Robin Hood AC - Round 6 - Woodlands Lakes, Skylark Lake.

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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.

Hey Mick, it is 2ft 6in deep mate. 

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.

Pole Rigs 1 - 4

My Set Up.

The Peg

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.

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.

Here's one I caught earlier - 14.5lb on the pellet waggler.

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