It’s grim up north!

It’s not at all grim! I had a fantastic time, met some great people, fished some brilliant venues, drank some ‘reet’ good beer, and ate some incredible food. Saw a streaker at Lindholme and had a naked sleep walker come into my bedroom in Blyth! Now if that little lot is not what fishing 4 fun is all about I don’t know what is! In fact I am pleased to say that the inaugural festival although small, was a great success.

I arrived in Yorkshire late on Monday afternoon and was made very welcome at the Scholey household, before long it was beer o’clock and we were down the pub for a few ales and a quiz. The beer was good and I must admit, I really tried to overdose on it! After the quiz there was some free food provided by the landlord and Tom and his brother tried to fit me up with some powerful chilli sauce, I could see the looks they were giving each other so knew something was afoot, but I had drank a gallon of brave juice, so poured it on my food. Man, was it hot! I tried to pretend it didn’t hurt but it was powerful stuff. At least I didn’t react like Tom when he first tried it, apparently he ran outside crying!

Tuesday I decided to have a quick look at the canal as I haven’t fished a canal in years. It did look really good so I had a short practise. I had a feeling that the breadpunch would work so I gave that a try. Everything I tried worked! I had roach and skimmers on the punch, roach on squatt and to round off a great practise session I had two big chub on chopped worm. I couldn’t wait for the match but that was going to be Thursday.

You will chop worms!

That night I quizzed Tom on Ranskill and he gave me a great run down on the venue, he assured me it was worm and caster at 6 metres and down the edge, this is apparently the best silver fish water in these parts, I really couldn’t wait to get amongst them. I did ask about back up method just in case the chop didn’t work and was told the backup plan was more worms! I had a kilo for the match and Tom had ordered me five pints of casters so I was well prepared. The night was finished off with us making numerous rigs.

Ranskill day 1.

We arrived at the fishery and before long it was time for the draw I went to have my dip and out came peg 29. I was told this was a great draw and to fish worms and caster at 6 metres both up and down also the edge to my right with the same bait. I had an island at about 35 yards and was told to fish a straight lead with pellet for the odd carp. The peg screamed pellet waggler to me but I was told no one does that here! Not knowing the venue I went along with the advise that I had been given. I set up duplicate rigs to cover my two swims and before long we were under way.

At the start I fed a large pot of worms and casters at six metres and went straight over it with a piece of worm on a size 18 PR 21. My float was dipping and moving around with indications from fish but no positive bites. Next to me on my left was Ben Fisk who had a fish first chuck on the pellet waggler! I looked at his swim and could see a number of carp in front of him at about 17 metres. To my right was Tom Scholey on peg 41 who after starting on his method of worm was now on the long pole and pellet next to the island and catching carp! Oh dear, I was in trouble.

I had been firing pellets out towards the island so picked up my lead rod and cast out to the island with a hard 8mm pellet on the hook. No bites on this method. Ben had more carp this time on the long pole and floaters dabbing dog biscuits. He even lost one on his skimmer line on worm! My tip would just not move. I reached for my bait bag and changed to the pellet feeder and that also produced nothing. I had no choice and set up the waggler. Five minutes later I was playing my first carp! I still have the bruises where I kicked myself. I had a couple more fish before I had a run of lost fish, two to some trailing line just off the island and two more just before I netted them. I think I was trying to play them a bit hard in frustration and an attempt to catch up with Tom and Ben, I really do know better than that but I had a terrible start to this match and was desperate to improve things.

The rest of the match was taken up with catching a few silvers down the edge including some big Ide but they just would not settle. Swopping between the edge and the waggler I ended up with seven carp and some silvers for 43lb which was a tad under a 100lb less than match winner Ben! Tom to my right had 83lb.Absoluteley battered. Incidentally, Adam Richards was to Bens left and he only had 40lb just goes to show that you have to be on them to do well. The annoying thing was that I was on some fish but I chose to fish it wrongly. I really think that if I had fished the waggler to start I could have challenged Tom for second place, I’m not saying I would have beaten him but who knows.

The good news was that Tom was second and Ben was not in my section which meant that I won the section by default! There was some good natured banter going on, mainly directed at Tom insinuating that he was a shareholder in the countries worm farms! He was even christened Duffman due to the duff info he provided! Only joking Tom we all know that you have had a brilliant run on the water with some great weights all caught on the worm, or so you say!

Chesterfield Canal day 2

The next day we all assembled at the Chesterfield canal and it was clear that everyone was looking forward to getting amongst the numerous big fish that inhabit this section. The stretch has a line of boats and every peg has one to fish up to. The only problem is that local rules prevent any form of loose feeding by hand, catapult or throwing stick, even if you fish your top kit you have to use a pole cup to feed.

The draw got under way and it was not the draw I was looking for! I had Andy Geldart on end peg 11, Tom on peg 10 myself on 9 and Adam Richards below me on 8. It was however a good draw if I could win the section, as some serious damage could be inflicted on Andy and Tom who both won their respective sections on day one; I was hoping my bread punch attack would work!

I set up my main line just over the track at about 9 metres using a 4 x 12 float with a little bulk and a couple of droppers. I had two similar rigs with 0.08 line to a 22 and a 20 green gama hook. I also had a couple of rigs to fish the squatt or pinkie up against the boat and a couple of chub rigs on 0.12 line to a PR 21 size 16 one of these set shallow to fish caster off the bottom.

My plan was not to feed for the chub immediately but to save that until a couple of hours in. It was a gamble but one that I thought was worth it as I expected the bigger fish to feed later in the match. I figured that everybody would start for chub and I was hoping for a good start on the roach. At the all in I put a pot of liquidised bread on my line and two balls of ground bait with squats and casters against the hull of the boat.

I put a small piece of bread on the hook and had my first run down and was chuffed to net a 3 oz skimmer first chuck. I love it when a plan comes together! The only problem was it didn’t! After that I started getting silly bites from miniscule roach I just couldn’t get them feeding, I tried all sizes of punch but could only find tiny fish. I continued with the punch as I could see the rest of my section fishing for big fish with no success. My experience of punch fishing is that if it is going to work it works from the off, it rarely improves as the match goes on, so it was decision time.

I put some ground bait and squats on the punch line and had a look long against the boat, I managed a few very small skimmers on single red maggot but this was not going ballistic, but I put a few in the keep net. Back on the previous line with pinkie I managed a few more small fish that will probably be roach when they grow up!

After a couple of hours I decided that it was time to look for a big fish, even though no one had caught a lump in the whole match. I fed some chopped worm down my swim against the hull of the boat and left it whilst I caught a couple of more see through fish. I put on half a dendra shipped out and dropped my rig in the water and the float just continued following the worm down the same hole in the canal. My initial thoughts were that I had over shotted the float but I instinctively struck. I am not sure who was more surprised myself or Adam Richards below me when a couple of yards of elastic shot out of the end of the pole! I literally threw the pole behind me as I thought I had hooked a chub and I didn’t want it to snag me, breaking down at the top kit I’m not sure if I was disappointed or not when an 11oz perch came to the surface! It was very welcome though.

The feeling didn’t last as no more followed, the remainder of the match past by with me looking for big fish as I felt by this time I had drifted too far behind both Andy Gedart and Tom who were catching small but a slightly better stamp of fish than myself. The added incentive was the £50 prize for the biggest fish from the canal I had a contender in the perch but knew that Adam was also in with a shout as he had an eel that he guestimated at a pound.

It wasn’t to be, the match finished with no more excitement the eel turned out to be bang on the money at 14oz and took the big fish prize. All was not lost though as Andy Geldart won the match with 5lb and Tom was third with 3lb 11oz so I claimed a second defaulted section! Shane Compton was second in the match with 4lb odd and now joined the leaders at the top of the table.

I could see a pattern developing as lack of venue experience cost me again today, I feel there was enough fish in front of me to frame but you had to do it right which I failed to do. I cannot blame the venue as funnily enough I enjoyed fishing it however, I should have fed sweet ground bait and squats instead of the punch and fished pinkie over the top. I am sure the plan was right to fish for big fish later on in the match.

Garbolino Lindholme Oasis lake day 3.

This was another first time for me and one that I was looking forward to. I had been grilling the lads all week on the methods to fish and I settled on a gallon of maggots that were to be introduced by kinder pot on the far bank. I was also going to have a margin line for late on in the match.

I had my dip and out came peg 49 which to be honest didn’t mean anything to me! It didn’t look very inspiring as I was greeted by a straight bank with no features on the far side but my biggest feature was the amount of room that I had, I don’t think I have ever had so much space in a match, but so did all the other anglers.

Unbelievably, I had drawn next to Adam again and I also had Tom in my section for the third time he was sitting on peg 63 which even I knew was a flyer! Admittedly his peg would be better if all the others around him were in. I set up rigs on 0.12 line and 18’s PR 21 hooks to fish in about 2 ½ foot of water which was a section off the far bank. I also had rigs to go tight over my plan was to start short at 12 ½ metres.

Streaking!

Just before the start I heard a shout of ‘I have always wanted to do this’ followed by some whooping, I looked up to see the Pirate of Penzance running around the field starker’s! I have not seen anything so funny for a long time! Not that I condone streaking, but there was no one around other than the competitors, and we were all well spread out. It was hilarious and I could not stop laughing at the Pirate running around his peg waving his arms in the air and shrieking at the top of his voice, as his white bits shone in the northern sunlight! I’m just glad he chose to do it in the privacy of Oasis Lake rather than the Chesterfield canal as we would have in all probability been another angler short.

The all in came and I have to admit at I spilt maggots from one side of the lake to the other as I tried to ship out, I was still giggling and could not hold the pole steady, my maggots just kept bouncing out of the kinder pot! So it was the Pirates fault that I didn’t catch!

Not at all, I started catching albeit slowly from the off a metre short of the far bank, I had a mixture of F1’s and Ide I was not going to set any records but the fish were coming. The problem is I could not work out if others were catching to gauge my progress. My neighbours were so far away you had to take your eyes of the float for too long to see if they were catching, with the quickness of the bites you just couldn’t glance around too much.

Lesson

I was a little fortunate as my peg started to die in that Rob Hitchin came around with a couple of hours to go and gave me some suggestions on how to fish my peg. He said I should fish he corn long and paste close. I was not going anywhere so followed his advice and started catching a few, the fish were definitely bigger as well. I knew I wasn’t going to do any good but I was just happy having a coaching lesson!

It got me thinking, top tennis players at the top of their game have coaches, Tiger Woods still uses a coach and I have mates with reasonably handicaps at golf who think nothing of using and paying the club pro for a lesson. In match angling we don’t seem to see the value of a coach other than for novice anglers. I say this as a qualified angling coach and an angler who has years of experience in match fishing. I actually enjoyed the experience of Rob behind me suggesting the odd thing. I actually learned a valuable lesson on a water that I did not know, and methods that were alien to me. It is one thing asking advice about a water but quite another having someone sat behind.

It was a shame that he was on holiday until Thursday or I would have had a briefing from him before I visited the venue and would have approached it differently. Never mind it was a good day and one that I will remember.

Having said that, I am not knocking the methods that I was told about. After all Adam Richards won this match with 90 odd pounds on a gallon of maggots, and he ran out of bait towards the end. It is a method that he is very proficient at and I have to say it’s difficult to take on one of the best young anglers in the country at his speciality.

I know that I have digressed from the story but it is a point that is worth mentioning. Match angling is all about competing and trying to get to the top of the tree or winning the match that you are fishing, otherwise we wouldn’t match fish, would we? But it’s also important if you are not winning to take something away with you for future reference, on this occasion I did and I believe that what I learnt will help me on another day. Oh, the other thing I took away from the match was another section win by default! Wish it could have been three straight wins and I would have taken the crown from Andy Geldart, who fished really well to finish with three points, top fishing from a top angler well done, well done mate. Second was Shane Compton who also fished well on all three days and third was Tom Scholey who I have to say could take on Harry Billing at the draw bag! It was a fantastic mini fest, well organised, I have to say thanks very much to Tom and all at Fishing4fun, put me down for next year.

On Thursday night we were at the Fourways hotel in Blyth having a shandy after the match. It was then that I found out that I was sharing a twin room on the Friday night with Tom. I asked if it was possible to have a room on my own as I wanted to try and have a good night’s sleep before a 350 mile drive the next day. I also told them I snored for England, and because of that I do not sleep well if somebody else is in the room, as I try not to snore and end up awake all night. It was all sorted, I had my own room arranged for Friday, a double at that, bliss.

After the final match on Friday we went back to the hotel and had a few congratulatory drinks with Andy in the bar before the others arrived. We had a meal in the pub before venturing to another pub for a game of pool. It was then that the youngsters decided that Blyth was too quiet for them so they were going to Retford for some more ale. They did try to persuade me but I was having none of it, I had cured my thirst and was off to bed it was midnight.

I was shattered and fell asleep with the light on but I was aware that in the early hours of the morning my door was opening! I heard in a strong northern inebriated voice ‘Stewart, I’m locked out of my room’ I presumed that the culprit had got back from a night out and lost his key. I could not have been further from the truth! Come in mate I said only to see the Fishing4fun champion standing there absolutely starker’s! He had been sleep walking, walked out of his room and couldn’t get back in. For the second time in 24 hours I found myself laughing at a naked man! What is it about the air up North? I threw him a blanket and a couple of pillows and he curled up at the bottom of my bed, Stewart don’t worry if you snore were the last words I heard from Andy!