Lindholme Lakes - Laurels Lake

Remake of Fantasy Island

Lurch joined Frontrow and I for a quick breakfast and then posed for a remake of Fantasy Island:

'Look boss, the plane, the plane' said Tattoo Harrison

By the time we arrived at the draw, there were 20 on the match and we were allocated pegs 1 - 40 by Neil 'Uncle Fester' Grantham.  A few of the knockout rounds were being finalised today.  Erik the Viking and myself for one, where I was carrying a win and a 38lb weight advantage.  Tattoo and Paul Wilson were also fishing their second leg with Tattoo having a win and also carrying a 2lb weight advantage (looking at the picture above, he looks to be carrying more than a 2lb weight advantage. :-)

I put my hand in the bag and snared peg 28, which was one of the corner (peg 29).  Barry 'Alaaannn, do you want a sandwich' Hunter was to my left on peg 27.  Tattoo drew peg 16 at the end of the spit, Lurch was on end peg 3, Dave Webster was on corner peg 12 and everyone else was dotted around the lake.  My key rival for the day, Erik the Viking, was on peg 7.

The Peg

When we were last here (late last year) there were overhanging bushes and willows all the way along the edge of the lake.  I arrived to find that he had trimmed them back a bit (too much if you ask me) and the wind was blowing directly at me with a slight right to left angle and was coming through the remaining tree stumps.

The Rigs

All of my rigs are set up on .17 Drennan Rig line with a loop at the end to allow me to fish with either a  heavy or light hooklength and with or without a baitband.

I set up 2 shallow rigs - one about 18" deep with a .12 hooklength one white hydro elastic and one about 3.5' deep with a .13 hooklength on Preston 13h elastic. 1 deep rig set at 5ft deep with a .12 hooklength and plumbed up at 14.5m directly in front of me and a margin rig about 2.5' deep with a .13 hooklength which at 14.5m from the peg to where I was fishing along the bank.

For bait I had some venue micro, 4mm and 6mm pellets, meat, corn, 6mm Bait-tech expander pellets and some hard Dynamite baits 6mm pellets (primarily for fishing shallow). Oh and a bounty for yours truly.

Pellets, pellets and more pellets.

At the start of the match, I put on a 6mm expander and put some 4mm and 6mm hard pellets in a tosspot, shipped out to the 14.5m margin swim, tipped the bait over and dropped my rig in.  I must have waited about 20 seconds, the float shot under and an F1 about 12oz was soon in the net.  I repeated the process and the float shot under, nothing, I missed it.  I did the same again.  The float buried and back and struggled to lift the fish off the lake floor.  All of a sudden the fish came to the top and it was a barbel about 6oz.  Baubles (or words to that effect).  I then potted in some corn and pellets to my margin swim and went out on the deep rig baited up with a 6mm expander pellet.  I tipped some 4mm and 6mm hard pellets over the top of the rig and waited.  And waited and waited.  Whoosh.  The float shot under and an F1 about 10oz was soon in the net.

We were now about 1 hour into the match and I had 6 F1's and a couple of small barbel for about 4lb or so.

Squelcher Moorhead

You may recall last weeks episode with Lurchio and his landing net.  When will he ever learn. Obviously not this week.  His landing net came apart again, with a fish in it again.  This time he had to get in the lake to retrieve it and got his foot and trouser leg wet in doing so. By the end of the match, he had trenchfoot and we called him Squelcher.

When I fed pellets with the polepot on to the deep rig line, I got some liners.  I then tried to get them shallow by flicking a few 4mm pellets out which due to the wind, seemed to land in the water behind me, so I swapped to flicking out a few 6mm pellets.  It was not the same.  They did not want to stay down or come up properly.  I am sure that the cold northerly wind was having an effect.

Looking around the lake and from the grumbles doing the rounds, the lake seemed to be fishing very hard with the odd fish being caught now and again.

The last 2 hours

We were now into the last 2 hours of the match and I had approx 8lb.  Dumptruck who was opposite me had a similar weight and 'Alaann, do you want a sandwich' had a ghost carp about 9lb and a couple of small bits.  Sooty who was on about peg 24 was catching some good size perch and odd carp and skimmer on chopped worm.

Mick 'Dumptruck' Aveyard acting as my windbreak - look at the flat water in front of him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a swirl at about 10m along the bank to my right.  I got my margin rig and baited up with a 6mm expander pellet and dropped in.  The float settled and then shot under.  Another F1 about 10oz was soon in the net.  I pulled out of the next 3 fish, which was probably down to the 13h elastic. I quickly swapped over to white hydro.  I then proceeded to fish down the edge until the end of the match.  I could see that Dave 'Newlywed' Webster was catching some big fish and Dave Wathen on about peg 36 was catching a few.

At the all out, I thought that I had about 30lb and seemed to have done okay, based on what the anglers seemed to have caught around me.

The scales arrived and Dave Wathen was leading from peg 36 with 39lb 6oz.  I plonked 32lb 8oz on the scales.  Alaann, do you want a sandwich weighed about 14lb, Sooty had nearly 30lb.  Tattoo had 21lb odd, so with his previous weight, Paul Wilson needed to catch 25lb+. Dave Webster weighed in 43lb 2oz from peg 12, fishing meat down the edge.  Erik the Viking did not weigh and had gone by the time the scales arrived to his peg.  Paul Wilson weighed in 29lb, therefore winning the round and knocking Tattoo out of the knockout competition.  Last to weigh was Squelcher Moorhead.  A few people said that he had caught a few.  He weighed 39lb 2oz.

I had come 4th  and won my section, in addition, I was up another £5.00 courtesy of the knockout competition and I was through to the next round.

Result:

1.  Dave Webster 43lb 2oz, Peg 12

2.  Dave Wathen 39lb 6oz, Peg 36

3.  Chris Moorhead 39lb 2oz Peg 3

4.  Mike Herrington 32lb 8oz Peg 28

Pegs 12, 36 and 28 were all corner pegs and peg 3 was an end peg.

Tightlines for now.

Thanks

Big Pellet.

Double Header This Weekend - Lindholme and Woodlands

I fished 2 matches this weekend, the first one at Lindholme on the open on Saturday, followed by a visit to Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk with Robin Hood AC.

Lindholme

I picked up the car-less one - Buddy 'Anaemia' Keville.  Oh my god, that man needs either a good feed or a good sun tan (or both). :-)

We arrived at the draw to find that we were on Strip and Bonsai due to the numbers there and also that there was a club match on part of Bonsai.  I had a quick natter with Greg 'Beanpole' Norris before the draw and he said that he wanted to draw peg 16 on Strip, he drew peg 8 on Strip, which is opposite where he wanted to be.  I pulled out Peg 53 on Bonsai, which was indifferent to me.  I spoke with Steve Mazza and Beanpole and they both said that sometimes big mirrors hang about there just off the island, which was about 19m away and there is a 16m pole limit at Lindholme, and the wind will be right for it today (it was off my back) as I would be able to feed with the catapult.  I had someone on peg 51 and peg 56.  Anaemia drew peg 79.

The conditions were, bright, sunny, bit of a cold wind coming off my back and there had been an overnight frost.

I set up a bomb rod, pellet waggler (about 3 ft deep), 2 shallow rigs, one with white hydro and one with Preston green 13h, and a margin rig.

For bait I had some Lindholme 4mm & 6mm pellets, Bait-tech 6mm expander pellets and some corn.  At the all in, I cast the bomb to within a foot of the island and waited for it to go round.  I fed a handful of pellets and expanders down the margin and flicked a few 6mm pellets out to the island and some 4mm pellets at 14.5 to try to catch shallow.

After about an hour I had 2 little F1 carp both on the bomb.  The lad on 51 had 3 carp and the lad on peg 56 had 1 carp.  It was going to be hard.

I then swapped and changed methods to catch one fish on one line, before having to change to a different line.  Odd fish on the bomb, 2 fish shallow at 14.5m and a couple of fish down the edge resulted in me tipping back about 22/23lb ish.  The lad on peg 51 tipped back similar, peg 50 tipped back about 5lb, peg 49 tipped back about 15lb and the lad on peg 56 weighed in (possibly about 25lb).  It was hard.

Anaemia tipped back about 35lb or so and said that Steve Mazza on peg 78 had about 70/80lb.

By the end of the match Anaemia only needed a good feed due to the sunburn on his bonce.

As I was leaving, I spoke to Tim Moran who was on about peg 38/39 and he was admitting to about 70lb.  I could see that the lad on peg 69 had been catching steadily all day.  I did not wait for the full results.

Woodlands - Skylark

The following day, I was in Thirsk for a club match at Woodlands Lakes.  We were on Skylark lake.  The previous days conditions had resulted in 2 x 200lb+ weights from end pegs 1 and 37 on Partridge lake and 120lb ish from peg 34 on Skylark and a big 90lb from peg 6.  So, it seemed that all the fish were at the car park end of the lakes.  On my last 2 matches here I have been 3rd twice from peg 32 and 30 respectively with about 70 - 80lb.  The wind was very cold and quite strong and was blowing into my peg from everywhere on the lake and it was over-cast.

Due to the increase in club members, it was decided that there would be an increase to the club knock-out.  I originally had a bye to the next round.  Anyways, I was put back in the knock-out draw and got drawn against Erik the Viking.  I decided to have my first leg at Woodlands and Erik is yet to decide on the return leg venue.

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 34.  Hmmmm.  Mixed thoughts.  The match results from Wednesday all came from the other end and 3rd was from middle of the lake.  Peg 34 used to be called the boards, but they have now rotted away and there are one or two bits of twigs, brambles and branches on the waters edge.  Frontrow drew peg 11.  This was his first visit to Woodlands, a quick chat about methods and lines and we were both off.

I arrived at my peg to find that Colin 'The Worm' Weaver was on peg 1 and I had Sadsack (Pid) himself next to me on peg 32.  Lurch was on peg 4 and my competition for the day, Erik was on about peg 22.

I set up the method rod, bomb rod, 1 shallow rig and two margin rigs, one to fish with expander pellets/corn/meat and the other to fish with a hard banded pellet (if I was getting mithered by bits).

For bait, I had some hard 8mm pellets, 6mm pellets, Sonubaits Green Supercrush groundbait with some micro pellets, meat and corn and some 6mm expanders from the day before.

10.30, the match was under way.

I baited up the method rod with an 11mm pellet and chucked it out about 2ft off the 'boards' and fed a few 8mm pellets over the top.  2 minutes later, nothing.  Quick reload and out again.  I waited all of 30 seconds and the tip flew round and the freespool was screaming away.  I lifted the rod and proceeded to reel the fish in.  I got it back to the landing net where it made a last ditch for freedom and SNAP.  The hooklength broke and it was gone. DAMN!! or words to that effect came from my mouth.  I then put on a proper hooklength - a Preston Innovations C1 Method Hooklengths (0.19 Dia).  I must have had on a winter method hooklength of about .15 dia.  Lurch saw me hook my first carp and get it to the landing net before it made one last bid for freedom and snap me.  He then started to take the Michael, so to speak and started shouting something about Deja Vu.

I baited up again with an 11mm pellet and lobbed it back out to the same spot.  Some 5 minutes later a 6lb carp was in the net.

About 1 hr into the match, Lurchio hooked his first fish and spent for ever and a day playing it and shouting to all and sundry that would listen that he had a fish on and it was a monster.  I could tell that it was foul-hooked from where I was due to the jig, jig, jig of the line.  I shouted over that it was foul-hooked.  After about 10 hours, he managed to get it into the landing net, that is when both calamity was against him, but the gods were with him.  His landing net pole broke and the landing net fell back into the lake with the fish still in it.  He then managed to hook onto the landing net with his broken pole and managed, somehow (I am sure that I saw the hand of god - no, not Maradonna,) managed to get the fish and said net back to the bank and took the hook out of the fishes tail and put said fish in his net.  THE SPAWNY B^%%^$K!!!

I had caught 2 carp in the first hour of the match.  I then had a go on the pole at 14.5m along the boards and baited up with double 6mm expander.  I put a few pellets and a splash of groundbait in a toss pot, shipped out and waited.  After a couple of minutes, the float bobbed, then shot under.  I struck and pricked a fish.  I re-baited and shipped back out to the same spot and waited about 4 or 5 minutes when the float shot under and a carp was on.  It was about 5lb.  I now had 3 carp for approx 15/16lb.

I swapped between the method and the pole down the boards, whilst continually flicking a few 6mm pellets out to 14m to try on the shallow rig.

Just over halfway into the match, I had 5 carp for about 25lb or so.  I cast out the method down the edge and waited.  The tip flew round and I hooked into a fish.  About 10 seconds later, the fish felt weird as I was trying to reel it in.  I could see the boils and swirls from the fish and it was not moving.  I was tethered to some old tow rope fishing line that was laying in the water.  I commando crawled along the bank (and the boards) to where the fish was still tethered to the old fishing line and netted the fish (and about 10 miles of 100lb fishing line).  This commotion and activity so close to where I had been casting had completely cream-crackered my peg.  Dagnamit.

I managed to add another carp over the next hour or so.  By this point, Sadsack had 2 carp, The Worm had 1 carp, Lurchio had 2 carp, it was fishing hard.  Rumours were coming back to me that Mark Wright was catching in corner peg 17 and Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was catching a couple of pegs away.  I could see Dave 'Mr Newlywed' Webster catching the odd fish on about peg 20.


Guru Drag-Line (6lb)

I cast out on the method again and hooked a fish which ran into some roots or something.  I pulled for a break and lost my method and hooklength.  I had just loaded my reel with some new line that same morning.

I had been using some white line on my method reel and can't remember what it was, but I was not happy with it.  When I had been casting out and just before tightening up the slack line, the line was coiling and twisting and then wrapping around the eyes on the rod, TOTAL NIGHTMARE!  As part of my Guru freebies, I got a 250m spool of 6lb Guru Drag-Line.  Before the morning of Sunday's match, I decided to strip the line off my old spool and fill it with the Drag-Line.  Following the exploits of catching some towrope and some underwater trees, I have only used it for one session, but I am quite pleased with it.  It had a bit of stretch when I was trying to pull for a break and did not suffer any abrasion (as I could see or feel) when I hooked the towrope.  Only time will tell.

I managed to snare another couple of fish over the duration of the remainder of the match and ended up with 8 fish.  The scales started to weigh in from peg 1.  The Worm had a couple of fish.  The lad next to him had about 3 fish, Lurchio tipped back 2 fish.  Horsfall on peg 10 had 53lb, Frontrow 48lb, then there was a string of 60+ weights, Alan do you want a sandwich had 68lb, Paul Wilson had 68lb, Frank Brooks (I think that is his name) weighed 88lb from peg 14/15 ish and Mark Wright had 63lb.  The scales came down my side and Ian on peg 18 had 37lb, Mr Newleywed weighed 13 carp for 83lb, Erik the Viking weighed 1 carp in, Dave Wathen was in the 2nd round of his knock-out against Ian (and it was all to play for following the equal weight of 1oz from Tyram Hall) and needed to weigh more than 37lb, he plonked 39lb on the scales.  Craig Jones fished on Wednesdays match where he was 3rd from peg 12 and today drew peg 29 and plonked 68lb on the scales - this included 3 fish for 30lb odd from down the edge. Sadsack had initially left his net in and taken his gear back to the car and went back to weigh in.  By the time that the scales had got back to his weigh, he had gone.  I was last to weigh.  I tipped 46lb odd on the scales.  I was 3rd on my bank and I was 3rd on my half of the lake and never won a bean or had I?

Due to beating Erik today, I have won £5 and I also carry a 40lb weight advantage to the next round.

Result:

Frank Brook 88lb odd (peg 15)
Dave Webster 83lb odd (peg 20)
Not sure of 4th as there were 4 x 60lb+ weights.


Car Boot Sales

I went to a local car boot before picking up Front-row and I was ambling along, as Sunday drivers do at about 59.9mph (don't want to incriminate myself now do I?!), and I was being overtaken by taxi's from Bradistan and CleckHuddersFax with the drivers wives (yes plural) in the back getting all giddy and laughing and telling him to drive faster, faster.  I know I can't speak a foreign language, but I am sure that they were saying 'faster Ahmed, faster, gotta get there for the bargains, it is cheap. :-)  A few years ago I went to another local car boot and bought a Daiwa Tournament Goretex Jacket for £50.  It was in nearly used condition.  I tried it on and it did not fit me, so I put it on ebay and got £167 for it.  The lad was selling all of his gear as he had done his back in and been advised not to fish again.  I bought a Preston Innovation fleece off him for £25.

On the way home, Front-row said to me that he loves Preston 17h hollow elastic.  He loves it that much that he was going to go home and kick his missus out of bed and take it out of his topkit and wrap himself in it like some bondage freak and sleep with it.  What a saddo (or weirdo, take your pick).

Moorfields Farm Fishing, Goole

Today was the 2nd match in our 30 match summer league with Robin Hood AC at Moorfields Farm Fishery, Goole on the 1st pond.

There were 19 of us in attendance today.  The newly-weds were back of their honeymoon (Congratulations Dave & Michelle Webster), they arrived back in time to organise today's fixture.  We also had a few new recruits joining us.

Apparently there was a match on the lake yesterday and 83lb won from about peg 10.  I fancied drawing pegs 2, 15 and 30 which are all corner pegs.  Pegs 2 and 30 due to the hurricane blowing that way and peg 15 is a noted peg as in my two previous outings here, I have been on 14 and 15 and won both matches.  Failing that I wanted to draw the low numbers 1 - 15 as usually, this is where all the weights come from.

I watched a couple of lads draw and saw pegs 15, 13 and 18 come out.  I put my hand in the bag and gave it a good shuffle and pulled out....

Peg 21.  Baubles, or words to that effect came out of my mouth.  

I arrived at peg 21 to find I had Macka to my left on peg 20 and the female newly-wed on peg 23.  Lurch drew peg 18 (with 16, 17 and 19 empty), peg 15 went to one of the new recruits, Ray Dix, peg 2 was drawn by Mark Wright and male newly-wed drew peg 30.  Well, I know where the money was going today.  All the way to peg 30.

It a tad windy... Sometimes some of the places that we go to need to be re-named.  Take today for instance - Moorfields would have been well at home in some Spaghetti Western and should have been called Tumbleweed Fishery, what with all the wind that we had today.  I am sure that some tumbleweed came rolling across the pond, up and over the central island and on into the North Sea and beyond.

I set up the following tackle

1. 4 x 14 Carpa Gent on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength with a size 14 Colmic 501 hook.  I plumbed up to the next peg platform and found about 3.5ft.

2. 4 x 16 Carpa Gent on .15 Preston Powerline to a .12 Shimano Antares hooklength with a size 18 Colmic 501 hook.  I plumbed up at about 10m at the base of the far slope and found about 4ft.

3. Leger rod with a 12" hooklength and a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook and a Korum Bait-spike.

For bait I had some micro-pellets covered in some Bait-Tech Halibut Marine Method Mix, which I have riddled to take any large particles out. Red and white maggots, casters, corn and some 6mm Bait-Tech Expander pellets that I had spare from yesterday.

 

I was ready.

At the all in I potted some micro-pellets, expander pellets and corn in at 10m in front of me and catapulted some expander pellets out to the far side.

I got the margin rig and baited up with an expander pellet, I put a bit of micro pellets and some expanders in a little tosspot and shipped out to the next platform.  I settle the rig and waited for it to go.

When you are fishing the first 5 or 10 minutes are so full of excitement and tension.  Not knowing how long you will have to wait or what your first fish is going to be.

After about 10 minutes, I had not had an indication.  I put some more bait in with the tosspot and gave it another 10 minutes or so. Still nothing.

I put some more bait in and left it whilst I went out on the 10m rig baited with an expander pellet.

The float settled, it wobbled then flew under.  I struck and about 1ft of elastic came out and a 6oz skimmer was on the end.  I dropped in again and caught another similar skimmer.  Mrs Newlywed had had a carp by this point on groundbait feeder to the far-side and Macka had a skimmer about 1lb on chopped worm.

I then swapped between the margin rig, the 10m rig and the bomb for the next couple of hours trying to snare a carp.  I tried corn, pellet, caster, double corn, double pellet on all lines.  But alas, none were forthcoming. Mrs Newlywed had now had 3 carp for about 10lb and I had 6 skimmers for about 1.5lb.

The wind seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.  At one point I had so much grit and dust in my eyes and on my glasses, I am sure a dust devil went whizzing past.

I decided to fish and feed caster on top 3 kit to see if I could catch the skimmers faster and hope that a carp comes along and has a chew.

Over the remainder of the match, I caught the odd roach and skimmer on caster on the top 3 kit.  I tried at 10m and caught another couple of small skimmers, but I was having to wait for bites.  I tried down the side again and I also flicked the bomb over to the far-side again.

By the end of the match, I had packed up and tipped back about 5lb of skimmers and roach.  Hopefully things will improve.

Results:

Dave Webster, peg 30 - 70lb

Mark Wright, peg 2 - 62lb

Ray Dix, Peg 15 - 50lb

Paul Farley, peg 9 - 37lb.

Michelle weighed in 20lb, Lurch had 22lb, Macka had 24lb, Dumptruck had 19lb and Front-row had 13lb.

User Report - Bait-Tech 6mm Expander Pellets

I have been using these pellets for about the past 6 months or so.  I have tried various 6mm expanders to find one that is quite robust.  I pump the pellets until they all sink, then I leave them in water.  The pellets still stay firm and do not lose their shape or breakdown even if left in water.  They are light-medium brown in colour and have a very good shape to them.

Tom's Pond, Otley

Just got back from a few hours at Tom's Pond, Otley, West Yorkshire.

I fished peg 16 down the left to the margin reed cover on top 5 of pole.

I fished with 6mm Bait-tech Expander pellets and fed 3/4 each fish.  I ended up with about 40lb in 4 hours.  I used a 4 x 12 Chimp float on .15 dia Preston Powerline mainline to a 6" .13 dia Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Gamakatsu G108 hook.

I had fish to about 5lb or so.

Another club member - Daz 'Front-Row' Harrison

Just want to introduce you to one or two of my fishing compatriots.



Mick 'Dumptruck' Aveyard. :-)



Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead

Tyram Hall, Doncaster

First match of the season with Robin Hood AC, Leeds was upon us.

We should have been at Moorfields, Goole but due to a mix up, I made some calls and managed to get a match on Horseshoe Lake at Tyram Hall, Doncaster.

I had not seen the place before nor was I sure where it was.

I arranged to collect new travelling partner Darren 'Front-Row' Harrison at 7.00am, then a quick drop in to Nursing Home for a brekkie and we were on our way.  A few new members have joined the club this year including Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead and also Mick 'Dumptruck' Aveyard.    The 'Dumptruck' came from the name of the Japanese Sumo wrestler of the same name.  Although UK Dumptruck puts him to shame.

We arrived at the draw to find 16 of us fishing. Tyram gave us the full lake and we pegged on the spit from pegs 1 - 30.  I went and did the pegging, and again, and again.  This was due to complaints regarding various pegs being underwater.

I drew peg 28 with Dave Wath on corner peg 30, Eric 'The Viking' on peg 26, Dave Horsfall on peg 24.  New recruit Lurch was on peg 13, Front-Row on peg 11 and Dumptruck was on about peg 19.  The lake was a funny colour ad resembled looking like very strong black tea (very peaty).  The water was also very cold.

I set up two rigs - one to fish at 13m to my left and the same depth at 10m to my right.  This was a 4 x 16 Colmic float set about 7.5ft deep on Daiwa White Hydroelastic.  My second rig was to fish top 5 down the edge in 3-4ft of water using Preston green 13h.

I then set up an 11ft feeder rod with the method and a 10ft bomb rod.

For bait, I had 1 pt mixed red/white maggots, 6mm expander pellets, 4mm expander pellets, micro pellets and some sweetcorn.

The all in was called at 10.30am and we were fishing until 4.00pm.

I potted some micro's and a pinch of both 4mm and 6mm expanders in at 13m and put the same with some maggots in at 10.  I then threw about 6 - 8 grains of corn down the left hand edge on 6m.

I put two grains of corn on a Korum baitspike on the bomb rod and launched it as far over to the opposite bank as possible, which was a good 50 yard chuck. Some 10 biteless minutes later I re-cast to a different area.  10 minutes later - still nothing.

I decided to chuck the method out to the same spot to get a little bait out there giving it about 5 - 10 minutes between chuck. - 30 mins later, the keepnet was still empty.   I did 3 more quick chucks on the method to get a bit of bait out and went onto the well primed pole line.

Looking around the lake, There were odd 'plips' topping now and again.  A quick shout up and down the lake and it appeared to be hard going.  No-one near me had a bite or a liner.

I baited up the deep rig with double white maggot, shipped out to 13m and settle back in anticipation. I got so settled and comfortable, I could have nodded off.  No bites. EEEKKK, this was going to be damn hard today.  Horsfall had caught a 'plip' small skimmer the size of a postage stamp. I put on a .10 hooklength with a size 20 hook to try to buy a bite. I fed a few more grains of corn and micro's down the edge.

Still nothing.  Could not buy a bite.

I then decided to try to catch a 'plip' so set up a 4x12 Chimp float set to fish on the drop in 6ft of water on top 4 kit.  I managed to snare 4 roach over the next couple of hours.  Rumours were going round the lake that Paul 'Pid' Farley had a carp on peg 16 and the lad on peg 17 also had a carp.

Time to go all out for the win!

I went down the edge on the pole.  Nothing.  Now there were only 30 minutes of the match left.  I chucked the bomb back over to the far side and proceeded to pack away the gear.  This tactic usually generates a response.  TIIIMMMMEEEE!!.

The scales appeared and the results thus far were Pid - 10lb, Frank Brook - 7lb, Paul 'Woofer' Clough 5lb 3oz, Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter 4lb 14oz, Lurch had 3lb odd and Front-Row had 2lb 13oz.  Dave Horsfall was winning my 8 man section with 7 roach for 9oz.  I emptied my net and registered a mighty 7oz.  Crap!!.  Eric the Viking tipped back one plip and Dave Wath weighed in 1 plip for 1oz (as he was in a knockout match).  Dumptruck walked past with about 5 minutes to go and asked if I had caught anything.  I replied 4 bits.  He said that he had tipped back about 1.5lb from peg 19.  'What ever Trevor!'. All of the weights came from pegs 1 - 17.

Talking with lads on the Island Lake that had also fished hard with 25lb winning and one lad having one bite = 1 x 12lb carp.

I would like to go back when the weather is better and the fish are feeding.

A couple of months ago, I received a parcel in the post.  I was not expecting anything.  There was no return label or anything.  I tore into the packaging to find that I had received a nice assortment of GURU items including Guru method feeders, line, boilie/bait stops, line, braid scissors, QM1 hooks in sizes 12, 14 and 16, baiting needles and other nice sundries, all of which have been hiding away until the weather gets warmer and I am able to put them to use.  I will let you know how I get on.

Our next match is at Moorfields on the 1st lake that you come to.

Tight lines for now.

I am back!!!!

I have just finished fishing a winterleague at Tom's pond in Otley, catching mainly spotties.  Finished 5th Overall - NOT HAPPY!!!!

Went from 3rd to 5th on the last match.

I am sooooo sick of the weather at the moment, spring is supposed to be here. So, where is it?

Joined a club this year and we are fishing a wide variety of venues including Wholesea, Moorfields, Oaks, Woodlands, Lindholme etc etc.

Going to try to bring the usual fun and games that we encounter in our matches to the power of the word.

Some of my new fishing compatriots are:

The Hunter Brothers - Alaaaannnn, do you want a sandwich.
Charlie Chalk
Woofer
Bungle
Pid
Horsefall

Our first match is on 7th April at Moorfields.  On Monday I am fishing at Forest Lane, Alne, I will let you know how I get on.

Tight lines for now.

BP

16m Garbolino G995.
5 match tops (2 white Hydro, 2 grey hydro, 2 yellow dual core)
3 power tops (black hydro)
Extending cupping kit
2 short No. 4's
3 spare long No. 4
No.1 sections (somewhere) Rodbag & tubes
May be able to include some more top kits. £1100.
e-mail me at mike1herrington@aol.com

Not written,

Anything for a good while. I have been through a period of unemployment, which, although you have the extra time on your hands, I haven't been too inspired to do much by way of the blog. I am now back into work and it just woke me up a touch.

So, what have I been doing (apart from giving my autograph periodically), I have been on a few club matches with Bram and his club (Robin Hood AC, Leeds) and also with Coco, Tombstone and his cronies.

I have been to Risby, again, on the Folly lake. It just didn't fish anywhere near how if fished on my last visit. I ended up with 28lb odd, which was a reasonable weight on the day, Chris (Plughole) Kitchen managed to win the match with 70 odd pounds, by fishing his top 3 kit down the side. Bram ended up framing off the flyer pegs (pegs 25 - 30), Plughole was also on the same pegs. Paul 'Pid' Farley fished a tidy match on the waggler and just missed out with a low 40lb.

I entered a couple of matches at Woodland Lakes, Thirsk on Saturdays and during my period of unemployment, on Wednesdays. I always, always seem to draw the wrong end of the lake. Match 1, I draw Skylark 34, which is a corner peg, it is also shallow and the was blowing diagonally down to the opposite end of the lake. One time travelling partner, Panic Poole, was 3rd with 70 odd lb. Darrell 'Sir Tossa' Taylor was 2nd with a low 80lb. I managed 40lb dead. On my next outing I drew Skylark 9 and ended up with 49lb, everyone to my right all had 60lb+. I did manage to win my section as I was the last man in the section to my left. On my last session, I drew Partridge 19, and complained all the way to my peg. The pegs to be on have been pegs 22 - 25 on the same lake/bank. I fished corn at 16m, but actually feeding at 10m. By the all out 118lb was winning the match. I plonked 98lb odd on the scales. Steve 'Nightie' Richards managed to put 35lb on the scales, Andy 'Haircut' Bridge put 60lb on the scales, then you got to the flyers. Peg 23 had 145lb (for 2nd) and peg 24 had 100lb odd. 155lb won the match. I was 5th in the match, with my best weight at the venue. I went home empty handed though. They paid top 3, then sections and the 100lb was in my section.

I have just started going back to The Oaks after a self imposed rest. I have had some terrible results and with the weather, one method works one week, then doesn't work the next. John 'Chappy' Chapman and his travelling partner Dave 'Pimmy' Pimlott have been taking it in turns to take the place apart. Gareth 'Marco (remember the squealy queer one from BB) Drury has been holding own and Steve 'Ena' Sharples has been giving everyone a run for their money.

We have just started a new payout system at the oaks, £20 per match paying 5 or 6 man sections along with the top 4 or 5. This gives something for everyone to work for when they draw a hard section.

Bye bye for now.

Tightlines.

Mike

I went to Risby again on Saturday 29th July, to fish a match on the Tench Lake. I went with Tyersal Angling Club again, so I had the pleasure of fishing with Catkiller, Coco the Clown and Tombstone to name but a few.

I gave F1 a lift again, but this time I invested in one ear protector, due to being deaf in my left ear, I only needed to cover up my right ear and I couldn’t hear the little twerp. Saying that, he talked that much, he melted my only ear protector. Talk about enthusiasm!!!

Following a decent breakfast in the lakeside café, we were ready for the draw. At the draw, I put my hand in the hat and managed to snare Jackpot peg 25. There was the obligatory comment of ‘That’s safe then?’ and the like. But some one also said that I wasn’t eligible to win it as I was not a member of the club. Should I win, it will be interesting!!!

I arrived at my peg to find that a few fish were crashing about at 15m plus and there were a few carp cruising about. It looked promising. I had match organiser ‘Beamer’ to my left on peg 24, Catkiller was on 23, Pete Cressey drew peg 18, F1 was on about peg 30 and I had Lee ‘Spiceworld’ Helliwell to my right on peg 27, peg 26 was empty. Coco Harrison was on about peg 10 and Tombstone was on peg 14 (or thereabouts).

Some one told me that Tombstone had applied for a Jockeys Riding Licence, but was turned down for being too small. Ho Hum. During the match, whilst he was setting up, he went for a walk and went missing. It was only when the wind blew and moved a blade of grass could we see him. He owns a Brilo Stax box with about 10 empty pole trays on it. I think that they are so that people can see him when he is sat down on his box.

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

Rig one was a Gaz Malham float taking 4x14. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Drennan Barbless Carp eyed hook. I made this rig from the hair backwards in order to fish direct and to also tie a Korum Baitspike onto the rig. I plumbed up at 5m slightly to my right, where I found 4ft of depth.

I also set up one rig to fish at 14m on the deck. I used a .5g Garbolino DC4 float, again with a Baitspike also, on .16 Ultima Power Match line. I used this diameter of line as it is quite thin, yet strong and supple and I wasn’t sure of what size of fish I was going to encounter. I plumbed up and found that it was about 6ft deep.

I then set up 2 shallow rigs as follows:

The first one was a 4 x 12 Gaz Malham float (still not sure of the pattern), which I set up on .16 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Drennan Eyed Carp Match hook, incorporating a Korum Baitspike. I set this rig to fish at half depth (about 3ft deep).

My second shallow rig was a rig that I was going to use by varying the depth, anything from 12” to 2ft deep. I used a .1g Garbolino DC2 float, which was attached to .16 Ultima Power Match line again, fishing direct to a size 14 Drennan Eyed Carp Match hook also with a Baitspike. When fishing shallow for carp and using either pellets or meat as bait, I am a firm believer in using the Baitspikes as you are able to slap your rig and bait down on the water, without the bait falling off.

For bait I had 3 tins of meat, ½ of which, I covered in Carp Vaders’ Predator Plus, which I then placed in the fridge overnight, and the other half ‘au naturale’, I also had some pellets and I took along a tub of Carp Vaders’ Method Mix Groundbait, in order to see whether or not I could put it to use. I mixed the two ‘meats’ together for feeding. Prior to fishing with the meat, I covered it in water for about 5 minutes, this pales the meat. Think about it this way. If you leave meat in water what colour does it go? It pales.

We’re off. At the start of the match, I put some meat in a Fox toss pot and shipped out to 14m with the full depth rig baited up with some red Predator Plus meat. I dropped the meat in and the rig over the top. I was in, literally as quick as that. I was the first one into a fish. Most other people on the match were still potting in their bait. After a brief tussle, I managed to get it into the net. 3lb first put in. Not bad. I re-baited and dropped back in. After a longer wait this time, about 3 minutes, I was in again. I started to feed a few pieces of meat with the catapult. I got my second fish out, this one weighed about 1lb. I managed to catch another one on the deep rig before I started to get linered, time to go shallow me thinks.

I baited up the DC 2 shallow rig with meat on the hook and set the rig to fish at about 2ft deep. I shipped out and dropped in. After a couple of minutes of feeding meat and lifting and slapping the rig back down, I was in. My first fish up in the water. I had it on for no more than 10 seconds before I lost it. Probably foul-hooked. I brought my rig back and threw the scale into my net (not really). I shallowed up a touch, to about 18” deep and went back out. 1 hour into the match and I had about 10lb. The only other person that I could see catching was Spiceworld on the next peg. What was he doing?

After seeing Spiceworld ship out some chopped worm and Predator Plus, I devised a cunning plan. In order to introduce some Predator Plus into the swim, I got the Method Mix and added lots and lots of water to create a sloppy mix. Once it was over-wetted, I then added a huge squirt of Predator Plus to the mix. Here goes.

I put some of the mix in a Fox Tosspot, baited up my hook with a piece of red Predator Plus meat and dropped the mix in and the rig over the top. After some 30 – 40 seconds, the float buried and with the way that it was nodding its head, I was attached to something quite substantial. The Black Hydro tried its best to get dragged from the pole and I found that I had to play the fish at 14m, which is against my religion as I usually, just start to ship back slowly. This was a good fish!!! After a 5 minute battle, I had the fish back to the top 4 kit. I unshipped there and played the fish on that for a while. I started to think that the fish might be foul hooked as I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, when all of a sudden, it’s head poked out of the water. It was a really good fish. After a further 3 or 4 minutes, I managed to fold it into my landing net. I was giddy, and I would estimate that the fish weighed about 14lb. Boy, did I give a huge sigh of relief. I had a rest for a minute or so, to catch my breath.

I then proceeded to catch a carp every put in (considering not many other people were catching) whether I was having to wait 30 seconds or 10 minutes. The fish were moving up and down in the water and I had to keep swapping between the two shallow rigs. Since I had started to introduce the Predator Mix, my peg had turned into a Jacuzzi and bubbles were erupting everywhere. The fish were blowing all over and they were not on the bottom.

The method mix had lots of particles in it (pieces of corn, hemp, maize, pellets and such) and was a very sticky mix until I added copious amounts of water. I think that due to the varying weights and sizes of the particles, and the Predator Plus, the fish were feeding at all depths in the water column and I was having to find them by continuously changing depths and rigs. Every time that I dropped in on the deep rig, I got linered to death and couldn’t connect with a fish.

Halfway through the match, I observed Coco playing a fish. Observed is sometimes a scary word. Just as Coco struck, I am sure a jumbo jet in the jet stream had to swerve to avoid the top of his pole. He then proceeded to try to drag it to the top of the lake whilst trying to bend his pole past the realms of technology and beyond. It looked like he was using a 10m swingtip. After everyone had observed that he can catch a fish, he then went on to net the fish to a round of applause. It must have weighed all of 4lb, but at least everyone knew that he had it on.

With about an hour and a half of the match left, I decided to try to up the pace by shortening the line between the pole float and pole tip and also introduce more meat by the catapult whilst still feeding the Predator Mix. Over the next hour, I managed to snare about 4 fish. Something wasn’t right. I put my other rig back on that was set to fish at half depth and added 3 more fish in the last 20 minutes or so. I had messed up, big time, but would it cost me?

Towards the end of the match, Mark, who is the travelling companion of Captain Mainwaring, snagged the near side reeds using his Daiwa Tournament Professional pole. After a prolonged tussle, he managed to break his pole at the No. 4 and 5 sections, leaving his top 3 floating in the lake. He then grabbed hold of his sections that were behind him and threw them into the trees behind him, with such force that Steve Backley would have been proud of his javelin attempt, breaking some further sections. ‘YOU DIDN’T WANT TO DO THAT, DID YOU?’ At the end of the match, I asked him what line had he been using and he replied 20lb, as he had been done on 16lb line!!! Yeah, whatever.

I was hoping to have 70lb + with a possibility of having nearly 80lb. I had managed to snare a few, but not sure on numbers as I don’t really count the number of fish that I have caught. Coco failed to catch any more fish following the Sonic Boom that was created from his strike.

As I lifted my net out and I saw the big carp again, I had a change of heart about its size. I would estimate that it weighed about 12lb and not my original 14lb guess. I got Spiceworld to take a photo, but upon looking at it, they had made a mini movie and Catkiller was in the back ground taking the piss. Catkiller is that ugly, I won’t bother scaring all you readers away from this or any future blog's by publishing the movie or any stills. My first weigh went 49lb odd and I still had a few fish left in the net.

Spiceworld's first weigh went 53lb 4oz. He had a few fish in his net, this was gonna be close. His second weigh was just shy of 15lb. Bugger - he has ounced me (8oz to be precise).

Spiceworld (He informs me that he is no relation to Ginger Spice), won the match with 68lb 2oz. I was second with 67lb 10oz and Alan (?) was 3rd with 44lb.

Following the results, and after having a chat with a couple of the other lads on the match, I was still left with a question. Why do they call it the ‘Tench Lake’ as there were no more than a dozen tench caught throughout the match by 25 anglers?

Went to the Fisho this year for the first time, here are one or two pictures that I took...

So, are we gonna have that quid side bet?

I had a couple of quid on Jacko. Go on my son!!

It was this big - Honest.

Shame about the coat.

I can always dream......

Mid July

I am having a rest from The Oaks at the moment due to my inability to be able to catch fish there. On my last match a couple of weeks ago, I managed to tip back somewhere in the region of 25lb, and that is after walking round the lake for about an hour or so. I was on peg 47 on Cedar Lake and I had Andy Hampson to my left on peg 46, with Gary Jubb for company on peg 49. Andy fished his peg all day and tipped back approximately the same weight whilst Jubby and John Allerton, on peg 50, both weighed in approximately 50lb.

So this week, I ended up going with Tyersall club, who are based in Bradford, to Risby Park lakes, just outside of Beverley. I had heard good reports about the place, and the match was taking place on Folly Lake, so I was looking forward to the trip. I offered to give a lift to one of the young lads who goes up to None-Go-Bye lakes, Louis Hamilton aka F1. F1 is very keen and on the way to the venue I got the usual questions, what line, how deep, what hook, what elastic, which peg, what line, what line, how deep, what hook, what elastic, which peg and so on and so on. By the time that we arrived I hurriedly went for a breakfast in order to give my bleeding ears a rest. Whilst eating my breakfast at the onsite café, all I got was would I be ok with one net or do I need to buy another? F1 chill out!!!

Tombstone, Catkiller and Coco to name but a few, where all in attendance. After asking one or two people that had fished the venue before the general consensus was that you needed to draw pegs 25 – 30 as most of the big fish lived there. After breakfast, I had a quick walk round the lake to see what was what. I started at peg 40 and walked round to peg one. To be fair, apart from a few extra reeds on the inside, there was nothing special that separated the so called good pegs from the bad pegs.

By the time of the draw there were 25 of us in attendance. I put my hand in the cap and ended up with peg 14. I would have preferred it on the other side. F1 snared peg 28, Tombstone was on peg 12, Ray Keay was to my left on peg 13, Catkiller was on peg 25 and Coco was on peg 35.

In view of the depth of the lake and the amount of fish swirling in the upper layers of the water, I opted to have a shallow approach as the basis of my attack. I set up the following rigs:

Rig one was a .2 Garbolino DC6 float on .18 Ultima Power Match line tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. This was attached to Purple Hydro elastic. I plumbed up down the side next to nearside reed cover and found that I had approximately 2.5ft of depth next to the reeds.

Rig two was a Gaz Malham float taking 4x10 shot. I set this up on .16 Ultima Power Match line. I hair-rigged a Korum Baitspike at the business end of the rig, attached to a size 16 Colmic B500 hook. I attached this to the Drennan pink elastic. I set the rig to fish approximately 12” deep.

Rig three was a duplicate of the above rig, set to fish slightly deeper at up to 2ft deep should the fish drop down in the water a bit.

My fourth rig was set to fish at depth at about 4m where I had 5ft of depth. I set up a .4g Garbolino DC4 on .16 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 12 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. I planned to fish paste on this rig.

For bait I had put 3 tins of luncheon meat through a Mal Bailey 6mm meatcutter. I then separated half of this and covered one half in Carp Vaders’ Predator Plus liquid additive (http://www.carpvader.com/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=3) This gave the bait a red tinge and also added additional flavouring.

I also made some paste from some micro pellets to which I added some scopex liquid, additive also from Carp Vader. In addition to the meat and paste I also had 2 pts of casters, just in case. I was ready.

At the start of the match, I cupped in some micro pellets in at 5m, then I cupped in some casters and meat (both the normal and the Predator Plus) at 13m. I immediately started to fire some casters and meat over the top. I threw some pellets in down the side. I baited up the deep rig with some paste and dropped it in on the 4m line. I waited less than a minute, carp no.1 was in the net. My first fish was about 1.5lb, but at least I was off the mark.

I managed to snare another 3 before I got linered(?) to death. I went out on the shallow rig at 13m. After feeding a few pieces of meat, the float shot under and a ‘ghostie’ carp of about 2.5lb was on it’s way. I fished up in the water for the next couple of hours catching the odd ghostie along with some corking ide, to about 2.5lb.

I fed a few pieces of bread down the margins, when all of a sudden, I heard some slurping. There was about 5 or 6 carp down the side in the marginal reeds, taking the bread off the top. I quickly knocked up another rig consisting of .20 Ultima Powermatch line tied direct to a size 12 Colmic B500. No float, no shot. I baited up the hook with a piece of bread about the size of a 50p piece and dropped in. After about 2 minutes, a ghostie approaching 6 or 7lb came up and slurped on the bread. What an awesome sight. Your heart is thumping, you’re a coiled like a cobra, waiting to strike, when..

Whack. I was in. The carp went mad in the reeds, it shot out into the lake (with the line still in the reeds), then went back into the reeds, like some sort of slalom. The hook pulled and embedded itself in the reeds. I pulled for a break and ended up dragging in some of the reeds instead. I quickly inspected the line and although it had appeared to be stretched, it seemed ok. I’ll tell you what. The Ultima Powermatch line is incredibly strong.

About time to go back out on the shallow rig. I dropped and immediately caught a carp of about 5lb.

I continued to fish up in the water until the last hour, when I decided to go down the side. I had been baiting up down the side with meat and pellets for the duration of the match. I dropped in down the side with meat on the hook, in about 3ft of water and caught a ghostie of about 3lb first drop in. Over the next hour I managed to snare another 8 carp to 4lb. That was it. Time over.

I would estimate that I had about 80 – 85lb, mostly caught on meat either up in the water or down the side.

I thought that I would have a top 3 finish. By the time that the scales arrived, Tombstone had snared 70 odd pounds, which included a fish of 11.5lb. Ray Keay snared 95lb odd, that included a near double figure fish that he played after time. My first weigh went 59lb and my second weigh went 18lb for a 77lb total. I walked round with the scales and watched as I got further away from framing as Peter Cressey plonked 114lb on the scales, all caught on paste at 4m.

One of the last to weigh was ginger Kenny. He weighed in 127lb odd to win the match by using 20m floating pole and floating dog biscuit as bait. I ended up 4th and they only pay top 3. Blinking Eck!!

If I could have done a couple of things different, I could have added another 15lb or so, I reckon. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Halfway through the match, I added more Predator Plus to my meat to form a red cloud that hung in the water. When I did this, I managed to catch more carp than ide. Maybe if I had gone down the side half an hour earlier, I could have added a few more.

As far as the weights go, F1 weighed in 44lb, which was a good result for the ‘young un’. The lowest weight weighed in by those that knew(?) what they were doing was 49lb by Coco Harrison. Nobody DNW’d. What a place. There were 6 other 70lb plus weights without the top 4. What a place.

If you decide to have a dabble, take your net as you can use them whilst pleasure fishing.

Tightlines!!!

Saturday 7th July 2007

My lad had his 12th birthday party last Sunday, and I spent the day with a group of kids running round a wood with a paintballing gun. If you haven’t been paintballing before, I suggest that you have a go. It was a better day due to the weather as it has rained on and off (mostly on) for the last 3 weeks or so and the place was muddy, so when you dived to the ground in some sort of SAS manoeuvre you got absolutely blathered in mud.

One of the games consisted of plastic barrel at the halfway point between two teams and the idea was to keep the barrel on the oppositions side of the field. I had the task of making the first run for the barrel (minus my gun), whilst all and sundry took pot-shots at me. Have a go if you get chance. I am contemplating organising a little ‘do’ with a few mates, hopefully in the near future if I can get the commitment.

Anyway’s, back to the fishing. Due to the party last weekend, there is no report, so I made up for it with a trip to Hosticks ponds, Beverley.

I made midweek arrangements to pick up the Anaemic Milk Bottle, who was formerly known as ‘Dudone’. On a recent match one of the anglers said to Dudone, ‘You know what you need don’t you? Dudone replied ‘What’. The angler said ‘A good suntan’.

As most of the readers in the UK are aware (and no doubt some of the readers from other shores), there are certain areas of England that have been under 6ft plus of water. Up until a few days ago, there were only parts of Doncaster and Sheffield that had suffered. Kingston upon Hull has also had similar problems and Hosticks had their fair share. There are 3 lakes on the complex and the rain was so severe that the lakes merged to become one and you needed chest waders just to get to your peg and the car park was under 2ft of water.

After a good breakfast at the onsite café courtesy of Val, I was ready for the draw. Steve Cromie turned up and a £2 side bet was set up. At the draw Cromie drew number 2, whilst I was number 7 and Anaemia pulled out number 15. With the matches being a rover, the number indicated your turn to choose your own peg.

Cromie chose the peg that had won the match on Thursday, Kingfisher peg 1. I snared Moat peg 29 and by the time that it was Anaemia’s turn, he didn’t have much of a choice, so ended up on Island peg 13. He got to his peg to find it was under water. A quick word with the match organisers, and he had moved to peg 12. By the time that the match had started he had moved again to Island peg 18. Don’t ask!!!

At the start of the match I set up 3 rigs as follows:

Rig one was a Gaz Malham special, I say a Gaz Malham special as I am not sure what pattern the float is. I like the Malham floats as they are virtually indestructible and you can fish them next to reeds/snags etc with no worries of damaging the floats. I set the rig up on .16 Ultima Power Match. I set the rig up to fish across to the island and in view of the far side being a slope, I settle on about 2ft deep. The float took 4x12, which roughly equates to 3 No. 8 and 1 x No.11 Preston Stotz. This rig was attached to the Pink Drennan hollow elastic. I also plumbed up down the side on the top 3 kit until I found the same depth allowing the float to have a dual purpose (nearside and far side).

I set up the usual .2g Garbolino DC6 float on .18 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. This was attached to black hydro. Again, I plumbed up across to the island in the same spot as my first rig.

My 3rd rig was a .4g Garbolino DC4 float. This was set up on .18 Ultima Power Match line direct to a size 12 Gamakatsu Pellet and Paste hook. Black Hydro completed this set up. I plumbed up at the base of the far slope and found that I had about 4.5ft of depth.

For bait, I had 2pts of micro pellets, 1 tin of corn and a large ball of paste made from my micro pellets.

At the all in, I potted in some pellets to the base of the far slope and put in a few grains of corn and pellets on the inside line.

I went across to the far side with the Gaz Malham rig baited up with pellet on the hook and a Toss pot full of micro pellets. I tipped the pellets in and dropped my rig over the top. The float hadn’t even settled before the elastic was dragged from the pole tip as the fish made a mad dash for the car park (it would have made it had it not been for the fact that the water was back in the lake!!!).

A carp of 2lb was soon subdued and in the net. I rebaited and dropped in again. I waited a little longer before the elastic was dragged out again. Another carp, this one was about 1lb or so. I repeated the process and got a million missed bites before I connected with an ide of about 10 oz. A roach and some more ide followed. Time to move to another spot.

I dropped in, in another spot to the right of where I had been fishing and immediately caught a carp of about 2lb. Ide and roach followed. I dropped in down the side to my left and caught what turned out to be my smallest carp of the day at about 8oz.

All the while, I could see carp milling about up in the water. I decided to try shallow. I dropped in and got ‘dinked’ to death. I was getting a million indications, the pellets were getting dragged off the hook and there was nothing there. When I finally connected with the ‘dinks’, I managed to snare an Ide of about 2lb, now these where worth catching.

I dropped in again and suffered the same problem before I caught an ide of about 10oz. I switched to corn on the hook, but fished up in the water. I sprinkled a few micro pellets over the top of the float. The float buried and I caught my biggest carp so far. It was a common approaching 4lb. I had found the method, corn up in the water, of so I thought.

After about 30 minutes and one more carp, I decided to sack that method as the fish weren’t going mad for it. I dropped in on paste down the middle and managed to snare some more ide. I couldn’t catch a carp for the life of me.

I went over to the far side with paste on the hook and immediately caught a carp before the ide and the roach moved back in. There was now only 2 hours of the match remaining and I would estimate that I had about 25lb to 30lb in the net. I made a decision. I would try to catch the ide and the carp closer in, on the top 3 kit rather than shipping 14m of pole across to the far side and wasting time shipping in and out.

As you can see, I was now on plan 20-Z.

I plumbed up with the deep rig to find the depth on the top 3 and found approximately 3ft of depth. I baited up with paste and fed some micro pellets and corn by hand. The float had barely settled before I caught my first ide of about 12oz. Sorted. I snared about 10 ide and a couple of roach before I caught my first carp down the side. This one weighed approximately 5lb. Over the remainder of the match I would catch predominantly ide/roach/skimmers before catching a carp, but I was keeping them coming.

Now, let me ask a question, why don’t anglers know better????? Whilst fishing, I must have received 4 or 5 calls from anglers asking ‘How are you getting on?’, ‘What weight have you got?’, ‘What time do you finish?’, ‘Have you tried….?’, etc, etc. This is whilst I am trying to get a method sorted or whilst I am in bagging mode.

By the end of the match, I felt as though I had got a game plan together and I was catching steadily away.

I had caught 23 carp averaging 1.5 – 2lb and about 40lb of silvers. Phil Chapman was admitting to 28/29 carp with the biggest one approaching 10lb and about 6lb of silver fish.

The scales arrived at Phil’s peg first and he plonked 80lb on the scales. The lad next to him managed to snare 122lb (what had Phil been doing, watching him). There was another 120lb + weight from peg 14. The lad next to me weighed in 90lb and I put 39lb of mainly silvers and small carp (carp to about 1.5lb) on the scales. My second net went 45lb (this was made up of larger carp, about 7 of them, and larger skimmers, tench and ide). This gave me a combined weight of 83lb odd.

As I was being weighed in, there was a roach in my net that would have weighed no more than about ½ oz wet through. I said to the Anaemic One that I had caught it on paste. His reply of ‘God, did you mate?’ was unbelievable.

The only person that Phil managed to beat on our lake was a blind 80 year old who had a bell at the end of his pole for bite detection.

123lb won, 122 – second, 120lb 3rd (Steve Cromie), 114lb, 113lb. First and second came off my lake, the next 6 placings came off Kingfisher Lake.

I had had a thoroughly enjoyable day and started to enjoy myself when I had finally got my method sorted. This is the first time that I had been on this lake and I have learnt a lot for the next time that I am on this lake.

Ultima Power Match Line

After using the Power Match line for the last few weeks or so, I am a true convert. The line is incredibly strong, yet very supple and very abrasion resistant. I have been using the .20 on a local lake fishing to the staging on the next peg, the fish have been running round the post and today, I have used the .16 and .18 breaking strains with no worries. The largest carp ran through some fine tree routes from the overhanging willow tree and I managed to pull it back through.

The final thing that I must add is that ‘I haven’t been broke (yet)’.

Just like to say a quick hello to my readers in:

Oslo, Mumbai, Nairobi, Mugla, Washington, Wood Dale, Tucson and BROADSTAIRS

Thanks for reading peeps.

Darrell Taylor was trying to convince John 'Chappy' Chapman that fish eat water. I asked Darrell how he had got on after yesterdays match. He said not very well. I said 'Imagine how many more fish you would have caught if they hadn't been full up on all of the water that they had eaten'.

Billy Brierley was overheard to say that he tried water, but was having trouble keeping it on the hook.

On a more serious note, there is only one person to blame for all of the drains being blocked and that is Haircut. He got his wig stuck in a swimming pool filter and this has had catastrophic effect on the UK as a whole in view of all of the rain.

A quick update….

I have fished a few of the evening matches at a local lake called None-Go-Bye. It is on a farm and the owners are still learning and boy, do they have a lot to learn.

I have fished a total of 7 evening matches and won money in all but one of them. I have had weights of 20lb (2nd), 42lb (1st), 47lb (1st), 38lb (2nd) and a few other weights in between. This isn’t bad for a 3 hour evening match, where the bonus fish are about 2lb and the main stamp of fish are in the 10 – 12oz bracket. I have been fishing pellet across to the farside and I have just started to fish paste down the middle.

I have started to fish with a maggot and Groundbait approach on the Sessay Opens and the weights are steadily increasing, the first time that I used it I caught 36lb (13lb one side of me and 7 fish the other) for 2nd in section. I have also had 57lb (with a DNW (about 20lb) one side and 22lb the other) for a section win and about 10th overall. I used it a couple of weeks ago and had 42lb, again, coming 2nd in my section with 44lb winning the section. I got broke by one as I couldn’t get my top kit back on to my pole and it bottomed out my elastic. Dave Pimlott had 57lb one side of me and I had a DNW on the other side. I used it yesterday and had 52lb with 74lb one side (Dave Pimlott (again) – 4th overall) for 2nd in section again.

I went to Woodland View, Droitwich for a charity do taking the format of the old ‘uns v young ‘uns and took Total Fishing.com poster ‘Budnudd’ with me. I quickly renamed Budnudd – Dudone as it had a better ring to it than budnudd. I had a quick chat to Giles to see if he had any top tips and to also say thank you for helping me to win £600 quid when I first started to us the HITL method. I managed to draw Front Deans pool, peg 9. I had Steve May a couple of pegs away on about peg 6 or 7 and Corndawg was next peg to Steve. A quick quid was struck up with both. I had Steve’s Lad – God, opposite me and Dudone was within earshot on Front Deans peg 3. Giles was unsure about which way to swing due to his age as the average age was 42 years old. If you were this old or older, you was classed as an oldie. Giles stood there with a look of what do I do. I am only 42. A quick shove from yours truly and he was soon on his way to the old ‘uns.

I fished with caster up in the water and ended up with 31lb for 2nd in my section (again). Gary Thorpe won my section with 47lb. The lad next to me was tapping with water, I thought that this wasn’t allowed and I told him on a couple of occasions. But he still continued. God managed to win our lake with 80 odd pounds. Peter1984 (not sure of his real name, who organised the match) was a clear winner with 168lb. Giles was 2nd with 118lb. I was on the wrong lake and wrong side. Everyone on the opposite bank had 40 – 80lb, whereas on my bank we mainly struggled. Steve ended up with 14lb odd and Corndawg had 15lb odd. I had to beat an old fella next to me (Mike someone was his name) and he had 4 fish. Job done. I won an envelope for 2nd in section, which I donated to the cause (and additional £35).

Back at Hosticks, I was 14th to draw, so all I did was to look around for a bit of room. Dudone was in attendance again, courtesy of yours truly. He was even further down the draw than I was. I ended up on Kingfisher peg 26 and Dudone ended up on Kingfisher peg 24. He only managed to get done 8 times and ended up with about 8 fish out. I fished maggot for a couple of hours and then switched to pellet to end up with 70 odd pounds and a most enjoyable days fishing.

I have just taken delivery of some Ultima Power Match line and I am totally impressed with it on my initial trials. I used it at None Go Bye on the old original lake. I rigged up my G995 pole with some Red Hydro elastic and rigged up with .20 line direct to a size 12 hook. I plumbed up about 5” away from a lily bed. I used a short power No. 4 which had a small crack in it that I had taped up, so I wouldn’t be too bothered if I broke the section or not. I let Jasper have a go and he only went and broke the said section as a large carp made a big for freedom. After a 4 minute tussle (if you could call it that), we managed to grab hold of the end of the section that had broken and tried to pull the fish back through the lily bed, but no such luck. It managed to break me, but not without a battle first.

On Sunday, I gave a bit of line to Dave Pimlott and asked him to break it. He couldn’t, and it nearly cut his hands. I did the same with Andy Stonner and the same happened. I then showed them the breaking strain. 0.14!!!!

That’s all for now, but more will follow.

Tightlines

Mike

About time for an update.


In the last few weeks since my last match I have fished at Hosticks, Cudmore (Arena), None-Go-Bye, Oaks, Sessay and Woodland View, so here goes.


I managed to get on a match at Cudmore on the Arena pool with a club from around Leeds. I put up a thread on Total Fishing discussion forum asking for a little bit of advice and Steve May told me to give Jellybaby a ring to find out what to do. I spoke with Andy, who advised that I fish the Method feeder for the first hour, then go in on the pole at 14m with meat on the hook. The lake is full of barbel in the 1lb bracket.


Including pools and the coach hire, it only cost me 20 quid. Whilst waiting for the club to organise the draw, someone suggested a £1 winner take all. I suggested that we make it a £2 winner take all, just to add a bit of fun. There were 20 of us there for the match on a 30 peg lake. I was left to sort out the pegging on a peg 2, miss one basis. We were ready. I put my hand in the cap and managed to draw peg 20. I walked to my peg and made a quick call to Andy May to just find out a little bit more about the peg. Jellybaby said that peg 19 is a flyer, but I should do ok off it. I asked about Jasper’s peg (peg 30) and he said that he was on a good silverfish peg if he fished chopped worm and caster.

I set up according to what Jellybaby said so I had:

Method/Bomb rod. I have just loaded the reel with .18 Ultima Power Plus. I attached the method and tied on a .16 Ultima Power Plus hooklength. I attached a snap swivel allowing me to pre-load a method feeder whilst one was in the water. It would also give me the option of clipping on a bomb at a later stage.

I set up 3 pole rigs, one at 6m to my left, one down the edge and one for the 14.5/16m line.

The 6m rig was a .3g Garbolino DC 6 on .16 Ultima Power Plus line straight through to a size 14 Gamakatsu pellet/corn hook. The depth at 6m was 3.5ft deep.

The inside rig was a .1g Garbolino DC6 float tied direct to a size 14 Colmic B500 hook. I plumbed up down the side until I found 1.5ft of depth, this was about 1m from the bank.

My final rig was a .5g Drennan Roach set up on .13 Preston Powerline straight through to a size 16 Colmic B500 hook. At 15m, I had 4.5ft of depth.

At the start of the match, I loaded the method with a bit of Browning Champions Choice Groundbait. Baited up with 3 red maggots on the hook and lobbed it about 1m off the island (it was that far from where I was sitting). I then proceeded to catapult some casters/hemp and meat to the pole lines.

After 5 minutes, I wound the method feeder back in, reloaded and fired again. I proceeded in this manner all the time waiting a little longer in between casts (I would have said bites, but I didn’t have any!!!). After feeding the pole line for about 45 minutes or so, I decided it was time to have a look.

By this time, Catkiller Hawkins on the next peg had managed to snare 3 large carp for an estimated 20lb or so and I hadn't had a fish on the method. But, according to the game plan, there was still time.

I caught a barbel first put in. Then another, then another, the peg was solid. I had a quick drop in at 6m to see if I could either catch a bonus carp of to see whether or not I could the barbel closer.

After about 5 minutes and nothing, enough was enough. I continued to bait the margin swim with neat meat (no hemp or casters – and for those down south that read this, that may be said as caaaassters).

I went back out to the 15m line and plundered the peg. I swapped the method feeder to a straight bomb and every so often I would chuck the bomb just past the pole line and snare another barbel. Craig at the next peg was struggling as was Jasper. Daz ‘Coco the clown’ Harrison was catching the odd fish which included carp to 8lb. He managed to get his rig snagged and the float shot back and went into his thumb. Diddums!!

Catkiller hadn’t managed to snare much more to add to his initial tally. That was it. Match over. I don’t know how I have faired as I can only see about half of the lake and I haven’t been watching them all match. I packed up and followed the scales. Steve ‘Captain Mainwaring’ Hargreaves was moaning about the tails swirling down the side, but he was too scared to drop his pole rig down the side – WUSS!!!

Pete Cressey set the standard by plonking 37lb on the scales, which included a double figure zoo creature. Coco had a couple of weighs and managed to snare 46lb – how the bleeding heck had he done that? I had seen him catch a couple of fish, but not that many. Daz ‘Tombstone’ Aveyard was a DNW again – might have to start calling him Empty Net.

I was next to weigh. I lifted my first net out and plonked 27lb and a few ounces on the scales. This was my heaviest net. I got my second net out – I needed 19lb or more. It was looking close. I plonked the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round past 18lb, then 19lb and finally settled at 20lb odd for a combined weight of 48lb dead. Catkiller managed to weigh in 25lb. There was only Glenn ‘Nightwatch’ Crossthwaite left to weigh who I had seen catch some fish. Nightwatch fished a tidy match and managed 39lb of silver fish and barbel by fishing chopped worm.

I had won, including the £2 optional.

I had enjoyed today. I had caught a few fish, won a few quid (which I shared with Jasper) and had a nice relaxing day.

More blog to follow.

Tightlines

Big Pellet.

Saturday 12th May 2007 - Hostick, Beverley.

I was introduced to Hostick’s, Beverley, last week by John ‘Magnum’ Clarke. I ended up with 59lb for nowhere. I had about 30 carp and nothing bigger than 4lb. Steve Cromie was on the next peg and had about 15 carp for 71lb, so I was a quid down. Kingfisher 30 won the match with 136lb and someone had a fish out that went 22lb odd.

I managed to get a few, but I also got done a couple of times, well, 3 to be exact. Once on .16 Ultima Power Plus and twice on .18 Ultima Power Plus. Whilst fishing down the side on the top 4 kit geared up with Red Hydro elastic, I struck into a fish, the elastic started to extend from the top kit at a rate of knots and before I knew it, I had been done. That was on the .18 line. Blinking Eck!!! I was stunned and sat there in amazement for about 5 hours, well, that was what it felt like.

I persuaded Jasper and Rockin Ronnie to have a dabble this week. They agreed to be at mine at 6:30 and they would follow me down there. After being on the ’62 for about 10 minutes, it was obvious that they either wasn’t going to or couldn’t follow me and I had to resort to driving slower than Miss Daisy. We were going that slow, my car had it’s reverse lights on most of the way. Once we left the ’62, they had to follow me, all I could see was a plume of smoke coming from the back of their car as it struggled to reach 40!!!

We all arrived safe and sound in plenty of time to have a walk around all 3 lakes, Kingfisher, Moat and Island to see how the wind was affecting the lakes. Fish were rolling all over on all of the lakes.

A hearty filling brekkie was enjoyed by all (good value at only £4), then it was into the draw. Let me explain a little here. The matches at Hostick’s are Rover Matches. They put in a number in numerical order for every angler that turns up. When they have closed the draw, they start at Number 1 and ask that angler to chose his/her peg all the way to the last angler.

The Draw

I put my hand in the bag and managed to pull out No. 1. Bloody Eck!!!!! There are 3 lakes in use today, with 30 pegs on each lake. Where do I go? Do I go on the ‘Wires’ on Island lake or pegs 1 & 30 on Moat Lake or Pegs 1 or 30 on Kingfisher Lake?

It took me all of 3 nanoseconds to make my mind up. I had already decided where I wanted to be even before I drew. KINGFISHER 30. Kingfisher 30 won the match last Saturday with 136lb and it also won Bank Holiday Monday’s match with nearly 200lb (saying that he did have about 10 empty pegs both sides, I kid you not). The match held yesterday was only won with 80lb and that wasn’t from Kingfisher 30. So we will see.

In view of waiting to see what Jasper and Rockin’ had chosen (Island 1 & 30), I arrived at my peg to find that I had Little George on Kingfisher 1 and Phil Chapman on Kingfisher 29. Phil was glad to draw next to me as he knew that he would get a mention in my blog. Well Phil, I have mentioned your name and I won’t do so again for the rest of the blog, or until at least I mention how we all faired. On Kingfisher lake, as with Moat, you walk on to the island and fish outwards. Pegs 1 and 30 are either side of the bridge that everyone uses to walk on to the island.

The rules at Hostick’s are, for want of another word, different. You can only use the following:

White maggots
Brown pellets
Corn
Worms
White breadcrumb
Brown breadcrumb

And that’s about it. If you are caught with anything else in your possession, you are disqualified immediately. No questions.

You can use paste provided that it is made from your own pellets or it is the ‘Easy-paste’ that can be bought on site. Jasper reckons that Easypaste is not dissimilar to window putty. I dunno, I’ve never tried it.

Someone once got caught with mixed red and white maggots and was disqualified. Do you know what the bailiff did? No, I didn’t think so. I only went and chucked the maggots in the lake, then disqualified the bloke. If he doesn’t want them to be fed, why chuck them in the lake?

Also, if you catch a fish over 8lb, you need to go looking for the scales and weigh it separately before returning it to the lake.

My Peg

Upon surveying my peg, I decided on 3 lines of attack, one slightly to my left across to the far side at 14m (at about 11 o’clock), the 2nd was at 1 o’clock to where the bridge meets the far bank and the other line was down the side to my right on the top 4 kit. I set up the following rigs:

The rig that was going to be used at 11 o’clock was a .2g Garbolino DC6 float shotted with 3 No. 9 Preston Stotz. This rig was set up on .18 Ultima Power Plus line tied direct to a size 16 Preston PR24 hook. This rig was attached to Black Hydro elastic through a power top two kit. Upon plumbing up, I found that I had about 18” – 2ft of depth.

The rig that I was going to use at 1 o’clock (which hopefully was going to be my main catching area) was a 4 x 10 Gaz Malham float (diamond shaped with a glass stem). I used this float as I feel that it was going to be a lot more robust than most of the other floats that I have in my box. This was shotted using No. 9 Preston Stotz. I was using .18 Ultima Power Plus line direct to a size 14 Drennan Match Carp Barbless Eyed hook. I plumbed up to find that was fishing on a steep slope, so I set my rig to 2ft deep and plumbed around until I was happy with where I was planning on fishing. I set the rig up ‘Hook In The Loop’ style. With the 2 shot being so close to the hook, this would ensure that I wasn’t fishing too far overdepth. I attached this rig to a power top kit containing the pink Drennan Hollow core elastic.

My 3rd and final rig was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float, which I shotted with No.8 Preston Stotz. This rig was set up on .20 Ultima Power Plus line, tied direct to a size 14 Drennan Match Carp Barbless Eyed hook. This rig was attached to Red Hydro elastic. I plumed up down the side on a top 2 + 2 and found that I had about 2.5ft of depth, again, sloping away to 4ft.

That’s it. I was ready. For bait, I had micro pellets, 4mm expanders, 6mm expanders, 1 small tin of corn and I mixed up some micro pellets to make some paste with.

All In

At the start of the match, I put some bait in down the edge and also across to the 1 o’clock swim. I baited up the DC6 rig and put some micro pellets in the Fox Tosspot. I shipped out, tipped the bait in, dropped the rig over the top and waited. But not for long. After about 30 seconds, the float dipped. The strike was met with a gudgeon flying out of the water. I was hyped up.

I threw the fish in my keep net in disgust. I re-baited and shipped back across to the same line. I dropped in again and baited over the top. The float disappeared instantly. Another gudgeon. I put a couple of pot fulls of micro pellets over the top and decided to leave that line alone.

I baited up the Malham special with a 4mm pellet. I put some pellets in a Tosspot and shipped across to the far side. I dropped the rig in and barely had chance to tip the bait in, before the rig and elastic was soon away. A ghost carp of about 1.5lb was soon in the net. They are easy to handle on the pink Drennan Hollowcore.

I plundered this line for the next couple of hours whilst continually feeding down the inside and also across to the 11 o’clock line. After a couple of hours, I would estimate that I had about 30lb of small mirror carp and ghost carp. The biggest fish may have gone 2.5lb and the smallest would have been about 12oz.

I felt as though now was the time to start alternating the 1 o’clock line and the down the side line. I was also having a nightmare with all the crap and scum and floating reeds that were constantly being blown into my peg. I was on occasions having difficulty dropping the rig in the same place twice. I was having to keep trying to push the crap under the bridge out of the way. At the start of the match, I took loads of stuff out of the peg with the landing net and I cleared the peg out to about the length of my landing net stick. It was really starting to ‘P’ me off. Darren Taylor came looking for the scales. He had managed to snare one of an estimated 20lb +. Blinking Eck, what did he have to go with it?

Little George to my right had managed to snare a few, including 2 fish for 18lb. Where were my big fish? At least I was fairing better than Empty Net to my left. After 2 hours, he was admitting to an ‘Empty Net’.

First drop in down the side resulted in a little ghost carp of about 1lb. I then swapped between the two lines. Towards the end of the match, I could see the odd better fish come out from under the bridge. I quickly adapted the Malham special rig to about 8” deep (including the float) and dropped it in to the edge of the bridge. I was tapping the water, when all of a sudden, the pink elastic was trying it’s best to get in Little George’s net. After a scary tussle (with me trying to stop my pole from crashing into the bridge), I slipped my net under my biggest fish of the day, a carp of about 6lb.

I immediately went back down the side, where I managed to snare a 4lb’er. I had by now switched to paste down the inside and had all but sacked the farside lines due to them being unfishable with all the scum and crap in the peg.

At 4:05, I estimated that I had a good 70 – 80lb, and more if I was lucky. I baited up with pellet and dropped back in down the side. By 4:12, I hadn’t had a bite, but in view of the match finishing at 4:15, I might as well wait it out.

By 4:18, no-one had shouted all out. Sugar!!!, the match didn’t finish until 4:30. I quickly rebaited with a small ball of paste about the size of a small marble and dropped back in. I managed to snare 3 fish in the last ten minutes. That was it time. The heavens opened and it absolutely pee’d it down whilst packing up.

Little George was the first to weigh, after 3 weighs, he managed to put 159lb on the scales, including the 18lb that he had weighed in earlier. As scales help, I followed the scales round and recorded 3 x 90lb weights (I hadn’t got that, by a long shot), plus backup weights of 60 – 80lb’s. Empty Net failed to weigh in and had in fact nearly packed up by the end of the match. It was my turn to weigh in. I lifted my net out and immediately knew that I had more than I thought. My first net bottomed out 60lb scales. I put some of the fish into my 2nd keepnet (yes, I had used to nets and I had fish in both of them) to lighten the scales. My first weigh went 57lb. I tipped some (not all) of the fish from my 2nd net onto the scales and recorded 53lb. That was my 2nd weigh and I still had some fish left. My remaining weigh went 15lb 8oz. For the none mathematicians amongst you, that equates to 125lb 8oz.

Stu Baron (Woody’s Twin Brother) made some sarky comments about me only having 80lb. I hadn’t caught a ‘ton’ before, how would I know what one looks like.

I have finally reached a milestone. I have managed to weigh in over a ton. More importantly (but only just), how had I faired on the match. I ended up 4th (yes 4th with 125lb) due to Moat pegs 2 & 29 throwing up 138lb and 133lb respectively.

What a day.

This will definitely be one of the days that I will always remember, and unlike last week, I hadn’t even been broken once.

I will also be coming here again, most likely next Saturday!!!