Barnburgh - Bottom Lake

The club (Robin Hood AC) were booked on a match at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk on Curlew Lake.  The lake is a 24 peg lake and there were 23 booked on the match and the lake cannot really handle that many anglers on it, so Frontrow and I decided to book on at Barnburgh as it was on the bottom lake.  On our last venture here Frontrow had 70lb for nowhere, I had had 105lb for 5th in the match.  I was hoping for similar today.

At the draw, there were 4 jackpot pegs pulled out, the numbers being pegs 1, 6, 17 and 25.  Andy Stonner pulled out peg 6, Rob 'Zebedee' Hitchens drew peg 2, Mick Owen was on peg 7, Frontrow was on peg 10, Les 'War and Peace was on peg 15.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 1.  One of the jackpot pegs.  Hmmmm!!!

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig 1 - was a .2g Frenzee FD200 float on .15 Preston Powerline with a 4" .12 Trabucco T1 hooklength with a size 18 hook and baitband.  This was attached to Preston 11h red elastic.  I set this rig to fish about 18" deep.

Rig 2 - Was a Ian Heywood 'Jigga' float.  This was also attached to .15 Preston Powerline with a 4" .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength to a size 18 hook and baitband.  Again this was also attached to Preston 11h red elastic. - What is a Jigga??  A jigga is a free running float that is locked above and below the float by a float stop.  Underneath the bottom float stop you put on some shot.  The idea being that you ship out, drop the rig in and then lift and drop the shot and bait whilst the float stays in the water.  Today will be the 2nd day that I have used one of these floats.  This was set to fish between 8" and 18" deep (allowing for 12" of lifting and dropping).

Rig 3 - was my margin rig.  This consisted of a .4g Sensas Powerpencil float set up on .15 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength and a size 16 hook.  This rig was attached to Preston 13h green elastic.  I plumbed up down the edge and found that I had about 3 - 3.5ft deep - too deep to be honest.

Both of the shallow rigs were set up to fish about 11m and the margin rig was set up to fish on top 2.

Before the start of the match, I slapped the Frenzee FD200 rig a couple of times next to my keepnet on the top two, just to get an indication of how the float was going to sit in the water.  The float shot under and F1 carp No 1 was in the net. LOL.  Only joking, this one was a catch and release.  It was solid. LOL.

Bait

For bait, I had 1 bag of the venues own 4mm pellets, some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets, some Bait-Tech 4mm hard pellets and some meat.

I observed Zebedee Hitchens and he set up 2 rigs, both of which were to fish paste in the margins.

The Match

At the start of the match, I picked up rig 1 and baited up with a hard 4mm pellet, shipped out to 11m, flicked a few 4mm pellets over the top, and..... fish on.  All this within 30 seconds.  F1 carp number 1 in the net.  Can we please shout time now.  :-)

I continued to catch fish, quite frequently for the next 40/45 minutes at 11m using the Frenzee rig.  All the while, I was flicking a few pellets and a couple of bits of meat to my right on the top 2 line.

Zebedee asked me how many fish did I have.  I replied that I did not know and how many of you got, he said that he had 39 fish.  I said that I did not think that I was that far behind him. I needed to up my fish rate. I swapped over to rig 2, the Jigga.  I baited up with a 4mm hard pellet again.  Shipped out to 11m, slapped the rig in a couple of times, then let the pellet 'fall' through the float. The elastic shot out and another F1 carp was soon in the net.

The fish seemed to be coming in spells, you caught 3 or 4, then they disappeared, then you caught again.

I was now about 1.5 hours into the match and I could see Rob catching steadily from the margins.  I decided it was time to now have a look on the top 2.

I baited up the margin rig with a 6mm cube of meat.  Dropped in on the top 2, the float dipped, then shot under.  The carp was soon subdued on the green 13h elastic.  I then dropped in again, and got a few liners before the float went under.  Nothing, missed it.  I re-baited, dropped in again and the float shot under.  Nothing.  I proceeded in this manner for the next 30 mins or so.  During this time, I would estimate that I had managed to get about 6 or 7 carp.  Rob had about 20 in the same period of time.

I decided to go back shallow again as I was not catching anywhere near fast enough down the edge.

Over the next couple of hours, I swapped between the jigga rig (when working the bait) and the shallow Frenzee rig when letting the bait settle.

I tried a 6mm pellet as these will stay in the band longer and are easier to put in a band (OMG trying to band a 4mm pellet with wet hands and no nails is nigh on impossible) but they would not take a 6mm, as you can guess by the stamp of the fish. 

After about 3.5 hours, Rob asked me how many fish I had, I said that I did not know.  I asked if he knew how many he had and he replied that he was bored of counting.

I then proceeded to swap between the two rigs until the end of the match.  Someone said that Les 'War and Peace' superglued his pellets to his hook, then varnished them to make them stay on longer.  Another angler said the he used porcelain pellets.  Never mind war and peace, maybe have to rename him Team Tiles R Us.

That was it, the match was over.  I had caught a few.  Frontrow came round to me as he was putting his gear in my car and asked how I had got on.  I said that I had more than 100lb, I think!!?  Thing is, when you are catching big numbers of small carp, you do not know what sort of weight you have got.

Weights

Seeing as I was on peg 1, I was first to weigh.  I lifted my first net out and put it on the scales and it went 66lb 15oz. The scalesman then realised that they had not deducted the weight of the weigh-sling, they deducted 1lb 11oz, so my first weigh was 65lb 4oz.  I lifted my 2nd net out (well tried to as Frontrow had to give me a hand), and after two weighs the 2nd net went 97lb 2oz for a total weight of 162lb 4oz.  I had set the bar quite high. Oh and I was in first place (at the moment) LOL.

But not for long.  After Rob's 3 weighs, he had 173lb 3oz - all on paste on his top 2.  Then there were a few weights between 40 - 70lb by the time that the scales had got to Stonner.  He had 4 weighs and his total weight went 164lb 4oz, pushing me into 3rd place.  Mick Owen put 159lb odd on the scales.  Frontrow weigh in 69lb 12oz.  Everyone had said that Ian 'Jigga' Heywood had caught a lot of fish.  After 3 weighs he had 130lb 1oz.  There were then weights of 129lb, 131lb, 136lb, 109lb and quite a few weights between 70 and 100lb.

I had come 3rd.  Had I done a couple of things different, I feel that I could have won the match or at least been 2nd.  I estimate, that I had in the region of 210/220 F1 carp.

Result

1. Rob Hitchens - 173lb 3oz
2. Andy Stonner - 164lb 4oz
3. Mick Herrington - 162lb 4oz
4. Mick Owen - 159lb odd.
5. ??? - 136lb odd.

What a venue, 162lb for 3rd in the match.  I was totally cream crackered.  When the match finished, I stopped and ate a red 'Bounty' for sustenance LOL.

I rang up a couple of lads who went on the match to Woodlands, Mark Wright won it with 50 odd pound, a couple of forties and most seemed to struggle for carp.

Looks like I made the right choice.

Until next week.  Tightlines.

Big Pellet.