MFS Viaduct day 2, 15 Jun 13

Day 1 had been a bit of a blow out for me with my weight only being good enough for 5^th out of 7 in my section, but it was another day so after the slating for throwing away another good peg at the draw I put my hand into the bag and pulled out peg 88 on Cary. Normally I would not be too excited about this draw but this time the wind was ploughing into that end of the lake and pegs 90 and 94 had not been draw so I had nearly the whole top corner of the lake to myself.

With so much room and the weather report saying that the wind would get worst throughout the day, I decided that it would mainly be a bomb match towards the corner, but I also needed somewhere else to go. I plumbed up a 13m pole line to my front and put a meat rig and shallow rig up for there, I had a really nice margin to my left so I plumbed up a rig for there and that was it basically.

At the all-in I fed about 30 6mm pellets and 20 cubes of meat on the long line, and then chucked the bomb down to my right and started firing 8mm pellet over the top, nothing happened so after about 20 minutes I had a look on my long line and managed to snare a couple of skimmers then a foul hooked carp killed the swim so I re fed and chucked the bomb. This was basically how my day panned out with me taking the odd carp on the bomb interspersed with a few skimmers and a couple of carp on the long line, one in fact came as whilst I was kinder cupping a few carp moved into the swim shallow. After seeing this I quickly used the big pot to pot in 8 cubes of meat and a few pellet shipped back and then shipped out the shallow rig, I s

Lapped this on the water 3 times and all of a sudden elastic poured out of the pole and resulted in a mid-double carp in the net. I tried this trick a few more times but it only worked the once.

The wind proved troublesome for everyone and throughout the day I had been watching Freddie on peg 97 getting amongst a few and Chris on the next peg was getting amongst them at the end as well. At the end of the match I was up to 11 carp, as was Chris on the next peg as was the guy on 85!

So I managed a section win on the last match of my R&R, it was a brilliant 2 days and hopefully it will happen again next year. Till the next time tight lines one and all.

MFS Viaduct day 1, 14 June 13

This was the first day of a two day session down at Viaduct Fishery in Somerset, it was quite fortuitous the fact that I had been able to fish these matches with them falling at the end of my R&R and there being a spare place when I looked online.  So I had booked in and day one saw us merry 28 congregating in the car park at the fishery, breakfast was dispatched and a few £1 side bets made with various people it was soon time for the draw. I was quite close to the front and we had all of Campbell and Cary booked so there would be plenty of room for us all, peg 114 stuck in my hand and I was sort of happy.

I spoke with Steve in the tackle shop and his advice was to fish long, 6m and also long down the left hand edge towards the empty peg 113, so I set up a couple of shallow rigs for the long pole, a meat rig for the short line and a margin rig. I also set up a depth waggler rod and also a pellet wag for if it was to be a middle of the lake day. I was ready (ish) before the all in and as soon as it sounded I fed 1/3 of a pot of hemp and 8mm meat on the short pole line and a little less down the edge, I then shipped out with a shallow rig and proceeded to slap the water 3 times hoping for a quick response, but it never happened so back to plan B.

 I cast out the depth waggler and started pinging out a few pellets around it, I did not have to wait long and soon had a carp on the end but it was foul hooked and quickly broke me, the inside was fizzing well so I shipped out the meat rig to see what would happen. I started to catch a few tench and skimmers but they quickly slowed down so I decided to have a quick look down the edge as it looked really fishy with loads of snags and overhanging brambles. I had geared up accordingly and quickly landed a couple of small carp, I could only think how easy it was when my nightmares began, there were that many snags that for every carp I landed I lost at least 1, these mostly ran through the brambles but there were at least 2 other solid snags that I lost fish on.

I was alternating between the margin and the short pole to try and keep weight going into the net but I could see guys on the far bank catching well and Steve next to me was starting to get a few fish strung together (this was not good as he is in the RAF and we had gone a quid). I made a change to fishing     with paste trying to alleviate liners down the edge and also act as a focal bait on the short line, it almost worked but not enough and I was still struggling to land fish right up to the final whistle.

As the scales came round it was clear that I had not done enough and I managed to weigh in 90 odd pounds including nearly 20lb of silvers. Steve had managed 160lb and that gave him the quid for the day.

AAF Gp2 Witherington Farm, 12 Jun 13

It was off to Witherington Farm today for an AAF Group match, normally I do not like fishing the snake at withy as I think that it can be really peggy and also really hard as it has had a few problems with predators in recent times, but I had been informed by John that I was fishing for Nomads so I had to give it a good shot.  There was a good bit of banter at the draw, and it was good to see a few familiar faces again, but it was soon to business, the team consisted of myself, John Dewbery and Ivan Oakey so I had a lot to live up to fishing with 2 local experts. Ivan did the draw and gave me peg 40, no I am rubbish at remembering the peg numbers on the snake so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be the peg that Dave George was sat on last year for the Gp2 vs Andover MG match. I had been pegged next to him then so had an idea how to approach the peg.

As you can see I had loads of room and a bridge to aim at, with the weather saying that it was going to be wet and windy the first item of tackle out of the bag was an 8 ft wand set up with a method feeder, once that was done I plumbed up a paste rig for 5m, pellet rig for 13m and I also set up a shallow rig (Just in case) and a margin rig. Bait was also simple with 2mm pellet and groundbait for the feeder, 4mm softened pellet and maggot for the long pole, hemp and corn for the paste line and meat for down the edge.

At the all in I did my normal trick of just shipping out a paste rig to 5 meters and waiting for a mug carp, except that this time the fish had not read the script and I did not get a sniff on it. I thought that it was odd but continued any way, then found that the lake on a whole was fishing hard, I managed to snare a few skimmers at 13m in the first couple of hours but was going nowhere fast.

It was at this time that I spotted a carp turn over next to the reed on the far bank, I had been trying to avoid having to go over there with the pole the wind was stiffening from left to right, but I bit the bullet and shipped my shallow rig the 16 meters across to the far side, I slapped the pellet on the surface 3 times and the elastic poured out of the pole tip. That’s the way to do it I thought, but alas, that was it for that line apart from another small carp that I mugged from the left hand side of the reed bed about 15 minutes later. So it was back to trying to find the fish, it was at this point that I noticed Freddie further up the bank to my right netting a lump on the method. I decided to give it 30 minutes casting towards the bridge again, except that I changed the hookbait from a banded pellet to dead maggot. This also was a non-starter with a quick small carp and then a couple of see through skimmers, I was starting to get desperate so a new plan was hatched.

I was confident that if I could attract the carp over my feed then at some point they would start feeding, so I picked up the catty and started feeding half pouches of 4 mm softened feed pellet over my 13 m line, I also re plumbed the paste rig to fish over this line. The change worked and although it was not hectic I managed to land around 6 carp in the final hour and a half, including one on the whistle that was quite handy.

Again the margins had not produced for me and I can only think that it was because I had not gone in tight enough, the rustiness of a couple of months away was still showing in a couple of decisions I made, I regret not casting the method to the bare bank on the right of the reeds as I feel in hindsight that the carp would have been easier to catch in the shallower water. I also need to measure my pole so I know exactly where 16m is as I could not reach the far bank with 16 m of pole, only the reeds this would have negated the need to cast the method as I would have fed a line there.

I still managed to weigh in just over 13KG and this was enough for 4^th in section (although I picked up for third as someone did not pay into section pools!) I was beaten by Freddie and his method caught lumps, he had 17KG, there was a 15KG and then Griff in the peg to my left who would have smashed it up if he had not run out of maggot had 14KG. The point of interest was that Griff was big potting maggot in down the track and catching skimmers well with the odd small carp, I was struggling to get bites over 4mm pellet with a 4mm expander but I have since been shown that a 4mm pellet when softened grows to 6mm so you need to fish a 6mm expander over the top!!?! You live and learn.

Gold Valley Open 9 Jun 13

For a spot of fun I had decided to book into an open match at Gold Valley lakes near Hampshire today, I have not been to this complex since I won a Match Fishing magazine Club Angler southern qualifier a few years ago off Syndicate Lake so I was interested to see how it had changed. The answer was a lot, there were very few trees around the complex and it looked almost like a new fishery, but not to be perturbed I went in to the shop, got some pellet and then had a brew whilst waiting for the draw. There was a plethora of stars at the fishery for this match, Will Raison, Steve Saunders and Tommy Hillier to name but a few that I recognised, so I knew that I would need to draw on some fish to stand a chance. Peg 51 Gold lake was what stuck in my hand  not where I had wanted but it stood a chance of a few fish so off I went.

I decided to split the swim down into 4 areas and try to find out where the fish wanted to be, there was the middle of the lake next to the rope for the method and BIG waggler, 25m out for the bomb and pellet wag, the 5m line for meat and then finally I had a spare platform to my left so I decided to put a margin line in down there for good measure.

At the all in I fed half a pot of hemp and meat on my 5m line before starting on the method, with an 8mm pellet as hookbait with a 50/50 mix of groundbait and pellet around the feeder. I was aiming for a buoy on the rope but due to a little rustiness only managed to hit it a few times in the opening 45 minutes, in this time I had 2 liners whilst the guy on the peg to my right was casting tight to the island and had managed a couple of carp already. I had a couple of quick chucks on the big wag but to no avail so I tried an early look on my 5m line, this resulted in an almost instant reaction and a skimmer of nearly a pound was soon in the net. I thought that if there were a few of them there then I might have been in with a chance but it was not to be and I was soon rotating around my lines looking for indications. The feeder was that good that I started to use the groundbait mix down the edge but this did not work either, the only carp I caught were 3 of the smallest carp in Gold lake on the bomb and I also managed a couple of skimmers and perch on 8mm meat at 5m.

I did not even bother the scales at the end and tipped back around 20lb (if I was lucky) of fish, John took the quid with 4 odd pounds from middle lake, he was still the lowest of the 3 weights that were recorded from the lake. I learnt a few things, such as the fact that I need a 12 foot rod for fishing the big wag, and that I should have had Robin Red Pellets with me but other than that it was a windy day art Gold Valley.

Wadmill 06/06/13

Todber Practice, 6/6/13

Having been back I the country for less than 48hrs, it was guaranteed that I was going fishing very soon and Wadmill Lake at Todber manor fishery was my destination for the day.  My goal for the session was simple, a twenty pound carp on the float, so I walked around the top end of the lake to find an empty peg with plenty of room, between the third and fourth islands.  I decided to start on the long pole fishing shallow, so I pulled out two top kits both rigged with blue reflex elastic, the first rig was my ‘normal’ shallow rig and consisted of a 0.2g FP 850 float, 0.18mm mainline to a 0.14mm bottom and an 18 PR36 with a hair rigged bait band. The second was a ‘slapper’ rig, on this one the line, elastic and hook were all the same but the float was a small 0.2g FS200 dibber. I shipped the standard shallow rig out and started to ping some 6mm pellet around it, it didn’t take long for a response and I soon had an 8lb carp in the net, this was followed by a twin after about 40 minutes but it didn’t quite feel right.

I decided on a change of tack and set up a pellet waggler and also a short pole rig for meat, the meat rig was again blue reflex and 0.18 mainline but the hooklength was 0.16 and I had a size 2 Tubertini 175 and the float was a 0.3g MW diamond as it was around 6ft deep and a bit of a breeze was causing a little tow.

I fed half a pot of hemp and meat on my 5m line and then started to work the pellet wag, the rig started off as a small loaded float trapped on the line with float stops (pellet slider) but the presentation did not feel right especially with the sun being out and all the carp in the lake seemed to be in the top foot. I decided to make a change, stripped the rig down and set up an unloaded pellet waggler set 2 feet deep, this proved to do the trick and I managed to sneak a few fish out on it up to around 14lb.

The meat line produced a couple of big skimmers and a carp but it was much harder work, I mostly used the day to try some things out on the waggler and this was successful. I ended up with 13 carp and a couple of bream for well over 100lb, I just hoped that I could do the same at the weekend.

My way with bread part 3

In the last chapter I looked at the approach for a small canal, this time I am going to look at large canals and slow moving rivers, I am thinking along the lines of the New Junction canal or Bristol Avon. These are nearly always 20m+ wide and they range in depths often drastically but the approach is quite similar as I tend to use bread on 2 distinct tactics, the feeder and the pole.

I am going to look at the bread feeder first as this is a fairly rarely used method but on its day it can be the difference between winning the section or coming in the middle. The tackle I use will depend on the distance that I am casting and the flow that I am fishing into, for example if I was casting to the far side of a 20m swim into 6ft of slow water I could probably get away with a 1/3 ounce feeder so a light 11-12 ft rod would be ample. Whereas if it was 40 yards into 4 ft of faster water then I may need an ounce to hold deck and a 13ft rod to keep the line out of the water, but that is for another day. My favorite rod if I can use it is a Champions choice 12 foot stilwater super feeder as it has a lovely soft tip with enough grunt to still stop chub reaching snags under your feet. My reel would be an Ultimatch loaded with 0.18-0.22 diameter cenex feeder line, or if it was for BIG chub close to snags then 8lb sensor as it is really robust. The rig is simply a running snap link on the reel line stopped by a gripper stop on a loop knot. The hooklength is then attached to this loop to loop style, as bread tends not to cause line spin. Hook length breaking strain, length and hook all vary on species and conditions, but as a golden rule I will start on 3ft of 0.12mm cenex to a size 14 B560 for 90% of situations, stepping up for snags and down if the water is really clear.

Bait for this approach is also really simple, I will use standard licky bread, 2mm as a base and if I am on alot of fish or the area is fishing well I would add a small amount of the coarser feed as well to give the fish something to home in on. This can also be used on harder days to draw big fish out of snags but that can be a bottle job that does not always pay off. For hookbait a normal piece of punched Warburtons will withstand a fairly hard cast, press down on it to compress it if you are worried about out it coming off but never, NEVER microwave it. Again a variety of punches is a good idea, sometimes the fish might want a large 12mm punch or sometimes double 6mm punch will be better.

So when would I use this tactic?

I have used this tactic a lot for starting a match and allowing a groundbait line to settle, sometimes they may take 20-60 minutes to turn up and in this time you could fit in a few casts to the far bank features to try and mug a chub or if you are lucky Bream from your peg. Another time is if it is really cold and clear and you want to fish a static bait on the far bank, sometimes chub, roach and dace will not want to eat maggot but a nice soft bit of bread will see the tip rattle most casts. That’s basically it for the feeder, give it no more than 4 or so casts in 20 to 30 minutes as the bread may over feed the fish or they may not be there and it could be time for a rethink. 

The pole is again very simple I tend to fish 2 or three rigs over a pole line when fishing bread, one will be on a long line for fishing at the speed of the current, usually a pencil or slim float fished with a bulk 40cm from the hook, and a couple of droppers. The next rig would be for slowing the rig and would consist of a rugby balled or round bodied float, again with a bulk and 2 droppers but the bulk would be 30cm from the hook, in both cases the droppers would be no smaller than a number 10 to show indications on the float more positively. There are two more rigs that I may set up in the right conditions, but I shall cover them later, tackle wise I nearly always fish no. 5 elastic through 3 sections for river roach, with a 0.12mm cenex mainlines and 0.07-0.09mm hooklength of the same material and a kamasan B511 from 22-18 covers most fish you will catch.

Feeding is the most important thing to get right on the pole, get it wrong and you will catch nothing.  I again only feed licky bread, I have tried punch crumb in the past but I cannot get on with it so I stick with the licky. To get it down in deep or fast water then wetting it enough to bind and then adding a little gravel or hemp is a good technique, don't over wet it though as you will end up with a ball of white bread paste the size of a Satsuma rolling downstream. The goal is a ball of bread that hits the bottom intact and then breaks down slowly allowing particles to drift off downstream attracting fish up the trail. Another way to get it down is to use a bait dropper to get the bread down to the bottom and give off a quick cloud, this is especially good as a top up technique or if you are struggling. In shallower or slower water you can get away with feeding the bread as a cloud slightly dampened as it sinks just as quickly as a ball of bread, the Gloucester canal is an example of where this works on the 9 foot line down the inside.

I briefly mentioned two other rigs that I would use over bread and they are both quite similar in that they will incorporate strung shotting patterns, one is for hemp as starting a hemp line with a ball of bread can sometimes be a shortcut to the bigger fish turning up earlier. My first rig is an on the drop bread rig, I would only use this in very slow moving water as it takes a while to settle and cannot be held back, it consists of line, hook and elastic as normal but a thin 4X12-0.75G float with a wire stem. All the shot is spread through the bottom half of the rig to pick up any tow and it is a good rig to overcome tricky wind conditions.  The last rig is my hemp rig, this has a slim carbon stemmed float of 4X10-4X14 and this is shotted with no.12 or 13 stotz or shot down the whole length, hooks are usually a size 18 B511 to a 0.07 bottom and a 0.12 mainline to add a bit of security and stiffness to the rig. I have found on many occasions that laying the shot in upstream, letting the float cock correctly and then lifting 2 float lengths out of the water will often give you bite after bite. The key with this is to make sure that you have been feeding hemp since the start of the match, give it a couple of hours then have a look on this rig. If it doesn't go under then wait another 30 minutes and try again.

There is a very brief look at how I fish bread on larger waters, again I am sorry that there are no illustrations but they may follow when I get to somewhere with slightly better WiFi.  

My way with bread, part 2, canals

In the first part I spoke about how I prepared my feed and hookbait for a match, that bait would be the same for any venue, with a few tweaks, however, in this part I intend to explain how I would use it on a small canal such as the Kennet and Avon or Staffs and Worcs.
Firstly we need to look at why I think that bread works so well and when to use it, well the answer to that is easy. I believe that canal fish on the smaller canals will usually see bread in some form or another whenever they come into contact with humans, so they recognise it as a food source from a young age.

 I also believe that is colour also plays a massive part of its success as in clear or coloured water it should be slightly visible as it contrasts well. To that end I would use bread all year round on any canal in the country in one form or another. In the winter I tend to fish it down the track in the deepest water where in the clear water it can be devastating on its day, in the summer I look for two lines. The first will be on a short pole line just out of the centre track of the canal, 4 feet of depth has seemed to be the magic place for a few years now, the other is in my far bank scare line. What I mean by this is when the boat traffic is particuarily bad you may need to fish tight across in the very shallow water of around a foot deep, when this happens I have found bread to be the best bait at extracting the better roach and skimmers from their weedy retreat.

I will look at both times of year in turn starting with the winter, usually the water is cold and clear and on occasion the fish will not want to feed on hi food content baits such as worm, pinkie or groundbait. This is when feeding a small ball of bread into the track of the canal and then presenting a static 4mm punch at a fishes eye height (2-4 inches)t can be deadly. On days such as this I would err to the side of caution and feed a ball of the 2mm feed bread about the size of a golf ball, this would also have a small amount of loose bread also put into the cup to create a small cloud to hopefully pull the fish in quicker. 

Over the top of this I would set up two rigs, the first would be a 0.6-0.8g pencil float on 0.12 mm mainline with a 0.08 bottom terminated to a size 20 Kamasan B511. I would use number 5 elastic through three sections set pingy. The other would be a lighter rig with a 0.07 mm bottom, finer bristle and more strung shotting pattern, this would be rigged on No3 through sections to land anything eventually. I would start on the begging rig for at least 20 minutes before scaling down onto my lighter rig, and even then if I caught more that 3 fish on the bounce I would be straight back onto the bagging rig as it allows you to land fish quicker, bomb the bait to them quicker and swing more to hand. A quick side note on the rigs, I have found in the past that roach especially will have one depth at which they are happy to feed on a given day, sometimes this is dead depth or sometimes it could be half depth. I try to use the light rig to explore the depths if I am struggling for a bite and then I can set my bagging rig to that approximate depth and hopefully catch quicker by bombing the bait to the fishes eye line. What I am trying to say is that even in very clear water the roach are usually quite happy to eat a piece of bread suspended at one depth as opposed to following the bait on the drop and taking it at the bottom of the fall . If however bites are still hard to come by then twitching the bait can sometimes spark a response, as you move the bait into the fishes eye line. 

In summer my approach to the inside line would only change with regards to the depth and the amount I would feed at the start, both of these are directly affected by the amount of boat traffic and resultant colour found in the canal. What I mean by this is that with the increased colour the fish should be willing to venture slightly closer in and this means that a line just on the anglers side of the boat channel can sometimes be a great place to start a match before the boats get too busy and force the fish across the canal. I would feed the inside line with an orange sized ball of liquidized bread with some hemp and loose bread added, the hemp to provide some feed even after lock movement and the loose again to provide an attractive cloud. Then feed my other lines before coming straight back onto the bread, in the winter I would be willing to wait an hour for an indication on a bread line and still expect a good day as when they arrive it is usually in numbers. In summer, however, if I had not caught a fish after 20 minutes I would abandon the line and move across the canal to my groundbait or worm lines.

 There is an exception to this, as I eluded to earlier and if the boat traffic was quite busy or there had been a prolonged spell of boats in my swim then I would ship a rig tight over to the far bank foliage with a kinder cup of liquidised bread and a 5mm punch and I would fish right tight across for fish sheltering from the disturbance of the boats. The rig is very simple, a short 4X10 float with a visible bristle, (Carpa F1's are quite good) rigged on 0.12mm mainline with a short hooklength and a bigish hook (20-18), I would use a bulk and 1 dropper to reduce tangles on the way out as you may only have seconds in between boats. I would have it set also on number 2 elastic, this is very important as it prevents fish from splashing on the surface as you hit the bite and reduces hook pulls as you may have to ship back at speed.

 So there you have it, a quick look at how I would fish bread on a small canal, this is not the be all and end all of canal fishing though and on many an occasion the inside line has failed to kick off quickly enough and I have discovered that on that day the fish are over my groundbait or worm lines. All you have to do now is put it into practice, please comment if you find it does ( or doesn't) work for you.