Combined Services vs MOD, Tunnel Barn Farm, 27/03/14

This event started two days early for me when I drove up to the fishery the day before our official practice day just to get a feel for the venue, in this short time that I had available to me I set up a couple of rigs one for the short pole and one for down the edge. As it was predominantly F1 fishing I had both rigs set light with 0.10mm bottoms and size 18 Tubertini 808’s, and I sacked up on pellet and maggot both on the deck and up in the water, Craig came to watch and have a catch up as well and took this quick video to show how manic it was!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptDK9FxlAg

The next day saw the whole team descending on the venue for the official practice, for this after the substantial breakfast saw me drawing Extension lake, peg 19. This swim gave me an island at 11.5m and a couple of nice margins, my plan was simple and was to fish pellet short and maggot down the edge, to cut a long story short on the pellet I caught a shed full of tiny stockies, 11kg of them to be precise. They were like piranhas, as they decimated my pellets as soon as they touched the deck on the short line, I got them going on a top kit line as well that sped up how many I was catching.  I struggled to get the better fish feeding but did discover that by starting a new line you could get a couple of quick better fish before the stockie plague would invade that swim again. My total weight was 23KG ish and I was last but 2 on the day, it did however, prove that you needed to find a way to catch the better fish as the stockies were nowhere big enough. Colin won the day with about 150lb on caster shallow, nice.

Match day saw me as team captain for Army Black, and I drew myself New 17, I was happy when I got to my peg as it had not been fished the day before and it had acres of open water to the left, and a nice margin down that way as well.

Today I set up a method rod to give me somewhere to hopefully start and bag a couple of better F1’s early, a short 2+2 pole line using the lessons learnt by the guys the day before on this lake and finally a rig for down the edge. Again the rig lines were light and the hooks small, but I was ready in plenty of time even after casting up the tree, I had loads of bait from pellet to caster and the plan was to fish pellet at 2+2 to get a feel for the swim and then go from there.

My match went like this, I started on the method for 20 minutes for nothing, then I moved onto my 2+2 pellet line, on this I got a small f1 then the stockies arrived so after 3 I decided to try something different. I moved my rig 1m to the left, re plumbed up and then started to kinder cup in maggot on that line. The difference was immediate and startling as I started to get bites from proper F1’s. As they seemed to be responding to the feed and to make a bit more noise to try and drag more fish from the open water I started to loose feed caster on that line, I had a pleasant day after the change with fish coming steadily all day, I loose fed maggot down the edge but to no avail, I managed 6 fish out of the edge in total, but one of them was around 6lb. Gaz on the peg to my right was catching steadily and I thought that it would be close between us at the all out, I was right.

I managed to weigh 41KG for a section, Lake and match win, Gaz had 37Kg for third overall and second in section, Colin again had had a good end to his match and weighed 38Kg just pipping Gaz, on the team front my team army black managed 3^rd on count back and weight, and victors on the day was Army Red, with one of the MOD teams splitting us up.

It had been a great couple of days with great company and the fishing wasn’t too shabby one thing I will mention though was the weather, it was bitterly cold both days and my moral goes never leave warm boots in Tidworth when fishing over 2 hours away, even as I am writing this my feet have not warmed up properly.

09/03/2014 Viaduct WL round 5

It was back to Viaduct for the final match in the 5 match series and I was out for revenge after the previous few weeks had seen me drawing just off the fish or generally having a bad day. My destination was Match Lake, peg 46, and this did not fill me with much joy as it had not really produced that much over the series but having never fished the lake I was not too sure what to expect.

Looking at my peg I had a nice margin to my right that ended in a small tree at 13m ish, but I had been warned off about the amount of twigs and branches in the margins so as soon as I got to my peg I was on my hands and knees with a landing net dragging out about half a trees worth of wood. This instantly made the edge look more appealing so as I was sat back on my box I set up a margin rig to fish at 5m to my left and right tight to the wooden boards, and it was a similar depth at 13m so that was where my main edge line was going to be. The rig for this was ended in a size 3 tubertini 175, onto 0.16mm cenex, from what I could make out a lot of people seemed to think that this was excessive, but in my defence if I hooked it I wanted it in the net. I then set up a 4X10 MW carp slim to fish meat in the open water and at 5m, it was a float depth deeper at 5m so that worked quite well with the amount of line above the float, this rig was for fishing meat so I had yellow reflex elastic and a size 1 Tubby 175. I also set up a dobbing rig for down the edge and a shallow mugging rig as the sun was out and I was hoping to see a few lumps enjoying the spring warmth, it didn’t happen so that’s enough about those rigs.

The all in was called at 1030 and I shipped out on both of my meat lines with a small amount of hemp and about 20 pieces of meat, and I started by dobbing 3 maggots down the edge, it didn’t feel right though and some of the others were catching F1’s straight away on the bomb from tight to the island. I instantly felt as though I was in for a trouncing so I went looking on my long line with meat and started to ping 4-5, 6mm pieces of meat in every couple of minutes to try and make something happen before I went down the edge later.  Something did happen and my first proper bite saw me attached to about 8lb of carp that fought like a skimmer until it was under the top kit. I kept feeding the line but it had gone quiet so I decided to have a quick look down the edge on caster, I was instantly into perch and at 6-32 ounces they were well worth catching, I caught long and short to my right on maggot and had a great hour putting a few of them into the net, all the time feeding the long and short meat lines. Mid match I had a run of F1’s from the long line and also managed another better carp from down the edge, the F1’s seemed to coincide with when the shadow of a tree was falling on the water where I had been feeding.  I would get a run of 3-4 fish and then I would have to change swim as they backed off, and with an hour and a quarter I had my first look at 5m on meat.

I had 4 fish for about 10lb in 4 put ins and was thinking that I was about to smash the lake when it just went dead again and this saw me struggle for the rest of the match whilst I still got to watch the guys catching F1’s casting to the island, John Moody had had a really good couple of hours mid match but started to slow towards the end and Andy Power to my right seemed to be putting small carp into the net every so often so I knew that he had done me as well come the end.

The all out was called and Tom to my left and myself were grateful, we had about the same number of fish but I had carp and he had F1’s, how important bagging the bonus fish was shown on the scales when I weighed in 40lb odd and Tom managed a mid-twenty pound weight. Andy had 60lb helped by what I think was a late surge and John managed 90lb for a lake win and third in the match.

I ended up with 12 points again which I was happy with from that peg, the team didn’t come last which is always nice, I lost another quid to Moody but this was fortunately funded by Ken Rayner and finally many thanks to guys for running a fabulous series, I can only hope that I can compete in it again next year.  

2/3/2014 Viaduct Teams of 5, Rd 4

I was off to the float only section on Lodge and Cary for this round and the weather forecast was 180 degrees different to the day before with strong winds and rain forecast, you can tell when I draw the float only section…

Trev did the draw again for John, Rocky, Ivan and myself, and he gave me peg 62 which was 2 pegs away from where I wanted to be on peg 64 but I was happy that I had the wind and rain off my back all day.

My plan was to fish for silvers at 13m straight in front so I could control the pole if the wind picked up too much, I plumbed up a meat lines at 5 and 14.5m in line with the bush to the right of the picture, I set up a waggler to explore the peg with and finally a margin rig down to the empty platform to my right.

At the all in I fed 6 cups of groundbait, dead maggot and caster on the 13m line, 10 cubes of meat opn the 14.5m line and a pinch of caster, meat and corn down the edge before I cast out the wag baited with corn to have a look around. After 10  minutes however, I noticed some bubbling on my meat line so had a quick look, I missed a quick bite that I assumed was a skimmer so fed another 10 cubes and lo and behold 5 minute later I was attached to something very angry. Carp number 1 was subdued on yellow reflex elastic, a 6x8 MW Carp slim and 0.14mm bottom to a size 1 tubertini 175, it weighed about 8lb so I quickly re fed the line and waited out for another 30 minutes before deciding to rest that line.  I had been watching the guy on peg 64 start catching down the edge so I had a quick look, 5 minutes later carp number 2 was in the net looking confused as I had been using some proper gear down the edge to keep them away from the platform legs and it didn’t like the Orange Reflex elastic I had down the top of my Ultra Power pole. :-)

This saw the start of a lean period, I could only manage the odd small fish off the groundbait line but out of the blue with 2 hours to go 2 casts on the wag saw me land a 2lb skimmer and an 8lb carp both on corn. I had another big skimmer on the 5m meat line with 10 minutes to go but that was it, I ended up with 30lb ish and lost a quid to Ken and a quid to Moody. I was halfway up the section though off a poor draw so it wasn't all bad.

Next week it is the final round and I am praying for a good draw so that I can get some points back on Moody. Till then tight lines.

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.