Saturday 15th April 2006

Exorcising the ghost?

After having a telephone call with Perverted following his success on Thursday, it was decided that another visit to Woodlands Lakes beckoned. My intention was to exorcise the ghost following my debacle on Thursday. I wanted to catch a few fish!!!

I arranged to pick up Panic Poole from his house and pay a visit to Morrison’s for breakfast (have you seen the prices of brekky at Woodlands??). Perverted was going to meet us there. Following breakfast we then purchased enough meat for 3 pints of our 5 pint bait limit. The remaining bait was made up of pellet (for feed and hook, this is in addition to the 5 pint of bait allowed), sweetcorn (small tin – ½ a pint) and hemp.

Panic had already prepared his meat and proceeded to do 3 tins of 4mm and 3 tins of 6mm meat for Perverted and myself. (Note to self; should I start to visit Woodlands regular, invest in a meat cutter, it took Panic all of 3 or 4 minutes to do 6 tins of meat. Beats pushing your meat through a ¼” groundbait riddle).

In attendance we had all the usual suspects, Dean Smith, Haircut, Chappy, Twohey to name but a few. Upon Dean arriving, Twohey commented on Dean’s weight gain along the lines of “Dean, have you turned cannibal and eaten two of you”? When Haircut turned up, Twohey noticed how smooth he was looking and asked which moisturiser he used.

The rules and regulations were announced and the draw was under way. I couldn’t draw Wagtail again, because it wasn’t in, I did although draw next best, Curlew 7 (ho hum). I asked all those concerned on what to expect and Panic said to pellet it at 9m and meat it at 13-14m. I got to my peg and had Nightie’s mate, Robbie Larkin on peg 9 and someone to my left on peg 6. Twohey had drawn peg 3, which Lovely had drawn on Thursday to win the lake. There was considerably less wind today than there was on Thursday and it had also changed direction.

I would get to see how Perverted would do as he had drawn opposite me on Curlew 18 (this would be a right drop to earth from the outer stratosphere for Perverted following Thursday’s match). Nightie had drawn Curlew 14 and he quickly cajoled me into a £1 side bet. Both Panic and Perverted had accosted me for the £1 and £2 side bets respectively. Panic had drawn OK, Skylark 15. Ian Bowman had drawn the same peg that Ian Exley had on Thursday – Partridge 24, Xman had 18lb, we will see what a professional angler can do of it. Dean Smith had drawn Perverted’s peg (Partridge 32) and Head Bailiff; Alan Gregory had drawn Partridge 31. Tony Hopper had 66lb next to perverted on Thursday so weights were expected to be high.

I set up a 4x14 Serie Top float on .14 MAP Carptek direct to a size 16 Kamasan B911 attached to grey hydro elastic, this rig was going to be used to fish pellet at 9m slightly to my left. I also set up a Colmic Jolly of the same weight to fish meat at 14m straight out in front. This was set up on the same diameter line; with a size 16 Kamasan B611 hook to Blue Preston Innovations hollow elastic.

I also set up the ledger rod using 5lb Maxima main line. A 2ft hook-length of .13 Preston Innovations Powerline with a Korum baitspike completed the set up. Meat, pellet or corn was my anticipated bait on offer.

And we are off.

At the start of the match on the advice of all those that I had spoken to, I cupped in pellet and corn at 9m and meat and hemp at 14m. I cast the tip rod out towards the middle of the lake whilst allowing the pole lines to settle, conker was the chosen initial bait. After about 10 minutes, I got a line before a gentle bend progressed through the rod. A carp of about 1lb was soon in the keepnet. Considering that most of my fishing is usually polefishing towards islands, you forget how much a carp pulls back on a rod and reel.

After a further biteless 30 minutes, I thought that it was time to start having a look on the pole lines, all the while on the bomb rod I was flicking bits of meat and pellet onto their respective lines. I first dropped in with pellet and fed a little fruitshoot of pellet over the top of the float. I waited some 5 minutes for an indication, the float buried, I struck and met no resistance. The bait was still there, so I dropped straight back in. The float didn’t even settle and a carp of about 1.5lb was hanging on the end. The grey hydro soon subdued the fish. After a further 15 minutes of flicking bits of meat out to 14m, I went out with the long pole rig and was excited at the prospect of dropping in on meat and the float burying with 8lb of angry carp on the end. After 10 biteless minutes, my excitement soon abated. After a further 10 minutes my excitement had gone, completely.

I had another quick look on the pellet line before topping them both up and going back out on the bomb and conker. The rod twitched and shot round. Another carp was soon in the net. In order to try to keep the fish and or liners coming, I was having to keep casting around the swim to try to locate the fish.

I persevered with the two pole lines and bomb approach. After about 3 hours, I had approximately 4 fish (3 carp and 1 barbel). Perverted had 2 fish, Nightie had 2 fish (although one was about 5lb), Robbie had 3 fish (1silver fish and 2 carp) and the lad on peg 6 had about 8 fish. All those to the left of peg 6 all had over 15lb.

The final 2 hours

After realising that the fish seemed to want pellet, I quickly tried to change the meat line to a pellet line (I hadn’t had a fish on meat all day). I dropped in at 9m and caught a barbel of about 1lb. After 30 minutes and no more indications, I dropped in at 14m with pellet, the float buried, nothing there. I missed the next three indications before a carp of 2lb was soon hanging on the end. Perverted had started to chuck the bomb around his peg to try to locate fish and a carp of 2lb was soon in his net. Nightie had pulled another fish back and the £1 side bets were looking close for all concerned.

The end, at last.

There were quick shouts around the lake with who had/had not caught. I had 7 fish for an estimated 9 – 10lb. Perverted had 3 fish and tipped back (that was £2 safe for a start). Nightie was admitting to 4 fish for about 10lb – it was going to be close. Robbie tipped back as did the other 2 lads to Robbie’s right. I only weighed in to secure the £1 side bets. If I didn’t weigh in, Perverted would not pay me my £2 because I would be a DNW. Tony Neesom on Curlew 1 weighed in 33lb, Twohey on peg 3 weighed 46lb (he had fished kinky, kinky all day, feeding micro pellet and fishing with pellet on the hook, he had caught about 40 stockies) to win the lake outright. The lad next to him had 18lb and lad next to me had 26lb. All the weights and the fish were at one end of the lake, as at my end of the lake on the other bank Nightie was also going to be the only weigher, whilst the pegs at the other end were all going to weigh.

Being first to weigh between Nightie and I, I weighed 11lb 4oz (the ounces were going to be crucial). The scales quickly arrived at Nightie – he weighed 11lb 5oz. He had ounced me for a quid. He told me later that he had weighed in over 12lb, but asked for 11lb 5oz in order that he can say that he ounced me.

Xman’s peg!!

Ian Bowman had won the match with the first weight of the year over 100lb, he weighed 177lb odd. Where o’ where had Xman gone wrong? Well for a start, according to one of the lads on Thursday, Xman was using a makeshift rod rest consisting of a towel and a bankstick. Right, ask yourself the following question, it was very windy and the wind was blowing into Xman’s face, so, if he was to put the rod on his makeshift rest the rod at the bankstick side nearest to the water and he got a bite and struck, he would smash his rod against the stick. If his rod was at the side of the bankstick furthest away from the water, would his rod not keep getting blown off his rest? No wonder he caught nowt.

I’m in the money

I spoke to Panic after the match and he had weighed over 40lb and won his section. So, I had won £2 off Perverted but had to give £1 to both Nightie and Panic. Some you win, some you lose. I packed away my gear and moved to Partridge 24, in order to try to catch some fish. I had set up 1 deep rig (the meat rig from earlier) and one shallow rig (the pellet rig from earlier). I was going to feed meat shallow and fish meat up in the water. First drop in on the deep rig, the float buried and a carp of 6lb was soon in the landing net. This was easy. Nightie came up to me and said “Mick, I have got something for you, but you have to give me a quid first”. I handed over a quid only to get £30 quid back. I asked what the money is for. I had won my section of 4 anglers. Nightie had also won his section as well. There were 4 sections to a lake because due to wind etc, one end of the lake fishes and the other doesn’t. After about 10 minutes fishing the winning peg, I had caught more weight than I had in five hours on the match. I ended up with 8 carp, 6 chub and 5 skimmers in about 1 ½ hours, which considering that the peg had been battered and all the fish had gone back in the peg, I thought wasn’t too bad.

The only downside to winning the money, was that Perverted was to get half.