Hi folks, this weekend took us to Blythe waters for the start of our annual pairs league me & my partner Stav were hoping for a good start to the league as we won it earlier this year, the league is run over 8 match's with roughly 1 match per month until may next year. Normally the match is just split into 2 sections on Cherries pool but due to a few more pairs wanting to fish this year we decided to run the match's over 2 pools with Bridge pool being the new addition, 1 angler from each pair on each pool with points deciding the overall results 15 points down to 1 for last on the pool and 0 for a DNW. Carl the gaffer had decided to limit the the amount of pairs to 15 as he felt this about right for the pools during the winter, last year there were 11 pairs on 1 pool which was a few too many for Cherries meaning we had to put a few pegs in that were not very good so we were hoping that by using the 2 pools and taking some of the pressure off that we would catch a few more kippers. Typical that we turned 1 pair away for the league then 1 pair failed to show up so we were down to 14 pairs for the league, Bridge pool is a bit of an unknown to most of us but we were told that there were more carp present than Cherries me & Stav fished it a few weeks ago and it had not fished well then it was now ever colder. Stav went up for the draw putting himself on peg 21 on Bridge and came back with peg 14 on Cherries for me, Stav's peg as i have said is a bit of an unknown but my peg is crap i don't like this part of the pool as you cannot reach the boom with the pole and the next peg in 12 is out on a bump some 3-4m further out into the lake than you. I was not happy as with the whole lake being the section there are only 5 pegs that cannot reach the boom with the pole but peg 10 is in the bay all on it's own peg 12 i have told you about and pegs 22&23 are corner pegs, that leaves 14&16 the only pegs without a boom within pole range okay you might say so use the lead or the feeder that's okay if there are any fish in the area but the peg opposite 28 is missed out because its crap it was in last year and never threw a weight up. The next pegs to my right 16&17 are opposite 25&26 two good peg that regularly throw up good weights and to make matters worse Carl the gaffer had drawn peg 10 which 2 years ago was the best peg on the pool but last year we put 11 in so it didn't fish as it had before, this year peg 11 was out peg 8 was missed out due to there being a few arguments about them throwing in the same spot and pegs 1-7 on the disabled pegs were left out so peg 10 has got 9 spare pegs? I set up the following rigs to tackle the peg.
Rig 1, 14.5m pole line 4x14 j8-range float, 0.16 mainline to 0.12 h/l with a 18 808 hook, set just touching the deck in 5 1/2ft of water finished off with Preston 11h elastic just in-case the carp turn up.
Rig 2, the same as above but with a 20 808 hook to 0.10 h/l & double 5 elastic.
Rig 3, fished at 8m a Preston inter 9 0.30gr float 0.10 straight through to a 20 B510 hook and double 5 elastic.
I also set up my beastmaster 9-11 feeder rod for the method feeder up the boom which is around 20-22m away.
For bait i had brought 1 pint of red & white maggots, 1 pint of red & fluro pinkies, 1 bag of 1mm pellets, some 4mm expanders, half a tin of corn for the hook( team tin as me & Stav call it) and a few dead maggots for the hook.
I started the match on the method with 2 dead reds on the hook with 1mm soaked pellets on the hook which i planned to fish for the first hour while keeping an eye on what was being caught around me, i had put a few micro's on my 14.5m line & a quarter of a pot of pinkies on the 8m line sat back and got my head down awaiting my first bite. Wait for a bite i did 55mins gone before the tip dropped back and my first fish a 6oz skimmer was in the net, before i recast i went to answer a call of nature( to much tea) asking Johnny Bill who was on peg 16 how he was getting on he said 2 small carp and a skimmer i couldn't see him due to a tree in-between us. He was doing the best as far as i could see as pegs 12, 29 & 30 were not catching, after another bite-less 15mins i switched to the long pole line with a 4mm expander on with a few micro's in my tiny fruit shoot pot. I fished the long pole for around 30mins without a single bite i couldn't believe it normally you can catch a few skimmers from all the pegs on pellet, usually the better bags come from fishing the pole up to the boom as this gives you better presentation than chucking a feeder for the skimmers. I went onto my 8m pinkie line which i had been topping up from the start and had 4 small 1oz roach in 4 put-ins which was better than nothing i thought before i connected with something a bit better a 1lb skimmer, this is more like it i thought but the bites soon dried up after another couple of roach and a small skimmer so i topped up with pinkies and had another chuck on the feeder. I was now getting worried as i couldn't get a bite on anything and John was catching skimmers with a couple of big perch thrown in on the chopped worm, it was now 1/2 way through the match so i phoned Stav on the other pool to see how he was doing and he was having a few roach on the pole but no carp, Roy next to him had got a couple of carp but there was a few dry nets on his pool as well so he was in the top half on his pool. I was now left wondering what to do as apart from the odd small roach on the pinkie line i couldn't raise a bite on anything else, there were the odd carp being caught from the deep end of the pool to my right
so i felt that i would have to catch one or two as the silvers were not coming fast enough to build a decent weight. I decided to change from the method feeder to a small maggot feeder as i felt that they didn't want a pellet at all as Stav had not had a bite on it either but another 30mins went by without as much a liner, i was now needing snookers and put a single red maggot on my light rig over the top of the pellet line with 3-4 maggots as feed. I had 2 skimmers and a roach in 3 put-ins on this then nothing again for 10mins before another skimmer of 4oz, i stayed on this line until the whistle as it was the only thing i could get a bite on. The whistle sounded and i was glad after suffering a frustrating 5 hours i knew the peg was crap but JB had caught well off the next peg16, Carl on peg 10 came across saying it had fished hard he had got 4 small carp HARD he don't no the meaning of the word whats a carp i hadn't seen a sign of one all day. Carl had weighed in by the time i had packed in but his 4 SMALL carp went 27lb he said one of the carp was 15-20lb telling pork pies he is, big Gary on peg 12 had suffered the same as me with 3lb odd and my few bits went 5lb 6oz, JB had a good day with 19lb then Martin on peg 17 having 6lb odd. The pools had fished very hard but there were a few more fish caught at the deeper end of the lake Phil ( Geordie pet ) a guy i work with had 11lb odd on peg19 and losing a good fish towards the end of the match which cost him a few places, Stu on corner peg 20 had 18lb, Bash on peg 22 had 8lb then Tony on peg 23 had a great bag of silvers with 18lb. There was another 18lb, 8lb & 12lb on the end peg 32 the only other 2 on the lake that i beat were opposite and slightly to my left on pegs 29 & 30 with a 1lb odd and the other with just ounces, if you look at a map of the pool the bottom 4 weights were all in the same area so this is my excuse and i am sticking to it. Stav had feared better than me on Bridge pool with 10lb odd of all roach for 6th place on the pool, the lake had been won off peg 7 with 31lb of carp by Dave Anderson but there were a few low weights on the pool the same as Cherries two guys not breaking a pound. I know the water temperature must be dropping fast due to the frosts were having but i thought there might be a few more fish caught, at the time of writing i don't have the pairs points to share with you Stav said we were about half way so i hope to get the pairs points after the next round. I will be drawing our pegs on the next round as i have sacked Stav from his job after putting me on that peg, i should have known better after winning the fur & feather last week that i had used all my good luck up!
Sunday 28 November 2010
Monday 22 November 2010
Staffs-Worcs canal Hinksford Sunday 14/11/10
Hi folks, this Sunday saw us on the Staffs-Worcs canal at Hinksford for the last club match of the year with one of our clubs Cradley Heath which was the fur & feather, we had got the section from Hinksford bridge down to the Navigation pub but with 26 turning out for the match we decided to put a 5 peg section above the bridge going back towards Swindon to take some of the pressure off the main stretch. Me & Stav had been down for a practice a couple of weeks ago and with me catching over double figures i was hoping for a good draw which was to take place a the Green Man pub at Swindon. With all 26 hopefuls assembled outside the pub ready for the 9.00am draw the mickey talking started as you have to get into the top 12 to get a turkey on this match then all the rest get capons ( or as the lads call them budgie's! ), i went into the draw bag and peg 2 stuck to my hand Great! i had drawn one of the 5 unknown pegs above the bridge which no one new nothing about as since they extended the boat moorings not many people fish it. The pegs below the bridge are well fished as there has been a league run on here with double figures needed to win all the rounds but our pegs have no form at all, not many clubs bother to book the stretch we are on as there are boats moored up for 80% of the stretch on the opposite side of the canal which might sound good for cover but if you get someone working on there boat banging and rocking the boat it can ruin your days fishing. To make matters worse after talking to Martin who had pegged out me & Kev Clark who had drawn peg 1 had to walk passed all the boats to get to our pegs as he had put pegs 3, 4 & 5 just above the bridge then left all the boats out so we were up towards Swindon lock, when we got there we felt like billy no mates as we were a few hundred yards above peg 3 but to make matters worse Kev who thought he had drawn the flier peg 1 under the lock which holds big chub in the over flow from the lock was some 50yards away as they had put some more moorings on our side of the canal down from the lock. It had been many years since either of us had even seen this stretch of the canal as we didn't even no there was any moorings below the lock but you can understand not pegging them as if a boat wants to moor up you cannot do anything about it. My peg was 14m wide with the end of the last boat some 16m away at a 2 o'clock angle but there was very little depth over as i plumbed up so i was going to base my attack at 11.5m where the boat channel started to shelve up. I set up the following rigs.
Rig 1, a 4 x 10 tubertini stix float, .08 mainline to a .07 hooklength with a 22 pr31 hook set just touching bottom in just over 2ft of water at 11.5m finished off with a 3 vespe elastic.
Rig 2, the same as above but with a 4 x 8 float for 13m if the boats moved the fish up the shelf in around 18" of water, any further over and the depth was less than a foot.
Rig 3, the same 4 x 8 float and the same line but with a size 20 pr322 hook for the hemp set at around 18" deep were i found a little more depth at 14.5m at 2 o'clock towards the moored boats.
Rig 4, a 4 x 10 original Drennan caster float, .08 line straight through to a 18 pr322 & a no4 vespe elastic set just out of the main track in 3ft of water at 11.5m off at a 10 o'clock angle to my left.
For bait i had brought 1/2 pint each of red squatt, caster & hemp a few pinkies for the hook and some of my favorite g/bait mix of V.D.E supermatch & supercup mixed 70% supermatch to 30% supercup, i had also got some liquidized bread if the going got tough as it is around this time of the year it starts to take over from the squatt as the water temperature cools and the canal starts to clear due to the boat traffic slowing down.
On the whistle i put 2 golf ball size balls of g/bait with a few squatts in then loose fed hemp and caster onto there respective lines some 6-8 grains or shells every now and then, i sat back on the 11.5m squatt line awaiting the first bite of the day while firing a few squatts over the top.
Kev had started on the bread right over to a set of reads he had in-front of him but 5mins went passed without a sign then another 5mins we started to get a bit worried after around 20mins i was really worried as neither of us had so much as a bite, i kept saying to Kev that my fears were becoming reality as no one fishes here much any more the fish haven't seen any bait here for that long that i feared the fish just weren't there anymore and have swam to where they get fed regularly. Then out of the blue on 25mins we both had a fish at the same time then another 3-4 on the next 3-4 put-ins just like someone had flicked a switch the fish started to feed, i was catching small roach to start with then after around 45mins proper dumpy squatt roach in the 2-3oz bracket with the odd gonk (gudgeon) thrown in for good measure. Kev was still struggling to catch much at all but i was now flying coming back with a roach, small perch or gonk every put in, i stayed on the squatt up until the 2 hour mark when most of the roach had dried up and all i could catch was gonks so decided to have a look on my hemp line to see if there were any roach over it. First put-in on the hemp at 14.5m the float buried and a 3oz roach was in the net but it was another 10mins before my next fish a 2oz job so after another 5 mins i decided to go back on the squatt, there were odd fish on the hemp line but they were not coming fast enough shipping 14.5m of pole out when i was getting bites on the squatt at 11.5m a lot quicker. I had a quick 5mins on the caster but without a bite i was soon back on the squatt because i feel that if you have feed a line for 2-3 hours and don't get a bite within 5mins there is not a lot of fish there, then just as i got back onto the squatt the first boat of the day came chugging up the cut and went right over my squatt line churning up the bottom i think his propeller mush have hit the shelf as he turned the peg into a mud slick. 5mins after the boat had gone through and all i could hook was leafs or very fine green weed was masking the bait, another 5mins went by without a sign of a bite so it looked like the boat had done a lot of damage even going up the shelf at 13m failed to produce a bite so i had a look back on the hemp line as it seemed to miss most of the disturbance caused by the boat. I had put another golf ball of g/bait on the squatt line before trying the hemp as i had done 4-5 times throughout the match when bites started to dry up, after 10mins on the hemp with just 2 more small roach to show for my efforts i went back to the squatt line and the fish had come back mainly gonks but a least they were back. I decided to stay on the squatt as kev had a phone call from Steve Robson who was just below the bridge to say that they were struggling in his area and Kev himself had found bites hard to come by all day, with 30mins left to go i decided to have a last look on the caster line for 5mins and if it didn't go by then i would just catch the gonks on the squatt until the whistle. With my 5mins almost up on the caster the float buried and i was playing a better fish a roach of around 8oz was a welcome bonus, i sat on the caster for the rest of the match with a roach and a perch both around the same size as the first 1 gonk and a roach of 2oz right on the whistle. I was left wondering how long the fish had been on the caster line but i was happy with my days fishing apart from the slow start and the boat that wiped me out for 25mins, we had another boat that came down the lock some time after the first one but it came at half the speed of the first and straight down the track and never even stirred up the silt. A quick call to Stav who had drawn a good peg just above the power cables on the main stretch reveled he had got around the 4lb mark and there was a couple admitting to around the same, i thought that i might have around the 5lb mark. Kev was the first to weigh as we had the scales but only had to weigh our 5 peg section he had struggled putting 2lb 1oz on the scales, i was well shocked when Kev shouted out 7lb 9oz for my net the last 3 bonus caster fish had really bumped my weight up Kev put my 3 caster fish back then put the sling back on the scales reveling 6lb of squatt fish. Walking down the canal we started to here of another 7lb and one of the lads was admitting to 6lb+ the next good weight on our scales was Brian Smith with 5lb 10oz, when we got back to the car park i spoke to Shaun Waite who had the other 7lb and said his was 7lb dead so i was the best weight we had heard of so far. Back in the pub it was soon reveled that i had won the match and i was well pleased even more so when i was handed the bouns money as i was sitting on one of the half a dozen bouns pegs MEGA HAPPY!
The match had fished well as 12th place and the last turkey went to Martin Yardsley with 4lb 2oz, Satv had got into the turkey's with 4lb 7oz. Shaun was second with his 7lb which he said contained a 1lb carp while getting broke by 2 more proper carp! Baz Robson was 3rd with 6lb off the peg i practised on a couple of weeks ago, there were a few good pegs that didn't produce as there was a club match on there the day before but overall the stretch had fished well for this time of the year. Lets hope that it fishes the same again in 2 weeks time as we have got the same
stretch booked for the Halesowen fur & feather, i am just hoping the weather holds before we return as we fished the stretch earlier this year in the cold and there were a few dry nets as the fish start to shoal up.
Rig 1, a 4 x 10 tubertini stix float, .08 mainline to a .07 hooklength with a 22 pr31 hook set just touching bottom in just over 2ft of water at 11.5m finished off with a 3 vespe elastic.
Rig 2, the same as above but with a 4 x 8 float for 13m if the boats moved the fish up the shelf in around 18" of water, any further over and the depth was less than a foot.
Rig 3, the same 4 x 8 float and the same line but with a size 20 pr322 hook for the hemp set at around 18" deep were i found a little more depth at 14.5m at 2 o'clock towards the moored boats.
Rig 4, a 4 x 10 original Drennan caster float, .08 line straight through to a 18 pr322 & a no4 vespe elastic set just out of the main track in 3ft of water at 11.5m off at a 10 o'clock angle to my left.
For bait i had brought 1/2 pint each of red squatt, caster & hemp a few pinkies for the hook and some of my favorite g/bait mix of V.D.E supermatch & supercup mixed 70% supermatch to 30% supercup, i had also got some liquidized bread if the going got tough as it is around this time of the year it starts to take over from the squatt as the water temperature cools and the canal starts to clear due to the boat traffic slowing down.
On the whistle i put 2 golf ball size balls of g/bait with a few squatts in then loose fed hemp and caster onto there respective lines some 6-8 grains or shells every now and then, i sat back on the 11.5m squatt line awaiting the first bite of the day while firing a few squatts over the top.
Kev had started on the bread right over to a set of reads he had in-front of him but 5mins went passed without a sign then another 5mins we started to get a bit worried after around 20mins i was really worried as neither of us had so much as a bite, i kept saying to Kev that my fears were becoming reality as no one fishes here much any more the fish haven't seen any bait here for that long that i feared the fish just weren't there anymore and have swam to where they get fed regularly. Then out of the blue on 25mins we both had a fish at the same time then another 3-4 on the next 3-4 put-ins just like someone had flicked a switch the fish started to feed, i was catching small roach to start with then after around 45mins proper dumpy squatt roach in the 2-3oz bracket with the odd gonk (gudgeon) thrown in for good measure. Kev was still struggling to catch much at all but i was now flying coming back with a roach, small perch or gonk every put in, i stayed on the squatt up until the 2 hour mark when most of the roach had dried up and all i could catch was gonks so decided to have a look on my hemp line to see if there were any roach over it. First put-in on the hemp at 14.5m the float buried and a 3oz roach was in the net but it was another 10mins before my next fish a 2oz job so after another 5 mins i decided to go back on the squatt, there were odd fish on the hemp line but they were not coming fast enough shipping 14.5m of pole out when i was getting bites on the squatt at 11.5m a lot quicker. I had a quick 5mins on the caster but without a bite i was soon back on the squatt because i feel that if you have feed a line for 2-3 hours and don't get a bite within 5mins there is not a lot of fish there, then just as i got back onto the squatt the first boat of the day came chugging up the cut and went right over my squatt line churning up the bottom i think his propeller mush have hit the shelf as he turned the peg into a mud slick. 5mins after the boat had gone through and all i could hook was leafs or very fine green weed was masking the bait, another 5mins went by without a sign of a bite so it looked like the boat had done a lot of damage even going up the shelf at 13m failed to produce a bite so i had a look back on the hemp line as it seemed to miss most of the disturbance caused by the boat. I had put another golf ball of g/bait on the squatt line before trying the hemp as i had done 4-5 times throughout the match when bites started to dry up, after 10mins on the hemp with just 2 more small roach to show for my efforts i went back to the squatt line and the fish had come back mainly gonks but a least they were back. I decided to stay on the squatt as kev had a phone call from Steve Robson who was just below the bridge to say that they were struggling in his area and Kev himself had found bites hard to come by all day, with 30mins left to go i decided to have a last look on the caster line for 5mins and if it didn't go by then i would just catch the gonks on the squatt until the whistle. With my 5mins almost up on the caster the float buried and i was playing a better fish a roach of around 8oz was a welcome bonus, i sat on the caster for the rest of the match with a roach and a perch both around the same size as the first 1 gonk and a roach of 2oz right on the whistle. I was left wondering how long the fish had been on the caster line but i was happy with my days fishing apart from the slow start and the boat that wiped me out for 25mins, we had another boat that came down the lock some time after the first one but it came at half the speed of the first and straight down the track and never even stirred up the silt. A quick call to Stav who had drawn a good peg just above the power cables on the main stretch reveled he had got around the 4lb mark and there was a couple admitting to around the same, i thought that i might have around the 5lb mark. Kev was the first to weigh as we had the scales but only had to weigh our 5 peg section he had struggled putting 2lb 1oz on the scales, i was well shocked when Kev shouted out 7lb 9oz for my net the last 3 bonus caster fish had really bumped my weight up Kev put my 3 caster fish back then put the sling back on the scales reveling 6lb of squatt fish. Walking down the canal we started to here of another 7lb and one of the lads was admitting to 6lb+ the next good weight on our scales was Brian Smith with 5lb 10oz, when we got back to the car park i spoke to Shaun Waite who had the other 7lb and said his was 7lb dead so i was the best weight we had heard of so far. Back in the pub it was soon reveled that i had won the match and i was well pleased even more so when i was handed the bouns money as i was sitting on one of the half a dozen bouns pegs MEGA HAPPY!
The match had fished well as 12th place and the last turkey went to Martin Yardsley with 4lb 2oz, Satv had got into the turkey's with 4lb 7oz. Shaun was second with his 7lb which he said contained a 1lb carp while getting broke by 2 more proper carp! Baz Robson was 3rd with 6lb off the peg i practised on a couple of weeks ago, there were a few good pegs that didn't produce as there was a club match on there the day before but overall the stretch had fished well for this time of the year. Lets hope that it fishes the same again in 2 weeks time as we have got the same
stretch booked for the Halesowen fur & feather, i am just hoping the weather holds before we return as we fished the stretch earlier this year in the cold and there were a few dry nets as the fish start to shoal up.
Wednesday 10 November 2010
Greenhill Farm (Jim's) Sunday 7/11/10
Hi folks, me & Stav had been invited to this club/open match at Jims pool but we had a Halesowen club match booked on the same day at Castlecroft on the canal which Stav decided to go on, as i have not had a good draw on our canal yet i decided to go on the pool match instead with a mate of mine Alan Fleet. The match had come about when Alan's club had a bit of a mix up with some dates so instead of letting Jim down with the booking they decided to ask the club members if they wanted to fish it first then threw it open to fill some more places. There was 14 guys turning up for this match so when me & Alan got there we had an easy job of pegging out just putting 7 pegs on each bank with roughly every other peg in we had a bit of room, i have only fished this pool around 3 times before so a bit of digging about was required about how to attack it and after asking a few people it seemed to be straight forward with maggot, caster & corn the main baits on the pole & lead. It looked like you needed to draw on the car park bank as it was deeper than the opposite bank and after a night of 3c with a cold wind it made the draw paramount, the corner peg on the car park bank was the flier draw we were told as it had won the last 2 match's on there including Wednesday's match with 144lb nearly 80lb clear of second!
In the draw bag i went and out popped peg 5 on the opposite bank just over halfway up, Great! my usual crap draw arm had struck again and i think i have to go back to the middle of September since the last time i had a draw i was happy with at least i had Dave (crack-off the legend) for company on peg 3 so at least the banter would keep us going. The peg i drew was only 2 pegs away from where i had won my section off on a match during the summer and remembered it to be quite shallow, on plumbing up the pole line i found only 3 1/2ft of water at 13m which was as far as i wanted to go in the wind which was quite strong blowing down the pool from left to right. With the guy's on the opposite side claiming 5 1/2ft of water at 6m i feared the worst after the cold night we had so with this in mind the lead rod was the first thing out of the bag and i set up 2 pole rigs as follows.
Rig 1, 13m line a 4 x 14 j-8 range float, 0.16 mainline to a 0.14 hook-length and a 16 tosciro hook, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, 8m line the same as above just a 4 x 12 float.
Rig 3 was my lead rod with 6lb mainline, a 1/2 bomb, 0.16 hook-length which was 18" to a size 2 tuerbertini 175.
There are a few strange rules at Greenhill's Farm such as no hair rigs, no pole pots between March & October and no leads in-between the same months but no feeders at all? There are no pellets at all here so that makes bait selection easy i had brought 3 tins of corn, 2 pints of maggots & 1 pint of casters plus a few worms for the hook as a change bait.
On the whistle i fed the 13m line with a few grains of corn & 1/2 a pot of maggots & the same on the 8m line but with casters & corn instead of maggots, i hooked a grain of corn on the lead rod & cast into the middle of the pool firing a few grains around the lead.
Alan who had draw opposite me was the first into a fish after around 10mins the he had another next put in so he was off and running but after around 45mins on the lead without even a liner it was time to try the pole as the guy to my right was netting his second carp on the pole at 10m, i tried corn & maggot at 13m but to no avail so i tried the 8m line without a bite again. The only guy catching on our bank was the guy to my right with 4 fish after 1 1/2 hours there was the odd fish being caught around the pool but most were struggling, then i had a skimmer & a roach on the maggot at 13m but the tow was pushing the rig through the peg to fast so i changed the 4 x 12 rig for a 0.50gr rig and used the 4 x 14 rig for the 8m line to slow the float down a bit. I foul hooked a carp on the 8m line which pulled out but a least there were signs in the peg at last, i missed a couple of bites on the 13m line on corn but felt the rig wasn't right so after pulling the olivette down to 6" away from the hook & adding another 1" to the depth hooked the next fish a 4lb carp. With nearly 2 hours of the match gone i had at last got my first carp but the guy to my right was netting no5 so i was well behind but over the next hour i managed 3 more while he had only i more to make it 4-6 by the end of the 3rd hour, during the 4th hour i had 6 carp 1 f1 & a couple of small skimmers to put me 10-8 in-front of the guy to my right but the gut to my left was now catching well at about the same rate as i was. The last hour slowed up a bit as the wind died and the pool went flat calm but i managed 4 carp on the maggot as i stopped getting bites on the corn, Alan opposite had caught on and off through out the match plus he had got one big lump of around 10lb the 2 flier pegs in the car park had caught well. It had turned out to be a good ending to a very slow start on our shallow bank but when you give them a 2 hour head start it is always going to be hard to pull them back, i felt that at the start the fish were just not there after the cold night but when they started to feed in the shallower water they were very finicky and my rig was not right but after putting the heavier rig on i was presenting the bait better. I was getting indications on the float but not proper bites but i got a gut feeling that they were there but not feeding freely, i decided to up the float size as opposed to putting more line on the deck to slow the rig down as i feel that you get to many false bites & foul-hookers fishing the corn to far over depth. We started the weigh-in and peg 1 had 28lb next had 23lb Crack-off had 25lb on peg 3 and the guy to my right on peg 4 had 9 fish for 34lb my 14 fish went 50lb 8oz, the guy to my left had 41lb and the last peg on our bank had 31lb so at least i was the best weight on my bank which was our section. Over on the other bank 22lb & a D.N.W who they reckoned had around 30lb then peg 10 had 47lb before Alan had 53lb odd to put him in the lead with the help of a 10lb 10oz fish, Keith on peg 12 had 25lb odd then peg put 52lb on the scales with the help of 2 3lb+ perch to put him second with just the flier peg to go, the end peg flier lived up to its reputation with a match winning 69lb not a big weight but still enough to win the match. I feel that if we had not had such a cold night that the weights would have been a lot better but i was glad to have caught in the end and win my section, if i could have had an odd fish the first 2 hours
i would have been second as i was only 3lb short. Thanks to Alan for inviting me & taking me cheers mate & thanks to Crack-off for making us all laugh on the end whistle when he was playing a carp that tired to get under his pallet & after much mickey taking( loosing one on his last visit around the leg) he got it out he said it would be on his next DVD How NOT to loose carp under the pallet LEGEND!
In the draw bag i went and out popped peg 5 on the opposite bank just over halfway up, Great! my usual crap draw arm had struck again and i think i have to go back to the middle of September since the last time i had a draw i was happy with at least i had Dave (crack-off the legend) for company on peg 3 so at least the banter would keep us going. The peg i drew was only 2 pegs away from where i had won my section off on a match during the summer and remembered it to be quite shallow, on plumbing up the pole line i found only 3 1/2ft of water at 13m which was as far as i wanted to go in the wind which was quite strong blowing down the pool from left to right. With the guy's on the opposite side claiming 5 1/2ft of water at 6m i feared the worst after the cold night we had so with this in mind the lead rod was the first thing out of the bag and i set up 2 pole rigs as follows.
Rig 1, 13m line a 4 x 14 j-8 range float, 0.16 mainline to a 0.14 hook-length and a 16 tosciro hook, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, 8m line the same as above just a 4 x 12 float.
Rig 3 was my lead rod with 6lb mainline, a 1/2 bomb, 0.16 hook-length which was 18" to a size 2 tuerbertini 175.
There are a few strange rules at Greenhill's Farm such as no hair rigs, no pole pots between March & October and no leads in-between the same months but no feeders at all? There are no pellets at all here so that makes bait selection easy i had brought 3 tins of corn, 2 pints of maggots & 1 pint of casters plus a few worms for the hook as a change bait.
On the whistle i fed the 13m line with a few grains of corn & 1/2 a pot of maggots & the same on the 8m line but with casters & corn instead of maggots, i hooked a grain of corn on the lead rod & cast into the middle of the pool firing a few grains around the lead.
Alan who had draw opposite me was the first into a fish after around 10mins the he had another next put in so he was off and running but after around 45mins on the lead without even a liner it was time to try the pole as the guy to my right was netting his second carp on the pole at 10m, i tried corn & maggot at 13m but to no avail so i tried the 8m line without a bite again. The only guy catching on our bank was the guy to my right with 4 fish after 1 1/2 hours there was the odd fish being caught around the pool but most were struggling, then i had a skimmer & a roach on the maggot at 13m but the tow was pushing the rig through the peg to fast so i changed the 4 x 12 rig for a 0.50gr rig and used the 4 x 14 rig for the 8m line to slow the float down a bit. I foul hooked a carp on the 8m line which pulled out but a least there were signs in the peg at last, i missed a couple of bites on the 13m line on corn but felt the rig wasn't right so after pulling the olivette down to 6" away from the hook & adding another 1" to the depth hooked the next fish a 4lb carp. With nearly 2 hours of the match gone i had at last got my first carp but the guy to my right was netting no5 so i was well behind but over the next hour i managed 3 more while he had only i more to make it 4-6 by the end of the 3rd hour, during the 4th hour i had 6 carp 1 f1 & a couple of small skimmers to put me 10-8 in-front of the guy to my right but the gut to my left was now catching well at about the same rate as i was. The last hour slowed up a bit as the wind died and the pool went flat calm but i managed 4 carp on the maggot as i stopped getting bites on the corn, Alan opposite had caught on and off through out the match plus he had got one big lump of around 10lb the 2 flier pegs in the car park had caught well. It had turned out to be a good ending to a very slow start on our shallow bank but when you give them a 2 hour head start it is always going to be hard to pull them back, i felt that at the start the fish were just not there after the cold night but when they started to feed in the shallower water they were very finicky and my rig was not right but after putting the heavier rig on i was presenting the bait better. I was getting indications on the float but not proper bites but i got a gut feeling that they were there but not feeding freely, i decided to up the float size as opposed to putting more line on the deck to slow the rig down as i feel that you get to many false bites & foul-hookers fishing the corn to far over depth. We started the weigh-in and peg 1 had 28lb next had 23lb Crack-off had 25lb on peg 3 and the guy to my right on peg 4 had 9 fish for 34lb my 14 fish went 50lb 8oz, the guy to my left had 41lb and the last peg on our bank had 31lb so at least i was the best weight on my bank which was our section. Over on the other bank 22lb & a D.N.W who they reckoned had around 30lb then peg 10 had 47lb before Alan had 53lb odd to put him in the lead with the help of a 10lb 10oz fish, Keith on peg 12 had 25lb odd then peg put 52lb on the scales with the help of 2 3lb+ perch to put him second with just the flier peg to go, the end peg flier lived up to its reputation with a match winning 69lb not a big weight but still enough to win the match. I feel that if we had not had such a cold night that the weights would have been a lot better but i was glad to have caught in the end and win my section, if i could have had an odd fish the first 2 hours
i would have been second as i was only 3lb short. Thanks to Alan for inviting me & taking me cheers mate & thanks to Crack-off for making us all laugh on the end whistle when he was playing a carp that tired to get under his pallet & after much mickey taking( loosing one on his last visit around the leg) he got it out he said it would be on his next DVD How NOT to loose carp under the pallet LEGEND!
Sunday 7 November 2010
Staffs-Worcs canal Hinksford Sunday 31/10/10
This was just a practice session for me & Stav as we both have match's coming up soon on this stretch from Hinksford bridge to the navigation pub, both the two clubs we are in Cradley Heath & Halesowen have there fur & feather match's on here Stav also has a match on here next Saturday with another club he is in. This stretch of canal has been fishing well over the last few weeks as a few guys we know have been running a league on here and they have been catching over 10lb+ on some of the pegs, most of the weights consist of roach,perch & gudgeon with the odd chub, tench & dace putting in an appearance now and then. Most of the usual canal methods work here with squatt, caster & hemp catching plenty of fish but maggot & punch can catch fish at different times of the year, there tends to be not too many match's on here during the warmer months as the boat traffic on here can be a nightmare so booking a club match on here between Easter & late September/early October is a no no. I won't go through all the rigs as this wasn't a proper match although there was the usual £1 side bet between us plus the normal bragging & mickey taking later, for bait i had brought 1/2 a pint each of red squatt, caster & hemp plus a few pinkies for the hook i had also got my usual mix of supercup & supermatch g/bait. We decided to go a bit further down the stretch as the first 2 pegs by the bridge are absolute fliers and have won plenty of match's in the past and we felt that they would fish themselves, the next few pegs are good but you are sitting right on the towpath and as we are only practicing we decided to go a bit further down where you are sitting on your own bit of grass verge with the towpath a few meters behind you so we could get away from the bikers & joggers.
I put 2 balls of g/bait just down the shelf in around 2 1/2ft of water at 11.5 m which is a good depth as Stav was only on the next peg but only had half that depth on the same line, i fed a hemp line at 13m off at an angle of 10 o'clock with the same depth as my squatt rig then feed a caster line down the track at 6-8m on the same angle as the hemp line. I was into small roach & gudgeon straight from the off on the squatt line loose feeding 20-30 squatt over the top every put-in, after around 8-10 fish Stav was still to get off the mark so i told him to get his £1 warmed up ready to go into my pocket! I was happy catching squatt fish for the first hour most of them were in the 1-3oz bracket with a few really small roach holding the float up before the styl's had time to settle, on the hour mark i switched to the hemp line which i had been priming from the start with 6-8 grains of seed and had a 4oz roach first drop in followed by 4 fish of similar size over the next 20mins. I was missing a few bites on the seed despite coming off the deck to see if they were up in the water but it didn't work there were a few fish there but they had not settled yet so i went back to the squatt line, before i came off the squatt line i had put another ball of g/bait in and when i started catching again most of the fish were of a slightly better stamp proper dumpy roach. What i started to notice was that the more loose squatt i fed over the top the more pairs of eyes i was catching, what i decided to do was feed a ball of g/bait ( golf-ball size) with a few squatts in to get some bait on the deck. I stopped loose feeding then i would catch mainly dumpy roach for around 10mins before putting another ball in and leaving it to settle for a few mins while having a look on the hemp line, every time i done this it worked then i started to catch regular fish on the hemp including a surprise 8-10oz perch i also had a couple of roach in the 6-8oz bracket. Stav was catching on the squatt but couldn't match the size of the fish i was catching getting plagued by eyes & gonks, after around 3 hours Stav had a look on the caster line but missed a bite and then had a gonk on it so i decided to have a look on the shell too. First drop i had a 6oz perch then a roach around the same size next drop Stav said he wasn't playing anymore as everything i tried had turned to gold including his golden nugget, for the rest of the session i switch between the caster & hemp line giving up on the squatt as i was having too much fun on the other two even managing a 10-12oz chub on the hemp just before we called it a day after the normal 5 match hours.
I can honestly say that this was the first time i had enjoyed a day on the canal for a long time as i don't fish them as much as i used to a few years ago due to bad draws and too many things outside of your control that can ruin your day, by that i mean boats, joggers, dog walkers ( or dog shite) that you don't get on the pools i have had good days on the canal ruined by boats crossing in your peg or the one that thinks he's got to drive Stirling Moss up the canal straight over the line your catching on. I had got sick of the bad draws as i have drawn the same peg on this stretch the last 3 times on the bounce which i have never seen a bag of fish come off i think 3lb is the best i have had off it, on Halesowen's own stretch at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton i have only fished it 3 times since we took it over and drawn the same peg there 3 times! with around the same result as Hinksford which i know hasn't even won a section since we took it over ( so why do they peg it???). It was a good day as we only had 5-6 boats all day and asi ship down the canal as opposed to across the towpath the joggers & bikers didn't bother me, without any scales to weigh the fish we guessed my fish at easy double figures probably 11-12lb and i reckoned Satv's at 4-5lb although he said more like 6lb i think he was just trying to save face as i had give him a right good battering off the next peg. ( sorry m8).
I hope our match's on here are as good as today but it will all depend on if the weather holds out or not as if we have a few frosts & the boats stop the canal losses its colour & becomes harder as winter proper sets in.
I put 2 balls of g/bait just down the shelf in around 2 1/2ft of water at 11.5 m which is a good depth as Stav was only on the next peg but only had half that depth on the same line, i fed a hemp line at 13m off at an angle of 10 o'clock with the same depth as my squatt rig then feed a caster line down the track at 6-8m on the same angle as the hemp line. I was into small roach & gudgeon straight from the off on the squatt line loose feeding 20-30 squatt over the top every put-in, after around 8-10 fish Stav was still to get off the mark so i told him to get his £1 warmed up ready to go into my pocket! I was happy catching squatt fish for the first hour most of them were in the 1-3oz bracket with a few really small roach holding the float up before the styl's had time to settle, on the hour mark i switched to the hemp line which i had been priming from the start with 6-8 grains of seed and had a 4oz roach first drop in followed by 4 fish of similar size over the next 20mins. I was missing a few bites on the seed despite coming off the deck to see if they were up in the water but it didn't work there were a few fish there but they had not settled yet so i went back to the squatt line, before i came off the squatt line i had put another ball of g/bait in and when i started catching again most of the fish were of a slightly better stamp proper dumpy roach. What i started to notice was that the more loose squatt i fed over the top the more pairs of eyes i was catching, what i decided to do was feed a ball of g/bait ( golf-ball size) with a few squatts in to get some bait on the deck. I stopped loose feeding then i would catch mainly dumpy roach for around 10mins before putting another ball in and leaving it to settle for a few mins while having a look on the hemp line, every time i done this it worked then i started to catch regular fish on the hemp including a surprise 8-10oz perch i also had a couple of roach in the 6-8oz bracket. Stav was catching on the squatt but couldn't match the size of the fish i was catching getting plagued by eyes & gonks, after around 3 hours Stav had a look on the caster line but missed a bite and then had a gonk on it so i decided to have a look on the shell too. First drop i had a 6oz perch then a roach around the same size next drop Stav said he wasn't playing anymore as everything i tried had turned to gold including his golden nugget, for the rest of the session i switch between the caster & hemp line giving up on the squatt as i was having too much fun on the other two even managing a 10-12oz chub on the hemp just before we called it a day after the normal 5 match hours.
I can honestly say that this was the first time i had enjoyed a day on the canal for a long time as i don't fish them as much as i used to a few years ago due to bad draws and too many things outside of your control that can ruin your day, by that i mean boats, joggers, dog walkers ( or dog shite) that you don't get on the pools i have had good days on the canal ruined by boats crossing in your peg or the one that thinks he's got to drive Stirling Moss up the canal straight over the line your catching on. I had got sick of the bad draws as i have drawn the same peg on this stretch the last 3 times on the bounce which i have never seen a bag of fish come off i think 3lb is the best i have had off it, on Halesowen's own stretch at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton i have only fished it 3 times since we took it over and drawn the same peg there 3 times! with around the same result as Hinksford which i know hasn't even won a section since we took it over ( so why do they peg it???). It was a good day as we only had 5-6 boats all day and asi ship down the canal as opposed to across the towpath the joggers & bikers didn't bother me, without any scales to weigh the fish we guessed my fish at easy double figures probably 11-12lb and i reckoned Satv's at 4-5lb although he said more like 6lb i think he was just trying to save face as i had give him a right good battering off the next peg. ( sorry m8).
I hope our match's on here are as good as today but it will all depend on if the weather holds out or not as if we have a few frosts & the boats stop the canal losses its colour & becomes harder as winter proper sets in.
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