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Monday, May 14, 2007

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!!!
No prizes for guessing who this handsome devil is.


I wonder how much he paid for his perm? Is this Haircut No. 2?

Friday, May 11, 2007

My Lindholme Charity Match

Well, the day finally upon me. My travelling partner for the day had blobbed, so I was left to my own devices. I set off from home at about 7:00 and arrived for 8:00. I quickly paid on, and drew my peg. Willows 43. Peg 42 wasn't in. Great and empty peg one side.

On the quid front, I put up a thread on http://www.total-fishing.com/ inviting people to have a quid with me, limited to 10. I ended up with the following candidates:

Cornfrog
Juzzy
Dave Hedgehog (RobB)
Beanhead
Respect
BNF
Max Factor
Avid Merrion
Poorbloke
God's Dad if he's going.

I went for breakfast and then tried to glean as much info as possible. I saw Rob Hitchens and asked him about my peg in view of him being a 'Venue Expert'. He told me naff all, why you might ask. Only because he was on the next peg - Willows 41. to be fair, he told me that I was stuck in a corner. If the wind was blowing that way, I would have a field day. I arrived at my peg to find that the wind was.......................

Blowing away from me into the opposite corner. No fish for me today. But hey, it's a charity match and that is what the day is all about. If you win the match today, you will only get the same money as someone who wins their section, besides, the raffle is later on and I had already bought a few tickets.

I went in search of the quid bets to see who had turned up and to check that they hadn't chickened out. Dave Hedgehog (RobB) wasn't in attendance and neither were a couple of the others. I'll sort it out at the end.

For bait I had pellets, pellets and more pellets. Oh, and some corn and a couple of pints of casters.

I set up the following rigs:

Top 3 kit was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float tied to .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 16 Colmic B500. I plumbed up at the edge of the reed bed to my left and found that I had about 3ft of depth.

Rig 2 was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float, again, tied to .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to as size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I plumbed up at 8m to my left into open water. The depth was about 4ft. I swung the rig round to 13m directly infront of me. The depth there was just over 4ft. Rather than mess about changing depth all the time, I set up another rig exactly the same to fish at 13m.

I set up another rig for the 8m line in order to fish the caster. I set up a Drennan Roach on .12 Fox Match Plus line, to this I tied a size 18 Kamasan B611 hook.

My final rig was a .2g Colmic thick nylon bristled float. I set this up on .18 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook.

The rigs may seem a bit on the heavy side, but there was a lot of reeds in the peg, also the fish can be quite big and I wanted to get everything out that I hooked. As is usually the case.

Jonny Howard was walking around reminding all and sundry that it was a 14.5m pole limit. I had set up my bomb and waggler rod, the only problem being that with me being hemmed in, if I cast my bomb out to 20m directly infront of me, I would be fishing Rob Hitchens' 6m line (that can't be a bad thing, surely) and I couldn't go to my left due to the angler on the next peg.

At the all in, I potted in some pellets at 13m and down the side to the reeds. I threw a couple of handfuls of micro pellets to the edge of the reeds on my top 3 kit. I baited up the Drennan Roach rig with a couple of casters and put some caster and corn in a Tosspot pole cup. I shipped out, tipped the bait in and dropped the rig over the top.

I caught a roach immediately. I rebaited and dropped back in, another roach followed. After a couple more roach and an ide, I snared a small tench of about 1lb. I dropped back in and latched onto something a little bigger. I don't know how big it was, as it broke me. My .12 didn't last very long then......!!!

Rob Hitchens on the next peg, was chucking the bomb up the middle of the lake with corn on the hook and was loose feeding a few grains of corn over the top. He had managed to get a couple of carp before he got broke.

Whilst sorting out my caster rig, I dropped in down the side with corn on the hook. I managed to hook a decent carp, as I played it, the carp run towards me, then went solid. The water was boiling in front of me. The carp had run around a couple of stick ups and was going round and round. After about 10 minutes trying to drag the carp off the stickups, nothing was happening. I was left with no other alternative except get the landing net and start prodding, which as most of you will no is either a do or die. In this instance, it was a die. the carp shed the hook. I managed to get the rig back, but it was looking a little worse for wear as the line had started to chafe, but at least it hadn't broke. That's another rig that I am going to have to sort out.

Halfway through the match, one of the lads was complaining at one of the other participants for feeding too much. One of the fellas near him told him to shut his cakehole as it is a charity match and not to be taken too seriously.

The caster rig was now sorted. I rebaited the caster rig and dropped back in on the caster line. After 5 minutes, I had managed nothing - not a thing, zero. I big potted some corn and caster whilst I went back down the side.

I managed to get a couple of carp down the side and a couple of chub. I went out to my 13m line and managed to snare a couple of fish from there.

The peg then seemed to die. I was struggling to get a fish from any of my lines. In desparation for the last hour or so, I came close in, to the reeds on my top 3 kit to be precise. 1st drop in resulted in a tench, 3 more followed before I caught a carp of about 2lb.

That was it, match over.

Rob Hitchens had emptied it. I had had a few, but nowhere near enough. By the time that the scales had arrived, beanhead had put 40lb on the scales, Rob Hitchen put 50lb on the scales and yours truly managed to snare 17lb 13oz. The next 5 or 6 anglers failed to trouble the scales. Graham Edgerley (?) who was at the back of me managed to snare 26lb odd, but you should have seen his peg. Wind blowing into it, fish rolling all over. Graham, just kidding mate.

The quids result: I owed (or should I say paid) a quid to Billy2fish, Beanhead and Cornfrog. I managed to snare a quid from Avid Merrion and Respect. I should have got a quid from Pourerkev, blunthook and maxfactor, but it seems to have slipped their memory.

RAFFLE TIME

I purchased a couple more raffle tickets and waited in anticipation. By the end of the raffle, I managed to snare a fleece and a couple of goodie bags with some pellets and the like in them.

All in all, it was an enjoyable day out in which everyone deserves a massive well done for supporting the event either by donating a raffle prize or taking part. Nearly £6,000 was raised from the day and although some areas/lakes had fished hard, it wasn't about winning. IT WAS THE TAKING PART THAT COUNTED.

WELL DONE EVERYONE.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Sunday 29th April 2007

The Oak Lakes, Sessay.

I arrived in time to sort the rabble out and by the time of the draw, there were 62 of us on the match.

Becky, the tackle shop helper, asked me, why do I call Haircut, ‘Haircut’ and also, who was he? I said to her that she will know when he arrives?

About 10 minutes later, there was a loud shout ‘hey up Mick, how’s it hanging?’. I said to Becky, ‘Haircut is here’. She asked him why do they call you haircut. I asked him to remove his hat. Becky responded by saying ‘do they cut round a bowl when they do your hair?. Laugh?, I pissed myself.

Anyways, back to the match. I put my hand in the draw bag and snared peg 25. I wasn’t unhappy, considering that I framed off peg 26 last week. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Meatcutter Bailey on peg 26, Ian Bowman on peg 27 and Nigel Ward (I think) to my left on peg 24. I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig one was the usual DC6 float taking .2g (shotted up with no. 8 and 9 Preston Stotz). The rig line was Preston Powerline .11 diameter with the usual Hoop incorporating a size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet eyed hook. I plumbed up across to the farside and found 18” of depth.

Rig two, was a standard rig, in terms of this rig didn’t incorporate the Hoop, but was set up with the same float as above, with the difference being the hook (a size 16 Preston PR23) and the rig line, Maver Genesis .12 dia. Again, I plumbed up across (to ensure that the depths were the same, due to stretch factors in fishing line, you could be fishing at slightly differing depths).

My third and final rig was a deep rig to fish down the middle. This incorporated a .4g Garbolino DC6 float. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Preston PR23 hook. I plumbed up down the middle to find that I had 5ft of depth. For this rig, I was slightly over-gunned by using the Pink Drennan Hollow core elastic. The reason for this was that I was expecting to catch a couple of barbel, and this elastic will help me to get them under control a little bit quicker/easier.

For bait, I had some meat and hemp left over from yesterday, some corn and some pellets (micro pellets for feed and 4mm pellets for the hook). I quickly struck up a quid with both Meatcutter and Wardy. I shouted to Bowie, that I wasn’t having a quid with him as he is too much of a superstar.

At the all in, I put a small Garbolino pot full of meat and hemp down the middle. I baited up the hoop rig with pellet and put some micro pellets in a Toss pot and went over to the far side. I tipped the bait in and waited, and waited. Usually, I have managed to snare a fish before now.

After about 10 minutes, the float buried, I struck in anticipation. A gudgeon about 1 oz, lept from the water and shed the hook. Not a good sign at all.

I re-baited, put some more pellets in the tosspot and went back to the far side. I tipped the bait in and waited. After about 5 minutes, the float buried. Another gudgeon. Blinking Eck!!!!

I continued in this vain for the next 20 minutes or so, whilst I waited for the fish to gain in confidence down the middle. I managed to snare one little carp.

I put some meat in a tosspot and baited up the deep rig. I dropped in and waited. Too long!!! after about 10 minutes, the float buried and a carp of about 2lb was going mental. I managed to get it into the keepnet after a brief tussle.

Meatcutter on the next peg, was getting the odd fish by fishing meat across to the far side. Wardy on the next peg, the otherside, was fairing about as well as I was. Not good.

Over the remainder of the match, I struggled for bites. I was getting liners on the deep rig and if I came shallow, I couldn't get an indication. I tried to feed to get them shallow, but nothing would work.

By the end of the match, I could only muster 10lb. Wardy had 11lb, whilst Meatcutter weighed in 54lb. I came away with more questions than answers. I didn't even go to the pub for the after match analysis. I was gutted, how can things go so wrong. I caught on meat last week, Meatcutter caught on meat this week. Where had I gone wrong.

When I think about it, there was no fish infront of me. Wardy had 11lb and the bloke who was next to him, to him, tipped back about 4 fish.

Oh well, there is always next week, if I end up going. Can some one give me a call to ensure that I haven't slashed my wrists.

There is one saving grace, for the 2nd week running I have won the 'guess the winning weight' contest and the pounds that go with it. I had a weight of 82lb 4oz and Minty Whittaker won the match with 82lb 7oz.

Although I am handing a quid over to Chappy, I can afford it with the quids that keep coming my way from the Guess The Weight comp.

Tightlines.

Big Pellet.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Chris 'Gandhi' Hall. Now imagine him with no hair!!

Match Fishing magazine have a section in their mag within Silly Stuff where they put up a picture with the caption 'would you let your daughter marry this man' of something similar. I said to Gandhi, he could have his own caption;

'You wouldn't even let your mother-in-law marry this man'.



Barry 'Baz' Harrington. Looks like an escaped convict from the Eastern Bloc.







Dave 'Spud' Phillips. I told you he looks like 'Mr Potato Head'!!!!






He's from Burnley, probably explains it all.




Just a bit of updating to do since my last update as I have the following matches to add:

Sat 28th, Woodlands, Thirsk
Sun, The Oaks, Thirsk
Wednesday, Lindholme, Charity match
Saturday, Sam Hosticks, Beverley
Sunday, The Oaks, Thirsk.

So here goes.

Woodland Lakes, Thirsk. After picking up Jasper, we arrived in plenty of time, following the usual breakfast at Morrisons (have you seen the price of brekkie's at Woodlands?). I put my hand in the bag and ended up pulling out Skylark 1, which to the un-initiated, is a corner peg. if the wind is blowing into the corner, it is bag-up city, if it isn't it is blanking city.

Ken Golightly was on the peg last week and ended up with 1 carp, could I fair any better? I arrived at the peg to find that the wind was not blowing my way, it was blowing to the other end of the lake and had been doing so for a couple of days. I set up 3 rigs, one for 6m, one for 13m straight out in front and the final rig was to fish down the side to the left, along the boards at 14m and also down the side to my right.

All of my rigs were set up on the Ultima Power Plus line. The 13m and 6m rigs incorporated .16 dia. line and the down the side and boards rig was set up on .18 dia. line.

For bait I had 3 tins of meat, which had been cut up using a Mal Bailey meatcutter, 1 tin of frenzied hemp, 1pt of 4mm pellets and half a pint of 6mm pellets.

Whilst setting up, I spotted a fish boil about 1m out just in front of me. It was solid.

At the whistle, I potted in some hemp and meat at 6m and the same at 13m. In the first hour, I managed to snare 3 carp and 2 skimmers. Over the next 3 hours, I struggled for an indication. Going into the last hour, I managed to get broke off a carp as it wrapped around a pipe near my feet, and I managed another carp. My total weight would not have exceeded 15lb. What a day. I just could not buy a bite. One of the other lads on the match who was a couple of pegs further down had broken his landing net and was having to get on his hands and knees in order to put his landing net head in the water and net his fish.

By the end of the match, I had 4 carp and half a dozen skimmers. As soon as the match had finished, I tipped back my fish and left my net to dry, well why not, it wasn't doing anything else and I didn't want to tip my fish back whilst the match was in progress.

Jasper ended up with 50lb from Kestrel Lake, Chappy had 40lb, so I was a couple of quid down. Andy Geldart won the match with 105lb and Panic Poole was second with 105lb. There was ounces between them.

After a match the other day, someone asked me to explain the nicknames, so here goes;

Age Concern - Bruce Poland (probably looks older than he really is, he has also got sponsorship from Steradent and Polygrip).

Granddad - Bert Poole - is now retired - aren't all granddad's retired?

Fullstop - Byron Dell - A full stop is bigger than Byron.

Spud - Dave Phillips - Looks like Mr Potato Head.

Gandhi - Chris Hall - Looked like Gandhi when he had his head shaved in a de-lousing programme.

Rumpole - Gordon Brown - Looks like Rumpole of the Bailey (although some people say Jonny Vegas is more of a resemblance).

Bedpan - Roger Movely - He looks that old, I think that he invented the bedpan.

Rochdale Raver - Johnny MacMacMackyMac from Rochdale, you know him don't you. He looks as though he has come straight from a rave to fish a match. Thing is, he must be atleast 50. The E's and Viagra are serving him well.

Polecrusher Payton - Barry Payton - did you see the state of Chappy's pole after Polecrusher run over it?

Fossil/Lizard/Woody/Toy Story - Pete Baron - Warms up with the sun, he is that old, he could be a fossil also has a penchant for 'Line Dancing' so I have been told.
Polish Mick - Tony Kozaczek - It's easier to say Polish Mick.

Come back for more updates from your truly and tight lines.

Mike

Saturday, May 05, 2007

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 cafĂ© 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