All of Darren's came on caster up in the water at 7-8m. I caught all of my fish on pellet at 11m up in the water. Just waiting for the weather to warm up, then I can try it again.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Who say's that I don't catch fish. I caught this net of fish at The Oaks Lakes, Sessay on Cedar Lake in August 2005 whilst doing a magazine feature with Darren Cox.
All of Darren's came on caster up in the water at 7-8m. I caught all of my fish on pellet at 11m up in the water. Just waiting for the weather to warm up, then I can try it again.
All of Darren's came on caster up in the water at 7-8m. I caught all of my fish on pellet at 11m up in the water. Just waiting for the weather to warm up, then I can try it again.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Sunday 28th May 2006 – The Oaks Lakes, Sessay
I asked Chappy if he’d got his drink that I had paid for, he said ‘No’. He didn’t feel like asking in case I was taking the Michael!! I told him to ask, it was behind the bar.
Panic wasn’t in attendance today, so I had a leisurely drive up to The Oaks all by myself. When I spoke to Panic yesterday, I asked him what was happening today, he said that he wasn’t going because he was taking his missus out. I said that it wasn’t that, he isn’t going because he doesn’t want me to get his new van dirty. Purverted cried off due to the weather, it was a bit windy (to say the least). So I was going to be down £3 before we had even started. I still had a quid with Chappy ( I am on a roll), the one that I won yesterday, Orc Wardell and Gargoyle Melton.
There were 71 of us that had paid on by the draw time. The 2 obligatory jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 14 and 22. I put my hand in the bag and drew the same peg as last week, peg 5. Last week I had 29lb could I catch anymore than that? I think that I am having to do a Greg ‘Slow’ Norris ritual at the draw queue as it is always kind to him.
As everyone came through the draw queue, one of the lads apologised, he was in the queue, but had not paid on, pre-draw. I took his money, good job that I had put one extra peg in the bag. ‘Adonis’ Mitchell put his hand in the bag and drew jackpot peg 14, ‘Harry Potter’ Minikin followed Adonis and pulled out the other jackpot peg 22. There was a very good chance that the jackpot could go, Adonis had been doing well on the venue and Harry had won the match 3 weeks ago with 109lb. Tom had best get the money ready.
The Match
I was doing to do something slightly different as the carp seem to be going a little squiffy with the pellet approach. I decided to base all of my attacks on a hemp-based approach.
I was planning on fishing maggot over hemp, across and down the side, and corn over hemp in the deep water. I set up the following rigs.
The deep rig; was a .75 gm Drennan Roach float on .12 Fox Match line to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook.
The shallow rig; was a 4x12 Colmic float, this was on .11 Preston Powerline with a size 20 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up on top of the far side shelf and I also plumbed up down the side with this rig.
I had Topshop for company on peg 4 (Racing had 42lb off the peg last week), peg 6 was empty and I had Daylite Rothery on peg 7. Rothery was in good form at present following his 2nd place on the Heronbrook Fishomania match yesterday. Marco Drury was on peg 8, and Orc Wardell was on peg 2.
My bait for the day consisted of 1 tin of ‘Frenzied Hemp’, 1pt maggots, 1 small tin of corn and a few hooker pellets.
We’re Off
At the all in, I put about 30 grains of hemp over to the far side, a ‘tosspot’ full of hemp and about 5 grains of corn down the middle and a few pieces of hemp and maggot down the inside.
I baited up the shallow rig with 2 maggots, put a few grains of hemp and about 5 maggots in the cup, went over, tipped the bait in and waited. After about 5 minutes, I got my first bite, a perch of about 2 oz. I repeated the process and an ide of 8oz was soon in the keepnet. I did the same again; a carp of 1lb was soon in the net. I repeated the above and managed to put another 5 carp in the net before everything went quite. I dropped in down the middle with corn on the hook, I waited all of 30 seconds, the float buried and a carp of 12oz was soon in the net.
I managed to snare another 4 carp before I couldn’t buy another bite. I went back over to the far side and repeated the steps that I did early.
After 20 minutes, I decided that a change of plan was required, thinking that they didn’t want the hemp. I hastily knocked up some ‘Swimstim’ groundbait and fished maggot over groundbait. I caught a quick succession of carp to 2lb and was starting to feel as though I had got something sorted.
Daylite asked me if we were going to have the usual quid that he as with everyone on the next peg, I agreed. Topshop started crying, I asked why, he said that I was having a quid with Daylite and not with him. Feeling sorry for him, I agreed to have a quid with him also.
On the subject of Topshop, I noted the following activity from him during the match. He had a film canister attached to his pole acting as his pole cup. This was painted white/grey-white or whatever, his reason being that his tip kits are also painted the same colour and will cast less of a shadow over the fish’s heads. This is Ok when the water is clear, but when it is cloudy, what is the advantage. He would repeatedly (after catching a fish) go across to the far side, tip his ‘cup’ over and spill the contents over his float. Only, when he tipped in, there was no ripple as the bait hit the surface. How can you feed and not create a ripple (of any sort) when your bait supposedly hits the water. I asked him if he had super-glued his bait into his cup, I continued to laugh every time that he ‘fed’ his peg.
It seemed to be a case of catching a few fish, then nothing; it is as though your peg has died. I was also having an absolute nightmare. I have never lost so many fish they were either foul hooked or just nicked. It was a case of the float dips, you wait, the float buries, elastic shoots out (either before or after you have struck) and the elastic bottoms out, it does it again, when you change the angle of your pole tip and apply pressure to net the fish, the hook pulls out. Talk about getting pole rage. I tried a couple of things that Chappy had mentioned to me previously, I changed to a smaller hook, a different pattern and both. But to no avail. (After speaking to Topshop after the match, I suppose that I felt a little better as he explained that sometimes, there is nothing that you can do and you will lose a lot of fish).
Into The Last Hour
With about 1 hour to go, I started sulking as I was loosing so many fish, Topshop couldn’t do anything but laugh when I lost a fish, and to cap it all, both Daylite and Topshop had been catching the odd fish on caster. I had tried to get some caster this morning and rang the 2 tackle shops near me, neither answered (maybe they knew it was me).
I got my head together a little and started to feed less hemp, but switched to fishing pellet over the top instead. I managed to get a few carp (out) down the side. With about 30 minutes to go, I was getting stuffed by Topshop and Daylite. Marco was catching a few on peg 8 and was being loud and abusive with it, shouting abuse at me at every opportunity.
I then went back over to the far side, in a spot that I had not put a single bit of bait. I cupped in about 10 grains of hemp, and 2 pellets. I had pellet on the hook. I dropped in, and in the remaining 30 minutes, I had 4 carp out (one of those was within time, when I shouted time Daylite, Topshop and I all had a fish on) and lost 2. Had I done it wrong? I suppose that the straight answer is yes.
I think that I may have fed a little bit too much bait by the end of the match.
I went and stood behind Topshop as he played his fish and noticed just how much bait that he had fed. I now have a little plan of action for next time.
Racing on Peg 1 weighed in 28-08. Orc had 17-12 (he owed me a quid). Toddy threatened to pay me £2 at the start of the match to shut up, I did and he never paid. He blanked, DNW’d, didn’t weigh, caught not a lot, had less than most people around him. Topshop weighed in 48-12, I had 30-13, Daylite weighed 38-00 and Marco was 4th overall with 56-08. I would estimate that I had lost approximately 15 - 20lb of fish off the hook. I had lost fish across, down the middle (mostly where you get an indication, you strike, nothing then it goes solid - foulhooked) and even down the side. Had I got too many fish in the peg?, were the fish 'gill-feeding' and were blowing all around the peg?
I owed a quid to Daylite and Topshop. Had I done the impossible and got Chappy’s quid 2 days running? You having a laugh? Chappy weighed in 54-10 for 6th overall. Gargoyle nearly run me over as he sped off without paying my quid and Orc paid up, begrudgingly.
Full Result
John Bradshaw (Mosella Garbolino) 91-02. Peg 64. Carp on meat.
Chris Hall (The Oaks) 63-06. Peg 56. Chopped worm.
Scott Lister (Shimano Quaker) 57-00. Peg 46.
Gareth Drury (The Oaks/HAS) 56-08. Peg 8. Chopped Worm
Pete Rambow (Junior) Cleveland Angling Centre 54-15. Peg 9. Chopped Worm
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 54-10. Peg 69.
I asked Chappy if he’d got his drink that I had paid for, he said ‘No’. He didn’t feel like asking in case I was taking the Michael!! I told him to ask, it was behind the bar.
Panic wasn’t in attendance today, so I had a leisurely drive up to The Oaks all by myself. When I spoke to Panic yesterday, I asked him what was happening today, he said that he wasn’t going because he was taking his missus out. I said that it wasn’t that, he isn’t going because he doesn’t want me to get his new van dirty. Purverted cried off due to the weather, it was a bit windy (to say the least). So I was going to be down £3 before we had even started. I still had a quid with Chappy ( I am on a roll), the one that I won yesterday, Orc Wardell and Gargoyle Melton.
There were 71 of us that had paid on by the draw time. The 2 obligatory jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 14 and 22. I put my hand in the bag and drew the same peg as last week, peg 5. Last week I had 29lb could I catch anymore than that? I think that I am having to do a Greg ‘Slow’ Norris ritual at the draw queue as it is always kind to him.
As everyone came through the draw queue, one of the lads apologised, he was in the queue, but had not paid on, pre-draw. I took his money, good job that I had put one extra peg in the bag. ‘Adonis’ Mitchell put his hand in the bag and drew jackpot peg 14, ‘Harry Potter’ Minikin followed Adonis and pulled out the other jackpot peg 22. There was a very good chance that the jackpot could go, Adonis had been doing well on the venue and Harry had won the match 3 weeks ago with 109lb. Tom had best get the money ready.
The Match
I was doing to do something slightly different as the carp seem to be going a little squiffy with the pellet approach. I decided to base all of my attacks on a hemp-based approach.
I was planning on fishing maggot over hemp, across and down the side, and corn over hemp in the deep water. I set up the following rigs.
The deep rig; was a .75 gm Drennan Roach float on .12 Fox Match line to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook.
The shallow rig; was a 4x12 Colmic float, this was on .11 Preston Powerline with a size 20 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up on top of the far side shelf and I also plumbed up down the side with this rig.
I had Topshop for company on peg 4 (Racing had 42lb off the peg last week), peg 6 was empty and I had Daylite Rothery on peg 7. Rothery was in good form at present following his 2nd place on the Heronbrook Fishomania match yesterday. Marco Drury was on peg 8, and Orc Wardell was on peg 2.
My bait for the day consisted of 1 tin of ‘Frenzied Hemp’, 1pt maggots, 1 small tin of corn and a few hooker pellets.
We’re Off
At the all in, I put about 30 grains of hemp over to the far side, a ‘tosspot’ full of hemp and about 5 grains of corn down the middle and a few pieces of hemp and maggot down the inside.
I baited up the shallow rig with 2 maggots, put a few grains of hemp and about 5 maggots in the cup, went over, tipped the bait in and waited. After about 5 minutes, I got my first bite, a perch of about 2 oz. I repeated the process and an ide of 8oz was soon in the keepnet. I did the same again; a carp of 1lb was soon in the net. I repeated the above and managed to put another 5 carp in the net before everything went quite. I dropped in down the middle with corn on the hook, I waited all of 30 seconds, the float buried and a carp of 12oz was soon in the net.
I managed to snare another 4 carp before I couldn’t buy another bite. I went back over to the far side and repeated the steps that I did early.
After 20 minutes, I decided that a change of plan was required, thinking that they didn’t want the hemp. I hastily knocked up some ‘Swimstim’ groundbait and fished maggot over groundbait. I caught a quick succession of carp to 2lb and was starting to feel as though I had got something sorted.
Daylite asked me if we were going to have the usual quid that he as with everyone on the next peg, I agreed. Topshop started crying, I asked why, he said that I was having a quid with Daylite and not with him. Feeling sorry for him, I agreed to have a quid with him also.
On the subject of Topshop, I noted the following activity from him during the match. He had a film canister attached to his pole acting as his pole cup. This was painted white/grey-white or whatever, his reason being that his tip kits are also painted the same colour and will cast less of a shadow over the fish’s heads. This is Ok when the water is clear, but when it is cloudy, what is the advantage. He would repeatedly (after catching a fish) go across to the far side, tip his ‘cup’ over and spill the contents over his float. Only, when he tipped in, there was no ripple as the bait hit the surface. How can you feed and not create a ripple (of any sort) when your bait supposedly hits the water. I asked him if he had super-glued his bait into his cup, I continued to laugh every time that he ‘fed’ his peg.
It seemed to be a case of catching a few fish, then nothing; it is as though your peg has died. I was also having an absolute nightmare. I have never lost so many fish they were either foul hooked or just nicked. It was a case of the float dips, you wait, the float buries, elastic shoots out (either before or after you have struck) and the elastic bottoms out, it does it again, when you change the angle of your pole tip and apply pressure to net the fish, the hook pulls out. Talk about getting pole rage. I tried a couple of things that Chappy had mentioned to me previously, I changed to a smaller hook, a different pattern and both. But to no avail. (After speaking to Topshop after the match, I suppose that I felt a little better as he explained that sometimes, there is nothing that you can do and you will lose a lot of fish).
Into The Last Hour
With about 1 hour to go, I started sulking as I was loosing so many fish, Topshop couldn’t do anything but laugh when I lost a fish, and to cap it all, both Daylite and Topshop had been catching the odd fish on caster. I had tried to get some caster this morning and rang the 2 tackle shops near me, neither answered (maybe they knew it was me).
I got my head together a little and started to feed less hemp, but switched to fishing pellet over the top instead. I managed to get a few carp (out) down the side. With about 30 minutes to go, I was getting stuffed by Topshop and Daylite. Marco was catching a few on peg 8 and was being loud and abusive with it, shouting abuse at me at every opportunity.
I then went back over to the far side, in a spot that I had not put a single bit of bait. I cupped in about 10 grains of hemp, and 2 pellets. I had pellet on the hook. I dropped in, and in the remaining 30 minutes, I had 4 carp out (one of those was within time, when I shouted time Daylite, Topshop and I all had a fish on) and lost 2. Had I done it wrong? I suppose that the straight answer is yes.
I think that I may have fed a little bit too much bait by the end of the match.
I went and stood behind Topshop as he played his fish and noticed just how much bait that he had fed. I now have a little plan of action for next time.
Racing on Peg 1 weighed in 28-08. Orc had 17-12 (he owed me a quid). Toddy threatened to pay me £2 at the start of the match to shut up, I did and he never paid. He blanked, DNW’d, didn’t weigh, caught not a lot, had less than most people around him. Topshop weighed in 48-12, I had 30-13, Daylite weighed 38-00 and Marco was 4th overall with 56-08. I would estimate that I had lost approximately 15 - 20lb of fish off the hook. I had lost fish across, down the middle (mostly where you get an indication, you strike, nothing then it goes solid - foulhooked) and even down the side. Had I got too many fish in the peg?, were the fish 'gill-feeding' and were blowing all around the peg?
I owed a quid to Daylite and Topshop. Had I done the impossible and got Chappy’s quid 2 days running? You having a laugh? Chappy weighed in 54-10 for 6th overall. Gargoyle nearly run me over as he sped off without paying my quid and Orc paid up, begrudgingly.
Full Result
John Bradshaw (Mosella Garbolino) 91-02. Peg 64. Carp on meat.
Chris Hall (The Oaks) 63-06. Peg 56. Chopped worm.
Scott Lister (Shimano Quaker) 57-00. Peg 46.
Gareth Drury (The Oaks/HAS) 56-08. Peg 8. Chopped Worm
Pete Rambow (Junior) Cleveland Angling Centre 54-15. Peg 9. Chopped Worm
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 54-10. Peg 69.
Saturday 27th May 2006 – Woodlands Lake, Thirsk
This weekends fishing activities started early, as I had booked Friday off work to take advantage of the raffle prize that I had won on the Breast Cancer Care Charity Match that was held at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk in early April.
The prize was a 2-day fishing holiday with overnight accommodation at the Vale of York hotel, breakfast on 2 days, afternoon food and fishing for 4 people. In view of going halves with Purverted, we decided to take our good lady wives, they could go shopping whilst we were fishing, but all the best laid plans don’t always go as planned. The intended days fishing never actually transpired and we ended up arriving at our accommodation by approx 7:00 pm. We agreed to go into Thirsk for something to eat, then get back to the hotel for a few beers.
I am fussy when it comes to food, but a nice meal was had by all at the Chinese restaurant in Thirsk, then we got back to the hotel and Jack Daniels came out to meet us, well me actually. After an hour or so listening to the girls go on about how much they were going to spend and their battle plans for tomorrow, I decided to have a couple of games of pool with Purverted. We actually had 4 games, all for the usual quid, I lost all 4 for a total of £5. Shane from Elton Tackle said that I was as bad at pool as I was at fishing and a £2 side bet was struck that I would beat Purverted on the match tomorrow. Shane agreed, fool!!!
I had also paid the landlord £2.30 for a pint for Chappy when he got there on Saturday night.
Match Day
We awoke in plenty of time to get down to Woodlands and have a breakfast on the house, paid our pools (we did not have to pay the peg fee for the match as we were on a freebie) and joined the throbbing mass in the draw queue. There were a good few up there as the Superleague final was taking place at the same time. The Superleague match was the silver fish match today and the carp/anything goes match was taking place tomorrow.
I had agreed a quid with Nightie, Chappy, Panic and the obligatory £2 with Purverted. Due to my recent form of drawing at Woodlands, if I was on any lake apart from Partridge or Skylark, I was cheating as the only lakes being used for the open match were Partridge and Skylark. I put my hand in the bucket and pulled out Wagtail 10.
I checked my ticket and found that I was actually on Skylark 8, I was so used to being on A N Other Lake, I was actually gob smacked.
I was in excellent company today, I had venue regular Mark ‘Coyney’ Coyne on to my right on Peg 9, Gary Hamill? (Daiwa Dorking) on peg 7 (he had spent all week on the venue practising for the Superleague), former Kamasan champ Dean ‘Deano’ Smith on peg 6, and my quid, oops I meant Chappy, within earshot on peg 11. Both Young Adam and Gaz Malham were behind me on Partridge Lake.
Plans of attack
I set up 3 rigs for today;
Rig 1. a 0.3gm Series E float for the 6m line. This was set up on .16 Maver Genesis Line straight through to a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.
Rig 2. a 0.5gm Drennan Roach for the 14m line. This was set up as above.
Rig 3. a 4 x 12 Preston ‘Durafloat’. This rig was plumbed up down the side where I found 18” of water. I was also planning on using this rig for up in the water fishing at 13m. I set this rig up on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.
My bait table consisted of 2.5 pts meat, 1 large tin of hemp, (meat and hemp were my main methods of attack today), ½ pt 6mm hooker pellets and 1pt of micro pellets for feeding, should I need to go on them.
All In
At the kick off, I cupped in some meat and hemp on all three lines and I started to flick a couple of bits of meat out to 14m.
I baited up the 6m rig with meat, and settled down to wait for the float to shoot under. Coyney had had 4 carp and 1 skimmer and Gary had 2 carp and lost one and I had a total of nothing, zilch, nada, not even an indication. As everyone is in a line it is possible to keep an eye on what others are doing around you. After about 45/60 minutes, most people seemed to have gone a little bit further out. Coyney and Gary followed suit, this left the 6m line to me. My float dipped, and a carp of 3lb was soon in the rubber coated landing net. I baited up with meat again, and dropped in, another carp of about 4lb was in the net, this is easy or so I thought. I managed to claw back Coyney with a total of 5 carp, this also put me in front of Gary on the next peg. Coyney had managed to foul-hook a couple of carp on the 13m line and was now trying to get the carp competing up in the water (it is an unwise move to leave Coyney to this line all by himself for too long).
I was now about 1.5 hours into the match and I decided that it was time to have a look on the 14m line. I shipped out with the full depth rig on, a piece of meat on the hook and a few pieces of hemp and meat in the ‘tosspot’. I dropped in, the float dipped, I left it, it buried, nothing!!. I repeated the process, the float buried and a carp was attached, but not for long, I started to ship back and it came off.
I decided that the time was right to go out on the shallow rig, I had been feeding between 2 – 5 pieces of meat periodically over the 14m line, and the foul hooked fish was an indication that they were up in the water and I was going to bag up. That was the plan/idea anyways!!!
After a fruitless 15 minutes, I went out on the bomb, casting just past the pole line. I managed to snare 4 fish on this line. I looked up towards Chappy, who whispered or at least attempted to, 'cos' I couldn’t hear him, asked me asking me how many. I said 7 carp and a barbel. Chappy was struggling (my quid was looking good unless he was telling porkies). I was now in front of both Coyney (who’d had 6 carp) and Gary ( I would estimate that he’d had 5 or 6 carp), things were looking good.
Deano was rotating all of his lines (deep, shallow, 6m and bomb) trying to snare fish off each line and I could see that he was putting the odd fish together.
The Final Hour
With about 1 hour of the match remaining, I decided to come back in on the 6m line, but I changed it from a meat line to a pellet line. I cupped in some micro pellets and 3 or 4 ‘conkers’. Baited up with a single conker, the float shot under and a carp of 4lb was soon in the net. I observed Deano playing a fish, he was on his top 4 kit and the carp was in the middle of the lake (after speaking to him at the end of the match, he was using the hollow core 12 – 20 elastic). The fish was about 5lb.
I managed to get 1 more carp of this line before both Coyney and Gary cupped some bait in either side of me. I baited up and waited a little bit longer (enough time for Coyney to get 3 carp) before I managed to get another fish. Coyney’s main 6m line was angled towards me, so I cupped some bait towards him, but still within my peg. Coyney’s peg seemed to get a little quieter for the next 10 minutes anyway.
With about 2 minutes of the match remaining, a fish topped halfway between Coyney’s and my float. You know how you sit there and you think, go on, go under. Well, it did go under, only it wasn’t my float that went under it was Coyney’s. He soon had a carp of about 6lb in the keepnet. In the last hour I’d had 3 fish and Coyney had had 5.
Well, that was it, now for all the questions, had I beaten Coyney? He was admitting to 13 carp, I had 14 (it was going to be close), Would Purverted owe me £2? Would I be handing half of it over to Chappy? Would Shane pay up?
Here goes;
Chappy had walked past me and handed me my quid as he passed, he was that confident that I had beaten him. I could see that Purverted had tipped back (he later told me that he had 4 carp, a couple of skimmers, a tench and 2 barbel for about 15lb). The scales soon arrived and Chappy had weighed in 31lb, Coyney had weighed in 49lb (had I beaten him, I wasn’t sure). I weighed in 37lb. I’d had more carp and less weight, ho hum. Gary on the next peg had weighed 41lb and Deano had 54lb for 6th overall.
Chappy had paid his quid, I paid panic his quid, he weighed in over 50lb, Nightie weighed in 46lb, I went looking for him to pay his quid and he wasn’t around. Both Shane and Purverted declined to pay, I will get it back next time. I was still even at the end of the match as people that owed me some readies, didn’t pay or did a disappearing act.
Whilst we were eating breakfast, my missus was dribbling over the baking that Eva was doing, there were some very tasty looking cakes, raspberry cake and strawberry cake to note. When I ordered my afternoon snack, I also asked if I could have a piece of raspberry cake to take home for the good lady wife. I got a chip butty and a piece of cake and a chip butty for Purverted, all of this was gratis, free, cost nothing.
When I got home, I polished the quid that I got from Chappy and put it in on of those ring pouches that you can get from the jewellers.
Darryll (T.O.G.I.T.V.) Taylor won the match with over 80lb from Partridge (17, I think), over 60lb was second and a string of 50lb weights followed. It had fished a little hard and no one had really got a good run of fish together. Hey there is always the next time. Purverted has booked himself on for next Saturday, what about me? He didn’t book me on, I think that he is sick of losing his £2’s.
This weekends fishing activities started early, as I had booked Friday off work to take advantage of the raffle prize that I had won on the Breast Cancer Care Charity Match that was held at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk in early April.
The prize was a 2-day fishing holiday with overnight accommodation at the Vale of York hotel, breakfast on 2 days, afternoon food and fishing for 4 people. In view of going halves with Purverted, we decided to take our good lady wives, they could go shopping whilst we were fishing, but all the best laid plans don’t always go as planned. The intended days fishing never actually transpired and we ended up arriving at our accommodation by approx 7:00 pm. We agreed to go into Thirsk for something to eat, then get back to the hotel for a few beers.
I am fussy when it comes to food, but a nice meal was had by all at the Chinese restaurant in Thirsk, then we got back to the hotel and Jack Daniels came out to meet us, well me actually. After an hour or so listening to the girls go on about how much they were going to spend and their battle plans for tomorrow, I decided to have a couple of games of pool with Purverted. We actually had 4 games, all for the usual quid, I lost all 4 for a total of £5. Shane from Elton Tackle said that I was as bad at pool as I was at fishing and a £2 side bet was struck that I would beat Purverted on the match tomorrow. Shane agreed, fool!!!
I had also paid the landlord £2.30 for a pint for Chappy when he got there on Saturday night.
Match Day
We awoke in plenty of time to get down to Woodlands and have a breakfast on the house, paid our pools (we did not have to pay the peg fee for the match as we were on a freebie) and joined the throbbing mass in the draw queue. There were a good few up there as the Superleague final was taking place at the same time. The Superleague match was the silver fish match today and the carp/anything goes match was taking place tomorrow.
I had agreed a quid with Nightie, Chappy, Panic and the obligatory £2 with Purverted. Due to my recent form of drawing at Woodlands, if I was on any lake apart from Partridge or Skylark, I was cheating as the only lakes being used for the open match were Partridge and Skylark. I put my hand in the bucket and pulled out Wagtail 10.
I checked my ticket and found that I was actually on Skylark 8, I was so used to being on A N Other Lake, I was actually gob smacked.
I was in excellent company today, I had venue regular Mark ‘Coyney’ Coyne on to my right on Peg 9, Gary Hamill? (Daiwa Dorking) on peg 7 (he had spent all week on the venue practising for the Superleague), former Kamasan champ Dean ‘Deano’ Smith on peg 6, and my quid, oops I meant Chappy, within earshot on peg 11. Both Young Adam and Gaz Malham were behind me on Partridge Lake.
Plans of attack
I set up 3 rigs for today;
Rig 1. a 0.3gm Series E float for the 6m line. This was set up on .16 Maver Genesis Line straight through to a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.
Rig 2. a 0.5gm Drennan Roach for the 14m line. This was set up as above.
Rig 3. a 4 x 12 Preston ‘Durafloat’. This rig was plumbed up down the side where I found 18” of water. I was also planning on using this rig for up in the water fishing at 13m. I set this rig up on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.
My bait table consisted of 2.5 pts meat, 1 large tin of hemp, (meat and hemp were my main methods of attack today), ½ pt 6mm hooker pellets and 1pt of micro pellets for feeding, should I need to go on them.
All In
At the kick off, I cupped in some meat and hemp on all three lines and I started to flick a couple of bits of meat out to 14m.
I baited up the 6m rig with meat, and settled down to wait for the float to shoot under. Coyney had had 4 carp and 1 skimmer and Gary had 2 carp and lost one and I had a total of nothing, zilch, nada, not even an indication. As everyone is in a line it is possible to keep an eye on what others are doing around you. After about 45/60 minutes, most people seemed to have gone a little bit further out. Coyney and Gary followed suit, this left the 6m line to me. My float dipped, and a carp of 3lb was soon in the rubber coated landing net. I baited up with meat again, and dropped in, another carp of about 4lb was in the net, this is easy or so I thought. I managed to claw back Coyney with a total of 5 carp, this also put me in front of Gary on the next peg. Coyney had managed to foul-hook a couple of carp on the 13m line and was now trying to get the carp competing up in the water (it is an unwise move to leave Coyney to this line all by himself for too long).
I was now about 1.5 hours into the match and I decided that it was time to have a look on the 14m line. I shipped out with the full depth rig on, a piece of meat on the hook and a few pieces of hemp and meat in the ‘tosspot’. I dropped in, the float dipped, I left it, it buried, nothing!!. I repeated the process, the float buried and a carp was attached, but not for long, I started to ship back and it came off.
I decided that the time was right to go out on the shallow rig, I had been feeding between 2 – 5 pieces of meat periodically over the 14m line, and the foul hooked fish was an indication that they were up in the water and I was going to bag up. That was the plan/idea anyways!!!
After a fruitless 15 minutes, I went out on the bomb, casting just past the pole line. I managed to snare 4 fish on this line. I looked up towards Chappy, who whispered or at least attempted to, 'cos' I couldn’t hear him, asked me asking me how many. I said 7 carp and a barbel. Chappy was struggling (my quid was looking good unless he was telling porkies). I was now in front of both Coyney (who’d had 6 carp) and Gary ( I would estimate that he’d had 5 or 6 carp), things were looking good.
Deano was rotating all of his lines (deep, shallow, 6m and bomb) trying to snare fish off each line and I could see that he was putting the odd fish together.
The Final Hour
With about 1 hour of the match remaining, I decided to come back in on the 6m line, but I changed it from a meat line to a pellet line. I cupped in some micro pellets and 3 or 4 ‘conkers’. Baited up with a single conker, the float shot under and a carp of 4lb was soon in the net. I observed Deano playing a fish, he was on his top 4 kit and the carp was in the middle of the lake (after speaking to him at the end of the match, he was using the hollow core 12 – 20 elastic). The fish was about 5lb.
I managed to get 1 more carp of this line before both Coyney and Gary cupped some bait in either side of me. I baited up and waited a little bit longer (enough time for Coyney to get 3 carp) before I managed to get another fish. Coyney’s main 6m line was angled towards me, so I cupped some bait towards him, but still within my peg. Coyney’s peg seemed to get a little quieter for the next 10 minutes anyway.
With about 2 minutes of the match remaining, a fish topped halfway between Coyney’s and my float. You know how you sit there and you think, go on, go under. Well, it did go under, only it wasn’t my float that went under it was Coyney’s. He soon had a carp of about 6lb in the keepnet. In the last hour I’d had 3 fish and Coyney had had 5.
Well, that was it, now for all the questions, had I beaten Coyney? He was admitting to 13 carp, I had 14 (it was going to be close), Would Purverted owe me £2? Would I be handing half of it over to Chappy? Would Shane pay up?
Here goes;
Chappy had walked past me and handed me my quid as he passed, he was that confident that I had beaten him. I could see that Purverted had tipped back (he later told me that he had 4 carp, a couple of skimmers, a tench and 2 barbel for about 15lb). The scales soon arrived and Chappy had weighed in 31lb, Coyney had weighed in 49lb (had I beaten him, I wasn’t sure). I weighed in 37lb. I’d had more carp and less weight, ho hum. Gary on the next peg had weighed 41lb and Deano had 54lb for 6th overall.
Chappy had paid his quid, I paid panic his quid, he weighed in over 50lb, Nightie weighed in 46lb, I went looking for him to pay his quid and he wasn’t around. Both Shane and Purverted declined to pay, I will get it back next time. I was still even at the end of the match as people that owed me some readies, didn’t pay or did a disappearing act.
Whilst we were eating breakfast, my missus was dribbling over the baking that Eva was doing, there were some very tasty looking cakes, raspberry cake and strawberry cake to note. When I ordered my afternoon snack, I also asked if I could have a piece of raspberry cake to take home for the good lady wife. I got a chip butty and a piece of cake and a chip butty for Purverted, all of this was gratis, free, cost nothing.
When I got home, I polished the quid that I got from Chappy and put it in on of those ring pouches that you can get from the jewellers.
Darryll (T.O.G.I.T.V.) Taylor won the match with over 80lb from Partridge (17, I think), over 60lb was second and a string of 50lb weights followed. It had fished a little hard and no one had really got a good run of fish together. Hey there is always the next time. Purverted has booked himself on for next Saturday, what about me? He didn’t book me on, I think that he is sick of losing his £2’s.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Sunday 21st May 2006.
Rubber Landing Net.
After reading people’s views on total-fishing.com, I decided to invest in one of the new rubber coated landing net’s. There are currently 2 versions available, Diawa and Boss, although Maver are also expected to bring something similar out. It is said that they reduce hook ups, snagged fish and they also dry quicker, leading to less smells (mine will stay dry permanently, except for when it rains). Well, I still managed to snag about 4 or 5 fish, and I got my hook caught in the net twice, so the question is, how many more fish would I have snagged in the net and how many more times would I have hooked into my landing net?
But, I would also like to add that it scoops through the water with ease. I have bought 2 sizes, one for Woodlands (should accommodate fish to doubles from the boards) and one for Sessay (fish to 8/9lb), had a 5lb’er today that fitted in just right.
The only net that I haven’t had a problem with is a blue net that I have which has very fine mesh, but the drag when trying to scoop is immense, it could be comparable to trying to push butter through lard!!
Here Goes!
65 of us mad Englishmen attended this weeks payday.
The weather – Rainy with some more rain. In view of all of the rain, the water temperature (so I was informed) was 15o C.
Two jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 8 and 60. They both had a chance of going this week with the right angler on them, and the right angler there was. Garry Jubb (Jubby) drew peg 8, which probably had the best chance of winning the jackpot peg and Derek Jackson (Jacko) drew the other peg.
I drew peg 5 and had Ray (Racing) Singh on peg 4 (with pegs 3 and 2 empty – 2 was empty because I had put the peg in for Jack Fergusson who failed to show) and I had Ian (The Quiet One) Hunter on peg 6. I could also, from my peg see if Jubby was catching and whether or not the Jackpot peg was safe.
There were fish topping all over the peg, at 4m, 9m, across to the far side. My mind was made up. Mistake Number 1 - I was going to fish up in the water .
I set up 4 rigs as follows:
Rig 1 – a 4 x 10 series ‘d’ float on .14 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at 3m and found 3ft of water.
Rig 2 – 4 x 14 Drennan Roach float on .14 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found 5ft of water.
Rig 3 – 4 x 12 Colmic float on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at the top of the far shelf, just where the shelf falls away down the slope.
Rig 4 – 4 x 10 Drennan Carp 2 on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the mud line.
The Bait.
On offer today I had, 6mm expanders, 4mm expanders, 3mm expanders (for loosefeeding) and micro pellets. I also had some caster left from yesterday, which I never used (problem being that I didn’t have enough of them to try to fish caster shallow so used the 3mm expanders instead (rightly or wrongly)).
We’re Off
At the all in, I potted some micro pellets over to the mud line and down the middle. I also put some bait in down the near side.
I went across to the shelf and put in a fruit shoot of micro pellets and waited in anticipation of the float going under. After a fruitless 15 minutes, I saw the mud line clouding up. I got the mud line rig out, baited up, went across to the island, the float dipped and a 12oz carp was soon in the rubber landing net. Did the same again, the float shot under and the white hydro (through the no. 2 only) soon bottomed out. After a scary 3 or 4 minute tussle (which I thought that I was going to loose) a mirror carp of about 5lb was in the bottom of the net. On closer inspection the carp had been hooked in the pelvic fin. I must admit, with where the fish had been hooked and the hook that I was using, there was no way that the fish was going to come off.
I spent the next 15 minutes across to the far mud line, the wind had started to pick up and the presentation was less than perfect, I was constantly having to hold back on the float, and the float bristle was constantly riding out of the water (what do you do?). All the while I had been flicking about 10 3mm pellets down the middle, I decided that now was the right time to have a look. I got the deep rig out, baited up with a conker and dropped in, the float buried, missed it. Tried again, same happened again (and it was not the conker pulling the float). I got the shallow rig out, nothing.
I went back on to the deeper rig, shallowed up and went up the slope a little. The float shot under and a carp of 1lb was soon in the net. I put a string of fish together and before I knew it the line had gone dead.
About 1 ¼ hrs in to the match, The Quiet One had about 7 fish (skimmers, carp and tench all on chopped worm), for about 6lb, Racing also had about 6lb and I would estimate that I had about 14lb (according to my clicker).
Over the next 3 hours or so, I was rotating lines trying to find where the fish had gone, with my most productive line being down the middle. I had a couple of fish on the deep rig fished at 4m. I never had a fish at 3m or even down the side. I caught a couple of fish on top of the shelf and a couple more fish across to the mud line, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t hold them.
The wind eased off in the last 30 minutes, so it was time to go back over to the far side and try again. I potted in a few micro’s over where I had attempted to fish earlier on, dropped in and waited. The float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. I repeated this procedure and managed to catch 3 more fish before the all out. My clicker indicated that I had 26lb (and usually I am wrong by under estimating).
Jubby had been catching steadily all match from both down the deeps and across, and in most cases, his fish seemed to be 1lb+. He had tried down the side a couple of times but to no avail.
How many quid’s had I lost/won?
Had Jubby won the match and the jackpot peg?
Is it ever going to stop raining?
The Quid’s.
Purverted rang me to ask what I had weighed, I said 29lb dead (wasn’t too far out this time), he said that he had about 30 – 35lb, but the scales had not yet reached him. Sugar, I was going to be down £2 to him. When he came into the café, he said that he had 28lb dead. What happened to his other 7lb???? But I do know what happened to his £2, it went in my pocket!!
In view of my failure to pay Orc last week, I paid Orc his quid as he paid on the match this morning. Orc was only keeping my quid warm that I had given him before the start of the draw. He was a DNW, although he tried to get me to believe that he had ounced me (try again next time).
£3 quid up, 1 to go. Chappy came into the café with his hand out. He had weighed in 38lb odd.
Jubby hadn't won the match, Jonny Kenning weighed in 73lb and Big Mark had 70lb, well done chaps.
The match in general fished poorly in terms of everyone was expecting to bag up, but you have to bear in mind, it has rained nearly all week.
There were 26 weights over 40lb and a further 20 weights between 25 and 40lb, and with the average fish being about 1lb, there is still a few bites to be had. Middy had 22 fish for 44lb, and I would estimate that I had about 20 fish for my 29lb. Most of the fish that you catch down the middle have a tendency to be on the small side.
Full result.
Jonny Kenning (Diawa Goldthorpe) 73-06. Peg 56. Caught a mixed net of fish, fishing with pellet and worm.
Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 70-11. Peg 78. Chopped worm.
Garry Jubb (Diawa Goldthorpe) 66-12. Jackpot peg 8.
Gareth Drury (Oaks/HAS) 58-01. Peg 79.
Alwin Ingham (Bob-Co/Oaks) 55-15. Peg 30.
Andy Hamilton (Diawa Cleveland) 52-14. Peg 13.
Ooops, nearly forgot - No it didn't stop raining.
Rubber Landing Net.
After reading people’s views on total-fishing.com, I decided to invest in one of the new rubber coated landing net’s. There are currently 2 versions available, Diawa and Boss, although Maver are also expected to bring something similar out. It is said that they reduce hook ups, snagged fish and they also dry quicker, leading to less smells (mine will stay dry permanently, except for when it rains). Well, I still managed to snag about 4 or 5 fish, and I got my hook caught in the net twice, so the question is, how many more fish would I have snagged in the net and how many more times would I have hooked into my landing net?
But, I would also like to add that it scoops through the water with ease. I have bought 2 sizes, one for Woodlands (should accommodate fish to doubles from the boards) and one for Sessay (fish to 8/9lb), had a 5lb’er today that fitted in just right.
The only net that I haven’t had a problem with is a blue net that I have which has very fine mesh, but the drag when trying to scoop is immense, it could be comparable to trying to push butter through lard!!
Here Goes!
65 of us mad Englishmen attended this weeks payday.
The weather – Rainy with some more rain. In view of all of the rain, the water temperature (so I was informed) was 15o C.
Two jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 8 and 60. They both had a chance of going this week with the right angler on them, and the right angler there was. Garry Jubb (Jubby) drew peg 8, which probably had the best chance of winning the jackpot peg and Derek Jackson (Jacko) drew the other peg.
I drew peg 5 and had Ray (Racing) Singh on peg 4 (with pegs 3 and 2 empty – 2 was empty because I had put the peg in for Jack Fergusson who failed to show) and I had Ian (The Quiet One) Hunter on peg 6. I could also, from my peg see if Jubby was catching and whether or not the Jackpot peg was safe.
There were fish topping all over the peg, at 4m, 9m, across to the far side. My mind was made up. Mistake Number 1 - I was going to fish up in the water .
I set up 4 rigs as follows:
Rig 1 – a 4 x 10 series ‘d’ float on .14 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at 3m and found 3ft of water.
Rig 2 – 4 x 14 Drennan Roach float on .14 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found 5ft of water.
Rig 3 – 4 x 12 Colmic float on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at the top of the far shelf, just where the shelf falls away down the slope.
Rig 4 – 4 x 10 Drennan Carp 2 on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the mud line.
The Bait.
On offer today I had, 6mm expanders, 4mm expanders, 3mm expanders (for loosefeeding) and micro pellets. I also had some caster left from yesterday, which I never used (problem being that I didn’t have enough of them to try to fish caster shallow so used the 3mm expanders instead (rightly or wrongly)).
We’re Off
At the all in, I potted some micro pellets over to the mud line and down the middle. I also put some bait in down the near side.
I went across to the shelf and put in a fruit shoot of micro pellets and waited in anticipation of the float going under. After a fruitless 15 minutes, I saw the mud line clouding up. I got the mud line rig out, baited up, went across to the island, the float dipped and a 12oz carp was soon in the rubber landing net. Did the same again, the float shot under and the white hydro (through the no. 2 only) soon bottomed out. After a scary 3 or 4 minute tussle (which I thought that I was going to loose) a mirror carp of about 5lb was in the bottom of the net. On closer inspection the carp had been hooked in the pelvic fin. I must admit, with where the fish had been hooked and the hook that I was using, there was no way that the fish was going to come off.
I spent the next 15 minutes across to the far mud line, the wind had started to pick up and the presentation was less than perfect, I was constantly having to hold back on the float, and the float bristle was constantly riding out of the water (what do you do?). All the while I had been flicking about 10 3mm pellets down the middle, I decided that now was the right time to have a look. I got the deep rig out, baited up with a conker and dropped in, the float buried, missed it. Tried again, same happened again (and it was not the conker pulling the float). I got the shallow rig out, nothing.
I went back on to the deeper rig, shallowed up and went up the slope a little. The float shot under and a carp of 1lb was soon in the net. I put a string of fish together and before I knew it the line had gone dead.
About 1 ¼ hrs in to the match, The Quiet One had about 7 fish (skimmers, carp and tench all on chopped worm), for about 6lb, Racing also had about 6lb and I would estimate that I had about 14lb (according to my clicker).
Over the next 3 hours or so, I was rotating lines trying to find where the fish had gone, with my most productive line being down the middle. I had a couple of fish on the deep rig fished at 4m. I never had a fish at 3m or even down the side. I caught a couple of fish on top of the shelf and a couple more fish across to the mud line, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t hold them.
The wind eased off in the last 30 minutes, so it was time to go back over to the far side and try again. I potted in a few micro’s over where I had attempted to fish earlier on, dropped in and waited. The float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. I repeated this procedure and managed to catch 3 more fish before the all out. My clicker indicated that I had 26lb (and usually I am wrong by under estimating).
Jubby had been catching steadily all match from both down the deeps and across, and in most cases, his fish seemed to be 1lb+. He had tried down the side a couple of times but to no avail.
How many quid’s had I lost/won?
Had Jubby won the match and the jackpot peg?
Is it ever going to stop raining?
The Quid’s.
Purverted rang me to ask what I had weighed, I said 29lb dead (wasn’t too far out this time), he said that he had about 30 – 35lb, but the scales had not yet reached him. Sugar, I was going to be down £2 to him. When he came into the café, he said that he had 28lb dead. What happened to his other 7lb???? But I do know what happened to his £2, it went in my pocket!!
In view of my failure to pay Orc last week, I paid Orc his quid as he paid on the match this morning. Orc was only keeping my quid warm that I had given him before the start of the draw. He was a DNW, although he tried to get me to believe that he had ounced me (try again next time).
£3 quid up, 1 to go. Chappy came into the café with his hand out. He had weighed in 38lb odd.
Jubby hadn't won the match, Jonny Kenning weighed in 73lb and Big Mark had 70lb, well done chaps.
The match in general fished poorly in terms of everyone was expecting to bag up, but you have to bear in mind, it has rained nearly all week.
There were 26 weights over 40lb and a further 20 weights between 25 and 40lb, and with the average fish being about 1lb, there is still a few bites to be had. Middy had 22 fish for 44lb, and I would estimate that I had about 20 fish for my 29lb. Most of the fish that you catch down the middle have a tendency to be on the small side.
Full result.
Jonny Kenning (Diawa Goldthorpe) 73-06. Peg 56. Caught a mixed net of fish, fishing with pellet and worm.
Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 70-11. Peg 78. Chopped worm.
Garry Jubb (Diawa Goldthorpe) 66-12. Jackpot peg 8.
Gareth Drury (Oaks/HAS) 58-01. Peg 79.
Alwin Ingham (Bob-Co/Oaks) 55-15. Peg 30.
Andy Hamilton (Diawa Cleveland) 52-14. Peg 13.
Ooops, nearly forgot - No it didn't stop raining.
Saturday 20th May 2006 – Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.
Drought, What Drought???
Before I go on and bore all of you with how not to catch fish, I must say that the weather has been incredibly CRAP this weekend.
Today the rain started after approximately 20 minutes into the match and stopped about 1 hour from the end (at least everything had a chance to dry with the ever increasing wind!!) and on Sunday, it started to rain approximately 1 hour into the match and didn’t stop until I had got back home and put the now heavy gear away. Have you realised how heavy your gets/feels with all the rain??
There has been enough rain this weekend to fill Eccup Reservoir, ten fold (well maybe not that much, but the rain has been incessant.
I arranged to meet Panic at ‘M’ for a brekkie. I offered to give Panic a lift, but he declined, say that if he drew the old lakes and it was crap, he could go home. Purverted cried off the match yesterday saying that he was working, he could have taken the day off, but felt that people at work may have been a bit peeved.
There were 118 people paid on to the match by the time they started the draw. I sent a text to Chappy to see if he was having a quid, to which he replied ‘Oh Yes’. I replied ‘Ba@@ar@, thought so’. Ever thought that would be mistake No. 1. A quid was also set up with Panic and Nightie.
My Broken Drawing Arm
My next mistake came at the draw, I put my hand in the bucket and upon Alan Gregory’s advice pulled out a ticket that he pointed to (I had to try a different drawing system) and I ended up on the only lake that I really, really didn’t want. Wagtail 4!!!
Panic’s Peg!!
As I was walking (and sobbing) out of the draw queue, Panic asked me what peg I had drawn. I replied that I was on Cesspit 4. He laughed, just a little. As I got level with him, I smeared my peg ticket all over him, wishing him the best of luck in the draw. I was at my peg observing all before me, when who should appear – Panic. I enquired (whilst with-holding a huge laugh) what peg was he on? Wagtail 6.
He who laughs last, laughs loudest!!!
Chappy had drawn Dragonfly 9 (which he really, really didn’t want) and I am not sure of where my other quid was heading.
After the draw I was in the car park unloading the gear when I saw one of the Garbolino Elton lads getting his fishing suit on. He had washed the suit and nearly all (I kid you not) of the seams had come away. He had that many bit’s of tape, I thought that he was into bondage in a big way.
All The Gear, No Idea
I set up the obligatory bomb rod with a ¼ ounce Arsley bomb, (Chappy, not a coffin lead) with a .16 Maver Genesis hook length of some 2ft (18” minimum hook length rule applies) finished off with a size 14 Colmic 501 hook. I had a little brown bait band attached to act as the hair rig.
I spoke to various people about my peg, Phil Sellars said to feed heavy down the side and keep having a look. Chappy said to fish at 6m (top kit plus 3) and keep persevering. Gordon said to fish at 13m. I asked Pimmy for his idea’s and Chappy retorted ‘tell him f::k all, I have a quid with him’. Cheers Mate!!!
My initial idea was to feed caster up in the water and fish meat over the top, with the wind that had appeared, this was a no go. So, I set up the following.
Rig 1 – 6m.
I set up a .3gm ‘Series E’ float and found that it was quite shallow, I had a little over 3ft of depth, tied direct to .16 Maver Genesis line with a size 18 Colmic 501 hook attached. I planned to feed pellet and fish both meat and ‘conker’ over the top.
Rig 2 – The Boards.
I had a 4 x 12 Colmic float set up for about 1ft out from the boards at about 6m going to my right (there was a clump of reed mace hanging over the bank and touching/laying on the water). This was set up on the same line as Rig 1 and had a size 14 Colmic 501 attached. I found that I had about 2ft of depth down the boards (I was also aiming to fish this rig up in the water over my caster loose feed).
Rig 3 – 13m.
For this line, I set up a .5gm Drennan Roach rig, again using the same line as above with a size 16 Colmic 501 at the business end. I found that I had about 4.5 foot of water at 13m.
My bait for the day consisted of:
2 tins meat – cubed (6mm)
2 pints casters
1pt feed pellets
½ pt hook pellets
Let’s Go
I potted in a handful of caster down the side, pellets at 6m and meat and pellet at 13m. Whilst waiting for these lines to settle, I had a cast out on the bomb rod with meat on the hair rig.
I waited for the rod to go round, and waited some more. Nothing. I reeled in and changed the meat over to a conker. Chucked out again, nothing. There were carp swirling in the middle of the lake. I had been feeding caster and meat all the while whilst out on the bomb rod. I reeled in and swapped over to the deep pole rig.
I was hoping to fish the full depth rig whilst feeding both caster and meat over the top and if I started to miss bites, I could come up in the water.
After another fruitless 20 minutes (I was now 40 minutes into the match), I had nothing to show.
I decided to have a look on the 6m line. I went out with pellet on the hook, dropped in, the float dipped, then buried with a positive indication. I struck and the grey hydro brought a skimmer of about 3oz out of the water, which promptly fell off.
I came back, re-baited and actually caught, and landed a 4oz skimmer. I potted some more pellets and went back out on the tip with pellet on again.
The rod had just settled when it was dragged (literally) off the rod rest. I reeled down to the fish and soon had a carp of about 12oz in the net. I did the same again and soon had a carp of 5lb in the net, things were looking up.
By this stage, Panic had 3 fish and lost 3, all on the 6m line. Pimmy, who was on the opposite Panic on the other bank had about 6 fish, the lad 2 down from Pimmy had a couple and the lad to my right had a skimmer.
I chucked out on the bomb rod again, hooked into a fish (which didn’t feel that big), started to reel in, when the line went slack. I had been broken, not on the hook length as you would expect, but halfway between the hook length and the rod tip.
I went back out on the pole at 6m whilst I re-set up my bomb rig. Do you get the feeling that I was having one of those days??
Over the next 3 hours I managed to snare 5 more carp and a couple of skimmers all either on the bomb or from the 6m line. I never had a bite on the 13m line, couldn’t present the bait properly and the pole was blowing all over. Panic on the next peg was also struggling to hold the pole and that was at 10m. The lads to Panic’s left were catching, they were fishing the pole at any distance they wanted, it was flat calm.
The Boards, The Boards!!
With about 60 minutes of the match remaining, I decided to have a look down to the boards. I had prepped the line all day, feeding bits of meat, conkers and casters ( I would estimate that I had fed about ¾ pint of casters down the side). I loaded up with a conker, dropped in and waited. After about 10 minutes, I got a dink, then the float buried. We’re in, or so I thought. I had pricked the fish. That was my only indication from this line. I went and sat behind Panic with 30 minutes to go.
At the all out, I tipped back 7 carp and 6 skimmers for an estimated 25lb or so. I was also down £3 even before my quid’s had weighed in. I had packed up and gone before the scales had got round to me. I rang Panic to find out how he had got on, he weighed 42lb. I asked if he had won his section, but no, the Preston Thatcher’s lad next to him weighed in over 50lb and the lad further into the corner had also had 40lb ish. Chappy had won his section with over 40lb (I’ll give you the quid tomorrow, honest) and Pimmy had won his section with over 40lb.
I was at the wrong end of the lake again.
Expander Pellets
From information published on www.total-fishing.com, one of the anglers fishing the match was disqualified. Apparently (allegedly) he arrived at his peg with the said requirement of 1pt of feed pellets (expanders) and after the match, it was found that he had in excess of the 1pt feed limit. The anglers excuse was that with all of the rain, the pellets had doubled in size giving him at least 2pts of feed pellet.
The scales man refused to weigh the angler in. He had to tip back an estimated 70lb +, which would have put him 4th or 5th in the match.
Matchcarp’s Advice
Matchcarp had cancelled off the Woodlands match due to the old lakes being in, and booked on Sessay’s open match. Maybe I should have done the same.
Phil Sellars won the match from Partridge 10 with over 100lb. 2nd came from Dragonfly 19 with over 100lb (just 2lb behind Phil).
Drought, What Drought???
Before I go on and bore all of you with how not to catch fish, I must say that the weather has been incredibly CRAP this weekend.
Today the rain started after approximately 20 minutes into the match and stopped about 1 hour from the end (at least everything had a chance to dry with the ever increasing wind!!) and on Sunday, it started to rain approximately 1 hour into the match and didn’t stop until I had got back home and put the now heavy gear away. Have you realised how heavy your gets/feels with all the rain??
There has been enough rain this weekend to fill Eccup Reservoir, ten fold (well maybe not that much, but the rain has been incessant.
I arranged to meet Panic at ‘M’ for a brekkie. I offered to give Panic a lift, but he declined, say that if he drew the old lakes and it was crap, he could go home. Purverted cried off the match yesterday saying that he was working, he could have taken the day off, but felt that people at work may have been a bit peeved.
There were 118 people paid on to the match by the time they started the draw. I sent a text to Chappy to see if he was having a quid, to which he replied ‘Oh Yes’. I replied ‘Ba@@ar@, thought so’. Ever thought that would be mistake No. 1. A quid was also set up with Panic and Nightie.
My Broken Drawing Arm
My next mistake came at the draw, I put my hand in the bucket and upon Alan Gregory’s advice pulled out a ticket that he pointed to (I had to try a different drawing system) and I ended up on the only lake that I really, really didn’t want. Wagtail 4!!!
Panic’s Peg!!
As I was walking (and sobbing) out of the draw queue, Panic asked me what peg I had drawn. I replied that I was on Cesspit 4. He laughed, just a little. As I got level with him, I smeared my peg ticket all over him, wishing him the best of luck in the draw. I was at my peg observing all before me, when who should appear – Panic. I enquired (whilst with-holding a huge laugh) what peg was he on? Wagtail 6.
He who laughs last, laughs loudest!!!
Chappy had drawn Dragonfly 9 (which he really, really didn’t want) and I am not sure of where my other quid was heading.
After the draw I was in the car park unloading the gear when I saw one of the Garbolino Elton lads getting his fishing suit on. He had washed the suit and nearly all (I kid you not) of the seams had come away. He had that many bit’s of tape, I thought that he was into bondage in a big way.
All The Gear, No Idea
I set up the obligatory bomb rod with a ¼ ounce Arsley bomb, (Chappy, not a coffin lead) with a .16 Maver Genesis hook length of some 2ft (18” minimum hook length rule applies) finished off with a size 14 Colmic 501 hook. I had a little brown bait band attached to act as the hair rig.
I spoke to various people about my peg, Phil Sellars said to feed heavy down the side and keep having a look. Chappy said to fish at 6m (top kit plus 3) and keep persevering. Gordon said to fish at 13m. I asked Pimmy for his idea’s and Chappy retorted ‘tell him f::k all, I have a quid with him’. Cheers Mate!!!
My initial idea was to feed caster up in the water and fish meat over the top, with the wind that had appeared, this was a no go. So, I set up the following.
Rig 1 – 6m.
I set up a .3gm ‘Series E’ float and found that it was quite shallow, I had a little over 3ft of depth, tied direct to .16 Maver Genesis line with a size 18 Colmic 501 hook attached. I planned to feed pellet and fish both meat and ‘conker’ over the top.
Rig 2 – The Boards.
I had a 4 x 12 Colmic float set up for about 1ft out from the boards at about 6m going to my right (there was a clump of reed mace hanging over the bank and touching/laying on the water). This was set up on the same line as Rig 1 and had a size 14 Colmic 501 attached. I found that I had about 2ft of depth down the boards (I was also aiming to fish this rig up in the water over my caster loose feed).
Rig 3 – 13m.
For this line, I set up a .5gm Drennan Roach rig, again using the same line as above with a size 16 Colmic 501 at the business end. I found that I had about 4.5 foot of water at 13m.
My bait for the day consisted of:
2 tins meat – cubed (6mm)
2 pints casters
1pt feed pellets
½ pt hook pellets
Let’s Go
I potted in a handful of caster down the side, pellets at 6m and meat and pellet at 13m. Whilst waiting for these lines to settle, I had a cast out on the bomb rod with meat on the hair rig.
I waited for the rod to go round, and waited some more. Nothing. I reeled in and changed the meat over to a conker. Chucked out again, nothing. There were carp swirling in the middle of the lake. I had been feeding caster and meat all the while whilst out on the bomb rod. I reeled in and swapped over to the deep pole rig.
I was hoping to fish the full depth rig whilst feeding both caster and meat over the top and if I started to miss bites, I could come up in the water.
After another fruitless 20 minutes (I was now 40 minutes into the match), I had nothing to show.
I decided to have a look on the 6m line. I went out with pellet on the hook, dropped in, the float dipped, then buried with a positive indication. I struck and the grey hydro brought a skimmer of about 3oz out of the water, which promptly fell off.
I came back, re-baited and actually caught, and landed a 4oz skimmer. I potted some more pellets and went back out on the tip with pellet on again.
The rod had just settled when it was dragged (literally) off the rod rest. I reeled down to the fish and soon had a carp of about 12oz in the net. I did the same again and soon had a carp of 5lb in the net, things were looking up.
By this stage, Panic had 3 fish and lost 3, all on the 6m line. Pimmy, who was on the opposite Panic on the other bank had about 6 fish, the lad 2 down from Pimmy had a couple and the lad to my right had a skimmer.
I chucked out on the bomb rod again, hooked into a fish (which didn’t feel that big), started to reel in, when the line went slack. I had been broken, not on the hook length as you would expect, but halfway between the hook length and the rod tip.
I went back out on the pole at 6m whilst I re-set up my bomb rig. Do you get the feeling that I was having one of those days??
Over the next 3 hours I managed to snare 5 more carp and a couple of skimmers all either on the bomb or from the 6m line. I never had a bite on the 13m line, couldn’t present the bait properly and the pole was blowing all over. Panic on the next peg was also struggling to hold the pole and that was at 10m. The lads to Panic’s left were catching, they were fishing the pole at any distance they wanted, it was flat calm.
The Boards, The Boards!!
With about 60 minutes of the match remaining, I decided to have a look down to the boards. I had prepped the line all day, feeding bits of meat, conkers and casters ( I would estimate that I had fed about ¾ pint of casters down the side). I loaded up with a conker, dropped in and waited. After about 10 minutes, I got a dink, then the float buried. We’re in, or so I thought. I had pricked the fish. That was my only indication from this line. I went and sat behind Panic with 30 minutes to go.
At the all out, I tipped back 7 carp and 6 skimmers for an estimated 25lb or so. I was also down £3 even before my quid’s had weighed in. I had packed up and gone before the scales had got round to me. I rang Panic to find out how he had got on, he weighed 42lb. I asked if he had won his section, but no, the Preston Thatcher’s lad next to him weighed in over 50lb and the lad further into the corner had also had 40lb ish. Chappy had won his section with over 40lb (I’ll give you the quid tomorrow, honest) and Pimmy had won his section with over 40lb.
I was at the wrong end of the lake again.
Expander Pellets
From information published on www.total-fishing.com, one of the anglers fishing the match was disqualified. Apparently (allegedly) he arrived at his peg with the said requirement of 1pt of feed pellets (expanders) and after the match, it was found that he had in excess of the 1pt feed limit. The anglers excuse was that with all of the rain, the pellets had doubled in size giving him at least 2pts of feed pellet.
The scales man refused to weigh the angler in. He had to tip back an estimated 70lb +, which would have put him 4th or 5th in the match.
Matchcarp’s Advice
Matchcarp had cancelled off the Woodlands match due to the old lakes being in, and booked on Sessay’s open match. Maybe I should have done the same.
Phil Sellars won the match from Partridge 10 with over 100lb. 2nd came from Dragonfly 19 with over 100lb (just 2lb behind Phil).
Monday, May 15, 2006
Sunday 14th May 2006 - The Oaks Lakes, Sessay.
What a weekend, weather wise. It has been glorious sunshine nearly all week, then come Saturday, it rains all day (just about), then on Sunday it rains some more, with cloud and wind for good effect.
Let me ask you a question, how many of you where a hoodie when you are fishing. I do, and on this day, I made my first mistake (well second if you consider getting out of bed). My good lady wife invested in a couple of hoodies for me. One of said hoodies didn’t go down to well with the anglers on the match as it was a ‘Champion’ brand hoodie. Unfortunately for me, the hoodie was emblazoned with ‘Champion’ on the front of the hoodie. The first comment was along the lines of being a tea leaf, then followed that I must have bought it, and other unprintable comments, etc, etc,. One of these days, mark my words!!!!
With all of the rain and the conditions on the day, the lake water temperature had dropped some 5 or 6 degrees. The air temperature, according to old man Frank, was 11 degrees. There was a strong southerly breeze blowing for most of the day.
At the draw, I accosted Orc for his £1 that he owed me from last week, another £1 was struck along with a quid with Chappy and Purverted. Panic decided not to attend, his missus was poorly and poison was now going with clubbies.
68 ‘anglers’ turned up to fish the open match at The Oaks, Sessay. Two jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 32 and 22. As people were coming through the draw, they were all talking about the two crackerjacks that had drawn the jackpot pegs. Alwin ‘maggot man’ Ingham had drawn peg 22 and Mark ‘Minty’ Whittaker had drawn the other jackpot peg. Maggot Man had over 60lb from peg 23 on the Saturday match, and if you give Minty half a peg, he has a good chance of doing some serious damage. Minty had previously held the lake record with 129lb until Big Mark’s weight last week of 154lb.
I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 25, not unhappy with the draw. On the match yesterday there were two 70lb+ weights from the area with a couple of other 60lb back ups.
Purverted drew peg 27, a corner peg with the southerly wind blowing into it. Chappy was on peg 19, still within shouting distance and my other quid, ooops sorry, Orc was on peg 73. Of late most of the pegs in the 70’s had been producing fish. My quid’s were looking a bit ropey.
I had Jack Fergusson for company on peg 24, and John ‘Big Pot’ Kelly on peg 26.
Jack was telling me that he had celebrated his birthday on Friday. I asked him how old he was. He replied that he had just turned 58. I apologised, then said that I thought that he had retired.
Plan(s) of attack
I set up 4 rigs:
Rig 1. was a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach float on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. This was set at 5ft deep to fish at the bottom of the far slope.
My next three rigs consisted of Colmic floats and were planned to fish across to the mud line (1ft deep), on top of the far side shelf (2ft deep) and to fish down the inside (again 2ft deep, with a bit more line between pole float and pole tip to allow me to fish further along down the inside and still be able to fish the top 2, the added bonus was that I could also add more depth and go into deeper water down the inside. All the rigs were set up on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to size 18 Colmic 501 hooks.
In view of the weather change and the drastic drop in water temperature I got some maggots to accompany my micro pellets, 4mm and 6mm hook pellets. I also had a tin or corn to hand – just in case.
All In
At the all in Big Pot made is first big, big mistake which affected his whole match. I watched as he big potted 3 lots of worm over to the mud line slope. He put 1 pot straight in front, and 1 pot both left and right. He also potted bait down the middle.
I decided to err on the side of caution and went across with a fruitshoot of pellets with a couple of maggots in the cup and double maggot on the hook. I tipped the pellets in and dropped the rig over the top and started flicking about 4 or 5 maggots over the top of the rig.
I proceeded in this vain for the next 20 minutes, working left to right, and back along the far shelf when the float dipped, and I connected with a carp of about 1lb. Dropped straight back in and caught another. I then started to get silly little dips and the culprit(s) were little gudgeon.
Some of the maggots that I had loose fed with the cattie had landed on the mud line and every now and then a carp would appear and cloud the water. After seeing such and indication, I put a conker on the mud line rig, shipped out to the far side and waited, and waited and waited.
I could wait no more.
I came back and had a look down the inside. After a bite less 20 minutes, I sacked this line (for the time being).
By nearly 3 hours into the match, my clicker estimated that I had 7lb of fish – things were looking very hard.
Whilst I was planning on my next line of attack, Big Pot had gone in down the middle and was missing bite after bite after bite (or liner after liner after liner).
I decided to have a go on the deep rig. I put a pellet on the hook and a few micro pellets in the pole cup. I dropped in and caught a carp of about 2lb within seconds. I repeated the process and caught a barbel about 12oz and a smaller sample followed. Whilst tipping in micro pellets, I was getting liners so started to catapult pellets and maggots over the top of the float and was getting linered all the time. I put on the shallow rig and continued feeding over the top. Nothing.
I put on the deepest of the shallow rigs and proceeded in the same manner, nothing.
I put the deep rig back out, but had shallowed it up by about 1ft, dropped in, the float didn’t settle and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. This was the only fish that I managed to catch just off the bottom. I had all the while been observing Big Pot and he wasn’t fairing much better. He was fishing a little bit shallower than me, but also a bit further over, so was probably fishing about 4ft deep on the bottom but further up the slope.
With about 20 minutes of the match left, I decided to start again on the shelf. I went over with a conker on the hook and dropped in over the top of a few micro pellets. The float settled, then dipped and a carp of about 5lb was trying to do the 100 metres faster than Justin Gatlin.
Of all the lines and rigs that I had planned to catch fish, the score was approximately as follows:
Far shelf – 3 fish - 8lb.
Inside shelf – 4 fish – 4lb
Mud line – 0 – zero, zilch.
Down the middle – 15 fish – 14lb.
Jack on peg 24 hadn’t caught any fish down the inside, but had a late burst of fish both across and down the middle. He says that he got broke, but I don’t think so, I think that his rig had come off his stonfo connector as the sliding locking sleeves have a tendency to come loose. The fish took his whole rig including the loop that you attach to the stonfo.
Big Pot had about 5 fish across and 1 of those was an ide and approximately 14 or 15 fish down the middle.
The match in general had fished quite hard considering how the lake had been fishing. Although I did have a little bit of pleasure in that I had beaten 2 pegs to my left and one peg to my right. Jack had 16lb and Big Pot DNW’d although I think that he may have had about 18 – 20lb. I was, all the same, interested to see if Big Pot’s method would work so I had kept an eye on his lines and methods throughout the match. His result shows that Big Potting didn't work (at least on this ocassion anyway).
And it got worse!!!
Chappy was very worried after the scales had got to him and he weighed in 36lb 8oz, but he had nothing to worry about, I only managed to put 26lb 14oz on the scales, Purverted weighed in 42lb 4oz and Orc had managed to snare 28lb 10oz. So to cap of a bad weekend I was down £4. Oh well, there is a first time for everything.
How much are golf sticks????
I hope that Panic goes next week and that Poison comes back soon, I need the quid’s to give to Chappy and Purverted at this rate.
Back in the cabin, I gave Purverted his £2, but gave a pound to Xman, as I thought that Purverted hadn’t given Xman his quid.
Xman should have kept his gob shut, and he would have had a quid off me – for nothing, as Purverted had already given X his quid.
Full Result
Ian Exley (Middy Team Dons) 71-00. Peg 55
Andy Middleton (The Oaks) 62-11. Peg 54
Derek Jackson (Diawa Goldthorpe) 62-11.
Dave Topham (Sensas Wibsey) 57-12.
Robbie Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 56-02.
John Clarke (Bob-Co) 54-02
What a weekend, weather wise. It has been glorious sunshine nearly all week, then come Saturday, it rains all day (just about), then on Sunday it rains some more, with cloud and wind for good effect.
Let me ask you a question, how many of you where a hoodie when you are fishing. I do, and on this day, I made my first mistake (well second if you consider getting out of bed). My good lady wife invested in a couple of hoodies for me. One of said hoodies didn’t go down to well with the anglers on the match as it was a ‘Champion’ brand hoodie. Unfortunately for me, the hoodie was emblazoned with ‘Champion’ on the front of the hoodie. The first comment was along the lines of being a tea leaf, then followed that I must have bought it, and other unprintable comments, etc, etc,. One of these days, mark my words!!!!
With all of the rain and the conditions on the day, the lake water temperature had dropped some 5 or 6 degrees. The air temperature, according to old man Frank, was 11 degrees. There was a strong southerly breeze blowing for most of the day.
At the draw, I accosted Orc for his £1 that he owed me from last week, another £1 was struck along with a quid with Chappy and Purverted. Panic decided not to attend, his missus was poorly and poison was now going with clubbies.
68 ‘anglers’ turned up to fish the open match at The Oaks, Sessay. Two jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 32 and 22. As people were coming through the draw, they were all talking about the two crackerjacks that had drawn the jackpot pegs. Alwin ‘maggot man’ Ingham had drawn peg 22 and Mark ‘Minty’ Whittaker had drawn the other jackpot peg. Maggot Man had over 60lb from peg 23 on the Saturday match, and if you give Minty half a peg, he has a good chance of doing some serious damage. Minty had previously held the lake record with 129lb until Big Mark’s weight last week of 154lb.
I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 25, not unhappy with the draw. On the match yesterday there were two 70lb+ weights from the area with a couple of other 60lb back ups.
Purverted drew peg 27, a corner peg with the southerly wind blowing into it. Chappy was on peg 19, still within shouting distance and my other quid, ooops sorry, Orc was on peg 73. Of late most of the pegs in the 70’s had been producing fish. My quid’s were looking a bit ropey.
I had Jack Fergusson for company on peg 24, and John ‘Big Pot’ Kelly on peg 26.
Jack was telling me that he had celebrated his birthday on Friday. I asked him how old he was. He replied that he had just turned 58. I apologised, then said that I thought that he had retired.
Plan(s) of attack
I set up 4 rigs:
Rig 1. was a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach float on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. This was set at 5ft deep to fish at the bottom of the far slope.
My next three rigs consisted of Colmic floats and were planned to fish across to the mud line (1ft deep), on top of the far side shelf (2ft deep) and to fish down the inside (again 2ft deep, with a bit more line between pole float and pole tip to allow me to fish further along down the inside and still be able to fish the top 2, the added bonus was that I could also add more depth and go into deeper water down the inside. All the rigs were set up on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to size 18 Colmic 501 hooks.
In view of the weather change and the drastic drop in water temperature I got some maggots to accompany my micro pellets, 4mm and 6mm hook pellets. I also had a tin or corn to hand – just in case.
All In
At the all in Big Pot made is first big, big mistake which affected his whole match. I watched as he big potted 3 lots of worm over to the mud line slope. He put 1 pot straight in front, and 1 pot both left and right. He also potted bait down the middle.
I decided to err on the side of caution and went across with a fruitshoot of pellets with a couple of maggots in the cup and double maggot on the hook. I tipped the pellets in and dropped the rig over the top and started flicking about 4 or 5 maggots over the top of the rig.
I proceeded in this vain for the next 20 minutes, working left to right, and back along the far shelf when the float dipped, and I connected with a carp of about 1lb. Dropped straight back in and caught another. I then started to get silly little dips and the culprit(s) were little gudgeon.
Some of the maggots that I had loose fed with the cattie had landed on the mud line and every now and then a carp would appear and cloud the water. After seeing such and indication, I put a conker on the mud line rig, shipped out to the far side and waited, and waited and waited.
I could wait no more.
I came back and had a look down the inside. After a bite less 20 minutes, I sacked this line (for the time being).
By nearly 3 hours into the match, my clicker estimated that I had 7lb of fish – things were looking very hard.
Whilst I was planning on my next line of attack, Big Pot had gone in down the middle and was missing bite after bite after bite (or liner after liner after liner).
I decided to have a go on the deep rig. I put a pellet on the hook and a few micro pellets in the pole cup. I dropped in and caught a carp of about 2lb within seconds. I repeated the process and caught a barbel about 12oz and a smaller sample followed. Whilst tipping in micro pellets, I was getting liners so started to catapult pellets and maggots over the top of the float and was getting linered all the time. I put on the shallow rig and continued feeding over the top. Nothing.
I put on the deepest of the shallow rigs and proceeded in the same manner, nothing.
I put the deep rig back out, but had shallowed it up by about 1ft, dropped in, the float didn’t settle and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. This was the only fish that I managed to catch just off the bottom. I had all the while been observing Big Pot and he wasn’t fairing much better. He was fishing a little bit shallower than me, but also a bit further over, so was probably fishing about 4ft deep on the bottom but further up the slope.
With about 20 minutes of the match left, I decided to start again on the shelf. I went over with a conker on the hook and dropped in over the top of a few micro pellets. The float settled, then dipped and a carp of about 5lb was trying to do the 100 metres faster than Justin Gatlin.
Of all the lines and rigs that I had planned to catch fish, the score was approximately as follows:
Far shelf – 3 fish - 8lb.
Inside shelf – 4 fish – 4lb
Mud line – 0 – zero, zilch.
Down the middle – 15 fish – 14lb.
Jack on peg 24 hadn’t caught any fish down the inside, but had a late burst of fish both across and down the middle. He says that he got broke, but I don’t think so, I think that his rig had come off his stonfo connector as the sliding locking sleeves have a tendency to come loose. The fish took his whole rig including the loop that you attach to the stonfo.
Big Pot had about 5 fish across and 1 of those was an ide and approximately 14 or 15 fish down the middle.
The match in general had fished quite hard considering how the lake had been fishing. Although I did have a little bit of pleasure in that I had beaten 2 pegs to my left and one peg to my right. Jack had 16lb and Big Pot DNW’d although I think that he may have had about 18 – 20lb. I was, all the same, interested to see if Big Pot’s method would work so I had kept an eye on his lines and methods throughout the match. His result shows that Big Potting didn't work (at least on this ocassion anyway).
And it got worse!!!
Chappy was very worried after the scales had got to him and he weighed in 36lb 8oz, but he had nothing to worry about, I only managed to put 26lb 14oz on the scales, Purverted weighed in 42lb 4oz and Orc had managed to snare 28lb 10oz. So to cap of a bad weekend I was down £4. Oh well, there is a first time for everything.
How much are golf sticks????
I hope that Panic goes next week and that Poison comes back soon, I need the quid’s to give to Chappy and Purverted at this rate.
Back in the cabin, I gave Purverted his £2, but gave a pound to Xman, as I thought that Purverted hadn’t given Xman his quid.
Xman should have kept his gob shut, and he would have had a quid off me – for nothing, as Purverted had already given X his quid.
Full Result
Ian Exley (Middy Team Dons) 71-00. Peg 55
Andy Middleton (The Oaks) 62-11. Peg 54
Derek Jackson (Diawa Goldthorpe) 62-11.
Dave Topham (Sensas Wibsey) 57-12.
Robbie Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 56-02.
John Clarke (Bob-Co) 54-02
Monday, May 08, 2006
Sunday 7th May 2006 – Cedar Lake, The Oaks, Sessay.
The Quid’s.
I was already on a downer this week as two of my bank managers had cancelled off during the week so I was going to be down at least £3. Perverted was at a youth football match with his young 'un (down £2) and Poison was fishing elsewhere (down £1). After seeing Poison at Bob-Co he also informed me that he wasn’t sure when he would be joining us next as he was on clubbie matches for the foreseeable future. I said that it had something to do with him ending on a high after taking my quid last week.
Oh well, there is still Orc’s and Panic’s quid(s).
Under Orders!!
The draw this week went without a hitch (thank God). The golden pegs were 37 and 47. One of them could have been in danger of going as Daylite had drawn Jackpot peg 37, I advised Tom (the pond owner’s son) to make sure that he had £400 quid available should Daylite bag up. Keith Mitchell drew the other one, so that one was safe at least.
I drew peg 48, although not a good peg it has had some form in recent week’s months and I was hopeful of catching a few. I had Keith Mitchell for company one side (Jackpot peg 47) and Chappy for company on the other peg 49. Adonis was on peg 50, and Mr Allerton was on peg 44. Daylite was over my right shoulder and Granddad was more or less right behind me, so I was in very good company.
I tried to get Keith up for a quid but he wasn’t having any of it, although Chappy did bite my hand off at the offer of a quid. I am currently £2 down to God, but hey, you don’t mind giving money to good anglers (do you?).
The Rigs
I set up 4 rigs as follows:
Rig 1. Following a discussion with Chappy last week, I set up a rig on top of the shelf in about 2ft of water. The float was a 4x12 Colmic pattern on .12 Fox Match Plus line to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. Pellet and pellet were my chosen baits, including the conkers if needs be.
Rig 2. A 4x10 version of the above float attached to same line and hook. This was set about 1ft deep to fish down the side on the top 2 and also to fish the mud line across.
Rig 3. A 4x14 adapted Drennan Roach rig on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up down the middle on this rig and found about 5ft deep. I was planning on fishing the conkers on this rig.
Final Rig was a 4 x 12 Colmic float (I use the Colmic floats a lot as you get to learn how a certain pattern behaves and sits by adding/removing various sizes of shot) on .12 Fox Match Plus line to a size 16 Kamasan B6ll hook. I plumbed up with the top 3 kit slightly to my left and found about 3 ft of water. I was planning on fishing pellet over pellet on this rig. (I never actually used this rig throughout the entire match as I could see that Granddad was trying a similar line and, although he was catching the odd fish, he wasn’t bagging).
My bait for the entire match was pellet and more pellet in various sizes and guises.
First Blood
I shouted all in for the match to kick off. I put a few micro’s in my fruitshoot top and put a conker on the hook. I shipped out to the far side, tipped the bait in, let the float settle and a 3lb common was soon in the landing net, after bottoming out the white hydro through my No.2. First blood to me, I could already see Chappy panicking and we’d only been fishing a few seconds, Chappy hadn’t even finished shipping out his bait. Following this first fish. I then went wrong for the next hour or so and I learnt that although the fish were coming to the bait, they were not going mad for it, let me explain.
Follow the capture of the psychotic fish within the first few seconds of the match, I decided to get the catty out and I started to fire a few pellets over to the far side (there were a lot of fish moving about up in the water for most of the match). For the next 20 minutes or so, I fished the same line across and every time I fired some bait across, I got a little indication (possibly fish moving out of the way of the bait raining down on them), but no more bites.
There Is A God!!
Whilst I was pratting about as above, Chappy had put 5 fish into his net (not net’s), and had hooked into a good fish. I had, all the while, been putting a few bits and pieces down the side. I saw a cloud appear down the side, so decided to have a look. My look transpired into 4 fish for about 5lb. Chappy was still playing his fish whilst I was catching down the side. I started to make comments about losing fish and if it was foul hooked us mere mortals would have lost the fish by now. What should happen? Yes, you guessed it, there is a God. The hook pulled. I could tell that he wasn’t too happy but I wasn’t laughing much, although I did have to mute the laughter as Chappy is bigger than me. He he he!!
I then started to try to rotate three swims, either side of me and the across rig. I was starting to pick up the odd fish from all lines, although I had to wait for bites.
Whilst I had been feeding by the catty, a few of the pellets had gone further over on to the mudline and every so often, I could see a swirl then the water would cloud where the bait had landed. I decided that it was time to have a look across.
I dropped in and waited, and waited and waited. I got a ‘dink’ and that was that? Although the water was clouding now and again, they weren’t really having it. Over the duration of the match I caught probably 3 fish from the mudline.
Clicker
I hadn’t used my clicker this week (it was raining and I didn’t want to get it wet ;-)), so I am unable to estimate what weight I had at various points of the match and about 2/3 of the way through the match, Chappy asked me what was my clicker estimating my weight at? I confessed that I couldn’t tell him as I hadn’t used the clicker.
The Deep
I had been feeding pellets by catty throughout the match down the middle of the peg, with the intention of trying to get them up in the water (although I did try it half-heartedly). I dropped in on the deep rig, waited about 3 minutes, the float buried and a fish about 2lb was trying it’s best to get round the other side of the lake. Grey hydro soon stopped it in it’s tracks.
Whilst feeding pellets little and often I would sometimes get a liner, indicating that the fish were up in the water, but every time I tried the shallow rig, I couldn’t get an indication or bite.
What I realised throughout most of the match was that you could catch maybe 2 or 3 fish (if you were lucky) from one line before you had to move to another swim. By the time the match had finished I had caught fish from 5 lines (1 either side, 1 deep, 1 on the shelf and the other on the mudline).
The Last Hour
In the last hour it would have been close between both Chappy and I, with the result possibly going in my favour, JUST!!!
Chappy, realising that he was in danger of losing his quid started to get his head, and his act, together and proceeded to put a procession of fish into his net. In the last hour I would estimate that he caught about 10 fish to my 4.
In order for me to get bites, I had to poke the rig underneath an overhanging plant/bush/reedmace (or whatever) and seriously control my striking for fear of the rig getting snagged. It was going to be close.
Meanwhile, Keith on the next peg, had hooked into a good fish and was playing it for all it was worth. My comments and prayers to God were in free flow. After some 15 minutes, Keith was still playing the same fish. I advised Keith that I only allow 15 minutes after the end of the match to get any fish out, any more than that, I just cut the line. He then dragged the fish out. Estimates were that the fish was approaching 7lb
2 Weighs
In view of now having to fish with 2 keepnets, I was trying to alternate fish in each net, which isn’t easy when you are concentrating on catching the next one. My first weigh went 18lb 5oz and the second weigh went 29lb 3oz, so I wasn’t too far out in alternating my fish. Chappy on the other hand put 11lb 12oz on the scales first (he commented about having 2 weighs because I had 2), his next weigh went 39lb 15oz. I think his guesstimating alternating fish went awry somewhere. Also, to further add misery to losing a pound Mr Rambow (Geriatric) had put Chappy down for a total weight of 60lb 11oz, until I pointed out that 11 add 39 equals 50.
£1 down but what about the other quid’s. Panic weighed in 36lb from peg 26 and Orc had 24lb from peg 72. Down a pound one moment, then up a pound the next.
Chappy
Seeing the way that Chappy celebrated beating me off the next peg was enjoyable (although I had lost a quid), as I realised just how hard both he and I had tried to beat each other. He came over and gave me a gentle (?) punch, but I could see that he was happy at beating me. At times it was very nip and tuck between us both and at the end, I couldn’t call it. Chappy did, although, try to make me think that I had taken his quid easily by offering me a quid prior to the scales, but I said that I would wait for the scales to confirm the outcome.
I must also add that I was on the edge of the fish because - Adonis Mitchell at the other side of Chappy had 67lb, Chappy had 50lb, I had 47lb and Keith Mitchell had 28lb. Nuff said.
Age and Experience (or should it be Age Concern)
Age Concern showed that both AGE and experience beats youth and enthusiasm by beating Gary Jubb of the next peg. Mr Jubb also had an empty peg one side, but in this instance you could have said that Age Concern had an empty peg one side. In Mr Jubb’s defence, I must say that (as far as I am aware) it is his first visit to the venue, courtesy of Daylite. Age Concern also managed to snare the section weighing in over 53lb from peg 11. I am surprised that he remembered to come back to the cabin to pick up his envelope. Then again, by the time that he got back to the cabin, he had probably forgotten that he had won his section.
A special mention has to go to Mark Calvert (Cleveland Angling Centre) for setting a new lake record. On Saturday (6th May) he weighed in over 150lb, a mixture of carp, ide, chub, etc, etc (if it swam he caught it) by fishing worm from peg 79. From what I can gather 90lb didn’t even win a penny.
Another 100lb Weight
Harry Potter won the match from peg 57 following 3 weighs with 109lb 13oz. There was a 19lb one side of him and an empty peg the other, with Pimmy at the other side of the empty peg weighing in 38lb.
Full Result
Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 109-13. Peg 57.
Gaz Pawlett (The Oaks) 83-10. Peg 9.
Mark Calvert (Cleveland Angling Centre) 74-13. Peg 14
Mal Bailey (Garbolino Elton) 72-08. Peg 28
Adie Mitchell (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 67-12. Peg 50
S Maitlane (?) 53-11. Peg 54
S1. Bruce Poland 53-06
S2. Greg Norris 47-05
S3. Bert Poole 51-04
S4. S Maitland 53-11
S5. Tim Moran 51-08
S6. Lee Kerry 53-01
The Quid’s.
I was already on a downer this week as two of my bank managers had cancelled off during the week so I was going to be down at least £3. Perverted was at a youth football match with his young 'un (down £2) and Poison was fishing elsewhere (down £1). After seeing Poison at Bob-Co he also informed me that he wasn’t sure when he would be joining us next as he was on clubbie matches for the foreseeable future. I said that it had something to do with him ending on a high after taking my quid last week.
Oh well, there is still Orc’s and Panic’s quid(s).
Under Orders!!
The draw this week went without a hitch (thank God). The golden pegs were 37 and 47. One of them could have been in danger of going as Daylite had drawn Jackpot peg 37, I advised Tom (the pond owner’s son) to make sure that he had £400 quid available should Daylite bag up. Keith Mitchell drew the other one, so that one was safe at least.
I drew peg 48, although not a good peg it has had some form in recent week’s months and I was hopeful of catching a few. I had Keith Mitchell for company one side (Jackpot peg 47) and Chappy for company on the other peg 49. Adonis was on peg 50, and Mr Allerton was on peg 44. Daylite was over my right shoulder and Granddad was more or less right behind me, so I was in very good company.
I tried to get Keith up for a quid but he wasn’t having any of it, although Chappy did bite my hand off at the offer of a quid. I am currently £2 down to God, but hey, you don’t mind giving money to good anglers (do you?).
The Rigs
I set up 4 rigs as follows:
Rig 1. Following a discussion with Chappy last week, I set up a rig on top of the shelf in about 2ft of water. The float was a 4x12 Colmic pattern on .12 Fox Match Plus line to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. Pellet and pellet were my chosen baits, including the conkers if needs be.
Rig 2. A 4x10 version of the above float attached to same line and hook. This was set about 1ft deep to fish down the side on the top 2 and also to fish the mud line across.
Rig 3. A 4x14 adapted Drennan Roach rig on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up down the middle on this rig and found about 5ft deep. I was planning on fishing the conkers on this rig.
Final Rig was a 4 x 12 Colmic float (I use the Colmic floats a lot as you get to learn how a certain pattern behaves and sits by adding/removing various sizes of shot) on .12 Fox Match Plus line to a size 16 Kamasan B6ll hook. I plumbed up with the top 3 kit slightly to my left and found about 3 ft of water. I was planning on fishing pellet over pellet on this rig. (I never actually used this rig throughout the entire match as I could see that Granddad was trying a similar line and, although he was catching the odd fish, he wasn’t bagging).
My bait for the entire match was pellet and more pellet in various sizes and guises.
First Blood
I shouted all in for the match to kick off. I put a few micro’s in my fruitshoot top and put a conker on the hook. I shipped out to the far side, tipped the bait in, let the float settle and a 3lb common was soon in the landing net, after bottoming out the white hydro through my No.2. First blood to me, I could already see Chappy panicking and we’d only been fishing a few seconds, Chappy hadn’t even finished shipping out his bait. Following this first fish. I then went wrong for the next hour or so and I learnt that although the fish were coming to the bait, they were not going mad for it, let me explain.
Follow the capture of the psychotic fish within the first few seconds of the match, I decided to get the catty out and I started to fire a few pellets over to the far side (there were a lot of fish moving about up in the water for most of the match). For the next 20 minutes or so, I fished the same line across and every time I fired some bait across, I got a little indication (possibly fish moving out of the way of the bait raining down on them), but no more bites.
There Is A God!!
Whilst I was pratting about as above, Chappy had put 5 fish into his net (not net’s), and had hooked into a good fish. I had, all the while, been putting a few bits and pieces down the side. I saw a cloud appear down the side, so decided to have a look. My look transpired into 4 fish for about 5lb. Chappy was still playing his fish whilst I was catching down the side. I started to make comments about losing fish and if it was foul hooked us mere mortals would have lost the fish by now. What should happen? Yes, you guessed it, there is a God. The hook pulled. I could tell that he wasn’t too happy but I wasn’t laughing much, although I did have to mute the laughter as Chappy is bigger than me. He he he!!
I then started to try to rotate three swims, either side of me and the across rig. I was starting to pick up the odd fish from all lines, although I had to wait for bites.
Whilst I had been feeding by the catty, a few of the pellets had gone further over on to the mudline and every so often, I could see a swirl then the water would cloud where the bait had landed. I decided that it was time to have a look across.
I dropped in and waited, and waited and waited. I got a ‘dink’ and that was that? Although the water was clouding now and again, they weren’t really having it. Over the duration of the match I caught probably 3 fish from the mudline.
Clicker
I hadn’t used my clicker this week (it was raining and I didn’t want to get it wet ;-)), so I am unable to estimate what weight I had at various points of the match and about 2/3 of the way through the match, Chappy asked me what was my clicker estimating my weight at? I confessed that I couldn’t tell him as I hadn’t used the clicker.
The Deep
I had been feeding pellets by catty throughout the match down the middle of the peg, with the intention of trying to get them up in the water (although I did try it half-heartedly). I dropped in on the deep rig, waited about 3 minutes, the float buried and a fish about 2lb was trying it’s best to get round the other side of the lake. Grey hydro soon stopped it in it’s tracks.
Whilst feeding pellets little and often I would sometimes get a liner, indicating that the fish were up in the water, but every time I tried the shallow rig, I couldn’t get an indication or bite.
What I realised throughout most of the match was that you could catch maybe 2 or 3 fish (if you were lucky) from one line before you had to move to another swim. By the time the match had finished I had caught fish from 5 lines (1 either side, 1 deep, 1 on the shelf and the other on the mudline).
The Last Hour
In the last hour it would have been close between both Chappy and I, with the result possibly going in my favour, JUST!!!
Chappy, realising that he was in danger of losing his quid started to get his head, and his act, together and proceeded to put a procession of fish into his net. In the last hour I would estimate that he caught about 10 fish to my 4.
In order for me to get bites, I had to poke the rig underneath an overhanging plant/bush/reedmace (or whatever) and seriously control my striking for fear of the rig getting snagged. It was going to be close.
Meanwhile, Keith on the next peg, had hooked into a good fish and was playing it for all it was worth. My comments and prayers to God were in free flow. After some 15 minutes, Keith was still playing the same fish. I advised Keith that I only allow 15 minutes after the end of the match to get any fish out, any more than that, I just cut the line. He then dragged the fish out. Estimates were that the fish was approaching 7lb
2 Weighs
In view of now having to fish with 2 keepnets, I was trying to alternate fish in each net, which isn’t easy when you are concentrating on catching the next one. My first weigh went 18lb 5oz and the second weigh went 29lb 3oz, so I wasn’t too far out in alternating my fish. Chappy on the other hand put 11lb 12oz on the scales first (he commented about having 2 weighs because I had 2), his next weigh went 39lb 15oz. I think his guesstimating alternating fish went awry somewhere. Also, to further add misery to losing a pound Mr Rambow (Geriatric) had put Chappy down for a total weight of 60lb 11oz, until I pointed out that 11 add 39 equals 50.
£1 down but what about the other quid’s. Panic weighed in 36lb from peg 26 and Orc had 24lb from peg 72. Down a pound one moment, then up a pound the next.
Chappy
Seeing the way that Chappy celebrated beating me off the next peg was enjoyable (although I had lost a quid), as I realised just how hard both he and I had tried to beat each other. He came over and gave me a gentle (?) punch, but I could see that he was happy at beating me. At times it was very nip and tuck between us both and at the end, I couldn’t call it. Chappy did, although, try to make me think that I had taken his quid easily by offering me a quid prior to the scales, but I said that I would wait for the scales to confirm the outcome.
I must also add that I was on the edge of the fish because - Adonis Mitchell at the other side of Chappy had 67lb, Chappy had 50lb, I had 47lb and Keith Mitchell had 28lb. Nuff said.
Age and Experience (or should it be Age Concern)
Age Concern showed that both AGE and experience beats youth and enthusiasm by beating Gary Jubb of the next peg. Mr Jubb also had an empty peg one side, but in this instance you could have said that Age Concern had an empty peg one side. In Mr Jubb’s defence, I must say that (as far as I am aware) it is his first visit to the venue, courtesy of Daylite. Age Concern also managed to snare the section weighing in over 53lb from peg 11. I am surprised that he remembered to come back to the cabin to pick up his envelope. Then again, by the time that he got back to the cabin, he had probably forgotten that he had won his section.
A special mention has to go to Mark Calvert (Cleveland Angling Centre) for setting a new lake record. On Saturday (6th May) he weighed in over 150lb, a mixture of carp, ide, chub, etc, etc (if it swam he caught it) by fishing worm from peg 79. From what I can gather 90lb didn’t even win a penny.
Another 100lb Weight
Harry Potter won the match from peg 57 following 3 weighs with 109lb 13oz. There was a 19lb one side of him and an empty peg the other, with Pimmy at the other side of the empty peg weighing in 38lb.
Full Result
Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 109-13. Peg 57.
Gaz Pawlett (The Oaks) 83-10. Peg 9.
Mark Calvert (Cleveland Angling Centre) 74-13. Peg 14
Mal Bailey (Garbolino Elton) 72-08. Peg 28
Adie Mitchell (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 67-12. Peg 50
S Maitlane (?) 53-11. Peg 54
S1. Bruce Poland 53-06
S2. Greg Norris 47-05
S3. Bert Poole 51-04
S4. S Maitland 53-11
S5. Tim Moran 51-08
S6. Lee Kerry 53-01
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Sunday 30th April 2006 – The Oaks Lakes, Sessay
Before I start on my write up of Sunday’s match at The Oaks, I MUST recall two mishap's, one from last week and one from this week:
Age Concern – Post It.
I am considering changing Age Concern’s moniker to Post It!! Following the end of last week’s match, Age Concern (oop’s) POST IT loaded the car with all of his gear and made the 20 mile return trip home. Upon arriving home and unloading his jet fighter, he realised that he had left half of his tackle on the bank including his keepnet and rod bag.
Upon realising his error, he asked the missus if she wanted to go out. She beamed at him lovingly and replied ‘Yes dear’ or words to that effect. He got in the jet fighter and made the return trip to The Oaks to retrieve left items of tackle. So much for taking the missus out, eh?
He drew a couple of pegs away from me on the match today and I mentioned to him that I will get him a pack of Post-It’s from work, so that he can label his gear and put one on his forehead so that he doesn’t forget.
Pegging.
What a complete and utter Ballcock I made, and I admit it. At the draw there were 50 of us there for the match, so in order to make it fair for everyone I decided to peg the match 2 pegs, miss a peg, etc, etc. In order to check that the pegs are all there, I arrange the pegs in 10’s (1 – 10, 11 – 20, etc). Anyways, by doing the above, the pegging went as such – 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20. Fine and dandy!
For some totally unknown reason (I think I had a Post It moment), I then went (from the top of the column of numbers) 21, 22, 24, 25 etc, etc. As people had come through the draw queue I indicated to various people that they had an empty peg on at least one side. I sorted out all of the monies then proceeded to my peg. Upon arriving at my peg I had an irate Mal Bailey moaning and groaning about being in the middle of the pegs (19, 20, 21 & 22). What do you do? I suggested to Mal, that Tom (the pond owner’s son) pulls out one of the spare pegs and he fishes that, in order that everyone has an empty peg on at least one side. He ended up on peg 63. Thank you Sting Ray for taking him round the other side of the lake with his gear.
Quid’s
Panic wasn’t in attendance as he was at Woodland’s trying to get on the Fisho so I was a quid down to start with. Perverted had the usual £2, Orc - £1, Poison (dwarf) - £1, Chappy - £1 (I wanted to win my money back) and Reg Melton - £1. Bloody Eck, £6.
The Rigs.
I drew a peg that I fancied, Peg 24 (23 was second yesterday and there was no-one on peg 23 today). After sorting out the pegging, I had about 20 minutes to set up (still more than Mal) and set up the following:
2 foot rig – 4 x 12 Colmic float on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911. attached to white hydro. My plan was to conker on top of the shelf in 2 foot of water with this rig. (I also plumbed up down the side with this rig to find the same depth as across).
Shallow Rig – a 4 x 10 Colmic float on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911, this was attached to the orange hollow elastic (which I have now found out is the Vespe stuff). I set the rig at 1ft deep with a bulk of shot at ½ depth. I was planning to fish tight across with this rig, pushing conkers up the slope.
3rd and final rig was a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach (Carbon stem) on .12 Fox Match line to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to grey hydro. I plumbed up at the base of the slope in 5ft of water.
All Gone Pete Tong!
At the start of the match, there were a lot of fish topping and swirling in the peg, with this in mind, I fed a large ‘Toss Pot’ of pellets over to the mud line and also repeated the same on the other two lines. I had a few casters left from the Woodland’s match yesterday and I started to flick 4 or 5 over to the 2ft line on top of the shelf whilst fishing with the 2ft rig. After about 5 minutes, I had my first indication and missed it. I dropped in again, and a carp of about 10oz took the bait before the float had settled. They are up in the water, or so I thought.
After continuing in this manner for the next 30 minutes, I could tell that I was going nowhere and felt as though I was messing about too much. I had been feeding a few micro’s down the side and decided to have a drop in there. The float dipped and buried, a carp of about 1lb was soon in the landing net. By about 1 hour into the match, I estimate that I had about 5lb.
Bag Up Time
After speaking to one of the lads that fishes tight over to the mud line, I was told to fish with an heavier than normal float over to the far side with a bulk of shot some 3 – 4” from the hook. In view of the wind starting to pick up and the surface skim, I set up a 4 x 12 Drennan Carp 1 tight across to a .14 MAP Carptek line to a size 16 Kamasan B611 hook. This was attached to white hydro through the number 2 section only (no. 1 removed).
I went over to the far side, fed a ‘Toss Pot’ full of bait and waited. I waited no more than 1 minute, the float shot under, the elastic bottomed and a carp of about 5lb was soon in the keep net.
I repeated the process and another carp of about 2lb was soon on it’s way. I had another of a similar size, then I caught a carp of about 4lb, this one also bottomed the hydro. I quickly swapped the rigs over and put the rig on the orange Vespe elastic.
I went back over to the far side and had another carp of about 3lb. After each and every fish, I fed a full ‘Toss Pot’ of bait. I had put an estimated 16lb in the net in the space of 20 minutes. I was starting to count my winnings, when everything from this moment forward went wrong.
The bites dried up completely across to the mud line. I dropped back on to the 2ft line and managed to snare the odd fish but, I was having to wait too long for bites.
I had another look down the inside. I hooked a carp of about 2lb, which charged all around the swim. The hook pulled, the rig went over my head, so I flicked the pole forward to stop the rig from tangling and the No. 3 section of my pole snapped clean in half about 8” up from the female part of the pole. Basket!!!!
I was now 3 hours in to the match, Perverted called me to see how I was getting on and I told him of what had happened so far. I estimated (according to my clicker) that I had about 22lb.
The Final Stages
I then seemed to be going through the motions and couldn’t wait to call time at the end of the match. I was having to rotate through all of my swims and trying to catch fish of each line. The wind was getting stronger and it was blowing left to right. It was getting colder and colder as the match went on. The fishing was getting harder and harder, do you get the idea that I wasn’t enjoying it. I had Martin Craig on peg 25 and someone else on Peg 22. I don’t really know them so there wasn’t even any good banter flowing. I could shout to Post It, but then again he might have forgotten what I said by the time that it got to him.
After shouting time to finish the match my ‘clicker’ said that I had about 27lb (although I had not put on the barbel that I had caught and missed off one or two of the smaller carp (6 – 10 oz’ers).
I rang Perverted to see what he had and he estimated that he had about 30lb. It was going to be close. I walked up to Post It and asked how he had got on. He said that he had lost about 50lb off the hook and had about 40lb. He has weighed in 41lb on his last 3 matches and he wouldn’t be surprised to do it again today. I asked how everyone else had got on, he told me that everyone up the straight (from peg 28 – 35) had bagged and that included Orc who was on peg 28, next to Post It.
The Scales, The Scales.
By the time that the scales had got to Coyney on peg 20, Chappy was leading our board with 78lb. I hadn’t seen Coyney catch much all day and he still weighed in over 50lb (54lb odd to win the section, and it was the lowest section winning weight).
The lad on peg 22 weighed in 31lb; I didn’t think that I was going to beat that and ended up putting 36lb 5oz (have to highlight the 5oz bit here). Martin to my right weighed in 41lb odd – caught on chopped worm after spending the first 2 hours fishing pellet for about 7 fish. Post It achieved what he set out to do and that was to catch 41lb again.
I was getting my quid ready for Orc on peg 28 (as Post It informed me that he had bagged) and was surprised to see his ‘bagged’ weigh only 35lb odd. £1down, £1 up.
Reg Melton had tipped back - £1 up (although he had done a runner without paying). After getting back to the cabin, I had ‘ounced’ Perverted – he was weighed in on the other set of scales so there was no Jiggery Pokery going on. £3 up. Only Poison to beat. Poison came to me with his hand out. I told him he was taking the pith, but alas no, he had weighed in 38lb odd. Again, most of his fish were caught when he had switched to worm. Oh well, still up Perverted’s £2.
Mal weighed in 49lb odd from peg 63, but didn’t bother going back to the cabin. I wonder why?
There were no errors on the scales this week as young Adam was not here, he had also gone to Woodlands to try to get on the Fisho match.
Analysis
After speaking to Chappy and Pimmy, it transpired that I had possibly put too much bait in. The Castleford Munchkin had told me that he had to put in 3pts of pellets yesterday in order to catch 60lb of fish. I went for it at the start of the match and possibly blew my peg up.
The Official Result
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton), 78-08. Peg 11.
Paul Taylor (The Oaks), 76-04. Peg 54.
Andy Middleton (The Oaks), 65-10. Peg 31.
Bert Poole, (The Oaks/West Park), 64-14. Peg 5.
Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies), 64-08. Peg 37.
Tim Moran (Waterline Wibsey), 63-13. Peg 60.
Footnote – Respect!!
Respect had made the long trip over the Pennines to fish our match again. On his last visit here he drew peg 8 and weighed in 42lb 3oz for 3rd place, I know because I was on the next peg. Today he again, drew peg 8 and, was looking forward to bagging up the only thing not in his favour was that I was not on the next peg. Her managed to beat his weight from last time, but only just – he weighed in 42lb 14oz.
I think that I will call this one a day to forget.
Before I start on my write up of Sunday’s match at The Oaks, I MUST recall two mishap's, one from last week and one from this week:
Age Concern – Post It.
I am considering changing Age Concern’s moniker to Post It!! Following the end of last week’s match, Age Concern (oop’s) POST IT loaded the car with all of his gear and made the 20 mile return trip home. Upon arriving home and unloading his jet fighter, he realised that he had left half of his tackle on the bank including his keepnet and rod bag.
Upon realising his error, he asked the missus if she wanted to go out. She beamed at him lovingly and replied ‘Yes dear’ or words to that effect. He got in the jet fighter and made the return trip to The Oaks to retrieve left items of tackle. So much for taking the missus out, eh?
He drew a couple of pegs away from me on the match today and I mentioned to him that I will get him a pack of Post-It’s from work, so that he can label his gear and put one on his forehead so that he doesn’t forget.
Pegging.
What a complete and utter Ballcock I made, and I admit it. At the draw there were 50 of us there for the match, so in order to make it fair for everyone I decided to peg the match 2 pegs, miss a peg, etc, etc. In order to check that the pegs are all there, I arrange the pegs in 10’s (1 – 10, 11 – 20, etc). Anyways, by doing the above, the pegging went as such – 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20. Fine and dandy!
For some totally unknown reason (I think I had a Post It moment), I then went (from the top of the column of numbers) 21, 22, 24, 25 etc, etc. As people had come through the draw queue I indicated to various people that they had an empty peg on at least one side. I sorted out all of the monies then proceeded to my peg. Upon arriving at my peg I had an irate Mal Bailey moaning and groaning about being in the middle of the pegs (19, 20, 21 & 22). What do you do? I suggested to Mal, that Tom (the pond owner’s son) pulls out one of the spare pegs and he fishes that, in order that everyone has an empty peg on at least one side. He ended up on peg 63. Thank you Sting Ray for taking him round the other side of the lake with his gear.
Quid’s
Panic wasn’t in attendance as he was at Woodland’s trying to get on the Fisho so I was a quid down to start with. Perverted had the usual £2, Orc - £1, Poison (dwarf) - £1, Chappy - £1 (I wanted to win my money back) and Reg Melton - £1. Bloody Eck, £6.
The Rigs.
I drew a peg that I fancied, Peg 24 (23 was second yesterday and there was no-one on peg 23 today). After sorting out the pegging, I had about 20 minutes to set up (still more than Mal) and set up the following:
2 foot rig – 4 x 12 Colmic float on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911. attached to white hydro. My plan was to conker on top of the shelf in 2 foot of water with this rig. (I also plumbed up down the side with this rig to find the same depth as across).
Shallow Rig – a 4 x 10 Colmic float on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911, this was attached to the orange hollow elastic (which I have now found out is the Vespe stuff). I set the rig at 1ft deep with a bulk of shot at ½ depth. I was planning to fish tight across with this rig, pushing conkers up the slope.
3rd and final rig was a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach (Carbon stem) on .12 Fox Match line to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to grey hydro. I plumbed up at the base of the slope in 5ft of water.
All Gone Pete Tong!
At the start of the match, there were a lot of fish topping and swirling in the peg, with this in mind, I fed a large ‘Toss Pot’ of pellets over to the mud line and also repeated the same on the other two lines. I had a few casters left from the Woodland’s match yesterday and I started to flick 4 or 5 over to the 2ft line on top of the shelf whilst fishing with the 2ft rig. After about 5 minutes, I had my first indication and missed it. I dropped in again, and a carp of about 10oz took the bait before the float had settled. They are up in the water, or so I thought.
After continuing in this manner for the next 30 minutes, I could tell that I was going nowhere and felt as though I was messing about too much. I had been feeding a few micro’s down the side and decided to have a drop in there. The float dipped and buried, a carp of about 1lb was soon in the landing net. By about 1 hour into the match, I estimate that I had about 5lb.
Bag Up Time
After speaking to one of the lads that fishes tight over to the mud line, I was told to fish with an heavier than normal float over to the far side with a bulk of shot some 3 – 4” from the hook. In view of the wind starting to pick up and the surface skim, I set up a 4 x 12 Drennan Carp 1 tight across to a .14 MAP Carptek line to a size 16 Kamasan B611 hook. This was attached to white hydro through the number 2 section only (no. 1 removed).
I went over to the far side, fed a ‘Toss Pot’ full of bait and waited. I waited no more than 1 minute, the float shot under, the elastic bottomed and a carp of about 5lb was soon in the keep net.
I repeated the process and another carp of about 2lb was soon on it’s way. I had another of a similar size, then I caught a carp of about 4lb, this one also bottomed the hydro. I quickly swapped the rigs over and put the rig on the orange Vespe elastic.
I went back over to the far side and had another carp of about 3lb. After each and every fish, I fed a full ‘Toss Pot’ of bait. I had put an estimated 16lb in the net in the space of 20 minutes. I was starting to count my winnings, when everything from this moment forward went wrong.
The bites dried up completely across to the mud line. I dropped back on to the 2ft line and managed to snare the odd fish but, I was having to wait too long for bites.
I had another look down the inside. I hooked a carp of about 2lb, which charged all around the swim. The hook pulled, the rig went over my head, so I flicked the pole forward to stop the rig from tangling and the No. 3 section of my pole snapped clean in half about 8” up from the female part of the pole. Basket!!!!
I was now 3 hours in to the match, Perverted called me to see how I was getting on and I told him of what had happened so far. I estimated (according to my clicker) that I had about 22lb.
The Final Stages
I then seemed to be going through the motions and couldn’t wait to call time at the end of the match. I was having to rotate through all of my swims and trying to catch fish of each line. The wind was getting stronger and it was blowing left to right. It was getting colder and colder as the match went on. The fishing was getting harder and harder, do you get the idea that I wasn’t enjoying it. I had Martin Craig on peg 25 and someone else on Peg 22. I don’t really know them so there wasn’t even any good banter flowing. I could shout to Post It, but then again he might have forgotten what I said by the time that it got to him.
After shouting time to finish the match my ‘clicker’ said that I had about 27lb (although I had not put on the barbel that I had caught and missed off one or two of the smaller carp (6 – 10 oz’ers).
I rang Perverted to see what he had and he estimated that he had about 30lb. It was going to be close. I walked up to Post It and asked how he had got on. He said that he had lost about 50lb off the hook and had about 40lb. He has weighed in 41lb on his last 3 matches and he wouldn’t be surprised to do it again today. I asked how everyone else had got on, he told me that everyone up the straight (from peg 28 – 35) had bagged and that included Orc who was on peg 28, next to Post It.
The Scales, The Scales.
By the time that the scales had got to Coyney on peg 20, Chappy was leading our board with 78lb. I hadn’t seen Coyney catch much all day and he still weighed in over 50lb (54lb odd to win the section, and it was the lowest section winning weight).
The lad on peg 22 weighed in 31lb; I didn’t think that I was going to beat that and ended up putting 36lb 5oz (have to highlight the 5oz bit here). Martin to my right weighed in 41lb odd – caught on chopped worm after spending the first 2 hours fishing pellet for about 7 fish. Post It achieved what he set out to do and that was to catch 41lb again.
I was getting my quid ready for Orc on peg 28 (as Post It informed me that he had bagged) and was surprised to see his ‘bagged’ weigh only 35lb odd. £1down, £1 up.
Reg Melton had tipped back - £1 up (although he had done a runner without paying). After getting back to the cabin, I had ‘ounced’ Perverted – he was weighed in on the other set of scales so there was no Jiggery Pokery going on. £3 up. Only Poison to beat. Poison came to me with his hand out. I told him he was taking the pith, but alas no, he had weighed in 38lb odd. Again, most of his fish were caught when he had switched to worm. Oh well, still up Perverted’s £2.
Mal weighed in 49lb odd from peg 63, but didn’t bother going back to the cabin. I wonder why?
There were no errors on the scales this week as young Adam was not here, he had also gone to Woodlands to try to get on the Fisho match.
Analysis
After speaking to Chappy and Pimmy, it transpired that I had possibly put too much bait in. The Castleford Munchkin had told me that he had to put in 3pts of pellets yesterday in order to catch 60lb of fish. I went for it at the start of the match and possibly blew my peg up.
The Official Result
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton), 78-08. Peg 11.
Paul Taylor (The Oaks), 76-04. Peg 54.
Andy Middleton (The Oaks), 65-10. Peg 31.
Bert Poole, (The Oaks/West Park), 64-14. Peg 5.
Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies), 64-08. Peg 37.
Tim Moran (Waterline Wibsey), 63-13. Peg 60.
Footnote – Respect!!
Respect had made the long trip over the Pennines to fish our match again. On his last visit here he drew peg 8 and weighed in 42lb 3oz for 3rd place, I know because I was on the next peg. Today he again, drew peg 8 and, was looking forward to bagging up the only thing not in his favour was that I was not on the next peg. Her managed to beat his weight from last time, but only just – he weighed in 42lb 14oz.
I think that I will call this one a day to forget.
Saturday 29th April 2006 - Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.
Not sure if I was going to go all week, but booked Friday off work, looked after the kids and booked on the match. Rang Perverted and asked what he was doing this weekend. He was planning on going on Sunday (The Oaks) and Monday (Woodlands), but with a little bit of gentle persuasion, he decided to go to Woodlands today, and it was arranged that he would pick me up and I will pick him up on Sunday. I rang Panic to find out how he had gone on during the week, and he had won Curlew with over 60lb. We arranged to meet Panic at Morrison’s to partake in a breakfast.
We arrived at Morrison’s in plenty of time, in fact we were that early, Perverted and I had eaten our breakfast before Panic had arrived. Panic arrived in his new van, complete with sign – he is going back to work, or at least going to do work that he is going to get paid for.
I was already fretting and we hadn’t even arrived at Woodlands yet!! This was due to my drawing arm (?). Wagtail, Curlew and Kestrel Lake (in that order) have the lakes from my last 3 matches (all be it, I won my section on both Curlew and Kestrel). The banter was going on in relation to which of those 3 am I going to draw again.
We arrived at Woodlands and paid my entrance fee and promptly joined the queue of people waiting for the draw. John (Ally) Allerton came and joined the queue, also in attendance we had Haircut, Chappy, both of the Addy’s, Woody, Pimmy and a few others that I recognised but didn’t know. Chappy was showing everyone a picture of his dog on his mobile phone (not sure if it was a bitch or not).
The Quid’s
A quid was struck with Gordon and £2 quid was bet with Perverted. I arrived at the draw bucket and put my hand in and pulled out PARTRIDGE 4, did you hear me – PARTRIDGE 4. Yippeee, drawn a decent lake at last. Walked past Nightie and asked him if he wanted a quid, he asked me where have I drawn, I said PARTRIDGE 4. He said ‘No’ or words to that effect.
Chappy
I arrived at my peg and had Steve Rayner (?, a lad from Whitehaven, Cumbria) to my left, empty peg 5 and none other than resident venue expert, Chappy, to my right on peg 6. He quickly cajoled me into having a quid side bet, well, what can you do, he is bigger than me. The banter was flowing freely, especially in relation to what I was going to write about him in my blog.
I made Chappy some Dacron connectors about a week ago and he told me at the time how he attaches his connectors to his top kits. It is so simple, yet looks so scary.
1. Tie a knot in your hollow core (or similar) elastic. No. 1 rule, this method only works with hollow core/hydro elastics.
2. Pass the elastic through the loop at the end of your Dacron connector.
3. Then whilst trapping the elastic between finger and thumb, pull the elastic into the rubber bead.
Hey presto!! Chappy was pulling for all he was worth (about a quid) and still couldn’t get the two to part.
The good thing about the above method is that if the elastic frays or breaks, you just tie another knot in the hydro and do it again.
Just before the match started, Chappy came up to me and whispered, do you want to hear some good advice. So there I was on tenterhooks waiting for his words of wisdom on how to fish my peg. I waited with baited breath and he said ‘Don’t eat yellow snow’. Bar Steward.
Baitspikes
I asked Chappy how does he keep his bait on, on the bomb. He replied that he used the Korum baitspikes. I replied that they have a habit of snapping off in your landing net. He replied that it happens once in a blue moon. By the end of the match, he had used 3.
The Rigs.
Chappy had a dig at me about using coffin ledgers and asked why I flatten my ledgers. I replied that ‘I don’t flatten them, I buy them like that’. I set up a free running bomb rig (as per usual), with a flat lead (or coffin lead) to a .15 Preston Powerline hooklength. The main line was 5lb Maxima Chameleon line, strong and robust. A size 16 Kamasan B911 was tied to the hooklength.
I also set up a 4 x 14 Drennan roach float (removed the wire stem and replaced with a carbon stem), on .14 MAP Carptek line to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up at 6 metres and was intending to fish pellet on this rig. This was attached to the orange hollow elastic, through the match 2 and 3.
I also set up a 4 x 14 Drennan roach rig at 14m at full depth. This was set up as above. There was approximately 6” difference in depth between the two rigs. Grey Hydro completed this set up.
My final rig was set up with two options/swims in mind. I set up a 4 x12 Carp Devil float on .15 Preston Powerline attached to Blue Preston Hollow elastic to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was plumbed up to fish down both sides of me to the boards. This rig was also going to be used up in the water at 14m.
All in
At the all in, I cupped in some pellets at 8m at about 10 to the hour, then potted some meat in at 14m straight out in front of me. I then threw a couple of hands full of pellets to my left, down the boards and meat to my right on the same line.
I went out on the pellet rig at 8m, with a ‘Toss Pot’ full of pellets. Dropped in, the float buried and a skimmer of about 4oz was committing suicide by trying to choke itself on my conkers.
I reloaded, and dropped in again. The float dipped then shot under, followed by the orange elastic. I played the carp for about 10 minutes (although it did feel longer). After a battle, the carp was in the landing net, all 6lb of it, in the time that it took me to get that one fish out, Chappy on the next peg had 3 carp. The top kit was ‘Javelined’ up the bank and swapped for No. 12 Vespe elastic. I dropped in again on the same line, and the same thing happened again. Another carp of about 6lb had a liking for the conkers. This one was soon subdued (well, after about 4 or 5 minutes) and in the keepnet. I dropped back in on this line and caught about 4 skimmers in a row. The carp had gone!!!
I decided to have a look down the boards to my right. Dropped in with 2 pieces of meat on the hook. The float shot under, I struck, nothing. The bait had gone. Re-baited, dropped in again the float trembled and dipped, I struck and the carp was making a desperate bid for freedom. After a brief one-sided struggle, the carp was soon in the net. Thirty minutes into the match and 3 carp for about 22lb. Not bad. It was looking as though my ‘Woodlands’ record of 39lb might go this match. I persevered on this line and to my left for the next 10 minutes, no more fish followed. And I was also beating Chappy to boot.
I then went back out on the pellet line, and caught a couple more skimmers, but alas, they are not going to win you the match. Chappy had gone out on the bomb by this time and was starting to get a couple of fish. I followed suit, but had to wait for bites. I had been feeding meat all the time on the long pole line with the intention of getting the fish up in the water and after about 30 minutes on the bomb, decided it was time to have a look. I dropped in on the deep rig and caught a tench about 12oz almost immediately. Dropped in again and had a carp about 2lb. I missed the next 3 indications, it was time to have a look up in the water.
I shipped out on the shallow rig, loaded with meat, the float didn’t move a muscle for the first 5 minutes, then shot under, the pole tip slapped the water and a carp was tearing off to the other side of the lake. I managed to control the fish and common carp of 3lb was soon in my drag net.
Why, Oh Why!!!
Does the middle part of most matches that I fish tend to be quite. Which was a bit like me. The banter had died down to a whisper, as I spoke to myself for losing the odd fish and concentrated on trying to batter Chappy off the next peg.
The wind was starting to pick up and I observed how easily Chappy was holding the pole using a spray bar. I was trying to control the pole, in the wind, by using my elbow and legs only and trying to feed meat up in the water at the same time. I am going to have to invest in one those spray bar thingy’s.
Chappy was starting to put a few fish together up in the water, the odd carp, but mainly chub. One of the chub that he caught was bigger than most of the carp that I had in my keepnet. I went down to the boards to try to ignore him and hoped that he would go away!!
After spending the next couple of hours rotating swims like a windmill, I had a feeling that I was going nowhere – FAST. Chappy had spent the best part of an hour on the bomb and was putting a tidy net of fish together.
I went back out on the bomb and was soon into a rhythm of feeding meat and waiting for the rod to get dragged in. Chappy was still catching 3 fish to my 2.
To make matters worse, the catapult decided to give up the ghost (for the time being anyway). The catapult elastic came off the pegs on the cups and because my hands, and nigh on everything else that I touched, were coated in meat fat, the elastic wouldn’t re-attach. Oh well, back out on the pellet line. I caught a few more skimmers to about 1lb on the pellet line and lost a good fish that headed for Skylark Lake. Chappy was by now, well in front, I had to go back down the side to see if a pig had turned up, but to no avail. If the big fish are there, you can soon bang a weight together as they go well into double figures and you only need 3 fish and you can put over 30lb on the scales.
All out
That was it, 5 hours, I estimated (according to my clicker) that I had about 47lb, although I hadn’t counted the weight of the small skimmers as clickers don’t count in 4oz’s!!!
Partridge 1 weighed in 29lb. The lad next to me weighed in 22lb and now it was judgement time. I put my fish on the scales and I HAD TO HAVE 2 WEIGHS, BLOODY HELL!!!. My first weigh went 37lb odd, and my second weigh went 25lb odd. Over 62lb, I had done it – set a new Woodlands record personal best on the new lakes. Now the question was, how much had the maestro beaten me by. Oh well, we shall not go into that, but a nice shiny £1 coin was nestling on Chappy’s box after his second weigh, but before his 3rd weigh. I have never seen anyone fish so hard to beat me off the next peg, wasn’t sure if it was because Chappy didn’t want to give me a quid (he’d never live it down, EVER) or if he just didn’t want me to beat him (he’d never live that down, NEVER EVER). The lad at the other side of Chappy DNW’d and the lad on peg 9 had about 40lb.
John McGarrell won the match from about Partridge 24 with over 120lb, and Sean Cameron on Partridge 22 was second, again with over 120lb.
Perverted weighed in 89lb, 117lb was next to him and Haircut got a right towelling and weighed in 72lb from the other side of Perverted.
Three quid down, one to come, Panic had a bad match on Curlew and admitted defeat and gracefully handed over a quid, whilst wiping away the tears. Nightie had 20 odd lbs from Kestrel. He should have owed me a quid.
Due to some miracle and my plan of not fishing to my best ability, I had allowed Chappy to come 6th in the match, therefore gaining a brown envelope for a section win by default. I didn’t have to go halves with Perverted this week as he had also managed to snare his section by default as the lad who was next to him got in the main frame.
If I had fished to the best of my ability, just maybe, Chappy may not have caught as many fish as he did and may have lost out on coming 6th, he weighed 98lb 10oz and 91lb was 7th. If Chappy had come 7th or worse, I wouldn’t have won my section by default.
I love it when a plan comes together.
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