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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

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 cafĂ© 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)’.