Weston Pools - Stretton

Pemberton Central Match
Weston Pools - Stretton  http://www.weston-pools.co.uk/
Saturday 5th September 2015

Back on Pem Central match duty last weekend and it was time for our much anticipated return visit to Weston Pools, this time to fish Stretton.

I had been looking forward to this match for some time and given the fact that we had 17 people in our draw queue suggests I wasn't the only one.  In the days (and weeks if I am honest) leading up to this match, I had been keeping an eye on the match results posted to the fishery website and also gaining information from whatever source I can ( shout out to Gary Matthews (Matthews580) for his in depth report - check it out here).

Armed with a wealth of information, one thing was certain - I was confused. I had been told pretty much every common commercial approach to catch the fish but with a 5 pint bait limit at the fishery, I had to make a choice and go with it. In the end I decided to go with just 2 bait options: I took 3 pints of maggots and just under 2 pints of 4mm pellets, leaving me enough on my quota for a few 6mms to use as banded hookbaits.

The fishery staff were very helpful on the day and pegged the match out for us. I was one of the last to draw as usual and was very happy to draw peg 14. I had noticed this peg appear in the results a few times recently and I had also heard that it had won the match the day before.  On arrival at the peg, I was immediately thinking margins; the peg was book-ended by overhanging willow trees on either side, creating 2 nice margin swims that looked like they would be very productive. The willows also made the peg very private as I couldn't see the pegs either side of me so I could get my head down and just fish the match without wondering what was going on around me. So, my approach was simple, I would fish 2 lines in the margins - one on each side and then have a couple of lines out in the open water. My first line here was at about 7 - 8 metres where I would predominantly try to fish up in the water, loose feeding maggots and using the same on the hook. I also set up a line just beyond the end of my keep nets as I had heard this can produce quick fish at the start of the match - on this line I would fish pellets. On the margin lines I was surprised by the depth I found with roughly 4.5 ft to my left and about 4ft to my right - I would loose feed these lines with maggots.

Setting up proved to be a simple affair today, so with time to spare (very unlike me) I had a stroll around the lake to see how everyone was getting on and making sure everyone would be ready for the all in. The attitude around the lake was very positive and most were praising the lake, the only negative point raised was visitor Thomo on peg 2, with an aerator on in peg 1, he was effectively fishing the river Trent which would inevitably make the day difficult for him.

I called the all in at 10:30 and rather than feeding any lines I went straight in on the keepnet line with a 6mm banded pellet. I then fed all lines by hand, with a pinch of pellets going in on the keepnet line, a handful of maggots on each margin line and a catty pouch full of maggots out to the 8 m line. Almost instantly I was into a fish and after a short fight I had a nice carp of around 2lb in the net whilst most people were still feeding. I went straight back in on this line and added a few more carp before the size of fish changed and I was catching small palm sized crucian carp.  With this change, I decided that I had plundered this line for all it was worth at the moment so I decided to put a big cup of pellets on that line and leave it for later in match.  It was time to try the 8 metre line.  My rig on this line was long one initially, the intent being that it would allow me to search the depths for the feeding fish, so out I went.  I had heard that the 'shallow' line on this lake can be quite deep, so I started my line at around 2ft deep and worked from there, after a while of flicking my rig around and loose feeding small numbers of maggots without any signs, I altered the depth and went about another foot deeper and started to get bites however they were proving to be very difficult to hit and becoming very frustrating.  After seeing a few F1s breaking the surface, I decided to come really shallow to around 8 inches and flick my rig around on a long line - this worked for a single F1 but no other fish were obliging.  After a while, I had decided that this line just wasn't quite right and called time on its use in this match.  Before considering any new lines to try, I decided to have an early look in the margins.
Starting on the margin to my left, using a double maggot hookbait, I was instantly into a good run of carp between 2 and 3 pound in weight.  I was catching about half a meter from the bank, any closer and the bites turned to liners.  After a good run, the bites slowed down so switched to my right side to give the left a rest.  Again I was into fish straight away, but the time between bites was longer and the fish were noticeably smaller and included the odd barbel which, despite being a pleasure to catch, fight quite well but don't provide much weight for the effort to get them in; so after a short spell on this line I went back to the left margin in search of the larger fish.  The down side was the fish weren't there in the numbers they had been previously and this started a long worrying spell in the match where I struggled for bites anywhere I looked.  I think for around 2 hours I managed to only add 4 or 5 small carp to my total and I felt that following a really good start, the match was beginning to slip away from me.  In an attempt to make something happen, I switched from feeding maggots on my left margin to feeding pellets and swapped the hookbaits to a 6mm banded pellet and this seemed to really do the trick as I managed to put a good last 90 minutes in catching carp every chuck. As I called the all out I knew this match was going to be a close match, as both Alex and Angy on the opposite side had caught reasonably well all day and Wayne on peg 17 had a good last couple of hours - and that was just what I could see. The weigh in started on peg 2 and whilst everyone was weighing fish, the average was probably lower than expected until Lee Roper on peg 8 put 61lb on the scales to take the lead. By the time the scales had got to my peg Lee was still winning. My nets went to 63lb to take the lead, but it was going to be tense for the rest of the weigh in. Ste Green on peg 15 had been a silent assassin during the match, despite being on the next peg, I couldn't see him so was unaware of how well he had caught - it was a close call as his nets went to 61lb 6oz to take second place. Wayne put a respectable 55lb-odd on the scales from what was reported to be a poor area. Angy and Alex were the last 2 to weigh in and as both their weights fell just short of 60lb it was confirmed that I had managed to sneak out a second win of the year.

I said it last time I reported on Weston Pools and I will say it again now - this is an extremely well run fishery and should be a 'must have' fixture on any clubs list.

We have a few matches in close succession now so I'm going to leave the results until all the matches are done and leave a final report up in October. Old Hough for me next on the 12th September, let's see if I can keep my form up.

Barston weekender

Following on from my disappointment of not drawing Barston in the Match Fishing subscriber Classic a few years ago, I had always wanted to get back down to Barston and have a crack at the place but for one reason or another, I never did get down there until last weekend.  

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.

First cast fish

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.

Hybrid - best fish off long method line

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.

Peg 8 and the 18th Green

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.

Orcheton

Pemberton Central Match
Orcheton
Saturday 15th August 2015

After the confusion of wrong dates in the build up to Orcheton it was good to be on the fishery and ready to go. It is one of my favourite lakes to fish in the local area, despite it being quite peggy. With the peggy nature in mind, it often benefits the match to have a low turn out so with our match only having 11 on it, it was quite a nice number to have. 

At the draw, I was hoping for one of the usual flyers, pegs 1, 18 or 19 would do nicely but typical of my form on this lake, I drew peg 11. I think in the last 4 matches I've fished on here, I've drawn in the area of pegs 9 to 12. 

Peg 11 is just to the left of the rope that runs top to bottom of the lake which makes for a nice marker when fishing. My plan was simple but fairly typical of the approach here. I had a method feeder and a bomb rod set up to fish along the rope at around the third 'bottle' out and a pellet waggler to fish at the same range. I also set up a pole at around 13 metres with a rig on the deck and another in the margin to my left. I also set up a pole rig to fish a small pellet waggler on a long line. This is a tactic that was recommended to me so I thought I would give it a go, the plan being to try dropping this in front of cruising fish. 

I started the match on the method and immediately started to feed the same line with 8 and 11 mm pellets. The method didn't seem to produce though and with no liners or any other indications, I soon switched to the pellet waggler. I did get a few indications on this line before the float eventually buried and I was landing a nice roach of about 12oz; not what o was expecting on the pellet waggler but I persevered with it for a while, altering depths to try and find the fish before deciding it wasn't working and came off it. At this point I was thinking it might be a match where the pole would be better, so I fed my 13 metre line with a large cup of pellets and fed the margin lines with a mix of corn and pellets. While these lines were settling, I had a quick look with the bomb but as per usual, I couldn't sit out on this tactic and quickly gave it up. Onto the pole line at 13 metres and I managed to put a few small skimmers into the net but nothing to shout about and it was becoming apparent that today wasn't going to be the prolific day I thought it might be. As all else seemed to be failing, I decided to pick up the pellet waggler pole rig and have a 'plop about' - this turned out to be a good decision as after catching a nice skimmer, I went back out and soon hooked into something much more substantial. A spirited fight soon saw me slipping a double figure carp over my landing net. I quickly went back out to try for another but no other fish were obliging.  For the rest of the match, it was a case of picking up a couple of fish by rotating through the various set ups I had available. With about 30 mins to go, I got my head down and fished the margins and managed to put a run of skimmers in the keepnet.

At the weigh in, my final tally went to 28lb (thanks to my double figure carp) and that, surprisingly, was enough to secure me third place in the match. Dennis Darby came out on top with 41-8 from peg 17 and Alex Yates took second with 38lb from peg 1.

Pem Central - Current League Standings

I have updated the results page following the Orcheton match.  This can be found here http://fishernutstu.blogspot.co.uk/p/pemberton-central.html 

Still all to play for at the top of the league.  Personally, due to missed matches and some poor results, I have set myself a target over the last 4 matches to aim for a top half of the table finish.  I am one position off at the moment - lets hope I can get some decent results in the upcoming matches.

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.

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.

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.

Old Hough Fisheries - Big Max

Old Hough Fisheries - Big Max

Saturday 11th April 2015

As I approached the latest match in Pem Centrals calendar, there was a high expectation of a good day on the cards. We had started to see some improved weather over the Easter weekend that had continued into the week, catch reports at the fishery, and at many others, were showing signs that the fish were finally on the move and I was going into the match with a win under my belt from the previous match. All ingredients for a good day on the bank.  So......it was probably quite predictable that as the weekend approached the warm settled weather we had was due to make way for overnight rains, lower temperatures and increased winds. Very typical.

Not to be down hearted, I went into the match with optimism. After stopping by the butty van in Middlewich for a tasty barm and a good chat, the lads made our way to the fishery. By the time we were doing the draw, the rain had all but stopped and we were left with just the strong winds which seemed to be coming across us regardless of where we were pegged. My draw put me on fishery peg 4. On this peg I had the corner of the island to in front of me as well as an empty corner to my left with an aerator.

Peg 4 - Home for the day

In a bid to keep things simple, I decided that I would fish this match with a 2 line approach. I set up a banjo feeder to fish to the island, and also give me the option to cast to my left near the aerator; I had softened micros for the feeder with various pellets and bandums for the hook. The other line was a long pole line at 14.5 metres were I would feed softened 4mm pellets and corn with pellet and corn options for the hook.

To give me a back up, I also plumbed a margin line but based on pre-match advice, this was only there as a back-up and I had no real intention of devoting much time to it.

At the all-in, I fed a pot of corn and pellets on the 14.5m pole line and then picked up the feeder rod and cast to the island. With the wind coming across from my right, I found casting accurately quite difficult but was just about managing to cast to the island. I stuck on this for approx half an hour but with no bites, not even any liners giving away the presence of fish, I decided it was worth trying the pole. I shipped out to the 14.5 metres but after only a short period of time I realised that this was going to be too difficult a fight against the wind so I was soon picking the feeder rod up again. The pole would have to wait and see if the wind dropped.

This time however, rather than casting to the island I turned to my left and cast towards the aerator in the empty corner of the lake.  Landing just off the right hand corner of the aerator, casting was notably easier in this direction with the wind now coming from behind me.  After a short wait the tip shot round and I was soon playing my first fish of the day which was a nice carp of around 2-3lb.  The switch to the aerator line appeared to be a good move as I steadily caught a number of fish from this line over the next 90 mins and I was feeling confident that I was beating most people I could see at this point, only the guys on the far bank from me were unknown at this point. At around the midway point in the match this line started to slow so to give it a rest, I decided to plumb an extra pole line short at around 5 metres. I fed this the same as the long pole line and went back onto the tip. Despite having a couple of smaller fish from this line it was still noticeably slower than before so I took a look on the short pole line. Presentation was much easier on this line but after 10 or 15 mins with no signs, I felt it was not going to be a day for the pole and decided if I had to sit out for bites, I would do so on the feeder.  What happened next however changed the whole outlook of the match for me as this time, I decided that I would try a cast to the island again as Paul to my right and Frank to his right had picked up a couple of fish on this line. Despite using the same clip that I had set up with, my first cast back on this line saw me land on the island and subsequently snagged.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn't free myself from the snag and had to pull for a break. At this point my head went and despite setting the tip rod back up again and getting back out to the aerator line, I couldn't settle myself back down and felt this affected me for the remainder of the match. I did manage a couple of extra F1s to the net but at the all-out I couldn't help but feel I had wasted an opportunity for a second match win.

As the scales went round, it was obvious that the day had been tough for all. The bank to my left, which was pegs 33 to 28 had produced only 2 weights over 20lb, with Mark Anglesea leading the way on 25lb 4oz. Turning the corner into the far bank from me Denis Darby set a new top weight with exactly 50lb from peg 22. This proved to be the top weight of the day. Ste Green and Dave Benson to the 2nd and 3rd place spots with 29lb 4oz and 28lb from pegs 19 and 12.  I was last to weigh in on the day and my total fell just short of 20lb at 19lb 12oz.  I was a bit disappointed with this result as I felt the peg was worth double that with aerator feature and the wind blowing into it. It was enough to see me finish 7th out of 15 on he day. I did pick up a section win though so not all lost.

Top 3:

1st: Dennis Darby 50lb

2nd: Ste Green 29lb 4oz

3rd: Dave Benson 28lb

Sections (by default):

Section 1: Mark Anglesea 25lb 4oz

Section 2: Stuart Rourke 19lb 12oz

Honourable mention to George Derbyshire who weighed in 12lb 8oz of small silvers, none of which looked to be over 4oz. Well done George.

A further stag do sees me missing Pems next match, which is at Partridge Lakes, so my next scheduled session will be the 9th May when we head down to Heronbrook. Will have to wait and see if I can manage a sneaky session before that date.

Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake

Rosemary Wood Fishery - Moss Lake

Saturday 28th March 2015

After missing Pem Centrals first match of the year through being on a mates stag do, I was looking forward to this session as being my first match of the year. 

On arriving at venue the though, it is clear that this was to be a match with 3 big challenges. The obvious one being the match itself but also the weather was against us with strong winds and heavy rains battering us right from the off. The final challenge would be the bad head that I was nursing from my pals wedding the night before (don't worry folks, I didn't drive today - good man Alex kindly picked me up).

At the draw we had only 12 turn up for the match but this allowed us to spread out a bit. With the wind blowing straight into the 'board' pegs, I was praying for a peg along the far bank where the wind would be coming from the right so I'm sure you can imagine my delight when I pulled out peg 40 on the boards. This was going to be a long day.

My first thoughts on arriving at the peg was that the boards seemed to have improved somewhat since my last visit here but that was quickly overruled by the thought of feeling sea sick and a little bit wobbly - could have been something to do with the previous nights activities.

With wind in my face and constant rain, I decided to keep the day as simple as I could and just try to get a respectable weight. So I set up just the one rod which was my feeder rod and fished this with a banjo feeder. For the feeder I had dampened some 4mm pellets to squeeze in the feeder and I had a selection of normal pellets and bandums for hook baits. This was probably the fastest I had ever set up for a match in my history of match fishing.

My peg - taken during a respite from the rain.

Some other notable draws in the match was Alex Yates and Mark Anglesea who yet again find them selves next to each other on this venue and in the same area from which they came top 2 the previous year and with the wind in their favour (as much as it could be today) I fancied those 2 to be leading the chase again. Dennis Darby, John Ruddy and Mark Thomas were also pegged on that side so a middle of the pack placing was going to be my target.

At the all in, I went straight out with feeder and braced myself for a tough day ahead so I was very surprised when my tip shot round within a couple of minutes of being in the water. A small carp of around 1.5/2lb was the prize and whilst not a huge fish, it filled me with hope that it could be a good day ahead despite the conditions.  Thankfully the rain blew over and just left us with the wind in our faces which made the day a bit more comfortable and was good drying weather for my saturated gear, sadly though the early positive signs appeared to be false hope as it took a while to get any more fish into the net and when they did they were small skimmers. Fortunately though, I did manage to land a nicer carp of around 6/7lb along the way so felt I was doing well as I wasn't seeing many others catching. Mark Jordan to my right had a few skimmers and George Derbyshire to my left was steadily landing small roach on the pole so at the very least I felt I was competing for my section. I hadn't seen many others catching on the other bank but much of the time my head was tucked into my jacket so didn't want to read too much into that. I continued to plug away with the banjo and was eventually rewarded with a nice carp that was into double figures. This fish, I felt put me firmly in the chase for a top 3 place but I had started to see Mark Anglesea's landing net get some use so I knew I had to keep going. I continued to catch steadily for the rest of the match with only odd quiet spells but the fish I was catching were skimmers and whilst enjoyable to fish for, I knew that if the other guys had been catching carp, I would struggle to compete despite the fact that a few of my skimmers were over 1lb.  In typical fashion the rain returned for the last half hour just in time to get us all wet through again before we had to pack up.

At the all out, I had only managed to land another 1 carp and this was only about 2lb. Once packed up, which was also my fastest on record, I walked up the bank and there was talk of nets of carp but nothing's bags. I was confidently estimating a net of around 30lb, as I felt my 4 carp between them were at least 20lb and reckoning on around 10lb of skimmers.

At the weigh in, we started on the other bank so all my main competition for the day would weigh in before me. Some good weights were recorded quite quickly with Dennis Darby putting 34lb 4oz on, Lee Roper 32lb 8oz and alex Yates 32lb.  With 3 weights over 30lb in quick succession, I was already thinking that a section win was going to be my best hope. There were no other weights recorded that I thought would be better than mine, which was quite surprising with the amount of action I had seen from Mark Anglesea but he says he lost a lot of fish at the net, much to his frustration. It was soon my turn and lifting my keep net out of he water, I knew it was going to be close but I didn't expect the scales to record the 39lb 2oz they did. So either the carp that I caught were bigger than i estimated, or the skimmers were worth more than the 10lb, either way I was very happy. Late runs from George Derbyshire and Ste Green didn't do enough as they each recorded 18lb. So I was very happy, on my first match of 2015 I have recorded a win.

Top 3:

1st: Stuart Rourke 39lb 2oz

2nd: Dennis Darby 34lb 4oz

3rd: Lee Roper 32lb 8oz

Sections (by default):

Section 1 (pegs 24 to 30): Alex Yates 32lb

Section 2 (pegs 31 to 43): Ste Green/George Derbyshire 18lb

Couple of points to note, I have fished here quite a few times now and I have always found that a stand out hookbait seems to work better on the feeder than one that blends in with the feed, this was further reinforced by the fact that my top hookbait was a white bandum on which all but 2 of my fish were caught on.

The final point to note is that despite nursing a hangover I managed to win this match. I have thought about this over the last 24 hours or so, was it coincidence, luck, do I fish better when slightly under the influence of alcohol? However the conclusion that I have come to is simple. As I wasn't feeling great, I made the decision to just 'chuck out the tip rod and see how it goes' but in reality what I did was kept it simple and stuck to the plan and allowed it to work on the day, I didn't confuse matters by trying this and trying that to make it work which I have often been guilty of. Normally on this water I would set up 2 tip rods, a pellet waggler rod and sometimes a pole as well so I am thinking now, how many times in the past have I ended up not giving a method chance to work in the search for that instant reward. Food for thought and I will definitely be taking these thoughts into future matches.

Tight Lines

Cob House

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

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

Wednesday 24th September. Laugherne Island.

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

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

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

Thursday 25th September. Oak

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

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

Friday 26th September. Laurels.

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

Now what?

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

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