25/01/2014 Golden Pond Open

So it was off to Golden Pond for the second time ever and first time in a match, I picked John up nice and early (ish, I may have been 5 minutes late) and then to the fishery all of ten minutes away. We were welcomed by quite a sight as out of the seven or so anglers already there 5 of them were members of the Browning Andover MG squad. In attendance were Keith, Stu, Tommy Gerry and Les, plus John and I made 7 and this was more than half the total anglers for the day. As always there was a sausage bap and a brew and then the important business of taking the mickey out of each other started, in fact the banter was in full flow all day.

I drew peg 4 out of the bag and since the pegs are not permanently numbered I was halfway up the left hand bank from the clubhouse, next to the aerator. Normally this would not affect me but the last match had been won by dobbing bread under the aerator from the other bank, so that was swim number 1 sorted.

The second line I decided on to start was going to be at 11.5m at about 11 o’clock and then I plumbed up a line down the edge to fish a throwaway meat line, well that was the plan but things did not go well for me. I started dobbing at mid depth for an early carp but got no indications, neither did Keith pegged opposite who was fishing to the other side of the aerator. So after 15 minutes I was trying to catch a fantail over the top of my pellet line at 11.5m, I was feeding 3 grains of corn and 10 4mm pellet every time I had an indication, so I fed very rarely. 

After a couple of hours that had seen me loose a foul hooked carp and not a lot else I decided to start trickling a little caster and corn by the aerator, this resulted in a roach of nearly a pound and later I managed to add a fantail whilst exploring the swim with a pellet, but the fish did not seem to be on my side of the lake. I was watching Keith and John on the far bank duke it out , keith was catching decent carp down the edge on pellet and John  was taking big fantails on 4mm meat on a variety of lines.  I had also gone a quid with Stu and he was winning that battle from two pegs to my left with a brace of massive perch and a roach.

For me the all-out could not come fast enough, Stu weighed nearly 8lb with his Perch going 4lb and 3lb+, so I lost a quid there.

My 2 fish went 2lb, John had 25lb ( another quid) and Keith won the day with 33lb, in all it was a slow but enjoyable day and I will return for my revenge on the fish, although my plan has changed slightly now that I have fished the place under match conditions and I have a better understanding of how it fishes.  Next week is a double whammy with Withy and Viaduct, let’s hope that it doesn't get too cold. 

Golden Pond pole try out. 15/01/2014

It is sometimes a hard life being in the army, so as I was driving out of camp at half twelve on my 'sporty' I was happy that this was not one of those times.  I decided today to try 2 new things out, a venue, Golden Pond fishery and a pole My Zitan Ultra Power that I bought as a margin pole.

As I arrived at the fishery I was surprised to see that I would be on my own so I took 20 minutes to have a good walk around and decided where to plonk the box for the next couple of hours.  I decided on a peg about halfway up the bank away from the car park and took three trips to get all my kit there without a barrow.  I thought that it would be easier as the level was about 6 inches over the top of a couple of the platforms, so it was well up and easier to do a couple of trips.

I didn't take me long to set up as I decided on 2 lines,l one in open water with light gear to fish pellet and a margin line, but on plumbing up I discovered that the swim was a bit like a billiard table and the same depth almost everywhere, it only came up about 6 inches tight into the margin it also did not produce so that is the last I shall say about that line. I did however, find a slight depression at 13m to my right so that was where I was going to fish my pellet line. I set up a 14X11 MX F1 Slim 

with a small bulk and a couple of droppers, 0.16mm mainline to a0.10mm bottom and an 18 Tubertini 808.

Elastic was doubled 4, this provides a very soft elastic that will give you plenty of control as it won't stretch as far as hollow, it is also lighter than a hollow elastic which is always handy as it helps to improve pole control.

I decided to keep my bait simple for the day as well, with a few dampened 4mm pellet, some corn and a few 4mm and 6mm expanders.

So my day began quite slow and the first 20 minutes saw very little happening, I had fed 3 grains of corn and 20 pellet in the kinder cup at the start and had topped up once, i just got a couple of small indications on a corn hookbait before the float dinked under.  A few minutes later carp number 1 was in the net and he was soon followed by his twin again on corn.

This was when thing started to get a bit surreal and all of a sudden I was unable to hit the bites that I was getting and I was getting loads of slight indications that i was lifting at as they seemed like bites. However, the answer was soon found when I swapped to a 4mm pellet and tweaked the feeding a little, soon one of the culprits was in the net.

This was the start of a purple period where I landed 8 more goldfish including some fantails up to about a pound and a half, throughout this the pole behaved impeccably, in fact I could happily use it for a full match as long as I am not trying to fish further than 13m out, I had the other top kit set with a big heavy hollow through a power kit and this affected the performance noticeably. But that was expected, the sections are solid and I have no fears putting the strongest elastic through the top kits.

In conclusion I had a great couple of hours with 2 Common carp and about 10 goldfish to 1 1/2lb saw me landing double figures in about 2 and a half hours. The elastic performed brilliantly on all the fish and the ple was brilliant for the money. (Where were they 10 yrs ago when I was getting back into fishing?)

Till the next time tight lines.