Sunday 25th February 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Hook In The Loop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The moment of truth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full Result:

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

Bruce 'Age Concern' Poland.

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

Sunday 18th February 2007

Well here goes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sod it, go on then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wind Up Time.

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

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

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

That was it. All out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday 17th February 2007.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was it. Match over for me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

WELL DONE READING!!!!!!

Tight lines.

Update No. 1

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

Work, work and more work I suppose.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 14th January 2007.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Updated Blog.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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


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

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


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

Sunday 12th November 2006

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

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

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

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

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

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

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

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

I also had 2 rigs down the middle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full result:

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

Tightlines.

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

 

John 'Elvis' Fallows.


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

Sunday 5th November 2006

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


I was ready, with about 2 minutes to spare.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full result:

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

Then yours truly.

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

Barney Grumble Lookalike.


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

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




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

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


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

I walked round to Big Macca and his response was:


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