AAF Gp2 Match 9, Todber Manor Fishery.

It was time for another group match and this time we were back off to Todber, the weather gods obviously saw us coming because the forecast was for showers as usual, however, the wind should stay off us. The draw as usual was at Skevvys cafe in Shaftesbury and my team for the day was just myself and Tommy as Pez was away. Tommy did the draw and ended up on Whitepost whereas I was off to Park and permanent peg 12, I had been beaten badly by this peg in the past so I knew it had a bit of form and was therefore quite happy.

I decided on another easy day so I set up a rig for across to fish meat in the reeds, a paste rig for 2+2 and another paste rig for the margin to my left, I would feed the track at the start with a pot of hemp and pellet and then concentrate across for the first part of the match.

The all in was called and I potted in a full pot on my track line before shipping my across rig over, it consisted of a 4X12 Big H Border float on 0.20mm mainline to a 0.16mm bottom and a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, to match the rig I had it set on a short length of Blue reflex hollow elastic. The Kinder pot on the end of the rig was filled with hemp and meat and I shipped across into the gap in the reeds expecting a quick response; however this swim never really took off. I had fish in it almost straight away but if I had not had a positive indication within the first minute after feeding then I would not catch a fish. I lasted on this line for around 30 minutes and had put a few small carp into the net but it was not quick enough and the track line was fizzing so out went a big chunk of paste. The rig for this line was a 4X14 Big H paste float on 0.20mm mainline and a 0.18mm bottom to a size 5 ‘175’, elastic started as blue reflex but I soon changed this to green as I was catching a few fish on it. I was feeding by dumping in some bait every few fish as I found that feeding through the paste pot was drawing the fish up in the water, but it was steady on this line with small carp and F1’s coming steadily to paste. I stayed on this line for the next couple of hours catching steadily before deciding to feed my margins. For this I had 2Kg of groundbait mixed and I started with 5 full pots containing a few cubes of meat, this line was again steady and provided a few fish but never really took off, the fish were the same size as the short pole so I was alternating until the all out, I had been watching Dave Doc’s catching from the end peg all day and in the last hour I managed to get a few fish strung together. At one point I landed 3 4-6lb fish in the same amount of time it took him to land 1, so In was confident that I may have managed to claw something back.

As you can see from the section weigh sheet I managed to do more than claw a bit back and I was able to overtake Docs in the last 30 minutes or so as the fish turned up in numbers.

SECTION	PEG No	NAME	TEAM	WEIGHT	POSITION
A	1	Statters	ARMCEN B	14.56	9
A	2	Oakey	Nomads	42.28	3
A	3	Goddard	Orphans	11.26	10
A	4	Holmes	Tidworth Gunners	0	13
A	5	Brettle	Individual	30.64	6
A	6	Cicconi	Army HQ B	15.28	8
A	7	Hamilton	ARMCEN A	26.64	7
A	8	Duggan	Individual	6.8	11
A	9	Bentley	11 Sig Regt	50.15	1
A	10	Poolman	Army HQ A	30.87	5
A	11	Farragher	Individual	40.73	4
A	12	Docherty	RA Centre	45.45	2

To sum up it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and I even managed second overall in the match beaten from a weight from the other side of Park where Duncan Cooper chucked the method all day to record an impressive 70 odd Kilos. I’m off to Makins next then back to Viaduct.

AAF Gp 2 vs Browning Andover, Witherington Farm, 1 July 2012

This was day 2 of another weekend of angling, fortunately with them both being on commercials prep the night before was kept to a minimum, now this seemed good the night before but came back to bite me, more of that later. Another proper breakfast was duly dispatched (I think I am going to have to run a bit more!!) and the banter was in full flow before and during the draw, the team captains of John (AAF Gp2) and Barry (Browning Andover MG) did the draw and I was pulled out of the bag on peg 41 fishing against none other than Fisho Finalist, Dave George!!

I rather fancied the draw and had decided on the way to my peg that I would be concentrating on paste today as I thought it would be the way to go, The main reason for my optimism was the fact that the wind had been blowing down that end of the lake for a few days and the carp were in residence. I started to get set up and I had the bridge into the inner snake sat between myself and Dave, so I set up a method rod to cast along the far bank as it was a little breezy and this guarantees perfect presentation, this is where my night off from prep bit me though. Firstly I had left my favourite Method groundbait at home and secondly I had to set my rod up on the bank which is normally done at home so I don’t have to take ages setting it up.

I carried on and after I had messed around with the method rod it was time for my paste rigs, I set up a standard 4 X14 Big H paste float for the 4ft deep 5m line and then it was a self cocking Big H paste for my margin rig. Both were set up on 0.20mm mainline and 0.18mm bottoms to size 5 Tubertini 175, the long line was rigged on blue browning Reflex elastic and the margin rig was on a strong hollow elastic through a heavy tension puller kit.

That was me, I also set up a shallow rig and a deck rig for across but I did not see myself using this too much as the wind was awkward and swirling across me. So at the all in I was ready and whilst everybody else was cupping in pots of bait I shipped my paste rig out to the 5m line and tipped out a large lump of paste with some hemp and pellet under it, nothing first put in but on the second I had a positive indication that saw me slipping the net under a 3lb carp, another followed a few minutes later and I had 3 in the net after 30 minutes whilst Dave had not had a fish. It was at this point that I started to get fizzing and indications off small fish so I decided that the time was right to put a bit of feed in at 13m on my long paste line and so I started to rotate across the swims with paste hookbaits looking for the odd fish. I tried the method cast towards the bridge a couple of times and I could not get a positive indication on an 8mm pellet to a 14 hook so I dropped down to a 4mm pellet to a 16 on 0.16mm line. I cast the feeder across and whilst I was not looking I nearly lost the rod into the lake and the fish made good its escape through a Lilly bed.

About half way through the fish started showing towards the bridge so I decided to try my luck with a shallow rig and a 6m pellet, I hooked a proper fish very quickly and by using a short length of Blue Cenex hollow elastic through a no.1 section I soon had a 10lber tamed and in the net. I shipped back across and was seen off by the next couple of fish so I decided to feed the edge with my small amount of groundbait. This saw a quick run of 3 fish from down the edge all decent fish and I thought that at this time I had about 50lb in the net so I decided to chuck a third net in after topping up a couple of lines. ( The third net was for a bit of sportsmanship and also because the pegs are a long way off the water and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt myself or loose fish due to pulling too much up the bank.)

This however was the kiss of death and after putting this net in I did not have another indication for nearly an hour and only managed another 3 fish in total until the end of the match. During this time, Dave had a great run and managed to put 8 Carp into the net, he did however loose lots more; all he was doing was concentrating on his short line with meat over pellet. The all out could ot come quick enough and I knew that Dave ad caught enough to beat me, he reckoned he had 6 Carp (I had counted 15) andthat I had smashed him, the scales however, showed that he is rubbish at counting fish and estimating weight, my bag went 69lb 4oz and Dave managed to squeek it with 72lb 8oz, I was not a happy bunny. But I had not lost too many fish apart from the one on the rod and another on the long shallow rig that powered into snags before I had a chance. On the day however the AAF was victorious with an impressive 8 section wins so we won the trophy back. Another good result was Neil Gaff from the other side of Dave managing 3^rd overall.

30/06/2012 MFS Campbell lake, Viaduct

People seem to think that I am usually quite good at the draw, but today I was let down severely by my right hand. My day started slightly late and I then found that a small Dorset town was shut so had to plumb in an alternative route to the Tom Tom. I finally found my way into the car park only to find that I must have been one of the last people there, but I still found time for a breakfast at Woodys and very good it was too.

I managed to draw peg 130 out of the bag and this was apparently not a good draw, still I had planned on another easy day but this time concentrating on the tip and waggler but it was not to be as soon after the whistle I was struggling and my day got worst from there.

I set up 2 wagglers and a bomb rod and hooked carp on all 3, I also set up a margin rig and a short pole line to fish meat but all I managed here was to get beaten up down the edge and a few skimmers at 5m.

I tipped back 30lb and this still would have put me as last on the lake, in hindsight I should have worked the waggler for longer and I think that a paste line at 13m even with the gusting wind would have been a better idea.

It was won by Rich the match organiser from peg 119 with around 190lb of carp so well done to you mate, the lake on a whole fished quite hard but we still had 4 or 5 ton weights and loads of bags around  70-90lb.