Friday saw me at Mawgan Porth for another crack at this fantastic fishery. Just trying to cram as many matches in as possible at the moment, midweek matches tend to tail off a bit from next week as the height of the summer season gathers pace. The visiting anglers are replaced by families until September when there is a mad rush of fishing again!
Billy no mates
I had my dip and was surprised to find peg 16 in my hand, I never expected that part of the lake to be pegged. I watched the rest of the draw and was even more surprised to see that the next angler to me was peg 11 and to my left the next angler was probably at White Acres! Janet explained to me that just before the draw three anglers decided not to compete and she had re adjusted the pegging leaving me all on my own, I just hoped the fish were in residence. I had spoken to Rob Hitchen the previous night and he was extolling the virtues of his Yorkshire baits garlic hookers. In fairness he did tell me that they are brilliant in the winter for F1’s but also work in the summer.
I decided that I was going to give them a go, I had a couple of pints of 4mm fishery pellets for feed. The swim looked the part with a good edge to my left it was sheltered from the North Westerly wind. It didn’t take long to tackle up. Four rigs where assembled all on top ones. The floats were all .2 gram Cralusso Capri’s. I had time to walk around the lake before the start. Venue experts Harry Billing and Skip McCabe were on peg 38 and 36. Both fancied their pegs there was no doubt that it was going to be a battle today. The match started and I decided that I would make an effort to count the fish today. It would take a bit of concentration as I normally lose track after a dozen or so. The match started and I was into a fish within seconds it was only small but they kept coming in fact I had 64 in the first hour! I had lost a few as well. I am convinced it is down to feeding, too little and it’s too slow, too much and they go mad trying to gorge on the pellets. I have settled on about 15 and I tend to feed these as I hook a fish.
The next hour heralded the arrival of hoards of small Skimmers and I was plagued with these until the end of the match. You would think the carp would push them away but they don’t. It is very time consuming as you have to net them all and obviously with soft hookers have to re bait after every fish. I was wishing that I had some 6mm hard pellets with me as well as they may have been too big for the little blighters. Never mind the Carp kept coming and the second hour saw another 58 slipped into the net.
I can honestly say that I had a bite every single put in during this match and with the skimmers it was a very busy day at the office! In the third and fourth hours I added another 110 carp, the last hour was a little slower with 47 finding temporary accommodation. The scales came round and I took the lead with 180lb shame I had been fishing in the nursery! I felt sure I had managed 200lb but it was not to be today.I held on to the lead until the scales reached Skip and he weighed 197lb this was followed by Harry with 224lb and Paul Gallagher on peg 41 with 201lb What a match that was, incredible weights I don’t think anybody had less than a ton!
Harry was invited to draw for the golden peg money and he had three unsuccessful attempts. I jokingly said to Bernie let me show him how to do it, he handed it to me and I promptly drew his peg! How easy is that? Now all I have to do is win one of the matches. Saturday saw us again at Mawgan Porth for the Kernow Match Group open and everybody was buzzing after yesterdays weights. I drew peg 36 where Skip had managed 197lb and really fancied it. The peg has loads of room and a really good edge to the right. It didn’t take long to set up my normal rigs. I had one change today I set up one rig with a band on a hair rig. I used the Mossella micro band and the ‘Band a Bait’ tool. The actual tool has been around for awhile but the micro bands are new, they are tiny but can stretch around a 3mm – 12 mm pellet! How good is that?
Slow boat
For bait I had the same as yesterday with the addition of some 6mm pellets for the hook in case the Skimmers were there in force. I was going to count my fish again just to help me concentrate. The match started and I dropped in with a garlic pellet on the hook and I had five carp in the first couple of minutes I just couldn’t believe it when the float stopped going under! I could hear the chat down our end of the lake and all were struggling, yet I could see Nigel Taylor on peg 46 getting one a bung!
Skip was on peg 6 and really was finding it hard, it was not right as it was his birthday and he should have been bagging! In my swim nothing was happening and after 20 minutes I was changing to my second swim down the right edge. I started finding fish here but it could not be described as fast and furious. I was having a real problem with lost fish and they all seemed to be better ones. I just couldn’t work out how to stop foul hooking them. I tried everything, changing depth, feeding, fishing away from where I was feeding but nothing really seemed to work. Perhaps it was just going to be one of those days. John Forster was also experiencing the same problem as me opposite on peg 41 it was really frustrating.
Skimmers became a problem and changing to the 6mm pellet was better but my float was moving all over the place. I could just imagine them head butting my pellet, they must have been because I was getting all sorts of indications on the float, and it was actually being towed around my swim! I could see that a few anglers were now getting amongst the fish but I felt I was just plodding along and was not in the race. I finished with 117lb and came nowhere! The match was won by grandmaster Billing with 209lb 15oz from peg 27 he is on fire at the moment well over 400lb in two matches well done mate.
Second was Nigel Taylor who came agonisingly close to his first double ton recording 198lb 15oz unlucky buddy, but a great performance shame they were so small. John Waples finished 3rd with 165lb followed by Spro angler Andy Partridge with 158lbIt was a frustratingly enjoyable match for me, trying to work out what the fish wanted and how they wanted it presented. It certainly isn’t a water where you can throw a load of bait at them and haul them out! I have to mention how impressed I am by the micro bands, on a couple of occasions I caught a dozen fish on the same bait and only changed the pellet when it was disintegrating, I even banded a 4mm pellet without it looking ridiculous! There is no doubt in my mind, all my hair rigs for pellets in future will now be tied with these bands. Oh, the golden peg is still there that Mr Billing better learn to draw!
All change
Sunday saw the last match of a hectic three day period. This was going to be all together different as we were at Oakside and I had been really looking forward to getting back on this water. I arrived early for the 9am draw and was told by organiser Tony Williams that it was 9.30 and we were fishing six hours. Now if there is one thing that annoys me more than having to net skimmers at Mawgan Porth it is six hour marathons. I love my fishing but if I wanted to fish that long I would pleasure fish.
I just feel if you are catching its too long and if you are not it’s definitely too long. Still nothing I could do about it as I really wanted to fish.I drew peg 13 and had fished the next peg in a previous match so I had an idea of the area. It was a very sunny day the wind was gusting right to left and into my bank. I had a feeling that the bream were not going to feed or if they did it would be early and late so I decided that I was only doing two things. I was going to fish the feeder positively for an hour and at the same time ping casters on my 11 metre line to fish shallow. For bait I had two kilos of ground bait, three pints of casters, some worms and maggots and a few pellets. I had an island opposite me about forty yards away but I was going to ignore it. At the start I fed my feeder line by firing balls of groundbait with a catapult into the open water. I haven’t done this for years and really enjoyed it! After I had fired six balls out I cast to the area that I fed with had half a dendra on a size 14 B911. After about 5 minutes I had a tiny bite which I hit and a 12 oz skimmer opened my account.
I had two more in the next 15 minutes and then nothing for half an hour. It was time to change.I gave it some more groundbait on the feeder line and went on the pole which I had been feeding since the start. The rig was a KC caster float on .12 line direct to a size 18 PR21 hook. The rig was set at about 18 inches. Bait was single caster. I started getting fish immediately but they were very small Rudd about the half ounce mark I caught a dozen and decided to go back on the feeder to see if the last barrage had stirred some interest. After fifteen minutes I gave that up as I had not had an indication.Back on the pole and the swim was solid and this time they were Roach and also bigger in the 2 – 4oz bracket. They were coming quite quickly, the wind was a pain though and it was making feeding difficult I would have loved to have been able to feed in the same place twice!
The odd better Roach and Rudd in the 8 – 10 ounce bracket were putting in an appearance as well it was really nice to see them feed. Every now and then it would get a little harder and the bites slowed down. I had a couple of goes on the feeder to give them a rest and when I came back they were feeding well again. Towards the end of the match the bites were tailing off, I didn’t think it was worth trying the feeder as I had not produced any bites since the opening 20 minutes and I felt that I couldn’t waste time. I tried a little trick that has worked for me in the past and that was to feed maggot heavily.
Fortunately it worked and I had another run of Roach up in the water until the end of the match. It was indeed fortunate that I had those few extra fish as I weighed 31lb 3oz to win the match by a less than a pound as Harry weighed 30lb from the other side of the lake. That was close but at least this time it was in my favour! Chris Hancock was third with a nice net of Bream and Roach weighing 26lb. It was a great days fishing on a fantastic water, it really reminds me of days gone by when I used to fish at Willow Park just outside Aldershot.
