Robin Hood AC - Round 10 - Wholesea Grange Fishery, Howden

This week Robin Hood AC were at Wholesea Grange Fishery, Howden on pond 2.  Pond 2 is full of ide and carp and nearly every peg is a Mr Crabtree peg - with either a over-hanging bush, reeds, lily pads, island or all of the aforementioned features, everyone has something to fish to, feature-wise.  There are approximately 38 pegs on the pond.

By the time of the draw, there were 21 of us in attendance and Andy Limbert and I were fishing the first leg of our club knockout, the 2nd leg is taking place next week at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.

I put my hand in the lucky bag and snared peg 7.

Reeds to the left of the peg - these were about 18m away.

Small clump of lily pads out in front of me.

Tackle

I set up my 11ft Method Feeder rod which is really geared up.  It has 6lb Guru Drag Line and I fish with .19 and .21 hook-lengths on it.  My idea was to cast to the clump of reeds and basically hit and hold any fish that I hook.

My first pole rig was a 4x16 Colmic Jolly to fish chopped worm and caster straight in front of me at 11m.

I then set up two margin rigs - one to the left and one to the right.  I had about 2ft to my left and about 3ft to my right.  The left hand margin rig had a 4 x 14 Preston Durafloat and the right hand swim had a 4 x 14 chimp float.  Both margin swims were attached to Preston Innovations 15h elastic.

For bait I had 1kg of worms, 3 pts casters, some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets, 2 tins of corn, 6mm Dynamite Baits hard pellets and a 50/50 mix of Sonubaits Krill and Sonubaits Crushed Expander groundbait.  

Pellets, casters, worms, groundbait and corn.  The worms are under the towel, to stop them drying out.

The Match

I big potted some chopped worm, caster and corn at 11m and then baited up the method feeder with a 6mm hard pellet and cast it over to the reeds.  I set it down and was just picking up my catapult to fire some pellets over the top, when whooooosh, the freespool on my Shimano reel was spinning away.  I picked up the rod and proceeded to drag the carp out of the reeds.

My first fish was about 2lb and did not have much chance.  Mike 1 - Fish 0.

I re-baited and cast back out.  A minute or so later, fish 2 was on and then in the net.

I fished the method for the next hour or so and managed to catch 10 carp between 12 oz - 4lb ish for a total of about 25lb or so.  Craig MC had caught a couple of small carp, Frank was struggling as were most people from what I could see.

I fished the method for another 30 minutes or so and snared one more carp and lost 3 (they had kited into the reeds and shed the hook).

I had occasionally been feeding the worm line and I decided now was the time to have a look on the worm line.

I baited up with a small piece or worm, lowered the rig in and waited, and waited and waited.  Nothing.  I had been continually flicking some casters over the top of the float so decided to try double caster.  I dropped in, the float dipped, then sailed under.  Fish on.  Unfortunately it was a roach about 2 oz.

I decided to have another look on the method feeder and after 20 minutes, I had added one more pastie sized carp.

Going into the last hour, I decided to fish worm short for anything that swims in order to put a few more fish in the net.

I plumbed up on top 2 + 3 and found it was about 4.5ft deep.  I added some groundbait to my chopped worm mix to enable me to throw little balls of chopped worm and caster out over the top of the float.

I baited up with a small piece of worm, and dropped the rig in and proceeded to through little nuggets of bait over the top.  The float slowly went under, I struck and I was into a carp.  After a brief tussle, I soon had a carp about 4lb in the net.

I proceeded to fish this line until the end of the match and managed to catch a couple more carp and some ide and roach to add to my final tally.  Meanwhile, Craig MC was, and had been, bagging on the method for the last 3 hours or so, catching little stockie carp, one a bung more or less.

That was it match over.

I estimate that I had about 35 - 40lb ish and I was not sure how much Andy had caught.

I caught up with the scales at peg 4 (Stupot Wilson) and top weight was 39lb.  Stupot had a couple of weighs for a total of 64lb 8oz, Wilco Wilson put 45lb on the scales.  Gaz Jowett put 37lb on the scales.  Now it was my turn.  I put my first net on the scales and it went 24lb odd.  I then put my 2nd net on the scales and that went 25lb odd for a total of 50lb 1oz.  Frank to my left had 32lb, Dave Wathen had a similar weight.  Webster was next to weigh and put a total of 62lb on the scales.  I followed the scales round and finally arrived at Andy Limbert.  Andy put his first net on the scales and had 30lb.  He then pulled out his second net and put 10lb on the scales for a total of 40lb 15oz.  I had a 9lb 2oz (don't forget the 2oz) lead going into the second leg.

There were a few more weights of about 30 - 40lb ish and the scales finally arrived at Craig MC's peg.  Craig had 2 weighs for a total of 69lb 7oz.

My travelling partner, Frontrow Harrison was 2nd last with 15lb odd from peg 19.

I had come 4th.

The club have a team of 4 competition going based on total weights and after 9 matches the table is as follows:

My Team (Team 6) are doing well in the overall team weight competition - this is correct as at last week and this week's weight needs adding to the above.

Full Result:
1.  Craig McKenny - Peg 28 - 69lb 7oz (Method Feeder)
2.  Stuart Wilson - Peg 4 - 64lb 8oz (Worm/Caster top 5)
3.  Dave Webster - Peg 11 - 62lb 9oz (Method then meat down the edge)
4.  Mike Herrington - Peg 7 - 50lb 1oz (method then worm short)
5.  Paul Wilson - Peg 5 - 45lb 2oz.(worm short and long)

It was quite a good match in that the majority of people had between 30 - 40lb and it was made up of a mixed bag of ide, roach, skimmers and stockie carp in the main.

Thanks for reading.

Tightlines.