A Twist In The Tale!

Oakside is definitely on my list of top 10 venues in the South West, it is a manmade lake that has that natural feel about it, I really enjoy the fishing here. It cannot be described as over stocked but it has a good head of quality fish including bream, tench and roach there are some big resident carp but they are not there in their thousands, it is normal to see carp anglers bivvied up spending the best part of a week fishing. In reality the venue it is different from all the other lakes in the area and it is that difference that I personally enjoy. I think it takes me back in time when I used to spend a lot of time fishing for silvers in good quality mixed fisheries. You might have guessed that I was looking forward to the latest Kernow MG league on the venue.

Chatting on the phone prior to the match to my Cralusso team mates we found it difficult to form a team plan as there was no recent form to guide us, there had been no matches at Oakside in recent weeks. The plan that we came up with was based around feeding aggressively on the pole line and letting that settle, we would then fish the feeder for at least an hour, hopefully making the most of our swims.

Draw bags to the back of the queue

I asked Nigel Taylor to do the team draw for this round and I was pleased when he told me I was on peg 15 it is just away from the flyers to my left but in any event they were in a different section so really were no threat. Mick Heacock was on the shallow side of the lake on peg 29 next to Harry Billing so he was again in for a tussle, it was an area we thought was ok but to be honest we didn’t really know. Nigel unfortunately had drawn peg 24 which is an area that I do know well, it can be good but experience told me it was hard in the colder months, he was definitely going to be up against it, the wrong end in a very good section and the flyers that I mentioned earlier are definitely a threat to him!

Late for the start

I have no idea where the time went before this match but it seemed to race by and I knew I wasn’t going to be ready before the start. Rather than rush, I decided to make sure I had everything setup just as I wanted it, best to start 5 or 10 minutes late rather than forget something or worse still breaking something by charging around. I was only concentrating on two lines so my tackle was fairly simple. I had a feeder made up with a .10 Xedion hook length to an 18’s T63-13 hook. My pole line was at 12m in the deep water and I chose a .75 gram Cralusso Capri for that. Ever the optimist I set up a couple of shallow rigs as the sun was out, I love catching shallow on this lake. I had two bags of Yorkshire Baits Green Betaine mixed up, two pints of casters a few maggots and some worms I also had some pellets just in case. The water temperature was reading 9C which gave me some confidence.

When I was eventually ready I fed five large balls of GB on my pole line which contained some chopped worm and casters. I then went straight out on the tip I had a bite after about 5 minutes which was a small Rudd and after that I had several more but they were small. After 20 minutes or so I changed my plan and went on the pole thinking that if it was small fish feeding it may be quicker on the pole. I had four quick fish before that line died, it was really strange. I gave it another 10 – 15 minutes just in case it was a big fish that had spooked the roach but if that was the reason for it slowing down I couldn’t tempt them to my double maggot hook bait.

I reverted back to my original plan of a good spell on the feeder and gave myself another 40 minutes, whatever happened around me I was going on the feeder for at least that time. It was about 15 minutes later and a small indication resulted in a better roach. Following that I had a steady pull round, it is a great feeling when you strike and feel the weight of a good skimmer and that classic nod of its head, it was about 1 ½ pound and very welcome. Staying on the tip I found a few more some coming as soon as the feeder hit the deck! I was having them in spells but there were also times when I had no bites.

I had been topping up my pole line and had a couple of goes on the 12m line I had a few more roach on this line but more importantly I had two bigger bream and a tench which probably went nigh on 10lb between them! I found it best to keep swopping between the feeder and the pole until a deciding factor made me stay on the feeder for the last hour. I was running out of groundbait! I really had made a mistake by only bringing two bags with me the fish were hungry after a long cold winter and I didn’t have enough GB with me to keep them interested on two lines!

Master Mixer

I had to make some more groundbait to continue catching; searching through my carryall I found some micro pellets and some 4 millys I over wetted them and left them to soak in the water I then pushed them through a riddle and mixed it with the dregs from the GB bowl. It wasn’t too bad as well, slightly wet but better than running out completely! I had a few smaller samples in that last 40 minutes so the effort was worth it.

It was a really enjoyable match, I hadn’t fished that style of feeder for a long time and it made a nice change to do something different. The scales came around and I was more than happy with my level 35lb which was enough to win the match. Second from two pegs to my left was Andy Dare with around 23lb. Overall the lake fished really well with some good weights and I think most were happy with their days fishing.

Four Way Tie!

Unfortunately it was a struggle for Nigel and the anglers around him, they all found it hard work. My team Cralusso managed 11 points which unbelievably tied with three other teams but we took second spot with weight advantage. Unfortunately with four teams tying we didn’t gain any ground in the league but you cannot have everything. The winning team were Mosella Garbolino led by Harry all scoring good points on the day it is looking like his team is unstoppable in this league.

Red Hot Acres

Sunday saw about thirty anglers turn up for the penultimate round of the White Acres individual league. It was to be on Python, Trelawney and Jennies and I have to say the whole venue is on fire at the moment! The average weight on the narrow side of Python was around 30lb! Andy Dare winning that lake with 60lb of F1’s from peg 11 but there were loads of good catches. The new stocking and work at the venue is certainly paying dividends, it’s looking good for the festivals which start in about four weeks time.

I had my dip and I thought it was a good omen drawing peg 15 on Trelawney the same number as yesterday! It was an end peg to boot and when I got to the peg I found the wind was off my back so I was going to have a comfortable day with no pole wrestling!

Even though I have fished this lake on a good number of occasions, this was going to be different as it has received loads of new fish including some barbel, I wasn’t sure how the newbie’s were going to respond! I decided that I was going to fish it in a similar way to what I normally do and work it out as the match progressed! I set up .4 gram rigs to fish on both 12m and 5m lines and an edge rig. The water temperature was a steady 9c surely it won’t be long before we get into double figures!

Carptastic!

I fed two balls of Green Betaine at 12m and some pellets at the same length but on a different line. I also fed some more GB on my 5m line. Starting over the long GB line with double red maggot there was no immediate response. I could see Andy Partridge on peg 6 catching on what looked to be his favourite short pole and caster; in fact I could see everyone catching! I had a bite and bumped what I thought was an F1 changing to a soft pellet and I hit the next bite which turned out to be a common about 6lb. Another one the next put about the same size which prompted me to try my other long line, a big mirror this time which came off at the net.

I put on another pellet and dropped it in the water at my feet, put the top kit on and shipped out only to see the elastic shooting out of my pole. I had only hooked a 2lb mirror in the mouth from inches away from my feet! I managed to get onto my 5m line and hooked and lost another big mirror next drop I had another which I landed. The peg was solid with carp on every line that I had fed even those I had not! Believe it or not I actually had another one when I dropped the pellet at my feet before shipping out.

Just what do you do?

I decided to have a go on the feeder whilst I thought of what I was going to do next, the problem was it was now 1pm with 2 ½ hours to go and I didn’t have a fish in the net, this was a silver fish only round and I was in a peg that was bank to bank carp! Funnily enough I didn’t get a bite on the feeder but I am sure I would have done if I fished it a bit longer. I did notice that the other anglers were catching on the close line and I was also sure that I saw Mike O’Gorman putting in a second net, in a silver fish match? He was too far away to see him properly but he must have been bagging! I needed a section win but I knew that there was now no chance of that; I had given Steve Maynard a lift so couldn’t leave early! I decided to stay and concentrate on the 5m line and enjoy the rest of the match.

Eventually I caught an F1 (which are allowed) on the short line on garlic pellet, I started to put a few together but I probably had another half a dozen carp before the end of what was an unbelievable match. Even though I came last in section with 23lb I actually quite enjoyed myself, I just wish I could draw like that when carp are allowed!

Mike O’Gorman won the lake and the match with a stunning net of F1’s that went 88lb! Andy Partridge had 60lb and apart from me the lowest weigh in my section was 40lb. On the other bank Harry Billing was the victor with a 64lb net of F1’s and there were two other weights in the region of 58lb by Clint Elliot and Steve Bass. It was a big 30lb weight that Skip McCabe had to win Jennies, everywhere fished its socks off.

I have some good matches to look forward to this week we are having a sweep at Bolingey on Thursday which is probably my all time favourite lake. Saturday sees me at Gunnabarn for a blind pairs match on their new match lake and Sunday its Porth reservoir time in the final round of a winter league.