Monday 16 July 2012

Match 7 - Charity Farm Pool 1 - 15th July 2012

All anglers will no doubt have a particular venue that they cannot stand, you know the one I mean, the one that you deliberately go out of your way to avoid, the one that would never normally get consideration when looking for a pleasure session…………….well Horwich’s next match was on mine…………………Charity Farm on Pool 1.

Now my dislike for this venue runs deep but I am not going to ponder on the reasons behind this and I think for now it’s fair to just say I don’t like the place.  In fact in the days preceding this match I was contemplating having a weekend off but as I hadn’t been out the week before and I had already paid for my peg through my match subs, I figured I’d might as well give it a go.

So, a slightly earlier start than usual saw us making our draw at 7:30.  We had pegged the lake ourselves so I am not sure what permanent peg I was on but I was around the left hand side as you approach the lake from the car park.  I was a bit out of the way to make use of the island in my swim so I opted to fish an all-out pole match today, concentrating on 3 main areas, 1 swim at 11 metres, one at approx. 5 metres and another down the edge.

My main line was at 11 metres and on this line I had 3 rigs set up.  The first rig was to fish on the bottom, while the other 2 were for the upper layers, with one rig set at approx. half depth and the final rig set at around 18 inches.  The plan was to feed this swim with a bit pot of pellets and then I would loose feed 6mm pellets over the top with a view to bringing the fish up in the water.  There were plenty fish topping as I was setting up so I had high hopes for this line.  The 5 metre swim was to be a simple set up to fish 6mm cubed meat on the deck, this was periodically fed with a big pot of meat and finally I set up my margin rig which was to fish meat again but I was also going to cup in loose groundbait over the top.

At the all in, I fed the lines as described above, with the exception of the margin swim which I would start feeding later in the match, and went straight in on my 11 metre swim with the deck rig.  After approx. 15 mins with no indications I decided to start loose feeding pellets in a hope to draw some fish into my swim and get them feeding shallow.  I persevered with this for a while, continually feeding and looking for bites or liners that might indicate the fish are feeding up in the water but after nearly an hour I was still without any sign.  Normally I would continue fishing on the bottom until indications showed the fish were up in the water but as I was having no signs on the bottom I decide to switch to my half depth rig and have a punt that the fish may be up there.  After a short period of time, laying in my rig in different ways I got a few indications by flicking my rig over, almost like slapping but much more casual, and letting fall through the swim on a tight line.  I managed to convert a couple of these indications into fish but they were only small Roach, not the carp I was after, patience prevailed however as after some frustrating minutes missing bites, which I put down to being small Roach just mouthing the pellets, I managed to hook my first Carp of the day, a short battle followed and I soon slipped the net under a nice looking Common Carp of around 4.5lb.  This seemed to be the kiss of death for my shallow swim though after going back out it seemed completely devoid of life.  I quickly brought the shallow rig back in and after re-feeding my short pole line, I went back in at 11 metres on the deck to see if anything had moved over my long pole line while continually loose feeding over the top.  This line once again produced nothing so another look on my half depth rig was in order.  Following the same pattern as before, I spent a few minutes missing bites from the smaller Roach before hitting something much more substantial, in fact when I struck at the bite I could have sworn I had hooked a brick, until it started to move!!  The following battle was a tough one as I fought to try and keep the carp out of my swim to avoid spooking the other fish and to also keep feeding ready for when I went back in.  The fish eventually decided to come closer to me which allowed me to ship back to my top kit and play the fish close in but this then presented more problems as the fish was doing its best to snap me in the margins and under my platform.  Sadly after a few more minutes the hook pulled and the fish got away, perhaps I was bullying it too much but I fear if I hadn’t tried I would have lost it under my platform anyway, would I be left to rue this fish as seeing it in the water, it was easily over 8lb and could have gone to double figures.  Another look on the long line produced nothing as I was even more convinced now that the bigger carp are spooking from the swim when one is hooked.  Rather than going back on this line I decided to rest the swim a bit but continue feeding to bring the fish back in whilst trying my 5 metre line.  With a 6mm cube of meat on the hook, I was immediately getting indications and it wasn’t long before my float buried and resulted in a decent Roach, I stuck at it and over a 30 minute period I managed to put a few really nice Roach in the net.  If this hadn’t been a match I could have quite happily fished for these Roach all day but conscious of the fact that I needed Carp to win, it wasn’t long before I was back on the long line looking for the shallow Carp.  As the match progressed only one more Carp came from the shallow swim and trying to catch them was becoming quite frustrating, another look on the 5 metre line resulted in absolutely nothing – things were looking dire!!  By this time I had started to feed the margin swim so with just under 2 hours left of the match I had my first look, with meat on the hook I was searching for the fish all around where I had been feeding but there were no signs of any fish.  I did hook into a lot of debris on the margin line which was not helping so after at least 45 mins working this swim I gave up on it and came back to the 5 metre swim where I finished the match with one small roach in the last hour.  At the all-out I have to say that I was happy to call it a day as the result was frustrating to say the least – would I rue that lost Carp.  As the scales went round it was obvious that nobody had fished well.  Matt won the day with a 30lb-odd bag of fish followed closely by George who had a good last hour in the margins to put another 30lb + weight on the scales.  My net went to 12lb-odd and whilst the lost fish would have pushed me up the leader board, it would have still left me short of a match win so I don’t feel too bad about losing it.  Whilst packing up I was considering the could have beens and the what ifs but one thought stuck in my mind more than any other, and that was that I should have followed my initial instinct and stayed in bed.  I won’t be going back to Charity Farm in a hurry!!

Friday 6 July 2012

Super Weekend (or Not!!)

The weekend of 30th June/1st July saw me in action on both days which is a rare treat for me.  Day 1 will see me at Heronbrook Meadow Pool with my old club Pemberton Central AC who kindly allowed me on as a guest whilst Day 2 is Horwich's coach trip down to Cudmore where we will be fishing the so-called 'carp runs' water Adelaide.  High hopes were had for both days.

Day 1 - Heronbrook Meadow Pool
After a catch up with some of the lads over breakfast it was time for the draw. My peg for the day was peg 34 which saw me on the inside corner of a, roughly, 90 degree bend in the pool.  This gave me a lot of water  to go at.  Straight away this made me slightly conscious as I've had similar pegs to this before and not done well, partly because I have tried to do too much.  After getting my seat box set up and comfy I assessed my options and decided to keep things simple by fishing just 3 lines, one tight across to the far bank, one down the track and one in the margins, I also plumbed another 2 lines that I didn't plan to fish unless I felt I needed to.

My first line, and the one which I thought was going to be my main line of attack, was tight across to the far bank at approx. 14 metres.  The swim was set up using a 4x10 Carpa 1 float on 0.17 line to an 0.13 hooklength and a size 16 Drennan Wide Gape Pellet hook.  I also set up another rig for this same line to fish shallow which was using a pea float on 0.17 main line with an 0.15 hooklength to a size 16 PR36 hooklength.  My line down the track was set up using a 0.4g NG Gimp XT float on 0.15 line again to an Drennan Wide Gape Pellet hook.  Finally my margin line was on 0.17 line with a 4x10 Carpa 1 float to an 0.15 hooklength to a size 3 Tubertini T175.  My alternative lines were another tight across and another margin line fishing the same rigs.

At the all-in I started off by giving my track line a big pot of 4mm pellets then went straight across to the far bank feeding a kinder pot full of 6mm cubed meat and using meat on the hook.  Indications were almost immediate however the bites quite tentative and I initially missed a few before hitting my first bite, sadly the first bite turned out to be a Gudgeon of around 2oz.  Not to be put off I went straight back out with another cube of meat and I didn't have to wait long before the float buried for a proper bite.  A gentle lift of the pole saw me connect with something much better and after a short but spirited battle, a Tench of around 1lb came  to the net.  Things were looking on the up but after another 3 Gudgeon and a tiny Perch I was beginning to think that this was not going to be my day.  I decided to move my float slightly shallower to avoid the bottom feeding Gudgeon and this seemed to be a master stroke as a run of around 3 or 4 F1 carp were soon in the net before bites started to slow down a little so I decided to drop a slightly larger pot of meat on the far bank and come in for a look on the track swim.  The track swim produced a couple of F1 carp in quick succession on 4mm expanders before quickly going quiet as the far bank swim.  This seemed become the pattern for the day where I was picking a couple of fish off each line before it went quiet and I needed to move to the next one.  I was managing to keep a few fish coming to the net following this pattern so I was happy to keep this up, after all I couldn't really see anybody else so had no idea how I was doing so I thought it best to fish my own match and see how it goes.  After 3 hours I decided to start feeding my margin swim, so in went 2 big pots of loose groundbait and a full pot of sweetcorn and I went back to poaching my 2 main swims.  After another hour and a few more pots of groundbait and corn I decided to have a look down the margin swim.  With a single grain of corn on the hook I was getting indications on the float straight away and I didn't have to wait too long before the float buried and I was soon slipping the net under a nice sized carp.  Another one soon followed but I was plagued with liners and it was obvious there were a lot of feeding fish in the swim.  After a period of missed bites, I'm surprised I didn't foul hook any fish, I became a little frustrated and decided to leave the margin swim alone for a while.  We were now in the last hour and with the weather making fishing long a little tricky, I decided to stick it out on the track swim and I'm glad I did as I put a good run of fish together fishing a Marukyu JPz on the hook. I reckon I must have put at least 25lb in the net in the last hour.  As the all out was called, I reflected on what was a difficult day whilst I awaited the scales.  When they arrived I put 47lb 12oz on.  I was a little disappointed as I was hoping for more but all in all, it wasn't a bad weight.  At the end of the weigh in, Paul Conroy came top of the shop with 90-odd pound from a peg in the high 20's.  Following that there was a weight in the 60's followed by a few in the 50's.  I was well out if the main places but by no means last.

As I drove home my mind switched focus to match 2 of the weekend at Cudmore.  What would that day bring for me?

Day 2 - Match 6 - Cudmore Fishery - 1st July 2012
For the latest match on Horwich's calendar we were heading down to Cudmore Fishery onto Adelaide Pool.  This was our coach trip match.  Luckily for me, the coach depot is only round the corner from where I live so I could get picked up from there which would allow me to have a few beers on the way home.  So an early start it was for me and Martin who were picked up at 05:30 at the depot before going onto Horwich to pick the lads up and be on our way. 

On arriving at the fishery, first point of call was to get a breakfast and the fishery were more than happy to provide us all with a good breakfast.  We used our own peg numbers on the day so I am not sure which permanent peg I drew but we were all on the bank that backed onto new pool 5.  I was on the right hand side (if you are looking down towards new pools 2 and 1, and casting into the open water between the island and the point.

Based on advice from a very well known regular at cudmore, I went for a pretty much out and out method feeder approach.  Using a combination of pellets and groundbait on the feeder with a selection of dead maggots, punched polony, pellets, boilies and corn for the hook.  I used my Drennan Puddle Chucker combi feeder at 11ft with my Daiwa TDM reel and 6lb mainline.  Based on advice I opted for a strong 0.19mm hooklength with a size 14 Tubertini 861 hook, I had options to drop down hook sizes and hooklength strength so the plan was to just see how it went.  I initially cast to the middle so I would have been fishing along a line from the point to the island.  Not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket, I also set up a pellet waggler to fish over the method line as I could see the odd fish cruising around.  This was set up using my 11ft Dennan Red Range Carp Waggler with a Shimano Super 3000 reel with 6lb mainline.  Hooklengths were 12" of 0.17 to a size 14 PR36.  Finally I set up my margin pole which was as an extreme back up, this was to be fished down the edge using paste.  My rig was tied up on 0.17 line with a Big H paste bullet float and a Tubertini 175 size 3 hook.

At the all in, I went straight in on the method feeder, and there I sat!!  The expected bagging session didn't arrive and for what seemed like an eternity my rod tip sat motionless.  A few exploratory casts around the area came up with the same results.  I tried a multitude of baits with no success.  The strangest thing was that there didn't even seem to be any liners showing or any other indications of fish being in my swim.  A switch to the pellet waggler had the same results with not a dip on the float to show for it.  A move back onto the feeder saw an almost instant bite result in a small carp of around 3lb.  Hoping this was a sign of things to come I quickly re-cast but I had to sit there watching a motionless tip once again.  I must have literally landed the previous cast right on top of that fish's nose.

After 3 hours and only 1 fish in the net I was feeling very down about the day and decided to go for a walk to see what else was going on.  A walk down the bank revealed that I wasn't the only one struggling for bites and there was at least 2 or 3 that hadn't even had a bite.  The further down the line I went the better the fishing seemed to be but it was far from prolific.

Returning back to my box I decided to plug on as with many others not catching it might not take much to get me up in the places.  I decided to stick it out on the feeder as all signs of fish in the upper layers had gone.  Shortly after this, a chap came and decided to fish the peg on the point and proceeded to cast a massive 'coconut' method feeder not far from where I was casting my method feeder.  I was a little miffed by this as to why anyone would want to fish so close to an ongoing match but at then end of the day I suppose the peg was available and if he wanted it there was nothing to stop him.  This meant that I had to start dropping my casts slightly shorter to avoid crossed lines but as my swim was producing nothing, I didn't really mind too much.

As the match moved along it was becoming more and more frustrating that very few fish were showing.  Even the pleasure anglers on the opposite bank were struggling and the match on pool 5 behind us wasn't going to well either.  I managed to snare another bite on the method and put another carp of around 4lnb in the net.  Following that I had another bite that was obviously a much bigger fish than the others.  As my rod bent almost double the fish started to take line before an almighty splash on the surface in the middle of the lake saw my hook pull and the fish come off.  From the size of the splash this was either a big carp or one of the Catfish that are present in this lake but whatever it was, it wasn't to be for me. Boo!!!  Following this I was again sat watching a motionless tip.  In the last hour I decide to try my margin swim but similar to the other lines, the float sat motionless with no signs that there were any fish present.  The margin line was abandoned and I decided to sit out the remainder of the match on the tip.  A final carp of around 5lb was to come my way before a very welcome all out was called.  As I walked the bank chatting to other anglers it was apparent that all had struggled.  The winning weight was around 50lb which came from the end peg at the opposite side to me but with many other weights in low teens and a couple of blanks we were all very disappointed with the result.  I weighed in 12lb-odd.

As we packed up and boarded the coach there was some prime moaning going on, as is normal for match anglers I suppose, but one 'conspiracy theory' came to peoples minds.  With the Fish'O'Mania final in the next couple of weeks being held on the fishery, could it be that the owner had moved some fish from Adelaide into the Arena pool?  It is a far fetched theory but one that I have heard before.  I suppose we will never know if that is true or not.

Following the match we headed off to a nearby pub for a nice meal and some well deserved beers.  I was very pleased to see a good selection of real ales on offer.  I opted for a 4.1% Joules Pale Ale, which is a new one for me and proved a good choice.

Hopefully our next match will bring better results, I believe we are due a good days fishing by now but with the next match being on my least favourite venue in my local area, and one that I will deliberately avoid most of the time, I am not expecting much.

Thursday 28 June 2012

Match 5 - Gingham Fishery - 24th June 2012

Horwich’s next match was at a venue completely new to me, Gingham Fishery.  I had neither seen it nor even heard of it before joining the club.  At the previous club meeting, in amongst the usual chit chat, there was a mention that if the venue fishes well, it could be throw up our biggest weights of the year….so expectations were high.

On arrival at the venue I was greeted by a rather unpleasant uphill push to get to the water, this wouldn’t normally pose much of a problem except that the owner had put in a narrow set of steps going up the hill and unfortunately the wheel span of my barrow was not wide enough to go either side so it proved to be a rather difficult climb. – Point to self, if I ever fish this place again I need to bring my trolley and not my barrow.  The fishery itself could best be described as a bowl, with steep steps going down to some rather dodgy looking platforms.  Some of the horwich old boys told us that at one time the water came right to the top, which was a good 12-15ft above where it currently was.

The draw saw me on peg 2 for the day, which I was quite pleased with initially as I didn’t have to venture around the edge to the further pegs however the pleasure was short lived when I saw the state of the steps leading down to the pegs.  The owner has put some wooden steps going down to each peg and while they are usable I would advise caution to anyone fishing the venue as they were quite springy and slippery when wet.  After some careful negotiating I managed to get all my tackle and I safely down to the platform to assess my peg for the day.

Based on advice from club member Tony, who is a regular on the fishery, my main approach today was to be long pole fished on a top 5 in front of me.  The fishery is quite deep so I rigged up on a top 4 and just had one section to add which is handy as the steep banks would be almost impossible to ship a longer pole back.  My rig for this swim was a 1.5g Drennan Quad float on 0.13mm main line, this was weighted with an olivette and 3 number 10 droppers.  Hooklength was a size 18 Drennan Silverfish match to 0.11mm.  The plan for this swim was to put in a bed of groundbait, which was the same Bait Tech Omen that I used at Rivington the week before.  Due to the large numbers of ‘nuisance’ (Tony’s words) fish, I also used a bait dropper so I could get some loose feed down to the bottom, two loads, 1 of casters and 1 of dead maggot, were to be deposited along with the groundbait.  To supplement this I decided to set up a feeder rod and a pellet waggler rod as I had seen plenty fish topping whilst I was setting up.  The feeder was my trusty Puddle Chucker feeder set at 9’6” and a Daiwa TDM 3012 reel with 6lb main line.  At the business end I decided to use a Guru Pellet Feeder fished with a short 4” hooklength of 0.15mm line to a size 16 PR36 rigged with a pellet band.  The pellet waggler was set up on an 11ft Drennan Red Range Carp Waggler rod with a Daiwa 3000x Procaster reel and 4lb mainline, I used my preferred method of rubber float stops and a loaded float, opting initially for a 4g Drennan Loaded Crystal Pellet waggler and a 12” hooklength of 0.15mm line to a size 16 PR36 rigged with a pellet band.

At the all-in I baited up on my pole line and then fished the feeder as my opening gambit for the first half hour or so.  After 30 mins with not even a line bite to show for it, I came off the feeder and went onto the pole line.  I was also catapulting 6mm pellets towards a central buoy to prime the pellet waggler swim for later in the day.  Unfortunately the pole line also seemed completely devoid of life and after a considerable time I was still bite-less while Tony on the next peg had been putting together a nice run of roach with the odd skimmer.  Seemingly out of the blue, I managed to get a bite on the pole line which resulted in a nice Roach of about 8oz – was this a sign of things coming to life?  Well the answer to that is simply ‘no’, as quickly as my pole line came to life it went dead again.  Finally giving up on the pole line I decided to give my pellet waggler line a try, starting at around 2 feet deep I was working hard, constantly casting and altering my depth to find where the fish where however despite a few missed bites the pellet waggler line produced nothing so I went back on the feeder and pondered my options.  Keeping an eye around the lake I knew I was in no way in the lead but there wasn’t many fish being caught and one or two of the resident carp could see me in the frame – this made my mind up to stick to the feeder and pellet waggler in the hope of mugging them.  So continuing with the feeder I persevered in feeding the pellet waggler line.  What seemed out of no-where my feeder rod wrapped round and I was into a very spirited fight with one of the resident Carp but steady playing of the fish soon saw it gracing my landing net and at about 3 – 3.5lb it was a welcome addition.  I had started to see some signs where I had been feeding the pellet line so once the Carp was in the net I put the feeder rod away and went back on the pellet waggler. Despite the obvious signs of fish I could not get a ‘proper’ bite on this set up so I decided to try things a little different and stop feeding, as soon as I did this the bite rate upped and it wasn’t long before I hit into another Carp, this one was a bit bigger and put up a good scrap but I managed to land it and at about 4.5 – 5lb it was also very welcome.  Sadly though, that saw the end of the day’s action for me as the remaining 20 mins or so went biteless.

I have to say at the All-Out I was a little relieved as this was a tough days fishing that promised so much but failed to deliver.  I was to be the last to weigh in today and as I followed the scales round it was apparent that it had been a struggle for everyone on the day.  At my peg a weight of 10lb-odd (TBC) was winning the match so those last 2 Carp had certainly helped me get up in the places although I was pretty certain I hadn’t enough to challenge the win.  I put 8lb 10oz on the scales which was enough to see me into 4th place on the day.  I was quite pleased to be up there considering how hard the day was and I certainly think that dropping the pole line was the right thing to do, in hindsight; I only wish that I had dropped it sooner as one more carp could have seen me sneak the win.  Never mind.

Got a busy weekend coming up next week as it sees me fishing as a guest with my old club Pemberton Central ( http://pemcentralac.blogspot.com/ )at Heronbrook on Saturday, which will be a 6 hour match on Meadow Pool, then on Sunday it is Horwich’s coach trip down to Cudmore, where we will be fishing on Adelaide followed by a pub visit for some food and a few beers and a late return home.  I’m glad I booked the Monday off


Wednesday 27 June 2012

Match 4 - Upper Rivington Reservoir - 17th June 2012

The next match on Horwich's calendar was on the Upper Rivington Reservoir.  This is the match that I was most looking forward to in the whole calendar as its not a type of fishing I do very often these days but I really enjoy it.

At the draw it was apparent that we were on for a low turnout for this match though as by draw time we only had 7 members lined up.  I think the start of holiday season and the fact that it was Fathers day had taken its toll on the numbers.  I drew peg 8 on the day, which probably won't mean anything to anybody else as we pegged it ourselves but it saw me sharing the bankside with Dave Matty.  It seemed fairly typical though with no distinct visible features.

As I set up my box, just into the water to allow my keepnet to get into some depth, I was planning my match.  The basic plan for this match had always been a tradional groundbait feeder approach so I set up my Daiwa Connoiseur X Med/Heavy feeder rod at 13ft, coupled with a Shimano Exage 4000FA reel loaded with braid and a 8lb mono shockleader.  At the business end I set up the feeder free running within a 12 inch loop.  I started off with a hooklength of around 18 inches of 0.15 to a size 14 Maver ES42, which as it happened, turned out to be the best on the day and I pretty much stuck with that length for the whole match.  I also set up a method feeder rod as a back up/alternative as I had heard this method has worked on this venue, this was set up on a Maver Genesis Black Ice 12ft feeder rod with a Daiwa TDM 3012 loaded with 6lb mono.  The feeder was a large preston inline method feeder.  Hooklink was 4 inch 0.15 to a PR36 with a pellet band.  My final option was a waggler, partly because I wanted to give myself something other than a feeder approach and partly because I just like to fish a waggler.  This was set up was a 13ft Shimano Hyperloop FA match rod with a Shimano Exage 2500 RA reel loaded with 4lb mono.  The float was quite a heavy job as there was quite a lot of chop on the water and was a 3AAA bodied waggler.  Hooklength was 12 inches of 0.11 line to a size 18 Drennan Silverfish Match.

My groundbait mix for the day was to be my now favoured bream mix, Bait Tech Omen.  I mix this straight out of the bag as I don't believe it needs any other ingredients or flavourings to the mix.  This mix was to be used on the groundbait feeder and the method feeder.  I had a selection of loose feed and hookbaits for the day including maggots (dead and alive), casters, worm and pellets.

With myself set up to go I decided to have a brew and wait for the all in.  The general feeling was one of optimism with the only slight concern being the number of Pike that had been present during some of the memebers pleasure sessions a few weeks previously.

At the all in I started with groundbait feeder, making several casts with a large feeder to get a bed of bait down.  Once I was happy with this I switched to a slightly smaller feeder and began to introduce some loose feed into the mix in the form of casters and dead maggot.  My initial hookbait gambit was to be worm.  The match started slow but I eventually managed to catch a few small skimmers on the worm.  Thinking the smaller samples might be the order of the day I switch to a smaller size 16 hook and tried maggot on the hook.  Strangely this resulted, almost immediatly, in my largest fish of the day in the shape of a good skimmer of around 1.5lb.  The feeder continued to throw up the odd fish through the morning but it was apparent that the fish were not showing as we had intially hoped and many were struggling.  None the less, I was really enjoying the day.

However, around about 12 o'clock ish, disaster struck.  During a cast, I managed every feeder anglers nightmare, the dreaded crack-off.  The usual loud noise accompanied the cast that allowed every angler within about 50 metres to know what I had done.  This marked a nightmare 30 mins for me as I tried to get myself sorted.  Initially I cast out my method feeder so at leaset I had something in the water whilst I was sorting out my other rod.  The method didn' produce anything but by the time I had got my groundbait feeder back in the water my swim, as slow as it was, had gone dead.  Luckily, I had been feeding my waggler line periodically throughout the morning with big pouches of maggots so to give myslef a break I went out on the waggler line.  After a while I started to get bites although I found them difficult to hit and I managed to land a couple of small roach plus a nice bonus roach, possibly going 12 oz+.  Sadly, it was during this period that I had my first Pike chase and while I never lost a fish to it, the Pike did seem to kill my waggler line as well.

By about quarter past 1 things had pretty much gone dead and I chucked out the feeder to finish the day.  At the all out I did get a good bite and hit into what felt like a good fish but it came off pretty much straight away.

That was the end of it at Rivington, on a day which held so much promise, I couldn't help but be disappointed in the end that the bream didn't show properly and I hadn't caught much at all.  At the weigh in it was apparent that everyone had struggled for bites.  Winning weight was 10lb-odd  with a weight of 8lb-odd following it in second place.  I managed to claim 3rd place with a weight of 6lb 6oz.  Disappointed but I did beat Dave Matty off the next peg to claim bragging rights, if only for 1 week!

Friday 8 June 2012

Whitmore Return

Following our recent Friday afternoon outing Tony was itching to get out for a full days and with me not needing to much convincing we were soon booking a midweek day off work for a return visit to Whitmore.

We both tucked into a full english on arrival while we were discussing which of the many lakes to fish, looking out of the cafe window both the East Lake and Doughnut were practically full and the Basin was also getting quite busy so we decided to go for a bit of quiet and headed for the Club Canal.  Settling down on the 2 end pegs closest to the Lily Pond, we were alone on the canal and it made for a nice peaceful days fishing.

We both fished the pole on the day and having got Tony fishing close to an overhanging tree on the far bank, I set up my stall with a swim on the far bank, 1 down the track and a couple of lines close in, one at a top kit length in front of me and the other against some margin vegetation to my left.

Tony was well into catching before I had finished setting up and had put together a nice run of Carp and Skimmers of a typical 'stockie' size.  I kept things nice and simple and fed all my lines with 4mm pellets and a few grains of corn and started on the far bank swim with instant results.  I was catching Carp in the 2 - 4lb size range quite frequently although they were in a very scrappy mood and several made a good dash for the reeds and subsequently shed the hook.  I will happily admit that I was getting quite frustrated with this so I rested the far bank swim and went down the track.  The track swim produced similar sized Carp with the odd Skimmer thrown in for good measure but it was noticeable that the bites were not coming quite as fast as they were against the far bank.

We had both been catching well but I decided it was time for a brew and to make it a bit easier I fished a top kit in front of me with a banded 4mm hard pellet whilst I was enjoying a coffee.  This swim produced quite a few nice Roach, seeing this Tony went onto a close in line and began to catch a similar stamp of Roach, like in this photo

The day finished similar to how it started and by rotating through the swims I managed to keep catching until it was time for off.

Here's one of the bigger Carp of the day, not huge but good fun on the right set up
One point to note is that it was an absolute scorcher, always remember sun cream.  Unusually for me, I kept myself topped up and I'm glad I did!!

Tuesday 22 May 2012

And why not..........

I happen to be in a fortunate position where I am allowed to leave work at 12:30 on a Friday so on the 18th May I planned an afternoon session at Whitmore Fisheries, which is local to my work, with my mate Tony, who is a beginner in the sport.  I recently helped Tony out by getting him sorted with some tackle and he was keen to give it a try.  Another friend of mine Paul was also planning to join us.

When we arrived at the fishery we were promptly met by the bailiff who directed us to East Lake pegs 8 and 9, which are well known to be fliers on the lake and by some stroke of luck were sat empty when we arrived.  I found myself on peg 8 while Tony went to peg 9.

I first assisted Tony in getting set up, opting to fish a method feeder on a 10ft tip rod with a small preston inline feeder, Tony was very quickly catching fish which left me happy to get myself tackled up.  I also went for the method feeder set up on my trusty 9ft6/11ft Puddle Chucker, set up at 11ft today.  I opted for a larger feeder to give me and Tony a chance of working out which was preffered on the day and changing if we need to.  I also set up a pole line at 2+2 and one in the margins, these were really set for later in the day.

I was catching reasonably frequently but during his rounds the bailiff stopped by and advised me to cast further.  Apparently there is a sunken island in the lake and my casts were falling short of it.  Following this guidance we found the shallower water which made a massive and instant change to my day as on most casts my tip was flying round before the feeder had even settled as big chub and carp were taking the feeder on the drop (point to note for next time here - bring my pellet waggler set up).  This continued for a while and Tony was also catching well.  While all this was going on, Paul had turned up and settled himself on peg 10 and was catching on the pole.

Tony decided to call it a day at around 5pm after about 10 'last casts' at which point Paul moved himself onto the now vacant peg 9 and preceeded to catch on the method over the same sunken island.

Meanwhile, I had been feeding my pole lines throughout the afternoon and decided to have a quick look.  The 2+2 line was a little slower than expected but did produce a few carp and a barbel, it seemed to be that the fish were taking the bait on the drop towards the bottom of the swim but when I shallowed up a bit the bites seemed to stop.  So back on the bottom I went and continued to catch well.  Eventually as the session was drawing to a close I came in on the margin line where I managed to catch a few good Barbel, the biggest of the day being about 6lb.  I decided to go back out on the feeder for a while as I slowly packed away my gear, managing to land a couple more fish before eventually calling it a day at around 7pm.

Overall it was an enjoyable afternoon, Tony had a good time and we have arranged to go back this coming Thursday for a full day.  Hopefully I will remember to get some photos this time around.

Monday 14 May 2012

Match 3 - Rosemary Wood Fishery - 12th May 2012

I've put the post up to keep my match sequence going but I didn't actually attend this match as I was away at a friends wedding.

The match was won by Bryan Deighton with 46lb on the method.

Well done Bryan!!

An Evening on Pollys

Playing catch up again now, fishing has slowed down a little following my little flurry in April.

My last session was a Sunday evening session on one of my (reasonably) local waters, Kingsdown Flash, or Pollys as it is locally known.  Its not a water I fish regular, in fact I think the last time I fished it was over 10 years ago.  Anyway, I met up with Martin at about 5:30pm and to keep it simple for a short session I went purely for a method feeder set up.  It was by no means a bagging session but I managed 3 Tench, 2 decent Skimmers and a few Roach in the couple of hours I was there, mainly falling to the feeder with sweetcorn on the hair.  I have made a conscious decision to revisit the water this year for a full day, where I will hopefully target the Tench and Crucian population on pole tackle.

A real highlight of the evening though was not what was in the water, but what was above it as a Kingfisher was sat in the tree right next to my peg.  It was a real privilege to see such a lovely bird as you don't see them often these days.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Up to Date

Right, so that is me up to date now from the start of my club matches.  Hopefully future reports will be slightly more detailed and accurate.

Prison Service Teams of 4 - Garbolino Lindholme Lakes - 24th/25th April

This is one of the main events of the year for me as it takes me to what has become my favourite commercial fishery in the country, Lindholme Lakes.

Now I am not in the Prison Service, I assist in making up numbers on a friends team.  This is the second year for me.  The plan, as last year was to travel up to Lindholme on the Tuesday morning for a pleasure/practice session then stay over at the fishery and fish the match on the Wednesday.

Tuesday 24th April


So after an early start we get to the fishery for about 8:30 in time for a good cooked breakfast before settling down on Bonsai lake for the day.  We were limited with pegs on the day due to an open match and so between the 4 of us we occupied pegs 11 to 15 (I think 13 was left empty).  I was on peg 14 and this was my view for the day
My plan for the day was to try a few different methods and just have a chilled out day.  Covering as many options as I could I fished a banjo feeder to the point of the left island whilst I had a waggler set up to fish in the open water between the islands.  I also had a pellet feeder set up to fish on the bottom beneath the waggler line.  I had pole lines set up in the open water in front of me and and in the margins.  My only target for the day was to beat my travelling partner Mark, who was on peg 15.
I was still setting up my gear as Mark was catching fish, I have to say with a smug grin on his face as well


As the day progressed however I did get my own back and by the time we decided to pack up for the day I had at least double the number of fish that Mark did :-)

After fishing on the Tuesday we retired to one of the new pods at Lindholme which are a great addition and well suited to housing a couple of mates for a few days fishing!

Wednesday 25th April

On the day of the match we knew that 2 of us would be on Bonsai lake and 2 of us would be on Oasis.  This was the format last year and as me and Mark were on Oasis last year, it was our time on Bonsai this year.  From the drawbag I had peg 6 and Mark had peg 46 (I think, but it was in that area).  You will notice that there are no photos from Wednesday to upload and this is simply because the weather was so bad I couldn't bear to take my phone out of my pocket to try take any.  We learned some new Yorkshire language on this day, 'ALL IN' means 'Start Pissing Down' and 'ALL OUT' means 'Stop Pissing Down'.  There was no variation inbetween.  So on a very hard day I had to keep rotating between 5 pole lines and a feeder line to keep the bites coming.  Frustratingly I lost about almost as many as I actually landed.  At the weigh in I put 38lb-odd on the scales which gave me 4th in my 13 man section.  This was well off the main prizes as the lake and match was one with over 100lb but considering my section was won with 48lb-odd it left me ruing those lost fish and they could have seen me take the section.

Following the match the overall results showed the team finishing 8th out of 13 which is an improvement on last year.

Match 2 - Latham Fishery - 22nd April

Match 2 on the Horwich calendar had us at Latham Fishery on Pool 4.  I have fished this venue previously so I went to the match with a plan in mind.  As the day progressed I felt like I was catching reasonably frequently but I was aware that I was well off the pace but alas it was not so.  When the scales came round I was shocked as to how little there was in my keepnet.

Alas I weighed in 12lb-odd.  I am not sure where I came overall in the match but safe to say its not worth shouting about.  A poor result but still good to be out on the bank, despite the crazy weather

Match 1 - Coppull Mill Lodge - 01 April 2012

This is going to be a brief post as its a while ago now and some of the details have been lost from my head!!

Match 1 of the year with Horwich was on Coppull Mill Lodge.  Coppull Mill is a new venue for me, having only ever fished it once before which was about 3 weeks preceding the match.

Safe to say that the drawing arm I was famed for at Pem has not yet deserted me and I managed to pull out a favoured end peg on the far side from the3 car park.  Advice from the lads had me fishing against the trees that extended out from the right hand side of my peg.  I had to quickly tie up some slightly heavier rigs though as I came expecting to be catching palm sized roach.

The match itself was a slow goer and I could see Martin on the opposite end peg catching well so there was some work to be done.  Fishing corn over a bed of loose fed pellets and slowly managed to put a few nice Tench and Crucian Carp in the keepnet to go along with the few roach I had caught earlier in the morning.

At the all out I was confident that I had put enough in the net to be up in the places but had my doubts as to whether I had enough to beat Martin.  I put 12lb 12oz on the scales to just pip Martin who weighed in 11lb-odd for second.  A good first win in the new club and to top it off me and Martin had managed to be drawn as a pair so we bagged that accolade as well.

3rd Time Lucky

So here it is, my third attempt at creating a blog to document my fishing and real ale adventures.  I've got a bit to catch up on though but I am going to start from where my new club calendar starts.

I had to change clubs this year due to personal circumstances so I now fish with Horwich Old Angling Society.