Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk - Wagtail Lake

This week Robin Hood AC were at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk on one of the back lakes - Wagtail Lake.  Wagtail Lake is a rectangle lake about 50 - 60m wide and is pegged 10 pegs on each bank.

It was all to play for today between Paul 'Woofer' Clough and I as we were fishing the 2nd leg of our knockout competition for a place in the final.  I had a 6/7lb advantage over Woofer. Bring it on.

Dave Horsfall and Mark Wright were also fishing the 2nd leg of the knockout and Dave had a 20lb advantage over Wrighty.

The Draw

I wanted a peg in the middle of the lake as the end pegs tend to be too much of a hit or miss.  I put my hand in the bag and pulled out ....... Peg 19.  That was OK, providing that I had no one to my left on corner peg 20. I checked the peg sheet and Dave Wath had drawn peg 20. Damn.  Woofer was on peg 13, Donkey Waterhouse was on corner peg 11, Macca and Webster had drawn 7 and 8 respectively.  Mark Wright was in corner peg 10 and Michelle Webster was in corner peg 1.  The habitual moaner, 'Pid' was the next angler to my right on peg 17.  There were 14 of us on a 20 peg lake, which considering the moods of the lake, it was too many anglers to be honest.

I have done two prior club matches on this lake and won them both, one from peg 7 and one from peg 19 (when peg 20 was empty).  We will have to see how today goes...!!!

The Peg

As mentioned above, the lake is about 50/60m wide and has not distinguishing features.

Peg 19 - Woodlands Wagtail

The Left hand margin - the pole in the next peg is actually about 7/8m away.

My Right hand margin swim - all 2m of it.

Bait

Today I was going to keep things simple, all I had was some venue 6mm pellets for pinging at 14.5m, some 8mm pellets for the middle of the lake to catapult over the method, some 11mm pellets for the method hookbait and a 50:50 mix of Sonubaits F1 Fishmeal groundbait mixed in with some Sensas Crazybait Gold.  I also had some white chocolate and pineapple Sonubaits Bandums for the baitband.  I also had some 6mm and 8mm BaitTech expander pellets.

Tackle and Rigs

I set up my Shimano Beastmaster CX at 9ft to fish the method feeder.  When fishing the method I like to use the Shimano DL Baitrunners and put the freespool on and wait for the line to peel off.

I then set up the following pole rigs:

A shallow 'Jigga' rig.  This was attached to .15 Preston Powerline mainline with a 4 inch .13 Preston Powerline hooklength.

A standard Frenzee FD200 shallow rig as above.

My margin rig was a .3 Garbolino DC6 float set up on .17 Preston Powerline mainline with a 4 inch .15 Preston Powerline hooklength.

My final rig was for the top 2 + 2 line straight in front of me.  This was a .5g Garbolino float on .17 Preston Powerline straight through.

My Match

At the start of the match, I spent about the first 20 mins fishing short both at top 2 + 2 and also down the margins with double 6mm or single 8mm expander on the hook tryng to snare a margin fish early.  None were forthcoming.  I had about 5 or 6 bites and caught 3 skimmers and a roach.  All the while, I had been pinging 6mm pellets to 14.5m and 8mm pellets to the middle of the lake.

I decided to chuck the 'thod out to the middle of the lake to see if the carp were lining up after my pre-baiting.

After about 30 mins and 7 or 8 chucks, nothing.  I was nearly an hour into the match and no carp yet.

I could see that Wrighty had caught 3 or 4 decent carp and Macca and Webster were getting one or two fish up in the water lifting and dropping their rigs.

I decided to have a look shallow so baited up the jigga rig with an 8mm pellet (basically to deter the silver fish) and went out to 14.5m.  I was feeding 6 - 8 pellets all the while, whilst working the rig up and down in the water.

All of a sudden, the elastic shot out of the pole and the fish carried on going to the middle of the lake, and carried on and on.  I did not know that white hydro elastic could stretch that far LOL.

Eventually, I think the hydro elastic finally decided enough was enough and the fish turned and came back to me. After a 5 - 10min battle, the fish was in the landing net.  It was a mirror carp about 6lb.  I was off and running, although I had a bit to make up on other people.

Michelle opposite me was chucking the method down the edge and was getting the odd fish and had about 4 or 5 fish.  Wathy on the next peg was only catching skimmers and roach on pellet.  It was obvious to both of us that the carp were not here in any numbers.  A club match the day before was won with 150/160 from about peg 7 or something.

I went back shallow again and some 20 minutes later I had not added any more carp to the net.  I went back out on the method feeder and managed to snare a little common carp about 1lb.  I was feeding some pellets to the middle of the lake and could see some fish boil and swirl.

I decided to set up the pellet waggler.  I set the rig to fish about 2ft deep.  On my first cast, the float dipped, I struck into it and the reel started screaming as it shot off to the other side of the lake. Then the hook pulled, probably foul-hooked.

I re-cast about 5 or 6 times, then the float connected with another carp.  I managed to get this one out.  It was a mirror carp about 4lb or so.

Macca and Webster were miles in front and Michelle was still in front.  I was playing catch up and getting nowhere.  I would get a couple of liners/bites on one method, then not another so would have to change to something else.  The fish were spooking everytime you hooked one.

I went back on the shallow pole rig and hooked a fish some 5-10mins later and played it back to the keepnet.  It was about 9 or 10lb with a big broad back.  It kited to my right margin swim, then came back at me and run into the keepnet.  Then the fish was gone and I was attached to the keepnet.  BAUBLES or words to that effect.

I was not a happy teddy bear.

I was now into the last hour or so of the match and had 7 carp for about 28 - 30lb or so.  I decided to have a go down the margins as I could see Macca emptying it from peg 7 in the margins fishing towards peg 6.  Wrighty had not managed to snare many more fish.  I was not aware of what Woofer had caught.  Wathy was now starting to get the odd fish short.

I big potted some groundbait in at 2 +2 and also down my right margin swim.  I baited up the 2 + 2 rig with an 8mm expander pellet and lowered it in.  The float settled, then after a bit of sideways movement, I struck into a ...carp about 7lb.  I dropped in again and foul-hooked one.

Wathy was now attached to a fish that was doing it's best to run through my peg and get diagonally across the lake to Macca's peg.  Some 10 minutes later, he had a fish in his landing net that needed a saddle it was that big and we both estimated it to be best part of 14/15lb.  Why oh why, couldn't I get one like that.  Mine run into the keepnet and shed the hook. :-(

I got my margin rig and dropped in to my right.  The float settled, then shot under and I managed to put another carp about 6lb in the net.  I snared another couple of carp before that was it.  Match over.

I would estimate that I had about 45lb - 50lb or so.  Michelle put 48lb on the scales from peg 1, Charlie Filofax had a good 30 odd pounds from peg 2.  The scales arrived at Macca's peg and after a couple of weighs, he had plonked 108lb on the scales.  Webster put 62lb the scales.  Wrighty had 35lb or so from peg 10.  Donkey was next to weigh and after a couple of weighs, put 78lb on the scales - damn another pound down.  Now it came to the crunch.  I watched expectantly as Woofer pulled his first net out and put 32lb on the scales.  I asked where his 2nd net was.  He didn't have one.  :-)  Stuart Wilson on peg 14 had 59lb and was currently in 4th place.  Dave Horsfall had 45lb odd.  Pid was a DNW.  I was next to weigh.  After 2 weighs I managed to plonk 54lb odd on the scales for 5th overall and Wathy had ended up with 38lb odd.

I had won my end of the lake, but not won any coin. My main objective today had been achieved.  I had beaten Woofer. :-)

Full Result

1.  John McCall (Peg 7) - 108lb
2.  Stuart Waterhouse (Peg 10) - 78lb
3.  Dave Webster (Peg 8) - 62lb
4.  Stuart Wilson (Peg 14) - 59lb
5.  Mike Herrington (Peg 19) 54lb

Thank you for reading...

Tightlines.

Last Week...

The Robin Hood AC were at The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk on Maple Lake again.

On our last visit here the lake fished really hard with 25lb winning followed by 22lb, then me with 20lb.  We will see if it fishes any better today.  At least on this occasion, we had what I would consider to be the better pegs from peg 68 going back to peg 44.  Peg 55 won this years fisho qualifier and peg 63 (old peg 62a) has had 3 fisho qualifiers from it.  Basically the higher the number the better on this lake (excluding pegs 1 - 3).

The Draw

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 48. Big Macca was on peg 54, with 55 empty.  Frontrow Harrison drew peg 63 (old peg 62a), Baz Hunter was on peg 64, Casper Moorhead was on peg 65, Woofer Clough was on peg 66 and Sooty Waddell was on peg 68.  Donkey Waterhouse threw the gauntlet down with the obligatory quid and he drew peg 52.  Alan Hunter was on peg 62.

The Peg

Peg 48 is a peg that is at the start of a bay with the bay going from pegs 48 - 54.  I had Frank Crook on peg 50 to my right and Pid on peg 46 to my left.  I would have preferred to have been on peg 47 (as this peg has a long margin swim) or further into the bay on about 51 or 52.

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

My left and right margin rig was a 4 x 14 Carpa Raisor set to fish as close to the bank as possible, which was about 1m out in 3ft of water.  This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline with a .13 Powerline Hooklength to a size 14 Colmic B501 hook.

I then set up two across rigs, one was to fish in line with a bush on the far bank, after plumbing up, I found that i had about 15-18" of depth.  My other rig was set to fish tight across and due to sedges lying on the water (again), I had about 12-15" of depth.  I used .3g Garbolino DC6 floats on both of these rigs and both had on .12 Gamakatsu hooklengths with Preston Baitbands.

The Bait

For bait I had some of the venue's own micro pellets and some 4mm pellets for feed.  I also had some 6mm BaitTech expander pellets, some Nutrabaits 6mm meaty pellets. Two tins of sweetcorn.

The Match

At the start of the match, I fed some micro's and 4mm pellets across to the sedges, then put on a 6mm expander pellet on my margin rig and lowered it to the left and swim and fed some corn and 4mm pellets.

After a couple of minutes, the float bobbed, then shot under and I was hooked up to my first fish of the day.  About 10 seconds later, it was gone.  I lost it.  I think that it was foul-hooked.

I re-baited and lowered the rig in again. After a couple of minutes, the float lifted slightly and went sideways.  I struck and was connected to....

a crayfish.  Baubles!!!

I fed some bait and went over to the far side to the swim under the tree.  After a couple of minutes, the float buried, I struck and the fish shot off to the left, then the hook pulled.

I rebaited and dropped back into the same swim.  Nothing.  Not a bite or anything.

I swapped rigs and went to the gap between the two sedges straight in front of me as I had seen a couple of fish moving on the mudline.  I dropped in about 12" short of the far bank. - I could not get any closer as the rig was then laying on sedges and did not sit in the water correctly.

After a couple of minutes, the float dipped, then shot under and I was attached to an angry carp.  As I shipped back and took the topkit off the pole, the elastic and line went slack.  Lost another one.  3 fish on and lost every one of them.

Over the duration of the match, I swapped all of the lines to snare the odd fish here and there along with a couple of unwelcome crayfish.

At one point a wasp went into my baitbox full of sweetcorn and I nearly got stung by it as I went to get some corn out, so I ended up squashing it, then another wasp came to me and started attacking me.  It got trapped behind my watch and wrist and managed to sting me (basket or words to that effect), then about another 5 or six came and started flying around me.  If there is one thing I really can't stand are wasps.

I had about 10 - 15lb with about 1 hour to go and spent the remainder of the match fishing the margins to my left and right and managed to snare 5 carp in addition to foul-hooking and losing another 3 or 4 fish.

That was it, match over.  Today had proved to be a very frustrating day with too much depth and too many foul-hooked fish.  I just could not get them to go down.

Casper Moorhead did a runner again with about an hour to go. Now you see me, now you don't.

Eric the Viking was first to weigh from peg 44, then Pid who put 24lb on the scales.  I had one weigh and put 30lb 5oz on the scales to take the lead.  Frank was a DNW, Donkey put 25lb on the scales.  Macca had 2 weighs and manged to put 56lb on the scales.  There were a couple of mid-teens to low twenties weights from 56 - 62.  Frontrow emptied both his nets on the scales and managed to weigh 32lb 10oz to take 2nd place.  Barry Hunter on peg 64 had a low twenty pounds or so.  Woofer had 18lb odd and last Sooty was last to weigh and plonked 31lb 6oz on the scales to take 3rd place, knocking me down to 4th place and a section win.

Full Result:

1.  John McCall (Peg 55), 56lb odd
2.  Daz Harrison (Peg 63) 32lb 10oz
3.  Ian Waddell (Peg 68) 31lb 6oz
4.  Mike Herrington (Peg 48) 30lb 5oz

The last couple of weeks..

Robin Hood AC have had two matches in the last couple of weeks with the first match being at Lindholme Lakes on Oasis Lake.

The club had from peg 1 through to peg 26 and were double pegged then an empty peg.  There was an open match on the remaining pegs and they were pegged with a couple of empty pegs both sides.

Due to making it through to the Semi-Final of the club knockout, I was up against Paul 'Woofer' Clough, which needed to be fished over 2 matches.  We both picked our venues, I was going to have my first leg today at Lindholme Lakes and Woofer selected Woodlands Lakes' Wagtail Lake in a couple of weeks time.

Donkey wasn't here so there no quids to play for.

I put my hand in the bad and pulled out peg 21.  It didn't mean anything to me.  I spoke to resident venue expert, Gregg 'Beanpole' Norris about the peg.  He said that if they are there, you will win the match, if not you will really struggle and that peg 22 is probably the worst peg on the lake.

GREAT!!!

I arrived at my peg to find that I had John 'Macca' McCall to my left on peg 20 and my arch nemesis for the day Woofer to my right on peg 23.  Travelling partner Frontrow Harrison was on about peg 12.  The two Dave's had drawn end pegs 2 (Horsfall) and 26 (Webster).

Before the match even started, I decided to play with fire.  I said to Macca (who is a staunch Leeds United supporter), that it was my youngest son's birthday and that I had got him a new football top.  He replied 'Oh yeah, nice, did he like it?  I replied 'Yes, especially when he saw the Manchester United badge'.  Macca's replies are unprintable.

The weather was warm and sunny with a strong breeze blowing over my shoulders, but also swirling from left to right or right to left.

I set up 3 rigs..

Rig 1 was a 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp for the margin.  This was set up on .17 Preston Powerline mainline with a .15 hooklength and a size 12 Colmic B501 hook.  I had approx 2.5ft of depth in this swim.

Rig 2 was a 4 x 14 Carpa Chimp for fishing across to the front of the sedges.  This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline to a .13 hooklength and a size 14 Colmic hook.  I had approx 18" of depth on this line.

Rig 3 was my mudline swim and was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float that I had adapted and cut down to be a smaller float.  This was mounted straight through on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 14 Colmic hook.  I went as far over to the farside as I could, but was still about 12" short of the mudline due to the sedges laying down on top of the water.

For bait, I had some 6mm BaitTech Expander pellets, some 8mm cubed meat, some corn and about half a bag of Sonubaits F1 Sweet Fishmeal groundbait to which I also added 1 bag of Lindholme Lakes' own micro pellets.

I was ready.

At the all in, I baited up my across swim with meat and put some meat and groundbait in a tosspot.  I went over to the farside and lowered the rig in and waited.

And waited...

And waited.

I re-baited and waited some more.  I could tell that today was not going to happen.

I brought the rig back, swapped from meat to 6mm expander pellet and caught a .....Roach.

I went back out to the farside, the float shot under and I was attached to a large angry carp.  It shot off to the left and I had to follow it with the pole.  I got the pole back halfway and the the carp and white hydro elastic was about 2 pegs down the lake - extreme apologies to Macca followed as he stared at me with a face like thunder - I had to grovel apologise as Macca is somewhat bigger than I am LOL.  I managed to turn the fish and got the pole back to the top two, but alas, the fish was still on the farside bank.  I started to pull the hydro back through my side pulla and all of a sudden, the fish came off.  I can only assume that it was foul-hooked due to the way that it took off and also that it came off when I put any sort of pressure on the fish.  It really was not going to be my day.

The wind hindered presentation, especially when trying to fish tight over in my little 8" gap across between the sedges.

I swapped and changed swims and managed to get a few fish together, but not even nearly enough.  Macca at the side of me was fishing across to his mudline and was catching fish.  You could even see their backs out of the water and they were slurping the pellets off the mudline.  I could not get tight enough over to do this.

That was it, time, end of the match.  Thank god.

I also could tell that Woofer had also struggled, it was going to be close for the first leg of the knock out.

Dave Webster on end peg 26 was first to weigh and set the standard at 56lb odd. The scales arrived at Woofer's peg and he plonked 20lb on the scales.  I had that...DIDN'T I?  Fingers crossed time now.

I lifted out my two nets and emptied them both into the weigh sling for a total of 28lb odd.  Good enough for nowhere, but good enough to have an 8lb lead going into the second leg of the knock out at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.

Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead has now got a new nickname - Casper - now you see me, now you don't.  He left early - AGAIN!!! LOL.

Frontrow put 36lb on the scales to win my section.  Stuart Wilson then raised the bar to 60lb odd.  Last to weigh was Dave Horsfall from end peg 2 who put 66lb on the scales made up of mainly barbel with some carp mixed in.

Full Result

1.  Dave Horsfall (Peg 2) 66lb odd
2.  Stuart Wilson (Peg 8 ish) 60lb odd
3.  Dave Webster (Peg 26) 56lb odd
4.  John McCall (Peg 20) 54lb odd

Wholesea Grange - Pond 1

Robin Hood AC were back at Wholesea Grange Lakes and this time we were on pond one.  Pond one is not one of my favourite venues.  It is too deep - even at 5/6m on some pegs it is 10ft deep, and it is rammed with gudgeon.

Due to the club growing in numbers and the size of the lake, we limited the match to 18 anglers.

I pegged the match out and I wanted to be on pegs 2 or 15 as they were both end pegs.  I pegged it with most anglers (11) on pegs 1 - 15 and the rest (7) from pegs 16 - 24.  The lake was double bank pegged.

It was all to play for today....I was having a quid with Donkey Waterhouse.

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 16. Lurch Moorhead drew peg 2 and Craig McKenny drew peg 15.  I fancied Craig to win today.  Why did I want peg 15??  As I walked round pegging it out, there were loads of carp down the margin reeds as it is a corner peg and there was a bit of reed cover to his left away from the corner and they also had carp in them.  The same applied to peg 2.  Frontrow was on peg 23 - Mr Crabtree's peg.  It had some burnt tree stumps in about 12m out in the lake.

Peg 16..

I had a bush to my left..

Some reeds on the opposite bank..

I set up the following rigs...

(L - R 4 x 16 Carpa Raisor, .3 Garbo float and a 4 x 12 Carpa Caster)

Rig 1 was a 4 x 16 Carpa Raisor.  This was set to fish at 6m where I had about 7ft of depth.

Rig 2 was a .3 garbolino DC2 and was on top of the shelf to my right where I had between 8 - 12" for about 3 metres before it dropped off to 7ft at 6m.

Rig 3 was a 4 x 12 Carpa Caster set at 3ft deep to the margin bush to my left.

For bait, I had some Sonu Sweetfishmeal F1 Groundbait with some micro pellets mixed in.  I also had some 8mm cubed meat, 6mm Bait-Tech Expander Pellets and some corn.

.

 I also set up a 9ft Shimano Speedmaster CX rod coupled with a Shimano 2500 DL Baitrunner Reel.

The Match..

At the all in, I cast out the method rod, put it down and threw some bait onto my short lines.  Whoosh, the tip flew round and carp No.1 was soon in the net at about 2lb.  Can we please shout time now.  I think I have won. Lol.

Over the next hour whilst I was priming my margin swims, I continued to fish the method to the reeds and managed to snare about 10 carp for about 15lb or so.

Due to the peg being so shallow near the margins, every carp that I caught went mental when it came up onto the 12" deep are of my peg.

I then stopped getting bites on the method.

I decided to have a look to my left next to the bush.  I put on a piece of meat and dropped in and caught a gudgeon.  I dropped in again and caught another gudgeon.  I tried double corn and caught another gudgeon.  I put on one of the new Maver Bow Tie Pellet Bands with a hard 8mm pellet in the band and caught another gudgeon.

I fished the method for the next half hour and never had another fish.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw some shadows in the margin and decided to have a go for them.  I tried 8mm pellet, 6mm pellet, double corn.  I also tried some of those Sonubaits White Chocolate Band 'Ums.  Nothing.  Every time that I fed some groundbait, they came to it after a few minutes.  I dropped the method off the rod tip.  Nothing.

Over the remainder of the match, I caught a couple of roach, some more gudgeon and 1 more carp.

That was it.  Time.

Crap, tipped back about 17/18lb.

Donkey Waterhouse won with 78lb odd, fishing down the edge with worm over groundbait and caster.  Lurch put 48lb on the scales for 2nd and Uncle Fester McKenny put 47lb on for 3rd.  Woofer Clough won his section bank 42lb and miracle of all miracles, Frontrow Harrison won my section (and bank) with 32lb from Mr Crabtree's peg.  There were 7 of us on my bank and 4 of DNW’d (pegs 16 – 24).  Pegs 1 – 15 had all the weights and the fish.

The worst thing was…I could get fish in the peg as they were coming in to the bait, but they would not take a bait and they spooked really easy.  It was about 12” deep from bank to about 3m out, then it dropped of to 7ft at 6m.  I could see them come in and eat the groundbait and micro pellets, I tried corn, paste, meat, pellet and worm.  Nothing.  I got right close to them to be able to take pictures on my camera phone.  It has got to be my most frustrating day this year so far.  They were munching around in the groundbait as I could see particles coming out of their gills.  Oh, and the water was gin clear.

After the match, I threw in my spare groundbait and managed to get a couple of pictures..

This fish was about 6" from the bank

Full Result:

1.  Stuart Waterhouse 78lb odd

2.  Chris Moorhead - 48lb

3.  Craig McKenny - 47lb

4.  Paul Clough - 42lb