The Blogs Are Back!

Sorry for the lack of blogs over Christmas, I’ve had some A-level exams and had to apply to university and been proper busy! I’ve still done plenty of fishing though, and the blogs are back!!!

I had a really enjoyable few days over Christmas. Me and Sir Tom went Pike fishing on Christmas Eve, and managed half a dozen between us on the River Till and Foss Dyke. It was a nice change and one of the best days out for ages! It’s something I could definitely get into proper. We then had a days Grayling fishing courtesy of Ben Fisk, which was absolutely brilliant. I had 5 grayling, and I hadn’t ever seen one before, they’re my new favourite fish now! Even the small 8oz ones give you right fight in the flow.

Christmas Crawl

We then had Christmas day off, because our mums made us, and we were back out on the banks on Boxing Day for a knock up at Carter Hall, (Tom’s favourite venue where he is the venue expert). I actually drew next to Tom, with me in a corner of the lake and him on a point of an island. It was really shallow, 3 foot, so I kept things really simple and set up a pole line to the island at 13m, with a 0.2g Crallusso Capri to 0.12 and an 18 B911. I fed a few grains of corn and micro pellets here. I then set up a small feeder with hair rigged corn at the last minute to give me somewhere else to go, and it’s a good job I did! Tom was into a carp on the pole straight away. I then snared one on the tip, and 4 more followed in the next two hours. With two hours to go it was neck and neck for me and sir Tom, we both had 4 carp, then he over took me by two!!! This was serious stuff, until I caught one 12lb on the pole. You should have seen Toms face, it was brilliant! I managed a few silvers and one more carp in the last hour. In the end, my catch went just short of 30lb, while Sir Tom had 24lb. It was a good laugh and crack with the Woodseats lads, and we even managed to both pick up, with tom coming third, Dave Tomkinson was 2nd and my spawney lump did it for me!

Lindholme the next day was a disaster for us both! I managed only 9lb, and Sir Tom had two fish. It was freezing cold, and I think I fed too much from the off, lesson learned! I ended up sat on the bomb and caught the odd fish on corn and pellet.

The next day was equally as cold when we were off to Bank End Fishery on a Christmas match. There was a decent turnout on the West Lake, and there were plenty of fish topping when we arrived. I started off the match fishing for the lakes carp, with feeder and waggler, but at the half way stage only 5 people had caught, so I switched to a bloodworm and joker line at 7m. I wish I had done it all day! I fed 5 balls of leam with a small amount of joker, and fished a 0.5g Tamas Walter Bloodworm Series with single and double bloodworm. bites weren’t coming fast, but the roach were dumpy, between 2 and 10oz, and at the end of the match I had around 35 fish for 6lb, which put me third overall on the match!!! I needed 12lb for second place, and if I had fished it properly from the off I might have been able to catch that! 26lb odd won the match, a very good weight on the day, F1s on the maggot and pellet feeder.

Lindholme WL

I have been fishing the Lindholme Winter league with Sir Tom with mixed results, and there is still some matches left so hopefully things will improve! I have drawn on Lindholmes Oasis Canal Lake 3 times. The first time I was in the 50’s, when the lake was frozen. It was a reasonable section peg however, and I stuck it out all day, despite many anglers not fishing for longer than an hour. I could only fish half way across due to the ice. I fished three or four lines down the middle and fed hardly anything, just the odd maggot and micro pellet. I had a bite first drop in, and missed it! I was fishing mega fine, 0.10 to 0.08 with 22 T6313 Hooks and a fine tipped maggot float that will soon be launched by SPRO. I then watched Daz Taylor on the next peg catch Steady for the next four and a half hours. With 15 minutes left, I had my next bite, a tiny dip on the float and managed an f1 right down my peg at 16m. Another 2 followed in the last few minutes as the light was fading, and I ended up 4th in section with 3lb!!! Daz won the lake with 24lb, but at least staying and sitting it out brought a few bites last off. Back to the drawing board for next time!!!

I then Drew on the opposite side of oasis, Peg 24. The weather was a bit milder this time too. My peg was 14m wide, and I planned to fish two lines down the middle and two across at 10 and 2 o’clock angles. Down the middle, I set up 4×12 SPR0 slim floats to 0.10 lines and an 18 T6313 and a 5 elastic. My rig for across was 4×10 Chianti set up identical to the other rig but up the shelf in three feet of water. I fed all the lines at the start with maggot and a few micros, and caught steady down the track for the first two hours. I was hooking the odd fish off the deck and coming back with scales, as if they were sat of the deck and not feeding. It was a bit frustrating. I didn’t catch on my long lines until the last hour, where I had an f1 and 5 small mirrors again on maggots, and lost a few foul hookers. The fish down the track trended to be smaller, between 6 and 10oz. I hadn’t seen anyone else catch much, and the guys either side had packed up! However, when the scales arrived Steve Clark had 33lb on peg 8, and there were a few other 20lb’s. My catch went 24lb, which got me a section 3rd, and 4th on the lake. It was nice to catch a few fish too after the last time I drew on there!

I then Drew on oasis again on the next round when it was blowing an absolute gale! This time I was on peg 8 at the bottom end where there had been a few fish caught previously. The peg was 16m wide and it was a bit milder, so I decided to start the match on pellets. I fed the same lines as last time but used a small kinder pot with micros instead of maggots. Starting down the middle, I had an f1 straight away on a 4mm expander, but then nothing for half an hour. I then had a few indications that were really iffy, before snaring another two f1’s. I felt that the fish were in the peg but I wasn’t doing it right, as usual! After an hour I changed things totally to maggots, and started feeding all 4 lines regular. From then on, I steadily picked fish up down the middle with either single or double maggot and had maybe 15lb with an hour to go. I was also feeding my long lines with maggot. I tried one of the long lines, but the wind was making it really hard to hold 16m and I didn’t have a bite. I then dropped in on my other long line and was into fish straight away, just 2m from where I had been before! I had a good last hour on this line, catching a bit of everything, small mirrors, f1’s, a tench and believe it or not an 8oz barble! I was feeding maggots after every fish and the line was solid at the end. I ended up weighing 29lb odd, which was enough for me to win my section and lake, with Adam Richards close behind with 28lb.

BLANKING AT BARSTON!!!

This last weekend was a disaster both days for me! Saturday was the Barston international rules league teams of 5 at Birmingham, and I travelled down with Lee Kerry to fish for the Barnsley team. He had been practicing the day before and caught two fish, I had been looking forward to it all week after a good day there on the last round, but it was going to be dire by the sounds of it. To cut a long story short, I BLANKED! It was rubbish. Out of the 60 anglers on the match, only 19 people caught, with only one angler in our team managing to catch a fish! It was as if there was something wrong, people like Alan Scotthorne, Tommy Pickering, Lee Kerry, Des Shipp blanking! Everyone thought it would be hard, but not that bad! Still, it was a day out and there’s loads of top lads fish the league, its brill, hopefully the next round will be better. Will Raison won the match with 15lb, and Dorking won the Teams, with three out of their 5 anglers catching a fish.

Another mess up!

Sunday saw the next round of the Lindholme WL. I drew on the Willows Lake in the bottom bay in a corner, 31 pegs. It looked really nice, with a long bank to fish to, and was sheltered from the wind. I fed two lines along the bank with maggots for trout, as well as a pellet line in open water at 14.5m, and a line down the edge again for trout with maggots. My rigs were 0.3g SPRO slim floats on the usual 0.10 to 18 and 20 T6313 hooks and a double 4 elastic. I fed with a kinder pot on my maggot lines for trout, 20 maggots regular with hope of drawing in some spotties! That really went to pot, when 5 hours later my keep net contained 2 reasonable trout, a stumpy weird looking deformed crooked trout look-alike fish, and three small chub for 7lb!!! It had been yet another disaster. I caught all the fish along the bank to my right off the deck loose feeding, and never had a sign of a carp. Mick Vials won the lake with 21lb mainly on the tip. Fishing doesn’t half do your head in sometimes! Still, its all fun and games, and I’m proper ready for the summer now, cant wait!