Tuesday 28 August 2012

August Bank Holiday Monday


The benefit of me generally choosing to fish on Mondays over bank holiday weekend is that I get to cook a nice Sunday roast! The downside is, I nearly always miss a good match on the Sunday, and this one was no different. The match on the new lake was won with 102lb, and with back-up weights of 80lb+ and 70lb+ which is very good for the venue.

As per the last few weeks I didn't really get much of a look round the lake we were fishing as I helped the owner with the tree chopping again. When I dipped in the bag pretty much all the pegs I wanted had gone, and peg 51 came out in my hand. Even with out walking round I just had a feeling it would be a struggle given all the rain we had, plus the cooling down of the air temperature too. Despite having won off the peg a few weeks before, I really wanted to be in the open water, not in the shallowest arm of the island.

I had the usual three rigs up for the day - one for the margins which done both left and right, one for 5m and one for 15m as tight to the island as I could get. I'm sure you know the rigs by now, so I wont go over them again. I have to admit setting up I was worried by the lack of movement - and I was sure it was going to be hard.

Without dragging it out too much, hard it was! I didn't even get knocks from small fish across on pellet. Odd fish would come in to the margins mooching, but they'd shy away instantly. I did hook two fish in a short spell down the edge about mid way through the match. The first one came off near the net, and the second one charged off snapping the .17 hook-link, so in all likely hood it was foul hooked.

I could only see one other angler, and he was suffering the same fate as me. It was an hour before the end when I put my first fish in the net - a small common of about a pound from the 5m line. At the same time the angler I could see caught their first fish too! I managed to eek out a few fish in that last hour fishing corn at 5m, all taken by spreading the bulk out and bites came as the corn hit the bottom. I managed five more carp, all between 3-4lb, and lost a big common of near double figures. It charged off in the shallow water and behind a lilly-bed in the next peg. I had no choice but to lift the pole and get the elastic over the lillys else I would have lost the fish anyway, but doing so meant rather predictably the hook pulled.

I didn't bother to weigh my fish, tipping back around 17lb I'd guess. The whole lake fished hard mind, as while 70lb odd won from peg 70 in the open (fishing down the edge under a tree I believe), just 30lb was good enough for second and 28lb for third, so the lost fish cost me a placing. In hindsight, I wish I'd fished a softer elastic at 5m - that big fish may not have charged off then (but it may!), but at the end of the day there just wasn't a head of fish in front of me to go at. Looking on a few internet forums, it seems that most places didn't fish too well - I can only guess due to the weather. Still, there's always next week!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Sunday August 19th

I have to start off with a bit of a double apology - the first one for being a bit late with the update, and the second one for not having a picture of the peg. I wasn't ready at the start of the match, and then totally forgot after the match that I didn't have a picture!

As last week, there was a bit of a working party on the new lake as a few more of the self seeded tree's were cleared from some of the pegs. I have to admit, and hour and a half of that on a boiling hot Sunday morning saw me absolutely knackered before we'd even had the 11am draw!

I wasn't overly happy with the peg I drew when 72 came out in my hand. On such a hot day I wanted some shallow water, and that peg doesn't have it! It's the infamous reeds peg on the lake, and is an absolute flyer when it's cooler as the fish get in to the reeds - but it was the hottest day of the year!

It was pretty much a two-pronged attack for the day as it was either catch shallow long, or catch at 5m. I had a shallow rig up for the reeds, and a margin rig too for my right where it was a little shallower than along the reeds, but I didn't really use them and caught nothing on them. The main two rigs were the long shallow rig, which was a small Nick Gilbert XTD, a small dibber that would hold up an 8mm hard banded pellet. It was set at exactly a foot deep, with a fairly long line above it to keep the pole tip away from the fish, or allow me to go a touch deeper - not that I anticipated it in the heat! Normal gear here with .17 line to a .15 hook-link, but the hook was a size 16 Kamasan animal, tied with a pellet band in the loop on a hair rig to take my pellet. Lakky was Preston 15h. The 5m rig was a .3gr Nick Gilbert Decker fished in about 4.5ft of water. Lines were the same as the shallow rig, with the hook being my normal Fox Series 2 size 18, and the lakky was black Hydro on a pull-bung.

Like I said, I wasn't ready at the start as I was fiddling about making sure I had enough shallow rigs. I fed the 5m line quite positively as I figured it was my best chance with other on more fancied pegs. The line had 3/4 of a pot of hemp and corn before I eventually picked up my long shallow rig six or seven minutes in.

I could see a few fish milling around with my polaroids on, but they didn't seem interested in the loose pellets I was flicking in. The only real interest was from a phenomenon that perhaps only regulars at this venue will recognise - the big, black ball of bitterling! Once those bait robbers appeared I knew my chance of catching well shallow had gone, so I stopped loose feeding long just twenty minutes in to the match. I'd seen a few others "mug" fish on their shallow rigs, and by the end of the hour I'd mugged three myself by slapping the rig in front of cruising fish in front of me. Not big fish, but they got me off the mark with about 10lb in the first hour.

I have to admit, it's not a way I like fishing - in a match anyway (I much prefer to be stalking bigger carp, not that I get to do it much these days), so I had a word with myself for fishing in a way that is a perfectly legitimate match tactic, but made me feel like a bit of a noddy doing it! On to the 5m line then!

I started to get knocks on the 5m line instantly so I plugged away with it - having signs there early is a good thing I've found on the venue. I stopped loose-feeding by hand here and used just a pot on the pole to keep bait tight - plus the it's a less noisy way of feeding and keeps the bitterling away, as the ball of them had now moved in to the reeds to my left, making that a waste of time targeting for carp. I hadn't seen any in there anyway, so it was make the 5m line work, or else!

I'd probably plugged away at 5m for about twenty minutes before my first proper bite, which I missed, but the second one resulted in a fish in the net. Not a big fish, but we were away on this line. Bites started to come fairly regular, but I was missing a few. Changing the shotting from a spread bulk to just a plain bulk only 8in above the hook helped a bit, and I finished the second hour on six carp, but I was still missing a few bites.

Just in to the next hour carp number seven came, pretty much seconds after dropping in and I thought I had it sussed, especially as it was a bigger fish as a ghostie mirror of about 5lb went in the net, but afterwards I went on a run of silly indications with very nothing hittable. Changing the rig around didn't work either. I was tipping the bait out of the pot once when a swirl appeared in the feed, so I picked up my shallow rig and stuck a pot on the end. Feeding again got the same swirl, so I slapped my rig in to the swirl. No sooner had the rig settled than the lakky pulled out! It was a decent fish too, probably around 5lb, but the tactic didn't work again.

I decided that it was worth feeding a decent amount on the 5m line again with the big pot, so it got half a pot of hemp and corn again. I left it for a bit and had a quick drop in the reeds - it took the bitterling about thirty seconds to steal the pellet from out of the band! I managed to mug another small fish out long to reach the three hour mark on nine carp, but it wasn't happening out there.

Back on the 5m line and the rest and re-feed had done the job. I was still missing the odd bite, but shallowing up to just touching the bottom, and fishing a spread bulk with the last shot just 7in from the hook solved that - as did fishing just off the feed. With very few missed bites I was plodding along nicely. Again, I was feeding just via the small pot when I was fishing the line. Bizarrely, I didn't get bites as the bait settled, I just sat with the bait on the bottom and waited for a bite, yet when I hooked a fish they came right up in the water which suggests to me they were only dropping down to feed. None of the fish were big, but I was catching fast enough for me to not worry about that!

After an hour catching steady the bites went a little "iffy" again, but I found that dropping the rig right in over the feed solved that, and the fish were a touch bigger that way too - not huge, but nearer 4lb than 3lb. With an hour to go the line faded dramatically with me on twenty-seven carp. Cutting down on the corn and putting hemp in the pot so my hook-bait stood out more tricked a couple more fish, but again I had to fish away from the feed. With twenty-five minutes to go I was up to thirty carp, but struggling to get a proper bite. I was getting indications that carp were still there, but managed just one bumped fish and a missed bite right on the whistle in that last period.

I actually wasn't the only one to suffer the same, as three other people who were catching in the open water said the same - once the sun dropped off the water their bites stopped. Strange when you consider how hot it was! I packed away and managed to get round to watch the weigh in, only missing the first weigh - I was the last to weigh in!

The island pegs where I'd have much rather been hadn't done as well as I'd expected, with the exception of peg 62 in the corner who'd weighed in 77lb. I can't remember the weights exactly behind them when the scales got to me - I think there was a low 50, and certainly a few 40's. I knew I had that, and my couple of weighs totted up to 102lb 3oz for an exhausting days fishing in the heat! Am I glad it's a bit cooler now.

Next week brings the bank holiday weekend, and I'm pretty sure I'll only be out on the Monday, it'll probably be Tuesday again before the next blog. See you then!

Monday 13 August 2012

Sunday 12th August


Well, no thunder, lightening, wind or rain to write about today! I did get to work up a good sweat helping with the working party to remove a lot of the self seeded trees that have started to take over around the new lake. It's amazing what three chainsaws and a few people moving the rest away can do, and it'll benefit the lake in the long run too, allowing extra light and air movement to the water.

Once the draw queue assembled I took my customary late place in the line, and lifted out peg 14, which I was pretty happy with. It's been in decent form, plus it has a nice long margin to draw fish from too.

My first job was to plumb up at 16m to the island, and after a while I realised it could cause a bit of a problem, as it was a sheer 3-3.5ft tight against the bank. Great for winter, not so good in summer! I decided to fish shallow against the bank as fishing on the bottom against features in that depth this time of year tends to lead to frustrating days with liners and foul hookers. I had two rigs up, one for 2ft (a Nick Gilbert Ghandi) and one for 1ft (using a Nick Gilbert Extra Tough Dibber). Both were on .17 line to a .15 hook-link and armed with a size 18 Fox Series 2 hook, matched to Preston 15h lakky. Incidentally, 1ft is as shallow as you can fish on the lake, so it was measured out to make sure it was exactly that. I also had a rig up for 5m (sure you know what that will have been), and a margin rig for 11m along to my left. In 2ft of water the float was a .2gr Nick Gilbert XTM on .19 to .17 and a size 16 Fox Series 2 hook, with the lakky being 17h.

Typically, I wasn't ready on the whistle (seems a theme as of late, even though all my rigs were tied at home), but I fed the 5m line with a whole pot of hemp, and a whole pot of meat and corn. I was going to try and force this line on the day in an attempt to make it work, and if not it's going to get a change as to how I approach the deep water on the new lake. Given that the peg is also a noted margin peg, I also fed the margin from the off, feeding it with a pot of meat, hemp and corn. While finishing setting up, I also started pinging a few pellets across with the catty.

It was ten minutes in when I was ready to go, and just as I slipped the first pellet in the band I could see peg 17 in to a fish. I started to get odd liners so was soon on the shallower rig across, but I couldn't get a proper bite on a pellet, so forty five minutes in I decided on a change to fishing double caster on the hook, while still feeding pellet. This had the instant effect I was hoping for as the odd dig on the float turned in to an elastic pulling bite within thirty seconds! Not the biggest of fish at about 3lb, but off the mark none-the-less.

The first carp was quite quickly followed by his twin brother, probably no more than five minutes later. The change had definitely got much more positive bites, although I'm sure some of the ones missed were from small fish. The next bite was a little slower in coming (I'd topped up the margin on the hour via the cup, and was feeding the 5m line heavily by hand) but it was a bigger fish as a common of about 5lb took me in to double figures.

The flurry of fish seemed to fade away after, but I did add a fourth carp about twenty minutes later, after moving all the shot under the float and letting the bait fall naturally, but the drifting scum didn't make that possible a lot of the time. There were still a few fish drifting about, but I couldn't trick one. I tried varying the feed pattern with the catty but that didn't work. I'm sure I could have mugged an odd extra fish had I gone shallower, but rules are rules so I plugged away 12in! Nobody I could see was pulling away too far from me, with peg 17 having five the most from those I could see, but smallish fish like three of the four I had. My one bigger one meant I wouldn't be far behind, if at all.

The next hour was pretty slow, so I started to up the frequency of feeding the margins to half a pot every thirty minutes. I could get an odd liner at 5m, but nothing settled there and I never had a proper bite. I had a crafty drop in the margins on meat and missed a bite, but didn't want to push it so left it alone. The rest got me an instant fish on the shallowest rig again, a mirror of about 4lb. No more bites followed so I dropped the rig in away from the feed and had an instant bite which gave me a crucian of nudging 2lb! It didn't work again though.

With two hours exactly to go it was time to start plundering the margins, hopefully! My first drop saw me miss a bite, but I didn't miss the next one, but it gave me the smallest carp of the day at about 2lb. No more followed so it was a case of a whole pot to pull some fish in. A quick try on the 5m line gave me a flurry of liners, both on meat and corn, but I couldn't get a proper bite there. A quick drop across again tricked a fish that had been having a free meal with no pole over it's head, but again no more.

Back in the margins and I started to get more indications, and while I was missing as many bites as I was hitting I started to nick an odd fish. Not huge margin lumps, but at around 4lb a piece bigger than the average fish across, leaving me with ten fish with an hour to go. It was frustrating going though, with no pattern to the bites - sometimes having to put a whole pot in after a missed bite, sometimes just a toss-pot would do.

With just fifty minutes to go I hit somewhat a purple patch in the edge, with three fish in twenty minutes. The first a ghostie of about 5lb, before a mirror of about 6lb and then a right lump of a common that was easily a double! Each fish falling to double meat over a large toss-pot of corn. When the indications faded I fed half a pot hoping to bring fish back, but it never went quite as smooth again. I was missing odd bites, before putting a common of about 6lb in the net. That proved to be the last fish, with just one more bite which I missed just before the whistle!

The people walking past while I was packing away were giving tales of struggles, and some people had only three or four fish. Peg 23 was admitting to twelve carp and a bream, so my fourteen were looking quite good! When the scales got to me 28lb was top weight, which I comfortably topped. My crucian went 1lb 15oz on the scales, and with the carp I totalled 68lb 14oz. I followed the scales round to peg 23, who put 59lb 12oz on the scales, and once I knew they had fallen short I returned to my peg to put my nets away.

I was surprised after last week that it had fished hard, and given the steady weather during the week I was expecting it to be just as good. I'm not sure really why it wasn't, but one or two people did comment that they saw grouped fish together chasing as if they wanted to spawn again! Perhaps they had other things on there minds then?

Monday 6 August 2012

Sunday August 5th


After last weeks adventure on the Keadby canal for the Division 2 National it was back to normal this week. Incidentally, my team finished 23rd from 34 teams. We had a few good results, but a couple of stinkers too! Four anglers only managed single figure points scores which is a shame, but can't be helped. I finished in 12th place in my section in the end - respectable, but I could have done better!

I was one of the few who arrived at the venue earlier to help thin a few of the self seeded tree's out along the margins of the pegs in the 20's, allowing a bit more light in, and also allowing people to fish tighter in to the bank. This led to me getting a shoe-full of water and a wet leg to just below my knee after treading on what I thought was bank but was just grass hanging over in peg 25!

At the draw I did point out to people that I'd had a paddle in their swim if they drew it and apologised, I then went and put my hand in the bag and drew it myself - the first time I've drawn in the 20's on the lake for a long while, but a draw I was very happy with as I've a good record off the peg.

Setting up for the day was nice and simple rig-wise, as I only had two up - one for the margins and one for across. The far bank rig took a bit of plumbing as I tried to find a shallower area to fish. The water must have been lower the last time I had it! In the end I managed to find around 22in in a small area to fish. I'd have preferred a touch less, but that would have to do. Float was a .1gr Nick Gilbert XTM on .17 line to a .15 hook-link and a size 18 Fox Series 2, while the lakky was Preston 15h. My margin rig was actually fished the other side of me to where I'd stuck my foot in (to the left), and only required one small twig to be snapped as opposed to the severe pruning saw action the other side had got ninety minutes earlier, and I hadn't taken a paddle in there either! I had a few reeds in the edge here at 4m, but ended up fishing just past them where I had a slightly better slope to fish. The depth was about 3ft here, and the float was a .2gr XTM on .19 line to a .17 hook-link and a size 16 Fox Series 2. Lakky was Preston 17h.

I didn't feed the margin from the off, and across I started with just a small amount of 6mm pellets fed via a toss-pot. It took about twenty minutes of trickling in pellets before I started to get knocks, and I missed the first proper bite before connecting with a 3oz roach on a pellet - not a great sign. It was dead on the hour mark when I had my first carp which was about 4lb, and two more followed each at twenty minute intervals, both about the same size.

On the two hour mark I was getting frustrated at the far line as there were more carp present than I could get bites from. I don't know if the thunderstorm just before the match which was followed by an hour long deluge of rain was the cause, but I wished I could find water a few inches shallower to fish in. A change to worm which I tend to find work when fish are in that mood just caught me a few perch, albeit chunky ones. It was looking like I was going to need the margins to produce as I could see peg 17 nabbing a few fish, so I gave the edge line a kick-start with a whole pot of hemp, corn and meat.

Back across the fish were still iffy. I tried various feeding patterns from big potting bait, very little via toss pot and using the catty to spread the bait about, but the result was the same. If I didn't feed regular the fish didn't stay, but when they were there they wouldn't feed properly. I managed to nab two more in the next hour, both on a 6mm expander, but one of them was very small at only a pound or so. I then lost a fish through no fault of my own, with it just coming adrift as I shipped back. The lost fish seemed to make the problem worse, with more liners and even less of the very iffy bites I had been getting.

I had my first try in the edge, but with no joy so I carried on topping it up every 40-45 minutes with a pot of bait while trying to catch across. I managed to nab one more fish over, and a touch bigger too at about 5lb, but with two hours to go I was needing the edge line to go.

Baiting up with double 8mm meat I was dropping the rig so the bait pulled the bristle right down on the float, before dragging it up on to the slope so the bristle sat clear. I missed the first bite I had as it came from out of the blue, but the next one I didn't and a good lump made off. After a hefty tussle a common of about 8lb came to the net. Topping up with a decent pinch of bait (perhaps quarter of a cup) I managed to nick two more fish from the edge, both times it took about 8-10mins to get a bite. Neither were as big as the first one, but very welcome all the same.

I'd carried on pinging a few pellets across, and a few fish were visible over. With the margin having followed a set pattern for times for a bite I wondered if I could nick a fish across in the time it took to settle? I decided to stick a whole medium dendra on the hook (head nipped of) and lowered in across, and bingo! It was away instantly. The result was a ghostie of about 3lb, and it came so quick I decided to see if I could nick another, which I did! A smaller fish again, with a mint mirror of about 2lb falling.

After nabbing those two quick fish my waiting time for a margin bite was up, so I dropped in on the double meat again, and away it went instantly! Timed to perfection or what? A decent common of about 6lb was the result. From that point on I never picked up the far bank rig again. Feeding quarter of a pot of bait after each fish kept the bites coming steady, and with an hour to go I found myself up to fifteen carp, and time for another net.

The last hour carried on just as steady too. I tried feeding by hand while I was playing fish on the top-kit as I was fishing close, but while it worked in bringing the fish back it led to a few missed bites and liners as the bait was a bit more spread on the slope, so I went back to using the big pot after each fish. I also found that rather than just lowering the rig in and then pulling it up the slope, if I swung the hookbait in further out, and held the float tight to the pole which swung the bait strait on the slope bites often came almost instantly. That said, despite fishing with probably just 5in of line between pole tip and float to allow me to tuck the pole in nice and tight, I had to lift in to every bite rather than having lakky pullers.

Carp number sixteen was a proper munter of a common, probably nudging the 12lb mark, and by the end of the match I was up to twenty two carp. With just two rig to pack away I was able to follow the scales round, and up to me peg 11 was top weight with 70lb+, and peg 17 had about 50lb. I honestly thought I had about 90-95lb until I lifted out my first net. My seven last hour fish totalled just over 45lb, and with eight more (albeit smaller average) fish in the other net I began to think I may just reach the ton. With two weighs from that net, plus my 1lb 9oz of bits my weight tallied up to 107lb 1oz and a new best match weight from that lake, by just 5oz over my last one! All in all a decent day after a frustrating start across, just a shame about the mozzies - I must have splatted about fifteen of them trying to land on me, but two got through my guard and had a go on my right hand, leaving it rather swollen now. Gits!