Gone Fishing

Lodge Farm, Long Island 05-06-2007

2007-06-12T12:29:00.000+01:00

Roger, my travelling partner rang me to see if I wanted to fish with their work match at Lodge Farm, just outside Bawtry. Having a match their on the 24th would give me a bit of time to try some stuff out under match conditions without the fear of blowing out and losing money. Although they let me on thismatch, I won the last first and only other match I fished on the Chesterfield Canal where they did let me enter the pools. So now I’m barred from going in it, oh well!!As most of the lads have to work in the early morning before the match it start time is in the afternoon, usually starting around 12. This meant I could have a late set off after some breakfast. I was hoping to write that I’d had a well deserved lie in but our 10 month old son put paid to that waking us up at the crack of dawn. Roll on the winter months and darks nights.

Not having the pressure of being in the pools and so having nothing to fish for in terms of a league, I’d set out to fish two methods, the pellet waggler and paste close in. Most of this pond is very deep even close in but I had a weed bed straight in front of me extending 5 or 6 metres. The depth at the side of the reeds 5 metres out was around 2 foot, which is where I decided to fish the paste. Even though it was up to the side of the reeds the bottom was very clean and gently sloping away.

The pellet wag was setup using a 3SSG custom waggler made by Dave Brittain, the initial trace was set to 18″ deep though I had spare hooklengths made up shallow if required.

At the all in I baited the paste rig, plopped it in and began to feed the pellet waggler line with around half a dozen 6mm pellets about every 30 seconds. Indications came on the paste straight away and it wasn’t long before I was into a nice f1 of a couple a pound. I wasn’t feeding anything else on the paste line just the paste on the hook, striking it off every minute to keep feed going into the swim. Fish were coming pretty regularly for the next couple of hours, with the fish being on average 2-3lb.

All the while I was feeding the pellet wag line and as I wasn’t fishing in the match as such I decided to give it a go. First chuck brought a fish and a few more followed over the next hour then it went dead. I decided to rest the swim and come back on he paste line. Luckily the fish were sill there although it took a while to get them feeding confidently.

I was told we were fishing until 5 so I’d made arrangements to be home and out for 6:30 but when 5 came and no whistle, I was getting worried. I wasn’t informed but we’d been given permission to fish until 6. As I’d made plans I had to pack up and shoot off with probably around 70lb in the nets with an hour to go.

90lb won the match fishing the floating pole from further along our bank, while the other bank struggled. I don’t think I would have been far off given how I was catching.
Oh well, roll on our match next week.

Candy Corner, 04/05/2007

2007-05-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

I decided to take a day off work as it was Friday and have a few hours at Candy Corner in preparation for our match on Sunday.

My old man decided he was going to come along for the day out, so we stopped off for a breakfast on the way out there and make a full day of it. My dad doesn't fish and judging by the weather in the morning; overcast with a bit of rain and quite cold, I though he might end up sat in the car all day.

I managed to get on a peg (12) with the wind over our backs to try and keep a bit warm.

I had a couple of pints of casters with me but wasn't too bothered about using these as I know you can usually catch on them. I was going to try paste for the first time this year, see if I could snare any of the resident lumps. I was also hoping to catch shallow with the pellet on the pole. With this I only set up two rigs, a 4x10 Big H for paste close in and a 4x10 KC Carpa Shelf for up in the water.

I started off on paste just fishing it on the hook and striking it off after a minute or so, whilst I kept feeding a few pellets at 13 metres on the pole line. Indications came straight away with the float moving around all over the place, after a couple goes I finally got a proper bite and a Crucian of around 2lb soon hit the net. A few more followed but Crucians being as they are the bites were very finicky and it was hard to tell liners for proper bites.

After about an hour I decided to have a try up in the water with pellet. Luckily the fishery has a 13 metre pole limit as you can only use their pellets and with 4mm being the only feed pellets they sell, I would be struggling to get them much further out with any sort of control. I'd been advised by the owner to use the 6mm hookers as these were what everyone used. I'm not sure about this, I'm sure he's right but I prefer the hookbait to be as close to what I'm feeding as possible. Indications were there straight away and it wasn't long before I was in. Again these were only small Crucians & stockies in the 1-2lb bracket but I was catching them faster than I was on the paste. I fished like this for another hour or so and managed to snare a couple of bigger carp of around 5lb amongst the smaller fish that seemed to be resident in my swim.

For the last hour I decided to come back over the paste line to see if any bigger fish had moved in. I wasn't getting as many indications as before which I was hoping was down to there being less smaller fish in the swim. This theory was right as the stamp of fish had increased to between 4 and 5lb. Not wanting to get stuck in the rush hour traffic I decided to have one more chuck. The float buried almost straight away and after a struggle I managed to net the beauty above. A beautiful common with a right fat belly on it.

Roll on Sunday.

Grange Park, Messingham. 22/04/2007

2007-04-26T10:00:00.000+01:00

I'd heard a few stories about the size of these ponds before whilst trying to glean some information about how to fish them, but nothing could prepare me for how small they really were. Thirteen metres would get you more than half way, and with only 10 pegs on each bank we had to take two ponds to get all our anglers on.

After gleaning info from various sources it seems it would be better to try catch as close in as possible to build any sort of weight. I decided to set up 3 rigs, one to fish at 9 and 13 metres just in case I couldn’t catch close in, another to fish just on the top kit at 3m. I had a spare peg to my left so my final rig would be stepped up to fish in front of the platform.

Bait was 4mm feed and hookers that have to be bought on site. I bought the ready prepared hookers as the expanders they sell to do yourself are Omega’s and I’m not too fond of these. The spare peg swim was going to be fed with a few grains of corn and some cubed meat about 6mm.

Rig 1

Float: 5 no.8 Fox MP4
Line: 0.12 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo T213 to 0.12 Fox
Elastic: Green Drennan Hollow
Task: Pellet on the deck

Rig 2

Float: 4x10 KC Karpa Chimp
Line: 0.12 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo T213 to 0.12 Fox
Elastic: White Hydro
Task: Pellet on the deck close

Rig 3

Float: 4x10 KC Carpa Shelf
Line: 0.16 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo T213 to 0.16 WB Clarke
Elastic: Black Hydro
Task: Margin swim with meat/corn

At the all in I fed a ball of groundbait made up of ground carp pellets on each of the longer lines, while flicking a few pellets to my left and right for the top kit and went out at 9 metres. I began to catch almost immediately, small Crucians and stockies being the main pray. After about 10 minutes I decided to switch to the Hook in the Loop (HITL) to try and hit more of the finicky bites I was getting. It worked instantly, the bites were more visible and my catch rate increased. The size of the fish were very small and it was making it hard work for not a lot of gain in terms of weight in the net.

After about 30 minutes I decided to try the close in swims. I had a couple of fish from each swim but the fish seemed to back off after I had caught a couple. I decided to feed these swims a little further out at 4m to see if I could build up the confidence. A small ball of groundbait and a few pellets went to each side while I went back out on the 9m line for another 10 minutes.

While plumbing up I found that after 3-4 metres the bottom was pretty flat all the way out with about 4’ most of the way across, this allowed me to use the rig from the 9m swim at 4 meters without having to get out another rig. The fish seemed to feed far more confidently at this range and feeding little and often and rotating the swims kept the fish coming for pretty much the rest of the match. Towards the end of the match I decided to feed and rest both close lines and have a look over the spare peg at the side. I got a bite straight away within a couple of minutes a bonus Tench of about 3 pounds was in the net. With no more bites forthcoming I came back on the close lines and began catching straight away all the way through to end of the match.

Apart from the Tench, all the other fish were very small with biggest probably around 6 or 7 ounce but generally they were smaller that this, with some carp probably an ounce or two at the most.

The scales registered 33lb 8oz which I was quite pleased about given the stamp of the fish. As I was one of the first to weigh, I had to wait till the rest of our lake and the other lake to weigh before I knew if I had come anywhere. Peg 1 had managed to snare a carp around 10lb first chuck so I wasn’t hopeful of a match or lake win but I hadn’t seen many catch around me so maybe I would be ok for the section. Turns out the other lake had fished poorly and peg 1 only managed 25lb, which put me in first place and 1 point for the league.

Results:

1st Me (33.08)

2nd Mark Baldwin (TBC)

3rd Alan Larkin (TBC)

2007-04-15T08:30:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd put a quick update on the blog regarding my recent fishing activities. I was enrolled on the R&R sports spring league at Lakeside, Ranskill. I was hoping to do a blog entry for each of the 8 rounds but I had to miss a few because of family commitments. That couple with the fact I wasn't doing particularly well didn't inspire me to write much about them.

The 1st match brought me 4th place from not a particularly good draw but it all went downhill from there. I suffered from a few more bad draws and with the matches I missed I put that one down as experience. We got our club league starting in a week so I need to get my head down, focus and try and get a result this year.

Anvil Knockup, Lodge Farm - Long Island, 03/12/2006

2006-12-04T12:12:00.000Z

After being kept awake for most of the night with the gales battering the bedroom window with rain, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this match. Especially coupled with the fact that my information gathering exercise last week had suggested this was going to be a feeder match, chucking tight to the island, not my most favoured method. I was half expecting a phone call off Roger my travelling partner telling me he wasn't going, especially after he'd been out on a bender Saturday night.

After getting a good soaking loading the car I went to pick Roger up, and after ringing his mobile several times he finally appeared. I think his first words were, "Am I not looking forward to this". Luckily the rain had started to subside and by the time we arrived for breakfast, it had stopped altogether. We had booked for breakfast at 7:30 on site ready in time for the draw at 7:45, which we all thought was early as we weren't due to start the match until 9:30. Turns out that the draw was at 8:15 but Roger got it wrong. DOH!!! Could have had an extra half hour in bed.

Having never fished this lake before I didn't really know what a decent draw would be, although in some respects this can be a good thing. I think too many people get affected by the outcome of the draw and their confidence takes a hit before they've even got to the bank. The last time we fished here, on field pond, I'd drawn a 'duff peg' allegedly and went to win the match. Remember kids, fish swim.

The lake is rectangle but has an island which stretches pretty much the entire length of the pond, hence the name Long Island I guess. I would have thought the end pegs would produce, having the chuck to the end of the island but we'd see. Anyway the draw gave me peg 83, which was bang in the middle of the left had bank.
As previously mentioned the plan of attack was to be the feeder, groundbait feeder to be more precise. I'd mixed a bag of Black Swimstim and to this I added some dead maggots and a few softened pellets. I had a maggot feeder handy and by the magic of a snap-swivel I could changeover if I was struggling. Hookbait was to be maggot, dead, alive or whatever combination it took to catch on. And if that didn't work, plan B was back at the pub as I'd got nothing else to try. As I'd decided to leave the pole in the holdall as I didn't fancy breaking it on it's first outing I also set up a waggler rod just in case the wind dropped and as a backup. The weather had picked up by this point and we were now basking in glorious sunshine, well, nearly.

The all in came and I had a couple of casts with a feeder full of groundbait before attaching my hooklength and recasting as tight to the island as I dare. Two minutes later the rod wrapped round and an F1 about 3lb was soon in the net, shortly followed by another next cast. By the end of the first hour and a half I had about 20lb in the net. Not many fish had been caught on my bank so unless anyone was pulling up any trees on the opposite, I was sitting in a decent position. Things went downhill for the next couple of hours as bites slowed and peg 82 managed to get a lump well into double figures, he continued to catch and pulled into the lead.
While we were sat biteless Roger decided to entertain us by seeing if he could drag the island closer to the bank. This didn't just happen a couple of times, he was relentless in his pursuit losing at least 6 feeders, not to mention the times he managed to get it back. By this time his headache had kicked in and he was wishing he'd stayed in bed.
Things picked up in the afternoon and I managed to claw my way back into contention and kept picking up the odd fish to put me back in the lead slightly. I kept switching between groundbait and maggot feeder, the hook length and hookbait to try and induce bites and I had some success dropping the feeder a little short, although it was still on top of the shelf just in front of the island. A few had tried the waggler but with no results, which made me think it was worth while persevering with the feeder and picking up the odd fish until the F1's moved back down again.
All was going well until Roy on peg 82, decided he was going to get another lump, the lucky b*@***d, which although not as big as the first was enough to put him back in front. I had one more fish about 3lb and was pushing to try and get one more which I thought might have put me back in the lead but it was too late and the whistle blew.

The biggest weight from the far bank was about 20lb, so it was down to me and peg82. I was first to weigh and registered at 43lb 9oz. As Roy pulled out his net we knew it was going to be tight. 46lb 10oz was his weight confirming my suspicions that his last lump had just pushed him out of reach.

Results:
1st Roy Nicholls (46.10)
2nd Matt Williams (43.09)
3rd Bob Peck (20.odd)

Newark Dyke, 18/11/2006

2006-11-19T18:44:00.000Z

Not having any matches on this week, my fishing partner Roger and I decided to do something different for a change. Hopefully we will start to fish rivers more frequently next year so what better time to start.
After making some enquiries we decided on the Hudsons Bay stretch of the Newark Dyke, which had been fishing quite well by all accounts. Neither of us relish sitting all day on the feeder so hearing that the stretch had been feeding well on waggler and stick left us raring to go.

Hopefully the frost on Friday night would not make matters take a turn for the worst, and after a good hearty venue we made the short journey down the A1 to the stretch. Arriving in the car park around 10 am, we were greeted by, well no one. Not one person on the whole stretch, which is in stark contrast to days gone by when we'd have been lucky to get a peg turning up at that time.
A quick hop over the style and we settled on pegs 71 & 72, with me taking the latter.

The sun was out and making it feel rather warm, although there was a stiff breeze, blowing slightly over our backs and downstream. We both intended to fish the stick and maybe waggler if the mood took us. I had some maggots and a bit of hemp, with Roger opting for caster and hemp.

The rig consisted of a 7 x no. 4 domed alloy stick set with a bulk of no. 6 shot and a few 10's as droppers. After a few runs without any bait to gauge the depth, I noticed there was a patch of weed about 3 rod lengths down which stretched a good couple of rod lengths into the river. I was later to find out by a local that there was a good patch of lilies there during the warmer months.
Luckily my feed was ending up further downstream and I was catching towards the end of the swim.

Bites started to come after about 20 minutes with a small perch the first to come to the net, followed by a few small bits over the next hour or so. After a coffee break and a warming of the toes it was back to action and a few puts ins later the float dipped and the rod tip arced on the strike. I was hoping I hadn't hooked the bottom and a seconds later the the fish slowly started moving out into the river. After a few minutes a pristine chub about two and a half pound was in the net.

By around 2pm bites had dried up and the wind was starting to get blustery so we decided to call it a day. Roger had built up a nice net of roach on hemp and caster on the next peg, all in perfect condition.

What a refreshing change the day had made from fishing the usual puddles, and we made an executive decision to get out on rivers more over the winter and continue through next year.
If you fancy a change, I would recommend a day out a Hudson Bays. They've even put in huge bolder steps at the pegs to make getting down into the river easier.

TF Knockup, BW Kiveton. 28/10/2006

2006-10-31T15:35:00.000Z

A drop in temperature over the past week made this match a little less inviting, but given the opportunity to put a few more faces to names would make it a worthwhile affair. Plus I'd already paid for my peg. After a superb brekkie in the Fuller Monty in Kiveton, we made our way to the venue for the draw. Good job my co-pilot knew where it was or I'd have probably still been driving round now.

Pegs 1 & 10 were the fliers according to the regulars and pulling peg 2 from the bag could mean that I'd spend most of the match watching someone else bag. Unless of course no one drew it, but alas Matt aka Final Whistle was already there!

Initial attack was going to be maggot feeder clipped tight to the far bank and two pole lines, one at 10 metres, the other at 13. As there was only 5 or 6 inches between the close and long pole lines one rig would suffice.

Rig 1

Float: 5x8 Fox MP4
Line: 0.14 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo T213 to 0.14 Fox Micro Plus
Elastic: Grey Hydro
Task: Long pole full depth

Hookbait was to be a mixture of 4mm & 6mm expanders, corn and maggot.
At the all in close line was fed with half a pot of hemp, corn and a few pellets and the long line just pellet. If the fish showed a preference, I could alter my feed on the other swim.
As a fair few previous matches had been won on maggot feeder, this was the first line of attack while the pole lines settled. Matt on peg 1 set off like a train while Corndawg's brother, markm and myself all sat biteless. Things got worse as Marks tip went round, although he was cursing two minutes later when it shed the hook. I got my first indication after about 20 minutes in the form of a line bite. I dropped short the next couple of casts to see if I could find where the liners were coming from but got nothing.
After to close on an hour it was time for a change and out came the pole at 10 metres with pellet on the hook. My first bite came after about 10 minutes, resulting in the elastic streaming from the pole. I'd heard these fish put up a good fight and boy did they! Unfortunately he hook pulled and this one got away.
Next put in resulted in another bite and a fish of about 4lb came into the net and another the chuck after that. The fish were fighting hard but the pull bung I was using allowed me to tighten up the elastic to net the fish. Under normal summer circumstances I'd have probably used black but as the fish were coming infrequently I didn't want to risk any hook pulls with heavier elastic.

Bites slowed so I tried the longer line which resulted a few fish. The wind was picking up making it more difficult to fish at 13 metres so when bites dried, I switched all my attention to the 10 metre line and fish this line only. I was fishing with a small pot on the end of the pole to introduce a small amount of feed after every fish.
The bites dried up with an hour and a half to go and even Matt's bites had dried up on peg 1, although he did suffer the curse of the second net after finally realising he had been bagging all morning.
A couple more small tench came on the maggot feeder in the last 20 minutes but it was too little, too late.

My 33lb 7oz was only good enough for 8th overall beating Mark's 22lb 14oz at one side but no where near Matt's 66lb 3oz at the other side. Well done to Dan, who won the match with 89lb 10oz from peg 12.
It wasn't a bad match if only the fish would have fed a bit more consistently through the day. Cheers again to Si for organising it and roll on the next meet.

Full results:
1st Dan Gavan 89.10
2nd Matt(final whistle) 66.03
3rd Dave Pellet 51.10
4th Kirsty 44.00
5th Glenn Archer 39.00
6th Rodger Pryor 38.12
7th Monster Crab 34.06
8th Maxwell Hung 33.07
9th Matts' Mate 28.04
10th Corndawg 25.04
11th Mark M 22.14
12th Bingos' mate 17.12
13th Killerkarp 13.10
14th Duzabit 10.08
15th Bingo wings DNW
15th Wayne Boulby DNW
15th Rhino DNW
15th James Charters DNW
15th Danny DNW

Shotting Calculator Update

2006-10-31T15:34:00.000Z

I've posted a new version of the shot calculator on my website. Added are bigger shot sizes from no.6 to SSG. This is for both the online and Pocket PC versions.

View the calculator

Duane Memorial Match, Lindholme. 21/10/2006

2006-10-27T09:56:00.000+01:00

Spending most of the night up with the new born put paid to any form of mental preparation I might have wanted to do for this match. A 200+ turnout meant this was the biggest match I'd fished for a long time, probably since I was about 18.

Luckily due to the numbers there was a rolling draw allowing me to have a lie in and still turn up in good time and draw peg 70 on Bonsai, a decent peg from what I was told. I managed to grab a buttie and buy some raffle tickets all ready in time for the minutes silence at 10.

After finding out where my peg was it was time to get myself tackled up. My peg was at the corner of a point with an island (just) to my right and one a feeder throw away to my right. The wind was coming from the left, not too strong as I was setting up but would get a lot worse as the day wore on. I'd got Cleggy two pegs to my left with a spare peg in between, although the pegs are that close together you would hardly notice (sorry Neil).
A few or the regulars had informed me that fish were still to be caught up in the water, with that in mind and the fact I'd had an awful nights sleep I decided to make it my main line of attack but with an on the deck rig at 7 metres to the right available as a backup.

Rig 1

Float: 4x10 KC Carpa Shelf
Line: 0.16 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo T213 to 0.16 WB Clarke
Elastic: Grey Hydro
Task: Pellet shallow

Rig 2

Float: 4x8 Fox MP4
Line: 0.14 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo T213 to 0.14 Fox Micro Plus
Elastic: White MAP powertube
Task: 6 mtr pellet full depth

At the all in I potted in some pellets from a height at the 11 metres I'd decided to fish out into the main water and began firing approx 10 pellets every 40 seconds or so. I wanted to feed more pellets less frequently to slowly come up in the water following the feed that I'd initially put in and also to stop them coming too high in the water. I tend to use skinz as hookbait when fishing up in the water as they're more robust especially when there's a few smaller fish around. I tend to dye some red as a change of hookbait colour. The first fish came to the net after about 5 minutes, a nice size F1 probably just over a 1lb. I caught steadily until the wind picked up from the side and made it nigh on impossible to feed and hold the pole at the same time. Cleggy was also suffering from this and I noticed he'd switched to a rig about 5 meters fishing caster I think.
I fed a pot of pellets on the 6 metre line while I persevered to give the pellets time to settle. First put in the float dipped and a small F1 came to the net. The fish closer in on this line were noticeably smaller that those I caught further out shallow.
The smaller fish coming off this line meant that not a great deal of weight was being put in the net but at least I was catching. If the wind hadn't picked up I think the shallow line would have produced, especially as the stamp of fish was better.

I ended up with 25lb odd which was good enough to get me the section by default, one of the regulars picked up 3rd place overall from a few pegs down.

Well done to Si and Juzzy for organising the match, and to Neil for allowing us to use the venue and to put his own cash up for the prize fund.
As a bonus I managed to win a raffle prize of some elastics, hooks and bits and bobs.

Lakeside, Ranskill. 15/10/2006

2006-10-17T17:58:00.000+01:00

The last match in our club league saw us visiting one of my favourite waters. Having one a match here two weeks previously I was optimistic that I would be the business, especially with the title at stake. I came into this last match a couple of points behind the current leader and if I could get a half decent draw and see him blow out I could be in with a chance of retaining the title. My hopes seemed to be dashed at the draw when my closest rival drew peg 12, a flier by anyone's standards.
I drew 28 so I knew I should be in a for a few.

I setup up two 17' rods, one with a Drennan upside waggler and one with a stick float. Both had 6' rigs attached which were made up of 0.12mm Trabucco Diamond Race to a 0.12 Reflo Precision hook length with a size 18 Middy 73-13. These would allow me to fish caster shallow.

I also setup up two pole rigs:

Rig 2

Float: 4x12 Dick Clegg
Line: 0.16 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 12 Drennan Nu Hook Carp
Elastic: Black Hydro
Task: Paste at 2 metres

Rig 2

Float: 4x12 Tubertini Delta
Line: 0.14 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 18 Milo T213 to 0.12 Preston Precision
Elastic: White MAP power tube
Task: Caster at 4 metres

At the all in I put in a handful over casters over the stick line, put a few casters on the close line and went out on the stick. Here's where it all started to go pear shaped. First cast saw me hook a small ide but as I was bringing it in the hook pulled as the rig ended up in the tree. Rig no 1 trashed! After attaching another rig I was back out. I was playing catch up to the next peg after only 10 minutes.

I was catching steady up until lunch time when my nearest rival on peg 30 had two decent size carp to put me even further behind. Knowing that there are some big carp down the edge and the had been feeding I decided to give it a go to see if I could claw my way back. A couple of foul hookers later and I'd lost another hour with no fish to show for it.
With nothing coming close in on caster it was back out on the stick line started catching again. I began to get bigger skimmers, up to about 1.5lb which meant I was able to start clawing back some of the deficit. I managed to hook a carp on this rig but pulled out of it, than managed to trash another rig with about 30 minutes to go. I finally managed to hook and land a carp with about 10 minutes to go which was probably close to double figures.

At the weigh in I weighed 53lb, not far behind the 64lb that won from peg 30. Looking back if I had stuck to my original plan instead of wasting an hour looking for a bonus fish, I reckon I could have won the match comfortably. Lesson learnt!

As it was I didn't do enough to win the league again, the leader up to this point won his section and ended up second in the match with 56lb. My points were enough to put me in second overall which I was still reasonably happy with.

Lakeside, Ranskil. 01/10/2006

2006-10-02T09:48:00.000+01:00

Provided the weather doesn't turn too much over the next couple of weeks this match would give me a bit of insight for our final club match on October 15th. I wasn't too keen on pulling peg 22 out at the draw. I'd brought 4 pints of casters to fish the trawler so I'd have preferred a low teens peg where the chub tend to reside. Rumour had it that peg 22 won the previous week with 122lb so we'd see.

I originally thought 22 was the island peg but it's next door, although you do get a chuck down the side of the island. I'd set up two rigs of the 17' rods both with the same rig 0.12 Trabucco Diamond race with a size 18 Middy 7313 tied 0.12 Preston Precision. One had a 3gm drennan upside down waggler to chuck down the side of the island, and one a stick float for closer in. I also set up 3 pole rigs.

Rig 1

Float: 4x10 KC Carpa shelf
Line: 0.16 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Middy 8313 to 0.16 WB Clarke
Task: Close in margin 5mtr down each side

Rig 2

Float: 4x12 Tubertini Delta
Line: 0.12 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 18 Middy 7313 to 0.12 Preston Precision
Task: Caster on top kit down the shelf for skimmers

Rig 3

Float: 4x12 Dick Clegg
Line: 0.16 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 12 Drennan Nu Hook
Task: Paste close in

All the pole rigs were made close in as the a lot of fish can be caught down the edge here especially the lumps as well some good skimmers. The paste line was pretty much at the end of my keepnet to my left to allow me to keep feeding it by hand as was the caster line but which was to my right.

At the all in I fed the close in lines and fired a pouch full of casters down the side of the island and threw in a handful of casters for the stick line. I pulled out one skimmer from the waggler before it became aparent that the stick line was solid. Each time I fed the ide were swirling for the bait as soon as it hit the water. I switched over to the stick and started catching ide up to 12 ounce straight away. I carried on for much for the rest of the match
catching ide, the odd roach and a couple of skimmers about a pound and a half each.

I had a bit of a 'mare half was through as my closed face reel decided it wasn't going to release the pin so I couldn't get any line from it. A quick swap of rods saw me back on track.

As the rain came down and wind picked up a little, the fish backed off a bit so for the last hour I fished down the edge to see if I could glean any info on how the carp were feeding. Nothing came of corn or meat but I had two lumps on paste and lost 4 fish, a couple of these were foul hooked. By the end of the match it was solid down the edge, you could see swirls from the tails as they'd got their heads down over the paste line.

By the time they reached my with the scales 60lb was in front. I didn't think I'd got as much as that but when the scales tipped at 63lb 10z I'd done better than I thought. Not knowing what had been caught in the earlier pegs I was in for a nervous 10 minutes until everyone had been weighed. By the time I'd driven round, everyone had weighed in and I'd won.

Overall a good insight into the upcoming match, weather permitting and a good win to boot.

Results:
1st Matt Williams (63lb 1oz, peg 22)
2nd Mick Wilson (60lb)
3rd Chris Lee (49lb, peg 21)

Lodge Farm, Field Pond. 10/09/2006

2006-09-12T09:25:00.000+01:00

The penultimate match of our club league saw us visiting Lodge Farm again, only this time on Field pond. Our last encounter saw me drawn on a golden peg and winning the match until the last hour when Gav lent his rod to the guy on the next peg, who was also on a golden peg. Upshot was I get beat in the last hour by 2lbs to miss out on about £250.

The draw brought me peg 16, which apparently was a non starter but the fact I'd drawn a golden peg again was a good incentive to try and not make history repeat itself. As we arrived at the lake it became clear that due to the low numbers I was on an end peg, all the corners had been left out to make it a fairer match.

I set up 3 rigs initally for the match.

Rig 1

Float: 4x10 KC Carpa shelf
Line: 0.14 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo 213 to 0.14 Fox
Task: Pellet up in the water

Rig 2

Float: 0.6g Sensas Desque
Line: 0.12 Trabucco Diamond Race
Hook: Size 16 Milo 213 to 0.12 Preston Precision
Task: Pellet full depth

Rig 3

Float: 4x12 Dick Clegg
Line: 0.16 Trabucco Diamond
Hook: Size 12 Drennan
Task: Paste

Plumping up at 13 metres found me about 5' of water and down the edge at 3 metres I had approx 2'. My shallow rig was made up starting at about 2'.

At the all in I dumped a pot of soaked pellets at 13 metres and went straight over it with the shallow rig and a 4mm expander. Feeding approx six 4mm hard feed pellets every 30 seconds I was getting bites instantly but was losing the pellet. After rebaiting a few more times it became apparent that the pellets were getting hammered by the smaller fish as it was falling through the water.

For the first time I had bought some of the new Skinz hook pellets to try. It seemed like the prefect opportunity to try them out. I'd soaked and dyed them red the night before to soften them a little. As they were a little though I pulled out the point to reduce the risk of the point not emerging on strike. After a few more dips the float burried and the grey hydro was streaming out. A few minutes later an F1 of about 1lb was in the net.

This carried on for the couple of hours or so until bites dropped off. I came to try the short paste line whilst carrying feeding the long line up in the water. Two F1's and a skimmer follwed off this line before the paste was getting hammered by the smaller fish.

I changed back over to the shallow rig and immediately started catching again but was getting more dips from the smaller fish. To make sure I wasn't getting liners I set up a rig with a poly ball set at 6" deep. The indiciation were still the same leaving me to believe they were in effect smaller fish attacking the bait.
I went back to the main shallow rig and carried on at a steady pace. With a couple of hours to go I decided to feed a few more pellets to try and get the fish feeding more aggressively, this seemed to work and I caught pretty much non stop till the end of the match.

The scales registered 53lb 13oz for 1st place and the golden peg that eluded me on our last visit.. The owner commented that I'd fished well to win from that peg as our end of the lake rarely produces any weights.

The section point puts me on 7 overall for the league. The leader at the moment is on 5 so I need a good result on the last match at Lakeside in October.

Shotting Calculator

2006-09-09T13:49:00.000+01:00

A while ago a created an online fishing shot calculator. It allows you to work out the shot, styls required when shotting pole floats or similar, either by floats that are marked in styl leads (4x12 etc.) or by gramme weight.
You can create as many complex or simple shotting patterns as you require.
Please feel free to give any feedback or comments on this page for any improvements.

There's also a Pocket PC version available on the page.

View the calculator.

Review: Rive Classic C30 Station

2006-08-23T12:23:00.000+01:00

After finally taking the plunge and buying a new Rive box I thought I'd write a review after using it a couple of times.

First impressions

After first put all all the parts together the first thing that struck me was how big the actual box is, I was originally hoping to downsize in terms of box size as well as in what's in it, after all the Rive trays are marginally smaller than the Milo modules. The width of the frame plus the huge hand grips put paid to that.
The legs that are also supplied with the box are very long, two of them extending. I assume this is so that if you don't add any extra tray, you can still sit at a comfortable height with the cassette footplate in place.

Underneath the seat is a 30mm cross drawer unit. The is the new type with a little catch to release the drawer, this is much better than the old system where you could break the handles trying to open the drawer.

To complement the box I purchased a 60mm drawer/30mm tray unit and 30mm tray. This should give me plenty of room for all my kit.

When I purchase a new box I always set the box up at home on a level surface to set the footplate at the correct height and get the box level before I reach and sloping banks. I also use the telescopic legs on the front legs with the footplate attached. The enables me to adjust the legs on the bank to suit without the need to adjust the height of the footplate, which I've already set to the correct height.

On the Bank

Although the box is bigger than my old Milo it is noticeably lighter even with the extra trays added, this is probably to be expected though given the materials used to make the respective boxes. One thing I did notice carrying the box is that it does have a tendancy to tilt over easily. This is down to the strap catches splitting down to a V shape I suppose to try and distribute the weight a bit better. I wouldn't know how to get around this, and it's really not that much of a problem.

The handles are really easy to use and it's very easy to get the box setup and level in no time at all. The bank was pretty steep and was made up of rock/clay but the big mudfeet did a grand job of keeping the box in place without it slipping down the bank any further.

The footplate is nice and compact, which I like. It doesn't feel like you're sat miles away from the bank which sometimes how you'd feel with the Milo footplates which are big in comparison.

The only issue I have with using the box is the seat. I don't like pole seats at the best of time but the cushioning on the seat is pretty useless. In less than 30 minutes the foam is flat and you're left sitting on hardboard. Not good when you're in for the long haul. The seat top is currently with a local upholsterer having a foam refurb.

Original Rive accessories for the box are pretty expensive and can be quite hard to come by. Luckily the Preston accessories fir with the help of the green Rive adapter that can be purchased. Preston Innovations have a good range of accessories and they widely stocked so finding suitable accessories shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Conclusion

First impressions of the box are very good. It's lightweight, has a good, cheapish range of drawers available to build a box to meet your requirements. A good range of accessories are available, even if the Rive originals are expensive. It feels very sturdy to sit on.
The only real downside is the seat. I could get over the fact that it has a pole seat if the foam was better quality.

Priced at a very reasonable £199 for the basic box including footplate 30mm tray and 30mm drawer, I'm suprised there aren't more of these on the bank, especially for those that want a good seatbox without the price tag of it's bigger brothers.

Pennine Champs, Dam Flask. 13/08/2006

2006-08-15T13:08:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time since I fished Dam Flask, it must be pushing 14 years or more. Given the fact that pretty much all my fishing now is based around commercials I was looking forward to fishing there again. Having not really had any up to date info or been able to practice I wasn't really fancying my chances but we'd see.

The dam is a big expanse of water and it doesn't take much of a breeze to turn make it look more like the North Sea, so opening the curtains on Sunday morning and seeing it not only chucking it down but the trees swaying in the wind led me think we may be in for a battering.
These concerns weren't eased when we arrived at the dam. The rain was still pouring down but it wasn't quite as windy as first expected. To make matters worse I'd left the brolly at home. Not a good start.

I drew peg 10, which was about half way down the plantation I was pretty pleased with what I'd drawn. Upon arriving at the peg, the wind had dropped considerably and the rain had stopped, things were looking up.

The main line of attack was going to be groundbait feeder which was a mix 50:50 of Sensas Bremes 3000 & Sensas Lake 3000. To this I was going to add casters and chopped worm. To stop the worms drying out and casters floating, thee were going to be added directly into the feeder and plugged with groundbait just prior to casting.

I spent about 10 mins casting around to find a suitable spot. As the lake is deep I didn't want to clip up and pull the feeder back towards me on cast so to keep the cast in approximately the same spot I tied a stop knot onto the main line. As you cast you can hear the knot rattle through the rings, this enables you to feather the line and keep the feeder hitting in roughly the same spot. I contemplated setting up a waggler rod but didn't want to risk missing out on any Bream if/when they turned up so I'd stick with the feeder.

At the all in, I spent 10 minutes casting the feeder to get some bait down onto the bottom, then attached my hooklength with a single caster burried. The first bite came after about an hour with a small roach coming to the net. Only one more roach followed in the next hour, but not much was being caught around me so it wasn't panic stations yet. Changing hookbait between worm and caster didn't bring no more joy. After about 3 hours the tip slowly but positively wrapped round, a gentle pull on the rod and it was on. Not wanting to risk losing the fish I took my time landing it and into the net slipped a skimmer about 1.5lb. Hopefully this was the first of many. Alas it wasn't meant to be, one more roach followed and that was the end of that. With about an hour left I switched to the waggler, which brought a few more bites and one roach.

I'd liked to have switched to the waggler sooner if to break up the monotony of sitting cross eyed looking at the tip. I don't think it would have caught me any more fish but it would have been a bit more interesting.

I weighed in a mighty 2lb 6oz which got me nowhere in the section which was won with 4lb odd from lower down the section. The match was won with just over 20lb of bream from the other bank down at the bottom end.

Although the fishing was dismal, it was still an enjoyable day and I'm looking forward to having a couple of pleasure days back up there and having another go next year.

Ecclesfield Pond, Saturday 03/06/2006

2006-06-05T15:04:00.000+01:00

The 4th Bernard Brian memorial match saw some glorious sunshine at last. We were hoping the fishing was going to be as good as the weather. Er...... no!!!!
Early indication weren't good. some of the lads had been practising in the week and though a lot of fish were caught on Wednesday, Thursday was not so good. They just weren't having it.

I drew peg 2, which was towards the top right hand side corner of the pond as you come up from the car park. Last years winner came from peg 4 so I thought I might be in with a shout.

I set up one pellet rig at 9 metres to my left and fed caster to the right by hand for the stick as well as with the catapult long for the waggler.
I started with the waggler and slowly the fish started coming, luckily they were of a fairly decent size. I caught steadily most of the morning but things slowed after lunch. I came in on the stick and caught a couple but then that dried up too.
I had kept feeding the pole line with half a pot of pellets every hour just as a back up, it was time to try it.
I had a few skimmers and a couple of roach about 6 oz which were more than welcome.

The last hour or so saw the odd fish coming off each line before having to move onto the next. I kept feeding all the lines the same just to tempt a few fish before they backed off again.

At the weigh in I thought it was going to be a close one between me and peg 3 who'd been catching steadily all day albeit smaller fish. I thought he'd done enough to beat me though. No one else on the lake seemed to be catching at all so I thought it was between us both.
I weighed 13lb 9oz with 10lb 5oz coming off peg 3. It was enough to put me in 1st and finally get my name on the trophy.
Next weight was 7lb 10oz from peg 1, then the weights really went down.

All other weights were around 5lb or less with far too many around the 2lb mark. Very poor weights for a venue like this.

Cheers Bernard