Every year 30+ mates who now use the Match Fishing Scene Website travel from around the country and meet at Witherington Farm near Salisbury to remember a fellow fisherman, raise money for Cancer Research, have a couple of nights eating and drinking in Salisbury, oh yes, and also do a bit of fishing !
The following is a three part report on this years activities. However, I will only be covering the fishing as others will no doubt be reporting on the evening activities !
Day 1 - Practice day.
Whilst some of the attendees have a match at Rolf's Lake on the Friday as they make their way down from "Up North", me and Ant (Anthony Sparrow half of the intrepid Raffle Organising Team) usually have a leisurely drive down, a stop at the "Little Thief for breakfast / lunch (how can anywhere charge a £1 for an extra tomato or mushroom ?) and arrive at Witherington Farm (from here on known as Withy) at around 1pm. We then have a quick wander round to see those already having a little dabble and then get our gear out and have a bit of a fish before the chaps from Rolf's arrive and then head off in taxis for their hotel in Salisbury.
Whilst I usually just have a little fish on the lake I have drawn the following day, just to see if they are still eating paste, this year I had a "Secret Plan" for the Snake lake we were fishing on the Sunday and wanted to try it out.
Whilst I don't mind fishing paste in the edge on the Snake Lake, the far bank is 13-17 metres away (depending on where you draw) and it's hard work trying to fish paste at that distance, especially when it is a bit breezy. I know the pleasure anglers catch a lot of fish on floating bread and although floating baits were banned on our matches, at least I knew the fish ate bread. My secret plan was to feed a couple of bits of bread each put in and fish Mosella Magic Bread on the hook. I'd never used it before but was amazed by what I saw. I set up my gear on Peg 16 on the Snake and just set up one rig to fish across with 0.18 line a size 10 Gamakatsu pellet hook and a small dibber type float taking one number 8 just to help the bread sink. As I had trouble making my bread feed sink, I ended up soaking it and then pushing it through a riddle then feeding a little kinder cup of "Slop" each put in. I cut off a slice of Magic Bread, soaked it for 10 minutes and then just pulled a lump off, squeezed the water out (so it looked just like a flat piece of stodge) and just nicked the hook through it. The amazing thing is that when it goes in the water it fluffs out again and looks like a fluffy piece of bread - it truly is amazing as unlike "Proper bread", you can ship it out in the water without it coming off and lift and drop it as many times as you like and it still wont fall off.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I fished for about about 90 minutes feeding bread slop each put in and fishing Magic bread on the hook at depths between 1 and 3 foot to catch 3 skimmers, 2 rudd and.....................................9 CARP ! I kept having to look round to make sure that nobody was watching and just as I had decided to pack up and have a go on the other lake, I saw Nicky The Brickie approaching along the bank ! With only one rig and two bait boxes out I managed to have everything hidden away nicely by the time he arrived but it did obviously look a bit suspicious ! Whilst I wanted to keep my little secret, I was so amazed by the Magic Bread that I just had to show Nicky and he was as impressed as I was.
With a couple of hours still remaining before the "Rolf's Crew" arrived, I then made my way to Sellwood Lake for a little dabble in the edge with paste. I sat myself down on Peg 10, took out my H10 pole and tied on an 0.18 paste rig with new Hillbilly Pikey Paste Float and size 12 B911.
Second put in I hooked a decent fish which after a brief tussle I shipped down to my Top 3 and the fish promptly swam under the platform and snapped me up on one of the legs ! Having tackled up another rig the next fish did exactly the same as the first one. I then decided that the best plan of attack was to add a section once I'd hooked them and play them out a bit further out until they tired a bit and then get them up in the water before netting them. This new plan worked well, although apart from one "Munter", the rest of the fish were much smaller.
I packed up much happier that I wouldn't have a problem with fish swimming under the platform the following day, so if nothing else I'd at least learnt something and was really looking forward to the first match the following morning.
The following is a three part report on this years activities. However, I will only be covering the fishing as others will no doubt be reporting on the evening activities !
Day 1 - Practice day.
Whilst some of the attendees have a match at Rolf's Lake on the Friday as they make their way down from "Up North", me and Ant (Anthony Sparrow half of the intrepid Raffle Organising Team) usually have a leisurely drive down, a stop at the "Little Thief for breakfast / lunch (how can anywhere charge a £1 for an extra tomato or mushroom ?) and arrive at Witherington Farm (from here on known as Withy) at around 1pm. We then have a quick wander round to see those already having a little dabble and then get our gear out and have a bit of a fish before the chaps from Rolf's arrive and then head off in taxis for their hotel in Salisbury.
Whilst I usually just have a little fish on the lake I have drawn the following day, just to see if they are still eating paste, this year I had a "Secret Plan" for the Snake lake we were fishing on the Sunday and wanted to try it out.
Whilst I don't mind fishing paste in the edge on the Snake Lake, the far bank is 13-17 metres away (depending on where you draw) and it's hard work trying to fish paste at that distance, especially when it is a bit breezy. I know the pleasure anglers catch a lot of fish on floating bread and although floating baits were banned on our matches, at least I knew the fish ate bread. My secret plan was to feed a couple of bits of bread each put in and fish Mosella Magic Bread on the hook. I'd never used it before but was amazed by what I saw. I set up my gear on Peg 16 on the Snake and just set up one rig to fish across with 0.18 line a size 10 Gamakatsu pellet hook and a small dibber type float taking one number 8 just to help the bread sink. As I had trouble making my bread feed sink, I ended up soaking it and then pushing it through a riddle then feeding a little kinder cup of "Slop" each put in. I cut off a slice of Magic Bread, soaked it for 10 minutes and then just pulled a lump off, squeezed the water out (so it looked just like a flat piece of stodge) and just nicked the hook through it. The amazing thing is that when it goes in the water it fluffs out again and looks like a fluffy piece of bread - it truly is amazing as unlike "Proper bread", you can ship it out in the water without it coming off and lift and drop it as many times as you like and it still wont fall off.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I fished for about about 90 minutes feeding bread slop each put in and fishing Magic bread on the hook at depths between 1 and 3 foot to catch 3 skimmers, 2 rudd and.....................................9 CARP ! I kept having to look round to make sure that nobody was watching and just as I had decided to pack up and have a go on the other lake, I saw Nicky The Brickie approaching along the bank ! With only one rig and two bait boxes out I managed to have everything hidden away nicely by the time he arrived but it did obviously look a bit suspicious ! Whilst I wanted to keep my little secret, I was so amazed by the Magic Bread that I just had to show Nicky and he was as impressed as I was.
With a couple of hours still remaining before the "Rolf's Crew" arrived, I then made my way to Sellwood Lake for a little dabble in the edge with paste. I sat myself down on Peg 10, took out my H10 pole and tied on an 0.18 paste rig with new Hillbilly Pikey Paste Float and size 12 B911.
Second put in I hooked a decent fish which after a brief tussle I shipped down to my Top 3 and the fish promptly swam under the platform and snapped me up on one of the legs ! Having tackled up another rig the next fish did exactly the same as the first one. I then decided that the best plan of attack was to add a section once I'd hooked them and play them out a bit further out until they tired a bit and then get them up in the water before netting them. This new plan worked well, although apart from one "Munter", the rest of the fish were much smaller.
I packed up much happier that I wouldn't have a problem with fish swimming under the platform the following day, so if nothing else I'd at least learnt something and was really looking forward to the first match the following morning.
Pop back later when I will have added a report on Day 1.
