 carp for 83lb, Erik the Viking weighed 1 carp in, Dave Wathen was in the 2nd round of his knock-out against Ian (and it was all to play for following the equal weight of 1oz from Tyram Hall) and needed to weigh more than 37lb, he plonked 39lb on the scales.  Craig Jones fished on Wednesdays match where he was 3rd from peg 12 and today drew peg 29 and plonked 68lb on the scales - this included 3 fish for 30lb odd from down the edge. Sadsack had initially left his net in and taken his gear back to the car and went back to weigh in.  By the time that the scales had got back to his weigh, he had gone.  I was last to weigh.  I tipped 46lb odd on the scales.  I was 3rd on my bank and I was 3rd on my half of the lake and never won a bean or had I?

Due to beating Erik today, I have won £5 and I also carry a 40lb weight advantage to the next round.

Result:

Frank Brook 88lb odd (peg 15)
Dave Webster 83lb odd (peg 20)
Not sure of 4th as there were 4 x 60lb+ weights.


Car Boot Sales

I went to a local car boot before picking up Front-row and I was ambling along, as Sunday drivers do at about 59.9mph (don't want to incriminate myself now do I?!), and I was being overtaken by taxi's from Bradistan and CleckHuddersFax with the drivers wives (yes plural) in the back getting all giddy and laughing and telling him to drive faster, faster.  I know I can't speak a foreign language, but I am sure that they were saying 'faster Ahmed, faster, gotta get there for the bargains, it is cheap. :-)  A few years ago I went to another local car boot and bought a Daiwa Tournament Goretex Jacket for £50.  It was in nearly used condition.  I tried it on and it did not fit me, so I put it on ebay and got £167 for it.  The lad was selling all of his gear as he had done his back in and been advised not to fish again.  I bought a Preston Innovation fleece off him for £25.

On the way home, Front-row said to me that he loves Preston 17h hollow elastic.  He loves it that much that he was going to go home and kick his missus out of bed and take it out of his topkit and wrap himself in it like some bondage freak and sleep with it.  What a saddo (or weirdo, take your pick).

Moorfields Farm Fishing, Goole

Today was the 2nd match in our 30 match summer league with Robin Hood AC at Moorfields Farm Fishery, Goole on the 1st pond.

There were 19 of us in attendance today.  The newly-weds were back of their honeymoon (Congratulations Dave & Michelle Webster), they arrived back in time to organise today's fixture.  We also had a few new recruits joining us.

Apparently there was a match on the lake yesterday and 83lb won from about peg 10.  I fancied drawing pegs 2, 15 and 30 which are all corner pegs.  Pegs 2 and 30 due to the hurricane blowing that way and peg 15 is a noted peg as in my two previous outings here, I have been on 14 and 15 and won both matches.  Failing that I wanted to draw the low numbers 1 - 15 as usually, this is where all the weights come from.

I watched a couple of lads draw and saw pegs 15, 13 and 18 come out.  I put my hand in the bag and gave it a good shuffle and pulled out....

Peg 21.  Baubles, or words to that effect came out of my mouth.  

I arrived at peg 21 to find I had Macka to my left on peg 20 and the female newly-wed on peg 23.  Lurch drew peg 18 (with 16, 17 and 19 empty), peg 15 went to one of the new recruits, Ray Dix, peg 2 was drawn by Mark Wright and male newly-wed drew peg 30.  Well, I know where the money was going today.  All the way to peg 30.

It a tad windy... Sometimes some of the places that we go to need to be re-named.  Take today for instance - Moorfields would have been well at home in some Spaghetti Western and should have been called Tumbleweed Fishery, what with all the wind that we had today.  I am sure that some tumbleweed came rolling across the pond, up and over the central island and on into the North Sea and beyond.

I set up the following tackle

1. 4 x 14 Carpa Gent on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength with a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.  I plumbed up to the next peg platform and found about 3.5ft.

2. 4 x 16 Carpa Gent on .15 Preston Powerline to a .12 Shimano Antares hooklength with a size 18 Colmic 501 hook.  I plumbed up at about 10m at the base of the far slope and found about 4ft.

3. Leger rod with a 12" hooklength and a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook and a Korum Bait-spike.

For bait I had some micro-pellets covered in some Bait-Tech Halibut Marine Method Mix, which I have riddled to take any large particles out. Red and white maggots, casters, corn and some 6mm Bait-Tech Expander pellets that I had spare from yesterday.

 

I was ready.

At the all in I potted some micro-pellets, expander pellets and corn in at 10m in front of me and catapulted some expander pellets out to the far side.

I got the margin rig and baited up with an expander pellet, I put a bit of micro pellets and some expanders in a little tosspot and shipped out to the next platform.  I settle the rig and waited for it to go.

When you are fishing the first 5 or 10 minutes are so full of excitement and tension.  Not knowing how long you will have to wait or what your first fish is going to be.

After about 10 minutes, I had not had an indication.  I put some more bait in with the tosspot and gave it another 10 minutes or so. Still nothing.

I put some more bait in and left it whilst I went out on the 10m rig baited with an expander pellet.

The float settled, it wobbled then flew under.  I struck and about 1ft of elastic came out and a 6oz skimmer was on the end.  I dropped in again and caught another similar skimmer.  Mrs Newlywed had had a carp by this point on groundbait feeder to the far-side and Macka had a skimmer about 1lb on chopped worm.

I then swapped between the margin rig, the 10m rig and the bomb for the next couple of hours trying to snare a carp.  I tried corn, pellet, caster, double corn, double pellet on all lines.  But alas, none were forthcoming. Mrs Newlywed had now had 3 carp for about 10lb and I had 6 skimmers for about 1.5lb.

The wind seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.  At one point I had so much grit and dust in my eyes and on my glasses, I am sure a dust devil went whizzing past.

I decided to fish and feed caster on top 3 kit to see if I could catch the skimmers faster and hope that a carp comes along and has a chew.

Over the remainder of the match, I caught the odd roach and skimmer on caster on the top 3 kit.  I tried at 10m and caught another couple of small skimmers, but I was having to wait for bites.  I tried down the side again and I also flicked the bomb over to the far-side again.

By the end of the match, I had packed up and tipped back about 5lb of skimmers and roach.  Hopefully things will improve.

Results:

Dave Webster, peg 30 - 70lb

Mark Wright, peg 2 - 62lb

Ray Dix, Peg 15 - 50lb

Paul Farley, peg 9 - 37lb.

Michelle weighed in 20lb, Lurch had 22lb, Macka had 24lb, Dumptruck had 19lb and Front-row had 13lb.

User Report - Bait-Tech 6mm Expander Pellets

I have been using these pellets for about the past 6 months or so.  I have tried various 6mm expanders to find one that is quite robust.  I pump the pellets until they all sink, then I leave them in water.  The pellets still stay firm and do not lose their shape or breakdown even if left in water.  They are light-medium brown in colour and have a very good shape to them.