Saturday 23rd February 2008. Open Match. Rayne Lodge. 28 Pegs

This was to be the last silver fish or carp match of the year, as the plan was to stop them at the end of February and have "all in" matches. After my last match at this venue when I realised I'd made a few mistakes in fishing the lead for carp I was hoping for a chance to put a few things right. If I drew a carp peg I would try "slack lining" it for the carp on the lead and also pinning the line to the deck. I had bought some PVA bags also, as I was sure this would work here, especially as the weather had turned very mild. Perhaps inevitably I drew a peg in a corner which would provide me with no opportunity to experiment with rod and line! My draw put me on the top lake, peg 7, as I was in a corner, I did not have to think very long before deciding I would go for silvers.


Bait for a day on the Silvers


2 pints of castors
1/2 pint of maggots


As you can see my bait options were simple and I didn't even expect to use the maggots, as they tend to tempt a very small stamp of fish on this lake. I could have tried to catch some bigger skimmers on pellets or chopped worms, however my approach was to based around catching constantly all day and to just keep putting fish in the net. I knew I would need 20 lb plus to win this match, so 20lb had to be a target just to make the frame.


Tactics


200 plus fish would probably be needed to reach my target, therefore I knew I would have to plunder a couple of lines only to catch at a quick pace. There would be no point trying to catch odd fish off several lines, as it would be to slow. Therefore my first line was to be at 6 metres at 10 o clock in about 5 feet of water, here I would loose feed casters at varying rates depending on the response of the fish. I had three rigs assembled for this line all of them featured the same line and hooks 0.09 to 0.08 Cenitan and 20 Wide Gape Canal Seed hooks. Float sizes and shotting were the only variable with 4x14 and 4x16 Sarfix floats being used (carbon stem, plastic bristle) which are similar in shape to a Colmic Jolly but with a better bristle. On the 4x14 rig no 11 shots were used and the 4x16 no 10s. The shoting pattern on both was a spread bulk at 3/4 depth and 4 droppers. My other rig was a 4x10 Preston Somo set at about 2 foot should the fish come shallow. On the deep rigs elastic was a number 5 preston to allow me to swing 3 ounce fish comfortably, on the 2 foot rig a number 3 would prevent fish coming straight to the top.


My other line was to be at 9 metres at 2 oclock, here my intention was to catch shallow and i would loose feed 6 to 8 casters here very regularly to try and get the fish competing shallow. I would use the 4x10 Somo here as well and also set up a 4x12 rig should the fish be deeper. Elastics were number 3's on both.




At the start I began loose feeding 6 castors every 30 seconds or so on both lines and started the day at 6 metres on the 4x14 rig. Hook bait was a single castor and first put in I had a bite and missed it. Regular loose feeding began to get me fairly regular bites and roach between 1/2 an ounce and 3 ounces started to come to the net steadily. I wasn't motoring but I probably put 3 and a half to 4 pounds in the net at the end of the first hour. I normally count my fish, but today for some reason I lost count early, so couldn't use this an indicator of how well I was doing. My Wickford team mate Mark Campion had drawn opposite me and I felt that he would be the man to beat today and after an hour i didn't think there was much between us.


Just after the hour mark bites began to get iffy at 6 metres, so it was time to rest that line and try the up in the water line which I had been constantly priming with castors. I picked up the 4x 10 rig and nicked a single castor on the hook. As I hoped I caught fish straight away on this line, however I was missing lots of bites which is the curse of fishing shallow for roach. I was finding that the bigger roach were right up in the water and I had an odd 8 ouncer very shallow which were bonuses. This shallow line didn't continue to produce for long though and the fish soon spooked, probably because the water was still quite clear. For the remainder of the hour I switched between the two lines and kept fish coming and even had a bonus 12 ounce "Gusta" on the 6 metre line. I was probably up to about 8-9lb after 2 hours which I felt was pretty good. However, Campo was still catching well and I didn't think there was much between us still.


My catching rhythm was broken at the start of the 3rd hour as I hooked a 2lb carp at 6 metres this was just a pest, but I did manage to get it in pretty quickly so not to much damage was done. I just hoped that it wouldn't be the first of many. Back on the 6 metre line and I was now getting lots of bites on the drop which prompted me to try my shallower 2 and 3 foot rigs. These did not work though as I missed a couple of bites, but couldn't actually catch on them. A few more "Gustas" of 8-10 ounces followed at 6 metres on the 4x14 rig, this was definitely my best line, but occasionally I had to rest and go back out to 9 metres shallow to keep em coming. At the end of hour 3 I reckon I had 13-14lb in the net and I was well on course for my target, however I still didn't think I was catching any faster than Mark Campion, so it was gonna be heads down all the way.

The fish were now feeding well at 6 metres and I had about a pint of castors remaining so I decided to up the amount I was feeding to try and tempt a better stamp of fish. This was now my main catching line as the 9metre line was good when the fish at 6 metres needed a rest, but they seemed to spook shallow quite quickly. It was probably still to early in the year for it in fact. Upping the feeding (20 castors every 30secs-minute)did have a positive effect and the average stamp of the fish did improve. Interestingly, I found that my biggest fish came hard on the bottom with the smaller ones on the drop. I did try picking up my half a gram rig to get it to the bottom quickly, however this didn't seem to work and the 4x14 rig remained as king. I was really enjoying the match now and I knew with a good last hour I was on my way to a big 20lb weight. At the end of hour 4 I felt I was up to my 20lb target.

The Turning Point

I guess that everything was going rather to well and unfortunately I had a last hour which could only be described as disastrous. As I continued to plunder the 6 metre line I suddenly struck into something which obviously wasn't a roach and I had hooked another carp, which mucked me around for about 5 minutes, it was only a two pounder but wouldn't come in and I couldn't break off on it either! Next put in and it was deja vu time again except this one was definitely bigger as it plodded ponderously about. I added another number four section to try and bully it in quickly, but after about five minutes of stretching and straining the hook pulled out and at the time I thought I had caught the float in my hand. A closer inspection showed me this wasn't exactly the case as the pole float bristle had gone straight through my finger! I pulled it out and a minute or so later blood started to pour out and I carried on the best I could after having to assemble another rig. Obviously, this hampered me somewhat and the thought of contracting "weils disease" also put me off my fishing a bit!

I decided to rest the 6 metre line and cut back on the castors to try and dissuade any more carp. It was back up in the water at 9 metres and I caught a few more roach before that died. The 6 metre line had not benefited from the rest and I hooked 4 more carp before the all out and only added odd roach in amongst them. I knew this terrible last hour would cost me dearly as Mark opposite me had remained carp free and had continued to catch at a decent rate. The scales confirmed this as Campo weighed in 26lb 8 ounces and I had 22lb dead. Mark was first and I was second in the silvers. To be fair though I'm not sure if I would have caught 26lb 8 without the carp, however it would have been close for sure.

On reflection maybe I paid for being aggressive and upping the feed, however that 6 metre line can be dynamite for carp and if you have them in your swim and they decide to have a go I don't think theres much you can do to be quite honest. It had been an enjoyable match though and silver fish matches on commercials in winter are definitely the way to go.

Sunday 17th February 2008. Angling Times Winter League Semi Final Practice. Kennet & Avon Canal Pewsey. 120+ pegs

The semi final was now only two weeks away and this third and final practice match would be the last chance for all competing teams to practice the match length as the venue would be closed up until match day. This is an excellent idea as it should guarantee a good semi without the fish having been hammered.

Conditions for this match had been forecast as appalling.The forecast had predicted temperatures down to -7 or -8 for the Pewsey area on Saturday night, obviously this is not conducive to bumper canal weights. For once the forecast appeared to be correct as the temperature gauge on Danny's car confirmed. We weren't going to be caught out without ice breakers for this match though and we both expected to use them too. I was worried that we weren't really going to learn much from this match as I couldn't envisage temperatures of -7 on the day of the semi.

Again my aim from this match was to fish a different area of the canal from the other two matches and my draw of permanent peg 148 put me 13 pegs away from my peg in the first match. This put me on the straight leading up to Wilcott Bridge and gave me the luxury of a walk of about 5 yards to my peg. The only thing I didn't like about this was every other angler in the section had to walk past my peg to get to theirs, meaning lots of commotion! The area hadn't fished brilliantly in the previous match, but the match organiser reckoned I had a chance of skimmers, however I was sceptical they would feed in the arctic conditions.

Bait for the Day

1.1 pints of joker
some small English bloodworm
liquidised bread
a few pinkies and maggot
1/2 pint castor
a few lobs.

As I arrived at my peg my suspicions of a frozen canal were confirmed and despite attempts to clear the peg with my ice breaking pole the ice was to thick. Therefore, out went the ice breaker and I soon had a nice clear peg, however I really wanted to avoid doing this with the possibility of skimmers in mind. I had drawn in between Darren Cox and my team mate Simon Drew, interestingly Darren's peg was unfrozen, whilst Simon's seemed to be thicker than mine and he had a real job clearing it. On these sort of days you fear a boat going through and smashing the ice into a million pieces, causing mayhem for everyone.

Shock, Horror

My day suddenly took an almighty turn for the worse. I decided I would phone Danny to see what his peg looked like so reached for my mobile in my bag. My hand went into the side pocket and there was nothing there, I checked my pockets, my entire bag and couldn't find my phone and more importantly my wallet! I retraced my steps in my mind and it soon became apparent what had happened. When Danny dropped me off he was keen to get going to his peg and as I unloaded my gear I put my phone and wallet on top of his car. Obviously he had driven off and my phone and wallet were now AWOL in the Pewsey area. I borrowed my mate Dean Tennant's phone who was a few pegs up the canal and called Danny, hoping he had somehow got them. He had not seen them though and I felt sick to the pit of my stomach. Despite walking about half a mile up the road looking amongst the vegetation I found nothing. I had no choice now but to phone to get my cards and mobile cancelled. What an idiot I had been and its not the first time I had done it, once I done the same thing before a canal match at West Drayton, luckily when i realised 10 minutes later, phone and wallet were still there. I was not so lucky on this occasion though. My only hope was that an angler had found them and would hand them in at the end of the day.

As you can imagine I was not exactly in the correct frame of mind to fish an important match and take on an England international on the next peg. I now only had about half an hour remaining to get set up and wouldn't be able to set up as many rigs as I would like to. To make things worse more ice had drifted into my peg when I was away and five minutes before the start I had to chuck the ice breaker in again! Things were not going well to say the least!


I fed my normal positive lines as in the previous two matches and started on the bread but a bite less fifteen minutes confirmed it was going to be a hard day. Therefore, I plumbed up 4 more lines, 2 were in 2.5 feet of water up the far shelf and the other two were down the middle in deep water. In the deep water lines I fed 2 balls of soil with a pinch of joker in to try and catch some perch. In the 2.5 feet lines I fed two "nuggets" of raw jokers, in the hope of catching anything and getting a few bites.


Darren next door had also been bite less on the bread, but had caught a few small roach by going right over and catching in the shallow water on joker. Simon Drew next door to me was bite less but seemed to have other things on his mind judging by the "Bifta" hanging from his mouth! On my deep soil lines I managed to get a few bites from tiny perch and gudgeon, but these fish were 100 to the pound size and I was going no where with these.


Suddenly I had a change of luck and I struck into something on double joker which was clearly going to be a very handy bonus on the day if I got it out. The fish tore off down the canal very quickly and my initial thoughts were that it was a tench. At this point I felt I was in serious trouble as I remembered my terminal tackle consisted of an 0.06 bottom to a 26 IM1 and a number 2 elastic, clearly this was not "barney stopping" gear. I had the extra problem of ice preventing me following the fish down the peg all I could do was dip my pole tip and hold on. After a couple of minutes it became obvious nothing was moving and the fish had snagged me. my only option was to increase the pressure and pull back towards me. Amazingly the fish came back towards me, but snagged itself again in front of me. This time I tried giving it some slack line to see if it would swim out, however it didn't work and again I had to increase the pressure. Again the fish came free from the snag, but snagged me a third time at about 4 metres. This time I put as much pressure as I dared on the fish and something started moving slowly towards me and as a tree branch appeared above the water and I thought the fish had gone. Alas no, lady luck was obviously on my side as I spotted a fish about a foot below the branch in the clear water, a quick scoop of the net and I had a pound perch in the net. It was absolutely amazing I had managed to land this fish, as I am convinced 99 times out of a 100 it would have broken me! My IM1 hook was badly bent and could only have been just been hanging on in there.

After changing the hook it was back to the very odd small perch down the middle on double joker. I soon had to rest these middle lines and a switch to the shallow lines with double and single joker bought me the occasional roach. These were bigger than the roach at about half an ounce. I even netted a 2 ouncer which was a real treat on the day. The story for the rest of the match was scratching on all four negative lines and occasionally picking up odd fish from each which were no bigger than half an ounce. However, in the the final fifteen minutes I managed to pick up three 2 ounce perch over my initial positive deep joker line, which were a bonus on the day.


It had been a real struggle and the match had been ruined by the savagely cold weather and also by the fact I had lost my major personal belongings! At least the lucky perch was some sort of recompense. I weighed in 2lb 2 ounces which was enough to clinch my 5 peg section, my catch consisted of the pound perch and a pound odd of eyeballs. Darren weighed in 1 pound dead which was all bits and bobs, whilst Simon next to me tipped back a couple of ounces. Back at the pub no one had handed in my phone or wallet, so my last ray of hope had gone. The match was won by Starlets Mick Dagnall with 14lb odd of big skimmers, interestingly 5 anglers in a row had caught these fish and made up most of the frame. I couldn't believe they had fed in these conditions. As in previous matches we had 4 or 5 section winners and we felt that we had been getting to grips to the canals different moods. We all knew this would count for nothing if we didn't get it right on the big day.

Saturday 9th February. Open Match Rayne Lodge 25 pegs

This was to be another one of those matches in which you could choose whether to go for silvers or carp. The weather was fairly mild with very little wind, good conditions in fact. I was keen to have a go for carp as I'd fished for silvers the whole weekend before. At the draw I pulled out peg 8 on the top lake, which is a good silver fish peg and a fairly good carp peg. My Wickford team mate Peter Steward had drawn peg 9 and between us we had decided I would go for carp and he would go for silvers. The theory behind this being we would effectively have an empty peg each as we were doing different things and wouldn't share the fish.


Bait For a Carp Match


Tin of meat
Tin of corn
some 4mm pellets



As you can see not much bait was going to be needed, simply because my match was going to be based around rod and line fishing and not feeding here at all. On the pole I would put a small amount of bait in.


Peg 8 is an interesting peg because at around 25 metres and slightly to your right there is a small island, which at this time of year is nothing short of an irritant as it holds no fish and just gets in the way of where you want to cast. Also from experience I know this peg is snaggy, in previous matches I have been cut off bringing fish back past the island and up over what must be a shallow bar. Also there is a tree that hangs in the water at about 7 metres on a little point down the edge. I was hoping to catch a few late ones from here in the final part of the match.


Tactics



My main hope of winning this match was by fishing past the small island into the deeper water in the middle of the lake. With this in mind I set up a straight lead rod and also a big waggler. With the snaggy nature of the peg in mind I decided to gear up accordingly and used the heaviest line I had with me (6lb maxima) and a 2 foot hook length of 0.19 powerline attached to a 16 Kamasan Animal hook. Rod was an 11/13 Daiwa Spectron medium feeder, this set up should allow me to dictate terms to the fish and not the other way round. The big wagg incorporated an 8 gram Drennan Skud attached to 5lb Korum reel line. Initially, I set the wagg at about 4 feet deep and my intention was to hair rig corn on this and catch fish which may be sitting off the bottom on the drop. I could also really search my peg with both of these set ups.


I also assembled a pole and would fish two lines on this. The first being at 16 metres where i would cup in 10 grains of corn at the start and look over this line periodically. Also I fed the "Kerb Krawler" by the tree at 7 metres with 20 grains of corn. I could just about throw corn at this range so would throw a few grains fairly regularly to try and stir up some feeding fish. Rigs on the pole were a 4x14 Carpa Chimp at 16 metres, tied direct to an 18 Tubertini 808 on 0.12 Browning Cenitan. Down the edge featured a 0.15gram Mick Wilkinson Power Slim on 0.14 to an 18 B911.


At the all in I fed the pole lines and chucked the bomb out past the island into the middle of the lake. Hook bait was a large piece of hair rigged meat and I sat on my box and waited ..... I didn't have to wait long as after about 5 minutes the tip flew round and being aware of the snags in the peg I immediately stood up and tried to give the fish some stick to pull it over the ledge. Unfortunately, I think I probably pulled a bit hard and it dropped off. Next chuck the tip whizzed round again and this time I took things a bit steadier and soon had a small pound carp in the net. An ok start but other anglers on the bomb had also caught and their fish were bigger. At the end of the first hour I had only two more 3 pounders and was behind other people and beginning to worry. It was time for a change to the wagg.


After about 5 chucks on the wagg with a single grain of corn as bait I had a cracking bite and I struck into and landed a fish of about 7lb, this was the stamp of fish I needed. However, after about 10 more chucks I couldn't buy another bite. The thing that is difficult to do on the big wagg is to feather the line into the water, this allows your hook bait to land in front of the float, thus giving a slow natural drop. I wasn't confident my presentation was right.


It was time for the bomb again and the tip sailed around straight away and another 3lb hit the pan. However, after this I was mysteriously bite less again and a change to double corn didn't improve things either. I knew a way to encourage a bite though and as I attended to the "call of nature" I heard the tell tale sign of a bite behind me as the "clink" of my rod going across the rest! Luckily I avoided an unfortunate accident and landed the fish!! No more bites followed so at this point of the match I was sitting watching Peter Steward catch silver fish one a bung and I was seriously regretting not going for silvers! I was also reminded why I try not to do too much carp fishing in the winter!


Despite switching between the pole, bomb and waggler for the remainder of the match I could not put a run of fish together and knew i would be out of the frame. In total I had three on the wagg (despite changing depths regularly) and eleven on the bomb. One interesting thing was I had to re set my bomb up after about every 3 fish as my maxima mainline was severely kinked and damaged whilst playing the fish over the ledge/snags. My hooklength of 0.19 Powerline was untouched though, proving that powerline really is basically rope and extremely durable. My pole line were dire and I did not manage a bite on either line. At the weigh in I put 46lb on the scales and needed to catch 60lb to finish third in the match. Steve Tyler had once again won the carp with 90 odd pound on the straight lead from the middle lake peg 15. Peter Steward had fished a really good match on the silvers next to me and weighed in 26 pounds mainly caught at 8-10 metres up in the water, which was top in that pool.


Lessons Learnt


Thinking back over this match I knew I hadn't maximised my peg and I picked up a few things off match winner Steve Tyler which I should have done differently. Steve had found that it was absolutely vital to slack line in order to keep bites coming. If he kept a bend in his tip he found that he stopped getting bites quite quickly. His set up involved pinching a AAA shot about 6 inches above the bomb in order to pin the line to the deck. Its obvious really that the fish will associate line with danger and not feed when they can see it/ bump into it. In my peg I would get a bite straight away after I had rested a line, then would struggle again, so think this could be a reasonable explanation for my stop, start catching.

I feel that maybe I should have tried a small PVA bag also, as the fish may have wanted some feed on the day. It certainly would have been worth trying anyway. Next time I will have some PVA bags with me.

I think my biggest mistake though was not fishing for roach as I was on a decent roach peg and I don’t think it was a good enough carp peg to compete with some of the flyers!