Winter Carp fishing on the canal. 23/12/14

Shearwater day out, 22/12/14

After my bad day at Todber I had arranged to meet up with Daz at Shearwater to get rid of some bait, with a stiff westerly forecast I got there early to reserve a couple of slightly more sheltered swims opposite the boathouse.

I had decided to fish a groundbait feeder at around 30yds but those plans were scuppered when I broke my quiver tip on the third cast, I wasn't happy. Fortunatly I had brought a few spare rods so I banged a banjo feeder out 65 turns of my Ultegra 5500XTC, the hook was baited with 3 dead reds and it didn't take long for the fist bream to hang itself on the 45g feeder.

I got bored of this after the 4th Bream and decided to set up a waggler to get rid of all the spare maggot that I had, I used a 14ft Acolyte rod, a 4AAA insert waggler with 5 No.8's down the line in 6 feet of water.  I decided to fish quite heavy due to the hoped for bream and had a 0.10mm hooklength to a size 18 B911 F1, I threw in a few balls of my groundbait that I had mixed for the feeder and then started loose feeding maggot over the top, all the time I was fishing the long range feeder for a few more bream and a shallow wag at 40yds to no avail.

It was soon time and out went the waggler baited with double maggot, I missed the first couple of indications but hen hit this pearler of a roach:

After that it was near enough a bit a chuck and the trick became hitting them in the choppy conditions, I found that I could miss a bite at the back of the feed and then get a skimmer at the front and I soon got into the swing of things. I was also having to feed two whole pouches of maggot to keep the fish down in the water.

Daz was also having a great day and he ended up with 31 bream to 4lb all taken on the method feeder in line with the buoys, I don't know how many I caught in the end but I had roach to over a pound, perch to a pound, a few rudd and lots of bream to 4lb all on the waggler I also managed a dozen bream of 3-4lb all on the long range feeder.  As I was packing up my kit I started a new line at 85 turns and had a few off this as well, no carp though.

Once again Shearwater has come good and I cannot wait until I go back, I might even try the pole!!

Todber Christmas Match, 20/12/14

Once again I had been looking forward to this match for ages and I was not disappointed as some of the best anglers in the area turned up to try and win a hamper that had been lovingly put together by Linda.  I was met at the draw by the rest of the Azi anglers as we had descended on the venue in force, we had also managed a cheeky practice on the Tuesday previous so we knew roughly what to expect.  We knew it was going to be hard as 46 people had booked in and this saw the lakes being split over the three main match lakes, I wanted to be in a corner or wides on the top Whitepost lake, or in the golden triangle 5-7, 37,38 on Park.

Left handed I managed peg 5 on the top Whitepost so I was in the right area, what I hadn’t counted on was nearly every peg being in on the lake so I had a restricted far margin to chuck a waggler at, since this was my banker tactic I was already in trouble.

I also set up a groundbait line to fish at 14.5m and a margin rig just off the bush to my left as this is usually good for a couple of fish, finally I set up a scoop feeder as well if I was desperate.  My day was a bit of a non starter if I am honest and in the first 3 hours I had 6 small fish on the pole, I was moaning by text to a mate at this point and I got hit in the leg by my rod butt on the feeder for my first carp.  I tried starting a new maggot line at 13m but this produced a few small roach and a perch before drying up, then a run of 15 roach on the wag in the last hour saw my day peter out.

The fishery staff did the weigh in and I had gone a quid with Pez on the flyer peg 7 and Jim on peg4, Pez had 2 carp and a skimmer for 7lb 14oz, Jim had 6lb 2oz with 2 carp and a few bits, My 1 carp and bits went 5lb 1oz.  I had guessed 5lb so I was happy with that, I was the lowest weight from all of the Azzi anglers and Pez ensured the maximum amount of people saw me give him a quid.

It was a brilliant day and I am looking forward to next year already, although a few more fish would be nice.

18/12/14 Viaduct Costcutter.

It was back off to Viaduct, this time for a Thursday cost cutter.  There were 11 of us this time all on Campbell, and after a brew and a chat I was first in the draw bag for peg 125, not where I wanted.

I decided not to spend too long looking for a carp as I didn’t think that I would get too many, the weather has seen them being a bit funny of late so if I wasn’t on them I would not get them to move.  The back up plan was to fish for silvers and try to take that pool.

I set up a bomb, waggler and margin rig for the carp than a 0.4g rig to fish for silvers at 13m, I took the decision to fish at 13m as I knew that the wind would be picking up throughout the day and at the start the wind was off my back so I thought that I would be alright.

At the start I fed 4 balls of ground bait and dead maggot on the pole line and cast out the bomb, I managed a couple of small liners so swapped to the waggler for the next 30 minutes casting a 6mm cube of meat around the swim, I again had a couple of liners but nothing concrete.  It was at this point that the guy on peg 119 was playing his 4the carp so I decided to swap looking for the silvers.

I lowered the rig in and in the next 10 minutes I lost 4 large fish that I think were big skimmers tha I am sure were all foul hooked, frustrated got off my box and pulled a light feeder rod out of the bag and set up with a small groundbait feeder I started a new line at 23 turns.  This seemed like a master stroke as first cast I had a roach, followed by a pound skimmer then another couple of roach before it went quiet.  What happened next was unexpected as the tip gently knocked a couple times so I picked up onto it and was soon unclipping the rod as a very angry carp decided to go on a bit of a jolly across the lake. A few minutes later I was slipping the net under and 8-9lb carp, not bad for a 0.12mm bottom and size 16.

That was it however for the feeder, back on the pole line I managed a few small skimmers but it was hard work in the wind, and the last line the margin gave me a couple of roach and a brace of perch for a pound and a half.

The end was welcomed and my silvers went 8lb 6oz, this was not enough on the day as 114 had 19lb and 130 had 14lb of skimmers and tench, the match was won with 70lb odd rom 119 and second was 123 with 60lb.

What would I do different?

I think that the better fish in cambell don’t settle over the groundbait and both weights that beat me fed just caster.

Viaduct open, 13/12/14

I decided on a little trip to Viaduct today to start getting ready for the winter league next month, I arrived a bit earlier than I had planned only to find out that there were only 3 booked in for the day, not the best start.  It then got worst when the Langport Christmas match got cancelled from the river so we got moved off of Campbell, Rolly had turned up by now and we were waiting on number 3.  We waited 30 minutes and in the end decided to start without the third person, we also moved on to the far side of Lodge opposite the guys on the Langport match.  I was on 59 and Rolly was on 62.

My plan was simple, try to catch an early carp and then aim for skimmers, I decided on a 14.5m groundbait and dead maggot line, a 14m caster and corn line next to the rope that holds onto the aerator, 2 margin lines, a bomb and a waggler rod both got set up as well.  I was ready (almost) for the nominal all-in and we decided to start almost at the same time, I potted 4 balls of groundbait with caster and dead maggot in it on the long pole line, as I had been plumbing up I had found a small slope and my plan was to fish halfway down it so that I had a semi hard bottom to fish on. I fed my rope line with 50 caster and 20 grains of corn and chucked a bread hookbait out into the open water to my right.

After 40 fruitless minutes on the bomb I tried the waggler set at 3 feet deep and baited with 3 maggots, this gave me a small skimmer but I soon had enough as small roach were ragging the hookbait nearly every chuck. I shipped out on my skimmer line with 2 dead reds and it slipped under almost straight away, skimmer number 1 was soon in the keepnet it was followed by a couple of smaller fish so I topped up and tried the rope line. A missed bite and small roach later I topped it up and started to rotate around all my lines, I even started the two margin lines about an hour and a half into the match to try and make something happen quicker. There was an hour long spell when I managed 5 decent skimmers, 1 on meat that I started feeding next to the rope and the rest on dead red over the groundbait.

I managed another quick run of smaller hybrids and a pound perch in the last 10 minutes but other than that the day was quite uneventful. The weigh in was quick, I had 10lb 12oz and Rolly had 9lb 12oz so that last gasp perch was very handy, Rolly had caught far more fish than me but fewer of the bonus skimmers, he had been fishing live maggot on the hook.

It was a cold but enjoyable day and I have learnt a lot ready for the winter league next year.

What would I do different?

To be honest not a lot, I think that next time I will have a softer waggler rod and also a hair on for bigger baits to avoid the tiny roach.

Withy Teams of 4, 06/12/14

It was back down to Witherington farm for the teams of 4 this weekend and after a week on exercise I was looking forward to it, I was on the outer snake again and after the last time I was pretty confident of a decent day but the weather decided to throw and oar in at the last minute. 

As you can see I was there nice and early but there was a cheeky frost and half of Selwood was under ice, I had my breakfast and then got my briefing off John before the draw took place.  Kev came back with end peg 24 that made me happy, then gave me my dead reds and off we went to our respective pegs.

For the day I set up a dobbing rig, a skimmer rig, a method and a rig for the base of the near shelf off to my right, at the all in I fed one skimmer line with a small ball of groundbait and dead reds, some corn and caster down the edge before dobbing up and down the near and far edge to no avail with 3 maggots.

45 minute in I tried the feeder for 15 minutes with no indications so went onto the skimmer line, by this time the guy on the peg to my left had managed to dob a carp and had a couple of skimmers on his silvers line so I needed a start to my day. It came quickly on the skimmer line as I had a pound skimmer quite quickly but then nothing, not even a sign of a fish. I started another 2 skimmer lines and started to rotate, it took another hour for skimmer 2 and then skimmer 3 another hour after that. Everyone I the section had been catching as far as I could see so I spent the last hour and a bit trying for a carp with no joy.

The tale of the scales was that I was last in section with 3lb 2oz, from the end peg so I was not too happy at the end, but it seemed that a lot of people struggled with a few blanks from all for the lakes so at least I had avoided that. My section was won by Graham Hougton with 33lb odd from the middle of the section, so well done mate, I don't know who won overall as disappeared early to make up from exercise week.

What would I do differently?

Take more coffee and biscuits and possibly start playing candy crush.

I don’t think I could have done much more apart from wait for a carp all day and that was not in the plan and may have seen a blank.

AAF Gp2 Match 2, K&A 12/11/14

We were supposed to be on the Avon at Chippenham for this one, but due to the amount of rain that has fallen lately we decided to move it to the K&A at Bishops Cannings, The main reasons were the fact that I would be very difficult fishing making it unfair for the less experience members of the group and the fact that the banks would be treacherous.  It proved to be a good decision as the river broke the banks in the morning and we stayed reasonably dry.

I had volunteered to peg the stretch, well I do live 6 minutes away, so I was walking up and down the bank with a small headlamp and a set of shears at 6 am, I did my best at cutting out some of the worst pegs and even managed to check the depth on 1 swim, it was deeper than my wellies!!!!!  I finished pegging with wet feet, unlocked the gate and went to the pub for my breakfast where everyone seemed to be moaning about the rain. I hadn’t noticed it really as I had been too busy pegging the venue, and my Team Army Gortex held up to the onslaught.  Breakfast eaten, pools paid, banter had, team briefs given and the draw done I was soon zooming towards C11.

As I had not prepped a lot for the canal the attack would have to be simple, bread short, groundbait long ish and a couple of worm lines, it was only 11m wide so I was limited on the number of swims that I could put in.

The bread line went at the base of the near shelf at 2+2 and for the groundbait line I found a nice plataue at 10m lest to the left of centre in the swim. Here is a picture of the rigs:

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I decided that I would fish Lobs tight over in the shallower water, and I also plumbed a rig for down the track to fish Dendys:

I was ready well before the all-in so abused Si and Rikki on the last 2 pegs on the stretch to my right, sorted Shaun some groundbait on the next peg, as I thought it would do him better than the pellet on his side tray.

As Kev called the start I cupped a small ball of bread in, and then 3 balls of 50/50 groundbait and leam with a pinch of dead pinkie, caster and hemp went in on the long line.  I shipped the bread rig out and had to wait 5 minutes for my first fish which was then followed by another 15 or so of his mates in short order all at 10pp, then the stamp of the fish reduced to tiny fish and I took the decision to feed a thumbnail of bread again.  This did the trick as I had a 4oz roach, a few bread fish and a rogue perch before I had to re-feed and this was the pattern for the first hour and a half, I even managed a run of 3 small hyrids that got my hopes up for a big weight but as they disappeared so did the rest of the fish on the line. I dropped in another small ball and tried the groundbait line.

I shipped out with a pinkie and had a similar stamp of fish straight away, maggot and caster resulted in smaller fish so I stayed on the pinkie.  Managed a run of fish from here but as the sun came out and the colour started to drop out of the canal the fishing got harder and harder, I fed 2 lobs on the across line and 10 dendies with some caster and maggot down the track.

I tried the lobby line for a couple of small perch, the track line didn’t result in anything all day and the fishing got harder and harder, I ended up twitching flouro pinkies around the swim for micro perch just to keep something going in the net. I was happy to hear the all-out.

The scales came down and every one from my left was regaling tales of woe and pike as well, Rikki and Si had caught well from the end and I estimated about 2KG as I had not been counting my fish. Rikki had 3.00kg from the end, Si pipped him with 3.49kg then there was a kilo and a smaller weight before I managed to tip 2.76kg on the scales which was enough to do everyone to my left for third in section.  Ben in A section managed a 3^rd in section with 2.69kg and Daz had a mare in b section for 0.94kg and 9 points, it was still; enough for team 4^th on the day which is enough to get us into the team final if we stay there.

All in all it was a good day, I would have preferred to be on the river but there is always January.

What would I do differently?

I will try to get some squatt next time as that may have given me a few more fish when it got hard,

I spent too long on the worm line again so need to get that out of my system somehow.

Jefferies Cup, 05/11/2014

I was rudely awoken by my alarm at 0315 this morning so that I could drive across the country and take part in the Jefferies Cup at on the Nene in March.  It was an easy run at that time in the morning and I was soon enjoying a breakfast and waiting for the rest of the Army Teams to turn up.  The morning went too smoothly when I missed out on being a team captain and was soon having A8 thrust into my hand, in Army B was myself, Rikki, Bri and Gaz so we had half a chance if it was a good draw.

Kev said he knew the way so Craig, who was pegged next to me on A7, and I followed him to the wrong section, oh how we laughed, not Kevs fault; he had been given a bum steer.  Five minutes later we were pulling up in the right section and finding our pegs.

Settling down I decided to fish bread short, groundbait by the boats and a worm line down the river to my right, my groundbait was the first job and a mix of Gros Gardons, No.1, Lake and brown Crumb with a few special bits was soon ready for a rest. I then spent a bit of time plumbing up and found a few problematic bits of weed in the swim, but after 10 minutes I soon had 3 areas of the swim earmarked and finished my prep.

I was readyish for the all in apart even though I had been chatting to Craig for most of the time; we had already decided to go a quid when we found out that we were in the same section so I was surprised when he started giving me tactical gems. I repaid the favour, sit on the dry stuff and use a hook. I fed a small ball of licky bread at 2+2, then 3 balls of groundbait across to the boat, all quite hard as I wanted them to take a while to break down and reveal the goodies inside them. I went straight out on the bread line and started catching straight away. I was on a 0.6g float with a 0.08mm hooklength to a 20 B511, this was set on doubled 4 again and it was working a treat even letting me swing 4oz roach with ease but still remaining soft enough not to bump any off. It was 30 minutes in and Craig had his second bite on the worm that I had seen and I was swinging my 30^th fish to hand for close to 2lb. It was at this point that my day went wrong as I decided to feed my worm line, now this could have been an inspired decision and I could have had 20lb of skimmers or tench but I didn’t.

After feeding the worm line it was back on the bread fish but they had reduced in size drastically, a small nugget of bread and depth change sorted it for 3 more fish but then it started to turn into a grind. I tried on the worm line for a couple of small perch and across for a couple of roach before they backed off but it was head down time.

I rotated trough the swims taking as many fish as I dare from each one, a few eels started coming out on worm to my left and right so I swapped my hooklength to a 0.16mm bottom and a size 13 B711, this didn’t put the fish off, so is one to remember. I tried loose feeding over the groundbait line but the fish seemed to spook off to many loose offerings, so a small nugget of groundbait after every rotation was the plan.

The flow was tricky, it was going left to right, then it stopped and flowed the other way for 2 ½ hours before going back left to right for the last hour, odd. The fish preferred it going left to right. The wind and leaves on the water and bottom were also a pain but I was steadily amassing a weight.

The last 30 minutes saw a quick flurry of better roach and then it was all over, I was confident that I had done Craig but the guy to my left had been sneaking fish in all day from one line down the track, Craig had 6lb odd, I beat that with 9lb 4oz then the guy to my left had 10lb dead.  I ended up 7^th in section, Craig was12th and kev was last, I didn’t Hang around for the results as I had to do the 3 hour drive home.

What would I do different

Not a lot really I could say leave the worm in the car but if I had done that it would have been a worm day. Next time I will be stricter on myself for 100 seconds on the worm and if they are small I will come off it as they were taking longer to catch than the Gustas.

Withy Teams of 4, 01/11/2014

A couple of weeks ago I got asked if I would fish for Dandys K2 on the withy Teams of 4, well being at a loose end most Saturdays because my better half works I accepted not even asking what lake I would be on.  I arrived at the café to a nice welcome from my old team mates and new ones as well as everyone else at the draw.  Bacon butty eaten, worm collected and tactics discussed the draw took place and I was off to peg 36 on the outer snake.

I will be honest and I do not get on too well with the outer snake most of the time so when I drew middle of the section, on the wrong bank and with the ripple finishing just to my left I thought that I was in for a grueller.  I set up a skimmer rig for 11.5m, a meat rig to try and mug a couple of carp on and a margin rig, I also set up my new Spectron 10ft tip rod with a small method feeder.  Bait was just as simple, 4mm pellet, method mix consisting of 50/50 micros and groundbait, 6mm meat, a few expanders and some dead maggot.

The all in sounded and I cast the feeder against the mud on the far bank and started loose feeding pellet on my skimmer line and that sums up my first hour and a bit, one positive indication that I missed.  I tried the skimmer line at this point and managed a couple of quick fish but they didn’t like me catching there friends and got finicky really quickly so I decided to try fishing down the edge like I would across.  This consisted of using my big pot to feed a walnut sized ball of method mix and 5-10 cubes of meat next to the platform down to my right. Over the next 30 minutes or so I had 4 or 5 decent skimmers on this line, re feeding after every fish with the same amount of bait.

At this point I moved back onto the skimmer line and had another quick run and this is how my day panned out until the last 30 minutes of the match, I had a half decent net of silvers but needed a final push of carp to get decent points.  I went down the edge over the top of a small ball and 5 cubes of meat and within 45 seconds I was attached to a big angry carp, it gave me a bit of a run around before I was able to net it but at close to 8lb it was worth it. I managed 3 more carp and a couple of silvers over the next 25 minutes in the best spell of my match and the all-out came as I was least expecting it.

I had gone a quid with Nick Mac and he was claiming that I had won it, I agreed but we still had to weigh in to prove it, Jay on the end peg had 58lb 1oz then there was a mid 40lb a 58lb 2oz then Nic mac on 20lb odd. Next to Nick was Ray ‘the bagger’ Hayward and he managed about 30lb. I had 17lb of skimmers and 18lb of carp for 35lb plus change, and this beat all but 2 to my right, one of which was Jon Gray on the end who had over 70lb, all this gave me 5 points .

The team did well with Stumpy coming second in his section and John winning the second round on the bounce. I am off to the Nene this week so I need to swap all my kit back over…..again.

What would I do differently?

 Would use bigger hookbaits on the method, the double dead res was getting ragged by tiny fish with me failing to hook a fish. 

I would fish a pole line where I was chucking the feeder until the wind became too strong rather than just fishing the tip.

I would put in a couple more lines just to try and find a few fish, 5 hours is a long time.

South West WL, Rd 2, Newbridge

So it was a drive through a sleepy Bath city center at 0730 for me followed by a meet for the second round of the South West WL on the Bristol Avon. My team again was Premier Amalgamated and even though we had been joined by fellow Fosters Team Army stalwart, Kev, we were still down 2 anglers come the draw. I was team captain for the day and due to the fact that we had waited so long for the last 2 anglers we were the last to draw so I couldn’t even use my magic drawing hand.

Kev was sat on the bridge itself so had the chance of a good day, I was on permanent peg 24, and this looked good for a few of the target species but I ended my match near enough whilst setting up. My Z10 had been delivered a couple of days before and I was soon sat on m y box plumbing up a couple of rigs for a long roach line and a short lobworm line at the base of the near shelf 10m downstream. I also decided to try and catch bream or skimmers out of my peg so set up a groundbait feeder to fish just short of the far bank foliage. I was ready for the all-in even having had to mix two different groundbait mixes without a drill as I had left it at home, but as it sounded out went 8 babies heads on the pole line followed by 8 cricket balls onto a line just short of the far bank tree line.

I shipped my 2g roach rig out onto the longer line and managed 4 fish in 5 run downs but then the swim started to wain almost straight away and by the end of the first 30 minutes I had only managed another roach and a couple of small perch. I decided to give it a couple of small balls of groundbait and then chucked the feeder across the river, this was a nonstarter really and only produced 2 small chublet and a few small perch all day, and I spent a long time on it in between the canoes.

Speaking of canoes, I don’t mind sharing the water with other people but they were sooo bloody minded it was unreal, on more than one occasion I was unable to cast or fish due to a line of boats coming through or they would stop in front of you for a rest/chat….. Not too happy.

Back to the fishing, the pole gave me a few perch on the short line, including some wasps on half a lobworm and I was able to scratch a few more roach from on the pole line but at the end I was glad to finish, especially after not putting a fish into the net for the last hour.

The all out was called and after a wait the scales arrived, the two downstream pegs had pound weights, Andy power had 7lb odd mostly on the wag and the guy to my left had 8lb+. I had guessed at 3-4lb and was spot on with about 3 1/2lb for third in section. Kev walked up to see me after he had weighed and he had managed a section win with 8lb 10oz I think, and we had another second in section in the next section, unfortunately the missing anglers cost us and we were the strongest team on the day propping up the whole table, this last also put us into last in the league.

Off on exercise for a few weeks now so I will let you know how I get on when I am back.

What would I do different?

I should not have balled in on the feeder line, it had been a cold night, I should have gone softly softly to see if any fish were there.

I should have set up a crowquill/ bolo for the pole line so that I could explore more of the swim, the guy downstream managed a few nice Hybrids on the crowquill over the pole line.

Should have set up a wag to fish across as it appears that it was a better wag peg than bream peg historically. 

South West WL, Round 1, Crane and Swineford, Bristol Avon, 5/10/14

Since I left had Browning Andover in the summer I had been looking for something to do this winter, I had been looking at a couple of small winter leagues but it appeared that they didn’t want new teams entering so myself and a few others were all at loose ends. However a few weeks ago a message popped up on facebook from none other than Mark Harper from PI Thatchers asking for anglers to compete in the AT South West WL, I jumped at the chance as I have never fished this part of the Avon before and fancied the challenge of going against the likes of PI Thatchers and Maver Batheaston on their own territory. I was also promised lots of info so who could refuse that offer?

I could barely sleep the night before I was that excited, even with the added stress of moving house the next day, but it was not long until I was trying to park up at the draw venue, unfortunately the owners of the rugby club had heard that I was coming so they had not opened and we were all parked up the main road. Not ideal.

As I walked towards the main throng of people I bumped into a few friendly faces from all over the south of England, including Colin Gittens from Premier Angling, James Carty who is now fishing for PI Thatchers and many many more.

It turned out that the team I was fishing for would be an adhoc team under the premier angling banner, it included Colin and the team plan that we decided on was to catch as many fish as possible in 5 hours. I missed the team getting called for the draw but soon found that I would be sat on peg f5….. It meant nothing to me either at the time. I got given some rough directions but I decided to follow the first car I could to the main car park for ease.  Mark was trying to sort me some info on my peg but I was basically told to fish for roach as I was an end peg and that I might get a couple of chub on the wag under the far bank tree. This was good enough for me and I was soon winging my way to my peg as I was envisaging a massive walk, I was wrong and it turned out that I was the closest peg to the car park. Things got better when I got to my peg as you can see from the photo.

My plan was quite simple and I plumbed up a waggler rig first, well when I say plumbed I set it to 11ft deep and noticed that it had a few feet to go so I left it at that for a start, I used a 4 AAA insert waggler and put a 0.10mm bottom to a size 18 hook in case of the chub. Next was the pole and on plumbing up I found the flow was at 14.5m, with just over a top 5 of depth a 1g pencil and 2g round bodied floats were set up for that line, again with decent hooks and bottoms after the Thames the other week. Finally I set up a small maggot feeder to fish tight across just upstream of the tree tight to the brambles, as this was an out and out bonus fish rig the hooklength was 0.14 to a size 16 hook and I had it about 3 feet long for the start.

I was ready for the all in and once it was called out went 8 cannonballs onto the pole line at 14.5m with little feed in followed by 3 cupped balls laced with caster and hemp, I then sent the feeder across towards the brambles whilst trying to get my eye in with the catty. The wind was deceptive and I was cussing the fact that I could not get the bait far enough across the river when on my third cast on the feeder the tip bounced back. I struck and a good fish headed straight for the tree taking a little line, I managed to turn it and after a few hairy moments near the net a 4lb chub was soon being transferred to the keepnet. It was an awesome start and with shaking hands I rebaited and cast back out towards the far bank, 5 minutes later and a twitchy drop back saw a 6oz perch joining the chub. What a start, I now chinned off feeding maggot on the waggler line as it was difficult to remain accurate and so that I could reserve my maggot for the feeder line, I also reduced the size of the feeder with the idea of casting more often to keep the bait falling through the water.

After only another ten minutes another positive bite and another chub was hooked and carefully played across the river, and this continued until just after the hour mark I had 3 chub and a couple of perch in the keepnet for about 11lb. It had started to quieten down and I was getting indications from small fish so had a quick look on the pole, this was a good idea as I had 5 roach in 5 put ins, they were around 8-10 to the pound so I decided to swap my elastic up from a no.5 to a tight no.6 so that I could swing them more easily. It worked well but after 15 minutes disaster struck and my 14.5m section shattered inside the 13m section and this prevented me from fishing at full distance on top of my groundbait line. I decided to start feeding as close to where I had balled as possible so added a half butt onto the 13m of pole and rested it by chucking the feeder back across.

I had a quick indication that I missed and then the next cast I lost a chub in the tree when the hook bent out of shape, it was a 14 B560 so I swapped it to a 14 Carbon feeder and also made some floating maggots to offset the extra weight of the hook. As I had lost a fish I went back on the pole and had a quick run of roach and so my day carried on swapping between the pole and feeder trying to eek as many fish out as possible. I had managed another chub mid match and then the fishing dropped of and in the last hour was hard but I did lose one more decent fish on the feeder in the last 30 minutes when it ran in a weed bed under my rod tip.

The all out was called somewhere in the distance and I reckoned I had 15-18lb of fish, depending on the size of the chub, as the scales reached me the Thatchers angler on peg 1 had managed 16lb odd of perch and chub, then there was another double figure weight and then the 2 pegs upstream of me both struggled with 2 pounds and odds a piece. I pulled my net out and it felt good, 17lb 9oz good in fact and this was enough for the section.

Back at the car park I managed to claim my £1 side bet from James and then it was into the pub for the results. Thatchers won it by 3 points over Bathampton, and I managed to win the match by all of 5 ounces.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENT?

Not a lot really, maybe I should have spent a little more time on the pole trying to sort out the roach?

I also should have started on a stronger hook as I was not fishing for bream but it fortunately didn’t cost me.

And I will try not to break my pole again in future.

Thames Teams of 6, 14/9/14

It was a pilgrimage back up to the Swan at Radcott for the Thames Champs this week, 17 teams of 6 were in the pot fighting it out for the title.  I was fishing for the Southwest Nomads and the team also consisted of John, Dave, Kev, Ian and Trev so we had a half decent team, all we needed was a good draw. John managed to deliver on that front and all but one of us were close to the end of a section, I had E15 and this turned out to a couple of hundred yards upstream from where I was last week. In the middle of a field of cows I found my peg and was quite disappointed that I didn’t have a feature but as people turned up it appeared that I had around 8 pegs downstream without a person.

Looking at and plumbing around the swim I decided on a simple plan of a pole line in the flow, a worm line against the reeds to my right and the waggler across, there was a nice little depression just downstream of my peg and this is where I decided to put the groundbait at 11m.  I was ready well before time even though I had set up 2 rigs for roach, a rig for hemp the worm rig and I also set up a feeder rod just in case it was really hard or a breakage.

Bait was simple as well with a couple of pints of maggot, caster, worm, hemp and some groundbait, I also had some pinkies tucked away in reserve just in case it was a tiddler day like last week, this all tied in with the rough team plan of catch as many fish as you can in 5 hrs.  As the all-in was called I cupped in 6 balls of groundbait at 11m and fed a pinch of worms and caster in next to the reeds, I shipped out over the pole line and ran a maggot down the swim, on the second run through I was greeted by a gudgeon, next run a small chub, I thought I was I for a good day when I had another chublet and small roach all within the first 15 minutes and then it was time for the first boat of the day. As soon as it passed I dropped my bait into the still churning water and the float buried, as I struck the elastic poured out of the pole and I knew that I had something special on, judging by the head shakes it was another chub but his time much bigger but I will never know as it swam off downstream and the 0.08mm bottom was not man enough and parted.  I was gutted but carried on, I rested the main line and took a few small perch from the worm line but that died quickly like last week. I topped up both lines and tried the feeder to no avail for 15 minutes so it was back onto the main pole line again.

This is where the day started to go wrong as I could not catch enough numbers of fish from that line and they were all about 60 to the pound I decided to try and make something happen so I topped up with 3 balls of groundbait with no feed and then left this to settle by chucking the waggler out. I managed 2 small chub over the next 15 minutes but it was hard work and again the fish seemed to back off, this wasn’t helped by most of the boats that were coming through chugging over my waggler line. Anyway, I persevered and swapped between the pole and the wag for the rest of the match, I managed a couple of wasps of the worm line, they were about the same size of the hookbait, and then it was a case of getting my head down on the tiny fish from the pole line.

The last hour was better with a 3oz perch on the wag and another a bit bigger on the worm line but really I was happy to hear the all-out.  I was frustrated and fully expected to be last in section as the scales started their journey up the section, I was really rueing the lost fish. I weighed 3lb 4oz again and this was enough for not last so far and I beat the guy to my right which is always nice, I drove up the section after packing up asking others how they had done and it seemed as though I would be about halfway up the section, so I felt a little better.

Back at the pub I reported in and the rest of the team arrived to give us an idea of where we had come and it seemed as though we had done alright, but due to work commitments I had to disappear off before the results were read out. A text later told me that we were 4^th by a point, so yes I regretted that lost fish but there is always next year.

What I would do different:

In future I will be stepping up my hooklengths at the beginning of a match and lightening up if I have to after that.  That is all.

07/09/2014 Thames Open

It was off to the Swan Inn at Radcot for the Thames open and the start of the natural season for me, I picked John up at some ungodly hour, we had breakfast at Maccy D's and still managed to arrive in time for the draw. Looking around at the draw there were plenty of good anglers on this one so it was definitely going to be a learning experience, I stuck my hand in the draw bag and out popped Clansfield 92. As it transpired this was the second last downstream peg today and involved driving through 3 fields to get to, usually this would be a good thing but I had to drop John off at the other end of the match stretch, on the plus side I was parked behind my peg 30 minutes after the draw so I had a good run.

I used a bolo to plumb up and found all the depth was at 5-7m and then it gradually got  shallower up to about 3ft just before the far bank weed started off the far bank.  All the features near this swim are upstream of it, and apart from the slight weed it is featureless. 

With this in mind I set up a groundbait line at 11.5m, a worm line  at 5 sections and a waggler for across. I was faffing around for a while so was only just ready at the all-in and I fed 6 balls of groundbait containing Caster, Hemp and dead pinkie, I then cupped 20 worms on the inside line and started on the pole line.

I had 2 small dace on maggot so swapped to caster and had a quick run of small roach, these were quickly replaced by tiny dace, gudgeon and bleak so aftre 15 minutes I put in a small ball of feed rich groundbait to see if that would bring the roach back, whilst this settled I tried the inside line and had 3 small perch and 8 wasps for close to a pound all in 15 minutes, then the crays arrived, I refed half a bait dropper and went long to find micro fish and this was then the rest of my day.

I tried the waggler line and this saw me start to catch numbers of tiny chub but it was short lived a big barge went through my swim and killed it dead. I tried the whip but could not get enough numbers of fish to make it worthwhile.

The inside line was good for an odd wasp and I could catch tiny bleak and dace on the pole with pinkie , ffortunately had been feeding hemp on the pole line all day and managed two 2oz roach on hemp in the last 10 minutes, then the all out…. Thank God.

End peg to my left had 4lb 15oz, I managed 3lb 4oz with close to a hundred fish…. I spent too long trying to get better fish for any more weight. The guys weighing in both had 3lb 7oz so a couple more roach or another 30 mini fish would have seen more section points. I didn’t follow the scales as I had to pick John up but later found out that I was last in section.

What I would do different:

I only set up a 1g rig for the pole line, I would have set up a 0.5g float as well to give me more options.

I would have balled in at the start to try and attract more roach into the area.

Intercorps Championship- 31/8/14

It was finally the day that I had been looking forward to for a few weeks and the Intercorps was upon us again, team for the day was myself, Pez, Martin, Kev, Craig and Adi, with Dave and DJ running the bank. I had passed on the information from the day before and over breakfast we discussed tactics as well as putting the world to rights.

Pez being team captain did the draw and it put me on peg 14 on Falcon lake, not really where I wanted as I would have preferred Skylark after the day before but I was there to do a job so off I todled. Falcon is a newer lake and it showed with the banks looking very bare and all the intel that we had received said that it would be a fish race and that it would either be shallow fishing for A LOT of small fish or paste for fewer bigger fish. As we could all fish paste that was the team plan, Pez and I thought it would be a bit like Orchard lakes so short paste and heavy ish feeding would be the way.

I set up 2 identical paste rigs, a slapping rig just in case and a margin rig, I also pulled a short method rod out just in case I had to re rig but didn’t think to make any new bait for it, speaking of which I had hemp and 6mm pellet for the paste line and meat for down the edge.

I was ready with plenty of time to spare so got to chat to Colin on the next peg and Boris a couple further along as I thought that they would be my main competition in the section. The all in sounded I went straight out again with a whole cup of hemp and pellet, and started throwing meat down the edge, just for a chance of a quick fish I put the slapping rig straight over the top and bites were instant, but I missed 5 on a 6mm pellet and when I hooked one it was a nearly transparent F1 so that top kit got thrown up the bank and not looked at again.

I shipped the paste rig out over the top and started to get indications straight away and that set the tone for the first couple of hours, I kept feeding down the edge to my left and right but could not get fish off those lines so I continued to plug away at the paste. I decided to feed heavy to try and keep the fish on the deck, so every time I hooked a fish I would feed two small handfuls of 6mm pellet and if the foul hookers became a real problem then I would put in a cup of hemp and pellet and then try the edge for a couple of minutes before going back over the paste line. This tactic along with varying the consistency of the paste through the day kept fish ticking over into the keep net, which was just as well as Colin to my left and in my section was catching steadily shallow and he was also finding the odd larger fish in amongst the tiddlers.

I tried a few things throughout the day to get a bigger stamp of fish, such as the method over the short line and upping the feed down the edge but nothing really seemed to be helping and with an hour and a half to go Colin put some groundbait in down the edge to his left where he had some lilies. As he was doing this I broke my reserve paste rig so had to re rig, to this end I pinged the method rod across to the far bank and as I was trying to remove the old rig I just about caught the rod but before it disappeared. I caught about 15lb in a very short time but then ran out of groundbait so had to go back on the paste line until the end of the match. As the seconds ticked by Colin managed a couple of lumps and some better fish from down the edge, but I was keeping up with him back on my paste line as the all-out was called.

We knew it would be close as we were chatting after the match and waiting for the scales, Dave came round and pointed out that Kev thought that he was well down his section, Pez was around second, I was first or second, and Adi was top 4 we thought. The scales showed that it was better than we thought with Kev taking his section and as they came around Colin weighed just over 30 kilos and I managed to squeak him by a couple of kilos, those method fish had saved my bacon and I won the section. Adi managed second and Pez had a third in section and we thought that it was all over when Craig and Martin reported back that they had both had bad days on Skylark and had both come mid-section. We discussed the day over a carvery and calculated that we had 16points and we thought that the AGC had squeaked it, we were wrong.

Rocky gave the results and handed out the section monies, then gave the results for the teams, the AGC was third with 16 points but only 1 section winner, the Royal Artillery were second with 16 points but no third in section and the winners were the Royal Signals with 16 points but Pez’s third in section was enough to clinch the title for us. Next year we get to choose the venue so that should be fun.

What would I do different:

I would have had the method set up and some extra groundbait ready in future as it produced a much better stamp of fish and the bites were easy to hit. It only takes 5 minutes to try it and the groundbait can always go down the edge.

I should also have put my margin line further away from myself as it may have produced a few more fish.

Westwood Lakes open, 30/08/2014

I was fishing in the Inter Corps Championship on the sunday and since this is one of my main events every year I thought a little practice session was in order so I booked in for the open the day before the main event. As I arrived I was struck by how tidy and how the while place was laid out, the café was brilliant, the food was out of this world and the tackle shop was huge and really well stocked with everything you would need. For more information please check out their website and if you ever get the chance visit them: http://www.westwoodlakes.co.uk.

Back to the fishing and there were only eight of us booked into the open on Skylark lake, including myself and 3 members of the Artillery’s Corps team, so they decided to hold a rover… brilliant when you don’t know the peg numbers of the lake.  I was helped no end though by Baz (RAF team) and Spike (LIncs County and Ex RAF) and all the chat was about pegs 8-10, 33ish and any peg with a bit of room. The draw took place and I pulled out number 1 so instantly picked peg 9 and ran to my flyer.

Upon getting to my peg, having parked right behind it I found an aerator 7m to my left and due to the strengthening wind I decided that would be the longest length of pole I would get out today. I plumbed up a paste and corn rig to fish 2+2 in front away from the aerator a) to give me somewhere to try if it was hard and b) as I had been warned that the fish were big and mental so I gave it a bit of room between where I was fishing and the metal ware around the aerator legs. My third rig was a margin rig to fish just down to my left at 2+1 here I found a funny double shelf so decided to fish at the base of the first shelf in about 18 inches of water, maggot and groundbait was the plan for here.

I was ready well before the all in so went to the shop for more bait hoping for a good day and had a chat for a while, they pointed out that it should be a good day as the next guy to my left was 6 pegs away and it was 8 to my right, loads of room. It was time to get settled and on returning to my peg it was time to start so I fed a quarter of a pot of hemp and 6mm pellet on my 2+2 line and went straight over it.  I got off to a slow start and to be honest it was a bit of a struggle, I think I may have been too positive from the start but after a couple of hours I thought I had about 30lb in my net and started loose feeding 6mm pellet quite heavily. This was when the fish started to swirl so I got off my box and quickly set up a shallow rig to try on the same line, the difference was instant and over the next hour I managed 40lb of fish into my second keepnet.  The problem was that the fish were waning and getting smaller and I went from 4lb carp to 1lb F1’s over 15 minutes, to give it a rest I tried down the edge and was frustrated by not a lot if indications apart from a tiny skimmer so with nothing to lose I potted in 4 pots of groundbait, hemp and maggot from a height and gave the shallow line another 10 minutes.

Over that 10 minute period I managed another F1 so it was time for the edge, with 20 minutes to go I had 3 carp in 3 put ins down the margin and it went quiet again straight away, I fed 4 more pots of groundbait and tried for another fish shallow that was unsuccessful and then went down the edge for the last few minutes in which I managed 3 barbel to about 2lb. The all out was called and I knew it would be close, the guy at the end of the lake to my left had caught a few across (where he had the wind in his face) and also had a few down the edge late and spike on the other bank had caught steadily down his edges all day, although he had lost a few.

I was the second weight on the board and managed 96lb and a bit, the guy to my left weighed 99lb and Spike managed just over the ton for the win, I was happy with third but rued a couple of decisions that could have seen me catch a few more fish as I only really needed one more for the win.

Things I would have done different are that I would have set up a method to go across with and also I would have been able to drop it on the 5m line as well to overcome the strong breeze. I might have felt my way into the match more rather than big potting but all the info I had said go for it and I did.

Never mind there was always tomorrow.

Hidden Gem 1

So after the resounding failure of the last river session I decided to go somewhere new that I might be able to get amongst some better sized fish and after half a days’ worth of searching and thinking my next venue was found.

I arrived late morning as it is on a day ticket and I had a good look around, it is only small at approximately and acre and a half and there seemed to be a few fish as cruising around I could make out the shapes of some carp and bream through the translucent water. There were also numerous snags and weed beds that were pushing towards the surface and it was at the windward end of the lake looking at a gap between two fallen trees that I decided my first rod would go, so I pulled a rod from the bag and had a quick plumb around trying to figure out what the bottom was and also how many snags were in the vicinity. I had a pleasant surprise in that the bottom felt pretty flat and that there was a clear gap between the two boughs, I also found another couple of spots further to the left that looked good for a bait.

Rods out a bit of bait over the pair and the house was up quickly, I was having to fish locked up due to the snags and within an hour I had my first bit of interest, I had to walk backwards to extract it from the snags but it behaved and was soon nestled in the folds of the landing net.

After a self take the rod was soon back out on the spot courtesy of a bit of pole elastic, a bit more grub followed in the form of 15 and 18mm source and live system boiles, to get a bit of variety on the go over there and 2 hours later my right hand rod was away again, I got the fish close to my bank when the other rod.. also close to the snags suddenly locked up tight and it was a double take. This was not a good situation so I opened the bale arm on the first rod so that I could at least get the fish on the second rod away from the snags, I did and it came in quickly, I checked the first fish and it had just buried itself into some weed about 5m out in front of me. Scooping the fish I hooked second into the net I picked up the first rod and the carp just lifted out of the weedbed nodded twice and then found itself in the net with its mate.

I let them have a rest, and I managed to calm down, before I set up the camera etc ready for more photos.

Again they were both about 10-11lb so once they were back in the water and the traps reset I was able to have a brew and a calm down, I was using short stiff hinged rigs on both rods to keep the hookbait above any leaf debris that may have been under the trees and it seemed to be working especially when the alarm sounded again as I was starting my tea and carp number 4 ended up in the back of the landing net. It was taken on the same rigs as earlier but as the afternoon sun had warmed up the far bank I had tried a zig to ambush a cruiser or two to no avail.

The night was incredibly dark with no moon and the lake being small and surrounded by thick woods, a fox barking scared the crap out of me just after dusk, so I was on tenterhooks all night. I don’t think it helped knowing that if a rod went I would have to be on it in seconds so sleep was light and broken all night but I got another couple of chapters read of my book.

My alarm was set for 5 so that I could watch the dawn and see if any of the reputed biggies would show themselves, the answer was no but as soon as the sun hit my left hand spot the rod was away and carp number 5 was in the bag. No photos this time as I had the settings wrong on the camera.

This fish and a number of indications led me to try a bottom bait so I set up a simple fluorocarbon hooklength with a size 8 hook and sent it back to the same spot, a couple of hours later it was away with carp number 6.

Again it was a low double and again it had interrupted some food, ah well, this was my last action as the fish backed off away from me and try as I might I could not get a bait to them although I could see a few cruising about along the tree line. I tried a zig for a little while but then decided to go for an explore, I packed up and walked along the far bank as far as I could, got up a couple of trees but due to the water clarity I couldn’t see a great deal.  Should be a nice little winter water though and it may still hold a few surprises.

What would I do different?

Next time I am going to try PVA bags on at least one rod, I was fishing big carp rigs to try and reduce the numbers of bites but it would be good to see if there are small nuisance fish to worry about.

I will also take a marker rod and give the whole pond a good plumb up if possible to see if I can find any clues as to where the biggies live?