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).