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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Busy weekend....., Barnburgh Lakes and Woodlands Lakes.

In view of it being Good Friday and Easter Monday, I had a busy weekend scheduled as follows:

Good Friday - Barnburgh Lakes - Top and Bottom Lakes

Having spoken to Anaemia (Buddy Keville) during the week, I booked us both onto the Good Friday open match at BarnburghLakes and by the time of the draw, there were 36 of us in attendance.  It is the Friday costcutter match and only cost a tenner to enter.  They had put all 25 pegs in on the bottom lake and then spread the remaining anglers around on the top lake a bit more.

I had a walk around and I wanted any of the 8 corner pegs on the bottome lake (1, 5, 6, 13, 14, 18, 19, 25).  I put my hand in the lucky bag and managed to snare peg 23.

I got to my peg and there was Kev Worth on peg 25, Dave 'Stoneface' Cheetham (not the Frenzee sponsored angler - although he was also in attendance) drew peg 13.  John 'Magnum' Clarke was on peg 21, Frenzee Cheetham was on peg 4, Anaemia  had drawn peg 7.  Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead was on the top pond somewhere.  I was really looking forward to today.

I only set up 3 rigs as follows:

A Frenzee FD200 float set to fish approximately 2ft deep.
The obligatory Ian Heywood 'Jigga' Rig
a 4x14 Carpa Chimp for the inside line (top 2).

For bait, I had some venue 4mm pellets and some 6mm pellets for the band.  I had also knocked up some Bait-Tech expander pellets (4mm and 6mm) to fish on the top 2.

At the start of the match, I went out on the Frenzee shallow rig and dropped the rig in, slapped a couple of times, fed 6 - 10 4mm pellets and I was in.  First F1 of the day.  I repeated the process and shock, horror, I caught another one.

I managed to catch steadily for the first hour or so, then it started to go a bit iffy and bites were hard to come by.  Magnum was swapping between all of his lines (across, shallow and edge) and was catching the odd fish off each line.  Kev was swapping his lines and was also picking up the odd fish.

I tried down the edge, but could not catch fast enough as I was waiting too long for bites.

Going into the 90 mins or so, I decided to up my feed rate (as the wind had eased a bit and the sun had come out) and I went shallow at 11/12m with the Frenzee rig on.  I would estimate that I had caught about 40lb in the last 90 minutes.  All F1 carp between 12oz - 1.5lb.

I was last to weigh in on our lake.  I would estimate that I had about 60lb or so.  I followed the scales around and Dave 'Frenzee' Cheetham weighed in 97lb to set the bar.  Anaemia had 105lb odd on his first visit.  Then their were lots of weights between 40 - 80lb.  Daz Taylor on peg 19 managed to plonk 107lb on the scales and was the new leader.  Magnum was a DNW.  The scales arrived at Paul Jenkinson who was next to me on peg 22, he managed to plonk 146lb on the scales - all on top two down the edge.  I had a couple of weighs for a total of 85lb odd.

Gary Jubb was best weight on the top lake with 141lb odd.

I thoroughly enjoyed it today and it has whet my appetite for this weekend.

More to follow........


Saturday 19th April - Woodland Lakes, Thirsk


I booked on the open match at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk to try to get an idea of what was to be expected for Robin Hoods match at the same venue tomorrow.

The general rule of late with regards to the draw, is to draw between pegs 12 - 25 on Partridge Lake and probably about the same on Skylark lake.

By the time of the draw, there were 56 in attendance and they had put in Partridge, Skylark, Curlew and Wagtail.  Gulp.  Here goes....Partridge Lake peg 33.  Oh well, right lake, wrong end, possibly..

I arrived to my peg to find that I had McCauley Pearson on peg 31, Andy Dowle on peg 35, Bill Blythe on peg 37, Andy Hamilton on peg 1, Kirk Grainger was opposite me on about peg 6.

I set up the following gear...

MAP Parabolix 10ft bomb rod coupled to Shimano DL 2500 Baitrunner reel set up to fish the bomb and pellet.
Shimano Beastmaster CX 9/11 feeder rod coupled to a Shimano DL2500 Baitrunner reel set up to fish the method feeder.

3 pole rigs as follows:

4x14 Carpa Chimp on .17 Preston Powerline mainline to a .14 Browning Hybrid Power Mono hooklength to fish at 10 and 2 o'clock on top 2 + 2
.2g Frenzee FD200 shallow pole float rig with a Preston Powerline .13 hooklength.
Ian Heywood Jigga float with a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength.

I was planning on fishing both of the shallow rigs at 14 - 16m straight out in front of me.

During the summer months, I tend to make all of my rigs up on .17 Preston Powerline mainline as this allows me to make the rigs adaptable by altering the hooklength to suit both venue and stamp of fish.

For bait, I had some venue's own 8mm and 6mm pellets, some Dynamite Baits Meaty Marine 6mm pellets, some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets and some corn.

At the start of the match, I got the top 2 + 2 rig and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech Expander pellet.  I lowered the float in and waited.  The float dipped then buried.  I was in within 5 minutes.  The Preston Innovations 15h elastic was doing its best to get dragged out of my pole.  After a brief tussle, I had the fish in the landing net...all 10lb of it.  WOO HOO...what a start.   I re-baited again and dropped in the same spot.  I waited about 5 - 10 minutes and the float went sideways...slowly, then went under...I was in again.  After another brief tussle, another carp of approximately 6lb was in the landing net.  20 minutes into the match and I already had about 16lb.  I persevered on this line for another 15 mins or so and managed to snare a couple of small skimmers.  Whilst I had been fishing the short line, I was pinging 8mm pellets to the middle of the lake and 6mm pellets out to about 14.5m or so.

I decided it was time to have a look on the pole shallow line.  I baited up a Preston Innovations Baitband with a 6mm Dynamite Baits pellet and went out to 14.5m with the Frenzee FD200 rig.  I have started using the Preston Innovations baitbands as they are quite robust and less prone to snapping, although given the thickness of them, they can be quite difficult to get a large (8mm +) pellet in them.  Once the pellet is in, it is not coming out though!!!

I worked the pellet by lifting and dropping the rig (as tapping and slapping are both banned) for about 20 - 30 minutes or so and I had foul-hooked (and lost it) one.  I decided to chuck the bomb out to the middle of the lake and see if I could get any liners.

After about 5 minutes, I saw the lad opposite me on about peg 8 get a couple of lines and hook a carp on the pellet wag..my bomb rod then arched round and the baitrunner reel scream.  Fish on.  After a 5 minute tussle another carp about 7lb was in the landing net.  I cast the bomb rod back out and waited..the lad next to me had caught a carp on the pellet wag...best get mine out then.!!!

I quickly put the two sections of my Shakespeare Mach 3 XT pellet waggler rod together coupled to a Shakespeare XT reel.  I reeled in my bomb rod and cast out the pellet waggler.  After a couple of casts I was in.  A carp about 6lb or so.  I was a couple of hours into the match and I had 4 carp and a couple of skimmers.

I fished the pellet waggler for the remainder of the match and ended up with 19 carp - between 2.5 - 10lb.  I thought that I had in the region of 85-90lb.  The scales worked their way around - Andy Hamilton on peg 1 had 42lb, then there was a string of 40 - 70lb weights on the favoured pegs.  Steve Keane set the bar higher with 107lb from peg 11 on Skylark lake.  I asked him how he had caught (as I thought that we were on Skylark on Sunday).  The scales arrived at my peg and I lifted my first net out and a couple of weighs later, I had 66lb - in my first net.  I lifted my 2nd net out and estimated about 40lb, this was going to be close.  The scales went round and round and hovered and went back and forth and finally settled on 44lb 1oz for a total of 110lb 1oz.  There was still a few more left to weigh in...I went back to the cafe to see how I had faired.

The final result was in..I had come first. WOOOHOOOOO

Steve Keane then came up to me after the match and said to me 'you know you were asking me about how I had caught today', I replied 'yes'.  Steve replied ' I am not telling you anything' LOL.

Full result:

1. Mick Herrington Partridge 33 - 110lb 1oz
2. Steve Keane Skylark 11 - 107lb
3..
4.
5.
6.  Andy Dowle - Partridge 35 - 88lb

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