By Stewart Lister | No Comments
Last updated: Saturday, May 15, 2010

What a fantastic weeks fishing I have just had! This game always has some highs and lows and the week was no exception. As we were visiting family over the bank holiday weekend the first time I managed to wet a line was on Wednesday at Mawgan Porth. The day actually turned into a coaching day as well, Glen one of our local anglers asked if he could join me at my peg to see if he could see how I approached the match. He has been fishing the venue for some time now and wanted a few ideas on feeding and rigs etc. He joined me on peg 38 and I have to say he is really keen to learn and like the vast majority of anglers is passionate about our sport.

I was happy enough about the peg as it gave me a few options and it is in a very good area that is full of fish and as the sun was shining we could see hundreds of carp sunbathing in the weed towards the middle of the pool. I just hoped that when the whistle went they were hungry! My rigs again were J Range J3’s tied to .20 Cralusso line with a .18 hook length and a size 16’s PR36 hook with a Mosella micro band on a hair. I set up three rigs to fish out in front of me on the deck in around 3’6’’ and as the fish were cruising I set up two J13 floats to fish shallow for them. Bait was going to be 6mm hard pellet with fishery 4mm pellets as feed along with some garlic micros.

Pesky skimmers!

As the whistle went I dropped in at 3m and fed around the float within a couple of minutes I was getting indications but unfortunately the first couple of fish were skimmers that don’t count. Within 5 minutes I lifted into a bite and carp number 1 was on its way to the landing net. The first hour was good and I had 34 carp some of them were a good stamp around the 2lb mark going into the second hour I felt I had to fish a little further out so a section was added and the fish came at around the same speed and my counter showed 70 fish at the start of the third hour.

Around the half way mark the fish were showing signs of wanting to feed shallow so I went to 5m and started to feed 4mm pellets. The fish were there with 10 minutes and it was solid! I continued fishing shallow for the duration of the match and eventually finished with 169 fish which totalled 200lb 7oz it was fantastic days fishing. I had a bite or an indication every single put in. Glen was more than happy at the end of the match and I think I managed to give him a few ideas on how to approach a match at this fantastic little fishery.

The top five weights on the match were:

Stewart Lister SPRO 200lb 7oz

Steve Sudworth 130lb 9oz

Anthony Murray 116lb 6ozs
Chris Whitehead 93lb 4ozs
Steve Crawford 92lb 3ozs

Treasure Island

There was another match on Friday and as I cannot get enough of it at the moment I booked in for another go! The bag of dreams was kind to me and I was very pleased to see peg 47 in my hand. This peg is on the point of the island and has been responsible for quite a few wins over the years so I was pleased to be playing Robinson Crusoe for the day all I needed was man Friday as I had left my trolley at home!

As the fish were shallow on Tuesday I set three J13 shallow rigs up for them along with two deck rigs. One to fish in front of me at around 3m and the other to fish down the edge to my left. The whistle went and I started in front of me but also fed to the side. Immediately I was getting bites but missing loads! They were carp and I felt they were liners so the fish definitely wanted to come up in the water. I felt it was too soon to fish shallow for them so I decided to fish down the side and change my feeding pattern by loose feeding at around 5m to let the carp get nice and confident. Going down the edge I immediately found the fish and it was seriously solid! I was catching very quickly. What the fish lost in size they certainly made up for in number! I was really surprised when I looked at my counter and saw that I approaching 100 carp with two hours gone!

There was the odd vortex on my shallow line which was all I needed to change lines and have a look. This was just one of those days when everything went well and fish after fish took my banded pellet. I finished the match with 211 carp which went a 247lb it was a brilliant days fishing! Harry Billing was on peg 8 and he also got amongst the fish finishing second with over 180lb other weights on the day were a trio from Oddfellows Angling Club
3rd Mario Nisbet  93lb 12ozs
4th John Wilson 92lb 1ozs
5th David Maiden 83lb 5ozs

Maver Pairs

Saturday was the match I had been really looking forward to, it was the Maver Pairs match at White Acres. This particular round had been kind to us in the past as Harry and I have qualified for the final on two previous occasions. The final is held at Maver Larford fishery and it is a brilliant weekend with fantastic fishing, we were really keen to make it three out of three.

It was a surprisingly low turnout for such a big match but this was put down to the fact that there was a Fishomania round at nearby Stafford Moor and another pairs match at Larford but never mind you have to be in it to win it!

Please don’t draw…..

Harry and I had discussed which sections we were going to fish and decided to leave it as previous years when he took on Twin Oaks and I fished the other section which on this  occasion was Jennies. Harry is the draw master for any pairs matches that we fish and this round was no exception. I hoped he could find a pair of flyers for the day! We had had a chat on what pegs we fancied and I was happy anywhere but I did mention that I didn’t really want to be drawn in the ‘Lay-by pegs’17 or 18. Harry was in the queue early and was soon back with the news that I was on peg 18, Oh Man I could have done that myself! Harry had drawn peg 23 on Twin Oaks and was more than happy with that peg. We both wandered up to have a look at my peg and to be honest it looked really good there were signs of fish everywhere!

Tackle for the day comprised of two SPRO picker rods that were set up for the method that I was going to fish close to the island looking for carp and F1’s. I had pole lines at 14.5m to fish with pellets on one line and chopped worm on the other. I really fancied some Cornish F1’s shallow but was a little concerned as it had turned very cold. That said there were a lot of fish topping in the early numbers so it gave me some hope.

At the start I fed both my pole lines and cast the method to the island with double dead red maggot on the hook. I had a bite first cast which I missed and then unbelievably never had another bite! I do not recall anybody catching on the method, certainly in the pegs that I could see. I was soon out on the pole as every where that I fed was ‘fizzing’ the peg looked solid.

Bagger Prouse

The match was steady with the odd Tench making an appearance along with skimmers. I could not believe that I could not catch properly on the worm but two pegs away eventual section winner Steve Prouse was bagging on it!  I managed a few fish including two 4lb carp on my shallow rig but it was a waiting game. Chopping and changing between fishing on the deck and shallow gave me a few nice Tench but deep down I knew I was up against it. I was surprised to weigh 42lb as I really felt I had around 25 -30lb it just shows how good this lake really is! Steve fished really well to win the section with 77lb which comprised of three carp and a nice net of silvers. Andy Gregory was second in my section with 56lb there were two other  50lb weighs and another 40lb recorded in the section so I think we all walked away with the exception of Andy Gregory thinking we could have managed second! Oh Man if only that had been the case as Harry Billing had a brilliant 123lb to win his section, sorry mate I did try but I guess I really must try harder!

Many congratulations to Steve Prouse and Tyrone Hull along with Skip McCabe and Andy Gregory who qualified for the final, you will enjoy the weekend it is a great experience. It is great to see that Cornwall has at least three residents in the final. I am sure we will have a lot to chat about over the next couple of months as you prepare for the day.

Can you believe?

I must apologise that this weeks blog has not got quite as much detail but I am in a bit of a rush at the moment. The fact is I am just about to hit the road to fish the festival at Garbolino Lindholme in Yorkshire and I got my dates wrong, I actually thought the festival was a week later! I have not had chance t get anything ready or speak with anybody about how it is fishing. No doubt I am going to get a real beating by the venue regulars but I am really looking forward to the experience, I am sure that I am going to learn loads which will help me in the future. At the moment I cannot get those immortal words out of my head ‘what a plonker Rodney’

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