Fish‘O’Mania Qualifier – Makins Fishery. Wednesday 29th April 2015. 130 Pegs

Fish‘O’Mania is a competition which I have fished almost since its inception. I remember fishing an early qualifier on my local Maldon Canal (when the competition was fished on natural venues) and drawing next to the one and only Bob Nudd! I’m not a hardcore ‘Fisho fanatic’ though and tend to just apply for the four or five most ‘local’ venues. Unfortunately for me, as I’m based well off the beaten track in the wilds of Colchester, none of the venues are actually very local, with the exception of Coleman’s Cottage. It takes me sixteen minutes to get to Coleman’s from my house (on a Sunday I hasten to add!) I seem to be very lucky in the Fisho draw (compared to some) and every year get a high proportion of the qualifiers that I apply for.

This year I had gone for five qualifiers and had managed to get three tickets. These were for Makins, Monk Lakes and my local Coleman’s Cottage, having missed out on Barford Lakes and Woodlands View. Barford is always a venue that I like to get, as it marks my only ‘near-miss’ in a fairly miserable effort to try to qualify for the final. I was second to Les Thompson in 2008 (I think?) however, I could see Les catching all day and knew that he was beating me, so never really felt in the running. Also, Barford is a very friendly fishery and is always a nice place to go to and that’s coming from an Ipswich fan! (Barford is near Norwich).

This was to be my first visit to Makins for many years, in fact it was probably 15-20 years ago that I fished a junior match there. I remember drawing ‘Crater Pool’ and catching some Golden Orfe on maggots. As is always the case beforehand, I needed to cobble together some basic information about the venue. My friend Danny Grimsey had fished the venue in last year’s Fisho qualifier and reckoned you wanted to draw ‘Phase 1’, with bomb and pellet waggler being the likely winning methods. Anyway, Danny’s advice was more or less going to be left on the shelf, as I found out a few days before the match, that nearly all of it was going to staged on Phases 2 & 3, with the exception of ‘Lake 5’ which was on Phase 1. This changed the dynamics considerably, as Phase 1 consisted of (relatively) large open water lakes, whereas Phase 2 was smaller lakes with islands and phase 3 was all snake lakes. This would obviously mean lots more pole fishing and would make the pellet waggler almost redundant. I decided to bring everything with me bait and tackle wise and attempt to find some specific information about my peg on the day. It was going to be a nightmare and confusing to obtain information on fifteen plus lakes in advance.

So on the morning of Wednesday the 29^th, I left home at 5.45 hoping that the roads would be kind and I would arrive on time. Fortunately, the traffic was kind and I could even afford the luxury of stopping for breakfast. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse as I neared (what I thought) was the fishery. To cut a long story short, the post-code on the ticket takes you past the fishery on a motorway, but with no way to actually access the fishery though! Therefore, I could see the fishery and even the long, snaking draw queue, but couldn’t actually get there! Thirty minutes later and after a lot of following my nose, I eventually arrived, fifteen minutes late! Not a disaster, as it allowed the draw queue to die-down, however, it was quite amusing to note that a lot of the anglers near the back of the queue had suffered the same unexpected detour as me! To be fair it does apparently say on the fishery website not to follow the post-code, but it would be useful if the Angling Trust put a similar note on the ticket, as I didn’t bother looking up the directions on the Makins website.

Anyway, I only had a five minute wait in the draw queue before unquestionably the most important part of any fishing match. My subsequent draw put me on ‘Lizard’ peg 16. The Angling Trust match organiser David Kent told me that the peg had won matches in the past, but it didn’t seem to be a current form peg. Speaking to a few local Browning sponsored anglers re-inforced that idea and the general consensus was that I’d catch a few fish. This gave me some hope as I’ve drawn some pegs at Fishos that have caused people’s faces to recoil in horror!

It was a short drive to Phase 2 from the draw and as I parked next to my lake I was immediately struck by how well kept and pleasant looking the place was. You could see that new owners had spent some time cutting the grass, providing litter bins and maintaining the paths around the lakes. I parked next to Andy Geldart, (who was on my lake) and after working out where our pegs were, deduced that Andy was to be sat with the wind blowing towards him, whilst I had the wind off of my back. Now, I’m a big believer in the fish following the wind at this time of year, however the wind was cold and I put several layers of clothing on before leaving the car. We went our separate ways wishing each other luck, wondering if the fish would follow or stay out of the wind.

As I arrived at my peg I immediately liked the look of it. To my right I had an island within long pole range and also had some open water to my left which I could also target. The main reason for my optimism though were the two empty pegs to my right and one to the left. I had everything crossed that no-one turned up late on these empty pegs! As time ticked by, it became evident that I would have the rare luxury of some space in a Fisho qualifier!

As with all Fishos you need to set-up with a positive, potentially winning strategy in mind. My relatively simple approach was to be entirely pole based. Firstly, I plumbed up a long pole line at 15 metres of my Z14 pole to my right, tight against the island in just over 2 feet of water. In front of me at an angle of 11 o’clock I plumbed a line at 14.5 metres in the open water where it was roughly 5 feet deep. I also assembled a 5 metre rig, where the depth was pretty much identical to that of the long open water line. Finally, I plumbed up 2 edge lines, directly adjacent to the empty pallets to my left and right. I found about 3.5 feet of water here, which in an ideal world is too deep. I had shallow rigs ready for the open water line and also a ‘mugging’ rig, which is an absolute essential on a commercial fishery in the warmer months.

Rig wise, light floats were the order of the day, as it was fairly shallow and I was also out of the wind. 4x12 Malman Roobs were set-up for the open water lines and a 4x10 Malman Adam for the island. Lines for these rigs were the beautifully supple ‘Browning Cenex’ in 0.16, with and 0.16 hook-length to a 16 B911 hook. Elastic choice was the new ‘Browning Stretch 7’ hollow in green at 5 metres and the blue Browning Cenex hollow for long. A couple of edge rigs were also assembled, although these featured 0.18 main lines and hook-lengths.

I had a variety of bait combinations with me, however, I decided to base my match heavily around pellets and meat, with maybe some ground bait and corn being fed down the edges later in the day. It’s worth noting that a maximum of two bags of Green Swim-Stim pellets and two tins of meat were allowed at your peg. I had opted for 6mm pellets and 7mm meat.

As I didn’t know the lake I was reticent to feed bait everywhere at the start, much preferring to feed one line and try to get a feel for what the fish may want to eat on the day. A great tactic on commercials is to start short and almost try to ambush some quick fish before they realise what’s happening. I felt that I would have a reasonable chance of an instant bite at 5 metres, so I fed a small quantity of meat and hemp here through a big pot – probably 20 pieces of meat and dropped straight on it. I did get an immediate response although not from the intended species, as the first ten minutes yielded two roach. To me this was a sign that the carp were not present, or they didn’t want to eat meat, especially as Andy Geldart on the opposite bank had landed two carp fishing in a similar manner to me.

It was time to change tactics and I decided to have an early look in the shallow water on the island. I also decided that hard pellets would be a good option. Firstly, because of the ‘roach issue’ that I had encountered at 5 metres and secondly if I was going to have to feed these roach off, then the whole two tins of meat was going to be required short. A hard hair-rigged banded pellet on the hook was going to be the way that I approached both these long lines. Out I shipped and I began pinging three 6mm pellets around my float on the island and in the open water swim at a rate of three pellets probably every forty five seconds. After ten bite-less minutes, I was starting to become concerned and with Andy Geldart still catching I was beginning to wonder. However, a bite on the drop and a hooked fish meant I was away, the fish tore off and tried to disappear around the point of the island and the way that it zipped around convinced me it was foul-hooked. Incorrect I was, as after a ten minute scrap a 9lb common popped up, hooked squarely in the top lip - I was away. Unfortunately, this proved to be a false dawn though as no more carp bites followed and a ten ounce hybrid made me make the decision to change lines again. At this stage I wasn’t to know how crucial this fish would be!

Now we are roughly three quarters of an hour into the match and it was becoming impossible to notice that Andy Geldart was still emptying it on his five metre line. The Sky cameras focusing on him confirmed that he was an early pace setter and for sure he had gone off at a Usain Bolt like rate of knots. Naturally I was beginning to fear that the carp had followed the wind. It was now time to try my 14.5 metre open water line and I was hoping for a fairly quick response, especially as I had ‘pinged it’ for a while. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be though and despite ‘working’ the rig nothing happened and just as I started thinking the worst, the float dipped and a carp was attached. Much like the first fish it tore off and fought very hard all of the way to the net, to my surprise (again) it was hooked fair and square; clearly these were very hard fighting fish. Ten minutes I picked up another fish and a reasonable pattern began to emerge, where I had a fish every ten to fifteen minutes for the next hour. Strangely enough I was getting only proper bites and no other indications, it was as if one fish would come into my peg before getting caught. The carp seemed to be mainly in the five to six pound bracket, so were of a decent stamp and I now felt like my match was moving forward, especially as Andy had slowed up considerably. All of the while I was still feeding my island line with pellets. As it was nigh on impossible to throw meat short by hand, whilst feeding two swims regularly by catapult, I topped up the meat line every half an hour via a ‘big-pot’.

It was becoming noticeable that I was starting to get more bites and indications between hours two and three and a half. My slow-burning peg was really coming to life! The fantastic thing was the lovely positive bites that I was getting and the even better aspect was the fact I was hitting nearly every bite and landing most fish. The fish were settled and in feeding mode. I knew that I was doing ok as a decent amount of on-lookers were watching from across the lake. After three hours I decided to put another carp net in as there is a net limit of 80lbs. In my head I had counted 55-60lb and today was not the day to be penalized for breaking the rules! I felt that I was catching up with Andy now, although he was still picking up odd fish and had actually put another carp net in about thirty minutes before me. It seemed like a lot of anglers were catching on my lake now though, in particular Mark Tullet who was two pegs to my right. He was catching on his five metre line, which gave me hope that mine may come good late.

I had it in the back of my mind that things were going too well and gradually my peg began to show signs of exhaustion. Instead of the positive bites that I had been getting earlier, I was now getting small indications on the float and when the float did submerge I was no longer hooking fish in the mouth. Several times I lifted into fish a few inches off of the bottom. These foul-hooked fish really steamed off and to make matters worse I never landed a single one! Now this is not particularly unusual with commercials these days. The fish have seen it all before and you very rarely make one thing work for a long period of time anymore. The fish are too clever, quickly suss you out and you need to try to out-fox them in a different way. I tried a few things myself to combat this, including feeding more pellets, but less regularly and shallowing up slightly. Maybe I could have even tried fishing up in the water, however, I wasn’t getting indications to suggest that the fish were moving that high up in the water column. Also, I had noticed that the green Dynamite pellets sink very fast and are probably not the best for shallow fishing. Anyway, these changes did not improve things and now the wheels had badly come off, with less than an hour left it was time to rest the swim and try back on the island where I had been religiously feeding all day.

Dropping back in on the island resulted in what I thought was an immediate bite, however, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t, as the fish steamed off at a ludicrous rate of knots and broke me – another foul-hooker. I put another hook-length on and shipped back, where I promptly lifted my rig into a fish and fouled hooked another one! This time it didn’t come off straight away and a tug of war ensued for ten minutes before the fish somehow transferred the hook into the near side rushes and I lost the whole rig. I took a deep breath and looked at my watch, there was roughly an hour left and my match was rapidly unravelling at the seams. I decided that now was the time to feed my edges, where I put ground bait and corn, before dropping onto the five metre line. I felt that it was going to be ‘now or never’ on this line now and unfortunately it turned out to be the latter, as two roach proved that the carp had not arrived.

With time running out and only forty five minutes remaining, I had no option but to go back out onto my main catching line, where I was hoping the rest had allowed them to re-settle. Pretty quickly I had a proper bite and hooked a fish which I promptly landed and I was pretty relieved to end a disastrous sequence of hooking and losing fish. My relief grew as another carp found its way into the net shortly afterwards. Looking around the lake it appeared that everyone had slowed up, with the fish not playing ball for the usually fruitful final hour. Despite my hopes that the fish were now feeding on my terms, I began to foul hook fish again just off of the bottom, losing two more, but landing another fish that I managed to get to take the bait. I tried shallowing up again, this produced no bites or even indications and I decided to fish down the edge for the last ten minutes, which were frustratingly bite-less.

 

At the all-out I was annoyed and frustrated, as I felt that I had probably snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I felt that 100lb would be required to win the match and I knew that I didn’t have that. I had probably lost ten foul hooked fish during the last couple of hours and sort of felt a bit unlucky not to land even one. I was equally annoyed that I had not been able to suss out how to catch, as there were obviously still fish in the peg. Anyway, I evaluated how I had done on the lake and concluded it would be very close. Although Andy Geldart had slowed down as the match progressed, he’d still caught odd fish to go with his flying start and I felt that Mark Tullet had pretty much matched my weight also.

When the scales arrived the winning weight was 93lb 4 ounces from Wayne Ibbotson on Lagoon Pool. I instantly felt that I would be just shy of this. When my two carp weighs were totaled the scales man told me that I needed 2lb to do it, to which I replied “I haven’t got that” as I knew that I had four roach and a hybrid in my silver fish net. Anyway, they went on the scales and to my amazement went 2lb exactly! Then confusion reigned as initially the scales man announced that I had tied, but then changed his mind and stated that I was actually 4 ounces ahead! On checking the weight, thankfully he was correct! Thinking back to my silver fish net, the roach were of a really good stamp, as I could only just about ‘swing them’ on carp gear and were probably 5-6 ounces apiece, together with the 10 ounce Hybrid, which gives you the 2lb!

Although I was pleased to be in the lead, I felt that I was sure to be beaten somewhere on the complex, so wasn’t getting overly excited. Instead of torturing myself by following the scales, I decided to just pack up and see what happened. The scales reached Andy Geldart opposite me and I watched him being weighed in. I could tell it was close. After his weigh in they tipped his fish back without taking a catch shot of him, which made me think he wasn’t winning. Had anyone else beaten me though?

When I arrived back at my car the closeness of the match became apparent. The top 5 comprised of an 89lb from Andy Geldart, two 91lb weights, a 93lb 4 and I was top still with 93lb 8. I now knew that I was top weight on phases 2 & 3, however, there was still 1 final lake where the results weren’t confirmed – Lake 5, Phase 1. To make matters worse there were rumours of some-one with ‘a weight’. So it was back to HQ to be finally put out of my misery! As I got out of my car Andy Ford approached me and said “Do you want the good news or the bad news?” To which I responded “I don’t like the sound of bad news!” He replied “the bad news is that there is a weight on Lake 5, however the good news is that it is only about 50lb” and I had done enough! He then shook my hand which sealed the deal. Relief at actually knowing the result, was my overwhelming feeling at the time.

As the presentations took place it was good to meet Wayne Ibbotson who told me that he’d hardly lost a fish all day and felt had fished a tidy match. Perhaps he deserved to go through, as clearly I didn’t get the maximum from my peg. Anyway, I commiserated him and would genuinely like to see him qualify for a final in the future.

On the long drive home I was inundated with nice messages and phone calls and in-between considered the massive part luck had played in the result. This year I had entered the London Marathon, which meant that I didn’t enter the Milo Festival at Whiteacres, as the 2 events clashed. If I had entered the Milo (as I would have) then I’d have been in Cornwall and not at Makins. I guess it’s sort of an Angling Version of the film ‘Sliding Doors’ – but without Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998 (unfortunately!)

Thanks to Sky Sports, Tight Lines for the pictures.

Evesham Festival August 2014. Bank Holiday Monday Team Match

The bank holiday Monday August team match is the finale of the Evesham Festival and consists of fourteen teams, which are a mixture of invited and qualifying teams. My team Maver Image were fortunate enough to be one of the invited ones, fortunate, as qualifying for this final is not a straight forward prospect. It is a great event as there is tackle show, a bookie and other entertainment occurring in the Crown Meadow behind the early numbers. These attractions draw a decent head of spectators, with the prospect of seeing some competitive team angling to boot.

The standard of the teams and anglers is extremely good with many of the current (and past) Drennan Team England squad on show. The top teams in the country were all present and the ‘Big 3’ of Dorking, Starlets and Barnsley were all there. In fact it was actually a ‘Big 4’ as Starlets had 2 teams entered! The only thing to put a literal dampener on the day was the weather, with persistent rain making it uncomfortable for anglers and spectators alike.

The interesting thing about this match was the small team size (teams of five) as opposed to the usual eight or ten man teams. One way of looking at this is that the ‘smaller’ teams could put out a stronger team as less strength in depth is required, but on the flip side the ‘big’ teams could put out an uber strong team of superstars. So I’m not sure if this was to the benefit or detriment to any of the teams. Our team of five was Gary Miller, Peter Vasey, James Drakulic, Danny Grimsey & myself. We also had our team manager Syd Wilson and squad member John Weeden to run the bank. The team was picked firmly with bloodworm fishing in mind and was arguably our strongest five anglers at this. We have all done loads of bloodworm fishing especially on hard canals and were hopeful that this would stand us in good stead for this challenge. Also, Gary Miller is an ex Wychavon Champ and himself and Peter Vasey have had Evesham success in the past with the original match fishing super team; Van Den Eyne Essex County.

After looking at the match results of the preceding two days competitions, it was clear that the fishing was not just hard, but very, very hard, with countless DNWs and weights of less than a pound on both days. The river had been very low and clear and coupled with the enormous amount of angling pressure as well, it appeared to have switched off. There is one big difference though in that the preceding days matches had all been individual matches, whereas a team match means that a whole different mind-set and approach is required.

Ok, so to the most important part of any fishing match, the draw. Over the years I have become a big believer in luck (in both fishing and in life in general) playing a massive outcome on one’s path. I am absolutely convinced that given ten different draw bag scenarios, you’ll get different results and often HUGELY different results. This is what makes fishing so unpredictable in that you could possibly have one of the worst match anglers in the world beating one of the best; if the ‘gods of luck’ are assisting the lesser angler. Anyway, back to the match and the guys were very keen for me to do the draw (apparently lucky ...hmmmm…) and with all of this peer pressure I couldn’t say no. For once we were fairly near to the start of the draw and were about 5^th to draw I think, which gave me the dilemma of lots of envelopes still to pick. I vividly remember picking one that seemed to be staring at me and asking me to pick it, as it was slightly on top of one of the other envelopes. Despite thinking it may be trying to bluff me I picked it and it turned out to be team draw number 5 and gave us the following sequence of pegs (I think I've got some of these wrong, my memory is poor!).

Peg 5 – Me

Peg 18 – Peter Vasey

Peg 35 – James Drakulic
Peg 49 – Gary Miller
Peg 64 – Danny Grimsey

The obvious stand out peg was peg 35, this was on the mouth of where the River Isbourne joins the River Avon. On the Saturday it had produced a winning weight of chub to Lee Edwards who had fished the waggler and maggots. James Drakulic had drawn this peg and I have seen James at close quarters over the last few years and at 22 he is an exceptional talent. He has been for a couple of England trials and has been unsuccessful, which means that we must have a frighteningly good crop of young anglers in this country if he cannot get in. Great for the future. Back to peg 35 and it is by no means a ‘gimme’, as the chub do not always show, which was shown by the Sunday result from this peg. It could actually be a tricky one, because you have to try for the chub and if they don’t show, you’ll be behind on bloodworm fish for sure. Gary Miller’s verdict was that it looked like a reasonable draw and Syd Wilson’s ‘dossier’!!! confirmed the same and we all went away content to our pegs.

My peg was number 5 in Crown Meadow and when I arrived at my peg, it became evident that we had drawn between Dorking (upstream) and Bait tech (downstream). More specifically my upstream neighbour was ex World Champion and Drennan Team England angler William Raison. I’m not sure who the Bait-tech lad was downstream of me. In fact it transpired that I had three current England internationals and two World Champions in my section (Sean Ashby, Lee Kerry and William!). This was as high a standard team match as anywhere domestically.

Gary Miller had drawn peg 4 on the Saturday Wychavon Championships and told me that my peg is set out slightly further than peg 4 which would give me an obvious advantage over my neighbour. His overall consensus was that some of the pegs to my right could be better and also peg one, as it was an end peg. Whenever I have fished Evesham before I have always fished off a top four or five, however, this peg was appreciably shallower at 4.5-5 foot and consequently had a small amount of flow. I have to admit that it looked appealing, despite the water clarity being clear.

Our team mantra was to fish for bites and to keep putting fish, whatever their size, into the net. Fishing for big fish would only occur out of desperation. It was clear that they had not been showing the prior two days, so we were not stacking the odds in our favour by fishing for these. Even though we expected it to be a bloodworm, small fish affair, we all set up lots of tackle to cover all eventualities. Specifically, I set up a 5m line for bloodworm, a 13m line for bloodworm, a 14.5m line for hemp, an 11m line down my peg for chopped worm, a waggler and a maggot feeder/bomb line.

I set up a 0.6 gram rig for five metres, where I fed 50mls of joker in five balls of 25% ground bait and 75% soil. Here I was simply hoping to get bites. The 13m line was where I anticipated spending the majority of my day and here I assembled 2 rigs. Firstly, a positive bulked down 1 gram olivette rig, which would allow me to see bites quickly and also fish quicker. I also set up a 0.6 gram rig, should there be more quality fish present and better presentation being the name of the game. My 14.5m hemp line was a throwaway line, where I would simply loose feed 8-10 grains of hemp throughout the day on this line. I was optimistic of catching a few fish on it though as Gary Miller had 8 late hemp fish from peg 4 on the Saturday. The rig was a 0.4 gram strung out pattern, which was set just off the bottom.

It was nice to have a couple of hours at my peg to set up, as I am notoriously slow at setting up (and packing up!). Not only was there a lot of gear to assemble, but it also gave me ample time to run my rigs through and to get them behaving exactly how I required them too. This boosted my confidence nicely before the all in.

As the clock ticked towards the 11am start, I made my balls up in advance for the 13m line. We had discussed that even though the fishing was rock hard, balling in would still be the way to go, as the initial noise could draw fish in and give you a flying start. This also fitted into my previous Evesham experiences, where I have always had an early burst of fish after balling, before bite less monotony ensued! I balled in 8 jaffas of soil and ground bait with an 80:20 ratio of soil to ground bait, with just a pinch of joker in. I then cupped in 8 smaller balls with 125ml of joker in a 60:40 ratio of soil to ground bait. The theory behind this being that the initial bombardment would provide noise attraction to any fish in the area, with very little feed in it. The fish would then hone in on the precisely placed 8 balls of attractive cupped in bait. Right on cue as the match started the heavens opened and rain of biblical proportions remained for the rest of the day.

First put in on my 13m line I had a bite! ……. which I missed. Next run through I hooked a fish that immediately came towards the surface only to be instantly grabbed by a Pike which emerged from the depths in a blink of the eye! After a brief tussle I was one hook length down and slightly annoyed. Although, to be fair Syd Wilson’s dossier did mention Pike were often a problem in this peg so I couldn’t be surprised! Throughout the first hour I hooked plenty of fish, although most were tiny (about three to the ounce) which was obviously not the stamp that I was looking for. Every time I hooked something better it was taken by a Pike and they were even taking some of my tiny fish, which is really unusual in my experience. The difficulty I was having was that many of the Pike attacks were occurring directly over my feed, which meant that I had no chance of steering them away from the jaws of death. After hour 1, I’d had 6 Pike on and was shipping back like a maniac to try and land something!

Comparing myself to the others in sight, it seemed like I was the only one with Pike trouble. The Bait-Tech angler to my right was catching much better than me. He wasn’t catching quickly, but all of his fish were of a cracking stamp and unless my eyes deceived me, he’d had a 12 ounce roach too. William to my left appeared to be catching regularly, but his fish were tiny in stamp like mine.

At this point I decided that it was time to rest the long line and switch attention to the short line. Here I topped up with lots of ‘tinies’ over the next 30 minutes, which meant I was very slowly adding weight to my net. Throughout this time I was metronomically pinging hemp onto my 14.5m line. Evesham is unique in that every hour a guy walks along asking every angler what they have caught and from their responses (presumably) tries to work out a ‘live’ team position, which is subsequently announced over the tannoy system. The top individuals in each section are also announced, so you do have a fair idea of what is going on. At this stage the perceived front runners were the 2 Starlets team and Barnsley. Apart from my 6 Parkdean final appearances, I rarely get to fish in front of a crowd and today was no different, as they were all watching William next door!! Quite understandably though, as he is an international and a World Champion!

Anyway back to the fishing and another try on my 13m line resulted in plenty of bites, but again from mainly tiny fish. I was now finding the odd ‘better’ fish of around an ounce which made me feel like my weight was sort of ticking over. More importantly, I’d sussed out a pike avoidance tactic! I I bought the fish right upstream before shipping back and I seemed to be guiding them around old esox, which were seemingly sitting directly in front of me.

Both of my short and long lines appeared to die half way through the day and I topped up both with a joker rich ball of soil. To my surprise, I had a nice burst of slightly better roach and perch on the 5m line, which again made me feel like I was ticking over. These didn’t last for long though and I had to keep rotating the long and short bloodworm lines to keep bites coming. I’d now started to catch a few gudgeon on my long bloodworm line too, which seemed to be bigger than the micro roach. It’s not often you describe gudgeon as ‘bonus fish’! I also had a quick look on the hemp line, although I didn’t have a bite.

The Baitech angler to my right seemed to have slowed up, but was well ahead of me due to the stamp of fish he had caught early doors, meanwhile William was still catching the ‘tinies’ and had tried the waggler without too much success. Team manager Syd has also been up and had delivered some encouraging news, in that he felt that we were all in the top halves of our sections, with James Drakulic winning his. It gave me a great boost to hear that we were in the mix and I was determined to scrape every last dram from my peg.

There was now only half an hour left and on went a grain of hemp and out to 14.5 metres of my Browning Z10 pole I shipped. This time something totally different happened in that the float trundled a few metres downstream before shooting away and I was attached to a decent fish! Gingerly I guided it upstream fearing that jaws would grab it any second. Fortunately it didn’t occur and a 6 ounce red fin was sitting in my net. I always feel that with baits like hemp, getting the first bite is the hardest thing and so it proved as over the remaining duration of the match I hooked another 9 hemp fish, landing 6 and losing 3 to Pike before the all-out sounded. Agonisingly, I’d lost a 4 ouncer in the last minute of the match to a Pike that snatched it inches from my net! All in all I’d lost 12 fish to Pike during the match, but I have learnt to be philosophical about things which are out of your control. Word on the bank was that the guys to my right, in the middle of the section had caught very well. Also, Lee Kerry on peg 2 had apparently got a decent weight and I felt that I may be battling it out for halfway at best.

The tannoy continued to give ‘live’, but now ‘actual’ results as the match was being weighed in and I clearly heard that after the weighing of the bottom 3 sections we were in the lead, which was brilliant and slightly unexpected, as the announcer had not mentioned that we were in the running all day. Anyway, as the scales arrived at me, there had been 3 ‘big’ weights which I had no hope of beating. Adrian Higginbottom on peg 8 with 14lb, Sean Ashby on peg 15 with 11-4-8 and the Baitech lad downstream of me with 7lb odd. Adrian and Shaun also took 1^st and 2^nd in the match incidentally. I pulled my net out and had loads of fish, but most of which were tiny. I seemed to have either tiny fish of under half an ounce or fish of over 3 ounces (my 7 hemp fish) and nothing in between, which is very unusual. My weight of 4-9-8, put me 4^th in the section with 3 anglers still to weigh in, one of which was Lee Kerry on peg 2 who was sure to beat me. Various people were doing the number crunching and it now appeared that things were going to be really close between ourselves and Barnsley. William had 2lb odd upstream of me, whilst Lee weighed in between 8-10lb (I can’t remember) which pushed me down to 5^th in my 14 man section. Things were now really tight as both Barnsley and Starlets had taken points off me in the section. Fortunately peg 1 weighed in 3lb odd, which meant that I hadn’t dropped any further points.

We were all a bit unsure of the final outcome as the tannoy didn’t seem to continue announcing the results, although various people felt that we had the verdict by 1 or 2 points. We couldn’t find team manager Syd Wilson to ask, as he had been noting every result down from the sections …. WHERE WAS SYD?? Well it transpired that Syd had hot footed it to the bookies as he knew we’d won and had £20 each way on us at 12/1 and was keen to pick up his £340 before the bookie did one!!

Our final points tally was 55 points, made up as follows:

James Drakulic 1^st 14 points (3^rd overall in match)

Danny Grimsey 3^rd 12 points

Gary Miller 5^th 10 points

Me 5^th 10 points

Peter Vasey 6^th 9 points

It goes without saying that we were overjoyed with the outcome. It also means that the team has had a decent year so far after winning the Sensas Challenge Final UK qualifier on the Ouse at Littleport in March.

Overall team result:

Maver Image 55 points

Starlets 54 points

Barnsley 51 points

It has since been said that we managed to line up the best set of pegs, but as everyone knows you need to have lady luck on your side in match fishing and I’m sure that many team matches are won off of the best draw, so it’s pretty inconsequential really. Long may it continue!

Sunday 15th December 2013. Angling Trust Winter League London Division Final Round. Grand Union Canal, Milton Keynes

I've not found the time to update my blog for over 5 years now, however, I was particularly keen to write about this match as it is likely to be the last ever Angling Trust London Winter League match in the history of the World!

The league is likely to fold next year as 2 teams are dropping out, which has caused my team (Maver Image) to apply to join the East Midlands Winter league. I have fished the London league for about the last ten years, originally with Browning Wickford and now with Maver Image. During this time the league has mainly revolved around canal fishing, although odd forays have been made to 'alien' venues such as the rivers Lea and Cam, as well as commercial fisheries in Willow Park and Tingrith. Normally the one year experiment has been enough on these venues and the following year it has been six rounds on the canals again!

Throughout this period of time I have travelled most weeks with my travelling partner Danny Grimsey and with nearly every round between 70 and 120 miles away, I hate to think the number of miles that we have clocked up. The early days of the league were the most memorable for me as there were eight teams in the league back then (as opposed to five now). One of which being the UK's first professional team in Essex County VDE. Before they disbanded, they won the league every year during the time in which I have been competing. I do remember one year when our young and very keen Wickford team took them to the final round at Willow Park, where they just pipped us by one point, I think.

The canal venues themselves have always been a great attraction for me. After reading Kim Milsom's 'Match Angling Plus' blogs, these were venues that I always wanted to fish, especially if I was fishing against Essex County and the heroes that their squad possessed. They were also the team that I wanted to fish for, especially as I am from Essex. Unfortunately I never actually did though!

It is a real shame that the league is folding, but I feel that many anglers cannot be bothered to put in the effort and/or learn the skills required to fish these venues and just fish commercials all year round. They are missing out though as it is pretty much impossible to ship your pole back through dog shit on a commercial fishery! Seriously though, the thing that has always captured me is arriving at your peg on a canal and not knowing what you are going to catch. These venues are not fished regularly and you could catch anything, (or nothing) it is exciting not actually knowing. Generally on a commercial you know that a carp between 3 and 8 pound will be on the end when the float disappears. Peoples expectations have now been raised higher as a result of commercials and i think that many will no longer tolerate catching 80 fish for 2lb. Don't get me wrong I love commercials, they can offer some fantastic fishing and I spend loads of time on them, however, I couldn't fish them all of the time.

Going back to the reasons why the league is folding, the few young match anglers that do come into the sport inevitably just fish commercials. This is where the big money finals are and they will generally catch their first fish from a commercial anyway (James Drakulic in our team is an exception to this rule and is good enough for the under 23 squad in my opinion). Therefore, you are never going to find new up and coming teams that fish natural venues being created.

The other downfall of the league is that it is very competitive. We have had various teams come and go in the league, some of these because they are making up the numbers. The fact is that people like to win and if they're not competing they'll lose interest and leave instead of trying to improve. It's a sad fact, but that is just life I'm afraid and I can understand it to a certain extent actually.

I may have given the impression earlier that these canal venues are like a 'lucky dip', where you just don't know what you are going to catch next, but this is not the case and in recent years the fishing has deteriorated. The fish populations seem to be changing, which is definitely offering less consistent fishing. Maybe I'm looking through rose tinted glasses, but in my early days of fishing the league there seemed to be roach all of the way through. Whereas now there seem to more bigger fish, like carp, bream and perch, which are often localised around features and get walked to end pegs etc. This can cause a feast or famine situation, especially in a 5 peg section. Our best angler and ex Drennan Knockout Cup Champ Gary Miller has been last in his section twice this year, which underlines this point I think.

A further reason for the difficulty in finding decent boundaries to fish, has been caused by the increase in boats. Apparently in central London, canals are totally banged out with boats now and you'd have no hope of getting 50 pegs in (that's not to mention safety issues and the lack of parking!)
I've noticed that there seems to be more boats around the Milton Keynes area this year too, maybe it's to do with house prices being so high that more people are actually choosing to live on boats!?

Ok that's enough rambling about the history of the league and onto the match itself, let me set the scene. This was a very 'important' match as the league was finely poised. Sensas Oakwood were winning the league by a point, from ourselves (Maver Image) and a further point behind ourselves were Garbolino Blackhorse. The way that the winter league works is that the top two teams go through to fish a semi final against other qualifying teams from the south of England.Two semi final venues are chosen by the Angling Trust and the winning team from each league choose their venue and the 2nd place team go to the other venue. Typically, a natural venue and a commercial fishery is chosen and this year was no exception. The venues were both attractive propositions this year, one being Colemans Cottage, which is a great venue and only fifteen minutes from my house! The other being the Kennet & Avon canal, which has been a semi final before and one which my teams have always qualified from.

Ok, so the final round of our league was to be held on the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes. Specifically, the sections were split between Rogues Lane to New Bradwell and Deans Road. The draw itself was being held at the 'Super Sausage Cafe' in Potterspury and has to be the best cafe that I have ever been to! After a 5 am start, a good fry up is a must to get you 'match fit'! Our team for the day was as follows:

Steve Clark (captain)
Andy Mead
Chris Vandervleit
John Weeden
Danny Grimsey
James Drakulic
Peter Vasey
Martin Foster
Steve Joy
Me

Plus we were 'guided' expertly by our team manger Syd Wilson. Unfortunately we were missing our strongest angler Gary Miller, who has recently become a Dad and was on 'baby duty'.

The practice match indicated that it would be a small fish affair and could be peggy in areas, as the canal was certainly clearer than normal. MK generally holds a tinge of colour which means that fish often remain well spread. 3-4lb was our target weight for 'good' points (1st or 2nd in section). Before the draw everyone received a pep talk from 'the emperor' Pete Vasey, as he is widely acknowledged to be one of the best at this style of fishing. This is quite unusual for our team, as normally we simply attack our pegs as we see fit, however, this was likely to be a 'method' water so it was important that everyone was on the same wave length with regards to lines to fish and also quantities of bait to feed.

The draw was made and it was time to talk through our pegs. On paper it appeared that we had drawn reasonably and had hopefully avoided any horrendous pegs. Fortunately, for myself I had drawn the end peg to the left of Deans Road. End pegs are always a big advantage on canals and this draw was merely a continuation of my good drawing fortune in the league. I had already managed 3 end pegs to date in preceding winter league rounds/practice matches! As a result some good natured 'banter' was flying around from my team mates, r.e greedily taking the teams best peg again, but not actually in those words if you know what I mean! It's always great to draw decent pegs, but the pressure to do well comes with that. I always think that it's important to win your section off an end peg or you've dropped points for the team.

My travelling partner Danny had drawn on the boats at New Bradwell, which was likely to be an ok section on paper, although he did have an end peg to contend with in his section. He dropped me off at Deans Road and I soon arrived at my peg. To look at it was a typical non descript bit of canal with concrete banks and just a few brambles protruding from the far bank. Although with not an angler in sight to my left I was very optimistic about proceedings.

My first job was to prepare my joker. Pete Vasey had managed to source some Belgian (same as polish) joker, which is becoming almost impossible to obtain these days. We had also ordered the 'standard' Russian joker as a back up . The reason why the Belgian is preferable is due to it being bigger, more lively and consequently easier to hook. For these reasons it is thought to me more enticing to roach and perch too.

In an ideal world I'd have got my joker the day before to allow myself to prepare it adequately, however, I wasn't driving to London to pick it up, so I'd have to sort it on the bank. I immediately riddled it to remove the dead and then put a small amount of the live stuff onto a very fine joker riddle. The small joker goes through the riddle and leaves the largest joker on top of the mesh. These are what I use as hookers and when the fish do not want to eat a bloodworm can be a killer bait.

Whilst the joker was going through the riddle I plumbed up 6 lines. Line number 1 was fished at 1 o'clock, at 5 joints. Here I expected to catch Perch on bloodworm. Line number 2 was at 6 joints in the deepest water to fish the bread. Line number 3 was at 10.5 metres, just going up the far shelf, here I would fish bloodworm and joker in double leam. Line number 4 was a lobworm line at 13 metres towards the empty canal to my left and at the bottom of the far shelf in the deepest water. Line number 5 was in 3 feet of water at 11 o'clock at 12 metres to fish over raw joker. Finally line number 6 was at the same depth and distance but at 2o'clock. This was a 'spare' line and was not fed at the start and could be fed if/when needed, when I knew how the canal was fishing.

I should mention that in my section from the 'main' rival teams was Gary Eales from Oakwood on peg 5 and Lee Newsome from Blackhorse on peg 3. Back to the match and in the first hour I managed caught 3 8 ounce skimmers on the bread, plus 15-20 small roach. My general rule of thumb on canal matches is if you get a bite on bread in the first 5 minutes, you'll have a decent day and very often it rings true. I also managed a 'big burglar' of 1.5lb on my first drop in on the lob and one of a pound shortly later. A smattering of chublets and small perch came to my net in between. This gave me a good 4lb at the end of the first 1.5 hours and a perfect start, especially as there didn't seem to be too much of any significance being caught in the rest of the section. I decided to feed another lobbie line 13 metres to my right, in the same depth and at the bottom of the far shelf, which is always the sign of a good day.

At around this point 'team manager' Syd Wilson approached, as he was running all of the Deans Road sections. Amid much 'effing and jeffing', told me that I had to win my section as the team had a very poor start and were already playing catch up, as he felt we were 3rd overall. A result which could possible see us not qualify.

For the next hour I worked the bread line, the lobworm line and the short b/j line, which kept me ticking over, although there no signs of any further bonus fish. A boat charging through the inside of my peg put paid to those lines and at the half way mark it was time to look across, which had had a nice rest for 2.5 hours.

By rotating the 10.5 metre double leam line and 12 metre raw line, I was able to keep bursts of small roach and perch coming to my net for the next hour or so. Topping up the double leam line a couple of times with reasonably joker rich egg sized balls kept the fish coming. The light was now fading and it had started to rain quite heavily too as the last hour approached. I re-fed the lobworm lines and also the bread line, as the lower light levels often mean that a late bonus can be caught.

These late bonus fish did materialise and in the next hour caught 5 more Perch between 12 ounces and 1.5lb on my original lob worm line. It can often be a problem keeping 'big' Perch on the hook, however I was winning 7-0, which is quite unusual. Murphy's Law dictates that if you hook only 1 during the day and really need it, that's when it'll come off! It's happened to me before a few times.

Whenever I needed to top this line up, I was able to get a fish every put in on either my raw line or double leam line. These were 'only' small Roach and Perch, but kept me nicely ticking over. At the final whistle and at the end of a thoroughly enjoyable day, I'd bagged 7 lobworm Perch, 2 bread skimmers and 95 bloodworm fish for 13lb 12 ounces. This was enough for a section win from Blackhorse's Lee Newsome in second. Unfortunately, in the other Deans Road sections the news was not so good, as we'd struggled overall, with a few average-poor pegs to blame. Conversely, down the other end of the match we'd fared excellently which gave us a real liquorice all sorts of results. Danny had also won his section and had included a fine specimen roach of 1lb 9 ounces in his net, caught on bloodworm! Ironically, a few years back I also caught a 'massive' roach on the same tactics from almost the same peg. I wonder if it is the same fish?

We'd actually amassed 5 section wins, but that only gave us a total of 36 points. Fortunately, I'd won the match individually, which I'm not ashamed to say I was very pleased about as it is likely to be my final London Winter League match ever. However, I'm realistic and know that many of the competitors would have also won from the peg. The power of an end peg can never be underestimated. As it was lashing down with rain I couldn't be bothered to get a picture of my catch, although of course I wish I did now!

The most important thing was the team result though and our 36 points was 2nd on the day, with Oakwood amassing 38 points to win on the day. Blackhorse were 3rd with 34 points. This meant that Oakwood were crowned deserved champions. I think I am right in saying that it is the first time that they have won the league in 20 years of trying, so no one can begrudge them this win.Oakwood have chosen the Kennet & Avon canal as their semi final venue, which leaves us with Colemans Cottage. I'd expect this to be a very close semi final as most of the teams that qualify these days, exclusively fish commercials, so everyone knows the methods required. The draw will probably be the deciding factor on the day. The great thing about Colemans for me personally, is that it is a whole 15 minutes from my house and for once, lovely short journeys to the practice matches!

Angling Times Winter League London Division Final Round. Grand Union Canal, Slough Arm 5 Teams. 50 Pegs

The London Winter League was finely poised going into the final round, with 3 teams all in with a shout of achieving 1st or 2nd and clinching one of the two semi final spots. After 5 rounds the league table had Browning Wickford (my team) and Oakwood Eurobait as joint leaders on 11 points. With our rivals Image Van Den Eyne a point further adrift on 12. It was now crunch time and unlike "Strictly Come Dancing" someone had to go. We knew that a first or a second in this final match should ensure us a semi final spot, although there were many permutations which could unravel which we didn't want to think about at this stage.

The London Winter League is based entirely on natural venues (5 rounds on canals and 1 on a river). It may only be a small league (5 teams, 50 pegs) but is very competitive as most of the anglers are "cut heads" and as this years points show there is now no stand out team after the demise of Essex County. This competitiveness is unfortunately the leagues downfall as it appears unable to attract new teams.

The Slough Arm is normally ultra reliable and is a perfect team match venue in which a team plan can be formulated for the whole venue. In short it is a method water with few bonus fish and one in which the draw plays little part, exactly how match fishing should be. This can be illustrated by Essex County always winning this round when they were in the league because they were the best team. The Slough Arm is an offshoot of the Grand Union Canal and the area we were fishing was on the boats at Langley Bridge to the Gypsy camp. The canal here varies in width depending on the number of boats moored up on the far bank, yes you can get a single boat, a double boat or even a treble boat, most of which are inhabited! Therefore, pegs vary between 8 and 13 metres in width depending on the number of boats moored up.

The practice match had shown the Slough Arm to be decidedly off colour. It had been frozen solid and everyone was caught out by how patchy it had fished. Also the winning weight had consisted of skimmers which was unheard of in recent times on the Slough Arm. Unfortunately not all the boat owners seemed pleased with our presence in the practice and there was a slanging match between an angler and a boat owner over the use of an ice breaker so close to his pride and joy, which came close to blows being exchanged! I made a mental note of the white boat this nutter resided on and hoped to avoid it the next week. My practice match had been devoid of lunatic boat owners but also of fish by only weighing in a pathetic 1lb 8ounces. Nothing I had tried had worked and I was more than a bit concerned about the real match.

Back to the match proper and the draw was actually quite a laid back affair as no one was overly fussed whether they pulled peg 1,2,3,4,5 out of the hat. I had been doing the team draw for the past few rounds as apparently I am a total drawbag? Anyway, I pulled out peg 3 and my draw put me in F section which was right in the middle of the match length. I was quite happy with this draw as their had been a few 4-6 pound weights in the area the week before and I hoped for a few fish. When I reached the canal I instantly noticed it was absolutely different from the previous week. Firstly, it wasn't frozen and secondly it seemed to be holding lots more colour as well. The team had discussed our approach to the match and we felt the fishing could be worse than the practice match due to ice water melting into the venue and torrential rain the day before pushing water temperatures really low. This was to be reflected in our feeding approaches as well.

Bait for the Day

1 Kilo of joker.
small English bloodworm.
loaf of finely sieved liquidised bread.
hooker bread.
Sensas Joker Fix.
Soil.
Aquarium Gravel.

As I progressed towards my peg I could see a white boat looming in the distance and remembered this was the peg I wanted to avoid .... and to my relief my peg was one peg past it! My peg looked a fairly typical Slough Arm Peg with a double boat opposite at about 10.5 metres . Obviously my aim was to win the section and the anglers in my section from the other competing teams were Oakwoods big John Davis and Images Steve Tyler. JD was next to me on peg 4 with Steve on peg 5.

Rigs and Tactics

Several lines are usually required on the Slough Arm in order to keep the fish coming as they tend to spook after a few have been caught down one hole, therefore I plumbed up 5 lines but only fed 4 at the start. Line 1 was to be 6 joints on bread punch straight out in front of me in the deepest water (about 4 foot). Here I would feed about 200 mls of liquidised bread. Line 2 was to be at about 10 o' clock at 7 joints again in the deepest water. This would be my soil and joker line. I would feed this with 4 orange size balls of soil with 25 mls of joker in at the start. I would be primarily targeting perch on this line and this could come into its own if the canal was rock hard. My theory of feeding lots of soil but hardly any joker revolved around trying to keep Perch foraging in the soil for every last joker, the 25mls would not overfeed them and the soil would hold them. There is definitely something about soil that attracts Perch.

Line 3 would be at 2 o'clock again at seven sections, here I fed 75 mls of joker in a bit of grey leam and gravel to get it down to the bottom quickly in the realitively deep water. Line 4 was tight to the boat opposite me in about 2.5 foot of water at 10.5 metres, here I fed 100mls of raw joker and this would be left as long as possible before fishing. I also plumbed up a reserve line at 2 oclock against the boat again in 2.5 foot. If things were going badly on the other lines I could feed here accordingly, however this was un fed at the start. One thing to mention is when plumbing up against the boat I made sure I avoided the holes in the side of it, as the last thing you want is the contents of the boats bog/sink gushing into your peg!

Rig 1 was a 0.2 Browning Versuvius for the punch with a spread bulk of 11's and 4 11's droppers. Line was 0.08 to 0.06 Browning Cenitan to a size 22 B511. Elastic number 3.
Rig 2 was the same float but in 0.4 with an olivette and 2 no 10 droppers, on the same line, hook and elastic. This was in case I was bagging on the punch.
Rig 3 was an old wire stem Milo float (don't know the name) in 4x12 with a fine fibre bristle. This float was shotted with 12s in the bulk and 4 number 12 droppers. Line was again 0.08 to 0.06 and the hook was an original Image IM1. Elastic number 2. This would be used on either of my down the middle joker lines.
Rig 4 was the same float but in 4X14, should I be bagging.
Rig 5 was a Browning Esmeralda in 0.1 for fishing to the boat and was shotted with a small bulk of 12s and three droppers. Line, elastics and hooks were the same as on the other joker rigs.

After feeding my lines, as always on canals the breads the one to start on and depending upon the response you get it can be an indicator of what might lay ahead. JD next to me also started on the bread and had an ounce roach first put in and I soon followed suit seconds later. An encouraging start and I felt optimistic. 7 roach in 7 put ins gave me some grounds for optimism, however 5 minutes without a bite had me moving lines onto the soil line. This soon bought me a couple of small perch, before dying. In the first hour I had 25 fish a mixture of roach and perch by switching between the bread and the soil lines. More importantly I was up with the other anglers in my section and I was not playing catch up.

On the hour I decided it was time to refeed the bread and in went 125 mls of loose liquidised. The response was instant and dramatic, as I put together a run of mixed sized roach including several netters. Nearly all of my bites were coming on the drop to a 4mm piece of punch and my catch rate really began to accelerate. Even better was the fact that no-one in my section seemed to be catching at the rate I was and I was sure I now had a lead. At the end of hour 2 I had 65 fish in the net for about 4.5 lbs. At this rate I felt I may be able to get close to 200 fish. However the punch line began to slow so I topped it up with a further 125mls and went on my 7metre grey leam and gravel joker line at 2 o'clock.

A small single bloodworm was the hookbait and the float buried just as the bait was falling through the final few inches and I caught a 4 ounce roach. This was the sign to bust off the size 26 IM1 and I replaced it with a 24 B5ll which would hold onto these better stamp fish better. Incidentally most people would have changed to a green gama at this point, however I don't use these as I have had some shit batches in the past with short points and have had terrible trouble with fish dropping off the hook. Anyway I had a short burst of decent fish on this line with double joker being the best bait before this died and I looked on the long line at 10.5 metres in 2.5 foot. Again I caught instantly and I soon appreciated how clear the canal was as the fish flashed as soon as I hooked it. A similar pattern emerged to the short joker line in that bites soon stopped after a short burst. It was obvious the canal was fishing way above my expectations and I knew I should have fed my joker lines more positively as this would have held fish for longer before topping up. I topped up both lines with a "walnut" of greyed joker and went back to the punch line.

With about 3 hours gone the bank runners were suggesting it was a two horse race between us and Image which was encouraging and the news I wanted to hear. I felt I was ahead in my section so it was a case of keeping concentration to make sure things remained that way. The good thing about the Slough Arm is you know that no one is likely to catch a large bonus fish, so unless you stop catching things should go your way.

I caught again instantly on the punch with decent fishing giving way to smaller samples after the more I caught. With the swim showing it would take a top up my match developed a pattern. I would catch as long as I could on the punch before it faded. At this point I topped up with 125mls of loose liquidised and rested for ten minutes whilst I caught a few on the joker lines before topping them up with a nugget. Although my punch swim was solid at times it was strange that I couldn't get my heavy bagging rig to work, the presentation was obviously wrong as I caught many of my fish on the drop.

Going into the last hour things were beginning to get harder on all lines with the fish also averaging about half an ounce. My 200 fish target was looking out of sight. However as is often the case in the last 20 minutes my catch rate accelerated as the light began to fade and I couldn't get in quick enough. My match was cut short though by a boat ploughing through my peg with 5 minutes left and that was that, I had ended up with 171 fish which were mainly roach. In all I had fed about 2/3's of a loaf of liquidised and a third of a kilo of joker.

In hindsight I had been a bit caught out by how well the canal had fished and my joker lines were all too negative on the day. With heaps of roach in the peg I would have ditched the soil line and fed just 2 positive joker lines. Feeding 250 mls of joker on each at the start. I think this would have allowed me to catch for longer on each lines and would have prolonged the top up which is always risky.

The scales arrived and I put 8lb 13 ounces 8 drams on them which was good enough for a section win. Steve Tyler was 2nd with 5lb odd and John Davis 3rd with 4lb odd. I was pleased I had done my job and I walked up to see my team mate Danny Grimsey who had finished 2nd in his section so things were looking encouraging.

Back at the draw though things didn't appear so rosy as a sea of glum faces greeted me. Apparently, Image had annihilated the match with 7 section wins and 44 points, whilst us and Oakwood both had 35 points. This would mean a 3 way tie at the top with Image winning the league on the number of match wins. Apparently though Oakwood had a better count back record than us over the previous 5 matches. Things were getting complicated and as we racked our brains to compare results with Oakwood it actually transpired we had 3 2nds in matches to their 2 2nds in matches and this would be enough to sneak us through!! To say it had gone down to the wire would be an understatement and without the excitement team match fishing the fishing year would be much the poorer.

I actually felt sorry for the Oakwood lads at the end as they often seem to miss out by a small margin and hadn't deserved to go out in this manner. The semi is at Gold Valley and as we qualified from here 3 years ago (2nd behind Dorking), we have some experience of the venue. However I believe our semi final is the tougher of the two southern semis, so several teams have a good chance of qualifying. Mind you with the final still being on the Nene (with half the match on the dire North Bank) is there such a big incentive to qualify anyway? .....

Whiteacres Preston Innovations Festival & Parkdean Masters Final. 6th - 11th October 2008. 180 Pegs.

The Parkdean Masters Final (alongside Fish O' Mania) is the most prestigious individual match in the UK match calendar and also carries a prize of £25,000 to the winner. I would say it is harder to win than Fish' O' Mania because you have to fish a number of matches to qualify for the final, all of which require consistent results to leave you in the running against the country's best anglers. It is fished to the same format as the other Whiteacres festivals, the only difference being the top 24 anglers qualify for a 4 hour shoot out on Jenny's Lake in front of the TV cameras for the big prize. I'd had the added luxury of fishing the Maver Festival the week before and had finished 27th with 30 points. This was not a result I was planning to replicate in the Parkdean week as only 26th and 25th places would be more agonizing! Steve Ringer had blitzed the Maver festival with a flawless 5 section wins!

Good news on the horizon was the weather forecast of light winds and temperatures in the low twenties for the week. This would be in stark contrast to the Maver where I was freezing cold and soaked everyday. Incidentally the fishing in the Maver had been harder than previous years obviously due to the KHV outbreak, however there are still stacks of fish in Whiteacres and fish can be caught from all pegs. The main difference being if you draw badly its time to scale down and to get out the worms and casters for silvers, rather than sitting it out for half a dozen carp.

I managed to avoid the Whiteacres "big 3" of Steve Ringer, William Raison and Des Ship in my section draw, so I was reasonably happy, however there are loads of top notch anglers in every section so no easy points are on offer. I was in "C" Section which put me on Trewaters first day. These are Clints new lakes and are predominantly stocked with fish under a pound, such as tench, F1's, skimmers and small carp. However there are a good sprinkling of bonus carp up to 4lb as well. I had fished here on the bottom lake on the last day of the previous weeks festival and finished 2nd in my section so felt I had some idea of what to expect.

Day 1. Trewaters. Peg 28

My draw of peg 28 put me on the top lake, which was a bit annoying as I had fished the bottom lake on Friday, however it sounded like both lakes were very similar anyway. My peg put me three quarters of the way down the far bank and with all pegs looking the same with just grass on the far bank there were no obvious features. There is a 13 metre pole limit at Trewaters, this is supposed to test the skills of anglers on varying methods and something I agree with. I believe a 16 metre limit would be good on all venues and would bring us more in line with the rest of Europe.

There was no easing into the festival as I had drawn Kieron Rich, Lee Kerry (who felt terrible with a heavy cold)and Simon Gould all in my 9 pegs, it was sure to be a tough battle to get a good start. The island was about 18 metres away and would be the place to focus my attentions to start with. I set up a Drennan Micro open end wire cage feeder on a running paternoster, which would be plugged with groundbait, micros and a few maggots. Single or double maggot on an 18 B611 tied to 0.10 Browning Cenitan comprised my terminal tackle. Due to the lack of wind I also assembled a waggler rod, which comprised 2.5lb Maxima line tied to the same terminal tackle as the feeder. The waggler was a 2.5AAA Drennan Peacock waggler set at about 2.5 feet. Both rods were clipped up tight to the far bank.

Three pole lines were fed and these comprised of two 13 metre swims at 10 o' clock and 2 o' clock and one at 5 metres. Floats on all of these lines were 4x12 KC Carpa Chimps on 0.12 to 0.10 Cenitan again with a Kamasan B611 hook. I also set up a 4X10 Chimp set to fish a few inches off the bottom. On all 3 lines I fed a golf ball of groundbait with a few micros, a few 4mms and a few maggots. Elastic was a 6 through 3 sections. It was a softly, softly approach as I'd learnt from the Maver Festival that you simply couldn't feed too much bait and had to build up your peg slowly.

My match was a busy affair and went reasonably well. I started off on the feeder and had indications immediately and caught a couple of tiny (2-3 ounce) F1's in the first 10 minutes. However I felt the waggler would provide better presentation and as I had been pinging half a dozen maggots across from the start went straight on it. This was miles better than the feeder and I caught another 10 fish fairly quickly on this before things went quiet. Most of my fish came quickly after casting, it was important to feather the float in so the bait landed tight to the far bank past the waggler. Kieron and Lee Kerry were also catching well though, Lee catching on the pole and Kieron on the waggler. Kieron is class on the wagg and had a definite better stamp of fish than me, as he netted several over a pound early on whilst all mine were smaller than a pound! I switched to the short pole and only had a couple of 1 ounce crucians which were useless, so I went out to 13 metres where I caught odd F1's, small carp and skimmers on pellet, which I kindered after every fish. It was noticeable though that a flurry of fish would be met with a quiet spell. I soon got into the rhythm of catching a few on the wagg before resting it and switching back to the long pole.

As the match progressed it was obviously becoming harder for everyone. As the last couple of hours approached Simon Gould began to latch in to some better stamp fish on the corner peg and even had something looking about 4lb, which was a massive bonus. I knew I could do with something of that ilk to boost my small fish net. Unfortunately it didn't come and I ended up with about 50 fish. I knew I had caught more fish than Kieron and Simon but they had bigger fish. Lee had also caught small fish like me and had a similar amount. I felt I could win the section or finish 4th it was impossible to predict. When the scales arrived Lee had weighed 26lb 14 ounces wih Simon putting 27lb 4 ounces on the scales. Thankfully I had 27lb 11 ounces, but Kieron weighed in 34lb (I think) to easily take the section. He had several fish over the pound mark, whilst I only had one, so was more than happy to finish second and get the festival off to a good start. Kieron picked up lake money so I got the section by default. Poor old Lee still felt like shite and had been ounced out by 2 people to add to his pain!

Day 2. Porth Resevoir. Peg 20

Porth Resevoir is a large, deep, natural expanse of water, with Roach, Skimmers and Perch the main targets. Although Des Shipp managed to conjure up an F1 in the Maver somehow! I had drawn peg 20 which put in the middle of the "meadow" section, this is traditionally the section with the lowest weights, so it was gonna be hard work for points again. I hadn't managed to avoid Kieron and he was on peg 24, which didn't overly fill me with joy, especially as the section had been won on the waggler the day before and he is one of the best at it!

My theory with Porth is you have to settle on one method after an hour of fishing or I find you disappear up your own asshole and don't do anything with conviction. I decided to make this decision particularly tough by setting up everything! This included 6 and 13 metres on the pole, a waggler and a feeder. I would fish for "bottletop" skimmers on the tip, roach and perch at 6 metres on the pole and skimmers on the long pole. The wind had strengthed considerably by the start, consequently it was obvious the waggler would not be viable.


The first hour of my Porth match followed it usual pattern with only 5 tiny skimmers coming to a chopped worm feeder and single pinkie with 2 also being chomped by pike. So that was an hour wasted and time to play catch up on the pole! The only good thing being that everyone else seemed to be struggling as well. I always feed 6 metres on the pole as a throw away line and have had some good results on it in the past, it dosen't always work though but was easy to loosefeed a dozen maggots every minute whilst I sat on the feeder. I had set up only 1 rig to cover this line and featured a 0.4 Browning Nevis on 0.09 to 0.08 Browning Cenitan and a size 20 Wide Gape Canal Seed hook. Shotting consisted of a spread bulk of number 11s and 4 number 11 droppers. Elastic was a 4 and the swim was about 5 feet deep. First put in on this line bought me a 2 ounce roach on the drop, followed by several more dumpy perch and the odd roach, which was really encouraging.


In the next hour it was clear the peg was solid and I caught about 50 more fish, mainly roach which was a good sign. It was always possible this swim could dry up any time so I continued to feed groundbait and chopped worm on the long pole in case I needed to switch. Fortunately I was able to put my blinkers on and plunder this line for the next 2 hours before things started to slow, changes of depth bought a few more fish and I was catching just about enough to stay on this line. I couldn't see anyone else bagging so just stayed with it. I was itching to put an extra section on as it was obvious the fish were spooking, especially after I had a pike swirl at a fish. I knew if I followed em out too soon they could keep backing and disappear. I managed to hold out until the last half an hour when the extra section bought me an extra flurry of fish including a couple of hand sized skimmers. My final fish tally was 180 odd fish which had been thoroughly enjoyable and certainly beats a days carping! The scales registered 15lb 3 ounces which was enough for a section win and a lake second, 8lb odd was second in my section. So that was a great start to the week 17 out of 18 points, but could I get 2 more results of a similar ilk? Easier said than done.

Day 3. Bolingey. Peg 7

Bolingey was also fishing much harder than usual and only odd ton up bags were being recorded. It was my worst result in the previous weeks Maver Festival where I had drawn peg 6 and finished 3rd from last with 37lb odd. My draw of 7 obviously put me next door to this but on paper a better peg. It is a corner peg and rated as the best peg on my bank, however, the other bank (pegs 46-50) had been more consistent over the previous days so these would probably be the ones to beat in my section. For company I had Lee Kerry on peg 1, Simon Fry on peg 6 and Rob Wooton opposite me on peg 46.With my peg being a corner peg the bank at 16 metres to the corner was going to provide me with a main line, together with a 4 metre down the edge line, a 6 metre line and a 14.5 metre line into open water. At 16 metres I fed 6mm hard pellets and fished an expander on the hook, similarly at 14.5 metres in open water. Three pellets were pinged regularly on each line. At 6 metres it was the meat and hemp combo and at 4 metres down the edge it was corn and hemp.

My match could be best summarised as being reasonable for 3 hours and disastrous for the last 2. Early fish against the bank and the odd fish on the 6 metre and open water swim gave me a total of 9 fish after 3 hours, from what I could see of the rest of the section this put me in a reasonable position. Now the last couple of hours at Bolingey is normally the time to make hay when the fish start to respond and you hope to at least double your weight. Its a bit like aiming to score 100 in the last ten overs of a cricket match with wickets in hand. Whilst everyone else in the section started to catch I was left scratching my head as I just couldn't get a bite on any of my other lines which drove me crazy. In the last hour I decided I had to concentrate on a couple of lines and try to force them to work, these were 6 metres and 4 metres down the edge. I also dumped two big potfuls of "bombay mix" on my 16 metre line down the bank to try and get something happening here too. With the intention to fish a double dendra over the top.

Despite feeding 6 metres and down the edge regularly by hand my only action was a 6lb foul hooker ghostie which was lost at the net. With 2 minutes left I had my first bite on the short line down the edge and had a 5 pounder. I knew I would be well down the section after that pathetic showing in the last 2 hours, but why hadn't I caught? Obviously my little and often feeding approach didn't work, but also it may have been something else. Lee Kerry on peg 1 (which is probably the worst peg in the section) was carpless after 2.5 hours, but his peg suddenly transformed in the last part of the match and he ended up with 11 carp. His transformation in fortunes coincided with his peg going into shade, which also occured on the other bank. Myself and Simon Fry were in the sun all day and never had a purple patch at the end. Maybe bollocks, but who knows?

The section was actually quite tight in the end from 3rd downwards. Peg 50 had blitzed the section with over 100lb and apparently caught down the edge all day. Rob Wooton was 3rd in the section with 53lb odd. Simon Fry 4th with 51lb odd and Lee Kerry had exactly 1 ounce less for 5th! I was 6th with 47lb. I needed another 6lb for 3rd in section, the last 2 hours had cost me big time and if I wanted to make the final I could not afford any further slip ups. With Pollawyn to come I needed to be lucky.

Day 4. Pollawyn. Peg 25.

Pollawyn had been fishing exceptionally hard due to the KHV virus not having run its course. Many of the fish were unwell and therefore not feeding. The draw was critical as there are several pegs which are generally no hopers for a 1,2,3 int section. As usual I waited for the last peg in the hat. Lee Kerry two in front of me in the queue pulled out peg 4, which is an atrocious peg and one I was glad to avoid!, the guy in front of me pulled out peg 17 and left me with peg 25. Both 17 and 25 are top pegs and give you a chance of a section win, which is all you can ask for. Peg 25 is in the famous high bank section and in days of old if you won that section you would probably win the lake with a big ton plus weight. I'd spoken to Steve Clark earlier in the week and he had come second in the section off 26 with about 50lb, he advised me to cast tight to the island with a PVA bag as this was the only way he could get a bite.

Arriving at my peg it was almost a re-run of the section at Bolingey the previous day. On 27 was Simon Fry and 28 Rob Wootten, Ricky Teale was on 29 and Sean Huggins next to me on peg 18. I knew to win the section I had to catch carp, the section could not possibly be won with silvers, therefore my approach was simple and positive. Two bomb rods were assembled, one to cast tight to the island and the other to cast 3/4's of the way across. I would ping 2 and 3 8mm pellets fairly regularly on the 3/4 line and rely on a PVA bag to feed the island as it was too far to feed pellets accurately. Incidently in my bag I had about a dozen 6 mm pellets and a few 8mm pellets as well. The bag was simply double hooked onto a size 14 Kamasan Animal and was attached to 0.18 Browning Cenitan line. Surprisingly, I found I could get it out there with a half ounce bomb so stuck with that. I also assembled 2 pellet waggler rods, one set at 3 foot and the other at 5. I didn't really expect to catch on either as it hadn't been working all week and also the wind was in my face so was unfavourable, but the option was there if I was struggling.

The pole was assembled at 16 metres, here it was about 8-9 foot deep and my intention was to dump feed this with a potful of meat and castors at the start and have an odd look on this line throughout the match, topping up accordingly. Steve Ringer had won the lake the previous week in this way so it was the way to go for me. My rig for this line was a 0.4 Wilkinson Cane Diamond, tied to 0.16 Browning Cenitan and a 16 B911 hook.

The first 2 hours of match were a replication of the closing 2 hours of my Bolingey match except that they were even worse and I hadn't had a single bite! Mind you I think only a couple of carp had been caught in the whole section at this point. During those 2 hours I had tried tight to the island, 3/4's, pellet wagg and long pole so had been through the whole repotoire. There were loads of fish "boshing" to my left and pegs 15, 16 and 17 were nicking odd fish mainly on "the bag" tight to the island. With this in mind I felt my best opportunity of catching was to get back out on it tight to the island and as events unfolded this is where I stayed for the remainder of the match.

After about 2 and a quarter hours after casting for the umpteenth time the tip whizzed round and I was into carp number 1, which was a very welcome 6lb. Over the remainder of the match I picked up odd carp, but only when I got the lead right tight to the island. Sometimes this took a few attempts due to the cast being difficult. There are trees that hang out over the lake on peg 25 so you have to punch the lead out with a low trajectory to avoid these, the PVA bag annoyingly seems to want to loop upwards and I did have an odd moment of going for squirrels! It was a good job I had 60 odd bags tied up! If you got the cast right quite often the tip would go round straight away, it was hard to believe the bag even had a chance to melt!

By the end of 5 hours I had 11 carp in the net and on numbers this was more than anyone else in the section, Simon Fry was the nearest to me on 9 carp. The scales confirmed my weight at 62lb 4 ounces, with Simon weighing about 50lb, therefore I had won the section and had the added bonus of winning the lake as well. I had been lucky to draw at the right end of the section because pegs 19 and 20 along with 28,29 and 30 had basically been devoid of feeding carp.

Day 5. Twin Oaks, Python & Trewlaney. Twin Oaks Peg 18.

At the end of day 4 I was 22nd in the festival which would have been good enough for a spot in the final. To get into the final it is generally accepted that 31 points is the benchmark. This meant that I needed a top 5 finish to get to 31. However I could still get 35 points with a section win and this would guarantee a top 5 finish and a decent payout. Before the draw I would have taken 5th in section though as its all about getting in the final.

Well peg 18 on Twin Oaks had been a Jekyll and Hyde peg over the 2 weeks and had produced 40lb the day before for 6th in section. Not overly encouraging but at least it hadn't been totally devoid of fish, unlike on day 1 of the festival when Ben Leach had drawn it and finished last in the section, whilst Darren Cox won the lake with over 100lb on peg 16 (the next peg in) on the feeder. However on Wednesday Mark Pleavin had won the lake on peg 18 catching on pellets shallow. Peg 18 is set very close to the corner and you do feel slightly removed from the rest of the lake, its one of those pegs in which you want a decent wind blowing into the corner. Unfortunately the wind was blowing the other way and Steve Cooke had won the section on the other end peg (peg 2) the previous day. When I arrived at my peg it was flat calm with lots of fry sitting under the surface, however I did see 2 or 3 carp move before the all in which gave me some encouragement.

My tactics were clear and I was going to start on a pellet feeder tight to the far bank as far to my left as I was allowed to chuck. 4mm pellets were soaked as feed and I would either fish a banded, hair rigged 6 or 8mm on the hook. Whilst fishing the feeder I would be pinging 3 and 4 6mm pellets all the time at 16 metres, with the aim being to catch shallow. My other line was going to be 14.5 metres against the bank where I had found 2 feet just off the grass. Here I would kinder cup and loosefeed 6mm pellets again. I could have fished 6 metres as well, but it would have been impossible to feed all those lines properly, seeing as I only have two arms! Silver fish were not an option in this lake and it was impossible to fish a "safe" match for 5th place, so it was a case of catch whats there and see what happens.

It was bad news at the start as I'd only just finished feeding when the guy to my left on peg 16 was playing a carp caught at 6metres. Remember thats the line I didn't bother feeding or setting up! It got even worse when a he hooked and landed another one straight away and even worse than that was the fish looked to be between 6 and 8lb a piece. For 15 minutes I didn't have a sign on the feeder before the tip flew round and I got 1, at the end of hour 1 I only had 3 and was behind peg 16 (the only other peg I could see), however his 6 metre line appeared to have dried up.

I had been pinging pellets for an hour at 16 metres up in the water so now was the time to have a look on it. I started off at 2 foot on a 4x10 Carpa Chimp, using a hair rigged banded 6 mm on the hook. To my surprise the float buried straight away and I was into a 4 pounder, back out again and the process was repeated, I was starting to feel much more optimistic about things. My optimism was short lived though as no more bites or indications followed for the next 15 minutes. I chucked the feeder out again hoping that if I rested tyhe shallow line for a short while they would return.

Unfortunately the feeder line had not perked up and even worse news was to come when the up in the water line wouldn't produce again despite a 15 minute rest. It was time to try my 14.5 metre line down the bank as I desperately needed something to happen. Fortunately, this line proved to be my best line as I slowly but surely picked up carp by both pinging and kindering pellets. I found that I could sometimes get a bite immediately by dropping straight on top of my kindered pellets. If not I had to keep pinging odd pellets to attract the fish.The only problems I had were from liners and foul hooked fish by employing this feeding approach. The swim really gained momentum in the last half an hour and by the end I was wishing the match would continue for another hour as it was solid.

In the end I ended up with 17 carp and after speaking to the guy on peg 16 I was unsure where I would finish as he was admitting to 70lb plus and apparently the next two pegs to his left had also caught well. I was last to weigh on the lake and peg 14 was top with 90 odd pound caught on the pellet feeder, next was 16 with 77lb. I put 73lb on the scales which was good enouh for 3rd in the section and also 3rd on the lake. More importantly 3rd in the section gave me the points I needed to qualify for the final. My final tally being 33 points dropping 3 points. Overall I ended up 7th in the festival which was a bonus as it guarnteed me a bit more bunce. The festival was won by Harry Billing with a perfect 36 points, 2nd was the ultra consistent Des Ship and third was Phil Ringer. The top 24 contained most of the "usual suspects" and it was sure to be a cracking match in the morning.

Parkdean Masters £25,000 Final. Jennys Lake. Peg 24

This was my 3rd appearance in the final and like everyone else I was desperate to win. I know the pegs reasonably well now and the pegs which I didn't want to draw were pegs 25-38. These pegs have poor Parkdean Masters form due to a few reasons. Firstly, they are situated in the narrowest end of the lake with a lack of open water and with Jenny's now being dominated by F1's caught shallow, open water of some description is a must. Also this area is shallower than the rest of the lake and holding a number of fish in 2 and a half foot of water isn't easy or ideal.
If I could have picked a peg it would probably have been peg 1, next to where Des Shipp won from last year.

Obviously there is a great sense of anticipation at the draw which was only slightly tempered by the absence of Billy Knott "The Angling Bookmaker". After the obligatory group photos and posing for the sky cameras it was time to draw. The draw is conducted in the festival finishing order, therefore I was 7th to draw. After a quick rummage in the bag I pulled out peg 25 and instantly knew I had made the wrong choice. There was probably more chance of Daryl Hair going on holiday to Karachi than me winning from there! As the other lads drew there were various oohs and aahs as some people obviously fancied things more than others. I was now rueing not being able to draw last as I had done throughout the festival week.

Peg 25 is actually the left hand end peg on the lodge bank and is 16 metres to an island straight out in front on my Browning CC990. There is also a small tree in the water at 5 metres to the left down the edge. It dosen't look too bad to be honest and with there being no wind at all I have to admit I half fancied it for a few. The most revealing thing about the peg though is when you get the plummet out. The deepest part of the peg is about 2.5 foot and generally its between 2 and 2.5 feet all the way across. I knew that Richie Hull had drawn my peg last year and Steve Cooke the year before that and both had struggled. Richie didn't do much for my confidence when succinctly describing the peg as "fookin shite". He did give me some advice though and felt his best line last year was simply down the middle angled to his right where he'd caught some F1's on pellet.

I decided there were two ways I could approach it. Firstly, I could dump meat on several lines and hope to catch lumps, very positive but very Kimikaze. The second way would be to try to keep busy and catch as many F1's as I could on pellets and hope for a few big carp in amongst them and some lumps late down the edge. The second option sounded the most sensible to me so thats what I went for.

The final is only a 4 hour match and obviously one you have to win, so it wasn't one I was going to overcomplicate by fishing a multitude of lines. My first line was 16 metres at 10 o'clock tight to the island in 2 foot, here my intention was to feed "monkey dust" and fish meat on the hook. Here I was looking for some better stamp fish, such as big F1's and carp. My second line was 16 metres at about 1 o'clock, here I would feed dampened down 4mm pellets with either a 4mm expander or a 6mm hair rigged banded pellet (depending on roach problems). Line number 3 was the "Richie Hull" line at 13 metres at 2 o'clock down my peg, again pellet would be my bait here. My final line was against the tree at 5 metres to my left in 2.5 feet of water, hopefully here I would catch some late "Barnies" to quickly accelerate my weight!

Rigs on the lines out all featured 4x10 KC Carpa Chimps, featuring lines between 0.12 and 0.16 and hooks between 18 and 16 B911's. My edge rig was a KC Carpa 2 tied to 0.18 and a size 16 Kamasan Animal hook. Elastics out were white and grey hydros with pull bungs and down the edge hydro elastic in black was used.


My match can be best summarised as a busy match in which I had lots of bites and lots of fish. My first fish was actually a goldfish of about 4 ounces on pellet and I seemed to get spells when I would get an F1 or a skimmer every put in of between 4 ounces and a 1lb before the fish backed off and I had to change lines to get further bites. At one point after 2 hours I felt I may be in with half a chance if I kept catching F1's one a bung and had an odd bonus as well. I knew the stamp of my fish was going to be the problem though, it was almost as if my peg a nursery swim. I did manage to tempt one carp of about 6lb which came out of the blue on my down the middle line. Unfortunately my edge line just produced roach and I couldn't catch the proper carp required to significantly boost my small fish net. The "monkey dust" was a total faliure and it now seems that Jenny's is an out and out pellet water in October. The best way to feed all of the pellet lines seemed to be to kinder cup when fishing them and loosefeed pellets to keep fish in the area when not. If I contined to ping pellets regualarly when fishing a line I got roached out.


To be honest I felt a bit isolated being tucked away in the corner away from the main action, with only the odd person venturing down to see what was happening. Occasionally a "roar" would go up from the spectators assembled behind the main contenders. My last hour was the slowest of the match and it was a real job to get a run of fish off any line and when the whistle sounded it wasn't a moment too soon! The scales soon arrived and I registered 34lb 14 ounces which I was pleased with as I felt I had done the peg justice and not disgraced myself. It was good enough for 10th overall.


From speaking to people who had been watching the match the general verdict was of it being one of the best finals to watch as going into the final hour there were still 3 or 4 contenders and even when the whistle went it was not clear who had won. Adam Wakelin done fantastically well to win from peg 40 (especially as he had a big crowd skylining him) with 70 odd pound and Adam Richards was really unlucky to fall just a few pounds short, both caught on pellets shallow. It had been a great week and now all I need to do is to try and qualify for the final again to have another crack at it next year!