Sunday 15th October 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay

Panic is still re-building the interior of his lad’s house, so still isn’t going to The Oaks yet. The qualifiers for the Xmas Cheer have started with the first qualifier being last week.

I managed to sweet talk Anthony ‘Jasper’ Scarlett into attending and I had planned to pick him up or vice versa, but he managed to talk Garry Parr into making the trek, so I was left to travel under my own devices.

I arrived in plenty of time and by the time of the draw there were 44 of us in attendance.

Following Harry Potters’ result last week, winning off the jackpot peg, there were 2 jackpot pegs this week. Peg 37, which was safe no matter who drew it (Gandhi) and peg 4 (Graham Twohey).

The Pacifier, Macca, Nightie and Orc were in attendance so the obligatory quid’s were struck. I paid Nightie his quid from the previous match and we were all square.

I put my hand in the bag and managed to snare peg 40. I didn’t want to be there at all. On the peg 38 I had Martin ‘Lecky’ Leck of Daiwa Goldthorpe fame and to my right I had Ray ‘Ron Jeremy’ Singh (again) on peg 41. Ron was told last year by his sponsors, that he had to practice his winter fishing. I think he has been doing that all year. My quid’s were going to peg 49 (Orc), 59 (Macca), 73 (Nightie) and 62 (Pacifier).

Whilst I was setting up my vast array of rigs, Lecky cajoled me into a quid so I thought that I would have a quid with Ron to my right in the hope that I could beat one of them to pay the other. If you go back over my results, I haven’t as yet, beaten Ron off the next peg, so it looked like my quid off Lecky was going to go to Ron.

My plan of attack for today was going to be micro pellet and maggot with a bit of corn as a change bait.

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Deep rig was a .75g Drennan Roach tied direct to .12 Fox Match Micro Plus line with a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook at the business end. I attached this rig to grey hydro. I plumbed up at 3m and found the same depth at 9m straight in front of me.

Shelf rig was a 4x12 Daiwa TD7. This was attached to .11 Preston Powerline direct to a Kamasan B911 hook. White Hydro completed this set up. I plumbed up across and found about 2ft of depth.

My 3rd and final rig was a ‘mudline’ rig, which I set at 12” deep and plumbed up right across to the island. I used a .1g Garbolino DC6 on .12 Micro Plus tied direct to a size 17 Kamasan B711. White Hydro completed this set up.

For bait I had 2pts white maggots, 1 small tin of corn and 1pt micro pellets.
At the start of the match, I cupped a little bait in on top of the shelf consisting of about 10 maggots and a pinch of micro pellets. I put a big tosspot of the same in down the middle and proceeded to throw a few bits and pieces in on the 3m line.

I baited up with double maggot, went across with the shelf rig and dropped in and waited. My float ‘dinked’ then buried. Gudgeon number 1 was soon in the net. Ron’s float dinked and shot under. F1 number was in his net. I went back over and caught another gudgeon – little baskets. I had one last go before resting the line and this time I managed to snare a carp of about 1lb.

I got my catapult out and started to flick half a dozen maggots over my float and over to the mudline. After about 10 minutes of fishing with the shelf rig, I had about 3 little carp and 3 or 4 gudgeon. I saw a fish moving on the mudline. I baited up with double white maggot and went over with the mudline rig. The float settled, then bobbed, then 4ft of white hydro shot out from the pole tip. This wasn’t a gudgeon. After a tense battle and a struggle to get the fish off the bottom a carp of about 4lb was in the net.

I re-baited and went back over. Nothing. I came back and swapped over to my shelf rig again, baited up with a single maggot and went back over to the shelf. The float didn’t even settle when battle ensued. After about 5 minutes and the white hydro bottoming out a couple of times a barbel of about 4lb was wriggling in the bottom of the landing net.

I went back over with the shelf rig and managed to snare a couple more gudgeon.

I decided to have a look on the 3m line as I had been prepping the peg for the last hour or so. First drop in, resulted in a carp of about 2lb. I stayed on this line for the next half hour, by which time I had managed to snare another 5 carp for about 4lb in weight. I then saw a boil across on the mudline. It was time to have another look. I swapped to the mudline rig, baited up with single maggot, went over and caught the offending culprit within a couple of minutes. The culprit being a carp of about 3lb.

I was still playing catch-up with Lecky although by now I was in front of Ron. I would estimate that Lecky had about 5lb more than me.

Over the next couple of hours, I was rotating my swims trying to get fish off all of them. You would catch a couple of carp of each line, then it would go quiet. Using the deep rig, I plumbed up in 3 spots at the base of the slope, 1 in the middle and one about 5m to either side of my peg on the same line. The depth was the same on all lines. I put in corn and micro pellets in on the right hand side swim. Maggot’s straight in front, and pellets and maggots to my left hand swim. I tried the corn swim first. After a few minutes, the float buried and I managed to snare a carp of about 1.5lb. I moved to my middle swim and managed to catch 2 carp for about 2lb. I then moved to my left swim and for the remaining 1 hr 30 minutes of the match didn’t look back.

The only change that I made was to swap my rig over to a 4 x 16 Series Top float shotted with a bulk of Preston Stotz and a couple of droppers. What a difference that made. Just as the float was settling, the float buried almost immediately. In view of enjoying myself, both Lecky and Ron were on the end of some earache pain. But to be fair, they were both giving as good as they got.

At one point, whilst observing Ron’s float, I could see the float going sideways, I shouted ‘Ron, you have a fish on’ after the 3 time of shouting, Ron struck and snared a gudgeon.

Over the last hour of the match I was catching a mixture of carp and barbel, with the odd gudgeon thrown in for good measure.

By the all out, it was going to be close between the 3 of us, although I felt that I had done enough to beat Ron, I wasn’t sure about Lecky though.

The scales arrived and Young Adam was winning the match off peg 20 with 88-08, Twohey was second with 79lb-12 and Alwin had 79lb-05. Gandhi put 36lb on the scales from one of the jackpot pegs. Lecky weighed in 41lb dead. It was going to be close. I put 42lb 5oz on the scales, well I was a quid up already. Ron plonked 38lb 14oz on the scales. Another quid!!! Boy did those to get some pain off me.

After I weighed in, both Lecky and Ron Jeremy couldn’t believe getting beat off the next peg by a numpty. All they could say was ‘I got beat off the next peg by a numpty’. He he.

Talking of Numpties

On The Oaks Banter discussion forum http://oaksbanter.proboards19.com/index.cgi we have a section for Numpty of the week, and this week the nominated person has not been nominated once, but 6 times all for different things. All of the following nominations are following a string of events and mishaps that took place whilst the ‘nominated’ was at the White Acres Festival. See how many clues it takes before you know who it is?

Nominations as for the following:

Getting battered (is not the word) off the next peg by none other than Darren Cox. ‘Nominated’ managed to snare 46lb odd, whilst Mr Cox managed to snare 187lb (that is over 300% more than nominated).

Getting battered (Oh No, not again) off the next peg by a certain festival winner who goes by the name of Mr Machin. ‘Nominated’ managed to catch 40lb (ish) again, although I may be wrong (with regards to ‘Nominated’s weight, but not the battering), whilst Mr Machin won the match with over 140lb.

Realising that he was taller than he thought by walking into a sign that said ‘Mind Your Head’ and nearly knocking himself unconscious. When he arrived at his peg, he had to have a 10 minute sit down to recover.

Getting battered (Do you see a familiar story here), by King Numpty – Micky ‘Deirdre’ Barlow off the next peg. Well Deirdre had 2oz more than ‘Nominated’, but hey a win is a win. Deirdre also won the section.

Breaking his beloved Carbon Active feeder rod – By standing on it.

Whilst attempting to fish the pellet waggler and show off his angling skills, ‘Nominated’ had a few casts to judge how far he could cast to get up the side of a tree. When he had his first real cast with a baited hook, he caught a carp of about 5lb. Nothing wrong there I might add. On his second cast, ‘Nominated’ took his eye off the ball and ended up in said tree.

Do you know who it is yet?

None other than The Oaks’ Hattie Jacques in drag himself. MR JOHN CHAPMAN. After speaking with Chappy, he told me it was great fun. Yeah, sounds like it!!! And he was trying to persuade me to go down next year. I don’t think that I will bother, as I don’t want to relinquish Numpty Numero Uno of his crown!!

By the time the scales had arrived back, I had beaten Orc (26lb 5oz), Nightie (35lb 3oz) and The Pacifier (24lb 13oz). The only quid(s) that I lost were to Macca who managed to snare 46lb 5oz from peg 59. It must have been solid!!! My weight was the best weight from peg 30 right round to peg 51. I had been Charisma Pawlett, Tala and Gandhi to name but a few.

Final Result

Adam Richards (Garbolino Elton) 88-08. Peg 20

Graham Twohey (Morley Match Anglers) 79-12. Peg 4

Alwin Ingham (Bob-Co/Oaks) 79-05. Peg 14

Ray Wallace (Big Waters) 62-13. Peg 7

Craig Lealand (Daiwa Goldthorpe) 62-01. Peg 1

Lee Harrison (Van Den Eynde) 58-09. Peg 29