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 4^th 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

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!

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!!