On Tuesday I fished a hastily arranged sweep at Oakside. There were only a few of us fishing and we decided to try the shallow side. This was good news for me as I had not fished this side of the lake before. We are looking to run more matches on this fantastic fishery so I was pleased to see what it was like.
The best thing about this bank is that you can park behind your peg! I had drawn peg 35 and I wanted to see if I could approach it the same way as the opposite bank. It was windy so I decided I would fish at 7 sections, just beyond the marginal weed. I chose a .6gram Tamas Walter float, I wanted a heavy rig for the depth to get my bait down quickly. I also set up three up in the water rigs. Two were Carpa casters and the other a SPRO mini float that I have been trying out, it is in effect a ‘straight blob’ it is really useful when the fish are feeding very shallow. They are about ¾ ‘’ in length and take one number 11 stotz to cock. They have been causing quite a bit of interest to those that have seen them.
Seeds of doubt
I could hear the chat between Mike and Andy Dare who was a few pegs away to my right. Andy had a caught a Tench and some big Skimmers. I could see Mike who was catching Skimmers and the odd Tench on a regular basis. Both were losing fish in the thick pond weed but they were also putting fish in their nets. Roger was also catching Tench on the tip. I was catching well but the gremlins were working on me and I was starting to doubt my method. I was trying to gauge how many small roach and Rudd I was catching to Mike’s catch rate. There was no doubt I was losing this little battle and I was thinking that I was falling behind the others as well.After 2 ½ hours I was catching one a bung on the surface but in the main they were small Rudd and I was convinced that I was behind at least three other anglers, with only two prizes it was time for a change.
Mike was still catching well and I convinced myself that I was doing this wrong.I hastily set up a groundbait feeder and was now out on the tip abandoning my up in the water approach. It took a couple of casts before I had a liner this was followed by a bite that took the rod off the rest! I was playing this fish for a few seconds before it was stuck solid in the weed. A little later I had another fish on I could tell this was a good Skimmer and the same thing happened only this time I lost everything. I picked up the pole and fished pellet for the remainder of the match. I caught some better Roach and some small Skimmers but it was slow.
Corporal punishment!
Mike O’Gorman easily won the match with a very nice net of Skimmers and Tench that went 37lb this was followed by Andy Dare with 25lb and me with18lb 12oz. It was at this stage that I started kicking myself and I continued with the kicking until I got home! I really do know better and I was annoyed with myself for changing my tactics when I was catching. There was nothing I could have done to sneak in front of Mike but I do feel that I threw second place away. On Saturday we should have been going to Stafford Moor for the Angling Times Maver Pairs match but my wife picked up a nasty bug and I had to cancel my ticket so that I could look after my daughter. Fortunately she was well enough for me to get out on Sunday to the Kernow Match Group event at Oakside.
The nice summer weather had changed, on Tuesday it started raining half way through the match and it had only just briefly stopped! The wind was also in a different direction and it felt cool for an early July day. Still mustn’t grumble at least we were out on the bank fishing.I couldn’t believe it when I had my dip and came out with peg 34 the one Mike had won from on Tuesday! All plans changed forget those lovingly prepared casters it was going to be a day on the feeder for me. It took me about 10 minutes to set up one rod! The marginal weed in this peg is a nuisance it extends out from the bank for about 6 metres, it is only pond weed but it does make fishing a little difficult especially pole fishing. I had learnt from Mike that you needed to keep your rod facing up in the air rather than the conventional way of just having the tip close to the water. Mike told me that if you fished normally the line sunk into the weed and it caused loads of problems on the strike.
I had two bags of Green Swim Stim with me and together with some worms that was going to be my bait for the day. On the whistle I had a couple of casts to get some feed in the swim and then put a worm on the hook. I had a bite which turned out to be a roach. Out again and another bite produced a Skimmer. I had already decided that I would play any fish with the rod straight up in the air hopefully bringing them to the surface and then literally skimming them over the weed, the plan worked perfectly. When the next two casts produced another two skimmers I was starting to think that I was about to emulate Mike. All thoughts of winning had gone by the 1 ½ hour mark when all I had done was add one more Skimmer and lost one!
This bank seemed to be fishing hard. I could see fish been caught on the others side and word was that Roger Baker was into Skimmers from on peg 18.
Strawberries and Cream
Tony Williams next to me was struggling on both feeder and pole and so was Andy Dare on end peg 36. I threw three small balls of GB onto the 6 metre line and fired a few casters on top and before long I could see the odd vortex as the Roach and Rudd were competing for the free offerings. There had been no further indications on the tip so I got out the pole. So much for been positive with one rod! At least this time I wasn’t coming of feeding fish. I only put two up in the water rigs one of which was the SPRO mini float. I was into roach immediately but again I had to do it all wrong. Because of the weed I literally had to hook the fish and lift them clear of the water over the weed, this was ok with the 1oz fish but with those a little bigger it was causing a commotion and causing the fish to back off with the constant splashing. To make matters worse Tony was now catching Skimmers on the tip!
I don’t believe it, I really was turning into Victor Meldrew. Not only was everything going wrong in my last two matches I was starting to moan like him as well! As my roach backed off I gave it another go on the tip I could pick up the odd fish but nothing consistent. By swopping and changing I kept fish coming to the end of the match mainly on the pole but it was nowhere near enough. But at least by doing it all wrong I had a few fish. I really must get a rake attached to a rope.
Chatting to Tony after the match he was telling me that he was using strawberry flavoured hook baits and he was convinced that was why he was catching on the tip whilst I was just getting the odd one. Maybe that is right, next time I am on the pole and I am not changing. Well, I might start on the tip! Overall the results were:
Roger Baker (Sensas Thyers) 39.03 Harry Billing (Garbolino) 33.08 Tony Williams (Newquay M.G) 28.01 Martin Newstead (Sensas Thyers) 21.13 Stewart Lister (Spro) 21.03 Andy Partridge (Spro) 20.15
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Tom
