Well unfortunately this isnt going to be the longest of entries as the match was a let down, and i can honestly say it was me not the venue (well mostly me!!!!). No pictures this week neither, as the camera was playing up!
This was only the second match i've fished since my Cob House TA match blow out, and the weeks of snow, ice and no fishing had given me plenty of time to get my hooklength box re-stocked with plenty of G-Point Pellets, B911's and B611's and plenty of rigs tied with freshly made floats! i was raring to go and with the Manor farm winter league finally scheduled to kick off the following Sunday (after 2 cancellations) manor farm was the venue for the day today.
I was really looking forward to the match and met John Watson for breakfast just gone 8am, and with a 9.30 draw we had plenty of time to eat, have a chat and walk round.
John is fishing windmill pool in the winter league so i'd spent a couple of weeks making some extra long pencil floats from 0.5-1g to cope with the deep water, upto 12ft. They have turned out really nicely and will hopefully do the business.
When the draw finally arrived there were 21 and anglers in the book, so Dave split the match with 10 on Island pool and 11 on Windmill. Windmill is a favourite of mine but with Island in it wont compete for the overall match win (although the money was split over the 2 pools)
I somehow managed to get to the front of the queue and peg 36 on island stuck to my hand. This is a great peg, left hand end peg on the bank, with the next guy on my right the other side of a rope, so i had 3/4 of this side of the island to myself. The water was like a mill pond with the Sun shining in the early stages.
I had plenty of time to set up as i only had to move my car 20 yards to get to my peg! i really wanted a pole match today but knew the island was going to produce the bulk if not all of my fish. So i set the following gear up: -
Rods
maver Powerlite feeder system @11ft, TD-R 3012, 6lb Sensor, drennan carp feeder, 0.14 hooklength to 17 B711
Maver powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, TD-R 3012, 0.20 Genesis, small 30g elasticated preston method, 0.18 hooklength to a eyed 18 B911
Pole
1. Light pellet, 0.4 slim pencil 1.5mm tip, 0.15 Ultima Power Silk mainline, 0.10 Power Silk hooklength to 18 G-Point Pellet. Spread bulk with 3 droppers.
2. Positive Pellet, 0.4 Slim pencil 2mm dumpy tip, 0.15 Power Silk mainline, 0.12 Power silk hooklength to an 18 G-Point Pellet. Simple bulk 15" from the hook.
3. Maggot, 0.3g silvers floats 1mm tip, 0.14 Power Silk Mainline, 0.10 hooklength to a 20 B611.
the second rig features a new float i've knocked up for the positive bulk rig i've been playing with on the last couple of sessions. the idea behind it is that a bristle is used to read the droppers as the float settles. but if your using a rig with no droppers and a single bulk, why do you need a long bristle. So i've made these floats with 2 mm tip so i can dot it to a pimple if needed and a very short 25mm long tip. The float settles straight away against the bulk and you can lift and drop the pellet very naturally in the last 12" of water.
These rigs were plumbed to dead depth at 12 and 10 o'clock, 14.5 metres in front of me. The maggot feeder rod was clipped up 3 meters short of a reed bed in front of me and the method clipped tight to some roots 15 yards to the left of the reed bed.
Bait for the day consisted of a pint of 4mm expanders, a pint of softened 4mm feed pellets (Cob House Coppens pellets. i prefer them to Skrettings as they seem to break down quicker) a pint of red and white maggots and 1/2kg of Voodoo for the method.
On the whistle i fed 30-40 expanders on 12 o'clock pole line and 30-40 feed pellets on the 10 o'clock line. and then chucked the maggot feeder.
The first hour went very slowly with only one slight touch on the feeder and with me leaving it in for a good 10 minutes and giving it a couple of twitches. I put another metre on the clip and gave the pole line a try for 10 minutes without even a touch. At this point, out of the anglers i could see 4-5 people had caught, all on the feeder.
Back to the maggot feeder and the closer chuck gave me a wrap straight away and fish number 1 was in the net - Phew!!!! The following casts in the next hour gave a few liners but nothing special, so again another meter of line was taken off the clip and the pole tried again. All the time i'd been on the feeder, the pole lines were topped up using a small CAD pot. 20 minutes on the pole this time still gave no bites so i started to flick a few maggots over the expander line to try and generate some interest.
Back to the feeder and the next 2 chucks resulted in fish and at half way i had 3 fish in the net. By now the guy on the opposite end of my bank had started to catch regularly and was pulling away. John had drawn peg 10 on windmill and i'd seen him get the landing net out quite regularly too.
The rest of the match ran away from me with me swapping between the pole and feeder to try and find some fish or make something happen, but failing miserably. I ended up with 6 fish and i didnt bother the scalesman. I felt very down heartened about the day as it was a great draw and i'm sure the peg was worth a lot more fish!
I dont want to make excuses but i've a had some thoughts on the day.
Match Fitness
This was only my second match in 5-6 weeks and i felt my 'match fitness' was way off the mark. Firstly my decision making was pretty poor, not only by the actual decisions i made but also by the lack of desicions!!!
I had a lot of water to go at in front of me with a good 25 metres of island to explore. In the end i only used the two lines i'd initially clipped up and left a massive portion of it untouched. BAD CHOICE! I also decided to set the pole up as i 'fancied' a few fish on it. BAD CHOICE - this only served to distract me away from the island where the fish actually were!
Also my work rate was prety poor. When i tried the pole i just sat there expecting it to work and go under. I'm sure there were probably a fish or 2 to be had (proven by the guy on the opposite end peg catching 4 fish on his pole line) but i was lazy and didnt play with my rigs to make them work, i couldnt be bothered to ship in and out to keep some bait trickling in so consequently the pole line produced nothing!
By having the 2 methods, feeder and pole, set up i managed to fish 2 methods poorly instead of one method well!
Talking to Steve Ford later on in the evening it turned out the water to the left of the reed bed is deeper than that in front and can hold the fish there. If i'd have had my proper match head on i'd either found the deeper water when i was clipping the rod up with a bomb on or i'd have explored the peg during the match.
John fished a great match and won the Windmill pool with 32lb including a lump of 12lb. He'd kept fish coming most of the match and was happy to catch silvers when the carp werent playing ball! If i fished the match again i'd leave the pole in the bag and concentrate on the island. Instead of plumbing the pole line i'd plumb the island and find where the fish were or would want to be!
Next Sunday is the first round of the winter league and i'm fishing boundary pool. This is a hard pool, especially when cold, but there are pleny of solvers to go at and some massive perch so plenty of bites are on the cards but you need to find some carp to compete for the section. this week has been a wake up call so i'm looking forward to next Sunday get back on top form and put a decent net of fish together!
Tune in next week!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Manor Farm - 03-01-10
Well after a very very lazy christmas break i managed to make it back onto the bank for the first round of the manor farm winter league!
But before that i just thought i'd show you our Christmas Eve celebrations. Pete Bailey came and joined us for a BBQ in the snow!! Even tho it was freezing, the fire pit threw out quite a bit of heat and i was quite happily stood outside in my t-shirt cooking some home made chilli burgers and sausages! lovely!!!
2 - Heavy Pellet - 0.6g slim pencil with 1.5mm tip, 0.15 Power Silk mainline, with 0.12 Power Silk hooklength to a 18 G-Point Pellet
3 - Pinky Rig - 0.4g Silvers float with 1mm tip, 0.14 Power Silk mainline, with 0.10 Power Silk hooklength to a 20 B611.
All rigs were plumbed just touching bottom at 13m just off the far edge of the ice with the pellet line to the right hand edge and the pinky line to the left hand edge.
The light pellet and pinky rig had a spread bulks with 2 droppers and the heavy pellet featured very positive bulk with no droppers. The pinky and light pellet rig were attached to a doubled 3-4 middy latex and the heavy pellet attached to doubled 6-8 middy latex.
Bait for the day was 1/2 pint of flouro pinkies, 1 pint of soft jellied 4mm expanders and 1 pint of soaked micros. i had some maggots too but lef them in the bag unless i got desperate.
On the whistle i fed 25 expanders on my pellet line and a pinch of micros and about 30 pinkies on my second line and followed it out with my light pellet rig.
the rig settled really nicely with just a pimple of tip showing, for about a second! fish on! this is the first time i've used the 3-4 middy latex and it is really nice, super smooth and stretchy and i never felt like pulling out of the fish, but i will say it was too soft for the restricted amount of room i had between the ice and i had to land it with my short 4 on my match kit. But a 2.5lb F1 was in the net before most had finished potting! Great start.
The same happened 2nd chuck and a small mirror was in the net, but i changed my rig onto another top kit with 6-8 latex in to give me better control between the ice sheets. in open water i would have stayed on the lighter elastic as i wouldnt want to risk pulling out anything as every fish counts in such cold conditions.
BUT THEN, it had been at least an hour since i'd broken the ice and with a slight breeze blowing over my shoulder to the right hand far corner of my ice hole it started freezing over again and within minutes i was struggling to get my rig in properly! i made an early decision start 2 identical lines a section shorter so i could fish easily without any obstruction. I managed 5 fish in 30 minutes from my far line before the ice became too much of a problem. I was now going to leave these far lines completely alone with no more clearing or feed so if i needed too later on i could move back out to 13m and start again if my peg completely died.
Moving shorter was slow as i felt i'd propably split the fish in my peg too much by starting new lines, but i knew my far lines would die off and hopefully the fish would come shorter. Steve Ford opposite me was now catching fairly steadily and had easily caught me up with 90 minutes of the match gone.
My shorter lines got stronger as the far lines died and i put 15 fish in the net in the middle hours and i was happy with my progress. The majority of the fish came from the pellet line with the heavy pellet rig easily giving me the most positive bites even tho i still had the float dotted down to a pimple.
I did have to change the depth regularly to keep bites coming and also move the bulk about from 6"-15" from the hook to alter the drop of the pellet in the final part of the water column. i also found a few fish a couple of inches off the bottom, something i've never really done before in such cold conditions. i kept the peg topped up with 5-10 expanders every fish through a tiny kinder pot and kept changing the top up amounts to keep the fish guessing. i did also manage a couple of fish on double pinky when i felt i needed to rest the pellet line for 10 minutes.
Steve opposite me was also catching and i felt i was falling behind him, but the ice was now becoming a problem on my shorter lines as the re-freeze crept back through my ice hole. Steve on the other hand had the ice forming in his margins so kept his fishing lines clear! Bites had slowed but there were still fish there and i kept dripping bits of bait in and rotating lines. i had to swap lines very regulalry as the fish definately wanted some bait dripping in and by now both my shorter lines were being kept alive with expanders.
With an hour to go i decided to open my long pellet line again and used my cupping kit to clear the cat ice and started the line from fresh fedding as if the whistle had just gone. I gave it 5 minutes to settle and sneaked a fish from my short line. i then managed 5 fish from the long line in 30 minutes but just couldnt keep on top of the ice reforming. it was really frustrating as i knew there were fish there but didnt know what to do to keep the ice clear. If anyone reading this knows of any tips please let me know!!!!!!
So i resigned myself to the last 15 minutes on the shorter line and put 2 final fish in the net. I knew Steve had beaten me and 2 others on our pool had packed up 90 mins before the whistle but the 5th angler had caught quite steadily and had had a couple of lumps during the day too, so i was nervous. The payout was 1 winner with 3 sections so i needed Steve to win the match and beat the other angler on our pool for my section.
I put 52lb on the scales and was pleased as i'd had a nice days fishing. Steve put a brilliant 87lb on the scales, but the 3rd angler was disqualified by Dave. One of his mates had sat on his box after the match and fished on for 15 minutes. This isnt allowed at Manor and although nothing was caught Dave is always consistant and disqaulified the angler. I thought it was probably quite a harsh decision as it was an open and not a team match but i was benefitted as he may have had 60lb and would have possibly beaten me!
Steve comfortably won the match as 28lb won on Windmill which had fished really hard! I ended up second overall and picked up my section money so a good day overall.
Without the ice issues my peg was worth a lot more fish and i felt i could have pushed Steve a lot closer as I got the F1's going very nicely in the middle part of the match. The sun was out all day and i was fishing with just my Hoody over my normal clothes and didnt need my extra fleece or waterproof so i'm still amazed the peg kept re-freezing!
If i fished the match again i'd probably take more time clearing the peg and try and go out as far as possible so the re-freeze would have less of an effect!
But before that i just thought i'd show you our Christmas Eve celebrations. Pete Bailey came and joined us for a BBQ in the snow!! Even tho it was freezing, the fire pit threw out quite a bit of heat and i was quite happily stood outside in my t-shirt cooking some home made chilli burgers and sausages! lovely!!!
Any way back to the fishing! I say it was the first round of the winter league, but the league fixture was cancelled due to the extreme cold with very poor driving conditions and frozen lakes so an open was held in its place for anyone that fancied braving the conditions.
15 brave (stupid) individuals turned up for some action so Dave (the owner) decided to put 10 on Windmill, the deepest lake on the complex with upto 12ft of water available and the last 5 on middle lake which seemed to have the least amount of ice.
I've always said that Windmill is my favourite pool at manor as its an established pool with lots of features and water to attack but today i actually fancied a draw on middle as its very consistant and we'd have plenty of room with only 5 on it.
Well the bag of dreams looked after me a got peg 3 on middle!
First job of the day was make a peg! i've got a big 10lb lump of stainless steel with just over a metre of chain and 16m of strong rope as my ice breaker and it works really well in all but the thickest of ice and i can throw it the full distance if needed.
my first chuck sailed out beautifully to 14 metres followed by my end of the rope which i'd only dropped over the leg of my box! DOH! luckily I got it back with my landing net and cut a line to the left of my peg and did the same on the right hand side. i then roughly broke the middle up and my fishing hole appeared. the big pieces i pushed under the edges of the ice and small bits were scooped out.
I ended up with 13m of ice free water with easily enough room for 2 lines out about 5 metres apart. it took me about 30 mins and kept me really warm!
TIP OF THE DAY - make sure you have some thick gloves when breaking the ice to keep your hand warm and protect them from rope burns!!!!!
With that sorted i moved onto setting up my gear! the plan was simple with a 2 pronged attack. the first line was going to be a pellet attack, fishing and feeding expanders and the second line was going to be fed with micro's and pinkies.
Rigs, from top to bottom -
2 - Heavy Pellet - 0.6g slim pencil with 1.5mm tip, 0.15 Power Silk mainline, with 0.12 Power Silk hooklength to a 18 G-Point Pellet
3 - Pinky Rig - 0.4g Silvers float with 1mm tip, 0.14 Power Silk mainline, with 0.10 Power Silk hooklength to a 20 B611.
All rigs were plumbed just touching bottom at 13m just off the far edge of the ice with the pellet line to the right hand edge and the pinky line to the left hand edge.
The light pellet and pinky rig had a spread bulks with 2 droppers and the heavy pellet featured very positive bulk with no droppers. The pinky and light pellet rig were attached to a doubled 3-4 middy latex and the heavy pellet attached to doubled 6-8 middy latex.
Bait for the day was 1/2 pint of flouro pinkies, 1 pint of soft jellied 4mm expanders and 1 pint of soaked micros. i had some maggots too but lef them in the bag unless i got desperate.
On the whistle i fed 25 expanders on my pellet line and a pinch of micros and about 30 pinkies on my second line and followed it out with my light pellet rig.
the rig settled really nicely with just a pimple of tip showing, for about a second! fish on! this is the first time i've used the 3-4 middy latex and it is really nice, super smooth and stretchy and i never felt like pulling out of the fish, but i will say it was too soft for the restricted amount of room i had between the ice and i had to land it with my short 4 on my match kit. But a 2.5lb F1 was in the net before most had finished potting! Great start.
The same happened 2nd chuck and a small mirror was in the net, but i changed my rig onto another top kit with 6-8 latex in to give me better control between the ice sheets. in open water i would have stayed on the lighter elastic as i wouldnt want to risk pulling out anything as every fish counts in such cold conditions.
BUT THEN, it had been at least an hour since i'd broken the ice and with a slight breeze blowing over my shoulder to the right hand far corner of my ice hole it started freezing over again and within minutes i was struggling to get my rig in properly! i made an early decision start 2 identical lines a section shorter so i could fish easily without any obstruction. I managed 5 fish in 30 minutes from my far line before the ice became too much of a problem. I was now going to leave these far lines completely alone with no more clearing or feed so if i needed too later on i could move back out to 13m and start again if my peg completely died.
Moving shorter was slow as i felt i'd propably split the fish in my peg too much by starting new lines, but i knew my far lines would die off and hopefully the fish would come shorter. Steve Ford opposite me was now catching fairly steadily and had easily caught me up with 90 minutes of the match gone.
My shorter lines got stronger as the far lines died and i put 15 fish in the net in the middle hours and i was happy with my progress. The majority of the fish came from the pellet line with the heavy pellet rig easily giving me the most positive bites even tho i still had the float dotted down to a pimple.
I did have to change the depth regularly to keep bites coming and also move the bulk about from 6"-15" from the hook to alter the drop of the pellet in the final part of the water column. i also found a few fish a couple of inches off the bottom, something i've never really done before in such cold conditions. i kept the peg topped up with 5-10 expanders every fish through a tiny kinder pot and kept changing the top up amounts to keep the fish guessing. i did also manage a couple of fish on double pinky when i felt i needed to rest the pellet line for 10 minutes.
Steve opposite me was also catching and i felt i was falling behind him, but the ice was now becoming a problem on my shorter lines as the re-freeze crept back through my ice hole. Steve on the other hand had the ice forming in his margins so kept his fishing lines clear! Bites had slowed but there were still fish there and i kept dripping bits of bait in and rotating lines. i had to swap lines very regulalry as the fish definately wanted some bait dripping in and by now both my shorter lines were being kept alive with expanders.
With an hour to go i decided to open my long pellet line again and used my cupping kit to clear the cat ice and started the line from fresh fedding as if the whistle had just gone. I gave it 5 minutes to settle and sneaked a fish from my short line. i then managed 5 fish from the long line in 30 minutes but just couldnt keep on top of the ice reforming. it was really frustrating as i knew there were fish there but didnt know what to do to keep the ice clear. If anyone reading this knows of any tips please let me know!!!!!!
So i resigned myself to the last 15 minutes on the shorter line and put 2 final fish in the net. I knew Steve had beaten me and 2 others on our pool had packed up 90 mins before the whistle but the 5th angler had caught quite steadily and had had a couple of lumps during the day too, so i was nervous. The payout was 1 winner with 3 sections so i needed Steve to win the match and beat the other angler on our pool for my section.
I put 52lb on the scales and was pleased as i'd had a nice days fishing. Steve put a brilliant 87lb on the scales, but the 3rd angler was disqualified by Dave. One of his mates had sat on his box after the match and fished on for 15 minutes. This isnt allowed at Manor and although nothing was caught Dave is always consistant and disqaulified the angler. I thought it was probably quite a harsh decision as it was an open and not a team match but i was benefitted as he may have had 60lb and would have possibly beaten me!
Steve comfortably won the match as 28lb won on Windmill which had fished really hard! I ended up second overall and picked up my section money so a good day overall.
Without the ice issues my peg was worth a lot more fish and i felt i could have pushed Steve a lot closer as I got the F1's going very nicely in the middle part of the match. The sun was out all day and i was fishing with just my Hoody over my normal clothes and didnt need my extra fleece or waterproof so i'm still amazed the peg kept re-freezing!
If i fished the match again i'd probably take more time clearing the peg and try and go out as far as possible so the re-freeze would have less of an effect!
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