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. :-) 

Barney Grumble Lookalike.


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

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.

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. 

I walked round to Big Macca and his response was:


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

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

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.

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


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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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!!!