Hi Folks, back to Blythe today for the last round of our pairs league on cherries pool. Regular readers of my blog will know that me & stav have a very commanding lead at the start of this match a massive 21 points, leaving us only both to weigh in a single fish each to get 2 points and we would win the league as 22 points is the max the pair in second could get and we would be on 23?
Stav made the draw and put me on peg 10 not a bad draw but i would have liked to be further down the lake passed peg 12 down to 20 and the pegs opposite, this is where the fish were on our last visit following the wind which was blowing the same way down to peg 20. Stav had drew himself peg 25 down the fishy wind end again??? ( i will have to put a stop to this ).
I set up on the peg as follows.
Rig 1, 13m pole line for skimmers 4 x 14 j8-range float 0.14 line to a 16 tosciro set 5ft deep with 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, 6m down both edges 4 x 12 preston dura 10 float 0.16 line to size 3 turbertini 175 2 1/2 ft deep with black hydro, the same rig would do for both edges as they were the same depth.
Rig 3, I set up my 11 ft feeder rod for the method with 6lb maxima on the reel.
Rig 4, the pellet wagg was also set up with my 12ft rod 5lb maxima on the reel with a 5ssg styro wagg.
Bait for the day was mainly pellets of various sizes from micro to 8mm, some g/bait for the method, 2 tins of chopped meat & loads of various hook baits for the method including corn, dead maggots & bollies.
On the whistle i potted in some micro & a few 4mm pellets on the 13m line and threw some meat down the left hand margin and 4mm pellets down the right. I then threw the method feeder out some 35m to the boom running down the center of the pool with 2 dead reds on the hook, after less than a minute the tip dropped back and i was reeling in a 8-10oz skimmer ( job done). A quick text to stav to say that my points were safe reveled that he had a fish first put in also so that meant that we had won the league, so now we could sit back and relax and hopefully catch a few carp. Another 20 mins went by before my next bite a skimmer of around the same size, it took until just before the first hour had pasted before my first carp a nice 4lb common on corn. Next chuck another rap-around and another carp this time a 6lb'er great i thought they have found the bait and are queing up for it? Wrong 30 mins later without another bite and it was time to try the pellet wagg as all the time i was fishing the method i had been firing 3-4 8mm pellets towards the boom. It took a bit of time to try and get my presentation right as the wind blowing left to right was giving me about 20-30 seconds before the line bowed to bad and i had to re-cast. After 30 mins of constant casting i had 2 bites and 1 fish of around 4lb for my hard work so it was time for a look on the pole line, all i could muster on this was a couple of skimmers. A quick look on both my margin lines without a bite and i decided to go back on the method as i could odd fish being caught but nothing to set the world on fire. The rest of the match followed the same pattern, try as i might i couldn't get a bite on the long or margin pole lines just odd bites on the method and i ended the match with 7 carp and 6 skimmers. 5 of my carp had fell to a 8mm ringers red shellfish bollie and i thought that i had around 25lb, the word on the bank was that Andy on peg 12 had caught well down the edge and i could see that pegs 29 & 30 had got some fish. First to weigh in my section was Steve on peg 31 he put 29lb 4oz i thought that was to much for me to beat, steve said that he had lost more than he had got out. Peg 2 had 23lb then the rest of the pegs struggled with 8lb, 12lb & 16lb, i put my fish on the scales and they read 29lb 6oz i had beat Steve by 2oz ( sorry m8 ). Andy on peg 12 had a great match fishing worm down the edge with some right lumps one must have been close to 20lb to end with 71lb ( well done m8 ) section win and match overall win. There was one other weight to beat me in the section a 38lb of carp and skimmers by Tony on around peg 14. Stav had suffered a bit in his match and said he had got 6 carp and lost 6? ( shambles ), his section read peg 20 43lb, peg 29 40lb, peg 30 37lb, peg 23 35lb & stav on peg 25 with 34lb for fifth in the section ( a couple of those lost fish had cost him??? i might have to find me another partner for this years pairs????). I suppose a 3rd and 5th in section was not a bad result as we had done all the hard work in the early rounds and we had won the league by a comfortable 17 points. We had a great start to the league with a perfect 22 points on the first match and never let 1st place slip after that, catching a mixture of carp and skimmers on most pegs.
League Results 1ST Me & Stav 114 points
2ND Tony & Kev 97 points
3RD Carl & Warren 94 points
4TH Pete & Dave not enough?
Thanks to Gail at Blythe for tea and the best part of the day the bread pudding, thanks to Carl & JB for doing the pools, points & money cheers lads. Last but not least thanks to Stav for catching a few fish and having a few laughs at least we won a few beer tokens? cheers mate.
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Woodlands View Open Sunday 9/5/10
Hi folks, back to Woodlands today for the first time since the end of the teams of 4 winter league and hoping for a few fish after yesterdays poor fishing at Spring Lea. After we had pooled up we learned that it was going to be a bit tight on the pegging today as we only had one side of Arles pool and all of High some 50 pegs but with 36 booked in it was going to make the draw very important? The chat before the draw was that Arles was favorite as it was going to be one in one out pegging on here 2, 4 ,6,8 etc, but on High they were going to put blocks of 3 pegs in 4,5,6 miss 7 out then 8,9,10 miss 11 out and so on around the lake. So a draw on Arles would be good but if you were going to pull out High you would have to draw a corner peg or on the end of your block of three to give you a bit of room the worst draw would be in the middle of a set of 3? Yes you've guessed it i drew peg 30 on high pool with 29 & 31 in i was smack in the middle of a set of 3? Stav put his sticky paw in and pulled out peg 4 on Arles a right flier with the boom in-front of him which you can reach with the pole and every other peg in( i wish i could draw like that? ).
When i got to my peg and started setting up the wind was blowing into corner pegs 35 & 4 ( 1-3 are never used as they are very tight and cut off pegs 33-35) setting up on peg 4 was Stu Ballard of maver midlands ( peg 3 had 131lb off it in the week? ) and on peg 35 was local hero & venue regular Ian Woods. Now peg 35 is one of those pegs that if you catch it right you will win the match off it or you will catch nowt a feast or famine peg as they call it, with woody moaning at the peg Mike Mason told him that an 0.A.P ( starlets vets ) had 85lb off it in the week so shut up moaning.
I set up the following rigs,
rig 1, 13m pellet line on the deck a 1.0gr maver jona float with 0.16 line to a size 3 175 hook with a olivette set 2ft from the hook and 3 no10 stotz spread out below that in around 9ft of water & black hydro elastic.
rig 2, 6m caster & corn line a 4 x 14 j8-range float 0.14 line to 16 tosciro hook set around 5 ft deep with a bulk of no8 stotz and 2 no 10 droppers & 13 hollo elastic
rig 3, shallow pellet rig drennan carp 4 0.30gr float 0.14 line to a 18 pr27 hook with a lasso tied on and set at around 18" deep & 13 hollo elastic.
ri 4, another shallow rig a preston pb2 float 4 x 12 0.14 line to 16 toscrio hook again set 18" deep for the caster if the carp didn't play ball & 13 hollo elastic.
With pegs both sides i decided not to bother with a margin rig as you ain't going to catch there with guys sitting on top of you. To my left i had Edd Warren for company so at least i had someone to talk to. Bait for the day was 2 pints of sonu comp 4mm feed pellets, 2 pints of casters and 3 tins of corn, plus various 6 & 8mm hook pellets & a bit of meat for the hook.
On the all in i put a pot full of 4mm pellets & a few grains of corn at 13m and started loose feeding casters at 6m with the odd grain of corn. I started on the shallow rig at 14.5m pinging 3-4 pellets at the float with a 6mm hard pellet on the hook, after only 2-3 mins the float shot under and my 13 hollo elastic came streaming out of the pole an 8 lb carp was soon in the net and a good start. Edd had a fish first put on the deck as well so we might have a few fish after all, 15 mins later without another sign and edd on fish no3 it was time for a look on the deck. first 3 put- ins on my 13m line produced 3 bites but no fish, my first thought was that i had put to much feed in and was getting liners so i tried corn on the hook with only half a kinder pot of feed bingo carp no 2 was on the way to the net.
This was the pattern of the first 2 hours with a few bites and odd fish but way behind edd who was catching fish regular but he guy to my right was catching less than me. At this point there was only edd and Les Thompson catching fish at any sort of pattern and a few moaning how hard it was. I went back on my shallow rig as edd had a couple of fish there and struggled to get a bite while edd had 4 fish on the bounce? I had one f1 shallow before trying my 6m line and missed a bite first put-in on corn, second drop i had a 4lb carp and third drop hooked and lost another as edd said it looks like the fish had finaly come close. He had feed pellet on his 6m line and had a look earlier for 1 skimmer, i had a barbel of around 4lb and another carp before the line went dead i had lost 3-4 foulhookers on the 6m line as i was loose feeding i thought they were off the bottom but i had only had odd silvers on caster over this line. I put a big pot of caster and corn in at 6m in an attempt to get the fish on the deck and stopped loose feeding, edd couldn't get a bite at 6m on the deck so tried his shallow rig over it and had 4 fish on it? I new that it was going to be hard to catch stuck in-between 2 guys but it was that apparent edd was getting more bites on the deck with an empty peg 32 to his left and he could catch odd fish shallow, the fish were reluctant to come pased his pole and feed to get to mine when he started fishing his 6m line my bites dried up? The last couple of hours saw us both struggling for odd bites and i never had another bite on my 6m line, just odd fish on the deck at 13m to keep us ticking over. Before to long the all out was sounded and we had a few fish in the sun and some good crack around the pool but a lot of the pegs we thought would produce had not and the first for an early bath was woddy gone before the scales had got to him.
When the scales came Les was winning with 85lb and next best weight was Chris Hill with 64lb both were on end pegs in there blocks of 3, edd tipped 81lb on the scales for second on the lake so far and my 56lb was forth on the lake so far, with no more weights on our bank only Klaus Fix having 40 something i went over to see stav on Arles.When i got there he was already putting his tackle in the car and no nets on his peg didn't bode well, he said he might have had 25lb but had tipped back. Lee Edwards had 44lb off peg 8 and the best weight off arles was Kev Slade off corner peg 16 with 63lb so arles had not lived up to its pre-match billing. After a quick tot up in my head that had put me 5th overall and a quick shout over to Ade Mason as to how many he was paying in the main list 4 came the reply??? shit 1 out, never mind i had won the section and had the best weight from anyone that had pegs in both sides? On reflection i had lost around 4 fish on my caster line and with less than 10lb off second i began the autopsy off the day did i feed it wrong?, should i have tried a different hook has i thought that the one i used was a little small?
are well we live to fight another day.
When i got to my peg and started setting up the wind was blowing into corner pegs 35 & 4 ( 1-3 are never used as they are very tight and cut off pegs 33-35) setting up on peg 4 was Stu Ballard of maver midlands ( peg 3 had 131lb off it in the week? ) and on peg 35 was local hero & venue regular Ian Woods. Now peg 35 is one of those pegs that if you catch it right you will win the match off it or you will catch nowt a feast or famine peg as they call it, with woody moaning at the peg Mike Mason told him that an 0.A.P ( starlets vets ) had 85lb off it in the week so shut up moaning.
I set up the following rigs,
rig 1, 13m pellet line on the deck a 1.0gr maver jona float with 0.16 line to a size 3 175 hook with a olivette set 2ft from the hook and 3 no10 stotz spread out below that in around 9ft of water & black hydro elastic.
rig 2, 6m caster & corn line a 4 x 14 j8-range float 0.14 line to 16 tosciro hook set around 5 ft deep with a bulk of no8 stotz and 2 no 10 droppers & 13 hollo elastic
rig 3, shallow pellet rig drennan carp 4 0.30gr float 0.14 line to a 18 pr27 hook with a lasso tied on and set at around 18" deep & 13 hollo elastic.
ri 4, another shallow rig a preston pb2 float 4 x 12 0.14 line to 16 toscrio hook again set 18" deep for the caster if the carp didn't play ball & 13 hollo elastic.
With pegs both sides i decided not to bother with a margin rig as you ain't going to catch there with guys sitting on top of you. To my left i had Edd Warren for company so at least i had someone to talk to. Bait for the day was 2 pints of sonu comp 4mm feed pellets, 2 pints of casters and 3 tins of corn, plus various 6 & 8mm hook pellets & a bit of meat for the hook.
On the all in i put a pot full of 4mm pellets & a few grains of corn at 13m and started loose feeding casters at 6m with the odd grain of corn. I started on the shallow rig at 14.5m pinging 3-4 pellets at the float with a 6mm hard pellet on the hook, after only 2-3 mins the float shot under and my 13 hollo elastic came streaming out of the pole an 8 lb carp was soon in the net and a good start. Edd had a fish first put on the deck as well so we might have a few fish after all, 15 mins later without another sign and edd on fish no3 it was time for a look on the deck. first 3 put- ins on my 13m line produced 3 bites but no fish, my first thought was that i had put to much feed in and was getting liners so i tried corn on the hook with only half a kinder pot of feed bingo carp no 2 was on the way to the net.
This was the pattern of the first 2 hours with a few bites and odd fish but way behind edd who was catching fish regular but he guy to my right was catching less than me. At this point there was only edd and Les Thompson catching fish at any sort of pattern and a few moaning how hard it was. I went back on my shallow rig as edd had a couple of fish there and struggled to get a bite while edd had 4 fish on the bounce? I had one f1 shallow before trying my 6m line and missed a bite first put-in on corn, second drop i had a 4lb carp and third drop hooked and lost another as edd said it looks like the fish had finaly come close. He had feed pellet on his 6m line and had a look earlier for 1 skimmer, i had a barbel of around 4lb and another carp before the line went dead i had lost 3-4 foulhookers on the 6m line as i was loose feeding i thought they were off the bottom but i had only had odd silvers on caster over this line. I put a big pot of caster and corn in at 6m in an attempt to get the fish on the deck and stopped loose feeding, edd couldn't get a bite at 6m on the deck so tried his shallow rig over it and had 4 fish on it? I new that it was going to be hard to catch stuck in-between 2 guys but it was that apparent edd was getting more bites on the deck with an empty peg 32 to his left and he could catch odd fish shallow, the fish were reluctant to come pased his pole and feed to get to mine when he started fishing his 6m line my bites dried up? The last couple of hours saw us both struggling for odd bites and i never had another bite on my 6m line, just odd fish on the deck at 13m to keep us ticking over. Before to long the all out was sounded and we had a few fish in the sun and some good crack around the pool but a lot of the pegs we thought would produce had not and the first for an early bath was woddy gone before the scales had got to him.
When the scales came Les was winning with 85lb and next best weight was Chris Hill with 64lb both were on end pegs in there blocks of 3, edd tipped 81lb on the scales for second on the lake so far and my 56lb was forth on the lake so far, with no more weights on our bank only Klaus Fix having 40 something i went over to see stav on Arles.When i got there he was already putting his tackle in the car and no nets on his peg didn't bode well, he said he might have had 25lb but had tipped back. Lee Edwards had 44lb off peg 8 and the best weight off arles was Kev Slade off corner peg 16 with 63lb so arles had not lived up to its pre-match billing. After a quick tot up in my head that had put me 5th overall and a quick shout over to Ade Mason as to how many he was paying in the main list 4 came the reply??? shit 1 out, never mind i had won the section and had the best weight from anyone that had pegs in both sides? On reflection i had lost around 4 fish on my caster line and with less than 10lb off second i began the autopsy off the day did i feed it wrong?, should i have tried a different hook has i thought that the one i used was a little small?
are well we live to fight another day.
Tuesday 11 May 2010
V.D.E Supercup Round 2 Spring Lea Fishery sat 8/5/10
Hi folks, the big day had finally come and after a team meeting the night before in the club ( poor excuse for larger drinking ) we had decided to fish the method for the first hour after feeding the pole lines so we could assess what was happening in our sections. As me and stav looked out of the cafe window after a good breakie at the constant rain pouring down we soon realized that for once the weatherman had got it right and it was set in for the whole day making it feel like march not and may. After the hour+ drive up the m54 50 odd miles we arrived at spring lea with plenty of time for the 11am draw, once the draw had been made and info had been swapped between people we made our way to our pegs. I had drawn peg 8 on mallard pool with the other pegs in my section
2 & 5, now peg 2 is an end peg with peg 1 out and lots of room around to peg 48 that looked very good as it was calm and out of the cold wind ( is this may? i wished i had put my thermals on ). And on peg 5 for company i had local man Ken Humpries form the Morgan's team who was our contact for the match and the main match organizer for the day. After sitting down on my peg and a few words with ken i had decided to attack the peg with 4 rigs and a method feeder. As you will see from the photo there was an aerator which i could reach with 14.5m so i set about getting some rigs on.
Rig 1, 4 x14 j8-range float for pellet at 13m at 1 o'clock away from the aerator 0.14 to 16 toscrio hook & 13 hollo elastic in around 6ft of water.
Rig 2 , 0.30gr maver Jurassic dibber for shallow work by the aerator 0.14 to a 16 pr27 hook with a lasso set at 18" deep & 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3 , 4 x 14 maver jona float for 6m with meat 0.16 line to a 3 tubertini 175 in 4 1/2 ft water & black hydro elastic.
Rig 4, 4 x 12 preston durra 10 float for under the next pallet at 10m to my right with the same line & hook as above in around 2ft of water.
Bait for the day was a bag each of fishery micro & 4mm feed pellets, 2 tins of corn, 2 tins of 6mm chopped meat & 2 pints of casters and 1 kilo of mixed g/bait ( baitech voodoo), i also had various hook baits for the method 6 & 8mm pellets and some dead red maggots. It seemed like a lot of bait for a cold day like today, i never expected to use most of it but as it was a team match i would rather take it back home than run out.
On the whistle i fed 1/2 pot of micros with a few 4mm's on my 13m line, 1/2 pot of meat at 6m and 2 pots of caster & corn down the edge to the next pellet peg 7 ( i had no left-hand edge as the rope from the aerator was stopping me from fishing that side).
I under-armed the method to the aerator sat back and awaited the action? after around 10 mins i looked up and the guy on peg 2 was landing a carp, another 5 mins later and ken on peg 5 was now landing a carp. Great i was the only one in my section without a fish, the first hour passed by despite ringing the hook bait changes and throwing the feeder passed the aerator i couldn't by a bite but at least the other 2 in my section had not added to there tally. Out i went with the 13m rig and put a few micros & 4mm pellets in the pot & a 4mm expander on the hook after 20 bite-less mins on that and ken the same result on the pole it looked like being another very hard day. Try as i could i couldn't get a bite on any of my pole lines 13m,6m margin pellet, corn, meat and caster all drew a blank i was now getting very worried as the guy on peg 2 had another fish and we with 2 hours of the match gone i was blank. I was debating as to get a silver rig out just to get a bite because we had decide that on mallard there was a distinct lack of silvers but on horseshoe lake there were a few skimmers you could go for if the carp didn't play ball. Stav on the other side of the lake was having odd carp on method and pole as it seemed there were a few fish on the otherside of the aerator as now and then the odd fish was topping. There was a few fish topping in our section before the start of the match but since we had started there was no sign and ken had started on a shallow rig for the first 10 mins without a sign. I decided to have a look shallow at 14.5m by the aerator and after around 5 mins pinging 3-4 4mm pellets and a 6mm on the hook i hooked my first fish, after a brief scrap i landed a 4lb carp ( hallelujah ). The celebrations were short lived as 1/2 hour later i had not had another bite, back on the pole i went to my 6m line where i had been throwing 3-4 pieces of meat every now and then from the start and i missed a bite first drop in SHIT. Next drop the float sailed away and my black hydro was screaming towards the rope i didn't add any panic sections as this would only made matters worse, i just held on and placed the top kit under the water. The fish surfaced 3m passed the rope so i applied a bit of side-strain, after a 4-5 min battle i was looking at a nice 8-9lb mirror. Had the fish finally turned up on the meat line NO, I managed 1 more fish on the method a 2lb'er and that was it ken had got 4 the last one landed 30 seconds before the all out but i hadn't seen the guy on peg 2 have any more fish. When the scales came peg 2 had 8lb and when ken,s 4 carp went 11lb odd i was hoping that the lump i had had on the meat was as big a i first thought, when the scales went 14lb 12oz i had done enough to win my 3 man section! ( is this a commercial fishery in may?). In the next section our guy tony was last with 8lb and 14lb winning his section after losing 5 foul-hookers in the last half hour! The third section saw baz come second by 3lb with 31lb to 34lb but the main threat the morgan's guy last. Section 4 saw ritchie second behind the morgan's bloke who won the pool with 52lb and the top two weights had come from to two end pegs where the wind was blowing into them both on the method feeder throwing up the long edges where there is no pegs ( farthest away from my end as possible? ). Section 5 saw stav winning his section with 31lb infront of ken's son with 21lb. The last section to weigh in on our pool was the section opposite mine which kev won with 10 carp for 9lb and the morgan's guy on 8lb and 9oz on the peg in-between them? With a quick mental tot up of the points we were winning the tie by 1 point with us on 10 and morgan's on 11 so it was down to the last 2 sections on horseshoe pool! With john coming second to the morgan's lad on point peg 19 29lb to 27lb it was down to the last section as we were level on points and section wins 3 each? Ollie had suffered in the last section coming last with 10 or 11lb and the morgan's guy on peg 6 winning the section with 47lb, Ollie's was the peg i fished a couple of weeks ago peg 13 when the fish came the last hour down the edge under a tree but with the week leading up to the match being cold and heavy rain the fish never turned up, i didn't see any fish come form the margins on the day ( so don't blame yourself mate the fish weren't there ). That was it we had lost the tie by 2 points.
We went to the pub for a consolation pint after the match and all said we would have another go next year, we were a bit unhappy at going out at this stage as the semi-final and the final are very local to us morlands and tunnel barn and we felt that we might have had a good chance but lady luck was not on our side on the day and a couple of foul-hooked carp that were lost and a couple that were landed was all the difference it took. It was always going to be hard to knock a local team out on there local fishery when most of us had never heard of the place before let alone fish it.
MORGAN'S 13 POINTS
HALESOWEN 15 POINTS
COCK & MAGGPIE 20 POINTS
Well done to the Moragan's side and good luck in the semi's at Moorlands.
Many thanks to Ken for organizing the the tie, talking pools money, sorting the pegs out and so on Cheers mate.
2 & 5, now peg 2 is an end peg with peg 1 out and lots of room around to peg 48 that looked very good as it was calm and out of the cold wind ( is this may? i wished i had put my thermals on ). And on peg 5 for company i had local man Ken Humpries form the Morgan's team who was our contact for the match and the main match organizer for the day. After sitting down on my peg and a few words with ken i had decided to attack the peg with 4 rigs and a method feeder. As you will see from the photo there was an aerator which i could reach with 14.5m so i set about getting some rigs on.
Rig 1, 4 x14 j8-range float for pellet at 13m at 1 o'clock away from the aerator 0.14 to 16 toscrio hook & 13 hollo elastic in around 6ft of water.
Rig 2 , 0.30gr maver Jurassic dibber for shallow work by the aerator 0.14 to a 16 pr27 hook with a lasso set at 18" deep & 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3 , 4 x 14 maver jona float for 6m with meat 0.16 line to a 3 tubertini 175 in 4 1/2 ft water & black hydro elastic.
Rig 4, 4 x 12 preston durra 10 float for under the next pallet at 10m to my right with the same line & hook as above in around 2ft of water.
Bait for the day was a bag each of fishery micro & 4mm feed pellets, 2 tins of corn, 2 tins of 6mm chopped meat & 2 pints of casters and 1 kilo of mixed g/bait ( baitech voodoo), i also had various hook baits for the method 6 & 8mm pellets and some dead red maggots. It seemed like a lot of bait for a cold day like today, i never expected to use most of it but as it was a team match i would rather take it back home than run out.
On the whistle i fed 1/2 pot of micros with a few 4mm's on my 13m line, 1/2 pot of meat at 6m and 2 pots of caster & corn down the edge to the next pellet peg 7 ( i had no left-hand edge as the rope from the aerator was stopping me from fishing that side).
I under-armed the method to the aerator sat back and awaited the action? after around 10 mins i looked up and the guy on peg 2 was landing a carp, another 5 mins later and ken on peg 5 was now landing a carp. Great i was the only one in my section without a fish, the first hour passed by despite ringing the hook bait changes and throwing the feeder passed the aerator i couldn't by a bite but at least the other 2 in my section had not added to there tally. Out i went with the 13m rig and put a few micros & 4mm pellets in the pot & a 4mm expander on the hook after 20 bite-less mins on that and ken the same result on the pole it looked like being another very hard day. Try as i could i couldn't get a bite on any of my pole lines 13m,6m margin pellet, corn, meat and caster all drew a blank i was now getting very worried as the guy on peg 2 had another fish and we with 2 hours of the match gone i was blank. I was debating as to get a silver rig out just to get a bite because we had decide that on mallard there was a distinct lack of silvers but on horseshoe lake there were a few skimmers you could go for if the carp didn't play ball. Stav on the other side of the lake was having odd carp on method and pole as it seemed there were a few fish on the otherside of the aerator as now and then the odd fish was topping. There was a few fish topping in our section before the start of the match but since we had started there was no sign and ken had started on a shallow rig for the first 10 mins without a sign. I decided to have a look shallow at 14.5m by the aerator and after around 5 mins pinging 3-4 4mm pellets and a 6mm on the hook i hooked my first fish, after a brief scrap i landed a 4lb carp ( hallelujah ). The celebrations were short lived as 1/2 hour later i had not had another bite, back on the pole i went to my 6m line where i had been throwing 3-4 pieces of meat every now and then from the start and i missed a bite first drop in SHIT. Next drop the float sailed away and my black hydro was screaming towards the rope i didn't add any panic sections as this would only made matters worse, i just held on and placed the top kit under the water. The fish surfaced 3m passed the rope so i applied a bit of side-strain, after a 4-5 min battle i was looking at a nice 8-9lb mirror. Had the fish finally turned up on the meat line NO, I managed 1 more fish on the method a 2lb'er and that was it ken had got 4 the last one landed 30 seconds before the all out but i hadn't seen the guy on peg 2 have any more fish. When the scales came peg 2 had 8lb and when ken,s 4 carp went 11lb odd i was hoping that the lump i had had on the meat was as big a i first thought, when the scales went 14lb 12oz i had done enough to win my 3 man section! ( is this a commercial fishery in may?). In the next section our guy tony was last with 8lb and 14lb winning his section after losing 5 foul-hookers in the last half hour! The third section saw baz come second by 3lb with 31lb to 34lb but the main threat the morgan's guy last. Section 4 saw ritchie second behind the morgan's bloke who won the pool with 52lb and the top two weights had come from to two end pegs where the wind was blowing into them both on the method feeder throwing up the long edges where there is no pegs ( farthest away from my end as possible? ). Section 5 saw stav winning his section with 31lb infront of ken's son with 21lb. The last section to weigh in on our pool was the section opposite mine which kev won with 10 carp for 9lb and the morgan's guy on 8lb and 9oz on the peg in-between them? With a quick mental tot up of the points we were winning the tie by 1 point with us on 10 and morgan's on 11 so it was down to the last 2 sections on horseshoe pool! With john coming second to the morgan's lad on point peg 19 29lb to 27lb it was down to the last section as we were level on points and section wins 3 each? Ollie had suffered in the last section coming last with 10 or 11lb and the morgan's guy on peg 6 winning the section with 47lb, Ollie's was the peg i fished a couple of weeks ago peg 13 when the fish came the last hour down the edge under a tree but with the week leading up to the match being cold and heavy rain the fish never turned up, i didn't see any fish come form the margins on the day ( so don't blame yourself mate the fish weren't there ). That was it we had lost the tie by 2 points.
We went to the pub for a consolation pint after the match and all said we would have another go next year, we were a bit unhappy at going out at this stage as the semi-final and the final are very local to us morlands and tunnel barn and we felt that we might have had a good chance but lady luck was not on our side on the day and a couple of foul-hooked carp that were lost and a couple that were landed was all the difference it took. It was always going to be hard to knock a local team out on there local fishery when most of us had never heard of the place before let alone fish it.
MORGAN'S 13 POINTS
HALESOWEN 15 POINTS
COCK & MAGGPIE 20 POINTS
Well done to the Moragan's side and good luck in the semi's at Moorlands.
Many thanks to Ken for organizing the the tie, talking pools money, sorting the pegs out and so on Cheers mate.
Thursday 6 May 2010
Spring Lea Open 2/4/10
Hi folks, back to Spring Lea for another practice before our V.D.E supercup 2nd round next week. 15 of the lads from our club ( Halesowen ) had fished a practice match on mallard lake the day before and to say they struggled was a bit of an understatement ollie winning with 37lb and my chauffeur stav coming 4th with 11lb? So with dampened spirits we made our way up the m54 towards shewsbury for the 12pm draw. After doing the draw both of us had drawn on mallard me on peg 37 and stav on peg 31, after setting up 5 top kits for 13m,6m,2 margin rigs and a shallow rig the start was upon us before i had got my bait sorted. I had taken an assortment of pellets, casters, corn and meat, to cut a long boring story short try as a could off all my lines i failed miserably to find any fish at all and at the end of the 5hrs was left scratching my head trying to work out why i hadn't caught. I had ended up with a 8lb carp 4 small stockies and a few bits for around 12lb along with the 2 guys in the same bay as me we were i think the only 3 on the lake not to weigh in? the top 3 weights had come off the horseshoe lake 65lb 64lb and 58lb, the best off mallard was the guy next to me on peg 34 casting a feeder to a lump that sticks out into the lake with 52lb but i was told that as i was 2 pegs away from the lump and not 1 like him that i couldn't throw to the same feature. SHIT! Stav had managed 32lb on feeder and 6m pole late on for 3rd in his section ( me thinks that i should have used the feeder rod that was set up in the rod sleeve behind me and used the g/bait that i had got already mixed in my bag????) DOUGH!
Are well wish us luck for the match ( boy are we going to need it ).
Are well wish us luck for the match ( boy are we going to need it ).
Maver Pairs Larford 24/4/10
Hi folks, just a quick well done to two mates of mine for getting through the maver pairs qualifier at for Laford lakes, Dan Bache ( beef head ) & Ian Giddings ( the pig ) after returning a 3 points total against some of the best anglers in the country! When Dan text me after the draw to tell me their pegs i told him that if they didn't qualifier off that draw that they might as well take up golf. Ian had drawn corner peg 22 on arena ( FLIER! ) but as Ian is a very good angler there was never any danger. Dan on the other hand has a problem as he normally comes out of the blocks very quickly but tends to fade very fast, he told me he had drawn peg 67 ( FLIER! ) on the famous red chalet on the speci lake. He was already making excuses by saying that he had drawn next to a guy from down south that fishes for daiwa dorking and went by the name of WILL???. But this time he managed to not bottle it and beat mr Raison off the next peg 111lb vs 139lb after 5hrs of a titanic pellet wagg battle. Well done lads and good luck in the final.
( sorry lads you won't need luck just let pig do his usual at the draw bag! )
( sorry lads you won't need luck just let pig do his usual at the draw bag! )
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Overall there was 6,503lb of fish weighed with a return of 76.5lb per man average over 100 pegs.
There were 28 weights over 100lbs, 6 over 150lbs and a superb weight of 205-4-0. Beat that boys!!
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Spring Lea practice 27/4/10
Hi folks, this was our first visit to the fishery where we will be fishing round 2 of the V.D.E supercup in a couple of weeks. We have been drawn away again to a team from Oswestry called Morgans the other team in the tie is The Cock & Magpie from around Bewdley area. Spring Lea is a lovely looking fishery on the outskirts of Shewsbury a bit of a drive from the black country through Bridgenorth & Much wenlock on to the A5, it took just over an hour to get there. The 2 lakes being used for the tie are Mallard & Horseshoe the latter had been left open for us by the gaffer, which i thought was very good of him as there were only 5 of us that could make it as the rest of the lads were all at work. After a walk around the Mallard with a cuppa it was obvious to us that there were plenty of fish in the lake as there were lots of fish on top and some down the margins. The only thing i was a bit concerned about was that at a lot of fishery's at the moment the fish you can see on top in the sunshine are not feeding fish they seem to be pairing up ready for spawning?.
After we returned to the car park there was one of our gang missing BIG Ritchie had got his trolley full of tackle and was already heading towards where he wanted to fish, now as the name suggests Horseshoe lake is that shape with a very pronounced point that sticks out halfway into the lake. Ritchie was off under starters orders halfway around the lake before the rest of us had even got the tackle out of the cars, i had asked the gaffer while we were paying our peg fees & buying some fishery pellets that peg 19 looked like a flier he said "yes". Now i have known Ritchie for around 25 years and over the last few years he has struggled with his weight ( 25 stone+ ) but he was making linford christie look slow? So with peg 19 gone the rest of us went on to 4 of the other pegs being used in the supercup as Ken or contact from Morgans had sent us the peg numbers and sections that were to be used on the match itself. I went for peg 13 up in the top half of the lake it didn't look as good as some of the pegs on the lake but someone had to fish it. The one good thing i did like about the peg was that peg 11 was in to my right but to my left Ritchie was the next peg in that meant i had 5 empty pallets to look at? ( to be honest we all had loads of room as there are only 2 sections of 3 anglers that's 6 pegs on a 24 peg pool in on the match, and 18 pegs on the 48 peg mallard pool?).
I won't bore you with the rigs i set up as i changed them a bit during the day as we were on a practice i was going to try different baits as we had made a few phone calls and put the feelers out we had heard that pellet, worm & caster and meat & corn all worked on there day's so i had brought a bit of everything. What we did find out was that most of the matches held on here are afternoon jobs as it seemed that a lot of the locals fish down the edge as the day wears on, the supercup match is 12-5. So with this in mind i fished worm & caster at 13m up and down( although it was only 3 1/2 ft deep from 6m to 16m), pellet at the bottom of the shelf at 6m and a margin line to my left at 6m under a small tree which i fed caster & corn.
After around 10 mins i had my first fish a 8oz skimmer then a couple of rudd and another skimmer, after around 45 mins i had caught a few silvers but no carp so i decided to try up in the water on worm. Ritchie had a couple of carp by now but the rest of us were only catching silvers, up in the water only produced the same result then john on peg 11 hooked a couple of carp one coming off and landing the other one. I switched to the 6m pellet line where i had been priming with 6-8 4mm pellets every couple mins for 1 1/2 hours, had a couple of big skimmers around 1lb apiece but i was missing a lot of bits on 6mm expanders. I felt that the missed bite's were from smaller skimmers that couldn't get the pellet in there mouths and with no 4mm hook pellets with me i started to cut the 6mm expander's in half. That seemed to work for a bit with a small run of 8-9 skimmers before the line went dead, with a quick look down my margin swim for 10 mins with 2 perch for my efforts another change was called for. I decided to try pellet up in the water to try to avoid the attentions of the silvers and try to catch one of the carp that were sunbathing on the top, first put in on the pellet shallow rig and i had hooked my first carp of the day and this was without feeding. At around 4lb not a bad start i thought but 30 mins later it proved to be the one and only carp that was willing to feed on my pellet shallow rig. After doing the rounds on all my lines again and with only silvers to show for my efforts i decided to put some bait in down my margin line and go for a walk to see how the others were getting on. Ritchie had caught the most carp, dave on peg 24 had 1 carp but was catching a silver a bung on worm shallow, ollie on peg had one big carp and some silvers and john on peg 11 had got around 4 carp but had lost as many foul-hookers down his 2 margin swims. When i got back to my peg i saw a swirl down my margin line over the 3 pig pots of caster & corn that i had put in before i went walk-about, within 30 seconds i was connected to a proper fish and a nice 8lb mirror was netted after that i managed to land 8 carp form my margin swim before we decided to call it a day. When i was catching from the margin i found out that if i went straight back in after having a fish and fed with a kinder pot of bait i couldn't get a proper bite, but if i fed with a big pot and left them to it for 2-3 mins when i went back over it i got a fish almost immediately. I think that the shallowness of the margin (1ft) and the bright sunlight was spooking the fish which were reluctant to fed with my pole waving over there heads?
We decided to weigh the fish as you can use your nets although we weren't fishing for money as Ritchie had put pay to that by plonking himself on the flier (we were going to have a couple of beer tokens each?). Ollie had 26lb, john 32lb, me 50lb, ritchie had 60-70lb although he tipped them back before we got there with the scales despite 3 of us shouting him not to ( we must get his battery's changed) and dave had 34lb.
We had a least caught a few fish and learnt a few things about the fishery and it looked like most of the carp were caught late as we had been told. The lads are going back for a practice match booked on mallard on saturday but unfortunately i have got to go to work so me and stav are going to fish the open on here sunday.
After we returned to the car park there was one of our gang missing BIG Ritchie had got his trolley full of tackle and was already heading towards where he wanted to fish, now as the name suggests Horseshoe lake is that shape with a very pronounced point that sticks out halfway into the lake. Ritchie was off under starters orders halfway around the lake before the rest of us had even got the tackle out of the cars, i had asked the gaffer while we were paying our peg fees & buying some fishery pellets that peg 19 looked like a flier he said "yes". Now i have known Ritchie for around 25 years and over the last few years he has struggled with his weight ( 25 stone+ ) but he was making linford christie look slow? So with peg 19 gone the rest of us went on to 4 of the other pegs being used in the supercup as Ken or contact from Morgans had sent us the peg numbers and sections that were to be used on the match itself. I went for peg 13 up in the top half of the lake it didn't look as good as some of the pegs on the lake but someone had to fish it. The one good thing i did like about the peg was that peg 11 was in to my right but to my left Ritchie was the next peg in that meant i had 5 empty pallets to look at? ( to be honest we all had loads of room as there are only 2 sections of 3 anglers that's 6 pegs on a 24 peg pool in on the match, and 18 pegs on the 48 peg mallard pool?).
I won't bore you with the rigs i set up as i changed them a bit during the day as we were on a practice i was going to try different baits as we had made a few phone calls and put the feelers out we had heard that pellet, worm & caster and meat & corn all worked on there day's so i had brought a bit of everything. What we did find out was that most of the matches held on here are afternoon jobs as it seemed that a lot of the locals fish down the edge as the day wears on, the supercup match is 12-5. So with this in mind i fished worm & caster at 13m up and down( although it was only 3 1/2 ft deep from 6m to 16m), pellet at the bottom of the shelf at 6m and a margin line to my left at 6m under a small tree which i fed caster & corn.
After around 10 mins i had my first fish a 8oz skimmer then a couple of rudd and another skimmer, after around 45 mins i had caught a few silvers but no carp so i decided to try up in the water on worm. Ritchie had a couple of carp by now but the rest of us were only catching silvers, up in the water only produced the same result then john on peg 11 hooked a couple of carp one coming off and landing the other one. I switched to the 6m pellet line where i had been priming with 6-8 4mm pellets every couple mins for 1 1/2 hours, had a couple of big skimmers around 1lb apiece but i was missing a lot of bits on 6mm expanders. I felt that the missed bite's were from smaller skimmers that couldn't get the pellet in there mouths and with no 4mm hook pellets with me i started to cut the 6mm expander's in half. That seemed to work for a bit with a small run of 8-9 skimmers before the line went dead, with a quick look down my margin swim for 10 mins with 2 perch for my efforts another change was called for. I decided to try pellet up in the water to try to avoid the attentions of the silvers and try to catch one of the carp that were sunbathing on the top, first put in on the pellet shallow rig and i had hooked my first carp of the day and this was without feeding. At around 4lb not a bad start i thought but 30 mins later it proved to be the one and only carp that was willing to feed on my pellet shallow rig. After doing the rounds on all my lines again and with only silvers to show for my efforts i decided to put some bait in down my margin line and go for a walk to see how the others were getting on. Ritchie had caught the most carp, dave on peg 24 had 1 carp but was catching a silver a bung on worm shallow, ollie on peg had one big carp and some silvers and john on peg 11 had got around 4 carp but had lost as many foul-hookers down his 2 margin swims. When i got back to my peg i saw a swirl down my margin line over the 3 pig pots of caster & corn that i had put in before i went walk-about, within 30 seconds i was connected to a proper fish and a nice 8lb mirror was netted after that i managed to land 8 carp form my margin swim before we decided to call it a day. When i was catching from the margin i found out that if i went straight back in after having a fish and fed with a kinder pot of bait i couldn't get a proper bite, but if i fed with a big pot and left them to it for 2-3 mins when i went back over it i got a fish almost immediately. I think that the shallowness of the margin (1ft) and the bright sunlight was spooking the fish which were reluctant to fed with my pole waving over there heads?
We decided to weigh the fish as you can use your nets although we weren't fishing for money as Ritchie had put pay to that by plonking himself on the flier (we were going to have a couple of beer tokens each?). Ollie had 26lb, john 32lb, me 50lb, ritchie had 60-70lb although he tipped them back before we got there with the scales despite 3 of us shouting him not to ( we must get his battery's changed) and dave had 34lb.
We had a least caught a few fish and learnt a few things about the fishery and it looked like most of the carp were caught late as we had been told. The lads are going back for a practice match booked on mallard on saturday but unfortunately i have got to go to work so me and stav are going to fish the open on here sunday.
Monday 3 May 2010
Pair's League Blythe 25/4/10
Hi Folk's, it's back to Cherries pool at Blythe waters for round 7 of our pair's league and a quick look at the score sheet reveled that Stav can't add up? as he had said we were 19 points clear but we were in fact only 15 points clear. So with 22 points up for grabs on each of the next 2 rounds it was far from over. If you have read my blog before you will know that i have been letting Stav do the drawing on this one has i have had some good results off his draw's including a section/ overall win on the last match. As the draw started Stav looked at me and said he had to GO? GO where? GO he said and ran off in a hurry ( emergency crap ), so that left me to do the draw i drew me out peg 8 the widest part of the lake and put Stav on peg 23 at the bottom end of the lake opposite where i was on the last match. Stav's peg was to far to reach the boom with the pole but did have a long left hand margin. I fancied this where the fish to be as peg's 20/22 & 23 all have nice long margins to fish and the wind was blowing down this end as it had been on the last match. My peg looks at the point where the 2 booms meet at around 35m with one arm coming towards me at an angle ending at around 22m. From the end of the boom there is an aerator attached by a rope from the end of the boom to the bank next to me meaning that i couldn't fish a left hand margin as the rope was in the way, the aerator was around 11m out ( see pic ). I set about tackling the peg as follows.
I set up 2 pellet wagg rods as i felt that the fish would be up in the water as on the last match, one had a 3SSG wagg on for the shorter chuck on the left hand boom and the other a 5SSG wagg for the long chuck where the 2 boom's met at around 35m. My 2 wagg rods for the job are both preston carbon active's one 11ft and the other a 13ft power float, coupled with shimano 2500 super GTM'S . The lighter of the two had 5lb maxima mainline and 6lb on the other both had a size 20 swivel to a 14 pr27 0.18 silstar h/l with a lasso tied on. I set up 3 pole rigs one for the deck by the aerator, one for shallow at the same line and a margin rig for 4m to my right on the edge of some reeds, this was as far as i could go as the reeds stick out to far to get to the next pallet which is empty because 8/9/10 all look at the same point on the boom?
On the bait front i had brought enough to sink a battleship as there are no bait limits at Blythe and you can use your own pellets, i had got 8/6/4mm & micro pellets some corn and 4 & 6mm expanders for the hook plus some g/bait in-case the wind got up to bad and i had to chuck the method feeder.
On the whistle i put in a full pot of micros on the aerator and started to flick 4mm pellets down the edge. I started on the short pellet wagg line at around 25m firing around 3-4 8mm pellets every 30 seconds or so. After around 10 mins i had my first bite and a 3lb'er was in the net, over the next half i hooked 2 more fish that came off. I was getting odd bites but couldn't hit them so i had a look on the longer 35m line and on the first cast hooked another fish that came off straight away. Carl ( the gaffer ) on peg 3 had had a couple of fish but he too had lost a couple of foul hooker's, it looked like there were a few fish up in the water but were not feeding just milling around. I had a look on my aerator line with only a couple of skimmers to show it was time to give Stav a ring as at my end of the pool it looked like being a hard day with only odd fish showing. Stav said that he had been on pellet wagg and method feeder without a bite and had only had a couple of bit's on the pole. SHIT we were not doing to well as a couple at Stav's end had caught a few small carp. After another look on all my line's and with only a couple of skimmers to show i decided to get the method feeder out and give it a go as i had stopped getting any indications on the pellet wagg and wind was becoming a problem creating a big bow in the line. On my first chuck on the method at the meeting point of the 2 boom's the rod wrapped round and a nice 6lb'er was in the net on a 6mm pellet, maybe the fish were down after all? My phone went and i had a text from Stav saying he had 2 fish in 2 put's down the edge on meat and we were off and running. After a quick look down the edge with out success back out on the feeder i had couple of skimmers then carp no 3, the guys around me were also struggling apart from carl who had had a few carp up in the water but had lost a few foul-hookers as well. With 15 mins left to go and no more action on the method i had a look down the edge after a couple of mins the float shot under on a 6mm expander, the fish shot along the reeds bottomed out the black hydro and we parted company crap! Next put-in the same result only the culprit was a 1lb skimmer, next put in i hooked and landed a 6lb'er( shit) they had turned up late. I had one more put-in praying for a bite but the all out was shouted.
After packing in the scales came out and peg 31 was the first to weigh in my section he had 19lb 3oz i thought that would be close to what i had got, i new i had beaten pegs 2 & 5, Carl on peg 3 weighed 29lb and was winning the section. My 4 carp & skimmers went 19lb 6oz enough to put me second so far and with the two guys on my right struggling things were looking up. 7 pegs in my section had weighed and i was lying second peg 12 was next to weigh and Baz had 26lb,peg 13 had 30lb, peg 14 had 15lb of bits and peg 16 martin had 32lb of carp.It was obvious that the carp weren't in the bay and a lot more fish were caught from point peg 12 down the lake in the wind. That put me 5th in the 11 peg section not a great result but not a complete disaster. As the scales went down into stavs section there was 20lb and Ewen in the corner had 32lb, Stav said he had got around 25lb but when he pulled his net out i knew he had more. The scales read 36lb 13oz and enough to put him in first, as the scales went along Stav was still winning until the last to weigh in on peg 30 where Tony Bowen had got 2 big lumps + lots of silvers the scales read 36lb 8oz the 2 carp must have gone 20-25lb, Stav had won the section and the match overall. When the points were sorted we had extended our lead at the top of the league from 15 to 21 points, so with 1 round to go we only need 2 points to win the league so all we have to do is weigh in? Well done to Stav for winning this one ( off a wind assisted, corner peg flier ) well done m8.
I set up 2 pellet wagg rods as i felt that the fish would be up in the water as on the last match, one had a 3SSG wagg on for the shorter chuck on the left hand boom and the other a 5SSG wagg for the long chuck where the 2 boom's met at around 35m. My 2 wagg rods for the job are both preston carbon active's one 11ft and the other a 13ft power float, coupled with shimano 2500 super GTM'S . The lighter of the two had 5lb maxima mainline and 6lb on the other both had a size 20 swivel to a 14 pr27 0.18 silstar h/l with a lasso tied on. I set up 3 pole rigs one for the deck by the aerator, one for shallow at the same line and a margin rig for 4m to my right on the edge of some reeds, this was as far as i could go as the reeds stick out to far to get to the next pallet which is empty because 8/9/10 all look at the same point on the boom?
On the bait front i had brought enough to sink a battleship as there are no bait limits at Blythe and you can use your own pellets, i had got 8/6/4mm & micro pellets some corn and 4 & 6mm expanders for the hook plus some g/bait in-case the wind got up to bad and i had to chuck the method feeder.
On the whistle i put in a full pot of micros on the aerator and started to flick 4mm pellets down the edge. I started on the short pellet wagg line at around 25m firing around 3-4 8mm pellets every 30 seconds or so. After around 10 mins i had my first bite and a 3lb'er was in the net, over the next half i hooked 2 more fish that came off. I was getting odd bites but couldn't hit them so i had a look on the longer 35m line and on the first cast hooked another fish that came off straight away. Carl ( the gaffer ) on peg 3 had had a couple of fish but he too had lost a couple of foul hooker's, it looked like there were a few fish up in the water but were not feeding just milling around. I had a look on my aerator line with only a couple of skimmers to show it was time to give Stav a ring as at my end of the pool it looked like being a hard day with only odd fish showing. Stav said that he had been on pellet wagg and method feeder without a bite and had only had a couple of bit's on the pole. SHIT we were not doing to well as a couple at Stav's end had caught a few small carp. After another look on all my line's and with only a couple of skimmers to show i decided to get the method feeder out and give it a go as i had stopped getting any indications on the pellet wagg and wind was becoming a problem creating a big bow in the line. On my first chuck on the method at the meeting point of the 2 boom's the rod wrapped round and a nice 6lb'er was in the net on a 6mm pellet, maybe the fish were down after all? My phone went and i had a text from Stav saying he had 2 fish in 2 put's down the edge on meat and we were off and running. After a quick look down the edge with out success back out on the feeder i had couple of skimmers then carp no 3, the guys around me were also struggling apart from carl who had had a few carp up in the water but had lost a few foul-hookers as well. With 15 mins left to go and no more action on the method i had a look down the edge after a couple of mins the float shot under on a 6mm expander, the fish shot along the reeds bottomed out the black hydro and we parted company crap! Next put-in the same result only the culprit was a 1lb skimmer, next put in i hooked and landed a 6lb'er( shit) they had turned up late. I had one more put-in praying for a bite but the all out was shouted.
After packing in the scales came out and peg 31 was the first to weigh in my section he had 19lb 3oz i thought that would be close to what i had got, i new i had beaten pegs 2 & 5, Carl on peg 3 weighed 29lb and was winning the section. My 4 carp & skimmers went 19lb 6oz enough to put me second so far and with the two guys on my right struggling things were looking up. 7 pegs in my section had weighed and i was lying second peg 12 was next to weigh and Baz had 26lb,peg 13 had 30lb, peg 14 had 15lb of bits and peg 16 martin had 32lb of carp.It was obvious that the carp weren't in the bay and a lot more fish were caught from point peg 12 down the lake in the wind. That put me 5th in the 11 peg section not a great result but not a complete disaster. As the scales went down into stavs section there was 20lb and Ewen in the corner had 32lb, Stav said he had got around 25lb but when he pulled his net out i knew he had more. The scales read 36lb 13oz and enough to put him in first, as the scales went along Stav was still winning until the last to weigh in on peg 30 where Tony Bowen had got 2 big lumps + lots of silvers the scales read 36lb 8oz the 2 carp must have gone 20-25lb, Stav had won the section and the match overall. When the points were sorted we had extended our lead at the top of the league from 15 to 21 points, so with 1 round to go we only need 2 points to win the league so all we have to do is weigh in? Well done to Stav for winning this one ( off a wind assisted, corner peg flier ) well done m8.
Tunnel Barn Open 18/4/10
Hi folks, it's back to tunnel barn for this sunday's open and with 35-40 booked in it was going to be on two lake's new & top pool's. At the draw i pulled out new 35 a peg i have not fished before but fancied it for a few fish and the bonus was that the island is only 11m away. Stav had drew on the bottom end of top pool ( sorry the peg number escapes me ) with open water and no island to fish to.
When i started to set up i noticed that i had Paul Bick for company on peg 33 and Stu Pulsar on peg 37 i thought it was going to be a hard day with 2 local hero's either side of me that fish the venue regularly. I set up following rigs:
rig 1, 0.30gr maver jurassic dibber for up the island or shallow down the track 0.14 line 16 pr27 lassoed 6mm pellet.
rig 2, 3m line 4 x 12 j-8 range float 0.14 line to 16 tossicro hook set 3ft deep with just a bulk of stotz 10" inches form the hook.
rig 3, margin rig 4 x 12 preston dura 10 float wtih the same line and hook as above that would do for both left and right hand margins as they were the same depth.
Bait for the day was simple 1 bag each of tbf micro & 4mm feed pellets 2 tins of corn and some 4 & 6mm expanders for the hooK.
On the whistle i potted in some micro's & a few 4mm's on my right hand margin at around 6m an just threw a few 4mm's on my left hand margin while i put a pot full of micros in on my 3m line. I shipped out to the island at 11m with a lassoed 6mm on my shallow rig with just s few micro's in the kinder pot the rig was just touching bottom in around a 1ft of water. After around 3 put-ins i hooked my first fish which came off shipping back, next put in the same result fish on/ then off. After it happened the third time there was obviously something wrong but what? the hook was ok the depth ok? I decided to change the rig as i thought that the 6mm hair-rigged was to big for the fish and they were not taking it right, and i had a lot of missed bites with the fish playing ping-pong with my bait. I changed the rig to a 4 x10 preston durra 1 float and 16 tossciro with a 4mm expander and soon after i had my first f1, of the day by this time the first half hour had gone and paul had 4-5 fish and stu had got 9 SHIT i was miles of the pace already. My island swim was frustrating me as i new there were fish there but i would have one or two bites max before it went dead, there was a bit of a dead tree to my right and when i couldn't get a bite i could see the fish under the tree where they were safe and i couldn't get at them. After i had tried to catch of my short and margin lines without success i decided to try my shallow rig by the tree as i could fish moving under the twigs and rubbish that had collected by the tree. After another 15 mins fruitless i was left needing snookers, Stav come and sat on the grass behind me and said he was struggling as well only being able to catch odd skimmers. I went over to the island on the deck while he was there and had 2 fish in 2 puts then nothing for 5 mins, the only thing i could think of was that after a fish or 2 or a missed bite the fish would back off in the bright sunny conditions to the sanctuary of the tree. Great i thought a least i know what to do now have a fish off the island got elsewhere for 5 mins then pick another off the island? the only problem with plan was that i couldn't get a bite off any other line but the island. Stu pulsar to my left was having a fish a bung off his island swim and odd fish from his margin's fishing worm, Paul to my right had odd fish off his island but quiet a few fish from his left hand margin passed the empty pallet up to a big set of reeds. The rest of the match followed suit all i could manage was a few fish from my left hand margin in the last hour, to say i had a battering off the next peg was an under statement. Paul had 67lb , Stu had 124lb and wait for it me 40lb stuck piggi in the middle i had had a slapping both sides so both my cheeks were red! oh hum. A quick walk over to Stav reveled that he had managed a few carp in the last hour to weigh in just short of 30lb. After talking to a few of the regulars later it soon became apparent that we were fishing the wrong bait as the top 5 had fished different baits but none of them on pellet! I thought that the 124lb Stu had would put him in a top spot? not so the place had gone off on one, Rob Avery had 173lb off peg 3 on top pool with bread 6in deep at 6m? Stu's weight was only good enough for 5th? On looking at stu's peg after match he had been fishing in a gap in-between 2 reed bed's on the island offering cover for the fish after he had caught one so he could go straight over and have another, also he had fished worm. It was food for thought as it was apparent that the fish were not liking pellet at the minute.
When i started to set up i noticed that i had Paul Bick for company on peg 33 and Stu Pulsar on peg 37 i thought it was going to be a hard day with 2 local hero's either side of me that fish the venue regularly. I set up following rigs:
rig 1, 0.30gr maver jurassic dibber for up the island or shallow down the track 0.14 line 16 pr27 lassoed 6mm pellet.
rig 2, 3m line 4 x 12 j-8 range float 0.14 line to 16 tossicro hook set 3ft deep with just a bulk of stotz 10" inches form the hook.
rig 3, margin rig 4 x 12 preston dura 10 float wtih the same line and hook as above that would do for both left and right hand margins as they were the same depth.
Bait for the day was simple 1 bag each of tbf micro & 4mm feed pellets 2 tins of corn and some 4 & 6mm expanders for the hooK.
On the whistle i potted in some micro's & a few 4mm's on my right hand margin at around 6m an just threw a few 4mm's on my left hand margin while i put a pot full of micros in on my 3m line. I shipped out to the island at 11m with a lassoed 6mm on my shallow rig with just s few micro's in the kinder pot the rig was just touching bottom in around a 1ft of water. After around 3 put-ins i hooked my first fish which came off shipping back, next put in the same result fish on/ then off. After it happened the third time there was obviously something wrong but what? the hook was ok the depth ok? I decided to change the rig as i thought that the 6mm hair-rigged was to big for the fish and they were not taking it right, and i had a lot of missed bites with the fish playing ping-pong with my bait. I changed the rig to a 4 x10 preston durra 1 float and 16 tossciro with a 4mm expander and soon after i had my first f1, of the day by this time the first half hour had gone and paul had 4-5 fish and stu had got 9 SHIT i was miles of the pace already. My island swim was frustrating me as i new there were fish there but i would have one or two bites max before it went dead, there was a bit of a dead tree to my right and when i couldn't get a bite i could see the fish under the tree where they were safe and i couldn't get at them. After i had tried to catch of my short and margin lines without success i decided to try my shallow rig by the tree as i could fish moving under the twigs and rubbish that had collected by the tree. After another 15 mins fruitless i was left needing snookers, Stav come and sat on the grass behind me and said he was struggling as well only being able to catch odd skimmers. I went over to the island on the deck while he was there and had 2 fish in 2 puts then nothing for 5 mins, the only thing i could think of was that after a fish or 2 or a missed bite the fish would back off in the bright sunny conditions to the sanctuary of the tree. Great i thought a least i know what to do now have a fish off the island got elsewhere for 5 mins then pick another off the island? the only problem with plan was that i couldn't get a bite off any other line but the island. Stu pulsar to my left was having a fish a bung off his island swim and odd fish from his margin's fishing worm, Paul to my right had odd fish off his island but quiet a few fish from his left hand margin passed the empty pallet up to a big set of reeds. The rest of the match followed suit all i could manage was a few fish from my left hand margin in the last hour, to say i had a battering off the next peg was an under statement. Paul had 67lb , Stu had 124lb and wait for it me 40lb stuck piggi in the middle i had had a slapping both sides so both my cheeks were red! oh hum. A quick walk over to Stav reveled that he had managed a few carp in the last hour to weigh in just short of 30lb. After talking to a few of the regulars later it soon became apparent that we were fishing the wrong bait as the top 5 had fished different baits but none of them on pellet! I thought that the 124lb Stu had would put him in a top spot? not so the place had gone off on one, Rob Avery had 173lb off peg 3 on top pool with bread 6in deep at 6m? Stu's weight was only good enough for 5th? On looking at stu's peg after match he had been fishing in a gap in-between 2 reed bed's on the island offering cover for the fish after he had caught one so he could go straight over and have another, also he had fished worm. It was food for thought as it was apparent that the fish were not liking pellet at the minute.
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