Royal Signals Coarse Angling Championships 2018

 So it was back to the Glebe for this year’s Corps Champs and in all truth I had done next to no prep on the run up to this match, all my rigs had been stored in my box since last year’s champs so I was hoping for a quiet week in all honesty and was looking forward to seeing some of the older faces.  I might as well start at the beginning so…..

Practice day 1

This was an out and out practice day for me, just to see if the old tactics were still working, it was the only day of the week that I set up a corn rig and I didn’t have a bite on it.  I drew peg 96 on lake 6 and I was just out of the corner in the lee of the wind so not ideal.  Long story short I tried feeder, pellet wag, shallow at 13m, corn and paste short and paste down the edge for a middle of the road 48Kg but I had learnt a lot. Namely that they were not eating much corn, they were responding to noise and that if you left the feeder in for longer than about 20 seconds if you had a bite most of the time they were foul hooked or just dropped off.  I was hoping that this information would put me in good stead for the next day.

Practice day 2

I managed to draw peg 22 on Lake 1 for this match an area of the lake that I really enjoy fishing.  It was time to hone the plan, so feeder for the first stint whilst feeding the short line every 20 minutes with half to a full pot of 6mm pellet, corn and hemp.  Then I would swap to the short line and paste which I was fishing at 2+3 in this swim to find a suitable area of bottom and I also plumbed up both margins and found two areas that were about the same depth so I could fish the same rig on both.  The match started well with me getting a few fish from behind the tree on the far bank on the feeder early but I soon noticed that even with my very rapid casting I was getting runs of 3-4 carp and then quiet spells. This told me that they were coming in in groups, clearing out the bait and moving on, I tried increasing from a small to a medium feeder but to no avail so I decided to have a look on the paste line.  It wasn’t solid bit it was quicker than the feeder line and I started to prep my margins at just over half way through the match.  I was feeding my groundbait mix, that I was also using for the feeder, it consisted of 1 part groundbait: 1 par pellet: 1 part water, all chucked into the bucket as soon as I got to my peg and then left to sort itself out until I would ruffle up the mix about 20 minutes from the all in and then add a handful of hard 4mm pellet.  Anyway, I was balling 2-4 balls in on both margin lines and it didn’t take long for signs to start, I still waited a bit longer to build their confidence and this seemed to work as in the last hour I had a very good run of fish. (so good I tipped out 10lb of silvers as I thought I might be getting close to being over the net limit in both my nets and started using the silvers net for carp)  At the all-out I knew that I had a half decent weight and my net went 88Kg 300g (194lb 10oz) which was enough to comfortably win the section.

Master Clubman Match

I was paired up with Maggsie for this match and we drew pegs 17 and 18 on Lake 1, it looked like a good area and there was a big overhanging tree in the middle of us that looked good for a few fish, I let Maggsie have peg 17 as it looked like the better margin peg, whilst I sat on peg 18.  The plan was the same again and I showed Maggsie a few things and then we got down to business, the day panned out pretty much the same as the day before with the exception that I only had one margin line and this was down to my right away from the tree.  The fish turned up strongly in the last 30 minutes or so and I fed a handful of 8mm pellet after every fish to try and ensure that I did not have to wait long after landing the fish and shipping back down the edge.  It worked as most of my bites were coming within 30 seconds of the rig settling proving that I was doing something right again. My feeder line had been less strong in this match, I think it was because I was aiming down the lake slightly to give Maggsie some room and the wind was proving troublesome when I came to trying to be accurate.  This was academic however as I managed another big weight of 80Kg 550g (177lb 9oz) for a section win, Maggsie had about 50Kilos I think but in the grand scheme of things we were well off the Pace as Chris and Ritchie on lake 5  had a great day to win the Master Clubman trophy.  Well done gents.

Royal Sigs Champs day 1

So it was time for the main event, I was drawn in B section and tis meant that I had managed to avoid all the other ex-corps champs and the majority of the army team, still if I wanted to do well then I would need to get 2 section wins and catch a lot of fish in the process, due to this I wanted to avoid lake 4 at all cost as it had been providing the lowest weights of the week.  Evo was tasked with drawing for me as I was sat behind a board and he did me proud, not that I knew it at the time as he put me on peg 76 on Lake 5.

This saw me sat in the peg that had provided the master clubman champions from the day before and as soon as I looked at the peg I could see why, there were loads of fish in the swim, I had a cheeky looking margin off to my left that was also the windward end of the lake so it was looking very good for a few.  The plan was the same again with the feeder across for the start and then paste short and down the edge later, there was a pipe on the far bank and Ritchie popped down as we were all setting up and he told me that he had caught most of his fish from there so I ran around and did a little bit of gardening to make my life easier and hat was that line sorted.  I plumbed my short line up at 2+2 straight in front as it was a good depth and I would not be winding my feeder over the top of it, I also tried to resist the draw of the left hand side of the peg as the reeds had a few rigs in them and I didn’t fancy a frustrating day of losing fish.  My margin line, however, was plumbed up to the left again at 2+2 short of the reeds, the fish in the lakes were hungry so I was hoping to draw them away from trouble with a bit of grub.

The all-in was called and out went the feeder, I sat on this line for about an hour too long as I had been watching Pete and Ivan to my right catching carp on their short lines from the start, I was struggling to put any numbers of fish together, so with only about 30lb of fish on my nets an hour and a half into the match I had a look on the short line.  It was a master stroke and I have to say that it was all down to Ivan catching on paste early, the next 2 and a half hours or so saw me click 150lb of fish into my keep nets, the bites when it was good were happening within 5 seconds of the bait hitting the bottom!!

With 2 hours to go I put in my 4^th keepnet and over the last 2 hours which saw the swim slowing I still put about 80lb of carp into the final net.  Most of the fish had come on the 2+2 line but I did have a few from the edge when I was resting the short line, feeding was key this time and the fish were responding to loose fed 6mm pellet, once I had a bite and hooked a fish I would put in 2 lots of 20-30 pellet, if the swim slowed drastically I fed half a pot of pellet, corn and hemp from a height.  This saw me feed 6 pints 6mm pellet, 4 tins corn and 3 pints of hemp on the short line alone. It was worth it though as I weighed in 126 Kg 550g (278lb 15oz) for a new PB match weight that I think may take a while for me to beat.  Pete had caught well all day and had also managed a double ton and a new PB but it was enough for me to win  the section and pick up the super pools for the day

Royal Sigs Champs day 2

It was back onto lake 1 for the final day of the champs and as I was sat on the boards again my Evo my team mate drew for me again, he had managed a second in section on day 1 so we were in a strong position for the team champs going into the second day, but to be fair I was only looking at winning the corps champs back again after the day before.  Evo pulled peg 28 out of the bag for me and I knew that I was in with a chance, I had Adi and Alfie for company to my left and Ritchie was tucked away in peg 30 to my right.  Plan was the same again, I clipped the feeder up next to some overhanging Purple loosestrife and then plumbed my short line up in 4ft of water in front of an overhanging tree to my right. I also put in a margin line to my left but in all honesty I was hoping that I would not need it.  I started on the feeder again casting every 20 seconds and it was actually quite good, I had 40lb after an hour and the pace continued for the second hour.  I was suffering a bit from liners and foul hookers but I was soon able to sort that by changing from a wafter hookbait to a 8mm pellet. All the time I was watching to my left as Adi could have ruined my party from his swim but fortunately for me I was the only person on the tip for about 5 pegs!!  At about the 3 hour mark the feeder line had become very iffy, I also could not get a bite on the short line so I had another quick look shallow at 13m as there had been a few fish cruising but nothing happened so I de3cided to try and force the short line.  I fed half a pot of bait and went straight on it, I had indications almost straight away and that was the start of a fluffy of fish, again I was feeding pellet after every fish was hooked and I was getting an indication every 20 seconds or so once the bait had settled on the bottom.  I wasn’t hitting all of them which was making me think that they were off the deck slightly, but by being patient they soon settled back on the deck and turned up in numbers.  The last hour was going very well until the elastic which had been in my pole for a year parted about 8 inches up from the stopper bead, a quick re rig of the margin top and I still managed a few fish before the end of the match.  I had also put m,y 4^th net in with an hour and a half of the match remaining as I had been catching well and was struggling to guess the weight of the fish well, it was just as well.  I put 97KG 675g (215lb 5oz)of fish onto the scales for another section win and second in the match, to say that I was chuffed was a huge understatement, nearly everyone else in the section also managed over a ton so the venue had fished brilliantly

As we all grouped up for a cold drink waiting on the results it became clear that I had won the title for the 5^th time, Well done Daz and Ian for keeping me honest in 2^nd and third respectively, all of us on 2 points and overall weight decided it at the end of the day.

Overall

1^st Ben                  2 pts      224.225Kg

2^nd Daz                  2 pts      174.900Kg

3^rd Ian                   2pts       138.825Kg

On the team front Evo and I managed runners up in the Team cup behind Daz and Ian.

Many thanks to Louis and his team for running the event and also to Roy for allowing us to use his fanastic fishery, I look forward to seeing everyone next year back there.

I used the same rigs every day:

Feeder 1:

Rod: Drennan S7 10ft Carp Feder with 1.5oz tip

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 12 QM1

Feeder: 20g Guru cage

Feeder 2:

Rod: Drennan Matchpro medium feeder at 11.5ft, 2oz Glass tip

Reel: Daiwa 4012 TDM

Line: 8lb Daiwa sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 12 QM1

Feeder: 20g Guru Cage

Waggler:

Rod: Drennan ultralight 12ft

Reel: Cadence CS10 4000

Line: 4lb sensor,

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag pre tied to 0.17mm

Float: 3g Drennan pellet wag or 2 swan Guru pellet wag.

Pole Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H Paste

Pole Margin Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Pole shallow:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm Powerline

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag

Float: 0.2g Drennan crystal dibber

Royal Signals Coarse Angling Championship Day 2, 04/08/17 The Glebe

So it was crunch time, 4 of us were all on 1 point from the day before Daz, Martin, Ian and myself so the goal today was to get 1 point and then it would be down to the weight of the fish.  I was going to be on Lake 1 this time but as I have only ever fished one swim on there if I didn’t draw 24 it was going to be new territory.

By the time I got to the draw bag I knew what mini section I was in as all the high numbers were gone peg 13 graced my hand and from the results yesterday I knew that if the wind behaved it could be a very good feeder peg.  My team mate Evo had drawn on Peg 92 so I briefed him up with what I thought had happened the day before and we went on our merry ways with the brief of ‘have fun catch fish’.

On getting to my peg I could see why it was such a good feeder peg as there were boards to cast to on the far bank so after sorting my usual 50:50 micro and groundbait mix it was time to get the rods clipped up and my 3 pole rigs plumbed up.  I also decided to add a mugging rig at the last minute just in case it got tricky and I had a couple of opportunities to get extra weight, but it never went over the water so enough of that.

As the all-in was called I put in half a pot of hemp, pellet and corn as usual and then sent the feeder across the far bank and so the mould was set for the next couple of hours.  I managed a few fish in this time but I was having serious problems with being accurate in the cheeky wind, I even stepped my quiver tip up from 2oz to 2.5oz carbon version to try and improve accuracy. It kind of worked but I could not get anything really going and a few lost fish saw me starting to become exasperated.

By the mid match point I had about 30lb in the net and I had already had a look on the short line for a small skimmer, so that was re fed and left again, I had been topping it up every 20 minutes with ¼ to ½ a cup of bait hoping to draw in and hold some bigger fish. I had also had to retackle my feeder rod 3 times now due to a couple of mis-casts and on the 4^th time I lost my teddy and swore that I would now concentrate on the edges. There were 90 minutes or so left but I had one quick carp from my right hand edge then nothing and no signs from under the tree to my left!!  I was resigned to blowing out now as I had been watching Kev on Peg 4 steadily catch small carp all day, although he was slowing, and Pez on the next peg was moaning about it being hard although I could hear regular splashing from behind the tree.

That was it I tied up the feeder rod for the 4^th time, spent 5 minutes getting it clipped back up to the spot, but as soon as I did the wind dropped slightly.  Every cast was now plopping where I wanted it and the tip went around 8 times in 8 casts for around 40lb of fish, I had also taken some advice from one of the guys the night before in the bar who said that pellet was best, he was right. The problem was that they were taking a while to get in from the far bank so to try and speed things up I rested the feeder line to have a quick count of 100 on my RH edge, I got to 60 and was latched into an angry 6lb carp, ‘here we go’ I thought. But apart from a very small carp the next put that was it for the edge fish, however, I dropped in on my 2+2 line before I went back out on the feeder, I started counting, the goal was 70, I got to 20 and the float buried! That one was 5-6lb, the next put 23 seconds, clunk, the next 24 seconds, clunk, the next was on the drop and I was motoring now. After every bite I was topping up with 2 small handfuls of pellet hand balled into the area, however, this seemed to be bringing them off the bottom and with 10 minutes to go I gambled and put in ¾ of a pot of bait and went down both edges for 100 seconds. No fish from the margins so it was back out on the paste line for a 3lber and then an agonising wait until the all-out with a few small liners to show for it, I had blatantly overfed the swim for the last 10 minutes and I was livid with myself as I thought that I had blown a possible come back for a decent section place.  We all started to pack down and I went next door to see Pez, he finally admitted that he had been catching all day and he thought he had a decent weight but he had not been clicking his fish, I thought I had about 120lb, but I may have missed a couple of fish when I started bagging, finally as Kev walked down he thought it would be close for him and I as his fish dried up at the end and that Pez had smashed it.

I was first to weigh with a surprising 145lb 1oz (65.800Kg), I was actually shocked that it was so much but I think I had missed a few when I got busy in the last hour, Pez was next and he too was surprised but he had 127lb 6oz (57.625Kg) so a lot of his fish were smaller than he though and then there was the long wait until Kev got weighed so I busied myself packing up only to find out that Pez had pipped him by just over a pound.  Finally it dawned on me that I had won the section, so it was just waiting to see how the others had done, Daz was 2^nd in his section, Martin was 3^rd in his but Ian had managed to win his section so it would be down to weight.  I caught up with Evo to find that he had managed to come second on his lake behind Craig so it would be close between Blandford and Bramcote as to who had won the team championships as well.

Back at the results and there was plenty of banter still going around as everyone was waiting with baited breath to see where they had finished, I was soon put out of my misery though as in 3^rd was Pete with 3 points and 104.350Kg, second was Ian on two points and 110.975Kg that meant that I had managed to win the Royal Signals Coarse Championships for a 4^th time with 2 points and 127.250Kg. 

Evo and I also managed the UIN trophy and runners up in the teams to boot so it was a very very good day.

I would like to say thank you to Roy Marlow for letting us use his awesome fishery, there are not many places that you can go to almost any peg thinking that you target weight is over a ton, thanks also to Craig and his team for a smooth running festival, without guys like you we don’t get to do this.  Finally I would like to thank all the guys who took a week out of their busy lives to go fishing and have a bit of banter with their mates, it’s a hard life at times but weeks like this make up for it.

What would I do differently?

The only thing that I am rueing is that I should have set the feeder up straight away after losing the rig each time, and I should have had a looked at the short line a bit earlier, but I was catching on the feeder and you should never come off feeding fish, especially when they are taking on the drop.  I also should have only fed the short line with max a quarter of a pot with so little time until the end of the match, but fortunately it didn’t make that much difference.

Secrets to the success (this won’t happen often!)

1) Regular casting: for most of the matches I was only counting to 20 before a re-cast, the longest the rig was in the water was 100 seconds. Most proper bites came on the drop or in the first 30 seconds.

2) Simple plan: I had a max of 6 things set up, feeder and pellet wag for the far bank, corn and paste rig for 5m, paste for the edge (plumbed to the same depth both sides) and on the final day I set up a mugging rig just in case.  The far bank for at least 2 hours then find the best swim and plunder it.

3) Simple bait: My feeder mix was 3 pints Sonubaits 50:50 method/paste mix green, 3 pints micro pellet and 3 pints water. Chuck it all in a bucket and wait an hour before breaking it apart, simples no drills no riddles. Other than that I had 6mm pellet, hemp, corn and paste on my side tray with a pint of 4mm and 8mm pellet to get put in the feeder and a few wafters for on the hook.

4) Never waste time: I tried not to get suckered into sitting down the edge or on the short line too early if it wasn’t happening as most people were neglecting their feeder lines allowing me to steal fish.  Count to 100 if it hasn’t happened re feed and switch.

5) Failure to prepare is preparing to fail: I did not need to tie a rig or hooklength on the bank or in the evening as I had spent time in the weeks running up to the match tying up everything that I thought I would need.

6) Total Faith in my kit: all week I caught a lot of big fish and managed to land the vast majority of what I hooked, I put this down to correct feeding and fishing with gear that I trust implicitly.  Whilst people were getting smashed hooklengths, elastics and poles I had one hooklength snap all week and that was on the feeder as the fish made a run behind a pole in the water.

Tackle used:

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 11’6” medium feeder 2.5oz tip.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm powerline

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 20g guru open end feeder with 5g of extra lead

Pellet wag:

Rod: Drennan 12ft Acolyte Carp waggler.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 0.20mm Supplex to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 14 QM1 (thanks Kev)

Float: 14g Drennan pellet wag

Pole Corn:

Elastic: Preston 13h

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 3 T175

Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 3

Pole Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H Paste

Pole Margin Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Pole mugging:

Elastic: Preston 13h

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm Powerline

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag

Float: 0.4g Drennan crystal dibber

Royal Signals Coarse Angling Championship Day 1, 03/08/17 The Glebe

I would be lying if I said that I did not fancy my chances going into this week bearing in mind that I have started to focus more on Big Carp fishing for the last 12 months or so, but, my run up form was not too bad with 4 matches over the last couple of months resulting in 2 match seconds, 1 match 1^st (all section wins) and a DNW on my new bogey venue.  I may do a catch up blog just to wrap those all up… watch this space.

Back to the day in question and I drew peg 88 on Lake 6, I was quite happy with this as it was only 2 pegs away from where I had been fishing on the practice day so I was sure that there would be a few fish short and down the edge in the last couple of hours so the plan was another simple one. Feeder and pellet wag for the first couple of hours followed with paste and corn short and down the edge, if it was hard start looking at putting some weight in the net from anywhere.

The match started well with a few fish coming on the feeder over the course of the first couple of hours and I think I had about 20lb at this point.  Again I started to attack the feeder swim and this brought the fish up in the water following the splash of the feeder, so out went the pellet wag and I managed a few quick fish before back to grafting on the feeder. Another trick that worked was to drop the feeder about half a rod length short and this again gave me a few fish during the quiet spells.  The weather was doing its best to scupper the fishing as the wind was horrendous and I was glad that I was not on Lake 1 as the wind was off our backs but occasional showers were making it a jacket on and off kind of day.

With about an hour and a half Chris on the next peg, 86 decided to concentrate on his left hand long margin, this was good for me as he stopped feeding his short line.  I was soon on it after a half pot of bait and the fish were queuing up again in the last hour, I managed a lot of fish in that time and probably caught 70-80lb in the last hour, half of which I caught in the last 20 minutes when some bigger fish turned up on my paste line.

As the all-out was called I was hoping that the far end of the lake had fished as hard as it had for the guys around me, there were tales of woe as loads of fish were getting lost.  I think a lot of this was the fact that the carp were not happy feeding until the later part of the day and that then you needed to feed positively to drag them down onto the bottom and create the competition in your swim.  I also believe that the hemp helped draw fish in and that by feeding bigger heavier particles it was easier to keep the fishes heads down.

The scales showed that my 135lb 9oz (61.645Kg) was enough to win the lake and therefore the section by 40lb so I was quite a happy chappie.  It was also enough for second in the match behind an 87Kg weight from Pool 1 so that improved my smile no end.  Day 2 would see me on Pool 1 so I decided to take my time packing up, tidy uop my kit a bit and prep some of my bait for the next morning so there was no rush, hopefully the prep would pay off.

What would I do differently?

Not a lot really, I really enjoyed my day but possibly a 10ft rod would be easier on that lake as it is not as wide as some?

Tackle used:

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 11’6” medium feeder 2oz tip.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 20g guru open end feeder with 5g of extra lead

Pellet wag:

Rod: Drennan Acolyte Carp waggler 12ft.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 0.20mm Supplex  to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 14 QM1 (thanks Kev)

Float: 6-10g Preston pellet wag

Pole Corn:

Elastic: Preston 13h

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 3 T175

Float: 0.4g Drennan Carp 3

Pole Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H Paste

Pole Margin Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Royal Signals, Masters and Clubman match, 02/08/17

Once again I was gracing the banks of the mighty Glebe Fishery in Leicestershire, for this match my partner was Steve, it was going to be an easy day for me on the coaching side as I had sat behind him a couple of years ago and he had been sat on the same lake the day before during a practice session.  Speaking of the day before I had been sat on peg 90 on Lake 6 and as I had some casters left over from the day before I had decided to see if they would work shallow.  The simple answer was no and I had seen enough of other people catching on the short pole to know that this was the way to go.  I had still managed nearly 130lb though and a lot of that had come from down the edge in the last hour, I managed 40lb in the last 20 minutes!!!

Back to the day in question though and we were on adjacent pegs Steve on 70 and I was on 71 on Lake 4, it was really nice as we could park behind our pegs, the plan was to fish the feeder for a couple of hours and then corn or paste short and paste or corn down the edge.  I didn’t set up a corn rig for down the edge as I have too much faith in paste at this venue.  The feeder was slow for both of us and after the first couple of hours I had 20lb in the net and Steve had about 30lb.  I suggested that it was slow due to the changeable weather and that it would get better later, I was proved right and again over the last couple of hours my feeder and short paste lines started to produce a few fish. I had to feed positively on the feeder line so I was recasting every 20 seconds to try and draw fish into the swim and it worked for a quick run of fish.  When I moved onto the short line I was struggling with liners as a lot of the fish seemed to be sitting a few inches off the bottom, but, positive feeding with a big pot ¼ full of 6mm pellet, hemp and corn soon had them feeding on the deck again and again.  I managed to have a really good run again close to the end where I put about 40lb of fish in the net over the last 30 minutes and I managed to finish with 144lb 2oz of fish.  Steve did well and managed around 70lb of carp and bits but this was only enough for us to come 4^th overall as a pair, we did however, win the lake so that was a nice bonus. We would have had to go some to beat Adi and Terry on Lake 5 as Adi managed a massive 200lb+ weight on his own!!

The main plus of the day was chatting with Steve and trying to make him better at casting and also to try and get his head away from the F1 fishing that he is used to.

What would I do differently?

Due to the weather I should have had some dead maggots for the feeder and also tried different hookbaits more.  The short Paste line was my saviour, but it only really woke up in the last hour or so, which means I may have to look at how I am feeding it.

Tackle used:

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 11’6” medium feeder 2oz tip.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 20g guru open end feeder with 5g of extra lead

Pellet wag:

Rod: Drennan Acolyte Carp waggler 12ft.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 0.20mm Supplex  to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 14 QM1 (thanks Kev)

Float: 6-10g Preston pellet wag

Pole Corn:

Elastic: Preston 13h

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 3 T175

Float: 0.4g Drennan Carp 3

Pole Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H Paste

Pole Margin Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Inter Corps Championship, the Glebe.

As we had won this competition last year it was down to us to pick the venue and organise it, DJ ran the day and we went to the Glebe.  We had fished it earlier in the year for the Corp Championships and we had used that event to pick the team, with me there was Pez (Capt), Craig, Kev, Lance and Alfie for his debut.

Pre match banter given and received, DJ and Roy did their little bits and then it was the draw and we came out as the last team, I really fancied Lake 1 and my wish was granted with peg 24.

 I had the team plan to sort out so I clipped the feeder up under the overhanging tree, and then went about plumbing around looking for my corn and paste line, my 3ft line and then plumbed the edges, and I found a nice 2ft at 2+2 on both my left and right, so that was handy.

The all in sounded so I put in a full pot of hemp at 10m on my corn line, it was fished there as I had found the base of the near shelf and plumbed up an inch shallower on a firmer bottom.  I then fed my 3ft line followed by the feeder hitting the clip tight to the far bank reeds, I didn’t have to wait long and I was soon playing my first fish.

At a couple of pounds it was a good start and I managed to get a few of his friends to join him in the net over the first couple of hours, by a couple I think it was 12, but I had forgotten to use my clicker, more on this in a bit.  So I decided to start on paste on the longer line and happily the float buried within seconds of settling and a better carp was soon in the net, followed by another 5 in short order before the swim went mysteriously quiet, a swap to corn saw a couple more carp in the keepnet but then I went back out in the feeder to rest the line and had another 6-8 carp in nearly the same number of casts.

This was starting to cause a little concern as I was totally lost on how much I had caught, the fish were ranging from 2lb to 10lb, I had a few, I was only about 3 hours in with another 3 to go and there was a 100lb net limit!!  I took the plunge, I had caught 2 skimmers and a couple of small crucians that would have gone about 10lb so I tipped them back when I couldn’t find another net nearby, then I lit the blue touch paper.

I fed my two edge lines and then quickly mugged a cruising carp of about 10lb.

As this was happening my margins turned on so I quickly went down them, over the next hour and a bit I had 12 fish, 2 of which I put into my original nets and then I counted 10 into my third. 

They were all big fish caught on paste down the edge and I was sure that I had over 80lb in that net so it was time to try and find another keepnet.  I was saved by H and his spare but it had taken 10-15 minutes of faffing about and on my return the swim was nowhere near as strong as it had been when I ran off, and I had a disappointing last 40 minutes with 6 small fish going in the net.  I was worried right until the end as all I could see was other people catching around me so that wasn’t ideal, but hopefully I had done enough.

There were 2 80kg weights in my section below me but I had managed to win the section with 95Kg plus change for a new PB match weight, and yet I was quite miffed as I thought that I had caught more, but it was still a red letter day.  I was also annoyed with myself as the first two nets had around 44Kg split across them, which is around a ton. Lesson learned there I hope.  The third net of ten fish went 38kg!!  So they were lumps!

The day was made even better when it turned out that the Royal Signals had managed 5 out of 6 section wins and Alfie had still managed a second in section so we romped home victorious as the Inter Corps Champions 2015.  So many thanks to DJ and his team for organising event, Chris for his quality Photos and thanks to the rest of the R.Sigs team now we need to do it all again next year, on a natural venue!

What would I do different?

I would use a clicker, with a 100lb net limit and my total weight being 209lb I didn’t need to ditch my silvers or get so carried away trying to find a forth net.

Always pack 4 nets on venues with net limits.

(New Bit)

Tackle used:

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan Matchpro medium feeder at 11.5ft

Reel: TDM 4012

Line: 8lb Sensor

Feeder 20g small and medium Guru open end

Hooklength, 0.19mm Powerline to 14 QM1

Pole, Paste edge and long:

Elastic: Colmic Red Hollow

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.18mm Cenex

Hook: 5 Tubertini 175

Float: Long, Big H 4X 10 paste, Margin, KC Carpa Margin Paste 4X10

Corn Rig:

Elastic: Colmic Red Hollow

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.16mm Cenex

Hook: 2 Tubertini 175

Float: Drennan Carp 3 0.6g

Dobbing

Elastic: Colmic Blue Hollow

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.16mm Cenex

Hook: 28 Guru Pellet waggler with a bait band

Float: Drennan Crystal dibber 0.3g

Royal Signals Coarse Angling Championships 2015, The Glebe

Day 1 Masters Clubman

I was teamed up with Steve for this match as my clubman and as we had been drawn together the night before we were able to decide what to look at and concentrate on, we ended up on permanenet pegs 23 and 24 on Lake 1.  This meant nothing to either of us but the view for the day was not too bad from my seatbox.

It was an interesting day and Steve managed to pick up loads of pointers that he will take forward, I discounted a couple of tactics that as it turned out would bite me in the ass later in the week.  We had a reasonable day however I managed about 67KG and Steve had 16Kg and this gave us 4^th on the day.  That night was the section draw for the main event and it was very kind to me with all the other Army team members ending up in the opposite section to me.

So day 1 of the champs saw me drawn on lake 6 and again it was a bit of a struggle but in the end I managed a good last hour and put 47Kg on the scales for second on the lake but a section win from the full members as Chris is an associate member.  There was only 1 fish separating 1-3^rd in my section and it was the same in the other section with Craig pipping Pez by 5kg which is only a couple of fish.

Day 2 saw the two sections rotate lakes and I ended up one from the middle in a row of 5 pegs on lake 4 I think, peg 73 I think:

Again my plan was simple for this day but after 30 minutes I was moving onto plan E but that worked well for a few hours, I never set the world on fire but I plodded along ok.  I ended up with 54Kg for a section win and lakes win  and only time would tell if it had been enough?

Alas history will show that it was not enough a Craig won his section again and did me on combined weight so well done to Craig.  I was second and Alfie picked up third with 5 points.  On the team front Daz and I picked up the UIN trophy and the Team trophy so that was some consolation.

Many thanks to DJ and his team for the smooth running of the event and to Roy for allowing us to use his fantastic venue. All we have to do is look forward to the Inter Corps championships in a few short weeks.

What would I have done differently?

As the Intercorps is not far away I am not telling :-)