Last weekend, I fished two matches, the first one was a little knock up with some of the lads from the club at Barnburgh Lakes on the bottom pond and the second match was at The Oaks Lakes, Sessay on Maple Lake. This weekend I fished at Kippax Lakes, Leeds on Sunday and at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk on Bank Holiday Monday, so it seems, I have a bit of catching up to do.
Barnburgh Lakes - Bottom Pond
Due to another club being on the other side of the pond, we only had a dozen or so pegs to go at, so limited it to 10 anglers. Come the draw, there were 11 of us on the match. The match was more to give the other anglers in the club a go on the bottom pond as it is 7ft deep with 5ft of fish in it. LOL.
Pegs
Peg 14 - Eric the Pheasant
Peg 15 - Me
Peg 16 - Stuart Wilson
Peg 17 - Chris Moorhead
Peg 18 - John McCall
Peg 19 - Dave Horsfall
Peg 20 - Michelle Webster
Peg 21 - Shaun Rowley
Peg 22 -Andy Limbert
Peg 23 - Dave Webster
Peg 24 - Daz Harrison
Before the match, I had all and sundry ringing me up about the bottom pond, how do you fish it? What bait you going to use? How do you set up your jigga rigs? And because I wanted everyone to catch a lot of fish, I told them. Q1. Fish it shallow. Q2. Pellets, pellets and more pellets. Q3. Overshot it and then work the bait according to your bites.
I was giddy and talk was of 100lb bags all round.
I set up 3 rigs - all to fish shallow. Two fixed shallow rigs, 1 at 2ft deep and 1 about 1ft deep and then the jigga rig set to fish between 6" to 18" deep. Eric the Pheasant asked me what to do. I asked him what bait did he have and he said maggots. I said to fish top 2 or 3 down the edge.
Chris Moorhead put up his bait brolley and it resembled a parasol outside a burger bar, LOL.
Anyways, 6 hours later, we weighed in as follows:
Peg 14 - Eric the Pheasant - 88lb 4oz (his best weight yet)
Peg 15 - Me - 171lb 4oz
Peg 16 - Stuart Wilson - 109lb 9oz
Peg 17 - Chris Moorhead - 103lb 10oz (Chris was chuffed to bits with this).
Peg 18 - John McCall - 82lb 10oz
Peg 19 - Dave Horsfall - 74lb 4oz
Peg 20 - Michelle Webster - 45lb 10oz
Peg 21 - Shaun Rowley - 71lb 13oz
Peg 22 -Andy Limbert - 64lb
Peg 23 - Dave Webster - 76lb 6oz
Peg 24 - Daz Harrison - 53lb 6oz
All of my fish had come on the jigga.
Robin Hood AC - Round 7 - Oaks Lakes, Thirsk - Maple Lake
We were on the favoured high numbers and there was 19 of us on the match. Generally the higher the peg number, the better. I helped with the pegging out and Dave Webster said to me that we had from pegs 36 - 68 and then something about the number 33 (which I cannot recall). I then went and pegged out starting at No. 33 Ooops. We drew our pegs and I drew peg 41 which put me at the right-hand end of the spit. Webster drew peg 67 (he will win it from there), Castaway Wilson was on peg 63 (old peg 62a), Big Macca drew peg 55. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Paul Wilco Wilson on peg 39 and Ian 'Syd' Wadell on peg 43.
Andy Limbert then went to peg 33 to find another angler from another club on the peg (hence the ooops). Due to everyone drawing their pegs, we put peg 52, 50, 68 and 56 into the draw bag and Andy drew his peg again. He ended up on peg 52.
I mixed up half a bag of Sonubaits Supercrush Expander groundbait with the idea to fish maggots/groundbait over to the far bank.
I set up two rigs across to fish in 12 inches of water and one rig to fish to the next platform (peg 42).
The match was quite uneventful. I managed to catch 12 carp across to the island - nothing down the edge. I even set up a rig to fish top 2 + 1 in the deep water straight in front of me, but that was also a waste of time.
That was it, match over. The scales arrived and Dave Webster was leading with 71lb from peg 67, Stuart Wilson had 62lb from peg 63, Andy Limbert had 49lb from peg 52, Eric the Pheasant had 47lb from peg 65 and Macca had 44lb from peg 55. Syd Waddell put 10lb on the scales and after one weigh, I managed to put 35lb odd on the scales. Paul Wilco Wilson put 17lb on the scales.
Full Result:
1. Dave Webster - Peg 67 - 71lb odd
2. Stuart Wilson - Peg 63 - 62lb odd
3. Andy Limber - Peg 52 - 49lb odd
4. Eric White - Peg 65 - 47lb odd
5. John McCall - Peg 55 - 44lb
6. Mike Herrington - Peg 41 - 35lb odd
More to follow......
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Robin Hood AC - Round 6 - Woodlands Lakes, Skylark Lake.
(33041)
This weekend's match was to take place at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk. We were on Skylark Lake.
Following a long wait for my breakfast to arrive, I was still eating my breakfast and it was time for the draw. By the time of the draw, there were 24 of us in attendance to fish the 34 peg lake. It was more or less going to be pegged 2 anglers, miss a peg, two anglers, miss a peg, etc.
The general rule of thumb is that you need to draw from about middle of the lake (peg 10), going down the lake to corner peg 17, then across to peg 18 and up the otherside to about peg 25.
I put my hand in the lucky (or not so lucky for some) bag and managed to snare peg 16. I then went back to finish my breakfast. After breakfast, I unloaded my car and went to my peg. Eric the Pheasant was on peg 1, I stopped for a little chat with Eric. Dave Webster had drawn peg 2, Woofer Cloughie was on peg 4. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Macca on peg 14, 15 was empty and Stuart 'Castaway' Wilson was on peg 17. Castaway was just checking the depth next to my platform for me - Hey Castaway, how deep is it? I asked. About 2ft 6" LOL. Frontrow Harrison was opposite on corner peg 18, Lurch Moorhead was next to him on 19 (opposite me), Michelle was on peg 21 and was taking part in the 2nd leg of her knockout against Pid Farley who had drawn peg 30 up at the other end. Michelle was carrying a 25lb advantage. This was going to be close.
Tackle
I set up loads of gear for today as follows:
11ft Pellet Waggler rod set to fish about 18" deep.
10ft Bomb rod
9ft Method Feeder Rod
I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:
1. Shallow rig No. 1 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength, this was attached to Preston 13h elastic.
2. .4g float set to fish about 3.5ft deep at top 2 + 3 sections out in front at 10 and 2 o'clock, this was set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to Preston 15h elastic.
3. Shallow Rig No. 2 set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Garbolino hooklength, this rig was attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic.
4. The margin rig was a .3g Cralusso float set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to Preston 15h elastic.
For bait, I had a bag of Dynamite Baits Red Krill Groundbait, some venue micro with a handful of red krill groundbait mixed in for the method feeder, 6mm and 8mm hard pellets, a tin of corn, a tin of 8mm cubed meat and some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets. I also had some 6mm Dynamite Baits Meaty Marine pellets as a change bait.
Right I was ready.
At the start of the match, I picked up rig 2 (the top 2 + 3) and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet and shipped out to my left. Castaway and Macca went out on a similar line.
I waited for my first bite of the day. After about 5 minutes, the float buried and I was into my first fish of the day, a tench about 1lb. I re-baited and shipped back out again, I threw some 6mm pellets over the top of the float and waited again. After about 5 minutes, the float dipped, sailed sideways and then went under, the 2nd fish of the day was a little skimmer about 6oz.
Castaway had caught a couple of carp, also fishing pellet over pellet. The only thing he appeared to be doing different was to put a couple of grains of corn and 8mm pellets over the top. I could see the odd carp coming out on the short line so persevered a little longer. Whilst fishing the short line, I was also catapulting 2 - 4 x 8mm pellets out to halfway and some 6mm pellets out to the 14.5m shallow line.
After a further fruitless 10 minutes or so on the short line, I decided to have a go shallow on the pole. Castaway had snared a couple more carp and now had 4. Macca had caught 1 carp to my left.
I picked up shallow rig 1, baited up with an 8mm pellet and went out to 14.5m. I was lifting and dropping the pellet (as tapping and slapping are both banned) whilst feeding a pinch of 6mm pellets. I saw a swirl, so lifted and dropped some more and the float went under slowly and the 13h elastic was getting stretched, a bit. Keeping the pole low, I shipped back slowly until I managed to get it on the top 2, then I started to pull the elastic and finally slid my net under the first carp of the day. It was a common about 9lb. That was a nice start. Castaway was up to 7 carp on his short line still.
I went back out shallow and after a fruitless 20 minutes or so, decided to have a chuck out on the bomb rod over the 14.5m line (just in case). 5 - 10 mins on that line added nothing to the net. Castaway was now fishing 14.5m down the boards to his right and had caught another three carp or so and now had about 10. I still only had 1. I chucked the bomb out to halfway and got a couple of liners, so decided to have a go on the pellet waggler.
I cast out to halfway with the pellet waggler and after a couple of minutes working the pellet waggler, I got a liner and played it for all of 10 seconds and lost it. I was still playing catch up with Castaway.
I cast out again with the pellet waggler, the float shot under and I was into my 2nd carp of the day, after a brief tussle, I had another carp (see picture below) in the net, all 14.5lb of it. I was still playing catch up with Castaway.
About 15 minutes later, I caught another one on the pellet waggler, this was somewhat smaller at about 7lb or so. The wind was strengthening all the time and the waggler float was riding the waves, presentation can't have been right. I decided to have a go back on the bomb. After a 10 minute wait, the tip went round slowly and the Shimano Baitrunner Reel started whirring away. Another carp about 7lb or so was soon in the net.
Castaway had caught another one so it was 11-4 to Castaway.
I then spent the next couple of hours or so swapping between all lines (pellet waggler, bomb, method, pole shallow, short, etc) and managed to catch another 4 carp - 1 on bomb, 2 on pellet waggler and 1 on pole shallow.
We were now into the last 90 minutes of the match and I decided to cup some Dynamite Baits Red Krill groundbait to the next platform with about 10 grains of corn and the same of meat and left that for 15 minutes or so whilst I then faffed about short and caught another skimmer.
I got the margin rig and baited up with a single grain of corn and shipped out to the next peg. The float settled, then dipped and went sideways and settled again, then went under, I was in to my 9th fish of the day. I finally slipped the landing net under a carp about 10lb. Castaway Wilson was also still catching the odd fish and had approximately 13 or so carp.
I fished the remainder of the match down the edge and was more or less fish for fish with Castaway. I was big-potting a pot of groundbait after every carp. Craig McKenny had managed to snare another 3 carp on pole shallow tactics.
I finally ended up with 13 carp and Castaway had ended up with 17 or 18 carp. Generally if you catch 17 carp on Skylark lake you have about 100lb. I said as such to Castaway and he said that I had beaten him. I said that I thought that I had about 75-80lb or so. Oh well the scales will soon tell.
Eric the Pheasant set the ball rolling from peg 1 with 39lb 14oz, then Dave Webster was 2nd to weigh and put 81lb 12oz on the scales. Next to weigh was Woofer Clough - he had 19 carp for 121lb 8oz. Due to the shape of the lake (a slight curve), if you are on the low teens you cannot see what people are doing in the low numbers. I was steadily sliding down the placings based on my expected weight.
There were a few weights of between 40 - 60lb and the scales finally arrived at my peg. I lifted my first net out (8 carp) and put 51lb 1oz on the scales. I then lifted out my 2nd net (the big fish net) and put 5 carp on the scales for 50lb 12oz for a total of 101lb 13oz, which put me into 2nd place.
Now it was Castaway's turn. His first net went 51lb 6oz. When he lifted his 2nd net out, I was a little surprised as it went 43lb 8oz for a total of 94lb 14oz.
Frontrow Harrison put 69lb on the scales, Lurch Moorhead had 41lb 13oz, Michelle had 56lb 11oz, then there were a few more weights between 40 - 70lb. Pid needed to have 80lb + to be in with a chance of knocking Michelle out of the knockout. A couple of weighs later, Pid had put 72lb 3oz on the scales. Michelle was through to the next round.
Full Result:
1. Paul Clough - Peg 4 - 121lb 8oz (Bomb and pellet)
2. Mike Herrington - Peg 16 - 101lb 13oz
3. Stuart Wilson - Peg 17 - 94lb 14oz
4. Dave Webster - Peg 2 - 81lb 12oz (Bomb and pellet)
5. Paul Farley - Peg 30 - 72lb 3oz
This weekend's match was to take place at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk. We were on Skylark Lake.
Following a long wait for my breakfast to arrive, I was still eating my breakfast and it was time for the draw. By the time of the draw, there were 24 of us in attendance to fish the 34 peg lake. It was more or less going to be pegged 2 anglers, miss a peg, two anglers, miss a peg, etc.
The general rule of thumb is that you need to draw from about middle of the lake (peg 10), going down the lake to corner peg 17, then across to peg 18 and up the otherside to about peg 25.
I put my hand in the lucky (or not so lucky for some) bag and managed to snare peg 16. I then went back to finish my breakfast. After breakfast, I unloaded my car and went to my peg. Eric the Pheasant was on peg 1, I stopped for a little chat with Eric. Dave Webster had drawn peg 2, Woofer Cloughie was on peg 4. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Macca on peg 14, 15 was empty and Stuart 'Castaway' Wilson was on peg 17. Castaway was just checking the depth next to my platform for me - Hey Castaway, how deep is it? I asked. About 2ft 6" LOL. Frontrow Harrison was opposite on corner peg 18, Lurch Moorhead was next to him on 19 (opposite me), Michelle was on peg 21 and was taking part in the 2nd leg of her knockout against Pid Farley who had drawn peg 30 up at the other end. Michelle was carrying a 25lb advantage. This was going to be close.
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| Hey Mick, it is 2ft 6in deep mate. |
I set up loads of gear for today as follows:
11ft Pellet Waggler rod set to fish about 18" deep.
10ft Bomb rod
9ft Method Feeder Rod
I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:
1. Shallow rig No. 1 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength, this was attached to Preston 13h elastic.
2. .4g float set to fish about 3.5ft deep at top 2 + 3 sections out in front at 10 and 2 o'clock, this was set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to Preston 15h elastic.
3. Shallow Rig No. 2 set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Garbolino hooklength, this rig was attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic.
4. The margin rig was a .3g Cralusso float set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to Preston 15h elastic.
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| Pole Rigs 1 - 4 |
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| My Set Up. |
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| The Peg |
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| Just in case! |
Right I was ready.
At the start of the match, I picked up rig 2 (the top 2 + 3) and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet and shipped out to my left. Castaway and Macca went out on a similar line.
I waited for my first bite of the day. After about 5 minutes, the float buried and I was into my first fish of the day, a tench about 1lb. I re-baited and shipped back out again, I threw some 6mm pellets over the top of the float and waited again. After about 5 minutes, the float dipped, sailed sideways and then went under, the 2nd fish of the day was a little skimmer about 6oz.
Castaway had caught a couple of carp, also fishing pellet over pellet. The only thing he appeared to be doing different was to put a couple of grains of corn and 8mm pellets over the top. I could see the odd carp coming out on the short line so persevered a little longer. Whilst fishing the short line, I was also catapulting 2 - 4 x 8mm pellets out to halfway and some 6mm pellets out to the 14.5m shallow line.
After a further fruitless 10 minutes or so on the short line, I decided to have a go shallow on the pole. Castaway had snared a couple more carp and now had 4. Macca had caught 1 carp to my left.
I picked up shallow rig 1, baited up with an 8mm pellet and went out to 14.5m. I was lifting and dropping the pellet (as tapping and slapping are both banned) whilst feeding a pinch of 6mm pellets. I saw a swirl, so lifted and dropped some more and the float went under slowly and the 13h elastic was getting stretched, a bit. Keeping the pole low, I shipped back slowly until I managed to get it on the top 2, then I started to pull the elastic and finally slid my net under the first carp of the day. It was a common about 9lb. That was a nice start. Castaway was up to 7 carp on his short line still.
I went back out shallow and after a fruitless 20 minutes or so, decided to have a chuck out on the bomb rod over the 14.5m line (just in case). 5 - 10 mins on that line added nothing to the net. Castaway was now fishing 14.5m down the boards to his right and had caught another three carp or so and now had about 10. I still only had 1. I chucked the bomb out to halfway and got a couple of liners, so decided to have a go on the pellet waggler.
I cast out to halfway with the pellet waggler and after a couple of minutes working the pellet waggler, I got a liner and played it for all of 10 seconds and lost it. I was still playing catch up with Castaway.
I cast out again with the pellet waggler, the float shot under and I was into my 2nd carp of the day, after a brief tussle, I had another carp (see picture below) in the net, all 14.5lb of it. I was still playing catch up with Castaway.
About 15 minutes later, I caught another one on the pellet waggler, this was somewhat smaller at about 7lb or so. The wind was strengthening all the time and the waggler float was riding the waves, presentation can't have been right. I decided to have a go back on the bomb. After a 10 minute wait, the tip went round slowly and the Shimano Baitrunner Reel started whirring away. Another carp about 7lb or so was soon in the net.
Castaway had caught another one so it was 11-4 to Castaway.
I then spent the next couple of hours or so swapping between all lines (pellet waggler, bomb, method, pole shallow, short, etc) and managed to catch another 4 carp - 1 on bomb, 2 on pellet waggler and 1 on pole shallow.
We were now into the last 90 minutes of the match and I decided to cup some Dynamite Baits Red Krill groundbait to the next platform with about 10 grains of corn and the same of meat and left that for 15 minutes or so whilst I then faffed about short and caught another skimmer.
I got the margin rig and baited up with a single grain of corn and shipped out to the next peg. The float settled, then dipped and went sideways and settled again, then went under, I was in to my 9th fish of the day. I finally slipped the landing net under a carp about 10lb. Castaway Wilson was also still catching the odd fish and had approximately 13 or so carp.
I fished the remainder of the match down the edge and was more or less fish for fish with Castaway. I was big-potting a pot of groundbait after every carp. Craig McKenny had managed to snare another 3 carp on pole shallow tactics.
I finally ended up with 13 carp and Castaway had ended up with 17 or 18 carp. Generally if you catch 17 carp on Skylark lake you have about 100lb. I said as such to Castaway and he said that I had beaten him. I said that I thought that I had about 75-80lb or so. Oh well the scales will soon tell.
Eric the Pheasant set the ball rolling from peg 1 with 39lb 14oz, then Dave Webster was 2nd to weigh and put 81lb 12oz on the scales. Next to weigh was Woofer Clough - he had 19 carp for 121lb 8oz. Due to the shape of the lake (a slight curve), if you are on the low teens you cannot see what people are doing in the low numbers. I was steadily sliding down the placings based on my expected weight.
There were a few weights of between 40 - 60lb and the scales finally arrived at my peg. I lifted my first net out (8 carp) and put 51lb 1oz on the scales. I then lifted out my 2nd net (the big fish net) and put 5 carp on the scales for 50lb 12oz for a total of 101lb 13oz, which put me into 2nd place.
Now it was Castaway's turn. His first net went 51lb 6oz. When he lifted his 2nd net out, I was a little surprised as it went 43lb 8oz for a total of 94lb 14oz.
Frontrow Harrison put 69lb on the scales, Lurch Moorhead had 41lb 13oz, Michelle had 56lb 11oz, then there were a few more weights between 40 - 70lb. Pid needed to have 80lb + to be in with a chance of knocking Michelle out of the knockout. A couple of weighs later, Pid had put 72lb 3oz on the scales. Michelle was through to the next round.
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| Here's one I caught earlier - 14.5lb on the pellet waggler. |
1. Paul Clough - Peg 4 - 121lb 8oz (Bomb and pellet)
2. Mike Herrington - Peg 16 - 101lb 13oz
3. Stuart Wilson - Peg 17 - 94lb 14oz
4. Dave Webster - Peg 2 - 81lb 12oz (Bomb and pellet)
5. Paul Farley - Peg 30 - 72lb 3oz
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Robin Hood AC - Round 5 - Barnburgh Lakes, Doncaster
Chris Moorhead and I agreed that today we have the 2nd leg in the club knockout competition. I had an almighty lead of 6lb 3oz which I had carried over from Hayfield. It was all to play for.
Barnburgh Lakes is now my adopted home. I have fished here (excluding the feature that I did with Lee Kerry) 6 times and my lowest weight has been 65lb from peg 9 on the middle lake going up to 163lb from peg 1 on bottom pond.
There are 23 pegs on the middle lake at Barnburgh Lakes and by the time of the draw there were 19 of us in attendance.
I wanted to be between pegs 8 - 16, only because this is where I have seen most of the weights come from in previous matches. Lurch and I had come down for a drive around yesterday and the match was won from peg 11, catching shallow on pellet. I put my hand in the lucky bag and drew peg 14
Yes, I was happy with that. My adversary for the day, Lurch had drawn peg 11 - I would be able to keep an eye on him. I asked Gary Jubb in the shop what are the corner pegs as I was on peg 14, he said to me that they are 12 and 13. I got to my peg and started to unpack my stuff. Then the lad that helps weighing in said that I was in the wrong peg. I went back to Gary Jubb and he said that 12 is the corner, then 13 (is one out of the corner), DOH!
I finally got to the right peg and found that I had Jason Langshaw on peg 15, Eric the pheasant on peg 13, Barry Hunter was on 12, Chris Moorhead was on peg 11 in the corner.
Tackle
I set up my trusty 11ft Shakespeare Mach 3 XT pellet waggler rod (just in case), then I set up 3 pole rigs as follows.
Rig 1 - .2g Frenzee FD200 Float on .17 preston Powerline mainline with a .11 Preston Powerline hooklength. This was attached to Preston 11h elastic.
Rig 2 - this was one of two 'Jigga' rigs that I set up. I set this one up to fish between 6" to 2ft deep. Again the mainline was Preston Innovations .17 Powerline to a .11 Powerline hooklength, this rig was also attached to Preston 11h Elastic.
Rig 3 - The same rig as above, but this one was set to fish a maximum of 1ft deep
For bait, I had some 4mm pellets and 6mm pellets for feeding and for the hook. I had a ball of paste in case my plan of attack to fish shallow did not work.
That was it. I was ready. I went to speak to Eric the Pheasant and he asked me (in my role of Team Captain) what to do. I asked him what bait he had and he said that he had 4pts of maggots. I said to fish top 2 + 1 down the edge to his left (towards me) all day. I then looked at his rig and saw that he had a knot on his line and his hook was too big. I got my hooklengths and tied him on one of my hooklenghts (a .13 Powerline to size 16 Colmic B501). I then told him where to plumb up and his float was standing too proud, so I added a couple of shot to get the float right for him. Eric then set up another rig to fish to his right, where it was a little deeper.
The Team Event
The club have started up a team event within the club and have seeded everyone based on last years overall result. I am the team captain and I have Craig McKenny, Charlie Colefax, Eric White and club newcomer Andy Limbert in my team. If all of us turn up, the best 4 results count. There is a prize of £200 for the overall winning team, based on overall weight. Both Craig and Andy had drawn iffy (pegs 19 and 21 respectively).
The Match
There should have been a prize for the first fish as Eric was still putting his two maggots on his hook and I was into my first F1 of the day - all 12oz of it. I caught this one on the Frenzee shallow rig. I managed to catch 32 F1 carp in the first hour for about 25lb or so. The carp seemed to be at all depths, so I decided to go out on the 'Jigga' rig and see if I faired any better on that. I managed to get 17 F1's over the next hour. I must have caught all the giddy fish and I was now having to work for bites. Eric the Pheasant was giving a good account of himself on the next peg and was getting plenty of ide/F1's and barbel on the top 2 + 1 rig. My adversary was also catching plenty of fish from both down the corner and also from the shallow rig.
Everyone seemed to be catching fish. Jason Langshaw was also getting one or two and I could see people all around the lake catching short, long or even on the method.
Best get my head down and work a bit harder.
After a couple of hours, the bites seem to have dwindled off, I decided to have a chuck out on the pellet waggler and managed to catch a couple more carp, nothing bigger than what I had been catching shallow at 13m, that seemed a bit slow. Everyone seemed to be catching one or two and Eric was still steady away as was Barry Hunter. Lurch was still here so must be bagging. Oh Crap!! He must have tuned his radio into Radio Luxembourg again. LOL.
I continued to swap between the Jigga and the Frenzee rigs and also the pellet waggler for the duration of the match.
I shouted over to Pid, 'Damn Pid, you are quite today'. To which he replied 'I get told off for moaning, then I get told off for not moaning. I can't flippin' win'. LOL. Bless!!
Going into the last hour, most of us had between 30 - 60lb and what from I could see, I think that there were about 5 of us in the shout for the top 3 places, that possibly included Lurch and myself.
Jason at the side of me had cottoned on to how I was fishing and Eric had lost his rig, so had to use his other rig for the right of his peg.
That was it. TIME. match over.
Eric had caught, Castaway Wilson had caught as had Wilco Wilson, Lurch was still here so must have caught, Macca had snared some.
The scales started at peg 1 (Alan 'Snooker' Hunter) who had 22lb (lowest weight of the match as it transpired), then there was a 47lb, 40lb, 60lb, Castaway put 69lb on the scales for best weight so far. Next to weigh was my adversary - Chris Moorhead - he had two weighs and whilst tipping his fish into the weigh sling dipped his net back in the lake to add more water (LOL he wishes he could have) for a total of 52lb 8oz - damn is he still here???. Barry Hunter on peg 12 then put 51lb 14oz on the scales. Eric was next to weigh and thoroughly enjoyed catching a mixed bag weighing 58lb 5oz. Now it was my turn. Had I done enough to beat Lurch?
I had two weighs and after the needle had finally settled, I ended up with 87lb 10oz and was leading the match. Jason had 43lb odd, Pid 52lb odd, Gary Jowett 54lb odd, and finally the last two to weigh were Craig and Andy Limbert who weighed in 35 and 29lb respectively.
19 anglers caught a total of 975lb of fish which is an average of over 51lb each angler and the biggest fish caught was approx 2lb ish with most of them between 12oz - 1.5lb.
Full Result
1. Mike Herrington - Peg 14 - 87lb 10oz
2. Stuart 'Castaway' Wilson - Peg 10 - 69lb 3oz
3. Paul 'Wilco' Wilson - Peg 7 - 63lb 9oz
4. Dave Wathen - Peg 18 - 62lb 2oz
5. John 'Macca' McCall - peg 5 - 61lb 3oz.
Oh and I forgot. Lurch the loser is knocked out of the knockout cup LOL and I am through to round 2 (Which I have now found out is Andy Limbert, Gulp!!).
Thanks for reading (again).
Big Pellet
Barnburgh Lakes is now my adopted home. I have fished here (excluding the feature that I did with Lee Kerry) 6 times and my lowest weight has been 65lb from peg 9 on the middle lake going up to 163lb from peg 1 on bottom pond.
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| Barnburgh Lakes - Today we were on Pond 2 |
There are 23 pegs on the middle lake at Barnburgh Lakes and by the time of the draw there were 19 of us in attendance.
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| I drew Peg 14. |
Yes, I was happy with that. My adversary for the day, Lurch had drawn peg 11 - I would be able to keep an eye on him. I asked Gary Jubb in the shop what are the corner pegs as I was on peg 14, he said to me that they are 12 and 13. I got to my peg and started to unpack my stuff. Then the lad that helps weighing in said that I was in the wrong peg. I went back to Gary Jubb and he said that 12 is the corner, then 13 (is one out of the corner), DOH!
I finally got to the right peg and found that I had Jason Langshaw on peg 15, Eric the pheasant on peg 13, Barry Hunter was on 12, Chris Moorhead was on peg 11 in the corner.
Tackle
I set up my trusty 11ft Shakespeare Mach 3 XT pellet waggler rod (just in case), then I set up 3 pole rigs as follows.
Rig 1 - .2g Frenzee FD200 Float on .17 preston Powerline mainline with a .11 Preston Powerline hooklength. This was attached to Preston 11h elastic.
Rig 2 - this was one of two 'Jigga' rigs that I set up. I set this one up to fish between 6" to 2ft deep. Again the mainline was Preston Innovations .17 Powerline to a .11 Powerline hooklength, this rig was also attached to Preston 11h Elastic.
Rig 3 - The same rig as above, but this one was set to fish a maximum of 1ft deep
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| Ian Heywood Jigga Floats |
For bait, I had some 4mm pellets and 6mm pellets for feeding and for the hook. I had a ball of paste in case my plan of attack to fish shallow did not work.
That was it. I was ready. I went to speak to Eric the Pheasant and he asked me (in my role of Team Captain) what to do. I asked him what bait he had and he said that he had 4pts of maggots. I said to fish top 2 + 1 down the edge to his left (towards me) all day. I then looked at his rig and saw that he had a knot on his line and his hook was too big. I got my hooklengths and tied him on one of my hooklenghts (a .13 Powerline to size 16 Colmic B501). I then told him where to plumb up and his float was standing too proud, so I added a couple of shot to get the float right for him. Eric then set up another rig to fish to his right, where it was a little deeper.
The Team Event
The club have started up a team event within the club and have seeded everyone based on last years overall result. I am the team captain and I have Craig McKenny, Charlie Colefax, Eric White and club newcomer Andy Limbert in my team. If all of us turn up, the best 4 results count. There is a prize of £200 for the overall winning team, based on overall weight. Both Craig and Andy had drawn iffy (pegs 19 and 21 respectively).
The Match
There should have been a prize for the first fish as Eric was still putting his two maggots on his hook and I was into my first F1 of the day - all 12oz of it. I caught this one on the Frenzee shallow rig. I managed to catch 32 F1 carp in the first hour for about 25lb or so. The carp seemed to be at all depths, so I decided to go out on the 'Jigga' rig and see if I faired any better on that. I managed to get 17 F1's over the next hour. I must have caught all the giddy fish and I was now having to work for bites. Eric the Pheasant was giving a good account of himself on the next peg and was getting plenty of ide/F1's and barbel on the top 2 + 1 rig. My adversary was also catching plenty of fish from both down the corner and also from the shallow rig.
Everyone seemed to be catching fish. Jason Langshaw was also getting one or two and I could see people all around the lake catching short, long or even on the method.
Best get my head down and work a bit harder.
After a couple of hours, the bites seem to have dwindled off, I decided to have a chuck out on the pellet waggler and managed to catch a couple more carp, nothing bigger than what I had been catching shallow at 13m, that seemed a bit slow. Everyone seemed to be catching one or two and Eric was still steady away as was Barry Hunter. Lurch was still here so must be bagging. Oh Crap!! He must have tuned his radio into Radio Luxembourg again. LOL.
I continued to swap between the Jigga and the Frenzee rigs and also the pellet waggler for the duration of the match.
I shouted over to Pid, 'Damn Pid, you are quite today'. To which he replied 'I get told off for moaning, then I get told off for not moaning. I can't flippin' win'. LOL. Bless!!
Going into the last hour, most of us had between 30 - 60lb and what from I could see, I think that there were about 5 of us in the shout for the top 3 places, that possibly included Lurch and myself.
Jason at the side of me had cottoned on to how I was fishing and Eric had lost his rig, so had to use his other rig for the right of his peg.
That was it. TIME. match over.
Eric had caught, Castaway Wilson had caught as had Wilco Wilson, Lurch was still here so must have caught, Macca had snared some.
The scales started at peg 1 (Alan 'Snooker' Hunter) who had 22lb (lowest weight of the match as it transpired), then there was a 47lb, 40lb, 60lb, Castaway put 69lb on the scales for best weight so far. Next to weigh was my adversary - Chris Moorhead - he had two weighs and whilst tipping his fish into the weigh sling dipped his net back in the lake to add more water (LOL he wishes he could have) for a total of 52lb 8oz - damn is he still here???. Barry Hunter on peg 12 then put 51lb 14oz on the scales. Eric was next to weigh and thoroughly enjoyed catching a mixed bag weighing 58lb 5oz. Now it was my turn. Had I done enough to beat Lurch?
I had two weighs and after the needle had finally settled, I ended up with 87lb 10oz and was leading the match. Jason had 43lb odd, Pid 52lb odd, Gary Jowett 54lb odd, and finally the last two to weigh were Craig and Andy Limbert who weighed in 35 and 29lb respectively.
19 anglers caught a total of 975lb of fish which is an average of over 51lb each angler and the biggest fish caught was approx 2lb ish with most of them between 12oz - 1.5lb.
Full Result
1. Mike Herrington - Peg 14 - 87lb 10oz
2. Stuart 'Castaway' Wilson - Peg 10 - 69lb 3oz
3. Paul 'Wilco' Wilson - Peg 7 - 63lb 9oz
4. Dave Wathen - Peg 18 - 62lb 2oz
5. John 'Macca' McCall - peg 5 - 61lb 3oz.
Oh and I forgot. Lurch the loser is knocked out of the knockout cup LOL and I am through to round 2 (Which I have now found out is Andy Limbert, Gulp!!).
Thanks for reading (again).
Big Pellet
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Osprey Lake, Kippax, Leeds
Round 4 of the Robin Hood AC matches was to take place at Kippax Lakes, Leeds on Osprey Lake, and rumours were that it was going to be a hard match.
Daz came to pick me up and I had my nets out drying a bit. He got out of the car and said you do not need your nets, you use their nets. I thought about it for a moment, then put my nets away.
We arrived at Kippax and there were 16 of us on the match. The wind was blowing towards peg 2 and peg 30. When there is a breeze elsewhere, Kippax always seems to blow a gale.
I put my hand in the lucky bag and snared peg 6. Woofer Clough was on peg 15, one out the corner with no one on 16, Pid Farley drew corner peg 2 with no one on peg 1, Frank Crook Brook drew peg 30, Colin The Worm drew opposite Woofer on peg 19. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Andy Limbert on peg 3, (pegs 4 and 5 empty), Lurch Moorhead on peg 8, Stuart Wilson on peg 9, Daz drew peg 10. There wind was blowing from right to left.
I set up the obligatory method rod, then I set up 3 pole rigs as follows:
Across to the island - I put 16m of pole in front of me and I was still about 1m short of the island. I put on a 4x14 Preston PB Carp 1 float on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 hooklength and a Preston PR490 hook. I had about 2ft of depth on this line and I attached the rig to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic.
I also set up a rig to the next peg, this was a 4 x 14 Carpa Chimp. I had about 3.5ft to the next platform. The hooklength on this rig was .13 Presont Powerline to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook. This rig was attached to Preston 13h Hollow elastic.
My final rig was a .5g Drennan Roach set to fish top 2 and 2 in about 6ft of water. This rig had on a .12 hooklength. Upon plumbing up, I had about 5.5 - 6ft of depth. This was also attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic.
For bait, I had 2 tins of 6mm cubed meat, some micro pellets and I mixed some Sonubaits crushed expander pellet groundbait with some Dynamite baits Meaty Marine groundbait on a 50/50 basis - minimal food content with strong aroma. I also had some Bait-Tech 6mm expander pelllets and 1.5pts of mixed red and white maggots, as I had been told to fish maggot on 2+2.
That's it, I was ready.
At the start of the match, I threw a good handful of maggots in on top 2 + 2, I then got my across rig and baited up with a piece of meat, I loaded the tosspot with some groundbait mix and about 4 or 5 pieces of meat. I shipped out to 16m and lowered the rig in. After about 2 minutes, I'd had a couple of dips and blips and then the float buried and I was in. A carp of about 2lb was soon in the keepnet. Oh, talking of keepnets......YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOUR OWN NETS NOW. Cheers Daz. :-) Because I had to borrow a couple of keepnets - one for silvers and one for carp, I had one net that thought it had brewer's droop and the other net had no thread on the screw in connection. I had banksticks all over the place holding them upright. Pah!!!
I shipped back out to 16m and repeated the process. The float buried almost straight away and I soon had another carp about 1lb in the net. Two fish in 2 put ins. I was on fire. I went back out to 16m and lowered the rig in and waited about 5 minutes for the next bite. My meat had come off the hook. I went back out and promptly caught another carp, a common carp about 1.5lb. It was now about 30 mins into the match and I had caught 3 carp. I would like to say that I continued in this manner to the end of the match, but alas, no. Over the next hour, I had not had anymore bites across or on the top 2 + 2 on the maggot line. Chris Moorhead on peg 8 had started to get a couple of bites down the middle, Andy Limbert was really struggling, Pid had caught 6 or so carp and both Daz and Stuart Castaway Wilson were struggling.
I persevered with the maggot line on top 2 + 2 and the across rig for another hour or so and even had a couple of chucks on the method across to the island to no avail. I was now about 3 hours into the match and still only had caught 3 carp.
Whilst having a chuck on the method, I saw a fish jump at peg 5. I decided to have a look down there.
I baited up my inside rig with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet and lowered the rig over a tosspot of groundbait. I waited about 5 mins and the float buried, a carp about 3lb was soon in the net. I went back down the edge again and waited about 15 minutes before I got another indication. Over the next hour or so, I managed to get another 3 carp down the edge. Going into the last hour, I had managed to snare 7 carp and considering those around me, I wasn't fairing too bad.
Macca and Castaway packed up early and left, not before I got a photo of Macca with the fruits of his labours....
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| Big Macca with a couple of carp. The top one is about 5lb and the bottom one was about 9lb, given the size of his hands. I do not know why he packed up!!. See the clicker around his neck? He broke it counting all two of these LOL. |
Going into the last hour, I could see some activity across to the island and I had all-but stopped catching down to the next peg, so I decided to go back to basics across and fish pellets over groundbait. In the last hour across, I managed to catch another 5 carp for a total of 12 carp by the end of the match.
The scales were on their way around and Pid had started the ball rolling by putting 23lb 1oz on the scales. Andy Limpet had caught a roach, skimmer and perch for a total of 1lb 5oz. I was net and after chucking my empty silvers net on the bank to dry, I lifted my carp net out and was quite surprised. The scales went round and finally settled on 23lb 13oz. Chris put 9lb on the scales. Daz had managed to snare 2 carp for a total of 7lb odd. Woofer raised the bar to 32lb. Colin the worm had 27lb, Gary Jowett had 25lb, then all of the high numbers had caught between 10 - 20lb until you got to Frank Crook. Frank managed to snare a few carp and put 39lb on the scales.
Full Result:
1. Frank Brook - Peg 30 - 39lb 2oz
2. Paul Clough - Peg 15 - 32lb
3. Colin Weaver - Peg 19 - 27lb
4. Gary Jowett - Peg 21 - 25lb
5. Mike Herrington - Peg 6 - 23lb 13oz (Section win)
Then it was Pid on peg 2 with 23lb. All of the four corner/end pegs had come in the top 6.
Thank you for reading, tightlines.....
PS - To quote Lurch Moorhead....'I would rather eat my pole than go back to Kippax' or words to that effect - I wonder what a banana pole tastes like :-)
God, I live dangerously. LOL.
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