Cob House

It's been a few weeks now since we made our trip to cob house fisheries. After the visit, I went on a self-imposed break from fishing for a few week, I've still not been out since actually. I never intended for the break to include my writing on here but as it happens it did.

So to catch you all up, a few of the lads from Pem Central plus some others known to the trip organiser went for a 3 day jolly boys outing to cob house fisheries from 24th to 26th September. We had all been looking forward to this trip as with a lot of talk of massive weights, expectations were high.  Unfortunately the fishery was having some trouble with one of the lakes we were supposed to be on for the Thursday and Friday, so a last minute change saw us move from Wyatts lake to a match across 2 waters, oak and laurels, with the idea being that we would split across the 2 waters and then swap round the following day. However, on the Wednesday we were on Laugherne Island.

Wednesday 24th September. Laugherne Island.

With the expected tactics of short pole apparently dominating the other waters, the option of fishing the feeder on Laugherne Island was not to be refused. If nothing else but to give me a bit of variety on the trip.

My peg was a nice looking one with the point of an island within casting range.  With my main focus of the trip bring fun rather than serious competition, I planned on a simple approach.  Pellet feeder to the island, pole down the edge with corn and groundbait and finally pole at 6/7 metre with corn and pellet.

I started on the pellet feeder and had one carp early but it was slow and only one other had shown by the end of the first hour.  I had started feeding groundbait down the edge from the start and with the slow going on the feeder I decided to take an early look down the edge.  A single grain of corn on the hook produced a few small roach, not quite the intended quarry so I tried a switch to double corn on the hook but the roach were persistent and still all I could manage from the edge.  The other pole swim produced one carp and one roach but never felt right for reasons I can't explain so I quickly abandoned it and went back to persevere on the feeder. A golden hour on the tip boosted me to 10 carp before it slowed again and left me waiting.  2 more carp followed in last hour. The massive weights we were expecting didn't materialise and only 2 weights over 100lb were recorded on the whole match. My 78-8 was enough to win my section.

Thursday 25th September. Oak

Day 2 and my draw saw me on Oak lake and I must be honest, it didn't thrill me as the lake didn't look nice and was nothing more than a square hole.  Not a huge water and my peg was close to a corner so my tactics were simple. Margin pole line at 5 sections in deeper water and 5 section pole line in front.  I had heard that the fish in this lake were larger than we had seen the day before so it planned on corn down tbe edge swim and pellets on the short line - feeding 6 mm and using banded 6 or 8mm on the hook.

The match was quite a simple one to be honest and doesn't make much to write about.  Rotating through the swims kept fish coming but corn line was by far the best. Generally the best tactic was to hook a fish and feed straight away before playing and landing the fish.  A steady match saw me put 152 lb on the scales, a good weight but only enough for 4th on the lake.

Friday 26th September. Laurels.

After match talk on Thursday described similar fishing on laurels as I experienced the day before only a much smaller average stamp. My draw saw me pegged next to a wooden jetty style platform. On the Thursday, Mark had fished this peg and he had told me he caught between the platform and a bush to his left, in a small hole but he said he had to stand up a lot to see his float. With this in mind, I based my attack on the same area with back up swims to my right margin. This match was another straight forward one and from the all in I settled into a rhythm of 'stand up, lay rig in, bite, fish on, feed, sit down, land fish'. This was simply repeated for near enough 5 hours. I had a couple of issues where some fish had gone to the jetty and I was wrapped up but steady pressure saw me get all those fish out bar one. I must say that is not really my preferred style of fishing and I got a bit bored at one stage and went for a little walk. Even with that break, as soon as I sat down the same rhythm was off again. At the end of the match, I was knackered and knew I was in with a good weight but with the average stamp being about 2lb, and my biggest only being about 4lb, I didn't expect my weight to go as big as it did. I weighed in 248lb to set a new personal best match weight and win the match. A red letter day? Maybe but not a way of fishing I could cope with all the time.

Now what?

So, to bring us up to speed. Since the cob house trip I've had a break, I was ready for it but in honesty it was largely born out of other commitments.  Pem Central have also since had their last match at Heronbrook - I'm not sure who won but will do a run down of final results when I know. 

So it's all down to my winter campaign now. Not sure what my plans are yet but a sea fishing trip is defo next on the agenda and then I'll see where I go then.

Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake

After around 6 months of action, this match was to draw a close to my campaign with Pem Central this year. Prior to going into today's match I was sitting 3rd in the league but as I was going to miss the final match of the year I needed a good result at Rosemary Wood to try make a claim for 3rd place in the league.

After a good breakfast (where would fishing be without it), me and Wayne made our way to the fishery with Wayne telling tales of a poor day there earlier in the week when he went for a sneaky practice. So at the draw, talk was rife with poor reports from rosemary wood and worries of a fish kill being rumored from a fishery we are visiting later in the month, potentially more on that to follow.

My draw put me on peg 45. End peg for the day but at the wrong end of the wind and whilst I have fished the boards before, I've not fished this peg.

Plan for the day was meant to be a simple one. My main effort was going to be focused on the pellet waggler, with a feeder rod set up to fish either the method feeder or straight lead. For the first time on Moss Lake, I actually took my pole and fished a short pole line against the reeds with krill and tuna groundbait and sweet corn.

At the start of the match, I expected most others to go out on the feeder to start with so I planned on going straight out with the pellet waggler. I was using 11mm pellets today as normally the wind here is quite breezy but typically today it wasn't too bad. After 45 mins on the pellet waggler I had only a skimmer of about 1lb to show for it so I decided to try the feeder. Starting initially on the method feeder I had a wrap round bite on my first cast and was hoping this would signify the start of a bagging session but sadly a single carp of around 2lb is all that came of it. After trying the feeder for a while with no further success I decided to try the waggler again as I had been getting some line bites on the feeder whilst I was feeding pellets over the top. Another fruitless period in the waggler and by this time I was starting to lose faith, and interest if truth be told. A switch to the feeder again saw another solitary fish followed by a long period of nothing.

I was now pinning my hopes on my short pole line. A look here with corn on the hook produced a run of small roach and skimmers. Eventually, my enthusiasm, along with any hopes of a good result here, had all but disappeared and I sat the rest of the match out with the bomb in the hope that a big carp would pick up my single 11mm pellet. With half an hour to go, enough was enough for me and I called time on what was the worse match  of my year.

The weigh in showed 7lb-odd for my efforts and whilst the venue had fished poorly all round, I was only good enough for 13th out of 15, and to be honest I was lucky for that as Dave Benson on the next peg chucked back at least 10lb so I could have been one place lower.

Well do e to Alex, who chalked up another win and looks to have all but secured the league win, providing he can get a half decent result at Heronbrook in a few weeks, I'm sure Wayne and Angy will push him all the way though.

Hall Lane - Gwen's Canal

Saturday 6th September and as I awoke this morning I was greeted by grey skies and what looked to be a promise of rain this morning. Typical following a week of reasonably consistent dry weather. 

Sure enough as I got to the fishery, the rain was threatening even more and after taking a quick walk down the water, the rain made it's presence known. As is true to form, I have brought neither my brolley nor my boots so I was in for a soaking in the morning and a hope that it dries up in the afternoon.

For those that haven't been before, Gwen's canal is a long straight length canal, very uniform and a very fair match venue and in my opinion, the best water on the fishery.

Once all the guys had turned up, we had only 13 on, but what it did was give us some space and we decided to peg it roughly every other peg.  I drew peg 7, from which I was hearing its poor and never frames but also that it's a great peg. It's always hard to decide what is a genuine report and what is just pre match banter so I decided to ignore those and just see what the day brought.

My plan for day was to fish short of the far bank, about 13.5 metre, in about 3ft of water and gradually follow the fish up to the bank if they backed off a little.  I wanted to keep bait choices simple today so on this line i simply used a mixture of 2 and 4 mm pellets from marukyu j pellets and Skrill ranges and used the same soft hookers. I set up 3 rigs for this line, one to start with and then a few shallower ones for following them up to the bank.  The only other rig I had set up was a short rig, fished on just a top kit and short 3 section. Here I set my rig about an inch over depth and fished dead maggot over a bed of groundbait. My groundbait mix for today was a 'use-up' mix containing the leftovers of a bag of old ghost green alga and some marukyu 101 to bulk it out a bit. 

My peg for the day.

At the start, I fed my main swim with about half a pot of my pellet mix and then fed my short line with a ball if groundbait and about half a pot of dead maggots.

I went straight onto my 13.5 metre line and after a short wait I was getting bites and catching the odd fish. If I'm honest, it was a bit slow going but I was catching, after 2 or 3 fish I started to introduce some feed via a toss pot after every fish. The bites were coming but I was also getting a lot of missed bites that was becoming a bit of nightmare with soft hookers so I made a slight change and tried a banded 4mm pellet instead. This seemed to do the trick and I started hooking fish but they were reall small baby carp and this possibly explained the tricky bites I was getting on the bigger, soft hookers. Already though, Dave Bemson on peg 4 and Ste Green on peg 9 were catching more frequently and what looked like a much larger stamp, more importantly though, they were catching them tight across. So I made a decision to try across so on went my 16metre section and I had a look, but not before I fed another ball of groundbait and dead maggots on my short line. I had a couple if fish right across but all the issues I had at 13 metres I was also having against the bank, so after about 90 mins I refed my 13.5 metre line, put a small pot of pellets against the bank and decided to have a look short.

This proved to be a major turning point in the match for me as I started to put a run of good sized fish together and make up for the slow start. I was feeding small nuggets of groundbait and a small toss pit of dead maggot after every fish but sure enough, it wasn't long before the small fish made an appearance again so I decided to put a big ball of groundbait on this line and try against the far bank again, but this time using dead maggot and feeding groundbait. This did the trick and a run if better fish followed until the small fish showed up again. What followed for the rest of the match was a pattern of me fishing short until the small fish turned up, when they did, I'd feed heavy and move to the far bank and vice versa. Other than a quiet last half hour I caught well for he rest of the match and really enjoyed the day. When the all out was called I had 67 fish on the clicker but was unsure of my weight due to the large numbers of small fish that I had. I made a private estimate at around 40-45lb.

We started the weigh in at the far end of the canal and the first 3 anglers set a good benchmark with a leading weight of 67lb coming from Wayne Fairhurst while Bob Crank and Mark Anglessey were only 4oz apart on 54-4 and 54-8 respectively. The weights dropped a bit as we made our way along the centre section of the canal but as we got up to Ste Green we were back in the 50's as his weight went to 52-0. Feeling me and Ste had similar numbers, I felt my smaller stamp would put me lower than that and my 45lb estimate might have been close however, as always proves to the the case, I was very wrong and my weight went to 52-12. A narrow next peg victory over Ste for me. Only 2 left to weigh ad Dave Benson was clearly going to challenge for the lead. His 2 nets went to 89lb, a cracking result. Only Alex left to weigh off the end peg. His total went to 58lb putting him 3rd overall. With Dave and Alex both placing in the match, that meant I won my section by double default and saw me finish 6th overall. 

I wouldn't normally be overjoyed with a result of 6th out of 13 but truth be told, I've had an enjoyable day, which given my current form, is a massive improvement in itself and I will say that I did really enjoy the day.

The league is looking really tight at the top now with Wayne and Alex sharing top spot with 2 matches to go and with the ability to drop our worse result, it looks like it's going all the way to the wire. I am currently in 3rd place and would be well in contention if it wasn't for the fact that I'll be missing the last match.

Rosemary wood next for us and that will be my last club match for 2014.

Lure success (kind of)

I managed to sneak out for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon with the lure rod, so moving further up the locks from rose bridge, I tried the basins around top lock and the Kirkless inn.

The usual snags were plaguing me again though as the first cast with a drop shot setup resulted in a snag and eventually my 6lb flurocarbon leader snapping.

Setting up again I switched from a drop shot to a small jig head, initially a ecogear shirasu head but after 2 more snags took the only 2 of those I had, I switched to a fox micro jig. Targeting the canals perch, my main lure for the day was a ecogear grassminnow s. Moving up a basin to just outside the Kirkless inn, the lock overflow was pouring in and creating a crease in the water along the near margin. I targeted this area on a slow retrieve, opting not to jig along the bottom to try and avoid the snags. To my surprise I felt a little bite and an over keen strike saw me lift a small perch clear out of the water. It stayed on the hook for only a split second before making an escape. A bit eager on my part but at least the take was more success than I'd had on my previous outings so I was feeling good about it. I moved on at this point and tried a few other areas, thinking the commotion will have disturbed any other perch in the area. Sadly the other areas were not as productive so on my way back home I tried the basin outside the Kirkless again. After trying a few casts around the same crease with no success I was ready for home when I decided to try out one of the more unusual lures that came in my ecogear pocket in set. It's an 'extra zone' bug ant style lure that resembles a small crayfish I suppose. Anyway, I gave this a few casts and on my second retrieve I was lucky enough to get a strong take and a giddy fight soon saw another small perch making it's way to the bank. Sadly this came off the hook again before I properly landed it, in this instance though I'm pretty sure that the jig head I was using was a bit small for the lure so I'm going to try a bigger head next time. 

Anyway, all in all I think it was a successful trip and certainly an improvement on my previous lure Fishig sessions. I still need to plan a longer day with the lures and try to find somewhere with less debris beneath the surface.

My attention is now turning to hall lane. I think I'll be needing some new rigs for this one as I think I've pushed the limits on the ones I have tied up at the moment.

For any snapchat fans out there, I've recently moved into this domain, search for fishernutstu. I plan on using this to upload instant shots from my fishing trips.

Worthington Woes

So it's been about a week since my last visit to Worthigton and I think I've sulked enough now to write about it.

Me and Paul headed down to the lakes for a tip session, hoping to catch some nice bream. Arley reservoir was our home and with the water level dropping we managed to find some pegs off the path on the same side of the car park. 

We set out to fish the tip all day, so I set up with my 12ft theory rod and was using some of mavers stone river line after having trouble with my reel line on my last outing. My groundbait for the day was bait tech pro natural bream and hook baits for the day were sea maggots, worms or corn. Dead maggots and hemp were being fed in the feeder. Paul had a similar set up only his mix was a 50/50 blend of bait tech omen and special g gold with the same hook bait options.

We both set off by putting some bait down and then switching to smaller feeder and sandwiching loose feed in the feeder. Although, as it would later transpire, I think I was using smaller feeders than Paul and not putting as much in.

As the day progressed as sat back and watched Paul put a steady run of skimmers and bream together whilst my tip remained motionless. In fact, it remained motionless for the whole day while Paul sacked up. 

I'm not going to say much more than that. In the end, I set up a waggler rod and fished it about 3ft deep to catch a good amount of perch. This avoided the blank and I actually quite enjoyed it although I would have liked some roach or hybrids to put in an appearance.

As a side note though, me and Paul use the same reels so we did a comparison on reel turns and discovered that I was fishing about 10 turns further out than he was. He also used fishmeal in his groundbait.  So, next time I go there I am going to fish shorter and try a mix much the same as Paul's and see if that makes the difference.

Weekend off this week and then it's back on club duty on the 6th September at Hall Lane

The Fishing Gods were...........

............not in my favour!!!!

Friday 15th August should have seen me back on Blue Mink for another days sea fishing, this time with first-time boat anglers Martin and his brother in law Ian. It's fair to say we had all been looking forward to this trip and with dodgy weather putting an end to his trips earlier in the week, I was well happy when I phoned skipper Andy on Wednesday to confirm it was all looking good. 

Friday morning was to be an early one, with a 7am pickup on the beach meaning I was picking up Martin and Ian at 5:30, however, as I was leaving the house at around 5:10, I got a message from Andy saying that the port had locked the gates early, without explanation, and he couldn't get his boat out. This obviously put an end to the trip and gutted isn't the word. The port authorities have a lot to answer for and I do feel for Andy as weather had put an end to his trips in the week building up to this and when it was finally looking good, this happens.

Anyway, I had a sulk in the house for a little while, and following a brief consultation with her indoors, I decided that I wasn't going to let it beat me and quickly planned a trip to Worthington lakes, hoping for some bream action.  So I quickly got my gear sorted and off I went to coppull anglers ready for them opening to pick up bait and day ticket. All this went smoothly and it was about 8:30ish as I started making my way to the lakes from the car park. I opted to fish Arley reservoir and on arrival I could see the water was well down from my last visit

A quick scan from this area and I decided to go down the left hand side and fish from the peg with a fallen tree out in the water; with it being set away from the path, I should be left alone in peace and quiet.

As I went down to the peg, I initially planned on fishing on the right of the fallen tree and once I got down there I went about mixing my groundbait for the day however, my desire to get wet surfaced again and as I went down to the waters edge I slipped on my arse and started sliding into the water, and the more I struggled to get up, the faster I slid in. As my foot went in the water up to my calf, I manage to get some purchase and dragged myself out. Not too wet but fully caked in mud. 

I quickly composed myself and realised no one had seen me. A quick assessment saw me change to the left hand side of the tree where the bank wasn't as steep. I was wearing my trainers when I slipped in so I ended up in my wellies for the rest of the day with no socks on as I used the local foliage to dry out my socks and shoes 

Plan for the day was to fish the tip as I had a bit of a nightmare last time and I wanted another crack at it. My bait for the day was Bait-Tech Pro Natural Bream groundbait mixed straight out of the bag, no extras. I had some casters and hemp to add in to the feeder as I was fishing and maggots and worms as hook bait choices. I also planned to set up a waggler rod fishing up in the water as this had worked really well for me last time.

Finally set up I went about putting about 10 feeder fulls of groundbait in on the tip line before spending half an hour or so on the waggler while it settled. Unlike my last visit here, the waggler failed to produce anything at all which was a bit of a surprise but as my main aim was to fish the feeder, I wasn't too bothered and soon was making my first cast on it. Second cast and the tip went and a rather weak scrap saw me soon landing a hybrid, probably around the 6oz mark. Good signs on just my second cast and I quickly got back out but had to wait a good while before anything else happened. In fact, I was actually beginning to fear the worse when on a later cast, the tip wrapped round on the drop and a roach was the reward for my perseverance. However, it was certainly not my day and the only thing that had kept me from packing up much earlier was the fact that my socks and trainers were still wet. I had been feeding the waggler line all day and kept checking it for signs but it was totally dead today and I soon made a decision to pack it away and concentrate on the feeder for the final hour or so. Out of the blue a positive bite saw me playing the best fish of the day and just to prove that it wasn't a total blank, here is the biggest fish of the day, all 8oz or so of it

Sadly that was the fruits of my labours for the day and as the post says, the fishing gods were certainly against me today. I slowly packed away and made my way home, it might not have been the day I planned but there are a few positives to take away - 1: I didn't blank, errr actually that's it.

Here's hoping for an improvement in fortune on my next trip.

Partridge Lakes - Covey 6

On Saturday 9th August it was time to revisit Partridge Lakes as Pem Central took on Covey 6. 

I'd never fished covey 6 before now but as far as I was aware, it is very similar to Covey 5 where I had spent most of my winter so whilst the weather had warmed up and winter was nothing more than a distant nightmare, I will admit that my confidence was high for this match.  Paul couldn't make it today so I was given the role of club secretary for the day.

My plan for the day was to keep things as simple as I could. In winter I would have gone for an all maggot approach but today I decided to go for pellet, opting to fish 50/50 mix of 2mm Skrill and JPellets, about 3 pints worth with half a pint of the same mix of 4mms. 2 pint of maggot in case the pellet plan didn't work and about half a pint of corn. That took me to my 6 pint limit. I also had a kilo of old ghost green algae groundbait.

I drew peg 158 which put me on the bank close to Holbar, just short of where the island with pegs on it ended.

Plan was to fish tight against the mud line with pellets, then have 2 short lines, one fed with maggots hoping to draw fish up in the water and the other off to one side with pellet again on the deck. I then set up 2 margin lines, I had empty pegs on both sides of me so I plumbed up lines in front of each platform which I would leave for the first half of the match and then feed with groundbait.

As I called the all in, I fed a small pot of pellets on my short pellet swim and went straight across to the mudline with a jpellets soft hooker on and a small cad pot filled with 2mm pellets.  I didn't have to wait to long for my first bite and a small F1 was soon in the net but I did have to wait for my second, eventually I managed to put a small chub/ide in the net. This pattern continued for the first part of the day as I was catching slowly and generally getting F1s and chub alternatively. All the while I had been flicking maggots in by hand over the short swim and after seeing a few swirls I decided to put a small pot of pellets against the mudline and have a try for some shallow action and action I got!!! However, it wasn't the F1 action I had been hoping for and what came to the net was a run of really small silvers. I didn't pursue this line much longer, I was getting a bite a chuck but missing lots and the ones I hooked were always small silvers so I decided to switch on the deep pellet line and continue feeding maggots on the short line for another try later. Unfortunately, the deep line I had fed with pellets didn't seem to work and after a biteless 15 mins, I had another look on the mudline but before that, as it was around the halfway mark, I put a pot of gb on each of my margin lines, plus a few samples of corn. After a short wait the mudline sprang to life again but it was much the same as before, at least I was putting fish in the net though so I kept going with it for a while.

Rumour had spread that Carl was bagging down at the bottom end of the lake on peg 135, which was mixed news for me, obviously I wanted to win this match so news of someone else bagging isn't always great but as Carl had missed a few matches this year, he is not in contention for the league winner so thankfully, it wasn't one of my main rivals.

It wasn't long before my mudline slowed again so I decided to have another look on the shallow swim but a lack of action soon ended that, however, as the deep pellet swim didn't work, I tried my deep rig over the maggot line and managed to put a run of bigger chub, ide and skimmers together before yet again that seemed to die off. At this point I decided to try my margin lines, I'd already re-fed them with more groundbait by this point so I went straight over with a nugget of corn and crosse my fingers. Tentative indications were showing straight away but it took a while before my first proper bite, which resulted in a short fight before the fish took me round the platform and eventually snapped the hooklength. At least it was a sign of better fish so I put a small amount of feed in and switched sides but for some reason, the other side was dead and no signs or bites soon saw me switch back to the other side. I was soon catching better carp and despite losing a few I managed to boost my weight with about 3 or 4 better stamp carp. Time was eventually called and whilst I didn't do too bad, I felt the peg could have offered so much more. As I was packing up, I could help but think about how I seem to consistently struggle to keep fish coming and how any swim I catch on seems to die off really quick, defo one that I need to think about more carefully. 

As we started to weigh in, I had to listen to the usual moaning from Angy and Jordy who were both trying every excuse under the sun to explain why they both recorded lower than average weights for themselves, of course I didn't mind too much as Angy is a main rival in the chase for top spot and to see him fall short of the mark filled me with optimism, as did league leader Alex's low weight. Fingers crossed mine would go better and as it got round to my peg I put 24lb 12 oz on the scales to double Alex's weight and even better against Angys, so i had managed to close the gap on them but Wayne had weighed in over 40lb so he was going to get a good points boost.  As we continued it looked like the long straight was throwing up better weights with 2 weighs recorded over 50lb and another in the high 30's. Carl was second to last to weigh and he put 65lb on the scales to record a well earned victory. John Ruddy out another 40lb weight on the scales as I was seeing myself slip further down the board for today. Final tally put me in 8th place so not great but not bad, defo room for improvement but a disappointment from a water I expected myself to do better on.

In the car park, Jordy and Angy were still at it, moaning away so I used my new powers as club secretary for the day to ban them......you might say power has gone to my head but I rule with an iron fist!! No doubt they'll ignore me though and come back for the next match, luckily for them Paul will be back in charge.

So the leaderboard is not looking too different at the top with Alex still leading but Wayne's 5th place today has put him in second place, just one point adrift of Alex while I am now a few more points behind in 3rd place, of course we have the ability to drop our worse score so I am going to save that for the very end of the fixtures, for dramatic effect.

Next outing for me is sea fishing again on board Blue Mink, which I will report back on. Pem have a couple of weeks off while a few of the lads go to Ireland. I might see if I can sneak a cheeky bream session in while I have the time, I know Paul said something face timing some of the lads out there while we fished a local water, just so he could feel like he was there.

Tight lines!!

The story so far........

In my recent posts, I have said I would provide an update on the league standings in Pem Central.

The results are now up to date and I will report on the top 3.

Currently sitting top of the shop is Alex Yates on 72 points. Following up in second place is Mark Anglessey on 78 points. Sitting in joint 3rd place on 80 points is Wayne Fairhurst and yours truly.

Tight at the top and with only 15 points seperating the top 6 anglers it's all to play for in our remaining 4 matches. 

The last matches are Partridge Lakes Covey 6, Hall Lane Gwen's canal, Rosemary Wood Moss Lake and Heronbroon Meadow Pool.

Fingers crossed I can put a good run in on those last 4 matches.

Whitmore East Canal............I think

After missing the last match with Pem, I was really looking to this match but the day could've started a bit better. After oversleeping a bit and forcing myself into a rush to get ready, I then had what we will call a 'maggot incident' in the kitchen that delayed me further. When I eventually got on the road down to pick up Wayne, I'd realised I'd left my trolley at home. So back home I go and eventually we are on the road and heading to the fishery. 

Always one of the highlights of trips to Whitmore and first order of the day was to indulge in one of the full month breakfasts. I think this is one of, if not the best fishery breakfast around. After scoffing that down my mid soon switched from fishing to lying down on the bank with my belt undone but duty called.

The draw put me on peg 1, which was lucky in some respects as I didnt need to drag my gear and a gut full of breakfast a long way. My peg looked ok although it did look like the water level was a bit low as half my near shelf was exposed and plumbing up didn't reveal much better. I decided to focus on 3 lines. Tight across to the bank I manage to find a few areas where one rig set about 8 inches deep would cover all areas. On the slope at about 11 metres and short on 2+2 where one rig set about 2 1/2 foot would do both. Bait wise, I decided to try a mix of marukyu jpellets and Skrill pellets in - mix of 2 and 4 mm. Hook pellets for the day was either jpellets or Skrill soft hookers, JPz or banded hard pellet. I also had a pint of maggot (or what was left of a pint) as a backup option. At the all in I started off fishing the 11metre line and after feeding a small pot of pellets, I went over with a soft hooker. Now these new soft hookers from marukyu are meant to be a 6mm pellet but I think they are a 'big' 6mm so my hope was that the small fish would leave them alone and I'd hopefully be able to pick off the bigger ones.......or at least that was the plan. I didn't have I wait long for indications and a proper bite followed shortly after. Sadly the big fish plan didn't work and what I landed was a tiny roach of about 1.5 inches long. What followed was a run of these small fish, interrupted by just one carp of around 14oz. The small fish were just to difficult to get through and honestly I don't even know how they were doing it, I had a look at the smaller fish and their mouths weren't even big enough to take the pellets, I can only assume they were sucking the flavour out of the pellet and accidentaly pricking themselves on the hook. A change was in order so I dumped another pot of feed in the 11 metre line and had a look across to the far bank. This swim proved a tough nut to crack as a combination of cross winds, and long overhanging grass meant presenting the bait was very difficult and when I did get to present properly there were no signs of activity to keep me interested. I soon abandoned this line and looked short after putting another pot of bait on the 11m line. The short swim was busy enough but once again was plagued by the small fish. I was now beginning to fear that another session similar to our match on old hough, where I couldn't get through the smaller species, was on the cards. Having fed quite heavily on the 11metre line, I decided it was now the time to have a look and this seemed to have done the trick a bit, whilst the bigger carp were not there, I did manage to put some better roach and ide in the net, along with some good skimmers, tench and a lone barbel. Looking around me at this stage, I could see John Ruddy on the next peg had caught well through the match and put a good net of silvers together with a few bonus carp to boost his weight so I knew that I was well behind but to the other side of me I could see that a few of the lads were either about the same or slightly less than me so I was still positive of a decent result and kept plugging away on this line to the end of the match, hoping others has struggled along the way. When the all out sounded, I was guessing I had around 15lb.

In this match I learned a valuable lesson about checking pole elastic. 3 of my top kits, all with the same elastic, had snapped at the connector at some point in the match. 2 luckily enough were whilst I was handling the rigs or pulling out of the grass on the far bank so didn't result in list fish but one sadly did and it was the last fish of the day and what felt by far would have been my biggest. The elastics I had in the kits are ones that I had used all winter and all year so far, so I am under no illusions that the snap was due to fair wear and tear rather than being a poor elastic and in future I will e checking more often.

At the weigh in, early weights would show that it wasn't going to be my day for a decent position as weights of 32lb and 24lb were recorded on the first 2 weighs. A few more in the 20s followed. Around on my section of the lake, weights were a little bit lower and at my peg I managed to put 18lb on the scales. Last to weigh in, John Ruddy recorded 34lb to win the match. Well done John. My weight put me 8th in the match but I managed a controversial section win by default.

Overall, not the greatest days fishing which wasn't helped by the weather but as always, it's good to get out and get on the bank regardless. No weekend off this time and next Saturday, the club are taking on Partridge Lakes Covey 6, a lake  where I am hoping my previous experience on Covey 5, will put me in with a chance of a decent place, we will see.!!

Sea Fishing - Blue Mink Charters

I'm a little late in posting this for one reason or another so might not have the greatest detail. As I mentioned in my last post, I'll first report on the last match on Pem Centrals calendar. The club were on Blundells fishery Ash pool. By all accounts, I didn't miss much with a few of the lads struggling for much of the day. Wayne Fairhurst won the match I believe with a weight of around 50-odd pound so well done Wayne. I'm going to be processing the clubs results soon and getting them up to date so hopefully will be able to give a full season update soon.

On to my last venture and a change of scene was in order as me and a bunch of pals boarded Blue Mink out of Fleetwood for a spot of sea fishing.  Skippered by Andy Bradbury. This trip had a long build up for me as I had been looking forward to it for some time. Once on board we headed out to our first mark of the day where we had hoped to pick up mackerel and codling to start with. Using feathers for the mackerel or baited feathers for the codling and other species, we were putting a few fish on the boat. Most of the mackerel were being kept for eating or for bait later in the day when we were going to try for a few tope. Sadly most of the codling and other species we caught were undersized so most went back safe and sound. We thought we were doing quite well but Andy had decided we needed some help with the mackerel and had a go himself. We were well and truly schooled as he very quickly filled a bucket with mackerel, equivalent to the size it had taken 7 of is to fill in the first half of the day!! After a few hours, we decided enough bait had been caught and we moved off in search of some tope.

My previous best tope was a mere 8/9lb so I was really hoping to beat that today with regular reports of fish over 30lb being boated in previous trips. Using mackerel flappers for bait, it didn't take long for the first of the days tope to be boated, caught by first time boat angler Chris, it was a good fish for him and a good start to the day

The tope were coming regular enough with a some good sized ones coming out inbetween bull Huss and the inevitable doggies. My turn seemed to be taking a while though as the tope seemed to be eluding me but then all of sudden I got a good take from a fish and a good run followed indicating a tope was on the line. After a good scrap, a tope of roughly 15lb came up at the side of the boat, sadly for me though, the fish shed the hook as we were trying to boat it and it got away without me getting my hands on it. Sadly that was my only tope of the day but the other lads put a few on the boat, Derrick Snr was getting amongst them quite regular, this being the best of his

After losing a real good fish earlier on, Darren eventually landed what was probably the second largest of the day, roughly mid 20's.

Finally on the last cast of the day, Derrick Snr's rod screamed off again but this time he passed it over to Derrick Jnr to do the honours. After a good long scrap the largest tope of the day was boated and weighed at 34.5lb 

So a good day was had on the day but I still feel that the big tope is eluding me so hoping that my next outing on the boat on the 15th August will bring the big one my way. Before that however, I'm back on club duties as Pem Central take on Whitmore Fisheries East Canal on the 2nd August.

Tight Lines!!!!!!!!

Old Hough - Upper Bembo

So on Saturday 5th July, Pem Central found themselves heading south to visit Old Hough fisheries again for a match on Upper Bembo.

As usual for our visits this way, we all met for obligatory butties at a middlewich butty van, the name of which escapes me as I am more usually interested what's cooking up in it rather than what's written above it. Today's visit was like all others with the usual banter when Lionel tipped up but parked on the road rather than in the car park. As we observed his strange behaviour we noticed him pull out a sheet of directions and start studying with great concentration and looking all around him, except at us. Club secretary Paul decided to help Lionel out and went to have a chat, at which point Lionel looked round to see Paul staring in his window, he near on shit himself at the sight and have us all a good giggle to set the day off on the right foot. Good old Lionel.

At the fishery, the draw bag put me on peg 11, one peg away from the end peg which was occupied by Phil Lloyd. My initial thoughts about this lake was that it was all F1 fishing, but as the events of the day would prove, I couldn't have been more wrong. Anyway.........my initial plan for the day was to focus on a maggot approach, looking for fish right against the far bank, which was about 15 metres or on the short, 2+2 line. I also had a bed of lily pads off the far bank to my left so I plumbed a line in front of there as a 3rd option. So plan was to fish maggots on all 3 lines, with loose fed live maggots for tight across and short, and dead maggots over groundbait for near the lillies. I did have pellets available as a back up bait but the plan was always to focus on maggots.

As the all in was called I cupped in some groundbait by the lillies and went straight across tight to the far bank with a so gel maggot on the hook, and fed a small cad pot of maggots with it. Immediately my float was active in the swim and seconds later I found myself connected to a 'pin' roach. I put this straight back rather than in the keep net and went back out. Same again. 2 maggots this time as yet again pin roach were the only fish I could find. After trying a 4th time and connecting yet again with those pin roach I decided to put some groundbait on this line with a helping of maggots and leave it to see if anything better moves in. I then decided to have a little look on the lily pad line and with 3 dead reds on the hook I lowered in. After a minute or so my float dinked and I found myself connected to.......a small pin roach. At this point I felt I could be in for a tough day and decided to put this in the keepnet in case these were to be my only quarry for the day, of course I was now starting to regret puttin back the earlier fish. After a couple more attempts to get a bait down on the lily pads, I finally found a way through the pin roach that were taking it on the drop and found my float finally settled with my bait on the bottom. After a while the float shot under and I found myself connected to something much more substantial, things were starting to look up. After a bit of a struggle, I scooped a foul hooked barbel in the net. At least it was a sign of better fish in the swim and with this indication I changed hook to a larger, size 14 and hooked between 8 and 10 dead reds, hoping they would get past the roach and find the barbel on the bottom. Safe to say that whilst it avoided the roach up in the water, on the bottom, even with a size 14 and 10 dead reds I was again catching small roach. Frustration was starting to set in now and I topped up this swim and had another little look onthe far bank line. More roach ended this approach and I was seriously scratchin my head for ideas. All the while I had been loose feeding maggots short so a quick look on the short line was next  however, this approach yielded yet more roach, most of which fell off the hook before I got them in.

At this point I sat back with a brew and had a think. I knew the lake was quite deep down the track so I decided to set up a new rig with a heavier float, the plan being to place most of the shot just above the hooklength to bomb through the roach in the water and the maggots were replaced by softened pellets for feed and banded hard pellet on the hook. After feeding the swim with about half a pot of maggots I went straight over the feed with a banded 4mm pellet. This approach was definitely a waiting game but patience paid off and a lift bite saw me connected to a better fish and I was soon landing a carp of around 1.5lb. Having nearly doubled my weight with that one fish, I stuck to this approach for the remainder of the match an slowly picked up carp and tench between 12oz and a couple of pounds, all of which were caught after getting a lift bite, I don't think I've ever had so many lift bites in one session.

As the match was moving along, Phil had started to catch on the end peg and as usual for Phil when he's catching, his gob starting working hard as well.

At the all out I wasn't sure how I'd done in relation to the rest of the club as I couldn't see many but I know Dean on the opposite bank had caught well on the  end peg opposite Phil. The weigh in started with Phil and when he put a surprisingly low 16lb on the scales, I was praying that my fish would go better after all his gobbing. I put 18lb on the scales, which I had to work hard for but I felt it would put me a long way off the pace.......it did however, give me the opportunity to throw a few words Phils way. The rest of the weigh in proved the point and I was well off the pace. Danny Lancaster won the match with around 48lb with Father and Son duo Mark and Dean Jordan taking 2nd and 3rd place, both with weights over 40lb. My 18lb put me 11th out of 14 but with 2 guests on the match I gained 9 pts for the league.

Next match for Pem is Blundells fishery on Ash lake but due to other commitments I will be missing this match. I will report on the result though. Until next time..........

Orcheton

The next match on Pems calendar saw me returning to an old favourite in the shape of Orcheton fishery near Heskin. It's a venue I quite like but through one thing or another I hadn't visited it in probably 18 months or so. So prior to the match I managed a sneaky practice on a Wednesday evening. Arriving after the open match had finished, I settled on peg 1. The match had been won with 80-odd pound from peg 11, with pegs 33 and peg 1 placing behind. I was told that all these 3 had caught up in the water on the pole. With that in mind I opted to fish the pellet waggler for the evening. I was quite happy with pole up in the water so thought I would try the pellet waggler to get back in the swing of this method as I hadn't fished it a great deal recently. The evening started slowly and my casting left a lot to be desired but I eventually got into the swing of it and ended up catching about 30 - 40lb of carp. Not a bad evenings work. Made a couple of new friends that night too, or at least I thought they were my friends until they chased me off the peg 

MATCH DAY

Orcheton was looking lovely on the day of the match 

I drew peg 12 which was just out of the pegs that I'd have preferred but it wasn't the worse peg available. Based on the feedback from the open match and my own pleasure session I decided to set up my pole at 14 metres to fish up in the water and set my pellet waggler up to fish just beyond pole range. In addition I set up a couple of margin lines and my feeder rod which I set up with a method feeder to fish to my left in a corner bay. 

At the all in I went straight out on the pole, initially fishing about 18 inches deep, and was getting bites straightaway. Using a 6mm banded pellet and occasionally pinging a few over the top, I was putting a few fish in the net but they were a bit on the small side. Others around me had started on bomb and pellet waggler and they were slow to start but soon were putting a few in the net but they were a much bigger stamp. Having seen a few bigger fish topping behind my pole line, I decided to switch to pellet waggler to try and keep up with those around me. This seemed like a good idea and I put a few bigger carp in the net and a couple of decent bream. One of the carp was a nice double figure ghost carp that initially thought I'd foul hooked by the way it took off as soon as the float hit the water, but it was fairly hooked and provided a good boost to my weight. At this point I was doing quite well and felt I could place in the match if I continued at the pace...........oooops. At around the 2 hour mark the fishing really slowed down for me and I found myself trying all sorts to keep the fish coming. The shallow lines in front of me seemed to dry up, and my margin pole lines produced only roach. I tried my feeder line and whilst this's gave me 2 fish, they were only small and inbetween I seemed to be bringing in big bunches of debris. After a couple of hours of messing about trying to keep fish coming, I fished my final hour on the pellet waggler and put a couple of fish in the net but not enough to catch up. At the all out I would the rods in feeling very frustrated and a little bit miffed with myself for wasting time searching for bites during that quiet spell, I think if I'd have stuck it out on the shallow line it would have really come good later on. At the weigh in, there were a few low weights recorded before me so when my 30lb was recorded it out me momentarily in front. Considering that I had a double figure carp in that 30lb, the day was even worse than I thought and I knew I was miles off the front runners. At the end of the weigh in it proved to be very close at the top with Alex Yates on peg 1 recording 67-10 and Dennis Derby narrowly missing out with 67-4 off peg 10. 3rd place went to Mark Anglessey with 45lb, I think from peg 28. My 30lb faired better than I thought and was actually enough for 5th overall. Given the top 2 weights, I didn't feel like my peg could have troubled them in the day but I feel that 3rd was well within my grasp. The angler in 4th place was a guest so when taken out of the points, I've only had 4 added to my tally so not a disaster.  Old hough next in a couple of weeks time, unless I can sneak out for a pleasure session in between.

Bloggers curse......??

Is there such a thing? After today's outing I would be inclined to say yes. Less than 24 hours after kick starting my blog again, I record my worse result of the year.

Today Pem Central descended upon Partridge lakes for a match on the marsh canal. With the fishomania qualifier winner coming off marsh and reports of 60+lb midweek weights, we were looking forward to a good days fishing. The weather had other ideas though and proved a sound opponent.

Only 11 turned up today including one guest so it was a bit of a low turnout but it did mean that we could spread ourselves out a bit on the water. I drew peg 3, with Ste Green next to me on peg 2. Peg 4 was empty and Mark Anglesey occupied peg 5.

The keen eyed amongst you will notice I have 2 poles set up today. My regular pole is out of action at the moment whilst sections are being repaired (courtesy of my swimming session at Highfield) so I was on a loaner pole. Whilst setting up I realised that one if the top kits didn't fit which really limited my options. Kindly, mark lent me his spare pole so I had 2 different poles set up.

I went for 4 lines. 2 lines across, one in a little cutaway, and one against some far bank rushes. My 3rd line was short where I hoped to catch up in the water and my final line was down the edge. Baits were softened 4mm pellets on the 2 long lines, caster short and groundbait down the edge. I had a variety of hook baits and tried multiple options through the day.

After the all in I went long on cutaway swim and was instantly into a small mirror carp but following that fish, all I could manage was 2 small ide. After persevering on the long line for an hour, I tried the short line but had no signs of any fish feeding shallow. I tried a rig on this line to fish on the deck but that produced nothing either. Struggling for bites I found myself back on the long lines where I managed to nick another mirror  carp in front of the rushes but again this was a solitary fish and I was once again struggling for bites. With about 90 mins to go I tried my line down the edge with maggot on the hook and I managed to hook into an F1 before, like the others, this swim went dead. Frustration reigned and with half an hour left I decided enough was enough and packed up.

At the weigh in, it was obvious that the water hadn't fished great. My 5 fish went to 5lb dead which put me 10th out of 11 and last amongst club members. The match was won with 28lb off peg 9, with 2nd and 3rd weighing 19lb and 16lb.

All in all a poor day made worse by heavy rain and feeling a little bit lost without my usual pole. With 10pts coming my way, I have made things difficult for myself I want to stay top if the league but it has closed the gap and making for a close run league up now.

I'm back

It's been a while but I thought I might try blogging my fishing adventures again. Rather than start a new blog, I thought I'd pick up on this one, bring you all up to speed and then crack on so.........here goes

2012

So when I last posted in here it was 2012 and I was fishing with Horwich Old Anglers. I finished the year with Horwich but at the end of the club fixtures I decided to call it a day with that club. There were a number of factors that led to that decision that I'll not go into but I will say that it was a good year with the club, I got to know some good blokes and had some good laughs.

2013

After leaving Horwich, and with my Saturdays still not being great for a return to Pem Central, I decided to try my hand on the open match scene in my local area. Me and Martin decided we would fish as a partnership, sharing tactics and winnings. Initially we planned on sticking to a couple of venues. We initially chose Sycamore Fishery in Golborne and Rosemary Wood Fishery. We have these a few months, alternating between the 2 but as we were only getting out every other weekend we were only getting one match on each ensue a month. This wasn't too bad on sycamore as it was a typical F1 dominated canal style water but on Rosemary Wood, the matches were rovers and venue regulars knowledge of the water was making it very difficult to compete. Ultimately we dropped rosemary wood and moved to Partridge lakes near Warrington and hall lane fishery near rufford. Without going into too much detail, as the year progressed I was finding more and more than whilst the fishing was great and the competition was great, I was missing the banter of club fishing and decided that at the end of the year I would be looking to go back to club angling. Before that though, me and Martin had joined forces with Matt and Dave to enter a teams of 4 winter league on partridge lakes, run by St. Helens tackle and bait. As the team worked out our plans for the league it was decided that me and Martin would fish covey 5 and 6 respectively, mainly down to our previous experience on the partridge opens, Matt went on to Marsh/Spey while Dave found himself on Willow/Piper. I started the league really well with a good section winning performance in the first match but that was followed by a couple of poor results while the rest of the matches I found myself around mid section. Safe to say that as a team we weren't challenging the league leaders but we finished mid table which is a respectable performance given a lot of the other teams were made up of venue regulars.

2014

As we moved into 2014 I was finishing off my winter league whilst planing my next move. My wife's working pattern had changed to alternative Saturdays whih allowed me an option to fish Saturdays again. A check with Pem Central and nearly all of their matches lied on days were Gail was off so I finally got the chance to go back where I wanted to be.

So what's happened so far..........

Well Pems matches started off in March with a return visit to Rosemary wood on the cards for me. The match was on Moss lake and I found myself pegged in the corner where the boards meet the far bank. This proved to be a good draw and I fished a steady match on the banjo feeder with a few bream and a couple of bonus carp giving me 3rd place in the match. Surprisingly for the time of year and the conditions on the day, the match winner an runner up both fished on the pellet waggler.

Next was a new venue for me. Old Hough Fishery near middlewich. Another typical canal style water. I had what seemed like another decent draw in a corner that I fancied for a possible win but as fortune had it, most members struggled on the day and the best I could manage was 4th overall with a mixed net of chub and small carp.

Model canal was next and is a venue I have really enjoyed and had some success with previously. A good match was had overall with a decent winning weight and close back up weights for all members . My nets were enough for 5th in the match.

Highfield fishery followed with a match on oak pool. Whilst I have fished at Highfield before, this is the first time I've been on oak. Safe to say I won't be rushing back as a difficult day found us scratching for bites and my 2 carp could only must enough weight for 9th place.

A long drive awaited for the next match as the club made it's way down the M6 to Heronbrook fisheries and a day on te meadow pool. I love this venue but had not fished it for a couple of years. The draw saw me on peg 8(I think) on the first arm and I fished a simple match of pellets on the deck at 11metres to put a weight of around 80lb on the scales. My best result of the year so far and my best on the venue ever. I finished 4th overall but as we had 2 guests and they both finished in 1st and 2nd place, league points equivalent to 2nd place came my way.

Hall lane was next and similar to Highfield, I had fished on hall lane before but not on this particular pool. The draw saw me roughly in the middle of the length and I fished hard all day at 16m to catch. My weight was good enough for 4th place.

A visit to Highfield again was next but this time on Beech. I had fished this venue before but not in the area I drew. I decided on a simple attack based on meat and pellets and rotated between an 11m swim and a far bank swim to catch steadily through the day. Disaster struck though as in the process of landing a fish, I dropped my pole and in the act of trying to grab it, I fell off my box and into the lake, thigh deep in the margins. Recovering the pole that had dropped in, I realised that on the act of falling in, I had let go of my top kit which was now making it's way towards the far bank still attached to the fish. As I wa already wet through, I went for a swim to recover the top kit. I got it and landed the fish still attached but that was the end of the match, luckily there was only 5 mins left so I hadn't done much to jeopardise my result. The scales came my way and my weight was good enough for 4th again. From chatting to the lads it seems I had the numbers to win but my fish were too small and some bigger fish being caught elsewhere made it difficult for me to compete.

That's us up to date on club matches. After that match, I found myself at the top of the club league with 31 points, 10 points clear of second place on 41. A good start, considering I haven't won a math this year it shows that I can be consistently up there with the front runners. 

Last weekend, I found myself back on the bank of partridge lakes in the fishomania qualifier. 180 pegs wasn't going to be easy. In the draw queue I couldn't decide where I felt I wanted to be but had a slight leaning towards covey 5 where I had spent the winter or Holbar. At the draw I pulled out peg 65 on covey 3. Not an area I had fished before but with fish topping and an inviting aerator in my peg, I felt it was a peg I could catch a few from but I could t have been more wrong. After a reasonable start the fish just seemed to disappear and I was left scratching for bites for the rest of the day.  My 18lb wasn't enough to trouble for the section never mind the match but looking at the results, it seemed the coveys fished hard on the day.

And that was last weekend. So it's now Friday night and tomorrow I find myself back at partridge to fish a club match on marsh canal - which is where the fishomania qualifier was won - but the weather is not looking promising. A good result is need though to cement my place at the top of he league - especially considering I will be missing a match In July.