Last weeks fishing was interesting but the weather really took its toll, that said I managed to put a few fish in the old onion sack but unfortunately not enough! Tuesday at Gwinear and the attendance was low, possibly as a result of an unbelievably heavy frost, when I looked out of the window I thought we had another dump of snow it was that bad. It was also the full moon and Monday night it looked huge so no doubt the gravitational pull was going to have an effect on those carp! My draw put me on peg 40 and one that I know quite well, even with only a few anglers on the lake I cannot manage to pull peg 36! Never mind mustn’t grumble, I will leave it until there is a full house!

I set up a pole rig to fish the bar at 13m slightly to my right and didn’t bother with pole lines anywhere else. I set up two Cralusso Rocket light wagglers as I fancied that a few fish would be feeding shallow. At the start I went straight on the pole with 6mm pellet on the hook but not much happened. Andy Dare on the opposite bank had couple of quick fish on the waggler and then nothing. Eventually I had a couple of fish one after another o the pole followed by a quite spell. That made me reach for the waggler and before long I was catching a few at 3’ deep in around 6’ of water. The problem was keeping them coming there were long spells with nothing followed by a quick burst. Three times I went back on the pole and managed two fish immediately followed by a blank spell.

Close but no cigar

It was nip and tuck with Andy who was on the opposite bank and at the whistle I couldn’t call it, in the end he took the verdict with 47lb to my 45lb one ore fish was needed. To be honest I should have won this knock up but in the last hour I suffered a tangle around the bottom of my waggler and was too lazy to re tackle. Consequently I couldn’t adjust the depth, I knew the fish were shallower as I was getting line bites but like a fool I just carried on! Oh man I must try harder!

Thursday and I again had a few things to do so I text Kevin at the Barns informing him I would be late and requesting a good peg be drawn for me! There was a good turn out so I was hoping for one of the flyers it’s about time I had one!  I arrived in the car park and met Andy Dare who had drawn my peg. Do you want the good news or bad news he asks. Go on give me the bad news, its peg six for you again! Come to think of it I don’t think he gave me any good news! I trundled to my normal peg ready to get out my peg 6 rigs and looked up the lake. I just could not believe my eyes when I saw that Manchester Mick Heacock on peg 11 once again. I just had to give him a little and I actually think he looked embarrassed, just for a moment!

Wrong side

It was quite an enjoyable match but it was soon apparent that we were on the wrong side of the lake as most opposite were catching well whilst we struggled. We had a tricky little wind on our side and it was cold no doubt the fish had scarpered! Leading the charge was none other than Harry who had also drawn the golden peg and by the half way mark it was obvious that it was going to be won again for the third time in three weeks. Shame it had not had chance to build up a bit!

I finished with around 15lb which I think was 8 fish my only consolation was that I was winning until it got to Chaz Ward on peg 10 who had 18lb, then as the scales continued round to the warm side  I think everybody had a better weight! My ambition is to draw better at this venue or at least draw on the other side of the lake. Kevin the owner is talking about naming peg 6 after me. Personally I would prefer to be to draw another peg consistently and have that one christened! I have to admit though I enjoy the Barns, it is a nice place to fish with good company even if those from Manchester take all the best pegs!

Shame it’s the last one

Sunday was the last day of the Individual league at White Acres and around 30 had turned up. It is probably the last time locals can get on the lakes until late autumn as the park opens up for business for the new season next week. Hopefully there will be the odd match that we can attend plus the festivals. Following on from last week I hid behind the counter in the shop keeping well away from that bag of dreams which has been more like a bag of night mares recently! I was recording the sections on Twin Oaks and Sycamore and really was hoping for a nice peg on Twin Oaks. Slowly all the pegs were taken on my boards so I was bound for the match lake, the last one in the bag was peg 30 which I was not unhappy with.

Section win required

I had Andy Partridge in my section and he was going to be a danger on end peg 12 the section is split with anglers on each end of the high bank. I could just about see him from where I sat but would not be able to see how he was doing. Both of us needed the section win, Andy to have a chance at coming second in the league and I needed a push to get a little higher up the league. All we can do is fish the peg we have been dealt and not worry about what anybody else is doing.

I thought about a carp only approach but quickly changed my mind I had nigh on 50lb of silvers last week so if I could get something like that again with a few carp thrown in I was sure that would be enough for the much needed section win. The weather was also a deciding factor as the wind was strong and cold coming from the NE, it was sideways on to me and I felt it would put the carp off.

Nice when a plan works

My rigs were the same as last week but everything was shortened because of the wind, I felt that I would be only able to hold seven sections of pole comfortably so that was to be my main line. There was no point in my mind battling with 13m of carbon! I also plumbed at 4 sections and down the edge. A straight lead and a method feeder completed my armoury. At the start I went out immediately on the straight lead close to the island before I had fed my pole lines. I had a plan and wanted to be the first to drop bait out by the island. It worked as within a couple of seconds the rod pulled around and I was playing what turned out to be a 6lb 10oz mirror! The reason I know its weight is because it was the only one I had! Despite a few more attempts on the lead and method I never ha another. I was getting the odd line bite so I knew that there were some more around, no doubt if I had stuck to it I would have found a few more.

Towing

I struggled to start with on the 8m line with only the odd perch but it was really towing and I wished I fished an gram float.  Moving onto the closer line and I started to catch perch and roach and quite quickly they were small samples but they were coming. Slowly some bigger fish came along. After feeding the longer line again I found a few big skimmers which were a nice boost. But it was the closer line that was more prolific. Funnily enough I could not get a bite down my edge! Perhaps it was down to the wind or down to the ducks they all seemed to congregate around me!

I had an absolutely blinding last 15 minutes on the short pole when the fish just turned up catching a hybrid of around 2 1/2lb a big skimmer and a huge perch plus a few stamp roach, I just wish the match had gone on for another hour! At the end I guestmated I had around 40lb and hoped it would be enough.

Victor re visited

Andy Partridge was on the scales and he started with himself recording a brilliant 63lb which consisted of around 45lb of perch! He only had 1 carp of around 4lb so he had a fantastic days fishing. I decided to have a little fun with him and soon had him impersonating Victor again! I told him I had a good net of silvers along with half a dozen carp. When my silver net went over 40lb he was a very worried looking man! A mock struggled ensued as I struggled to lift my one carp out of the water but the look on his face was worth it! Well done Andy that was a really good bag of fish. Once again the great net of fish I had caught the pain away from not picking anything up, the lake is fishing really well at the moment, it’s a shame the league is now over.

Harry Billing won the league by a country mile he even won the last match individually with 78lb from Twin Oaks taken on the method feeder. Andy Partridge was second followed by Clint and Andy Dare well done guys you all fished well throughout the winter. Fortunately for myself Clint pays to 10^th position and the last two matches had moved me up to 8^th place which was worth 60 drinking vouchers! In the B league my mate Steve Maynard was the champion Taking home £150 plus his section win on the day. He was followed by Andy Gray and Nigel Sanders well done guys glad you got promotion to our league!

Many thanks to Clint for running the matches over the winter period, there has been some fantastic fishing considering that this has been the coldest winter in living memory in Cornwall. I actually find myself wishing my life away looking forward to next winter!

Round 1 – December 09
My draw put me on Pool 1, Peg 8. Andy May told me this was traditionally a good peg but sometimes didn’t produce. I set up a bomb and corn for 17 metres, and a mini cage-feeder containing soaked micros to be fished at 35 metres, alternating hair-rigged corn and dead red maggot on the hook. Pools 1 to 6 are all strip pools, about 40 metres wide, and are pegged single-bank so that your main lines of attack in winter are down the middle and over. I didn’t even set up the pole.
I spent the first half hour fishing right over on the cage feeder, and had one small carp, which I landed, and a few liners. While I waited for the tip to go round, I was firing single pieces of corn down the middle, at the rate of one every few minutes. After 40 minutes I had my first look on the bomb down the middle, and caught three quick barbel between 1.5 and 3lbs. Then the bites tailed off, so I chucked long again to give the middle a rest. Every time I came back down the middle I took a few fish (barbel and carp) before the bites disappeared. This pattern was repeated throughout the match, and even though I didn’t catch much at all fishing right over (only 2 fish all day) it was essential to rest the middle track, whilst continuing to ping in odd bits of corn here. I weighed 65lb for a lake win and third overall in the match, beaten by two weights off pool 5. Double corn outscored single corn – more visible I suppose. The main lesson I took from this match is that you need to draw on fish. As a team, we had done pretty well with everyone finishing in the top 4 of their sections, to put Last Cast top of the league after round 1.

Round 2 – January 10
I moved onto pool 3 for this match, drawing peg 73. It didn’t look too exciting with snow on the ground and a biting east wind. I set myself up pretty much the same as the previous match on Pool 1, but also put a bloodworm swim in at 10 metres. The weather was shocking and blanks were a real possibility, so I had nicked some B&J from Neil Lloyd, who had nicked his from Pete Keenan etc. I felt like a drug dealer as we cut and re-cut our one pack of joker to try and spread it around the team. Amazingly, I started getting indications on the bomb before the all in, and I knew that others around me were getting them as well. But these proved to be empty promises as the match was a real grueller. With half the match gone I had 3lb in the net (one carp) and was doing reasonably well! But I made a tactical error in staying on the tip for the last 2 hours. I had one further F1 but Keiron and Andy Moors both caught on pellet long (14/15m) in the last hour. They ended up with 16lb and 12lb respectively, whilst my 6lb was still good enough for 4th in section. In truth, I was annoyed with myself for not putting in a long pellet swim – I’ll certainly do that next time. Team Last Cast had generally done okay again, although we had one blank. But after two rounds we were sitting in second position, behind Maver.

Round 3 – February 10
This match saw me draw on Arena, peg 18. Not a great peg by any means, but the weather though cold was dead still, so at least it enabled me to fish the waggler which I knew Darren Mulheir had caught on the previous week. Arena is the doughnut shaped lake that hosts the Fish o Mania final. It contains loads of barbel and some huge carp, but the latter didn’t want to play ball in the cold. In fact, there was not a single carp caught in three quarters of the lake! The winner had 9 carp for 40 odd pound from peg 30 (I think), whilst the rest of us had to be content with silver fish. My 16lb of roach, skimmers and tench on the waggler only put me halfway in the section, beaten by two 19lbs and a 20lb.
I had enjoyed the day though, chucking a crystal insert waggler about 25 metres into 4 foot of water and catching over red maggot. You had to dot the float down until nearly invisible to see the bites, and I was playing with shotting patterns all day to try and increase my catch rate. I’m not sure I ever really got it completely sussed – maybe if I had it would have brought the extra 4lb I needed for second in the section. During the match I had spent about an hour in total on the method feeder tight over looking for a lump, and maybe I should have committed to a full 5 hours on the waggler. But then hindsight is the best angler I know. Unfortunately the team had a bit of a mare thanks to some naff draws, and so after 3 rounds we had dropped to fourth place in the league. We were a bit off the pace, but with 3 rounds of weather-disrupted angling to come we were still in the hunt.

Rounds 4 and 5
The fourth round was re-sheduled for a date I couldn’t do, and in my absence the team again managed fourth, clearly demonstrating the huge difference that my presence makes. Yet another cancelled round followed the week after, meaning that there would now only be time for 5 rounds, with the fifth and final round taking place on Sun 28th February.
I volunteered to take the dreaded Pool 5 for this match. The fish are tightly balled around the peg 151/153 area at the moment, so I was not encouraged by drawing wood-end peg 139. Andy May told me that this was “the worst peg on the complex” but to be quite honest, when I got there I quite fancied it. And what does he know anyhow?
I decided on a bomb and hair-rigged corn approach, and after 35 minutes I had a reasonable carp of approx 4lbs. In fact, it went precisely 5lb 13ozs – I know this because I had nothing else to put on the scales alongside it 5 hours later. Amazingly, this still beat some in the section. Elsewhere the lads had mixed fortunes again. Neil Lloyd got second on Brewsters, and Steve May got third on Pool 3 with 13lbs of skimmers on the long pole (not easy in that wind). My brother Pete stood in for Pete Kennan and managed 5 points from 9 on Suez, but other results were less good and we slumped to fifth team on the day. This cost us dearly as we also slipped to fifth in the final league rankings, missing out on fourth by a single point. The league was won by Daiwa/Ultima/Garbolino who narrowly triumphed over Maver Midlands, the latter sporting lovely new jackets of jet black with lime green piping.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed the league but being brutally honest, the top two teams are miles ahead – they know Cudmore’s moods and are quicker to adapt. Immediately after the match on the Sunday evening my brother and I left Cudmore and headed South, driving straight down to Stafford Moor in Devon for Herbie’s week long Silver Fish festival.

Herbie’s Invitation Festival – Stafford Moor
As the name suggests this is a silvers only festival, and is an event I won last year, so I was keen to retain my title. Monday was a practice match with festival days being Tuesday to Friday. We were put into 4 peg sections and no days could be dropped, so every match counted. Unfortunately the way the sections worked you were with the same 4 anglers all week, so once the draw had taken place on Monday night I knew my chances were all but gone. My section contained fishery owner Andy Seery, tackle shop owner and venue expert Chris Haines, my brother and me. But having said that, we all went on to enjoy a fantastic week. The average weight of silvers per angler, per day across the whole festival was over 25lb.
I managed a section first, two seconds and a third, which put me fifth overall in the festival. The event was won by Tim Suttle with a perfect 4 section wins – well done to him on a deserved victory. This is what I learnt.
Groundbait was the key, and you needed to fish a green fishmeal based feed, containing little other than a few micro pellets. Red maggot fished over the top of this was the top method. It took me a couple of days to catch on to this, but it was a method that Andy Seery and the Bristol crowd were clearly alive to right from the outset. Best approach seemed to be to start with 3 or 4 balls fed at approx 12 metres, and then fish this out. Crunch time comes when you have to re-feed because it was clear that the skimmers did not like having stuff dumped on their heads. By the last day I had found that you could reduce the need to re-feed groundbait by firing casters over the top of it. Not little and often as this brought in the roach, but a good pouchful every five minutes. This tended to keep the skimmers interested, and allowed you to put together a consistent run of them. I won my section doing this on the Friday – I know, I know… too late! The worm seemed not to work at all, and I departed with 2 kilos having arrived with 3. Another useful back up line was to fish expanders over hard balls of micro-pellets. Lodge-mate Jim McDowell sussed this on the Tuesday, and by the Thursday I had dispensed with the micros and was just feeding loose expanders along with a few bits of corn. This worked for me on both the Thursday and the Friday, accounting for vital bonus tench on both occasions.
Overall then, a brilliant week. We had a great laugh every day with Andy Seery, Chris Haines and Pete. As predicted we kept taking points of each other but the spirit was excellent. Every night was spent in the Kings Arms and I didn’t want to leave at the end of it. But I said goodbye to Stafford Moor on Friday, and today I need to say goodbye to this website. I have blogged on here for 2 years, and now is the time to move on. Summer is coming (hopefully) and I need to start switching my gear and my head over. The older I get, the less I care about winning and the more I value the friendships that fishing creates, so if you see me on the bank come over and say hello. Thanks for reading.

Round 1 – December 09
My draw put me on Pool 1, Peg 8. Andy May told me this was traditionally a good peg but sometimes didn’t produce. I set up a bomb and corn for 17 metres, and a mini cage-feeder containing soaked micros to be fished at 35 metres, alternating hair-rigged corn and dead red maggot on the hook. Pools 1 to 6 are all strip pools, about 40 metres wide, and are pegged single-bank so that your main lines of attack in winter are down the middle and over. I didn’t even set up the pole.

I spent the first half hour fishing right over on the cage feeder, and had one small carp, which I landed, and a few liners. While I waited for the tip to go round, I was firing single pieces of corn down the middle, at the rate of one every few minutes. After 40 minutes I had my first look on the bomb down the middle, and caught three quick barbel between 1.5 and 3lbs. Then the bites tailed off, so I chucked long again to give the middle a rest. Every time I came back down the middle I took a few fish (barbel and carp) before the bites disappeared. This pattern was repeated throughout the match, and even though I didn’t catch much at all fishing right over (only 2 fish all day) it was essential to rest the middle track, whilst continuing to ping in odd bits of corn here. I weighed 65lb for a lake win and third overall in the match, beaten by two weights off pool 5. Double corn outscored single corn – more visible I suppose. The main lesson I took from this match is that you need to draw on fish. As a team, we had done pretty well with everyone finishing in the top 4 of their sections, to put Last Cast top of the league after round 1.

Round 2 – January 10
I moved onto pool 3 for this match, drawing peg 73. It didn’t look too exciting, with snow on the ground and a biting wind. I set myself up pretty much the same as the previous match on Pool 1, but also put a bloodworm swim in at 10 metres. The weather was shocking and blanks were a real possibility, so I had nicked some B&J from Neil Lloyd, who had nicked his from Pete Keenan etc. I felt like a drug dealer as we cut and re-cut our one pack of joker to try and spread it around the team.

Amazingly, I started getting indications on the bomb before the all in, and I knew that others around me were getting them as well. But these proved to be empty promises as the match was a real grueller. With half the match gone I had 3lb in the net (one carp) and was doing reasonably well! But I made a tactical error in staying on the tip for the last 2 hours. I had one further F1 but Keiron and Andy Moors both caught on pellet long (14/15m) in the last hour. They ended up with 16lb and 12lb respectively, whilst my 6lb was still good enough for 4th in section. In truth, I was annoyed with myself for not putting in a long pellet swim – I’ll certainly do that next time. Team Last Cast had generally done okay again, although we had one blank. But after two rounds we were sitting in second position, behind Maver.

Round 3 – February 10
This match saw me draw on Arena, peg 18. Not a great peg by any means, but the weather though cold was dead still, so at least it enabled me to fish the waggler which I knew Darren Mulheir had caught on the previous week.

Arena is the doughnut shaped lake that hosts the Fish o Mania final. It contains loads of barbel and some huge carp, but the latter didn’t want to play ball in the cold. In fact, there was not a single carp caught in three quarters of the lake! The winner had 9 carp for 40 odd pound from peg 30 (I think), whilst the rest of us had to be content with silver fish. My 16lb of roach, skimmers and tench on the waggler only put me halfway in the section, beaten by two 19lbs and a 20lb.

I had enjoyed the day though, chucking a crystal insert waggler about 25 metres into 4 foot of water and catching over red maggot. You had to dot the float down until nearly invisible to see the bites, and I was playing with shotting patterns all day to try and increase my catch rate. I’m not sure I ever really got it completely sussed – maybe if I had it would have brought the extra 4lb I needed for second in the section. During the match I had spent about an hour in total on the method feeder tight over looking for a lump, and maybe I should have committed to a full 5 hours on the waggler. But then hindsight is the best angler I know. Unfortunately the team had a bit of a mare thanks to some naff draws, and so after 3 rounds we had dropped to fourth place in the league. We were a bit off the pace, but with 3 rounds of weather-disrupted angling to come we were still in the hunt.

Rounds 4 and 5
The fourth round was re-sheduled for a date I couldn’t do, and in my absence the team again managed fourth, clearly demonstrating the huge difference that my presence makes. Yet another cancelled round followed the week after, meaning that there would now only be time for 5 rounds, with the fifth and final round taking place on Sun 28th February.

I volunteered to take the dreaded Pool 5 for this match. The fish are tightly balled around the peg 151/153 area at the moment, so I was not encouraged by drawing wood-end peg 139. Andy May told me that this was “the worst peg on the complex” but to be quite honest, when I got there I quite fancied it. And what does he know anyhow?

I decided on a bomb and hair-rigged corn approach, and after 35 minutes I had a reasonable carp of approx 4lbs. In fact, it went precisely 5lb 13ozs – I know this because I had nothing else to put on the scales alongside it 5 hours later. Amazingly, this still beat some in the section.

Elsewhere the lads had mixed fortunes again. Neil Lloyd got second on Brewsters, and Steve May got third on Pool 3 with 13lbs of skimmers on the long pole (not easy in that wind). My brother Pete stood in for Pete Kennan and managed 5 points from 9 on Suez, but other results were less good and we slumped to fifth team on the day. This cost us dearly as we also slipped to fifth in the final league rankings, missing out on fourth by a single point. The league was won by Daiwa/Ultima/Garbolino who narrowly triumphed over Maver Midlands, the latter sporting lovely new jackets of jet black with lime green piping.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed the league but being brutally honest, the top two teams are miles ahead – they know Cudmore’s moods and are quicker to adapt. Immediately after the match on the Sunday evening my brother and I left Cudmore and headed South, driving straight down to Stafford Moor in Devon for Herbie’s week long Silver Fish festival.

Herbie’s Invitation Festival – Stafford Moor
As the name suggests this is a silvers only festival, and is an event I won last year, so I was keen to retain my title. Monday was a practice match with festival days being Tuesday to Friday. We were put into 4 peg sections and no days could be dropped, so every match counted.

Unfortunately the way the sections worked you were with the same 4 anglers all week, so once the draw had taken place on Tuesday night I knew my chances were all but gone. My section contained fishery owner Andy Seery, tackle shop owner and venue expert Chris Haines, my brother and me. But having said that, we all went on to enjoy a fantastic week. The average weight of silvers per angler, per day across the whole festival was over 25lb.

I managed a section first, two seconds and a third, which put me fifth overall in the festival. The event was won by Tim Suttle with a perfect 4 section wins – well done to him on a deserved victory. This is what I learnt.

Groundbait was the key, and you needed to fish a green fishmeal based feed, containing little other than a few micro pellets. Red maggot fished over the top of this was the top method. It took me a couple of days to catch on to this, but it was a method that Andy Seery and the Bristol crowd were clearly alive to right from the outset. Best approach seemed to be to start with 3 or 4 balls fed at approx 12 metres, and then fish this out. Crunch time comes when you have to re-feed because it was clear that the skimmers did not like having stuff dumped on their heads. By the last day I had found that you could reduce the need to re-feed groundbait by firing casters over the top of it. Not little and often as this brought in the roach, but a good pouchful every five minutes. This tended to keep the skimmers interested, and allowed you to put together a consistent run of them. I won my section doing this on the Friday – I know, I know… too late! The worm seemed not to work at all, and I departed with 2 kilos having arrived with 3. Another useful back up line was to fish expanders over hard balls of micro-pellets. Lodge-mate Jim McDowell sussed this on the Tuesday, and by the Thursday I had dispensed with the micros and was just feeding loose expanders along with a few bits of corn. This worked for me on both the Thursday and the Friday, accounting for vital bonus tench on both occasions.

Overall then, a brilliant week. We had a great laugh every with Andy Seery, Chris Haines and Pete. As predicted we kept taking points off each other but the spirit was excellent and I didn’t want to leave at the end of it.

But I said goodbye to Stafford Moor on Friday, and today I need to say goodbye to this website. I have blogged on here for 2 years, but now need to move on. Summer is coming (hopefully) and I need to start switching my gear and my head over.

The older I get, the less I care about winning and the more I value the friendships that fishing creates, so if you see me on the bank come over and say hello. Thanks for reading.

No long stick

The pole has just not been working on phase two so I decided it was to be a running line day which I have to admit I am really enjoying, especially fishing the waggler. It has given me the opportunity to give my Cralusso Rocket lights an airing and it’s good to see that a few other anglers have seen how good they are and are also now using this fantastic float. I set up two waggler rods both with 2.5gram versions. One had a size 18 hook for fishing the maggot at depth and the other had a PR36 18’s with a F1 Micro band on a hair for the pellet. In addition I also had a straight lead rod which I could quickly adapt to a small feeder should I feel the need.

I had actually arrived a little late for this match as I had a couple of things to do beforehand so I was a bit pushed for time and not quite ready at the whistle. I decided to put an 8mm pellet on the hook and cast towards the middle of the lake whilst I finished putting the rest of my bait on the side table. Within seconds the rod was nearly dragged in and a quick grab of the handle was required to save it. A nice little mirror of around 2 ½lb was soon in the net. I re baited and cast to the same spot and within a second the tip was pulling around again and I was playing the first ones brother! It all happened so quick that I think Tyrone thought I was playing the same fish! Obviously I thought I was on for the ton but no more bites came with the next 15 minutes, I reached for the waggler which was set at depth so that I could cast around the swim looking for signs of fish and also trying to establish if they were up in the water.

Offside

I had four more carp in that first hour so it was a really good start and that is what made the next three hours so disappointing, I never had another fish! It was just like one of the football matches when a goal is scored in the opening seconds; it promises a lot and normally doesn’t produce the net full that we all anticipated! The last hour produced a few more on the straight lead and that is what Mr Hindsight told me I should have done a bit more off during those barren 3 hours, cast the lead and sit on my hands!

In the end Tyrone and I unbelievably weighed exactly the same 24lb 8oz beaten by that old ex Trentman Andy Dare who had one on the whistle to weigh 25lb exactly! Oh man when things are not going your way it is a difficult game!

Expectations run high

Thursday saw our expectations soaring down at the Barns, we had just had two or three really mild days and night-time temperatures around 5 Celsius, we all to a man thought that we were in for a great match. I went into the bag of dreams full of confidence but once again took a knock back when peg 6 was stuck to my mitts. I was excited for a moment as Kevin told me there were a load of carp on peg 9 and initially I was holding the peg number upside down! Never mind I had a big 40lb weight from 5 a few weeks back so I had an idea how to approach the peg.

Float wise I chose two 4×12 J5 for fishing at the bottom of the shelf and a 4 x 8 J1 for fishing up the slope which I set at 2’ this gave me a lot of scope fishing on the steep slope. At the start I fed two lines with some garlic micros at the bottom of the slope and started on maggot on the hook. It was a slow start and 15 minutes into the match I hooked my first fish which unbelievably came off at the net! Never mind, mustn’t grumble plenty more fish in the pond. Only trouble is despite our expectations the fish didn’t have the same feeling for the day and everybody was struggling. Slowly a few fish were starting to get caught. Harry Billing on peg 22 had found a few Tench; Michael on 9 was into a few carp. The ‘hot’ pegs were cool with not much happening and I managed one or two in the deep water but it was hard.  The good thing about it was it was interesting and you had to work for your bites, changing lines and feeding small amounts not taking too many fish from one swim, (that bit was easy!). I managed a few from the top of the far bank slope and quickly realised that feeding there was wrong. It was far better to slap the pellet into the water and every now and then it was taken by a not so hungry carp.

So close but yet so far

Unfortunately it didn’t last all match and the last 90 minutes were tricky to say the least. At the other end of the lake on end peg 10 was Mark Lazell who managed to find some slightly bigger fish and with a nice run at the end won the match comfortably with 37lb followed by Harry Billing on 29lb I finished with 23lb for about 5^th quite enjoyable but again frustrating, obviously the water hasn’t warmed up that much. I really wish I had not lost my thermometer it would have been really interesting this winter noting the temperature of the lakes.

Carp or bust

Saturday saw us assemble at White Acres for the individual league and our numbers were depleted as Kernow Match Group were involved in their Super cup match at Stafford Moor. I tentatively put my hand into the bag and was a bit unsure about my peg 14 on Trelawney. Two pegs from where I was drawn last week and the one Andy Dare never hooked a carp on, this week it was carp included so remembering last week didn’t fill me with confidence! Now, sometimes you have to go for it in a match and this was the one for me, it was win or lose no half measures today. I knew I could fish for the roach and ‘have a nice days fishing’ but sometimes that is not enough, I really felt that I needed to try and compete as I guessed that the section was going to be won with around 60lb so it was to be F1’s and carp only for me I did not want to get sidetracked.

A method feeder, straight lead and margin line with carp in mind were assembled. To compliment theses positive methods I had a long pole to fish corn over micros hoping for F1’s and the odd carp I was going to ping 4mm pellets hoping to draw some carp and I also had a shallow rig just in case!

Blinkers

Well I had one of those matches when I watched Andy Dare on peg 12 catch an F1 a chuck on the straight lead and maggot and the guy next to him catching F1’s on the pole! The others in my section were catching roach looking for 30lb plus to come third, I persevered for the elusive carp and F1’s that didn’t want to play ball in my swim finishing last with 15lb.  Andy Dare romped the section with 61lb and 35lb coming second.

Tremendous Trelawney

What made it harder for me was that I could see the other section on the other side of the island and they were absolutely bagging!  Paul Carpenter was catching very well on the waggler; he struggled to get some of the carp into the landing net they were so big! He was practically opposite me as well, it’s a real shame there are no tunnels in that island. That old cliché was very apt, only there was a wall between us! A few pegs up and Harry Billing was wearing his pole out catching an F1 every single put in,  eventually finishing second to Paul in that section 102lb a great performance. Paul managed 116lb a slow last hour costing him overall victory in the match to Mark Lazell who had 120lb from peg 16 on Twin Oaks. All I can say is you lucky people and Paul Carpenter must try harder!

Personally I was disappointed finishing last in section but I set my stall out for a win knowing that I would be going nowhere if I tried fishing everything in my swim. But what a cracking match it was with some fantastic weights, I was really looking forward to the next round on Sunday which was a silvers only round and in our league F1’s count. Oh man please put me on one of those pegs on the straight banks of Trelawney!

It doesn’t get much better

To be perfectly honest I was afraid of putting my hand in the bag of dreams on Sunday morning! Instead I volunteered to help out with the recording of names on the section list, perfectly content to let someone else seal my fate by drawing my peg for me. When it was revealed that I had peg 26 on the match lake I felt like doing a cartwheel around the shop! A fantastic peg in an area that I haven’t been able to draw for myself for ages, there just had to be a catch! I had recorded the names of the anglers fishing Trelawney and never thought to look at the other boards. I walked outside full of the joys of spring and bumped into fellow SPRO backed angler Andy Partridge, he is currently second in the league and I wondered why he was doing a Victor Meldrew impression, he was shaking his head and muttering ‘I don’t believe it’ What’s wrong mate I asked ‘Our section, have you seen it, Clint Elliot, Harry Billing you and John Rennie’ Oh man this is going to be a tough one, we both walked away muttering together!

Reprieve from the breeze

We were really fortunate with the weather as the 45mph winds had not appeared and it had the making of a good day. I had a bit of wind which was over my shoulder, fish were topping everywhere and I really couldn’t wait to get at them. I did fancy fishing up in the water as there were so may fish moving around. In view of this I decided on a long pole attack and also at the bottom of the shelf at 5m plus a look for those very important perch that reside down the edge in the margins. My rigs were Cralusso Capri’s and I had a .75 gram to tackle the deep water and a .5 gram for the 5m line. For the edge I settled on a 4 x 12 J12 and a .30 gram J13’s for up in the water. All my hooks were Milo T213 in 18’s and 16’s to.10 Xedion line. Bait wise I had 3 pints of casters, some worms, maggots and two kilos of ground bait which was my normal mix of Green Swimstim and Yorkshire Baits Green Betaine.

At the start I fed three big balls of GB on my 13m line and two on the 5m line a good handful of casters went down the edge. I started on the long line with maggot on the hook and was a little disappointed not to get an immediate response. John Rennie to my right started catching F1’s in the 8oz bracket at 7m and alarm bells started especially as he was catching steady from the off. Harry to his right was also catching in fact he was quickly into ‘Harry mode’ netting fish from the off. To my left Andy Partridge and Clint were starting the match at the same speed as me, slowly! Both of them fishing much closer lines than I had chosen. Eventually the fish found my bait and I started getting some roach and the odd F1. We were all catching quite well it looked like the main shoal of  F1’s were to my right as I was getting the odd one and to my left none were showing.

Here we go

Slowly the swim came alive and I have to say that this really was the best match I have fished in a long time, everybody was getting fish and no doubt it was going to be close. Well, close if you take Harry out of the equation he was trying his level best to empty the lake! I only caught from two of my lines and they were the long pole on the deck where I had a load of skimmers in the 6oz bracket along with a couple of Bream some roach and F!’s. The edge line was the other productive swim where I found some VIP’s of around 2 1/2 – 3 lb they are fantastic fish those big old Perch, brilliant to catch. I really must weigh one separately if I am fortunate enough to catch another one, it makes me wonder just what size they reach in the match lake, well over 4lb I bet.

Please don’t blow the whistle!

It was one of those matches that you just didn’t want to end the fishing was so enjoyable but unfortunately Clint called the all in and we had to stop. The scales came to Harry and he emptied around 70lb of mainly F1’s onto the scales to take the lead in the section. John to my right had somewhere in the region of 30lb and I recorded 49lb 10oz to take second place. And fortunately for me that’s how it stayed with Andy P and Clint weighing around 46lb each. What an incredible match the other sections on Trelawney fished really well with Clive Hancock taking the match win with around 75lb of F1’s. Role on next Sunday for the last in this series I would love to be around that high bank again.

I was keen to get back to Gwinear on Tuesday as I wanted to put the last match there out of my mind. I was thinking I had no chance of drawing phase one as it is normally not in midweek especially out of the tourist season. You can imagine my horror when I found out after I paid that it was in! I really didn’t want to draw there, at least it was only one bank that was in so the half way rule didn’t apply. I had everything crossed as I put my hand into the bag and was overjoyed when I saw peg 51 on phase two staring back at me. My joy didn’t last that long when Harry Billing drew peg 36 on the same lake it really is proving a difficult peg to compete against, especially when someone of his calibre is on it. What’s more he was practically opposite me which would make my favoured waggler approach very difficult.

Too tight for the waggler

To cut a long story short I struggled on the waggler only catching a couple of small carp in the first couple of hours. I was really going nowhere; Harry had caught steadily but again not as much as expected. I had set up a pole to fish towards the bank at 14.5m which I had initially started on and caught quite a few 2oz F1’s which I had put straight back. I decided to fish for them just to see what could be caught but I was now just going use my top two straight in front of me.

I had 90 minutes fishing for them with an adapted rig and caught really well probably catching around 70 in that time! It was good fun trying to keep them coming, it would have been better with a rig that was designed for the job but they kept coming. As Jason to my right started catching proper carp I gave up, I did think at one stage I might nick the section!  I actually weighed around 15lb having caught a couple of late carp on the waggler fished to my left towards the bank, so I guestimate my F1’s went around 9lb which is really good news for the future! As predicted Harry won the match with around 42lb but he was pushed close by Jason Eccles who was second with 35lb he had a late run on the straight lead.

Golden Oldie

On Thursday it was back to the Barns and this week there was a better turn out, we were on Joan’s lake which is the carp pool. The golden peg had reached just over a £100 and this week it had a good chance of going into somebody’s pocket as flyer peg 14 was drawn as the GP. I was near the front of the queue, keen to get in front of some of the draw bags that were in attendance!  I had my dip and thought for a moment that I had drawn ‘the peg’ but alas it as peg 16 that was to be my home for the day. I let out a cheer just as a wind up but before I had finished making some noise, Eric who drew behind me had a smug grin on his face as he had peg 14 stuck firmly in his hand! Well at least I am getting closer, and peg 16 is not a bad one so I was feeling confident.

Same people, same places!

Once again it was going to be hard work to get amongst the coin as Manchester Mick plonked himself down on peg 11 he opened his winder draw and selected ‘peg 11 rigs’ and put them on his pole, he was ready within minutes of sitting down. No need for him to plumb the peg anymore the swim is as familiar as his front room! Only joking mate, jealous of your drawing ability? Bet your life I am!

My plan

My main line of attack was the bottom of the far shelf and I was fishing this as far to my left as I possibly could. With peg 15 empty I obviously wanted to get as close to that flyer 14 as possible. I found that it was much shallower the nearer I got to it. This is as a result of the mains water way pipe that runs under the lake from around peg 9 which obviously causes a hump in the bottom of both swims albeit it is much more pronounced on peg 9. I was unsure whether or not this would be a problem for me as it no doubt gets deeper on the peg 14 side of the huge pipe. Mental note to self that peg 15 could be a very good when the water warms!

My rigs were 4 x 12 J15 floats with a 18s Milo t213 hook to a.10 Xedion hook length which I was going to use for the corn and maggot. I also had another similar rig with a hair rig with an 18s PR36 hook.  A 4 x 10 J1 float completed my set up which was set at 2’ for fishing around the far bank on the steep shelf.

Unfortunately for me it was not to be, a very slow start resulted in a nice run of carp that I caught at 11m at the bottom of the far shelf, they went 44lb but it was 25lb behind Eric who won the match at a canter with around 70lb followed by the consistent Mick with 60lb and Roger Naylor with 49lb. Congratulations to Eric for making the most of a favourable draw, he had a fantastic days fishing. I did notice that he walked back to his van with a noticeable limp, no doubt all those £1 nuggets in his trouser pocket making it difficult for him to walk!

The time for change

I actually quite enjoyed the match there was some friendly banter going on, the weather was not too bad a little rain but no wind so it was a brolly day. We all caught fish with most recording over 25lb but what was important for me was seeing the changes at the Barns, which are no doubt happening slowly all around the country. It was good to see the birds carrying bits and pieces away to build nests, there was even a wood pecker having a go at a tree somewhere behind me in the woods. All signs that this dreadful winter is on its way out; spring is around the corner hopefully we will get some settled weather soon!

Individual league

I was looking forward to the Sunday Individual league match at White Acres it was another float only silvers match. I spent some more time making rigs and tying hooks and by Sunday morning I was well up for the challenge. There are only four matches left in this league and I could do with some section wins to claw myself up the table a bit!

There was a reasonable turnout although numbers were dropping as is normal when leagues come towards the end, people think they can no longer make the individual money so don’t bother coming, it’s a shame really as the fishing is brilliant. Three lakes were in use today and I really did not mind whether it was the Match Lake, Jennies or Trelawney where I made my home for the day. But when my hand came out of the bag of dreams clutching peg 16 on Trelawney my mind raced back to the corresponding fixture last year. Then I drew peg 15 and spent the whole day playing carp in a silvers only match. That day I finished last in section whilst Mike O’Gorman absolutely paralysed the match with F1’s from the other end peg!

How do we fish this?

I was a little unsure how to approach the peg, I was confident as it was colder than last year and it may put the carp off. However, next peg neighbour Andy Dare thought I would be carp fishing and he told me at every available moment!  There has been a load more fish go into this lake so I just hoped that they wanted to live in front of me but deep down I knew I was in trouble!

The swim is reasonably shallow at around 5’, I set up some 4 x12 J5 floats for fishing at or near he deck for roach and F1’s The bottom here is really good and I plumbed around and found lines that I could fish at 5m up to around 14.5 using the same rig which was great, less to setup! I also set up a J13 float for up in the water just in case the F1’s were here and wanted to come out to play. I decided to feed ground bait and casters on two lines at 6m and dampened micro pellets at 14m going along with my philosophy that Cornish F1’s are best caught long.

On the whistle I fed my three swims and started over the ground bait to my left looking for roach. Around 30 minutes later I was still looking, Andy had missed a couple of bites and had a couple of small fish in his net but the bad news as far as we were concerned was the rest of the section to Andy’s right were all bagging especially Andy Partridge on the far end peg, sound familiar?

Here we go.

Eventually the roach appeared and I played at pretending to catch up but it just wasn’t going to happen. Within 30 minutes of catching the float dipped and a steady flow of number six elastic came out of the pole tip, as carp number 1 made a bid for freedom! I slipped the net under him and it was a great big mirror of around 10lb, one of those where the tail is half out of the landing net! Oh man here we go again! The roach come back after awhile and all of a sudden no bites! Time to try the other swim as carp are obviously in attendance again. A few roach on the new line before carp number 2 is trying in vain to get to Andy Partridge and it’s another hump backed mirror!

Well to cut this story short I gave up on the roach lines and concentrated fishing long, figuring I needed some of those big F1’s to be in with any chance of competing and gaining some valuable points. I did manage two nice fish along with a fantastic golden one plus the odd skimmer and roach and of course the obligatory carp or two! I ended up with 12lb odd for plumb last again! My only consolation was that Andy Partridge walked the section and match with a lovely bag of fish for 55lb but every body to his left got progressively lower weights in chronological order, leaving Andy and I last pair which really proved to me we had drawn well out of it!

Born lucky

It’s got to the stage at the moment where Clint Elliot is calling me ‘lucky’ with his tongue firmly in his cheek and the wife telling me I have lost it when I get home with tales of woe. Even my six year old is joining in the fun, I know it is just one of those runs that I tend to go through, around the corner the luck will gradually make an appearance in the Lister pegs and I will suddenly need to remember what to do with all them brown envelopes! The main point is that I am enjoying my fishing at the moment, I have had some fantastic nets of fish and next week I will be back out doing what I enjoy once again.

Trelawney and Twin Oaks were in as well as the Match Lake and Jennies so we all anticipated that a big weight would be needed to take the honours. Getting closer to the bag of dreams and I fancied a day on Twin Oaks but knew I wouldn’t be too disappointed with any of the pegs. I had my dip and out came peg 19 on the Match Lake, a peg with some good form but I had pegs 20 and 24 among others to contend with. The main thoughts that I had as I approached my peg were wondering if the carp would venture to my side of the rope that holds the aerator and is tethered to the two islands some 35 yards in front of me.

Easy does it

When I arrived at the peg I made up my mind up to fish the straight lead and the long pole. The water was quite clear and I just thought a long pole line would be better to concentrate the silver fish and hopefully the odd carp. The majority of the carp live around the points of these islands and in the open water around the aerator; due to the water clarity I thought the method would be a mistake today. My thinking was that there was no real need to feed them, other than the odd pellet including the one with my hook attached! For the pole it was the good old half gram Cralusso Capri to a .10 Xedion hook length and a size 20 Milo T213 hook I was going to fish this rig over three balls of ground bait containing casters and a few chopped worms.

At the start I fed my pole line and went out on the straight lead. I obviously was the only one thinking ‘the method’ wasn’t right as thod’s were flying everywhere! It really has become the number one tactic since it was first allowed on this venue last spring. I stuck to my guns pinging the odd 8mm pellet out in the general area of my bait and watched as one by one the anglers in my section and those opposite slowly started to pick up their poles. There was just nothing happening. I think I lasted around 40 minutes before I had the unstoppable urge to follow everyone else onto the pole line. In that time I can honestly say that I never had a touch, not even the odd liner!

Wind machine

Shipping out to 12.5m with double red on the hook and the cold wind suddenly picked up making it difficult to handle the pole as it was sideways on.  How many times does that happen? It’s as if someone is watching and waiting to turn the wind machine on! After a couple of minutes I had a bite and saw a satisfying amount of pink J range elastic shoot out of the pole tip. It was a good fish to start with and after a couple of minutes I saw a massive perch come to the net, it must have been over 2 ½ pound. Back out and a longer wait resulted in one of the new residents to the lake an F1 of around 10oz I had a couple of small skimmers and some tiny roach which was signalling me to re feed but with the wind getting stronger I decided to feed three more balls on the 6m line. It would be much better fishing a shorter pole, at least that was what I was hoping!

Back on the straight lead casting around whilst the ground bait hopefully attracted a few fish onto my new line. In fifteen minutes I did manage a bite but it was a 6oz skimmer that took a fancy to my 8mm pellet!

Good change

No more bites on the straight lead so I was back on the pole and for a couple of hours it was solid! I had a fantastic net of fish including Bream of around 2lb and some more of those big footballers. On a couple of occasions I caught gudgeon at my feet as I dropped the maggot hook bait in the edge before shipping out, I also caught perch doing this when shipping out on a caster! This got me thinking as I had not set an edge rig up as the water was quite clear. I was off my box double quick and soon had a rig for down the edge to fish by the platform. Loose feeding casters I continued on the 6m line.

Duck City

After 20 minutes or so I had succeeded in drawing a pair of ducks onto my edge line and they would just not go away! I had a go anyway and was pleased to catch a VIP of around a pound but those daffy ducks were really causing problems. They were sitting on the platform waiting for me to feed and diving in after the casters! And when they were not doing belly flops they would hang their heads over the edge and sky line the swim! I tried to get rid of them but they kept coming back, they must have been starving! In the end I fed them round to my other side with some pellets and kept them there, mind it cost me a pint of 4mm! It did give my neighbour Andy Gray a giggle!

It was definitely worth it as I managed to get some more of those very important perch and a carp of around 3lb. The last 30 minutes came and I was struggling so it was back on the lead I had been priming the swim all match with the odd pellet and I had two more bites in that time which resulted in a lovely Cornish F1 of around 2lb and a Common of 3lb that I landed with a minute or so to go. It was a fantastic match; I really regretted not having my camera to take a quick snap of the fish. They went 47lb 12oz which unfortunately for me was only good enough for second in section as John Shirley had a level 50lb from peg 24 he had six big old carp to back up his silvers. Dave Hillier was the days winner from Trelawney with 58lb again some big carp that he caught down the edge.

The Barns on Thursday

Thursday came around and I was looking forward to some waggler therapy down at the Barns, the match this week was to be on the prolific Neil’s lake as the weather had gone very cold in fact we had ice round the margins again. It was hoped that the silver fish would provide us with a days sport.

I drew peg 4 which is where I recently won a match from with well over a hundred fish on the waggler so when the penny dropped I was on the same swim I was more than happy. I set up a 1.5gram Cralusso Rocket light to fish towards the far bank but I also set up a pole to fish round 11m just in case.

The match started and I fed some micros on the 11m line and went straight out on double maggot on the waggler, I was expecting a bite immediately but it didn’t happen! Kevin Harmer ‘The Hat Man’ was into a small carp on his method feeder but I still felt confident. But when after 10 minutes I still didn’t have a fish I was getting worried. And so it proved the fish just didn’t seem to be there in any numbers after an hour I had around 5 small Rudd, Kev had a couple of carp and around 10 small fish and Tony to my left was also struggling. I could see Harry Billing on the end peg and he looked to be getting the odd fish but was also not at the races.

The Epicentre

Towards the middle of the lake it was a different matter with three anglers netting fish on a regular basis, it was never going to be one of those high weight affairs and it looked like Wayne ‘Wrong Lake’ Evident and Jason Eccles were the two pace setters and the ones to beat. That’s the way it went with Jason taking the verdict with around 26lb with Wrong Lake a pound or so behind.

Another Draw bag!

Congratulations to Jason he has recently moved to the area and has started off on fire winning three matches. I wasn’t at the first two but he drew and won from peg 14 at the Barns with around 70lb and also Gwinear peg 40. Now, we all welcome and need new anglers in the South West but I have to stress we do not need any more draw bags, we have enough of them! Only joking Jason from the brief glimpse I have had of you fishing you look a class act, welcome on board you will be made more than welcome on our circuit.

Arctic blast

Coming round to the end of the week and it looked like we were not going to have a match as the weather was freezing with ice everywhere. Fortunately we had a milder night on Friday and the match was on. I did the team draw in the penultimate Kernow Match Group winter league and I found myself on peg 5 on Sycamore, Skip McCabe was on peg 8 on Jennies and Andy Partridge was on peg 19 Jennies, not bad or so we thought.

I got down to my peg just as the aerator was turned off; it is situated in the gap between the islands and slightly to my left, I was a little unsure as to how it would effect the fishing but I completely understand the reason it was left on overnight.  The lake became flat calm and there was no fish movement to be seen.

I decided on three methods: The method tight to the island, a waggler and for that I chose a Cralusso 7 gram Valence which was perfect for getting tight to the island around 50 yards away and the pole. This was a difficult match as 30 minutes before the start a freezing wind got up and was coming straight through the gap in the island at me it was clear that it was going to be hard to present the waggler and the pole for that matter.

Starting on the waggler I was hoping for a quick carp in fact we all had the same idea some using the method but there was nothing doing. Harry Billing on the end peg 1 was first to reach for the pole. He had at that time flat calm water and he told me later he had loads of fish fizzing over his ground bait. He started off with a roach every put in. Andy Dare to my right and I didn’t want to get too far behind him so we followed the leader. Andy caught albeit slower than Harry but it took awhile for me to get bites and they seemed much smaller!

After two hours it was getting colder and the rest of the match was a struggle and we all stopped catching. The damage had been done in that opening hour. It really was a day of the lost perch as everybody seemed to hook and loose some big old footballers, Andy next to me must have lost six which is very frustrating as they would have added another 8 or 9lb to his tally.

An Exceedingly nice bag of roach.

Only Neil Kippax known affectionately as Mr Kipling on the other end peg could trouble Harry and towards the end was catching really well he had enjoyed a purple patch with an hour to go. The fish appeared to be moving towards the middle of the lake in the last moments as Tony Williams to my left started to get a few but it was all too late. Harry won the section with around 17lb from Mr Kipling on 14lb and I was well down with 7lb 8oz. At least my team mates fared a little better coming second and third in section which dragged us up to third place on the day.

Individual League

Sunday was the latest round of the individual league and it was a split venue match with Gwinear and White Acres. The split was 15 pegs at Gwinear and the rest at White Acres. Unfortunately only 20 anglers turned up to fish so there was only 5 pegs at White Acres. It really looks like we have more lovers than anglers in the SW; it was Valentines Day I guess they all stayed in looking after their nearest and dearest.

Phase one

I had my dip and pulled out peg 6 on phase one at Gwinear, now I have to say that this is not my favourite lake on the complex,  even though I have had a couple of good weights on it. I also know that peg six is not a bad peg and one that is capable of winning so I went full of confidence.

The peg is an end peg with the edge of the lake around five metres to the left. I set up various pole rigs as I felt that I could reach everywhere I wanted to fish with 16m of pole. I had Skip McCabe practically opposite me and I guess he was only 35m away. I hoped the fishing was going to be as good as the banter as comments were flying around everywhere! I guess because of the weather we all expected a grueller.

The Plan

I set various rigs up to fish long on the deck and half depth plus rigs to fish long against the bank to my left. I also set a rig for fishing into the corner on my top three, it is very shallow there but I know that Andy Dare regularly feeds the fish with micros by throwing bait around the edges so the idea was to emulate him and throw a couple of handfuls into the corner and hope it coloured up with feeding fish during the match. I also had a rig to fish at 6m to my right where I was going to loose feed casters hoping for some bream, they hadn’t been showing lately so I wanted to try something different from the rest to try and tempt them. I considered them both throwaway lines – I just hoped they worked!

Lost points

Well to cut along story short nothing worked for me! I had two very small Tench on the long pole, I lost a big bream on the 6m line ad nothing came into my corner trap! I must admit that well before this match finished I was wishing I had joined the lovers and stayed at home basking in the brownie points I could have accumulated!

With an hour to go I got off my butt and set up a feeder rod and cast as far as I dare to my right and left it whilst I packed up! With about 10 minutes to go I had a pull round and landed a four pound carp which firmly left me in last place in the section! Perhaps I should have just set up one rod today….It was a hard match with little caught in fact my mate Andy Partridge only had one carp on the other end peg but his was an 8 pounder. Skip fished a blinder to win the section from opposite me in the shallower water with 20lb comprising of a few skimmers and four carp.Tales of Dough or Tales

It all started when I drew next to Clint on peg 10 on Python at White Acres, since then I have had an end peg on Jennies and the fish ‘were down the other end’. Twice I fished matches at Gwinear, just out of it, again wrong end! This brings me bang up to date with this week’s episode of aquatic bingo!

Records tumble

Last Thursday I went to the Barns at Summercourt a venue I really enjoy fishing, it’s situated in an idyllic Cornish Valley that is really unspoilt, you really feel you are way out in the country.  They are only small matches at this time of year but when I have the opportunity to attend mid week I go without hesitation. This week it was to be held on Joan’s lake which is a small circular lake with an island down the middle. It is only 13m wide but stuffed with Carp and Tench. The lake is less than two years old and has only been open for fishing for around a year. It already has its flyer which is peg 14, for some reason the fish just want to live there and it has been responsible for some good weights. Normally if you sit on this peg you will frame.

Who drew me that?

I actually left the actual drawing to chance this week as I knew I was going to be late so I phoned Kevin and told him to put a peg in for me I would definitely be there. When I pulled up in the car park I was told I was on peg 5 which is the middle of the straight. Looking around the car park and Andy Dare had a big grin on his face, peg 14 Andy? Yes mate was the reply first out of the bag! There was definitely trouble ahead, especially when I realised venue expert Manchester Mick Heacock was opposite Andy on peg 11.

It didn’t take me long to set up two 4 x 12 J15 floats to fish at the bottom of the far slope at 12m at an angle to my left, I plumbed around on the nearside to find somewhere that I could use the same rigs, I found the ideal swim again at an angle at 5m. Two 4 x 8 J1 floats completed my rigs to fish up the slope tight to the grass.

Blinkers!

The whistle went but I was just finishing off putting the bait on my tray and settling down when I noticed Andy playing his first carp. By the time I was shipping out to feed and fish he was playing his second! It was time to put the blinkers on and concentrate on my float, fortunately I was fishing to my left and he was out of sight! Before long I had carp on triple red maggot and a change to corn on the hook started them coming my way. I was feeding a few garlic micros and the odd bit of corn via a kinder pot and enjoying catching.

It was all going ok, or so I thought with around 12 carp in the net after around 90 minutes. That was until I heard that Mick was asking for another fishery keep net as he had 30 fish and Andy was beating him! Oh man fishing for third when they are paying two! Never mind mustn’t grumble, the fishing was great considering it’s January and  I was in participating in something I really enjoy.

The long and short of this match was that Andy easily won the match  adding a venue record to his CV with 120lb 6oz Mick Heacock was second with 61lb and I was third with 46lb It was a really good match and we all had a good days fishing. Congratulations to Andy on breaking the record.

Return of the ice

Sunday saw us assemble at White Acres for the individual round and it was a bitterly cold morning. The pegging had to be changed as part of the complex was frozen again. It was a shame as I was really hoping to draw on Trelawney, it had just received a further 1000lb of big skimmers F1’s and Tench and was now frozen solid and out of the match! Instead the bag of dreams gave me peg 11 on Python! Slightly better at this time of year than 10 but in my opinion still a couple of pegs away from the epicentre.

Déjà vu

Having had the experience of fishing on here a couple of weeks ago I set up two pole rigs to fish at 12.5m the floats were 4 x14 J5 floats The only difference was the size of hook. One had a Middy 6313 18’s and the other a Milo T213 18’s in case the fish turned on! The rigs could also be fished at 5m where I found a similar depth straight in front of me. This time my chosen main pole line was as far to my left as was possible, I was desperate to fish as near to the middle of the wides as possible. The other reason was that I could see my pole float easier there as once again the light was a mare. I also setup a 2.5g Cralusso Rocket light as I wanted another go at catching those Cornish F1’s that live near to the reed bed around 30m from me. As this was another float only round the feeder was out of the question.

At the start I fed two large balls of Swimstim and YB Green Betaine containing casters on my pole line. I went straight out on the waggler and fired two small balls in the general direction of the float, I definitely benefitted by the practice last time as they landed reasonably close. This time there was no Rudd taking the double red offering.  The float remained stationary for about 5 minutes or so until I struck into an F1. At the same time I could see the reeds moving as the F1’s moved around in my swim. It did give me confidence to stay on that line. But I’m afraid it was false hope as in the next 15 minutes or so all that happened was that I missed a couple of bites and lost one! At the same time Nigel Sanders on peg 14 started sacking on the pole.

Follow the leader

I followed the lead and shipped out the pole and managed a couple of quick skimmers before the line slowed. After the promising start it became the familiar struggle for bites but I did manage to keep a few fish coming by starting another pole line slightly to my right. By alternating the two lines I managed to keep some fish coming until the end of the match but it was slow with a few long blank spells. I went through all my baits and found that double red maggot was best, so that is what I fished for most of my match despite loose feeding caster for most of the match at 5m I never had a bite there.

To be honest I was surprised by my weight of over 14lb and I was much closer to section winner Nigel who had 20lb and the 18lb of Dave Hillier. It left me feeling that with a bit more effort I could have perhaps improved my position. To be fair though Dave was cursing his luck having lost 5 good fish and felt he should have won! I did leave the peg scratching my head wondering what I would do differently if I was to draw the peg tomorrow.

In spite of the sudden cold snap the White Acres silvers provided good sport with Andy Dare winning the match from peg 15 on Jennies with 30lb plus and Andy Partridge was second from peg 29 on the match lake also with 30lb but unfortunately for him he had 2 ounces less than Andy. There was no doubt that Andy P was ruing the fact that he lent his namesake a kilo of worms at the start!

Gwinear

My last match to report was the Tuesday open at Gwinear, fortunately the frosts had stopped but the winds had returned with a vengeance and the ‘Cornish Sun’ was falling down on us and there was no doubt it was going to be a wet old day. I had my dip and I was pleased to find myself on peg 50 on phase two. The second time I have drawn this peg recently. I had been giving Andy Dare a bit of good natured stick about his drawing ability, so he turned the tables on me by asking me to draw his peg for him. I duly obliged by handing him peg 1 on phase one. A good peg but one that had been out of form lately, which will teach him!

Waggler attack

I decided to just fish the waggler today and consequently set up a pair of 2.5g Rocket lights. The only difference was the hooks; on one I had a PR36 18’s with an F1 micro band hair rig. The other was a Middy 18’s 7313 for the maggot. My rods were a pair of SPRO Pellet waggler rods coupled with Red Arc reels which I find absolutely perfect.

The match started slowly with no indications for 20 minutes or so, Kevin Harmer to my right was first to catch a small sample on the GB feeder and soon Mark Lazell on end peg 46 opened his account. I had one carp going into the second hour but then it got promising with a flurry small carp going into the net. After that it slowed for me and ‘The Whistler’ Billy Arch to my left started to get a few fishing towards the bank on his left on the waggler and later the feeder. But Mark took the lead and we never recovered the strong wind and rain having its effect. Mark won our lake with 36lb; I had 23lb just edging the whistling Billy by a couple of pounds.

Draw bag!

Well at least I drew the winning peg as Andy Dare took the honour with 38lb which incidentally was his third match win on the spin. Well done mate you are still a draw bag it doesn’t matter who pulls the peg for you! The trouble is you are also a very talented angler and if you put the two together then we are all in the mire. As you so often remind us ‘There maybe trouble ahead’

I would like to leave this week with a question and I would be interested in your thoughts on the matter. Should flyers such as peg 14 at the Barns be put included in the match or should we peg around them?

My view is that they should be included as they can be a leveller in the match. They also give us all the hope of drawing a fantastic peg and having a day to remember, what do you think?

It all started when I drew next to Clint on peg 10 on Python at White Acres, since then I have had an end peg on Jennies and the fish ‘were down the other end’. Twice I fished matches at Gwinear, just out of it, again wrong end! This brings me bang up to date with this week’s episode of aquatic bingo!

Records tumble

Last Thursday I went to the Barns at Summercourt a venue I really enjoy fishing, it’s situated in an idyllic Cornish Valley that is really unspoilt, you really feel you are way out in the country.  They are only small matches at this time of year but when I have the opportunity to attend mid week I go without hesitation. This week it was to be held on Joan’s lake which is a small circular lake with an island down the middle. It is only 13m wide but stuffed with Carp and Tench. The lake is less than two years old and has only been open for fishing for around a year. It already has its flyer which is peg 14, for some reason the fish just want to live there and it has been responsible for some good weights. Normally if you sit on this peg you will frame.

Who drew me that?

I actually left the actual drawing to chance this week as I knew I was going to be late so I phoned Kevin and told him to put a peg in for me I would definitely be there. When I pulled up in the car park I was told I was on peg 5 which is the middle of the straight. Looking around the car park and Andy Dare had a big grin on his face, peg 14 Andy? Yes mate was the reply first out of the bag! There was definitely trouble ahead, especially when I realised venue expert Manchester Mick Heacock was opposite Andy on peg 11.

It didn’t take me long to set up two 4 x 12 J15 floats to fish at the bottom of the far slope at 12m at an angle to my left, I plumbed around on the nearside to find somewhere that I could use the same rigs, I found the ideal swim again at an angle at 5m. Two 4 x 8 J1 floats completed my rigs to fish up the slope tight to the grass.

Blinkers!

The whistle went but I was just finishing off putting the bait on my tray and settling down when I noticed Andy playing his first carp. By the time I was shipping out to feed and fish he was playing his second! It was time to put the blinkers on and concentrate on my float, fortunately I was fishing to my left and he was out of sight! Before long I had carp on triple red maggot and a change to corn on the hook started them coming my way. I was feeding a few garlic micros and the odd bit of corn via a kinder pot and enjoying catching.

It was all going ok, or so I thought with around 12 carp in the net after around 90 minutes. That was until I heard that Mick was asking for another fishery keep net as he had 30 fish and Andy was beating him! Oh man fishing for third when they are paying two! Never mind mustn’t grumble, the fishing was great considering it’s January and  I was in participating in something I really enjoy.

The long and short of this match was that Andy easily won the match  adding a venue record to his CV with 120lb 6oz Mick Heacock was second with 61lb and I was third with 46lb It was a really good match and we all had a good days fishing. Congratulations to Andy on breaking the record.

Return of the ice

Sunday saw us assemble at White Acres for the individual round and it was a bitterly cold morning. The pegging had to be changed as part of the complex was frozen again. It was a shame as I was really hoping to draw on Trelawney, it had just received a further 1000lb of big skimmers F1’s and Tench and was now frozen solid and out of the match! Instead the bag of dreams gave me peg 11 on Python! Slightly better at this time of year than 10 but in my opinion still a couple of pegs away from the epicentre.

Déjà vu

Having had the experience of fishing on here a couple of weeks ago I set up two pole rigs to fish at 12.5m the floats were 4 x14 J5 floats The only difference was the size of hook. One had a Middy 6313 18’s and the other a Milo T213 18’s in case the fish turned on! The rigs could also be fished at 5m where I found a similar depth straight in front of me. This time my chosen main pole line was as far to my left as was possible, I was desperate to fish as near to the middle of the wides as possible. The other reason was that I could see my pole float easier there as once again the light was a mare. I also setup a 2.5g Cralusso Rocket light as I wanted another go at catching those Cornish F1’s that live near to the reed bed around 30m from me. As this was another float only round the feeder was out of the question.

At the start I fed two large balls of Swimstim and YB Green Betaine containing casters on my pole line. I went straight out on the waggler and fired two small balls in the general direction of the float, I definitely benefitted by the practice last time as they landed reasonably close. This time there was no Rudd taking the double red offering.  The float remained stationary for about 5 minutes or so until I struck into an F1. At the same time I could see the reeds moving as the F1’s moved around in my swim. It did give me confidence to stay on that line. But I’m afraid it was false hope as in the next 15 minutes or so all that happened was that I missed a couple of bites and lost one! At the same time Nigel Sanders on peg 14 started sacking on the pole.

Follow the leader

I followed the lead and shipped out the pole and managed a couple of quick skimmers before the line slowed. After the promising start it became the familiar struggle for bites but I did manage to keep a few fish coming by starting another pole line slightly to my right. By alternating the two lines I managed to keep some fish coming until the end of the match but it was slow with a few long blank spells. I went through all my baits and found that double red maggot was best, so that is what I fished for most of my match despite loose feeding caster for most of the match at 5m I never had a bite there.

To be honest I was surprised by my weight of over 14lb and I was much closer to section winner Nigel who had 20lb and the 18lb of Dave Hillier. It left me feeling that with a bit more effort I could have perhaps improved my position. To be fair though Dave was cursing his luck having lost 5 good fish and felt he should have won! I did leave the peg scratching my head wondering what I would do differently if I was to draw the peg tomorrow.

In spite of the sudden cold snap the White Acres silvers provided good sport with Andy Dare winning the match from peg 15 on Jennies with 30lb plus and Andy Partridge was second from peg 29 on the match lake also with 30lb but unfortunately for him he had 2 ounces less than Andy. There was no doubt that Andy P was ruing the fact that he lent his namesake a kilo of worms at the start!

Gwinear

My last match to report was the Tuesday open at Gwinear, fortunately the frosts had stopped but the winds had returned with a vengeance and the ‘Cornish Sun’ was falling down on us and there was no doubt it was going to be a wet old day. I had my dip and I was pleased to find myself on peg 50 on phase two. The second time I have drawn this peg recently. I had been giving Andy Dare a bit of good natured stick about his drawing ability, so he turned the tables on me by asking me to draw his peg for him. I duly obliged by handing him peg 1 on phase one. A good peg but one that had been out of form lately, which will teach him!

Waggler attack

I decided to just fish the waggler today and consequently set up a pair of 2.5g Rocket lights. The only difference was the hooks; on one I had a PR36 18’s with an F1 micro band hair rig. The other was a Middy 18’s 7313 for the maggot. My rods were a pair of SPRO Pellet waggler rods coupled with Red Arc reels which I find absolutely perfect.

The match started slowly with no indications for 20 minutes or so, Kevin Harmer to my right was first to catch a small sample on the GB feeder and soon Mark Lazell on end peg 46 opened his account. I had one carp going into the second hour but then it got promising with a flurry small carp going into the net. After that it slowed for me and ‘The Whistler’ Billy Arch to my left started to get a few fishing towards the bank on his left on the waggler and later the feeder. But Mark took the lead and we never recovered the strong wind and rain having its effect. Mark won our lake with 36lb; I had 23lb just edging the whistling Billy by a couple of pounds.

Draw bag!

Well at least I drew the winning peg as Andy Dare took the honour with 38lb which incidentally was his third match win on the spin. Well done mate you are still a draw bag it doesn’t matter who pulls the peg for you! The trouble is you are also a very talented angler and if you put the two together then we are all in the mire. As you so often remind us ‘There maybe trouble ahead’

I would like to leave this week with a question and I would be interested in your thoughts on the matter. Should flyers such as peg 14 at the Barns be put included in the match or should we peg around them?

My view is that they should be included as they can be a leveller in the match. They also give us all the hope of drawing a fantastic peg and having a day to remember, what do you think?

Carp city

Weather wise it was looking like the best day of the year so far, not a cloud in the sky with little wind and warm at around 10 Celsius, a nice change to what we had become used to! However, the alarm bells were sounding when I got to my peg as the carp were crashing around all over place, not what you want to see on a silver fish only round! I just hoped that they would start grazing elsewhere before the start. My plan was to fish three lines two long at 10am and 2pm and one at 5m directly in front of me. For the 12.5m lines I chose a 4 x12 J2 float it has a nice bristle which I find important on Jennies as the sun can make seeing the float very difficult. I had a SPRO midwater float for my 5m line where I hoped to catch roach and skimmers. At the start I fed chopped worm long to my right, some ground bait went on the other two lines, I also loose fed casters on the short line

Starting on the worm I had a roach just about every put in and some were good samples as well, I thought it was going to be one of those 40lb of roach days that was until the carp put in an appearance and spoilt the fun after an hour or so! That line just died and I could not resurrect it, I had the odd fish but it was a waiting game. Moving onto my other line to my left started well with roach to caster before a carp decided he fancied a shell. My 5m line would just not work, just the odd small roach here. I changed this to a slightly longer line at 7m and fished elsewhere whilst the fish found my feed. My first bite on this new line was a carp! I found myself falling behind as the others at the other end of the section were catching well including some Tench.

Wrong end?

Mark to my left was also struggling and having problems with carp and it was looking bleak for us as we fell further behind in the race. Tourettes Taylor on peg 18 seemed to be on fire catching loads of fish, all I could see of him was elastic streaming out of his pole, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. He was just a little too far away to hear what he was saying properly but it sounded like he was talking about different species of carp, I kept hearing ‘King Carp’ at least that’s what it sounded like! Clint reminded him on a few occasions that carp didn’t count in this round but he wasn’t deterred, those King Carp just kept getting caught.

The middle of the match was difficult with only a few roach and the odd skimmer showing as I searched all my lines. Going into the last hour I decided to fish solely on my line to my left as Mark Lazell had also found some Tench and I figured I would be better fishing as close to him as possible hoping for a few Mr Greens myself. Fortunately I managed four by sitting and waiting with double Minkie * on the hook. It was just a shame that they didn’t turn up a little earlier.

It wasn’t a bad days fishing, in fact it was good it was just a shame that carp were not allowed as they were really feeding well. What was strange was the lack of F1s, they just didn’t want to know and the lake is full of them! I actually finished the match with 20lb 10oz which was third in section behind Clint Elliott on 30lb and Dave Hillier with 28lb plus. I really must try harder!

I knew our team had finished well down the list as when I got back to the car park there was no sign of Skips van plus Andy Partridge was trying to escape! I managed to block him in and have a quick chat. It seems like the other end of Andy’s section was better and despite Skip catching more than his far share they were smaller stamp than the rest in his section. Both have a very good record on the match lake so I knew their pegs were difficult on the day. From now on there is no more Mr happy when I draw, it’s moaning all the way!

*       Minkies, a squatt like old maggot, available only in the South West during winter, possibly a hybrid between a maggot and a pinkie, hence Minkie!

On Sunday it was the Individual league round and the turn of Gwinear to host the match, after my practice match on Tuesday I was looking forward to it. We unfortunately were being punished for such a nice day on Saturday, it was freezing cold and we had one of the harshest frosts of the year! Still the sun was shining so hopefully we would all warm up.

There was a time when I knew every peg intimately at Gwinear but since the redevelopment of the lakes I didn’t have a clue where peg 50 was. A quick chat with Mark Lazell and I was happy, for happy read moaning! I was on phase two and in the old days I would actually be sitting by the tree on the island opposite peg 29. It is a noted peg and hopefully the fish would be on the pole line. The danger peg in my section was diagonally opposite me and Andy Dare had drawn that for the second time in a week! Oh man, there are some draw bags in this neck of the woods!

Who has the biggest pile?

Now in a good sort of way Andy is very frugal with the truth when it comes to telling fellow anglers what he has caught! He makes me giggle when he tries to convince everyone that he is not catching when in fact he is normally sacking! So, I devised a plan so that I would know exactly what he had all through the match, that way I could not fall foul of his mind games! I made a space on my side tray and every time he caught I was going to put a pellet in a pile, next to that I had was going to have a pile for myself I just hoped mine would be biggest at the end of the match!

Andy stated well with the first fish and he was soon into his signature tune ’There may be trouble ahead’ and after the first hour I was in trouble as I had 2 carp to his 9. Andy Gray next to me also 5 and Rob Fuller was getting a few on peg 40 I decided to sack the pole as it was clearly going nowhere. I was going to spend the rest of the match on the waggler fishing a 2.5gram Rocket light just my side of the middle. Bait was 8mm pellet and I was feeding 6mm pellet.

Told off by Hindsight

I had an indication first cast and when the same thing happened without a fish on the second cast I shallowed up by a foot and found the fish at around 3 ½’ deep in around 6’ of water. It was great winter fishing with the carp coming in little spells and before long the two piles of pellets were looking evenly matched! At one stage we were matching each other fish for fish with Andy catching at 16m. Unfortunately for me I had a quiet spell with 90 minutes to go and back in trouble. Andy finished well and ended up with around 40 carp and I had 31 it was close but no Mars bar for yours truly. As I packed up Mr Hindsight chided me saying that I should have started on the waggler, he of course was right but after all Mr Hindsight is an expert!

The match was won by Harry on peg 24 on phase 3 with 75lb, Andy had 73lb and I managed third with 55lb. It was a good match and very close again. It wasn’t brilliant for some as there were a few that struggled. But if I can give any advice to some anglers is watch your feed, some put in far too much. The old adage of you cannot take bait back out of the lake after you have put it in is paramount. To give you an idea I fed less than half a pint of pellets and I know that Harry and Andy fed around the same if not less!

On Tuesday I fancied a bit more waggler fishing so I was back at Gwinear. The difference was that it was bitterly cold and we had suffered another very heavy frost the third on the bounce. When I moved to Cornwall a few years ago everybody told me that we only had the occasional frost and never two on the trot! This match really showed the problems with winter fishing for carp.

I drew peg 48 and was only a couple of pegs from Sunday. The match had been pegged to allow everybody to fish the waggler if they wanted to so consequently there was nobody on the bank opposite and the half way rule had been scrapped for the day. I Decided on a waggler and straight lead approach and set up my normal Rocket Light waggler.

It was amazing after two years of saying how good the Cralusso Rocket light was it seemed that anglers were now seeing there worth, three anglers out of my section came to the waggler library asking to borrow a float so that they could give them a try! Damn, looks like I am about to lose all my advantage!

The match was one of those very hard affairs with carp in little pockets and it took me four hours to locate my pocket! Unbelievably I had to cast my 4g Rocket light around 45 yards to find some fish that wanted to be near the other bank. I couldn’t feed that distance but I’m not sure the fish wanted anything as I am sure the lake is about to freeze again!  I landed three lost one and missed a couple of bites. I was also next to the winner Tyrone Hull who managed a dozen carp for 26lb all caught on one of my Rocket Lights! I told him that the library charges 50% of any winnings! Funnily enough he seemed to think I was joking and now has an overdue amount to pay.

I did manage to retrieve all my floats and I have to say there were some great comments about them, hopefully there are now a few more converts but not too many as I do need all the advantage I can get.

Carp city

Weather wise it was looking like the best day of the year so far, not a cloud in the sky with little wind and warm at around 10 Celsius, a nice change to what we had become used to! However, the alarm bells were sounding when I got to my peg as the carp were crashing around all over place, not what you want to see on a silver fish only round! I just hoped that they would start grazing elsewhere before the start. My plan was to fish three lines two long at 10am and 2pm and one at 5m directly in front of me. For the 12.5m lines I chose a 4 x12 J2 float it has a nice bristle which I find important on Jennies as the sun can make seeing the float very difficult. I had a SPRO midwater float for my 5m line where I hoped to catch roach and skimmers. At the start I fed chopped worm long to my right, some ground bait went on the other two lines, I also loose fed casters on the short line

Starting on the worm I had a roach just about every put in and some were good samples as well, I thought it was going to be one of those 40lb of roach days that was until the carp put in an appearance and spoilt the fun after an hour or so! That line just died and I could not resurrect it, I had the odd fish but it was a waiting game. Moving onto my other line to my left started well with roach to caster before a carp decided he fancied a shell. My 5m line would just not work, just the odd small roach here. I changed this to a slightly longer line at 7m and fished elsewhere whilst the fish found my feed. My first bite on this new line was a carp! I found myself falling behind as the others at the other end of the section were catching well including some Tench.

Wrong end?

Mark to my left was also struggling and having problems with carp and it was looking bleak for us as we fell further behind in the race. Tourettes Taylor on peg 18 seemed to be on fire catching loads of fish, all I could see of him was elastic streaming out of his pole, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. He was just a little too far away to hear what he was saying properly but it sounded like he was talking about different species of carp, I kept hearing ‘King Carp’ at least that’s what it sounded like! Clint reminded him on a few occasions that carp didn’t count in this round but he wasn’t deterred, those King Carp just kept getting caught.

The middle of the match was difficult with only a few roach and the odd skimmer showing as I searched all my lines. Going into the last hour I decided to fish solely on my line to my left as Mark Lazell had also found some Tench and I figured I would be better fishing as close to him as possible hoping for a few Mr Greens myself. Fortunately I managed four by sitting and waiting with double Minkie * on the hook. It was just a shame that they didn’t turn up a little earlier.

It wasn’t a bad days fishing, in fact it was good it was just a shame that carp were not allowed as they were really feeding well. What was strange was the lack of F1s, they just didn’t want to know and the lake is full of them! I actually finished the match with 20lb 10oz which was third in section behind Clint Elliott on 30lb and Dave Hillier with 28lb plus. I really must try harder!

I knew our team had finished well down the list as when I got back to the car park there was no sign of Skips van plus Andy Partridge was trying to escape! I managed to block him in and have a quick chat. It seems like the other end of Andy’s section was better and despite Skip catching more than his far share they were smaller stamp than the rest in his section. Both have a very good record on the match lake so I knew their pegs were difficult on the day. From now on there is no more Mr happy when I draw, it’s moaning all the way!

*       Minkies, a squatt like old maggot, available only in the South West during winter, possibly a hybrid between a maggot and a pinkie, hence Minkie!

On Sunday it was the Individual league round and the turn of Gwinear to host the match, after my practice match on Tuesday I was looking forward to it. We unfortunately were being punished for such a nice day on Saturday, it was freezing cold and we had one of the harshest frosts of the year! Still the sun was shining so hopefully we would all warm up.

There was a time when I knew every peg intimately at Gwinear but since the redevelopment of the lakes I didn’t have a clue where peg 50 was. A quick chat with Mark Lazell and I was happy, for happy read moaning! I was on phase two and in the old days I would actually be sitting by the tree on the island opposite peg 29. It is a noted peg and hopefully the fish would be on the pole line. The danger peg in my section was diagonally opposite me and Andy Dare had drawn that for the second time in a week! Oh man, there are some draw bags in this neck of the woods!

Who has the biggest pile?

Now in a good sort of way Andy is very frugal with the truth when it comes to telling fellow anglers what he has caught! He makes me giggle when he tries to convince everyone that he is not catching when in fact he is normally sacking! So, I devised a plan so that I would know exactly what he had all through the match, that way I could not fall foul of his mind games! I made a space on my side tray and every time he caught I was going to put a pellet in a pile, next to that I had was going to have a pile for myself I just hoped mine would be biggest at the end of the match!

Andy stated well with the first fish and he was soon into his signature tune ’There may be trouble ahead’ and after the first hour I was in trouble as I had 2 carp to his 9. Andy Gray next to me also 5 and Rob Fuller was getting a few on peg 40 I decided to sack the pole as it was clearly going nowhere. I was going to spend the rest of the match on the waggler fishing a 2.5gram Rocket light just my side of the middle. Bait was 8mm pellet and I was feeding 6mm pellet.

Told off by Hindsight

I had an indication first cast and when the same thing happened without a fish on the second cast I shallowed up by a foot and found the fish at around 3 ½’ deep in around 6’ of water. It was great winter fishing with the carp coming in little spells and before long the two piles of pellets were looking evenly matched! At one stage we were matching each other fish for fish with Andy catching at 16m. Unfortunately for me I had a quiet spell with 90 minutes to go and back in trouble. Andy finished well and ended up with around 40 carp and I had 31 it was close but no Mars bar for yours truly. As I packed up Mr Hindsight chided me saying that I should have started on the waggler, he of course was right but after all Mr Hindsight is an expert!

The match was won by Harry on peg 24 on phase 3 with 75lb, Andy had 73lb and I managed third with 55lb. It was a good match and very close again. It wasn’t brilliant for some as there were a few that struggled. But if I can give any advice to some anglers is watch your feed, some put in far too much. The old adage of you cannot take bait back out of the lake after you have put it in is paramount. To give you an idea I fed less than half a pint of pellets and I know that Harry and Andy fed around the same if not less!

On Tuesday I fancied a bit more waggler fishing so I was back at Gwinear. The difference was that it was bitterly cold and we had suffered another very heavy frost the third on the bounce. When I moved to Cornwall a few years ago everybody told me that we only had the occasional frost and never two on the trot! This match really showed the problems with winter fishing for carp.

I drew peg 48 and was only a couple of pegs from Sunday. The match had been pegged to allow everybody to fish the waggler if they wanted to so consequently there was nobody on the bank opposite and the half way rule had been scrapped for the day. I Decided on a waggler and straight lead approach and set up my normal Rocket Light waggler.

It was amazing after two years of saying how good the Cralusso Rocket light was it seemed that anglers were now seeing there worth, three anglers out of my section came to the waggler library asking to borrow a float so that they could give them a try! Damn, looks like I am about to lose all my advantage!

The match was one of those very hard affairs with carp in little pockets and it took me four hours to locate my pocket! Unbelievably I had to cast my 4g Rocket light around 45 yards to find some fish that wanted to be near the other bank. I couldn’t feed that distance but I’m not sure the fish wanted anything as I am sure the lake is about to freeze again!  I landed three lost one and missed a couple of bites. I was also next to the winner Tyrone Hull who managed a dozen carp for 26lb all caught on one of my Rocket Lights! I told him that the library charges 50% of any winnings! Funnily enough he seemed to think I was joking and now has an overdue amount to pay.

I did manage to retrieve all my floats and I have to say there were some great comments about them, hopefully there are now a few more converts but not too many as I do need all the advantage I can get.