First of all, what have i been upto? Ive spent the last 18 months a little bit off the radar as ive been lucky enough to get myself involved with Old Ghost Baits UK - a very good and long time friend of mine Jim Burton is heading up the venture with another very good friend John Watson (who i have pretty much gone through my whole fishing career with) heading the sales and marketing for the brand. We've spent a very long time testing the potential products for UK use and struck upon a range of groundbaits, pastes, expanders, powder additives, liquids and sprays that we've all had a lot of success with at a fair few venues around and about and sure the UK match angler will grow to love - it should be on the shelves in April time so look out for it.
Onto the actual fishing front - my favourite Cob House fisheries has been home for the last few months as ive been organising and running a winter league at the venue.10 teams of 4 have started the league with a section on Wyatts, Laugherne, Oak and Laurel - Team Old Ghost consists of myself, John Watson, Pete Bailey and Darren Fisher. My home was Wyatts, John was on Laurel, Pete on Laugherne and Darren on Oak.
The first 3 rounds were very good for our team with Old Ghost heading the league with a round win and 2 seconds - the first 3 rounds really did fish hard with a fair few dry nets across Oak and Laugherne and even a few on the prolific Wyatts - the weather really did conspire against us with really cold spells, lots of snow around and lots of cold rain water going in the pools. fortunately we maanged to avoid any dry nets over the first rounds which stood us in good stead. unfortunately at the halfway point a number of teams decided not to carry on with the league (the bottom teams strangely enough) which left 7 solid teams fighting for the league. Round 4 was lost to the appaling weather so we join the fun on round '5'.
We had made a team tactical decision and swapped Pete and Daz on Oak and Laugherne, with the feeder dominating Laugherne Darren felt more comfortable sitting on the tip for a few bites and Pete working his magic on the pole on oak - and it had worked a treat on the previous round.
So onto the fishing and Pete couldnt actually make this round so i put myself on Oak and the stand-in, Simon christian sat on Wyatts, the easiest pool for a stranger to come in on, and Simon had fished the pool before.
With the draw and league organising done i found myself sat on peg 18 getting ready for the match
Bait table for the day was a couple of pints of micros dusted with Old Ghost Silkworm Chrystalis Meal, A pint of reds with OG Krill Meal, a tin of corn and half a kilo of OG Krill groundbait.
Today was going to be an out and out pole match with no room for a rod and line and no need with the weather being reasonably decent.
1 - 0.3g Jason Elwell slim pellet float - this was plumbed dead depth at top kit plus 2 section in the deepest water in the peg at around 3.5ft - this line was purely a pellet line. 0.14 mainline, with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 g-point pellet.
2 - 0.2 Sconezone Pirahnaz, 0.14 mainline, 0.10 hooklength, size 18 T213. this was plumbed at 14.5m slightly to the left in the openest water in my peg at around 3ft deep, with the shotting strung out over the whole rig. The piranhaz is a float i used a lot over the winter and has firmly become my favourite maggot scratching float - its stable but uber sensitive and easy to shot to a dimple and the tip is highly visile- highly recommended!!! the T213 is a hook Pete put me onto as i wasnt happy with my usual B611 as i felt its not quite strong enough- the T213 is an awesome hook, light but very strong and a great shape for the maggot - im totally converted.
3 - 0.2g Sconezone Munkeez, 0.14 mainline and 0.10 hooklength, size 18 T213 - this was for the same line as rig 2, but the float has a wire stem and slightly thicker tip and shotted with a bulk and 2 droppers - this rig would come into play if i started bagging or the weather deteriorated
4 - SP margin float, 0.18 mainline, 0.14 hooklength, 16 B911 - this was the margin line and i found 2.5ft of water 4m to my left in front of some sedges
On the whistle (my shout) the long line got around 40 micros and the same in maggots, the short pellet line got a sprinkling of micros and the margin got hald a pot of the groundbait with a handfull of maggots mixed in. Starting out on the long line, the breeze was quite blustery, but the Pirahnaz sat there nicely - but didnt go under!!!! over the first 30 minutes everyone on the pool caught a fish with the exception of me. Tommo on peg 5 was instantly into a number of fish and 5 in 5 chucks, but only landed 2 of them - foulhookers had been a problem over all the rounds and with only 3ft of water acorss the majority of the pool its easy done as the fish move around the water column.
a tiny cup went on the top kit and persevering with the light rig it took me an hour to get a fish in the net and 90 minutes in i was dead last on the pool with 1 in the net and 2 other bites on the long line.
I needed to make something happen, and with nothing happening on the short pellet line, i put a bigger pot on the top kit and decided to cut the pellet out on the long line and just feed maggots. Regular sprinkling of maggots started to see some activity in the peg and the odd bubble - at the halfway point the second fish found the net!! eventually on double maggot!!
Elastic choice on this rig was pink bazoocarp, the lightest in the Garbolino range and although the fish took some getting in, they were ending up in the net when lots of fish around the pool were being lost! i was still dead last with 2 fish in the net but my third fish 15 minutes later gave me some confidence - a full toss pot of maggot was going in regularly and seemed to be creating some interest and in the shallow water you tell there were fish in the peg.
I really was having to work the rig hard to induce bites and as soon as the rig settled a couple of lifts without a bite would see the rig out the water again and laid in on a tight line to the deck - all the bites were coming as the bait settled - the bottom on oak pool is extremely silty and i think even weight of 2 maggots and hook was partially sinking the hookbait so working the bait was keeping it visible and available to the carp.
things were picking up nicely with some bait going in and with an hour left id got upto 8 fish and was now in a comfortable position on the pool, with only a couple of anglers in front of me. the elastic was doing an awesome job with only 1 fish lost - the puller kit was definately needed as they were taking a lot of elastic but they were ending up in the net. i did try the positive rig and had 1 fish on it, but again as the droppers were settling, but definately 'felt' the searching rig was a lot more effective and getting more bites.
time was ticking but the odd bite kept me interested in the long line and with the odd fish still coming out around the pool i needed to keep the concentration up - the margin line had been fed on the hour every hour with a pot of bait but it hadnt produced a bite, in fact no one had a bite from the margins on the whole pool.
4 fish in the final hour lifting and dropping and almost slapping the rig in saw me finish with 12 fish on the whistle - i'd put almost a whole pint of maggots in through the poss pot on the one line.
Tommo on peg 5 was also on 12 fish so it was going to be close at the wieght in. my fish went 42lb and won me the pool. tommo managed 34lb and got second on the pool, so a great result after some hard work throughout the match.
the rest of the team has a great day with the other lads getting section 3rds each, giving us 10 points on the day and the team win!!!! so with 1 round left we were at the top of the league with 2 wins and 2 seconds, but the Corkys Lot had also be extremely consistant with 2 seconds and win, but with a 9th in the thier score too - with the best 4 rounds from 5 counting they were very much in with a shout so it will come down ot the last round!!!
