After a debate during the week, I decided to book on at Lindholme Lakes, Doncaster. I texted Neil 'Uncle Fester' Grantham the night before to see what lake the open was going to be on. But alas, he did not reply.
I picked up Buddy 'the anaemic milk bottle' Keville (see image below) as my travelling partner this week.
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| Buddy 'Anaemia' Keville |
Buddy had heard that the sun was going to come out today. He nearly cancelled off and stayed indoors. He does not like the sun. LOL. He got in the car and looked like he had seen a ghost. Probably had a lot to do with the ten layers of suncream his missus had applied.
We arrived in plenty of time and had a quick breakfast in the onsite cafe. I then went to pay on and found that we were on Oasis. I have only ever fished this once before.
There were 35 booked on the match. I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 36. Apparently, I was just off the the pegs where you wanted to be, these were from pegs 35 to my left and going round to pegs 20 ish. I had a lad called Andy to my right on peg 38, Jimmy Winter to my left on 35, somone on 33, Steve Mazza was on peg 31, Steve Barraclough was on peg 24, Matt Pillay was on peg 40/41. Anaemia was on peg 22 so was in good company with Steve to his right.
The Rigs
I set up 4 rigs as follows:
Rig 1 was a .4g Powerpencil float for the top 2 + 2 sections at about 10 0'clock and 2 o'clock. I had about 3.5ft on this line.
Rig 2 was to fish top 2 + 3 down the bank to my right. The float consisted of a Bauja .2g float and after plumbing up, I had about 2ft of depth.
Rigs 3 + 4 were set up to fish across to the far side at about 13m. One of the rigs was set up to fish about 2ft deep and the other was set about 12" deep to the mud line. Both rigs consisted of a .2g Bauja float.
Rigs 2, 3 and 4 all had on a bait-band and rig 1 was a standard hooklength.
For bait I had some 6mm meat, 8mm meat, 4mm Lindholme pellets, 6mm Dynamite Baits hard pellets and some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets.
The Match
At the start of the match, I baited up the 2ft deep across rig with a hard 6mm pellet and put some 4mm pellets in a tosspot. I shipped out to the far side, tipped the 4mm pellets in and dropped the rig over the top. The float settle for about 10 seconds and 5ft of white hydro elastic shot out of the pole tip. An F1 carp about 2lb was soon in the net. I did the same again and another F1 about 1lb soon joined its brethren.
I foul-hooked and lost the next two fish. I swapped rigs to the mudline rig and did the same process. I must have waited about 5 minutes before I got an indication. I lifted into the bite, the elastic flew out of the pole tip and soon retracted when I pulled out of the fish.
I then proceeded to fish across for the next hour and estimated to have about 15lb or so. I was foul-hooking the odd fish on the 2ft deep rig, and if I went on the mudline rig, I struggled for indications. I had constantly been flicking 6 - 8 pieces of meat on the top 2 + 2 line. After about one and a half hours, I decided to have a look on the top 2 + 2. I baited up with a piece of meat, dropped the rig in and waited with anticipation.....
That is one of the great things about fishing, generally, no matter where you have drawn or are fishing - the first time that you drop your rig in on your chosen lines, the excitement and anticipation that you get is electric and you sit there pole or rod in hand, rig in the water and you are like a coiled spring, waiting for the first indication/bite.
I had better get back to the blog about fishing, this is not about Psychology.
Anyway, I had dropped the rig in on the top 2 + 2 line and waited some more and waited. A little dip, then the float shot under, I struck, the fish went to the middle of the lake, came back and then went round in circles and would not come up of the bottom. Yes, you guessed it a barbel about 2lb. I dropped in again, nothing. I never got another bite of this line.
One of the things that we all do is whether pleasure or match fishing is to compare ourselves with the angler on the next peg, in terms of if you are catching a few more fish than them, then you are doing OK. I was beating Andy to my right and Jimmy to my left and Matt Pillay was catching one or two shallow, other than that I did not really know how I was doing in the match. I just knew that it seemed to be fishing hard.
About 2/3's of the way through the match, Jimmy struck at a bite and the fish snagged him on some branches in the water. I tried to pull for a break and as he was shipping back the top 4 (sections 2, 3 and 4) came off his pole and glided back towards his now snagged rig. He left it there until the end of the match.
I persevered on the far side, picking up the odd fish now and again whilst still feeding the margin swim and the top 2 + 2.
Going into the last hour I anticipated that I had about 30 - 35lb or so. I went down the edge with a 6mm expander pellet on the hook. The float settled, dipped almost immediately and shot under. A roach about 2oz flew out of the water on the strike. Damn. I re-baited, dropped the rig in again and waited. I waited about 3-4 minutes, the float went sideways, dipped and carried on going sideways slowly. I lifted into the bite, there was a big boil on the water and that was it. The fish was gone as I had pricked it. BAUBLES!.
I had caught about half of my fish on meat across and the other half on pellet across. The moment of truth, the scales had arrived. I lifted out my first net and put 43lb 7oz on the scales. I lifted out my second net and put it on the bank to dry. LOL.
Anaemia weighed in 42lb odd. Steve Barraclough had 83lb, Mazza weighed in 59lb ish. Two pegs to my left DNW, Jimmy DNW and Andy had 37lb odd. Matt weighed in 70lb ish.
Result:
1. Andy ?? (Peg 28) 89lb odd
2. Steve Barraclough 83lb
3. Matt Pillay 70lb
Whilst on the bank after the match, I got taking with Steve Barraclough about Barnburgh Lakes, as I had booked on there for tomorrow's match. I asked him, what floats he uses for fishing shallow. He said that he would show me. So I followed him over to his gear and he showed me some Frenzee FD200 Pole Floats that he uses. He had 4 rigs set up. He removed them from his line and gave them to me. Fantastic. Thank you. What a guy. I was not expecting that. Maybe I should have asked him what pole he uses, LOL. (I know he uses a top of the range Frenzee pole). I also asked him how he had fished his peg today and he had fished it positive, with 2 lines, a margin line and a far side line.
Thanks for reading, the Barnburgh report will follow - see how I had got on with Steve's Frenzee floats LOL.
Barnburgh Lakes - Middle Lake
Robin Hood AC were booked on a match at Raker Lakes, York and due to the growth in club members, we only had 18 pegs available and 19 wanted to fish, so Frontrow and I decided to cancel off Raker match and go back to Barnburgh Lakes again to see if we can get a repeat of the last match we went on. Craig 'Shrek' Thompson and Stuart 'Talking Donkey' Waterhouse also booked on and followed us on our leisurely drive (Frontrow was driving) to the match.
Before the start of the match, I spoke to regular winner/framer Pete Gosney to get his ideas and thoughts on the venue as I had never fished it before. Pete told me that you wanted to be on pegs 2 - 4/5 or pegs 13 - 16 and as was the case on the Bottom Lake, he advised me fish shallow or down the edge using 4mm pellets as feed and on the hook.
The Draw
By the time that I had got to the draw bag, there were only 4 pegs left and Frontrow, Shrek, Talking Donkey and I were the last ones to draw. There was still one of the 4 jackpot pegs left, which was peg 4 and apparently was one of the better pegs that had a chance of winning. I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 18. Just off them!!? Frontrow drew peg 14, which apparently was sock on, Shrek drew jackpot peg 4 and Talking Donkey was next to me on 19.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had venue expert, Pete Gosney on peg 17. I will now see if the info that he gave me this morning was duff or not LOL. Andy 'Rosie and Jim' Stonner was on peg 1. Rob Hitchens was on 2, Les 'War and' Peace was on about peg 11.
The Rigs.
As per the last match, I set up 2 x shallow rigs, one was set to fish 12" deep and the other was set to fish 2ft deep. Both rigs had .15 Preston Powerline mainline with a .12 baitband hooklength to a size 18 eyed B911 hook and were attached to Preston red 11h elastic. Both of the shallow rigs were the Frenzee FD200 floats that I had acquired of Mr Stever Barraclough the day before at Lindholme Lakes. Both floats were .2g. My 3rd rig was a .4g Powerpencil, this was on .15 Preston Powerline mainline with a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I plumbed up to my left and right and found that I had about 3.5ft on top 2 + 2.
For bait I had 2 bags of 4mm hard pellets from Barnburgh, as you have to use their pellets, some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets and some 6mm cubed meat. Keeping things plain and simple today.
The Match
At the start of the match, I baited up the 2ft deep shallow rig with a 4mm pellet, flicked a few out with the catapult to 12m and dropped the rig over the top. Just as I looked down to find where my catapult was, the elastic ripped from the pole tip. An F1 carp about 12oz was soon in the net. I flicked some more pellets out, dropped the rig over the top and latched into my 2nd fish of the day. Another F1 carp about 8/10oz.
I continued to lift, slap and tap the lake whilst continually feeding 8-10 4mm pellets over the top of the float for the next few hours. When we started the match, the wind was blowing straight at me, by midway through the match, it had turned slightly and was blowing towards pegs 13/14 and at times seemed to be blowing left to right and at other times there was no wind at all. The sun was baking hot. Pete and I seemed to be having a fish race and I think that I was just in front.
I observed what everyone else around the lake were doing. Stonner was catching down the edge, Hitchens was catching on pellet wag, Shrek seemed to be struggling, then he caught a few on top 2 + 1, Les Peace was catching a few fish, Frontrow was getting the odd fish short and Talking Donkey was catching the odd fish shallow and down the edge.
The Paparazzi
About halfway through the match, a reporter from the local Coalmining Courier paper came to the lake to take a few pictures of the venue regulars and started with Stonner. I shouted over to Stonner that they wanted a topless photo of him, he then disappeared down the bank for a couple of minutes. I did not know that he was so shy. I then shouted to him that he was going to be in next Sunday's Sunday Sport newspaper. I can just see the headlines now. Fishing Mad Angler Marries a Fish. Some of the other anglers were shouting things that are totally unprintable on my blog.
The Margins
I decided to have a look in the margin for a few minutes as my 12m line seemed to be dying as the fish had followed the wind out of my peg and my catch rate had slowed significantly. I dropped in down the edge with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander on the hook. I had been feeding a few 6mm expanders and some 4mm hard pellets down the margin every so often throughout the match. The float settled then shot under. A skimmer bream about 8oz was soon in the net. I managed to catch another couple of skimmers, and ide and 3 carp down the edge.
The Last Hour
During my little spell down the edge, which must of lasted all of 10 minutes, Pete had managed to get the carp boiling and swirling in his peg and was catching very quickly now.
I went back out shallow to 12m again. I would feed, then tap the lake surface until I got a fish. The fish had definitely gone as I was only getting the odd fish now and again whereas Pete was still managing to catch fish.
TIME, that was it, the match was over. How had I got on?? I asked Pete what did he think that he had and he said about 95lb ish. I estimated that I had about 80lb ish. The scales will tell.
They started the weigh in from peg 13, he put about 50lb on the scales. Frontrow Harrison had 47lb odd. Pegs 15 and 16 had 50 - 60lb ish. Now came the interesting part. Pete's first weigh went 42lb odd, his second net went 55lb for a total of 97lb odd. My first weigh went 41lb odd. I lifted my 2nd net out, this was going to be close. I watched the scales go round, past 30lb, past 40lb, past 45lb, and onto 52lb odd. I weighed in 93lb 2oz. I was pleasantly surprised. Talking donkey had 60lb of ide and carp. Stonner's 2 weighs went 73lb odd. Rob Hitchens did not weigh. Shrek Thompson weighed in 63lb ish. Les Peace weighed in 83lb odd and last to weigh was Ian Heywood, he plonked 70lb on the scales. I had come second. I was very happy with that result. I would estimate that I had about 115 carp, ide and skimmers. It had been quite a busy day.
Result
1. Pete Gosney - 97lb odd, peg 17
2. Mike Herrington - 93lb odd, peg 18
3. Les Peace - 83lb odd, peg 11 (ish)
4. Andy Stonner - 73lb odd, peg 1
5. S Sissons (?) - 70lb odd.
The pegs are quite tight, but as you can see from the weights above and the match a couple of weeks ago, THE LAKES ARE FULL OF FISH.
Tightlines for now.
Thanks for reading.
Big Pellet.
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