Recollections......

I recently featured in the Anglers Mails' -Tales From The Riverbank' and this reminded me of a one or two things....

• When I was about 12 years old, I was fishing on the River Wharfe at Boston Spa near where I lived on the West End bank and I was fishing with my friend.  It was the height of summer and fish were topping in front of us and no matter what, we could not catch them, so my friend and I hatched a plan.  We got a small stick and tied it to our lines and then caught a couple of blue bottle flies and managed to hook them so as not to kill the fly.  We cast out our 'fly-fishing' tackle and watched as the fly was buzzing away on the river's surface.  A fish came up and rose at my fly, I struck and missed it.   A fish then rose at my friends fly, I said to leave it until it sails away.  Two attempts later the fly disappeared and the stick shot off.  After a brief tussle the biggest chub I had ever seen was in the landing net.  We weighed it, it was just over 5lb - 5lb 3oz to be exact.  We then spent the rest of the day fishing this way and had a couple of dace for our troubles.

• About 10 - 15 years ago, I used to fish with a club in Leeds called Moorside Angling Club. Moorside Angling Club were pretty much out and out river anglers with maybe 1 or two matches on ponds. Let me ask a question........ In your fishing career to date, how many times have you come 'Joint First' on fishing matches.   I know that when I run the open matches at The Oaks, Thirsk, for about 10 years in that time, there was probably about 3 or 4 joint first anglers - TOPS!!!!  In my first year with Moorside Angling Club, I was never the scales person BUT, somehow managed to come joint first 5 times in my first year with the club.  We were on a match at Nayburn Lock and I drew just below the barge and had 4lb 10oz of small roach on waggler.  The Sandbank pegs were generally where you wanted to draw.  There was a good angler on one of those pegs and when it came to weighing him in, I could see the scales settle about 4lb 7oz and the scales man called the weight at 4lb 10oz - Joint First AGAIN!!!!.  I objected and was over-ruled.  In my first year with the club, I won 11 matches.  At the presentation night, I took a carrier bag with me for all my trophies LOL.  I was the Club and Knockout Champion in my first year with them.  The following year, I got my friend to join Moorside with me and between us we won 13 out of 20 matches.  I left them at the end of my second year. 

• When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I used to just 'pop down the chute' and go fishing.  The chute was the rainwater run-off pipe from the West End estate in Boston Spa and to get there, I walked across a little meadow at the back of my house and I was more or less on the riverbank.  The amount of times that I would go home with stories of 'should have seen the one that got away' or 'it was this BIG!!!, Honest' to mum and dad, so one day, I thought that I would show them.  I was fishing away and caught a couple of roach on little pieces of earthworm and set up my pike gear and live-baited a small roach.  After about 10 minutes, I got a run on the pike gear and after a 10 minute battle (I was piking with 3lb line and a 7lb hooklength) I had a pike about 4lb in the landing net.  I quickly ran home with the pike in the landing net - it took all of 3 or 4 minutes - to show my mum.  Mum wasn't in.  So I did something.......  Mum arrived home and I was really excited.  I said to mum - 'Mum, come have a look at what I caught'.  So mum followed me and when she saw the pike she screamed.  Not because I had caught a pike.  It was because, I had filled up the bath tub with water and put the pike in the bath.

Got a few more stories to share....

Match 29 - The Penultimate Match - Bottom Pond, Barnburgh Lakes

Match No. 29 - Sunday 19th October 2014

2nd to last match in the Robin Hood AC Summer League was taking place on the bottom pond at Barnburgh lakes.

We have had 3 matches in total, 2 club matches on the middle lake and 1 'knock up' on the bottom lake, and I was favourite to win it as I had won all previous club matches here.  The pressure was on.

Given the way that the wind was blowing I wanted to be on peg 1 - 5 (wind off my back) or pegs 14 - 17 (wind in my face).  I put my hand in the lucky bag and drew peg 23.  Dave Horsfall, Ian 'Sid' Waddell and Paul 'Wilco' Wilson were on pegs 1 - 5 and the Hunter Bros (Alan and Barry) had drawn pegs 14 - 17.  I got to my peg and found that I had Method Michelle to my right and I had lots of room to my left.

I set up 4 rigs and never used a plummet with any of them.  2 x jigga rigs and 2 x standard shallow rigs.  1 x jigga and 1 x shallow to fish at 2.5ft deep and 1 x jigga and 1 x shallow to fish 12-18" deep.  All of the rigs were set to fish with banded 6mm pellet on the hook.  For bait I had 2 bags of venue's own 4mm pellets.

On the team front, there was only Eric the Pheasant and I there.  Eric asked me about his peg.  After I had set up, I went to help out Eric.  I lent him my light hooklength wallet to use as needed as he was fishing maggot, maggot and more maggot down the edge.  We were carrying a 90lb weight advantage in the team event (4058lb - Team Herrington to 3968lb - Team Horsfall).  Team Horsfall had 3 anglers present today.

The match was under way. By the time that I had caught my first fish, Michelle had managed 4 fish on her deep jigga rig.  The wind was blowing at an angle towards my right shoulder and I was throwing 4mm pellets as far as I could, which was only about 7m or so.  I eventually got into a rhythm of feeding and catching fish and every so often, when the swim went quite, I went shallow to the next platform, where I had also been throwing in pellets frequently.

When I had a quick look around every now and again, everyone seemed to be catching fish, this was going to be a close one with some good weights.

That was it match over.  I had caught a few.  Dave Horsfall set the ball rolling with 108lb from peg 1.  Then there were various weights between 69lb (Eric) to 130lb.  Dave Webster set the bar high with a weight of 162lb 3oz.  Frank Brook, thought he had similar and put 113lb on the scales.  Next to weigh was Alan Hunter, after 2 weighs, he managed to snare 136lb 3oz, which is his first 100lb+ weight.  Barry was admitting to a little bit more...and managed to put 174lb 1oz on the scales - holy crap, where did all that come from.  Colin the Worm had 130lb.  Now it was Michelle's turn, she put 64lb 2oz on the scales, I thought that she had more than that.  Now it was my turn.  after 3 weighs, I had managed to amass a total of 194lb 5oz and a win.  This weight is my best ever match weight.

On the team front, Eric and I amassed just shy of 265lb between us.  Team Horsfall made huge inroads into our lead with a team total of just under 325lb - well done guys.

Next match is the last in the series and will conclude all titles up for grabs.

44910

The home straight - matches 26 - 28

Match 26 - Willows Lake, Lindholme Lakes, Epworth

Sunday 28th September 2014

For this match we had pegs 1 to about 30 and there were 18 of us in attendance.  I was hoping for either peg 2 or the end of one of the spits.  In all of the matches that we have fished on either Laurels or Willows lakes (both of which are similar in shape), I have never drawn towards the end of a spit, I am usually in a corner and today... was no exception.  I drew peg  12 which looking on the map, looked to be at the end of a spit, but when I actually got to the peg, it was a corner peg.  I had peg 13 empty  with big Macca on peg 14 on the point, Dave Wath behind me in the other corner. Alan Hunter was to the front of me on another spit.  Stewpot Wilson was on peg 2 looking down the lake with no one on 1, 3, 4, 5, this was primarily down to the design and pegging of the lake.  Woofer was on point peg 7, Pid drew next to him on peg 8.  Upon arriving at his peg, Pid felt that he could not fish his peg due to the bush that was considerably close to the right side of his peg.  He could get up, have a pee in the bush then sit down again without moving his feet.

It was agreed that he could move, but where to?  One option was to the empty peg at the side of me, but due to the way that I was plumbing and some strategically placed pole rollers courtesy of Macca, it was agreed that peg 13 was not suitable.  By the time that it was agreed on a peg to fish, he was the last man on our match (as the other club relinquished one of their pegs) and he ended up on about peg 33 or so.

I set up 4 pole rigs, 1 rig for top 2 + 2 at the base of the near slope, one rig to fish into the corner and 2 shallow rigs.  For bait, I had 4 tins of 6mm cubed meat, and 2 bags of venue 6mm pellets and a tub of my own hard 6mm pellets for the band.

At the start of the match, I fed some meat on the short line and dropped the rig in whilst feeding the shallow pole line at about 13m at an angle pointing towards the opposite point.  After 15 minutes on the short line, I had 3 gudgeon and no carp to show for my efforts.  I decided to go shallow and see if there was anything there.

First drop in, I caught an F1 about 1lb or so.  Over the next hour or so, I caught F1's reasonably steadily, but I was not breaking any records.  I started to feed another area at 13m to my right, still in open water to try to catch fish off both lines.  I was still catching, but it did not seem to be any quicker, if anything, it seemed to be slowing down.  I went down the side on the pole rig and caught a couple of carp, but was also getting liners as it was about 3ft deep.  i decided to have a go on a shallow rig down the side.  The float shot under straight away and another F1 was soon in the net.  I caught steadily until the end of the match, fishing at 13m to open water and also at 14.5m down the side - all on shallow rigs.

I watched Stewpot and he appeared to have bagged throughout the match, fishing down both sides of his peg, Dave Wathen at the back of me had caught well late on.  I was not sure who else had caught.

Pid was the first to weigh and he set the ball rolling by putting 53lb 14oz on the scales, then there were quite a few weights between 20 - 40lb ish.  Andy Limpbiscuit had 45lb.  The scales arrived at Dave Wathen who, for some reason or other, is known as Mary to his associates put 54lb on the scales and was leading the match.  The scales arrived at my peg and I managed to have two weighs for a total of 98lb 2oz.  There were weights of 30 - 50lb before the scales arrived at Stewpots peg who by all accounts had over 100lb.  Stewpots first weight went 57lb odd.  He lifted his 2nd net out, this was going to be close.  His 2nd net went 35lb odd for total of 93lb 11oz.  I had won.  Dave Webster who was on about peg 25 or so had a mare of a day and ended up with 28lb odd.

Full Result
1.  Mike Herrington - 98lb 2oz
2.  Stuart Wilson - 93lb 11oz
3.  Dave Wathen - 54lb 4oz
4.  Paul Farley - 53lb 14oz

Following my recent run of form (3 wins, 1 second and a 3rd from my last 6 matches), I had now managed to sneak into the lead in the club champion points with 188pts, Stuart Wilson was 2nd with 164 pts and Dave Webster was in 3rd with 163 points.  My team were also still leading the team weights with 3965lb and Dave Horsfall's team was in 2nd place with 3786lb.

4 matches to go.....


Match 27 - Pond 1, Wholesea Grange, Howden

Sunday 5th October 2014
I have a real love hate relationship with this place.  It either fishes well generally or it fishes naff.   The wind was blowing from peg 15 towards peg 1, as per normal.   I put my hand in the lucky bag and peg 10 stuck to my hand.  I was indifferent about the peg, there was no real features or anything and the wind was quite strong.  To my left I had stewpot Wilson on peg 9 and my team mate, Eric was to my right on peg 11.  The match in itself was a real struggle.  I managed to snare about 6 carp and couple of chub, roach and ide.  Stewpot had caught well fishing to a big lily pad to his left towards peg 8 and had a few small carp out.

First to weigh was Method Michelle who had drawn peg 2 and she put just under 29lb on the scales. Next to weigh was husband and travelling partner Dave Webster who was on peg 3, after 1 weigh, he managed to put 31lb on the scales.  Then there were weights of between 19lb to about 30lb by the time the scales arrived at Stewpots peg.  Stewpot put his fish on the scales and we had a new leader as he managed to snare 35lb on the scales.  Now it was my turn.....I struggled like mad all day for a total weight of 12lb 2oz.  Eric at the side of me had 11lb, Dave Horsfall had 4lb, Bomb'N'Pellet had 9lb, then Paul Wilco Wilson put 14lb on the scales.  Pid on peg 15 put 35lb 9oz on the scales to take the lead with 2 to weigh.  Craig McKenny was just about opposite me and put 8lb on the scales.  Last to weigh was Alan Hunter who had drawn peg 1.  After a tense minute or so, the scales settled on 36lb 6oz making Alan the winner.

Full Result:
1.  Alan Hunter - 36lb 6oz
2.  Paul Farley - 35lb 9oz
3.  Stuart Wilson - 35lb 4oz
4.  Dave Webster - 31lb 2oz.

I had come 11th.  What a mare of a day.


Match 28 - Cedar Lake, The Oaks Lakes, Sessay - Robin Hood AC Fur and Feather

Sunday 12th October 2014

I came up the day before and fished the Saturday open match on this lake and came 6th from peg 79 with a weight of 70lb and ended up winning my section.  There were a couple of weights from peg 69 and 72, other than that it was a struggle on the high numbers.  The consistent pegs were the low numbers.  A quick chat with Tom and it was agreed that we could have the low numbers, pegs 1 - 27 for our match.

In view of this match being the Fur and Feather, the peg fee was subsidised and we only had pools to pay on the day. I put my hand in the lucky bag and managed to get peg 26, which put me as the end peg.  A quick check of the weights from this area yesterday and it showed that they were nearer last than first with most weights coming from peg 2 round to peg 15.  I managed to pick up the odd fish from here and there - mainly across on the shelf - for a total weight of 33lb, beaten by Woofer, Webster and Stewpot.

Full Result

1.  Stuart Wilson - peg 15 - 56lb
2.  Paul Clough - Peg 6 - 49lb 8oz
3.  Dave Webster - 36lb 10oz
4.  Mike Herrington - 33lb 10oz.

Matches 21 - 25

Match 21 - Partridge Lake, Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk - 24th August 2014

Sunday 24th August 2014

The matches at Woodlands Lakes are always well attended as anyone can compete and the venue lends itself to a variety of methods and baits.  Partridge Lake is the venue where the current club match record stands.  If I remember rightly, Dave Webster set it last year (I held it previously at 149lb from Skylark 23 a couple of years ago) from about peg 23 on Partridge Lake with 165/166lb ish and caught from start to end.  This sort of weight is very respectable for the venue and is up there with some of the open match weights.  I have a habit of drawing in the 30's on this lake and this match was no exception as I drew peg 32.  I had Jason Langshaw to my right on peg 34 and Eric the Pheasant drew his usual corner peg 36.

I could see that big Macca was catching steady down the edge to the next platform, some of them were right lumps, on about peg 7 or 8.  I was catching steadily as was Jason. This was going to be close...

Macca had 4 weighs and put a combined total of 150lb exactly on the scales - I really didn't think that he had that!!!!   Jason Langshaw just pipped me and put 105lb 6oz on the scales, most of which came on the bomb or method to the middle of the lake or short chuck at 16m.  I managed to snare 102lb 2oz for 3rd, catching most of my fish either shallow on the pole or down the edge.

Full Result
1.  John McCall - 150lb
2.  Jason Langshaw - 105lb 6oz
3.  Mike Herrington - 102lb 2oz
4.  Stuart Wilson - 92lb 2oz

I was still in 3rd place in the Club Champion points with 137 pts, only one behind Stuart Wilson who had 138pts and Dave Webster was still out in front with 157 pts.

My team was still in first place in the Team competition with 3192lb and Dave Websters team was in 2nd place with 3115lb.

9 matches to go......


Match 22 - Osprey Lake, Kippax Lakes, Leeds - 31st August 2014

Sunday 31st August 2014

There were quite a few absentees on this match including both of the front runners in the club champion stakes.  I had better get my finger out and make it count....

I drew peg 8 which is halfway down the first bank on the lake.  On our last match on this lake, this area struggled and most of the weights came from the corner pegs.  Anyway 5 hours later, I had managed to put 68lb on the scales for a win.  I had caught all my fish on pellet at 13m just in front of the sedges.  I had tried in the shallower water, tighter to the island, but foul-hooked and lost most of the fish that I hooked.  Barry Hunter was 2nd with 57lb and Woofer Clough was 3rd with 55lb.

Full Result
1.  Mike Herrington - 68lb 12oz
2,  Barry Hunter - 57lb 60z
3.  Paul Clough - 55lb 12oz
4.  Paul Wilson - 41lb 8oz


Match 23 - Match Lake, Sykehouse Lake, Doncaster - 7th September 2014

Sunday 7th September 2014

Given my result from the last match on this lake, I was quite apprehensive and was hoping for a better draw.  I walked around the pond and again, the wind was blowing into the bay pegs, as before.  I put my hand in the lucky bag and snared peg 10, right bank, bit too far away from where I wanted to be.  I had Mark Wright to my right and we had an agreement, he fishes on the deck on the bomb and pellet and I fish shallow.  I fished with the pole shallow on both jigga and fixed shallow rigs at 14.5m for most of the match, bar a couple of looks down the edge on worm over grounbait.

5 hours and 3 weighs later, I put 127lb 8oz on the scales.  Pid was on peg 26 and put 114lb on the scales and Dave Horsfall was 3rd with 98lb.  Mark to my right weighed in 81lb all on bomb and pellet with a couple of fish down the edge.

Full Result
1.  Mike Herrington - 127lb 8oz
2.  Paul Farley - 114lb 2oz
3.  Dave Horsfall - 98lb 14oz
4.  Craig McKenny - 88lb 2oz


Match 24 - Little Adams, Hayfield Lakes, Doncaster - 14th September 2014

Sunday 14th September 2014

This match really annoyed me (biting my tongue here!!) on so many levels.  I generally go fishing once per week and was really looking forward to this match.  We had booked 26 pegs on a 32 peg lake, so were hopeful to have the full lake, including what I consider to be the best pegs on the spit/arm - pegs 28 - 32.  If we had the full lake, we could hopefully leave out the riverbank pegs (the ones with the river behind you) which are 21 - 27 as they hardly ever win a penny.  I have fished this lake 4 times previously and drew peg 4 (weighed in 34lb) wind off my back and everyone on pegs 13 - 20 caught.  Peg 24 - weighed in 54lb, but only after everyone else packed up and left and I had the bank to myself, Peg 25 and had 30lb and finally peg 25 again - weighed in 12lb for 2nd on my bank (13lb won the bank).  So.....

I arrived at the venue to find that we did not have the full lake, AND, that there were some people ALREADY fishing the lake, AND they were on the best pegs on the spit, AND they were catching fish.  This was going to really ruin the match for us.  To make matters even worse, I put my hand in the lucky (or not so lucky) bag and drew peg 22 - ON THE RIVERBANK, AGAIN!!!!  I was not a happy teddy bear.  For company, I had Bomb 'n' Pellet at the side of me on peg 23, and both Woofer and Dave Webster were on my bank on pegs 25 and 26 respectively.

The wind was blowing from the corner near me (peg 21) diagonally across the lake to peg 4.  I managed to snare half a dozen carp shallow on pellet and long pole and some bits and bats for a combined weight of 40lb plus.  Method Michelle chalked up her 3rd win this year from about peg 7 or 8 with 78lb 4oz caught on either method or bomb on the pole line, just ouncing Bomb 'n' Pellet who ended up 2nd with 78lb exactly.  Stuart Wilson took 3rd place with 47lb 8oz from peg 16.  I ended up joint 4th with Jason Grimshaw  Langshaw.

Woofer ended up with 32lb and Dave ended up with 16lb.

Full result
1.  Michelle Webster - 78lb 4oz
2.  Mark Wright - 78lb
3.  Stuart Wilson - 47lb 8oz
4.  Mike Herrington & Jason Langshaw - 43lb 4oz


Match 25 - Kestrel Lake, Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk

21st September 2014

I hadn't fished Kestrel Lake at Woodlands for a good few years.  The last time that I fished this particular lake was on the last Fishomania qualifier that I fished a few years ago.  I drew peg 4 (for the 3rd year in succession) and tipped back 3 or 4 carp.  I had James Dent at the side of me on this Fisho match who fished for a couple of hours, then went to the pub for the rest of the match.

I put my hand in the lucky bag and drew peg 29.  I arrived at my peg and it took me longer to get my seatbox level/stable without slipping back than it did to set up the rest of my gear.  I had Pid to my right on peg 30 and Bomb N Pellet to my left on peg 27.

There are some big carp in Kestrel lake now, with a the biggest reported at 27lb, which was caught earlier this year.

Both Pid and I started short, I had nothing whilst Pid's first fish was about 13lb, then he had another about 10lb, so he has 23lb in the first 20 mins.  We both then went out on long pole - shallow and we were sharing the fish.  He would catch one, then nothing, then I would catch one, then nothing and vice versa.  It got to the point where we were waiting ages for bites, so I decided to come off the long pole line and fish the pellet waggler mid water towards the middle of the lake.

Rumours were travelling up and down the bank that there were huge fish coming out all over the place. Not for me unfortunately.  I was catching some fish, but possibly not enough.  Stuart and Webster we both catching.  Stuart was on corner peg 35/36 and Webster was on about peg 11 or 13.

I came short in the last hour, but did not have much, so was swapping between the pellet waggler and long pole shallow.

Come the weigh in, by the time that the scales reached me, Dave Horsfall was leading with 71lb from corner peg 17/18 on the first bank.  Then back up weights of 50 - 65lb were bountiful.

I had two weighs and put 42lb on first weigh, then 42lb on for 2nd weigh for a good split and a total weight of 84lb.  The scales arrived at Pid's peg and he managed to plonk 99lb on the scales.  Stuart was last to weigh and had two weighs and ended up with 60 odd pounds.

Full Result
1.  Paul Farley - 99lb 1oz
2.  Mike Herrington - 84lb
3.  Dave Horsfall - 71lb 12oz
4.  Mark Wright - 65lb

Matches 16 - 20

Match 16 - Match Lake, Sykehouse Lakes, Nr Doncaster - 20th July 2014
Having never fished this lake, I was blind in terms of tactics, methods, bait, etc, etc.  I spoke with Andy Limpbiscuit who had been down and practised a few days before our match and he said it is shallow, shallow, shallow - all on pellet waggler.  I had a quick walk around and fancied pegs 16 - 24, primarily due to the way that the wind was blowing.  These pegs are pretty much in a bay and the wind was blowing into the bay.  I put my hand in the bag and peg 30 stuck to my hand.  I couldn't really get any further away from where I wanted to be.  Anyway 5hrs later, I had caught a few fish, although not enough.  I was last to weigh.

At one point, it started raining and given the warm weather both Limpbiscuit and Paul 'Castaway' Wilson sat out in the rain in just their shorts.  But the rain won in the end.  It was raining so bad, they both relented and put their waterproofs on, I think more from a point of view of keeping warm rather than dry.

Stuart Wilson won the match fishing worm on the deck and shallow and ended up with 94lb dead from about peg 17.  2nd was Dave Webster from about peg 12 who fished pellet shallow all day for 84lb 8oz.  Dave Horsfall took 3rd with 84lb 4oz from about peg 22 (the one at the top of the bay that looks down the long straight towards peg 7).  I had Lurch Moorhead near me who managed to stay for the weigh in and put 39lb 12oz on the scales.  The scales arrived at me and after 2 weighs, I managed 58lb 12oz for about 10th place, so a good match in all as there were plenty of fish caught.  I had lost a few method feeders on some roots (I was casting down the bank) and managed to get a couple of fish on the pellet waggler and a couple of fish from the next platform.

Full Result
1.  Stuart Wilson - 94lb
2.  Dave Webster - 84lb 8oz
3.  Dave Horsfall - 84lb 4oz
4.  Mark Wright - 81lb 10oz


Match 17 - Partridge Lake, Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk - 27th July 2014
I put my hand in the lucky bag and peg 14 stuck to my hand.  I had Paul 'Woofer' Clough to my left on peg 12 and Mark Wright to my right on peg 16.  Michelle drew one out of the corner on Partridge lake.  I caught a few shallow on the pole, and then some on the pellet waggler, then a couple down the edge late on.  I was going to be there or thereabouts today.

Andy 'Limpbiscuit' Limbert put 107lb 10oz on the scales, fishing at 14 - 16m shallow with pellet for most of the day.  Woofer had 39lb 6oz at the side of me.  I had 3 weighs for a total of 106lb 12oz.  Mark put 30lb 11oz on the scales and Michelle went on to win the match with 142lb dead, all caught on the method to the boards.  I could see her at the end and she was cranking fish in.  This is Michelle's PB match weight and was her first 'ton'.  Well done.

Full Result
1.  Michelle Webster - 142lb
2.  Andy Limbert - 107lb 10oz
3.  Mike Herrington - 106lb 12oz
4.  Dave Webster - 82lb 1oz

A good payday for Mr and Mrs Webster.

From the Club Champion points perspective, I was still languishing in 3rd place on 108pts, Stuart Wilson had 121pts in 2nd and Dave Webster was leading the points with 132pts.

My team however, was still leading the team weight with a combined weight of 2567lb.  Dave Horsfall's team had sneaked into 2nd place with 2421lb and Dave Websters team was in 3rd with 2418lb.

Match 18 - Pond 1, Wholesea Grange, Howden - 3rd August 2014
Here we were, back at Wholesea Grange.  Following our last match here, I was a little bit more confident with regards to the venue.  At the draw, I put my hand in the bag and snared peg 6, one off where I was on the last match.  For some reason, the venue seems to fish totally different, and more difficult from the last match that we had here.  Michelle drew peg 14 and had 3 weighs to put 110lb 15oz on the scales by casting the method over to the shallow bar on the opposite bank near the big bush.  Damn, 2 x 100lb+ match weights in two matches and two wins on the bounce.  Must have something good in her method mix. 2nd went to Pid from peg 1 - totally opposite end of the lake, who had 78lb 4oz.  He snapped a topkit whilst fishing next to some reeds and went in for it, the water only just got his ankles wet LOL.  Dave Webster took 3rd with 65lb dead.

Full Result
1.  Michelle Webster - 110lb 15oz
2.  Paul Farley - 78lb 4oz
3.  Dave Webster - 65lb dead
4.  Paul Clough -- 45lb 15oz

I ended up 5th with 44lb 7oz.

Match 19 - Oasis Lake, Lindholme Lakes, Epworth - 10th August 2014
I am sure that anyone that went fishing this day will remember it.  It was the horriblest and scariest days fishing for many years.  It was thundering and lightening from just about the start of the match for about 4 hours, and it rained incessantly to the end of the match (and long after).  We had pegs 2 round to peg 35 ish.  I drew peg 24/25 and I fished the long pole across to the far side for most of the match and was shipping my pole back underneath the cabin that had appeared behind me.  I was terrified when lifting the pole up to net a fish due to the thunder and lightening. I fished worm over groundbait and pellets.  I caught my first eel in a long long time on this match.  I caught steadily throughout the match and felt that I had done well, given the weather conditions.

There were some good weights spread out up and down the match.  Mark Wright set the ball rolling with 66lb from about peg 4.  Pid had 63lb.  I think that I had that.  There were plenty of weights between 30 - 60lb by the time that the scales arrived at my peg.  I had two weighs for a combined weight of 95lb 2oz and a win.

Full Result
1.  Mike Herrington - 95lb 2oz
2.  Mark Wright - 66lb 10oz
3.  Paul Farley - 63lb 12oz
4.  Stuart Wilson - 58lb dead


Match 20 - Maple Lake, The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk - 17th August 2014
We had the high numbers for this match from peg 35 round to peg 68.  I put my hand in the bag and drew a peg that I quite fancied, peg 66 which is one of the pegs with your back to the road near to the cafe.  I struggled again.  I could not get good presentation on the pole across due to the wind and was getting pestered by both ducks and crayfish...again.  I had no margin due to the height and depth of the reeds both left and right.  By the end of the match, I had been battered and ended up with 29lb for no good (10th place).

Full Result
1.  Paul Clough - 57lb 15oz (peg 57)#
2.  Andy Limber - 48lb 10oz
3.  Craig McKenny - 47lb 11oz
4.  Paul Wilson - 43lb 2oz

The next five matches to follow...

Massive update

The last time that I updated my blog was just after match 10 at Wholesea Grange.  The season has finally finished after match 30.  A brief synopsis of each match as follows:

Match 11 - Partridge Lake, Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk - 15th June 2014
This was the 2nd leg of my knockout with Andy Limbert and I was carrying a 10lb advantage.  I could keep a close eye on Andy as we were pegged next to each other, Andy was on peg 29 and I was on peg 31.  Dave Webster went on to win the match with 119lb 4oz from about peg 23. Both Andy and I had caught - shallow initially, then down the edge and there was not a lot in it.  Andy put 99lb on the scales, now it was my turn.  I needed 90lb (as I had 10lb already) and after 2 weighs, I managed to put 86lb 12oz on the scales.  I was one fish short.  Damn.  Andy took 2nd place overall, Stuart Wilson had 90lb made up of 50lb of silver fish and 40lb of carp.  I ended up 4th and knocked out of the club knockout. :-(

Full Result:
1.  Dave Webster - 119lb 4oz
2.  Andy Limbert - 99lb
3.  Stuart Wilson - 90lb 2oz
4.  Mike Herrington - 86lb 12oz

Match 12 - Bonsai Lake, Lindholme Lakes, Epworth - 22nd June 2014
I had quite a dilemna today as it was my wedding Anniversary.  The missus let me out on remand for good behaviour, so off fishing I went.  We had pegs 20 - 41 (ish).  I drew peg 20 (or was it 21) which put me one out of the corner where the flagpole is when you come in to the complex.   I had Big Macca at the side of me who was a little worse for wear and was still carrying a hangover from the night before.  At one point, I had to act as nurse maid as he had cut himself on a tin of meat and I super-glued and taped his hand up, then his fishing pole came apart and he jumped in for it and I had to help him out.  I am sure that was going to cost me. LOL.   I caught a few shallow fishing towards the end of the island at 13m and then had a few late on down the edge for a reasonable weight.  I was first to weigh and managed to put 85lb 4oz on the scales.  Macca did well to put 31lb on the scales, given the state that he was in.  Then there was a few weights between 40 - 70lb.  Dave Webster raised the bar higher with a weight of 95lb 6oz from peg 30 fishing pellet shallow on his short line, Pid Farley put 70lb on the scales and Stuart Wilson was last to weigh from peg 40 and managed to put 93lb on the scales made up of silvers and carp on worm and caster.  There was only me from my team of 4 here today, so had it all to do.

Full Result
1.  Dave Webster - 95lb 6oz
2.  Stuart Wilson - 93lb 4oz
3.  Mike Herrington- 85lb 4oz
4.  Paul Farley - 70lb 10oz

Match 13 - Cedar Lake, The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk - 29th June 2014
Cedar Lake was my old hunting ground when I used to run the matches here for a few years.  We had the high number pegs 55 - 80.  Today turned out to be a frustrating day.  I arrived at my peg to realise that it never gets put in on matches as there was no margin swim, so I had to spend 15 - 20 mins cutting reeds out to create a margin swim (which as it transpired turned out to be fruitlless) I caught a carp across within the first minute or so, then got crayfished out for the rest of the match on that line.  I started loose feeding across and then got harassed by ducks on that line.  I ended catching (or not as the case may be) by feeding hard pellets and fishing little blobs of paste on the top 2 + 1 line.  I managed to put 34lb 9oz on the scales for about 7th in the match.

Full Result
1.  Stuart Wilson - 84lb 9oz - method feeder across - Peg 72 (because he had forgot his pole)
2.  Paul Farley - 54lb 12oz - pole across - peg 77
3.  Dave Webster - 50lb 12oz - peg 59
4.  Jason Langshaw - 50lb 4oz - peg 56

My Team were still carrying an overall weight advantage in the team event with a combined weight of 1848lb after 13 matches.  Dave Websters team was in 2nd place with a combined weight of 1728lb.

Overall Club Champion, Following a disasterous start, I was sitting in 3rd place with 80 points, Dave Webster was in 2nd place on 94 points and Stuart Wilson was leading the Club Champion points with 98 points.  You are awarded 11 points for a win, down to 1 point for coming 11th or higher.  If you did not attend you did not receive any points.

Match 14 - Lapwing Lake, Kippax Lakes, Leeds - 6th July 2014
I drew peg 20 (ish) and was so so about the peg.  Lapwing is a lake that I have rarely fished, nor have I done well when I have fished it, but then again, you have to be in it to win it.  By the end of the match, I had managed to weigh in 52lb 2oz for 4th place beaten by Stuart Wilson who had 90lb from about peg 25, who caught short all day.  He said to me after the match, that he never fishes long and only fishes short with the intention that he will pull fish short from the other bank.  if you feed the other bank, they do not want to go anywhere else....method in his madness, I guess.  2nd place went to Dave Webster who had 67lb 10oz from about peg 7 and 3rd place went to Paul Clough who ounced me with 52lb 6oz.

Full Result
1.  Stuart Wilson - 90lb 8oz
2.  Dave Webster - 67lb 10oz
3.  Paul Clough - 52lb 6oz
4.  Mike Herrington - 52lb 2oz

Match 15 - Pond 1, Wholesea Grange, Howden - 13th July 2014
As with Kippax Lakes, Wholesea Grange has always been less than favourable to me for one reason or another.  On this match I drew peg 7 and had Dave Webster next to me on peg 6, this was going to be interesting.  I fed my margin swim and only had a couple of bits off it.  On the deck at 8m, where it was about 7ft deep, I managed 1 carp and a couple of bits.  Most of my fish (and Dave's) came shallow at between 14 - 16m out.  Dave was first to weigh and after a couple of weighs, he had 77lb odd.  I had 2 weighs and ended up with about 69lb.  I played a carp of about 5lb for about 10 mins on white hydro, I could not do anything with it and in this time, Dave had about 5 or 6 carp of about 2lb each.  Note to self....must pull harder with the pulla kit.

Full Result
1.  Dave Webster - 77lb (ish)
2.  Mike Herrington - 69lb (ish)

Not sure of the exact weights or the other places as I do not have them to hand.

A further update will follow...

Tight Lines

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

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

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

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

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

Small clump of lily pads out in front of me.

Tackle

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

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

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

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

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

The Match

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was it match over.

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

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

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

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

I had come 4th.

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Tightlines.

Robin Hood AC Round 9 - Sykehouse Lakes - Stockpond

For round 9 of the league we were on the Stock Pond at Sykehouse Fisheries near Goole.  Daz wasn't in attendance so I travelled with Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead.  Following a breakfast at the local George hotel in Sykehouse we arrived at the venue.  The club had a match on the venue last year and the winners came from the pegs in the twenties.

There is 31 pegs on Stock Pond, but they usually leave out peg 31.  The pond is approx 15 - 20ft deep in places and about 10-12ft deep at 10m out.

By the time of the draw, there was about 16/17 of us on the match.  I put my hand in the bag and peg 15 stuck to my hand.  I arrived at my peg to find that I had Woofer Clough on peg 13 and Lurch Moorhead on peg 17.  Paul 'Wilco' Wilson, Ian 'Syd' Waddell, Gaz Jowett, Pid Farley and Craig McKenny were all on the favoured pegs in the 20's.

The view from peg 15

The left hand margin

Tackle

I set up my pellet waggler rod and the pole with the following rigs:

Rigs 1, 2 and 3

Rig 1 was was an in-line dibber float set to fish about 18" deep.
Rig 2 was a Jigga float set to fish between 6" - 2.5ft deep.
Rig 3 was a 4 x 14 Carpa Gent set to fish to the margin to my left and right and was set at about 5ft deep (that was the depth as close to the margin that I could get).

Some bait - keep it simple.

For bait, I had some mixed 6mm cubed meat with corn and some 6mm and 8mm pellets.

The Match got under way and I had a quick look to both my left and right margin swims - just in case something was milling about down the edge.  After a fruitless 15 - 20 minutes, I decided it was time to have a look out on the long pole shallow.

I went out on the jigga rig and proceeded to work the bait up and down whilst feeding some 6mm pellets over the top.  I had been lifting and working the bait for approx 10 minutes or so, when all of a sudden there was a couple of swirls around my float and then it sailed under slowly.  I lifted into the fish, it then decided to wake up.  I shot off to the dark and deep depths - it must have gone down about 6 fathoms before it got the bends and decided to come to the top.  After a frantic battle my biggest cap of the day was in the landing net (see photo below).

I proceeded to fish the long pole line for another fruitless 30 minutes or so.

Now it was time to have a go on the pellet waggler.  I cast out the pellet waggler to about 30 yards and fed some 8mm pellets over the top.  The waggler shot under and I was in.  Some 10 seconds later, it had got off. Crap!!

Lurch Moorhead had managed to snare a couple of carp, Dave Webster, who was on peg 8 had managed to snare 3 carp shallow on the long pole and I could see that generally everyone was struggling.  There was literally no wind whatsoever.  The lake was flat calm.  It was possible to see carp cruising around all over the place.

I started to try casting towards the fish topping, but in doing so, they bolted off out of the peg.

I managed to snare another 9 carp over the duration of the match (2 on pole and 7 on pellet waggler) for a total of 10 carp.  I also caught a couple of skimmers and roach on the long pole shallow.  I had a bottle-top skimmer down the edge on double corn.

I could see that Wilco had caught a few down the margins late on.  Woofer Clough was stringing a few fish together.  Eric the Pheasant, Webster, Stu-pot Wilson, Big Macca and Wrighty were all struggling on the low numbers (pegs 1 - 10).  Moorhead had caught a few carp, but hopefully he was playing catchup with me.  I could see that Craig and Pid had also caught a few fish.

That was it, time, end of the match.

The scales started at Wrighty's peg and he set the ball rolling with 17lb, then there were weights of 20lb (Macca), 23lb (Stu-pot), 26lb (Webster), 19lb (Eric).  The scales arrived at Woofers peg and he plonked 39lb 7oz on the scales.  I lifted my net out (it was going to be close) and managed to plonk 39lb 2oz on the scales.  Moorhead was still here and put 27lb on the scales (PHEW!!!).  Dave Wathen put 39lb on the scales.  Michelle Webster has just got a sponsorship deal with Sharkskin wetsuits after going into the lake to retrieve a topkit that had got dragged off her pole.  She managed to get the topkit (and fish) back and put 19lb on the scales.  That is the 3rd time this year that she had had a lake bath (Barnburgh - to find her glasses and The Oaks were her previous swimming lessons).  I think that she is in secret training for the triathlon, but has not quite made it to the cycle and running part yet.  It is a good job she has a pair of big water wings.  I was currently in 2nd place with the twenties to weigh.

The scales arrived in the twenties.  After a couple of weighs, Wilco Wilson put 88lb on the scales, Gaz Jowett had 43lb, Syd Waddell had 46lb, Pid weighed in 50lb and MC Mckenny put 41lb on the scales.

Here's one that I caught earlier.

Full Result:

1. Paul Wilson - 88lb 9oz (peg 23 ish)
2. Paul Farley - 50lb 9oz (peg 29)
3. Ian Waddell - 46lb 15oz (peg 25 ish)
4. Gary Jowett - 43lb 13oz (peg 24 ish)
5. Craig McKenny - 41lb 14oz (peg 30)

Wholesea Grange, Pond 2 next week.

Tight Lines 

Kippax, Woodlands and Sykehouse

Kippax Lakes, Leeds - Osprey Lake.

Got 3 matches to catch up on.  Last weekend, I fished round 8 of the Robin Hood AC League at Kippax Lakes, Leeds.  We were on Osprey again.  O Crap, that said on our last match here I was a happy 5th from this lake.  Did I fair any better this time?

Due to how difficult it was on our last match here, there was only 13 of us in attendance.

I wanted to draw any of the 4 corner pegs (2, 15, 17, 30).  I put my hand in the lucky bag and peg 30 stuck to my hand - happy days.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Eric the Pheasant on peg 28, Michelle was on peg 25, Dave Horsfall was on peg 23, Mark Wright was on peg 21 and Paul Wilson was on peg 18 (17 not in).  In addition, there was no one on peg 2, instead I had Dave Webster on peg 1.  We have fished this lake a few times and this was the first time that I had known for peg 1 to be put in.  Hmmmm.

I set up the obligatory 9ft method rod and mini baitrunner. Then I made up 3 pole rigs:

Rig one was a 4 x 16 Colmic Jolly set to fish top 2 + 2 straight out in front of me where it was about 5.5-6ft deep.

Rig two was a 4 x 14 float set to fish about 2ft deep across to the island.  The end of the island was about 14m away, but was featureless, so I added the 16m section to my Garbolino M1 and fished away to the left where I had some reeds growing out of the island and upon  plumbing up I found that I had 2ft deep.  I put on a heavier rig as there were some reed strands under the water and needed to ensure that my float (and bait) had settled correctly.

Rig three was my margin rig.  I plumbed up to the platforms to both left and right (the platform to my right is peg 31 which is rarely used in matches) and found that I had about 3ft deep to them both.

For bait I had a couple of pints of white maggots (for the top 2 + 2 line), 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets, some 6mm hard pellets and some micro pellets for the method feeder. I also knocked up a bag of Sonu-Baits krill groundbait (for potting down the margin - and for the method if needed) and I also had a tin of corn.

That's it, I was ready.

The match started, I went straight out to the island with the long pole and lowered the rig in near the reeds, the float settled for all of 15 seconds, then buried.  I was into my first carp of the day (hopefully), as I was bringing my fish in, Eric had got a bite on his pole and where as my fish was about 1lb, Eric's was about about 7lb.  Crap, I was playing catchup all ready.  I managed to get a couple more carp claw back some of the deficit, that everything went wrong.  I received a call from work!!!!  The time was now 10.42.

I am the manager of a domiciliary home care company employing some 80 staff or so and one of our clients wanted to bring their father home from hospital (yes on a Sunday) and wanted us to provide round the clock care for a few weeks or more.  I had my admin staff ringing me, the Director of the company ringing me, the Associate Director ringing me, the client ringing me, the carers ringing me.  This went on for the next couple of hours.  I finally managed to resolve the issue and got one of my live-in carers to go and the client was able to be sent home from hospital.  I sent a text to my boss at 12.36 saying that it was all sorted out.

Although I had still been fishing during this time, I wasn't really fishing, I was just going through the motions as I was not focused on what I was doing.  I had however managed to snare a couple of carp and roach during this time.  Unfortunately, fishing does not pay the mortgage and work does!!!

Right, back to the fishing.  It had gone belly up in this two hour spell.  Dave on peg 1 had caught a couple of carp and had a bream that was about 4lb.  Eric the Pheasant had managed to get another couple of carp.  I was still playing catch up.

There was not bites forthcoming from the island, and I could only catch roach and small bottle-top skimmers on the short 2 + 2 rig.

I decided to go down the side to the next platforms to see if I could get any signs.  I dropped in to the left margin and after a fruitless 10 - 15 minutes, I had lost one fish - I got a dip, struck, the fish went to the middle of the lake and then the hook pulled, I had it on for about 5 seconds.

I went to the margin to my right and after about 10 minutes, I managed to get one about 4lb.  That made me feel better.  I proceeded to fish the margins for the duration of the match.  That's it.  Match over.

I walked around with the scales and everyone asked me what I had caught - I replied not a lot and they said that I was lying as rumour had it was that I had caught.  Webster set the ball rolling by putting 22lb on the scales.  Frank Brook (the winner of the last match here with 39lb) was next to weigh and plonked 5lb on the scales.  Frontrow Harrison was on my peg from the last match (peg 6) and was the new leader with 22lb 8oz.  He asked what I had caught and I said about 20lb or so (with my fingers crossed in my pockets).

There were a few weights between 15lb and 26lb or so.  Then the scales arrived at Paul Wilson and he promptly plonked 47lb 3oz on the scales from peg 18.  Mark Wright was next to weigh and managed to put 47lb 1oz on the scales from peg 21.  Dave Horsfall had 26lb 6oz, Michelle had 15lb, The Pheasant had 22lb 13oz.  I was last to weigh.  I lifted my first net out and put 6 carp on the scales, I then lifted my second net out and put another 4 carp with them and the scales bounced around to 29lb 11oz.  I had managed to snare 3rd place.

Full Result

1.  Paul Wilson (Peg 18) - 47lb 3oz
2.  Mark Wright (Peg 21) - 47lb 1oz
3.  Mike Herrington (Peg 29) - 29lb 11oz
4.  Ian Waddell (Peg 10 ish) - 27lb
5.  Dave Horsfall (Peg 23) - 26lb 6oz


Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk

I fished the Whitsun Bank Holiday pairs match with one-time travelling partner - Lee Bramham (Bram).  We both wanted to fish either Skylark or Partridge, then Bram said that seeing as I had driven us both there, I could fish them.  I said no, we will flick a coin for it.  Bram flicked the coin, I called heads.  I was fishing on either Skylark or Partridge and Bram was fishing Curlew/Wagtail or Kestrel.

There was about 42 pairs on the match so we had a bit of room.

I put my hand in the bag and peg 24 on Skylark stuck to my hand.  Hmmmm, feast or famine.  Bram drew peg 15 on Wagtail.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Josh Newton on peg 20, Steve Richards on peg 13, Gordon Poole on peg 15 and young Ross Pickles was on peg 11.

I had pellets, corn and groundbait for feed and I set up the ubiquitous bomb/pellet waggler/method rods and also 2 shallow pole rigs, 1 margin pole rig and 1 rig to fish top 2 + 2.

To cut a long story short, I ended up with 9 carp for a total of 48lb.  Bram had 6 carp for about 40lb ish.  35lb won Curlew lake, 55lb won Wagtail lake.  Jonny Maddison won the match with 135lb  from Partridge (about peg 23), 88lb won my lake from peg 18, Josh Newton was second on the lake with 83lb ish, there was a 'ton' weight from Kestrel.  Fellow Robin Hood club member Dave Webster won his section with about 73lb from Partridge 3 (or 5).

Josh Newton and Andy Dargue won the pairs match.

FellowAfter the match Robin, the pond owner, did two random peg draws to win £25 and £50 respectively.  The first random peg to be drawn was peg 3 on Partridge.  Dave had added to his funds from today.  The second random peg to be drawn was peg 11 on Skylark and seeing as Ross wasn't there (he was still fishing), they re-drew the peg.  Wagtail peg 15 came out.  Bram, the lucky so and so, had won the £50 prize.  Did he go halves??? Did he baubles!!.

Next week, we are on Stock Pond at Sykehouse.  Never fished it before.  Well, we will see.

Time Flies....

Last weekend, I fished two matches, the first one was a little knock up with some of the lads from the club at Barnburgh Lakes on the bottom pond and the second match was at The Oaks Lakes, Sessay on Maple Lake.  This weekend I fished at Kippax Lakes, Leeds on Sunday and at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk on Bank Holiday Monday, so it seems, I have a bit of catching up to do.

Barnburgh Lakes - Bottom Pond

Due to another club being on the other side of the pond, we only had a dozen or so pegs to go at, so limited it to 10 anglers.  Come the draw, there were 11 of us on the match.  The match was more to give the other anglers in the club a go on the bottom pond as it is 7ft deep with 5ft of fish in it. LOL.

Pegs

Peg 14 - Eric the Pheasant
Peg 15 - Me
Peg 16 - Stuart Wilson
Peg 17 - Chris Moorhead
Peg 18 - John McCall
Peg 19 - Dave Horsfall
Peg 20 - Michelle Webster
Peg 21 - Shaun Rowley
Peg 22 -Andy Limbert
Peg 23 - Dave Webster
Peg 24 - Daz Harrison

Before the match, I had all and sundry ringing me up about the bottom pond, how do you fish it? What bait you going to use?  How do you set up your jigga rigs?  And because I wanted everyone to catch a lot of fish, I told them.  Q1.  Fish it shallow.  Q2.  Pellets, pellets and more pellets. Q3. Overshot it and then work the bait according to your bites.

I was giddy and talk was of 100lb bags all round.

I set up 3 rigs - all to fish shallow.  Two fixed shallow rigs, 1 at 2ft deep and 1 about 1ft deep and then the jigga rig set to fish between 6" to 18" deep.  Eric the Pheasant asked me what to do.  I asked him what bait did he have and he said maggots.  I said to fish top 2 or 3 down the edge.

Chris Moorhead put up his bait brolley and it resembled a parasol outside a burger bar, LOL.

Anyways, 6 hours later, we weighed in as follows:

Peg 14 - Eric the Pheasant - 88lb 4oz (his best weight yet)
Peg 15 - Me - 171lb 4oz
Peg 16 - Stuart Wilson - 109lb 9oz
Peg 17 - Chris Moorhead - 103lb 10oz (Chris was chuffed to bits with this).
Peg 18 - John McCall - 82lb 10oz
Peg 19 - Dave Horsfall - 74lb 4oz
Peg 20 - Michelle Webster - 45lb 10oz
Peg 21 - Shaun Rowley - 71lb 13oz
Peg 22 -Andy Limbert - 64lb
Peg 23 - Dave Webster - 76lb 6oz
Peg 24 - Daz Harrison - 53lb 6oz

All of my fish had come on the jigga.

Robin Hood AC - Round 7 - Oaks Lakes, Thirsk - Maple Lake

We were on the favoured high numbers and there was 19 of us on the match.  Generally the higher the peg number, the better.  I helped with the pegging out and Dave Webster said to me that we had from pegs 36 - 68 and then something about the number 33 (which I cannot recall).  I then went and pegged out starting at No. 33 Ooops.  We drew our pegs and I drew peg 41 which put me at the right-hand end of the spit.  Webster drew peg 67 (he will win it from there), Castaway Wilson was on peg 63 (old peg 62a), Big Macca drew peg 55.  I arrived at my peg to find that I had Paul Wilco Wilson on peg 39 and Ian 'Syd' Wadell on peg 43.

Andy Limbert then went to peg 33 to find another angler from another club on the peg (hence the ooops).  Due to everyone drawing their pegs, we put peg 52, 50, 68 and 56 into the draw bag and Andy drew his peg again.  He ended up on peg 52.

I mixed up half a bag of Sonubaits Supercrush Expander groundbait with the idea to fish maggots/groundbait over to the far bank.

I set up two rigs across to fish in 12 inches of water and one rig to fish to the next platform (peg 42).

The match was quite uneventful.  I managed to catch 12 carp across to the island - nothing down the edge.  I even set up a rig to fish top 2 + 1 in the deep water straight in front of me, but that was also a waste of time.

That was it, match over.  The scales arrived and Dave Webster was leading with 71lb from peg 67, Stuart Wilson had 62lb from peg 63, Andy Limbert had 49lb from peg 52, Eric the Pheasant had 47lb from peg 65 and Macca had 44lb from peg 55.  Syd Waddell put 10lb on the scales and after one weigh, I managed to put 35lb odd on the scales.  Paul Wilco Wilson put 17lb on the scales.

Full Result:

1. Dave Webster - Peg 67 - 71lb odd
2. Stuart Wilson - Peg 63 - 62lb odd
3. Andy Limber - Peg 52 - 49lb odd
4.  Eric White - Peg 65 - 47lb odd
5. John McCall - Peg 55 - 44lb
6. Mike Herrington - Peg 41 - 35lb odd

More to follow......

Robin Hood AC - Round 6 - Woodlands Lakes, Skylark Lake.

(33041)

This weekend's match was to take place at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.  We were on Skylark Lake.

Following a long wait for my breakfast to arrive, I was still eating my breakfast and it was time for the draw.  By the time of the draw, there were 24 of us in attendance to fish the 34 peg lake.  It was more or less going to be pegged 2 anglers, miss a peg, two anglers, miss a peg, etc.

The general rule of thumb is that you need to draw from about middle of the lake (peg 10), going down the lake to corner peg 17, then across to peg 18 and up the otherside to about peg 25.

I put my hand in the lucky (or not so lucky for some) bag and managed to snare peg 16.  I then went back to finish my breakfast.  After breakfast, I unloaded my car and went to my peg.  Eric the Pheasant was on peg 1, I stopped for a little chat with Eric.  Dave Webster had drawn peg 2, Woofer Cloughie was on peg 4.  I arrived at my peg to find that I had Macca on peg 14, 15 was empty and Stuart 'Castaway' Wilson was on peg 17.  Castaway was just checking the depth next to my platform for me - Hey Castaway, how deep is it? I asked.  About 2ft 6" LOL.  Frontrow Harrison was opposite on corner peg 18, Lurch Moorhead was next to him on 19 (opposite me), Michelle was on peg 21 and was taking part in the 2nd leg of her knockout against Pid Farley who had drawn peg 30 up at the other end.  Michelle was carrying a 25lb advantage.  This was going to be close.

Hey Mick, it is 2ft 6in deep mate. 

Tackle

I set up loads of gear for today as follows:

11ft Pellet Waggler rod set to fish about 18" deep.
10ft Bomb rod
9ft Method Feeder Rod

I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:

1.  Shallow rig No. 1 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength, this was attached to Preston 13h elastic.

2. .4g float set to fish about 3.5ft deep at top 2 + 3 sections out in front at 10 and 2 o'clock, this was set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to Preston 15h elastic.

3.  Shallow Rig No. 2 set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Garbolino hooklength, this rig was attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic.

4.  The margin rig was a .3g Cralusso float set up on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to Preston 15h elastic.

Pole Rigs 1 - 4

My Set Up.

The Peg

For bait, I had a bag of Dynamite Baits Red Krill Groundbait, some venue micro with a handful of red krill groundbait mixed in for the method feeder, 6mm and 8mm hard pellets, a tin of corn, a tin of 8mm cubed meat and some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets.  I also had some 6mm Dynamite Baits Meaty Marine pellets as a change bait.

Just in case!

Right I was ready.

At the start of the match, I picked up rig 2 (the top 2 + 3) and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet and shipped out to my left.  Castaway and Macca went out on a similar line.

I waited for my first bite of the day.  After about 5 minutes, the float buried and I was into my first fish of the day, a tench about 1lb.  I re-baited and shipped back out again, I threw some 6mm pellets over the top of the float and waited again.  After about 5 minutes, the float dipped, sailed sideways and then went under, the 2nd fish of the day was a little skimmer about 6oz.

Castaway had caught a couple of carp, also fishing pellet over pellet.  The only thing he appeared to be doing different was to put a couple of grains of corn and 8mm pellets over the top. I could see the odd carp coming out on the short line so persevered a little longer.  Whilst fishing the short line, I was also catapulting 2 - 4 x 8mm pellets out to halfway and some 6mm pellets out to the 14.5m shallow line.

After a further fruitless 10 minutes or so on the short line, I decided to have a go shallow on the pole.  Castaway had snared a couple more carp and now had 4.  Macca had caught 1 carp to my left.

I picked up shallow rig 1, baited up with an 8mm pellet and went out to 14.5m.  I was lifting and dropping the pellet (as tapping and slapping are both banned) whilst feeding a pinch of 6mm pellets.  I saw a swirl, so lifted and dropped some more and the float went under slowly and the 13h elastic was getting stretched, a bit.  Keeping the pole low, I shipped back slowly until I managed to get it on the top 2, then I started to pull the elastic and finally slid my net under the first carp of the day.  It was a common about 9lb.  That was a nice start.  Castaway was up to 7 carp on his short line still.

I went back out shallow and after a fruitless 20 minutes or so, decided to have a chuck out on the bomb rod over the 14.5m line (just in case).  5 - 10 mins on that line added nothing to the net.  Castaway was now fishing 14.5m down the boards to his right and had caught another three carp or so and now had about 10.  I still only had 1.  I chucked the bomb out to halfway and got a couple of liners, so decided to have a go on the pellet waggler.

I cast out to halfway with the pellet waggler and after a couple of minutes working the pellet waggler, I got a liner and played it for all of 10 seconds and lost it.  I was still playing catch up with Castaway.

I cast out again with the pellet waggler, the float shot under and I was into my 2nd carp of the day, after a brief tussle, I had another carp  (see picture below) in the net, all 14.5lb of it.  I was still playing catch up with Castaway.

About 15 minutes later, I caught another one on the pellet waggler, this was somewhat smaller at about 7lb or so.  The wind was strengthening all the time and the waggler float was riding the waves, presentation can't have been right.  I decided to have a go back on the bomb.  After a 10 minute wait, the tip went round slowly and the Shimano Baitrunner Reel started whirring away.  Another carp about 7lb or so was soon in the net.

Castaway had caught another one so it was 11-4 to Castaway.

I then spent the next couple of hours or so swapping between all lines (pellet waggler, bomb, method, pole shallow, short, etc) and managed to catch another 4 carp - 1 on bomb, 2 on pellet waggler and 1 on pole shallow.

We were now into the last 90 minutes of the match and I decided to cup some Dynamite Baits Red Krill groundbait to the next platform with about 10 grains of corn and the same of meat and left that for 15 minutes or so whilst I then faffed about short and caught another skimmer.

I got the margin rig and baited up with a single grain of corn and shipped out to the next peg.  The float settled, then dipped and went sideways and settled again, then went under, I was in to my 9th fish of the day.  I finally slipped the landing net under a carp about 10lb.  Castaway Wilson was also still catching the odd fish and had approximately 13 or so carp.

I fished the remainder of the match down the edge and was more or less fish for fish with Castaway.  I was big-potting a pot of groundbait after every carp. Craig McKenny had managed to snare another 3 carp on pole shallow tactics.

I finally ended up with 13 carp and Castaway had ended up with 17 or 18 carp.  Generally if you catch 17 carp on Skylark lake you have about 100lb.  I said as such to Castaway and he said that I had beaten him.  I said that I thought that I had about 75-80lb or so.  Oh well the scales will soon tell.

Eric the Pheasant set the ball rolling from peg 1 with 39lb 14oz, then Dave Webster was 2nd to weigh and put 81lb 12oz on the scales.  Next to weigh was Woofer Clough - he had 19 carp for 121lb 8oz.  Due to the shape of the lake (a slight curve), if you are on the low teens you cannot see what people are doing in the low numbers.  I was steadily sliding down the placings based on my expected weight.

There were a few weights of between 40 - 60lb and the scales finally arrived at my peg.  I lifted my first net out (8 carp) and put 51lb 1oz on the scales.  I then lifted out my 2nd net (the big fish net) and put 5 carp on the scales for 50lb 12oz for a total of 101lb 13oz, which put me into 2nd place.

Now it was Castaway's turn.  His first net went 51lb 6oz.  When he lifted his 2nd net out, I was a little surprised as it went 43lb 8oz for a total of 94lb 14oz.

Frontrow Harrison put 69lb on the scales, Lurch Moorhead had 41lb 13oz, Michelle had 56lb 11oz, then there were a few more weights between 40 - 70lb.  Pid needed to have 80lb + to be in with a chance of knocking Michelle out of the knockout.  A couple of weighs later, Pid had put 72lb 3oz on the scales. Michelle was through to the next round.

Here's one I caught earlier - 14.5lb on the pellet waggler.

Full Result:

1. Paul Clough - Peg 4 - 121lb 8oz (Bomb and pellet)
2. Mike Herrington - Peg 16 - 101lb 13oz
3. Stuart Wilson - Peg 17 - 94lb 14oz
4. Dave Webster - Peg 2 - 81lb 12oz (Bomb and pellet)
5. Paul Farley - Peg 30 - 72lb 3oz

Robin Hood AC - Round 5 - Barnburgh Lakes, Doncaster

Chris Moorhead and I agreed that today we have the 2nd leg in the club knockout competition.  I had an almighty lead of 6lb 3oz which I had carried over from Hayfield.  It was all to play for.

Barnburgh Lakes is now my adopted home.  I have fished here (excluding the feature that I did with Lee Kerry) 6 times and my lowest weight has been 65lb from peg 9 on the middle lake going up to 163lb from peg 1 on bottom pond.

Barnburgh Lakes - Today we were on Pond 2

There are 23 pegs on the middle lake at Barnburgh Lakes and by the time of the draw there were 19 of us in attendance.

I wanted to be between pegs 8 - 16, only because this is where I have seen most of the weights come from in previous matches.  Lurch and I had come down for a drive around yesterday and the match was won from peg 11, catching shallow on pellet.  I put my hand in the lucky bag and drew peg 14

I drew Peg 14.

Yes, I was happy with that.  My adversary for the day, Lurch had drawn peg 11 - I would be able to keep an eye on him.  I asked Gary Jubb in the shop what are the corner pegs as I was on peg 14, he said to me that they are 12 and 13.  I got to my peg and started to unpack my stuff.  Then the lad that helps weighing in said that I was in the wrong peg.  I went back to Gary Jubb and he said that 12 is the corner, then 13 (is one out of the corner), DOH!

I finally got to the right peg and found that I had Jason Langshaw on peg 15, Eric the pheasant on peg 13, Barry Hunter was on 12, Chris Moorhead was on peg 11 in the corner.

Tackle

I set up my trusty 11ft Shakespeare Mach 3 XT pellet waggler rod (just in case), then I set up 3 pole rigs as follows.

Rig 1 - .2g Frenzee FD200 Float on .17 preston Powerline mainline with a .11 Preston Powerline hooklength.  This was attached to Preston 11h elastic.

Rig 2 - this was one of two 'Jigga' rigs that I set up.  I set this one up to fish between 6" to 2ft deep.  Again the mainline was Preston Innovations .17 Powerline to a .11 Powerline hooklength, this rig was also attached to Preston 11h Elastic.

Rig 3 - The same rig as above, but this one was set to fish a maximum of 1ft deep

Ian Heywood Jigga Floats

For bait, I had some 4mm pellets and 6mm pellets for feeding and for the hook.  I had a ball of paste in case my plan of attack to fish shallow did not work.

That was it.  I was ready.  I went to speak to Eric the Pheasant and he asked me (in my role of Team Captain) what to do.  I asked him what bait he had and he said that he had 4pts of maggots.  I said to fish top 2 + 1 down the edge to his left (towards me) all day.  I then looked at his rig and saw that he had a knot on his line and his hook was too big.  I got my hooklengths and tied him on one of my hooklenghts (a .13 Powerline to size 16 Colmic B501).  I then told him where to plumb up and his float was standing too proud, so I added a couple of shot to get the float right for him.  Eric then set up another rig to fish to his right, where it was a little deeper.

The Team Event

The club have started up a team event within the club and have seeded everyone based on last years overall result.  I am the team captain and I have Craig McKenny, Charlie Colefax, Eric White and club newcomer Andy Limbert in my team.  If all of us turn up, the best 4 results count.  There is a prize of £200 for the overall winning team, based on overall weight.  Both Craig and Andy had drawn iffy (pegs 19 and 21 respectively).

The Match

There should have been a prize for the first fish as Eric was still putting his two maggots on his hook and I was into my first F1 of the day - all 12oz of it.  I caught this one on the Frenzee shallow rig.  I managed to catch 32 F1 carp in the first hour for about 25lb or so.  The carp seemed to be at all depths, so I decided to go out on the 'Jigga' rig and see if I faired any better on that.  I managed to get 17 F1's over the next hour.  I must have caught all the giddy fish and I was now having to work for bites.  Eric the Pheasant was giving a good account of himself on the next peg and was getting plenty of ide/F1's and barbel on the top 2 + 1 rig.  My adversary was also catching plenty of fish from both down the corner and also from the shallow rig.

Everyone seemed to be catching fish.  Jason Langshaw was also getting one or two and I could see people all around the lake catching short, long or even on the method.

Best get my head down and work a bit harder.

After a couple of hours, the bites seem to have dwindled off, I decided to have a chuck out on the pellet waggler and managed to catch a couple more carp, nothing bigger than what I had been catching shallow at 13m, that seemed a bit slow.  Everyone seemed to be catching one or two and Eric was still steady away as was Barry Hunter.  Lurch was still here so must be bagging.  Oh Crap!!  He must have tuned his radio into Radio Luxembourg again. LOL.

I continued to swap between the Jigga and the Frenzee rigs and also the pellet waggler for the duration of the match.

I shouted over to Pid, 'Damn Pid, you are quite today'. To which he replied 'I get told off for moaning, then I get told off for not moaning. I can't flippin' win'. LOL.  Bless!!

Going into the last hour, most of us had between 30 - 60lb and what from I could see, I think that there were about 5 of us in the shout for the top 3 places, that possibly included Lurch and myself.

Jason at the side of me had cottoned on to how I was fishing and Eric had lost his rig, so had to use his other rig for the right of his peg.

That was it.  TIME. match over.

Eric had caught, Castaway Wilson had caught as had Wilco Wilson, Lurch was still here so must have caught, Macca had snared some.

The scales started at peg 1 (Alan 'Snooker' Hunter) who had 22lb (lowest weight of the match as it transpired), then there was a 47lb, 40lb, 60lb, Castaway put 69lb on the scales for best weight so far.  Next to weigh was my adversary - Chris Moorhead - he had two weighs and whilst tipping his fish into the weigh sling dipped his net back in the lake to add more water (LOL he wishes he could have) for a total of 52lb 8oz - damn is he still here???.  Barry Hunter on peg 12 then put 51lb 14oz on the scales.  Eric was next to weigh and thoroughly enjoyed catching a mixed bag weighing 58lb 5oz.  Now it was my turn.  Had I done enough to beat Lurch?

I had two weighs and after the needle had finally settled, I ended up with 87lb 10oz and was leading the match.  Jason had 43lb odd, Pid 52lb odd, Gary Jowett 54lb odd, and finally the last two to weigh were Craig and Andy Limbert who weighed in 35 and 29lb respectively.

19 anglers caught a total of 975lb of fish which is an average of over 51lb each angler and the biggest fish caught was approx 2lb ish with most of them between 12oz - 1.5lb.

Full Result

1. Mike Herrington - Peg 14 - 87lb 10oz
2. Stuart 'Castaway' Wilson - Peg 10 - 69lb 3oz
3. Paul 'Wilco' Wilson - Peg 7 - 63lb 9oz
4. Dave Wathen - Peg 18 - 62lb 2oz
5. John 'Macca' McCall - peg 5 - 61lb 3oz.

Oh and I forgot.  Lurch the loser is knocked out of the knockout cup LOL and I am through to round 2 (Which I have now found out is Andy Limbert, Gulp!!).

Thanks for reading (again).

Big Pellet