Net Review part 2 - Willow Marsh Open

Following being set up in the garden the nets first outing was to be at Willow Marsh for the Saturday open, a venue i've fished a couple of times but with mixed results.
Dragonfly pool was the destination but with a club match on the near bank the far bank later pegs were available for the open. Things would be tight, but with good results the previous couple of weeks a decent match should be on the cards (although you wouldn't think it with the amount of moaning going on before the draw had even taken place!!! lol)


Into the draw bag and peg 29 stuck to my hand, not a peg thats usually included apparently. I was hemmed in open water wise with and angler to my right and another 3 down on the bank to my left, but i had some room in my left hand margin.

Setting my gear up and getting my box right i attached the net and as predicted the top ring was securely locked in place by the knuckle and easily took the weight of my landing net resting on it. Fortunately i had plenty of room to my left so set the net out to that side. with 18" of water in the margin, the net barely sunk half way up the ring and promply collapsed. with a bit of persuassion from my handle it stood up but took up a hell of a lot of room. (i didnt put it straight out because i wanted a short line in front of me). my Maver carp net looked tiny in comparison next to it but i was happy with my set-up.

My plan of attack for the match was fairly simple with a single long pole line with pellet deep and shallow, a short corn line down the near shelf with corn and paste on the hook, and a margin line long to my left in the quiet water. Rigs were 0.18 with 0.18 hooklengths as the fish run very big and you dont need that many to make a weight.

Bait for the day was 2x1kg bags of frozen corn, 1 bag of 4mm pellets, some 6mm expanders and some paste (they were getting the corn big style. the venue record went with 32 tins of corn being fed!)

Within half an hour the net had collapsed again and what i'd forgotten about new nets it started to float! With some more persuassion it was easy enough to get right. On the whistle the long line got a big pot of pellet, the short line got a big pot of the corn with some paste and the margin got the same. Straight out onto the pellet line and the float didnt move for half an hour, but with plenty of fish moving on the surface i didnt put the catty down and was happy to leave the deep rig alone and come shallow (with only 1 bag of pellets aloud per match, around 2 pints, i wouls have to be really carefull to make them last)

Some movement in the margin prompted me to have a fairly early look after 45 minutes and a quick 3lber gave me some hope but i couldnt get another touch there. Out shallow and i managed a quick fish around 7lb. double 8 latex as usual doing a great job to get the fish with minimal fuss (i will say the middy 6-8 was definately under gunned for the fish at willow). things were very slow tho, and it was taking around half an hour to get signs from any more fish. i'm sure with more feed available i could have made things improve but i had to make that precious 2 pint bag last. the rig was getting lots and lots of work to try and complement the amount of feed actually going in with fake feed splashed by the float, bulk and expander!!!!!

I kept the short corn line and margin toppped up all match but didnt have any other bites from them. The fish were a good size each and the Garbo net was swallwoing them easily and the extra large top ring made transferring the fish in landing net very easy and they were swimming off as if they weren't in a net!!!!!

well there isnt a fat lot else to write about with regards to the match, i managed 10 carp in total plus 2 chub, all shallow apart from the early margin fish. it was very hard work and i had to keep ringing the changes with the rig depth. i did up the feed half way through and definatley had a better spell of 3 fish but knew i'd run out of bait way before the end and with not much happening anywhere else in the i couldnt let that happen. i knew i'd done pretty well but also know a couple of other lads had caught well too. i put 54lb on the scales and was really pleased to beat all those around me from such a restricted peg. the end pegs on each bank had 70, 78 and 80lb to push me to 4th overall and 1 out the money! Gutted!

the net had done me good, and swallowed everything i threw at it. it did keep collapsing on me and had to be readjusted but as i wasnt to busy i didnt mind to much. the handles and large top ring made weighing in really easy and the fish rolled out nicely and stayed calm in the weigh sling, probably because they had so much room in the keepnet.

Overall, i'll say again i think its useage will be quite restricted. in a tight peg it simply wont fit with a second net in and it needs to be out to its full length or it will collapse. i also now dont know what to do to store it. it fits in my stink bag, but i cant do the top up on it. i usually store my gear in the in-laws garage but i know there are mice in there so i dont want it chewed through. i'll have to have a think.

It is certainly a quality item, and looks the dogs set up. i'm hoping to do some big pellet waggler work this summer at earlswood and Larford for big fish so it will be absolutely perfect for that.

Will let you know how i get on with it in a couple of months!

Garbolino Squad Mega Carp Keepnet

Well first of all i've got to thank Darren Cox at Garbolino and Match Fishing Scene for allowing me to get hold of the net and give it a review. Well here's part one, first impressions.

First of all its HUGE!!! and i mean seriously big. Here it is photographed next to a 3 meter maver carp keepnet, which in itself is more than big enough for standard carping.

The extra large top ring will easily swallow the biggest match carp, and its bigger brothers. the top ring features a sturdy locking mechanism that should easily ensure the top ring stays horizontal even with a landing net resting on it.

The second ring from the end features a couple of solid handles that can be used to pull the ring through for weighing in purposes. with such a massive top ring it is really easy to pull through.

The actual net material is really soft and finely woven so shouldnt present any problem with fins getting stuck. the net as a whole is quite heavy and the bottom few rings have a rubber coating to prevent any wear on the net when its in the water and being dragged out, hopefully full of fish.

My main concern was whether the net would fit in my stink bag, but with some persuassion it went in, but i'm pretty sure the lid wont zip up now. will have to investigate whether Garbolino do a specific stink bag for it.

Overall, its certainly quality piece of kit and should provide some very long service. i'm not sure where it'll find its best use, as most venues i fish arent stuffed with double figure lumps and a lot of venues now impose net limits, which goes against the need for a massive net.

BUT i will certainly be putting it to maximum use and will report back after its first use!

Cob House Open, 27-03-10

Ultimate Ultima

I'm going start this entry off with a thanks to Ultima for some excellent customer service. i had noticed on a some spools of line in my box that the spool itself had a couple of defects where the spool hadnt been adequately frazed when the spool was moulded. i was concerned this may affect the line wound over this defect when being loaded onto the spool.

A quick email to ultima to highlight the point was greated with a pretty quick repsonse assuring me the problem had been recognised and had already been dealt with at the manufacturers. Also Ultima would send replacement line for those which i have in my box with defects, then on top of that they would sent some more line in dimaters i had yet to try!

Thank you very much Ultima, excellent service.


Cob House Open

Well after a long absence i finally made it back to Cob House to fish the Saturday open on Laugherne Island pool.

I was really looking forward to it as i'd been away for so long, the weather had dramatically improved in the previous week and Laugherne Island is my favourite pool on the complex (well prob my favourite pool anywhere)

As i've said the weather had improved from the arctic conditions we've been experiencing over the last few months and a walk round the open on wednesday on Wyatts confirmed the fish had started moving, with people even catching fish from the margins.

my preperation for this match started on my pole. i was pretty confident of a good day, so i raided the summer elastic store and rigged 3 kits with double slip 8 and 2 kits with some fresh middy Hi-Viz 6-8 latex. the weather for the day wasnt predicted as brilliant with blustery winds so i made sure i had some 1g rigs ready to go and plenty of hooklengths to 0.18 diameter to suit the hard fighting nature of the Laugherne carp to double figures.

Bait was going to be 3mm for feed with some 4mm for catapulting and 4 and 6mm expanders for the hook. i was going to take corn too, but forgot to put it in my bag! oops!

A very nice sausage and Bacon sandwich on my way to the draw got me ready for a good days hauling. With some extra advertisement through the online communities 19 anglers had turned for todays match.
The draw bag looked after me and took me to peg 1 for the day. its a peg i've fished before and managed a match win of it with 115lb, so my previous confidence was boosted nicely.



The predicted weather of high winds wasnt showing itself while setting up and all was reasonably calm. the peg is on the near end of the pool with no island cast but the whole end bank of the pool (up to half way obviously) available for use with a number of margin lines to be created. there were plenty of fish moving when we were setting up especially round the islands.

With plenty of options open to me i set up the following: -

Rig 1 - Margin 13m - 0.2 SP Margin, 2mm tip. 0.18 Garbo G line, 0.16 Genesis hooklength with a 18 B911.
Rig 2 - Margin 16m - 0.2 SP Margin, 2mm tip, 0.18 G Line, 0.16 Genesis hooklength with 16 B911
Rig 3 - Pellet deep - 0.4 SP Slim Pencil, 0.15 Ultima Power Silk, 0.14 Power Silk Hooklength to a 18 G Point pellet.
Rig 4 - Shallow - 4x12 Bristled preston float, 0.16 genesis direct to a 16 B911. set at 18" deep.
Rod 1 - Maver powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, TD-R 3012 with 6lb sensor, small inline preston method with 0.20 hooklength and 16 eyed B911 with korum quick stop.

The 13m margin line was 6 inches shallower than at 16m so i made a rig for each to ensure they were both perfect. The rod was clipped up at about 20m down the bank beyond pole range in the margin and would only come into play if i was struggling.

Plan for the day was to start in the deep water at 14.5m to see if there was anything moving there while the main margin lines settled. All lines recieved around 50 3mm's feed pellets and a few 4 and 6m expanders and the deep rig was despatched out to 14.5m where it settled beautifully, but stayed there and stayed there for half an hour. No amount of lifting and dropping tempted a bite and typically the wind had now decided to get up, and got progressively worse over the course of the match. Luckily being on the right end of the pool and the wind coming over my bank rather than into it kept my margin lines reasonably calm.

I really didnt want to plunder the margin lines too early and with no action in the deep water i decided to give the method a chuck to try and kick the account off for the day. i kept the casting tight too well within a meter of the margin but 5 casts later over the next 20 minutes only produced a couple of liners and locating a snag to which i lost a hooklength.

With around an hour gone and a fair few people with fish in the net i had to try and make things happen so the 13m margin line was the first margin to get some attention. first chuck the float barely settled before it was gone and lively 3lb mirror was in the net. i all of a sudden had a big smile on my face with images of 2 very full keepnets at the whistle! BUT they were short lived as i then struggled for another bite 20 minutes later. i was forced to move out to 16m to plunder the second line and fortunatley there were a few more fish there and i managed to put 4 fish in the net by the end of the second hour. i was by no means bagging but was certainly keeping up with those i could see braving the wind and putting some thing in the net.

i didnt feel like i was making the most of the margins at all, but perhaps i was remembering my last session on the peg a bit too much when i fished it in much better conditions.

the third hour brought another 5 fish, but smaller fish around 3lb each, much smaller than the laugherne average. i still wasnt happy the margin was producing to its potential and bites werent amazing. best hookbait by far was a 4mm expander with the rig bulked about 10 inches form the hook. there was a fair bit of rubbish in the peg and the bulk ensured the rig settled properly and gave the most positive bites.

i then made a decision with 90 minutes to go and force the peg a little and potted in 1/3 of a small preston pot of feed at 16m to try bring some fish in and get them to get here heads down. while that settled i had a look in the deeper water where i'd been pinging 4mm feed pellets since the early look on the line. i was suprised to see the float disappear and a 3lb common in the net! great! NOT - that was the only bite i had on that line. another quick chuck on the method didnt produce anything so with just over an hour to go i decided to concentrate on the long margin to make the most of it.

the extra feed had worked and a run of 8 fish in the last hour seriously boosted my weight and i was fairly happy. I had the best bites with bait held rock steady as tight to the margin reeds as i could get it, and sitting on the pole instead of it under my arm helped massively with that!

Swainy opposite me had been putting fish in the net fairly regularly over the coarse of the match and i thought it would be close.

Bob (nearly20mbob) had done very well last hour, so i wasnt overly sure how the final result would go, but i knew i'd done pretty well. i was first to weigh and put 56lb on the scales. i didnt follow the scales round as i had loads to pack up still but felt 56 wouldnt be enough to win.

Finally Scotty J made it back to the car park with the results and i found out i'd managed a match 2nd, with 62lb winning. the winner wasnt one of those who i'd thought with Swainy putting 50lb on the scales.

overall i was fairly pleased with the result but the win was well within the pegs potential. i had lost 5 fish over the match, all foul hooked as they came off within a few seconds but there isnt a fat lot that can be done about that. i think more positive feeding from the start may have unlocked the peg earlier. the double 8 slip and middy 6-8 have done the job again with all fish under total control from the strike to netting.

i also feel i shouldnt have fed the 16m line before i was ready to fish it as it choked the 13m. apart from the first fish i didnt have another bite at 13m and i think the fish never made it past the feed at 16m to settle shorter. All part of the learning curve i guess!!

Anyway Cob House again for me Bank holiday Monday with a rover with Oak, Wyatts and Laugherne available for use!

Manor Farm Winter League/Arrowvalley

Manor Farm

Well finally the last round of the Manor Farm Winter League made its way round and i was glas this league has come to an end. its been a grueller for me with 2 shocking matches on Boundary pool. Luckily team mate John Watson was feeling my pain and kindly offered to swap with me for the last match which puts me on the Windmill pool, my personal favourite on the complex

The weather leading up to the match had seen the cold continue but in a slightly less severe manor but with the early morning frosts continuing.

At the 9.30 the usual draw took place (and to be honest i'd been drawing pretty well) and my drawing arm didnt let me down when peg 26 stuck to my hand. This put me behind the smaller island wit the island in easy reach. i've drawn this peg before and have a blog entry on it from 2009.

I virtually ran to my peg and it looked lovely when i got there. there was very little fish activity on the surface but i knew the peg would hold fish. the island had obviously been cut back fairly recently as a lot of the over hanging branches i experienced last time were now missing. This helps the angler as you can get closer to the island but i was a bit worried that some of the fish holding features had dissappeared.

I set up the following rigs:-

1 - Pellet short - 0.14 Power Silk Mainline, 0.10 Power Silk hooklength, 20 G Point Pellet, 0.15 SP slim pellet with 1.5mm tip - This was plumbed to the front of the island at about 12m. even with the branches cut back i still found a good 4ft tight to the roots and stumps. this was shotted with a spread bulk over the last 2ft of the rig for a natural fall of the hookbait.

2 - Pellet long (positive) - 0.14 Power Silk Mainline, 0.12 Power Silk hooklength, 18 G point Pellet, 0.25 SP slim pellet with 2mm stumpy tip. This was plumbed at 14.5m up the side of the island next to some stumps. approximately 10" shallower than the front line. this was shotted with a bulk and single dropper for a very positive setup.

3 - Pellet long - 0.14 Power Silk mainline, 0.10 Power Silk hooklength, 20 g-point pellet, 0.25 SP slim Pellet with 2mm tip - plumbed for the same longer line but with a more natural presentation with a spread bulk and droppers of the last 18" of the rig.

4 - Deep Pellet - 0.14 Power Silk, Mainline, 0.10 Power Silk hooklength, 0.7 SP slim Pellet with 1.5mm tip. this was plumbed at 13m off the side of the island where the island slop flattened out in approximately 9ft of water. this was definatley an out and out back up line if the fish werent on the island (i was definatley hoping not to have use this rig at all).

I've said a many times before i'm a massive fan of doubled latex and have been using it exclusively for well over a year now, but as a sanity check i put some hollow in a couple of kits just to check i wasnt missing out as i hadnt used hollows in such a long time. So the positive rig had doubled 6 slip attached and the lighter rigs had some 11 preston hollow attached.

Bait for the day was 1/2 pint of red maggots, 1 pint of softened 4mm feed pellets, 1 pint of softened micros, small tin of corn, and some 4mm expanders. All lines would recieve some feed at the start, with the island lines getting a small preston cad pot of 4mm's and the deep line a golf ball of micros.

On the whistle each line got its feed, with the front line getting its feed first so it had a moment to settle while i carried on with the others. Putting a rig out i was expecting a bite straight away, but it seems everyone around me got a fish first, which put me slightly on edge!!! eventually 15 minutes in i got a touch and a small mirror was in the net followed next chuck by a small chub. Even in this small amount of time i was 2 fish behind peg 24 in the open water.

No worries though as i was happy there were fish on the island. Peg 26 to my right isnt on the same island as me, but with peg 25 empty, 16m of pole got peg 26 to the edge and he was getting fish regularly. It was definatley harder than the last time i fished the peg and i felt the front of the island wasnt as productive and bites a lot harder to come by. after the first hour i had 1 chub, 1 F1 and 3 carp in the net.

NOTE - Hollow Vs Double Latex - i'd now had a few fish on the hollow and absolutely made my mind up that i wont be going back to hollows in a hurry. they are good on the lift and easing fish back to the top kit, but the difference between control of the fish under the tip is remarkable. the double latex gives much more control as the hollow just stretches and stretches and i ended up with my short 4 to land most of the fish with the hollow elastic.

With the front of the island not really producing i moved out to the side of the island at 14.5 metres. by now the wind a had got up which isnt really a massive problem, but it was blustery today so rig control was difficult. the wind was chopping up the water to making the dark and light water mix up and visibility was a nightmare. (NOTE TO SELF - make more floats with yellow tips!!!!!!)

Luckily my perfect feeding routine (well absolute flyer of a peg stuffed with fish) had the fish going well. so with most of the floats tip out of the water the bites were unmissable and some even pulling the elastic out for me and the next hour i put a good run of fish together, mainly chunky mirrors with a couple of 4lb fish. again the hollow elastic was causing me problems with it taking an age to net the mirrors. i'd kept the front island line topped up so when bites slowed to the side of the island i decided to come back to the front and see if anything had settled. i did manage a couple of fish but knew it wasnt as good as the side of the island.

i was happy to set a pattern of do the best i could from the side of the island and keep the weight ticking over from the front when bites slowed to the side. i'd also swapped from the hollows to double latex on all my rigs as i just wasnt happy with it.

with 2 hours to go the 14.5m line was dieing off, even after a rest so the 16m section came out and a new line started. this gave me a boost and regular fish for the final part of the match meant i didnt need to use the front line again. one moan (if i may) about this peg is the high bank behind me. coupled with me being left handed and having to ship out with my upper body twisted to keep the pole away from the island and the pole up by my chest because of the high bank, i was glad of the big bottle of Lucozade i had with me. the 16m line was producing some nice mirrors with 1 fish pushing 8lb.

peg 26 had caught fish steadily with a few breaks in sport because he didnt have a second island line to retreat to. the open water peg to my left caught fish regularly for the first 2 hours but a big lull in action in the middle of the match meant he'd dropped away. 4mm expanders had caught me the majority of my fish but a change to double maggot brought a few quick extra fish when the line slowed. over the whole match i'd fed around a pint of pellets on all my island lines in total.

i was glad of the final whistle as i was pretty exhausted but confident i'd done well on the pool with peg 26 my closest rival from what i could see. i had lost 7-8 fish over the match including a couple of fish at the net bacuse of a lack of control with the hollow elastic which gratted me, but not a lot i could do about that now.

When the scales arrived peg 26 was winning with 59lb, i thought i'd pretty easily beat that, but my nets went to 63lb, a bit to close for comfort, but enough never the less. the lost fish nearly cost me!!! peg 4 at the opposite end of the pool in the shallower water put 61lb on the scales and that was it. i'd won my section (most importantly) and the pool overall.

Coming away from this match i will not be going back to hollows again, and felt the peg was worth a lot more than i'd extracted and doubled latex would have put another 20lb in the net purely through putting fish in the net quicker.

Arrowvalley

The weather since the winter league had picked up considerably with the morning frosts disappearing the temperature reaching double figures during the day, so i planned a Friday afternoon Arrow Valley Lake session for a bit of fun.

I chose my favourite peg in the world, chucking to the point of the island from the Shakespeare bank. i mixed up some groundbait (50/50 Sensas IM5 grren and sensas lake) and set up my middy 3G X-Flex medium feeder rod coupled to a Daiwa Capricorn 3500XTC reel. this reel really is the business for range chucking with a large daimeter spool and excellent cranking power and rod has a stronger back bone than my usual maver powerlite feeder system set-up making this 70 yard chuck a bit easier for pleasure session.

10 big feeder fulls at the start of the session with a few maggots in each got the peg going. i was casting 10 yards off the island into about 6ft of water and 3rd chuck with a medium feeder a nice pull put my first bream of the day in the net and at around 4lb was a great start.

I wont go on too much but a short 3 hour session produced 7 Bream averaging 4lb a piece and 1 carp around 9lb. i swapped my feeder for a method for a few chucks and snared the carp on that, but the all the bream came to the feeder.

Catch Up & Tunnel Barn Farm

Well apologies its been some time in coming, but i finally have something to write about.

The last few weeks have seen me visit manor farm leisure on 2 occasions fishing 2 rounds of the winter league on Boundary pool. 10 hours fishing resulted in 5lb of fish. 1 F1 and about 100 blips!

Regular readers will know i'm not one to not write about the bad times and if i've messed a match up, but on these occasions i just couldnt find anything interesting to write about! It just didnt happen on these matches, although my own work rate has been lacking as per previous occasions.

A few weeks off due to lots of work and not actually feeling like i wanted to go fishing has done me some good, and some 'enforced' holiday from work (cost saving exercises) gave me the opportunity to have a go on the Monday open at tunnel barn farm.

I've had some mixed results at tunnel, with section/match wins on supercup and Solihull League matches etc, but no real form on the open matches i've fished there. But my few weeks off, a Sundays worth of preperation getting all my 0.14 mainline winter rigs sorted and giving myself a good talking too got my head in the right place and i was actually looking forward to fishing.

The Saturday and day before were freezing with proper minus temperatures so my drive to tunnel after dropping Mrs P off was a bit nervous as i wasnt sure whether anybody would turn up on a freezing cold monday morning. but 20 other anglers had the same idea as me and there actually more people there today than on the opens over the weekend!

With a sandwich inside me the draw came around and peg 35 on new pool stuck to my hand. This is at the far end of the pool 'round the back' and is at the end of a straight no more than 10m wide.

With 10m to the island expanding to open water to my right i liked the look of it.

I also had a very good looking margin line to my right (anything to my right suits me fine as i'm left handed so i'm shipping across my body rather than away from myself)

One thing i have learned from past experience at tunnel barn during the colder times is to have plenty of options available during the match, so I spent plenty of time plumbing around to not only find features but find indenticle spots that i can move onto when a certain area has died off.

The plan for the day was to attack with pellet and maggot on various lines around my peg so i set the following rigs up: -

Rig 1 - 0.15 SP slim pellet pencil with 1.5mm tip. 0.14 Ultima Power Silk mainline, 0.10 Power silk hooklength to 20 G-Point Pellet. Shotted with No. 11 stotz that could be spread or bulked. Island Swim - Double 6-8 middy elastic

Rig 2 - 0.15 SP Slim pellet pencil with 1.5mm tip, 0.14 ultima power silk mainline, 0.12 Power silk hooklength to an 18 G-Point Pellet. Again shotted with No. 11 stotz that could be spread or bulked. Margin line - Double Middy 6-8 elastic

Rig 3 - 0.3 SP Silverfish, 0.14 Power silk mainline, 0.10 Power silk hooklength to a 18 B611. Bulk of number 10's with 3 Number 11 droppers. Deep water maggot rig - Double 3-4 Middy elastic

Rig 4 - 0.4 SP Slim Pellet Pencil with 1.5mm tip, 0.14 Power silk mainline, 0.10 Power silk hooklength to a 20 G-Point Pellet. Spread bulk of number 10's with 3 number 11 droppers. Deep water Pellet rig - Double middy 6-8 elastic.

Plumbing around i found a nice flat ledge at 2.5ft deep 1m off the island running all the way along the island so i could work my way along if necessary, with the same ledge going along to a bush on the point of the island.

The ledge dropped off to 5ft of water at the deepest and i found this consistantly around my peg at a 45 degree angle to right towards the open water, from 10 to 13m away.

The margin plumbed up slightly shallower than the island with just over 2ft of water, but there was plenty of colour in the water so i definately fancied 1 or 2 fish from it.

Bait for the day was very simple and kept (purposefully) very sparse, with 1/2 pint of red and white maggots, some 4mm expanders and some soaked TBF micros totalling no more than 1.5 pints of bait. This meant I had to make it last the whole 5 hours over a number of lines. It is so easy to overfeed a line a TBF so the lack of bait meant every bit of bait fed would have to count.

The starting plan was 3 lines: -

Number 1, up to the island under the bush fed with a few micros and 5-6 maggots.

Number 2 - Open water at 10m fed with a few micros and 5-6 maggots.

Number 3 - margin at 13m fed with 20-30 micos only.

The first 2 lines were going to be fished from the off but the margin line wouldnt be touched for at least 2 hours so this would be topped up with a maximum of 10 micros every so often.

First chuck to the island with a single red on and F1 number 1 was in the net. Great start which really got my hopes up. Next chuck, after topping up with 5 maggots and 10 micros i bumped a fish with my elastic not coming out very well.

QUICK NOTE - I've been using doubled elastic for at least 18 months and i'm totally sold on it. i've been using the middy stuff for around 6 months and find it performs (in my pole, maver 401) better than the usual preston original slip. But on this occasion the 6-8 elastic wasn't performing very well at all, with it being very juddery and sticky. It has been in my kits for maybe 2 months, with a 4 weeks off stored in my rod bag so i reckon its come the end of its life and got sticky or gooey in my kits. I've also never cleaned the inside of my kits, but at the same time never used any lubricants on elastics, always preffering lake water. the 3-4 elastic performed perfectly and was actually a lot more suitable for the size of fish i was catching. it has only been used on a couple of sessions so is well withins its life cycle.

The bumped fish seemed to kill off that line with no more proper bites for the next 10 minutes, so it was a quick change to the deep water line to see if anything was happening. I started on the maggot and managed an early fish but again the next 20 minutes i sat there for only a couple more indications and no more fish. After the first half hour the margin got a top up.

Back to the island line and another quick fish gave me some hope of a few arriving. Another fish 15 minutes later gave me 4 in the first 90 minutes.

Next door to my left was on 5 fish and he had no open water and the guy to my right was easily beating me with at least 10 fish. I was still feeling ok though and my head was still in it. I was working my peg, moving lines, not forcing it with feed and keeping my rigs working to provoke a response.

Maggot had definately got me the most bites and caught me all of my fish so far but i'd definately had indications on the pellet, and my margin line had had 2 top ups since the start with pellet only. Just before the second hour had elapsed i decided to give it try, earlier than i wanted, but if it didnt produce anything at least i could concentrate on my other lines.

I was also going to start flicking maggots straight in front of me 9m away to the shelf off the island. Last year i fished a match on the canal pool and had a great hour fishing a similar line with hand fed maggots just off the island. Every time i shipped in the new line would get 10-15 maggots, quite a lot of feed compared to everywhere else i'd fished so far today, but felt is was worth a try as it was a good 10 metres away from any other line started during the match.

First chuck down the margin and my unperfected rig for that line was sitting a bit high with 1/2" of bristle showing and a bit of a long line above the float, but 30 seconds later the float disappeared totally and fish number 5 was in the net. With the potential for things to improve i promply fine tuned my rig, and was back out in no time. 4 more fish in as many chucks and i was a lot happier and the guys around quickly started they're own margin lines!!

I was very conscious not to over do this line and the last fish took its time in coming, so 20 micros were fed and i spent 10 minutes on one of my deep water lines to give the margin a rest. I'd now been feeding the new maggot line for half an hour but didnt want to try it yet. I didnt have a touch in the deep water, and was now prepared to sack it off if the margin line kept producing and i could find somewhere else to keep something going in the net when the margin was being rested.

Back to the margin and the fish were still there and i put another 5 fish in the net in the next 20 minutes. We were now into the last 2 hours of the match. I'd easily caught up the guy to my right who had slowed considerably and pulled away from the guy ot my left. The guy on the end of my bank to my left was catching fairly consistantly and i was definately behind, but my head was in the right place and i was considering all the feed going into my peg to make sure i didnt over cook it.

The next rest period took me over to the island on the new maggot line. First chuck and the float shot under with a small F1 and i had a big smile on my face when it did. My 2 main rigs in the shallow water, maggot and margin, were now attached to the doubled 3-4 because it was definately the better set up with no bumped fish and plenty of elastic coming out but the fish still under complete control. I managed 3 fish from this line in 15 minutes with bites taking longer to come by after every fish.

This pretty much set the routine for the last hour and a half with a maximum of 3 fish coming off each line before it was rested. I did have to put another section on the margin line to follow them closer to the reed cover to keep bites coming but the gusty breeze was easily manageable. I had to finish on the maggot line as the margin was really slow even though there were fish present, and a fish just before the whistle meant i'd had a nice day.

I was happy with my performance, I'd caught more fish than my last few matches combined and knew i'd easily beaten those around me who i could see, so i just hoped the rest of the pool had fished as hard it did round by me.

When the scales arrived 31lb was winning and i didnt think i had that as i caught the smaller stamp of F1's present in new pool, but the scales went round to 33lb 4oz. I was chuffed but knew there were some very good locals left to weigh in so i didnt build my hopes up just yet.

I finished packing up in no rush and made my way round to the cafe and found out i'd won the match overall. 31lb second with 25lb third and the rest of the weights in the high teens. i was pleased with my performance because i'd thought about my actions and based my decisions on what was happening in the water rather than what i wanted to happen, consequently the peg repsonded in a psositive fashion and i kept some weight going into the net.

I'd lost 8 fish over the match (8 fish too many in winter) and i blame that on myself for not changing the old elastic in my kits, which wont happen again. it certainly hasnt put me off doubled elastic, and hasnt put me off the middy stuff, i just know now to change it regularly. i also need to think about cleaning my kits out, but not sure how to do that yet - any suggestions welcome!!!

Big test this weekend with the final round of the Manor winter league with another appearance on boundary. a good result there will get me right back on track and looking forward to a productive summer!!!!

Manor farm, 24-01-10

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!

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!!!

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 -

1 - Light Pellet - 0.4g slim pencil with 1.5mm tip, 0.15 Ultima Power Silk mainline, with 0.10 Powersilk hooklength to a 20 G-Point Pellet
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!