By Tom | No Comments
Last updated: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

With the weather finally seeming to be turning round, I was really looking forward to this weekends matches- a chance to leave behind some of the crap draws of winter and look forward to brighter days to come!

On Saturday, I had decided to have a run up to the open match at Messingham Grange Fishery near Scunthorpe, along with fellow Woodseats angler Dave Tomkinson.

My mate, and fellow Fishing4Fun blogger Mark Wragg had talked us into going, with increasing turnouts in the midweek matches, suggesting that the number of people fishing the match on the Saturday would also be up.

A fantastic breakfast at the onsite café set us up for the day, and it was served by probably the best looking waitress I have ever seen in a café at half past seven in the morning!

Unfortunately, I had only anticipated spending the day with disheveled fishermen such as myself, so had turned up unshaven and with my hair all over the place. For this reason, I decided to play it as low key as possible, but next time I will definitely be turning up prepared!

Of course, it didn’t stop Wraggy putting a word in for me! “I think you’ve got a marriage proposal on its way this morning love” he told her. “Oh I’m glad I’ve come to work now you’ve said that” was her reply. Perhaps I should have chanced a corny chat up line after all!

After such a pleasant start to the day, I was optimistic at the draw bag as well, and as I had never fished the place before and hadn’t got a clue what the good and bad pegs were I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed!

I pulled out peg 12, which was one off the corner on the first pool. I asked Mark what he thought, and he wasn’t exactly confident, apparently the area I had drawn hadn’t been in particularly good form lately, but he said I might get a few fish as I was the end peg on my bank.

Tommo had drawn an area that had fished well previously, in the middle of the bank of the second lake, well Wraggy was on the end peg in front of me and didn’t really fancy it.

The lake is full of small carp, tench, ide and skimmers, a real mixed venue. As it was my first visit to the place, I had put together a fairly rigid plan of attack, based on what Wraggy had told me.

I was going to fish groundbait and maggots to try and catch everything that swims, and then a longer line with pellets and corn to try and pick off some better fish if any were around.

With me being on the end peg, I adapted this slightly however, and fished my big fish line out to one side and a maggot and groundbait line both long and short, to give me somewhere to catch quickly if it turned into a bagging match.

In terms of rigs I opted for a 4×14s float in around 4ft of water, with 0.12 line fished through to an 0.10 bottom for my groundbait line, and 0.12 straight through for my pellet/ corn line.

I started the match on the groundbait line with maggots on the hook, taking five F1’s and a couple of crucians in the first hour, only small fish but I couldn’t see many other people catching, so I decided to stick at it. I had been feeding my other lines all the while however, and with the wind starting to pick up and a load of black clouds moving over, I reckon this would be all I would be able to fish in the latter part of the match.

I have never seen a day change as quickly, from being brilliant sunshine and flat calm in the morning it turned into a howling gail, and lashing it down with rain. I came short and took five fish in my first five puts in before they became cagey.

There was nothing over my pellet line, so I decided to drop it, and with the wind getting up making my long line unfishable I was fast running out of options. I kept swapping between short and long line for as long as I could, taking the odd fish of each one, but in the end the wind got up and I simply couldn’t hold the pole. For the last hour, I fished my six metre line and caught very little.

I ended up weighing 16-6-0, and just pipped the kid on the next peg by 3oz, I thought he had done me, as he had two fish well over 2lb a piece in the last ten minutes on his top two!

My luck ran out there however, and Phil Broomhead on the next peg down weighed 16-12-0 to ounce me into third place. 27-0-0 won the match from the end peg in the corner, it was Alan Gregory of Woodlands fame, who caught up to the reeds on maggots.

Still, I don’t think you can complain when you get in the top three on your first visit to a venue, even if you are ounced!

The only downside to an otherwise great day was that the wind got up, and sand blew everywhere, and with the rain getting up it also started washing down the bank, covering my kit.

So the pole was in the shower when I got home, and everything was cleaned down ready for the next days venture up to Sessay near Thirsk.

It was the final of the Woodseats Angling Winter League, which has been something of disaster, for me to be honest. I was really wanting to win this league this year, but a couple of bad decisions, twinned with a couple of bad draws had left me out of reach of the very tightly contested top five places, but with the top six being paid out, there was still the chance of picking up some coin in the league if I kept my head down and got decent points.

The match was to be held on Maple Lake, and from what I had heard it was fishing quite well. Whenever I venture up to the Thirsk area I always pick the brains of my mate and Shimano Quaker commercial ace Johnny Maddison. He is a cracking angler and a really nice person, who has helped me loads with my fishing up this neck of the woods.

He said that pellet should be my my attack, both across to the far bank and down the middle. He told me to go and see him when I had drawn my peg, which I did. I pulled peg 28, and he wasn’t impressed. “It’s not very good, the only thing you have got going for you is that its better than 27 peg” he told me.

When league organizer Mark Holmes drew peg 27 I knew this wasn’t as guaranteed as Johnny thought however, as he has a habit of winkling a few out from unexpected places!

There were five people in with a shout of winning, Stewart Haley who was a point in front, then three people tied on the same points, Mark Holmes, Steve Holberry and Fred Wood, with Bob Poole a point behind.

As I had Mark Holmes in my section, I was under a bit of pressure off the others to beat him, and with me after a point to sneak sixth place It was building up to be a tense battle off the next peg!

I opted to fish 0.12 line to an 0.12 hooklength in around two and a half feet of water across. I found two lines that were roughly the same depth, as I like to have somewhere to go if its hard, or if there are two many fish on a given line and liners become a problem. I decided to fish a 4X10 Preston Chianti through to a single bulk above my hook length and a size 18 B911 hook.

I started my match by cupping some 4mm pellets and corn down the track, before starting across by simply kinder potting a few micros and putting a 4mm pellet on the hook. First put in, and my float sailed away within seconds of it hitting the water, blue 9 elastic streamed from my pole as the fish made a desperate bid for freedom by charging off along the far bank. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be however as it just kept on going and going and going, charging through Dave Holberry’s peg to my right. I felt I had to hold it to try and stop its run, and it broke my 0.12 hooklength. Gutted!

In the first hour I had a further three foul hooked fish , but then they finally got there heads down, and I started to pick up the odd fish. It was looking to be quite a hard match however, and nobody was catching a deal.

John Depledge in the corner peg was doing the best, taking a few good fish and also losing a few. It seemed the fish were in the corner where he was, and as the day moved on they moved out.

Around half way through the match Sean Radford on the next peg started getting a few on the tip, and was also looking like a contender for the match win. At two o’clock, I had a few F1s in the net and two slightly better fish for around 14lb, but things had really gone quiet for me. It was the same for Mark on the next peg as well, I felt I was infront of him by a couple of fish however, and probably winning the section, as Dave Holberry to my right only had one carp.

As the match wore on, there were less and less indications on the far bank line, so I decided to sit down the middle for big fish. Mark had begun fishing down the edge towards Sean’s peg, but it seemed the two in the corner had also stopped catching. I had a carp down the middle, about 4lb, which I felt put me comfortably ahead of those around me.

I saw Mark slip the net under a 3lber with ten minutes to go, but still felt I was in front of him as the final whistle blew. What I didn’t know however was that he had had another big fish down the edge which I hadn’t seen!

John Depledge weighed 24lb to take the win, with Sean Radford recording 17lb, which was surprising as the general consensus was that he had more. Mark was next to weigh and put 19lb on the scales, about five pound more than I thought he had! But then again, I didn’t know about the sneaky carp he had snurtled down the edge on corn!

I was next to weigh, and as I lifted my net out I knew Mark had done me. My 18-5-0 was good enough for third in the match on the day, and a bit of beer money, and the 2 points I had received also got me sixth in the league, so all was not lost however.

This is how the final table looked for the league:

1- Mark Holmes 11 points
2- Bob Poole 12 points
3- Fred Wood 12 points
4- Steve Holberry 12 Points
5- Stewart Haley 13 Points
6- Tom Scholey 16 Points

Mr consistent Mark had done it again, after a shaky start, a solid run on good results had pulled him round to win the league. I must admit, I was gutted not to have done better, and don’t get me wrong I have made a lot of mistakes, and there are loads of things I could have done better, but I have also been unlucky at the draw on some fairly key matches at Ranskill.

It has been a cracking league though, and with 38 anglers fishing a venue with 41 pegs there were always going to be a few bad uns. It has also been a good year in terms of attendance, I don’t think we have had less than 30 turn up on any of the rounds, meaning there has always been a decent payout. Rather than concentrating all the money at the top, it is well spread out as well, I have picked money up on 5 out of the ten matches, framing in three of them ,and the league has more than paid for itself.

With the sun finally coming out and the weather warming up, I am looking forward to leaving the winter behind me now however, and getting down to some carping. I’m off to Whiteacres in three weeks and can’t wait! I’m talking to Matt every night to see how he is going on in the Van Den Eydne festival and I must admit, Im green with envy!