Daft shorts and sunburnt legs!

Well I really like things when practice pays off and Tuesday nights evening match at carpvale was a prime example of this, for a few years now I’ve played with the method feeder knowing that it is awesome and I’d need it in my armoury and I seemed to be getting quite good at it but never really got on a peg to fish it. So when my good mate Martin Dodsworth told me he had won the Sunday match there with 191lb and there was to be an evening match on the Tuesday I needed little encouragement!!!!!

Now, the front lake at Carpvale is quite small with only 18 pegs on it but the islands are a nice little chuck of 20 yards or so, so you do get a little bit of room. With the draw being at 6 as well it was ideal to get back from work and not be in a rush, so much so that Lee Kerry decided to have a dabble. I decided all I would do even if I drew a pole peg was to fish the feeder and when I drew peg 67 I was delighted, right on the corner of an island with plenty of fish cruising about.

All the regulars had only set paste rigs up and Lee who was 2 to my right had a nice windward corner and a nice chuck also so he was going to fish a feeder. My mix for the evening was 40% Dynamites green Swim Stim, 40% brown Swim Stim and 20%brown crumb also with half a bottle of swim stim liquid added to enhance the fish meal smell. Ive found in tank tests the brown crumb to be very important as it speeds everything up a bit. My rod was a maver powerlite system fished at 11ft with a daiwa td-r 3012 and 8lb pro gold mainline, with a fox 28gr inline flatbed feeder and an 0.20 hook length about 1 ½ inches long and an hair rigged expander on the hook. I had one first cast and after the first hour had 13-14 and the best I heard of was 3 so I was doing ok. My first two fish were a good 7lb so I was well happy. The second hour continued very much the same, but the last hour was really strange. I was obviously on loads of fish but it was as if they had come away from the island to eat!!!!

And I went a good 20-30 mins without a fish and the lads who where fishing bread were now bagging, luckily my swim came alive for the last half an hour and I caught another 5 carp. I knew Mick Atkinson had a few and venue expert John Brain had a good last hour but I was sure I’d done enough. I weighed 92lb and won the match, john was 2nd with 53lb and mick 3rd with 47lb, lee also managed to sneak into 4th which john pays just so more people get the chance to win there pools back which I think is fair enough. I really enjoyed it for a 3hr match after work and id bagged up to boot so im buzzing for next week.

Normal service resumed and an Oaks double header was what I had planned, not before a wedding do on the Friday night up in Harrogate. There was loads at the do and it was a free bar so we had a great night and definitely too much to drink but I wasn’t driving so it didn’t matter!!!! Ian was to pick me up at 8.30 and I woke up at 8.23- mad rush time!!!!! As I got to my front gate he was driving off but I managed to attract his attention. Much to his amusement I was a bit, shall we say ‘clumsy’ but I was still drunk so it didn’t really bother me. Anyway I drew peg 30 which is ok with ian next to me on 28, now it was about 30 degrees and flat calm NOT GOOD!!!!!

The f1s seem to hate this weather so a grueller was in store. I wasn’t really in the mood for anything flash so set up a mud line rig and a sedge line rig, that was it. I was going to fish the maggot(for a change) and felt I needed to catch 50lb to stand any chance of winning anything, talk before the draw was about how good it was gonna be but I knew it was going to be rock hard so didn’t set me sights to high. I kicked off on the sedge swim and after 20 minutes never had a liner or nothing!!!! Not good, id seen the odd ide swirl on my mud so decided to just fish that all match. It wasn’t brilliant but the fish where a good stamp and I knew I could catch 50lb there if I persevered with it instead of chopping and changing.

I seemed to be ahead of Ian going into the last hour and rumour was that 50lb would be good enough to get in, then it all went wrong again, it just completely dried up and I just had 3 fish in the last hour whereas ian had bagged. I weighed 51lb 8oz and ian weighed 51lb 5oz! Ha ha id just scraped it and ill never slate the little s**t fish u catch ever again!!!! This was good enough for 4th with John Allerton winning with 59lb or barbel.
I woke up on Sunday and was greeted by brilliant sunshine and no wind, crap I thought! Anyway I decided to put my lucky shorts on and get sun burnt legs for the day just for the crack. I got lots of sarcastic comments about my shorts but I think they are great so I’ll keep wearing em!!!!! Anyway I drew peg 47 which is in the worst part of the lake at present and a peg with little form, I was sure 45 would beat me as that can throw up as its on a bend. I decided on the same attack as yesterday to try and pick some big fish up on the mud again, I did however feed a margin which looked lovely, but for some reason the f1’s are not down the edge at the moment but I fancied the odd barbel and maybe a mirror or 2 down there so fed it anyway as any fish would be welcome if yesterday was anything to go by. I kicked off in front of the sedges and had 8 f1s quickly which was encouraging but it soon died, so I thought the mud would rescue me but it was a non starter and I was really struggling.

After 2 hours I was on 10 fish and was quite bored, I decided to mix things up and start a new line to my right in a little bit of shade and had 4 fish off it but that was it. My next ploy was to fish 16m down my peg and this line worked a treat, for the last 2 hours I caught fairly steadily and the fish where mirrors too so could catch a weight if my mud would happen in the last 30 minutes so I made sure I kept this primed. I also kept the edge fed for the odd drop in and I caught a 2lb f1 off it so it was kind of worthwhile. Anyway the 16m line faded with half an hour to go so it was mud line or bust for the last 30mins, I couldn’t see any mud been stirred up or any tails so wasn’t very optimistic but first drop and I had a 6lb common(a big fish for oaks) followed by a 2lb ide, followed by an f1 which must have been nearly 4lb, another 5lb common and 2 more ide before the all out was called.

The mud line had done me proud and it proves that you can never give up on a line and also that at the Oaks there is always somewhere to catch which I proved by starting again right down my peg. At the weigh in I weighed 60lb which was best weight by miles on our bit of the lake so I was really pleased, I ended up 5th and a section win and was made up with that from that area. Ian also had another section so he was pleased. Andy Dargue won the match with 92lb on paste shallow with Darryl Taylor 2nd with 70odd so it had definitely fished better. And more to the point id managed to keep up my record and its 14 in 14 now.

Ive got next weekend free before the team fishing kicks off again so ill be looking forward to oaks next week and also carpvale on Tuesday for some method fishing.

Tight lines!