Well after a frustrating couple of weeks ive finally won a few quid this weekend! On Saturday me and carp fishing machine Jonny Kenning went down to Moorlands Farm nr Kidderminster to fish the winter league there. We decided to have a recce to the venue as we have the Drennan All Winners final coming up on the 3rd of may, and with me going to White Acres for the next week I wont get many more chances to go.
This meant an early start for me as I had to pick Jonny up so I left my house at 5am, ready for the 170 mile journey(this better be good!!!) anyway after a good chat and a steady drive we got there for 8.15 and the draw wasn’t until half 9 so it gave us plenty of time for a breakfast and a walk around as it was both of our first time at the venue.
To say I wasn’t inspired by the place was an understatement! There are lots of very small lakes and 2 decent sized ones. After a bit of a chat with Neil McKinnon he said it was all pellets and corn at the moment and it was still a bit peggy, so I was well pleased when he told me I was on a few! I drew moors peg 12 in a really fishy looking corner and neil said I would be in for a nice days fishing. Jonny drew pants though! Meadow peg 30 and everyone we spoke to had the same opinion of it!
Anyway I got to my peg and it looked absolutely lovely, textbook corner peg with willows overhanging and a big undercut bank and also a platform at 16m it looked awesome!
First job for the day was to clear the corner out and I went round and pulled out loads of dead reeds etc and discovered how undercut the bank was, in my experience carp love areas like that so I was made up with my peg, I set up a 4×12 Malman Snake 4 on 0.16 to a 0.14 hook length and a 18 b911, I also set up a 4×14 malman adam float for the same swim as I thought the wind would get up and id need a heavier float. I decided on a swim to the undercut band, and one to the spare platform, I also fed a 14m open water line I set up a 0.4 and 0.8 fox mp3 on 0.16 to 0.12 bottom and a 18 b911 hook matched to white hydro.
Bait for the day was pellets and corn, I kicked off with a kinder pot full on all 3 lines and kicked off in open water with a 4mm pellet on, I had a skimmer after 15mins and never really felt I was gonna catch much there as I thought it was too deep for the bait id brought(micro pellets) so I more or less sacked it to concentrate down the margins. I dropped down the undercut bank swim and it went straight under a 2lb stockie was my reward, next chuck and something went straight through all the roots and stuff and I couldn’t believe how undercut the banking was!!!!! It was as if the fish where swimming through the bank lol anyway after a frustrating 90mins where I couldn’t get the balance of my elastic right it was 5-5 trouble was the fish id landed where only small and I knew id need a 90lb weight to win, in the end I settled on extra tight black hydro as it had the pulling power required.
It all went wrong though as after 2 hours I could not get a bite! I probably had 10 at this point for 18lb and that was easily winning the lake but I was very worried. On the 3hour mark the heavens opened and I got drenched(again) and I decided to have a look against the spare peg, first chuck an 8lber, then a 4lber, then a 6lber then a 3lber all in 4chucks I thought right here we go I can catch a ton of these in two hours, but once again it just died on me. I persevered with the 2 swims and just had the odd carp.
With 20mins to go though my platform swim was solid again and I had another few good fish. At the all out it was clear id won my lake, but I was a bit annoyed and felt I should have done better. I weighed 52lb with 19lb being second on my lake, I was 6th in the match and picked up 45 quid for my troubles. Poor Jonny however had a real grueller and didn’t even have a bite! The match was won from bank pool with 92lb. So at least id learnt a few things and it definitely wasn’t a wasted trip, the locals fish very similar to each other with pellets very close in, so hopefully we can sort something to buck this trend but we will have to see.
On Sunday I decided to stay local and went to the Oaks Lakes at Sessay, now I have a real love hate relationship with the place as I either seem to do really well there or absolutely shocking! The lake is easily the best snake lake ive been to and the place really is solid. The good thing about it is unlike other snake lakes where its very predictable, you never know where the winner will come from which is brilliant in my book.
The fishing has been dominated by worm fishing and I was pleased as I love fishing worms for f1s and ide, I got up early to sort my worms. I like to make sure there isn’t any bark or anything in my worms so what I do is tip the lot into a big bucket then riddle the peat off them, u end up with a bowl of really fine peat. Then I place the worms and bark onto a riddle over the peat and put them in daylight somewhere, they like to dive thru the riddle into the peat as quickly as possible and what you end up with is a lovely fine medium for the worms to live in that makes a good cloud and far easier to chop through.
Anyway I had the luxury of not having to drive today as Ian Bowman was going to pick me up, and after having a natter to some of the regulars it was time for the draw. I drew peg 50 PANTS!!!!! Everyone told me it was crap too, but I wasnt to concerned as still thought id get a days fishing.
I had my hero Gary Jubb for company too so knew id have my work cut out to beat him as he is one of the best at chopped worm fishing. I also had the 40’s to contend with which are very good pegs.
I decided to start with one line across and one down the edge, I plumbed a track swim but didn’t want to feed it till 5mins before I went on it. My rigs for across was a 4×12 thick topped float(pattern unknown but its perfect) and also a .4gr mp3 in case I needed something more positive. These rigs doubled for the margin and I also set up a .8gr mp3 for the track. The mp3s really are the business for worm fishing and I rate them really highly. Line was 012 to 0.10 hook lengths and a 16 801 hook. And white hydro completed the rigs.
I kicked off with quarter of a pot of the worm and caster mix on both lines and went across to the far side. After 15mins nobody had caught anything. It was gonna be one of those days! Anyway after about my 5th small pot full of worms I had an indication followed by a sail away and a 1lb f1. I had to go another 20mins later and everyone seemed to be in the same boat. After 3 hours I had 3 fish, and really didn’t know what to do as nobody was catching.
I decided I was gonna try and use my casters up and started firing a few into the space to my left and after 30 minutes of feeding it, it wasn’t brilliant but with a little perseverance I kept the odd bite coming and managed 10 fish in one of the little spells I had. Anyway I followed the scales and I think 12lb was winning the section and to my delight I had 15lb for the section win.
I was really pleased with that as I felt id tried to do something different and it paid off. Jubbster managed a few fish in the early parts of the match and weighed 23lb in but he was in the next section. Darryl Taylor won the match with 50 odd pound of small f1s with 44lb last in the money. But on the whole it was very hard, the general consensus was that it was down to the overnight rain and the fact there was not a ripple on the lake.
Anyway ive got White Acres to look forward to next week and im proper buzzing for it and cant wait to get there!!!!
Cracking idea with the worms Joe, I will have to give it a try! Wish I had thought of that!
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Tom
