Shearwater in the Angling Times

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4 Way Challenge, 18/3/15

This started the day before the match with the team selection and practice day, we all met up at the fishery’s café and the banter was in full flow very early in the morning, for the day I was sat on peg 4 of new lake, this gave me an island at 10m in front and fortunately no-one pegged to my right, I thought I was in for a good day.  I plumbed up at 3ft of water towards the far bank (a la Ringer) to fish pellet, I plumbed up a 5m line to fish caster or maggot down the track, a margin line towards the platform to my right and a method rod just in case.  I had Pez sat to my left and we decided to go a quid just for a giggle

I started off on 4mm expander pellet over 4mm pellet across and loose fed maggot on the 5m line and in the first hour I got to watch Pez have a few decent F1’s to my 1 ide and tiny f1 on pellet, I had an early look down the edge and was rewarded with 2 decent f1’s on corn but I was going nowhere fast. Again across for not a lot and Pez was still catching the odd fish so I went for a walk to the van to cut some meat to try out. 

As I got back to my peg the time was about half 2 and we had 2 hours left of  the practice match so I started kinder cupping hemp, meat and corn down the edge and feeding caster on the track line. I managed a couple of fish in quick order on meat but they soon backed off so I potted in some more hemp corn and meat and then went out onto the track line where I had a couple of ide and a couple of better f1’s.  This was how I worked it until the end then trying to get a couple of fish from each line and then rotating but it was never really good but I had a few.

We did the team brief as we walked around and it was obvious that even though we had loads of room each the fish had not really been having it, I think that Kev had top weight with about 70lb from extension pool but the important match saw Pez weigh in 20kg and I managed 16Kg ish. So Pez took the quid off me without gloating and handed it straight to Kev.

The guys went out for a curry when we got back but I was already feeling a bit peeky and had no money so I decided on an early night, come the morning I was feeling better but with a foggy start and traffic on the way to the fishery Grant and I decided to bug out and get an early breakfast on the way. Subway was the restaurant of choice and we were soon joined by Kev and Pez so general mickey taking was again soon in full swing.  Once at the fishery it was time to pay my pools for the day to Grant and then I took a gamble and moved my van so that I could un load it next to Extension lake, Gaz was running a little late so a small flap occurred when he turned up to get bait to everyone, I also ‘borrowed’ quarter of a pint of micros off Gus, just in case.

It turned out that I was on the Fosters Team Army A team, and that Gaz had drawn me Extension 29, this meant nothing to me until I was informed that Grant and Jas had been sat on either side of it the day before and that they had both struggled, but that was yesterday.

I had Craig to my right on peg 30 for company and 28 was blank to my left, this was handy as the point of the island in the picture had around 4 people aiming at it, so I decided to set up a pellet line at 3ft off to the left hand side of the swim. I also plumbed up a 2+2 line at exactly 5ft and then found an area with slightly less silt by feeling the plummet around, it was hard to find anywhere better so in the end I settled on a slightly flatter area with a good reflection to aim at. There was a culvert between Craig and myself that we both plumbed up into (wish I had taken a photo of that), and that was about 3ft deep and finally I plumbed up another line for the margin rig to the left of the swim.  Bait was 2mm, 4mm pellet, caster, maggot, corn, hemp, meat and a little groundbait so all bases were covered and Craig and myself went a quid before the all in as we were in the same section and it would have been rude not to.

On the all in I was trying mainly to prepare the swim for the last couple of hours as due to the high pressure, East wind and foggy morning I didn’t think that a lot would happen for a while, so imagine my surprise when Craig shipped out and came back with a decent F1 within 4 minutes and this was followed by 4 more in the first 40 minutes, in this time all I managed was a stocky and a lost looking F1!! I was starting to panic a little so had a quick look on my left hand margin where I had been loose feeding maggot, and this gave me 1 roach before going dead, oops!

Craig had been catching in fits and starts on his long line and the guy to his right was catching a few down his edges, after 3 hours I had managed 4 f1’s (1 from the culvert), a couple of roach and a couple of stocky carp so I was in big trouble. It was at this point when I was looking around that I noticed a guy 4 pegs up to my left catch 2 fish shallow on the bounce and as I looked to my right in front of Craig and the guy on 31 there must have been 300lb of F1’s basking in the surface layers. With nothing to lose I got off my box and pulled out a new top kit loaded with double No.5 elastic and attached a shallow rig, I put on a new hooklength with a 16 911 F1 to 0.10mm line baited it with double red maggot and shipped it out to my long pole line, I loose fed 10 or so casters over the top and the elastic came out as a decent F1 fell for the trap. I had 3 more quickly before I decided that I could catch them quicker, I swapped the elastic up to a Vespe Pink Hollow elastic and swapped the rig to a MW pea with a 0.12mm hooklength and a size 16 B911.  I shipped this out and slapped away loose feeding caster over the top and the rest was history. By stepping up I could hook the fish, feed then just ship back and scoop it without worrying about hook pulls or breakages. I pulled out of 1 fish in the last 2 hours and changed the hooklength straight away to prevent it happening twice (now there’s a top tip), this saw me land 20 F1’s in the last 90 minutes and they were not easy by any stretch of the imagination as I had to constantly alter depth and where in the swim I was fishing to keep the fish coming. Some came to slapping, some came on the dangle, some came to lowering the rig through tight loose feed, you get the picture.  The all out was called as I was desperately trying to land a fish to go out and get another and it was going to be close between myself and the guy on peg 31 as he had a good couple of hours in the middle of the match but fortunately he never saw the fish in front of him so he never went shallow, Craig gave shallow a go but couldn't make it work which again was another good thing for me.

As the scales came round it turned out that my section went around from me being the end peg and then the other 5 pegs to my right, Craig weighed first due to the direction of the scales with a mid 30lb weight then I put 68lb on them so that was the quid won, all I had to do was beat the other 4 anglers in my section who would be the last 4 to weigh. I needn't have worried as peg 31 put a mid 50lb weight onto the scales and this saw me win the section and come 2^nd in the match behind a 77lb net of shallow caught F1’s ( the guy 4 up to my left).

We were all totting up score in our heads and Gaz was pretty confident that we had done it as we had 4 section wins, 2 seconds a third and a fifth/sixth. Back in on the results and the top 3 were:

1 Army A

2 Navy (on count-back or weight can’t remember which)

3 RAF

The highlight of the results for many was when I questioned the results but it turned out that even though I was second overall I didn't receive a pay-out as I ‘forgot’ to pay into the super pools and that was that really, team photo was taken, well-done and goodbyes were said and then it was back on the road and back to the grind in London.

What would I have done different?

Not a lot really:

I am still learning on F1 fishing and all the literature out there was a good starter before I got there but I must keep reminding myself that fish don’t always play to your set plan.

I need to work on my margin fishing more as I feel as though I would have been better off fishing for carp like I normally do rather than fannying around down the edge looking for F1’s.

After the matches I had a good long hard look at the tackle I was using so be prepared to see a change in floats soon due to several reasons. 

AAF Gp2 Match 5, K&A canal, Bishops Cannings.

Firstly sorry for the delay in getting this out but here it is, once again I was pegging this match, something to do with the venue being 6 minutes from my house at the moment, so it was a late night drive from London to Devizes followed by an early start to get the stretch sorted for the day.  My only brief was make sure everyone had plenty of room so I will be honest I spent more time pacing than I did looking at the far bank for nice swims. Even so we were well spread out with a section either side of the swing bridge and a section towards Devizes from the Bridge inn.

I got the pegging done in record time and managed to have my breakfast relatively un disturbed I collected my bait and enjoyed a bit of banter before getting called forward to draw for the team. The draw put Ben on A6 (not the worst), Daz on B11 (reasonable) and myself on C5, this was an unknown stretch as I had never fished it and to make matters worse two pegs to my right I had Kev (ex Army team captain and current member), then Dave (Ex Army Team Captain) and on my left Mick (Army team member). We all went a quid with each other and within minutes I had the first complaint about the pegging, Ok I didn’t know that there was a water point in front of C3, but Kev did and he soon pointed it out as the first boat of the day parked up.  Then Dave pointed out that he was sat in the middle of a boat and couldn’t easily reach the end, then Mick walked past suffering from the night before to see his mate in the next section. My peg looked alright though:

Apart from all the scum and rubbish that was floating around and getting pushed about by the wind it looked alright, I plumbed up a short bread line and then two rigs to fish in the gap across, one with pellet the other with worm, finally I set up a rig to fish groundbait against the left hand boat.

I was ready well before the start but was not too confident as the canal was a funny colour so I was hoping for a couple of big bonus fish hence the pellets going in at the all in.  I fed a small ball of bread at 2+1, 3 balls of groundbait on my 11.5m groundbait line and then 10 worms against the left boat and a few 2 and 4mm pellet against the right boat.

I dropped my standard 0.6g bread rig in  close and started to wait, fortunately it didn’t take too long and within the first hour I had 20 fish for about a kilo and a half, including a couple of chunky hybrids, I had also lost a hybrid of about a pound but I wasn’t’ geared up for them to be fair.  The second hour slowed considerably but at the end I had around 40 fish for 2 kilo, it was at this point that I had to start looking on the groundbait line as the bread line died, I had even started another line to the left down the tow but as it was running in the wrong direction I was not confident.

The groundbait line was slow with a roach and small perch to show, the pellet gave me nothing and the worm line was equally bad, I decided to start a new line against the right hand boat and fish bread.  It worked although it was slow, and in the last hour I also managed another chunky roach off the original bread line and two small perch on the worm line, I also bumped a skimmer on the groundbait line so that was the end of that line and the all out was a sound for sore ears.

Kev had managed a few fish in between the boats, Dave had had a struggle and Mick managed a pound skimmer and then went for a snooze in my van as he was well under the weather, As it turned out in our 4 way match I managed 2.78kg, Kev 1.83kg, Dave 0.91 and mick had 0.88 but a good snooze (so I won the quid off each of them). This was also enough for second in section for me and 4^th in the match, I was beaten by 3 bream weights, Dave Docs won my section and the match with 3.8kg including 10 skimmers so I was regretting the lost hybrid and also bumping the fish on my groundbait line.

The boys did good with Ben getting 6 points and Daz 3 so we ended up 2^nd on the day behind Nomads A but we have put 10 points between ourselves and Blandford and are nipping on the heels of Nomads above us in the league. It is all change onto commercials with the 4 Way Challenge coming up on Tunnel Barn Farm and the group matches moving to Todber and the like, I am also chasing big carp at the moment, my latest big carp exploits can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-3QR8Y7uY.

What would I do different

1.       I would like to think that if I drew there again I would set up a second bread rig with a different type of float and a soft hollow elastic just for the skimmers and hybrids, rather than making do with my bagging roach rig.

2.       I would also bin off the pellet across and fish the groundbait lines between the boats and fish 2 worm lines down the track on each side.

3.       Forget Dendys it’s all about the lobs.

AAF Gp2 Match 4, Bristol Avon, 18/2/15

I was in charge of pegging this match as I know the stretch quite well, so it was a 0500 start for me and then a long walk along the whole match stretch, fortunately I had done a recce at the weekend so I knew roughly what pegs I would be putting in and that mnade the whole process a lot simpler.

I arrived at the draw venue in good time to find it still shut so it was a case of getting my bait for the day off Dave and then finding a coffee in Café Nero.  Whilst I was waiting in the queue the rest of the lads descended upon the hapless staff who were after a quiet morning.  I explained the pegging and we did the draw in the café as Wetherspoons had let us down, I ended up on A9 on the shallows then Ben was along the dead stretch and Daz along the line of trees so it wasn’t a great draw but I was hopeful especially after all the time had spent on the run up on the river.

As I drove from the draw venue my van started to make a funny noise of the rear end and I knew I had a problem, but as always I drove on to the car parking before checking it out. There was a large bolt sticking out my rear tyre so since it wasn’t life threatening I got my gear out of the van and went to my peg.

This was my view for most of the day as the swim is 2 ½ feet deep and on this occasion it was quite heavily coloured there was only 4-6 inches visibility so this was not ideal for the wag which is how I would have liked to approach the venue.

Tactics for the day though were a 3m whip for minnows and gudgeon over groundbait, I still set up a 2 swan truncheon wag to fish over depth ¾ of the way across, a maggot feeder and finally a lonk ledger to fish bread for the first ten minutes as I saw a chub or barbel roll in my swim as I was setting up.

So at the all in I fed a small ball of groundbait at 3m, and cast out the link ledger, I then got to watch Carl on the next peg bosh in 10 balls of groundbait, so that was most of the big fish spooked for a while, but I started to feed the wagler anyway.

After two hours nothing had happened so I phoned Pez up to moan about how hard the river was fishing, and I only went and moaned a pound and a half chub on, I followed this up with about 10 minnows on the whip and then a couple of hours later in the space of three casts on the tip I missed a bite, lost a trout and landed a 1lb chub. (All whilst moaning on the phone)

That was then end of my action and my 2 chub and 10 minnows were 1.39kg and enough for 2^nd in section and 3^rd in the match. The team came second which was a great result, considering the draw, and we are now within striking distance of the Nomads.  K&A in a couple of weeks but I am working away so cannot practice.

Thanks to the guys who helped me change my wheel and thanks to wilts council!!!!!!

What would I do different?

1.       I would have liked some pellet to try on the tip for the first hour.

2.       Other than that it was a good day, perhaps I should have not bothered with the wag but by loose feeding I felt as though I was pulling fish up from downstream of me.

A Couple of cheeky practices

With the next group match happening on a stretch of river that I hold dear to my heart, well I had my first barbel, river carp and 30lb river bag from the stretches around Chippenham so I know them quite well. It was because of this that we decided that I should try and get the team down there as many times as possible on the run up to the event.

My first trip saw me sat along riverside drive in some truly horrendous conditions and I ended up finding a swim on the back of the wind and fishing a stick float taking about 5lb of half decent roach and some dace. I was using a 6Xno4 lignum stick in the 5 foot swim and found that the fish were not that line shy so I could get away with a 0.1mm hooklength which is always handy when there are a few chub and perch about.  I also found that having a no.12 split shot halfway along the hooklength improved bite registration no end and caught me more fish. This session was cut short by work phoning and me having to go back in to sign some paperwork, I wasn’t best impressed.

The next session saw me going to Melksham as I had a ticket for this stretch and it fishes similarly, again a lignum stick was my weapon of choice and I shotted it with over 20 strung no.8 shot, I struggled this time due to my choice of swim and it deepened off before shallowing up and this caused dramas on finding the feeding fish, it was also quite snaggy and this cost me a few hooklengths, I also tried the link ledger but the swim was far too snaggy for it to work and it just frustrated me more.  I still managed a few chublet, bleak and a couple of nice roach, but don’t try to swing everthing to hand!!

The next session was a week later and I took  Jim along Monkton park to help him get to grips with the waggler, Jim set up the waggler and I set up the kitchen sink on the next peg up.

Jim had a nice day catching quality fish on the wag, I had a swim fill of tiny chub and struggled to put any fish together, I tried the feeder, Bolo, stick wag and ink ledger, caught on them all for 2.5kg.

My bag

Jims Brilliant net

Jim had 5kg + all on the wag and learnt a lot.

What would I do different?

Find out after the next group match.

AAF Gp2 Match 3, Witherington Farm (Silvers only)

My prep for this match was mainly based around tying a few hooklengths and mixing some groundbait for myself and a couple of other members of the team, I had also spent some time chatting to a few of the guys about tactics that would work on the lakes that we were using for the match.  I turned up in good time, picked up my bait, ate my cracking breakfast and then sat chatting with a few of the lads, we sorted bait and I even got pinged by Kev to help with the boards as due to the numbers we had some creative pegging over 4 sections. I was drawn peg 3 on Selwood and as I was sat in the café I was well happy as I had assumed that they would have done the same pegging as for the teams of 4.

Unfortunately I couldn’t have been much more wrong and I had Pete to my left on perm peg 2:

Rocky to my right on perm peg 4:

And no-one in the far corner:

So with the three of us aiming for the same water any further out than 16m the duel began, I decided to fish a small groundbait feeder at about 18m, checking with the both of them if they were happy that I cast there, then a 13m pole line towards my left and I put in a throwaway line on a top 2+1 where I found a little bit of depth.  I had a small moan (well it lasted all day near enough) went to the café for a brew and then returned to settle down for the all-in.

I fed 3 small balls of groundbait with 20 dead reds and about the same of caster on the 13m line and then cast out the feeder, not a lot happened for the first hour but then Rocky managed a couple of small skimmers on the wag over so I got off my box and set up a 2AA Dave Harrell sensilite waggler to fish over the groundbait line.  This had an instant response and I nicked two quick fish and then it died, as I expected, a quick look on the long pole saw me loose a pound perch (I may have swore and thrown my top kit away!! Ok I did!) So I chucked the tip out again more in hope than expecting anything.

The stopwatch was set for 10 minutes but I needed have worried as I had a couple of indications then a skimmer of about a pound followed by another.  Again a quiet period and then another couple of fish later in the day was enough to raise my interest level by a notch but another lap around my lines was fruitless and I packed everything up apart from the tip before the end.  Somehow I missed 4 or 5 proper wrap rounds on a single dead red on a Kammy 911(f1) size 18, I swapped up to a 16 but received no indications grrr.

The scales showed that Bri with acres of room on perm peg 10 had 8 kilos for the section and match, Ivan on perm peg 16 had 2^nd with 6 kilos and he had fished a tidy match, then it was Pete to my left and Rocky to my right, then Gaz on PP1 and myself with 1.970kg, that perch cost me dear as it would have got me 2 more points but being hemmed in was the worst as I am sure that as I was casting the waggler three turns beyond it was well in front of Pete.

The team came 4^th on the day as Daz carried Ben and myself, I would like to say that I enjoyed it but I cannot, it was a nice day out with a great bunch of blokes and the banter was great but I cannot seem to switch of when it is a match and enjoy it when it isn’t going my way.

Thanks anyway to Kev and his team for organising the day, I know how hard it is.

Coming up I have no matches until middle of next month so I can try to get rid of some gremlins before then, I foresee a rematch with some Cotswold Carp and I will be taking the Azi Anglers out and about as well.

What would I do different?

1.       Practice the venue

2.       I think that the feeder was the right tactic but after the first dropped indication I should have set up a method or scoop feeder to see if that was any better on the hooking front.

3.       Stick to non-silvers only matches.

Carping on the canal again

Carp on the canal 3

Please follow the link above to a short video of my latest exploits on the canal.

It was a good day.