With no match planned for Sunday, I let Plummers (my regular fishing buddy) convince me to go with him to Greenridge Farm at Ampfield in Hampshire. Don't get me wrong but with me being a 6 metre paste angler and most fish long pole to the far bank, I wasn't expecting great things !
The day didn't start well as we both forgot to make a note of the suggested breakfast stop and we ended up stopping at the Basingstoke Services for a not particularly nice 2 English breakfasts with tea and coffee for a bargain £22.40 !
Arriving at the fishery, having survived our mugging, the first thing I noticed was that the place had received a "Gold Valley" haircut and the lakes looked very very bare. At the draw ably organised by Calum Craig (thanks mate for running the match) Plummers drew Peg 11 and I drew Peg 4, both on Lake 1. A quick look at the draw sheet revealed that I had Mark Poppleton (or Slider as he is better known) on Peg 3 and Pegs 5 and 6 had both been left out, which I thought was a right result, as a bit of room is never a bad thing - although I did notice that there was a load of water coming into the lake through a pipe about 8 metres to my right.
My cunning plan was to fish 14 metres tight to the far bank - yes I know this would involve using the sections of the pole with the writing on but I'd been psyching myself up for a while, down the track was a more sensible 7 metre option and then 2 edge lines, one at 9 metres towards the empty platform to my right and then a shorter 4 metre line. Bait was to be either maggots or meat. Fortunately for Mark and ingfisher on Peg 1, the chap on Peg 2 didn't turn up for the match so they both had a blank peg as well and whilst I didn't make use of mine they both caught steadily through out the match. IMy far bank seemed to be a lot deeper than Marks and I really struggled to catch across although I did catch a few big fish late having put on a heavier float and also starting to feed more meat, although I think by then it was "Carp O'clock" that magic time when the fish just start to feed properly. Having struggled to catch across, I also tried down the middle but only had I big ide, a seven pound carp and one big bream which turned out to be a member of the smallest bream shoal in the south. The edge proved a little more successful as I did have a few big fish but it was all too little too late. Although my 58lb was very disappointing, it was nevertheless nice to fish without rain or frost and fish in a T shirt once again.
Result
Lake 1
Peg Name Weight Position
1 Pete Newman 106lb 08oz 2nd
3 Mark poppleton 113lb 12oz 1st
4 Pikey 58lb 12oz 4th
7 Graham Spiller DNW =7th
8 Brian Hayse 38lb 00oz 6th
9 Mike smith 61lb 08oz 3rd
10 Nick Merry 53lb 12oz 5th
11 Tony Plumbridge DNW =7th
Lake 2
Peg Name Weight Position
12 Bryan moore 32lb 00oz 6th
13 Paul barnard 61lb 08oz 4th
14 Trevor holmes 13lb 00oz 9th
15 Kev downer 14lb 00oz 8th
16 Rob Gallagher 83lb 00oz 1st
17 Nathen fox 64lb 08oz 3rd
18 Andy fox 31lb 00oz 7th
19 Steve hemming 44lb 00oz 5th
20 Dave burford 69lb 10oz 2nd
Lake 3
Peg Name Weight Position
21 Calum craig 57lb 08oz 5th
22 Gareth boycott 171lb 06oz 1st
23 Jake Gallagher 93lb 10oz 2nd
24 Bob wackril 23lb 00oz 6th
26 Dean rowden 22lb 00oz 7th
27 Tom miller DNW =8th
28 Mark blake 78lb 14oz 3rd
29 Tony blight 74lb 14oz 4th
30 Bernard blight DNW =8th
Good to be back !
Well for any former regular readers, I can only apologise for the amount of time I have neglected my blog for ! I do love updating it but being busy at work, a six week holiday to New Zealand / Australia and a lack of winter fish have all meant that I've not been on here for a while and have been depriving all my fans of their regular match fishing update !
Anyway, Unsuprisingly I thought I'd restart my reporting with a match where I actually caught some fish. The match in question was a Talk Angling League Match at Orchard Lake 6 which I'd managed to get in on at the last minute thanks to organiser Nick Roberts (thanks mate). With the weather looking half decent for a change, Orchard Lake in Kent being a good venue full of F1's and the TA boys being a good bunch, I was looking forward to a few bites and a decent day out.
Plummers (my regular fishing mate and £1 donor) picked me up and as we travelled towards Kent the temperature varied from a balmy 1 degree to a distinctly cold Minus 4 (which was a bit worrying). Having passed a number of small ponds / lakes on the journey to our Breakfast stop at the Blueboys Cafe none of them had any ice on them, so we weren't at all concerned.
However, arriving at the lake, we discovered that a lot of it was frozen over and we had to make a decision about which pegs to fish. Luckily a lot of the frozen area was where we didn't usually peg although the usually productive back bank (Pegs 22-28) where frozen along with a few pegs either side of the spit. Having sorted the pegging the pegs I fancied were 8,9,12,13 on the spit and although I'd never drawn there before, Pegs 36-44 on the left hand bank which were ice free and all had a blank peg either side.
Having watched most of my fancied pegs go, I came to draw with just two pegs left in the bag (Peg 13 and Peg 40) Squeeks (Stu Wilson) put in his hand and was like an over excited school boy as he drew Peg 13, an island peg where our mate Si had finished second from the previous match with 70lb (and he's rubbish !).
Arriving at my peg , I had Shedfull (Dave Speller) one side and Alex Barter the other. Having been given some decent information regarding Orchard a few weeks before by Mark Murdoch, I basically followed that, which meant that I fished two short lines at 7 metres at 10 and 2 o'clock, used the same rig for a longer line at 14 metres (which I would only fish if the other 2 lines stopped producing), and I also plumbed up an edge swim to my right about 4 metres along the bank and about a yard out in 3 foot of water.
The rigs for fishing "out" were 4x14 Scone berweemz (which I've been using a lot lately) with a spread bulk of No 8 shot with the final shot 7 inches from the hook. Mark told me to try a rig with this sort of shotting at Orchard and I've never looked back since trying it. The hook was a Size 16 Gamakatsu Pellet hook to 0.10 hooklength, and the elastic blue hydro. On the whistle, one line was fed with a big ball of Swimstim natural GB and one with some dampened pellets. Another top tip from Mark was not to feed your long line until 10 minutes before you wanted to fish it - so I didn't ! I think it is like any commerial fishery, if you feed a long line then it just stops the fish coming into your short line. Well that is my theory anyway.
Although the match started slowly (not suprisingly following the nights minus temperatures) the sun was shining, the wind was only light and I soon started to get the odd F1. With the majority of my fish coming from the GB fed line I soon decided to feed some over the pellet line and was soon catching there as well. Although the 10 o'clock line seemed a lot stronger, I would rest it every so often when I felt it was slowing, feed another ball of GB and nick a few fish off the other line. I had started fishing 4mm expanders on the hook but having switched to a 6mm Marukyu and caught straight away on it, I stuck with them for the rest of the match. With the float shotted right down to a dimple, the bites were still hard to spot especially when the wind got up but whilst some pegs faded in the afternoon, mine continued to fish and at the weigh in my 2 nets had almost identical weights in - one i used for the first half of the 5 hour match match and one for the second. I had also been feeding the inside line with pelletts all day and when I saw Bob Murray catching at 4 metres on Peg 44 I thought I'd give it a quick go with 45 minutes remaining. To be honest, I didn't expect to catch in the edge having been so cold and the water quite clear but within 20 seconds of laying my bait in part way up the shelf, the float disappeared and I had an F1. Thinking it was just a fluke fish, I layed the rig in again and the same thing happened, again and again as the inside swim was solid and I wished I'd tried it earlier !
On the whistle I was playing my final fish and as the scales made their way round the lake, Sparky was winning with 66lb from Peg 8, John Rhodes had a 15lb beast on the feeder from Peg 26 and fortunately my two nets went 41 and 42lb for an 83lb top weight.
Result
Pikey..............Peg 40................83-0-0
Sparky............Peg 8..................66-7-0
Big Si............Peg 46.................54-8-0
Bob Murray...Peg 44.................54-4-0
So, all in all a lovely days fishing and one where I'd caught so well short that I didn't even have to try my 14 metre line, the company was also good and I look forward to fishing a few more match with the Talk Angling boys.
I'm at Greenridge Farm in Hampshire next and will take my camera this time to hopefully add a few shots to my next blog. In the meantime I hope everyone catches a few fish and I 'll see some of you on the bank.
Anyway, Unsuprisingly I thought I'd restart my reporting with a match where I actually caught some fish. The match in question was a Talk Angling League Match at Orchard Lake 6 which I'd managed to get in on at the last minute thanks to organiser Nick Roberts (thanks mate). With the weather looking half decent for a change, Orchard Lake in Kent being a good venue full of F1's and the TA boys being a good bunch, I was looking forward to a few bites and a decent day out.
Plummers (my regular fishing mate and £1 donor) picked me up and as we travelled towards Kent the temperature varied from a balmy 1 degree to a distinctly cold Minus 4 (which was a bit worrying). Having passed a number of small ponds / lakes on the journey to our Breakfast stop at the Blueboys Cafe none of them had any ice on them, so we weren't at all concerned.
However, arriving at the lake, we discovered that a lot of it was frozen over and we had to make a decision about which pegs to fish. Luckily a lot of the frozen area was where we didn't usually peg although the usually productive back bank (Pegs 22-28) where frozen along with a few pegs either side of the spit. Having sorted the pegging the pegs I fancied were 8,9,12,13 on the spit and although I'd never drawn there before, Pegs 36-44 on the left hand bank which were ice free and all had a blank peg either side.
Having watched most of my fancied pegs go, I came to draw with just two pegs left in the bag (Peg 13 and Peg 40) Squeeks (Stu Wilson) put in his hand and was like an over excited school boy as he drew Peg 13, an island peg where our mate Si had finished second from the previous match with 70lb (and he's rubbish !).
Arriving at my peg , I had Shedfull (Dave Speller) one side and Alex Barter the other. Having been given some decent information regarding Orchard a few weeks before by Mark Murdoch, I basically followed that, which meant that I fished two short lines at 7 metres at 10 and 2 o'clock, used the same rig for a longer line at 14 metres (which I would only fish if the other 2 lines stopped producing), and I also plumbed up an edge swim to my right about 4 metres along the bank and about a yard out in 3 foot of water.
The rigs for fishing "out" were 4x14 Scone berweemz (which I've been using a lot lately) with a spread bulk of No 8 shot with the final shot 7 inches from the hook. Mark told me to try a rig with this sort of shotting at Orchard and I've never looked back since trying it. The hook was a Size 16 Gamakatsu Pellet hook to 0.10 hooklength, and the elastic blue hydro. On the whistle, one line was fed with a big ball of Swimstim natural GB and one with some dampened pellets. Another top tip from Mark was not to feed your long line until 10 minutes before you wanted to fish it - so I didn't ! I think it is like any commerial fishery, if you feed a long line then it just stops the fish coming into your short line. Well that is my theory anyway.
Although the match started slowly (not suprisingly following the nights minus temperatures) the sun was shining, the wind was only light and I soon started to get the odd F1. With the majority of my fish coming from the GB fed line I soon decided to feed some over the pellet line and was soon catching there as well. Although the 10 o'clock line seemed a lot stronger, I would rest it every so often when I felt it was slowing, feed another ball of GB and nick a few fish off the other line. I had started fishing 4mm expanders on the hook but having switched to a 6mm Marukyu and caught straight away on it, I stuck with them for the rest of the match. With the float shotted right down to a dimple, the bites were still hard to spot especially when the wind got up but whilst some pegs faded in the afternoon, mine continued to fish and at the weigh in my 2 nets had almost identical weights in - one i used for the first half of the 5 hour match match and one for the second. I had also been feeding the inside line with pelletts all day and when I saw Bob Murray catching at 4 metres on Peg 44 I thought I'd give it a quick go with 45 minutes remaining. To be honest, I didn't expect to catch in the edge having been so cold and the water quite clear but within 20 seconds of laying my bait in part way up the shelf, the float disappeared and I had an F1. Thinking it was just a fluke fish, I layed the rig in again and the same thing happened, again and again as the inside swim was solid and I wished I'd tried it earlier !
On the whistle I was playing my final fish and as the scales made their way round the lake, Sparky was winning with 66lb from Peg 8, John Rhodes had a 15lb beast on the feeder from Peg 26 and fortunately my two nets went 41 and 42lb for an 83lb top weight.
Result
Pikey..............Peg 40................83-0-0
Sparky............Peg 8..................66-7-0
Big Si............Peg 46.................54-8-0
Bob Murray...Peg 44.................54-4-0
So, all in all a lovely days fishing and one where I'd caught so well short that I didn't even have to try my 14 metre line, the company was also good and I look forward to fishing a few more match with the Talk Angling boys.
I'm at Greenridge Farm in Hampshire next and will take my camera this time to hopefully add a few shots to my next blog. In the meantime I hope everyone catches a few fish and I 'll see some of you on the bank.
Three in One !
Too much work and too little PC time has meant that I have slipped behind on my blogging by a couple of matches, so firstly I apologise to any regular readers and secondly here is a bit of a catch up.
Since the Government announced there was officially now a drought, nature has been trying to make up for it, and mostly on days when I have been fishing and I have found myself taking more clothing with me on matches than tackle.
The first "Pikey V The Elements" match took me to the Match Fishing Scene match on Lake 1 at Monk Lakes. For those who have fished Monks, the one thing you will know is that it really isn't a place you want to go when the weather is wet and windy. However, it was the first Wednesday I had booked off work for fishing for ages so I was determined to fish. Arriving at Monks it was raining as promised but the wind didn't seem too bad, but that was just probably cos we were standing behind the clubhouse building !
I haven't fished Lake 1 for ages but just knew that with the wind blowing in the direction it was, I really didn't want to draw between 2 and 10 or 24 and 31 as the wind would be right in your face in those pegs.
So, into the Tesco's draw bag went my hand and I latched onto one of the few remaining discs. This was it, the moment of truth, was I going to have a lovely comfortable days fishing catching a few fish or was I going to freeze my nuts off battling with the wind ? I slowly turned the disc over to reveal......PEG 4 ! a nice short walk but probably one of the worst pegs weather wise.
Arriving at my peg I could hardly stand up, let alone fish, also with 8 layers of clothing on to battle the wind and rain I looked more like the mitchelin man than someone who has actually lost a stone and a half in weight this year.
Tactics wise fishing the pole out in front was a no no, so I decided to fish a small cage feeder with GB and dead maggots at about 18 metres and both sides right in the edge. Having fed both inside lines with GB and dead maggots I got myself comfortable and set about fishing the feeder. Whilst very slow (as you would expect given the conditions) I was soon catching the odd little carp and actually started to quite enjoy myself, the only down side was the lack of banter as with the pegs quite well spread out and with the wind and rain, you couldn't hear anything anyone said. I had ben trying the edges every now and then with no response but with a couple of hours to go, a few fish turned up in the right hand side and I had 5 carp and a big ide in the next hour before the peg died. I did have a couple more small carp onthe feeder in the last 30 minutes and given the conditions, was actually quite pleased with my final weight of 28-0-0 as it gave me second in my section behind Rusty on the end peg.
Results
Hathers.................Peg 21.........53-10-0
Mark Murdoch.....Peg 34.........53-8-0
Russell Shipton........Peg 43.........44-8-0
Rusty...................Peg 2............40-12-0
The following Wedneday I'd booked another day off and this time was off to fish the Canal Bank of Gold Lake at Gold Valley. It isn't really a fishery that suits me as to win it is usally method or big wag - which I don't do but it was a days fishing with some good company as this was another MFS match. The weather once again looked rubbish with high winds and heavy rain showers predicted for all day and when we arrived at the clubhouse the wind was blowing straight down the lake and there were waves crashing against the bank. Luckily after we drew, the wind turned slightly and came from off our backs on the canal bank. With the high bank behind us, it made our pegs quite sheltered and I have to say that I actually wasn't too bothered about conditions throughout the day, we did have a few quite heavy showers but when they came I just put my brolly up until they'd passed.
Fishing wise I fished "The Conker" on the lead and had 4 carp for 28lb and added 17lb of skimmers, roach, perch and rudd on maggot and GB fished at 8 metres to win the section and a very welcome £60.
Result
Chris Nicholls...............Peg 2..............88-12-0
Ludders.......................Peg 12.............69-14-0
Herbie.........................Peg 25.............51-10-0
Ken Rayner.................Peg 26.............48-4-0
Pikey...........................Peg 22.............45-14-0
Match number 3 saw me travelling with Rick to yet another new venue to us, Timsbury Manor in Hampshire for our third MFS match in 2 weeks. Once again the rain was falling as we left home and was still falling when we arrived at the fishery. My first impressions of the lake was how small it was and Slider (who had taken over the running of the match), did say that if he had booked it then he wouldn't have put some many pegs in as the pegging was a bit cosy to say the least ! I did have a quick walk round before the draw but to be fair there weren't many pegs I wouldn't have minded fishing. The draw meant little to me as I didn't know one peg from another but when I drew Peg 18, I was told by the regulars that they didn't usually peg it and Slider said if he could have taken out one peg that would have been the one ! However, I've heard all that before over the years and it has often been proved that fish have fins and are often caught from unexpected pegs. For company I had "Kingfisher" to my right and I knew I'd struggle to beat him as not only is he a local (and a decent match angler) but he also had a nice little island in front of him within pole range.
I had a nice long edge to my left until I reached Rick on Peg 1 but luckily because of the spindley bushes along the bank, he couldn't fish along the edge towards me, which I'm sure helped me. The edge to my right was very very shallow and I knew Kingfisher would br fishing there as well, so my only other option was to fish out in front on the pole. I started cupping in some hemp and meat in front and some GB and dead maggots along the edge but in the deeper water but after a biteless 45 mins infront and with Kingfisher bagging by the island, it was clear that I wasn't going to catch in the open water. I then decided that the only way I was likely to catch enough fish to frame was to fish along the left hand bank where nobody could affect how I fished and I had a bit of room. I added a couple of sections so I was now fishing at 10 metres along the bank and about a yard out from the edge in 3 foot of water in a lovely white patch of light where I could see a black topped float really well. I started off the new swim by cupping in a big pot of sloppy GB and dead maggot and left it to settle whilst tying up a new rig which was 0.16 G Line to a size 16 Gamakatsu pellett hook and my trusty Hillbilly Pikey Paste float which I dotted down with 4x8 and a Number 10 shot. Within 10 minutes I'd had a carp on my new rig fishing three dead maggots on the hook. I then continued catching well for the next couple of hours, by kindering a pot of feed after each fish and switching between maggot and 2 cubes of luncheon meat on the hook. With 90 minutes to go Kingfisher started to catch in the edge to my right and for some reason the fish seemed to disappear from my peg for a while. However after a brief panic where I started to try and catch closer in the edge, I gave myself a good talking to, cupped in a big pot of feed where I had been catching and within 20 minutes the fish returned and I caried on catching until the end of the match.
With the shape of the lake, I could only see Kingfisher, Rick and Big Ron and knew they'd been catching but had no idea how everyone else had fared. Fortunately for me only Slider had caught on the main part of the lake and the final results looked like this:-
Results
Pikey.............Peg 18...............135-14-0
Kingfisher......Peg 17...............111-2-0
Big Ron........Peg 2..................102-9-0
Ricky B........Peg 1...................68-14-0
Slider...........Peg 13.................66-4-0
So, that's my match fishing blog up to date, I'm off to Witherington farm for two days next weekend for the annual Steve Ramsay Memorial weekend, wish me luck and hope this weather inproves or it's going to be fairly miserable.
Since the Government announced there was officially now a drought, nature has been trying to make up for it, and mostly on days when I have been fishing and I have found myself taking more clothing with me on matches than tackle.
The first "Pikey V The Elements" match took me to the Match Fishing Scene match on Lake 1 at Monk Lakes. For those who have fished Monks, the one thing you will know is that it really isn't a place you want to go when the weather is wet and windy. However, it was the first Wednesday I had booked off work for fishing for ages so I was determined to fish. Arriving at Monks it was raining as promised but the wind didn't seem too bad, but that was just probably cos we were standing behind the clubhouse building !
I haven't fished Lake 1 for ages but just knew that with the wind blowing in the direction it was, I really didn't want to draw between 2 and 10 or 24 and 31 as the wind would be right in your face in those pegs.
So, into the Tesco's draw bag went my hand and I latched onto one of the few remaining discs. This was it, the moment of truth, was I going to have a lovely comfortable days fishing catching a few fish or was I going to freeze my nuts off battling with the wind ? I slowly turned the disc over to reveal......PEG 4 ! a nice short walk but probably one of the worst pegs weather wise.
Arriving at my peg I could hardly stand up, let alone fish, also with 8 layers of clothing on to battle the wind and rain I looked more like the mitchelin man than someone who has actually lost a stone and a half in weight this year.
Tactics wise fishing the pole out in front was a no no, so I decided to fish a small cage feeder with GB and dead maggots at about 18 metres and both sides right in the edge. Having fed both inside lines with GB and dead maggots I got myself comfortable and set about fishing the feeder. Whilst very slow (as you would expect given the conditions) I was soon catching the odd little carp and actually started to quite enjoy myself, the only down side was the lack of banter as with the pegs quite well spread out and with the wind and rain, you couldn't hear anything anyone said. I had ben trying the edges every now and then with no response but with a couple of hours to go, a few fish turned up in the right hand side and I had 5 carp and a big ide in the next hour before the peg died. I did have a couple more small carp onthe feeder in the last 30 minutes and given the conditions, was actually quite pleased with my final weight of 28-0-0 as it gave me second in my section behind Rusty on the end peg.
Results
Hathers.................Peg 21.........53-10-0
Mark Murdoch.....Peg 34.........53-8-0
Russell Shipton........Peg 43.........44-8-0
Rusty...................Peg 2............40-12-0
The following Wedneday I'd booked another day off and this time was off to fish the Canal Bank of Gold Lake at Gold Valley. It isn't really a fishery that suits me as to win it is usally method or big wag - which I don't do but it was a days fishing with some good company as this was another MFS match. The weather once again looked rubbish with high winds and heavy rain showers predicted for all day and when we arrived at the clubhouse the wind was blowing straight down the lake and there were waves crashing against the bank. Luckily after we drew, the wind turned slightly and came from off our backs on the canal bank. With the high bank behind us, it made our pegs quite sheltered and I have to say that I actually wasn't too bothered about conditions throughout the day, we did have a few quite heavy showers but when they came I just put my brolly up until they'd passed.
Fishing wise I fished "The Conker" on the lead and had 4 carp for 28lb and added 17lb of skimmers, roach, perch and rudd on maggot and GB fished at 8 metres to win the section and a very welcome £60.
Result
Chris Nicholls...............Peg 2..............88-12-0
Ludders.......................Peg 12.............69-14-0
Herbie.........................Peg 25.............51-10-0
Ken Rayner.................Peg 26.............48-4-0
Pikey...........................Peg 22.............45-14-0
Match number 3 saw me travelling with Rick to yet another new venue to us, Timsbury Manor in Hampshire for our third MFS match in 2 weeks. Once again the rain was falling as we left home and was still falling when we arrived at the fishery. My first impressions of the lake was how small it was and Slider (who had taken over the running of the match), did say that if he had booked it then he wouldn't have put some many pegs in as the pegging was a bit cosy to say the least ! I did have a quick walk round before the draw but to be fair there weren't many pegs I wouldn't have minded fishing. The draw meant little to me as I didn't know one peg from another but when I drew Peg 18, I was told by the regulars that they didn't usually peg it and Slider said if he could have taken out one peg that would have been the one ! However, I've heard all that before over the years and it has often been proved that fish have fins and are often caught from unexpected pegs. For company I had "Kingfisher" to my right and I knew I'd struggle to beat him as not only is he a local (and a decent match angler) but he also had a nice little island in front of him within pole range.
I had a nice long edge to my left until I reached Rick on Peg 1 but luckily because of the spindley bushes along the bank, he couldn't fish along the edge towards me, which I'm sure helped me. The edge to my right was very very shallow and I knew Kingfisher would br fishing there as well, so my only other option was to fish out in front on the pole. I started cupping in some hemp and meat in front and some GB and dead maggots along the edge but in the deeper water but after a biteless 45 mins infront and with Kingfisher bagging by the island, it was clear that I wasn't going to catch in the open water. I then decided that the only way I was likely to catch enough fish to frame was to fish along the left hand bank where nobody could affect how I fished and I had a bit of room. I added a couple of sections so I was now fishing at 10 metres along the bank and about a yard out from the edge in 3 foot of water in a lovely white patch of light where I could see a black topped float really well. I started off the new swim by cupping in a big pot of sloppy GB and dead maggot and left it to settle whilst tying up a new rig which was 0.16 G Line to a size 16 Gamakatsu pellett hook and my trusty Hillbilly Pikey Paste float which I dotted down with 4x8 and a Number 10 shot. Within 10 minutes I'd had a carp on my new rig fishing three dead maggots on the hook. I then continued catching well for the next couple of hours, by kindering a pot of feed after each fish and switching between maggot and 2 cubes of luncheon meat on the hook. With 90 minutes to go Kingfisher started to catch in the edge to my right and for some reason the fish seemed to disappear from my peg for a while. However after a brief panic where I started to try and catch closer in the edge, I gave myself a good talking to, cupped in a big pot of feed where I had been catching and within 20 minutes the fish returned and I caried on catching until the end of the match.
With the shape of the lake, I could only see Kingfisher, Rick and Big Ron and knew they'd been catching but had no idea how everyone else had fared. Fortunately for me only Slider had caught on the main part of the lake and the final results looked like this:-
Results
Pikey.............Peg 18...............135-14-0
Kingfisher......Peg 17...............111-2-0
Big Ron........Peg 2..................102-9-0
Ricky B........Peg 1...................68-14-0
Slider...........Peg 13.................66-4-0
So, that's my match fishing blog up to date, I'm off to Witherington farm for two days next weekend for the annual Steve Ramsay Memorial weekend, wish me luck and hope this weather inproves or it's going to be fairly miserable.
Billhook Lake
Another Match Fishing Scene match and another new venue to me so I was really looking forward to it. Hathers did the chauffeuring honours this time and by 9am we'd parked up, I'd consumed a bacon sandwich and a cup of coffee and we were ready for the draw.
Despite having never fished the lake before, my pre draw wander revealed the following pegs as my preferred choices. Pegs 1,21 and 28 - all end pegs with nice reed or lilly lined corners to fish in to. Pegs 5,7,23,25, Peg 17 had an island chuck and a load of room and Peg 13 was right down the end of an arm on it's own with the wind blowing down there.
So, with all those pegs I fancied, where did I draw..Peg 24 ! Which to be fair looked ok and with my section consisting of Shedders, Tom (from the Island), Rick, Herbie, me and Greenie, this looked like an easy £50 and 6 more Champions League points in the bag !
Oh I nearly forgot, match organiser Sparky drew Peg 1, (see left) widely renowned as the best peg in the South of England - I'm saying nothing ! But just look at that corner with all the rushes in.
My plan of attack was to fish the lead out between the islands in Herbies and Greenies pegs, switching between an 8mm pellet and a conker (paste wrapped round an 8mm pellet) whilst pinging a few 8mm's over the top. I was thinking of doing that for the 1st couple of hours and when I'd had 10 or so carp, I'd probably switch to the long pole and pellet to add a few more before plundering the edge in the last hour and a half. It sounded good to me but unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan !
I had to share my lead line with Nick D opposite which was likely to be a pain but to be fair he only had a couple of chucks on the method so I actually had that line to myself for most of the match, although despite an odd liner from fish up in the water, I never had a bite on the lead, the long pole produced just as effective as I never had a bite there either but as Rick was catching shortish on the pole I fed a shorter line with dead maggots and tried there. The match started slowly for most with only the fancied pegs producing (and Rick on Peg 26) but then a load of carp started to show on top to the left of Herbies peg and for those of you who know the old boy, one thing he loves to do is fish the Pellet waggler. I'm not sure he was too worried about whose peg he was casting in but he was soon catching well whilst I was still looking at a motionless float.
To cut a long story short, I caught a few silvers fishing for carp with 4 magotts on a size 14 hook, caught 3 carp on the 8 metre line and lost 4 foulhookers (as did a lot of people fishing the pole) as the fish seemed to want to come over the feed but not eat it !
So, at the weigh in, I made my way along with the scales to take a few snaps and the most obvious thing was the trouble most anglers had trying to bend down so I could get them and their catch in the photo. Anyway here are the results and pictures of some of the framers.
RESULT
Sparky............Peg 1..........65-6-0
JWB................Peg 5..........45-8-0
Herbie............Peg 25........44-8-0
Shedfull..........Peg 28........43-12-0
Wightman......Peg 21........42-4-0
Sorry I missed Sparky's winning catch but he'd already weighed in by the time we'd weighed our side of the lake.
Herbie struggling
to bend down with
his catch.
Shedders with his impressive catch.
Wightman with his 5th place catch all taken on a Number 3 Lobster Pot !All in all another disappointing match for me 9-1-0 put me last in the whole match (I seem to be having a lot of those lately) but at least I had a laugh the company was good (as always on MFS matches) and I'm looking forward to the next one at Monk lakes on Wednesday week. Next week will probably see me back at Willinghurst for another 6 hours of torture, unless I can find somewhere else to go.
Willinghurst Top Lake
With nothing much on this week, it was off to Willinghurst agian for me, as (1) Transport is easy as John Radford kindly agreed to give me a lift and Mrs P was happy to collect me after the match and (2) Although the fishing isn't brilliant (a bit of an understatement), the fishery is a nice place to go, the cabin and food side is now well run by Sue and all the anglers who fish there are a good bunch of chaps.
Whilst the Top lake has 28 pegs on it, like most commercials, it fishes a lot better with less anglers on it, the optimum number I always say for the best pegging is 18 as this gives everyone a bit of room and a chance to catch a few fish. When I spoke to John on Saturday evening he had 19 booked in, which wasn't perfect but no need to worry ! However, by draw time on Sunday morning we had 25 fishing and the possibilty of some right rubbish pegs being in the hat.
With most of the main lake being in (3-21) the pegs I really fancied were 1 and 2 in the bomb hole and 22-26 in the back spit. However, for the second match running on the lake I drew Peg 19, which to be fair can be a decent lead peg but not one I really fancied fishing. After a cold frosty start, and the day turning sunny with a cloudless sky and virtually no wind, plus the fact that I didn't catch a lot on the pole last time, I decided to concentrate on the lead and just try the pole lines occasionally to see if anything had moved over the feed.
I spent the day switching between an 8mm pellett and a conker and I think I had 6 carp and a tench for 37lb to win the section. Nothing I could do would up the catch rate, I'd pinged a few 8mm's over one line but caught as much away from that line as on it and when the surface was flat calm I could clearly see signs of fish over half way but the anglers opposite spent most of the day fishing the pole. The frustrating thing was that I caught most of my fish whilst the majority on the main lake were struggling then when the fish started to feed properly in the last hour and a half, I hardly had a bite. To be honest I don't think I was watching when I had any of my bites as I always find myself looking round the lake to see what is going on. Although when using a hair rig, the fish hook themselves anyway so you don't need to strike at bites.
Whilst the fishing wasn't particularly brilliant, we still had a laugh, especially when Martin White at the next peg hooked his first carp and played it to the landing net, only he didn't as he hadn't actually set one up ! and I thought I was forgetful sometimes ! The other humourous moment was when Plummers netted a fish that must have easily been a Barney Rubble and he then let it jump out of the landing net and back in the lake.
Within an hour of the start we knew where the main money was going as Robbie Taylor on Peg 1 in the Bomb Hole was catching well and so to a lesser extent was Tony Yakanarni on Peg 2.
I can't remember the exact final weights but the results went something like this.
Robbie Taylor.......Peg 1..........160lb
Dave Sandford ......Peg 22........78lb
Tony Yianni..........Peg 2............66lb
Dave Bacon..........Peg 17...........62lb
Ray (whose surname I always forget) Peg 9 51lb
Sections
Windy Ben........Peg 10......Didn't hear his weight
Pikey.................Peg 19............37lb
Simon Duke......Peg 24...........50lb
Although the weights don't look bad, what you have to remember is that it was a 6.5 hour match and a lot of the fish are 8-10lb+ so you don't need many for a weight.
Anyway, next week I'm off in the search of some more MFS Champions League points at yet another venue I've never fished before, Billhook Lake at Odium, wish me luck cos having never even seen the lake before, I think I'm going to need it.
Whilst the Top lake has 28 pegs on it, like most commercials, it fishes a lot better with less anglers on it, the optimum number I always say for the best pegging is 18 as this gives everyone a bit of room and a chance to catch a few fish. When I spoke to John on Saturday evening he had 19 booked in, which wasn't perfect but no need to worry ! However, by draw time on Sunday morning we had 25 fishing and the possibilty of some right rubbish pegs being in the hat.
With most of the main lake being in (3-21) the pegs I really fancied were 1 and 2 in the bomb hole and 22-26 in the back spit. However, for the second match running on the lake I drew Peg 19, which to be fair can be a decent lead peg but not one I really fancied fishing. After a cold frosty start, and the day turning sunny with a cloudless sky and virtually no wind, plus the fact that I didn't catch a lot on the pole last time, I decided to concentrate on the lead and just try the pole lines occasionally to see if anything had moved over the feed.
I spent the day switching between an 8mm pellett and a conker and I think I had 6 carp and a tench for 37lb to win the section. Nothing I could do would up the catch rate, I'd pinged a few 8mm's over one line but caught as much away from that line as on it and when the surface was flat calm I could clearly see signs of fish over half way but the anglers opposite spent most of the day fishing the pole. The frustrating thing was that I caught most of my fish whilst the majority on the main lake were struggling then when the fish started to feed properly in the last hour and a half, I hardly had a bite. To be honest I don't think I was watching when I had any of my bites as I always find myself looking round the lake to see what is going on. Although when using a hair rig, the fish hook themselves anyway so you don't need to strike at bites.
Whilst the fishing wasn't particularly brilliant, we still had a laugh, especially when Martin White at the next peg hooked his first carp and played it to the landing net, only he didn't as he hadn't actually set one up ! and I thought I was forgetful sometimes ! The other humourous moment was when Plummers netted a fish that must have easily been a Barney Rubble and he then let it jump out of the landing net and back in the lake.
Within an hour of the start we knew where the main money was going as Robbie Taylor on Peg 1 in the Bomb Hole was catching well and so to a lesser extent was Tony Yakanarni on Peg 2.
I can't remember the exact final weights but the results went something like this.
Robbie Taylor.......Peg 1..........160lb
Dave Sandford ......Peg 22........78lb
Tony Yianni..........Peg 2............66lb
Dave Bacon..........Peg 17...........62lb
Ray (whose surname I always forget) Peg 9 51lb
Sections
Windy Ben........Peg 10......Didn't hear his weight
Pikey.................Peg 19............37lb
Simon Duke......Peg 24...........50lb
Although the weights don't look bad, what you have to remember is that it was a 6.5 hour match and a lot of the fish are 8-10lb+ so you don't need many for a weight.
Anyway, next week I'm off in the search of some more MFS Champions League points at yet another venue I've never fished before, Billhook Lake at Odium, wish me luck cos having never even seen the lake before, I think I'm going to need it.
Greenridge Farm
After a couple of recent really naff matches, I was really looking forward to the Match Fishing Scene match at Greenridge Farm at Ampfield in Hampshire. A number of the MFS anglers fish the venue and having looked at the weights over the past month they were still needing 60-70lb to frame and as this was about 60-65lb more than I had been catching lately, you can see why I was so excited. The "Locals", especially Gareth "The Badger"Boycott had been very helpful and suggested that maggotts across to the far bank was the way forward, however as the weather had just started to turn, that could all change very quickly.
Anyway, we arrived at the fishery in plenty of time and a quick walk round revealed that we were to be fishing 3 small snake lakes which looked to be 14 -16 metres across with approximately 11 pegs on each. With 18 of us fishing it meant we could all have a blank peg one side which would make for better fishing. At the draw I didn't really mind where I drew as I had no idea which were the better pegs anyway. So, when I drew Peg 17 on Lake 2, all I knew was that it wasn't far to walk - although to be fair nobody had a long walk.
My peg looked quite nice (as did they all), just over 14.5 metres across to the far bank and plenty of room with a blank peg to my left. My main plan of attack was to be catfood and I had prepared a 4 pint milk bottle of feed by pushing catfood through a riddle and adding a couple of pints of hemp (which is my normal catfood feed for Willinghurst).
Result
1st - Colin Horn, 204-14
2nd - Gareth Boycott 166-03
3rd - Pete Bailey 158-12
4th - BenB, 139-03
5th - Martin F, 136-06
6th - Pete 133-10
7th - Slider, 108-05
8th - Dean Rowden, 101-04
9th - Mark Blake, 93-08
10th - Pikey 92-04
11th - Lummox, 75-02
12th - Krayner 62-04
13th - JWB, 57-00
14th - Happydangler, 43-00
15th - Dave Haddon, 37-04
16th - NTB, Wightangler, Methodman DNW
So. another enjoyable day on a new venue to me, and one I hope to fish again soon.
Don't know where I am next Sunday yet but will hopefully report back here early next week.
And he wasn't wrong ! as I logged on to the MFS Website the evening before the match to see that the Saturday match had been won by Blakey with 196lb all on meat. Pete Bailey had finished second with 145lb on meat and Gareth 4th with 105lb on ......Yes, you've guessed it MEAT !My cunning plan (which was about as cunning as one of Baldrick's) was to try something different to the locals as I'd never even seen the place before and fish Catfood and or maggotts (and also a smidgeon of paste) !
Rick very kindly picked me up at 7am and 45 minutes later we had our first disaster of the day, when we were MUGGED in the Fleet Services ! I mean, £16 for two breakfasts like this, what a rip off.
Anyway, we arrived at the fishery in plenty of time and a quick walk round revealed that we were to be fishing 3 small snake lakes which looked to be 14 -16 metres across with approximately 11 pegs on each. With 18 of us fishing it meant we could all have a blank peg one side which would make for better fishing. At the draw I didn't really mind where I drew as I had no idea which were the better pegs anyway. So, when I drew Peg 17 on Lake 2, all I knew was that it wasn't far to walk - although to be fair nobody had a long walk. My peg looked quite nice (as did they all), just over 14.5 metres across to the far bank and plenty of room with a blank peg to my left. My main plan of attack was to be catfood and I had prepared a 4 pint milk bottle of feed by pushing catfood through a riddle and adding a couple of pints of hemp (which is my normal catfood feed for Willinghurst).Rigs were all on 0.16 G Line as although I wasn't sure of the carp size, I always found that if the fishing are having catfood then they aren't worried about line diameter ! Floats were all Pikey Paste floats which I also use for other baits and just add another couple of shot. I began by cupping in a pot of feed across, two big pots down the middle - as I intended to leave that line for a while and some pellets and micros in the edge to my left. First put in,the float hadn't even settled properly before it suddenly shot under and I was soon attached to a 3lb carp. This is going to be easy I thought and was grateful for the extra keepnet I'd put in the net bag.
However, three and a half hours later I'd only managed to catch one more carp, despite having about a million bites ( from which I was told were probably Motherless Minnows) and also had a couple of visits to the far bank to disentangle my rigs from the bush - sorry to the chaps on Lake 3 if I spooked any fish on your far bank line but I just couldn't get the rig off the foliage without coming round. After a brief walk and having now caught 5 fish in my previous 9 hours match fishing, I was just about to prepare my "Tackle for Sale" advert for E Bay when I noticed a few blows on my middle of the lake line.
I'd continued to feed the line during the previous 3 and a half hours and it now looked like there were a few fish on it, I put a bit of paste on the size 10 hook and cupped it in. The float settled, sat there for a few seconds and disappeared as a carp of about 8 ounces snaffled the bait. The blows continued and next put in I had a 2lb bream followed by a carp of about 3-4lb then another, I changed from a black hydro top kit to a red hydro one and the fish continued to come although I could only catch on small bits of paste and only with the float shotted right down to a dimple.
As the "All Out" was called, I was just playing my final fish and although I'd really fished like a numpty for the first 4 hours of the match, I'd had a superb last 2 hours and weighed in 92lb to finish 4th on the lake and pick up 3 Champions League points which is one more than I'd got in the previous 2 matches !
Gareth did well to win our lake with 160lb (pictured below with part of his catch) from Peg 12 whilst Ben B was second with 139lb from the other end peg.
Result1st - Colin Horn, 204-14
2nd - Gareth Boycott 166-03
3rd - Pete Bailey 158-12
4th - BenB, 139-03
5th - Martin F, 136-06
6th - Pete 133-10
7th - Slider, 108-05
8th - Dean Rowden, 101-04
9th - Mark Blake, 93-08
10th - Pikey 92-04
11th - Lummox, 75-02
12th - Krayner 62-04
13th - JWB, 57-00
14th - Happydangler, 43-00
15th - Dave Haddon, 37-04
16th - NTB, Wightangler, Methodman DNW
So. another enjoyable day on a new venue to me, and one I hope to fish again soon.
Don't know where I am next Sunday yet but will hopefully report back here early next week.
Witherington Farm
My Match Fishing Scene Champions League points quest continued on Saturday with a match at one of my favourite fisheries, Witherington Farm near Salisbury.Arriving at the farm at about 8am (courtesy of Brian Green -PTB) it was good to see a few old friends again and also nice to see a rather large Withrington Farm breakfast !Having consumed said breakfast, we then drove up to the Snake lake for the draw, but not before I had walked round both inner and outer lakes to check out the pegging. With 17 anglers spread over 92 pegs we were certainly going to have some room but the pegs I really fancied were 1-4, 9 and 10 on the outer snake and ANY of the pegs on the Inner.
So, in went the hand to the draw bag, and out came........Peg 9, or at least I thought it was until I arrived ay "my" peg to find Fred already setting up. Now, I'm sure Fred wont mind me pointing out that he is no spring chicken and at first I thought "Silly old sod he's not looked at his draw ticket properly", that was until we checked his and it had a line under the number and it was me who'd read it wrong ! I therefore continued on my way before arriving at Peg 6, not one I really fancied, being 16 metres across to the far bank but at least I had a bit of room to my left as Pete Bailey was on the bend below me, about 6 pegs away. Incidently PB drew the only peg that I really didn't want as it was about 19 metres to the far bank and I think only he could have fished it with a pole.
Tactics for the day were long pole tight to the far bank, a silvers rig down the middle and either side in the edge. Baits were bread, corn, pellett, worms and of course paste. With so many Goldfish in the lake, I also had a secret bait (pictured left) but unfortunately had trouble keeping it on the hook ! To be honest I think I messed it up as I'm sure I could have sat and caught silvers for most of the day but I thought you'd need a few carp to win and spent too much time trying to catch them when it didn't seem as they were about as in the 5 pegs in our section there were only about 6 or 7 caught. Still as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
So, in went the hand to the draw bag, and out came........Peg 9, or at least I thought it was until I arrived ay "my" peg to find Fred already setting up. Now, I'm sure Fred wont mind me pointing out that he is no spring chicken and at first I thought "Silly old sod he's not looked at his draw ticket properly", that was until we checked his and it had a line under the number and it was me who'd read it wrong ! I therefore continued on my way before arriving at Peg 6, not one I really fancied, being 16 metres across to the far bank but at least I had a bit of room to my left as Pete Bailey was on the bend below me, about 6 pegs away. Incidently PB drew the only peg that I really didn't want as it was about 19 metres to the far bank and I think only he could have fished it with a pole.
Tactics for the day were long pole tight to the far bank, a silvers rig down the middle and either side in the edge. Baits were bread, corn, pellett, worms and of course paste. With so many Goldfish in the lake, I also had a secret bait (pictured left) but unfortunately had trouble keeping it on the hook ! To be honest I think I messed it up as I'm sure I could have sat and caught silvers for most of the day but I thought you'd need a few carp to win and spent too much time trying to catch them when it didn't seem as they were about as in the 5 pegs in our section there were only about 6 or 7 caught. Still as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.However, at least the weather was good - especially after many anglers packed up early last week because they couldn't feel there fingers and the company wasn't bad although I did draw next to Greenie with Plummers the other side of him. The only good thing about my fishing was that with an hour or so to go, I was well infront of them both and odds on for the £1's when Plummers caught three carp (one of them a whale) fishing great big lumps of paste down the middle - to pip me with 11-13-0 to my 8-6-0 of Goldfish, little carp and skimmers, caught mainly tight across on bread or down the edge on worm and maggott. So, my feeble efforts put me 7th in the 9 peg section earning just 1 measley Champions League point for me, and following my 1 Point at Tylers Common, it's going to take me a lot of matches to qualify for the final.
I got a bit bored in the afternoon so started to take lots of pictures, so here is one of my float not going under in the edge ! Well done to the framers, especially Richard Watt (Onefeed) who finished well ahead of the chasing pack with 50-6-0, followed by Kingfisher 38-7-0, Ken Rayner 36-2-0, Buygoodtackle 35-2-0 and Rolio 34-12-0 in what turned out to be a tight match for the the minor places.
With no fishing on Sunday, Mrs P who is a keen bird watcher suggested that as some short eared owls had been spotted locally, that we go and have a look. As the location was some fields adjacent to the River Wey and Broadmead cut at Send, (a venue familiar to all the anglers who used to fish the Surrey Division of the Surrey Winter League many years ago) I readily agreed and off we went. Whilst Mrs P went to join the twitchers in the field admiring these magnificent creatures, I wandered along the river bank to survey the scene of a magnificent victory in the winter league some 34 YEARS ago !
With no fishing on Sunday, Mrs P who is a keen bird watcher suggested that as some short eared owls had been spotted locally, that we go and have a look. As the location was some fields adjacent to the River Wey and Broadmead cut at Send, (a venue familiar to all the anglers who used to fish the Surrey Division of the Surrey Winter League many years ago) I readily agreed and off we went. Whilst Mrs P went to join the twitchers in the field admiring these magnificent creatures, I wandered along the river bank to survey the scene of a magnificent victory in the winter league some 34 YEARS ago !
I can remember the match as though it was yesterday as I fished a waggler against the far bank with bronze maggott on the Size 18 Mustad 90340 hook and had 10 chub for 23-12-0 for a convincing victory, which was especially nice as I was 18 and fishing against Dorking, Banstead and Weybridge etc who were some of the best teams in the country at the time. Having wandered back to join the twitchers I was then able to see both a barn owl and a short eared owl so all in all a rather nostalgic and successful afternoon.
Not sure where I am next weekend but return here soon to see how I got on.
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