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.!!