Not such a early start this morning as I was prepared for the match, No maggots to go and buy as I'd been the day before, So up at 6.15, I left the house at 6.45 to arrive at the cafe for 7.30. Everythings going right today. As most of you know I love messingham sands its simply a awesome place the surroundings are spot on apart from the chuffing sand that you seem to find weeks after visiting the place, And i simply love the sound you get when putting pole sections together.... NOT.
I drew up at the cafe to find Monkey stood in the middle of the road in the entrance to the car park, so I simply rammed him out the way, haha, Now the important part of the day, breakfast which was yet again spot on. Then the draw, We was on pegs 1 - 30, Sharpy's mrs was the chosen one to pull the golden peg, she pulled out 65, what the f&%k, I tought we was on 1 - 30, Turns out we are spread across the full lake, awesome, I drew 54 which again meant absolutly nowt to me, Out the cafe to the bait hut across the road, some 14mm pellets and some 4mm expanders, In the car and off to the lakes.
Down the lovely track to the ponds we went in convoy, everytime we go down that road my bumper gets smaller :( I pulled up behind chegers and got my new team clothes off him, Top job carlos, they look awesome.
Off to my peg, I stopped off for a quick abusing session with trolly and monkey, Monkey was mixing his groundbait with a drill, Lazy shit.
I went past my peg and had a chat with Whitty as he was to be my neighbour in this match, He was just removing Mr Crabtree from his peg, lol. His and my pegs looked awesome. Overhanging trees, lilly pads, reed margins, Carp everywhere!
Behind my peg was a scary site, there was an abundance of broken pole sections, which put the shits up me as my main attack was going to be on the pole.
Box in correct place and onto sorting the bait out, Groundbait passed through the riddle twice and it was perfect, Pellets pumped and left for 10 mins.
Setting up time, I had a straight lead that i planned to fish to the island straight out from me at about 35 yards with a donkey choker pellet, Firing 2 pellets every 5 mins, The same to the island to the right which was black with fish.
Pole straight out at 11 metre into open water, 4 foot deep,and a pole line to the island to my left whish was 2 ft deep about 1 ft off it. This peg really was a dream come true!
10am come and whitty shouted time.
Maggot on the 11 metre pole line, I shipped out and dropped the rig in, 4 orange sized groundbait balls were lobbed in one after the other making some right disturbance, carp were spooking all over lol, After the 3rd ball went in I got a bite, So even with all that disturbance going on the fish are still feeding haha, Skimmer number one that turned out to be. I left the rig dangling in the water at 2 metres whilst i fired some pellets to all the islands, the pole tip wragged round! crikey this peg was so solid with fish, this turned out to be a Golden tench of about 12oz, I carryied on at 3 metres for a bit to get some fish in the net, I did this for about 1/2 hour, I think i had 6lb in the first hour, bagging small roach and skimmer son 4mm pellet. I decided to chuck the bomb rod out to the middle island to see if there was owt there, Nowt there after about 20 mins so I went back onto the 3 metre line, All whist I was fishing the 3 metre line i was firing pellets very regular at the island to my left, there was a lot of disturbance down there from summat large.
I decided to ship out and have a look, First chuck in there I lost something big, I didn't even get a chance to try and stop it. Next drop in I had another bite which again i connected with and before it had chance to hit the trees I had shipped back 6 metres so it couldnt get into the trees :D This one turned out to be a gudgeon lol, ooopps, maybe its first flying lesson? From then on it went dead for the next hour or so, I was on the lead for a bit, And at this point I was getting battered off both sides, whitty was getting loads on tench of all different colours, and had lost a lump, Lad to my right had had a few decent carp on the lead and corn. Then I happened to notice that when i fired pellets over to the island to the left there was carp mooching about waiting for the pellets to enter the water, So I thought I'd try shallow, I set up a rig with 0.16, a size 12 animal, Small maver dibber float. Now this may seem a little harsh but they were not small carp mooching and there was a couple of big ghosties in with them. 4 red maggots and a 4mm pellet on the hook and shipped out, Bang, straight into a carp which I lost, next chuck same, The one after I managaed to get it out, It was a fantail goldfish about 1lb, From then until the end of the match that peg was solid, I managed to get 8 - 10 Carp in and lose 10 - 15, If they were any bigger than 4lb i was losing them in the lillys to my left, I only had black hydro and it has wayyyy to much stretch for tight confined swims like that.
When it came to the weigh in there was loads of good weights, Nige winning with 88lb, Stanners with 52lb, Sharpy 42lb 06oz and a few other 30's, I guesstermated around 35lb so I was well happy to put 47lb 5oz on the scale, 16lb of silvers and the rest Carp, Up to this point I was 3rd with about 10 people to weigh, I'd heard robin Gott had done well on the Golden peg(65) so it looked like i was out the money, Before we got to Robin, Jamjar put 47lb 10oz on the scales and i'd been knocked into 4th place.Robin was the last one to put a close weight to mine which was 42lb 12oz, so I ended up finishing in 4th place, which i was happy with, I'd beaten Gaylord Carlos, Monkey, Nob, Trolly and Adecam that all that matters :D :D Nige won with 88lb, Stanners 2nd with 52lb, Jamjar 3rd with 47lb 10oz, me 4th with 47lb 5oz, Robin 5th with 42lb 12oz, and Sharp with his best ever match weight of 42lb 06oz, Nice one Sharpy, I'll let you off for your fish drenching me.
Overall a very frustrating match as I could of won and done 100lb easy, Thinking about it now, why the hell didn't I just wind some elastic on the winder bung!! DOH! Another lesson learnt and thats what match fishing is all about.
Till next time, Tight Lines
Matt
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Wednesday 19 March 2008
Lindholme (Laurels) 16/03/08
Big, Big, BIG pressure was put on for this one, not only had I stupidly challenged a full time angler called Andy Stonner but this was the final round of the YMA winter series, I was up there near the top and there was a few others that were in with a shot, The main rival was Carlos chegers, I couldn't let the myself lose to him after all the jibberish I had talked about on the YMA banter forum surely?.... Or could I? A few PM's were sent on the forum wishing me good luck, little did I know I had bitten off more than I could chew.
Well the day started off with the normal stupid earliness that most match anglers are now accustomed with, 6am , Tackle in the car, off to the tackle shop to get some fresh bait. Bait in the car and off i set to the cafe which was this morning 20 miles past the venue! I'm a sucker for a breakfast that comes with chips as some of you know. I met Nige, Maf and Ade at the cafe, A bit more pressure was added onto me as I get some more stick, time to eat, Smashing breakfast down the old cake hole and all I want to do is sleep but nope off we trot to the lakes, At warp speed 99 we went down the lanes to Lindholme following maf shumacher. Arriving at Lindholme I'm pleased that I aint gonna have to wait in the breakfast cue as it looked rammed.
Chegers was sat there in his gimp suit, so paid on, It came to the draw, chegers shouts "draw me one patsie" so I did "46" Bollocks thats on a point, I'd drawn him a flyer, My turn peg 20, which i didnt have a clue about so a little walk around and found the peg i thought was 20, looked good, corner peg, wind blowing into it, Sharpy was next to me, this could be a decent match, decent draw for once!
So off i trots to fetch my tackle, plonked it down on the peg, Bait made, all plumbed up, One for 11 metre into the corner with a MAP 14 4 x 10, 0.10 straight through with a 20s 808, 10's elastic, Plumbed up to perfection, 1" off bottom for the troutsie's, Maggot was gonna be fed on this line, I was really hopeful on this line as it looked so ace! Rig 2 was 14.5 metre up the bank about 1 Metre off the rushes, same rig as the 1st one, Final Rig was used at 7 metre and 13 metre, staight out into the open water, Same depth at 7 and 13 so I was well happy! Drennan Roach 4 x 14 0'10 to a 0.09, size 20 808.
This is the first match for ages that I was wel confident with all the rigs, peg, It all looked bob on! I heard a bit of commotion behind me, It was Dazza he come for a chat! WRONG he came to tell me that Andy was saying I was on the wrong peg, "Bollocks sod off" I told him "Your having a laugh" he looked serious! I looked at the steak in the groung and it said 22, Oh shite, What the hell I'd set up on the wrong peg! 10 minutes to time, I'm sure Andy waited until 10 mins to time to tell me, he was scared of loosing I reckon!
Quick move 2 pegs down and I'm on the right peg! Quick plumb around and the depths were near enough the same, so a few quick adjustments and I was all set. Wind was now off my back which i was kinda happy about, kinda miffed about as I knew the fish would be facing into the wind! I was now next to Jeff Gott, another person who was in the race for the Winter series winner.
Kev, Stonners traveling partner came around for a chat he was well pissed off, he was well not happy with the peg he was on 11, worst peg on the pond he said, and he'd drawn it twice in a row! Whilst we were chatting time must of been called as I saw sharpy pull a fish out, What the Feck! Has time been called and we didnt hear it?? Looks that way, so Kev runs back around to his peg and I sit on my box and start fishing, Out to 13M open water line first, few micros and maggots cattied out, and I sit and wait, and wait, and wait, 30 mins has passed and I havent had a bite!
Time for the next line to be tried, the near reed margin at 11 metre, First drop in the float burries and I'm into the first fish of the day, a roach of about 1oz! back out and the same again, they don't put up much of a fight on 10 elastic, Next time out, the float goe under and i strike into a underwater submarine and the elastic comes out like a laserbeam, jesus, what the hell is this? then flipper the dolphin decides to do a few tricks out of the water, or could it be a trout? Yup it sure was, now I never knew trout had teeth until I unhooked it and its teeth ran along my fingernail! From then on I unhooked them all in the landing net, This line continued to produce all the way through the match, trout F1's a few small stockies, All to either red maggot or Sweetcorn, I kept trying the open water rig but I couldn't buy a bite dispite feeding it continusly, They backed off quite a lot during the match and I ended up fishing at 16metres for the last 2 hours, My back is still hurtin(Tuesday).
The final time was shouted and I didn't really see many others catching, I saw Ade catching well and Jeff had a lot late on, So I thought I had done well! Walking round Maf had admitted to 10lb, In my own head I thought i had 25 - 30lb, but admitted to 20lb, How has chegers done? and Andy? Well after walking round to have a few people it turns out Carlos has fished a tidy match and has done well. First to weigh in was Maf, his 10lb turned out to be 27lb dead!! Ade was next, 23lb odd, Crikey, Going around the lake it looked like there was a few other good weights, Funkmaster had 27lb 2oz, NJC had lost to maf be 4oz and had 26lb 12oz!Steve had a busy day be the looks of things and had loads of small stockies for 20lb dead, Chegers had 25lb 8oz, Oh dear this aint looking good for me, Andy Stonner put 35lb 8oz on the scales and I realised that I had been beaten by everyone i'd challenged, "ooops", Round to my peg and I put 20lb 4oz on the scales, Jeff Gott had 18lb 12oz, It was gonna be tight at the top of the table, It was clear that chegers had won the YMA winter league. Good job carlos, shame your crap in summer like me!
The points table finished with Carlos at the top, with me and Jeff Gott joint second and Ade in 3rd,
The weights table finished with me at the top! Steve in second place and Chegers in 3rd place.
Off to the pub for a quick drink and a chat, Monies were handed out and I had won my section! Result, Much abuse came from the lads, Andy bought the beers, I ened up not leaving the pub until 7pm as I got some sound advice about entering the open scene which I plan to do this summer.
Overall a shit result but the banter leading up to is was second to none and the match was a good 'un, Cheers lads, Heres to the Summer series, And Andy 1-0 pal!!!
Tight Lines
Matt
Well the day started off with the normal stupid earliness that most match anglers are now accustomed with, 6am , Tackle in the car, off to the tackle shop to get some fresh bait. Bait in the car and off i set to the cafe which was this morning 20 miles past the venue! I'm a sucker for a breakfast that comes with chips as some of you know. I met Nige, Maf and Ade at the cafe, A bit more pressure was added onto me as I get some more stick, time to eat, Smashing breakfast down the old cake hole and all I want to do is sleep but nope off we trot to the lakes, At warp speed 99 we went down the lanes to Lindholme following maf shumacher. Arriving at Lindholme I'm pleased that I aint gonna have to wait in the breakfast cue as it looked rammed.
Chegers was sat there in his gimp suit, so paid on, It came to the draw, chegers shouts "draw me one patsie" so I did "46" Bollocks thats on a point, I'd drawn him a flyer, My turn peg 20, which i didnt have a clue about so a little walk around and found the peg i thought was 20, looked good, corner peg, wind blowing into it, Sharpy was next to me, this could be a decent match, decent draw for once!
So off i trots to fetch my tackle, plonked it down on the peg, Bait made, all plumbed up, One for 11 metre into the corner with a MAP 14 4 x 10, 0.10 straight through with a 20s 808, 10's elastic, Plumbed up to perfection, 1" off bottom for the troutsie's, Maggot was gonna be fed on this line, I was really hopeful on this line as it looked so ace! Rig 2 was 14.5 metre up the bank about 1 Metre off the rushes, same rig as the 1st one, Final Rig was used at 7 metre and 13 metre, staight out into the open water, Same depth at 7 and 13 so I was well happy! Drennan Roach 4 x 14 0'10 to a 0.09, size 20 808.
This is the first match for ages that I was wel confident with all the rigs, peg, It all looked bob on! I heard a bit of commotion behind me, It was Dazza he come for a chat! WRONG he came to tell me that Andy was saying I was on the wrong peg, "Bollocks sod off" I told him "Your having a laugh" he looked serious! I looked at the steak in the groung and it said 22, Oh shite, What the hell I'd set up on the wrong peg! 10 minutes to time, I'm sure Andy waited until 10 mins to time to tell me, he was scared of loosing I reckon!
Quick move 2 pegs down and I'm on the right peg! Quick plumb around and the depths were near enough the same, so a few quick adjustments and I was all set. Wind was now off my back which i was kinda happy about, kinda miffed about as I knew the fish would be facing into the wind! I was now next to Jeff Gott, another person who was in the race for the Winter series winner.
Kev, Stonners traveling partner came around for a chat he was well pissed off, he was well not happy with the peg he was on 11, worst peg on the pond he said, and he'd drawn it twice in a row! Whilst we were chatting time must of been called as I saw sharpy pull a fish out, What the Feck! Has time been called and we didnt hear it?? Looks that way, so Kev runs back around to his peg and I sit on my box and start fishing, Out to 13M open water line first, few micros and maggots cattied out, and I sit and wait, and wait, and wait, 30 mins has passed and I havent had a bite!
Time for the next line to be tried, the near reed margin at 11 metre, First drop in the float burries and I'm into the first fish of the day, a roach of about 1oz! back out and the same again, they don't put up much of a fight on 10 elastic, Next time out, the float goe under and i strike into a underwater submarine and the elastic comes out like a laserbeam, jesus, what the hell is this? then flipper the dolphin decides to do a few tricks out of the water, or could it be a trout? Yup it sure was, now I never knew trout had teeth until I unhooked it and its teeth ran along my fingernail! From then on I unhooked them all in the landing net, This line continued to produce all the way through the match, trout F1's a few small stockies, All to either red maggot or Sweetcorn, I kept trying the open water rig but I couldn't buy a bite dispite feeding it continusly, They backed off quite a lot during the match and I ended up fishing at 16metres for the last 2 hours, My back is still hurtin(Tuesday).
The final time was shouted and I didn't really see many others catching, I saw Ade catching well and Jeff had a lot late on, So I thought I had done well! Walking round Maf had admitted to 10lb, In my own head I thought i had 25 - 30lb, but admitted to 20lb, How has chegers done? and Andy? Well after walking round to have a few people it turns out Carlos has fished a tidy match and has done well. First to weigh in was Maf, his 10lb turned out to be 27lb dead!! Ade was next, 23lb odd, Crikey, Going around the lake it looked like there was a few other good weights, Funkmaster had 27lb 2oz, NJC had lost to maf be 4oz and had 26lb 12oz!Steve had a busy day be the looks of things and had loads of small stockies for 20lb dead, Chegers had 25lb 8oz, Oh dear this aint looking good for me, Andy Stonner put 35lb 8oz on the scales and I realised that I had been beaten by everyone i'd challenged, "ooops", Round to my peg and I put 20lb 4oz on the scales, Jeff Gott had 18lb 12oz, It was gonna be tight at the top of the table, It was clear that chegers had won the YMA winter league. Good job carlos, shame your crap in summer like me!
The points table finished with Carlos at the top, with me and Jeff Gott joint second and Ade in 3rd,
The weights table finished with me at the top! Steve in second place and Chegers in 3rd place.
Off to the pub for a quick drink and a chat, Monies were handed out and I had won my section! Result, Much abuse came from the lads, Andy bought the beers, I ened up not leaving the pub until 7pm as I got some sound advice about entering the open scene which I plan to do this summer.
Overall a shit result but the banter leading up to is was second to none and the match was a good 'un, Cheers lads, Heres to the Summer series, And Andy 1-0 pal!!!
Tight Lines
Matt
Thursday 6 March 2008
Supercup Round 1
Long time no blog, but here goes nothing.
Bridges AC were the opposition for the day, We heard roumours that they were a good team with a few top anglers to boot and they also thrashed Crowle 8 - 0 or something daft last year on there home water which happened to be the same water they took us to, Lambwath Lakes on the very farest east coast you can get! Now we had a very close match with Crowle last year, so to be fair I was expecting us to get a proper thrashing.
Early start again for this one as we were meeting in the Scoff a lot cafe in Hull at 7:30, Easily a hour and 10 traveling from my end, so I was up with the morning chorus at 5:30 to get me woke up and sorted for a day of full concentration. I set off at 6:30 and plooded down the motorway to the cafe, Ariving at the cafe i was 2nd there as NOB was already there with a copy of Advanced pole fishing in hand, 2 large breakfasts ordered for me and Chris, cool this day is going well so far! 5 minutes later Monkstain arrived, then Nige, Tony and the rest of the mob. After the team plan being given to us from Nige we set off on our way in convoy to the pub where we was meeting Bridges AC which was 15 minutes away.
Arriving at the pub it was closed down ???? whats the point of meeting at a pub thats closed down??? Mine and Mafs idea of having a pint to settle the old nerves was blasted straight out the window, Instead we all stood shivvering our tits off for 20 mins while the draw was done. Chris and his golden arm picked the envolope for odds and evens, we got evens. next was the draw for the pegs, not sure how this worked but my peg got drawn for me and put me on peg 14, A decent peg where the carp had been showing, nice start, everyone else drew there pegs, Chris was against the flyer on the pond, Ade on the corner peg oppersite me, Tony on the corner peg on my bank, and I was next to corner.
Down to the lake and unloaded all the tackle out the car and hiked off to my peg,which i managed to walk straight past and continued all the way around the lake nearly back to the car park, what a pillock! After the walk back to my peg I saw that i was fairly well sheltered from the wind which was nice presentation should be decent. After a 10 min sitdown and to watch the water for movement I finally got my breath back and started setting up.
All my bait was set out nicely on the sidetray, 1/2 mags, 1/2 pinkies, 2 pints of Caster, Tin of corn, Micro pellets for the cone. Next was the task of setting up all the methods mentioned in the team plan which took ages.
Nearly whistle time, I'm shitting it as the guy next to me looks like he can fish a bit! Pressure is on today.
Whistle time and I start on the straight lead chucked to the rope with corn on the hook, I tighted up and the rod flys around, crikey I wasnt expecting that as i hadnt even put and feed out yet. Anyways I was too busy fannying around with my catty and I missed that bite. Second chuck and its in exactly the same place, I'm on fire! The rod rips around and I'm into the first carp of the match, A small stockie of about 12oz is in the net, I havent blanked and the 3 points is off the bored for a DNW, wahey! The next few chucks resulted in a few missed bites, Before I decided to spray some casters in on a waggler line and get some silvers in the net, these were there straight away and i started catching a few silvers.
Meanwhile blokey next to me is into a decent carp, oh dear the pressure is back on, He nets it and it looks a good 3 lb so im behind, I continue catching silvers quite quickly, Altough blokey next to me is into another good carp, this one is much bigger and it looks about 8lb, Oh shit, Ive had it now, I still keep going at the silvers and keep catching and he hooks into another carp and he nets it, at this point I'm not happy and am fearing the worst, Its about 12 lb to 3lb to him.
I wasn't having this, I went out on the pole at 7 metre and stated really bagging the silvers as anyone knows 7 lb of silvers is easy to catch if there having it at close range, Things started to look up when i got a tench of a lb, then I lost one next chuck, then another lb tench in the net, Then a 1lb perch graces the keepnet, whilst i'd had all these blokey next to me hadnt had a fish, He then plumbed up a line at 7 metre and had a blast on the pole, which proved fruitless for him, whereas I continued to bag the silvers, It was maybe his 12 lb to my 8lb, I was catching up.
We were now into the 5th hour and maf to my left had started catching on bomb and hair riged bread punch, So i tried the Corn on bomb again to see if there was a few on my rope, I sat for 10 mins without a knock and i was watching matey next to me net another carp, he'd now had 6 carp for about 18lb and I was still on 8lb, I was fearing the worse when my clutch started ripping out! Ah another carpy in the net for me, I chucked back in and the tip ripped round again. Another carpy in the net for me. Me and Maf were matching each other fish for fish and We were fishcaking the Bridges guy in the middle of us, We had double hookups a few times. His fellow team members were giving his some right stick about being battered off both sides, which was a great laugh for me and Maf. I kept catching all the way through the last hour and so did maf. With 5 minutes left and his team mates badgering the Bridges Guy in the middle of me and Maf stuck a bomb rod out, A few minutes later he hooked a lump, The whistle went and he continued to play this obviously large fish, before this guy hooked this fish Maf was a clear 6 - 7lb ahead, He landed the fish and it looked a easy double, Me and Maf were gutted, Maf had been pipped in the dying minutes of the match and it was close between me and the guy next to me.
Turns out the lump was enough to secure that section, I beat the guy next to me, Ade beat the guy next to him, Chris got beat by the geezer on the flyer, Tony looked like he had won the match. This was going to be close!!!
Following the scales around the lake, we were going section for section, until the final one, which we won, so that made it 4 all!!! close so that means it went down to a Final weights count, which unfortuatly we lost with there 112LB to our 95LB.
On to the pub to see who had won what, Tony (Carpmeister) got a round in, cheers dude! He also won the match with 26lb odd, 2nd place was 25lb odd and was a Bridges angler, 3rd place was me with 21lb odd :D
So all in all, We got 2 of the top 3 places and 4 of the section wins so we came away with the most prize money :D
Two years running and two years its been very close! Better Luck next year eh lads! Big up to everyone who took part in the Match and the practices, Top drawer performance by everyone.
Till next time.... Tight lines :D
Bridges AC were the opposition for the day, We heard roumours that they were a good team with a few top anglers to boot and they also thrashed Crowle 8 - 0 or something daft last year on there home water which happened to be the same water they took us to, Lambwath Lakes on the very farest east coast you can get! Now we had a very close match with Crowle last year, so to be fair I was expecting us to get a proper thrashing.
Early start again for this one as we were meeting in the Scoff a lot cafe in Hull at 7:30, Easily a hour and 10 traveling from my end, so I was up with the morning chorus at 5:30 to get me woke up and sorted for a day of full concentration. I set off at 6:30 and plooded down the motorway to the cafe, Ariving at the cafe i was 2nd there as NOB was already there with a copy of Advanced pole fishing in hand, 2 large breakfasts ordered for me and Chris, cool this day is going well so far! 5 minutes later Monkstain arrived, then Nige, Tony and the rest of the mob. After the team plan being given to us from Nige we set off on our way in convoy to the pub where we was meeting Bridges AC which was 15 minutes away.
Arriving at the pub it was closed down ???? whats the point of meeting at a pub thats closed down??? Mine and Mafs idea of having a pint to settle the old nerves was blasted straight out the window, Instead we all stood shivvering our tits off for 20 mins while the draw was done. Chris and his golden arm picked the envolope for odds and evens, we got evens. next was the draw for the pegs, not sure how this worked but my peg got drawn for me and put me on peg 14, A decent peg where the carp had been showing, nice start, everyone else drew there pegs, Chris was against the flyer on the pond, Ade on the corner peg oppersite me, Tony on the corner peg on my bank, and I was next to corner.
Down to the lake and unloaded all the tackle out the car and hiked off to my peg,which i managed to walk straight past and continued all the way around the lake nearly back to the car park, what a pillock! After the walk back to my peg I saw that i was fairly well sheltered from the wind which was nice presentation should be decent. After a 10 min sitdown and to watch the water for movement I finally got my breath back and started setting up.
All my bait was set out nicely on the sidetray, 1/2 mags, 1/2 pinkies, 2 pints of Caster, Tin of corn, Micro pellets for the cone. Next was the task of setting up all the methods mentioned in the team plan which took ages.
Nearly whistle time, I'm shitting it as the guy next to me looks like he can fish a bit! Pressure is on today.
Whistle time and I start on the straight lead chucked to the rope with corn on the hook, I tighted up and the rod flys around, crikey I wasnt expecting that as i hadnt even put and feed out yet. Anyways I was too busy fannying around with my catty and I missed that bite. Second chuck and its in exactly the same place, I'm on fire! The rod rips around and I'm into the first carp of the match, A small stockie of about 12oz is in the net, I havent blanked and the 3 points is off the bored for a DNW, wahey! The next few chucks resulted in a few missed bites, Before I decided to spray some casters in on a waggler line and get some silvers in the net, these were there straight away and i started catching a few silvers.
Meanwhile blokey next to me is into a decent carp, oh dear the pressure is back on, He nets it and it looks a good 3 lb so im behind, I continue catching silvers quite quickly, Altough blokey next to me is into another good carp, this one is much bigger and it looks about 8lb, Oh shit, Ive had it now, I still keep going at the silvers and keep catching and he hooks into another carp and he nets it, at this point I'm not happy and am fearing the worst, Its about 12 lb to 3lb to him.
I wasn't having this, I went out on the pole at 7 metre and stated really bagging the silvers as anyone knows 7 lb of silvers is easy to catch if there having it at close range, Things started to look up when i got a tench of a lb, then I lost one next chuck, then another lb tench in the net, Then a 1lb perch graces the keepnet, whilst i'd had all these blokey next to me hadnt had a fish, He then plumbed up a line at 7 metre and had a blast on the pole, which proved fruitless for him, whereas I continued to bag the silvers, It was maybe his 12 lb to my 8lb, I was catching up.
We were now into the 5th hour and maf to my left had started catching on bomb and hair riged bread punch, So i tried the Corn on bomb again to see if there was a few on my rope, I sat for 10 mins without a knock and i was watching matey next to me net another carp, he'd now had 6 carp for about 18lb and I was still on 8lb, I was fearing the worse when my clutch started ripping out! Ah another carpy in the net for me, I chucked back in and the tip ripped round again. Another carpy in the net for me. Me and Maf were matching each other fish for fish and We were fishcaking the Bridges guy in the middle of us, We had double hookups a few times. His fellow team members were giving his some right stick about being battered off both sides, which was a great laugh for me and Maf. I kept catching all the way through the last hour and so did maf. With 5 minutes left and his team mates badgering the Bridges Guy in the middle of me and Maf stuck a bomb rod out, A few minutes later he hooked a lump, The whistle went and he continued to play this obviously large fish, before this guy hooked this fish Maf was a clear 6 - 7lb ahead, He landed the fish and it looked a easy double, Me and Maf were gutted, Maf had been pipped in the dying minutes of the match and it was close between me and the guy next to me.
Turns out the lump was enough to secure that section, I beat the guy next to me, Ade beat the guy next to him, Chris got beat by the geezer on the flyer, Tony looked like he had won the match. This was going to be close!!!
Following the scales around the lake, we were going section for section, until the final one, which we won, so that made it 4 all!!! close so that means it went down to a Final weights count, which unfortuatly we lost with there 112LB to our 95LB.
On to the pub to see who had won what, Tony (Carpmeister) got a round in, cheers dude! He also won the match with 26lb odd, 2nd place was 25lb odd and was a Bridges angler, 3rd place was me with 21lb odd :D
So all in all, We got 2 of the top 3 places and 4 of the section wins so we came away with the most prize money :D
Two years running and two years its been very close! Better Luck next year eh lads! Big up to everyone who took part in the Match and the practices, Top drawer performance by everyone.
Till next time.... Tight lines :D
Friday 7 December 2007
Poolbridge Farm 01/12/2007
Today was the first of the open matches run by a setup near to york called Poolbridge Farm. also known as fletchers to many of the old school anglers out there.
This called for a early start for me, which many of you know i dislike with a passion, I always look knackered in the morning, 6am the alarm went off, sod that I'm going back to sleep for 10 mins, well that didn't work I woke up at 6:50am, oooooooops were meeting at the cafe on the A19 at 8:30am, its an hours travel, I need to pack the car and I need to go to the tackle shop!!! Its going to be tight.
God knows how i managed it, but i arrived early at the cafe at 8:20!!, Chris(Notone bite)or (NOB)LOL as he is now known was already there sat in the corner with a brew on the go. I headed straight for the counter to order my food where chris joins me.
Ahhh I get to sit down at the table with a brew, this is where the days tactics start to unravel, listening to other peoples thoughts and tactics always intreages me. Breakfast arrives and boy did I need it, I was wasting away LOL (not much chance of that)
15 minutes later Adecam, Chegers and Howardy arrived, Chegers said he was feeling rough which I think was just a early excuse for losing, Adecam and cheggers had a conversation about baby puke and shite which was enough to put me off having kids for life.After this pleasent chat(NOT) we head off in convoy to the venue which was less than 5 minutes away.
We all arrived at the venue to see only another 4-5 cars in the car park, cool I thought nice steady relaxing match which is just what I needed. Welcomed by Mike and the other owners of poolbridge it was soon to be found that these lads are very welcoming and banter was flowing freely!
Next came the draw which was a new concept to me, a roving draw which basically means you still get to draw a number but you get to pick your peg which you want to fish as long as know one picks it before you do. I drew number 4 which meant i was 4th in line to pick a peg, 1st up was chegers, he picked the favoured peg on the tip of the point, Howardy picked just round the corner on another decent peg, a few locals picked oppersite chegers, I picked peg 4, I didn't have a clue about the peg it just looked comfortable to get the keepnet in position etc!! Adecam picked oppersite me also on the point, I was pleased about this as I could keep my eye on him, I didn't want him beating me!!
Anyway, the whistle came about 15 minutes before I was ready, I looked across and Ade was still plumbing up, at least I wasn't on my own on the late starting!
I planned to fish a line at 11Metre straight out in front of me, with another line at 11metre at a 2 o clock angle, Caster only being fed straight out and maggot only to the one to the right. Same depth on both lines so I only setup one rig, a 4x14 drennan roach float, 5 number 9 stotz at 2ft from the hook and 3 number 11 stotz spread evenly from the bulk to the hook, hook was a 22 B510 barbless, tied to a 0.08 hooklength and 0.10 mainline, I also found it was the same depth on the top 3. I have a habit of when picking out a hookbait from the baitub I will pick out 10 baits and pick the best one out the lot and chucking them into the margin rather than returning the unused bait back into the tub, So I had a third line on the top 3.
When I eventually started, It wasn't long before I got a indication that the fish were out there within 2 mins i had missed 2 bites on the caster line, Next bite I hit! cool I havent blanked was my first thoughts! The no4 elastic was out a couple of foot, and slowly i guided the first roach to the net, 6oz roach was dropped into the net,The next minute i look over and see howardy is playing a large fish which i thought he had caught but it turned out he had lost it. About 40 minutes later I saw chris walking about on the far bank with a carp in the landing net, he must of thought it was close to 10lb as he was off to the weighing station behind his peg, fisherie rules state that any fish over 10lb to be weighed and returned, I knew that was 1st place gone straight away as it was unlikely for many carp to be caught on the day, So I continued to catch roach steady for the next 2 hours until the bites dried up.
Whilst I was fishing the caster line I was feeding 5 casters per bite, and at the same time i was feeding 5 maggots at the 2 o clock line, So a swap to the maggot line was in order, First drop in resulted in a micro perch! next drop in resulted in a stripey of about 2lb (new pb). Caught a few skimmers from that line and several decent roach before returning to the caster line which was now dead???
Watching the lad next to me, he was getting a lot of bites fishing about 3ft deep, so I quickly stuck a rig on my waiting spare top 3 which i'd made incase the fish came shallow as i know they do there in the summer and adusted the depth to about 3ft. Stuck a caster on and shipped out.
Thats where the roach had gone! straight back into the roach again and caught steady all the way to the end of the match.
I guessed that I had about 11lb with the guy to my right had roughly the same as he had caught a few larger ide, skimmers etc. I also thought it was closer than it was between me and Ade. I weighed in 12lb 4oz, lad on my right weighed in 10lb odd, Chris weighed in 30lb 8oz for a easy victory to continue his winning streak! Ade did 7lb summat. phew!!! thought it was closer! 12lb 4oz was enough for 2nd and £25 in the pocket!
After the match I had a walk around the lakes with Chris,Mike and Trevor. Mike and Trev were telling us the plans for the match lakes and specimen lakes that were due to be started, they also showed us the Nature trail that is being built to allow youngster and aldults alike to walk along and feed the fish without hassling anglers and without the obsticals such as expensive polesrods and tackle. It was very interesting to find out the history of the lakes and to find out what the owners have in store for the future. I will be back in the summer to have a crack for some of the old carp that live in there that we are led to be believed to be over 35lb. Can't wait!
All in all a very relaxing days fishing I learnt a lot about the fishery and got £25 in the pocket, Can't beat that for a day out! Good stuff lads, keep it up, I will be back! Pictures are rubbish on this one as it was getting dark and forgot my camera so had to use my phone!
Matt
This called for a early start for me, which many of you know i dislike with a passion, I always look knackered in the morning, 6am the alarm went off, sod that I'm going back to sleep for 10 mins, well that didn't work I woke up at 6:50am, oooooooops were meeting at the cafe on the A19 at 8:30am, its an hours travel, I need to pack the car and I need to go to the tackle shop!!! Its going to be tight.
God knows how i managed it, but i arrived early at the cafe at 8:20!!, Chris(Notone bite)or (NOB)LOL as he is now known was already there sat in the corner with a brew on the go. I headed straight for the counter to order my food where chris joins me.
Ahhh I get to sit down at the table with a brew, this is where the days tactics start to unravel, listening to other peoples thoughts and tactics always intreages me. Breakfast arrives and boy did I need it, I was wasting away LOL (not much chance of that)
15 minutes later Adecam, Chegers and Howardy arrived, Chegers said he was feeling rough which I think was just a early excuse for losing, Adecam and cheggers had a conversation about baby puke and shite which was enough to put me off having kids for life.After this pleasent chat(NOT) we head off in convoy to the venue which was less than 5 minutes away.
We all arrived at the venue to see only another 4-5 cars in the car park, cool I thought nice steady relaxing match which is just what I needed. Welcomed by Mike and the other owners of poolbridge it was soon to be found that these lads are very welcoming and banter was flowing freely!
Next came the draw which was a new concept to me, a roving draw which basically means you still get to draw a number but you get to pick your peg which you want to fish as long as know one picks it before you do. I drew number 4 which meant i was 4th in line to pick a peg, 1st up was chegers, he picked the favoured peg on the tip of the point, Howardy picked just round the corner on another decent peg, a few locals picked oppersite chegers, I picked peg 4, I didn't have a clue about the peg it just looked comfortable to get the keepnet in position etc!! Adecam picked oppersite me also on the point, I was pleased about this as I could keep my eye on him, I didn't want him beating me!!
Anyway, the whistle came about 15 minutes before I was ready, I looked across and Ade was still plumbing up, at least I wasn't on my own on the late starting!
I planned to fish a line at 11Metre straight out in front of me, with another line at 11metre at a 2 o clock angle, Caster only being fed straight out and maggot only to the one to the right. Same depth on both lines so I only setup one rig, a 4x14 drennan roach float, 5 number 9 stotz at 2ft from the hook and 3 number 11 stotz spread evenly from the bulk to the hook, hook was a 22 B510 barbless, tied to a 0.08 hooklength and 0.10 mainline, I also found it was the same depth on the top 3. I have a habit of when picking out a hookbait from the baitub I will pick out 10 baits and pick the best one out the lot and chucking them into the margin rather than returning the unused bait back into the tub, So I had a third line on the top 3.
When I eventually started, It wasn't long before I got a indication that the fish were out there within 2 mins i had missed 2 bites on the caster line, Next bite I hit! cool I havent blanked was my first thoughts! The no4 elastic was out a couple of foot, and slowly i guided the first roach to the net, 6oz roach was dropped into the net,The next minute i look over and see howardy is playing a large fish which i thought he had caught but it turned out he had lost it. About 40 minutes later I saw chris walking about on the far bank with a carp in the landing net, he must of thought it was close to 10lb as he was off to the weighing station behind his peg, fisherie rules state that any fish over 10lb to be weighed and returned, I knew that was 1st place gone straight away as it was unlikely for many carp to be caught on the day, So I continued to catch roach steady for the next 2 hours until the bites dried up.
Whilst I was fishing the caster line I was feeding 5 casters per bite, and at the same time i was feeding 5 maggots at the 2 o clock line, So a swap to the maggot line was in order, First drop in resulted in a micro perch! next drop in resulted in a stripey of about 2lb (new pb). Caught a few skimmers from that line and several decent roach before returning to the caster line which was now dead???
Watching the lad next to me, he was getting a lot of bites fishing about 3ft deep, so I quickly stuck a rig on my waiting spare top 3 which i'd made incase the fish came shallow as i know they do there in the summer and adusted the depth to about 3ft. Stuck a caster on and shipped out.
Thats where the roach had gone! straight back into the roach again and caught steady all the way to the end of the match.
I guessed that I had about 11lb with the guy to my right had roughly the same as he had caught a few larger ide, skimmers etc. I also thought it was closer than it was between me and Ade. I weighed in 12lb 4oz, lad on my right weighed in 10lb odd, Chris weighed in 30lb 8oz for a easy victory to continue his winning streak! Ade did 7lb summat. phew!!! thought it was closer! 12lb 4oz was enough for 2nd and £25 in the pocket!
After the match I had a walk around the lakes with Chris,Mike and Trevor. Mike and Trev were telling us the plans for the match lakes and specimen lakes that were due to be started, they also showed us the Nature trail that is being built to allow youngster and aldults alike to walk along and feed the fish without hassling anglers and without the obsticals such as expensive polesrods and tackle. It was very interesting to find out the history of the lakes and to find out what the owners have in store for the future. I will be back in the summer to have a crack for some of the old carp that live in there that we are led to be believed to be over 35lb. Can't wait!
All in all a very relaxing days fishing I learnt a lot about the fishery and got £25 in the pocket, Can't beat that for a day out! Good stuff lads, keep it up, I will be back! Pictures are rubbish on this one as it was getting dark and forgot my camera so had to use my phone!
Matt
Friday 9 November 2007
River Rother 07/11/2007
Right.... I fancied a days river fishing as i couldn't see what the fuss was about after the poor results during YMA's river series where the most that weighed in was 4 people, After all I am a commercial angler through and through, So off i plodded to the nearest river i could think of which happened to be the River Rother at Catcliffe near Sheffield.
I had no idea what to expect when i got there as I had never seen the river before, roumours from people i know said that it was a very clean nice little river but still had the bad name that it used to have back in the 70's, I was very pleasently suprised when i got there, neat trimmed grass almost bowling green quality like banks. The pegs were wooden safe platforms almost commercial like.
Next job was to walk the stretch and pick a peg which was hard as they all looked decent!! Anyway I plonked myself on peg 19 which had a nice steady pace to it and a nice glide for the stick to trot through (I do own a few sticks!!! honest)
Tactics for the day was to learn how to use the stick float, A conversation with Mick the troll the night before told me how to shot the float using the shirt button style, So i picked a nice wire stemmed tommy pickering 6 x no4 stick out the old box and proceeded to tackle up, On went the float rubbers then the float attached, 0.16 mainline on the reel, attached to a 12" of0.08 hooklength shotted with 4 x no1 spread equally down the line with 2 no11 on the hooklength, this was soon to become a nighmare with tangles!!!
First chuck in and the float was sent on its way with a nice underarm swing to the centre of the river about 8 metres out, the rig flew through the air and landed in a heap, so i retreived and found a big birds nest, marvelous i thought, great start, after trying to untangle this for 5 minutes or so, i decided to re tackle up, 5 minutes later i was back in action, This time the rig landed in a straight line and it trotted down the river perfectly to be met my the float going under at the end of the run, Strike, the rod bent round to find something large and heavy on the end, Oh i was right it was a massive snag and i lost a hooklength to it. Oh well don't trott that far next time lad.
New hooklength on and cast back in which again resulted in a birds nest, So this made me think why was i getting in so many tangles, maybe it was my shotting,as when the rig was in mid air it was jerking all over the place where the shot were batting between each other, each wanting to go in different directions, So i altered all the shotting and reshotted with 10 x 6 all stringed out evenly down the rig, Instantly i could tell that this was going to be better and the rig flew out a dream and landed in the straightest line possibe, Result!!
Right time for some fish, First trot down on the new rig, it performed flawlessly, no bite though, so reeled back in and flicked back out again followed by 10 or so bronze maggots, second trot down and the float went under, I struck and fish on, excelent a small roach of about 2oz went into the waiting keepnet.
This was the only bite i had for the next 2 hours, I kept going at it as i know that a swim can suddenly turn itself on like a switch, but unfortunatly it didn't!
I decided to go for a walk to relieve the boredem and explore the stretch a little more, On my walk i didcovered a few other anglers who were also in the same boat and were struggling to catch, I also met one of the baliffs who was very helpful, he told me about the stretch, species etc, he did however happen to mention that pole was worth a shot!
On my way back i noticed a nice peg for the pole with some overhanging trees on the far bank, so i deceded to move pegs onto peg 17 two pegs down from my original peg, Pole out and a rig i used the previous day on a stillwater! 4 x 14 drennan roach shotted with 4 x no9 stotz together at half depth and then 3 no 11 droppers spaced out below the bulkshot to allow a slow drop and to allow the bait to rise up in the water if i held back against the flow.
It was a lot shallower across the far side at about 3 foot deep and the water clearish so i wasn't holding up much hope for this method, first trot though and the float disapeared, to which i struck at and missed, I thought it could of been the bottom so i ran through again and the float didn't budge so it must of been a bite, From then on every run through produced either a bite or a small roach or chub, I had about a hour left before it got dark, I was catching quite well be this point and kept putting a few fish in the net, 2nd to last chuck and i was struggling to see the float due to the dark drawing in and i connected with something a little better, this ended up being a perch of about 12oz, new pb perch, Didn't last for long though as the next chuck produced a perch of 1lb 6oz which finished my day off well, by the time i had finished weighing the net of fish and weighing the perch it was dark. So I packed up and headed back to the car after having a enjoyable few hours on a river.
Net of fish 5lb 3oz + 1lb 6oz perch, not bad for round about 2 hours fishing!
I will definatly be back, £2 a day.
Tight lines
Matt
I had no idea what to expect when i got there as I had never seen the river before, roumours from people i know said that it was a very clean nice little river but still had the bad name that it used to have back in the 70's, I was very pleasently suprised when i got there, neat trimmed grass almost bowling green quality like banks. The pegs were wooden safe platforms almost commercial like.
Next job was to walk the stretch and pick a peg which was hard as they all looked decent!! Anyway I plonked myself on peg 19 which had a nice steady pace to it and a nice glide for the stick to trot through (I do own a few sticks!!! honest)
Tactics for the day was to learn how to use the stick float, A conversation with Mick the troll the night before told me how to shot the float using the shirt button style, So i picked a nice wire stemmed tommy pickering 6 x no4 stick out the old box and proceeded to tackle up, On went the float rubbers then the float attached, 0.16 mainline on the reel, attached to a 12" of0.08 hooklength shotted with 4 x no1 spread equally down the line with 2 no11 on the hooklength, this was soon to become a nighmare with tangles!!!
First chuck in and the float was sent on its way with a nice underarm swing to the centre of the river about 8 metres out, the rig flew through the air and landed in a heap, so i retreived and found a big birds nest, marvelous i thought, great start, after trying to untangle this for 5 minutes or so, i decided to re tackle up, 5 minutes later i was back in action, This time the rig landed in a straight line and it trotted down the river perfectly to be met my the float going under at the end of the run, Strike, the rod bent round to find something large and heavy on the end, Oh i was right it was a massive snag and i lost a hooklength to it. Oh well don't trott that far next time lad.
New hooklength on and cast back in which again resulted in a birds nest, So this made me think why was i getting in so many tangles, maybe it was my shotting,as when the rig was in mid air it was jerking all over the place where the shot were batting between each other, each wanting to go in different directions, So i altered all the shotting and reshotted with 10 x 6 all stringed out evenly down the rig, Instantly i could tell that this was going to be better and the rig flew out a dream and landed in the straightest line possibe, Result!!
Right time for some fish, First trot down on the new rig, it performed flawlessly, no bite though, so reeled back in and flicked back out again followed by 10 or so bronze maggots, second trot down and the float went under, I struck and fish on, excelent a small roach of about 2oz went into the waiting keepnet.
This was the only bite i had for the next 2 hours, I kept going at it as i know that a swim can suddenly turn itself on like a switch, but unfortunatly it didn't!
I decided to go for a walk to relieve the boredem and explore the stretch a little more, On my walk i didcovered a few other anglers who were also in the same boat and were struggling to catch, I also met one of the baliffs who was very helpful, he told me about the stretch, species etc, he did however happen to mention that pole was worth a shot!
On my way back i noticed a nice peg for the pole with some overhanging trees on the far bank, so i deceded to move pegs onto peg 17 two pegs down from my original peg, Pole out and a rig i used the previous day on a stillwater! 4 x 14 drennan roach shotted with 4 x no9 stotz together at half depth and then 3 no 11 droppers spaced out below the bulkshot to allow a slow drop and to allow the bait to rise up in the water if i held back against the flow.
It was a lot shallower across the far side at about 3 foot deep and the water clearish so i wasn't holding up much hope for this method, first trot though and the float disapeared, to which i struck at and missed, I thought it could of been the bottom so i ran through again and the float didn't budge so it must of been a bite, From then on every run through produced either a bite or a small roach or chub, I had about a hour left before it got dark, I was catching quite well be this point and kept putting a few fish in the net, 2nd to last chuck and i was struggling to see the float due to the dark drawing in and i connected with something a little better, this ended up being a perch of about 12oz, new pb perch, Didn't last for long though as the next chuck produced a perch of 1lb 6oz which finished my day off well, by the time i had finished weighing the net of fish and weighing the perch it was dark. So I packed up and headed back to the car after having a enjoyable few hours on a river.
Net of fish 5lb 3oz + 1lb 6oz perch, not bad for round about 2 hours fishing!
I will definatly be back, £2 a day.
Tight lines
Matt
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