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.