AAF Gp2 Match 9, Todber Manor

Well it was back down into deepest, darkest Dorset for this one and even though I was a little late getting to Skevvys Café for the draw, fortunately Ben and Daz had sorted me out with pools though.  A really good breakfast was dispatched, AGM was held where somehow I ended up as Match secretary….. again.

The draw was good with Daz ending up on Park peg 2, Ben was on the new lake and I was on permanent peg 19 on Whitepost, we wished each other luck and after a quick stop at the shop to stock up on some bits when I found out that Dave was on peg 1 in the corner, went a quid with him. Then Gary was on peg 5, Docs was on the pipe swim, John was at the other end of the top lake, then Pez was on the end of the bottom lake and finally way off to the left was Graham on the other end of the lake, anyway, my peg looked like this.

As you can see the bush on the left hand side was a bit close and there were a couple of troublesome branches that I was able to deal with thanks to Graham and his secateurs and then it was time to get sorted. I have got quite a good track record on this lake so the plan was simple, paste and pellet shallow across towards the far bank, paste short and paste down the edge (might be a trend!!).  My paste rigs were all 0.19mm line to 0.18mm with a size 5 Tubertini 175 hook, the floats were either Big H paste in 4X10 or a Drennan Carp dibber in 0.5g and elastics were red or orange Vespe hollow, red for across, shallow and down the edge and orange for the short line.  The pellet rig was a 0.2g Drennan clear dibber on 0.17mm mainline to a 0.12 or 0.16mm hooklength with a Guru pellet waggler hook and a baitband. 

At the all-in I wanted a quick fish so I shipped out to 13m (a meter or so short of the far bank) with a paste rig and a small pinch of hemp and 6mm pellet in the pot, I waited 2 put ins and had carp number 1 in the net within 3 minutes, straight after this though I started to get funny indications as every fish in the lake seemed to be cruising in the surface layers so out went the shallow rig at 12 inches deep and I was soon getting among the F1’s.  I started on a 6mm pellet feeding 4mms and found that I would get a quick run and then have to work a bit before finding them again and this went on with me changing depths and where I was catching in the swim, my eureka moment came when I tried a 4mm pellet and I hooked a carp that did me in the far bank straight away.  I scaled down my hook to a 20 on 0.12mm line and caught a quick run of F1’s followed by 6 carp when I shallowed up to 6 inches deep (4 inch hooklength and float), although they backed off quickly probably as my light elastic was all over the place with them.

Because bites stopped from the carp I tried my close paste line, I was fishing it at a top kit plus half a number 4 section next to the branches on my left, 5 carp in 5 puts saw me going up the bank for keepnet number 3 as I had put all my F1’s in 1 net and carp in the other and at 3-6lb I was amassing a weight quickly now.  The last 2 hours went well with me taking a few fish from the short line and then trying for a couple from the other lines for 10 minutes before plundering the bush swim again.

I had just netted a fish as the all out was called an I had enjoyed this one, I guessed at about 150lb as I had what I guessed to be 50-60lb of F1’s and around 30 ish carp although they had got smaller as the day went on.  The scales started from Graham and he had 45kg (100lb ish)  I was the next ton with 76kg (167lb ish), 22kg of F1's and the rest carp, Pez had 50Kg(110lb) but the top lake had not fished as well again and Docs had top weight off there with 35kg I think.  So a section win for me and back for the results where it transpired that Daz had a second off Park with 40kg I think and Ben on the new lake had 4 points for 20kg of stockies and bits.  This put us 2^nd as a team on the day so it was a good job all round there, I now know that I cannot win the league as I am unable to go to the last match  and Docs has pretty much wrapped it up, so well done Docs.

Thanks to Craig and Pez for another well run match (although I did moan when I got to my peg, but it was about the foliage rather than anything else)  I am off on Interservices duty next week and then the corp champs so lets hope for a few more trophies.

Here’s part of my catch from today:

What would I have done differently?

Not a lot really, I tried a few things to catch quicker shallow like paste shallow and feeding slop but I wish that I could balance my gear for F1’s and mental Carp. Next time it will be a case of ship and hope on the carp to get them away from the far bank.

Maybe a second paste line at the same depth as the tree swim to the right as the backup swim.

I fed Old Ghost specimen carp and maggot meal down the edge, I will never buy it again as even though I had mixed it the night before and soaked it again in the morning I had loads of floaters coming off it, next time pellet and hemp down the edge.

AAF Gp2 Match 8, Witherington Farm 10/6/15

Somehow I had volunteered to run this match as Craig was away at Whiteacres… I had also covered for him a meeting earlier in the week so he had better bring me some rock!  My morning didn’t have the best of starts as I woke up at half six, thirty minutes after my alarm was supposed to wake me up, so a quick sprint to Salisbury to pick Tony up and then to the lakes to peg the inner and outer snake.  It turned out that we had plenty of time and thankyou to Tony for pegging the inner as it meant that we had enough time to grab a breakfast before I started the booking in.

It was good to see Dave back on the bank and there was plenty to talk about as everyone was booking in, again Kev and Adi came to my rescue to help out with some of the admin, leaving me to sort numbers and the other good stuff.

The match brief and draw went without a hitch and soon everyone was lining up on the banks of the inner and outer snake.  I had ended up on C11 and this turned out to be permanent peg 84 I think.

It looked really good with a blank peg to my left, two or three blank pegs around the corner to my right and the bridge leading to the outer in the corner to my right, but alas as I had seen Rocky and been asked how far to either side can we go I said to the first leg of the next platform, should have said it on the match brief as well but hey ho.  This however, shot me in the foot as it put me 8-10m short of where the fish could back off to, but everyone was in the same boat so off I went sorting my life out.

I was ready for the all in even after a trip back to the shop to get a tin of hemp and a drink and after calling it I fed 3 balls of groundbait onto a skimmer line at 11.5m down the track and went straight onto a paste line at 2+2 towards the gap to my right.  The rig for this was a 4X10 Big H paste float on 0.19mm mainline, a 0.18mm hooklength, a size 4 T175 and red vespe elastic.  It took all of 5 minutes until fish number 1 was on its way to the waiting landing net and at about 3lb it was a good start, but after that it was very slow, I went across to the far bank fishing paste again on the same rig as it was nearly 4 feet deep across next to the reeds.  This gave me another lost foul hooker and a carp before it went dead so with 45 minutes I decided to try the skimmer line, the result was not good as in twenty minutes I only had a couple of small skimmers to show for it. I went back on the short paste line and suffered a shallow foul hooker that dropped off again so I got off my box and set up a shallow paste rig, I also mixed some slop out of my groundbait with a lot of water.  I tried the 5m line with it to no avail and then shipped it across to the far bank, straight away I had another foulhooker at 18 inches so I shallowed up to a foot deep tried again.  A 2lb Carp and a goldfish quickly fell to the new tactic but again it soon dried up, but, the carp were moving around shallow so I quickly set up a standard shallow rig and stared firing 6mm pellet at it.  Th rig was a 0.2g Crystal dibber on 0.17mm mainline to a 0.12mm hooklength and a size 20 Guru Pellet wag hook with a bait band, the elastic started off a a yellow Colmic hollow but after a lost fish in the far bank reeds I geared it up to a blue Browning hollow elastic.  That sorted them out and over the next hour or so I was able to put another 4 or so carp and a couple of goldfish into the net, but then the wind picked up again so I started to look around my other lines.

It was slow until the last hour and a half when I shipped down the edge on a paste rig and lost two fish in 3 fish in short order before scaling up to a size 5 T175hook. This sorted them out and in the last half hour I had 4 fish from my edge and 2 carp from the skimmer line on paste after big potting softened 4mm pellet on both lines.  I had to call the all out straight after a small goldfish but to be fair I was happy that it was over, I managed to be largely packed up before the scales made it round and my 18kg odd was enough for 5^th in the section. John dewberry off the worst peg on the inner won the section with 25kg odd and Docs won the match from behind me on the outer.

The full results can be found here : http://midsectionblues.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/army-8-spawny-withy.html

Many thanks to all those who helped out and I am looking forward to going somewhere newish after a short holiday.

What would I do different

I think that I should have persevered on the shallow across line and I need to look at some of my elastic choices as I lost too many fish on too soft elastic.

I also think that I should have just fed hemp and pellet on the track line as the silvers I caught were considerably smaller than other peoples who did not seem to feed groundbait.

Army HQ individual open and Pairs, 29-30/5/15

It was another epic journey up north for this one but fortunately I had booked into the accomadation so had somewhere comfortable to rest my weary bones.  The first night was meeting up with a few of the guys down the local and trying to extract any information I could from them, I had also picked my bait up from Gaz so that was sorted ready for the morning.

The venue for the next two days was Forest lane fishery and as I arrived on the Friday morning I was met by a few friendly faces, the breakfast was fantastic and quickly dispatched. Then it was off for a walk around the venue, I fancied a few areas on Don especially after a briefing from Mark, he was going to be my partner for the pair’s event so was keen on getting me clued into the venue. I went around the Furlong and Oaklands as well and again fancied them for a few fish as they were moving everywhere on the lakes. Back at the draw and it was the individual competition first, I pulled peg 11 on Don out of the bag and pushed my kit into the back of the peg, I had an island at about 14.5 m in front of me and also due to the pegging there were about 3 pegs blank to the next guy to my left on the other side of the corner.

I was spoilt for choice but decided to fish pellet to a bare bank on the island, chopped worm and caster at 6 sections in line with a tuft on the island, a barbel line on a top 2 to my left and finally I plumbed up under the pallet to my left at 6 sections again.  I wasn’t ready for the all in as I had spent a while faffing around and I wasn’t really in the game to start off, still as soon as I was ready I fed a pot of Bombay mix on the chopped worm line and then shipped out to the island. As I was expecting mainly goldfish I had set up a 5-11 MW rattie on 0.16mm mainline and a 0.12mm hooklength. A size 16 B911 was balanced to yellow colmic hollow and a 4mm expander hid the hook and was fished over softened 2m pellet, it took about a minute and the float buried with a skimmer of just under a pound coming easily to the net.  Then the fun and games started as I was getting a few indications but no real bites so I after a small goldfish I came off the line to try and find something better. I went onto the chopped worm line and had a couple of fish quite quick, I decided to fish the first pot out and managed about 10 small fish before I felt as though I needed to top it up so I pot a Frenzee soft pot on the end of the top kit and started to feed some of the worm mix.  This actually had a detrimental effect to the swim in hindsight and I started to struggle, it was at this point though that I had a few liners so I set up a shallow rig and potted in the mix again, 3 minutes later I had a small carp in the net, I tried it again but that was it.

Knowing that the fish were coming up though changed my plan and I quickly set up a shallow rig to fish a worm head at 13m to the left of the island, it was again set on yellow Colmic hollow elastic with the same lines as the pellet rig, the hook was a 20 Guru pellet wag and the float was a MW pea. I started to loose feed caster and had another look on my chopped worm line and the inside barbel line whilst building the swim, but after another lack lustre 20 minutes I went on the shallow rig. It wasn’t frantic but I was soon getting the odd bite, this included a carp of about 8-10lb on a 0.12mm bottom. A rain shower passed through and I lost a big fish around an aerator over to my left so I decided to rest the swim by going down my left hand edge for a few minutes to see if anything had moved in under the platform.

Nothing was the answer and I had been using a pole protector butt in my no.6 section to protect the section if I did have to ship back quickly, and all of a sudden this was stuck fast.  I was distraught as now my best swim was out of reach and I could see carp moving through the swim, try as I might I could not budge the stuck sections.

I kept looking down the edge and on the barbel line, started to feed shallow as far as I could reach with the pole but the fish would not come towards me, in the last hour and a half I had only a couple of small fish and was not a happy chappy.

The scales came around quickly and I put 11Kg odd on them beating 1 in my section, the guy to my left had 12kg, then it was 14kg and 16kg for the section win, so 2 more carp. I was not best pleased, it got worst as well when as I was packing my kit into the van I found a nice pile of dog mess under my trainer!!!

It took a while but three of us got the section undone in the end but it may have cost me the section at least and with the match being won with 24kg who knows as it was getting stronger all the time. The food was good at the venue and the night was spent chatting in the bar with Mark and Grant.

Day 2 the Army pairs.

 Was teamed up with Mark for this match and we had been chatting about it for months on various media, the draw came and I put Mark on Oaklands 3 and I had Furlong peg 4, this meant nothing to us and we just went about our jobs for the day, we knew that we would both need a section win to stand a chance of winning.

Looking at my peg my approach was going to be simple with pellet across, a choppy line at ¾ towards the left side of the swim as there was an aerator there and a blank peg, a choppy line next to the aerator and finally the maggot line on a top kit.

This time I was ready for the all in and as the call went out I fed a small ball of choppy mix on the ¾ line and then shipped across with the pellet rig, this  time my rigs looked like:

Line	Far bank pellet	3/4 choppy	Aerator worm	Maggot	Shallow
Float	MW F1 Pear 12-11	0.3 g MB Diamond	0.7g Frenzee FP500	0.6g prototype	0.2g Drennan Clear Dibber
Mainline	0.16mm	0.16mm	0.16mm	0.18mm	0.16mm
Hooklength	0.12mm	0.12mm	0.12mm	0.14mm	0.12mm
Hook	B911 16	B911 16	B911 16	T175 size 2	20 Guru PW
Elastic	Pink Vespe hollow	White Hydro	Yellow Colmic Hollow	Blue Colmic Hollow	Yellow Colmic Hollow

It didn’t take long to get a response and I was soon netting carp number 1 and he was followed in short order by another 4 within the first 30 minutes or so, but it was soon obvious that they would not stay there all day and I started to vary the feeding, this didn’t help so I moved onto the ¾ line.

This was a good choice as again I had another quick run of fish, Barbel this time at around 3 to the pound they were all demented and great fun to play on the light tackle but again that swim was soon on the wane.

My day progressed and the best line was the ¾ line, the inside maggot rig gave me 1 barbel, the aerator line gave me a few small barbel but in the last hour I hoked a better fish and it snagged me on the aerator and as I pulled for a break I moved it so it covered the area that I had been feeding!

I had a go feeding caster into the shallow water across and dapping a rig over it for 1 small carp and a couple of barbel but my best line by far was the ¾ worm line as even at the whistle I put the net under a 1lb carp from it, which was handy as Boris on the end peg had been catching small tench and barbel consistently for the last 3 hours and Bouldy on the peg to my left had managed to snag a few small carp fishing pellet into the very shallow water across.

The scales took a while this time and Bouldy had 9kg, I had 11.250, Martin had 8 or so to my right and Boris had snuck 10kg of small fish in, so I managed a section win, Mark beat everyone on the lake bar the guy opposite that turned out to be in his section so he had a second.  The chat at the results was that we would be second as Gaz and Scott both had a section win to win it and the other pair on 3points, Craig and skins had a slightly lower total weight for third.

And so it turned out, I had a section win and second on the lake, Mark had section second and second on the lake and our score was enough for us to be the runners up on the day.

Gaz and Scott won it with a perfect score but it was a good end to a trying couple of days, thanks to Gaz and his team for running the event as it really is a thankless task, I am on withy next so I may need a check practice to sort some things out.

What would I do different

1.       I am going to try some candle wax on my pole sections to prevent them from sticking together.

2.       I need to work on my chopped worm and caster fishing and also need to look at my edge fishing as I feel I am doing something wrong at the moment.

3.       I feel that If I had put in a second chopped worm line on the Furlong day in the other direction at the same depth then I may have had more weight and then would not have needed the aerator line that was more hassle.

4.       I would put my short line slightly further out next time as it was not working on just a top kit.