AT Commercial National, Garbolino Lakes, 23/5/15

Once again it was a big day out for Fosters team army, I had travelled up on the Friday night and stayed in one of the cabins at the lakes so I was well rested come the morning, certainly better than driving up on the morning.  We all met up before the draw, the bait was sorted, breakfast was eaten and then the wait for the pegs began. Gaz came back and gave me K1, this was on Bennies lake in the far Corner furthest from the car park.

 I had loads of room as 3 pegs on either side of me were under water, but I had the wind off my back and all I had heard was that I would need to be in the wind to do any good today. As I was setting up more and more cars drove around the lake and started to park behind me, I will remember that one next time I am there as I lugged my kit on the barrow from the other side of the lake. This however seemed to push what fish I had in front of me as I turned up further and further across the lake away from me.

The plan was pellet at 2+2, this rig was 0.16mm mainline to a 0.12mm hooklength, a B911 in size 16 and a 4X14 MW F1 Carbon, my elastic was a yellow 2.1mm Colmic elastic which is lovely and forgiving for the stamp of fish that I was expecting.

I decided to concentrate on the left margin as it looked spot on for a few fish so I plumbed up a corn and a paste rig to fish against the reeds both of these were on proper lines and hooks, and finally I also set up a couple of shallow rigs but they gave me nothing so enough about those.

I was ready well before the all in and my only regret is that I didn’t set up a feeder rod for if I had a breakage but a bit of banter with the RAF lad in the next peg and then it was away we go.

I fed a quarter of a cup of groundbait and some corn down the edge, flicked out half a dozen 4mm pellet and then shipped my pellet rig over the top with a 4mm expander on the hook, it took all of a minute for my first bite and a 12oz f1 was soon in the net and was followed by a couple or smaller samples within the first 5 minutes. It was at this point the wheels started to fall off as I started to have to work really hard for bites and considering this was supposed to be a fish race I was falling behind.  After an hour I had 15 fish so I was eyeing up the margins already, I went on them and started loose feeding caster onto the short pole line to see if I could get some silvers or if something different would work, I managed a few fish from down the edge and they were of a good stamp compared to the rest of the lake but I needed something to start working quickly.

I went back onto the short line over the caster and nothing happened at all! Now I was worried, so I fed a small ball of groundbait with some pellets on the 2+2 line and went back down the edge for a couple more fish and then I started chopping and changing between the 2 main lines after every 2 fish, as it was all I could get from 1 spot.

My swims died off more and more over the last couple of hours, I landed a barbel so put a maggot line in at 10 off to my right, I had no bites over that or indications!!  I managed 6 fish in the last hour and that included putting my paste rig into the middle of the reed bed, I didn’t lose a fish!

The all out was called and it was obvious that everyone on my side of the lake had struggled, as the scales came round I had 16.8kg, the RAF guy to my right had 10kg! There were a line of 12-15kg weights up the bank to my right until there was a small pocket of the small fish that a couple of guys shared half way up the bank to my right and they had 20Kg + each.  As the scales moved into the wind and around the spit though the weights were all over 20Kg of the small 6-10oz stockie F1’s, this was capped with a few upper 30Kg weights and a 40kg weight.

I went back to HQ and it was a tale of woe with Gus having the top points score from the worst section.

I didn’t hang around for the results but heard later that we were 22^nd out of the 24 teams, Dorking won it and Adam Richards had top weight on the day.

What would I do different

1.       I should have set up the feeder and also plumbed up a line at 13m+, although it wasn’t in the plan it may have caught me some more fish, I needed 10lb to get another point and 15lb for a few more points so I just needed a run of fish to make that happen.

Land command next let’s hope that that’s a bit better.

AAF Gp 2 Match 7, Viaduct. 13/5/15

Fate is a funny thing, and in the middle of a really busy period personally with moving house and working away from home I was supposed to be on the Royal Signals Carp Championships at Todber Manor. I had managed a practice session the week before that resulted in 16 fish to 22lb 6oz, and since only 23 fish had come out of the lake whilst I was there I thought that I would be in with a chance, given a decent draw.  I also have a link to the video on the right hand side of this page.

 

An early morning double

Little Hayes

22lb mirror

17lb Common

As I have already alluded to though fate is a funny thing and it was never to be as I was involved in a bit of a crash on the Monday night heading down to the fishery when a not so young lady decided to see how close she could get to my bumper at a roundabout… the answer – 2 inches.  Not a problem I hear you say as most of the damage was on the bumper and that was what it’s for ….well the safety belts fired their safety’s so I could not drive anywhere.

My Van was recovered to Blandford.. From Stonehenge?? And Sarah picked me up from the side of the road, this meant that all my kit was in the wrong county and I had no idea as to when I would get transport so I would miss the draw the next morning. Due to this I cried off the Carp match.  Monday night and Tuesday morning saw my phone in meltdown with calls to and from insurance companys and just after lunch on the Tuesday new wheels were delivered to me…as I thought that the carp match would be out of reach by now I phoned Craig to see if there was any room on the Viaduct match the next day, especially as it would give me a chance to concrete my third place in the league. I was in luck as someone had dropped out so plansd made I drove to blandford to collect my carp gear, drove to todber to take some photos and then got home and prepped my kit the best I could in an hour.

The morning arrived and I drove to meet up with the rest of the team at Maccy D’s, banter in full flow and brerakfast done it was soon to the venue for the all important draw. Azi Red was myself, Daz and Ben so I was volunteered to do the draw, it was not good news as once again I pulled 94 out of the bag, this time Daz was sat on it, Ben had 114 and I was stuffed on peg 60.  Team wise it was an alright draw, 94 should have had a few fish in front of it and 114 is always decent the only real bogey was 60 but I decided that a good days fishing is still better than a day at work so I got on with it.

I set up a pellet wag, a meat rig for 14.5m, a margin rig for the platform of 61 (Which H on 62 also plumbed) and a dobbing rig. I started on the dobbing rig having fed half a pot of bait on the 14.5m line and straight away I knew I was up against it as I was sat in the shade and all the fish were enjoying the sun.  I swapped to the pellet wag to try and make some thing happen and in short bar 1 bite at about half way through the pellet wag was a damp squib. I managed to mug 2 fish through the course of the day but I never had them in numbers in front of me, H was catching on the bomb so I set one up and lost a foul hooker (or an eel!) and I managed a small tench and a rudd on a short meat line, and a foul hooked roach complete with egg sac on paste down the edge, I changed to paste as there were skimmers and roach spawning down the edge under the trees to my left.

The end could not come soon enough especially as every match angler I spoke to went unlucky and every pleasure angler went that’s a really good edge peg. I really didn’t want to talk to any more people after the match.

My 2 carp and bits went 23-8 enough for 13^th in section, the team was 12^th out of 16 I think in all a not so good day. The rest of the fishery was quite fair with a few tons and good back up weights.  Ben managed 80 odd pound but Daz had a mare as well.

Moving house this week then the commy national then the land command… better dust my hook tier off.

What would I do different

1.       I tried everything at viaduct to no avail so apart from concentrating on silvers that were conspicuous by their absence I was stuffed.

2.       I am going to have to bite the bullet one day and pack up everything bar the dobbing rig to see if it is viable, although I think a bigger hookbait like an 8mm punch of polony would be a better option.