Inter Services week Westwood Lakes

So it was off up north for the Army team to Westwood lakes near Boston, Lincolnshire, Craig and I were sharing a van so he picked me up on Sunday afternoon and then we had a leisurely drive up to the accommodation at some RAF base ready for the team brief on the Sunday night. 

The brief was get ready for a lot of fish and that shallow with pellet would be our main approach so with that in mind we all got a good night’s sleep…. Yeah whatever.

Day 1, Falcon peg 43

So the plan was 2+2 with pellet shallow for the first 3 hours and then down the edge for the last 2 hours, I set up a 12 inch and 6 inch rig and plumbed up an edge rig, then I went to the Café with Craig and a couple of other for around an hour before going back to my peg to wait another half an hour before the start of the match.

The all-in was called and I was straight out on the deeper shallow rig, straight away it was obvious that the wind would be an issue as it was sort of in my face over the high bank opposite and it was making the feeding of 4mm pellet on the shallow line troublesome.  Top overcome it I started to feed 6mm and this sorted it, almost, but I was still not accurate enough really, I was also soon onto the shallower rig and I started to catch steady away for the first couple of hours.

At the three hour mark my shallow line had become very hard work so I moved down my two edges feeding pellet and trying to catch on the deck, Scott to my right was doing ok on it but I just could not get it to work correctly and I ended up frustrated and chasing fish shallow down the edge, in the last 15 minutes I sorted the feeding though and had a golden spell of probably 15 fish in as many put ins.

It was not enough though and my 43Kg was enough for 10^th out of the 14 anglers on the bank, top weight though had been a high 50Kg I think and with most people on 45-50kg it had been a close match.

Day 2, Falcon peg 20:

This time Gaz had said that we could do any method for the last 2 hours if we wished so on top of the shallow and edge rigs I also put up a paste rig.  This time it was Craig’s shout on the coffees and cake so we were sat in the café for a while again and we were all set up and ready to go well before the all in.

Fortunately I was fishing 2+1 this time so my sore throwing arm was not going to get as much of a hammering, and as I had Gaz sat top my right on the corner I knew I was being watched so I needed to put in a half decent performance, for the first 2.5 hours again I was fishing shallow.  Finding the best feeding pattern to get the fish taking your hook pellet was key and once you had found that they would usually hook themselves, however, due to changeable weather they turned off again.  It was at this point that I pulled out my Joker card and started on my paste line, although I wasn’t setting the world on fire I was defiantly catching a few fish, and by feeding maggot down my left hand edge every now and again I would get a few barbel on it.  I chopped and changed between the paste and edge for the last stint of the match and the fish were of a much better stamp than I had been catching shallow and I even had a few barbel on paste so there were definitely a few in the area.

Once the all-out was called we followed the scales around the lake and although I guessed about 50Kg I think I actually had 61Kg for the top weight of the day.  So Paste was definitely an option come match day.

Day 3 Osprey peg 18

This time we were on Osprey and al that we had heard about was the other two teams catching 100kg weights for the last 2 days so to say that we were full of excitement wa an understatement, unfortunately the weasther gods got in the way and it rained from about an hour after the all in until after the all-out.  The best tactic was shallow with pellet by far and although it slowed down for me in the last hour or so when I switched to a paste line, it wasn’t quite right although once I sorted the feeding in the last 15 minutes I started to bag and had 6 carp in the last 15 minutes for probably 20lb.  this time it was feed a quarter of a cup of wetted 6mm pellet and catch 2 carp then repeat.

The weights to my right were impressive with everyone having over 70KG, I had 71Kg for 4^th on the day and what a day it had been catching F1’s on a top kit. I had spent the previous night tying pellets into lasso’s and then varnishing them so that they stayed on the hair for more than 1 fish, but I had used most of them up so after the team was announced I was back in my room tying hooklengths for the Inter Services the next Day.

Inter Services Championship, Falcon peg 37

This had been a good area when we had been on the lake a couple of days earlier, and I ended up with Baz from the RAF team and local expert in my section, he even came over to point out that I was sat on a flyer which is nice. Same plan as every other day so two shallow rigs, paste rig, track rig, shallow paste and a margin rig were all set up, and then it was the wait for the all-in.  I started at 2+1 and caught very well for the first couple of hours, my paste line gave me a few carp and the margins were also slower than expected but fortunately I was able top keep the shallow fish coming all day by feeding a mixture of pellet and caster in the final hour to fend off Baz’s late charge.  In the last 2 hours Baz actually tried to empty the lake of fish, I was just lucky that most of his fish were smaller than mine.  Baz has 63Kg I think, the Navy lad had 40kg I think and I managed 71 Kg for a section win that though is where the good news ended as we only managed 3 out of 10 section wins as a team.  Results were RAF 14 points, Army 22 points and Navy &RM 24 points.

Inter Services Individual Championship, Falcon peg 23

This was an out and out individual match so I could do what I wanted, and a lot of people drew and then went home so there was bags of room in some areas.  Mine was not one and I had Toby, Martin and Gus to my right and a Navy lad then Pez to my left.  I had a stiff breeze left to right and it was cooler than it had been all week so I set up a track paste rig, a margin paste rig and a shallow paste rig.

I stared on the track and caught from the start, the main problem was liners and foul hookers due to the numbers of fish floating around just off bottom, but I was steadily putting weight in to the onion sack all day.  Craig came around after a couple of hours to see how I was doing and because I was doing all right we decided to stay.  Martin, Gus and Toby were all struggling to get any numbers of fish shallow and they were being forced to go onto other tactics, Martin even managed to snag a near double figure carp and get it  in after about 15 minutes of faffing about…

The all out was gratefully received and the scales told us that Gus had 30kg, Martin 40kg, Toby 41.060 and I had squeaked the section with 41.260Kg, Pez had 43 Kg again after swapping to paste after 10 minutes of not catching shallow.  Rocky was third, Gaz second and Steve won it all with 50Kg + weights from 3 pegs in a row around where I had been the day before.

All in all it is a fantastic fishery with great facilities, I wish that we could have been on a couple of the bigger fish lakes but never mind, Thanks to the RAF for running it and I look forward to the Navys choice of venue for next year.

What would I have done differently?

On day 1 I definitely struggled because I had to fish 2+2, also all week I struggled to get the margins to work properly so those are the two aspects to look at, although I really do not fish venues like that very often.

Tackle used:

Pole Paste:

Elastic: Colmic Blue but swapped to Preston 17H

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm Powerline

Hook: 4 Tubertini 175

Float: 4X10 Big H Paste

Pole shallow 12 inch:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.19mm to 0.13mm Powerline

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 0.2g Drennan crystal dibber

Pole shallow 6 inch:

Elastic: White Hydro Swapped to blue colmic for last 3 days

Line: 0.19mm to 0.13mm Powerline

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag

Float: MW Pea

Pole Margin:

Elastic:  Blue Colmic but swapped to Red Vespe after day 2

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.17mm Powerline

Hook: 2 or 3 Tubertini 175

Float: Drennan carp 4 0.3 or AS4 0.4g

Intercorps Championship- 31/8/14

It was finally the day that I had been looking forward to for a few weeks and the Intercorps was upon us again, team for the day was myself, Pez, Martin, Kev, Craig and Adi, with Dave and DJ running the bank. I had passed on the information from the day before and over breakfast we discussed tactics as well as putting the world to rights.

Pez being team captain did the draw and it put me on peg 14 on Falcon lake, not really where I wanted as I would have preferred Skylark after the day before but I was there to do a job so off I todled. Falcon is a newer lake and it showed with the banks looking very bare and all the intel that we had received said that it would be a fish race and that it would either be shallow fishing for A LOT of small fish or paste for fewer bigger fish. As we could all fish paste that was the team plan, Pez and I thought it would be a bit like Orchard lakes so short paste and heavy ish feeding would be the way.

I set up 2 identical paste rigs, a slapping rig just in case and a margin rig, I also pulled a short method rod out just in case I had to re rig but didn’t think to make any new bait for it, speaking of which I had hemp and 6mm pellet for the paste line and meat for down the edge.

I was ready with plenty of time to spare so got to chat to Colin on the next peg and Boris a couple further along as I thought that they would be my main competition in the section. The all in sounded I went straight out again with a whole cup of hemp and pellet, and started throwing meat down the edge, just for a chance of a quick fish I put the slapping rig straight over the top and bites were instant, but I missed 5 on a 6mm pellet and when I hooked one it was a nearly transparent F1 so that top kit got thrown up the bank and not looked at again.

I shipped the paste rig out over the top and started to get indications straight away and that set the tone for the first couple of hours, I kept feeding down the edge to my left and right but could not get fish off those lines so I continued to plug away at the paste. I decided to feed heavy to try and keep the fish on the deck, so every time I hooked a fish I would feed two small handfuls of 6mm pellet and if the foul hookers became a real problem then I would put in a cup of hemp and pellet and then try the edge for a couple of minutes before going back over the paste line. This tactic along with varying the consistency of the paste through the day kept fish ticking over into the keep net, which was just as well as Colin to my left and in my section was catching steadily shallow and he was also finding the odd larger fish in amongst the tiddlers.

I tried a few things throughout the day to get a bigger stamp of fish, such as the method over the short line and upping the feed down the edge but nothing really seemed to be helping and with an hour and a half to go Colin put some groundbait in down the edge to his left where he had some lilies. As he was doing this I broke my reserve paste rig so had to re rig, to this end I pinged the method rod across to the far bank and as I was trying to remove the old rig I just about caught the rod but before it disappeared. I caught about 15lb in a very short time but then ran out of groundbait so had to go back on the paste line until the end of the match. As the seconds ticked by Colin managed a couple of lumps and some better fish from down the edge, but I was keeping up with him back on my paste line as the all-out was called.

We knew it would be close as we were chatting after the match and waiting for the scales, Dave came round and pointed out that Kev thought that he was well down his section, Pez was around second, I was first or second, and Adi was top 4 we thought. The scales showed that it was better than we thought with Kev taking his section and as they came around Colin weighed just over 30 kilos and I managed to squeak him by a couple of kilos, those method fish had saved my bacon and I won the section. Adi managed second and Pez had a third in section and we thought that it was all over when Craig and Martin reported back that they had both had bad days on Skylark and had both come mid-section. We discussed the day over a carvery and calculated that we had 16points and we thought that the AGC had squeaked it, we were wrong.

Rocky gave the results and handed out the section monies, then gave the results for the teams, the AGC was third with 16 points but only 1 section winner, the Royal Artillery were second with 16 points but no third in section and the winners were the Royal Signals with 16 points but Pez’s third in section was enough to clinch the title for us. Next year we get to choose the venue so that should be fun.

What would I do different:

I would have had the method set up and some extra groundbait ready in future as it produced a much better stamp of fish and the bites were easy to hit. It only takes 5 minutes to try it and the groundbait can always go down the edge.

I should also have put my margin line further away from myself as it may have produced a few more fish.

Westwood Lakes open, 30/08/2014

I was fishing in the Inter Corps Championship on the sunday and since this is one of my main events every year I thought a little practice session was in order so I booked in for the open the day before the main event. As I arrived I was struck by how tidy and how the while place was laid out, the café was brilliant, the food was out of this world and the tackle shop was huge and really well stocked with everything you would need. For more information please check out their website and if you ever get the chance visit them: http://www.westwoodlakes.co.uk.

Back to the fishing and there were only eight of us booked into the open on Skylark lake, including myself and 3 members of the Artillery’s Corps team, so they decided to hold a rover… brilliant when you don’t know the peg numbers of the lake.  I was helped no end though by Baz (RAF team) and Spike (LIncs County and Ex RAF) and all the chat was about pegs 8-10, 33ish and any peg with a bit of room. The draw took place and I pulled out number 1 so instantly picked peg 9 and ran to my flyer.

Upon getting to my peg, having parked right behind it I found an aerator 7m to my left and due to the strengthening wind I decided that would be the longest length of pole I would get out today. I plumbed up a paste and corn rig to fish 2+2 in front away from the aerator a) to give me somewhere to try if it was hard and b) as I had been warned that the fish were big and mental so I gave it a bit of room between where I was fishing and the metal ware around the aerator legs. My third rig was a margin rig to fish just down to my left at 2+1 here I found a funny double shelf so decided to fish at the base of the first shelf in about 18 inches of water, maggot and groundbait was the plan for here.

I was ready well before the all in so went to the shop for more bait hoping for a good day and had a chat for a while, they pointed out that it should be a good day as the next guy to my left was 6 pegs away and it was 8 to my right, loads of room. It was time to get settled and on returning to my peg it was time to start so I fed a quarter of a pot of hemp and 6mm pellet on my 2+2 line and went straight over it.  I got off to a slow start and to be honest it was a bit of a struggle, I think I may have been too positive from the start but after a couple of hours I thought I had about 30lb in my net and started loose feeding 6mm pellet quite heavily. This was when the fish started to swirl so I got off my box and quickly set up a shallow rig to try on the same line, the difference was instant and over the next hour I managed 40lb of fish into my second keepnet.  The problem was that the fish were waning and getting smaller and I went from 4lb carp to 1lb F1’s over 15 minutes, to give it a rest I tried down the edge and was frustrated by not a lot if indications apart from a tiny skimmer so with nothing to lose I potted in 4 pots of groundbait, hemp and maggot from a height and gave the shallow line another 10 minutes.

Over that 10 minute period I managed another F1 so it was time for the edge, with 20 minutes to go I had 3 carp in 3 put ins down the margin and it went quiet again straight away, I fed 4 more pots of groundbait and tried for another fish shallow that was unsuccessful and then went down the edge for the last few minutes in which I managed 3 barbel to about 2lb. The all out was called and I knew it would be close, the guy at the end of the lake to my left had caught a few across (where he had the wind in his face) and also had a few down the edge late and spike on the other bank had caught steadily down his edges all day, although he had lost a few.

I was the second weight on the board and managed 96lb and a bit, the guy to my left weighed 99lb and Spike managed just over the ton for the win, I was happy with third but rued a couple of decisions that could have seen me catch a few more fish as I only really needed one more for the win.

Things I would have done different are that I would have set up a method to go across with and also I would have been able to drop it on the 5m line as well to overcome the strong breeze. I might have felt my way into the match more rather than big potting but all the info I had said go for it and I did.

Never mind there was always tomorrow.