Viaduct Open, 19/12/12

It was off to Viaduct for the Wednesday open mainly as a team outing so that the powers that be could pay the team entry for the teams of 5 next month, I was a little surprised when at the fishery it turned out that there would only be 6 anglers fishing!!

Myself, Stu Dabbs, John Dewberry, Dave George, Nic Mac (all from Browning Andover) and local angler Rolly, this was going to be an interesting day, I had no idea where to draw at the start and peg 124 stuck in my little mit, much to everyone’s dismay as it was apparently the flyer. I have however, ruined them before here so I was not too optimistic.

My plan was simple for the day, no one was pegged to my left and before the start I had seen several carp crash towards that bank, therefore I decided to fish the bomb and waggler in that direction and I also put in a pole line at 6m down the edge to my left as a backup although this never came into play so I shall ignore it for today.

My bomb rig was a 10ft commercial bomb with a 035 Ultimatch reel loaded with 0.20mm Cenex Feeder line, a running bomb and a 12 inch hooklength of 0.18mm Cenex to a 14 QM1 and a quick stop. I was going to fish meat and bread on this rig, I also set up a 6g waggler set at full depth to a 0.12mm bottom and a size 18 hook to fish maggot and explore the peg.

At the all in I fed the pole line and cast out the bomb setting my stopwatch for 20 minutes, I need not have bothered as by the end of the first hour I had 4 Carp in the net all on chunks of yellow meat for around 12lb. It got harder in the middle part of the match with not alot getting caught anywhere, Dave opposite had the wind off his back and was able to feed a little bit of bait, this seemed to help him get a few bites but his fish were very small for Viaduct. I messed around with the waggler for a while and managed to pick up 3 fish on it but I also lost 2 foul hookers so in the last hour I went back out on the bomb, it was like turning on a switch as in the last half an hour I managed to land another 4 Carp all on meat. And that was it, Dave and I had caught a few carp, I had 11 and I think he had around 13 or 14, but everyone to my right had struggled to get the fish and Rolly on peg 114 had tipped back at the end. The scales came around and my clicker said that I had around 52lb; the scales said that it was 65lb odd this was enough for the match win as Daves carp only went 62lb so they were alot smaller. As for the rest, Stu on peg 126 managed to pick up a few better skimmers to take the silverfish pot with 15lb, he also had a brace of carp to 25lb which I think was enough for third. John had managed to snare 5 carp from the end peg on my bank but it was not enough, and |Nick cast to the wrong side of his peg all day and struggled.

It was a good giggle if a little wet and windy, but it was a good warmer for the teams of 5 coming next year.

Shearwater 16/12/12

I received a phone call from team captain Barry during the match the day before telling me that the winter league round on the river had been cancelled, seeming that I already had a pint of caster, worm and my dead pinkie and maggot was defrosting, instead of going to Witherington Farm for a knock up, I decided to go to Shearwater lake to practice bream fishing.

I drove to venue early and found a swim halfway down the lake that I knew would be around 6-8feet deep.

I know this as I have markered around the venue extensively in the past, I still had to set up my platform though due to all the extra water in the venue but I had decided to only pack 3 rods and they were set up as follows:

1)  Champions Choice 12ft Stillwater feeder, Ultimatch 035 loaded with 0.20 Cenex feeder line, a running feeder rig with a 12” hooklength of 0.09-0.12mm line to a 22-16 hook. This rig was my standard Bream rig and got clipped at 40 turns.

2)  Force Commercial 11ft Carp feeder, Ultimatch 035 reel loaded with 8lb sensor, a running 30g Kobra method feeder and a 4” hooklength of 0.16mm Cenex with a size 18 Colmic 501 or 16 QM1 and quickstop. This rod was to see if the method would be better over a bed of bait and was also clipped at 40 turns.

3)  13ft Browning King Feeder All Season (no longer made), Black Magic 050 FD reel loaded with 0.20 Cenex Feeder Line,  this was terminated to a link swivel and this was connected to a small kobra long range method with a 14 QM1 on 0.16mm Cenex and a bait band.

Bream Munga

I mixed my groundbait, finished prepping my rods and then proceeded to Spomb out 10 small balls of ground bait using my standard feeder rod. I then belted out the long range method to allow the groundbait time to settle, it took a while but I eventually found that changing from a boilie to 3 dead maggots would see the tip on the long range rod pull round regularly. After 4 Bream I decided to start on my closer line and was rewarded with a run of fish, before having to go long again and so the day unfolded with me catching a total of 40 bream from 12oz to over 4lb. I had a brilliant day and learnt loads in the process such what to look for in a liner and proper bite and it proved a couple of rig ideas for me. I was also finally able to test the still water rod to the max and found that not only did it cast well but it also handles very light lines very well. The guys who went to withy all struggled and Stu won the knock up with less than 10lb.

Next time I hope that they come with me.

Todber Christmas Match, 15/12/12

It was time for the annual pilgrimage to Todber Manor Fisheries for their Christmas match, I do not usually take any Christmas match seriously due to the fact that they should be fun and this one did not disappoint  I drew peg 37 on Park lake, one off the flyer for once and with Will Bohne for company on peg 38, Mark Poppleton on peg 5 and all the rest around I was guaranteed a few laughs even though the weather promised to be crap.

My peg was a standard 14.5m wide so I set up a rig for across, a carp rig and F1 rig for 6m and also my new Commercial King 8ft F1 Wand that I had received earlier in the week, this got set up with a small scoop feeder just in case the weather was truly against us.

Bait for the day was pellets, pellets, a few maggots and ½ a tin of corn, at the all in I went out to 6m fed 10 4mm pellet and dropped a 4mm expander into the middle, it took around 10 minutes for my first fish, a skimmer followed quickly by a 6lb carp. Now at this point I thought that I had cracked it straight away but after a slow next 30 minutes I was forced to battle the wind and go across the far side for a few small carp.

I was going nowhere and had nothing to lose so out went the tip rod, this was quickly christened so I decided to stay on that and tried to build a maggot line down the track, this never worked and I managed around 10 carp on the tip over the last couple of hours.

I finished with 55lb odd and this was enough for 5^th over all, I won a quid off Pez but was harry’ed with 80 odd pounds to my left and 58 to my right. Mark won the day with nearly a ton from peg 5, well done mate. Same time next year but can we go back onto Wadmill??

Bristol Avon Practice, 12/12/12

I decided to go to the Avon for a quick practice and to try a few things before the match on Sunday; I pegged myself on the dead stretch two pegs above the blue footbridge (not too far from the parking), but I had no idea as to how to approach the river.

As you can see there had been a small frost and on my journey up to the river the thermometer had not gone above -5 degrees C, not a good sign. But there was a tinge of colour and the water was moving quite fast so I decided to fish a ground bait line down the middle of the river, worm down the inside reeds and a waggler line across. I mixed the ground bait and before setting up the pole I chucked out a licky bread feeder to the far side to see what would happen, the answer was that I would catch 2 chub for a total of around 3lb in the first 10 minutes whilst trying to set up pole rigs. The hooklength was 0.12 and a size 14 B560 with a 7.5mm punch of bread and a small wire cage feeder, cast and wait, easy.

After the initial flurry I decided that I had better start feeding the far side so I started to introduce some maggot only around 10-12 every run through and then I balled in 8 jaffas with no feed and cupped in 4 smaller balls with a mix of caster, hemp and dead pinkie in them. This was all on the 13m line and I then droppered in some worm and caster down the inside hoping for a perch.

Starting on the long pole and a single maggot the flow was proving to be troublesome even with a 2g float so I decided to set up a bolo rod with a 3g float, the difference was instant with runs of small dace and roach from further down the swim than I could reach with the pole rig. When the flow was not as strong and especially straight after topping up the pole was still better as the fish seemed to be higher up the swim and I would get a bite most runs through a couple of inches off the deck. The water level was fluctuating alot though as usual for down this stretch and staying in touch with the fish was tricky.

I tried the worm line a number of times throughout the day but did not get a bite, I do not believe that  it should be written off but in future I will fish it at the base of the near shelf, possibly feeding the worm in soil or leam and fishing a flat float over the top. 

The waggler line was the weight building line of the day with numbers of better roach, dace and a few small chub succumbing to double maggot either just tripping bottom or on the drop. I was using my 13ft CC superlight match with a Black magic 30 reel loaded with 4lb Cenex sinking mainline, the best float was a browning 3AA straight waggler with a 0.10 hooklength to a size 20 Carbon Match hook.  Come match day I would have 2 rigs to fish this line a straight unloaded for dragging and a thin straight or insert for OTD or tripping through. A top and bottom float may also be an idea but I noticed that I would catch the odd chub and there was no way of keeping them coming in the clear water, I tried upping the feed when it looked like being a good day but this just killed off everything so I reigned my feeding back in and managed to catch the odd fish until the end. I finished with double figures and a whole host of ideas to make the day on Sunday better; I also chucked the licky feeder out at the end as I was packing up and managed a couple of decent roach so that’s the get me out of jail tactic sorted.  It is raining between now and then so it should be 3g rigs, flattys and lobworms on the Bomb.

My way with bread, part 1

With the winter starting to truly show its colours with wind and rain abound I thought that I would share with you a few of my bread fishing tips that I have picked up over the years. Bread is an awesome bait all year round but it is particularly good in the depths of winter on canals and rivers when they are running low and clear. Where, how and why I fish bread will follow in another post but for the start I am going to talk about bait prep.

HOOKBAIT

This is simplicity itself, I have two ways that I prepare it and that largely depends on the venue and the fish that I am after, if it is small roach and I need a lot of them I will take 3 slices of a Warburton medium loaf (the one in the waxed bread), cut the crusts off and then roll each one under a rolling pin to make it nice and compact, these hardened slices are then cut in half and placed into a resealable bag. This gives you 6 pieces of compacted bread for the hook so if 1 dries out a little on your bait tray, throw it in the edge and get another. Simplees. This is good but sometimes on particularly hard days you will notice that you are waiting ages for a bite on bread, what I believe causes this is that the fish will not eat it unless it is really soft, so I prepare another type of hooker bread. This is done by taking 3 slices of bread as above and then cutting off the crusts, cutting half and then placing into a resealable bag. As you may have noticed there is a lot of wastage from a sliced loaf with only 6 slices getting used, but, this bait will sit in the freezer ready to go for a couple of months.
Another time that I use bread in the winter is on carp venues either for popping up on the lead (which the soft hookers are used) or for dobbing on the pole around structure ( hard hooker is better for the amount of lifting and dropping). How I do this again will be covered later.

FEED

There are two schools of thought when it comes to bread feed, liquidised or punch crumb, I have  fished and prepared them both and have never really had any success with punch crumb and even in 3 meters of flowing water I would err to the side of liquidised bread. Personal preference I know but this is how I prepare it:





Firstly you need bread, my favourite for feed is Hovis white in the doorstep size, you will also need a few trays:

 Riddles, I use 2mm and a flour sieve:

And of course a food processor:

First step is to tear all the crusts off of the bread:

 Now put the bread through the food processor:

This can take a while so I usually go prepared:

Once it is liquidised I will then pass it through
a 2mm riddle to take out all the large lumps
that could over feed the fish at this time of year:

 And you should be left with something that looks like this:

All the left over large lumps can be passed back through the food processor to try and get as much from the loaf as possible, and then riddled again. Anything that I cannot get smaller  will put into a bag and freeze for another day.
At this time I will also riddle a couple of handfuls through the flour sieve to make some super fine bread for super hard days. But you will be left with  something that looks a little like this:

These bags can be used straight away or, as I tend to do, place them in the freezer then they will become even finer. I hope that this helps your fishing in the future and I will be looking at tactics, rigs and feeding in later posts.
See you on the bank.

AT Winter League Rd5 K&A Canal

This round saw us off to the Kennet and Avon Canal around Marlborough, the team was in charge of organizing the round so thank you to John for doing all the shouting and organizing the draw. I was passed G2 which put me on the Beeches stretch of the canal around Great Bedwyn, it turned out to be the swim that won the open the week before with 16lb of big perch, but I didn't find that out until halfway through the match.

We all thought that it was going to be a hard day and with there having been 32 blanks from 50 anglers the week before I decided to hedge my bets and try to catch a fish before moving onto bigger and better things. So my plan was simple, a bread line with 2 rigs down the deepest water straight in front, a shallow bread line If I needed it and a worm line that I put in 13m down the canal towards the end peg on my right. My rigs were a standard bagging bread rig with a 0.6g DS14H on 0.12-0.08 a size 20 B511 and no.5 elastic through the 2 and 3 of my power match kit, a light bread rig with a 0.4 DS14 on 0.1-0.07 a size 20 B511 with no.3 elastic again through 2 sections. My worm rig was a 4X14 Mick Bassett choppy on 0.16-0.12 a size 16 B560 with yellow browning hollow through 1 section of my match kit. The shallow bread rig didn’t get used but consisted of a small 4X10 float on the same line as the light rig but no.2 elastic.

At the all in I fed a 50p piece ball of licky on the track line and also 10 dendras and about 20 casters  onto my worm line, I then shipped out with my lighter bread rig and proceeded to trot a 4mm then 3mm punch down the swim. Nothing happened for 30 minutes apart from a tiny indication so I tried my worm line, third twitch and the float slipped under, I panicked and struck too soon missing my first bite!! I severely reprimanded myself and dropped the rig in again this time no mistake as the float twitched and disappeared from view, 1, 2, 3, strike and a 4oz perch was on its way into the net. This was brilliant news as I hadn’t blanked so I tried again but no indications so I decided to rest it for a few minutes, I dropped in on the bread line again and first run through the float positively buried about a yard down the swim. A solid strike saw a couple of yards of no.3 elastic pouring out the tip and a few nervous minutes later a 12oz skimmer was in the keepnet. This was followed by a slow 10 minutes or so when Dave Tucker, our bank runner came to visit, but as soon as he left I caught a couple more roach and small skimmers, the bites were coming as soon as the bread was settling so I put the bagging rig on to see what would happen.

As you can see the main difference is the distance from the hook to the bulk, the bagging rig is to get the bait to a level where I think the fish are feeding and do it quickly, it is also slightly more beefy so you can swing bigger fish and also try to boss bigger fish out of the swim.

Back to the match and as soon as I put the bagging rig on I started to motor with 4-10 oz skimmers coming in one a put in for 15 fish, but they disappeared as quickly as they came so I fed a slightly larger ball of bread and looked back on the worm line.

First put in resulted in a positive bite and a 3lb bream coming into the net, then another run of skimmers before bites again dried up, I refed and moved back onto the bread line where again I had a quick run of fish and this was how my match ran until the last hour with me taking a run of fish before swapping lines.

Coming into the last hour I knew that I had a very big weight as I had taken 4 3lb+ bream and at this point 2 massive perch as well as lots of smaller skimmers up to a pound and a half but averaging 6-10oz. Suddenly though it was like flicking a switch and I had to work really hard for  my bites in the last hour as the fish all but shut up shop, I still managed another huge perch on the worm line and a few skimmers off both lines and to get my hopes up 2 minutes before the end the float dipped and I was hooked up into a substantial fish that I saw through the clear water was a pike around 4lb that I tried to swing to hand but it dropped off. The all out was called and I could take stock of what had just happened, I had caught a skimmer a chuck on more than one occasion and managed 3 perch for around 9-10lb as well as the 4 proper bream that had succumbed to worm and bread. I had no idea what I had cauight but the scales would tell me, I was on boards so up to the far end we went and Rich Chave of GBMV was on the other end peg, he had 3 perch and a few bits for nearly a big 4lb, then there was another high 4 and a 3lb before the guy ‘~Dave’ from Talisman who was pegged to my left. He had a boat opposite and had managed to get a few skimmers and good roach from underneath it on maggot over groundbait, he weighed a total of 22lb but I was confident that I had more. As I lifted my net I thought that the man flu that I had been suffering with lately was kicking in again as it felt heavy, it wasn't man flu but 3 weighs later I had 40lb 3oz on the scales, we quickly weighed one of the perch separately and it went 3lb 5oz!!! I wish that I had weighed them all separately as they were all of a similar size, MASSIVE.

The end peg had managed 11lb but he lost 2 very big fish early that seemed to spook the fish out of his swim, back off to the football club and it turned out that my weight was enough for 1^st but another guy on A1 had managed 34lb of Perch and Bream for second, then it was the two pegs either side of me for 3^rd and 4^th overall.

On the team front we managed to win on the day with 2 section wins and only 1 blank but other sections had been dire with ounces picking up section wins.

The next round is back on a cold Avon so here’s hoping for another flyer.

AAF Gp2 Fur and Feather

It was back to Witherington Farm again for the annual Christmas match and I was a little late getting to the lakes after a small spot of stomach trouble the night before, that was not going to stop me though and I was there for the draw. Peg 10 on Cottage was my spot for the day (after a slight Mayo rejig) so there was a distinct feeling of de ja vu, the plan was the same as the weekend although, I had added a waggler rod but doubted whether I would be able to use it due to a cross wind.

So the all in came and again it was groundbait at 11.5m, maggot at 5 and tip at the island, this time I had also added a pellet line at 14.5m towards the island to see if the fish were in the shallower water and did not want the groundbait. The bomb and bread went out at the start and after 10 minutes I had a positive indication that saw me pick up the rod, go tight on a fish that ran along the Island and then dropped off, I was not impressed as it was a QM1 that it had come off and this doesn’t happen often. Back out to the island and I managed a small carp on the bread but there were fewer liners and indications than at the weekend so I was soon looking for other options.

I went in on my groundbait line, I had upped the float from last time to a 0.7g FP500 to counteract the stiffening breeze left to right, again it was 0.16-0.1 and a size 20 Tubertini 808 on pink browning elastic. Again it was slow, but I was able to put a few small fish together, I tried the inside line but the response was alot slower than at the weekend so I started feeding pinkies to try and get a response.

The inside rig was a 4X10 Carpa F1 with a strung shotting pattern 0.12-0.08 and a 20 Silver fish match, elastic was a double no.4, I looked overdepth and shallow but it was obvious that they were not settling anywhere. My break came in the last half hour when the wind died slightly and I was able to go out onto the 14.5m pellet line, this gave me a run of small skimmers but is was not enough as the guy on peg 9 had been catching carp steadily on ‘bread’ on the method and John Dewberry on peg 7 had snagged a few better carp on pellet on the pole out of the corner.

As the scales came round it turned out that my low 5Kg weight was only enough for 4^th in section as Chris (I don’t use pullers) Perry had bored a carp on late in the match on his skimmer rig.

It was a good day with a great crack so I hope that I can make it next year.

Witherington Farm Teams of 4

For this round it had been decreed by the snake mafia that I should be on Cottage and then John drew me out peg 10. Normally this would not be a problem but I had no idea how to approach the lake let along the peg due to a serious lack of confidence, things were made worst when I ended up pegged next to team mate Les so I challenged him to a quid and cracked on.

I looked at the lay of the land and decided to set up a bomb with bread for the island, a method for the same line in case it was good, a skimmer line at 11.5m where I had found a serious hole and finally a 5m line where I was going to fish for roach with maggot. I mixed two lots of ground bait, one for the skimmer line and one for the method, prepped my pellets and was ready with loads of time for the all in.

I cupped in 3 balls of groundbait and dead maggot at 11.5m before I despatched the bomb out into the island margins, instantly there were liners and after 20 minutes the tip went round and I set the hook into a very annoyed carp. He was annoyed because I had hooked him in the tail, so I added 2 no.8 shot 4 inches from the hook and the very next cast the tip went round again with another cottage lump ending up in the keepnet.

There was nothing else forth coming on the bomb with bread so I started to look for some silvers on my other 2 lines, my skimmer rig was a 0.4g MW pinger on 0.06mm mainline to a 0.10mm bottom with a size 20 Tubertini 808 tied to the end. My elastic choice was pink browning reflex for this line as it is nice and soft but with enough backbone to set the hook in shallow water and also deal with any rouge carp that may show up. Single maggot was the best bait but it was less than hectic with the odd roach and small skimmer coming to the net. The inside line was slightly better and I managed a quick run of slightly better skimmers but still nothing to set the world on fire.

The method went across to the island on a couple of occasions but I had trouble with funny bites that I only managed to connect with a couple and they were small goldfish.

It had been a struggle for most and I was left regretting not packing a waggler rod as Les had managed a run of 3 carp on the float from the shallows next to the island. I thought it would be close between us at the end and I was right. I finished with just over 20lb to les’s 18odd and we were 4^th and 5^th on the lake, team on the day managed to stay in 3^rd and closed the gap to 2^nd so a good result there.