Saturday 8th March 2008. Colemans Cottage. Open Match Wood & Pathfield. 45 Pegs

Another decent turnout for a local open match was caused by anglers practising for the first round of the Hornchurch League which was due to start the next week. I think many people including myself had wished they had stayed in bed though as the conditions again proved to be less than friendly. As I looked out of the club house a near gale force wind seemed to be blasting straight down Pathfield lake making the thought of holding long poles unappealing to say the least. Also the wind was an easterly making it uncomfortable to sit in and not conducive to attracting bites.


Due to the number of anglers the match was to be split between Wood and Pathfield with an equal split of anglers on both. The payout was to be "continental" in style, therefore you were just fishing to win your lake and the money would be split equally between the lakes. After doing well on Wood the week before I was hoping for another draw on there, however with match fishing you seldom get what you want and I ended up drawing Pathfield peg 35. This wasn't a peg with much winter form and knew it wouldn't offer me much in the way of shelter either. However, as I've said before about Pathfield, the fish really do move around quite a bit and you can never predict where they may turn up. The only good thing was I had an empty peg either side.


Bait for the Day & Tactics

4mm Expanders

4mm Skretting hard pellets

tin of corn

1/2 pint maggots

Some 3mm pellets and micro pellets

It was clear that with the appalling conditions I was going to be severely limited with what I could actually do and it was one of those days when I was really worried about the safety of my pole. To make matters worse Colemans is one of the most pole unfriendly venues you could go to, as the banks are hard gravel. If you so much as drop a section it could be goodnight. My peg had an island at about 15-16 metres and this is where I would have expected any fish in the area to be. However, I could only get my pole out to 13 metres and that was severely pushing it. Therefore I decided that a line at about 12 metres was gonna be the best bet and together with a line at 13 metres down my peg with the wind. I had the shock of my life when I plumbed up though and found the peg was not exactly a bottomless pit, in fact it was between 2 and a 1/2 and 3 foot all the way across! In my experience I didn't feel confident that a big ball of winter carp would be shoaled up in this depth of water. I also set up rigs for 5 metres and down the edge at 5 metres to my left, as when it is windy sometimes the Pathfield fish can be caught late close. Also, I set up a waggler and a bomb so I could explore the water closer to the island.

Rigs & Tackle

My pole rigs were my normal KC Carpa Chimps in 4x12 and 4x10, which I have talked about before. I will talk about my rod and line set ups for a change though. My waggler rod was an old"Daiwa Connoseur Z Waggler", which has a lovely through action and has caught me lots of winter carp. Reel line was 2.5lb Maxima (to aid casting) and my reel was a Shimano 3000 series (can't remember the model name). Waggler was a 2.5AAA Drennan Peacock Insert, with all the weight around the bulk and 2 number 11 Stotz as droppers. Hook length was 0.14 Cenitan to an 18 B911. I set the waggler to the same depth as my pole rigs (about 2.5 foot) and my intention was to chuck this around my peg in order to try and locate some fish. Hook bait initially was to be double maggot. I also set up a running bomb if the wind was to bad for the waggler and I intended to hair rig either meat or corn on this. However, the waggler is generally the most productive method due to the natural presentation and lack of disturbance it creates.

At the whistle the wind was showing no signs of abating as I fed my "long" pole swims with 3 expanders and 3 hard pellets. I also fed a few grains of corn at 5 metres and down the edge. On these lines I would keep throwing in small amounts of bait regularly, whilst the longer lines would be kinder cupped.

First drop in on my 12 metre line straight out in front of me saw my float shoot under and a lift on the pole resulted in a gigantic gudgeon! After two more monster gonks and a roach in consecutive put ins, it dawned on me that this line was not solid with carp. I therefore moved onto my 13 metre line down wind. The action was less instantaneous here though and I had to weight 10 minutes for a gudgeon this time! Now this was not the start I envisaged and despite feeding 4 grains of corn on each line I couldn't attract a carp. The corn just seemed to prevent me getting bites all together. I had mucked about for almost an hour and had put nothing in the net. Mind you it was a similar story for the anglers I could see around me. Everyone was carp less.

Boshing!

All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw a carp porpoise out of the water against the island in the empty peg next to me down wind. I didn't need to think twice before reaching for the waggler and after baiting with double red maggot I launched it towards the area where the fish had topped. Unfortunately, my first two casts landed nowhere near their intended destination due to the wind. However, on my 3rd attempt I got it within about 6 foot the island. Before I had a chance to react I felt the rod tip go round and out of instinct struck as well! unbelievably I didn't crack off and soon netted a carp of about 2.5 pounds. After feeling like giving up I felt I was right back in the match, especially as 2 more 3 lb carp followed quickly. I was getting all my bites almost the instant the float hit the water, therefore the fish could only have been about a foot down in two feet of water. I couldn't actually leave the float in for long anyway as the wind was dragging it away from the far bank as soon as it hit the water. This was the signal for me to pack most of my pole away to protect it from the worsening wind. I just left myself a top 5 out.

Over the next two hours I continued to catch carp steadily and after about 3 and a half hours I felt I had 50lb and it was time for a second carp net to go in. The fish varied between 2 and 6lb but the average size was about 3lb. To be honest I felt my peg (or should that be the next peg!) was absolutely solid but due to the conditions I was wasting time with bad casts. I reckon I only got one in 3 casts in the right place and it was becoming noticeable in the 4th hour that I was having to get the rig closer to the island to attract bites and also the fish were beginning to back further away from me. Both of these factors hindered my catch rate and I felt I was in serious danger of losing my fish.

Whilst I was fishing the island I was still flicking corn on my edge line and 5 metres. However, no one else was catching much on the pole so I continued to try and catch on the waggler. Unfortunately, I had my final bite on the wagg with an hour and 15 minutes left and to get that I was casting to the extremities of my peg. I now reckoned to have about 65-70lb in the net. It was obvious the fish had moved further down the bank and there was no way I could have got to them. When the fish had begun to back off it did cross my mind to loose feed some maggots to try and hold them and on a calm day I think I would have done so. However, with the conditions it would have been a lottery as to where they ended up.

My only hope now was to try the 2 short pole lines I had priming all day. Unfortunately, both the edge and 5 metre lines were unresponsive and from bagging an hour ago I was now in a seemingly hopeless position. Another spell on the waggler produced nothing, so I had a quick chuck with a bomb and hair rigged meat to see if this change in presentation and bait would work. Needless to say it didn't and I was soon back on the short pole lines hoping for a quick burst of fish in the last half an hour.

A Fish at last!!

A drop in at 5 metres on corn saw my float bury and at last I was into a carp, the way it steamed off immediately made me think it was a foul hooker and with my extra sections packed away it was hold on and hope. Luckily white hydro stretches for miles and I had another 2.5 pounds in the net with a fin hooked fish! This was to prove to be a one off though and I was switching between 5 metres and the edge every five minutes to try and make something happen. In the last 10 minutes my margin line came alive and I had 3 more late carp on this and I also managed to lose a foul hooker in this time as well.

At the end I was disappointed as I knew I would have had well over 100lb if those fish had kept coming and knew it would seriously cost me. Mind you I felt my 75-80 lb would probably still be pretty good on the day, especially as the conditions were so poor. I was one of the last to weigh on the lake and the top weight was 81lb 8 ounce caught by my mate Paul Connell on bung hole peg 8c. He had caught down the edge and had backs out of the water in the last two hours! I felt it was going to be close, but when my fish were put on the scales I couldn't believe it when they went ......... 81lb 8ounces as well!!!!. On Wood lake a weight of 97lb was enough to win the match from peg 12, caught short late on the pole. This meant under the continental pay out system, myself and Paul had to split 2nd and 4th money. I'd really enjoyed the match and proved that in the winter you need to go to the fish as they certainly won't come to you!!

Sunday 3rd February 2008. Open Match Maldon Canal. 25 Pegs

After arriving home from Pewsey at 9pm from a 15 hour day I was too knackered to go out in the evening as intended and decided to go fishing the next day on the Maldon Canal instead. I could simply roll up to this match and use my left over joker and bread from the day before, so no preparation was required. This would also be good additional practice for the semi and allowed me to keep my "canal head" on. The match was to be pegged at the factories and to the left and right of the footbridge at Tescos. As is normal with this canal an end peg would have been my choice but the match could really be won from anywhere. After coming second in an open in January with under 4lb I was not setting my sights too high in this one and combined with the cold, icy weather I felt 5lb would be mega.


Bait for the Day


Liquidised bread
1/3 kilo of joker
bloodworm hookers
few castors
few maggots and pinkies
lobs.


My peg put me on peg 24 which was one off the end peg of the match. This put me to the left of the footbridge at Tescos in an area which hadn't been match fished for a while. Some people were predicting blanks from down here, but I didn't see any reason for there being any less fish here than elsewhere. I had drawn next to my Wickford team mate Paul Connell who was to my right on 23. This provided me with an extra incentive to do well as I didn't want to have my pants pulled down my mate off the next peg! On arriving at my peg I was encouraged to see that I had a decent gap between myself and peg 25 (30 yards) due to the towpath narrowing, also there was a slight tinge of colour in the cut, so all in all didn't look to bad.


After catching mainly perch over joker in leam in the last match I decided to employ these tactics again, however roach were my primary target to win so punch was to be equally important with my feeding at the start. I was going to feed in exactly the same way as the previous match with bread at 10 o' clock at 6 metres and 2 o' clock at 10 metres. The joker was to fed at 2 o'clock at 6 metres and 10 o'clock at 10 metres. I had around 4.5 foot on all these lines. My only other line was to be a lobworm line at thirteen down the canal to my left. This would hopefully exploit the decent gap between myself and the next peg where a 3lb perch could be laying. As I think I have said in my previous Maldon Canal blog the roach definitely prefer the bread to the joker here when it gets really cold which is slightly strange.


Rig Specifics and Feeding


Feeding was to be of a positive nature on the bread and negative on the joker. At the start I introduced a full pot of liquidised on both the 6 and 10 metre lines. I had come here to win the match so didn't see any point in drip feeding the bread, also as I have said before you have more chance of a bonus fish if you put a decent bit of bread in at the start in my opinion and hopefully means you can catch for longer before topping up (always dicey). On the joker lines I fed approximately 30 mls of joker in three balls of double leam on both lines. My intended quarry here were perch and I wanted them to be working hard to find the bait in amongst the leam and not gorging themselves. My other line was to be fed with 6-8 lobs and a few castors in the hope of a bonus big stripey.


Two rigs were to be assembled for the two joker lines and two for the two punch lines. My joker rigs were to be my faithful Milo floats (wire stem, fine fibre bristle) in 4x12's and 4x14. The 4x12 rig was shotted with no12s and the 4x14 number 11s. Both featured a bulk and 4 droppers attached to a size 26 IM1 which is perfect for single and double joker. Line was 0.08 to 0.06 Cenitan and elastic was a Preston original number 2. Bread rigs were exactly the same as I had set up the previous day at Pewsey, to summarise, a light and heavy rig both attached to a 22 B511. The one employed would be dependant on the response of the fish on the day.

After feeding I went straight out on the 6 metre bread line and after 10 minutes had not had a bite. . Therefore, it was time to catch that 3lb perch which was lurking down my peg. Despite dragging the tail of a lob around for 10 minutes again I was still biteless and I was not the only one as Paul at the next peg was suffering a similar fate, in fact I hadn't seen anyone catch in the dozen or so pegs in my field of vision. It was now time for a drop on the long bread line and this time a tentative dip on the float signalled the presence of something fishy, despite missing the indication I was soon swinging in my first fish of the day a 2 ounce roach. I caught another 10 between half an ounce and an ounce before hitting into something more substantial. This fish moved quickly down the canal staying deep and I couldn't fathom out what it was until it came to the top ........ an 8 ounce perch on bread!!! very unusual to say the least, but a handy bonus all the same.

The fish on the long bread line were beginning to get small so I switched to the 6 metre bread line hoping they had arrived here as well. I had an instant bite here and hit into something quite substantial which stayed deep and moved quite quickly. Instinctively, I knew I had hooked another perch on bread! Unfortunately my 0.06 hook length didn't hold up when the fish snagged me solid in the middle of the canal and we parted company. The fish felt very decent and I reckon was certainly over a pound, it would have been a handy bonus which I felt could have cost me. As a consolation prize I had 3 ounce roach in quick succession from the 6 metre line before no more bites were forthcoming and another look on the lobworm line proved fruitless. I decided to feed another 6 lobs on this line with a few castors as obviously there were a few stripeys around.

An hour and a half of the match was now gone and I went back onto the rested long bread line and continued to put roach in my net. It was an obvious trend that my first few fish on this line were the biggest before the stamp got progressively smaller and tiny 3 to the ounce fish invaded the peg. These small fish were best caught using a very small punch, however they caused a fair few missed bites. After two hours I had about 50 fish for about 2.5lbs in the net and it was time to top up the long bread line and try the joker. Meanwhile I hadn't seen much else being caught and Paul was struggling next to me with just a few tiny fish.

The 6 metre joker line provided no response with either joker or bloodworm on the hook and the 10 metre joker line was equally poor with just a few tiny bumble bee perch. These were my main catching lines in the last match and were obviously not working, therefore I decided to refeed the long line with 100 ml's of joker in a bit of grey leam just to get it to the bottom. My thinking behind this was that now I wanted to try and catch roach on these lines and joker in its natural form (without heavy soil/binders) is the way to go for roach. My plan was to give this half an hour to settle before coming back to it. Another look on the lob again proved boring so it was back on the bread with half the match remaining.

Again I got immediate responses on both bread lines, with the 6 metre one dying completely after 3 or 4 fish and the long line still following the pattern of the roach getting progressively smaller, however i could always get bites on this line which was something. I decided now was the time to top up both lines in the hope of a run of better stamp fish. I topped up with half a pot of liquidised on both lines. This had the effect of killing the 6 metre swim, however the long line provided a few slightly better 2 ounce roach before the shites returned again. There was now about an hour and three quarter left and I was up to around 70 fish and 3 pounds in the net.

Time for a go on the long joker line again which I had re-fed. I went in with the 4x14 rig and a small single bloodworm on the hook and immediately caught a 2 ounce perch and then a 4 ounce roach before bites stopped. A switch to double joker bought several more small roach and perch before bites came from the tiny fish only, just like the bread line. It was encouraging as at least my re-feed had worked, but it seemed to be absolutely impossible to hold fish of any stamp in any swim for a period of time. The remainder of my match was spent switching in between the long bread line and the long joker line and ended up with a final tally of 110 fish. The final 20 minutes were spent on the bread as my long joker line died, obviously this was in need of a top up but I felt it was to late to do so.

After the match it was clear that many people had struggled to put together any amount of bites and Paul next to me was admitting to a 1lb. I thought I had between 4 and 5 pounds which I felt would be good unless someone had caught lumps. I weighed in 4lb 8 ounces which was enough to win the match. The next weight was a low 3lbs which consisted of a couple of big perch from the factories end. Paul next to me weighed in 14 ounces. I think the decent sized gap between me and the peg to my left had certainly helped me to draw and hold some extra fish, so I was fortunate in this respect on the day.

Lessons learnt

My major change if I fished the match again would be the way in which I fed the long joker line. With hindsight my double leam approach was wrong on the day and I should have fed around 200 mls of joker in a bit of grey to get it to the bottom. My peg contained a lot more roach than perch and this way of feeding appeals to the roach more. This would have hopefully held the roach all match and would have prevented the need for a top up. However, it can be difficult to predict on the day what species you are likely to catch especially as my area of the canal had not been match fished for a while.

Sunday 2nd March 2008. Angling Times Winter League Semi Final. Kennet & Avon Canal, Pewsey. 130 Pegs

After three practise matches semi final day had arrived and it was time for the real thing. These are the sort of matches you go team match fishing for and I had been counting down the days to the match after the final practise. Our team (Browning Wickford) had been picked at the beginning of the week and would be as follows:



Myself
Mark Campion
Danny Grimsey
Dave Guntrip
Peter Steward
Frank Thomas
Peter Thomas
Steve Joy
Simon Hodder
Dean Tennant


The unlucky three to miss out were Paul Connell, Simon Drew and Terry Styles. We must have been the youngest team on the bank with half the anglers being under the age of 28, a rare occurrence these days in match fishing. 13 teams of 10 were battling it out for a final spot, with only the top four qualifying for the final on the River Nene in July. The pre match favourites were Kamasan Starlets and Shakespeare, with most people predicting 2 from another 5 teams (including us) being likely candidates to join them.


Two weeks of low pressure and mild weather had preceded the match and we all knew that the fishing would be miles better than the frozen canal of the last practice. We felt that not much having been caught on the final practice, together with a two week rest, would mean the fish should be up for a chew. Negative tactics would not come into play for this one. At our team meeting we felt that 4-5lb would be needed for good points in most sections, with skimmers being the key to winning sections. The canal was being re-pegged for the day with everyone having 30 yards either side of them, this furthered our belief that the match was gonna be a good 'un. We agreed on a team plan, which was almost out and out small fish. We found that the skimmers would be caught over joker lines anyway, therefore chopped worms would hardly feature. Conditions on the day were mild but with a fairly strong westerly wind of 20-25 miles per hour.


Bait for the Day


1.1 pints of joker (the limit) equates to about 3/4 of a kilo.
hooker pack of small English bloodworm.
liquidised bread.
Grey Leam.
Soil.
50 lobs.
1/2 kilo dendras.
1/2 pint castor.
few pinkies and maggots.


Before the draw I was hoping for an end peg or an area of the canal I had fished before, however I got neither and drew in between the Milkhouse section and Pewsey Marina (permanent peg 56). This had been a fairly average section of canal in the practise matches, with a few small fish to be caught along with an odd harry rimmer. I felt the section could be quite fair so was ok with the draw, the only irritation being the long walk of 30 odd pegs. As for the team draw, there was nothing that leapt out at us as being notable. However in the "wides" section we did not manage an angler on one of the wide pegs, therefore Steve Joy (who was in this section) would struggle for a top half finish.


Tactics


As for tactics I had tapped up Calum Dicks before the first practice match and he had told me how he fishes it, it was simple and effective. It had worked in all the practice matches so there was no reason for changing anything drastically. My first line was to be 4 inches up the near shelf (about 5.5 metres) in about 4.5 foot of water to a slight angle to my right, here I would feed a full pot of lightly squeezed liquidised bread and then top the cup up with loose bread. I had found that re-feeding the bread wasn't effective therefore it was better to put a decent drop in at the start. Also, I think if you put a load in at the start you are more likely to attract a better stamp of fish. i.e a bonus skimmer. I had two rigs set up for this line, both featured 0.08 to 0.06 Browning Cenitan line and a size 22 B511. The first was a 4x12 "Image Cut", featuring a strung bulk of number 12's at 3/4 depth and 4 no 12 droppers. This rig would offer good presentation and a slow natural fall of the bait. Rig number 2 was a pencil shaped 0.4gram Rive float (I think a Rive 17?) this featured an olivette and three no 10 droppers. This would be used if presentation wasn't an issue and there were lots of fish to be caught. Elastics on both were number 3's.


My second line was to be 4 inches up the far shelf and in practice this was where I had caught a lot of fish on worm and joker. Again this was in about 4.5 foot and was at about 8.5 metres at a slight angle to my left. This line was to be fed with 250ml's of joker in grey leam and gravel. 4 rigs were to be assembled for this line. All rigs were again tied to the same line. My first rig featured a 0.4 gram "Sensas Jean Francois" with a bulk of no 9's and three number nine droppers to a size 24 B511. A B511 is not the quickest hook in the World for hooking bloodworm and joker, but it holds onto bonus fish better than green gamas or Image Im1's / Fox Mp1's. I wanted that pound skimmer in my net and not dropping off halfway in. The other notable thing was my 2.5 inch hook length, this meant that bites were seen quickly, especially with the big shot. This was going to hopefully be a bagging rig or a rig to bomb through "eye balls" Rig 2 was identical but featured a 0.3gram Jean Francois, just in case the fish wanted a bit more finesse. Rig 3 was again a 0.3gram Jean Francois and featured the same shotting pattern, but this time with a 6 inch hook length and a size 22 B511. This was going to be my skimmer catching rig (hopefully!). The final rig for this line was a 4x14 Milo float (wire stem, very sensitive fibre bristle) with number 11 shot in the bulk and 4 number 11 droppers. Hook was a 26 Im1 and this was to be used for joker fishing if the going got really tough. I really didn't want to pick this rig up all day. Elastics were number 2 original Preston on all.


My final line was to be in 2.5 feet of water up the far shelf. Here I would feed 100 ml of raw joker. In practise I had found that a full pot of bait was too much on this line and seemed to kill it, it had been my least productive line in practise, but was normally good for a few bites later in the match when it was hard. On this line I had assembled 2 rigs again, one for skimmers, one for odds and sods. Both featured 4x10 Milo floats, one with an 0.06 hook length to a 26 IM1 for scratching, whilst the other was an out and out skimmer rig with an 0.07 hook length and a 22 B511. Shotting was with number 12's on both and elastics were number 2 original Preston on all. So it was a three pronged attack only. My feeling was that feeding to many lines would be counter productive as I would possibly split my fish up to much, I wanted to concentrate them on a few lines only. If it was hard I could still had scope to create negative lines if things were not going to plan. Incidentally, other anglers in my section who I recognised were Danny Ashington from Starlets, Richard Taylor from Medway Tackle and Michael Buchwalder from Shakespeare.


At the all in I fed all my lines and started on the punch, I was anxious for a decent start as the canal had tended to gradually get worse, especially in the final 2 hours. Fortunately, my first drop in saw me connect with an ounce roach on a 4mm piece of punch, an encouraging start. As I looked up and down the canal it was obvious the canal was fishing as everyone seemed to be getting a few. The first hour was spent on the 4x12 punch rig and I had about 30 fish, mainly roach plus an odd "gusta" before things started to slow. The heavy olivette rig was not right on the day and throughout the hour I had to go onto smaller pieces of punch to keep bites coming. I estimated that my 30 fish weighed about a pound and a half and bank runners confirmed I was doing ok with this. I re-fed the punch with the intention of going on my deep joker line, however an unexpected sight at 13 metres made me change my mind.......


Jacuzzi!!


Well almost! On my 13 metre line there were odd pin prick bubbles emerging which had to be conclusive evidence of the appearance of skimmers! Quickly I picked up my 2.5 foot skimmer rig and put double bloodworm on the hook. Despite the continuation of the blows and my instinct that the float would bury at any second nothing happened for 5 minutes. Remembering that my team mate Dave Guntrip had caught his skimmers in practice on double joker I changed tactics accordingly. This time I shipped out a treble joker hook bait and after a couple of minutes had a positive bite, a swift strike resulted in about three feet of no 2 elastic streaming from the pole tip. After a brief fight a 12oz to 1lb harry rimmer was in the net. With odd bubbles still emerging I went straight out again with three more jokers on the hook. After about 5 minutes another positive bite resulted in another hooked fish. This time though the fish kited to my left and sped down the canal and my instinct was I had hooked a tench. However, the real culprit soon revealed itself by jumping out of the water twice before shedding the hook. It was a foul hooked skimmer of about a pound and not a "monkey wrench". If I was fishing a commercial I wouldn't have been too worried however on a shallow canal I feared this would spook the shoal. My fears were proved correct as a bite less 15 minutes ensued and the bubbles disappeared.


At this point I decided to just rest the swim rather than topping up, to see if they would come back in time. It was time to get back to catching bits for team points. Therefore, I had my first drop on my deep joker line and was immediately into small perch, gudgeon and roach on a small bloodworm on the 0.3 gram rig. I found that I could catch 10 or so fish fairly quickly before bites would dry up. I would then move back to the punch line where I could still nick odd fish, this would give the joker line sufficient rest and a few more fish to come back on the feed. I always had eye out for blows on the long line, however after a further three quarters of an hour none had appeared. My suspicions of no skimmers on this line were confirmed when I dropped onto this line and just caught small roach. I decided I had to now re feed the peg to try to get the skimmers back, in went another 100 mls of raw joker, together with about 25 castors as well. I also took this opportunity to quickly get another rig out of my box for this line, as the canal had started to tow. A 4x12 float was attached allowing me to hold the rig dead still.


With half the match gone and with about 3.5lb in my net it was time to get my head down again on the bits and bobs. Word from the bank runners had me doing well in the section. Apparently, Richard Taylor had lost a big skimmer at the net early on but I was the only one to land a bonus at this point...... However, this was about to change as the guy to my left landed a skimmer of about a pound, obviously he had nicked my skimmers and I didn't like it one bit! All I could hope was that they would come back to me. In the meantime I could catch small roach of about 3 to the ounce in spells of about 10 minutes on the deep joker line before this line needed a rest and I reverted back to the dying punch line for a few more fish. During this period the guy next door hooked another skimmer which made me curse under my breath, however he was soon cursing out loud as it shed the hook and judging by the amount of slime up his line it was "fouled". He suffered the same fate as me in that his skimmers had now gone AWOL as well. In the next hour and a quarter I probably added a pound to my weight, however this wasn't to bad as a lot of people now seemed to be struggling for bites.


A Welcome Sight!


A glance upwards gave me a great boost as the blows had returned and this time it was almost a jacuzzi at times! I gave it a few minutes to let the fish settle and with an hour left I was skimmer hunting again with treble joker. First drop in I had a wait of about 2 minutes before I caught a pound skimmer on the 4x12 rig I had set up mid match (incidentally I was fishing this about three inches over depth and holding it against the mild tow). Next put in I hooked another fish straight away which came off at the net, this was really annoying as I knew this had the potential to spook the shoal. Luckily I had no need to worry as next put in I hooked a fish as soon as the rig settled. It was my biggest fish of the day and was a "big darkie" of about 2lb. I could really relax now as I knew good team points were guaranteed. At this point though things started to get harder and despite the fish still clearly feeding I couldn't get a proper bite, despite plenty of lifts and sideways movements on the float. A switch to a big maggot on the hook proved fruitless so it was back to the joker for the final 30 minutes. I managed to get two more bites in the next 15 minutes, which resulted in two fish of between 12 ounces and a pound in my net. With 15 minutes left the blows were now few and far between, however I decided it was to late to re feed and gambled on perhaps getting one more bite towards the end, however I had exhausted all of my luck for the day and the float sat motionless.


At the end of the match I was straight on the blower to try and find out how the rest of the lads had done. I spoke to Danny Grimsey straight away and he was admitting to 5lb, however he didn't think he was going to get good points with it, despite snaring a 2lb monkey wrench on chopped worm. The ever consistent Dave Guntrip was admitting to double figures of skimmers from the Milkhouse section so he was guaranteed a top three finish. Everyone else still had their phones switched off, I hoped this wasn't a bad sign. As I weighed in the dialled pulled round to 10lb dead, which gave me a comfortable section win (next weight in my section was 4lb 6), however I was fortunate to sit on the skimmers and no one else in my section successfully landed any more than one.


I quickly packed up eager to find out how the rest of the team had done, unfortunately my "Space Station Shuttle" snapped in half on the walk back meaning I had to drag my gear back in two trips! On the drive back from Dannys peg to HQ I had a call from Peter Thomas asking me where I was because the results were being announced! I heard us announced in 3rd place over the phone which was a great feeling as it was mission accomplished! Being part of a successful team is as good as it gets in match fishing for me and eclipses any individual wins. I always find I focus totally in a team event as I hate the feeling of having let the team down at the end of the day. The top four finished in the following order Shakespeare, Bathampton, us, Blackmoor Vale. The surprise on the day being Starlets finishing in 6th. Our team points consisted of section wins from myself and Mark Campion (10lb odd), with Dave Guntrip second (12lb odd) and a third from Simon Hodder. Steve Joy did well to come 6th from a peg out of the wides. Whilst everyone else finished halfway or just below, luckily we avoided a big blow out, these are the results that normally cost you.


This will be my second appearance personally in the final and the teams third. Hopefully, with some good practice sessions we can obtain a top half finish which would be a reasonable achievement for us. Personally I know I will need to brush up on my bleak fishing as this cost me points on my last final appearance. The day ended in style when we stopped off at "Pewsey Kebab" for a chicken donner and chips!

Sunday 24th February 2008. Pairs Match. Colemans Cottage. 54 pegs

This match was to be a bit different from the normal open matches held at the venue and was to be a pairs match held over the main match lakes, Pathfield and Wood. A decent turnout of 27 pairs meant a rare non team match 50 pegger. Paul Connell had asked me to be his partner a few weeks earlier and after tossing a coin (which Paul won) Paul decided to fish Pathfield leaving me with Wood Lake. I wasn't fussed about which lake I drew as long as i picked out a flyer on the day. We knew we needed at least one flyer to make the frame due to the nature of winter carp fishing; some pegs would be rammed whilst others would be almost devoid of fish. The continuing low pressure and mild weather made me think that the fish would really have a chew on the good pegs.


I'd fished Wood quite a lot in the winter in previous years and knew the best pegs on the lake were 26, 27, 28, 37 and 38. Wood Lake holds a lot of fish in the 1-1.5lb bracket and these fish tend to shoal up in these pegs and are my main target in the winter simply because they are more likely to feed than the lumps (3-10lb). The reason the fish get in these pegs is because they are wider and deeper than the other pegs. As I went to draw there were 3 pegs left in the bag and I pulled out peg 28! this was excellent news because it was the flyer we needed as a pair. Paul had drawn peg 4 on Pathfield which is an average peg really, mind you the fish do tend to roam around on Pathfield so you can never tell. Still I fancied he could catch a few fish off it and our draw left us in with a chance. Match organiser Peter Steward asked me to draw his peg immediately after I had drawn and I proceeded to conjure peg 37 from the bag! Somehow I'd managed to draw possibly the two best pegs on the lakes. However, as Peter has probably fished the venue more than anyone over the years I could have done with drawing him something with less form.


Bait for the Day


4mm expanders
4mm skretting hard pellets
1/2 pint maggots
tin of corn
3mm hard pellets
micro pellets

As I arrived at my peg I could see the wind was going to have to be factored into the way I fished. There was a constant right to left wind which would make holding the long stick awkward. Potentially, 16 metres can be needed in these pegs and after holding the pole out there for a bit I soon realised 14.5 metres and a dolly butt would be my maximum limit. My section ran from peg number 22 to 33 and included some good pegs, on paper my main opposition would come from pegs 26 and 27.


Tactics

In December, January and February the fish in Wood tend to move out into the deep water close to islands and sit in "balls". My intention was to try and find these balls of fish and on some days I have felt fish when I have been plumbing up. Today though I couldn't feel anything significant with the plummet and settled on fishing three lines at 14.5 metres in about 5 foot of water, approximately 2 metres off the island. The first line was straight out, the second was at 10 clock and the third at two. I also plumbed up a line at 11 metres, here it was about 7 feet deep and I only expected to fish here if the wind became horrendous. Also, I had a feeder rod and a waggler set up on standby, again if conditions spoilt the pole.

Rigs were very simple and were set up with the theory of fishing as light as possible in the depth of water. I set up 2 4x12 Carpa Chimps for the 5 foot 14.5 metre lines (depths were identical on all lines). One float tip was blacked out and was to be used on my 10 clock line where there was "white water". Shotting was strung out number 11 Stotz and featured 0.12 Browning Cenitan to 0.10 of the same material and the hook being an 18 B611. One rig was assembled for the 11 metre line which consisted of the same line, hook and shotting, but the float was upped to a 4x14 Carpa Chimp. Elastic on all rigs was hydro elastic in white. It was difficult to assess a target weight but I felt that a minimum of 80lb was going to be needed to win the section, so initially that was my aim.

At the all in I was really concerned about the strength of the wind and I was praying it wouldn't worsen anymore. I fed my 3 long lines nonetheless and 3 4mm hard pellets and 3 4mm expanders were fed on all three lines. At 11 metres I fed about a dozen hard pellets and a few grains of corn. I decided to go straight out on my middle 14.5 metre line with a 4mm expander on the hook and first put in the float buried after settling and a 12ounce carp was soon in the net and next put in an 8 ounce Barbel came my way, which fought much harder than the small carp I'd just had. I had a good first hour and soon settled into a rhythm of kindering 4 pellets after each fish and catching carp between 12 ounces and 2lb every put in, This gave me about 20lb and I was up on the people around me.

Whilst I had been catching on this line I occasionally potted 5 or 6 pellets onto the other lines to keep the fish interested should my initial line slow. Also, at the beginning of the second hour the wind began to drop slightly meaning it was less of a fight to fish long, exactly what I wanted to happen. My second hour was another consistent hour and I managed to keep fish coming from the same line. It was noticeable that I occasionally had a bite on the drop and this always resulted in a much bigger stamp of fish (3-5lb). These bigger fish were obviously sitting off the bottom and were snatching at the bait as it went past their noses. If I missed a bite on the drop I was actually quite annoyed because I knew I had just missed out on a decent fish. At the end of hour 2 I reckoned I had getting on for 45lb in the net.


Early in hour three I got up and put a second fishery carp net in. The rules state no more than 70 lb in a net and I always stop at 50lb as this gives me sufficient leeway. I have learnt from experience this is the best thing to do, after having had some near misses in the past! I also stepped up to an 0.12 hook length, this would enable me to pull a bit harder. From what I could see I was still ahead of the other anglers in my section, peg 26 was catching fairly well though, so I couldn't relax. Again, throughout this hour I was able to keep a constant feeding pattern and I didn't need to change anything as I was still getting a fish every put in. Mind you towards the end of the hour bites were taking longer to materialise and I was missing a few cagey bites. I knew it would be time to look on another line soon and with this in mind I was still occasionally potting small amounts of bait on the other lines. At the end of this hour I would estimate 65lb was in the net.

15 minutes into hour 4 it was time to rest my main catching line as I had plundered it enough. I decided to drop onto my 10 o clock line and the float could hardly settle as I received a succession of liners. It was obvious I had dropped in on top of a large ball of carp! Initially I struggled to hook fish in the mouth, but eventually things settled down and I was catching faster than I ever had been throughout the match and by the end of the 4th hour I was reaching for carp net number 3 as I estimated I now had around 100lb in the net. I felt I was winning my section fairly comfortably, but I had noticed Peter Steward slaying them on peg 37 (yes the peg I drew for him!) and I wanted to make sure that I beat him as individual monies were being paid out as well. I noticed he was loose feeding it, which had to be a sign that the fish were really having it in his peg.

The final hour was just heads down time and catch as much as you can and the fish continued to come quickly every put in. However, they seemed to be all about a pound, I wasn't overly worried though as I was catching at a decent rate. In the final 10 minutes things went a bit sticky and slowed down and a couple of foul hookers suggested this line was now dying as well. Peter was still catching so I felt it would be close between myself and him for the lake.

At the all out I phoned Paul to see how he had faired, he was unsure but felt he could be anywhere from 2nd to 5th as things were very close. Apparently he had got off to a flyer fishing pellets long, but other anglers had slowly clawed things back when his long line died and he struggled to catch elsewhere. At the weigh in I had 132lb which was enough to win my section, second in the section was 80lb odd on peg 26. However, as I followed the scales round Peter Steward weighed in 136lb 8 ounces to relegate me to second on the lake and second overall in the match. Not impressed! He had loose fed maggot long and his method was probably quicker as he didn't need to fill up a kinder cup. Mind you I find you can sometimes overdo it by loose feeding in the winter, however it had clearly worked for him on the day. I was regretting now not having a bagging rig set up, but to be honest in the time I had available I felt it would be better spent setting up a feeder and a waggler just in case conditions worsened.

News from Paul was good though, as he had finished 3rd in his section with 60lb odd, which was a decent result from the peg, giving us 4 points overall and a big weight. This weight was to prove crucial as we tied with 2 other pairs on 4 points but beat them on weight count back to finish 2nd overall. The winning pair had managed 3 points, a first and a second. So overall a good result and it would be nice to have more of these big open matches. I always feel that I don't mind going for a draw on a 50 pegger in the winter, but when its 15 pegs its harder to persuade yourself to do so!