Good news, bad news
We had loads of time so I took two journeys to the peg, on the second one I bumped into Andy who was doing his rounds ‘The winds changed Stewart, may not be quite as good, it normally blows into your bank’ was part of our conversation. Never mind the peg looked very fishy and must be a fish holding spot. I set up two pole rigs to fish down the edge towards the bridge. These were .3 Cralusso Capri’s to .16 hook lengths and size 16’s one with a hair rig. I also assembled a straight lead and two wagglers. One a 4 gram Cralusso Rocket Light and the other a 6 gram Rocket I needed the extra weight to combat the wind. The match started and I fed the pole lines and went out on the straight lead. It was difficult firing 11 mm pellets to where I wanted to fish as the wind was very strong. It was not the best start I have had in a match because I never had a fish for over two hours! I had tried the pole and waggler all for nothing! A few fish were coming out but mainly on the opposite bank. Andy walked around and suggested that I fish a different line and feed heavy as last week’s winner had caught shallow feeding 12 pints of pellets! 12 pints would normally last me half a dozen matches at Gwinear. To cut this short I upped the feed and caught fiver carp on the waggler but the fish backed off. I made a mistake by persevering on the waggler but I enjoyed christening my new rods, I am very impressed with them hopefully SPRO will be onto a winner. I spent the last 1 ½ hours on the straight lead picking off another 5 carp. I weighed 59lb and was short of framing by just over 20lb or another four fish. I wish now that I had spent more time on the lead in the latter part of the match. Trevor Smith next to me weighed 78lb caught from open water on the straight lead and a couple on the pole and paste. Harry won the match with 90lb he caught carp on the waggler using a 6 gram Cralusso Rocket fished towards the island. He had a couple more on the straight lead. Importantly he caught 20lb of tench and skimmers on the pole to give him the verdict by a couple of pounds. This is fast becoming a favourite venue for him. He has had one practice session and three matches at Stafford. His results are one section win. that qualified him for the two grand silver fish final that he won! And a win on this match, perhaps I shouldn’t take him again, wouldn’t want to spoil his record! Oh, the reason it’s called a Fish and Chip open is because at the end of the match a nice portion of fish and chips are delivered to your peg. How good is that!
Mawgan Porth
Kernow MG were holding a match at Mawgan Porth it was on the specimen lake that is never match fished. I had seen it from the main lake but never actually fished it before so I decided to give it a go. Everybody was keen to get on with it and talk was of 15 pound carp and big bream, I don’t think anybody really knew but, it was called the specimen lake so it must have specimens in it! The lake is shaped like a kidney and I drew peg 57 which was another end peg! But this time I felt a little hemmed in. I had the bank to my left but Mark Barden peg 56 seemed very close and it meant that neither of us could fish very long in front of us. I actually settled on two lines one at five metres and the other at about seven metres along the bank to my left. The edge rigs comprised of KC Carpa shelf’s and my open water rigs were Cralusso .2 Capri’s. It was fairly shallow at about 3 ½ foot. Line wise I settled on 0.16 just in case there were any monsters lurking in my swim. Bait wise I really had the kitchen sink with me just in case I was undecided on how to approach the match.
Forearmed is forewarned
Before the start I had a look at the prolific main lake where another match had just started. I could see from my vantage point flyer pegs 47 and 28. Roy Booth was on 28 and what I saw gave me food for thought. Normally this lake is won with over two hundred pounds, I watched for about 10 minutes and I only saw one small carp caught from peg 47! The specimen lakes water is fed from the match lake so I wondered if we were going to have a difficult match as well. There was no doubt in my mind, I was going to take this steady and I actually settled on a pint of hemp, 2 pints of pellets and some corn and a few maggots for my bait tray.
Speccies here we come!
The match started and I cupped in some hemp and pellets onto my edge swim in about 18’’ of water next to some overhanging marsh grass and then started in the open water with 6mm pellet on the hook. I had a bite first put in and a 12 oz specimen carp was on it’s way to the keepnet! A couple more followed and bites slowed a little earlier than I had hoped for. I could see the water colouring up down the edge so gave it a go. It wasn’t long before I was getting fish on a regular basis they were all about a pound with the odd 3 pounder thrown in. It seemed to me that the fish were of a similar stamp to those on the main lake, with the odd bigger fish thrown in. Looks to me like this lake has been named for the future rather than the present! Bites slowed and a change to maggot and then corn got the fish coming again. All was going well until the last two hours when I really slowed down. I really had to work swopping and changing to keep the odd fish coming. Further down the lake I could see Andy Partridge and Mark Charnell starting to catch. I just had to hope for the odd fish to stay in front. As I was watching my float I could see a faint orange shape just under the water on my edge line, it looked like a fish shallow I raised my rig out of the water and dropped it back in. The float shot under and I hit into a heavier fish that fought strangely. I broke down to the top kit put the landing net into the water and a 4 ½lb orange grass carp literally swam into the landing net! You just know it’s going to be your day when that happens. Well that was a first for me a grass carp and an orange one to boot! The match ended and I was the last peg to be weighed. Mark Charnell was leading the pack with 57lb I weighed and recorded 82lb for a long awaited victory. I had a really enjoyable match and the grass carp really made my day. I left my camera in the van as it was tipping down all day. I was going back to get it when I noticed that Janet the owner had her camera with her. Unfortunately after she had taken the photograph I realised hers is not digital! Well it’s White Acres time again and from Monday its 10 matches in 11 days I feel tired just thinking about it!
Hi Stewart, Im off to Stafford Moor on Saturday. There’s 22 of us from a small club down there for the week. I am staying in the new Hollywood Chalet (Ive got my bottle of Moet ready for the hot tube). Can you tell me more about the Cralusso Rocket floats that your using, Ive never heard of them. Do you think the lead will outscore the shallow wag at the momment. Any advice will be very appreciated. Thanks matey
Richard have a look on here: http://www.cralusso.com/angol/rocket_light.php
The Rocket lights are designed to cast further (for their capacity) than standard waggler. These floats are quite long though so are best used for fishing “deep shallow” or on the deck. The floats are almost fully weighted so only need a few shot along with the float connector, the 4gram is a popular size. They can be bought from here online
http://www.thetacklebarn.co.uk/cralusso-rocket-light-wagglers_398_337.htm or vistit the shop in plymouth while you are down in devon.
As for staffordmoor alot of people are fishing the lead to start with and the switching to a deep waggler rig and then to the shallow wag over the same line as the day goes on but it depends on the weather to which method scores best.
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Tom
