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.