Consistency Counts!

Well I’ve had another good couple of weeks up at Oaks, starting off with a Sunday open on the 14th sept. With 40 on there was some decent money on offer and hopefully lots of fish to catch!

I drew peg 48 which I was happy with, its in an OK area and there tends to be a few ide there so I was pleased. Speaking of pegs its really opened my eyes this year at Oaks to how fair it is and I’m never gutted to draw anywhere or over the moon at certain pegs and just take them as they come. Anyway it was a really mild day so I fancied the mud line to be the main plan of attack and I set up a little 0.05gr dc6 on 0.10 for it, but I was aware that the fish have started to be caught in front of the sedges again so I set up a 4×12 float for that line.

I kicked off in front of the sedges but it was very slow and I struggled for a few ide, but id noticed a few swirls on my mud line and I was soon catching steadily on it, I had about 30 ide in as many casts and was well on track and knew I would catch some carp eventually. But after 2 hours it just died, so I decided to re feed and look in front of the sedges.

I started ticking over nicely with f1s and I found that I could nick 5-6 and then go back on the mudline. The guys to my left and right where catching nothing and young star James Dent behind me didn’t seem to be catching a lot so I was feeling confident of a pick up. I had a steady last hour and picked up some huge f1s in front of the sedges that must have been near 4lb!!!! I was to be weighed in on the second board and the guy to my left had 13lb so I was dead chuffed with my 83lb and the guy to my right never weighed, I was leading right round to peg 68 where Ian Bayley put a really hard earned 93lb on the scales he had some huge fish in his net, well huge for Oaks anyway.

I ended up 4th which I was chuffed with as I felt id done well from a poor area.
Come the following Saturday I couldn’t wait to get back for some more maggot action at Oaks, the maggot had been receiving some unfair stick just lately so I was really ready to bag up to prove a point!!!! I couldn’t believe my luck when I drew dolly peg 15!

Ideal I thought, when I got to my peg the first thing I noticed was that a bit of the colour seemed to have dropped out and I was sure some people would try and waste time making the mud line work, I decided to really have a good go on the sedge line and try for a more f1 based attack, as ive been doing well with an ide based approach but it only seem to get me 3rd or 4th instead of winning.

I set up a 4×12 Malman Cedar for this line and also set up a 3×8 Maver float with some small shot strung out for when the small fish got fed off I really fancied this rig to pick off the bigger f1s. I did also set a mudline rig up just for the crack!!!

I kicked off with half a pot of maggots in front of my left hand sedge and that was it. It took about 10 minutes to get going but I then had a real steady run of ide and F1s and was pretty happy but didn’t think I was gonna win anything with this catch rate, I decided after 2 hours to swing round to my right and feed a new line and hope the f1s had found a new hiding place!!!!

It worked a treat and I was soon catching an f1 every cast. Going into the last hour and it started to slow down, and the lad to my right had started bagging on his method feeder, but I just decided to plod on and with 5 minutes to go hooked something that led me a merry dance anyway I managed to pan a nice 8lb common just as the hook pulled out!!!! And then they shouted time, when Ghandi came to weigh me in he said he might have 90lb and that was the best he had heard, I weighed 88lb 4oz and was leading right round to Ghandi and he weighed 87lb I’d won!!!!!

I was delighted as I’d really tried this match. Anyway after having some grub in the café, I decided to hang around for awhile as Gareth Drury was stopping at mine, anyway we ended up going around the lakes in a boat getting all the floats and feeders!!!!! Put it this way im sorted for white acres!!!!!
The following day I drew peg 48 again which I was fairly pleased with as I felt I could frame again off the peg, but with Adam Richards on 43 with plenty of room I’d have my work cut out to beat him. I set off in front of the sedges with the same rigs as the day before and it was really slow!!!! And after two hours everybody was ringing each other, I think I had a dozen fish and adam was on 10 or something like that, then all of a sudden my sedge swim turned solid and I was catching an F1 every cast!

I caught like this right till the end and was dead pleased with my 79lb effort, unfortunately that was only good enough for second as pellet master rob minkin extracted big time in the last hour to record 92lb!!!!!

The next weekend was to be my last Oaks double header before I was off to White Acres so I wanted to go out with a bang. When I drew peg 21 I could have died!!!! 21 is one of the worst on the lake and with only 32 on saw no reason for them to put it in, to say I was not pleased would be an understatement!!!! Everyone was saying if ya win off that you’ll be our hero’s etc and that will slow ya down, John Allerton came up to me tho and just said look, just do what you do and I’ll bet ya you will come good.

With ian on 24 though I knew I’d have my work cut out for even a section win. Anyway I decided that if I was going to win anything I needed a simple plan so set one rig up for in front of the sedges and that was it!!!! The far bank is like on the outside of the bend so the fish never seem to settle and for a while I struggled to catch a deal, just the odd F1 and small ide. Luckily the f1s where big and I was steadily building a weight. I could see Ian catching lots more fish than me and match fishing legend John Illingworth seemed to be catching as well, whereas my peg was very slow. Going into the last hour and it was really slow. I even got off my box for a walk, got 2 strides and thought sit back down you fool!!!!

Anyway a painfully slow last hour saw only 4 more f1s for probably 10 pound or so- they were good uns. I was really narked at the end, when the scales arrived I had the moan of all moans at Ghandi for putting the peg in. Anyway 68lb was winning and I put 67lb odd on!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes!!! The f1s must have been huge. To cut a long story short I came second, and im sure if id have had my normal head on id have walked the match but because I got myself worked up about the draw I fished rubbish!!!!

Come the Sunday and my heart sank again when I pulled out peg 36, but this time I tried not to let it get to me. Now 36 plumbs up like a dream but seems to hold very few fish, but I had a fair bit of room so quite fancied it. Gareth Drury had it the day before and managed 50lb so I fancied it for that. Anyway I kicked off in front of the sedges and got loads of signs and hit no bites I eventually hooked a small roach followed by a skimmer after 20 minutes of feeding and about 10 small fish before finally latching into a better fish an ide about 12oz anyway I eventually started catching the odd small f1 and ide and was fairly happy. But then the peg got worse with the small fish so I decided to start again at 15m up the bank towards a willow bush, I finally found a small ball of f1s and had 13 before that went iffy, so I decided with 2 hours to go, to start again up the bank to my left, I had another good run of fish and I found I could catch 5-6 before having to switch to my right hand line and repeating.

The f1s where very small but I didn’t mind as I was coming back with one most casts. At the all out I found it had fished hard again but I knew Gareth Drury had sacked on dolly peg 45, I was dead pleased with 60lb and came second again to Gareth with that, Gareth had 80 odd pound. Anyway im going on the Preston Festival next week and ill report back soon.