Well finally i've managed to get out on the bank for a match! its been a month since my last competative session and i was chomping at the bit to get out. my choice was to fish my works club match at Astwood fisheries on the Buddliea pool. This was to be a Friday afternoon match with a 1pm draw, fishing 2-7pm. Easily the best part of the day to fish.
I've fished this pool before but atleast 3 years a go. Its an out and out pole pool, with the island from 14-17 metres away with inches of water tight to it and 3-5 foot in the reeds/weeds growing a metre or two off the island. Its very well stocked with plenty of carp present and some proper beasts too. For the week leading upto the match I put plenty of preperation in with loads of hooklengths, fresh rigs and new elastics in my top kits.
We had a great turn out for this match with 17 guys fishing. The atmosphere is always good on club matches with plenty of banter flying around the draw. Pete Bailey and myself pegged the pool out and i must admit they pretty much all looked lovely. Some with bare bank, some with reeds and some with trees over hanging the bank and there were plenty of fish moving too. I fancied a good ton would be needed to win and most would catch plenty of fish. The higher number pegs were favoured slightly as this generally the better side of the pool.
When the draw finally got underway a little late peg 4 came out for me (i was holding the draw bag so one of the lads picked it for me). Pete drew unlucky for some 13 (but not for him) which put him on the favoured side. It was now quarter past 1, so only 45 minutes to gear up, game on!!
The peg looked lovely with plenty of reed cover over at around 15-16 metres with the actual island another 2 metres behind it. Pete did warn me that the reeds, although hold fish, are more trouble that they're worth as the bigger fish in the pool know exactly where to bolt to when hooked, around the back of the reeds!
With the match pegged with 2 pegs then miss one, i had the spare peg to my right, but the nearside growth wouldnt allow me to go more the 3 metres down the bank, but a small tree provided a very nice feature to throw bait too.
Attack for the day was going to be based around the island and margins. I was going to totally ignore the track as i couldnt see many fish being down there with the weather being so warm and the bank so full of features. So set the following gear up: -
1- Island Pellet. 0.18 PI Exceed mainline, 0.16 Exceed hooklength, 14 B911. 0.25 SP slim pencil with 1.5mm tip. Double 8 Slip Latex
2 - Island Corn. 0.18 Exceed Mainline, 0.18 Exceed Hooklength, 14 B911. 0.4 SP Fat pencil with 2mm tip. Double 10 slip latex
3 - Shallow. 0.18 Exceed mainline, 0.16 Exceed hooklength, 14 B911. self cocking 'Pea' type dibber. Double 8 Slip latex
4 - Margin - 0.20 Exceed Mainline, 0.18 Exceed Hooklength, 14 B911. SP 0.2g margin float with 2mm tip.
By the time i'd set these up time was almost up so had to settle with that. The peg actually plumbed up horribly with the bottom all over the place. In front of the reeds I had around 3ft of water, but the bottom was varying by around 6 inches virtually everywhere. I can only assume the reeds have been cut back and the stems are growing back up or something. Then 2 foot to the right of the reeds, at the same distance, but going under a tree the bottom dropped off to 5 foot! Anyway i got a couple of lines sorted where i was happy i was fishing as accurately as i could.
Bait for the day was fairly simple with 3 tims of meat, 3 tins of corn, 3 pints of feed pellet and plenty of 4 and 6mm expanders. The island pellet line was going to recieve a quarter of a pot of feed as i was going to fish it straight away and didnt want to over load the swim form the off. the island corm line got a full pot of corn and the margin line was going to be fed by hand with meat.
On the whistle the lines were fed and i went over with my pellet rig, with a spread bulk shotting pettern over the bottom 18" of water. fish were present from the off and the float barely settled before it banged under and a gudgeon came flying through the air off a slightly excited strike!! Straight back out the float barely settled again but the (greatly controlled) strike was met with a more solid resistance and a quick ship back of 2 sections saw my doubled 8 latex get the fish immiediately under control and a 14oz F1 was in the net.
I was topping the swim up with a cad pot of pellet every fish and a 6mm expander on the hook was getting immediate bites every chuck. After around 10 fish i started getting problems with lost fish and funny bites. I'd adjusted my rig after 5 fish with the shot bulked around 10 inches from the hook which helped but i was now getting bites on the drop even with this set up so after around half an hour I went out with the shallow rig and the F1's were very obliging, with a bite pretty much as soon as the pellet hit the water.
I was still losing a few fish and the mouths of these small fish werent in great condition. They had obviously been swung in when smaller and suffered damage. But i was putting plenty of small fish in the net and the wieght was slowly ticking over. I was doing well from what i could see around me, but i wasnt finding the proper fish this pool promises. I had topped up my island corn line on a couple of occasions and decided to try it to see if makes the difference, but a couple of very finicky bites saw only one F1 in the net in 10 minutes which was certainly not any better than catching the F1's shallow.
The shallow fish were still there and ravenous as i was struggling to find time to feed with the rig out in position. I reverted to baiting my hook up, attach my top kit, feed then ship out for an immediate bite. I was glad of my big bottle of Lucozade as it was hard work with the sun shining and me sneezing 10 times a minute as my hayfever causing me trouble!
This set the scene for the first 2 hours of the match, with only the small F1's gracing my net and although happy catching fish I was concerned by the lack of proper fish. I had heard some proper splashes around me and certainly a few from Pete over the other side. With this in mind i attached a CAD pot to my shallow rig and decided to up the feed and concentrate it with the aim of bringing up any better carp that may be hanging around nearer the deck.
After 15 minutes of this the F1's quitened down a little and i needed to work my rig a bit more, but the next bite brought a lot more elastic streaming out of the pole and proper carp was on. This first one luckily didnt head to the island and quickly shipping 3 sections back got the fish into open water and at 4lb was worth a few of those F1's in one hit. Same thing happened next cast and another 4lber was in the net with minimal fuss. I was beginning to think I was being wound up about the fish going behind the reeds when next chuck a proper fish went straight behind the reeds and i had to pull for a break.
The 3rd hour saw me put 2 more better fish in the net with the F1's mixed in, but it also saw me leave 4 shallow rigs in the reeds! I had been keeping the corm line topped up and the margin had been fed by hand all match, but i hadnt tried it yet. with two and a half feet of water in the margin i was looking for signs of fish before i was to try it. I had tried the corn line on a couple of occasions but i didnt yeild anything.
90 minutes to go and i decided to try the margin line after I left another hooklength in the reeds due to a crazy carp even though I hadnt seen any signs of fish in the margins. 30 seconds later the float vanished and the strike was met with a very very solid resitance and a big fish power out to open water. I added the 5th and 6th sections but the doubled 10 did and fantastic job and the fish really didnt get a proper head of steam up and 2 minutes later it was in the net. At around 8lb a cracking bonus. As soon as i hooked the fish and it was under control the margin line got two small handfulls of meat so i went straight back over the margin line for another. The float was definately showing signs of fish in the swim even though there was nothin obvious on the surface. 5 minutes later the float vanished again and another 8lb stamp fish tried to for freedom but the double 10 set up was having non of it and it was in the net 3 minutes after being hooked!
The last hour i put 6 more lumps in the net and was very happy with the way the match finished. Those around me seemed to have slowed down but Pete over the other side was in proper bagging mode and all i could see was a pole going out then seconds later it coming back with yards of orange bazoocarp elastic streaming out behind it.
Most people had caught fish, and a fair few people had lost plenty of fish too! I walked around to the high number pegs and began the wiegh in. There were loads of the F1's caught all over apart from in Pete's peg which was solid with proper carp. 3 nets later (3 nets being the big give away) he recorded a phenominal 236lb to blitz the match. My F1 net went 41lb which was around 50-60 fish then my big fish net went 75lb giving me 116lb and the match second with 91lb coming third.
Overall I was quite happy with my match as i was never going to get anywhere near the winning weight, but maybe an earlier look on my margin line might have put a few more lumps in the net. Incidently the big fish were in fantastic condition, lovely fish. The big difference for Pete was his peg allowed him to get into the shallow water tight to the island and find the bigger fish. This was at 17 meters so a brilliant performance.
A brilliant well matured fishery and one i will definately be visiting again.
Not sure what i'm up to next but hopefully it'll be next weekend.
Catch up soon.
Scott
On the whistle the lines were fed and i went over with my pellet rig, with a spread bulk shotting pettern over the bottom 18" of water. fish were present from the off and the float barely settled before it banged under and a gudgeon came flying through the air off a slightly excited strike!! Straight back out the float barely settled again but the (greatly controlled) strike was met with a more solid resistance and a quick ship back of 2 sections saw my doubled 8 latex get the fish immiediately under control and a 14oz F1 was in the net.
I was topping the swim up with a cad pot of pellet every fish and a 6mm expander on the hook was getting immediate bites every chuck. After around 10 fish i started getting problems with lost fish and funny bites. I'd adjusted my rig after 5 fish with the shot bulked around 10 inches from the hook which helped but i was now getting bites on the drop even with this set up so after around half an hour I went out with the shallow rig and the F1's were very obliging, with a bite pretty much as soon as the pellet hit the water.
I was still losing a few fish and the mouths of these small fish werent in great condition. They had obviously been swung in when smaller and suffered damage. But i was putting plenty of small fish in the net and the wieght was slowly ticking over. I was doing well from what i could see around me, but i wasnt finding the proper fish this pool promises. I had topped up my island corn line on a couple of occasions and decided to try it to see if makes the difference, but a couple of very finicky bites saw only one F1 in the net in 10 minutes which was certainly not any better than catching the F1's shallow.
The shallow fish were still there and ravenous as i was struggling to find time to feed with the rig out in position. I reverted to baiting my hook up, attach my top kit, feed then ship out for an immediate bite. I was glad of my big bottle of Lucozade as it was hard work with the sun shining and me sneezing 10 times a minute as my hayfever causing me trouble!
This set the scene for the first 2 hours of the match, with only the small F1's gracing my net and although happy catching fish I was concerned by the lack of proper fish. I had heard some proper splashes around me and certainly a few from Pete over the other side. With this in mind i attached a CAD pot to my shallow rig and decided to up the feed and concentrate it with the aim of bringing up any better carp that may be hanging around nearer the deck.
After 15 minutes of this the F1's quitened down a little and i needed to work my rig a bit more, but the next bite brought a lot more elastic streaming out of the pole and proper carp was on. This first one luckily didnt head to the island and quickly shipping 3 sections back got the fish into open water and at 4lb was worth a few of those F1's in one hit. Same thing happened next cast and another 4lber was in the net with minimal fuss. I was beginning to think I was being wound up about the fish going behind the reeds when next chuck a proper fish went straight behind the reeds and i had to pull for a break.
The 3rd hour saw me put 2 more better fish in the net with the F1's mixed in, but it also saw me leave 4 shallow rigs in the reeds! I had been keeping the corm line topped up and the margin had been fed by hand all match, but i hadnt tried it yet. with two and a half feet of water in the margin i was looking for signs of fish before i was to try it. I had tried the corn line on a couple of occasions but i didnt yeild anything.
90 minutes to go and i decided to try the margin line after I left another hooklength in the reeds due to a crazy carp even though I hadnt seen any signs of fish in the margins. 30 seconds later the float vanished and the strike was met with a very very solid resitance and a big fish power out to open water. I added the 5th and 6th sections but the doubled 10 did and fantastic job and the fish really didnt get a proper head of steam up and 2 minutes later it was in the net. At around 8lb a cracking bonus. As soon as i hooked the fish and it was under control the margin line got two small handfulls of meat so i went straight back over the margin line for another. The float was definately showing signs of fish in the swim even though there was nothin obvious on the surface. 5 minutes later the float vanished again and another 8lb stamp fish tried to for freedom but the double 10 set up was having non of it and it was in the net 3 minutes after being hooked!
The last hour i put 6 more lumps in the net and was very happy with the way the match finished. Those around me seemed to have slowed down but Pete over the other side was in proper bagging mode and all i could see was a pole going out then seconds later it coming back with yards of orange bazoocarp elastic streaming out behind it.
Most people had caught fish, and a fair few people had lost plenty of fish too! I walked around to the high number pegs and began the wiegh in. There were loads of the F1's caught all over apart from in Pete's peg which was solid with proper carp. 3 nets later (3 nets being the big give away) he recorded a phenominal 236lb to blitz the match. My F1 net went 41lb which was around 50-60 fish then my big fish net went 75lb giving me 116lb and the match second with 91lb coming third.
Overall I was quite happy with my match as i was never going to get anywhere near the winning weight, but maybe an earlier look on my margin line might have put a few more lumps in the net. Incidently the big fish were in fantastic condition, lovely fish. The big difference for Pete was his peg allowed him to get into the shallow water tight to the island and find the bigger fish. This was at 17 meters so a brilliant performance.
A brilliant well matured fishery and one i will definately be visiting again.
Not sure what i'm up to next but hopefully it'll be next weekend.
Catch up soon.
Scott
