Saturday 22nd April 2006.

Woodland Lakes, Thirsk.

I arranged a lift with Perverted, but I would have to ask Panic Poole for a lift back home as Perverted wanted to get back to watch the Liverpool match. Well, some one has to support them!!

Perverted arrived at my house and quickly informed me that he had left the reel that I lent him at home, so a quick look around found another spare reel for him to borrow. He then saw my landing net that I was planning on using and asked if I had a spare, another look around found him a large spoon landing net. There will be more of my gear at Perverted’s house than at my house at this rate.

Arrived at Woodlands following a ‘Flying Start’ breakfast at Morrison's. Not bad value for 2 ½ quid.

Before the start of the match, I spoke to Ian Bowman, the winner of the match last week and informed him that I pleasure fished his peg after the match last week and it was solid, now I know why he won the match.

Will the draw be kind?

In the draw queue I was alongside, Mal Bailey, Mick Grant, Colin ‘One Point’ Owen and other people that I didn’t know, but who knew me. I said to Mal “I’m going to watch where you draw from and then take the ticket next to it”. Mal is on fire at the moment with wins at The Oaks, Sessay and framing at Woodlands lakes in recent weeks. Mal put his hand in the bucket at the draw and promptly informed everyone that he had drawn Skylark, Peg 1. The wind was blowing that way, so a good day was on the cards.

I put my hand in the bucket and took the peg from underneath where Mal had got his peg from, and the look of dismay said it all. Kestrel Lake, Peg 8. Perverted was next to follow and with the smile across his face, I knew that he had drawn the right lake. Partridge, Peg 3 beckoned.

Plan(s) of attack

To keep in line with the bait limits at Woodlands, I took 3 pints of meat (all 6mm cubes), 1 tin of corn, ¼ kilo of worm and 1pt of micro pellets and ½ pint of expander pellets (conkers only). I asked the advice of various well-known anglers, Chappy and Pimmy both said to fish pellet at 6m and meat at 15m, also do not forget to chuck the bomb out.

I asked them if I would catch up in the water and both said “yes, and if you get one, they are usually big”. Panic said not to bother with the pellet “as you are not going to win the match”. So, in order to get the best of both worlds, I decided on the plan of attack suggested by Chappy and Pimmy.

Rigs

I set up a 4 x 10 Preston Durafloat on .14 Carptek line with a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook set about 1 ½ ft deep. I was planning on fishing meat up in the water on this rig. The rig was attached to blue Preston Hollow elastic.

I also set up a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach (adapted by removing the wire stem and replacing with a carbon stem), this was also attached to .14 Carptek to a size 18 Preston Pr 23 hook, to orange hollow dual core elastic (not sure who makes the orange hollow core). This rig was set up to fish the pellet at 6m.

I also set up a .5gm Drennan Roach (as above) to .13 Preston Powerline to a size 14 Kamasan B611 hook. This was attached to grey hydro and was set up with fishing meat/pellet/corn at depth at 14/15m.

A leger rod completed my array of tackle. I had a straight running rig with a swivel and a 2.5ft hook length of .14 Carptek tied to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook.

Hair-rigging

After previously speaking to Mal, he told me of a way of hooking meat (and or other baits) on a hair. Tie a bait band to the tag of hair left after tying on your hook, get a baiting needle pass through said bait and pull the bait band into your selected bait. I have been using the Korum baitspikes, but these have a habit of getting snagged in your landing nets and snapping off when the fish twists and turns. I had one of these hair rigs on the up in the water rig and also on the bomb. At the end of the match, I had not had to tie on another hair as the original bait band was still there. Good one Mal.

All In

At the all in, I cupped in (using the smaller of the two cups supplied with the Garbolino Extending Cupping Kit) ½ a cup of pellets and a few grains of corn at 6m. ½ a cup of meat, corn and pellet at 14m. I cast out with the bomb rod with pellet on the hook in order to allow the other two lines to settle. Whilst fishing the bomb, I was constantly catapulting meat out to 14m. After approximately 5 minutes, I reeled in to find that I had no bait on. I re-loaded and cast out again, I was just setting the rod and starting to tighten down, when the rod flew round. A carp of about 3lb was soon in the landing net. It looked quite a bit smaller considering the size of landing net that I was using.

After further bite less 10 minutes, I decided to see if anything had moved onto the pellet line. I fed a small Fox Toss Pot of bait and dropped the rig in over the top, with pellet on the hook, after about 2 or 3 minutes, the float ‘dinked’, then buried. A skimmer of about 3oz was soon in the keepnet. I fed some more micro pellets and dropped in again. Another bottle top was soon in the net. Third go, I did the same, the float dipped, then shot under with 5ft of orange elastic chasing after the float. After a brief struggle, I was the winner and a carp of about 3lb was in the net. I fished this hole for the next 10 minutes and added a couple more skimmers (both of about 8oz each).

I had still been feeding the meat whilst fishing the pellet line and I thought that it was time to have a look and bag up. There were fish topping/boiling about ½ way across the lake. I shipped out with the deep rig with some meat in a ‘Toss Pot’. Tipped the meat in, and dropped the rig in over the top. After a couple of minutes, I struck and caught a tench of about 3lb. I would have thought that after 1hour of the match, I had approximately 9 or 10lb. I dropped in again and missed the next two indications.

Up in the water!!

I came back and changed the rigs over to fish with the shallow rig. I shipped out with meat on the hook, let the float settle and was soon attached to a chub about 1lb. Another 2 chub followed before my first carp up in the water. The carp was about 1lb and was soon subdued on the blue Preston hollow elastic. After another 10 minutes, I had another chub. From what I could see, no one was really bagging on my lake. The fella to my left on peg 7 had about 5lb and the lad to my right on peg 9 had about 8lb. I was ahead, just.

Mid Match

The middle of the match ensued and was the slowest part of the match. I managed to catch the odd fish on the bomb, the odd fish up in the water and the odd fish on the pellet (although no more carp on this line).

1 Hour To Go

Going into the last hour, I would anticipate that I had about 15lb. I could see the anglers on pegs 12 – 15 all catching. Mostly up in the water. They seemed to be3 firing out bait and not feeding anymore until they had caught a fish (had I fed too much bait?). I got my head down and decided to go for the skimmers for a bit longer as no-one around me seemed to be catching a great deal.

The lad who was on peg 6 was fishing to the empty platform at peg 5, and the lad on peg 4 was also fishing to the same platform. The lad on peg 7 was also fishing close in, he was on his top 2, fishing straight in front of him. The lad on peg six struck into a fish and it was a right pig. I know, it broke him in front of me, 2 pegs away, when it came up and it was at least double figures. At one point, it made like a dolphin and came crashing out of the water trying to get away. About 2 minutes later the lad next to me hooked into a big fish and was playing it for ages, at one stage he had about 7m of pole in the sky with about 12m of elastic into the lake. After about 15 minutes, he had the carp under control and in his landing net. It was about 8lb.

I put a few pieces of meat down the side about 1ft out from the boards. I plumbed up with the shallow rig down to the boards and found about 18” of depth. I continued to fish the pellet line for the next 5 minutes. I dropped in down the side at 4m with about 15 minutes of the match left. Within minutes the float dipped, I waited for it to bury and bury it did. As soon as I struck, I shipped back onto the top two kit, dipped the drag net into the water and at first attempt, scooped the fish into the net.

It was ‘BIG’, and definitely made my landing net look small. It had taken no more than about 20 seconds to get the fish out. (At the weigh in, it was weighed separately at 12lb 4oz).

I spent the last 5 minutes or so, trying for another one down the side, that was it, no more. Time was up and ‘All out’ was shouted.

Previous Results

My previous form at Woodlands was less than satisfactory. I fished my first match on the bath tubs about 2 years ago, when the lake was carrying about 1ft of extra water and most of the pegs were under water. I tipped back 2 carp and one tench from Skylark 30 odd. My next match was a http://www.total-fishing.com/ event and I drew Partridge 14, with no wind and ended up with 39lb odd, beat those pegs around me (Stretch Armstrong got battered as he only had 11lb), all the pegs that produced all had the wind. My next match was about 10 days ago on the Breast Cancer Care Charity Match (report below), where I had a DNW from Wagtail 3. Last Saturday I drew Curlew 7 and won my section with 11lb 4oz (report below).

Had I caught more than 39lb?

The Verdict

No. The best weight from pegs 1 – 7 was 23lb. I weighed in 38lb 10oz and another brown envelope was on my way for a section win as the lad next to me on peg 9 had 22lb. Even without the 12lb’er I would have won the section. The next section on my bank was won with 82lb, there was also a 70 odd pounds and a couple of 60’s.

Why oh why, can’t I draw at the right end of the lake on any of the lakes?

Perverted had weighed in 62lb odd from Partridge lake, mostly caught on the tip, so two quid was going his way, along with half of my winnings. At this rate, I am going to have to find a new halves partner! Pimmy on Partridge 6 had 65lb. Perverts section was won by Bill Brierly with 80 odd pounds.

Mal (Garbolino Elton) had won the match by fishing down to boards all day, weighing in 172lb. Ken Golightly (Shotton) was second with 117lb. Phil Chapman (Garbolino Ossett) was third with 92lb. Bill Brierly’s 80 odd pounds was only good enough for 8th place.

With the section winnings (2 from 3 matches), I may have to make this a regular thing.

Watch out Woodlands, Mick’s here!!!