After narrowly finishing second to Sensas Image in the London League, we (Browning Wickford Angling) were given the K&A as our semi final destination as they chose Monk Lakes. This meant we could continue to use our winter league canal skills from the Grand Union rounds.
At 5am I was picked up from Colchester by Danny Grimsey to drive the 165 miles to Pewsey, which equated to driving half way to Cornwall! We made the mistake of stopping off for breakfast at Reading Services which cost OVER £20 for two distinctly average/poor breakfasts.
In the week I had phoned up a local angler who had given me some advice as to methods and species likely to be encountered. The way he fished it seemed logical, therefore I decided to follow his advice to the letter and adapt it as required for the future matches. I cannot give specifics in the unlikely event that someone from an opposing team reads this blog!!
At the draw I pulled out permanent peg 135, which was apparently an average peg according to the match organiser and a phone call to my local contact confirmed this. As usual I couldn't compete with Grimos in the draw bag as he pulled out peg 127 which although close to me was a completely different kettle of fish as it was situated in a turning bay and a potential match winning peg. In fact Des Ship had apparently won a match from here last year with 20lbs of Skimmers.
Bait for the Day
1.1 pints of joker (the limit)
bloodworm
breadpunch
castor
lobs
My first impressions of the K&A after walking to my peg were of it being the muddiest place in the world! The match organisers had given everyone plenty of room with an empty peg either left or right and with generous peg spacing I was optimistic of catchin a few, especially as the water held a nice tinge of colour.
My match went along the lines of the expectations from an "average peg" and my weight of 4lb 7ozs was enough to win my 5 peg section. My catch consisted of approximately 100 small roach and 2 "gustas". (Apparently a "gusta" is what the locals call a roach/bream hybrid). My gustas were a good 8oz each so were my bonuses for the day.
Other observations about the cut were that it is the quietest in the World, we didn't have a single boat all day and hardly a walker. The lack of walkers could probably be attributed to the swamp like conditions. This is a far cry from the London canals in our winter league which were more like Piccadilly Circus.
After returning to HQ it appeared that we had done ok as a team considering it was the first time we had seen the venue. Out of 11 blokes 5 had picked up section money, including Grimos who won his section with a high 3lb (the skimmers did not feed), Dave Guntrip was our star man with a weight of 8lb plus, just missing out on the frame. I also learnt that I had been in one of the poorer sections of the canal, with 5lb plus winning most sections. I'll be looking forward to going back as there seems to be fish to be caught throughout and I think its sure to be a "method" water, responding to a team plan.
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Sunday 6th January 2008. Open Match Maldon Canal. 25 pegs
I always try to look for silver fish matches at this time of year as they tend to be fairer and rule out the "aquatic bingo" factor encountered in some carp matches. The Maldon Canal is a venue I have fished since I was a junior, on and off for the past ten years and gave me a chance to practice my bloodworm canal skills ahead of our Winter League semi final practice at Pewsey a week later.
The match was to be pegged from the start of the factory's through to the middle of the Tescos section by the walk over bridge. To be quite honest I didn't know where I wanted to draw as there are not really out and out fliers, although an end peg would have been my preference. The Maldon Canal is slightly strange because when it gets really cold you don't tend to catch many roach on worm and joker, they seem to prefer the punch. However, in the warmer months and early winter b & j normally out fishes the punch.
Bait for the match
1/2 kilo joker
bloodworm hookers
liquidised bread
bread for hook
1/2 pint Castors
50 lobs
few maggots and pinkies for the hook.
damp leam
grey leam
After drawing I found myself at Tescos just to the right of the trees. When I got to my peg I found I was on the same peg that I had a won a small match from a few years ago with double figures of roach and dace on castor and bread. The clarity of the water gave me a feeling it would not be a day for double figures though - 5-7 lb was to be my target weight.
For company to my right I had my Wickford team mate Steve Joy who was quick to point out that my joker was dead! I picked mine up on the morning of the match and I riddled it the best I could with a pinkie riddle and got about a quarter of a kilo of live stuff. Steve generously gave me some of his freshly scraped hookers though. On my other side was match legend Bob Cheeseman, who I believe has gained England caps in his time??
Plan Of Attack
I decided to fish two joker lines, two bread lines, a lob worm line and a castor line. At 6 metres I had two lines, one at 10 o'clock and one at 2 o'clock. On the ten o'clock line I fed a large ball of liquidised bread and the 2 o'clock line 50ml's of joker in three large balls of double leam. At 11 metres again I fed two lines at 10 and 2, but this time it was roles reversed with the leam at 10 and the bread at two. At about 4.5 foot the depths were identical on both lines. In went 6 lobs and some castors at 13 metres to my left, down the canal in the deepest water and I also cupped in 30 castors at 13metres just off the far bank. I didn't expect this to work, but as I had caught well this way the last time I fished the peg I had to feed it.
My basic theory was that I was likely to catch roach on the bread and perch and odd roach on the b&J. I set up 4x12 and 4x14 Milo floats for the b&J. The 4x12 with no 12 droppers and the 4x14 with no 11's. The floats are old favourites and feature a wire stem, a tear drop black body and a fine fibre bristle and fish really well. I don't what pattern they are, but I would love to be able to buy some more but nowhere seems to stock them. My punch rigs featured a 4x12 Image cut and a 4x14 Colmic Jolly with an Olivette, in case I was bagging or needed a more positive rig to bomb through the "eyeballs".
I started off on the bread at 6metres and after 10 minutes had not had a response, the story was the same on the 11 metre bread line. Past experience had told me this was a really bad sign and was likely to mean no roach in the area. Quite often you can tell what sort of day you are going to have on a canal in the first 5 minutes. Now I moved onto the lobworm line and again an almost instant bite was expected if there was something there ....... 5 minutes later the float had not moved. Joy boy next to me had caught a couple of "fry" on bread and Bob was like me biteless.
I lowered my rig onto my 6 metre joker line with a small bloodworm on the hook and the float kept going, as I lifted into the fish a reasonable amount of no 2 elastic came out, the fish kept deep and I knew it was a Perch, at about 3 ozs it was worth catching. I caught 4 more in the next 4 drops, not having to wait more than 10 seconds for a bite. The swim then went quiet. I have found this many times with perch on canals if you get one bite you will quite often get another straight away, they obviously hunt in little packs.
Time to try my 11 metre joker line and I was confident the float would go straight under after my success at 6 metres, however after 10 minutes nothing had happened, leaving me scratching my head. An hour had gone now and things were looking grim, looking up and down the canal most people were motionless. Time to change lines again and it was back on the lobby. This time as soon as the float settled it shot away and I counted to three (in my head, not out loud!) before a hard strike was met with some reasonable resistance. I shipped back to the top three playing the fish hard and was pleased to net a perch of about 8 ounces. I have lost 2 or 3 big perch this winter and have come to the conclusion that sometimes they just come off and there is nothing you can do if your hook strikes a really boney part of its mouth. No other bites were forthcoming on this line, so it was time for a refeed and rest.
Back to the 6 metre joker line and with no more signs I refed and moved round all of my other lines in search of a response. I found I could nick an odd Perch on the 11 metre joker line with double joker on the hook and with an hour and a half to go I had a roach of 2 ounces first drop on my long bread after a rest. Frustratingly no other bites materialised. After a ten minute rest I went back on the bread to be rewarded with another reasonable roach, but again couldn't tempt another bite. By this point Joy Boy had packed up and Bob was struggling with just two fish.
I felt I needed a run of fish, so with 3/4 of an hour remaining I topped up both bread lines with half a pot of bread, however neither line really fired and I could still only nick odd fish on the 11 metre line, although they were all of a fair stamp. Interestingly the 6 metre joker line which I refed after catching on initially did not yield any further fish.
At the whistle I was disapointed that I had not been able to obtain regular bites throughout the day and felt I would be way short with my 12 Perch and 9 Roach, which weighed 3lbs 8ounces. However, it had been a desperate day for many with the top weight being Danny Masons 3lb 12 ozs of eyeballs, relegating me to second place which was much more than I was expecting and goes to show sometimes you can never really tell how a venue is fishing.
Canals are not just about the Fishing!
As is the usual case with a canal match there are all sorts of distractions and for me they came in the form of kids pushing shopping trolleys into the cut by the Tescos road bridge. However, things turned out slightly more sinister for my travelling partner Danny Grimsey. Danny had drawn his usual end peg, which was peg 1 at the factorys, but it didn't turn into the day that Danny was predicting.
There is now a council estate on the opposing side of the canal which meant the kids didn't have to go far from home to pealt Danny and neighbouring angler Bob Davis with stones, this continued on and off throughout the day. Danny managed to restrain himself from tearing into the youths after Bob told him it would only make things worse if he retaliated.
The straw that broke the camels back came when one of the munkees came running towards the canal and lobbed a yellow plastic bank into the Grimbo's peg, Danny let rip at the scallywag, who in turn gave as good as he got, before pulling out a GUN from his jacket and aiming it towards Danny. Luckily Danny is still here to tell the tale and no shots were fired. Although it was lucky he had a spare pair of pants in his box!
The plot thickened when the police turned up a few minutes later and promptly nicked the lad. It turns out that he had broken into a car and the yellow bag which he chucked in to the cut was his bounty. Danny has since had to give a statement to the police.
Thats why most people fish commercials these days!
The match was to be pegged from the start of the factory's through to the middle of the Tescos section by the walk over bridge. To be quite honest I didn't know where I wanted to draw as there are not really out and out fliers, although an end peg would have been my preference. The Maldon Canal is slightly strange because when it gets really cold you don't tend to catch many roach on worm and joker, they seem to prefer the punch. However, in the warmer months and early winter b & j normally out fishes the punch.
Bait for the match
1/2 kilo joker
bloodworm hookers
liquidised bread
bread for hook
1/2 pint Castors
50 lobs
few maggots and pinkies for the hook.
damp leam
grey leam
After drawing I found myself at Tescos just to the right of the trees. When I got to my peg I found I was on the same peg that I had a won a small match from a few years ago with double figures of roach and dace on castor and bread. The clarity of the water gave me a feeling it would not be a day for double figures though - 5-7 lb was to be my target weight.
For company to my right I had my Wickford team mate Steve Joy who was quick to point out that my joker was dead! I picked mine up on the morning of the match and I riddled it the best I could with a pinkie riddle and got about a quarter of a kilo of live stuff. Steve generously gave me some of his freshly scraped hookers though. On my other side was match legend Bob Cheeseman, who I believe has gained England caps in his time??
Plan Of Attack
I decided to fish two joker lines, two bread lines, a lob worm line and a castor line. At 6 metres I had two lines, one at 10 o'clock and one at 2 o'clock. On the ten o'clock line I fed a large ball of liquidised bread and the 2 o'clock line 50ml's of joker in three large balls of double leam. At 11 metres again I fed two lines at 10 and 2, but this time it was roles reversed with the leam at 10 and the bread at two. At about 4.5 foot the depths were identical on both lines. In went 6 lobs and some castors at 13 metres to my left, down the canal in the deepest water and I also cupped in 30 castors at 13metres just off the far bank. I didn't expect this to work, but as I had caught well this way the last time I fished the peg I had to feed it.
My basic theory was that I was likely to catch roach on the bread and perch and odd roach on the b&J. I set up 4x12 and 4x14 Milo floats for the b&J. The 4x12 with no 12 droppers and the 4x14 with no 11's. The floats are old favourites and feature a wire stem, a tear drop black body and a fine fibre bristle and fish really well. I don't what pattern they are, but I would love to be able to buy some more but nowhere seems to stock them. My punch rigs featured a 4x12 Image cut and a 4x14 Colmic Jolly with an Olivette, in case I was bagging or needed a more positive rig to bomb through the "eyeballs".
I started off on the bread at 6metres and after 10 minutes had not had a response, the story was the same on the 11 metre bread line. Past experience had told me this was a really bad sign and was likely to mean no roach in the area. Quite often you can tell what sort of day you are going to have on a canal in the first 5 minutes. Now I moved onto the lobworm line and again an almost instant bite was expected if there was something there ....... 5 minutes later the float had not moved. Joy boy next to me had caught a couple of "fry" on bread and Bob was like me biteless.
I lowered my rig onto my 6 metre joker line with a small bloodworm on the hook and the float kept going, as I lifted into the fish a reasonable amount of no 2 elastic came out, the fish kept deep and I knew it was a Perch, at about 3 ozs it was worth catching. I caught 4 more in the next 4 drops, not having to wait more than 10 seconds for a bite. The swim then went quiet. I have found this many times with perch on canals if you get one bite you will quite often get another straight away, they obviously hunt in little packs.
Time to try my 11 metre joker line and I was confident the float would go straight under after my success at 6 metres, however after 10 minutes nothing had happened, leaving me scratching my head. An hour had gone now and things were looking grim, looking up and down the canal most people were motionless. Time to change lines again and it was back on the lobby. This time as soon as the float settled it shot away and I counted to three (in my head, not out loud!) before a hard strike was met with some reasonable resistance. I shipped back to the top three playing the fish hard and was pleased to net a perch of about 8 ounces. I have lost 2 or 3 big perch this winter and have come to the conclusion that sometimes they just come off and there is nothing you can do if your hook strikes a really boney part of its mouth. No other bites were forthcoming on this line, so it was time for a refeed and rest.
Back to the 6 metre joker line and with no more signs I refed and moved round all of my other lines in search of a response. I found I could nick an odd Perch on the 11 metre joker line with double joker on the hook and with an hour and a half to go I had a roach of 2 ounces first drop on my long bread after a rest. Frustratingly no other bites materialised. After a ten minute rest I went back on the bread to be rewarded with another reasonable roach, but again couldn't tempt another bite. By this point Joy Boy had packed up and Bob was struggling with just two fish.
I felt I needed a run of fish, so with 3/4 of an hour remaining I topped up both bread lines with half a pot of bread, however neither line really fired and I could still only nick odd fish on the 11 metre line, although they were all of a fair stamp. Interestingly the 6 metre joker line which I refed after catching on initially did not yield any further fish.
At the whistle I was disapointed that I had not been able to obtain regular bites throughout the day and felt I would be way short with my 12 Perch and 9 Roach, which weighed 3lbs 8ounces. However, it had been a desperate day for many with the top weight being Danny Masons 3lb 12 ozs of eyeballs, relegating me to second place which was much more than I was expecting and goes to show sometimes you can never really tell how a venue is fishing.
Canals are not just about the Fishing!
As is the usual case with a canal match there are all sorts of distractions and for me they came in the form of kids pushing shopping trolleys into the cut by the Tescos road bridge. However, things turned out slightly more sinister for my travelling partner Danny Grimsey. Danny had drawn his usual end peg, which was peg 1 at the factorys, but it didn't turn into the day that Danny was predicting.
There is now a council estate on the opposing side of the canal which meant the kids didn't have to go far from home to pealt Danny and neighbouring angler Bob Davis with stones, this continued on and off throughout the day. Danny managed to restrain himself from tearing into the youths after Bob told him it would only make things worse if he retaliated.
The straw that broke the camels back came when one of the munkees came running towards the canal and lobbed a yellow plastic bank into the Grimbo's peg, Danny let rip at the scallywag, who in turn gave as good as he got, before pulling out a GUN from his jacket and aiming it towards Danny. Luckily Danny is still here to tell the tale and no shots were fired. Although it was lucky he had a spare pair of pants in his box!
The plot thickened when the police turned up a few minutes later and promptly nicked the lad. It turns out that he had broken into a car and the yellow bag which he chucked in to the cut was his bounty. Danny has since had to give a statement to the police.
Thats why most people fish commercials these days!
Monday, 7 January 2008
Sunday 30th December 2007. Essex Air Ambulance Charity Match Silver Fish Only. Fennes Fishery, Braintree. 44 Pegs
Two 40 plus peg matches in the space of a couple of days both within twenty minutes of my house is almost unheard of these days, but this rare event was about to occur. Fennes is a place I only visit occasionally and nearly always in the winter. I was second in this annual match last year with 17lb of roach on pole and bloodworm and was hoping to go one better this year. Three lakes were to be used for this match, Ash Grounds, Hobbs Croft and Hill & Black. Fennes is a cracking looking fishery and if I won the lottery is the sort of place I would love to buy as it has so much potential. The lakes are established, picturesque and are of good size. Unfortunately, it has not been stocked properly for many years and consequently the carp average double figures, not the right size for match fishing in my opinion.
Last year I drew peg 18 on Ash Grounds and to be honest I was hoping to draw anywhere on Ash grounds or Hobbs Croft. Myself and Danny Grimsey had decided we would have an early bath if we drew Hobbs Croft, due to the lack of silver fish in the lake! Incidentally carp or brown goldfish were to count as a pound.
Bait for the day was to be as follows:
1/2 kilo of joker.
hooker pack of bloodworm.
1 pint of castors.
mixture of micro pellets, 3mm and 4mm pellets soaked to soften.
1/2 pint of 4mm expanders.
1/2 pint of red and fluoro maggots.
1/2 bag of green swim stim.
3 kilos of terre de somme
bag of grey leam
At the draw queue I hung back afraid of drawing Hill & Black, I was not in the right frame of mind to tackle this lake. Fortunately, all of the H&B pegs went quite quickly, so I dipped into the draw bag with my mind at ease. My draw of Ash Grounds peg 19 put me one peg away from last year, therefore I was more than happy with this.
After plumbing up I found a flat bottom from 8 metres onwards with a depth of about 6.5 foot. This was good as I knew some of the pegs on AG were real bomb holes which kept sloping sharply at 13 metres, not what I wanted for feeding hard balls of leam.
Tactics for the Day
At the start I was planning to feed 500ml of joker in about 15-20 balls of double leam (comprising 1/4 bag of grey) squeezed very hard at 13 metres. The balls were squeezed hard as I was expecting a large head of roach in my peg and I didn't want them to come in and just muller all of my feed. With the "hard balls" the fish would hopefully have to work hard for the bait as the balls would break down slowly, keeping them in the peg for longer. My rigs for this line were to be Sensas Jean Francois in 0.6 and 0.4, both comprised main lines of 0.09 to hook lengths of 0.07, hooks were size 22 B511s. This was likely to be my main catching line. I was also going to flick 5 castors at regular intervals at 2'o clock on the 8 metre line. My castor rig again consisted of the same line combinations, but with a spread bulk at 3/4 depth and 4 no 11 droppers. At 16 metres I fed a small ball of swimstim groundbait, together with half a pot full of mixed softened hard pellets and expanders. My intended quarry on this line was to be skimmers and maybe an odd carp. I assembled a feeder rod to fish the open water, this featured the swim stim mix with a few pellets and dead maggots added.
I started the match on the feeder whilst leaving my pole lines to settle. I didn't want to touch the bloodworm line for at least an hour to hopefully allow a good head of fish to settle here. The feeder line was unproductive and after an hour i still hadn't had an indication on my double dead flouro maggot hook bait, this was despite other people nicking odd skimmers. Opposite me I had seen Danny Grimsey lasso a couple of skimmers and a brown goldfish on his long pole line. This was the signal I needed to try my 16 metre line, however again frustratingly I did not get an indication and was probably 4lb behind Danny and many other competitors.
It was time for my main 13m bloodworm line. I lowered my 0.6 gram rig in with a single bloodworm on the hook and the float kept going, my first fish was a 2oz roach. Next put in was a 6oz fish and i was away. For the next hour and a quarter the peg was solid and i was getting a roach between two and six ounces as soon as the hook bait reached the final foot of the swim. I double bulked my rig to make it ultra positive and some serious "power swinging" began. In an hour and a quarter I reckon I had put 8lb in the net and was up with, if not in front of everyone else and was thinking 20lb was easily on the cards. Danny's roach line had not really fired so he was not bagging at this point.
Inevitably things began to slow as I reckon the fish were giving the bait some serious hammer, it was time to top up. I took the remainder of my double leam and joker and cupped in a further 8 balls with 200ml of joker in. I planned to leave this for half an hour whilst I tried the other lines. The 16 metre pellet line was disappointingly still devoid of fish and the same could be said of the castor line, which was frustrating as I was convinced I would catch on it as my peg was obviously solid with roach and I had been consistently feeding it whilst on the bloodworm. A desperate 10 minutes on the feeder meant it was time to sack again ont bloodworm ..... or was it?
I dropped the bloodworm rig back in and expected an instant response and got one from an ounce roach, then a half ouncer, not the stamp I was looking for and I knew I had fooked the re feed up. Next put in resulted in me striking and 10 feet of number 3 laggy emerged from the pole and nothing moved, had I hooked the bottom, was it a plastic bag full of water? After a couple of seconds something started moving slowly and it was obvious I was in to a large carp. I shipped straight back to the top kit, hoping to "mug it" before it woke up, however the hook pulled and I suspected it was a foul hooker. I was hoping this was the reason for the peg being slow. However, over the next couple of hours I could only catch spasmodically from this line with only the odd netter. Frustratingly, I did not manage a single bite from any of the other three lines even though I was absolutely convinced the castor line would go.
In the final hour I could see Danny Grimsey catching odd harry rimmers and roach opposite me and he was easing ahead, however no-one else was doing to much damage.
I weighed in a disappointing 11lbs 15oz, which was obviously below par for the peg. However, I won my section and was 4th overall in the match. Grimace won the match with 15lb odd, a nice mixed bag with several big skimmers and a couple of brown goldfish being the weighers in his catch. My peg was definitely a potential match winning peg. I didn't even have the consolation of a raffle prize this time!
Lessons learnt
I know that I fed my joker correctly at the start , however my top up was not correct. I probably should have topped up with one or two joker rich balls, rather than putting a load of gear on their heads again, also I should have tried resting and going back on the line thus delaying the top up longer. Maybe I could have been a bit unlucky drawing that carp in which in turn spooked the roach. Also, I should have had a heavier more positive bagging rig assembled. Ideally, I reckon putting in a kilo of joker at the start would have been correct, this would have eliminated the need for a top up. Bait limits dictated otherwise though.
Last year I drew peg 18 on Ash Grounds and to be honest I was hoping to draw anywhere on Ash grounds or Hobbs Croft. Myself and Danny Grimsey had decided we would have an early bath if we drew Hobbs Croft, due to the lack of silver fish in the lake! Incidentally carp or brown goldfish were to count as a pound.
Bait for the day was to be as follows:
1/2 kilo of joker.
hooker pack of bloodworm.
1 pint of castors.
mixture of micro pellets, 3mm and 4mm pellets soaked to soften.
1/2 pint of 4mm expanders.
1/2 pint of red and fluoro maggots.
1/2 bag of green swim stim.
3 kilos of terre de somme
bag of grey leam
At the draw queue I hung back afraid of drawing Hill & Black, I was not in the right frame of mind to tackle this lake. Fortunately, all of the H&B pegs went quite quickly, so I dipped into the draw bag with my mind at ease. My draw of Ash Grounds peg 19 put me one peg away from last year, therefore I was more than happy with this.
After plumbing up I found a flat bottom from 8 metres onwards with a depth of about 6.5 foot. This was good as I knew some of the pegs on AG were real bomb holes which kept sloping sharply at 13 metres, not what I wanted for feeding hard balls of leam.
Tactics for the Day
At the start I was planning to feed 500ml of joker in about 15-20 balls of double leam (comprising 1/4 bag of grey) squeezed very hard at 13 metres. The balls were squeezed hard as I was expecting a large head of roach in my peg and I didn't want them to come in and just muller all of my feed. With the "hard balls" the fish would hopefully have to work hard for the bait as the balls would break down slowly, keeping them in the peg for longer. My rigs for this line were to be Sensas Jean Francois in 0.6 and 0.4, both comprised main lines of 0.09 to hook lengths of 0.07, hooks were size 22 B511s. This was likely to be my main catching line. I was also going to flick 5 castors at regular intervals at 2'o clock on the 8 metre line. My castor rig again consisted of the same line combinations, but with a spread bulk at 3/4 depth and 4 no 11 droppers. At 16 metres I fed a small ball of swimstim groundbait, together with half a pot full of mixed softened hard pellets and expanders. My intended quarry on this line was to be skimmers and maybe an odd carp. I assembled a feeder rod to fish the open water, this featured the swim stim mix with a few pellets and dead maggots added.
I started the match on the feeder whilst leaving my pole lines to settle. I didn't want to touch the bloodworm line for at least an hour to hopefully allow a good head of fish to settle here. The feeder line was unproductive and after an hour i still hadn't had an indication on my double dead flouro maggot hook bait, this was despite other people nicking odd skimmers. Opposite me I had seen Danny Grimsey lasso a couple of skimmers and a brown goldfish on his long pole line. This was the signal I needed to try my 16 metre line, however again frustratingly I did not get an indication and was probably 4lb behind Danny and many other competitors.
It was time for my main 13m bloodworm line. I lowered my 0.6 gram rig in with a single bloodworm on the hook and the float kept going, my first fish was a 2oz roach. Next put in was a 6oz fish and i was away. For the next hour and a quarter the peg was solid and i was getting a roach between two and six ounces as soon as the hook bait reached the final foot of the swim. I double bulked my rig to make it ultra positive and some serious "power swinging" began. In an hour and a quarter I reckon I had put 8lb in the net and was up with, if not in front of everyone else and was thinking 20lb was easily on the cards. Danny's roach line had not really fired so he was not bagging at this point.
Inevitably things began to slow as I reckon the fish were giving the bait some serious hammer, it was time to top up. I took the remainder of my double leam and joker and cupped in a further 8 balls with 200ml of joker in. I planned to leave this for half an hour whilst I tried the other lines. The 16 metre pellet line was disappointingly still devoid of fish and the same could be said of the castor line, which was frustrating as I was convinced I would catch on it as my peg was obviously solid with roach and I had been consistently feeding it whilst on the bloodworm. A desperate 10 minutes on the feeder meant it was time to sack again ont bloodworm ..... or was it?
I dropped the bloodworm rig back in and expected an instant response and got one from an ounce roach, then a half ouncer, not the stamp I was looking for and I knew I had fooked the re feed up. Next put in resulted in me striking and 10 feet of number 3 laggy emerged from the pole and nothing moved, had I hooked the bottom, was it a plastic bag full of water? After a couple of seconds something started moving slowly and it was obvious I was in to a large carp. I shipped straight back to the top kit, hoping to "mug it" before it woke up, however the hook pulled and I suspected it was a foul hooker. I was hoping this was the reason for the peg being slow. However, over the next couple of hours I could only catch spasmodically from this line with only the odd netter. Frustratingly, I did not manage a single bite from any of the other three lines even though I was absolutely convinced the castor line would go.
In the final hour I could see Danny Grimsey catching odd harry rimmers and roach opposite me and he was easing ahead, however no-one else was doing to much damage.
I weighed in a disappointing 11lbs 15oz, which was obviously below par for the peg. However, I won my section and was 4th overall in the match. Grimace won the match with 15lb odd, a nice mixed bag with several big skimmers and a couple of brown goldfish being the weighers in his catch. My peg was definitely a potential match winning peg. I didn't even have the consolation of a raffle prize this time!
Lessons learnt
I know that I fed my joker correctly at the start , however my top up was not correct. I probably should have topped up with one or two joker rich balls, rather than putting a load of gear on their heads again, also I should have tried resting and going back on the line thus delaying the top up longer. Maybe I could have been a bit unlucky drawing that carp in which in turn spooked the roach. Also, I should have had a heavier more positive bagging rig assembled. Ideally, I reckon putting in a kilo of joker at the start would have been correct, this would have eliminated the need for a top up. Bait limits dictated otherwise though.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Friday 28th December 2007. Open Match Suffolk Stour. 46 Pegs
The Suffolk Stour around Sudbury is one of the most diverse venues I fish during the year. By diverse I mean the varying nature of the pegs means you could be fishing the wagg, stick, pole or feeder, therefore you seem to have to bring every item of tackle you own to cover all the potential options! Also, the bait bill is not cheap either and consisted of the following:
3 pints of bronze maggots.
1 pint castors.
2 pints hemp.
1.5 kilos of punch crumb.
bag of gravel
2 kilos of soil.
1/2 kilo of worm and joker.
bag of supermatch.
1/2 kilo of dendras.
Most of this wouldn't be used, but the fishing can be brilliant making the wallet emptying justifiable in my eyes. Combine this with some long walks over natural ground and styles, its normally a relief when you reach your peg.
At the draw the talk was of the river being in good shape, but carrying a bit of extra water due to the rain on Xmas day. I wanted to draw a good peg for gardons and the pegs near Ballingdon Bridge would do nicely as I felt 20lb was needed to frame and I knew these pegs were normally rammed with roach. I loitered at the end of the draw queue (as usual) and picked out peg 13. This was not where I hoped to draw, and was on the "run off" from the chub pools near the Mill Hotel. However, I had drawn one above where I had caught 20lb of roach in an open match the previous year, so was fairly optimistic.
Bad Start
After a 10 minute walk I arrived at my peg and it looked decidedly average, it was six metres wide and did not look as promising as my 20lb peg last year. As I lifted my Rive XT over the barbed wire fence I caught the carrying strap on the wire and managed to scratch the frame to bits. This reminded me of the joys of river fishing! At least there was no dog shite visible!
I got comfortable and plumbed up the pole line and was less than amused to find the deepest water being 2 ft down the middle. I felt I had no chance from a peg like this. The only positive things being the river was bang on colour wise and I had about 50 yards between me and the next angler.
This was not a peg to over complicate things and I set up two pole rigs comprising 0.5 gram and 0.75 gram Colmic Jollys. 0.10 mainline and 0.08 hook lengths to a 20 wide gape canal seed. Both were connected to a number 5 original preston elastic. Also, I set up a light stick float on an eighteen foot rod so I could search the swim fully. I planned to start off on the punch and take it from there.
On the whistle I cupped in a large ball of punch crumb, which was followed by half a handful of hemp. Second run through on the half gram rig at the pace of the river with a 6mm punch bought a 4oz gardon and an 8oz harry rimmer (skimmer) the very next drop. A good start and I continued to feed a ball of punch and some hemp every other run through. I was only catching odd fish but they were all "stampers" and I knew if odd 'uns kept coming I could do a weight.
A switch to the 0.75 gram rig and the further slowing down of the float bought me a few more quick roach before I struck into something more substantial. As the fish bolted towards the reeds under my feet it became obvious I was into a chub. Luckily, the fish moved into mid river where I netted it on my top 4. At about 1.5lbs it was a nice bonus. Soon after I struck into something solid again, which instantly I knew was another "greedius maximus". This one was bigger than its brother and after a few anxious moments I netted a 2 pounder, only just in time though as the hook length snapped as I netted it! Things slowed down after this but I was happy with my start. Time to explore further downt peg ont stick.
The stick float did provide me with some quick roach down the peg, however at 2ozs they weren't the stamp I was looking for. A switch back to the pole and upping the bread to a ball every run through saw me back amongst the quality for a while, but again things died. At the end of 4 hours I had about 45 roach and two chub for low double figures. I knew I had to try to get to 20lb to frame. I made a decision to switch to feeding 30 bronze maggots every minute to try and catch some chub, which I felt were the only option now, also it meant I could get rid of some of my bait mountain!
To cut a long story short the last hour was terrible, with only two roach up until the last five minutes, then I hit into another chub, it was only 1.5lbs, but a welcome bonus so late on in the match.
At the weigh in I was surprised to hear that the river had fished seriously below expectations and anything in double figures was a good weight on the day. I weighed in 15lb 3ozs. About 10lb of pristine gardons and three chub for 5lb. To my delight this was good enough for second, with Mark Roscoe coming out on top with 22lb of chub, nearly all in the last hour. Unbelievably though, I picked up 35 quid for coming second in a 46 peg match! The organisers had decided to pay out 5 sections of £100 and the second angler in section getting £35 and you've guessed it i was in the same section as the match winner, who wasn't even pegged anywhere near me! I was a bit gutted, but I don't do it for the money anyway. The blow was eased slightly by winning a toblerone in the raffle afterwards.
My mate Danny Grimsey (a renowned draw bag bully) won his section with 11lb of roach on punch, worth 100 quid!!!
3 pints of bronze maggots.
1 pint castors.
2 pints hemp.
1.5 kilos of punch crumb.
bag of gravel
2 kilos of soil.
1/2 kilo of worm and joker.
bag of supermatch.
1/2 kilo of dendras.
Most of this wouldn't be used, but the fishing can be brilliant making the wallet emptying justifiable in my eyes. Combine this with some long walks over natural ground and styles, its normally a relief when you reach your peg.
At the draw the talk was of the river being in good shape, but carrying a bit of extra water due to the rain on Xmas day. I wanted to draw a good peg for gardons and the pegs near Ballingdon Bridge would do nicely as I felt 20lb was needed to frame and I knew these pegs were normally rammed with roach. I loitered at the end of the draw queue (as usual) and picked out peg 13. This was not where I hoped to draw, and was on the "run off" from the chub pools near the Mill Hotel. However, I had drawn one above where I had caught 20lb of roach in an open match the previous year, so was fairly optimistic.
Bad Start
After a 10 minute walk I arrived at my peg and it looked decidedly average, it was six metres wide and did not look as promising as my 20lb peg last year. As I lifted my Rive XT over the barbed wire fence I caught the carrying strap on the wire and managed to scratch the frame to bits. This reminded me of the joys of river fishing! At least there was no dog shite visible!
I got comfortable and plumbed up the pole line and was less than amused to find the deepest water being 2 ft down the middle. I felt I had no chance from a peg like this. The only positive things being the river was bang on colour wise and I had about 50 yards between me and the next angler.
This was not a peg to over complicate things and I set up two pole rigs comprising 0.5 gram and 0.75 gram Colmic Jollys. 0.10 mainline and 0.08 hook lengths to a 20 wide gape canal seed. Both were connected to a number 5 original preston elastic. Also, I set up a light stick float on an eighteen foot rod so I could search the swim fully. I planned to start off on the punch and take it from there.
On the whistle I cupped in a large ball of punch crumb, which was followed by half a handful of hemp. Second run through on the half gram rig at the pace of the river with a 6mm punch bought a 4oz gardon and an 8oz harry rimmer (skimmer) the very next drop. A good start and I continued to feed a ball of punch and some hemp every other run through. I was only catching odd fish but they were all "stampers" and I knew if odd 'uns kept coming I could do a weight.
A switch to the 0.75 gram rig and the further slowing down of the float bought me a few more quick roach before I struck into something more substantial. As the fish bolted towards the reeds under my feet it became obvious I was into a chub. Luckily, the fish moved into mid river where I netted it on my top 4. At about 1.5lbs it was a nice bonus. Soon after I struck into something solid again, which instantly I knew was another "greedius maximus". This one was bigger than its brother and after a few anxious moments I netted a 2 pounder, only just in time though as the hook length snapped as I netted it! Things slowed down after this but I was happy with my start. Time to explore further downt peg ont stick.
The stick float did provide me with some quick roach down the peg, however at 2ozs they weren't the stamp I was looking for. A switch back to the pole and upping the bread to a ball every run through saw me back amongst the quality for a while, but again things died. At the end of 4 hours I had about 45 roach and two chub for low double figures. I knew I had to try to get to 20lb to frame. I made a decision to switch to feeding 30 bronze maggots every minute to try and catch some chub, which I felt were the only option now, also it meant I could get rid of some of my bait mountain!
To cut a long story short the last hour was terrible, with only two roach up until the last five minutes, then I hit into another chub, it was only 1.5lbs, but a welcome bonus so late on in the match.
At the weigh in I was surprised to hear that the river had fished seriously below expectations and anything in double figures was a good weight on the day. I weighed in 15lb 3ozs. About 10lb of pristine gardons and three chub for 5lb. To my delight this was good enough for second, with Mark Roscoe coming out on top with 22lb of chub, nearly all in the last hour. Unbelievably though, I picked up 35 quid for coming second in a 46 peg match! The organisers had decided to pay out 5 sections of £100 and the second angler in section getting £35 and you've guessed it i was in the same section as the match winner, who wasn't even pegged anywhere near me! I was a bit gutted, but I don't do it for the money anyway. The blow was eased slightly by winning a toblerone in the raffle afterwards.
My mate Danny Grimsey (a renowned draw bag bully) won his section with 11lb of roach on punch, worth 100 quid!!!
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