I haven’t had time to do a blog lately so this is a double.
Although there isn’t much to write about on the first match down Monks Lake 1 and it was a disaster.
I pulled out peg 29 and because the weather was poor I had decided that the maggot waggler was going to be the killer method and catch me enough to win the section. I didn’t even think of a plan B I was so confident it would work although I was going to lose feed a pole line as backup!
So I set up the waggler rig with a 3aaa peacock insert shotted with 3 number 8s down the line set to just drag the bottom, on the end was a size 16 Kamasan 611 to a 0.12 trace. I also set up a shallow and deep rig to fish out in front. The shallow rig can double as a margin rig too cos I was feeling lazy and couldn’t be bothered to set one up.
I guess my lack of preparation, thought and cowboy approach to this match cost me. I blew the whistle to start and kicked off on the waggler, feeding maggots little and often I had 3 carp quite quickly and not a lot was coming out, I was just thinking to myself this will be easy, 50-60lb win the section, then go away with 5 points. At this point the waggler died and I was struggling. Not a good start!
I switched to the pole and that again produced nothing but the odd fish. To cut a long story short I alternated between the pole shallow and waggler for the rest of the match picking up the odd fish and ended up with just 20 carp and some other small stuff. I put 29lb on the scales for a 3rd in section so paid the price.
Lucky for me all the section winners from the week before dropped points too so it left me 3rd overall in the league.
Result below
1 Collin Wood 60-12 Peg 23
2 Nick Allen 59-7 Peg 36
3 Dennis Price 57-14 Peg 22
4 Rusty 57-00 peg 16
5 Russ Evans 53-10 peg 24
6 Squeaky (guest) 51-0 peg 31
League Placing
1 Ian Carley, 5-4, 124-8 9
2 Matt Love, 5-4, 107-1 9
3 Nick Gilbert, 5-3, 133-13 8
4 Collin Wood, 3-5, 110-9 8
5 Dennis Price, 4-4, 105-1 8
6 Nick Allen, 3-5, 103-1 8
7 Jonny Watt, 5-3, 95-5 8
8 Mark Hathway 4-4, 69-15 8
9 Russ Evans, 4-3, 104-3 7
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3, 82-14 7
11 Russell Graves, 0-5, 57-0 5
12 Paul Kell, 0-5, 44-4 5
13 Pete Allen 2-2 63-11 4
14 John Haige 2-2 33-1 4
15 Chris Jones 3-1 27-6 4
16 Brian Pink 2-2 19-15 4
17 Trevor Little 2-1 81-6 3
18 Paul Slater 3-0 39-7 3
19 Al Loader 0- 11-10 2
So on to round 3
This round was on Monks lake 2 and I needed a section win or I would have no chance of staying in contention for the title. Looking at the table with Matt Love not fishing this week I needed the leader Ian Carley in my section but more importantly I had to win it with a good weight so I could then move back to the top of the table.
The drawing god was with me today and I ended up on peg 49 and Ian was in my section on peg 51. So now all I need to do was win it with a good weight to move into first place again, easy !
The weather had been good in the run up to the day with the air pressure high so there was only one tactic I was thinking off, yes you guessed it fishing shallow with pellet. The problem though was the cross wind, it was very strong and fishing beyond 9 meters would be a problem, as it was about 7 foot deep so balling in to draw fish close was out of the question cos I thought it was a little too deep. I was going to have to lose feed them in meaning it may be a bit slow to start.
I set up two shallow rigs for the day both had Drennan Carp 4 dibbers, 0.14mm traces with a 14 Drennan carp hook. One had a short line and the other long so I could use the two to fish anything from 3ft to 1ft deep, one of these could also be used down the margin. I also set up two on the deck rigs one to fish out in front at around 5 meters at the bottom of the shelf the other to fish at about 8 meters where it was slightly deeper. All of these were set up with a doubled Preston 6 Slip elastic.
Bait for the day was plenty of 6mm hard carp pellets with a few 8mm for change bait. I had some maggot and expanders too but didn’t expect to use many.
I blew the whistle to start and fed the 5 meter line with a few pellets and a small ball of groundbait and went straight out on it with a 6mm expander. It wasn’t long before I started to get a few bites and had my first small carp after about 10 minutes. Things were a bit slow and I had nothing else for the next 10 minutes! I was growing inpatient by this time and was feeding at about 8 meters with pellet about 6-8 every 10 seconds. I went out with the 3ft deep rig over the top and a few minutes later was into a decent F1 of about 2lb.
At this point could bore you with a fish by fish account of the action but to be honest all I did for the rest of the match was keep the feed going in and eventually fed the fish up to a foot deep and caught slow but steady the whole match.
I may have oversimplified things with the last sentence because of the savage cross wind hampering feeding and I had to constantly change the frequency and amount fed and the way I worked the bait to keep bites coming. I also had look on the deck if things got slow shallow to pick up the odd fish too.
I ended up with 67 carp and a few small fish at the end and I guessed they would go the best part of 90lb. I doubt it was enough to win the match but it was looking good for the section win.
It turned out my fish went 107lb which was a bit of a surprise; this put me 4th overall and gave me the section win I needed.
Result below.
1 Paul Kell Peg 45 143-10
2 Russ Evans Peg 56 123-5
3 Dennis Price Peg 68 111-9
4 Nick Gilbert Peg 49 107-4
5 Russell Graves Peg 74 96-10
6 Al Loader Peg 46 91-10
Peg Rundown
54 N Costar 68-4
52 C Jones 43-8
51 I Carley 80-6
49 N Gilbert 107-4
48 N Allen 66-3
46 A Loader 91-10
45 Pl Kell 143-10
56 R Evans 123-5
57 K Driscoll 83-13
59 J Haigh 73-14
60 B Pink 20-0
62 P Slater 32-9
63 J Driscoll 48-8
65 M Hathway 74-12
66 C Wood 89-6
68 D Price 111-9
70 J Watt 71-8
72 P Allen 69-15
74 R Graves 96-10
76 T Little 89-11
League Placing
1 Nick Gilbert, 5-3-5, 241-1 13
2 Dennis Price, 4-4-5, 216-10 13
3 Ian Carley, 5-4-4, 204-15 13
4 Collin Wood, 3-5-5, 199-15 13
5 Mark Hathway 4-4-4, 144-11 12
6 Russ Evans, 4-3-4, 227-8 11
7 Nick Allen, 3-5-3, 169-4 11
8 Jonny Watt, 5-3-3 166-13 11
9 Paul Kell, 0-5-5, 187-14 10
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3-3 131-6 10
11 Russell Graves, 0-5-4, 153-10 9
12 Matt Love, 5-4-0, 107-1 9
13 Trevor Little 2-1-3, 171-1 6
14 John Haige 2-2-2, 106-15 6
15 Chris Jones 3-1-2, 70-14 6
16 Pete Allen 2-2-1, 133-10 5
19 Al Loader 0-2-3 103-4 5
18 Paul Slater 3-0-2 72-0 5
19 Brian Pink 2-2-1 39-15 5
For a bit of fun the Weight League
1 Nick Gilbert 241-1
2 Russ Evans 227-8
3 Dennis Price 216-10
4 Ian Carley 204-15
5 Collin Wood 199-15
6 Paul Kell 187-14
7 Trevor Little 171-1
8 Nick Allen 169-4
9 Jonny Watt 166-13
10 Russel Graves 153-10
11 Mark Hathway 133-10
12 Pete Allen 133-10
13 Jeff Driscoll 131-6
14 Matt Love 107-1
15 John Haige 106-15
16 Al Loader 103-4
17 Paul Slater 72-0
18 Chris Jones 70-14
19 Brian Pink 39-15
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
GOT Baits ISK League 2009 Round 1
Today I am fishing the first round on the league I am running, I haven’t fished a match since last December so had to blow the cobwebs off all my match gear!
The venue for the first round is Hartleylands in Kent and the match was to be split between 2 lakes Bramley and Pear Tree. For those that have never read the blog before the lakes hold a good number of carp most in the 12oz to 3lb range with a few bigger fish mixed in.
At the draw there were a few from last year and a few new faces and it was set to be a good match and although only 20 are fishing each round there will be no easy point to be had and a good start will be essential, as will be a good weights as this may come into play at the end if there is a tie on points.
As always when running a match I got Trevor Little to pull out my peg and I was not disappointed when peg 4 on Pear Tree come out, it was close to the end of the island near to the gap in the middle of the lake. The peg is not the shortest chuck to the island but with the light wind coming from an angle from behind feeding on the waggler was not going to be a problem.
Arriving at the peg I had pretty much made my mind up the waggle shallow was going to work even though the weather was not that warm, so plenty of 6mm pellets were in the carryall, along with some expanders, corn and some mixed maggots as backup in case it was hard and I ended up fishing on the deck! I also had some method goundbait mixed up too but didn’t expect to use it.
Two 11ft Preston waggler rods were set up with my own 6aaa Styro Wags, one set to just over 2ft and the other 1ft. A 10ft Shakey Match 3 feeder rod to fish bomb and pellet, this had a 12 in hook length. The pole was also set up with two shallow dibber rigs set at 1 and 2ft, a on the deck rig using my own Diamond float, and a margin rig again using one of my floats plumed up to fish down each margin at about 6 meters.
So all the gear was set up and I was ready for the off, or I thought it was. I blew the whistle for the start and used a large pot of pellets to feed 4 pole lines, 2 margins and 2 in front in case the wag didn’t work. Just after doing this I realized the landing net wasn’t set up! So a big pouch full of 6mm pellet was sent toward the island while I set up the net. 3-4 more were sent out and I was eventually ready to cast. Out went the 2ft deep rig and I immediately had a bite. A small carp was hooked and bumped. A couple of casts later another was in the landing net.
Feeding frequently I was straight away putting a good run of fish together. They were around the 2ft mark to start but soon I was fishing 12in deep rig as the carp rise up in the water to the feed. With an hour gone I had 19 in the net. All the while I had been feeding at about 11 meters pellets little and often to see if I can get the carp within pole range. So I went out with the 2ft deep shallow rig to have a look and also rest the waggler line as things had slowed up. I stepped up the feeding to every 10-15 seconds while dropping the rig in. on about the 4th go the float dipped and a fish was on. It took a few minutes to land but turned out to be about 4-5lb so a good bonus. Another five minutes on the pole with no other bites and it was out again with the waggler.
The rest on the line worked well and it was solid, I had about 10 fish one after the other. Another 10 followed but not quite so quickly and with about 2 hours and 15 minutes I had 40. Time to rest the waggler again so it was out with the shallow pole. Same thing happened as before and this time I had two carp quickly and then nothing! I continued to pick off the odd fish on the waggler but it had slowed up a little with 1 hour 30 minutes to go I was putting carp 50 in the net. I also had a quick look down the margins both sided that I had been feeding and this produced one carp of about 2lb.
By this time the waggler had died on me, a quick look on the pole shallow also produced nothing so a re thinks of tactic was needed. I figured I had fed it a bit heavy on the waggler and driven the fish to feed on the deck. So the bomb rod was quickly baited up with a 8mm pellet and cast out to where I was feeding. My suspicions were right and the rod banged round with the first of 18 carp to be caught almost one a bung in the remaining hour and a bit left in the match. This saw me with 79 carp at the end and I guessed I had 90-100lb.
It turned out I ended up with 103lb for quite a convincing win and a good start to the season.
Full result and league places below.
1 Nick Gilbert 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
League Placing
1 Nick Gilbert 5 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
7 Dennis Price 4 47-3
8 Mark Hathway 4 44-8
9 Collin Wood 3 49-13
10 Nick Allen 3 43-10
11 Paul Slater 3 39-7
12 Chris Jones 3 16-14
13 Trevor Little 2 48-8
14 Pete Allen 2 23-3
15 John Haige 2 19-5
16 Brian Pink 2 9-11
17 Rusty (on Holiday) 0
18 Alan Loader (forgot about the match!) 0
19 Pauk Kell (forgot about the match!) 0
The venue for the first round is Hartleylands in Kent and the match was to be split between 2 lakes Bramley and Pear Tree. For those that have never read the blog before the lakes hold a good number of carp most in the 12oz to 3lb range with a few bigger fish mixed in.
At the draw there were a few from last year and a few new faces and it was set to be a good match and although only 20 are fishing each round there will be no easy point to be had and a good start will be essential, as will be a good weights as this may come into play at the end if there is a tie on points.
As always when running a match I got Trevor Little to pull out my peg and I was not disappointed when peg 4 on Pear Tree come out, it was close to the end of the island near to the gap in the middle of the lake. The peg is not the shortest chuck to the island but with the light wind coming from an angle from behind feeding on the waggler was not going to be a problem.
Arriving at the peg I had pretty much made my mind up the waggle shallow was going to work even though the weather was not that warm, so plenty of 6mm pellets were in the carryall, along with some expanders, corn and some mixed maggots as backup in case it was hard and I ended up fishing on the deck! I also had some method goundbait mixed up too but didn’t expect to use it.
Two 11ft Preston waggler rods were set up with my own 6aaa Styro Wags, one set to just over 2ft and the other 1ft. A 10ft Shakey Match 3 feeder rod to fish bomb and pellet, this had a 12 in hook length. The pole was also set up with two shallow dibber rigs set at 1 and 2ft, a on the deck rig using my own Diamond float, and a margin rig again using one of my floats plumed up to fish down each margin at about 6 meters.
So all the gear was set up and I was ready for the off, or I thought it was. I blew the whistle for the start and used a large pot of pellets to feed 4 pole lines, 2 margins and 2 in front in case the wag didn’t work. Just after doing this I realized the landing net wasn’t set up! So a big pouch full of 6mm pellet was sent toward the island while I set up the net. 3-4 more were sent out and I was eventually ready to cast. Out went the 2ft deep rig and I immediately had a bite. A small carp was hooked and bumped. A couple of casts later another was in the landing net.
Feeding frequently I was straight away putting a good run of fish together. They were around the 2ft mark to start but soon I was fishing 12in deep rig as the carp rise up in the water to the feed. With an hour gone I had 19 in the net. All the while I had been feeding at about 11 meters pellets little and often to see if I can get the carp within pole range. So I went out with the 2ft deep shallow rig to have a look and also rest the waggler line as things had slowed up. I stepped up the feeding to every 10-15 seconds while dropping the rig in. on about the 4th go the float dipped and a fish was on. It took a few minutes to land but turned out to be about 4-5lb so a good bonus. Another five minutes on the pole with no other bites and it was out again with the waggler.
The rest on the line worked well and it was solid, I had about 10 fish one after the other. Another 10 followed but not quite so quickly and with about 2 hours and 15 minutes I had 40. Time to rest the waggler again so it was out with the shallow pole. Same thing happened as before and this time I had two carp quickly and then nothing! I continued to pick off the odd fish on the waggler but it had slowed up a little with 1 hour 30 minutes to go I was putting carp 50 in the net. I also had a quick look down the margins both sided that I had been feeding and this produced one carp of about 2lb.
By this time the waggler had died on me, a quick look on the pole shallow also produced nothing so a re thinks of tactic was needed. I figured I had fed it a bit heavy on the waggler and driven the fish to feed on the deck. So the bomb rod was quickly baited up with a 8mm pellet and cast out to where I was feeding. My suspicions were right and the rod banged round with the first of 18 carp to be caught almost one a bung in the remaining hour and a bit left in the match. This saw me with 79 carp at the end and I guessed I had 90-100lb.
It turned out I ended up with 103lb for quite a convincing win and a good start to the season.
Full result and league places below.
1 Nick Gilbert 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
League Placing
1 Nick Gilbert 5 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
7 Dennis Price 4 47-3
8 Mark Hathway 4 44-8
9 Collin Wood 3 49-13
10 Nick Allen 3 43-10
11 Paul Slater 3 39-7
12 Chris Jones 3 16-14
13 Trevor Little 2 48-8
14 Pete Allen 2 23-3
15 John Haige 2 19-5
16 Brian Pink 2 9-11
17 Rusty (on Holiday) 0
18 Alan Loader (forgot about the match!) 0
19 Pauk Kell (forgot about the match!) 0
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Maggotdrowners Fur and Feather Match, Plus Some Small Stream Fishing.
Went down the river for a couple of hours last week. Mainly to test the efectivness of the doubled up elastic for mixed nets. Was hoping to hook a variety of sizes of fish. The swim I had in mind was perfect for the pole with a big swirling eddy on the far side that is always stuffed with fish
I arrived at about 1pm and set up the pole with a doubled up number 5 Preston Slip, attached a 1g carbo float and stuck on a 18 Drennan Barbless Silverfish Maggot hook to a 0.10 trace. shotting was 2 number 8 droppers and a bulk about 18 in from the hook.
It wasn't long before I was catching fish one a bung on white maggot, a mixture of dace, chub, roach, skimmers and a lone trout! I gave up at about 3.15pm and ended up feeding about a pint and a half of bait.
The doubled up elastic run very smooth and I hardly lost a fish all day. It quickly tamed a chub of about 2-3lb too.
I got some guy walking his dog to take a quick picture of the catch!
Maggotdrowners Fur and Feather Match.
Last weekend it was the annual fur and feather march of the Maggotdrowners forum. This year it was going to be held at Wylands on the Old Specimen Lake which was stuffed with roach. Due to the lake being frozen all week leading up to the event it was decided to be moved to House Lake near the café. Here the fishing was more mixed with skimmers, roach and hybreeds.
I woke up the morning of the match to find the weather was apauling! Strong wind and freezing rain greeted me. Knowing this was forcast all day I was travling light and used my small plastic seatbox which was loaded with about 10 pole rigs, some peacock wagglers, 1 reel, discorgers, a few plummits, a hook box and some shot, That was it. In the rod bag went the pole and my Milo New Era Powerlite rod, also a unbrela.
I picked up Matt on the way with his usal mountain of gear who told me he was traveling light! As we drove down the rain was still hammering down and the wind blowing. Things were looking quite grim.
We arrived and the usal suspects were at the tea hut which overlooks the lake, sheltering from the rain, Looking at the way the wind was blowing I was praying for a draw with it behind me. I got lucky and was on the bank near the café with the wind behind me. Matt on the other hand ended up on the other side of the lake with the wind in his face.
I had already decided on the tactics for the day which was going to be the pole around the 7-8 meter mark and the waggler out into open water. I was told the whip close in produced most match wins on the lake but due to the cold clear water I didn’t think you could hold the fish in close for the duration of the match so ruled it out. Bait for the day was simple I had 4 pints of mixed maggots, a pint of casters and a few soft pellets and corn.
Here is a picture of my swim from the Tea hut!
I managed to get the umbrella set up as a wind break behind me without it getting too much on the way and set up two pole rigs both with a doubled number 5 Preston slip elastic. One had a 0.6g Drennan Lake with a Olivet about 18 in from the hook and two number 10 droppers, 0.10 trace with a 18 Drennan Silverfish maggot hook. The other had the same hook and trace but a Carpa Chimp set to fish on the drop in about 4-5 foot of water. The waggler rig was pretty standard with a 3AAA peacock insert, three number 8 shot were spaced down the line about a foot apart starting 6in from the hook. This was plumbed up to fish a couple of inches over depth.
I was the allocated time keeper for the match so blew the whistle to start and kicked off on the waggler with maggot, the plan was to feed the pole line for a good hour before having a look to see what was there. The conditions were appalling! Rain and a strong swirling wind which was making feeding on the waggler a nightmare. Being so changeable it was difficult to be as accurate as I would have liked. Also casting the waggler was the same. Despite this I was soon getting a few bites and feeding a pouch full of maggot every minute of so I started to put a good number of small skimmers and roach in the net, letting the rig settle and twitching it through the feed was working well. For the first hour and a quarter I must have put a good 8lb in the net which considering the conditions I was quite pleased with. The only other person I could see catching a few was Mark a couple of pegs along, not as many but I noticed he was netting a few so can assume they are bigger than mine!
It was time to switch to the pole line that I had been feeding with caster and maggot, and have a look to see if I could catch any quicker. But continue to feed the waggler to keep the fish out there and searching for bait. First put in with double maggot on the Carpa Chimp rig produced an instant bite and a small roach was soon in the net. I had another but it didn’t seem that the rig was working as I would have liked so switched to the Drennan Lake with the Olivet as a bulk. This sat a lot better and again feeding about every 60 seconds I was catching steady and a slightly better stamp of fish including some hard fighting hybrids. I found dragging the rig from side to side through the feed was the best way to induce a bite.
Bites did eventually die on the pole and I felt I should really add a section and chase the fish out but by this time the weather was getting worse, the wind was stronger and the rain slightly heavier! My hands felt so cold I though sod it I really don’t want to hold the pole for any longer so it was out with the waggler again. At least I can keep my hands in front of me and out of the wind. As I had still been feeding it I was into fish straight away although a little smaller I was happy to just keep on putting fish in the net.
I did notice at this time there was a crowd gathering behind me at the tea hut, I was thinking they had gathered to watch my superb display of fishing prowess. But in reality they were sheltering from the freezing cold wind and rain!! Not one of them brought me down a cup of tea either!
I alternated between the pole and waggler for the rest of the match and apart from a bit of a dead spell in the 4th hour managed to keep a steady stream of mostly small fish in the net. I did in the last hour really start lashing the bait in on the waggler and the size of fish did increase and I picked up a few skimmers around the pound mark that were very welcome. I was glad when it was 3pm though and blew the whistle for the end.
My gear was drenched and I was glad I didn’t bring my large Milo box with all the gear and quickly packed up and got the scales for the weigh in.
As it turned out Marks bigger stamp of fish on the pole gave him enough to beat me by over 2 lb and the result is.
1st Mark H(moleman) 32-15
2nd Nick G(nick_gilbert)30-3
3rd Mike J(Omega Mike)19-10
4th Jeff D(Jeff_D) 13-4
5th Al L(Al) 11-10
6th Tony 11-5
7th Trevor L(M T Net) 7-8
8th Bill G(Bill G) 6-6
9th Simon E 4-1
All the rest recored DNW, I don't think there were any blanks they just tipped back.
Thinking about it I should have continued on the pole adding a few sections to chase the fish out which were a bigger stamp than I was getting on the waggler. But I took the lazy option to chuck out the waggler that was already set up.
Friday, December 05, 2008
I’m Back Blogging.
I haven’t done a blog entry for some time because I haven’t been out since the first week of October. I didn’t have a lot of time before then so didn’t report on the two previous matches I fished either. One resulted in a win with over a ton down Hartleylands, The other was a small knock up down Sams Lake in Kent.
When I hear the Leatherhead Club were short of a few anglers in the Surrey Winter League match down Monks lake I volunteered to fill in. I was quite looking forward to the match cos I know the lakes this time of the year respond well to the maggot waggler one of my favourite ways of fishing and fancied my chances off a good draw.
I arrived and it was very cold, but at least it was not raining. We were on lake 1 and 2 today. I prefer lake 1 at this time of the year as the fish tend to be more evenly spread although they will still shoal up a bit like anywhere in the winter. Mark the team captain drew out the pegs for the day and informed me I was on peg 8, I would have preferred to be up toward the other end of the lake around peg 3 or 4 on the side I was on but it should hold a few fish. Well actually there are so many fish in the lake all pegs hold a few and if I put less than 25-30lbs on the scales I will give up fishing!
I got to the peg and there was a cold north/east cross down blowing down the lake and slightly towards me and a bit of a chop on the water, this could make lose feeding maggots a bit of a problem so the distance I fish out will be dictated by how far I can feed them and be reasonably accurate.
Bait for the day was 4 pints of red and white maggots, some 4mm and 6mm soft expanders, and the same in hard pellet. I couldn’t see any other bait would be needed but I did have a couple of tins of corn in the bag.
As always my tactics for the day will be simple (like me) one waggler rig was set up, 11ft Carbonactive float with 0.16 main line and 0.12 trace, This had a 3.5AAA inserted peacock waggler, set to fish just scraping the bottom, 3 number 8s were set down the line starting about 8in from the hook. I could then, swap to a straight peacock, add depth and drag these on the bottom if I need to slow the rig down. I didn’t see anybody else around me setting up the waggler so hopefully I will have the line all to myself. I did see a few setting up a maggot feeder but doubt it will do any damage or match the waggler as a method on the day. I also set up a pole rig to fish on the deck at 11 meters. This was done more to give me something to do if I wanted to rest the waggler line and hopefully pick off a few extra fish.
At the whistle I fed the waggler line with a pouch full of maggots that land at about 20 meters out and though that will do for distance then dumped a small pot full of pellet on the pole line, this will be topped up with a few every 30 mins. First cast on the wag baited with double maggot and the float settled with no indications, a slight twitch of the bait though produced an instant bite and carp number one was hooked after about 20 second. Another20 went by and it was in the net. 2nd cast was a repeat of the first and carp 2 was in the net both F1s around the pound mark. By the first hour I had 7 in the net and was beating all around me as far as I can see so not bad a start. I found the fish showed a preference for a red and white maggot combination resulting in F1 carp. A change to double white in the 2nd hour started I to find a few mirror carp too. Red maggot on its own produced nothing!
As I got into the 2nd hour I had a quick look on the pole line and didn’t have a sniff on maggot or pellet so just kept on feeding it and carried on with the waggler. I caught slow but steady for the next few hours on the wag, having a few looks on the pole line without a touch. With an hour and a quarter to go I was struggling for a bite and by this time had 20 small carp and some silverfish. I started to feed the pole line with catty, 4-5 pellets every few minutes hoping I can get a few late carp in the last hour. This worked a treat and when I had a look I had another 5 carp over the next half an hour. This died a death and with no more bite in 10 minutes so it was back out on the waggler for the rest of the match. This produced another 5 carp hooking the last one just on the whistle. I ended up the match with 30 carp which I was quite pleased with and was sure I had beaten the guys around me which is the best you can expect to do in the winter.
It turned out I had 41lb and this was enough to get 2nd in the section. The winter of the section had I think 51lb from peg 3 up the other end of the lake.
I didn’t manage to frame but still had a good days fishing considering the cold weather, and would like to thank Mark the team captain for letting me fish.
I have a match on the 13th at Wylands Specimen Lake and am expecting a big net of roach so look back soon to see how I get on
When I hear the Leatherhead Club were short of a few anglers in the Surrey Winter League match down Monks lake I volunteered to fill in. I was quite looking forward to the match cos I know the lakes this time of the year respond well to the maggot waggler one of my favourite ways of fishing and fancied my chances off a good draw.
I arrived and it was very cold, but at least it was not raining. We were on lake 1 and 2 today. I prefer lake 1 at this time of the year as the fish tend to be more evenly spread although they will still shoal up a bit like anywhere in the winter. Mark the team captain drew out the pegs for the day and informed me I was on peg 8, I would have preferred to be up toward the other end of the lake around peg 3 or 4 on the side I was on but it should hold a few fish. Well actually there are so many fish in the lake all pegs hold a few and if I put less than 25-30lbs on the scales I will give up fishing!
I got to the peg and there was a cold north/east cross down blowing down the lake and slightly towards me and a bit of a chop on the water, this could make lose feeding maggots a bit of a problem so the distance I fish out will be dictated by how far I can feed them and be reasonably accurate.
Bait for the day was 4 pints of red and white maggots, some 4mm and 6mm soft expanders, and the same in hard pellet. I couldn’t see any other bait would be needed but I did have a couple of tins of corn in the bag.
As always my tactics for the day will be simple (like me) one waggler rig was set up, 11ft Carbonactive float with 0.16 main line and 0.12 trace, This had a 3.5AAA inserted peacock waggler, set to fish just scraping the bottom, 3 number 8s were set down the line starting about 8in from the hook. I could then, swap to a straight peacock, add depth and drag these on the bottom if I need to slow the rig down. I didn’t see anybody else around me setting up the waggler so hopefully I will have the line all to myself. I did see a few setting up a maggot feeder but doubt it will do any damage or match the waggler as a method on the day. I also set up a pole rig to fish on the deck at 11 meters. This was done more to give me something to do if I wanted to rest the waggler line and hopefully pick off a few extra fish.
At the whistle I fed the waggler line with a pouch full of maggots that land at about 20 meters out and though that will do for distance then dumped a small pot full of pellet on the pole line, this will be topped up with a few every 30 mins. First cast on the wag baited with double maggot and the float settled with no indications, a slight twitch of the bait though produced an instant bite and carp number one was hooked after about 20 second. Another20 went by and it was in the net. 2nd cast was a repeat of the first and carp 2 was in the net both F1s around the pound mark. By the first hour I had 7 in the net and was beating all around me as far as I can see so not bad a start. I found the fish showed a preference for a red and white maggot combination resulting in F1 carp. A change to double white in the 2nd hour started I to find a few mirror carp too. Red maggot on its own produced nothing!
As I got into the 2nd hour I had a quick look on the pole line and didn’t have a sniff on maggot or pellet so just kept on feeding it and carried on with the waggler. I caught slow but steady for the next few hours on the wag, having a few looks on the pole line without a touch. With an hour and a quarter to go I was struggling for a bite and by this time had 20 small carp and some silverfish. I started to feed the pole line with catty, 4-5 pellets every few minutes hoping I can get a few late carp in the last hour. This worked a treat and when I had a look I had another 5 carp over the next half an hour. This died a death and with no more bite in 10 minutes so it was back out on the waggler for the rest of the match. This produced another 5 carp hooking the last one just on the whistle. I ended up the match with 30 carp which I was quite pleased with and was sure I had beaten the guys around me which is the best you can expect to do in the winter.
It turned out I had 41lb and this was enough to get 2nd in the section. The winter of the section had I think 51lb from peg 3 up the other end of the lake.
I didn’t manage to frame but still had a good days fishing considering the cold weather, and would like to thank Mark the team captain for letting me fish.
I have a match on the 13th at Wylands Specimen Lake and am expecting a big net of roach so look back soon to see how I get on
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Ton up at Shannons
One of the Clubs I am member off was running a match there so I thought I would give it a go.
A mate of mine was there watching me fish so instead of writing a blog myself he did one as a observer
Click on the link to read it
http://kent-match-report.blogspot.com/2008/09/shannons-tunbridge-wells-140908.html
A mate of mine was there watching me fish so instead of writing a blog myself he did one as a observer
Click on the link to read it
http://kent-match-report.blogspot.com/2008/09/shannons-tunbridge-wells-140908.html
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Stones Fishery bag up and Hartleylands invitation match.
I had a trip down Stones, on the Isle of Sheppy cos I am fishing the festival there next month and wanted to have a go on the Old Specimen Lake.
I arrived and had a chat with my mate Dave who is working there now about how it is fishing and decided to fish the top end of the lake near the car park.
It turned out I didn’t learn a great deal in preparation for the match as I caught on most things I tried. One a bung on pellet shallow. One a bung on paste. One a bung down the margins!!! The fishing was excellent and I must have put 150lb of fish in the net that included some nice skimmers caught on 8mm hard pellet 12in deep!
There is a decent tackle shop on site selling food, drink and bait so it is well worth a visit.
Now off to Hartleylands for a serious match.
I was invited to fish a 40 pegger down Hartleylands fished on two of the lakes, the Reservoir and Pear Tree. 10 top rods from the Midlands had been invited to fish including Neil McKinnon and a few others from the SBS sponsored team whom names I was not familiar with. They were all to fish the Res and I was hoping to be on there too and have a crack at beating them. Another reason was to break my jinx on the lake and try to put together a good net of carp.
My luck was in and I pulled out a peg on the Res, a bit too far into the corner for my liking so it restricted how far I could fish out, but there was a nice ripple on the water and the wind was blowing towards my side of the lake.
The bait I had with me for the day was 10 pints of 8mm pellet for the waggler and some 6mm expander pellet and paste to fish on the pole. That was it as I didn’t think I needed anything else apart from my secret weapon, a few chum mixers.
Tactics for the day are simple too, a margin rig with one of my homemade diamond floats attached to a 14 hook and 0.16 trace. A on the deck rig to fish at about 4 meters with the same hook, line and float combination. Two waggler rods were set up too. One to fish shallow at 2ft or less with a 5AAA Styro, the other had a 4g Drennan Crystal pellet waggler float which is longer and slimmer for fishing up to 6ft deep-shallow.
At the start of the match I fed a few 6mm pellets by hand at 4 meters and down the margins, also feeding out at about 20 meters with 8mm pellets to prime the waggler swim. I went straight in with the 4 meter rig on the deck and hooked a carp within a few seconds, and then the hook pulled out! I had a few skimmers on that line and after about half an hour had the first carp of about 4lb. I gave this line another half an hour with no more carp so thought it was time to have a look on the waggler where I had been feeding about every 30 seconds.
I started at about 6ft deep cos there were no carp showing on the surface, upping the feed rate to every 10-15 seconds. 30 minutes on the method and I got no indications of fish in the swim at any depth! I was just thinking of having another look on the pole line when I saw a fish swirl at the feed. Quickly switching to the rod set shallow at about 2ft deep, I fed again and dropped the rig on top and the float buried instantly. The first waggler fish was soon netted with about 3 hours of the match remaining.
The weather started to brighten up by now and the odd carp was now swirling at the feed and things were starting to look up. Upping the frequency of the feed had brought a good number of fish into the swim and I was having good spells of picking up 2-3 in quick succession. I gave up feeding the other lines with 2 hours remaining and just concentrated on the waggler as I felt there were enough fish showing to see me out for the rest of the match and put together a possible winning net.
For the remainder of the match I continued to catch well even picking off a few larger carp off the surface on a floating mixer (noddy style). At the final whistle I had 31 carp in the net so was quite pleased knowing they will go well over a ton. The scales eventually come round and the best weight was Neil McKinnon with 124lb of waggler caught carp. I was very pleased when my 3 nets went 144lb to take first spot after a bit of a lean spell results wise.
This won me a good payout and the biggest trophy I have ever seen!!!!
I arrived and had a chat with my mate Dave who is working there now about how it is fishing and decided to fish the top end of the lake near the car park.
It turned out I didn’t learn a great deal in preparation for the match as I caught on most things I tried. One a bung on pellet shallow. One a bung on paste. One a bung down the margins!!! The fishing was excellent and I must have put 150lb of fish in the net that included some nice skimmers caught on 8mm hard pellet 12in deep!
There is a decent tackle shop on site selling food, drink and bait so it is well worth a visit.
Now off to Hartleylands for a serious match.
I was invited to fish a 40 pegger down Hartleylands fished on two of the lakes, the Reservoir and Pear Tree. 10 top rods from the Midlands had been invited to fish including Neil McKinnon and a few others from the SBS sponsored team whom names I was not familiar with. They were all to fish the Res and I was hoping to be on there too and have a crack at beating them. Another reason was to break my jinx on the lake and try to put together a good net of carp.
My luck was in and I pulled out a peg on the Res, a bit too far into the corner for my liking so it restricted how far I could fish out, but there was a nice ripple on the water and the wind was blowing towards my side of the lake.
The bait I had with me for the day was 10 pints of 8mm pellet for the waggler and some 6mm expander pellet and paste to fish on the pole. That was it as I didn’t think I needed anything else apart from my secret weapon, a few chum mixers.
Tactics for the day are simple too, a margin rig with one of my homemade diamond floats attached to a 14 hook and 0.16 trace. A on the deck rig to fish at about 4 meters with the same hook, line and float combination. Two waggler rods were set up too. One to fish shallow at 2ft or less with a 5AAA Styro, the other had a 4g Drennan Crystal pellet waggler float which is longer and slimmer for fishing up to 6ft deep-shallow.
At the start of the match I fed a few 6mm pellets by hand at 4 meters and down the margins, also feeding out at about 20 meters with 8mm pellets to prime the waggler swim. I went straight in with the 4 meter rig on the deck and hooked a carp within a few seconds, and then the hook pulled out! I had a few skimmers on that line and after about half an hour had the first carp of about 4lb. I gave this line another half an hour with no more carp so thought it was time to have a look on the waggler where I had been feeding about every 30 seconds.
I started at about 6ft deep cos there were no carp showing on the surface, upping the feed rate to every 10-15 seconds. 30 minutes on the method and I got no indications of fish in the swim at any depth! I was just thinking of having another look on the pole line when I saw a fish swirl at the feed. Quickly switching to the rod set shallow at about 2ft deep, I fed again and dropped the rig on top and the float buried instantly. The first waggler fish was soon netted with about 3 hours of the match remaining.
The weather started to brighten up by now and the odd carp was now swirling at the feed and things were starting to look up. Upping the frequency of the feed had brought a good number of fish into the swim and I was having good spells of picking up 2-3 in quick succession. I gave up feeding the other lines with 2 hours remaining and just concentrated on the waggler as I felt there were enough fish showing to see me out for the rest of the match and put together a possible winning net.
For the remainder of the match I continued to catch well even picking off a few larger carp off the surface on a floating mixer (noddy style). At the final whistle I had 31 carp in the net so was quite pleased knowing they will go well over a ton. The scales eventually come round and the best weight was Neil McKinnon with 124lb of waggler caught carp. I was very pleased when my 3 nets went 144lb to take first spot after a bit of a lean spell results wise.
This won me a good payout and the biggest trophy I have ever seen!!!!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
At last a blog entry!!!
Sorry for the long delay in writing an entry have been busy and not had time or the inspiration lately.
I have however managed to fish a few matches with some mixed results.
First off I had the Maggotdrowners Southern champs down the Reservoir at Hartleylands. This can be a prolific lake with ton up nets all round. It is a bit of a unlucky venue for me as the few times I have fished it over the years have never managed to win a match at the lake apart from a silverfish only event last year. Although I have been trying to win a match using tares so this could be one of the reasons for my lack of results! This is because one day I sat there and landed 45 carp for over 200lb on the bait.
So I turned up again with several pints of tares for one last try and not surprisingly I failed again. Fished on the deck at about 4 meters I did however manage 49lb of mostly carp on the bait but have now resigned myself that I will never win a carp match with tares and have given up. The match was won by Bill Gibbins with a very good weight of 147lb on paste, Matt love was 2nd using the waggler fished deep shallow with around 100lb.
Next match was the Dave Pankhutst Memorial match down the River Medway at Barming, About 30 turned up to fish this match. Just lately the draw bag has deserted me a bit and I pulled out one of the pegs I didn’t really want. It was just downstream of the bridge and has a big bank of weed that goes out making it difficult to fish. Add to that a howling downstream wind and I was going to struggle to hold the pole or fish the waggler effectively.
I set up a 13 ft feeder rod and decided to chance it and go all out for bream. I wasn’t in the best area for them but the prospects of fighting the pole in the wind for 5 hours didn’t really appeal to me. At the off a medium caged feeder was lobbed out towards the far side baited with worm. Unbelievably within 5 minutes the tip went round and I was into a bream. I landed a fish of about 2lb and it was soon followed by another 2 of its mates. 20 minutes in and I had 3 bream already.
Unfortunately shortly after a large boat went over the top of the swim and must have spooked the shoal as it went dead. For the reminder of the match I just picked up the odd small fish. I did have a short spell on the waggler but it was impossible in the strong wind and I gave up.
At the end the scales eventually come round and I put 7lb odd on the scales which was good enough for the section win picking up £40 and 5th overall in the match. I narrowly missed out on 4th spot by 1oz.
The next weekend I was off to fish the Southern Intersite match at Monk lakes, which is a team event between 4 angling forums.
I pulled out peg 3 on Lake 1 which wasn’t too bad a draw and was expecting a decent weight. I did my usual of balling in some groundbait at the start hoping to draw lots of carp in so I can feed them up shallow but today it just didn’t work! I ended up for the first part of the match fishing an 8mm hard pellet on the deck to pick off the odd carp eventually that died too and I was left with just over a hour of the match left and only roughly 20lb in the net.
Desperate to add to my weight I dug out a pint of maggots I had in the bag and quickly set up the waggler to fish maggots on the drop. Spraying out maggots at 20 meters I started to pick up small chub and the odd carp mixed in. It was a fish a chuck for the last hour and I was cursing myself for being lazy and not setting the rod up sooner.
I ended up with 37lb for a section 2nd beating the guys either side of me. 49 lb won the section. The whole lake fished poor for some reason and 87lb won the lake. Some weighed in less than 10lb!
Full result of the match is.
Section 1
2 Jeff Driscoll TA 21-04
3 Nick Gilbert MD 37-00
5 Andy Gregory TF 15-05
7 Dave Pearson AF 49-01
Section 2
9 M Wright TA 6-08
11 Gary Thorpe MD 7-10
13 Lindsay Scott TF 19-00
15 Mark Hathaway AF 17-10
Section 3
17 Paul Law TA 36-10
19 Matt Love MD 48-08
21 Johnny Beaton TF 28-10
22 Mark Smith AF 63-06
Section 4
23 Ron Byus TA 42-00
24 Matt Nutt MD 48-08
26 Chris Martin TF 86-00
28 T Curd AF 62-08
Section 5
30 Lance Glover TA 21-08
32 Bill Gibbins MD 23-00
34 Tim Suttle TF 26-08
36 R Graves AF 58-04
Section 6
38 Frank Wright TA 8-08
40 Clive Pritchard MD 55-02
42 Colin Forsdyke TF 76-04
44 J Holt AF 66-08
Section 7
92 Fred Parker TA 108-08
94 Vince Gould MD 34-10
96 Russell Grimes TF 77-12
98 J Swann AF 66-00
Section 8
100 R Lucas TA 47-08
104 Paul East MD 50-00
106 Dave A T TF 94-04
108 M Page AF 61-04
Section 9
110 Del Smith TA 45-00
112 Peter Morton MD 85-04
113 Ant Sparrow TF 88-00
115 Dave Churchward AF 147-04
Section 10
117 I Hornby TA 106-12
119 Trevor Little MD 112-00
121 No Angler TF 0-00
123 Stu Wilson AF 117-08
Overall Team Result
Angling Forums....... 34
Total Fishing....... 27
Maggotdrowning.com..... 21
Talk Angling...... 17
I have however managed to fish a few matches with some mixed results.
First off I had the Maggotdrowners Southern champs down the Reservoir at Hartleylands. This can be a prolific lake with ton up nets all round. It is a bit of a unlucky venue for me as the few times I have fished it over the years have never managed to win a match at the lake apart from a silverfish only event last year. Although I have been trying to win a match using tares so this could be one of the reasons for my lack of results! This is because one day I sat there and landed 45 carp for over 200lb on the bait.
So I turned up again with several pints of tares for one last try and not surprisingly I failed again. Fished on the deck at about 4 meters I did however manage 49lb of mostly carp on the bait but have now resigned myself that I will never win a carp match with tares and have given up. The match was won by Bill Gibbins with a very good weight of 147lb on paste, Matt love was 2nd using the waggler fished deep shallow with around 100lb.
Next match was the Dave Pankhutst Memorial match down the River Medway at Barming, About 30 turned up to fish this match. Just lately the draw bag has deserted me a bit and I pulled out one of the pegs I didn’t really want. It was just downstream of the bridge and has a big bank of weed that goes out making it difficult to fish. Add to that a howling downstream wind and I was going to struggle to hold the pole or fish the waggler effectively.
I set up a 13 ft feeder rod and decided to chance it and go all out for bream. I wasn’t in the best area for them but the prospects of fighting the pole in the wind for 5 hours didn’t really appeal to me. At the off a medium caged feeder was lobbed out towards the far side baited with worm. Unbelievably within 5 minutes the tip went round and I was into a bream. I landed a fish of about 2lb and it was soon followed by another 2 of its mates. 20 minutes in and I had 3 bream already.
Unfortunately shortly after a large boat went over the top of the swim and must have spooked the shoal as it went dead. For the reminder of the match I just picked up the odd small fish. I did have a short spell on the waggler but it was impossible in the strong wind and I gave up.
At the end the scales eventually come round and I put 7lb odd on the scales which was good enough for the section win picking up £40 and 5th overall in the match. I narrowly missed out on 4th spot by 1oz.
The next weekend I was off to fish the Southern Intersite match at Monk lakes, which is a team event between 4 angling forums.
I pulled out peg 3 on Lake 1 which wasn’t too bad a draw and was expecting a decent weight. I did my usual of balling in some groundbait at the start hoping to draw lots of carp in so I can feed them up shallow but today it just didn’t work! I ended up for the first part of the match fishing an 8mm hard pellet on the deck to pick off the odd carp eventually that died too and I was left with just over a hour of the match left and only roughly 20lb in the net.
Desperate to add to my weight I dug out a pint of maggots I had in the bag and quickly set up the waggler to fish maggots on the drop. Spraying out maggots at 20 meters I started to pick up small chub and the odd carp mixed in. It was a fish a chuck for the last hour and I was cursing myself for being lazy and not setting the rod up sooner.
I ended up with 37lb for a section 2nd beating the guys either side of me. 49 lb won the section. The whole lake fished poor for some reason and 87lb won the lake. Some weighed in less than 10lb!
Full result of the match is.
Section 1
2 Jeff Driscoll TA 21-04
3 Nick Gilbert MD 37-00
5 Andy Gregory TF 15-05
7 Dave Pearson AF 49-01
Section 2
9 M Wright TA 6-08
11 Gary Thorpe MD 7-10
13 Lindsay Scott TF 19-00
15 Mark Hathaway AF 17-10
Section 3
17 Paul Law TA 36-10
19 Matt Love MD 48-08
21 Johnny Beaton TF 28-10
22 Mark Smith AF 63-06
Section 4
23 Ron Byus TA 42-00
24 Matt Nutt MD 48-08
26 Chris Martin TF 86-00
28 T Curd AF 62-08
Section 5
30 Lance Glover TA 21-08
32 Bill Gibbins MD 23-00
34 Tim Suttle TF 26-08
36 R Graves AF 58-04
Section 6
38 Frank Wright TA 8-08
40 Clive Pritchard MD 55-02
42 Colin Forsdyke TF 76-04
44 J Holt AF 66-08
Section 7
92 Fred Parker TA 108-08
94 Vince Gould MD 34-10
96 Russell Grimes TF 77-12
98 J Swann AF 66-00
Section 8
100 R Lucas TA 47-08
104 Paul East MD 50-00
106 Dave A T TF 94-04
108 M Page AF 61-04
Section 9
110 Del Smith TA 45-00
112 Peter Morton MD 85-04
113 Ant Sparrow TF 88-00
115 Dave Churchward AF 147-04
Section 10
117 I Hornby TA 106-12
119 Trevor Little MD 112-00
121 No Angler TF 0-00
123 Stu Wilson AF 117-08
Overall Team Result
Angling Forums....... 34
Total Fishing....... 27
Maggotdrowning.com..... 21
Talk Angling...... 17
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