Living in North Dorset like I do, it can sometimes be a real pain trying to find a match to fish. After much searching I finally found a small match being fished on the top lake of Todber Manor's old carp lakes, also known as Whitepost lakes.
Now I haven't fished either of the lakes in a match for quite a long time and the stocking has changed quite dramaticly since that time. The top lake used to contain carp that averaged 5lb with quite a few reaching low doubles, the big carp have mostly been moved on to other lakes on the complex and the majority of fish are in the 1lb to 3lb range with 7lb being about as big as they get.
At the draw I was hoping to draw either pegs 1, 5, or 12 all pegs that make it possible to reach the far bank with the pole and all known as fliers. Peg 1 really appealed as the wind was pushing up into to top end of the lake, and under those conditions has always been known to throw up a good weight. Well my drawing arm didn't fail to produce the usual duff peg, when I put my hand in the bag out came peg 6. Of all the pegs that were in the bag it was one of the two that I really didn't want, peg 14 being the other.
For those that don't know the lakes, peg 5 is a flier, it sits almost on a point giving you 16m to get to the far bank, peg 6 sits back behind peg 5 by about 5m but it is still in the narrow part of the lake just before it opens out into the wider middle section of the lake, this means that even when fishing long you are still fishing well behind peg 5 and a long way off of the far bank. Anyway, I only get the chance to go fishing once a week on average so have to make the most of it, and miracles do happen.
I decided to have 3 lines to cover my options and hopefully keep some fish going in the net throughout the match. The first line was going to be fishing the lead tight over, with either hair rigged pellets or corn soaked in carpvader pinapple 360 (Awesome stuff I can tell you.) the second was at 14.5m fishing corn and pellet, this consisted of a 4x12 preston durafloat 1 (I needed a thicker tip than I would have liked to use because of tricky light conditions) this was rigged up on .12 line to a size 20 b911 and coupled to a no.8 lacky. The final line was a backup line feeding maggot at 5m for silvers, I set up a 4x10 Carpa tricky on .10 XT7 and a size 20 gama black hook.
On the whistle I deposited 20 4ml xpander pellets and 3 grains of corn on the pole line, flicked half a dozon maggot onto the 5m line and cast out the lead with 2 grains of corn on the hair.
Only 10min passed before I had the first wrap round of the day from a lovely plump mirror of about 1.5lb, next cast resulted in the tip going round almost instantly with a slightly bigger fish of about 3lb. Excellent I thought to myself, keep this up and I will be looking at having a good day. Sadly it was not to be, 3 fish graced my net in the first half and hour then it all went quiet. Looking round I had only seen 2 others catch so was quite happy with my start. I gave it another half an hour before deciding to have a look on the pole line 20mins with no sign of a bite on the 14.5m line saw me have a look on the maggot line. This also failed to produce even a bite, so it was back on the bomb. After a further half hour with only 1 fish to show for my efforts a slight change in tack was in order, off came the bomb and hair rig and on went a maggot feeder to see if introducing a few maggots would spark things off as I had seen fish being caught by those that were putting a little feed in.
On the 3rd cast with the maggot feeder the tip flew round and a 3lb fish graced the net, next cast saw the tip hardly settle before it went round again. For the next hour I was catching fairly steadily and felt that I could start to build a weight, but then my neighbour on peg 7 went back out with his feeder and my fish stopped coming while he started catching a few fish.
The rest of the match was pretty uneventful, switching between lines picking off the odd fish but unable to put any number of fish together.
At the weigh in it was pretty obvious who had won, peg 1 had been solid as was expected and the winner had made no mistake putting 67lb of small carp on the scales, what was uncertain was who would fill the rest of the frame places, as it turned out peg 3 managed 39lb for 3rd and Pete Neate the match organiser just managed to pinch 2nd with 42lb off of peg 9. I scraped into 4th place putting exactly 27lb on the scales, just beating peg 7 who weighed 26lb 13oz.
Looking back at how I approached the peg, I don't think there was much I did wrong. The fish were quite obviously tight in against the far bank, as proved a couple of times when I cast right into the reeds and before I could start to retrive the rig the tip went round with a fish on, unfortunately they also snagged me in the reeds. And ultimately I couldn't get close enough or draw those fish out.
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Monday, 21 January 2008
Merritts Lake, Silverfish Match 20th Jan (20 Fished)
This last week I have been really looking forward to this match, for 2 reasons;
Firstly, I really thought that the fish would feed due to the mild weather-this club lake is guaranteed to produce a few fish no matter what the weather. And secondly because I had a new toy to play with! I have just bought myself a Tourney Pro and really wanted the opportunity to test this pole in a fishing situation.
As the week went on I had been chatting to my traveling/fishing partner Mark Poppleton, about the prospects for this match and what we expected to work. All our plans revolved around it being a normal match in which carp counted, and targeting everything that swims by feeding ground bait at 13m.
All these plans had to go out the window following a call from the club match secretary on friday night telling us that it was going to be a silver fish match. So after a bit of thought I decided to have to target the fish on 2 lines, 1 at 13m with groundbait hoping to get a few skimmers, and a short maggot line to target the roach.
Meanwhile Mark decided he would try to target the roach by fishing long and shallow-we both know from experience that it is possible to put together some huge weights of roach in this manner.
The morning of the match arrived, and I looked out of the window to see the tree behind my house being thrashed about by some pretty nasty gusts of wind. Anyway, I loaded the car and set off to collect Mark and get to the draw which was happening at 8am, for once I wasn't late collecting Mark and we arrived with time to get our kit unloaded ready for the draw.
This is essential when fishing the Lavington club matches, as they only give you 45mins to set up(it used to be 30min).
At the draw, I put my hand in and found peg 2 stuck to my hand. This turned out to be the last peg before the island on the car park side of the lake, not the best of draws and if I'm honest didn't fancy my chances. In the usual fashion Mark pulled out peg 14 which I would have been really pleased with, but that's match fishing and you have to make the best out of what you are stuck with.
Anyway, at the peg I discovered I had John Cooper our match secretary on my right on peg 1 and a spare peg to my left. Opposite me was former Fisho champ Kev Rolwes who was on the end peg.
As planned I set up 2 rigs on a no.6 elastic for a line at 5m, both were made up on .10 Ultima XT7 with a .8 XT7 hooklength and a Gamma black hook. The first rig featured a 4x14 Preston Dura float (the slim red one) with a bulk of no.10's and 3 no.11 droppers, the second was a fine 4x12 mossella pattern that was rigged with spread no.11s. I also set up a long rig to fish pinkie and maggot over groundbait for skimmers, this rig was a 1gram Ignesti float rigged up on .10 XT7 again to a .08XT7 with an 18 Gamma black this was attached to a no.8 rubber.
On the whistle 3 balls of Sensas Crazy Bait Black went in on the 13m line laced with a few pinkies and caster, and whilst I left this to settle I started on the 5m line with single maggot on the hook looking to put a few roach in the net.
In the first hour I estimated I had put about 1 1/2lb in the net of little roach, which were coming fairly steadily but I felt not really quick enough to really put a decent weight together. Looking around the lake I could see Mark playing the first of what turned out to be many carp caught fishing shallow (what really amazes me is that all summer we have been trying to catch these carp shallow and not managed it). Other than that of those I could see, I couldn't see much going on, so I decided to have a quick look on the groundbait to give the close in line a rest. This produced a couple of skimmers before I hooked and landed a carp of about 3lb. Another 5 min produced nothing, so I fed another ball and went back on the short line. TBH after that carp, the groundbait line produced very little so I spent most of the rest of the match plugging away on the short line. At halfway I could see Kev Rolwes netting a few skimmers opposite and Mark playing yet another carp, but very little other than that.
With about an an hour left to go, the maggot line slowed right down. I added an extra section and started to search around the feed for the fish, and spent the last part of the match just picking up the odd fish up here and there.
The weigh in started up the top end far side of the lake, and by the time it got to me there was Tom Ince with 8.14 and Kev Rolwes with 8.10 plus a high 7lb. I really wasn't that confident of putting more than 4 to 5lb on the scales, so imagine my surprise when the scales registered a hard earned 8lb 1oz to put me 3rd overall behind 2 very good silverfish anglers, and from a peg that I really didn't fancy at the start of the match! Most importantly I beat Mark who put enough carp on the bank to walk the match easily if carp counted, and claim back another of the many £1 coins I lost to him last year.
Final Result
1st - Tom Ince - 8lb 14oz
2nd - Kev Rolwes - 8lb 10oz
3rd - Nick Merry - 8lb 1oz
Firstly, I really thought that the fish would feed due to the mild weather-this club lake is guaranteed to produce a few fish no matter what the weather. And secondly because I had a new toy to play with! I have just bought myself a Tourney Pro and really wanted the opportunity to test this pole in a fishing situation.
As the week went on I had been chatting to my traveling/fishing partner Mark Poppleton, about the prospects for this match and what we expected to work. All our plans revolved around it being a normal match in which carp counted, and targeting everything that swims by feeding ground bait at 13m.
All these plans had to go out the window following a call from the club match secretary on friday night telling us that it was going to be a silver fish match. So after a bit of thought I decided to have to target the fish on 2 lines, 1 at 13m with groundbait hoping to get a few skimmers, and a short maggot line to target the roach.
Meanwhile Mark decided he would try to target the roach by fishing long and shallow-we both know from experience that it is possible to put together some huge weights of roach in this manner.
The morning of the match arrived, and I looked out of the window to see the tree behind my house being thrashed about by some pretty nasty gusts of wind. Anyway, I loaded the car and set off to collect Mark and get to the draw which was happening at 8am, for once I wasn't late collecting Mark and we arrived with time to get our kit unloaded ready for the draw.
This is essential when fishing the Lavington club matches, as they only give you 45mins to set up(it used to be 30min).
At the draw, I put my hand in and found peg 2 stuck to my hand. This turned out to be the last peg before the island on the car park side of the lake, not the best of draws and if I'm honest didn't fancy my chances. In the usual fashion Mark pulled out peg 14 which I would have been really pleased with, but that's match fishing and you have to make the best out of what you are stuck with.
Anyway, at the peg I discovered I had John Cooper our match secretary on my right on peg 1 and a spare peg to my left. Opposite me was former Fisho champ Kev Rolwes who was on the end peg.
As planned I set up 2 rigs on a no.6 elastic for a line at 5m, both were made up on .10 Ultima XT7 with a .8 XT7 hooklength and a Gamma black hook. The first rig featured a 4x14 Preston Dura float (the slim red one) with a bulk of no.10's and 3 no.11 droppers, the second was a fine 4x12 mossella pattern that was rigged with spread no.11s. I also set up a long rig to fish pinkie and maggot over groundbait for skimmers, this rig was a 1gram Ignesti float rigged up on .10 XT7 again to a .08XT7 with an 18 Gamma black this was attached to a no.8 rubber.
On the whistle 3 balls of Sensas Crazy Bait Black went in on the 13m line laced with a few pinkies and caster, and whilst I left this to settle I started on the 5m line with single maggot on the hook looking to put a few roach in the net.
In the first hour I estimated I had put about 1 1/2lb in the net of little roach, which were coming fairly steadily but I felt not really quick enough to really put a decent weight together. Looking around the lake I could see Mark playing the first of what turned out to be many carp caught fishing shallow (what really amazes me is that all summer we have been trying to catch these carp shallow and not managed it). Other than that of those I could see, I couldn't see much going on, so I decided to have a quick look on the groundbait to give the close in line a rest. This produced a couple of skimmers before I hooked and landed a carp of about 3lb. Another 5 min produced nothing, so I fed another ball and went back on the short line. TBH after that carp, the groundbait line produced very little so I spent most of the rest of the match plugging away on the short line. At halfway I could see Kev Rolwes netting a few skimmers opposite and Mark playing yet another carp, but very little other than that.
With about an an hour left to go, the maggot line slowed right down. I added an extra section and started to search around the feed for the fish, and spent the last part of the match just picking up the odd fish up here and there.
The weigh in started up the top end far side of the lake, and by the time it got to me there was Tom Ince with 8.14 and Kev Rolwes with 8.10 plus a high 7lb. I really wasn't that confident of putting more than 4 to 5lb on the scales, so imagine my surprise when the scales registered a hard earned 8lb 1oz to put me 3rd overall behind 2 very good silverfish anglers, and from a peg that I really didn't fancy at the start of the match! Most importantly I beat Mark who put enough carp on the bank to walk the match easily if carp counted, and claim back another of the many £1 coins I lost to him last year.
Final Result
1st - Tom Ince - 8lb 14oz
2nd - Kev Rolwes - 8lb 10oz
3rd - Nick Merry - 8lb 1oz
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Saturday 12th January - Witherington Farm
Witherington Farm - 9 fishedFor my first match of 2008 I was booked into a match organised by Nicky the Bricky (of Total Fishing Fame.) on Cottage Lake at Witherington Farm.
Now I haven't been to Withy for quite some time so even though I knew it would be quite hard due to the unsettled weather we have been having, it was still quite nice to get back on the venue again.
I arrived to find Nicky and most of the others booked into the match tucking into breakfast. Not feeling like I wanted any food I caught up with Nicky, paid my pools and waited for the draw.
At the draw I managed to avoid drawing a real duff peg for once when I put my hand in the bucket and drew out peg 10 on the riverside bank, a peg that I consider to be one of the better pegs on the lake. When I got to my peg I found I had Malcom on peg 9 and another angler on peg 12 - giving me a spare peg to my right. My plan revolved round targeting the skimmers and other silvers hoping to get a carp or 2 as a bonus.
After plumbing up I decided on 2 pole lines, 1 at 13m fishing pinkie and maggot over groundbait, the rig I set up consisted of a .3 gram Preston Classic 4 on .10 Ultima Power Match to a 20 gamma black hook. The second line was in front of the spare peg to my right, for this I set up a .2 gram Sconie float on .14 through to a .20 B911 for fishing corn, pellet or maggot. I also had my trusty bomb rod set up to cast towards the island in search of the odd carp.
On the whistle I potted a small ball of groundbait laced with pinkie on the 13m line, and about 20 pellets and a couple of grains of corn on down in front of the spare peg, then chucked out the lead with a couple of grains of hair rigged corn that had been soaked in Carp Vader pineapple liquid.
Almost immediately I was getting liners which after about 20 min finally resulted in the tip going round and a lively tench of about a 1lb came to the net, that was followed 15min later by a carp of about 8/9lb before everything went dead.
With an hour gone and about 10lb in the net I felt things were going quite well, the only other carp that had been caught was by Barry Robinson round the other side of the lake on peg 3. Well that was where the wheels fell off!
For once it wasn't because of some calamity that usually seems to befall be, it was just a case of being unable to build on the great start I'd had.
After about a half an hour with no further indications I decided to try the pole line. I was quite happy to start catching small roach and skimmers, thinking that if I could keep them coming and hopefully snare another carp I could end up with a reasonable weight at the end. Well pretty soon the bites tailed off and became few and far between, re-feeding made little difference and after 2 1/2 hours they disappeared completely. I spent the rest of the match switching between lines looking for fish that failed to materialize.
Mean while, Malcom on peg 9 started to catch a few skimmers and carp on the pellet after spending most of the early part of the match struggling for bites. At weigh in I managed to put 13lb 8oz for 4th, beaten by Malcom on peg 9, Lee Woodhouse on peg 14 and Barry Robinson on Peg 3.
Peg 10, Cottage Lake
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