Sunday 16th April 2006.

Back to The Oaks

Panic wasn’t making the trip today as he is tired after having to do a couple of days work on his lad’s house during the week. I wonder if it also because of a near miss on our way home from Woodlands yesterday. I was approaching the A661 roundabout with right of way and an idiot in a poxy knackered white fiesta was gunning for the roundabout, presumably with the intention of trying to get across the roundabout prior to me getting there. White Fiesta Numbnut’s was travelling at speed. On going round the roundabout, Numbnut’s had to break – SEVERLEY. Panic had nearly climbed onto my knee, with his seatbelt still on. He was looking at me shouting “Mick, Mick, Mick”. I carried on with Numbnut’s and his fiesta coming to a long screeching halt as he stopped halfway round the roundabout. I turned round to Panic and said, “I had right of way”. Not sure if he went to sleep or passed out!!

I got the rabble in order, all 60 of us. Two jackpot pegs were the order of the day, pegs 22 and 30 were the lucky (or unlucky) pegs. Following the recent form and the anglers that drew the pegs, there was little chance of the jackpot peg going.

Adie (Adonis) Mitchell had his first outing for over 8 months and was planning on fishing The Oaks regularly over the coming months. Adonis had drawn Peg 26, which although having no form, fish had been caught in the proximity over the past few weeks, I was even 2nd from peg 24 two weeks previous, must be solid.

I put my hand in the bag and was not entirely happy. Peg 17 was stuck to my mitt. Peg 15 had won the match on Thursday, so fish were in the area. Side bets were struck with Nightie, Poison Dwarf, Reg Holdsworth and £2 with Perverted. One of these days, I am going to lose to the lot and have to sell the house.

Perverted had drawn peg 13, Poison Dwarf was on peg 10, which had a real chance of getting a few, Nightie was on peg 7 and Reg was on peg 20, so all of my quid’s were within shouting distance. Orc still owed me £2 from the previous week and had not turned up, must be running scared.

Nightie cajoled me into having a quid with his lad, Adam. Adam was next to me on peg 16. Nightie said something along the lines of “you will have a quid with me, but not our Adam”. I replied “for one day and one day only, I will have a quid with him”. The problem with Adam, unlike Nightie, is that Adam knows what he is doing.

I set up 2 rigs across both attached to white hydro elastic through the No. 2 section only. Both were identical floats, 4x12, one on .12 diameter line and the other on .14 diameter line. Both had Preston PR 23 hooks in size 16 and 18. I also set up a rig for the 4m line, this was a 4x14 Drennan Roach float attached to .13 diameter Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. Orange hollow elastic through 2 sections completed this set up. My final rig was a 4x14 Serie Top float fished 6” up from the base of the far slope at 9m. This was set up on .13 diameter Preston Powerline to a size 16 PR23 hook. My shotting patter on this rig was a bulk of shot at half depth. Some years ago, I had been pegged next to Mark Lucas and he inspected my rigs. He amended my rigs and I asked why. He replied “by having your shot at half depth, the fish can see and watch the bait as it falls through the water, resulting in more positive bites”. I have shotted my rigs this way more or less since.

Time

Upon shouting “TIME”, there were one or two comments about my watch and it’s inability to tell the time. The funniest thing was seeing Chappy running to his peg. He can run fast for a big lad.

At the all in, I put a fruit shoot of 3mm Green Swimstim pellets over to the island and fished conker over the top. I waited for about 5 minutes, the float buried and a 10oz F1 was on its way. I put in a few more pellets and waited. After 5 minutes the float buried again and a 2lb F1 was soon in the net. Things seemed to be going well. The wind was a gentle breeze blowing from left to right, sort of over my shoulder, but then it changed and came off my back directly. This aided my presentation as the wind was pushing the float onto the slope on top of the shelf. After about 1 ½ hours the wind decided to change and to increase in strength. It was blowing left to right and was pushing the float through. I added about 1ft of line above the float and about 6” to the depth. I was still fishing with conker as bait. This seemed to slow the bait down, but it still wasn’t right. The fish do not seem to want the bait over depth. At this point I had 14 fish (I know because I got one of them (fish) counter things that you see in the Lynx advert) and an estimated weight of 18lb.

Seeing as the wind had got up, I decided to try the 4m line, I had steadily been dropping bits of pellet onto this line all the while. First drop in, with conker as bait, the float gave a little dip then buried. A carp of about 1.5lb was trying it’s best to get away, with little success.

I dropped in again and caught a mirror carp of about 1lb. I persevered on this line for the next 30 minutes and added a couple more fish, but was not really going anywhere.

Adam had got up and gone for a walk to go and see his old man on peg 7. The Poison Dwarf was shouting at me to see how many fish I had caught, and Reg was also enquiring periodically. The quid bets with these two were looking safe in my pocket. Adam came back and decided to change tack. His peg was flat calm from the wind and he proceeded to cup in micro pellets tight across, catch 2 fish, then repeat the process. He was starting to catch me up hand over fist.

The Closing Stages

With about 1 hour to go, Perverted was admitting to about 30lb, I would estimate that I had about 24lb, Poison Dwarf was sat behind me, Reg had about 15lb and Nightie was ‘bagging’. I had a look on the deep rig. The float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. Next drop in resulted in a barbel of about 1lb, then another of about 10oz. Seeing as barbel had appeared, I decided to try a bit of worm on the hook as, barbel give silly bites when fishing pellet dead depth. The worm worked, I caught a carp about 2lb.

This proved to be my last fish. I sat patiently fishing at full depth, counting down the minutes and keeping a close eye on Adam next to me. After 5 hours, it was time!

I was hoping to have a good 20lb and possibly near 30lb, but not over. I had caught 26 fish (all carp except for 2 barbel). Most from across to the far side, the rest from here and there. Had to work to find the fish and the bites. The wind had made it an uncomfortable day to fish across to the far side. When will it ever stop being windy???

The Scales

The scales came round and Xman had top weight of 46lb from Peg 3, although he had told the Anglers Mail correspondent (Darren Starkey) that he had over 50lb. Perverted had weighed in 41lb and was 2nd. Nightie had 31lb, this included a 4lb bream, and carp of 4lb and 3lb, there were a few other weights of over 30lb. My biggest fish went 2lb (maybe just over).

Adam weighed in 25lb odd and now it was my turn. I had 28lb odd. I had beaten Adam off the next peg, and beaten the two anglers to my right, what more can you do? I owed £2 to Perverted, £1 to Nightie and was getting £1 from Adam, Reg and Poison Dwarf. Reg did a runner, Poison Dwarf promised payment next week, so I was down £2, and Adam was yet to pay, he said that he didn’t have any money. I saw him with a fiver in the café and reminded him of the quid, he paid up, begrudgingly. Win some, lose some.

Gandhi was on the 2nd set of scales weighing in the high numbers. He was winning his section with 31-14 and Mal Bailey was yet to weigh. Mal Bailey ended up winning the section with 32-00. I think the wind was favourable when he put his fish on the scales. The next lowest section winning weight was over 40lb, not bad for 10 man sections.

Whilst talking to Timothy (Sorry) Moran after the match, he revealed that he had caught on conkers. I asked him if it was a wind up and he said not. Perverted had caught a few of his fish on the 4m line and only went across late on.

Adonis won the match with 62lb 11oz, Big Mark (Calvert) was 2nd with 60lb 11oz from peg 69, Richard Bezemer had 56lb and Magnum weighed in 51lb. Summer is here!!

Official Result

Adie Mitchell (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 62-11, peg 26.

Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 60-11, peg 69

Richard Bezemer (Diawa Cleveland) 56-05, peg 76

John Clarke (Bob-Co) 51-01, peg 55

John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 48-04, peg 23

Pete Baron (Middy Team Dons) 47-06, peg 28