I arranged for Panic to come and pick me up at 7:00 for the trip to Lindholme for the penultimate Fisho Qualifier.
My Gardener
Yesterday I had a word with my gardener and asked him if he could come and tidy the front and back garden, the hedge needed trimming, the front garden needed turning over and the back garden needed a good seeing to!!!
When I opened the door at 6:45 to get my stuff ready for when Panic arrived, I found my gardener sat on my doorstep (it’s 6:45 in the morning), waiting to get on with the garden. I showed him where all the tools were and left him to get on with it.
Panic was early for once, I thought that either he’d dropped a turd in bed or he’d been out all night. It was about 10 to 7 and everyone was present and correct. Panic was laughing and joking about me having a gardener, but when you work 5 days a week, fish on a Sunday, that only leaves Saturday (if I am not fishing) and I like to spend the day with the kids and our lass, hence I have little time left so I have a gardener.
With my directions and Panic’s turbo-charged van, we arrived at Lindholme in good time, although we did have a scary moment when 2 eeejit’s (move over Jonesey and Sam) over took us on a narrow country lane.
Upon arrival, I was in the company of Nightie, Jonesey, Tommy Pick, Matt Hall, Rob Hitchens, Steve Greggs, Beanhead, Daylite, Marco and a few others. Both young Adam and Darryll arrived on spec. to try to get on the match on the day. Apparently, the first one on the reserve list had arrived at 6:30 to ensure that he went down as first reserve.
As I queued for brekkie, I finally arrived at the counter and ordered a brekkie, my ticket number was 72, they were only just serving number 54!!. Adam ordered a sandwich, hoping that it was going to arrive quicker, but no!, they do the orders in number order.
Only £2 to worry about this week, as quid side bet’s were struck with Daylite and Nightie.
The Draw
I joined the queue for the draw and some 5 minutes later there were as many people behind me in the draw as there was in front. Daylite was nearer to the back than the front, and as usual, he found some sort of excuse for him to join our little tete a tete!!
6 lakes were being used, Beeches, Loco, Willows, Laurel, Strip and Bonsai.
Bonsai
At the draw Neil G made an announcement that the Bonsai Lake was suffering as a result of a lack of oxygen and that a pump/aerator was promptly being moved into position on the lake and that he apologised, but the aerator would have to run all day. One or two of the anglers that had had a look at Bonsai commented that there were fish belly up and they were gasping for air. There were 50 pegs on Bonsai – OOOpppss.
At the draw, most of the anglers wanted to draw either Loco or Beeches. Beeches because this lake was a converted trout lake and was used in the North V South match that took place a couple of months ago. Loco was wanted as they had only pegged 10 anglers on a 60 odd peg lake.
I put my hand in the bag and pulled out Willow 32??? In view of never having fished the lake before, I sought out local advice from Rob Hitchens and Johnny Howard. Apparently I had drawn a flyer as it was a corner peg (peg 31 was not in) and the wind was blowing into the corner.
Daylite had drawn Strip Pond, Panic was on Laurel 67, Nightie was on Laurel 3 (both Nightie and Panic were pegged next to each other????), Adam was at the back of Greggs on Willows Lake, on about peg 24, another quid side bet was promptly struck.
I arrived at my peg and the two waggler rigs that I had so lovingly prepared were left in the van. It was approx 25m wide to the other bank which was occupied by venue expert and all-round good guy, Steve Gregory!!!
Does the peg look fishy or what!!, This picture was taken about halfway through the match when the wind had stopped blowing into the peg and was blowing the opposite way.
I sat and observed my peg for 5 minutes or so just to try to formulate a plan of attack. I decided on the following:
Shallow Rig was a little poly ball attached to .16 MAP Carptek line straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B981 hook. The total amount of line on the rig was about 3ft to allow me to move up or down in the water and to also allow me to put a bit of line between pole float and pole tip, should I need to. Pellet or floater was the order of the day.
My Deep Rig, was a Colmic patterned float of 4 x 16 in size. It has a thick nylon bristle. I attached it to .15 dia. Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan Animal hook. I plumbed up and found about 5ft of depth, both in front and down the side at 15m. I planned on fishing paste at 11m in front and pellet down the side. I decided upon pellet down the side as I had great difficulty shipping in and out and if I had fished paste, it would have probably come out of the shipping pot and come off as I shipped out. The reason for the difficulty was that I was down a steep bank, and I didn’t even have enough room to lay a section behind me without it going up hill.
I also set up another rig, but this one was a shallow rig for fishing at 16m right into the corner up the mud bank. I set the rig about 2ft deep and plumbed around until I found the correct depth. I couldn’t find a flat spot as there was a steep slope (I know for sure as you will find out later) from grass/reed bank to the base of the slope.
Whilst I was assembling my various rigs, I could see fish swimming around up in the water, they appeared to be a good few fish about 3 – 7lb in size. The wind was still blowing into my corner. I decided to go for a little walk to see Beanhead to get some more advice and to ensure that I was going down the right track with regards to tackling my peg.
I arrived at Beanhead’s peg, I thought that I had a lot of fish in front of me, you ain’t seen Beanhead’s peg. It was solid between 6m – 14m and they were all over 5lb. Beanhead had a grin from here to here (I say with my arms open wide). Beanhead confirmed my plan(s) of attack.
Le Menu
I brought that much bait with me (as I thought that I may be fishing up in the water at distance), I had 6mm Sensas Pellets, 8mm Bob-Co pellets, micro pellets, 4mm pellets, expander pellets, sinking pellets, banded pellets, drilled pellets and some more pellets for good measure. Oh, almost forgot, I had a tin of corn should I need it.
At the all in, I cupped in some micro pellets at 16m to the corner, have you tried to feed a pole cup full of pellets at 16m whilst trying to hold the pole horizontal, when you are having to stand up to ship the bait out, if not try it. A large pot full of pellets at 2m doesn’t weigh a lot, when you are trying to ship out to 16m whilst standing up, the pot gains weight, a lot!!!
I cupped in at 11m and started on the up in the water rig, flicking a few 4mm pellets over the top of the float. Steve Greggs cupped in some sloppy pellet or groundbait down the side (for him it was about 13m and it was even, he could ship out normally) and he cupped in some pellets at 8m in front of him.
The Match
The actual match write up is v. short, if you are not catching, there is not a lot to write about, sorry.
Well, over the next 5 hours I managed to catch 1 carp and 1 chub after 2 hours 45, both on expander pellet down the side by feeding micro pellets over a 5 minute period I then snared another chub up in the water on a floating pellet with about 30 minutes to go. I could not buy a bite and it didn’t matter what permutation of bait and feeding that I carried out.
I tried down the side on both deep and shallow rigs, I tried at 7m, 11m and 13m both on the bottom and up in the water. I just could not get a bite and indications were very few and far between. Steve Greggs ended up with about 7 carp for 10lb odd, he caught 3 on paste down the side and 4 on floating bread (I didn’t have any).
Matt Hall won the match with over 140lb and one of the Ringers was second with 88lb. Nightie had about 10lb, Panic tipped back about 30lb, Adam weighed 24lb and I am not sure what Daylite had (oops, I forgot to give him his quid, oh well, we will fish for it next time).
The Slippery Slope
I lost one of my DC floats that I set up (I se this rig up on thinner line, smaller hook and tried to catch a fish the Oaks way). I went to go get my DC float back and took my landing net handle only. I managed to dislodge the float from the line that was still tethered to the snag and persuaded the float to come into the bank to my feet, I bent down to get said float and started to slip into the water. I went just over my knees (and I was still sliding down the slope that I mentioned earlier) until I managed to grab hold of something to slow down my slide down the slippery slope and pull my self out. I went and got my landing net head and scooped my float out!!
Uniformity
If there is one thing that I would like to see is a uniform set of rules for all Fisho qualifiers. I say this because:
On the Fisho qualifier, you could use floating pole, it is banned in the final and it is also banned in the open matches at Lindholme.
You can use floating baits, but not feed which is always open to abuse.
A pole limit, to make it more of a level playing field.
What do we do/not do at The Oaks, which you will be able to do/not do in the final, as I am not entirely sure of the rules for the Fisho final.
The rules should also reflect what can and can’t be used in the final, in that if you can use catmeat in the final, why not allow people to fish it in qualifiers.
I have fished 2 Fisho qualifying matches this year and I have, I must admit, I have enjoyed them both. They are on different venues, using different methods and catching different size fish to the usual methods used at The Oaks.
Viaduct was good because of the practice sessions and the ‘craic’ and the size of the fish also meant that a weight was possible from most pegs. Lindholme was good because of the apprehension and the hope of drawing the right lake. I was hoping to be able to draw a peg where the splashing wag could be used, or at least catch up in the water. When you go to a new venue, you are usually excited as you just do not know what to expect and it can invigorate you when you feel as though things are going stale.
All I can say, is keep at it. Life has some strange ways of evening itself out.
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