Total Page Views

Monday, April 24, 2006

Sunday 23rd April 2006.

The Oaks Lakes, Sessay.

Panic came and picked me up looking a little worse for wear. His son had an early 30th birthday party as he was going to be in Italy for the AC Milan game on his actual birthday, courtesy of a present from his girlfriend. Panic was feeling slightly unwell, despite drinking 3 cups of coffee this morning, due to the mixture of alcohol. He told me that Tetley’s, John Smith’s and Guinness do not mix. I took his word for it.

Panic is also getting rid of his van and getting another one. Hopefully one with an accelerator. He is, he said, getting a new van as he is going back to work. I said, “You have been working”. He said “Yeah, but not getting paid for it”. Panic has been helping his son do up his new house. A new house in terms of moving in, but an old house in terms of in need of modernisation.

After an uneventful trip to The Oaks, well we were in the van and Panic was driving, we arrived in plenty of time for a breakfast, without rushing. Panic was on a pairs match, utilising Poplars and Alders Lakes. His partner for the day was Ken Golightly, whose usual partner was away on holiday. Ken was going to be on Alders Lake and Gordon was going to be on Poplars Lake.

Gordon was going to go to his peg first, as they drew at 9:30, set up and after I have drawn, I give him a ring and he will drop my gear off at my peg. Gordon drew peg 35. Pretty much like most pegs on Poplars Lake. He should get a few there.

Pegging

By the time of the draw, there were 65 of us that had paid on the match and 4 people that travel from Manchester all in the same car who had not yet arrived. I put 69 pegs into the draw bag to accommodate the 4 from Manchester, has no one had their telephone number, they had not called me or left any messages at home and I thought that they may have been delayed travelling over.

The only problem with putting in the extra pegs is that there are always going to be complaints about empty pegs, pegs that had not been drawn. Adonis Mitchell had drawn one of the pegs that gave him an empty peg both sides. Most people accept that it is the luck of the draw, but there is always the minority that thinks that the world and god is against them. Where pegging is concerned, you can’t do right from wrong. What would have happened if the 4 lads had turned up just after the draw and they were late due to a flat tyre?? It’s a bit harsh to say “tough” when you have travelled about 100 miles just to get to the match.

2 jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 39 and 43, neither of which would win the match.

I was hoping for a good draw today, as Perverted was not in attendance, therefore any winnings would not have to be shared. Here goes, I drew peg 23, which although not necessarily a match winning peg, should ensure a days fishing and the possibility of an envelope. Chappy was on peg 23 last weeks and picked up an envelope. I had Gordon (Russ) Abbott on peg 24 and Timothy (Sorry) Moran on peg 22. Sorry had an empty peg on peg 21, so that made and empty peg both sides!!!

Xman had drawn peg 20 and the banter was flowing freely at the start. Pound side bets were stuck with Orc, Poison Dwarf and Reg Melton.

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig 1 was a 4x14 Drennan Roach on .12-diameter line to a Kamasan B911 hook. This was set up to fish near the aerator at the base of the far side slope. Orange hollow elastic completed the set up. This rig was also planned to use on the inside line at 3m.

Rig 2 was a 4 x 12 Colmic float on .12 diameter line to a Kamasan B611 hook attached to white hydro elastic through the no.2 section of the pole. This was plumbed up to fish on top of the shelf.

Third and final rig was for fishing further over, up the slope on the far side and was set up about 10” deep. The rig consisted of a 4 x 12 Colmic float on .11 Preston Powerline to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook.

Mice

After rooting around in my carryall, I noticed that mice must have got in, as there were groundbait bags with little holes in them and one of my bait boxes had been chewed where the mice had go into the pellets. The boxes and groundbait were okay yesterday, little bar stewards. Maybe I ought to have a word with Xman on how to get rid of the mice following his attempts which consisted of Kirkyboy shooting them whilst Xman prodded everywhere with a stick, giving them some sort of food that was supposed to kill them (although he had forgotten to give them water in order to activate the chemicals in the food that was supposed to kill them).

All in

At the all in, I cupped in some pellets at the base of the far slope on the deep line and I threw some pellets in on the 3m line. I had some 4mm pellets, conkers, corn and worm for hook bait, although I wasn’t planning on feeding worm, it was just a change bait. I went over to the far side with a small Fox Toss Pot of micro pellets and a conker on the hook. I tipped the pellets over on the slope against the mud and waited in anticipation. The conker was critically balanced in order to dot the float down, if the conker went too far down the slope the float sunk, a no.10 shot probably weighed less than the conker.

After about 15 minutes there was no action, Sorry had caught 1 fish and Xman had also caught 1 fish. Russ to my right had not caught anything yet. I came back and put on the deeper rig to fish on top of the shelf. I put some micro pellets in a ‘toss pot’ and a conker on the hook. I went over to the far side on top of the shelf. Tipped the pellets in and waited. After about 1 minute, the float buried and I missed it. Dropped in again, the float dipped, then buried, carp no.1 was on its way, but decided to come off! Ho hum!

I came back, re-baited and went back over. Carp no.1 was soon in the net. Lynx were running an Internet advert to get one of them ‘clicker things’ that Ben Affleck uses in the adverts and if you registered with Lynx, you received a free clicker. I was using this today to try to guesstimate my weight as I was going along, and my first fish was just over a pound, one press of the button registered my first ‘lb’.

I persevered on top of the shelf for the next 20 minutes or so, adding the odd fish, but keeping an eye on Sorry in case he started bagging. After about 45 minutes I had 3 fish for approx 3lb and Sorry had 4 fish for about 5lb.

I decided to go back over to the far side with a big Toss Pot full of micro pellets, with the intention of trying to force the fish to feed. I dropped in and waited and waited and waited. I got sick of waiting. I came back and dropped in on the deep rig, the float settled, dipped then buried. A carp of about 12 oz was soon in the net. 2nd drop in resulted in a carp of about 1¼ lb, so I added 2 to the clicker to account for 2lb. The clicker was working, after about 1½ hours I had about 7lb.

The middle of the match was pretty much uneventful, with me adding only the odd fish now and again and Sorry wasn’t faring any better. Russ was probably doing worse than both Sorry and I.

Edge of the platform

After about 3hours of the match, I was bringing in a fish and was about to net the fish when a cloud of mud appeared just of the corner of my 3ft by 2ft platform. I netted the fish, re-baited and dropped in at the corner of the platform, the float was about 12” away from my feet. Sorry shouted “are you winding me up?” but before he could finish the sentence, 6ft of white hydro was soon heading for the middle of the lake. An F1 carp of about 2lb (2 clicks) was soon in the landing net.

I went back over to the far side, caught a fish, then repeated the edge of the platform process. Another F1 (2 clicks) was soon in the net.

I managed to keep the odd fish coming over the duration of the match except for a very quite last 25 minutes of the match. Throughout the match fish had been topping at the aerator. I dropped in with the shallow rig and waited. The float buried, nothing. I dropped in again, the float buried, nothing. After about another 3 more of these, I sacked it as a bad job.

After 5 hours, I shouted for the match to finish. I had 5 fish from the edge of the platform, 2 fish down the middle, 3 on top of the shelf and the remainder came from the ‘mud line’.

The clicker and my weight prediction

All through the match I was adding what I thought to be the weight of the fish to the clicker therefore calculating my weight. At the all out, I looked at my clicker and assumed that I had about 25lb. Sorry was saying that he was not going to weigh, as he had not caught, so I started celebrating beating one of the resident superstars off the next peg. The scales had soon reached Xman, and Topshop was the best weight so far with 60lb 4oz. Xman weighed in 55lb. Sorry must have had a change of mind as he decided to weigh in and put 31lb on the scales, he had beaten me according to my clicker. I lifted my net out and thought that there must be more than 25lb there, but had I done enough to beat Sorry off the next peg? Yeah of course I had, I had over 32lb. The clicker is broken at the first attempt of using it. Russ Abbott on peg 24 weighed in 15lb, I had beaten both sides, which in fishing terms is sometimes ‘doing your best’. I should have had a quid with Sorry!

Topshop’s Weight

After the match and finished and all payouts had been paid, I passed the weighing sheets out so that people could have a look at where the weights had come from. Big Mark informed me that whoever had written the weights on the first sheet couldn’t add up as they added Topshop’s weights (41lb 12oz and 18lb 6oz) and came up with 60lb 4oz. Young Adam was writing the weights on the first board and his excuse was that he is studying sport at school and not maths and that he thought that there was 14oz to 1lb. Well, what do you think of our future leader?? It is up to the individual to check his/her weight.

My Quid’s

Panic weighed in 21lb, and although I had beaten him refused to give me a quid, as ‘we were on a different match’, so when I win, I still loose. Reg Melton had driven off without paying, he did admit to having tipped back about 20lb (and when he came past me, I hadn’t yet weighed in so told him that I had about 25lb). Poison Dwarf went without paying me, again, and Orc went without me giving him my quid.

Mal Bailey followed his terrific form at present and won the match, which followed a win at Woodlands yesterday, with 66lb. Alwin ‘Maggot’ Ingham was second with 65lb.

Official Result

1. Mal Bailey (Garbolino Elton), 66lb 9oz. Peg 61. Pellet over to the island.

2. Alwin Ingham (Bob-Co), 65lb 4oz. Peg 59. Maggot. Peg 60 was an empty peg (one of the pegs in the bag that were not drawn).

Joint 3rd, Dave Topham (Waterline Wibsey) and Robbie Minikin (Harrogate Angling Supplies) both 60lb 2oz (amended result)

5. Pete Rambow (Snr) (Diawa Cleveland), 59lb 5oz.

6. John Chapman (Garbolino Elton), 58lb 11oz.
Saturday 22nd April 2006.

Woodland Lakes, Thirsk.

I arranged a lift with Perverted, but I would have to ask Panic Poole for a lift back home as Perverted wanted to get back to watch the Liverpool match. Well, some one has to support them!!

Perverted arrived at my house and quickly informed me that he had left the reel that I lent him at home, so a quick look around found another spare reel for him to borrow. He then saw my landing net that I was planning on using and asked if I had a spare, another look around found him a large spoon landing net. There will be more of my gear at Perverted’s house than at my house at this rate.

Arrived at Woodlands following a ‘Flying Start’ breakfast at Morrison's. Not bad value for 2 ½ quid.

Before the start of the match, I spoke to Ian Bowman, the winner of the match last week and informed him that I pleasure fished his peg after the match last week and it was solid, now I know why he won the match.

Will the draw be kind?

In the draw queue I was alongside, Mal Bailey, Mick Grant, Colin ‘One Point’ Owen and other people that I didn’t know, but who knew me. I said to Mal “I’m going to watch where you draw from and then take the ticket next to it”. Mal is on fire at the moment with wins at The Oaks, Sessay and framing at Woodlands lakes in recent weeks. Mal put his hand in the bucket at the draw and promptly informed everyone that he had drawn Skylark, Peg 1. The wind was blowing that way, so a good day was on the cards.

I put my hand in the bucket and took the peg from underneath where Mal had got his peg from, and the look of dismay said it all. Kestrel Lake, Peg 8. Perverted was next to follow and with the smile across his face, I knew that he had drawn the right lake. Partridge, Peg 3 beckoned.

Plan(s) of attack

To keep in line with the bait limits at Woodlands, I took 3 pints of meat (all 6mm cubes), 1 tin of corn, ¼ kilo of worm and 1pt of micro pellets and ½ pint of expander pellets (conkers only). I asked the advice of various well-known anglers, Chappy and Pimmy both said to fish pellet at 6m and meat at 15m, also do not forget to chuck the bomb out.

I asked them if I would catch up in the water and both said “yes, and if you get one, they are usually big”. Panic said not to bother with the pellet “as you are not going to win the match”. So, in order to get the best of both worlds, I decided on the plan of attack suggested by Chappy and Pimmy.

Rigs

I set up a 4 x 10 Preston Durafloat on .14 Carptek line with a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook set about 1 ½ ft deep. I was planning on fishing meat up in the water on this rig. The rig was attached to blue Preston Hollow elastic.

I also set up a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach (adapted by removing the wire stem and replacing with a carbon stem), this was also attached to .14 Carptek to a size 18 Preston Pr 23 hook, to orange hollow dual core elastic (not sure who makes the orange hollow core). This rig was set up to fish the pellet at 6m.

I also set up a .5gm Drennan Roach (as above) to .13 Preston Powerline to a size 14 Kamasan B611 hook. This was attached to grey hydro and was set up with fishing meat/pellet/corn at depth at 14/15m.

A leger rod completed my array of tackle. I had a straight running rig with a swivel and a 2.5ft hook length of .14 Carptek tied to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook.

Hair-rigging

After previously speaking to Mal, he told me of a way of hooking meat (and or other baits) on a hair. Tie a bait band to the tag of hair left after tying on your hook, get a baiting needle pass through said bait and pull the bait band into your selected bait. I have been using the Korum baitspikes, but these have a habit of getting snagged in your landing nets and snapping off when the fish twists and turns. I had one of these hair rigs on the up in the water rig and also on the bomb. At the end of the match, I had not had to tie on another hair as the original bait band was still there. Good one Mal.

All In

At the all in, I cupped in (using the smaller of the two cups supplied with the Garbolino Extending Cupping Kit) ½ a cup of pellets and a few grains of corn at 6m. ½ a cup of meat, corn and pellet at 14m. I cast out with the bomb rod with pellet on the hook in order to allow the other two lines to settle. Whilst fishing the bomb, I was constantly catapulting meat out to 14m. After approximately 5 minutes, I reeled in to find that I had no bait on. I re-loaded and cast out again, I was just setting the rod and starting to tighten down, when the rod flew round. A carp of about 3lb was soon in the landing net. It looked quite a bit smaller considering the size of landing net that I was using.

After further bite less 10 minutes, I decided to see if anything had moved onto the pellet line. I fed a small Fox Toss Pot of bait and dropped the rig in over the top, with pellet on the hook, after about 2 or 3 minutes, the float ‘dinked’, then buried. A skimmer of about 3oz was soon in the keepnet. I fed some more micro pellets and dropped in again. Another bottle top was soon in the net. Third go, I did the same, the float dipped, then shot under with 5ft of orange elastic chasing after the float. After a brief struggle, I was the winner and a carp of about 3lb was in the net. I fished this hole for the next 10 minutes and added a couple more skimmers (both of about 8oz each).

I had still been feeding the meat whilst fishing the pellet line and I thought that it was time to have a look and bag up. There were fish topping/boiling about ½ way across the lake. I shipped out with the deep rig with some meat in a ‘Toss Pot’. Tipped the meat in, and dropped the rig in over the top. After a couple of minutes, I struck and caught a tench of about 3lb. I would have thought that after 1hour of the match, I had approximately 9 or 10lb. I dropped in again and missed the next two indications.

Up in the water!!

I came back and changed the rigs over to fish with the shallow rig. I shipped out with meat on the hook, let the float settle and was soon attached to a chub about 1lb. Another 2 chub followed before my first carp up in the water. The carp was about 1lb and was soon subdued on the blue Preston hollow elastic. After another 10 minutes, I had another chub. From what I could see, no one was really bagging on my lake. The fella to my left on peg 7 had about 5lb and the lad to my right on peg 9 had about 8lb. I was ahead, just.

Mid Match

The middle of the match ensued and was the slowest part of the match. I managed to catch the odd fish on the bomb, the odd fish up in the water and the odd fish on the pellet (although no more carp on this line).

1 Hour To Go

Going into the last hour, I would anticipate that I had about 15lb. I could see the anglers on pegs 12 – 15 all catching. Mostly up in the water. They seemed to be3 firing out bait and not feeding anymore until they had caught a fish (had I fed too much bait?). I got my head down and decided to go for the skimmers for a bit longer as no-one around me seemed to be catching a great deal.

The lad who was on peg 6 was fishing to the empty platform at peg 5, and the lad on peg 4 was also fishing to the same platform. The lad on peg 7 was also fishing close in, he was on his top 2, fishing straight in front of him. The lad on peg six struck into a fish and it was a right pig. I know, it broke him in front of me, 2 pegs away, when it came up and it was at least double figures. At one point, it made like a dolphin and came crashing out of the water trying to get away. About 2 minutes later the lad next to me hooked into a big fish and was playing it for ages, at one stage he had about 7m of pole in the sky with about 12m of elastic into the lake. After about 15 minutes, he had the carp under control and in his landing net. It was about 8lb.

I put a few pieces of meat down the side about 1ft out from the boards. I plumbed up with the shallow rig down to the boards and found about 18” of depth. I continued to fish the pellet line for the next 5 minutes. I dropped in down the side at 4m with about 15 minutes of the match left. Within minutes the float dipped, I waited for it to bury and bury it did. As soon as I struck, I shipped back onto the top two kit, dipped the drag net into the water and at first attempt, scooped the fish into the net.

It was ‘BIG’, and definitely made my landing net look small. It had taken no more than about 20 seconds to get the fish out. (At the weigh in, it was weighed separately at 12lb 4oz).

I spent the last 5 minutes or so, trying for another one down the side, that was it, no more. Time was up and ‘All out’ was shouted.

Previous Results

My previous form at Woodlands was less than satisfactory. I fished my first match on the bath tubs about 2 years ago, when the lake was carrying about 1ft of extra water and most of the pegs were under water. I tipped back 2 carp and one tench from Skylark 30 odd. My next match was a http://www.total-fishing.com/ event and I drew Partridge 14, with no wind and ended up with 39lb odd, beat those pegs around me (Stretch Armstrong got battered as he only had 11lb), all the pegs that produced all had the wind. My next match was about 10 days ago on the Breast Cancer Care Charity Match (report below), where I had a DNW from Wagtail 3. Last Saturday I drew Curlew 7 and won my section with 11lb 4oz (report below).

Had I caught more than 39lb?

The Verdict

No. The best weight from pegs 1 – 7 was 23lb. I weighed in 38lb 10oz and another brown envelope was on my way for a section win as the lad next to me on peg 9 had 22lb. Even without the 12lb’er I would have won the section. The next section on my bank was won with 82lb, there was also a 70 odd pounds and a couple of 60’s.

Why oh why, can’t I draw at the right end of the lake on any of the lakes?

Perverted had weighed in 62lb odd from Partridge lake, mostly caught on the tip, so two quid was going his way, along with half of my winnings. At this rate, I am going to have to find a new halves partner! Pimmy on Partridge 6 had 65lb. Perverts section was won by Bill Brierly with 80 odd pounds.

Mal (Garbolino Elton) had won the match by fishing down to boards all day, weighing in 172lb. Ken Golightly (Shotton) was second with 117lb. Phil Chapman (Garbolino Ossett) was third with 92lb. Bill Brierly’s 80 odd pounds was only good enough for 8th place.

With the section winnings (2 from 3 matches), I may have to make this a regular thing.

Watch out Woodlands, Mick’s here!!!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Sunday 16th April 2006.

Back to The Oaks

Panic wasn’t making the trip today as he is tired after having to do a couple of days work on his lad’s house during the week. I wonder if it also because of a near miss on our way home from Woodlands yesterday. I was approaching the A661 roundabout with right of way and an idiot in a poxy knackered white fiesta was gunning for the roundabout, presumably with the intention of trying to get across the roundabout prior to me getting there. White Fiesta Numbnut’s was travelling at speed. On going round the roundabout, Numbnut’s had to break – SEVERLEY. Panic had nearly climbed onto my knee, with his seatbelt still on. He was looking at me shouting “Mick, Mick, Mick”. I carried on with Numbnut’s and his fiesta coming to a long screeching halt as he stopped halfway round the roundabout. I turned round to Panic and said, “I had right of way”. Not sure if he went to sleep or passed out!!

I got the rabble in order, all 60 of us. Two jackpot pegs were the order of the day, pegs 22 and 30 were the lucky (or unlucky) pegs. Following the recent form and the anglers that drew the pegs, there was little chance of the jackpot peg going.

Adie (Adonis) Mitchell had his first outing for over 8 months and was planning on fishing The Oaks regularly over the coming months. Adonis had drawn Peg 26, which although having no form, fish had been caught in the proximity over the past few weeks, I was even 2nd from peg 24 two weeks previous, must be solid.

I put my hand in the bag and was not entirely happy. Peg 17 was stuck to my mitt. Peg 15 had won the match on Thursday, so fish were in the area. Side bets were struck with Nightie, Poison Dwarf, Reg Holdsworth and £2 with Perverted. One of these days, I am going to lose to the lot and have to sell the house.

Perverted had drawn peg 13, Poison Dwarf was on peg 10, which had a real chance of getting a few, Nightie was on peg 7 and Reg was on peg 20, so all of my quid’s were within shouting distance. Orc still owed me £2 from the previous week and had not turned up, must be running scared.

Nightie cajoled me into having a quid with his lad, Adam. Adam was next to me on peg 16. Nightie said something along the lines of “you will have a quid with me, but not our Adam”. I replied “for one day and one day only, I will have a quid with him”. The problem with Adam, unlike Nightie, is that Adam knows what he is doing.

I set up 2 rigs across both attached to white hydro elastic through the No. 2 section only. Both were identical floats, 4x12, one on .12 diameter line and the other on .14 diameter line. Both had Preston PR 23 hooks in size 16 and 18. I also set up a rig for the 4m line, this was a 4x14 Drennan Roach float attached to .13 diameter Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. Orange hollow elastic through 2 sections completed this set up. My final rig was a 4x14 Serie Top float fished 6” up from the base of the far slope at 9m. This was set up on .13 diameter Preston Powerline to a size 16 PR23 hook. My shotting patter on this rig was a bulk of shot at half depth. Some years ago, I had been pegged next to Mark Lucas and he inspected my rigs. He amended my rigs and I asked why. He replied “by having your shot at half depth, the fish can see and watch the bait as it falls through the water, resulting in more positive bites”. I have shotted my rigs this way more or less since.

Time

Upon shouting “TIME”, there were one or two comments about my watch and it’s inability to tell the time. The funniest thing was seeing Chappy running to his peg. He can run fast for a big lad.

At the all in, I put a fruit shoot of 3mm Green Swimstim pellets over to the island and fished conker over the top. I waited for about 5 minutes, the float buried and a 10oz F1 was on its way. I put in a few more pellets and waited. After 5 minutes the float buried again and a 2lb F1 was soon in the net. Things seemed to be going well. The wind was a gentle breeze blowing from left to right, sort of over my shoulder, but then it changed and came off my back directly. This aided my presentation as the wind was pushing the float onto the slope on top of the shelf. After about 1 ½ hours the wind decided to change and to increase in strength. It was blowing left to right and was pushing the float through. I added about 1ft of line above the float and about 6” to the depth. I was still fishing with conker as bait. This seemed to slow the bait down, but it still wasn’t right. The fish do not seem to want the bait over depth. At this point I had 14 fish (I know because I got one of them (fish) counter things that you see in the Lynx advert) and an estimated weight of 18lb.

Seeing as the wind had got up, I decided to try the 4m line, I had steadily been dropping bits of pellet onto this line all the while. First drop in, with conker as bait, the float gave a little dip then buried. A carp of about 1.5lb was trying it’s best to get away, with little success.

I dropped in again and caught a mirror carp of about 1lb. I persevered on this line for the next 30 minutes and added a couple more fish, but was not really going anywhere.

Adam had got up and gone for a walk to go and see his old man on peg 7. The Poison Dwarf was shouting at me to see how many fish I had caught, and Reg was also enquiring periodically. The quid bets with these two were looking safe in my pocket. Adam came back and decided to change tack. His peg was flat calm from the wind and he proceeded to cup in micro pellets tight across, catch 2 fish, then repeat the process. He was starting to catch me up hand over fist.

The Closing Stages

With about 1 hour to go, Perverted was admitting to about 30lb, I would estimate that I had about 24lb, Poison Dwarf was sat behind me, Reg had about 15lb and Nightie was ‘bagging’. I had a look on the deep rig. The float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. Next drop in resulted in a barbel of about 1lb, then another of about 10oz. Seeing as barbel had appeared, I decided to try a bit of worm on the hook as, barbel give silly bites when fishing pellet dead depth. The worm worked, I caught a carp about 2lb.

This proved to be my last fish. I sat patiently fishing at full depth, counting down the minutes and keeping a close eye on Adam next to me. After 5 hours, it was time!

I was hoping to have a good 20lb and possibly near 30lb, but not over. I had caught 26 fish (all carp except for 2 barbel). Most from across to the far side, the rest from here and there. Had to work to find the fish and the bites. The wind had made it an uncomfortable day to fish across to the far side. When will it ever stop being windy???

The Scales

The scales came round and Xman had top weight of 46lb from Peg 3, although he had told the Anglers Mail correspondent (Darren Starkey) that he had over 50lb. Perverted had weighed in 41lb and was 2nd. Nightie had 31lb, this included a 4lb bream, and carp of 4lb and 3lb, there were a few other weights of over 30lb. My biggest fish went 2lb (maybe just over).

Adam weighed in 25lb odd and now it was my turn. I had 28lb odd. I had beaten Adam off the next peg, and beaten the two anglers to my right, what more can you do? I owed £2 to Perverted, £1 to Nightie and was getting £1 from Adam, Reg and Poison Dwarf. Reg did a runner, Poison Dwarf promised payment next week, so I was down £2, and Adam was yet to pay, he said that he didn’t have any money. I saw him with a fiver in the cafĂ© and reminded him of the quid, he paid up, begrudgingly. Win some, lose some.

Gandhi was on the 2nd set of scales weighing in the high numbers. He was winning his section with 31-14 and Mal Bailey was yet to weigh. Mal Bailey ended up winning the section with 32-00. I think the wind was favourable when he put his fish on the scales. The next lowest section winning weight was over 40lb, not bad for 10 man sections.

Whilst talking to Timothy (Sorry) Moran after the match, he revealed that he had caught on conkers. I asked him if it was a wind up and he said not. Perverted had caught a few of his fish on the 4m line and only went across late on.

Adonis won the match with 62lb 11oz, Big Mark (Calvert) was 2nd with 60lb 11oz from peg 69, Richard Bezemer had 56lb and Magnum weighed in 51lb. Summer is here!!

Official Result

Adie Mitchell (Harrogate Angling Supplies) 62-11, peg 26.

Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 60-11, peg 69

Richard Bezemer (Diawa Cleveland) 56-05, peg 76

John Clarke (Bob-Co) 51-01, peg 55

John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 48-04, peg 23

Pete Baron (Middy Team Dons) 47-06, peg 28
Saturday 15th April 2006

Exorcising the ghost?

After having a telephone call with Perverted following his success on Thursday, it was decided that another visit to Woodlands Lakes beckoned. My intention was to exorcise the ghost following my debacle on Thursday. I wanted to catch a few fish!!!

I arranged to pick up Panic Poole from his house and pay a visit to Morrison’s for breakfast (have you seen the prices of brekky at Woodlands??). Perverted was going to meet us there. Following breakfast we then purchased enough meat for 3 pints of our 5 pint bait limit. The remaining bait was made up of pellet (for feed and hook, this is in addition to the 5 pint of bait allowed), sweetcorn (small tin – ½ a pint) and hemp.

Panic had already prepared his meat and proceeded to do 3 tins of 4mm and 3 tins of 6mm meat for Perverted and myself. (Note to self; should I start to visit Woodlands regular, invest in a meat cutter, it took Panic all of 3 or 4 minutes to do 6 tins of meat. Beats pushing your meat through a ¼” groundbait riddle).

In attendance we had all the usual suspects, Dean Smith, Haircut, Chappy, Twohey to name but a few. Upon Dean arriving, Twohey commented on Dean’s weight gain along the lines of “Dean, have you turned cannibal and eaten two of you”? When Haircut turned up, Twohey noticed how smooth he was looking and asked which moisturiser he used.

The rules and regulations were announced and the draw was under way. I couldn’t draw Wagtail again, because it wasn’t in, I did although draw next best, Curlew 7 (ho hum). I asked all those concerned on what to expect and Panic said to pellet it at 9m and meat it at 13-14m. I got to my peg and had Nightie’s mate, Robbie Larkin on peg 9 and someone to my left on peg 6. Twohey had drawn peg 3, which Lovely had drawn on Thursday to win the lake. There was considerably less wind today than there was on Thursday and it had also changed direction.

I would get to see how Perverted would do as he had drawn opposite me on Curlew 18 (this would be a right drop to earth from the outer stratosphere for Perverted following Thursday’s match). Nightie had drawn Curlew 14 and he quickly cajoled me into a £1 side bet. Both Panic and Perverted had accosted me for the £1 and £2 side bets respectively. Panic had drawn OK, Skylark 15. Ian Bowman had drawn the same peg that Ian Exley had on Thursday – Partridge 24, Xman had 18lb, we will see what a professional angler can do of it. Dean Smith had drawn Perverted’s peg (Partridge 32) and Head Bailiff; Alan Gregory had drawn Partridge 31. Tony Hopper had 66lb next to perverted on Thursday so weights were expected to be high.

I set up a 4x14 Serie Top float on .14 MAP Carptek direct to a size 16 Kamasan B911 attached to grey hydro elastic, this rig was going to be used to fish pellet at 9m slightly to my left. I also set up a Colmic Jolly of the same weight to fish meat at 14m straight out in front. This was set up on the same diameter line; with a size 16 Kamasan B611 hook to Blue Preston Innovations hollow elastic.

I also set up the ledger rod using 5lb Maxima main line. A 2ft hook-length of .13 Preston Innovations Powerline with a Korum baitspike completed the set up. Meat, pellet or corn was my anticipated bait on offer.

And we are off.

At the start of the match on the advice of all those that I had spoken to, I cupped in pellet and corn at 9m and meat and hemp at 14m. I cast the tip rod out towards the middle of the lake whilst allowing the pole lines to settle, conker was the chosen initial bait. After about 10 minutes, I got a line before a gentle bend progressed through the rod. A carp of about 1lb was soon in the keepnet. Considering that most of my fishing is usually polefishing towards islands, you forget how much a carp pulls back on a rod and reel.

After a further biteless 30 minutes, I thought that it was time to start having a look on the pole lines, all the while on the bomb rod I was flicking bits of meat and pellet onto their respective lines. I first dropped in with pellet and fed a little fruitshoot of pellet over the top of the float. I waited some 5 minutes for an indication, the float buried, I struck and met no resistance. The bait was still there, so I dropped straight back in. The float didn’t even settle and a carp of about 1.5lb was hanging on the end. The grey hydro soon subdued the fish. After a further 15 minutes of flicking bits of meat out to 14m, I went out with the long pole rig and was excited at the prospect of dropping in on meat and the float burying with 8lb of angry carp on the end. After 10 biteless minutes, my excitement soon abated. After a further 10 minutes my excitement had gone, completely.

I had another quick look on the pellet line before topping them both up and going back out on the bomb and conker. The rod twitched and shot round. Another carp was soon in the net. In order to try to keep the fish and or liners coming, I was having to keep casting around the swim to try to locate the fish.

I persevered with the two pole lines and bomb approach. After about 3 hours, I had approximately 4 fish (3 carp and 1 barbel). Perverted had 2 fish, Nightie had 2 fish (although one was about 5lb), Robbie had 3 fish (1silver fish and 2 carp) and the lad on peg 6 had about 8 fish. All those to the left of peg 6 all had over 15lb.

The final 2 hours

After realising that the fish seemed to want pellet, I quickly tried to change the meat line to a pellet line (I hadn’t had a fish on meat all day). I dropped in at 9m and caught a barbel of about 1lb. After 30 minutes and no more indications, I dropped in at 14m with pellet, the float buried, nothing there. I missed the next three indications before a carp of 2lb was soon hanging on the end. Perverted had started to chuck the bomb around his peg to try to locate fish and a carp of 2lb was soon in his net. Nightie had pulled another fish back and the £1 side bets were looking close for all concerned.

The end, at last.

There were quick shouts around the lake with who had/had not caught. I had 7 fish for an estimated 9 – 10lb. Perverted had 3 fish and tipped back (that was £2 safe for a start). Nightie was admitting to 4 fish for about 10lb – it was going to be close. Robbie tipped back as did the other 2 lads to Robbie’s right. I only weighed in to secure the £1 side bets. If I didn’t weigh in, Perverted would not pay me my £2 because I would be a DNW. Tony Neesom on Curlew 1 weighed in 33lb, Twohey on peg 3 weighed 46lb (he had fished kinky, kinky all day, feeding micro pellet and fishing with pellet on the hook, he had caught about 40 stockies) to win the lake outright. The lad next to him had 18lb and lad next to me had 26lb. All the weights and the fish were at one end of the lake, as at my end of the lake on the other bank Nightie was also going to be the only weigher, whilst the pegs at the other end were all going to weigh.

Being first to weigh between Nightie and I, I weighed 11lb 4oz (the ounces were going to be crucial). The scales quickly arrived at Nightie – he weighed 11lb 5oz. He had ounced me for a quid. He told me later that he had weighed in over 12lb, but asked for 11lb 5oz in order that he can say that he ounced me.

Xman’s peg!!

Ian Bowman had won the match with the first weight of the year over 100lb, he weighed 177lb odd. Where o’ where had Xman gone wrong? Well for a start, according to one of the lads on Thursday, Xman was using a makeshift rod rest consisting of a towel and a bankstick. Right, ask yourself the following question, it was very windy and the wind was blowing into Xman’s face, so, if he was to put the rod on his makeshift rest the rod at the bankstick side nearest to the water and he got a bite and struck, he would smash his rod against the stick. If his rod was at the side of the bankstick furthest away from the water, would his rod not keep getting blown off his rest? No wonder he caught nowt.

I’m in the money

I spoke to Panic after the match and he had weighed over 40lb and won his section. So, I had won £2 off Perverted but had to give £1 to both Nightie and Panic. Some you win, some you lose. I packed away my gear and moved to Partridge 24, in order to try to catch some fish. I had set up 1 deep rig (the meat rig from earlier) and one shallow rig (the pellet rig from earlier). I was going to feed meat shallow and fish meat up in the water. First drop in on the deep rig, the float buried and a carp of 6lb was soon in the landing net. This was easy. Nightie came up to me and said “Mick, I have got something for you, but you have to give me a quid first”. I handed over a quid only to get £30 quid back. I asked what the money is for. I had won my section of 4 anglers. Nightie had also won his section as well. There were 4 sections to a lake because due to wind etc, one end of the lake fishes and the other doesn’t. After about 10 minutes fishing the winning peg, I had caught more weight than I had in five hours on the match. I ended up with 8 carp, 6 chub and 5 skimmers in about 1 ½ hours, which considering that the peg had been battered and all the fish had gone back in the peg, I thought wasn’t too bad.

The only downside to winning the money, was that Perverted was to get half.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Breast Cancer Care Charity Match - Thursday 13th April 2006


Here Goes!!

The day was upon us and all the preparation and determination carried out by Johnathan(Cleggy) Clegg and his mate, Lee (Blaggers of the North) Blagden, both of whom are http://www.total-fishing.com/ contributors, was finally coming to fruition. The Breast Cancer Care, ( http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/ ) Charity Fishing Match was finally under way, taking place at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.

61 people had put their name down to fish this event. The match was being fished by England superstars past and present, including the ladies, master anglers from a whole host of disciplines and us mere mortals.

Having not fished Woodland Lakes for some 2 years +, I was relying on information received from 2 Oaks Lakes & Woodland Lakes regulars, Panic Poole and Granddad. Panic had come 3rd on the previous days open after drawing Curlew Lake and Granddad had won Wagtail Lake. Armed with all the information that I could usurp and enough bait (keeping within the lake limits) to feed the 5,000, I was armed and dangerous. I had riddled all the meat the night before for both Perverted and myself, put some new line on my reel (you know, one of them things you turn a handle and is attached to a rod).

I was probably nearer the front of the draw queue than the rear. In went the hand and out came end peg, Wagtail 3. I quickly rang both Panic and more importantly Granddad for some last minute information. Granddad had won the lake with over 40lb from Wagtail 6. Travelling partner (and halves partner – important to get that in) for the day, Perverted had drawn Partridge 32 with the wind blowing straight into his kisser. Having drawn Wagtail Lake, I was planning on a meat and or pellet approach, the worm and caster stayed in the car.

In the car park Wendy (Lovely) Lythgoe asked me if I had any info on Peg 3 on Curlew. I told her to wait a minute whilst I rang Panic and passed the phone to Wendy (she’s lovely, but can’t drive!!, please see below).

To say that it was windy when I got to my peg is an understatement. At the end of the match, Ian (X-man) Exley commented that it was so windy; he had to keep reeling in to get out of the way of the surfer dudes. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Andy (Jellybaby) May opposite me and his welcome was a ledger landing all but 5 yards from my feet. His words were “Ooops, sorry Mick”. A two finger salute was my reply. On the peg next to me I had no other than 4 x World Champion, Mr Alan Scotthorne. No pleasantries were exchanged, except when he walked past me and said (with a reet’t Rotherham accent) “that’t float’t is a bit light’t” or at least I think that is what he said?? I also had Blackworm on my bank, at the other end of the lake, it was like a mill pond up there!

I had set up a 4 x 16series float for 5ft of water. This was on .13 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 16, Kamasan B911 hook. Following Mr Scotthorne’s comments, I also set up a 1gm rig incorporating a Dick Clegg float to the same diameter line and hook. One rig was attached to Grey Hydro elastic and the other was tied to orange hollow elastic.

I dusted the cobwebs off my Ledger rod and set up a paternoster rig with .14 Carptek hooklength (of about 2ft ensure that I a hooklength longer than 18") to a size 14, Kamasan B611. Attached to this I had incorporated a Korum baitspike and was planning on fishing hair-rigged meat, corn or pellet.

The start was announced and with great anticipation, the first cast out using the ledger rod was carried out. I tightened down to put a gentle curve in the tip rod. With the tow, the rod arched round and stayed there, every time I slackened off or reeled in a couple of turns the arch appeared again. After approximately 5 – 10 minutes, I reeled in and cast to a different spot. All the time, I was catapulting 4/5 pieces of cubed luncheon meat out to 12m, hoping to be able to drop in and bag up later on.

I cast to the boards in peg 1, I cast to the aerator further along the boards, I cast in to open water halfway across the lake, I cast short, I cast long, and I cast everywhere. Not a sign. After 1 hour, Jellybaby had 2 carp, the lad next to him had 3 and Mr Scotthorne had none, neither had I, so I wasn’t doing to bad. Perverted rang me to say that he had 6 fish, and one of those was double figures.

Out of desperation, out went the pole with the 1gm rig attached. I dropped the rig straight over where I had been pr-baiting and waited for the float to bury. I waited and I waited. I lifted the rig and ran it through again, and again, and again. Mr Scotthorne had also gone out on the pole and caught a carp. I was trying (trying being the operative word) to hold the float back, but with the tow, the float was almost horizontal. It was a bit windy!!

2 hours into the match, I was on plan x (still 2 plans to go) and I had exhausted all bait permutations. Out went the tip, a little further over than previous casts. It was okay, Jellybaby didn’t see where it had landed due to the waves. I just turned round to Mr Scotthorne to say that it was a tad windy and a bit dire (or words to that effect), when I looked round and the rod was all but being dragged in. Wayhey, they had arrived in my peg and a carp of about 2.5lb was in the bottom of the keepnet. Another 30 minutes later and nothing further was added. All the while I could see Lovely catching the odd fish on the tip as was Mrs Scotthorne, who was opposite Lovely.

I decided to go for a walk, should have walked into the onsite café and stayed there!!. I sat behind Lovely for a while and was having a little chin wag. She got a tentative bite on the ledger rig and struck into a carp, played it to her feet, where it broke her. I left before she blamed me!!!.

I walked to Perverted who informed me that he had about 40lb and the bites had died. The lad to the side of him (Tony Hopper) was now catching on groundbait feeder and meat on the hook. Perverted was now fishing double hair-rigged conkers, to try something different. I told him to keep his head down and keep doing what he had been doing all match.

With renewed enthusiasm, I went back to my peg. Mr Scotthorne had by now caught 3 carp.

After a further hour of boredom, I decided to start packing away my gear (with about 15 - 20 minutes of the match left). I later found out the Steve (Poolsfodder) May had used a 3gm float in 3ft of water, so he tells me, in order to present his bait something like. Bleeding ‘eck, all the shot in my box wouldn’t be able to sink that.

Perverted

Bram came for a wander and was stood talking to me with about 40 minutes of the match remaining. I called Perverted to see how he was getting on. His reply was “I have had about 22 carp averaging 3lb apiece, plus one of double figures”. I said “so, you have got over 70lb then?” He replied “no, I might have 50lb”. Was I confused, or was I confused!!

After the final whistle, Perverted called me to say that he had weighed in 98lb 9oz and that he was winning. Tommy Pickering had weighed in 86lb 4oz and was 2nd to press. Rumour was going around that Steve Ringer, who was yet to weigh in, had bagged. When the scales got to Steve, he could only muster 85lb 12oz. Perverted had done it. He can finally repay some of the winnings that he had been siphoning off me.

My lake had been won by Jellybaby with 43lb 3oz (12 Carp). Mr Scotthorne ended up with 8 carp for 30lb 8oz for 2nd on the lake.

My Turn

I didn’t mind having a bad match because my turn was yet to come. At the arrival of the match, all entrants were issued with 15 raffle tickets. I decided to buy another fivers worth and then had a second thought and bought a further fivers worth.

My first winning raffle ticket got me a Preston Innovations ‘Essential’ reel case. Upon closer inspection, the reel case also included an Okuma ‘Zorak’ feeder reel.

My second winning raffle ticket got me a Fox Stink Bag and Fox Match Rod Holdall.

My ‘piece de resistance’ was yet to come. I had won what was considered the star prize. A 2 day fishing holiday at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk for a family of 4. This included family room accommodation at ‘The Vale of York’ hotel, fishing for 4 people for 2 days, breakfast and afternoon meal. Alan Gregory informed me that this prize is non-transferable. Doesn’t bother me. I will be there.

Lovely Can’t Drive!!

She’s a woman. Whilst on route to the previous weeks Fishomania match at The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk, I was quietly (have you ever seen me drive quietly) minding my own business with Panic as my passenger. I was following the car in front (not by choice), driving through the picturesque village of Dalton, just outside Thirsk. The person driving the car in front decided to stop and ask for directions, with no warning at all. As I went past, I beeped my horn with the intention being that I knew where the said front car was going and for them to follow me. Just at that nano-second said car also decided to set off again, and jumped at the sound of my car horn.

Upon arriving at The Oaks, Lovely got out of her car and apologised for nearly taking me out, and her words were, and I quote “I just saw a man and I stopped”. Wish I’d been that man!!

Bait Limits

I had an interesting conversation with a Woodlands regular, bemoaning the rules and regulations, in particular the bait limits, as, in their words "having bait limits stops you achieving the full potential of your peg and limits your scope due to not being able to carry bait for all eventualities". A very interesting point!!

Everyone is a winner

A total of £6,321 was raised for Breast Cancer Care and a further £451 was raised for Duane. Duane is a regular poster on Total Fishing.com and has been diagnosed with leukaemia. I am pleased that such an amount was raised for both worthwhile causes and I hope that everything goes well for Duane and that he is soon back on the bank. Steve Ringer made the trip, to personally hand deliver the raffle money to Duane. What a touch!!

What a pleasure to be able to contribute to such worthwhile causes and to be surrounded by such class and I look forward to the next event.

Official Result:

1. Andy Purvis (The Oaks Lakes) 98lb 9oz. Partridge 32. All carp on bomb and either meat or pellet.

2. Tommy Pickering (Preston Innovations) 86lb 4oz. Partridge 7.

3. Steve Ringer (Shimano) 85lb 12. Skylark 15

4. Ian Toplis (GOT Baits/Sarfix) 72lb 2oz. Sklylark 7.

5. Tony Hopper – 66lb 0oz. Partridge 30

6. Wendy Lythgoe (Van Den Eynde) 65lb 4 oz. Curlew 3.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Sunday 9th April 2006

What a difference a day makes!!

Perverted came and picked me up, as he wanted to prepare some of his bait at my house prior to getting to The Oaks. He is asking for trouble one of these days, he carries his top kits ready assembled. On this occasion, my rod bag was placed on top of said top kits. When does he change his hooks? What happens if the rigs set up are of no use due to depth, tow, wind, etc? I realise that there is a certain amount of time to set up, but he always finishes in time to have a walk around the lake.

55 of us hardy soles made the decision to venture out in to the elements following the wind, hail, snow and rain from the previous day.

When Orc made his appearance, I reminded him that he still owed me a quid from the previous match and a very rapid double or quits was struck up, (if you ask me I don’t think that he carries coins around and is waiting until he owes me a tenner). Poison Dwarf reminded me that he had already paid me his quid and this was backed up by his good lady wife Marge.

I announced that there were 2 jackpot pegs, pegs 12 and 77 (both had some form and if a decent angler drew them, it was possible that one of them may go). The Jackpot pegs are capped at £400 and for every £400 that is accumulated another jackpot peg is added. I recall at one time on the Maple Lake, we had 5 jackpot pegs on the go! Charisma Pawlett drew jackpot peg 77, I quickly announced that the jackpot pegs now carried a top prize of £50.

The obligatory £1 side bets were struck with Panic Poole, Poison Dwarf, Orc (double or quits) and Perverted (£2), £6 to either win or lose!! No sweets for the kids if I lose.

All the pegs were sorted and we were going to fish 11 – 4. A good few people asked me how I had got on, on the fisho. I re-told the tale about peg 47 being left and not wanting it. I put my hand in the draw bag, and drew the only peg (well one of them anyway) that I didn’t want……….. Cedar 47. Ho hum or words to that effect followed. The only difference today from yesterday was that there was no wind (well not as strong anyway). I was informed that Coyney had won the Thursday match from Peg 48, fishing at about 4 metres.

I had Mick Grant on Peg 48, Kirkyboy Grainger on peg 50 (with 49 empty), Joe Sandcastle on peg 45 and John Illingworth on peg 44. Peg 46 empty.

At the start of the match, I set up a 4x12 rig across to the island on .12 dia line to a size 18 PR 23 hook. This rig was to fish on top of the shelf. White hydro through the No. 2 section completed this kit. I had a 4x14 float down the middle (a bit like one of the Colmic Jolly floats except this one was green) on .12 dia line to a size 18 Kamasan B911, grey hydro through a power top 2 completed this rig. My last rig (following information rec’d) was set up at 4m at the base of the near slope. This was a .50 gram float on .11 Powerline to a size 18 B911, with .12 latex through 2 sections.

At the start of the match, I had seen a fish roll between me and Granty (as it turns out there was something wrong with it and it was going up and down all day). I fruit-shooted some groundbait over to the far side and fed pellets at 4m. I went over to the far side and waited some 5 mins for my first indication. Missed it!!. Dropped in again, the float had only just settled and I had my first carp of about 2.5lb. After a further 25 minutes of fishing across, I had added 1 more fish for a total of approximately 3.5lb.

I had been dripping pellets at 4m all the while whilst fishing across. First drop in at 4m, the float dipped and the resulting strike was met with resistance. An F1 carp of about 2lb was soon in the keepnet. For the next 40 minutes I continued to plunder the ball of fish that at congregated on this line. After about 30 minutes, I could feel that the fish were starting to back off a little, so I cut out the micro pellets and started feeding 2 x 4mm pellets.

CONKERS

Right then, let me get one thing straight about CONKERS!!!

Duty rumour has it that I fish with conkers as hook bait. My ‘conkers’ are 6mm BBPC expander pellets that when the swell up are probably nearer to 8-10mm rather than 6mm, but when the start to dry out a bit the expander shrinks, therefore you end up with a firm 6mm pellet. I must admit, that I had also spread a duty rumour myself (which most people wouldn’t put past me) that I came 2nd the previous week by fishing with double conker on the hook. The thing to ask was it only a rumour or not???

With said ‘conkers’ on the hook, I managed to put about 18lb together after about 1hr 20mins. I rang perverted to ask how he was getting on and to let him know what I was doing. Perverted was owning up to 10 fish for about 8lb. Granty had caught about 3 fish by this time and was starting to look worried, but then again, he always does.

It started to hailstone, and he asked me whether or not I had a brolly. I asked why? He replied that I had not used a brolly all match the previous week when it was absolutley chucking it down and here I am now with hailstone, rain and snow and still no brolly. I hate fishing under brolly’s as I like to put the brolly over my left shoulder, but this is then in the way of my landing net stick and to put it to the right, it is in the way of the pole.

The middle of the match went very, very slow and Kirkyboy was steadily starting to put a few fish together. Poor Granty had his brolly up and he could only hear the splashing now and again from Kirkyboy. He took great pleasure in telling me that Kirkyboy was catching me up.

With about 1hr to go, I would have thought that I had about 25lb and Kirkyboy had about 27lb. During the middle of the match, I had fed a few micro pellets at the bottom of the far slope and tried to catch a fish (or two there) with very little success. The inside line appeared to be all but dead and I couldn’t get a bite or an indication over to the far side. I dropped back in at the base of the far slope and with great shock, the float buried. A mirror carp of about 1lb was soon in the net, another followed, then an f1 (the first of about 4 or 5). This line soon seemed to die (if I had waited would I have caught any more? Or do you go looking for other fish?).

I came back onto the inside line and managed one more fish in the last 15 mins. Granty asked me if I had caught as much as last week. I thought that I had just over 30lb and if lucky about 35lb. I told Granty that I didn’t think so. Whilst packing up there was still a gusty wind and some numb nuts on peg 45 had taken his brolly out of the ground, but not collapsed it. Said wind picked up his brolly, did a pike and dive bombed into the lake. Numbnuts was on the telephone ringing the pond owners asking for a boat to get to the island to retrieve the aforementioned brolly. Mr Illingworth, being the nice man that he is, was hiding under his own brolly absolutely peeing himself. When he popped his head out of his brolly his face was so red, I thought that someone had been slapping him with a red paint brush. Numbnuts was not a happy teddy bear and needs to get a sense of humour, I think you can buy them from Morrison's.

The scales were soon upon me as my half of the scales started at peg 41. Craig Ebbrill (Mosella Garbolino) had done well and weighed in 48lb odd from peg 42. I knew that I didn’t have that and plonked 33-01 on the scales. Granty tipped back 8 fish. Kirkyboy lifted his net out, it looked close. He weighed 32lb odd, I didn’t celebrate, much!!!

After getting back to the cabin and sorting out the result, I was 3rd. Craig’s mate, Alan Rutherford (Tri-cast Highfield) had weighed in 36lb odd of peg 32. Craig told me after the match, that he had caught at 5m and rang his mate up to let him know what he was doing, Alan followed suit and emptied it. At the end of the match I rang Perverted to see if the bit of advice that I gave him had worked………had it eck!!! He weighed 15lb, oh well £2 was coming my way, as was Panic’s and Poison Dwarf’s quid. Orc had done a runner!!

Bad Luck or what?

Perverted has been off injured for about 3 months and during this time, I had only won my section a couple of times and one the match on the Thursday prior to Christmas. Now that the ugly one was back, I had been 2nd and 3rd in succession. The bad luck being that I go halves with him!!! Oh well, at this rate, when he wins the lottery he owes me half!!

Official Result

1. Craig Ebbrill (Mosella Garbolino) - 48-06. Peg 42. Carp to 5lb both across and down the middle. Pellet over micro pellet.
2. Alan Rutherford (Tri-cast Highfield) - 36-09. Peg 32. Same as winner.
3. Mick Herrington (Oaks/Bob-Co) - 33-01. Peg 47. Pellet at 4m and at 9m.
4. Kirk Grainger (Clay Lane) - 32-03. Peg 50
5. Dave Topham (Waterline Wibsey) - 30-12. Peg 27.
6. Ian Exley (Middy Team Dons) - 28-07. Peg 60.

Let the good times roll.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Saturday 8th April 2006

The Oaks Lakes Fishomania Arrives.

I agreed to help the NFA representative with the running of Fishomania competition taking place at The Oaks Lakes. Prior to the draw, I asked Eric “if there is a spare peg at the end of the draw, could I have it?”, to which he replied “yes, providing that all names on the list and names on the reserve list have been exhausted”. I thought, great, I might be able to get on the fisho.

The draw came and went, and it was nice to see some faces that I haven’t seen for some time, and a certain amount of time was allotted to allow any stragglers to turn up and take their place on the Fisho. There was one peg remaining – Cedar 47. Knowing which peg was left, I had second thoughts as peg 47 isn’t a good peg at the best of times (or so I thought prior to my Sunday result!). Eric asked me if I wanted the peg, I couldn’t say "No" fast enough. I then asked the remaining anglers if anyone else wanted a spare fisho peg. There were no takers. With the adverse weather conditions, Cedar 47 wouldn’t have been made any better as the wind would have been side on and it blowing an absolute hooly (?). Lee Barrett (Spring Valley Waters) had drawn a right flier, Peg 62A on Maple. Pete (Respect) Richmond (Lostock Tackle Box) had drawn a good peg on Maple, peg 63. Sadam Richards had drawn peg 63 on Cedar, which had some form from the past couple of matches as Middy had caught 64lb two weeks ago for 2nd place overall and he had had over 30 last weekend from the same peg.

Stuart (Blackworm) Almond had previously asked me for some Dacron Connectors and I had forgotten them on previous matches. I made sure that he handed me the money prior to giving over the connectors and any money transfers are non-refundable and if he didn’t like them it was tough, but I had nothing to worry about, when he saw the connectors, he thought they were sexy. Sad Git!!

Poplars Open Match

I then proceeded to arrange the open match taking place on Poplars Lake, there were 33 of us taking part – non of us wanted the spare fisho ticket!!. I drew peg 30 in the fish tail behind the bungalow. I had Keith (Alf) Garnett for company on one side (peg 32) and Minty Whittaker for company on the other side (peg 30). At the all in, I fruit-shooted a pot of groundbait, with pellet on a size 18 Kamasan B611 to .12 dia. line and a float of 4 x 12 topped it off. I had about 2.5ft of depth to where I was fishing. I waited for about 3 minutes, the float shot under and the pole tip hit the water. A carp of 4lb hurtled all around the swim. Grey hydro through a power top two soon subdued the fish. After approximately 1 hour, I had 4 fish for about 8lb. Minty was starting to put a few fish together. There was a bush between peg 30 and 29. Minty turned round to fish towards said bush and caught 2 fish in quick succession. I tried to my side of the same bush and never had a fish all match. I managed 1 skimmer, 2 perch (both on red maggot), 2 gudgeon, 1 skimmer and 10 carp for 18lb. This put me about 9th place out of the 33 anglers.

Minty won the match with 31lb, 30lb was 2nd and Magnum had 29lb (which included only 1 carp) of ide to finish up third. Minty did well to catch as much as he did, considering that he spent most of the match pulling his rigs out of the willows on the far bank. On more than one occasion, I thought that he was going to snap his Tournament Professional pole. At one stage, he got snagged and pulled for a break; his pole didn’t half hit the water.

Alf on peg 32 had 28lb and won the section. All of the weights in the low and high numbers had a mixture of carp and ide, and the middle numbers had predominantly carp.

Dave (Topshop) Topham on Peg 2 had a mare of a match. It was too windy for him to fish across to the island and ended up fishing down the side. Every time he struck his rigs ended up in the trees. As for his result, he wasn’t even a teeny bopper this week, he had 11lb odd!!

After hanging around, the result was that Lee Barrett had won the fisho contest with over 23 kilo and Respect was 2nd with over 21 kilo. The Bennett’s old man ended up third (if young Andy had been on the peg, I wouldn’t have had a bet on him not winning the fisho, as Ken had drawn peg 55 on Cedar and had a comfortable day with the wind off his back). Congratulations to Lee Barrett, he had been coming up to The Oaks all winter to practice (albeit, the matches were on Cedar Lake), but there is one thing that I have realised about Mr Barrett, he draws better than Rolf Harris!! But then again, you can only catch what is in front of you. Topshop will tell you that. Whilst driving home, Panic Poole told me that Lee had turned up with only worm and caster, so he gave Lee some luncheon meat that he had in his bag. Guess what Lee caught on, and it wasn’t worm or caster!!

Look on the bright side, there is always tomorrow!!!!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Sunday 2nd April 2006

Same again, headed to Sessay to organise the Sunday Open Match.

I was hoping for a full turn out of 80 anglers as I had a full list of names and some people were going to turn up to try to get on the open match.

As it transpired, about 10 people failed to turn up, therefore I managed to get on all those that made the trek to try to get on. What can we/I do about non-attenders??? Ho hum.

The jackpot pegs were drawn, pegs 12 and 57 were the lucky pegs. As soon as these pegs were drawn and we knew which anglers were on them, we knew the kitty was safe.

The draw commenced, I could feel a good peg coming along due to the Law of Averages (and being an average angler and all that). I dipped my hand in the bag and peg 24 was stuck to my mitt. There were many howls of laughter. When I enquired why?, I was told that everyone was waiting to see how to knack up a good peg!!!! So much for thinking that I had some mates!!!

Andy (Perverted) Purvis was in attendance, the first time in many months. He had a bad shoulder by all accounts, too many five knuckle shuffles if you ask me. The 2 quid side bet was struck (prior to the draw I hasten to add), and he was already moaning about having to give me 2 quid, and that was before he wet a line, although that isn't entirely true as it absolutely pee'd it down all day. Pound side bets were also struck with Poison Dwarf, Flash Gordon and Orc. This was going to be an expensive day should I lose!!!!!

Albert (Grandad) Poole had 36lb off my peg the previous Sunday, so I was hopeful of a few.

I had Neil Lloyd (Lloydy - How original) to my right on peg 25 and someone Hibbert to my Left on peg 23.

Got my gear out of my motor and realised that I had left both my waterproof leggings and wellies at home. The rain was absolutely tipping it down. I rang the pond owner to see if he had some waterproof trousers, I was offered either; waders or Barbour trousers (what the hell are they?). Lloydy on the next peg was hearing my plight and offered me some Protak Exeat leggings. Top Bloke!!.

The match started (only when I was ready and shouted time), i went across to the island with a 4 x 10 float to .10 powerline and a size 18 Kamasan 611 barbless hook with single 4mm pellet. I tipped in my fruitshoot top of groundbait and settled down, for about 10 seconds. The float shot under and an angry F1 carp of about 2lb was trying it's best to run up over the island and to the peg at the other side of the high bank. White Hydro Elastic through the No.2 section only of my pole soon had the carp under control and it was soon in the landing net. Comments along the lines of "Mick, it must be solid", "Mick, slow down" and "Mick, have you spent your winnings already" were quickly being aimed my way.

Being deaf in one hear, I was having to have the messages relayed to me, so by the time the messages/comments got back to me it was a bit like Chinese Whispers and I thought they were all cheering me on and wishing me luck!

After catching 2 fish off down the same hole, I tried (being the operative word) to get a second line going to the right of my peg number. This failed miserably throughout the match, as I only caught 3 fish from this line. After approximately 1 hour, I would estimate that I had about 7lb (5 carp and 1 ide). My hookbait was 4mm pellet on a size 18 hook. After an hour and feeling as though I was going nowhere, I fed some micro-pellets and a couple of 4mm pellets down the middle of the lake at about 9m at the bottom of the slope. After 10 minutes (but it felt like an eternity), I dropped the deep rig over the bait at the bottom of the slope. The float settled and slid under very slowly. I struck with such vigour that even Zorro, oops, I meant X-man, would have been proud. A fat water filled F1 carp of about 2lb in weight and about 1.25lb in size was soon nestling in the bottom of the landing net. Not daring to touch or pick the fish up, should it lose a pound, I took the hook out in the landing net, then rolled it into the keepnet. I dropped in again down the same hole and waited all of 2 or 3 minutes and the float buried again, this time a 1lb'er was forthcoming.

I fished the deep line for the next 40 - 45 minutes and I would estimate that I had about 15lb. I then decided to rest the deep line and went back over to the far shelf, to my original starting point. I proceeded to catch the odd carp and after 3 hours would have estimated at having 25lb (if I was lucky). Perverted came and sat behind me for 15 minutes or so and kept me informed of the anglers around him. The Castleford Munchkin on Peg 6 had had 8 or 9 fish all of which were 2lb + and the lad on peg 8 was also putting a few together. I asked Perverted what he had caught, and he admitted to 4 fish. The excuses then came out, "not been for a long time", "my shoulder is hurting", "can't buy a bite across" and many more.

Andy then decided to go back to his peg after a little pep talk. The wind had died a little and I felt that I could probably get away with putting another No.13 shot on my float rig across. The first drop in with the additional shot added, and the float dipped. I struck and the white hydro stayed where it was and the pole tip was reaching near and near to the sun. After a little tussle, just to get it off the far shelf, I then played it for about 3 or 4 minutes down the middle. Perverted and Magnum had created an audience from afar. After a brief fight a common of about 3 lb was in the bottom of the keepnet. I then proceeded to fish this line for the next 45 minutes.

At 3:30 pm, with 45 minutes of the match left, I went back down the deeps with a 6mm expander pellet on (not 2 of them, as some people may think). The float buried and a battle ensued. I could not get the fish off the bottom using 1.2 latex elastic through the match kit (minus the number 1 section). The fish then came off bottom towards the landing net and went round and round in circles. Ah, a Barbel, this one was about 1.5lb. I then caught a procession of barbel from down the middle for the next 35 minutes.

With about 20 minutes to go, Perverted came back and sat behind me. Perverted informed me that Racingh (think about it) had a right beast on and had been playing it for some time now. After keeping an eye on Ray, I was starting to pray to him upstairs for Ray to lose the fish. My prayers were answered. Ray's line snapped and he lost the fish. Perverted watched how I missed 3 liners/indications in a row. I let the bite develop a bit more, and another barbel followed. For the last ten minutes of the match, I went back over to the far side and caught 1 more fish (could I have had anymore down the middle?).

Had I done enough. Rumours were coming round the lake that Tala on peg 31 had caught steadily all day and Robbie Larkin indicated that he had about 50lb. I said to Perverted, that I estimated that I had between 35 - 40lb and possibly, if the scales were kind, just over 40lb.

By the time the scales had got to me Age Concern on peg 10 had 48lb odd, and the next best was 33lb from the Castleford Munchkin. Peg 23 to my Left weighed in 25lb odd, mostly caught next to the aerator. I picked my net out of the water and weighed in 42lb 3oz, this put me second overall out of the first 24 pegs. Lloydy on peg 25 weighed in 32lb, so job done for a start, not to get beaten both sides. As I proceeded to pack away my rain sodden gear, (why do rod bags weigh twice as much at the end of a match than at the beginning?), I was informed that Tala on peg 31 only had about 30lb, so this still put me second on my half of the lake.

I packed all of my gear away, and drove round to pick up Flash Gordon, asking for results on the other side of the lake as I went. The best weight weighed in on the high numbers of the lake was 40lb by Grandad.

I had done it, I came second!!! A brown envelope was on it's way to me. All I had to do now was to see if Age Concern had had a moment of senile dementia and had forgotten to put his name, and his quid, on the list for the optional winner take all. Oh well, there is always next week.

The result as follows confirms my second place:

1st Bruce Poland (Age Concern), 48-13. peg 10 (with peg 9 empty). Pellet across to the island.
2nd Me (Oaks/Bob-Co), 42-03. Peg 24 (with no empty pegs).
3rd Andy Bennett (Garbolino Elton), 41-11. Peg 36.
4th Bert Poole (Oaks/Westpark), 40-08. Peg 68.
5th Craig Ebbrill, (Mosella ?), 35-15. Peg 54.
6th Dave Topham, (Waterline Wibsey), 34-12. Peg 33

Sections:
S1 Pegs 1 - 13 - Dave Sharpe 33-04. peg 6
S2 Pegs 14 - 24 - Mal Bailey 32-03, peg 18
S3 Pegs 25 - 35 - Dave Topham 34-12, Peg 33
S4 Pegs 36 - 46 - Pete Rambow (Snr) 32-12, peg 44
S5 Pegs 47 - 58 - Gordon Poole 34-00, peg 53
S6 Pegs 59 - 69 - Andy Middleton 32-04, peg 63
S7 Pegs 70 - 80 - Johhn McGarrell 26-13, peg 74

With the above in mind, I can only say one thing. Good job that I haven't got a Fisho ticket!!!