Dreaming

It was inevitable that there was a low turn out for the match at Trewaters Farm on the Saturday following the Milo Festival. Like myself, I guess most people thought it would be hard. It had after all just hosted five matches on the spin with some of the best match anglers in the country taking part. How wrong could we be? Very, very wrong is the answer to that question!

We had generous pegging and I ended up on peg 26 in the corner of the top lake, a peg that I have fished once previously and I have to say I was pleased to be on it for a second time. The peg has a great looking edge to the left and I set up a 4 x 10 float to tackle that part of my swim with corn over 4mm pellet. I had two other pole swims in mind. The first was at 6 sections of my pole in the deepest water and the second was the same length further to my left at the base of the slope. I also set up a small method feeder but apart from clipping it up tight to the island I never actually used it.

Aroma from the bait table

Bait for the day was garlic micro pellet as feed and I was planning on fishing a 4mm Yorkshire Bait expander on the hook. I also had some 4mm hard pellets for feed along with a few 6mm and a couple of tins of corn. At the start I fed my pole lines and went straight out on the 6m line. A few lift and drops and within a couple of minutes I had my first fish a small F1 of around 6 ounce. Another followed next put in and then a good skimmer was quickly in the net. Opposite me on peg 25 I could see Steve Maynard catching well on corn down his margin.

I just stayed on the same line as the fish just kept coming very quickly! What’s more the interest factor was there as I didn’t really know what was going to take the bait next. I had the inevitable F1’s but golden Tench, Tench, skimmers, small carp and the odd roach were putting in an appearance it was very good fishing. Going in to the third hour I was still catching on the deck and it was literally a fish every put in. Looking at my clicker gave me a fish count of 50 and it was time for the second net. I kept feeding the margins in case my swim died but it was if anything getting stronger, and at the end of the third hour I had a few fish on the drop.

Absolutely brilliant sport

Wondering if I could catch shallow for the first time this year I quickly changed a rig and was out at 18’’ on the same line and was soon into quality Cornish F1’s, it was fast and furious fishing and with 15 minutes to go I was still catching one every put in! I actually saw a Ghost Carp feeding down my edge and I thought that would round the day of nicely. So for the remainder of the match I tried for the kerb crawler. I had a few F1s on the corn and with seconds to go I saw the Ghostie again dropping my corn in front of its nose I actually saw it follow the bait down and the float shot under! The culprit however was a nice sized Cornish F1 that beat him to the offering and on the whistle that was my last fish of the day.

What a match that was, I had caught a 158 fish for 108lb and can honestly say I had a bite every single put in during the match! That works out at around 31 fish per hour for the duration no wonder I felt tired. I missed a few bites and bumped a few fish but I had one of those days when absolutely everything went right not even a tangle! I had obviously drawn spot on but it was a great experience. What a fishery that Trewaters is, it is going to be unbelievable when those fish pack on a bit more weight. Whistling Bill Arch was second with 52lb and Steve Maynard just behind on 51lb.

Cure the bug!

I had the bug and was really looking forward to Gwinear on Sunday. In the week I phoned Andy Dare about the Tuesday match and he told me that Dave Cain had won from peg 25 on phase three with 80lb fishing shallow at 14m. I could not stop thinking about fishing that peg myself as it very good peg and I love to catch shallow!

I was in the draw queue and Andy asked me to draw his peg for him, as like me he does not like to draw his own when organising a match. I told him I would but it was mine first. I had my dip and out came peg 25! Andy did give me a bit of stick but he was happy enough when I pulled another flyer for him to have a go on. It’s a funny thing that bag of dreams, sometimes it can be your worst nightmare and other times your best fantasy!

I obviously went to my peg very happy and was feeling very confident, sure in my mind how I was going to approach the peg. When I put the box down there was a strong wind coming right to left but there were fish rolling on the 14m line and now there was only one thing I was dreaming about!

Rig wise I set up three up in the water rigs starting at five foot deep with a .40 gram J13, three foot with a .30 gram J13 and 18 inches with another.30 gram float. Each had an 18’s PR36 with an F1 micro band to a .14 Cralusso hook length. My other rigs were .2 gram Cralusso Capri’s for fishing to my left at 6m and 13m down the edge. I set up a SPRO picker rod to fish a straight lead or bomb over my loose feed, I was ready early and couldn’t wait to get at them.

Here we go, dreaming again

The match started and I was straight out on the three foot rig and after a few minutes I was into my first carp of the day which was caught on a 6mm pellet. Happy days, I thought all of my dreams had come true but 90 minutes later I was still waiting for my second fish! To be fair there wasn’t much happening on the lake so I never thought I was falling behind too much and I just hoped they would turn up on my feed. But the fished seemed a bit nervy and appeared to move to the gaps between the anglers. I tried a small pellet feeder and after a wait of 10 minutes or so the rod slammed around and number two was in the net. After that I did what I should have done at the start and set up a .75 rig to fish on the deck! This worked and I caught a few, Oh man over confidence had caught me out today. I managed three or our from down the edge but in the end was just pipped by Skip McCabe for the lake he had 39lb to my 35lb. On Phase One Andy Dare made no mistake with the peg that I drew for him and won the match with 67lb. Second overall was Mike O’Gorman from Bolingey Lakes with around 50lb.

Mawgan Time!

It was soon Tuesday again and I was raring to get at Mawgan Porth as Harry Billing says there is something very addictive about the place and at the moment it’s attracting some good attendances. Perhaps its anglers dreaming about there first ton or maybe that double ton?

There was some good natured banter flying around at the draw from a group of visiting anglers, it is really good at this time of year meeting up with some old faces and catching upon what’s happening around the country. The orderly queue for the bag of dreams seemed to change into a tangle of hands trying to get in there for the perceived flyers before anyone else got them! I must admit to waiting at the back until I saw a gap for my chance to have a dip. Out came peg 6 and I had a grin on my face as I showed it to Tourettes, he lost no time in reminding me that I would have trouble plumbing up after my comment to him last week!

As I got to the peg I noticed that the water looked a little clear but moving to the left it was very coloured indicating that the main shoals of hungry carp were that way. I soon set up four rigs which were all J3 floats. Two were set at depth to fish in front of me at 3 and 4 metres and the other two were for down the edge to my left.

Slow down Franek!

The match started and Franek Staniuszko on peg 8 was soon putting fish in the net at a very fast rate of knots, I thought he was going for the record the way he started! My swim soon coloured up as the fish found my feed and fish started to come on a regular basis and what was more important they were a good stamp. I was having the odd glance towards Frank and his fish seemed smaller, well it kept me going as I felt I might be staying in touch with him. That first hour I had 33 carp and I was really pleased with the catch rate if I could only keep it up a huge weight was on the cards.

The next hour was totally different the fished seemed to back of in my peg and I only had 11 carp. I found myself searching around my swim trying to find where they were hiding as I could not draw them to where I was feeding. Eventually I settled on two swims one down the edge to my left around 2’ from the bank and one around 5m also to my left. It was certainly an interesting match and trying to keep in contact with the fish for me was key. The fish started to get a bit more confident and I felt I was back in with a chance of framing. Franek was still catching along with his mates Nigel Hirst on peg 38 and Neil Edwards on peg 41 come to think of it they are a bunch of draw bags! I wouldn’t like to be taking part in weekly White Acres resident matches with there drawing prowess.

The match drew to a close and the fish were getting a little more difficult to catch in the last 30 minutes but a previous steady last couple of hours put the total fish in my keep nets at 111, exactly the same total as last weeks match. Franek does not count his fish but I reckoned that he had around the same as me so, it would be interesting to see who had the verdict. In the end I shaded the match with 140lb 2oz to Franek’s 121lb 13oz it was close. I had a few fish that were well over 4lb which is big by Mawgan Porth standards and they no doubt helped. I was chuffed with 4^th consecutive match win at the venue. But that golden peg does not get any easier to win as I failed miserably when trying to re draw my peg number!

Twice in a week

The last match I attended was the Friday open at MP and I was keen to keep my good run going. I had a few things to do before I could get there and phoned Janet telling her that I would definitely be there but I would be late. I arrived to be told I had ‘drawn’ on peg 5 and to be perfectly honest it was not the one I wanted! I felt that it was a little too far down the lake, the peg is angled to the right away from peg 6 so you actually fish a completely different area of the lake. Give it a couple more weeks when the water warms up a little more and the fish spread further and then this peg is brilliant!  Still, mustn’t grumble I was going to give it my best shot and hopefully have a good days fishing.

I decided on exactly the same tackle as Tuesday, at the start I went around 2’ off the bank to my left and was soon into some nice sized fish and raced to around 15 before it suddenly slowed. As we were no more than 35 minutes into the match I was a little concerned. But I had a better start to the guy on peg 6 who was plagued with Skimmers as was Neil Edwards who had drawn peg 41 for the second match on the spin. Moving out to my 4m line at the start of the second hour, hopeful for a run left me disappointed as it produced absolutely nothing! And I soon found I was searching around the peg trying to find where they were but only managing the odd fish from here and there.

End of the road

I found the best way to catch was by fishing at around 5m near to some weed and regularly dumping a large cad pot of pellets and immediately fishing a 6mm hard pellet over the top. This seemed to attract the odd fish into feeding but just the one per feed. I was getting through a lot of bait for not many fish, but at least I was putting some fish in the net. I actually ended up with 58 fish for 79lb an 5^th place so my run was over but I have to say it was great whilst it lasted and I actually enjoyed the days sport. Individually Harry Billing won the match from peg 46 with 131lb 14oz from Nigel Hirst on peg 42 with 109lb 9oz

No matches for me this weekend as I have to take the family visiting for the Bank Holiday but all things been equal I will be back on the bank next week including the Maver Pairs match round at White Acres a match that I am really looking forward to.