Radio Ga Ga!

It made a nice change to fish three different venues this week. The first was the Tuesday match at Gwinear again the turnout was on the low side, consequently only one lake was used. I had my dip in the bag of dreams and out came peg 8, even though I have not been there for awhile I knew about the peg and really fancied it! It’s on phase 3 and would be about old peg 11. I wandered up to the peg to find it flat calm the only breeze on the lake was at the far end. I had an aerator in my swim angled slightly to my right at about 5m I also had one of the best looking edge pegs there is to my left!

The plan was formed, I decided to fish just past the aerator on the slope in about 5’ of water and a line in the deeper water at 12m about 8’ I also made a couple of rigs for down that edge! At around 13m the rushes started but shorter there was ample cover, my philosophy with edge fishing is try and make the fish come to me by feeding and fishing where it is comfortable, I generally like to be able to feed my edge swim by hand. That said, on this occasion I decided to fish slightly longer at 6m I guess I was looking for a happy medium. The plan was to feed it for 2 ½ hours before catching there later.

Feeding time

At the start I potted some dampened micros at 12m and a few at 5m; I also dumped a lot of bait in my chosen edge swim. Starting at 5m with pellet I expected a fish very early, I was disappointed when I had not had a bite after 10 minutes. Tyrone Hull to my right but on the other bank opened his account with some early carp on the paste at around 6m and I feared another drubbing by the Irish wonder! I eventually had a bite on 6mm pellet and it was a very lively carp of about 2lb but no more followed. Moving out to the deeper water resulted in a couple of missed bites followed by an equally lively carp, the hook pulled out just as I was about to net it, the result was about 7’ of line tangled in a ball round the end of my pole! I had no duplicate made up as well, so had to start again with one from box.

Wrong end?

I started to find a few fish from my two lines but could just not get them in any numbers. Everybody seemed to be catching well with the exception of the guy to my left and myself. Sometimes you just have to accept that today is not going to be the day and just get on and enjoy it for what it is, that’s exactly what I did, I enjoyed my days fishing. It was a really nice day the sun was shining and it was a pleasure to be on the bank. I experimented with a few things especially down the edge where I managed to find a few fish. Going Into the last hour Andy Dare walked around as he wasn’t fishing today, I could see from his look that I wasn’t fishing the edge where he would have, I put on a few more sections and started pinging pellets at my float at 13m. The float went under and I probably had five fish towards the end of the match, was I now fishing in the correct place or was it the time of day? I finished the match with 20 carp 53lb compared to Tyrone’s 62lb so I wasn’t as far behind as I felt but still it was two beatings of the next peg by the same angler in consecutive matches. Oh man, I must try harder!

Right End!

The match was won from the opposite end of the lake with 92lb of shallow caught carp, the rest of the backing weights were good, leaving those anglers that were close thinking they had a chance.

Solid

As a footnote to this match I must say that I have never had so many carp in front of me in a match, the problem was that they are all this year’s fry and they were all just over an inch long probably totalling 2lb together! They are definitely carp though as a couple ended up in my landing net as I landed their mother! It certainly looks good for the carp population in the future at Gwinear.

Mawgan in the wind

Friday saw me arrive at Mawgan Porth and it was the Cornish equivalent of a Kamasan qualifier with 9 anglers! At least a few more had made the effort on a very windy day. I was messing around with my gear at the van when Harry came up to me with Tommy Pickerings catch phrase ‘same people, people same pegs’ I immediately thought that I was on peg 6 but was still pleased when he told me that I was on peg 47 which is a great peg.

I was definitely on the windiest peg in Cornwall it was howling straight at me, it’s a good job this is not a long pole water! I decided to fish down the edge and just for comfort sake I was only going down the left hand side. I did set a couple of shallow rigs up, just in case, although feeding at even 4m was going to be difficult!

Stick floats

The match started and I dropped in down the side the lake was running like the river Trent and I felt like I was trotting a stick float down the edge of that great river, the fish didn’t mind though and it was one a bung! Before long I was getting loads of indications on the float as they moved up in the water intercepting the feed, shallowing up kept them coming and going into the third hour I was still on a fish a minute! Just when you think it is sorted it all goes wrong and I was starting to wait for bites and found myself having to search around for them. I started feeding out in front of me as the edge was definitely dying.

The day of the Tangle

The fish were there on that line but it wasn’t easy fishing and feeding it and I am pleased that I prepared a few rigs. My old mate Manchester Mick Heacock described it later as the day of the tangle and he was not wrong! Fortunately the fish kept coming albeit slightly slower but it was a really good days fishing. I finished up with 256 carp which weighing 292lb 3oz it was another close match and I was pipped at the post by Harry Billing who once again broke the 300lb barrier! The weights were so good in this match it is worth recording the top six which shows that fish were feeding well all around the lake. It was a fantastic match at a great little fishery. Well done to Pete Thomas setting a personal best weight of 189lb, just a tad short of the double ton. All I can say is that you really should try harder!

1st Harry Billing peg 38 303lb 14ozs
2nd Stewart Lister peg 47, 292lb 3ozs
3rd Mick Heacock peg 12, with 219lb
4rd John Slote peg 9, with 201lb 9ozs
5th Pete Thomas peg 14 189lb
6th Rob Davey peg 6, with 150lb 6ozs

A challenge

Sunday was a day that I had been looking forward to for some time it was a challenge match between Kernow Match Group and The Tackle Barn or in effect Cornwall versus Devon! We were fishing for pride and of course bragging rights! The challenge is over two matches’ home and away. Sunday saw us fish the away leg at the fantastic Milemead fishery at Tavistock in Devon. It really is a well maintained fishery and one that I enjoy visiting but unfortunately I don’t get there enough.

The day was one of those dreary wet days when you just knew the rain was going to be in for the day. Everybody was in high spirits in the car park and there was a lot of loud good humoured banter flying around, little did I know that it was going to go on for most of the day!

Flyer!

My draw put me on peg 3 which is a considered one of the better pegs on the lake. It is a peg that I have wanted to fish as every time I have been to the venue I have seen it produce on the waggler. That is just the way I wanted to fish. I actually set up two waggler rods both with Cralusso Rocket pellet floats for the 30 yard chuck to the point of the island. I also set up a method feeder as I had heard that this was the ‘in method’ at the moment. My other rigs were shallow pole for carp and a margin rig. I wasn’t going to fish for silvers as I felt a big weight was going to be needed. The Tackle Barn had put out a strong team of anglers and I certainly had a couple of venue experts in my section including John Hetherington who holds the venue record. John was on peg 29 which shares the point of the island with me. I am sideways onto it and have to the middle of the point he has to the right hand side.

All we need now is Radio Ga Ga!

The banter was flying around and I have to say those Devonians were the winners in the noisy stakes, not all of them fortunately they only needed two or three to beat us hands down in that department! Just before the start I was also aware of a radio playing not loud but it was already starting to annoy me and some of the other anglers as well. It was though that it was coming from the specimen lake, there were plenty of comments trying to get the owner to turn it off but it stayed on I’m afraid to say. What was worse it was tuned into radio One! It must be an age thing as I can no longer bear that station. Just before the start I was told it was a six hour match, I now had three of my top five hates in match fishing. Constant inane banter, radios and 6 hours matches, the grumpy head was on!

The fishing was difficult and not many fish were coming out, I had started on the method tight to the island and had one small carp after 15 minutes. It was just the odd fish showing. John had switched from the island to fishing the method in the open water and was finding a few. I stayed on the island thinking that I had it to myself now the fish would find me. I was also feeding a shallow pole line.

All wrong

My match didn’t really get started; I actually fished it the way I wanted to rather than the way I should have! I persevered on the method too long. I could see fish fizzing where I had been pinging pellets but I was sure they would come shallow but they didn’t. During the match I actually set up a deck rig and caught a couple on the pellet but knew paste would be better! It took me ages to bite of the18’s hook and replace it with a 12’s to fish paste on an adapted rig. That worked but not well enough, the swim really was wasted on me that day, sorry guys.

Dib Dib

The match finished and my head felt like it was going to burst, I’m very grateful to ‘Wrong Lake’ for giving me some panadol. If I go there again I will ‘be prepared’ just like a boy scout and take some panadol before the match!

Despite my efforts the team did really well and we beat them on their own water by four points! It has to be said that they took most of the section money but our guys were consistently higher and it was that that pulled us through in the end. We have the bragging rights after the first leg. Role on Gwinear next weekend, if I fish I will definitely have my iPod with headphones with me so that I can fish in my own world of Radio Two!