Bit bashing on the farm

Pemberton Central Match
Fields Farm Fishery - Big Beam
Saturday 20th June 2015

 

www.fieldsfarmfisheries.co.uk

Once again, and for the 3rd weekend in a row, Saturday was match day and this week, Pemberton Central visited a new fishery for the club. Fields Farm Fishery in Sandbach, roughly 5 mins from Junction 17 of the M6 came recommended through magazine features and friends that had visited previously. Our lake for the day was Big Beam, another canal style water with widths between 13 and 16 metres with a 'wide end' where it went beyond standard pole range. Despite being a canal style water, it was very different to the current trend of canals that seem to offer the usual mud line as a main feature. This canal was very mature with far bank vegetation and trees, and margin reeds and overhanging trees, giving the feel like you were on an old traditional canal.  There are 3 'lengths' to this canal lake, all 3 joining at one end, and for two of the lengths, the pegs are either side of a peninsular.  This was spot on for us and with only 13 anglers attending this time, we were able to space ourselves out along this peninsular.

We used our own peg numbers for todays match.  I drew peg 5 which equated to permanent peg 7 (if I remember correctly).  The peg looked inviting enough with rushes on the far bank and margins giving obvious features to fish to.  Plumbing up revealed a very shallow far bank, so I decided to set a line up about half a metre from the bank where I had about 10 inches of depth, I would feed this with pellets by catapult throughout the match and go on it if I saw signs of fish.  I set up 2 margin swims, 1 to my left and 1 to my right; I had the same depth on these so could get away with the same rig,  On the margin lines I would fish corn and pellet.  My final rig was on a 2 + 2 line in front of me - this was going to my starting attack on maggot to see what was about.

As I called the all in, I picked up my 2 + 2 rig, slipped on a maggot and went straight in on this line, feeding small pinches of maggots by hand.  I also catapulted in a pouch of dampened 4mm pellets onto the long line and repeated this periodically as the day went on.  On the 2 + 2 line, I was instantly catching small Perch, Roach and Rudd and despite the small size of these fish I was quite enjoying myself but there was nothing of any size coming out so after 20 mins or so, I had a look on the long line but there were no signs of feeding fish.  I went back onto the short line and resumed catching the bits but hoping something bigger would come along.  Word on the bank though, was suggesting that everyone was struggling with many not having fish or even bites after the first half hour so I made a decision at this point to plug away properly for the bits and try to put a weight of these together whilst priming my margin swims for later in the day.  I had set this rig up on a top kit with Nick Gilbert 10-12 Twin Core elastic, so I quickly changed my top kit to one rigged with Nick Gilbert 4 -8 Micro Bore elastic and switched my size 18 hook to a size 20.  Now better set up to plug away on the bits, I started to get into rhythm of catching, mainly Perch with odd Roach and Rudd.  These fish were on average, as big as the one in the photo below but a nice bonus Perch of around 12oz and a couple of Skimmers around 6oz were welcome additions.  I really was enjoying the day now and had pretty much lost any care for winning the match, I was just happy catching.  I was even wishing I had brough a whip with me as I think I would have been able to increase the catch rate with one.

I continued on this for most of the match, only breaking to feed the margin lines, until about an hour to go in the match when I had a look on the margin lines, this was mainly due to the fact that I was running out of maggots.  Despite spending a bit of time on both margin lines, it was obvious that there was little in the way of activity so I gave them up and finished the match on the bits.  As I was running out of maggots, I had to feed less bait and less often to make them last the rest of the match - this made my catch rate noticeably slow down but I continued dropping fish in the net right up to the all-out.  The last moments of the match were a bit dramatic though, as Mark Jordan, a few pegs up had decided that the tough day was too much to bear and thought he would liven things up by falling off his seat box and going for a swim.........despite his protestation, he wasn't allowed to weigh in his mobile phone that found its way into his keep net.

As we were packing up and chatting away, it was clear today had been a tough one with only a few catching any numbers of fish.  Felling justified for sticking to the bits, I was guessign to myself that my weight would be around the 7-8lb mark.  As the scales went round,  it was definitily a mixed result - first to weigh in was Dave Benson and he put on a reasonable 28lb on the scales, whilst behind him on the opposite side, George Derbyshire had only 8oz.  When the scales reached my peg I was surprised to hear that my bag of bits went to 10lb 8oz.  Weights following weren't great and with only 4 people left to weigh, I was still in second place with that weight.  At the top end of the peninsular, where the lake widened, the weights improved somewhat.  Wayne Fairhurst jumped well into the lead when he placed 43lb 8oz on the scale - a very impressive weight considering the way most others had struggled on the day.  Dave Leonard went toe-to-toe with Dave Benson putting a matching 28lb on the scale and completing the weigh-in, Dennis Darby put 18lb 12oz.  So those last few put me out of the runnings but I did manage a section win with my 10lb 8oz.  I know a lot of the lads didn't seem too impressed on the day but I put it down to the time of year, with the bigger fish having other things on their mind and actually, I quite enjoyed myself on the day so for me - I will say it was a good day.

Results are on the Pemberton Central Results section of my blog - for those that can't find it - check out this link

Next weekend we have a break in the club matches but there will be no rest for me as I will be looking to hit the beach and make a start on my Lancashire Sea Fishing facebook group, Summer Species Hunt that I belatedly entered last week.

Weekend Double Header

This latest post comes after a weekend double header where I have managed to get out on both the Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday's session saw me at Hanchurch Fisheries near Stoke for the latest match in Pemberton Central's calendar and Sunday was a change of discipline as I swapped the pole for a beachcaster and header back up to 5 Bar Gate to fish the evening.

Hanchurch Fisheries

Pemberton Central Match
Hanchurch Fisheries - Model Canal
Saturday 13th June 2015

www.hanchurch-fisheries.co.uk

This match on the Pemberton Central calendar is normally one of the better venues, where good winning weights and consistent back up weights often leads to very enjoyable matches.  This year is slightly different though as we were approaching this match amidst stories of fish kills and KHV.  Fair to say, on arrival at the fishery, the fishery staff did indeed confirm that there had been a fish kill and that the Model Canal was empty as recently as March.  We were assured though that the issue had been resolved and the lake had been re-stocked.  Confidence restored a little, we approached the draw with renewed enthusiasm.  On the day we were the only club on the venue so we were allowed to utilise the whole lake and spread ourselves out a bit; I drew last and had peg 25 in my hand.  Peg 25 is close to the 'bottom' end of the lake as it bends round and was looking a decent enough peg with the only issue being the high bank behind me meaning I would have to double ship to fish long.

With the rain drizzling down, I set out my approach for the day.  I set up a rig long close to the far bank in about 18 inches of water; here I would fish banded pellet and feed the same.  The double shipping issue was getting to me though and with the rain looking like it would persist, I thought this line would only be back up and I would aim to catch on the track swim.  For the track swims, I set up 2 rigs, one to fish on the deck at about 3 1/2 feet deep and the other was a rig for fishing up in the water at various depths; I managed to find 2 areas with the same depth so would be able to use these rigs and rotate swims.  My final rig was a margin swim to my right, just before the next empty peg; here I fed groundbait and dead red maggot and had maggot for the hook.

At the all in, I fed half a pot of pellets on the left hand track swim and immediately went over it with the bottom rig.  After the initial pot of bait, I was loose feeding 3 or 4 pellets by hand, hoping to bring the fish up in the water on this swim; whilst fishing the track, I was also occasionally catapulting pellets across to the far bank.  At the half way point in the match, I was really struggling, having caught only 3 fish in that time; with hindsight, I clearly let the double shipping bother me too much and subsequently forced the track swims fr too much when they were clearly not going to produce for me on the day.  After finally stopping sulking, I sorted my act out and started to fish long.  It wasn't the easiest of swims, with overhanging grass and debris on the bottom, I was constantly getting snagged or having to ship back to clear my hook of grass and weed but eventually, through trial and error I managed to find a couple of areas where I could present a bait and, as if by magic, I started to catch some fish; they weren't particularly big fish but they were a welcome addition to the keep net.  For the next 90 mins or so, I was steadily catching but I knew I wasn't catching fast enough or big enough fish to compete in match.  With about an hour to go, I switched to my margin swim, which I had been feeding from the half way point in the match.  Instantly I was into a fish but like the long swim, they weren't coming anywhere near fast enough or big enough to compete.  For the final hour, I was catching a few fish by alternating between the long swim and the margin swim but after a frutrating match, I won't be ashamed of saying that I was glad of the all out being called.

As I was packing up, there was mixed reviews of decent bags and poor bags coming in so I was expecting quite a wide spread of weights.  The first indication of a poor day though came from Wayne Fairhurst, who is normally a main contender on this water, and as we weighed his catch at 13lb 4oz it wasn't looking good.  The scales went round quite quickly and visitor John Unsworth was leading the pack most of the way round with a weight of 57lb 14oz.  As the scales came to my peg, I put on a rather poor 16lb - Wayne's weight of 13lb 4 oz being the only thing between me and last place.

Top 3
1st - John Unsworth 57lb 14oz (Peg 56)
2nd - Dave Benson 41lb 10oz (Peg 28) - [2 weeks on the trot now he has beat me off the next peg]
3rd - Chris Fairhurst 38lb 10oz (Peg 48)

The drive home was a slightly down beat one.  Knowing full well that I blew that match by trying to force a line that clearly wasn't producing; I was kicking myself for such a poor performance.  As I drew the curtains that night, I was hoping that Sunday night's beach session would make up for a disappointing Saturday.

Cleveleys/Rossall Beach

5 Bar Gate
Sunday 14th June 2015

After the disappointing result on Saturday, I was hoping that Sunday's planned beach casting session was going to lift my spirits.  Well it did that!! 

With low tide expected around 16:40, my pal Danny picked me up around 3:30.  The plan was to pick up some fresh worm from Bispham Angling and then head up to 5 bar gate.  We've fished here a couple of times now but never at low water so we wanted to try it at this stage of the tide and fish it up to high tide in daylight, which would allow us to see how the tide comes in on the many gulleys and holes in the beach.

First stop Bispham Angling and it was a first visit to the shop for me.  It's not a massive shop but seemed well stocked with all the sea fishing essentials.  We had a quick browse but keen to get out  fishing, we promptly collected our pre-ordered worm and headed off to the beach (via the chippy across the road, which happened to be open and well, it would be rude not too).

As we arrived at the now 6 Bar Gate, there was already a few anglers fishing so we managed to find a nice spot and made our way down to the water.  Danny had brought a bait pump with him, and even though we had bought some fresh worm, he planned on having a go to see if we could get some of our own.
My set up was a nice, simple 2 hook clipped down rig, fishing fresh worm on both hooks - this rig was later replaced with a loop rig which was far more successful.  As I intended to only fish one rod on this session, I was quickly set up and fishing, as was Danny who promptly started work with the pump as soon as he had a bait in the water.

Unfortunately, Danny was having no luck with the bait pump but he kept faith, especially after chatting with another 'pumper' who had also failed to get any worms. Maybe next time we will manage to get some. As the tide started to come in behind us, we it was time to start moving back up the beach and at this point I also managed to catch my first fish of the day which was a small Dab, a welcome catch but not the greatest of timing as the water was quickly filling up around my feet. After a bit of difficulty, I finally got the fish off the hook and made my way back up the beach before the water came over my wellies. Blank avoided I was very happy but it was a little while longer before my next fish.  As the tide was coming up, we both were able to seen the gullets on the beach filling up and could easily drop a bait in there and move back up the beach with tide knowing our baits, at least for the time being, were in prime position. As we were ready to up sticks and move back again, I had a really good bite but striking into it, I felt nothing pulling back so I dragged my rod up the beach to a dry spot before starting to reel in. As I was reeling in I saw another Dab skating the surface of the water, fish number 2 in but as I was getting this fish in closer I could see a second fish snaking through the shallow water. Closer inspection revealed the culprit to be a Bass!! Double hook up and my very first Bass ever. To say I was pleased was an understatement, even though the Bass was undersized.  Both fish were safely unhooked and returned to the sea. I was jumping for joy at the capture of my first Bass but I felt guilty celebrating as Danny had so far not caught.

We had to wait until about an hour before high tide for any further action but it started to be a bite a chuck as a shoal of whiting must have moved in. I had another double hook up and 3 more singles to take 5 small whiting over the next hour. It was also positive for Danny, who managed to avoid the blank with a Dab and a few whiting.  

To add to my species list, I also managed to catch a really small Tope Pup that was kind enough to smile for the camera.

We ended the session shortly after high tide and for me, it was the best sea session I have had so far this year. 8 fish, 4 species and lots learned with regards to the beach and where to put our baits as the tide comes in. All fish were undersized on this day and all went safely back to the sea.

I'm certainly looking forward to my next visit where I can put this knowledge back into action. 

The Clay Pit - Weston Pools

Pemberton Central Match
Weston Pools - Clay Pit
Saturday 6th June 2015

Weston Pools Website

To say that I had been eagerly awaiting this match is an understatement.  I always like trying new venues, especially ones that come with a bit of hype.  There is always that anticipation of whether venues meet the expectations that had been built up.  Weston is one of those places.  Last year, when I was booking the matches for this year, this match and our return visit later in the year were my high points; the ones I couldn't miss. 

Now we have approached the first of 2 matches on Weston this year and our destination is the Clay Pit.  This is a lake off the main site of the fishery and one that is, I am told, 20ft deep in some places.  I always find these kind of waters challenging to be honest but I challenge that I relish.  I made a phone call to Richie at the fishery earlier in the week to confirm the booking and double check the rules.  From booking the matches and phoning for advice, so far I have found Richie to be one of the most helpful fishery staff I have ever come across.  He advised me that the lake is stuffed with fish and a pellet up in the water approach will be needed.  With this advice in mind, I had been thinking in the days leading up to the match that, to keep things simple, I would base my whole set up around this approach - using my whole 5 pint bait limit (fishery rule) on pellets and have pole and waggler set up to target fish in this way - how simple could that be?  Not as simple as you thought, as a message to a fishing pal later in the week saw me faced with the dilema that a lot of anglers will face - the dreaded "here's how you should fish it" message.  Now I have been guilty sometimes of confusing things by trying to follow others advice rather than sticking to my own plans and I've had good results in the past by sticking to my guns.  The catch there though, is that I have done that on venues that I have fished before.........having never fished Weston before I was a bit more conscious of the advice given, which was not to bother with pellets - and just fish maggot (albeit with the method feeder as an option while priming the maggot swim).  With this added complication, I found myself doing what often causes me grief in a match with bait limits and I split my allowance between pellet and maggot - would this hamper my chances of a good result.  Lets find out!!

On arrival at the fishery, my first thoughts were very positive, whilst there was a bit of construction work going on, the set up looks very proffessional, and after visiting the shop to pick up some bait, I had a little wonder around one of the other lakes on site - Belvedere.  It was a very nice water, well looked after and seemed a pleasant lake to be on.  Sadly, I didn't explore much more as duty called and after dipping my 3 keep nets (another fishery rule), I awaited the rest of the club to book in and sort the draw out.  The fishery staff were once again very helpful, and one of the lads (and if he reads this, I am very sorry but I didn't get your name) helped us out with the draw.  With 15 of us on the match, and the Clay pit being a 29 peg water, we were going to get plenty space.  Word at the draw was that peg 9 was one to be on, and from the map we had seen, peg 9 is at the end of a point that sticks out into the lake.  As I was noting down the draw, I ended up being last to draw and was quite surprised to see that at the end of the draw, the last peg remaining for me was the much sought after peg 9 - this rarely happens to me (honest).

The short drive to the lake was easy enough and first impressions were that this was like no other commercial fishery water I had seen before.  I believe the Clay Pit is exactly that, an old clay pit that has been acquired by the fishery to add to already impressive portfolio of waters.  I am not sure how long the fishery has had control of this lake but it is impressive, with matgure trees and marginal growth giving the feel of an abondoned old quarry pit but with what was obviously a commerical style stocking policy.

When I finally got myself down to the peg, it was evident that the peg didn't stick out into the water as far as the map suggested but when stood there, it does go out some way into the water.  With this in mind, and the frequent topping of fish in front of me, I decided to try to keep it simple.  I set up 4 rigs, of varying depths from 12" to 5ft.  Each rig was set up to fish a banded pellet.  I planned to fish this short intially with extra sections ready should I need to chase the fish further out - the waggler rod stayed in the bag as I felt I wpouldn't need it on this peg,  Hedging my bets on bait choices, I decided that I would have 4 pints of pellets and a single pint of maggot as a back up - this would allow me to fish positively with the pellets but still have a back up by way of the maggot if things were difficult.  This approach allowed me to be set up very quickly, so before the all in, I had a little walk around the lake to see what the other pegs were like.  For company I had Dave Benson to my right on peg 7 and visitor John Unsworth to my left on peg 11.

I called the all in at 10:30 and went straight out in front of me with 6 sections of pole and started flicking in small amounts of 6mm pellets by hand.  After a few tweeks to depth and shotting pattern, I finally struck on a good run of fish by fishing around 10" deep with my shot bulked above my 4" hooklength.  I did find though that I was getting a lot of bites but couldn't hit them - I had been getting a small stamp of fish thiugh so I tried a maggot on the hook and was immediately into some of the nicest but smallest looking carp, I had ever seen - at around 1 - 2" long though, I was never going to build a weight of them so I went bacck to the 6mm pellet and persevered with the missed bites knowing that when I did get a fish on it would be a larger stamp.  Occasionally having to vary the depth, I was really enjoying myself and with about 2 hours gone in the match, I was thinking I could be in with a shot of winning......I had a good view of the lake from my peg and with the exception of Wayne Fairhurst, I hadn't noticed anyone catching at the same rate I was.  This of course is where it went to pot, for as soon as I was thinking I was doing well, I seemed to hit a quiet spell and despite changing depths and even starting new swims to search for the fish, I just could seem to catch; I think I managed only 2 or 3 fish in a 90 minute spell.  Unfortunately, I had noticed that Wayne was still catching and now Dave Benson had started sneaking out a good stamp of fish from his margin swim fishing the devils bait itself; paste.  With perseverence, I eventually managed to start picking up fish again and after going long to around 12 metres and once again searching the depths, I got back into a rhythmn of catching again however it was noticeably slower than it had been earlier in the match.  I managed to keep this up until the end of the match but as I called the all out, I knew deep down that the win had crept away from me with Dave and Wayne both looking good.

We decided that the weigh in would start from Alex Yates on peg 13, which would leave me second to last to weigh in.  When the scales got to Wayne on peg 15, he placed 65lb on the scales, given the stamp of fish being caught, I thought this was looking to be a good weight.  Wayne is always a good one for playing down his weight of fish though so I was paying a little bit of lip service to him suggesting Dave Leonard on peg 17 would have beat him however this time it appears Wayne was playing it straight as Dave placed 70lb 10oz on the scales to sneak into first place ahead of Wayne.  As w moved round the lake, the weights were a bit lower until we got to Mark Anglesea, who managed to put 48lb 8oz for 3rd place at the time and following him, the weights got a bit lower again.  Eventually the scales got to Dave Benson, after a few weighs, Dave's total went to 80lb to put him straight in the lead with only me and John Unsworth to weigh.  I knew I didn't have enough to beat Dave and was doubtful of a weight to beat Wayne or Dave, but at this stage I felt I was good enough for a section win by default.  Sure enough, my weight of 57lb dead put me in line for a section win by default with just John left to weigh.  John 'the silent assassin' had other ideas though as he placed 71lb 4oz on the scales - I hadn't even noticed John catching that well during the match.  So that ended my chance of the section win as John's weight pushed Wayne out of the main prizes and into the section win.  Still, looking at the positives, I had come 5th overall on the day and 4th out of club members so it was a decent day on the club league front; the fishery had proved to live up to expectations and I am sure that it will remain on the fixture list with Pem for some time now and finally, after some unsatisfactory experiences from a couple of year ago, I actually enjoyed fishing for F1s.

Post Match Note:  On Sunday night, I was chilling out with a cup of tea and in the midst of a Facebook Messenger chat with my old pal Martin 'Big Dipper' Worswick.  In this chat Martin casually droppd in that a new Clay Pit lake record weight had been set on the Sunday at Weston by Matty Dawes from none other than peg 9 - putting 208lb on the scales.  Well done Matty Dawes - it was obviously all down to the pre-baiting that I had done the day before.

Changes afoot:  Over the next week or 2, I am going to have a play with the blog a bit to see if I can add some additional pages in addition to the main blog.  I am going to add a Pem Central page, where I can post a fixture list and results from each match.  I am also going to add a sea fishing 'species hunt' page where I can record notable catches of species - I've had this idea from the species hunt competitions that I have seen in magazines and in facebook groups, only this will just be for my own benefit.  Finally, I was thinking of adding something in for Lure fishing, where I might record the results I have with particular lures.  I think these will be a work in progress over the next few weeks so as and when the pages go live, any feedback would be appreciated.

The Bull Nose - Preston Docks

Thursday 14th May 2015

This blog post has taken a while to get out there compared to some recently but I'll be honest up front now and say that it has taken me this long to get over the shame of being beat by my mate Novice Dez. Now, nearly a week later, I have gotten over myself and am ready to spill the beans. 

A voyage of re-discovery, that is what sea fishing has become for me over the last 12 months as I look to get back into this side of the sport that I had been on a long hiatus from. With my good pal Danny, as you may have read, we recently fished Rossall beach near the 5 bar gate. It was on the way home from that session we were talking about the options of fishing Preston docks as we had read about on the Internet.

Good fortune saw Danny be able to fish the docks for the first time shortly after the rossall session and then fish it again on the Monday night preceding my visit. He told me that he had fished from high tide down to low water and had around 8 decent sized flounder. So my plan on this Thursday was to fish the tide up to high water and do a kind of comparison to help better plan future visits. A quick text chat with Novice Dez and we had agreed for a Thursday night session and I was picking him up from the docks McDonald's (him and a couple of Big Mac meals) ready for the evenings session.

When we arrived, we were the only anglers on the bullnose so pretty much had our pick of areas. As we had never been there before we had no previous  experience to guide us so I decided we would fish from the wall near a bin, the lid of which had clearly been used as a bait table many times before so if nothing else, I knew folk had fished this area. 

I set both of us up pretty quickly and as a bit of an experiment to see what is the better options, I set Dez up with a paternoster rig where as I had a running leger set up. I figured we could compare the 2 and see which is best. As the water was quite low at this stage, there wasn't much pull on rigs so we could get away with relatively light 4 oz plain weights. Nice and easy. What transpired though was a quiet  session as we approached high tide. No bites registering and the only sign was Dez who had somehow managed to hook through the eye of a swivel on somebody else's lost rig, he reeled that in and the attached Flounder that came with it. I had to make it quite clear to Dez that in our usual mini-competition that I like to have, that this fish didn't count as he didn't hook it - but I did claim the free grip lead that came with it.

As the tide rose, a few other anglers turned up and these guys seemed to know what they were doing. Figuring they were regulars, I watched them set up and they were all using paternoster rigs with heavier grip leads. I changed my rig to a paternoster rig after this but I did wonder why they felt the need for a grip lead - I didn't have to wonder for long though as the pull of the tide seemed to increase dramatically and I was no longer able to hold bottom. I quickly switched both me and Dez onto 6oz grip leads and we were soon back in business but I was surprised by how much the tide pulled here.

About half an hour before high tide the water slackened off and as if by magic we started getting bites. Dez managed to land a better flounder before I got off the mark with a mini one. I missed many bites though, either from being too keen and hitting them too quick or I left them too long - either way it was getting frustrating. Dez made matters worse for me as he added 2 more flounder to his tally before the end of the night. Novice Dez had beaten me 3-1 or 4-1 if you could the snagged rig fish.

So as the session drew to close, I had a think about how it had gone. It was clear from this one session that the flounder seemed to feed better when the water wasn't pulling as much. So with this in mind, the next session I try down there will be planned to start about an hour to half hour before high tide and fish it out. Hopefully that will see a better return. I'm also hoping that I can get some better bait for next time, this session was using up bait that I had in the freezer and had been defrosted and refroze a few times, so it wasn't the best. Interestingly, Danny had mentioned to me that he had taken fish on isomes when he went, the sandy coloured ones in particular. I tried this myself and had no joy, in fact the one fish I had was caught in a 2 hook flapper rig, the top hook using black lug and the bottom using an isome and it was the lug that took the fish. 

Anyway, that was that for Preston docks first outing. I will be returning as it is an easy place to fish with only short chucks and the relative comfort of being able to fish out of the boot of your car as well. I just hope the fish are more obliging next time I go.

Heronbrook Fishery - Meadow Pool

Heronbrook Fishery - Meadow Pool

Saturday 9th May 2015

www.heronbrookfisheries.co.uk

Back on Match duty this weekend as I make the trip down to Heronbrook Fisheries. Quite a long trip for a club based in Wigan but over the years this has proved to be one of the fairest match venues we fish. We don't always get huge weights, but what we get is consistent weights across the field. This fact makes me look forward to this fixture on the match calendar and this week was no different. 

I must say though that as I was sat at home drafting the introduction to this blog entry on Friday afternoon, the constant rain that had been falling in Wigan since lunch time was filling me with dread for a washout, in fact I am sure the last time I fished Heronbrook we had really heavy rain as well. Fingers crossed for a dry day on Saturday.

Well, Saturday was far from dry but there were odd breaks in the weather and dry spells. What was dominant though was the wind and as I found myself on peg 18 of meadow pool, the wind was coming straight across me from my right. This made fishing the long pole tight across near enough impossible. Sadly this day will not live long in the memory as I consider it to be my worse day ever on this normally very consistent water. In fact, the day was so bad for me personally, I am struggling to write about it - so to avoid a highly negative blog, I'm just going to summarise the events of the day and move on.

My setup on the day consisted of a track line at about 10m, plus 2 lines down the edge to my left, one at 13m and the other at about 4m. My plan was to feed meat on my track line and corn down the edge.  I decided that with the rain that had gone in the night before, the fishing would be tough so rather than put a full pot in at the start, I would feed the track line with the kinder pot and periodically feed corn by hand down the edge. As it happened, I had 3 fish in quick succession on the track line and by half 10, I was feeling quite positive however this is where the fun ended for me as following the last of the 3 on that initial run, my float was just sat lifeless. I did my best to make it work, I tried changing my shorting pattern, changing my depth, I even changed hook to a different size but nothing could produce another bite. Just before 12 I managed to fluke a fish as I lifted my rig to ship back and refeed, I felt a heavy lump. I quickly landed my 4th fish which was firmly hooked in the top lip - I would have sworn it would be foul hooked given the way I hooked it. That 4th fished signalled the end of any action I had on this day and as I sat for 3 hours, totally bite less, my frustration levels were rising dramatically. I'm sad to say that eventually the frustration got the better of me and half an hour before the end of the match, I packed up.  As the club also fish for team points, I was obligated to weigh in so the nets stayed in for now and I got the gear ready for the weigh in.

The weigh in proved to be a real mix bag with a much greater spread of weights than we are used to here. Top of the shop was Dave Leonard with a very respectable 79lb off peg 42, 3 more weights over 70lb made the top 4 with Jay Berry, Matty Ruddy and John Ruddy weighing in 74lb, 72-8 and 71-8 respectively. There were 3 weights in the 50's. The rest were spread out with 40's, 30's and 20's being placed on the scales. My 4 fish went 15-8 and even with Frank Aspinall making it a joint 15th place for me by placing the same weight from peg 21, I wasn't last as poor old Mark Anglesea - not normally used to being down this end of the results - weighed in just 11lb.

So with the 3 matches I have/am due to miss, the 11 points I gained from this visit (once visitor placing a are discounted) has pretty much seen off any chance of getting up to the top of the league this year. So it looks like I am playing for pride on a match by match basis now for the rest of the year.

Rossall Beach

Sunday 3rd May 2015

Rossall Beach - 5 Bar Gate

High Tide: approx 11:30 (8.3m) (www.tidetimes.org.uk)

With no match scheduled over the long weekend, a pleasure session was on the cards and for this sesson I had decided that I shall turn my attention to the sea for a spot of beach casting. A quick chat with my pal Danny Lancaster and we had agreed the day would be Sunday but now needed to decide just where to fish.  We are still getting to grips with the venues available to us in the North West so after a bit of research on line and  some advice seeking on the 'Lancashire Sea Fishing' Facebook group, we finally decided we would fish Rossall Beach at the 5 Bar Gate.

As we had never been there we decided to arrive a bit early to have a scout around and then settle down to fish the tide up for a couple of hours before fishing it back it down - this was following advice from helpful folks on the internet who advised that the tide can catch you off guard here if you are not familiar with it, so fishing this way in daylight will allow us to see where it comes in for future reference.

Following a cheeky breakfast, we arrived at the mark and noticed a group of anglers unloading in the car park. We had a quick chat with these guys and found out they were fishing a match so we decided to stay out their way and settled further up the beach. There are permanent peg numbers marked on the wall here so for reference we fished between peg 95 and 96.

Already we could see some obvious gulleys that would create a target area and also where these will fill up with the incoming tide and potentially cut you off if not careful. 

We settled initially just on the edge of the shingle area and set up stall. My set up was a straight forward single hook clipped rig using a 150g weight. Bait for the first a cast was a single frozen lug worm. Danny's set up was very similar.  It didn't take us long to be ready to go and agree the obligatory pound bets for first fish and biggest fish (we are match anglers at heart).

Due to me not beach casting on a regular basis, I always find my first cast on any session to be a bit tentative and this was no different as my initial cast went off to my right and fell a little shorter than I would have liked but I decided it was good enough and left it.

Its fair to say that me and Danny are quite keen to get this beach casting lark sussed and so far we haven't blanked.....so add to that the unknown of having never fished here before and we found ourselves full of optimistic anticipation.

As the session went on, I found myself getting much more comfortable with my casting again and after a bit of chopping and changing with rigs, I eventually settled on a 2 hook clipped rig using a 170g weight. I found this weight seemed to give me a better cast and the 2 hook maximised my chances of hooking a fish. The session itself was slow though with only Danny having signs of a bite as we hit high tide. At this stage in a beach casting session, without fish or bites to show for my efforts, I tend to find myself doubting the rigs that I am using, doubting the area I am fishing, etc etc and this all results in rapidly diminishing confidence.

We stuck to our guns however and it wasn't long before Danny was reeling in a small Dab to take first blood and the first quid.

I am sure Danny won't mind admitting though that he didn't see this fish bite and it was during a change of bait that he reeled in this welcome prize.  This fish was well hooked so it's possible it could have been on the hook for a while so with this in mind we thought it prudent to reel in and change bait more frequently in case we couldn't see the bites. As I did this, I was rewarded with the same thing, a small Dab on the hook. Whilst not in the ideal way, this did mean that I had managed to avoid the blank.  Unfortunately for me, this fish was also smaller than Danny's so he was winning the race for the biggest fish as well!

As we fished the tide down, the fish were notable by their absence.  Danny did manage to snare another which we thought was a Dab but in closer inspection there were feint orange spots visible so this could have been a small Plaice.  It also meant that with no further fish showing for me, Danny had also won the second quid for the biggest fish if he day.  Eventually the tide dropped sufficient for us to call it a day and we packed up, blank avoided but not the most productive of fishing sessions. Once we had the car loaded we took a little walk around the area again to have a look at the beach we had been fishing over to look at the gulleys. Between us we had decided that it could be worth trying to fish this area at low water as it looked like there was some deeper water just beyond the beach that was beginning to show itself. Maybe an idea for next time. 

All in all a good day and a good scouting mission for another beach mark for future sessions.

Next Weekend

Next weekend will see me switch back to coarse fishing and back on match duty at the famous Heronbrook Fisheries. Having missed 2 matches, I am already seeing my name slip down the league table and with at least one other guaranteed missed match, I need a good result to keep me in contention of a good league position.  This match will also see me give my new Nick Gilbert pole elastic a first outing - let's hope they bring me some luck.

Tight Lines

Big Dipper's Angling Diaries

Quick post tonight guys to give my mate Martin a plug for his blog...........

Check it out at

https://mworswick.wordpress.com/