Thames Teams of 6, 14/9/14

It was a pilgrimage back up to the Swan at Radcott for the Thames Champs this week, 17 teams of 6 were in the pot fighting it out for the title.  I was fishing for the Southwest Nomads and the team also consisted of John, Dave, Kev, Ian and Trev so we had a half decent team, all we needed was a good draw. John managed to deliver on that front and all but one of us were close to the end of a section, I had E15 and this turned out to a couple of hundred yards upstream from where I was last week. In the middle of a field of cows I found my peg and was quite disappointed that I didn’t have a feature but as people turned up it appeared that I had around 8 pegs downstream without a person.

Looking at and plumbing around the swim I decided on a simple plan of a pole line in the flow, a worm line against the reeds to my right and the waggler across, there was a nice little depression just downstream of my peg and this is where I decided to put the groundbait at 11m.  I was ready well before time even though I had set up 2 rigs for roach, a rig for hemp the worm rig and I also set up a feeder rod just in case it was really hard or a breakage.

Bait was simple as well with a couple of pints of maggot, caster, worm, hemp and some groundbait, I also had some pinkies tucked away in reserve just in case it was a tiddler day like last week, this all tied in with the rough team plan of catch as many fish as you can in 5 hrs.  As the all-in was called I cupped in 6 balls of groundbait at 11m and fed a pinch of worms and caster in next to the reeds, I shipped out over the pole line and ran a maggot down the swim, on the second run through I was greeted by a gudgeon, next run a small chub, I thought I was I for a good day when I had another chublet and small roach all within the first 15 minutes and then it was time for the first boat of the day. As soon as it passed I dropped my bait into the still churning water and the float buried, as I struck the elastic poured out of the pole and I knew that I had something special on, judging by the head shakes it was another chub but his time much bigger but I will never know as it swam off downstream and the 0.08mm bottom was not man enough and parted.  I was gutted but carried on, I rested the main line and took a few small perch from the worm line but that died quickly like last week. I topped up both lines and tried the feeder to no avail for 15 minutes so it was back onto the main pole line again.

This is where the day started to go wrong as I could not catch enough numbers of fish from that line and they were all about 60 to the pound I decided to try and make something happen so I topped up with 3 balls of groundbait with no feed and then left this to settle by chucking the waggler out. I managed 2 small chub over the next 15 minutes but it was hard work and again the fish seemed to back off, this wasn’t helped by most of the boats that were coming through chugging over my waggler line. Anyway, I persevered and swapped between the pole and the wag for the rest of the match, I managed a couple of wasps of the worm line, they were about the same size of the hookbait, and then it was a case of getting my head down on the tiny fish from the pole line.

The last hour was better with a 3oz perch on the wag and another a bit bigger on the worm line but really I was happy to hear the all-out.  I was frustrated and fully expected to be last in section as the scales started their journey up the section, I was really rueing the lost fish. I weighed 3lb 4oz again and this was enough for not last so far and I beat the guy to my right which is always nice, I drove up the section after packing up asking others how they had done and it seemed as though I would be about halfway up the section, so I felt a little better.

Back at the pub I reported in and the rest of the team arrived to give us an idea of where we had come and it seemed as though we had done alright, but due to work commitments I had to disappear off before the results were read out. A text later told me that we were 4^th by a point, so yes I regretted that lost fish but there is always next year.

What I would do different:

In future I will be stepping up my hooklengths at the beginning of a match and lightening up if I have to after that.  That is all.

07/09/2014 Thames Open

It was off to the Swan Inn at Radcot for the Thames open and the start of the natural season for me, I picked John up at some ungodly hour, we had breakfast at Maccy D's and still managed to arrive in time for the draw. Looking around at the draw there were plenty of good anglers on this one so it was definitely going to be a learning experience, I stuck my hand in the draw bag and out popped Clansfield 92. As it transpired this was the second last downstream peg today and involved driving through 3 fields to get to, usually this would be a good thing but I had to drop John off at the other end of the match stretch, on the plus side I was parked behind my peg 30 minutes after the draw so I had a good run.

I used a bolo to plumb up and found all the depth was at 5-7m and then it gradually got  shallower up to about 3ft just before the far bank weed started off the far bank.  All the features near this swim are upstream of it, and apart from the slight weed it is featureless. 

With this in mind I set up a groundbait line at 11.5m, a worm line  at 5 sections and a waggler for across. I was faffing around for a while so was only just ready at the all-in and I fed 6 balls of groundbait containing Caster, Hemp and dead pinkie, I then cupped 20 worms on the inside line and started on the pole line.

I had 2 small dace on maggot so swapped to caster and had a quick run of small roach, these were quickly replaced by tiny dace, gudgeon and bleak so aftre 15 minutes I put in a small ball of feed rich groundbait to see if that would bring the roach back, whilst this settled I tried the inside line and had 3 small perch and 8 wasps for close to a pound all in 15 minutes, then the crays arrived, I refed half a bait dropper and went long to find micro fish and this was then the rest of my day.

I tried the waggler line and this saw me start to catch numbers of tiny chub but it was short lived a big barge went through my swim and killed it dead. I tried the whip but could not get enough numbers of fish to make it worthwhile.

The inside line was good for an odd wasp and I could catch tiny bleak and dace on the pole with pinkie , ffortunately had been feeding hemp on the pole line all day and managed two 2oz roach on hemp in the last 10 minutes, then the all out…. Thank God.

End peg to my left had 4lb 15oz, I managed 3lb 4oz with close to a hundred fish…. I spent too long trying to get better fish for any more weight. The guys weighing in both had 3lb 7oz so a couple more roach or another 30 mini fish would have seen more section points. I didn’t follow the scales as I had to pick John up but later found out that I was last in section.

What I would do different:

I only set up a 1g rig for the pole line, I would have set up a 0.5g float as well to give me more options.

I would have balled in at the start to try and attract more roach into the area.

Intercorps Championship- 31/8/14

It was finally the day that I had been looking forward to for a few weeks and the Intercorps was upon us again, team for the day was myself, Pez, Martin, Kev, Craig and Adi, with Dave and DJ running the bank. I had passed on the information from the day before and over breakfast we discussed tactics as well as putting the world to rights.

Pez being team captain did the draw and it put me on peg 14 on Falcon lake, not really where I wanted as I would have preferred Skylark after the day before but I was there to do a job so off I todled. Falcon is a newer lake and it showed with the banks looking very bare and all the intel that we had received said that it would be a fish race and that it would either be shallow fishing for A LOT of small fish or paste for fewer bigger fish. As we could all fish paste that was the team plan, Pez and I thought it would be a bit like Orchard lakes so short paste and heavy ish feeding would be the way.

I set up 2 identical paste rigs, a slapping rig just in case and a margin rig, I also pulled a short method rod out just in case I had to re rig but didn’t think to make any new bait for it, speaking of which I had hemp and 6mm pellet for the paste line and meat for down the edge.

I was ready with plenty of time to spare so got to chat to Colin on the next peg and Boris a couple further along as I thought that they would be my main competition in the section. The all in sounded I went straight out again with a whole cup of hemp and pellet, and started throwing meat down the edge, just for a chance of a quick fish I put the slapping rig straight over the top and bites were instant, but I missed 5 on a 6mm pellet and when I hooked one it was a nearly transparent F1 so that top kit got thrown up the bank and not looked at again.

I shipped the paste rig out over the top and started to get indications straight away and that set the tone for the first couple of hours, I kept feeding down the edge to my left and right but could not get fish off those lines so I continued to plug away at the paste. I decided to feed heavy to try and keep the fish on the deck, so every time I hooked a fish I would feed two small handfuls of 6mm pellet and if the foul hookers became a real problem then I would put in a cup of hemp and pellet and then try the edge for a couple of minutes before going back over the paste line. This tactic along with varying the consistency of the paste through the day kept fish ticking over into the keep net, which was just as well as Colin to my left and in my section was catching steadily shallow and he was also finding the odd larger fish in amongst the tiddlers.

I tried a few things throughout the day to get a bigger stamp of fish, such as the method over the short line and upping the feed down the edge but nothing really seemed to be helping and with an hour and a half to go Colin put some groundbait in down the edge to his left where he had some lilies. As he was doing this I broke my reserve paste rig so had to re rig, to this end I pinged the method rod across to the far bank and as I was trying to remove the old rig I just about caught the rod but before it disappeared. I caught about 15lb in a very short time but then ran out of groundbait so had to go back on the paste line until the end of the match. As the seconds ticked by Colin managed a couple of lumps and some better fish from down the edge, but I was keeping up with him back on my paste line as the all-out was called.

We knew it would be close as we were chatting after the match and waiting for the scales, Dave came round and pointed out that Kev thought that he was well down his section, Pez was around second, I was first or second, and Adi was top 4 we thought. The scales showed that it was better than we thought with Kev taking his section and as they came around Colin weighed just over 30 kilos and I managed to squeak him by a couple of kilos, those method fish had saved my bacon and I won the section. Adi managed second and Pez had a third in section and we thought that it was all over when Craig and Martin reported back that they had both had bad days on Skylark and had both come mid-section. We discussed the day over a carvery and calculated that we had 16points and we thought that the AGC had squeaked it, we were wrong.

Rocky gave the results and handed out the section monies, then gave the results for the teams, the AGC was third with 16 points but only 1 section winner, the Royal Artillery were second with 16 points but no third in section and the winners were the Royal Signals with 16 points but Pez’s third in section was enough to clinch the title for us. Next year we get to choose the venue so that should be fun.

What would I do different:

I would have had the method set up and some extra groundbait ready in future as it produced a much better stamp of fish and the bites were easy to hit. It only takes 5 minutes to try it and the groundbait can always go down the edge.

I should also have put my margin line further away from myself as it may have produced a few more fish.

Westwood Lakes open, 30/08/2014

I was fishing in the Inter Corps Championship on the sunday and since this is one of my main events every year I thought a little practice session was in order so I booked in for the open the day before the main event. As I arrived I was struck by how tidy and how the while place was laid out, the café was brilliant, the food was out of this world and the tackle shop was huge and really well stocked with everything you would need. For more information please check out their website and if you ever get the chance visit them: http://www.westwoodlakes.co.uk.

Back to the fishing and there were only eight of us booked into the open on Skylark lake, including myself and 3 members of the Artillery’s Corps team, so they decided to hold a rover… brilliant when you don’t know the peg numbers of the lake.  I was helped no end though by Baz (RAF team) and Spike (LIncs County and Ex RAF) and all the chat was about pegs 8-10, 33ish and any peg with a bit of room. The draw took place and I pulled out number 1 so instantly picked peg 9 and ran to my flyer.

Upon getting to my peg, having parked right behind it I found an aerator 7m to my left and due to the strengthening wind I decided that would be the longest length of pole I would get out today. I plumbed up a paste and corn rig to fish 2+2 in front away from the aerator a) to give me somewhere to try if it was hard and b) as I had been warned that the fish were big and mental so I gave it a bit of room between where I was fishing and the metal ware around the aerator legs. My third rig was a margin rig to fish just down to my left at 2+1 here I found a funny double shelf so decided to fish at the base of the first shelf in about 18 inches of water, maggot and groundbait was the plan for here.

I was ready well before the all in so went to the shop for more bait hoping for a good day and had a chat for a while, they pointed out that it should be a good day as the next guy to my left was 6 pegs away and it was 8 to my right, loads of room. It was time to get settled and on returning to my peg it was time to start so I fed a quarter of a pot of hemp and 6mm pellet on my 2+2 line and went straight over it.  I got off to a slow start and to be honest it was a bit of a struggle, I think I may have been too positive from the start but after a couple of hours I thought I had about 30lb in my net and started loose feeding 6mm pellet quite heavily. This was when the fish started to swirl so I got off my box and quickly set up a shallow rig to try on the same line, the difference was instant and over the next hour I managed 40lb of fish into my second keepnet.  The problem was that the fish were waning and getting smaller and I went from 4lb carp to 1lb F1’s over 15 minutes, to give it a rest I tried down the edge and was frustrated by not a lot if indications apart from a tiny skimmer so with nothing to lose I potted in 4 pots of groundbait, hemp and maggot from a height and gave the shallow line another 10 minutes.

Over that 10 minute period I managed another F1 so it was time for the edge, with 20 minutes to go I had 3 carp in 3 put ins down the margin and it went quiet again straight away, I fed 4 more pots of groundbait and tried for another fish shallow that was unsuccessful and then went down the edge for the last few minutes in which I managed 3 barbel to about 2lb. The all out was called and I knew it would be close, the guy at the end of the lake to my left had caught a few across (where he had the wind in his face) and also had a few down the edge late and spike on the other bank had caught steadily down his edges all day, although he had lost a few.

I was the second weight on the board and managed 96lb and a bit, the guy to my left weighed 99lb and Spike managed just over the ton for the win, I was happy with third but rued a couple of decisions that could have seen me catch a few more fish as I only really needed one more for the win.

Things I would have done different are that I would have set up a method to go across with and also I would have been able to drop it on the 5m line as well to overcome the strong breeze. I might have felt my way into the match more rather than big potting but all the info I had said go for it and I did.

Never mind there was always tomorrow.