By Matt | No Comments
Last updated: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Not had much on match fishing lately, so I’ve been fishing the odd open here and there. I had a terrible 2 days last weekend. I went to little john lakes at Ollerton on the Saturday, which was brilliant when I fished it in the summer. It was a bit on the breezy side when we got there, and I ended up drawing peg 21. I’m making excuses here, but it is a bit hit and miss in the colder months. It still looked nice, but after a bite-less first hour, I wasn’t so keen! There were three of us in a row that hadn’t had so much as a sniff, the guys in the open water on the points of the island caught best on the tip. I ended up catching 2 carp and 4 ide. The guy to my left fish the way to the end and didn’t have a bite! The guy the other side had 2 small fish, and packed up with 2 hours to go, so I don’t think that there was that much in front of us!!! Tom just missed out by half an oz, but he did have a 4lb 20z chub (spawney!!!)

On the Sunday we went to Wetlands at Lound, where the weights had just started to pick up. There were plenty there, and I had been told that a choppie and caster approach was best. It was the first time I had seen the lake, and when I got to my peg, number 7, an apparently alright peg, there was the odd carp rolling in front and it was flat calm. I decided to spend the first hour or so trying to catch a carp, to no avail, as usual. Then I came short over the chopped worm line at 13m, where I had put a full pot, and been loose feeding casters heavy. There isn’t many small fish in Wetlands, and I was told that they are big Ide, bream and carp. I had my first ide, a proper one, the biggest I have ever had.

To be honest it was dead slow, and I had 4 skimmers 2 ide, a small carp and a big roach, all on a small piece of worm. I set up two rigs to fish over the line, a heavy and a light. The light rig was 4×14 Chianti on 0.10 powerline to an 18 B911. The heavier rig, which I caught best laying over depth on, was a 0.5g Tomas Walter Series Carp, on 0.13 to a 0.11 with a 16 B911. I used a number 9 Preston hollo on both rigs. I didn’t feel I was going anywhere fast, so went along with the locals setting up a bomb and tea bag with meat for the last hour, using the SPRO 10 foot picker rod and red arc reel .

With 10 minutes to go it went round with probably the smallest carp to the bomb of the day, 4lb or so. I definitely realised where I went wrong, when tom came back with 6th on lake and section win with 29lb odd, saying he fed 1kilo and a half of worm and three pints of caster!!! I hadn’t fed no-where near enough!!! Anyway, I’ll know for next time. My 9 ‘small’ fish went 16lb 08oz.

This week I got an invite to a fairly new place up Thirsk, Stone Bridge fishery. It sounded great, and looked it when I got there too! It was supposed to be full of small ide and orf, but also carp, so I set a bit of all sorts up. A line on the top 5 with casters for silvers, 4×10 Chianti, 0.11 to a 6 elastic and 18 hook. I then set up an 11m line with pellet and corn, a 0.5g Tomas Walter and 0.13 to a 16 B911 and white hydro. I started for carp, but got absolutely blitzed with the small fish. So after half an hour I decided to fish for them. I could catch say 20 small orf on the top 4, but then had to follow them out to 6 sections, and couldn’t get into much of a rhythm. I stuck at it, feeding 2pt of caster, with maggot on the hook. I had the odd ide and a rouge trout that had been left in from when it was a trout lake. There were the odd carp caught, but it had been cool overnight, and I think they had switched off. In the last hour I tempted on small carp amongst the ide, 2lb or so, but had been busy all day.

I ended up weighing 31lb 12oz of small ide and golden orf, which put me 5th, just out of the money by a few ounces!!! I can’t seem to do anything lately; I’ll have to take up golf for certain. I really enjoyed it though; it was a bit of a run but a nice change. I just wish it was closer to home. It will be brilliant when the carp start to feed and the orf are all 8oz!!!