Sunday 9th July 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay

Kamasan British Open Final, Browning Cudmore

Before I start to go into the events of this weekend (well, Sunday), I would just like to make a big mention of the exploits of the Saturday match organiser, Andy Middleton (The Oaks).

Andy has won the Kamasan Open Final, which took place at Browning Cudmore fisheries. Andy amassed 20 points in the Kamasan table, which was enough to take him to the final, and he ended up winning the final with 106lb, beating local venue experts and previous Kamasan final winners and table toppers. Andy has only fished the venue once previously, and that was for the Premier League Final, which he also won (I know I came second). Not bad work if you can get it, 2 visits to the venue and over £2400 richer!!

Andy drew a corner peg on Pool 4 and had a few empty pegs to one side. He told me that he had a few fish down the side, but the majority of fish came up in the water feeding with a shaker pot, with pellet as hookbait. He caught mainly carp to 3lb with the odd chub and ide.

Former Kamasan Final Winner (2005) and Kamasan Table Topper (2003 or 2004), Dean Smith (Garbolino Elton) was 2nd with 93lb 5oz, Steve Rothery (Diawa Goldthorpe) 90lb and Gregg Norris (Daylite Baits/The Oaks) 89lb 12oz. I would also like to point out that all of the main framers (I think the nearest a venue regular got was 8th, according to www.total-fishing.com) have been venue regulars to The Oaks Lakes at some point or other).

All I can say is that The Oaks Lakes must be a good training ground!!!

Here Goes!!!

I made the trip to The Oaks Lakes, as you do, seeing as I am the match organiser (or something like) and promptly had to ring a couple of lads that have been in recent weeks to get an idea what I needed and general consensus was that meat and hemp are the order of the day at present, fished either on top of the shelf or down the middle.

After travelling with Panic to the Lindholme Fisho Qualifier, I persuaded Panic to make the long trek north and join the mass.

I had to make a special mention at the start of the match. There is a 2-keepnet rule currently in place at The Oaks Lakes, with 50lb per net, then alternate between the two. During my absence last week, venue regular, Chappy managed to weigh in over 70lb, all of which, was in one net. If I had been there, should I have paid him a quid or would I have got off on a technicality? I was tempted to give him a quid from last week, although we didn’t have a quid, and also pay him in advance for this week so that he could hire a net from the venue.

53 anglers turned up to fish the match.

My pegs for the last few matches have been peg 4 (29lb), 54 (49lb), 36 (55lb), 5 (31lb) and 5 (29lb). I was hoping for a good draw.

The Jackpot pegs were pegs 16, 55 and 61. Peg 55 had the best chance of going, 61 would be a better peg due to peg 62 not being in the draw and peg 16 throws up a weight now and then. So all in all, there was a chance that the jackpot may go today, angling ability dependant.

My bank Account

I had the obligatory bets as follows:

Chappy - £1
Macca - £2
Vinnie Diesel - £2 (roped in courtesy of Macca)
Nightie - £1
Panic - £1
Roger (Geri(atric)) Movley - £1
Orc - £1

I put my hand in the bag first and promptly drew peg 5. Flippin' Eck or words to that effect quickly followed with lots of expletives for good measure. I have fished 6 matches and drawn the same peg 3 times (with today) and drawn next door on one other occasion. My best weight from the area has been 31lb. I was absolutely gutted. One wise person asked me, if I didn’t like the peg, why put it in? I told him to go forth and multiply.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had General Patton on peg 1, the Quite One was on peg 2, John (Bradders) Bradshaw was on peg 4 and Orc was on peg 7. I also had venue expert Tim Moran in my section along with Kamasan Open Winner, Andy Middleton. I was out of it before I had even started!!! Paul (Toddy) Todd was on peg 8 and promised me £2 if I shut up for the full match. Well, I lost that in the first few minutes.

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Deep rig was a .75g Drennan Roach float on .14 MAP Carptek line straight through to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I planned on fishing with paste on this line. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found it to be about 5ft deep.

My shelf rig was a .2 DC2 float on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. Meat and hemp was the preferred bait on this line. I found that I had about 18” of depth. I also plumbed up at the next platform (peg 6) with this rig until I found the same depth.

Inside rig was a 4 x 14 patterned float direct on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic B501 hook. I was going to paste it on this line. I found about 3.5 ft on the top 2 kit fishing to hand.

All In

At the all in, I cupped in some meat and hemp across to the far shelf, put some pellets and hemp down the middle, a bit of meat/hemp at the next peg and some groundbait and pellets on the top two line.

I went over to the far side, fed a little hemp and meat and caught an ide straight away, it was solid. I dropped in again and caught a carp of 10oz, after about 40 minutes or so, I probably had about 5lb, but the fish had seemed to disappear on me. I fed it again and left it whilst I explored my other lines.

I dropped in on the deep swim with a blob of paste and caught a carp about 1lb, then nothing for the next 10 minutes. I came in close with the top 2 rig and caught a succession of carp on paste, albeit the fish were on the small side. I was now 2 hours into the match and had approximately 10 – 12lb of mainly small fish.

I put on my shelf rig, baited up with meat and dropped in on the next peg. By this time the wind had started to pick up considerably and was blowing down the lake from peg 12 – corner peg 7, where Orc was getting a few by rotating the margin and the deep swim. The wind was also blowing from peg 1 to peg 7 (Orc should win today with all the fish being blown his way – literally) and was causing presentation problems when fishing across. The float buried next to the platform and I foul hooked a fish which shot off towards peg 7, told you it was solid down in peg 7.

Orc probably had about 20lb by now, so I was playing catch up. Bradders was probably a couple of pounds in front of my by now. I was getting battered.

I decided that there was one thing for it. I hastily set up a .4g DC2 float rig on another top kit with white hydro set soft through a match 2 and 3. This rig was on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. The rig length was approx 3ft long. I plumbed up across and added about 5” to the depth and kept the remaining line above the float.

I baited up with meat and put some meat and hemp in a Toss Pot (the small one) and shipped across to the far side. The float buried and a carp of about 2lb was trying it’s best to get to peg 62 (which is over the mud mound for those that don’t know the venue). Soon in the net, that was easy.

I proceeded in this manner for the next 2 hours and put together an estimated 40lb in that period. The fish seemed to be backing off, or were being pushed/forced down to peg 7 by the wind. Alas, I could hold on no longer, the wind was getting stronger and I was knackered, I had backache and was sweating buckets. It was warm as well as windy. At one point, I thought that I was going to smash my pole as it was pulled round by the wind. If I had held on and fought against the wind, I would have smashed it for sure.

I had a look down the inside again and caught odd fish until the end of the match, but again, they were too small.

I estimate that I had a good 40lb – 45lb.

The scales arrived and General on peg 1, set the standard, 30 odd pounds. The quite one had just over 30lb, Bradders (who wouldn’t be roped into a quid) put 35lb on the scales, the new target to beat. I put 24lb on the scales………. With my first net. I then put 29lb on the scales with my second net and had a 54lb 1oz total. Orc weighed just over 40lb (one quid up). Toddy had 46lb. The next best in my 10 peg section was 50lb (caught by the Kammie Open Champ). I was going to get an envelope. But the question was, how many quid’s had I done in?

Chappy told me that had 2 fish in the last 2 drop in’s for nearly 5lb (one of 3.5lb and 1 of 1.5lb) and beat me for the quid by 5lb (59lb odd). Oh Hum. Chappy also said that Macca had battered him, I was gonna be down a few quid at this rate. Macca put his fish on the scales and weighed in 56lb, I thought that Macca had battered Chappy? But I was still down £2 quid now (-3 +1). Although I caught, the information that I received came from both Macca and Chappy who both beat me. Where they hiding something in order to save their quid’s?????

Andy was entitled to a share of Granddad’s purse, but declined and his comments went along the lines of, ‘It’s alright Bert, you don’t have to give me any money, I have got some’. I should have had a quid with Topshop seeing I also beat him, but we weren’t on next pegs so, no chance.

Every cloud has a silver lining – Yeah, they may have both beaten me, yet, I still won my section!! I am not going to put myself in an 11 peg section if I can help it am I???

My other quids:

Vinnine, Nightie, Geri, Orc and Panic all owed me some pennies.

The full result:

53 Fished on Cedar Lake.
1. Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton), 91-04. Peg 44. Meat across to the island
2. Bruce Poland (The Oaks), 70-05. Peg 31. Meat over to the island.
3. Paul Taylor (The Oaks), 70-02
4.Bert Poole (Oaks/West Park), 65-08
5. Simon Beswick (Tricast Rochdale) 62-12
6. Anthony Stock (Nutrabaits) 61-03

Over 50lb was needed to win every 10 peg section and over half of the field had 40lb+. Panic came 25th with 41lb odd.

Sections (for the record)
S1. Me - 54 - 01. Peg 5
S2. A Stock 61-03. Peg 16
S3 Vinnie Martin 53-04. Peg 43 (Next to the winner)
S4. G Scott 59-04. Peg 54
S5. Mark Calvert 53-04. Peg 66