I got the feeling that the weather gods were against me after last Thursdays match at Carterhall Fisheries, it had been a fairly nice day, but come six oclock when the match started, the heavens opened!
Torrential rain from when the match started to when it finished, left me well and truly drenched! A few anglers who were meant to be coming took the sensible approach and cried off as they saw the black clouds descend over the moors, and so as it turned out there were only five hardy souls vying it out for glory.
As there were so few of us we decided to have a rover, and I pulled number three out but by the time I had put on my waterproofs got on the bank all the others had picked there pegs! Still, the one I fancied was left free, so I wasn’t too disappointed.
I planned to fish slightly differently to the way I normally approach the venue, as the wind made it difficult to reach the island, so I opted to fish down the edge with maggots as oppose to across to the island. This worked quite well, and I caught steady for the first half of the match, before the line died around half way through.
I managed to pick up the odd fish, but the line never really returned to its former strength. I have a theory about what goes on at the venue: First of all you catch silvers, then the carp move in, and once they have done this it can be hard to get the silvers to feed again, hence a quiet second half of the match.
With plenty of room, everyone had a few fish and I wasn’t sure whether I had done enough at the end of the match. I reckoned I had around 12lb, and when the first two anglers put 12lb on the scales, I knew it would be close. Venue regular Jack Rothwell weighed 14-10-0, and I thought that had done me, but my fish weighed heavier than expected and went 16-0-0 to push Jack into second.
I felt sorry for Jack as he has been weighing in some cracking nets made up entirely of silvers, and I almost always have carp in my nets, so he is fishing really well to get so close, I reckon next week will be his week!
Licked at Lakeside!
I must admit, I empathized particularly strongly on Saturday, as a similar thing happened to me in the summer league at Lakeside Fisheries, Ranskill. It was the fourth round, and I was winning the league on weight, with three of us tied on points. I am (or should I say was) ultra confident in my chopped worm and caster approach at the venue, and decided to attack my peg with it once again.
I caught well on it early on in the day, putting around 10lb in the net in the first hour, while everyone else in my section struggled. I managed to keep catching, but the line was getting weaker as the day wore on, despite heavy feeding I struggled to get any better fish in the peg, I wasn’t too worried however, as I still felt I was a good way ahead of the rest of my section.
Then disaster struck, Alan Topham to my left landed two carp, one around 12lb and one around 7lb, and all of a sudden I was chasing. No matter what I did, I didn’t seem able to get among a better stamp of fish, I would get the odd one and that was it. Alan was first in our section to weigh, with his net going 46-2-0. I knew I didn’t have enough, and my silvers went 40-13-0.
This put me second in my five man section, and to make matters worse the two who I was tied with in the league won there sections and finished first and second in the match, so now I am chasing here as well! Must do better next Saturday!
Lovin’ it at Lindholme
On Sunday I agreed to fish in a teams of six match organized by totalfishing.com at Lindholme Lakes, there were 12 teams in it, with each team having a celebrity angler as captain and six randomly drawn anglers.
I was to fish Beaches Lake, and have never fished here before so had no idea what to expect. I picked the brains of Joe Carass and Steve Rothery, who advised a pellet and corn approach, which proved to be the right suggestion on the day.
When I found out who was in my team, I was quite confident, as we had Jon Arthur as captain, as well as Adam Richards so in effect had two ringers while other teams only had one!
I drew peg 27, and my day got off to a bad start when I went to dip my nets and realized I had left them at home! Still, the angler to my left was generous enough to lend me his, and we agreed a £1 side bet so a fun day was back on the cards!
I had to fish just under 16 metres to reach the island, and opted to fish just off it in 2 ½ feet of water. Following the advice I had been given, I set up three animal rigs on 0.18 line to 16 PR27 Hooks, with Carpa Shelf Floats with through body eyes, there were snags everywhere, and I knew I would encounter problems getting the fish out.
I started on my ‘tame rig’ which had an 0.14 bottom to Preston Hollo 13 elastic. This was no match for the carp however, with my first fish snagging me behind the island. Time to bring out the animal tackle!
Once I was geared up properly, I caught steadily all match off this one line to the island, and saw little point in coming off it, as I had indications off it throughout. I lost probably seven fish, two of which I would say were my own fault, with the others just pulling out as I ragged them away from snags, and I don’t feel there is a lot I could have done about these.
I weighed in 14 carp, two skimmers and two tench for 43-15-0, which was good enough for a section win (worth £65!) and fifth in the match. I was just glad they paid sections as oppose to the main frame, otherwise my lost fish would have cost me a lot of money!
It turned out Adam had won his section and the match with 84-0-0, and Jon had finished sixth, but we weren’t sure who the other people in our team were, let alone how they had gone on!
They can’t have done much however, as despite these three good results we finished 6th as a team. Gutted!
Next weekend I have got another round of the Ranskill Summer League on Saturday, then a trip to the Nene with the Triana boys on Sunday, so hopefully another decent weekend will be on the cards!
I did not realize you where fishing the teams of 6 at Lindholme last Sunday, Tom. I would have found out where you where and said hello if i had known. Well done on the section win on the day. Shame about the team finishing 6th. I was one of the lads in the winning team. So a good day for both of us.
Hi Steve, Well done on winning the team thing! It was a good day wasn’t it, really enjoyed it, I’m sure we will bump into each other at Lindholme/ Cudmore in the future!
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