Saturday 2nd February 2008. Angling Times Winter League Semi Final Practice. Kennet and Avon Canal, Pewsey. 120+pegs

So it was time for the second practice match and my turn to drive the 160 odd miles down to Pewsey with Danny able to kip this time. Again we had a healthy turn out of anglers with 14 of the team booked in. All I hoped for was a draw on a different section of canal to the last match. I was also keen to try some of the things out we had learned from match 1.


The weather was fairly mild when we left Colchester with no night time frost. However, as we neared our destination it was clear it had been much colder further south west with evidence of a heavy frost. We hoped the canal would not be frozen as we had not bought ice breakers, in fact out of the whole team only two people had bought them! Rumours at the draw suggested the canal was part frozen, therefore breakers would be needed on some pegs.


I got my wish and pulled out a different section of canal, this time at Pewsey Wharf, permanent peg number 74. The match organiser suggested it was a good peg and in a better area than where I had drawn last time, so I had some grounds for optimism. Danny faired less well pulling out peg 131, this was four pegs to the left of where I had drawn last match with ex Essex County star Richard Taylor managing 2lbs odd only from it that day.


After arriving at my peg I quite fancied it as I was next to some wires which gave me a big peg to my left due to the "no fishing" zone created. Also, the cut was wider than average here, with it being a good 15 metres to the far bank. The canal was iced all the way across and of course I did not have an ice breaker, unfortunately it was also too thick to break with a pole cup. It soon became apparent that I was in the majority as everyone had been caught out by the cold snap and there were only 2 ice breakers out of about 15 anglers. One was severely improvised, a seat box leg was tied to a piece of rope as thick as my arm, unsurprisingly I could only launch it about 6 metres! I managed to get hold of the other breaker which flew out well, but was hindered by only having 11 metres of rope. Ideally I wanted to break out to 13 metres, but had no choice in the matter. Lesson learnt, always leave your ice breaker in the car!


My match was a definite match of two halves, for the first three hours I caught consistently on both bread and bj and the last two yielded hardly a bite. The downturn in action coincided firstly with the ice melting and also with a run of boats. With every boat the fishing seemed to get progressively worse until everyone was left scratching their heads. At the weigh in I recorded 4lb 11 ounces which was mainly small roach and the odd bonus "gusta", this was enough to win my 5 peg section. The only downside was the walk back through the mud which had now thawed out. Some anglers were forced to abandon their trolleys as they became stuck fast in the sludge!


The match was only won with a high seven pound as the sudden cold snap obviously knocked the canal on its head. We had several section pick ups, with the star man for the second match running being Dave Guntrip. He weighed in 6lb dead taking 5th place in the match, his catch consisted mainly of bits and bobs, but he had the added bonus of a pound skimmer first put in. David's day took a sudden turn for the worse on the way home as he relieved himself of his winnings as a result of some haphazard driving on the M4. Dave's version of events goes along the lines of him being dazzled by a driver up his arse, which caused him to swerve and collide with team mate Mark Campions car. Campo is now wing mirrorless, struggles to open his drivers door and has a big dent on his front wing, somehow Dave's car escaped unharmed!


Another story from the day involved Starlets Dan Ashington. Apparently Dan had succesfully broken out his peg and was just getting his box into position. As he was adjusting his footplate legs he slipped on the ice and ended up in the drink dragging his Rive box in with him! I bet he wished he done it before breaking the ice! Luckily for Dan another angler had a spare pair of trousers in his van and heroically Dan fished on and even won his section!

Sunday 27th January. Open Match. Colemans Cottage Fishery. 46 Pegs

So it was to be a carp double header this weekend, with a trip to the best match carp venue in Essex. With a large club house on site and now a tackle shop, Colemans could soon be in line to stage "Fisho's" or "Maver Pairs", especially with talk of another lake being dug. This is especially good news as the venue is only 15 minutes from my house.


The match was to be staged over the two main match lakes "Pathfield" and "Wood". Pathfield is the original lake at Colemans and holds 36 pegs, the carp average about 2.5lbs, but there are fish up to low double figures. Wood was dug a couple of years after this and the fish average about 1.5lbs, there are also lots of Barbel and Chub in this lake to supplement the carp stocks. I didn't mind which lake I drew, my main concern was pulling out a flyer on either. The weather was again very mild for January, with the sun making it feel like early April, therefore I expected anything from 80-120lb too win this one. There were to be 23 pegs in on each lake and a "continental" style pay out, meaning the frame would be split evenly across both lakes.

Bait for the Day

1/2 pint of 4mm expanders.

a few 6mm expanders.

2 pints of castors (left over from the previous day).

4mm hard pellets.

tin of corn.

a few maggots.

When I went to draw there were three pegs left in the hat, I pulled out peg 32 on Pathfield, which I didn't know too much about. After speaking to some regulars I was advised it was a good peg with some winter form and one which I should have a days sport from, which was encouraging. I also learnt that my Wickford team mate Terry Edwards had drawn it in the Wednesday Open catching 50lb plus and winning his section. After giving Tel a bell it transpired that he had caught most of his fish at 8 metres on corn. The main reason he stuck to 8 metres was because of the atrocious wind which made fishing long an impossibility.

After arriving at my peg I realised I was one of four pegs in an open water "bowl". I had drawn this bowl twice before in the Winter, one time catching well, the other time struggling. Unlike some other venues the fish in Pathfield do have a habit of roaming around in the Winter so you can never be sure where they will be. As with all winter carp fishing it was fingers crossed and get ready to play bingo. For company I had top local carp angler Dale Smith, who was sure to catch if there were fish in front of him. Dale is a cracking bloke but suffers from verbal diorreah and I knew he would chirping constantly all day!


My "modus operandi" for the day was to entirely involve the pole. I could only fish 14.5 metres out in front of me otherwise I would be over halfway and would be encroaching on the angler opposite. With this in mind a simple approach was the order of the day on this peg. Taking Terry's advice, I plumbed up the 8metre line and found a depth of approximately 4.5 foot and after shipping out to 13 metres I found an almost identical depth. My plans of fishing at 14.5 metres were put paid by the guy opposite me plumbing up at 16 metres! Although he was to the right of me, I wanted to have my own space. Despite the cries of fowl play from myself and Dale, it soon became clear that he was not in a responsive or a co-operative mood. The problem being there was no fishery rule, meaning only a verbal rule was in existence between anglers (well most anglers anyway!). Apart from 8 and 13 metres, I plumbed a line at 6 metres and 10 o'clock towards the empty peg to my left. I didn't really expect to catch on this, but it can work on Pathfield even on the coldest days.


Rigs for the day were simple, with only three being set up, all featuring 4x12 Carpa Chimps. Two were to be used on the 8 and 13 metre lines. The first featured 0.12 Cenitan tied to a size 18 B611, shotting was with strung out number 11 stotz and was set to just touch bottom. This rig was to be for 4mm pellet or possibly maggot. The second rig was a corn rig, which was set a couple of inches over depth (so the corn didn't sink the float) and again featured 0.12 Cenitan tied to an 18 Tubertini 808. My final rig was the 6 metre one and was slightly "beefed up" with 0.14 Cenitan and an 18 B911, the logic being that if I started to catch here they would be feeding fish and would be slightly more carefree. Hydroelastic was the order of the day, with white featuring on the 0.12 rigs and grey on the 0.14. The one irritating thing about Colemans is the ban on the use of pull bungs, so there could be some stretching to net fish.


At the start I cupped in 4 grains of corn, 2 4mm hard pellets (softened) and 2 expanders on both the 8 and 13 metre line. I also threw in 2 grains of corn at 6 metres. I planned to feed at 6 metres regularly by hand throughout the day and the other two lines via the kinder cup. Before I had put my cupping kit down both Dale to my right and the guy opposite were playing carp, this raised my expectations as there were obviously carps in the area.


My opening gambit was to be at 8 metres and I buried a single grain of corn on the hook and shipped out. After a couple of minutes I struck and missed a cagey indication, then next put in I had my first fish, a carp of about 8ounces. I filled the kinder cup with 3 pellets and 2 pieces of corn and re-shipped out, immediately I missed another 2 bites and with the third strike caught a carp of about a pound. This was ok but Dale and the peg opposite were catching 2 and 3 pouders on their lines towards the middle of the lake. It was obviously time for me to try the 13 metre line. Unfortunately, I didn't get the instant bite I wanted and after about 5 minutes I shipped in and kindered some more bait in. This worked a treat as I had a 5 pounder on the drop, which came in like a sack of spuds. No other immediate fish followed though and despite working both the 8 and 13 metre lines in the first hour I was missing too many bites and only catching odd fish. At this point I was worried because I was behind Dale and most depressingly the guy opposite me was shipping out to 16 metres and nailing a fish every bung without feeding.


I needed to try something different and despite a brief foray to my right where the epicentre of the shoal seemed to be I found no response forthcoming. Therefore, I decided to stick with my original lines, but with the pellet. I had a feeling that i was missing bites from smaller fish on corn which would probably more readily except a pellet. This worked much better and a 4 mm pellet on the hook saw my peg slowly get stronger for the next couple of hours. Incidentally I was kindering 2 expanders and 2 4mm hard pellets every put in. During this time I found I could catch a few fish from one line before resting it and going on the other before coming back again. I had several fish of around the pound mark, but was also catching the 2-3 pounders required to reach a framing weight. Meanwhile, matey boy opposite had now slowed up with Dale catching well.


An Accident Waiting To Happen!


Dale to my right was fishing at 14.5 metres towards the guy opposite (who was in between myself and Dale) the guy opposite was now fishing at 16 metres towards Dale. There was less than a metre between their floats and the predictable was about to happen. Dale struck into a fish which tore off towards the angler opposite and before you could blink they were both playing the same fish!!! Now it was obviously Dale's fish and the guy opposite had to let Dale play the fish the best he could. The situation was farcical as Dale was not only playing a totally disorientated and unfortunate carp but someone elses tackle as well and eventually netted the fish plus two rigs after much stretching and straining. Amusingly the same thing happened again about 30 minutes later and I could sense there was some tension in the air for the rest of the match between the pair!

Whilst this was going on I was still catching on and off, however it was noticeable that the 8 metre line was beginning to die and I was having to concentrate on the longer line. Occasionally I could tempt an extra bite by going half a section beyond my feed. With an hour and a half left I felt I had 50lb in my carp net and went to get a second carp net. Fishery rules dictate 70lb maximum in a net, if you exceed this limit you are deducted the amount of weight you are over off your final total. I always stop at 50lb as this gives you some room for error, I used to go up to 60, but once a misjudgement cost me weight so I don't risk it now.

Going into the final hour my peg was getting worse and worse, but I was still catching odd fish. looking at others around me Dale was still getting one a bung and looked a certainty to win the match. The guy opposite was really struggling now and I felt that I now had a similar weight to him. I decided to give the 6 metre line a few looks in the final hour in the hope that a run of quick carp could be tempted from here. Despite a liner there with 15 minutes to go, no fish were forthcoming, therefore it was heads down for the last fifteen minutes on the long line.

At the weigh in it was clear that it had been a struggle for the majority, which is typical of winter carp fishing. I was just grateful for a days sport. As expected Dale cracked the ton, 101lb to be precise and had pulled my pants down big time off the next peg. My weight of 73lb 4ounces was ok though and gave me third on the lake (there was a 90 odd from peg 11). On paper I was third in the match as Wood had fished poorly with only 40lb winning it, but with the continental payout I picked up fifth place money.

After speaking with Dale at the end of the day he had stuck with corn all day, just nicking it on with a small hook, this prevented the "zorro like" strike required when burying the hook. He had also fed short and fished beyond his feed for the majority of the match. Later in the match he began fishing over his feed and sacked. Also, it was agreed that a maximum pole length of 14.5 metres would come into operation on these "bowl" pegd in the future.

Saturday 26th January. Open Match. Rayne Lodge. 25 Pegs

I was back at Rayne Lodge again and the match again took the "silvers" or "carp" option with an equal pay out in both pools. I'd not really caught a bag of carps in months, so a good carp peg would have been my preferred option, however I would finally decide after I drew my peg. I dipped into the draw bag hoping for the top lake peg 4 and guess what I drew ......... middle peg 3. Not a bad carp peg this one as I had chuck towards the island in the middle of the lake, but after my success with the silvers the previous week I was in two minds on the best way to approach things. Conditions were more pleasant than the previous week with pleasant sunshine and a light breeze.

After arriving at my peg it was time to see what others were doing in close vicinity. Next to me on peg 2 was my pal Danny Grimsey, this peg had actually chucked up a 90lb weight of carp a couple of weeks earlier, however generally I wouldn't class it as a carp flyer. After much soul searching "Grimos" decided to roach it. On the other side of me on peg 4 was Image's Keith Grieve and he had also decided to go down the silvers route. This left me with the easy choice of going for carps for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to catch some carp! and secondly if I went for silvers all three of us would be sharing fish.


Bait for the day was exactly the same as the previous week, however the castors, worms, groundbait etc would remain in the bag. All I put on my bait tray was a tin of corn, a tin of meat and a quarter of a pint of maggots.


Tactics were to be centred around the rod and line as I expected the carp to be balled up in the centre of the lake somewhere. I set up a straight lead, incorporating 3/4's of an ounce of bomb running on a six inch loop connected to a 2 foot hooklength of 0.17 powerline. My hook was to be an ultra reliable size 18 knotless knotted Kamasan Animal. A waggler was also set up to fish the same line in the middle of the lake. My only slight reservation with "the wagg" being the breeze blowing in my face, this would hinder presentation as the float would be moving back towards me. The waggler was a 3AAA Dennan Peacock insert, locked with all the weight around the float and with just two number 11 stotz as droppers. I expected to catch most of my fish on the drop as the fish snatched at the bait falling past their noses. I set this at the depth of my pole rigs (I'll come to these in a minute) and would move the float up and down to try to work out the killer depth. Rod was a 13 foot Daiwa Connoseour Z and reel was an old Shimano 3000 size reel loaded with 2.5lb maxima. At the business end was 18 inches of 0.14 Browning Cenitan tied knotless style to a size 18 B911. Two pole rigs were assembled, one featuring 0.12 line and a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp, tied direct to an 18 808 for fishing corn, this was to be fished at 16 metres. My other rig again featured a 4x12 Chimp but was tied to 0.14 and an 18 B911. This was to fished at 6 metres and I would regularly feed 2 grains of corn here. I didn't really expect to catch here as it was still a bit early in the year for this line to "go".


At the all in it was clear I would be sharing the centre of the lake with Jonny Bell on peg 7 and Alan Lee on peg 15 as they both launched bombs towards the middle. However before mine went out I cupped in six grains of corn at 16 metres and chucked a couple of grains at 6 metres. I hair-rigged a large punched bit of meat on the hook and chucked towards the middle. The rod went on the rod rests and I was free to give Grimos some advice on his roach fishing! I couldn't really tuck into him as my concentration was soon broken by the the tip arching round. A carp of a pound was soon in the net, a small fish but the perfect start none the less, especially as all the other "pie catchers" hadn't moved. I hoped this would be the start of some regular pulls on the tip, however a biteless 20 minutes ensued with Alan Lee being the only other person to sample some carp action with a fish similar in size to mine.


Despite the wind not being particularly favourable it was time for the wagg. I baited up with a hairigged piece of corn and feathered the float into my peg at about 25-30 metres. Just as the float was dotting down it flew away and I was into a 4lber which I safely netted. Surely I had found the method now, the fish wanted the bait presented on the drop and not hard ont deck. However, the next hour was frustrating with three more carp landed, about twenty missed bites and a lost foul hooker. The missed bites occurred due to the wind pulling the float towards me as soon as it landed therefore when I struck I was not hitting the float until the rod was behind my head. I also tried cutting the hair off and just putting the corn on the hook, alas this did not improve my bite to fish ratio. A wind knot in the line, meant I had to retackle and tested my patience further. However, none of the carp anglers on my lake were catching anything, but 50lb had to be my minimum target to have any chance of winning.


It was now time for pole and I kindered 3 pieces of corn on the 16 metre line before lowering the rig in, 15 minutes later I had caught a 3 ounce skimmer and despite dropping around my feed it was clear all the carp I was likely to catch were on my wagg line. The silver fish match was not going very well for Grimos and it was clear they were not feeding nearly as well as last week.


It was back on the waggler and first chuck back out I nailed a small carp on the drop which I landed. A pattern seemed to be emerging, most of the bites I hit were the ones on the drop, perhaps the ones which came when the float had settled were mostly liners? After 3 hours I was up to 11 carp for about 25lb all coming on the wagg except for the first one. I had also caught a few on maggot, which I think was slightly better than the corn. A look back on the bomb didn't even produce a liner which was unbelievable as I felt my peg was solid with fish despite them not really feeding.


Hour four was to be my worst of the match and despite changes of depth on the waggler, another look on the pole and even a half hearted attempt at six metres I couldn't string together any bites, which was weird as my waggler line had been providing me with non stop indications throughout the day. I only added a couple of small 'uns in this hour, however I was still winning the lake so that was some consolation at least. It also gave me time to tell Danny that there was 20lb of silvers in every peg on this lake to a decent silver fish angler!


The final hour was to see my peg re-awaken and I must have had a bite (the float went under anyway!) nearly every cast and I was actually hitting a few bites, even catching two in consecutive chucks. Maggot was my bait of choice now, basically because it didn't come off the hook thus saving time. It was noticeable that when the wind dropped my presentation felt much better and I was hitting more bites. In the end I ended up with a further 9 carp 2 lost foul hookers giving me a total of 22 fish.


The scales confirmed my weight as 43lbs 8ounces, unfortunately I couldn't get in amongst the larger stamp carp which would have boosted my weight further. However, this was good enough to win my lake with the second carp weight being only 25lb. Overall Steve Tyler anihalated the match on top lake peg 3, with 70 odd pound of bomb caught carp, which left me with second in the carp pool. The top lake took the roach pool as well, with Danny being disapointed to record just shy of 10lb next to me. However, everyone struggled for roach on the middle.


It had been a hard match with a lot of "zorro" like swishing from me as I missed bite after bite, but I felt with a more favourable wind it could have been a different story. Overall, it had been nice to fish a method seldom used these days which made for an enjoyable match.

Saturday 19th January. Open Match Rayne Lodge. 28 Pegs

This match was to be slightly different from the norm in that there were to be two pools, one for silvers and one for carp. Not a bad idea really as it means you have a plan B if you draw a crap carp peg and this was to be my exact thinking. The pay out was to be top 4 in the silvers and top 4 in the carp split 50/50. In fact it was possible to win both the carp and the silver fish pools if you achieved something approaching a miracle. However, I reckon I'd have more chance of a date with Kara Tointon than achieving this myself! The match was to be pegged on the top and middle lakes, with the top lake being the preferred draw for silvers, as experience told me they were a better stamp. My target weight was to be 20lb on the silvers and 70lb plus to win the carp. The other "feature" about the day was that it rained all day non stop.


Bait for the Day


2 Pints of shells
1/2 pint maggots
bag of dead worms
tin of meat
tin of corn
micro pellets
4mm pellets
1.5 kilos of gross gardons noire mixed the night before with warm water.


At the draw I pulled out peg 7 on the middle lake, which I knew gave me a good chance of competing in the carp pool on the straight lead, waggler or long pole. When I arrived at my peg it seemed that nearly everyone on the lake was going to target carp, this made me reconsider my approach. I figured that I'd let everyone else have the carp and have the silvers nearly all to myself. The only problem being I'd given 1/2 a pint of shells to Ricky Tomlinson "dead ringer" Bob Davis, however I still had 1.5 pints at my disposal.


Tactics for the Day


I decided to keep things dead simple as I knew I was going to have to catch a large quantity of fish to compete from this lake as the stamp was smaller than the top lake . Therefore, I plumbed up three lines, one on an elasticated top kit to hand, the other two were at 6 metres. One was to be 6 metres at 10 o'clock, where I would simply feed 8-10 castors every 30 seconds and the other again at six metres, but this time at 2 0'clock. On this line I would feed three balls of groundbait with chopped worm and castor, the only hitch being the worms I had bought "fresh" from the tackle shop the previous evening were all dead. I could not get to my normal worm supplier so got fobbed off with the deads (not for the first time). Anyway, so it was to be groundbait and castor on this line, in the hope of catching some larger stamp fish (skimmers/larger roach), I would not loosefeed this line initially.

Both my 6 metre lines were approximately 4.5 feet deep and I set up three rigs to cover my options on both. Two were set at dead depth and featured 4x12 and 4x14 Sarfix floats (almost identical to Colmic Jollys). Line was 0.09 to 0.07 Browning Cenitan to a size 22 Wide Gape Canal Seed initially. Shotting was with a spread bulk at 3/4's depth on both. Droppers on the 4x12 were number 12s and on the 4x14 were number 11s. The other rig was a 4x10 set at 2.5 foot deep just in case the fish came up shallow. Elastics were number 3s on the deep rigs and a 2 on the shallow one.


On the whistle I started on the to hand line and fed a couple of nuggets of groundbait and some maggots to try to nick some early fish, however a biteless couple of minutes signalled the fish were not this close to me yet. Straight out on the 4x12 rig with a single maggot on the loosefeed line saw me into small roach immediately, however despite changing rigs and going onto my groundbait line things were slow in the first hour. In fact judging by the lack of carp being caught it seemed that the whole lake had switched off.


The second hour was much better for me as fish started coming every put in on the loosefed line and despite them being mostly small 1/2-2 ounces they were now coming one a bung. There was even the odd bonus "Gusta" to contend with, which must have got washed down in the rain from the Kennet & Avon. The groundbait line remained slow and I started to loosefeed it as this was obvious the way to go. Already I had it in the back of my mind that I shouldn't have given away those shells!!


The third hour was again consistent and I had just over 100 fish in the net by the end of it. My best rig was the 4x12 and I was catching most of the fish in the bottom third of the swim, I couldn't catch on the shallow rig though. Despite the peg being solid, the fish wouldn't tolerate a bigger hook so I stuck with a 22 throughout.


The fourth hour saw me really bagging on these small fish and I also encountered a couple of 12 oz gustas which were the bonuses on the day. I also hit into a carp on the groundbait line and I just couldn't snap off on it what ever I did, I even tried handlining! Its amazing how much stick 0.07 will take on balanced tackle. A three pounder was put into my carp net. Near the end of the fourth hour I had to abandon loosefeeding the groundbait line as I was running dry on castors. However, at the end of the hour I was up to about 160 fish.


The final hour arrived and I knew I needed to keep up the catch rate to give me a chance of my target weight. Ideally I would have liked to up the feed to really entice them into having a proper chew, but kept up with the small amounts fed regularly. The 4x12 rig was still the best. Right up until the final whistle it was one a bung with my final tally coming to 225. At the weigh in I was pleased to record 20lb 4ozs, which I felt would be certain to frame with a chance of winning. Interestingly, the next "silvers" weight on my lake was 16lb of pellet caught skimmers. Next match on this lake I would defibnitely abandon the groundbait line and replace it with a pellet line.

Unfortunately, I didn't win the match with my mate Paul Connell (Oscar the Grouch) doing the business on the top lake weighing 21lb 4ozs of quality roach. Many of these were hemp caught "dogs". The carp match was won by Steve Tyler on flyer top lake peg 4, I caught remember his weight, but most of his fish were caught on the straight lead or a small feeder with maggot or luncheon meat ont hook.