I had a couple of hours to spare, so went to Garry Parr's place at Weeton, near Pool in Leeds.

I caught this little net of fish using the new Dynamite Baits 'Sinking Expander Pellets' fished over some Pallatrax groundbait. I had an estimated 60lb or so, with the fish averaging 2lb. I got 'done' a couple of times, one of the fish that I hooked ran straight through the reeds and was about 10 pegs away, and that was on black hydro.

I'm going to have a knock up at Garry's next Saturday - 7th April if anyone is interested.

Saturday 10th March 2007.

It’s amazing how much Saturday fishing I am getting in at the moment. I think that it is because I am taking some envelopes home, so the kids are able to eat and I give a few pennies to our lass. It is reminiscent of Al Bundy off Married With Children, they form an orderly queue next to the door when they hear me reversing my car onto our drive. I open the door and they are stood there, 4 of them in a line. Our lass starts with ‘Well’, the next one ‘Have’, the next one ‘You’ and the last one ‘Won’, all with their hands out.

The Saturday matches are currently nearly sell-outs with in excess of 70 on nearly every match and this week was no exception. By the time that I had put my hand in the bag, there were 71 anglers in attendance. Today was also being run as another optional super-pool and following my result from last week, I had to give it another go.

I put my hand in the bag and peg 26 was stuck to my hand. Not bad, could have been better. Pegs 24 & 25 have been the form pegs around this area to date. When I arrived at my peg, I found that I didn’t have any empty pegs around me. Lee ‘Cueball’ Harrison was on peg 22, can’t remember who was on 23, Graham ‘Wolfman’ Skirrey was on peg 24 and I had a Boroughbridge angler on 25. One of the Manchester Mosella lads was on peg 27. Chappy was in shouting distance (and in sight, so I would be able to keep an eye on my quid) on peg 30, with Marco next to him on peg 31.

The wind was blowing all over the place, coming from both left and right as it came down the arms of the lake. I set up 4 rigs, 2 for across and 2 for down the deeps.

My across rigs and deep rigs incorporated the usual Drennan Roach’s’ (4x14 & .5g) and Garbolino DC6’s in .3g and .2g. Due to the swirling wind, one of the shallow rigs was set up with a .3g float and the other shallow rig was set up using the ‘normal’ .2g float. All of my rigs were set up HITL style.

For bait, I mixed up some ‘Pallatrax’ groundbait, to which I added a liberal amount of micro-pellets. I had some 4mm and 6mm pellets as hookbait. That was it. I was either going to catch on pellet or not at all.

At the start of the match, I baited up the .2g shallow rig then I put some ‘Pallatrax’ groundbait into the fruitshoot top and went across to the far side. After about 3 minutes, I hadn’t had a bite. I came back put some more bait in the fruitshoot, then went back to the same spot. By this time, Wolfman had caught a fish off the aerator by fishing at full depth. I waited a further 3 or 4 minutes, and repeated the process.

Some 15 minutes into the match, I got my first indication and a mirror carp of about 1lb was soon in the landing net. I continued to follow this routine of feeding a little bit of Pallatrax every 3 or 4 minutes or so for the first hour. The sole intention of this is to keep putting something in, whilst having minimal food content.

After the first hour, I would estimate that I had managed to snare about 7 fish for approximately 10lb. Wolfman was getting the odd fish, but the blokes either side of me on pegs 25 & 27 seemed to be struggling and I would estimate that they had about 3 fish apiece.

I persevered across for the next hour and a half and managed to put together a steady run of F1’s and small mirrors, with my biggest fish going just over 2lb. I would estimate that I had about 20lb with half of the match gone. I had been steadily putting in the odd nugget of groundbait on the inside line at 3m down the slope. My far side swim was dying on me. It was time to drop in close and bag up. I recall that J D Illingworth had a weight from this area and caught most of his fish close in. Some 25 minutes later and only 2 fish (1 carp and 1 gudgeon) to show for it. I decided to sack this line.

Wolfman and Chappy were the only two anglers that I could see that were catching fish. My Chappy quid was seriously in the mire today!!

I went back over to the far side in the hope that the rest had brought the fish back into the peg. This was not the case. Although I managed to get the odd fish, I was waiting longer and longer for bites after each fish.

There was about 1 hour of the match remaining and I would estimate that I had about 27lb. I decided to come down the base of the far slope, with the .5g Drennan Roach rig.

I potted in a golf-ball sized nugget of groundbait, then baited up with a pellet on the hook. I dropped in and no sooner had the float settled, a barbel of about 1.5lb was fighting like mad, I would have said ‘and it was soon in the net’ but you know something, barbel are initially one of the most difficult fish to actually tell what you have got on the end of your line. You strike; they set off at 300mph. They turn and run towards you and straight away, you are thinking, is it foul-hooked, is it a ten-pounder. Your elastic nearly bottoms out and the fish has got bigger. You get it in the landing net and it is smaller than the gudgeon that you have been catching. Bugger!!!

The lad on peg 25 didn’t go across to the far side. Every time that he did, he soon shipped back as he couldn’t control his rig due to the wind. The lad on peg 27 was able to go across and hold his pole, but hadn’t/wasn’t feeding his peg regular enough.

I continued to fish down the middle and snared a few more barbel and carp. I started to foul-hook and lose fish, the carp had come off the bottom so I shallowed up my rig by about 6”. I was no longer foul-hooking (and losing) the fish that were in my peg. I had to wait slightly longer for my bite but when I got a bite, it was fish on and hooked in the mouth.

That was it time. End of the match.

Gandhi was doing the weighing of my section and he immediately asked me what weight I had. I asked him what he had weighed in. 36lb odd was the reply from the toothless one, with a big grin. I responded by saying that I didn’t have that and that I had about 33/34lb or so.

Cueball plonked 40lb 1 oz on the scales – I didn’t have that. Wolfman weighed in 38lb which consisted of 4 carp and the rest being barbel, nor did I have that. I lifted my net out and had completely underestimated my weight again. I managed to weigh in 42-10, which consisted of mainly carp with about 5 barbel. Next one to plonk a decent weight on the scales was my ‘protégé’ – Chappy. He managed to snare 39lb 4oz. And now the best bit, Chappy was another quid down!!!! Oh dear, what a shame.

I approached Nightie for my quid and his response was “we don’t have quid’s on Saturdays!!!” I think that I will have to do a bit of research from my blogs to check this out.

9 Kamasan points in 4 matches, made up of 3 (yes, three) second placings, two of which came on a Saturday, when there is an optional £4 superpool – which I obviously entered. Not too bad in anyone’s book, even if I say so myself.

Back to the pub and a few shandies all round for those in attendance.

Full results;

Sean Cameron (Spring Valley) 53-10-0, carp, pellet and maggot (peg 42)
Mick Herrington (Bob-Co Oaks) 42-10-0 (peg 26)
Kevin Worth (Castleford) 40-12-0 (peg 62)
Lee Harrison (Scunthorpe Blue) 40-7-0 (peg 22)
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 39-4-0 (peg 30)
Graham Skirrey (Turners Tackle) 38-11-0 (peg 24)

Sunday 4th March 2007.

Normal service has resumed!!!

Back to running the Sunday match and following my recent run of results, more people are coming up to me and asking me questions. I knew that I had joined the elite when Darryll ‘Tin Tin’ Taylor even started speaking to me.

I got everything underway and by the time of the draw there were 52 of us on the match. The wind was blowing from peg 1 diagonally across the lake towards peg 36, which meant that a lot of the lake was going to be out of it due to the wind. I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 38. I was not going to be a happy teddy bear. The wind would be blowing from right to left. Chappy the jammy so and so had drawn peg 45. The wind would be blowing straight of the top of the island, therefore allowing him to fish across –oh for a peg like that.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Mick Sykes to my right on peg 39, peg 37 was empty, Rumpole was on peg 36 and Fullstop was on peg 35.

At the start of the match, I set up 4 rigs, 2 for the deeper water and 2 for across. The across rigs were made up using one of my usual .2g Garbolino DC6 floats, set up HITL style. The rig was attached to .10 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 Gamakatsu, pellet hook, eyed. I plumbed up across and straight away was hoping that either, I didn’t have to fish there or hoping even more so, for the wind to drop. My second rig for across was a 4x12 Colmic float with a thick plastic bristle. I set this up conventional with a spade end hook. I set the float to fish slightly overdepth, hoping that by dragging the line on the bottom, the float would slow down somewhat.

My two deep rigs included a HITL rig using a .5g Drennan Roach. This was attached to .11 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 16 Gamakatsu, eyed, pellet hook. My backup deep rig was the same rig, but set up with the conventional spade end hook. For bait I had a few maggots, micro pellets and some 4mm expanders.

At the all in, the wind instantly got stronger and continued to get stronger as the match progressed.

I immediately decided to go across to the farside with the HITL rig on, dropped some micro pellets in, and dropped the rig in baited with a 4mm pellet on the hook.

After about 15 minutes and a couple more fruitshoots of micropellets, I went down the middle after having nothing to show for the foray across.

I dropped in the HITL rig and foul-hooked a fish almost straight away. I re-baited with pellet, and dropped in again. The float settled, then started going against the wind. The lake was towing like mad. I let the float go until it tightlined itself against the pole tip, then I waited for it to go under. After about 5 minutes, the float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. I managed to snare another 5 or 6 fish before the peg had all but died.

I came close in, using the same rig and managed to snare a couple of carp before the peg died again.

I was missing bites on the HITL rig, so I dropped in using the ‘normal’ rig. I had set the rig to fish slightly over depth and dropped in. I missed 4 indications/bites in a row, before I connected with a fish. It was foul-hooked and shot off towards safety in the direction of Rumpole.

From bad to worse – then the rain arrived. The rain was coming at me from the right to left and it was driving rain. It could have been worse, Rumpole had the wind and rain blowing straight into his clock.

I could see that Rumpole was starting to get a few fish on corn, close in. I didn’t have any with me. I shouted round to Rumpole to see if I could get a tin of corn off him. He told me to go round to him. I arrived and rummaged through his carryall and found a tin of Green Giants best. As I was walking away, he commented that it would cost me the quid that he was going to have to give to me today.

I tried corn and after 15 minutes, I hadn’t had an indication. I wanted to go home, but with so many quid’s at stake, I was going to have to make a go of it. But I oh so wanted to go home.

Over the next couple of hours, my maggots started to float, my pellets had become sloppy groundbait, my arse was wet, my glasses were smeared, my elbows got wet. I couldn’t wait until I shouted time.

That’s it, enough is enough. It was time. I put my topkits straight in my car, put my pole away wet and waited for the scales to arrive, whilst sat in the comfort and warmth of my car. By the time that the scales had arrived, Gandhi was winning the match with 38lb from peg 21 (wind & RAIN off his back, flat calm in front of him). Fullstop managed to plonk 20lb on the scales. I didn’t think that I had that. Rumpole DNW’d, but tipped back about a dozen carp.

I managed to plonk 21lb odd on the scales. Mick Sykes to my right weighed in 15lb. Peg 42 had 28lb, 43 – 24lb, 44 - ? 45 – 33lb and 46 – 22lb.

Chappy was walking back to his car and there was a funny squelching sound and I thought that it had something to do with the rain, well it did have something to do with the rain, it was to do with the amount of water that was in his trainers, that was squelching around when he walked. His travelling partner, Pimmy, was no better off. He had fished the match all day in a fleece and trainers as he had left his wet weather gear at home.

Ian 'Exman' Exley's New Hat.

It called an Anti-Chappyslap Hat.

It doesn't work though. Chappy waited until he took it off, then gave him a right slap.

The adventures of Loopyhead!!!

Well, well, well. I haven’t updated my blog for a couple of weeks now, so I think that it is about time that I enlightened you all.

I managed to get off for the open at The Oaks on Saturday 3rd March. ‘Shrek’ Middleton is currently running an experiment on the Saturday matches to see what people think. The experiment is to have the standard match fee of £16 but to do away with a £1 optional winner take all and replaced it with an option £4, making the total match entry fee £20 – all in.

I picked up Bram and had an uneventful drive, but it still only took just over half an hour to get there.

At the draw, there were 72 of us in attendance. I was near the front of the queue and put my hand in the bag and managed to snare peg 52, Bram was on peg 59. I arrived at my peg to find that Craig Lealand was on peg 49, Paul ‘Sweeney’ Todd on peg 50, peg 51 empty and Ian ‘Gargoyle’ Melton on peg 53. I really didn’t fancy my chances today, but saying that I was 4th off the same peg some 5 or 6 weeks ago, when it was a lot colder. On that day I weighed in 21lb odd and got pipped by Gandhi Hall by 2 or 3 oz. I caught most of my fish towards peg 53 on the 3ft line with corn as bait. Shaun ‘Sparkie’ Cameron was on peg 54, his dad was on peg 55 and big Mark Calvert was on peg 56. I was in good company with no chance of the section.

I set up 3 rigs:

Rig 1 was for the base of the far slope, which doubled up as my inside rig. This was a .5g Drennan Roach tied direct to a size 18 Kamasan B911 – eyed hook – Hook in the loop style.

My other 2 rigs were for across on top of the shelf. One of the rigs was set slightly deeper than the other one in order for me to fish in the deeper hole to the right of the peg number. Both of the rigs incorporated Garbolino DC 6’s in .2g. I set them both up on .10 Preston Powerline, again with a size 18 Kamasan B911 – eyed hook – HITL style.

The Chappy quid was set up as standard, I cajoled Sweeney Todd into a quid, Gargoyle wouldn’t partake – the miserable sod. Both Jasper and Gaz were also roped into the quid.

For bait, I had some 4mm pellets and some micro pellets for feed.

At the all in, I put a pinch of micro pellets in the fruitshoot cap attached to my pole tip, baited up the shallow rig with a 4mm pellet and went across to the far side. I tipped the bait in and dropped the rig over the top. After about 5 minutes, nothing had happened. I shipped the pole back, put some more bait in the little cup and went back across to the far side and dropped the bait in my 2nd swim. I placed my rig back in the first swim. The float had no sooner settled when 5ft of white hydro elastic was getting dragged from the end of the pole. After a brief tussle, an F1 of about 2lb was soon in the net. Not a bad start.

I proceeded to plunder this line and after about an hour, I had 6 fish in the net for approximately 10lb.

This line seemed to be going quiet now, time to move to my second line. I continued to fish the same on the second line, with the odd look on the first line. By now, I was also starting to feed a few micros by hand at 3m and to put the odd little cup of bait in at the base of the far slope – just covering my options.

Gargoyle to the side of me was starting to put a few fish together by fishing on the 3ft deep line, just down the slope. Why o’ why hadn’t I put up a rig to fish the same line. Toddy in the corner (he was reminiscent of ‘Little Jack Horner’) seemed to be on plan ZK23421 already as he had tried all of his lines, with little success.

I started to catapult a few 4mm pellets in true ‘Giles’ fashion, hoping to kick start my peg for later on, onto the top of the shelf.

I got my deep rig out and dropped the rig down the inside. I managed to snare one or two fish, before that line seemed to get cagey. I was looking around me constantly, trying to gage how I was doing; no one seemed to be catching in any numbers. I seemed to be beating those around me, which is a start, I suppose.

I then went to the base of the far slope and managed to snare a couple before that line also seemed to be going on me. It was one of those days where you managed to get a couple of fish, then it would go quiet. Somebody somewhere will be emptying it.

I plodded on until the end of the match, continuing to take the odd fish off my 4 lines. In the last hour, I aimed for 8 fish and ended up with 3, all of which came off the shallow rig across in the last 15 minutes.

Where had the fish gone? Were they starting to come back? Had I fed enough? These are the general questions that were going round me head.

Bram came round at the end of the match, and I told him that I had about 34lb. The scales arrived at Craig in not time at all. When Craig lifted his net out I mentioned to Bram ‘I have got whatever he has got and more’. Craig plonked 37lb odd on the scales. Where did he get that from? I wish that I had kept my gob shut now as I hadn’t got that much. Toddy hadn’t weighed in and was gone, prior to me walking round to his peg and shaking him upside down until a shiny one dropped out of his pocket. I lifted my net out and thought that I had slightly more than I realised. I plonked 45lb odd on the scales. That put me 2nd overall at the moment. Marco Drury had weighed in 52lb off peg 24. There was still a few more to weigh in yet though. Gargoyle plonked 20 odd lb on the scales and pegs 54 – 56 weighed in an average of 32lb (ish), with big Mark having 33lb.

My luck might be in!!!

Nobody else plonked anything significant on the scales, when I say significant, I mean it in terms of ‘not enough to topple me from 2nd place’. That’s another quid in my pocket courtesy of Chappy.

Full result:

1. MARCOOOOOOO. 52lb odd. Peg 24
2. MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 45lb odd. Peg 52
3. S Atkins 43lb, peg 57
4. S Medd 43lb
5. Andy Bennet 40lb
6. A Middleton 39lb.

Chappy has started to nickname me ‘Loopyhead’ in view of my new found success using the ‘Hook In The Loop’ that Giles has been using and perfecting for the past few years now.

All of my rigs that I used today were set up HITL style and I have come 2nd again. I can’t explain why I am catching more fish, I don’t know if I am hitting more bites or what. Maybe it is just a case of finally landing on a few fish, but so far I have used the rig 3 times and weighed in 35lb (6th), 60lb (2nd) and 45lb (2nd. Best of all is that Chappy is having to cough up some of the quid’s from last year. I just might have to have a word with Giles at Go-Fishing (over a pint – of Stella, Giles) and see if I can get any more top tips.

See you at Go Fishing and tight lines.