Mega Match This, Viaduct, 19/05/2012

I got to Viaduct with plenty of time before the draw and managed a quick look around a couple of the lakes that would be in on the day, one thing that was noticeable was the amount of fish cruising shallow at ends of the lakes.

I drew 132 and this put me at the cafe end of Campbell, tight in the corner and the swim was full of carp cruising around. This as it turned out was a bad thing as I lost my way as soon as I got to my peg, flapped and set up too much kit.

I set up a deck waggler, 2 pellet wagglers, 2 shallow pole rigs and a paste rig for the right hand margin, and in hindsight I didn’t even put that in the right place choosing the easy option over the less obvious but probably better option.

I started by casting the deck waggler out around 20m in front of the next platform to my right in about 4 feet of water and I lost a fish after about 25minutes through bullying it.

An hour later I hooked one on the pellet wag only to lose it by, guess what, bullying it under the rod end again. I finally hooked and landed a fish by dobbing it on a piece of polont set 12” deep with 4feet of line above the float swinging it on the end of 14.5m of pole towards cruising fish.

I tried this on and off throughout the day but decided to concentrate on the margins for the last hour, the fish never arrived and at the all out again I tipped my one carp and a couple of foul hooked roach back before the scales got to me. Ray Hayward won Campbell with around 94lb of carp on the pellet wag, by sticking to his guns and making it work.

I’ll try again next year then.

Kennet and Avon Teams of 4 Rd 3, 20/05/2012

I was in charge of the team draw for Browning Andover A today and I managed a half decent job of it, I even managed to put myself onto a half decent peg along the Station stretch, I was on the left hand edge of the ‘Perch Tree’ and it looked nice.

Having had a few matches where confusing things had gone horribly wrong for me I decided on a 2 prong attack, the first line would be squatt at around 3feet deep straight in front of my peg and the second line would be worm and caster towards tree at 13-14.5m.

I set up 2 squatt rigs on no.2 elastic and 0.09mm mainline to 0.06mm bottoms with 22 B590 hooks, these were a 0.2g Classic 2 and a 4X7 Mick Bassett on the drop both shotted with strung no.13’s. I set up a heavy worm rig for tight across just behind the trees branches and light worm rig to fish the 3ft line along the front of the tree. At the all in I fed 4 balls of groundbait and half a cup of loose on the squatt line and about 20 dendrabenas over both worm lines with a few casters with the idea being to attract but not feed the fish on those lines. I shipped out my slightly more positive squatt rig and picked up fish straight away with a number of roach and a spattering of palm sized skimmers mixed in until the first hour was up and the skimmers disappeared. I tried the worm lines for the first time with only a couple of hollow perch to show I refed both lines. Back on the groundbait line and I was taking roach nearly one a put in but at around 15-20pp I was going nowhere fast so I topped up and went under the tree again. This saw the float on the heavy rig dip as I was twitching it and I skull dragged a foul hooked pound perch out from under the tree. I re fed and moved on the front of the tree line but the float would not settle, so I gave it a lift for 10 ft of elastic to shot under the tree very quickly, then the rig came back with no indications of a fish. I think I had just put my rig over the back of one of the large carp that live along that stretch.

Unperturbed I got my head down on the roach for the remainder of the match and caught steadily until the end. The scales started from my end and 8lb came from my right (squatt fish and 3 big perch from under the tree), I had 6lb 4oz, then 4lb 4oz then the skimmers started with a 9lb, 14lb then the last 3 pegs had two 7lb weights and 24lb!!

Skimmers had been the key so if I drew there again I knew that I would have to figure out how to catch them and not concentrate on the roach as they were not big enough to compete.

I was still a really good days fishing and the A team managed 2^nd overall on the day.

AAF Gp2 Match 7, Viaduct, 16/05/2012

Only 40 anglers booked in to fish the latest round of the AAF Gp 2 league, so the pegging was split with the 3 sections across Campbell and Cary. Due to family commitments I was a little late I the morning, a fact that John took much pleasure in, but I still managed to get an excellent breakfast from the new cafe on site. I did the team draw and managed to put Pez on 130, new team mate Nick (Knocker) White on 90 odd and myself into the corner on 74. This was not a bad team draw and I was very happy when all the time during setting up I had big carp cruising in front of my peg.

As you can see that was not the only redeeming feature but I decided to be quite single minded in my approach as the carp did not seem to be in a very co operative mood just mooching about so I would need to find the feeding fish. To this end my main line of attack was paste both at 13m alongside the tree at about 1 o’clock and under the branches tight in to the right again at 13m. I set up a 5m Meat line in case they fancied going there and I also put up a dobbing rig to try and mug a couple of the cruisers. Just before the all in I also grabbed a pellet wag rod from the van to try mugging a bit further out.

The all in was called and I fed my paste lines with a mix of pellet and hemp before putting an 8mm cube of meat on the mugging rig and I dropped that on the water 4 times next to the tree. It would have been more but an 8lb carp had decided to eat it and run into open water, my blue reflex elastic allowed it to do that but I was still in control and soon had it in the net. I tried that again thinking the day would be easy but the second fish laughed at my choice of tackle and ran straight into the branches of the tree and snapped my 0.20mm mainline by rubbing it down. That was the end of the flurry and it became a springtime grind, I rotated through my 3 deck lines and having the odd look at cruising fish but I only managed to snare another 2 carp and a few skimmers on meat for a total of 33lb 8oz. This is not alot for Viaduct but as the scales went around the lakes it was obviously an off day, unfortunately I had lost 2 carp all day and these would prove to be costly, especially as I was in the split section with pegs 110-115 of Campbell being mixed in with 74-85 on Cary. All bar one of the pegs on Campbell beat my weight as it fished slightly better, and the bottom end of Cary had seen a few more carp come in so I managed 7^th in my 14 peg section. On the plus side I did beat both sides and opposite so it was not too bad, and I got to watch Paul Greenwood of the fishery staff recover a pole section that someone ‘who shall remain nameless’ decided to use as a plummet.

Regional National, Gloucester Canal, 13th May 2012

I picked Ian up at six in the morning and we made the long pilgrimage up to Gloucester for the regional national. I was drawn on peg S17 and did not expect alot when before the match I was getting told that it was one of the tougher areas.

I set up a feeder for across the far side, a waggler for catching bleak and also my pole line at 13m which consisted of a 1.5g Maver Drift float to counteract the depth and skim from the strengthening wind. It was set on 0.12mm mainline to 0.08mm bottom and a size 20 Drennan polemaster wide gape, and I had no.5 elastic through 3 sections to help set the hook and hopefully play the bream in the 18ft of water.

At the all in I fed 12 balls of Leam and Browning canal at 13m which was filled with caster, chopped worm, dead maggot and pinkie. Then I cast out a big feeder with a fishmeal based groundbait across the canal 5 times into approximately 8ft of water, I then attached a hooklength and started the day by watching the 1oz tip of my Champions Choice Stilllwater feeder pulling occasionally with line bite to keep me excited for alot of the day. It was not good however, when around halfway through  the match the tip pulled round and I thought that I had caught my 0.18mm Cenex feeder mainline on another bit of rubbish floating down the canal. But as well as the small branch that had floated into my line there was something significant kicking on the other end, after a fraught couple of minutes I was slipping the net under a decent sized bream. An hour later I missed an indication on the pole and an hour after that the all out was called, my bream went 4lb 2oz and this was enough for 3^rd in the section behind an 8lb and 16lb weights. There had been two other nets with 1 bream in but they were both 3lb something so the long boring day was full of team points but the team unfortunately had too many blow outs and we limped in almost last. Always next year as they say!

Withy TO4, 12 May 2012

Again I was let loose on Selwood Lake and after the draw I was informed that I was to be sat on peg 7 for the day. This would give me a reed bed close in to my left as a margin line, an empty platform to my right as another margin line, I had an island chuck for the method or waggler and I also decided to set up a meat line at 2+2 as it had been quite successful recently for me. I knew that it would be hard so I decided to concentrate on the bigger carp in the venue and fished a paste attack down on the two edge lines, due to the depth my rig was a 4X10 Big H paste float on 0.20mm Cenex with a 0.18mm bottom of the same material and finished in a size 5 tubertini 175. My elastic varied through the day as I tried to figure out the best one for the swim and it ended up being orange Reflex.

My meat rig was the normal 0.18-0.14mm Cenex finished in a size 2 tubertini 175 rigged on yellow Browning reflex elastic. Finally my method was rigged on a 10ft Force commercial bomb rod and an Ultimatch reel as the winding power of this reel has to be seen to be believed for the price.

At the all in I fed the meat line then tried a quick look down each margin with no success before chucking the tip for the remainder of the first hour. To cut a long story short, I did not catch alot for the first 4 hours then I managed half a dozen skimmers and the same number of small carp for around 30lb in weight. This was enough for 4^th on the lake which was about right for the peg; I did not get an indication on the tip as the islands margins were full of weed. The rest of the team did not fair as well with John spraining his ankle walking his kit to his peg, not good the day before the regional national! I cut away early so that I could prep my kit ready for the next day.

Mega Match This, Viaduct, 28/04/12

This is a short report, as the wind was up and the fish  were not in front of me on the day, I had Ray Hayward pegged to my right on 102 and after chatting to him before the start I decided to set up a bomb, deck waggler, long pole, short pole and a margin rig. I fished pellet on the rods and meat on the pole, I ended up with 1 carp and 2 skimmers for about 8lb, the carp came on the bomb about 2 hours in to the match. Ray managed to catch fish regularly all day and ended up with just over 130lb for 3^rd in the match I believe. He only set up 2 rods and stayed on the same line confident that the fish would show on it.

Would I learn the lesson?