The decision was made to try to put anglers on the more sheltered pegs as big winds were predicted later in the day, and the good thing about the venue is the wood around the site, which give a degree of shelter from the elements. In fact, the new lake that is under development on the site of the old bluebell lake is surrounded by heavy woodland, and will be a bolthole for those days when the cold winter winds howl. Pete the owner has already got some good sized barbel lined up for the lake, so it will be something a bit different anall, watch this space for further developments.

I drew peg 21 on the wood side and fancied it for a few, it’s possibly the widest peg on the lake, but the trees would shelter me from a lot of the gusts, most of which were coming from behind me anyway. I made a great start, a carp after 5 minutes followed quickly by another 10 minutes later, all this after the first frost of the year had seen many scraping the car windscreens first thing. Half an hour in and with three carp in the net for around 9lb I was sitting pretty (well, not exactly ‘pretty’, but you know what I mean!) as I couldn’t see anyone else with a fish! I’ fed a bit of groundbait down the middle to target the skimmers later in the match, and as I was pondering whether to have an early look over it to rest the far side I hooked a carp as I was lifting my rig out for another drop. Obviously foul-hooked, it decided to go ballistic, charging off along the far shelf, with the swim erupting with bow waves as the resident carp took evasive action! I’d had a peg full of fish and that bloody daft thing had ballsed it all up for me!

Resting the far side would hopefully see them regroup, so I had a drop in down the middle. A small roach straight away wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but at least it was something to do while I waited for the far line to settle. Two or three bits later I re-fed the line and went back over. Indications on the float showed there were fish present, but they could have been small fish, so I tried my new secret weapon, my special F1 rig with the tiny hook and fine hooklength.

I’ve noticed that many of the anglers at Barlborough dismiss these tiny bites as silver fish, but I’m not 100% convinced of the fact, and on occasion I’ve had a couple of F1’s by striking at bites that on the face of it seem like tiny roach playing with the bait. I’ve started setting up a rig especially for these circumstances, and I’m sure it’s picked me extra fish up at times. It didn’t work today though, as it turned out the bites were actually from small silvers, hard work at 15 metres, and even more so as the odd carp was now starting to show to other anglers around the lake.

Another tiny indication saw me hit into a fish on the way up, another foul- hooked carp! This one decided to dive into the track, messing my skimmer line up, before shedding a scale, leaving me with a ‘silver dollar’ as a souvenir of the battle! My peg was a total mess now, so I started a new line down the track, same distance out as the first but with a couple more sections on and at 45 degrees to where I was fishing, hopefully this would be far enough away from any more disturbances caused by foul-hooked fish. It seemed the other anglers were experiencing the same problems, as through the winds you could regularly hear the ‘thwack-b*st*rd’ of fish making their escape! My new track line finally began to pay off, and all in all I probably had 4lb from this swim, skimmers and roach with the odd crucian thrown in, but was hoping for a late run again from across. It was something of a let-down though, as only an F1 and a barbel came from that far line over the last hour, and I finished the match cursing the early foul-hooked carp that did a demo job on the peg!

It’s quite a common scenario at this time of the year though if you think about it, as the fish move into their winter areas in numbers, and can’t decide whether to feed or not. 17lb 12 oz was winning when the scales arrived, and I felt I would be just short of that, but not too far behind. My 15.8 was one good fish shy, but was pushed into third by a lad three pegs along with 16lb 10oz, who was biteless until the last hour, when he’d landed ten carp from 22 peg, hooked as they turned up in his peg. Once again, only three of his fish were hooked properly, a sure sign of them settling in tightly for winter. I managed to hang onto the last frame place, despite Barnsley Blacks star Tim Hannon pushing me close from peg 36 on the island, but was left rueing the foul-hooked fish I lost.

Peg 36 

Saturday saw me on Tim’s peg, 36 on the island. I’ve drawn it a few times now, with mixed results, but it was the place to be last winter and was dominating the matches. Recently it hadn’t been fishing anywhere near it’s potential, but I fancied it for a few today as we were definately getting into winter mode now! However, an hour in I only had a couple of small roach to show for my efforts, all my lines, both across and down the track, seemed dead. All along the wood side I could see elastics stretching, but again there were plenty twanging back as fish made their escape, most probably foul-hooked again. As if someone had flicked a switch, I had a run of bites over one of my track lines, resulting in a small crucian. Next drop a skimmer, then another two crucians and I was getting interested! It slowed after six or seven fish, but it was something to work on, so I re-fed and went across.

The elastic was ripped from the tip as I lowered the rig over one of my far lines, and a 3lb carp led me a merry dance round the peg, eventually ending up in the net hooked in the pectoral fin. From nowhere, the peg was alive with fish, and I was getting liners over all my lines, some of which I hadn’t even fed any bait over! A very frustrating afternoon followed, with odd looks over my track lines throwing up a few skimmers and crucians but the main bone of contention being my far swims, where on the final count I’d landed seven but lost six carp, only one of which was hooked in the lip! Once again, it seemed to be a common theme all around the lake, with no one having the answer.

There was a good spread of weights all round the lake though, which was a good sign, it can be a bit hard to get going in the depths of winter when you know the fish are all in one spot, as can happen on many venues. Early on in the match I’d resigned myself to be only fishing for the section, and that was looking dodgy as peg 32 placed 15lb on the scales. I fought my way through the mountain of carp scales that surrounded my gear and lifted my fish out; it was going to be close. 18lb 7oz saw me home and dry for the section win, and I was thankful for those ‘crucial crucians’, that would have made up 4lb or so of my total. 44lb won from the wood side, with 33lb second, both anglers suffering heavy losses, as many fish were foul-hooked again.

Lantra 

I was really looking forward to the match on Sunday, at Alex Mitchell’s new Lantra Lake at Aston Park Fishery. I’d been for a walk on there midweek to watch my mate Dale, and he’d pretty much had a fish a chuck. I commented to him that I didn’t fancy a couple of the pegs, and promptly drew one of them on the day! To make matters worse, everyone had a spare peg to either side except me and the organiser who was next door, on the other peg I’d not wanted to draw! And then to cap it all off, my mate Ian was on the other side of him! No one could ever accuse him of fiddling the draw I suppose!

Trouble with the pegs was twofold, neither of us could reach the island, and we were ‘sword fencing’ with our poles wit six section in front of us each, as we were sitting at right angles to each other. This ‘limited our options’ a little, shall we say, and I spent the next six hours moaning to myself under my breath! I don’t like to get on a match organisers back, I’ve done the job myself and it’s a thankless task trying to keep everyone happy, but as a case in point today a bit more thought as to where to place pegs wouldn’t have gone amiss. My match consisted of a day scratching around along the margins for odd bites from tiny carp and even tinier ‘sheriffs badges’, really tiny crucians that were a bugger to hit, but kept me entertained in the freezing cold wind that was blowing up to our end of the lake, just to make things even harder! My 4lb total wasn’t even close to a section win, let alone the frame, which saw Frank Perryman weigh 15lb 4oz to just pip my mate Dale Clark with 15.2.

Dale was cursing the loss of a small carp that dropped off as he swung it in, the only one he’d tried it with all day, but the practise had certainly paid off for him, and like I said afterwards, everyone loses fish when they’re getting a few, and it’s a case of learning from the mistakes you make and putting it right next time. The fish certainly seemed to be at the other end of the lake, all the weights came from there away from the cold water that seemed to have piled up at our end, and the maze of rigs dangling every six inches in the lake!

Proper mixed bag next week, Lindholme Bonsai weds, Grange farm sat then I’m off for another crack at those millions of small F1’s at Barnburgh on Sunday. Tight lines till next week.

Phew, that feels much better! Three matches to report this week, and harking back to the other week when I drew the same peg twice in two matches, I did the same again this week! Bit better peg this time though, and a couple of nice days fishing to boot. Wednesday (don’t you just hate that word!) saw us on a re-arranged Matchgroup 2000 fixture at Barlborough. Same sketch as usual, except that there were a few more in attendance, which would be better for the fishing, Barlborough is strange in that it seems to fish better when there is a few on the lake, I know many places where increased numbers can have an adverse effect, but here it’s different. Maybe it’s to do with there being fewer places for the fish to hide, but whatever the reason whenever there is a good turnout it always seems to be a good match. I drew peg 31, the first over the bridge on the island, and almost ran to it! The Saturday match had been won from peg 32, fishing down into peg 31, so I was hopeful of a few bites.

I made a half decent start, with an F1 and two roach in the first 30 minutes, but it all went quiet after that. My mate Steve Owen was next door on peg 32, and only had a small perch to show for his efforts after an hour, so went for a walk along the island pegs, & when he returned to say I was the only one with a carp it was obviously fishing hard. On the grapevine, the best at the half way stage was venue expert John Mills with four carp, so it was all to play for. I never give in at Barlborough, many’s the time I’ve had late fish to boost me up the placings, and today was no exception.

My peg came good late on, with 90 minutes to go I had an F1, a small carp and six or seven silvers, but a late burst where I couldn’t get in quick enough saw me finish the day with 20lb 2oz, 17lb-plus of which came in that late spell. Unfortunately for me, John managed to snare a few more, and they were big ‘uns too, his 11 fish going 42lb exactly, leaving me just in front of a tight field in second place. It was a typical winter match, one angler running away with it, then a few pounds separating the next four or five.

It was like Groundhog Day come Saturday! For the second match running I’d helped with the organisation due to John the bailiff being on holiday, so I had the last peg in the bag, and once again 31 was left for me! Once again I was dancing across the bridge to calls of ‘jammy get’ and other unprintable phrases, and in an even more incredible coincidence, my mate Steve was on 32 again! I still had the marks on my top kits from Wednesday, and the same rigs came out of the box. Out of habit I still plumbed up, but was ready in double quick time for obvious reasons! I used the extra time to set up another rig for down the track, something to head off the long blank spells I’d been experiencing mid-match for quite a while. If I could pick off the odd skimmer or roach during this time it would all add to the weight at the end of the day. An even bigger turnout meant both the bride peg (30) and peg 28 were both in, and Barney was on 28. This peg can run a bit hot and cold, on it’s day it is a match winner because you have a bit of room to feed a couple of spots rather than having to hammer one line all day, and the F1’s were rolling there when we arrived, so I knew Barney would be one of the blokes to beat.

He started like a house on fire, four F1’s in the first 45 minutes saw him into a good lead, as once again the lake wasn’t giving up it’s riches easily. For me, that was something of an understatement, as over two hours passed before I had any sort of indication! Just as I was saying to Steve that I was staring down the barrels of my first blank of the year, a slight blip on the float got me concentrating hard again, and at 12.25 I had my first proper bite, which resulted in my first F1 of the day. In a mad 10-minute spell, I had that fish, missed two more tiny bites, and had two micro roach that dropped off on the way back, then it was back to square one, no bites or indications. By this time barney had seven or eight F1’s and a big perch, and had a lot of fish lined up, which were causing him problems as he was foul-hooking a lot of them. I find this is quite a common occurrence in winter, as the fish shoal up tightly.

Barney is one of the top anglers in our area, and wouldn’t do anything daft, but still he was getting troubled by hooking fish everywhere but the lip. I commented that it was a nice problem to have, as I couldn’t find a fish anywhere in my peg, but once again with 90 minutes to go I had a bite out of the blue, and a run of fish to the end. Same as Wednesday I couldn’t get the pole across quickly enough at the end, but once again the clock beat me, and as time was called I knew I wouldn’t have enough, even though Barney thought it would be close. As the scales came round peg 8, a noted winter peg, was winning with just 15lb, but there were a lot of double figure back up weights, once again it had been a tight match. The good thing about the Barlborough matches is that they have taken a leaf out of some of the other local venues books, in that they pay out smaller sections as well as the first three or four. While you’ll never get rich winning one of these matches, even if you draw in a less than favourable area you still have something to fish for, and a section win will usually pay for the day for you.

They work on the principle of around one third of the field taking money home, like I said you don’t win big but it keeps it all friendly and in perspective. Barney hoisted a steady 30lb 4oz onto the scales, saying I wouldn’t be too far behind him. I doubted I’d that much but fancied perhaps sneaking second place. Only problem was another regular, Pat Bradley on peg 30 had a couple of lumps in his net, but his 15lb exactly saw him in 2nd place, till my 21lb 6oz separated them. The rest of the island had been hard, indeed peg 36 took the defaulted section with just 9lb. So, two matches, same peg both days, same result, and all in all I was happy with them both. I couldn’t see me ever getting near the 42lb winning weight of Wednesdays match, but maybe if they’d come half an hour earlier Saturday? Or perhaps if I’d caught a few early doors? But of course, everyone can say ‘what if’, and it would do your head in if you let it!

Riverside

Sunday saw Ian and me off to Riverside fishery near Bawtry. A few years ago I had a great run here, I broke the match record and seemed to frame every time I went. Then a flood did a lot of damage, and it has never been the same since. To cap it all, last year’s big flood knackered the job just as it seemed to be getting back on its feet, and reports from lads I know who still fish it regularly didn’t sound good. They were catching plenty when pleasure fishing but matches saw the fish switch off for some reason. I’d had a phone call late Friday saying the open had been won with 14lb, pretty poor to say we’d not had any really cold weather yet, but I’d booked on, and Ian was still keen, so we went anyway. The annoying thing was that the bailiff there stood and lied through his teeth to us, in something of a rehearsed speech about how we ‘only hear the bad news about the venue’, and that the Friday open had been won with 56lb! I told him that my mate had fished the match and said 14lb had won, but he claimed my pal was mistaken, and that I must have heard wrong, claiming 14lb was what he’d weighed in actually!

Anyway, we were there, and had to give him the benefit of the doubt, so it was on with the draw. My peg, 20, put me in the narrowest bit of the lake, with an angler opposite me too, not very inspiring! The area I was drawn in was never very good back when the lake was full of fish, so I didn’t hold out too much hope. I set up both the pole and a waggler, with what I would describe as heavy-duty silver fish rigs, fine enough to get me some bites but with half a chance should I hook a carp. Ten minutes in, that’s exactly what I did! Foul-hooked to be exact, I was lifting out for another drop through and hit a carp three feet off the deck, which steamed off all round the peg before the hook pulled as I tried to stop it going under the next platform.

Great start! I re-fed the line, and moved to another one. I targeted several spots, it was looking like being a struggle for bites, so I wanted to hedge my bets a little first drop on the new spot, and the float slid away, again looking like a dodgy bite. I lifted gently in case it was a liner, but found some heavy resistance on the other end. I had it down as a crucian by the way it was fighting, but it started zigzagging as it neared the net. “Hooked in the tail,” I said to myself, just as the head of a 12oz EEL hit the surface! Thinking back, we did used to catch the odd one when I used to fish here regularly, obviously them come in from the river Ryton that runs alongside the lake. After plenty of trouble at the net I eventually landed the thing, and harking back to my team fishing days simply grabbed the eel through the mesh of the net.

Problem – these new rubber nets are great for carp, but no good for holding eels through! I’m not the biggest of blokes, and this was one long, angry eel, so it must have looked like a scene from one of those old B-movies where they used to cut different pieces of film together to look like it was a bloke fighting a dinosaur, but eventually the eel finished up in the net, more by luck than judgement, and I pressed on with tying a new hook of course!

An hour in I’d only added an ide to my total, and missed a couple of slow bites, the ones you often get from small perch in deep water like this. Of course, by now I’d convinced myself that they were eels, so was trying everything to hit them. A skimmer broke the monotony, and then it was back to the very occasional tiny bites. My bubble finally burst when I did hit one, and it did turn out to be one of those ‘glass’ perch, the ones so small you can see the maggot through them, not exactly good weight builders. I went through the process of swapping lines, trying the waggler at various depths, and picked off odd fish throughout the day, without ever settling into a rhythm as there seemed to be only the odd fish coming over my lines at any one time. Stories filtered down of odd big carp being caught at the other end of the lake, but at our end it was very slow, making me tend to think the Friday night phone call had been right after all. The trouble is, many of the lads had set up and fed to catch a decent net of fish, and many at my end were still blanking with just over an hour to go, mainly due to the information (or more likely misinformation) we’d been given on the morning!

Come the last hour, I was totally pissed off (due to the football result!) and all my pole lines had dried, so I decided to spend the remainder of the match on the waggler and maggot, lightly feeding an area and casting around looking for bites. I’d had an ide and a skimmer from the right hand side of my peg earlier on the wag, so decided to concentrate there. First chuck another glass perch wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but by plugging away and casting regularly I managed to pick off some 2-3oz roach, along with another skimmer, very welcome at 12oz or so. With 15 minutes left, I had a positive bite and the rod took on a nice curve. I was on a 0.09 hooklength to a size 22 Tubertini 808 hook, but fortunately it held firm and a 2lb carp nestled in the net. “That’ll win you the section,” said a voice behind me. It was Jamie, one of the Frecheville lads. He’d packed up early and come for a walk to see what the football result was.

Now how can I put this politely, Jamie is about six foot three, stick thin, and shall we say is a dentist’s nightmare? his gnashers are a sight to behold, especially when he doesn’t have his false ones in, and another of the lads, Sid Whitehouse, once remarked he was the only bloke he knew who could take a bite out of a sandwich and still leave the meat in the middle! When I glumly told him of how we’d been robbed in the derby, Jamie suddenly started jumping for joy. He’s only a bloody Wednesday fan! Let’s just say he realised the error of his way as he beat a hasty retreat down the bank away from threat from me of losing even more of his teeth! Poor fishing, a bad result at the football, and by now there was steam coming out of my ears! Time was called soon after, and the quick arrival of the scales, together with the absence of the owner and the bailiff, told the story. 16lb was easily winning, from the ever-consistent point pegs, with 11lb in second. Third place was 10.12, and when you study the result, you can see that all three anglers were actually throwing into the same area of the lake, taking fish from the same shoal. I was surprised at my 6lb 7oz catch, which was indeed enough to win the section, covering the cost of what had turned out to be an eventful day, with the eel, the foul-hooked lump, the football and all the bankside shenanigans.
A few blogs ago I said my favourite style was probably fishing shallow with pellets, but on reflection if I could only fish one way for good it would have to be across to an island/far bank with the pole for carp, typical snake lake fishing, so this week will be a good ‘un, I’m at Barlborough weds and sat, then off to Aston Park Fishery on Sunday for a Turners Arms open on the newly opened Lantra lake. It’s full of small carp, with an island at 13m, sounds like heaven! See you next week.

Before anyone goes and accuses me of getting soft, what with watching the weather forecast, it was the light levels I was worried about, not the rain! A bright and windy day looked good for a few photos, I knew bites wouldn’t be in short supply cos the place is solid, so off I went.

To cut a long story short I sat with what started as a mild breeze in my face, which soon turned into a full-blown gale, with the keepnet blowing back into the side! I soon sorted the keepnet situation out though, by filling it with F1’s! it was literally a bite a chuck, often before I’ve remarked on how F1’s remind me of the Trent roach back in the old days, difficult to fool on most occasions, but very occasionally going absolutely mental and getting themselves caught with ease. Well today was one of the latter days, as I fed them in from 10m at first until I was catching them on a top kit plus one section. I could have probably caught even closer, but with the wind seeing me hook my keepnet more than once I decided to keep them at a top 4 to make everything nice and simple.

A hectic day was called to a halt after three hours or so, I wanted to miss the Friday traffic, and by this time the wind had given me a natural facelift! An estimated 40lb –plus catch was photographed and returned, and I made my way home, hoping for a few more days like that during the winter.
I was looking forward to going on the Derwent on Saturday with the Bankside lads, but decided against it at the last minute due to the big walks involved and my ‘downstairs troubles’, so it was off to Barlborough. I was reasonably pleased with my peg 35 draw, but Barney who had drawn peg 33 put the mockers on it a bit saying the island pegs hadn’t fished for a while, and he was seriously considering not fishing! I thought this was a bit extreme, and I would be proved right at the weigh in, but more of that later.

I decided on a maggot approach across, with meat fed down the track as a back up. Ian and a couple of the other lads had been doing well on this line of late, so perhaps it was time for me to get over my lack of confidence in the bait! An hour in and I was still looking for my first bite, despite the weather having a warm, almost summery feel to it. In fact, the only pegs with any numbers of fish were peg 32 (one of the few that had an empty peg next door) and 28, two pegs that almost face each other, and seemed to be sharing the same shoal.

Eventually I managed to put together a couple of silvers, but the expected carp were conspicuous by their absence, until Barney hooked a huge fish in the fin and eventually landed it after a lengthy fight. I then had ten mad minutes where I foul-hooked and lost two immediately after hooking them, then lifted into another heavy fish, obviously fouled as I hit it on the way up. I commented to the lad next door that it didn’t seem to know it was hooked, and realised why. I’d switched down to my winter F1 rig, using a 22 Tubertini 808 to 0.10 hooklength, together with a light elastic. After much to-ing and fro-ing, and plenty of hairy moments at the net, I panned a fish easily into double figures, not a bad bonus!

When I had a 2lb F1 next drop I thought it was bagging time, but my good spell was short lived, and it was back to rotating the lines, grafting bites out. First drop over the meat line in the middle produced another 2lb F1, but no more bites so at least I’d broken my duck there! A couple more foul-hookers from across only helped to frustrate me even more, and by now Barney had started to filter a few of the fish through from peg 32, but it was looking a long shot as to whether they would make their way down far enough for me to do any damage in time.

Odd silvers kept the catch rate ticking over, but a look down the middle again saw me latch into a heavy, plodding fish that turned out to be a 2lb-plus ide, a welcome addition. One more small carp from across in the dying minutes was my only other significant capture, and I finished the match a bit down, there had been fish passing through the swim all afternoon, but try as I might I couldn’t get them to feed, only experiencing liners and the odd silver.

It turned out that this was par for the course, with only a couple of 18lb weights as the scales came to peg 28. 42lb took top spot, and strangely the same lad was on the same peg last week, and registered under 20lb, despite fishing in exactly the same spot, with the same baits, even the same rig! This for me is the attraction of the venue, you never know where the winner is going to come from, and a duff peg one day can be a flyer the next, so you should never go to your peg with too heavy a heart.

The bridge peg had 15lb or so, then peg 32 hoisted 52 lb onto the scales to win the day, no surprises there with the empty peg though. Barney, the bloke who was in two minds as to whether to bother fishing or not, put 28lb on the scales to easily take third place! Most of his catch had come in the last 90 minutes, with the bonus lump from early on giving him more breathing space.

My 18lb 7oz was enough for a double-default section win, better to be lucky than good! However, to show just how tight these matches can be, 4th place had 18.9, 5th 18.8, and I was 6th overall with 18.7! Typical winter fishing, one or two lads fill their boots on the main shoal, while the less fortunate among us battle it out for the minor placings, with ounces here and there being vital. Don’t you just love it!

Sunday saw me off to Grange Farm, in the village of Fishlake, between Thorne and Doncaster. The venue has a match record of 320lb, and you regularly need over the ton to win, with good backing weights. The draw saw me on peg 30, next door to where I’d had a second place last winter with a solid 78lb, so I was looking forward to another bagging session. Somebody forgot to tell the carp though, and it all went severely pear shaped!

I must admit though, most of the problems were of my own making. I drew next to my mate Dale, nothing new there; we seem to be next to each other on a pretty regular basis! At the last count it was seven times, according to him! I put him right as to where I’d fished the peg the previous year, and I would soon be regretting it, as he quickly pulled away from me, with six carp to my two in the first hour.

Exactly as the day before, I had trouble with foul-hooked fish. I struggled to get my head round the situation, Dale was feeding big pots of bait and hooking fish fairly in the mouth, while I was’ bitting it in’ with a kinder pot but getting liners and foul hookers, very strange! However, it was the same for all the anglers around us too, bow-waves as the fish shot off, spooked by ‘fresh air’ striking, and occasionally getting snagged in fins, tails, and everywhere bar the mouth! There was a good standard of angler on the match, with quite a few regulars to the venue, so I surmised that we couldn’t all be doing it wrong, perhaps it was just one of those days?

Dale was still picking odd fish off though, and I’m not one to sit and let things happen, so I decided to try to force the issue a bit. The big pots Dale was feeding didn’t seem to be doing him any harm, so, against what I normally regard as my standard approach to far bank fishing, I decided to give ‘em some, hoping it might put me back in the running. This turned out to be the biggest mistake since the captain of the Titanic shouted “b*ll*cks to the icebergs, it’s unsinkable, full steam ahead”! A big pot of maggots filled my peg with roach, which at 2-3oz apiece were hard work from 14.5m away! But it didn’t stop there! ‘Another pot will feed ‘em off, and the carp will move up from Dales peg’, is my line of thought.

More roach join the party! It sank in after the FIFTH pot went in that I was just creating a swarm of small roach which by now I was beginning to foul-hook as well, and that the carp were well and truly in winter mode, not wanting to settle over a bed of bait, but simply to drift along and pick off odd pieces of bait. If I’d kept to my original plan I think I would have possibly been in with a chance of overtaking Dale, as his peg went right off during the afternoon, and no matter how many times he fed they just wouldn’t come back.

We’d been lulled into thinking summer style tactics by the warm weather, while the fish are now well and truly into their winter wind-down. I managed to scrape together a couple more carp late in the day, probably due to Dale giving up on his far side line and me fishing as close to his peg as I was allowed. I was also helped by the lad to my right, who concentrated down the middle most of the day then went across late on, only to foul-hook his first two fish and lose them at the net, despite not having fed anything across at all.

He quickly gave up on the far side, saying he didn’t want to have a day like I was having! ‘Suits me’, I thought, and nicked a couple from that side too! All the while, the roach shoal directly across where I’d fed my ‘maggot mountain’ was bubbling and swirling, just to remind me how wrong I’d got it!

The weigh in was full of surprises, the main one being just how badly the venue had fished. I met them a few pegs down and the top weight was just 21lb, with most of the lake weighed in. this went up to 22lb, then noted peg 34 placed an unbeatable 65lb on the scales. I could just see him from my peg, and knew he had a few, but was sure Dale would get the verdict. However, I didn’t think Dale had that much, and so it proved, as he had just shy of 42lb. Plenty to spank my bottom though!

I got a nice surprise at weighing 29lb 10oz, my first couple of fish being well above the average size for the lake, contributing over 10lb to my total. The final surprise was that I’d come third on the day, the end peg that I was sure had more than me taking fourth with 23lb. On the drive home I reflected on the day, and while it all turned out right in the end, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d stuck to my guns with my usual tight and light baiting pattern, whether I would have picked off enough fish during the afternoon slow period to perhaps sneak into second?

I was only 13lb behind, five or six fish maybe? But then again, I did have around 5lb of roach in the net, which I probably wouldn’t have caught without the maggot approach, so you never know! Those roach may have got me third? At least I had learned a bit for when we return in a couple of weeks with the Frecheville lads, and I won’t be making the same mistakes again I can tell you!
Barlborough weds and sat this week, taxi match weds then the open sat, then it’s off to Riverside fishery near Bawtry Sunday. I once held the match record there for a few months with 88lb so it has fond memories for me, but it was badly affected by last years floods, so it remains to be seen as to how well it fishes. Till next week, tight lines.

Wednesday saw me at my usual midweek haunt, Woodlands Farm at Barlborough. After two successive matches where I’d drawn peg 12 I was quickly falling out with the place, a situation not helped by my draw on the day, peg 10! Now although it is only two pegs away from the scene of my previous two poor showings, this peg does have a bit more going for it, in that it has access to peg 9, which is never put in on these matches due to it being in a corner. I’ve had a couple of results from peg 8 in past winter matches, again fishing under peg 9’s platform, so I was a little more optimistic for the day ahead. There was a bigger turnout than usual, and John the organiser had put a few extra pegs in as some lads had provisionally booked on saying they could be late as they were coming off a night shift at work.

I knew peg 8 was still in the bag, and sat praying it would stay there as the all-in approached. Not everyone that booked on arrived, and peg 8 did indeed stay empty, but the no-show anglers had quite an effect on the outcome, but more of that later. My mate Ian was on peg 6 for the second match running, so was again looking to catch late on in the margins as he had done on the Saturday, but didn’t harbour too much hope of catching across, same as me. My problem was where to find a few fish while I waited for the carp to turn up under the platform next door, and I settled on a line down the middle fed with pellets, looking to catch a few of the venue’s skimmers, which were long overdue to put in an appearance.

On the whistle I went across with maggot tight to the island, these pegs don’t seem to throw many fish up across, but it is always worth a quick look because if one is lurking over there it is usually a big ‘un. A sharp bite first drop saw the rig fly out of the water with a micro roach on the end, which promptly dropped off. 25 minutes in, I had one small perch in the net, and only a couple of other indications. The only other fish I’d seen caught was Ian’s, a 4oz roach, things were not looking good. By the hour mark my net had swelled handsomely to the tune of two more perch and a 6oz skimmer, but the wind was getting stronger, and the configuration of the peg (I was fishing across to the corner of the island) meant that the tow that was getting up was affecting the rig to the extent that my only option was to go heavier.

I decided that the fish were unlikely to be sitting in the peg anyway as the tow was ripping round the edge of the island by now, so, earlier than I’d hoped, I went in under the platform of peg 9. The elastic was ripping out as I lowered my rig in! A 2lb-plus carp soon nestled in the net, and when it’s twin followed next drop I was rubbing my hands! My worst fears were realised though, as no more bites were forthcoming from this line, and I was rueing having to go over it so early. Another half hour passed without any signs over my other swims, so I decided to try to get the track line firing properly. I re-fed all the lines, and settled in for a good go down the track. It took time, but eventually I stated to pick up a few skimmers down this middle line, and some of them were of a good stamp, up to 12oz, nice weight builders. The lad on peg 12, Phil Dobson (or ‘Dobber’ as he is known) was finding the going slow, but was picking up occasional carp by simply fishing his top kit at the end of his keepnet.Maybe that’s where I’d gone wrong before!

I would catch a few skimmers, then he would land a carp, and a tense battle was panning out. From my peg I could see there was nothing being caught in the low numbers, and it seemed that Phil and me were nip and tuck for the lead between all the anglers in sight. I’d kept having a little look under the platform, with no response, but with all my lines now dead and half an hour to go, it was all or nothing. Ian tipped back and came round with 10 minutes to go, as my float dipped for the first time in ages, and a heavy fish was on. We debated as to whether it was foul-hooked or not as it plodded around but it eventually popped up at my feet hooked squarely in the lip, a proper bonus at 5lb or so. Straight back in, under went the float, and a 1lb, jet-black mirror was on the was in. my watch said a minute to go as I lowered the rig in for a final time; once again, under it went, and I was literally striking as time was called. My first F1 of the day resulted, and at 2lb it meant I’d had over 8lb in the last 10 minutes! Talk about leaving it late!

I was first to weigh as all the lads on the car park bank had tipped back, it had fished that hard. My 20lb 5oz total was a real surprise, the silvers had weighed a lot more than I’d reckoned. That last F1 had been just enough to pip Phil, who’d also had a run of late bites, as he had 18lb 8oz. I was winning until the scales got round to venue expert John Mills, who met me with ‘ if I hadn’t won off this peg today I’d have chucked my tackle in!’ or words to that effect. The absent anglers had left him with four spare pegs to one side, three on the other, leaving him virtually pleasure fishing, and he made it pay to full effect, wiping the match out with 58lb.

Onto the island, and another danger man, Roy Hanson, was on another peg in form, number 32. There are two Roy Hanson’s fish on our circuit, both good mates of mine this one we call ‘Ice Cream Roy’, as he is an ice cream man! Roy’s one of those anglers that you would pick if you had to choose someone to catch a fish to save your life, and he earns every fish in his net. Unfortunately for me, he ‘earned’ a couple of small roach too many, and pipped me into third with 20lb 8oz! Still, I’d had a bit of good fortune with those late carp, so all in all I couldn’t moan too much, and it was nice to get back into the frame after the previous week.

Saturday, and I was next to the other Roy Hanson! To avoid confusion I’ll call him ‘Wednesday Roy’, I’m sure he won’t be too insulted by this callous slur, as he is a Wednesday fan! Roy was on the same peg 23 that John mills had won the midweeker from, while I really fancied my peg 25 draw. There had been fish in the area for a good few weeks previously, and it looked good. I fed across, the margin, and down the track with pellet, hoping for a repeat performance from the skimmers, when my far side lines needed a rest. Five carp in the first 30 minutes was as good a start as I could have hoped for, with Roy on three. When you’re on a few a nice simple approach is usually the best, and I just fed three spots along the far bank, nicking a fish from each before feeding and moving. My only concern was that Roy’s fish seemed to be a lot bigger than mine, but then again I was catching more regularly, so maybe it would even itself out at the end. The odd look down the side and over the pellets in the track only produced the odd half –hearted tap on the float, so I settled into a rhythm of catch and move from across till the whistle went. I’d pretty much resigned myself to being behind Roy, but as I met the scales two weights stood out, an awesome 61lb from peg 6 by superstar Dave Hooper, and a solid 25lb from peg 12 (remember that one!!!) by my mate Ian, who’d sat it out with meat for a few bigger fish.

He’d seen my ‘catch everything’ approach fail badly on the previous two occasions, so decided on an all or nothing meat attack, and it won him the section, a proper result. Wednesday Roy had some proper lumps, again on meat, to take the lead with 62lb, dwarfing my 35lb catch, which still saw me home in third place on the day. Meat is a bait I have very little confidence in, but on these two showings it looks like I’ll have to put some time in on it!

Change of plan Sunday, I’d booked onto bank end for the Sunday match, but as there is always a waiting list, and I was having a bit of a re-run of the old nuts problems after the Barlborough match, I decided to cancel and see how I felt on the morning. I couldn’t resist going, so made my way to Barnburgh Lakes, having enjoyed myself there the previous week with the F1’s. They really are my favourite fish now, moody, hard to pin down in any numbers, but just occasionally going absolutely loopy and almost jumping into the keepnet, not unlike the roach on the Trent in the good old days. My eagerness was repaid by a peg 10 draw, the one that had thrown 2nd place up the previous week. I’d quizzed the lad about it then, and he’d told me there was a big hump just to one side at 12-13m, where the bottom came up from 6ft to about 21/2 ft deep, a real feature.

I fed on top of this hump, as well as down the side of it in the deeper water, just in case the cold rain we’d had all night had pushed the fish down there. I made a really slow start, after a micro-barbel first drop (beautiful little things they are, Gudgeon sized and perfectly formed) I was struggling to put any number of fish together. Bites are never a problem at Barnburgh, the place is loaded with fish, but sorting the bites is another thing altogether! The principle species are F1’s, mini barbel and skimmers, so the missed bite scenario can be down to any or all of them, and the constant rig adjustments necessary make for very interesting fishing. An hour in, and another venue expert, Alan Pounder on peg 9 was leaving me trailing in his wake, his dozen or so fish to my three F1’s, a skimmer and the baby whisker meaning I had some serious catching up to do. Although Alan’s peg was a good one, given the choice I would have picked mine every time, so there could be no excuse!

Around 90 minutes in the wind altered slightly, and with it the undertow. This had the effect of making it harder for Alan to present his bait in the right place, and believe me; it was one of those days where everything had to be spot on! I had another look on top of the ‘hump’, and had an indication first drop, my first sign in that spot all match. An F1 next drop had me thinking perhaps they had arrived, and so it turned out. I picked off fish in twos and threes until the end, resting the peg with the odd biteless look in the deeper water. The F1’s were obviously there in numbers, as I was hitting perhaps one bite in five, but by regularly adjusting the rigs and depths I kept them coming till the end, in a match typical of the old Trent roach days, where a subtle alteration after every fish would keep them guessing, never letting the shoal become able to pick out the bait with the hook in it. It really took me back to those days, Alan as well, as he was a Trent regular too.

I was playing my last fish as the whistle went, and Alan commented that I wouldn’t need it anyway, as I had much more than him. I doubted this though, his fish looked bigger (as your next door neighbours fish always seem to do) and although he’d slowed down in the afternoon, he’d still caught fairly regularly, and in my eyes had done enough early on to hold off my late burst. Elsewhere the lake had been hard, with 9lb 8oz winning as the scales arrived at our pegs. Alan’s 22lb 8oz was a little less than I’d expected, but maybe I would get a shock when my fish were lifted out? I did, but it was a nice shock, as my net went 30lb 5oz, which turned out to be the top weight on the day. I was really chuffed with this, when I start to visit a new venue I set myself targets, first to pick up money there, then to win a match outright, before I feel I can say I’m in proper touch with the place. I felt an affinity for this venue straight away, Mark and Sue the owners are a really nice couple, the surroundings are beautiful, and of course the main thing is the main target fish are my favourite F1’s! So to get off the mark so early on is a real bonus. Alan came second on what was a very enjoyable day in great company, reminiscing about old times and putting the world to rights.

Another hospital visit might clip my wings again midweek, but I’m hoping to get out at least to do a shoot for the paper up at Barnburgh, and maybe even sneak the odd match in hopefully! If I’m up to the walk, I’m back on one of my old stomping grounds next Saturday, the River Derwent at Borrowash, with the bankside lads, and Sunday my mate Dale Clark has wangled me an invite on his club’s match at Grange Farm. I did a ton there way back in April, so a repeat performance wouldn’t go amiss! Till then, give ‘em some lip ache, and I’ll see you next week.

Back in my younger days there was a record going round called ‘three is the magic number’, I think by a band called De La Soul who, incidentally, although being from The States, were supporters of the finest football team ever to grace turf, Sheffield United FC. Turns out their manager was a mate or relative of our star player of the time, Brian Deane, and he’d got them all into the Blades, and when they gave us a namecheck on Radio 1 one time I was over the moon!

Any way, three might have been the magic number for our red & white rappin’ cousins across the sea, but I’ll tell you what, twelve certainly wasn’t magic in any way for me, cos I drew there twice last week at Barlborough! I have had a second and third from the peg over the last few months, but with absolutely no recent form of late I really didn’t fancy it on Wednesday.

I set up my usual across rigs, 0.12 straight through to an 18 B911, together with a much finer rig ending in a size 20 Tubertini 808 to an 0.10 bottom, aimed at catching some of the more wary F1’s that were possibly wising up to the heavier gear now that the water was clearing slightly. I also set up a nice fine rig to fish for skimmers down the track, hopefully adding a few to the net in the middle part of the match, when it seemed everyone was experiencing the same lull in sport. I started like a house on fire, six carp in the first 45 minutes saw me with around 16lb in the net, and when Ian walked round saying he hadn’t had hardly any bites, and that most of the lads on the wood side were struggling, my mood was taking a dramatic upturn!

Phil Lakin on the next peg had five carp, but they were smaller than mine, and he was admitting to around 8lb, and by Ian’s reckoning we were first and second at that stage. Off he went, stating he was going to empty it in the last hour on meat down the margins.

Things just went from bad to worse for me from then on, I just couldn’t seem to buy a bite, only the very occasional small silver fish showed, and my track line that I had fed religiously from the start threw up three or four skimmers before it too went completely dead. This was where my earlier winter reference came from, those days when you feel you’ve caught all the fish that are prepared to feed in your peg, and you might as well go home!

I steadied myself for the last hour or so, many times this year my peg has come good late on, and boosted me up the field. Today though, all I could muster from the last stages was a small F1, a couple of decent skimmers from tight across (maybe that’s where they were all along!) and a monster of a perch on double maggot that would have gone around 2lbs.

Phil’s 3lb carp on the whistle had me thinking that he’d done me again, he’s a sort of jinx angler for me, often ouncing me out of the frame, and on more than one occasion he’s had a big fish late on to pip me. Not today though! Everyone on the car park bank had tipped back and gone, it had been that hard, so I was first to weigh. My 22lb 8oz beat Phil’s 15lb or so, but it all went downhill from there. Ian had had a good last hour as he’d predicted earlier, and even thought he was in with a chance of winning overall, after seeing how I’d obviously fallen away badly in the afternoon. He hoisted 43lb onto the scales; enough for an easy win on the day. Just prior to Ian weighing, another of our travelling band of merry souls, Steve Owen, had put a solid 28lb to the scales off in-form peg 16. Steve is a real tryer, who doesn’t seem to get the rub of the green very often, so it was good to see him come good at last.

It was just a case of them holding onto their places now! Local legend Gary Dodsworth saw off any remaining hopes I had of sneaking into the frame with a hard earned 26lb-plus weight off peg 29, which is rarely used due to there being hardly anything to fish to across, and the scales set off across the bridge onto the island. Again it had fished hard, with only Chris Garlick on peg 36 with anything of note to weigh. His 30lb net split Ian and Steve, and in a perverse way made me feel a little better, there’s nothing more frustrating than coming first out of the money! Little did I know what was to come later in the week though! So, two of our lads in the frame, but I was a little unsure about how to tackle the venue on Saturdays match, the fish definitely seemed to be getting into winter mode on certain pegs, while on others they saw a keepnet as a welcome holiday!
I couldn’t believe my luck on the Saturday! A lad who’d arrived on his first visit to the venue asked me about his peg 14 draw, and after I’d regaled him with my tales of woe on the Wednesday event, I promptly drew peg 12 again! Far from happy, I trudged off to my peg. Ian was on 6, and we agreed that a default section was all we could hope for at best. Same rigs, same feed pattern same bait, but it was 40 minutes before I even had a bite!

This was a small roach, not a good sign. Ian once again came walking round an hour in, not having had a bite. By this time I was on three roach but even with the fine rig I wasn’t getting any indications. “I’m going back to fill the margins in and catch 30lb in the last hour again” said my mate, and off he went. Danny Glaves had drawn the in-form peg 16 and was making it pay handsomely, his 10 carp in the first two hours giving him a commanding lead.

After spending most of the match scratching around for bites, with only the odd silver to show for my efforts, I noticed a carp cruising along in the sun, which by now was quite warm. When we’d arrived in the car park the temperature gauge in the car had read 7 degrees, by now it was more like 20. Perhaps they would have it shallow? In went the shallow rig, and straight under it went! A foul-hooked 4lb carp gave me a few hairy moments, but made my catch look a bit more respectable. It was a false dawn again though, as my next bite came an hour later, again fouled, but this one came off at the net. I managed to hook and land two more, again hooked outside the mouth, perhaps showing they weren’t really interested in feeding? Time was called, and Ian had once more pulled a rabbit from the hat, from a peg that had gone dry midweek, his bold approach down the edge had paid off again to the tune of 22lb, which blitzed my paltry 9lb and was winning until we got to Danny’s peg, 16. Exactly 50lb took the honours on the day, and Ian got the section by default, edged out of the main frame by a 30lb net from peg 28, another lad on his first visit, and by ‘chop worm Barry’ Gay on island peg 32 who just did him with 26lb, no prizes for guessing what bait he used!

My local venue, one of my favourites and it had been very cruel to me over the week!

A change of venue, with a new outlook to it can often snap you out of a bad time, and my Sunday trip to Barnburgh Lakes between Barnsley and Doncaster had me raring to go, especially after the Turners Arms presentation the previous evening, where I picked up a good number of trophies from my awesome summer of flyers! My mate Dale Clarke videoed club secretary Kev Cardwell and me singing the Tellytubbies song on the karaoke and is threatening to post it on the site, that’s why I don’t drink, I can make myself look a proper knob without being bladdered! Anyway, peg 5 was greeted with screwed up noses by the regulars; here we go again I thought! Apparently all the fish have been coming from the shallower pegs opposite, but I fancied it for a few shallow. I was told it was a none-starter, but with the number of fish showing, and it being a full top 3 deep at six sections, I pressed on, thinking I’d be better doing my own thing first time out at the venue, especially as the peg wasn’t the best, allegedly!

I started on the inside, feeding maggot and pellet, and had bites immediately, tiny little taps typical of F1’s. I hit the third, and the elastic streamed out as fish number one was on the way to the net. A couple of skimmers followed, but by this time the lads either side who’d gone straight out into the deeper water were pulling away from me, with four F1’s each. Time for a look shallow, and same as the day before, I had a fish first drop. When one followed next bung I was fancying it for a few, but again it wasn’t to be, as the bites then dried up. I’d re-fed the inside line, but no more bites came from the swim so I decided to abandon it, reasoning that I’d started too close and the lads either side had probably drawn all the fish by now. My only other option was a feeder chuck to the middle; trouble was it was easily accessible to the anglers across if I started catching well, so I decided to only use it as somewhere to go to rest the shallow swim. I really grafted for the remainder of the match, chopping and changing the shallow rigs to squeeze odd fish here and there, and picking off odd ones on the tip in between. At the end of a really enjoyable match I felt I’d got in front of the lad on peg 4 but peg 6 would just pip me.

The scales said otherwise though, 13lb was winning when they arrived, and with 4 tipping back, my 14lb 9oz went into the lead. Peg 6 surprisingly weighed 13lb too, leaving me harbouring hopes of sneaking the third place. The match was effectively between pegs 10 and 15, both noted pegs with regulars on them, and both had caught pretty much all day. Peg 10 took the lead with 30lb 1oz; the question being would peg 15 have enough. All was looking good until peg 14 lifted his fish out. He’d had a bit of a nightmare all day, one of those where nothing goes right, and the lads on the match had really let him know about it! However, even his bad day proved too much for me, his 16lb 9oz total pushing me out of the frame, with peg 15 indeed having enough with a level 36lb.

I was gutted, I’d worked hard on the day, beating a couple of good regulars either side of me, but was eventually seen off by two adjoining pegs, much the same as your typical winter match!

On the drive home, I reflected on the decent draws I’ve had over the summer, and realised that perhaps a couple of bad days were a little overdue. When I was a young matchman, and taking another defeat badly, one of my mentors who is sadly no longer with us had a word in my ear to put me right. What he said was “you only get what you deserve in this game if you do it wrong”. By that he basically meant if you make a balls-up of a decent peg then you get nothing, but if you fish the match of your life off a duff draw you don’t necessarily get the result your efforts are worthy of. This has come back to me on many, many occasions over the years, usually when I’ve messed up on another flyer! It is right though if you sit and think about it. None of the pegs I’d drawn over the week gave me much of a chance of picking up any money, and with the winter just round the corner, when one peg away can seem like a million miles, I can see the old blog turning into Wraggy’s weekly moan-athon!

Double-header at Barlborough again this week, weds and sat (I know, I’m a glutton for punishment!) then it’s back on Bank End next Sunday for the first of the autumn series of matches. Till then, tight lines.

What did surprise me was just how big a fish you could land on some really fine tackle, so long as it is balanced and you take your time. I was fishing tiny hooks and lines as I was setting up my winter rigs, and these two short sessions gave me a lot of confidence in them for the coming matches. I know many lads don’t believe there is any need to fine down for winter carp, indeed a lot of the top lads fish the same rigs all through the year, but it’s a personal thing with me, if I came off the bank biteless having fished with strong gear all day I would forever be asking myself ‘what if’, so now I scale down in winter, and I feel it gives me the most chances of bites.
Saturday was the final match in the bankside tackle series, on the Tripp Lake at Messingham. These matches are keenly contested by some of the best anglers in the area, and I’m chuffed to have had such a good run in what is a strong field. I’ve picked up on all the matches so far, with three seconds, a third and a section win to my name, but it didn’t look too good for keeping the run going on Saturday, as I plucked peg 35 from the bag. For those of you who don’t know the venue, it is a rough horseshoe shape, with one side wider than the other, and the two pegs on the crown of the inside are real flyers on their day. These pegs are 33 and 34, and when I parked up behind my peg there was a lot of activity in the margins of both. Uh-oh, I can feel a proper tuning coming on! Sat at my peg my hopes faded even more, what little wind there was on a sweltering hot day was over my head, leaving me with flat calm conditions under a sun filled, cloudless sky.

Odd carp were cruising aimlessly around but didn’t seem to be feeding; maybe they would have a pellet or two though? Martin Codman on peg 34 was rubbing his hands in anticipation of a good day, as carp swirled and porpoised all along the margin to his left, and it was the same for Pat Kelly on 35, this time the fish were to his right. Both good anglers, it was time to write off the top two places, and weigh up my options. In this company you either need to be fortunate at the drawbag or have a degree of luck on your side, both of which have swung for me this year, so it would be wrong of me to start moaning about one bad draw among many good ones, so I decided to aim for an enjoyable days fishing, virtually writing off any hope of a pick up at the end of the day. Omega pellets fed in green Swim Stim at the bottom of the slope 5 sections out would be my main line, that should see me make contact with the abundant skimmer and crucian population, plus pellet fed regularly at 13-14.5m with a catapult might just stop an odd carp or two in its track as they made their lazy way around the lake. I half-heartedly fed a margin line further along the bank, but didn’t hold out much hope of catching there, as this was one of the few pegs on the lake that had no cover in the sides.

Martin was playing his first carp before I had finished feeding the lines, and I couldn’t see Pat but could hear splashing in his general direction. I opened my account with a Gudgeon! A roach soon followed, on a line to hand rig I always set up here to pick off a few small fish close in while the other swims settle, but that was it, onto the 5m line. As usual here, the bites were very slight dips and lifts of the float, typical of crucians, but most of the fish I was catching were skimmers. 20 minutes in and a strike met with heavy resistance as a carp had ventured onto the groundbait line. I was only fishing 0.10 hooklength and a 22 Tubertini 808 so I feared the worst, but it all held, and 10 minutes later a 3lb fish was bundled into the net.

I re-fed the 5m line due to the disturbance the carp had caused, and had a look at 13 where odd carp had been swirling for the pellets I’d been feeding. Straight away I foul-hooked one that shot off and sent the rig back complete with a ‘silver dollar’, and next drop I found myself attached to a heavy fish. The fish here fight really hard, possibly due to the good water quality from the sandy bottom, and even on my normal carp gear it chugged around for a good five minutes before landing in the banjo, very welcome at over 6lbs. This was something of a false dawn however, as I never had another bite on that line all day! Two hours in, i was watching Martin bag a carp every drop, it suddenly dawned on me I only had about ten fish! I sneaked a 2lb chub from the margin, again my only bite, but was going nowhere fast. I decided to try to sort the tiny indications out that I was getting over my groundbait line, and eventually settled on a rig I would use for pinkie or bloodworm fishing in winter, a float with a fibre bristle, teamed with an 0.09 bottom to a Middy T6313 size 22. At least I would know if I couldn’t catch on this gear the fish were either tiny silvers or reluctant to feed properly, in which case I’d got nowt to come anyway. The change was immediate, skimmers up to a pound finding their way to the net, along with some 6-10oz crucians, and all of a sudden I was enjoying the day.

The practise sessions atBarlborough with the light lines were paying off as well! With 40 minutes to go I had a positive bite that I just knew was another carp, and I added sections as it steamed off into the lake. My arse was twitching a bit now I can tell you! Once again though luck was on my side, and it all held firm for the 30-minute battle, as another 3lb-plus fish was added to my total. With all the disturbance I didn’t expect much more action, but right on the whistle I had my last bite of the day, and my second Gudgeon!
Kevin the owner came round with the scales, and I was first to weigh. The carp went 13 lb odd, the silvers a surprising 18lb, giving me a 31lb 6oz total, a lot more than I’d expected. Martin weighed a healthy 64lb, which I’d expected to win, till Pat placed 84lb on the scales, mainly on his trademark paste approach. Barney was in my section and I knew he was close to my weight, but he finished up a couple of fish short having fished a good match, again like me with the distraction of his neighbour bagging! His 29lb was some way in front of the lads round him, but as the scales went further round the weights picked up a little. Stuart Walker weighed 51 lb for third, while Pete Gosney took fourth with 38lb after only catching for the last 90 minutes when the breeze put a bit of ripple on his peg. My weight was enough for a double- defaulted section win behind Pat and Martin, capping a really enjoyable day where I had to work for every bite. Too often you graft for no return in this game, so it was nice to see some return for my efforts.

 Bank End

And it was more of the same on Sunday, as I made my way to peg 4 at Bank End. This end of the lake hadn’t been fishing, actually that’s not right, by Bank End standards it hadn’t been fishing, as you’d ‘only’ needed 45-60lb to win the section I was drawn in! It really is awesome fishing up there, 100lb plus is needed to win every week during the summer months, and with the fish averaging around a pound each, you always have a busy day, even on the ‘bad’ pegs like the one I’d drawn. The good thing about Bank End is that the methods required to win a section during the warmer months don’t really vary too much from the ones used to win overall, you just seem to catch fewer fish on them, so a positive approach is always required, right up my street.

As the weather turns, the venue’s healthy head of Ide can become more of an option if you’re drawn off the main body of the carp, but for now it ‘s all out attack for the stockies. I decided on two methods as I hadn’t been for a few weeks, keeping it simple to feel my way back in. Word had it that the ‘bubble’ method was doing the business, where you use a standard bubble float either full of water to sink with a neutral buoyancy, or put just enough water in to provide casting weight and the fish often hook themselves against it. Pellets fed around the float makes for a simple enough method on paper but it has been shrouded in secrecy of late, leading me to think there may be more to it than meets the eye.

Because of this I decided to stick with the nearest version I knew to it, the floating feeder. I’ve caught well there before on this tactic, so it was something of a banker while I tried to suss out the latest in method. Pellets fished shallow on a 13-14.5m-pole line would provide a back up for later in the match, and they proved invaluable on the day. The match started and the lad on peg 1 was immediately into fish on this bubble job. He was next to his mate and their conversation during the first half of the match provided some interesting information on the technique. It’s funny how the volume control goes up when you’re getting a few isn’t it! Anyway, I had my first fish about ten minutes in on the feeder, then caught in fits and starts until the 45 minute mark, when I had a really good run of one a chuck, and some of them were good fish too, up to the three pound mark.

I felt I’d got in front of the two lads using the bubble at this stage, and was well in front of the lad on peg 5 who was catching on the dreaded floating pole. We all experienced a drastic drop in catch rate then, with only the odd fish showing for the next hour. By this time I’d switched to the pole and was picking odd fish off in ones and twos, never seeming to have a lot of fish in front of me but holding my own. It was uncanny how all the anglers in my area would seem to be playing a fish at the same time, then nothing for a while. Lost fish seemed to be common among the other lads, but I felt I was doing well with only one loss so far, plus a scale from a foul-hooker. On more than one occasion at Bank End lost fish have proved costly and I was beginning to suspect it would be the same today, and my more careful playing approach seemed to be proving the right one on the day. The last 90 minutes proved dire for me, but the lad on peg 5 had set a tip rod up with a small feeder and was throwing it onto the 16m line. ‘That’ll never work’, I thought to myself, surmising that the fish wouldn’t be on the deck in 12 feet of water in the soaring temperatures. I wrote the first couple of fish off as flukes, but by the fifth chuck and fish number five I was starting to get a bit edgy!

He actually only landed three of them, but it was obvious there were a few there, and me sat there without a tip rod! As the minutes ticked by his catch rate slowed a little, but I my lead was rapidly being eaten away, if indeed I was in the lead in the section. I couldn’t see the lads in the early pegs because of a big reed bed, but judging from their banter they weren’t doing too well. The key point came right on the whistle as it turned out. The lad on 5 was playing what would have been his best fish of the day, at almost 3lb, when it spat the hook at the net. As the whistle sounded I was playing my last fish of a pound or so, netting it a minute after the whistle. I was convinced I’d been beaten by now as the lad on 5 had caught 25 fish to my 10 in the last two hours, although my fish did look bigger, but nevertheless I didn’t feel my early catching spree would give me enough of a cushion.

First three weighs went 46lb, 52lb and 16lb, not bad for duff draws eh? My two weighs surprisingly went 60lb 14oz, with the lad on 5 claiming nowhere near that, as his fish were too small. His first net went 18lb 3oz, but the second looked ominously heavy! The scales registered 42lb, and I was getting ready to kick myself at coming so close and getting beat when I’d had the upper hand, when the final call was 42lb 1oz. Totalled up the catch went 60lb 4oz, seeing me through to the section win by just 10 oz! I immediately thought back to a couple of weeks previous when a last minute fish at Barlborough had cost me second place, and realised that luck does come and go, and it will even itself out through time.

That last minute fish for me, coupled with the lad on 5 losing the late lump had swung the balance in my favour by the narrowest of margins. Our little battle for the section out of the way, venue regular Richard Moore made the bubble work handsomely to record a 116lb winning weight, while a shallow pole –caught 92lb was second. The third placed catch of 86lb was taken on paste fished on a short pole line, proving that the venue isn’t dominated by one technique, and best of all, the floating pole seems to have lost some of its effectiveness! Like I’ve said before, I only fish the method as a last resort, preferring to soldier on with my own tactics where possible, but as the colder months draw closer the method does seem to lose some of its dominance. Thank god!
Hopefully there won’t be any dramas this week and I should be able to get to Barlborough for the midweeker, then there again on Saturday. Nowt on at the moment for Sunday because it’s the fish-off for the golden peg money that accrues over the twelve week period of summer matches, and I haven’t fished the required five or more to qualify, so it’s ear to the ground for somewhere to go Sunday! Till next week, tight lines.

By Monday the pain was getting worse, the swelling bigger, and things were looking pretty glum. Tuesday night saw Mandy helping me load the car with my gear (she really is the greatest wife a bloke could wish for!) on the understanding that I would come home if I weren’t catching.

Barlborough is only five miles from our house so I wasn’t travelling too far, but stuck in the morning traffic the pain came on again, only this time twice as bad. I decided to push on (the road works meant I couldn’t turn round anyway!) but when I got into the car park it was all I could do to get out of the car, let alone carry the gear to my peg. They’re a good set of lads who fish there, and they offered to take my gear to my peg, but I decided against it, and set off home. Mandy had to help me unload the tackle at home, bit embarrassing as she’s tiny, but I was in a right tangle by now, not made any easier by the thought of a stay in hospital! I agreed to go to the doctors, where I was given a course of antibiotics and the threat of admission if the painkillers didn’t do their job. Thankfully they seemed to work, and by Friday I was 50/50 going on the Star final. Saturday morning saw me gingerly tiptoeing through the car park at Lindholme, to queries as to whether I’d sh*t myself, or my trainers were too tight, and so on.

These were all the laughs I had though, as peg 6 managed to stick in my palm, possibly the worst peg on the match. And no, that wasn’t me feeling sorry for myself saying that, the big man himself said so, none other than Mr Scotthorne, who I spent an hour sitting behind after giving it my all for the first 90 minutes, a small F1 and a few silvers being my reward. Alan showed me his doubled elastic set up, and talked me through his thoughts on feeding for the abundant F1’s in the Oasis lake, and I reckon I learned more in an hour sitting with the master than I have all season! Back at my peg things hadn’t got any better for the anglers around me, and with the old undercarriage starting to play up I decided to have an early bath, something I’m usually reluctant to do but on this occasion it was something of a relief, plus I would be able to get home and settled in to watch United on the box at Derby. As the results show, that part of my day didn’t exactly go to plan either! A poor showing saw us go down 2-1, the winning goal being scored by one of our old players just to rub salt in the wounds! It was like a morgue in the Wraggy household on Saturday night I can tell you!
I decided to have a rare Sunday off, just to fully get over my ‘predicament’, but I’m already getting itchy feet I can tell you, might have a little evening session up at Barlborough early next week. On Wednesday I’m back on the Bonsai with the taxi lads, then next week we’ve got the last of the Bankside matches, again it’s on the Tripp lake at Messingham which is always good for a few, so hopefully I’ll be back fighting fit and raring to go! See you next week.

Despite the fact we had a brilliant holiday (albeit interspersed with a 19 year old who thinks he’s invented farting loud and stinking the cabin out on a twice daily basis!) I was chomping at the bit for a go on the tackle, so after seeing to all my husbandly duties after arriving home Sunday, and Monday morning, I managed to persuade Mandy to let me have a couple of hours at Barlborough in the afternoon. The inclement weather took a bit of getting used to after the balmy climes of the Mediterranean, but with three carp on the first three drops I was happy as a pig in muck snuggled under the brolly! A simple pellet approach was enough to see me drive home a couple of hours later having landed eight in total, with no losses, and feeling back up to speed with the gear in hand.

Barlborough has been fishing strangely in my absence, with bags up to and over 100lb winning, but back up weights falling away dramatically, often 20-25lb being enough to frame behind the runaway leader, much as you would expect on a winter match. Not exactly par for the course in late august though! With this in mind I planned on my usual chop & caster approach that has served me well all summer, if the carp are in my peg they’ve still had the worm, while in less well populated areas the bait has caught me enough silver fish to sneak the odd section or frame place.
Peg 6 on the car park bank graced my palm as I drew my hand out of the bag, not my first choice by a long way. The car park pegs are strange, they are the favourite pegs on three-hour evening matches here, but for some reason don’t seem to throw many fish up on our day events. My disappointment was tempered slightly when I was told local ace Dave Hooper had put almost 40lb of silvers on the scales the previous weekend from the peg for a section win, but knowing Dave fishes maggot exclusively for these silvers, and that he is possibly the best angler in the region on the method, brought me back down to earth a little! My head was spinning now; where in the “100lb weights but no back up” sketch did a 40lb section win fit?

To head off any chance of confusing myself I decided to put all these conflicting reports out of my head and fish my own match. It was my first time out for a while so I’d need time to get back into the swing of things. For company on peg 4 was John Mills Jnr. Who has been the man to beat here all summer, and to my left on noted peg 8 was my pal Steve Owen. He asked me how to tackle the peg, as I’d drawn it a couple of times earlier in the year, so I told him what I knew, stressing that what had worked for me was only really relevant back in February, but the basic contours of the peg would be the same. The thing with peg 8 is that you fish into a corner, but the underwater snags the carp love so much take a bit of finding, it’s not just a case of dropping your plummet in and there they are, so I showed Steve the ropes.

I must mention at this point that Steve is a Wednesday fan, and you would all expect me to work him a bit of a flanker wouldn’t you, but no, he’s a good mate so it’s only right to share the info. Might not have been so obliging on match days though! I started a couple of feet away from the far bank; the slope up to the far side is very slow, leaving a deep margin across tight into the bank. I didn’t want too many fish against the rushes across, the two-foot plus swim looked like a recipe for liners and foul hooked fish, so I started a little away, as I know Dave Hooper does.

One bite, first drop from a 4oz roach didn’t signal the start of things, with 40 minutes on the clock it was still my only bite! Millsy by now had lost two carp tight across, both probably foul-hooked, and Steve had found an early bonus in the shape of a 6lb-plus carp from the corner. I’d decided early on that if I could keep up with John to a certain extent I wouldn’t be too far adrift at the end, but my problem now was getting some bites! Rotating several far bank swims eventually saw me putting the odd roach and skimmer in the net, but all was not going to plan. I decided to try a bit of groundbait down the track, fishing pellet, caster, worm etc. over it to try to grind a few bites out. It’s a tactic that works here in the colder months, and as it was fishing like a winter match I had nothing to lose. Again, odd fish showed, but nothing to make me think I was going to have any sort of purple patch. John by now was also fishing two track swims to either side, and as the clock struck two he had his first carp of the day over the right hand side, indeed it was his first fish of the day, that’s how hard it was!

I felt the writing was on the wall now, with him being on an end peg, and Steve in a noted swim, for me to get a proper fish caking! To add to my woes, I managed to foul-hook a small carp as I was shipping back, which came off and left my rig in an awe-inspiring tangle! As I was re-rigging both John and Steve were playing carp, not good. I steadied myself, remembering just how many time this year my peg had come good late at this and other venues, so decided on the old ‘Sheff United – never surrender’ approach! The rig went back across with renewed faith, which was rewarded with my first carp of the day! Told you us Blades were the chosen people! This fish took me to probably 6lb total weight, and I looked at my watch to see 35 minutes to go. By this time John had stopped catching, but I estimated him to have around 20lb, which on current results was worth a frame place. The final half hour flew by; I couldn’t get the pole across quick enough! Six more F1’s put in an appearance, switched on by some unseen force, leaving me wishing they’d arrived a bit earlier. This feeling was reinforced later at the scales!

As the whistle went, I was netting my last fish while John was playing a fish that looked much bigger than the others. The suspected foul-hooked F1 turned out to be a mirror of 3lb-plus, which boosted his weight to 22lb 8oz. My catch surprisingly swung the dial round to 20lb exactly, and had me cursing that late lump! Not a bad showing though, even if I do say so myself, beaten by a last-gasp bonus fish for the venue’s form angler, on an end peg! It turned out Steve had had a bit of a mare with lost fish in the reeds, the splashing I’d heard from his peg was the carp seeing him off among the ‘Olivers’, and he put 12lb on the scales. A couple more single and low double figure weights were next, before John Mills Snr. on peg 16 put a lovely mixture of bream, skimmers, F1’s, tench, carp and roach in the weigh bag for an easy win with 42lb, again, most of the fish coming to pellet down the middle. More single figure bags saw the scales go over the bridge and onto the island, where regular Pat Bradley had 18lb 6oz, but no more takers saw me finish third, a proper result off the peg in my book!

Swanlands

Saturday saw Ian & me on the next round of the Bankside matches, this time at Swanlands, on the outskirts of Thorne. I’d only fished the venue once before, and came 2nd from peg 17 with 31lb, a real mixed bag of literally everything that swims. Chopped worm did the damage that day, so when I drew 18 on the morning my game plan was pretty much decided for me. However, the last time I fished, the bailiff, who was an old mate from the days when I used to fish the Stainforth & Keadby Canal that runs alongside the venue, had warned me that I’d got out of jail a bit on the day, and that the pegs where you could fish to the island with the feeder would normally beat the open water pegs, his view being reinforced by the lad who’d won on the day coming from one such peg. Word had it that the lake hadn’t been fishing well due to all the rain, so my worm tactics looked the safest bet on the peg. An hour in and all was not well! I was struggling for bites, and by now was trying to make something happen on three separate lines, but all of them were fading fast.

Odd swirls on the surface had me thinking the cold water had sunk to the bottom, pushing the fish high in the water, so a shallow caster rig was hastily assembled. This soon died a death too, the fish seemed to want to be shallow, but were wary of the pole above their heads. A few pegs to my left, Andy Pinder was next to my mate Barney, who for those of you who don’t know him is far from a shrinking violet! You always get a running commentary on the match when Barney is around, and when Andy had a golden 45 minutes out of the blue catching carp and ide, we all knew what was happening and how much of a battering Barney was getting!

The sun had changed position by this time, and I noticed a couple of dark shapes basking in the warmer layers high in the water. I flicked a couple of dog biscuits towards them, they nudged them around a bit, then one slowly slurped on down! Usain Bolt would have had his work cut out getting to the car quicker than I did, to fetch my tip rod! I’d left it in there due to me not having an island chuck. Barney spotted this, and asked me what was going on. Being an honest lad I told him, and on my way back noticed he’d also set a controller rig up! When I got back to my peg the carp were setting about the biscuits I’d fed with gay abandon. “Oh yes, get ready” I said to myself, rigging up with a candle to counter the slight crosswind on my more open swim. My rig consisted of 5lb main line, the candle, and a 0.16 bottom to a size 18 Kamasan Animal eyed hook. I prefer smaller hooks when surface fishing, especially with the biscuit, because I feel it allows the hookbait to behave more naturally, not sinking too far into the surface film.

On venues where the fish have been caught a few times on the surface these little dodges can really pay off, and today was no exception. Several times the carp came right up to the biscuit, often even nudging it, but no takes resulted. They were eating every biscuit bar the one with the hook in, very frustrating. In desperation, I switched to a ridiculously tiny hook, tying up a size 20 B911 eyed to a 0.14 bottom. The result was amazing; the rig had only been in the water for a couple of seconds when the biscuit was slurped down and the candle set off across the surface. This was when my problems started, as what was obviously a big fish decided to put some distance between it and me! Ten tense minutes later, the tiny hook had held for long enough for me to slide the net under a fish that, if it wasn’t a double, would be very near.

There were still some fish taking the freebies, so it was back out with the rig as soon as I’d finished shaking! It seemed that when I chucked long the y would come short, but if I wound back carefully to the closer fish, others would take the baits further out. I reasoned it was just a case of waiting for one to make a mistake, and decided to stick with the small hook set up, & worry about getting them out if I hooked any more. A sudden downpour left me thinking that might be game over, but surprisingly I had a take out of the blue while I was figuring out my next move, in rain so heavy I couldn’t see the candle, never mind my bait! This was a much smaller fish of a couple of pounds or so, but made my mind up to see the final hour and a bit of the match out on the biscuit.

I’d got double figures now, probably enough for a section win at least by the way the bankside grapevine was going, so one more fish could push me right up there. Brilliant sunshine after the rain saw a lot of carp showing on the surface, and the loose fed biscuits were holding in front of me now the wind had died down. My chance came with 20 minutes to go, as another large fish hooked up and set off across the lake. It stopped short of the far side (just!) and let me wind it all the way back to netting range, where it popped up on the surface, almost as if to see which nutter was trying to get it out on such a tiny hook! I couldn’t refuse an offer like that could I?

Straight into the net it went, it then kicked off alarming as it realised what had happened! I had time for one more throw, and a carp did have a close look at the biscuit, but not close enough, and the whistle went to signal the end of proceedings. I was confident I had mid- double figures, not enough to overhaul Andy a few pegs down, but maybe enough for second place. You know how it is, carp look huge in the net when you’ve landed them after a long fight, but when they come to go on the scales that ‘barney rubble’ suddenly weighs seven pounds, so I was playing my cards close to my chest. 14lb was winning when the scales arrived, my catch of 21lb 4oz taking the lead until Andy placed a winning 31lb in the bag soon after. Next door but one 16lb took third, with the last man to weigh registering 12lb.

In Monopoly, it’s handy to have a ‘get out of jail card’, and today I found my ‘get out of jail carp’ very useful too!
Sunday was taken up with helping Mandy on her debut in the annual Hackenthorpe ladies fishing match. From reluctantly agreeing to join a few months ago, she’s now counting down the days till next year! From a really poor draw she did me proud, in fact I was surprised at just how quickly she’s taken to the game. We might have a lady blogger soon! I’ll fill you all in on the day next time though, as I’m running out of space for now. I’m at Barlborough for the midweeker, but next weekend it’s the Angling Star superleague final, at Lindholme on the Bonsai, which should be a cracker. I’ll let you know how I get on, till then, ta-ta for now.

Saturday, and Ian and me were booked on at Woodlands Farm at Barlborough for the regular Saturday open. While waiting for the draw we’d both seen a lot of fish moving around the end of the island, between pegs 28-30 and the first peg on the island itself, peg 31. Five minutes later both of us were hurrying off to our respective pegs in eager anticipation of a good day’s sport, Ian on 28 (with 29 &30 not drawn) and me on 31. The fish activity had slowed a little, probably due to a bunch of hairy-arsed matchmen trudging around, but they were obviously still in the area, as the odd liner while plumbing up showed.

With 29 & 30 being empty, I decided on a line down the reeds to my left, fed with meat and hemp, to back up my usual approach of chop and caster tight across. I also set up a rig to fish pellet shallow if the initial lines dried up, John Mills has been unbeatable on the midweek opens there of late, simply fishing pellet shallow and catching F1’s in weights up to 80lb, leaving the rest of the field trailing in his wake. Ian was going all out pellet and paste, but he too set up the shallow rigs for later on in the day.

On time I potted in a small amount of meat and a good handful of hemp down the edge, and went across with half aworm on, dropping a small amount of feed over the rig via a kinder pot. The float took it’s settings, wavered to one side a little, then shot under positively, as the first carp of the day was on it’s way to the net! Don’t you just love it when that happens? When carp number four graced the net after my fourth drop in I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming! I have had days like this before elsewhere, but not at Barlborough!

Those days were reserved for other people here, not me! At the time only one other fish had been caught, by Chris Dyson on peg 32, so obviously there were a few in the area, it looked like Wraggy had drawn bang on em AGAIN! The action slowed a little after the initial burst, with odd small perch getting in on the act, but by adjusting the feed by altering the ratios of worm to caster around I kept mainly F1’s coming throughout the first half of the match. I was determined not to go over the margin line until at least half way through, but kept a trickle of bait going in during the time I was catching across.

Half time came, and with odd fish swirling just beyond where I’d fed down the reeds I went in anticipating a result almost immediately. A couple of minutes went by with out a movement, then a slow pull under that was obviously a liner left the rig a little way away from the fed area. I dropped back in and it buried immediately, leaving me striking into thin air. This was repeated three more times before I decided to leave the line a little longer, surmising that the bites were from the venue’s abundant silver fish population.

Back across, and the F1’s were still there in force, another two falling for the lure of the worm in quick succession. A pattern was emerging now, whereby I’d catch a couple across, then the perch would move in and mop up and bits left after the carp backed away due to the disturbance. I settled on a plan of taking a couple of fish from the far side, then having a ten-minute look down the reeds for a bonus fish, to allow the F1’s time to regroup. The first couple of bites I connected with down the edge resulted in foul-hooked fish tearing off and shedding the hook, so it was a case of picking the right bites to strike at, and as I sorted it I began to pick up some useful fish from the margin swim, including a 5lb common and a mirror that must have been over 8lb, both very big fish for Woodlands.

It was quickly turning into my perfect day, catching on my favourite method of chop & caster, my favourite fish (F1’s) and at my local venue, which is also one of my favourites, even though I curse it every other week! But, just as I was beginning to think all my birthdays had come at once, the radio goes and announces that Kevin Phillips the Birmingham striker had scored deep into injury time to positively rob the super Blades of a deserved point on the first day of the football season! Cue a huge temper tantrum for the little fat lad, where the brolly got slung across the other side of peg 32, and pole sections and grass sods were flying everywhere. Looking back, the next half hour was my slowest all day, and who knows, I may have even done a ton if Mr Kevin f***ing Phillips hadn’t popped up when he did!

As time was called I for once felt pretty confident that I would be up among the front-runners. You just don’t let yourself believe that you’ve won, do you? It must be that in-built protection mechanism that saves you from falling flat on your face, but even so, I knew I’d got a decent weight, at least as much as what had been winning of late, and I hadn’t seen anyone else catching except Ian on 28, who was estimating 30-35lb. Pat Bradley, one of the regulars at Barlborough, was in the lead when the scales reached Ian’s peg, with 43lb 14oz. Ian weighed 42lb exactly, and I had 74lb 11oz. A couple of 20lb-plus weights from the other island pegs and that was it, I’d won, with what if I recall rightly was my best ever weight at Woodlands! Top day all in all, and I’d hit my target, winning money every week between our holidays! Nice one! Only problem now though, the gear is going away for almost three weeks and I’m on a high with the fishing! Might have to sneak a telescopic rod into the case!

Before the big wind-down though, there was the small matter of the Turners Arms match, at Woodhouse Grange on the Kingfisher Lake. The howling wind, that the woods had sheltered us from at Barlborough, was in full flight here over the flat countryside that lies between Doncaster and the east coast, limiting our options quite a bit. Now if Saturday was getting close to a perfect day for me, it was only because all my problems were queuing up to get me on the Sunday! I must admit I did fancy my peg 5 draw, there was an island opposite me and a carpy-looking margin to my left, with a spare peg beyond it (everyone had a spare on one side or the other though) and a decent depth at 5-6 sections out for a paste attack, so I had plenty of options.

The gusting wind made fishing long almost impossible, and the venue’s 14.5m pole limit meant I wouldn’t have been able to reach the island anyway as it was just over 16m, but in the past I’d had some success using a small feeder on the pole and swinging it up to the islands in such situations, very accurate fishing, but not an option today in the wind, which by now was blowing bait tins off trays! Three lines were decided on, I don’t like to over cook things on a bagging match, if you’ve done your homework you should know what the winning methods are, and you rarely do a big weight by swapping lines too often. I always work on the principle that you should be able to line enough fish up on one spot to bag a big weight, if you can’t then there probably aren’t enough there anyway to do any serious damage.

Paste at 5m worked for me last time on the adjoining lake, so that would be my first port of call. A line down the margins looked a banker for later in the day, and as something of an afterthought I rigged a feeder rod up. This was where my problems started. My box of feeders was still in the garage, in my other Rive tray! Rive boxes are brilliant for getting your gear organised, the only problem is that they don’t think for you, and at that moment the beautifully organised tray full of feeders and running line gear was as much use as a chocolate fireguard! A rummage through my drawers threw up a couple of the feeders I was using at Bank End during the winter, tiny, but better than nowt, so on they went. I only had pole hooklengths too, so it was a case of tying one every time I lost one. I spent a fair bit of time tying hooks this day I can tell you!

I could only get a bite by casting tight into the island margins in inches of water, and the gusting wind made a mug of me several times during the day. A quick look on the paste line only threw up a skimmer, so after 15 minutes I went onto the feeder, with immediate results. Carp from a pound up to nearly three were coming with some regularity, and while no one else seemed to be catching, club chairman Kevin Cardwell was getting among them from the favoured peg 32. This peg sits almost on its own on the end bank, and there is a big bush overhanging the water next to it. The biggest fish in the lake live under the bush, and if you know what you’re doing it’s a banker draw, indeed the only other times I’ve fished the lake the peg has won both times.

Kev obviously knew what he was doing, as every time I looked over his elastic was stretched out playing another fish. Not surprisingly, the feeder line slowed up a little during the second hour, so a look on the paste was called for. I immediately had a 2lb carp, and settled down to hopefully give Kev a run for his money. Uh-oh, next drop saw me foul-hook a fish that came off as it hit the surface, then it was back to the skimmers.

Something was very wrong; the only thing I could put it down to was the strong tow on the water. Perhaps the fish would be laid up in the margins out of the main body of the tow? A quick look saw a repeat of the scenario on the paste line, an instant fish followed by unhittable bites and foul hookers galore. I switched back to the feeder and was saved, as the carp were lined up again. Another good hour resulted, but all the time I felt Kev was edging further and further away from me. I entered the last hour having had a couple of looks down the edge and still not connecting with the bites properly, still foul-hooking too many, but still squeezing odd fish off my island swim on the feeder.

All was well until 10 minutes from the end, when a gust finally took a cast aimed to land in the mud a little too far, and that was that! Margin swim for the last five then! A late consolation carp, probably the smallest of the day almost seemed to stick two fingers up at me as it dropped into the net. The little bugger bore a close resemblance to Kevin Phillips anall! My two nets totalled 75lb exactly, not enough I was convinced. On the opposite side a couple of lads put 50lb-plus catches on the scales, which together with several 40lb weights made it a very good match overall, the crowning moment of which was Kev’s 94lb 10oz winning bag, all taken on corn under the bush in only 14 inches of water, a sterling performance from the hard working club chairman! Better news was to follow for me though, despite sneaking into second spot via the back door after a less than convincing performance, the place was enough to win me the club’s angler of the year competition, despite there being two matches to go! I miss both of them due to our holiday, so it was nice to get that in the bag before we set sail!
A first and second over the weekend with almost 150lb of fish has got to be a good result in anyone’s book, although you wouldn’t have thought me capable of catching 15lb over two matches watching me throw that feeder Sunday! Or throwing a wobbly after the late goal Saturday for that matter! Anyway, I’m off on me hols this weekend, all the family are going on a cruise in the Mediterranean, which we’ve been looking forward to for ages, so I’m signing off till the first week in September. Till then, tight lines to you all, make em have some lip ache, and I’ll see you when we get back.

They gave me the green light to go at the weekend though, with my brother and sister on hand if needed, and I must admit I was really looking forward to the trip (!) to the Tripp, a lake that is an off-site part of the Messingham Sands complex, with Bankside Tackle. It’s a mixed fishery, carp win overall more often than not, but the huge head of skimmers and crucians make 50lb a relatively easy target which, if topped up with some bonus carp will see you frame more often than not, and put you in with a shout of winning outright.

My mate Barney has got the place sorted, feeding large amounts of groundbait laced with the venue’s omega pellets, and fishing the same on the hook, he’s always there or thereabouts. He called round in the week to put me right, saying it was best if you could line them up to catch on the top three. I wasn’t too convinced by this, I don’t like playing my fish in where I’m catching them, so decided to go a little further out, just to put a bit of distance between me and the vast shoal of crucians that my addled brain had already got lined up two days early! I’d recorded a second place at the venue late last summer catching carp shallow on pellet, and the hot weather would see them making their presence felt on the surface if they were in the peg, so I had a back up plan to catch shallow if needed.

I arrived at the venue early on the Saturday, to be confronted with hundreds of carp cruising around on the surface! Rubbing my hands together in anticipation of a bumper day’s sport, I decided on a plan of catching short(ish) to begin, while feeding pellet for the carp at 13 metres. I fancied my peg 13 draw, it’s my lucky number (I was born on Friday the 13th! At midnight! That’s what I mean when I say better to be luck than good!) And was quite sheltered from the wind which seems to have been the bane of our lives for god knows how long! All the pegs on the Tripp have extensive marginal reed beds, which are full of carp, trouble is these carp are the best in the land at ragging you off in their reedy home, a lesson I learned to my cost one time, coincidentally on the same peg 13, when a tug of war with an unseen beastie resulted in my number four section parting like a gunshot, and my top kit complete with brand new red Hydro speeding off into the ‘Olivers’, never to be seen again!

I’d already decided to ignore the margins, taking the stance of ‘don’t pick a fight you can’t win’, and prepared my lines as me and Barney had discussed earlier. I’d got a nice three foot six inches at five sections, and tooled up with a couple of fine rigs for the crucians and skimmers, together with three shallow rigs at various depths for the long pole. At the start I fed four big balls of 2/3rds green swim stim mixed with 1/3rd Nutrabaits Trigga carpet feed, laced with the omega pellets. Bites were almost instant; there is an unbelievable head of silver fish in the lake, and skimmers and roach were first to respond, up to maybe twelve ounces in weight.

I was getting into a rhythm when I managed to foul-hook a small carp that charged around all over the place before I luckily managed to net it at the fifth attempt! This made a mess of things, so I re-fed with another ball and had a look long where I’d already noticed an odd swirl when I fed the pellets. First drop resulted in a 4oz roach, not exactly what I had in mind, and as I was cursing the possibility that the surface movements could actually be silver fish another bite saw a carp surface upside down, before it realised what was happening and powered off, the hook pulling and my rig getting trashed in the process.

I remembered that last year I’d had a lot of fish really shallow, 3-4” deep at times, so I picked up my shortest rig and shipped out. I slapped it on the water a couple of time, and third time the elastic flew out. Not sure if the carp was hooked properly I played it gently back, mugging it as it surfaced at my feet. At 6lb it was a big fish for the venue, and would turn out to be my biggest of the day. This sequence of events repeated themselves at intervals through the day, I never got them lined up to really bag, but I was doing ok from what I could see of the other anglers, and although Barney was right round the other side of the lake I could hear they weren’t pulling any trees up there either. He’s no shrinking violet our Barney!

A quiet spell mid match saw me try the inside line again, where I’d fed the same groundbait and pellet mix at regular intervals, and despite the fact that I’d played several carp through the peg, by this time the crucians were lined up. Trouble was they were much smaller than usual, only 3-4oz samples, but I plugged away at them while feeding and resting my long line. As crucians do, they soon spooked away, to be replaced by the skimmers, again a little on the small side but welcome nonetheless. Tiny roach signalled a re- feed was called for, and a switch back to the long line.

A couple of late carp long on the shallow pellet, and the day was over. A real good ‘un it had been too, plenty of thought needed to keep one step ahead of the fish which, although present in good numbers, were no mugs, and every one had to be worked for. Kevin Johnson the owner really has got the job of weighing in off to a tee, donning chest waders and walking round the margins, meaning the fish are weighed and returned with the minimum of fuss. I guessed my carp net at 22-25 lb so was pleasantly surprised to see it go 33lb-plus, but was way out on my silvers, I thought they’d bring me double figures but only went 8lb 9oz. Them crucians are strange creatures, some places they look big but are hollow, others they must be all muscle and weigh really heavy. My total of 42lb 2oz led all the way till the final angler, Mark Payling on peg 1.

Something of a dream draw, and with pegs 2 & 3 empty we all knew we’d be fishing for second place when an angler of Mark’s calibre drew it. With his strength being shallow fishing, and the wind blowing down into that end of the lake, he won without breaking sweat, recording 64lb-plus of carp, all on his favourite pellet fished shallow. I was more than pleased with second spot in the circumstances, and with Barney sneaking into the frame in fourth a good day was had by all.

Sunday, and I was back to my old favourite, Bank End. Thanks to all the lads who asked how my mam was, apparently my hasty departure just before the start had left some of them scratching their heads, many wondering if the curse of the dreaded floating pole had finally tipped me over the edge! Ian and the rest of the lads put them in the picture, and it was nice of them to enquire as to her well being, all of which was passed on to her. My peg for the day was 15, a corner peg which looks lovely, reed fringed and with some depth close in, it looked good for a margin assault. Trouble is, there are a few big fish in the lake, and many of them actually live in the corners, but setting your stall out exclusively for them is a risky business. Will they feed? Will there be enough of them to build a weight? And, most importantly, will you get them out of the reeds?

All this added up to too much of a risk for me, so I sat and weighed up the options. The peg had no real form other than odd frame places, usually when the lake had an off day and odd lumps boosted a net of stockies up to a frame weight pr section win. Being in the corner I was a little hemmed in by 14 & 16, making a shallow approach hit and miss possibly? Peg 16 is on the end bank, with a lot of room, and had won the day before with over 100lb, and was occupied by Alan Hedley, a good angler and also a regular at the venue, so he wouldn’t make any mistakes. I made a tactical decision (it almost sounds as though I know what I’m doing when I say that, doesn’t it?) to fish for a defaulted section win, ignoring Alan and concentrating on beating the anglers to my left. To supplement any fish that I might catch shallow I fed a line four sections out with softened Trigga pellets, intending to fish paste over the top. Alan was playing his second fish as I’d finished feeding (I did pot a bit in down the reeds just in case) and I could hear splashing from my right too, so it was time to get my arse into gear.

Another interesting and thought-provoking day followed, whereby I’d get a run of fish on one shallow rig, before having to switch to a different one to keep in touch, then chase the fish out by adding a section, before feeding them back to my original spot and staring again. In between times I picked off odd slightly better fish on my short paste line, but again they wouldn’t settle for any length of time, keeping me busy swapping and changing throughout the day. Alan, meanwhile, was building a good weight, albeit on the FP!

As time was called I wasn’t sure if I’d done enough to beat the lad on 14 to my left, who’d seemed to match me fish for fish all day, again many of which were on the floating pole, but he had some better stamp fish late on by throwing one of those mushroom-shaped pellet wagglers out, and the bigger fish seemed to be fighting to pull it under! I walked to meet the scales, just as a 121lb catch was edging a 107lb weight from the early pegs into 2nd place. As I told the lad who’d had 107, most would regard it as a moral victory as he’d caught all his fish on the pellet waggler, but unfortunately the floating pole does seem to reign supreme here at the moment. Next angler to weigh was the first in my section, and he brought 50lb or so up the bank. This was repeated for the next few pegs until the scales reached the lad on 14, and my heart sank as he recorded 67lb.

When my first net went 34lb though I began to think I might just pull off my cunning tactical plan. I always seem to have a bit more in my left hand net for some reason, don’t ask me why, and it is always my second weight, which this day went 40lb, giving me a total of 74lb 11oz, top in the section up to press. However, all this was to no avail if Alan on peg 16 didn’t frame. Fortunately he didn’t let me down, and squeezed in between the two ton-plus weights with 112lb. It wasn’t over yet though, as three anglers in a line on the far bank opposite the other two big weights had all got potential winning bags. They did indeed produce the eventual winner, a 130lb weight flanked by two bags of 92lb 11oz, and one unfortunate lad who weighed 92lb 7oz and went home empty handed! With Alan finishing third that meant I snaffled the section by default, my cunning plan had come together! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Not only have I got the ‘Doctor Evil from Austin Powers’ hair do, (and the bent nose!) I can also come up with half-baked schemes like he does too!

More trips across town to the hospital lined up for the little fat lad this week I’m afraid with me mam & dad, but next weekend I’m Barlborough bound, then Sunday it’s the last Turners arms match I can fish due to our impending holiday. It’s at Woodhouse Grange again, this time on the Kingfisher lake, and I need to score big points to keep near the top of the league because I miss the last two matches. Might have to go for a sneaky practise just in case, but if you see me, don’t tell anybody will you? Tight lines till next week.