Avoiding the blank 19 part 3

So after the success of my last trip out I had decided to go one better before the end of the season on a couple of my club lakes and catch an even bigger bream or a big tench.  Work was of course the first obstacle and I was on duty for the following weekend so that meant staying close to camp.  I decided to try on of the Wimborne waters, however, although I saw a few signs of fish on my visit it was mainly memorable for the swans being a right pain as the dominant pair were trying to scare last year’s young away.  I blanked and only managed a few small indications for my trouble, with the lake only being a few feet deep I was expecting more as I was sure that the fish should have started to wake up but who knows, perhaps I got it all wrong.

Club lake at dawn

The following weekend it was back to the big lake as I had managed to wangle an extra night and day just before the season was finishing, I was lucky as I managed to get my first choice swim, unlucky as the floating algae was back with a vengeance and after only 7 hours or so I had decided to move lakes to another one just down the A36.  I turned up at half 12 and was set up by 2am, I managed a bream just as I was settling down but it was of average stamp for the lakes at 3lb or so.  I decided to get a little sleep so I wound the rods in and set my alarm for before first light.  The day was slow, I did see a tench get caught from opposite me and I managed a few skimmers to about 1.5lb, but I wasn’t feeling it in my swim, next door looked better with some Lilly’s the other side of the floating island that I was fishing to.  I moved swim and managed a few small fish mostly on maggot during the day as dusk started to fall I switched to worm and wafter hookbaits hoping for some better fish.  I managed a few bream again and wound in at about 11pm with my alarm set for dark o’clock in the morning.  I switched in the morning from paternoster rigs to method feeders and this was a bad idea as I did not have another bite all morning, one to remember for that lake as I believe that the method was getting obscured by the silt, so I either need to find a firm spot of stick to the paternoster rigs. This was my last trip on this clubs lakes for this season but fingers crossed I will be back in June.

Method caught double

The following weekend it was time to get back out with the carp kit and I went on to a local runs water with Jase, from beginning to end it was a right laugh even though it was very, very damp for the first day.  We set up opposite an Island and this gave me access to the channel running behind it providing no one moved in to the disabled swims.  Jase didn’t have that problem as he was the only swim that could cover the water in his swim (excuses in early), we decided to have a friendly match. I had an inkling that there was quite a small average size of fish in this lake so I decided to break out the hybrid feeders again, it proved to be a good choice as I managed a few fish during the afternoon and as we went into the evening the score was 9-4 to me.  The first couple of hours of darkness were very slow so I decided to try something out of left field, I set up 2 zigs and started to spod over the top of them, I did get a quick pick up but the fish did the rig before I got to the rod, and then that was it for the night!!

Jase's first double take! ahhhh

Just after first light Jase started to catch again, he managed his first ever double take and had a PB Roach at 1-6, whilst all this was going on I had 2 small skimmers on the method feeders as I had switched back after the failed attempt on the zigs. As the morning progressed the bites slowed for Jase and 15 minutes before I was due to leave the score was 9-9, I had packed down most of my kit and my rods were laid on the floor when the line on the left hand rod across to the gap behind the island pulled tight and then out of the clip.  I have not been so happy to catch a 2lb carp in a long time and the look on Jase’s face was priceless, not that I rubbed his nose in it or anything. I am looking forward to the next one mate.

One of the Floater caught carp

The next few days were difficult as one of my Club lakes was suffering from a fish kill that was being caused by a spikey Diatom attacking their gills and killing the fish, I went down to help over a couple of days and it was devastating, as I am writing this we are still not sure if anything will have survived in the lakes.  We also had Toxic Blue-Green algae confirmed on another pair of lakes so we wait with baited breath as to what will happen there.  I did manage a couple of hours on another club lake though, I only took my floater rod and my float rod and managed 4 on floaters and 1 on peparami over 8mm pellet on the float in the edge.

My final trip out was off to Southwick Park, otherwise known as HMS Dryad, this was for an Army Carpers match, most had stayed overnight but as I only live an hour away I decided to drive down on the morning.  There had been 16 angler booked in for the match but unfortunately 5 had to drop out at the last moment due to a variety of reasons, this left 3 spare swims an I didn’t have a partner so it was going to be a fun 48 hours.  I managed a quick run up the bank with the organisers and my top 3 swims were 2 or 9 then peg 3, I was 3^rd out of the draw and all 3 of them were still in the bag!!  I decided on peg 9 though as it had loads of room and I had fished that area a few times in the past, I was lucky enough to get all my kit carried up on the tractor and I had loads of time to get ready as I knew the main areas of my swim were basically the large overhanging tree on the far bank at about 80 yards from my swim.

Southwick Park Lake

The match panned out as I though with only a few fish getting caught through the day and then more fish activity in the evenings and through the night, by the end of the first 24 hours I was in second with about 100lb but I was 100lb off the pace for first, this and the fact that I could only catch from one part of the swim did not bode well.

During the second day I tried a few things but apart from a few fish that some pleasure anglers had in front of them on the far bank and the fish under the tree I did not see a lot else, I had been given a few areas to try but some were just unreachable with the kit that I had taken so I had to make do.  Early on the second evening a few fish started to show in a different area, I managed a quick one but as I decided to feed some boilies on their heads the fish all spooked not to be seen there again!!

My biggest of the match, 17lb.

The last morning was fun, I had managed to put a rig into the far bank tree in the early hours and I decided to go to sleep as well as staying awake the whole of the first night had not helped too much, I caught steadily through the night but as it turned out it was not enough and I missed out on 3^rd by 20lb.  I think this could have been easily achieved if I had just worked my second rod more during the last night or if I had a partner!!

It was still a laugh even though the nearest anglers to me in the match were about 300m away, the bailiffs kept me entertained, anyway, well done to the winners and hopefully I will have a partner for the next one.

Lessons learned:

This month has all been about feeding too much, so I need to think about what I am trying to achieve.  If I want a quick bite or to mug a passing fish a single or small PVA bag or method is by far a better option.

Inter Services Carp Angling Championship 2016

Courtesy of my match fishing background and my results throughout the year in the Army Carp fishing league I was lucky enough to get selected to represent the Army in the Inter Services Carp Angling Championships earlier this week.  The story however starts a few weeks ago as I have been out on a few secret practice sessions that I shall tell you about now:

My first Practice saw me getting onto the lake on a cold and wet Saturday, I set up on Permanent peg 59 and decided to fish the method in a variety of places around the swim.  I started in a small cut out in a tree on the far bank, moving onto a baited area about halfway across to my left and I finished down my right hand margin, all produced fish and the biggest was about 8lb.  My total of 10 fish was well down on what people were expecting but I felt as though I had extracted the best from the swim on the day as a match going on to my left all the anglers were struggling as well.

 





















My second practice was with the rest of the team and this time Paul was with me, we both set up in Peg 71 as we felt that it would give us a good idea as to how our zone would fish, we had been given the river mouth end of the lake to target.  It turned out to be harder than the time before and I managed about 8 fish most of which came in the last hour or so, I also had to fish tight into some snags on the far bank to get bites during the day so that was not ideal. 
Here are the two biggest both well into double figures:

The team plan had been formed and it was now the time to prepare, as you can see we all took alot of time to prepare and each angler had around 200-300 small pva bags of pellet ready tied and also 20-30 hook lengths all ready to go.  The plan was to fish small bags, small hooks and longish mono hook lengths to try and overcome the silt.

The big day was soon upon us and a slight twist saw the draw format being the team drawn first could pick their peg choice for all three sections, Tim was lucky enough to be called up first and we had swim C in all four sections.  For Paul and I we were well happy as we were sat on an absolute flyer in that we sat in pegs 72 and 73 and had about and acre of lake in front of us and a reedy bay to our right which was fed by the river.

I was sat in peg 72 so I had a huge snag tree on the far bank which was going to be my banker but to start I fished away from it to see if I could bag a couple of early fish. 

The answer was no and after a couple of fruitless hours I was soon putting a rod over tight to the trees, and that was the turning point of my match, by the end of the first day I had around a hundred pounds of Carp in the net and Simmo had managed a few from the end peg as well so we were smashing up our section before we had even started.  I managed a fish of 16lb just on dusk but simmo had a peach at over 21lb a couple of hours later.

And so it continued, we had a quiet spell between midnight and 3 AM where nothing happened but then in just over 5 hours I managed 12 fish for 101lb, Simmo managed to land a couple but he was suffering badly with lost fish in his snag pit of a swim.  After breakfast however, fortunes swapped and it was my turn to start loosing fish from under the far bank tree, and I lost alot of fish that day.  It ended up that I beefed up my hooklength from 0.24mm powerline (about 11lb) to 15lb mainline in an attempt to stop myself from getting cut off on the snags and it worked to be fair as I hardly lost a fish from under the tree after the change.

I decided at about midnight that I would try to have a bit of sleep for the first time since before the start of the match, however, the carp had other ideas as I managed to have 3 from swims that I thought I would not get a run off, oh well, I could sleep when I got home.

That night it was another 10 carp this time for a weight of 77lb and I had to get the angler in the next peg to witness my fish as I was running out of room again in my nets.

This was the last morning and I had a slow finish really with only 3 bites and 3 fish to show for the last 3 hours but it had been fun up until the packing up tired bit.. Sorry Paul and Josh :-)

We had managed to amass around 650lb of fish between the two of us, I think I had 409lb ( well it rings a bell) but by this time I was too tired to care, the Navy had managed just over a ton and the RAF limped in with tales of lost fish, well there was a big snag in their peg we had warned then about, with just less than a ton.

We  as a team met back up at the car park and as the results started to filter back to us we realised that we had actually managed to win the match, Dave and Jimmy had top weight, Paul and I were 3rd and Paul also bagged the biggest fish with his 21lber.

Next year it is off to B2 so I shall have to make sure that I get selected again to try and help retain the title.

Well in all the team and many thanks to the runners and everyone who wished us luck and helped with tactics before the big day.

What would I do different?

I should have realised earlier that I needed to beef up my hook lengths especially after loosing a couple of fish but it is easy when you are not trying to bag up to say that.

Tackle used:

Far bank:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded

Short line:

Rods: 10ft 2.75lb TC Dwarf

Reels: Daiwa 4012 TDM

Line: 12lb ESP Syncro loaded