AAF Group 2 Revels Fishery

It was a bit of a turbulent start to this match as I was running it due to Craig having to work and I made a few controversial decisions on the morning, anyway that aside it was to be a silvers only match over four sections spread across three lakes!?!?!?

The draw got underway and Pete drew me out peg 3 on Dead Tree Lake, not a too bad area by all accounts and as I walked past some of the other pegs on my lake I knew that people would be in for a struggle, which is not ideal.  My peg looked like this:

I had a multitude of options but decided to fish 2 pole lines at 13m both with chopped worm slop and groundbait, I then set up a waggler to fish maggot towards the far bank and finally I set up a margin rig to fish in the roots of a tree stump to my left hoping for a few perch.

I called the all in and fed a ball of worm slop on both 13m lines and then I started by trying to mug a perch down the edge but that lasted all of 5 minutes and I was soon on the waggler.  I had a slow start and by the end of the first hour I had 3 skimmers in the net, Ivan and Bri to my right were catching a few roach on maggot so I fed a few maggots in a couple of balls of worm mush but continued on the wag for another 20 minutes.

The fishing was never hectic but I managed to plod along all day, the swap to maggot was like flicking a switch as both of my pole lines came alive with small roach and the odd better skimmer, again it was never hectic but I just plodded on putting weight in the net.

I lost 1 carp on the wag and landed another on the pole, on an 0.08mm hooklength and a 20 Gamma Green hook, so I fortunately was not plagued by them like Griff was on peg 1 to my left and he had to put back 5 carp in the end.

Rotating lines was key but they all died off as the day went on and I didn’t even get an indication down the edge or on worm long.  As I called the all out there was a collective sigh of relief as it was all over.  Bri and Ivan had been catching fish all day so I thought that it might be close, Ivan said that the majority of his fish were tiny so that boded well for my bag as I had a few netters, I was still annoyed with myself for losing two decent roach at the net though, both 4-6oz fish, I was hoping that it would not cost me.  Griff DNW’ed as he had to run off for a hospital appointment that was sprung on him at 3pm!! Then there was 700grams I think to my left, I had 3.390Kg, Bri Had 2Kg+ as did Ivan but Bri had the bragging rights by 40grams if I remember correctly.

Back to the results and I drew with Rocky for individual Glory, Nomads ‘A’ took the top team spot oh and Bri should have paid into the pools as he would have picked up a section 2^nd and match 3^rd!!

What would I have done differently?

I would have liked to have fed one of the long lines differently with caster perhaps but it seemed to be a maggot day so I am not sure if that would have made a difference.

Tackle used:

Pole Long:

Elastic: Yellow Hydro

Line: 0.13mm to 0.12mm Cenex dropped down to 0.08 later

Hook: 16 B911 F1 dropped down to 20 Gamma Green Later

Float: 0.2g AS3

Pole Margin:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.15mm powerline to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 16 B911 F1

Float: 0.3g AS4

Wagler:

Rod: Browning Champions Choice 13ft Super Light

Reel: Daiwa TDM 2508

Line: 0.18mm Supplex to 0.10mm hooklength

Hook: 20 B560

Float: 5BB Dave Harrell Insert waggler, swapped to 3AA Sensilite later

New Year Update

It has been a few weeks since my last blog, so I am catching up. I have fished 2 matches and had a few pleasure sessions since my last  post so here we go from the start. Firstly there was a trip to the Dorset Stour at Nutford to use up some maggot from the weekend, I decided to try out my new King Feeder All season feeder rod that I had got hold of for my river fishing and I thought that a few roach and chub should christen it nicely. I teamed it up with a Backfire reel and some 0.18mm Cenex feeder line, dropping a blockend feeder into a far bank slack for 2 hours gave me a tiny roach that hung itself on a long hooklength. I moved downstream into deeper water and missed a couple of rattles but that was it, the river had switched off as another guy only had a couple of tiny roach to show for a whole days trotting.

The rod however stood up against the flow well and was easy to cast the short distance across the river.

Moving on my next trip saw me at Revels fishery on an open match just after Christmas, I drew Trendalls this pond is usually reserved for the visitors to the camp site and after drawing I was told that I was on a flyer (Again!!). On getting to the peg I had an island 10m in front of me and a nice looking margin to my left, I also had Knocker sat in peg 3 about 10m to my right that cut off the point of the island and another guy in the peg to my left, that again restricted how far I could go.

As you can see the pegging was tight in areas but most of the carp in the lake hid behind the island that was in front of me as soon as we started fishing. I set up a maggot rig on yellow reflex elastic with 0.14mm mainline, 0.12mm bottom and a size 18 B911, and a margin rig that didn’t work and a short pole rig that didn’t work. My day was basically a non event with a lone carp and a handful of gudgeon on maggot to show for my line rotation and starting of new lines when I thought the fish may had backed off. My 4 1/2lb was not last on the lake but I lost £2 in the car park to Dave and Tom whom were both sat on the main lake and caught over 20lb. Next door to me Nick fished at 14.5m just past the point of the island and ended up with 35lb+, and the guy in the bottom corner had around 40lb for the lake win.

This prompted me to go out to Todber in the week to catch some fish and I basically fished exactly the same tactics that I had done at Revels to end up with around 40lb of fish in 4 hours off Whitepost Lake. I basically fished the same rig as the weekend with maggot, I started by kinder cupping in small amounts buy soon realised that because I was the only person on the lake more aggressive feeding got rid of the roach and pulled the small carp in.

The next trip was off to Shearwater to try the King Feeder at long range method fishing and also to get some fish in the net, I set up a 10ft and 11 ft Force commercial feeder rods with the bomb and method respectively and also the King Feeder with a method feeder with a Backfire 030 reel and 0.18mm Cenex Feeder mainline. The methods were set up inline and I clipped the long rod up at 60 turns and the 11fter at 35 turns. I caught 46 Bream to 5lb, a 12 lb Carp and a perch all on the method, when one line slowed (no bite within 5 mins) I would switch t the other line and was usually rewarded with a fish straight away.

The day had been that much fun that I decided to return the following week and try further up the lake in the shallower water to try and catch more carp. I also decided to just fish at range so I set up the King Feeder again this time with a 30g Banjo feeder on my 3^rd cast I had a bream and caught steadily throughout the day on 8 and 10mm magic marbles in white and yellow. Over the last few sessions I found the King Feeder All Season to be an really good medium to long range bream rod, it coped very well with carp to double figures and the soft tip prevented any hook pulls under the rod end that you usually get with more tippy long range offerings. Anyway, I finished this time with only 35 Bream to 6lb and a lone carp, I caught fewer fish due to having to bring them all in from 65yds out, and the last couple were from 72 and 82 turns that is around 75 yds out.!!!

Dorchester Christmas Match- 16/01/2011

Yes I know it is January but due to the lakes being completely frozen over before Christmas the match had been moved to this date.
 The venue for the day was Revels fishery near Cosmore and with tea, coffee and bacon buttys sorted in the morning it was time for the draw.With the weather as it was, a HOOLIGAN and threatening rain all day I fancied a peg on Old tree Lake as I knew that it is full of small stockies and alot of skimmers and these should feed in the conditions. My next choice would have been the back arm on the Main lake as that is where a few carp can usually be found on the far bank and last out of my top 3 was Main lake behind the Islands in the deeper water where the Skimmers tend to live. I drew peg 6 on Middle Lake, this put me back to back with Dead Tree Lake with an inflow pipe 7m to my left, alot of open water until the right hand side of the swim where it narrowed drastically and became the channel into the 'canal' part of the lake. Here it is about 8m wide and around 3ft deep however with the wind cutting straight across me if I faced that way I decided to take the wind in my face so concentrated on setting up my kit for the left side of the swim.
 I plumbed a swim close to the inflow pipe for a corn line with a 4X14 Drennan Carp 2, 0.17 main to a 0.15 bottom and 16 hook. I had a skimmer rig for 8m out in the open water with worm, this was a 4X16 KC Carpa Chimp to 0.15 mainline and 0.12 bottom to an 18 Tubertini 808 and finally I set up a Preston Pellet feeder on 6lb Mainline and a 0.19mm bottom with a 14 Guru QM1 with a hair rigged bait band.
 My bait list was some Micro pellet for the feeder, Worm, Caster, Hemp, Corn, Red maggot and a few Hookers for the feeder. I also mixed some Sonubaits F1 groundbait that I darkened off with a bit of dye in the clearish water and at the all in I put 8 balls of this with some worm, caster, micros and corn out onto my 8m line, I then put 1/4 of a cup of hemp with 30 grains of corn on that line then chucked the feeder baited with an 8mm punch of meat 18m up the left hand margin just off the drop off. It sat there for 15 mins with a slight liner so a recast saw a strikeable indication followed by another recast and a 4oz skimmer on 8mm meat! I thought that if they were eating that I should empty on the worm line, how wrong was I. To cut a long story short (for once) I swapped between my worm line and a maggot line that I started up in the mouth of the channel to my left for a procession of roach and perch.Most of the time if I hooked a skimmer it would be on for a couple of seconds and then off, I can only think that I was not giving them enough time to eat the worm (too much pellet fishing).
 I also lost a carp/better fish on the feeder when the metal ring that you attach the hooklength to cut through the elastic just after the take, that annoyed me.
 Anyway, I finished with 7lb 14oz of silvers on a frustrating day that gave me top weight on my lake and 8th place out of 28 anglers, so not too bad. the guys behind me on dead tree struggled with the wind across them all day although there were 2 double figure weights and the match was won from the main lake with over 20lb. Oh well always next year.