Avoiding the Blank 20 pt9 (Boddington, Barston, Lodden and club waters)

Fosters of Birmingham Charity Match, Barston Lake

Firstly sorry for the delay but here is the first of the catch up blogs:

Craig and I had an early start so that we could get to the fishery in time for this match, but the journey was an easy one and although we have both vowed never to have breakfast at burger king again, we arrived ready for the day.  There were loads of friendly faces at the draw and soon banter and raffle tickets were flowing.  I missed the start of the draw queue and ended up at the end, unfortunately this saw me on peg 87, this may not mean a lot to many of you but a few years ago I was part of a Club Angler of the Year final at Barston, and I blanked from peg 87 ish, along with everyone around me.  Today the conditions were better with a light breeze off our backs and some nice colour in the water I had higher hopes than last time. 

I was still without a pole so a long range method, short range method and waggler were the tactics for the day.  I had Colin to my left ad Bob to my right for company, an empty peg between Colin and myself was negated by us both facing towards the same water as he was on a point.

I was ready for the all-in and as soon as it was called my feeder was heading towards the middle of the lake at about 70 yards, not a lot happened for the first 40 minutes and then out of the blue I had a bite.  My first fish was a carp of about 3lb taken on a trimmed down white wafter.  I then had to wait another hour or so for my next bite, again on the long method and that was an F1 of about 3lb.  Then with an hour and a half to go I had my thrid bite and this was a bream of about 3lb, this was my last real bite, I had a few liners, spooked a fish out of the margin but other than that not a lot played ball. 

Colin had struggled to my left, Bob had caught a few skimmers and a decent bream on the pole for around double figures, and Craig kept on walking down to check on us as he had managed a couple of better carp and a few bits on the method from further down to my right.

Here is the section board:

I had managed to get forth in section with no long pole so it wasn’t too bad, back at the clubhouse the match had been won with 99lb and second had been sat right next to him in the teens by the 18^th green…. So the other end of the lake.  The raffle was well received and mny drawing hand had let me down again, and then the long trip home… Avoiding Burger King.

What would I have done differently?

Not a lot really, the tactics I fished are all match winners at Barston on their day, I just didn’t have enough carp to go at with my positive tactics.  I may have gone further on the tip later but I was almost past halfway as it was!! So that isn’t really cricket.

Tackle used:

Feeder Long:

Rod:  Browning Black Viper 13ft

Reel: Shimano Ci4 Ultegra 5500 XTC

Line: 8lb sensor mainline, 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1 with a baitband

Feeder: 45g Guru Hybrid with black hydro

Method Short:

Rod:  Drennan series 7 10ft Carp feeder

Reel: TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor mainline, 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1 with a baitband

Feeder: 24g Guru Hybrid with black hydro

Wagler:

Rod: Team Daiwa 11ft pellet wag

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb Sensor to 0.18mm hooklength

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 6g Preston pellet wag

Bomb Short:

Rod:  Drennan Matchpro 10ft Bomb

Reel: TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor mainline, 0.16mm hooklength

Hook: 16 QM1 with a baitband

Feeder: 12g ollivette

Emergency Services National, Barston Lake

I had been looking forward to this match for a while as I like Barston and if it was closer I would fish it more often, I was so excited that I struggled to sleep and I was feeling groggy as my alarm sounded at 0530 for my drive up to Solihull.  It was a good run and I was soon eating a fantastic breakfast at the Restaurant on the Lake, it didn’t take too long for the rest of the team to arrive and soon the talk was of tactics and where we wanted to draw.

Gaz handed me 112 at the draw and to be honest I couldn’t remember where this was but I had a pleasant surprise when I got to it.

It was a nice easy chuck to the island with the gear that I had with me and I decided to fish a 45g large hybrid feeder with pellet around it.  This was set up on my 14ft Black Viper feeder rod and I had that teamed up with an Ultegra 5500 Xtc absolutely brimmed with 8lb sensor.  I cast out first with a 2oz bomb to get an idea of the distance and also the lake bed and I had found some gravel which was where I decided that I would start.  Plan B was the pole at 13m to fish for the large head of skimmers and F1’s that can come on the pole line I set up two rigs to fish here, a 4X14 and a 0.6g floats both on 0.16mm mainline to 0.12mm bottom and a size 16 hook, Pink Vespe elastic balanced these rigs off and that was that.  Plan C  was a pellet wag and 10ft method rod for fishing at 25m or so and Plan D was paste at 6m.

The all in came along and I fed 3 balls of groundbait laced with chopped worm and caster at 13m (on a hard spot) half a pot of hemp and pellet at 6m and then I launched the method to the Island, I had a liner on the first cast but then the second and third had problems as my quiver tip was too light and tried to cause frap ups on the cast. To overcome this I put a heavier quiver tip into the rod but this saw me missing 3 minutes of fishing time, it cured the problem though and I was easily hitting the distance cast after cast.  The fish were not forthcoming though and apart from a wrap round that resulted in a broken hooklength and a 4oz skimmer I was struggling.

After an hour I decided to try the pole for an hour and I managed a small carp or skimmer a chuck for the hour but the draw of the island was too much and after a quick go on the pellet wag the method was soon flying back out towards the island.  This was a good call and over the next hour or so I had a decent carp and a string of F1’s one after another on the feeder,  however the last hour started to slow and turned into a bit of a struggle with only a couple of f1’s and skimmers on the tip to show for it.  I even tried the paste in the last few minutes but to no avail and I finished the match with a 4oz skimmer at 81 yards on the feeder.

The scales came round and gave me 38lb of carp and F1’s and 16lb of skimmers and small carp from on the pole line!!  It made me wonder what I could have done if I had just stayed on the pole line as I only needed another 11lb for a section win, as it was I won my half section for £20 and was 5^th in section beaten by the better pegs to my right. Oh and a few double figure fish were definitely the difference.

Teams on the day were Notts fire third I think, Navy and RM were second and the Prison service won the day, we had 2 decent results and three not so good ones but it was still a good day out.

What would I have done differently?

I didn’t need big bertha and could have got away with a lighter actioned rod for the cast to the island, this would have improved accuracy and also may have prevented the two lost fish that I had on the tip.

I should have also concentrated in the pole when the skimmers arrived on the feeder line as I had a decent weight of the small fish that would have boosted me quicker than winding similarly sized fish from next to the island.

Carbon stem floats for speed fishing!