Thanks to some of the lads in Pem Central who regularly fish Leisure Lakes matches over Winter, I managed to get a place on a match at Barston Lakes run by the same match organiser, Steve Dutton. The match itself was on Saturday 22nd August so without needing much more of an excuse, I decided to go down on the Friday before and have a practice day - fellow Pem Central member Dennis Darby was to accompany me on the practice day so it would be good to have some company.
Practice Day
Friday 21st August
On the Friday morning, I picked Dennis up at 6 AM to make the journey down to Barston, hopefully allowing us to get there early enough to fish during the match times. An uneventful, easy journey had us down at the fishery at just after 8 AM. The notice in the pro-shop showed us as fishing pegs 1 - 38 on the match so we obviously decided that we would fish somewhere along that length in the practice. With our gear unpacked we started the walk up the match length; there were a few carp anglers already on the early pegs by the 18th Green and some others at the top end of our match length in the early 30's so we settled on pegs 21 and 22 in the open water to give us chance to try feeder fishing both long and short. I opted to fish peg 21 and Dennis went for peg 22.
My set up for the day would cover 2 feeder options; the first was to fish long on the method feeder, using my Daiwa Theory 12ft feeder rod matched to my Daiwa Procaster 4000, I was fishing a 45g Preston method feeder at around 70 turns - the other feeder set up was shorter on my 10ft Preston Mini Carp using a 30g Preston method feeder and fishing around 30 turns on my Shimano Aero Match. I decided that as I was likely to be fishing for one fish at a time with a small method feeder, there was no need to clip up on these set ups. My method mix was a mixture of micro pellets and Sonubaits Match Method mix with a variety of pellets in different sizes and colours for hook bait options. My final option for the day was a pole line at around 12 metres where I would fish expanders on the deck over a bed of micros and 4mm pellets.
Before I was ready to make my first cast, Dennis had already been getting indications on a traditional cage feeder set up with some worms and caster but the fish he was catching were small skimmers. My first cast was to be on my shorter feeder line and it wasn't long before my tip wrapped round. A spirited fight that saw the culprit kite far to my left, eventually resulted in a nice carp of around 3lb.
Such a positive start had me anticipating a proper 'bagging' session but my high hopes were quickly dismissed as follow up fish on the short method line were only small carp or small skimmers, there in numbers no doubt but nothing of any size. By now Dennis had also switched to the method feeder at similar range so I decided to try the long feeder line but disaster struck (or more likely, I was my usual clumsy self) when on the first cast I cracked off due to me not realising my reel was still clipped up from my previous match at Orcheton. Lesson number 1 - always check your line clips before starting a new session. So back I went on the short line whilst setting my long feeder up again. It wasn't long before I was set up again and out on the long line. I did notice on this line that the bites were coming slightly quicker than on the shorter line but the fish again were mainly small skimmers - the best fish off this line was a nice hybrid.
Despite the fishing being a fish a cast on either of the method lines, the size of the fish were not going to be match winners so I decided to have a look on the pole line. With a 4mm expander on the hook I was soon catching skimmers of a similar stamp to the method lines but with more small carp thrown in. When the float was held still the bites were coming thick and fast but with a strong wind blowing, the tow on the lake was becoming very strong and even in around 3 1/2 feet of water with a 0.5g wire stemmed float fished 3 inch over depth my float was running through the swim as though I was fishing a river. In fact Dennis was having similar trouble on the feeder, adamant that his 30g feeder was being pushed along the bottom with the tow. I wasn't experiencing this with my 45g feeders but it was obviously a problem for Dennis.
Following a short break for lunch, me and Dennis had a walk up and down the match length to see how other anglers were doing. The carp anglers on the pegs in the low 30s were fishing well and were reporting catches of carp up to around 18lb, they openly told us that they weren't fishing very far out and were using 18mm boilies on the hook and catapulting the same as loose offerings. A look down into the lower pegs and there was a couple of guys practicing for the matrix final on the Sunday. One was fishing a long range feeder, similar to myself but not reporting catches yet as they hadn't long since arrived.
Dennis and I went back to our pegs planning to mimic the approach of the carp anglers, only using pellet and bomb tactics on a short line and firing in loose offerings of the same. As per usual, I managed about 20 minutes of this approach before knocking it on the head, I just can't get to grips with bomb and pellet fishing and never have any confidence in it. I ended up going back on the long range feeder and continued to catch skimmers. Dennis was starting to catch some good sized F1s on his bomb line though and proved that come the match day, this method was not one to be ignored. For the rest of the day, I alternated between long feeder and pole to keep catching the skimmers and small carp, I did have a take from a much bigger fish on the long feeder which, after kiting far right then far left, managed to snag me somewhere and I ended up pulling for a break. Other than that, the only other major event was a minor box tipping incident that very nearly saw me taking a dive into the lake on top of my box - luckily the only things at was a bait tub and a catapult. I reckon I managed a weight in the low 20s by the time I had packed up. Dennis had a much better second half of the day by catching the F1s. The owner, Nigel came round mid afternoon and did the pegging for us for the match. A chat with him was good as he also said that the small skimmers could be caught short on the pole at around 6 metres and if you wanted the bigger skimmers to add some corn.
By the time I had packed up on Friday, a plan had developed in my head on how I would approach the match on Saturday and the good thing about it, is that it didn't really matter where I drew, I could put the plan into action.
Match Day
Saturday 22nd August.
After a good breakfast at the fishery and a catch up with some of the other Pem Central lads that had made the trip down on the Saturday morning it was time for the draw. I drew peg 8 from the draw bag, which put me near enough square in the middle of the 18th green, not a place I fancied to be honest but the green could be a good feature if the fish are in the area. Dennis drew on peg 15 which was good for us as a travelling partnership as he was in a different section to me and we were planning on sitting any winnings.
So my plan for the day was a relatively simple one, I had the green in front of me so I would fish a method feeder up to the edge of the green. I then also set up the shorter line on the mini carp to fish bomb and pellet (despite my reservations around this method, it clearly worked for Dennis yesterday). I then set up 2 pole lines, one at 13 metres where I would feed and fish a mixture of corn and 4mm pellets and another line at around 6 metres where I would fish the micros and 4mm mixture that I fished on the Friday. I was set up pretty quick so before the all in, I managed to have a walk up the bank to see how everyone else was getting on. Fellow Pem Central angler Ste Green had drawn peg 21, mine from yesterday, and as I approached his peg I saw my bait tub on the side of his peg, he says it had popped up in the margins of his peg and after I told him the story of my box tipping incident, he kindly let me reclaim my bait tub.
Back at my peg and at the all in I decided to go straight out on the long feeder to see if any early fish could be picked up and I wasn't to be disappointed as my tip shot round and I was soon playing what felt like a decent carp. I managed slightly better this time round and actually managed to play this carp to the landing net before it decided to take a dive for cover in the margins and snag me up - another pull for a break and this was a case of lightning striking twice and not the start I hoped for. I didn't want this snag to go to my head so I decided that before I went back out I would feed my pole lines and chuck out the bomb rod before slowly setting up the method feeder again in slow time and regaining my composure. There were no signs on the bomb so as soon as I had the method up and running again I was straight back out on it. This time though, I was back into a similar routine as the day before where the tip was always going round, but the culprits were the small skimmers. At this point it was decision time as I knew I could catch skimmers of this size on the pole line and with a much lighter breeze than the Friday, controlling the pole line would be much easier today. So I brought in the feeder and went out on the long pole line. This was a good decision on the day as I was soon catching a good run of skimmers on the long pole line with corn on the hook. Considering Nigel's advice from Friday, I switched to the short pole line in the hope of catching quicker but despite Nigel's advice, I couldn't seem to get this line to work so I was soon back out on the long pole line and catching again. I was soon getting in a rhythm on the pole line where I would feed a large pot of pellets and corn and then fish a single grain of corn on the hook, I would then feed with a kinder pot after every fish or 5 mins and then re-feed with a big pot after 4 or 5 fish. This pattern saw me put a run of good size skimmers and some bream in the net. With over half of the match gone I felt I was doing ok in my section but with talk of carp travelling down the bank, I felt I would need to search for a carp or two myself to stay in contention, so I decided to have another look on the method feeder line. After a few small skimmers on the long line I decided that it wasn't going to be the day for this tactic so I put the feeder rod away and went back on the pole. If catching the skimmers wasn't going to win the match, it would at least be a good days fishing. I soon got back into the pattern as was before and I was really enjoying the day with constant bites and some good size bream coming to the set including a couple around 4lb. With around an hour of the match to go I had a quick look on the bomb line but after 10 minutes staring at the tip, I once again gave up on the method and went back on the pole to continue catching the skimmers right to the all out. I had no doubt that I had a decent weight of silver fish, I didn't really care how it would do in the match as I had really enjoyed the days fishing. All of my fish bar 1 roach was either a skimmer or bream and all had been caught on a grain of corn on the hook. It couldn't have been a more simple day. Chatting to Paul McCann whilst waiting for the weigh in, I was admitting to around 30 - 35lb. The weigh in was to start at peg 38 and work its way down the length so I was going to be one of the last to weigh. I followed the scales down and started to think my initial estimate was a bit generous as I was seeing some nets of fish that I thought were better than my own take the scales around to what my estimate was for myself. As we approached Ste Green on peg 21 he was admitting to catching a few carp - his weight was 71lb-odd and this took the lead in the match. Dennis on peg 15 put 60-odd lb on the scales to take second place up to his peg. The weights weren't as high as I expected and by the time the scales were at my peg, Ste and Dennis were still holding 1st and 2nd place. 3rd place was Keith Barton with a weight of 47lb-odd. Surprisingly, my net of silvers took the scales round to 47lb 14oz and I was regretting not paying attention to Keith's exact weight as the other weights didn't match mine so I was potentially looking at 3rd or 4th place in the match. I had to wait until the presentation in the club house to find out and I was pleased to hear that I had managed to take 3rd place in the match.
I know a lot of match anglers say that you don't get a good practice by pleasure fishing, and that you need a match scenario to get the best out of a practice session but it was clear that by fishing the Friday had given me a better understanding of the fishery and allowed me to make some key decisions on the match day that kept me in contention. The match also proved that carp aren't the be all and end all of match fishing and even on this venue with a large head of F1s and Carp, I managed to compete with an all silvers net.
The results were positive for me and Dennis as we agreed to split winnings so we managed to win enough between us to cover a lot of our expenditure on the weekend. A good result. Another good result was evident for Pem Central as club members managed to take the top 3 places on the match. A good weekend at a great fishery and one that I will make sure I get back to again.
