Moorfields Farm Fisheries, Big Match Lake and Lindholme Lakes, Bonsai

I must have done something right during the week as I was fishing another double header this weekend.

Moorfield Farm Fisheries, Goole

My first venture out and about this weekend was on a match to Moorfields Farm Fisheries, Goole.  A small group of us email each other on Monday to find out how we have got on and a couple of the emails come from resident Moorfields Farm venue experts, Martin Holmes and Chris Kitchen.  I emailed them during the week to get some info.  Basic info was to draw pegs 1, 27, 28 and 54. Oh and it was meat at 5m and margin and pellet across.

I arranged to pick up Buddy 'Anaemia' Keville and we were on our way.

At the draw, Chris Kitchen was first in the queue, Martin pushed me into the queue before him, then Martin then Anaemia then everyone else.  Chris put his hand in the bag and proceeded to draw peg 27 - WELL DRAWN CHRIS!!!.  I put my hand in the bag and ended up on peg 36/37.  I had a choice of peg once I arrived at my peg(s).  Martin drew peg 11 and Anaemia was on peg 30.  Andy Waters drew the other boss peg, peg 28.  I had Jamie Waters to my right on peg 34 and a young lad to my left in the corner on peg 40.

I arrived at my peg and Martin suggested that I fish peg 36 as I had a clump of reedmace to my left and bare bank to my left margins.  He said to fish meat at 5m and in the margins and to fish about 13m shallow and on the deck.

Rigs

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

Shallow rig - was a 4x12 Preston Innovations PB4 float set to fish about 18" deep.  I had a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed hook on this rig with a bait band.

PB4

13m rig was a 4 x 14 Carpa Chimp   I plumbed up and found that I had about 3ft deep on this line .I had a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed hook on this rig with a bait band.

Carpa Chimp

Margin rig was a .3g Cralusso Capri float.  Due to the steep slope, I had about 3ft deep 12inches from the bank.  I had on a size 16 Colmic 501 hook on this rig.

Cralusso Capri

My final rig was a .4g Garbolino DC 4 float.  I had about 4.5ft at 5m.  This rig also had on a size 16 Colmic 501.

DC4

Bait

For bait, I had 5 tins of 8mm cubed meat, 2 tins of corn, some micro pellets and some venue's own 6mm pellets.

The Match

At the all in, I potted in some meat at 5m, then threw in some meat and corn to both left and right margins.  I baited up the 13m rig for fishing on the deck with a 6mm pellet and put some 6mm pellets and micros in a tosspot.  I shipped out and dropped the bait in.  I had just settled the rig in when the wind grabbed hold of the pole and swung me round to the right LOL.  It was a tad windy.  I managed to settle the float and held onto the pole for dear life.  After 5 minutes, I got my first indication.  I waited a bit longer, the float shot under and I foul-hooked (and lost my first carp).

I dropped in again and waited.  After a further 10 minutes, the float buried and I got my first carp, an F1 about 2lb.  I put some more pellets in the tosspot, shipped out and dropped the bait and rig in and waited and waited.

This seemed to be the general indication of the events of the day.  I tried the margins with no success, although I did prick one down to my left. I did not get a bite on meat at 5mm.  I made up some 6mm expander pellets and dropped them in at 5m to my right (about 2 o'clock).  I caught a little roach.

I went for a walk to see how Chris was doing on peg 27, he was admitting to 70lb and was getting beat by Andy on peg 28.  Anaemia had about 30lb.  I was going nowhere.

At the all out, I had managed to get about a dozen carp for 28lb and no good.  Jamie Waters to my right tipped back and the young lad on peg 40 had about 20lb.  Chris Reilley on peg 32 had 77lb, Anaemia had 52lb.  Martin had 113lb from peg 11.  Chris plonked 163lb on the scales and Andy Waters won it from peg 28 with 175lb.

Results:
1.  Andy Waters (Peg 28) 175lb
2.  Chris Kitchen (Peg 27) 163lb
3.  Martin Holmes (Peg 11) 113lb.


Lindholme Lakes, Bonsai Lake

My second outing this weekend was with Robin Hood AC at Lindholme Lakes.  We were booked on Bonsai Lake.

I picked up Daz 'Frontrow' Harrison and we headed off to the match.

We have a little raffle before the draw to raise a few extra quid and up for grabs this week was 6 bottles of wife-beater Stella.  My ticket was pulled out of the raffle. Nice little start to the day.  In addition to the Stella, I also got to draw my peg first.  I was on the 1st leg (of 2 legs) of my knockout against Craig McKenny, so all was to play for.

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 74, which is at the end of the spit.  Frontrow drew peg 73 to my left.  Craig 'Oddjob' Thompson has a new nickname.  He is a twitcher/bird keeper, we have now nicknamed him 'Kes'.  "Come here Kes, come here Kes" - he drew form peg 69.  I had Michelle 'Splash' Webster on peg 75 to my right, Splash falls in so often, she has started to take some Timotei with her on the matches.  Craig was within watching distance on peg 76.  Dave 'Mr Soft' Horsfall was on peg 72.  Dave's father usually comes on the fishing matches with him so that he can tell him what to do and to also eat Mr Soft's sandwiches.  He was not here today, so Mr Soft would be able to eat all of his own sandwiches.  Habitual complainer 'Pid' was on peg 77.  Mark Wright drew corner peg 85 and Mick 'Dumptruck' Aveyard was on peg 84 and Colin 'The Worm' Weaver was on peg 68.

There must have been about 60 anglers pegged from peg 20 round to peg 85.  It was going to be a hard match and to top it all, the wind was considerably worse than yesterday.  It was blowing over my left shoulder with strong gusts blowing left to right.

Rigs

I set up a method rod with a 15g Preston Innovations method feeder and a Preston Innovations C1 size 18 hook on a .19 Preston Powerline hooklength.

I then set up 3 pole rigs as follows:

Shallow rig, was a .2g Frenzee FD200 float set to fish 18" deep at 13m.

I set up a 4 x 14 Carpa Chimp to fish across to the island at 16m.  This had on a baitband on a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed hook and a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength.  After plumbing up, I found that I had about 12-14" of depth.

I also set up a 4x14 Carpa Chimp to fish at 5m.  This had on a size 16 Colmic 501 hook on a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength.  I had about 3.5ft of depth on this line.

Bait

For bait, I had some 6mm pellets, micro pellets (both Lindholme Lakes own pellets), some corn and meat which were left from yesterday.  For the baitband, I tend to use 6mm Bait-Tech 6mm Carp Pellets.  They are uniform in size and when mounted on a Preston Innovations micro baitband, tend not to come out and you can catch half a dozen fish on one pellet.

The Match

At the start of the match, I potted in a full pot of meat and corn at 5m.  I then picked up my rig to fish to the island.  I put a 6mm pellet in the band and put about ten 6mm pellets in a tosspot and filled it with micro pellets.  I shipped out to 16m, dropped the bait in and waited.  I was getting dips and blips on the float almost immediately.

I started to feed a few pellets down-wind at 13m to try to get them shallow.

The float buried, I lifted into it and nothing.  I dropped the rig back in.  The float settled.  Then shot under and 4m of green Preston 13h was trying to get out of the pole tip.  I was shipping the pole back with the fish on and the fish was kiting to my left, the wind grabbed hold of the pole and pulled it to the right.  The result was that I pulled the hook out of the fish. DAGNAMIT!!

The pellet was still in the baitband.  I shipped back out and dropped the rig in again.  Michelle shouted (shout being the operative word due to the wind, although she was on the next peg) that Craig had 2 carp (both of method feeder to the island) and she had caught 1.  I had some catching up to do.  Daz had caught 1 on bomb and pellet to the island.  The float went under slowly.  I lifted and pricked one.  I dropped the rig in again and the float shot under.  I struck and the elastic came flying out of the pole.  Let me see if I can get this one in.

A carp about 3lb was soon in the net.  Daz had by this point, dropped in on his 5m line with meat on the hook.  He got a bit and struck.  He played the fish for a couple of minutes then the elastic on his pole snapped or came undone from his bung and was lying on top of the water with the fish still attached.  He quickly managed to wrap the elastic around his pole tip and pole cup and shipped back gently.  He got hold of his elastic and hand-lined the carp to the landing net.  It was about 5lb.  THE SPAWNY B***$%K.  If that had been me, I would have lost it.

Over the next couple of hours, I managed to snare half a dozen carp on the pole to the island.  The wind was steadily increasing and was constantly changing direction.  One minute it was off my back, the next it was left to right.  All the while, I had been throwing in meat and corn at 5 minutes.  I was paggered holding the pole at 16m so thought that I would have a breather and fish short for 5 minutes or so.  I was holding my own.  Splash had about 4 or 5 carp, Craig had 3 or 4 and some bits, Frontrow was probably just in front.  Mr Soft had a couple of carp.  Kes had a couple and The Worm was catching at 7m on worm and I could see Pid floating his pole to the island.  He was getting one or two even though the wind was blowing off his back.

I baited up with meat and dropped in at 5m.  I waited and waited and waited for about 5 minutes.  Nothing. I went back over to the island.  In view of pulling out of a 3 or 4 fish due to the wind, I swapped to Daiwa white hydro elastic.  The float settled, then shot under and my elastic was doing its best to get out of the pole tip.  I shipped back to the topkit and played it for about 4 or 5 minutes.  It turned out to be the biggest fish of the day - about 7/8lb common carp.

I decided to continue fishing to the island for the duration of the match, with the odd 5 minute spell on meat on the short line.

At one point during the match, Frontrow had caught a fish and shipped back.  He put his 4,5 and 6 section on the floor.  The wind picked it up and flung it into the back of me and it hit my box legs and broke on his number 5 and 6.

I was now catching steadily at 16m to the island.  That was it.  TIME!.  The match was over.  I asked Craig how much he thought that he had, he said 15lb.  I said that I had about 40lb (wink, wink).  I then asked him for his serious response, he said about 20lb.  I said that I had about 42lb (wink).

Weights

Mark on peg 85 was first to weigh and weighed in 35lb, Dumptruck had 31lb on 84.  Penfold Webster put 39lb on the scales from about peg 80 and was leading the match.  This was going to be close.  Pid put 45lb on the scales.  The scales arrived at Craig's peg and he put 20lb odd on the scales.  I had more than that.  Splash weighed in 28lb.  It was now my turn.  I lifted out my first net and put 24lb on the scales.  I then lifted out my 2nd net and that one went 35lb.  I had 59lb and was leading the match with about 4 left to weigh.  Frontrow had 28lb.  Mr Soft had 35lb.  Kes had a mid twenty pounds.  There was only Colin The Worm left to weigh and he was not sure what he had.  He lifted his net out and put it all on the scales.  They bottomed out.  We took 3 fish out and he weighed 45lb.  His last 3 fish went 8lb for a total of 53lb.  I had done it.  I won.  I was also carrying a 39lb advantage over Craig to the second leg of the knockout competition.  If it had not been windy, over 100lb was on the cards.  I had weighed in 59lb and lost about 25lb and I was struggling with presentation a lot of the time.  The wind was spinning me on my box.

Result:

1. Mick Herrington (Peg 74) 59lb
2.  Colin Weaver (Peg 68) 53lb
3. Paul Farley (Peg 77) 45lb
4. Dave Webster (Peg 80) 39lb

Thank you and tight lines until next weekend.

:-)

Barnburgh - Bottom Lake

The club were booked on one of my least favourite venues so I decided to book on the open match at Barnburgh Lakes, Doncaster which was to be staged on the bottom pond (Pond 3).

Top Pond (1), Middle Pond (2) and Bottom Pond (3).

Frontrow Harrison was still on his jollies, so my travelling partner today was Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead.  He texted me to say that he was not fishing this weekend as the water pump had gone on his car, so I took pity on him and offered to take him for a session to Barnburgh.  His last 3 match results have been worse than disastrous with all of them being a DNW (I believe).  Stuart 'Swimming Donkey' Waterhouse and Craig 'Oddjob' Thompson were also booked on.  The club were mob-handed.

I picked up Lurch and we went for a breakfast with Oddjob and Donkey. Whilst waiting for our breakfast, the waitress and cook were on about serving someone breakfast and giving some black pudding that had not been paid for.  Intending to do the honourable thing, Lurch went to pay for the black pudding.  Following a few harsh words, Lurch got a refund of his breakfast and was escorted outside by the cafe bouncer. LOLOL.  He was stood outside licking the windows whilst we ate our full English breakfast.  To add further insult to injury, they had prepared Lurch's breakfast which was not going spare.  So Donkey had a second breakfast for free - with some free black pudding.

The Draw
By the time that we arrived and paid on there were 24 booked on the match.  I put my hand in the bag and snare peg 24.  On my very first trip, I was 5th off peg 23 with 105lb (peg 22 was empty) so was hopeful of a few fish.

I had venue expert - Les 'War and' Peace on peg 25, Lurch was on peg 20, Andy Stonner was on peg 21, Pete Gosney was on peg 3, Oddjob was on peg 5, Donkey was on peg 6, Paul Jenkinson was on peg 15, Rob Hitchens was on peg 16 and Mick Owen was on peg 17.  The obligatory £2 side bet was struck up with Lurch.

Resident Venue Expert - Les 'War and' Peace

Rigs
I set up 4 rigs as follows:

Left - Right - Jigga 1, Frenzee FD200, Jigga 2 and Teardrop

Rig 1 - was a yellow topped Jigga rig set to fish between 6 - 12" deep.  This had on a Trabucco T1 .12 hooklength with a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook and was attached to Preston Red 11h elastic.

Rig 2 - was a .2g Frenzee FD200 float set to fish about 18" deep.  This had on a .11 Preston Powerline Hooklength with a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook and was attached to Preston Red 11h elastic.

Rig 3 - was a black topped Jigga rig set to fish between 6" and 2ft deep.  This had on a .12 Trabucco T1 .12 hooklength to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook and was also attached to Preston Red 11h elastic.

Rig 4 - was a .3g teardrop shaped float and was set at 3ft deep to fish in the margin.  This had on a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength and a size 16 B611 hook.  This rig was attached to Diawa white hydro elastic.

All of the shallow rigs (1 - 3) had a baitband on a hair-rig.

Bait
For bait, I had some 4mm pellets (you have to use the venues own pellets), some Bob-co 4mm pellets (for the baitband) and some 4mm BaitTech expander pellets.

Pellets, pellets and more pellets!!

Following a couple of chats with Rob Hitchens and Pet Gosney, I invested in a new Sensas landing net specifically for places similar to Barnburgh - banded pellet fishing for small fish.  The net was fine mesh to eliminate the pellet coming off in the landing net and I also tied the bottom off to make it a shallower net so that I was not reaching too far down into the net when unhooking fish.

I had also, courtesy of ebay, purchased a brand new unused Preston Innovations keepnet which was going to get it's first outing today.  Let us hope that it is not a bad omen on using a new keepnet for the first time.

The Match
Let banter battle commence. I threw a small handful of pellets down the margin and then baited up the black topped jigga rig with a 4mm pellet and shipped out to 10m.  I fed some 4mm pellets over the top and then proceeded to 'jig' the rig. Lifting and dropping the pellet all the while.  After about 20 minutes, I had about 10 fish in the net. It was a slow start by Barnburgh standards. I decided to swap over to the Frenzee rig to see if they wanted a static bait.  After about another 20 minutes, I had about 25/30 fish.  I asked War and Peace how many he had.  He said that he did not know.

I was constantly feeding 20(ish) pellets every fish at 10m.  I had seen one or two swirls.  I decided to have a go on the shallower of the two jigga rigs (rig 1).

Over the next 1.5 hours I anticipate that I had about 25/30lb.  It was slow going.  War and Peace was pulling out of a few fish and was starting to get a little annoyed, especially seeing as I was smiling at him after every fish that he pulled out of.  I advised Lurch to fish shallow at 11m.  I looked down the lake and he had 14m of pole in front of him and was fishing to the island.  DOH!!!

Stonner decided to have a go down the edge at this point and dropped his rig in the margin and put the pole between his legs whilst he faffed about with his rigs.  Yep, you guessed it...WHOOOSH, his topkit was dragged into the lake, never to be seen again.

I proceeded to fish shallow swapping between the three shallow rigs.  The fish appeared to be at differing heights after every couple of fish or so.  I was now fishing about 11.5m out.  I would have a run of about 5 - 10 fish, then have to change a couple of minor things such as more bait, less bait, tap the water, don't tap the water, jig the rig, hold the rig.  Just little things caught a couple more fish.

I was now into the last hour and a half of the match and appeared to be doing OK.  I was beating War and Peace to my left and the angler to my right.  Pete Gosney was catching a few fish on peg 3 and I could also see that Oddjob Thompson and Donkey Waterhouse were getting one or two.  Lurch was now fishing down the bank and was catching a few fish as was Stonner.  Everyone seemed to be getting fish.

I decided to fish at 13m for the remainder of the match just up to some sedges that were over-hanging into my peg.  At this point, Pete Gosney struck into a fish, that also did a 'Stonner' and proceeded to pull his topkit off at 11m.  By some stroke of luck and fortune, the managed to get his topkit back - minus the fish.  There is a god after all.

I proceeded to catch one or two more fish before swapping lines and catching another couple of fish.  TIME!!! That was it match over.  How had I done??? I was not sure.  I had a slow start, good middle of match, then a slow end to the match.  Had I beaten War and Peace?  I said to him that I was about 40lb behind him, with a grin on my face.

As I was packing away my gear, Donkey walked round to me and decided to bet me £1 that he had more than me.  Another £1 was up for grabs.

The scales arrived at peg 18 and proceeded to weigh from there.  Not sure what weights they had.  Lurch was one of the first weights that I remembered and he put 74lb on the scales.  He was chuffed to bits.  I felt that I had £2 coming my way as I knew that I had more than that.  Stonner on peg 21 had 3 weighs and put 128lb odd on the scales.  Pegs 22 and 23 had 70 - 80lb each.  It was now my turn.  I lifted out my first net and plonked 52lb on the scales.  I think that I had an even split which would give me about 100lb.  I thought that I had more than that.  I then lifted out my 2nd net and had two weighs and put 82lb on the scales, giving me a total weight of 134lb.  I was currently leading with the big hitters yet to weigh.  Oh, I was up £2 already due to Lurch, thank you very much.  Les 'War and' Peace plonked 116lb on the scales (he probably lost about 20lb or so today).  Pete Gosney on peg 3 weighed in 154lb which pushed me into 2nd place.  Oddjob put 84lb on the scales.  Next to weigh was Donkey.  He had 2 weighs for a total of 112lb.  I was up another pound.  But I was also please for Donkey as he had had his first 100lb+ weight in a match.  He was really made up.  Good for him.  From pegs 7 - 14, there were a few 80 - 110lb weights.

The last 3 to weigh were Jenkinson, Hitchens and Owen in that order.  I was currently lying 2nd, where was I going to finally end up?  Jenkinson put 180lb odd on the scales, all caught on paste on the top 2.  I was in 3rd place.  Hitchens put 170lb on the scales, again all on paste on the top two. I was now in 4th place.  Owen put 117lb on the scales.  I was 4th.  I was very pleased with the result.

I went to get my £1 off Donkey, and he shook his empty pockets.  (The following day, I sent him a text asking for my quid and he texted me back to say double or quits next time we go, hmmmmm).

Lurch paid up - all £1.50 of it..  He still owes me 50p.  I will have to start up my own Wonga.com payday loan company to lend them the money so that I can get it back. :-)

Lurch needed a confidence booster and was very happy with catching a few (well a good few) fish today.  Stuart 'Donkey' Waterhouse was on cloud 9, having broke the 100lb barrier.  Well done fella's.  Glad you enjoyed it.

Full Result
1. Paul Jenkinson (peg 15) - 180lb odd
2. Rob Hitchens (Peg 16) - 170lb
3. Pete Gosney (Peg 3) - 154lb odd
4. Mike Herrington (Peg 24) - 135lb
5. Andy Stonner (Peg 21) - 128lb odd

When checking the results at the Anglers Mail website on the Monday, I have always had to email them to get the results right.  I have been called Nick Terrington, Mick Hammington, Mick Harris and god only knows what else.  Best have a word with the match organiser!!

Tightlines.

MICK HERRINGTON :-)

Redwood Lakes - Canal Lake

The club had booked a match at Redwood Lakes near Easingwold.  We were booked on Canal Lake.

Redwood Lakes Map

There are approx 38 pegs on the long part of Canal Lake and about 6 or 7 pegs on the little spit coming off the Canal Lake (if you look closely, it looks like a bath tub).  Peg 1 is the end nearest the main car park with 38 at the other end of the lake and pegs 39 to 45 on the little spit.  The venue provide keepnets, 1 net for silver fish and one net for carp.

I went for a walk round the lake on Saturday with Lurch Moorhead to get a better idea of what we needed to do.  The rumour mill was saying that it was all pellet and corn to catch bream down the middle of the lake.  On Saturday, if was fishing hard when we walked round and a new game plan was devised.  MAGGOTS!!!!

15 of us attended the match and we were given the whole lake including the private lake (the spit, LOL).  I put my hand in the bag and ended up on peg 12.  The peg was just before you got to the bridge that separated the 'private lake' from the main canal lake. Due to John Macca McCall having a duff knee, he was on peg 2, Sadsack himself (Pid) was on peg 4 or 6 or something.  Swimming Donkey was on peg 21 and we decided (after advice of the pond owner) to put 1 peg on the spit.  This peg went to Paul 'Woofer' Clough.  I had a look at his peg, he was pleasure fishing.  I had Gary to my right on peg 10 and Dave 'Mick, what have you got, have you got 5lb yet, Mick what have you got, have you got 6lb yet, Mick what have you got, have you got 8lb yet' Horsfall to my left on peg 14, the bridge peg.  Dave 'Penfold' Webster was on about peg 17.

I arrived at my peg and decided on a multi-pronged attack.

I was going to fish the following rigs:

Rig 1 - 4m whip to hand.  I have an old Daiwa 5m Zoom whip and decided to take this to fish maggot shallow for the little roach and rudd that were evident the day before.  The float that I used on this was an old Image whip float for fishing bottom end only taking 2bb and a couple of droppers.  I put on a .10 hooklength with a size 20 Kamasan B611 hook.  I set this rig to fish about 2ft deep on the drop.

Rig 2 - short-line shallow rig.  This rig was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float set about 2ft deep also with a .10 hooklength. I used Preston 9h elastic for this rig.

Rig 3 - Deep rig down the track.  I set up a Langwith Lakes float (not sure what it is called, it is a long teardrop shape, similar to the old Milo Miranda floats), the float was a .3g model.  I shotted this up to fish 1 inch on the bottom and I would be fishing this at full depth where I would be fishing maggot shallow, incase any fish settle over any maggots that managed to get to the bottom.  I used Daiwa white hydro elastic down the middle.

Rig 4 - Margin Rig - I set up a 4.12 Chimp float and this was just touching the bottom about 1 ft from the bank, where I had 2.5ft of depth.  The rig was set to fish with a .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength and was attached to green Preston 13h elastic.

The Margin - a few nice looking reeds.

Rig 5 - across to the reeds rig.  At this stage, ignore where the pole is as I initially started off to the front of the reeds into a gap in the reeds.  I set up a 4 x 12 Chimp for this line also.  I attached a .15 Preston Powerline hooklength and attached it to Preston 15h Blue elastic.

Across - Look at the reeds!!!

Bait - For bait I had 3 pints of white maggots, 4mm and 6mm Bait-Tech Expander pellets, 6mm cubed meat,  small tin of sweetcorn and some micro-pellets.

Pellets, Meat, Corn and Maggots.

The Match

At the start of the match, I fed some meat to the margin to my left and a few maggots to my right.  I put a single maggot on the whip rig and flicked it out to 7m or so.  I threw about 15/20 maggots over the top of the float and soon swung a 2oz roach to hand.    I rebaited the whip rig and proceeded to catch about 15 or so little rudd and roach for about 1lb in weight.  After about 30 minutes of this, the whip rig shot under and I was attached to something a little bigger than 1oz. I played it and eventually a carp about 1lb was on it's way to the landing net.  With one final shake of its head, if shot off to the reeds in the margin and shed the hook.  BASKET!!!!

Dave to my left had a couple of carp down the edge (fishing across to the otherside of the bridge), I decided to have a go in my margin.  I baited up the margin rig with a piece of meat.  I dropped the rig in, pulled it up the slope a little, then I threw about 8 pieces of meat over the top and waited.  After a couple of minutes, the float went sideways a little, then dipped.  I waited like a coiled spring.  The float shot under and I struck into a better fish.  After playing it for a few minutes a carp about 2.5lb was in the keepnet.

I rebaited and dropped the rig back in the edge and waited and waited.  Nothing.

I decided to go back out on the whip.  Even the roach and rudd seemed to be having an off day.  There was barely a breath of wind and the sun had most definitely come out to play.  Not exactly ideal conditions.

We were now about 1 hour into the match and Dave had asked me about 4 times 'Mick, how much have you got, have you got 5lb (or swop with any indiscriminate google number) yet'.  I had about 6lb and was admitting to 3lb.

For the past hour, I had been flicking a few pellets over to the reeds and the reeds were now knocking occasionally. Right. Time to have a go!!!

I baited up the across rig with a 6mm expander pellet, dropped it in.  The float shot away and a roach about 2oz was soon in the net.  It didn't put up much of a fight on Preston 15h hollow LOL.  I rebaited and went back out to the reeds and promptly caught another roach. Hmmmm, best try a different bait.  I put meat on and waited and waited and nothing.

Sadsack had now walked the bank and was promptly doing laps up and down.  Reports were coming back that it was fishing absolutely rock hard.  Some of the anglers had only had a couple of plips.  Gary to my right had 1 fish.  Woofer who was pleasure fishing his own private lake was catching one or two F1's.

For the next hour or so, I must admit that I faffed about a bit as I was not really making anything work.  Even the roach and rudd seemed to have shut up shop.

Now I was going to revert to plan twentyeleventyseventysix.  I decided to set up a mudline rig across with maggots.  I plumbed up the across rig and cut the line down to suit.  I had about 12" of depth tight across at 13m in the bay  at the back of the reeds.  I baited up with 2 maggots and filled up the large tosspots full of maggots.  I shipped out, tipped the maggots in and caught an ide straightaway.  I did the same again and caught a perch about 12oz.

Tight to the far bank at the back of the reeds.

As I was bringing the perch back, I could see a couple of swirls across at the mudline.  I rebaited and shipped back out to the mudline.  I tipped the maggots in (I was now feeding a full large tosspot of maggots each drop in to try to feed the bits off).  The float settled. It then seemed to swirl a bit, then sent under slowly.  I lifted into the bite, the fish woke up and shot round the back of the reeds and shed the hook.  NOT A CHANCE.  1 - 0 TO THE CARP.  BAUBLES.  I managed to get my rig back, or what was left of it.

Not a lot left really - the eye from the float, the float rubber and a couple of stotz LOL 

I decided that Preston 15h was not strong enough, so had to get out my topkit loaded with Preston 17h.

At this point, Dave 'Mick what have you got (oh forget it, you get my drift) Horsfall had hooked a carp that was doing its best to get under the bridge.  It then shot towards him and he did not ship his pole back fast enough and the fish managed to snap his top 4 kit and tow it back under the bridge and into Woofer's private pond and was gone, never to be returned.

I managed to get a couple more carp and a couple of F1 carp and a small barbel over the duration of the match, by potting in maggots and fishing with double maggot over the top.

That was it, the match was over.  THANK GOD!! THAT HAD BEEN A BIT OF A GRUELLER.

The scales arrived and Macca was winning the match with 9lb.  Yes, NINE pounds it is not a mis-print.  Gary tipped back to my right.  It was now my turn.  My first weigh went 4lb 6oz of silver fish.  My second weigh went 9lb 10oz of carp for a total weight of 14lb 0oz.  I was winning.  But not for long.  We were now going to weigh in Lord Longleat at his private lake.  He weighed in 2lb of silvers and 26lb odd of carp. I was now in 2nd place with about 6 more left to weigh in.  'Mick, what have you got?' weighed in a total of 11lb 1oz.  There were a couple of other 11lb weights with not much else above it until we got to the end peg where Ian 'Syd' Waddell had spent the day hiding away.  As soon as he lifted his net out, I knew that I had been beaten into 3rd place.  He managed a combined weight of 18lb odd.

The Result:

1. Paul Clough - 28lb 9oz

2. Ian Waddell - 18lb odd

3.  Mick Herrington - 14lb 0oz

4. Stuart Waterhouse - 11lb 7oz

5. Craig McKenny - 11lb 3oz

6.  Dave Horsfall - 11lb 1oz

Well done (oh and woofer, well drawn, don't forget to send your private gardener to to the pond to carry your gear to the car for you. hahaha.)

Barnburgh - Bottom Lake

The club (Robin Hood AC) were booked on a match at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk on Curlew Lake.  The lake is a 24 peg lake and there were 23 booked on the match and the lake cannot really handle that many anglers on it, so Frontrow and I decided to book on at Barnburgh as it was on the bottom lake.  On our last venture here Frontrow had 70lb for nowhere, I had had 105lb for 5th in the match.  I was hoping for similar today.

At the draw, there were 4 jackpot pegs pulled out, the numbers being pegs 1, 6, 17 and 25.  Andy Stonner pulled out peg 6, Rob 'Zebedee' Hitchens drew peg 2, Mick Owen was on peg 7, Frontrow was on peg 10, Les 'War and Peace was on peg 15.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 1.  One of the jackpot pegs.  Hmmmm!!!

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig 1 - was a .2g Frenzee FD200 float on .15 Preston Powerline with a 4" .12 Trabucco T1 hooklength with a size 18 hook and baitband.  This was attached to Preston 11h red elastic.  I set this rig to fish about 18" deep.

Rig 2 - Was a Ian Heywood 'Jigga' float.  This was also attached to .15 Preston Powerline with a 4" .13 Preston Powerline Hooklength to a size 18 hook and baitband.  Again this was also attached to Preston 11h red elastic. - What is a Jigga??  A jigga is a free running float that is locked above and below the float by a float stop.  Underneath the bottom float stop you put on some shot.  The idea being that you ship out, drop the rig in and then lift and drop the shot and bait whilst the float stays in the water.  Today will be the 2nd day that I have used one of these floats.  This was set to fish between 8" and 18" deep (allowing for 12" of lifting and dropping).

Rig 3 - was my margin rig.  This consisted of a .4g Sensas Powerpencil float set up on .15 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength and a size 16 hook.  This rig was attached to Preston 13h green elastic.  I plumbed up down the edge and found that I had about 3 - 3.5ft deep - too deep to be honest.

Both of the shallow rigs were set up to fish about 11m and the margin rig was set up to fish on top 2.

Before the start of the match, I slapped the Frenzee FD200 rig a couple of times next to my keepnet on the top two, just to get an indication of how the float was going to sit in the water.  The float shot under and F1 carp No 1 was in the net. LOL.  Only joking, this one was a catch and release.  It was solid. LOL.

Bait

For bait, I had 1 bag of the venues own 4mm pellets, some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets, some Bait-Tech 4mm hard pellets and some meat.

I observed Zebedee Hitchens and he set up 2 rigs, both of which were to fish paste in the margins.

The Match

At the start of the match, I picked up rig 1 and baited up with a hard 4mm pellet, shipped out to 11m, flicked a few 4mm pellets over the top, and..... fish on.  All this within 30 seconds.  F1 carp number 1 in the net.  Can we please shout time now.  :-)

I continued to catch fish, quite frequently for the next 40/45 minutes at 11m using the Frenzee rig.  All the while, I was flicking a few pellets and a couple of bits of meat to my right on the top 2 line.

Zebedee asked me how many fish did I have.  I replied that I did not know and how many of you got, he said that he had 39 fish.  I said that I did not think that I was that far behind him. I needed to up my fish rate. I swapped over to rig 2, the Jigga.  I baited up with a 4mm hard pellet again.  Shipped out to 11m, slapped the rig in a couple of times, then let the pellet 'fall' through the float. The elastic shot out and another F1 carp was soon in the net.

The fish seemed to be coming in spells, you caught 3 or 4, then they disappeared, then you caught again.

I was now about 1.5 hours into the match and I could see Rob catching steadily from the margins.  I decided it was time to now have a look on the top 2.

I baited up the margin rig with a 6mm cube of meat.  Dropped in on the top 2, the float dipped, then shot under.  The carp was soon subdued on the green 13h elastic.  I then dropped in again, and got a few liners before the float went under.  Nothing, missed it.  I re-baited, dropped in again and the float shot under.  Nothing.  I proceeded in this manner for the next 30 mins or so.  During this time, I would estimate that I had managed to get about 6 or 7 carp.  Rob had about 20 in the same period of time.

I decided to go back shallow again as I was not catching anywhere near fast enough down the edge.

Over the next couple of hours, I swapped between the jigga rig (when working the bait) and the shallow Frenzee rig when letting the bait settle.

I tried a 6mm pellet as these will stay in the band longer and are easier to put in a band (OMG trying to band a 4mm pellet with wet hands and no nails is nigh on impossible) but they would not take a 6mm, as you can guess by the stamp of the fish. 

After about 3.5 hours, Rob asked me how many fish I had, I said that I did not know.  I asked if he knew how many he had and he replied that he was bored of counting.

I then proceeded to swap between the two rigs until the end of the match.  Someone said that Les 'War and Peace' superglued his pellets to his hook, then varnished them to make them stay on longer.  Another angler said the he used porcelain pellets.  Never mind war and peace, maybe have to rename him Team Tiles R Us.

That was it, the match was over.  I had caught a few.  Frontrow came round to me as he was putting his gear in my car and asked how I had got on.  I said that I had more than 100lb, I think!!?  Thing is, when you are catching big numbers of small carp, you do not know what sort of weight you have got.

Weights

Seeing as I was on peg 1, I was first to weigh.  I lifted my first net out and put it on the scales and it went 66lb 15oz. The scalesman then realised that they had not deducted the weight of the weigh-sling, they deducted 1lb 11oz, so my first weigh was 65lb 4oz.  I lifted my 2nd net out (well tried to as Frontrow had to give me a hand), and after two weighs the 2nd net went 97lb 2oz for a total weight of 162lb 4oz.  I had set the bar quite high. Oh and I was in first place (at the moment) LOL.

But not for long.  After Rob's 3 weighs, he had 173lb 3oz - all on paste on his top 2.  Then there were a few weights between 40 - 70lb by the time that the scales had got to Stonner.  He had 4 weighs and his total weight went 164lb 4oz, pushing me into 3rd place.  Mick Owen put 159lb odd on the scales.  Frontrow weigh in 69lb 12oz.  Everyone had said that Ian 'Jigga' Heywood had caught a lot of fish.  After 3 weighs he had 130lb 1oz.  There were then weights of 129lb, 131lb, 136lb, 109lb and quite a few weights between 70 and 100lb.

I had come 3rd.  Had I done a couple of things different, I feel that I could have won the match or at least been 2nd.  I estimate, that I had in the region of 210/220 F1 carp.

Result

1. Rob Hitchens - 173lb 3oz
2. Andy Stonner - 164lb 4oz
3. Mick Herrington - 162lb 4oz
4. Mick Owen - 159lb odd.
5. ??? - 136lb odd.

What a venue, 162lb for 3rd in the match.  I was totally cream crackered.  When the match finished, I stopped and ate a red 'Bounty' for sustenance LOL.

I rang up a couple of lads who went on the match to Woodlands, Mark Wright won it with 50 odd pound, a couple of forties and most seemed to struggle for carp.

Looks like I made the right choice.

Until next week.  Tightlines.

Big Pellet.

Double Header This Weekend - Lindholme - Oasis and Barnburgh - Middle Lake

Lindholme - Oasis Lake

After a debate during the week, I decided to book on at Lindholme Lakes, Doncaster. I texted Neil 'Uncle Fester' Grantham the night before to see what lake the open was going to be on.  But alas, he did not reply.

I picked up Buddy 'the anaemic milk bottle' Keville (see image below) as my travelling partner this week.

Buddy 'Anaemia' Keville 

Buddy had heard that the sun was going to come out today.  He nearly cancelled off and stayed indoors.  He does not like the sun. LOL.  He got in the car and looked like he had seen a ghost.  Probably had a lot to do with the ten layers of suncream his missus had applied.

We arrived in plenty of time and had a quick breakfast in the onsite cafe.  I then went to pay on and found that we were on Oasis.  I have only ever fished this once before.

There were 35 booked on the match.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 36.  Apparently, I was just off the the pegs where you wanted to be, these were from pegs 35 to my left and going round to pegs 20 ish.  I had a lad called Andy to my right on peg 38, Jimmy Winter to my left on 35, somone on 33, Steve Mazza was on peg 31, Steve Barraclough was on peg 24, Matt Pillay was on peg 40/41.  Anaemia was on peg 22 so was in good company with Steve to his right.

The Rigs

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

Rig 1 was a .4g Powerpencil float for the top 2 + 2 sections at about 10 0'clock and 2 o'clock.  I had about 3.5ft on this line.

Rig 2 was to fish top 2 + 3 down the bank to my right.  The float consisted of a Bauja .2g float and after plumbing up, I had about 2ft of depth.

Rigs 3 + 4 were set up to fish across to the far side at about 13m.  One of the rigs was set up to fish about 2ft deep and the other was set about 12" deep to the mud line.  Both rigs consisted of a .2g Bauja float.

Rigs 2, 3 and 4 all had on a bait-band and rig 1 was a standard hooklength.

For bait I had some 6mm meat, 8mm meat, 4mm Lindholme pellets, 6mm Dynamite Baits hard pellets and some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets.

The Match

At the start of the match, I baited up the 2ft deep across rig with a hard 6mm pellet and put some 4mm pellets in a tosspot.  I shipped out to the far side, tipped the 4mm pellets in and dropped the rig over the top.  The float settle for about 10 seconds and 5ft of white hydro elastic shot out of the pole tip.  An F1 carp about 2lb was soon in the net.  I did the same again and another F1 about 1lb soon joined its brethren.

I foul-hooked and lost the next two fish.  I swapped rigs to the mudline rig and did the same process. I must have waited about 5 minutes before I got an indication.  I lifted into the bite, the elastic flew out of the pole tip and soon retracted when I pulled out of the fish.

I then proceeded to fish across for the next hour and estimated to have about 15lb or so.  I was foul-hooking the odd fish on the 2ft deep rig, and if I went on the mudline rig, I struggled for indications.  I had constantly been flicking 6 - 8 pieces of meat on the top 2 + 2 line.  After about one and a half hours, I decided to have a look on the top 2 + 2.  I baited up with a piece of meat, dropped the rig in and waited with anticipation.....

That is one of the great things about fishing, generally, no matter where you have drawn or are fishing - the first time that you drop your rig in on your chosen lines, the excitement and anticipation that you get is electric and you sit there pole or rod in hand, rig in the water and you are like a coiled spring, waiting for the first indication/bite.

I had better get back to the blog about fishing, this is not about Psychology.

Anyway, I had dropped the rig in on the top 2 + 2 line and waited some more and waited.  A little dip, then the float shot under, I struck, the fish went to the middle of the lake, came back and then went round in circles and would not come up of the bottom.  Yes, you guessed it a barbel about 2lb.  I dropped in again, nothing.  I never got another bite of this line.

One of the things that we all do is whether pleasure or match fishing is to compare ourselves with the angler on the next peg, in terms of if you are catching a few more fish than them, then you are doing OK.  I was beating Andy to my right and Jimmy to my left and Matt Pillay was catching one or two shallow, other than that I did not really know how I was doing in the match.  I just knew that it seemed to be fishing hard.

About 2/3's of the way through the match, Jimmy struck at a bite and the fish snagged him on some branches in the water.  I tried to pull for a break and as he was shipping back the top 4 (sections 2, 3 and 4) came off his pole and glided back towards his now snagged rig.  He left it there until the end of the match.

I persevered on the far side, picking up the odd fish now and again whilst still feeding the margin swim and the top 2 + 2.

Going into the last hour I anticipated that I had about 30 - 35lb or so.  I went down the edge with a 6mm expander pellet on the hook.  The float settled, dipped almost immediately and shot under.  A roach about 2oz flew out of the water on the strike.  Damn.  I re-baited, dropped the rig in again and waited.  I waited about 3-4 minutes, the float went sideways, dipped and carried on going sideways slowly.  I lifted into the bite, there was a big boil on the water and that was it.  The fish was gone as I had pricked it. BAUBLES!.

I had caught about half of my fish on meat across and the other half on pellet across.  The moment of truth, the scales had arrived.  I lifted out my first net and put 43lb 7oz on the scales. I lifted out my second net and put it on the bank to dry. LOL.

Anaemia weighed in 42lb odd.  Steve Barraclough had 83lb, Mazza weighed in 59lb ish.  Two pegs to my left DNW, Jimmy DNW and Andy had 37lb odd.  Matt weighed in 70lb ish.

Result:

1.  Andy ?? (Peg 28) 89lb odd
2.  Steve Barraclough 83lb
3.  Matt Pillay 70lb

Whilst on the bank after the match, I got taking with Steve Barraclough about Barnburgh Lakes, as I had booked on there for tomorrow's match. I asked him, what floats he uses for fishing shallow.  He said that he would show me.  So I followed him over to his gear and he showed me some Frenzee FD200 Pole Floats that he uses.  He had 4 rigs set up.  He removed them from his line and gave them to me.  Fantastic.  Thank you.  What a guy.  I was not expecting that.  Maybe I should have asked him what pole he uses, LOL.  (I know he uses a top of the range Frenzee pole).  I also asked him how he had fished his peg today and he had fished it positive, with 2 lines, a margin line and a far side line.

Thanks for reading, the Barnburgh report will follow - see how I had got on with Steve's Frenzee floats LOL.


Barnburgh Lakes - Middle Lake

Robin Hood AC were booked on a match at Raker Lakes, York and due to the growth in club members, we only had 18 pegs available and 19 wanted to fish, so Frontrow and I decided to cancel off Raker match and go back to Barnburgh Lakes again to see if we can get a repeat of the last match we went on.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson and Stuart 'Talking Donkey' Waterhouse also booked on and followed us on our leisurely drive (Frontrow was driving) to the match.

Before the start of the match, I spoke to regular winner/framer Pete Gosney to get his ideas and thoughts on the venue as I had never fished it before.  Pete told me that you wanted to be on pegs 2 - 4/5 or pegs 13 - 16 and as was the case on the Bottom Lake, he advised me fish shallow or down the edge using 4mm pellets as feed and on the hook.

The Draw

By the time that I had got to the draw bag, there were only 4 pegs left and Frontrow, Shrek, Talking Donkey and I were the last ones to draw.  There was still one of the 4 jackpot pegs left, which was peg 4 and apparently was one of the better pegs that had a chance of winning.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 18.  Just off them!!?  Frontrow drew peg 14, which apparently was sock on, Shrek drew jackpot peg 4 and Talking Donkey was next to me on 19.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had venue expert, Pete Gosney on peg 17.  I will now see if the info that he gave me this morning was duff or not LOL.  Andy 'Rosie and Jim' Stonner was on peg 1.  Rob Hitchens was on 2, Les 'War and' Peace was on about peg 11.

The Rigs.

As per the last match, I set up 2 x shallow rigs, one was set to fish 12" deep and the other was set to fish 2ft deep.  Both rigs had .15 Preston Powerline mainline with a .12 baitband hooklength to a size 18 eyed B911  hook and were attached to Preston red 11h elastic.  Both of the shallow rigs were the Frenzee FD200 floats that I had acquired of Mr Stever Barraclough the day before at Lindholme Lakes.  Both floats were .2g.  My 3rd rig was a .4g Powerpencil, this was on .15 Preston Powerline mainline with a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up to my left and right and found that I had about 3.5ft on top 2 + 2.

For bait I had 2 bags of 4mm hard pellets from Barnburgh, as you have to use their pellets, some 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellets and some 6mm cubed meat.  Keeping things plain and simple today.

The Match

At the start of the match, I baited up the 2ft deep shallow rig with a 4mm pellet, flicked a few out with the catapult to 12m and dropped the rig over the top.  Just as I looked down to find where my catapult was, the elastic ripped from the pole tip.  An F1 carp about 12oz was soon in the net.  I flicked some more pellets out, dropped the rig over the top and latched into my 2nd fish of the day.  Another F1 carp about 8/10oz.

I continued to lift, slap and tap the lake whilst continually feeding 8-10 4mm pellets over the top of the float for the next few hours.  When we started the match, the wind was blowing straight at me, by midway through the match, it had turned slightly and was blowing towards pegs 13/14 and at times seemed to be blowing left to right and at other times there was no wind at all.  The sun was baking hot.  Pete and I seemed to be having a fish race and I think that I was just in front.

I observed what everyone else around the lake were doing.  Stonner was catching down the edge, Hitchens was catching on pellet wag, Shrek seemed to be struggling, then he caught a few on top 2 + 1, Les Peace was catching a few fish, Frontrow was getting the odd fish short and Talking Donkey was catching the odd fish shallow and down the edge.

The Paparazzi

About halfway through the match, a reporter from the local Coalmining Courier paper came to the lake to take a few pictures of the venue regulars and started with Stonner.  I shouted over to Stonner that they wanted a topless photo of him, he then disappeared down the bank for a couple of minutes. I did not know that he was so shy.  I then shouted to him that he was going to be in next Sunday's Sunday Sport newspaper.  I can just see the headlines now.  Fishing Mad Angler Marries a Fish.  Some of the other anglers were shouting things that are totally unprintable on my blog.

The Margins

I decided to have a look in the margin for a few minutes as my 12m line seemed to be dying as the fish had followed the wind out of my peg and my catch rate had slowed significantly.  I dropped in down the edge with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander on the hook.  I had been feeding a few 6mm expanders and some 4mm hard pellets down the margin every so often throughout the match. The float settled then shot under.  A skimmer bream about 8oz was soon in the net.  I managed to catch another couple of skimmers, and ide and 3 carp down the edge.

The Last Hour

During my little spell down the edge, which must of lasted all of 10 minutes, Pete had managed to get the carp boiling and swirling in his peg and was catching very quickly now.

I went back out shallow to 12m again.  I would feed, then tap the lake surface until I got a fish.  The fish had definitely gone as I was only getting the odd fish now and again whereas Pete was still managing to catch fish.

TIME, that was it, the match was over.  How had I got on??  I asked Pete what did he think that he had and he said about 95lb ish.  I estimated that I had about 80lb ish.  The scales will tell.

They started the weigh in from peg 13, he put about 50lb on the scales.  Frontrow Harrison had 47lb odd.  Pegs 15 and 16 had 50 - 60lb ish.  Now came the interesting part.  Pete's first weigh went 42lb odd, his second net went 55lb for a total of 97lb odd.  My first weigh went 41lb odd.  I lifted my 2nd net out, this was going to be close.  I watched the scales go round, past 30lb, past 40lb, past 45lb, and onto 52lb odd.  I weighed in 93lb 2oz.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Talking donkey had 60lb of ide and carp. Stonner's 2 weighs went 73lb odd.  Rob Hitchens did not weigh.  Shrek Thompson weighed in 63lb ish.  Les Peace weighed in 83lb odd and last to weigh was Ian Heywood, he plonked 70lb on the scales.  I had come second.  I was very happy with that result.  I would estimate that I had about 115 carp, ide and skimmers.  It had been quite a busy day.

Result
1. Pete Gosney - 97lb odd, peg 17
2. Mike Herrington - 93lb odd, peg 18
3. Les Peace - 83lb odd, peg 11 (ish)
4. Andy Stonner - 73lb odd, peg 1
5. S Sissons (?) - 70lb odd.

The pegs are quite tight, but as you can see from the weights above and the match a couple of weeks ago, THE LAKES ARE FULL OF FISH.

Tightlines for now.

Thanks for reading.

Big Pellet.

Maple Lake, The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk

Maple Lake, The Oaks, Thirsk

The next match in Robin Hood A.C.'s calendar was to take place on Maple Lake at The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk.

As I was en-route with Frontrow, I said that 40lb would win today and 20lb would be a good weight.  How far out in my guesstimation, would I be?  This was based on an estimation following the Fishomania qualifier held last week at the venue.

As we were driving past the weather sock at Dishforth, I said to Frontrow 'Look, no wind'.  To which he replied 'Let me just check'.  At this point, he licked his finger, lowered the car window and stuck his finger out of the car and said 'Mick, it is windy, very windy, about 80mph winds'.  THE PLUM!!!

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago when I was pegged next to Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead a pound side bet was struck and I had to dig deep into my pockets to give him one of my well earned pounds.  When I arrived today, Lurch came up to me and said, 'Mick, shall we have a pound, no, why not make it two pounds?'. I said 'Yeah, why not'.  The side bet was struck, there was a lot to play for.

In addition, you may have read previously that Lurchio was having one or two problems with his landing net. Whilst waiting for the draw, Frontrow shouted him over and said to Lurchio that he had just signed for a parcel from UPS and it was addressed to Lurchio.  When he opened it, he found that he had received a new landing net....

Chris 'Lurchio' Moorheads new landing net.

The Draw

We had pegs 1 - 27 and there were 22 on the match, so there would not be many empty pegs.  I wanted to draw between pegs 1 - 10 and did not want to be on the long straight (pegs 11 - 23).  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 22.  CRAP!!!  On Peg 21, I had Gary Jowitt.  Peg 23 was empty (that was a bonus), Paul 'Woofer' Clough was on peg 24, Frank Crook Brook was on peg 25 and Alan 'What did you catch that on?' Hunter was end peg 26.  There was another club match on the lake and they started around peg 29.

The Peg

14m across to the island.

The Margin swim - Peg 23's platform at 10m - Woofer on peg 24 didn't have just one aerator to fish to, he had two!!

The Rigs

I set up 4 rigs today...

Rig 1 - 4 x 10 Bauja float on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook.  The rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic   This rig was set up to fish shallow, if the fish decide to come up in the water.

Rig 2 - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 B911 eyed hook with a hair-rigged bait-band.  I plumped up across to the island to the right of the peg, under the tree and found that I had about 12 - 18".  This was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.

Rig 3 - 4 x 10 Bauja on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Trabucco T1 hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up across to find that I had 12" depth between the sedges.  This rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic.

Rig 4 - .3g Garbolino DC6 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook.  I plumbed up to the next platform and found that I had about 3ft of depth.  This rig was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.  As I was plumbing up, Woofer was guiding me so that I do not fish past the platform.  'Left a bit, back a bit, back a bit more, keep going'.  If I had left it to Woofer, I would have been fishing to the platform to my left, not right.  Back a bit, my backside.  He wanted all of the corner to himself. LOL.

Top Rig - 4 x 10 Bauja
Middle Top - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp
Middle Bottom - 4 x 10 Bauja
Bottom - .3g DC6

 Bait

For bait today, I had 1/2 tin of 8mm cubed meat, 1.5 tins of 6mm cubed meat, 6mm Bait-tech expander pellets, 2mm micro pellets, 6mm hard pellets, 2pts of mixed red and white maggots and some Sonu Baits groundbait.

All In

At the all in, I got rig 2 and baited up with a piece of meat, and put 6-8 pcs of 6mm meat in a toss-pot with a splash of groundbait and shipped out to the right of the peg across to the island under the tree.  I must of waited for all of 1 minute, the float dipped, shot under and 10ft of white hydro elastic was trying to get out of the pole.  I pulled back some of the white hydro via my side pulla kit, and after a couple of attempts, I managed to get the fish in the net.  It was about 7lb.  :-)

The first fish of the day for your truly.

Over the next hour I managed to not catch anything else.  It was going to be one of them days.  I had swapped between baits and lines and I could not even get a little dip on the float.  I put a 6mm expander pellet on Rig 3 with some micro pellets in a tosspot, shipped out to the island, dropped the rig in and waited. Some 5 minutes later, the float dipped, shot under and the fish ran towards me.  I shipped back as fast as I could and managed to catch up with the fish.  I got it under control and netted the fish.  It was a mirror about 4lb.

I re-baited and shipped back out and waited and waited and waited.  Nothing. Zilch, Zip, Nada.

I put a piece of meat on Rig 4 and put a few bits of meat and groundbait in a tosspot and shipped out down the edge to the next platform.  I lowered the rig in and waited.  A couple of minutes later, the float went under and I struck.  1ft of green 13h elastic came out and an F1 about 12oz was soon in the net.  No more bites came on this line for now.

I proceeded to swap lines, trying (being the definitive word) to sneak a fish off each line.  I tried maggot and caught a roach and lost a carp.  I tried hard pellet and caught 1 carp and pulled out of a skimmer.  I tried expander and caught a gudgeon and a carp.  I tried meat and caught a couple of barbel and a couple of carp.

Lurch had taken a visitor with him as the visitor had not fished for a while and wanted to see how to catch fish, so sat with Lurch.  After a couple of hours, Lurch as sent the visitor on a recce to see how I was doing. As the visitor stood behind me, watching, I caught a little carp about 1lb, I told him to tell Lurch that I had not caught anything.  There was pride, honour and £2.00 at stake.  It was serious.

At one point during the match, a car went past on the lakes on the main road and some young ASBO shouted out of the car window 'You F......g Wa......r' to which I asked Woofer if they were his friends. :-!

That was it.  The match was over.  I had 2 barbel, 1 roach and about 1doz carp and was not sure what I had weight wise. I thought that I had about 22/23lb ish.

Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was on peg 1 and weighed in 19lb odd. Frontrow was on peg 2 and had 20lb odd. Paul 'Pid' Farley was on peg 3 and I am not sure if he did not weigh.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson was on peg 4 and DNW'd.  Peg 5 (Charlie Colefax) DNW'd.  It had fished hard.  Dave 'Mr Soft' Horsfall, put 22lb odd on the scales from peg 10.  Lurchio was next to weigh from peg 12 on the straight.  He wasn't there!! Where had he gone with my 2 quid???  Apparently he had gone about an hour ago as he had blanked.  Where was my 2 quid?? Relief, he had given my £2 to Dave Webster.  It is obvious that he had gone as he didn't want to hang about to get some well deserved abuse due to blanking.  I wonder how much his visitor had learned today.  Hehe.  Michelle put 4lb odd on the scales, maybe next time she will have £2 with Lurch as he is easy money :-).  There were a few empty nets up the long straight until it got to Ian 'Sooty' Waddell on peg 19, he put 24lb odd on the scales and was winning it.

Gary put 13lb odd on the scales.  Now it was my turn.  I lifted my net out, put the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round to.....

21lb odd. damn.  I was now in 3rd place with three more anglers to weigh.  Woofer put 15lb on the scales, Frank tipped back and Alan weighed in about 13lb odd.

I had managed to come 3rd and my predictions were not a million miles out as although 40lb did not win, I did say that 20lb would be a good weight.

The Results

1. Ian Waddell (Peg 19) - 24lb odd
2.  Dave Horsfall (Peg 10) - 22lb odd
3. Mick Herrington (Peg 23) - 21lb odd
4. Daz Harrison (Peg 2) - 20lb odd
5. Barry Hunter (Peg 1) - 19lb odd.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.  There is always next week.

Tightlines.

Mick

Catfish

A few months ago, I helped to net a friends garden pond and we found this....

He put in 6 of them many years ago and this was the only one left (or that we could find).

The funny thing was, when we fished matches on his pond, you always struggled to catch roach and skimmers........ I must have moved about 30 large Sensas buckets full of roach between 1oz - 4oz and skimmers up to 8oz.  It is amazing what some people have in their garden ponds.

Barnburgh Lakes, Doncaster

I was supposed to be on a club match with Robin Hood AC at Hayfield Lakes, Doncaster and for one reason or another Frontrow and I decided to go and fish the open match at Barnburgh Lakes

I had heard good results for the place, last week Les 'War & Peace' Peace had won the match with 230lb+.  One-time Oaks Lakes regular Andy 'Rosie and Jim' Stonner had 113lb for about 7th in the match.

As I had not seed the place before, I rang Rosie and Jim and had a natter and got some ideas of what I needed to do.  Fish shallow at 11-13 with 4mm pellet.  One lad last week had 130lb+ on worm and caster.

I spoke to Frontrow and he opted to fish worm and caster and I was going to pellet it.

We arrived for about 8.30.  Following the venue rules, we dipped our nets and left them to dry whilst we had a quick look at the complex.

There are 3 lakes in total with about 80/85 pegs in total split across the 3 lakes.  The lakes are Top, Middle or Bottom - a bit like that game show 'Strike it Rich - where do you want to go, Top, Middle or Bottom'.

We were on Bottom Lake.  The pegs looked a bit tight and close to each other, but the venue was clean and fresh looking.  The lake was rectangle in shape and there was a central island about 14m away.

The Draw

I didn't know where I wanted to be.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 23 and Frontrow drew peg 8.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had War and Peace on end peg 25, Howard (? - don't know his surname) was on peg 24, 22 was empty and Mick Owen was on peg 21 to my right.  Rosie and Jim was on peg about peg 17.

The Rigs

I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Shallow 1- was a .1g Garbolino DC2 with a .12 baitbanded hooklength, set about 1ft deep and I tied this to a double 5 Preston Slip elastic.

Shallow 2 - was a .2g Garbolino DC 2 also with a .12 baitbanded hooklength set about 2ft deep and this was attached to a hollow Drennan green elastic.

Margin rig - was a .2g Sensas Powerpencil float with a .12 hooklength.  This was attached to green Preston 13h elastic. I plumbed up and found that I had about 2.5-3ft down the edge.  This was the depth at the next platform - which was top 4 kit away (I said it was close!!!)

(Apparently the lake is about 7ft deep down the middle).

Bait

For bait, I bought a bag of the venues own 4mm sinking pellets.  I also had some Dynamite Baits 4mm and 6mm sinking pellets for the baitband and about 2pts of 6mm cubed meat.

That's it, I was ready.

Time - to start

At the start of the match, I baited up shallow rig 2 with a 4mm pellet, shipped out, pinged about 6/8 4mm pellets out over the top of the float waited all of 15 seconds before the float shot under and I caught an F1 about 6oz.  I repeated the process and managed to catch 5 fish in quick succession, then the fish seemed to disappear.  I then started to get liners, so I baited up the .1g rig and dropped that in.  I twirled the rig a couple of times, slapped it in and caught another fish.

I was now about 1hr into the match and had about 25 little f1's, the biggest being about 12oz.  Mick Owen was emptying it to my right, Howard was struggling as was War and Peace.

As I seemed to be doing okay, I decided to continue to fish shallow.  Howard kept trying across to the island and was snaring one or two fish but seemed to be waiting for bites.

I persevered with fishing shallow for the next few hours.  The fish seemed to be coming in two's and three's, catch a couple then nothing, put on the deep rig, catch a couple then nothing.  Throughout the duration of the match, I was flicking a few bits of meat down the edge.

I realised that although I was catching a couple of fish now and again, I was getting beat by Mick and now War and Peace was catching a few as was Rose and Jim and Pete on peg 15/16 ish.

Last Two Hours


I decided to go down the edge.

I baited up with a piece of meat, dropped in and waited.  I didn't have to wait long. The float dipped, went sideways, then shot under.  An f1 about 12oz was soon in the net.

I re-baited and dropped in again, the elastic was ripped out of the pole tip.  Another f1 was soon subdued.  I then fished down the edge for the last part of the match.

That was it.  The match was over.  How had I done???, I knew that Mick Owen had caught and Les 'War and Peace' Peace started catching late on.  Rose and Jim had caught a few down the edge.  When I looked up everyone around the lake seemed to be catching fish.  I thought that I might have about 90-100lb.

The scales arrived at peg 1 and he plonked about 64lb on the scales.  By the time that the scales had arrived at Frontrow's peg, 80 odd pounds was winning.  I walked round to Frontrow and asked how he had got on, he said that he had about 40lb.  Frontrow uses a clicker to count his fish - which due to his short memory span (I am sure that it is shorter than that of fish), he said that after 10 fish, he got sick of pressing it and binned it.  I suggested to him that the springs had gone haywire and the clicker had exploded.  The scales will tell.  He tipped his first net and had 32lb, his second net wen 38lb for a total weight of 70lb - the lying bar steward.  The scales arrived at the bottom bank and 96lb was winning by this point.  James Burke plonked 117lb on the scales - the new leader.  Pete Gosney had about eleventyseventysix weighs and plonked 178lb on the scales.  Rose and Jim was next and weighed in 122lb.  The first peg to weigh on my bank dropped a mid-ninety on the scales.  Mick weighed in his first net and put 52lb on the scales, his 2nd net needed two weighs and went 85lb for a total weight of 137lb.

As I had been walking around, I had seen the typical stamp of fish being weighed in.  There seemed to be two sizes primarily - 4 - 6oz and 8 - 12oz.  I was starting to 2nd guess my weight an started to think that I had about 80lb.  There seemed to be lots of fish caught and I honestly did not think that I had caught that many fish - although I had been steadily away all day to the extent that I did not get off my box to have a pee (mental note made to self, next I go to Barnburgh Lakes, take a catheter bag with me).

I lifted my first net out and dropped 47lb on the scales.  I had been splitting my fish pretty much evenly or so I thought, so that would give me a 94lb weight.  I lifted my 2nd net out and there were a few more fish in this one.  The needle spun round and ended up at 58lb for a combined weight of 105lb.  I was well happy with that.  Howard plonked 45lb on the scales.  Last to weigh was 'War and Peace', he had two nets and weighed in about 45lb and 51lb for a 96lb total weight.  I had come fifth.  Very, very happy with that.

Full Result.

1st Pete Gosney - 178lb
2nd Mick Owen - 137lb
3rd Andy Stoner - 122lb
4th James Burke - 117lb
5th Mick Herrington - 105lb

After speaking to Rosie and Jim post-match, he informed me that I was in the small fish pegs as they hang around between pegs 22 and 25.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Nice bunch of lads.  Good fishing, plenty of bites and a really nice day out.

'Til next week, tightlines.

Big Pellet.

8967

8967

Wholesea Grange - Pond 2

A couple of new recruits joined Robin Hood AC today.  Craig 'Shrek' Thompson and his side-kick Stuart 'Talking Donkey' Waterhouse.

Lurch, Tattoo, Shrek, Talking Donkey and I all met up for a breakfast, then as they had not been before, we all set off in convoy with yours truly leading the way to Wholesea Grange Fishery.

I have fished pond 2 twice before over recent years.  The first time, I drew peg 3 and won the section with 5lb (47lb won) and last year I was in peg 11 or 12 and weighed in 33lb odd for 4th.

Before the start of the match I was saying that I did not want to be low numbers (1-5) or high (30-35) as usually the weights come from the other part of the lake.

Paul 'Woofer' Clough was running the match today and asked me if I could peg the lake.  There were 20 of us on the match.  As I was pegging out, I got to pegs 3 and 4, there were carp and ide crashing everywhere in the lillies and reeds that were in the peg.

Within our entry fee, we chip a £1 into a raffle to raise a few extra quid for the club.  New recruit, Shrek Thompson won the raffle and in addition, the winner of the raffle always gets to draw first.  He is a lucky so and so. He put his hand in the draw-bag first and ended up with peg 7 stuck to his fingers.  The rush was then on to draw.  I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 3.  BAUBLES!!!.  Tattoo Harrison was on peg 31, I was not sure where Talking Donkey or Lurch had drawn.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had  Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter to my right on peg 1, peg 2 was empty and Lurchio (wasn't he a character played by Frankie 'oooo errrrrr' Howard in Up Pompeii??) Moorhead to my left on peg 4.

The Peg

Peg 3 had a tree to my right that had branches touching the water and looked very fishy.  I had some lily pads at 16m at about 11 o'clock and a smaller patch of lily pads to my right at about 2 o'clock.  There was a gap between two islands at about 23/24m away.

The Rigs

I set up a method rod and given that the fish were crashing and rolling at the back of some lily pads near to the reeds, the GURU Drag line was going to get severely tested today.

I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:

Rig 1 was the margin rig under the tree.  This compromised a .2g Sensas Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline hooklength with a size 14 hook.  I plumbed up and had 2.5ft.  This rig was tied to some Middy Whopper Stopper hollow elastic.

Rig 2 was a rig set up to fish in open water at 11m and was a .3g Preston Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .11 Preston Powerline Hooklength and size 16 hook attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic.  On this line I had approx 4ft depth.

Rigs 3 and 4 were Cralusso floats set up on .17 Powerline to .15 Powerline hooklengths.  One was set to fish to the lily pads to the right where I had about 2ft and the other was set up to fish to the lily pads to my left where it was about 2.5ft.  Both of these rigs were attached to Preston 15h hollow elastic.

Bait

For bait i had 1pt maggots, 2 pts casters, 1pt 4mm expanders, some 6mm hard pellets (for the method), some 8mm hard pellets (for the method), some micro's with a dusting of Sonubaits green supercrush groundbait and 1kg of worm.  Basically it was going to be worm for ide or pellet for carp.

Due to having Lurchio to my left, I struck up a quid side bet.  Lurchio said to me 'Hey Mick, were you bullied by everyone at school?'.  I replied ' Not by everyone, just by big dumb ugly people like you' or words to that effect.

The Match

At the start of the match, I fed a pot of pellet and corn to my right under the bush.  I put a 6mm hard pellet on the baitband, loaded up the method and lauched it towards the island where the fish were crashing. I put the rod down and started to take up the slack line and whoooosshh!! fish on.  15 seconds later I was snagged in some lillies and the fish was gone.  1 - 0 to the fish.  At least there was some fish there.

I did the same again and re-cast.  Whooosh, fish on.  About 10 seconds later, I was snagged and had to pull for a break and ended up straightening a Preston C1 method hook. 2 - 0 to the fish.  I rebaited and cast slightly off to one side, trying to find a clean spot.  I managed to get this one out. It was a carp about 2lb. 2 - 1 now to the fish.  Over the next hour, I proceeded to plug away with the method and the score after the first hour was 7 - 4 to the fish.  I had by now put on a .21 Preston Powerline hooklength with a baitband to a size 14 Kamasan Animal hook.  The fish had stopped crashing now.  I wonder if the method had spooked them.

I swapped over to the pole and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet, shipped it out to 16m to the lily's to the right, the float settled, dipped a little, went to the left, then shot under.  A carp of about 1.5lb was soon subdued and was in the keepnet.  I re-baited and dropped back in the same spot.  The float dipped, shot under and a gudgeon was soon in the net.  It didn't have much of a fight on yellow Preston 17h elastic. LOL.

I went back out and caught a couple of roach and another gudgeon, so I put in a pot of pellets and corn and switched to fish under the tree.

I baited up with a 6mm expander and dropped it under the tree.  The float dipped, I struck.  About 2 yards of Middy elastic came out, then shot back into the pole and a barbel about 12oz was soon in the net.  I dropped in again and pricked a carp.

The fish were back crashing about on the method line, so I went back onto the method rod.  The only way that I was having a fighting chance with getting the carp out was to strike, get the rod high and do not give an inch.  The fish were only about 1lb - 2lb, but if they got 1ft of line back, they were straight in the reeds and lilys.

Over the next couple of hours, I swapped between my lines and had managed to snare about 15 little carp, and I had lost about a dozen.

With about 1.5hr to go, I baited up the margin rig with a pellet and went down the edge under the tree.  I waited about 5 mins, the float shot under and the elastic was doing it's best to get out of the pole.  I landed the carp, it was the biggest one yet at about 4lb.  I managed to get another 3 carp, before that line went quite.

I went out to the clump of lilys at 16m at 11 o'clock with a pellet on the hook.  I lowered the bait in, and waited. a couple of minutes later, the float dipped, I struck and a carp was soon in....... the lily's.

I managed to get another couple of fish from the 16m lines and down the edge and that was it, the match was over, how had I faired?  I could see that Lurch had caught a few, and Barry had been splashing about all day.  Front-row was starting to get a few at the end of the match.  Reports were coming back that Macca had emptied it and lost about 100lb also.

I was 2nd to weigh, Barry weighed in 47lb 4oz.  I put 47lb 10oz on the scales.  Lurch weighed in just over 70lb made up of about 40lb of ide and 30lb of carp.  He had also lost a few carp. Shrek Thompson weighed 53lb ish, then there was a mid 50 by Ray Dix who had apparently fished top 2 + 2 all day.  The scales arrived at Macca's peg and Lurch was leading with 70lb followed by Craig with 69lb.  Two weighs later and Macca had 77lb odd.  Woofer Clough was next to weigh and upon lifting his net out, this was going to be close.  He plonked 76lb on the scales.  There were a couple more 30 - 45lb weighed in.  Front-row weighed in 37lb, most of which had been caught on a whip and last to weigh was Paul Wilson who plonked 60lb odd on the scales.

When we last fished this lake, the weights were primarily made up of ide, ide and more ide.  Where the flip had all the carp come from?!

Just about everyone in attendance had thoroughly enjoyed today.  Everyone had had plenty of bites and although there were a couple of DNW's, the lowest weight weighed in was about 30/35lb ish.  The average weight was just over 50lb.  I really enjoyed it today as did a few others.

The GURU line had stood up to the test today, I had lost two or three hooklengths, but I had not lost any method feeders.

Lurchio never stopped twittering and yacking all day.  Maybe I should rename him 'Talking Donkey' instead.

The result:
1. John 'Macca' McCall - 77lb odd
2. Paul 'Woofer' Clough - 76lb odd
3. Chris 'Talking Donkey' Moorhead - 70lb odd
4. Craig McKenny - 69lb odd
5. Paul Wilson - 60lb odd

Well done all.  Great days fishing, nice weather, good banter and a few fish too.