31 December 2020
19 December 2020
08 November 2020
4 Nov 2020 AAF Gp 2 Match 2 Lodden Lakes
We were supposed to be on the Dorset Stour again for this match but, the weather Gods had other ideas and it was back to Lodden lakes for the second match of the year with the Army Angling Federation Group 2.
Once again we did the draw remotely the
night before and this time I was placed on peg 14, fortunately I had helped
Greg with the pegging so I had a good idea of what I would need to take with
me. The now customary messages around the people who fish the place regularly
were sent around and intel was gathered, I knew I was in a good area with tons
of room so now all I had to do was catch enough to win my section.
On getting to my peg the plan was simple, check the groundbait I had mixed the night before, clip up a feeder rod to the island boards, plumb up the waggler in open water and then set up all of my many pole rigs. I was going to fish 3 rigs long for skimmers, a line at 2+2 for roach, a top kit line for roach and then the left-hand margin with worm hoping for a bonus.
I had managed to take a quid of Nic Mac
at the weekend river match so I was quite happy when he was pegged opposite me
on a proper flyer peg 33, I had a little oops just before the all in that saw
me hook my hand and tangle the rod into all my top kits but I was almost ready
for the start, as I started to pot my first ball of groundbait in on my 13m
line Nic Mac asked if we were going another quid, well it would be rude not to. 3 balls of groundbait were fed on the long
line, some worm under the tree, I pinged the feeder to the island and started
to catty corn into the open water.
After 15 minutes I had received a few small indications and had caught a small roach on the feeder, when out of the blue the next cast had a positive indication and a 10oz skimmer was on the end, happy days I thought. But that was it for another 30 minutes, I had a few more odd indications but could not convert any of them to fish, I had seen a few roach topping close in so I decided to try feeding a little bread on the 2+2 line and fish some punched bread to see if I could get a run of them together as the only people I could see catching was Greg and Mick to my right.
In fact they were catching regularly, and proper skimmers so it was head down time, I put on a 6mm punch of bread and caught a micro roach, same next put in and decided that bread was not the one. I fed a ball of groundbait on the short line and cast the feeder in disgust, I was going to fish it out until the end of the first hour now.
58 minutes into the match and my tip
went around again and skimmer number 2 was in the landing net, now I was in a
quandary, do I stay on the tip and hope it gets better or try something else? Well 2 more casts on the feeder saw no bites
or indications so I came in on the long pole.
I started on the 0.4g rig but that didn’t feel right in the conditions,
there was little undertow or wind, so I decided to swap to my hairy fairy 0.2g
strung out rig. A single dead maggot was
laid out the back of the bait and I was attached to skimmer number 3 quite
quickly and so my day panned out for me.
I would have 1 or 2 skimmers on the long pole line and then spend 30-60 minutes
looking for roach or bits to keep putting some weight into the net before a few
skimmers would arrive again out of the blue.
At the halfway point I tried the wag
and corn and had a couple of funny indications so I swapped to double dead red
maggot on the hook and had a 1lb skimmer, but that was it for the waggler. I had nothing on the feeder after the first
hour, I struggled to keep roach on the hook on the short lines due to fishing
caster and hooking very small roach and I had 1 micro perch from down the edge
on 2 whole worms!
All day I had been watching Greg and Mick catching well, Greg even had a 4lb grass carp!! As the scales came around I just had to hope that I had caught enough to beat Nic opposite as he was not only going a quid with me but also in my section. My 10 skimmers and a few roach went 5.370 KG, this beat Nic by less than a pound as he had 7 fish but they were all larger than mine. Most of his had come from open water on the feeder. As it turned out it was enough for me to win the section, I had also taken a quid of Docs around the corner as we were in the naturals knock out against each other.
Greg won with 20.480KG with Mick second on 20.240KG, it had been frustrating watching them catch all day but fortunately the pegging had seen them in with the rest of the top of the lake so I dodged that bullet.
Again another well run match and the
last for the next month due to Lockdown 2.0.
Thankyou to http://www.gillinghamanglingclub.co.uk/ for allowing us to use their lakes again with short notice, well done Greg on another well run event. See you all soon.
What
would I do different:
After seeing the frost in the morning, I would should have fished the feeder in the open water and the waggle closer with maggot. I won’t bother with bread unless its very cold and clear on there and that’s about it really, in need more light rigs tied as I only had one 0.2g rig and had to cobble another one together to get catching again.
Rigs used:
Pole Double Bulk:
Line: 0.15mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook: 16
Float: 0.8g Drennan Carp 2
Elastic: Number 5 preston slip original through 1 section
Line: 0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook: 18 Preston SFM
Float: 0.2g and 0.3g Drennan AS3 long 0.5g AS3 short
Elastic: Preston 7 dura hollow
Line: 0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook: 18 Preston SFM
Float: 0.4 Drennan SF2
Elastic: Preston 13H through 1 section
Line: 0.19mm Powerline to 0.17mm Colmic Stream
Hook: 3 T175
Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 3
Rod: 3.3m Matrix horizon xs with 1 oz tip
Reel: TDM 3012 loaded with 6lb Guru Pulse
Rig: Helicopter 0.11mm hook length to 16 911 F1
Feeder: 20 Guru commercial open end (The smaller one)
Rod: Cadence CS10 13ft number 1
Reel: Cadence CS10 4000 loaded with 3lb maxima
Float: Dave Harrell 3AA sensitip wag
Hook length: 0.11 to 18 eyed and quick stop for corn, size 16 B911 f1 for maggot
07 November 2020
1st Nov 20 Salisbury and District AC match Hampshire Avon
Today it was off to the Hampshire Avon for my first club match on the Avon of the year.
I got to the draw that was being run as
a rolling draw to keep everyone safe and I was given peg 14 out of the bucket,
I had no idea where or what this was but a couple of the guys pointed me into
the direction of an area known as the high bank.
On arrival I realised that I was
carrying far to much kit as I had got a little bit warm on the walk from the
car, I was met with a fast flowing stretch of shallow water under my feet and a
slack produced by a branch in the water on the far bank, in all it would have
looked better with another 2 foot of water in the river but beggars cannot be
choosers (I would have moaned if the river was spot on for this peg anyway!) and
I stared to set my kit up for the day.
Plan was to start on bread and then
swap to maggot or caster as the day went on and then feed for a chub for the
last hour, so I set up a Chub float rod, Roach float rod and a pole rig for
across.
At the all in I used the pole to feed a
small ball of bread into the crease downstream of my position and then I started
on an 11mm Punch hoping to snare an early chub, well long story short, I didn’t
managed to snare a chub bit I did get a few roach and loads of minnows for 4lb
10oz I think it was.
I really struggled to get more than 2
fish in a row from any area of the swim, I think it was due to the shallow
water and water clarity but I really had to hunt around for any fish. I was
also properly beaten up by the minnows as they were even eating treble caster! It
was still a nice day and some of the guys had great days with two 18lb+ weights
of roach coming in from in the town.
I didn’t hang around as was soon
getting a nice warm shower and my tea.
What
would I do different:
Draw
better and stay on bread all day, I only switched to wriggly baits as I thought
it was the done thing but maybe the feeder next time?!?! I don’t know this time.
Use
BB’s a bulk on crow quill to help with catching the correct flow!
Rigs
used:
Chub float:
Rod: Cadence 15ft #2
Reel: Cadence CS10 4000
Line: 4lb sensor, 0.11mm-0.15mm Stream hook length
Hook: 13-11 B711
Float: 4g Drennan Loafer shotted with an olivette and bulk
Roach float:
Rod: Cadence 15ft #0
Reel: Cadence CS10 4000
Line: 3.2lb Drennan floatfish, 0.11mmStream hook length
Hook: 16 B560
Float: 2g handmade crow quill later stepped up to 3g due
to the wind.
Pole:
Elastic:
Preston 13H through 1 section
Line:
0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook:
16 B560
Float:
1g Drennan glow tip 3
6 Oct 2020 AAF Match at Lodden Lakes
Sorry
for the delay, I have been out and about quite a bit this year and its about
time I started doing these match blogs again, so I am going to start in
October.
This
was the AAF’s first visit to these lakes run by Gillingham Angling Club (http://www.gillinghamanglingclub.co.uk/)
due to the ongoing Covid situation the draw was done by Zoom the night before and
I was drawn onto peg 25.
This
meant noting to me either so a few messages were sent around my friends who
have fished the place in the past and I was told it would be feast or famine,
aim for skimmers in the open water and Tench in the margins, so that was my
plan sorted for the day.
Once
I got to the swim the island turned out to be 14.5 meters away which is handy
since that is all the pole I own nowadays, so that was a worm line hoping for a
perch or something. In my head I had the
idea that a steady canal type match would be the way ahead, so I then found 2
areas in open water that were the same depth to target skimmers. Next area was the bush to my right for a margin
worm line and that was me all sorted.
On
the all in I fed about 10 worms and a few casters against the island, 5 balls
of groundbait to the left of the swim and one to the right, thinking it was going to be hard I decided to
try and catch a perch from the off and shipped out to the island. I had a proper surprise when the float dipped
within a minute and some elastic was getting pulled out by an angry fish trying
to get into the snags. A few seconds later a hybrid of around a pound was in
the net and it was the perfect start, I shipped out again only to catch my
perch, and then the next put in another Hybrid of around a pound. The day couldn’t have started any better.
The
wheels kind of came off for the next 3 hours but I managed to foul hook a bream
off of my positive groundbait line, another couple of hybrids off the island
and a stack of roach on a top kit pinging a few maggots at them. I had found that the fish were responding to
the worm that I had fed on the day but I had only brought half a kilo and I
wanted to have half of that for the last hour.
At
1 hour and 10 minutes remaining I fed a worm rich ball of groundbait to the
right, 2 to the left, 10 worms and some caster to the island and about the same
under the bush to my right. I shipped
out to the island and hooked a hybrid within a minute, I rotated straight onto
the negative groundbait line and had a skimmer, moved again to the positive
line and had another skimmer it was
EPIC!!!!!!
But
now was the time, I topped up the other lines again and shipped my 0.6g margin
rig under the tree to my right, I was having to fish such a heavy float to drag
the bait to the correct area with the minimal fuss as I was so far in the woodwork
that I could barely lift my pole. As the
float settled, I had a liner immediately and then only a minute or so later the
float dipped and all hell broke loose. I
was fishing Red Vespe due to proximity to the snags and after having to pull
backwards to hit the bite I then had to power the elastic up quickly to keep
the fish from getting into the trailing branches. It worked and a couple of minutes later 3lb
of angry green fighting machine was in the bottom of the landing net. I dropped
straight back in over the top but nothing happened for a count of 100, so a
quick top up and around the houses again.
With nothing but a few small roach forthcoming I was soon back under the
tree. With about 20 minutes remaining I was landing my second Tench, this time
a bit smaller at about 2lb and after another quick flurry of small fish the all
out was soon getting called.
I
had ended up with 10 skimmers and hybrids, 2 Tench and over 5lb of roach that
had mostly come on a top kit to hand, this went 11Kilos exactly on the scales
so 24lb 4oz in old money, not a bad day at the office as this was enough to win
my section by a considerable margin, beat Greg in the natural Knockout when he
weighed in over 20lb of skimmers and was enough for 4th in the
match. All from a peg I really did not
fancy, not that I had mentioned that much in the morning. Thankyou to Greg for running the match and
Gillingham Angling club for hosting us at short notice due to the river being
flooded.
What
would I do different:
Next
time I go there I will take more worm and feel more positive as I believe there
is more than 1 way to fish every peg there.
Rigs
used:
Pole Double Bulk:
Elastic: Preston 7 Dura Hollow
Line:
0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook:
16
Float:
0.8g Drennan Carp 2
Pole
roach: (Also fished to hand)
Elastic:
Yellow hydro
Line:
0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook:
18 Preston SFM
Float:
0.3g Drennan AS3
Pole
Margin:
Elastic:
Red Vespe
Line:
0.19mm Powerline to 0.17mm Colmic Stream
Hook:
3 T175
Float:
0.6g Drennan Carp 3
Pole
Island:
Elastic:
Preston 13H through 1 section
Line:
0.19mm to 0.15mm Powerline
Hook:
2 T175
Float: 0.4g Drennan Carp 3
08 September 2020
18 June 2020
15 March 2020
14 March 2020 Viaduct Open
On arriving at the draw I realised that there were going
to be more than the 20 I thought were turning up and that we would now be split
over Cary and Cambell. Brews drunk,
hellos dished out it was time for the draw, Greg and I had decided that we
would go a quid if we drew a similar area as the venue can be very peggy at
times, as it turned out he was on 113 ad I was on 114 so a quid wager it was.
01 February 2020
Avoiding the Blank 20 Part 1
I have spent most of my time chasing Chub on Rivers and Roach on Still waters over the last month.
I hope you enjoy.
22 January 2020
22 Jan 2020- AAF Group 2 Match- All Cannings K&A canal
Once the festivities had been taken care of I managed to pluck peg B4 out of the bucket of doom, this peg was literally the middle peg of the match, well between B4 and B5 due to the numbers, B section was the tightest pegged section and to be fair as I was walking down the towpath I was already planning my excuses for the day.
It didn't take me long to pack up and there were tales of woe up and down the canal, the end pegs both seemed to have done well and Jase on B8 was actually fishing against me in the knockout so it was interesting to see ho he had done. So, Jase had 2.250Kg, Rocky next to him had 2.050KG I knew it was going to be close as I wasnt sure how many roach I had managed but after a few lower weights it was my turn. 2.800Kg then Mike on the other end peg weighed 2.300Kg I think so I had managed to win the section, from the middle, to say I was happy was an understatement and to be fair I am still a little shocked, but my perch helped no end.Not alot really, maybe lighter elastic for the eyes fishing across and a smaller designated bread rig for that line rather than bodging my caster rig.