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!!!