16m Garbolino G995.
5 match tops (2 white Hydro, 2 grey hydro, 2 yellow dual core)
3 power tops (black hydro)
Extending cupping kit
2 short No. 4's
3 spare long No. 4
No.1 sections (somewhere) Rodbag & tubes
May be able to include some more top kits. £1100.
e-mail me at mike1herrington@aol.com

Not written,

Anything for a good while. I have been through a period of unemployment, which, although you have the extra time on your hands, I haven't been too inspired to do much by way of the blog. I am now back into work and it just woke me up a touch.

So, what have I been doing (apart from giving my autograph periodically), I have been on a few club matches with Bram and his club (Robin Hood AC, Leeds) and also with Coco, Tombstone and his cronies.

I have been to Risby, again, on the Folly lake. It just didn't fish anywhere near how if fished on my last visit. I ended up with 28lb odd, which was a reasonable weight on the day, Chris (Plughole) Kitchen managed to win the match with 70 odd pounds, by fishing his top 3 kit down the side. Bram ended up framing off the flyer pegs (pegs 25 - 30), Plughole was also on the same pegs. Paul 'Pid' Farley fished a tidy match on the waggler and just missed out with a low 40lb.

I entered a couple of matches at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk on Saturdays and during my period of unemployment, on Wednesdays. I always, always seem to draw the wrong end of the lake. Match 1, I draw Skylark 34, which is a corner peg, it is also shallow and the was blowing diagonally down to the opposite end of the lake. One time travelling partner, Panic Poole, was 3rd with 70 odd lb. Darrell 'Sir Tossa' Taylor was 2nd with a low 80lb. I managed 40lb dead. On my next outing I drew Skylark 9 and ended up with 49lb, everyone to my right all had 60lb+. I did manage to win my section as I was the last man in the section to my left. On my last session, I drew Partridge 19, and complained all the way to my peg. The pegs to be on have been pegs 22 - 25 on the same lake/bank. I fished corn at 16m, but actually feeding at 10m. By the all out 118lb was winning the match. I plonked 98lb odd on the scales. Steve 'Nightie' Richards managed to put 35lb on the scales, Andy 'Haircut' Bridge put 60lb on the scales, then you got to the flyers. Peg 23 had 145lb (for 2nd) and peg 24 had 100lb odd. 155lb won the match. I was 5th in the match, with my best weight at the venue. I went home empty handed though. They paid top 3, then sections and the 100lb was in my section.

I have just started going back to The Oaks after a self imposed rest. I have had some terrible results and with the weather, one method works one week, then doesn't work the next. John 'Chappy' Chapman and his travelling partner Dave 'Pimmy' Pimlott have been taking it in turns to take the place apart. Gareth 'Marco (remember the squealy queer one from BB) Drury has been holding own and Steve 'Ena' Sharples has been giving everyone a run for their money.

We have just started a new payout system at the oaks, £20 per match paying 5 or 6 man sections along with the top 4 or 5. This gives something for everyone to work for when they draw a hard section.

Bye bye for now.

Tightlines.

Mike

I went to Risby again on Saturday 29th July, to fish a match on the Tench Lake. I went with Tyersal Angling Club again, so I had the pleasure of fishing with Catkiller, Coco the Clown and Tombstone to name but a few.

I gave F1 a lift again, but this time I invested in one ear protector, due to being deaf in my left ear, I only needed to cover up my right ear and I couldn’t hear the little twerp. Saying that, he talked that much, he melted my only ear protector. Talk about enthusiasm!!!

Following a decent breakfast in the lakeside café, we were ready for the draw. At the draw, I put my hand in the hat and managed to snare Jackpot peg 25. There was the obligatory comment of ‘That’s safe then?’ and the like. But some one also said that I wasn’t eligible to win it as I was not a member of the club. Should I win, it will be interesting!!!

I arrived at my peg to find that a few fish were crashing about at 15m plus and there were a few carp cruising about. It looked promising. I had match organiser ‘Beamer’ to my left on peg 24, Catkiller was on 23, Pete Cressey drew peg 18, F1 was on about peg 30 and I had Lee ‘Spiceworld’ Helliwell to my right on peg 27, peg 26 was empty. Coco Harrison was on about peg 10 and Tombstone was on peg 14 (or thereabouts).

Some one told me that Tombstone had applied for a Jockeys Riding Licence, but was turned down for being too small. Ho Hum. During the match, whilst he was setting up, he went for a walk and went missing. It was only when the wind blew and moved a blade of grass could we see him. He owns a Brilo Stax box with about 10 empty pole trays on it. I think that they are so that people can see him when he is sat down on his box.

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

Rig one was a Gaz Malham float taking 4x14. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Drennan Barbless Carp eyed hook. I made this rig from the hair backwards in order to fish direct and to also tie a Korum Baitspike onto the rig. I plumbed up at 5m slightly to my right, where I found 4ft of depth.

I also set up one rig to fish at 14m on the deck. I used a .5g Garbolino DC4 float, again with a Baitspike also, on .16 Ultima Power Match line. I used this diameter of line as it is quite thin, yet strong and supple and I wasn’t sure of what size of fish I was going to encounter. I plumbed up and found that it was about 6ft deep.

I then set up 2 shallow rigs as follows:

The first one was a 4 x 12 Gaz Malham float (still not sure of the pattern), which I set up on .16 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Drennan Eyed Carp Match hook, incorporating a Korum Baitspike. I set this rig to fish at half depth (about 3ft deep).

My second shallow rig was a rig that I was going to use by varying the depth, anything from 12” to 2ft deep. I used a .1g Garbolino DC2 float, which was attached to .16 Ultima Power Match line again, fishing direct to a size 14 Drennan Eyed Carp Match hook also with a Baitspike. When fishing shallow for carp and using either pellets or meat as bait, I am a firm believer in using the Baitspikes as you are able to slap your rig and bait down on the water, without the bait falling off.

For bait I had 3 tins of meat, ½ of which, I covered in Carp Vaders’ Predator Plus, which I then placed in the fridge overnight, and the other half ‘au naturale’, I also had some pellets and I took along a tub of Carp Vaders’ Method Mix Groundbait, in order to see whether or not I could put it to use. I mixed the two ‘meats’ together for feeding. Prior to fishing with the meat, I covered it in water for about 5 minutes, this pales the meat. Think about it this way. If you leave meat in water what colour does it go? It pales.

We’re off. At the start of the match, I put some meat in a Fox toss pot and shipped out to 14m with the full depth rig baited up with some red Predator Plus meat. I dropped the meat in and the rig over the top. I was in, literally as quick as that. I was the first one into a fish. Most other people on the match were still potting in their bait. After a brief tussle, I managed to get it into the net. 3lb first put in. Not bad. I re-baited and dropped back in. After a longer wait this time, about 3 minutes, I was in again. I started to feed a few pieces of meat with the catapult. I got my second fish out, this one weighed about 1lb. I managed to catch another one on the deep rig before I started to get linered, time to go shallow me thinks.

I baited up the DC 2 shallow rig with meat on the hook and set the rig to fish at about 2ft deep. I shipped out and dropped in. After a couple of minutes of feeding meat and lifting and slapping the rig back down, I was in. My first fish up in the water. I had it on for no more than 10 seconds before I lost it. Probably foul-hooked. I brought my rig back and threw the scale into my net (not really). I shallowed up a touch, to about 18” deep and went back out. 1 hour into the match and I had about 10lb. The only other person that I could see catching was Spiceworld on the next peg. What was he doing?

After seeing Spiceworld ship out some chopped worm and Predator Plus, I devised a cunning plan. In order to introduce some Predator Plus into the swim, I got the Method Mix and added lots and lots of water to create a sloppy mix. Once it was over-wetted, I then added a huge squirt of Predator Plus to the mix. Here goes.

I put some of the mix in a Fox Tosspot, baited up my hook with a piece of red Predator Plus meat and dropped the mix in and the rig over the top. After some 30 – 40 seconds, the float buried and with the way that it was nodding its head, I was attached to something quite substantial. The Black Hydro tried its best to get dragged from the pole and I found that I had to play the fish at 14m, which is against my religion as I usually, just start to ship back slowly. This was a good fish!!! After a 5 minute battle, I had the fish back to the top 4 kit. I unshipped there and played the fish on that for a while. I started to think that the fish might be foul hooked as I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, when all of a sudden, it’s head poked out of the water. It was a really good fish. After a further 3 or 4 minutes, I managed to fold it into my landing net. I was giddy, and I would estimate that the fish weighed about 14lb. Boy, did I give a huge sigh of relief. I had a rest for a minute or so, to catch my breath.

I then proceeded to catch a carp every put in (considering not many other people were catching) whether I was having to wait 30 seconds or 10 minutes. The fish were moving up and down in the water and I had to keep swapping between the two shallow rigs. Since I had started to introduce the Predator Mix, my peg had turned into a Jacuzzi and bubbles were erupting everywhere. The fish were blowing all over and they were not on the bottom.

The method mix had lots of particles in it (pieces of corn, hemp, maize, pellets and such) and was a very sticky mix until I added copious amounts of water. I think that due to the varying weights and sizes of the particles, and the Predator Plus, the fish were feeding at all depths in the water column and I was having to find them by continuously changing depths and rigs. Every time that I dropped in on the deep rig, I got linered to death and couldn’t connect with a fish.

Halfway through the match, I observed Coco playing a fish. Observed is sometimes a scary word. Just as Coco struck, I am sure a jumbo jet in the jet stream had to swerve to avoid the top of his pole. He then proceeded to try to drag it to the top of the lake whilst trying to bend his pole past the realms of technology and beyond. It looked like he was using a 10m swingtip. After everyone had observed that he can catch a fish, he then went on to net the fish to a round of applause. It must have weighed all of 4lb, but at least everyone knew that he had it on.

With about an hour and a half of the match left, I decided to try to up the pace by shortening the line between the pole float and pole tip and also introduce more meat by the catapult whilst still feeding the Predator Mix. Over the next hour, I managed to snare about 4 fish. Something wasn’t right. I put my other rig back on that was set to fish at half depth and added 3 more fish in the last 20 minutes or so. I had messed up, big time, but would it cost me?

Towards the end of the match, Mark, who is the travelling companion of Captain Mainwaring, snagged the near side reeds using his Daiwa Tournament Professional pole. After a prolonged tussle, he managed to break his pole at the No. 4 and 5 sections, leaving his top 3 floating in the lake. He then grabbed hold of his sections that were behind him and threw them into the trees behind him, with such force that Steve Backley would have been proud of his javelin attempt, breaking some further sections. ‘YOU DIDN’T WANT TO DO THAT, DID YOU?’ At the end of the match, I asked him what line had he been using and he replied 20lb, as he had been done on 16lb line!!! Yeah, whatever.

I was hoping to have 70lb + with a possibility of having nearly 80lb. I had managed to snare a few, but not sure on numbers as I don’t really count the number of fish that I have caught. Coco failed to catch any more fish following the Sonic Boom that was created from his strike.

As I lifted my net out and I saw the big carp again, I had a change of heart about its size. I would estimate that it weighed about 12lb and not my original 14lb guess. I got Spiceworld to take a photo, but upon looking at it, they had made a mini movie and Catkiller was in the back ground taking the piss. Catkiller is that ugly, I won’t bother scaring all you readers away from this or any future blog's by publishing the movie or any stills. My first weigh went 49lb odd and I still had a few fish left in the net.

Spiceworld's first weigh went 53lb 4oz. He had a few fish in his net, this was gonna be close. His second weigh was just shy of 15lb. Bugger - he has ounced me (8oz to be precise).

Spiceworld (He informs me that he is no relation to Ginger Spice), won the match with 68lb 2oz. I was second with 67lb 10oz and Alan (?) was 3rd with 44lb.

Following the results, and after having a chat with a couple of the other lads on the match, I was still left with a question. Why do they call it the ‘Tench Lake’ as there were no more than a dozen tench caught throughout the match by 25 anglers?

Went to the Fisho this year for the first time, here are one or two pictures that I took...

So, are we gonna have that quid side bet?

I had a couple of quid on Jacko. Go on my son!!

It was this big - Honest.

Shame about the coat.

I can always dream......

Mid July

I am having a rest from The Oaks at the moment due to my inability to be able to catch fish there. On my last match a couple of weeks ago, I managed to tip back somewhere in the region of 25lb, and that is after walking round the lake for about an hour or so. I was on peg 47 on Cedar Lake and I had Andy Hampson to my left on peg 46, with Gary Jubb for company on peg 49. Andy fished his peg all day and tipped back approximately the same weight whilst Jubby and John Allerton, on peg 50, both weighed in approximately 50lb.

So this week, I ended up going with Tyersall club, who are based in Bradford, to Risby Park lakes, just outside of Beverley. I had heard good reports about the place, and the match was taking place on Folly Lake, so I was looking forward to the trip. I offered to give a lift to one of the young lads who goes up to None-Go-Bye lakes, Louis Hamilton aka F1. F1 is very keen and on the way to the venue I got the usual questions, what line, how deep, what hook, what elastic, which peg, what line, what line, how deep, what hook, what elastic, which peg and so on and so on. By the time that we arrived I hurriedly went for a breakfast in order to give my bleeding ears a rest. Whilst eating my breakfast at the onsite café, all I got was would I be ok with one net or do I need to buy another? F1 chill out!!!

Tombstone, Catkiller and Coco to name but a few, where all in attendance. After asking one or two people that had fished the venue before the general consensus was that you needed to draw pegs 25 – 30 as most of the big fish lived there. After breakfast, I had a quick walk round the lake to see what was what. I started at peg 40 and walked round to peg one. To be fair, apart from a few extra reeds on the inside, there was nothing special that separated the so called good pegs from the bad pegs.

By the time of the draw there were 25 of us in attendance. I put my hand in the cap and ended up with peg 14. I would have preferred it on the other side. F1 snared peg 28, Tombstone was on peg 12, Ray Keay was to my left on peg 13, Catkiller was on peg 25 and Coco was on peg 35.

In view of the depth of the lake and the amount of fish swirling in the upper layers of the water, I opted to have a shallow approach as the basis of my attack. I set up the following rigs:

Rig one was a .2 Garbolino DC6 float on .18 Ultima Power Match line tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. This was attached to Purple Hydro elastic. I plumbed up down the side next to nearside reed cover and found that I had approximately 2.5ft of depth next to the reeds.

Rig two was a Gaz Malham float taking 4x10 shot. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Match line. I hair-rigged a Korum Baitspike at the business end of the rig, attached to a size 16 Colmic B500 hook. I attached this to the Drennan pink elastic. I set the rig to fish approximately 12” deep.

Rig three was a duplicate of the above rig, set to fish slightly deeper at up to 2ft deep should the fish drop down in the water a bit.

My fourth rig was set to fish at depth at about 4m where I had 5ft of depth. I set up a .4g Garbolino DC4 on .16 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 12 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. I planned to fish paste on this rig.

For bait I had put 3 tins of luncheon meat through a Mal Bailey 6mm meatcutter. I then separated half of this and covered one half in Carp Vaders’ Predator Plus liquid additive (http://www.carpvader.com/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=3) This gave the bait a red tinge and also added additional flavouring.

I also made some paste from some micro pellets to which I added some scopex liquid, additive also from Carp Vader. In addition to the meat and paste I also had 2 pts of casters, just in case. I was ready.

At the start of the match, I cupped in some micro pellets in at 5m, then I cupped in some casters and meat (both the normal and the Predator Plus) at 13m. I immediately started to fire some casters and meat over the top. I threw some pellets in down the side. I baited up the deep rig with some paste and dropped it in on the 4m line. I waited less than a minute, carp no.1 was in the net. My first fish was about 1.5lb, but at least I was off the mark.

I managed to snare another 3 before I got linered(?) to death. I went out on the shallow rig at 13m. After feeding a few pieces of meat, the float shot under and a ‘ghostie’ carp of about 2.5lb was on it’s way. I fished up in the water for the next couple of hours catching the odd ghostie along with some corking ide, to about 2.5lb.

I fed a few pieces of bread down the margins, when all of a sudden, I heard some slurping. There was about 5 or 6 carp down the side in the marginal reeds, taking the bread off the top. I quickly knocked up another rig consisting of .20 Ultima Powermatch line tied direct to a size 12 Colmic B500. No float, no shot. I baited up the hook with a piece of bread about the size of a 50p piece and dropped in. After about 2 minutes, a ghostie approaching 6 or 7lb came up and slurped on the bread. What an awesome sight. Your heart is thumping, you’re a coiled like a cobra, waiting to strike, when..

Whack. I was in. The carp went mad in the reeds, it shot out into the lake (with the line still in the reeds), then went back into the reeds, like some sort of slalom. The hook pulled and embedded itself in the reeds. I pulled for a break and ended up dragging in some of the reeds instead. I quickly inspected the line and although it had appeared to be stretched, it seemed ok. I’ll tell you what. The Ultima Powermatch line is incredibly strong.

About time to go back out on the shallow rig. I dropped and immediately caught a carp of about 5lb.

I continued to fish up in the water until the last hour, when I decided to go down the side. I had been baiting up down the side with meat and pellets for the duration of the match. I dropped in down the side with meat on the hook, in about 3ft of water and caught a ghostie of about 3lb first drop in. Over the next hour I managed to snare another 8 carp to 4lb. That was it. Time over.

I would estimate that I had about 80 – 85lb, mostly caught on meat either up in the water or down the side.

I thought that I would have a top 3 finish. By the time that the scales arrived, Tombstone had snared 70 odd pounds, which included a fish of 11.5lb. Ray Keay snared 95lb odd, that included a near double figure fish that he played after time. My first weigh went 59lb and my second weigh went 18lb for a 77lb total. I walked round with the scales and watched as I got further away from framing as Peter Cressey plonked 114lb on the scales, all caught on paste at 4m.

One of the last to weigh was ginger Kenny. He weighed in 127lb odd to win the match by using 20m floating pole and floating dog biscuit as bait. I ended up 4th and they only pay top 3. Blinking Eck!!

If I could have done a couple of things different, I could have added another 15lb or so, I reckon. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Halfway through the match, I added more Predator Plus to my meat to form a red cloud that hung in the water. When I did this, I managed to catch more carp than ide. Maybe if I had gone down the side half an hour earlier, I could have added a few more.

As far as the weights go, F1 weighed in 44lb, which was a good result for the ‘young un’. The lowest weight weighed in by those that knew(?) what they were doing was 49lb by Coco Harrison. Nobody DNW’d. What a place. There were 6 other 70lb plus weights without the top 4. What a place.

If you decide to have a dabble, take your net as you can use them whilst pleasure fishing.

Tightlines!!!

Saturday 7th July 2007

My lad had his 12th birthday party last Sunday, and I spent the day with a group of kids running round a wood with a paintballing gun. If you haven’t been paintballing before, I suggest that you have a go. It was a better day due to the weather as it has rained on and off (mostly on) for the last 3 weeks or so and the place was muddy, so when you dived to the ground in some sort of SAS manoeuvre you got absolutely blathered in mud.

One of the games consisted of plastic barrel at the halfway point between two teams and the idea was to keep the barrel on the oppositions side of the field. I had the task of making the first run for the barrel (minus my gun), whilst all and sundry took pot-shots at me. Have a go if you get chance. I am contemplating organising a little ‘do’ with a few mates, hopefully in the near future if I can get the commitment.

Anyway’s, back to the fishing. Due to the party last weekend, there is no report, so I made up for it with a trip to Hosticks ponds, Beverley.

I made midweek arrangements to pick up the Anaemic Milk Bottle, who was formerly known as ‘Dudone’. On a recent match one of the anglers said to Dudone, ‘You know what you need don’t you? Dudone replied ‘What’. The angler said ‘A good suntan’.

As most of the readers in the UK are aware (and no doubt some of the readers from other shores), there are certain areas of England that have been under 6ft plus of water. Up until a few days ago, there were only parts of Doncaster and Sheffield that had suffered. Kingston upon Hull has also had similar problems and Hosticks had their fair share. There are 3 lakes on the complex and the rain was so severe that the lakes merged to become one and you needed chest waders just to get to your peg and the car park was under 2ft of water.

After a good breakfast at the onsite café courtesy of Val, I was ready for the draw. Steve Cromie turned up and a £2 side bet was set up. At the draw Cromie drew number 2, whilst I was number 7 and Anaemia pulled out number 15. With the matches being a rover, the number indicated your turn to choose your own peg.

Cromie chose the peg that had won the match on Thursday, Kingfisher peg 1. I snared Moat peg 29 and by the time that it was Anaemia’s turn, he didn’t have much of a choice, so ended up on Island peg 13. He got to his peg to find it was under water. A quick word with the match organisers, and he had moved to peg 12. By the time that the match had started he had moved again to Island peg 18. Don’t ask!!!

At the start of the match I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig one was a Gaz Malham special, I say a Gaz Malham special as I am not sure what pattern the float is. I like the Malham floats as they are virtually indestructible and you can fish them next to reeds/snags etc with no worries of damaging the floats. I set the rig up on .16 Ultima Power Match. I set the rig up to fish across to the island and in view of the far side being a slope, I settle on about 2ft deep. The float took 4x12, which roughly equates to 3 No. 8 and 1 x No.11 Preston Stotz. This rig was attached to the Pink Drennan hollow elastic. I also plumbed up down the side on the top 3 kit until I found the same depth allowing the float to have a dual purpose (nearside and far side).

I set up the usual .2g Garbolino DC6 float on .18 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. This was attached to black hydro. Again, I plumbed up across to the island in the same spot as my first rig.

My 3rd rig was a .4g Garbolino DC4 float. This was set up on .18 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 12 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. Black Hydro completed this set up. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found that I had about 4.5ft of depth.

For bait, I had 2pts of micro pellets, 1 tin of corn and a large ball of paste made from my micro pellets.

At the all in, I potted in some pellets to the base of the far slope and put in a few grains of corn and pellets on the inside line.

I went across to the far side with the Gaz Malham rig baited up with pellet on the hook and a Toss pot full of micro pellets. I tipped the pellets in and dropped my rig over the top. The float hadn’t even settled before the elastic was dragged from the pole tip as the fish made a mad dash for the car park (it would have made it had it not been for the fact that the water was back in the lake!!!).

A carp of 2lb was soon subdued and in the net. I rebaited and dropped in again. I waited a little longer before the elastic was dragged out again. Another carp, this one was about 1lb or so. I repeated the process and got a million missed bites before I connected with an ide of about 10 oz. A roach and some more ide followed. Time to move to another spot.

I dropped in, in another spot to the right of where I had been fishing and immediately caught a carp of about 2lb. Ide and roach followed. I dropped in down the side to my left and caught what turned out to be my smallest carp of the day at about 8oz.

All the while, I could see carp milling about up in the water. I decided to try shallow. I dropped in and got ‘dinked’ to death. I was getting a million indications, the pellets were getting dragged off the hook and there was nothing there. When I finally connected with the ‘dinks’, I managed to snare an Ide of about 2lb, now these where worth catching.

I dropped in again and suffered the same problem before I caught an ide of about 10oz. I switched to corn on the hook, but fished up in the water. I sprinkled a few micro pellets over the top of the float. The float buried and I caught my biggest carp so far. It was a common approaching 4lb. I had found the method, corn up in the water, of so I thought.

After about 30 minutes and one more carp, I decided to sack that method as the fish weren’t going mad for it. I dropped in on paste down the middle and managed to snare some more ide. I couldn’t catch a carp for the life of me.

I went over to the far side with paste on the hook and immediately caught a carp before the ide and the roach moved back in. There was now only 2 hours of the match remaining and I would estimate that I had about 25lb to 30lb in the net. I made a decision. I would try to catch the ide and the carp closer in, on the top 3 kit rather than shipping 14m of pole across to the far side and wasting time shipping in and out.

As you can see, I was now on plan 20-Z.

I plumbed up with the deep rig to find the depth on the top 3 and found approximately 3ft of depth. I baited up with paste and fed some micro pellets and corn by hand. The float had barely settled before I caught my first ide of about 12oz. Sorted. I snared about 10 ide and a couple of roach before I caught my first carp down the side. This one weighed approximately 5lb. Over the remainder of the match I would catch predominantly ide/roach/skimmers before catching a carp, but I was keeping them coming.

Now, let me ask a question, why don’t anglers know better????? Whilst fishing, I must have received 4 or 5 calls from anglers asking ‘How are you getting on?’, ‘What weight have you got?’, ‘What time do you finish?’, ‘Have you tried….?’, etc, etc. This is whilst I am trying to get a method sorted or whilst I am in bagging mode.

By the end of the match, I felt as though I had got a game plan together and I was catching steadily away.

I had caught 23 carp averaging 1.5 – 2lb and about 40lb of silvers. Phil Chapman was admitting to 28/29 carp with the biggest one approaching 10lb and about 6lb of silver fish.

The scales arrived at Phil’s peg first and he plonked 80lb on the scales. The lad next to him managed to snare 122lb (what had Phil been doing, watching him). There was another 120lb + weight from peg 14. The lad next to me weighed in 90lb and I put 39lb of mainly silvers and small carp (carp to about 1.5lb) on the scales. My second net went 45lb (this was made up of larger carp, about 7 of them, and larger skimmers, tench and ide). This gave me a combined weight of 83lb odd.

As I was being weighed in, there was a roach in my net that would have weighed no more than about ½ oz wet through. I said to the Anaemic One that I had caught it on paste. His reply of ‘God, did you mate?’ was unbelievable.

The only person that Phil managed to beat on our lake was a blind 80 year old who had a bell at the end of his pole for bite detection.

123lb won, 122 – second, 120lb 3rd (Steve Cromie), 114lb, 113lb. First and second came off my lake, the next 6 placings came off Kingfisher Lake.

I had had a thoroughly enjoyable day and started to enjoy myself when I had finally got my method sorted. This is the first time that I had been on this lake and I have learnt a lot for the next time that I am on this lake.

Ultima Power Match Line

After using the Power Match line for the last few weeks or so, I am a true convert. The line is incredibly strong, yet very supple and very abrasion resistant. I have been using the .20 on a local lake fishing to the staging on the next peg, the fish have been running round the post and today, I have used the .16 and .18 breaking strains with no worries. The largest carp ran through some fine tree routes from the overhanging willow tree and I managed to pull it back through.

The final thing that I must add is that ‘I haven’t been broke (yet)’.

Just like to say a quick hello to my readers in:

Oslo, Mumbai, Nairobi, Mugla, Washington, Wood Dale, Tucson and BROADSTAIRS

Thanks for reading peeps.

Darrell Taylor was trying to convince John 'Chappy' Chapman that fish eat water. I asked Darrell how he had got on after yesterdays match. He said not very well. I said 'Imagine how many more fish you would have caught if they hadn't been full up on all of the water that they had eaten'.

Billy Brierley was overheard to say that he tried water, but was having trouble keeping it on the hook.

On a more serious note, there is only one person to blame for all of the drains being blocked and that is Haircut. He got his wig stuck in a swimming pool filter and this has had catastrophic effect on the UK as a whole in view of all of the rain.

A quick update….

I have fished a few of the evening matches at a local lake called None-Go-Bye. It is on a farm and the owners are still learning and boy, do they have a lot to learn.

I have fished a total of 7 evening matches and won money in all but one of them. I have had weights of 20lb (2nd), 42lb (1st), 47lb (1st), 38lb (2nd) and a few other weights in between. This isn’t bad for a 3 hour evening match, where the bonus fish are about 2lb and the main stamp of fish are in the 10 – 12oz bracket. I have been fishing pellet across to the farside and I have just started to fish paste down the middle.

I have started to fish with a maggot and Groundbait approach on the Sessay Opens and the weights are steadily increasing, the first time that I used it I caught 36lb (13lb one side of me and 7 fish the other) for 2nd in section. I have also had 57lb (with a DNW (about 20lb) one side and 22lb the other) for a section win and about 10th overall. I used it a couple of weeks ago and had 42lb, again, coming 2nd in my section with 44lb winning the section. I got broke by one as I couldn’t get my top kit back on to my pole and it bottomed out my elastic. Dave Pimlott had 57lb one side of me and I had a DNW on the other side. I used it yesterday and had 52lb with 74lb one side (Dave Pimlott (again) – 4th overall) for 2nd in section again.

I went to Woodland View, Droitwich for a charity do taking the format of the old ‘uns v young ‘uns and took Total Fishing.com poster ‘Budnudd’ with me. I quickly renamed Budnudd – Dudone as it had a better ring to it than budnudd. I had a quick chat to Giles to see if he had any top tips and to also say thank you for helping me to win £600 quid when I first started to us the HITL method. I managed to draw Front Deans pool, peg 9. I had Steve May a couple of pegs away on about peg 6 or 7 and Corndawg was next peg to Steve. A quick quid was struck up with both. I had Steve’s Lad – God, opposite me and Dudone was within earshot on Front Deans peg 3. Giles was unsure about which way to swing due to his age as the average age was 42 years old. If you were this old or older, you was classed as an oldie. Giles stood there with a look of what do I do. I am only 42. A quick shove from yours truly and he was soon on his way to the old ‘uns.

I fished with caster up in the water and ended up with 31lb for 2nd in my section (again). Gary Thorpe won my section with 47lb. The lad next to me was tapping with water, I thought that this wasn’t allowed and I told him on a couple of occasions. But he still continued. God managed to win our lake with 80 odd pounds. Peter1984 (not sure of his real name, who organised the match) was a clear winner with 168lb. Giles was 2nd with 118lb. I was on the wrong lake and wrong side. Everyone on the opposite bank had 40 – 80lb, whereas on my bank we mainly struggled. Steve ended up with 14lb odd and Corndawg had 15lb odd. I had to beat an old fella next to me (Mike someone was his name) and he had 4 fish. Job done. I won an envelope for 2nd in section, which I donated to the cause (and additional £35).

Back at Hosticks, I was 14th to draw, so all I did was to look around for a bit of room. Dudone was in attendance again, courtesy of yours truly. He was even further down the draw than I was. I ended up on Kingfisher peg 26 and Dudone ended up on Kingfisher peg 24. He only managed to get done 8 times and ended up with about 8 fish out. I fished maggot for a couple of hours and then switched to pellet to end up with 70 odd pounds and a most enjoyable days fishing.

I have just taken delivery of some Ultima Power Match line and I am totally impressed with it on my initial trials. I used it at None Go Bye on the old original lake. I rigged up my G995 pole with some Red Hydro elastic and rigged up with .20 line direct to a size 12 hook. I plumbed up about 5” away from a lily bed. I used a short power No. 4 which had a small crack in it that I had taped up, so I wouldn’t be too bothered if I broke the section or not. I let Jasper have a go and he only went and broke the said section as a large carp made a big for freedom. After a 4 minute tussle (if you could call it that), we managed to grab hold of the end of the section that had broken and tried to pull the fish back through the lily bed, but no such luck. It managed to break me, but not without a battle first.

On Sunday, I gave a bit of line to Dave Pimlott and asked him to break it. He couldn’t, and it nearly cut his hands. I did the same with Andy Stonner and the same happened. I then showed them the breaking strain. 0.14!!!!

That’s all for now, but more will follow.

Tightlines

Mike

About time for an update.


In the last few weeks since my last match I have fished at Hosticks, Cudmore (Arena), None-Go-Bye, Oaks, Sessay and Woodland View, so here goes.


I managed to get on a match at Cudmore on the Arena pool with a club from around Leeds. I put up a thread on Total Fishing discussion forum asking for a little bit of advice and Steve May told me to give Jellybaby a ring to find out what to do. I spoke with Andy, who advised that I fish the Method feeder for the first hour, then go in on the pole at 14m with meat on the hook. The lake is full of barbel in the 1lb bracket.


Including pools and the coach hire, it only cost me 20 quid. Whilst waiting for the club to organise the draw, someone suggested a £1 winner take all. I suggested that we make it a £2 winner take all, just to add a bit of fun. There were 20 of us there for the match on a 30 peg lake. I was left to sort out the pegging on a peg 2, miss one basis. We were ready. I put my hand in the cap and managed to draw peg 20. I walked to my peg and made a quick call to Andy May to just find out a little bit more about the peg. Jellybaby said that peg 19 is a flyer, but I should do ok off it. I asked about Jasper’s peg (peg 30) and he said that he was on a good silverfish peg if he fished chopped worm and caster.

I set up according to what Jellybaby said so I had:

Method/Bomb rod. I have just loaded the reel with .18 Ultima Power Plus. I attached the method and tied on a .16 Ultima Power Plus hooklength. I attached a snap swivel allowing me to pre-load a method feeder whilst one was in the water. It would also give me the option of clipping on a bomb at a later stage.

I set up 3 pole rigs, one at 6m to my left, one down the edge and one for the 14.5/16m line.

The 6m rig was a .3g Garbolino DC 6 on .16 Ultima Power Plus line straight through to a size 14 Gamakatsu pellet/corn hook. The depth at 6m was 3.5ft deep.

The inside rig was a .1g Garbolino DC6 float tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I plumbed up down the side until I found 1.5ft of depth, this was about 1m from the bank.

My final rig was a .5g Drennan Roach set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic B500 hook. At 15m, I had 4.5ft of depth.

At the start of the match, I loaded the method with a bit of Browning Champions Choice Groundbait. Baited up with 3 red maggots on the hook and lobbed it about 1m off the island (it was that far from where I was sitting). I then proceeded to catapult some casters/hemp and meat to the pole lines.

After 5 minutes, I wound the method feeder back in, reloaded and fired again. I proceeded in this manner all the time waiting a little longer in between casts (I would have said bites, but I didn’t have any!!!). After feeding the pole line for about 45 minutes or so, I decided it was time to have a look.

By this time, Catkiller Hawkins on the next peg had managed to snare 3 large carp for an estimated 20lb or so and I hadn't had a fish on the method. But, according to the game plan, there was still time.

I caught a barbel first put in. Then another, then another, the peg was solid. I had a quick drop in at 6m to see if I could either catch a bonus carp of to see whether or not I could the barbel closer.

After about 5 minutes and nothing, enough was enough. I continued to bait the margin swim with neat meat (no hemp or casters – and for those down south that read this, that may be said as caaaassters).

I went back out to the 15m line and plundered the peg. I swapped the method feeder to a straight bomb and every so often I would chuck the bomb just past the pole line and snare another barbel. Craig at the next peg was struggling as was Jasper. Daz ‘Coco the clown’ Harrison was catching the odd fish which included carp to 8lb. He managed to get his rig snagged and the float shot back and went into his thumb. Diddums!!

Catkiller hadn’t managed to snare much more to add to his initial tally. That was it. Match over. I don’t know how I have faired as I can only see about half of the lake and I haven’t been watching them all match. I packed up and followed the scales. Steve ‘Captain Mainwaring’ Hargreaves was moaning about the tails swirling down the side, but he was too scared to drop his pole rig down the side – WUSS!!!

Pete Cressey set the standard by plonking 37lb on the scales, which included a double figure zoo creature. Coco had a couple of weighs and managed to snare 46lb – how the bleeding heck had he done that? I had seen him catch a couple of fish, but not that many. Daz ‘Tombstone’ Aveyard was a DNW again – might have to start calling him Empty Net.

I was next to weigh. I lifted my first net out and plonked 27lb and a few ounces on the scales. This was my heaviest net. I got my second net out – I needed 19lb or more. It was looking close. I plonked the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round past 18lb, then 19lb and finally settled at 20lb odd for a combined weight of 48lb dead. Catkiller managed to weigh in 25lb. There was only Glenn ‘Nightwatch’ Crossthwaite left to weigh who I had seen catch some fish. Nightwatch fished a tidy match and managed 39lb of silver fish and barbel by fishing chopped worm.

I had won, including the £2 optional.

I had enjoyed today. I had caught a few fish, won a few quid (which I shared with Jasper) and had a nice relaxing day.

More blog to follow.

Tightlines

Big Pellet.

Saturday 12th May 2007 - Hostick, Beverley.

I was introduced to Hostick’s, Beverley, last week by John ‘Magnum’ Clarke. I ended up with 59lb for nowhere. I had about 30 carp and nothing bigger than 4lb. Steve Cromie was on the next peg and had about 15 carp for 71lb, so I was a quid down. Kingfisher 30 won the match with 136lb and someone had a fish out that went 22lb odd.

I managed to get a few, but I also got done a couple of times, well, 3 to be exact. Once on .16 Ultima Power Plus and twice on .18 Ultima Power Plus. Whilst fishing down the side on the top 4 kit geared up with Red Hydro elastic, I struck into a fish, the elastic started to extend from the top kit at a rate of knots and before I knew it, I had been done. That was on the .18 line. Blinking Eck!!! I was stunned and sat there in amazement for about 5 hours, well, that was what it felt like.

I persuaded Jasper and Rockin Ronnie to have a dabble this week. They agreed to be at mine at 6:30 and they would follow me down there. After being on the ’62 for about 10 minutes, it was obvious that they either wasn’t going to or couldn’t follow me and I had to resort to driving slower than Miss Daisy. We were going that slow, my car had it’s reverse lights on most of the way. Once we left the ’62, they had to follow me, all I could see was a plume of smoke coming from the back of their car as it struggled to reach 40!!!

We all arrived safe and sound in plenty of time to have a walk around all 3 lakes, Kingfisher, Moat and Island to see how the wind was affecting the lakes. Fish were rolling all over on all of the lakes.

A hearty filling brekkie was enjoyed by all (good value at only £4), then it was into the draw. Let me explain a little here. The matches at Hostick’s are Rover Matches. They put in a number in numerical order for every angler that turns up. When they have closed the draw, they start at Number 1 and ask that angler to chose his/her peg all the way to the last angler.

The Draw

I put my hand in the bag and managed to pull out No. 1. Bloody Eck!!!!! There are 3 lakes in use today, with 30 pegs on each lake. Where do I go? Do I go on the ‘Wires’ on Island lake or pegs 1 & 30 on Moat Lake or Pegs 1 or 30 on Kingfisher Lake?

It took me all of 3 nanoseconds to make my mind up. I had already decided where I wanted to be even before I drew. KINGFISHER 30. Kingfisher 30 won the match last Saturday with 136lb and it also won Bank Holiday Monday’s match with nearly 200lb (saying that he did have about 10 empty pegs both sides, I kid you not). The match held yesterday was only won with 80lb and that wasn’t from Kingfisher 30. So we will see.

In view of waiting to see what Jasper and Rockin’ had chosen (Island 1 & 30), I arrived at my peg to find that I had Little George on Kingfisher 1 and Phil Chapman on Kingfisher 29. Phil was glad to draw next to me as he knew that he would get a mention in my blog. Well Phil, I have mentioned your name and I won’t do so again for the rest of the blog, or until at least I mention how we all faired. On Kingfisher lake, as with Moat, you walk on to the island and fish outwards. Pegs 1 and 30 are either side of the bridge that everyone uses to walk on to the island.

The rules at Hostick’s are, for want of another word, different. You can only use the following:

White maggots
Brown pellets
Corn
Worms
White breadcrumb
Brown breadcrumb

And that’s about it. If you are caught with anything else in your possession, you are disqualified immediately. No questions.

You can use paste provided that it is made from your own pellets or it is the ‘Easy-paste’ that can be bought on site. Jasper reckons that Easypaste is not dissimilar to window putty. I dunno, I’ve never tried it.

Someone once got caught with mixed red and white maggots and was disqualified. Do you know what the bailiff did? No, I didn’t think so. I only went and chucked the maggots in the lake, then disqualified the bloke. If he doesn’t want them to be fed, why chuck them in the lake?

Also, if you catch a fish over 8lb, you need to go looking for the scales and weigh it separately before returning it to the lake.

My Peg

Upon surveying my peg, I decided on 3 lines of attack, one slightly to my left across to the far side at 14m (at about 11 o’clock), the 2nd was at 1 o’clock to where the bridge meets the far bank and the other line was down the side to my right on the top 4 kit. I set up the following rigs:

The rig that was going to be used at 11 o’clock was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float shotted with 3 No. 9 Preston Stotz. This rig was set up on .18 Ultima Power Plus line tied direct to a size 16 Preston PR24 hook. This rig was attached to Black Hydro elastic through a power top two kit. Upon plumbing up, I found that I had about 18” – 2ft of depth.

The rig that I was going to use at 1 o’clock (which hopefully was going to be my main catching area) was a 4 x 10 Gaz Malham float (diamond shaped with a glass stem). I used this float as I feel that it was going to be a lot more robust than most of the other floats that I have in my box. This was shotted using No. 9 Preston Stotz. I was using .18 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Drennan Match Carp Barbless Eyed hook. I plumbed up to find that was fishing on a steep slope, so I set my rig to 2ft deep and plumbed around until I was happy with where I was planning on fishing. I set the rig up ‘Hook In The Loop’ style. With the 2 shot being so close to the hook, this would ensure that I wasn’t fishing too far overdepth. I attached this rig to a power top kit containing the pink Drennan Hollow core elastic.

My 3rd and final rig was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float, which I shotted with No.8 Preston Stotz. This rig was set up on .20 Ultima Power Plus line, tied direct to a size 14 Drennan Match Carp Barbless Eyed hook. This rig was attached to Red Hydro elastic. I plumed up down the side on a top 2 + 2 and found that I had about 2.5ft of depth, again, sloping away to 4ft.

That’s it. I was ready. For bait, I had micro pellets, 4mm expanders, 6mm expanders, 1 small tin of corn and I mixed up some micro pellets to make some paste with.

All In

At the start of the match, I put some bait in down the edge and also across to the 1 o’clock swim. I baited up the DC6 rig and put some micro pellets in the Fox Tosspot. I shipped out, tipped the bait in, dropped the rig over the top and waited. But not for long. After about 30 seconds, the float dipped. The strike was met with a gudgeon flying out of the water. I was hyped up.

I threw the fish in my keep net in disgust. I re-baited and shipped back across to the same line. I dropped in again and baited over the top. The float disappeared instantly. Another gudgeon. I put a couple of pot fulls of micro pellets over the top and decided to leave that line alone.

I baited up the Malham special with a 4mm pellet. I put some pellets in a Tosspot and shipped across to the far side. I dropped the rig in and barely had chance to tip the bait in, before the rig and elastic was soon away. A ghost carp of about 1.5lb was soon in the net. They are easy to handle on the pink Drennan Hollowcore.

I plundered this line for the next couple of hours whilst continually feeding down the inside and also across to the 11 o’clock line. After a couple of hours, I would estimate that I had about 30lb of small mirror carp and ghost carp. The biggest fish may have gone 2.5lb and the smallest would have been about 12oz.

I felt as though now was the time to start alternating the 1 o’clock line and the down the side line. I was also having a nightmare with all the crap and scum and floating reeds that were constantly being blown into my peg. I was on occasions having difficulty dropping the rig in the same place twice. I was having to keep trying to push the crap under the bridge out of the way. At the start of the match, I took loads of stuff out of the peg with the landing net and I cleared the peg out to about the length of my landing net stick. It was really starting to ‘P’ me off. Darren Taylor came looking for the scales. He had managed to snare one of an estimated 20lb +. Blinking Eck, what did he have to go with it?

Little George to my right had managed to snare a few, including 2 fish for 18lb. Where were my big fish? At least I was fairing better than Empty Net to my left. After 2 hours, he was admitting to an ‘Empty Net’.

First drop in down the side resulted in a little ghost carp of about 1lb. I then swapped between the two lines. Towards the end of the match, I could see the odd better fish come out from under the bridge. I quickly adapted the Malham special rig to about 8” deep (including the float) and dropped it in to the edge of the bridge. I was tapping the water, when all of a sudden, the pink elastic was trying it’s best to get in Little George’s net. After a scary tussle (with me trying to stop my pole from crashing into the bridge), I slipped my net under my biggest fish of the day, a carp of about 6lb.

I immediately went back down the side, where I managed to snare a 4lb’er. I had by now switched to paste down the inside and had all but sacked the farside lines due to them being unfishable with all the scum and crap in the peg.

At 4:05, I estimated that I had a good 70 – 80lb, and more if I was lucky. I baited up with pellet and dropped back in down the side. By 4:12, I hadn’t had a bite, but in view of the match finishing at 4:15, I might as well wait it out.

By 4:18, no-one had shouted all out. Sugar!!!, the match didn’t finish until 4:30. I quickly rebaited with a small ball of paste about the size of a small marble and dropped back in. I managed to snare 3 fish in the last ten minutes. That was it time. The heavens opened and it absolutely pee’d it down whilst packing up.

Little George was the first to weigh, after 3 weighs, he managed to put 159lb on the scales, including the 18lb that he had weighed in earlier. As scales help, I followed the scales round and recorded 3 x 90lb weights (I hadn’t got that, by a long shot), plus backup weights of 60 – 80lb’s. Empty Net failed to weigh in and had in fact nearly packed up by the end of the match. It was my turn to weigh in. I lifted my net out and immediately knew that I had more than I thought. My first net bottomed out 60lb scales. I put some of the fish into my 2nd keepnet (yes, I had used to nets and I had fish in both of them) to lighten the scales. My first weigh went 57lb. I tipped some (not all) of the fish from my 2nd net onto the scales and recorded 53lb. That was my 2nd weigh and I still had some fish left. My remaining weigh went 15lb 8oz. For the none mathematicians amongst you, that equates to 125lb 8oz.

Stu Baron (Woody’s Twin Brother) made some sarky comments about me only having 80lb. I hadn’t caught a ‘ton’ before, how would I know what one looks like.

I have finally reached a milestone. I have managed to weigh in over a ton. More importantly (but only just), how had I faired on the match. I ended up 4th (yes 4th with 125lb) due to Moat pegs 2 & 29 throwing up 138lb and 133lb respectively.

What a day.

This will definitely be one of the days that I will always remember, and unlike last week, I hadn’t even been broken once.

I will also be coming here again, most likely next Saturday!!!

No prizes for guessing who this handsome devil is.

I wonder how much he paid for his perm? Is this Haircut No. 2?

My Lindholme Charity Match

Well, the day finally upon me. My travelling partner for the day had blobbed, so I was left to my own devices. I set off from home at about 7:00 and arrived for 8:00. I quickly paid on, and drew my peg. Willows 43. Peg 42 wasn't in. Great and empty peg one side.

On the quid front, I put up a thread on http://www.total-fishing.com/ inviting people to have a quid with me, limited to 10. I ended up with the following candidates:

Cornfrog
Juzzy
Dave Hedgehog (RobB)
Beanhead
Respect
BNF
Max Factor
Avid Merrion
Poorbloke
God's Dad if he's going.

I went for breakfast and then tried to glean as much info as possible. I saw Rob Hitchens and asked him about my peg in view of him being a 'Venue Expert'. He told me naff all, why you might ask. Only because he was on the next peg - Willows 41. to be fair, he told me that I was stuck in a corner. If the wind was blowing that way, I would have a field day. I arrived at my peg to find that the wind was.......................

Blowing away from me into the opposite corner. No fish for me today. But hey, it's a charity match and that is what the day is all about. If you win the match today, you will only get the same money as someone who wins their section, besides, the raffle is later on and I had already bought a few tickets.

I went in search of the quid bets to see who had turned up and to check that they hadn't chickened out. Dave Hedgehog (RobB) wasn't in attendance and neither were a couple of the others. I'll sort it out at the end.

For bait I had pellets, pellets and more pellets. Oh, and some corn and a couple of pints of casters.

I set up the following rigs:

Top 3 kit was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float tied to .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 16 Colmic B500. I plumbed up at the edge of the reed bed to my left and found that I had about 3ft of depth.

Rig 2 was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float, again, tied to .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to as size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I plumbed up at 8m to my left into open water. The depth was about 4ft. I swung the rig round to 13m directly infront of me. The depth there was just over 4ft. Rather than mess about changing depth all the time, I set up another rig exactly the same to fish at 13m.

I set up another rig for the 8m line in order to fish the caster. I set up a Drennan Roach on .12 Fox Match Plus line, to this I tied a size 18 Kamasan B611 hook.

My final rig was a .2g Colmic thick nylon bristled float. I set this up on .18 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook.

The rigs may seem a bit on the heavy side, but there was a lot of reeds in the peg, also the fish can be quite big and I wanted to get everything out that I hooked. As is usually the case.

Jonny Howard was walking around reminding all and sundry that it was a 14.5m pole limit. I had set up my bomb and waggler rod, the only problem being that with me being hemmed in, if I cast my bomb out to 20m directly infront of me, I would be fishing Rob Hitchens' 6m line (that can't be a bad thing, surely) and I couldn't go to my left due to the angler on the next peg.

At the all in, I potted in some pellets at 13m and down the side to the reeds. I threw a couple of handfuls of micro pellets to the edge of the reeds on my top 3 kit. I baited up the Drennan Roach rig with a couple of casters and put some caster and corn in a Tosspot pole cup. I shipped out, tipped the bait in and dropped the rig over the top.

I caught a roach immediately. I rebaited and dropped back in, another roach followed. After a couple more roach and an ide, I snared a small tench of about 1lb. I dropped back in and latched onto something a little bigger. I don't know how big it was, as it broke me. My .12 didn't last very long then......!!!

Rob Hitchens on the next peg, was chucking the bomb up the middle of the lake with corn on the hook and was loose feeding a few grains of corn over the top. He had managed to get a couple of carp before he got broke.

Whilst sorting out my caster rig, I dropped in down the side with corn on the hook. I managed to hook a decent carp, as I played it, the carp run towards me, then went solid. The water was boiling in front of me. The carp had run around a couple of stick ups and was going round and round. After about 10 minutes trying to drag the carp off the stickups, nothing was happening. I was left with no other alternative except get the landing net and start prodding, which as most of you will no is either a do or die. In this instance, it was a die. the carp shed the hook. I managed to get the rig back, but it was looking a little worse for wear as the line had started to chafe, but at least it hadn't broke. That's another rig that I am going to have to sort out.

Halfway through the match, one of the lads was complaining at one of the other participants for feeding too much. One of the fellas near him told him to shut his cakehole as it is a charity match and not to be taken too seriously.

The caster rig was now sorted. I rebaited the caster rig and dropped back in on the caster line. After 5 minutes, I had managed nothing - not a thing, zero. I big potted some corn and caster whilst I went back down the side.

I managed to get a couple of carp down the side and a couple of chub. I went out to my 13m line and managed to snare a couple of fish from there.

The peg then seemed to die. I was struggling to get a fish from any of my lines. In desparation for the last hour or so, I came close in, to the reeds on my top 3 kit to be precise. 1st drop in resulted in a tench, 3 more followed before I caught a carp of about 2lb.

That was it, match over.

Rob Hitchens had emptied it. I had had a few, but nowhere near enough. By the time that the scales had arrived, beanhead had put 40lb on the scales, Rob Hitchen put 50lb on the scales and yours truly managed to snare 17lb 13oz. The next 5 or 6 anglers failed to trouble the scales. Graham Edgerley (?) who was at the back of me managed to snare 26lb odd, but you should have seen his peg. Wind blowing into it, fish rolling all over. Graham, just kidding mate.

The quids result: I owed (or should I say paid) a quid to Billy2fish, Beanhead and Cornfrog. I managed to snare a quid from Avid Merrion and Respect. I should have got a quid from Pourerkev, blunthook and maxfactor, but it seems to have slipped their memory.

RAFFLE TIME

I purchased a couple more raffle tickets and waited in anticipation. By the end of the raffle, I managed to snare a fleece and a couple of goodie bags with some pellets and the like in them.

All in all, it was an enjoyable day out in which everyone deserves a massive well done for supporting the event either by donating a raffle prize or taking part. Nearly £6,000 was raised from the day and although some areas/lakes had fished hard, it wasn't about winning. IT WAS THE TAKING PART THAT COUNTED.

WELL DONE EVERYONE.

Sunday 29th April 2007

The Oak Lakes, Sessay.

I arrived in time to sort the rabble out and by the time of the draw, there were 62 of us on the match.

Becky, the tackle shop helper, asked me, why do I call Haircut, ‘Haircut’ and also, who was he? I said to her that she will know when he arrives?

About 10 minutes later, there was a loud shout ‘hey up Mick, how’s it hanging?’. I said to Becky, ‘Haircut is here’. She asked him why do they call you haircut. I asked him to remove his hat. Becky responded by saying ‘do they cut round a bowl when they do your hair?. Laugh?, I pissed myself.

Anyways, back to the match. I put my hand in the draw bag and snared peg 25. I wasn’t unhappy, considering that I framed off peg 26 last week. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Meatcutter Bailey on peg 26, Ian Bowman on peg 27 and Nigel Ward (I think) to my left on peg 24. I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig one was the usual DC6 float taking .2g (shotted up with no. 8 and 9 Preston Stotz). The rig line was Preston Powerline .11 diameter with the usual Hoop incorporating a size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet eyed hook. I plumbed up across to the farside and found 18” of depth.

Rig two, was a standard rig, in terms of this rig didn’t incorporate the Hoop, but was set up with the same float as above, with the difference being the hook (a size 16 Preston PR23) and the rig line, Maver Genesis .12 dia. Again, I plumbed up across (to ensure that the depths were the same, due to stretch factors in fishing line, you could be fishing at slightly differing depths).

My third and final rig was a deep rig to fish down the middle. This incorporated a .4g Garbolino DC6 float. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Preston PR23 hook. I plumbed up down the middle to find that I had 5ft of depth. For this rig, I was slightly over-gunned by using the Pink Drennan Hollow core elastic. The reason for this was that I was expecting to catch a couple of barbel, and this elastic will help me to get them under control a little bit quicker/easier.

For bait, I had some meat and hemp left over from yesterday, some corn and some pellets (micro pellets for feed and 4mm pellets for the hook). I quickly struck up a quid with both Meatcutter and Wardy. I shouted to Bowie, that I wasn’t having a quid with him as he is too much of a superstar.

At the all in, I put a small Garbolino pot full of meat and hemp down the middle. I baited up the hoop rig with pellet and put some micro pellets in a Toss pot and went over to the far side. I tipped the bait in and waited, and waited. Usually, I have managed to snare a fish before now.

After about 10 minutes, the float buried, I struck in anticipation. A gudgeon about 1 oz, lept from the water and shed the hook. Not a good sign at all.

I re-baited, put some more pellets in the tosspot and went back to the far side. I tipped the bait in and waited. After about 5 minutes, the float buried. Another gudgeon. Blinking Eck!!!!

I continued in this vain for the next 20 minutes or so, whilst I waited for the fish to gain in confidence down the middle. I managed to snare one little carp.

I put some meat in a tosspot and baited up the deep rig. I dropped in and waited. Too long!!! after about 10 minutes, the float buried and a carp of about 2lb was going mental. I managed to get it into the keepnet after a brief tussle.

Meatcutter on the next peg, was getting the odd fish by fishing meat across to the far side. Wardy on the next peg, the otherside, was fairing about as well as I was. Not good.

Over the remainder of the match, I struggled for bites. I was getting liners on the deep rig and if I came shallow, I couldn't get an indication. I tried to feed to get them shallow, but nothing would work.

By the end of the match, I could only muster 10lb. Wardy had 11lb, whilst Meatcutter weighed in 54lb. I came away with more questions than answers. I didn't even go to the pub for the after match analysis. I was gutted, how can things go so wrong. I caught on meat last week, Meatcutter caught on meat this week. Where had I gone wrong.

When I think about it, there was no fish infront of me. Wardy had 11lb and the bloke who was next to him, to him, tipped back about 4 fish.

Oh well, there is always next week, if I end up going. Can some one give me a call to ensure that I haven't slashed my wrists.

There is one saving grace, for the 2nd week running I have won the 'guess the winning weight' contest and the pounds that go with it. I had a weight of 82lb 4oz and Minty Whittaker won the match with 82lb 7oz.

Although I am handing a quid over to Chappy, I can afford it with the quids that keep coming my way from the Guess The Weight comp.

Tightlines.

Big Pellet.

Chris 'Gandhi' Hall. Now imagine him with no hair!!

Match Fishing magazine have a section in their mag within Silly Stuff where they put up a picture with the caption 'would you let your daughter marry this man' of something similar. I said to Gandhi, he could have his own caption;

'You wouldn't even let your mother-in-law marry this man'.



Barry 'Baz' Harrington. Looks like an escaped convict from the Eastern Bloc.

Dave 'Spud' Phillips. I told you he looks like 'Mr Potato Head'!!!!

He's from Burnley, probably explains it all.

Just a bit of updating to do since my last update as I have the following matches to add:

Sat 28th, Woodlands, Thirsk
Sun, The Oaks, Thirsk
Wednesday, Lindholme, Charity match
Saturday, Sam Hosticks, Beverley
Sunday, The Oaks, Thirsk.

So here goes.

Woodland Lakes, Thirsk. After picking up Jasper, we arrived in plenty of time, following the usual breakfast at Morrisons (have you seen the price of brekkie's at Woodlands?). I put my hand in the bag and ended up pulling out Skylark 1, which to the un-initiated, is a corner peg. if the wind is blowing into the corner, it is bag-up city, if it isn't it is blanking city.

Ken Golightly was on the peg last week and ended up with 1 carp, could I fair any better? I arrived at the peg to find that the wind was not blowing my way, it was blowing to the other end of the lake and had been doing so for a couple of days. I set up 3 rigs, one for 6m, one for 13m straight out in front and the final rig was to fish down the side to the left, along the boards at 14m and also down the side to my right.

All of my rigs were set up on the Ultima Power Plus line. The 13m and 6m rigs incorporated .16 dia. line and the down the side and boards rig was set up on .18 dia. line.

For bait I had 3 tins of meat, which had been cut up using a Mal Bailey meatcutter, 1 tin of frenzied hemp, 1pt of 4mm pellets and half a pint of 6mm pellets.

Whilst setting up, I spotted a fish boil about 1m out just in front of me. It was solid.

At the whistle, I potted in some hemp and meat at 6m and the same at 13m. In the first hour, I managed to snare 3 carp and 2 skimmers. Over the next 3 hours, I struggled for an indication. Going into the last hour, I managed to get broke off a carp as it wrapped around a pipe near my feet, and I managed another carp. My total weight would not have exceeded 15lb. What a day. I just could not buy a bite. One of the other lads on the match who was a couple of pegs further down had broken his landing net and was having to get on his hands and knees in order to put his landing net head in the water and net his fish.

By the end of the match, I had 4 carp and half a dozen skimmers. As soon as the match had finished, I tipped back my fish and left my net to dry, well why not, it wasn't doing anything else and I didn't want to tip my fish back whilst the match was in progress.

Jasper ended up with 50lb from Kestrel Lake, Chappy had 40lb, so I was a couple of quid down. Andy Geldart won the match with 105lb and Panic Poole was second with 105lb. There was ounces between them.

After a match the other day, someone asked me to explain the nicknames, so here goes;

Age Concern - Bruce Poland (probably looks older than he really is, he has also got sponsorship from Steradent and Polygrip).

Granddad - Bert Poole - is now retired - aren't all granddad's retired?

Fullstop - Byron Dell - A full stop is bigger than Byron.

Spud - Dave Phillips - Looks like Mr Potato Head.

Gandhi - Chris Hall - Looked like Gandhi when he had his head shaved in a de-lousing programme.

Rumpole - Gordon Brown - Looks like Rumpole of the Bailey (although some people say Jonny Vegas is more of a resemblance).

Bedpan - Roger Movely - He looks that old, I think that he invented the bedpan.

Rochdale Raver - Johnny MacMacMackyMac from Rochdale, you know him don't you. He looks as though he has come straight from a rave to fish a match. Thing is, he must be atleast 50. The E's and Viagra are serving him well.

Polecrusher Payton - Barry Payton - did you see the state of Chappy's pole after Polecrusher run over it?

Fossil/Lizard/Woody/Toy Story - Pete Baron - Warms up with the sun, he is that old, he could be a fossil also has a penchant for 'Line Dancing' so I have been told.
Polish Mick - Tony Kozaczek - It's easier to say Polish Mick.

Come back for more updates from your truly and tight lines.

Mike

Updated blog.

Well, well, what has happened since my last entry. I fished a match at The Oaks on Sunday 22nd April. I managed to snare Peg 26, which to be fair, I wasn’t unhappy about. Chappy had gotten off lucky again as he wasn’t in attendance. The obligatory quid was set up with both Rumpole and Fullstop.

To start with, I set up 3 rigs, 2 for across and 1 for down the middle. All of my rigs were HITL rigs. They were set up as follows, one of the shallow rigs was set up on .13 Preston Powerline and the other was set up using .12 Fox match plus line. One of the rigs had a .2g Garbolino DC 6 and the other had a .3g DC6. I also set up a .5g Drennan roach for fishing at the base of the far slope. This was set up on .16 Ultima Power Plus line. All of the rigs were set up using the Gamakatsu Pellet Barbless eyed hooks in size 16.

For bait, I had about 1pt of micro pellets, a handful of 4mm hookers and a handful of my conkers. Plus, I also had some meat and hemp left from yesterday’s match.

At the start of the match, I cupped in some meat down the middle and went across to the far side with pellet on the hook and a few micro pellets in a small ‘Fox Toss Pot’. I tipped the bait in, let the rig settle and waited, but not for long. After about 1 minute, the float buried and I managed to snare a carp of about 1.5lb.

I re-baited and went back over to the far side and waited, but a little longer this time, about 5 minutes in total. I managed to snare another fish, a little gudgeon. Bloody Hell, I didn’t want them in my peg, it is hard to get rid of them. After about 1 hour fishing across, I had managed a couple more carp, a couple of roach and 5 gudgeon. Gandhi, who was on peg 24 had caught a couple of carp across and a couple of carp to the aerator. I decided to have a look down the middle.

I baited up with a piece of meat that had been cut up using a Mal Bailey 6mm Meatcutter. I put a few pieces of meat and hemp in a tosspot and shipped out. I dropped the bait in and waited. The float shot under. Nothing. I dropped the rig in again, the float shot under, nothing. The fish were up in the water or were they? I brought the rig back in and shallower up about 6”. I went back out, dropped in some more bait over the top of the float. Nothing.

I went back on the bottom without feeding anything. The float never even settled and a barbel of about 1lb was going round and round in circles. Why do they do that. Also, have you realised how a barbel is a harder fighting fish, pound for pound than virtually every other coarse fish. But also, that the fight is usually shorter. In order to get the barbel off the bottom, I swapped from black hydro elastic to pink Drennan Hollow core elastic.

I dropped in again down the middle and got linered straight away. I cupped in some more meat to try to force the fish down.

The wind had abated all day, but the wind was now falling, heavily. I am glad that I brought my Preston suit with me.

I continued to fish down the middle picking up the odd carp and barbel. By the end of the match, I had managed to catch a nice tidy ball of fish. Both Gandhi and Phil Silvers had managed to snare a few, it was going to be close for the section today.

At the end of the match, I went over to Phil Silvers and when I was about 30 yards away, I could see that he was shaking. He had left his coat at home and was soaked following the rain.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Gandhi was leading with 38lb odd. I didn’t think that I had that, although, I also felt that I had caught more fish than him, so you never know.

I managed to plonk 43lb exactly on the scales. Rumours were coming round that Darrell ‘Tin Tin’ Taylor had caught steadily all day and should have somewhere around 60 or 70lb.

Phil Silvers plonked 44lb odd on the scales. The scales arrived at Tin Tin and he managed to put 43lb odd on the scales, enough to beat me, but where was the rest of his weight. That pushed me down to 3rd place with pegs 41 – 80 yet to weigh.

I went back to the café to await the weights coming back. Derek Parrington had won the match by fishing with pellet down to the corner. I had managed a 5th place overall as Lee ‘Goldie’ Harrison had managed a 45lb weight.

Derek Parrington (Daiwa Cleveland) 46-11-0, carp, pellet, peg 56
Lee Harrison (Tackle Box Kippax) 45-4-0
Phil Sellars (Garbolino Elton) 44-4-0
Darrell Taylor (Daiwa Goldthorpe) 43-15-0
Mick Herrington (Oaks Ultima) 43-0-0
Pete Cowan (Oaks) 41-10-0

Why had the venue fished so badly? In the week leading up to the match, there had been numerous 100lb weights, yet today nobody managed to break 50lb. Oh well there is always next week.

Both Rumpole and Fullstop had done a disappearing act. Fullstop had tipped back a reported 5lb or so, and it got worse. He had broken the No. 4 section from his G995 pole. But hey, I was two quid up (well, I would have been had I been paid).

Tight Lines

Mike Herrington

Just like to say a quick hello to those people reading my blog in Darien, NY, and FountainView, TX, both of which are in the USA.

Sat 21st April 2007

Jasper called me mid-week asking me if we wanted to go to Woodlands, Thirsk, but that I would have to pick him up as his car was in for it's MOT and he wasn't sure what needed doing to it?
I had to make a little detour (work related) so agreed to pick up Jasper at about 7:15, then got to Moggies for a brekkie then head of to Woodlands.

I made a call to Purverted mid week and managed to persuade him to come along and join us.

upon arrival, I saw my nemesis, Rigsby, in the car park, because wherever he is, I tend to do crap and end up owing him a quid. The quid was hastily renewed as was the quid with my travelling partner for today, Jasper.

Chappy was away on the Whiteacres Festival, so I was gonna be safe one quid at least. Following a telecon with pretty boy Haircut, it was decided that either a meat or a pellet approach was the order of the day, dependant upon which lake you draw.

I put my hand in the bag and managed to snare Partridge peg 32. Purverted ended up with the best peg on the complex, Partridge 15 and Jasper was on Skylark 18, a corner peg. A meat and hemp approach it was going to be. Partridge 32 was indifferent to me, due to not going to Woodlands for a while. All the locals had told me that I had drawn out of it as the fish are at the other end. The lake itself has been fishing well of late, with over 220lb winning the 'old gimmers' match that takes place every Monday.

For company I had someone Scott on peg 30, Dave Owens on peg 33, Granddad was on peg 36 and Mick Lodge was on peg 29. All of these have been fishing the venue regularly, I had my work cut out.

For bait I had 2.5 tins of 6mm meat. 1 tin of Frenzied Hemp, 1 pt of 6mm expander pellets (already soaked) and about 1/2 pt of 4mm hard pellets.

I got to my peg and set up the following rigs:

Inside rig:

was a .2g Garbolino DC 6 float on .17 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 barbless hook.

My 2nd rig was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float on .15 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 16 Colmic B500 barbless hook.

I also set up the following rigs for fishing at 14m.

The first of my rigs for 14m, was a .4g Garbolino DC2 set to fish at full depth (about 5ft deep). This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 16 Colmic B500 barbless hook.

My last rig was a little dibber float taking a couple of no.8 Preston Stotz, set to fish up in the water about 1ft deep. My rig line was again, .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I also had a Korum Baitspike at the business end.

Hook choice, where big fish are concerned, my favoured choice of hook is the Colmic B500. They are quite heavy in the wire, but tend to stay sharp for a long time and if a fish straightens one of these hooks, you didn't want it on the bank with you.

When the all in went, I potted in some meat and hemp at 3m down the boards, a small pot of meat and hemp at 14m. I put the 6m rig on and shipped out with a Fox Tosspot full of hemp and about 10 pieces of cubed meat, with a piece of meat on the hook.

I tipped the bait in and sat back and waited. Before I even had chance to sit back, the black hydro was out doing laps of the lake. After a brief tussle, a mirror carp of about 4lb was soon in the net. Mick 1, Fish 0. Wonder if I should have a quid with the fish, then again, I might even lose that.

Next drop in resulted in a skimmer of about 10oz. Then nothing else. After 30 minutes of the match, I decided to go down the boards after I had lovingly prepared it for the past 30 minutes. I dropped in and the float hadn't even settled. The fish that you get down the boards are usually 'doubles' or not far off. I struck into said fish (elastic for this rig was the Drennan pink hollow) and a little tench of about 10oz came flying out of the water. A bit over zealous on the strike me thinks!!!

I dropped in again and after a 5 minute wait, the float proper shot under. I struck and the float stood still and the elastic came out, before the 'snag' decided to move. It was a bit like 'Jaws' at this stage. After plodding around my peg for about 5 minutes, I managed to fold a 10lb common carp into my butterfly net.

I decided to see if another one was present. After a further 5 minute wait, the float dipped. I struck. Solid resistance again. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!!!. Another carp of about 9lb joined it's bigger brother. 2 carp for about 20lb. Not bad.

I decided to pot in some more bait and go out to the 6m line again. Whilst I had been fishing both down the inside and at 6m, I was constantly flicking a few bits of meat out to the 14m line.

Back on the 6m line and after about 10 minutes, no more bites, just a couple of liners.

I got out my deep rig and went out to the 14m line. Again, I baited up with meat on the hook. I tipped in some meat and help via the Tosspot and dropped the bait in. I waited a couple of minutes and got a sail away indication - were they up in the water? I waited a bit longer on the deep rig, the float dipped, then sailed away. A skimmer bream of about 1lb, thought that it was a trout, it must of leaped out of the water about 5 times, was soon in the net.

I persevered on the deep rig and managed to snare a couple of pastie carp. Dave Owen (nickname to follow, I have one in mind, but I can't think of the guys name at the moment) had by this time managed a couple of carp and a couple of tench.

I was still getting linered on the deep rig and I had been feeding a few bits and pieces over the top of the float. I got the shallow rig out and baited up with meat again, on the baitspike.

After some 20 minutes 'up in the water', I had 1 carp and a chub to show for my efforts, I am sure that I will catch more on the bottom.

With about 2 hours of the match remaining, I decided to get my head down on te 14m rig at full depth and change my feeding to try to keep them on the bottom. This meant cupping in meat and not loose feeding at all. After about 10 minutes, I caught a carp of about 4lb. A couple more skimmers and tench followed, then I was into a steady procession of carp to about 3lb or so.

With about 30 minutes of the match remaining, I decided it was time to have another look down the side for another submarine. I dropped in and got a couple of liners and managed to snare a couple of little tench. I looked at my watch, there was about 2 minutes to go. My float moved sideways. Go on, Go Under, I thought. I looked at my watch anxiously, there was about 30 seconds left.

The float dipped, I struck. The float stood still and the elastic came out. Job Done. Or so I thought. I the last fish on when all of a sudden the all out was given. I now have 15 minutes to get the fish out for it to count. A quick 'Fish On' shout was given.

After a brief tussle, a small 8lb'er was in the net. Now it was Job Done!!

I would estimate that I had about 45lb - 50lb in weight, with the inclusion of the last fish. I hadn't really seen anyone catch apart from Mick Lodge, and the lad next to him. How had I done.

Haircut was admitting to about 55lb. Dave Owen tipped back his 5 or 6 fish. By the time that the scales had arrived, 'Sir' Tossa Taylor was leading with just short of 70lb. Lodgey, put 67lb on the scales and Haircut had 64lb. The lad next to me had 45lb. I managed 56lb 13oz. If Lodgey gets in the money, will I win my section.

Meatcutter Bailey came up to me after the match with a fistful of dollars (well pounds to be precise). I had managed to win my section.

I quickly accosted both Jasper and Rigsby for my quids. Where's Chappy, I would have won his quid today, wouldn't I?

S Bell 77lb.
M Bailey 71lb
D Taylor 69lb
M Lodge 67lb
?
A Bridge 64lb

I was about 8th overall and came 3rd on my lake. If I had persevered on the deep rig rather than trying to get them up in the water, would I have faired any better? Lodgey and Haircut both caught the majority of their fish up in the water, whilst I really struggled.

If you look closely, you can see the CNN tower - but you will have to look hard!!

If you 'click' on the picture, you can zoom in should you need to!!

I'm back, well the blog is atleast.

I have been so, so, so busy over the past few weeks. Had staff issues (had to dismiss one of the new staff for Gross Misconduct) so I have been busy re-recruiting and training, then there has been the month end accounts to complete and also get time in for my fishing.

As you can see below, I took my kids fishing to The Oaks, Sessay. They really enjoyed it. I will take them a bit more as the summer arrives.

Well, back to the fishing. In a nutshell 'Loopyhead' has lost his loop and my head is now in a noose!! I have been getting blown off the bank and struggling to hold onto 14m of carbon in a side on wind, nigh on every week.

I am still going every weekend (Sunday's in particular), but just finding it so hard to do anything at the moment. Worm fishing has been taking The Oaks apart of late. Lee Harrison (VDE Scunthorpe) has been winning or framing in the majority of matches with half a dozen weights over 100lb. Big Mark 'Cali' Calvert has set the best weight of the year so far with over 145lb.

My best weight of late has been 72lb and that was only good enough for 15th, but the saving grace was that I beat the River Legend known as John Allerton of the next peg. He fished the little boys method down the side and ended up with 61lb odd. I fished across to the farside all match. I had an enjoyable day and really thought that I would have atleast won something, but alas NO. Jonny Kenning won my section with 83lb. I was second in the section. Lee Harrison won with one of his 'tons - 119lb odd.

Woody Baron is continuously complaining about is inability to draw. Take the weekend just gone for instance, he drew peg 55, which if anyone knows the venue, will tell you, it is a good peg. Darryll 'Sir Tossa' Taylor (I am allowed to call him that, provided that I call him Sir first) was next to him on peg 56, with peg 57 empty. Woody came upto me after the match and asked me 'Oi, Loopyhead, why did you leave peg 57 out. The reason being that Sir Tossa Taylor had 45lb compared to Woody's 20lb.

I drew peg 9, which was in the right area and managed to plonk 38lb odd on the scales which would have put me about top 15 again as 67lb won, and 48lb was last in the money.

At the end of the match last week, John 'Plonker McG' McGarrell was walking up to telling me that I had to nominate Cali for the numpty of the week competition on The Oaks Banter website. Just as he approached my peg, he had a snapping sound and abruptly stopped, the snapping sound was quickly followed by a crunching sound. I looked down at his size 10's in horror. He had only managed to stand on one of my power top kits snapping the kit in half then crunched the bottom of the number one section when he stopped. We instantly had a new winner of the numpty of the week award. In his defence he managed to get me a new (well second hand) topkit of Cali.

My quids are being fired from a scatter gun at the moment. Byron the Full Stop is managing to get a leg up onto his box and is proving that he can catch a few by taking my quid occassionally, but the soon bounce back. Rumpole has finally set up a direct debit to pay me my shiny ones. On one of my matches, I drew peg 61 and had Rumpole at the side of me on peg 63, with Shrek Middleton on peg 65. It was a bleeeeeedddddinnnggg cold day and I was wrapped up nice and warm. Rumpole had somehow managed to leave all of his external clobber at home. I would have lent him my jacket, but he might have stretched it a little, so thought better of it (anyway, there was a quid at stake). Shrek lent him his outer jacket (Basket!!), which was a little baggy on Rumpole. Anyway, by the end of the match Rumpole was a quid down. His mate, Homer Simpson was on peg 67, which was at the back of me. I managed to drag him into our quid bet and promptly took that, which I felt a little guilty about as he never manages to take a quid off Rumpole, who has never managed to take a quid of moi!!

The Chappy quid is on one way ticket at the moment, with no return in sight. Chappy has finally found a bit of form and has even managed to frame (including a couple of wins) on a few occasions, but ask him how many Kamasan points he ended up with and you will get a Chappy slap, whilst I ended up with double figures atleast.

This week back in the pub was the safest that Xman has felt in ages. Of late, Chappy has been lining up a couple of slaps with Xman on a weekly basis and due to Chappy being in sunnier climes (Whiteacres is sunnier than North Yorkshire), Xman is actually relaxing in the local- for now.

The Orc made his return this week to the Oaks and continued his good form from last year by promptly handing me a quid in a peg to peg battle. He was next to me and managed to plonk a respectable 29lb odd on the scales (G2E was next to him on peg 7 and was joint 2nd with 61lb 15).

A couple of weeks back, I was nigh on suicidal. I had drawn a decent peg and just couldn't get a bite. I hardly spoke to anyone after the match, I didn't go to the pub afterwards, I just sloped off home. I'm taking this fishing mullarkey too seriously!!!

Gonna go now, keep coming back and I will update more frequently, staff issues permitting.