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)

 

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 

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.

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

Lindholme Lakes – Fisho Qualifier – Wednesday 5th July 2006.

I arranged for Panic to come and pick me up at 7:00 for the trip to Lindholme for the penultimate Fisho Qualifier.

My Gardener

Yesterday I had a word with my gardener and asked him if he could come and tidy the front and back garden, the hedge needed trimming, the front garden needed turning over and the back garden needed a good seeing to!!!

When I opened the door at 6:45 to get my stuff ready for when Panic arrived, I found my gardener sat on my doorstep (it’s 6:45 in the morning), waiting to get on with the garden. I showed him where all the tools were and left him to get on with it.

Panic was early for once, I thought that either he’d dropped a turd in bed or he’d been out all night. It was about 10 to 7 and everyone was present and correct. Panic was laughing and joking about me having a gardener, but when you work 5 days a week, fish on a Sunday, that only leaves Saturday (if I am not fishing) and I like to spend the day with the kids and our lass, hence I have little time left so I have a gardener.

With my directions and Panic’s turbo-charged van, we arrived at Lindholme in good time, although we did have a scary moment when 2 eeejit’s (move over Jonesey and Sam) over took us on a narrow country lane.

Upon arrival, I was in the company of Nightie, Jonesey, Tommy Pick, Matt Hall, Rob Hitchens, Steve Greggs, Beanhead, Daylite, Marco and a few others. Both young Adam and Darryll arrived on spec. to try to get on the match on the day. Apparently, the first one on the reserve list had arrived at 6:30 to ensure that he went down as first reserve.

As I queued for brekkie, I finally arrived at the counter and ordered a brekkie, my ticket number was 72, they were only just serving number 54!!. Adam ordered a sandwich, hoping that it was going to arrive quicker, but no!, they do the orders in number order.

Only £2 to worry about this week, as quid side bet’s were struck with Daylite and Nightie.

The Draw

I joined the queue for the draw and some 5 minutes later there were as many people behind me in the draw as there was in front. Daylite was nearer to the back than the front, and as usual, he found some sort of excuse for him to join our little tete a tete!!

6 lakes were being used, Beeches, Loco, Willows, Laurel, Strip and Bonsai.

Bonsai

At the draw Neil G made an announcement that the Bonsai Lake was suffering as a result of a lack of oxygen and that a pump/aerator was promptly being moved into position on the lake and that he apologised, but the aerator would have to run all day. One or two of the anglers that had had a look at Bonsai commented that there were fish belly up and they were gasping for air. There were 50 pegs on Bonsai – OOOpppss.

At the draw, most of the anglers wanted to draw either Loco or Beeches. Beeches because this lake was a converted trout lake and was used in the North V South match that took place a couple of months ago. Loco was wanted as they had only pegged 10 anglers on a 60 odd peg lake.

I put my hand in the bag and pulled out Willow 32??? In view of never having fished the lake before, I sought out local advice from Rob Hitchens and Johnny Howard. Apparently I had drawn a flyer as it was a corner peg (peg 31 was not in) and the wind was blowing into the corner.

Daylite had drawn Strip Pond, Panic was on Laurel 67, Nightie was on Laurel 3 (both Nightie and Panic were pegged next to each other????), Adam was at the back of Greggs on Willows Lake, on about peg 24, another quid side bet was promptly struck.
I arrived at my peg and the two waggler rigs that I had so lovingly prepared were left in the van. It was approx 25m wide to the other bank which was occupied by venue expert and all-round good guy, Steve Gregory!!!


Does the peg look fishy or what!!, This picture was taken about halfway through the match when the wind had stopped blowing into the peg and was blowing the opposite way.

I sat and observed my peg for 5 minutes or so just to try to formulate a plan of attack. I decided on the following:

Shallow Rig was a little poly ball attached to .16 MAP Carptek line straight through to a size 14 Kamasan B981 hook. The total amount of line on the rig was about 3ft to allow me to move up or down in the water and to also allow me to put a bit of line between pole float and pole tip, should I need to. Pellet or floater was the order of the day.

My Deep Rig, was a Colmic patterned float of 4 x 16 in size. It has a thick nylon bristle. I attached it to .15 dia. Preston Powerline straight through to a size 14 Kamasan Animal hook. I plumbed up and found about 5ft of depth, both in front and down the side at 15m. I planned on fishing paste at 11m in front and pellet down the side. I decided upon pellet down the side as I had great difficulty shipping in and out and if I had fished paste, it would have probably come out of the shipping pot and come off as I shipped out. The reason for the difficulty was that I was down a steep bank, and I didn’t even have enough room to lay a section behind me without it going up hill.

I also set up another rig, but this one was a shallow rig for fishing at 16m right into the corner up the mud bank. I set the rig about 2ft deep and plumbed around until I found the correct depth. I couldn’t find a flat spot as there was a steep slope (I know for sure as you will find out later) from grass/reed bank to the base of the slope.

Whilst I was assembling my various rigs, I could see fish swimming around up in the water, they appeared to be a good few fish about 3 – 7lb in size. The wind was still blowing into my corner. I decided to go for a little walk to see Beanhead to get some more advice and to ensure that I was going down the right track with regards to tackling my peg.

I arrived at Beanhead’s peg, I thought that I had a lot of fish in front of me, you ain’t seen Beanhead’s peg. It was solid between 6m – 14m and they were all over 5lb. Beanhead had a grin from here to here (I say with my arms open wide). Beanhead confirmed my plan(s) of attack.

Le Menu

I brought that much bait with me (as I thought that I may be fishing up in the water at distance), I had 6mm Sensas Pellets, 8mm Bob-Co pellets, micro pellets, 4mm pellets, expander pellets, sinking pellets, banded pellets, drilled pellets and some more pellets for good measure. Oh, almost forgot, I had a tin of corn should I need it.

At the all in, I cupped in some micro pellets at 16m to the corner, have you tried to feed a pole cup full of pellets at 16m whilst trying to hold the pole horizontal, when you are having to stand up to ship the bait out, if not try it. A large pot full of pellets at 2m doesn’t weigh a lot, when you are trying to ship out to 16m whilst standing up, the pot gains weight, a lot!!!

I cupped in at 11m and started on the up in the water rig, flicking a few 4mm pellets over the top of the float. Steve Greggs cupped in some sloppy pellet or groundbait down the side (for him it was about 13m and it was even, he could ship out normally) and he cupped in some pellets at 8m in front of him.

The Match

The actual match write up is v. short, if you are not catching, there is not a lot to write about, sorry.

Well, over the next 5 hours I managed to catch 1 carp and 1 chub after 2 hours 45, both on expander pellet down the side by feeding micro pellets over a 5 minute period I then snared another chub up in the water on a floating pellet with about 30 minutes to go. I could not buy a bite and it didn’t matter what permutation of bait and feeding that I carried out.

I tried down the side on both deep and shallow rigs, I tried at 7m, 11m and 13m both on the bottom and up in the water. I just could not get a bite and indications were very few and far between. Steve Greggs ended up with about 7 carp for 10lb odd, he caught 3 on paste down the side and 4 on floating bread (I didn’t have any).

Matt Hall won the match with over 140lb and one of the Ringers was second with 88lb. Nightie had about 10lb, Panic tipped back about 30lb, Adam weighed 24lb and I am not sure what Daylite had (oops, I forgot to give him his quid, oh well, we will fish for it next time).

The Slippery Slope

I lost one of my DC floats that I set up (I se this rig up on thinner line, smaller hook and tried to catch a fish the Oaks way). I went to go get my DC float back and took my landing net handle only. I managed to dislodge the float from the line that was still tethered to the snag and persuaded the float to come into the bank to my feet, I bent down to get said float and started to slip into the water. I went just over my knees (and I was still sliding down the slope that I mentioned earlier) until I managed to grab hold of something to slow down my slide down the slippery slope and pull my self out. I went and got my landing net head and scooped my float out!!

Uniformity

If there is one thing that I would like to see is a uniform set of rules for all Fisho qualifiers. I say this because:

On the Fisho qualifier, you could use floating pole, it is banned in the final and it is also banned in the open matches at Lindholme.

You can use floating baits, but not feed which is always open to abuse.

A pole limit, to make it more of a level playing field.

What do we do/not do at The Oaks, which you will be able to do/not do in the final, as I am not entirely sure of the rules for the Fisho final.

The rules should also reflect what can and can’t be used in the final, in that if you can use catmeat in the final, why not allow people to fish it in qualifiers.

I have fished 2 Fisho qualifying matches this year and I have, I must admit, I have enjoyed them both. They are on different venues, using different methods and catching different size fish to the usual methods used at The Oaks.

Viaduct was good because of the practice sessions and the ‘craic’ and the size of the fish also meant that a weight was possible from most pegs. Lindholme was good because of the apprehension and the hope of drawing the right lake. I was hoping to be able to draw a peg where the splashing wag could be used, or at least catch up in the water. When you go to a new venue, you are usually excited as you just do not know what to expect and it can invigorate you when you feel as though things are going stale.

All I can say, is keep at it. Life has some strange ways of evening itself out. 

Lindholme Lakes – Fisho Practice – Sunday 2nd July 2006.

With the impending Fishomania qualifier just round the corner, I felt that a visit to the venue was required and I promptly booked myself on the open match.

There were 32 anglers present including such names as Rob Hitchen, Jonny Howard, Matt Hall and Ben Fisk (???)!!

I had managed to talk Purverted into attending the match and had arranged for him to come and pick me up. I spoke to Daylite, Beanhead and Marco to get an idea of what was/might be required and promptly had to ring Purverted back. A waggler rod was needed!! And Purverted ain’t got one of those. After telling him that he WILL need a waggler rod he very, very quickly cried off. No amount of coaxing was going to make him change his mind. A quick call to Panic and a new travelling partner was arranged.

I picked Panic up at about 7:15 for the trip to Lindholme in order to get there for the draw. The draw at Lindholme takes place at 9:00 am and they have 6 hours matches (might have to have a word with Tom on this).

3 of the lakes being used in the Fishomania qualifier were being used for the match today with each lake having approximately 10 anglers on and if you won your lake you got a good payout in terms of there was no 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize. The prize consisted of £100 (ish for winning your section). The 3 lakes being used were Beeches, Willows and Loco. No-one wanted to draw Loco!! And everyone (in the know) wanted to draw Beeches.

Beeches is an old trout lake that has been stuffed full of fish and was used for the North V South match. Loco is a rectangular lake with approx 60 pegs on. There is a tiny island some 40m out in front of about 6 pegs (2 from 3 sides of the lake), what is that all about, other than that, it is featureless. Not sure about willows, as I don’t even know which lake it is.

Panic put his hand in the draw bag and drew Beeches Peg 16 and I drew Loco Peg 34 – we were both none the wiser. I was told (by Beanhead) to fish paste at 6m and pellet up in the water at 14m or further with a waggler rod. Beanhead drew Loco 42, Daylite was on peg 30 (ish, on the bottom bank and had no-where to go). Cromie was on Beeches peg 30 (a quid down already). Daylite promptly roped me into a quid side bet.

Upon arriving at my peg, I had Chris (Sherlock) Watson on peg 38, Beanhead was further round on about peg 42/44. Matt Hall was on my lake on about the peg 2nd from the end (about peg 60).

I set up 1 waggler rod which consisted of 5lb Maxima mainline (I don’t know how big they go), with a 3AAA MAP pellet float and a 12” length of Preston Powerline (.15 diameter) tied to a size 14 Kamasan Eyed Barbless Hook (B981, me thinks!!). I had hair-rigged a baitband and attached it using a knotless knot. The rod that I was using was an old Daiwa Amorphous Whisker. The Whisker rod is quite a tippy rod, with plenty of power in reserve.
In view of not knowing too much about the lake and the venue, I set up my pole rigs on the bank as follows:

6/7m paste rig: was a 0.5g Drennan Carp 2 float on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a Kamasan B981. I was told that the lake was deep. When I plumbed up the depth was deeper than the 2 & 3 pole kit by some 3 inches. (I didn’t fancy the deep rig from this moment forward and would keep an eye on all those around me to see if I had made a mistake).

I then set up 1 shallow rig for 14.5 metres (there is a pole limit of 14.5m on the lake), this consisted of a 4 x 12 Garbolino DC 2 float on .16 MAP Carptek line straight through to a Kamasan B981 hook. Again, as the waggler rig, I had attached a baitband as a hair, also using the knotless knot (have you tried to make up a float rig from hook to loop?)

I also set up a rig to a overhanging tree to my right, the lad on Peg 32 was planning on fishing this area as his main swim (did he know something I didn’t). Whilst I was setting up my deep rig, I could see the odd fish boil and swirl tight in to the side under the tree. I plumbed up expecting to find about 10ft, but alas no, it was a reasonable depth – some 2ft. My rig was a Garbolino DC2 float taking 0.2g. This was set up on .16 Carptek line, direct to a size 14 (same pattern as above).

My bait table consisted of every pellet and size known to man with some more for good measure. I had some Sensas 6mm, Viaduct 6 and 8mm and some 10mm pellets that I was planning on using as hookbait. I also had some paste, groundbait, micro pellets and sweetcorn. Was I prepared or what?

Wait and See.

At the all in, I waited to see what everyone else was doing and where they were feeding. The general consensus was to feed at both 6/7m and also at 14m and splash a little bit of bait at 2m to one side. I followed suit.

The majority of people then went straight out onto the 6/7m line. There was one lad who was bucking (yes bucking) the trend and he went straight out on a splashing wag. He had what appeared to be a big ping pong ball attached to the top of his float, painted day-glo orange. He was on peg 38.

I baited the waggler rod and chucked out about 20 – 25m. There was a slight breeze blowing from left to right diagonally across the lake coming towards me.

I catapulted out 2 pouches of 6mm pellets and promptly cast out over the top. I put another pouch over the top and waited. I kept on catapulting a few pellets out over the top of the float, trying to get a rhythm going. I could see the odd fish boiling about 35m out. The float buried and a carp of about 3lb was soon in the net.

I repeated the process and after a further 20 minutes another carp was doing it’s best to run to the other side of the lake, but it failed and was in the landing net. This one was about 5lb.

When waggler fishing, I have a tendency to fish with the anti-reverse on and let the reel free spool, playing the fish using the drag. This is a good method until you get them under the rod tip. I used to fish by back winding, but I feel that sometimes, you give line when you don’t really need to.

Over the next 3 or 4 hours, I only managed to catch one fish and lost 2. The highlight was catching one of the Canadian Geese that inhabit the lake and watching it swim and flap all around Daylite’s peg – he wasn’t pleased (don’t know why, he wasn’t catching anything). Shortly after, I am sure that a couple of stones (or such) came flying my way and landed in my peg.

I tried the paste rig – nothing. I tried the margin rig, under the tree, nothing – the lad on peg 32 had a tench about 4lb from the margin and a couple of small bottle top carp. I plumbed up at 14m (just to get and idea and possibly have a go at full depth) using the same 6m rig. When the pole tip touched the water and the float hadn’t touched bottom, I sacked that idea straight away.

Sherlock on the next peg was catching all of his fish in the deep water at both 6m and 11m. He was getting a lot of small carp (6 to the lb) and the odd bonus fish (now and then), but wasn’t breaking any records. The lad with the ping pong ball was catching the odd fish but would have spells where he caught 2 or 3 then nothing.

There was a lad next to Daylite on about peg 28 (2 pegs away from Daylite) who was starting to get a few fish. He seemed to be fishing about ½ depth (to me, as I don’t know how deep it was for him) and was starting to get a few fish.

I added more depth on to the waggler rig and started to get a few more indications. I now cottoned onto what I needed to do (there was about 40 minutes of the match remaining). I cast out the waggler rod, placed the rod to my right side and catapulted pellets over the top, periodically and waited for the rod tip to go round. In this 40 minute spell, I managed to snare 4 more carp of between 2 and 3lb and lost another 2. I had felt as though I had finally got something together. I had previously been striking at every indication. That was that. Time!!!

My Weight!!!

The scales arrived and confirmed what everyone already knew, you didn’t want to be on Loco Lake. Someone on Willows had 115lb, Rob Hitchens had won the match with 125lb from Beeches, Panic tipped back 40lb, Cromie had 82lb and my lake was won with 44lb. Sherlock had 34lb, Beanhead had a similar weight, Ping Pong had 44lb and won the lake, Daylite was a DNW and the lad next to him, also had a 40lb + weight. I had 7 carp for 24lb odd. My winning quid off Daylite promptly left my palm and made it’s way to Cromie.

I haven’t got a clue where I need to draw for the fisho, but hopefully if I catch a few fish, I will have enjoyed myself and that is what fishing is all about.

Viaduct Fishomania – Match Day

Saturday 24th June 2006.

The day was finally here, the two days of practice WAS going to be put into effect. I was feeling slightly less apprehensive and felt a little more at ease. I was planning on fishing up in the water (unless I drew a Mr Crabtree peg) for most, if not all of the match with either pole (hopefully first choice) or splashin’ wag.

Whilst waiting at the draw, Daylite decided to take his van of gear to the venue and drop it off there. Marco provided assistance by giving him a lift there and back. Upon getting back to the venue, they realised one problem, how were Daylite and Lee going to get back to the venue, there was no room in the Oaks Shed.

At the draw it was good to see a few familiar faces, Tommy Pick (the bionic bleaker), Rob Hitchens, Steve Jacko, the 4 local Oik's, to name but a few and to meet some not so familiar faces.

At the draw a few of the local aces had drawn good pegs. Ian, the pond owner/partner had not drawn too well. I finally arrived at the front of the draw queue, dipped my hand in the bucket, whilst spinning around and simultaneously hoping on one foot. Cary Lake peg 76 was stuck to my mitt. After seeking expert advice, well Ian was the only one around, I was informed that I was on a good pole peg.

Marco, the spawny git, had only gone and drawn Spring Lake peg 6, the self same peg that he had pleasure fished yesterday. He couldn’t get to his peg fast enough. He had a venue regular (someone) Dix on peg 5, Bionic Bleaker was on peg 2 and Total Fishing regular Northern and Proud had drawn Spring 18.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Pete Wild (?) on peg 77, Minty’s (off Eastender's) brother on peg 75 and Clinton someone or other on peg 74 (sorry mate, I only discovered your first name whilst you was talking to Daylite). Steve Mayo had drawn a good peg and was on Cary 81. Young Matt Parsons was on Campbell peg 114.

My peg was pretty much the same as the rest of the pegs on my bank, pretty non-descript with a overhanging willow to my right. I set up 3 pole rigs:

Shallow rig; a small poly ball on .21 Preston Powerline, direct to a size 12 Kamasan B981 Eyed Barbless Specimen Hook. This was set on about 2ft of line to allow me to either shallow up or go deeper. If I was to be fishing shallow (some 6 – 8” deep), I would be able to keep the pole tip from right over the rig, hopefully not spooking the fish.

14m deep rig; was a .4g Drennan Carp 2 set to fish on the bottom. This float was set up on the obligatory .21 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 12 Kamasan Animal Eyed hook.

Margin/Willow rig entailed a robust Drennan float tied to the same hook and line diameter as above.

I also set up a splashin’ waggler rig, incorporating a 3g loaded pellet rig. This was set up on 6lb Maxima tied direct to a size 12 Kamasan B981 Eyed Barbless Specimen Hook. In view of the problems being encountered, I made a slight adjustment to my set up. Most people when fishing the splashin’ wag, were getting broken at the point where the locking shot is placed. I got some 8lb Maxima, thread it through the eye of the waggler, created a double loop at the bottom of the Maxima and placed the bulk shot on the doubled up 8lb line. I then thread the 6lb Maxima mainline through the small loop, twice and locked it off with 4 No. 8 Preston Stotz. This allowed the float to carry the shotting capacity, whilst not weakening the mainline by biting on large shot.

I had 2 kilo of 6mm pellets, 1 kilo of 8mm pellets, some 10mm pellets, both banded and drilled and one tin of catmeat (I had more tins of catmeat in reserves if I started bagging).

We’re away!!!

At the all in, I cupped some bait in to the overhanging willow bush and put a piece of catmeat on the full depth rig. I shipped out to 14m and started to feed 6mm pellets over the top, hoping to be able to bring the fish up in the water and get signs whilst fishing with the full depth rig. After about 30 minutes and a couple of missed bites, I finally connected with my first fish – a carp of about 8lb. I was off, under way. That was the ice-breaker. Pete to my left had had 1 skimmer and a small carp. Minty to my right had not had a bite and neither had Clinton. The lads opposite on pegs 100 (ish?) were catching the odd fish, but they were also waiting in between bites.

The remainder of the match was very uneventful!! I tried all methods, feeding patterns, baits, rigs, depths, line diameters, but I could not get any bites or indications on any thing. As a last resort, I soaked some pellets and turned them into a paste and fished that under the willow. With about 1 hour of the match remaining, I caught a skimmer of about 1lb.

I then fished the paste at 14m for the remaining 30 minutes of the match and lost a skimmer. Pete to my left had 4 fish, 3 carp and a skimmer, Minty to my right packed up having lost one fish and Clinton managed to snare 2 carp in the last 30 minutes or so. The lads opposite had a few fish, with the best one having approximately 9 or 10 fish from about peg 101.

Young Matt Parsons, who was pegged behind me was getting a few on the splashin’ wag, as was Steve Mayo (who had a little audience behind him – 3 of the Oik’s were there).

Marco rang me and told me that he’d had 2 carp within the first 20 minutes of the match, one about 12lb and the other of about 8lb.

For some reason, the venue (and later I subsequently found out, other venues around the country) had not fished at all well. In view of the conditions affecting other venues aswell, it could not have anything to do with the No. of anglers on the venue (the venue was just about every other peg yesterday) so it must have been down to something else.

Dave Brittain (Northern and Proud) showed that local knowledge was put to good use by winning the event from Spring 18, fishing splashin’ wag and recorded nearly 130lb. Well done mate!

Daylite didn’t weigh in, he caught 3 rudd and 1 roach from Middle Lake (I think). Lee had over 65lb from Match Lake and I tipped bac about 9lb.

I still enjoyed myself, the fishing and the hospitality (from the pub, the pond owners and the Oik’s) was absolutely spot on.

Would I go again, yeah of course. Marco and I have been considering going down for a weekend and fishing a match on both a Saturday and a Sunday (if some one would be prepared to put us up or is that put up with us?).

Tightlines, and once again, well done NAP…

Viaduct Fish - they don't half know how to pull back abit. All of the pictures were taken using my camera phone.




One of Marco's mad Common Carp from Spring lake.



A round, fat, football Mirror Carp for yours truly.




After getting his elastic sorted out by the local Oiks, Marco went on to land fish of this size with ease, whereas he had previously been struggling. The only problem now, was that where was he going to use the top kits again, as he is a tad over-gunned for the Oaks.

Viaduct Fishomania – Practice Days.

Thursday 22nd June 2006.

Oooops!!

Today was our (the missus and I) 15th Wedding Anniversary and I was going to Viaduct for a few days. A quick visit to the florist (well she was still in bed asleep) and a few cards later and all was sorted. To be fair, I have not missed nor been away for any of our previous anniversaries.

Having applied for 4 tickets for the Fishomania qualifiers (The Oaks, Woodlands, Lindholme and Viaduct), I managed to be lucky enough to get 2 tickets, one each for Lindholme and Viaduct. Marco had also been lucky enough to get a ticket as did Daylite Rothery and Lee Furness. Marco and I agreed to go down on Thursday morning, to get a few hours in during the afternoon/early evening and Daylite and Lee were going to join us on Friday.

Marco arrived at my house for 10 (ish), final preparations were carried out (that meant putting the flowers in water and leaving them in a prominent position so that the missus would notice them when she got up) and the long journey into the back of beyond was under way. Some 3 hrs 20 minutes later we arrived.

I had taken nigh on all of my fishing gear and was hoping to be able to use it all to formulate some sort of plan of attack. Upon arrival a few minutes were spent talking to both Ian and Steve just to re-introduce ourselves and to get an idea of what was needed, both gear and bait wise.

Wake up call!!!

At The Oaks, we generally fish with micro pellets as feed and 4mm or 6mm ‘conkers’ expander pellets as hookbait. At Viaduct the order of the day was 6mm and 8mm hard pellets (as standard) and either 8mm or bigger on the hook. After our chat with Misters Parsons and Long, we decided to have a go in pegs 79 (Marco) and 80 (Me), which where both located on Cary Lake.

I went initially for a pole approach to the reeds that ran for a good 20m down the side of the spit and Marco went for a splashin’ wag and pellet approach. Due to the appearance of the swim, I thought better of setting up my 995 pole and opted to set up my Power Maxim instead (erring on the side of caution). I have had my PM for about 8 years or more now, and it is the only pole that I wouldn’t really consider getting rid of, it is probably the strongest pole that I know (as I will explain later). I set up (on the bank) a .30g float direct to a size 12 Colmic B501 hook tied to .21 Preston Powerline. I had a No 25 elastic (set soft on a tensioner) through the top 2. I also set up a poly-ball rig for up in the water at 14m. I forgot how bloody heavy the PM is at this sort of lengths.

I started to catapult some 6mm pellets at both 13m down the side and 14m into open water. I was planning on getting the fish up in the water at 14m and to feed them on the deck down the side.

I baited up with a 8mm hard pellet on a bait band. I dropped in down the side, the float buried about 2ft of No. 25 elastic came out, then retracted (almost immediately) and a tench of about 3lb was soon beaten up.

I did the same again, the skimmer (about 1.5lb) didn’t even pull the elastic out. 2 drop in’s and about 4.5lb caught. I baited up again, dropped back in, waited a couple of minutes. I got the tell-tale walking of the float (as the fish swims past), the float shot under, about 6yds of elastic shot out (this one was big), then the hook pulled. I came back with a scale bigger than my glasses.

I dropped in again, hooked into a fish, played for all of 5 seconds as it tried to get to the other side of the lake (which was about 50 yards away). The hook came out (at a right rate of knots). I checked my rig, the hook had straightened. Told you that I didn’t want to use my 995.

Marco, meanwhile, was now starting to get the odd fish up in the water fishing with the waggler at about 25yds. Both Marco and I had borrowed a couple of waggler rods. I had borrowed a Garbolino medium waggler rod from Pimmy and Marco had borrowed a Tricast Senator (you must be old if you remember one of these) from John Allerton. You’d have thought that if you had borrowed a rod of a running line legend, that the rod would have been in good nick. Well, Marco was slightly embarrassed to take the rod out of the tube. I had a look, the butt ring was held on with a couple of whippings of red insulation tape and the next ring up was held on with yellow insulation tape. I commented that if he hits a big fish, the rings will ping off, one by one.

I’ll tell you what tho’, the rod was holding it’s own against the fishes. Although Marco had lost a few he still managed to get half a dozen out, and they ran to nearly double figures.



After spending the next hour or 2 persevering with the pole both down the side and up in the water, I decided to set up the waggler rod (it may also have had something to do with getting battered by Marco).

I set up ‘the rod’ with 6lb Maxima straight through to a size 12 Colmic B501 hook. The float was a pellet float of .3g in weight that required a further 3AAA to shot it. First cast and I started to get indications up in the water. I hooked into a fish and promptly lost it. I reeled in, re-cast and the same thing happened. Over the next couple of hours or so, I lost more fish than I got out (I ended up with 4).


Marco ended up with about 8 or 9 carp for a good 60lb weight. One of the main problems being encountered was that due to the weight of the float, the size of shot put on the line and the size of fish being hooked/caught, there was a lot of strain on the line and on a couple of occasions, Marco had to re-tackle due to the line snapping where he had nipped his shot on his main line. It was now gone 8:00 and we decided to call it a day. A few beers in the Somerton Hotel beckoned. At least we had had a go and got a feel for the place.

Friday 23rd June 2006.

A quick breakfast ensued, then a quick call into the onsite tackle shop at Viaduct to have a word with Ian and Steve, found Marco on Spring Lake Pegs 6 (Marco) and 8 (Myself). Marco was again going to fish up in the water (using the pole this time) and I was in Mr Crabtree’s peg.

Marco’s peg was pretty non-descript, he was possibly at the end of a central island which was some 30m + away, but decided on 14m of pole and go for it. My peg on the other hand was entirely different. There was a large lily pad between peg 7 and 8, which was also a corner with the wind blowing into it. There was some 3m between the lily pad and my bank and it was approximately 9m to the lily pads. Stout gear was the order of the day!!!

I set up 2 rigs, one for 14m into open water fishing at full depth (about 4ft deep) and the other was for between the bank and the lily pad at 9m (just under 4ft deep, a couple of inches difference). I decided to fish catmeat on both lines to see if it was still as prolific as the last time that we came to Viaduct. The rig for open water was a .4g Drennan Carp 2 set up on .21 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 12 Kamasan Animal hook. I also had the same set up for the margin swim (enabling me to swap lines if I should lose a rig). One rig was on a 25 solid latex elastic (the margin rig) and the other was on a 18 – 20 hollow elastic.

I baited up with catmeat, dropped in down the side, waited about 2 minutes and hooked one. The fish swam straight through the lily pad and didn’t even know it was hooked, I lost this one. Best tighten the elastic, I put 10 wraps on the large Vespe winders.

I repeated the process, hooked another one, this shot into the lily pads and shed the hook into the lily pads. I pulled for a break and came back with half a lily pad. Nothing was going to break me. I dropped in again, hooked a carp, pulled for all I was worth and managed to get it in the landing net, it wasn’t far off 9lb. That was it for the margin swim. Every other drop in there after resulted in either a skimmer or a roach, it didn’t matter what bait I had on the hook, they still ate it.

I decided to have a look at 14m into open water. I had been feeding a few pellets on this line and dropped in with catmeat over the top. The float buried and a carp of about 7lb was soon in the landing net, they can’t do a lot with a 18 – 20 elastic putting their brakes on.

I repeated the process and ended up catching a skimmer, then a couple of roach – all on catmeat.

Whilst I was emptying the lake of skimmers and roach, 4 country Oik’s were stood behind Marco watching him, struggling to land a fish. The blue Preston 15h elastic was no match for the fish and Marco was having a hard time of it. After he landed the fish, the lads told him to go to the cabin and get some Dacron and some Vespe E2 elastic. Some £20 later Marco was back at his peg. The Oik’s were all taking it in turns doing various bits of re-elasticating Marco’s pole. One cut the elastic, the other tied the Dacron on, another tied the Dacron to the bung and another thread it through the pole. Didn’t one of them know how to do the job lot? After making a couple of Dacron connectors for Marco’s new re-elasticated pole tips, the Oik’s also went through how he should be playing fish with his new elastic set up – Keep it low. Whilst the Oik’s were still in attendance, Marco promptly shipped out, caught a fish and netted a big carp. He was made up, so were the Oik’s. I must admit though, that Marco’s ring-piece was twitching a bit with the fish that he had hooked and once or twice, he could hear the bung trying to get out of the bush at the other end of his pole.



After taking the Mickey some more, we asked the Oik’s if they would like to join us at the hotel for a beer later on, they all declined, I wonder why. I personally, don’t think that they had the beer legs to keep up with us Northerners, as Daylite and Lee Furness had now made their arrival and were fishing with the splashing wag on peg 100 on Cary Lake.

I decided to have a go at fishing up in the water at 14m (I ended up with muscles in my eyeballs after fishing with the PM for 3 days), which proved to be relatively successful, considering that I was jammed in a corner and could only catch the odd passing fish that came my way when Marco stopped feeding. I still managed to end up with about a dozen carp and a few skimmers. Marco had had a good day and had about 120lb+ up in the water.

Tony’s Fish and Chip’s were beckoning us away, shortly after a few beers were the order of the day. Marco and I decided that we would show both Lee and Daylite how to play Texas Hold’em Poker. After a couple of goes, both Daylite and Lee felt confident to start betting, with a maximum of 50p per betting round (meaning a possible winning pot of some £6 per game). Daylite was promptly dealt a pair of Kings, which he folded thinking that it was no good, and a king was flopped as part of the 5 card flop. He soon made amends, with a 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of hearts ‘straight flush’. Ho hum, he has all the luck. Lee kept on betting even against the advice of Marco. We were finally turfed out of the pub at about 1:30 in’t morning.

Roll on the actual Match!!!!! 

I went to None Go Bye and fished the bottom lake last Friday 16th June 2006. I caught this fish on pellet on my top two kit down the side. I was feeding micro pellets and fished with single conker over the top.


I ended up with approx 7 or 8 fish of a similar size between 8:30 and 9:30 ish. 

Sunday 18th June 2006 – The Oaks, Sessay.

Only one blog this week as I went for a walk along an old stamping ground of mine yesterday. I went for a walk along the banks of the River Wharfe, Boston Spa. I had a look off the bridge and could see a pike that was nearing double figures just basking on the central sandbank.

There was a group of 15 (ish) year old youngsters (sounds funny saying that at my age) fishing on the member’s side of the river. They were chucking in maggots by the handful, the chub were going mad. There was only one lad that seemed to be catching. He was fishing with bits of meat on a stick and fishing well over depth. Whilst watching him he caught 2 barbel about 2 – 3lb each and a chub about 4lb. There were a few chub around the day ticket side of the bridge and there was a good shoal of chub moving between the bridge and the weir.

I wish that I had taken my rod with me now. I took my kids with me with a net and bucket and went to the weir and caught bullheads, minnows and stone loach. It was nice to be besides the water and not fishing just having a stress-free day. I think that we all ought to try it sometime.

My assault on the Kamasan table starts today!!!

I suppose that us match anglers in Yorkshire are spoilt for choice for Kamasan matches as having a quick glance at the results from this weekend, there were approximately 6 or 7 Kamasan qualifying matches including The Oaks, Woodlands, Rivers Nidd and Ouse to name but a few. I often read on www.total-fishing.com that there is a lack of qualifying matches down south. I don’t know why as they have the venues, the anglers and the weather to cater for the numbers.

At the draw there was 55 of us anglers ready and waiting to do their best. In view of the jackpot money being capped at £400 it was time to introduce another jackpot peg, giving 3 pegs this week. The lucky pegs this week were pegs 30, 35 and 64. Granddad had drawn peg 35 and which had a chance of winning, when you also consider his form on the venue. Peg 64 had a chance, which was drawn by Joe ‘Carcass’. Carcass had won the match 2 weeks previous with over 70lb from peg 36, so was in good form.

The Quid’s

The obligatory £2 was set up with Purverted, £1 with Nightie and £1 with Chappy. I also had a consolation prize in the form of Return of The Mack. Paul ‘Macca’ McMahon was back. My piggy bank was back. When I first started having a quid with Macca, it was a quid, but after losing to him for about 3 weeks, I was after some pennies back, so asked him if he wanted to raise it to £2. Since the £2 has been struck, I think that he had beaten me a couple of times, but not for the last 7 or 8 matches, so much so that I asked him if he could set up a direct debit, but he wouldn’t agree to the direct debit guarantee. I wonder if he ever felt hustled. He obviously didn’t see me ‘accidentally’ dropping my fish back in the lake. I was in to the tune of £6 and Orc wasn’t even here this week. Vinnie (Diesel) Martin was Macca’s travelling companion and failed to turn up for last week’s match. He owed us £6. We agreed to ‘fish for it’.

The Draw

After drawing my peg the obligatory £1 side bet was struck with none other than Topshop who had drawn next peg. I was on Peg 54, which although was a good peg, had no recent form. Pegs 55 and 56 were the pegs with form. Topshop had drawn peg 55. Mick Dykes Sykes was on peg 56 and Jubby was next to me the other way on peg 52. Purverted had drawn 65, (Tim Moran had 117lb of peg 66 on Saturday’s match). Macca was on peg 21 (ooops), Diesel was within eyesight on peg 57 and Nightie was on peg 71.

Marco Drury had drawn peg 11, with pegs 10 (not in the draw) and pegs 12 (the only peg not drawn) empty. Marco has been on fire of late with winning weights of 149lb, 127lb (yesterday) and numerous other 100lb weights. Marco was going to be the man to beat. A weight in excess of 100lb on Cedar Lake is a considerable feat as the average stamp of fish is between 1lb to 2lb and with the method that is catching these weights (caster and worm shallow), the weights are also including silver fish.

Other than Topshop and Marco’s draw’s there weren’t any other notable draws and the winning weight could literally come from anywhere.

Here Goes!!!!

Upon arriving at my peg, there were numerous fish swirling in my peg. A shallow approach was the order of the day. I had 1pt of caster, 1 tin of Frenzied Hemp, 3 pints of maggots and a few pellets all for feeding up in the water. I set up 2 shallow rigs, one on white hydro and the other on grey hydro. They both consisted of DC6 floats, one in .05g and the other in .2g. Both rigs were set up on Maver Genesis .14 diameter line direct to size 16 Colmic B501 hooks. I also set up a .2g Colmic float for across to the island on top of the shelf. This was set up on .13 dia. Preston Powerline direct to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. My final rig (at the setting up stage) was a .2g Colmic float on .13 diameter Preston Powerline direct to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I prefer to fish direct on my carp rigs as it creates less weak spots with knots, there are no snags in the venue (no need to create a weak link by having a bottom) and you can get away with fishing direct for carp, especially at this time of year with the coloured water.

At the all in, I started to catapult both casters and hemp out to 7/8 metres with the odd pouch of maggots. I had double maggot on the hook (red and/or white combination). After about 10 minutes, I finally caught my first fish, which dropped off (thankfully) a roach of about 1oz. It wasn’t worth the effort to ship back with these fish, so a quick shake and the fish was off (barbless hooks), I then dropped in with the same bait (hopefully saving time). The wind was steadily starting to pick up and was blowing from right to left. The float was pushing through slowly. I persevered with the shallow method taking 3 ide (between 12oz and 1.5lb), a couple of roach (that wouldn’t fall off) and 3 carp between 1lb and 2lb. Why is that every time you start to think about changing lines/methods, you catch a fish and think that they have finally turned up.


After 2 hours, I would estimate that I had less than 10lb. Drastic action was required. I cupped some bait across to the mud line (maggots, caster and hemp) and left it until I could see signs that there were fish in the swim. I decided that it was time to have a look down the inside. I had been feeding it steadily all the while. I baited up, dropped in, nothing. I proceeded on this line for the next 10 – 15 minutes and caught one little perch for my troubles.

I could wait no more. I had seen a tail appear across to the mud line. The time was right to empty it. I dropped in with 3 red maggots on the hook. The float dipped, nothing. I dropped in again, an ide about 2lb was soon in the net. I dropped in again, nothing. The float drifted sideways (from a fish being in the vicinity), I waited and waited. The float shot under, I struck with a little gusto and a roach about 2oz, flew out of the water and shed the hook.

Plan Z-26,000,000

I decided that I had to do something. Topshop was catching steadily but he was catching his fish more or less to the very edge of his peg going towards peg 56. Jubby was getting a few from across and also what appeared to be down the farside slope. Everybody else around me seemed to be a little quiet. I decided to get a deep rig out, big pot it and suck it and see.

I quickly attached a 4 x 14 series E float rig to grey hydro and plumbed up down the middle. The line was .14 Maver Genesis direct to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I cupped in a pot full of caster, hemp and maggots with the idea of not feeding over the top and trying to force the fish down. I left the deep swim for the next 5 minutes or so and went over to the mud line. I managed to snare one more ide about 1lb. I had approximately 14 – 15lb of fish in the net and I was 3 hours into the match.

That was it, I had to go down the middle. First drop in, I caught an F1 carp of about 10oz. I dropped in again and caught a steady succession of barbel. Every 5 or 6 fish, I re-potted to try to keep the fish there and on the bottom. I managed to put together a steady respectable net of fish and was starting to catch up all those around me.

Ooopsss, Time

I was so busy engrossed in my fishing (now that I had got into a steady rhythm), that I completely forgot about what time it was. Topshop shouted to me ‘what time are we finishing Mick?’. A quick glance of the watch showed that it was a couple of minutes past 4:15. That was it TIME!!!! Doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself. I estimated that I had about 35 – 40lb as I hadn’t really caught much in the first 3 hours.

How had I done and how many quids had I lost?

By the time that the scales had arrived John Illingworth had weighed in 81lb and there was a 57lb. Jubby weighed in 1oz shy of 68lb. I put 49lb 11oz on the scales, so was a little pleased that I had more than I thought. Topshop put 76-10 on the scales (down a quid to start), Dykesy weighed 28lb and Diesel had 32lb, so I hadn’t done too bad, and I was £5 quid in pocket (up £6 courtesy of Diesel and down a quid to the superstar), now for all of my other quid’s.

Purverted weighed 37-05 (another £2), Chappy 31-12 (£1), Nightie 35-13 (£1) and Macca 31-08 (£2). Bloody hell, I don’t even get paid this much at work.

Final Result

Andy Dargue – 122lb 8oz. Paste down the middle. Peg 9.

John Illingworth – 81lb – 8oz. Meat down the middle. Peg 47.

Dave Topham – 76lb 10oz. Peg 55.

Adam Richards – 72lb 8oz. Peg 3.

Gary Jubb – 67lb 15oz. Peg 52.

John Allerton – 67lb 6oz. Peg 77.

Jonny Kenning won my section with 54lb. If I had gone down the middle about 30 minutes earlier, I would have won my section.

The Lizard

As I was driving round, prior to sorting out the final result rumour was going round that Pete ‘Lizard’ Baron had caught 137lb and was winning the match. As I passed him, I stopped for a chat and he was telling me that he caught here, there and everywhere and that he couldn’t get his bait in quick enough. I was asking the usual questions, what would a good angler have had? Did you have hook on? Etc, etc. John Illy was stood with Lizard and was straining to stop laughing. The Lizard hadn’t caught 137lb (I thought that it was hard to believe) and had actually caught 40lb. He only got them all to kid me on because I call him LIZARD!!! I gave him the moniker as he is like a lizard, he warms up with the sun!!!.

Next week is Fisho day at Viaduct Fisheries on Saturday, then back to Sessay on Sunday to sort the rabble out.

Tight lines and may all your dreams be match-winning ones!!

Sunday 11th June 2006 – Cedar Lake, The Oaks, Sessay.

I thought that attendances might have been low due to anglers no longer practising for any large matches. I must admit, we have had a good run at high profile big matches this year and I am glad that The Oaks Lakes are finally getting the recognition that the place deserves. We have held a 130 peg Fishomania qualifier and yesterday held the Maver Pairs qualifier.

When the new café and bait shop are built (yes, built, with bricks and mortar) hopefully the venue can go from strength to strength. If there is one main issue that I would like to point out and that is that on both of these two matches, it has been near impossible to predict who will win the matches and also which lake (as two lakes have been used for both matches) would win on the day.

On another venue that I have been frequenting, if you do not draw one of 2 lakes, of which there are sometimes 5 lakes in, you are not, usually, going to compete. I am not saying that the other lakes cannot compete, but at present all the talk and most of the weights have been coming from one lake predominantly with the other regular lake taking first place if the other lake fails to produce (do you get what I mean?).

Anyway’s I digress.

65 of us hardy soles arrived to fish on the day and with the weather that we have been enjoying of late, there were a lot of tan lines (red skin/white skin) about and some of the attire that people were wearing left a lot to be desired. Take for instance, Jubby, he was wearing a pair of light blue (turquoise) cycling shorts (or at least that is what I think that they were), and on most people said cycling shorts are stretched tight as they include Lycra in the material. Well, the ones that Jubby was wearing were either stretched or 10 sizes too big. He stood there and looked like a scraggy chicken with his legs sticking out of a soggy turquoise paper bag.

The jackpot pegs for today’s event were 45 and 49. One of the pegs had a chance of going, although on recent form maybe not, as venue regular and all-round expert, Pimmy had drawn peg 49. Peg 49 had won and framed in a couple of matches about 1 month ago, so the peg could not be discounted. The other jackpot peg was safe!!!!

I agreed the obligatory quid with Chappy, £2 with Purverted and I then had to look around for other kiddies to take a quid off, as both Orc and Panic were not in attendance. I think Panic has fallen out with me and Orc was skint after raiding the kiddies piggy bank to give me a quid 2 weeks ago. Just as I was looking a bit lost and forlorn at not having anyone else to have a quid with, guess who just walked in the door, non other than Andy ‘Haircut’ Bridge. That was another quid struck up. Nightie promptly showed his face when he found out that I was looking for action and another quid was on the go. At this rate, it is going to be the ‘Mick Herrington Optional’, everybody puts a quid in the jar, and I pay out to all those that beat me and keep the rest – it is going to be an expensive day if when I come last.

I might change ‘Haircut’s moniker to ‘Blue Rinse’ as his haircut hasn’t changed, but he likes anything blue. He arrives in his Garbolino blues and puts on more blue if required. I don’t live near Haircut and I have not been to his gaff (Vicky probably wouldn’t let me in’t door) so I am not sure if he even sleeps in the stuff. I will have to put the question to both Pimmy and Chappy.

At the draw, I put my hand in the bag (first as always) and drew peg 36. Cedar 36 had won the match the previous week with over 70lb, but had not done anything during the week and ‘Racing’ was on peg 35 yesterday and had 30lb (ish).

Purverted drew peg 40, Chappy was on peg 79, I was already looking at being a quid down as peg 79 has had the two best weights for the lake, one weight of 154lb and another of 149lb. Haircut drew peg 74, which Jubby had come 4th off yesterday, so I was probably going to be even stevens (£1 each to Chappy and Haircut and £2 up from Purverted) at the end of the day.

John Allerton, Big Mark, Grandad and Marco had all drawn a decent area between pegs 23 and 28. John ‘Young Man’ Illingworth had drawn peg 56, the same peg that Xman was on yesterday. I could see Young Man listening to every word the Xman was saying, then walked away with a plan of action. He was going to do the opposite of what Xman had told him.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Adam Jarvis ‘Cocker’ next to me on peg 35, he is one quiet lad. I thought that ‘The quiet One’ was quiet, but Cocker hasn’t even got a tongue. I quickly looked around for someone else to have a natter with. What a shame, no one on peg 37. Ah, I found a victim, Topshop was on peg 33, peg 34 was empty, boy did he give me some stick when he saw me arriving at my peg.

Here goes

I set up 4 rigs

The first rig was set up to fish up in the water set about 12” deep. I have just purchased some of the Garbolino DC6 series of floats and they seem to be sock on. I set one up for the shallow rig. I have bought them in .05 - .4g in weight and I set up a .05g float, shotted with 2 x 11 Preston Stotz and 1 x 13 shot. This rig was on .12 Maver Genesis line with a size 18 Colmic 501 hook. Having spoken to Marco the day before, I was informed that I would need a long lash between pole float and pole tip. I put about 2ft of distance between the two.

I then set up a rig for on top of the shelf, again this was one of the DC6 floats, but a .2g float was selected. This was set about 18” deep and was just touching bottom. I set this float up on .14 Maver Genesis line to a size 16 Colmic 501 hook.

Rig 3 was a Drennan Carp 2 set up to fish down the side at 7m towards empty peg 37. I plumbed up until I found about 2ft deep. This was set up on .14 Maver Genesis to a size 16 Colmic 501.

My 4th rig was another shallow rig, but slightly heavier. It was a .2g DC6, set about 2ft deep. Again, it was set up on .12 Maver Genesis line to a size 18 Colmic 501 hook.

The two shallow rigs were set up on hydro elastics, the lighter .05g on white hydro through no.2 section only and the .2g on grey hydro. If I felt that I was bagging, I could put on the heavier rig if needed.

As and afterthought, I also set up (rightly or wrongly) a small 2 x No.4 canal waggler. This was set to fish shallow, but was set up to fish to hand on a top 3 kit. The idea of the little waggler was that if the fish are close, but would not come under the pole tip and if the wind picked up, I could flick this rig out, sink the line and still catch the fish close in. That was my thoughts anyways.

Food for thought!!

I was proper armed today, I had 1 tin of frenzied hemp, 3 pts casters, 1 tin corn, ½ pt maggots (for the hook) and some pellets (3mm for loose feeding and 4mm and 6mm for the hook). As you can see from the bait menu, and out and out up in the water attack was called for.

We’re Off

At the start of the match, I baited up with 2 red maggots on the hook and started chucking hemp and casters at the fish at about 5m. They were already up in the water and it didn’t take long to get my first fish. A carp of about 1lb was in the net. Over the next 20 minutes or so, I caught a further 4 more carp. I was also having a lot of problems, namely foul-hooked fish. I was getting a bite/indication, I would strike, play the fish to the net then it would come off. I tried caster on the hook and I couldn’t get a proper bite, I was getting shelled casters all the time. I tried pellet and caught a couple on pellet. I was having to go further out, then come back in, then back out again, you do the hokey cokey and you shake it all about. The fish just did not seem to want to settle.

I went back to the maggot and caster/hemp approach and continued to fish in this vain for the next 1 hour or so. I was by now 2 hours into the match and was not feeling happy at all. I had approximately 12 – 15lb of fish in the net. I felt as though I was not getting the best from the peg. I was getting bites and fish on maggot and pellet hook baits, but they seemed to be a little bit sporadic. Not sure if the caster/hemp was drawing the fish into the peg, but they didn’t actually want to eat the stuff.

A decision was to be made.

At 1:00 I rang Tom in the cabin and asked if one of the lads could bring me some maggots round. I was going to fish and feed maggot.

45 (yes, forty five) minutes later, my maggots finally arrived, I could get down to business. I shortened the line between pole float and tip and started to ‘fish properly’. I was spraying maggots every few seconds or so and also tapping the water on the odd occasion. The fish were queuing up.

Over the next hour or so, I estimate that I put about 35lb in the net. I was on a roll!!

I was having to follow the fish in and out as they kept on moving off the bait. I was also still losing fish, mostly at the landing net and a few of the fish had the hook just outside of the their mouths. On more than one occasion, I also came back with a couple of scales.

Although I had started bagging, I was still losing fish. I tried to cut back on the feed, tap the water more, feed more maggots but less often, feed less maggots but more often. I just did not seem to be able to get the fish to settle down properly.

I had swapped between the two shallow rigs and tried the mini waggler rig throughout the match and caught fish on them all. The only rigs that I did not use were the rig for down the side and the rig for on top of the shelf.

With about 1 hour to go, I got involved in a conversation with Topshop and another quid was struck (the last time we had a quid it was 1 hour into the match, this time it was one hour of the match left). The wind was steadily starting to pick up and blow from right to left

I ended up with a small wind knot some 4” from the hook and either laziness or the fact that usually, they don’t make a difference, I decided to do nothing. Bad mistake. Shortly after finding the wind knot, I hooked into a carp of about 3lb and played it all the way to the net, twice. It decided to make one last bid for freedom and won!! I
Re-tied on a hook and went back out and promptly lost the next 3 fish also, again, at the net. The 4 fish that I had just lost would have added about 8 – 10lb to my net.

Over the last 45 minutes of the match the wind increased considerably and the fish just would not have the pole wafting around over their heads. I estimate that I caught about 5 or 6lb in the last 45 minutes.

That was it, time. I had fed some 3 pts of maggots, 2 pints of hemp and caster and 1 pt of pellets. I was hoping to have about 60lb. Darryl Taylor had weighed in 66lb from peg 17, Gandhi had 61lb from peg 31, Graham Skirrey weighed 40lb between Topshop and Gandhi. The scales finally arrived at Topshop and he put 63lb on the scales from 2 weighs. It was going to be close.

No Tongue on the next peg DNW’d and tipped back about 10 fish. My first net with the least fish in, went 23-12. I honestly thought that I had more than that. I put my 2nd net on and weighed in 30-12. Did I have a hole in my net? Where is my 60lb?

I’d had one of those days where you have got the method right, but nothing else will come together. If I’d have fished maggot sooner, I would have caught more. If I’d changed my hook when I found the wind knot, I wouldn’t have been snapped. If I had short-lined earlier, would I have foul-hooked less fish?

I have ended up coming away with more questions than I started. Last Sunday I only caught 26lb and won my section and felt better than I did today.

Where had I come – 5th. Ho Hum, or words to that effect. I just have a feeling that today if things had gone right and I had done things different from the start, I would have had a different result. Purverted had won his/my section by 4th (yep, fourth) default as Gandhi, Topshop and I had got in the main money.

To top it all off, when sorting out all of the prize money after the draw, I had, somehow, managed to mix up 2 envelopes. I had put the section money (£30) in the 5th place envelope and the 5th place money in the section envelope (Section 5 I think for £50).

Talk about dishonesty. Some people would have realised that the section prize is usually £30 and may have asked if it was right. Well, whoever (I think that I know who) has the £50, I hope they choke on their kebab and beer!!!

The quids came rolling in from Chappy (24-00), Purverted (47-00) and Blue Rinse Haircut ((21-12) who has yet to pay me). The worst part was that I was also going to have to give a quid to Topshop.

I now have a plan of action for next weeks match. Watch this space.

Official Result

1. John Illingworth (Team Dons) 68-01. Peg 56.
2. Darryl Taylor (Garbolino Elton) 66-11.
3. Dave Topham (Sensas Wibsey) 63-11.
4. Chris Hall (Oaks) 61-08.
5. Mick Herrington (Bob-co/Oaks) 54-08.
6. Mick Sykes (West Park) 54-03.