Sunday 11th June 2006 – Cedar Lake, The Oaks, Sessay.

I thought that attendances might have been low due to anglers no longer practising for any large matches. I must admit, we have had a good run at high profile big matches this year and I am glad that The Oaks Lakes are finally getting the recognition that the place deserves. We have held a 130 peg Fishomania qualifier and yesterday held the Maver Pairs qualifier.

When the new café and bait shop are built (yes, built, with bricks and mortar) hopefully the venue can go from strength to strength. If there is one main issue that I would like to point out and that is that on both of these two matches, it has been near impossible to predict who will win the matches and also which lake (as two lakes have been used for both matches) would win on the day.

On another venue that I have been frequenting, if you do not draw one of 2 lakes, of which there are sometimes 5 lakes in, you are not, usually, going to compete. I am not saying that the other lakes cannot compete, but at present all the talk and most of the weights have been coming from one lake predominantly with the other regular lake taking first place if the other lake fails to produce (do you get what I mean?).

Anyway’s I digress.

65 of us hardy soles arrived to fish on the day and with the weather that we have been enjoying of late, there were a lot of tan lines (red skin/white skin) about and some of the attire that people were wearing left a lot to be desired. Take for instance, Jubby, he was wearing a pair of light blue (turquoise) cycling shorts (or at least that is what I think that they were), and on most people said cycling shorts are stretched tight as they include Lycra in the material. Well, the ones that Jubby was wearing were either stretched or 10 sizes too big. He stood there and looked like a scraggy chicken with his legs sticking out of a soggy turquoise paper bag.

The jackpot pegs for today’s event were 45 and 49. One of the pegs had a chance of going, although on recent form maybe not, as venue regular and all-round expert, Pimmy had drawn peg 49. Peg 49 had won and framed in a couple of matches about 1 month ago, so the peg could not be discounted. The other jackpot peg was safe!!!!

I agreed the obligatory quid with Chappy, £2 with Purverted and I then had to look around for other kiddies to take a quid off, as both Orc and Panic were not in attendance. I think Panic has fallen out with me and Orc was skint after raiding the kiddies piggy bank to give me a quid 2 weeks ago. Just as I was looking a bit lost and forlorn at not having anyone else to have a quid with, guess who just walked in the door, non other than Andy ‘Haircut’ Bridge. That was another quid struck up. Nightie promptly showed his face when he found out that I was looking for action and another quid was on the go. At this rate, it is going to be the ‘Mick Herrington Optional’, everybody puts a quid in the jar, and I pay out to all those that beat me and keep the rest – it is going to be an expensive day if when I come last.

I might change ‘Haircut’s moniker to ‘Blue Rinse’ as his haircut hasn’t changed, but he likes anything blue. He arrives in his Garbolino blues and puts on more blue if required. I don’t live near Haircut and I have not been to his gaff (Vicky probably wouldn’t let me in’t door) so I am not sure if he even sleeps in the stuff. I will have to put the question to both Pimmy and Chappy.

At the draw, I put my hand in the bag (first as always) and drew peg 36. Cedar 36 had won the match the previous week with over 70lb, but had not done anything during the week and ‘Racing’ was on peg 35 yesterday and had 30lb (ish).

Purverted drew peg 40, Chappy was on peg 79, I was already looking at being a quid down as peg 79 has had the two best weights for the lake, one weight of 154lb and another of 149lb. Haircut drew peg 74, which Jubby had come 4th off yesterday, so I was probably going to be even stevens (£1 each to Chappy and Haircut and £2 up from Purverted) at the end of the day.

John Allerton, Big Mark, Grandad and Marco had all drawn a decent area between pegs 23 and 28. John ‘Young Man’ Illingworth had drawn peg 56, the same peg that Xman was on yesterday. I could see Young Man listening to every word the Xman was saying, then walked away with a plan of action. He was going to do the opposite of what Xman had told him.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Adam Jarvis ‘Cocker’ next to me on peg 35, he is one quiet lad. I thought that ‘The quiet One’ was quiet, but Cocker hasn’t even got a tongue. I quickly looked around for someone else to have a natter with. What a shame, no one on peg 37. Ah, I found a victim, Topshop was on peg 33, peg 34 was empty, boy did he give me some stick when he saw me arriving at my peg.

Here goes

I set up 4 rigs

The first rig was set up to fish up in the water set about 12” deep. I have just purchased some of the Garbolino DC6 series of floats and they seem to be sock on. I set one up for the shallow rig. I have bought them in .05 - .4g in weight and I set up a .05g float, shotted with 2 x 11 Preston Stotz and 1 x 13 shot. This rig was on .12 Maver Genesis line with a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. Having spoken to Marco the day before, I was informed that I would need a long lash between pole float and pole tip. I put about 2ft of distance between the two.

I then set up a rig for on top of the shelf, again this was one of the DC6 floats, but a .2g float was selected. This was set about 18” deep and was just touching bottom. I set this float up on .14 Maver Genesis line to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook.

Rig 3 was a Drennan Carp 2 set up to fish down the side at 7m towards empty peg 37. I plumbed up until I found about 2ft deep. This was set up on .14 Maver Genesis to a size 16 Colmic 501.

My 4th rig was another shallow rig, but slightly heavier. It was a .2g DC6, set about 2ft deep. Again, it was set up on .12 Maver Genesis line to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook.

The two shallow rigs were set up on hydro elastics, the lighter .05g on white hydro through no.2 section only and the .2g on grey hydro. If I felt that I was bagging, I could put on the heavier rig if needed.

As and afterthought, I also set up (rightly or wrongly) a small 2 x No.4 canal waggler. This was set to fish shallow, but was set up to fish to hand on a top 3 kit. The idea of the little waggler was that if the fish are close, but would not come under the pole tip and if the wind picked up, I could flick this rig out, sink the line and still catch the fish close in. That was my thoughts anyways.

Food for thought!!

I was proper armed today, I had 1 tin of frenzied hemp, 3 pts casters, 1 tin corn, ½ pt maggots (for the hook) and some pellets (3mm for loose feeding and 4mm and 6mm for the hook). As you can see from the bait menu, and out and out up in the water attack was called for.

We’re Off

At the start of the match, I baited up with 2 red maggots on the hook and started chucking hemp and casters at the fish at about 5m. They were already up in the water and it didn’t take long to get my first fish. A carp of about 1lb was in the net. Over the next 20 minutes or so, I caught a further 4 more carp. I was also having a lot of problems, namely foul-hooked fish. I was getting a bite/indication, I would strike, play the fish to the net then it would come off. I tried caster on the hook and I couldn’t get a proper bite, I was getting shelled casters all the time. I tried pellet and caught a couple on pellet. I was having to go further out, then come back in, then back out again, you do the hokey cokey and you shake it all about. The fish just did not seem to want to settle.

I went back to the maggot and caster/hemp approach and continued to fish in this vain for the next 1 hour or so. I was by now 2 hours into the match and was not feeling happy at all. I had approximately 12 – 15lb of fish in the net. I felt as though I was not getting the best from the peg. I was getting bites and fish on maggot and pellet hook baits, but they seemed to be a little bit sporadic. Not sure if the caster/hemp was drawing the fish into the peg, but they didn’t actually want to eat the stuff.

A decision was to be made.

At 1:00 I rang Tom in the cabin and asked if one of the lads could bring me some maggots round. I was going to fish and feed maggot.

45 (yes, forty five) minutes later, my maggots finally arrived, I could get down to business. I shortened the line between pole float and tip and started to ‘fish properly’. I was spraying maggots every few seconds or so and also tapping the water on the odd occasion. The fish were queuing up.

Over the next hour or so, I estimate that I put about 35lb in the net. I was on a roll!!

I was having to follow the fish in and out as they kept on moving off the bait. I was also still losing fish, mostly at the landing net and a few of the fish had the hook just outside of the their mouths. On more than one occasion, I also came back with a couple of scales.

Although I had started bagging, I was still losing fish. I tried to cut back on the feed, tap the water more, feed more maggots but less often, feed less maggots but more often. I just did not seem to be able to get the fish to settle down properly.

I had swapped between the two shallow rigs and tried the mini waggler rig throughout the match and caught fish on them all. The only rigs that I did not use were the rig for down the side and the rig for on top of the shelf.

With about 1 hour to go, I got involved in a conversation with Topshop and another quid was struck (the last time we had a quid it was 1 hour into the match, this time it was one hour of the match left). The wind was steadily starting to pick up and blow from right to left

I ended up with a small wind knot some 4” from the hook and either laziness or the fact that usually, they don’t make a difference, I decided to do nothing. Bad mistake. Shortly after finding the wind knot, I hooked into a carp of about 3lb and played it all the way to the net, twice. It decided to make one last bid for freedom and won!! I
Re-tied on a hook and went back out and promptly lost the next 3 fish also, again, at the net. The 4 fish that I had just lost would have added about 8 – 10lb to my net.

Over the last 45 minutes of the match the wind increased considerably and the fish just would not have the pole wafting around over their heads. I estimate that I caught about 5 or 6lb in the last 45 minutes.

That was it, time. I had fed some 3 pts of maggots, 2 pints of hemp and caster and 1 pt of pellets. I was hoping to have about 60lb. Darryl Taylor had weighed in 66lb from peg 17, Gandhi had 61lb from peg 31, Graham Skirrey weighed 40lb between Topshop and Gandhi. The scales finally arrived at Topshop and he put 63lb on the scales from 2 weighs. It was going to be close.

No Tongue on the next peg DNW’d and tipped back about 10 fish. My first net with the least fish in, went 23-12. I honestly thought that I had more than that. I put my 2nd net on and weighed in 30-12. Did I have a hole in my net? Where is my 60lb?

I’d had one of those days where you have got the method right, but nothing else will come together. If I’d have fished maggot sooner, I would have caught more. If I’d changed my hook when I found the wind knot, I wouldn’t have been snapped. If I had short-lined earlier, would I have foul-hooked less fish?

I have ended up coming away with more questions than I started. Last Sunday I only caught 26lb and won my section and felt better than I did today.

Where had I come – 5th. Ho Hum, or words to that effect. I just have a feeling that today if things had gone right and I had done things different from the start, I would have had a different result. Purverted had won his/my section by 4th (yep, fourth) default as Gandhi, Topshop and I had got in the main money.

To top it all off, when sorting out all of the prize money after the draw, I had, somehow, managed to mix up 2 envelopes. I had put the section money (£30) in the 5th place envelope and the 5th place money in the section envelope (Section 5 I think for £50).

Talk about dishonesty. Some people would have realised that the section prize is usually £30 and may have asked if it was right. Well, whoever (I think that I know who) has the £50, I hope they choke on their kebab and beer!!!

The quids came rolling in from Chappy (24-00), Purverted (47-00) and Blue Rinse Haircut ((21-12) who has yet to pay me). The worst part was that I was also going to have to give a quid to Topshop.

I now have a plan of action for next weeks match. Watch this space.

Official Result

1. John Illingworth (Team Dons) 68-01. Peg 56.
2. Darryl Taylor (Garbolino Elton) 66-11.
3. Dave Topham (Sensas Wibsey) 63-11.
4. Chris Hall (Oaks) 61-08.
5. Mick Herrington (Bob-co/Oaks) 54-08.
6. Mick Sykes (West Park) 54-03.