My Match

2007-11-12T20:38:00.000Z

16m Garbolino G995.
5 match tops (2 white Hydro, 2 grey hydro, 2 yellow dual core)
3 power tops (black hydro)
Extending cupping kit
2 short No. 4's
3 spare long No. 4
No.1 sections (somewhere) Rodbag & tubes
May be able to include some more top kits. £1100.
e-mail me at mike1herrington@aol.com

2007-11-01T20:36:00.000Z

Not written,

Anything for a good while. I have been through a period of unemployment, which, although you have the extra time on your hands, I haven't been too inspired to do much by way of the blog. I am now back into work and it just woke me up a touch.

So, what have I been doing (apart from giving my autograph periodically), I have been on a few club matches with Bram and his club (Robin Hood AC, Leeds) and also with Coco, Tombstone and his cronies.

I have been to Risby, again, on the Folly lake. It just didn't fish anywhere near how if fished on my last visit. I ended up with 28lb odd, which was a reasonable weight on the day, Chris (Plughole) Kitchen managed to win the match with 70 odd pounds, by fishing his top 3 kit down the side. Bram ended up framing off the flyer pegs (pegs 25 - 30), Plughole was also on the same pegs. Paul 'Pid' Farley fished a tidy match on the waggler and just missed out with a low 40lb.

I entered a couple of matches at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk on Saturdays and during my period of unemployment, on Wednesdays. I always, always seem to draw the wrong end of the lake. Match 1, I draw Skylark 34, which is a corner peg, it is also shallow and the was blowing diagonally down to the opposite end of the lake. One time travelling partner, Panic Poole, was 3rd with 70 odd lb. Darrell 'Sir Tossa' Taylor was 2nd with a low 80lb. I managed 40lb dead. On my next outing I drew Skylark 9 and ended up with 49lb, everyone to my right all had 60lb+. I did manage to win my section as I was the last man in the section to my left. On my last session, I drew Partridge 19, and complained all the way to my peg. The pegs to be on have been pegs 22 - 25 on the same lake/bank. I fished corn at 16m, but actually feeding at 10m. By the all out 118lb was winning the match. I plonked 98lb odd on the scales. Steve 'Nightie' Richards managed to put 35lb on the scales, Andy 'Haircut' Bridge put 60lb on the scales, then you got to the flyers. Peg 23 had 145lb (for 2nd) and peg 24 had 100lb odd. 155lb won the match. I was 5th in the match, with my best weight at the venue. I went home empty handed though. They paid top 3, then sections and the 100lb was in my section.

I have just started going back to The Oaks after a self imposed rest. I have had some terrible results and with the weather, one method works one week, then doesn't work the next. John 'Chappy' Chapman and his travelling partner Dave 'Pimmy' Pimlott have been taking it in turns to take the place apart. Gareth 'Marco (remember the squealy queer one from BB) Drury has been holding own and Steve 'Ena' Sharples has been giving everyone a run for their money.

We have just started a new payout system at the oaks, £20 per match paying 5 or 6 man sections along with the top 4 or 5. This gives something for everyone to work for when they draw a hard section.

Bye bye for now.

Tightlines.

Mike

2007-08-12T21:21:00.001Z

I went to Risby again on Saturday 29th July, to fish a match on the Tench Lake. I went with Tyersal Angling Club again, so I had the pleasure of fishing with Catkiller, Coco the Clown and Tombstone to name but a few.

I gave F1 a lift again, but this time I invested in one ear protector, due to being deaf in my left ear, I only needed to cover up my right ear and I couldn’t hear the little twerp. Saying that, he talked that much, he melted my only ear protector. Talk about enthusiasm!!!

Following a decent breakfast in the lakeside café, we were ready for the draw. At the draw, I put my hand in the hat and managed to snare Jackpot peg 25. There was the obligatory comment of ‘That’s safe then?’ and the like. But some one also said that I wasn’t eligible to win it as I was not a member of the club. Should I win, it will be interesting!!!

I arrived at my peg to find that a few fish were crashing about at 15m plus and there were a few carp cruising about. It looked promising. I had match organiser ‘Beamer’ to my left on peg 24, Catkiller was on 23, Pete Cressey drew peg 18, F1 was on about peg 30 and I had Lee ‘Spiceworld’ Helliwell to my right on peg 27, peg 26 was empty. Coco Harrison was on about peg 10 and Tombstone was on peg 14 (or thereabouts).

Some one told me that Tombstone had applied for a Jockeys Riding Licence, but was turned down for being too small. Ho Hum. During the match, whilst he was setting up, he went for a walk and went missing. It was only when the wind blew and moved a blade of grass could we see him. He owns a Brilo Stax box with about 10 empty pole trays on it. I think that they are so that people can see him when he is sat down on his box.

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

Rig one was a Gaz Malham float taking 4x14. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Drennan Barbless Carp eyed hook. I made this rig from the hair backwards in order to fish direct and to also tie a Korum Baitspike onto the rig. I plumbed up at 5m slightly to my right, where I found 4ft of depth.

I also set up one rig to fish at 14m on the deck. I used a .5g Garbolino DC4 float, again with a Baitspike also, on .16 Ultima Power Match line. I used this diameter of line as it is quite thin, yet strong and supple and I wasn’t sure of what size of fish I was going to encounter. I plumbed up and found that it was about 6ft deep.

I then set up 2 shallow rigs as follows:

The first one was a 4 x 12 Gaz Malham float (still not sure of the pattern), which I set up on .16 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Drennan Eyed Carp Match hook, incorporating a Korum Baitspike. I set this rig to fish at half depth (about 3ft deep).

My second shallow rig was a rig that I was going to use by varying the depth, anything from 12” to 2ft deep. I used a .1g Garbolino DC2 float, which was attached to .16 Ultima Power Match line again, fishing direct to a size 14 Drennan Eyed Carp Match hook also with a Baitspike. When fishing shallow for carp and using either pellets or meat as bait, I am a firm believer in using the Baitspikes as you are able to slap your rig and bait down on the water, without the bait falling off.

For bait I had 3 tins of meat, ½ of which, I covered in Carp Vaders’ Predator Plus, which I then placed in the fridge overnight, and the other half ‘au naturale’, I also had some pellets and I took along a tub of Carp Vaders’ Method Mix Groundbait, in order to see whether or not I could put it to use. I mixed the two ‘meats’ together for feeding. Prior to fishing with the meat, I covered it in water for about 5 minutes, this pales the meat. Think about it this way. If you leave meat in water what colour does it go? It pales.

We’re off. At the start of the match, I put some meat in a Fox toss pot and shipped out to 14m with the full depth rig baited up with some red Predator Plus meat. I dropped the meat in and the rig over the top. I was in, literally as quick as that. I was the first one into a fish. Most other people on the match were still potting in their bait. After a brief tussle, I managed to get it into the net. 3lb first put in. Not bad. I re-baited and dropped back in. After a longer wait this time, about 3 minutes, I was in again. I started to feed a few pieces of meat with the catapult. I got my second fish out, this one weighed about 1lb. I managed to catch another one on the deep rig before I started to get linered, time to go shallow me thinks.

I baited up the DC 2 shallow rig with meat on the hook and set the rig to fish at about 2ft deep. I shipped out and dropped in. After a couple of minutes of feeding meat and lifting and slapping the rig back down, I was in. My first fish up in the water. I had it on for no more than 10 seconds before I lost it. Probably foul-hooked. I brought my rig back and threw the scale into my net (not really). I shallowed up a touch, to about 18” deep and went back out. 1 hour into the match and I had about 10lb. The only other person that I could see catching was Spiceworld on the next peg. What was he doing?

After seeing Spiceworld ship out some chopped worm and Predator Plus, I devised a cunning plan. In order to introduce some Predator Plus into the swim, I got the Method Mix and added lots and lots of water to create a sloppy mix. Once it was over-wetted, I then added a huge squirt of Predator Plus to the mix. Here goes.

I put some of the mix in a Fox Tosspot, baited up my hook with a piece of red Predator Plus meat and dropped the mix in and the rig over the top. After some 30 – 40 seconds, the float buried and with the way that it was nodding its head, I was attached to something quite substantial. The Black Hydro tried its best to get dragged from the pole and I found that I had to play the fish at 14m, which is against my religion as I usually, just start to ship back slowly. This was a good fish!!! After a 5 minute battle, I had the fish back to the top 4 kit. I unshipped there and played the fish on that for a while. I started to think that the fish might be foul hooked as I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, when all of a sudden, it’s head poked out of the water. It was a really good fish. After a further 3 or 4 minutes, I managed to fold it into my landing net. I was giddy, and I would estimate that the fish weighed about 14lb. Boy, did I give a huge sigh of relief. I had a rest for a minute or so, to catch my breath.

I then proceeded to catch a carp every put in (considering not many other people were catching) whether I was having to wait 30 seconds or 10 minutes. The fish were moving up and down in the water and I had to keep swapping between the two shallow rigs. Since I had started to introduce the Predator Mix, my peg had turned into a Jacuzzi and bubbles were erupting everywhere. The fish were blowing all over and they were not on the bottom.

The method mix had lots of particles in it (pieces of corn, hemp, maize, pellets and such) and was a very sticky mix until I added copious amounts of water. I think that due to the varying weights and sizes of the particles, and the Predator Plus, the fish were feeding at all depths in the water column and I was having to find them by continuously changing depths and rigs. Every time that I dropped in on the deep rig, I got linered to death and couldn’t connect with a fish.

Halfway through the match, I observed Coco playing a fish. Observed is sometimes a scary word. Just as Coco struck, I am sure a jumbo jet in the jet stream had to swerve to avoid the top of his pole. He then proceeded to try to drag it to the top of the lake whilst trying to bend his pole past the realms of technology and beyond. It looked like he was using a 10m swingtip. After everyone had observed that he can catch a fish, he then went on to net the fish to a round of applause. It must have weighed all of 4lb, but at least everyone knew that he had it on.

With about an hour and a half of the match left, I decided to try to up the pace by shortening the line between the pole float and pole tip and also introduce more meat by the catapult whilst still feeding the Predator Mix. Over the next hour, I managed to snare about 4 fish. Something wasn’t right. I put my other rig back on that was set to fish at half depth and added 3 more fish in the last 20 minutes or so. I had messed up, big time, but would it cost me?

Towards the end of the match, Mark, who is the travelling companion of Captain Mainwaring, snagged the near side reeds using his Daiwa Tournament Professional pole. After a prolonged tussle, he managed to break his pole at the No. 4 and 5 sections, leaving his top 3 floating in the lake. He then grabbed hold of his sections that were behind him and threw them into the trees behind him, with such force that Steve Backley would have been proud of his javelin attempt, breaking some further sections. ‘YOU DIDN’T WANT TO DO THAT, DID YOU?’ At the end of the match, I asked him what line had he been using and he replied 20lb, as he had been done on 16lb line!!! Yeah, whatever.

I was hoping to have 70lb + with a possibility of having nearly 80lb. I had managed to snare a few, but not sure on numbers as I don’t really count the number of fish that I have caught. Coco failed to catch any more fish following the Sonic Boom that was created from his strike.

As I lifted my net out and I saw the big carp again, I had a change of heart about its size. I would estimate that it weighed about 12lb and not my original 14lb guess. I got Spiceworld to take a photo, but upon looking at it, they had made a mini movie and Catkiller was in the back ground taking the piss. Catkiller is that ugly, I won’t bother scaring all you readers away from this or any future blog's by publishing the movie or any stills. My first weigh went 49lb odd and I still had a few fish left in the net.

Spiceworld's first weigh went 53lb 4oz. He had a few fish in his net, this was gonna be close. His second weigh was just shy of 15lb. Bugger - he has ounced me (8oz to be precise).

Spiceworld (He informs me that he is no relation to Ginger Spice), won the match with 68lb 2oz. I was second with 67lb 10oz and Alan (?) was 3rd with 44lb.

Following the results, and after having a chat with a couple of the other lads on the match, I was still left with a question. Why do they call it the ‘Tench Lake’ as there were no more than a dozen tench caught throughout the match by 25 anglers?

2007-08-05T19:42:00.000Z

Went to the Fisho this year for the first time, here are one or two pictures that I took...

So, are we gonna have that quid side bet?

I had a couple of quid on Jacko. Go on my son!!

It was this big - Honest.

Shame about the coat.

I can always dream......

2007-08-05T19:13:00.000Z

Mid July

I am having a rest from The Oaks at the moment due to my inability to be able to catch fish there. On my last match a couple of weeks ago, I managed to tip back somewhere in the region of 25lb, and that is after walking round the lake for about an hour or so. I was on peg 47 on Cedar Lake and I had Andy Hampson to my left on peg 46, with Gary Jubb for company on peg 49. Andy fished his peg all day and tipped back approximately the same weight whilst Jubby and John Allerton, on peg 50, both weighed in approximately 50lb.

So this week, I ended up going with Tyersall club, who are based in Bradford, to Risby Park lakes, just outside of Beverley. I had heard good reports about the place, and the match was taking place on Folly Lake, so I was looking forward to the trip. I offered to give a lift to one of the young lads who goes up to None-Go-Bye lakes, Louis Hamilton aka F1. F1 is very keen and on the way to the venue I got the usual questions, what line, how deep, what hook, what elastic, which peg, what line, what line, how deep, what hook, what elastic, which peg and so on and so on. By the time that we arrived I hurriedly went for a breakfast in order to give my bleeding ears a rest. Whilst eating my breakfast at the onsite café, all I got was would I be ok with one net or do I need to buy another? F1 chill out!!!

Tombstone, Catkiller and Coco to name but a few, where all in attendance. After asking one or two people that had fished the venue before the general consensus was that you needed to draw pegs 25 – 30 as most of the big fish lived there. After breakfast, I had a quick walk round the lake to see what was what. I started at peg 40 and walked round to peg one. To be fair, apart from a few extra reeds on the inside, there was nothing special that separated the so called good pegs from the bad pegs.

By the time of the draw there were 25 of us in attendance. I put my hand in the cap and ended up with peg 14. I would have preferred it on the other side. F1 snared peg 28, Tombstone was on peg 12, Ray Keay was to my left on peg 13, Catkiller was on peg 25 and Coco was on peg 35.

In view of the depth of the lake and the amount of fish swirling in the upper layers of the water, I opted to have a shallow approach as the basis of my attack. I set up the following rigs:

Rig one was a .2 Garbolino DC6 float on .18 Ultima Power Match line tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. This was attached to Purple Hydro elastic. I plumbed up down the side next to nearside reed cover and found that I had approximately 2.5ft of depth next to the reeds.

Rig two was a Gaz Malham float taking 4x10 shot. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Match line. I hair-rigged a Korum Baitspike at the business end of the rig, attached to a size 16 Colmic B500 hook. I attached this to the Drennan pink elastic. I set the rig to fish approximately 12” deep.

Rig three was a duplicate of the above rig, set to fish slightly deeper at up to 2ft deep should the fish drop down in the water a bit.

My fourth rig was set to fish at depth at about 4m where I had 5ft of depth. I set up a .4g Garbolino DC4 on .16 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 12 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. I planned to fish paste on this rig.

For bait I had put 3 tins of luncheon meat through a Mal Bailey 6mm meatcutter. I then separated half of this and covered one half in Carp Vaders’ Predator Plus liquid additive (http://www.carpvader.com/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=3) This gave the bait a red tinge and also added additional flavouring.

I also made some paste from some micro pellets to which I added some scopex liquid, additive also from Carp Vader. In addition to the meat and paste I also had 2 pts of casters, just in case. I was ready.

At the start of the match, I cupped in some micro pellets in at 5m, then I cupped in some casters and meat (both the normal and the Predator Plus) at 13m. I immediately started to fire some casters and meat over the top. I threw some pellets in down the side. I baited up the deep rig with some paste and dropped it in on the 4m line. I waited less than a minute, carp no.1 was in the net. My first fish was about 1.5lb, but at least I was off the mark.

I managed to snare another 3 before I got linered(?) to death. I went out on the shallow rig at 13m. After feeding a few pieces of meat, the float shot under and a ‘ghostie’ carp of about 2.5lb was on it’s way. I fished up in the water for the next couple of hours catching the odd ghostie along with some corking ide, to about 2.5lb.

I fed a few pieces of bread down the margins, when all of a sudden, I heard some slurping. There was about 5 or 6 carp down the side in the marginal reeds, taking the bread off the top. I quickly knocked up another rig consisting of .20 Ultima Powermatch line tied direct to a size 12 Colmic B500. No float, no shot. I baited up the hook with a piece of bread about the size of a 50p piece and dropped in. After about 2 minutes, a ghostie approaching 6 or 7lb came up and slurped on the bread. What an awesome sight. Your heart is thumping, you’re a coiled like a cobra, waiting to strike, when..

Whack. I was in. The carp went mad in the reeds, it shot out into the lake (with the line still in the reeds), then went back into the reeds, like some sort of slalom. The hook pulled and embedded itself in the reeds. I pulled for a break and ended up dragging in some of the reeds instead. I quickly inspected the line and although it had appeared to be stretched, it seemed ok. I’ll tell you what. The Ultima Powermatch line is incredibly strong.

About time to go back out on the shallow rig. I dropped and immediately caught a carp of about 5lb.

I continued to fish up in the water until the last hour, when I decided to go down the side. I had been baiting up down the side with meat and pellets for the duration of the match. I dropped in down the side with meat on the hook, in about 3ft of water and caught a ghostie of about 3lb first drop in. Over the next hour I managed to snare another 8 carp to 4lb. That was it. Time over.

I would estimate that I had about 80 – 85lb, mostly caught on meat either up in the water or down the side.

I thought that I would have a top 3 finish. By the time that the scales arrived, Tombstone had snared 70 odd pounds, which included a fish of 11.5lb. Ray Keay snared 95lb odd, that included a near double figure fish that he played after time. My first weigh went 59lb and my second weigh went 18lb for a 77lb total. I walked round with the scales and watched as I got further away from framing as Peter Cressey plonked 114lb on the scales, all caught on paste at 4m.

One of the last to weigh was ginger Kenny. He weighed in 127lb odd to win the match by using 20m floating pole and floating dog biscuit as bait. I ended up 4th and they only pay top 3. Blinking Eck!!

If I could have done a couple of things different, I could have added another 15lb or so, I reckon. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Halfway through the match, I added more Predator Plus to my meat to form a red cloud that hung in the water. When I did this, I managed to catch more carp than ide. Maybe if I had gone down the side half an hour earlier, I could have added a few more.

As far as the weights go, F1 weighed in 44lb, which was a good result for the ‘young un’. The lowest weight weighed in by those that knew(?) what they were doing was 49lb by Coco Harrison. Nobody DNW’d. What a place. There were 6 other 70lb plus weights without the top 4. What a place.

If you decide to have a dabble, take your net as you can use them whilst pleasure fishing.

Tightlines!!!

2007-07-11T21:10:00.000Z

Saturday 7th July 2007

My lad had his 12th birthday party last Sunday, and I spent the day with a group of kids running round a wood with a paintballing gun. If you haven’t been paintballing before, I suggest that you have a go. It was a better day due to the weather as it has rained on and off (mostly on) for the last 3 weeks or so and the place was muddy, so when you dived to the ground in some sort of SAS manoeuvre you got absolutely blathered in mud.

One of the games consisted of plastic barrel at the halfway point between two teams and the idea was to keep the barrel on the oppositions side of the field. I had the task of making the first run for the barrel (minus my gun), whilst all and sundry took pot-shots at me. Have a go if you get chance. I am contemplating organising a little ‘do’ with a few mates, hopefully in the near future if I can get the commitment.

Anyway’s, back to the fishing. Due to the party last weekend, there is no report, so I made up for it with a trip to Hosticks ponds, Beverley.

I made midweek arrangements to pick up the Anaemic Milk Bottle, who was formerly known as ‘Dudone’. On a recent match one of the anglers said to Dudone, ‘You know what you need don’t you? Dudone replied ‘What’. The angler said ‘A good suntan’.

As most of the readers in the UK are aware (and no doubt some of the readers from other shores), there are certain areas of England that have been under 6ft plus of water. Up until a few days ago, there were only parts of Doncaster and Sheffield that had suffered. Kingston upon Hull has also had similar problems and Hosticks had their fair share. There are 3 lakes on the complex and the rain was so severe that the lakes merged to become one and you needed chest waders just to get to your peg and the car park was under 2ft of water.

After a good breakfast at the onsite café courtesy of Val, I was ready for the draw. Steve Cromie turned up and a £2 side bet was set up. At the draw Cromie drew number 2, whilst I was number 7 and Anaemia pulled out number 15. With the matches being a rover, the number indicated your turn to choose your own peg.

Cromie chose the peg that had won the match on Thursday, Kingfisher peg 1. I snared Moat peg 29 and by the time that it was Anaemia’s turn, he didn’t have much of a choice, so ended up on Island peg 13. He got to his peg to find it was under water. A quick word with the match organisers, and he had moved to peg 12. By the time that the match had started he had moved again to Island peg 18. Don’t ask!!!

At the start of the match I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig one was a Gaz Malham special, I say a Gaz Malham special as I am not sure what pattern the float is. I like the Malham floats as they are virtually indestructible and you can fish them next to reeds/snags etc with no worries of damaging the floats. I set the rig up on .16 Ultima Power Match. I set the rig up to fish across to the island and in view of the far side being a slope, I settle on about 2ft deep. The float took 4x12, which roughly equates to 3 No. 8 and 1 x No.11 Preston Stotz. This rig was attached to the Pink Drennan hollow elastic. I also plumbed up down the side on the top 3 kit until I found the same depth allowing the float to have a dual purpose (nearside and far side).

I set up the usual .2g Garbolino DC6 float on .18 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. This was attached to black hydro. Again, I plumbed up across to the island in the same spot as my first rig.

My 3rd rig was a .4g Garbolino DC4 float. This was set up on .18 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 12 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. Black Hydro completed this set up. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found that I had about 4.5ft of depth.

For bait, I had 2pts of micro pellets, 1 tin of corn and a large ball of paste made from my micro pellets.

At the all in, I potted in some pellets to the base of the far slope and put in a few grains of corn and pellets on the inside line.

I went across to the far side with the Gaz Malham rig baited up with pellet on the hook and a Toss pot full of micro pellets. I tipped the pellets in and dropped my rig over the top. The float hadn’t even settled before the elastic was dragged from the pole tip as the fish made a mad dash for the car park (it would have made it had it not been for the fact that the water was back in the lake!!!).

A carp of 2lb was soon subdued and in the net. I rebaited and dropped in again. I waited a little longer before the elastic was dragged out again. Another carp, this one was about 1lb or so. I repeated the process and got a million missed bites before I connected with an ide of about 10 oz. A roach and some more ide followed. Time to move to another spot.

I dropped in, in another spot to the right of where I had been fishing and immediately caught a carp of about 2lb. Ide and roach followed. I dropped in down the side to my left and caught what turned out to be my smallest carp of the day at about 8oz.

All the while, I could see carp milling about up in the water. I decided to try shallow. I dropped in and got ‘dinked’ to death. I was getting a million indications, the pellets were getting dragged off the hook and there was nothing there. When I finally connected with the ‘dinks’, I managed to snare an Ide of about 2lb, now these where worth catching.

I dropped in again and suffered the same problem before I caught an ide of about 10oz. I switched to corn on the hook, but fished up in the water. I sprinkled a few micro pellets over the top of the float. The float buried and I caught my biggest carp so far. It was a common approaching 4lb. I had found the method, corn up in the water, of so I thought.

After about 30 minutes and one more carp, I decided to sack that method as the fish weren’t going mad for it. I dropped in on paste down the middle and managed to snare some more ide. I couldn’t catch a carp for the life of me.

I went over to the far side with paste on the hook and immediately caught a carp before the ide and the roach moved back in. There was now only 2 hours of the match remaining and I would estimate that I had about 25lb to 30lb in the net. I made a decision. I would try to catch the ide and the carp closer in, on the top 3 kit rather than shipping 14m of pole across to the far side and wasting time shipping in and out.

As you can see, I was now on plan 20-Z.

I plumbed up with the deep rig to find the depth on the top 3 and found approximately 3ft of depth. I baited up with paste and fed some micro pellets and corn by hand. The float had barely settled before I caught my first ide of about 12oz. Sorted. I snared about 10 ide and a couple of roach before I caught my first carp down the side. This one weighed approximately 5lb. Over the remainder of the match I would catch predominantly ide/roach/skimmers before catching a carp, but I was keeping them coming.

Now, let me ask a question, why don’t anglers know better????? Whilst fishing, I must have received 4 or 5 calls from anglers asking ‘How are you getting on?’, ‘What weight have you got?’, ‘What time do you finish?’, ‘Have you tried….?’, etc, etc. This is whilst I am trying to get a method sorted or whilst I am in bagging mode.

By the end of the match, I felt as though I had got a game plan together and I was catching steadily away.

I had caught 23 carp averaging 1.5 – 2lb and about 40lb of silvers. Phil Chapman was admitting to 28/29 carp with the biggest one approaching 10lb and about 6lb of silver fish.

The scales arrived at Phil’s peg first and he plonked 80lb on the scales. The lad next to him managed to snare 122lb (what had Phil been doing, watching him). There was another 120lb + weight from peg 14. The lad next to me weighed in 90lb and I put 39lb of mainly silvers and small carp (carp to about 1.5lb) on the scales. My second net went 45lb (this was made up of larger carp, about 7 of them, and larger skimmers, tench and ide). This gave me a combined weight of 83lb odd.

As I was being weighed in, there was a roach in my net that would have weighed no more than about ½ oz wet through. I said to the Anaemic One that I had caught it on paste. His reply of ‘God, did you mate?’ was unbelievable.

The only person that Phil managed to beat on our lake was a blind 80 year old who had a bell at the end of his pole for bite detection.

123lb won, 122 – second, 120lb 3rd (Steve Cromie), 114lb, 113lb. First and second came off my lake, the next 6 placings came off Kingfisher Lake.

I had had a thoroughly enjoyable day and started to enjoy myself when I had finally got my method sorted. This is the first time that I had been on this lake and I have learnt a lot for the next time that I am on this lake.

Ultima Power Match Line

After using the Power Match line for the last few weeks or so, I am a true convert. The line is incredibly strong, yet very supple and very abrasion resistant. I have been using the .20 on a local lake fishing to the staging on the next peg, the fish have been running round the post and today, I have used the .16 and .18 breaking strains with no worries. The largest carp ran through some fine tree routes from the overhanging willow tree and I managed to pull it back through.

The final thing that I must add is that ‘I haven’t been broke (yet)’.

2007-06-25T21:49:00.001Z

Just like to say a quick hello to my readers in:

Oslo, Mumbai, Nairobi, Mugla, Washington, Wood Dale, Tucson and BROADSTAIRS

Thanks for reading peeps.

2007-06-25T17:33:00.000Z

Darrell Taylor was trying to convince John 'Chappy' Chapman that fish eat water. I asked Darrell how he had got on after yesterdays match. He said not very well. I said 'Imagine how many more fish you would have caught if they hadn't been full up on all of the water that they had eaten'.

Billy Brierley was overheard to say that he tried water, but was having trouble keeping it on the hook.

On a more serious note, there is only one person to blame for all of the drains being blocked and that is Haircut. He got his wig stuck in a swimming pool filter and this has had catastrophic effect on the UK as a whole in view of all of the rain.

2007-06-25T17:31:00.000Z

A quick update….

I have fished a few of the evening matches at a local lake called None-Go-Bye. It is on a farm and the owners are still learning and boy, do they have a lot to learn.

I have fished a total of 7 evening matches and won money in all but one of them. I have had weights of 20lb (2nd), 42lb (1st), 47lb (1st), 38lb (2nd) and a few other weights in between. This isn’t bad for a 3 hour evening match, where the bonus fish are about 2lb and the main stamp of fish are in the 10 – 12oz bracket. I have been fishing pellet across to the farside and I have just started to fish paste down the middle.

I have started to fish with a maggot and Groundbait approach on the Sessay Opens and the weights are steadily increasing, the first time that I used it I caught 36lb (13lb one side of me and 7 fish the other) for 2nd in section. I have also had 57lb (with a DNW (about 20lb) one side and 22lb the other) for a section win and about 10th overall. I used it a couple of weeks ago and had 42lb, again, coming 2nd in my section with 44lb winning the section. I got broke by one as I couldn’t get my top kit back on to my pole and it bottomed out my elastic. Dave Pimlott had 57lb one side of me and I had a DNW on the other side. I used it yesterday and had 52lb with 74lb one side (Dave Pimlott (again) – 4th overall) for 2nd in section again.

I went to Woodland View, Droitwich for a charity do taking the format of the old ‘uns v young ‘uns and took Total Fishing.com poster ‘Budnudd’ with me. I quickly renamed Budnudd – Dudone as it had a better ring to it than budnudd. I had a quick chat to Giles to see if he had any top tips and to also say thank you for helping me to win £600 quid when I first started to us the HITL method. I managed to draw Front Deans pool, peg 9. I had Steve May a couple of pegs away on about peg 6 or 7 and Corndawg was next peg to Steve. A quick quid was struck up with both. I had Steve’s Lad – God, opposite me and Dudone was within earshot on Front Deans peg 3. Giles was unsure about which way to swing due to his age as the average age was 42 years old. If you were this old or older, you was classed as an oldie. Giles stood there with a look of what do I do. I am only 42. A quick shove from yours truly and he was soon on his way to the old ‘uns.

I fished with caster up in the water and ended up with 31lb for 2nd in my section (again). Gary Thorpe won my section with 47lb. The lad next to me was tapping with water, I thought that this wasn’t allowed and I told him on a couple of occasions. But he still continued. God managed to win our lake with 80 odd pounds. Peter1984 (not sure of his real name, who organised the match) was a clear winner with 168lb. Giles was 2nd with 118lb. I was on the wrong lake and wrong side. Everyone on the opposite bank had 40 – 80lb, whereas on my bank we mainly struggled. Steve ended up with 14lb odd and Corndawg had 15lb odd. I had to beat an old fella next to me (Mike someone was his name) and he had 4 fish. Job done. I won an envelope for 2nd in section, which I donated to the cause (and additional £35).

Back at Hosticks, I was 14th to draw, so all I did was to look around for a bit of room. Dudone was in attendance again, courtesy of yours truly. He was even further down the draw than I was. I ended up on Kingfisher peg 26 and Dudone ended up on Kingfisher peg 24. He only managed to get done 8 times and ended up with about 8 fish out. I fished maggot for a couple of hours and then switched to pellet to end up with 70 odd pounds and a most enjoyable days fishing.

I have just taken delivery of some Ultima Power Match line and I am totally impressed with it on my initial trials. I used it at None Go Bye on the old original lake. I rigged up my G995 pole with some Red Hydro elastic and rigged up with .20 line direct to a size 12 hook. I plumbed up about 5” away from a lily bed. I used a short power No. 4 which had a small crack in it that I had taped up, so I wouldn’t be too bothered if I broke the section or not. I let Jasper have a go and he only went and broke the said section as a large carp made a big for freedom. After a 4 minute tussle (if you could call it that), we managed to grab hold of the end of the section that had broken and tried to pull the fish back through the lily bed, but no such luck. It managed to break me, but not without a battle first.

On Sunday, I gave a bit of line to Dave Pimlott and asked him to break it. He couldn’t, and it nearly cut his hands. I did the same with Andy Stonner and the same happened. I then showed them the breaking strain. 0.14!!!!

That’s all for now, but more will follow.

Tightlines

Mike

2007-06-10T21:37:00.000Z

About time for an update.

In the last few weeks since my last match I have fished at Hosticks, Cudmore (Arena), None-Go-Bye, Oaks, Sessay and Woodland View, so here goes.

I managed to get on a match at Cudmore on the Arena pool with a club from around Leeds. I put up a thread on Total Fishing discussion forum asking for a little bit of advice and Steve May told me to give Jellybaby a ring to find out what to do. I spoke with Andy, who advised that I fish the Method feeder for the first hour, then go in on the pole at 14m with meat on the hook. The lake is full of barbel in the 1lb bracket.

Including pools and the coach hire, it only cost me 20 quid. Whilst waiting for the club to organise the draw, someone suggested a £1 winner take all. I suggested that we make it a £2 winner take all, just to add a bit of fun. There were 20 of us there for the match on a 30 peg lake. I was left to sort out the pegging on a peg 2, miss one basis. We were ready. I put my hand in the cap and managed to draw peg 20. I walked to my peg and made a quick call to Andy May to just find out a little bit more about the peg. Jellybaby said that peg 19 is a flyer, but I should do ok off it. I asked about Jasper’s peg (peg 30) and he said that he was on a good silverfish peg if he fished chopped worm and caster.

I set up according to what Jellybaby said so I had:

Method/Bomb rod. I have just loaded the reel with .18 Ultima Power Plus. I attached the method and tied on a .16 Ultima Power Plus hooklength. I attached a snap swivel allowing me to pre-load a method feeder whilst one was in the water. It would also give me the option of clipping on a bomb at a later stage.

I set up 3 pole rigs, one at 6m to my left, one down the edge and one for the 14.5/16m line.

The 6m rig was a .3g Garbolino DC 6 on .16 Ultima Power Plus line straight through to a size 14 Gamakatsu pellet/corn hook. The depth at 6m was 3.5ft deep.

The inside rig was a .1g Garbolino DC6 float tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I plumbed up down the side until I found 1.5ft of depth, this was about 1m from the bank.

My final rig was a .5g Drennan Roach set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic B500 hook. At 15m, I had 4.5ft of depth.

At the start of the match, I loaded the method with a bit of Browning Champions Choice Groundbait. Baited up with 3 red maggots on the hook and lobbed it about 1m off the island (it was that far from where I was sitting). I then proceeded to catapult some casters/hemp and meat to the pole lines.

After 5 minutes, I wound the method feeder back in, reloaded and fired again. I proceeded in this manner all the time waiting a little longer in between casts (I would have said bites, but I didn’t have any!!!). After feeding the pole line for about 45 minutes or so, I decided it was time to have a look.

By this time, Catkiller Hawkins on the next peg had managed to snare 3 large carp for an estimated 20lb or so and I hadn't had a fish on the method. But, according to the game plan, there was still time.

I caught a barbel first put in. Then another, then another, the peg was solid. I had a quick drop in at 6m to see if I could either catch a bonus carp of to see whether or not I could the barbel closer.

After about 5 minutes and nothing, enough was enough. I continued to bait the margin swim with neat meat (no hemp or casters – and for those down south that read this, that may be said as caaaassters).

I went back out to the 15m line and plundered the peg. I swapped the method feeder to a straight bomb and every so often I would chuck the bomb just past the pole line and snare another barbel. Craig at the next peg was struggling as was Jasper. Daz ‘Coco the clown’ Harrison was catching the odd fish which included carp to 8lb. He managed to get his rig snagged and the float shot back and went into his thumb. Diddums!!

Catkiller hadn’t managed to snare much more to add to his initial tally. That was it. Match over. I don’t know how I have faired as I can only see about half of the lake and I haven’t been watching them all match. I packed up and followed the scales. Steve ‘Captain Mainwaring’ Hargreaves was moaning about the tails swirling down the side, but he was too scared to drop his pole rig down the side – WUSS!!!

Pete Cressey set the standard by plonking 37lb on the scales, which included a double figure zoo creature. Coco had a couple of weighs and managed to snare 46lb – how the bleeding heck had he done that? I had seen him catch a couple of fish, but not that many. Daz ‘Tombstone’ Aveyard was a DNW again – might have to start calling him Empty Net.

I was next to weigh. I lifted my first net out and plonked 27lb and a few ounces on the scales. This was my heaviest net. I got my second net out – I needed 19lb or more. It was looking close. I plonked the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round past 18lb, then 19lb and finally settled at 20lb odd for a combined weight of 48lb dead. Catkiller managed to weigh in 25lb. There was only Glenn ‘Nightwatch’ Crossthwaite left to weigh who I had seen catch some fish. Nightwatch fished a tidy match and managed 39lb of silver fish and barbel by fishing chopped worm.

I had won, including the £2 optional.

I had enjoyed today. I had caught a few fish, won a few quid (which I shared with Jasper) and had a nice relaxing day.

More blog to follow.

Tightlines

Big Pellet.

2007-05-14T21:37:00.000Z

Saturday 12th May 2007 - Hostick, Beverley.

I was introduced to Hostick’s, Beverley, last week by John ‘Magnum’ Clarke. I ended up with 59lb for nowhere. I had about 30 carp and nothing bigger than 4lb. Steve Cromie was on the next peg and had about 15 carp for 71lb, so I was a quid down. Kingfisher 30 won the match with 136lb and someone had a fish out that went 22lb odd.

I managed to get a few, but I also got done a couple of times, well, 3 to be exact. Once on .16 Ultima Power Plus and twice on .18 Ultima Power Plus. Whilst fishing down the side on the top 4 kit geared up with Red Hydro elastic, I struck into a fish, the elastic started to extend from the top kit at a rate of knots and before I knew it, I had been done. That was on the .18 line. Blinking Eck!!! I was stunned and sat there in amazement for about 5 hours, well, that was what it felt like.

I persuaded Jasper and Rockin Ronnie to have a dabble this week. They agreed to be at mine at 6:30 and they would follow me down there. After being on the ’62 for about 10 minutes, it was obvious that they either wasn’t going to or couldn’t follow me and I had to resort to driving slower than Miss Daisy. We were going that slow, my car had it’s reverse lights on most of the way. Once we left the ’62, they had to follow me, all I could see was a plume of smoke coming from the back of their car as it struggled to reach 40!!!

We all arrived safe and sound in plenty of time to have a walk around all 3 lakes, Kingfisher, Moat and Island to see how the wind was affecting the lakes. Fish were rolling all over on all of the lakes.

A hearty filling brekkie was enjoyed by all (good value at only £4), then it was into the draw. Let me explain a little here. The matches at Hostick’s are Rover Matches. They put in a number in numerical order for every angler that turns up. When they have closed the draw, they start at Number 1 and ask that angler to chose his/her peg all the way to the last angler.

The Draw

I put my hand in the bag and managed to pull out No. 1. Bloody Eck!!!!! There are 3 lakes in use today, with 30 pegs on each lake. Where do I go? Do I go on the ‘Wires’ on Island lake or pegs 1 & 30 on Moat Lake or Pegs 1 or 30 on Kingfisher Lake?

It took me all of 3 nanoseconds to make my mind up. I had already decided where I wanted to be even before I drew. KINGFISHER 30. Kingfisher 30 won the match last Saturday with 136lb and it also won Bank Holiday Monday’s match with nearly 200lb (saying that he did have about 10 empty pegs both sides, I kid you not). The match held yesterday was only won with 80lb and that wasn’t from Kingfisher 30. So we will see.

In view of waiting to see what Jasper and Rockin’ had chosen (Island 1 & 30), I arrived at my peg to find that I had Little George on Kingfisher 1 and Phil Chapman on Kingfisher 29. Phil was glad to draw next to me as he knew that he would get a mention in my blog. Well Phil, I have mentioned your name and I won’t do so again for the rest of the blog, or until at least I mention how we all faired. On Kingfisher lake, as with Moat, you walk on to the island and fish outwards. Pegs 1 and 30 are either side of the bridge that everyone uses to walk on to the island.

The rules at Hostick’s are, for want of another word, different. You can only use the following:

White maggots
Brown pellets
Corn
Worms
White breadcrumb
Brown breadcrumb

And that’s about it. If you are caught with anything else in your possession, you are disqualified immediately. No questions.

You can use paste provided that it is made from your own pellets or it is the ‘Easy-paste’ that can be bought on site. Jasper reckons that Easypaste is not dissimilar to window putty. I dunno, I’ve never tried it.

Someone once got caught with mixed red and white maggots and was disqualified. Do you know what the bailiff did? No, I didn’t think so. I only went and chucked the maggots in the lake, then disqualified the bloke. If he doesn’t want them to be fed, why chuck them in the lake?

Also, if you catch a fish over 8lb, you need to go looking for the scales and weigh it separately before returning it to the lake.

My Peg

Upon surveying my peg, I decided on 3 lines of attack, one slightly to my left across to the far side at 14m (at about 11 o’clock), the 2nd was at 1 o’clock to where the bridge meets the far bank and the other line was down the side to my right on the top 4 kit. I set up the following rigs:

The rig that was going to be used at 11 o’clock was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float shotted with 3 No. 9 Preston Stotz. This rig was set up on .18 Ultima Power Plus line tied direct to a size 16 Preston PR24 hook. This rig was attached to Black Hydro elastic through a power top two kit. Upon plumbing up, I found that I had about 18” – 2ft of depth.

The rig that I was going to use at 1 o’clock (which hopefully was going to be my main catching area) was a 4 x 10 Gaz Malham float (diamond shaped with a glass stem). I used this float as I feel that it was going to be a lot more robust than most of the other floats that I have in my box. This was shotted using No. 9 Preston Stotz. I was using .18 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Drennan Match Carp Barbless Eyed hook. I plumbed up to find that was fishing on a steep slope, so I set my rig to 2ft deep and plumbed around until I was happy with where I was planning on fishing. I set the rig up ‘Hook In The Loop’ style. With the 2 shot being so close to the hook, this would ensure that I wasn’t fishing too far overdepth. I attached this rig to a power top kit containing the pink Drennan Hollow core elastic.

My 3rd and final rig was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float, which I shotted with No.8 Preston Stotz. This rig was set up on .20 Ultima Power Plus line, tied direct to a size 14 Drennan Match Carp Barbless Eyed hook. This rig was attached to Red Hydro elastic. I plumed up down the side on a top 2 + 2 and found that I had about 2.5ft of depth, again, sloping away to 4ft.

That’s it. I was ready. For bait, I had micro pellets, 4mm expanders, 6mm expanders, 1 small tin of corn and I mixed up some micro pellets to make some paste with.

All In

At the start of the match, I put some bait in down the edge and also across to the 1 o’clock swim. I baited up the DC6 rig and put some micro pellets in the Fox Tosspot. I shipped out, tipped the bait in, dropped the rig over the top and waited. But not for long. After about 30 seconds, the float dipped. The strike was met with a gudgeon flying out of the water. I was hyped up.

I threw the fish in my keep net in disgust. I re-baited and shipped back across to the same line. I dropped in again and baited over the top. The float disappeared instantly. Another gudgeon. I put a couple of pot fulls of micro pellets over the top and decided to leave that line alone.

I baited up the Malham special with a 4mm pellet. I put some pellets in a Tosspot and shipped across to the far side. I dropped the rig in and barely had chance to tip the bait in, before the rig and elastic was soon away. A ghost carp of about 1.5lb was soon in the net. They are easy to handle on the pink Drennan Hollowcore.

I plundered this line for the next couple of hours whilst continually feeding down the inside and also across to the 11 o’clock line. After a couple of hours, I would estimate that I had about 30lb of small mirror carp and ghost carp. The biggest fish may have gone 2.5lb and the smallest would have been about 12oz.

I felt as though now was the time to start alternating the 1 o’clock line and the down the side line. I was also having a nightmare with all the crap and scum and floating reeds that were constantly being blown into my peg. I was on occasions having difficulty dropping the rig in the same place twice. I was having to keep trying to push the crap under the bridge out of the way. At the start of the match, I took loads of stuff out of the peg with the landing net and I cleared the peg out to about the length of my landing net stick. It was really starting to ‘P’ me off. Darren Taylor came looking for the scales. He had managed to snare one of an estimated 20lb +. Blinking Eck, what did he have to go with it?

Little George to my right had managed to snare a few, including 2 fish for 18lb. Where were my big fish? At least I was fairing better than Empty Net to my left. After 2 hours, he was admitting to an ‘Empty Net’.

First drop in down the side resulted in a little ghost carp of about 1lb. I then swapped between the two lines. Towards the end of the match, I could see the odd better fish come out from under the bridge. I quickly adapted the Malham special rig to about 8” deep (including the float) and dropped it in to the edge of the bridge. I was tapping the water, when all of a sudden, the pink elastic was trying it’s best to get in Little George’s net. After a scary tussle (with me trying to stop my pole from crashing into the bridge), I slipped my net under my biggest fish of the day, a carp of about 6lb.

I immediately went back down the side, where I managed to snare a 4lb’er. I had by now switched to paste down the inside and had all but sacked the farside lines due to them being unfishable with all the scum and crap in the peg.

At 4:05, I estimated that I had a good 70 – 80lb, and more if I was lucky. I baited up with pellet and dropped back in down the side. By 4:12, I hadn’t had a bite, but in view of the match finishing at 4:15, I might as well wait it out.

By 4:18, no-one had shouted all out. Sugar!!!, the match didn’t finish until 4:30. I quickly rebaited with a small ball of paste about the size of a small marble and dropped back in. I managed to snare 3 fish in the last ten minutes. That was it time. The heavens opened and it absolutely pee’d it down whilst packing up.

Little George was the first to weigh, after 3 weighs, he managed to put 159lb on the scales, including the 18lb that he had weighed in earlier. As scales help, I followed the scales round and recorded 3 x 90lb weights (I hadn’t got that, by a long shot), plus backup weights of 60 – 80lb’s. Empty Net failed to weigh in and had in fact nearly packed up by the end of the match. It was my turn to weigh in. I lifted my net out and immediately knew that I had more than I thought. My first net bottomed out 60lb scales. I put some of the fish into my 2nd keepnet (yes, I had used to nets and I had fish in both of them) to lighten the scales. My first weigh went 57lb. I tipped some (not all) of the fish from my 2nd net onto the scales and recorded 53lb. That was my 2nd weigh and I still had some fish left. My remaining weigh went 15lb 8oz. For the none mathematicians amongst you, that equates to 125lb 8oz.

Stu Baron (Woody’s Twin Brother) made some sarky comments about me only having 80lb. I hadn’t caught a ‘ton’ before, how would I know what one looks like.

I have finally reached a milestone. I have managed to weigh in over a ton. More importantly (but only just), how had I faired on the match. I ended up 4th (yes 4th with 125lb) due to Moat pegs 2 & 29 throwing up 138lb and 133lb respectively.

What a day.

This will definitely be one of the days that I will always remember, and unlike last week, I hadn’t even been broken once.

I will also be coming here again, most likely next Saturday!!!

2007-05-14T08:22:00.000Z

No prizes for guessing who this handsome devil is.

I wonder how much he paid for his perm? Is this Haircut No. 2?

2007-05-11T08:25:00.000Z

My Lindholme Charity Match

Well, the day finally upon me. My travelling partner for the day had blobbed, so I was left to my own devices. I set off from home at about 7:00 and arrived for 8:00. I quickly paid on, and drew my peg. Willows 43. Peg 42 wasn't in. Great and empty peg one side.

On the quid front, I put up a thread on http://www.total-fishing.com/ inviting people to have a quid with me, limited to 10. I ended up with the following candidates:

Cornfrog
Juzzy
Dave Hedgehog (RobB)
Beanhead
Respect
BNF
Max Factor
Avid Merrion
Poorbloke
God's Dad if he's going.

I went for breakfast and then tried to glean as much info as possible. I saw Rob Hitchens and asked him about my peg in view of him being a 'Venue Expert'. He told me naff all, why you might ask. Only because he was on the next peg - Willows 41. to be fair, he told me that I was stuck in a corner. If the wind was blowing that way, I would have a field day. I arrived at my peg to find that the wind was.......................

Blowing away from me into the opposite corner. No fish for me today. But hey, it's a charity match and that is what the day is all about. If you win the match today, you will only get the same money as someone who wins their section, besides, the raffle is later on and I had already bought a few tickets.

I went in search of the quid bets to see who had turned up and to check that they hadn't chickened out. Dave Hedgehog (RobB) wasn't in attendance and neither were a couple of the others. I'll sort it out at the end.

For bait I had pellets, pellets and more pellets. Oh, and some corn and a couple of pints of casters.

I set up the following rigs:

Top 3 kit was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float tied to .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 16 Colmic B500. I plumbed up at the edge of the reed bed to my left and found that I had about 3ft of depth.

Rig 2 was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float, again, tied to .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to as size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I plumbed up at 8m to my left into open water. The depth was about 4ft. I swung the rig round to 13m directly infront of me. The depth there was just over 4ft. Rather than mess about changing depth all the time, I set up another rig exactly the same to fish at 13m.

I set up another rig for the 8m line in order to fish the caster. I set up a Drennan Roach on .12 Fox Match Plus line, to this I tied a size 18 Kamasan B611 hook.

My final rig was a .2g Colmic thick nylon bristled float. I set this up on .18 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook.

The rigs may seem a bit on the heavy side, but there was a lot of reeds in the peg, also the fish can be quite big and I wanted to get everything out that I hooked. As is usually the case.

Jonny Howard was walking around reminding all and sundry that it was a 14.5m pole limit. I had set up my bomb and waggler rod, the only problem being that with me being hemmed in, if I cast my bomb out to 20m directly infront of me, I would be fishing Rob Hitchens' 6m line (that can't be a bad thing, surely) and I couldn't go to my left due to the angler on the next peg.

At the all in, I potted in some pellets at 13m and down the side to the reeds. I threw a couple of handfuls of micro pellets to the edge of the reeds on my top 3 kit. I baited up the Drennan Roach rig with a couple of casters and put some caster and corn in a Tosspot pole cup. I shipped out, tipped the bait in and dropped the rig over the top.

I caught a roach immediately. I rebaited and dropped back in, another roach followed. After a couple more roach and an ide, I snared a small tench of about 1lb. I dropped back in and latched onto something a little bigger. I don't know how big it was, as it broke me. My .12 didn't last very long then......!!!

Rob Hitchens on the next peg, was chucking the bomb up the middle of the lake with corn on the hook and was loose feeding a few grains of corn over the top. He had managed to get a couple of carp before he got broke.

Whilst sorting out my caster rig, I dropped in down the side with corn on the hook. I managed to hook a decent carp, as I played it, the carp run towards me, then went solid. The water was boiling in front of me. The carp had run around a couple of stick ups and was going round and round. After about 10 minutes trying to drag the carp off the stickups, nothing was happening. I was left with no other alternative except get the landing net and start prodding, which as most of you will no is either a do or die. In this instance, it was a die. the carp shed the hook. I managed to get the rig back, but it was looking a little worse for wear as the line had started to chafe, but at least it hadn't broke. That's another rig that I am going to have to sort out.

Halfway through the match, one of the lads was complaining at one of the other participants for feeding too much. One of the fellas near him told him to shut his cakehole as it is a charity match and not to be taken too seriously.

The caster rig was now sorted. I rebaited the caster rig and dropped back in on the caster line. After 5 minutes, I had managed nothing - not a thing, zero. I big potted some corn and caster whilst I went back down the side.

I managed to get a couple of carp down the side and a couple of chub. I went out to my 13m line and managed to snare a couple of fish from there.

The peg then seemed to die. I was struggling to get a fish from any of my lines. In desparation for the last hour or so, I came close in, to the reeds on my top 3 kit to be precise. 1st drop in resulted in a tench, 3 more followed before I caught a carp of about 2lb.

That was it, match over.

Rob Hitchens had emptied it. I had had a few, but nowhere near enough. By the time that the scales had arrived, beanhead had put 40lb on the scales, Rob Hitchen put 50lb on the scales and yours truly managed to snare 17lb 13oz. The next 5 or 6 anglers failed to trouble the scales. Graham Edgerley (?) who was at the back of me managed to snare 26lb odd, but you should have seen his peg. Wind blowing into it, fish rolling all over. Graham, just kidding mate.

The quids result: I owed (or should I say paid) a quid to Billy2fish, Beanhead and Cornfrog. I managed to snare a quid from Avid Merrion and Respect. I should have got a quid from Pourerkev, blunthook and maxfactor, but it seems to have slipped their memory.

RAFFLE TIME

I purchased a couple more raffle tickets and waited in anticipation. By the end of the raffle, I managed to snare a fleece and a couple of goodie bags with some pellets and the like in them.

All in all, it was an enjoyable day out in which everyone deserves a massive well done for supporting the event either by donating a raffle prize or taking part. Nearly £6,000 was raised from the day and although some areas/lakes had fished hard, it wasn't about winning. IT WAS THE TAKING PART THAT COUNTED.

WELL DONE EVERYONE.

2007-05-09T21:51:00.000Z

Sunday 29th April 2007

The Oak Lakes, Sessay.

I arrived in time to sort the rabble out and by the time of the draw, there were 62 of us on the match.

Becky, the tackle shop helper, asked me, why do I call Haircut, ‘Haircut’ and also, who was he? I said to her that she will know when he arrives?

About 10 minutes later, there was a loud shout ‘hey up Mick, how’s it hanging?’. I said to Becky, ‘Haircut is here’. She asked him why do they call you haircut. I asked him to remove his hat. Becky responded by saying ‘do they cut round a bowl when they do your hair?. Laugh?, I pissed myself.

Anyways, back to the match. I put my hand in the draw bag and snared peg 25. I wasn’t unhappy, considering that I framed off peg 26 last week. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Meatcutter Bailey on peg 26, Ian Bowman on peg 27 and Nigel Ward (I think) to my left on peg 24. I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig one was the usual DC6 float taking .2g (shotted up with no. 8 and 9 Preston Stotz). The rig line was Preston Powerline .11 diameter with the usual Hoop incorporating a size 18 Gamakatsu Pellet eyed hook. I plumbed up across to the farside and found 18” of depth.

Rig two, was a standard rig, in terms of this rig didn’t incorporate the Hoop, but was set up with the same float as above, with the difference being the hook (a size 16 Preston PR23) and the rig line, Maver Genesis .12 dia. Again, I plumbed up across (to ensure that the depths were the same, due to stretch factors in fishing line, you could be fishing at slightly differing depths).

My third and final rig was a deep rig to fish down the middle. This incorporated a .4g Garbolino DC6 float. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Preston PR23 hook. I plumbed up down the middle to find that I had 5ft of depth. For this rig, I was slightly over-gunned by using the Pink Drennan Hollow core elastic. The reason for this was that I was expecting to catch a couple of barbel, and this elastic will help me to get them under control a little bit quicker/easier.

For bait, I had some meat and hemp left over from yesterday, some corn and some pellets (micro pellets for feed and 4mm pellets for the hook). I quickly struck up a quid with both Meatcutter and Wardy. I shouted to Bowie, that I wasn’t having a quid with him as he is too much of a superstar.

At the all in, I put a small Garbolino pot full of meat and hemp down the middle. I baited up the hoop rig with pellet and put some micro pellets in a Toss pot and went over to the far side. I tipped the bait in and waited, and waited. Usually, I have managed to snare a fish before now.

After about 10 minutes, the float buried, I struck in anticipation. A gudgeon about 1 oz, lept from the water and shed the hook. Not a good sign at all.

I re-baited, put some more pellets in the tosspot and went back to the far side. I tipped the bait in and waited. After about 5 minutes, the float buried. Another gudgeon. Blinking Eck!!!!

I continued in this vain for the next 20 minutes or so, whilst I waited for the fish to gain in confidence down the middle. I managed to snare one little carp.

I put some meat in a tosspot and baited up the deep rig. I dropped in and waited. Too long!!! after about 10 minutes, the float buried and a carp of about 2lb was going mental. I managed to get it into the keepnet after a brief tussle.

Meatcutter on the next peg, was getting the odd fish by fishing meat across to the far side. Wardy on the next peg, the otherside, was fairing about as well as I was. Not good.

Over the remainder of the match, I struggled for bites. I was getting liners on the deep rig and if I came shallow, I couldn't get an indication. I tried to feed to get them shallow, but nothing would work.

By the end of the match, I could only muster 10lb. Wardy had 11lb, whilst Meatcutter weighed in 54lb. I came away with more questions than answers. I didn't even go to the pub for the after match analysis. I was gutted, how can things go so wrong. I caught on meat last week, Meatcutter caught on meat this week. Where had I gone wrong.

When I think about it, there was no fish infront of me. Wardy had 11lb and the bloke who was next to him, to him, tipped back about 4 fish.

Oh well, there is always next week, if I end up going. Can some one give me a call to ensure that I haven't slashed my wrists.

There is one saving grace, for the 2nd week running I have won the 'guess the winning weight' contest and the pounds that go with it. I had a weight of 82lb 4oz and Minty Whittaker won the match with 82lb 7oz.

Although I am handing a quid over to Chappy, I can afford it with the quids that keep coming my way from the Guess The Weight comp.

Tightlines.

Big Pellet.

2007-05-07T22:00:00.000Z

Chris 'Gandhi' Hall. Now imagine him with no hair!!

Match Fishing magazine have a section in their mag within Silly Stuff where they put up a picture with the caption 'would you let your daughter marry this man' of something similar. I said to Gandhi, he could have his own caption;

'You wouldn't even let your mother-in-law marry this man'.

Barry 'Baz' Harrington. Looks like an escaped convict from the Eastern Bloc.

Dave 'Spud' Phillips. I told you he looks like 'Mr Potato Head'!!!!

He's from Burnley, probably explains it all.

2007-05-07T20:59:00.000Z

Just a bit of updating to do since my last update as I have the following matches to add:

Sat 28th, Woodlands, Thirsk
Sun, The Oaks, Thirsk
Wednesday, Lindholme, Charity match
Saturday, Sam Hosticks, Beverley
Sunday, The Oaks, Thirsk.

So here goes.

Woodland Lakes, Thirsk. After picking up Jasper, we arrived in plenty of time, following the usual breakfast at Morrisons (have you seen the price of brekkie's at Woodlands?). I put my hand in the bag and ended up pulling out Skylark 1, which to the un-initiated, is a corner peg. if the wind is blowing into the corner, it is bag-up city, if it isn't it is blanking city.

Ken Golightly was on the peg last week and ended up with 1 carp, could I fair any better? I arrived at the peg to find that the wind was not blowing my way, it was blowing to the other end of the lake and had been doing so for a couple of days. I set up 3 rigs, one for 6m, one for 13m straight out in front and the final rig was to fish down the side to the left, along the boards at 14m and also down the side to my right.

All of my rigs were set up on the Ultima Power Plus line. The 13m and 6m rigs incorporated .16 dia. line and the down the side and boards rig was set up on .18 dia. line.

For bait I had 3 tins of meat, which had been cut up using a Mal Bailey meatcutter, 1 tin of frenzied hemp, 1pt of 4mm pellets and half a pint of 6mm pellets.

Whilst setting up, I spotted a fish boil about 1m out just in front of me. It was solid.

At the whistle, I potted in some hemp and meat at 6m and the same at 13m. In the first hour, I managed to snare 3 carp and 2 skimmers. Over the next 3 hours, I struggled for an indication. Going into the last hour, I managed to get broke off a carp as it wrapped around a pipe near my feet, and I managed another carp. My total weight would not have exceeded 15lb. What a day. I just could not buy a bite. One of the other lads on the match who was a couple of pegs further down had broken his landing net and was having to get on his hands and knees in order to put his landing net head in the water and net his fish.

By the end of the match, I had 4 carp and half a dozen skimmers. As soon as the match had finished, I tipped back my fish and left my net to dry, well why not, it wasn't doing anything else and I didn't want to tip my fish back whilst the match was in progress.

Jasper ended up with 50lb from Kestrel Lake, Chappy had 40lb, so I was a couple of quid down. Andy Geldart won the match with 105lb and Panic Poole was second with 105lb. There was ounces between them.

After a match the other day, someone asked me to explain the nicknames, so here goes;

Age Concern - Bruce Poland (probably looks older than he really is, he has also got sponsorship from Steradent and Polygrip).

Granddad - Bert Poole - is now retired - aren't all granddad's retired?

Fullstop - Byron Dell - A full stop is bigger than Byron.

Spud - Dave Phillips - Looks like Mr Potato Head.

Gandhi - Chris Hall - Looked like Gandhi when he had his head shaved in a de-lousing programme.

Rumpole - Gordon Brown - Looks like Rumpole of the Bailey (although some people say Jonny Vegas is more of a resemblance).

Bedpan - Roger Movely - He looks that old, I think that he invented the bedpan.

Rochdale Raver - Johnny MacMacMackyMac from Rochdale, you know him don't you. He looks as though he has come straight from a rave to fish a match. Thing is, he must be atleast 50. The E's and Viagra are serving him well.

Polecrusher Payton - Barry Payton - did you see the state of Chappy's pole after Polecrusher run over it?

Fossil/Lizard/Woody/Toy Story - Pete Baron - Warms up with the sun, he is that old, he could be a fossil also has a penchant for 'Line Dancing' so I have been told.
Polish Mick - Tony Kozaczek - It's easier to say Polish Mick.

Come back for more updates from your truly and tight lines.

Mike

2007-05-05T21:23:00.001Z

Updated blog.

Well, well, what has happened since my last entry. I fished a match at The Oaks on Sunday 22nd April. I managed to snare Peg 26, which to be fair, I wasn’t unhappy about. Chappy had gotten off lucky again as he wasn’t in attendance. The obligatory quid was set up with both Rumpole and Fullstop.

To start with, I set up 3 rigs, 2 for across and 1 for down the middle. All of my rigs were HITL rigs. They were set up as follows, one of the shallow rigs was set up on .13 Preston Powerline and the other was set up using .12 Fox match plus line. One of the rigs had a .2g Garbolino DC 6 and the other had a .3g DC6. I also set up a .5g Drennan roach for fishing at the base of the far slope. This was set up on .16 Ultima Power Plus line. All of the rigs were set up using the Gamakatsu Pellet Barbless eyed hooks in size 16.

For bait, I had about 1pt of micro pellets, a handful of 4mm hookers and a handful of my conkers. Plus, I also had some meat and hemp left from yesterday’s match.

At the start of the match, I cupped in some meat down the middle and went across to the far side with pellet on the hook and a few micro pellets in a small ‘Fox Toss Pot’. I tipped the bait in, let the rig settle and waited, but not for long. After about 1 minute, the float buried and I managed to snare a carp of about 1.5lb.

I re-baited and went back over to the far side and waited, but a little longer this time, about 5 minutes in total. I managed to snare another fish, a little gudgeon. Bloody Hell, I didn’t want them in my peg, it is hard to get rid of them. After about 1 hour fishing across, I had managed a couple more carp, a couple of roach and 5 gudgeon. Gandhi, who was on peg 24 had caught a couple of carp across and a couple of carp to the aerator. I decided to have a look down the middle.

I baited up with a piece of meat that had been cut up using a Mal Bailey 6mm Meatcutter. I put a few pieces of meat and hemp in a tosspot and shipped out. I dropped the bait in and waited. The float shot under. Nothing. I dropped the rig in again, the float shot under, nothing. The fish were up in the water or were they? I brought the rig back in and shallower up about 6”. I went back out, dropped in some more bait over the top of the float. Nothing.

I went back on the bottom without feeding anything. The float never even settled and a barbel of about 1lb was going round and round in circles. Why do they do that. Also, have you realised how a barbel is a harder fighting fish, pound for pound than virtually every other coarse fish. But also, that the fight is usually shorter. In order to get the barbel off the bottom, I swapped from black hydro elastic to pink Drennan Hollow core elastic.

I dropped in again down the middle and got linered straight away. I cupped in some more meat to try to force the fish down.

The wind had abated all day, but the wind was now falling, heavily. I am glad that I brought my Preston suit with me.

I continued to fish down the middle picking up the odd carp and barbel. By the end of the match, I had managed to catch a nice tidy ball of fish. Both Gandhi and Phil Silvers had managed to snare a few, it was going to be close for the section today.

At the end of the match, I went over to Phil Silvers and when I was about 30 yards away, I could see that he was shaking. He had left his coat at home and was soaked following the rain.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Gandhi was leading with 38lb odd. I didn’t think that I had that, although, I also felt that I had caught more fish than him, so you never know.

I managed to plonk 43lb exactly on the scales. Rumours were coming round that Darrell ‘Tin Tin’ Taylor had caught steadily all day and should have somewhere around 60 or 70lb.

Phil Silvers plonked 44lb odd on the scales. The scales arrived at Tin Tin and he managed to put 43lb odd on the scales, enough to beat me, but where was the rest of his weight. That pushed me down to 3rd place with pegs 41 – 80 yet to weigh.

I went back to the café to await the weights coming back. Derek Parrington had won the match by fishing with pellet down to the corner. I had managed a 5th place overall as Lee ‘Goldie’ Harrison had managed a 45lb weight.

Derek Parrington (Daiwa Cleveland) 46-11-0, carp, pellet, peg 56
Lee Harrison (Tackle Box Kippax) 45-4-0
Phil Sellars (Garbolino Elton) 44-4-0
Darrell Taylor (Daiwa Goldthorpe) 43-15-0
Mick Herrington (Oaks Ultima) 43-0-0
Pete Cowan (Oaks) 41-10-0

Why had the venue fished so badly? In the week leading up to the match, there had been numerous 100lb weights, yet today nobody managed to break 50lb. Oh well there is always next week.

Both Rumpole and Fullstop had done a disappearing act. Fullstop had tipped back a reported 5lb or so, and it got worse. He had broken the No. 4 section from his G995 pole. But hey, I was two quid up (well, I would have been had I been paid).

Tight Lines

Mike Herrington

2007-04-27T11:48:00.000Z

Just like to say a quick hello to those people reading my blog in Darien, NY, and FountainView, TX, both of which are in the USA.

2007-04-25T22:31:00.000Z

Sat 21st April 2007

Jasper called me mid-week asking me if we wanted to go to Woodlands, Thirsk, but that I would have to pick him up as his car was in for it's MOT and he wasn't sure what needed doing to it?
I had to make a little detour (work related) so agreed to pick up Jasper at about 7:15, then got to Moggies for a brekkie then head of to Woodlands.

I made a call to Purverted mid week and managed to persuade him to come along and join us.

upon arrival, I saw my nemesis, Rigsby, in the car park, because wherever he is, I tend to do crap and end up owing him a quid. The quid was hastily renewed as was the quid with my travelling partner for today, Jasper.

Chappy was away on the Whiteacres Festival, so I was gonna be safe one quid at least. Following a telecon with pretty boy Haircut, it was decided that either a meat or a pellet approach was the order of the day, dependant upon which lake you draw.

I put my hand in the bag and managed to snare Partridge peg 32. Purverted ended up with the best peg on the complex, Partridge 15 and Jasper was on Skylark 18, a corner peg. A meat and hemp approach it was going to be. Partridge 32 was indifferent to me, due to not going to Woodlands for a while. All the locals had told me that I had drawn out of it as the fish are at the other end. The lake itself has been fishing well of late, with over 220lb winning the 'old gimmers' match that takes place every Monday.

For company I had someone Scott on peg 30, Dave Owens on peg 33, Granddad was on peg 36 and Mick Lodge was on peg 29. All of these have been fishing the venue regularly, I had my work cut out.

For bait I had 2.5 tins of 6mm meat. 1 tin of Frenzied Hemp, 1 pt of 6mm expander pellets (already soaked) and about 1/2 pt of 4mm hard pellets.

I got to my peg and set up the following rigs:

Inside rig:

was a .2g Garbolino DC 6 float on .17 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 barbless hook.

My 2nd rig was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float on .15 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 16 Colmic B500 barbless hook.

I also set up the following rigs for fishing at 14m.

The first of my rigs for 14m, was a .4g Garbolino DC2 set to fish at full depth (about 5ft deep). This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 16 Colmic B500 barbless hook.

My last rig was a little dibber float taking a couple of no.8 Preston Stotz, set to fish up in the water about 1ft deep. My rig line was again, .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I also had a Korum Baitspike at the business end.

Hook choice, where big fish are concerned, my favoured choice of hook is the Colmic B500. They are quite heavy in the wire, but tend to stay sharp for a long time and if a fish straightens one of these hooks, you didn't want it on the bank with you.

When the all in went, I potted in some meat and hemp at 3m down the boards, a small pot of meat and hemp at 14m. I put the 6m rig on and shipped out with a Fox Tosspot full of hemp and about 10 pieces of cubed meat, with a piece of meat on the hook.

I tipped the bait in and sat back and waited. Before I even had chance to sit back, the black hydro was out doing laps of the lake. After a brief tussle, a mirror carp of about 4lb was soon in the net. Mick 1, Fish 0. Wonder if I should have a quid with the fish, then again, I might even lose that.

Next drop in resulted in a skimmer of about 10oz. Then nothing else. After 30 minutes of the match, I decided to go down the boards after I had lovingly prepared it for the past 30 minutes. I dropped in and the float hadn't even settled. The fish that you get down the boards are usually 'doubles' or not far off. I struck into said fish (elastic for this rig was the Drennan pink hollow) and a little tench of about 10oz came flying out of the water. A bit over zealous on the strike me thinks!!!

I dropped in again and after a 5 minute wait, the float proper shot under. I struck and the float stood still and the elastic came out, before the 'snag' decided to move. It was a bit like 'Jaws' at this stage. After plodding around my peg for about 5 minutes, I managed to fold a 10lb common carp into my butterfly net.

I decided to see if another one was present. After a further 5 minute wait, the float dipped. I struck. Solid resistance again. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!!!. Another carp of about 9lb joined it's bigger brother. 2 carp for about 20lb. Not bad.

I decided to pot in some more bait and go out to the 6m line again. Whilst I had been fishing both down the inside and at 6m, I was constantly flicking a few bits of meat out to the 14m line.

Back on the 6m line and after about 10 minutes, no more bites, just a couple of liners.

I got out my deep rig and went out to the 14m line. Again, I baited up with meat on the hook. I tipped in some meat and help via the Tosspot and dropped the bait in. I waited a couple of minutes and got a sail away indication - were they up in the water? I waited a bit longer on the deep rig, the float dipped, then sailed away. A skimmer bream of about 1lb, thought that it was a trout, it must of leaped out of the water about 5 times, was soon in the net.

I persevered on the deep rig and managed to snare a couple of pastie carp. Dave Owen (nickname to follow, I have one in mind, but I can't think of the guys name at the moment) had by this time managed a couple of carp and a couple of tench.

I was still getting linered on the deep rig and I had been feeding a few bits and pieces over the top of the float. I got the shallow rig out and baited up with meat again, on the baitspike.

After some 20 minutes 'up in the water', I had 1 carp and a chub to show for my efforts, I am sure that I will catch more on the bottom.

With about 2 hours of the match remaining, I decided to get my head down on te 14m rig at full depth and change my feeding to try to keep them on the bottom. This meant cupping in meat and not loose feeding at all. After about 10 minutes, I caught a carp of about 4lb. A couple more skimmers and tench followed, then I was into a steady procession of carp to about 3lb or so.

With about 30 minutes of the match remaining, I decided it was time to have another look down the side for another submarine. I dropped in and got a couple of liners and managed to snare a couple of little tench. I looked at my watch, there was about 2 minutes to go. My float moved sideways. Go on, Go Under, I thought. I looked at my watch anxiously, there was about 30 seconds left.

The float dipped, I struck. The float stood still and the elastic came out. Job Done. Or so I thought. I the last fish on when all of a sudden the all out was given. I now have 15 minutes to get the fish out for it to count. A quick 'Fish On' shout was given.

After a brief tussle, a small 8lb'er was in the net. Now it was Job Done!!

I would estimate that I had about 45lb - 50lb in weight, with the inclusion of the last fish. I hadn't really seen anyone catch apart from Mick Lodge, and the lad next to him. How had I done.

Haircut was admitting to about 55lb. Dave Owen tipped back his 5 or 6 fish. By the time that the scales had arrived, 'Sir' Tossa Taylor was leading with just short of 70lb. Lodgey, put 67lb on the scales and Haircut had 64lb. The lad next to me had 45lb. I managed 56lb 13oz. If Lodgey gets in the money, will I win my section.

Meatcutter Bailey came up to me after the match with a fistful of dollars (well pounds to be precise). I had managed to win my section.

I quickly accosted both Jasper and Rigsby for my quids. Where's Chappy, I would have won his quid today, wouldn't I?

S Bell 77lb.
M Bailey 71lb
D Taylor 69lb
M Lodge 67lb
?
A Bridge 64lb

I was about 8th overall and came 3rd on my lake. If I had persevered on the deep rig rather than trying to get them up in the water, would I have faired any better? Lodgey and Haircut both caught the majority of their fish up in the water, whilst I really struggled.

2007-04-19T12:41:00.000Z

If you look closely, you can see the CNN tower - but you will have to look hard!!

If you 'click' on the picture, you can zoom in should you need to!!

2007-04-19T10:54:00.000Z

I'm back, well the blog is atleast.

I have been so, so, so busy over the past few weeks. Had staff issues (had to dismiss one of the new staff for Gross Misconduct) so I have been busy re-recruiting and training, then there has been the month end accounts to complete and also get time in for my fishing.

As you can see below, I took my kids fishing to The Oaks, Sessay. They really enjoyed it. I will take them a bit more as the summer arrives.

Well, back to the fishing. In a nutshell 'Loopyhead' has lost his loop and my head is now in a noose!! I have been getting blown off the bank and struggling to hold onto 14m of carbon in a side on wind, nigh on every week.

I am still going every weekend (Sunday's in particular), but just finding it so hard to do anything at the moment. Worm fishing has been taking The Oaks apart of late. Lee Harrison (VDE Scunthorpe) has been winning or framing in the majority of matches with half a dozen weights over 100lb. Big Mark 'Cali' Calvert has set the best weight of the year so far with over 145lb.

My best weight of late has been 72lb and that was only good enough for 15th, but the saving grace was that I beat the River Legend known as John Allerton of the next peg. He fished the little boys method down the side and ended up with 61lb odd. I fished across to the farside all match. I had an enjoyable day and really thought that I would have atleast won something, but alas NO. Jonny Kenning won my section with 83lb. I was second in the section. Lee Harrison won with one of his 'tons - 119lb odd.

Woody Baron is continuously complaining about is inability to draw. Take the weekend just gone for instance, he drew peg 55, which if anyone knows the venue, will tell you, it is a good peg. Darryll 'Sir Tossa' Taylor (I am allowed to call him that, provided that I call him Sir first) was next to him on peg 56, with peg 57 empty. Woody came upto me after the match and asked me 'Oi, Loopyhead, why did you leave peg 57 out. The reason being that Sir Tossa Taylor had 45lb compared to Woody's 20lb.

I drew peg 9, which was in the right area and managed to plonk 38lb odd on the scales which would have put me about top 15 again as 67lb won, and 48lb was last in the money.

At the end of the match last week, John 'Plonker McG' McGarrell was walking up to telling me that I had to nominate Cali for the numpty of the week competition on The Oaks Banter website. Just as he approached my peg, he had a snapping sound and abruptly stopped, the snapping sound was quickly followed by a crunching sound. I looked down at his size 10's in horror. He had only managed to stand on one of my power top kits snapping the kit in half then crunched the bottom of the number one section when he stopped. We instantly had a new winner of the numpty of the week award. In his defence he managed to get me a new (well second hand) topkit of Cali.

My quids are being fired from a scatter gun at the moment. Byron the Full Stop is managing to get a leg up onto his box and is proving that he can catch a few by taking my quid occassionally, but the soon bounce back. Rumpole has finally set up a direct debit to pay me my shiny ones. On one of my matches, I drew peg 61 and had Rumpole at the side of me on peg 63, with Shrek Middleton on peg 65. It was a bleeeeeedddddinnnggg cold day and I was wrapped up nice and warm. Rumpole had somehow managed to leave all of his external clobber at home. I would have lent him my jacket, but he might have stretched it a little, so thought better of it (anyway, there was a quid at stake). Shrek lent him his outer jacket (Basket!!), which was a little baggy on Rumpole. Anyway, by the end of the match Rumpole was a quid down. His mate, Homer Simpson was on peg 67, which was at the back of me. I managed to drag him into our quid bet and promptly took that, which I felt a little guilty about as he never manages to take a quid off Rumpole, who has never managed to take a quid of moi!!

The Chappy quid is on one way ticket at the moment, with no return in sight. Chappy has finally found a bit of form and has even managed to frame (including a couple of wins) on a few occasions, but ask him how many Kamasan points he ended up with and you will get a Chappy slap, whilst I ended up with double figures atleast.

This week back in the pub was the safest that Xman has felt in ages. Of late, Chappy has been lining up a couple of slaps with Xman on a weekly basis and due to Chappy being in sunnier climes (Whiteacres is sunnier than North Yorkshire), Xman is actually relaxing in the local- for now.

The Orc made his return this week to the Oaks and continued his good form from last year by promptly handing me a quid in a peg to peg battle. He was next to me and managed to plonk a respectable 29lb odd on the scales (G2E was next to him on peg 7 and was joint 2nd with 61lb 15).

A couple of weeks back, I was nigh on suicidal. I had drawn a decent peg and just couldn't get a bite. I hardly spoke to anyone after the match, I didn't go to the pub afterwards, I just sloped off home. I'm taking this fishing mullarkey too seriously!!!

Gonna go now, keep coming back and I will update more frequently, staff issues permitting.

2007-04-11T20:26:00.000Z

Alwin Ingham Testimonial Match.

The Wind, The Wind, The Wind.

Since my last entry from a match, the weather seems to have done nothing but be windy, especially at the weekends. You know how it is. You work in a nice warm office all week, the sun is beating down on the glass, and you are baking hot. The trees are not moving an inch. You throw a blade of grass in the air to check for wind and it hits you on the head. You book on a match. You arrive, you pay on, you get to your peg and set up – still no wind. The match organiser shouts time, then the wind goes mental!!!

Anyway, going back to one of my earlier matches. We held a ‘Testimonial Match’ for Alwin Ingham, who is suffering from 2 tumours on his brain. Alwin is a true gent in every sense of the word. In the time that I have known Alwin, I have never heard a bad word from him. You ask him how he fished and he tells no lies. He makes his own floats and if you ask him nicely enough, he would make you a couple of floats. Alwin did a recent article Match Fishing magazine, titled ‘Make Mine A Pint’ due to his liking for fishing maggot all year round.

Apologies if I upset anyone here, but we decided to hold a match for him now whilst he has got time to spend it as things are not looking good and if we did a match for him at a later stage, he may not be around to enjoy our efforts and hard work. Alwin doesn’t smoke or drink, so we are sure that the money raised will be put to good use.

By the time of the draw, there were 96 anglers in attendance, sadly, Alwin wasn’t feeling too well so didn’t attend. I pegged the match across Alders Lake and Cedar Lake, with 70 pegs on Cedar and 34 pegs on Alders lakes. Everyone was hoping for a Cedar Lake draw, but as I explained, the match wasn’t about winning a large amount of money; it was about raising funds for Alwin. With this in mind, the only prizes on offer were 5 man section prizes of £50. The pond owners had provided the lakes for free and raffle prizes were donated by Bob-Co angling centre, Oaks Tackle, Mal Bailey meat cutters and the local Moor & Pheasant pub to name but a few.

I put my hand in the bag and managed to end up with Alders 34. I really (really, really) didn’t want this peg. It is about 19m to the island, so was out of reach as I only had 16m with me. I had Fullstop within earshot on peg 30, Pat Bailey on peg 31 (he could also reach the island with 16m), someone else on peg 33 and Kev ‘Penfold’ Grainger on peg 34. Rumpole was a couple of pegs further away and Sorry Moran was on peg 38 in’t corner. Dynamite Dave Newman was on peg 41, with Magnum the Porno star on peg 40.

Chappy was on Cedar Lake as was my travelling partner, Bram.

My £50 quid section ran from pegs 32 – 36, which as far as the pegs are concerned, no one has a real advantage, so was reasonably fair. Alders Lake holds a lot of ide from ounces to 3lb or so, with carp, skimmers, roach rudd and gudgeon.

My plan of attack was to fish for the ide up in the water, as was most of the anglers on the lake.

For bait I had casters and maggots and a bit of corn for fishing over to the island on either the bomb or the waggler.

I borrowed Bram’s waggler rod – he wouldn’t be needing it. Whilst setting up, I had a few chucks with the waggler rod to ‘get my eye in’. I was getting the waggler to land on a dustbin lid. Penfold commented that ‘I had done that a few times before’. I also had the bomb rod ready set up, so all I had left was to set up the pole. I set up 3 rigs, 2 shallow and 1 deep.

The deep rig was set up hook in the loop style. The rig was a 4x14 Drennan Roach on .10 Silkshock line direct to a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed hook.

My 2 shallow rigs both incorporated .2g Garbolino DC6 floats. One was set up on .10 Silkshock line and the other was set up on .12 Fox Match Plus line. The .10 rig was set to fish at 1ft deep, with a short line and the .12 was set to fish at 2 – 2.5 ft deep. White hydro on all of the rigs completed the set ups.

At the start of the match an ‘air horn’ sounded from another match. People on my lake started fishing. Let me ask a question, since when have I used an Air Horn to start the matches. Never, so why have people started now? Byron ‘Fullstop’ Dell was one of the said culprits.

When I officially started, I baited up the waggler rod with double maggot and cast over to the island in the hope of catching an early easy carp. First chuck and I managed to cast onto the one single branch that was just touching the water. I pulled and pulled and the rig snapped. No more waggler fishing for me then. Ho Hum!!!

I catapulted a few casters out to 9m and went over the top on the shallow rig, baited up with double red maggot. After about 5 minutes of drip-feeding maggots, the float buried and a 1oz rudd was soon in the net.

I managed to snare a couple more ide and more roach. One thing that I did realise was that whilst fishing the hook in the loop for the roach, I hardly missed a bite, and most of them were lift bites.

When the Air Horn sounded for the match to finish, I told Fullstop that he had to stop fishing, or he will have had more time than those around him. He told me to go forth and multiply.

Marco won the match outright with 77lb from Cedar Lake peg 28 and Lee ‘The Legend’ Barrett won our lake from peg 4 with 60lb. Unfortunately, Pimmy ended up about 4th or 5th and didn’t win a penny as his section was won by Marco, but at the end of the day, the match was about raising funds for Alwin, hence paying section prizes only.

Back at the local pub, the raffle took place and, following on from the stunt that I pulled at Christmas, Woody Baron decided to hide his raffle tickets, but alas, not before Chappy had seen them and informed me of one of his ticket numbers. I needed a yellow ticket to come out first. Middy put his and in the bucket and pulled out a yellow ticket. Right, here goes. Yellow 419, I shouted. Everyone looked at their tickets in anticipation. Woody suddenly stood up and started dancing around. In view of his ticket (?) being the first drawn, he had a choice of raffle prizes. He was calling everyone names, until I told him to sit down. He had me pinned against the wall by my throat. Everyone was falling about laughing. I had got him again!!!!
I was laughing so much, I can’t even remember who won the first prize.

With about 10 raffle prizes to go, Tom asked me, where was the Mal Bailey Meatcutter. I said that Marco had brought it with him. Macro had forgotten that he had it, or did he????

Anyway, in view of the Meatcutter not being available for all the prior raffle winners to pick it, it was decided that the Meatcutter would be the last raffle prize and would go to the winner of that lucky ticket. After all of the raffle prizes had gone, with just the Meatcutter to go, Middy put his hand in the bucket and pulled out none other than………

My ticket!!!! One Meatcutter in the bag, so it wasn’t a bad day after all.

The total amount raised was £1685.00 for Alwin, which is staggering, considering the timescale involved in pulling this event together.

I would personally like to extend a warm welcome to all concerned. I received a telephone call from Alwin, that same night thanking me for everything that we had done. But to be fair, we did it because in Alwin, you couldn’t meet a nicer bloke.

2007-04-11T19:06:00.000Z

Took my two youngest boys fishing on Good Friday to The Oaks, Sessay.

Joshua with one he caught earlier!!!

Thomas looking like he knows what he is doing.

Joshua used a his new 2nd hand pole that I got off one of the lads from the Total Fishing website (www.total-fishing.com). It is a 14.5m Maver Deliverance pole, which came with 5 top kits. I removed the No.1's from the pole and re-elasticated the No. 2 & 3 Sections. I re-elasticated it with some grey hydro and it seems to be bang on!!

They both fished maggot over Pallatrax Groundbait to start with until the carp showed, then they both switched to pellet over groundbait.

Joshua finished with this fine net of fish, for an estimated 25lb. He caught Ide, Roach, Skimmers, Tench and Carp (Crucians, Mirrors and F1's).

Included in his net was this fine sample. A common carp of about 4lb.

Thomas ended up with about 15lb of carp and tench. His biggest tench was pushing 3lb and his biggest carp was the mirror carp below, which nearly dragged him in.

I didn't fish, I just observed and assisted.

Looks like they had a cool day.

2007-03-31T06:23:00.000Z

I had a couple of hours to spare, so went to Garry Parr's place at Weeton, near Pool in Leeds.

I caught this little net of fish using the new Dynamite Baits 'Sinking Expander Pellets' fished over some Pallatrax groundbait. I had an estimated 60lb or so, with the fish averaging 2lb. I got 'done' a couple of times, one of the fish that I hooked ran straight through the reeds and was about 10 pegs away, and that was on black hydro.

I'm going to have a knock up at Garry's next Saturday - 7th April if anyone is interested.

2007-03-20T23:21:00.000Z

Saturday 10th March 2007.

It’s amazing how much Saturday fishing I am getting in at the moment. I think that it is because I am taking some envelopes home, so the kids are able to eat and I give a few pennies to our lass. It is reminiscent of Al Bundy off Married With Children, they form an orderly queue next to the door when they hear me reversing my car onto our drive. I open the door and they are stood there, 4 of them in a line. Our lass starts with ‘Well’, the next one ‘Have’, the next one ‘You’ and the last one ‘Won’, all with their hands out.

The Saturday matches are currently nearly sell-outs with in excess of 70 on nearly every match and this week was no exception. By the time that I had put my hand in the bag, there were 71 anglers in attendance. Today was also being run as another optional super-pool and following my result from last week, I had to give it another go.

I put my hand in the bag and peg 26 was stuck to my hand. Not bad, could have been better. Pegs 24 & 25 have been the form pegs around this area to date. When I arrived at my peg, I found that I didn’t have any empty pegs around me. Lee ‘Cueball’ Harrison was on peg 22, can’t remember who was on 23, Graham ‘Wolfman’ Skirrey was on peg 24 and I had a Boroughbridge angler on 25. One of the Manchester Mosella lads was on peg 27. Chappy was in shouting distance (and in sight, so I would be able to keep an eye on my quid) on peg 30, with Marco next to him on peg 31.

The wind was blowing all over the place, coming from both left and right as it came down the arms of the lake. I set up 4 rigs, 2 for across and 2 for down the deeps.

My across rigs and deep rigs incorporated the usual Drennan Roach’s’ (4x14 & .5g) and Garbolino DC6’s in .3g and .2g. Due to the swirling wind, one of the shallow rigs was set up with a .3g float and the other shallow rig was set up using the ‘normal’ .2g float. All of my rigs were set up HITL style.

For bait, I mixed up some ‘Pallatrax’ groundbait, to which I added a liberal amount of micro-pellets. I had some 4mm and 6mm pellets as hookbait. That was it. I was either going to catch on pellet or not at all.

At the start of the match, I baited up the .2g shallow rig then I put some ‘Pallatrax’ groundbait into the fruitshoot top and went across to the far side. After about 3 minutes, I hadn’t had a bite. I came back put some more bait in the fruitshoot, then went back to the same spot. By this time, Wolfman had caught a fish off the aerator by fishing at full depth. I waited a further 3 or 4 minutes, and repeated the process.

Some 15 minutes into the match, I got my first indication and a mirror carp of about 1lb was soon in the landing net. I continued to follow this routine of feeding a little bit of Pallatrax every 3 or 4 minutes or so for the first hour. The sole intention of this is to keep putting something in, whilst having minimal food content.

After the first hour, I would estimate that I had managed to snare about 7 fish for approximately 10lb. Wolfman was getting the odd fish, but the blokes either side of me on pegs 25 & 27 seemed to be struggling and I would estimate that they had about 3 fish apiece.

I persevered across for the next hour and a half and managed to put together a steady run of F1’s and small mirrors, with my biggest fish going just over 2lb. I would estimate that I had about 20lb with half of the match gone. I had been steadily putting in the odd nugget of groundbait on the inside line at 3m down the slope. My far side swim was dying on me. It was time to drop in close and bag up. I recall that J D Illingworth had a weight from this area and caught most of his fish close in. Some 25 minutes later and only 2 fish (1 carp and 1 gudgeon) to show for it. I decided to sack this line.

Wolfman and Chappy were the only two anglers that I could see that were catching fish. My Chappy quid was seriously in the mire today!!

I went back over to the far side in the hope that the rest had brought the fish back into the peg. This was not the case. Although I managed to get the odd fish, I was waiting longer and longer for bites after each fish.

There was about 1 hour of the match remaining and I would estimate that I had about 27lb. I decided to come down the base of the far slope, with the .5g Drennan Roach rig.

I potted in a golf-ball sized nugget of groundbait, then baited up with a pellet on the hook. I dropped in and no sooner had the float settled, a barbel of about 1.5lb was fighting like mad, I would have said ‘and it was soon in the net’ but you know something, barbel are initially one of the most difficult fish to actually tell what you have got on the end of your line. You strike; they set off at 300mph. They turn and run towards you and straight away, you are thinking, is it foul-hooked, is it a ten-pounder. Your elastic nearly bottoms out and the fish has got bigger. You get it in the landing net and it is smaller than the gudgeon that you have been catching. Bugger!!!

The lad on peg 25 didn’t go across to the far side. Every time that he did, he soon shipped back as he couldn’t control his rig due to the wind. The lad on peg 27 was able to go across and hold his pole, but hadn’t/wasn’t feeding his peg regular enough.

I continued to fish down the middle and snared a few more barbel and carp. I started to foul-hook and lose fish, the carp had come off the bottom so I shallowed up my rig by about 6”. I was no longer foul-hooking (and losing) the fish that were in my peg. I had to wait slightly longer for my bite but when I got a bite, it was fish on and hooked in the mouth.

That was it time. End of the match.

Gandhi was doing the weighing of my section and he immediately asked me what weight I had. I asked him what he had weighed in. 36lb odd was the reply from the toothless one, with a big grin. I responded by saying that I didn’t have that and that I had about 33/34lb or so.

Cueball plonked 40lb 1 oz on the scales – I didn’t have that. Wolfman weighed in 38lb which consisted of 4 carp and the rest being barbel, nor did I have that. I lifted my net out and had completely underestimated my weight again. I managed to weigh in 42-10, which consisted of mainly carp with about 5 barbel. Next one to plonk a decent weight on the scales was my ‘protégé’ – Chappy. He managed to snare 39lb 4oz. And now the best bit, Chappy was another quid down!!!! Oh dear, what a shame.

I approached Nightie for my quid and his response was “we don’t have quid’s on Saturdays!!!” I think that I will have to do a bit of research from my blogs to check this out.

9 Kamasan points in 4 matches, made up of 3 (yes, three) second placings, two of which came on a Saturday, when there is an optional £4 superpool – which I obviously entered. Not too bad in anyone’s book, even if I say so myself.

Back to the pub and a few shandies all round for those in attendance.

Full results;

Sean Cameron (Spring Valley) 53-10-0, carp, pellet and maggot (peg 42)
Mick Herrington (Bob-Co Oaks) 42-10-0 (peg 26)
Kevin Worth (Castleford) 40-12-0 (peg 62)
Lee Harrison (Scunthorpe Blue) 40-7-0 (peg 22)
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 39-4-0 (peg 30)
Graham Skirrey (Turners Tackle) 38-11-0 (peg 24)

2007-03-15T22:34:00.000Z

Sunday 4th March 2007.

Normal service has resumed!!!

Back to running the Sunday match and following my recent run of results, more people are coming up to me and asking me questions. I knew that I had joined the elite when Darryll ‘Tin Tin’ Taylor even started speaking to me.

I got everything underway and by the time of the draw there were 52 of us on the match. The wind was blowing from peg 1 diagonally across the lake towards peg 36, which meant that a lot of the lake was going to be out of it due to the wind. I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 38. I was not going to be a happy teddy bear. The wind would be blowing from right to left. Chappy the jammy so and so had drawn peg 45. The wind would be blowing straight of the top of the island, therefore allowing him to fish across –oh for a peg like that.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Mick Sykes to my right on peg 39, peg 37 was empty, Rumpole was on peg 36 and Fullstop was on peg 35.

At the start of the match, I set up 4 rigs, 2 for the deeper water and 2 for across. The across rigs were made up using one of my usual .2g Garbolino DC6 floats, set up HITL style. The rig was attached to .10 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 Gamakatsu, pellet hook, eyed. I plumbed up across and straight away was hoping that either, I didn’t have to fish there or hoping even more so, for the wind to drop. My second rig for across was a 4x12 Colmic float with a thick plastic bristle. I set this up conventional with a spade end hook. I set the float to fish slightly overdepth, hoping that by dragging the line on the bottom, the float would slow down somewhat.

My two deep rigs included a HITL rig using a .5g Drennan Roach. This was attached to .11 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 16 Gamakatsu, eyed, pellet hook. My backup deep rig was the same rig, but set up with the conventional spade end hook. For bait I had a few maggots, micro pellets and some 4mm expanders.

At the all in, the wind instantly got stronger and continued to get stronger as the match progressed.

I immediately decided to go across to the farside with the HITL rig on, dropped some micro pellets in, and dropped the rig in baited with a 4mm pellet on the hook.

After about 15 minutes and a couple more fruitshoots of micropellets, I went down the middle after having nothing to show for the foray across.

I dropped in the HITL rig and foul-hooked a fish almost straight away. I re-baited with pellet, and dropped in again. The float settled, then started going against the wind. The lake was towing like mad. I let the float go until it tightlined itself against the pole tip, then I waited for it to go under. After about 5 minutes, the float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. I managed to snare another 5 or 6 fish before the peg had all but died.

I came close in, using the same rig and managed to snare a couple of carp before the peg died again.

I was missing bites on the HITL rig, so I dropped in using the ‘normal’ rig. I had set the rig to fish slightly over depth and dropped in. I missed 4 indications/bites in a row, before I connected with a fish. It was foul-hooked and shot off towards safety in the direction of Rumpole.

From bad to worse – then the rain arrived. The rain was coming at me from the right to left and it was driving rain. It could have been worse, Rumpole had the wind and rain blowing straight into his clock.

I could see that Rumpole was starting to get a few fish on corn, close in. I didn’t have any with me. I shouted round to Rumpole to see if I could get a tin of corn off him. He told me to go round to him. I arrived and rummaged through his carryall and found a tin of Green Giants best. As I was walking away, he commented that it would cost me the quid that he was going to have to give to me today.

I tried corn and after 15 minutes, I hadn’t had an indication. I wanted to go home, but with so many quid’s at stake, I was going to have to make a go of it. But I oh so wanted to go home.

Over the next couple of hours, my maggots started to float, my pellets had become sloppy groundbait, my arse was wet, my glasses were smeared, my elbows got wet. I couldn’t wait until I shouted time.

That’s it, enough is enough. It was time. I put my topkits straight in my car, put my pole away wet and waited for the scales to arrive, whilst sat in the comfort and warmth of my car. By the time that the scales had arrived, Gandhi was winning the match with 38lb from peg 21 (wind & RAIN off his back, flat calm in front of him). Fullstop managed to plonk 20lb on the scales. I didn’t think that I had that. Rumpole DNW’d, but tipped back about a dozen carp.

I managed to plonk 21lb odd on the scales. Mick Sykes to my right weighed in 15lb. Peg 42 had 28lb, 43 – 24lb, 44 - ? 45 – 33lb and 46 – 22lb.

Chappy was walking back to his car and there was a funny squelching sound and I thought that it had something to do with the rain, well it did have something to do with the rain, it was to do with the amount of water that was in his trainers, that was squelching around when he walked. His travelling partner, Pimmy, was no better off. He had fished the match all day in a fleece and trainers as he had left his wet weather gear at home.

2007-03-14T22:40:00.000Z

Ian 'Exman' Exley's New Hat.

It called an Anti-Chappyslap Hat.

It doesn't work though. Chappy waited until he took it off, then gave him a right slap.

2007-03-14T21:40:00.000Z

The adventures of Loopyhead!!!

Well, well, well. I haven’t updated my blog for a couple of weeks now, so I think that it is about time that I enlightened you all.

I managed to get off for the open at The Oaks on Saturday 3rd March. ‘Shrek’ Middleton is currently running an experiment on the Saturday matches to see what people think. The experiment is to have the standard match fee of £16 but to do away with a £1 optional winner take all and replaced it with an option £4, making the total match entry fee £20 – all in.

I picked up Bram and had an uneventful drive, but it still only took just over half an hour to get there.

At the draw, there were 72 of us in attendance. I was near the front of the queue and put my hand in the bag and managed to snare peg 52, Bram was on peg 59. I arrived at my peg to find that Craig Lealand was on peg 49, Paul ‘Sweeney’ Todd on peg 50, peg 51 empty and Ian ‘Gargoyle’ Melton on peg 53. I really didn’t fancy my chances today, but saying that I was 4th off the same peg some 5 or 6 weeks ago, when it was a lot colder. On that day I weighed in 21lb odd and got pipped by Gandhi Hall by 2 or 3 oz. I caught most of my fish towards peg 53 on the 3ft line with corn as bait. Shaun ‘Sparkie’ Cameron was on peg 54, his dad was on peg 55 and big Mark Calvert was on peg 56. I was in good company with no chance of the section.

I set up 3 rigs:

Rig 1 was for the base of the far slope, which doubled up as my inside rig. This was a .5g Drennan Roach tied direct to a size 18 Kamasan B911 – eyed hook – Hook in the loop style.

My other 2 rigs were for across on top of the shelf. One of the rigs was set slightly deeper than the other one in order for me to fish in the deeper hole to the right of the peg number. Both of the rigs incorporated Garbolino DC 6’s in .2g. I set them both up on .10 Preston Powerline, again with a size 18 Kamasan B911 – eyed hook – HITL style.

The Chappy quid was set up as standard, I cajoled Sweeney Todd into a quid, Gargoyle wouldn’t partake – the miserable sod. Both Jasper and Gaz were also roped into the quid.

For bait, I had some 4mm pellets and some micro pellets for feed.

At the all in, I put a pinch of micro pellets in the fruitshoot cap attached to my pole tip, baited up the shallow rig with a 4mm pellet and went across to the far side. I tipped the bait in and dropped the rig over the top. After about 5 minutes, nothing had happened. I shipped the pole back, put some more bait in the little cup and went back across to the far side and dropped the bait in my 2nd swim. I placed my rig back in the first swim. The float had no sooner settled when 5ft of white hydro elastic was getting dragged from the end of the pole. After a brief tussle, an F1 of about 2lb was soon in the net. Not a bad start.

I proceeded to plunder this line and after about an hour, I had 6 fish in the net for approximately 10lb.

This line seemed to be going quiet now, time to move to my second line. I continued to fish the same on the second line, with the odd look on the first line. By now, I was also starting to feed a few micros by hand at 3m and to put the odd little cup of bait in at the base of the far slope – just covering my options.

Gargoyle to the side of me was starting to put a few fish together by fishing on the 3ft deep line, just down the slope. Why o’ why hadn’t I put up a rig to fish the same line. Toddy in the corner (he was reminiscent of ‘Little Jack Horner’) seemed to be on plan ZK23421 already as he had tried all of his lines, with little success.

I started to catapult a few 4mm pellets in true ‘Giles’ fashion, hoping to kick start my peg for later on, onto the top of the shelf.

I got my deep rig out and dropped the rig down the inside. I managed to snare one or two fish, before that line seemed to get cagey. I was looking around me constantly, trying to gage how I was doing; no one seemed to be catching in any numbers. I seemed to be beating those around me, which is a start, I suppose.

I then went to the base of the far slope and managed to snare a couple before that line also seemed to be going on me. It was one of those days where you managed to get a couple of fish, then it would go quiet. Somebody somewhere will be emptying it.

I plodded on until the end of the match, continuing to take the odd fish off my 4 lines. In the last hour, I aimed for 8 fish and ended up with 3, all of which came off the shallow rig across in the last 15 minutes.

Where had the fish gone? Were they starting to come back? Had I fed enough? These are the general questions that were going round me head.

Bram came round at the end of the match, and I told him that I had about 34lb. The scales arrived at Craig in not time at all. When Craig lifted his net out I mentioned to Bram ‘I have got whatever he has got and more’. Craig plonked 37lb odd on the scales. Where did he get that from? I wish that I had kept my gob shut now as I hadn’t got that much. Toddy hadn’t weighed in and was gone, prior to me walking round to his peg and shaking him upside down until a shiny one dropped out of his pocket. I lifted my net out and thought that I had slightly more than I realised. I plonked 45lb odd on the scales. That put me 2nd overall at the moment. Marco Drury had weighed in 52lb off peg 24. There was still a few more to weigh in yet though. Gargoyle plonked 20 odd lb on the scales and pegs 54 – 56 weighed in an average of 32lb (ish), with big Mark having 33lb.

My luck might be in!!!

Nobody else plonked anything significant on the scales, when I say significant, I mean it in terms of ‘not enough to topple me from 2nd place’. That’s another quid in my pocket courtesy of Chappy.

Full result:

1. MARCOOOOOOO. 52lb odd. Peg 24
2. MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 45lb odd. Peg 52
3. S Atkins 43lb, peg 57
4. S Medd 43lb
5. Andy Bennet 40lb
6. A Middleton 39lb.

Chappy has started to nickname me ‘Loopyhead’ in view of my new found success using the ‘Hook In The Loop’ that Giles has been using and perfecting for the past few years now.

All of my rigs that I used today were set up HITL style and I have come 2nd again. I can’t explain why I am catching more fish, I don’t know if I am hitting more bites or what. Maybe it is just a case of finally landing on a few fish, but so far I have used the rig 3 times and weighed in 35lb (6th), 60lb (2nd) and 45lb (2nd. Best of all is that Chappy is having to cough up some of the quid’s from last year. I just might have to have a word with Giles at Go-Fishing (over a pint – of Stella, Giles) and see if I can get any more top tips.

See you at Go Fishing and tight lines.

2007-02-27T23:54:00.000Z

Sunday 25th February 2007

No travelling partner this week, so I decided to scare myself with my driving. I drove with my eyes closed. Most people probably think that I do already, especially following one of Chappy’s comments on the Oaks Banter website.

I arrived at The Oaks in plenty of time to have a breakfast followed by a quick visit to the onsite tackle shop to buy some more B911 eyed hooks for more Hook In The Loop fishing.

Come 9 o’clock, there were 52 anglers present and one angler who hadn’t arrived. I decided to peg the match as 2 pegs together, miss 1 peg all the way around the lake. The angler who hadn’t turned up WAS going to be responsible for one of the sets of scales. Tom, the pond owner’s son, asked if there were any volunteers. I volunteered Jasper Scarlett.

On the subject of Jasper, whilst I was round his house yesterday getting some stuff to elasticate his pole for him, I spotted a picture of some one holding a small carp on the cabinet in the living room. I asked Jasper, who was it. It transpires that it was Jasper in his leaner days, if he ever had them!!!!

Chappy rang me up on Friday night quizzing me about the hook in the loop method, seeing as I battered his travelling partner off the next peg last week. His questions ranged from what float, how deep, where do the shot go, why does the hook move in the loop to name but a few. He then informed me that he was going to make up a couple of rigs himself using the information gleaned from yours truly.

Chappy decided to make up some rigs for Saturday and Sunday. I received a call on Saturday night, asking if I could make up a rig for him as he had left his at home. Fearing a Chappy Slap, I decided it best to pull something together for him. My head was still thumping from last weeks slap (or was it 4, I can’t remember). Just imagine how many brain cells he has damaged.

Jasper pulled the jackpot peg out this week, which ended up in the hands of ‘Blue’ Cardiss. Well that is safe then isn’t it. My quid’s were there in the form of Fullstop, Rumpole, Chappy and Jasper.

I put my hand in the bag and snared peg 62. ‘Flier’ or words along those lines were fired at me by ‘Woody’ Baron (formerly known as ‘Lizard’) as the sun was out and he had obviously warmed up. To be fair, I was not a happy teddy bear. I was on the same peg a week ago Saturday and ended up with 22lb. Shaun Cameron was on peg 62 yesterday and had 40lb and Big Mark Calvert was on peg 61 yesterday and had mid teens.

My quids were going in the direction of pegs 15 (Fullstop), 80 (Rumpole), 36 (Chappy) and 59 (Jasper).

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Garry Parr on peg 63. Another quid side bet was struck. Looking to the peg to my left I spotted ‘Dino’ Drury, Marco’s brother. The last time we had a peg to peg tussle, I took his quid. I asked him if he wanted a chance to win it back. With the two fingered salute, he was either telling me that he wanted £2 quid or to go forth and multiply. We will probably find out later when the scales have arrived and whether or not he had ‘done me’.

Pimmy was on peg 65 and John Allerton was on peg 66. I was in good company for once!!!

I set up 1 rig for down the middle, a Gaz Malham special, which took 4 x 14 shot. I set this rig up to fish ‘hook in the loop’. I was going to have another go at this method following last weeks result. The rig was set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 eyed Kamasan B911 hook.

Then the experimentation began. I set up 4 rigs for across on top of the shelf. A ‘standard’ rig that comprised a .2g Garbolino DC6 float set up on .10 Novotech line straight through to a size 20 Preston Pr 23 hook. I intended to fish either 4mm pellet or maggot on the hook.

A .2g Garbolino DC 6. My favoured choice of float.

My Hook In The Loop.

I then set up 3 ‘hook in the loop’ rigs for across all of which were set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed hook. Rigs 1 & 2 were the same float, a Garbolino DC6 taking .2g. One of the rigs was for one area of my peg and the other was for another area as the depth varied by about 4” between the two areas. My third and final rig was a .3g Garbolino DC3. Let me explain a little about my choice of floats. In order to get the best from the hook in the loop, it has been suggested that you should have 2 x No.8 shot (or equivalent) at the top of the loop. A .2g float cannot take this weight, if you also have a bulk at half depth. It has also been suggested that a float with a buoyant tip is preferable to a standard thin nylon bristled float, hence the reason for the .3 Garbolino DC 6. It can take 2xNo.8 Preston Stotz (with a small bulk mid-depth) and it is also reminiscent of a ‘caster’ type float.

The deep rig and one of the DC2 rigs were attached to Maver Yellow Dual Core elastic and the other two rigs were attached to White Hydro elastic. I tend to find that White Hydro elastic is softer than the dual core.

For bait I had 1pt of micro pellets (courtesy of Jasper, for doing his rigs), some 4mm ringer expander pellets, a small tin of corn and about ½ pt of groundbait mixed on the dry side.

At the all in, I baited up one of the DC2 rigs with pellet, put a pinch of micros in the fruitshoot top and went out to my first marker. I tipped the bait in, laid the rig in against the slope and manoeuvred the float around until I got it sitting spot on. After about 3 minutes, nothing. I brought the rig back, put some more bait in the fruitshoot and went back out. I tipped the bait in, let the rig settle. Some 2 minutes later the float buried. Carp number 1 was soon in the net. A little F1 weighing just over a pound.

I repeated this process again and to my amazement I didn’t have to weight half the time for the first fish. Over the next hour, I continued to fish to the same area. After about 1 hour, I felt as though the peg was starting to go on me, so I cupped in some bait to my next area in preparation. I would estimate that I had about 15lb in the first hour consisting of 12 fish.

I moved to my 2nd swim and continued in the same vein as above. Once I got into a steady rhythm, I decided to have a go with the .3 DC3. There was a slight chop on the water going from left to right. I went across to the far side, dropped in and for the next half hour or so, struggled to read the float in that it was bobbing with the rhythm of the water and I wasn’t able to read every little dimple. I still managed to snare a few, but I just wasn’t comfortable with the float, nor the indications/bites.

I changed back to my original float and set up. After 2 hours 15 minutes, I rang Chappy to see how he was getting on. He said that he was getting a few and had tried the hook in the loop rig and it worked! He almost sounded surprised. He asked me how I was getting on. I told him that I had an estimated 30lb. I wasn’t kidding this week following last weeks tap on the head. Did I tell you that he slapped me 4 times, but I hadn’t felt the last 3. Oh yeah, I did. My memory is suffering nowadays.

I then decided to go to my 3rd and final swim, which was further round to my left, which meant that with every fish hooked, I had to drag it back 90 degrees before I could ship my pole back. I could have just shoved it back behind me, Gaz is a tad bigger than I, so I thought better of it.

The next 4 fish, all of which came off my 3rd line put the icing on the cake for me. First drop in resulted in a mirror around the 4lb mark. The next 3 drop in’s resulted in a further 3 fish for about 8lb, so I had put 12lb in the net in next to no time.

I then went through a stage of foul-hooking fish and I managed to loose 6 fish in succession. It was all starting to go wrong.

My peg was starting to die, I was having to hunt around for bites and indications. The wind was starting to pick up which was having the effect of pulling the hook out of the fish whilst trying to ship back. What else could go wrong.

In the last 2 hours of the match, I managed to catch 9 fish, 6 of which came in the last 30 minutes or so. Where had they gone? That was it. TIME.

At the end of the match, I lifted my net out to get an idea of what I had and thought that I had somewhere between 40 & 45lb. Gaz confirmed this. Bram came trundling round and also backed up our estimated weights.

The moment of truth.

The scales arrived and I lowered a decent amount of fish into the weigh sling. This weighed in at 40lb 12oz. My first weigh. I put the remainder of the fish onto the scales and managed to force the scales round to 20lb 3oz, which was written down as 23lb due to the confusion between Jaspers voice Bob Harrison’s ears. This was quickly rectified and my total weight of 60lb 15oz was recorded.

To my surprise and amazement that put me 2nd overall, ‘where are all my quids’ quickly raced through my mind. Another thought was also going through my mind ‘where are the other quid’s that haven’t been attending, namely Orc, Pacifier, Macca, Nightie, Bedpan’. I’m on a roll and there is hardly any money flying through the air in my direction. I quickly accosted everyone as for my quid as they came to congratulate me (just because they say ‘well done Mick’ doesn’t mean that I am going to let them off a quid). Fullstop raided his missus’ purse whilst in the pub in order to pay up and Jasper only had 40 pence, yes, forty pence on his person. I still took that as the first instalment.

Graham ‘G2e’ Twohey was pegged next to Chappy and proceeded to batter Chappy off the next peg. As the scales approached both Chappy and G2e agreed that G2e had somewhere in the region of 40lb’s. I would have loved to have been there when G2e pulled his net out to find a great big gaping hole, that even Chappy could have fit through, and about half of what he had caught still in the net. A possible section winning weight down the drain. For the record, G2e weighed in 22lb 8oz to Chappy’s 21lb odd.

Maybe Chappy ought to make up his own rigs as it’s obvious that mine don’t work, he may have caught more if he had remembered to bring his own rigs.

All round good guy and ‘Dons’ stalwart, John D Illingworth won the match with 72lb. Back up weights consisted of a 58lb, 55lb, 46lb and 43lb. All sections were won with more than 30lb. You can’t get any fairer than that.

I wonder if it is too late to have an attempt at the Kamasan leader board!!!

Giles, thank you very much for your advice, I’ll get you a beer at Go Fishing.

Full Result:

John Illingworth (Daiwa Dons) 72-01, carp, pellet, peg 26
Mick Herrington (Bob.Co/Oaks) 60-15 Peg 62
Andy Middleton (Oaks) 58-6 Peg 30
Chris Hall (Oaks) 55-12 Peg 29
Kirk Grainger (Tubertini Clay Lane) 46-6
Andy Dargue (Shimano Quaker) 43-0

2007-02-26T21:58:00.000Z

Bruce 'Age Concern' Poland.

Don’t you think that he looks like a saddle bag with eyes?

2007-02-23T14:51:00.000Z

Sunday 18th February 2007

Well here goes.

Bram was away on a club match at Birkin (?), which I was reliably informed, he won with about 70lb (ish), with no one to travel with, I ended up travelling all by myself. Well at least I can listen to Margaret Thatcher’s Greatest Speeches in peace.

Looking at the list of names down for the match, I was hopeful that it would have been a 50 pegger, but by the time of the draw there were 43 anglers in attendance.

I pegged it 2 pegs, miss a peg, all the way around the lake, then I took some of the worst pegs out, with the intention of trying to make some of the not so good pegs better, but still giving everyone at least one side of there peg as an empty peg, but you can’t win them all, as people still complained.

Nightie, Chappy, Fullstop and Rumpole were all in attendance.

Floatman quickly accosted me for the money for the floats that I borrowed yesterday. Well, when I say that he accosted me, he only paid £3.00 for his match. He can have them back when I have finished with them. Besides, he said that I could pay for them when I have tried them, well I haven’t even tried any of them yet. I want a full refund. I wonder if he does 30-day payment terms?

Whilst in the draw queue, Pete ‘Woody’ Baron (he informed a few of the lads in the pub that he had to get off early as it was ‘Line Dancing’ night and he was gonna take his missus) commented on Mick Grant’s new teeth by shouting ‘Steptoe’s Horse, keep the noise down’. You could have heard a pin drop, before we all started laughing.

I put my hand in the bag first – as always (question to all you other match organisers, do you go in first or settle for second best?) and managed to snare peg 21. YUCK!!!! Wished that I had waited now! Peg 21 is on the outside of a bend, with the island going away at 90 degrees, leaving you with a little bit of the island to go at, but hey, that is how the pegging went. I even complained to myself.

Oh well, you can but try. Nightie drew Peg 2; Fullstop was on peg 30, Rumpole – peg 44 and Chappy on peg 69. I was gonna be 4 quid down at this rate.

Upon arriving at my peg, I found that I had former Fisho-Mania champion ‘Dave Pimlott’ on peg 23. I quickly turned round to him and said “I would have had a quid with you, but I remember the last time we had a peg to peg” and Mark ‘Giant One’ Calvert on peg 18. (Think about it with the pegging, pegs 17 & 18 in, peg 19 not in, peg 20 taken out, peg 21 in, peg 22 not in, peg 23 in and shake it all about).

Whilst getting my gear out of my car, John Illingworth enquired about which peg I was on. When I replied, ‘21’, his face said it all.

Following my debacle yesterday, do I fish with the hook in the loop or not.

Sod it, go on then.

I set up 5 rigs, 2 across, one for the top 2 + 2sections, one at the base of the island and one for down the deep water down the side.

In view of yesterdays efforts, I set up a similar process or rigs in terms of a normal rig and a hook in the loop rig across. A hook in the loop at the base of the island slope and a normal rig on both the top 2 + 2 rig and the deep water down the side rig.

The island rigs; I set up the hook in the loop rig to fish across on top of the shelf. This rig, as yesterday, incorporated a .2 Garbolino DC 6 float on .10 line direct to a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed hook. I plumbed up and found that I had 2ft of water across. My other across rig was the same rig, but I fished a little deeper, just down the shelf at 2.5ft deep. I also plumbed up to the hay bale down the side with this rig until I found the same depth.

My top 2 + 2 rig was a 4 x 14 Drennan Roach float on .10 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 20 Preston PR 23 hook. I plumbed up and found that I had nearly 6ft on this rig. The deepest part of my peg. I set up this rig, as yesterday Chappy had approximately half of his weight (not his body weight stooopid), on his top kit alone.

I also set up a hook in the loop rig as above, for the base of the far slope at 14m going towards peg 20.

My final rig was set up to fish in the deeper water down the inside and incorporated a .3 DC 6. I set this rig up to fish in the standard way – if there is a standard way.

Before the all in Haircut (have you seen his number plate? – P ??? ERM, I kid you not!) told me that he was on peg 20 yesterday and had 31 carp for 31lb and he caught most of them going towards peg 21. All on pellet!

At the all in, I baited up with double maggot and put some micros in my fruit-shoot top and shipped out with the rig that I was planning on fishing just down the slope. I dropped the bait and the rig in and settled back. After about 10 minutes, I got my first indication. I waited a little longer (about 1 minute), nothing. I lifted the rig and dropped it back in. The float had only just settled, when it buried. Fish No1 was in the net. An F1 about 1lb. I repeated the process and caught 6 fish over the next 40 minutes or so.

I then decided to try to spread my feed and also changed my feed by feeding 4mm pellets, whilst fishing pellet on the hook. After some 10 minutes, the float buried and a little F1 was again with its brethren in the net. My first fish of the day on pellet. What I did find was that if I fed the 4mm pellets, I waited that bit longer for a bite.

After about 1-¼ hours, I went over to the far side with the hook in the loop rig, baited with pellet and micro pellets in the fruit-shoot top. I dropped the rig in and got an indication straight away. After a couple of missed bites/liners, I got used to the bites/indications and plundered my peg for the next couple of hours or so.

Pimmy by now was panicking and saw nearly every fish that I caught. Exman’s head had also developed a ball joint and was also looking my way with every fish netted.

Wind Up Time.

Halfway through the match Chappy rang me to find out how I was getting on. I told him that it was really hard and I was struggling for bites. I said that I had about 6 fish. I told him that Pimmy had about 8 fish and Exman was bagging and had about 20 fish. Chappy informed me that he also had about 6 fish, but one of them was a decent fish.

With about 1 hour of the match remaining, the peg was starting to die on me and I had to go to 16m towards peg 20 to try to keep bites coming. I had tried on the top 2 + 2 rig on 3 occasions and never had an indication. I also tried down the side on the shallow rig and never had an indication. At this time of the year, I think that the matches are so tight, that you have to plunder the shoals whilst you can. Everyone else has to then play catch up.

With about 30 minutes of the match remaining Chappy rang me again. In answer to his question of how was it going, I doubled my earlier quotation for Pimmy, Exman and I.

That was it. All out.

I would estimate that I had about 30lb (ish) made up of 44 fish. By the time that the scales had arrive, Gandhi was winning it with 51-12. Shrek Middleton weighed in 49lb (38 fish) and Ron Jeremy weighed in 38lb.

Pimmy got absolutely fish caked. Exman plonked 51lb on the scales for 2nd overall and I put 35lb 13oz on the scales for 6th overall. Pimmy managed to scrape together a respectable 30lb. The Giant One ended up with 26lb, but that was only after he got of his box to have a pee in peg 20, saw what I was up to, then went back and started to fish pellet.

New rule – No walking on matches, and no eye spying on those catching around you.

Apparently, I got 4 Chappy Slaps for winding Chappy up. I must admit, I hadn’t felt the last 3, as I was still numb from the first one.

My thoughts on the ‘hook in the loop’? Well, rightly or wrongly I managed to snare nearly 36lb by using a light line (.10) and a smaller hook (size 18) than yesterday. I foul-hooked 3 fish all day and managed to get 2 of them out, one was hooked under the mouth, the other was hooked just outside the side of the mouth. The general consensus seems to be that you have to use a thicker line, would I have caught more fish? Or have I proved (if that was the case) that you can also catch fish on lighter gear as most of the comments seem to be along the lines of people don’t like the idea because you have to use heavier lines. Who knows? I will however be continuing my own trials and tribulations.

Also, if I had started off my second line earlier, would I have continued to catch for longer or would there have been more chance of splitting the fish into two shoals. Who knows? Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

2007-02-21T22:48:00.000Z

Saturday 17th February 2007.

Perverted rang me early on during the week to see if I wanted to get off on a fishing match on Sat 17th Feb. I said that I would go, then the debate started about where, The Oaks (No, Perverted thinks it’s sh?te, probably because he can’t catch), Woodlands (I said no, as it is really sh?te, especially if you don’t draw on any fish) and Lindholme. Perverted said that he would get back to me in connection with Lindholme on Friday. Friday arrived and it was still a No!! – too far!!!!!

As a consolation, I made arrangements midweek with Bram to let him know what I was going to do. A quick call to Bram was made on Friday night and it was agreed that I would scare him to death before we got there as I would drive us both. Andy ‘Shrek’ Middleton runs the Saturday matches and by the time of the draw there were 50 of us in attendance.

I was somewhere towards the middle of the queue and by the time that I arrived at the draw bag, I had missed some of the better pegs. I put my hand in the bag and peg 62 jumped into my hand. Bram ended up on peg 12. Peg 62 is considered by most to be one of the best pegs on the whole lake. Bram’s peg is a bit so, so. I arrived at my peg to find that I had Andy Hamilton on peg 61 and none other than the legend himself, Chappy Chapman on peg 64, with no one on peg 63. Chappy is gonna get a right battering today!!! Peg 64 is crap, 62 is better and with peg 63 being empty it got even better. There were only 2 of my usual quid bets around, Martin ‘Rigsby’ Holmes (the tight git) and the usual Chappy quid were the only pounds going around.

Floatman Malham was on peg 65, on the other side of Chappy.

Having been intrigued by the discussions taking place on Total Fishing and Talk Angling forums, I decided to finally have a go at the ‘Giles Cochrane’ Hook In The Loop method. This basically entails having an eyed hook moving freely within a 2” loop at the business end of your rig.

I set up 4 rigs, 2 for down the middle and 2 for across to the island. Both sets of rigs utilised the same floats, ie. .2g Garbolino DC6 floats for across and 4 x 14 Drennan Roach floats for down the middle. One of each float was set as standard, the other was set up as a hook in the loop rig. All of the rigs were set up on .10 Preston Powerline direct. I always prefer to fish direct for the reasons of having less knots on your line therefore having less week spots.

The ‘normal’ rig across was shotted with a bulk at half depth in 18” – 2ft of water. A size 20 Preston PR 23 completed this rig. My hook in the loop rig was completed with a size 16 (the smallest eyed hook that I had available, when I made up my rig) eyed hook, not sure what pattern. (When I showed Chappy the rig at the end of the match, he commented that it looked like a forged hook that still needed some work doing on it).

My normal deep rig was set up to fish dead depth at the base of the slope in about 5ft of water. A size 18 Pr 23 completed this set up. My hook in the loop rig was exactly the same, aside from having the same animal hook as above.

For bait, I had micro pellets, maggots and corn.

At the all in, I baited up the normal across rig (as that is the rig that I had confidence in using) with double red maggot, shipped across to the far side and dropped the rig in. No feed had been put in the peg at this point.

The float had only just settled, when it shot under and an F1 of about 10oz was soon in the landing net. White Hydro through the No. 2 and 3 match sections of my pole is suffice for the stamp of fish at the moment. I put 3 maggots in my fruit-shoot top, went back over to the far-side with my ‘gozunder’ float rig and waited, and waited. I even tried my hook in the loop rig across to the far side. The wind was blowing the rig onto the slope and a couple of times I struck at dips, that were either fish in the peg or more likely, the shot blowing onto the slope causing the float to dip.

After 45 minutes, of dropping the rig all over the far side, I decided it was time to have a look down the middle. Chappy also helped persuade me to go down the middle as by now he had about 6 fish to my one. The quid was in jeopardy already, even at this early stage.

I baited up one of the deep rigs with corn and dropped in down the middle. Some 5 minutes later, I got my first indication and struck, nothing there. I dropped in again. After about 2 minutes, the float buried again, a little F1 about 12 oz was soon in the net. I was using Yellow Maver Dual Core elastic through my pole tips down the middle as it is less forgiving than white hydro, especially in the deeper water.

One of the common mistakes that I see a lot of people do is to fish with tight elastic in their pole kits. This has the effect of keeping the fish in the fish catching area for longer as it cannot ‘run’ out of the part of the peg where it was hooked. I have just elasticated two poles for a couple of the lads that go to The Oaks. They had about 1 ft of elastic through a Tournament Pro top two, now figure that out.

I decided to take the plunge, not literally, and try the hook in the loop rig. I baited up with corn on the hook and stared at the rig in disbelief, thinking to my self ‘what am I doing?’. I dropped the rig in and waited all of 20 seconds, the float buried, carp No.1 on the ‘new rig’. I was converted. I fished down the same whole for the next 3 hours and had about 24 fish, nothing bigger than 1lb. Chappy meanwhile was about 6 or 7 fish in front of me and he had a slightly bigger stamp of fish. In the last hour, just about every square inch of my peg seemed to be devoid of fish. I couldn’t buy a bite anywhere. Not down the middle nor across, not even with the ‘new gozunder rig’.

That was it. Match over for me.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Phil Sellars was leading with 49lb (no didn’t have that much), John Allerton had 46lb (didn’t have that much either). Bram had managed to plonk 31lb (didn’t think that I had that much, but it might be close) on the scales and there were numerous other 30lb weights. Panic put 24lb on the scales from peg 59. Andy Hamilton weighed in 15lb off peg 61. I put a disappointed 22lb on the scales. I honestly thought that I had more than that, some where nearer to 28lb would have been better. Now for Chappy. I got a proper Chappy slap as he put 39lb on the scales and got the section win.

Floatman managed to snare 23lb from the other side of Chappy and Rigsby managed to snare 25lb odd. What a poor day at the office, £2 down already, that is before I pay for my floatman floats. I even bought Chappy and Pimmy a pint and he was the one who won the money, there’s something wrong here.

My thoughts, there is definitely something to the hook in the loop method. I think that I may have got it wrong for trying to fish up the slope a little rather than fishing on the flat of the lake. Maybe I used the wrong hook, who knows (If Giles reads this, he may let me know, please?).

If there is one thing that I learned today was the Chappy fished his big heart out. I think that it had a lot to do with the fact of drawing next to me and stamping his authority around.

There’s always tomorrow……….. come back and find out how I got on.

Back in the pub afterwards, I quickly surveyed my surroundings and promptly raised a quid bet on Reading beating Man U with ‘Rosie and Jim’ Stonner. After about 10 minutes of the match starting, Chappy reminded me that I should have asked for the draw. A quick discussion followed with a lot of cussing, and I finally got the draw. No to say that I don’t understand football (not in terms of the offside rule, more like, I couldn’t tell you the names of 3 players that play for Leeds, could probably name about 3 Man U players and as for Arsenal and West Ham, I haven’t got a clue), but I felt as though I had jumped from the frying pan into the fire on this one.

WELL DONE READING!!!!!!

Tight lines.

2007-02-13T23:00:00.000Z

Update No. 1

Just trying to bring you up to date with my activities over the past month or so. So, what have I been up to since my last update?

Work, work and more work I suppose.

Both of my administrators have decided to hand in their notice, one of them left on 5th January 2007 and the other will be leaving at the end of Feb (after I persuaded her to stay until the end of Feb as she was hoping to leave mid Feb), see picture below!!!. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not an ogre or anything, one of my staff left to go and work for her friend/cousin which included a promotion (wait until it’s pay day, she may be back), the other one is leaving in order to dedicate more of her time to setting up her own business. All that I seem to have been doing is interviewing of late. In addition to the girl that provided me with a list of her attributes (see below), one of the girls that attended for an interview was a tidy trainee fitness instructor (in her spare time). She was nearly offered the position for that alone, but alas, the job was offered to someone else with a steadier career history. You never know, she may be offered a job in the near future if the new girls don’t work out (geddit?). At the moment, I am trying to do my job and help with training and to assist the other staff with their job/tasks.

Well then, how has my fishing been going. So, so, is the straight forward answer.

For a breather, I went to an old stomping ground of mine, Raker Lakes just outside York. After gathering a bit of info, I went armed to the teeth with the intention of catching a few roach and the odd carp as the carp haven’t switched on yet. I had a word with Paul Connolly in the car park and he informed me that it was a roach affair, fishing with caster, some areas are ropey and other areas are full of fish. He advised to fish and feed caster. NO Groundbait. Paul ‘PK Peanuts’ Kozyra (try saying that when you are Brahms and Lizst) told me to fish caster over groundbait. Who to believe?

I put my hand in the bag and managed to snare peg 16. When the weather is warmer, the carp can be plentiful, but at this time of year it is stuffed with roach and skimmers, with the possibility of carp over to the far side. The peg is some 18 – 19m wide and the base of the far slope is at 16m. 5 minutes before kick off, I had a quick walk around the lake to see what was on people bait trays and to get an idea of who had drawn where. Connolly had no groundbait and Peanuts had groundbait.

I decided to knock up some Sensas Roach (neat) laced with a few pinkies and Casters. I set up 3 rigs:

Rig one was a 4x14 Drennan Roach rig on .10 direct to a size 20 Preston PR 23 hook. I plumbed up down the middle at 13m and found that I had about 7ft. I used white hydro to complete this set up.

Rig two was a .8g Series Top float on the same set up as above. The reason for the heavier float was to try to get the bait down quicker if I was getting a lot of fast bites and was also in case the wind decided to pick up. White hydro completed this set up.

Rig three was a 4 x 12 Series Top. I attached this to .10 Fox Match Plus line direct to a size 18 Preston PR 23 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the near slope, which was some 7m out to my left. Maver Yellow Dual Core completed this set up. The reason for the bigger hook and the stronger elastic, was that I felt that there was a better chance of a carp on this line than on my 13m line.

At the all in, I catapulted a few pinkies out to 13m and put some maggots and caster in at 7m. I baited up with a single maggot on the hook. My first indication some 10 minutes into the match resulted in a roach of about 2oz. Although it wasn’t a monster, a fish is a fish at this time of the year. After some 30 minutes and a couple more pairs of eyes, I took a gamble and decided to put in a golf ball of groundbait at 13m. I also put some micro pellets in at 7m with a few more maggots.

I started to get indications some 10 minutes after putting in the groundbait. I caught a skimmer of about 10oz. The bloke on peg 15 had managed to snare a carp and the bloke on peg 17 had a couple of roach. I started to cup in about 10 casters after every fish and the fish were starting to come thick and fast. After about 20 minutes, some bubbles were coming up on the 7m line where I had fed the micro pellets. I quickly swapped over to my 7m rig, baited up with double maggot and dropped in. The float buried straight away, a liner. I dropped back in and waited and waited. After about 5 minutes, the float buried and a roach of about 8oz was soon in the net. Not what I expected, but it’s 8oz more than I had.

I swapped back to the 13m line, baited up with caster, put a few casters in the tosspot and proceeded to catch roach for the duration of the match. I put in a few micro pellets to try to bring in more skimmers, this failed to bring in the skimmers and it also knocked the roach on the head for a time. I put in another couple of balls of groundbait throughout the duration of the match and proceeded to plug away, fishing caster over the odd ball of groundbait and feeding casters via a ‘TossPot’. At the all out, I weighed in just short of 9lb of roach and skimmers. The lad on peg 17 had a carp of about 7lb and 2lb of bits for just over 9lb, and the lad on peg 15 sat it out on the floating pole all day for 6 indications and 4 carp for 11lb odd. 22lb of skimmers won the match, with 21lb of little pasties second.

I enjoyed myself. Every time the float went under, you had the anticipation of the fish being a skimmer (they run to over 7lb), a good roach, a tench or even a double figure carp. I might have to go again sometime soon.

2007-02-08T12:22:00.000Z

This is a picture of one of my staff that is leaving.

I will be sorry to see her go for one or two obvious reasons!!!!

2007-01-23T22:06:00.000Z

Sunday 14th January 2007.

Well well well, where do I start. I suppose first of all, with a belated Happy New Year and tightlines to you all.

So what has happened since my last blog? Here goes…

We had our Christmas Cheer on the 17th December with a first prize of £500, 2nd £300 and 3rd £200 with five man sections winning £100. I drew peg 39 and had to contend with pegs 36 to 40. The Pacifier was on peg 36, Neil Chapelow on 37, Age Concern on 38 and Slob Armitage on peg 40. This should be a walk in the park. After 5 hours I had amassed a total weight of 11lb odd. I had 14 F1 carp. Slob had 13 carp and put 15lb on the scales. The Pacifier managed to snare 16lb odd for a section win and £100. He had managed to capture one of Gandhi’s (one of the lads that works in the café) pets. The smallest of these carp go 6lb and have reached over 8lb. Due to not winning his section, Slob declined going back to the pub for the banter and the piss taking. This is where the real fun begins.

‘Charisma’ Pawlett won the match and £500 with 28lb odd. David and Tom Kaye (the pond owners) had donated a few prizes to go with all of the Xmas alcoholic prizes. One of the said prizes was a 28” TV, which was duly won my non other than Andy ‘Rosie and Jim’ Stonner.

Prior to the raffle, I had a few prizes to hand out. I awarded a bottle of bubbly to the lowest weight weighed in on the match. Age Concern was on for a double has he along with 2 other compadres weighed in 1lb 12oz. Age Concern weighed in 1lb 1oz last year. He commented that the wanted the triple crown at next years (or is that this years) event.

A ballot was held on the Oaks Banter discussion forum for the ‘Numpty of the year’ and after getting over half of the total votes (11 votes out of a total of 21 brave souls, brave enough to post a vote) unfortunately John ‘Chappy’ Chapman was this years winner. He graciously accepted his bottle of plonk for his troubles, that was after chasing me around the pub.

Whilst partaking in the raffle, I devised a new sport – ‘Baron Baiting’. Let me explain….

Whilst announcing the winners of the various raffle prizes, I eye-spied Lizard Baron’s raffle tickets. I put my hand in the bowl and selected one of the tickets. I looked at it, covered up the first number (3) and proceeded to announce the winning ticket as ‘Blue 21’. The Lizard woke up and proceeded to dance about, shouting profanities as he had finally won something. After finally getting him out from under his rock, I had to tell him that I had got it wrong and that winning number was actually ‘Blue 321’. I was allowed to breath some 2 minutes later, after he had let go of my throat. Everybody was in stitches. I was laughing so much, I had tears streaming down my face. Some 10 raffle tickets later, I went for the double. I shot and I scored (my throat was red after this episode). To his credit, the Lizard took it in the vain that it was meant to be.

A word of advice, never join together with Xman Exley to get a raffle ticket or anything that relies on luck/chance. We must have had nearly 60 or 70 raffle prizes and Xman managed to dodge all of them, despite having half a book of raffle tickets in front of him. I think that out of the total prizes on offer from both the match and the raffle, Xman ended up with ‘absolutely nothing, nada, zilch, zip, a big fat ZEROOOOOO!!!’.

All in all, it was a good do. The Kaye’s had put on a spread of food for us, donated some raffle prizes, gave us the lake for free, and that was just for this match. The pond owners do try to accommodate and look after all of the visiting anglers and this is their way of showing their appreciation.

David and Tom, thank you and I can safely say that that is from all the visiting anglers who go to The Oaks Lakes.

In view of my one of my administrators leaving, I was carrying out interviews at work week commencing 18th December. One of the blokes that applied for the job, that I got in for an interview had a weird laugh to say the least. Following his interview, and after he had left/was shown off the premises, the Sales Manager asked me what the noise was coming from the interview room. I explained that he thought that he had said something funny and was laughing. The Sales Manger thought that he was having a fit.

On one of the other CV’s that I received, a girl had completed her name and address details, the proceeded to describe herself attributes as follows (these were serious entries on her CV):

Height: 5ft 4”
Hair: Brown
Weight: 8 stone
Size: 10
Bust: 34 C

I was nearly tempted to get her in for an interview, just to see if she was lying about her bust size.

One of the other applicants (male) had a good CV, that indicated that he had a degree in something or other. Whilst interviewing him, I was pointing out some of the duties that he would have to undertake and mentioned ‘typing letters’. He replied that he didn’t know how to type letters, but would use the internet to source how to type letters so that he wouldn’t forget next time. He will go far, won’t he!!!!

Anyways, back to the fishing. I managed to get off over the Xmas period to Naburn Lock at York with a mate of mine – Nick ‘Chod’ Garbutt. We decided to fish the canal section and balled it in with groundbait (a 50/50 mix of Sensas Lake and brown crumb) laced with casters. I fished with .5g rigs using both maggot and casters as bait. I managed to snare about 50 roach between 1 oz to 5 oz (mainly 1 – 2oz in size) and maybe a dozen perch of between 2 oz to 8 oz. Chod had a similar number of fish, but had few bigger stamp fish. He had fed hemp and I wonder if that had drawn in and helped to hold the larger stamp of fish. An enjoyable day was had by both of us, that was until I decided to check the depth of where I had been fishing, literally. On the towpath, there was a little ledge on the water line of about 6” wide. I decided to put my foot on it in order for me to rinse out my bait boxes. My foot slipped and I found out that it was deeper than 5’ 10” as I had to swim out. This was on one of the coldest, windiest days at the back end of last year. The water was some 8ft deep for you information. I clambered out using one of the hand rails on the tow path (I think that people fall in quite regular here to the extent that they have hand rails installed similar to what you will find in a swimming pool). In view of wearing my Preston’s Dri-Fish 150 suit, my feet and lower legs (from knee to ankle) and my hair were the only things that were wet. My Preston Dri-Fish 150 had done me proud. My phone had gone on the blink as some water had got in it, I put the phone on one of the car heating vents and by the time that I had got home the phone was working again (and still is).

Sunday 31st December. I drew peg 40 which was a peg away from where I was on the Xmas Cheer match and had Timothy ‘Sorry’ Moran for company to my right on peg 41. I was after a re-match in view of him taking a quid off me (or is it two quid) during the warmer months. After 5 hours I amassed 14lb odd. Sorry ended up with 11lb odd. Oh, he was also a quid down to boot. Chappy ended the last match of the year in the same vein as the first pound side bet by taking my quid again. I think that for 2007 I will pay him £52 as a lump sum and ask him for £2 back should I win. He said that I should pay him for the year and make do with that with no refunds or anything. I said that I will think about it not!!!

I thank you for reading thus far and I will try to get the next instalment up and running in the v. near future. Keep coming back and having a read to see if there is anything new.

2006-12-09T23:56:00.000Z

Updated Blog.

My good lady wife has been away for the past 3 weeks, one of my staff has decided to hand in her notice at work (office administrator required, salary c £14k) and I have been washing and ironing my oldest two lads school and home clothes. I have had both the month end and the year end accounts to prepare along with the VAT return. So as you can see, I haven’t had time to fart!!!

Well here goes, I will try to condense the activities of the past 3 weeks into as few pages as possible.

I was on a high following sitting behind Alwin as I had a 3rd and a 7th overall.

Sunday 19th November, I drew peg 77 and for company, I had Rumpole of the Bailey to my left on peg 76 and Marco Drury’s brother ‘Dino’ to my right on peg 78. Team Glum’s ‘El Capitan – Stef ‘Slim’ Armitage’ was within earshot on peg 75. Marco was on peg 74 (with corner peg 73 empty, I hastily add) and Charisma Pawlett was on end peg 80.

When I arrived at my peg, there was a frost on the ground. In defence of my performance, the area that I was in has not produced anything since the middle of summer. At the moment, the best weight from pegs 68 (ish) round to peg 80 is lower than the worst weight from the rest of the lake. The reason being that although the sun does shine ‘ooooppp North’ there is a wall of 40ft conifers and evergreens some 12m behind you. The only saving grace is that if there is a strong Southerly wind, you don’t tend to feel it.

Whilst I was setting up there was a plethora of quid side bets flying about, all of which were aimed at yours truly. Haven’t they seen my results from the previous two weeks? Obviously not. In addition to the obligatory quid’s with the usual suspects, I set up a quid with Dino, Rumpole and Slim. A couple of easy quid’s were gonna come my way. Marco decided to stick his beak in and also roped me into a quid. Charisma wouldn’t have a quid ‘the wuss’.

Steve ‘Toastie’ Hall, who was looking somewhat the worse for wear, courtesy of a glass or a bottle (one of the two) tried to rope me into a quid. I hastily declined.

I set up the usual array of Garbolino DC6’s for across and a couple of Drennan Roach rigs for down the middle.

I kicked off down the middle and observed all and sundry starting to bag around me. It took a while, but eventually a carp fell to my double red maggot hookbait. After about 50 minutes down the middle, I had 3 carp for about 2lb and both Rumpole and Slim had about 6 carp. I decided to have a look across. I had been flicking the odd couple of maggots or so, on both the line across and down the middle.

I dropped in across and managed to snare 3 carp before the gnomes either side of me had managed another bite. My peg was ripe for reaping.

Over the remainder of the match, I swapped between down the middle and across trying to pick the odd fish up of each line. I ended up with 19 fish and plonked 15lb odd on the scales. ‘Slim’ managed to snare 8lb as did ‘Rumpole’. Dino Dnw’d (but I didn’t take his quid). Word of warning, don’t have a quid with ‘Slim’. He tried to pay me in the plastic money that you use when you are in nursery school and you buy a plastic tin of peas (you know the money that I mean). Marco upset the applecart due to plonking 19lb on the scales. I was also glad that I never pushed Charisma into his quid as he also plonked 18lb on the scales.

My section winner (after a bit of fiddling J (chin up Marco)) was Chappy who was the first angler in our 11 peg section. There were a couple of tears following the announcement of the overall result and section winners, both from myself (as I had to give another quid to Chappy, which considering that he had been out of pocket for the past two weeks and couldn’t afford his weekly porno mag (The Sunday Sport), I found pretty hard to take) and the other person that had a ‘sad on’ with me was Marco as he was adamant that I had fiddled the section in order to award the section prize to Chappy.

I put the smaller sections at the beginning of the lake (2 x 10 peg sections) and the larger sections at the back end of the lake (5 x 11 peg sections) as I do every week, but alas, there was no consoling Marco.

The following week (Sunday 26th November), I dipped into the drawbag and managed to extract peg 21 from the deepest, darkest depths of sorrow. It is utter @h{ite and that is at the best of times

Upon arriving at my peg, I had ‘Fullstop’ Byron on peg 19 (the better peg), Raymondo Wallace on peg 20 and ‘Meatcutter’ Bailey on peg 22. Meatcutter had been on peg 23 last week so was in tune with this particular area of the lake. On yesterdays match the best weight from this corner was 16lb. A good day was not on the cards. Meatcutter was quickly added to the quid corner for the day.

Peg 21 is a corner peg on the outside of a bend with the island being almost at a right angle. The island part of the peg is one of the shortest pegs on the whole lake.

At the start of the match, I fished down to my left hand side at about 8m along the bank and about 4m out, fishing just at the base of the deepest part of the corner peg. After about 20 minutes, I got my first indication and missed it. I dropped back in and managed to hook into something. As I was shipping back, the hook pulled. It took a full 40 minutes plus before I put my first fish in the net. A small F1 of about 8oz.

After about 2 hours, I had managed to put about 8 fish in the net. I decided to have a look across to the far side. I dropped in and the float shot sideways straight away. A chub of about 12 oz was soon in the net. This was my one and only fish from the far side.

With about 2 hours to go I observed Raymondo catching a few fish on his top 3 kit. He seemed to be fishing about 4ft deep down the nearside slope. I decided to change tack. I got another rig out a 4 x 12 Drennan Roach and plumbed up at the base of the near slope and found that I had about 5.5ft on a long top two kit. I baited up with corn and fed a couple of maggots and a grain of corn. Over the next couple of hours, I had managed to put about 15 fish in the net, but alas they were all small. I looked at my watch and saw that the match was all but finished. I waited for Meatcutter to ship out, chuck a bit of bait on top of his float (he had also come inside on his top 2 kit). Just as his float settled, I shouted time. Hard luck mate. Just as I shouted time, my float trembled (it must have been the vibrations from me shouting ‘Time’). I waited all of 10 seconds and the float shot under. I had to chuck back a carp of about 12oz. That fish may cost me as it was very close between Meatcutter and I. Fullstop managed to put 14lb on the scales. Raymondo tipped back. I weighed in 16lb 8oz. Now Meatcutter’s turn. He put 16lb 12oz on the scales. I had been done. Marco had weighed me in. I think it was revenge from last weeks match when he didn’t win his section.

Sunday 3rd December 2006. Nearly Xmas time chaps. The weather is getting colder. The wind is getting stronger. The rain is blinking freezing. All I am waiting for now is the snow. The wind was ‘BLOWING’ from a South-Westerly direction, therefore making for a good day for the pole repairers.

I put my hand in the bag and managed to pull out peg 43. At least the wind was going to be more off my back rather than side on (or that it was I thought). When I arrived at my peg, the peg was more or less coming from right to left, although it did occasionally decide to come off my back. I had Pat Bailey to my left on peg 42 and Neil Chapelow on peg 44. Meatcutter was in earshot on peg 45. The return quid was back on.

Meatcutter asked me a serious question at the start of the match. ‘Will I catch on the bomb rod?’ ‘Don’t be daft idiot’ or words to that effect erupted from my mouth. He still set it up.

I set up 3 rigs to fish 3 different lines, 1 on the top 4 kit, one at the base of the far slope and one across. I fed a couple of maggots on the close in line and flicked the same out to the other two lines. I baited up with corn and dropped in. Before I had even had an indication, Pat had managed to get 4 carp off the far side. My float buried and a carp of about 1lb was soon in the net. I managed to get back to 5 – 4 with Pat still in the lead.

In view of me now starting to get a couple of fish, Pat decided to come close in and have a look. He dropped in and caught a bream of about 3lb, then a carp of about 2lb. I was way behind again.

Meatcutter had managed to snare a few. He gave a quick shout to me and I observed him chucking the tip rod out. FOOL!!! About 20 seconds later Meatcutter shouted at me ‘Mick, I thought you said the tip didn’t work’. Basket!!!!

About 15 minutes later I shouted over to Meatcutter ‘Have you finished with your bomb rod?’. I even had to walk over to him to get the rod, the lazy sod. I chucked it out and I managed to get ‘ABSOLUTELY NOTHING’. I told you the bomb rod doesn’t work. The rod was a Garbolino model (not sure which), but it was fantastic. Nice, soft and responsive. Gonna have to get me one of them.

That was it, match over. I felt as though I hadn’t really caught anything (no change there then, I suppose). Pat had been getting the odd fish, all of which were a considerably better stamp than mine. I ended up with 19 fish for 16lb. Pat had 21 fish for 32lb. Ho Hum. Meatcutter put 23lb on the scales. To my defence, Neil Chapelow only managed 11lb odd.

There you go, that’s it. I’ll try to go back to the more informative report as soon as I can.

With regards to the quids, over the past 3 matches or so, I have won some and I have lost some. All I can say is thank god that I have a regular quid with the Orc, at least then I manage to take a quid home nearly every week.

2006-11-23T23:35:00.000Z

John 'The future is so bright, gotta wear shades' Chapman with one he caught earlier.

2006-11-23T23:14:00.000Z

Gordon 'Chubby' Brown or as I have just realised after looking at this picture - Rumpole of the Bailey.

2006-11-23T23:07:00.000Z

Gareth 'Marco' Drury or as he is affectionately now known 'Charles Carry On Hawtry'.

His summer nickname is '10 pint kid'!!!

2006-11-23T23:03:00.000Z

One of those incredibly rare moments. A picture of Stef 'Slob' Armitage. People couldn't believe that I had captured this picture. He still moaned all the way throughout the match though!!!

I recall a few years ago, Slob won a match and the Anglers Mail published a picture of Stef Armitage. The only difference being that the bloke the AM used was about 80 and also was only just slightly slimmer than Slob.

2006-11-17T10:53:00.000Z

Sunday 12th November 2006

I persuaded my one time halves partner to go today, as he needs to get his 4 matches in to qualify for the Xmas Cheer. Bram had also booked on and arranged to come to my gaff and pick us up. Bram arrived at 7:15 in his speed demon and good headway was made and we arrived in plenty of time for me to have a brekkie before I start to get everyone organised.

I had been turning people down all week as I had been booked up and I also had a few names in reserve in case anyone cancelled off. By the time of the draw, I had 74 names on the match and that included the people that had turned up to try to get on the match. If people are not there but the time of the draw, I give their places to other people waiting to get on, so it was still a good turn out none the less. Saturdays are also starting to fill up now as they had 57 on the match yesterday.

In view of Polecrusher Payton not paying me my quid from last week, as he arrived today he handed me a £20 note. I asked him for a quid, implying that I was going to give him a fiver change. He gave me a quid and I then said ‘that’s me paid, give us another quid and I will give you a fiver’. Quid’s were also set up with John ‘Silverback’ Chapman, Bedpan, Nightie, Polecrusher, and a new recruit Anthony ‘Jasper’ Scarlett. Byron ‘Fullstop’ Dell (have you seen the height comparison between Byron and a Fullstop, not a lot in it if you ask me), had booked on the match and quickly set up the quid from last winter’s matches. Ian ‘Exman’ Exley also asked me if I want to have a quid with him, I quickly turned him down, have you seen his results of late?

I put my hand in the bag and managed to pull out peg 2. Peg 3 had won yesterdays match with 50 odd lb’s. Rosie and Jim look-alike, Andy Stonner, had won the section off my peg with 28lb odd.

Upon arriving at my peg, Billy ‘Split Shot’ Brierley, who had drawn scales help peg 1, offered me out for a quid, doesn’t he know of my result last week? I also roped Steve ‘Ena’ Sharples into a quid who was to my right on yesterdays winning peg. Call me a glutton for punishment.

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

2 rigs across. Both of them were Garbolino DC6 floats, one taking .05g and the other .2g. I shotted both of them shirt button style. They were both made up using .10 Novotech line. One of them had a size 18 Preston Pr23 and the other had a Size 20 Preston Pr23 hook attached. The .05g rig was attached to white hydro and the other rig was attached to the yellow 6-10 Maver Dual Core elastic. I plumbed up across and after finding the depth, I added a floats length to the depth.

On the subject of line diameter, I have just been reading an article by Giles Cochrane in one of the magazines. I usually get comments from people with regards to the line diameter that I fish as I tend to fish slightly heavier than most. A couple of Giles’ comments are along the lines of ‘fish do not swim towards .08mm line’, ‘scaling down to .08mm may get you the extra bite, but you still have to get the fish in the net’ and ‘Matches are decided on what you have in the net and not what line diameter you are using’.

I also had 2 rigs down the middle.

Deep rig one was a .4g Paste Corn float attached to .12 Fox Match Plus line straight through to a size 18 Preston Pr 23 hook. I was planning on fishing with corn on this rig and after plumbing up; I found that I had about 5ft of depth. I added a floats length of depth to my rig. I was using the Maver Dual Core Yellow with this rig.
Deep rig No. 2 was a 4 x 12 Drennan Roach float attached to .10 Novotech straight through to a size 18 Preston PR23 hook. I planned on fishing with double maggot down the middle with this rig. Again, I plumbed up and added a floats length of depth to my rig. White Hydro completed the set up.

For bait, I had a small tin of corn and 1pt of red maggots. That was all. In view of the way that I intended to feed, I got my catapult only out of my box.

At the start of the match, I catapulted a few maggots down the middle and put the same number across. I baited up the Drennan Roach rig with a couple of red maggots, dropped in down the middle and waited. Both Ena and Split Shot went across to the far side.

After a couple of minutes, Ena was into a fish. But, alas, it came off (thank you God!!!). I waited a couple more minutes, the float trembled and I struck. I was up for it, but the fish wasn’t. I dropped back in. The float settled and carried on going. A skimmer of about 8oz was doing its best impression of a carp, but it lost. I catapulted some more bait out, and shipped back out again.

Ena had by now managed to snare a couple more carp, both of which he managed to get out. Split Shot on the other hand was getting a bite a chuck and was putting a fish in his net every put in. Unfortunately, the skimmer that I had caught weighed more than all of his fish put together.

I persevered down the middle for the next 1 hour and 20 minutes. By now, Split Shot was starting to catch carp from the edge of the sedges to his right (about 2 yards from the start of my swim) and Ena was starting to string a few fish together. Ena has got to be one of the funniest people around when there is a fishing match on. With every fish lost, a tirade of expletives would erupt from his cesspit of a mouth. He would get very annoyed and start swearing at himself and the fish. The more that it happened, the more irate he got. At one point, I thought that the Incredible Hulk had better go into hiding because Ena Sharples was about.

Throughout my time down the middle, I had been flicking a few maggots over to the far side and also down the middle. Split Shot was also flicking a few maggots around his peg. Ena hadn’t fed anything to my knowledge!!!

Having lovingly primed my swim, it was now time to go over and have a look across.

I baited up the .05g rig with double red maggot, shipped across, dropped (or should that be laid) the rig in, catapulted a few of maggots over the top and waited, or at least I would have done had the pole not been dragged to the right. The white hydro was getting a good seeing to as I tried my best to control the fish. Whilst shipping back, at one stage all I was getting was slow nods as the fish made it’s best impression of a bream, but I knew it was a good carp that was using its weight to fight me. After a 5 minute battle a carp of about 5lb was in the net. Caught them all up with one fish, never mind with the other fish in my net.

I re-baited, catapulted a few maggots across, and went back out with the same rig. I dropped in the same hole and this time I had to wait about 5 minutes before the float buried again. A mirror carp of about 1lb was running all around my peg, it was soon in the net. Why is it that smaller carp give you more a run around than larger carp? I was flying.

Split Shot was shipping across to the far side and was catching the gudgeon and roach that I was desperately trying to catch, NOT!!!!! In the time that I caught a 2lb+ carp, Split Shot had about 6oz of roach and gudgeon, things were not looking good for him. Ena on the other hand was still managing to hook the carp, but failed to get them out. I commented to Split Shot that by the end of the match Ena would have less hair than Haircut, and he’s nearly bald.

2 hours into the match, the float dipped. I waited. It dipped again, and then shot under. I struck and the float stayed where it was a metre of white hydro extruded from the pole tip. The ‘bottom’ then decided to start moving. After a long battle and 4 sections of pole in the air (which I never do) the fish came up off the bottom, it rolled and went back down sulking. I shouted to Split Shot that it was bigger than the 5lb ‘er that I had caught earlier. The task of getting the fish into the net was made more difficult due to my using a small landing net head and also the fact that the fish had been hooked in it’s anal fin. Oh hum. I tried to shake the fish off and prod it with my landing net, but it wouldn't come off. Oh well, best net it and put it in my net then. I was trying to wind up Ena more than he already was as I gave a running commentary of my netting prowess and the size of the fish.

I had by now got an estimated 20lb and most of that was made up with 2 fish. I re-baited the same rig and went back out. I let the float settle, put a few maggots over the top. The float settled, then dipped sideways, then shot under. I managed to squeeze the 5lb ‘ers twin brother into my already bulging keepnet.

Split Shot asked me what bait I was using, what hook size and also, what line. I told him that I was on .13 Preston Powerline direct to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I asked him what he was using, his reply was .08 to a .07 hooklength and a size 22 hook. He quickly rang Haircut to say that I was using 3 maggots on a size 14 to .15 Preston Powerline straight through and that he couldn’t get a bite off a carp. It goes to prove Giles’ point above in that if you are on them, it doesn’t matter what line, etc, that you are using.

Going into the last hour, I would estimate that I had 6 carp for about 28lb and about another 10lb of smaller carp for about 38/39lb.

The last hour was the slowest part of the match. Ena was still managing to pick up the odd carp by searching all over his peg and I was having to wait twice as long for a bite. I had been flicking a couple of maggots down the middle all the while, whilst I had been fishing across. I decided to have a look. I dropped in with the deep rig and waited. After some 10 minutes, I had had enough and quickly went back over to the far side.

Over the remaining 50 minutes, I managed to snare a couple more carp and half a dozen roach and gudgeon. See, I can catch them when I try. By the end of the match, I would estimate that I had about 45lb and that it would be close between Ena and I, but I had a feeling that it would just go in my favour.

The scales quickly arrived and Split Shot set the mark. He plonked 15lb 8oz on the scales. I lifted my net out and managed to put 43lb 6oz on the scales (my 2nd 40lb+ weight in two weeks). Ena lifted his net out. It was going to be close. He weighed in 40lb 2oz. £2 up already and there was a few more victims to weigh in yet. Polecrusher - 29-12, Bedpan – DNW, Chappy - 21-11, Nightie 15-2 and Jasper 28-08. Not a bad day at the office thus far, £7 up!!!!

Fullstop managed to spoil a clean sweep as he was pegged next to the winner and managed to snare 44-14. I should have had a quid with Exman as he only managed
25-10. In view of The Pacifier and Macca not being present either last week or this week, I was now down £8. Come back, please, I will pay your petrol.

Ooooppss, nearly forgot (as if). I managed to sneak 3rd overall and another brown envelope.

Full result:

Matt Lord (KL Tackle) 45-02. Peg 64
Byron Dell (Bob-Co) 44-14. Peg 63
Me (Bob-Co/Oaks) 43-06. Peg 2
Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) 41-04. Peg 66
Adam Richards (Garbolino Elton) 40-06.
Steve Sharples (Bob-Co) 40-02. Peg 3

Tightlines.

2006-11-09T22:36:00.000Z

Roger 'Bedpan' Movely. Looks like he uses one.

2006-11-09T22:34:00.000Z

John 'Elvis' Fallows.

Why was he shaking his net dry, he didn't even get it wet. I call him Elvis because one day he came in to the cabin and said (with a Lancashire accent) 'Hey up Mick, Elvis is here'.

2006-11-09T22:00:00.000Z

Sunday 5th November 2006

There was no blog last week as I sat behind Alwynne Ingham and watched what he does throughout a match, so this week with my newly acquired knowledge, we will see what happens.

My phone has been hectic this week with people trying to book on and off for today’s match and as at yesterday, I had 80 people booked on the match with half a dozen turning up on the day to try to get on.

By the time of the draw, I managed to get on all those that were there at the draw. What I do at The Oaks Lakes, is to take the monies from all those that have booked on and come 9:00, I offer the places to people that are waiting to get on but who haven’t booked.

Whilst sorting out the pegs, Nightie took peg 62 off the board and indicated that he wanted that peg. We will see what happens. 3 jackpot pegs were drawn and they were pegs 67 (Mick Grant), peg 78 (Lizard, see picture below) and peg 79 (Craig Lealand). I put my hand in the bag and upset Nightie straight away as peg 62 had only gone and jumped into my mitt saying ‘pick me, pick me, don’t let Nightie get me’. The only problem is that although 62 can be a good peg, more so when it is colder during winter and it hasn’t yet been cold enough. Barry ‘Two Nets’ Rabjohn was on the peg yesterday and had about 20 odd lb.

My quids were going to pegs 12 (Nightie), 29 (Orc), 55 (Pole Crusher Payton), 59 (Mr Chappy) and peg 64 (Bedpan Movely). Looking at the list, I was going to lose a couple of quid’s at this rate, in particular to Mr Chappy and Pole Crusher.

After sorting everyone out and the pay packets I arrived at my peg. To give you and idea of how long this sometimes takes, we started the draw at 9:05. I arrived at my peg at 9:40 for a 10:15 start, talk about having no time to set up. If I carried out the draw at 9:00 and fished 10:30 – 3:30, people complain about having too much time to get ready, and because I run the match for everyone else rather than running the match for me, where is the compromise?

To my right I had John ‘Elvis’ Fallows and to my left I had Raymondo Wallace. Bedpan was a couple of pegs away on peg 64 and Mr Chappy was within earshot on peg 59.

After arriving at my peg, I surveyed all around me to decide where I was going to fish, so that will be across and down the middle then.

I set up 4 rigs (within my 30 minutes or so) as follows:

1 rig with a .2g Garbolino DC 6 float attached to .10 Novotech line, direct to a size 18 Preston Pr23 hook. I attached this to Maver Dual Core hollow elastic 6 – 10 (the yellow one).

Rig two was the same as the above apart from the weight of the float. I used a .5g DC 6 float. This was set up on the same line and hook size. I attached this rig to Daiwa Hydroelastic – white.I plumbed up across with both of these two rigs, to fish across to the far side, where I had approximately 2ft of depth at the base of the mud slope.

Rigs 3 and 4 both incorporated Drennan Roach rigs for fishing down the middle. One was a 4x14 float on .12 Fox Match Plus line direct to a size 18 Kamasan B611 hook. This was attached to the yellow Maver Dual Core. The other deep rig was a 4 x 12 version of the above set up as the same. I attached this rig to white hydroelastic. Upon plumbing up with the two deep rigs, I found that I had about 5ft of depth at 9m, at the base of the far slope.

I was ready, with about 2 minutes to spare.

For bait today, I had maggots, maggots and some more maggots. In view of watching Alwynne last week, I planned on fishing with maggot only and also feeding by catapult only. I never even got a pole pot out of my box.

At the start of the match, I fed 10 (ish) maggots down the middle and on two lines across, one straight in front and one to my left. After about 5 minutes, I got my first indication. I waited with baited breath. The float buried and an F1 about 10oz was soon in the net. I dropped in again and 10 minutes later added another f1 to my net. Over the next 40 minutes or so, I added another 5 carp (4 F1’s and 1 Mirror) for an estimated 8lb.

Now’s the time to plunder the far side. I put double red maggot on the .2g rig and shipped out to the far side. I dropped in, picked up the catapult. Too late, the elastic was out. A carp of about 2lb was trying it’s best to get away, but it failed. I baited up again, shipped across to the same hole and waited (enough time to feed this time). After a further 5 minutes or so, the float dipped. I struck. A little too eager this time. I laid the rig in and waited. The float dipped, I waited. The float dipped again. My reactions were on edge. The float disappeared. Another carp was on it’s way.

After netting the carp, I decided to go to the swim to my left, where I had been feeding a few maggots. I dropped in and got a ‘dink’ straight away. I let the float settle. After a couple of minutes, the float buried and an ide of about 10oz was making a bit of a commotion. I decided that I should go back to my other swim across. By now, I was feeding about 10 maggots at various intervals on all lines, but I was getting carried away and ended up feeding too many maggots. I was feeding as often as I felt necessary in that whilst my float was in the swim that I was fishing, I was probably feeding more bait, than if my float was in another swim.

I was trying to feed all 3 across swims different to see what sort of reaction I would get and to try to ‘suss out’ how much feed the fish wanted. To my right hand swim I was feeding about 10 – 15 maggots, but not very often. I was feeding my middle swim more often and less maggots, probably feeding every 3 minutes (whilst my float was in the swim) and putting in about 6 maggots. To my left, I was feeding 10 maggots less often than my middle swim, but more often than my right hand swim. And when I went on my left hand swim, I feed immediately.

Elvis to my right had by now managed to snare his first fish.

The third hour was the slowest part of the match, I think that my fish had run into Elvis' peg to seek sanctuary rather than staying in my peg. Or was it because I had started to get a little giddy with the feed pattern.

Bedpan had a few fish, which all came off the farside and I felt as though I was still playing catch up. Raymondo was getting the odd fish, so I wasn’t fairing too badly. I eased back on the amount of bait that I had put in and was flicking a few maggots here and there. If I hadn’t had a bite or an indication after about 5 minutes, I moved to one of my other swims, still concentrating on the far side.

Over the 3rd hour, I managed to snare 4 carp, a gudgeon and a couple of ide for an estimated 5lb. I had by now about 20lb ish, with 2 hours remaining.

Over the next 2 hours, I was feeding less maggots but more often and trying to sneak a couple of fish off each line as the swim seemed to go quite after you had 1 or 2 fish. The wind was blowing left to right if I went to my left hand swim and it was off my back to my middle and right hand swim. Although it was considerably more comfortable fishing to my middle and right, I was struggling catching fish to my right and every time I caught a fish to my middle swim, the swim went quite.

With about an hour to go, the wind died down considerably and I was able to swap between both the middle and left hand swims. I was by now feeding about 6 – 8 maggots twice every drop in on each line, but I was only feeding whilst my float was in the swim and I wouldn’t swap swims until I had actually caught a fish (gudgeon didn’t count).

With about 45 minutes left, I was starting to get worried. I knew that I had been catching, but didn’t realistically know what weight I had. I could have anything between 35 – 40lb. Why was I worried? There is still a 2 net rule in force at The Oaks and if you have more than 50lb in one net, something will be said and a possible disqualification my occur. In view of the weight that I had and not having had too many weights over 50lb this year, I had only put one net in!!! To make matters worse, I was still catching.

A carp attached it’s self to my double maggot hookbait. I tried to shake it off, but no, it wouldn’t come off. Oh well, I will have to put it in my net.

When you strike and hook a fish, what do you think makes the fish go the way that it does. In that, if you hook a fish and it runs to your left, does it go that way because of the direction that you have struck, or does it go that way because of instinct, or is it the way that is has just come from? On Sunday a good few of the fish that I hooked all ran the same way - to my left. The fish running this way made it difficult as I was having to try to drag the fish back round to my right in order to slide my pole back along my pole roller, failing that, I broke the pole down and shipped back across the grass.

I shipped back out and dropped the rig in. The float buried, I struck and the fish shot off to my left towards Raymondo. After a tense battle and a big pull back my way the fish was soon under my feet. After a bit of toing and froing and trying to get the fish off the bottom, the culprit was in the net. A Barbel of about 1lb. The reason that it fought so hard was that it was foul-hooked in it’s fin.

The last 15 minutes where the longest that I went without catching a fish. I had received a couple of indications, but no fish.

Throughout the match, I had managed to feed less than ½ a pint of bait and only lost half a dozen foul-hooked fish. Elvis ended up tipping back his 3 fish. A quick walk down to Chappy and he was tipping back an estimated 15 – 20lb (a quid up already and the scales haven’t even arrived). Bedpan had a few, it was going to be close.

By the time that the scales had arrived there were 3 weights over 50lb, G2E (Graham Twohey) 73lb, Ena Sharples – 61lb and Middy 55lb. Both Ena and Middy were pegged next to each other.

Near to me, Charisma Pawlett had 30 odd lb’s. Finally it was my turn. I only had one net and managed to tip 44lb on the scales. Now it was Bedpan’s turn. He put 36lb on the scales, another quid to me.
Now for my other quids. Nightie had 24-01, Orc 23-05 and Polecrusher Payton 27-00. not a bad day at the office. Where were Macca and Barney Grumble, I would have been quids in if they had been here.

I should have had a quid with 'Young Adam' as well as he only managed 33-00.

Back at the cabin, I checked the results and realised that I had managed to snare an envelope myself. A section win. I had come 7th out of 80. What a result.

In view of spending all last week watching Alwynne, I shouted a Chappy to watch as I approached Alwynne and offered him my winning quid off Chappy. But, Alwynne being the gent he is didn’t take my hard earned.

Full result:

Graham Twohey - 73-00
Steve Sharples - 61-06
Andy Middleton - 55-00
Dave Pimlott - 53-10
Mark Calvert - 51-06
Billy Brierley - 45-06

Then yours truly.

Tightlines, and see how I get on next week. :-)

2006-11-02T21:37:00.000Z

Barney Grumble Lookalike.

'What do you mean you've beaten me, you're not fishing' - Vinnie (The Pacifier) Martin

2006-11-02T21:27:00.000Z

This is the 'Lizard' himself, Mr Pete Baron.

Please observe how he is trying to pull his neck back into his shoulders. He is like a lizard as he warms up with the sun.

2006-11-02T21:23:00.000Z

Young Adam with part of his 2nd place haul from Sundays match at The Oaks, Sessay.

Adam ended up 2nd with a weight of 66lb 15oz made up of carp and ide.

2006-11-01T22:33:00.000Z

I walked round to Big Macca and his response was:

'You want £2 off me already, but the match isn't finished yet'.

2006-11-01T22:30:00.000Z

The 'Orc' doing what he does best - Looking the wrong way.

2006-11-01T22:23:00.000Z

Chappy was heard to remark 'Ooopsss, did someone run over my pole?' when this happened.

If there is one lesson to be learned from this, Tournament Professional poles, do not make good speed bumps. Barry Payton drove straight through this one.

2006-11-01T22:17:00.000Z

Mr John 'Chappy' Chapman himself trying to extract a quid from yours truly.

I promise I'll pay you a quid next week, honest.

2006-10-30T12:27:00.000Z

One of those rare moments!!!!!

The above picture is from one of those rare occasions, when you will see Bram with a net of fish.

He caught this mixed bag whilst pleasure fishing on Alders Lake at the Oaks, Sessay.

2006-10-26T23:08:00.000Z

I took my middle son, Joshua, fishing on the River Ouse at Naburn Lock, just outside York and he caught this mixed bag of perch, roach, bleak, hybrids and tommy ruffes. This is his first ever river session.

His biggest silver fish was the hybrid that he has in his hand. He caught this on double red maggot on the bomb. The river at Naburn is tidal and always produces at this time of year. The river was up and carrying an extra couple of foot of water, therefore had about 7ft in the river. By the time that we left, the river was still carrying about 4ft, this included still carrying the tide.

Most of the silver fish were caught using my old trusty Tricast Aristocrat float rod fishing with a waggler shotted with a bulk of shot and No.10 dropper shot.

This perch was the biggest fish of the day caught using a bit of redworm on the hook on the leger rig.

We also had a pike rod set up, but didn't get any runs or anything.

Overall it was an enjoyable day for both of us.

2006-10-25T23:43:00.000Z

Lindholme/Duane Memorial Match – 21st October 2006

I signed up to this match from the Total Fishing website. I had originally intended going with Purverted, but seeing as he has forgotten how to use his fishing gear, he declined. I rang all of my contacts, and quickly ran out of ideas who could be a travelling companion. Panic considered going, but was busy installing a kitchen at his lad’s house. Oh well, have to go under my own steam then.

At the beginning of the week, I went in search of quid action although I hadn’t even got there yet. Let me explain. I posted a thread on Total Fishing.com inviting all comers to have a quid with me for the first 10 posters, this was in addition to the obligatory quid’s that had to take place with Poolfodder May, O’Dreary Driscoll and Nightie Richards. It was open to anyone and everyone off the TF site and I had interest from the following:

Young Adam (Son of Nightie), Juzzy, RH1NO, Corndawg, Real Ideas (Clever Claw), Stevie Broadbean, RobB and Scoop, the junior reporter. This could turn out to be an expensive day. Just a thought, doesn’t RobB remind you of ‘Dave Hedgehog’ and Juzzy remind you of ‘Spud gun’ from Bottom.

After a quick call to Beanhead, I was ready. All I needed was a tin of corn and pellets in all sizes and guises. I had 4mm expanders, 6mm expanders. 4mm Skinz, 8mm Skinz. Skinz for feed. 4mm for feed, 6mm for feed and 8mm for feed. I decided to take some micro’s just in case. I hope that I catch on pellets.

In view of there being in excess of 200 booked in the match, there was a rolling draw, which I thought was a fantastic idea. I arrived at Lindholme just after 8:00 and promptly paid on and drew my peg. I put my hand in the bag and Beeches 27 stuck to my hand. I had previously fished Lindholme twice, both in connection with the Fisho held there earlier this year. On a practice match I drew Loco 34, and on the Fisho, I drew Willows 32. I didn’t even know which side of the lake my peg was on or even how to get to the lake.

I was quickly informed that Rob Hitchens had won the match off my peg the previous week, with 47lb. I quickly went in search of the aforementioned. He told me that I needed to be geared up. I asked him where he fished, and being the gent that he is, he told me to go to my peg and he would show me. Neil told me that I can drive to my peg and park at the back. After writing down directions, I set off. The only problem with driving to my peg, was that some one had blocked all access to the pegs, so everyone that was trying to get down to the other end of the lake could not. I just abandoned the van (sorry guys if you were trying to get out after the match).

Rob soon arrived at my peg and told me exactly which stick up he had caught to and how much and how often he had fed. Good lad. He asked what bait I had. I retold him of the conversation with Beanhead and he quickly asked me if I had any micros. Good job I threw them in the bag.

Following my chat with Rob, I only got one pole out of my rod bag. My trusty Garbolino Power Maxim. Throughout my angling career (?), I have swapped and changed poles as and when. The Power Maxim is the only pole that I have kept for any length of time.

The pole was elasticated with a 12 Vespe (I promptly threw this up the bank), and I had another 2 kits with 22 solid and 20 pink hollow set tight. I suppose that you can gather that the peg that I had drawn was a yank and bank peg. I had reeds going out to 8m both left and right. I was at the right hand side of a peninsula, with a guy on peg 28 (about 5m away) then the person to my right was about 30m away. There was a clump of something or other in the water at about 3m out, which as you will find out, doesn’t move.

I only set up 2 rigs as follows:

A .3g Maver carp type float. This was attached to .16 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I attached this rig to the Pink Hollow elastic. I pulled at the bottom of the rig to see how much elastic would pull out and nearly cut my finger in two. Upon plumbing up to my left, I found that I had about 4ft next to the reeds. This was on a slope; well more of a small slant as at the base of the slope, the difference was only about 4”. I plumbed up to my right to the spot that Rob had told me about and the peg shallowed up some 5” or so. I set this rig to fish to the left of my peg.

My 2nd rig was a .2g Drennan Carp 2 float. This was attached to .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. This was attached to the solid elastic. I plumbed up to my right and set the rig to fish next to the reeds as told.

I put a Fox Tosspot on both top kits, got my micro’s out and put my expanders out. I was ready.

John Allerton had walked round to see ‘Gorgeous’ George Grundy and was soon at the back at my peg. Ally had drawn on Strip pond and was planning a maggot attack. I walked down to the car park with Ally for the one minute silence being held at 10:00 in memory of Duane. As I walked back to the car park, I walked past Boilie Bitch (Kirsty from Fishing Republic to the uninitiated) who was on my lake, on peg 36. What a peg. It screamed carp. There were reeds galore, it was a corner peg and there was a 3m x 3m square of reeds in the middle of nowhere at about 5m out.

Upon arriving at the car park, I became aware that this had turned into a star studded event as dual Fisho and Whiteacres Festival (and Chappy batterer) winner, Neil Machin was in attendance, as were a whole host of names. Sorry guys, too many to name drop.

The match kicked off at 11:30. I was ready. At the all in, I cupped in some micro pellets to both left and right of my peg to the reeds. I baited up with a conker, dropped in to my left and waited. After a couple of minutes, my float bobbed, then shot under. I struck, the elastic came out all of 2ft. But alas, it was 2ft too much. The carp was in the reeds. After a brief tug o war, the fish managed to shed the hook.

I re-baited, dropped in again, the float buried almost immediately. I struck harder and faster than Zorro. The carp came out. It was about 2lb and took about 10 seconds to get out. One in the bag.

I swapped rigs, and put another conker on, and went to my right. The float hadn’t even settled and 2ft of elastic shot out, I was ready, I pulled and pulled to try to keep the fish out of the reeds, but no good, my hook had straightened. Pigging Eck, I was fed up all ready, you could get bites, but it was going to be fun getting them out.

I promptly removed the rubber hook and put on a hook that had been forged by Bilbo Baggins himself in the depths of Mordor. It was a Bilbo Baggins special – a Forged Eyed size 14 hook. Eyed hooks tend to be heavier in the wire, and it was forged so much, that you could see that the hook was square. When the going gets tough and all that.

I swapped rigs again, and went to my left again. I followed this pattern for the next hour or so and after an hour, I would estimate that I had about 10lb or so in the net, made up of 3 or 4 tench and half a dozen carp.

The carp had seemed to be disappearing. Every time the sun came out to play, the carp went further into the reeds and wouldn’t come out. I adopted the ‘shaker’ approach. This would only tempt out the odd carp, but as the match progressed, the carp were becoming few and far between.

After about 2 hours, I managed to hit into my biggest carp of the day of about 4lb. I played it skilfully away from the forest of reeds, including snapping some of them as I dragged it out of the reeds. I got it into the 5ft x 5ft square of open water and was winning. As I shipped back in my comfort zone, the fish shot forward into the previously mentioned mass of whatever. A big cloud of mud, weeds and all sorts clouded the water and the carp stayed put. I couldn’t pull it out, the fish had shed the hook and was gone. Ho Hum. The score was 8 (carp) to me and 4 to the carp. At least I was winning. From my vantage point, I could only see the lad immediately opposite and the lad to his left and they weren’t fairing too well at all, so I felt that I wasn’t doing to badly.

The next couple of hours were a little slow, the sun had got its hat on and the fish were having a siesta. After 4 hours, I would estimate that the score was 11 – 6, excluding the tench.

As the sun started to drop in the sky, the carp started to have a peck again and over the next hour, I managed to get another 5 carp and 5 tench, things were looking up, except for the fact that I had now run out of time. That was it, match over.

Whilst waiting for the scales to arrive, I had packed up and was talking to the lad who was further round to my right on about peg 26 or 25. He had ended up with 14 carp. I walked round to Boiler, (oops sorry Kirst), Boilie Bitch who was confessing to 28 carp and having also lost a few. Whilst in mid conversation, the lad who was to my right told me that he had weighed in (21lb) and that they had already weighed me in. I sprinted to my peg to find that I had put 28lb 6oz on the scales. The 2 lads to my left had DNW’d. Gorgeous put 29lb on the scales. Where was my section starting and finishing?

The whole venue had switched off. I walked round to Kirst to see that she had weighed in 48lb and was looking good for a top 5 placing.

Back at the café the results were read out, 58lb had won the match, with a couple of other 50’s. Kirsty had managed 48lb for 4th overall and the top total-fishing.com finisher. There was a 41lb, then a couple or so 30lb weights, so my 28lb would probably be good enough for a top 12 finish, out of 207. In view of the match paying top 3 only (the money was generously donated by Neil from Lindholme), Kirsty managed to snare the section, I’m just glad that it wasn’t Gorgeous that won the section as I was closer to Gorgeous’ weight than I was to Kirsty’s.

Well, there was the raffle to look forward to. OOOOOOpppppp’s nearly forgot. The quid’s. Well this is where it all went right for a change. I was shouting round the lake to ‘Scoop’ to see what he had weighed and quickly went in search of a gold one. I also managed to get a gold one from Clever Claw, Dave Hedgehog, Nightie, Son of Nightie, O’Dreary (who wouldn’t give me a quid until he’d weighed, thinking that it was close), Broadbean, RH1NO, Corndawg, Poolfodder (and no guestimation of weights involved). I was denied a clean sweep though, as Juzzy had fished the best that he has ever, ever fished and managed to snare 34lb from Bonsai. No more quid’s with him, it’s too hard.

By the way, I shouted round to Nightie so see what he had weighed and he shouted back something. I know that I have hearing problems, but I think that he said 3lb. I asked him again, and he did reply that HE HAD ONLY CAUGHT 3LB. Oh well, there is always next time.

Back to the raffle, there was a whole plethora of tackle items, bait, rod’s, t-shirts, etc, etc all donated by the good and the kindly for presents for the needy and infirm. I purchased £20 of tickets, well it is all for a good cause. My tickets managed to blag me a bottle of whisky and 3 tins of BCUK hemp. I finally left Lindholme at about 7:15. I felt that my luck was in and I went in search of a shop to buy my lottery with my lucky £1 coins. I couldn’t find the nearest shop in time, sod’s law.

I would just like to say a massive thank you to all concerned in the organisation, Corndawg, Juzzy, Neil G to name but a few. A fantastic day out, topped off by a fantastic attendance, fantastic raffle and a good bit of banter to boot.

WELL DONE EVERYONE.

See you all next year, if not before.

Tight lines.

2006-10-17T21:47:00.000Z

Sunday 15th October 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay

Panic is still re-building the interior of his lad’s house, so still isn’t going to The Oaks yet. The qualifiers for the Xmas Cheer have started with the first qualifier being last week.

I managed to sweet talk Anthony ‘Jasper’ Scarlett into attending and I had planned to pick him up or vice versa, but he managed to talk Garry Parr into making the trek, so I was left to travel under my own devices.

I arrived in plenty of time and by the time of the draw there were 44 of us in attendance.

Following Harry Potters’ result last week, winning off the jackpot peg, there were 2 jackpot pegs this week. Peg 37, which was safe no matter who drew it (Gandhi) and peg 4 (Graham Twohey).

The Pacifier, Macca, Nightie and Orc were in attendance so the obligatory quid’s were struck. I paid Nightie his quid from the previous match and we were all square.

I put my hand in the bag and managed to snare peg 40. I didn’t want to be there at all. On the peg 38 I had Martin ‘Lecky’ Leck of Daiwa Goldthorpe fame and to my right I had Ray ‘Ron Jeremy’ Singh (again) on peg 41. Ron was told last year by his sponsors, that he had to practice his winter fishing. I think he has been doing that all year. My quid’s were going to peg 49 (Orc), 59 (Macca), 73 (Nightie) and 62 (Pacifier).

Whilst I was setting up my vast array of rigs, Lecky cajoled me into a quid so I thought that I would have a quid with Ron to my right in the hope that I could beat one of them to pay the other. If you go back over my results, I haven’t as yet, beaten Ron off the next peg, so it looked like my quid off Lecky was going to go to Ron.

My plan of attack for today was going to be micro pellet and maggot with a bit of corn as a change bait.

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Deep rig was a .75g Drennan Roach tied direct to .12 Fox Match Micro Plus line with a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook at the business end. I attached this rig to grey hydro. I plumbed up at 3m and found the same depth at 9m straight in front of me.

Shelf rig was a 4x12 Daiwa TD7. This was attached to .11 Preston Powerline direct to a Kamasan B911 hook. White Hydro completed this set up. I plumbed up across and found about 2ft of depth.

My 3rd and final rig was a ‘mudline’ rig, which I set at 12” deep and plumbed up right across to the island. I used a .1g Garbolino DC6 on .12 Micro Plus tied direct to a size 17 Kamasan B711. White Hydro completed this set up.

For bait I had 2pts white maggots, 1 small tin of corn and 1pt micro pellets.
At the start of the match, I cupped a little bait in on top of the shelf consisting of about 10 maggots and a pinch of micro pellets. I put a big tosspot of the same in down the middle and proceeded to throw a few bits and pieces in on the 3m line.

I baited up with double maggot, went across with the shelf rig and dropped in and waited. My float ‘dinked’ then buried. Gudgeon number 1 was soon in the net. Ron’s float dinked and shot under. F1 number was in his net. I went back over and caught another gudgeon – little baskets. I had one last go before resting the line and this time I managed to snare a carp of about 1lb.

I got my catapult out and started to flick half a dozen maggots over my float and over to the mudline. After about 10 minutes of fishing with the shelf rig, I had about 3 little carp and 3 or 4 gudgeon. I saw a fish moving on the mudline. I baited up with double white maggot and went over with the mudline rig. The float settled, then bobbed, then 4ft of white hydro shot out from the pole tip. This wasn’t a gudgeon. After a tense battle and a struggle to get the fish off the bottom a carp of about 4lb was in the net.

I re-baited and went back over. Nothing. I came back and swapped over to my shelf rig again, baited up with a single maggot and went back over to the shelf. The float didn’t even settle when battle ensued. After about 5 minutes and the white hydro bottoming out a couple of times a barbel of about 4lb was wriggling in the bottom of the landing net.

I went back over with the shelf rig and managed to snare a couple more gudgeon.

I decided to have a look on the 3m line as I had been prepping the peg for the last hour or so. First drop in, resulted in a carp of about 2lb. I stayed on this line for the next half hour, by which time I had managed to snare another 5 carp for about 4lb in weight. I then saw a boil across on the mudline. It was time to have another look. I swapped to the mudline rig, baited up with single maggot, went over and caught the offending culprit within a couple of minutes. The culprit being a carp of about 3lb.

I was still playing catch-up with Lecky although by now I was in front of Ron. I would estimate that Lecky had about 5lb more than me.

Over the next couple of hours, I was rotating my swims trying to get fish off all of them. You would catch a couple of carp of each line, then it would go quiet. Using the deep rig, I plumbed up in 3 spots at the base of the slope, 1 in the middle and one about 5m to either side of my peg on the same line. The depth was the same on all lines. I put in corn and micro pellets in on the right hand side swim. Maggot’s straight in front, and pellets and maggots to my left hand swim. I tried the corn swim first. After a few minutes, the float buried and I managed to snare a carp of about 1.5lb. I moved to my middle swim and managed to catch 2 carp for about 2lb. I then moved to my left swim and for the remaining 1 hr 30 minutes of the match didn’t look back.

The only change that I made was to swap my rig over to a 4 x 16 Series Top float shotted with a bulk of Preston Stotz and a couple of droppers. What a difference that made. Just as the float was settling, the float buried almost immediately. In view of enjoying myself, both Lecky and Ron were on the end of some earache pain. But to be fair, they were both giving as good as they got.

At one point, whilst observing Ron’s float, I could see the float going sideways, I shouted ‘Ron, you have a fish on’ after the 3 time of shouting, Ron struck and snared a gudgeon.

Over the last hour of the match I was catching a mixture of carp and barbel, with the odd gudgeon thrown in for good measure.

By the all out, it was going to be close between the 3 of us, although I felt that I had done enough to beat Ron, I wasn’t sure about Lecky though.

The scales arrived and Young Adam was winning the match off peg 20 with 88-08, Twohey was second with 79lb-12 and Alwin had 79lb-05. Gandhi put 36lb on the scales from one of the jackpot pegs. Lecky weighed in 41lb dead. It was going to be close. I put 42lb 5oz on the scales, well I was a quid up already. Ron plonked 38lb 14oz on the scales. Another quid!!! Boy did those to get some pain off me.

After I weighed in, both Lecky and Ron Jeremy couldn’t believe getting beat off the next peg by a numpty. All they could say was ‘I got beat off the next peg by a numpty’. He he.

Talking of Numpties

On The Oaks Banter discussion forum http://oaksbanter.proboards19.com/index.cgi we have a section for Numpty of the week, and this week the nominated person has not been nominated once, but 6 times all for different things. All of the following nominations are following a string of events and mishaps that took place whilst the ‘nominated’ was at the White Acres Festival. See how many clues it takes before you know who it is?

Nominations as for the following:

Getting battered (is not the word) off the next peg by none other than Darren Cox. ‘Nominated’ managed to snare 46lb odd, whilst Mr Cox managed to snare 187lb (that is over 300% more than nominated).

Getting battered (Oh No, not again) off the next peg by a certain festival winner who goes by the name of Mr Machin. ‘Nominated’ managed to catch 40lb (ish) again, although I may be wrong (with regards to ‘Nominated’s weight, but not the battering), whilst Mr Machin won the match with over 140lb.

Realising that he was taller than he thought by walking into a sign that said ‘Mind Your Head’ and nearly knocking himself unconscious. When he arrived at his peg, he had to have a 10 minute sit down to recover.

Getting battered (Do you see a familiar story here), by King Numpty – Micky ‘Deirdre’ Barlow off the next peg. Well Deirdre had 2oz more than ‘Nominated’, but hey a win is a win. Deirdre also won the section.

Breaking his beloved Carbon Active feeder rod – By standing on it.

Whilst attempting to fish the pellet waggler and show off his angling skills, ‘Nominated’ had a few casts to judge how far he could cast to get up the side of a tree. When he had his first real cast with a baited hook, he caught a carp of about 5lb. Nothing wrong there I might add. On his second cast, ‘Nominated’ took his eye off the ball and ended up in said tree.

Do you know who it is yet?

None other than The Oaks’ Hattie Jacques in drag himself. MR JOHN CHAPMAN. After speaking with Chappy, he told me it was great fun. Yeah, sounds like it!!! And he was trying to persuade me to go down next year. I don’t think that I will bother, as I don’t want to relinquish Numpty Numero Uno of his crown!!

By the time the scales had arrived back, I had beaten Orc (26lb 5oz), Nightie (35lb 3oz) and The Pacifier (24lb 13oz). The only quid(s) that I lost were to Macca who managed to snare 46lb 5oz from peg 59. It must have been solid!!! My weight was the best weight from peg 30 right round to peg 51. I had been Charisma Pawlett, Tala and Gandhi to name but a few.

Final Result

Adam Richards (Garbolino Elton) 88-08. Peg 20

Graham Twohey (Morley Match Anglers) 79-12. Peg 4

Alwin Ingham (Bob-Co/Oaks) 79-05. Peg 14

Ray Wallace (Big Waters) 62-13. Peg 7

Craig Lealand (Daiwa Goldthorpe) 62-01. Peg 1

Lee Harrison (Van Den Eynde) 58-09. Peg 29

2006-10-16T20:57:00.000Z

Saturday 7th October 2006 – Woodland Lakes, Thirsk.

Bram had been e-mailing me at work all week trying to persuade me to go to Woodlands on the open match, as he was going to get a little practice in for his club match taking place tomorrow.

I finally relented and agreed to pick him up. Following Haircut’s 2nd place in last weeks match, I gave him a call and asked for all the inside information (remind me not to do that again). His final words were, ‘you need to draw’. Oh well, ruined already and I haven’t even got there yet.

What to do.

In view of the bomb rod being a very viable method at Woodlands, I finally took the plunge and purchased a Preston’s Hardcase, Ready Rod case thingy-what-do-you-ma-callit. I lovingly prepared my bomb rod, which is a Maver 11’/13’ multi-tip. After setting the rod up at 11’, I then proceeded to fold my rod down, so that it would fit in the rod bag. This is where my plan fell to bits. The main section of the rod is too long. I had to take the butt section off the middle section of the rod, so the rod is now in a heap in the rod case and it would be quicker to take the rod down and re-set it up rather than try to sort out the mess.

The question is, do I take back the rod case, or do I purchase a new rod? As no doubt, I may need to carry a ready prepared rod in the future. A new bomb rod it is then.

Upon arriving at Bram’s house, he appeared a little shocked that I wasn’t in my warp machine, as he e-mailed me to pick him up so that we travelled in style. I was in our works van as we are selling it. I think that it was a good job that we had the van, as I think that I may have struggled to get all of the gear in my motor.

I made slow but steady (and safe) headway to Morrison’s for a quick bite to eat. Bram elected to watch me eating as he had already had some rabbit food for brekkie.

I arrived at Woodlands with about 10 minutes to go before the draw and a large queue had already formed. I paid on, then spoke with Beanhead Norris, who so happened to be right at the front of the queue. Why is it, that when you want to speak to someone, they are usually just where you want them to be. By the time of the draw, there were 74 of us in attendance. The wind was blowing an absolute hoolie, fortunately, it was blowing more across the ponds, rather than straight up and down.

Kenny ‘Floppy Hat’ Wilson was in attendance, the obligatory quid was struck up. Nightie accosted me for the quid from my last match at Woodlands, a quick double or quits was agreed. I paid Young Adam his quid from my last match at Woodlands. I’m just glad that Chappy is at White Acres this week, that will be one quid less to pay (no doubt he’ll come back skint and try to rope me in for more than a quid to get some money in his back pocket).

I was the first one in the bucket. I put my hand in, gave the pegs a good swirl and managed to drag, kicking and fighting, Skylark 12 out. Well that improves the chances of someone else drawing a good peg.

I asked Haircut for a little bit more info, only to be told that it is in the middle of ‘Cyanide Straight’. Cheers mate.

Bram faired a little better, he had at least drawn the right lake, Partridge, peg 9. Right lake, wrong peg.

Talking about the draw. Lee Barrett won the match last week off Skylark peg 1. Where had he drawn this week? Partridge peg 1. I walked past Beanhead, who was on Skylark (about peg 4). I had one of the young Newbury clan next to me on peg 10 (11 empty as they double pegged, then left an empty peg) and I don’t know who I had to my right on peg 13. Damien Bracken was behind me on Partridge peg 27. Andy Dargue was opposite me to my right, on about Skylark peg 23 and Deano Smith was also opposite to my left, on about Skylark 26.

The rigs.

I had already set up the rod, all I had to do was to attach a hooklength, with a Korum Baitspike using the knotless knot. I tied a Preston Powerline .015 diameter hooklength to a size 14 Preston barbless eyed hook.

For the pole, I set up:

Rig 1: A .2g Colmic float with a thick bristle. This was attached to .15 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. The rig was attached to black hydro through my match kit. I set this up to fish up in the water, wind permitting!!!!

Rig 2: For rig 2, I used a .3g Garbolino DC 6, attached to .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. This was also attached to black hydro. I plumbed up at 6m to my right with this rig and found about 3 ½ to 4’ of depth.

Rig 3 was a 4 x 16 Middy pattern with a long bristle and carbon stem. This was tied to .14 MAP Carptek line straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up at 14m with this rig and found about 5ft of depth. I added on about 4 or 5 inches to allow for the tow and the wind.

Rig 4 incorporated a .2g Carp Devil float attached to .16 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. This rig was attached to the Drennan pink hollow through a power kit top two. I plumbed up down both sides with this rig and found that I had about 2.5ft of depth.

Before the off

Whilst I was getting all of my rigs ready and within about 10 minutes of putting my keepnet in the lake, the peg started to cloud up on my top 2 / 3 line. Every now and again, I could see the odd tail pattern.

A La Carte at Chez Big Pellet

For bait today I had 2 small tins of corn, 1 tin of hemp and 1.5 tins of meat. I also had a pint of micro pellets which I could either feed or turn into a paste if needed.

I was nearly ready, but not quite, when Billy Brierley announced the all in. I checked my watch and there was still 4 or 5 minutes to go, and I thought that I had a Mickey Mouse watch!!!

Ready at last

After about another 5 minutes just getting my self in a position where I could start fishing without having to break off to do something I was ready.

Following the signs that had been in my peg whilst setting up, my first line of attack was to drop in down the side to see if I could catch the offending culprit. I baited up with a grain of corn on the hook, put in a ‘Tosspot’ of hemp and corn, and waited. Whilst I waited, I catapulted a few grains of corn and hemp out to the 6m line and I also catapulted a few pieces of meat and hemp out to the bomb/long pole line.

After some 15 minutes and no indications, it was time for a change. The lad my right on peg 13 had caught 2 carp, both around the 4lb mark. These came off his 6 metre line. He had a small tosspot attached to his pole and was feeding both corn and hemp and fishing with corn on the hook.

I swapped rigs, switched to the 6m line to follow suit with the lad next door. After 20 minutes, nothing. I was now 30 odd minutes into the match and I had not had a sign from neither of the two swims that I had tried. My inside line had started smoking again. I came back in on the inside and tried with a piece of meat on the hook, over the hemp and corn that I had put in earlier.

I waited 15 minutes before I got an indication, the float went sideways (usually the sign of a big fish), then settled again. The float dipped then buried. I struck with some vigour, nothing, apart from a boil as the fish swam out of my peg.

I dropped back in again and managed to snare a roach. It was time to go back out to the 6m line.

After nearly 3 hours, I had managed to snare a couple of small carp, the biggest was about 2lb, a couple of roach and a skimmer. I had chucked the bomb out and was getting the odd liner, but couldn’t get a wrap round. I had fed and fished down both sides and also at 6m and also on the long pole line. Nothing. The lad to my right had about 5 carp and a couple of bits by this point.

I went back out on the bomb and hair-rigged meat. The rod settled and after about 2 minutes, the tip went round slowly and stayed round. I struck and managed to snare a carp of about 10 oz. 10oz? I didn’t even know that there were carp that small in the lake.

I managed to snare a couple more by the end of the match. I would estimate that I had about 20lb made up of 10 carp, a couple of skimmers, a perch and two roach. The bloke to my right had about 35lb, made up of half a dozen skimmers and about 12 carp.

Damien tipped back about 25lb made up of 5 or 6 carp. Andy Dargue won the opposite bank section with just over 40lb. The winner weighed in about 105lb from about Partridge peg 14. Coyney who was on the next peg had a good 90lb (ish) and got in the frame.

Chris Kitchen ‘Sink’ had 11 carp for 69lb from Wagtail 11. Bram tipped back approximately 25lb. Both Floppy Hat and I agreed to tip back as we were both agreeing to a similar weight to each other. Phew, managed to save a quid. Nightie had a good 60lb+ weight and managed to beat his young ‘un.

I have had so many discussions with various people and this year, my drawing arm has let me down severely. All you have to do is to have a look at the weights that are coming from the area’s that I draw.

Oh well, there is always next week.

2006-09-28T21:47:00.000Z

Sunday 24th September 2006

Back to the grindstone.

Please let me apologies for the lack of a report from last weeks match at The Oaks, Sessay. I have been busy interviewing for a new administrator, I have also had the VAT return to complete, so have found myself busy at work.

The attendances of late have been poor to say the least, we have been getting about 40 – 44 on nearly every match for the past 5 or 6 weeks, and in view of the keen-ness for Kamasan qualifying matches in this neck of the woods, people aren’t prepared to fish a match if there aren’t 50 on. The thing is, is that if they turned up, they would make up enough numbers to be able to get them to be a qualifier.

This week, I had high hopes of getting a 50 peg+ match. Mr & Mrs (Scotthorne) were in attendance and another bloke had booked 5 of them on, and with the people that had booked on from the previous match, I was hopeful.

By the time of the draw, we had 59 in attendance and to make it fair for everyone, I decided to take out every 4th peg, in view of Cedar Lake being an 80 peg snake lake. I still received a complaint or two. ‘Why have you done this’, ‘what have you put this peg in for?’. I can’t win.

Upon Orc’s arrival, I quickly accosted him for his pound from the match a couple of weeks ago when he beat me. Let me explain. On the match two weeks ago, I weighed in 25lb. Orc admitted to his travelling partner that he’d had about 35 – 40lb and in view of wanting to get off and not wait for the scales, Orc tipped back. Some you lose, and some more you lose.

For this weeks match, the obligatory jackpot pegs were drawn and they were pegs 30 (No tongue Jarvis), 63 (D Worsley) and 78 (Old Lad Kenning). The jackpot had a serious chance of going today and Old Lad was the fella to do it. He is on fire at the moment.

I put my hand in the bag and drew out peg 62. This is a good winter peg, but has not produced anything for a good while. The last time that peg 62 threw up a weight was when Paul Burton was in attendance and he plonked just over 60lb on the scales and didn’t even win his section. Peg 62 is a on a bend and it is a very long peg across to the island, I would estimate it as being one of the longest pegs on the lake from willow tree to willow tree.

Going back to the pegging, there were 3 anglers in a row, then and empty peg. I was the middle angler in my 3 anglers in a row. I had Brian Armstrong on peg 61 and D Worsley on Jackpot peg 63. My first job was to beat the jackpot peg fella. Chappy was on peg 11 (with his empty peg on peg 12), Orc was on peg 15 (16 empty), Macca was on peg 19 (20 empty) and Barney Grumble (see below), was on peg 65, with either side empty. I had left one peg in the bag in case someone arrived late and that was peg 66. My quid’s were looking ropey this week, I was on a bad peg and I didn’t have any empty peg around me.

I set up 3 rigs at the start of the match as follows:

My first rig was a shallow rig to fish with either caster or maggot up in the water. This was a small dibber type of float (Preston’s I think). I set this up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I attached this rig to grey hydro.

My second rig was a .2g Garbolino DC6, set to fish on top of the shelf at 13m. The float was also on .13 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I found that I had 2ft of depth across. This was also attached to grey hydro.

I also set up a deep rig at the base of the far slope; this was planned on being used if the bites dry up whilst fishing shallow (hopefully the fish will have followed the bait down). This was a .5g Garbolino DC6 float attached to .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to black hydro.

I had 2 pints of maggots, 1 tin of hemp, a few expander pellets for the hook and 2 pints of casters.

All In

At the start of the match, I cupped in casters and hemp down the middle, and also potted some maggots straight in front of me and put some casters and hemp right over to my left, which was still some 6 or 7 metres away from my maggot line.

I baited up the shelf rig with double maggot and went over to the far side. The float settled and some 2 minutes later, the float dipped. I struck with all the speed of Xman and foul hooked a carp, which quickly shed the hook

I dropped straight back in again. The float dipped. I struck and a gudgeon came flying out and dropped off the hook.

I re-baited and went back over. I managed to snare my first carp after 15 minutes. Over the next hour or so, I managed to snare a couple more carp, one over my caster and hemp across and another over my maggot line. I tried in the deep water, no luck.

Dave Worsley on the Jackpot peg was putting the odd carp together and by now had about 6 or 7 carp, all of which came up in the water. He would feed 2 handfuls of bait, then nothing at all again, until he’d caught a fish, this could be 10 minutes after he had fed.

I resorted to fishing up in the water and I was feeding about 10 casters every 30 seconds or so. Sometimes I would feed half a dozen, other times I would feed about 15. I would feed every 10 seconds, I would feed every 30 seconds, I would feed every minute. Nothing seemed to get the fish to settle.

I did however, know when I was going to hook a carp up in the water as there would be a good boil where I had catapulted in my bait.

I managed to snare the odd carp up in the water, but I had to keep on swapping my hookbait. I caught a few on pellet, maggot or caster, all the while I was feeding caster up in the water.

After about 3 hours, I was fishing up in the water, when the float shot under, I lifted into the fish, had it on for all of 5 seconds, then nothing. I shipped back to find that I had no rig left, the line had broken right on the loop at the top of the rig. Preston Powerline .13 to grey hydro. I must have had a nick in my line or something. Why does it keep happening to me?

Someone else must have also lost a fish as a red topped float kept on popping up around me now and again.

I got some micro pellets out of my bag with an hour to go and put a few in the shaker pot. I caught a couple more carp. It was turning out to be a weird match, although I caught fish on a variety of baits, I just could not get the fish to settle down and have a proper feed.

Brian Armstrong to my left was having a grueller. Craig Ebbrill, on peg 59 was catching a few, Barney was struggling, but would catch the odd fish now and again, same applied to Dave on my immediate right.

I could get the fish clouding across on the far side, but as soon as I catapulted some more bait over, they would disappear. If I caught a fish, they would disappear. The fish just would not settle, not matter what I did or where I fished.

All Out.

I was glad when it was all over. I was admitting to 30lb, Barney was admitting to 25 – 30lb. Dave didn’t know what he had. Brian tipped back.

I went over to see Barney and have a chat to him, and I observed Martin Murphy with about 10m of pole in the sky with an angry carp attached. After some to-ing and fro-ing, he managed to get the said fish in the landing net. It was only about 2lb.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Pimmy was top dog with 52lb odd. Young Emu Ebbrill weighed in 50lb 4oz. I plonked 32lb on the scales, Dave had 36lb and Barney weighed in 34lb. I rang Macca to see how my 2 quid was doing. He also weighed in 36lb. Chappy had 50lb. This was turning into a bad day at the office.

I checked the board to see if I could salvage something from Orc. He didn’t let me down as he DNW’d.

Mr Scotthorne just missed out on his section by 1lb, courtesy of Marco – 45lb against 44lb. Mrs Scotthorne faired worse than I.

Following on from my look-a-likes, Vinnie ‘Diesel’ Martin has now been renamed and his long lost brother is non other than Barney Grumble. If you don’t know who he is, do a search. They are identical.

Chappy isn’t here for the next couple of weeks, I will be able to save up for my kids Christmas presents whilst he is away.

Full Result

1. Rob Minikin (HAS) - 56-09. Peg 69
2. Gaz Pawlett (Oaks) - 55-11. Peg 17
3. Jonny Kenning (Diawa Goldthorpe) - 53-04. Jackpot peg 78.
4. Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) - 52-08.
5. Craig Ebbrill (Mosella Garbolino) - 50-04
6. John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) - 50-02

Tackle review – my new pellet pump.

I have just purchased a new pellet pump and to be straight up, I think that it is crap. It is a new one that I have just seen on the market and is a plastic container, almost like a jar, with what seems like a bicycle pump attachment that allows you to expel the air from the ‘jar’.

It is a screw-on design. You unscrew the pump, put said pellets in the jar, refit the top, then pump away. I tried it for the first time on Sunday, and after pumping for what seemed like ages, some pellets had sunk, and some were still floating. I know that this happens anyway, but there were nearly as many floaters as there were sinkers. This ain’t good.

When you buy a pump, you want to be safe in the knowledge that most of them (if not all) sink. I realise that people go on about neutral buoyancy, etc, but at least when you have them in the jar, you would like them to sink slowly.

I will be returning this to my local shop and either getting another one from a different manufacturer or I may even stick with the plastic bottles.

2006-09-25T21:39:00.000Z

Saturday 16th September 2006

Where do I start. Well, for all you purists out there, I had originally planned on fishing an open match on the River Aire at Birkin. Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago, I finished work early one Thursday and went to fish the mucky hole on the River Wharfe at Tadcaster. I was armed with a few worms and a pint or so of maggots. I took a bomb rod, float rod and my pike rod. To cut a long story short, I managed to catch 6 chublet’s of about 6oz apiece, half a dozen dace, same of roach and about 20 bleak or so. I re-hooked one of the small roach of about 2oz and put it out on the pike gear, consisting of 8lb maxima and a 15lb wire trace. After about 20 minutes, I got a run and ended with a pike of about 13lb on the bank. It was a long lean fish that would, over winter, probably go to 18lb+. If there is one thing that I must say and that was that I really enjoyed it. This wetted my appetite for a river match. Midweek, I rang The Legend that is known as John Allerton and asked him about the matches that take place on the River Calder around Brighouse, as I knew that The Legend at been attending them.

He told me that there wasn’t a match on the river this weekend, but that there was a match on, on the River Aire at Birkin. The Legend then told me how he had come 2nd on the weekend’s match just gone with over 14lb of roach. The winning weight and most of the backup weights had come on pole to hand, fishing between 7 and 9m. I didn’t fancy the pole to hand method as I didn’t have any floats heavy enough (6g) to be able to do the method. I asked The Legend if I could borrow one of his 20 footers, as the river varies in depths between 12 and 24ft. I asked The Legend, if he could book me on the match and I arranged to me John and follow him down to the draw.

This my friends, was all agreed on Wednesday. On Thursday, Leeds and the surrounding areas suffered some of the worst storms and rainfall all year. The weatherman estimated that we had had 10 days of rain in 30 minutes to an hour and the Harehills part of Leeds, had had a mini tornado rip through the place and damaged about 6 or 7 houses.

The local council, estimate that the damage bill will amount to about……..£8.00.

Anyway’s on the Friday, I went over the River Aire on my way to work. The river was carrying a bit and was very coloured. The river was no different on the way home. I rang The Legend and cancelled off. I didn’t fancy fishing a stretch of river that I had never fished before. I would rather go on the match, when the river is looking better and catch 6 or 7lb of roach and come nowhere, than go on the river carrying water, catch very little and go away thinking that it was crap. Do you get where I am coming from?

After all this, with a quid in my hand, I booked on the open match at Woodlands, Thirsk. I might as well pay my quid to Chappy before we start.

I arranged to pick up Panic, later on he rang me to say that he couldn’t make it. I don’t think that he likes my driving.

At the draw, there were 61 people booked on and the match organiser, Young Adolf, wanted a word with everyone, as 10 people had all booked off the match, with about 30 minutes to go before the start of the draw. The thing is, as a match organiser myself, what can you do about no shows. It is alright telling everyone that is there, but they’re not bothered, as they are already there. You can ban people for being a no-show, but sometimes there is a genuine reason, so in the end, you can only organise all those that turn up.

The obligatory quid was struck with Chappy. When I say obligatory, what I mean is that Chappy comes up to me and says ‘Mick, Quid?’, to which trembling with fear, I nod my head. I think that I must be getting my head nod’s and shake’s the wrong way around.

Whilst being in the draw, a few of the Oak’s Banter, http://oaksbanter.proboards19.com/index.cgi regulars were all on about the look-alike’s that we have recently been discussing. Des Southern is Punch out of Punch and Judy, Meathead and Macca are Shrek 1 and 2, courtesy of Young Bart Simpson (Connor Barlow), Pete Costello is Stone Cold Steve Austin and the best one yet. Andy Stoner turned up with what looked like a new hair style. It was all scruffy and greying, but in a trendy sort of way, just like Jim’s hair off Rosie and Jim. Boy, did I break out into song, all together now:

"Rosie and Jim, Rosie and Jim, what an effing mess you're in". It sounds better already.

As I arrived at the draw bucket, I put my hand in the bag and drew out Skylark peg 22. I fancied that for a few. Chappy had also drawn half decent, Partridge lake, somewhere around 27, 28.

For company I had Paul ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ Burton on corner peg 18, Meatcutter Bailey on 20 (19 empty), Rocket Ronnie Wilkinson on peg 21, and Ron Jeremy on peg 23.

Following a chat with Chappy, I had 3 tins of meat, 2 tins of hemp and a few pellets for today’s menu. I set up the following;

My trusty bomb rod, with 4lb maxima mainline and a .16 Maver Genesis hooklength with a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook attached. I also set up:

Rig 1 was a shallow rig, for fishing with meat up in the water. This set up included a .2g Garbolino DC6 float, shotted with a couple of No.8 Preston Stotz at halfway down. The line was .16 Maver Genesis straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I set this rig to fish about 18” deep; I could also shallow up if needed.

Rig 2 was a .2g Carp Devil. This was also set up on .16 Maver Genesis. To this I attached a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up down both sides with this rig and found just over 2ft of depth next to the boards.

For rig three, I set up a .3g Garbolino DC6 float. This was on .15 Preston Powerline, straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at 6m to my left and found about 3.5ft of depth.

My fourth and final rig was set up to fish at 14m, the idea being that you feed the meat on your bomb and long pole line. For the long pole line, I set up a .5g Drennan Roach. This was also on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to which I attached a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at 14m and found about 5ft of depth.

At the all in, I threw some hemp and meat to my left and just put in hemp to my right, down the boards. I potted in a bit of bait at 14 and started to fish on my 6m line. I put a few grains of hemp in a toss pot and a couple of pieces of meat with meat on the hook. I shipped out to 6m, dropped my enticing bit of feed in and dropped my float over the top.

After about 15 minutes, I got my first indication. The float dipped, then shot under. A bottletop skimmer was the culprit. Well a fish is a fish, it’s a start.

I re-baited, dropped in again, put a few bits of hemp and meat over the top and waited, and waited. Nothing. When you are an hour into the match with a skimmer to show for your troubles, you do start to worry a tad. Rocket to my left was getting a few by fishing with pellet up in the water and dripping in the odd pellet now and again. Ron Jeremy had a couple of carp and Meatcutter Bailey had a couple, so all in all, I wasn’t that far behind.

I came up in the water, with meat on the hook. I fed a few pieces of meat, the float buried, followed by my black hydro screaming off at a rate of knots. A carp of 5lb was soon in the net. That’s it, they were up in the water, where they wanted to be.

After another fruitless 30 minutes, I managed to snare another carp of about 2lb. I decided that it was time to have a look down the side. I dropped in with meat on the hook, fed a few pieces of meat. The float buried, and a roach of about 2oz was soon in the net. I tried at the other side and caught a slightly bigger roach, this one was probably 3oz.

By now, Ron had 5 carp and was starting to get a few bites by feeding meat at full depth and fishing with meat over the top. He probably had about 6 carp. I had 2, Rocket had about 10, and Meatcutter had 3.

I continued to rotate all of my swims, trying to locate fish. I saw a fish swirl down to my right over where I had been feeding. They had turned up, or so I thought. I dropped in, the water was all cloudy. My float moved sideways, and that was it. My float moved sideways as the fish made a quick dash out of my peg.

Going into the last hour, I had managed to snare another carp up in the water. I had cut back on all feed up in the water and was only feeding 4 or 5 pieces of meat about every 5 minutes or so. It was as if the fish were already up in the water, but were backing off the feed. (Thinking about it afterwards, it was similar at Woodland View).

By the time the match had ended, the fish were just starting to get their heads down, so to speak and I think that I had finally got the feeding (or not) pattern right. I had managed to end up with 8 carp and a few bits and pieces for a total weight of 25lb 8oz. Ron Jeremy ended up with 44lb, Rocket Ronnie had 70lb+ (and got in the frame). Meatcutter Bailey tipped back an estimated 30lb (so he tells me).

Chappy came round to say that he’d had 23lb, and then he changed his mind and said that he’d had 38lb, then changed his mind again and said that he really had had 23lb. I still gave him a quid as I could see from the glint in his eye that he was telling porkies. He had weighed in 38lb and also managed to win his section. Paul Burton won our section with 50lb, most of which he had caught in the first 2 hours.

Dean Smith won the match with 120lb from Partridge Lake. Peg 23 or 24 I think all on meat up in the water.

2006-09-21T20:34:00.000Z

This is one that didn't get away from my recent trip to Woodland View, Droitwich. I caught this with about 30 minutes to go on double corn, 5m straight out in front of me.

2006-09-15T11:17:00.000Z

Sunday 10th September 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay.

For the past few Saturday’s or so, I have been taking one of my son’s sea fishing off Scarborough Harbour. I have been using a 2lb test curve carp/pike rod and I have also purchased a couple of spinning rods, one of 7ft and one of 9ft. I have been fishing with 1 oz lead weights with a long tail and a couple of hooks going up the line, fishing with squid as bait. It has been enjoyable because it has been different. Take yesterday for example. We caught 4 flatties and about 60 little Pollack or Coalfish (not sure which) and all of this was in about 4 hours on a high tide.

Having little fishing trips like this fire me up for a Sunday. You know how it is, when you aren’t doing as well as you know what you can and should be doing, you get a little bit dejected and that is the stage that I am at, at the moment. Saying that though, I enjoyed myself two weeks ago when I was fourth as I had caught a few. I am not bothered about winning an envelope, for me it is about catching fish. If I caught 70lb and came 10th, I would have enjoyed it as much as catching 40lb and winning the match.

As far as venues go, Sessay must be one of the hardest venues that I have fished. A few years back I used to fish places like Raker Lakes at York, Lindholme at Leeds and even the old lakes, Swallow, Mallard and Dragonfly at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk. I won my fair share of matches on all of the above venues including winning the series at both Raker Lakes and Lindholme (Winter and Summer). But for some reason, I just cannot seem to be able to do it at Sessay. The venue is fair, you do not know where the winner is going to come from and the class of angler that fish there are amongst, if not, the best commercial anglers in the North East.

I also believe that the draw is currently less than kind to me at the moment. In my last 10 matches at Sessay, I have drawn in the same area, pegs 3 – 6, 6 times and the other times I have been on peg 36 (50+lb), 37 (25lb), 64 (74lb) and 69 (19lb). The funny thing is, is that there is 80 pegs on the lake. Why oh why can’t I move about a bit?

Today was no exception!!! By the time of the draw there were 43 of us ready for the match. The jackpot pegs were pegs 11 - Ray Wallace, 58 – Martin Murphy and Moi – Peg 7!!

Peg bloody 7. I don’t care if it is/was a jackpot peg, I still didn’t want to be there. Just possibly, due to the fact that I keep drawing in the same area, am I going to my peg with a negative attitude?

Talking about attitudes, what about this. Dean Smith turned up to fish the match. He travelled all the way from South of York. When he arrived, he asked me how many people were on the match. I told him that I had about 40 names. He didn’t pay on. He went back home to either pleasure fish or do whatever. What is that all about? Just because there wasn’t 50 on the match. Doesn’t he enjoy his fishing? If he fished the match, no doubt he would have probably won an envelope, which would have paid for his fishing. You can’t win them all.

Anyway’s you can but try, sometimes life throws up all sorts of surprises.

I had managed to source some quid action by way of Chappy (peg 61), Orc (peg 46) and Nightie (peg 21). Chappy, speaks for himself. Orc, possibly a quid coming my way and Nightie had drawn the same peg that Young Harry Potter had won off on Thursday’s open match. It wasn’t looking good. Comeback Macky and Pacifier.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Ron Jeremy look-alike, Ray Singh to my left on peg 5 and the Kamasan Open, Andy Middleton, winner to my right on peg 8. ‘Old Lad’ Jonny Kenning was further round on peg 9.

For bait I had 3 pts of pellets (a mixture of two bags of Skinz in yellow and brown), Skinz for hook bait along with some 4mm and 6mm expanders and a tin of corn. My main plan of attack was to fish pellet up in the water.

Peg 7 is a corner peg on the end of the island. Peg 8 can also go down the side into the corner as the corner is about 15m round the arc. The wind was blowing from left to right straight into my corner.

As I was setting up, I heard the funniest thing all day. Ena Sharples was sat on his box setting up, when all of a sudden he chirped up and said of all things “I’m gonna be quiet today”. I nearly fell off my box laughing as did Ron Jeremy.

The rigs.

In view of trying to get them to come shallow, I set up the following:

Shallow rig – was a 4 x 10 Garbolino DC6 float set up on .11 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. I had approximately 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip. This would allow me to follow the fish up and down in the water.

Shelf rig – was a 4 x 12 version of the above float. This was set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. I plumbed up across and found about 2ft of depth just on the edge of the shelf. I used the same float to plumb up down the side.

I was ready. I decided to go and have a chat with Old Lad prior to the start of the match. Whilst I was sat behind him, he was giving me a little ‘pep talk’, but he also said that he hated my peg.

At the all in, I cupped a little bit of bait down the side and a bit of bait at 12m on the edge of the shelf. Then like a whirling dervish, I started to catapult the assorted pellets out to 11m. After 30 minutes, I caught my first carp (well, fish for that matter) about 2lb. It was another 30 minutes before I caught another one. Middy on peg 8 had caught about 6 or so, all from the far side.

After 1 ½ hours, I thought that enough was enough, they don’t want to come up and sacked the up in the water method. I then concentrated on fishing both down the side and across. I was rotating both swims trying to get fish off either of the lines, with little success. Middy wasn’t fairing any better.

At the halfway stage, I would anticipate that I had caught about 14lb made up of about 8 or 9 carp. I managed to snare a few down the side, then they would disappear. You’d wait a bit, then they’d come back. They wouldn’t stay put.

By the end of the match, I was admitting to about 22lb. I had had a crap day, just couldn’t catch on any of my lines. Middy had also struggled, he will put it down to being slightly inebriated, I think that it was because he is crap. He’s nearly as bad as me.

Ron Jeremy was admitting to 40lb and I thought that Old Lad had about 70lb or so. By the time that the scales had arrived, Ena had weighed in 43lb (blimey, keeping quiet must have worked), Ron Jeremy had 42lb. I plonked 25lb on the scales. Middy had 34 and Old Lad’s 70lb turned out to be 95lb. What do I know.

To give you an idea of the area that I was in was like, the weights were as follows by peg; 1 – 27lb, 3 – 43lb, 5 – 42lb, 7 – 25lb, 8 – 34lb, 9 – 95lb, 11 – 20lb, then you get 13 – 57lb, 15 – 58lb, 17 – 38lb and 19 – 67lb, 21 36lb. Pegs 24 – 34 had a lowest weight of 54lb with a total of over 500lb weighed in between 7 anglers.

Full result:

1. John Kenning (Moorfields) 95-3-0, carp and silver fish, pole and maggot, peg 92. Rob Minikin (Harrogate Angling Services) 93-0-03. Lee Harrison (Van den Eynde) 92-12-04. Gareth Drury (Harrogate Angling Services/ Oaks) 90-1-05. Rob Morley (Wakefield) 78-1-06. Darren Taylor (Whizzo) 69-12-0.

As Old Lad went past me, he said that I will have to give him a ‘pep talk’ next time. He didn’t even pay me any money for the pleasure.

Talking of money, I was even further out of pocket as Orc DNW’d (and drove off without paying), Nightie had 36lb and Chappy ended up with 47lb.

I made a hasty exit. See you all next week.

2006-09-15T11:15:00.000Z

Friday 8th September 2006 - Match fishing Subscriber Classic - Woodland View, Droitwich

Match fishing magazine ran a competition in order to win a ticket to fish the inaugural Match fishing Subscriber Classic, which was being held at Woodland View Druidic.And through a cancellation or another, and a few e-mails here and there, I managed to get a ticket, courtesy of the Rochdale Raver putting my name forward to Mr Harrell. In response to one of my e-mails Mr Harrell replied something along the lines of ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH, although I may have missed a few A’s and R’s off the reply.

I gleaned all the information that I could from Jon Arthur (Dudley Moore). I had to e-mail him once or twice (he he) to get the info as he was less than forthcoming with his tips, he even tried to charge me a pound a tip (well at least it wouldn’t have cost me a lot). The general consensus was a corn approach with meat over the top, although things were on the change and it could be a maggot day or a worm day or even a pellet day. I wished that I’d never asked.

I even e-mailed my mate Coxy, who had just returned from his jollies in Turkey. He basically backed up what Dudley had said.

What a palaver?

I was up early in order to have a nice relaxing steady drive down there. I set off at 2 minutes past 6 and was hoping to be there by 8:00 – 8:15. I was making good progress down the M1 and by 7:10, I was already at junction 13 of the M42/A42(?). This is where my day started to go wrong. By 7:45, I was at Junction 12 of the M42 – as Mr Harrell would say ‘AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!. Whilst I was stuck in traffic due to the M42 being closed between junctions 11 and 10, I got out my trusty atlas (who needs satnav?) and started to travel cross country, past Twycross Zoo and round the lanes and all over. I managed to get back on the M42 at Junction 10, just below the accident and was then met by traffic calming speed restrictions between junctions 9 and about 4. Traffic Calming, what the flip do they know about TRAFFIC CALMING. Here I am in a rush to get somewhere, I am on a motorway and I can only do 50mph maximum speed. Calm, was I calm? Is Dave Harrell really The Hoff in disguise? Answers on a postcard please.

I finally managed to arrive at 8:50 for a 9:00 draw. That gave me 10 minutes to get something to eat and to get into the draw queue.

I ordered a brekkie and then joined a table with O’Dear Driscoll, Sconeeee, Andy T and God’s Dad, Steve May. Dad was quizzing me about my in depth knowledge of the place, but I knew even less than him. Whilst I was torturing Dad for all the info, apparently someone shouted my number for me to go and get my brekkie. In view of being somewhat slightly deaf, I couldn’t hear them. After some 5 minutes of wasting away, I went in search of my brekkie. Due to the stress that I had endured getting here, taking into consideration the Traffic Calming, I got a wee bit of indigestion whilst eating my brekkie. 2 Sausage, eggs, bacon, beans, tomatoes, toast and what ever else was on my plate in less than 3 minutes then into the draw queue.

In view of taking a quid off O’Dear a couple of weeks ago, the return side bet was back on; let’s see if I can keep up my good record of one from one.

Dad told me to come and see him when I had drawn as he was going to speak to God and get all the info on his lake and his peg. I put my hand into the magic box and pulled out……….. High 33?????

From all the info that I had received, this was probably the only lake that I didn’t want to be on. It is the deepest lake on the venue and it is teeming with silvers.

When I found Dad, he was speaking to God. I managed to prise the phone out of his grip and spoke to God myself. God told me that High pool is a good up in the water pool with caster as loose feed and worm on the hook, the best way to score.

I didn’t have any casters, but I did have some worm, about ½ a kilo. God said to keep feeding the casters, fish with worm on the hook and stick at it. I would get bitted out to start then the carp, predominantly F1’s will come in, and you can build up a good weight. He also said ‘do not forget to feed the inside line’.

I quickly went into the onsite shop and stole 3 pints of casters and another ¼ kilo of worm. One of us was stealing as it cost me £12.00. In addition, I also had some 3 tins of corn, 6mm cubed meat and some rough meat that I had pulled to bits.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Dad at the back on me on Arles pool. I quickly struck up a quid with him, hoping that youth and enthusiasm would earn me a quid against age and experience.

In view of my newly acquired information, I set up the following rigs:

Down the side rig:

I set up a .2g Colmic float with a rugby ball body and a fat plastic bristle. This was attached to .16 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 12 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up down the side to my right about 5m along the bank and about 2ft from the bank and found that I had about 18” of depth. I used the same rig to plumb up down to my left and side and plumbed around until I found the same depth.

Shallow rig:

I set up a Preston Bazzerla PB2 taking 4 x 10 shot. This was attached to .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B911 hook. I had a maximum of 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip with the bulk of shot about 6 – 8” from the hook, this would allow me to alter my depth by about 12 – 18”. I planned to fish at about 9 – 10m out.

My deep rig:

I set up a middy 4 x 16 float which caught my eye whilst in my tackle shop the other day. It is a rugby ball shape, with a long carbon stem (which I trimmed down) and a long plastic bristle. The line also passes through the side of the body. I set this up on .16 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook.

For both the side and deep rig’s I was using black hydro through the power top twos and for the shallow rig, I was using grey hydro through a match 2 & 3.

Dad’s peg looked a little better than mine, he had an island that was within reach (14m) and this was his main target area.

On your marks!!!

We were off. At the all in, I cupped in some corn down both margin swims and also at 5m. I then proceeded to fire casters out to my chosen shallow length. I baited up with worm on the hook, shipped out, fired some casters over the top and caught a roach. God did tell me that I would get pestered by the bits for the first hour or so, then the carp (F1’s) should move in, then I should start bagging.

Whilst I was continuing to fish up in the water, I was all the while keeping an eye on my margin swims and I was also baiting up down both sides and at 5m. After about an hour, I had about 5lb or so of silver fish, and a couple of small crucian carp. I had just caught a small roach, I re-baited with worm again, shipped out, dropped in and the elastic streamed out.

Carp No 1 was soon in my keepnet and added about 1lb to my weight. I repeated the process and it was about another hour before I got my next carp, again, about 1lb in weight.

I was constantly keeping an eye on all those around me and apart from the bloke on Peg 2 or 3 (I think his name was Les Thompson?) no one seemed to be breaking any records. Les was catching by feeding a few pellets in a pole cup, and adding something else, then putting a squirt of red liquid in the pot, presumably Predator Plus which had been doing some damage on the venue. When he tipped his bait in, there would be a big red slick in his peg, then he would eventually catch a fish, mainly carp. The only downside was that this slick was also going through about 4 or 5 pegs to his left.

2 ½ hours into the match, I threw a good handful of casters down to my right hand side swim. Some 20 minutes later I saw some tails and the water was clouding up down the side. I quickly shipped back in and swapped over to my margin rig.

I baited up with a grain of corn on the hook, dropped in the middle of the now cloudy water and waited. I waited and I waited. I came back, swapped over to meat on the hook, threw some more casters down over the cloudy water and dropped in. My float went this way, it went that way, but it wouldn’t put its head under the water.

I thought ‘Right, they want caster’. I came back, put on 3 casters, fed some more, then dropped in. The float had been in the water about 3 minutes, the float shot under and a roach about 3 oz was soon in the net.

The water was still clouding. I put a worm on the hook, dropped in and waited. After a couple of minutes, the float buried and a perch was found to be the culprit. I had only put on half a worm and the worm was still bigger than the perch.

With about 1 hour to go, I made the decision to leave my margin swim and concentrate on my 5m line, which had been lovingly pre-baited all match and the fish should be queuing up to get to my bait.

I baited up with corn on the hook, dropped in and fed a handful of casters over the top. After about 5 minutes, I caught a trench of about 8oz. Next drop in and a carp of about 5lb was soon on it’s way. There was about 30 minutes of the match left. The bloke to my right (Dave from Nottingham/Derby?) was steadily starting to put a few fish together by fishing in the deep water. He later told me that he started to fill it in with maggots at 8m, and fished corn over the top. He ended up with 7 carp.

Dad must have seen me catch my big carp as he was worried and he was asking me ‘Mick, what weight have you got?’ ‘5lb’ I replied.

By the time of the all out, I had managed to snare another smaller carp of about 2lb. I was admitting to 14/15lb and Dad was admitting to 19/20lb. I gave him my quid, even before the scales had arrived. Being the gent that Dad is, he wanted to get off. He gave me my quid back and tipped back. I told him that he owed me a quid now as he was a DNW and I was going to weigh. After all of the crying and sobbing, I relented and tipped back also.

O’Dear had caught a few and weighed in 37lb odd. So I was a quid down after all and the series is now 1 all.

I thanked all around me and made for my journey home. It took me 3 hours and 4 minutes and I averaged 47 mph. A 300 mile round trip and 6 hours on the road. That is motorway driving for you.

Any way’s I still enjoyed the match as it was somewhere new and the fishing was different to what I had been doing in terms of fishing into open water and fishing against an island. I was also told to expect some big fish which also leads to the anticipation.

Roll on next year.

2006-09-03T22:56:00.000Z

Saturday 2nd September 2006

Intersite Individual - Barston Lakes, Midlands

After all the apprehension and the build up to the intersite individual match taking place at Nigel Harrhy's place at Barston, the day was finally upon us, us being Andy Purvis (Purverted) and I.
One of the most popular questions that I had been asked in relation to the match was, why was I going? Because (I know you shouldn't start a sentence with 'because') it is something different and I also wanted to put a face to the names that I have got to know from the Total-Fishing website.

In view of the recent Drennan Superleague match being held on the lake recently, I asked about for one or two ideas about how to go on. I managed to wangle some method feeders (never used the method before) from Johnny Bradders, I had a chat with Des Southern and I also saw Mark Addy in my local tackle shop.

The general consensus was to fish the method feeder with either dead red maggot or mini boilies on the hook or fish the pole with either a pellet or chopped worm approach.

I arranged for Purverted to be at my house for 6:30 in order to allow us 2 hours to get there, then have a brekkie before the 9:30 draw. We timed it just about right, as we didn't leave my house until nearly 6:45 and we arrived by 8:30 courtesy of my navigational skills, although I did take my eyes off the road and the map on occasions (and I thought my driving was scary, you ain't seen Purverted drive yet, when you see him, ask him about the ducks in the middle of the road on the way home from work about a year ago).

Barston lake is a 21 acre lake with 100 pegs set along side a golf course and the draw and breakfast was to take place in the 19th hole. When I arrived at the door of the 19th hole, I was half expecting a commissioner to open the door for me and point me in the direction of some slippers.

For my bait list I had 1 bag of green swimstim bulked out with micro pellets, already prepared to deaden the mix, a couple of bags of micro pellets, hard 4mm pellets, hooker pellets, 1/2 pt dead red maggots, 1 small tin of corn, 1/2 kilo of worms and some mini boilies (cheers Bradders).

The interesite was to be contested between members from Total-Fishing.com, Maggotdrowners (?), the recently re-vamped Talk Angling and not sure of other sites. By the time of the draw, there were 29 of us there, mainly Total-Fishing members.

I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 94. Well, what did I know about peg 94. Nothing, nada, zilch, zero. Purverted put his hand in and drew peg 80, he knew even less than me. Harrhy (?) was next to Purverted on peg 81. Red Army was 3 or 4 pegs away from me on peg 90/91 .

Quid action? Whilst I was having my breakfast Red Army shouted that I chickened out of the intersite match that took place at Lindholme Lakes, Doncaster. The book was opened, my first quid account was struck. I also proceeded to have a quid with anglers both sides of me. Now this is where I must offer my apologies to Neil Powell who was next to me on peg 95. I went to the lad on peg 93 and offered him out for a quid, this was quickly accepted and I then went to the fella who was hiding behind his umbrella on peg 95 and shouted across to him, if he wanted a quid. This was duly accepted. I got the chap to look out from behind his umbrella and thought, blimey mate, I don't want to be taking any of your heating money, but then again, sod that it was warm. In view of Purvedted being present, the obligatory £2 was struck!!

The Weather.

I thought that it was windy at Sessay until I arrived here. There was a slight wind blowing, it must have been the strongest wind of the year. I set my pole up at 13m and very very quickly brought it back to 10/11m. I didn't want to risk seeing my pole get snapped and go flying down the lake.

All the gear, no idea.

I set up 2 pole rigs which both incorporated Drennan Roach floats;

1st rig was a 4 x 14 float on Maver Genesis .14 mainline with a .12 hooklength tied to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to Grey Hydro.

my 2nd rig was a .5g float set up as above. I plumbed up at 10m with both rigs as the wind wasn't going to let me plumb up any further without smashing my pole first. At 10m I found a pretty flat even bottom where I had about 3.5ft of depth. I attached this one to white hydro.

I also set up the obligatory method rod. This consisted of a Maver multi-tip 11/13ft feeder rod (set at 11') with a Shimano Perfection Match reel attached. I had 6lb Maxima has my mainline. I attached one of Bradders' Fox method feeders (25g) and I was ready to go.

Prior to the all in, Purverted came up to see me and told me that he had seen 5 carp topping in his peg, 2 to the left, 1 at about 16m in front, 1 at 25m in front and 1 to his right. The winner of the match held yesterday (Friday) came from about peg 82/83 and he begged and pleaded and grovelled his way to borrowing my rod. He had either forgotten his or he couldn't be bothered taking it. In view of us going halves and him being in the right area, I obliged.

At the all in, I cupped in 3 medium balls of groundbait and pellets on to the 10m line and immediately went over with the .5g float rig and pellet as hookbait. The lad to my right fed a little further out on his pole line, then chucked his method feeder out.

After about 3 or 4 minutes, my float buried and carp no1 one was soon in the keepnet. I dropped in again with a tosspot full of pellets and groundbait. I dropped in over the top, the float dipped and I lost a foul-hooked carp.

Next drop in, I foul-hooked another. On my 4th drop in, I caught another carp. 40 minutes in and I had a total of 2 carp for about 2.5lb. The lad to my right had a couple of carp and a couple of skimmers on the method. He had seen me starting to get a few fish on the pole, he came in on his pole line and caught a skimmer almost immediately.

I swapped over to corn on the hook. I shipped out the pole, dropped in and a skimmer about 8oz had a liking for the hookbait. The skimmers had finally arrived.

After a further fruitless 30 minutes, I went to go and see Purverted to see if he was bagging on my bomb rod. He was out on the pole and had been done up like a kipper once. I got my bomb rod back and went back to my peg.

I chucked the method out with corn has hookbait, put it on the rest and waited. The tip trembled, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the wind. I waited a little longer and the tip still trembled, I struck and carp no 3 was soon on it's way. I made a decision, I was going to change my 10m line over to a groundbait and chopped worm line. I chopped some worms up and cupped them in. I chucked back out on the method and after about 15 minutes, I caught a skimmer of about 8oz. I waited another 20 mintues, and nothing. It was time to try the worm.

I baited up with half a worm on the hook, dropped it in and caught a carp almost immediately. That was it, they wanted worm, or so I thought.

Purverted had in the meantime, come back down to me. He couldn't hold his pole and wondered if he could have the rod back. The lad who was on peg 84 was bagging on the method and Harrhy was starting to get a few.

The wind was only slightly stronger than what it was an hour ago and was steadily increasing in speed as the match progressed. Atleast I could hold a pole in my peg.

I then fished the remainder of the match on the worm, feeding small amounts of worm and groundbait after every fish. I managed to snare another 3 carp with the biggest one being about 5lb, a couple of roach (which I might add are generally nuisance fish), and a few more skimmers.

At the all out, the rain started to drizzle, unless it was the spray being carried 50m from the fountain next to the 18th hole, which was a little island straight infront of me. Every so often I thought that I saw a fish top, it wasn't. It was a golf ball splash landing from the palyers with a handicap of over 100. It was a bit like tennis - chip and charge!!! I wonder if Harrhy has got some scuba gear to get all of the golf balls for a little bit of cash on the side.

Purverted was soon at my peg and gave me back my method rod - too late mate, the match is over. I asked him what he weighed, he said 11lb. I missed his 2 quids.

By the time that the scales arrived Red Army had weighed in 14lb (another quid up), the lad to my right weighed in 25lb (he managed to snare a few by alternating both the pole and the method feeder). I lifted my net out and plonked 21lb on the scales. Purverted had cost me a quid.

Oh well, there was Neil Powell to weigh in to my left yet. He had had 2 carp for not a lot. £5 up, £1 down.

It was back to the 19th hole for a beer and something to eat. Whilst I was munching on the food provided by Harrhy (note to self, do not let Harrhy employ me, he was snapping at the staff about the poor service, which to be honest, I hadn't noticed was bad), he slapped a bird on the posterior. He said it was alright, it was his missus. I told him that I thought that it was customary, and I started to form an orderly queue.

The overall result

1st Lee Taylor 77lb.
2nd Keith Taylor 51.8
3rd Ian Topliss 44.12

Sections
A R Byas 42.4
B J Sterndale 36.8
C M Kay 37.4
D M Paynter 36.8

Well done Lee.

Overall, it was windy, but it was a good day as a change is as good as a rest. I met a few faces, Sconneeeeee, Andy Topliss, Andy Jameson (?), Neil Powell, Neil H, Harrhy and to the rest, sorry if I have missed you off.

Here's to the venue and the match, hopefully there will be a few more at the next one and I hope to see some of you at the Duane memorial match in October. There's over 200 on now.

Tighlines and bent rods!!!

2006-08-30T22:18:00.000Z

Sunday 27th August 2006 – The Oaks Lakes, Sessay

Cedar Lake.

Panic was a no go, so I was left to travel by my own devices. I arrived in plenty of time in order to partake in the onsite breakfast, although I am now only having a small breakfast and I have managed to lose 1.5stone in about 4 months.

One of my first tasks was to pay Orc his quid from last weeks match and congratulate him on fishing a blinder, I also told Orc not to get too attached to my quid and DON’T SPEND IT. I managed to squeeze my quid out of Toddy’s pocket from last week, so I ended up even stevens before the match had even started. Toddy (Peg 38) was on for a repeat as was the usual quid with Orc (peg 26) and Chappy (Peg 25). In view of Orc being next to Chappy, I felt that an easy quid was going to be coming back my way from Orc as he would be astounded by Chappy’s fish catching ability. Micky ‘Dierdre’ Barlow made the trek, bringing his up and coming protégé with him, his son Connor. I recall reading that this lad is starting to go places in an article about him in Matchfishing magazine. If he comes on my match, pays his dues and wins, it is his money, not his dad’s. Fair play to him for taking on the big boys.

By the time of the draw there were 46 of us paid on. Where has everyone gone? Last week was a low attendance, so people stayed away this week thinking the same. If they had attended the attendance would have been nearer 60 than the 48 that arrived.

There were 3 jackpot pegs as follows, peg 36 - Tony ‘Polish Mick’ Kozaczek – No chance, peg 65 - Adam Jarvis, even less chance than Polish Mick and the ever present Dave ‘Pimmy’ Pimlott – peg 68, some chance if the peg had form, which it hadn’t, thank god. The reason that there are so many jackpot pegs is that I cap the jackpot winning money at £400 and for every £400 put into the fund I add another jackpot peg until £400 has been won.

I put my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 64. I recall that Harry Potter had a weight (90 odd lb) off the same peg last Sunday for 6th over all.

The wind, the wind.

Upon walking to my peg, I noted that the wind was ever so slightly breezy and was already moaning about it before I had even got to me peg and sat down. By the time that I had sat down, I was feeling much better. The wind was coming straight off my back and in view of the high bank (again) behind me, I was sheltered from the said wind.

My attack for today was going to be out and out pellet approach, across, down the side (if needed) and up in the water. I was hoping to be able to make my main attack up in the water, but you know how sometimes the best laid plans and all that…

I set up 3 rigs at the start.

Rig 1 was a .2g DC6 float this was set up to fish on top of the shelf, where I had about 2ft of depth to the front of the stickups both in front of me and also to the end of my peg at 14m. The float was attached to .14 Maver Genesis line, direct to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. This rig was attached to grey hydro through the match 2 & 3 kit.

Rig 2 was a .5g Drennan Roach. This was attached to .16 Maver Genesis line tied direct to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I also attached this rig to grey hydro (set a little tighter than the shallow rig). I plumbed up at the base of the far shelf and found approx 5ft of depth.

Rig 3 was a Bazzerla PB2 float. I attached this to .3 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. This was also attached to grey hydro. I set this float to fish about 12” deep. After setting the depth, I also plumbed right across to the mud line with this rig and was planning on using it as a dual purpose rig. I had about 12” of line between pole float and pole tip, this would allow me to alter depth to try to find the fish.

Question, in view of the amount of time that most people have been using diameter to determine line choice, how many of you reading this actually know the stated breaking strain of the line being used, because believe you me, I don’t. The only time that I buy line by breaking strain is when I buy reel line for feeder/leger fishing.

My bait consisted of 1 tin of hemp, 3 pts of 4mm pellets, bought on site and some 4mm and 6mm (conkers) BBPC expander pellets. I mixed half a tin of hemp in with 1 pt of pellets.

After tackling up, I, dressed in my t-shirt, went to go and speak to both Pimmy and Lee Furness (peg 67) who were dressed in hoodies and the windstopper jackets.. With the wind blowing side on for them, it felt about 10 degrees colder. I quickly hurried back to my warm peg.

I had Adam Jarvis ‘Cocker’ to my immediate right on peg 65 and Gordon ‘Chubby’ Brown to my left on peg 62. The wind was blowing down both arms and making it uncomfortable. In view of Adam generally coming last (except when I take the honour), I offered a little bit of advice. I advised him to fish slightly down wind as this would aid his pole and bait presentation. He ignored me. Oh well.

At the start of the match, I cupped in some pellets and hemp at 7m. I placed a bit of bait (pellet and hemp mixture) in a fruitshoot top, baited up the 12” deep rig and went right over to the mud line. I tipped the bait over, the bait hadn’t even touched the bottom and the elastic screamed from the end of my pole.

2 minutes into the match and I have 4lb in the net already. Wwwhhhooooooo. I started to throw 4mm pellets by hand and wind assisted out to 6 or 7 metres. I re-baited the rig, put some more bait in the fruitshoot and went back over to the mud line. I waited all of 3 or 4 minutes and another carp joined it’s relative in my already bulging keepnet. After 20 minutes of feeding up in the water and fishing across, I decided whilst shipping the shallow rig across, to quickly drop the rig in at 6m. The float never even settled and another carp was on its way. By now I would estimate that I had nearly 10lb in the net. I was getting dizzy from the constant stream of fish coming my way. I wasn’t used to it.

Over the next few hours, I fished up in the water at 6m, but I was struggling to gauge whether or not they wanted the hemp and pellet mix, or if they wanted just pellet. I was also struggling trying to gauge how much to feed, whether to feed 6 pellets little and often or not so little and often.

Cocker on the next peg hooked a fish down the middle on paste and carefully played with deft agility right into my peg, where it swirled on my 6m line. I nearly called him Darryll for a minute, but he probably wouldn’t get it. Oh hum.

Although I was catching fish on a regular basis, the fish kept on coming and going and I couldn’t work out if it was because of the way that I was feeding which I would say was sporadic. I was also starting to miss a couple of bites. I quickly set up another rig as follows:

Rig no 4 was a .2 DC 6 float set up on .14 Maver Genesis tied direct to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. The rig was probably 12” from pole tip to hook giving me about 3 inches between pole float and tip. I attached this rig to white hydro in the event that I hook a fish; it runs out of the peg spooking less fish in the swim.

3 hours in

I baited up with pellet, threw a few pellets out, shipped out, dropped in over the top and the white hydro shot out. I was by now some 3 hours into the match and I would estimate that I had about 50lb.

I continued in this manner for the next hour or so, and I felt as though the peg was steadily dying. I put some bait in down the side and didn’t fish it until I saw it clouding up. After about 20 minutes, there was a swirl and a large cloud where I had fed some bait. I dropped in with my white hydro shallow rig (rig 4) and waited. After about 3 or 4 minutes, the float dipped, then buried. A carp of 3lb was soon in the landing net. I fed some more bait and went back out to the middle. I managed to snare a couple more carp, they seemed to be getting smaller, before I saw another cloud down the side. I dropped in, the float buried and shot under. I struck and 8m of white hydro was doing it best to maintain what was on the end. But to no avail. The fish shot off towards peg 65 and went round the corner. I tried to put the brakes on it, but it broke me.

Into the home straight

There was some 30 minutes of the match left and I would estimate that I had between 65 and 70lb. Chubby Brown was struggling as was Cocker and I couldn’t see anyone else. I continued at 6m up in the water.

With about 10 minutes to go, another cloud appeared down the side. I dropped in down the side again with rig no 3, and no sooner had the rig settled when it started wobbling. A float appeared at the side of my float, I was fishing about 12” deep in 8” of water, laying the rig up the slope. My float shot under and the said float was entangled in my line. I lifted my float out of the water and the attached float came with it. After some 4 minutes or so I transferred the offending 3lb’er back to the water but it some how landed in my keepnet.

I managed to snare one more carp from the up in the water swim, then it was all out.

I would estimate that I had some where between 70 and 80lb. Pimmy was admitting to 60lb.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Harry Potter was winning with 98lb 5oz from peg 28 and Chappy weighed in 77lb 9oz. This was going to be close!! Toddy weighed in 46lb 9oz and Orc had 34lb 2oz – told you he’d be blinded and his head will have gone up his jacksey. £2 up and one to go!!

Whilst Gandhi was weighing Chubby Brown in on the next peg, the weigh sling broke and Chappy was stood behind me asking how much I had caught. Marco lifted my net out and estimated that I had about 65lb in two nets. Chappy said that I had more and a bet was struck between the two of them, at my expense, that for every pound over 65lb I weigh, Chappy will get 10p. There was nothing said for me weighing in less than 65lb. Chappy was in a win, win situation as usual.

By the time that a replacement weigh sling arrive, Chubby weighed in 25lb 8oz. Cocker at the other side had packed up and gone so was a DNW.

My first weigh went 29lb 4oz. My second weigh went 45lb 2oz. For those non mathematicians reading this and for Adam’s benefit (he can’t add), my total weight was 74lb 6oz. Not enough to stop me giving Chappy his quid, but a good days fishing none the less. I was by now, in 3rd place with only Pimmy stating that he had a weight (some 60lb or so).

Pimmy plonked 35lb 4oz on the scales as his first weigh, and then put another 40lb 10oz for his second weigh for a total of 75lb 14oz. 60lb my foot. He obviously goes to the Chappy school of estimations. I had come in 4th and with no Purverted in sight, I got to keep it all to myself.

Where is the rest of my cashbook when I do well, there was no Panic (£1), Purverted (£2), Macca (£2) and Pacifier (£2). I was seriously out of pocket this week. With the quid’s that I would have won, I could have afforded to feed the good lady wife and the kids this week.

Could I have done anything different? The only thing that I think would have made a difference would have been to have some Skinz Pellets as on a few occasions I had to come back and re-bait, so would have save time and possibly put another couple of fish in the net. Also, if I had got the fish out that broke me, it would have been a little closer between Chappy and I. I may have even ounced him.

Final result:

Rob Minikin (HAS) 98-05
John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) 77-09
Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) 75-14
Mick Herrington (Oaks/Bob-Co) 74-06
Dean Smith (Garbolino Elton) 68-10
Jt 6th Adam Richards (Elton Tackle) and Mark Whittaker (Oaks) both 64-03

2006-08-30T14:52:00.000Z

Saturday 26th August 2006 – Woodland Lakes, Thirsk

Partridge Lake

After a quick call to Panic, inside information was gathered as was a time agreed for a lift. The usual stop off at Morrisons, Boroughbridge was the order of the day for one of their ‘Flying Start’ breakfasts.

I arrived at Woodlands, paid my dues and went in search of some quid action. Chappy was ever-present, Panic was back on the books and Nightie was also present and said that I owed him a quid from the last time (???, I will have to look into this later!!).

The lakes had been fishing pretty consistent on the mid-week matches and the weights could come from anywhere. I put my hand in the bucket and pulled out Partridge 36. Partridge 37 wasn’t in, and neither was 35. An empty peg both sides.

Chappy had drawn Skylark 21 (absolutely sock on), Panic was on Skylark 26 and Nightie was on Skylark 6. This was turning into a Big Pellet – v- Skylark match. I was in good company, I had Meatcutter Bailey opposite me on Partridge 1. He only put one net in, that indicates what he thought of the area. Tony Neesom was to my left on P34. John McG was behind me on S3, with Coyney to his right on S4.

In view of just picking up my new Brilo Box (the stacks system) complete with winders, I had no rigs ready, so quickly set about making up two rigs. I had also left my large landing net head at home and asked around if someone had a landing net that would hold an 8lb’er. I wonder why everyone laughed when I said that they would need to accommodate and 8lb'er. Haircut, being the good egg that he is, lent me a large Garbolino (does he not have any other gear?) landing net head. Cheers mate.

Rig 1 was a .2g DC 6 set up on .16 Maver Genesis line direct to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. This was attached to black hydro through the power top two kit. I plumbed up down both sides where I found about 2.5ft of depth. One was on the top 3 kit, the other was at 9m along the bank, next to the platform in P37.

Rig 2 was a .4g DC6 set up as above. I plumbed up at the base of the slope at 8m and also out in front of P37 at 13m, where I found the same depth of about 5ft deep.

For bait, following my conversation with Panic, I had 1 tin of large hemp, 3 tins of meat, cut lovingly using my own ‘Meatcutters’, meatcutter and 1 large tin of corn.

At the all in I cupped 10 pieces (or there abouts) of meat and a handful of hemp on the 13m line and put a similar amount in down both side swims.

For the 8m line, I put 4 pieces of meat (I counted) and a small pinch of hemp in. I baited up with meat on the hook, dropped in and waited. After some 5 minutes or so, the float buried and a 4lb was soon in the net. I re-baited, dropped in again and foul-hooked one. I did the same and foul-hooked another. On the 4th drop in, I managed to snare one, although it was foul-hooked in the tail and took a bit of time to get out. I was now 15 minutes into the match and had 2 fish for 10lb in the net. I carried on in this manner until I felt that the swim had died or was dying. After about 1 hour of the match, I estimate that I had about 20lb, made up of 4 carp, 2 skimmers and 2 tench, so wasn’t doing to bad. Meatcutter opposite me had had 2 fish, both of them were small from where I was sitting.

I decided that now was the time to try down the side, which I had been lovingly pre-baiting whilst fishing the 8m line. I dropped with the side rig down to my left and immediately caught a small roach. I dropped in again and caught another small roach – maybe I should try fishing hemp??

I went down to my right at 9m, dropped in with meat on the hook and caught nothing.

By now I saw the odd carp cruising about up in the water in front of me at between 8 and 12m. I immediately swung the shallow rig out in front of me, waited all of 3 minutes and caught one of the ‘cruisers’ of about 3lb. Whilst playing this fish, there were one or two bow-waves as the fish in the area spooked.

I went back out to the 8m line, nothing. I came back down the inside, nothing. Down to my right, nothing.

My match was over and there was 3 hours left, what to do.

I rotated all of the lines and managed to pick up the odd fish, including another ‘cruiser’. Meatcutter opposite me was faring worse than I. I could hear and see the odd splash to my left as both Tony and Young Adam caught fish.

With about 1 hour to go, John McG behind me was bagging on his 2m line, straight out in front of him.

That was that. I had a good start then it sloooowwwwweeeeeeedddd to a stop.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Meatcutter opposite me weighed in 30lb odd. Tony to my left DNW’d. Young Adam had over 60lb. Bill Brierley is on fire at the moment and weighed in over 120lb. Deano Smith was second with 108lb and Pimmy was 3rd with over 90lb. I managed to eke out 38lb odd. Chappy was stood behind me, saying that it was going to be close as he thought that he had that much in one net alone. Oh well, one quid down already. Nightie DNW’d, so I was even stevens. There was only Panic to go and following his recent run of good form, he didn’t disappoint and took my quid. For the record, Chappy ended up with over 80lb.

I never set up a bomb rod, but after watching Meatcutter opposite me catch nothing on his, I thought that it was time well saved.

I have also just invested in a trolley for the long walks (Barston next Saturday and any other forays to Woodlands).

2006-08-23T08:24:00.000Z

Sunday 20th August 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay

Chappy Slap No. 1

Let me just start this weeks account with a continuation of my last story, following my comments about the resemblance between Hattie Jacques and Chappy, (well, have you ever seen them in the same room together), Chappy said, via the Oaks Banter website that he was going to give me a Chappy slap.

Whilst I was in the middle of organising everything, I was talking to Desperate Dan look-alike, Paul Hart who introduced himself and we were just talking about the look-alikes on the website, at which time, this promptly reminded Chappy that he was going to slap me.

Being behind a desk, I was boxed in and couldn’t make my escape. “Hattie Jacques, Eh, Mick, Hattie Jacques, I’ll give you Hattie Jacques” which was repeated again and again as he was slapping me.

The attendance for today’s match was very low in relation to recent attendances, as there was only 37 on the match. There were a few people away practising for team matches, there was a match on over in Manchester and there was also a big river match on, I think that that is the reason for the low attendance.

One well-known angler said that he wouldn’t be booking on the match (or turning up) if there wasn’t 50 on the match. Is the Kamasan so important? I don’t think that the said angler has any (or not many) points yet.

3 jackpot pegs were drawn and they were pegs 40 (Mal Bailey), 44 (Martin Craig) and 74 (Andy Dargue).

In view of Panic, Purverted, Pacifier, Nightie and Macca not being in attendance, I quickly looked around for an opportunity of a quid. I asked Paul ‘Sweeney’ Todd if he caught anything yesterday, he replied “No”. I asked him if he had caught anything last Sunday, he said “No”. I asked him if he wanted a quid, he said “Yes”. Easy Money!!!

Chappy said that Pimmy was feeling left out and that I ought to have a quid with him. Shall I just pay their digs whilst they stay over? I very quickly declined, poor Pimmy.

My quid’s were going to peg 22 (Orc), peg 76 (Chappy) and peg 10 (Sweeney).

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 60. I blame my bad draw on Granddad. He volunteered to hold the bag and was first in. I am usually first in the bag and I think that Granddad took all of my luck when he dipped I before me.

I arrived at my peg to find it flat calm. There were fish clouding the far bank at the bottom end of my peg, some 16m away. Fish were topping down the middle at about 7m.

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

A very shallow rig set about 12” deep. This was a .1g DC6 float set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. This was tied to white hydro through my top two kit. (I might do away with the white hydro through 1 section!!).

A rig was set up to fish on top of the shelf at 12m. I found that I had about 18” depth and a .2g Garbolino DC6 was the weapon of choice. This was also set up on the same line and hook as above.

I also set up a .75g Series ‘E’ float for down the middle. This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. Both of these 2 rigs were set up on grey hydro elastic. I found that I had about 5ft of depth at the base of the slope. In view of the wind, I added about a floats length of depth onto the rig.

I like the WN501 hooks as they have a nice bend for rolling either conkers/pellets and or corn onto the hook. They are strong and they also stay sharp for a long time.

For bait today I had:

1 bag 3mm pellets
1 large tin of corn
Some conkers
4mm expanders
And some 4mm hard pellets

The wind, the wind!!!

Within 5 minutes of the match starting, the wind picked up and started blowing from left to right and the 16m line was now a bit like Afghanistan – a no go zone.

Why does that always happen, you arrive at your peg to find it flat calm, during the setting up period the peg is still flat calm, as soon as I shout time, the wind blows and continues to blow, generally increasing in strength as the match progresses, until I shout time at the end of the match. Today was not different.

Suggestions were flying around about having matches 4:00 am – 11:00 am and 4:00 pm to dusk.

At the start of the match, I fed a Tosspot full of bait on the deep line and also across on the 12m line. I got the 12” deep rig, baited up with pellet on the hook, put a few 3mm pellets in a fruit shoot and shipped out to 16m. This was made increasingly difficult due to the high bank some 3m behind me. In order to get to my peg, I had to walk down a little bank to put my box down.

I tipped the bait in and waited about 2 minutes, got my first indication and missed it (probably a liner). I dropped back in again and caught an F1 about 10oz. I re-baited went back out to 16m, dropped in and caught another F1 almost immediately. The wind was by now getting very strong and it was becoming a struggle to hold the pole and present the bait properly.

After 30 minutes and 5 fish, I decided to sack this line. I swapped over rigs and put the shelf rig on, baited up with pellet, shipped out to 13m, the float buried and a carp of 1lb was soon in the net. I baited up again, the float was being dragged offline due to the wind. I got a ‘dink’, struck and foul-hooked a fish. With the wind pushing the rig around the rig brushed into a fish, causing the ‘dink’, hence the reason for the foul-hooked fish.

I baited up with corn and fed pellets through the fruit shoot, the bait was keeping still, but the bites were at a premium. I decided to have a look down the middle.

Paul Burton on the next peg (62) was catching a few fish up in the water feeding some sloppy groundbait (I presume) and either caster or pellet. The wind was side on for him, but he had turned round slightly to have the wind coming at a diagonal for him. Keith Alder on peg 58, was fairing worse than I. I just felt as though I was going nowhere as usual. I lost approx 5 or 6 fish all match (most likely foul-hooked). I managed to get a few fish going in the last hour by feeding 4mm pellets at 3m out and fishing with the deep rig over the top, baited up with corn on the hook. I would estimate that I caught approximately 15 – 18lb in the last hour doing this.

As soon as I shouted time to end the match, the wind abated and it would have been possible to fish across to the far side. Bloody English Weather!!!

Thank god for Sweeney!!

Chappy was saying that he had about 25 – 30lb, I said that I had a similar weight, and as I found out, I wasn’t telling porkpies. I put 31lb 5oz on the scales; Chappy put 43lb on the scales – bugger, a quid down already. Orc had fished a blinder and managed to eke out 59lb form peg 22 (well done, must be your best weight up there yet), but alas, another quid down. Sweeney saved my bacon by weighing only 29lb odd (he should have had a lot more from there).

Full Result:

Gareth Drury (Oaks/HAS), 118-08. Peg 4.
Billy Brierley (Garbolino Elton) 103-10. Peg 50.
Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 101-12.
Haircut Andy Bridge (Garbolino Elton) 100-04.
Chris Hall (The Oaks) 100-00. Peg 6.
Rob Minikin (HAS) 95-02. Peg 64.

Chappy Slap No. 2 - Have you ever seen a grown man cry?

I did, I was that man. I was crying from laughing so much at seeing Chappy chasing me round the Oaks Lakes car park. Let me explain.

Following Chappy’s 25-30lb being nearer to 45lb than 25lb and the subsequent loss of weight from my pocket. I asked the boys behind the counter to give me a quid in change (50p in 5p and 50p in 10p, to be precise). I went over to Chappy, shook his hand, said “well done”, and then handed him the change. His response was unprintable. I started to walk off with Chappy asking for a quid coin. As I made a mad dash for the door with Chappy in hot pursuit (“chase me, chase me”), I managed to squeeze past Andy Dargue, who was minding his own business standing just outside the doorway. I was halfway across the car park when Chappy got to the door and the aforementioned Andy Dargue.

In view of the size difference between Chappy and myself, Chappy was only just able to get past Andy, although he did take the cup of coffee that Andy was holding with him and promptly poured it down his own sleeve.

After a short jog, I relented and hastily got a quid coin out of my pocket to give to Chappy and let him catch me. As I handed over the quid, Chappy threw my shrapnel on the car park floor. As I bent down to pick up my change before it got lost in the pebbles etc, Chappy pushed me over, where I laid laughing my arse off with tears streaming down my face. Although, I will say in Chappy’s defence, he did help me pick up my shrapnel.

2 Chappy slaps in one day, I must be doing something right!!!

User Report – Alan Scotthorne Shimano Carryall

I purchased this carryall some 4 months ago now. I bought it because it was large, has a hard base and seemed comfortable. The dimensions of the carryall are 52 x 35 x 45cm. Now that I have used it, it is still large and the hard base is still there, it hasn’t been chewed through by rats or mice yet and I can get all of my stuff in the carryall including my wet togs at the end of a rain soaked session. The large side zipped pocket looks big enough to accommodate a keepnet, although I prefer to use a dedicated stink bags, and the side pocket is large enough to take a large bait tray (6 bait boxes). The only down size is the length of the strap. The strap is set as short as possible, but it still knocks against my knees when I walk, which makes it v. v. uncomfortable to carry, with this in mind, the carryall would only be suitable for some one the size of Hattie or Big Mark. I would assume that it is also too long for Mr Scotthorne himself. Come on Shimano, we’re not all 6ft 6” tall.

All in all, a large good quality carryall that seems well put together let down by the length of the strap.

2006-08-15T12:13:00.000Z

Sunday 13th August 2006

No fishing last week as a mate of mine got married in Richmond, London on Saturday, then we spent Sunday at Thorpe Park, so had a weekend away darn sarf.

Following a rest, the batteries had been recharged and I ready for todays match at The Oaks, Sessay. I travelled on my own this week as both Panic and Purverted had cancelled off for one reason or another.

By the time of the draw, there were 60 anglers ready to do battle. The wind was blowing an absolute hoolie (?).

The current method has still been to fish meat down the middle over hemp, although pellet is starting to make a comeback and more and more peolple are taking maggots to their peg (don't they read my blog?)

3 jackpot pegs were drawn, they were 46 (Alan Scott), 63 (Andy Dargue) and 79 (Mr Pimlott). Of all the jackpot pegs, in order of preference I would have to choose 79, 46 then 63. This is not totally down to anglers ability, more down to form of the peg. Peg 79 holds more records than any other peg on the venue and 63 just isn't a good peg (62 is, generally, miles better).

Orc was in attendance and prompty accosted me for my quid from the last match, which I gave up gracefully, not. I even wrote my name on the quid as I had a feeling that I would be getting it back. Macca wasn't in attendance (£2 down already), Pacifier was there, as was Chappy. The now obligatory side bet's had been struck. Chappy handed me a piece of paper with his bank details on it in order that could set up a Standing Order - Cheeky Beggar!!! I have to mind my words with Chappy as he is bigger than me and might give me a 'Chappy Slap'. But hey he's bigger than everyone bar Big Mark (Happy Birthday Mate!!).

On the Oaks Banter website, we have been aliking people to various cast members from the Carry On crew and ended up as follows:

Marco - Charles Hawtrey
Chappy - Bernard Bresslaw or Hattie Jacques in Drag!! - Aren't they one and the same?
Bruce Poland - Sid James
Me - Kenneth Williams
Ian Exman - Frankie Howard (although he did comment that he would have preferred to have been likened to Jim Dale, does he live in a house without mirrors?)

I digress, back to the match. Johnny Mac, the Rochdale Raver, sent a raiding party over and introduced himself (nice to meet you mate).

Will my drawing arm still fail me or am I round the corner now? I shuffled the peg numbers, then passed them to Tom (the owner to be!!), who shuffled them some more.

I dipped in the bag and peg 37 was stuck to my hand. Trying to work out the way that the wind was blowing, I thought that it would be coming straight into my face from peg 35, but according to all the locals, the peg is and would be flat calm all day.

My quids were going to pegs 50 (Orc), 58 (Chappy) and 75 (Pacifier).

Peg 37 is a peg on a bend with pegs 38 - 42 being on the straight. Peg 36 to my left looks straight down both arms and 35 is the one at the top of the other straight from pegs 35 - 28. There was no one peg 36 and Harry Potter lookalike, Rob Minikin, had drawn peg 35. Dave Parkinson was to my right on peg 38 and Stewie Newbury was further round on peg 38.

After taking a couple of minutes to look at my peg and those around me I decided on the following:

1 shallow rig - a .2g Garbolino DC6 on .11 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up to the edge of the sedges and found that I had about 18" of depth. This rig was attached to white hydro through my No2 section only.

1 deep rig - .5g Series E float on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the slope and found about 5ft of depth. When I plumbed up at the base of the slope, it was whilst looking towards peg 35. This rig was attached to grey Hydro.

1 rig to fish down the side - a .3g Garbolino DC6 float on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to the same hook as above. I plumbed up down the side and found 2 1/2 ft at 11m.

My bait for the day consisted of:

2 pts micro pellets, 1 tin of corn, hook pellets (including the conkers) and 2 tins of meat.

On your marks!!!

At the all in, I 'Toss-potted' some micro's down the side, some meat down the middle, then went over to the farside with pellet on the hook and a fruitshoot top of micropellets as feed.

I dropped the bait in and fed the micro's over the top. After about 5 minutes, I caught a carp of about 10oz. I re-baited and dropped in again, another carp, of a similar size, was on it's way to join it's breathren.

My third drop in, and the rig was all over the place. Ducking and diving, bobbing and weaving. i kept on tyring to hit the indications, then all of a sudden a gudgeon about 1oz (if I was lucky) came flying out of the water (superstrike hit home again) and dropped off the hook. I hope that it doesn't cost me!!

I dropped in again and waited for about 10 minutes, I was still getting the dips and blips, but the float wouldn't go under. Then all of a sudden 3ft of white hydro went screaming from the pole tip. I managed to gain control of the fish, that was until I got it to the landing net. When I saw the fish and it saw the landing net, it bolted and snapped me, right next to the loop used to attach my rig to my connector. That one will cost me, I would estimate that it was a 4lb (ish) mirror carp.

Why is that when you lose a fish, it can affect your stride, considerably!!

I quickly got a duplicate rig out and went back over to the farside and caught some more gonks. I re-baited down the middle and decided to have a look down the side.

I baited up with pellet, and fed some micro's over the top. 7 drop in's and 7 carp, then it all went squiffy. I caught a perch, then an ide, then 2 roach then 2 gudgeon. Time to rest this line me thinks.

I decided to have a look on the meat line down the middle. I baited up with meat, dropped in and waited and waited. I had been feeding a few micro pellets in with my meat. I came back, put a conker on the hook, dropped in and caught a succession of carp, mainly F1's to 2lb. This line then went squiffy. I foul-hooked 6 carp in 7 put ins.

Do you ever get the feeling that it is going to be one of them days?

I started to then rotate the swims, trying to pick up the odd carp until the bits moved in.

Harry Potter was steadily catching fish throughout and was fishing pellet across to the far side. Parka Parkinson and Stewie were, I would say, fairing worse than I. Parka was fishing with maggots as hook bait and was catching the odd fish, barbel, roach, carp, ide. Stewie didn't seem to be catching much of anything.

By the time of the all out, I was ready to go home. I could not get one method to work and was getting 'bitted out' on every line that I fished with pellet and I struggled to get a bite on meat. had I done something wrong???

By the time that the scales had arrived, Harry Potter was leading on my half of the lake with 88lb. I weighed in 25lb 8oz for nowhere. Parka, Stewie and the lad on peg 41 all DNW'd.

I was tempted to drive straight home, but then I remembered, I had to sort out the brown envelopes.

Orc weighed in 17lb. I asked for the quid with my name on it. Chappy had 41lb and Pacifier had 29lb (I new that the fish that snapped me would cost me - £2.00). Do you have the feeling that sometimes your up one minute (£1) then down the next (£3).

Oh well, there is always next week.

Full result:

1. Rob Minikin (HAS) - 88-03. Peg 35. Pellet across to the island.
2. Andy Stoner (Team Browning/Cudmore) - 74-08. Peg 30.
3. Geoff Scott (Mosella/Rochdale) - 66-12.
4. Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) - 61-02.
5. Tony Neesom (Elton Tackle) - 53-10.
6. Mal Bailey (Garbolino Elton) - 52-13.

2006-08-01T07:31:00.000Z

Sunday 30th July 2006 – The Oaks Lakes, Sessay

Following my debacle last week, I nearly never made it to today’s match as I was contemplating suicide all week. But hey, you can’t have a bad draw all the time!!!

Or can you????

I had prepared a list of all those people that had booked on from last week’s match and had 46 names for the open match, it was going to be close for a 50 pegger.

I texted Panic on Friday to see when he was back off his Jollies and he replied "Back Sat 9pm Number 5 38 Degrees Time For A Beer". So I took that to be that he was back at 9pm on Sat 5th Aug. So I travelled on my own, again. Just call me Billy Nomates.

Whilst driving up the A1, I was trying to make a decision, do I fish pellet up in the water all match, as most of the recent winning weights have all come on this method, or do I do as most of the other people and fish meat on the deck? Choices, choices.

By the time that I arrived I had made up my mind, I was going to fish pellet up in the water if I had a calm(ish) peg and meat on the bottom if it was windy.

Whilst preparing my bait prior to the draw I had none other than Mr Scotthorne asking me questions. What had I done? Big Al had been a couple of times within the first 6 months of Cedar Lake opening, but commitments etc had kept him away. I said to him 'don't ask me nothing, I was last last week!!'. He was asking me about methods, distance, stamp of fish etc and being the good egg that I am, I gave him as much bum info as possible, not!!

at about 9:00, Panic rang me to ask if I had set off yet. I said that I was already there. Anyways, his text meant that he was back on Sat @ 9pm. I don't what the Number 5 referred to.

By the time of the draw, there were 68 of us for the weekly payroll. Where had everyone come from?

I had the obligatory quids with Chappy, Orc, Bedpan Movley, Pacifier (£2) and Panic.

Due to the Jackpot peg(s) still not being won, I, again, put 3 jackpot pegs into the draw, peg no's 41 (Ian Bowman), 55 (Tim Moran) and peg 77. Of these pegs, it was thought that Tim had the best chance of going home with the extra loot.

In view of Tom being crap at drawing, I decided to draw my own peg this week. Where had I been in previous matches? 4, 5 and 6 (although not necessarily in that order). I put my hand in the bag and drew........

Peg 3!!!

What's up, when I put my hand in the bag do all the pegs between 3 and 6 jump up to my hand and I only pick out of those. I shake the bag, as does Tom prior to my putting my hand in.

Oh well you can only do your best (although in my case it ain't good enough). I did have a weight (and won my section) when I was last in the area (peg 4).

Geoff Scotty has been doing well by fishing with paste across to the far side (or on any other line for that matter) and he had drawn peg 1, which is scales help for his sins and Deano Smith had drawn peg 7. Both of these pegs are at either end of the straight before they go around the corner. The only (dis) advantage was that the wind was blowing into their respective pegs and as most of the regulars know, when it is windy at The Oaks, it is damn windy!!!

Marco drew the same peg that won yesterdays open, peg 73 (Ian Exley with 115lb) and literally run to the peg carrying all of his gear.

Let's get on with it

I arrived at my peg to find that I had D Edwards (sorry, don't know him) and N Rogison (Sorry, Don't know him either) on either side of me.

In view of my deciding to fish with pellet up in the water, I made up 3 rigs as follows:

I set up a rig to fish on top of the shelf whilst I was feeding the up in the water line. I set up a .2g Garbolino DC6 on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. This was attached to white hydro. Someone asked me a question as to why I was fishing with white hydro. When you lift/strike into a fish, it allows the fish to run out of your peg whilst you play the fish, hopefully causing any remaining fish to spook less.

I set up 2 shallow rigs, one was a .1 Garbolino DC1 set at 2ft deep with a long line between pole float and pole tip (about 2 ft). This was set up on .12 Maver Genesis line tied direct to a size 18 Colmic WN501 hook. This was attached to white hydro.

My other shallow rig was a .1 Garbolino DC1 float set at 2ft deep with a short line (about 4") between pole float and tip. This was also set up on .12 Maver Genesis tied direct to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. This was attached to grey hydro.

Bait

for feeding, I had 2 pts of micro pellets (for shaking up in the water), 3 pints of 4mm hard pellets (for catapulting) and 2pts of Ringers 3mm expander pellets, which I had pumped to make them sinkers (again for catapulting).

For the hook, I pumped some 4mm and 6mm BBPC pellets and I also had some 4mm 'Skinz' This is the first time that I have used some Skinz. I read the info on the packet and covered them in a little bit of water (just to help to soften them, as I felt that they were a little hard)

All in

At the all in, I put some micro pellets in my Tosspot and a conker on the hook and shipped out to the shelf and started to shake the pellets over the top of my float. I got the 'cattie' out and started to catapult bait at about 9 -10m. I was alternating feeding the 3mm Ringers and the 4mm hard pellets (with the intention that the noise of the 4mm would bring in the fish and the noise and texture of the soft 3mm would give them something to eat).

After about 10 minutes, I got my first indication and caught a gudgeon. It was that small, the scale that I caught last week would have weighed more (had it not blown away).

I re-baited, shipped out again and after shaking in some more micro pellets, the float buried and a carp of about 10oz was trying it's best to get off, but it failed. I had increased my weight 10 fold with one fish.

I persevered in this manner for the next 15 minutes or so, as every so often (well maybe not that often) after I got an indication, I would re-bait and quickly drop the rig in on the shallow line as I shipped out for about 20 seconds or so, just to see if there was anything there.

On one of these '20 second' drops, I got an indication. That was it. The fish were there, it was solid. I quickly came back and swapped my top over to my shallow rig (not the bagging one). I baited up with a 'Skinz', shipped out and caught a carp first drop in - a mirror carp of about 2lb. This was 1 hour into the match. Images and visions of a phenomenal weight was before my eyes as I still had 4 hours to go.

I continued to feed in the same manner for the duration of the match, but for some reason, I just could not string any number of fish together. No-one else around me was fishing up in the water (and neither were they catching except for Scotty and Deano), so I had the method to myself.

I would catch the odd fish, then I couldn't get another bite for 10 - 15 mintues or so, but everytime that I caught a fish, it was a decent stamp of a decent stamp (2lb'er). I was lifting and dropping, slapping the rig in, I swapped over rigs, I short lined, I run out of ideas.

After about 4 hours of the match, Marco came round for a walk, he was admitting to about 12lb, off the match winning peg from yesterday?????. For some reason, the lake seemed to have switched off. Could it be because of the airpressure with the storms that had and were due to take(n) place.

It's All Over - It Is Now!!!

By the time that the scales had arrived, Scotty had weighed in 63lb off peg 1. The lad at the side of me on peg 2 weighed in 26lb odd. I weighed in 25lb odd. Peg 4 had 17lb, peg 5 had 14lb, peg 6 had 22lb and Deano on peg 7 had 69-08 for a match win.

The Pacifier

I got so much abuse last week of Pacifier and Macca for coming last in the match with 19lb. There were only a few DNW's. There is a lad who books on the matches week in, week out. He arrives at about 9:55 for a 10:00 draw. Doesn't speak to anyone and hardly ever catches anything. I think that his best weight has been about 20lb.

Anyways, this lad generally fails to trouble the scalesman, but today, for whatever reason, he decided to weigh in. He weighed in 14lb odd for last in the match. The Pacifier had been saved from a mauling. He weighed in 15lb odd for 2nd last in the match. Next week I am going to pay this kid a quid to tip back!!!

User Report

I was planning on doing a User Report every couple of weeks or maybe even every month, but after using the 'Skinz' hook bait I feel that I just have to write about them.

The first time that I saw someone using them was John Emmerson at Lindholme. He was fishing shallow feeding pellet and fishing with a Skinz on the hook and was bagging.

I bought a packet from Bob-Co tackle yesterday and thought that it was time to give them a try. I put one on the hook and you could get so many dips, blips and indications and yet still feel confident that your bait was still there. At one point I caught 3 fish on the same Skinz'. If small fish try to 'rag' your bait off, it is still there. I think that after fishing with the Skinz for most of the match, there was only a couple of times that the pellet had come off.

When I took them out of the packet, they felt a little hard so I covered them in a little water. Even at the end of the match, they were still perfectly hookable.

Bloody fantastic. I recommend them with a big A+ - go out and try some.

The top 8 all weighed in between 60 and 70lb, so it was probably the closest match that we have had for a while, with no outright winner. 5 of the 6 sections were won with 50lb + (including a couple of 60lb section winners). Tim Moran had 61lb and didn't win his section. So all in all, it still fished ok.

Full Result:

Dean Smith (Garbolino Elton) 69-08
Alan Scotthorne (Shimano) 69-02
Jonny Bradshaw (Mosella Garbolino) 68-06
Chris Hall (The Oaks) 67-02
Robb Minikin (Harrogate Angling) 65-03
Geoff Scott (Mosella Rochdale) 63-00

2006-07-28T09:43:00.000Z

Sunday 23rd July 2006. Cedar Lake, The Oaks, Sessay.

Panic was away on holiday duties, again, so I was travelling 'on my tod'.

In view of getting my meat cutter back of Mal Bailey, I had already prepared my meat ready for today, so it should save me some time after getting everyone else ready.

In view of running the matches and sorting out all of the monies, prior to starting the match, I still get one or two people who are always saying, can't we start earlier as I am ready with about 20 minutes to go, etc, etc. I do the draw at pretty much 10:00 (give or take 5 minutes and generally no more),and by the time that everyone has come through the draw and I have added up all of the money, sorted out the prizes and sections, etc, etc, I don't generally arrive at my peg until 10:30, that leaves me about 45 minutes to prepare myself, (30 minutes if I was to start the match at 11:00) hence the reason for an 11-15 (usually) start.

By the time that the draw came round there were 64 anglers (for want of another word) ready to try their best. We had 3 jackpot pegs, peg 8, 23 and 41.

Following my run of pegs (namely drawing pegs 4 or 5 over the last few matches), I asked Tom (the pond owners son) if he would do me the honour and draw me a good peg. He put his hand in the back and there was a look of anticipation from yours truly as he then pulled his hand out of the bag. Tom looked at the peg and gave a groan. Sugar. He showed me peg 70. Basket!!!!

Peg 70 is at the end of a straight of pegs, which goes from peg 66 - 70. It is on the inside of a bend with peg 71 being to your right about 15m away. Peg 71 can also go down to the bend. You do have the island to fish to, but it seems a short peg as the island has a 90 degree angle going away from you and from the marker in your peg to the end of the island only seems to be about 2m or so. The fish seem to come so far up the straight, turn round and go back down again. Oh well, I have got a peg, you can only do your best and sometimes you get the results.

The obligatory quid's were struck with Chappy, Orc, Bedpan (Roger Movley), Topshop, The Pacifier (Vinnie Diesel) and Macca (both £2 each).

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Tala on peg 71, Pacifier on peg 69 and Macca on peg 67 - peg 68 was empty (not put in the draw bag).

Bait Tariff

I recall a few weeks ago, Big Mark Calvert was in this area and had 40lb by fishing with maggots up in the water. So for today I had 3 tins of cubed meat, 1 tin of frenzied hemp, 3 pts of maggots and a handful of hook pellets.

I set up the following rigs:

Deep Rig No 1: a .4g DC6 float tied direct to .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I plumbed up at the base of the island slightly to my left where I found about 4ft deep. This rig was attached to grey hydro.

Deep Rig No. 2: a .5g Drennan Roach float tied direct to .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B611hook. This was also attached to grey hydro.

Shelf Rig: a .2g Garbolino DC6 float on .14 MAP Carptek direct to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. This was attached to white hydro through the no.2 section of my pole only.

Shallow rig: was a .1g Garbolino DC6 float set up as above, with approximately 18" - 2ft of line between pole float and pole tip (in order not to spook the fish).

At the all in, I potted some meat and hemp on both deep lines and went across to the far side with meat on the hook and a bit of hemp and meat in a Fox Toss Pot.

I waited for about 10 minutes and I got my first indication and I caught a scale, I ‘unhooked’ my scale, went to put it in my net and the wind blew it away – ho hum. I re-baited and went back out. Whilst fishing across I had been feeding maggots at about 8m all the time and I was now starting to see swirls and boils up in the water. I caught a small carp off the far side for about 8oz.

I decided, now was the time to attack it with the maggot approach. I dropped in with double maggot on the hook and missed an indication immediately. I dropped back in and caught a roach. It was that small I wondered, how had it got double maggot and a size 16 hook in it’s mouth?

I unhooked the ‘eyes’ and went back out. I caught another 'plip', then another, then another! Bugger!! I upped the amount of maggots and started to feed 15 – 20 each go. I managed to snare a couple of ide around the 12oz mark.

I carried on in this vein for the next 20 minutes or so catching the odd ‘plip’ and ide, when all of a sudden, the elastic shot out from the pole tip – carp No. 1 was on it’s way. I re-baited and did the same again and caught a few more 'plips'. I felt as though I was going nowhere – fast. I decided to try a pellet on the hook and feed maggots. I dropped in, had a few dips, then the elastic shot out. Carp No. 2 was in the net. I had got it sussed, they wanted pellet on the hook over loose fed maggot!!

20 minutes later, I had nothing further to add for my efforts. I had by now fished maggot/pellet hook bait over loose fed maggots for about 1hr 15mins. I had managed to feed 1.5 pts (nearly) of maggots. What to do????

Tala was struggling to catch on any line (albeit, he was fishing predominantly down the middle). The Pacifier was stringing the odd fish together and I could see that occasionally Macca had his elastic stretched out a bit.

I decided that the maggot approach wasn’t going to work and went back to a meat approach by fishing meat at the base of the slope whilst catapulting a few pieces over to the far side.

Landing 2 fish at once.

After about an hour of fishing in the deeps I caught a fish, to go with a couple that I caught earlier, as I played the fish, I swooped to net the fish and lifted the fish out of the water in the landing net. On closer inspection, there was a little F1 carp (about 1.5lb) in the net along with the fish that I had just caught (a mirror carp about 1lb). I had almost doubled my weight in one go, now then, where is my dragnet!!

Another spawny fish!!

Whilst I had been flicking the odd bit of meat and hemp across to the far side, I saw the odd fish come out of the water to get at the bait. Now was the time to go across and empty it. I baited up with meat, went across to the mud line and waited. After about 5 minutes, the float shot under and I played a fish. As I was bringing the fish to the landing net, a top kit appeared next to my float, as I lifted higher, a float appeared next to my float, then some shot, then the fish with the offending top kit and hook attached. I had caught a fish without hooking it. The carp was approximately 2.5lb (my biggest fish today) and was dragging round a paste float rig with a shark hook attached (which I later found to be a size 12 method feeder hook). The pole had broken just at the base of where the elastic was tied to the bung. The elastic seemed to be the Drennan pink hollow stuff (bit heavy). After the match, the lad that had lost his top kit was on peg 61, the fish had gone round to peg 56, as Chappy reported seeing the top kit, then it had gone past all of the anglers between pegs 56 and 69 to be caught in my peg.

Whilst all of this was going on and I was shouting to all and sundry, The Pacifier broke the number 5 section on his pole – he had caught a fish, got giddy and grabbed hold of his pole whilst the pole was jammed and snap. I didn’t laugh much. I offered him my spare section from my pole knowing that it wouldn’t fit. We were both using Garbolino poles, but my pole is made on a different mandrel. After trying the section and getting nowhere, he got out his replacement pole – a banana bazoocarp (or something like) and due to the stiffness (lack of), set the pole up at 14m but could only fish at 11m to allow for the bend in the pole.

I persevered to the end of the match picking up the odd carp, and I mean the odd carp.

That was it, time, thank god.

The scales

I felt as though I fished a really bad match and that all of my decisions were the wrong ones. By the time that the scales had arrived, Chappy had 69lb; there were a couple of 80lb weights and a couple of 70lb weights, that was on my half of the lake. Macca put 37lb on the scales, Banana man put 44lb (ho hum) on the scales and I have to weigh in as I have so many quid’s, that I hope and pray that at least someone won’t weigh.

I weighed in 19lb 1oz.

This weight put me LAST IN THE MATCH out of all those that weighed in. All of my other quid’s weighed in, it has cost me £8-00 today in £1's (including a couple of £2'ers), but hey, it is not that often that I end up having to cough up to all and sundry. After speaking to Age Concern, who was next to the lad that was 3rd, he said that he had probably tipped back no more than 20lb.

Tala on the next peg tipped back what I would assume to be less than me as most of his fish were skimmers.

Where did it all go wrong? My last 3 results have been 54lb, 63lb and 49lb (in that order) and today I weighed in 19lb 1oz. I think that it is time to take up golf; then again, just maybe I would be worse at golf than I am at fishing.

Full result:

1. Jon Jowett (Drennan Northwest)- 88lb odd (peg 54)
2. Simon Beswick (Tricast Rochdale Angling) - 83lb odd (peg 55)
3. G Scott (Mosella Rochdale)- 77lb (peg 61)
4. Dean Smith (Garbolino Elton) - 76lb
5. Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) - 74lb
6. John Chapman (Garbolino Elton) - 69lb (peg 56)

2006-07-27T23:08:00.000Z

2006-07-27T22:41:00.000Z

Saturday 22nd July 2006 – The Oaks Lakes, Sessay.

I must have scored some brownie points at home, or was it the fact that it was thundering outside, that our lass let me out on a Saturday. With comments like “bye darling, have a wonderful day”, and “I hope that the weather is not too bad for you” and the usual “will the fish feed more when it is raining because they think that there is more food going in the lake? I think that she was hoping that I would get struck by lightening.

Anyways, I made the long trek north, well it is 36miles from my house, to go to The Oaks, I had contemplated going to Woodlands instead, but my steering wheel veered off the A1 at Topcliffe and I soon found myself in The Oaks car park!!! Bloody auto-pilot.

Seeing as I wasn’t running the match (Saturday is Middy’s day), it was my turn to shout and holla’ “what time do we draw on Saturday’s?”, “Tom, can’t you get a decent match organiser on a Saturday?”, only to be greeted with the obligatory, Go forth and multiply. Nothing changes, does it?

There were approximately 40 of the regulars there (41 with myself). I put my hand in the draw bag and pulled out peg 48. So, so!!!

Following my weights from the previous couple of matches, a meat approach was the way forward. I planned on fishing and feeding meat up in the water at approx 10m (at the base of the far slope) and also fishing at depth with meat on top of the shelf. I was also going to feed hemp in addition to the meat.

I got to my peg and found that I was in good company, I had the resident venue expert and big weight specialist (Marco) on my left, peg 46 and the wise old man on peg 50 (Granddad). I wasn’t going to have a quid with either of them. Marco was going to fish up in the water and Granddad was going to meat it at both 10m and across to the far side.

My 3 rigs consisted of:

Deep rig: A .5g Drennan Roach set at 5ft deep at the base of the far side slope. I shotted this with a bulk of shot at half depth, hopefully, enabling me to be able to get bites on the drop as the fish start to come up in the water. This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 barbless hook. This rig was attached to grey hydro.

Shelf rig: A .2g Garbolino DC6 float (read my user report below) set at 18” deep on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook. Grey Hydro complimented the set up. I plumbed up at the very edge of the shelf before it fell away down the slope. Again, this float was shotted with the bulk weight at mid-depth.

Shallow rig: A .1g Garbolino DC6 float set at 12” deep on .15 Preston Powerline (I didn’t want to have the breakages that I had last week) straight through to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. White Hydro through the No2 section of my pole was the chosen elastic.

Following the return of my meat cutter, repaired (cheers Mal), I cubed 3 tins of truncheon meat to go along with 1 tin of Frenzied hemp.

All In

At the all in, I cupped in a small cup of both hemp and meat down the slope, on the deep rig.

I baited up the shelf rig with meat, and loaded a Toss-Pot with the same and went over to the far side. Fish were swirling and boiling up in the water already, it shouldn’t take long for them to get their heads down, so to speak. I dropped in and waited all of 5 minutes. The float buried and an F1 about 1lb was soon in the keepnet. I re-baited, dropped in again. All the while, I was feeding 3 or 4 bits of meat with the catapult over the deep line. I waited for a bite, the float shot under, another carp joined it’s mate in my net.

I re-baited and as I shipped out, I had a quick look with the shelf rig, to see if anything was up in the water. After about 20 second’s, nothing, so I went back over to the shelf. I continued in this manner for the next 20 minutes or so and had about 6 fish in total, it was time to drop in on the deep rig to see if anything was there. I baited up with a piece of meat on the hook, put a bit of bait in a Toss-Pot and dropped in and waited. The float had only just settled and a mirror carp of about 2lb was trying it’s best to get away, but it failed. Carp No 7 was soon in the net. Sounds easy this, doesn’t it?

On the very next drop in, I foul-hooked a fish, up in the water!!!. I very quickly came back and put on my shallow rig, baited up with meat and shipped out. I flicked a few bits of bait out with the catapult. The float was all over the place, going this way, then that, then all of a sudden, the float plummeted, the elastic shot out, and the fish came off, I came back with a scale (I wonder if it will add anything to my weight).

I dropped in again and also flicked a few pieces of meat tight over to the mud line, waiting for the backs of the fish to come out before I go over. After about 2 minutes, the float buried and an F! carp about 1lb was soon in the keep net.

I caught 3 more fish, then they seemed to back off. Granddad on the next peg was steadily putting a few fish together by fishing at the base of the slope. Marco on the other side was catching small fish on caster up in the water.

I went back over to the far side, the fish just would not settle. I was able to pick up the odd fish from both lines over the next few hours.

In The Final Straight

With just over an hour of the match left, I estimated that I had about 40lb (not good enough by a long shot) and thought that Granddad had nearer 60lb. Granddad had plugged away on the deep rig and occasionally flicking a few bits of meat over to the far side. Granddad went over with his shallow rig and caught very well for the last hour of the match. He pulled out of about 30 – 40lb.

I, on the other hand, struggled to string fish together. It was like the fish were coming to the noise of the bait hitting the water, but would not take the hookbait. I tried different depths, short line, long line, but nothing seemed to get me a string of bites or settle the fish. Following how I had got on last week by fishing meat up in the water, I tried to get the fish to be more competitive by feeding 3 – 4 pieces of meat (last week I was feeding 6 – 8 pieces), but nothing seemed to work, yet the fish were still boiling and swirling on the surface.

By the time that the scales had arrived, Andy Quarmby was leading with 137lb off a peg in the 30’s. He fished pellet up in the water.

Marco put 68lb on the scales, he started to get a better stamp of fish in the last hour. I weighed in 49lb and Granddad weighed in 88lb. Ho hum, where did I go wrong.

The Weather

During the first half of the match, we had 4 phenomenal thunderstorms with very heavy rain which lasted for approximately 10 minutes each time. Had these knocked the fish down a little bit as Marco started to get a steady stream of fish late on after the storms had disappeared.

137lb – Andy Quarmby
114lb - 2nd
107lb – Dave Topshop

Granddad was unlucky, he didn’t win anything with his 88lb. Must try harder heh?

User Report

A new addition to my blog is a User Report where I will give my opinion (and it is only that) on products that I have been using, either long term or short term.

This week I will report on the Garbolino DC6 series of floats.

I have been using these floats now for about 1 month. I bought a few of these floats as the first thing that caught my attention was the high visibility bristles. I bought a variety of sizes, from .1g to .4g, with different coloured bristles. Typically, the .2g float takes approximately 3 x No. 8 Preston Stotz and one tiny dropper (No. 11 shot). I have used the .1g for fishing v. light with maggot when fishing up in the water, but the main ones that I use are the .2g, which I find are ideal for fishing across to the far side at Sessay. If the wind picks up, you can take the tiny dropper off, add a couple of inches to your depth to lay on a touch, and the bristle is not dragged under by the wind. They are also sensitive enough that you can use the weight of your bait to pull the bristle down to dead depth, therefore, ensuring that your bait is just touching the bottom.

Since getting the floats, I have found that they don’t seem to take on any water (at the moment anyway), but they are not indestructible. The only float breakage that I have had so far, was when I got snagged on some reedmace and pulled my rig back. The float shot back, the bristle hit the pole and snapped clean off.

Tightlines

2006-07-18T10:09:00.000Z

Sunday 16th July 2006 – The Oaks Lakes, Sessay.

Panic cried off this week, so I was left to travel by my own devices. I arrived in plenty of time and after a light breakfast, I started to get everyone in order and take the names for the match.

I was expecting low numbers this week as most of the Manchester contingent were absent due to practising for a forthcoming team match, but by the time of the draw, there were 56 of us hardy souls in attendance. The weather was forecast to be damn hot with a tad more heat for good measure with a slight breeze (no such thing at Sessay).

My now obligatory quid was struck with Purverted (£2), Chappy, Orc, Nightie, Topshop and Geri (atric Movley).

Two jackpot pegs were announced, pegs 25 and 31. Age Concern drew peg 25 and there was a slight anticipation that it may go following his 2nd place on last Sunday’s open. Mala Dunlop was on the other jackpot peg. I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 32, so I had Mala on one side and Timothy (Sorry) Moran on the other side, peg 34. Chappy drew peg 7, Purverted was on peg 69 (and cried his way to the peg, don’t know why, there was a few fish down the last week).

Preparation

I had been out to Bob-Co tackle shop and purchased a selection of Garbolino DC1 and DC2 floats in a variety of sizes from .05g to .5g. I like the floats has they have high visibility bristles and you can ‘read’ your bites. I had spent all last night making up about a dozen rigs on a variety of lines from .13 Preston Powerline to .16 Map Carptek line, all that was needed was for me to add shot to the rigs on the bank, which is the easy part. I was ready.

The rigs

I set up 3 rigs to start with as follows:

Shelf rig. I set up a .2g DC1 float for on top of the shelf at 12m. This was going to be my main line of attack. When plumbing up, I found approximately 2ft of depth. When fishing for carp I like to have most, if not all of my shot set at half depth. Mark Lucas got me doing this, as it allows the fish to watch the bait as it flutters down and your bites are positive when they take it as they feel less resistance than if the shot was closer to the hook. The rig was set up on .14 MAP Carptek line tied to a size 14 Colmic WN501 hook.

Rig 2. Whilst plumbing around my swim, I found that if I went both left and right of my peg number, the peg shallowed up so I set up a rig to fish the shallower water if needed. I used a .1g DC1 float and again had a couple of No.9 Preston Stotz just pulling the float to the base of the bristle. This float was set up on .13 Preston Powerline direct to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. (I realise that although .13 Preston Powerline may be thicker in diameter than .14 Carptek, the fact that it says .13 on the packet makes you assume that you are actually fishing finer??).
My 3rd rig was a Drennan Roach set up to fish in 5ft of water at the base of the far side slope. This was set up on .14 Maver Genesis line tied direct to a size 14 eyed barbless hook (Kamasan B981).

Both rig 1 and rig 3 were set to fish approx 3 – 4” over depth, this follows on from the bites that I was getting last week when it was a tad windy and I was having to fish well over depth.

A La Carte Menu

The menu for today was going to be pretty much basic. Meat, meat and more meat with a splash of hemp, just for something different.

I have finally got my meat cutter from Mal Bailey, but, assuming that he wasn’t going to turn up, I had asked Chappy if he could do me 3 tins of meat when I arrived in the morning. I let Charisma Pawlett, Kev McKie and Purverted use the meat cutter. When I went to get it back off Purverted, I wanted to do another tin of meat; the wires had been snapped at one end. I spoke with Mal; he has taken it back to repair it for me. Mal told me that they had snapped as whoever had used it, had done the meat on an angle and pressed the plunger onto the wires at an angle. So, I had to borrow Toddy’s cutter. Saying that about the meat cutter, most of the Woodland’s regulars have them, so if they are good enough for them, it is good enough for me.

On Your Marks, Get Set!!

At the all in, went out with the shelf rig. I filled a large Tosspot full of hemp and meat and shipped out to the 2ft deep swim. I dropped the bait in, waited about 5 minutes and caught my first fish, an ide of about 10oz. I rebaited, loaded up again and went back over. After about 5 minutes, I caught my first carp of about 10oz. Over the next hour, I was catapulting bits of meat onto the shelf line, with a few pieces of meat being fired over to the mud line at 14m.

After 1 hour, I estimate that I had 6 carp and 2 ide for about 6lb. I was now starting to miss bites, liners. I shipped out with the shallow rig (this was probably about ½ depth), dropped in with meat up in the water. The float buried and a mirror carp about 2lb was trying it’s best to get away. After a 5 minute battle the carp was in the net. I was using white hydro through the match 2 & 3. I immediately swapped over to white hydro through the match No. 2 only.

Over the next 2 to 3 hours, I proceeded to catch a steady procession of fish (although I wasn’t breaking any records), all of which came up in the water. Mala on the next peg was struggling (he fished paste down the middle) and Sorry on the next peg the other way was starting to string a few fish together. Granddad and Calvert were both bagging on pegs 28 and 29.

To save time and to create a bit of noise, when fishing shallow, I flick the rig from one side of the pole to the other, going up and over. This allows the rig to land in a straight line, which also slows the fall and as an added bonus, creates noise.

I tried to go shallower with the shallow rig, but it didn’t seem right. I quickly made up a polyball rig set about 6” deep on .14 MAP Carptek line to a size 14 hook. I dropped in; the float was bobbing, but not going under. After about 2 minutes, the float shot under and a carp of about 3lb was soon in the net. On the next drop in, the polyball buried, and I never saw the fish or the rig again, I had been snapped where you tie the knot at the top of the rig.

Going into the last hour, I felt that the fish had disappeared, I was still getting liners, I was fishing between 12” and 6” deep, (I kept on altering the depth to try to find the fish). I went back onto the bottom for about 20 minutes, thinking that they had followed the bait down to the bottom (I think that I got the feed amount wrong). I caught a quick succession of fish, but they were generally smaller.

That was it, time. I had caught a few fish and felt confident of a good 50lb weight. Both Granddad and Calvert had emptied it, and I felt that Granddad would have over a ton. Sorry had started to catch a good few fish at the end by fishing up in the water at about 7m. Mala had had a bad day and was already packing up.

How had I faired?

The scales finally arrived at Granddad and there were a few decent weight with the majority of the weights being between 50 – 65lb. Granddad put 95lb on the scales. I knew he had a good weight. Big Mark put 98lb on the scales off the next peg to win the match. I weighed 63lb odd (my best weight for a while) and Sorry, whom I kept on trying to cajole into a quid, weighed 68lb odd, thank god that he didn’t want to have a quid. Mal Bailey won my section from peg 41 with 75lb, by default, as Minty Whittaker had 86lb off peg 37.

Purverted tipped back about 40lb and he left without paying. Chappy weighed 54lb (up a quid), Topshop had a lowly 40lb (up another quid) and my other quid’s all went without paying, so presumably I had beaten them all.

I feel as though I was there or thereabouts, a little tweaking with the feeding pattern and a few more fish may be on the cards.

The full result

Mark Calvert (Garbolino Elton) 98-08. Meat over hemp. Up in the water at 12m. Peg 29
Bert Poole (Oaks/Westpark) 95-12. Meat over hemp in the deep water. Peg 28
Adam Richards (Garbolino Elton) 88-08
Mark Whittaker (The Oaks) 86-13
John Allerton (Tricast Oaks) 79-15
Andy Dargue (Shimano Quaker) 76-02

The lowest section winning weight was 61lb odd. I had 63lb for about 15th.

Dean Smith had 74lb and didn't win his section.

2006-07-12T13:47:00.000Z

Sunday 9th July 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay

Kamasan British Open Final, Browning Cudmore

Before I start to go into the events of this weekend (well, Sunday), I would just like to make a big mention of the exploits of the Saturday match organiser, Andy Middleton (The Oaks).

Andy has won the Kamasan Open Final, which took place at Browning Cudmore fisheries. Andy amassed 20 points in the Kamasan table, which was enough to take him to the final, and he ended up winning the final with 106lb, beating local venue experts and previous Kamasan final winners and table toppers. Andy has only fished the venue once previously, and that was for the Premier League Final, which he also won (I know I came second). Not bad work if you can get it, 2 visits to the venue and over £2400 richer!!

Andy drew a corner peg on Pool 4 and had a few empty pegs to one side. He told me that he had a few fish down the side, but the majority of fish came up in the water feeding with a shaker pot, with pellet as hookbait. He caught mainly carp to 3lb with the odd chub and ide.

Former Kamasan Final Winner (2005) and Kamasan Table Topper (2003 or 2004), Dean Smith (Garbolino Elton) was 2nd with 93lb 5oz, Steve Rothery (Diawa Goldthorpe) 90lb and Gregg Norris (Daylite Baits/The Oaks) 89lb 12oz. I would also like to point out that all of the main framers (I think the nearest a venue regular got was 8th, according to www.total-fishing.com) have been venue regulars to The Oaks Lakes at some point or other).

All I can say is that The Oaks Lakes must be a good training ground!!!

Here Goes!!!

I made the trip to The Oaks Lakes, as you do, seeing as I am the match organiser (or something like) and promptly had to ring a couple of lads that have been in recent weeks to get an idea what I needed and general consensus was that meat and hemp are the order of the day at present, fished either on top of the shelf or down the middle.

After travelling with Panic to the Lindholme Fisho Qualifier, I persuaded Panic to make the long trek north and join the mass.

I had to make a special mention at the start of the match. There is a 2-keepnet rule currently in place at The Oaks Lakes, with 50lb per net, then alternate between the two. During my absence last week, venue regular, Chappy managed to weigh in over 70lb, all of which, was in one net. If I had been there, should I have paid him a quid or would I have got off on a technicality? I was tempted to give him a quid from last week, although we didn’t have a quid, and also pay him in advance for this week so that he could hire a net from the venue.

53 anglers turned up to fish the match.

My pegs for the last few matches have been peg 4 (29lb), 54 (49lb), 36 (55lb), 5 (31lb) and 5 (29lb). I was hoping for a good draw.

The Jackpot pegs were pegs 16, 55 and 61. Peg 55 had the best chance of going, 61 would be a better peg due to peg 62 not being in the draw and peg 16 throws up a weight now and then. So all in all, there was a chance that the jackpot may go today, angling ability dependant.

My bank Account

I had the obligatory bets as follows:

Chappy - £1
Macca - £2
Vinnie Diesel - £2 (roped in courtesy of Macca)
Nightie - £1
Panic - £1
Roger (Geri(atric)) Movley - £1
Orc - £1

I put my hand in the bag first and promptly drew peg 5. Flippin' Eck or words to that effect quickly followed with lots of expletives for good measure. I have fished 6 matches and drawn the same peg 3 times (with today) and drawn next door on one other occasion. My best weight from the area has been 31lb. I was absolutely gutted. One wise person asked me, if I didn’t like the peg, why put it in? I told him to go forth and multiply.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had General Patton on peg 1, the Quite One was on peg 2, John (Bradders) Bradshaw was on peg 4 and Orc was on peg 7. I also had venue expert Tim Moran in my section along with Kamasan Open Winner, Andy Middleton. I was out of it before I had even started!!! Paul (Toddy) Todd was on peg 8 and promised me £2 if I shut up for the full match. Well, I lost that in the first few minutes.

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Deep rig was a .75g Drennan Roach float on .14 MAP Carptek line straight through to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I planned on fishing with paste on this line. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found it to be about 5ft deep.

My shelf rig was a .2 DC2 float on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. Meat and hemp was the preferred bait on this line. I found that I had about 18” of depth. I also plumbed up at the next platform (peg 6) with this rig until I found the same depth.

Inside rig was a 4 x 14 patterned float direct on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Colmic B501 hook. I was going to paste it on this line. I found about 3.5 ft on the top 2 kit fishing to hand.

All In

At the all in, I cupped in some meat and hemp across to the far shelf, put some pellets and hemp down the middle, a bit of meat/hemp at the next peg and some groundbait and pellets on the top two line.

I went over to the far side, fed a little hemp and meat and caught an ide straight away, it was solid. I dropped in again and caught a carp of 10oz, after about 40 minutes or so, I probably had about 5lb, but the fish had seemed to disappear on me. I fed it again and left it whilst I explored my other lines.

I dropped in on the deep swim with a blob of paste and caught a carp about 1lb, then nothing for the next 10 minutes. I came in close with the top 2 rig and caught a succession of carp on paste, albeit the fish were on the small side. I was now 2 hours into the match and had approximately 10 – 12lb of mainly small fish.

I put on my shelf rig, baited up with meat and dropped in on the next peg. By this time the wind had started to pick up considerably and was blowing down the lake from peg 12 – corner peg 7, where Orc was getting a few by rotating the margin and the deep swim. The wind was also blowing from peg 1 to peg 7 (Orc should win today with all the fish being blown his way – literally) and was causing presentation problems when fishing across. The float buried next to the platform and I foul hooked a fish which shot off towards peg 7, told you it was solid down in peg 7.

Orc probably had about 20lb by now, so I was playing catch up. Bradders was probably a couple of pounds in front of my by now. I was getting battered.

I decided that there was one thing for it. I hastily set up a .4g DC2 float rig on another top kit with white hydro set soft through a match 2 and 3. This rig was on .12 Maver Genesis line straight through to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. The rig length was approx 3ft long. I plumbed up across and added about 5” to the depth and kept the remaining line above the float.

I baited up with meat and put some meat and hemp in a Toss Pot (the small one) and shipped across to the far side. The float buried and a carp of about 2lb was trying it’s best to get to peg 62 (which is over the mud mound for those that don’t know the venue). Soon in the net, that was easy.

I proceeded in this manner for the next 2 hours and put together an estimated 40lb in that period. The fish seemed to be backing off, or were being pushed/forced down to peg 7 by the wind. Alas, I could hold on no longer, the wind was getting stronger and I was knackered, I had backache and was sweating buckets. It was warm as well as windy. At one point, I thought that I was going to smash my pole as it was pulled round by the wind. If I had held on and fought against the wind, I would have smashed it for sure.

I had a look down the inside again and caught odd fish until the end of the match, but again, they were too small.

I estimate that I had a good 40lb – 45lb.

The scales arrived and General on peg 1, set the standard, 30 odd pounds. The quite one had just over 30lb, Bradders (who wouldn’t be roped into a quid) put 35lb on the scales, the new target to beat. I put 24lb on the scales………. With my first net. I then put 29lb on the scales with my second net and had a 54lb 1oz total. Orc weighed just over 40lb (one quid up). Toddy had 46lb. The next best in my 10 peg section was 50lb (caught by the Kammie Open Champ). I was going to get an envelope. But the question was, how many quid’s had I done in?

Chappy told me that had 2 fish in the last 2 drop in’s for nearly 5lb (one of 3.5lb and 1 of 1.5lb) and beat me for the quid by 5lb (59lb odd). Oh Hum. Chappy also said that Macca had battered him, I was gonna be down a few quid at this rate. Macca put his fish on the scales and weighed in 56lb, I thought that Macca had battered Chappy? But I was still down £2 quid now (-3 +1). Although I caught, the information that I received came from both Macca and Chappy who both beat me. Where they hiding something in order to save their quid’s?????

Andy was entitled to a share of Granddad’s purse, but declined and his comments went along the lines of, ‘It’s alright Bert, you don’t have to give me any money, I have got some’. I should have had a quid with Topshop seeing I also beat him, but we weren’t on next pegs so, no chance.

Every cloud has a silver lining – Yeah, they may have both beaten me, yet, I still won my section!! I am not going to put myself in an 11 peg section if I can help it am I???

My other quids:

Vinnine, Nightie, Geri, Orc and Panic all owed me some pennies.

The full result:

53 Fished on Cedar Lake.
1. Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton), 91-04. Peg 44. Meat across to the island
2. Bruce Poland (The Oaks), 70-05. Peg 31. Meat over to the island.
3. Paul Taylor (The Oaks), 70-02
4.Bert Poole (Oaks/West Park), 65-08
5. Simon Beswick (Tricast Rochdale) 62-12
6. Anthony Stock (Nutrabaits) 61-03

Over 50lb was needed to win every 10 peg section and over half of the field had 40lb+. Panic came 25th with 41lb odd.

Sections (for the record)
S1. Me - 54 - 01. Peg 5
S2. A Stock 61-03. Peg 16
S3 Vinnie Martin 53-04. Peg 43 (Next to the winner)
S4. G Scott 59-04. Peg 54
S5. Mark Calvert 53-04. Peg 66