Sunday 24th September 2006
Back to the grindstone.
Please let me apologies for the lack of a report from last weeks match at The Oaks, Sessay. I have been busy interviewing for a new administrator, I have also had the VAT return to complete, so have found myself busy at work.
The attendances of late have been poor to say the least, we have been getting about 40 – 44 on nearly every match for the past 5 or 6 weeks, and in view of the keen-ness for Kamasan qualifying matches in this neck of the woods, people aren’t prepared to fish a match if there aren’t 50 on. The thing is, is that if they turned up, they would make up enough numbers to be able to get them to be a qualifier.
This week, I had high hopes of getting a 50 peg+ match. Mr & Mrs (Scotthorne) were in attendance and another bloke had booked 5 of them on, and with the people that had booked on from the previous match, I was hopeful.
By the time of the draw, we had 59 in attendance and to make it fair for everyone, I decided to take out every 4th peg, in view of Cedar Lake being an 80 peg snake lake. I still received a complaint or two. ‘Why have you done this’, ‘what have you put this peg in for?’. I can’t win.
Upon Orc’s arrival, I quickly accosted him for his pound from the match a couple of weeks ago when he beat me. Let me explain. On the match two weeks ago, I weighed in 25lb. Orc admitted to his travelling partner that he’d had about 35 – 40lb and in view of wanting to get off and not wait for the scales, Orc tipped back. Some you lose, and some more you lose.
For this weeks match, the obligatory jackpot pegs were drawn and they were pegs 30 (No tongue Jarvis), 63 (D Worsley) and 78 (Old Lad Kenning). The jackpot had a serious chance of going today and Old Lad was the fella to do it. He is on fire at the moment.
I put my hand in the bag and drew out peg 62. This is a good winter peg, but has not produced anything for a good while. The last time that peg 62 threw up a weight was when Paul Burton was in attendance and he plonked just over 60lb on the scales and didn’t even win his section. Peg 62 is a on a bend and it is a very long peg across to the island, I would estimate it as being one of the longest pegs on the lake from willow tree to willow tree.
Going back to the pegging, there were 3 anglers in a row, then and empty peg. I was the middle angler in my 3 anglers in a row. I had Brian Armstrong on peg 61 and D Worsley on Jackpot peg 63. My first job was to beat the jackpot peg fella. Chappy was on peg 11 (with his empty peg on peg 12), Orc was on peg 15 (16 empty), Macca was on peg 19 (20 empty) and Barney Grumble (see below), was on peg 65, with either side empty. I had left one peg in the bag in case someone arrived late and that was peg 66. My quid’s were looking ropey this week, I was on a bad peg and I didn’t have any empty peg around me.
I set up 3 rigs at the start of the match as follows:
My first rig was a shallow rig to fish with either caster or maggot up in the water. This was a small dibber type of float (Preston’s I think). I set this up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I attached this rig to grey hydro.
My second rig was a .2g Garbolino DC6, set to fish on top of the shelf at 13m. The float was also on .13 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I found that I had 2ft of depth across. This was also attached to grey hydro.
I also set up a deep rig at the base of the far slope; this was planned on being used if the bites dry up whilst fishing shallow (hopefully the fish will have followed the bait down). This was a .5g Garbolino DC6 float attached to .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to black hydro.
I had 2 pints of maggots, 1 tin of hemp, a few expander pellets for the hook and 2 pints of casters.
All In
At the start of the match, I cupped in casters and hemp down the middle, and also potted some maggots straight in front of me and put some casters and hemp right over to my left, which was still some 6 or 7 metres away from my maggot line.
I baited up the shelf rig with double maggot and went over to the far side. The float settled and some 2 minutes later, the float dipped. I struck with all the speed of Xman and foul hooked a carp, which quickly shed the hook
I dropped straight back in again. The float dipped. I struck and a gudgeon came flying out and dropped off the hook.
I re-baited and went back over. I managed to snare my first carp after 15 minutes. Over the next hour or so, I managed to snare a couple more carp, one over my caster and hemp across and another over my maggot line. I tried in the deep water, no luck.
Dave Worsley on the Jackpot peg was putting the odd carp together and by now had about 6 or 7 carp, all of which came up in the water. He would feed 2 handfuls of bait, then nothing at all again, until he’d caught a fish, this could be 10 minutes after he had fed.
I resorted to fishing up in the water and I was feeding about 10 casters every 30 seconds or so. Sometimes I would feed half a dozen, other times I would feed about 15. I would feed every 10 seconds, I would feed every 30 seconds, I would feed every minute. Nothing seemed to get the fish to settle.
I did however, know when I was going to hook a carp up in the water as there would be a good boil where I had catapulted in my bait.
I managed to snare the odd carp up in the water, but I had to keep on swapping my hookbait. I caught a few on pellet, maggot or caster, all the while I was feeding caster up in the water.
After about 3 hours, I was fishing up in the water, when the float shot under, I lifted into the fish, had it on for all of 5 seconds, then nothing. I shipped back to find that I had no rig left, the line had broken right on the loop at the top of the rig. Preston Powerline .13 to grey hydro. I must have had a nick in my line or something. Why does it keep happening to me?
Someone else must have also lost a fish as a red topped float kept on popping up around me now and again.
I got some micro pellets out of my bag with an hour to go and put a few in the shaker pot. I caught a couple more carp. It was turning out to be a weird match, although I caught fish on a variety of baits, I just could not get the fish to settle down and have a proper feed.
Brian Armstrong to my left was having a grueller. Craig Ebbrill, on peg 59 was catching a few, Barney was struggling, but would catch the odd fish now and again, same applied to Dave on my immediate right.
I could get the fish clouding across on the far side, but as soon as I catapulted some more bait over, they would disappear. If I caught a fish, they would disappear. The fish just would not settle, not matter what I did or where I fished.
All Out.
I was glad when it was all over. I was admitting to 30lb, Barney was admitting to 25 – 30lb. Dave didn’t know what he had. Brian tipped back.
I went over to see Barney and have a chat to him, and I observed Martin Murphy with about 10m of pole in the sky with an angry carp attached. After some to-ing and fro-ing, he managed to get the said fish in the landing net. It was only about 2lb.
By the time that the scales had arrived, Pimmy was top dog with 52lb odd. Young Emu Ebbrill weighed in 50lb 4oz. I plonked 32lb on the scales, Dave had 36lb and Barney weighed in 34lb. I rang Macca to see how my 2 quid was doing. He also weighed in 36lb. Chappy had 50lb. This was turning into a bad day at the office.
I checked the board to see if I could salvage something from Orc. He didn’t let me down as he DNW’d.
Mr Scotthorne just missed out on his section by 1lb, courtesy of Marco – 45lb against 44lb. Mrs Scotthorne faired worse than I.
Following on from my look-a-likes, Vinnie ‘Diesel’ Martin has now been renamed and his long lost brother is non other than Barney Grumble. If you don’t know who he is, do a search. They are identical.
Chappy isn’t here for the next couple of weeks, I will be able to save up for my kids Christmas presents whilst he is away.
Full Result
1. Rob Minikin (HAS) - 56-09. Peg 69
2. Gaz Pawlett (Oaks) - 55-11. Peg 17
3. Jonny Kenning (Diawa Goldthorpe) - 53-04. Jackpot peg 78.
4. Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) - 52-08.
5. Craig Ebbrill (Mosella Garbolino) - 50-04
6. John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) - 50-02
Tackle review – my new pellet pump.
I have just purchased a new pellet pump and to be straight up, I think that it is crap. It is a new one that I have just seen on the market and is a plastic container, almost like a jar, with what seems like a bicycle pump attachment that allows you to expel the air from the ‘jar’.
It is a screw-on design. You unscrew the pump, put said pellets in the jar, refit the top, then pump away. I tried it for the first time on Sunday, and after pumping for what seemed like ages, some pellets had sunk, and some were still floating. I know that this happens anyway, but there were nearly as many floaters as there were sinkers. This ain’t good.
When you buy a pump, you want to be safe in the knowledge that most of them (if not all) sink. I realise that people go on about neutral buoyancy, etc, but at least when you have them in the jar, you would like them to sink slowly.
I will be returning this to my local shop and either getting another one from a different manufacturer or I may even stick with the plastic bottles.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
Saturday 16th September 2006
Where do I start. Well, for all you purists out there, I had originally planned on fishing an open match on the River Aire at Birkin. Let me explain.
A couple of weeks ago, I finished work early one Thursday and went to fish the mucky hole on the River Wharfe at Tadcaster. I was armed with a few worms and a pint or so of maggots. I took a bomb rod, float rod and my pike rod. To cut a long story short, I managed to catch 6 chublet’s of about 6oz apiece, half a dozen dace, same of roach and about 20 bleak or so. I re-hooked one of the small roach of about 2oz and put it out on the pike gear, consisting of 8lb maxima and a 15lb wire trace. After about 20 minutes, I got a run and ended with a pike of about 13lb on the bank. It was a long lean fish that would, over winter, probably go to 18lb+. If there is one thing that I must say and that was that I really enjoyed it. This wetted my appetite for a river match. Midweek, I rang The Legend that is known as John Allerton and asked him about the matches that take place on the River Calder around Brighouse, as I knew that The Legend at been attending them.
He told me that there wasn’t a match on the river this weekend, but that there was a match on, on the River Aire at Birkin. The Legend then told me how he had come 2nd on the weekend’s match just gone with over 14lb of roach. The winning weight and most of the backup weights had come on pole to hand, fishing between 7 and 9m. I didn’t fancy the pole to hand method as I didn’t have any floats heavy enough (6g) to be able to do the method. I asked The Legend if I could borrow one of his 20 footers, as the river varies in depths between 12 and 24ft. I asked The Legend, if he could book me on the match and I arranged to me John and follow him down to the draw.
This my friends, was all agreed on Wednesday. On Thursday, Leeds and the surrounding areas suffered some of the worst storms and rainfall all year. The weatherman estimated that we had had 10 days of rain in 30 minutes to an hour and the Harehills part of Leeds, had had a mini tornado rip through the place and damaged about 6 or 7 houses.
The local council, estimate that the damage bill will amount to about……..£8.00.
Anyway’s on the Friday, I went over the River Aire on my way to work. The river was carrying a bit and was very coloured. The river was no different on the way home. I rang The Legend and cancelled off. I didn’t fancy fishing a stretch of river that I had never fished before. I would rather go on the match, when the river is looking better and catch 6 or 7lb of roach and come nowhere, than go on the river carrying water, catch very little and go away thinking that it was crap. Do you get where I am coming from?
After all this, with a quid in my hand, I booked on the open match at Woodlands, Thirsk. I might as well pay my quid to Chappy before we start.
I arranged to pick up Panic, later on he rang me to say that he couldn’t make it. I don’t think that he likes my driving.
At the draw, there were 61 people booked on and the match organiser, Young Adolf, wanted a word with everyone, as 10 people had all booked off the match, with about 30 minutes to go before the start of the draw. The thing is, as a match organiser myself, what can you do about no shows. It is alright telling everyone that is there, but they’re not bothered, as they are already there. You can ban people for being a no-show, but sometimes there is a genuine reason, so in the end, you can only organise all those that turn up.
The obligatory quid was struck with Chappy. When I say obligatory, what I mean is that Chappy comes up to me and says ‘Mick, Quid?’, to which trembling with fear, I nod my head. I think that I must be getting my head nod’s and shake’s the wrong way around.
Whilst being in the draw, a few of the Oak’s Banter, http://oaksbanter.proboards19.com/index.cgi regulars were all on about the look-alike’s that we have recently been discussing. Des Southern is Punch out of Punch and Judy, Meathead and Macca are Shrek 1 and 2, courtesy of Young Bart Simpson (Connor Barlow), Pete Costello is Stone Cold Steve Austin and the best one yet. Andy Stoner turned up with what looked like a new hair style. It was all scruffy and greying, but in a trendy sort of way, just like Jim’s hair off Rosie and Jim. Boy, did I break out into song, all together now:
"Rosie and Jim, Rosie and Jim, what an effing mess you're in". It sounds better already.
As I arrived at the draw bucket, I put my hand in the bag and drew out Skylark peg 22. I fancied that for a few. Chappy had also drawn half decent, Partridge lake, somewhere around 27, 28.
For company I had Paul ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ Burton on corner peg 18, Meatcutter Bailey on 20 (19 empty), Rocket Ronnie Wilkinson on peg 21, and Ron Jeremy on peg 23.
Following a chat with Chappy, I had 3 tins of meat, 2 tins of hemp and a few pellets for today’s menu. I set up the following;
My trusty bomb rod, with 4lb maxima mainline and a .16 Maver Genesis hooklength with a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook attached. I also set up:
Rig 1 was a shallow rig, for fishing with meat up in the water. This set up included a .2g Garbolino DC6 float, shotted with a couple of No.8 Preston Stotz at halfway down. The line was .16 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I set this rig to fish about 18” deep; I could also shallow up if needed.
Rig 2 was a .2g Carp Devil. This was also set up on .16 Maver Genesis. To this I attached a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up down both sides with this rig and found just over 2ft of depth next to the boards.
For rig three, I set up a .3g Garbolino DC6 float. This was on .15 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at 6m to my left and found about 3.5ft of depth.
My fourth and final rig was set up to fish at 14m, the idea being that you feed the meat on your bomb and long pole line. For the long pole line, I set up a .5g Drennan Roach. This was also on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to which I attached a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at 14m and found about 5ft of depth.
At the all in, I threw some hemp and meat to my left and just put in hemp to my right, down the boards. I potted in a bit of bait at 14 and started to fish on my 6m line. I put a few grains of hemp in a toss pot and a couple of pieces of meat with meat on the hook. I shipped out to 6m, dropped my enticing bit of feed in and dropped my float over the top.
After about 15 minutes, I got my first indication. The float dipped, then shot under. A bottletop skimmer was the culprit. Well a fish is a fish, it’s a start.
I re-baited, dropped in again, put a few bits of hemp and meat over the top and waited, and waited. Nothing. When you are an hour into the match with a skimmer to show for your troubles, you do start to worry a tad. Rocket to my left was getting a few by fishing with pellet up in the water and dripping in the odd pellet now and again. Ron Jeremy had a couple of carp and Meatcutter Bailey had a couple, so all in all, I wasn’t that far behind.
I came up in the water, with meat on the hook. I fed a few pieces of meat, the float buried, followed by my black hydro screaming off at a rate of knots. A carp of 5lb was soon in the net. That’s it, they were up in the water, where they wanted to be.
After another fruitless 30 minutes, I managed to snare another carp of about 2lb. I decided that it was time to have a look down the side. I dropped in with meat on the hook, fed a few pieces of meat. The float buried, and a roach of about 2oz was soon in the net. I tried at the other side and caught a slightly bigger roach, this one was probably 3oz.
By now, Ron had 5 carp and was starting to get a few bites by feeding meat at full depth and fishing with meat over the top. He probably had about 6 carp. I had 2, Rocket had about 10, and Meatcutter had 3.
I continued to rotate all of my swims, trying to locate fish. I saw a fish swirl down to my right over where I had been feeding. They had turned up, or so I thought. I dropped in, the water was all cloudy. My float moved sideways, and that was it. My float moved sideways as the fish made a quick dash out of my peg.
Going into the last hour, I had managed to snare another carp up in the water. I had cut back on all feed up in the water and was only feeding 4 or 5 pieces of meat about every 5 minutes or so. It was as if the fish were already up in the water, but were backing off the feed. (Thinking about it afterwards, it was similar at Woodland View).
By the time the match had ended, the fish were just starting to get their heads down, so to speak and I think that I had finally got the feeding (or not) pattern right. I had managed to end up with 8 carp and a few bits and pieces for a total weight of 25lb 8oz. Ron Jeremy ended up with 44lb, Rocket Ronnie had 70lb+ (and got in the frame). Meatcutter Bailey tipped back an estimated 30lb (so he tells me).
Chappy came round to say that he’d had 23lb, and then he changed his mind and said that he’d had 38lb, then changed his mind again and said that he really had had 23lb. I still gave him a quid as I could see from the glint in his eye that he was telling porkies. He had weighed in 38lb and also managed to win his section. Paul Burton won our section with 50lb, most of which he had caught in the first 2 hours.
Dean Smith won the match with 120lb from Partridge Lake. Peg 23 or 24 I think all on meat up in the water.
Where do I start. Well, for all you purists out there, I had originally planned on fishing an open match on the River Aire at Birkin. Let me explain.
A couple of weeks ago, I finished work early one Thursday and went to fish the mucky hole on the River Wharfe at Tadcaster. I was armed with a few worms and a pint or so of maggots. I took a bomb rod, float rod and my pike rod. To cut a long story short, I managed to catch 6 chublet’s of about 6oz apiece, half a dozen dace, same of roach and about 20 bleak or so. I re-hooked one of the small roach of about 2oz and put it out on the pike gear, consisting of 8lb maxima and a 15lb wire trace. After about 20 minutes, I got a run and ended with a pike of about 13lb on the bank. It was a long lean fish that would, over winter, probably go to 18lb+. If there is one thing that I must say and that was that I really enjoyed it. This wetted my appetite for a river match. Midweek, I rang The Legend that is known as John Allerton and asked him about the matches that take place on the River Calder around Brighouse, as I knew that The Legend at been attending them.
He told me that there wasn’t a match on the river this weekend, but that there was a match on, on the River Aire at Birkin. The Legend then told me how he had come 2nd on the weekend’s match just gone with over 14lb of roach. The winning weight and most of the backup weights had come on pole to hand, fishing between 7 and 9m. I didn’t fancy the pole to hand method as I didn’t have any floats heavy enough (6g) to be able to do the method. I asked The Legend if I could borrow one of his 20 footers, as the river varies in depths between 12 and 24ft. I asked The Legend, if he could book me on the match and I arranged to me John and follow him down to the draw.
This my friends, was all agreed on Wednesday. On Thursday, Leeds and the surrounding areas suffered some of the worst storms and rainfall all year. The weatherman estimated that we had had 10 days of rain in 30 minutes to an hour and the Harehills part of Leeds, had had a mini tornado rip through the place and damaged about 6 or 7 houses.
The local council, estimate that the damage bill will amount to about……..£8.00.
Anyway’s on the Friday, I went over the River Aire on my way to work. The river was carrying a bit and was very coloured. The river was no different on the way home. I rang The Legend and cancelled off. I didn’t fancy fishing a stretch of river that I had never fished before. I would rather go on the match, when the river is looking better and catch 6 or 7lb of roach and come nowhere, than go on the river carrying water, catch very little and go away thinking that it was crap. Do you get where I am coming from?
After all this, with a quid in my hand, I booked on the open match at Woodlands, Thirsk. I might as well pay my quid to Chappy before we start.
I arranged to pick up Panic, later on he rang me to say that he couldn’t make it. I don’t think that he likes my driving.
At the draw, there were 61 people booked on and the match organiser, Young Adolf, wanted a word with everyone, as 10 people had all booked off the match, with about 30 minutes to go before the start of the draw. The thing is, as a match organiser myself, what can you do about no shows. It is alright telling everyone that is there, but they’re not bothered, as they are already there. You can ban people for being a no-show, but sometimes there is a genuine reason, so in the end, you can only organise all those that turn up.
The obligatory quid was struck with Chappy. When I say obligatory, what I mean is that Chappy comes up to me and says ‘Mick, Quid?’, to which trembling with fear, I nod my head. I think that I must be getting my head nod’s and shake’s the wrong way around.
Whilst being in the draw, a few of the Oak’s Banter, http://oaksbanter.proboards19.com/index.cgi regulars were all on about the look-alike’s that we have recently been discussing. Des Southern is Punch out of Punch and Judy, Meathead and Macca are Shrek 1 and 2, courtesy of Young Bart Simpson (Connor Barlow), Pete Costello is Stone Cold Steve Austin and the best one yet. Andy Stoner turned up with what looked like a new hair style. It was all scruffy and greying, but in a trendy sort of way, just like Jim’s hair off Rosie and Jim. Boy, did I break out into song, all together now:
"Rosie and Jim, Rosie and Jim, what an effing mess you're in". It sounds better already.
As I arrived at the draw bucket, I put my hand in the bag and drew out Skylark peg 22. I fancied that for a few. Chappy had also drawn half decent, Partridge lake, somewhere around 27, 28.
For company I had Paul ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ Burton on corner peg 18, Meatcutter Bailey on 20 (19 empty), Rocket Ronnie Wilkinson on peg 21, and Ron Jeremy on peg 23.
Following a chat with Chappy, I had 3 tins of meat, 2 tins of hemp and a few pellets for today’s menu. I set up the following;
My trusty bomb rod, with 4lb maxima mainline and a .16 Maver Genesis hooklength with a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook attached. I also set up:
Rig 1 was a shallow rig, for fishing with meat up in the water. This set up included a .2g Garbolino DC6 float, shotted with a couple of No.8 Preston Stotz at halfway down. The line was .16 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I set this rig to fish about 18” deep; I could also shallow up if needed.
Rig 2 was a .2g Carp Devil. This was also set up on .16 Maver Genesis. To this I attached a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up down both sides with this rig and found just over 2ft of depth next to the boards.
For rig three, I set up a .3g Garbolino DC6 float. This was on .15 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at 6m to my left and found about 3.5ft of depth.
My fourth and final rig was set up to fish at 14m, the idea being that you feed the meat on your bomb and long pole line. For the long pole line, I set up a .5g Drennan Roach. This was also on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to which I attached a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at 14m and found about 5ft of depth.
At the all in, I threw some hemp and meat to my left and just put in hemp to my right, down the boards. I potted in a bit of bait at 14 and started to fish on my 6m line. I put a few grains of hemp in a toss pot and a couple of pieces of meat with meat on the hook. I shipped out to 6m, dropped my enticing bit of feed in and dropped my float over the top.
After about 15 minutes, I got my first indication. The float dipped, then shot under. A bottletop skimmer was the culprit. Well a fish is a fish, it’s a start.
I re-baited, dropped in again, put a few bits of hemp and meat over the top and waited, and waited. Nothing. When you are an hour into the match with a skimmer to show for your troubles, you do start to worry a tad. Rocket to my left was getting a few by fishing with pellet up in the water and dripping in the odd pellet now and again. Ron Jeremy had a couple of carp and Meatcutter Bailey had a couple, so all in all, I wasn’t that far behind.
I came up in the water, with meat on the hook. I fed a few pieces of meat, the float buried, followed by my black hydro screaming off at a rate of knots. A carp of 5lb was soon in the net. That’s it, they were up in the water, where they wanted to be.
After another fruitless 30 minutes, I managed to snare another carp of about 2lb. I decided that it was time to have a look down the side. I dropped in with meat on the hook, fed a few pieces of meat. The float buried, and a roach of about 2oz was soon in the net. I tried at the other side and caught a slightly bigger roach, this one was probably 3oz.
By now, Ron had 5 carp and was starting to get a few bites by feeding meat at full depth and fishing with meat over the top. He probably had about 6 carp. I had 2, Rocket had about 10, and Meatcutter had 3.
I continued to rotate all of my swims, trying to locate fish. I saw a fish swirl down to my right over where I had been feeding. They had turned up, or so I thought. I dropped in, the water was all cloudy. My float moved sideways, and that was it. My float moved sideways as the fish made a quick dash out of my peg.
Going into the last hour, I had managed to snare another carp up in the water. I had cut back on all feed up in the water and was only feeding 4 or 5 pieces of meat about every 5 minutes or so. It was as if the fish were already up in the water, but were backing off the feed. (Thinking about it afterwards, it was similar at Woodland View).
By the time the match had ended, the fish were just starting to get their heads down, so to speak and I think that I had finally got the feeding (or not) pattern right. I had managed to end up with 8 carp and a few bits and pieces for a total weight of 25lb 8oz. Ron Jeremy ended up with 44lb, Rocket Ronnie had 70lb+ (and got in the frame). Meatcutter Bailey tipped back an estimated 30lb (so he tells me).
Chappy came round to say that he’d had 23lb, and then he changed his mind and said that he’d had 38lb, then changed his mind again and said that he really had had 23lb. I still gave him a quid as I could see from the glint in his eye that he was telling porkies. He had weighed in 38lb and also managed to win his section. Paul Burton won our section with 50lb, most of which he had caught in the first 2 hours.
Dean Smith won the match with 120lb from Partridge Lake. Peg 23 or 24 I think all on meat up in the water.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Sunday 10th September 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay.
For the past few Saturday’s or so, I have been taking one of my son’s sea fishing off Scarborough Harbour. I have been using a 2lb test curve carp/pike rod and I have also purchased a couple of spinning rods, one of 7ft and one of 9ft. I have been fishing with 1 oz lead weights with a long tail and a couple of hooks going up the line, fishing with squid as bait. It has been enjoyable because it has been different. Take yesterday for example. We caught 4 flatties and about 60 little Pollack or Coalfish (not sure which) and all of this was in about 4 hours on a high tide.
Having little fishing trips like this fire me up for a Sunday. You know how it is, when you aren’t doing as well as you know what you can and should be doing, you get a little bit dejected and that is the stage that I am at, at the moment. Saying that though, I enjoyed myself two weeks ago when I was fourth as I had caught a few. I am not bothered about winning an envelope, for me it is about catching fish. If I caught 70lb and came 10th, I would have enjoyed it as much as catching 40lb and winning the match.
As far as venues go, Sessay must be one of the hardest venues that I have fished. A few years back I used to fish places like Raker Lakes at York, Lindholme at Leeds and even the old lakes, Swallow, Mallard and Dragonfly at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk. I won my fair share of matches on all of the above venues including winning the series at both Raker Lakes and Lindholme (Winter and Summer). But for some reason, I just cannot seem to be able to do it at Sessay. The venue is fair, you do not know where the winner is going to come from and the class of angler that fish there are amongst, if not, the best commercial anglers in the North East.
I also believe that the draw is currently less than kind to me at the moment. In my last 10 matches at Sessay, I have drawn in the same area, pegs 3 – 6, 6 times and the other times I have been on peg 36 (50+lb), 37 (25lb), 64 (74lb) and 69 (19lb). The funny thing is, is that there is 80 pegs on the lake. Why oh why can’t I move about a bit?
Today was no exception!!! By the time of the draw there were 43 of us ready for the match. The jackpot pegs were pegs 11 - Ray Wallace, 58 – Martin Murphy and Moi – Peg 7!!
Peg bloody 7. I don’t care if it is/was a jackpot peg, I still didn’t want to be there. Just possibly, due to the fact that I keep drawing in the same area, am I going to my peg with a negative attitude?
Talking about attitudes, what about this. Dean Smith turned up to fish the match. He travelled all the way from South of York. When he arrived, he asked me how many people were on the match. I told him that I had about 40 names. He didn’t pay on. He went back home to either pleasure fish or do whatever. What is that all about? Just because there wasn’t 50 on the match. Doesn’t he enjoy his fishing? If he fished the match, no doubt he would have probably won an envelope, which would have paid for his fishing. You can’t win them all.
Anyway’s you can but try, sometimes life throws up all sorts of surprises.
I had managed to source some quid action by way of Chappy (peg 61), Orc (peg 46) and Nightie (peg 21). Chappy, speaks for himself. Orc, possibly a quid coming my way and Nightie had drawn the same peg that Young Harry Potter had won off on Thursday’s open match. It wasn’t looking good. Comeback Macky and Pacifier.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had Ron Jeremy look-alike, Ray Singh to my left on peg 5 and the Kamasan Open, Andy Middleton, winner to my right on peg 8. ‘Old Lad’ Jonny Kenning was further round on peg 9.
For bait I had 3 pts of pellets (a mixture of two bags of Skinz in yellow and brown), Skinz for hook bait along with some 4mm and 6mm expanders and a tin of corn. My main plan of attack was to fish pellet up in the water.
Peg 7 is a corner peg on the end of the island. Peg 8 can also go down the side into the corner as the corner is about 15m round the arc. The wind was blowing from left to right straight into my corner.
As I was setting up, I heard the funniest thing all day. Ena Sharples was sat on his box setting up, when all of a sudden he chirped up and said of all things “I’m gonna be quiet today”. I nearly fell off my box laughing as did Ron Jeremy.
The rigs.
In view of trying to get them to come shallow, I set up the following:
Shallow rig – was a 4 x 10 Garbolino DC6 float set up on .11 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. I had approximately 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip. This would allow me to follow the fish up and down in the water.
Shelf rig – was a 4 x 12 version of the above float. This was set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up across and found about 2ft of depth just on the edge of the shelf. I used the same float to plumb up down the side.
I was ready. I decided to go and have a chat with Old Lad prior to the start of the match. Whilst I was sat behind him, he was giving me a little ‘pep talk’, but he also said that he hated my peg.
At the all in, I cupped a little bit of bait down the side and a bit of bait at 12m on the edge of the shelf. Then like a whirling dervish, I started to catapult the assorted pellets out to 11m. After 30 minutes, I caught my first carp (well, fish for that matter) about 2lb. It was another 30 minutes before I caught another one. Middy on peg 8 had caught about 6 or so, all from the far side.
After 1 ½ hours, I thought that enough was enough, they don’t want to come up and sacked the up in the water method. I then concentrated on fishing both down the side and across. I was rotating both swims trying to get fish off either of the lines, with little success. Middy wasn’t fairing any better.
At the halfway stage, I would anticipate that I had caught about 14lb made up of about 8 or 9 carp. I managed to snare a few down the side, then they would disappear. You’d wait a bit, then they’d come back. They wouldn’t stay put.
By the end of the match, I was admitting to about 22lb. I had had a crap day, just couldn’t catch on any of my lines. Middy had also struggled, he will put it down to being slightly inebriated, I think that it was because he is crap. He’s nearly as bad as me.
Ron Jeremy was admitting to 40lb and I thought that Old Lad had about 70lb or so. By the time that the scales had arrived, Ena had weighed in 43lb (blimey, keeping quiet must have worked), Ron Jeremy had 42lb. I plonked 25lb on the scales. Middy had 34 and Old Lad’s 70lb turned out to be 95lb. What do I know.
To give you an idea of the area that I was in was like, the weights were as follows by peg; 1 – 27lb, 3 – 43lb, 5 – 42lb, 7 – 25lb, 8 – 34lb, 9 – 95lb, 11 – 20lb, then you get 13 – 57lb, 15 – 58lb, 17 – 38lb and 19 – 67lb, 21 36lb. Pegs 24 – 34 had a lowest weight of 54lb with a total of over 500lb weighed in between 7 anglers.
Full result:
1. John Kenning (Moorfields) 95-3-0, carp and silver fish, pole and maggot, peg 92. Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Services) 93-0-03. Lee Harrison (Van den Eynde) 92-12-04. Gareth Drury (Harrogate Angling Services/ Oaks) 90-1-05. Rob Morley (Wakefield) 78-1-06. Darren Taylor (Whizzo) 69-12-0.
As Old Lad went past me, he said that I will have to give him a ‘pep talk’ next time. He didn’t even pay me any money for the pleasure.
Talking of money, I was even further out of pocket as Orc DNW’d (and drove off without paying), Nightie had 36lb and Chappy ended up with 47lb.
I made a hasty exit. See you all next week.
For the past few Saturday’s or so, I have been taking one of my son’s sea fishing off Scarborough Harbour. I have been using a 2lb test curve carp/pike rod and I have also purchased a couple of spinning rods, one of 7ft and one of 9ft. I have been fishing with 1 oz lead weights with a long tail and a couple of hooks going up the line, fishing with squid as bait. It has been enjoyable because it has been different. Take yesterday for example. We caught 4 flatties and about 60 little Pollack or Coalfish (not sure which) and all of this was in about 4 hours on a high tide.
Having little fishing trips like this fire me up for a Sunday. You know how it is, when you aren’t doing as well as you know what you can and should be doing, you get a little bit dejected and that is the stage that I am at, at the moment. Saying that though, I enjoyed myself two weeks ago when I was fourth as I had caught a few. I am not bothered about winning an envelope, for me it is about catching fish. If I caught 70lb and came 10th, I would have enjoyed it as much as catching 40lb and winning the match.
As far as venues go, Sessay must be one of the hardest venues that I have fished. A few years back I used to fish places like Raker Lakes at York, Lindholme at Leeds and even the old lakes, Swallow, Mallard and Dragonfly at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk. I won my fair share of matches on all of the above venues including winning the series at both Raker Lakes and Lindholme (Winter and Summer). But for some reason, I just cannot seem to be able to do it at Sessay. The venue is fair, you do not know where the winner is going to come from and the class of angler that fish there are amongst, if not, the best commercial anglers in the North East.
I also believe that the draw is currently less than kind to me at the moment. In my last 10 matches at Sessay, I have drawn in the same area, pegs 3 – 6, 6 times and the other times I have been on peg 36 (50+lb), 37 (25lb), 64 (74lb) and 69 (19lb). The funny thing is, is that there is 80 pegs on the lake. Why oh why can’t I move about a bit?
Today was no exception!!! By the time of the draw there were 43 of us ready for the match. The jackpot pegs were pegs 11 - Ray Wallace, 58 – Martin Murphy and Moi – Peg 7!!
Peg bloody 7. I don’t care if it is/was a jackpot peg, I still didn’t want to be there. Just possibly, due to the fact that I keep drawing in the same area, am I going to my peg with a negative attitude?
Talking about attitudes, what about this. Dean Smith turned up to fish the match. He travelled all the way from South of York. When he arrived, he asked me how many people were on the match. I told him that I had about 40 names. He didn’t pay on. He went back home to either pleasure fish or do whatever. What is that all about? Just because there wasn’t 50 on the match. Doesn’t he enjoy his fishing? If he fished the match, no doubt he would have probably won an envelope, which would have paid for his fishing. You can’t win them all.
Anyway’s you can but try, sometimes life throws up all sorts of surprises.
I had managed to source some quid action by way of Chappy (peg 61), Orc (peg 46) and Nightie (peg 21). Chappy, speaks for himself. Orc, possibly a quid coming my way and Nightie had drawn the same peg that Young Harry Potter had won off on Thursday’s open match. It wasn’t looking good. Comeback Macky and Pacifier.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had Ron Jeremy look-alike, Ray Singh to my left on peg 5 and the Kamasan Open, Andy Middleton, winner to my right on peg 8. ‘Old Lad’ Jonny Kenning was further round on peg 9.
For bait I had 3 pts of pellets (a mixture of two bags of Skinz in yellow and brown), Skinz for hook bait along with some 4mm and 6mm expanders and a tin of corn. My main plan of attack was to fish pellet up in the water.
Peg 7 is a corner peg on the end of the island. Peg 8 can also go down the side into the corner as the corner is about 15m round the arc. The wind was blowing from left to right straight into my corner.
As I was setting up, I heard the funniest thing all day. Ena Sharples was sat on his box setting up, when all of a sudden he chirped up and said of all things “I’m gonna be quiet today”. I nearly fell off my box laughing as did Ron Jeremy.
The rigs.
In view of trying to get them to come shallow, I set up the following:
Shallow rig – was a 4 x 10 Garbolino DC6 float set up on .11 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. I had approximately 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip. This would allow me to follow the fish up and down in the water.
Shelf rig – was a 4 x 12 version of the above float. This was set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up across and found about 2ft of depth just on the edge of the shelf. I used the same float to plumb up down the side.
I was ready. I decided to go and have a chat with Old Lad prior to the start of the match. Whilst I was sat behind him, he was giving me a little ‘pep talk’, but he also said that he hated my peg.
At the all in, I cupped a little bit of bait down the side and a bit of bait at 12m on the edge of the shelf. Then like a whirling dervish, I started to catapult the assorted pellets out to 11m. After 30 minutes, I caught my first carp (well, fish for that matter) about 2lb. It was another 30 minutes before I caught another one. Middy on peg 8 had caught about 6 or so, all from the far side.
After 1 ½ hours, I thought that enough was enough, they don’t want to come up and sacked the up in the water method. I then concentrated on fishing both down the side and across. I was rotating both swims trying to get fish off either of the lines, with little success. Middy wasn’t fairing any better.
At the halfway stage, I would anticipate that I had caught about 14lb made up of about 8 or 9 carp. I managed to snare a few down the side, then they would disappear. You’d wait a bit, then they’d come back. They wouldn’t stay put.
By the end of the match, I was admitting to about 22lb. I had had a crap day, just couldn’t catch on any of my lines. Middy had also struggled, he will put it down to being slightly inebriated, I think that it was because he is crap. He’s nearly as bad as me.
Ron Jeremy was admitting to 40lb and I thought that Old Lad had about 70lb or so. By the time that the scales had arrived, Ena had weighed in 43lb (blimey, keeping quiet must have worked), Ron Jeremy had 42lb. I plonked 25lb on the scales. Middy had 34 and Old Lad’s 70lb turned out to be 95lb. What do I know.
To give you an idea of the area that I was in was like, the weights were as follows by peg; 1 – 27lb, 3 – 43lb, 5 – 42lb, 7 – 25lb, 8 – 34lb, 9 – 95lb, 11 – 20lb, then you get 13 – 57lb, 15 – 58lb, 17 – 38lb and 19 – 67lb, 21 36lb. Pegs 24 – 34 had a lowest weight of 54lb with a total of over 500lb weighed in between 7 anglers.
Full result:
1. John Kenning (Moorfields) 95-3-0, carp and silver fish, pole and maggot, peg 92. Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Services) 93-0-03. Lee Harrison (Van den Eynde) 92-12-04. Gareth Drury (Harrogate Angling Services/ Oaks) 90-1-05. Rob Morley (Wakefield) 78-1-06. Darren Taylor (Whizzo) 69-12-0.
As Old Lad went past me, he said that I will have to give him a ‘pep talk’ next time. He didn’t even pay me any money for the pleasure.
Talking of money, I was even further out of pocket as Orc DNW’d (and drove off without paying), Nightie had 36lb and Chappy ended up with 47lb.
I made a hasty exit. See you all next week.
Friday 8th September 2006 - Match fishing Subscriber Classic - Woodland View, Droitwich
Match fishing magazine ran a competition in order to win a ticket to fish the inaugural Match fishing Subscriber Classic, which was being held at Woodland View Druidic.And through a cancellation or another, and a few e-mails here and there, I managed to get a ticket, courtesy of the Rochdale Raver putting my name forward to Mr Harrell. In response to one of my e-mails Mr Harrell replied something along the lines of ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH, although I may have missed a few A’s and R’s off the reply.
I gleaned all the information that I could from Jon Arthur (Dudley Moore). I had to e-mail him once or twice (he he) to get the info as he was less than forthcoming with his tips, he even tried to charge me a pound a tip (well at least it wouldn’t have cost me a lot). The general consensus was a corn approach with meat over the top, although things were on the change and it could be a maggot day or a worm day or even a pellet day. I wished that I’d never asked.
I even e-mailed my mate Coxy, who had just returned from his jollies in Turkey. He basically backed up what Dudley had said.
What a palaver?
I was up early in order to have a nice relaxing steady drive down there. I set off at 2 minutes past 6 and was hoping to be there by 8:00 – 8:15. I was making good progress down the M1 and by 7:10, I was already at junction 13 of the M42/A42(?). This is where my day started to go wrong. By 7:45, I was at Junction 12 of the M42 – as Mr Harrell would say ‘AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!. Whilst I was stuck in traffic due to the M42 being closed between junctions 11 and 10, I got out my trusty atlas (who needs satnav?) and started to travel cross country, past Twycross Zoo and round the lanes and all over. I managed to get back on the M42 at Junction 10, just below the accident and was then met by traffic calming speed restrictions between junctions 9 and about 4. Traffic Calming, what the flip do they know about TRAFFIC CALMING. Here I am in a rush to get somewhere, I am on a motorway and I can only do 50mph maximum speed. Calm, was I calm? Is Dave Harrell really The Hoff in disguise? Answers on a postcard please.
I finally managed to arrive at 8:50 for a 9:00 draw. That gave me 10 minutes to get something to eat and to get into the draw queue.
I ordered a brekkie and then joined a table with O’Dear Driscoll, Sconeeee, Andy T and God’s Dad, Steve May. Dad was quizzing me about my in depth knowledge of the place, but I knew even less than him. Whilst I was torturing Dad for all the info, apparently someone shouted my number for me to go and get my brekkie. In view of being somewhat slightly deaf, I couldn’t hear them. After some 5 minutes of wasting away, I went in search of my brekkie. Due to the stress that I had endured getting here, taking into consideration the Traffic Calming, I got a wee bit of indigestion whilst eating my brekkie. 2 Sausage, eggs, bacon, beans, tomatoes, toast and what ever else was on my plate in less than 3 minutes then into the draw queue.
In view of taking a quid off O’Dear a couple of weeks ago, the return side bet was back on; let’s see if I can keep up my good record of one from one.
Dad told me to come and see him when I had drawn as he was going to speak to God and get all the info on his lake and his peg. I put my hand into the magic box and pulled out……….. High 33?????
From all the info that I had received, this was probably the only lake that I didn’t want to be on. It is the deepest lake on the venue and it is teeming with silvers.
When I found Dad, he was speaking to God. I managed to prise the phone out of his grip and spoke to God myself. God told me that High pool is a good up in the water pool with caster as loose feed and worm on the hook, the best way to score.
I didn’t have any casters, but I did have some worm, about ½ a kilo. God said to keep feeding the casters, fish with worm on the hook and stick at it. I would get bitted out to start then the carp, predominantly F1’s will come in, and you can build up a good weight. He also said ‘do not forget to feed the inside line’.
I quickly went into the onsite shop and stole 3 pints of casters and another ¼ kilo of worm. One of us was stealing as it cost me £12.00. In addition, I also had some 3 tins of corn, 6mm cubed meat and some rough meat that I had pulled to bits.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had Dad at the back on me on Arles pool. I quickly struck up a quid with him, hoping that youth and enthusiasm would earn me a quid against age and experience.
In view of my newly acquired information, I set up the following rigs:
Down the side rig:
I set up a .2g Colmic float with a rugby ball body and a fat plastic bristle. This was attached to .16 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 12 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up down the side to my right about 5m along the bank and about 2ft from the bank and found that I had about 18” of depth. I used the same rig to plumb up down to my left and side and plumbed around until I found the same depth.
Shallow rig:
I set up a Preston Bazzerla PB2 taking 4 x 10 shot. This was attached to .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. I had a maximum of 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip with the bulk of shot about 6 – 8” from the hook, this would allow me to alter my depth by about 12 – 18”. I planned to fish at about 9 – 10m out.
My deep rig:
I set up a middy 4 x 16 float which caught my eye whilst in my tackle shop the other day. It is a rugby ball shape, with a long carbon stem (which I trimmed down) and a long plastic bristle. The line also passes through the side of the body. I set this up on .16 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook.
For both the side and deep rig’s I was using black hydro through the power top twos and for the shallow rig, I was using grey hydro through a match 2 & 3.
Dad’s peg looked a little better than mine, he had an island that was within reach (14m) and this was his main target area.
On your marks!!!
We were off. At the all in, I cupped in some corn down both margin swims and also at 5m. I then proceeded to fire casters out to my chosen shallow length. I baited up with worm on the hook, shipped out, fired some casters over the top and caught a roach. God did tell me that I would get pestered by the bits for the first hour or so, then the carp (F1’s) should move in, then I should start bagging.
Whilst I was continuing to fish up in the water, I was all the while keeping an eye on my margin swims and I was also baiting up down both sides and at 5m. After about an hour, I had about 5lb or so of silver fish, and a couple of small crucian carp. I had just caught a small roach, I re-baited with worm again, shipped out, dropped in and the elastic streamed out.
Carp No 1 was soon in my keepnet and added about 1lb to my weight. I repeated the process and it was about another hour before I got my next carp, again, about 1lb in weight.
I was constantly keeping an eye on all those around me and apart from the bloke on Peg 2 or 3 (I think his name was Les Thompson?) no one seemed to be breaking any records. Les was catching by feeding a few pellets in a pole cup, and adding something else, then putting a squirt of red liquid in the pot, presumably Predator Plus which had been doing some damage on the venue. When he tipped his bait in, there would be a big red slick in his peg, then he would eventually catch a fish, mainly carp. The only downside was that this slick was also going through about 4 or 5 pegs to his left.
2 ½ hours into the match, I threw a good handful of casters down to my right hand side swim. Some 20 minutes later I saw some tails and the water was clouding up down the side. I quickly shipped back in and swapped over to my margin rig.
I baited up with a grain of corn on the hook, dropped in the middle of the now cloudy water and waited. I waited and I waited. I came back, swapped over to meat on the hook, threw some more casters down over the cloudy water and dropped in. My float went this way, it went that way, but it wouldn’t put its head under the water.
I thought ‘Right, they want caster’. I came back, put on 3 casters, fed some more, then dropped in. The float had been in the water about 3 minutes, the float shot under and a roach about 3 oz was soon in the net.
The water was still clouding. I put a worm on the hook, dropped in and waited. After a couple of minutes, the float buried and a perch was found to be the culprit. I had only put on half a worm and the worm was still bigger than the perch.
With about 1 hour to go, I made the decision to leave my margin swim and concentrate on my 5m line, which had been lovingly pre-baited all match and the fish should be queuing up to get to my bait.
I baited up with corn on the hook, dropped in and fed a handful of casters over the top. After about 5 minutes, I caught a trench of about 8oz. Next drop in and a carp of about 5lb was soon on it’s way. There was about 30 minutes of the match left. The bloke to my right (Dave from Nottingham/Derby?) was steadily starting to put a few fish together by fishing in the deep water. He later told me that he started to fill it in with maggots at 8m, and fished corn over the top. He ended up with 7 carp.
Dad must have seen me catch my big carp as he was worried and he was asking me ‘Mick, what weight have you got?’ ‘5lb’ I replied.
By the time of the all out, I had managed to snare another smaller carp of about 2lb. I was admitting to 14/15lb and Dad was admitting to 19/20lb. I gave him my quid, even before the scales had arrived. Being the gent that Dad is, he wanted to get off. He gave me my quid back and tipped back. I told him that he owed me a quid now as he was a DNW and I was going to weigh. After all of the crying and sobbing, I relented and tipped back also.
O’Dear had caught a few and weighed in 37lb odd. So I was a quid down after all and the series is now 1 all.
I thanked all around me and made for my journey home. It took me 3 hours and 4 minutes and I averaged 47 mph. A 300 mile round trip and 6 hours on the road. That is motorway driving for you.
Any way’s I still enjoyed the match as it was somewhere new and the fishing was different to what I had been doing in terms of fishing into open water and fishing against an island. I was also told to expect some big fish which also leads to the anticipation.
Roll on next year.
Match fishing magazine ran a competition in order to win a ticket to fish the inaugural Match fishing Subscriber Classic, which was being held at Woodland View Druidic.And through a cancellation or another, and a few e-mails here and there, I managed to get a ticket, courtesy of the Rochdale Raver putting my name forward to Mr Harrell. In response to one of my e-mails Mr Harrell replied something along the lines of ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH, although I may have missed a few A’s and R’s off the reply.
I gleaned all the information that I could from Jon Arthur (Dudley Moore). I had to e-mail him once or twice (he he) to get the info as he was less than forthcoming with his tips, he even tried to charge me a pound a tip (well at least it wouldn’t have cost me a lot). The general consensus was a corn approach with meat over the top, although things were on the change and it could be a maggot day or a worm day or even a pellet day. I wished that I’d never asked.
I even e-mailed my mate Coxy, who had just returned from his jollies in Turkey. He basically backed up what Dudley had said.
What a palaver?
I was up early in order to have a nice relaxing steady drive down there. I set off at 2 minutes past 6 and was hoping to be there by 8:00 – 8:15. I was making good progress down the M1 and by 7:10, I was already at junction 13 of the M42/A42(?). This is where my day started to go wrong. By 7:45, I was at Junction 12 of the M42 – as Mr Harrell would say ‘AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!. Whilst I was stuck in traffic due to the M42 being closed between junctions 11 and 10, I got out my trusty atlas (who needs satnav?) and started to travel cross country, past Twycross Zoo and round the lanes and all over. I managed to get back on the M42 at Junction 10, just below the accident and was then met by traffic calming speed restrictions between junctions 9 and about 4. Traffic Calming, what the flip do they know about TRAFFIC CALMING. Here I am in a rush to get somewhere, I am on a motorway and I can only do 50mph maximum speed. Calm, was I calm? Is Dave Harrell really The Hoff in disguise? Answers on a postcard please.
I finally managed to arrive at 8:50 for a 9:00 draw. That gave me 10 minutes to get something to eat and to get into the draw queue.
I ordered a brekkie and then joined a table with O’Dear Driscoll, Sconeeee, Andy T and God’s Dad, Steve May. Dad was quizzing me about my in depth knowledge of the place, but I knew even less than him. Whilst I was torturing Dad for all the info, apparently someone shouted my number for me to go and get my brekkie. In view of being somewhat slightly deaf, I couldn’t hear them. After some 5 minutes of wasting away, I went in search of my brekkie. Due to the stress that I had endured getting here, taking into consideration the Traffic Calming, I got a wee bit of indigestion whilst eating my brekkie. 2 Sausage, eggs, bacon, beans, tomatoes, toast and what ever else was on my plate in less than 3 minutes then into the draw queue.
In view of taking a quid off O’Dear a couple of weeks ago, the return side bet was back on; let’s see if I can keep up my good record of one from one.
Dad told me to come and see him when I had drawn as he was going to speak to God and get all the info on his lake and his peg. I put my hand into the magic box and pulled out……….. High 33?????
From all the info that I had received, this was probably the only lake that I didn’t want to be on. It is the deepest lake on the venue and it is teeming with silvers.
When I found Dad, he was speaking to God. I managed to prise the phone out of his grip and spoke to God myself. God told me that High pool is a good up in the water pool with caster as loose feed and worm on the hook, the best way to score.
I didn’t have any casters, but I did have some worm, about ½ a kilo. God said to keep feeding the casters, fish with worm on the hook and stick at it. I would get bitted out to start then the carp, predominantly F1’s will come in, and you can build up a good weight. He also said ‘do not forget to feed the inside line’.
I quickly went into the onsite shop and stole 3 pints of casters and another ¼ kilo of worm. One of us was stealing as it cost me £12.00. In addition, I also had some 3 tins of corn, 6mm cubed meat and some rough meat that I had pulled to bits.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had Dad at the back on me on Arles pool. I quickly struck up a quid with him, hoping that youth and enthusiasm would earn me a quid against age and experience.
In view of my newly acquired information, I set up the following rigs:
Down the side rig:
I set up a .2g Colmic float with a rugby ball body and a fat plastic bristle. This was attached to .16 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 12 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up down the side to my right about 5m along the bank and about 2ft from the bank and found that I had about 18” of depth. I used the same rig to plumb up down to my left and side and plumbed around until I found the same depth.
Shallow rig:
I set up a Preston Bazzerla PB2 taking 4 x 10 shot. This was attached to .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. I had a maximum of 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip with the bulk of shot about 6 – 8” from the hook, this would allow me to alter my depth by about 12 – 18”. I planned to fish at about 9 – 10m out.
My deep rig:
I set up a middy 4 x 16 float which caught my eye whilst in my tackle shop the other day. It is a rugby ball shape, with a long carbon stem (which I trimmed down) and a long plastic bristle. The line also passes through the side of the body. I set this up on .16 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook.
For both the side and deep rig’s I was using black hydro through the power top twos and for the shallow rig, I was using grey hydro through a match 2 & 3.
Dad’s peg looked a little better than mine, he had an island that was within reach (14m) and this was his main target area.
On your marks!!!
We were off. At the all in, I cupped in some corn down both margin swims and also at 5m. I then proceeded to fire casters out to my chosen shallow length. I baited up with worm on the hook, shipped out, fired some casters over the top and caught a roach. God did tell me that I would get pestered by the bits for the first hour or so, then the carp (F1’s) should move in, then I should start bagging.
Whilst I was continuing to fish up in the water, I was all the while keeping an eye on my margin swims and I was also baiting up down both sides and at 5m. After about an hour, I had about 5lb or so of silver fish, and a couple of small crucian carp. I had just caught a small roach, I re-baited with worm again, shipped out, dropped in and the elastic streamed out.
Carp No 1 was soon in my keepnet and added about 1lb to my weight. I repeated the process and it was about another hour before I got my next carp, again, about 1lb in weight.
I was constantly keeping an eye on all those around me and apart from the bloke on Peg 2 or 3 (I think his name was Les Thompson?) no one seemed to be breaking any records. Les was catching by feeding a few pellets in a pole cup, and adding something else, then putting a squirt of red liquid in the pot, presumably Predator Plus which had been doing some damage on the venue. When he tipped his bait in, there would be a big red slick in his peg, then he would eventually catch a fish, mainly carp. The only downside was that this slick was also going through about 4 or 5 pegs to his left.
2 ½ hours into the match, I threw a good handful of casters down to my right hand side swim. Some 20 minutes later I saw some tails and the water was clouding up down the side. I quickly shipped back in and swapped over to my margin rig.
I baited up with a grain of corn on the hook, dropped in the middle of the now cloudy water and waited. I waited and I waited. I came back, swapped over to meat on the hook, threw some more casters down over the cloudy water and dropped in. My float went this way, it went that way, but it wouldn’t put its head under the water.
I thought ‘Right, they want caster’. I came back, put on 3 casters, fed some more, then dropped in. The float had been in the water about 3 minutes, the float shot under and a roach about 3 oz was soon in the net.
The water was still clouding. I put a worm on the hook, dropped in and waited. After a couple of minutes, the float buried and a perch was found to be the culprit. I had only put on half a worm and the worm was still bigger than the perch.
With about 1 hour to go, I made the decision to leave my margin swim and concentrate on my 5m line, which had been lovingly pre-baited all match and the fish should be queuing up to get to my bait.
I baited up with corn on the hook, dropped in and fed a handful of casters over the top. After about 5 minutes, I caught a trench of about 8oz. Next drop in and a carp of about 5lb was soon on it’s way. There was about 30 minutes of the match left. The bloke to my right (Dave from Nottingham/Derby?) was steadily starting to put a few fish together by fishing in the deep water. He later told me that he started to fill it in with maggots at 8m, and fished corn over the top. He ended up with 7 carp.
Dad must have seen me catch my big carp as he was worried and he was asking me ‘Mick, what weight have you got?’ ‘5lb’ I replied.
By the time of the all out, I had managed to snare another smaller carp of about 2lb. I was admitting to 14/15lb and Dad was admitting to 19/20lb. I gave him my quid, even before the scales had arrived. Being the gent that Dad is, he wanted to get off. He gave me my quid back and tipped back. I told him that he owed me a quid now as he was a DNW and I was going to weigh. After all of the crying and sobbing, I relented and tipped back also.
O’Dear had caught a few and weighed in 37lb odd. So I was a quid down after all and the series is now 1 all.
I thanked all around me and made for my journey home. It took me 3 hours and 4 minutes and I averaged 47 mph. A 300 mile round trip and 6 hours on the road. That is motorway driving for you.
Any way’s I still enjoyed the match as it was somewhere new and the fishing was different to what I had been doing in terms of fishing into open water and fishing against an island. I was also told to expect some big fish which also leads to the anticipation.
Roll on next year.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Saturday 2nd September 2006
Intersite Individual - Barston Lakes, Midlands
After all the apprehension and the build up to the intersite individual match taking place at Nigel Harrhy's place at Barston, the day was finally upon us, us being Andy Purvis (Purverted) and I.
One of the most popular questions that I had been asked in relation to the match was, why was I going? Because (I know you shouldn't start a sentence with 'because') it is something different and I also wanted to put a face to the names that I have got to know from the Total-Fishing website.
In view of the recent Drennan Superleague match being held on the lake recently, I asked about for one or two ideas about how to go on. I managed to wangle some method feeders (never used the method before) from Johnny Bradders, I had a chat with Des Southern and I also saw Mark Addy in my local tackle shop.
The general consensus was to fish the method feeder with either dead red maggot or mini boilies on the hook or fish the pole with either a pellet or chopped worm approach.
I arranged for Purverted to be at my house for 6:30 in order to allow us 2 hours to get there, then have a brekkie before the 9:30 draw. We timed it just about right, as we didn't leave my house until nearly 6:45 and we arrived by 8:30 courtesy of my navigational skills, although I did take my eyes off the road and the map on occasions (and I thought my driving was scary, you ain't seen Purverted drive yet, when you see him, ask him about the ducks in the middle of the road on the way home from work about a year ago).
Barston lake is a 21 acre lake with 100 pegs set along side a golf course and the draw and breakfast was to take place in the 19th hole. When I arrived at the door of the 19th hole, I was half expecting a commissioner to open the door for me and point me in the direction of some slippers.
For my bait list I had 1 bag of green swimstim bulked out with micro pellets, already prepared to deaden the mix, a couple of bags of micro pellets, hard 4mm pellets, hooker pellets, 1/2 pt dead red maggots, 1 small tin of corn, 1/2 kilo of worms and some mini boilies (cheers Bradders).
The interesite was to be contested between members from Total-Fishing.com, Maggotdrowners (?), the recently re-vamped Talk Angling and not sure of other sites. By the time of the draw, there were 29 of us there, mainly Total-Fishing members.
I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 94. Well, what did I know about peg 94. Nothing, nada, zilch, zero. Purverted put his hand in and drew peg 80, he knew even less than me. Harrhy (?) was next to Purverted on peg 81. Red Army was 3 or 4 pegs away from me on peg 90/91 .
Quid action? Whilst I was having my breakfast Red Army shouted that I chickened out of the intersite match that took place at Lindholme Lakes, Doncaster. The book was opened, my first quid account was struck. I also proceeded to have a quid with anglers both sides of me. Now this is where I must offer my apologies to Neil Powell who was next to me on peg 95. I went to the lad on peg 93 and offered him out for a quid, this was quickly accepted and I then went to the fella who was hiding behind his umbrella on peg 95 and shouted across to him, if he wanted a quid. This was duly accepted. I got the chap to look out from behind his umbrella and thought, blimey mate, I don't want to be taking any of your heating money, but then again, sod that it was warm. In view of Purvedted being present, the obligatory £2 was struck!!
The Weather.
I thought that it was windy at Sessay until I arrived here. There was a slight wind blowing, it must have been the strongest wind of the year. I set my pole up at 13m and very very quickly brought it back to 10/11m. I didn't want to risk seeing my pole get snapped and go flying down the lake.
All the gear, no idea.
I set up 2 pole rigs which both incorporated Drennan Roach floats;
1st rig was a 4 x 14 float on Maver Genesis .14 mainline with a .12 hooklength tied to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to Grey Hydro.
my 2nd rig was a .5g float set up as above. I plumbed up at 10m with both rigs as the wind wasn't going to let me plumb up any further without smashing my pole first. At 10m I found a pretty flat even bottom where I had about 3.5ft of depth. I attached this one to white hydro.
I also set up the obligatory method rod. This consisted of a Maver multi-tip 11/13ft feeder rod (set at 11') with a Shimano Perfection Match reel attached. I had 6lb Maxima has my mainline. I attached one of Bradders' Fox method feeders (25g) and I was ready to go.
Prior to the all in, Purverted came up to see me and told me that he had seen 5 carp topping in his peg, 2 to the left, 1 at about 16m in front, 1 at 25m in front and 1 to his right. The winner of the match held yesterday (Friday) came from about peg 82/83 and he begged and pleaded and grovelled his way to borrowing my rod. He had either forgotten his or he couldn't be bothered taking it. In view of us going halves and him being in the right area, I obliged.
At the all in, I cupped in 3 medium balls of groundbait and pellets on to the 10m line and immediately went over with the .5g float rig and pellet as hookbait. The lad to my right fed a little further out on his pole line, then chucked his method feeder out.
After about 3 or 4 minutes, my float buried and carp no1 one was soon in the keepnet. I dropped in again with a tosspot full of pellets and groundbait. I dropped in over the top, the float dipped and I lost a foul-hooked carp.
Next drop in, I foul-hooked another. On my 4th drop in, I caught another carp. 40 minutes in and I had a total of 2 carp for about 2.5lb. The lad to my right had a couple of carp and a couple of skimmers on the method. He had seen me starting to get a few fish on the pole, he came in on his pole line and caught a skimmer almost immediately.
I swapped over to corn on the hook. I shipped out the pole, dropped in and a skimmer about 8oz had a liking for the hookbait. The skimmers had finally arrived.
After a further fruitless 30 minutes, I went to go and see Purverted to see if he was bagging on my bomb rod. He was out on the pole and had been done up like a kipper once. I got my bomb rod back and went back to my peg.
I chucked the method out with corn has hookbait, put it on the rest and waited. The tip trembled, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the wind. I waited a little longer and the tip still trembled, I struck and carp no 3 was soon on it's way. I made a decision, I was going to change my 10m line over to a groundbait and chopped worm line. I chopped some worms up and cupped them in. I chucked back out on the method and after about 15 minutes, I caught a skimmer of about 8oz. I waited another 20 mintues, and nothing. It was time to try the worm.
I baited up with half a worm on the hook, dropped it in and caught a carp almost immediately. That was it, they wanted worm, or so I thought.
Purverted had in the meantime, come back down to me. He couldn't hold his pole and wondered if he could have the rod back. The lad who was on peg 84 was bagging on the method and Harrhy was starting to get a few.
The wind was only slightly stronger than what it was an hour ago and was steadily increasing in speed as the match progressed. Atleast I could hold a pole in my peg.
I then fished the remainder of the match on the worm, feeding small amounts of worm and groundbait after every fish. I managed to snare another 3 carp with the biggest one being about 5lb, a couple of roach (which I might add are generally nuisance fish), and a few more skimmers.
At the all out, the rain started to drizzle, unless it was the spray being carried 50m from the fountain next to the 18th hole, which was a little island straight infront of me. Every so often I thought that I saw a fish top, it wasn't. It was a golf ball splash landing from the palyers with a handicap of over 100. It was a bit like tennis - chip and charge!!! I wonder if Harrhy has got some scuba gear to get all of the golf balls for a little bit of cash on the side.
Purverted was soon at my peg and gave me back my method rod - too late mate, the match is over. I asked him what he weighed, he said 11lb. I missed his 2 quids.
By the time that the scales arrived Red Army had weighed in 14lb (another quid up), the lad to my right weighed in 25lb (he managed to snare a few by alternating both the pole and the method feeder). I lifted my net out and plonked 21lb on the scales. Purverted had cost me a quid.
Oh well, there was Neil Powell to weigh in to my left yet. He had had 2 carp for not a lot. £5 up, £1 down.
It was back to the 19th hole for a beer and something to eat. Whilst I was munching on the food provided by Harrhy (note to self, do not let Harrhy employ me, he was snapping at the staff about the poor service, which to be honest, I hadn't noticed was bad), he slapped a bird on the posterior. He said it was alright, it was his missus. I told him that I thought that it was customary, and I started to form an orderly queue.
The overall result
1st Lee Taylor 77lb.
2nd Keith Taylor 51.8
3rd Ian Topliss 44.12
Sections
A R Byas 42.4
B J Sterndale 36.8
C M Kay 37.4
D M Paynter 36.8
Well done Lee.
Overall, it was windy, but it was a good day as a change is as good as a rest. I met a few faces, Sconneeeeee, Andy Topliss, Andy Jameson (?), Neil Powell, Neil H, Harrhy and to the rest, sorry if I have missed you off.
Here's to the venue and the match, hopefully there will be a few more at the next one and I hope to see some of you at the Duane memorial match in October. There's over 200 on now.
Tighlines and bent rods!!!
Intersite Individual - Barston Lakes, Midlands
After all the apprehension and the build up to the intersite individual match taking place at Nigel Harrhy's place at Barston, the day was finally upon us, us being Andy Purvis (Purverted) and I.
One of the most popular questions that I had been asked in relation to the match was, why was I going? Because (I know you shouldn't start a sentence with 'because') it is something different and I also wanted to put a face to the names that I have got to know from the Total-Fishing website.
In view of the recent Drennan Superleague match being held on the lake recently, I asked about for one or two ideas about how to go on. I managed to wangle some method feeders (never used the method before) from Johnny Bradders, I had a chat with Des Southern and I also saw Mark Addy in my local tackle shop.
The general consensus was to fish the method feeder with either dead red maggot or mini boilies on the hook or fish the pole with either a pellet or chopped worm approach.
I arranged for Purverted to be at my house for 6:30 in order to allow us 2 hours to get there, then have a brekkie before the 9:30 draw. We timed it just about right, as we didn't leave my house until nearly 6:45 and we arrived by 8:30 courtesy of my navigational skills, although I did take my eyes off the road and the map on occasions (and I thought my driving was scary, you ain't seen Purverted drive yet, when you see him, ask him about the ducks in the middle of the road on the way home from work about a year ago).
Barston lake is a 21 acre lake with 100 pegs set along side a golf course and the draw and breakfast was to take place in the 19th hole. When I arrived at the door of the 19th hole, I was half expecting a commissioner to open the door for me and point me in the direction of some slippers.
For my bait list I had 1 bag of green swimstim bulked out with micro pellets, already prepared to deaden the mix, a couple of bags of micro pellets, hard 4mm pellets, hooker pellets, 1/2 pt dead red maggots, 1 small tin of corn, 1/2 kilo of worms and some mini boilies (cheers Bradders).
The interesite was to be contested between members from Total-Fishing.com, Maggotdrowners (?), the recently re-vamped Talk Angling and not sure of other sites. By the time of the draw, there were 29 of us there, mainly Total-Fishing members.
I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 94. Well, what did I know about peg 94. Nothing, nada, zilch, zero. Purverted put his hand in and drew peg 80, he knew even less than me. Harrhy (?) was next to Purverted on peg 81. Red Army was 3 or 4 pegs away from me on peg 90/91 .
Quid action? Whilst I was having my breakfast Red Army shouted that I chickened out of the intersite match that took place at Lindholme Lakes, Doncaster. The book was opened, my first quid account was struck. I also proceeded to have a quid with anglers both sides of me. Now this is where I must offer my apologies to Neil Powell who was next to me on peg 95. I went to the lad on peg 93 and offered him out for a quid, this was quickly accepted and I then went to the fella who was hiding behind his umbrella on peg 95 and shouted across to him, if he wanted a quid. This was duly accepted. I got the chap to look out from behind his umbrella and thought, blimey mate, I don't want to be taking any of your heating money, but then again, sod that it was warm. In view of Purvedted being present, the obligatory £2 was struck!!
The Weather.
I thought that it was windy at Sessay until I arrived here. There was a slight wind blowing, it must have been the strongest wind of the year. I set my pole up at 13m and very very quickly brought it back to 10/11m. I didn't want to risk seeing my pole get snapped and go flying down the lake.
All the gear, no idea.
I set up 2 pole rigs which both incorporated Drennan Roach floats;
1st rig was a 4 x 14 float on Maver Genesis .14 mainline with a .12 hooklength tied to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to Grey Hydro.
my 2nd rig was a .5g float set up as above. I plumbed up at 10m with both rigs as the wind wasn't going to let me plumb up any further without smashing my pole first. At 10m I found a pretty flat even bottom where I had about 3.5ft of depth. I attached this one to white hydro.
I also set up the obligatory method rod. This consisted of a Maver multi-tip 11/13ft feeder rod (set at 11') with a Shimano Perfection Match reel attached. I had 6lb Maxima has my mainline. I attached one of Bradders' Fox method feeders (25g) and I was ready to go.
Prior to the all in, Purverted came up to see me and told me that he had seen 5 carp topping in his peg, 2 to the left, 1 at about 16m in front, 1 at 25m in front and 1 to his right. The winner of the match held yesterday (Friday) came from about peg 82/83 and he begged and pleaded and grovelled his way to borrowing my rod. He had either forgotten his or he couldn't be bothered taking it. In view of us going halves and him being in the right area, I obliged.
At the all in, I cupped in 3 medium balls of groundbait and pellets on to the 10m line and immediately went over with the .5g float rig and pellet as hookbait. The lad to my right fed a little further out on his pole line, then chucked his method feeder out.
After about 3 or 4 minutes, my float buried and carp no1 one was soon in the keepnet. I dropped in again with a tosspot full of pellets and groundbait. I dropped in over the top, the float dipped and I lost a foul-hooked carp.
Next drop in, I foul-hooked another. On my 4th drop in, I caught another carp. 40 minutes in and I had a total of 2 carp for about 2.5lb. The lad to my right had a couple of carp and a couple of skimmers on the method. He had seen me starting to get a few fish on the pole, he came in on his pole line and caught a skimmer almost immediately.
I swapped over to corn on the hook. I shipped out the pole, dropped in and a skimmer about 8oz had a liking for the hookbait. The skimmers had finally arrived.
After a further fruitless 30 minutes, I went to go and see Purverted to see if he was bagging on my bomb rod. He was out on the pole and had been done up like a kipper once. I got my bomb rod back and went back to my peg.
I chucked the method out with corn has hookbait, put it on the rest and waited. The tip trembled, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the wind. I waited a little longer and the tip still trembled, I struck and carp no 3 was soon on it's way. I made a decision, I was going to change my 10m line over to a groundbait and chopped worm line. I chopped some worms up and cupped them in. I chucked back out on the method and after about 15 minutes, I caught a skimmer of about 8oz. I waited another 20 mintues, and nothing. It was time to try the worm.
I baited up with half a worm on the hook, dropped it in and caught a carp almost immediately. That was it, they wanted worm, or so I thought.
Purverted had in the meantime, come back down to me. He couldn't hold his pole and wondered if he could have the rod back. The lad who was on peg 84 was bagging on the method and Harrhy was starting to get a few.
The wind was only slightly stronger than what it was an hour ago and was steadily increasing in speed as the match progressed. Atleast I could hold a pole in my peg.
I then fished the remainder of the match on the worm, feeding small amounts of worm and groundbait after every fish. I managed to snare another 3 carp with the biggest one being about 5lb, a couple of roach (which I might add are generally nuisance fish), and a few more skimmers.
At the all out, the rain started to drizzle, unless it was the spray being carried 50m from the fountain next to the 18th hole, which was a little island straight infront of me. Every so often I thought that I saw a fish top, it wasn't. It was a golf ball splash landing from the palyers with a handicap of over 100. It was a bit like tennis - chip and charge!!! I wonder if Harrhy has got some scuba gear to get all of the golf balls for a little bit of cash on the side.
Purverted was soon at my peg and gave me back my method rod - too late mate, the match is over. I asked him what he weighed, he said 11lb. I missed his 2 quids.
By the time that the scales arrived Red Army had weighed in 14lb (another quid up), the lad to my right weighed in 25lb (he managed to snare a few by alternating both the pole and the method feeder). I lifted my net out and plonked 21lb on the scales. Purverted had cost me a quid.
Oh well, there was Neil Powell to weigh in to my left yet. He had had 2 carp for not a lot. £5 up, £1 down.
It was back to the 19th hole for a beer and something to eat. Whilst I was munching on the food provided by Harrhy (note to self, do not let Harrhy employ me, he was snapping at the staff about the poor service, which to be honest, I hadn't noticed was bad), he slapped a bird on the posterior. He said it was alright, it was his missus. I told him that I thought that it was customary, and I started to form an orderly queue.
The overall result
1st Lee Taylor 77lb.
2nd Keith Taylor 51.8
3rd Ian Topliss 44.12
Sections
A R Byas 42.4
B J Sterndale 36.8
C M Kay 37.4
D M Paynter 36.8
Well done Lee.
Overall, it was windy, but it was a good day as a change is as good as a rest. I met a few faces, Sconneeeeee, Andy Topliss, Andy Jameson (?), Neil Powell, Neil H, Harrhy and to the rest, sorry if I have missed you off.
Here's to the venue and the match, hopefully there will be a few more at the next one and I hope to see some of you at the Duane memorial match in October. There's over 200 on now.
Tighlines and bent rods!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)