AT WL Prac, River Thames

Unfortunately for me this match meant a 0500 start as I had to pick John up from Andover at 0630 and the draw was at 0800, we made it with time to spare even with a stop for breakfast. We paid our money and managed to have a chat with the rest of the team about the venue, the general consensus was that you would need roach for section points, bonus fish for individual glory and that there are a few bleak along the river. I was reliably informed that the best pegs were all of the Radcott down pegs and the bridge at Lechlade, so I stuck my mitt into the box and pulled out Radcott Down, peg 1!!!. I was a bit excited so I bundled John into the van and dropped him off at Lechlade (3.5 miles away) before driving back to unload my kit, I needn’t have worried as it only took about 15 minutes as the road in between was quite nice and I was able to follow Barry on the way there and Nick on the way back. It actually took me longer to walk to my peg as the car park next to the river had been locked, but I made it to my peg at just before 0900.

First job was to roughly plumb the peg so out came the Bolo rod and stick float, this showed me that at around 11m I had about 8ft, this continued across to about 14.5-16m where it started to shallow, it also got shallower the closer in you came and was around 5-6ft a rod length out. The depth was pretty constant as far down as I could cast so now I could set up my box and start a plan.

My plan was to fish a groundbait line at 11m; a worm line at 5m and a waggler across, Groundbait was a simple roach mix that I planned to put some damp leam in to add weight and cloud in the clear water. My first rig was my bagging/holding back rig, 1.5g on 0.11mm mainline to a 0.1mm bottom and an 18 B511; this was set on No.5 elastic through 3 sections of my Z9 and set touching bottom with the ollivette 15 inches from the hook and all the droppers as a second bulk at the top of the 6” hooklength. Rig 2 was my running through rig, with 8 ft of water and a strengthening wind I decided on a positive float so set up a 1g DS14H on 0.11 mainline to a 0.098mm bottom and a 20B511, again on No.5 through 3 sections. This rig was shotted with a bulk of no.8 shot and no 10 droppers, although they later changed to no.12’s. Finally I decided to set up an OTD Hemp rig so a 0.3G inter 2 was set up with 0.11mm mainline and a 0.08mm bottom to a 20B511, This was set on no.5 through 3 sections again and was shotted with spread styls throughout the full 8ft depth. My worm rig was a 0.5g float on 0.15mm mainline to a 0.13mm bottom, this was set on No.6 elastic through 3 sections as I had left all my proper elastic top kits at home, but since it was mainly a backup line I was not too worried. Finnally I set up a 14ft waggler rod with 2.5lb mainline to a 4bb Browning loaded waggler and a 0,1mm bottom with a 20 B611 for fishing Caster across.

At the all in I potted 10 balls of groundbait with Caster, hemp  and pinkie onto my 11m line and went straight over the top with my bagging rig, this gave me 4 roach until my first of many bleak appered, I tried changing to my running through rig with caster and also went back out with my bagging rig and 10 inches from olly to hook but all to no avail, bleak were proper smashing me up and I had no come back. I looked at the situation and decided to slip a grain of hemp onto my running through rig after just 40 minutes, third run through and bingo, my first hemp roach. For the next hour I caught roach between 2 and 6oz (usually the smaller ones) steadily but I decided to rest the swim and have a look on the inside line for some perch. I fed with about 6 worms and 20 caster  and caught small perch straight away, after 5 fish though the swim went quiet and some bubbles came up, I thought  it would be a cray but a slight bite and lift saw 20 feet of no.6 pouring across the river and a 3lb Tench was stuck on the end. I was amazed in the fact that the bite had been so slight but the fish was deep hooked so I took 2 inches off the depth, refed and looked for a few more roach on the long line. The rest had done the swim good and I had a quick run of net fish before the swingers came back, it was in this spell that Phil my bank runner tipped up and gave me the good news that the rest of the section was fishing hard, so just to keep on putting fish in the net. I rested the long pole line a few more times with 2 more Tench and a few perch and roach coming on the short line and only bleak showing on the waggler but come the end of the match I felt as though I would have 12-14lb depending on how big the Tench were. I was on scales for the 4 pegs below the bridge and my job was made even easier by only two of them having been drawn.

I weighed the guy on peg 3 first and he had 20lb 8oz made up of 2 Bream for 9lb, some half decent perch and some roach. I thought he had battered me until I lifted my net out of the water; 19lb 1oz was my final weight and consisted of 60 non bleak fish including 3 Tench. I was well chuffed as I thought that this would be enough for 2^nd, then at Lechlade car park Richie off the bridge had taken 21lb of skimmers , so third? No, another 20lb weight had come from up at Lechlade again skimmers so I came in 4^th out of the 53 odd anglers and would have been second in my section of 2!!!!

I learnt that hemp and tares are a good way around bleak, don’t forget your proper top kits even on the river and a few other bits about presentation and feeding. I caught my PB River Match weight and all I need to do now is repeat it in rd 1 of the winter league next week.

MFS Todber,18/09/11

It was time for another visit to Park Lake at Todber Manor with the Match Fishing Scene lads, guys had come from all over and there was a really good atmosphere at the draw. Pegs 10 and 38 were the places that everyone wanted as they were the end pegs, however, 32 was to be my destination for the day. This is a standard 14.5m wide straight on the lake with a small bush to my right about 2m away, my plan was simple, short pole and the method as the forecast was for strong winds and rain across the south. I mixed a couple of kilos of method mix and dampened some 2,3,4mm pellet to mix in, and then prepped my 6mm pellet, hemp and corn for the track. I also had a few tins of 6 and 8mm meat cut ready for the edge, just in case. I pulled my 8ft Force wand out of the ready bag with a 30g Kobra flatty feeder, my 10ft Force Bomb was set up with a small pellet feeder just as a change. For the pole I pulled out 6 sections and decided to fish on the end of the 5^th section as the depth was pretty even all over the swim. I set up a paste rig on 0.19 to 0.17mm and a ‘5’ Tubertini 175, this was set on Red Vespe and a corn/meat rig on green Preston hollow that consisted of 0.17mm mainline and a 0.15mm bottom to a size 2 175.

I was ready with bags of time to spare but for some reason I was still caught off guard by the all in, anyway, a pot of hemp and 6mm went down the track and then the method hit the clip against the far bank. After about a minute the tip wrapped round with carp no.1 on but that was the end of the good news as then for the next couple of hours no matter what I tried I lost too many fish on the tip, the main reason being that they were F1’s and they have very soft mouths in there. So I quickly set up 14.5m of pole as the wind had not picked up as promised, 3 put ins and 1 carp and 1 F1 saw it thrown up the bank as the wind arrived with a vengeance and made it very difficult to present a rig across.

I quickly tried the track rig and managed a couple of F1’s on corn so I gave it a big pot and decided to plumb up a margin rig, this ended up being my track rig as there was only 5 inches difference from the depth tight to the reeds and down the track. So my plan f for the last couple of hours was to be concentrating on paste down the track and meat/ corn down the edge. This kind of worked but it took too long to get working properly but when the carp finally turned up I was able to catch them at a decent pace. Down the edge again after a slow start with Tench and Perch on meat I took a few decent carp including my best at about 6lb, but it was too little too late. I had been listening to the guys to my right catching carp all day and so it was proved with the weigh in.

All four anglers to my right beat me 3 with ton+ weights and the last by 2lb, I did however, beat the 2 guys to my right but my total weight of 81lb ish was over a ton off first. I don’t think that I could have done much more the way I was set up and I kicked myself for going there with a pre conceived plan. Next time I will make sure that I have F1 rigs and bait with me so that I can catch something between hours 1 and 6!!  Anyway thanks to Mark for running a nice day again, next time can you book more sun though?

AAF Team Finals day 2, Oaks Sessay, 10/09/11

So it was crunch time, the match was being held on two lakes, Alders and Poplars, and I fancied a crack at the Ide on Alders so had my fingers crossed as Dave did the draw. Alders 4 was my peg and I quickly sorted out a gallon of maggot to take with me and ran to my peg. My peg was just over 14.5m to the far bank but with roots tight over I decided on putting my far bank paste line in about 18” of water 2 ft short of the far bank. My rig for this consisted of a modified Sconzone Float on 0.17mm line to a size 5 (175), this was rigged with red Vespe hollow through the top kit of my Z9 with a paste pot as close to the pole tip as I could manage. My main attack would be an Ide line and for this I plumbed up a 0.2g Handmade special to 3ft deep, this was rigged on 0.15mm main to a 0.11bottom and a 16 (808). To prevent me from bumping off the Ide I set this on Pink Vespe Hollow through a puller kit and this had an aerosol cap paste pot again fitted to the top kit to feed maggot. I plumbed uip both margins on a 2+1 line and found 2 areas the same depth, these would get the groundbait trick even though it was around 3 ½ ft deep down the edge and I also set up a paste rig to fish a 2+2 line at 11 o’clock (just in case). Bait was 2kg of margin groundbait, a tin of corn, a gallon of maggot, about ¾ pint 4mm wetted fishery pellet, 2 pints hemp and some paste mix.

At the all in again I watched as people cupped bait in all over the lake and I shipped out with my deck Ide rig, the cup was full of maggot and this happened 3 times in the first 5 minutes before I had my first fish a small roach. This was followed by another, then a small Ide and then the swim just came to life, I was catching Ide between 6oz and 2lb one a put in by feeding a pot of maggot and then dropping the rig in vertically on top of them, nearly every time the float would settle then dip under. This continued for 2 ½ to 3hours before I ran out of Maggot (a gallon!!!!!!) Kev in the swim to my right had taken 10 carp in the first hour but was now struggling; he asked if I had 20lb of Ide? My answer was that I had taken around 30lb of them in that period and had enjoyed it immensely, it was time for my back up plan so I fed the Margins with groundbait, the 2+2 line with hemp and pellet and then shipped across to the far side with paste hookbait and some hemp and pellet in the bottom of the pot. Within a minute I was getting liners and on my second put in I had a carp stretching my elastic well, this continued for the rest of the match and I was able to take around 20 carp to 6lb from my three carp lines until the end of the match. All bar 2 came from the far bank paste line and when we weighed in I had won the section with a weight of 45kg (nearly 20kg better than 2^nd) I still dread to think what my weight could have been if I had sat on the far bank paste line all day?

Once we returned to the cafe it transpired that we as a team had had two lake wins and a 10^th in section for 12 points, this added to the day before was a total of 27points. This score was enought to win the Army Team Championships and we missed out on the teams of 3 by 4 points coming a very close second considering 2 of the team only saw the venues on match day! This was an awesome result and I have to thank Pez and Dave Burford for fishing with me in the final, I have to thank Craig Bate and Dave Wallace for their efforts throughout the year at getting us qualified for the final. Next year apparently it is Heronbrook so we are going for 1 better and doing the double!

AAF Team Champs day 1, Woodlands Lakes 09/09/11

This event is the culmination of 10 qualifying matches that started back last October on the banks of the Kennet and Avon Canal with my tem being consistently down an angler, however, after some storming results earlier this year we had been able to claw back the deficit and finish 2^nd in Gp 2 of the AAF. The team for the two days was to be myself, Chris (Pastehead) Perry and Dave (Koshidaman) Burford and fortunately Chris had been on the venue all week formulating a plan that would hopefully see us crowned as Army Team Champs at the end of the 2 days.

Dave was team captain so took charge of the draw, Kingfisher 15 was my peg for the day, and I knew what to do as Pez had given me a full and concise briefing.

As you can see the lake is a rectangle dug in the ground with pegs laid down every 10m, the contours of the lake were perfect for a short pole attack and that was the plan. I was to fish pellet at 2+2, pellet on the bomb/method at 25m and then corn down the edge, I set about setting up my kit. The pellet rig was a 0.4g hand made special on 0.15mm main to 0.13mm bottom and a 16 B911, this was rigged ion yellow Reflex elastic and plumbed up to dead depth at 10 and 2 o’clock. I had my Force 10ft bomb rod set up with a bomb rig consisting of a 0.19mm bottom to a 14 QM1 for fishing pellet and a pellet wag set up as well for the long line. Down the edge it was a standard margin rig of 0.19 to 0.17 and a 3 (175) attached to the end on green hollow, this had a Frenzee 0.3g FP 800 float for indication. Bait was 2mm, 4mm and 8mm fishery pellet, Corn, Hemp, a few jelly pellet and a bit of meat.

At the all in I shipped out onto my 10 o’clock line and fed a kinder pot of pellet, within a minute I had carp no.1 on its way to the keep net, then next put in a skimmer, and the next  and the next and the next. I was catching them quick but at 4oz average I was going nowhere fast so I tried the 2 o’clock line with the same result of a carp 1^st put in then skimmers by the ton. I tried to get my head down on this line for an hour but the skimmers were too small and with carp being caught around me I needed some in the net. I cast out the bomb and this gave me my next 2 carp but I saw carp swirling and intermittently tried the pellet wag as well. Over the next 3 hours I rotated between Pellet wag, bomb and the 5m lines for a total of 6 carp and lots of skimmers for around 20-25lb. I had been priming the margins for 2 hours when I finally noticed some colouring up and in the last 45 minutes I caught 2 carp and a skimmer to double my total weight.

At the end of the match I was distraught as I could not fathom what had gone so wrong, I weighed 21kg for 9^th in section but luckily the other two had fared better with a section win and a 5^th giving us 15 points at the end of day 1 and we were still well in contention.

If I was to fish the match again, I would set up a paste rig on the 2+2 for a change as the skimmers were eating pellets up to 10mm! I would leave the pellet wag in the bag, it gave me 1 fish but I spent too much time on it and finally I would be more careful when dropping my rig in down the edge as I spooked a carp from my margin with 3 minutes to go. The edge fish averaged double figures so that would have been good points.

Match Fishing Subscriber Classic, 08/09/11

This was my first time on this event and I was impressed with the size and organisation, 178 anglers descended onto Makins over all 3 phases. At the draw I was after any of the lakes in Phase 1 as the fish are bigger and they are generally open water venues, or Reptile on phase 2 as I believe it held my best chance of a good result from there. After a 2^nd breakie that saw me putting the world to rights with a couple of RAF lads, my hand went into the bucket and I pulled out Snake 7 on Phase 2. I was not overly impressed but the thought of a day fishing a new lake was enough to see me off to my peg with a renewed enthusiasm.

As you can see I had a multitude of options, and what this does not show is that there was a blank peg on my right with a small bay and another point coming from the right at 14m to my right. My plan was simple, meat to the middle point as I could see some carp moving around that point, pellet to the left hand point and then I was going to fish down the edge to my right using the loose groundbait trick. I plumbed up about half a section along the right hand point, the meat rig to fish there was a 4X12 Big H float on 0.17mm mainline and a 0.15mm bottom to a 16 B911 on Green Vespe Elastic through my tension puller kit and a small cad pot mounted on the end of the kit. The pellet rig for the left line if it was hard was a 4X12 Big H Border float with a cut down bristle, this was rigged on 0.15mm main line to a 0.13mm bottom and an 18 B911, this was set on yellow Browning Reflex elastic in case skimmers became important again through a puller kit and with a small cad pot. The margin rig started off as a 0.3g Frenzee FP800 on 0.19mm mainline and 0.17mm bottom with a size 3 Tubertini 175 to fish double corn, this was all set on green preston hollow elastic as the fish seemed pretty much contained in the bay with few snags. As I had plemty of time before the all in I also set up a Standard paste rig to fish a 2+2 line at 10 oclock towards the guy pegged to my left and also a small method on my 8ft Force Carp Wand to fish to the gap in the islands. My bait was some 1mm and 3mm pellet mixed together, a pint of riddled meat, a kilo of green swimstim, some 6mm sinking expanders (Soaked overnight), 2 pints of hemp, 2 tins of corn, 8mm meat cubes and punched polony for the hook and finally a bit of paste mix.

At the all in I decided not to feed anywhere but the line I was fishing so I filled my cad pot up with 50/50 hemp and riddled meat, and shipped out an 8mm punch of polony to the right hand point. I did not have to wait long and within 2 minutes I got a liner. Next put in carp no.1 was on its way to the net, this was followed by no.2 then the liners started as the fish came up in the water for the riddled meat. I quickly set up a shallow rig with a cad pot and this resulted in an instant bite but then the carp backed off, the golden first hour was up. I fed half a pot of bait on the meat line to try and get the fish down and had a look on the pellet line; I had fed a small nugget of pellets about 10 mins before I went on it and started to get bites from skimmers straight away. I had 5 then my first carp from this line showed up, but again I was getting problems with the carp causing liners in the slightly deeper margins. I rested the lines, heavy potted and also tried shallow to no avail but I was landing a couple and with 2 hours to go I had 6 carp in the net. It was time to prime the margin, so out went 3 pots of groundbait and about 20 grains of corn and within 10 minutes the bottom was starting to colour up so I had a look. I foul hooked a carp almost instantly and then another so I decided to swap over to a paste rig down the edge. This was the turning point of my match and in the last hour I managed around 6 carp to 6lb from down the edge on paste. Before I knew it all out was called.

I had ended up with around 15 carp and a few silvers, I had taken a carp on every rig I had set up including the 2+2 paste and method, around the lake it had obviously fished hard and after the scales came around I was surprised to have ended up with 51lb dead. At the presentation it turned out that this had been enough for a section win so some cash and Dynamite Baits goodies were gratefully received and then it was off on the marathon journey to York via Peterborough. If I could do it again I would probably fish paste across on my pellet line and I would have spent longer on the method to the bar, especially as it turned out that I was 8lb short of winning the Phase and 10lb short of 4^th place, either one of those would have seen me in the Drennan Knockout cup 2012! Wait till next year.

Viaduct Open 03/09/11

So I had a spare weekend and decided to pop down to Somerset to the bagging Mecca that is Viaduct Fisheries, an untroubled trip down was followed by paying in and enjoying a brew whilst chatting to the other guys about how the venue was fishing. The draw was soon upon us though and I was 5^th in the queue, peg 80 stuck in my hand and I was told with no uncertainty that the peg had had a bit of form lately with it picking up money in the last 2 or 3 matches. When I got to it I had the spit running up the left hand side of my peg to 18m and a blank peg to my right before Rich (One feed) plonked his seat box down in peg 78.

I watched the water for a couple of minutes and then decided on an easy approach for the day, I set up my new 10ft Force Carp Bomb with 8lb sensor to a 0.19mm hooklength with a baitband and a size 14 QM1, my reel was a 3012 TDM. To fish over the top on this line I also set up two pellet wags on 11ft Force Pellet waggler rods and Daiwa Whisker 3012 reels with 4lb maxima to 0.17mm bottoms and 16PR36’s with bait bands. One was set at 2ft with a Drennan 3gpellet wag and the other was set to 1ft with a handmade stumpy wag taking 2.5 swan, these were to try and cover how the fish may be taking the bait. Finally I set my Z9 up to fish along the Spit at 16m; my rig was Red Vespe hollow to 0.19mm mainline and a 0.17mm bottom. This was attached to a size 3 Tubertini 175 under a 0.3g Frenzee FP800, the plan was to fish meat along that margin and at 2+3 to my right where it was the same depth.

I was ready with plenty of time to spare and had a good chat with the guys around me to try and glean any more info, it sounded as though the pellet wag had not been working of late and that the bomb was the best attack with pole to the spit in the last couple of hours. At the all in I cast out the bomb and started feeding 8mm pellet over the top at a rate of 4 every 30 seconds, I was also pinging meat up the edge of the spit and throwing it down the edge to my right. It took 45 mins before my first proper indication and a brief pull and drop back saw me hitting thin air, a similar occurrence on the next cast saw me taking off the ½ oz bomb I had been using and swapping it for a 3/4oz bomb. I also wound a decent curve into the quiver tip and was rewarded with carp no.1 taking the bait within 4 minutes of it touching bottom. This was followed by another 2 on the bomb on the next half an hour but it then went quiet for 2 hours again. Throughout this I tried changing hookbaits; feeding and it tried the pellet wag to no avail (although I did miss a couple on the wag) before another 3 fish made an appearance with 40 mins before another blank spell then in the last hour another 3 carp on the bomb and 2 skimmers one on the bomb and one down the edge and a lost lump from the spit and my match was over.

The scales said that my 9 carp and 2 skimmers went 89lb 2oz and this was enough for 5^th on the day but that lost lump cost me a section default!!!!!

Lessons learnt:

Feeding is important not just what but how much and how often, I do not think I fed enough up the spit so did not attract in enough carp.

I need to be less accurate with my casting on the bomb and explore the whole feed area as I cannot feed on a dustbin lid so why should I be casting just to the one spot?

With it being a big fish match I should really have put in a paste line somewhere!!

Finally the Browning Force range of rods are brilliant bits of kit, the bomb dealt with some decent fish very easily.