Todber Christmas Match, Wadmill, 18/12/2011

I had been looking forward to this match for a couple of months and come the morning of the match, bait was ready, rods were made up and I even had a few rigs ready. What was not ready was me, I thought the draw was at 9 o’clock and had aimed off to get there for around half eight, I was spot on with the time I picked Dave up and that we arrived but the draw was going on when we got there. Not the best start!

There were a few areas that I would have been happy to draw and they were all in open water, in fact experience has told me that the best area In the winter on Wadmill is between the 3^rd and 4^th island on the right hand bank from the car park, but any open water would have done me for my type of fishing. The draw gods were against me however, and I drew peg 14, this put slap bang in the middle of the 4^th island and I was not sure that many carp would be in that area.

As you can see from the photo, the island was around 20m away but I knew that the margins are reasonably shallow in that area so I decided to fish a small groundbait method around 3 meters from the far bank, I also thought that I would fish a short pole line on front of the reeds to my left so that I had somewhere to go if it all went wrong. There had been a decent frost in the morning and as I was setting up there was cat ice all the way across my peg, I thought that this may slow the fishing and took a proper gamble by concentrating on Carp and skimmers on the method rather than taking a safer option of perhaps fishing for silvers.

I set up a 10ft Force Commercial bomb with a small inline method feeder on 8lb mainline and had a 0.16mm Cenex hooklength 4 inches long with a size 16 Guru QM1 hook. This would have a sweet fishmeal groundbait around the feeder and a single dead red maggot on the hook to try and catch anything swimming. My pole rig was a 0.7g Frenzee FP500 on 0.18-0.14mm Cenex with an 18 B911hook, this was rigged on blue Reflex elastic to start and plumbed up to be fishing 2inches overdepth on 6m of my Z9 pole. I decided to feed hemp, corn and 6mm tiger nut pellet on the short pole line to try and attract in a fish at a time.

The all in sounded and I was ready for it, half a cup of bait went in on the short pole line, and then I cast the method across towards the island. The next few minutes amazed me as anglers all around me continued to pile in bait all over their swims as though it was the middle of summer, I had thought about recasting every 10 minutes but all the bait going in saw me revise this to 20 minutes minimum as I wanted to create a safe area in front of me for the carp to swim in freely.

The first three hours passed with only 3 small skimmers and a roach to show for patience on the tip, most of the guys to my left had caught carp from the open water, the peg 2 to my left had caught 5 by this time and lost a few more on the method, even the guy to my right had lost a carp on the bomb but he was casting towards the point of the island. At this point I decided to change my pole rig slightly and I plumbed up a swim at 11.5m just to the right of centre of the peg down wind, I then fed 4 balls of groundbait laced with dead maggot and a few pellets before going back out on the tip for 20mins. By this time I had tried casting a bomb to the extremities of my swim, the short pole and also popped up baits to try and tempt a carp so plan z was in order. I shipped my rig onto the new spot with double dead maggot and I caught a couple of small roach quite quick but thought it could be quicker. I cast the feeder out again after putting out a cup of loose groundbait at 11.5m and also 2 balls on my short pole line again with dead maggot in. I changed my hooklength down to a 0.12mm and also changed the elastic to a pink reflex so that I should not bump the small fish. I went back out at to 11.5m and found that lifting and dropping the bait gave me a quick run of skimmers and small roach, this also worked at 6m but it was still slow. The last 10 minutes saw me cast out the tip and pack up the rest of my kit around it, it did not move!

I finished with 3lb 13oz, this was enough for 25^th out of 35, importantly I beat Pez who was sat on the opposite bank in the gap between the 3^rd and 4^th island, and Dave who was sat to my right and had lost a carp around halfway through the match. It was still a giggle just a shame that the fishing was not as expected with 53lb winning the match from 2 pegs to my left, then a couple of 30lb weights. All the top 3 came from gaps in the islands I believe, I hate being right!!

I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas.

AT WL Rd 6, Bristol Avon, Melksham

The meet for the match was at the spencer club and Barry drew the team peg 5 and put me on G section, this was along the forest stretch in Melksham so I did not have far to travel at all. On getting to my peg I was directly upstream of a busy footbridge, and I was reliably informed that the last match had seen the section winner on my peg. I looked at the water and decided to fish a bread line on the pole, a stick under the bridge and I would also set up a tip rod if it was hard.

I set up 2 pole rigs both Drennan Carbo floats on 0.12mm to 0.08mm Cenex line and 20 B511’s with No.5 elastic through both top kits. One float was 0.75g shotted with no. 8’s as a bulk the other had an Olivetti and required 1.5g. I then set up an 8 no.6 to trot under the bridge down the inside with caster and also a tip rod that was 0.20 slow sinking match line straight through to a size 10 Carbon feeder hook, this I had set up as a link ledger with 2 swan shot.

At the all in I fed a small ball of licky onto the pole line and went over the top with the gram and a half rig, I did not have a touch even after changing to the lighter rig, changing depth and lightening the hooklength. I chucked the tip under the bridge with half a lobworm looking for a chub, tried the stick for 30 minutes and up until the last 15 mins all I had to show was a small perch that I had mugged of the end of my keepnet when it swam past. I also caught 2 roach on bread that I had continued to feed religiously for the duration of the day from on the bread line in the last 15 mins but that was it.

I finished with 7oz; this was enough for 5^th out of 7 anglers in my section and the results for the day saw that the team, even with 2 section winners and a section second had not done well and we were 6^th on the day and 5^th in the league.

AAF Winter Challenge, Witherington Farm

This is the Army’s annual Christmas match and so with that in mind Chris and myself were late to help John unload all the prizes from his van (Tractors), so scales organised, prizes sorted tables commandeered the draw went ahead. Everybody had to draw their peg from in a Christmas cracker, laugh at the joke wear the hat etc, anyway, I was drawn peg 78 on Inner snake, and I knew that at the weekend not alot had come from the area in which I was sat so I expected the worst when I was setting up.

To that end I decided on 2 5m lines at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, then 2 margin lines and I also set up a rig to fish across but due to the wind I was unsure if it would get used. The 5m rig was a 0.5g Frenzee FP500 float on 0.16mm Cenex to a 0.12mm bottom and an 18 Tubertini 808 Hook, this was set on pink Browning reflex elastic through a tension puller kit. My Margin rig was a 0.4g Drennan Carp 7 on 0.18mm Mainline to a 0.12mm bottom and an 18 B911; this was rigged on yellow reflex elastic, again through a tension puller kit. My far side rig was again on pink Cenex and had the same line and hook as the track rig, the main difference was the float as it was a 4X14 Preston PB Carp5.

My side tray was full of pellet, corn, meat, expanders, maggots (alive and dead) and groundbait and at the all in I fed all my lines frugally and started to fish on the 5m lines, even here was tricky to fish due to the stiff cross wind and after 30 minutes I chucked a method feeder across the canal on my bomb rod. I received a couple of small liners and after 25minutes (still first cast) the tip went round with carp no.1 on the end, I had 2 more in quick succession and then it went quiet again. I found that over the next couple of hours if I sat on a cast long enough the tip would go round with either a carp or skimmer on the end. My rig was a small inline method feeder running on a 12” twisted loop, this was stopped on the line with a Korum quick change bead, and my hooklength was 0.16mm Cenex to a size 16 QM1 hook. I was fishing a single dead red on the hook and barely covering the feeder in groundbait so that the hookbait would be the only solid food there. I kept on looking over all my pole lines and only dropped a small roach on my LH Margin line, the rest of the time was taken up casting out the tip and waiting for an indication.

I finished with 6 carp and 3 skimmers for 21lb 10oz; this was enough for a section win and another second in the match with Mayo Jnr catching 28lb from Cottage. It was a cold boring day but I learnt a fair bit about method fishing in the winter. Back to the river at the weekend though, no methods there!

AT winter League Round 5, K&A Canal 4/12/11

This was a round that after last week I was looking forward to as the canal was clear and cold and I believe that this plays into my strengths BREAD. To this end I had packed bread and a bit of worm and caster, so this would be my plan for the day. Barry drew me out B7 and this saw me off to another part of canal that I have never fished before, Wolfhall. On getting to my peg I had a reed bed in front of me at around 13m and I earmarked both edges for worm lines and then I could use the front for a desperation bread line, I set up the same rigs as last week and also a lobworm rig that consisted of 0.18mm to 0.14mm Cenex, a size 10 hook, a buoyant stumpy float and a short length of medium hollow elastic down my top kit. The plan was that if the float went under whatever was on the end would end up in the keepnet. My bread rigs were again the 0.12mm to 0.08mm and size 20 B511’s on pencil floats and no.5 or no.3 elastic. I did however, have a little time before the all in so I also set up a 3.5m whip to fish over the inside bread line, this had 0.12mm mainline to a 0.09bottom and an 18 B511, the float was a 0.5g Drennan Pinkie. The all in came and I fed a small ball of licky on the inside line and also lobworm on one side of the reeds and dendys on the other, I shipped out the short pole and missed a bite straight away before landing 2 roach on the bounce, this was enough for me to try the whip. Although, it was not frantic I was able to put short runs of roach into the net over the first hour and I ended up with 33 roach in the net, the swim had slowed so I tried the worm lines to no avail. The golden hour had finished and although I was only a peg away from the end peg I could not put together any decent runs of roach, possible due to pike but I will never know for sure. For the remainder of the match I rotated around my worm lines and two bread lines at 4m and 13m for a total of around 90 fish, I only had 1 bite on the worm lines all day and can only think that I should have fed them then fished them sooner rather than leaving them for an hour so all the bait could get eaten!

The final round is on the Bristol Avon at Chippenham and Melksham so that should be fun.

Withy TO4 031211

I was on Selwood again as ‘Someone had to’ but I was more than happy with this as the more time I can spend on the lake the better I will know it. John came back from the draw with peg 15, this was one of my preferred pegs but due to the weather I felt as though I would not be able to fish it how I would want. The peg gave me an island at 17.5m but due to pegs 14 and 16 both being in that was about it, so I decided to fish a skimmer line at an easy to fish distance, a corn line as close to the island as I could reach with my pole and a 5m line. My skimmer line was set on Pink Reflex elastic and comprised of a 4X14 float on 0.16mm mainline to a 0.12mm bottom and an 18, 808. This was plumbed up from 9 to 14.5m all across my swim and I managed to find a shallow depression at 11.5m just to the left of my swim; this was earmarked for my skimmer line. I found the same depth at 5m and at 16m so the same rig was used for both, a 4X14 Drennan Carp 2 on 0.18mm Cenex mainline to a 0.14mm bottom and terminated in an 18 B911, this was set on yellow Reflex elastic as I was hoping for mainly carp on this rig. As I had a bit of time before the all in I also pulled a bomb rod out of the bag just in case, this was a 10ft Force Commercial Bomb with a Black Magic 030 loaded with 0.22mm slow sink match line, a simple running rig incorporating a snap link swivel to attach a variety of hooklengths and a 3/4oz Hybrid distance pear lead.

My bait was simple enough, some hemp, corn, 6mm and 8mm meat, dead maggot, expanders and mixed softened 3 and 4mm carp pellet. At the all in I fed a small ball of pellet on my 11.5m line, a quarter cup of hemp and some corn on my 5m line then a pinch of hemp and corn on the 16m line which is where I started, due to the strengthening wind I decided to do all my feeding through a dedicated cupping kit rather than have kinder cups on the end of my top kits. I did not get so much as an indication on any of my lines for around 2 hours and a strengthening wind saw me abandon my 16m line so to try and snag a bite I started using a tiny pellet cone on the bomb and cast it close to the island, this gave me a small carp but then nothing else followed.

After 4 ½ hours I had caught 1 small carp and as I was rotating through my swims for the last time when I looked on my 14.5m line the float went under with a skimmer on the end, this was closely followed by 5 more of his mates before they disappeared again. The all out was called and I had ended up with 1 carp and 6 skimmers for 8lb odd and enough for 5^th in a section of 10. I had been beaten by predominantly skimmer weights by guys fishing dead maggot over pellet (one for the memory bank) but peg 11 again won the lake with 5 fish for 20lb odd. If I could have done it again I would have fished a small method feeder to the island with dead red to try and snag a few more fish rather that concentrating on big baits for the lumpy carp. Always next month!!

Angling Trust Winter League Practice,27/11/2011

This was an important match for me as I had not done as well as I would have liked in the previous round so I needed a confidence boost. After the customary bap at the football club I drew  a peg on the roadside stretch, and on getting to my peg I was told that I would be up against it as the pegs to my left were historically better.

I decided to fish a bread line at 5 and 13m then to try a worm line tight across to the far bank foliage at 14.5m to my left. My bread rigs were a 4X14 and 0.6g pencil float both on 0.12mm mainline to 0.08mm bottoms and 20 B511, the inside rig was set on no.5 Cenex elastic and the far rig was on no.3. The worm rig was a 4X12 Carpa Chimp on 0.18mm mainline to a o.14mm Cenex bottom and a 16 Drennan wide gape match hook, this was set on a medium hollow elastic rigged through only 1 section of my Z9. If I hooked 1 it wasn’t coming off or snagging me in the far bank foliage!

At the all in I fed a small ball of licky bread at 5m and went straight over the top with a 4mm punch on my hook, bites came instantly and in the first hour I had around 30 roach in the net but they were very small so I fed my worm line and had a look after 10 minutes. I had indications instantly across and after about a minute I was rewarded with a roach but then I hooked something alot bigger. It was long, thin, and green and had big teeth so the pike was not attached for long, I fed the worm line with another 10 worms and went back onto my 5m bread line. This had slowed drastically but I was able to keep the odd fish trickling in until I looked on the worm line again, this saw me latch into another big fish but this time a 2lb 3oz Perch was safely transferred to the keepnet.

This was the end of the big fish action across and for the rest of the match I rotated through my 3 lines picking up odd roach on the bread lines but they were very small until in the last 30 minutes I re fed my 5m line and went straight over the top with nearly instant success and a run of slightly bigger roach saw me up until the all out.

I finished with 5lb 8oz and this was only good enough for 5^th in my 7 peg section, but I had learnt alot and gained a bit of confidence in my worm fishing. Next week I will try to put it into practice.