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