Sea Fishing - the species hunt continues

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a blog update. This is quite simply because I haven't been out much. Since my last post I have only had one outing on the beach at Cleverleys and quite frankly, it was a very much uneventful trip and resulted in a further blank. I don't normally object to writing about a blank session but I couldn't think of anything worth saying about this one so decided to leave it. I should have also had another Pem Central match to report on based on the match calendar I have published, but, to cut a long story short it transpired that I had muddled up the dates and we had no match on the 18th July as planned.

So here I find myself, ready to report on my last 'proper' outing, on which My regular sea fishing partner Danny and I managed to find some time and headed down to Cleveleys again to see if we could top up our species hunt tallies.

Rossall Promenade - 5 Bar Gate 

Friday 7th August

High Tide - Approx 17:30

The tides for this session were good for me. Being able to finish work at 12:30 would allow me plenty time to get up to Bispham Angling for some fresh worms, then make my way up to the mark and fish it a couple of hours up, and then all the way down to low tide at around midnight. Danny would be joining me around high tide. A few delays though saw me only get to the beach at around 4pm though. When I got there, there was already a few anglers on the beach but I managed to find myself a spot and was soon set up and had my first bait in the water at around 4:30pm - so I would at least get to fish an hour up.

As the plan for the day was a 'species hunt', I took 2 rods. 1 rod was set up on a 2 hook flapper rig, supplied by Rig Kraft - on which I would fish worm baits either on their own or tipped off with squid. The second rod would be set up on a pennell pulley with bigger baits, such as whole squid, sandeel or cocktails of the two in the hope of a larger specimen. I had plenty bait for the day so I was changing baits fairly regularly but in the hour or so up to high tide there was little happening, looking down the beach, it seemed I wasn't alone as I could see others were struggling. Danny showed up shortly after a high tide and was soon fishing. We fished for an hour or two after high - during this time Danny managed to catch 2 small Tope pups, and I caught a dogfish on a pennel rigged large worm/squid bait.  I wouldn't normally be overly pleased with the presence of dogfish but it was a species hunt and despite their commonality it was one that I was yet to record so it was certainly a positive.

As the tide started to drop, we had less and less depth in front of us so we decided to have a break to allow the tide drop a little further before fishing again. A freshly made brew on the gas stove and a quick trip to a near-by Chinese takeaway quickly refreshed us and we were soon itching to get back on the beach.  The tide had dropped enough for us to get beyond the first gulley now and as we were walking back out towards to sea Danny spotted something flapping on the beach, the culprit was the smallest flattie I've ever seen and after a quick inspection, it was safely returned to the sea.

As we fished the tide down, we were rewarded with a very pleasant evening with a clear sky and some good views of the stars, the space station and some satellites but alas, no further fish showed themselves that night. At around midnight and low tide, we decided enough was enough and called it a day. We were hoping the fishing would have picked up as it had been a bit slow in the area of late but despite the improvement on our last session, and the fact that we both recorded an additional species on the hunt, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the result and the realisation that this session will likely be he end of my summer campaign on the beach as the next few weeks sees me on match duty with Pem Central and also have some important family time. Maybe I can sneak a last ditch attempt at the species hunt towards the end of September and into October. 

Blog Update

I've added this little bit in after initially publishing this post but I have completed the update to my 2015 species page.  This can be found here http://fishernutstu.blogspot.co.uk/p/sea-fishing-species.html

Outlook

So my forecast for the next few weeks is looking like this, 15th August Pem Central take on Orcheton. On the 21st and 22nd August some of the lads from Pem, myself included are heading down to Barston to fish a match on the Saturday. I've managed to score a cheeky day off so will be heading down on the Friday for a practice. Then after a weekend off I've got consecutive Saturday matches in September at Weston Pools and Old Hough. Will be a busy few weeks but I'm hoping there will be some good results in there too.

Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake

Pemberton Central Match
Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake
Saturday 4th July 2015

Rosemary Wood's Moss Lake is one of those Marmite fisheries in my opinion. It often divides opinion. Once we are fishing, generally everyone seems to be ok with it but the poor pegs, the campsite of carp anglers and the fact that they are always queuing up to get on the next available peg does get to some people. I am one of those people but if you want a match on this lake then it's something you have to contend with.

We have 2 matches on this lake most years. One earlier in the year where we can catch nice nets of skimmers in amongst the Carp and indeed, regular readers of my blog will know that I won the match on the venue earlier this year by fishing a banjo feeder for a nice bag of skimmers from the 'boards' pegs.  This time, being later in the year and following some nice warm weather I was hoping that the carp would be playing and I could have a day fishing the pellet waggler, a method which often produces the goods on here when the carp are feeding well.

Once we had finally got sorted, the draw allowed peg 30 to find its way into my hands. This peg is on the far bank and with the water levels being a bit low, it meant I would likely need to get my box in the water to be able to fish it; luckily I had brought my wellies.

Setting up in the water, I decided that I wanted to keep today as simple as I could. So I set up my pellet waggler rod, which I hoped would be the main tactic for the day, as seems to be compulsory when pellet waggler fishing these days, I also had the bomb rod set up to fish on the bottom under the pellet waggler line. Finally I set up a method feeder rod to give me the option of fishing the feeder. Bait options was as simple as I could. 8 and 11mm hard pellets for the wag/bomb line and softened micros for the feeder with various hook pellet options. The simple approach to my set up this week saw me ready to go in quick time and allowed for a relaxed start to the match. For company today, I had Dave Benson to my left and visitor Shaun Welsh to my right. I think this is the 3rd time in 4 matches I have pegged at the side of Dave and on each of the previous times he has beaten me.

Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake - Peg 30

At the all in, I went straight out on the pellet waggler and started feeding 11mm pellets over the top. 11mm were used on this day as there was an intermittent wind that would hoer my ability to get 8mm where I wanted them.  Sport however, was very slow to what I was expecting with only a couple of bites and 1 fish to show for my efforts in the first hour. The rest of the match was spent switching between all 3 methods to keep any fish coming. I couldn't get to grips with it on the day and struggled to get into a rhythm of catching fish and as such by the end of the match, I was thinking I would have only about 20 - 25lb which would be nowhere near enough based on this venues track record with the club.

Sure enough, as the weigh in started at the other end of the match length, a few weights in the 49's were recorded as well as one in the 50s and a very good 73kb from Ste Green to take the lead after roughly half the anglers had weighed. So I was only to hope that I wouldn't be too far down the overall standings and hoping I would beat Dave Benson off the next peg for a change.

Dave weighed in first and he out 23lb-odd on the scales, so he wouldn't be troubling the lead this time round but I felt it would be close between me and him. When my fish went on the scales I was quite surprised to see the needle settle on 28lb dead. I had managed to break my curse and bear Benson off the next peg. Overall, that 28lb put my 7th place so a top half finish in the match (just) and with a visitor being above me, I got 6 points for the league so damage was minimal.

Preston Docks - Species Hunting

Preston Docks - Bull nose

Thursday 9th July

High Tide - Approx 18:00

So last time I went out sea fishing, I decided that the species hunt card for the Lancs Sea Fishing group had officially jinxed me. I needed to get going on this hunt and break the curse so a check of the tides during the week showed a favourable time for me to hit Preston docks and hopefully get off the mark with a Flounder.

With.a high tide of around 18:00, it was ideal for me to get down there after work just about high tide and fish it for a couple of hours down.

Work spoiled it a little bit and I found myself getting there a little later than planned. I called the drive thru for some tea first and took it to the bullnose with me. Planning to chuck a bait on first before eating my burger, I barely had a bait in the water for 5 minutes and managed just one bite of the burger before the rod was bouncing. A short but spirited battle saw me land my first fish of the night and finally get under way on the species hunt with the Flounder. Mission accomplished.

Fish number 1 - the Flounder

In theory, I could go home now but decided I would just fish it for a couple of hours to use up the bait I had took with me.  I took another 5 flounder over the next couple of hours and all were bigger than the first one I claimed. All were taken on a smelly, sticky frozen black lug.  As an added bonus, I also managed to snare an Eel, I hate these buggers but was happy to see one on this night as it took my species count now to 2.

Fish number 2 - Eel

I called it a night at around 20:30. Feeling happy to have gotten off the mark on the species hunt. Need to get moving now and get some of the other common species under my belt before I can start targetting the more rare species

First Blank of 2015

Rossall Promenade

Saturday 27th June 2015

Low tide approx 14:40

I suppose it had to happen sometime.  So far on my sea fishing adventures, both me and my usual partner Danny had managed to avoid the blank. Sometimes we only had 1 each, but at least we caught.

This time though, there was added pressure as both me and Danny had belatedly joined the summer species hunt run by the Lancashire Sea Fishing Facebook page and as we were late entries we had some catching up to do. 

After having a good result last time out we headed back up to Rossall Prom area, this time though we headed a bit further up to where the concrete bits are just up from the 5 bar gate. The plan was to get there just for low tide and fish it all the way up as we had done last time.  A bit of traffic on the motorway meant we were a little late and only managed to get there for about 15:15.  We met a third member of our group at the gate as Novice Dez had decided to tag along for the day. 

So.......full of anticipation, the 3 of us soon had baits in the water.  As I was in a species hunt zone, I set up 2 rods. One to fish a loop rig with 2 hooks; this rod was to be a 'catch anything rod' hoping that I would be able to catch up on the species hunt with the 'easy' species.  The other rod was set up with a pulley Pennel rig, baited with crab, I was hoping I might snare a Smoothhound on this rod.

Well, I persevered all afternoon, following the tide all the way up but sadly my rods showed no signs of life and only Danny out of the 3 of us managed to break the blank with a small Plaice to kick off his species hunt. 

So by high tide at around 20:40, spirits were low and it wasn't looking like I was going to get a result this time. Novice Dez must have been having a bad time as in a fit of rage he decided to break my rod that I lent to him and then storm off home (ok, I might have exaggerated that for dramatic effect, but he did break my rod and with that decided it was time for him to call it a night).

Danny and I continued on for about 90 mins after high tide before conceding to defeat and making our way back to the car. Throughout the day there had been many other anglers on the beach but as we walked back to the car, as far as we could see, everyone had already gone; it was probably a sign that the area hadn't fished well that night.

I can't help but think that I have jinxed myself by entering the species hunt. We will have to see but for now, my score remains at 0.

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.