Avoiding the Blank 20 pt9 (Boddington, Barston, Lodden and club waters)

AAF Fur and Feather, Witherington Farm

So it is that time of year again when the Christmas matches start and the first one that I was able to get on this year was the Army Fur and Feather.  The group 2 match had taken place on the same venue the week before in -7 degrees so whatever was going to happen it wasn’t going to be as bad as that.  I managed a cheeky practice on Saturday, I meant to go to Waldens to practice chucking a waggler around but got coerced into fishing on Selwood.  6 hours later and 2 swims I had 1 foul hooked carp to show for my efforts!!

Back to the day in question and there were only 22 anglers booked in, I was actually surprised to find out that we would be on Cottage, the outer and the inner with so few anglers but it isn’t my train set so that was the way it was going to be.  There were plenty of friendly faces from all over, a lot of them were surprised to see me… apparently I can only carp fish now, but banter, breakfast and tackle shop done it was time for the draw.

I managed to pull peg 51 on outer off the tree, this meant nothing to me until I got to it and even then I didn’t really know what to expect. 

I set up a long pole dobbing rig, a heavy silvers rig, a light silvers rig, a bomb and a small method feeder.  My day took a massive turn for the worst whilst setting up though as I managed to break my flask!!!  It was now going to be a long day.

I was more than ready for the all in and as it sounded I fed a small ball of groundbait and dead maggot at 11 o’clock and then a few dead maggots and expanders at 1 O’clock both at 11 meters, I would have liked to have fed the lines further apart but they have installed ropes across the snake lake to prevent the cormorants from landing, works for that but it gives the fish room to back off into.

My match started slowly and I spent 30 minutes trying to dob a carp out from the far side to no avail, then I moved onto my silvers line, again with no indications from either swim, I had been feeding 4-6 maggots every 5 minutes or so at 2+2 so at just over an hour and a quarter I dropped the heavy rig over it more in desperation than anything else.  I was gob smacked when the float didn’t settle and just kept on going, Roach number 1 in the keepnet.  It was at this time that I took stock and realised that there were carp coming from Cottage, a few on the inner and most of the people to my right were now catching decent silvers and a few carp pretty consistently.  I gave it another 15 minutes and then went to the café for a brew in disgust (and a slice of cake).

When I got back to my swim Nige in 53 was still blanking, but top match angler Chris on 49 was still putting a few fish into the net from a long line at 14m. Now I am not usually shy at copying what’s working but this time I decided to make my 11m lines work, a frustrating hour later I was plumbing up one of my rigs at 14m as I still had not had a touch on that closer lines.  This was my turning point and I was soon catching small roach almost one a bang for 4 put ins, this was still rubbish though as everyone to my right was still netting fish with annoying regularity.

I decided to fill it in and go for another brew ( well the pain killers were wearing off and I needed a stretch), on getting back to my swim after being told my Dave M himself that I am rubbish I went straight across for another couple of roach. I still could not get a bite on any of the shorter lines and I put 3 bits of bread on a bomb and started to pack my kit up…. nothing happened and the all-out was called thank goodness.

I was packed up well before the scales got to me (and loaded, if it hadn’t of been for guaranteed Christmas prizes I would have been gone) the top end all the way down to Chris all had between 12 and 25kg of fish, I had 600g and Nige managed 150g!!!!!!!!  As always a nice fair winter venue, with ample parking!!

Back at the results, Bri on peg 41 I think won it with 25kg then I think it was Dave on Cottage with 18Kg, then Ian with 17Kg etc, etc.  I hadn’t blanked hey Mike J  but again I got a reminder why I try not to fish Withy I am afraid, Great Café, Great shop, Friendly staff, brilliant layout, Crap fishing!

What would I do differently?

I should have taken a light carp rod and a buzzer and chucked a method for the day. I might have even caught something.

Tackle used:

Pole Dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.17mm to 0.13mm

Hook: 1 T175

Float: 0.2g Drennan Carp

Pole Silvers Heavy:

Elastic: Yellow Hydro

Line: 0.15mm to 0.10mm

Hook: 18 B911 F1

Float: 0.4g AS4

Pole Dobbing:

Elastic: Number 5 slip

Line: 0.13mm to 0.10mm 0.08 later

Hook: 18 B911 F1 20 Gamma green later

Float: 0.2g AS3

Bomb:

Rod: Drennan 10ft Ultralight bomb rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.15mm

Hook: Various

Feeder: 8g ollivette

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 10ft S7 Carp feeder

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.17mm

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: Micro pellet feeder 24g

AAF Gp2 Fur and Feather, Witherington Farm

It is funny how the old saying ‘Doesn’t time fly’ can sometime ring true, but it feels like last week that I was fishing shallow and melting in the heat on the banks of various lakes. Anyway it was off to Withy for the annual Gp2 Christmas match and as I had volunteered to help I was soon begrudgingly getting up in the dark and cold before winding my way to the venue.

As it turned out my help was not actually needed as all the pegs have nice shiny tags marking them so we were able to paper peg the lakes.  I say lakes as most people had been expecting to turn up and fish the Snake, but at the last minute there was a change of plans, so Selwood and Cottage were brought into the equation as well. Not ideal if you had only packed a pole, especially with the weather forecast that we were expecting.

Everyone had booked in, Craig had given his brief and a breakfast had been dispatched (second of the day!) so onto the draw, now some say that I am a lucky bugger at times, and this was one of those times that I will agree as I pulled 54 on the outer snake out of the bag, not too shabby.

Normally I would have set up a rig to fish tight over on the pole and prepared for a tug of war day, but I had dropped a couple of sections off for precautionary wraps so I only had 13m of Z9 with me and although that would have reached the front of the bush opposite I wanted to fish alongside it, so I set up a micro hybrid feeder to go into the lions den.  I also plumbed up a line at 11.5m for silvers and two margin lines, then I mixed some 50:50 F1 dark and Sensas Lake and sorted the rest of my bait.

I had Dave to my right for company and I had also gone a quid with Craig and Pez, who were both also in my section even though they were sat on Selwood?!? You have to love it when people don’t turn up!

The start came and I cupped 3 balls of groundbait in on the silvers line before pinging out the feeder across, my watch was set for 15 minutes and after about 7 minutes Dave had a proper lump on, I also hooked a fish pretty quick but I would have needed 4 of them to catch up with Daves fish.  It was steady away really throughout the day with a few carp on the tip and I broke this up with a few skimmers and a rogue carp on the long pole line.  That is about all I can say about the fishing, I had quicker bites by putting less feed in the feeder but if I didn’t get a bite within the 10 minutes on my stopwatch (I reduced the amount of time after the first two fish came at 8 minutes) I would move onto the pole to rest the feeder line for 10-20 minutes.

I did’t have a single indication down the edge even though I was an end peg but other than that the day went as planned apart from losing a fish on the whistle under the tree.

It was a quick pack up and we were soon all back in the café eager for the results, Dave won it from my right with 24kilo, then Dave H on Selwood 15 had an impressive 22Kg on the waggler by all accounts, then I rounded off the section top 3 with 18.860kg.  But I was still only in 4^th overall as Rocky on Cottage 16 had 19Kg, the venue other than that had fished quite hard and there were even a couple of DNW’s on Selwood.

Fortunately Craig had sorted a prize for everyone and there was plenty of banter after the match and the post-match soup helped this along no end.

I ended up with a couple of boxes of sweets and some other goodies, after a bit of trading, so I was well happy as I started my journey back to North London.

Thanks to Craig for the organisation and all the team at Witherington Farm for an enjoyable day.

What would I do different?

If I had wanted to win I should have gone into the shop and bought some stronger elastic than I had packed, I would have also needed to have borrowed a section from John.  This would have allowed me to fish against the snags where the fish were, but I was quite happy with my plan to fish the feeder and I learnt a few bits and bobs. I would have liked some different hookbaits and possibly a second size of pellet in the feeder mix, i.e 2mm and 4mm not just 2mm. I also think that a short maggot line for roach would have been a better option than trying down the edge for carp.

Tackle used:

Pole long Light:

Elastic: Yellow Hydro

Line: 0.13mm powerline to 0.10mm Cenex

Hook: 18 B911 F1

Float: 0.4g AS2

Pole Long Heavy:

Elastic: Yellow Hydro

Line: 0.13mm powerline to 0.10mm Cenex

Hook: 18 B911 F1

Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 2

Pole Margin:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.15mm powerline to 0.14mm Cenex

Hook: 1 Tibertini 175

Float: 4X8 MW carp slim

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan Series & Carp feeder 10ft

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: Guru Micro Hybrid, inline

AAF Gp2 Match 8, Witherington Farm 10/6/15

Somehow I had volunteered to run this match as Craig was away at Whiteacres… I had also covered for him a meeting earlier in the week so he had better bring me some rock!  My morning didn’t have the best of starts as I woke up at half six, thirty minutes after my alarm was supposed to wake me up, so a quick sprint to Salisbury to pick Tony up and then to the lakes to peg the inner and outer snake.  It turned out that we had plenty of time and thankyou to Tony for pegging the inner as it meant that we had enough time to grab a breakfast before I started the booking in.

It was good to see Dave back on the bank and there was plenty to talk about as everyone was booking in, again Kev and Adi came to my rescue to help out with some of the admin, leaving me to sort numbers and the other good stuff.

The match brief and draw went without a hitch and soon everyone was lining up on the banks of the inner and outer snake.  I had ended up on C11 and this turned out to be permanent peg 84 I think.

It looked really good with a blank peg to my left, two or three blank pegs around the corner to my right and the bridge leading to the outer in the corner to my right, but alas as I had seen Rocky and been asked how far to either side can we go I said to the first leg of the next platform, should have said it on the match brief as well but hey ho.  This however, shot me in the foot as it put me 8-10m short of where the fish could back off to, but everyone was in the same boat so off I went sorting my life out.

I was ready for the all in even after a trip back to the shop to get a tin of hemp and a drink and after calling it I fed 3 balls of groundbait onto a skimmer line at 11.5m down the track and went straight onto a paste line at 2+2 towards the gap to my right.  The rig for this was a 4X10 Big H paste float on 0.19mm mainline, a 0.18mm hooklength, a size 4 T175 and red vespe elastic.  It took all of 5 minutes until fish number 1 was on its way to the waiting landing net and at about 3lb it was a good start, but after that it was very slow, I went across to the far bank fishing paste again on the same rig as it was nearly 4 feet deep across next to the reeds.  This gave me another lost foul hooker and a carp before it went dead so with 45 minutes I decided to try the skimmer line, the result was not good as in twenty minutes I only had a couple of small skimmers to show for it. I went back on the short paste line and suffered a shallow foul hooker that dropped off again so I got off my box and set up a shallow paste rig, I also mixed some slop out of my groundbait with a lot of water.  I tried the 5m line with it to no avail and then shipped it across to the far bank, straight away I had another foulhooker at 18 inches so I shallowed up to a foot deep tried again.  A 2lb Carp and a goldfish quickly fell to the new tactic but again it soon dried up, but, the carp were moving around shallow so I quickly set up a standard shallow rig and stared firing 6mm pellet at it.  Th rig was a 0.2g Crystal dibber on 0.17mm mainline to a 0.12mm hooklength and a size 20 Guru Pellet wag hook with a bait band, the elastic started off a a yellow Colmic hollow but after a lost fish in the far bank reeds I geared it up to a blue Browning hollow elastic.  That sorted them out and over the next hour or so I was able to put another 4 or so carp and a couple of goldfish into the net, but then the wind picked up again so I started to look around my other lines.

It was slow until the last hour and a half when I shipped down the edge on a paste rig and lost two fish in 3 fish in short order before scaling up to a size 5 T175hook. This sorted them out and in the last half hour I had 4 fish from my edge and 2 carp from the skimmer line on paste after big potting softened 4mm pellet on both lines.  I had to call the all out straight after a small goldfish but to be fair I was happy that it was over, I managed to be largely packed up before the scales made it round and my 18kg odd was enough for 5^th in the section. John dewberry off the worst peg on the inner won the section with 25kg odd and Docs won the match from behind me on the outer.

The full results can be found here : http://midsectionblues.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/army-8-spawny-withy.html

Many thanks to all those who helped out and I am looking forward to going somewhere newish after a short holiday.

What would I do different

I think that I should have persevered on the shallow across line and I need to look at some of my elastic choices as I lost too many fish on too soft elastic.

I also think that I should have just fed hemp and pellet on the track line as the silvers I caught were considerably smaller than other peoples who did not seem to feed groundbait.

AAF Gp2 Match 3, Witherington Farm (Silvers only)

My prep for this match was mainly based around tying a few hooklengths and mixing some groundbait for myself and a couple of other members of the team, I had also spent some time chatting to a few of the guys about tactics that would work on the lakes that we were using for the match.  I turned up in good time, picked up my bait, ate my cracking breakfast and then sat chatting with a few of the lads, we sorted bait and I even got pinged by Kev to help with the boards as due to the numbers we had some creative pegging over 4 sections. I was drawn peg 3 on Selwood and as I was sat in the café I was well happy as I had assumed that they would have done the same pegging as for the teams of 4.

Unfortunately I couldn’t have been much more wrong and I had Pete to my left on perm peg 2:

Rocky to my right on perm peg 4:

And no-one in the far corner:

So with the three of us aiming for the same water any further out than 16m the duel began, I decided to fish a small groundbait feeder at about 18m, checking with the both of them if they were happy that I cast there, then a 13m pole line towards my left and I put in a throwaway line on a top 2+1 where I found a little bit of depth.  I had a small moan (well it lasted all day near enough) went to the café for a brew and then returned to settle down for the all-in.

I fed 3 small balls of groundbait with 20 dead reds and about the same of caster on the 13m line and then cast out the feeder, not a lot happened for the first hour but then Rocky managed a couple of small skimmers on the wag over so I got off my box and set up a 2AA Dave Harrell sensilite waggler to fish over the groundbait line.  This had an instant response and I nicked two quick fish and then it died, as I expected, a quick look on the long pole saw me loose a pound perch (I may have swore and thrown my top kit away!! Ok I did!) So I chucked the tip out again more in hope than expecting anything.

The stopwatch was set for 10 minutes but I needed have worried as I had a couple of indications then a skimmer of about a pound followed by another.  Again a quiet period and then another couple of fish later in the day was enough to raise my interest level by a notch but another lap around my lines was fruitless and I packed everything up apart from the tip before the end.  Somehow I missed 4 or 5 proper wrap rounds on a single dead red on a Kammy 911(f1) size 18, I swapped up to a 16 but received no indications grrr.

The scales showed that Bri with acres of room on perm peg 10 had 8 kilos for the section and match, Ivan on perm peg 16 had 2^nd with 6 kilos and he had fished a tidy match, then it was Pete to my left and Rocky to my right, then Gaz on PP1 and myself with 1.970kg, that perch cost me dear as it would have got me 2 more points but being hemmed in was the worst as I am sure that as I was casting the waggler three turns beyond it was well in front of Pete.

The team came 4^th on the day as Daz carried Ben and myself, I would like to say that I enjoyed it but I cannot, it was a nice day out with a great bunch of blokes and the banter was great but I cannot seem to switch of when it is a match and enjoy it when it isn’t going my way.

Thanks anyway to Kev and his team for organising the day, I know how hard it is.

Coming up I have no matches until middle of next month so I can try to get rid of some gremlins before then, I foresee a rematch with some Cotswold Carp and I will be taking the Azi Anglers out and about as well.

What would I do different?

1.       Practice the venue

2.       I think that the feeder was the right tactic but after the first dropped indication I should have set up a method or scoop feeder to see if that was any better on the hooking front.

3.       Stick to non-silvers only matches.

Withy Teams of 4, 06/12/14

It was back down to Witherington farm for the teams of 4 this weekend and after a week on exercise I was looking forward to it, I was on the outer snake again and after the last time I was pretty confident of a decent day but the weather decided to throw and oar in at the last minute. 

As you can see I was there nice and early but there was a cheeky frost and half of Selwood was under ice, I had my breakfast and then got my briefing off John before the draw took place.  Kev came back with end peg 24 that made me happy, then gave me my dead reds and off we went to our respective pegs.

For the day I set up a dobbing rig, a skimmer rig, a method and a rig for the base of the near shelf off to my right, at the all in I fed one skimmer line with a small ball of groundbait and dead reds, some corn and caster down the edge before dobbing up and down the near and far edge to no avail with 3 maggots.

45 minute in I tried the feeder for 15 minutes with no indications so went onto the skimmer line, by this time the guy on the peg to my left had managed to dob a carp and had a couple of skimmers on his silvers line so I needed a start to my day. It came quickly on the skimmer line as I had a pound skimmer quite quickly but then nothing, not even a sign of a fish. I started another 2 skimmer lines and started to rotate, it took another hour for skimmer 2 and then skimmer 3 another hour after that. Everyone I the section had been catching as far as I could see so I spent the last hour and a bit trying for a carp with no joy.

The tale of the scales was that I was last in section with 3lb 2oz, from the end peg so I was not too happy at the end, but it seemed that a lot of people struggled with a few blanks from all for the lakes so at least I had avoided that. My section was won by Graham Hougton with 33lb odd from the middle of the section, so well done mate, I don't know who won overall as disappeared early to make up from exercise week.

What would I do differently?

Take more coffee and biscuits and possibly start playing candy crush.

I don’t think I could have done much more apart from wait for a carp all day and that was not in the plan and may have seen a blank.

Withy Teams of 4, 01/11/2014

A couple of weeks ago I got asked if I would fish for Dandys K2 on the withy Teams of 4, well being at a loose end most Saturdays because my better half works I accepted not even asking what lake I would be on.  I arrived at the café to a nice welcome from my old team mates and new ones as well as everyone else at the draw.  Bacon butty eaten, worm collected and tactics discussed the draw took place and I was off to peg 36 on the outer snake.

I will be honest and I do not get on too well with the outer snake most of the time so when I drew middle of the section, on the wrong bank and with the ripple finishing just to my left I thought that I was in for a grueller.  I set up a skimmer rig for 11.5m, a meat rig to try and mug a couple of carp on and a margin rig, I also set up my new Spectron 10ft tip rod with a small method feeder.  Bait was just as simple, 4mm pellet, method mix consisting of 50/50 micros and groundbait, 6mm meat, a few expanders and some dead maggot.

The all in sounded and I cast the feeder against the mud on the far bank and started loose feeding pellet on my skimmer line and that sums up my first hour and a bit, one positive indication that I missed.  I tried the skimmer line at this point and managed a couple of quick fish but they didn’t like me catching there friends and got finicky really quickly so I decided to try fishing down the edge like I would across.  This consisted of using my big pot to feed a walnut sized ball of method mix and 5-10 cubes of meat next to the platform down to my right. Over the next 30 minutes or so I had 4 or 5 decent skimmers on this line, re feeding after every fish with the same amount of bait.

At this point I moved back onto the skimmer line and had another quick run and this is how my day panned out until the last 30 minutes of the match, I had a half decent net of silvers but needed a final push of carp to get decent points.  I went down the edge over the top of a small ball and 5 cubes of meat and within 45 seconds I was attached to a big angry carp, it gave me a bit of a run around before I was able to net it but at close to 8lb it was worth it. I managed 3 more carp and a couple of silvers over the next 25 minutes in the best spell of my match and the all-out came as I was least expecting it.

I had gone a quid with Nick Mac and he was claiming that I had won it, I agreed but we still had to weigh in to prove it, Jay on the end peg had 58lb 1oz then there was a mid 40lb a 58lb 2oz then Nic mac on 20lb odd. Next to Nick was Ray ‘the bagger’ Hayward and he managed about 30lb. I had 17lb of skimmers and 18lb of carp for 35lb plus change, and this beat all but 2 to my right, one of which was Jon Gray on the end who had over 70lb, all this gave me 5 points .

The team did well with Stumpy coming second in his section and John winning the second round on the bounce. I am off to the Nene this week so I need to swap all my kit back over…..again.

What would I do differently?

 Would use bigger hookbaits on the method, the double dead res was getting ragged by tiny fish with me failing to hook a fish. 

I would fish a pole line where I was chucking the feeder until the wind became too strong rather than just fishing the tip.

I would put in a couple more lines just to try and find a few fish, 5 hours is a long time.

Chasing Shadows pt1

As I have alluded to in previous posts I have decided to try and track down a river carp from the Bristol Avon, hence the title as I am currently working on hearsay and myth.

My latest trip saw me get to the river for around 10 in the morning, and as soon as I crossed the footbridge I spotted a possible problem, there were a number of volunteers cutting massive gaps in the bankside vegetation with strimmers and lawn mowers in preparation for a boat race in a couple of weeks. This would have been a problem if I didn’t think that the fish were subjected to worst on a daily basis so I had a bit of a chat and was able to move into the swim that I had been prebaiting.

This was a nice plan and I soon had my rods up against the far bank weed with a trickling of live system over the top and I was confident for about an hour and a half then the carp gremlins started their little dance in the back of my mind.  I was wondering about the location that I had chosen as just about everyone I was talking to was saying that all the carp came from by the foot bridge or further down by the weir, I was battling the gremlins when a large fish rolled about 8m out in front of me….. Well I didn’t need a second invite and I quickly put a large pva bag of boilies and pellet with a 15mm hookbait over the top and decided that I would give at another hour at least before going for a look about.

I believe that the fish that rolled was probably a bream as within minutes I had small fish pecking and pulling at the rig, if there were carp there the small fish wouldn’t be so time for a move.  I decided to follow quite a strong recommendation from a guy that I was chatting to, he told me that lots of carp copuld usually be seen from the footbridge just upstream and that people fed the ducks bread from the bridge, always worth following where the ducks get fed and as I was packing down half a loaf got chucked at some mallards from the bridge.

No sooner than I had 2 baits in the water and the house up but the heaven opened as you can see above, I was quite happy though as I had a bait under the far bank canopy and a bait just upstream in a gap in the weed. I had leaded about briefly and not found any snags so I was happy with where I was set.

People continued past and conversations along the lines of “I did 2 nights here earlier this year and didn’t catch a thing.” Started to get banded at me and it transpired that for the early part of the season there are usually a few carp anglers along the stretch I started to see that it would not be as easy as first I thought.

The gremlins were in full flow again when a bizarre incident happened a little girl and her mum came along for a quick chat and the next thing that I knew the girl was winding my upstream rod in, still in the rest. Mum apologized, I thought nothing of it until I lifted the rod and found it snagged fast in some unseen obstacle. I was not happy.

To prevent temptation I moved downstream in darkness to a spot off the path where I knew the carpers would have been baiting, two rigs were swung 2/3 of the way across and about 100 baits followed them.  I was desperate for a sign of a fish and bite off anything would have been welcome, so the hookbaits were reduced to 15mm live system on both rods and pellet was in the pva bag. The night passed without incident apart from the party in the play park behind me... Sounded like fun. It didn’t take me long to get settled due to the fact that I decided against setting up the bivvy Less to pack up in a hurry.

I had agreed to meet up with Tony at Withy in the morning and as the fishing was hard this was not a chore, so just after dawn I was on my toes again driving across Wiltshire. I had to stop off at home to swap boilies for pellets and also to pick up a couple of secret weapons but I was at the fishery for just about 8am, Tony was due in about an hour so I did a quick lap of the lake, paid for my ticket, another lap of the lake and I found numbers of fish bubbling up and clouding the water in the furthest corner from the Cafe, so I moved in there.

The set up was a PVA method on each rod and no sooner than Tony had arrived and got set up in the peg to my right but I landed two skimmers and lost 2 decent carp, I was not impressed and decided to change the rigs about a bit, I had been fishing size 12 MWG but as I was still on my 2.75lb TC Scope carp rods I needed a little more metal to play the fish with as I hadn’t caught anything on them yet. The rigs were changed to 1oz inline leads, 10lb florocarbon hooklengths and size 10 hooks baited with 11-15mm pellet and small pva bags to stop the hookbait from pulling into any silt on the deck.

Tony was catching straight away and I got a bacon, sausage and egg butty delivered in reply to his bagging, this enraged him and also allowed me to have a quick look around the lake as the fish had obviously been spooked in from of me.

I found them on his other side so did a quick hop with my kit, the rest of the day saw me figure out that I could catch small carp at about a rodlength out infront of me all day, I also had a small snooze and got some more of my book read. Tony caught a few on the method and some skimmers on the pole, I stayed until dusk but only managed 5 carp and nothing over 10lb. Still it was quieter than the river.

 What would I do different?

On the river I would find the fish before fishing for them even if it means walking around all day.

Withy will see me going with the same tackle this winter but I am going to try and avoid small pellet as they attracted skimmers and smaller carp, I also think that the bigger fish tend to live in certain areas on the lake so I am going to start concentrating on them.

Withy Munter Hunt 140614

Well with the river season impending on me I decided to go to Withy and try to bag a whacker on proper gear, the light carp rods were packed as were the alarms, book and kettle and I took the merry trip down bright and early.  After getting my ticket and starting to set up on Barnmoor, I had Dave shout across the lake at me that there was match on that lake that I had missed on the board, so Selwood peg 13 it was.

Got them bubbling well!!

  

I loose fed 8mm pellet down the edge and fished a tea bag method over the top, through the day I managed to land around 10 carp all low doubles and lost another couple to snags.  Before I knew it the match had finished on Barn moor so I made a move around to about peg 6, again it was loose fed 8mm pellet and tea bag method and within 20 minutes at starting I had an 18lb lump on the unhooking mat.

It was a lovely evening and I managed another two mirrors of 16 and 14lb respectively before I had to pack up and go home.

Withy TO4, Final Round 31/5/14

This report is a bit belated as I forgot completely, but through the haze of time here it goes.

This was the last round of the well-attended league, all I had to do was beat the guy from Dandys in my section, Kev.

I drew peg 13 on Selwood, this is a bit of a feast or famine peg as it is best approached fishing long down the edge to the right and fishing a few spots trying to get a bite from each, this would have been fine if it wasn’t for the pleasure anglers who set up next to what should have been the best bit of my peg. So the plan changed slightly.

I set up a couple of rigs to fish meat down the left and right hand edge at a variety of distances, a mugging rig and a skimmer rig, I had one skimmer I think, hooked 2 fish mugging, the first one within 15 seconds of the all in and the second I lost.  I managed 5 carp I think from the various edge spots and found that kinder potting was again the way to go but I lost a few fish due to them fighting like demons.

I ended up with 42lb 12oz for 4^th and beat 5th by 6 ozs so those skimmers were worth their weight in gold, Kev had 31lb 8oz for 7^th in section.

The team did well on the day and we managed to hold onto 3^rd overall in the league which was a great result for the whole team.

Section results

Many thanks again to the guys who ran it and can we do it again this winter please?

Withy TO4, 10/5/14

I had been looking forward to this match as I had been spending quite a bit of time at the venue and was starting to feel in tune with it, but as I was to find out every day is a school day.  My day started out with getting rid of a duty mobile that then saw me getting to the fishery for about 0815, not helped by an early morning phone call on the duty phone.

Welcomes done, hooks stocked up on and money paid we were ready for the draw, that I volunteered to do, it was reasonable on paper, I was on peg 7 Selwood, Ian had 9 on Cottage, John and Keith were both moaning as usual about their swims on the snake (I can’t remember the numbers).

So to my peg and the weather forecast was right with a strong wind cutting diagonally across me right to left and slightly in my face I was in for a rough day.  Peg 7 is a renowned margin peg with a platform 10m to my right that usually has a few fish under, so knowing how the fish in this lake like platforms I made a decision to get the Ultra Power out of the bag, the margin rig was 0.20mm mainline, 0.18mm bottom, size 3 T175 and Pink Vespe 22 hollow!!!!  If I hooked it I wanted it in the net and had been assured by a friend that this is the stuff on days like this.  I had a 0.3g float on to try and overcome the strengthening wind as even at 10m it was getting hard to hold the pole still at times, bottom was quite flat but it was 3 ½ feet deep which did not bode well for a hit and hold swim.  It was also too deep for the normal tactic of a small ball of groundbait so I went with 6mm meat, corn and hemp on the margin line.

My next swim and my banker was a small groundbait feeder that I clipped up a few feet short of the island for the skimmers, I started with a completely free running feeder but ended up with a slightly different rig:

By having the feeder sliding on a short twisted section and another longer section of twisted line under the feeder I had very few tangles (you will always get a few with 0.12mm) and the bites were proper most of the time as the fish hooked themselves.

I also set up a rig to fish at 6 sections in front of me and a method rod for the island chuck so I was ready about 30 minutes before the all in.  As the whistle sounded I tried the method to the island trick, but the first cast was short due to a gust of wind, the second landed well enough but came back covered in reeds that had been torn off the island by spawning fish and the third chuck saw it up the bank behind me. I fed the RH margin and the 6 section lines before casting the skimmer feeder out, and that was it for 5 hours as I struggled to catch any real numbers of fish on the tip, just 3-4 and then they would disappear for 20 minutes then I would get another couple and they would back off again.  I tried the 6 section line and managed a skimmer but I could not present properly on that line so it git chucked up the bank next to the method, the margin produced a puppy after a couple of hours and in the last hour I really concentrated on it hooking 4 landing 2 from under the platform, The first lost fish I pulled the wrong way and got cut off, the second was a foul hooker during a gust of wind.

The last 30 minutes was the most eventful with me taking a small storm straight in the grid whilst waiting for a bite.

I ended up helping out with the weigh in and had managed 4^th on the lake beaten by Mayo to my right who caught a few on the method off the island, as did the other two above me but I cannot remember who it was, weights were 60odd, 50 odd, mayo on 42, and me on 32lb.

The team fared well with the other 3 all getting top two in section and Nic Mac managed third overall but as duty was calling I had to go back to work at the double and continue to sit next to a mobile. We are currently third in the league with a match to go, here’s fingers crossed for a good day at the end of the month, but first I am off to viaduct on Wednesday, better pack a few keepnets with the weights that have been coming out of late ;-)

04/05/14 MFS withy day 2

Today it was off to the inner snake for me, peg 56 to be precise and all I got from the moment I drew it was that I was on a flyer and should win the section and possibly the match with ease,

I had the reeds opposite that were at 14.5m, and it was 4 feet deep against them so fishing on the deck was probably not the best plan with every big carp once again cruising around the lake, so it was a MW Cookie on 0.18 mainline and a 0.12mm hooklength, an 18 PR36 with a bait band and yellow Reflex, the plan for this was that I would fish somewhere else for an hour whilst pinging 4mm hard pellet at the corner, hopefully drawing fish in from further down the lake.  My next rig was a skimmer line, after considerable plumbing up I decided at 13m in line with a tree in the distance, as this was at the base of the far shelf and reasonably flat. The rig for here was the usual 4X12 MW Carbon F1 slim, 0.16mm mainline, 0.10mm hooklength and a 16 B911 F1. This was again set on yellow hydro as I have found this elastic to be perfect for commercial skimmers especially when teamed with a large fine wire hook. You will still get fish dropping off but you will definitely land more skimmers and bonus fish tend to pull less as well. Finally I set up a paste rig to start at 5m and also to fish into the gap under the bridge at 14.5m to my right down the edge, this was 0.20mm to 0.18mm and a size 5 T175, the elastic was green Reflex.

As the all-in was called I fed 3 balls of groundbait onto the skimmer line and then shipped out the paste rig to 5m, on my 4^th put in the float lifted sharply and my first fish was on, a skimmer of about a pound. However, that was the only bite I had on the paste all day, I went out onto the shallow line early and managed a pound and a half F1, a couple of goldfish and a small foul hoked carp when I went tight to the reeds, the tactic didn’t feel right. So after an hour and a bit it was time to go skimmer bashing, once again I found feeding to be key and I had to work really hard to keep the fish coming, I had the odd look down the edge on paste and also on the shallow line but it really wasn’t the day for it, so with nothing to lose I changed the edge rig to a meat rig and started to feed some 8mm meat down under the trees.

It took a little while but near enough bang on an hour to go the float dipped on the edge line and I extracted carp number 1 from the snags, he was closely followed by another 2 and I thought I had it sussed, but the swim went dead again and it was a case of resting it and bagging some skimmers before having another look down the edge for another 2 carp in the last 10 minutes.

It had been another interesting day, but as usual I had seen loads of fish getting caught on the outer snake but was not sure how my section had fished to my left. Fortunately I was on the scales so I could find out, Shedful on the end had 42lb, Sconee on the next peg had 43lb 15oz for the section win, unfortunately the middle of the section struggled and I managed 39lb for third in section.  I was quite disappointed in that I was 1 carp short of the section win but the weekend on the whole had been a great laugh.  I managed to come 12^th out of the 23 anglers, Rolly won it with a perfect score of 2 points so well done there mate.  I am looking forward to next year as it will be going on again and providing I am around I will be there.

Thanks again to Nick, Ian and co for running the weekend, and congratulations for raising £11000 for charity over the years.

3/05/14 MFS withy day 1, Barnmoor

This was my first time on this event and I had been warned that it was a bit of a giggle, I managed to get to the fishery in time for a breakfast and found a few friendly faces scattered around, I was going to be on Barnmoor for the day so I was hoping for an island chuck as the sun was out and the carp would be up in the water.  Once Sconee arrived we did the draw and peg 1 was going to be my home for the day, I was not too happy as it was at the wrong end of the lake and I didn’t have an island chuck, so the plan was simple.

Just to the left of the swim there was a small shelf that I plumbed up at the base of, the rig was yellow Hydro, a 4X14 MW F1 slim Carbon, 0.16mm Cenex mainline, 0.10mm Cenex hooklength to a size 16 B911 F1. I was going to feed groundbait, pellet and dead maggot on that line, my next line was down the edge to my left in front of an empty platform and paste was the plan for here. The rig was a MB Jakey Marmeow on 0.20mm mainline and a 0.18mm Cenex hooklength, the hook was a size 5 Tubertini 175 and elastic was green Reflex.  Due to the number of carp cruising it would be rude not to have a mugging rig set up, a 0.5g Drennan Carp 4 dibber, 0.18mm mainline, 0.16mm hooklength and a 16 PR36 hook. Elastic this time was Blue Reflex due to the size of the fish cruising around in front of me.

The all in was called and I fed half a pot of hemp and meat at 4m under the tree to my right, 3 balls of groundbait onto the skimmer line and finally I fed half a pot of hemp and pellet down on the edge line. I went straight under the tree at 4m to no avail so after 10 minutes of not a lot I shipped out onto the skimmer line with double dead red. It wasn’t solid from the start but I got a few indications straight away closely followed by a few small skimmers, then as I started to chop and change through hookbaits I managed a couple of bigger skimmers to around the 2lb mark, but, I couldn’t keep them coming in any numbers.  The guys to my right seemed to be getting bigger and more fish leaving myself and Sconee on peg 18 with not a lot to play with, there were carp cruising down our end of the lake but try as I might I was unable to mug one, I think I need some more practice at it.

I was starting to enjoy all the banter flying around the lake, namely as I wasn’t taking the brunt of it but unfortunately due to the weather the fishing was proper rats:

The In desperation with about an hour and a half to go I started up a new line at 16m that I fed with hemp and meat in an attempt to get one of the cruising carps head down, there had been a few carp out around by the island and the peg that I had practiced on last week seemed to be doing the business. The rig for here was a 4X10 MW carp slim, 0.18 to 0.14mm line, a size 2 T175 and yellow Reflex elastic.  I rotated between the skimmer, new meat and margin line for the last hour for a handful of skimmers and thankfully that was it the match was over.

Being on peg 1 I had also picked up the scales and for Sconee and myself it was a tale of woe, he had about 18lb and I had 21lb, Bez had done well off 13 for around 35lb, 17lb 1oz of which was 1 carp taken on the wag, Lewy had also caught well against the aerator for second and finally the Bard had managed nearly 40 pound from the island, including a gib prac. (Big carp backwards!!).

Still the snake tomorrow so let’s see what that brings.

Witherington Farm Open, 12/04/2014

It was off to Witherington Farm for a 20 peg open, all the usual suspects were there and it was a who’s who of Withy regulars.  I had however, come prepared as Stu and I had snuck down the day before for a cheeky practice where we sat on Selwood and tried to catch carp on a variety of tactics.  On the day I drew Selwood peg 4 that was a peg to the left of where I had sat the day before, so I had a rough idea of how to approach the day.  There was a bit of banter flying around at the start and somehow I got suckered into going a quid with Blakey, not the best plan if I like my money.

I started by clipping up my feeder rod to the island as this would be my starter line, I then plumbed up a 13m skimmer line, a 5m meat line and also down the edge to the left platform where I have had fish before and also to the right in front of some reeds. Bait was pellets, meat, corn and hemp and at the all-in I quickly shipped out onto the 5m line with a pot of hemp and meat before casting the feeder tight to the island, pepparami was the hookbait of choice and the tip went round within 2 minutes. Carp number 1 was in the net before some people had even finished feeding their pole lines and casting to the island, next cats was again on the money and the tip went round after 3 minutes.  Carp number 2 was in the net and I had managed about 10lb in the first 10 minutes, it was at this point that I fed my skimmer line with some 3mm pellet and a little hemp, and also cupped some meat and corn down the edge to the pallet.

I went back out on the feeder for another half an hour or so but the carp had shut up shop by this point so at nearly an hour I had a cheeky look down the edge to the pallet, this led to carp number 3 to end up in the net within the first hour and I thought that I was in for a very good day. However, it was not to be and I then suffered a very slow hour I managed a couple of skimmers by changing to a smaller hook on the feeder and also changing hookbait to a 6mm hard pellet in a band.  I had a few looks on the skimmer line and I soon figured out that they wanted a small ball of my method mix with a few pellets for every 3 fish and also that lifting and dropping was key. (The practice had come in handy after all). The rig that I was using was a 4X12 MW F1 slim carbon on 0.16mm mainline to a 0.12mm bottom ending in a Colmic N501 hook in a 16 for pellet. The elastic I was using was a soft set pink reflex and this was fine on the most part but I started to get a few problems when the fish started feeding a bit more gently, and a few dropped off, I think this was a culmination of the elastic being too harsh, the hook too big and my hooklength too long, but I didn’t change anything so only have myself to blame.

I managed another carp from down the edge and lost one but all the guys around me were hooking and landing large bonus carp on their light skimmer rigs, I however didn’t manage a bonus and it wasn’t until the end that I would realise how costly this would be.

The weigh in saw me have 43lb, 21lb odd of skimmers and 22lb of carp, Jon on peg 1 managed 10 carp and some skimmers for 50lb, Ray on 6 had 44lb helped no end by two very large carp one on the tip and one on the pole. Blakey showed me the way on the skimmers with 30lb of them and nearly 20lb of carp for 49lb, so Jon won the section but the top three weights came from Cottage and were topped by James Knight with 194lb!! So in all I got a lesson in skimmer fishing and managed to lose a quid to Blakey that I still owe him.

1/3/2014 Withy To4

Due to the continued flooding at Witherington Farm this match was moved to Dandys Ford Fishery just down the road, it was pretty easy to find with the sat nav taking me straight to the front door. The team was all enjoying the fabulous café and the breakfast and banter were both excellent, the team for the day was Keith, John, Ian and myself and I volunteered to do the draw.  It wasn’t a bad team draw with Keith and Ian both happy, whereas John and myself were a little less happy, I was on Culvert 6 and this was about the only peg without an island chuck in my section, I had Ray Hayward sat to my left and Daryl Mayers in his own little pond to my right so at least I had someone to talk to.

My plan for the day was simple, I found a couple of spots at 14.5m that were the same depth and also plumbed up under the aerator (2 inches deeper), for these lines I had a 14X11 MW F1 Slim on 0.16mm mainline to a 0.12 bottom and a 16 808 hook, elastic was doubled 5 solid as I wanted a positive but forgiving elastic in the depth of water.  It was about 7ft on those line so with the sun out I plumbed around to find some shallower areas, I had a nice tree to my right that would provide shade and shelter so I set up a 4X8 MW Carp slim to fish on that line, blue Reflex elastic and a size 2 Tubertini 175 on 0.14mm bottom were the main parts of that rig. I also set up a rig to fish at 2+2 just at an angle to my left where I found a slight flat spot on the ledge, float this time was a taper tip Diamond and the elastic was lightened to a yellow reflex but the hook and line was the same as the margin rig as I did not believe that the carp got too big in the lake.

I was just about ready for the all in and started by cupping meat in at 5m before feeding one of my open water lines with a 2mm and 4mm pellet mix, I then shipped out to the aerator with 10 4mm pellet in the kinder pot and a 4mm expander on the hook, it took 20 minutes but I got a 5lber into the net, by this time Daryl had caught 4 already and I was preparing for the worst. In fact it seemed as though carp were coming from the shallower margins all around the lake so after 3 fish in the first 50 minutes I tried down my right edge, I had been dripping pellet and corn in since the start and within 3 minutes I was playing another 4lb carp, I thought I had cracked it but it died as quickly as it started.

I knew now that I was in for a reasonable day as I could hear people moaning around the lake about how hard it was fishing and only a few people were really catching with any consistency, Daryl being one as were the two guys opposite. I started to try and string a few fish together but ended up having a frustrating few hours with only a few small roach to show for my efforts, I even set up a wag and tried to poach some fish from next to Daryls swim.

I tried moving margin swims up and down the shelf, which gave me another couple of small fish, dobbing bread and corn all around the margins and shallow wag in open water before I managed a few late fish from the 2+2, margin and aerator but that was it and I had struggled, but not as much as the guys to my left, even Ray had only managed 3 small carp all day and was very frustrated. We came to the conclusion that the fish were backing off due to the clarity of the water and that they were mostly sunbathing in the glorious sunshine, so if you did not have shallow water to aim at you were struggling from the start.

I ended up with 24lb ( I think) and this was enough for 6 points from a possible 10, the team won on the day with John getting 7 points, Keith 10 and Ian 9. We are well in the running now with 3 matches left but the next one clashes with the first Fisho qualifier so I will need a sub.

05/01/2014 Withy Silvers match

Another weekend and it has been looking as though I will need to start building an ARK soon, but as usual the alarm went off at dark o’clock, I ate, loaded and defrosted the van and pointed it in the direction of Witherington Farm for a silvers only match.  We all met up in the café for a breakfast and discussed the day ahead and with the weather forecast predicting more rain and strong winds a simple plan was concocted to try a couple of things out.  The draw was conducted with the eight of us destined to go and sit around Cottage lake as it was the only one on its own, and I drew peg 1.

 As we walked out of the café there were a load of the Eastleigh anglers cutting about in the car park, we were lucky as they had called their match off as they could not safely drive to the snake!  Anyway my plan was to try sitting it out on the tip, I set up my ever faithful Force bomb rod with a small drennan cage feeder on a running rig, 0.12mm bottom and a size 18 hook for double dead maggot. I also set up a light waggler but this only got thrown around for 10 minutes and then was not seen for the rest of the match.

Well my day was a non-starter really, two goldfish that didn’t count in the first hour, then to try and alleviate small indications I set up my 8ft F1 wand with a tiny method feeder and chucked that on the same line for another goldfish. I then dropped a turn shorter and managed a skimmer and two roach over the next hour and a half before losing the plot and going to the shop to get some food.  Before I left however I put in 5 feeders laced with dead maggot.

On my return I took some shots of how high the water was:

On my return I managed two skimmers and a perch in quick succession before another lull, so I fed 4 more feeders with 30 minutes to go and received a few liners so out went the method and I managed another skimmer in the last 10 minutes. Wow that had been a hard day looking at this view:

My 3lb 3oz was enough for not last, I took a quid off Pez that he managed to run off before paying??!! Well done to Mick Craddock for winning off of peg 9 catching just shy of 10lb of skimmers on wag and pole.  The question is would the tip have worked there? As it was I got harried by John and Kev both with pole caught small fish weights of 5-6lb. Viaduct again later this week so here’s to hoping for a return to form.