Carpy Catch up

I am going to have a quick look back at what I have been up to since I came back from the Inter Services Carp Champs in late September, most of my time has been spent on the club lake and I have managed to continue with a fair bit of success.

In early October I managed a trip back down to the lake for a night, although my admin after the Inter Services left a bit to be desired I still managed a mid-double in the middle of the night from a known winter swim.  It was an eventful battle though as it saw the fish kite into a marginal tree and me having to paddle out to it in my pants in the early hours of the morning, it was a bit chilly but fortunately the water barely came to the middle of my thigh.

The next visit saw me working off information that I had gleaned on my previous visit, with the conditions very similar I decided to try a new swim and fish a margin spot.  It worked with 2 fish of 25lb 9oz and a small 9lb pup.  Both of these came from the new spot so I was well happy that I had found something that I had not seen many people target.  This session was marred however, with an otter deciding to show its face in October, so that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the winter.

The next week saw me back in the same swim but this time I still had a bite but unfortunately I suffered a hook pull, I had just swapped patterns as I had an occurrence in the morning of the last trip that I thought was a fish getting away with it.  I had swapped to the super aggressive Horton rig and although I hooked the fish I could not keep it on for some reason, even though it had been on for a couple of minutes. That was the end of the action that trip even with a morning move onto some showing fish in the next swim.

To get over the loss of the fish earlier in the week I went on a day session to Waldens Farm Fishery to try and get some confidence back in some rigs, it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination but I managed to land a small carp in the end after losing a couple to hook pulls, again it was all snag fishing though so you have to expect some losses.

The following weekend it was back to the club lake to find the area that I liked to target quite busy, I went for a look and found some signs of fish in the shallows so as I was there for the night I set up I the transition between the shallows and the deeper water, my trap was tripped around midnight with a 21lb 5oz common ending up in the photo album.  Again the fish were very active on this trip but they still were not easy to trip up by any stretch of the imagination.

By now it was the first weekend of November, I had managed to get to the lake for dawn and found some fish at the same time as another member of the club, we went on a gentleman’s agreement and fished in close proximity to each other, I was in my margin swim again. At about 11am with the weather worsening I had a bit against the snags that for the first time made it into the snags, I could feel the fish kicking on the end of the line so with a bit of help I ended up wading out into the bitterly cold water to free the fish.  I found it and it popped off the snag and the hook with the lightest of touches to the hook shank, It was a mid-double and yet another Common.  The weather took a turn for the worst for the rest of the session and after about 3 in the afternoon until I left I didn’t see a single show which is rare for this lake.  It coincided with a blank remainder of the session apart from a bream, even though I moved into the swim next door where the fish had all been showing throughout the day once it was vacated.

The next couple of weekends were taken up with fishing Willow Park fishery, 24 hours practice and then a 48 hour Carp match, long boring story short, I saw a few fish, had a couple of liners but caught nothing. No fish came out during my practice and only 4 came out on the match, but the venue is really nice and the food in the café is great.

This made me go on a trip to Todber manor to try and get a bite if nothing else, on the advice of Matt and Kia I was soon set up in the middle of little Hayes putting out maggot bags. I managed one on a cast to a showing fish in the evening but they all seemed to be up to my left more, I decided that I would move in the morning only for 6 people to turn up in the morning stitching where I had fancied a move to.  In the end I tore down and moved with just rods into a quiet corner where I managed two bites landing one and losing one in a little over an hour. 

 And that brings us to December, I will start doing these Blogs monthly unless anything EPIC happens, if you want to know more, just ask away in the comments and I will answer what I can.

Until the next time tight lines.

AAF Fur and Feather, Witherington Farm

So it is that time of year again when the Christmas matches start and the first one that I was able to get on this year was the Army Fur and Feather.  The group 2 match had taken place on the same venue the week before in -7 degrees so whatever was going to happen it wasn’t going to be as bad as that.  I managed a cheeky practice on Saturday, I meant to go to Waldens to practice chucking a waggler around but got coerced into fishing on Selwood.  6 hours later and 2 swims I had 1 foul hooked carp to show for my efforts!!

Back to the day in question and there were only 22 anglers booked in, I was actually surprised to find out that we would be on Cottage, the outer and the inner with so few anglers but it isn’t my train set so that was the way it was going to be.  There were plenty of friendly faces from all over, a lot of them were surprised to see me… apparently I can only carp fish now, but banter, breakfast and tackle shop done it was time for the draw.

I managed to pull peg 51 on outer off the tree, this meant nothing to me until I got to it and even then I didn’t really know what to expect. 

I set up a long pole dobbing rig, a heavy silvers rig, a light silvers rig, a bomb and a small method feeder.  My day took a massive turn for the worst whilst setting up though as I managed to break my flask!!!  It was now going to be a long day.

I was more than ready for the all in and as it sounded I fed a small ball of groundbait and dead maggot at 11 o’clock and then a few dead maggots and expanders at 1 O’clock both at 11 meters, I would have liked to have fed the lines further apart but they have installed ropes across the snake lake to prevent the cormorants from landing, works for that but it gives the fish room to back off into.

My match started slowly and I spent 30 minutes trying to dob a carp out from the far side to no avail, then I moved onto my silvers line, again with no indications from either swim, I had been feeding 4-6 maggots every 5 minutes or so at 2+2 so at just over an hour and a quarter I dropped the heavy rig over it more in desperation than anything else.  I was gob smacked when the float didn’t settle and just kept on going, Roach number 1 in the keepnet.  It was at this time that I took stock and realised that there were carp coming from Cottage, a few on the inner and most of the people to my right were now catching decent silvers and a few carp pretty consistently.  I gave it another 15 minutes and then went to the café for a brew in disgust (and a slice of cake).

When I got back to my swim Nige in 53 was still blanking, but top match angler Chris on 49 was still putting a few fish into the net from a long line at 14m. Now I am not usually shy at copying what’s working but this time I decided to make my 11m lines work, a frustrating hour later I was plumbing up one of my rigs at 14m as I still had not had a touch on that closer lines.  This was my turning point and I was soon catching small roach almost one a bang for 4 put ins, this was still rubbish though as everyone to my right was still netting fish with annoying regularity.

I decided to fill it in and go for another brew ( well the pain killers were wearing off and I needed a stretch), on getting back to my swim after being told my Dave M himself that I am rubbish I went straight across for another couple of roach. I still could not get a bite on any of the shorter lines and I put 3 bits of bread on a bomb and started to pack my kit up…. nothing happened and the all-out was called thank goodness.

I was packed up well before the scales got to me (and loaded, if it hadn’t of been for guaranteed Christmas prizes I would have been gone) the top end all the way down to Chris all had between 12 and 25kg of fish, I had 600g and Nige managed 150g!!!!!!!!  As always a nice fair winter venue, with ample parking!!

Back at the results, Bri on peg 41 I think won it with 25kg then I think it was Dave on Cottage with 18Kg, then Ian with 17Kg etc, etc.  I hadn’t blanked hey Mike J  but again I got a reminder why I try not to fish Withy I am afraid, Great Café, Great shop, Friendly staff, brilliant layout, Crap fishing!

What would I do differently?

I should have taken a light carp rod and a buzzer and chucked a method for the day. I might have even caught something.

Tackle used:

Pole Dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.17mm to 0.13mm

Hook: 1 T175

Float: 0.2g Drennan Carp

Pole Silvers Heavy:

Elastic: Yellow Hydro

Line: 0.15mm to 0.10mm

Hook: 18 B911 F1

Float: 0.4g AS4

Pole Dobbing:

Elastic: Number 5 slip

Line: 0.13mm to 0.10mm 0.08 later

Hook: 18 B911 F1 20 Gamma green later

Float: 0.2g AS3

Bomb:

Rod: Drennan 10ft Ultralight bomb rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.15mm

Hook: Various

Feeder: 8g ollivette

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 10ft S7 Carp feeder

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.17mm

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: Micro pellet feeder 24g