Andy May's Waggler Techniques

  Andy May Tuition at Sky Sports

  Andy May in discussion with
  Dave Harrell - Ultima products

  Part 1   Part 2  

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

You can get personal coaching from Andy.

Click on the link here for details www.fishingcoaching.co.uk

Thursday 4th/Friday 5th June. The Catfish Challenge.

Whilst I was stuffing my face at the BBQ, Kev was setting up our gear for the catfish. We would fish 2x 3lb test curve carp rods, both with shimano baitrunners and 60lb braid with rope as hooklengths and anchors for hooks! The hooks were huge but not when I saw the size of the bait, we got 2...yes 2 hookbaits out of a tin of spam which was hair rigged and popped up slightly with some white fishy smelling pop-up boilies. It was really interesting to watch him set these rigs up and to see him use completely different methods to me. Wehad it on good authority that 2 catfish had been caught from our very swim just a few days ago going 32lbs and 27lbs, either one of them would do me! We had a swim opposite us around 3 metres out from the far bank which was only 25 metres away, I actually walked this bait round and paid line off and walked back, it’s easy! Once that rod was in place, we turned the optonics on and all was set. The next rod, I again walked and to the next peg to my left where I cast the rest of the tin of spam in line with an island in a hole around 12 foot deep, Kev had made up some really oily groundbait with salmon fry powder and other fish samples in which I balled in a big area over this line to tempt those moggies, it was then time to wait, and wait.....and wait! I explained to Kev that I will not sleep as I get far too giddy, he couldn’t believe I would be up all night and thought I was mad. At around 9pm I heard a screamer coming from the best peg on the lake, no.13 where Kieron was (he’s been taking drawing lessons from Swainey), he had the fish on for a good 2 minutes before his 60lb braid snapped for no reason, he was gutted but realistically he knew he would get some more. At just after 10pm I heard a ‘YEAH’, Kieron had just landed his first catfish at 10lb 12oz, told you he was lucky! Just after that Mark Barrett who was opposite Kieron had his first catfish, which was 27lbs 12oz, they were feeding, but would they like our spam!? 12am soon came and I was still giddy and keen as ever but Kev was getting tired and at 12.30am he retired to bed, lightweight, although I wouldn’t say that to his face! I started to get the odd bleep and I was straight onto it, then just before 1am a huge splash came from over our far rod which could have been a carp as there are lots in the lake, but it must have been a big-un to make that kind of splash! 10 minutes later I had a run for about 1 second, my heart was really going now and 5 minutes after that at 1.15am I had my first run, a right screamer, I wound down to knock the bait runner off and gave it proper whack and another whack just to make sure the hook was set, I let out an almighty ‘YEAH’ just so everyone knew I had one on, the fight form one of these fish is weird as they fight similar to eels, it would be a solid weight then all of a sudden you get slack line as the fish swims towards you, it felt a decent fish and Kev was soon out of his bivvy getting the net ready, then after 30 seconds all you heard was ‘BA***RD’ as the fish fell off! I was absolutely gutted, I hadn’t done anything wrong and I thought I had set the hook, but it wasn’t meant to be! We quickly had another bait in place and all was set again. A few people were getting runs on our lake but hardly any were connecting with fish, Kev says they would be little kittens just mouthing the baits and not taking them properly. Kieron had his second Cat around 2.30am at 22lbs 6oz, yep, lucky bugger! At 3am I had a screaming run with no warnings at all, just a single toner, I was just about to water the hose as I got the run so I quickly ran to the rod wound down and ‘WHACK’, nothing! I felt no resistance at all and again some more expletives came from my mouth! Kev had said he just managed to get to sleep when he heard me, he couldn’t believe I was still awake! Out went the rod again in the same spot and the wait was on, again. At first light, around 4.10am I started to have a few single bleeps as if there was a fish in the area but nothing materialised. Another 2 catfish were caught around 5am, Matt Hall had one at 12lbs and lucky Kieron had another at 18lbs 10oz. Kev was giving it some zeds behind me when at 5.50am I had another screaming run and again when I went to strike there was nothing there, I wasn’t happy by now and a few more expletives sounded around the lake, only words like ‘Oh bother’ and ‘nevermind’, yeah right, a little more blue than that! That was my chances gone, Kev was sure they were small catfish the 2 runs I missed but the one I hooked felt a decent fish. Kieron won the competition winning the match in the afternoon and winning the catfish challenge with 3 cats, Mark Barrett came 2nd with 1 big catfish and Matt Hall came 3rd, only those caught a catfish. This is a fantastic event and I can’t wait for next year when hopefully I will be as lucky as Kieron!

Thursday June 4th. Lakemore Catfish Challenge.

I missed this event last year but made sure I was available to fish it this year as it’s a completely unique event and the chance to catch some oversized tadpoles! The way the event is run is a 4 hour match in the afternoon for the specimen anglers while the matchmen give advice and then from 8pm until 10am the next morning it is the catfish challenge where the roles are reversed and the specimen anglers are giving us advice. With the weight from the afternoon going towards the overall weight only if a catfish is caught I was hoping for a decent start, hmmm! The first year I fished it I managed to catch my first ever catfish, even if it was the smallest one caught! This year I was hoping to catch a great big-un! We all drew our respective specimen partners and I had Kev Shorey for company. We drew our pegs and we both drew crap, I had drawn on the lake with more catfish in on the Long island but unfortunately we were at the wrong end, but at least it was nearest the doughnut and hotdog van! Kev drew a bad peg on the match lake where we only had 2 foot of water everwhere. We had an island around 18 metres away so I just set-up a little method with 3 dead red maggots as hook bait. Kev would fish the first 3 hours and then the matchmen would fish the remaining hour. First cast went straight through a tree through some brambles and into the island, Kev later explained that he is used to casting 100+ yards and giving it a big one on the strike when he gets a bite, I explained that you only need to give it a gentle lob and wind down into the fish and NOT to strike when you have a bite, Kev couldn’t quite manage this, mind you a gentle lob for him would be 60 yards, he’s a bit of a unit! After pulling for a break we somehow managed to get everything back intact, so out went the method again and this time it landed perfectly 2 foot short of the island. Unfortunately the fish were not forthcoming after this perfect cast and it took a good hour for us to catch our first fish, a rudd around half an ounce, nice! Next cast was perfect again and resulted in a skimmer around 8oz, we were off, well we thought we were but Kev only managed 4 more tiny rudd before it was the matchmens turn. I started on the method but after 20 minutes never had a bite so had to try something to put a few fish in the net. I had with me around 150 maggots, I only had them for the hook but I set about feeding lightly to get some fish shallow, Now, for me to feed lightly usually is feeding 150 in 3 or 4 handfuls so I had to pace myself. I got my trusty shallow rig out, set it at 10 inches and caught 6 rudd between 1 and 3 ounce straight away before I hooked a hybrid around 1 ½ lbs, wohoo, then it was all out, bugger! We weighed in 2lbs 15oz and that was good enough for 5th overall out of 11 pairs! Kieron won the match with 16lbs but hes lucky!

Wednesday May 6th. The Big Bash at Lindholmes.

240 fished

This was a very worthwhile cause in aid of cancer research with over £5000 in the end going towards the charity which is fantastic. On to the match though and this was always going to be a bit of a drawbag, everyone wanted to be on Bonsai which was fishing by far the best so I went and drew on Loco peg 20. There had been a decent weight from not far away earlier in the week on my lake but the wind was so strong blowing directly in my face that getting any kind of presentation would be very difficult. I had a word with Rob Hitchins who was on peg 15 and he advised that to do any good you have to cast towards an island with submerged trees but I was nowhere near them so it would be a struggle. I set up 2 margin rigs as the wind although very strong wasn’t that cold so hopefully it would blow a few fish into my corner. I also set up a rig to fish 5 metres out in 6 foot of water, it was really deep where I was and I didn’t bother with a feeder as I was convinced the fish wouldn’t be in the deep water. I set a pellet waggler up to fish 20 metres out where I could just about fire 8mm pellets but again the presentation would be hard. On the all in I cupped in a combination of worms, casters and groundbait at 5 metres to get the bait straight down to the bottom and I also began to catapult 3 or 4 eight mm pellets on my waggler line, some chopped worm and casters went in on both my margin swims also. I waited just 5 minutes for my first bite which was a see through perch. Next go in and I hooked something that pulled out 4 foot of grey hydro, this was better. It was a tench around 2lbs, next go in I had an ide around 10oz and another around 12oz, it was solid, well, it was solid for the first 20 minutes! I tried the pellet waggler after an hour but the presentation was rubbish as the wind was so strong so I gave up after 5 casts. I had a trout around 2lbs first drop in down the margins and caught another 4 ide before I went 2 hours without a bite. The wind just kept on getting stronger and only Rob was catching on the lake who was casting a bomb the size of a bowling ball to the submerged island and managed to catch 8 decent carp. I gave up with an hour remaining as I just couldn’t present anything with the wind but decided to leave my net in as I wasn’t sure how the sections would work out. I ended up coming 4th on the lake with 6lb 15oz, Rob just did enough to win the lake and my section with 47lbs, 16lb was second on the lake from the opposite side! Steve Rothery won the match with a fantastic weight of 108lbs from peg 71 on Bonsai, well done mate. It wasn’t all about the fishing today though it was all about the charity and after the match there was a big raffle which was enjoyed by everyone. A big thanks to Kev Allen who ran the event and also to Neil G at Lindholme for the use of his lakes, I will definitely be back next year.

Monday May 5th. Dragon Watermeadows, Nr Skegness.

30 fished

This is an all or nothing event with the winner walking away with the £5,000 and runner-up receiving nothing, well, apart from section money which was £200 every 10 pegs. I fished the event last year and did rubbish so I was hoping to do a bit better this year, hmmm! Me and Kieron decided on sharing again so if either of us won we would get two and a half thousand beer tokens each, nice! Before the match all talk was wanting to be on pegs 22 and 23 or 45, I did a Swainey (or so I thought) and drew peg 21 but because there was supposedly a few fish round that area pegs 21,22 and 23 were all in and every other angler had a spare peg either side! Last year I decided on a worm and caster approach as in practice both myself and Kieron had caught well on it, but the weather was very cold today with a very strong East wind blowing right off the coast, it was that cold I put my bobby hat on and my neck warmer...brrrr! We then both decided on a pellet and maggot approach. It would be pellets over in 2 foot of water and maggots down the middle in the deepest part. I actually started off really well catching 5 carp and a decent skimmer in the first 30 minutes and amassed quite a crowd behind me, was the 5 grand coming my way? Was it balls!! I went the next 2 hours 45 minutes without a bite, even the anglers to my right weren’t catching much but I could see Kieron catching well on peg 6 so it was now up to him to bring home the money. He was catching big skimmers down the middle on maggot but I couldn’t get a bite anywhere and with just an hour to go I had only put another small barbel and a little roach in my net since that burst of activity early on. With 15 minutes of the match remaining the fish finally turned up down the middle and I managed to catch 4 big skimmers and 2 decent tench one after another I couldn’t get in quick enough, where the hell had they been all day!? I ended up with just over 24lbs, the angler to my right had 26lbs and the guy on peg 24 the supposed flyer had 24lbs also. The fish had moved round to peg 25 where he weighed in just over 50lbs. Steve Winters won the match and all the beer tokens with 80lbs from peg 45, well done to him. Oh, and I came nowhere and still went home with £100, wohoo, nice 1 for winning your section Kieron, I promise I will give you some money back some day...haha!

Saturday April 18th. Barford Lakes. Angling Trust Charity match.

70 fished

Well it was another very early get up for me and Daddy May today to make the 3 hour trip back to Barford Lakes, I was really looking forward to it though as there are so many pegs you can catch fish off at this venue, and also after Wednesday with there being an angler every peg we would have lots more room today. This was a very worthwhile event to put the Angling Trust on the map and raise awareness of its cause. I was one of 14 selected team captains and we each had 5 team members. My mate Dave Swain would have been well proud of my drawing ability today as I drew a right flyer for myself in 17 on the pleasure lake, nice, im getting as good as him now! I drew some half decent pegs for my team mates as well so hopefully we would be in with a shout in the team stakes. All the team captains decided to go in for a separate winner takes all fiver each before the match just to add a bit more fun to it. I had Daddy May in my section who was opposite me with the wind blowing right in his face whereas I had the wind slightly off my back. Rob Hitchins would be the danger man today as he was on the peg everyone wanted in 15 so I would have my work cut out. I set up just 2 rods today just to fish the pellet waggler. Both were identical 12ft Daiwa tournaments with 0.22 flocast mainline and 0.18 power match hook lengths with a size 14 Drennan eyed method feeder barbless hook, both hook lengths had tiny Mosella F1 micro bands attached via a loop with a knotless knot and I fished 8mm hard pellets as feed and in the band. On the all in I catapulted four 8mm pellets out at intervals of 15-20 seconds for the first minute before I had a cast. I started off at 4 foot and had a bite straight away which was a chub around 2 ½ lbs. I waited another 30 minutes before I eventually had my first carp which was a good 8lbs. Over the next 2 hours I’d got 4 carp and a chub for around 40lbs, the fish are a very good stamp in here so you don’t need many bites, all the time I was changing my depth and feeding pattern to keep the fish guessing, these old wary carp have seen it all before and you need to keep ringing the changes to keep them guessing! Rob was beating me after 3 hours he had 9 carp to my 6 and 2 chub but things started to go my way. Rob started to foul hook the odd fish which seemed to spook a few and I had 3 good fish for around 45lbs in as many casts! Going into the last hour I’d 10 carp and 2 chub and Rob was still in front with 12 carp but I thought mine were a little bigger so I knew it would be close. That last hour the fish really came on well and the angler to my left was also getting one every cast. Rob ended up with 15 fish, the guy in between us had 10 fish and I had 16. I said I would have around 140lb as they were all proper-uns and I weighed in 154lb 8oz to win the match. Mick Bull came second with 116lb on the same peg I was on on Wednesday and Rob came third just a few ounces short of Mick with 116lb. It was a fantastic day enjoyed by everyone, it’s just a shame I couldn’t have drawn that peg a few days earlier! Derek Willan’s fox team won the team event on the day so well done to all and my Ultima team came 4th just one place out of the prizes!

Wednesday April 15th. Barford Lakes fisho qualifier.

130 fished

Having qualified for last year’s fishomania event I would really love to get back in the final this year and have another go at winning the 25 thousand beer tokens top prize! I have only fished Barford lakes once around 4 years ago, again in a fisho qualifier where I drew on railway and had just short of 100lbs but came nowhere in the match as the fishery is superb with lots of fish to be caught from all lakes. All talk was of the pleasure lake being the lake to be on and in particular peg 15, but speaking to the locals a few weren’t convinced and said match lake could throw up some decent weights. I drew peg 13 on the match lake which I was told was a decent peg usually in the opens but as every peg on the lake was in today I had very little room to fish. I liked the look of the peg but was just worried that I wouldn’t be able to draw the fish from anywhere as everyone up my end of the lake was casting or fishing in roughly the same area. I was told that the margins to my right would produce some fish and also I would catch a few up in the water either on pole or waggler...wohoo! I set up a margin rig with 0.18 power match straight through to a size 14 PR29 hook with purple hydro, I would either fish banded pellet, corn or worm on this rig. I set up 2 shallow rigs, again on purple hydro using 0.20 power match mainline and 0.18 power match hook lengths to fish banded pellets, and lastly I set up a little waggler rod, using the new Mosella 2 piece 11ft Evo specialist waggler. I used a small 1.25g drennan insert waggler with 0.20 flocast mainline and 0.18 power match hook length, again with a small band in a loop on a hair rig to fish banded pellet. I also set up a rig to fish in 6 foot of water straight out in front of me at 4 metres where I would hopefully catch a few quick fish whilst feeding and resting my other lines. At the start I fed very heavily through a big drennan pole cup, probably putting the best part of a bag of 4mm hard pellets in at 14.5 metres spread over a big area. I have written before about the importance of doing this for shallow fishing, this is just to get the fish in the swim and then by constant loose feeding you will bring the fish up in the water. I started on my 4 metre line and already the guy on my left was into his second fish, the first one going 12lb and this one was even bigger at 15lbs! I was well behind already as he had gone straight out at 13 metres fishing shallow, most people would have slipped up straight away in this case and followed him and tried shallow straight away, you must have your blinkers on in this situation and stick to your guns and remain feeding the shallow line up, eventually the fish will back off from there line and come to you as you are not pressurising your swim...all the same I was very tempted! After 1 hour I’d had 3 very small carp on a banded hard 6mm pellet on my 4 metre line, I’d probably got around 5lbs. The guy to my left had caught 3 fish and was on about 30lbs! I tried it shallow but only caught 2 carp around 6lbs a piece over the next 40 minutes, it simply wasn’t happening and im sure it was because there were 6 anglers all fishing in a very small proximity and the fish just couldn’t settle anywhere. I tried to make the waggler work as fish were cruising just under the surface so I thought the pole might be spooking them but again I only caught 2 fish in the space of an hour. I tried down the margins but never had a bite. All the time this was happening I was still confident that the fish would eventually turn up, you just have to have complete confidence and stick to your feeding. Eventually the fish arrived with just over an hour to go and I ended up with 18 carp for 100lbs 4oz and 6th in the match, I probably caught 75-80lbs in that last hour. I could see exactly where the anglers went wrong, after about 3 hours of not catching anything they simply stopped feeding the shallow lines and concentrated down the margins for bigger fish, that gave me the chance I needed as I was the only angler who remained feeding in the same way. Again it came down to confidence in knowing that the fish would eventually turn up, I just wished they would have turned up half an hour earlier and I would have qualified!

Dynamite baits festival at Whiteacres.

Day 1. Monday 30th. Trewaters.

Having never seen the lakes before as they have only been in the festivals since last October I had a walk around them on the Sunday so I could get an idea as to what rigs, baits I would need and what depths etc the lakes were.  It was all small fish with the odd bonus big F1 or carp.  My section of 36 anglers for the week were, to name a few:- Steve Ringer, Tommy Pickering, Lee Kerry, Neil McKinnon, Andy Geldart, Steve Cooke, Dave Swain.... that’s just naming a few!  It would be hard to finish in the top 10 and in the money with all those very good anglers and drawbars, oh, talking about draw bags, did I mention Dave Swain (only joking).  Swayneeee was my travelling partner for the week so a rub of his shoulder every morning should see me drawing some decent pegs!  I drew peg 33 the first day which put me in a corner on the top lake, I quite liked the look of it but the wind was blowing out of my corner and I was told that the fish follow the wind on here, great!  I set up 2 pole rigs, one to fish either side of me with 5 metres of pole 2 metres out from the bank in around 4 ½ foot of water, and another to fish at 11.5 metres straight out in front of me to start with going out to 13 metres (pole limit on here) if the fish backed off.  Both pole rigs had blue hydro 0.14 power silk main line and 0.10 power silk hooklengths to size 18 drennan silverfish pellet hooks.  I used a 4x12 float on my long lines and a 4x14 on my near lines to get the bait right down quick to the stockie carp.  I also set up the waggler to fish tight to the island at just 18 metres using a 1.25 gram drennan insert waggler, 0.16 power plus main line and 0.12 power silk hooklength.  Tommy Pickering was the next peg to my left and Andy Power was the next peg to my right and we all set similar rigs up.  On the all in I cupped in tiny marble sized balls of micro pellets on both sides close in and fed 2 golf ball size balls of micros at 11.5 metres, I began to loose feed my waggler line with 10 – 15 red maggots which I would continue to do every 5 to 10 minutes.  I was into fish straight away catching small F1’s around 6 to 10 ounce virtually every chuck.  After 40 minutes I hooked into something decent which decided to snag me on something just 2 metres out in front of me around 2 foot under the surface, I had a few of the smaller F1’s run into this but I just thought it was pond weed as there is loads of it all round the 2 lakes, but, when I pulled for a break I saw the tip of a branch so I tried to free my hook with my landing net but it wouldn’t budge. I quickly unscrewed my landing net head and attached one of the daiwa rod rests so I could get some leverage on it, well, it only turned out to be a complete tree which someone had thrown in, I managed to drag it out and it was full of hooks and line.  It took a good 10 minutes for me to get back in fishing again and I didn’t think the fish would have stopped, but they did and I began catching again straight away.  Things dried up significantly after 90 minutes though and I had to chase the fish around and catch 2 or 3 on every line, if you tried to catch any more you just wouldn’t get a bite.  Most of my fish over the next 2 hours came on my waggler line; I never had a bite on my long pole line!  Most people around the lake looked to be struggling with just odd fish being caught but it looked as though the end 2 pegs where the wind was blowing would beat me as they were catching very quick during the last hour of the match.  I ended up winning my section with 43lbs and came 3rd in the match, 36lbs was second and 29lbs was third, it had fished hard for everyone.

Day 2 Tuesday 31st. Porth Reservoir.

This is my favourite water down here as it is proper natural fishing with lots of bites to be had from anywhere if you work at it.  I drew a decent peg in 38 on the near side, a peg which I won the lake from a couple of years ago fishing the slider, so again that would be my main line of attack as it was perfectly flat calm.  I had my mate Swayneee for company next peg on 37 so we would have a good bit of banter and he’s brilliant on these type of waters, I also had 3 other very good anglers in Lee Kerry, Nick Speed and Neil McKinnon in my section so I would be up against it to do well.  I set up just one pole rig to fish at 7 metres where it was around 5 ½ foot deep, I set up a feeder rod to fish 35 turns in around 9 foot of water and I also set up a slider to fish between 5 and 7 foot in 8 foot of water.  I much prefer fishing the slider for natural fish when a lot of bites are on the cards as you hit loads more as you are direct to the fish rather than striking against the waggler.  I used a medium drennan onion which took 4 AB’s and 4 no.10’s as droppers.  At the start I cupped in 4 balls of groundbait with no feed and 1 with a few casters and red maggots in at 7 metres, I then fed my feeder line with a large drennan feeder before changing to a taped up small drennan feeder and attached my hooklength which was 2 foot of 0.12 power silk with a size 16 b560 hook.  Once I was fishing I catapulted 4 walnut sized balls out around 20 metres on my slider line, I also began to loose feed this line with casters and also every 5 minutes I loose fed casters on my pole line.  Both me and Dave were into fish straight away, only little roach and skimmers but after 4 fish each the feeder line completely dried up, the 2 anglers to my left who had started on the pole were getting a fish every chuck so I had to try it.  After 20 minutes I was getting a roach between 1 and 3 oz every go in, and then the mind games started, I kept saying to Dave ‘stay on the feeder mate you’re the only one on it and those bream will find you soon’!  Haha, he knows me too well though and joined me on the pole after 40 minutes where we both were getting a fish a chuck.  2 hours into the match I had to re-feed the pole line as the roach had back off, it was time to unleash Zorro...wohoo!  I began to catch quite steadily on the slider but again I could only catch little roach and the occasional 4oz skimmer, the anglers to my right were still catching a fish a chuck but were having a bit of pike trouble as well, Looking down my section it only looked like me and Lee were putting any number of fish together so I just had to stick at it and get my head down.  I tried the pole line again and began to catch but nowhere near as many as earlier as the pike had turned up and I lost 2 in quick succession to them.  I stayed on the slider for the last hour and remained catching mainly roach with just the odd skimmer.  The last hour saw the guy to my right catch a skimmer almost every go in so I was sure he had beaten me, also the end peg was admitting to 12lbs, I didn’t think I had anywhere near that and admitted to Lee I had 7lbs...B****cks came the response and I got a laugh from Dave, they both said you can double that.  12lbs and 10lbs had been weighed and I thought they had both beat me, I weighed in 14lbs 7oz, those little roach weigh don’t they!?  Lee fished brilliantly to win the section with 14lbs 14oz all on the waggler, his net was almost all skimmers and that was the difference.  I came second on the lake and second in my section.

Day 3 Wednesday 1st April. Bolingey.

I was absolutely gutted when I drew my peg today as I have seen it come last in the section more times than any other peg.  I drew peg 13 which is stuck right in a corner and you can’t cast past 14 metres, I was sure I would be watching all the anglers to my left on the good pegs empty it all day.  I set up a margin rig using 0.20 to 0.18 power match a pr29 size 14 hook and purple hydro to fish long down to my left at 14.5 metres, I set up a 6 metre rig to fish straight out in front of me in 7 foot of water and I also set up a little bomb rod to fish at 14.5 metres into the limited space of open water I had!  I fished meat on the pole and hard banded 8mm pellet on the bomb loose feeding 6mm over the top.  Everyone walking past were very complimentary, ‘it’s sh!t there Andy’. ‘Oh dear Andy get the eel rig set up’!  Nice words of wisdom from everyone that filled me with confidence!  I started off by feeding very lightly with meat at 6 metres and 14.5 metres and would leave it at least an hour before I tried it.  In went the bomb and the long wait was on.  After 15 minutes of pinging 4 or 5 hard 6mm pellets over my bomb I started to get a few little line bites before my rod was violently dragged across my keepnet which I use as a rod rest, fish on!  10 minutes later and a 10lb mirror was in my net, nice.  The next 40 minutes produced nothing so it was time to try the margins.  I cupped in just 6 bits of meat and lowered my rig into it, I thought I was seeing things when my float shot under, but there was an angry carp attached which went nuts before falling off, a foul hooker I reckon.  Next go in and the same happened again but this time I managed to get back to my top 2, I had a bit of a paddy as I knew each fish would be vital today.  I tried again and it was 3rd time lucky, I hooked into a fish which just stayed where it was hooked as 3 foot of purple hydro came out on the strike, this was a big-un.  It waddled its way slowly towards me before I went in with my landing net 5 foot down and scooped a 15 pounder, wohoo!  I decided to rest that swim for 15 minutes and try the 6 metre line but didn’t get a bite there so went straight back and immediately caught 2 quick fish, only small ones this time around 5lb each but it was nice to see a few signs of fish.  No one to my left was catching but I couldn’t see Andy Geldart or Neil McKinnon who were both in my section, I was sure they would be catching.  I managed to catch another 8 fish including 2 more 10 pounders over the next 2 hours to end with 12 fish, I was sure I had around 70lb which I was amazed with from that peg.  Andy Geldart was first to weigh in our section and he had 59lbs, he too was on a very bad peg in peg 9 and had done brilliantly to catch from there, 55lbs was the next weight on peg 10, then it was me, I had 79lbs and ended up winning the section.  Neil McKinnon weighed in 55lbs on peg 25.  I actually came 4th on the lake with that, I was still in contention with 2 wins and a second and was lying in 3rd place overall.

Day 4 Thursday 2nd April. Pollawyn Match Lake.

Another day and another rubbish peg in peg 4 up the left hand arm, but I was alot more confident today than yesterday because all though my peg is normally rubbish it had won the section the previous day with 8 carp for 46lbs so hopefully they would still be there.  Unfortunately though I had Andy Geldart on peg  13 in my section which nearly always wins.  I set up a rig to fish over at 16 metres with meat to target the carp in the first hour and I also set up 4 rigs to target the silver fish with worm and caster from fishing shallow to fishing on the bottom in 6 ½ foot of water.  At the start I fed quite heavily with worm and caster down the middle at 8 metres and would loose feed 20-30 casters every 5 minutes here.  I went straight over without potting any bait in and just cupped in 6 bits of meat, literally as soon as my rig had settled black hydro was streaming out of my pole.  A 5lb mirror was soon in my net and I quickly went back over for another, I waited 10 minutes this time and hooked into another carp, again around 5lbs.  The guy on peg 7 was playing his 4th carp by this time and he too was in my section, I could also see Andy playing a decent fish.  I tried another 40 minutes for carp but never had another bite so just had to come on my 8 metre line and get my head down and try and put together a weight of silvers.  I started off shallow catching a roach a chuck but they weren’t the normal stamp of 8oz to 1lb so I changed and went on the bottom.  That’s where the bigger roach were but they weren’t feeding as freely as they were shallow I had to wait for bites, hopefully a few big skimmers and bream would put in an appearance soon!  3 hours into the match and I was struggling for bites, I would catch a few and they would back off, it was very frustrating.  Peg 7 gad caught 7 carp for around 40lbs and Andy Geldart was still catching, I was looking at 3rd in my section....rubbish!  I managed to catch 3 decent bream in the last 2 puts in down the middle but I knew I could be out of contention.  I weighed in 41lbs to come 3rd in the section.  Chris on peg 7 was second with 9 carp for 46lbs and Andy won the section with 52lbs.  I was now lying 5th overall tied with 5 others on 33 points.

Day 5 Friday 3rd April.  Acorn/Twin Oaks/Canal.

I really wanted a draw on the canal to win my section today, or peg 16 on twin oaks but I joked all through the week that Dave would get it, and....of course he did, you didn’t think the Swaynee would go 5 days without drawing THE best peg did you!?  I ended up drawing peg 9 on Acorn which I was quite happy with until I saw that Lee Kerry had drawn peg 2 which had won the section the previous day and Andy Geldart had drawn next to me on peg 11, he had a very good method chuck around 20 metres to bare banking.  My peg looked ok, it was 16 metres to the island and you can see the fish cruising on this lake as it’s so clear.  We were targeting carp from 1lb upto 4lbs (unless you’re Andy Geldart, who decided to go after great big-uns).  I set up 3 rig’s using soft black hydro with banded pellet to fish over, I set up a rig to fish down both sides and I also set up a shallow roach line as they average 6oz in here.  I also had a side bet with Andy that the first one to catch an ornamental fish was going to buy the catcher a pint, Huh, never mind a section win a pint was at stake here!  We could see ghosties and golden rudd cruising so we were taking the ornamental match serious!  I had been told the best way to catch the carp was to cup in a few 4mm hard pellets and fish a banded 6mm hard pellet over the top but also keep pinging 2 or 3 six mil pellets over your swim.  This worked a treat to start off with and I managed 5 carp in my first 5 drops in, they were only small though and none were ornamental!  I could see Lee was catching steady and he had 9 after an hour, I’d still only got 5.  I tried the silver fish line whilst I was letting my far swims settle and began to catch a roach a chuck before hooking a carp around 2lbs, then next go in I had another carp around 2lbs!  I thought sure I had caught Lee up in that mad 30 minutes as he hadn’t had another fish, so he too went for roach on his short line.  Andy had only 4 small carp in his net at the halfway stage before he set up the method feeder, first cast and he was into an 8 pounder, next cast he was into another 8 pounder, he had now caught me up and to add to that his 3rd cast resulted in a great big 12lb ghostie which took the ornamental match!  Lee began to catch again but I was really struggling, I went 1 hour 20 minutes without a fish as I had to go and look for carp to try and win the section.  I managed to catch another 5 in the last 30 minutes but I knew I would finish 3rd again.  Andy fished a brilliant match and caught 7 decent fish on the method to win the section, the ornamental match and a pint with 62lbs, well done mate!  Lee weighed in 46lbs to come second in the section and I was third with 42lbs.  Dave Swain had won the match easily today with 148lbs, well done mate.  That last section win for Andy meant that he finished 5th overall, Lee just beat me on weight after we tied on points he was 9th and I finished 10th.  It was a brilliant week and I picked up a few beer tokens along the way which was nice.  A big well done to Dean Smith on winning the festival, fantastic result mate.

Sunday 15th March. Cudmore. New pools.

48 fished

I had been teaching on the new pools last week and knew how well they were fishing with the carp in all the pools starting to wake up and move around, so they could be caught from anywhere. I was still hoping for a draw in the middle of any lake though as this is where most of the fish have been. I rubbed Dave Swains drawing arm in the queue and it payed off for me as I drew peg 147 on pool 5 which is smack bang in the middle, Dave was his usual self and drew peg 109 which was smack bang in the middle of pool 4, nice! We were in with a very good chance of coming first and second but who would take the honours? I really fancied fishing the method all day today but knew I had to set up 2 pole rigs as the weather was warm and carp were moving. I set up a pole rig to fish at 6 metres in 3 foot of water using 0.12 power silk straight through to a size 18 b911 hook and I also set up a rig to fish at 14.5 metres using 0.12 power match to 0.10 power match hooklength and a size 18 b911 hook, both top kits had blue hydro in them. I started off on the method using a kobra method feeder with black hydro running through with a 4 inch tail of 0.18 power match and a size 16 drennan barbless carp feeder hook baited with hair rigged corn or meat. Almost as soon as it had settled I had a drop back bite and was into a fish, 5 minutes into the match and a 3lb mirror was in my net, wohoo! Unfortunately it took me another 30 minutes to catch my next fish an F1 around 2lbs. And it was another 30 minutes until my 3rd fish, again an F1 around 2lbs, I couldn't believe it after that start I thought I was on for a huge weight! After 1 and a half hours I tried the long pole line but didn't have a bite on it so remained feeding, I had been feeding it from the start every 15-20 minutes with 20-30 micros and 4 or 5 grains of corn to try and draw the bigger fish in. Back on the method and I was into a common around 4lbs but it was very slow and there were no real signs of fish, I was getting no liners just a savage bite out of the blue. I was loose feeding tiny balls of micros and 2 or 3 grains of corn on my 6 metre line but wanted to leave this line until the last 2 hours of the match, I was very confident of catching here as the guy on the next peg had caught a couple so I knew the longer I left it the better it would be. Occasionally (far too frequent for my liking) I would here a loud splashing noise coming from behind me and it would be Dave waving at me having put another fish in his net, both him and Kev Haysted on the next peg were catching well so I had a lot of catching up to do. I tried the long pole again and managed to catch 3 mirrors before some little tiny skimmers moved in, I tried to feed them off but instead got a bit giddy, overfed it, and fed everything off...oops! Going into the last 90 minutes it was time to try the 6 metre line, I caught a bream around 3lbs straight away followed by a skimmer around 1 1/2lbs, then I caught a common around 5lbs, an F1 around 4lbs another common around 5lbs, it was solid and I heard in a faint voice 'slow down Andy', coming from Dave! My peg was solid but I had a lot of catching up to do and Dave was still catching. On the all out I looked round to see Dave strike into a decent fish and I knew that one would win it for him. He didn't dissapoint and won the match with 47lbs, I came second with 44lbs and that last fish he got was a good 4 pounder, haha, well done mate, the original Tony Hart is back!

Wednesday 11th March. Blundells.

35 fished

The turnouts for these midweek matches are excellent you don't even get this many turning out on a weekend! The wind would be a problem today though as it was blowing right to left straight down all the lakes. I decided to go on pine, again, this time on peg 63 which of late has not been fishing very well but I fancied a change and thought I might catch a few. I was actually going to go on East but I was too far down the list and all the pegs had already been taken before it was my turn! I set up the waggler but realistically knew it would'nt be right for it today with the wind being too strong so I also set up 2 pole rigs. One to fish shallow at 9 metres and one on the bottom in 7 foot of water at 5 metres. I started off on the waggler and caught an ide straight away, that filled me with confidence but unfortunately it was a one off and 20 minutes later I still only had one ide in the net! I had been feeding my pole line to fish shallow from the start so tried that and began to catch a few straight away, normally I like to leave this line for at least an hour but I had no choice today and had to try and catch straight away on it. I carried on feeding the waggler line though just incase the wind did die down or turn round and blow off my back, nope not today! After 2 hours I had around 30 ide in my net but could see my mates J and Kieron catching well on ash pool, and apparently Daddy May was getting one a chuck on West pool! The 5 metre line produced a few fish for me including two 1 1/2lb barbel but I had to keep swopping and changing all the time between 5 metres and shallow to keep in touch with the fish, just catching 1 or 2 then having to change back, you will never do a good weight of ide when fishing like this so realistically a good weight would be 30lb for me today. And so it proved for the rest of the match I carried on catching odd ide, I tried the waggler 3 or 4 times but never had a bite on it. I came 4th with 34lbs, Daddy May got the bragging rights in the car as he came 3rd with 43lbs! J easily did enough to win the match with 67lbs and Kieron came 2nd with 46lbs.

Saturday 7th March. Brookside.

53 fished

Well I was hoping for a good draw today seeing as this would be my last kamasan qualifier and I needed another point to guarantee qualification. I did a John Turner and drew peg 5 on Willow, wohoo, a flier! I had everyone telling me that I should win the match from that peg so the pressure was on. Stu Conroy put me right on where to fish and as soon as he mentioned shallow into open water my eyes lit up! As well as my shallow rig I set up a rig to fish against the point of the island in 3 foot of water and also a rig to fish against the aerator to my right in 5 foot of water. On the all in I began by loose feeding casters out into open water to my left between 14.5 and 16 metres, just pinging 6-8 casters every 20-30 seconds. I started off fishing over towards the island and was instantly into small ide and 6oz roach, then I struck into something and connected half depth, it was definitely foul hooked and I was expecting it to fall off at any time, 10 minutes later and after it had been under the tree to my right I scooped a mirror around 6lbs which was hooked in its pectoral fin! I then reached for the shallow rig and tried it against the aerator, first go in and I had a 4lb ide but then couldn’t get a bite, I had been feeding out into open water for an hour so tried it. I only caught 4 small roach so decided on resting it another hour. I changed between fishing the island and fishing deep and shallow against the aerator and managed to catch a few decent roach and another whopper of an ide! I reckoned I had 20lb after 2 hours so I was hopefully on for my target of 60lb. Over the next 2 hours though things didn’t really go to plan and I only managed a few small roach, the F1’s were topping just past my feed but weren’t feeding. I had been fishing at 14.5 metres and kept on trying it at 16 metres until finally they began to feed. All 4 of us fishing into open water were catching well now and I was just hoping it wasn’t too late for me to do a decent weight. They were a good stamp of F1’s averaging 1 ½ to 2lbs and I also managed to catch another 4 big ide which would boost my weight. At the all out I thought i’d got 50 to 60lb and was hoping I’d done enough for another kamasan point. I weighed in 68lbs 10oz and won the match, yeah, another 4 points which puts me on 17 points for the season. It isn’t a lot but this year kamasan matches have been really hard to come by and will be won by the least points ever, hopefully by Gary Skerritt.

Thursday 5th March. Brookside.

40 fished

The turnout for a midweek match was excellent today, has no one got any work to do!? The reason why is the fact that Brookside is fishing so well with everyone in with a chance of 30lb plus off every peg, it really is that good. I drew on Willow peg 16 for the first time in a while today but didn’t really fancy it as the weights had been coming from the other side on pegs 5 and 7. Kieron was on peg 7 and would take some beating today. I set up two rigs one to fish over against the island at 13 metres in 3 ½ foot of water and a shallow rig to fish 14.5 metres to my left out into open water. The fish here respond really well to shallow tactics so I was hoping I would catch a few. After an hour I’d had around 6lb of mainly roach with a few small ide and was going nowhere, I tried in open water and had 2 F1’s straight away but they didn’t last. It was burger and brew time! I had a walk to see who was catching and my section was being won with just 5lb, I knew I had that so went back to my peg for the last 2 hours. Eventually the F1’s made an appearance and I managed 8 in the last 20 minutes as well as two 4lb ide, nice! Together with a few decent roach I weighed in 33lbs which I didn’t think I had anywhere near, I ended up winning the section. Kieron won the match with 69lbs and Andy Bennett was 2nd from the front snake peg 7 with 65lbs. Again it had fished really well with 48lbs only good enough for 6th place, roll on Saturday!

Wednesday 4th March. Blundells.

18 fished

Well I was my usual predictable self today and again chose to go on peg 69 after having the next to last choice to pick. Again I had loads of room with only one other angler being on Pine pool on peg 59! I thought a few people would be on here today but the canals were most people’s first choice. I set up just one rod again and couldn’t wait to get started. At first I was struggling with presentation on the waggler with the wind blowing right down the lake, I changed to a heavier 1.75 gram waggler and began to get a few bites by laying on the bottom a good foot. Almost as soon as I had changed though the wind completely stopped, forcing me to change back to a lighter waggler as I couldn’t hit the bites. Half an hour later and it started to snow! The weather was horrible but I was still managing to get a few bites and looking round I could see the west pool fishing well also. I was loose feeding maggots at 9 metres today hoping I would be able to draw the ide closer in to me, this worked and for 40 minutes I had an ide every cast, I was simply side casting the waggler past where I was feeding and drawing it back into position, the bites were lightning fast and I had to wind into them, these were a much better stamp ide and ideally I would have done better on the pole. I ended up winning the match with 42lbs 12oz, 40lb was 2nd so those bigger ide won it for me. I think next week I will be setting up the pole if they start to come close in, I wonder if I can get this same peg again!?

Saturday 28th February. Brookside.

50 Pegs

Another draw on the back snake this time on peg 42, surely I must draw on the front and the reed pegs soon! I was confident of catching a few fish but realistically knew you needed to be on the front to win the match, but the good thing about the matches here is that everyone has something to fish for as Mick pays out £40-45 every 4 or 5 pegs, more fisheries should do this in my opinion as it gives everyone something to go for if you aren’t on the best of pegs! I set up my usual 3 rigs of over deep and shallow and a swim down the middle, but I also set a rig up on Stu Conroy’s advice to fish 4 metres down to my right in 3 foot of water, this is where you can catch a few F1’s later on in the match. I began to catch ide straight away and looking round everyone was catching, I tried shallow but couldn’t really put together any number of fish, I managed to catch a few ide down the middle but the best line was over on the bottom in 3 ½ foot of water. I’d only caught 3 F1’s with an hour remaining but reckoned i’d had 60-70 ide so I should have around 25 - 30lbs. I wasn’t winning my section though as the guy on the end peg 35 and the next peg to him on 37 were both catching well. I tried the line close in and caught 3 gudgeon straight away before the F1’s moved in, they were only averaging 1lb but I managed to catch 15 in the last 50 minutes, that line had come good in the end and I came 6th with 44lbs winning my section, the other pegs had 37lbs and 32lbs. 65lbs won the match and there were three 50lb weights. Let’s hope for a draw on the reeds next Thursday!

Thursday 26th February. Brookside.

35 Pegs

After taking a few days to recover (it was my 30th on the 22nd!) I was looking forward to getting back catching some fish. I drew peg 47 which has been fishing quite well lately. I drew this same peg 3 weeks ago when there was ice on it and managed to catch a few so I knew there were some fish around. I set up just 2 rigs today, one to fish shallow against the aerator in the middle of the canal and the other to fish over in 3 ½ foot of water. I started off by cupping maggots onto the aerator, doing this feeds the peg all the time as the maggots spread out and fall in the water at their own will. I caught just 4 ide and 1 F1 during the first hour whilst I was building my shallow swim so I was hoping there would be a few feeding when I went to fish shallow. There was and I was catching an ide or an F1 every go in, I had to constantly keep changing the depths to keep in touch with them but for a good 3 hours I didn’t go a couple of minutes without a bite. Eventually the fish dried up so I had to go back over and keep resting both swims, just nicking an odd fish from each for the rest of the match. I ended up coming 3rd with 59lbs, it fished really well today with 75lbs winning and 60lb third, most people had around 30lbs, it really is very very good fishing and I was looking forward to fishing it on Saturday.

Saturday 21st February. Cudmore.

30 Fished  

I hadn’t fished Cudmore for a few weeks and after the last couple of days fishing I was hoping it would be lift off here too. I drew peg 44 on Suez and immediately proceeded to throw the peg on the floor and stamp on it! It hadn’t been a good area lately but with the weather warming up I would hopefully have a day’s fishing. I set up my usual rigs for over and down the middle and also set one up for down the side just incase, my shallow rig stayed on its winder, boo! On the all in I started of feeding very little as I had been previously as I wanted to feel my way into the match and not fill it in from the start. I was glad I did as I had to wait an hour for my first bite which was an F1 around 1lb. As always I was confident of catching down the middle so I kept feeding this swim with 25-30 maggots every 20 minutes. I tried down the side and managed another F1 around a pound and a half before I caught 3 small roach over. After 2 and a half hours I tried down the middle and caught a 10oz skimmer after 10 minutes, then next put in I caught a tench around 1lb then a tench around 2lbs, I was hoping they had arrived, I never had another bite so carried on feeding the swim. Looking around there were a few fish coming out and I was miles behind, I just couldn’t get a bite and tried the middle swim another 3 times without even getting a bite. I decided to stay on this line for the last hour just hoping that they would eventually turn up and I could maybe get my section. With just 12 minutes remaining my peg went solid down the middle, I managed to catch 8 big F1’s and came from nowhere to weigh 25lbs and come second in the match! Just 26lbs won the match, I literally had just 5 or 6 pounds at the most going into the last 12 minutes, now that’s a proper late show and again shows the importance of keeping that feed going in!

Thursday 19th February. Brookside.

35 Fished  

Brookside has been fishing superb for a few weeks now and with the recently stocked ide showing everywhere, bites could be had from any peg. I drew peg 45 on the back, not a brilliant area but I didn’t mind as I knew I would get a few bites. I set up 3 rigs, one to fish over on the bottom in 3 ½ foot of water against some pampas grass, I used a 4x10 J-range J8 float shotted with 2 x no.11 dropper shots and a bulk of no. 11’s I used ultima’s new line power silk in 0.12 as main line and 0.10 power silk as hooklength to a size 16 B610 hook. My next rig was for down the middle and I used a mosella 4x10 float in 5 ½ foot of water, again using the same lines but shotted with 3 droppers. My last rig I had to blow the cobwebs off as I hadn’t used it since last summer, yes, it was time for the shallow rig to make an appearance...wohoo!!! I used an AM wellardz float using 0.10 power silk straight through to a size 18 drennan silverfish hook, this would be fished in depths from 1 to 2 feet. All my top kits had blue hydro in them. On the all in I fed a few red and white maggots over and fed quite heavily down the middle. (What people aren’t realising on here is that you can feed lots of bait and get away with it, there are still lots of gudgeon about and they will eat everything anyway and also those ide love their grub) I had bites straight away over and began to catch ide averaging 4 to the pound, whenever I caught a gudgeon I just kept on shallowing up, only an inch at a time, but this seems to work. What I have also found is that you can feed heavily through a kinder pot and then start to loose feed over the top, this keeps the gudgeon on the bottom and you can pick off the ide and F1’s which come to the loose feed. I got a bit giddy too early and chose to fish shallow after just 40 minutes down the middle; I couldn’t help myself as the ide were going nuts! I had a good run for an hour where I caught 50 ide and 3 F1’s but then things started to dry up. I still managed to keep odd fish coming until the end but came 4th with 45lbs, what a brilliant 2 days fishing.

Wednesday 18th February. Blundells.

25 Fished  

Well, the mild weather couldn’t have come soon enough and I was hoping for a good days fishing today. My Dad came with me for his first visit to the venue as I had always told him how good the fishing is. On arrival I showed him round all the lakes and he liked the look of Willow lake as carp were churning the bottom up! I told him you needed to be on pine or ash to get the decent weights of ide on the waggler (which he had come to do), but there was no convincing him and he chose to go on peg 67 on willow (after all Dad’s know best!) I again chose peg 69 on pine and was surprised how much room I had, 4 pegs to my right and 4 pegs to my left, nice! I set up just one rod and couldn’t wait to get going. On the all in I had bites straight away and began to put a few fish together. The angler on my right on peg 65 was fishing 19 metres against the far bank and was catching plenty of small carp, and also Tony Green on peg 76 was catching carp on the waggler and bomb, it was fishing really well and I had a bite virtually every cast for the full 6 hours. The best way of catching them today was to feed and cast into the feed pellet waggler style, I only fished a light 1.25 gram waggler set at just 2 foot and as normal I was simply winding into the fish rather than striking. I ended up winning the match with 120 ide for 67lbs, Tony Green was second with 56lbs and the lad on peg 65 was third with 52lbs, it had fished really well with most people catching 20lb plus, except for Daddy May who struggled, I think he will be trying Pine pool next week!

Wednesday 11 th January. Blundells.

25 Fished  

After waking up and seeing ice everywhere I wasn't holding out much hope of getting back onto ash or pine lakes for a decent days waggler fishing for ide, but to my surprise all waters except for oak were completely free of ice!  I had a quick walk round and the wind was straight of your back on the pine pool, that would do for me as I knew I would have the lake to myself, no one has been on here for a week as the colour has dropped right out of the lake and bites have been extremely hard to come by.  But I have total confidence in my waggler set up for the ide and I just know they will feed at some point during the match.  I chose to go on peg 69 more or less smack bang in the middle of the lake and a peg I had 37lbs of ide off 2 weeks ago, but it was much colder and clearer today.  I set up 2 waggler rods one to fish as I normally do in water ranging from 3 to 5 foot with a light 1.25 gram drennan insert waggler and another to fish down the middle opposite the peg to my right fishing 8 foot in 10 foot of water, I used a 1.5 gram drennan insert waggler on this line.  At the start I chose to feed maggots instead of casters as I remembered from the previous time on this peg the ide just didn't want to know when I was feeding casters and as soon as I made the change to maggots it brought an immediate response.  I had to wait 40 minutes for my first bite today after starting off in 4 foot of water and no signs I made the change and fished down the middle and began to put a few fish together.  I was feeding both lines all the time and as soon as I began to get signs of the fish coming up in the water I changed rods and fished shallow for them, anything from 3 to 4 foot in 8 foot of water.  I had a mad hour where they went nuts, I could actually see the ide flashing in about 3 foot of water 20 metres away, as soon as I hooked into a fish I could see it flash before coming to the surface such was the clarity of the water,  they were feeding very confidently.  Then with 2 hours of the match left the wind changed round completely and started blowing strongly right at me, I could only feed the maggots at a maximum of 15-16 metres now and couldn't get casters much further, also the wind was causing my bait to spread around over too big an area, I knew I would struggle to keep catching if the wind stayed the same.  Yep, the wind stayed the same, typical, I only managed to catch 6 more ide over the next 2 hours. I tried down the middle again but the shoal had simply moved on.  I ended up coming second with 36lbs and 42lbs won the match.  Im convinced that I would have won if that wind hadn't of changed.  Nevermind, it sureley can't be long before it warms up!

Wednesday 28 th January. Blundells.

20 fished.  

I hadn't fished here for ages and was really looking forward to getting back, amongst those ide hopefully!  My mate Kieron has really sussed this venue and was on for a treble having scored wins the saturday and sunday just gone from pegs 65 and 63 on Pine respectively.  I knew I needed to draw fairly early to get anywhere near these pegs and the big shoal of barbel.....err, last but one choice for Andy then!  Kieron came out 4th choice and was just as amazed as me when no one went on the best peg, 63 before him, he chose the peg and ran to it cheering like a kid in a sweet shop.  I've said before that confidence plays a massive part in fishing and no one was more confident than him today, he just knew he would catch.  The next choices went and they were either side of Kieron, eventually it was my turn and I decided to go for room so chose peg 70 on pine, 5 pegs away from the angler to my right and I had no one to my left, nice!  I just set up a waggler rod as I was hopefully going to catch the ide, no one has fished for them for 2 months now so they would surely be due a feed, wouldn't they?  At the start I catapulted around 20-25 casters in at intervals of 5 a time and spread them around a bit, a few ide were topping so hopefully I would catch straight away.  I went to bait up with a single red maggot when I heard 'WOHOOOO', Kieron was into his first fish after just a minute, I knew then he would win so just had to put the blinkers on and concentrate on coming second!  I had 2 bites straight away and missed both of them so changed to a light 1.25 gram waggler from a 1.5 gram.  I had a fish straight away but then had to wait 30 minutes for another bite.  The angler in between me and Kieron had caught 2 carp and a barbel so he would be a danger.  2 hours soon past and i'd only caught 4 ide, I had to try something different so changed to feeding maggots and fed them like I would when fishing a pellet waggler, feed first then cast into them.  It took 10 minutes but this started to work and I was getting a bite every cast with 3 hours of the match left.  You can set you watch by Mark Lucas and at 2pm he was driving out of the car park having suffered enough neck ache watching Kieron on the next peg.  I was really enjoying the fishing and couldn't get in quick enough, me and Kieron were know fish for fish, except his were averaging 1 1/2lbs and mine were averaging 6oz!  Going into the last hour we were both doing Zorro proud as fish were coming thick and fast.  Kieron ended up just slightly winning with 78lbs and I came second with 38lbs, Geoff Ogden came third with 20lbs.  I really enjoyed today and would normally have looked forward to fishing again next week but having seen the weather forecast I'm not holding out much hope, i'll more than likely be building a snowman on my peg than fishing it!

Saturday 24 th January. Cudmore Fisheries. Suez and Brewsters

30 fished.

It seems typical at the moment that any decent weather we have (which aint much) is during the week and come the weekend there always seems to be howling gales, rain or today....ice!  I drew a reasonable peg in 38 on Suez, ideally the other side would have been better but I wasn't moaning (for a change) about my draw. Having left my ice breaker at home I was hoping it would be thin enough for my pole to break....nope, then Daddy May who was on peg 34 came up with a brilliant solution, he simply telescoped the no.1 section of his landing net handle through the no.5 section of his pole and screwed a weed cutter onto it, shipped the pole accross the canal (which was 13.5 metres on my peg) lifted the pole up 2 foot off the ice, dropped the pole and the weed cutter went straight through, then he just shipped the pole back, it worked an absolute treat and in no time I had a swim of around 10 metres wide completely free of ice, Dad's always know best don't they?!  I adopted my usual approach of feeding just 4 or 5 micros and 2 red maggots over and 20 - 30 red and white maggots every 20 minutes down the middle and used the same rigs as had been serving me well all winter.  I caught an F1 almost straight away and as normal I went straight back and fed the swim again before baiting up, removing slime etc.  For the first 2 hours I fished over and only managed to catch fish from one swim, I had 3 on the go over but couldn't get a bite from any others, i'd caught 4 f1's and 4 chub so I was doing well.  Anglers to my left were catching on pegs 44 and 46 but I still had the middle line to look forward to!  After 10 minutes I had a tench from down the middle around 1lb followed straight after by another tench around 12oz, things dried up after this so I re-fed and tried over again.  Bites were really hard to come by and the sun was making it very difficult to see my float, they were still catching f1's to my left and my swim had dried up completely.  Again I remained feeding down the middle and with just 10 minutes left I caught 3 big f1's that brought me right back into contention.  I ended up coming 4th with 15lbs 12oz.  22lbs won from peg 46 and 17lbs was second from peg 44, there was another 17lb from peg 4, again that middle line caught me fish when every where else had failed.  

Saturday 17 th January. Moreton Fisheries

10 pegs.  

Seeing as almost everywhere had ice on it during the week my Dad decided on running a match at Moreton Fisheries as there is a large head of silvers in the main lake and with there not being many of us we should have a good days fishing with plenty of bites....er, thats what we were all hoping for anyway! My Dad had a little practice on the lake the day before and caught quite well fishing a little cage feeder only casting around 18 metres, I thought I would surely catch a few on the pole!  I was left with the last peg, peg 4 which turned out to be an end peg and the shortest walk from the car park, I also had the least amount of wind in my peg which I was glad about as the forecasts had given out 60 - 70 mph gusts.  I had Daddy May for company next peg so that was a match in itself to claim bragging rights in the car on the way back home!  Colin Mercer on the other end peg looked to have drawn by far the best (he's never drawn a bad peg).  I quite fancied my peg as it was perfect for pole fishing with the wind missing me.  I set up a rig to fish at 14.5 metres where I had around 6 foot of water and another rig to fish at 7 metres in around 5 foot of water.  I used preston 6's elastic on both and used a 4x14 Jrange J8 float at 14.5 metres and a 4x12 Jrange J8 float at 7 metres.  Both rigs were identical in shotting with 3xno.11's as droppers and a bulk of no.9's on my 4x14 rig and a bulk of no.10's on my 4x12 rig.  I used 0.12 Power Match as main line and 0.08 XT7 as hooklength on both.  I used the brilliant new drennan silverfish hooks in size 20 on both rigs.  On the all in I had to re-plumb as my Dad set about filling it in, nice 1 Dad, you scare all them fish to me!  I took it really easy just introducing 4 tangerine size balls with no feed in and one soft ball with a few pinkies and casters in via a pole pot on my 14.5 metre line, then I set about loose feeding casters on my 7 metre line, I would feed 15-20 casters every 5 to 10 minutes for at least the first hour on this line hoping to catch roach after roach.  An hour soon past and I hadn't had a bite, Colin on the other end peg already was into the skimmers and had 3 or 4lb, also going well was his brother Pete and Sean Mulheir, me and Daddy may were getting whupped!  It was first blood to my Dad though as he caught a Daddy ruffe on a worm as big as the fish itself, then it was my turn as I caught a tiny roach, I really didn't expect it to fish this hard to start with but saying that the fish were like ice cubes, absolutely freezing!  I had a quick go short but never had a bite so concentrated on fishing 14.5 metres, I tried introducing a tiny ball of groundbait (marble size) with just 2 or 3 casters in to see if they would come to a little cloud, they did for 5 minutes but then backed off!  I lost a big fish, probably a perch which snagged me round something.  Going into the last 2 hours i'd caught just 3 fish whilst my Dad had caught 2 fish, everyone else was getting a few bites and Colin on the end peg was miles ahead.  I suddenly had a late burst of activity though catching a decent perch around 1 1/2lbs and a few smaller ones around 8oz, Sean landed a decent skimmer around 2lbs and also Pete had one of a similiar size, it was going to be close for second place but for the last 40 minutes I remained biteless whilst the other's carried on catching (except my Dad).  I weighed in first with just 4lbs 3oz, My Dad had the initials D.N.W next to his name, wohoo I beat someone!  Colin won the match easy with 12lbs 10oz, Sean came second with 6lb 8oz and Pete was third with 6lb.  Even though it was rock hard it's just nice to do something different sometimes, and also to have a real good laugh and get back to how fishing used to be before commercials, I really enjoyed it and catching wild, natural fish like that for me is much better than catching the same fish over and over again.

Sunday 21st December. Heronbrook Winter League. Final Round

Well first on my xmas wish list this year was to draw as well as John Turner, he drew me another flyer in peg 13 on the old canal making it 5 very good draws for me in 5 rounds!  Unfortunately he didn't draw the rest of the team good pegs and we would be up against it to win overall.  The wind was an absolute night mare today and was blowing left to right down the canal which would make fishing over in the reeds near on impossible.  The main method here is to fish bread into the stick ups around 18 inches deep, but with the stick ups being 14.5 metres away it was going to be a struggle.  I set up 3 rigs, one to fish pellets in 4 foot of water at 13 metres, around 1 metre off the reeds, another to fish maggots down the middle around 7 metres and a bread rig in case there was a drop in the wind so I could fish into the stick ups. On my 13 metre line I used 0.12 power match mainline to 0.10 power match hooklength to a size 18 drennan pellet hook with a light 4x10 wire stem float with 4xno.8 as backshot and used white hydro.  Down the middle I used 0.12 power match main line and 0.09 xt7 hooklength to a size 16 B610 hook again using a fairly light 4x12 float in just over 5 foot of water also using 4xno.8 backshot and used blue hydro.  For my bread rig I used a Scone AM wellardz float using 0.20 powermatch straight through to a size 14 pr29 hook and purple hydro (summer will be here soon and Im getting ready!)  The main threats in my section would be Ed Warren at the next peg to my left who's Maver team were in joint first position and also Jamie Hughes on the bend peg 22 who had lots of room so could fish in the calm water, his team were just 2 points behind us.  On the all in I attempted to cup in a few micros on my 13 metre line but as I got to 11 metres the wind got up and blew my pole round to my right and I nearly whacked the angler next peg in the face with a pole pot!  I tried again and managed to feed the swim this time, I fed around 60 maggots down the middle and continued to feed 30 maggots every 20 minutes.  I started off on bread using the brilliant new magic bread from Mosella, this stuff is unbelievable and will stay on the hook even after the most severe strike or even after a fish, you can also hair rig it, but today I was just moulding a piece about the the size of a pea, hooking it straight through the middle, once in the water the bread swells upto twice its size but just does'nt come off the hook!  The bloke on the next peg to my right caught a fish almost straight away on bread and also Ed caught a fish straight away, I had to wait 15 minutes until I hooked......a tree, wohoo!  After pulling like mad tring to break the rig eventually the branch gave way and came hurtling back across the canal just missing me, more amazing was the bread was still on!  I quickly shipped out the pellet rig and clamped down on the pole as the wind was very strong, I had a bite almost immediatley and caught an f1 around 1lb.  I managed a few more over the next half an hour and it was obvious there was a few fish to be caught.  I rested the swim after going 10 minutes without a bite and tried down the middle, I caught a roach or perch near enough every go in, they weren't big fish but with hardly anyone else catching in the section I wasn't bothered.  Ed had caught 7 f1's with an hour to go and Jamie had been walking so I knew I would be well up there in the section.  I had a great last hour fishing over on pellets and managed a few decent 3 to 4lb carp, I was sure I had done enough to win the section.  I had, and won the section and the canal with 39lbs 12oz.  Ed had 13lbs and Jamie had 12lbs.  At least I had pulled points on them, unfortunately the rest of the team diodn't fair so well, with the exception of John who also won his section.  J who was on a bad peg finished 4th in his section on the specimen lake and Alan im afraid to say had to settle for the cheque book and pen with his blankety blank.  He was on a rubbish peg in the 40's on the straight on meadow and there was three of them in a line who all blanked, nice!  Our team ended up staying 4th and we all received a nice little pay packet for xmas which was nice.  One whinge I have though is that on team matches like this you get anglers who simply don't turn up for the last couple of rounds and trying to pull any amount of points back is impossible, take my section for example, there were only 5 anglers in it (there should have been 9) and I had to try and make up points to beat the teams ahead of us, when points are vital like this and especially in team matches you should be made to fish.  The other section on the canal had only three anglers in it and I was having a joke with the angler to my right who at worst could only finish 3rd!  Anyway, rant over with and overall I really enjoyed the winter league, most of all because I had 5 great pegs, cheers John!  And thanks to Neil Dale the owner of Heronbrook for running the series.  

Saturday 13th December. Cudmore Fisheries. Suez and Arena pools.

30 fished.

It was a really miserable, cold and wet day today and I was hoping for a draw in the early numbers on Suez.  I drew peg 36 and started moaning immediatley, The far side of Suez hasn't been fishing anywhere near as good as the near side lately so all I could realistically hope for was a section win as there were good anglers on good pegs on the other side.  At least i'd had a good win last week on peg 24 and I was fully expecting that same peg to win today.  I set up 3 rigs today.  One to fish over in 3 1/2 foot of water against the reeds, one to fish down the middle in 5 1/2 foot of water and one to fish down the side to my left in 4 foot of water.  At the start I took things really steady, just introducing 2 maggots and 4 micros into 3 different swims over, I fed the same down the margin and down the middle fed 30 red and white maggots and continued to feed this line every 20 - 30 minutes with 15-20 maggots.  I couldn't believe it when my elastic started streaming out of my pole as I began to lower my rig in over, it was a chub around 8oz and had all 6 maggots down it's throat, it must have been hungry!  I re-fed all the lines again over and began to lower my rig, as soon as the float settled I had a little tiny dink and I was into an F1 around 1lb, it was solid!  But what happened next did my head in, again I had a bite straight away but this time it fell off as the maggot was overfolded, I re fed that line and went on another and 5 minutes later I hooked another one but that was foul hooked and fell off.  I then went 20 minutes without a bite on my 3 swims over so tried it down the side and straight away hooked into a decent fish which went nuts in my swim, it was another foul hooker around 2lbs and after 5 minutes of playing it, the fish tired and popped up around 8 metres down the canal, I gently shipped back and just went to get my landing net when it had a sudden burst of energy and again that fell off!  The next 2 goes in down the side I lost another 2 foul hookers, I promise I wasn't shouting or swearing though, I kept cool...yeah right, I had a proper case of tourettes!  After that 30 minutes of madness things started to settle back down and I managed to put a few fish together from catching a fish from each swim, i've written before about the importance of changing swims after each fish caught over and it was working a treat today.  After 3 hours I tried down the middle and caught 2 big skimmers around 1 1/2lbs each, I knew I would catch there later on so again I carried on feeding it until the last hour so by that time the fish would be really confident.  I reckoned i'd got around 10lbs going into that last hour before trying the middle again and it came alive, I had 7 F1's and another 2 skimmers putting another 10lb of fish in my net.  I ended up winning the match with 20lbs 10oz, I really didn't expect to do that well from the peg I was on and around me 4lb was the next best weight.  16lbs was 2nd and 3rd today  The swim down the middle paid off yet again and I was well chuffed with that result.

Wednesday 10th December. Blundells.

18 Fished.  

Again the lakes were frozen for the second week running so the waggler wouldn't come into play.  Before the start of the match I was speaking with Kieron about where we should go, he was sure that East would outfish any of the other lakes and that I should definitley go on there.  So I ended up choosing ash peg 47 again!  Why the hell I chose it I don't know as I drew fairly early and there were still pegs left on East, but I thought I would be able to get the ide feeding like last week and maybe do 20lb which would have been enough last week.  Errr, not today though after going 1 and a half hours without a bite, I finally caught an ide but went another hour without a bite, so I did a Mark Lucas and packed up.  All pegs were taken on East and they were all catching F1's.  It was a simple case of chosing wrong today, I knew I should have listened to Kieron!  I'm not sure what won as I was at home by the fire with a beer by the weigh in.  East for me next week...hmmm!

Saturday 6th December. Cudmore Fisheries.

53 fished.  

This was the first kamasan match I had fished since the summer and with only having 9 points at the moment I was hoping for a good draw.  I couldn't believe it when I pulled out not only the best peg on Suez but probably the best peg on the whole complex on the day in 24 on suez....wohoo!  I don't normally get over confident when drawing a good peg because I know what fishing can do to you in that it kicks you in the wotsits when you think you have it sussed!  I couldn't help it today though as I knew for a fact there would be fish there, probably from the fact that my peg had only cat ice which I could break with a top kit on my pole where as everyone else was chucking ice breakers in, none of that for me!  I set up just 2 rigs one for fishing over to the far bank reeds in 3 1/2 foot of water and one to fish down the middle in 6 1/2 foot of water.  I used a 4x10 mosella float for fishing over using 0.12 Ultima XT7 main line and 0.10 XT7 hooklength with a 16 B610 hook.  Down the middle I used a J range J8 4x10 float using 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.09 XT7 hooklength, again using a size 16 B610 hook, I used blue hydro for both rigs.  I just fished maggots on the hook today as I know everything swimming in here loves them and this time of year pellets are too selective for this water.  I started off by feeding just 2 red maggots on 3 different lines over, now that is hardly any bait but the fish live in these pegs and similiar to last week on Heronbrook I didn't have to worry about trying to draw the fish in.  Down the middle I fed 30-35 maggots and would continue to feed 15-20 every 20-30 minutes but I would leave it at least 2 to 2 1/2 hours before trying.  I had a long wait of 3 minutes before my first bite and after 15 minutes i'd had 5 F1's for around 8lbs, I was catching a fish unhooking it and going straight back over to feed the line where I had caught the fish from then coming straight back, baiting up and moving on to another swim.  This time of year it is much better to catch this way rather than to plunder one swim throughout the match, the fish have time to settle and gain confidence this way and you can usually keep a string of fish going in your net.  I had a quiet spell for around an hour and a half where I only caught 1 fish but I wasn't tempted to try down the middle as you simply have to restrain yourself from fishing it.  If you go on it too early you will catch fish but they won't settle and come the end of the match you will catch very little.  I have written on here before about sometimes having tried the middle line 4 or 5 times without even having a bite before trying it again 30 minutes from the end of the match and catching 20lbs, they can just turn up all of a sudden and you need to make the most of it that's why you need to let them build in confidence.  Conditions were absolutely perfect today and I literally had 1mm of bristle showing on both lines, I always overshot my floats slightly and use grease on the bristle just to bring it back through the surface tension, this way there is neutral bouyancy and the fish don't feel any resistance.  The bites I had today were so finicky that mose people would have shrugged them off as being line bites but believe me them little knocks or shakes you get on your float this time of year will be a proper bite and quite often the smaller the bite the bigger the fish.  I ended up trying the middle 2 times today before trying it again for a 3rd time 40 minutes from the end and the F1's had turned up at last.  I caught 12 in this time and put another 20lbs in my net, I ended up winning with 37lbs 12oz.  18lbs was second and 17lbs was 3rd.  I got another 4 points and also 400 beer tokens as it was the cudmore christmas match...wohooo, the wife might be getting a decent xmas pressie!

Wednesday 3rd December. Blundells.

15 fished.  

Well, there would be no waggler fishing for me today as all the waters were frozen solid so I would have to use an elasticated device!  John the owner at Blundells does a brilliant job in breaking the ice so we were able to fish no problems.  I decided on going on Ash pool as the ide in here are of a much better stamp than those in pine and I thought it would be a really hard match with maybe 20lbs being enough to win so I thought I could do that on ash.  I chose peg 47 and I managed to clear what was left of the ice upto 16 metres so I had plenty of water to go at.  I set up just 2 rigs one to fish at 14.5 and 16 metres where the depth was similiar and one to fish in the really deep water at 9 metres.  I had around 6 foot at 14.5 metres and used a 4x10 J range J8 float with 0.12 Ultima XT7 main line and 0.08 XT7 hooklength and used a drennan silver fish hook size 20.  For my other rig  which was around 9 foot deep I used a 4x12 float and exactly the same set up, both my top kits had no.6 elastic through the top 2.  Despite the ice it was a really nice sunny day, I still needed my bobby hat on though to protect my baldy heed!  I just fished maggots and fed 10-15 on both lines at the start of the match.  I would continue to feed the same amount every 15 minutes for the first 2 hours on my 9 metre line.  I started long and immediatley had a fish which was a bonus tench around around 1 1/2lbs, it was like an ice cube and hardly fought at all.  I managed to catch a few ide but they were not going mad so I tried catapulting a few maggots in to see if that would draw some fish in.  This worked for a bit but there wasn't lots of fish around and the fish I was catching were smaller than the normal stamp, typical!  I tried my 9 metre line after 2 1/2 hours and began to get signs immediatley, I lost my first 3 fish on this line which just fell off as I was bringing them in, you always lose ide fishing in this depth of water so that was something I had to put up with throughout the match.  Going into the last hour the ide were feeding well but they were still a small stamp of fish, I was also missing a few bites on the drop so I changed my feeding pattern by feeding more maggots and catching 2 fish rather than feeding every fish, this worked and I managed to catch 38 ide and a tench for 16lbs.  Normally that would have been well over 20lbs but for some reason I caught only small fish today.  I ended up coming 4th, with 20lbs winning, 18lb 2nd and 17lbs 3rd all from East.  I probably lost 3 or 4 pound of fish shipping back but there is not much you can do unfortunately that is down to the way these fish feed, at least I had a few bites on a really cold day.

Sunday 30th November. Heronbrook Winter League.

100 fished.  

Yet again John Turner drew me a good section peg in 32 on the Bridge pool.  There is a barbel hole on this peg so hopefully I would be on for a few fish.  We had a reasonable team draw apart from Alan Bruce on the new canal which had been fishing really hard but at least it would be the same for everyone on there, crap!  The only peg I was worried about today was peg 33 to my right as the peg has lots more room than mine being on a bend and also it had won the section almost every week with mine being 2nd or 3rd every week!  I set up just 2 rigs as conditions were freezing cold (didn't get above 1 degree all day) and the peg has one major feature in the barbel hole.  It was 6 1/2 foot deep right in the hole and was 2 foot by 2 foot wide, I was very confident of catching fish from here but also I knew foul hooking fish would be inevitable, especially as the fish wouldn't be hard feeding today in the cold conditions.  I used a 4x10 float 0.12 power match main line and 0.10 power match hooklength using a size 16 b610 hook and blue hydro elastic in the barbel hole and on my other line at 13 metres, 1 metre from the far bank I found a flat bottom in around 4 foot of water and this is where I had my other swim, again using the same set up.  On the all in I fed just 4 maggots in the hole and fed 10-15 maggots over which I would continue to feed every 30 mins and leave it for at least 2 hours.  The reason I fed so little in the barbel hole is because having caught them from similiar waters before I know that once they are in a peg where they live then they don't want hardly any feed this time of year, it's not like I needed to feed as the fish are resident and actually live in the peg so I didn't need to do anything to bring them into the swim.  I made sure I was directly over the hole with my rig and began to lower it in very slowly, taking at least 30-40 seconds to slowly lower the rig into place as I wanted to make sure I was in the hole, I set my float so that it was over shotted and I had to use grease to bring it back up just so I had 2mm of bristle showing.  I had a bite almost immediatley and I was into my first barbel, it fought well and was around 3lbs, next put in I hooked another but this was foul hooked and fell off after 2 minutes.  Again I foul hooked another next put in but managed to get this one after 5 minutes, another 3 pounder.  The bloke on my right was also catching carp and small f1's so every fish would be vital today.  I had a wait of around 15 minutes for my next bite which was another barbel this time around 2lbs and then lost 2 foul hooked barbel one after another before I landed a proper un around 4 1/2lbs, this fish went nuts and took at least 10 minutes to land.  I had around 12 - 13lbs in the net after an hour and next peg was still catching f1's steady.  I managed 1 more barbel but lost another 2 foul hooked fish but this line was beginning to dry up which they normally do as I had been fishing the peg none stop for 2 hours.  I don't normally like doing this much preffering to rest the swim, but with these kind of pegs you have to keep plugging away at them as I have found out from previous experience resting them very rarely works.  Ater 2 hours and having gone 20 mins without a bite I tried my swim over and began to catch small f1's, the really annoying thing about these fish though as most of you know is that they have a tendancy to fall off either just as you are about to net them or as you are shipping your pole back and that is exactly what was happening today, I tried changing to softer elastics and smaller/bigger hooks but nothing made a difference, it was very frustrating but I had to put up with it.  I managed to catch 15 f1s and 5 barbel, I lost 6 f1's bringing them back and also lost 6 or 7 other fish which were foul hooked.  I never had another bite in the hole for the rest of the match and just had to sit it out long where I was getting a few bites.  The guy next peg had caught more or less all day so I knew he had beat me.  I weighed in 29lbs 4oz and next peg weighed in 29lbs 11oz!  I thought he had lots more than that, any one of them f1's which fell off bringing them back would have won me the section today, never mind that is what winter fishing can be like, at least I had a few bites on a freezing cold day.  Our team won on the day with 6 points and we are now 3rd in the league on 81 points, 2 teams are joint first on 77 points and the team in 4th has 82 points so it will all be down to the last match next week.  I think barbed hooks are the way forward for me next week..!!!!

Wednesday 26th November. Blundells.

22 fished.  

It was very still and very cold today so waggler conditions would be perfect, although east pool looked good and the F1's in there are due to come on the feed at any moment now.  I still very much fancied pine or ash pool though as no matter what you are guaranteed bites from ide.  The wind was due to get up to only around 10-15 mph today but that would still be too strong to catapult casters over on the ash pool as it would be straight in your face once it eventually started blowing a bit.  I chose Pine pool peg 63 again.  I set a very light 1.25 gram drennan insert waggler up today as i've written about before you hit lots more bites as the fish don't feel the resistance the same, but normally conditions don't allow you to fish a float that light on here.  On the all in I began to feed 10-15 casters and used a single red maggot on the hook, bites came straight away and by winding into them instead of striking I was putting together a few fish and missing very few bites.  What I found out today was I had to constantly keep ringing the changes between the colour of the maggot and the depth, normally you can pretty much catch the fish at a set depth, but today they were very finicky and every 2 or 3 fish I would make a change to keep in touch with them.  Im sure its because the fish have seen everything in here before and have wised up.  The 2 other anglers on my lake were not catching so I felt I was in with a chance of doing well.  It hadn't been the best day I'd had today but I really enjoyed it as I had to work at catching the fish, they were not giving themselves up like they can sometimes.  I ended up winning the match with 72 ide for 34lbs, 27lbs was 2nd from ash pool and 21lbs was third from East. 

Sunday 23rd November. Heronbrook Winter League.

100 fished.

I don’t know what went wrong today but John drew some shocking pegs, mind you I was just grateful the team let me fish after my disaster last week, time to pull my finger out today!  He drew me Island peg 20 which was a very bad peg in the section, the last 2 winter league weights had been 7lbs and 9lbs on my peg and with the weather being terrible I really wasn’t looking forward to it.  When I got to my peg I had the corner of the island around 25 metres away right in front of me and it looked perfect for the waggler.  Luckily for me the wind was strong and off my back but for the anglers on the better pegs in my section it would be difficult for them as the island is 19 metres away so trying to hold a pole would be hard with the wind blowing left to right.  I set up a 1.75 gram drennan insert waggler using 0.16 Ultima Power Plus main line and 0.12 XT7 hooklength, the water was very clear and I could see my keepnet in 2 foot of water in front of me so it was going to be very hard.  I fished really light on the pole using a 4x10 J8 wire stem float with 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.08 xt7 hooklength to a size 16 B510 hook.  I fished just one line in the deepest water I had at 16 metres which was only around 5 foot, I fished maggots on both the pole and waggler lines.  On the all in I catapulted 15 to 20 maggots over on my waggler line and fed my pole line with the same amount, I continued to feed my pole line with 10-15 maggots every 20 minutes and I would leave it for at least 2 hours before I tried it.  The 2 anglers on pegs 14 and 15 to my left were first to catch using small maggot feeders, they had caught 2 or 3 f1’s each, everyone in my section was still blanking after an hour and as I thought about getting my feeder rod out my float dipped slightly, I gave it a whack and I was into my first fish which was an F1 around 2lbs, the very next cast I had another one the same size and then waited another 20 minutes for a bite which was a skimmer around 10 ounce.  Lots of people were already walking about as the weather was really bad.  After 2 hours I had a look on the pole line but gave it 5 minutes and decided I wouldn’t catch a fish on this line so I stopped fishing it altogether and went and got my feeder rod out of my holdall as the 2 anglers to my left were still catching the odd fish.  I set up a small drennan maggot feeder with an 18 inch tail of 0.14 xt7 using a size 18 barbless carp feeder hook with double dead red maggot on the hook.  I made sure I only put 10-12 maggots in the feeder as im sure the fish didn’t want lots of feed and I casted 1 metre off the island.  I was getting signs immediately and happened to look away for a second and when I looked back my rod was pointing in the lake and was bent at the reel handle, wohoo, fish on!  This was no F1 and I had to unclip as it charged off up the lake to my left, it made 3 long surging runs and actually swirled at the feet of the angler on peg 15!  After 15 minutes I managed to get the fish under some sort of control but it was obviously a big fish, hail and snow was falling and I could hardly feel my hands, I saw the fish 2 foot under the water and decided to scoop it, a mirror of 12lbs was safely in the net, that’ll do!  There was only 1 other angler in my section who had caught a fish so I would get good points with what I had caught already.  Im glad I set the feeder up as I caught another 8 F1’s over the next 90 minutes, the wind proved too strong for the waggler and the fish wanted the bait nailed on the bottom but there was no fish at all in open water.  I ended up winning the section with 28lbs 10oz, 3lb 12oz was second in the section followed by 5 blanks, the wind had been in my favour today and I actually enjoyed the fishing.  Our team again did well and we are now in joint 4th place with 2 rounds left only 9 points behind 1st place so it is still all to play for.

Wednesday 19th November. Blundells.

30 fished.

It seemed as though everyone had a day off work today as it was like a weekend attendance at the draw!  After a quick walk around, again Pine pool looked favourite as although the wind was very strong it was blowing off your back so waggler conditions would be good.  I chose peg 63 (again) and I had anglers either side of me today so I wasn’t expecting the fishing to be brilliant but I thought 30-35 pounds would be a realistic weight!  I used a 1.5 gram drennan insert waggler to start with but if that wind changed I had a 1.75 gram to cast through the wind.  I also set up a pole rig to fish shallow.  I started off on the waggler and caught 3 ide almost immediately and then began to miss bites, I tried winding into them but still I was missing them, you always miss plenty of bites on here but today they were proving very difficult.  I managed 2 small carp over the next hour but the ide by now just were not feeding, carp were rolling all along the lake so I tried fishing for them by fishing over depth and using double red maggot or corn on the hook.  I caught 3 more carp but they were only around 2lb, the anglers either side of me had only caught 2 ide each, it was fishing very hard today so every fish would be vital.  I tried the pole but never had a bite on that so I just remained on the waggler for the rest of the match.  I couldn’t get a bite anywhere, I had never experienced the fishing like this on here before, the ide just were not feeding after that initial first hour when there was a few bites to be had, carp were still rolling and im sure they were the reason the ide were being put off.  I think the carp were swimming through the peg and the ide just wouldn’t settle, every now and then a carp would decide to eat my hookbait but they were too few and far between.  It turned out to be a very frustrating day as you could see the fish were in the swim but catching them was a different matter.  I ended up coming 4th with just 24lbs, Alan Metcalfe fished brilliantly on the end peg 59 to win with 31lbs and there were two 27lbs.  

Sunday 16th November. Heronbrook Winter League.

100 pegs.

I think I will get John Turner to draw for me every week as he is getting as good as Dave Swain!  He drew me a peg which was 3 pegs away from where I was last week in 30 on meadow, I was well happy with that as I knew there was fish in the area.  I had young Connor Barlow for company to my right on peg 32 and Craig Ebbrell was on the peg I was on last week in 27.  My peg was very narrow only 12.5 metres to the far bank so I decided on fishing 14.5 metres down to my left in front of peg 29 so I could give myself more room, again I set the bread rig up and also a pellet rig to fish in 2 ½ foot of water 2 foot off the far bank and lastly I set a rig up to fish down the middle in 5 foot of water.  The fish I caught last week were very small but I know they normally average a lot bigger so I used 0.12 hooklength as I wanted to make sure I got everything I hooked out (It seemed right at the time, all will be revealed)!  On the all in I fed a few micros over into 3 separate lines which had the same depth and fed 30-40 maggots down the middle, I would leave this line for at least 1 ½ hours but continue to feed it with 20-25 maggots every 15-20 minutes.  First drop in over I missed a bite and then foul hooked a carp which fell off, next go in again I foul hooked a carp which fell off, I changed the depth slightly but again next put in I lost another foul hooker, this was going to be one of those days!  I changed rigs and tried with bread set around 8 inches off the bottom over my pellet lines, the float buried and out came 4 foot of white hydro which was swaying from side to side like there was an eel attached, again it was another foul hooker which, yep fell off!  After an hour id lost 6 foul hooked carp and hadn’t had a fish, people around me were beginning to catch so I had to try something.  I decided on changing to a softer blue hydro and a bigger size 16 b911 hook, the reason being although the white hydro I was using is set very soft, blue is softer and I would just take my time also with a bigger hook I might stand a chance of getting a better hook hold, also the hook will still fish a small 4mm pellet without being exposed.  This again didn’t do the trick and it was now 8-0 to the carp.  Time to try down the middle.  First drop in and immediately my float buried, at last I had one in the mouth around 6lbs, 8-1 I was catching up!  Half way into the match id only had that one fish; I was always confident of catching a few more but also knew I would be foul hooking more aswell.  I continued to re-feed all my lines and was still getting bites, I managed to get a foul hooker in around 5lbs which took a good 10 minutes but I’d also lost another 2!  Going into the last hour the score was 10-2, I decided on staying down the middle and it came alive, I managed to catch 3 one after another with only 1 of them being hooked in the mouth but also lost another 4 foul hookers, it was a rugby score in the end with the carp winning 14-5,  Id had an absolute nightmare and honestly believed id tried everything to try and tempt the carp into feeding but this was certainly one of those days and asking around everyone had lost fish.  I ended up coming 3rd in my section with 27lbs.  Connor fished very well and came 2nd in the section with 35lbs and 51lbs won the section from the same peg as last week in 34!  Our team again won on the day with 7 points and I will have to find out if the team still want me to fish next week after yesterday!

Wednesday 12th November. Blundells

16 Fished.

Having had a walk round the lakes to see how strong the wind was it looked as though pine pool would be the best lake to choose to fish the waggler.  The ide are much smaller in this lake averaging 3 to the pound where as in ash they are 2 to the pound but the wind was completely wrong to fish the ash pool.  Luckily I drew quite early and chose peg 63 on Pine, a peg I have fished a few times before.  The wind was coming over my left shoulder which would be perfect for fishing the waggler.  I set up just one rod using 0.17 power steel main line and 0.12 Ultima Power Match hooklength to a size 16 B610 hook, the only thing I would keep changing apart from the depth would be the size of waggler, anything from a 1.75 gram down to a 1.25 if conditions went really calm.  On the all in I catapulted 30-40 casters right over and started with a single red maggot on the hook.  It took me 15 minutes to get my first bite and I was well behind by this time as the angler on my right had caught 4 ide and a small carp.  Eventually after 20 minutes I hooked my first fish, a carp which fell off just as I was about to net it!  Next cast and I was into my first ide, the wind decided to change after half an hour and it made fishing the waggler difficult so I started to loose feed a few casters around 9 metres out as I would have to set the pole up.  After an hour I had the pole set up with a rig to fish 3 foot deep in 9 foot of water, I began to catch immediately and I also carried on feeding my waggler line as I was confident the wind would change direction again.  Half way into the match I reckoned I had got around 30 ide, nobody was catching well so I just had to stick at it, the best way of catching them on the pole was to catch 2 then try further out and try to catch another 2 but remain feeding at your original distance, this worked well for a while but they soon backed right off and it was a case of going back on the waggler.  By this time the wind had dropped off altogether so I changed to a light 1.25 gram waggler and began to catch an ide almost every cast, I could only hit the bites by winding into them, if I struck like normal I wouldn’t connect but by keeping a tight line I hooked lots more.  It wasn’t the best day I’ve had on the ide as they were very finicky for some reason today, I still think it’s because of the colour in the water and also the bright conditions today didn’t help. I caught alot more fish than last week and went one better in winning with 39lb 12oz.  29lb was second from ash and there was another 29lb for third on pine.

Sunday 9th November. Heronbrook Winter League. All Lakes

100 pegs.

I had missed the first 3 rounds of this series due to being on honeymoon and I was really looking forward to fishing.  Our team consists of Me, James DeClouet, John Turner and Alan Bruce.  Seeing how my last two matches had gone I needed a confidence boost today and was hoping for a draw on meadow or bridge pools.  John drew some good team pegs and drew me peg 27 on meadow, not a brilliant peg but definitely worth a few fish but I would be up against pegs 15, 17 and 19 which had been fishing very well of late.  I set up a bread rig to fish 1 metre off the far bank in 2 ½ foot of water, I used a Scone float 0.12 Ultima XT7 straight through to a size 16 B911 hook and white hydro, I set up a rig to fish just down the slope in 3 ½ foot of water using a 4x10 float 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.10 XT7 hooklength to a size 18 B911 hook again with white hydro I fished 4mm expander pellets over micros on this line and my final rig was to fish down the middle at 8 metres in 5 foot of water, this would be my main swim and I was really confident of catching a few from it.  I used a 4x10 wire stem float 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.10 XT7 hooklength to a size 16 B610 hook and blue hydro.  I started by feeding very sparingly with micro pellets over and introduced 35-40 maggots down the middle and I would continue to feed 20-25 maggots every 10 -15 minutes but would leave the swim at least 1 ½ hours before I tried it to get the fish nice and confident.  I had an F1 first go in on pellets but then went 20 minutes without a bite.  I had a try on bread using a 10mm punch.  This method catches lots of fish at this venue but you have to have patience with it as you don’t feed anything and simply keep lifting and dropping the rig into a few swims.  Personally I hate this way of fishing as it is far too negative and I like to feed, but its one of them things you have to try. I had a few bites but I think they were just liners, so after 20 minutes I went back on pellets.  I managed to catch another 2 F1’s and lost a foul hooked mirror.  Bites were very few and far between at the moment and I could see everyone who was catching were fishing down the middle but it was still a bit early I thought so left it another 30 minutes.  After 1 ½ hours I had 3 f1’s in the net and was well behind, time to try down the middle.  As I was lowering my rig in waiting for it to settle blue hydro suddenly started streaming out of my pole, it was an F1 around 2lbs, next put in I had another F1 around 1lb.  There were definitely a few fish to be caught but I didn’t want to catch too many as I could ruin the swim altogether so what I decided on doing was fish it in 30 minutes spells up until the last hour when I would stay on it.  Fishing a swim this way really helps and keeps fish in your swim a lot longer but you have to be strict on yourself as it is so tempting to carry on but I have been in this situation before and it is much better to keep resting the swim.  I was also getting a few bites fishing pellets over as well.  I had no big fish only fish averaging 1 to 2lbs; normally the mirrors in here are 4 to 5lb on average.  Going into the last hour I thought I had 30lbs but knew I would catch a few more down the middle as I had rested it, for the last hour it was solid and I really enjoyed it, the fish really wanted feeding and most of the fish I had were being unhooked with a discorger so they were feeding very confidently.  I ended up with 51lb 12oz and won my section, unfortunately I just missed out on 4th by a few ounces but I was more then happy with 5th overall from the peg I was on.  63lbs won the match and there were two 58lbs, I just needed the fish to be a bit bigger but it was brilliant fishing and I can’t wait for the next round.  Our team won on the day with 7 points and have moved up the leaderboard.

Saturday 8th November. Cudmore Fisheries. New Pools

35 pegs.

Having fished the new pools during the week and caught a few, I was looking forward to it, unless I drew any end peg!  So in went my hand and out came end peg 63 on Pool 3, rubbish!  I knew I should have got back in my car and drove home but gave it a try anyway as in fishing you just never know, yeah right!  I first set up the feeder using 0.20 Power Plus mainline and 0.16 XT7 hooklength using a size 18 barbless carp feeder hook with hair rigged corn as bait.  Next I set up a pole rig to fish at 14.5 metres in 6 foot of water, I used a very light 4x10 float as the wind wasn’t very strong and I wanted to make sure I connected with every bite I had, using a light float in deeper water is much better if conditions are right as the fish will hardly feel any resistance and will feed confidently.  I used 0.14 Power Match main line and 0.10 Power Match hooklength and used a size 18 B911 hook, my hookbait was a 4mm expander pellet and I would feed Micros and 2 or 3 grains of corn.  On the all in I cast 6 metres off the far bank reeds in 3 ½ foot of water, sat back and waited...and waited!  After 40 minutes my tip shot round and I was into an F1 around 2lbs.  An hour later it was time to try the pole line which I had been feeding every 15 minutes.  First go in and I had a specimen sized gudgeon getting on for 3 ounces, it was massive, one of them a chuck would be nice but the shoal didn’t settle and I waited half an hour for my next bite which was another F1 around 1lb.  After 2 and a half hours I’d had 3 bites and was set to pack up before I had 2 F1’s in as many drops in so I decided on sticking it out a bit longer but I never had another bite for the rest of the match.  I had around 6 or 7lbs and decided not to weigh in as there were a few mirrors caught further up the lake.  68lbs won the match from pool 1.

Thursday 6th November. Brookside

26 fished.

Another place I hadn’t fished for a while was Brookside and conditions were perfect today (or so I thought).  I drew the same peg that Paul Jones won from the previous weekend in 14 on the front snake, it was only shallow averaging 3 foot everywhere but there were a few fish topping so my confidence was high.  I set up 3 rigs one to fish shallow right over against some pampas grass at 16 metres, one to fish at 13 metres just going up the slope in 2 ½  foot of water and another to fish at 9 metres down the track in 4 foot of water.  Last time I fished here back in July there had been an explosion of gudgeon but speaking to people they didn’t seem to be that much of a problem anymore...hmmm!  I had maggots, casters, pellets and some corn with me just incase them gudgeon were still a nuisance!  On the all in I fed all my lines and began to loose feed 6-8 casters every 1-2 minutes over.  First drop in on my 13 metre line and my float buried, yep it was a gudgeon about as big as half my little finger, next go in I had another gudgeon so then changed from pellet to corn.  My float just wouldn’t stay still as those little gudgeon were pecking at the corn but eventually after 10 minutes I had an F1.  Ken Bennett to my left on 17 had caught 6 or 7 F1’s by this time on pellets and wasn’t getting bothered by gudgeon at all, that’s because they were all in my swim!  During the next hour I tried all my lines and I was still catching gudgeon everywhere, I decided on sitting it out on corn but waited 15 minutes for a bite and they were still gudgeon, I did manage 1 more F1 before deciding to pack up after 2 hours with neck ache watching Ken catch, I probably would have caught a few in the last hour but the thought of sitting it out and waiting wasn’t appealing to me at all so I gave up, yes I know im just a big failure!

Wednesday 5th November. Blundells

25 fished.

Having not fished for 3 weeks (due to the small matter of getting married)!, I was getting really giddy about fishing and couldn’t wait to get back catching fish.  I hadn’t fished Blundells since the summer so I was really looking forward to it.  I spoke to my mate Kieron first who put me right on where to go as I had been away for so long and the weather had changed completely.  He advised on either Ash or Pine pools, so a quick look at the wind direction and it would be perfect for waggler fishing on Ash.  I was 4th choice to pick and luckily no one had chosen Ash yet so I opted for peg 51.  I set up the waggler using 0.17 Ultima Power Steel main line to 0.12 Power Match hooklength and used a size 16 B610 hook, my float was a 1.5 gram drennan loaded insert.  I would fish this 3 metres off the far bank in around 5 to 6 foot of water and constantly change depth to keep in touch with the ide.  I also set up one pole rig to fish 3 foot in 9 foot of water for later on in the match when the ide would hopefully be nice and confident.  On the all in I catapulted some casters over and began to loose feed my pole line at 9 to 10 metres with 10 to 15 casters.  It took me 10 minutes to get my first bite which was an ide around 10oz and they then came in 3s or 4s throughout the day, it wasn’t solid like it normally can be and I think this is down to the fact there is still quite a bit of colour in the water and as ide are predatory fish they hunt on site and I can remember last year that the ide fed much better when the water was clear.  I caught well on the pole in the last hour and also had a bream around 3lbs, what the hell that was doing 3 foot deep in cold conditions I don’t know but it was a welcome bonus.  My shallow pole rig consisted of a 4x8 colmic jolly float 0.12 XT7 main line and 0.09 XT7 hooklength to a size 16 B610 hook, I used 6’s preston slip elastic.  My shotting pattern was evenly spread no.12 shots and the most important thing was the backshots I used 3 no.8’s, you hit so many more bites using backshots it really does make a big difference, especially for fast biting fish.  I ended up coming 2nd with 43lbs 8oz; Tony Green won from pine, again catching all ide weighing 48lbs, 31lbs was 3rd.  I really enjoyed it today and can’t wait for next week.

October.

ANDY ABSENT

Andy has been more than a bit quite in October - reason being, he went off to the Caribbean and got married!!!

Congratulations from everyone at ULTIMA and our very best wishes for a wonderful life together ( we just hope he is allowed out now and again so he can continue his excellent blog on his return)

Any one wanting to send personal messages of congratulation should do so to andy@fishingcoaching.co.uk

Saturday 27th September. Cudmore Fisheries. New Pools

51 fished

Having been coaching on the new pools all week I knew how well they were fishing and was hoping for a draw on pool 2 anywhere from peg 42 to 48 or pool 1 pegs 5 to 17.  Both pools have been fishing really well on the method all week and with the match being single banked today it would be my first choice.  I drew pool 2 peg 46 and was well happy with that, the only slight worry I had was that the pegging was 2 and miss one on pool 2 and pool 1 but every other peg on the other pools.  This was because pools 1 and 2 had been fishing best but I know from experience that the smallest pool which is pool 2 does not fish very well under pressure but as I would be fishing the method I wasn’t put off too much.  I arrived at my peg and immediately mixed my ground bait up consisting of 1 bag of Cudmore’s crushed pellet and ¼ bag of micros mixed in also.  During the summer months it was much better to use micros round the method feeder but as it comes colder I have found groundbait with a few micros to be much better as it doesn’t fill the fish up as much.  I set up one rod using 0.22 power plus main line and had 2 kobra 25 gram method feeders on the go using a 4 inch hook length of 0.20 power match and a size 16 Drennan barbless carp feeder hook, my bait was hair rigged meat.  I also set up just one pole rig to fish shallow as it was a very hot and calm day but I didn’t see many fish moving, I had to set it up though just incase!  On the all in I cast out the method and feed my pole line heavily with micros and began to loose feed ten to twelve 4mm pellets every 30 seconds to a minute.  10 minutes after the start I had my first bite and shortly after a 4lb mirror was in the net.  I had to wait another 10 minutes for another fish and then caught 3 fish in as many casts within 10 minutes before things dried up again.  Most bites today were coming from leaving the method in around 10 to 15 minutes, normally I like to recast every 5 minutes this time of year but I had to change tactics early on as the fish were not feeding as confident as they had been.  I tried the pole shallow after 2 ½ hours but never had a bite so carried on feeding for another hour before I would try it again.  After a few phone calls to various people on the other new pools it was obvious the fish were proving difficult to tempt.  40-50lb was a good weight and I thought I would be close to that.  Another hour passed by and I had caught another 8 fish on the method before resting the swim again and trying shallow.  Again I never had a bite so with 2 hours of the match remaining I decided on just sticking with the method.  I was using 2 method feeders today as it is so much quicker to have a feeder ready to cast out whilst you bring one back in, it’s just a case of unclipping your snap link swivel and connecting the one baited up as apposed to leaving it attached and baiting up again.  Things increased during the last hour as the fish really went on the feed.  I managed to catch 28 fish in the end and came joint first overall with 87lbs 8oz.  The fish in here are much smaller than the other lakes but I really enjoyed it and the weather was brilliant, not ideal fishing conditions but it really suited the method.  Roll on next week!

Saturday 20th September. Heronbrook Superleague.

70 fished

I was asked to stand in for Drennan Northwest in this match as a few of their anglers were away fishing in Ireland.  Heronbrook has been fishing quite well lately and with us being spread over all the fishery there should be some fish caught.  What I wasn’t contemplating was the weather, it was an absolute scorching day for this time of year with no wind at all and no cloud cover so that would play a role as to how the fish would feed.  I was drawn on the only section on Meadow pool. Our section was from peg 45 to 57 and I was bang in the middle on 51.  I wasn’t happy at all with my draw as the end peg to my right in 57 has been winning lots of matches lately so it would be very hard to beat.  Also the other end peg to my left had a further 3 spare pegs to his left so there was lots of room for him (lucky sod).  All the rest of the meadow pool was taken up by a club match so the water was under a lot of pressure and I knew it would be very difficult to get good section points from where I was.  I don’t always like fishing the way I would today in that I had 6 swims on the go all the time, normally I would have 3 or 4 max but because it was a team match I just had to keep my options open and not fish to win the match!  I set up 2 rigs to fish over, one which was 0.12 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 16 B911 hook and grey hydro and fished against the bank in 2 foot of water, the other was to fish a metre short in 3 ½ foot of water, again on 0.12 Power Match straight through to a size 16 B911 hook and grey hydro.  I set up 2 rigs to fish down the middle both where set on white hydro, my main rig was a 4x10 wire stem J range J8 float to fish in 6 foot of water at 7 metres fishing just at the bottom of the far shelf. I used 0.14 Power Match main line and 0.12 Ultima XT7 hooklength to a size 16 B610 hook, the other rig was exactly the same except it was a 4x12 float just incase a bit of wind got up.  I also set up a rig to fish down the margin at the bottom of the near shelf in 4 foot of water and used 0.14 Power Match straight through to a size 16 pr29 hook using grey hydro and a 0.2 gram Scone double deez float, my last rig was of course to fish shallow just incase they started coming up in the water in the warm weather.  I had 3 swims over so that once I caught a fish I could feed that swim then move to another swim, this tactic works really well on here as the fish are spooky and you very rarely catch all your fish in just one swim right over, it is much better to catch a fish, re-feed and try somewhere else and keep alternating like that.  I had one swim down the middle and 2 more swims either side of me down the sides at 4 metres.  On the all in I started off by feeding my lines across, then came and fed the middle with 35-40 maggots and finally I fed 8 - 10 bits of meat either side of me.  I fished 4mm expander pellets over micros over and immediately I was into a mirror around 5lbs, looking round everyone else was also into a fish.  10 minutes later I was into my second fish which was a mirror around 4lbs, I could see everyone in my section and we all had 2 fish in pretty much the same amount of time, then we all had to endure a good 2 hours of the match completely biteless.  I’ve never known anything like it before we all went from getting signs to just nothing at all.  During this time I tried all my other lines, I left the middle 1 hour 20 minutes before I tried it and was feeding 15-20 red and white maggots every 10-15 minutes before I tried it and never had a bite, I tried a metre off the far bank and again never had a bite and also tried down the side after 2 and a half hours during which time I had been feeding 5-6 pieces of meat every 10-15 minutes and again never had a bite.  What you must not do in this situation is to just stop feeding all your lines, you simply must carry on and have confidence that the fish will turn up, I went 3 hours during the middle of the match without a bite and I was always confident of catching more fish later on, you have to stick at it and remain with the same regime of feeding.  With an hour to go I noticed the two end pegs started to catch a few fish and slowly but surely the fish made there way up the canal, once they began to get bites either side of me it gave me confidence to try my meat line close in again where no one else had been feeding.  I caught a mirror around 8lbs straight away re-fed where I had caught it and changed sides and was into another one almost as soon as the bait had settled, it was another decent fish around 6lbs, a few more of them and I would be well up in the section.  I went another 15 minutes without a bite so tried over and immediately caught 2 more mirrors and a golden tench around 1lb.  With just 15 minutes left I rested the swims over but made sure I fed them as I was confident of catching another couple of fish before all out. I tried down the sides again but didn’t have a bite so with 10 minutes left I went over and straight away caught an F1 around 2lbs, with just 5 minutes left I hooked into a mirror which I netted just after all out around 5lbs.  It had fished really hard today and had I fished as I normally would have I probably wouldn’t have caught as many (I would have packed up!) but I really worked hard and came 2nd in the section with a level 40lbs, Geoff Wyatt on the end peg won the section and the match with 62lbs, the other end peg had 31lbs which was 3rd in the section.  Our team came second on the day by just one point!

Saturday 13th September. Cudmore Fisheries.

25 fished

I haven’t fished the new pools in a match for a while but having been doing plenty of coaching on them and I knew how well they were fishing.  With only 25 fishing today there would be plenty of room and I thought it would take well over 100lb to win it (how wrong I was)!  I was all set for a match fishing the method right over into the far bank net hole as it would be single banked today.  I drew a fairly good peg in 92 on pool 3 and fancied it for a good weight as peg 70 opposite is a very good peg.  I set up a feeder rod and used 0.22 Ultima Power Plus main line to a 4 inch 0.20 Ultima Power Match hook length and used a size 16 drennan carp feeder hook with hair rigged meat as bait.  I used a 25 gram kobra feeder with black hydro through the middle.  I also set up 2 pole rigs, one to fish shallow as it was quite hot but also fairly windy and fish were bow waving around everywhere, and the other to fish in 18 inches of water down the margins.  I would feed meat down the margins and catapult 4mm pellets on my shallow line.  My method mix combined 1 bag of crushed pellet and half a bag of micros already soaked.  On the all in I potted in 4 large drennan cups full of micro pellets on my 14.5 metre line and would continue to feed 10-12 4mm pellets every 30 seconds for at least the first hour.  I then cast a large kamasan open end feeder right over on my method line and repeated this 10 times to get a big bed of feed down.  Out went the method and I fully expected my rod to get pulled in within 5 minutes.  Thirty minutes later and I hadn’t had a bite, ooops I think I might of over fed it.  After an hour I still hadn’t had a bite so tried the pole line shallow.  Eventually after 1 hour 20 minutes I had my first bite which was an F1 around 2lbs, looking round I couldn’t see anyone catching and a phone call to my Dad revealed that pool 1 was fishing hard too.  Fish were swimming round all over the pool in groups and trying to catch them was proving very difficult.  I managed another 2 fish before I went 30 minutes without a bite so tried the method again.  Another bite less 15 minutes later I tried down the margins and again I couldn’t get a bite here so I tried something different.  I wanted to set a waggler up and cast the bait in front of the fish which were cruising but the wind would be a problem so instead I set up a rig using 4 foot of line and a tiny Scone ‘Well ardz’ float which took no shot and set it at 8 inches deep.  This never normally works on any of these new pools but I had to try something.  I was still feeding every 30 seconds on my original line and fish were blowing in the area so there were definitely fish around.  First go on this new rig and I dropped the rig in front of 3 cruising fish and one of them took it and when hooked it went nuts darting around the pool and scaring loads of fish.  It turned out to be a mirror around 10lbs and it only looked a small fish in the water!.  After I had dropped that in the net I saw another passing fish just 4 metres out so again I placed my 4mm banded pellet in front of its nose and again my float went straight under, it was another big fish around 8lb.  I caught another 2 fish on this over the next 20 minutes before trying my proper shallow line for the last hour.  The rest I had given them really payed off and I managed 15 mirrors in the last hour.  I ended up winning the match with 87lbs.  I really hadn’t expected it to fish so hard and im glad I decided on setting up that flick rig so I could rest my shallow line further to gain the fishes confidence.

Saturday 6th September.
Division 1 National River Huntspill and Kings Sedgemoor Drain.

63 teams of 10 anglers.

I look forward to fishing the national every year and for the last 8 years I have fished for ‘Last Cast AS’. We have actually been promoted the last 3 years and we were all looking forward to this year as we had assembled quite a strong team. As always the most important thing was to make sure the hotel we were stopping in was close to a pub so with that all sorted the next thing was to make sure we all woke up on time the next morning! It was like a who’s who of fishing at the draw and I saw people I hadn’t seen for years which was nice. The talk was that the match would be won on J or K sections on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain so a draw on there would be nice. As the pegs were being dished out me and my Dad had drawn on J and K sections and as luck would have it (or not in my case as will be revealed) them 2 sections were closest to the draw so we could both get to our pegs in plenty of time, hmmm! On arriving at my section the guide had said that parking would be for pegs 21 to 63 so I thought I would have a nice easy stroll as I was on peg 25 and I thought the first peg would be 21, but oh no as I got on the drain I had to walk 10 pegs just to get to peg 63, and my peg was only a mile and a half walk! The fact that I didn’t have a trolley really didn’t help and I was in agony by the time I reached peg 50, I had loads of gear with me for all eventualities and also loads of groundbait as I was told there could be bream around where I was. I had to borrow a trolley from Paul Andrews fishing for Birkenhead which was a lifesaver. I set off for my peg at 8.50 and I arrived at my peg at 10.00am, I don’t think I would have made it without a trolley, and there were still people past me! On eventually getting to my peg it actually looked quite well and a local told me there was definitely bream to be caught and the odd big tench, perch and eels. Team tactics are simple for us, beer + no practice + sorting your peg on arrival = best results, so with that in mind it looked perfect for the waggler, I also set up the feeder and 3 pole rigs, 2 pole rigs to fish in 10 foot of water, one was a gram rig to run through at pace and the other was a 3 gram lollipop to run through and hold back for bigger fish. I also set up a short pole rig to fish 6 metres down my peg for bonus perch. I mixed up 8 kilos of groundbait for the pole comprising of 5 parts match blend and 3 parts magic and 3 kilos of fishmeal with a few micro pellets for the feeder. The match started at 11.00am and at 11.10am I was ready. I balled in 14 oranges on the 13 metre pole line using up 5 kilos of groundbait filled with casters and dead red maggots and also cast the feeder 2/3rds of the way across 10 times with worms and casters in. At 11.25am I had my first cast with bait on and immediately had a tiny perch using a red worm tipped with a red maggot, next cast I had a small rudd on the drop and the same thing happened again. I stayed on the feeder until 12.00 and then had a go on the waggler, casting a 2 gramme drennan loaded insert 35 metres across to the far bank of the drain, I had 3 or 4 rudd quite quickly before I went 5 casts without a bite. I then tried the pole and began to catch tiny perch and the odd roach. At around 1.30pm I just happened to look round and all my gear was nearly under water, the drain had come up 1 foot without me realising, im sure I didn’t have that much to drink! I made sure all of my gear was out of the water and re-plumbed the depth, the drain also started to tow quite strong so out came the lollipop rig, I re fed with 3 large balls of groundbait and casters just to make sure there was still some bait in the swim and began to inch my float through, still all I could catch were tiny perch and odd roach so I tried a full worm to see if I could tempt a large fish. I began by holding my rig back and just as I had started to inch it through my float dipped and I struck into solid resistance, I honestly thought I had hooked the bottom as I was fishing a good foot overdepth, but the bottom decided to move and my pole began shaking violently, I knew straight away that this was a big eel so I made sure I played it out in the flow as I had reeds close in were it could try and snag me. After 5 minutes im not sure who was winning I had only moved the eel 2 foot of the bottom but bit by bit I was starting to gain the advantage, I could see the fish under the water and it looked a big-un and when it’s head came out I could see the worm in its top lip, please stay on! I managed to break down to my top 5 and after 10 minutes the eel was tired but I still had to get the thing in my net and it’s not an easy task when the fish is 2 ? foot long, I must of had 6 or 7 attempts and 2 of the times the eel jumped out of my net but eventually I got it, what a bonus! After that I chopped up some more worms and went in with 3 bait droppers full of worm and casters to try and catch some more but none turned up. I weighed in 1kilo 940 grams and finished with 39 points out of 63, not brilliant but not bad, that eel weighed in 1 kilo 300 grams and really got me out of jail. 6 kilo odd won the section from 3 pegs to my left, he had 3 bream. At least I had the walk back to look forward to now without all the groundbait. I was surprised to see my Dad walking up to meet me half way into my walk, he told me that he parked behind his peg and didn’t know what I was whingeing about! Our team finished a creditable 22nd out of the 63 teams which for our first time in the 1st division was a good result. Well done to Starlets for winning it on the day.

Wednesday 27th August. UK champs final round. Woodlands View.

80 fished.

Going into this match I was lying in joint 14th position on 23 points so was hoping for a good result today to get in the top 12 and the main money. Last year I finished on 30 points and finished in 12th place so was hoping to beat that this year. I was actually in more or less the same position as last year in that I needed a decent result on the last match to make sure I finished in the top 12 but I had a disaster on the last day last year and drew peg 27 on Arles pool and took completely the wrong bait with me in worms and casters and only beat 2 people. Well luck again was not on my side and I drew 3 pegs away on peg 24 on the same pool this time, I couldn’t believe it but sometimes this is how fishing goes and this year I had hopefully learned from my mistakes last year. I was a little more confident than last year as Andy Moors had won the section off the same peg just fishing pellets long so that is how I would fish it. I took with me my limit of 2 bags of pellets and a bag of expanders and also 2 pints of casters and half a kilo of worms to fish worms and casters through a maggot feeder tight against the far bank. This can be a really good way of fishing when groundbait is banned on a water, either use drennan feeders with the weight at the bottom or my preferred choice are kamasan black cap feeders, simply open the holes up with some scissors and the bait will come out every time. I also set up 3 pole rigs, 2 to fish at 14.5 metres up and down and one to fish at 6 metres just going down the first ledge. I would just feed pellets on the pole line, catapulting hard 6mm pellets and using a 6mm expander on the hook. Normally I would use worm and casters but I know from my previous experience last year on here that this bait was not right. I had a quick word with Andy Moors and he put me right on where to fish the peg and how he fed it. On the long pole rig deep I used 0.16 power match main line to 0.14 power match hooklength and a size 16 b911 hook, I was fishing in around 6 foot of water and used a 4x14 float with 3x no.11 droppers and a bulk of no.9 shot 20 inches from the hook. I also set up a shallow rig on this long line in case the fish came up in the water (please come shallow). My last rig was fished at 6 metres and I used 0.16 power match straight through to a size 16 b911 hook and I would just feed 4 or 5 hard 6mm pellets here throughout the match. All pole rigs comprised grey hydro elastic. On my feeder rig I used 0.22 power plus main line and 0.18 power match hooklength to a size 16 barbless carp feeder hook and tied it via a knotless knot, I used a worms head as hookbait on this and had a 16 inch hooklength with my feeder attached via a small drennan swivel so the feeder was free running. On the all in I cupped in around 30 pellets on my 14.5 metre line and also fed the same at 6 metres, I then began to loose feed both lines every 1 to 2 minutes. I had 3 quick casts on my feeder to get some bait in and then put my hooklength on, first cast and my feeder didn’t settle as an F1 around 1 1/2 lbs took my worm immediately. Next cast I waited 2 minutes before an angry 6lb common tried its best to snag me in a tree to my left but I managed to pull it away and 3 minutes later it was going nuts in my landing net, wohoo what a start, next cast though I chucked it into a tree and lost the lot! That tree wasn’t there before where the heck had it come from! I quickly set up again and caught another F1 the very next cast before I went 20 minutes without a fish. I decided on re-feeding the peg so cast out 4 times in quick succession and tried the long pole line. There were bubbles coming up so I knew there were fish in the swim and I had an F1 first put in, I was getting a lot of false bites though so set about trying it shallow but only managed 2 F1’s in 20 minutes of trying it. I came in and tried the short line but could only manage a few small skimmers. I could see people in my section to my left catching quite well so I was well behind by now. Back on the feeder and I caught another 2 F1’s before I hooked into a big fish which snagged me somewhere in the next peg, again I lost the lot but set it up again but never caught another fish on it! I alternated between fishing deep and shallow for the rest of the match just nicking odd fish and managed an 8lb carp the very last cast but I knew I would be well down in my section. I ended up with 39lbs 10oz and beat only one person and that’s only because he didn’t weigh in! That big fish which snagged me had cost me a place in the top 12 this year as 29 points finished in 12th place and my section was quite close with just 10lbs separating 2nd to me in 9th position. A big well done to the eventual winner Paul Coyle who fished superbly all through the rounds to win the event, and the 4 thousand beer tokens and the silver trophy. It’s the first time he has fished the event and to win amongst some of the biggest names in match fishing was brilliant!

Saturday 23rd August ACA masters. Glebe Fishery.

13 teams of 6.

I always make sure I fish this very worthwhile event every year. This year I again fished for Total Fishing and was hoping for a decent draw again as last year Neil ‘Hillbilly’ Powell drew me a flyer on the end peg on the ‘boards’ on the uglies lake and I ended up coming 3rd overall with 176lb odd. Again Neil didn’t disappoint me with his impression of Tony Hart at the drawbag! He drew me peg 66 which was another end peg this time on pool 4, wohoo (I should of had him draw for me in the fisho final)! When I got to my peg it looked solid with fish everywhere and Roy Marlow said I would need 5 keepnets! I wasn’t sure it would be that good but I did fancy it for a few fish. I first set up a feeder to cast around 25 metres to the far bank. I used 0.22 power plus as main line and 0.18 power match hooklength to a size 16 barbless carp feeder hook. My hooklength was 20 inches as that is fishery rules and I used 3 red maggots as hookbait and put plenty of casters and hemp through the feeder plugging it with groundbait. I also set up 2 pole rigs both with black hydro and 0.18 line straight though to a size 14 pr29 hook. One was to fish against the board at 14.5 metres to my left in 3 foot of water and the other was to fish shallow in 7 foot of water at 14.5 metres straight in front of me. I had loads of bait with me as the fish love there food on here, comprising of 8 pints of casters, 6 tins of hemp, 2 kilos of worms, 2 kilos of groundbait and a few red maggots for the hook. On the all in I cupped in half a big drennan pot of chopped worms hemp and casters to my left against the board and I would continue to feed it this way every 15 minutes for the first hour and a half as I wanted the fish to be nice and confident when I eventually tried it here, the thing about this place is the fish can come into your peg at any time, some days you will catch from the off and other days it might take your 3 or 4 hours to start catching, but one thing the fish always do is turn up and when they do it’s get ready time, you can easily amass 100lb in no time, it’s an awesome fishery. I also fed heavily at 14.5 metres straight in front of me throwing in 10 orange sized balls of groundbait laced with hemp and casters and also crushed up half a pint of casters so that there would be a constant column of food particles in the water, if the wind had been stronger then feeding the crushed casters would be a big no-no as the floating casters would just take fish out of your peg, but because I was on an end peg and the wind was blowing into my corner I could get away with it. I was catapulting around 30-35 casters every 30 seconds to a minute on this line also and would leave it an hour before I would try it. I started off on the feeder with 3 red maggots as hookbait and for the first 10 minutes I left the feeder in no longer than 30 seconds before I would wind back in and recast, this was to get some fish in my peg and also if the fish do turn up then by feeding heavy this way it will hold the fish. I had my first fish after 10 minutes which was a common around 6lbs, next cast I had a chub around 2lbs and next cast after I had another carp around 4lbs before things suddenly dried up. I was expecting this to happen as I was only on a narrow part of the lake and normally the fish like to be on the wider part so I just had to keep plugging away before I would have a go shallow. I only managed 1 more carp around 4lbs and another 2lb chub in the first hour, time to try shallow. I could see a few fish cruising around and I fully expected to catch straight away on this method but I remained biteless after 15 minutes of trying. I tried the feeder again as I could see a few carp moving over my feed but only managed to catch a bream around 3lbs. After 90 minutes I tried the pole to my left using a worms head as bait and feeding a large fox tosspot of chopped worms, casters and hemp every put in. I couldn’t get past tiny perch and each one was full of bait so I knew there couldn’t be any carp around yet even though I could see them moving around. I decided to feed another 2 big Drennan pots and leave the swim another 40 minutes to an hour and feed heavily every 10 minutes over this time to try and force the peg into action. I went back on the feeder and only managed 3 more carp. With 3 hours gone I’d only got around 25lb in the net and was gong nowhere but I still remained confident that my edge peg would come good. More and more carp were beginning to cruise around now and one was just under the surface around 11 metres out, I quickly grabbed my shallow rig and dangled 3 red maggots in front of it and within seconds the fish was hooked and went nuts! 5 minutes later I had a 14lb common in my landing net, some more of them would be nice. I tried the shallow line for a further 15 minutes but only caught a small rudd, time to try the edge peg again. First put in after re-feeding and I was into a decent fish which turned out to be a mirror around 8lbs, next put in was a mirror at 10lbs and next put in was a common at 12lbs. My peg was absolutely solid now and they had finally homed in on my bait. There was only an hour of the match remaining now but I was well on course for a decent weight. At the all out I ended up with 22 carp 3 chub and a bream, oh and some nuisance perch! I weighed in 150lbs and ended up winning the match and I reckoned I must of had 120lbs in the last 2 hours, what a fishery and it just goes to show that this time of year you should always keep plugging away and try and make something happen rather than just sitting and waiting feeding the same way, just try and do something different and more often than not you will be rewarded.

Saturday 19th July. Fishomania Finals. Cudmore Fisheries. Arena Pool.

16 pegs.

Well, I haven’t written for a while due to all the practicing I have been doing on the Arena Pool in anticipation for the fishomania final. I was really looking forward to this match, as much for the chance of winning 25 thousand beer tokens but also the exposure of qualifying for such a high profile event. The draw was made the evening prior to the match and I pulled out peg 13 which is permanent peg 22 on Arena. I was happy with my draw as I said to anyone who asked me I wanted to be on the far side on any peg from 9 to 16, the only other peg I really fancied was peg 1 which was permanent peg 10. I would have preferred an end peg obviously but I was more than happy with my draw, at least I was on the best side. I had never prepared as much before for any match and I knew how I was going to fish it long before the final, I also had my mate Kieron Rich with me for the final practice week so between us we would sort it out! I have always had lots of success over the years on this pool feeding heavily through a big pot, if you feed through a kinder pot the fish, especially barbel would hoover it up in no time and would then carry on swimming to the next angler to have another feed, the only way you can keep the fish in your peg on here is to use ‘Big Pot’. I think it’s due to the amount of undertow generated by the aerators and also the natural factor of wind, because the lake is completely round it always has tow on it and if you don’t feed heavy the tow soon breaks up your feed and carries it out of your swim so by using ‘Big Pot’ you can keep a large amount of feed in your swim for long enough to get the fish feeding. In practice mixing worms and casters with a tiny amount of groundbait to bind them together was by far the best way to introduce feed so that was the pole line sorted. There is also a lot of fish to be caught on the bomb and meat fishing past the pole line at 18-20 metres, by catapulting 6-8 pieces of 6mm cubed meat every few minutes you can soon have the barbel going mad on this line and you never seem to split the fish between this line and the pole line. Also the method would play a part so I set this up along with hair rigged meat as bait. In practice we found out that using micro pellets around the feeder was much better than groundbait. The only other line I would bother with would be a short line right in the margins. On one practice session I had barbel feeding just 2 metres out whilst big steel poles were being hammered in for the cameras 6 foot away! Come the day I had set up enough gear to open my own tackle shop, consisting of 10 top 3’s all with grey hydro using a 4x16 float with 0.16 to 0.14 Power Match and a size 16 b911 hook, all these were set at an identical depth of 5.5 foot to fish at 14.5 metres, I had 2 top 3’s using purple hydro with 4x18 floats and using power match in 0.20 straight through to a size 14 pr29 hook incase I was on the barbel. I also had 2 top 3’s with purple hydro using 4x10 floats and 0.20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 pr29 hook to fish down the margin and also set up was a method and a rod for bomb and meat. On the all in the there was cheers everywhere as the crowd behind me and Neil Machin let out a massive roar. I fed 3 balls of groundbait, worms and casters at 14.5 metres and then cast out the method just 1 foot off the far bank, in went 3 big handfuls of casters down the margin to my right and I also began to feed meat past the pole line at 18-20 metres. After 5 minutes I had a look down on my margin swim and couldn’t believe what I saw, there was mud being churned up already, I told Kieron and he too couldn’t believe it. The method feeder was reeled in quicker than my hand would turn as I got all giddy and had a look down the margin a little early. I had 2 minutes on this line but nothing happened. A couple of fish had been caught already on the long pole line so out that went baited with a worms head. 5 minutes later the float buried and a big cheer came from behind me when they saw grey hydro streaming from my pole, a minute later and a 2lb barbel was in my net to another big cheer, I turned round to the crowd and said ‘he’s off the mark’ which got a few laughs and also that first fish calmed me down a bit. Out went another big pot of feed and 10 minutes later I was into another barbel which fell off as it was foul hooked. The lad next but one to my left ‘Andrew Neal’ had started well and he was feeding very similar to me. After an hour I’d had 3 barbel and a crucian and was lying in 6th place over all. The pole line was hard going due to the wind so out went the bomb and meat and I was instantly into a fish which fell off straight away, the next cast I again lost another fish. After that I never had another bite or liner so came in on my short line where I’d just had a swirl, as soon as the rig settled purple hydro went shooting out towards the camera platform but I soon had it under control and a 3lb barbel was safely in the net. In went another pint of casters on that line to try and bring the barbel in and get them feeding confident and out went the pole at 14.5 metres. Over the next few hours I was just putting odd fish in the net, I would catch a maximum of 2 fish then I would wait 20 minutes for another bite. The fish just were not feeding confidently in my peg. I tried reducing the amount of groundbait in my mix as I thought they could have been gill feeding over it but this didn’t make a difference and it was obvious the fish were to my left as Mick Bull and Andy Neal were catching well and also on the next peg round Chris Ellett was catching regularly. Going into the last hour I was well behind and all I could hope for was a big fish and £2,500 for the biggest fish prize. In went another 2 pints of casters on my margin line and I also put 3 big pots of feed in at 14.5 metres. I caught another barbel around 2lb down the margin before sitting it out long and catching a skimmer around 1lb plus two more barbel both around 2 1/2lbs before I hooked into something a bit angry! When I hooked into the fish I joked to the crowd behind me that it was a perch but I thought it was a barbel as it came in very quick and low like they fight, as I went to scoop it there was a massive swirl and my sister let out a big cheer as she thought I had it in the net but this was no barbel, both me and Kieron looked at each other and knew it was a very big fish, I asked him how long I had to play it and he gave me a countdown from 1 minute 27 seconds as he had an alarm on his watch so he knew the exact time, the carp made it to the middle of the lake whilst I was on my top two winding in my pulla kit like it was a reel, I was now at just 30 seconds left and it was slowly coming in, at 10 seconds left it was 11 metres out but was coming in all the time at 5 seconds I had the landing net at full reach but it was too far out I just pulled as hard as I could but the carp went out again and the hooter sounded, literally 5 seconds later I scooped the carp which weighed in at 6 kilos 500 grams, easy enough to win the biggest fish but unfortunately not the £2,500 that goes with it. Never mind, it was a great experience and I ended up with just short of 16 kilos to finish in 4th position. I would like to thank everyone that came to support me and those that had money on me im sorry, but hopefully there will be a next time and I will be a bit luckier.! Finally a big well done to Mick Bull who fished a brilliant match, he’s a top bloke and fully deserves the win, well done mate.

Sunday 29th June. Lindholme Lakes Teams of 6

Not much to say about this match really other than I let our team down and again got beat up next peg, this time by John Allerton! I draw peg 19 on Beeches lake and was told by John that mine and his were the worst 2 pegs on the lake, I actually fancied it as there were a few silver fish topping and I thought I would have a nice steady days fishing on worms and casters and perhaps catch 40lbs, hmmmm! I set up a 13 metre pole line in 7 foot of water and fished on the bottom and shallow with worm on the hook. I also set up a waggler to cast towards an island I had about 30 metres to my left where I would loose feed casters and fish double red maggot on the hook. Well after an hour of the match gone I hadn’t had a bite and started to wish I hadn’t been so confident, John had caught 2 small carp on a little method feeder. I tried the waggler which I thought would be solid by now but again I never had a bite. I tried up in the water on the pole line and at last started to catch a few small chub but I would catch 2 or 3 and then wait 10 minutes for another bite. I tried back on the bottom and caught 2 F1’s and a decent skimmer straight away before another 20 minutes biteless. Nothing I tried doing would keep the fish coming so I had to constantly switch between deep and shallow for the rest of the match. I weighed in 18lbs, John had 20lbs. I beat just 2 people, what a let down I am as the rest of my team fished really well to come second overall, if I had pulled my finger out we could have won! SORRY TEAM! I am saving myself for Fish’o’mania!

Saturday 28th June. Kamasan British Open. Woodlands Thirsk

46 pegs.

Every year I try and qualify for this competition where to enter you need to score 20 points in the regular fishing season. This year there was a total of 46 anglers competing for the £1000 first prize and the shiny silver trophy. Also fishing the match were a handful of England stars who get invited due to team commitments throughout the year. We would all be fishing on Partridge and Skylark lakes. Most anglers were hoping for a draw on Partridge lake as this has been the most consistent lake for the past few weeks, so as expected I drew on Skylark! I was quite happy with my peg though drawing permanent peg 7, I had Wayne Swinscoe next to me on peg 6 so a bit of banter would be had! I had been told that all the recent matches had been won fishing bomb and hair rigged 8mm pellet either over the long pole line or towards the middle of the lake just pinging in 2 or 3 pellets, so the first thing I set up was a 9ft bomb rod with 0.22 Ultima Power Plus main line and 0.20 Ultima Power Match hooklength with a size 14 drennan barbless carp feeder hook and banded 8mm pellet as bait. My main line of attack would be 16 metres on the pole line hopefully catching shallow by constantly feeding six or eight 6mm pellets. I set up a shallow rig using 0.14 Power Match straight through to a size 18 barbless carp feeder again with banded pellet as bait but a 6mm this time. My final rig was to fish at 4 metres with meat and hemp, this line always produces for the first 20 minutes and then normally dies down and the fish will sometimes return for the last hour of the match. On the all in I fed 4 or 5 cubes of meat and a small amount of hemp at 4 metres and went out with a big pot of hemp and 6mm pellets at 16 metres and spread it around a 2 metre area, after this I would feed 6mm pellets to try and get the fish shallow. After 5 minutes I was into my first fish a carp around 5lbs, next put in and my float didn’t settle, black hydro just shot out of my pole and was attached to an angry common around 3lbs, this happened again the very next put in and then after that mad 10 minutes I went 15 minutes without a bite! Time to try the bomb, I cast over my pole line and immediately started to get liners before my rod nearly got dragged in, it was a carp around 3lbs and it must have spooked 10 or 12 fish when I hooked it. Wayne next to me hadn’t had a bite yet and I told him I was only catching 1lb skimmers, haha! I continued to get liners for the next hour and put the odd fish in my net but also catching well by now was Wayne just feeding 2 or 3 pellets in the middle of the lake he was catching far quicker than me now. I tried shallow as there were lots of fish swirling for my bait but couldn’t get a bite, I lengthened my line between pole tip and float as I thought the pole could be spooking the fish and flicked it past my pole tip but again this didn’t make a difference. I was starting to fall behind after starting well. I went back on the tip and managed to catch a few more fish but I was catching small fish so I was well behind. I again tried shallow but managed to catch just 1 fish I had been feeding my 4 metre line since the start so had another try on this line but they hadn’t turned up and I caught a roach! With an hour to go I stuck it out on the bomb and only managed another 4 fish. Wayne was first to weigh in and had just over 100lbs, he had battered me as I had 61lbs. I came second in the section and picked up some beer tokens which wasn’t too bad. Des Shipp won the match with 120lbs from end peg 18 on Skylark and second was also on Skylark opposite the winner with 116lbs. I spoke to Wayne after and all he did all day was fish the tip in the middle of the lake feeding just 1 pint of 8mm pellets, I should have followed suit as there was definitely fish around but I tried to get them too close in and they wouldn’t settle properly, I really thought I would catch shallow as I have done previously but on the day it just didn’t work.

Wednesday 18th June. Blundells

14 fished.

I haven’t fished Blundells for a few weeks and only had a tin of meat and 2 bags of groundbait with me so decided on a day fishing the method. The weather was terrible, raining all day and the wind was also quite strong so I thought I would get nice and comfy under a brolly. I was first choice to pick my peg and settled on peg 63 on pine. I set up just one rod using a 30 gram kobra method feeder with black hydro to a 4 inch hooklength of Ultima 0.20 XT7 and a size 16 drennan carp feeder hook baited with hair rigged meat. I was casting 8 inches from the far bank in 1 foot of water and after just 5 minutes started to get liners. I began to catch a lot of barbel between 8oz and 1lb before the carp moved in. They were only small carp but there was a lot of fish there, I was also losing a lot of fish and changed hooks to a size 14 which didn’t make a difference so I changed to a size 18 and again it didn’t make a difference. For every 2 fish I caught I would lose one and they were definitely not foul hooked. I tried cutting down the amount of groundbait I was putting in and this seemed to do the trick, I think I was introducing too much groundbait as I was getting a bite every cast, there were too many fish in the swim. The fish I was catching were all hooked very lightly and as I reduced the amount of feed I was putting in I began to hook fish properly again. After the match I spoke to a few people and they all said they had trouble losing fish today so it could have been one of those days, but it really made a difference when I stopped feeding as much groundbait. I ended up coming second in the match with 62lbs and my mate Kieron just did enough to win with 119lbs from peg 48 on Ash!

Thursday 12th June. Match Fishing Cup, Furzton Lake

32 fished.

Having never seen this venue before but hearing plenty about it I decided to target it the same way as I would big lakes from near where I live where there are similar species of fish to be caught. I drew peg 19 which was 4 pegs past the overflow and I was told there was a few fish to be caught. In practice just the previous day there were reports of numerous catches of between 15 and 30lbs on most pegs and 15lbs was being confirmed as the weight which would get through. I set up a feeder rod to cast around 50 yards, a waggler rod to be fished around 20-25 yards where I would loose feed caster and a pole rig to fish at 11.5 metres in 6½ foot of water. I am very fussy with my groundbait mix and I have found from experience that the best mix for roach/simmers on the pole line is a 50/50 mix of sensas magic and matchblend, it has little feed content, binds together really well for balling and the colour is spot on. I would add to this mix a few casters and dead red pinkies. I also made another mix for the feeder line which was 100% fishmeal based, all I would add to this mix was worms and casters just through a feeder. I went and asked a few people who had fished it before how they were going to attack it and it seemed that most were going for an out and out feeder attack at around 65-70 yards, they were completely neglecting the pole line, fine if the bream fed but knowing what bream can be like as fussy feeders I was glad I had set up the pole. I also asked those who were fishing the pole how many balls they were going to put in at the start, most were settling on 10-12, so with that in mind I would put around half in. I purposely wanted to be a bit negative in this match and fish completely opposite to how I normally attack venues, I wanted to feel my way into the match rather than fill it in and wait, there were a couple of reasons for this, 1 I had never seen the venue before and could only go on what people had told me, some had had success and others, good anglers, had really struggled, and 2 It had poured down the previous night putting a funny colour in the water and I overheard that the locals had not seen the overflow having as much water go over it for a long time. On the all in I put 6 orange sized balls in at 11.5 metres with a few dead pinkies and casters in, I then cast out with the feeder and fed that 6 times with worms and casters through a large drennan feeder which was taped up. I then began to feed my waggler line with casters hoping to catch roach as a few were topping. I started on the feeder using Ultima 0.20 Power Steel main line and a 3 foot tail of Ultima 0.12 XT7 hooklength to a size 18 B560 hook baited with double dead red maggot. I had 4 casts on this line over the next 50 minutes and never had a liner, looking round a few people were starting to catch on the pole line. I didn’t want to fish the pole line first deciding to let the swim settle more first so tried the waggler and again I remained biteless for 30 minutes. It was obviously going to be a hard day as over half the field still hadn’t had a bite. I came in on the pole line and was instantly into little roach averaging 1 ounce, but there was no real pattern to them, I would catch 4 or 5 and then go 10 minutes without a bite, it was definitely down to how I was feeding the groundbait, they didn’t want a ball as things dried up I had to put 2 balls in by a cup and then fish it out, this way I could catch 12-15 roach at a time, loose feeding over the pole line was also a mistake so I stopped that. With 2 hours of the match left I thought id had 2lbs and was below half way with that, it was fishing very hard with lots of people still blanking. After asking Dave Harrell what weight he thought would get through, he said 5lbs, I got off my box and made another rig using 0.12 XT7 main line a 0.5 gram float and 0.08 XT7 hooklength to a size 22 B510 hook and I would use disco pinkie as bait. I couldn’t believe the difference it made as I had a fish a chuck for the next 90 minutes. Again I was feeding 2 balls and fishing it out, the fish were only small but no one was catching anything so I just had to hope I would finish with around 5lbs and get through to the next round. At the end of the match there were plenty of dry nets from those who just fished the feeder. I weighed in 5lbs 10oz and that was enough for 11th place and I qualified for the next round, I won my section also and Im glad I made the change when I did and also that I didn’t go on an all out attack and force the peg from the start. Andy Moors fished a brilliant match to win with 22lbs all roach on the new IN roach bait, pellets, haha! I asked him after and he said he noticed pleasure anglers catching on them when he came to practice so he just stuck to his guns and it worked out for him, well done mate.

Sunday 8th June Cudmore Open. New Pools

90 pegs.

I came to Cudmore completely narrow minded today and would just fish shallow wherever I drew. I have complete confidence in this method and I have found from experience that when there are lots of people on the new pools the fish don’t really feed well and seem to feed more confidently up in the water than anywhere else. I drew peg 4 on pool 1 and with it being pegged 2 and miss one on lakes 1 to 4 there was a lot of pressure on all the waters. I set up 3 identical rigs fishing a Sconee float on 0.14 power match straight through to a size 18 barbless carp feeder hooked with a banded pellet on a hair rig and using soft set grey hydro. My bait consisted of a bag of 4mm hard pellets for feed and a few 6mm hard pellets for hookers. On the all in I fed heavily at 14.5 metres to get fish in the swim and by constant loose feeding I would hopefully bring the fish up in the water. After an hour biteless I was beginning to have doubts and wish id put more thought into the match and set something else up, but as I was thinking that I hooked into my first fish which was a mirror around 5lbs, I was well behind by now but this lake has lots of big fish in and you only need an hour on them sometimes to do a decent weight. I waited another 10 minutes for my next fish which was an F1 around 2lbs and then my peg came to life, it was like a Jacuzzi with fish fizzing and boiling everywhere and I managed to put a few fish together. After 3 hours people had latched on to what I was doing and they started to fish shallow picking up the odd fish, with everyone around me doing the same my peg started to dry up but because I had put the bait in at the start they would never leave me completely and I was still catching odd fish up until the last hour. By this time the other anglers had stopped fishing shallow to try and catch down the margins but I just stuck with it and had a really good last hour catching 12 F1’s and 8 mirrors. I ended up winning the match with 104lbs 6oz. 71lbs was 2nd and 68lbs was 3rd, all the top 6 weights were off pool 1 with 40lbs winning the other lakes. You have to have total confidence in fishing this way and sometimes it won’t work for you but more often than not it will come good.

Saturday 7th June Blake Hall Charity Match

80 fished.

I haven’t fished Blake Hall for a couple of years and I was really looking forward to this match which they have yearly in aid of cancer research. I was hoping for a draw on either Blake or peninsula pools as there are some very good pellet waggler pegs. I drew Blake pool peg 10 which I was more than happy with as I had an island slightly to my left around 35 yards away where I could fish near to. The only thing that would hamper me today would be the wind as it was blowing strong and straight at me and trying to get any feed out would be difficult. I set up 2 identical waggler rods and a shallow pole line to fish at 13 metres where I would target the silvers as there are lots of chub in this lake as well as some decent roach and skimmers. I started off by feeding quite heavily with worms and casters through a big pot on my pole line and also started to catapult 8mm pellets out as far as I could get them, which wasn’t far enough due to the wind! I had a few casts on the waggler first whilst I fed my pole line up but only managed 2 chub in the first 40 minutes. I tried the pole line and immediately started to catch roach and the odd bonus 1lb chub, as far as I could see no one was catching apart from Gary Skeritt who was opposite me, I carried on catching silvers for the next hour until he swim died for 10 minutes and I hooked into an angry carp which tried to make its way to the island! Eventually after a 10 minutes tussle I netted the carp which was around 9lbs, what a bonus! After that carp though I never had another bite on the pole line so tried the pellet waggler again as the bloke next to me was catching well casting tight to the island, they were only chub around 10oz but he was getting a bite every cast. I tried and had 5 in 5 casts all around a pound and again the swim completely died on me. It was obvious halfway through the match that it wasn’t fishing well with the carp in a spawning mood, with that in mind I decided to stick on the waggler and keep on casting, the chub really homed in on the splash and if you hadn’t had a bite after 5 seconds you needed to wind back, feed and cast again, it was a real busy days fishing and if the wind hadn’t of been so strong I would have doubled my weight. In the end I managed 32lbs 2oz to come second on the lake and pick up some beer tokens. Gary Skeritt won the lake with 46lbs and the bloke to my left had 31lbs for third on the lake. 57lbs won the match overall and im sure I could have done that with the right conditions.

Sunday 25th May Browning Cudmore

40 fished.

After some serious celebrating the previous night I woke up a little worse for wear but managed to get myself to Cudmore to fish the open on the new pools. I drew peg 95 on pool 3 and only set up 2 rigs, one to fish shallow and the other to fish in 2 foot of water down the edges. I thought i would catch well as I was the end peg and fish were rolling everywhere, but after 2 hours fishing and 4 fish in the net, I was starting to wish I had set up some more rigs and been a little more prepared. I had not had a bite fishing shallow and caught my 4 fish down the margins. I decided on feeding quite heavily down both sides and then go for some dinner to let the swim rest! Well, when I came back from having burger and chips the rest seemed to have worked as I managed to catch a few fish over the last 2 hours and won my section and finished 2nd on the lake with 58lbs. I ended up with 18 fish and im sure the rest made a difference as it gave the fish confidence to come in and feed!

Saturday 24th May Woodlands View. Fishomania qualifier

130 pegs

I thought I would travel to Woodlands even though I didn’t have a ticket as its only just over an hour away. I was 7th on the reserve list and there were 14 no shows so I would get a chance to fish. I drew peg 33 on Front Deans and didn’t fancy it at all as it was flat calm and a few people told me it wasn’t a good peg, I thought I would give it a couple of hours and then pack up though! I went into the match narrow minded and went to fish just worms and casters, again a few people had said that worms hadn’t worked well this year so far, great! I had with me 6 pints of caster and ¼ a kilo of worms and was hoping to draw a peg in open water where I could fish shallow, instead I drew an end peg with no signs of fish! I plumbed up at 5 metres straight in front of me in 5 foot of water and also had a swim at 14.5 metres to my left along the bank in 2½ foot of water, I also set up a shallow rig but didn’t think I would catch on it so would only try it once after an hour to se what the response was. On the all in I cupped in a full small drennan pot of worms and casters and put 2 pots in the same size on my 14.5 metre line, I would then constantly feed my shallow swim at 14.5 metres straight in front of me with 15-20 casters. I started at 5 metres and caught fish straight away catching 6 skimmers upto 1½ lbs and 2 carp around 5lbs each, all this was in the first 20 minutes, I couldn’t get in quick enough I also managed a few 1lb tench and some nice perch upto 1lb. I was flying and all thoughts of me packing up and going to the pub had gone! After 1½ hours that line started to dry up so I re fed and tried shallow. I fished it for 5 minutes and that was all I needed to know that I wouldn’t catch shallow today so I went up the edge to my left and again began to catch fish steady catching skimmers and odd carp. For the rest of the match I simply alternated between them 2 swim and managed to keep fish coming right to the end. I weighed in 92lbs and couldn’t believe it when I was told I had won. The wind had definitely helped me out today as it was very strong for everyone else but like a kiddies pond in my peg, haha! So I have finally qualified for the fisho final and the chance to win 25 thousand beer tokens, wohoo!

Wednesday 21st May Blundells

17 fished.

Well, yet again I couldn’t resist and fished on the Ash pool. I had a walk round first and there were lots of carp down on the early 40’s pegs on Ash so I really fancied it for a few on the pellet waggler. I was 3rd choice to pick and went on peg 43 thinking I would get spare pegs to my right as I didn’t think anyone would want to go right in the corner, but Geoff Ogden spoiled it for me (how dare he)! I set up a waggler rod and a rig to fish shallow at 11 metres on the pole. I thought I would empty it as there was a shoal of carp in front of me which looked to be feeding fish. On the all in I fed some 6mm pellets on my waggler line and would loose feed 10-15 casters every 30 seconds on my pole line to bring the fish shallow. I had 2 carp in 2 casts for around 8lb and then never had another bite on the waggler. The shoal that was there were not feeding fish unfortunately so I had to try and catch as many ide as I could but even they weren’t having it properly, I would catch 2 or 3 and then wait 5 minutes before I caught another 2 or 3. I had to chase the fish which I don’t like doing as you can never put a decent weight together catching this way. I ended up with around 100 ide and 2 carp for 58lbs and won nothing, rubbish!

Sunday 18th May Fish for 5K Match Watermeadows fishery.

30 pegs

I was really looking forward to this match as the winner would get £5,000. There were 15 invited anglers and 15 qualifying anglers all competing for the first prize. I travelled with Kieron Rich and we both decided to go halves if either of us won it so it gave us 2 chances. The fishery is in Skegness and looks really nice the problem would be that the fish had been spawning the week previous and the weather had just suddenly dropped so it was going to be hard. We came for a look at the water on Friday and fished for an hour using worms and casters and we couldn’t go wrong so we went with that attack in mind, but things started to go wrong on the trip up there! We were around 50 miles from the venue when I heard a loud bang and something scraping along the road, my exhaust had fell off, great! After 15 minutes we freed the bat box and my car was transformed into something that should have been in a rally, it was making quite a racket. We eventually got to the fishery and apparently the peg everyone wanted was 22 so true to form we didn’t draw it. I drew peg 18 which was near where we fished the other day and Kieron drew peg 53 which was an end peg with just the 10 spare pegs to his right! When I got to my peg I was told that everyone from my peg down to peg 14 where we fished on the Friday had packed up yesterday in the last qualifying match as no one could get a bite, so that didn’t really fill me with much confidence! I set up 3 rigs to fish over in 1½ foot of water using 0.14 straight through to a size 16 b911 and grey hydro and one rig to fish down the middle using 0.12 to 0.10 and a size 18 B911 to white hydro, all swims would be fed with worms and casters. At the all in I started by feeding 3 swims across and fed quite heavily down the middle. After 30 minutes I knew why those anglers packed up yesterday as I hadn’t had a bite, then my float dipped and I was into a skimmer around a pound. I could at least see some fish getting caught as I could see the bloke on peg 22 catching right from the start! I rang Kieron up and he had caught 5 carp in the first hour fishing the method down the middle of the canal using the spare pegs to his advantage. Going into the second hour I’d caught 2 skimmers and a hybrid around 4lbs! Steve Ringer next to me on my left had just had his first bite a 3lb bream! I tried down the middle where I had been loose feeding casters but never had a bite there either. I couldn’t believe how hard it was and it must have been all down to the colder weather we have had recently, I was averaging a bite every 45 minutes! Anglers the likes of Des Shipp, Andy Findlay and Darren Cox were just not getting bites so it shows you how difficult the fishing was! I ended up with just 7 fish for 14lb, Alan; a qualifier won the section next to me with 18lbs. Kieron never had a fish for the last 2½ hours and finished 3rd overall with 28lbs. Well done to the winner on peg 22 who fished really well as he lost as many as he caught but kept his cool and won with 46lbs, Jamie Masson was 2nd with 41lbs. No 5 grand this time then and only 170 miles to drive back home in a rally car, what a rubbish week I’ve had this week, you may well be seeing a post on eBay as my gear could go up for sale!

Thursday 15th May Match Fishing Cup Lindholme Lakes.

70 pegs.

I was looking forward to this competition again as I got through to the 3rd round last year but couldn’t take part due to going on holiday so I wanted to make up for that this year. There were 35 anglers on both Bonsai and Oasis lakes and the top 16 from each lake would go through to the next round. I drew peg 32 on Bonsai which sounded ok at first but on arrival at my peg I wasn’t so confident. I was stuck in a corner with the wind blowing off my back and upto the other end of the lake, I was also hemmed in a little bit as Andy Moors was the next peg along to my right on 35 and Alan Scotthorne was to my left on peg 29. I didn’t really have a method chuck and we weren’t allowed on the day to fish longer than 16 metres. I had come to just fish shallow but with the wind blowing completely the wrong way I wasn’t sure I would catch. I had a lot of room in the margins to my right so I did a bit of gardening first to make sure I gave myself a chance if they came down the edge. I set up 4 rigs, 2 to fish shallow using Ultima 0.12 XT7 straight through to a size 18 B911 with white hydro and 2 margin rigs using Ultima 0.12 Power Match straight through to a size 16 b911 hook with grey hydro. My bait choice was worms and casters and lots of them! On the all in I fed quite a lot of bait at 14.5 metres to get some fish in the peg and then hopefully keep loose feeding to drag them up in the water, then went and fed both margin swims. I started off shallow as there were a few signs of fish but after 20 minutes biteless I decided to get another rig out to fish on the bottom. Again another 20 minutes went by without a bite and people all around me were getting a fish a chuck, Alan had around 15 fish and Andy had caught 12 fish, I was miles behind already and only 40 minutes had gone. I eventually had to come and try the margins after 1 hour without a bite and caught fish immediately catching 5 F1’s in 5 puts in, but I was getting lots of false bites and foul hookers, I stopped feeding as much worm and this seemed to do the trick for a while. Half way into the match I was well behind over half of the anglers were admitting to 40lb and I’d had around 15lb, I couldn’t get a bite anywhere. I had been feeding my 14.5 metre swim all match with casters but whenever I tried it I would catch 2 or 3 fish straight away and then wouldn’t get anther bite, the fish just were not settling, I had to just concentrate on one swim down the margin and hope that they would eventually turn up. I managed in the last hour to catch 30 f1’s and a few little tench so thought I would have around 50lbs. Word was that you would need 70lbs to get through today but it hadn’t fished as well as everyone had expected, I wasn’t confident of getting through as I just hadn’t caught enough fish, they just wouldn’t settle apart from the last hour of the match when my margin line went solid. I weighed in 59lbs 6oz to finish an agonising 4 ounce short of qualifying; I was 17th with 16th place having 59lbs 10oz. Neil Mckinnon won the match with 124lbs from peg 27, Alan came second with 94lbs and Jamie Hughes came third with 89lbs fro peg 25. And to make it even worse Neil Grantham later said that he made a mistake putting my peg in and should have put the peg to my left in! I was gutted; all I can hope for now is that someone can’t fish the next round so I can!

Wednesday 14th May Barston Lakes Fishomania qualifier.

130 pegs

This was always going to be won and lost at the drawbag as this year the match lake was in and with only 10 anglers on it and 24 pegs on the lake there would be lots of room for anglers. On the main lake there was only a small amount of room with 120 anglers on it. I drew peg 114 which on its day can be a decent peg just off the corner of the island but today the wind was very strong and trying to get the 85-90 yard distance to reach where I needed to was hard to achieve today. I went into the match very narrow minded as I was just going for a win so I set up 1 method feeder rod. I used 20 foot of Ultima 0.26 Power Steel as a shock leader and 0.19 Power Steel as main line and used a heavy Kobra method feeder and baited with either red or white 10mm boilies. The rod I used was a Map 12ft parabolix feeder and was perfect for the job. Trying to get any kind of accuracy on the day though was hard as the wind wasn’t blowing the same way it was swirling lots and kept on taking my feeder off course, it took me sometimes upto 3 casts to get the feeder in the right area and then it was a waiting game. After 2 hours and just one 1lb skimmer I decided enough was enough as word had spread they were bagging on the match lake. I walked down to have a look and sure enough it was solid on there with small F1’s that was enough for me so I went back and packed up! I later found out that just 28lb won the main lake and the top 5 all came from the match lake. Well done to the winner Matt Smith who had 78lbs.

Saturday 10th May Woodlands Thirsk Fishomania qualifier.

130 Fished

This was my first of 4 tickets and I like everyone else was hoping for an endpeg draw with the wind blowing into it. Instead I drew peg 29 on Skylark which normally is a decent draw but with every peg being in and the water being flat calm it was going to be a difficult day. I set up the pellet waggler, a bomb rod to fish over my pole line at 14.5-16 metres ad 3 pole rigs. 2 rigs were identical shallow rigs using 0.14 with tiny bands in a little loop to fish 6mm pellets at 14.5 or 16 metres and I also set up a rig to fish at 4 metres in 2 ½ foot of water just going down the shelf, this used to be a very productive line but I wasn’t confident of catching much from here today. All rigs were fished with black hydro. On the all in I tried the close in line with meat feeding a little amount of meat and hemp and I had a fish almost immediately which was a common around 4lb, there were fish bow waving around all over the place as it was a very hot day and the fish were jut cruising around under the surface. After 10 minutes i’d caught 2 carp for 10lb and looking around no one else had caught a fish! I then went another 50 minutes without a bite and people were starting to catch down the bottom end of both lakes where the wind was blowing. I tried the pellet waggler as there were carp swirling for my pellets but I couldn’t get a bite so decided on spending some time fishing shallow on the pole, I started to catch steady having a fish every 10 minutes but that soon dried up. I thought a few fish might have gone down on the bottom for my pellets so i tried the bomb over my pole line but the tip remained motionless for 15 minutes. With 2 hours of the match left I concentrated at 16 metres fishing 1 foot deep on the pole. I picked up odd fish until the end of the match and had 22 carp in my nets. I thought i’d got around 80lbs and it had fished really hard for everyone, there was certainly no shortage of fish in front of people but getting them to feed was a different matter all together, the only way I could catch was to keep lifting and dropping every 5 seconds, you would not get a bite if you just left your rig and fed it, you really had to work at it. I ended up coming 7th with 92lbs and won my section. Congratulations to Matt Hall who won with 120lbs from peg 17 on Partridge. Fingers crossed for my next qualifier at Barston!

Thursday 8th May Brookside

15 fished.

Wohoo, it was another great day and the fish would again be feeding up in the water. I drew peg 25 which I really fancied as there were fish bow waving around all over the place getting ready to spawn. I set up 3 rigs all identical as I would be doing just one thing today all day, it would be shallow’o’clock time from start to finish. I used 0.12 xt7 main line straight through to a size 18 b911 hook with white hydro and a Scone Jugz float. I got bites all day using either single red or white maggot on the hook and feeding 8-10 casters all the time and made sure I splashed my pole as the fish respond very well to it on here. Most of the fish I caught were tench averaging 4 or 5 ounce and it was one a chuck, towards the end of the match I started to catch a few F1’s but they too were only small. It was a brilliant days fishing and I ended up coming 2nd with 89lbs. 122lbs won the match from peg 59

Wednesday 7th May Blundells

18 fished.

I know I keep saying I will have a change of scenery and try the other pools but the wind this week was perfect for the pellet waggler on the ash pool so I couldn’t resist it and went on there again. I wanted to go on pegs 45 or 47 as there were lots of carp around but I drew rubbish (again) and went on peg 49 which I was happy with. I set up 2 pellet waggler rods one with a 5 gram mosella impact waggler and one with a 1.25 gram drennan insert. I would fish the mosella waggler 1 foot from the far bank clipped up and the drennan waggler would be cast down the middle of the lake. Both were set up with 0.22 main line and 0.18 hooklengths. I would feed 6mm pellets on both lines and use a banded 6mm pellet on the hook. I also set up a shallow line to fish at 9 metres, I would fed casters and use maggots on the hook to target the ide on this line. At the all in I fed both my waggler lines and fed my pole line by hand with 15-20 casters and would feed them every 15-20 seconds, I fully expected to get a bite first cast on the waggler but after 30 minutes id not had bite and the ide were swirling for my casters so I couldn’t ignore them any more it was shallow’o’clock time! From that first put in until the last put in I had a bite a chuck and ended up with 215 ide. I tried the waggler again whilst I was still getting bites on the pole but again never had a bite. I ended up coming 4th with 103lbs. It fished really well, drawbag Paul Jones won the match with 129lbs from east peg 7, drawbag Looco was second with 127lbs from ash peg 45, and even bigger drawbag Lewis Breeze was 3rd next to me on peg 47 with 107lbs.

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 5½ 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!