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.