Doing Oak-K!

Well after all the aggro of the winter league campaign and the white acres festivals and stuff its been nice just to get back to normal with some fishing at oaks, the first port of call was the Dynamite Baits sponsored 2 day festival at oaks over the easter weekend, the fishing had all been worm for the matches leading up to it and it was fishing really well. Come the first day and I drew out peg 10 which is a lovely peg, in the middle of a straight and perfect for me.

I had Shaun Wright an old team mate to my left on peg 8 so would have my work cut out if I was gonna win the section. My plan for the day was to chop a kilo up at the start and add a tin of hemp a bit of corn and have this mix in a bait box and leave the casters out so I could loose feed them over the top or add them to my kinder pot. The reason for this was that everyone kept saying that somedays they don’t want casters and other days they do so I don’t see the point in putting any in the choppy mix until you know what they want on the day. My rigs for the day was a 4×10 carpa raisor with a swivel for attaching my hook length and a small bulk. The hook length was 0.10 genesis and a size 18 pr21 hook which I think is perfect for the worm as it has a nice wide gape. I used the same rig for down the edge, and I fished it on 2 sedges across so I could alternate every cast. I also set up a cheeky mud line rig ‘just in case’ but I wasn’t sure if this would play a part as the water was still very clear. All the rigs where set up to a no.8 maver latex which ive recently changed to and found it superb.
At the all in I simply supped a blob of worms on each of my 2 sedges and a full 250ml pot of worms casters and hemp down the edge. I had a brilliant first hour and I found it best to feed one line and fish the other and simply catty casters instead of cupping them and keeping the small blobs of worm going in also, and after the first hour I had about 15f1s and a few barbel which was probably 30lb and all was well, I kept topping up my edge swim and I also noticed a few fish going up the mud to eat the casters that oversprayed so I thought id start feeding them more and leave them for a while to gain some confidence and then go and extract!!!!

As it happended after 2 hours the sedge swims had died and several attempts at kickstarting them where unsuccessful, so I decided I might as well try the mud, 3 ide in as many casts were encouraging then it went quiet and I had a 5lb barbel followed by a 3lb f1. So I decided to start firing casters to another gap and create another mud line and hopefully nick a fish off each, this worked a treat in the clear water and I got a real run of fish together everything bigger than average too. At the all out I thought it would be close between me and shaun and when he put 68lb on the scales I was worried but I soon realised I had beaten him and weighed 106lb in which not only won the section but the match also so was a great start to the 2 day festival and it was game on for me!!!!
Day 2 and I was on peg 77 which was a safe draw and one I thought I could definitely win my section. I wasn’t too pleased when adam drew peg 79 as I knew id get drawn into trying to keep up with him instead of trying to stick to the job in hand, this was because Adam wasn’t in the festival so his result wouldn’t count. I used the same set up and tactics as the day before but also set up some shallow rigs to cover my options and fish shallow against the aerator in my peg. After an hour I had about a pound!!!!! Not good and I simply couldn’t get a bite, there had been the odd swirl on my mud lines but I just didn’t think it was right, I did decide to sit on it tho as when I did catch one it was a decent fish, I did have a run of fish for about 40mins on the mud line and started to go somewhere, when I hooked a big fish that tore off, knowing it would be important I played it for ages and after a while an 8lb common swirled in front of me I played it a bit longer and actually had it in my net but a bit of loss of concentration an I made a mistake and off the carp went and broke my rig!!!!! I couldn’t believe it, the worst bit of angling ive done for ages, next cast and a 4lb carp shed the hook at the net and im sure u can see where this is going, I just had a mare.

At the weigh in I just knew that fish had cost me, and so it proved, I missed out on the section win by 6lb that would have won me it, instead I ended up 4th and just out of the money places!!!!! That night I just saw a carp in my landing net all night long!!!!!
The following weekend and I was up for another go and decided to try maggots as the worm had seemingly blown, and peg 7 was to be mine for the day and after 2 and a half hours id had 5 fish so decided to go for a walk and the whole lake was fishing rock hard for some reason, I went and sat with James Dent for an hour and watched him ease to a match win with 66lb
So the next day I had revised my rigs and decided on a pellet attack and actually drew the same peg as James the day before…..peg 76 happy days!!! I was dead chuffed cos I’d just got my new pole a shiny new maver 481 and didn’t really get chance to use it on the saturday so at least I should catch some fish on it! I set up a small 4×12 float on 0.10 for the pellet and a rig for the edge and that was it. I didn’t fancy the mud line after it was so hard on the sat so just thought fishing the pellet in front of the sedges in 2 foot would pay off for me. Pellets for the day was a pint of Dynamite 2mm xl carp pellets that id soaked up the night before, and a few 4mm dynamite expanders for the hook. At the start I simply shipped out with 10 micros in my pot and had an f1 first cast about 2lb ian bowman had drawn to my right and already was getting plagued by foul hookers but I think his decision to fish meat was the reason for this. I carried on feeding really negatively and it was paying off with no liners or nothing and everyone a proper bite and I was catching just nice and steady for the first two hours off one sedge before I even needed to think about moving swims.

I did do tho just to give myself another option and my catch rate kept steady by switching between the two swims. The whole lake was fishing hard again and Ian probably only had 10lb at this point and venue expert rob minikin to his right had 20lb so I was doing alright. At the all out I felt id done really well although to be fair the swim was solid! As the scales arrived the best weight was 59lb on our board and I weighed 73lb which as it turned out won the match also!!!! It was a 50 pegger too so it was a nice little pay day too. As u can see my Oaks campaign is getting well underway and I cant wait for more!!!!!