Double Header This Weekend - Lindholme and Woodlands

I fished 2 matches this weekend, the first one at Lindholme on the open on Saturday, followed by a visit to Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk with Robin Hood AC.

Lindholme

I picked up the car-less one - Buddy 'Anaemia' Keville.  Oh my god, that man needs either a good feed or a good sun tan (or both). :-)

We arrived at the draw to find that we were on Strip and Bonsai due to the numbers there and also that there was a club match on part of Bonsai.  I had a quick natter with Greg 'Beanpole' Norris before the draw and he said that he wanted to draw peg 16 on Strip, he drew peg 8 on Strip, which is opposite where he wanted to be.  I pulled out Peg 53 on Bonsai, which was indifferent to me.  I spoke with Steve Mazza and Beanpole and they both said that sometimes big mirrors hang about there just off the island, which was about 19m away and there is a 16m pole limit at Lindholme, and the wind will be right for it today (it was off my back) as I would be able to feed with the catapult.  I had someone on peg 51 and peg 56.  Anaemia drew peg 79.

The conditions were, bright, sunny, bit of a cold wind coming off my back and there had been an overnight frost.

I set up a bomb rod, pellet waggler (about 3 ft deep), 2 shallow rigs, one with white hydro and one with Preston green 13h, and a margin rig.

For bait I had some Lindholme 4mm & 6mm pellets, Bait-tech 6mm expander pellets and some corn.  At the all in, I cast the bomb to within a foot of the island and waited for it to go round.  I fed a handful of pellets and expanders down the margin and flicked a few 6mm pellets out to the island and some 4mm pellets at 14.5 to try to catch shallow.

After about an hour I had 2 little F1 carp both on the bomb.  The lad on 51 had 3 carp and the lad on peg 56 had 1 carp.  It was going to be hard.

I then swapped and changed methods to catch one fish on one line, before having to change to a different line.  Odd fish on the bomb, 2 fish shallow at 14.5m and a couple of fish down the edge resulted in me tipping back about 22/23lb ish.  The lad on peg 51 tipped back similar, peg 50 tipped back about 5lb, peg 49 tipped back about 15lb and the lad on peg 56 weighed in (possibly about 25lb).  It was hard.

Anaemia tipped back about 35lb or so and said that Steve Mazza on peg 78 had about 70/80lb.

By the end of the match Anaemia only needed a good feed due to the sunburn on his bonce.

As I was leaving, I spoke to Tim Moran who was on about peg 38/39 and he was admitting to about 70lb.  I could see that the lad on peg 69 had been catching steadily all day.  I did not wait for the full results.

Woodlands - Skylark

The following day, I was in Thirsk for a club match at Woodlands Lakes.  We were on Skylark lake.  The previous days conditions had resulted in 2 x 200lb+ weights from end pegs 1 and 37 on Partridge lake and 120lb ish from peg 34 on Skylark and a big 90lb from peg 6.  So, it seemed that all the fish were at the car park end of the lakes.  On my last 2 matches here I have been 3rd twice from peg 32 and 30 respectively with about 70 - 80lb.  The wind was very cold and quite strong and was blowing into my peg from everywhere on the lake and it was over-cast.

Due to the increase in club members, it was decided that there would be an increase to the club knock-out.  I originally had a bye to the next round.  Anyways, I was put back in the knock-out draw and got drawn against Erik the Viking.  I decided to have my first leg at Woodlands and Erik is yet to decide on the return leg venue.

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 34.  Hmmmm.  Mixed thoughts.  The match results from Wednesday all came from the other end and 3rd was from middle of the lake.  Peg 34 used to be called the boards, but they have now rotted away and there are one or two bits of twigs, brambles and branches on the waters edge.  Frontrow drew peg 11.  This was his first visit to Woodlands, a quick chat about methods and lines and we were both off.

I arrived at my peg to find that Colin 'The Worm' Weaver was on peg 1 and I had Sadsack (Pid) himself next to me on peg 32.  Lurch was on peg 4 and my competition for the day, Erik was on about peg 22.

I set up the method rod, bomb rod, 1 shallow rig and two margin rigs, one to fish with expander pellets/corn/meat and the other to fish with a hard banded pellet (if I was getting mithered by bits).

For bait, I had some hard 8mm pellets, 6mm pellets, Sonubaits Green Supercrush groundbait with some micro pellets, meat and corn and some 6mm expanders from the day before.

10.30, the match was under way.

I baited up the method rod with an 11mm pellet and chucked it out about 2ft off the 'boards' and fed a few 8mm pellets over the top.  2 minutes later, nothing.  Quick reload and out again.  I waited all of 30 seconds and the tip flew round and the freespool was screaming away.  I lifted the rod and proceeded to reel the fish in.  I got it back to the landing net where it made a last ditch for freedom and SNAP.  The hooklength broke and it was gone. DAMN!! or words to that effect came from my mouth.  I then put on a proper hooklength - a Preston Innovations C1 Method Hooklengths (0.19 Dia).  I must have had on a winter method hooklength of about .15 dia.  Lurch saw me hook my first carp and get it to the landing net before it made one last bid for freedom and snap me.  He then started to take the Michael, so to speak and started shouting something about Deja Vu.

I baited up again with an 11mm pellet and lobbed it back out to the same spot.  Some 5 minutes later a 6lb carp was in the net.

About 1 hr into the match, Lurchio hooked his first fish and spent for ever and a day playing it and shouting to all and sundry that would listen that he had a fish on and it was a monster.  I could tell that it was foul-hooked from where I was due to the jig, jig, jig of the line.  I shouted over that it was foul-hooked.  After about 10 hours, he managed to get it into the landing net, that is when both calamity was against him, but the gods were with him.  His landing net pole broke and the landing net fell back into the lake with the fish still in it.  He then managed to hook onto the landing net with his broken pole and managed, somehow (I am sure that I saw the hand of god - no, not Maradonna,) managed to get the fish and said net back to the bank and took the hook out of the fishes tail and put said fish in his net.  THE SPAWNY B^%%^$K!!!

I had caught 2 carp in the first hour of the match.  I then had a go on the pole at 14.5m along the boards and baited up with double 6mm expander.  I put a few pellets and a splash of groundbait in a toss pot, shipped out and waited.  After a couple of minutes, the float bobbed, then shot under.  I struck and pricked a fish.  I re-baited and shipped back out to the same spot and waited about 4 or 5 minutes when the float shot under and a carp was on.  It was about 5lb.  I now had 3 carp for approx 15/16lb.

I swapped between the method and the pole down the boards, whilst continually flicking a few 6mm pellets out to 14m to try on the shallow rig.

Just over halfway into the match, I had 5 carp for about 25lb or so.  I cast out the method down the edge and waited.  The tip flew round and I hooked into a fish.  About 10 seconds later, the fish felt weird as I was trying to reel it in.  I could see the boils and swirls from the fish and it was not moving.  I was tethered to some old tow rope fishing line that was laying in the water.  I commando crawled along the bank (and the boards) to where the fish was still tethered to the old fishing line and netted the fish (and about 10 miles of 100lb fishing line).  This commotion and activity so close to where I had been casting had completely cream-crackered my peg.  Dagnamit.

I managed to add another carp over the next hour or so.  By this point, Sadsack had 2 carp, The Worm had 1 carp, Lurchio had 2 carp, it was fishing hard.  Rumours were coming back to me that Mark Wright was catching in corner peg 17 and Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was catching a couple of pegs away.  I could see Dave 'Mr Newlywed' Webster catching the odd fish on about peg 20.


Guru Drag-Line (6lb)

I cast out on the method again and hooked a fish which ran into some roots or something.  I pulled for a break and lost my method and hooklength.  I had just loaded my reel with some new line that same morning.

I had been using some white line on my method reel and can't remember what it was, but I was not happy with it.  When I had been casting out and just before tightening up the slack line, the line was coiling and twisting and then wrapping around the eyes on the rod, TOTAL NIGHTMARE!  As part of my Guru freebies, I got a 250m spool of 6lb Guru Drag-Line.  Before the morning of Sunday's match, I decided to strip the line off my old spool and fill it with the Drag-Line.  Following the exploits of catching some towrope and some underwater trees, I have only used it for one session, but I am quite pleased with it.  It had a bit of stretch when I was trying to pull for a break and did not suffer any abrasion (as I could see or feel) when I hooked the towrope.  Only time will tell.

I managed to snare another couple of fish over the duration of the remainder of the match and ended up with 8 fish.  The scales started to weigh in from peg 1.  The Worm had a couple of fish.  The lad next to him had about 3 fish, Lurchio tipped back 2 fish.  Horsfall on peg 10 had 53lb, Frontrow 48lb, then there was a string of 60+ weights, Alan do you want a sandwich had 68lb, Paul Wilson had 68lb, Frank Brooks (I think that is his name) weighed 88lb from peg 14/15 ish and Mark Wright had 63lb.  The scales came down my side and Ian on peg 18 had 37lb, Mr Newleywed weighed 13 carp for 83lb, Erik the Viking weighed 1 carp in, Dave Wathen was in the 2nd round of his knock-out against Ian (and it was all to play for following the equal weight of 1oz from Tyram Hall) and needed to weigh more than 37lb, he plonked 39lb on the scales.  Craig Jones fished on Wednesdays match where he was 3rd from peg 12 and today drew peg 29 and plonked 68lb on the scales - this included 3 fish for 30lb odd from down the edge. Sadsack had initially left his net in and taken his gear back to the car and went back to weigh in.  By the time that the scales had got back to his weigh, he had gone.  I was last to weigh.  I tipped 46lb odd on the scales.  I was 3rd on my bank and I was 3rd on my half of the lake and never won a bean or had I?

Due to beating Erik today, I have won £5 and I also carry a 40lb weight advantage to the next round.

Result:

Frank Brook 88lb odd (peg 15)
Dave Webster 83lb odd (peg 20)
Not sure of 4th as there were 4 x 60lb+ weights.


Car Boot Sales

I went to a local car boot before picking up Front-row and I was ambling along, as Sunday drivers do at about 59.9mph (don't want to incriminate myself now do I?!), and I was being overtaken by taxi's from Bradistan and CleckHuddersFax with the drivers wives (yes plural) in the back getting all giddy and laughing and telling him to drive faster, faster.  I know I can't speak a foreign language, but I am sure that they were saying 'faster Ahmed, faster, gotta get there for the bargains, it is cheap. :-)  A few years ago I went to another local car boot and bought a Daiwa Tournament Goretex Jacket for £50.  It was in nearly used condition.  I tried it on and it did not fit me, so I put it on ebay and got £167 for it.  The lad was selling all of his gear as he had done his back in and been advised not to fish again.  I bought a Preston Innovation fleece off him for £25.

On the way home, Front-row said to me that he loves Preston 17h hollow elastic.  He loves it that much that he was going to go home and kick his missus out of bed and take it out of his topkit and wrap himself in it like some bondage freak and sleep with it.  What a saddo (or weirdo, take your pick).