Back to Kiveton

This weekend saw me venture back down to Kiveton Waters, where I fished a few matches earlier in the year. The way people were talking, the fishing hadn’t changed much, and small carp were still the target using mainly pellets. Tom had invited Evesham’s Jim Smith (also known as the Pirate Of Penzance) up to fish the match, so we were guaranteed a good laugh even if we didn’t catch much. He gave some of the locals some stick before the start; he’d never even met them before either! He even went and fetched a roll of toilet paper out of his van and threw it at one of them! They all took it well though…

I drew peg 12, and was pretty gutted to be honest, I didn’t really fancy it, although I did have Jim two pegs up! I had the island to cast a feeder to, but there were some people fishing on it, and you tend not to catch on the tip when people are banging around on there. I still set it up, starting on a small fox method feeder, using a spro picker rod and red arc reel loaded with 6lb line, and a 3 inch 0.16 hooklink. I clipped up around 10 foot off the island, in around three feet of water, as I felt the disturbance on the island would push the fish away.

It’s always quite windy down at Kiveton, and Sunday was no different! I set the pole up, and settled at fishing just 7 sections, where I could feed accurately and presentation would be better. For this line I set up two rigs, both on 0.14, to a 16 B911. One was a 0.3g Cralusso Capri, and the second was a heavier 0.6g Tomas Walter Series 4. Both were set with an inch on the deck.

I kicked of feeding a quarter of a pot of micro pellets on the pole, starting on the method with double dead red maggot. After an hour without a single liner, it looked grim!!! There was just the odd fish getting caught, so I decided to change over to a normal ground bait feeder with a 2 foot tail. I glanced up to Jim to see him playing a fish already, with a massive smile on his face he was cheering himself on with hand signals!

I had been potting in micros over my pole line with a kinder pot, hoping to go on it and get a few bites. After half an hour on the ground bait feeder, I had one skimmer! It was time to try the pole!!!

I had a mixture of expander’s for hooking, and I started on a 4mm light one. I was relieved to get a few indications, and had a couple of small fish, so at least there was a few fish around! I would catch a few skimmers, then a small carp, and then miss a few bites. I tried all sorts, feeding 4mms, a piece of worm of maggot on the hook, but just missed loads of bites on pellets!

I persevered on the pole for the rest of the match, as nobody in the section was doing much. I kept getting these little spells, a few fish, then miss ten million blooming bites!!!!!!

At the all out, I had 9 small carp, and say 10 small skimmers, which went 19lb odd. I followed the scales up, and was glad to just sneak the section; it made it all a bit more worth while, and I beat Jim! I was still frustrated with all the bites I’d missed, and it appeared that everyone had the same problem.

Four of us had a £5 side bet too, which Sir Tom (spawney) won with 26lb, off an absolute flyer, it must have been heaving!!!!!!

Forty odd pound won the match, local Paul Massey was second, with uncle daft Stan finishing third with 33lb of peg 1, the best peg in Sheffield, and the wind was blowing into it!!! It must have been even more solid than Sir Toms peg!!!

I’m off down to the River Huntspill this weekend for a two day practice for the Division 1 National.