AAF Individual Championship, Heronbrook Fishery

Day 2 saw me having a lay in, gently pack my room up and then mosey to the venue, to be honest my heart wasn’t in it as I knew that my chance had been blown the day before so it was a big or bust day.  I had a leisurely breakfast, grabbed my kit out of the car and then drew peg 16 on meadow out of the bag.

It is a really good edge peg with bags of room to my left so as I had decided to try and win the match I set up an edge rig for paste down to the left at 14m, paste at 2+2, meat down the edge at 2+2 to my right and finally I decided that I would fish dead maggot and groundbait at 14.5m across.

The all in came and I wasn’t ready but I put some bait in on a couple of lines, finished setting up and then went onto the short paste line looking for an early fish but it was not to be, so I went across and managed a gudgeon and a couple of small perch.  As I was going nowhere and Jase on peg 15 had had a couple of fish across I decided to feed a bit heavier so the plan became big pot loose groundbait and dead mag.  I managed an F1 on the short paste line whilst waiting for something to happen at about 45 minutes in and then had to wait until an hour and a half from the end for another F1 and three carp to trip up, one on maggot across and two on paste at 11.5m

At the all-out Jase had had 10 or more carp and some F1’s mainly from across and a couple down his edge, my edge had been a massive flop with one foul hooker from the left edge and nothing from the right.

I tipped back, tried to get to the café early but was then told that I was on the board, so that was a good way to finish the day.

I ended up driving back to work that night so it had been a poor end to my Championships, Colin had won the section with 40kg+ and Jase was second with 30 odd kilo.

What would I do different?

I could have been better prepared at the start but as I was going big or going home I wasn’t really bothered and was largely relying on the left hand edge, which never happened.

Try again and harder next time.

Tackle used:

Pole, Paste edge and Short:

Elastic: Colmic Red Hollow Edge

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.18mm Cenex

Hook: 5 Tubertini 175,

Float: Margin, KC Carpa Margin Paste 4X10, Short Dino Paste 0.2g

Margin Meat:

Elastic: Colmic Red Hollow Edge

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.18mm Cenex

Hook: 3 Tubertini 175,

Float: Drennan Carp 3 in 0.4g

Across:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.17mm powerline to 0.14mm Cenex

Hook: 2 Tubertini 175

Float: Drennan AS4 0.3g

AAF Individual Championship, Day 1, Heronbrook Fishery

This was it the main event the AAF Individual Championship, I was actually quite unprepared for this match even after spending the night before refreshing hooklengths and re tying a few floats.  I was quite late in the draw queue and ended up on peg 38 of Canal.

Both margins were good with a bush to my left at 11.5m where it was 2ft deep, I would fish paste over pellet and dead maggot there, the right I found a hole at 2+2 that was a foot deeper than around it, as it was so deep I was fishing meat over hemp and meat there.  I also plumbed up a paste rig at 2+2 so that I had somewhere to start and end the match and finally I again set up a rig for fishing shallow with caster across.

I had to hope that one or more of those lines would come good as I had Gaz and Danny around the culvert to my right and the end peg to my left looked dangerous so anything better than 4^th in section would be good but to be honest I would need a section win to stand a chance of a trophy.

Anyway, at the all-in I shipped out the paste rig again and then started feeding the caster line hoping that I could start to line up some F1’s or Carp for later, anyway after 30 minutes or so I had a couple of decent F1’s in the bag but it wasn’t setting the world on fire so I went on the shallow line, a chub of nearly a pound first put in was a false dawn as again I had to start to work at trying to find how to string some fish together.  A few chub and a couple of f1’s were my reward for a few hours work and at the 3 hour mark I started to feed the edges and had another look on the paste line.

Nothing seemed to be working until I shipped down my right hand edge and the float buried with a small barbel on 6mm meat, I instantly upped the hook size and hooklength to allow me to get the fish in quicker and managed a run of small barbel, to try and improve the swim I gave it a quarter of a big cup of meat and then went under the tree to my left.  I had indications straight away and managed a carp of around 5-6lb but then small fish moved in so I topped it up with a full pot of dead maggot and micros and went down the other side. 

This is basically how I finished my day rotating between the three inside lines for a few more barbel and decent edge carp and I actually made a half decent come back, I say comeback as I had been watching Gaz on the peg next to me empty it across on pellet and Danny had managed a few aswell.  Come the end I had 37kg odd for third in section behind Danny on 40kg+ and Gaz on 52Kg.  It was better than I had expected but just a few more edge or paste fish may have tipped it in my favour, always tomorrow for a comeback though.

What would I do different?

I should have realised what Gaz was doing earlier and possibly followed suite, the other option would have been caster under the bushes to my left and pellet to the bare bank.

I needed another paste line that I would have left alone for at least 3 hours.

Tackle used:

Pole, Paste edge and Short:

Elastic: Colmic Red Hollow Edge

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.18mm Cenex

Hook: 5 Tubertini 175,

Float: Margin, KC Carpa Margin Paste 4X10, Short Dino Paste 0.2g

Margin Meat:

Elastic: Colmic Red Hollow Edge

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.18mm Cenex

Hook: 3 Tubertini 175,

Float: Drennan Carp 3 in 0.4g

Shallow:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 20 Guru Pellet waggler with a bait band

Float: Drennan Crystal dibber 0.2g

Land Command Championship, Heronbrook, 30/05/14

There were 68 or so anglers booked in for this match so we were spread over Match, Island and meadow, with my substantial breakfast dispatched and a £1 wager made with Chas it was time for the match brief and the draw.  It was whilst waiting that I was informed that Chas had pulled peg 1 on Match out of the bag so I needed a good peg to compete with him, 19 on Meadow was not it……

To give myself the best chance I set up a pellet rig for across, paste rig for down the track at 2+2, a margin rig to fish meat left and right and finally a tip rod to ping a pellet feeder around with. At the all-in I fed my track and edge lines before shipping out with my pellet rig, it consisted of a 10-11 MW F1 Pear on 0.16-0.10 and a 16 T808. I was using a mix of 2mm pellet and F1 Dark groundbait in the toss pot and I was caught by surprise when the float buried first put in, I lost that one but 5 minutes later my Pink reflex elastic was getting well stretched by a small carp. That one in the net I had to wait for a little while for my next bite and it was a very good carp, unfortunately I will never know how big as the hook pulled after about 5 minutes and I was left cursing. So to prevent any more losses I upped the hooklength to 0.12 and the elastic to yellow Reflex, and didn’t get another bite over that line for the next 45 minutes, so I had a look on the paste line early.

My rig for the paste line was a 0.2g Dino Paste float on 0.20-0.18mm line and a T175 in size 5, elastic was green Reflex as usual. I started to get indications almost straight away and managed a small F1 but it was nowhere quick enough and with most people around me catching small carp I needed to do something to get a few in the net.  I tried the pellet feeder, edge, paste and across both on the deck and shallow over the next 2 hours with only another 3 small F1’s on the paste line to show for my efforts.  I was on the brink of packing up when I thought that I would have a quick look again down on my right hand margin, I had been feeding it religiously all day with 6mm meat and hemp so it would have to give me something.

I toss potted in a pinch of hemp and 8 bits of meat before slowly lowering my rig in on top of the feed, 20 seconds later a liner that moved the float so I lifted it back into position, dropped it down and it dinked under. It didn’t take long to get the 6lber into the net as I was again on green Reflex to 0.20 mainline, 0.18mm bottom and a size 3 T175.  I shipped back down the edge and lowered my float back in again with a toss pot full of grub and another carp quickly slipped up and so started a manic hour and a quarter that saw me putting carp upto about 13lb into the net almost one a bang. Mick the edge to my right couldn’t understand it as I plundered the fish from between us but I think that it was where I had over 3ft of depth tight to the reeds that was allowing the fish to regroup quickly.  I was just starting to enjoy myself when the fish left me with 30 minutes to go and I struggled for another carp from that line before the all out.  I knew that I had done well but what the scale revealed blew me away, I was the last person in my section to get weighed and 31kg was winning when it got to me. I was confident that I had over 30kg and I was proved right when my first net went 25kg and there was about 20kg in the other one for 45KG and a handful of grams.  This even beat the other section on Meadow that should have been the better one so I was looking good for getting my quid off Chas.

Overall I was relegated to second as Colin W managed 48kg from Match, so well done Colin, I am still rueing those two lost fish at the start of the match.  All I need to do now is catch up with Chas for my quid, anyway after this photo it was time for a quick meeting, prize giving and then the 3 hour drive home so that I can fish the final round of the Withy Tof4 tomorrow, here’s to hoping for another good day.

R.Sigs Championships, 2011

So we were all off to Heronbrook Fisheries for the 2011 R.Sigs Championships 2011, Canal and Match were the lakes involved and each would have 14 anglers around them over the next two days.
Day 1 saw me drawn on Canal peg 12, this is in the middle of the stick ups and as soon as I got to my peg I knew that it would be an interesting day, I also had a little cut out down my left hand margin on a 2+2 line that was earmarked for later. The across line would be simplicity itself, I took a power kit with Red Vespe hollow through it and proceeded to pull the elastic out and cut it off 5 ft shorter with the idea to stiffen it up. This was attached to an animal rig with 0.19mm powerline straight through to a size 3 Tubertini 175, my float was a new Frenzee fp 850 set at 2 ft deep and my hook bait would be meat as I didn’t have any bread.
I set up a standard paste rig on a 2+3 line at 45^o to my right and a margin rig that was the same as the across rig down my margin to the left. I thought it may be a hard match so did not want to spread the fish around too much. At the all in I fed ½ a pot of hemp and pellet on my paste line and shipped across towards the reeds with my Dobbing rig. After 3 hours it was 4 all between the fish and I but all of my fish were f1’s so frustrated I went for a walk around the lake to see how it was fishing. Before I went I put a full pot of bait on my Paste line and a pot of hemp and 6mm meat down the edge. It was obvious that it was fishing hard every where and even the end pegs were struggling so I decided to persevere and over the last 2 hours of the match I managed to take about 10 Carp from the margin and on the paste line for a total weight of 44lb 4oz. This was enough o give me 2^nd out of the serving members and so I went into day 2 with 2 points. I had been categorically beaten by my mate Pez who took over 70lb from end peg 35 mostly down the edge in the last hour.

Day 2 saw me drawn on the far side of Match Lake just as the old Match and speci lakes join together, this gave me a multitude of options but I decided to try and keep things simple. (I would regret it later) I clipped a method up to a hole in the reeds to the island margin in front of me, I plumbed up a paste line on a 2+2 just to my left and I plumbed up a left and right hand margin swim.
At the All in I fed my paste line again with hemp and pellet before casting out the tip, after an hour I had 4 decent F1’s in the bag but they had backed off so I was starting to sctratch already, the paste line wielded a few skimmers and the margin gave me 1 carp of 6lb and a couple of roach. All my fish came from the method line to the island and after 3 I would have to rest it by fishing somewhere else for upto an hour. Not good. I finished with 38lb+ which was enough for 4^th on the lake but fortunately it gave me 2 points again, unfortunately Pez had 1 again and it also transpired that M.Cullip had the same in the other section.
Overall I was 3^rd with Pez taking top spot forcing Martin into second by total weight, it had been a great fun couple of days and I am really looking forward to next years wherever I will decide to hold it. Next time I will definitely set up more options on Match Lake though as I think that another couple of lines for a few fish could have seen me squeak the section.

Interservices Championship, Heronbrook

This event started with nearly a week’s worth of practice, this saw me fishing on Bridge peg 9(twice), Canal 11 and 15, Match 35 and Meadow 13. This period saw weights from 56-96lb on a variety of tactics across the lakes and included a day’s pleasure fishing on Match that saw me mug out 4 carp for around 60lb.

But to the event itself, the Inter services is a competition between the Army, RAF and Navy and this year it was being run by the current holders the Navy, the Army had not won the trophy since 2005 at Porth Reservoir and since we knew the venue well this was seen as our best chance of picking up the trophy for the last couple of years.

I had Meadow 4 drawn out of the bag for me and this gave me just over 13m to a gap in the far bank reeds that was about 2 ½ feet deep, this depth could be found in a few other spots along the far bank as well. I set up a 4X12 Big H Border float on 0.15mm mainline and a 0.13mm hook length with an 18 B911 attached to the end, this was set up on yellow Vespe E2 hollow elastic on a pull bung. I set up a 2+2 corn rig and a paste rig to go on the same line and a deep margin rig to fish at 13m down the lake to my left but all I had from these lines was a small Tench.

At the all in we had planned a bit of deception so the whole team potted in either nothing or as in my case 6 pellets and a bit of water in their biggest pot across. This worked and the RAF angler pegged on peg 1 potted in a whole pot of maggot across on to his far line, then the same again down the edge and other spots. I put a bit of hemp and corn in on my 2+2 line and also the same on my margin line before I shipped across to my far line and kinder cupped in a few micros. It took about 3 minutes for my first bite that led to a Gudgeon but after a few more minutes I started to put a few F1’s into the net. By the end of the first hour though the wind was worsening and I was about 10lb adrift from the peg to my left who had had a couple of decent carp early before his constant dumping of maggots saw him losing a few foul hookers. With this in mind I decided to move swims a few feet to my left under a canopy of reeds and this saw a marked improvement in sport, I started to pick up F1’s and small carp quite regularly for the rest of the match and it was only when I wanted to take a break from the wind that I would try my margin or 2+2line.

After 5 hours of fishing I had ended up with 16 Carp, a couple of Gudgeon, about 25 F1’s and a small Tench for a combined weight of 83lb 4oz, this saw me nearly double the next best weight in my 3 man section for a comfortable section win and also take 4^th overall in the match. The Army won with 7 section wins and a total of 18 points, we also had the top 4 individuals all from the same lake, Meadow. All in all a very good day.