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Monday, May 27, 2013

Double Header This Weekend - Lindholme - Oasis and Barnburgh - Middle Lake

Lindholme - Oasis Lake

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.

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.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Maple Lake, The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk

Maple Lake, The Oaks, Thirsk

The next match in Robin Hood A.C.'s calendar was to take place on Maple Lake at The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk.

As I was en-route with Frontrow, I said that 40lb would win today and 20lb would be a good weight.  How far out in my guesstimation, would I be?  This was based on an estimation following the Fishomania qualifier held last week at the venue.

As we were driving past the weather sock at Dishforth, I said to Frontrow 'Look, no wind'.  To which he replied 'Let me just check'.  At this point, he licked his finger, lowered the car window and stuck his finger out of the car and said 'Mick, it is windy, very windy, about 80mph winds'.  THE PLUM!!!

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago when I was pegged next to Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead a pound side bet was struck and I had to dig deep into my pockets to give him one of my well earned pounds.  When I arrived today, Lurch came up to me and said, 'Mick, shall we have a pound, no, why not make it two pounds?'. I said 'Yeah, why not'.  The side bet was struck, there was a lot to play for.

In addition, you may have read previously that Lurchio was having one or two problems with his landing net. Whilst waiting for the draw, Frontrow shouted him over and said to Lurchio that he had just signed for a parcel from UPS and it was addressed to Lurchio.  When he opened it, he found that he had received a new landing net....

Chris 'Lurchio' Moorheads new landing net.

The Draw

We had pegs 1 - 27 and there were 22 on the match, so there would not be many empty pegs.  I wanted to draw between pegs 1 - 10 and did not want to be on the long straight (pegs 11 - 23).  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 22.  CRAP!!!  On Peg 21, I had Gary Jowitt.  Peg 23 was empty (that was a bonus), Paul 'Woofer' Clough was on peg 24, Frank Crook Brook was on peg 25 and Alan 'What did you catch that on?' Hunter was end peg 26.  There was another club match on the lake and they started around peg 29.

The Peg

14m across to the island.

The Margin swim - Peg 23's platform at 10m - Woofer on peg 24 didn't have just one aerator to fish to, he had two!!
The Rigs

I set up 4 rigs today...

Rig 1 - 4 x 10 Bauja float on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook.  The rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic   This rig was set up to fish shallow, if the fish decide to come up in the water.

Rig 2 - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 B911 eyed hook with a hair-rigged bait-band.  I plumped up across to the island to the right of the peg, under the tree and found that I had about 12 - 18".  This was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.

Rig 3 - 4 x 10 Bauja on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Trabucco T1 hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up across to find that I had 12" depth between the sedges.  This rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic.

Rig 4 - .3g Garbolino DC6 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up to the next platform and found that I had about 3ft of depth.  This rig was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.  As I was plumbing up, Woofer was guiding me so that I do not fish past the platform.  'Left a bit, back a bit, back a bit more, keep going'.  If I had left it to Woofer, I would have been fishing to the platform to my left, not right.  Back a bit, my backside.  He wanted all of the corner to himself. LOL.

Top Rig - 4 x 10 Bauja
Middle Top - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp
Middle Bottom - 4 x 10 Bauja
Bottom - .3g DC6
 Bait

For bait today, I had 1/2 tin of 8mm cubed meat, 1.5 tins of 6mm cubed meat, 6mm Bait-tech expander pellets, 2mm micro pellets, 6mm hard pellets, 2pts of mixed red and white maggots and some Sonu Baits groundbait.


All In

At the all in, I got rig 2 and baited up with a piece of meat, and put 6-8 pcs of 6mm meat in a toss-pot with a splash of groundbait and shipped out to the right of the peg across to the island under the tree.  I must of waited for all of 1 minute, the float dipped, shot under and 10ft of white hydro elastic was trying to get out of the pole.  I pulled back some of the white hydro via my side pulla kit, and after a couple of attempts, I managed to get the fish in the net.  It was about 7lb.  :-)

The first fish of the day for your truly.
Over the next hour I managed to not catch anything else.  It was going to be one of them days.  I had swapped between baits and lines and I could not even get a little dip on the float.  I put a 6mm expander pellet on Rig 3 with some micro pellets in a tosspot, shipped out to the island, dropped the rig in and waited. Some 5 minutes later, the float dipped, shot under and the fish ran towards me.  I shipped back as fast as I could and managed to catch up with the fish.  I got it under control and netted the fish.  It was a mirror about 4lb.

I re-baited and shipped back out and waited and waited and waited.  Nothing. Zilch, Zip, Nada.

I put a piece of meat on Rig 4 and put a few bits of meat and groundbait in a tosspot and shipped out down the edge to the next platform.  I lowered the rig in and waited.  A couple of minutes later, the float went under and I struck.  1ft of green 13h elastic came out and an F1 about 12oz was soon in the net.  No more bites came on this line for now.

I proceeded to swap lines, trying (being the definitive word) to sneak a fish off each line.  I tried maggot and caught a roach and lost a carp.  I tried hard pellet and caught 1 carp and pulled out of a skimmer.  I tried expander and caught a gudgeon and a carp.  I tried meat and caught a couple of barbel and a couple of carp.

Lurch had taken a visitor with him as the visitor had not fished for a while and wanted to see how to catch fish, so sat with Lurch.  After a couple of hours, Lurch as sent the visitor on a recce to see how I was doing. As the visitor stood behind me, watching, I caught a little carp about 1lb, I told him to tell Lurch that I had not caught anything.  There was pride, honour and £2.00 at stake.  It was serious.

At one point during the match, a car went past on the lakes on the main road and some young ASBO shouted out of the car window 'You F......g Wa......r' to which I asked Woofer if they were his friends. :-!

That was it.  The match was over.  I had 2 barbel, 1 roach and about 1doz carp and was not sure what I had weight wise. I thought that I had about 22/23lb ish.

Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was on peg 1 and weighed in 19lb odd. Frontrow was on peg 2 and had 20lb odd. Paul 'Pid' Farley was on peg 3 and I am not sure if he did not weigh.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson was on peg 4 and DNW'd.  Peg 5 (Charlie Colefax) DNW'd.  It had fished hard.  Dave 'Mr Soft' Horsfall, put 22lb odd on the scales from peg 10.  Lurchio was next to weigh from peg 12 on the straight.  He wasn't there!! Where had he gone with my 2 quid???  Apparently he had gone about an hour ago as he had blanked.  Where was my 2 quid?? Relief, he had given my £2 to Dave Webster.  It is obvious that he had gone as he didn't want to hang about to get some well deserved abuse due to blanking.  I wonder how much his visitor had learned today.  Hehe.  Michelle put 4lb odd on the scales, maybe next time she will have £2 with Lurch as he is easy money :-).  There were a few empty nets up the long straight until it got to Ian 'Sooty' Waddell on peg 19, he put 24lb odd on the scales and was winning it.

Gary put 13lb odd on the scales.  Now it was my turn.  I lifted my net out, put the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round to.....

21lb odd. damn.  I was now in 3rd place with three more anglers to weigh.  Woofer put 15lb on the scales, Frank tipped back and Alan weighed in about 13lb odd.

I had managed to come 3rd and my predictions were not a million miles out as although 40lb did not win, I did say that 20lb would be a good weight.

The Results

1. Ian Waddell (Peg 19) - 24lb odd
2.  Dave Horsfall (Peg 10) - 22lb odd
3. Mick Herrington (Peg 23) - 21lb odd
4. Daz Harrison (Peg 2) - 20lb odd
5. Barry Hunter (Peg 1) - 19lb odd.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.  There is always next week.

Tightlines.

Mick




Saturday, May 18, 2013

Catfish

A few months ago, I helped to net a friends garden pond and we found this....


He put in 6 of them many years ago and this was the only one left (or that we could find).

The funny thing was, when we fished matches on his pond, you always struggled to catch roach and skimmers........ I must have moved about 30 large Sensas buckets full of roach between 1oz - 4oz and skimmers up to 8oz.  It is amazing what some people have in their garden ponds.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Barnburgh Lakes, Doncaster

I was supposed to be on a club match with Robin Hood AC at Hayfield Lakes, Doncaster and for one reason or another Frontrow and I decided to go and fish the open match at Barnburgh Lakes

I had heard good results for the place, last week Les 'War & Peace' Peace had won the match with 230lb+.  One-time Oaks Lakes regular Andy 'Rosie and Jim' Stonner had 113lb for about 7th in the match.

As I had not seed the place before, I rang Rosie and Jim and had a natter and got some ideas of what I needed to do.  Fish shallow at 11-13 with 4mm pellet.  One lad last week had 130lb+ on worm and caster.

I spoke to Frontrow and he opted to fish worm and caster and I was going to pellet it.

We arrived for about 8.30.  Following the venue rules, we dipped our nets and left them to dry whilst we had a quick look at the complex.

There are 3 lakes in total with about 80/85 pegs in total split across the 3 lakes.  The lakes are Top, Middle or Bottom - a bit like that game show 'Strike it Rich - where do you want to go, Top, Middle or Bottom'.

We were on Bottom Lake.  The pegs looked a bit tight and close to each other, but the venue was clean and fresh looking.  The lake was rectangle in shape and there was a central island about 14m away.

The Draw

I didn't know where I wanted to be.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 23 and Frontrow drew peg 8.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had War and Peace on end peg 25, Howard (? - don't know his surname) was on peg 24, 22 was empty and Mick Owen was on peg 21 to my right.  Rosie and Jim was on peg about peg 17.

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Shallow 1- was a .1g Garbolino DC2 with a .12 baitbanded hooklength, set about 1ft deep and I tied this to a double 5 Preston Slip elastic.

Shallow 2 - was a .2g Garbolino DC 2 also with a .12 baitbanded hooklength set about 2ft deep and this was attached to a hollow Drennan green elastic.

Margin rig - was a .2g Sensas Powerpencil float with a .12 hooklength.  This was attached to green Preston 13h elastic. I plumbed up and found that I had about 2.5-3ft down the edge.  This was the depth at the next platform - which was top 4 kit away (I said it was close!!!)

(Apparently the lake is about 7ft deep down the middle).

Bait

For bait, I bought a bag of the venues own 4mm sinking pellets.  I also had some Dynamite Baits 4mm and 6mm sinking pellets for the baitband and about 2pts of 6mm cubed meat.

That's it, I was ready.

Time - to start

At the start of the match, I baited up shallow rig 2 with a 4mm pellet, shipped out, pinged about 6/8 4mm pellets out over the top of the float waited all of 15 seconds before the float shot under and I caught an F1 about 6oz.  I repeated the process and managed to catch 5 fish in quick succession, then the fish seemed to disappear.  I then started to get liners, so I baited up the .1g rig and dropped that in.  I twirled the rig a couple of times, slapped it in and caught another fish.

I was now about 1hr into the match and had about 25 little f1's, the biggest being about 12oz.  Mick Owen was emptying it to my right, Howard was struggling as was War and Peace.

As I seemed to be doing okay, I decided to continue to fish shallow.  Howard kept trying across to the island and was snaring one or two fish but seemed to be waiting for bites.

I persevered with fishing shallow for the next few hours.  The fish seemed to be coming in two's and three's, catch a couple then nothing, put on the deep rig, catch a couple then nothing.  Throughout the duration of the match, I was flicking a few bits of meat down the edge.

I realised that although I was catching a couple of fish now and again, I was getting beat by Mick and now War and Peace was catching a few as was Rose and Jim and Pete on peg 15/16 ish.

Last Two Hours


I decided to go down the edge.

I baited up with a piece of meat, dropped in and waited.  I didn't have to wait long. The float dipped, went sideways, then shot under.  An f1 about 12oz was soon in the net.

I re-baited and dropped in again, the elastic was ripped out of the pole tip.  Another f1 was soon subdued.  I then fished down the edge for the last part of the match.

That was it.  The match was over.  How had I done???, I knew that Mick Owen had caught and Les 'War and Peace' Peace started catching late on.  Rose and Jim had caught a few down the edge.  When I looked up everyone around the lake seemed to be catching fish.  I thought that I might have about 90-100lb.

The scales arrived at peg 1 and he plonked about 64lb on the scales.  By the time that the scales had arrived at Frontrow's peg, 80 odd pounds was winning.  I walked round to Frontrow and asked how he had got on, he said that he had about 40lb.  Frontrow uses a clicker to count his fish - which due to his short memory span (I am sure that it is shorter than that of fish), he said that after 10 fish, he got sick of pressing it and binned it.  I suggested to him that the springs had gone haywire and the clicker had exploded.  The scales will tell.  He tipped his first net and had 32lb, his second net wen 38lb for a total weight of 70lb - the lying bar steward.  The scales arrived at the bottom bank and 96lb was winning by this point.  James Burke plonked 117lb on the scales - the new leader.  Pete Gosney had about eleventyseventysix weighs and plonked 178lb on the scales.  Rose and Jim was next and weighed in 122lb.  The first peg to weigh on my bank dropped a mid-ninety on the scales.  Mick weighed in his first net and put 52lb on the scales, his 2nd net needed two weighs and went 85lb for a total weight of 137lb.

As I had been walking around, I had seen the typical stamp of fish being weighed in.  There seemed to be two sizes primarily - 4 - 6oz and 8 - 12oz.  I was starting to 2nd guess my weight an started to think that I had about 80lb.  There seemed to be lots of fish caught and I honestly did not think that I had caught that many fish - although I had been steadily away all day to the extent that I did not get off my box to have a pee (mental note made to self, next I go to Barnburgh Lakes, take a catheter bag with me).

I lifted my first net out and dropped 47lb on the scales.  I had been splitting my fish pretty much evenly or so I thought, so that would give me a 94lb weight.  I lifted my 2nd net out and there were a few more fish in this one.  The needle spun round and ended up at 58lb for a combined weight of 105lb.  I was well happy with that.  Howard plonked 45lb on the scales.  Last to weigh was 'War and Peace', he had two nets and weighed in about 45lb and 51lb for a 96lb total weight.  I had come fifth.  Very, very happy with that.


Full Result.

1st Pete Gosney - 178lb
2nd Mick Owen - 137lb
3rd Andy Stoner - 122lb
4th James Burke - 117lb
5th Mick Herrington - 105lb

After speaking to Rosie and Jim post-match, he informed me that I was in the small fish pegs as they hang around between pegs 22 and 25.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Nice bunch of lads.  Good fishing, plenty of bites and a really nice day out.

'Til next week, tightlines.

Big Pellet.


Tuesday, May 07, 2013

8967

8967

Wholesea Grange - Pond 2

A couple of new recruits joined Robin Hood AC today.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson and his side-kick Stuart 'Talking Donkey' Waterhouse.

Lurch, Tattoo, Shrek, Talking Donkey and I all met up for a breakfast, then as they had not been before, we all set off in convoy with yours truly leading the way to Wholesea Grange Fishery.

I have fished pond 2 twice before over recent years.  The first time, I drew peg 3 and won the section with 5lb (47lb won) and last year I was in peg 11 or 12 and weighed in 33lb odd for 4th.

Before the start of the match I was saying that I did not want to be low numbers (1-5) or high (30-35) as usually the weights come from the other part of the lake.

Paul 'Woofer' Clough was running the match today and asked me if I could peg the lake.  There were 20 of us on the match.  As I was pegging out, I got to pegs 3 and 4, there were carp and ide crashing everywhere in the lillies and reeds that were in the peg.

Within our entry fee, we chip a £1 into a raffle to raise a few extra quid for the club.  New recruit, Shrek Thompson won the raffle and in addition, the winner of the raffle always gets to draw first.  He is a lucky so and so. He put his hand in the draw-bag first and ended up with peg 7 stuck to his fingers.  The rush was then on to draw.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 3.  BAUBLES!!!.  Tattoo Harrison was on peg 31, I was not sure where Talking Donkey or Lurch had drawn.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had  Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter to my right on peg 1, peg 2 was empty and Lurchio (wasn't he a character played by Frankie 'oooo errrrrr' Howard in Up Pompeii??) Moorhead to my left on peg 4.

The Peg

Peg 3 had a tree to my right that had branches touching the water and looked very fishy.  I had some lily pads at 16m at about 11 o'clock and a smaller patch of lily pads to my right at about 2 o'clock.  There was a gap between two islands at about 23/24m away.


The Rigs

I set up a method rod and given that the fish were crashing and rolling at the back of some lily pads near to the reeds, the GURU Drag line was going to get severely tested today.

I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:

Rig 1 was the margin rig under the tree.  This compromised a .2g Sensas Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline hooklength with a size 14 hook.  I plumbed up and had 2.5ft.  This rig was tied to some Middy Whopper Stopper hollow elastic.

Rig 2 was a rig set up to fish in open water at 11m and was a .3g Preston Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .11 Preston Powerline Hooklength and size 16 hook attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic.  On this line I had approx 4ft depth.

Rigs 3 and 4 were Cralusso floats set up on .17 Powerline to .15 Powerline hooklengths.  One was set to fish to the lily pads to the right where I had about 2ft and the other was set up to fish to the lily pads to my left where it was about 2.5ft.  Both of these rigs were attached to Preston 15h hollow elastic.

Bait

For bait i had 1pt maggots, 2 pts casters, 1pt 4mm expanders, some 6mm hard pellets (for the method), some 8mm hard pellets (for the method), some micro's with a dusting of Sonubaits green supercrush groundbait and 1kg of worm.  Basically it was going to be worm for ide or pellet for carp.


Due to having Lurchio to my left, I struck up a quid side bet.  Lurchio said to me 'Hey Mick, were you bullied by everyone at school?'.  I replied ' Not by everyone, just by big dumb ugly people like you' or words to that effect.

The Match

At the start of the match, I fed a pot of pellet and corn to my right under the bush.  I put a 6mm hard pellet on the baitband, loaded up the method and lauched it towards the island where the fish were crashing. I put the rod down and started to take up the slack line and whoooosshh!! fish on.  15 seconds later I was snagged in some lillies and the fish was gone.  1 - 0 to the fish.  At least there was some fish there.

I did the same again and re-cast.  Whooosh, fish on.  About 10 seconds later, I was snagged and had to pull for a break and ended up straightening a Preston C1 method hook. 2 - 0 to the fish.  I rebaited and cast slightly off to one side, trying to find a clean spot.  I managed to get this one out. It was a carp about 2lb. 2 - 1 now to the fish.  Over the next hour, I proceeded to plug away with the method and the score after the first hour was 7 - 4 to the fish.  I had by now put on a .21 Preston Powerline hooklength with a baitband to a size 14 Kamasan Animal hook.  The fish had stopped crashing now.  I wonder if the method had spooked them.

I swapped over to the pole and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet, shipped it out to 16m to the lily's to the right, the float settled, dipped a little, went to the left, then shot under.  A carp of about 1.5lb was soon subdued and was in the keepnet.  I re-baited and dropped back in the same spot.  The float dipped, shot under and a gudgeon was soon in the net.  It didn't have much of a fight on yellow Preston 17h elastic. LOL.

I went back out and caught a couple of roach and another gudgeon, so I put in a pot of pellets and corn and switched to fish under the tree.

I baited up with a 6mm expander and dropped it under the tree.  The float dipped, I struck.  About 2 yards of Middy elastic came out, then shot back into the pole and a barbel about 12oz was soon in the net.  I dropped in again and pricked a carp.

The fish were back crashing about on the method line, so I went back onto the method rod.  The only way that I was having a fighting chance with getting the carp out was to strike, get the rod high and do not give an inch.  The fish were only about 1lb - 2lb, but if they got 1ft of line back, they were straight in the reeds and lilys.

Over the next couple of hours, I swapped between my lines and had managed to snare about 15 little carp, and I had lost about a dozen.

With about 1.5hr to go, I baited up the margin rig with a pellet and went down the edge under the tree.  I waited about 5 mins, the float shot under and the elastic was doing it's best to get out of the pole.  I landed the carp, it was the biggest one yet at about 4lb.  I managed to get another 3 carp, before that line went quite.

I went out to the clump of lilys at 16m at 11 o'clock with a pellet on the hook.  I lowered the bait in, and waited. a couple of minutes later, the float dipped, I struck and a carp was soon in....... the lily's.

I managed to get another couple of fish from the 16m lines and down the edge and that was it, the match was over, how had I faired?  I could see that Lurch had caught a few, and Barry had been splashing about all day.  Front-row was starting to get a few at the end of the match.  Reports were coming back that Macca had emptied it and lost about 100lb also.

I was 2nd to weigh, Barry weighed in 47lb 4oz.  I put 47lb 10oz on the scales.  Lurch weighed in just over 70lb made up of about 40lb of ide and 30lb of carp.  He had also lost a few carp. Shrek Thompson weighed 53lb ish, then there was a mid 50 by Ray Dix who had apparently fished top 2 + 2 all day.  The scales arrived at Macca's peg and Lurch was leading with 70lb followed by Craig with 69lb.  Two weighs later and Macca had 77lb odd.  Woofer Clough was next to weigh and upon lifting his net out, this was going to be close.  He plonked 76lb on the scales.  There were a couple more 30 - 45lb weighed in.  Front-row weighed in 37lb, most of which had been caught on a whip and last to weigh was Paul Wilson who plonked 60lb odd on the scales.

When we last fished this lake, the weights were primarily made up of ide, ide and more ide.  Where the flip had all the carp come from?!

Just about everyone in attendance had thoroughly enjoyed today.  Everyone had had plenty of bites and although there were a couple of DNW's, the lowest weight weighed in was about 30/35lb ish.  The average weight was just over 50lb.  I really enjoyed it today as did a few others.

The GURU line had stood up to the test today, I had lost two or three hooklengths, but I had not lost any method feeders.

Lurchio never stopped twittering and yacking all day.  Maybe I should rename him 'Talking Donkey' instead.

The result:
1. John 'Macca' McCall - 77lb odd
2. Paul 'Woofer' Clough - 76lb odd
3. Chris 'Talking Donkey' Moorhead - 70lb odd
4. Craig McKenny - 69lb odd
5. Paul Wilson - 60lb odd

Well done all.  Great days fishing, nice weather, good banter and a few fish too.