Andy's diary of his angling exploits
is updated every Monday.

Sunday 4th May Heronbrook Spring League

130 fished.

I said I would fish the last round of the spring league as Steve Carriers team were one man short.  I got drawn on peg 6 on the match/specimen lake, it looked quite good and I was informed that there were fish to be caught on the method casting to my right opposite the island, so that was the first thing I set up.  I also set up 3 pole rigs, one to fish on the corner of the island to my left where the bottom was very uneven so getting presentation would be very difficult, one to fish at 6 metres on the bottom in front of me in 5 ½ foot of water and of course my trusty shallow rig.  I started on the method and for the first hour never had a bite or liner, looking round hardly anyone was catching and it looked as though the carp just weren’t feeding.  I tried the pole and fished 14.5 metres to the island feeding micros and using a 4mm expander on the hook and still never had a bite.  After 2 hours I’d not had a bite and needed to make something happen, I had been loose feeding casters at 6 metres so out went the shallow rig and a rudd around 2 ounce took it straight away, I waited another 5 mins before I had another small rudd.  It was pouring down and had been most of the previous day so the rain was really affecting the fishing.  I tried my deep rig and caught 2 decent ide 2lb a piece and four 8 ounce skimmers but bites were very few and far between.  I scaled down to a size 20 b911 hook and put an 0.08 hooklength on going into the last hour and that seemed to do the trick as I caught a string of ide and skimmers, im pretty sure it was all down to the time of the day why I ended up catching late on but when you make a change like that it gives you confidence that something you have done is right.  I ended up coming 2nd in the section with 20lb 8oz; Mick Mee won the section with a brilliant 36lbs all skimmers net. I managed to help the team to joint second on the day which in the end I thought was a good result as I was last in section going into the last hour!

Wednesday 30th April Blundells

25 fished.

I was all set to go on either East or West lakes today as the F1’s have been feeding really well over the last couple of weeks and I fancied a go fishing casters shallow for them (It’s time to throw your plummets away now the weathers warming up, yeah!).  But when I arrived there was a club match on both these lakes so it would have to be another day’s ide fishing on Ash or Pine!  I had a walk round both and really fancied the look of Ash pool as the fish were topping all over the lake and the odd carp was bow waving away from the margins.  I was halfway down the list to choose and I decided to go on peg 47 on Ash.  Peg 49 has been doing very well lately so I knew I would be on a few fish.  Normally I would have set up the waggler but the wind was quite strong today blowing left to right so trying to get presentation would have been difficult, instead I set up 3 pole rigs, 1 to fish shallow at 1 foot deep, I had a 4x14 float to fish on a bar at 14.5 metres in around 5 ½ foot of water and a 4x12 float to fish 4 metres straight out in front of me in 5 foot of water.  I started of by feeding 4mm expanders on my long and short pole lines and I was also loose feeding casters at 13 metres straight in front of me to get the fish shallow.  I started at 14.5 metres on the bottom and while I was lowering my rig in I hooked into a carp on the drop, it was a mirror around 3lb and next put in the same thing happened but this was smaller around 1 1/2 lbs.  People were still feeding there pegs and i’d caught 2 carp, it was solid!  I then missed the next couple of bites, it was obvious that the fish were up in the water so after just 15 minutes I had the best rig in the world on:- the shallow rig consisting of 0.12 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 16 B911 hook, 3 x no.12 shot, blue hydro and the brilliant Sconeee jugz float.  I baited up with a single red maggot and was loose feeding 8-10 casters every 15-20 seconds, proper fishing!  I always prefer fishing with a bigger hook than normal when fishing shallow as the idea is to get the fish competing for the bait so they are really not bothered by the size of the hook at all, they are more interested in the bait and making sure they get the food before another fish does so they don’t have time to study your hook size.  I quite often fish small baits like 4mm pellets caster or maggot on a size 14 hook when the fish are really feeding well!  From the first put in until 1 hour from the end when the wind got too strong I didn’t go 1 minute without coming back with an ide, it was absolutely solid.  I made the decision to fish at 13 metres rather than 6 metres because the fish always back off eventually when fishing shallow closer in, then you have to start chasing the fish, I wanted to make sure I could get the maximum out of my swim by feeding an area at 13 metres where the fish could feed confidently all day.  Going into the last hour I’d caught around 200 ide which I thought would go 70lb, the fish were still feeding further out but the wind was too strong to fish.  I tried my 4 metre line which I had been feeding all day and managed to catch a further 3 carp for around 9lbs.  There were 2 people who had also caught well on the pine pool and Des Southern next to me on 49 had also caught ide most of the day so there would be some good weights today.  I weighed in 85lbs 10oz to win the match, Des weighed in 53lbs to win the section and there was a 70lb and 60lb on the pine pool. It was a fantastic days fishing and it wont be long before the carp will be feeding up in the water on the pellet waggler, wohoo!

Friday 25th April Day 5 Dynamite baits Whiteacres Festival. Porth Reservoir

With the pressure on of knowing that I had to win my section today I was really glad that I was at Porth to hopefully do it.  This place has to be one of the best waters I have ever fished, really nice surroundings and wild natural fish; I wish they would have 5 sections on here all week!  I drew peg 78 on the far side which was the same peg that Kieron had won his section from 2 days earlier with just over 9lbs.  Porth hadn’t been fishing as well as expected all week with low double figures winning the lake every day so I knew it would be a case of getting my head down and catch anything swimming, except pike and cormorants!  I set up a feeder rod using 0.19 Power Steel mainline and 0.12 XT7 hooklength to a size 16 B560 hook, I only cast out 25 turns as the further you go the water just gets too deep.  I set up 2 pole rigs, a 1.5 gramme float to fish in 8 foot of water at 13 metres and a 4x16 float to fish in 5 foot of water at 6 metres.  I used 0.12 XT7 main line on both and 0.10 XT7 hooklengths to a size 18 B560 hook, I used 6’s elastic on both rigs.  At the all in I cupped in 4 balls of groundbait at 13 metres and 2 at 6 metres, my groundbait had only dead pinkies in as bait as I didn’t want to fill the fish up.  I started on the feeder and had signs immediately, catching 3 small skimmers in 3 casts.  I waited another 10 minutes for my next bite, normally you get bites all day on the feeder but I knew it had been fishing hard so I expected things to dry up a bit.  After an hour I’d caught 6 small skimmers and 3 roach for around 1 ½ pounds, asking around in my section some people were still waiting for there first bite, I have never known Porth to fish like this, but it suited me, as coming from ‘oooop north’ I was used to catching nowt from big reservoirs!  I tried the pole at 13 metres and instantly started to catch little roach on double red pinkies and also started to catch the odd skimmer, plus a bonus skimmer around 8oz.  It was still really hard going you would catch 4 or 5 fish very quick then would have to wait 10-15 minutes for another bite.  I was feeding regular balls of groundbait through a pole pot, just fishing it out and then re-feeding.  At 6 metres I was loose feeding casters to try and get some roach in my peg.  I tried the 6 metre line after 2 ½ hours and it was solid, I had a fish a chuck for 40 minutes, mainly little roach between 1-3 ounce but also the odd skimmer around 4 ounce, then I hooked into something that pulled back a bit.  I had 12 foot of elastic out of my pole and a nodding fish on the other end, I was sure it was a bream but when it came up it was a pike around 5lbs.  Pike don’t count on here but the place is solid with them, I really thought it was a big bream or perch, as soon as I struck I was met with solid resistance so it must have taken the fish as soon as I struck.  I landed the pike after 3 minutes and chinned it, looking down its throat I could see the skimmers tail but there was no way I could get it back.  Back went the pike to terrorize more fish and I couldn’t get a bite at 6 metres after this.  I carried on feeding this line and would try it again with an hour to go.  In the mean time I concentrated at 13 metres picking up odd fish but it was very hard going.  I reckoned I’d caught around 5lbs and word was 5lbs was winning the section.  I came back to 6 metres but again remained biteless so went back out to 13 metres for the rest of the match.  The wind by now had got up so I had to back shot with 3 no.6 and lay on around 8 inches.  I carried on picking up little roach before I struck into a decent fish, I played it very carefully expecting a pike to come and nail it at any time, but I managed to net a skimmer around 1lb, what a bonus!  I was last but one to weigh in and I thought it would be close between me and the lad to my left.  5lbs was winning the section upto me and I weighed in 9lbs 3oz the lad on my left weighed in 6lbs so I had won my section and now it was all down to how Steve had done.  Will had rang around and found out that Steve had won his section from peg 7 on Gwinear and won the festival, a brilliant performance from him off that peg as it had been rubbish all week.  Will won Porth with a brilliant 19lbs, im glad he wasn’t in my section!  So the top three were 1st Steve Ringer 36 points, 2nd me 35 points dropping 8 and 3rd Will Raison 35 points dropping 7.  Roll on next year where hopefully I will go one better.

Thursday 24th April Day 4 Dynamite baits Whiteacres Festival. Gwinear or Grimear

This lake can be the maker and breaker of most people’s festivals as there are some pegs that just have no fish in them.  My mate Kieron Rich had drawn peg 4 earlier in the week and only had 3 bites so I was hoping for a good draw.  My arm came good for me and I drew the bridge peg 28.  I wasn’t that happy at first as I had drawn the same peg in October and only managed 20lb to beat just 2 in my section, but after speaking to a few people they told me there was a few fish to be caught.  The thing with this peg is that you need to fish right next to a bridge which has stansions coming down below the water and when you do hook a fish they always go left towards the bridge.  I set up 3 rigs all with red hydro and all with 0.22 Power Match main line to 0.20 Power Match hooklength.  I set up one to fish on the bottom at 8 metres in 7ft of water right against the bridge, another was to fish 4 metres to my left in 2 ½ foot of water towards the bridge and my last rig was set at 2 foot deep to fish shallow over my 8 metre line.  I had baits of 6mm hard pellets some 4mm and 6mm expanders and 3 ½ pints of casters with half a pint of maggots.  I started by feeding really light with hard 6mm pellets and used a 6mm expander on the hook, after 10 minutes I had my first bite a mirror around 2lbs which tried to get under the bridge but soon gave up, my next fish however succeeded and stormed off under the bridge before I could do anything about it.  Luckily I only lost my hooklength so quickly put another one on.  By now I was getting a few liners as fish were up in the water so I started to loose feed pellets to get them shallow.  Over the next 20 minutes I lost another 3 fish and only got 1 out, again a small mirror around 2lbs, they were really angry and everything I was hooking as expected went straight for the bridge.  I tried my 4 metre line to try and get them to feed away from the wooden stansion but they weren’t having none of it.  I would have to persevere with my 8 metre line and give em some stick!  I tried my shallow rig and caught 2 fish immediately but they were only small, again I lost another 2 fish as they were snapping my line against the stansions, I had to do something to stop it. I’d caught just 4 fish after 2 hours and lost 6.  I decided on starting all over again and making a shark rig, I tightened my red hydro up so that it could stop a bus and got out a spool of 0.28, no more mr nice guy now!  I was last in my section half way through the match and I just hoped that this rig would work, I fished a hair rigged 6mm pellet on a size 14 drennan method barbless hook shallow right tight to the bridge and had a bite straight away, try as it might this one was going nowhere and 15 seconds later a 15lb mirror was in the net, that’s more like it!  Next put in the same thing and out came a common around 10lbs, 25lbs in 2 fish in 2 minutes, the comeback was on!  There were lots of fish shallow but even if I came 1 foot away from the bridge I wouldn’t get a bite I had to lay my rig in right next to it.  It wasn’t the big fish that were the problem today it was the smaller 3-4lb fish that were just nuts and even on this gear a couple managed to get under the bridge and the hook pulled, I managed to catch 20 carp in total and lost 8 but with the ‘new’ shark rig I made up I only lost 2 fish due to the pressure being exerted and the hook pulling, it just goes to show that when the fish are feeding they are not bothered by line, hook size etc.  I ended up winning my section with 121lbs 6oz and came 2nd on the lake.  Alan won the lake with 145lbs from peg 24 and Will was second on the lake with 110lbs from peg 20.  I was still in 1st position overall with 34 points and it was all down to tomorrow, I needed to win my section to win the festival and the only person who could beat me with 4 wins was Steve Ringer.

Wednesday 23rd April Day 3 Dynamite baits Whiteacres Festival. Trelawney and Twin Oakes

I was hoping for a draw on the left hand bank of twin oaks today as it had been fishing really well.  Instead I drew on the right hand bank on peg 23, the fish are much smaller on average in this lake but I was fairly happy with my draw even though the peg had come last in section the day before!  Again I had Will to contend with on peg 33 in my section and also Alan Scotthorne was on the end peg 19 with the wind blowing into it, I would be up against it!  I set up the meat feeder and pellet waggler rods first then set up a pole rig to fish down the margins.  The thing with these lakes is that you need to cast really tight to the far bank to catch the fish, even if you are 1 foot away you quite often won’t get a bite, you need to cast right into the bank, so make sure you have lots of hook lengths tied up!  I first tried the meat feeder and after just 10 minutes I was playing my 3rd fish, it was solid but the fish were only 1 1/2lbs on average and they fought like mad, really angry commons!  On my fourth cast I decided to do a bit of squirreling and cast onto the far bank into the only bush there was, I lost my hooklength so I quickly attached another one!  Over the next 30 minutes I caught another 5 fish and was getting liners but had also lost 2 foul hookers, the fish were up in the water so it was time to try the pellet waggler.  First cast and my float didn’t settle the line just tightened, fish on, it continued like this for the next 20 minutes where I put 8 fish in my net, I was absolutely flying catching 16 fish in the first hour, again the wind was quite strong blowing left to right, I could only leave my waggler in for a maximum of 10 seconds before the wind blew it out of position.  Looking around I could see Will catching and also Steve Conway was catching well on the meat feeder.  I tried the feeder again after 2 hours to let my waggler line settle but I was getting lots of liners as the fish were swimming around up in the water, I only caught another 5 over the next hour though so decided just to stick it out on the waggler.  I would catch 3 or 4 fish in quick succession but would then have to wait 15 minutes for another fish.  It remained this way until the end of the match; I’d managed to catch 40 carp which I was a bit disappointed with seeing as I’d caught 16 in the first hour!  I knew I would either be first or second as Will had caught a similar amount of fish.  I weighed in 88lbs 12oz to come second in my section; Will won the section with 97lbs.  The other section of twin oaks had fished really well with 5 ton plus weights and 4 weights over 80lbs.  Overall I was now in 1st position with 25 points.

Tuesday 22nd April Day 2 Dynamite baits Whiteacres Festival. Pollawyn Lake

I drew peg 15 on the high bank and opposite the start of the island.  It wasn’t a bad peg but I would be hard pushed to beat Will at the next peg 16 and the bloke on peg 17.  The wind was really bad today so trying to get any presentation on the waggler would be difficult, I set one up anyway and also a feeder rod to fish meat and hemp.  The last rig I set up was a 5 metre pole rig in 6 foot of water using a 4x16 float 0.20 to 0.18 Power Match to a size 14 pr29 hook and purple hydro as I had caught well from this line on peg 31 on the high bank last October so thought I would catch a few late on from this swim.  On the all in I started on the meat feeder and for the first 10 minutes only left the feeder in a maximum of 30 seconds to get some bait in, I also fed my pole line quite heavily at first with meat and hemp and throughout the match I would be catapulting four or five 8mm pellets just short of my feeder line in a hope that the wind would eventually drop so I could try the waggler.  I had my first fish after 20 minutes a ghostie about 8lbs but the pegs opposite me in my section had started really well and Geoff Ringer was already on his 3rd fish!  All I could do was keep plugging away hoping that they would eventually arrive.  Every 20 minutes I would feed my short pole line but wouldn’t try it until 2 hours of the match to go, I was really confident in catching on this line, no one else had put a short line in so I would have it all to myself.  After 90 minutes I’d caught 4 carp for around 25lbs, Will had caught 6 carp and the pegs opposite me had slowed up.  The high bank wasn’t fishing no where near as good as normal it was definitely due to the wind as no one could get any real presentation.  I tried the pellet waggler for 15 minutes and had 1 carp on it, there were lots of carp moving but getting them to feed was hard.  I stuck it out on the feeder for another hour catching another 3 carp before eventually trying my pole line.  For the first 20 minutes I was getting liners and caught the odd skimmer, but you knew when the carp moved in as the silvers stopped feeding altogether and the bites were much more positive.  I managed to catch 6 carp in the last 90 minutes and lost a further 4 foul hooked, it would be very close for the section between me and Will, he had caught 12 carp but had 6 or 7 decent sized skimmers and I had 14 carp but with only 2 decent skimmers.  When the scales arrived I weighed in 87lb 4oz to come second in the section, Will won the section with 94lbs.  I was actually 4th on the lake with that weight as there was only two ton plus weights from pegs 19 and 20 opposite the high bank; the wind had really put the fish off today.  Overall I was now lying in 3rd position with 17 points.

Monday 21st April Day 1 Dynamite baits Whiteacres Festival. Bolingey Lake

I always make sure I have a yearly trip to Whiteacres and for the last 4 consecutive years I have entered the Dynamite Baits festival.  If any of you have never fished one of these festivals then I would definitely recommend it.  The fishing is fantastic and also the craic at night time in the angler’s arms is top class too!  I drew in E section along with some very good anglers including Will Raison and Alan Scotthorne, I would really have my work cut out to finish well in this years festival.  On the first day I was on Bolingey and drew peg 24, which is over the little bridge right in the middle of the bank.  I really didn’t fancy it because I had drawn this same peg 3 times and the best I had managed to do was come 5th in section, but this year they had changed some of the numbers which are in your section but there was still good anglers on good pegs.  I knew from past experience that there were fish to be caught on the pellet waggler and also meat at 5 metres worked well.  I set up 2 pellet waggler rods and 3 pole rigs.  I had a 4x10 rig to fish down both margins in about 2 foot of water using 0.20 Power Match straight through to a size 14 pr29 hook with red hydro and I had 2 identical rigs using 4x16 floats of 0.20 to 0.18 Power Match to a size 14 pr29 hook with purple hydro, these would be fished 5 metres out in 7 foot of water.  Both my waggler rigs were set up with the brilliant new Ultima Power Steel in 0.22 as main line and 0.18 Power Match hooklength with a size 14 drennan barbless carp hook.  I used hair rigs on both rods having my band in a little loop and simply banding an 8mm pellet.  At the all in I fed my 5 metre line with meat and hemp and catapulted 8mm pellets right over.  I started on the waggler but it took 20 minutes for me to get my first bite, by this time Andy Stonner and Geoff Ringer either side of me had caught 4 a piece.  I finally caught my first fish after 30 minutes which was a mirror around 4lbs.  I wasn’t worried that I was behind as there are some very big fish in here so 1 or 2 of them would put me right back in contention.  After 1 hour I had 6 carp in the net but they were much smaller than normal but still fought just as hard, they are absolutely nuts and just never give up.  I was feeding my 5 metre line regularly and also my margin swims but it was obvious there was a few carp over as I was getting a bite every cast now, you have got to cast the waggler or feeder really close to the features down here if you don’t you will not get a bite, it really is that simple.  By far the best way in my opinion to fish the pellet waggler is to feed your pellets and then cast your float on top of them, wait 10-15 seconds wind in and repeat, it is a very busy method but also catches loads of fish.  Today I managed just one 10 minute go on the pole after 4 hours fishing, there was that many on the waggler line I couldn’t come off it but thought I would have a quick try and I only managed 1 fish even though I had been feeding it for so long.  At the all out I’d caught 40 carp but they were only small so I didn’t think I would do any good in my section.  127lbs was winning my section upto me and I thought it would be close; I weighed in 163lbs 10oz for a section win and second on the lake.  Overall I was in second place on weight

Saturday 12th April Heronbrook

60 fished

I hadn’t fished Heronbrook since last summer and I was really looking forward to fishing here again.  Again as it always seems to be at the moment the weather was rubbish being quite windy with the odd hail shower.  I drew peg 9 on the old canal which is just going into the bend I also got told that Andy Moors won the match last Sunday from this peg catching 70lb of F1’s, so I was quite confident, especially as the peg to my left, peg 10 hadn’t been drawn, wohoo!  I went and found Andy and asked him how he fished it and he just had one swim right over fishing pellets, I just hope the fish were still here.  I set up 3 rigs in all my main one would be to fish over at 13 metres in about 4 foot of water right against some reeds, I had a shallow rig to fish between 2 and 3 foot in about 5 foot of water into some reeds and I also had a swim down the middle in 5 foot of water.  The method all winter has been fishing bread into the reeds and not feeding anything, just keep lifting and dropping all the time trying different swims.  On my main line over I used 0.14 Ultima XT7 main line and 0.12 XT7 hook length to a size 18 B911 hook, I used a 4x12 Mosella float as it was quite windy and I needed to get the bait right down to the bottom.  I also used a 4x12 float down the middle but had 0.10 hooklength on.  I used white hydro on both these swims.  On my bread rig I fished a Scone Jugz float with just the weight of the bread to cock the float, I used 0.18 power match straight through to purple hydro and a size 14 B911 hook.  On the all in I fed down the middle with 2 balls of micro pellets the size of golf balls, and then baited up with a 4mm expander and went over feeding just 15-20 micros.  I fully expected a bite straight away but after 30 minutes without a bite it was not looking good, typical!  I managed to catch 3 or 4 little f1s in the first hour but it was very hard going.  I tried down the middle and again remained bite less so tried my bread line and first go in I hooked into something that was a bit angry, it swam straight out of the reeds but was going a little mad down the middle shaking its head and just staying deep, after 3 minutes I netted a nice mirror around 8lbs, nice!  Next put in I hooked a reed which decided to keep my rig as a trophy!  The problem was that some of the reeds had been cut under the water and trying to get the float to sit right without hooking a reed was hard, I must have been lucky that first go in. I tried away from the reeds slightly but never had a bite, so I just persevered until I got the float to sit right.  It was very hard to get presentation with the wind blowing strong from right to left and I didn’t have another bite after 40 minutes fishing.  I tried my line in front of me on pellets and had another run of 4 or 5 little F1’s but they weren’t having it proper.  I thought the fish might have backed off into my spare peg at 16 metres in front of peg 10 so I had a plumb up and found the same depth there.  I caught a few little F1’s but the wind was very strong and was making things difficult.  I tried down the middle again without a bite and also tried my bread line again without a bite.  There was just over an hour to go now so I stayed on my 13 metre swim over to the reeds as it was now time of day for the fish to have a feed.  I caught steady until the last 30 minutes and my swim came alive then, I was getting liners and fish were taking my pellet as soon as it had settled, if only they had been here all day. I ended up with 39lb 12oz and 41lbs won my section, maybe if I had just sat on one line all day I would have caught more but with not fishing the venue for a while I probably tried too many different things, never mind though I will be ready for them next time.

Wednesday 9th April Blundells

22 fished.

I think it’s definitely time for a change of water at this complex as pine pool fished quite hard today and all the other lakes had plenty of room and the fish fed well on them.  The fish on pine pool have been getting a hammering all winter as this lake is most anglers first choice.  I was half way down the list to draw and again all my bait was geared towards fishing for the ide, I chose to go on peg 69.  The better pegs to my right had already been drawn so I just went somewhere with a bit of room but after I had chose another 2 anglers went either side of me on pegs 71 and 67.  There was a lot of room left on the ash pool and had the wind been in the opposite direction I wouldn’t have hesitated to go on there but the wind was perfect for Pine and I was happy with my peg, well I was until them other 2 anglers turned up!  I set up the waggler first and I was testing a new prototype reel line today and im well impressed with it!  I also set up just 2 pole rigs, one to fish shallow and the other to fish on the bottom in 8 foot of water at 6 metres.  The wind was perfect off my back and hardly blowing at all really and I honestly thought I would empty it on the waggler as it was holding perfectly still with just a 1.25 gram float on.  On the all in I fed my waggler line first then fed my pole lines.  First cast I had an ide around 12 ounce, they are really packing on the weight now as they are getting ready to spawn so a good weight could be on the cards!  Hmmm, wishful thinking from me, as just 10 minutes into the match the wind got up and started blowing quite strongly across the lake and the undertow was really bad.  I changed floats to a 1.5 gram and went more over depth, this did the trick for a bit and I caught 2 decent carp, but the ide weren’t interested as I was only catching 1 every 3 or 4 casts.  I came in and tried the pole line but never had a bite, I thought I would catch a few but the ide were nowhere to be seen.  The wind kept on changing and with it the tow changed as well, I would catch 3 or 4 fish and then wait 30 minutes for another bite, it was a weird day and im not sure if it was because they were chasing my bait around due to the tow or the fact that they had there minds on other things as the ide I caught were all rough.  If I cast in the same place twice I wouldn’t get a bite I had to keep on casting all over my swim to keep fish coming.  All in all it was a real struggle today and I ended up winning my section with just 26lb 10oz, only 29lbs won the lake.  50lbs won the match from East pool and there were a few 40’s and high 30’s from the other lakes. A definite change of scenery for me next week I reckon!  Saying that i’ll probably find myself on Pine again!

Sunday 29th March Barston Lakes

55 Fished.

Well I can’t really say much about this match other than it was very windy and very wet and very dry at the same time (the dry being my keepnet).  I drew peg 108 which is 4 or 5 pegs past an island and an out and out method feeder job.  I set up the method for a big chuck using a new prototype line from ultima with very little stretch which would be perfect for shy biting skimmers and bream at long range, well it would have been perfect if their was any fish around!  I also set up a normal paternoster feeder rig to cast 30 or 40 yards and I set the pole up to fish at 14.5 metres, why the hell I set up the pole I don’t know as it was obvious I wouldn’t catch anything on it as I couldn’t even hold the damn thing and it was only 3 ½ foot deep!  On the all in I cupped in 4 balls of micro pellets and had 5 or 6 casts with micros and fishmeal groundbait on my feeder line.  Then out went the method and it was arms crossed and time to pour a cup of tea and wait.  After 20 minutes biteless I wound in the method and re-cast, and waited!  Another 20 minutes went by without a bite or liner so it was time to try the feeder.  Again 40 minutes and 4 casts later I hadn’t had a bite, I was ready for the pub now!  I rang Daddy May and he had caught a skimmer and wanted to stop so I gave it another hour.  I tried the pole for 2 minutes before packing it away as I couldn’t hold it past the top 3!  Out went the method again and after 10 minutes my tip dropped back, I wound down into the fish and it had one nod and then fell off!  One of my triple dead red maggots had over folded on my hook.  The next cast was chucked out full of confidence thinking the fish had moved in and any time now I would start to bag up!  Well that fish I had bumped was obviously a loner as I never had another bite for 40 minutes. I rang my Dad again and he had caught another skimmer so was doing well in his section so he wanted to stop.  I packed up and made a bee line to the bar for a few cheeky ones, but after an hour my Dad rang me to say he’d had enough and was getting fishcaked (battered both sides).  I had to leave the warmth of the bar to go and give him a hand with his gear as his peg was miles away.  The conditions had been atrocious today but on a normal day Barston is a brilliant water full of fish, unfortunately though the fish seem to get as far away as possible from me, I have fished Barston four times now and have still not weighed in, the fact that there is a bar on site has a lot to do with it though as a pint of carling cold always seems to be calling me!  

Monday 24th March Blundells

70 fished.

I was really looking forward to this match as there was a lot of money flying about due to the money in the bonus ball pot being shared out.  Unfortunately I drew rubbish and the lakes which I wanted to be on; Pine and Ash were filling up rapidly.  It was 2 pegs and miss 1 on every lake today and with me being 53rd choice to pick out of 70 I had little hope of getting on the lake I wanted.  I actually did draw a good peg as Derek Willan rang me to say he would be late and would I mind drawing for him, well I only went and drew him number 12, he’s always been lucky.  When it came to my turn to pick there were no pegs left on pine and just one peg, number 42 left on Ash but as you would expect it wasn’t a noted peg and I can’t ever remember seeing anyone choose the peg in all the matches I have fished here!  I decided to go for it anyway as I had come to fish for ide with maggots and casters.  Again it was a very cold day with the odd snow flurry and the wind blowing right to left so trying to present a waggler would be very difficult but I still set it up anyway.  It was only narrow here probably being 20 metres wide so I used a light 1.5 gram drennan insert waggler.  I also set up 2 pole rigs; one to fish at 6 metres and one to fish at 14.5 metres, the depth was different to other parts of the lake with it only being 5 foot at 6 metres and 7 foot at 14.5 metres.  I started off by loose feeding casters on the waggler line then fed both my pole lines, I fed the short line with maggots and the long line with casters and a few maggots, I would continue to feed both pole lines every 5 minutes.  I started on the waggler but the wind was making it really difficult, I could have put a heavier float on to cut through the wind but then any bites I would get off the ide would be very hard to hit as they feel the slightest resistance so I had to persevere with a light float.  After 20 minutes I had caught just one ide so decided to try the long pole line as the guy on my left had already had 5 or 6 ide on this line. First put in and my float buried straight away and this wasn’t an ide but a foul hooked carp which decided to fall off after 3 or 4 minutes.  Next put in I caught an ide and continued to catch another 7 or 8 before I hooked another carp and after 3 minutes a very angry ghost carp of around 2lb was in my net.  The bloke on my left had also had 2 or 3 carp and was still catching ide, he was fishing corn so I decided to start introducing some corn with my casters and cut out feeding the maggots.  Again my float buried with a piece of corn on as soon as the float settled but it was from ide, they were having the corn even quicker than maggots, it carried on like this for another 30 minutes before things started to dry up.  I re-fed with casters and corn and tried my short line, I thought I would get a bite straight away but there was nothing there, probably because it was a lot shallower than other pegs.  I tried long again on corn but it was a lot slower than before so I reverted back to feeding maggots and casters and began to pick up a few ide again.  Halfway into the match I’d heard of 2 pegs on west pool and a peg on pine pool were catching best but after that most people were struggling and I thought 30lb would be a very good weight.  The guy to my left had already caught over 20lb and I reckoned I had 12lb; I was well behind but was still getting odd bites from the ide.  I noticed a few ide were now topping on my waggler line and I had been feeding it since the start with just 6 or 7 casters, also the wind was beginning to drop so I was hoping for a good last couple of hours on the waggler.  My pole line eventually dried up so again I re-fed and tried the waggler, I had an ide straight away and then hooked something which waddled off to my left right up the pool.  I had to unclip as the fish went 4 pegs down and then decided to find a snag right in front of me, bugger!  I let everything go slack for a few seconds and tried a bit more side strain and the fish swam out, wohoo!  It was still quite angry though but at least it didn’t go back and find that snag, after 7 or 8 minutes I netted a common around 5lbs.  I had still been feeding casters whilst playing the fish and the ide were waiting for me.  I had 10 in 10 casts before I hooked another carp around 2lb.  There was only half an hour of the match left now and conditions went perfect with hardly any wind, the only problem was the sun had also come out and on this pool this time of year it’s right in your face and you can’t see anything, I caught a few more ide by slowly winding and waiting for them to hook themselves as I couldn’t see my float but it wasn’t right to catch them in this way today so I went back on the pole for the last 10 minutes.  I never had another bite even though I had been feeding the line every 10 minutes, the fish were definitely on my waggler line now but it was too late to change back.  Come the end of the match I thought i’d had around 25lb but the bloke on my left I thought had more than me as he had 7 carp to my 3.  When the scales reached me just 24lb was winning the match, I weighed 29lb 12oz and next peg to me had 24lb I was really surprised as I thought he had more than me, them last few ide I had caught on the waggler had made all the difference.  I ended up coming 4th overall which I was well pleased with from the peg I was on.  52lbs won the match, 32lbs was second both from West pool and 30lb was third from pine pool.

Sunday 23rd March Browning Cudmore teams of three final round

65 fished

Well from getting bites all of the match earlier in the week I came here to get as many bites in the whole 6 hour match as what I had in about 30 minutes at Blundells!  The weather played a very important part in that factor though as it was absolutely freezing with hail and snow coming down for most of the day, plus the wind was in all of our faces on the new pools.  I blame Kerry Kirkwood as he drew our pegs today and drew Kieron peg 4 on Arena and Darren peg 3 on Brewsters which are good pegs but his golden arm failed me and I got new pool 5 peg 141..rubbish!  I set up a feeder/bomb rig and two pole rigs one to fish at 11.5 metres for silvers and one to fish at 14.5 metres with corn and pellets.  I cast out a bomb before the all in down the middle and I had a liner as soon as it had settled.  I cast to the same place on the all in and again I started to get liners I left it 5 minutes before I re-cast and made sure it was a bit shorter than before, I had no liners this time and continued to cast all over my peg looking for signs of fish but it was obvious there was none about.  After an hour I tried a little feeder cast 3 metres from the net hole opposite and again my tip remained motionless, time to try the pole.  I thought I would catch straight away on my long pole line as I had been feeding micros and a few gains of corn every 15-20 minutes but nothing happened so I gave myself a false bite by dropping my backshot under the water so I could have a practice strike, yes I was very bored by now!  After 2 hours without a bite I rang Kieron and Darren and they too were blanking, what a team performance this was!  The anglers either side of me were blanking too and only one bloke out of five on the lake had caught a fish, I had to make sure I didn’t blank so tried my silver line.  I couldn’t believe it when my float eventually went under, I struck a little too hard as it caught me completely by surprise and out flew a gudgeon, I played it all the way back and actually netted the fish as it could have been worth a few points, it was a little embarrassing though!  I caught a few more gudgeon and the odd roach before my swim died and I tried my long pole line again.  There was only 30 minutes of the match left and I was lying 3rd on the lake with Terry Fishgold leading the way with 4 F1’s and a mirror and a bloke up the other end had 1 F1 and a tench.  I needed to try and get second so had to go for it and stay on my long pole line, 10 minutes before all out I was looking round and looked back and couldn’t see my float I thought I had let my backshot go under the water again so didn’t really strike but lifted up only to find my elastic being pulled out, I then gave it a proper strike and 5 foot of elastic was now out of my pole, it was a decent sized bream which came right to the top of the water and started nodding its head, my heart started racing as I was sure it was going to fall off but I eventually netted it and it was around 3lb, double striking is the future!  That bream got me second on the lake with a fantastic 5lb 9oz.  Terry won the lake with just 11lb and 2lb 14oz was third, the other 2 anglers blanked!  Kieron finished brilliantly catching 30lb of barbel in the last hour to win his section and come 4th overall, unfortunately Darren came last in his section so we weren’t sure if we had won or not.  Again Suez canal dominated proceedings with three 40lb plus weights.  Our team ended up on 9 penalty points but the team who were second to us going into the last match had also had a bad day and finished on 8 points.  We ended up winning overall by 3 points and got 500 beer tokens to share out between us, yeah!  Well done to Jay, Alan and Roy who came second, but really off the flyers that they had throughout the series they should have won easily...haha, only joking!

Wednesday 19th March Blundells

25 fished.

Having not fished Blundells for a couple of weeks I was a little undecided on where to pick today but after having a walk round I again settled for a peg on pine pool.  I chose peg 69 and it was every other angler on the lake today, well apart from where I was, I had 3 spare pegs..wohoo!  I knew it would be hard to beat my mate Kieron Rich who had drawn peg 61 which had been fishing well of late, but I was more than happy with my peg given that I had some room.  I set up a pole rig to fish at 5 metres in 7 ½ foot of water, I also set up a shallow rig and a waggler rod.  It was quite a windy day today so trying to get presentation on the waggler would be difficult but I tried it anyway using the spare pegs to my advantage.  On the all in I fed my pole line with 40-50 maggots and a golf ball size of micro pellets and would continue to lose feed 15-20 maggots every 2 to 3 minutes on this line.  I wanted to put a lot of feed in first to draw the ide in and then by lose feeding hopefully I would bring them up in the water.  I started on the waggler and after 20 minutes without a bite I changed to the pole.  First put in I hooked an ide as soon as the rig had settled and I noticed that I was getting little dips on the float as the rig was falling through the water. I never like to fish shallow too early for any fish as the longer you can leave it then the better you will catch later on in the match.  Instead I was fishing in a way that I could catch the ide wherever they were in the water.  I was fishing a 4x14 float with my bulk much further away than I would normally have it at around 3 ½ foot, I also had 4 light no.12 dust shot spread evenly with the first shot being 10 inches from my hook.  I also used 4 no.8 as back shot about 4 inches above my float.  I fished in this way so when I layed my rig in I could hold back tight on the float and would catch the ide on the drop, most of them hooked themselves just before the rig settled. The only thing with fish such as ide though is that they soon wise up and nothing seems to last.  I caught quite steadily for 2 hours fishing this way before I had to try and chase them by fishing shallow.  I would catch a few at 4 metres then would have to put another section on and try further out, then after a few more fish I had to go further out again.  It remained like this for a couple of hours and I was keeping in touch with the fish but it was obvious the ide were slowly backing even further away and with the wind being quite strong it was getting difficult to hit the bites and hold the pole.  I had still been feeding the waggler line throughout the match as is always the case, you never know and you need to give yourself options to fall back on.  I fished the waggler for the rest of the match but was only catching 1 ide to every 6 casts, the shoal had definitely moved probably into the spare pegs but I had caught a few fish and from what I had heard 30lb would be a good weight.  I ended up coming 2nd with 42lb and Kieron won with 49lb catching mostly barbel in the last 2 hours, 3rd place was 35lb from East pool.  Again I had a really enjoyable day catching ide and the fishing is exceptional for this time of year.  You can sit on any peg on Ash or Pine pool and get bites from these ide and at this time of year all anglers want to see is their float going under which it does all the time here!

Saturday 15th March Browning Cudmore

60 fished.

With anglers being spread over most of the fishery today as pools 1 and 4, Suez, Brewsters and Arena was in I was really hoping for a draw on the Arena pool as the barbel are starting to feed well in here at the moment, or failing that I would have liked a draw on Suez, in fact I would have preferred to draw anywhere but pool 1!  So yes, out came pool 1 peg 10, the good thing about these pegs though is that you can park behind the lake and you don’t disturb anyone if you want to pack up early!  I thought to myself I would give it until 1pm.  The form pegs on here lately have been peg 16 and peg 8.  On peg 8 there is a big deep hole at 16 metres and last week this peg won the match with over 60lb all caught on bomb and corn in the hole.  Also peg 16 has been the most consistent peg on the fishery over the winter and draw bag Melvin Kearns would make the most of this peg.  I set up the method to fish right over in the net holes, I set up a long pole line at 14.5 metres where I would feed corn and micro pellets and I also set up a 6 metre line as I had success on it last week on pool 4.  On the all in I cast out the method and fed both my pole lines, I then crossed my legs, poured a coffee and waited, and waited.....and waited!  I had no liners or signs at all on the method and gave it an hour before trying the pole.  Neil Lloyd on my right had caught a barbel fishing 16 metres into the hole and was getting the odd liner.  I had fed my pole line 4 times before I tried it so I was hoping for bites straight away and it didn’t disappoint, I caught a skimmer around 1lb before hooking into a mirror around 4lb the very next put in.  I was getting lots of signs and it was obvious there was a few fish around, but most of the bites were from tiny skimmers. 2 hours into the match I was feeding a full kinder pot of micros with a few grains of corn and I was still catching little skimmers.  I tried corn on the hook but never had a bite after waiting 15 minutes so went back on pellets and again caught skimmers.  I decided on resting this swim and feeding quite heavily with micros and a few grains of corn, my thinking being that there was loads of little skimmers around which would eat most of the micros but hopefully in turn attract some bigger fish into the swim.  I tried my 6 metre line and had a nice bream around 3lb first put in but the little skimmers soon found a liking to my pellets on that line as well!  I could see odd people catching but no one was really catching well.  Going into the last 2 hours I was catching steadily on my 14.5 metre line, I was still catching those little skimmers but I would also catch the odd F1 or better skimmer around 12oz.  The last hour was when things started to change as the wind dropped and conditions were perfect, I started to catch mirrors,  I was catching the fish around 2 foot past my feed line and as the wind had died down I caught by slowly dragging my float through the swim. I had 6 mirrors and 2 barbel in the last hour it was obvious when the bigger fish had moved in as the little skimmers were no where to be seen.  I ended up 6th in the match with 45lbs and won my section.  80lbs won with all barbel on Arena, Melvin was 2nd with 52lbs and there was 3 other 50lbs on Suez.  I’m sure that by feeding heavily halfway through the match had eventually brought in the bigger fish and also by experimenting in dragging the float through the swim once the undertow had stopped also sure made a difference.

Thursday 13th March Brookside Fisheries

22 fished.

Due to the terrible weather conditions earlier on in the week this was the only match I could go in.  I was really looking forward to getting back on this particular venue as I have had a lot of success over the years, mainly from fishing shallow, but that method wouldn’t work at this time of year, surely!  The last time I was here was just after Christmas when I was teaching and we couldn’t get through the hordes of tiny gudgeon, so I made sure I had corn with me, I also had Mosella 4mm expander pellets, maggots and of course my trusty casters for fishing shallow!  I drew out peg 4 which can be ok on its day but normally only when you have a bit of room and with pegs 2 and 6 being drawn I didn’t really fancy it.  On peg 2 the angler has lots of room down to his right to explore, on peg 6 there is an aerator in the middle of the canal which always holds fish, and in my peg there was a few ducks!  I set up 3 rigs, 1 to fish right over at 13 metres in 2 foot of water, 1 to fish down the middle in around 4 ½ foot of water and also I set up a shallow rig to fish in 1 foot of water.  I used 0.12 Ultima XT7 main line, 0.10 XT7 hook length and a size 18 B911 hook to blue hydro for both my rigs over and down the middle. I had a light 4x10 float for fishing over and a slightly heavier 4x12 float for fishing down the middle.  On my shallow line I used 0.12 XT7 straight through to a size 16 B610 hook and used one of Sconees brilliant Jugz floats to pink J range hollow elastic.  These floats I think are the best on the market for shallow fishing as they are very stable and virtually unbreakable, they also sit perfect in the water taking only 3 no.12 shot.  On the all in I cupped in 5-6 grains of corn and the same amount of expander pellets on both lines and began to loose feed 6-8 casters every few minutes on a swim to my left opposite some pampas grass.  I tried an expander pellet first and got signs immediately but unfortunately only from gudgeon which were that small they couldn’t get the pellet in there mouth!  I decided after that first go in that I would feed just corn as it was obvious anything else that went near the bottom would get eaten or try to get eaten by these gudgeon.  I had my first proper bite after 20 minutes and netted an F1 around 1lb.  Both anglers either side of me had caught 3 or 4 by this time and I could also see other people catching. I wasn’t worried as I know the best part of the day on here is in the last hour and with this being a six and a half hour match I had plenty of time, all I had to do was just keep in contention catching odd fish.  After 2 hours I was well behind having only caught 3 F1’s so I decided to give my shallow line a try.  I had been feeding casters all the time and baited up with a single red maggot, first go in and my elastic came streaming out of my pole and headed towards an old tree, it caught me completely by surprise and I wasn’t ready for it and my catapult went for a swim, so I quickly had to land the catapult first and luckily the fish swam away from the tree and waddled round the middle of the lake for a bit before a 2lb F1 and a catapult made a visit to my landing net.  I was ready this time and straight away another F1 was hooked and landed but only around 8 ounce.  I continued to pick up odd fish for the next hour before that line dried up so I changed and tried both my other lines again whilst I kept on feeding my shallow line.  I never had another bite of my other lines so had to make a decision to stay on my shallow line and I opened up another swim where I had been fishing on corn over.  It worked a treat as I was resting one line I would catch 2 or 3 fish from my other swim then could rest that line and catch a few fish by changing.  In the last 30 minutes of the match both my swims went solid and I caught 17 F1’s, it was just like summer fishing and I just wished they had started to feed a little earlier.  I wasn’t sure how I’d done as the anglers either side of me had a much better start and continued to catch more through the match but I thought I had pulled back the deficit in that mad last half an hour.  I ended up winning the match with 36lb 12oz, 30lb 20z was second and 30lb was third.  Either side of me had 17lb and 25lb.  I reckoned I must have only had 16lb going into that last half an hour. I thought it too good to be true that I could catch shallow this time of year as the water was still very cold but the fish are definitely now starting to wake up from their winter slumber so I would really recommend setting up a shallow rig on you next outing!

Sunday 9th March Browning Cudmore. Teams of Three

60fished.

What a difference a day makes, it was a sunny day today with hardly any wind at first but the forecast was for the wind to pick up in the afternoon.  I drew peg 102 on pool 4 and really fancied it for a few fish.  I was on this lake last week and the winner had come from the same peg so I knew there was a few fish around.  I set up a method to fish right over in the net holes where I would use micro pellets around the feeder rather than groundbait and baited with hair rigged corn.  I also set up a small bomb rod to cast down the middle of the lake again baited with hair rigged corn.  I set up 2 pole rigs, one at 14.5 metres where I would feed micros and corn and fish either expander or corn on the hook and I also set up a short pole rig at 6 metres, I really fancied this line for a few fish later on in the match as it just looked right.  My other team mates had also drawn quite well, Kieron Rich was on pool 3 peg 76 and Darren Mulheir was on Suez peg 37 so we were in with a decent chance of doing well in the team event.  On the all in I cast out the method feeder into the net hole opposite, I then went and fed my pole lines and catapulted 6-8 grains of corn down the middle but away from my pole swim.  After 20 minutes I hadn’t had a single liner so decided to try the bomb.  I had a liner first cast and a short while after that my rod nearly got dragged in by a very angry mirror.  The fish went nuts and swam through both my pole lines before swimming into my landing net, it was only around 2lbs and I can’t believe how hard it fought, I gave it a little slap and put it in my keepnet!  I re-fed my pole lines and another 20 minutes passed without another sign on the bomb, time to try the pole.  I shipped out to 14.5 metres and as soon as my pellet got to the bottom my float slid under and 3 foot of blue hydro elastic was stretching out of my pole, it turned out to be an F1 around 2 ½lbs, some more of them would be nice!  I didn’t have to wait long for my next bite as a small skimmer made it’s way into my net, there was quite a few fish in my swim and I went through the whole species within 2 hours, I’d caught F1’s, mirrors, commons, tench, skimmers, roach, barbel and gudgeon it was fishing really well and I could see everyone catching a few fish.  I rested my far swim half way into the match and decided to try short, I had been feeding the swim every 20 minutes with little balls of micros and the fish were waiting for me.  I caught five 1lb skimmers one after another before a barbel muscled its way in and after that a mirror couldn’t resist my pellets.  As expected this line dried up after 40 minutes so I re fed and went back on my long pole line.  The fish were still around and it was still a different species every go in, I was feeding much more than normal giving them a full kinder pot full of micros every put in and they definitely wanted it.  I alternated between both lines for the rest of the match and ended up coming 4th with 50lb 4oz.  62lb won the match from new pool 1 peg 8, Suez peg 23 was second with 53lbs and Arena peg 1 was 3rd with 50lb 8oz.  The fish are really starting to wake up at the moment at Cudmore and the winner can come from anywhere, great fishing.  Also our team won on the day with 4 points, me and Kieron won our sections and Darren came second, with 1 match left to got there are still 3 or 4 teams in with a shout of winning, fingers crossed we can still retain 1st position.  With only one scoring match left until the season finishes I am now on 30 kamasan points, hopefully i’ll have a result next week to make sure I finish in the top 5.

Saturday 8th March Blundells

46 fished.

I had a change from fishing Cudmore today as they had the semi final of the Angling Times teams championship on there so I knew they would struggle to get 50 on the open match.  It was a nice change to go to Blundell’s but the wind would make the fishing difficult for most.  I was really hoping for an early draw so I could go on the pine pool to target the ide.  I chose 16 out of 46 so I was in with a chance and by my turn there was 3 pegs left to choose from on pine.  I chose to go on peg 71 which has produced a few decent weights of ide in recent weeks but presentation would be difficult today with the strong wind.  I set up just two rigs one for fishing shallow in around 3 foot of water and a heavier 4x18 rig to get straight down to the bottom in 7 ½ foot of water.  I fished just 6 metres out and would concentrate at this distance most of the match.  I also fed a swim at 13 metres where 3 hours into the match I would start to feed 8-10 casters through a catapult every few minutes.  I did this as I know from experience you catch most of the ide in the first 3 hours and then most of the time they will back off and you need to chase them, this isn’t something I like to do with my fishing as I much prefer to make the fish come to me without chasing them but I would have to do it today.  On the all in I started at 6 metres and waited 10 minutes before my first bite, I was constantly feeding 10-12 maggots and after 30 minutes the ide were coming up in the water.  I changed to my shallow rig and caught one every cast for around 40 minutes before they backed off.  I went back down on the bottom and caught a few more but things were quite slow as the wind was making things very difficult. I began to loose feed casters at 13 metres earlier than I would have liked and after 30 minutes I had a go for them, immediately I began to catch the ide again but they were moving around all the time and after every 2 or 3 fish I had to change something, either depth, feeding pattern or just trying a little bit further out.  It was a real struggle holding the pole in the wind but I had quite an enjoyable day catching fish throughout and I really worked hard for them.  I ended up 4th with 37lb 10oz; 49lb won the match with 46lb 2nd and 42lb 3rd.

Monday 3rd March Challenge match Llyn-y-gors

I was really looking forward to fishing this water as I have heard how good the fishing is.  The place is set in beautiful surroundings in Llandegfen in Wales; it took a bit of finding as it’s in the middle of nowhere but I got there in the end and met the owner Kev and Paul Jones who I was fishing against.  Paul is a very good angler and fishes most of the open matches I fish so I know him quite well and with Llyn-Y-Gors being his home water I would really be up against it.  We fished on the match lake and also we were doing a feature for a magazine as Llyn-Y-Gors have just opened up a new carp water called ‘The Karpium’ and another of my Ultima team mates was doing a feature on there.  Paul chose two pegs which were quite similar being 13 metre across and both with plenty of cover to fish over to, also both had a similar depth of around 4 ½ foot down the middle.  It was a freezing cold day with snow around and the wind pushing the temperature down even further.  Paul was really confident of catching a few fish as the water hardly ever gets match fished and therefore pressure is kept down to a minimum, but I was a bit reserved thinking that it would be a real struggle in the cold conditions.  I set up just two rigs, one over finding 2 foot of water against some elephant grass and in between two little bushes.  On Paul’s advice I used heavier line than I would normally use for this time of year using 0.14 Ultima XT7 main line and 0.12 XT7 hook length to a size 18 B911 hook and white hydrolastic with a 4x10 float.  His reasoning being that the fish, mainly barbel and carp don’t get caught very often and as the island was quite snaggy I needed to get them away as quickly as possible.  Down the middle I used 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.10 XT7 hook length to a size 16 B610 hook and blue hydrolastic with a 4x12 float.  I would feed maggots and small balls of micro pellets down the middle and pinches of micro pellets and either corn or a 4mm expander pellet on the hook across.  On the all in Paul immediately hooked into a carp whilst I was still feeding my swims, Here we go I thought!  But on my first put in the float wouldn’t settle, I thought it was small fish attacking the pellet on the drop at first but my elastic shot out and made it’s way towards one of the two bushes, it was a foul hooked barbel around 1lb, next put in the same thing happened and I caught another barbel, then I caught a carp around 3lbs,  the swim was absolutely solid and my float was dipping all the time from all the fish, I had to work out a feeding pattern so I could avoid foul-hooking them and the best way was to feed every other put in and to lower my rig in rather than push it up the shelf, this way I hooked everything in the mouth and the fish weren’t pre-occupied by my feed.  I really hadn’t experienced anything like this before in the cold conditions, I was catching a barbel or a carp every chuck, Paul on the other hand was struggling a bit catching just odd fish.  After 3 hours inevitably things started to dry up over, I was still getting bites but thought I would rest the swim and let the fish re-build there confidence.  I had a go down the middle which I had been feeding every 20-30 minutes and first put in I caught a skimmer around 1lb, next put in I had one around 2lb and after that the barbel moved in, what a place this is!  I rested my far swim for around an hour and again first put back in I was into the barbel again, they were feeding really confidently now and I hardly had to strike as the barbel were hooking themselves.  At the end of the match I knew I must have 80lbs plus, Paul was first to weigh and had 20lbs 14oz, he had really struggled but to be fair he said that my peg was solid with barbel and im sure he let me go on the best peg today as I hadn’t seen the venue before.  I weighed in 110lbs of barbel and carp, an absolutely brilliant days fishing in stunning surroundings. I would definitely recommend this venue and can’t wait to go back.

Sunday 24th Feb Browning Cudmore

70 fished.

I made sure I didn’t drink (much) last night but even if I had then the wind which was howling right in my face would have soon sobered me up!  The new pools were again double banked today.  I drew peg 51 on new pool 2 and was quietly confident of catching a few.  There is always resident stocky carp in the reeds on corner pegs on most of the new pools so most of the match would be spent trying to catch them.  I also set up a long pole rig at 14.5 metres where I fed corn and pellets and with it being double banked today and the fact I was on the opposite side to where the match is normally pegged I fed it heavily down the side in 1 ½ foot of water with micro pellets and a few grains of corn.  I did this because there has been a lot of fish caught on this pole by people fishing over on the feeder so the fish would naturally be confident in coming into the shallow water to feed.  On the all in I started off on pellets fishing in to the reeds in 3 foot of water and caught a mirror around 1lb straight away, next put in the float went under but before I could strike my elastic was weaving it’s way through the reeds, it had to be a chub and sure enough I netted one about 10 ounce.  It had completely done a number on my rig so out went a new rig and again I caught another little carp.  I had to work my bait all the time if I just left it I wouldn’t get a response but immediately started to get signs when I moved my bait.  After an hour I’d had 7 small carp 1 chub and a barbel and was well on my way.  No one else on the lake was catching much and looking round I couldn’t see much being caught.  I decided to rest the swim in the reeds and try the long pole line.  There were only small skimmers about on this line which are not worth bothering with so I fed it quite heavily to try and force my swim and draw some fish in.  Every 30 minutes I would loose feed 3 balls of micros down the side to try and mimic the sound of a feeder landing.  I hadn’t had any signs so far but was confident towards the end of the match the fish would find it.  I swapped and changed between the long pole line and the swim in the reeds for the next few hours picking up the odd small carp but only from the 1 swim in the reeds.  With 2 hours of the match to go I looked round to my left down the side to see 3 carp’s tails ‘waving’ at me!  I couldn’t get in quick enough and baited up with a single grain of corn fished slightly over depth.  I dropped in a ball of micro pellets from about 2 foot and laid my corn directly in over it.  The rig had barely settled when a carp hooked itself and at least 5 or 6 bow waves were going in all directions, the swim was solid with carp and the colour was just like it goes in summer, unfortunately that fish fell off!  I tried again and had to wait a bit longer after the commotion and again I hooked into another decent fish which bolted off down the middle of the lake and again fell off!  I then got a bit giddy and properly filled the peg in, giving them half a bag of micros and just a few grain of corn.  The fish were coming into the feed bait but were not interested in my hook bait so I changed and tried maggots, casters and expander pellet’s on the hook, but nothing worked.  I was getting line bites but couldn’t hook a fish, I had definitely over fed it and the problem was the fish were too pre-occupied with the micro pellets that they weren’t interested in my hook bait.  It was nice to see the fish coming in that close for the first time this year but also very frustrating as I didn’t manage to catch any and I neglected my other swims where I am sure if I hadn’t of decided to put a swim in close I would have caught a lot more, never mind that’s why you need to try these things as the fish could have been feeding properly and I would have easily won the match.  Instead I won my lake with 24lbs (should have been 124lbs); again Suez dominated with the top 4 all coming from there.

Saturday 23rd Feb Browning Cudmore

65 fished.

After waking up with the hangover from hell celebrating my birthday the previous day I arrived at Cudmore a little worse for wear.  I drew peg 16 on Brewster’s, this used to be one of the best pegs on this canal a few years ago so I tried to sober up as quickly as possible!  The peg is next to the widest peg on the pool so it always used to hold fish over in the far bank reeds and on this peg you could trap the fish from swimming through from peg 15, unfortunately the fish today were escape artists and managed to avoid me somehow.  I started off right across on pellets feeding 15 to 20 micros and having a 4mm expander on the hook and was immediately into fish.  After the first hour I reckoned I must have caught 20lb, it was solid and I thought I would easily do enough to win the match, but, I was soon having doubts as going into the second hour things started to dry up considerably.  I tried down the middle of the canal for 20 minutes and never had a bite, I tried a line which I had been feeding with 5 or 6 casters through a catapult against the far bank reeds aiming to catch chub and never had a bite, I opened up another line, something I don’t like to do, but was running out of options and again never had a bite.  I couldn’t believe the difference between now and at the start of the match.  In all I went 4 hours and 20 minutes without a bite and nodded off a few times in between and I caught 4 f1’s in the last half an hour.  I weighed in 27lbs and came 5th on the lake.  The top 4 weights all came from Suez Canal with 50lbs winning the match.

Wednesday 20th Feb Blundells

25 fished.

It was absolutely freezing today and overnight the temperature had dropped down to minus 6 degrees!  There was ice on all the lakes but just at one end where there had been no wind.  I decided to go on the pine or ash pools to catch the ide as I really didn’t think anything else would feed giving the temperature (I certainly didn’t think the same at the end of the match)!  Again I ended up drawing near enough last and most of the pegs had gone on pine so I went on peg 51 on Ash, two pegs away from where I won the match from last week.  The water was gin clear and bits of ice were breaking off from further up the lake and getting blown through my peg.  The wind wasn’t that bad as it was slightly off my left shoulder, so feeding would be ok.  I set the waggler up with a loaded 1.5 gram drennan insert set to fish just tripping the bottom casting 2 metres of the far bank.  I also set up a long pole rig to fish in 9 foot of water where again I would target the ide.  I used a 4x16 mosella float with 0.12 Ultima XT7 mainline to just an 0.8 XT7 hook length, I also shotted the rig different than normal having my bulk shot of number 8’s 3 foot from the hook and had 4 x no.12 droppers.  I shotted it in this way as I would be moving the rig all the time aiming to catch the ide in the last 3 foot of water, the bites are very finicky so I slightly overshotted the float and then brought it back up using bristle grease.  I started off on the waggler and after 20 minutes had my first bite, but all I could hear behind me on east and west pools was fish plopping into keep nets!  I connected with my first ide after half an hour and then caught 10 in quick succession.  The bites were very shy and I could only catch the ide by gently winding back the float.  If I just left it I wouldn’t get a response so I had to keep working the bait.  After 2 hours I had caught 30 ide but all of a sudden the bites just stopped I tried the pole and had 3 ide straight away before again the bites stopped.  I carried on alternating between the pole and waggler for the rest of the match just catching the odd fish; I went 2 hours at one point in the match without a bite.  I ended up winning my lake with 21lbs, just 9lb was second out of 5 on our lake.  39lbs won the match on west pool and 36lbs was second from east pool, the F1’s had fed today with most people catching 15 to 20lbs of them on the other pools.  I think I might have a change of lake next week, if I manage to draw early!

Sunday 17th Feb Browning Cudmore

70 fished.

Ice breakers at the ready for this match, and the return of my drawing arm!  The match was pegged on just the Arena pool and both sides of Suez so I was really hoping for a draw on Suez.  I pulled out peg 23 Suez and immediately punched the air with delight, wohoo, I’d drawn where I wanted to be, but I didn’t want to get too confident as so often can happen in this sport it will kick you in the wotsits when you think you are going to do well!  After arriving at my peg I set about breaking the ice, I made sure I cleared it right across to the far bank reeds as this is where the fish will be hiding.  My day suddenly got even better as two pegs to my left were not drawn and with every peg being in it would give me a big advantage.  I set up just two rigs, one to fish over in 2 ½ foot of water against the reeds and one down the middle of the canal in 6 ½ foot of water.  I fished maggots all match feeding just 1 red maggot and 5 or 6 micros every put in over and 12-15 maggots every 15 – 20 minutes down the middle.  I started off over and immediately had signs of fish before I caught an F1 after just 5 minutes, it was obvious there was a few fish around as my float was moving and dipping all the time, I foul hooked 2 or 3 fish one after another which all fell off so I changed depth slightly and that seemed to do the trick.  I could see my mate Darren Heath catching well on peg 17 so I had to get my head down and make every fish count, but unfortunately the fish had other ideas.  Half way into the match I started to lose a few.  I changed my hook and again altered my depth and even changed elastic but nothing seemed to work until I hooked my maggot differently, I hooked it through the side for a change and never lost another fish.  You must continue to ring the changes if you are in this situation and find out how the fish are reacting as something must be wrong if you are losing them,  don’t just carry on thinking that you will get the next one in, it was a simple change in how I hooked the maggot today that made the difference.  I could see that Darren was catching much bigger fish than me on pellets.  I tried a pellet on the hook but never had a bite and as soon as I put a maggot back on I was instantly into fish.  I ended up with around 40 fish and came second with 32lbs 12oz; Darren won the match with 35lb 12oz with 25 fish.  Them fish I lost cost me but im sure I would have lost even more if I hadn’t of experimented.  Darren also lost 8 or 9 fish under the ice so it was just one of them things with the weather being so cold that the fish were feeding very delicately.  I have also added another 6 kamasan points to my name and now have 29 points with just a few weeks left.  Hopefully I will get another couple of results and finish in the top 5.

Saturday 16th Feb Browning Cudmore

65 fished.

With all the new pools and Suez Canal being in today most people wanted to draw on Suez after some fish were stocked into it midweek.  I drew pool 4 peg 103 and didn’t fancy it at all.  The peg had been in good form until a few weeks ago so I was expecting another arms folded legs crossed flask pouring waiting day.  I set up a small bomb rod with hair rigged corn casting just past the pole line where I would feed nothing, I set up a small cage feeder to fish over in the net holes, again baited with hair rigged corn and micro pellets through the feeder and I set up the pole to fish at 14.5 metres where I would feed corn and micro pellets.  I started off on the bomb having a liner straight away whilst I was sinking my line, I went out to feed my pole line and looked down to find all my line slack, I quickly shipped back and wound down until I was in contact with the fish around 10 metres out!  It was a mirror around 3lbs, what a start.  On my next cast again I had liners straight away.  I went to pour a coffee only to look round and my rod was bent from the handle with the tip pointing into the lake, what a bite, and 2 minutes later another mirror was safely in the net.  I had another 2 mirrors in the first hour before all liners stopped.  I tried the pole line and caught a few small skimmers before hooking something that waddled off up the pool before the hook pulled.  I tried the pole for a further 30 minutes and caught 2 F1’s. I tried the bomb again but there were no signs at all so I changed to the feeder.  I waited 10 minutes before my tip trembled and then pulled round, this was a big fish as I could hardly move it, it didn’t fight hard, just slow and nodded its head a few times before it found its way into my net. It was a mirror around 8lbs and really boosted my weight.  Looking round the lakes I couldn’t see anyone catching so I knew I was doing ok.  I stayed on the feeder for the rest of the match and ended up with 8 mirors and 3 f1’s.  I knew there was a big weight on pool 1 but thought I might just sneak in.  I weighed 28lbs 8oz and came second, 26lb was third and Micky Barlow just did enough to win the match with 75lbs from peg 16 on pool 1.

Thursday 14th Feb Rudyard Lake. Pike Fishing

With it being Valentines day I thought I would be romantic, so I decided to take my Fiancée Louise to Rudyard Lake, haha!  We took a boat out and started to cast lures here there and everywhere in search of the snappers.  After 5 minutes, Louise was complaining of being cold, even though she looked like the Michelin man with her 4 jumpers, 2 t shirts, 2 soon to be 3 fleeces, 1 neck warmer, 2 scarf’s, 3 woolly hats, 2 pairs of gloves, 4 pairs of socks, a pair of tracksuit bottoms, a pair of jeans and some waterproof over trousers (how could she not like my valentines day present).   I took one of my fleeces off for her to put on, ‘see I told you it would be romantic’, I said, she just gave me one of them looks!  After being out for 3 hours I had my first take and it was a jack pike around 2lbs, the very next cast I caught another one around 1 pound.  Louise had been having a few casts but never had any knocks or follows so I decided to swap rods and she could have a go with the successful lure (what a kind bloke I am, what with it being valentines day and all).  I had no confidence at all in using the lure she had so after 10 minutes I swapped rods again!  We ended up catching just one more pike around 2lbs.  There had been 5 other boats out that day and only one other boat had caught 1 pike so I thought we did ok to catch any at all.  I think Lou wants to wait until summer next time we go!

Wednesday 13th Feb Blundells

28 fished

Nice to see that nothing has changed in respect to me drawing as I was 3rd from last to choose and knew I wouldn’t be able to get on pine pool where I wanted to be.  There was a bit of room left on the Ash pool and I chose to go on peg 53.  I couldn’t believe it was still left as it has been a good peg in recent weeks with a few carp around.  I set up the waggler with a very light 1.25 gram loaded drennan insert and 3 x no.12 droppers and I also set up the pole to fish just on top of a bar at 16 metres in about 8 foot of water.  I thought I would target the ide as they seem to be a better stamp in this lake than pine and a few were already rolling just past the pole line.  On the all in I fed corn and expander pellets on the pole line then began to feed casters at around 20 metres on the waggler line.  On my first cast I immediately hooked an ide and had a further 6 fish in the next 6 casts, people around me were still feeding the pole line.  The waggler line was absolutely solid for the first hour and a half and I had 60 ide in this time.  By far the best way to catch them was to slowly wind in the waggler as the fish just hooked themselves, if you try and strike you will miss much more than doing it this way.  This method works as you always have a tight line to your waggler and once the fish take your bait they immediately feel resistance but can’t reject the bait so swim off and hook themselves.  It was a very cold day to start off with but it turned out to be a really warm sunny day and the ide were feeding really confident.  The 2 blokes to my left were also catching well but they were catching 3 to 4lb carp so I would have my work cut out to try and keep up with them as the ide I was catching were 2 or 3 to the pound so I just had to keep my head down and catch as many as possible.  Going into the last 2 hours things started to slow down as expected so I tried the pole line but never had a bite, I had been feeding it every 20 minutes so I thought I would catch a few but the float remained stationary.  I again went back on the waggler changing my feeding patterns and depth all the time to try and keep in touch with the shoal and it seemed to do the trick, if I went 2 casts without a bite I would change depth and would immediately get a response, but it was a lot harder than earlier on.  At the end of the match I had caught 153 ide and thought id have around 50lb but knew the anglers to my left would push me close as they had caught carp.  They weighed 53lbs and 42lbs and there was a 49lb which was the best weight on pine.  I weighed in 65lbs 12oz and won the match.  I didn’t think I had that sort of weight, what a days fishing and I got a suntan aswell!

Sunday 10th Feb Browning Cudmore

70 pegs.

With the pools being double banked today no one knew how the fish would respond, it would either be very hard or would fish ok as the fish had no where to hide (well they seem to always hide in my peg).  I drew peg 107 on pool 4 and that is exactly where I wanted to draw as I had decided to fish for silver fish all match with the weather being so cold.  This pool has more skimmers and roach in than the other pools so I was hoping for a good day.  On the all in I potted in 8 balls of crushed pellet containing half a pint of dead red pinkies at 14.5 metres and began to loose feed red and white maggots at 11.5 metres.  I used a 4x10 float on this line with 3x no.11 droppers and a small bulk of no.11’s, 0.12 Ultima XT7 main line and 0.08 XT7 hook length to a B510 size 16 hook and 6’s preston elastic.  It took me 20 minutes to get my first bite which was a roach around 2 ounce and fell off as I went to swing it, another 5 minutes past and I hooked a skimmer which looked to be about 1lb, again that decided to fall off about 6 metres out!  It was third time lucky and I netted a roach around 6 ounce, the silver fish in the new pools are of good quality but they get scared off easily, you can always seem to catch 5 or 6 fish one after another and then you will wait 10-15 minutes for another bite, whether it’s carp moving in and scaring them im not sure, but they certainly need to develop an attitude like they have in other commercials where they seem to mix with carp!  An hour had passed and I had 6 roach and a skimmer in the net.  Looking round I didn’t seem to be doing too bad but people were beginning to catch the odd carp.  I tried my 14.5 metre line after 1 ½ hours using a 4x16 float with 3x no.10 droppers and a bulk of no.8 shot, 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.10 XT7 hook length to a size 16 B610 hook.  I waited 5 minutes until my float dipped and I struck into something that was not happy at being hooked, it waddled off over the other side of the lake and then swam back towards me making a bow wave as it did, I’d been playing the fish for around 5 minutes when it surfaced just past netting range, I decided to have a lunge at it but I hit it right in the side and I clearly upset it, I had to put all 14.5 metres back on again and another 5 minutes later I had a 7lb mirror in my net, what a fight.  Unfortunately it hadn’t brought any friends along for the feast and I never had another bite over my groundbait.  I fed the line again with another 4 balls but to no avail.  I remained on the 11.5 metre line for the rest of the match picking up odd roach and skimmers.  I weighed in 17lbs 6oz with 17lb 10oz winning the section; I lost that in the first 2 fish!  To make matters worse I had been having a head to head with my mate Melvin Kearns for the past few months, we both decided for a laugh that the first person to 10 would get a tenner.  It was 9-9 going into this ‘deciding’ match and he only went and drew the best peg on the complex (well it’s quite good) in 16 on pool 1, needless to say he won the match with 50lbs and also had my tenner.  It actually fished quite well today with carp showing up in most pegs and I think it surprised a few people.  Melvin the drawbag will be picking my pegs next weekend!

Saturday 9th Feb Browning Cudmore

62 pegs.

Would you believe it, I actually drew a good peg, but unfortunately the fish were not in an obliging feeding mood, how dare they!  I drew peg 2 on pool 1; it has been a very consistent peg over the last few weeks so I really fancied it for a few.  Most of the fish are being caught on the feeder or method right over, the long pole or bomb and corn down the middle just past the pole line.  I set everything up and could well have passed for a tackle shop, I even confused myself at one stage fishing my 6 metre rig at 14.5 metres and wondering why the float seemed to be so small (Yes I’d also had a few cheeky beers the previous night so that didn’t help).  I started off on the feeder and first cast I went in the reeds after forgetting to clip my line up, yeah!  I put another hook length on and sat back patiently expecting an angry mirror to soon be pulling my tip round.  After 30 mins and no bites or liners I tried bomb and corn down the middle in front of my spare peg to my right I like to cast around on this method looking for liners.  Another 20 minutes passed and I still hadn’t had a bite so out went the pole at 14.5 metres, the float disappeared almost immediately and I was soon unhooking a gudgeon, next put in I caught its brother and then next put in I caught a skimmer around 10oz.  It was obvious there were a few fish around as I was getting little knocks on my float all the time but only from little fish.  I tried feeding a bit heavier and that seemed to do the trick for a while until they disappeared.  You knew when you were going to get a better fish as you had no indications on your float.  I tried the feeder again and caught 2 mirrors straight away but then couldn’t get another bite.  I tried the pole again and remained on it until the end of the match catching a few more F1’s and skimmers.  I won my section with 26lbs.  45lbs won the match, again from Suez, peg 16 on pool 1 was 2nd with 42lbs and suez was 3rd with 35lbs.   

Friday 8th Feb Teaching Day. Browning Cudmore

I was teaching a chap from Southport today who wanted to fish pellets on the pole and was unsure as to what were the correct rigs, right feeding regime etc.  We went on the Drumble pool which contains lots of carp and chub and a few barbel.  We had a swim at 6 metres and another swim at 13 metres.  I explained the need to have at least 2 swims as when the fish fade off one swim you can change and continue to catch as long as you keep the feed going in on both swims.  The rigs that he was using previously were much too heavy and not shotted correctly; also the line diameter for the time of year he was using was much too heavy.  I talked him through all this and he couldn’t believe how light the rigs we used were for the depth of water.  We caught straight away just feeding small balls of micro pellets and fishing a 4mm expander over the top.  My time was soon up but he had enjoyed it so much that he decided to carry on until it went dark catching carp. after carp, a brilliant days fishing giving the cold conditions.

Wednesday 6th Feb Teaching Day. Brookside Fisheries

I haven’t fished Brookside since last summer so was looking forward to going back there.  I have enjoyed lots of success over the years at this water, mainly in the warmer months when the fish are feeding up in the water, but also I used to do well in winter fishing maggots down the middle catching anything that swims, mainly F1’s.  I was teaching 2 lads from Bury who had been fishing Brookside for a few months and wanted to know how I went about fishing the venue in winter.  We went on pegs 53 and 55 on snake 2 as this is where there seems to have been a few fish about in the recent matches.  We set up 2 main swims fishing across in 3 foot of water fishing on either maggot or 4 mm pellet and feeding micros.  We also set a rig up to fish down the middle in around 6 ½ foot of water.  When we started off fishing what became immediately apparent was that there were a lot of gudgeon about and they were coming off the bottom to intercept our bait at one point!.  We quickly changed to corn and this seemed to do the trick but the fishing was very hard going due to the weather.  They both had a really good time and ended up catching F1’s and the odd tench.  The gudgeon were a nightmare so if you are going to be fishing here soon don’t forget your tin of corn, or your 3 metre whip if you want a day’s gudgeon bashing!   

Saturday 2nd Feb Browning Cudmore

51 fished.

If there is anyone that wants to buy some fishing gear then let me know because it is wasted on me!  I drew rubbish yet again and at this time of year there is simply nothing you can do if you are not on the fish (I’ve had my whinge now, i feel much better)!  I drew peg 43 on new pool 2.  The problem is that this pool has not been match fished for about 8 weeks so the fish wouldn’t be used to food and I knew it was going to be a struggle.  People around me were fairly confident of catching but after i’d had my say they weren’t confident at all, haha!  I set up a long pole rig at 14.5 metres where I would feed corn and pellets and a short pole rig at 11.5 metres where I just loose fed maggots, I also set up a feeder rod which was soft enough to change to a bomb rod for casting down the middle with hair rigged corn.  On the all in I catapulted a ball of crushed pellet into each of the net holes opposite me and fed my pole lines.  I cast out with a bomb and corn just past the middle and then sat back for a long day.  After 30 minutes and 4 casts later I had a liner so decided on pouring myself a coffee, as it’s normally a sure way of getting a bite, but no it didn’t work and after an hour nothing was happening. Gary Skerrit to my right had 3 liners within the first 10 minutes but still hadn’t caught a fish either. Melvin on my left was the first to catch a fish, a mirror around 3lb which he caught after 50 mins down the middle.  I stuck it out a little longer before trying over on the feeder.  That line got my attention for 20 minutes before I nearly nodded off so I had a go on the pole.  40 minutes later and still biteless I gave up on that line and had a go on my maggot line at 11.5 metres.  I caught a gudgeon straight away before things started to dry up. So after 3 hours i’d had 1 bite and was 2nd on the lake with a gudgeon!  I carried on feeding the pole line but had another go on the bomb and corn, no sooner had the bomb reached the bottom that my tip was wrenched round, in the excitement i struck rather than just lift up into the fish, it was a proper wind down and whack strike and the fish must have wondered what was going on as it gave up straight away and i netted an F1 around 1lb that was still in shock when I put it in my net.  Another 50 mins resulted in not another bite and I knew I would only need to catch a few silver fish to win the lake so I had another go on the pole.  It was really hard going and I had to drag my float through the swim to get any bites but I caught a few decent roach plus 2 hybrids around 1 lb each, I knew i’d have a chance of winning the section.  There were 2 weights tied on 6lb 8oz and I had 7lb to win the lake and 20 beer tokens, yeah!  43lbs won the match from Pool 1, 28lbs was 2nd, 23lbs was 3rd and 15lbs was 4th.

Thursday 31st Jan Pike Fishing

I never thought my Dad was crazy but after today I certainly have my doubts.  The forecast for the day had been for torrential wind and wintry showers, so my Dad decided on taking me pike fishing up on the pennines, which must be the windiest place I have ever been.  By the time we got there they had already closed the M62 motorway as lorrys had been blown over in the gales so you can imagine how windy it was up on the tops.  We went to Ogden reservoir where my Dad was a lot more confident than me at catching.  ‘Come on son, you tart, it’s only a bit of wind’ he said.! Charming.  The Reservoir was about 3 feet up on normal level and the footpath was completely under water.  The waves were like nothing i’d seen before and looked more like the sea in Hawaii, except about 90 degrees colder!  We just took our 6 foot spinning rods with a selection of lures.  I used a bright fluorescent green shad and my Dad used a silver spoon, i’d had one cast before I heard my Dad cursing, ‘bloody wind’, he had already got caught in a tree, every time we go out he loses a lure it’s become tradition now!  We decided on going up to the dam wall where there were no trees to get caught in and have a few casts there.  Nothing, not even a follow. We went back into the trees where the path used to be and had a cast there when I heard my Dad shout again, ‘not another lure in the trees’ I thought, but I looked around and he was shouting me to come and have a go as he had a pike follow his lure in.  I quickly got up and went and had a cast and again the pike followed my lure, it looked to be about 5 or 6lbs but would not take our lures, we went through the whole box having 2 or 3 casts each but we never saw it again.  After an hour and a half we’d had enough of getting blown about, besides my Dad had decided to cast in the trees again and lose another lure!

Wednesday 30th Jan Blundells

28 fished.

This is a venue that never struggles to attract decent turnouts in the week as the fishing is really good (well it can be if you draw early).  I had my usual walk round and again I fancied either the west or pine pools as the wind was perfect on them, the trouble I had today was the fact that my drawing arm had yet again decided on a holiday picking number 43 out of 45 numbers so I would be 3rd from bottom to choose, great!  As I fully expected most of the pegs had gone on pine and all the good pegs had gone on West and East.  I decided on going on Ash pool on peg 55 where i won from a few weeks ago, the wind wasn’t ideal as it was right in my face but before the all in it wasn’t too strong so I thought i’d be ok.  I had anglers either side of me today so I knew I was up against it as they would be competing for the same shoal of fish.  On the all in as expected the wind got up and I couldn’t feed my casters much past 16 metres which was no good as I needed to get them right over at 25 metres, all I ended up doing trying to reach the distance was taking skin off my knuckles as the catapult twanged back with great force, it doesn’t half smart when your hands are cold, and to make it worse, Kieron, who had managed to draw early for a change and get a good peg on pine was laughing at me as all he had to do was gently flick his catapult and his casters would be on the far bank!  I caught 8 ide on the waggler in the first 20 minutes and thought i’d do ok if I could keep catching them.  The wind soon put an end to me fishing the waggler as by now no feed was landing past 12 metres and I had ripped all the skin off my knuckles!  I tried the pole in 12 foot of water at 13 metres, I had been feeding it from the start with around 10 - 15 maggots every 5 minutes and was fishing really light hoping that I could catch the ide on this line.  I caught an ide straight away but it obviously hadn’t brought any mates with it as I never had another bite.  After 2 hours I thought I would catch a few on a little maggot feeder with a fairly long tail on so I set this up without any further hesitation.  I had a couple of casts first to get some bait in, I was putting just 8-10 maggots through the feeder and decided on leaving it just 5 minutes between each cast to try and force something into feeding.  I caught a couple of ide after 15 minutes and then hooked a carp which went nuts in the deep water.  I netted it after 5 minutes, it was a mirror around 3lb, some more of them would be welcome please! For the next half hour I remained biteless so changed to a little cage feeder with hair rigged corn to just sit and wait for a carp.  By now my eyes were streaming and i’m not sure if it was because of the freezing cold wind of the fact that I had no skin on my knuckles but another 40 mins passed without a bite.  I gave it another try on the pole just because I was beginning to feel sick watching my tip bounce up and down with the waves but again never had a bite.  Unfortunately my peg had peaked after just 20 minutes so with 2 hours to go I admitted defeat and packed up quicker than a quick thing being quick.  I found out later that 62lbs won the match, 38lbs came 2nd and 37lbs 3rd, Kieron came 4th with 35lbs and I didn’t care because I was nice and warm drinking whisky...wohoo!

Tuesday 29th Jan Bradshaw Hall.

10 fished.

I couldn’t wait to get back fishing this brilliant venue, and i can’t understand why more people don’t turn up as it must be one of the best silver fish waters in the country.  Its one of them places that wherever you draw you can win from, no one can predict where it will be won.  I drew peg 33 and set up just 2 rigs.  I had a 4x 10 shallow rig to fish in 3 foot of water with strung out shots starting with 2 x no0.12 and 3 x no.11 going up towards the float. I used 0.12 Ultima XT7 to 0.08 XT7 line and a size 18 black gama hook.  Also I set up a 4x14 j range j7 float to fish in 7 foot of water using 0.12 XT7 main line to 0.08 XT7 hook length using a 16’s B510 hook, on both rigs I used size 5 blue preston elastic.  I always start off on this rig at 13 metres as it lets me know what’s going on in the peg, the rig is not too heavy that I can’t catch fish on the drop and it’s not too light so it takes a while to get down to the bottom.  You can tell what depth the fish are in your swim so you know when to target them shallow.  Definately the best way to target the roach is to fish shallow for them, they are always bigger fish and you can build up a really good weight in no time,  the roach I caught today where gong 4 or 5 to the pound and I caught odd ones around 12 ounce.  Anglers around me were still fishing on the bottom and the stamp of their fish was much smaller.  I fed 2 pints of caster and stayed shallow most of the match, the best way to catch them was to feed at 12 metres just 5 or 6 casters and to fish past the feed area, the roach were coming straight in for the feed and then darting back out again and they couldn’t resist my caster hookbait that was waiting for them past the feed.  The swim just got stronger as the match went on and i knew id had a good weight.  I won the match with 30lb 12oz, 2nd was 23lb and 3rd was 18lbs.  Fantastic fishing.

Sunday 27th Jan Browning Cudmore. Teams of three.

80 fished.

After I’d drawn my peg I just wanted to get in my car and drive home, it was that bad.  Id drawn peg 177 on pool 6, an absolute shocking peg.  Never mind I thought I would just go for the silvers all day and hope that a few bonus fish would make an appearance.  The reason this lake is so bad in the teams of three is because it is the only lake which is double banked and is also one of the smallest lakes!  I set up a light 4x10 rig with 0.10 Ultima Power Match main line and 0.08 Ultima XT7 hook length to a size 16 B510 hook at 13 metres, I also set up a pellet and corn line to fish at 16 metres.  My target weight was 8lb which I thought would put me half way in the section. I would never compete with the end 2 pegs and another couple of pegs further up the lake so was aiming for 4th in section.  I started off by cupping in 4 balls of crushed pellet with a few dead red maggots in and would loose feed over the top with red and white maggots.  I also fed my pellet line every 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes I had my first bite and caught a gudgeon, wohoo!  After an hour I’d had 20 gudgeon and 2 roach and looking round I was doing ok as no one else was catching, but then my mate ‘Drawbag J’ on the end peg on my lake rang me to say he had caught a mirror and some F1’s and the blokes opposite him and next to him had both caught carp, not what I was wanting to hear but I fully expected to happen.  I caught a decent hybrid around a 1lb before deciding to try my pellet line.  After 15 minutes I couldn’t believe it when my float disappeared, I thought I had let my back shots go too far under the water but before I could lift them out I had pink j range elastix streaming from the end of my pole.  I took my time and eventually netted a mirror around 3lbs, what a bonus!  I never had another bite on the pellet line so for the rest of the match decided to get my head down and catch as many bits as possible.  I ended up with 49 gudgeon, 12 roach, 1 hybrid, 1 mirror and an F1 for 9lb 8oz.  That put me 4th in the section which is what I expected.  The bloke opposite me never had a bite all match and was even fishing for small fish on pinkies!  Drawbag J won the section with 17lbs, 14lbs was second and 10lb third.  The match was again won from Suez Canal which makes it 3 weeks running it has produced the winner.  I can only wish for a draw on there.

Saturday 26th Jan Browning Cudmore

45 fish