Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk

The next round in our club match saw us at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.

The usual suspects were booked on, Lurch Moorhead, Frontrow, Charlie Filofax, Barry 'Alaaan, do you want a sandwich' Hunter, Dumptruck Aveyard were all booked on.  Maybe I will get the £1.50 that Lurch owes me after packing up early last week.

By the time of the draw, there were 20 of us booked on (Lurch did not arrive - I will have to send Dumptruck and Frontrow round for my £1.50), therefore 10 anglers on each bank.  The general rule of thumb is that you want to be from about peg 12 - 25 which are all at the bottom end of the lake.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 8.  I was quite happy with that.  I have won a club match from this peg before.

Dave Horsfall was on peg 1, Dave 'Penfold' Webster was on peg 19 in the corner, Paul 'Pid' Farley was smiling for once (he wasn't later on LOL) as he had drawn sock on, peg 23.  I had Eric the Viking at the side of me on peg 6 and Frank 'Crook' Brook on peg 12 to my right.  Frontrow and Dumptruck were opposite me on pegs 27 & 29 and Paul 'Woofer' Clough was on peg 31.

Rigs

Rig 1 was a Ian Heywood Jigga rig, set to fish between 6" - 12" deep.  I put on a .12 hooklength with a baitband on a hair.

Rig 2 was a .1g Frenzee FD200 float set to fish about 12" deep.  This had on a .13 baitbanded hooklength.

Rig 3 was a .2g Frenzee FD200 float set to fish about 2ft deep.  This also had on a .13 baitbanded hooklength.

All of the above rigs were attached to Green Preston 13h hollow elastic set soft on pulla kits.

I also set up a margin rig, which was a .2g Cralusso float.  This had on a .17 mainline with a .16 hooklength and a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.  I plumbed up to the next platform and found that I had about 2-2.5ft deep. I attached this to yellow Preston 17h elastic set soft on a pulla kit.

I also set up a 9ft method rod to fish down the margin and also to the middle of the lake.

Bait

For bait today, I had some hard 11mm pellets (Method hookbait only), 8mm pellets (for feeding to the middle of the lake), 6mm pellets (for feeding at 14.5m shallow), a bag of Sensas Crazybait Gold and micros for the method.  I also had some of the Sonubaits 'Band Ums' in White Chocolate and Yellow Pineapple and a large tin of corn.

That it.  I was ready.

TTTTIMMMMMEEE.

That's it. we were underway.  I baited up the margin rig with double corn and shipped out to 6m down the edge and waited.  Whilst I was waiting I was catapulting a few 6mm pellets out to 14.5m in front of me.  There was a slight breeze blowing from left to right.

After a fruitless 20 minutes or so down the edge, I had not had an indication whatsoever, so I decided it was time to go shallow.

I baited up the .2g Frenzee float with an 8mm pellet and shipped out to 14.5m.  I dropped the rig in and catapulted a few 6mm pellets around the float.  The float dipped and swirled.  They were there.  The float shot under and the elastic shot off to the middle of the lake.  I started to ship back slowly and the hook pulled out.  Probably foul-hooked.  I dropped back in again.  The same thing happened.

I decided to change over to the jigga rig.  I baited up with an 8mm pellet and dropped that in and started to work the pellet up and down whilst loose feeding 6mm pellets over the top.  The float went under and I shipped back slowly.  My first carp about 5lb was soon in the net.  I shipped back out and caught another.  I then had to wait about 15/20 mins for my next fish or two.

About 1.5hours into the match, I had 8 carp for about 35lb or so.  I could see the odd fish coming out around the lake.  From peg 8 you can see all of the opposite bank and down to the corner peg 19 on my bank, but could not see the low numbers on my bank.  I would estimate that I was just in the lead.  Woofer opposite me was starting to string a couple of fish together on bomb and pellet and Penfold Webster in the corner was getting one or two fish.  Pid hooked into a big carp that he said was about 20lb and got it into his landing net,  and as he was shipping back, it came back out of his net and broke him. PHEW!!!. >:-)

I proceeded to fish shallow with the jigga rig at 14.5m and continued to catch a couple of fish before they spooked again.

About halfway through the match, Dumptruck was applying suncream to his arms.  I shouted over to him 'Hey Mick, what is that suncream, is it Piz Buin or Adonis Bronzer?  No it is not is it.  It is lard!!!'

It was also about this point that I told woofer to put his 2nd net in as I estimated that he was getting close to 50lb+ and was pushing me for the lead from what I could see.

I had been catapulting a few 8mm pellets out to the middle of the lake all the while.  I decided to see if they were queueing up out there.  I baited up the method rod with an 11mm pellet and cast out to the middle of the lake.  As I was slowly pulling on the line to sink it, the rod tip shot round and my first carp of the day on the method was soon in the net.  They are there....or so I thought.

Some 5 chucks and 20 minutes later, I had not added to my tally.

I decided to go back shallow again and managed to catch another fish.

Going into the last hour, I estimate that I had about 18 fish for about 75/80lb ish.  I never had another fish going into the last hour.  I tried shallow again, method down the edge, corn to the next peg, nothing.  Nothing seemed to work.  I could see that Penfold Webster was getting the odd fish down the boards on the end peg.

TTTIIMMEEE. That was it match over.  Had I done enough?

The scales arrived and Dave Horsfall was leading from peg 1 with 39lb odd.  Eric weighed in about 25lb ish.

I put my first net on the scales and weighed in 34lb odd.  This was my small net.  I lifted out my 2nd net and tipped it all in, it bottomed out 52lb scales.  I took 3 fish out and weighed the rest.  They went 45lb odd.  My last 3 fish went 11lb odd for a total of 90lb 12oz.  I was the new leader.  Crook on the next peg DNW'd.  Charlie Filofax put 43lb on the scales and was chuffed to bits.  Michelle was on the first leg of her knockout and put 8lb on the scales.  Penfold was next to weigh and was admitting to 13 big fish.  After a couple of weighs he had a total of 73lb odd, putting him into 2nd place.  The scales arrived on the opposite bank and there were a couple of DNW's.  Pid had 2 weighs for a total of 69lb odd (thank good that big munter came off).  There were a few weights between 20 - 40lb.  We then arrived at Woofer's peg.  He lifted out his 2nd net and put 24lb on the scales.  It all depended on how much he had in his first net.  He lifted it out and I knew that I had won.  His 2nd net went 47lb for a total of 71lb.

Result

1.  Mick Herrington - Peg 8 - 90lb 12oz
2. Dave Webster - Peg 19 - 73lb odd
3. Paul Clough - Peg 31 - 71lb odd
4. Paul Farley - Peg 23 - 69lb odd

TIghtlines until next week.